Castro leads 1 million to honor 1976 blast victims
By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - President Fidel Castro led a million Cubans on Saturday in an emotional rally at Havana's Revolution Square to honor victims of a 1976 plane explosion and denounced alleged terrorism against the Caribbean island.
The rally -- on the 25th anniversary of the Oct. 6, 1976, death of 73 passengers on a Cuban plane blown up near Barbados -- was also intended as a show of solidarity with the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
"Our brothers who died in Barbados are not just martyrs, they are symbols in the fight on terrorism," Castro said in a speech that drew roars of "Fidel! Fidel!" from the sea of Cubans massed since soon after dawn in the square.
Havana blames two Cuban Americans, Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, for masterminding the placing of two bombs on the plane, in what Cuba says is just one example of 42 years of terrorism it has suffered since the 1959 revolution.
Both men were initially jailed in Venezuela for involvement in the attack, but Posada reportedly escaped and Bosch was freed some years later. Bosch now lives in Miami, while Posada has been in a Panamanian jail since November 2000, after an alleged plot to assassinate Castro during a summit there.
Castro drew comparisons between the massive world reaction to last month's attacks on New York and Washington, with what he said was a virtual silence after the 1976 plane explosion. The 73 victims of that attack included 57 Cubans.
"No one, except for a group of friendly figures and institutions, shared our pain. There was no commotion in the world, nor grave political crises, nor U.N. meetings, nor imminent dangers of war," he said.
CASTRO DEMANDS JUSTICE
Castro demanded justice against Posada, Bosch and other "professionals of terrorism" who Cuba says have planned violence against the communist-run island over the years from U.S. soil with alleged CIA complicity.
Castro, whose country figures on the U.S. list of states allegedly sponsoring terrorism and is subject to a U.S. trade embargo, said, "Not one terrorist artifact, nor even a gram of explosives" had ever left Cuba for use in the United States.
"Never has one American been killed or injured, nor has one installation -- large or small in that immense and rich country -- suffered the slightest damage due to an action from Cuba."
The Cuban leader reiterated Havana's position of condemnation of the Sept. 11 attacks coupled with criticism of U.S. preparation for a possible war against alleged perpetrator Osama bin Laden and the Afghan Taliban movement sheltering him.
He also criticized Washington for failing to take action against the entry of planes hijacked or diverted to the United States from Cuba, which he said have totaled 51 since 1959.
Prior to Castro, speakers including relatives of the victims of the Barbados explosion, took to the main platform to recall their nation's grief and shock a quarter of a century ago.
"This is why I can say we know well what has happened to the American people since Sept. 11 ... with a difference, because we relatives have been suffering for 25 years and our people for 42 years," Carlos Alberto Cremata Malberti, whose father died in the 1976 attack, told the crowd.
Around Revolution Square, banners proclaimed: "Down With War!," "We Want Peace!" and "Eradicate Terrorism Without War!"
Also present at the rally were Elian Gonzalez, the young Cuban boy who was at the center of a massive custody dispute last year between his U.S. and Cuban relatives, and the father of an Italian tourist killed in 1997 bombs on the island.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta)
[For the full text of Castro’s remarks & Cuba’s contributions to the UN debate on terrorism, see http://cubaofia.vze.com