The administration of President George Bush on Monday reacted icily to gestures made by Cuban leader Fidel Castro to former US president Jimmy Carter at the start of his landmark visit to the communist island.
The White House and State Department said Castro’s offers to allow Carter unlimited access to dissidents and all areas of the island — including laboratories Washington says are producing biological weapons components — were meaningless.
”President Carter is in Cuba on a private tour and has not been sent to inspect possible chemical and biological weapons installations,” sniffed Lynn Cassel, a State Department representative.
Her terse comments appeared to echo criticism of Castro’s offer from commentators who have noted that neither Carter nor other members of his delegation had the scientific background needed to properly inspect a lab.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, on the way to Iceland for talks with Nato foreign ministers, expressed disbelief at Carter’s contention that administration official had not briefed him about their concern about Cuba’s biological weapons program.
”I don’t know what briefings president Carter may have received, I am sure we made ourselves available to him,” Powell told ABC television.
”We do believe Cuba has a biological offensive research capability.”
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said there was ”plenty of reason to be very concerned” about Cuba’s biological program and dismissed the notion that Carter’s visit to a Cuban biological research centre could be seen as proof to the contrary.
”I will say that you can’t show someone a biotech lab and be assured they are not creating weapons of mass destruction,” she told PBS public television.
”That’s not how biological weapons work. They are actually very easy to conceal. We need multiple measures to make certain biological weapons are not being developed and transferred.”
White House representative Ari Fleischer, travelling with President George Bush in Chicago, said Castro revealed a double standard when he said Carter would be free to travel anywhere on the island and speak to anyone he wanted.
”I noticed earlier that President Castro said that Jimmy Carter is free to travel wherever he wants,” Fleischer said. ”Well, why not then, President Castro let people travel free wherever they want?”
”Why have one standard for a visitor and a far worse, much more repressive standard for his own people? The Cuban people should be free to travel wherever they want,” Fleischer said.
Carter, who was greeted by the surprise offers from Castro within minutes of his arrival Sunday in Havana, earlier toured Cuba’s top biotech facility.
Seated beside Castro, Carter pressed Cuban officials for guarantees that biotechnology transfers could not be put to improper use.
”I want to assure myself,” said Carter, the first US president in or out of office to visit Castro’s Cuba, after posing questions at a presentation at the Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
Cuban officials, in a presentation that lasted more than an hour, told Carter technology transfer contracts barred improper use of the know-how.
Carter asked if there was follow-up monitoring, but the Cubans did not immediately answer.
Last week, US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton said Washington believed that ”Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort.”
Meanwhile, an opinion poll conducted by ABC News showed Americans were split about the country’s future relations with Cuba.
Forty-seven percent of those surveyed supported establishing diplomatic relations with the Communist-ruled island while 45% opposed it.
Forty-four percent favoured lifting a trade embargo against Cuba, with 48% registering their opposition to it.
By contrast, 49% said a ban on travel to Cuba should be lifted while 45% thought it should remain in place, the poll showed. ? Sapa-AFP