Guyana, Cuba and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are calling on the international community not to allow the bombing of the Cubana airliner on October 6, 1976 off the Barbados coast in which 73 persons were killed to go "unpunished".

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the `Cubana Disaster', as it has come to be known locally, Public Service Minister Dr Jennifer Westford said that the resolution passed by Members of Parliament in the National Assembly on November 24, 1976 condemning the despicable acts and their reaffirmation and commitment to work with all state agencies and institutions to eradicate terrorism is as relevant now as it was then.

The activity was commemorated at the National Library yesterday afternoon with brief presentations made by Cuba's Ambassador to Guyana, Jose Manuel Inclan Embade, the DPRK's Charge d'Affaires Ho Kwang Chol and Dr Westford. Present were members of the diplomatic community and relatives of seven of the eleven Guyanese who perished in the disaster.

In his presentation, Embade said that Cuba, which lost 57 of its nationals, has been the victim of terrorism and mercenary acts over the last 42 years and "in the worldwide struggle against terrorism, (it) has the full moral authority to demand the end of terrorism".

He quoted Cuba's President Fidel Castro as saying that "none of the world's present problems can be solved by force. The international community should build a world conscience against terrorism". He noted that Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who was allegedly involved in the bombing of the Cubana airliner was arrested in Panama last November during an Ibero-American Summit while he was believed to be "working on a plot to assassinate President Fidel Castro" and blow up a university auditorium where thousands of students would have been.

In his brief remarks, the DPRK Charge d'Affaires said that the Cubana Air disaster should always be condemned and those who committed the atrocities must be brought to justice. The DPRK, like Cuba, he said has suffered half a century of acts of terrorism. He noted that Cuban exile Orlando Bosch, who was also allegedly involved in plotting the disaster "is still walking on the soil of the world's superpower, the United States" and he must be brought to justice. Now that the US has suffered the September 11 disaster, he expressed the hope that the US will reject all acts of terrorism. North Korea lost five of its nationals on that ill-fated flight.

According to official US documentation, Dr Westford said that Bosch continues to be part of acts of destabilisation against the Cuban government through the Cuban American National Foundation in the US.

Reading from a prepared text, she said that investigations since have show that the October 6 horror was not an isolated incident. She listed a series of prior occurrences which revealed "a pattern of studied terror towards Cuban interests". On April 6, 1976, pirate attacks on Cuban fishing vessels between Cuba and Florida led to the death of fishermen and badly damaged boats. On June 6, 1976 an explosion at the Cuban Embassy in New York damaged material. On June 10, luggage on a wagon awaiting loading onto a Cubana flight exploded at the Norman Manley Airport in Jamaica. "But, were it not for ill-timing that explosion may have (occurred) in mid-air", she said. The following month the BWIA offices, the local handling agent for Cuban aviation, was attacked and that same month a Cuban functionary died during a kidnap attempt in Mexico and in August a car bomb exploded outside the Cuban Embassy in Colombia. Dr Westford felt that the bombing was predicted in a Miami publication that a Cuban aircraft would be attacked in mid flight.