[News] Nonaligned Movement Summit Issues Declaration

[Anti-Imperialist News]

14TH SUMMIT IN LA HAVANA
Nonaligned Movement supports Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia

The 92-page declaration also broadly condemned
terrorism, with exceptions and asserted the right of
all countries -- Cuba and Venezuela were mentioned --
to determine their own form of government.

09/17/2006
http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/noticia/en/international-news/14th-summit-in-la-havana-nonaligned-movement-supports-cuba--venez?itemId=B24_10215&cl=%2Feitb24%2Finternacional&idioma=en

The 92-page declaration also broadly condemned
terrorism, with exceptions and asserted the right of
all countries -- Cuba and Venezuela were mentioned --
to determine their own form of government.

Representatives of 118 Nonaligned Movement nations
condemned Israel's attacks on Lebanon and supported a
peaceful resolution to the U.S.-Iran nuclear dispute in
the final declaration Saturday of a summit that brought
together some of the world's staunchest American foes.

The 92-page declaration also broadly condemned
terrorism, with exceptions for movements for self-
determination and battles against foreign occupiers.

And while declaring democracy to be a universal value,
the movement said no one country or region should
define it for the whole world. The leaders mentioned
Venezuela and Cuba in particular as they asserted the
right of all countries to determine their own form of
government. The statements, many of which contain
veiled criticisms of the U.S., were to be approved by
unanimous consent after another round of speeches
Saturday night by leaders of the Nonaligned Movement.

"No one in the Nonaligned Movement thinks that the
United States is responsible for all the problems, but
many think that it is for some,"

Fidel´s absence

Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said. An
ailing Fidel Castro was named president of the
movement, but he stayed home in his pajamas on doctors'
orders while Acting Cuban President Raul Castro
presided over the meeting of two-thirds of the world's
nations.

Raul joined numerous U.S. foes who said a bellicose
America had made the world more dangerous.

"The United States spends one billion dollars a year in
weapons and soldiers," he said. "To think that a social
and economic order that has proven unsustainable could
be maintained by force is simply an absurd idea."

Demands to U.N.

Many demanded that the United Nations take action
against U.S. veto power in the security council. "The
U.S. is turning the security council into a base for
imposing its politics," Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad complained. "Why should people live under
the nuclear threat of the U.S.?"

Some leaders tried to resolve disputes with their
neighbors: Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf
and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed
Saturday to resume peace talks, and Bolivian President
Evo Morales tried to reassure Brazilians angered by
tough energy negotiations.

Hardline position

Others held onto hardline positions: North Korea
defended its nuclear weapons program, Sudan's leader
rejected a U.N. peacekeeping mission for Darfur and
Ahmadinejad insisted on Iran's right to develop nuclear
energy.

The document supports Iran's position while encouraging
Iran to continue cooperating with the International
Atomic Energy Agency. North Korea Parliament leader Kim
Yong Nam claimed his communist nation "would not need
even a single nuclear weapon if there no longer existed
U.S. threat," and said U.S. financial sanctions have
"driven the situation into an unpredictable phase."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed that the
security council must be more responsive to less
powerful countries. "The Security Council must reform,
for the sake of the developing world, and for the sake
of the United Nations itself," Annan told the
Nonaligned leaders. "The perception of a narrow power-
base risks leading to an erosion of the U.N.'s
authority and legitimacy, even, some would argue, its
neutrality and independence. I have in the past
described this as a democracy deficit."

First steps in 1961

The Nonaligned Movement was formed in 1961 to establish
a neutral third path in a world divided by the United
States and the Soviet Union. Cuba last hosted the group
in Havana 27 years ago.

The world has changed dramatically since then, but
Annan said its collective mission is more relevant than
ever: promoting democracy, protecting human rights and
developing civil societies. Many leaders said their
group will be stronger with Fidel Castro as the
movement's president, but it's unclear whether the 80-
year-old Castro will recover enough from intestinal
surgery to guide the group for the next three years
until Egypt takes over.

Chavez unconditional support toward Fidel

The ailing rebel icon met in his home with a handful of
leaders including Annan and Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez. And while Raul provided the world with its
first glimpse of how he operates as a statesman, Chavez
repeatedly asserted himself as the natural heir to
Castro, who remains a hero to leftists around the
world.

"To be radical is not to be insane, it's to go to our
roots. Let's go to our roots, let's be truly radical,"
Chavez declared, concluding one speech with a favorite
Castro rallying cry: "Patria o Muerte!," "Fatherland or
Death!" Chavez also met with dozens of leaders on the
summit's sidelines in advance of next week's U.N.
General Assembly session in New York, where secret
balloting next month will determine whether Venezuela
or U.S.-backed Guatemala secures the next rotating
security council seat for Latin America and the
Caribbean.

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