Paul Rusesabagina, Rwanda's hotel hero

In preparation for our Investigative Journalism Rwanda Trip with Harvard-Westlake School  and ABC News, Friendship Tours brings Paul Rusesabagina to California to meet students and tell his story. Recall that Paul is the Hotel Rwanda hero who saved over 1200 people from slaughter during the genocide. Celebrated Los Angeles Times journalist Patt Morrison interviews Paul in the Op-Ed section today.

In April 1994, as general manager of the luxury hotel where he worked, he protected more than 1,000 people who had fled the killing rampage in the country. Now he lectures about human rights.

By Patt Morrison

November 13, 2013

Most bio-pics are made about somebodies — warriors, kings, artists. This was a bio-pic about a nobody who became a somebody during the Rwandan genocide, a bloody crossroads for a country with deep-seated ethnic frictions. In April 1994, Paul Rusesabagina was brevetted as general manager of the luxury hotel where he worked, and where more than 1,000 people had fled from the killing rampage. For more than two months, he managed to protect them from being slaughtered. Ten years later, the world saw "Hotel Rwanda." Today, there is no love lost between Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Rusesabagina, who lives in San Antonio and travels to lecture about human rights, as he did in Los Angeles not long ago.

Is there such a thing as a post-ethnic society? The government in Rwanda wants everyone to be not Hutu or Tutsi but Rwandan.

The problem with today's Rwandan government is trying to say that ethnicities do not exist. That is maybe because we fear what we did ourselves, [now] we want to say all of us are Rwandans. We have a group of [mostly Tutsi] elite who are taking power because they [proclaim that they are] Rwandans.

Whenever they talk about ethnicity, they always talk [of] Hutus who kill Tutsis — bad guys who kill good guys. They position themselves as victims and others as perpetrators. They say whatever they think will solve their problem for that minute. When they become victims, they become Tutsis. When they are not victims and they are in power, they are Rwandans.

Didn't European colonists codify these distinctions with ID cards?

Yes and no. Go to the meaning of the words. "Tutsi" means "the elite, one who is better, who has wealth." Wealth before colonization was measured in cows. "Hutu" means "follower, a servant, a slave." These words were created by us, not by colonizers.

But then isn't it a good idea to get rid of names that reinforce distinctions?

Anything can be good, but the way they are doing it is the wrong way. [For example,] in 2008 someone decided overnight that Rwanda should become an English-speaking country. Anything which is forced always becomes a bad thing.

What do you miss most about Rwanda?

I miss everything! The hill where I used to sit in the afternoon every rainy day, and when the whole sky would break clear and I would see maybe 100 miles. I miss the place where I was born and raised.

Have you been back since you left in 1996?

I went back in 2004 before the movie came out. I sensed what was going to happen: the hatred from the Rwandan president seeing a Hutu becoming a hero, where he had positioned himself with his people as heroes. So we took our three younger kids there so they would know where they came from.

What do you think of efforts to discredit you, such as protesters showing up when you speak?

I like it. This shows the weakness of [the Rwandan] government. I can never imagine a president who is supposed to be busy [with] politics running after me, a small citizen. The president is making me more important than I am supposed to be.

Do you worry that you are still a target?

If I were to worry, I wouldn't do anything. I would just lock myself in my house. So if anyone wants to kill me, I think that will be that person's problem, not mine. In 1994, this helped me to go on. I was targeted because I was protecting the most wanted people. The elite intellectuals were in my hotel. The business elite, also ordinary and common human beings were there. I said to myself, "Oh well, I will be killed; shall I give up? No. let me do one more small thing before I die." I kept on going like that. Since that time, every day, every month, every year, I call it a bonus.

What do you think of the United Nations' role in Rwanda then?

I was disappointed on many occasions. When the United Nations came to Rwanda in October 1993, we were sensing something. We were smelling death. The whole country was nervous and tense. When the United Nations sent in forces, we called them peacekeepers. Their mission was not to keep peace. Their mission was to observe. As weak as they were, when we saw the United Nations pulling out of Rwanda, abandoning our nation to thugs and gangsters and running away, all of us were caught. So I was disappointed at that time by the United Nations.

How do you regard American misperceptions of Africa?

There have been reasons why Americans do not really think about Africa. One reason is that Africa is far from America. The American continent is more or less self-sufficient. But since 9/11, Americans would like to know what is happening elsewhere. The opinion is changing, and we want to be part of the change.

