PAGE 150 The Washington Post, November 23, 1999 The United Nations was supposed to be in charge by now, with ethnically mixed town councils and a U.N.-trained police force. KFOR would stick around for the big tasks and eventually pull out. U.N. officials acknowledge their deficit and blame lack of money and staff. Only 1,400 of the promised 4,100 police officers are here. Some have no professional police experience and many are too afraid to patrol without a KFOR escort. Dozens of shining red-and-white police vans sit parked and empty in Pristina and Gnjilane. In the American sector, the Army is still in charge on the ground after five months. As soon as autumn's early darkness settles over Gnjilane, the "Corso"--the Kosovo version of cruising--begins. But here the Corso is a suspect, monitored by heavily armed U.S. troops led, on one recent night, by Capt. Charles Hansel. He patrols on foot with four other soldiers, including one whose five-foot-long radio antenna flops with each step. "Boom!" The sound of a shrapnel grenade echoes through the city. Hansel grabs the radio handset. A car goes by too quickly. "Stop that car and search it," he yells. Sixteen troops on foot and six Humvees race to the blast several blocks away to interview neighbors and block off the street. The grenade has wrecked the door of a Gypsy's home. "Boom!" Another grenade. Hansel orders all the patrons in a nearby bar held for questioning. The captain's radio crackles with the voice of a soldier trying to give Hansel the location of the explosion. But Hansel and the soldier are using different maps. Hansel has a local street map, the soldier a Defense Department satellite map. Instead of streets he's calling out coordinates. Hansel curses. "I need the satellite map. I can't translate the location to a grid." As Hansel talks, explosions come from new directions. "Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" These are firecrackers. But the soldiers are wired and angry now. They will move up the curfew from 10 p.m. to 8 p.m. PAGE 151 The Washington Post, November 23, 1999 "Anyone who looks suspicious, pull them out of their vehicles," Hansel says. The search begins, and ends 10 minutes later when he decides it's fruitless. There's a discussion about sending out the Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Instead, several Humvees are dispatched to block traffic. The ethnic Albanian drivers get out of their cars and begin milling about. "I have a friend with a headache," one asks a soldier. "Can I go?" "No!" a lieutenant yells. The soldiers search a couple of cars, and tell everybody to leave. The curfew comes and streets empty. The troops leave frustrated, but they have accomplished the night's mission. All is quiet in this corner of Kosovo. Overlooking the Kosovo village of Vrbovac, U.S. soldiers monitor the peace in the half ethnic Albanian, half Serbian community. Lubica Stankovic, center, and her Serbian neighbors chat with Lt. Col. Michael Ellerbe. Capt. Kevin Lambert, left, and other U.S. Army officials meet with Serbs in Vitina to hear their complaints. "The Albanians know if they get close to the Serbs, they can intimidate them," says Lambert, one of 7,000 young soldiers trying to build a new Kosovo after NATO's air campaign. U.S. Army Lt. Chris Stevens attends services at the Roman Catholic church in Letnica, Kosovo, where about 80 of the 300 Croats who once lived there remain. Stevens later met with the Croats to discuss how to protect them. Ethnic enmities are a major problem American peacekeepers in Kosovo have to deal with. Two women close their curtains so their ethnic Albanian neighbors can't see them after they were visited by British soldiers. Children from the village of Podgorce follow U.S. Army Sgt. Stephen Cagle as he and his men patrol the area where they live. American soldiers have taken on a series of civilian tasks while trying to keep the peace in the divided province. GRAPHIC: MAP,,LARRY FOGEL LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 152 LEVEL 1 - 59 OF 156 STORIES COPYRIGHT 1999 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE THE MATERIALS IN THE XINHUA FILE WERE COMPILED BY THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY. THESE MATERIALS MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY. November 23, 1999, Tuesday LENGTH: 304 words HEADLINE: ANNAN LAUNCHES YEAR 2000 CONSOLIDATED EMERGENCY APPEALS DATELINE: GENEVA, NOVEMBER 23 BODY: UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN LAUNCHED HERE TUESDAY THE YEAR 2000 CONSOLIDATED EMERGENCY APPEALS BY ASKING FOR 2.3 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS TO SUSTAIN THE HOPE OF MILLIONS". "OUR HOPE IS TO SEND A SIGNAL OF HOPE TO MORE THAN 34 MILLION SOULS," SAID ANNAN AT A GATHERING MARKING THE GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN DAY AT THE PALAIS DES NATIONS IN GENEVA. "THESE ARE ALSO THE LAST CONSOLIDATED APPEALS WE SHALL LAUNCH IN THE 20TH CENTURY," HE SAID. "IT IS A CENTURY THAT HAS SEEN THE VERY BEST AND WORST OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR. IT HAS SEEN HUMANITARIAN PRINCIPLES TAKE FORM AND TAKE HOLD, AND IT HAS SEEN THEM EGREGIOUSLY VIOLATED AND IGNORED. ITS HISTORY WILL BE WRITTEN IN BLOOD AS MUCH AS IN THE INK OF OUR UNITED NATIONS CHARTER." AS THIS CENTURY DRAWS TO A CLOSE, ANNAN SAID, THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HAVE TO COPE WITH CRISES IN AREAS LIKE KOSOVO, EAST TIMOR, TURKEY AND THE NORTH CAUCASUS. "TODAY, AS WE STRUGGLE TO CATCH UP AND PROVIDE THE ASSISTANCE NEEDED IN THOSE PLACES, CRISES ARE LINGERING, EMERGING, RESUMING OR INTENSIFYING IN MANY OTHER PLACES ACROSS THE GLOBE," THE UN CHIEF SAID. "FAILURE IN THE DUTY TO HELP THE VICTIMS OF THESE CRISES WILL TAKE AWAY THE HOPE OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE: THE HOPE THAT SOMETHING CALLED THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY WILL UPHOLD THE BASIC DIGNITY OF HUMANKIND." HE BELIEVED THAT THE WORLD SHOULD MEET THE DEMAND EASILY BECAUSE "THE 2.3 BILLION DOLLARS WE ARE ASKING YOU FOR TODAY IS FAR LESS THAN WHAT THE WORLD SPENDS ON MILITARY PURPOSES IN A SINGLE DAY". HOWEVER, ANNAN SAID, THE CONSOLIDATED INTER-AGENCY APPEAL FOR SIERRA LEONE FOR 1999 HAS SO FAR RECEIVED ONLY SOME 40 PERCENT OF THE AMOUNT AND THE FUNDING LEVELS IN 1999 FOR SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE AND FOR AFRICA ARE UNDER 80 PERCENT. HE URGED THE WORLD TO DO BETTER. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 24, 1999 PAGE 153 LEVEL 1 - 60 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Telegraph Group Limited THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) November 22, 1999, Monday SECTION: Pg. 20 LENGTH: 1156 words HEADLINE: Comment: Cant, hypocrisy and double standards - the ethical foreign policy Peter Carrington argues that events in the Balkans, East Timor and Chechnya have exposed the shallowness of Tony Blair, Robin Cook - and others BYLINE: By Peter Carrington BODY: EDMUND BURKE once said: "To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common disputes of the greatest part of mankind." It is as well though, as we approach the new Millennium, to see whether there are any lessons that can be learnt from the past. President Clinton and the Prime Minister have declared that wars and military involvement will, in the next century, be for humanitarian purposes. The Foreign Secretary, in another speech, said, in effect, that it was the business of the international community to look after the rights of people and not of governments. It may be interesting, therefore, to note the interpretation of these statements in three recent crises, different in character, but with certain strong similarities. In Kosovo, East Timor and Chechnya, the sovereign governments of Yugoslavia, Indonesia and Russia were faced with armed rebellion and a powerful movement for independence. All three countries sought to quell the rebellion and restore peace, in what they considered to be their sovereign territories. It is, of course, true that, after the Portuguese withdrawal, only Australia recognised Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor. There was, however, a tacit agreement to let matters lie. In the case of Kosovo, Nato called a conference at Rambouillet to seek a peaceful settlement between Serbs and Kosovars. The Serbs agreed to restore autonomy in Kosovo, but were unable to accept the proposition that Nato should have a free run of Serbian territory. It was therefore decided to bomb Serbia. After much destruction of the Serbian infrastructure, the blocking of the Danube and a number of civilian casualities the Serbs agreed to a ceasefire. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of Kosovars had either been expelled, or had fled to Macedonia or Montenegro. It is difficult to forecast the end result of this action. There is no doubt that if a referendum were now held in Kosovo, the vast majority would vote for independence. This is hardly surprising since, in what one could describe as reverse ethnic cleansing, the majority of Serbs, frightened for their lives, have fled Kosovo, abandoning their homes and possessions. Independence, however, seems to have been ruled out, not least because of the possible repercussions for Albania, Greece, Macedonia and the Balkan area. It is equally difficult to see how, in the current circumstances, an autonomous solution under Serb sovereignty could PAGE 154 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) November 22, 1999, Monday come about. After the bitterness and savagery of the past year, it will take a long time to create a climate in which Serb and Kosovar can live peaceably together. The likely outcome is that foreign troops will be there for a very long time and if they are not, hostilities of one sort or another would resume. Whether or not the Nato decision to intervene militarily was wise or necessary is a matter of opinion. Nevertheless, rightly or wrongly, what Nato did was for humanitarian reasons. It was a humanitarian war, but one in which serious armed conflict with Serbia was very unlikely. In East Timor, the problem was not very different. Ever since the Portuguese left and the Indonesians occupied that part of the island, the Timorese have been oppressed, both for their unwillingness to accept Indonesian sovereignty and for their religious beliefs. It has to be said that the United