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The United States has acknowledged that a government crop duster plane had flown
over Cuba but denied it had used "biological aggression" against the
Communist-ruled island, as Havana has charged.
"The United States categorically denies the outrageous charges made by the Cuban
government regarding the alleged discharge of the 'thrips palmi' insect over Cuba
to damage agriculture there," John Dinger, a State Department spokesman, said
yesterday.
He said the United States "has not engaged in any act" in violation of the 1972
convention outlawing biological weapons and called Cuba's allegations "deliberate
disinformation."
Cuba accused the United States of "biological aggression," saying a plague of
plant-destroying insects first appeared in the west of the country after a US
crop-dusting plane sprayed unknown substances during a flight over the region.
In a note to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan published on Monday, Cuba identified
the pest as 'thrips palmi', which it said "strikes and severely damages
practically every crop, and is also resistant to a considerable variety of
pesticides."
For this reason the insects, which had spread widely in western Cuba, "can be
considered ideal biological agents able to inflict heavy damage on agriculture
food crops."
Cuba said the first signs of a 'thrips plague' appeared in potato plantations on
the Lenin State Horticultural Farm in Matanzas province on December 18 last year.
Based on reproductive cycles of the insect, Cuba said the beginning of the
infection can be traced back to the precise time when the US aircraft overflew the
island.
"There is reliable evidence that Cuba has once again been the target of biological
aggression" the Cuban note said. During the early 1980's, Cuba accused the United
States of triggering an outbreak of dengue fever on the island.
Dinger said the pilot of the State Department plane observed the Cuban Airlines
plane flying below him and alerted the aircraft to his presence by triggering his
smoke generator, consistent with normal safety procedures.
He said the plane was en route from Florida to Colombia via the Grand Caymen
islands. The aircraft had Cuban permission to overfly the island.
Cuba said the alleged US action may have been a violation of a 1972
anti-Biological warfare convention but Dinger said there was no such infringement.
He said the United States unilaterally destroyed all stockpiled biological agents
before the convention took effect.
US officials said the credibility of the Cuban claim is undermined, by the fact
that the thrips palmi insect struck Haiti, Jamaica and other Caribbean islands
before, feasting Cuba.
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