Non-aligned summit meets in Sri Lanka

Press, 22 July 1976, Page 16

Non-aligned summit meets in Sri Lanka

Bv

LUCIEN RAJAKARUNA

in Colombo

Sri Lanka has seldom seen so much activity. Miles of road are being widened and extended. Long-neglected public buildings in Colombo city are getting a face-lift after more than a decade. Streets and bridges are suddenly bright with lights. Avenues are being lined with quick-flowering plants. Colombo is putting on ts best look: and all this for the fifth “Non-Aligned”" summit conference which will take place next month.

School children are writing compositions about countries they heard of for the first time only yesterday. Special books are being produce 4 about the “NonAligned” movement. Policemen are learning French, and people with even a smattering of French, Spanish or Arabic are hopeful of earning good money as interpreters during the three weeks of the summit meeting.

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister (Mrs Bandaranaike) is determined to make the summit a success, in spite of Sri Lanka s lack of experience in handling such conventions. The country faces the summit with two advantages — its own professed neutrality in foreign affairs, and a recently built, modern convention building in Colombo.

Among the many nations represented, Sri Lanka claimed a special position for hs refusal to be associated w;th any of the Power blocs. It has kept clear of defence agreements and naval pacts. It acted independentlv, and before all other States, in recognising the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam and was the first to suspend diplomatic ties with Israel, a fashionable test of “non-alignment”.

Srtict neutrality has been professed in Sri Lanka’s for-

eign policy from the time the present Premier’s late husband began charting a policy independent of Britain in 1956. The summit will take place at the huge, modern Bandaranaike Memorial Convention building, built on a 38-acre golf course in Colombo.

The 35.4 million building, which can accommodate up to 2000 delegates, with facilities for journalists and simultaneous translation into

seven languages, was given to Sri Lanka by the People’s Republic of China, in memory of Solomon Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister’s assassinated husband who, with Nehru, Nasser, Sukarno and Tito, was a founder of the “NonAligned” movement.

The biggest voices in the movement are Marshal Tito, who is g’ving every help to the Colombo summit, Mrs Gandhi, and Mrs Bandaranaike, who insists her one desire is to walk the political path of her husband.

Delegations from nearly 90 countires are expected including Fidel Castro, Muammar Gadaffi, Idi Amin, and Agostinho Neto. There will also be delegations from Vietnam and Cambodia and the Palestine terrorists.

New hotels are fast being built and existing ones extended. With accommodation and security in view the Government has already announced that no tourists will be allowed into the country for one month from July 25 to August 25. From June visas were required by all foreigners entering Sri Lanka.

Some tourists who have come without visas have already been turned away. All foreign visitors will have to leave Sri Lanka by the end of July and no visa extensions will be allowed.

All hotels in the coastal belt extending 30 miles north of Colombo and 38 miles south of the city have been set apart for summit delegates, their staff and the hundreds of press and media representatives expected. Special flats are being built close to the convention centre and villas are being set apart for some of the delegations. The Sri Lanka Police and Armed Services are being given special training in the huge security operation. While Sri Lanka is shoul-

dering the main burden of expense, it is also being helped by several other countries. 'Handsome contributions have been received from India and Cuba, and the oil-rich States of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya and Algeria. A whole fleet of vehicles — costing nearly 35.4 million has been imported to serve the needs of the summit.

Wines, spirits and special foods are being imported to suit the varying tastes of delegations; special cultural shows are being lined up and tour packages offered to

the island’s beach resorts, national parks and ancient cities.

With all the excitement about the physical arrangements, little is known about the actual conference agenda. One item is bound to get top billing — Mrs Bandaranaike’s proposal to declare the Indian Ocean region as a “nuclear-free zone of peace.” Among other proposals to come up for discussion will be the need for a “NonAligned News Agency,” a permanent secretariat for the “Non-Aligned" move-

ment; the problems of southern Africa, the Middle Eastern situation and the need for greater economic cooperation between the countries of the Third World. The first proposal about the Indian Ocean region will find easy passage, and agreement is likely on a news agency and a permanent secretariat- However, little else could be expected from the Colombo summit apart from a multiplicity of resolutions, especially on the need for greater co-operation in economic activity. — O.F.N.S. Copyright.