Reportage on Nonaligned Movement Summit in Cartegena
Castro Addresses Summit
[FBIS Translated Text] ...later, there are the Security Council meetings, where the main sellers of weapons are the permanent members who will bring about peace on behalf of the United Nations. Could it be perhaps that the end of the Cold War has come to mean that the huge amount of resources destined for the arms race are being used for more noble purposes?
The U.S. Congress approves military budgets that are higher than those proposed by the U.S. Government. What are these weapons for? Could it be that the emergence of a unipolar world has accentuated hegemonic tendencies, which some are trying to impose on the United Nations? There is an attempt to impose the will of this hegemonic power on the Security Council and use it as an instrument to enslave the world.
That policy is more worrisome and even dangerous when it is implemented according to the stands of the ultrarightist sectors, which seem to be winning political ground in the United States. That is how fanatic dreams arose in Nazi Germany to impose its control on the world, with the exception that Hitler did not have such huge power.
In the face of this danger and other evils that threaten us, it is our duty to struggle with determination to democratize the United Nations. The General Assembly should occupy the position that corresponds to it; the Security Council should stop usurping the Assembly's functions and acting behind its back. The privilege of being a permanent member should not be almost exclusive to European countries, nuclear powers, or super rich nations.
We must not hesitate; let us struggle with determination so that two permanent seats are granted in an expanded Security Council to Latin America, two to Africa -- which does not have any -- and two more seats to Asia, where 60 percent of the world population lives. The irritating veto privilege -- if that anachronistic and antidemocratic instrument is to continue to exist -- should at least be reformed. It is absurd that one single country of the few who enjoy those seats can cancel out the will and even the decisions of all the other countries that make up the United Nations.
United, we are strong. United, our voice will be heard. United, we have to be taken into consideration. We are not mere spectators. This world is also our world. Nobody can replace our united action. Nobody will speak for us. Only we, and only if we are united, can reject the unjust world political and economic order that some are trying to impose on our people. Our demands today will not be granted at a whim. It will not be the concessions granted to those who exploit us, or the weakness of the cowards, or to stop struggling for our most sacred and legitimate rights that will take us to victory. Only loyalty to the principles that gave birth to our movement, firmness in our convictions, and our joint decisions and actions will lead us to conquer the future that our people deserve. Thank you very much.
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