CUBA: Developing nations summit gathers U.S. foes in Cuba , but no indication yet of whether Cuban leader Fidel Castro will take part

Havana will be the stage this week for a meeting of leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement of 116 developing nations - a summit that will gather some of the United States' fiercest critics just 90 miles (145 km) offshore. The presidents of Iran and Syria , countries the Bush administration sees as members of an "axis of evil," are expected in Havana , as well as a high-ranking delegation from another, North Korea . The NAM is expected to endorse Iran's nuclear energy program after Tehran ignored an Aug. 31 U.N. Security Council deadline to stop enriching uranium, a process that could yield atomic bombs. The developing nations will criticize U.S. sanctions against Communist-run Cuba, according to a draft of the final document that is still under negotiation. The summit may also serve to revive peace efforts between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region with a meeting planned between the leaders of the two nations. At a news conference on Sunday (September 10), Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said he hoped the summit would mark the revival of the NAM organization as it takes over the presidency for the next three years. "We are convinced that the fact that the bipolar world in which the Movement of the Non-Aligned Nations was born, a world whose main characteristic was the Cold War and the struggle between two super powers is no longer, does not signify the disappearance of the Non-Aligned Movement," said Perez Roque. Washington's longest-lasting ideological foe, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, may not be well enough to attend the summit. Perez Roque said Fidel would receive some of the foreign dignitaries, including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, but could not say whether would be physically present during the summit. Perez Roque also said the summit would defend the right of nations like Iran to pursue nuclear programmes for peaceful use Perez Roque said the summit was not organized to attack the United States but developing countries would denounce the world's only superpower for its policy of preventive attacks and regime change, the illegal occupation of other countries and the existence of secret prisons around the world. Later, Perez Roque presided over the official opening of the summit's press centre which will provide workspace for some 700 journalists - making the meeting the biggest media event in Cuba since Pope John Paul II visited in 1998. The NAM, founded in Belgrade in 1961 by Third World leaders, has struggled to find a purpose since the end of the Cold War. Also on Sunday, the Ladies in White, mothers, wives and relatives of 75 dissidents imprisoned by Fidel Castro's regime three years ago, staged a march along the capital's Quinta Avenida - a regular event designed to highlight the plight of their loved ones. One protester urged a new respect for human rights in Cuba as hundreds of delegates began arriving for the conference.

ITN Source | September 12, 2006

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