You've been speaking at places like Harvard-Westlake School. Why those audiences?

This is my mission, telling tomorrow's leaders that you guys are rich, you are safe, but there are many kids [who] do not have that chance in a country called Rwanda. These kids will only be saved by you. All those kids worth talking to today are tomorrow's congressmen and women, tomorrow's secretaries of state, tomorrow's presidents.

Some in the West point to Rwanda now as a model, with decent schools, electricity, clean streets.

In 2011, in Rwanda, [U.N. Ambassador] Susan Rice was taken to the genocide memorials. They showed her the new [office] towers they had built, and I loved her statement. [Rice praised Rwanda's educational, economic and agricultural advancements.] She [also] told them, "Listen, as long as there is no democracy in this country, as long as human rights records remain as they are, as long as there is no freedom of speech, all these achievements will be like a castle made of paper."

Are you worried Rwanda could turn on itself again?

Unfortunately, history repeats itself, and we never learn lessons. As long as you have so many people silenced, so many people outside the country as refugees, you are sitting ducks. As long as you [deny] people the opportunity to talk together, as long as people can't criticize — that can never last forever. Rwanda is more or less like a simmering volcano that might erupt at any time.

What could change that?

There are powerful countries that have a lot of influence on President Kagame — the United States, the United Kingdom. If they take their courage and tell him, "You have had your 15 minutes." Every leader who is there for 10 years, 20 years, will not bring anything new to his people besides reinforcing dictatorship.

The best way to solve this conflict is through words. We have tried for 60 years and more to solve our conflicts through guns. It is clear that guns have failed, so why don't we sit around the table, face to face, bring whole truths to that table. Who did what? The people know; they witnessed everything. Give them an opportunity to express themselves freely. This is the only way that justice can be practiced and that sustainable peace can come to Rwanda and the whole region.

If you could ask President Obama to do something for the 20th anniversary of the genocide, what would it be?

I would ask him to tell Rwandans and the whole world that it is high time that people should sit down together and solve conflicts.

What's the path to justice and reconciliation?

The way the Rwandan government has done it is very weak and biased. It has been politicized; it is not clean.

In the beginning, Rwandans were willing to cooperate and tell who did what. But when they saw the government just taking all the Hutus into prison, killing them, innocents and criminals, they decided to remain silent. The Rwandan government wants people to say, "OK, I did it," even if they're not criminals. President Kagame said all Hutus, even those who were not born in 1994, will have to pay a price to Tutsis.

What do you mean when you say the Rwandan government is selling genocide like a product?

The Rwandan government has confused politics and genocide. With the international community, they always play the genocide card: Everybody should apologize to them [for not intervening]. You saw Bill Clinton, Tony Blair: "We are sorry, we are sorry." Whoever tries to raise a voice is silenced by this word "genocide." The Rwandan Patriotic Front [the current ruling party] killed many Hutus before the war. "Genocide" is losing its value because they are playing around with it. It is a pity.

I lost many members of my immediate family [including his Tutsi wife's mother and siblings, nieces and nephews]. It is our legacy; seeing someone selling it, it makes us mad.

Your mother was Tutsi, your father Hutu. What does that make you?

I was born to a mixed couple, but in Rwanda, we follow our fathers. I am very proud to be what my father was. And my father was a gentleman.

This interview was edited and excerpted from a taped transcript. patt.morrison@latimes.com. Twitter:@pattmlatimes

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times

Paul Rusesabagina, hero of Hotel Rwanda

This hero will speak about the Rwandan genocide and how the courage of ordinary people standing up to evil can make a difference.

When: Friday, Nov. 8, 3 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Where: SBCC, 721 Cliff Dr., Santa Barbara

Cost: Free

Age limit: Not available

Categories: Lectures & Workshops: Book Signings, Lectures, Special Events

Description:

Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager who saved thousands of lives during the Rwandan genocide and was portrayed by Don Cheadle in movie Hotel Rwanda, will speak. He will show video clips from the film and speak about the genocide and how the courage of ordinary people standing up to evil can make a difference. He will be signing his autobiography, An Ordinary Man.

