Padan.org - Le lingue, i loro dialetti e l'identità della Padania - MALAYSIA: SELF DETERMINATION A HUMAN RIGHT SAYS NON ALIGNED MOVEMENT

Putrajaya - Senior representatives of 114-member Non-Aligned Movement on Sunday upheld the principle of right to self determination drawing a line between terrorism and the movements for right to self determination. In a draft declaration - to be presented to NAM foreign ministers' meeting Monday - the NAM declated that any struggle for right to self determination cannot be equated with terrorism.

The senior officials finalised its recommendation for the draft declaration - which must be approved by foreign ministers before being adopted at the NAM Summit scheduled for September this year in Cuba.

The meeting also recommended incorporating in the draft document that no religion and culture can be equated with terrorism and the counter terrorism measures should not be used as a pretext to target any particular religion. Spokesperson of Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tasnim Aslam told APP that the committee on political affairs discussed this subject in detail and observed that struggle for right to self-determination cannot be equated to terrorism.

"Self-determination is considered to be a noble principle of NAM," Tasnim said referring to the meeting's finding and added, people under alien domination, colonial rule and under foreign occupation have the right to struggle for right to self determination. "And such a struggle is distinctive from terrorism and cannot be equated with terrorism," she said referring to the observations of the Committee. "No religion and culture can also be equated with terrorism and counter terrorism measures should not be used as a pretext to target any particular religion," she said.

Right to self-determination is very important in the NAM context as the Movement reveres this principle much for the reason that most of the NAM member countries won freedom from colonial or alien rule through this principle. A total of 114 countries belong to the NAM, including Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, Indonesia, and Yemen. The movement was created in the mid 1950s when the world's "non-aligned" nations declared their desire not to become involved in the East-West ideological confrontation of the Cold War.

Besides Yugoslav leader Marshall Tito and India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Sukarno of Indonesia were also among the driving forces in the movement. However since the fall of the Berlin Wall, NAM has struggled to be relevant in a fragmented global scenario.

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