NEW DELHI, India-The Non ‘Aligned Movement decided Friday to send a delegation of foreign ministers to Tripoli to show support for Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, sources at the organization’s ministerial conference said.
The source said the decision was made during a closed meeting, Of the political committee that is trying to draft a resolution to be issued Saturday at the end of the four-day session of non-aligned foreign ministers.
They said the composition of the delegation and its date of departure for the Libyan capital ‘would be decided at a meeting of the panel that was scheduled to be held Friday night at the closely guarded Vigyan Bhavan conference center.
Libya is 2 member of the 101 nation movement, whose members profess to be independent of the Soviet Union and the United States. ‘The delegation, the sources said, would personally convey to Khadaly a message of support from the organization, Non-aligned foreign ministers held an emergency session Tuesday to condemn the U.S bombing raids earlier that day on Tripoli and the port city of Benghazi.
The ministers called the strikes which Washington said were in retaliation for Libyan involvement in terrorist’s attacks on Americans a violation of international law.
The committee is to include in the final conference declaration the inaugural speech Wednesday by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the organization’s current chairman, condemning the raids.
In other developments, the committee was unable to thrash out a statement for inclusion in the resolution on the six-year-old war between movement members Iran and Iraq, a conference spokesman said.
He said the issue would be considered by the plenary session Saturday.
Meanwhile, Diego Cordover, a special representative of U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, sought to lay the ground work for the next round of negotiations between Afghanistan and Pakistan on ending the 6-year-old ‘Afghan civil war.
Cordovez met Friday afternoon with Afghan Foreign Minister Shah Mohammad Dost and was to meet in the evening with Pakistani Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yuqub Khan, said U.N. spokesman Bhaichand Patel,
Patel said Cordovez was transmitting to both a draft document aimed at meeting Islamabad’s demand for a withdrawal of Soviet occupation troops from Afghanistan and Kabul’s insistence on a pledge of non-interference in its affairs by outside powers.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 25, 1986