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From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 21:31:14 -0400 (EDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [CubaNews] Durban: Fidel Speaks at Closing NGO Forum Session
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
source - AIN <www.ain.cubaweb.cu>
DURBAN: FIDEL SPEAKS AT CLOSING SESSION OF NGO FORUM
Durban, September 1 (AIN)--President Fidel Castro spoke Saturday at
the closing event of the NGO forum at the World Conference against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobe and other linked ways of Intolerance.
Fidel referred to themes included in the wide agenda of this
meeting that began on August 28, with a final document handed over in
this meeting at the Cricket Stadium in the South African city. [See Reuters
coverage, below on the NGO declaration. Israelis claim to be "shocked" by
it.--NY Transfer]
From yesterday's slavery, the plundering of today, and the results of
centuries of Colonialism and Exploitation, Fidel referred to thousands of
participants at the ONG�s Forum and about present matters, as the situation
of the Middle East.
He strongly criticized the countries that boycotted the III World Conference
against Racism, called in 1997 by the General Assembly of the United Nations
Organization.
"Representatives of noble causes will always find a place to gather," he
said, in remarks that referred to the anti-globalization protests being
witnessed worldwide recently.
Between applause, Fidel said that during 10 years, a meeting of this
nature could not be imagined, with representative of more than a hundred
NGOs from all over the world and in a free South Africa at the end of
apartheid, last bastion of a system of Racism and Fascism.
More than a speech, his comments were his reflections about the world of
today, the
economic and financial situation at an international level, supported by
neoliberal globalization, the evils being suffered by humanity and the
dangers still greater in the future.
He also referred to the efforts of Cuba for a better life for all citizens,
and effort aimed at the younger generation. He quoted from the Cuban program
for widespread computer literacy from an early age.
*
Saturday September 1 6:54 PM ET (via Reuters)
UPDATE-1-NGO Declaration at UN Race Meet Slams Israel
DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - Thousands of non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), meeting on the margin of a United Nations conference against racism,
condemned Israel early on Sunday as a "racist apartheid state."
In a final declaration, the NGO Forum accused the Jewish state of
"systematic perpetration of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of
genocide and ethnic cleansing."
The declaration, adopted after voting by 3,000 NGOs in 44 regional caucuses,
shocked Jewish groups. Western diplomats said it further soured the mood at
the World Conference Against Racism attended by 153 government delegations
in Durban, South Africa.
The Israeli government delegation to the U.N. conference blasted the NGO
resolution as an incitement to hatred of Jews. "The decision of the
conference of the NGOs adopted this morning is outright incitement, whose
only purpose is to delegitimize the Jewish state and its people," delegation
spokesman Noam Katz told Reuters.
"(It) adds fuel to the attempts that are being made to demonize Israel," he
added.
The United States has sent only a low-level delegation to the United
Nations-organized conference against racism in Durban in protest against
anti-Israeli language in draft texts.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Saturday that rows over Israel,
which Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat branded racist for its treatment of
Palestinians in the occupied territories, could sink the conference.
A lawyer with the Association of Palestine NGO, Tawfiq Jabareen, said: "We
want the governmental conference to adopt these documents. The Palestinian
people have a right to self-determination."
The NGO program for action -- intended to complement the actions to combat
racism being debated by the U.N. conference -- called for an international
war crimes tribunal for Israelis as well as international sanctions against
Israel.
Helen Pollock, of the Board of Deputies for British Jews, condemned the NGO
move. "To equate Zionism with racism is clearly anti-Semitic."
The NGO Forum resolution said Israel was "a racist apartheid state in which
Israel's brand of apartheid as a crime against humanity has been
characterized by separation and segregation...and inhumane acts."
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