Nations and the international community did nothing to remedy this situation or to help the Timorese and, indeed, appeared to accept the status quo. It was only after the referendum, in which the East Timorese overwhelmingly voted for independence, and the savagery of the militia and some of the Indonesian army, that the UN became seriously involved. Each night on television we saw the sufferings of the East Timorese, the ruins of their capital, the homeless refugees, a mirror image of the Kosovan tragedy. There was no suggestion of military intervention. The UN force only landed in East Timor after the Indonesians had given them permission. Nor was there any proposal that Indonesia and Jakarta should be targeted by UN forces, as Nato had done with Serbia and Belgrade earlier in the year. There was no way that the UN could mount a military force which would be capable of dealing with a large and well-equipped Indonesian Army, nor, even if practicable, would there have been the political will in the UN to do so. Furthermore, Indonesia is a country of 200 million people in a vital position in South-East Asia, treading a precarious path towards democracy in the wake of an economic crisis. In the interests of the stability of South-East Asia, it was hardly politic to challenge Indonesia and destroy their fragile economic and political progress. One might call the East Timor crisis a rather belated humanitarian rescue operation. Certainly not a humanitarian war. Lastly, in Chechnya, we face a not dissimilar situation. Chechnya is part of Russia and is recognised as such, internationally. The Chechens want their independence and are prepared to fight for it and, in the process of doing so, are said to have committed acts of terrorism in Russia proper. The Russians have decided to fight the rebel movement and destroy it once and for all. In the process, we have seen on our television screens thousands of innocent people suffering; refugees with nowhere to go and children dying of cold. What has been the international reaction? What have the UN done? Not very much. There have been representations from various presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers, and that is about it. The reasons for this are as straightforward as UN policy in Timor and more compelling. It is inconceivable that the UN or Nato should behave to the Russians as they did to the Serbs. Russia is a nuclear power with large armed forces. The consequences of such a policy would be incalculable; such a humanitarian war might well spell the end of humanity. In the case of Kosovo, no one could quarrel with Nato's aims, though many of us have doubts about its wisdom and the long-term consequences of what has been done. In the case of East Timor, the political, strategic and military facts dictated the actions the UN felt it PAGE 155 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) November 22, 1999, Monday was able to take. In the third case, that of Chechnya, prudence has so far dictated the response to Russia. In all three cases, the international community has acted in accordance with what it regards as the practical options open to it. High-flown sentiments do not translate into credible or practical foreign policy. Increasingly, they seem to be sound bites and nothing more. An ethical foreign policy? Perhaps Lord Salisbury summed it up best, when criticising a Liberal government in the late 19th century: "Turn the left cheek to Russia and America and demand the utmost farthing from the Ashanti." Lord Carrington was Foreign Secretary 1979-1982 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 156 LEVEL 1 - 61 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 AAP Information Services Pty. Ltd. AAP NEWSFEED November 22, 1999, Monday SECTION: Overseas News; Overseas News LENGTH: 497 words HEADLINE: ASIA: Charges against Australian incorrect BODY: - lawyer INDON DALTON (carried earlier) By Karen Polglaze, South East Asia Correspondent JAKARTA, Nov 22 AAP - The Indonesian lawyer defending an Australian accused of possessing an illegal weapon and misusing a visa today described the charges as obscure and incorrect. Saul Francis Dalton, 26, was arrested on September 25 in Timika, a remote mining town in south central Irian Jaya, the Indonesian province occupying the western half of New Guinea island. The prosecution alleges Dalton entered Indonesia as a volunteer for the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) and that his visa entitled him to travel to East Timor only and not to other provinces. Defence lawyer Irwan Anwar said the two charges were again heard in separate sessions in court today totalling about 90 minutes. "The accusation of the prosecutor is obscure and incomplete because it is not clear what is meant by the misuse of the visa," Irwan told AAP. "Saul has got a visa for 60 days which means he can visit all around Indonesia and if he happened to reach Timika even though his destination was East Timor, it doesn't mean that he cannot go to Timika." Dalton, a landscape architecture graduate of the University of Canberra, had also purchased a parang - a kind of short machete - as a souvenir but had also used it to cut open coconuts, Irwan said. "The machete was used by Saul only to split coconuts," he said. "It was only a household knife. It's not a kind of weapon. The knife isn't sharp enough even to cut me. "It's a kind of souvenir, it's not a weapon." The court has been adjourned until tomorrow when the prosecution will respond to the defence on the charge related to the misuse of the visa. On Friday, the court will hear submissions from the prosecution on sentencing. PAGE 157 AAP NEWSFEED November 22, 1999, Monday Maximum sentences were five years jail for possessing an illegal weapon and ten years for misuse of a visa. The prosecution expects that if found guilty of misusing a visa, Dalton will be deported, but a jail sentence or fine could also be imposed. Dalton, who was arrested at the height of tensions between Australia and Indonesia over East Timor, has not yet been formally charged with two other political offences related to his alleged possession of separatist documents and hand-drawn maps. The prosecutor earlier told AAP he would only proceed with those two charges if ordered to do so by a higher prosecutorial authority. Irwan said the document was a computer printout of a letter given to former president BJ Habibie by a group of 100 Irianese earlier this year and that the maps were drawings. Dalton was initially allowed to stay in a hotel, but for most of his detention he has been held at the local police station where he said he was being treated well. Consular officers from the Australian Embassy say they have been in frequent phone contact with Dalton, the defence lawyer and the prosecutor. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 158 LEVEL 1 - 62 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 AAP Information Services Pty. Ltd. AAP NEWSFEED November 22, 1999, Monday SECTION: Overseas News; Overseas News LENGTH: 480 words HEADLINE: World News Highlights from AAP 20:00 Nov 22 BODY: Highlights of the AAP world file since 1530 AEDT: ATAMBUA, Indonesia, Nov 22 Reuters - The United States warned Indonesia today that the international community would judge the success of its transition to democracy by its behaviour towards East Timorese refugees. (TIMOR US) DILI, East Timor, Nov 22 Reuters - Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, hopes to broker an agreement with the Indonesian army over military patrols along the Timor border, a military spokesman said today. (TIMOR US BORDER) JAKARTA, Indonesia, Nov 22 AP - Indonesian government investigators today implicated several top generals in the burning and looting spree that followed the overwhelming vote for independence in East Timor. (TIMOR RIGHTS) JAKARTA, Nov 22 AAP - The Indonesian lawyer defending an Australian accused of possessing an illegal weapon and misusing a visa today described the charges as obscure and incorrect. (INDON DALTON) JAKARTA, Nov 22 AFP - Tensions were running high in the strife-torn Indonesian islands of Maluku today with troops placed on alert after sectarian clashes left six dead and 24 injured, officials and the Antara news agency said. (INDON AMBON) JAKARTA, Nov 22 AFP - Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, defying calls at home to forsake a trip overseas to travel to troubled Aceh instead, today left on a planned visit to the Middle East. (INDON WAHID) PAGE 159 AAP NEWSFEED November 22, 1999, Monday KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov 22 AP - A defiant ex-premier Nawaz Sharif appeared today for his second court appearance in response to army allegations of treason and hijacking, charges that carry the death penalty or life in prison. (PAKISTAN SHARIF SECOND NIGHTLEAD) NEW YORK, Nov 22 AP - Regardless of what cause is finally pinpointed, EgyptAir Flight 990 already has earned a place in aviation history with one of the most bizarre ends to a seemingly routine flight. (US FLIGHT NIGHTLEAD) KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 AFP - Malaysia's ruling coalition today stepped up its pre-election advertising blitz, with more photos of riot scenes and text directly naming the opposition alliance as to blame for the unrest. (MALAYSIA VOTE ADS) COLOMBO, Nov 22 AFP - Sri Lankan government troops have withdrawn from an area near an historic Roman Catholic shrine after it was hit by artillery shells which killed 38 refugees sheltering inside, the church said today. (SRILANKA TAMIL) PHNOM PENH, Nov 22 AFP - The Cambodian government said today it was just weeks away from finalising its plans for a long-awaited Khmer Rouge genocide trial, following the latest talks with legal teams from "friendly countries." (CAMBODIA ROUGE) LONDON, Nov 22 AAP - British Prime Minister Tony Blair's baby was probably conceived at the Queen's Scottish castle of Balmoral, the British press speculated today. (UK CHERIE NIGHTLEAD) LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 160 LEVEL 1 - 63 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 08:09 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 290 words HEADLINE: Philippines puts forward candidate to head UN force for East Timor DATELINE: MANILA, Nov 22 BODY: Philippine army Major General Diomedio Villanueva is to be formally nominated by his country to head a United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed in East Timor next year, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said Monday. The defense department will shortly submit Villanueva's name to President Joseph Estrada who will nominate Manila's candidate, Mercado told reporters. