The Kathmandu Declaration

The Kathmandu Declaration

World Peace Council

Friday, 12 March 2010

http://www.wpc-in.org/,  info@wpc-in.org , wpc@otenet.gr  


Kathmandu Declaration of the Asian Peace Conference

Kathmandu, 20-21 February 2010

1. The Asian Peace Conference jointly organized by Nepal Peace and Solidarity Council and World Peace Council was held in Kathmandu on 20-21 February 2010. 64 delegates from twenty countries attended this meeting.

2.   On the occasion of this conference a public meeting was held on 20th February. The Conference was inaugurated by H.E. Madhav Kumar Nepal, Prime Minister of Nepal. It was also addressed by the President of WPC Mrs. Socorro Gomes and prominent personalities from Nepal.

3. The conference expressed deep concern over the continuing deterioration in international situation in general and particular in Asia-Pacific region. This complex and dangerous situation in different parts of the world is due the aggressive policies of imperialism led by USA aimed at achieving world domination by intensifying arms race, especially nuclear arm race, prolonging military conflicts and aggressive wars and expanding military bases in different parts of the world, thus endangering peace and security of the peoples throughout the world.

4. The Asia-Pacific has remained one of the explosive areas of the world, a springboard of military provocation and armed conflicts as well as of arms build-up and interference that have seriously threatened peace and security in Asia and the world. The present developments in this region have proved that the US and the NATO having more common imperialist strategies for Asia-Pacific Region. They are pursuing to establish new political-military groupings in order to extend the sphere of military activities covering the whole area of Asia and the Pacific. The growing US military presence in Korean Peninsula, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, the US-Israeli strategic alliance, and the growing military cooperation with reactionary regimes in the Gulf poses a serious threat to peace, stability and security in the region.

5. The ongoing US and NATO military intervention in Afghanistan is a deliberate attempt to seize cross-roads of South, Central and Western Asia. It continues to occupy Iraq and threatens Iran with an eye on their oil. Its major ally Israel shamelessly and cruelly is making life miserable for the people of Palestine with the ongoing occupation of its lands. Such policies are strengthening the forces of religious fundamentalism and terrorism in this region particularly in South Asia.

6. While US and NATO are trying to increase its influence the emerging developments in Asia-Pacific region are the quest for better understanding and cooperation among the nations within the context of universal cooperation strengthening democratic values on the basis that all peoples are free to choose the social regime they want.

7. Within this context different regional groups are coming up in this region with specific objectives. One of them is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It is the organisation which becomes an important stability factors for vast Eurasian continent. This organisation in last five years has rapidly increased its influence and has evolved a powerful mechanism for multilateral cooperation in many important fields and finds its important place in defining the global politics.

8. The conference denounces the growing US military presence in the Korean peninsula and demands that the Armistice Agreement of 1953 should be replaced with a compressive peace agreement.

9. The conference expresses its solidarity with the people of Palestine in their struggle for an independent state within the borders of 1967 and with East Jerusalem as its capital and support the unity of Palestinian people and its territories and right to return of all Palestinian refuges on the basis of UN resolution 194. The conference also demands that Israel should be punished for its war crimes in Gaza as founded by Goldstone Report.

10. The conference also demands that Israel must withdrew from all occupied Arab Lands including Al Golan and Shebaa Farms of Lebanon. The conference supports the right of the people to resist against the occupation.

11. The conference expresses solidarity with Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange in their struggle for justice and calls upon the US government to continue to accept their responsibility in addressing the war legacy in Vietnam, including the consequences of the use of toxic chemicals. The conference also calls upon peace-loving people all over the world for further assistance, support and solidarity with the victims of Agent Orange. The conference also demands that the use of white phosphorus and other chemical and biological weapons should be banned.

12. The conference supports the demands of the WPC for the complete abolition of all Nuclear Weapons, the right of each nation for the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

13. The conference expresses its solidarity with the people of Nepal and hope that it will carry forward the peace process and finalization of the new constitution within the stipulated time to meet the aspiration of the Nepalese people thus open the new era for peace and progress in Nepal.

14. The conference supports the struggles of the people of Burma for the restoration of democracy and for the release of all political prisoners.

15. While the Conference took note of the political developments in the region, it calls upon the peace loving democratic people of this region to strengthen the movement against the policies of imperialist globalization and war and to build Asia-Pacific region a region of peace, stability, democracy, human rights, justice, equality and developments as well as get rid of foreign bases, occupation, terrorism, religious fundamentalism and nuclear weapons of all kinds.