Durban: Fidel Speaks at Closing NGO Forum Session Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - AIN 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." ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-09.01.01-21:30:01-7521