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Speech of E. A.
Vidyasekera at the International Conference in Khatmandu, Nepal
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Dear Friends,
Permanent Secretariat is happy to be
represented in this International Conference on Peoples' Solidarity for
Peace and Human Rights
Khatmandu, Nepal, 10 – 12 December 2004,
which will discuss the following sub-themes:
1.
Democracy and
Development.
2.
Middle East.
3.
Nuclear Weapons.
4.
Korean Peninsula.
This international conference is
taking place at a crucial time. In the US Presidential election,
incumbent President George W. Bush was returned with a majority,
surprising the international community who expected the democratic
candidate to win. Despite enormous anti-American propaganda all over the
world, neo-conservatives have been able to consolidate their position
and power. The moderate secretary of state Collin Powell was forced to
resign and in his place a more conservative right winger like
Condoleezza Rice was appointed. The retention of Donald Rumsfeld, the
great damager indicate the worst of Bush team. Neither President Bush
nor the neo-conservatives were concerned with the human rights
violations by US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the US base
Guantanamo. Further the failure of the non-success of the campaign
against terrorism by the US had a deep resentment among the people of
the world at large. This necessitates other governments and the civil
society organizations to reformulate more effective policies. President
Yasser Arafat died at a French hospital creating greater uncertainty in
the Palestinian question. His illness still remains a mystery, providing
all kind of rumors. Election for the Presidency of the Palestinian
Authority has been fixed for 9th January 2005.
On the Iraqi front violence is accelerating
in the Sunni triangle. Falluja city which had the strongest insurgent
attack has been brought to near normalcy with heavy bombardment by the
US troops. In Fallujah the US had lost 58 marines and the insurgent toll
was estimated to be over 1500. Many more have taken to custody including
huge catch of arms. According to Iraqi interim government, attack in
Fallujah has been masterminded by Al Qaeda and their associate
fundamentalists and extreme groups most of whom are outsiders. There had
been sporadic fighting in other places in Iraq as well. Meanwhile an
international meeting was held at the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh
where the UN, the Arab League, the neighboring countries of Iraq, the
European Union and Russia were present to discuss the ways and means of
assisting Iraq. The conference agreed that election in Iraq should be
held as schedule at the end of January 2005. Withdrawal of foreign
forces and the establishment of an elected Iraqi government will be
decided after the election.
In many parts of the world situation
continue to remain tense. African situation is still elusive. Human
Rights violations are reported from all parts of the world. Even in the
US, the Human Rights are far from satisfactory. In fact US is
instrumental in violating Human Rights by dubious ways of interference
in the internal affairs of other countries.
1. Democracy and Development
The pet theme of the US establishment has been "expanding democracy"
around the world. Whether it is under Republican or Democratic rule,
there are no dearth of recipes for democracy. Yet the US behave more
undemocratically not only in relation to the rest of the world, but also
now internally after 9/11 attack. This issue of terrorist attack has
been used as a cover for most of controversial laws and actions that US
is implementing. US has tighten the entry visa regulations and in many
ways curtails the freedom of the people. It is alleged that "fear" among
the US citizens was manipulated in the election campaign of George Bush.
It is well known that their attempt to make
a US type “democracy” has completely failed as we have seen in Haiti,
which is turned to chaos again. How far it will succeed in Iraq is yet
to be seen. Development is supposed to go hand in hand with democracy.
But the main international financial and trading organizations, which
are dominated by the US and the European, are far from acting
democratically. International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the
World Trade Organization have been by and large used by the US and the
west to lay down conditionalities which go against the developing
countries. In the name of democracy, there is a crude interference of
the internal affairs of sovereign nations by the US and also by the
European Union. For them democracy means to get elected those candidates
favoured by them. World has seen the massive campaign against Venezuelan
President Chavaz, heavily financed by the US. They considered Yasser
Arafat was “irrelevant” and was not prepared to deal with him, whereas
Arafat was the only elected leader of the Arab World.