Alethea Tyner Paradis, founder of Friendship Tours World Travel, has organized a trip for high school students to Rwanda in January. “This adventure invites students to experience an insider’s look at a beautiful, lush, now-peaceful country that imploded with unimaginable violence just 20 years ago. The scale of the killing and recovery cannot be completely grasped with the rational mind. 800,000 people killed in 100 days, is eight thousand lives per day, more than five murders per minute. It was rooted in perceptions of racial hate, and officials running the country used the mass media to whip the populace into a killing frenzy to eliminate all Tutsis.”

Paul’s message is simple: Words can multiply hate—as in the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide—or they can broker peace and reconciliation. With a mixture of diplomacy and dissuasion, Paul talked madmen killers out of their mission to butcher over 1200 Tutsis and Hutus hiding in the hotel for 77 consecutive days. He will discuss how recognizing the humanity in others – even your enemy—can mean the difference between deadly conflict and life-saving solutions.

Rwanda today is one of the safest African countries. Victims and perpetrators now live in peace, side by side with an impossible pain. All survivors agree that the genocide was the product of an inverted reality: wrong became right, insanity seemed normal, and resistance to the mob was impossible. According to Paradis, “The goal of our Rwanda trip is to understand the beauty and healing beyond the tragedy, to capture the stories of survivors, and to illuminate a cautionary tale for our times: Human beings living in a diverse world must cultivate their power to act for peace.”

In Room PS 101, East Campus of SBCC.

Event posted Oct. 29, 2013

Last updated Oct. 30, 2013

Discover Myanmar's historical treasures

Editor's note: CNN's On the Road series explores the culture, heritage and customs of a country, covering popular culture, food and drink, design and architecture, sport, technology and innovation. This month, we bring you greater insight into Myanmar, revealing the places, the people and the passions unique to this intriguing south-east Asian nation. Watch the episodes at 2300 on October 23 and 24, October 26 at 0930 and October 27 at 0800 (all times GMT).

Yangon, Myanmar (CNN) -- After decades of a military junta rule, the south-east Asian country of Myanmar is opening up, and the government is working hard to welcome a plane loads of visitors from around the world.

Myanmar's turnaround from pariah state to becoming this year's must-see destination has been remarkable. Much of the country is untouched and rich in both historic and architectural heritage.

There is plenty to discover for the tourist who wants to go off the beaten track.

Below CNN takes a look at some of Myanmar's most magnificent treasures.

Shwedagon Pagoda

The golden stupa of Yangon's 2,500-year-old Shwedagon Pagoda shines over the city. The pagoda is covered in hundreds of golden plates and there are thousands of encrusted diamonds on the stupa, glittering in all different colors, reflecting the rays of the sun. It's a majestic site and impossible not to notice when visiting the former capital of Myanmar.

"In Myanmar, it is very important for our religion," says Kyaw, a guide at Shwedagon. "Because most people from here, mostly Buddhist people, have to come here at least one time in their life."

Myanmar is one of the world's most devout Buddhist nations -- the majority of Burmese are Buddhists and the 100-meter-tall Shwedagon is their most sacred temple. Legend says it enshrines eight of Buddha's hair, that were given to two merchant brothers by Buddha himself.

At times the pagoda has also served as a rallying point and a source of strength against the former military regime, or as in the 1920s and 1930s resistance to British Colonial rule.

Read more: 11 things to know before visiting Myanmar

Colonial architecture in Yangon

The architectural heritage of Yangon is rich and evidence of the former British Empire is almost at every corner. Buildings from the colonial era stretch out across the city, telling stories of a time long gone.

Yangon has one of the highest number of colonial period buildings in all of south-east Asia, built during the British rule in Burma, which lasted from 1824 to 1948. Buildings like the City Hall, the former High Court and Strand Hotel attract many visitors.

But these iconic buildings are under threat, since renovating and preserving their crumbling facades is costly. The Yangon Heritage Trust is trying to ensure these buildings don't meet a bulldozer, so the country's past can be maintained.

One building in particular could be seen as the monument to Myanmar's political rebirth.

The Secretariat, the Minister's building during the British rule, has been standing empty for years, but played an important role in the history of Myanmar. This is where the leaders of the independence movement in the late 1940s were assassinated -- among them General Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's Nobel laureate, and a former political prisoner.

That her father lost his life in the assassination room is one of the reasons why the Secretariat could now be preserved. "I think just a couple of years ago this was not on the agenda at all and I think we were in real danger," says chairman of the Yangon Heritage Trust, Thant Myint-U.