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the Philippines and one other unnamed country to head the UN peacekeepers, who are to take over from the Australia-led International Force for East Timor (Interfet) now in place in the former Portuguese territory. Mercado said Villanueva, the commanding general of military forces in the provinces to the immediate south of Manila, was picked over two army generals. "All are capable and are mission-oriented. They are all qualified and in cases where experience (and) qualification are almost equal, seniority comes in," Mercado said. Villanueva is a 1968 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy and took up further studies in Indonesia's General Staff College, Mercado added. The two other generals who were considered graduated from the first school a year later. The UN force, along with a parallel political administration, would help guide East Timor to statehood under the UN Transitional Authorities in East Timor (UNTAET). The transitional authority is to take over after the Indonesian national assembly ratified an August 30 vote in which an overwhelming majority of East Timorese chose to break away from Jakarta. Interfet was deployed under a UN mandate as an interim force after militias opposed to independence went on a murderous rampage in the territory in September. str/cgm/ajp LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 161 LEVEL 1 - 64 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 08:19 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 833 words HEADLINE: The AFP 0800 GMT news agenda DATELINE: Nov 22 BODY: The 0800 GMT news agenda: Duty editor: Stephanie Griffith Tel: Washington (202) 414-0541 MOTAAIN Indonesia: Visiting US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke is to visit thousands of refugees still stuck in camps in Indonesian West Timor nearly two months after East Timor voted for independence. Timor-US,lead 550 words around 0930 GMT by Ian Timberlake GROZNY, Russia: Russian infantry units remain poised two kilometers from Grozny as calls in Moscow intensify for the federal forces to win this decade's second Chechen war. Chechnya Expect update SOFIA: US President Bill Clinton meets PAGE 162 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 Bulgarian leaders on the latest leg of his trip to southeastern Europe to promote Balkan stability Bulgaria-US Expect update (Clinton meets president about 0900 GMT, keynote address 1515 GMT) LUXEMBOURG: Defense and foreign ministers of the Western European Union, Europe's defense arm, try to adapt their outdate armies to the defense needs of the 21st century. WEU-defense,moved Expect update AMMAN: Jordan defends its decision to deport Jordanian leaders of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, saying they are welcome to return home but only as citizens with no political affiliation. Jordan-Hamas Expect update DOHA: Four leaders of Hamas, the hardline Palestinian group, consult on their future after being deported from Jordan to Qatar where they are banned from all political activity. PAGE 163 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 Qatar-Hamas Expect update CAIRO: Egypt's transportation minister delivers a report on the EgyptAir crash to parliament, where deputies want to know why a co-pilot is suspected of trying to crash the plane and why so many military officers were aboard. US-plane-report Expect update JERUSALEM: Christian sites across the Holy Land are shut down by church leaders in a two-day protest at the construction of a mosque in Jesus's home town of Nazareth. Mil-Israel-Nazareth,3rdlead 600 words around 0900 GMT by Marius Schattner NAZARETH, Israel: Muslim activitists in Nazareth prepare to lay the cornerstone of a controversial mosque near a holy Christian site, shrugging off appeals by a top Islamic council and a protest shutdown by Christian churches. Mil-Israel-mosque Expect update RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israel and the Palestinians hold a new round of talks on a comprehensive PAGE 164 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 peace settlement. Israel-Palestinian Expect update LAGOS: The army is reported to have launched a major military operation in the oi-producing region of of southern Nigeria following weeks of unrest. Nigeria-unrest Expect Update ZAGREB: Update on Croatia's political uncertainty after the state media reported that President Franjo Tudjman, seriously ill in hospital, had failed to sign a decree fixing the date for parliamentary elections by an overnight deadline. Croatia-vote 500 words to be announced on the 1100 GMT advisory FRANKFURT: The collapse of the German construction group, Philipp Holzmann, may threaten as many as 70,000 jobs in Germany after creditor banks rejected the company's rescue plan to head off bankruptcy. Germany-industry,2ndlead 600 words by 1030 GMT WASHINGTON: Four Republican presidential candidates square off at a debate in Arizona late Sunday, taking occasional potshots at GOP frontrunner PAGE 165 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 George W. Bush, who chose to forgo the event. US-politics-Republicans 450 words around 0815 GMT by Stephanie Griffith TOKYO: A Japanese fighter jet slices through overhead power lines as it crashes in flames north of Tokyo, killing the two crew and cutting electricity to 800,000 homes, officials say. Japan-jet,2ndlead. Picture. 600 words around 0830 GMT by Miwa Suzuki KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's ruling coalition steps up attacks on the opposition with more "riot" adverts as Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad prepares for a high-profile visit by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji during the general election campaign. Malaysia-vote 650 words around 0730 GMT. Picture. Graphic. by Eileen Ng We have also moved: Malaysia-vote-Chinese Malaysia-vote-suburb KARACHI: Hundreds of police stand guard at an anti-terrorism court in Karachi where ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif is due to appear. PAGE 166 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 Pakistan-Sharif,lead 600 words around 0815 GMT by Owais Tohid Also moved: Pakistan-Sharif-wife Pakistan-Sharif-people TOKYO: Japan's Okinawa island announces landmark plans to move a major US air base, helping to settle a three-year row over the heavy US military presence. Japan-Okinawa,lead 550 words around 0830 GMT by Miwa Susuki TOKYO: Japan's troubled Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. says its parent-level net losses exploded to 524.2 billion yen (5.0 billion dollars) in the six months to September. Japan-Nissan,2ndlead 550 words around 0830 GMT by Shingo Ito afp LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 167 LEVEL 1 - 65 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 08:21 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 397 words HEADLINE: AFP Asia Pacific news summary, Monday, Nov 22 BODY: Timor-US MOTAAIN, Indonesia: US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke met Indonesian and UN officials in this border town to urge them to speed up the repatriation of East Timorese refugees from Indonesian West Timor. Timor-Australia CANBERRA: Prime Minister John Howard is to visit Australian troops in East Timor at the weekend to thank them for leading the successful UN-backed peacekeeping force to the embattled nation. Pakistan-Sharif KARACHI: Ousted Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif said he was suffering mental torture and facing "cooked-up" charges as he appeared again before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi. Malaysia-vote-campaign KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's ruling coalition stepped up its pre-election advertising blitz, with more photos of riot scenes and text directly naming the opposition alliance as to blame for the unrest. Japan-jet TOKYO: A Japanese fighter jet sliced through overhead power lines as it crashed in flames north of Tokyo, killing the two crew and cutting electricity to 800,000 homes, officials said. SriLanka-Tamil COLOMBO: Sri Lankan government troops have withdrawn from a church where 38 refugees died in artillery shelling, the church said, as Tamil Tiger rebels claimed further gains in the same area. Cambodia-KRouge PHNOM PENH: The Cambodian government said it was just weeks away from finalising its plans for a long-awaited Khmer Rouge genocide trial, following the latest talks with legal teams from "friendly countries." PAGE 168 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 Indonesia-Ambon JAKARTA: Tensions were running high in the strife-torn Indonesian islands of Maluku with troops placed on alert after sectarian clashes left six dead and 24 injured, officials and the Antara news agency said. Philippines-Muslim ZAMBOANGA, Philippines: Ten Muslim separatists were killed in fresh attacks in the southern Philippines ahead of a landmark meeting between their leader and new Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, the military said. Japan-Okinawa TOKYO: Japan's Okinawa island announced landmark plans to move a major US air base, helping to settle a three-year row over the heavy US military presence, officials said. Indonesia-Wahid JAKARTA: Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, defying calls at home to forsake a trip overseas to travel to troubled Aceh instead, left on a planned visit to the Middle East. afp LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 169 LEVEL 1 - 66 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 08:30 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 653 words HEADLINE: Jakarta must prosecute top military men over Timor abuse: rights group DATELINE: JAKARTA, Nov 22 BODY: Indonesia must try the top military brass for allegedly colluding in an orgy of murder, rape and arson in East Timor, the country's human rights investigator said Monday. The government has a duty to set up a human rights trial in the search for justice, vice chairman of Indonesia's Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Abuses