As in other areas, in
democracy too western approach is selective. Democracy goes hand in hand
with development and development become vibrant in an environment of
expanding democracy. Democracy involves people’s participation and it is
through their participation that development would be enhanced. It is
the responsibility of the developing countries, to eradicate corruption,
shun dictatorship and strengthen democracy and transparency to prevent
been targets of attack from the west. This is an important task of the
Non-aligned Movement. So far majority of the developing countries and
also the non-aligned movement have failed to live up to the aspiration
of the people. Democracy to be successful involves people’s
participation. This participation involves placing trust on the people
by their respective governments and their leaders. Therefore they need
to encourage the people’s movements and the civil society to take more
active role in all aspects of life and not confines only to the election
time. This is the way which enable more transparency and accountability
of the government.
At the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation Summit held in Santiago, Chile recently concluded
its two-day meeting adopting the following guidelines, which are linked
to both democratic norms and development.
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To push
ahead with the WTO negotiations on lowering global trade barriers,
seen as impediments to planets economic growth in 148 member
countries.
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Endorsed
new security measures aimed at fighting terrorism.
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Approved
a wide variety of counter-terrorism measures improving commercial
flight safety, making sure, shipping and food stocks safe from
attack by terrorists.
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Support
Russia and
Vietnam to join WTO.
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Renewed efforts to fight
private and public sector corruption.
How far
this would be realized to assist the developing countries is to be yet
seen.
Middle
East
Countries in the Middle East still continue to be in turmoil. So long
the core issue in the Middle East; the self-determination of the
Palestinian people for their legitimate right of achieving an
independent state remain unresolved, turmoil and conflict will continue
destablishing the whole region. Now after the death of Arafat, Israel
has no excuse but to accept the new Palestinian leadership for a
negotiated settlement. In this conflict the UN is pushed into the back
seat and the United States continue to dominate its role with its agenda
which is biased towards Israel and detrimental to the Palestinians.
Naturally, the United States has earned the hatred of the people of the
entire region. Israel government is given the free hand and green light
by the US to brutalize the Palestinian people whose leaders are openly
assassinated using helicopter gunships. Houses and property are
bulldozed making Palestinians life miserable. Defenseless children,
women and old people are gunned down by Israel in the name of fighting
terrorism. With the occupation of Iraq by the US killing spree is the
daily occurrence in the Middle East.
Iraq was occupied to remove the
weapons of mass destruction. And when such weapons are not found, now
the US is busy in “promoting democracy” in Iraq. Nevertheless for the
Iraqi situation former dictatorship of Saddam Hussain is equally
responsible as his rule brutalized the Iraqi people well over three
decades. Saddam was a US favorite when he fought his war against Iran
for eight years. He was provided with regular supply of sophisticated
weapons until they came to confrontation. In the process Saddam did a
great service to the US to implement its strategy including creating a
situation for invasion. In toppling the Saddam regime, the US had no
plan and failed to meet the aspiration of Iraqi people, thereby
indulging in violation of human rights. The Iraqi army was abruptly
disbanded without establishing security institutions. This security
vacuum brought about a sad situation of disappointment and growing
resistance utilized by Al-Qaeda and other extremists forces to
destabilize Iraq. Hostage taking and killing of foreign workers such as
killing of 12 Nepali workers further complicated and made Iraq a
dangerous place. This helped to recruit more terrorists around the world
including in Europe such as the train disaster in Spain. But this also
pays indirectly into the hands of US imperialists to manipulate
international media for its advantage. It was a “kingdom of fear”. Iraq
is a very rich country but its wealth was plundered by the dictator and
his family for his own interest. No one condones the US invasion, but
now it is the duty of the international community to assist the Iraqi
people to regain its sovereignty and elect its own government. It is by
building a strong solidarity movement that the fratricidal war in Iraq
could be ended and foreign forces be withdrawn and pave the way for
Iraqis to resolve their destiny. This was the message that came out of
the international meeting at Sharm El-Sheikh , the Egyptian city where
both groups who were for invasion and were against met to decide the
international assistance including implementation of the UN compromise
resolution to secure human rights, consolidate security and developing
institutions to bring normal life to Iraqi people.
