[In Irish:] In my own language let me express my deep gratitude for your invitation to visit Cuba. I thank you also for your support for the hunger strikers and for the Irish cause for freedom and justice.

[Then in Spanish]

Let me begin by thanking you and your President for your invitation to visit this beautiful island of Cuba. As a young man growing up in Ireland in the 1960s, and the 1970s, and as a political activist opposing oppression and injustice in my own country, I have had a keen interest in the Cuban struggle.

The people of Ireland, the Irish government and political parties have a long record of solidarity with Cuba.

We in Sinn Fein were delighted when formal diplomatic relations were finally established between the Irish and Cuban governments in October 1999.

More recently, we have welcomed the opening of the Cuban Consulate in Ireland.

For many years the Irish parliament has had an active Irish-Cuban Friendship Group, the members of which have visited Cuba and promoted Cuban interests more generally.

We in Sinn Fein admire the work of the Cuba Support Group in Ireland and through it we have had the opportunity to meet with a range of officials and representatives from all levels of Cuban society. I am particularly proud that in West Belfast, where I come from, our annual summer Feile an Phobail - people's festival - has welcomed representatives from Interfest, who have taught us so much about Cuban culture and politics.

On a more personal note I had the great pleasure last year at the Feile to stand arm in arm with members of the Afro-Cuban All Stars who gave an unforgettable concert.

Solving problems

I am an Irish republican. That means I want to see an end to the partition of Ireland, an end to the British jurisdiction of the north east part of our island. I want to see a united Ireland, in which the Irish people are sovereign and where we together determine the future shape of society on our island and our relationships with the rest of the world.

Sinn Fein is a democratic party. We have embraced change as the life-blood of political struggle and the basis for a lasting peace agreement. Our task, as agents of change, is to make change irreversible and to build the peace process in our country.

The peace process in Ireland is about creating a level playing field as the basis on which all sections of our people can resolve our problems.

That will also mean all of the other participants but especially the British government playing their full and proper role and fulfilling obligations made in negotiations.

The IRA cessation in August 1994, and the Good Friday Agreement are for us defining moments creating the opportunity to end centuries of conflict, division and injustice.

That means removing the causes of conflict by making real progress towards a lasting peace settlement.

A peace process, whether in Ireland or the Middle East, or in the conflicts here in Latin America, must at its core be a way of solving problems, democratically, and on the basis of equality and understanding, honesty and good faith.

Free federation of free peoples

Irish republicans have a world view. With James Connolly, a labour leader, trade union activist and revolutionary, who was executed by the British for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising we believe that; "The internationalism of the future will be based upon the free federation of free peoples and cannot be realised through the subjugation of the smaller by the larger political unit."

That remains the basis of our international policy. Sinn Fein wants peace and justice not just in Ireland but everywhere.

The Irish people, like the peoples of Latin America, has been subject to colonisation which has left and continues to leave an indelible mark on our society.

We have suffered the expropriation of our resources, the exploitation of our labour, division and conflict among our people, and the attempted eradication of our cultures and traditions.

In the Irish context, our struggle for national independence has stretched back over many centuries and continues to this day.

The Irish people have an acute sense of our place in the world and of the enormous injustices that exist. We desire to play our role in trying to bring these to an end.

Scrap world debt

In a world of increasing wealth, a world growing smaller with technology and communications and ever faster transport, it is wrong, it is outrageous, it is heart-breaking that each week 134,000 children die from starvation or avoidable diseases.

That is 1000 children every hour, of every day of every week, of every year.

It is not inevitable. It is not something fated to happen. It can be stopped.

If the money being used by third world nations to pay back debt were channeled into health and education, a leadership role the people of Cuba have embraced for many years now, the lives of 11 million children a year could be saved.

That is more than twice the entire population of Ireland.

The policies of the IMF and the World Bank have locked South American and Caribbean nations into a vicious cycle of borrowing and repayment of loans and interest on loans that can never be paid. To make matters worse, these countries are forced to adopt economic policies that force further reductions in social welfare spending.

The United Nations freely acknowledges that the nutritional health of children and adults often deteriorates as a result of cutbacks and austerity programs imposed by international institutions like the IMF.

Some first world countries make much of the percentages of their GDP that they contribute in aid to the developing world, but the reality is that for every $1 in grant aid to developing countries, some $16 comes back in debt repayments.

Let me say this clearly. It is wrong that the third world should be crippled with debt while the first world is affluent.

