South African Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, will visit Ramallah, Palestine for discussions with Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat on Sunday, 2^nd June 2002. Minister Dlamini Zuma will be leading a delegation of seven Ministers of NAM Member States in a show of solidarity with President Arafat and the Palestinian people. These member states include India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe. The decision to visit Ramallah flows from the recent NAM Ministerial Meeting held in Durban on 27 April 2002. The Meeting agreed "to organise, through the Chair of the Movement, a delegation to visit Palestine and to meet with President Arafat, in an expression of solidarity with the President and people of Palestine."

The NAM has a tradition and long-standing position of solidarity with the Palestinian people and has expressed its support for the Palestinian peoples inalienable right to establish an independent state with its capital in Jerusalem. The Movement has also persistently called on Israel to end its illegal occupation of East Jerusalem; for the withdrawal of illegal settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territories; and more recently to cease its illegal military actions in the Palestinian Territory immediately.

Since the start of the present cycle of violence in the Middle East, the NAM has been at the forefront of the search for an end to the crisis. The Movement has prioritised the Question of Palestine. In this regard, the NAM Committee on Palestine has met twice at Ministerial level with the Members of the NAM Security Council Caucus in the space of one year, to deliberate on ways and means to work with all the forces influential in the Middle East for the attainment of a just, lasting peace and security in the region.

The Committee on Palestine at its Meeting in Pretoria in May 2001 intensified its efforts by mandating the Chair of the Movement to enhance the engagement with all the forces in the Middle East, a mandate vigorously pursued by South Africa as Chair at all levels.

For more information contact Ronnie Mamoepa on 082 990 4853.

Issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs

Private Bag X152

Pretoria

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