’’Non-alignment" At Lusaka

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32395, 7 September 1970, Page 12

’’Non-alignment" At Lusaka

When President Tito set out last January on an African tour in search of support for a conference of “non-aligned” nations he seemed to have little prospect of winning substantial approval from the 70-odd States which, potentially, qualify for participation. It is a tribute to his tenacity, and to the work of a number of African leaders such as President Nyerere of Tanzania and the host for the conference, President Kaunda of Zambia, that the meeting will open in Lusaka tomorrow. African States will probably be in the majority; and African issues, particularly the “ liberation ” of southern Africa, are likely to take up most of the conference time. It is no coincidence that the meeting is being held in Zambia, the “ front line ” in Black Africa’s struggle against Rhodesia, South Africa, and the Portuguese colonies; nor is it a coincidence that the Organisation of African Unity, representing 44 independent African States, last week met to condemn arms sales to South Africa by Britain, France, and West Germany. But the Africans may not find that they have the exclusive use of the conference as an exercise ring for their hobby-horses. Arab leaders hope to use the occasion to drum up support against Israel and the United States; Asian delegates, particularly, may have some objections to the composition of the conference. “Non-alignment” is a flexible term; it tends to mean something different for almost every political leader. Two Cambodian delegations are likely to be on hand, one from Phnom Penh, the other from Prince Sihanouk in exile in Peking. The decision on whether to admit the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front has been postponed until the conference is in session. China’s status has also still to be determined. Quarrels about delegates and procedures might yet prevent the conference from taking place at all; the presence of some delegations must make nonsense of any claim to genuine “ non- “ alignment It would be unfortunate if the conference failed to take place. Notwithstanding the rhetoric of “ non- “ alignment ” preached by some national leaders, the conference could serve a useful purpose. There is no suggestion that the States attending constitute a viable “ third force ” in world affairs, able to interpose between the two power blocs. The dreams of the first conferences in 1961 and 1964, and of the Bandung conference in 1955, have passed, along with some of the would-be leaders of a “ third world ” such as Sukarno, Nkrumah, and Nehru, who sponsored them. But President Nyerere, speaking at a preparatory meeting last April, indicated where the conference could still be important; “The real and “ urgent threat to the independence of almost all “ the non-aligned States comes not from the military, “ but from the economic power of the big States ”, he said. “ It is poverty which constitutes our greatest “ danger, and to a greater or lesser extent we are “all poor”.

The “non-aligned” States could assist each other in preserving independence from the economic encroachments of the Great Powers. Although President Nyerere’s statement has something of a hollow ring in view of Tanzania’s recent lop-sided agreement with China to build the “Tan- “ Zam ” railway from Lusaka to the Indian Ocean, the point he made, for most countries attending the conference, remains valid. The meeting in Lusaka is also an opportunity for an informal exchange of ideas between many States which normally have little contact It has been timed to take place before the twenty-fifth session of the United Nations opens in the hope that the poorer States can thrash out a common policy in approaching the world body, and its more wealthy members, for more technical and financial help. At the beginning of what the United Nations has decreed to be the “ development “decade”, such a unity of purpose would be a promising sign.