It is wrong that armaments production and sales exceed by over 60 times the World Health Organisation's annual expenditure on the world's four main preventable diseases.

It is wrong that 1.2 billion of the world's people live on less than one dollar a day.

Institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have acted for too long without accountability.

Too many people are suffering because of the lack of concern of a few at the top.

Enough is enough. The debts should be cancelled now.

Challenging globalisation

Inextricably linked to the problem of debt is the issue of Globalisation.

According to some the end of the Cold War was to herald a new era of peace and prosperity for countries in the third world.

Instead it has unleashed a decade of accelerated globalisation that has increased the poverty gap between the wealthy and poor throughout the world.

At the United Nations' Millennium Summit, world leaders agreed goals for development and poverty eradication to be achieved by 2015.

The central target is to halve income poverty in the developing world. However statistics provided by the authoritative United Nations Human Development Report for 2001 state that 70 countries or 60 per cent of the world's population are far behind or slipping in this key objective.

Of the 40 per cent of the world's people on track to meet this objective, some 38 per cent live in only two countries: China and India.

Globalisation is, in fact, an erosion of democracy, it is the new imperialism, as multinational corporations have assumed the power and wealth equivalent to Third World and, indeed, some industrialised countries.

These corporations are part of a new world order which prioritises profit over human needs, and sacrifices the poor and vulnerable.

The policies of these organisations and of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have to be challenged and the social inequities their policies create and sustain must be ended.

There is a humanitarian imperative to reverse global trends in wealth distribution and to equitably share resources if poverty levels in Latin America and elsewhere are to be reduced.

Cuba and Ireland

Despite the enormous economic problems faced by you the Cuban people have unselfishly sent Cuban doctors and teachers overseas to help those less fortunate than yourselves.

The accomplishments of Cuba's health care system have been praised by countries and health organisations around the world, including the United Nations and the World Health Organisation.

Cuba provides quality health care for its population and has adapted to changing conditions. Cuba has made significant breakthroughs in disease prevention and the export of Cuban health care has become a very effective means of carrying on foreign policy - it is international solidarity that actually benefits people around the world.

For example, Cuba still treats children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Fifteen thousand children have been sent here for treatment since 1990, and children still arrive from the Ukraine for care.

In 1999, Cuba had 2,000 doctors in 57 countries around the world. This is a truly amazing contribution from such a small nation and a legacy of which I know you are justifiably proud.

This is a great act of generosity that deserves our thanks and our praise.

Since 1995, Ireland has voted annually to oppose the US economic blockade of Cuba in the United Nations' General Assembly.

So, let me take this opportunity therefore to reiterate my belief that the US government should rethink the embargo and bring it to a speedy end.

Sinn Fein has many friends in the US. Good people from all walks of life support us and the struggle for peace and justice in Ireland.

Without their support the peace process in our country would not have developed as it has. Some of these people do not share my world view or views on Cuba or the USA's economic blockade. That is their right. It is enough, in terms of the Irish cause, that we agree on the issue of Ireland and of the need for an end to the partition of Ireland and British government interference in Irish affairs.

But people in the USA and here in Cuba share a common humanity. You have both been touched by Ireland. The diaspora which built New York and Boston and which stretches from Washington to San Francisco left its mark in Cuba, in the Caribbean and across Latin America.

During the Cromwellian period in the 17th century among the first slaves to arrive in this region were 50,000 men, women and mostly children who were transported from Ireland to Barbados.

And 3 years ago on a visit to Mexico, where I opened an exhibition into the Bloody Sunday massacre in January 1972 when 14 civil rights demonstrators were killed by British soldiers, I was left in no doubt about the esteem in which the San Patricio Battalion is held in that country.

They were a group of Irish men who joined the Mexican Army during the Mexican American War of 1846-48 and who fought with valour.

In Chile there was Bernardo O'Higgins, in Peru Daniel O'Leary, and in Argentina Admiral William Brown, and there are many more.

Che Guevara had Irish ancestors and the surname 'Lynch'.

The relationship between Ireland and Cuba is perhaps best summed up in the words engraved on the plaque in Calle O'Reilly street in Old Havana, which says in Spanish, in Irish and in English; "Two island peoples in the same sea of struggle and hope, Cuba and Ireland."

Little wonder that people here were so moved by the Irish hunger strike of 1981.