in East Timor (KPP HAM), Todung Mulya Lubis, told SCTV private network. "The human rights trial is the government's plan to prosecute the perpetrators ... but if it can't be implemented due to technical and human resources obstacles ... other form of trials should take place," Lubis said, without elaborating. The independent inquiry has powers of subpoena which can be enforced by the police and has been touted by the Indonesian government as its official East Timor investigation. Jakarta has rejected a similar United Nations inquiry. "Don't forget that there is also the UN human rights inquiry ... if we don't do this, the UN commission will do it otherwise and I can't imagine how heavy the historical burden on our nation will be." The separate UN rights inquiry team is scheduled to open its own investigation in East Timor on Wednesday. Indonesia's nine-member commission was set up by the independent Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on September 22 and has until the end of the year to complete its work. The commission has not yet published its conclusions, but based on data and testimonies gathered from witnesses, Lubis, who was in Dili last week, said "it's difficult to argue" that the militia worked alone in the September mayhem. "It wouldn't be possible for the militia to operate alone without being aided by elements of the TNI (Indonesian army) and police in the earth-scorching, shootings, intimidations and killings," he said. When the team visited a church in Suai, 110 kilometres (68 miles) southwest of Dili, they discovered three Catholic priests were murdered and quite a lot of residents were also killed there, he said. PAGE 170 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 "Eyewitnesses reported not only the militia" were involved in an orgy of killings there, but "elements of the TNI were also involved in the violation of human rights in Suai." Hundreds of people are thought to have been massacred in the church compound in September in Suai, the capital of Covalima district. Their bodies have never been found. But Lubis said the commission "of course will not accept and trust all information received on location (by witnesses in East Timor) just at face value." The commission's chairman, Albert Hasibuan, said in Dili on Saturday that the destruction of East Timor was plotted during a meeting in the town between Indonesian military intelligence and the militia. "All of the findings and names which were mentioned by witnesses -- including former TNI chief General Wiranto and Major General Zacky Anwar Makarim and others -- we will question them," Hasibuan said. General Wiranto (eds: one name), the former military commander, topped their list for interrogation, he said, also alleging the complete collusion by the military in the campaign of terror which swept the territory. "In that meeting it was instructed then that if the result of the referendum in East Timor was (to) be free then they must destroy all the buildings and kill all the pro-independence leaders," Hasibuan said. Former head of military intelligence, Major General Zacky Anwar Makarim, also attended the meeting, he said. The team's findings will be presented to a commission meeting in Jakarta and evaluated and compared with findings from another team in West Timor, Lubis said. "That's because the commission has also sent a team to meet with refugees and found several mass graves in the West Timor," he added. The military has argued that any soldiers charged over East Timor should be tried before a court martial. vt/jkb/cl LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 171 LEVEL 1 - 67 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 09:39 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 541 words HEADLINE: UN, international groups take stock of peacekeeping efforts BYLINE: Lara Parpan DATELINE: SINGAPORE, Nov 22 BODY: International peacekeeping operations in East Timor and Kosovo have heightened the need for better implementation of peacebuilding efforts in conflict areas, a top UN official said here Monday. "With our deployments in Kosovo and East Timor, we are facing a new type of challenge," said Hedi Annabi, assistant secretary-general for the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations. "We are deploying into areas where previous mechanisms of governance have been decisively rejected, and where physical and institutional infrastructures have been erased. "Within these settings, beyond administration, we are tasked with creating the entire machinery of a working society largely from scratch," he told delegates at an international forum in Singapore. The conference gathering representatives from the UN, humanitarian assistance groups and institutions aims to discuss ways to implement strategies which more effectively link peacekeeping operations to efforts to re-establish civilian and democratic administration. The officials at the forum noted that the presence of a military peacekeeping force could prevent the renewal of hostilities but did not necessarily mean the restoration of economic and social development. "We must consider whether the inclusion of more peacebuilding activities would indeed increase the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations in the other mission areas," said Singapore Foreign Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar. "In the longer term, this may result in less resources and funds being required overall," he added. Annabi put forth the prospect of engaging not only the political players involved in the conflict in reestablishing peace, but also including private businesses and the local community to take a stake in rebuilding the state. "We must exert enough influence to ensure that the governing mechanisms and society that emerge conform to international principles. But our host communities must also have a sense of ownership in what emerges, if our PAGE 172 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 efforts are to have lasting impact," he said. There are at present 17 operations deployed by the United Nations worldwide, involving some 30,000 military and civilian police, more than twice the number than at the beginning of the year, according to the United Nations. UN involvement in East Timor and Kosovo for instance required a number of skills not found in traditional peacekeeping efforts such as the need for a greater number of civilian police and experts in the legal, tax and judicial areas. "When we are asked to usher a new governing mechanism into being, we must be able to offer real material support for its efforts, if we are not to be viewed as irrelevant and unwelcome intruders," said Annabi. Strong support from member states in the United Nations was also crucial to ensuring the success of peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts, he added. Jayakumar called on the UN to make a sober and realistic assessment of its peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts and determine how many it can comfortably undertake to achieve success. The recommendations to be drawn up at the end of the conference on Tuesday will be studied by the UN's department of peacekeeping operations, Annabi said. lp/lys/cl LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 173 LEVEL 1 - 68 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 11:06 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 516 words HEADLINE: Indonesia and Interfet agree to step up return of East Timor refugees BYLINE: Ian Timberlake DATELINE: MOTAAIN, Indonesia, Nov 22 BODY: Indonesian security officials and the multinational force for East Timor Monday agreed to speed up the return of tens of thousands of refugees languishing in West Timor camps for nearly two months. "I am delighted to say an agreement has been reached," said the commander of the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) Major General Peter Cosgrove emerging from talks with Indonesian military authorities in this border town. The signing of the accord, with Major General Adam Damiri who heads the Indonesian military command overseeing West Timor, was witnessed by visiting US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke had earlier called for the swift repatriation of the refugees, saying there was no reason why their return was being delayed. "I am profoundly moved by what has happened here today ... the proof on whether it is historic or not will depend on the implementation," Holbrooke said. He said the agreement would keep the border open for the repatriation of refugees and accelerate the emptying of refugee camps in West Timor. About 230,000 people out of the 260,000 who fled or were deported to West Timor in the violence at the start of September following a UN-run independence vote are still sheltering in camps. Under the agreement those refugees wanting to go home would be repatriated while those wanting to stay would be reintegrated into Indonesian society, Holbrooke said. "This indication of the desire of the government of Indonesia to deal with the problem is very welcome," Holbrooke added. Holbrooke is accompanied by a delegation which includes US Assistant State Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth. Earlier in the border town of Atambua, he visited refugees sheltering in an unfinished sport stadium where he said the militias have been trying to frighten people to stop them returning to East Timor. PAGE 174 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 "People are being told absolute lies by the militias. They are told that Australian troops are raping women, the refugees have been told that the fighting is still going on," Holbrooke said. "There is a tremendous disinformation going on, and then there is physical intimidation." Military-backed militias went on an unchecked rampage across East Timor after the ballot results were announced in early September leaving a trail of devastation and forcing half the territory's 800,000 people to flee. Holbrooke also met in Atambua with the Bishop of Atambua Antonius Painratu who told him that militias were training in plain sight of the camps. As the talks were proceeding in Motaain, a convoy of 20 trucks of refugees was allowed to cross the border into East Timor. Another four trucks crossed the same border earlier Monday. After the talks, Holbrooke and his team were taken by land to Batugade on the East