CUBA/USA: Cuba's President of the National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, says Fidel Castro will take part in the summit

Ailing Fidel Castro is no longer bed-ridden and is working the telephone giving orders but whether he will make his first public appearance since falling ill and show up at a summit hosted by Cuba is still anyone's guess. "He's doing well, he's recovering, he's the chairman of the Cuban delegation and accordingly the chairman of the conference and he may participate in some of the activities of the conference in the manner that he may choose," Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, told reporters, adding that Castro might show up at the summit if his doctors permit. As ministers debated denouncing the United States for its role as global policeman and Israel for bombing Lebanon, delegates talked in the corridors about Castro, wondering whether the iconic revolutionary would open the presidential segment of the Non-Aligned Movement summit on Friday morning. Castro was forced to hand over the running of Cuba to his brother on July 31 after undergoing emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding caused by an undisclosed illness. Cuban officials reiterated that Fidel Castro is recovering steadily, but they say they have no idea whether the leftist firebrand will be strong enough to make an appearance at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. Meanwhile, in Washington political analysts and experts predicted that anti-U.S. retoric would be the order of the day in Havana. "While the rhetoric would be very heady in Havana, I don't think that much of it will linger in terms of a concerted attempt to isolate the United States or to reduce the United States' clout," said Political Analyst, Larry Birns. Foreign Ministers from the NAM-member countries kicked off a meeting in Havana as heads of states began arriving for Friday's (September 15) summit. In a speech to foreign ministers from 116 nations, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage appealed for a new world order founded on the principles of peace and justice. His speech was peppered with criticism of the United States and a call for the non-aligned nations to join together to stand against injustice. Speaking in the same week as the U.S. marked the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, Lage said the world needed to examine the true causes of terrorism as he criticised the U.S. war on terror. "Terrorism is a consequence of injustice, a lack of education and of culture, of poverty and inequalities, of the humiliations suffered by entire populations, the slide in values and arrogance and abuse. It is not a consequence of radical ideologies which should be wiped out with bombs and missiles," said Lage. Lage also repeated earlier condemnations of Israel's intervention in Lebanon and Palestine, and defended Iran's right to pursue a peaceful nuclear energy programme. "We should fight for a world where aggression and the occupation of countries is unthinkable to achieve material or geopolitical advantages, where aggressions are not permitted as the Lebanese people are suffering today or the atrocities the Israelis are committing against the Palestinian people. There should be no attempt to prohibit a sovereign nation from seeking access to a peaceful nuclear energy while another is accumulating a nuclear arsenal," said Lage. Lage said Cuba had seen its hardest days of the revolution and now was enjoying its most promising moment to date. "These days in Havana will be days of work and optimism. While the NAM movement strengthens, Fidel recovers," said Lage. Cuba is the new president of the NAM - taking over from Malaysia. The six-day summit, labelled by critics as a left-over of the Cold War with little diplomatic relevance, has already denounced the Bush administration for assuming the role of global policeman in its war on terrorism since the 9/11 attacks on the United States. On the streets of Havana, security has been intensified as world leaders begin arriving for Friday's Heads of State summit. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe arrived on Wednesday and will be followed by a slew of leaders from Venezuela, Vietnam, Lebanon and Sudan later in the day. Visitors to the summit are greeted with a billboard of U.S. President George W. Bush with vampire-like fangs dripping with blood. Some 50 heads of state are expected to attend the summit, with Cuba hoping to reinvigorate the movement.

ITN Source | September 15, 2006

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