Cuba+crusade+against+murderer+Bush,+Star



=Castro continues crusade against 'murderer' president, Bush=


 * February 7, 2006**

Havana - Scores of giant black flags bearing a single white star were raised yesterday outside the American mission, remembering the thousands of people Cuba says have been killed in violence against the island and blocking an electronic sign on the building's facade.

Fidel Castro attended the late afternoon ceremony outside the seaside building, but did not address the hundreds of people gathered there.

The hour-long ceremony appeared aimed at underscoring Cuba's claims that Washington organised, financed - or at the very least tolerated - many attacks against the island over the decades.

The flags also blocked the view of an electronic sign set up at the US mission that has angered communist officials by displaying streaming news and human rights messages.

A large group of young people in the crowd carried huge signs made from the black and white photographs of some of the 3 000 Cubans the communist government says have been killed in acts of sabotage since shortly after the revolutionary triumph that propelled Castro to power 47 years ago.

Those carrying the signs were to hold a 24-hour vigil outside the mission in honour of "our beloved dead," said Carlos Cremata, whose father was among 73 people killed in a 1976 explosion of a Cuban jetliner blamed on terrorism by the island's enemies.

"Instead of hate, our people have been a noble example in favour of life," said the Rev Raul Suarez, a minister who also sits on Cuba's National Assembly, or parliament.

Before the flags were raised, it was unclear what the Cuban government had planned for the site. Late last month, Castro personally visited a mysterious construction site outside the mission, where workers said they were expanding the "Anti-Imperialist Plaza" built there several years ago to host protests against US policies toward the island.

In response to the electronic sign on the facade of US diplomatic offices, Castro led a huge march past the mission. The construction project began the next day.

America's top diplomat in Havana has said the sign will stay, despite protests from Cuba.

The government also surrounded the US mission with several billboards, including one with a mock ad for a horror film, The Murderer, featuring likenesses of US president George Bush and anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles with bloody vampire teeth. - Sapa-AP


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=132&fArticleId=3100712