Castro attacks West's 'exploitative' policies

By Hasan Suroor

HAVANA, APRIL 13. Much to the relief of Indian diplomats, Pakistan eventually opted for restraint with Gen. Pervez Musharraf in his speech at the G-77 summit here carefully avoiding any reference to contentious bilateral issues. After the Human Resource Development Minister, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi's sharp reference yesterday to ``state- sponsored cross-border terrorism'', Pakistan was widely expected to return the compliment.

Gen. Musharraf did make the point that the G-77 fraternity had certain bilateral problems which must be settled through a dialogue so that they could get on with the job of governance, but that was about it. Even after allowing for between-the-lines nuances his tone was one of cultivated reasonableness. Observers here were inclined to read a pattern into this and the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdus Sattar's goody-goody speech at the NAM Foreign Ministers' conference in Cartagena, Colombia last week. India, on the other hand, has been more aggressively business-like on both occasions.

India has a formulation on democracy which Pakistan might have difficulties with, while Pakistan's insistence on focussing on human rights clearly has more to it, from the Indian point of view, than meets the eye.

A highlight of the summit was the Cuban President, Dr. Fidel Castro's speech mercilessly attacking the rich countries for their ``exploitative'' policies vis-a-vis the third world, particularly singling out the U.S. as the villain of the piece. Dr. Joshi, with his strong belief in ``swadeshi'', must have quietly applauded Dr. Castro when he warned against indiscriminate globalisation and ``free'' trade. ``In the hands of the rich countries, world trade is already an instrument of domination which under neo-liberal globalisation will become an increasingly useful element to perpetuate and sharpen inequalities...''

It was vintage Castro: an explosive mix of passion and cold analysis. He reeled off figures to show how the new world economic and political order was hurting the third world, and would hurt more if they did not tread cautiously.

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