Adams dodges political flak as Cuba blasts war on terror
Wednesday December 19 2001
But the Sinn Fein president - in Havana to remember the 1981 IRA hunger strike as British MPs were voting to allow him offices in the Commons despite his refusal to swear allegiance to Queen Elizabeth - was treated to some revolutionary fervour of an earlier age.
The ceremony to inaugurate a memorial to Bobby Sands and nine other hunger strikers who died at the Maze, was transformed into a tirade against the war in Afghanistan. As Mr Adams looked on warily in a shady Havana park, a senior Cuban official called the conflict "ethnic genocide."
Mr Adams confined his own remarks to a eulogy on the self-sacrifice of the ten hunger strikers, who he said gave their lives for the freedom and independence of Northern Ireland.
Asked afterwards for his own view of the war effort, he said he believed "it was necessary" to bring the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks to justice.
He added that he was more concerned about the millions of Afghans who were "facing starvation".
"There needs to be a humanitarian response," he said.
By inaugurating the monument to the ten hunger strikers, Mr Adams fulfilled the main purpose of his three-day visit to Cuba, during which he has been struggling to dodge ideological controversy.
While he has strongly rejected the US economic embargo against Cuba during his visit, he has made no mention of UN votes regarding Cuba's human rights record.
Mr Adams recognises that his visit might "present difficulties" with the Bush administration and Sinn Fein's supporters in the US. Thanking his "good friends" in America - including Presidents Bush and Clinton - for their support during the Northern Ireland peace process, he hoped that they would "understand" his position.
(The Times, London)
- David Adams in Havana
