Fidel Castro says dignity stops Cuba taking U.S. aid

Fidel Castro says dignity stops Cuba taking U.S. aid
Wed Sep 17, 2008 12:49pm EDT

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba, devastated in recent weeks by two powerful
hurricanes, has too much dignity to accept aid from the United States,
former leader Fidel Castro said in a column published on Wednesday.

He said the United States had done billions of dollars in damage to Cuba
with its 46-year-old trade embargo against the island and does not
understand "that the dignity of a people has no price."

Cuba suffered $5 billion in damages from hurricanes Ike and Gustav, but
the government has rejected offers of up to $5 million in U.S. aid.

"If instead of five million they were one billion, the answer would be
the same," wrote Castro, who has been on the sidelines since undergoing
intestinal surgery in July 2006 and was formally replaced as president
by brother Raul Castro in February.

"The damage in thousands of lives, suffering and more than $200 billion
the blockade (embargo) has cost, and the Yankee aggressions, can't be
paid with anything," he said.

Instead of accepting aid, Cuba has asked the United States to at least
temporarily lift the embargo so it can buy what it needs, but the Bush
administration has refused.

The United States first offered $100,000 to Cuba with the possibility of
more if Cuba allowed a U.S. team to do its own damage assessment. The
offer was eventually raised to $5 million, without the request to do an
assessment.

Other countries such as Russia, Spain, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador,
Honduras and Colombia have been sending in goods, and Cuba has accepted
an offer of $3.5 million in aid from the United Nations.

"The wave of solidarity with Cuba, that encompasses countries big and
small, with resources and without, would disappear the day that Cuba
quit being dignified," Castro said.

The 82-year-old Castro, not seen in public since falling ill, now writes
occasional columns published in Cuba's state-run press.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; editing by Michael Christie and Ross Colvin)

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1740403120080917?sp=true