Vote pleases dissidents

  BY NANCY SAN MARTIN

  The United Nations Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution in Geneva Friday calling on Cuba to improve its human rights record and allow an inspector to visit,  spurring celebratory reaction on and off the island from opponents of the communist regime.

  ''We are very happy,'' prominent Havana dissident Marta Beatriz Roque told a Spanish radio station in Miami following the vote. ``We have obtained something that  contradicts the Cuban government. People think this has no effect in Cuba, but it is a tremendously important vote. It impairs the government.''

  Renowned Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, who lives in London, told broadcasters on WQBA 1140-AM, which carried the U.N. meeting live, that the vote showed  that Cuban President Fidel Castro was ``losing it.''

  Though Cuba has been censured every year for the past decade -- except 1998 -- this year's resolution was closely watched because it was spearheaded by Latin
  American nations. It was sponsored by Uruguay and had the support of at least a dozen Latin American nations, including Mexico, Cuba's longtime political comrade.

  Still, the measure narrowly passed with a 23-21 vote from the 53-nation commission. Nine countries abstained and an effort by China to derail the vote failed.

  The mildly worded resolution recognized the Cuban government's efforts in fulfilling the ''social rights'' of its people ``despite an adverse international environment.''

  But it urged Cuba to make similar advances in human, civil and political rights and called on the government to allow a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner  into the country to monitor the application of the resolution.

  Cuba's representative, Juan Antonio Fernández, immediately rejected the prospect of a visit and denounced what he claimed was extreme pressure by the United States  to pass the motion.

  ''There will be no dialogue and no visit,'' Fernández said.

  In Havana, the government slammed the vote as a ''tired and discredited anti-Cuban exercise'' engineered by the United States.

  In addition to Uruguay and Mexico, the other Latin American nations voting for the measure were Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Peru. Brazil and Ecuador  abstained, as they have in past years. Venezuela joined Cuba in voting against the proposal.

  All the European nations on the commission, including Spain, France, Germany, Britain and Italy, also voted for the resolution, as did Canada. Those countries are
  among Cuba's most important trading partners.

  This report was supplemented with material from Herald wire services.