N E W S

Havana. October 20, 2004

Call for the killers of journalists to be tried and sentenced

• The 4th World Conference of War Correspondents pays tribute to communicators killed in the course of their professional duties • Mother of cameraman José Couso demands that the U.S. soldiers responsible for the death of her son be punished.

THE 4th World Conference of War Correspondents in Havana provided a forum for journalists and news investigators from 20 countries to discuss the dangerous conditions in which reporters carry out their professional duties in present areas of conflict, particularly in Iraq, where several of them have been killed by the occupying forces.

Present at the opening session were Major of the Revolution Guillermo García, Alberto Alvariño, deputy head of the Ideological Department; Orlando Fundora, president of the World Peace Council; the family of Spanish cameraman José Couso, killed by U.S. soldiers when he was working in Baghdad, and Tubal Páez, president of the Union of Journalists of Cuba.

Javier Couso reflected on the events that culminated in the assassination of his brother, José Couso, in Baghdad and expressed his solidarity with the mothers and family members of both other journalists and civilians killed in Iraq and Palestine, by the U.S. occupying forces in the former case and by Israeli soldiers in the latter.

He highlighted that the day that his brother was killed in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, the 3rd ^{Division of the U.S. army launched an attack on the headquarters of the Al Jazeera TV network and affirmed that there has been a serious attempt to take control of the media in the U.S. war on Iraq, which has not been successful because of certain media outlets making live reports that depict a different story from that provided by the censored U.S. versions.}

The presence of independent journalists is overturning U.S. plans to present an aseptic image of the war with bombardments that allegedly cause no civilian victims and devastation, he stated. He commented that his brother witnessed the bombing of a market in Baghdad in which more than 80 people were killed. He also saw the destruction of a restaurant by missiles, a military action that devastated four city blocks.

In an emotional speech, Maria Isabel Permuy López, José Couso’s mother, read out the message presented to the U.S. diplomatic headquarters in Madrid on her son’s recent birthday and called for the soldiers who killed him to be tried and sentenced.

The message read: “Happy birthday, José, congratulations. Although they made it impossible for you to celebrate your 39th birthday, as is your right, they will not prevent us from celebrating your birthday. You continue to live on in us…. in our memories, in our sighs, in our cries. I have seen you, José. I have seen your blood in Gaza and your body borne on shoulders in the streets of Falluja. I feel the same as18 months ago. I have seen myself reflected in the horror of Iraqi and Palestinian families. Today I would have liked to bring you a gift, that it would be the case that your killers cannot kill anymore. Unfortunately it is not so. We are only halfway along the path that leads to justice.

“Today you are not hidden, your name is not spoken quietly... we have imposed the respect, recognition, and the dignity your memory deserves. Today there is a medium without you, your birthday present is our presence, the tenacity of those of us who keep on going here, month by month... in us you live.

Our present is your life. José Couso... war crime, investigation and justice.”

Miguel A. San Martín, from the Journalists Association in Madrid, made reference to a declaration by the general director of UNESCO, condemning the murder of the chief editor of a Turkish newspaper, as well as the occurrences of similar crimes. “But after that nothing happens, except for a public statement and condemnation that ends up on the back pages of a newspaper or as a minor segment on a radio station.

“Unfortunately it goes no further, it is not going to advance in any direction that would help and protect media professionals and would mobilize the international conscience to act with urgency and put an end to this criminal practice, which is becoming a routine drama.

San Martin warned that journalists who are killed are merely becoming names on a long list of such attacks, which only moves a few people. He referred to the report of an investigatory commission on attacks against journalists, which noted that some 20 colleagues have been killed in Latin America, in addition to the crime against cameraman José Couso, whose murder by a U.S. soldier in Iraq was premeditated and terrible. There are too many attacks on the world’s conscience to maintain a complicit silence, he exclaimed, adding that such deeds can be qualified as acts of terrorism.

These are compounded by detentions, torture, humiliating treatment of media professionals, bombings of television networks, newspaper offices and radio stations, all of which are numerous these days in areas of conflict. He called for us to mobilize and to see that the correct measures are taken, that states take action, and that the criminals, murderers, and their superiors are sentenced accordingly.

“Nowadays, the lies and manipulation are not enough, nowadays it is not enough to ignore facts and details, nor is it enough to control the media or corrupt reporters… now they are also killing non-co-opted reporters, the ones who believe in ethically reporting the truth,” warned the speaker. He also called for international jurisprudence and the functioning of the International Criminal Court, together with any other means of bring the guilty to justice, wherever they might be.

In his welcoming address to the participants from 20 countries at the conference, Gabriel Molina, president of the Association of War Correspondents, stated that the event was taking place at a difficult time for world peace, on the eve of an event that is becoming steadily more ominous: the result of the elections in the United States.

While noting that the present century has been more bellicose than the previous one, he analyzed the 45 years of harassment maintained against Cuba by the United States, which goes beyond the embargo-blockade and is a real war. One part of this policy is the constant campaign to create a negative image of the Cuban Revolution in international public opinion.

He confirmed that the manipulation of information has become a form of organized semantic terrorism, disseminated and financed by Washington and, in the case of Cuba, also by Miami. In regards to Miami, he referred to the semantic trick of calling elements financed by agencies in the United States “independent journalists.”

In that context, he also mentioned that within the French penal code, there is a 30-year period of incarceration and a fine of more than 4.5 million euros for those who commit such acts. However, if Cuba judges and condemns those who openly receive money for associating with a foreign power so they can destroy the political system by force or by the blockade, the island is scolded and sanctioned, he specified.

On the other hand, he explained the case of the five Cuban heroes who received lengthy prison terms in the United States for uncovering information on the terrorist activities of extremist counterrevolutionary elements over there, as well as information on the perpetrators of attacks and other crimes in Cuba and in the United States.

The Five were tried in Miami in spite of objections by their public defenders that the existing hostile climate in this city made it impossible for them to receive a fair trial.

Finally, Molina reiterated the exposes of the funding granted by the Washington administration to terrorist elements in order to subvert order on the island, assassinate President Fidel Castro and to commit other crimes.

The theme of aggression against journalists was examined by José Dos Santos, vice president of the Union of Journalists of Cuba, who reported that 16 journalists have been killed in Latin America in the first nine months of 2004. In the majority of cases they were investigating national issues, drug trafficking activity, and political situations.

He paid homage to colleagues who have died in the course of their professional duties, a tragedy compounded by the fact that a report by the Investigative Commission of Attacks on Journalists confirms that 95% of such acts against journalists remain unpunished throughout the world.