Timor side of the border where he took a US helicopter to fly to Dili. In Dili they will meet on Tuesday leaders of the UN Transitional Adminstration in East Timor and Interfet, as well as East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao. it-bs/jkb/smc/hs LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 175 LEVEL 1 - 69 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 13:24 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 661 words HEADLINE: Indonesia and Interfet agree to step up return of East Timor refugees BYLINE: Ian Timberlake DATELINE: MOTAAIN, Indonesia, Nov 22 BODY: Indonesian security officials and the multinational force for East Timor Monday agreed to speed up the return of tens of thousands of refugees languishing in West Timor camps for nearly two months. "I am delighted to say an agreement has been reached," said the commander of the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) Major General Peter Cosgrove emerging from the one-hour talks in this border town in Indonesian West Timor. The signing of the accord with Major General Adam Damiri who heads the Indonesian military command overseeing West Timor was witnessed by visiting US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke had earlier called for the swift repatriation of the refugees, saying there was no reason why their return was being delayed and adding it was what Washington wanted. "I am profoundly moved by what has happened here today ... the proof on whether it is historic or not will depend on the implementation," Holbrooke said. He said they had agreed on a new commission which would keep the border open for the repatriation of refugees and would accelerate the emptying of the refugee camps in West Timor. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a statement issued in Geneva, said the agreement "provides for security arrangements for the overland repatriation of East Timorese refugees in West Timor." It also said the two sides agreed to speed up the repatriation process. About 230,000 people out of the 260,000 who fled or were deported to West Timor are still sheltering in camps there following the militia violence which erupted after the East Timorese voted overwhelming for independence in a UN-held ballot. Some people have so far returned home by overland convoys, boat and by air but UN officials have said many are being intimidated by the militias ensuring the numbers have been kept down. PAGE 176 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 Under the agreement those refugees wanting to go home would be repatriated while those wanting to stay would be reintegrated into Indonesian society, Holbrooke said. "This indication of the desire of the government of Indonesia to deal with the problem is very welcome," Holbrooke added. Earlier in the border town of Atambua, Holbrooke visited refugees living in an unfinished sport stadium where he said the militias have been trying to frighten people to stop them returning to East Timor. "People are being told absolute lies by the militias. They are told that Australian troops are raping women, the refugees have been told that the fighting is still going on," Holbrooke said. "There is a tremendous disinformation going on, and then there is physical intimidation." Military-backed militias went on an unchecked rampage across East Timor after the ballot results were announced in early September leaving a trail of devastation and forcing half the territory's 800,000 people to flee. The UNHCR said despite militia harrassment more than 5,000 refugees Monday returned to East Timor, most of them spontaneously. US ambassador to Jakarta, Robert Gelbard, said Washington "is very pleased to have facilitated greater contacts between the Interfet and the Indonesian side." The head of the UN Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) Sergio Vieira de Mello was also present at the talks in an army tent in Motaain, and will fly to Jakarta later in the week to foster "greater transparency," Gelbard said. Holbrooke is accompanied by a delegation which includes US Assistant State Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth. As the talks were proceeding in Motaain, a convoy of 20 trucks of refugees were allowed to cross the border into East Timor. Another four trucks crossed the same border earlier Monday. Holbrooke and his team later flew by helicopter to Dili, where they will meet Tuesday with leaders of the UN Transitional Adminstration in East Timor and Interfet as well as East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao. it-bs/jkb/smc LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 177 LEVEL 1 - 70 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 22:03 GMT SECTION: Advisory LENGTH: 964 words HEADLINE: The AFP 2200 GMT news advisory DATELINE: Nov 22 BODY: The 2200 GMT news advisory: Duty editor: Carlos Hamann Tel: Washington (202) 414-0541 TOP WORLD NEWS STORIES URUS MARTAN, Russia Russian troops and Chechen fighters battle for the strategic town of Urus Martan ALGIERS The number three official in Algeria's banned Islamic Salvation Front is gunned down in Algiers NAZARETH, Israel Muslim activitists in Nazareth prepare to lay the cornerstone of a controversial mosque near a holy Christian site FILING PLANS BY REGION -- EUROPE -- URUS-MARTAN, Russia: The battle for Chechnya shifts to the key village of Urus-Martan as calls in Moscow intensify for the army to complete its conquest of the rebel republic. Chechnya,4thlead 650 words around 2315 GMT PAGE 178 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 by Nikolai Topuria SOFIA: US President Bill Clinton hails democratic reforms in Bulgaria as a model for the Balkan region as he prepares to head for Kosovo on the last leg of a European tour. Bulgaria-US,3rdlead 600 words around 2300 GMT Also moved: Bulgaria-US-scene ZAGREB: Croatia is in constitutional limbo as doctors admit the condition of President Franjo Tudjman has deteriorated and elections planned for next month are certain to be postponed. Croatia-politics 600 words moved by Lajla Veselica LONDON: Britain's minister for Northern Ireland briefs parliament on the steps that could finally lead to power-sharing between the province's Protestants and Catholics after decades of sectarian strife. NIreland,lead 550 words moved MUNICH, Germany: Nationwide distribution of an abortion pill in Germany is blocked by last-minute objections from authorities in the overwhelmingly Catholic state of Bavaria. PAGE 179 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 Germany-abortion,5thlead 500 words moved LONDON: The race is on again for Britain's Conservatives to find a new candidate to become London mayor after novelist Jeffrey Archer quit after he admitted lying. Britain-mayor,lead 550 words around 2245 GMT -- AFRICA -- ALGIERS: The number three official in Algeria's banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), Abdelkader Hachani, is gunned down in Algiers. Algeria-FIS,5thlead 500 words moved Also moved: Algeria-FIS,analysis LAGOS: Troops pour into the oil-producing region of southern Nigeria in a military operation aimed at ending the 'anarchy' that is threatening oil production. Nigeria-unrest,4thlead 600 words moved -- MIDEAST -- CAIRO: US President Bill Clinton blocked the EgyptAir crash probe from being transferred to federal criminal investigators at the request of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, PAGE 180 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 Egypt's transport minister charges. US-plane-report 700 words moved. Pictures by Lamia Radi JERUSALEM: Christian sites across the Holy Land shut down in a two-day protest over a planned mosque in Nazareth that has has soured relations between Christians and Muslims in the run-up to the millennium. Mil-Israel-Nazareth,5thlead. Picture 700 words, moved by Tanya Willmer NAZARETH, Israel: Muslim activitists in Nazareth prepare to lay the cornerstone of a controversial mosque near a holy Christian site, shrugging off appeals by a top Islamic council and a protest shutdown by Christian churches. Mil-Israel-mosque. 500 words moved. Picture DOHA: Four leaders of Hamas, the hardline Palestinian group, consult on their next move after being to deported to Qatar from Jordan, which insists the men left of their own "free will." Jordan-Hamas-Qatar 600 words moved. PAGE 181 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 by Dima Khatib -- AMERICAS -- WASHINGTON: The Pentagon signaled its opposition to a proposal that would limit the US military's use of a replacement air facility in Okinawa to 15 years, saying it was "premature." US-Japan-Okinawa,lead 530 words around 2230 GMT by Jim Mannion and Matthew Lee BOGOTA: By allowing the first extradition of a drug trafficking suspect to the United States in nine years, President Andres Pastrana has taken a calculated risk in facing up to possible reprisals from powerful drug barons. Colombia-US-extradite,sched 600 words around 2330 GMT by Jacques Thomet UNITED NATIONS: Iraq begins to close off its UN-controlled oil exports in an apparent attempt to push the Security Council into removing the sanctions it imposed in 1990 over the Gulf War. Iraq-UN-oil 600 words around 2230 GMT by Robert Holloway -- ASIA -- MOTAAIN, Indonesia: Indonesian officials and the commander of PAGE 182 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 the multinational force for East Timor agree to speed up the repatriation of refugees languishing for almost two months in camps in West Timor during talks with US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke. Timor-US,2ndlead 650 words moved by Ian Timberlake KARACHI: Ousted Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif say he is suffering mental torture and facing "cooked-up" charges as he appears before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi. Pakistan-Sharif,4thlead 650 words moved by Owais Tohid TOKYO: A Japanese fighter jet slices through overhead power lines as it crashes in flames north of Tokyo, killing the two crew and cutting electricity to 800,000 homes, officials say. Japan-jet,3rdlead 600 words moved TOKYO: Japan's Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. announces a huge group loss of 3.1 billion dollars for the six months to September as it grapples with restructuring and pension costs. Japan-Nissan,3rdlead PAGE 183 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 