Read more: Fast facts about Myanmar's history

Bagan, ancient city in the Mandalay region

A journey through Myanmar inspires silence. And there is one journey in particular that in the 19th century inspired young poet Rudyard Kipling to write his poem "On the Road to Mandalay".

Traveling along the lifeblood of the country -- the river Irrawaddy -- feels like being on a trek back in time. Along the river there are fishing villages where life hasn't changed for decades. The cruise along the river gets you to places not so easily reached by car or rail.

But there is one destination that leaves every visitor breathless -- Bagan.

Bagan is an ancient city situated in central Myanmar, in the region of Mandalay. Considered one of the world's most spectacular and significant archaeological sites, it consists of more than 2000 pagodas and temples built by the kings of Bagan between the 11th and 13th centuries.

Marcus Allender, founder of travel site for Myanmar, Go-Myanmar, wants to simplify travel to the country.

"[This] is a country that's had massive shifts over the past 1000 years and there are dozens of ancient capitals, Bagan being the most famous one. There are loads of them and there is just so much to discover," Allender says.

"And then when you get the Buddhism going through that, it's a deeply religious country, [with] all the pagoda's everywhere. It makes it special."

By Paula Newton and Jenny Soffel, for CNN

You're Invited!

In Rwanda, Studio Space as Catalyst

SPECIAL REPORT: THE ART OF COLLECTING

KIGALI, Rwanda — Born in Burundi and raised in Rwanda, the artist Bruce Niyonkuru has never traveled outside East Africa, but he believes his works have universal appeal.

The artist’s recent piece, “Young Talented Artists’ Dilemma” (2013) is a colorful painting depicting the faces — some fat, some thin, one crying and from a variety of angles — of artists he has known over the years. It is a work that he hopes communicates the daily struggles that artists in Rwanda face.

“When I started painting, I did not have money to even buy materials, and I did not know of any place to help me grow my talent,” said Mr. Niyonkuru, 21. “In Rwanda, society does not see being an artist as a profession. Most people think I am jobless and I am just painting for fun.”

Two years ago Mr. Niyonkuru joined Ivuka Arts Kigali, an arts center that opened in 2007 and has been integral to the growth of the Rwandan contemporary art scene. Not only has he had the chance to develop his artistic practice, he was also featured in a group show last year at Charlie Dutton Gallery in London. The show, titled “Rwanda,” presented eight artists who have worked out of Ivuka Arts, which functions as an outdoor studio space and gallery and offers workshops for young artists.

Ivuka’s founder, the artist Collin Sekajugo, who was born in Uganda and raised in Kenya, has also made community activism a cornerstone of the center, setting up Saturday art classes at three orphanages in Kigali and creating a dance troupe for disadvantaged children called RwaMakondera.

Several artists who started out at Ivuka have gone on to set up galleries and art centers in Kigali of their own — including the Inema Arts Center, Bwiza Arts Kigali and Uburanga Arts — which were all modeled on Ivuka’s pioneering structure.

“Rwanda is a place that has a huge stigma to overcome,” said Emmanuel Etim, a Washington-based filmmaker who has been working with Rwandan film students on documentaries about the creative sector in the country.

“People within the country are hungry for progress, and to me Ivuka is a symbol that you can do something that does not have to be so orthodox,” he added. “It serves as a place where people really feel that freedom to express.”

The 1994 genocide devastated Rwanda — as many as one million people are estimated to have been killed in 100 days — and the war debilitated the country’s social structure, its schools and its economy. Things in the cultural sphere, including contemporary art that even before the war had been practically nonexistent, were not picked back up again for a long time, while the country tried to heal.

“People know Rwanda is a place with a horrible history,” said Emmanuel Nkuranga, an Ivuka alumnus who founded Inema last year with his brother, Innocent Nkurunziza. “But when kids do good art, it is showing there is a hope and an energy now. We are trying to engage kids in thinking about seeing their country as a place to be proud of.”

Even though there is some arts education in primary and secondary schools, there are still no higher education art schools in the country, meaning that many artists have either had to study abroad or are self-taught. Though The National Art Gallery in Nyanza has focused on exhibiting contemporary art from east Africa, there are no Rwandan-educated professional curators and gallery owners in the country.

