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Mandela opens NAM summit with focus on Kashmir

The two-day Non-Aligned summit began in Durban today with the chairperson Nelson Mandela stating that the Kashmir issue, which remains a ''concern for all of us'' be resolved through peaceful negotiations.

He said NAM will extend full support for the resolution of the contentious issue.

This is the first time that the Kashmir issue has been highlighted at any NAM summit.

Inaugurating the summit, Mandela said NAM would extend all strength that it has in settling the Kashmir issue.

The summit is being attended by a galaxy of world leaders including Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Cuban President Fidel Castro and United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan.

''NAM will ensure that we achieve the actual movement on the issue of global disarmament,'' Mandela said while expressing serious concern over the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Mandela, however, chose to ignore the nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan in May in his speech.

He said huge arsenals of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, which remain with a few countries in the world pose a frightening threat to the humanity.

''The critical question of nuclear disarmament would remain high on our list of priorities,'' he said.

The summit appears to be divided on many issues, including nuclear disarmament, besides various political issues especially the crisis in Congo and US missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan.

The absence of many heads of states and governments including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia, besides all the Gulf rulers, has somewhat dampened the spirit of the Durban summit.

Mandela flayed the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka.

NAM, he said, was seized of the important question of the restructuring of the United Nations and would do everything to speed up the resolution of this question, ensuring that the restructured organisation was reflective of and responsive to the interests of the larger world which the movement represented.

UNI

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