600 words moved TOKYO: Japan's Okinawa island announced landmark plans to move a major US air base and help settle a three-year row over the heavy US military presence, officials said. Japan-Okinawa,sched-2ndlead 600 words - moved by Miwa Suzuki afp LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 184 LEVEL 1 - 71 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 09:53 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 1069 words HEADLINE: Holbrooke urges repatriation of East Timor refugees BYLINE: Ian Timberlake DATELINE: MOTAAIN, Indonesia, Nov 22 BODY: US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke met Indonesian and UN officials in this border town Monday to urge them to speed up the repatriation of East Timorese refugees from Indonesian West Timor. Holbrooke arrived from Atambua, the town closest to the border with East Timor, with a delegation which included US Assistant State Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth. Holbrooke visited refugees sheltering in an unfinished sports stadium in Atambua, US delegation spokeswoman Mary Alan Glynn said. "Everybody was clearly very scared at the stadium ... You have got to let these guys go home," Glynn said. A lot of people asked Holbrooke and his delegation if it was true that soldiers from the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) were killing women and children if they returned, she said, a rumor obviously circulated to discourage refugees from going back home. "One of the reasons people have not gone home is that they are being fed lies and disinformation," Holbrooke told the Cable News Network (CNN) Monday. "They are being told the fighting is still going on. A lot of Timorese are caught on the wrong side, they are in camps and they are scared because they have done bad things. "The Indonesian government should take the people, and get them out of the camps and, if they want to stay, they can, but tell the rest of the people that it's safe to go home." He and his delegation held closed talks in Motaain with the head of the UN Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) Sergio Vieira de Mello and Interfet commander Major General Peter Cosgrove. Major General Adam Damiri, who heads the Indonesian military command overseeing security in West Timor, also attended along with several of his officers as well as East Nusatenggara province Governor Piet Tallo. PAGE 185 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 Australian Interfet soldiers, Indonesian soldiers from the Kostrad army strategic command and US Marines stood guard around a beachfront tent surrounded by sandbags where the meeting began just before midday. Glynn said the meeting was to discuss "border security," including the overland return of refugees to East Timor. Holbrooke earlier called for the "rapid" repatriation of East Timorese refugees from Indonesia-controlled West Timor. "We hope to encourage a significant increase in the return of refugees from West Timor. There is no reason for continued delay for their return," Holbrooke said in Jakarta. About 230,000 people out of the 260,000 who fled or were deported are still sheltering in West Timor camps after violence erupted following East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence in a UN-held ballot. Military-backed militias went on an unchecked rampage across East Timor after the results were announced in early September that destroyed many towns and forced half the territory's 800,000 people to flee. Their return has been hampered by militia violence and the intimidation of those trying to return while they are in West Timor, relief officials have said. Holbrooke said earlier he hoped to establish "the beginning of a Joint Border Commission which will enable a more rapid passage of the border and less intimidation as the refugee cross." Just as Cosgrove arrived in Motaain, a convoy of four trucks carrying East Timorese refugees was allowed to pass a checkpoint after Indonesian police and military had meticulously checked the identity cards of each adult passenger. Holbrooke also met in Atambua with the Bishop of Atambua Antonius Painratu. "He said there has been militia training in plain sight of the camps," Glynn said. Holbrooke and his team are to travel next to the East Timor capital of Dili to meet leaders of the UN Transitional Adminstration in East Timor and Interfet. They will also meet East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao Tuesday, but a venue has not been announced. Gusmao is staying in Aileu, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Dili. it-bs/jkb/cl Indonesian security authorities and the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) on Monday signed an agreement to accelerate the repatriation of refugees from camps in West Timor. "I am delighted to say an agreement has been reached," said Interfet commander Major General Peter Cosgrove emerging from one hour talks with Indonesian military authorities in an army tent in this border town. PAGE 186 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 The Indonesian signatory was Major General Adam Damiri who heads the Indonesian military command overseeing West Timor. US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke, who took part in the talks and witnessed the signing, said the agreement was a new border commission agreement which would keep the border open for the return of refugees and accelerate the emptying of the refugee camps in West Timor. Under the agreement those refugees wanting to go home would be repatriated while those wanting to stay would be reintegrated into Indonesian society. "I am profoundly moved by what has happened here today (Monday) ... the proof on whether it is historic or not will depend on the implementation," Holbrooke said. About 230,000 people out of the 260,000 who fled or were deported are still sheltering in West Timor camps after violence erupted following East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence in a UN-held ballot. Military-backed militias went on an unchecked rampage across East Timor after the results were announced in early September that destroyed many towns and forced half the territory's 800,000 people to flee. Their return has been hampered by militia violence and the intimidation of those trying to return while they are in West Timor, relief officials have said. Holbrooke, who visited a refugee camp in Atambua, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) south, said refugees in West Timor camps were being fed disinformation by the militias to discourage them from returning home. "People are being told absolute lies by the militias, they are told that Australian troops are raping women, the refugees have been told that the fighting is still going on," Holbrooke said. "There is a tremendous disinformation going on, and then there is physical intimidation." Holbrooke who was accompanied by a delegation which included US Assistant State Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth, went by land to Batugade where they took a US helicopter to fly to Dili. it-bs/jkb/cl LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 187 LEVEL 1 - 72 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 18:25 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 644 words HEADLINE: UN humanitarian agencies set to launch worldwide fund drive for 2000 DATELINE: GENEVA, Nov 22 BODY: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday will help UN humanitarian agencies to launch a global plea for funds destined for the populations of 14 of the world's poorest countries or regions. The United Nations said its agencies would ask the international community to donate 2.4 billion dollars (2.3 billion euros) next year. Agencies participating in the fundraising drive include the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the UN Development Programme. For the second straight year, the UN agencies are collaborating to raise money, instead of announcing their fund drives separately. cr/sst/ml UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday will help UN humanitarian agencies launch a global plea for 2.4 billion dollars (2.3 billion euros) to aid the populations of 15 of the world's poorest countries or regions. The United Nations said its agencies would ask the international community to donate the money next year. Agencies participating in the fundraising drive include the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the UN Development Programme. For the second straight year, the UN agencies are collaborating to raise money, instead of announcing their fund drives separately. For the Balkans the agencies are asking for 659.8 million dollars, covering food, shelter, health, education and human rights protection. In Albania and Macedonia the aid is for Kosovar refugees and their host families, whereas in Bosnia and Croatia it is to provide shelter and rehabilitation for those returning to their homes. Emergency aid for Yugoslavia is destined for displaced people as well as establishing basic services destroyed in the recent conflict. PAGE 188 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 In each country the largest sum required is for food aid. For Angola 258.5 million dollars includes 214.1 million just for food aid. The UN pointed out Monday that of a population of 12.6 million, a million had lost their homes through war and a total of 3.7 million needed help. In North Korea, hit in past years by famine, nearly 90 percent of the funds required would be spent on food. Detailing the need for 220.7 million dollars of funds for Afghanistan the UN said the country had the highest rates for infant mortality and deaths in childbirth in the world. Some 2.6 million Afghans were refugees, it said. The UN warned that without intervention fewer than 35 percent of Afghans would have access to medical services and the infant mortality rate would rise above 257 in every thousand, some 200,000 refugees would be unable to return home and a demining programme would have to be abandoned. It also estimated that Africa's Great Lakes region and central Africa needed 162.9 million dollars to help refugees in Tanzania, who have come from Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A separate appeal of 70.6 million dollars is being made for Burundi itself. The specialist UN agencies are also calling for 199 million dollars