Ivuka was the first space to try to work on these fronts. “Art history did not really make any progress,” said Lia Gieling, a Dutch curator who has helped rebrand The National Art Gallery, which used to be the Rwesero Art Museum. “I do not mean that negatively, but Rwanda was so captured in its own traditions, captured between the hills, so the country was not open to the world.”

Mr. Sekajugo has set out to change that. Describing himself as a self-educated artist, he first arrived in Rwanda in 2001 to explore his mother’s family roots. Over the next several years he met many young artists who had raw talent, but no space to work and no place to hone their art skills.

“When I came here, I fell in love with Rwandan culture, but I saw nothing in terms of art here,” Mr. Sekajugo said at Ivuka, which in the Kinyarwanda language means “to be born.” “My dream was to create a space that could bring together all these struggling, surviving, hard-working groups of people, and to use art as a life-changing tool.”

By 2007, he had saved enough money to open Ivuka, which requires no money or specific qualifications to join, and began attracting people from across Kigali.

“I don’t have to bite my tongue to say that we created the art scene here,” said Mr. Sekajugo, who has since set up a similar program called Weaver Bird Arts Community in Masaka, Uganda. “There have been challenges,” he acknowledged, referring to the need to travel back and forth to Uganda to buy supplies. “And I am trying to drag them into different forms of artistic expression, doing more sculpture work and photography.”

Dozens of artists — both local and visiting — have since passed through Ivuka. In addition to the London show, they have been featured in exhibitions in Edinburgh and at Columbia University’s Institute of African Studies in New York. In September, a number of artists from Ivuka and other local art centers participated in an exhibition organized by the U.S. Embassy in Kigali of artwork inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Over the years, Ivuka has not only developed the mentoring programs with local orphanages, providing the materials to paint as well as technical instruction, it now also runs a jewelry-making co-operative for disadvantaged women that was started by Mr. Nkurunziza.

“It is a cultural center for Kigali,” said Kate Saffin, who curated the London and Edinburgh shows last year. “It’s not like New York or London, where you have these industrial warehouses where no one knows there are artists round the back of the place. They paint outdoors, the neighborhood knows about it, people are always poking their heads in to see what is going on.”

While Ivuka has a grittiness to its location — with crumbling steep steps and an overflowing gallery with paintings stacked up on the floor — Inema has a more slick and professional feel. It offers a specific space for the Nziza jewelry co-operative and also has a small shop selling the works of the women.

But there, too, people work with local orphanages and with families that are led by older children, under programs called Art With a Mission. The McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, is currently showing an exhibition of works from Inema-based artists and pieces done by the children involved in those programs.

“I see Collin more as a mentor now, rather than just an artist, someone who is innovative in art and pushing others,” Mr. Etim, the filmmaker, said of the Ivuka founder. “The fact that there are other groups and centers similar to Ivuka shows me that his mentoring has helped spread that hope.”

By GINANNE BROWNELL

Published: October 16, 2013

Partner Spotlight: Give Children A Choice

 

Phosy Preschool, Xieng Khouang Province, Lao PDR

Give Children A Choice (GCAC) is a non-profit organization with the mission of providing sustainable education programs for underprivileged children as means of escaping poverty. As the organization’s name suggests, successful education from an early age provides children with the luxury of choice, something many impoverished children are denied. By building and filling preschools predominately in Laos, GCAC is empowering youth since it’s launch in 2002 by providing education in the most formative years of their lives.

                                                                   

With aid from donors, government officials, partner organizations, and the villages where GCAC operates, the project begins with the construction of preschools from the ground up. Once the education infrastructure is in place, GCAC provides funds to train effective teachers, materials emphasizing the importance of hygiene and nutrition, and an environment to thrive.

In only 70 to 90 days, GCAC establishes effective preschools that will educate youth for generations. School provides confidence among youth and fortifies success in higher levels of education. Positive social skills and emotional development are nurtured by attending preschool.  Additionally, participation in preschool results in greater high school graduation rates and university attendance.

“Nothing makes us smile more than the opportunity to give children choices by offering them a better life via an education.”

But the children are not the only ones who directly benefit from GCAC’s projects. Villagers, parents of students, and the local community are involved in every step of the process, and ultimately feel a sense of ownership and pride in their success. A core concept of GCAC is the empowerment of villagers to create and sustain education programs.

