KARACHI, 26 March 2006 — More than 15,000 activists gathered late Friday to open the World Social Forum (WSF), where anti-globalization and peace and security issues will be discussed over the next six days.
Delegates from 50 countries attended the opening session chaired by Indian Member of Parliament Kumari Nirmala Deshpande and watched a cultural show by Pakistani performers, organizers said.
“We want peace and justice in the world, we are against war,” Brazilian delegate, Moema Miranda, told the gathering.“We can achieve this by uniting ourselves and the World Social Forum must move on,” she added.
The WSF was established in 2001 as a counterpoint to Switzerland’s World Economic Forum of political and business leaders. Delegates accused the United States of creating Osama Bin Laden and his terror icon Al-Qaeda.
At a WSF workshop on “Bin Laden Constructing New Politics of Terror,” speakers described the Saudi-born terrorist as “a symbol of evil in the world politics.”
“Al-Qaeda and Osama are the creation of the US and its Central Investigation Agency (CIA)” to suit their hegemonic designs, Sehba Khattak, a leading Pakistani human rights activist from North Western Frontier Province said. She alleged that Osama was created as part of a US global policy to have “elements of instability on the world map” that could allow US involvement in regional affairs.
Pakistan’s first WSF meeting is being held under tight security after the latest in a series of suicide blasts in this volatile southern city killed a US diplomat and four other people this month.
“It’s good that despite the blast a lot of foreign delegates are attending the meeting,” chief organizer Karmat Ali said.
Delegates will hold discussions on issues ranging from immigration to land and water rights, women’s issues, militarism and subsidized cotton. “Nuclear weapons and politics of oil are other topics to be discussed by the Forum,” Ali said.
British MP Jeremy Corbyn, who is also vice-president of anti-war coalition, Palestinian activist Jamal Jumma and London-based political writer and novelist Tariq Ali were also to speak in the forum.