for 650,000 displaced people in East Timor. cr/sst/lb/ml UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday will help UN humanitarian agencies to launch a global plea for 2.4 billion dollars to aid populations of 15 of the world's poorest countries or regions. Beneficiaries and aid totals in millions of dollars are: 659.8 - South-east Europe: Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Yugoslavia, including Kosovo 331.7 - North Korea 258.5 - Angola 220.7 - Afghanistan 199.0 - East Timor 162.9 - Great Lakes region and Central Africa 125.6 - Sudan 124.2 - Somalia 71.3 - Democratic Republic of Congo PAGE 189 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 62.6 - Sierra Leone 70.6 - Burundi 56.0 - Uganda 34.8 - Tajikistan 17.1 - Congo 16.1 - North Caucasus cr/lb LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 190 LEVEL 1 - 73 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 02:26 GMT SECTION: Financial pages LENGTH: 979 words HEADLINE: AFP Asia-Pacific news agenda BODY: Duty Editor: Alex Perry Tel: Hong Kong (852) 2802 0223 Nov 22 (AFP) - Asia-Pacific news highlights on Monday: + US Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke and Assistant State Secretary Stanley Roth visit East Timor's refugees + Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji leaves Beijing on four-nation tour of Asia + Ousted Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif meets family for first time since military coup Please also read our Asia-press-headlines and Asia-press-South. AUCKLAND: America's Cup challenger series. (Yachting-AmCup) Following New Zealand's general election campaign. (NZealand-vote) BANGKOK: Following diplomatic attempts to ease relations between Bangkok and Yangon strained by a hostage siege at Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok last month. (Thailand-Myanmar) Start of the 44th Asia-Pacific Film Festival, one of the oldest movie festivals in the world. Pictures. Coverage on merit. Loy Krathong Buddhist Water Festival. Picture. Weekly Economic Ministers' Council meeting. Coverage on merit. BEIJING: Following up launch of China's manned space flight program after successful unmanned experimental launch. (China-space) Premier Zhu Rongji leaves Beijing (0200 GMT) on a four-nation tour to Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Pictures. Graphic. (China-ASEAN-Zhu). PAGE 191 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 COLOMBO: Following developments in Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist conflict after the shelling of a Roman Catholic church in which 38 civilians died. (SriLanka-Tamil) DHAKA: Opposition MPs led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia stage anti-government protests in Dhaka. Picture. (Bangladesh-politics) DILI, East Timor: Arrival of US Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke and Assistant State Secretary Stanley Roth in Dili. Pictures. (Timor-US) Monitoring refugee returns and relief distribution. (Timor) HONG KONG: Monitoring financial markets. (Stocks-HongKong) ISLAMABAD: Former premier Nawaz Sharif is to meet his family for the first time since his ouster in an army coup on October 12. (Pakistan-Sharif). JAKARTA: US Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke and Assistant State Secretary Stanley Roth visit refugee camps in Atambua in West Timor before leaving later Monday for Dili, East Timor. No schedule released. Pictures. (Timor-US.) Monitoring separatist movement in troubled province of Aceh. (Indonesia-Aceh) President Abdurrahman Wahid expected to leave for Middle East tour and Manila Asean summit. (Indonesia-Wahid) Monitoring developments in Ambon, wracked by Muslim-Christian violence. (Indonesia-Ambon) KABUL: Monitoring developments related to fighting and United Nations sanctions on Afghanistan. (Afghan-fighting), (Afghan-UN) KARACHI: Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of deposed Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif, tearfully insists her husband is innocent and begs for a fair trial. (Pakistan-Sharif-wife) KUALA LUMPUR: Following campaigning for Malaysia's November 29 general election (Malaysia-vote). Also moving advancers on how the Chinese community may vote (Malaysia-vote-Chinese) and voters' views in one suburban constituency (Malaysia-vote-suburb). Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad holds welcoming ceremony for visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji. Pictures. (0800 GMT) (Malaysia-China) Asia Cup hockey: Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka (0800 GMT), Malaysia vs Japan (1000 GMT), India vs Hongkong (1200 GMT). (FHockey-Asia) MACAU: A month ahead of the handover of Europe's last colony in continental Asia, Portugal is sprucing up what has long been a slightly worn haven of gambling, prostitution, and lately, Chinese triad violence. (Macau-handover-crime) MANILA: Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary General Rodolfo Severino to hold press conference (0200 GMT) to discuss upcoming PAGE 192 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 informal summit to be held here. Graphic. (ASEAN-summit) NEW DELHI: Covering last month's cyclone which devastated India's eastern state of Orissa leaving thousands dead. (India-cyclone). Covering Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok's visit to India. Pictures. (India-Netherlands) Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee likely to reshuffle cabinet and council of ministers. Covering as spot. (India-cabinet) PHNOM PENH: Public holiday in Cambodia, which is celebrating the annual water festival. Coverage on merit. Pictures. SEOUL: South Korea forms a task force to deal with complaints by victims of US-supplied toxic Agent Orange sprayed along the border with North Korea some 30 years ago. (SKorea-US-defoliant) Monitoring Seoul's financial markets. (Stocks-SKorea) SHANGHAI: Air France to sign code-sharing agreement with China Eastern Airlines (0930 GMT). (China-France-aviation) SINGAPORE : United Nations Institute for Research and Training begins two-day conference here on peacekeeping and peace building. (UN-peacekeeping) SYDNEY: Labor opposition expected to back new government bid to turn back tide of illegal immigrants. (Australia-boatpeople) Auditors report due out on flawed Olympic ticketing programme. (Oly-Sydney) Australia facing final day battle to save third cricket Test against Pakistan. (Cricket-Pakistan) TAIPEI: Economic ministry is due to release October export orders. (0230 GMT) (Taiwan-export) Monitoring presidential campaigning for the island's second direct presidential elections in March. (Taiwan-politics) TOKYO: Corporate results for six months to September, including Nissan Motor, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Sanwa Bank, Daiwa Bank, Mitsubishi Trust and Banking, Mitsui Trust and Banking, Chuo Trust and Banking, Sumitomo Trust and Banking, Toyo Trust and Banking, East Japan Railways. Monitoring financial markets. (Stocks-Japan) World Cup men's volleyball matches. (Volley-world) The timing of events can vary and is provided as a guide for planning purposes. Specific times for main stories are contained in our regular news advisories. afp PAGE 193 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 194 LEVEL 1 - 74 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 03:38 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 526 words HEADLINE: Holbrooke heads to West Timor border town to visit refugees DATELINE: JAKARTA, Nov 22 BODY: Visiting US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke on Monday headed to the West Timor border town of Atambua after calling for the speedy repatriation of East Timorese still sheltering in the Indonesian territory. "The US guests, accompanied by the governor, left for Atambua by bus this morning," a member of staff at the East Nusatenggara provincial office said by telephone from Kupang, the main town in West Timor. The 180-kilometre (112-mile) overland trip between Kupang and Atambua just near the border with East Timor takes at least seven hours. Holbrooke, accompanied by US Assistant State Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth, arrived on Sunday in Kupang where they met Governor Piet Tallo and visited refugee camps in Noelbaki. Earlier after talks in Jakarta, Holbrooke said Washington wanted to see the "rapid" repatriation of East Timorese refugees from Indonesia-controlled West Timor. "We hope to encourage a significant increase in the return of refugees from West Timor. There is no reason for continued delay for their return," Holbrooke told a meeting with journalists and diplomats here. West Timor is still home to about 230,000 people out of the 260,000 who fled there after pro-Jakarta militias went on the rampage following East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence in a UN-held ballot. The military-backed militias went on an unchecked campaign of terror, violence and destruction across East Timor after the results were announced in early September that left many of the towns and cities destroyed and forced half of the territory's 800,000 people to flee their homes. Their return has been hampered by militia violence and the intimidation of those trying to return while they are in West Timor, relief officials have said. Holbrooke has also called for "full accountability" of the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) following allegations of military collusion in the campaign of murder, rape and looting by anti-independence militia which swept the territory in September. PAGE 195 Agence France Presse, November 22, 1999 Indonesia's own human rights investigators said Saturday that the top brass, including then military chief General Wiranto, plotted the systematic destruction of East Timor and the murder of independence leaders should the territory vote to break from Jakarta. A UN commission of inquiry is due in East Timor Wednesday to investigate the violence there. Jakarta has said it would not be legally bound by the results of the inquiry. On Thursday, the US senate linked the resumption of US military assistance to substantial progress in prosecuting members of the Indonesian armed forces and militia members over the post-ballot violence. After visiting the camps, Holbrooke and his team will travel to the East Timor capital of Dili where they were expected to meet leaders