US embassy cable - 05VIENNA1124

UNCLAS VIENNA 001124 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/AGS - VIKMANIS-KELLER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, AU, UNHRC-1, EUN 
SUBJECT: CHR 61:  REQUEST TO AUSTRIA FOR ASSISTANCE ON THE 
CUBA RESOLUTION 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 60754 
 
     B. (B) VIENNA 1062 
 
1.  On April 5, EconPolCouns and Pol Unit Chief presented 
reftel points to Rudolf Lennkh, the Foreign Ministry's 
Americas director.  Lennkh noted (per ref b) that Austria had 
supported EU co-sponsorship of this year's Cuba resolution in 
the UN Human Rights Commission.  He said that Fidel Castro's 
harsh response to mild EU pressure on human rights had 
backfired on the Cubans.  Even those EU states which most 
supported positive engagement with the Cuban regime -- 
"including those whose governments had recently changed," 
Lennkh said -- to favor co-sponsorship. 
 
2.  Lennkh said that Austria had only limited access to the 
three countries which we cited in our demarche, but he 
undertook to consult with his colleagues in the relevant 
bureaus of the Ministry.  In any event, he said, the most 
effective lobbying efforts would take place in Geneva, where 
many representatives felt themselves empowered to determine 
their own positions. 
Brown