Featured on their website, www.givechildrenachoice.org, are a myriad of completed, successful projects. On such project was the construction of a preschool in the Laotian village of Pak Nga. Upon arrival in March 2005, GCAC was the first foreign visitor to set foot in the village. But just six months and many new friendships later, the first preschool was finished and ready to be utilized. Since the school’s completion, GCAC has been pleasantly notified that many other villages have asked for preschools of their own. Currently, the school and students are thriving and eager to learn.

Like Give Children A Choice, Friendship Tours World Travel (FTWT) values education because of the empowerment and opportunity it supplies. We partnered with GCAC because we believe in their mission and have complimentary values. Our educational travel programs promote sustainability, local connections, and peace to evolve students into global citizens.

FTWT also offers socially-conscious travel that incorporates many levels of community service and social-entrepreneurship. Students are invited to contribute their skills and talents toward advancing a project; such as shooting, producing, and editing a promotional video for an NGO. Additionally, fundraising and supplies-collection generate resources for organization addressing a community problem. To increase awareness of social problems, students engage in letter-writing campaigns, interviews, and press conferences. Each trip involves direct cultural-exchange activities with local children.

Please explore GCAC’s website to learn more about their mission, completed projects, or to donate. Anything helps in the mission to construct preschools, secure supplies, and ultimately change the lives of whole communities forever. 

Cuba once more seeks U.N. condemnation of U.S. embargo

(Reuters) - For the 22nd consecutive year, Cuba will ask the United Nations to condemn the United States economic embargo against the island, a top Cuban official announced on Monday, accusing Washington of tightening sanctions in place for more than half a century.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who stated before taking office that he wanted to recast long-hostile U.S.-Cuba relations, has been a disappointment to the Cuban government, which expected him to do more to dismantle the embargo.

The embargo, fully in place since 1962, has done "astronomical" economic harm, Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno said during a news conference to present Cuba's annual report on the damage wrought on the Communist-run Caribbean island by U.S. sanctions.

Last year the vote at the U.N. General Assembly was overwhelming, with 188 nations - including most of Washington's closest allies - condemning the embargo. Only the United States, Israel and the tiny Pacific state of Palau supported it.

This year the debate and vote is scheduled for October 29.

Obama has lifted some restrictions on travel and on the sending of remittances to the island, but Moreno said the embargo and its enforcement had been broadened in other areas.

"The blockade not only is being maintained, but strengthened in some aspects," Moreno charged.

"I ask what right does the United States have to sanction companies that are not North American," he said, charging that since Obama took office in 2009, fines against embargo violators, domestic and foreign, had dramatically increased and totaled $2.5 billion to date.

Cuba says the embargo is a blockade because it punishes third country companies for doingbusiness with Havana.

Many critics of Cuba's one-party system, including dissidents on the island, also have called for lifting the embargo, saying it is counter-productive.

BANKS RELUCTANT TO DEAL WITH CUBA

Moreno said foreign banks were increasingly cautious about any transactions involving Cuba due to U.S. pressure, something confirmed by numerous foreign businessmen in Havana.

"Banks calculate the risk versus the gain in doing business with Cuba, even if transactions are legal," said a foreign banker who asked to remain anonymous.

"Given that Cuba is on the U.S. terrorist list, many times banks decide it is not worth that risk and potential hassles and the trend has accelerated in recent years," he said.

Cuba held the news conference, where it announced the draft U.N. resolution calling for an end to the embargo, at the William Soler children's heart center to emphasize that the sanctions do not discriminate between the country's political leadership and innocent people and amounts to what it calls "genocide."

The hospital's director, Eugenio Selman-Housein Sosa, said his center often lacked the most modern equipment and medicines because U.S. companies predominated in some sectors and Washington's regulations on checking end-users made business next to impossible.

"In the case of Cuba this becomes dramatic," he said, because the sanctions "impede the acquisition of products that literally signify the difference between life and death."

Always contentious U.S.-Cuba relations thawed briefly under Obama, but progress came to a halt when Cuba arrested U.S. contractor Alan Gross in Havana in December 2009.

Gross was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison for setting up Internet networks in Cuba under a controversial U.S. program that Cuba views as subversive.

The two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations, have renewed immigration and postal service talks suspended after Gross's arrest, but there are no signals of any major improvement in the foreseeable future.

(Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by David Adams and Mohammad Zargham)