PAUL EJIME, Durban | Sunday 7.00PM.
POLITICAL and security issues, including the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo and global disarmament, especially the situation in Asia, have so far dominated the preparatory meeting of the 12th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Durban.
The ambassadors’ and senior officials’ meeting, which was opened early on Saturday by South African Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo, is to be followed by the conference of foreign ministers ahead of the 12th summit of the organisation which opens on Wednesday.
Delegates told reporters that the crisis in DRC, where President Laurent Kabila is facing a rebellion that has grown to regional proportions, is high on the agenda, with South Africa trying to broker peace. Kabila himself is not in Durban, having sent his foreign minister, Jean-Charles Okato Lolabombe, in his place.
NAM is known to be strictly opposed to nuclear proliferation and the situation in Asia involving nuclear tests by India and Pakistan is also engaging the attention meeting, according to summit spokesman Adul Minty of the South African foreign ministry.
Terrorism is also high on the agenda, with a final declaration expected to feature NAM’s usual condemnation.
In this regard, delegates consider the latest statement by the United States and Britain agreeing to the trial in a neutral country of Libyan suspects accused of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in Scotland as a great relief to NAM member Libya, which has been under United Nations sanctions since 1992 over the bombing.
On the economic front, the implications of globalisation and the problems arising from currency trading are being discussed with South Africa. The viability of establishing a “global central bank” is one of a number of proposals under consideration.
Meanwhile the meeting has elected 21 countries, including eight from Africa, to an Executive Bureau to co-ordinate the affairs of the body for the next three years.
Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Morocco, Nigeria South Africa and Sudan represent Africa, while Asia is represented by Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Syria and Vietnam. Europe has Cyprus and Malta, while Peru, Surinam and Colombia represent Latin America and the Caribbean, whose other members were yet to be named.