In this connection we cannot
overcook the situation in the western province of Sudan which is called
Darfour. Owing to the sheer indifference, Darfour flared up to a
humanitarian tragedy and genocide. It took many months to compel the
Sudanese authorities to implement the UN resolution. Although African
Union forces are stationed in Darfour to protect the innocent people
living in refugee camps, still the situation does not permit to return
to their homes. As NGOs, we have to make to mobilize strong campaign
regarding the Darfour and other regions of Africa where human rights are
violated frequently.
Nuclear Weapons
Ever since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fifty years ago by the
US, the issue of banning nuclear weapons dominated the world agenda. Yet
despite the laborious work done by both the UN and the Non-Governmental
Organizations, the proliferation of nuclear weapons has accelerated
rather than diminished. The Unilateralism of Bush administration has
further damaged the disarmament process with repudiating the ABM treaty
and their attempts for a missile defense programme worldwide. The
nuclear danger continues to be wide spread. After India and Pakistan
became nuclear powers, now it has spread to Iran and North Korea apart
from undeclared nuclear programme of Israel. North Korea has been
continuing their nuclear programme for quite a long time. All this is a
result of the shortsighted vision of the United States foreign policy.
Countries like Iran and North Korea believe that the only deterrent to
US pre-emptive military strike against their countries is to pursue the
nuclear option. If nuclear weapons are to be eliminated, the nuclear
powers have to agree for a time limit to completely destroy the nuclear
arsenal that they process. This needs a strong people’s campaign
throughout the world.
Iran has openly declared that they are not
building nuclear weapons. IAEA has more or less accepted the Iranian
version. But the US insists its tactics of bringing the issue before the
Security Council for which other members are reluctant to accept. There
is also a possibility of nuclear development in South Korea and Japan.
As far for South Korea is concern IAEA is likely to examine the issue.
All these have come up owing to non-adherence to the NPT and allowing
countries like Israel to clandestinely develop their nuclear weaponry.
This definitely lead to proliferation of nuclear weapons. In addition
owing to the US policy, other deterrents like biological and chemical
weapons are likely to proliferate in many other areas.
Korean Peninsula
Korean Peninsula remains the last frontier of the remnant of cold war.
The country remains divided for last 50 years without a peace treaty.
After the discovery of the secret nuclear programme of South Korea, the
situation has been made more critical and complicated. While people of
both North and South are aspiring for peace and re-unification; if left
to themselves without outside interference, there could be a more chance
of resolving the ongoing standoff between the two parts including the
nuclear issue. There is no military solution to the issue including
re-unification. As such the international community need to encourage
the six party discussion for a peaceful solution to all aspects of the
Korean Peninsula.
As mentioned above NAM has stepped backward
with regard to the position of NGOs.
But NGOs in the NAM
countries should play a bigger role so that this could be changed. The
last NAM Summit in Kuala Lumpur had decided to reinvigorate the NAM when
it commemorates Bandung +50. AAPSO has a wide programme on Bandung +50.
To begin with Permanent secretariat is organizing an international
conference in March 2005 in Cairo. There will be another conference in
Colombo by our Sri Lanken National Committee and also a conference in
India organized by AIPSO.
We are delighted to
note the active role played by the Brazilian President Lula da Silva in
consolidating South-South cooperation, specially in socio-economic
development. Already President Lula has visited South Africa, India and
China and embark on a wide programme of activities in closer development
of trade and investment, President Lula’s declaration with UN Secretary
General Kofi Anan and French President Jacques Chiraque is salutary.
AAPSO is interested that we shall do whatever possible to consolidate
this movement and expect other NGOs to cooperate closely.
Today the UN is in
crisis specially owing to the unilateralism of US. Veterans like French
President has taken a correct position to protect and strengthen the UN.
It is for the interest of humankind to bring back the central role of UN
which we believe can protect the world.
As for AAPSO we have
another important task to mention here. Although Cairo is the center,
AAPSO’s strength will depend on the strength of national committees. We
have sent a circular regarding our own problems specially with regard to
finances. This should be taken into consideration when we proceed with
our activities. We hope our friends will understand this situation in
organizing more self-financing activities.
We hope this
conference will provide us many new ideas and believe can be effectively
used in our future work.
Thank you.
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