Cuba gets rewarded for recent brutality

It should come as no surprise that in the wake of the execution of three men whose only crime was a yearning to be free, and the imprisonment of 75 opposition leaders, including librarians and journalists, Fidel Castro's Cuba was re-elected to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
Consider this fact: The 56-year-old organization is chaired by Libya, which is a haven for global terrorists, and includes in its membership Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe. To those countries, and others of their ilk, Cuba's recent crackdown on human rights is to be praised, not condemned.
After all, Sudan's Islamic government has led a campaign against Christians and believers of traditional Sudanese religions and is responsible for 2 million people killed during a 19-year civil war.
Saudi Arabia, while an important ally of the United States, is ruled by a royal family that does not share our concept of freedom. Indeed, the treatment of women as second-class citizens has long been a point of contention with Amnesty International, which publishes an annual report of the world's leading human rights abusers.
Zimbabwe, under President Robert Mugabe, has not only destroyed any semblance of democratic government -- opposition leaders have disappeared or are imprisoned without trial -- but he has sought to curry favors with the masses by taking over white-owned farms and giving them to Africans.
Against such a backdrop, it is fair to view Cuba's re-election to the Human Rights Commission as reward for the Castro regime's recent brutality.
Outrage
In the words of Sichan Siv, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, which elected 24 new members for three-year terms on the rights commission, "It was an outrage for us, because we view Cuba as the worst violator of human rights in this atmosphere."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was even more caustic in his reaction, saying, "Having Cuba serve again on the Human Rights Commission is like putting Al Capone in charge of bank security."
What makes this action especially egregious is that two years ago, some backwater nations joined forces in ousting the United States from the 53-member commission, even though it was one of the founders of the organization. The U.S. regained its seat last year, but the ouster has had a lasting negative effect on many Americans, including some in Congress.
There is growing sentiment on Capitol Hill for cutting back on the annual dues paid to the United Nations, or in the extreme, withdrawing from the world organization all together. The withdrawal talk grew louder earlier this year when a majority of the members of the Security Council, led by France and Russia, refused to support America in its war against Iraq.
The re-election of Cuba to the Human Rights Commission will fuel the anti-U.N. campaign in this country.
While we have long opposed America's withdrawal from the United Nations and have cautioned against withholding dues, we do believe that Secretary General Kofi Annan needs to be heard on the issue of the world's leading human rights violators serving on a commission that is charged with monitoring human rights violations.
Rewarding Cuba for its recent crackdown on dissent is unconscionable.