The Hindu : Front Page : NAM summit opens without Fidel Castro

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Saturday, Sep 16, 2006
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NAM summit opens without Fidel Castro

N. Ravi

Raul Castro and Chavez launch attack on the U.S., Malaysia cautious

— AFP

WARM WELCOME: Cuba's acting President Raul Castro, brother of Fidel Castro, greets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Havana on Friday. Gen. Raul Castro is temporarily the head of government as his brother is recovering from illness.

Havana: Cuban President Fidel Castro was unable to make it to the fourteenth non-aligned summit that opened in the Cuban capital with his brother and Acting President Raul Castro Ruz launching a strong attack on the United States.

Mr. Raul Castro's opening address as well as the speech of the Venezuelan President Chavez contrasted sharply with the outgoing NAM Chairman and Malaysian Prime Minister Badawi's assertion that the movement was not against any country or group and his call not to be stuck in a bygone era.

Ending weeks of speculation on whether he would recover enough after his abdominal surgery to attend the inaugural session of the summit, Mr. Fidel Castro decided to follow the advice of his doctors to continue with his rest. He was following the preparations and the proceedings of the summit closely, the Cuban Foreign Minister said in his preliminary announcement, as the acting Cuban President Raul Castro took over the task of chairing the summit. Even in his absence, the Cuban leader was very much in the "hearts and minds" of the assembled leaders, as the Malaysian Prime Minister put it. He had on the previous day sent to all the visiting leaders copies of a new book, One Hundred Hours with Fidel by Ignacio Ramone, that he had worked on, along with the author, during the period of his convalescence.

Mr. Raul Castro's address lacked the eloquence, the high drama and the impact that his brother would have brought to the summit but it was nevertheless equally strong in substance. He said the NAM continued to be relevant even after the end of bipolarity in the international arena to resist the only superpower's unilateral attempt to control the world. The doctrine of preventive war and the imposition of regime change on the pretext of combating terrorism, promoting democracy and controlling rogue states had made the world a more dangerous place.

Joining in his attack on the United States, Mr. Chavez noted that Cuba was an example of resistance against the permanent abuse of American imperialism. The U.S. was working up plans and conspiracies against Cuba and Venezuela and he wanted the movement to be radical in its outlook.

Mr. Badawi, on the other hand, struck a somewhat different note. While urging the NAM members to be true to the original ideals of the movement and united on broad issues, he wanted them to revitalise it in the context of the changing context of globalisation. The movement was not against any country or group but only against injustice, coercion and exploitation. He pointed out that under the chairmanship of Malaysia, the movement had engaged with the G-77 grouping of the developing countries dealing with economic and trade issues as well as with China on the one hand and with the developed countries at the G-8 meetings on the other.

One leader who was restrained at the opening ceremony was the Iranian President Ahmedinejad who, perhaps because he spoke as a representative of Asia as a whole, did not touch upon any of the contentious issues and stopped with conveying his greetings. The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan who is at the summit as an observer called upon the members to strengthen the three pillars of development, security and human rights which were the prerequisites for world peace.

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