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Towards
A South Asian Union
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18, 19 and
20 July 2008, Colombo, Sri Lanka
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South Asian heads of government
will meet in Colombo, Sri Lanka for the annual South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit between
27 July and 3 August 2008.
Regrettably,
this SAARC summit will be no different to its predecessors
in having little relevance to the needs and daily struggles
of the peoples of South Asia. Its agenda will be shaped
by the policy choices of post-colonial elites, while it
has spectacularly failed to achieve regional unity or
even facilitate grassroots initiatives in that direction.
Therefore, since 1993,
social movements and peoples’ organisations have
also converged in parallel to the SAARC summit to raise
our agenda for our region, to demonstrate our will for
friendship, solidarity and visa-free movement of people
across imposed boundaries, and to manifest our desire
for a peoples union of South Asia.
On 18, 19 and 20 July
2008, hundreds of women, workers, peasants, artisans,
urban and rural poor, students and youth, cultural activists,
scholar activists, and representatives of marginalised
and excluded social groups and communities from around
South Asia will gather at Peoples SAARC 2008 in
Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The main theme of Peoples
SAARC 2008 is “Towards a South Asian Union”
while the sub-themes include women’s rights; demilitarisation,
denuclearisation and democracy; right to food, livelihood,
health, education and social security in the context of
alternatives to neo-liberalism; environmental justice
and natural resource rights; and South Asian solidarity
with anti-imperialist struggles worldwide. A mass rally
for peace and justice in South Asia will form part of
the closing ceremony.
We call upon all those
who affirm the vision of a peoples union of South Asia
to join country-level preparations, mobilise for, and
participate in Peoples SAARC 2008 in Colombo on 18, 19
and 20 July 2008.
For
further information contact:
Secretariat
Peoples SAARC 2008
19/1/1, Siri Dhamma Mawatha, Colombo 10, Sri Lanka
Tel: +94 11 267 2586.
Email peoplesaarcsl@gmail.com
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