Key US decision on Cuba terror-designation coming

HAVANA (AP) — A normally routine bit of Washington bureaucracy could have a big impact on U.S. relations with Cuba, either ushering in a long-stalled detente or slamming the door on rapprochement, perhaps until the scheduled end of the Castro era in 2018.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry must decide within a few weeks whether to advocate that President Barack Obama should take Cuba off a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a collection of Washington foes that also includes Iran, Syria and Sudan.

Cuban officials have long seen the terror designation as unjustified and told visiting American delegations privately in recent weeks that they view Kerry's recommendation as a litmus test for improved ties. They also hinted the decision could affect discussions over the release of jailed U.S. subcontractor Alan Gross, whose detention in 2009 torpedoed hopes of a diplomatic thaw.

Inclusion on the list means a ban not only on arms sales to Cuba but also on items that can have dual uses, including some hospital equipment. It also requires that the United States oppose any loans to Cuba by the World Bank or other international lending institutions, among other measures.

U.S. officials agree the recommendation, which Kerry must make before the State Department's annual terror report is published April 30, has become ensnared in the standoff over Gross. The American was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he was caught bringing communications equipment onto the island illegally while working for a USAID-funded democracy-building program.

Cuba has been on the terror list since 1982, and is also the target of a 51-year U.S. economic embargo — the reason why the island of beaches, music and rum is the only country Americans cannot visit as tourists. Removal from the list would not change that.

Critics say Cuba's inclusion on the list has little to do with any real threat posed by the Communist-run Caribbean island, and they say the list has become so politicized it's useless. North Korea was removed in 2008 during nuclear negotiations that ultimately failed, and was never put back on. Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden had been hiding out, is not on the list in large part because of its strategic importance.

Longtime Cuba analyst Philip Peters of the Virginia-based think tank the Lexington Institute said removing Cuba from the list "makes sense ... just because it's been a specious allegation that the United States has repeated for many years ... It would improve the atmosphere."

Others argue against rewarding Havana unless it releases Gross.

"I have long believed it's in our interest to see an improvement in relations with Cuba," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Gross's home state of Maryland who traveled with a congressional delegation to Havana last month. But "the first step needs to be resolving Alan Gross's situation."

Voices calling for a change in the policy are growing louder, however.

Last month, The Boston Globe cited administration sources saying high-level diplomats determined Cuba should be dropped from the list. That prompted State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland to say there were "no current plans" to do so, though she did not explicitly rule out the possibility.

Last week, a Los Angeles Times editorial called for Cuba's removal from the list, and other newspapers have voiced similar opinions. The Cuba Study Group, a Washington-based exile organization that advocates engagement to promote democratic change, issued a white paper in February calling for an "apolitical" reexamination of the terror designation.

While Kerry can review the designation even after the State Department's report comes out, Cuba's continued inclusion on the list in April would almost certainly rule out its chances of removal in 2013.

A U.S. official involved in deliberations told The Associated Press that Kerry will ultimately decide and nobody under him is in a position to predict what will happen. "It's very much up in the air," he said.

But another administration official said that lifting the terror designation will be a hard sell while Gross remains imprisoned.

"It's very unlikely," the second official said. "There is no consensus. And if you are on (the list), you stay on as long as there is no consensus on taking you off."

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Ostensibly, Cuba has been designated a terror sponsor because it harbors members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group, the Basque militant organization ETA and a handful of U.S. fugitives, many of whom have lived here since the 1970s.

But much has changed in recent years.

Late last year, peace talks began in Havana between Colombia and the FARC, and even Washington has voiced hope that the negotiations will end Colombia's half-century old conflict.

ETA announced a permanent cease-fire in 2011, and Madrid has not openly called for the return of any Basque fugitives. Cuba has enjoyed improved relations with Spain and Colombia in recent years, and both countries routinely vote at the U.N. against continuing the U.S. embargo.

Under President Raul Castro, Cuba has freed dozens of dissidents and has begun opening its economy and society, though it remains a one-party political system that permits no legal opposition. Castro announced in February that he would step down in 2018 and signaled a likely successor.

The time might also be ripe in terms of U.S. politics.

While in the Senate, Kerry was an outspoken critic of America's policy on Cuba, saying it has "manifestly failed for nearly 50 years." He called for travel restrictions to end and held up millions of dollars in funding for the type of programs Gross worked with.

His boss, President Obama, no longer has to worry about reelection or pleasing Cuban-Americans, an all-important voting bloc in the crucial swing state of Florida.

Ann Louise Bardach, a longtime Cuba observer and the author of "Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington," said all the political winds would seem to point toward a reboot in relations — except for Havana's decision to hold Gross and try to swap him for five Cuban agents in the U.S.

"In a way they cooked their goose with Alan Gross," she said. "The Cubans thought, 'Gee what a brilliant idea, we'll have a chit to trade.' Little did they know that they would be at this moment where you have considerable momentum to move on in Washington, and politically, because of the Gross mess, Washington can't act."

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Associated Press reporters Bradley Klapper and Jessica Gresko in Washington, and Peter Orsi in Havana contributed to this report.

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Follow Paul Haven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulhaven

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'Chinese Girl' painting coming home to SAfrica

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Bonhams auction house says Vladimir Tretchikoff's iconic "Chinese Girl" painting is coming home to South Africa after some 60 years in a private Chicago home.

The picture of the beauty with a green-hued skin and ruby-red lips, said to be one of the most reproduced in the world, sold for 982,050 British pounds — double the expected price — at a Bonhams London auction Wednesday. Bonhams says it is the highest price paid for a Tretchikoff or any work by a South African artist.

Diamond jewelry magnate Laurence Graff bought the painting and will display it at the Delaire Graff wine and luxury lodges estate in the Cape winelands.

