Cuban Top Official Terms Bush 'Ignorant but not Crazy'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 19, 2002

Cuban Top Official Terms Bush 'Ignorant but not Crazy'

The president of the Cuban National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, said on Thursday that US President George W. Bush was "ignorant but not crazy," e.

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The president of the Cuban National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, said on Thursday that US President George W. Bush was "ignorant but not crazy," e.

Alarcon made the remarks in response to Bush's decision on Tuesday to suspend for six months the enforcement of Title III of the Helms-Burton law, which allows Americans to sue any individual,investor, or business that uses Cuban property confiscated after President Fidel Castro took power in 1959.

Enforcement of Title III of the so-called Helms-Burton law thattightened the US embargo would produce chaos in US courts, becauseevery Cuban or foreign citizen using any of the demanded properties in Cuba could be brought to trial, Alarcon said.

The Helms-Burton law, written in 1996 by US Senator Jesse Helmsand Congressman Dan Burton, was passed after two small private planes were downed by Cuban air force fighters. It gives the US president power to suspend the application of Title III at six-month intervals.

Former US President Bill Clinton used this power nine times after the law came into force, and Bush has now decided for the third time not to enforce it.

However, Bush is still committed to the US embargo and travel restrictions that are designed to encourage a democratic government in Cuba, reports quoted the White House as saying.

In May, Bush set tough conditions for easing the trade embargo enforced on Cuba nearly four decades ago, urging free elections, free expression, free market and release of political prisoners.

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