All of these connections, the way in which our histories touch each other and the imperative to build a shared future means that whatever differences exist between Cuba and the USA they will only be resolved through dialogue.

International dialogue

This year has been proclaimed by the General Assembly of the UN as the Year of Dialogue among Civilisations. It is of the utmost importance that this dialogue takes place and that those of us who live in the first world come to learn that we are not the world - we are only a part of it.

We have to work together on the basis of equality to build a partnership based on peace, freedom, human rights and tolerance.

We have to uphold, free speech, and civil and religious liberties.

We have to promote the idea that the people are sovereign and build a just global society based upon our common humanity, the rule of law, justice and equality.

We have to reach out to eradicate poverty, privilege, corruption so as to build a truly united human family.

International situation

Two years ago I visited the World Trade Centre where some friends had organised a fund raising event for Sinn Fein. One of those involved was killed when the planes hit the twin towers. Many other friends were killed that day also.

The is no excuse, no justification for these atrocities.

What happened in New York, in Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11 was, as President Fidel Castro said; "a huge injustice and a great crime."

Terrorism is ethically indefensible. And those who are responsible for the atrocities in the United States must be brought to justice.

While nations have an individual right to defend themselves and their citizens I agree with Kofi Annan that only the United Nations can give global legitimacy to the struggle to eliminate terrorism.

The UN is the principle international institution for preventing armed conflict, for tackling injustice, and for defending human rights. It should be given every support and encouragement.

It is also a matter of urgency for the International community that the humanitarian needs of the millions in Afghanistan facing hunger and cold now and in the months ahead are met quickly.

Hunger strike

Cuba has many heroes. Ireland has many heroes also who have paid with their lives in pursuit of Irish freedom. This year is particularly poignant as we remember our ten comrades who died on hunger strike. I knew a number of them personally. It is a great privilege for me to be here to honour their memory.

Twenty years ago the British government tried to make its prisons the breakers yard of the republican struggle. In jail the British thought the republican prisoners could be isolated, beaten, intimidated, and coerced into accepting the label of criminal.

But republican prisoners are political prisoners, men and women of conviction, commitment and determination.

The H-Block and Armagh prisoners resisted. They endured horrendous conditions and bore great physical cruelty with fortitude and courage. And at the end, when no other course of action was open to them, they went on hunger strike in defence of their integrity as republican political prisoners, in defence of this republican struggle, in defence of their comrades in the prison, and to assert their humanity.

As Fidel Castro pointed out so eloquently almost 30 years earlier; "When men carry the same ideals in their hearts, nothing can isolate them - neither prison walls nor the sod of cemeteries. For a single memory, a single spirit, a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all."

Those ten who died that others might live, or the many others around the world who have died selflessly in defence of freedom and against injustice, can only be understood if we appreciate the incorruptibility, and unselfishness and generosity of the human spirit. If we understand that when the human spirit is motivated by an ideal or an objective which is greater than itself it can rise to great heights of extraordinary courage, and humanity.

I am particularly proud to be here in Havana 20 years after that tragic but heroic time to unveil this memorial in memory and celebration of Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McElwee and Micky Devine.

Twenty years ago, lying naked in a cold prison cell Bobby Sands wrote a prison diary covering the first 17 days of his hunger strike. He had lots of reasons to be bitter. It was his second time in prison. He was 27 years old and had spent almost 9 years in total in prison. He had been locked naked in this prison cell for 5 years. He had no reading material, no intellectual stimulation, was frequently beaten, the food was appalling and was often contaminated with glass or other items, and he had a blanket and mattress on a floor covered in excrement and urine.

But still he managed to write down his thoughts on small cigarette papers with the refill of a biro pen which he secreted inside his body. He wrote of justice. Of freedom and liberation. He lashed those who exploit and seek profit on the backs of people. He wrote; "There is no equality in a society that stands upon the economic and political bog where only the strongest make it good or survive."

And of freedom he wrote; 'If they aren't able to destroy the desire for freedom, they won't break you. They won't break me because the desire for freedom and the freedom of the Irish people is in my heart...'

And Bobby also wrote of the future and of revenge. He wrote; 'Let our revenge be the laughter of our children.'

That is the future that we want for our people.

That is the future I'm sure you desire for the people of Cuba.

That is the goal we must strive for, for all of those throughout the world who are victims of cruelty and injustice.

Venceremos. Tiocfaidh ar la.

Bliain ur faoi mhaise. Feliz año nuevo.

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