Bangladeshi PM Hasina: Strengthen NAM for lasting peace

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for a strong and effective Non-Aligned Movement (Nam), saying the 120-member alliance today needs to be a united, strong and effective body to ensure sustainable global peace and security. “The founding fathers of Nam envisaged a world order based on mutual respect, sovereign equality, justice and the rule of law. Now Nam needs to work together to realise the total commitment of our leaders to its principles,” she said this while addressing the main plenary of the 16th Nam Summit at OIC Convention Centre in Tehran.Nam leaders need to work with a reformed UN and other financial institutions for fair, democratic and balanced decisions at different levels of the world bodies, she noted. Nam needs to focus on justice in all spheres within and among its member states as injustice is the basic cause of global conflicts. Only justice can ensure peace and development, and “it can be achieved only through democracy and people’s empowerment”, she said.Calling upon Nam leaders to work with a reformed UN, she said in the sixties, Nam’s activities had centred on decolonisation and independence of nations. “But today, emphasis is on democracy, justice, freedom, human rights and climatic disorder.” “So, Nam needs to work with a reformed United Nations and international financial institutions on these vital issues,” she noted.The premier said Bangladesh stood firm on Nam’s demand for a sovereign, viable Palestine with Al-Quds Al Sharif as its capital, living in peace with its neighbours. Calling for resolving the Palestine and other similar burning issues through justice and democratic and socio-economic rights, she said blatant injustice, murder, torture and humiliation were being perpetuated by Israel on the Palestinian people.She also condemned Israel for preventing the five-member Nam Committee on Palestine from holding a scheduled ministerial meeting in Ramallah this month, and said it was a violation of international law by Israel. Hasina warmly congratulated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his assumption of the chair for the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement./129