CUBA: World leaders begin arriving in Havana for a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement

Representatives from Kuwait and Malaysia arrived in Havana on Tuesday (September 12) before a Heads of State meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement. Kuwait Vice Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Salem Sabah and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi touched down at the Jose Marti International Airport ahead of their meeting which will begin on Friday (September 15). Some 50 heads of state will take part in a summit expected to yield a show of support for Iran's right to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme. The six-day summit, labeled by critics as a left-over of the Cold War with little diplomatic relevance, is expected to denounce the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for assuming the role of global policeman in its war on terrorism since the September 11 attacks on the United States. Membership will increase from 116 to 118 later this week with the addition of Haiti and St. Kitts and Nevis. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected in Havana later in the week, as is a high-level North Korean delegation. U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, will arrive on Wednesday. Cuba's ailing President Fidel Castro, Washington's longest-lasting ideological foe since he took power in a 1959 revolution, may not be well enough to attend the meetings. Emergency intestinal surgery for an undisclosed illness forced Castro, 80, to turn over power temporarily to his younger brother, Raul, who will be his stand-in at the summit. The Non-Aligned Movement was founded in Belgrade in 1961 by Third World nations to try to avoid alignment with either the United States or the Soviet Union. Since the Cold War ended, the movement has struggled to find a purpose. Experts say it is handicapped by historical, cultural and religious divisions.

ITN Source | September 13, 2006

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