6>Fearing arrest, Castro skips WTO trip

Fearing arrest, Castro
skips WTO trip

By Tom Carter
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Growing pressure for an indictment seeking the arrest of Fidel Castro when he next sets foot on U.S. soil helped persuade the Cuban president not to attend last week's World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.
     The State Department pointed out the risk to a senior Cuban diplomat, Mr. Castro said in a letter explaining his reasons for not attending the trade summit.
     There are four serious efforts to bring Mr. Castro before an American court:
     * Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Florida Republican, has sent 3,000 letters to federal, state and county prosecutors including Attorney General Janet Reno requesting that Mr. Castro be indicted for directing the killing of three American citizens in the downing of two light airplanes over the Florida Strait on Feb. 24, 1996.
     * A lawyer for the anti-Castro group Brothers to the Rescue, which piloted the two planes, has asked Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to appoint a special prosecutor to indict Mr. Castro for "conspiracy to commit murder."
     * Families of the dead fliers, who won a $187.5 million judgment against the Cuban state, are trying to seize Cuban assets -- which could include Mr. Castro's airplane if it landed in U.S. territory.
     * At hearings on Capitol Hill Nov. 4, Vietnam veterans supported congressional demands that the Clinton administration begin an "interagency" inquiry into Cuban military officers who tortured American POWs in North Vietnam, in violation of the Geneva Convention.
     "Fidel Castro is a confessed murderer," Mr. Diaz-Balart said by telephone from Miami. "He told Time Magazine [March 11, 1996] that he ordered and was responsible for the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes. I am a former prosecutor. I have never seen a more open-and-shut case."
     On Nov. 29, Mr. Castro wrote to Rep. Jim McDermott, Washington Democrat, citing hostile editorials in The Washington Times and Mr. Diaz-Balart's demand for an indictment among the reasons he would not be going to Seattle for the WTO meeting.
     He wrote that he did not wish to apply for a visa and then "be subjected to [the] humiliation" of having it rejected. He also said that "a senior State Department undersecretary . . . warned [Cuban Foreign Ministry senior official Dagoberto] Rodriguez of the possible consequences of the trip."
     State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said that Mr. Castro would have been given a visa if he had applied. But State Department officials denied warning Mr. Castro against coming to the United States.
     "We absolutely did not warn or caution Fidel Castro," said a State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "That is not our role."
     The official said that a senior Cuba desk officer, in the course of a lunch with Mr. Rodriguez to discuss upcoming migration talks, inquired whether Mr. Castro had read recent press reports documenting efforts to have the Cuban dictator indicted.
     The State Department officer reminded his Cuban guest that according to the press reports the law no longer "differentiates between former heads of state and current heads of state."
     Mr. Diaz-Balart said the Clinton administration had blocked earlier attempts to see Mr. Castro indicted, and had no interest in seeing him arrested in Seattle.
     "What the State Department did was confirm to Castro that this country has the rule of law and they cannot control 3,000 prosecutors," said Mr. Diaz-Balart. "That is why Castro could not risk coming to the United States. Any one of 3,000 prosecutors could have indicted him. Sooner or later, there will be an indictment."
     Ralph Fernandez, a former prosecutor from Tampa, represents Jose Basulto, the head of Brothers to the Rescue, who was in a third plane flying over the Florida Strait on Feb. 24, 1996. In frustration and fearing that the federal courts will not act, Mr. Fernandez has asked Florida's governor to appoint a "statewide prosecutor" to indict Mr. Castro on "conspiracy to murder" Mr. Basulto.
     "There is evidence that could easily lead to a conviction," said Mr. Fernandez, from his Tampa office.
     Mr. Fernandez said that, if indicted, Mr. Castro could be arrested in New York if he came for the annual opening of the United Nations, or if he set foot in any other country that has extradition treaty with the United States.
     "An indictment would mean he is in a whole lot of trouble," he said. "This is the major leagues, this has to be done right."
     Others are working to see Mr. Castro answer for Cuban officers who tortured U.S. POWs in North Vietnam's notorious "Zoo" compound in the late 1960s.
     Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, New York Republican and chairman of the International Relations Committee, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican, have asked Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to open an investigation by the FBI, the CIA and the Department of Defense.
     The legislators want those agencies to coordinate with the State Department's War Crimes office, which is responsible for hunting ex-Nazis and other war criminals.
     "Under the Geneva Convention, there is clear and convincing evidence that the torturers were Cuban military" acting under the authority of Mr. Castro and his brother, military chief Raul Castro, said Mrs. Ros-Lehtinen.
     "Their crimes are substantial enough to bring charges of crimes against humanity and for that there is no statute of limitations."