March 22, 2002
Leaders of poor nations have warned their more affluent counterparts that if they want a world free of terrorism, they will need to pay for it.
Drawing a direct link between poverty and violence, leaders at a UN summit in Monterrey, Mexico, said increased aid to the world's neediest is more urgent than ever in the post-September 11 world."In the wake of September 11, we will forcefully demand that development, peace and security are inseparable," Han Seung-soo, president of the UN General Assembly, said. He said the world's poorest areas are "the breeding ground for violence and despair."
Cuban President Fidel Castro attacked rich nations for demanding that their poor counterparts meet conditions, such as fighting corruption, to receive aid."You can't blame this tragedy on the poor countries. It wasn't they who conquered and looted entire continents for centuries, nor did they establish colonialism, nor did they reintroduce slavery, nor did they create modern imperialism," he said. "They were its victims."
Mr Castro left the conference shortly after his speech - and hours before the arrival of US President George W Bush - citing "a special situation created by my participation in this summit."He didn't elaborate, but Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, later said that Mr Castro left because of "a situation that for a self-respecting country like Cuba, was unacceptable".
"In the final analysis it is a problem with the United States," Mr Alarcon said."That doesn't mean that someone from the United States talked to us or asked us to do something."
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, speaking just hours after a car bomb killed nine people in his country's capital, also linked poverty to violence."To speak of development is to speak also of a strong and determined fight against terrorism," he said before returning home.
President Bush is due to address the summit later, before the leaders - some 50 in all - approve a consensus that urges rich nations to increase development aid and poor nations to use the funds more efficiently.While both the US and Europe have promised billions of dollars more in aid in coming years, their pledges fall far short of the $100 billion a year the UN has said is needed to cut poverty in half by 2015.
"We live in one world, not two," said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "No one in this world can feel comfortable, or safe, while so many are suffering and deprived."Anti-globalization protesters, who have held small marches throughout the week, held their largest demonstration on Thursday.
About 2000 protesters massed in front of a police barricade a few blocks from the conference, where they burned an Uncle Sam effigy and hurled dead goats, which they said died from toxic waste from a nearby factory, over the barricades.
"Poverty in all its forms is the greatest single threat to peace, democracy, human rights and the environment," World Trade Organisation Director-General Mike Moore said."It is a time-bomb against the heart of liberty. But it can be conquered and we have the tools in our hands to do so, if only we have the courage and focus to make proper use of them."
More Information on the "War on Terrorism"
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