MANILA, March 14 (NNN-PNA) — Top foreign ministry officials of foreign governments participating in a special thematic meeting of the 49-year-old Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) began arriving in Manila today, including no less than the President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Libya?s Ali Abdulssalam Treki.

President of the 64th Session of the UNGA, Treki is a name familiar to Filipinos in that as Libya?s minister for the African Union, he helped rally the latter?s members to the cause of the Mindanao peace process as well as push for Manila?s observer-status membership in the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

NAM, an alliance of developing nations formerly labeled as the Third World, is intertwined with the OIC, League of Arab States, African Union, and G77. All 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are full members of NAM. One of its 10 major agenda thrusts is disarmament as a confidence-building measure for peace.

The representatives of Oman, Uzbekistan, Eritrea, Kenya, Lesotho and Australia are also scheduled to arrive today.

Oman?s Secretary-General of the Sultan Qaboos Center for Islamic Culture, Dr. Habeeb Bin Muhammad Al-Riyami, who holds the rank of Deputy Minister in his government, is also due to arrive with Specialist in Planning and Research, Muhammad Bin Amer Bin Said Al Sheidani. One of them will be directly involved in discussions on March 16 of civil society organizations pushing for interfaith initiatives and dialogues?a major adjunct activity of the three-day Special NAM Ministerial Meeting (SNAMMM).

Australia, which is neither a member nor observer of NAM, is an invited guest and will be represented by its ambassador to the Vatican, Tim Fischer.

Two non-resident ambassadors to the Philippines and are both based in Beijing, Alisher Salakhitdinov of Uzbekistan and Tseggay Tesfazion of Eritrea, are also due to arrive.

The Kingdom of Lesotho is represented by a three-person delegation consisting of Tebello Metsing, Principal Secretary, the Foreign Ministry and International Relations; Motlatsi Ramafole, ambassador to the United Nations, and Ms. Khopotso Lehohia, First Secretary at its embassy in Tokyo

Kenya?s Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Richard Momoima Onyonka, is also due.

Among Monday?s (March 15) expected arrivals is the OIC?s three-man delegation, headed by its Assistant Secretary-General, Abdullah A. Alim. The OIC is also a major participant in the Mindanao peace process.

SNAMMM is the first-ever gathering of mostly Islamic and Muslim nations on the issue of interfaith initiatives and dialogues for peace and development that the Philippines hosted. It comes at a time in the Philippines, described by ambassador the United Nations, Hilario Davide Jr., as ?a critical point? when all avenues for a comprehensive peace in Mindanao are explored by the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

It was at the 15th Nam Summit in Egypt, which President Arroyo attended, where it was declared that the SNAMMM on interfaith initiatives be held in Manila by the chairman, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

While a Christian-majority State, the Philippines is a model for its unflagging search for peace and mutual development with its significant Muslim population through dialogues and respect of faith and religion, culture and diversity and has been hailed as such in NAM/OIC meetings.

?Thus the choice of Manila to host this year?s thematic conference,? said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Special Concerns, Rafael Seguis of the Philippines.

Among such concerns are the Mindanao peace process and the working conditions and future of Filipino workers in the Middle East.

At the recent workshop in Manila for the Review Conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT), Ambassador Libran Cabactulan?who will preside the RevCon in May in New York?reiterated that it is a strong position of the Philippines that the Middle East be declared by the United Nations as ?nuclear-free zone,? partly due to the immense number in the region of Filipino residents, many of them Muslims from Mindanao, estimated at 8 million

Davide said in a television interview over the weekend that the Ministerial Meeting of NAM and NNPT projects are in tandem with the Philippine Government?s efforts to attain peace and stability and inculcate deeper respect and understanding among all Filipinos despite the diversity of their faith, religion and culture.

Since it is only at the U.N. where they can most gather, envoys of NAM States to the United Nations, including Davide, use their U.N. time to discuss their mutual concerns such as peacekeeping in the Middle East, disarmament, migration labor, financial, fiscal and debt programs, reforms in the U.N. system, and cultural diversity.

Davide?s team at the Philippine Mission in New York, led by his Deputy Carlos Sorreta and Minister Elmer Cato, worked the backstage for SNAMMM to be eventually brought to Manila. — NNN-PNA

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