Key NAM issues all but forgotten as Iraq, N Korea dominate summit
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), whose summit has been dominated by the Iraq and North Korean crises, pledged steps to help billions of the world's poor as it wrapped up a summit here yesterday.
NAM, a Cold War remnant which has been struggling for relevance since the decline of the Eastern bloc, placed major emphasis on the developing world's race to keep pace with globalisation in its final declaration.
"The rich and powerful countries exercise an inordinate influence in determining the nature and direction of international relations, as well as the rules governing these relations, many of which are at the expense of the developing countries," said the declaration.
"Globalisation ... perpetuates or even increases the marginalisation of the developing countries," it added.
"We must ensure that globalisation will be a positive force for change for all peoples and will benefit the largest number of countries and not just a few."
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), whose summit has been dominated by the Iraq and North Korean crises, pledged steps to help billions of the world's poor as it wrapped up a summit here yesterday.
NAM, a Cold War remnant which has been struggling for relevance since the decline of the Eastern bloc, placed major emphasis on the developing world's race to keep pace with globalisation in its final declaration.
"The rich and powerful countries exercise an inordinate influence in determining the nature and direction of international relations, as well as the rules governing these relations, many of which are at the expense of the developing countries," said the declaration.
"Globalisation ... perpetuates or even increases the marginalisation of the developing countries," it added.
"We must ensure that globalisation will be a positive force for change for all peoples and will benefit the largest number of countries and not just a few."
Blaming the wealth gap
The rich-poor divide was of core importance to the summit of 116 nations, mainly developing states from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America who rarely have a chance to air their views on the world stage.
Speaker after speaker to the body of 116 nations denounced the northern hemisphere's dominance of world trade and global affairs.
But the core issues largely went unreported with world attention fixed firmly on the Iraqi crisis and North Korea's weapons drive.
Host Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad blamed the global wealth gap for the rise in international terrorism.
"The fact is that the poor countries have been and are being oppressed and terrorised by the rich countries," Mahathir told the conference on Monday.
"Naturally the poor are bitter and angry and have lost faith in justice and honour. And the last straw which caused them to resort to futile and destructive terror acts is the blatant support for state terrorism as practised by Israel and others."
Neo-colonialism issue
The summit was also punctuated with attacks on colonialism and "neo-colonialism", another key issue for the body, many of whose members have experienced foreign rule.
"Colonialism now assumes a varied form, and seeks to garner all of us of the Third World as we get globally villagised under false economic pretences," Robert Mugabe raged on Tuesday, echoing the feelings of many of the delegates.
"We are cheated to believe that we shall all be equals in that village, but are denied to assume the military strength as that of the western and more highly developed states."
The NAM declaration will propose to help its countries -- accounting for more than half of the world's population -- by presenting a unified message on world affairs and reviewing its structure and methodology.
It will also propose improving the regular meetings of foreign ministers, getting its committees together more often and, despite strident criticism of the West throughout the summit, close cooperation with the Group of Eight major industrialised nations. AFP
