Bangkok Post : Annan hails anti-US forum in Cuba

Annan hails anti-US forum in Cuba

September 15, 2006

Havana (dpa) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday hailed the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as a symbol of a "new South," while anti-US rhetoric dominated the comments of other leaders during their two-day gathering.

The 14th NAM summit in Havana also saw presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran take the stage, as well as Cuba's temporary leader Raul Castro.

Raul Castro asked NAM members to defend multilateralism in the face of what he called the hypocrisy of the United States' policy of "double standards" and "imperial conquest." His remarks came as he accepted the chairmanship of the organization for Cuba from the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Though Cuban President Fidel Castro was originally set to take over the chairmanship, he was absent from the meeting as he continued to recover from surgery undergone on July 31.

Before speaking at the summit, Annan met Thursday night with Fidel Castro, Cuban media reported Friday. Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales are the only heads of state to have met with the ailling Castro since his surgery.

"I can assure you that his health is improving very well," Annan told delegates at the meeting, and he praised Castro "for his immense contribution and the leadership that he has shown over the different stages and the evolution of the (Non-Aligned) movement."

Fidel Castro, 80, temporarily turned over power to his brother Raul while he recovers.

"The current international situation, characterised by the irrational aspirations of world domination by the only world superpower, with the complicity of its allies, shows the need to be ever more cohesive in the defence of the principles and purposes that determined the foundation of the non-aligned (movement)," Raul Castro said.

Venezuela's Chavez also addressed what he called a history of US "aggressions" against the people of the region, as well as claiming that an aggressive campaign is being "prepared now against Venezuela, Cuba and other Caribbean countries."

During the NAM summit, Chavez had reportedly planned about 30 bilateral meetings with other leaders to drum up support for his push to win a two-year seat for Venezuela in the UN Security Council.

To win a seat, oil-rich Venezuela needs two-thirds support in the 192-nation UN General Assembly in a vote set for October 16. The United States backs a rival candidacy by Guatemala, which also has support from Mexico, Colombia and other Central American countries.

Annan once again urged an overhaul of the Security Council, saying the concept of power in the hands of its five permanent members is "very difficult to sustain and bears the risk of undermining the authority and legitimacy" of the UN.

"The UN Security Council has to be reformed for the sake of the developing world and for the sake of the United Nations itself," Annan said.

"You are the symbol of a new and powerful South, a bridge between several countries, cultures and movements, a movement of the rapidly developing world," Annan told NAM.

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[Reuters news agency reported that the summit was putting griends of the United States in an awkward spot, specifically citing Thailand

Alongside the rogues' gallery in Havana are leaders of long-standing US treaty allies such as Thailand and the Philippines and countries such as Pakistan and Indonesia that have built close ties to the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, the Reuters report said.

Faced with prominent Cuban government bulletin boards equating Bush to Hitler and 1960s-era anti-colonial rhetoric from their Cuban hosts, how do US-friendly leaders respond?

"Many delegations here are facing that very dilemma," said a Southeast Asian diplomat when asked how his country's close ties with the United States sat with the anti-American rhetoric expected to fly in Havana.

India -- whose founding prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, coined the term "non-aligned" and helped launch the NAM -- has since last year forged a close relationship to Washington. In Cuba, Delhi appeared to have none of the anti-U.S. drive.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used his speech to NAM to tell members that "our stand must be of moderation, harmony, tolerance and reason."]

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Iran's Ahmadinejad said the defence of members' territorial integrity has been one of NAM's principles since it was founded in 1961.

"Some states want to prevent the development of our countries so that we remain dependent on them and so that they can constantly keep putting pressure upon us," Ahmadinejad said, in a clear reference to efforts led by the United States and the European Union to stop Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

NAM is expected to issue a statement upholding Iran's right to pursue nuclear technology.

More than 55 heads of state - including Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, Manmohan Singh of India, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Aleksander Lukashenko of Belarus, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Evo Morales of Bolivia - have travelled to Havana.

Fidel Castro's doctors asked him not to attend the summit and have "insisted that he continues resting," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said.

NAM - whose membership count is set to rise to 118 countries at the meeting - is scheduled to continue its summit through Saturday.