Cuban television broadcast a programme in which government...

Cuban television broadcast a programme in which government journalists and commentators rolled out a litany of accusations against European Union states, Canada and other nations that voted with the United States to censure Cuba at the United Nation's Human Rights Commission in Geneva. "These are not countries or governments which really respect human rights," broadcaster Eduardo Dimas said during the three-hour live programme. Television journalist Reinaldo Taladrid told viewers that Western European nations displayed a history of past and current state violence against their citizens, including extrajudicial killings, torture of detainees and ill-treatment of prisoners. Denouncing "extrajudicial executions" in Spain and France, Taladrid said the GAL (Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups) undercover squads created by the Spanish security forces had "executed" 41 people since 1984 in a covert war against Basque separatist guerrillas and their sympathisers.