The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Colombo

The pre-SAARC South Asian People's Assembly opened here on Friday with a call for making the regional bloc a real 'people's union' to promote closer trade and socio- economic integration among the people of the region.

It also laid stress on more democratisation of the society, saying the establishment of the people's rights in South Asia requires unhindered democracy which is facing impediments in many countries of the region.

The people's assembly has been arranged by various civil society organisations from the SAARC member states prior to the 15th SAARC Summit on August 2-3 to call on the leadership to move the region towards more socio-economic integration to ultimately end up in an economic union.

Participants from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Afghanistan, besides host country Sri Lanka spoke in the inaugural function of the event held in the New Town Hall in the city.

They said despite the fact that SAARC came into being three decades ago the people-to- people gap is only increasing, not diminishing. They said the people of South Asia dream of a union and leaders must work towards that direction.

Some speakers stressed the ultimate aim of creating a regional supra national entity.

About 500 representatives of various NGOs are taking part in the three-day event. It will focus on issues like food security, democracy and governance, nation state and its challenges, climate change and ecological justice, WTO and South Asia and conflicts management.

It is being held by SAPA or South Asian People's Assembly secretariat.

About a dozen civil society organisations are participating in the event from Bangladesh including Equity and Justice working group.

Senator Iqbal Haider of Pakistan said, "a 'supra national entity' may breed confusion, we must have the clear idea of creating an economic union, not a political union."

He said SAARC is the only unfortunate region which has not opened up to benefit from a functionally effective collaboration. "Every country can maintain the individual political entity and at the same time have an economic union," he said referring to a few such economic unions.

He said trade with USA, Japan or the West has become more expensive now in view of the higher freight, besides poor bargaining power of the South Asian countries.

Indian participant Kamala Vasin said the colonial borders have kept the people of the region divided and open to conflicts. The USA is forging closer ties now with India to keep this region divided under its influence. It must be resisted from a common platform, he argued.

Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman stressed the need for action oriented programmes to achieve the socio-economic goals of the region. He said the region must work jointly to achieve higher growth.