Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley has slammed Government's fondness for communist Cuba.

He said Government risked angering America whose Government shunned dealings with the Caribbean island, run by Fidel Castro, where dissidents are executed and long jail terms are given for reading banned books.

The Progressive Labour Party Government is donating old buses to Cuba but Mr. Dunkley wondered on Friday why they weren't going to poor democratic islands in the Caribbean instead, particularly with the recent link with the Caribbean Community.

“I am aghast the Honourable Minister for Tourism would support such a thing like that,” said Mr. Dunkley.

However Minister Renee Webb said the British, Canadian and Americans all dealt with Cuba but Mr. Dunkley drew a distinction between private companies who could not be controlled and Governments who should take a moral lead.

“How can you defend a relationship with one of the most undemocratic places in the whole world? There's so many places which have democracy.

“Why would you want to cuddle up to Fidel Castro?”

Transport Minister Ewart Brown, who brokered the bus donation, rose to say it was out of order to refer to President Castro by his first name.

He said Mr. Dunkley wasn't showing the necessary respect and then sat down laughing.

Mr. Dunkley said Bermuda's US Consul General had been on the radio news on Friday expressing concern about the relationship with Cuba.

“Obviously this Government is not listening.

“How would our Government react when the American Government says we are concerned about the relationship with Cuba?

“There is a great deal of concern about the relationship of the current Government with the island of Cuba.”

US Consul General Denis Coleman has said the move has the potential to cause a problem between the US and Bermuda where one does not exist now.

Attorney General Dame Lois Browne-Evans defended the deal and said the US Government was not consistent about their foreign policy and had allowed politics to get in the way of humanity by not sending food to children who needed it.

She said as a lawyer she didn't agree with Cuba's policy of locking people up and executing them without trial.

“That's nothing whatsoever to do with a Minister of this country giving away buses. That doesn't make us get into bed with him.”