Nonaligned Nations

A Nonaligned Movement foreign ministers' conference opened in Nicosia on Wednesday with calls on the movement to carve out a meaningful role in global affairs. Cypriot President George Vassiliou launched the four-day ministers' meeting by throwing down a challenge to increase the movement's effectiveness and seize the initiative.

Representatives from members of the 101-nation Nonaligned Movement gathered here Sunday for a five-day conference that will focus on ways to reduce the dependence of Third World countries on the West for news, organizers said.

The Nonaligned Movement on Friday condemned what it called U.S. aggression against Nicaragua and said both South Africa and Israel are supporting U.S. military policy in Central America.

The United States portrayed Libya Wednesday as the source of a "worldwide terrorist campaign," while Soviet Bloc and nonaligned nations pressed for condemnation of the U.S. raid on Libya last April. Bringing Libya's complaint before the U.N. General Assembly, Ambassador Ali Treiki accused the United States of an unprovoked attack April 15, aimed primarily at "innocent civilians, many of them women and children." He urged the 159-nation assembly to condemn the U.S. air raid.

The eighth summit of nonaligned nations, concluding its meeting here Sunday on the doorstep of South Africa, urged countries worldwide to embrace "comprehensive and mandatory sanctions" to stop the "racist regime" in Pretoria. In virtually the only specific program to emerge from the summit, the 101 member nations agreed to set up a relief fund to shield southern African countries from some of the adverse effects of sanctions and help wean them from their economic dependence on South Africa.

Prime Minister Robert Mugabe assumed the chairmanship of the Nonaligned Movement on Monday and called on Third World countries to break the shackles of apartheid and poverty. Taking over from Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the 101-member group, Mugabe said he is beginning his three-year term conscious of his duty to all the group's diverse members and "the suffering people of southern Africa."

Growing anger over the U.S. attack on Libya sparked worldwide protests Wednesday that erupted into violence as demonstrators burned American flags and effigies of President Reagan in Pakistan and attacked U.S. facilities in several capitals. The list of nations condemning the United States for bombing the North African nation grew longer, but offered few new surprises as America's traditional enemies and Third World nations added their voices to swell the outcry against Washington.