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President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
Dear President Clinton,
I am writing on behalf of the California Public Health Association-North (CPHA-N), which represents health care providers, university faculty, researchers, stridence, and a wide variety of public health practitioners throughout Northern California dedicated to promoting public, environmental and personal health. We are an affiliate of the American public Health Association, whose members' long-standing concern about the United States Cuba embargo policy is reflected in two formal resolutions calling for a lifting of the embargo because of its deleterious impact on public health in the country.
We are appalled that the Treasury department agents have seized 400 computer terminals at the California/Mexico border which were destined for use by Cuban health care providers. We are also very concerned about the health of several members of the Pastors for peace caravan who have now been fasting at the border for six weeks to protest the seizure.
Dozens of Northern California residents, including some of our members, spent months collecting and refurbishing the computers the government is holding, in an effort to provide basic humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba. The computers are generally regarded in the United States as completely outmoded. In Cuba, they will be part of an on-line network that provides medical information to health professionals throughout the country. Such on-line information is readily available to health professionals in the United States and its use is increasing. The Cuban network would be of considerable benefit to the Cuban people through the provision of medical care and by helping to curtail preventable disease through public health measures.
We are in full support of this Pastors for Peace effort and strongly protest the confiscation of computers destined for medical use. Such voluntary efforts for international cooperation and medical assistance should be applauded, rather than halted by our government.
Sincerely,
Dana Hughes, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
President
April 4, 1996
See also: American Public Health Association, Staff Associate For International Health, Diane Kunz statement made during Press Conference On May 2, 1996, on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol.
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