Tretchikoff was inspired by a Cape Town launderette worker and sold the painting while touring the United States in the 1950s.

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Death coming before justice for Khmer Rouge regime

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Decades after Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge movement oversaw the deaths of 1.7 million people by starvation, overwork and execution, the regime's imprisoned top leaders are escaping justice one by one. How? Old age.

Thursday's death of 87-year-old Ieng Sary, foreign minister under the Khmer Rouge, has fueled urgent calls among survivors and rights groups for the country's U.N.-backed tribunal to expedite proceedings against the increasingly frail and aging leaders of the radical communist group, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

Ieng Sary's wife, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, was ruled unfit to stand trial last year because she has a degenerative mental illness consistent with Alzheimer's disease. Only two top Khmer Rouge leaders — ex-head of state Khieu Samphan, who is 81, and the movement's former chief ideologist, Nuon Chea, who is 86 — remain on trial for charges they carried out some of the 20th century's most horrific crimes.

There are growing fears that both men could die before a verdict is rendered. Both are frail with high blood pressure and have suffered strokes.

"The defendants are getting old, and the survivors are getting old," said Bou Meng, one of the few Cambodians to survive Tuol Sleng prison, known as S-21, where up to 16,000 people were tortured and killed during the Khmer Rouge era. "The court needs to speed up its work."

"I have been waiting for justice for nearly 40 years," Bou Meng, 70, told The Associated Press. "I never thought it would take so long."

When the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh in April 1975, they began moving an estimated 1 million people — even hospital patients — from the capital into the countryside in an effort to create a communist agrarian utopia.

By the time the bizarre experiment ended in 1979 with an invasion by Vietnamese troops, an estimated 1.7 million people had died in Cambodia, which had a population of only about 7 million at the time. Most died from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution under the Maoist regime. Their bodies were dumped in shallow mass graves that still dot the countryside.

The tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, was tasked with seeking justice for crimes committed during that era.

The court was 10 years in the making and opened in 2006. But despite some $150 million in funding, it has so far convicted only one defendant: Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, the commandant of S-21 prison.

Duch was sentenced in 2010 to 35 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The sentence was reduced to a 19-year term because of time previously served and other technicalities, a move that sparked angry criticism from victims who said it was too lenient. Cambodia has no death penalty.

Several other major Khmer Rouge figures died before the court even existed, including supreme leader Pol Pot in 1998.

Ieng Sary's death was no surprise given his age and ailing health, said Ou Virak, who heads the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. But "given the fact that the other two defendants are also in their 80s, it should act as a wake-up call to all concerned — the Cambodian government, the U.N., the international donors and the tribunal itself — that these cases need to be expedited urgently so that justice can be served."

"The whole future of the tribunal is currently in limbo, and the possibility that hundreds of millions of dollars will have been wasted is now a very real threat," Ou Virak said. "Most importantly, though, if all three die before their guilt or innocence can be determined, then the Cambodian people will quite understandably feel robbed of justice."

The court has been criticized before for the sluggish pace of proceedings. But one of its prosecutors, William Smith, said the trial has taken time because the indictments are lengthy and the list of alleged crimes long.

The tribunal has been dogged by other problems, including funding shortages from international donors. Earlier this month, Cambodian translators angry that they had gone without pay for three months went on strike just before the court was to hear testimony from two foreign experts.

Tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra said Thursday that the interpreters would all return to work this week after the court administrator promised that they would get paid. But he added that the translators have threatened to strike again if they are not paid by month's end.

In recent years, the tribunal has also been hit by infighting and angry resignations by foreign judges over whether to try more Khmer Rouge defendants on war crimes charges. Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985, has warned that no more trials will be allowed. Many former members of the Khmer Rouge, including Hun Sen himself, hold important positions in the current government.

After Ieng Sary's death, Human Rights Watch issued a statement blaming Hun Sen for denying justice.

"(He) asked the United Nations in 1997 for assistance in holding Khmer Rouge leaders accountable - and since then has done everything in his power to stymie the tribunal's work," said Brad Adams, Asia director for the rights group. "Hun Sen bears primary responsibility for denying justice to the victims of Ieng Sary's atrocities."

The trial against Ieng Sary, his wife and the last two accused senior Khmer Rouge leaders alive began jointly in 2011. All have denied guilt for any crimes and have said they acted in Cambodians' best interest during the radical communist movement's rule.

Lars Olsen, another tribunal spokesman, said Thursday that "we understand that many probably are disappointed with the fact that we cannot complete the proceedings against Ieng Sary, and therefore we cannot determine" whether he is guilty or innocent of the charges against him.

But it's important to remember, he said, that the case against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan "is not over." He said it would not be affected by Ieng Sary's death and proceedings will continue on schedule.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent group gathering evidence of the Khmer Rouge crimes for the tribunal, said Ieng Sary's death "carries little value for the regime's victims, who patiently wait to see justice done."

Ieng Sary died early Thursday at a Phnom Penh hospital, where he was admitted earlier this month suffering from weakness and fatigue. He suffered heart failure, said one of the prosecutors in his case, Chea Leang, who added that under Cambodian law, all charges against him will now officially be dropped.

Yim Sopheak, a 47-year-old street vendor who said the Khmer Rouge regime had executed her parents, said Ieng Sary "deserved to die in prison, not in a hospital. He should have died in the same way as he executed my parents and other people."

Yi Chea, a 72-year-old flower seller who says her husband and other relatives were also killed during Khmer Rouge rule, said she was happy Ieng Sary was gone. But, she added that "he did not deserve to die naturally like this."

Tribunal hearings resume on March 25, said Neth Pheaktra. Foreign medical experts are due to testify on the health status of Nuon Chea, to determine whether the ailing ex-leader is still fit to continue to stand trial.

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Pitman reported from Bangkok.

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