of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor and the International Force for East Timor. They will meet East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao on Tuesday, but a venue has not been specified. Gusmao is currently staying in Aileu, a town some 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Dili. bs/jkb/rob LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 196 LEVEL 1 - 75 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 22, 1999 04:00 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 121 words HEADLINE: Australian PM to visit East Timor DATELINE: CANBERRA, Nov 22 BODY: Prime Minister John Howard told parliament on Monday he will visit Australian troops leading the United Nations backed peacekeeping force in East Timor at the weekend. The visit is the first by an international leader to the embattled former Indonesian province since it won its freedom a few weeks ago. "I just wanted to inform the House that it would be my intention to visit elements of the Australian Defence Force serving with the UNAMET force in East Timor next weekend," Howard told parliament. He said he would convey the thanks of all Australians to the soldiers, who landed in East Timor on September 20 in what has proved to be a successful effort to restore peace to the embattled territory. jt/rob LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 197 LEVEL 1 - 76 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Asia Pulse Pte Limited ASIA PULSE November 22, 1999 SECTION: Nationwide Financial News LENGTH: 551 words HEADLINE: US SUPPORTS PEACEFUL DIALOG, NOT MARTIAL LAW ON ACEH DATELINE: JAKARTA, Nov 22 BODY: The United States supports a peaceful dialog and opposes law imposition in dealing with the restive province of Aceh, Richard C. Holbrooke, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said here Sunday. "The United States support dialog between the government and the people of Aceh, which Gus Dur (President Abdurrahman Wahid) is also seeking," Holbrooke told Indonesian and international press at the residence of US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert S.Gelbard. "We are not going to interfere in the internal affairs of another country. But Indonesia is an enormously important country to the United States. It's now the third largest democracy in the world," he said. The US supported President Wahid's opposition to martial law, discouraged violence and strongly encouraged a dialog and peaceful resolution of the problem in Aceh, said Holbrooke who was accompanied by Assistant to the US Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth. He said accountability and free press were two important ways in democracy. "We are glad to see there is a free press now and we hope to see accountability in Indonesia," he said. Without interfering in Indonesia's internal affairs, he said he hoped that the Indonesian Parliament would move to put in place a system of full internal accountability. Accountability was very important to deal with the problem in Aceh by bringing those found guilty for human rights violation to court, he stated. Meanwhile on East Timor, he said that displaced people of East Timor must be able to go home and concerned parties must permit and even facilitate for a rapid return of the refugees who are now in East Nusa Tenggara province (West Timor), he said. Holbrooke and his group were scheduled to immediately leave for Kupang after the press conference. The US group, which he described as the highest level American trip sent by the US Secretary of State and President to Indonesia since the change of government in the crisis-hit country, will meet with East Timorese refugees still camped in Kupang on Sunday, and will go to Atambua and the border of Indonesia and East Timor on Monday. PAGE 198 ASIA PULSE November 22, 1999 "We hope to encourage a significant increase in the return of refugees from West Timor. There is no reason for continued delay for their return. We see no reason for international relief efforts to spend their money on camps in West Timor, instead of spending those same resources on allowing the refugees to return to their homes and villages in East Timor," he said. The US wanted to see a rapid return of the refugees, who had been prevented and intimidated by misinformation, a gang of people called militias and by a failure on the border, he said. To clarify the border problem, the US group will meet with officials from the East Timor side, Interfet (International Force for East Timor) and Indonesia's senior military officers on the border area. "We hope to establish on the border the beginning of a Joint Border Commission which will enable a more rapid passage of the border and less intimidation as the refugee cross," the US ambassador said. Holbrooke on Saturday had meetings with among others President Wahid, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri and a number of ministers. (ANTARA) LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 199 LEVEL 1 - 77 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 British Broadcasting Corporation BBC Summary of World Broadcasts November 22, 1999, Monday SECTION: Part 3 Asia-Pacific; INDONESIA; EAST TIMOR; FE/D3698/B LENGTH: 508 words HEADLINE: Exiled Aceh leader rejects talks with government SOURCE: Source: Radio Australia, Melbourne, in English 1105 gmt 18 Nov 99 BODY: [4] Excerpts from report by Radio Australia on 18th November [Presenter Peter Mares] Indonesia's military has voiced its opposition to a referendum [in Aceh] in blunt terms. Chief spokesman Maj-Gen Sudrajat says that if the Acehnese were allowed to vote on independence, then there would be soldiers who would make efforts to defend the nation's sovereignty and wipe out separatism. The man who claims to be Aceh's true ruler is equally unimpressed by President Wahid's comment in Tokyo this week that a referendum could be held in seven months'time. Seventy-two-year-old Tengku Hasan di Tiro traces his royal lineage back five centuries but he has lived in exile in Sweden for almost 30 years. He claims that Aceh is already an independent state and that any referendum in the territory can only organized by the United Nations, and the Tengku says there is no point talking to the Javanese President Abdurrahman Wahid... [Mares] You're not interested in speaking to President Abdurrahman Wahid? [Tengku] No, I'm not interested because we are Aceh. You know, Acehnese is independent state. Do you understand that? [Q] But in Aceh itself around a million people have protested calling for a referendum. It's clearly the demand of the Acehnese people to have a referendum. [A] So? What you are asking now? [Q] What's your response to the popular demonstrations in Aceh calling for a referendum? [A] Well, if the people in Aceh want it, that is OK. Do you understand? So, the thing is the United Nations should do the matter. [Q] It must be run by the United Nations? [A] Yes, just like what happened in East Timor. [Q] Indonesia now has a new president, a reformist president, a respected Islamic leader in Indonesia. Don't you think it would be an opportunity now to PAGE 200 The British Broadcasting Corporation, November 22, 1999 enter into a dialogue with the Indonesian government? [A] No, the United Nations has to do it, not anybody. [Q] So even if President Wahid approached you for negotiations, for discussions, you wouldn't respond? [A] That will depend. The most important is what the United Nations is to do. It is Indonesian politics. I am not interested to do it with president of Indonesia. [Q] But even to organize the United Nations referendum, surely it would be helpful for you to meet and talk with the Indonesian government or representatives of the government? [A] No, I am speaking with the United Nations. That is all. [Q] Members of President's Wahid own government are Acehnese. The Minister for Human Rights Mr Hasballah Saad is an Acehnese. Surely that indicates some good will on the part of the new government in Jakarta? [A] We are not interested in that. You know what happened in Aceh. You know we have been at war there and whatever the Javanese try to do, just to their interest there. I'm not interested in that any more with the Javanese. [Mares] Exiled leader Tengku Hasan di Tiro, who's the president of the Aceh-Sumatra Liberation Front, speaking to me from his home near Stockholm. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 201 LEVEL 1 - 78 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 British Broadcasting Corporation BBC Summary of World Broadcasts November 22, 1999, Monday SECTION: Part 3 Asia-Pacific; INDONESIA; EAST TIMOR; FE/D3698/B LENGTH: 163 words HEADLINE: Militia activity in West slows refugee repatriation SOURCE: Source: Radio Australia, Melbourne, in English 0100 gmt 20 Nov 99 BODY: [5] Text of report by Radio Australia on 20th November The United Nations has warned it may have to cancel its program to repatriate East Timorese refugees, because of an escalation in militia violence in Indonesian-controlled West Timor. Geoff Thompson reports, almost 80,000 refugees have now returned to East Timor. [Thompson] Up to 200,000 East Timorese people, nearly one-quarter of the territory's pre-vote population, is still displaced in West Timor. In the last month, the flow of refugees returning home has picked up pace. Almost 80,000 refugees have now crossed the border, 30,000 of those spontaneously and the rest with the assistance of UN refugee workers. But the increasing intensity of militia violence and intimidation in recent days has cut down the flow of refugees. Unless the intimidation stops, the United Nations High Commission [as heard] for Refugees says it may have to suspend its repatriation programme. Geoff Thompson, Dili. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 202 LEVEL 1 - 79 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 British Broadcasting Corporation BBC Summary of World Broadcasts November 22, 1999, Monday SECTION: Part 3 Asia-Pacific; INDONESIA; EAST TIMOR; FE/D3698/B LENGTH: 159 words HEADLINE: Leader based in Australia criticizes aid distribution SOURCE: Source: Radio Australia, Melbourne, in English 0700 gmt 20 Nov 99 BODY: [7] Text of report by Radio Australia on 20th November An East Timorese leader based in Australia says aid agencies working in the region have had such poor distribution methods that some of the food has ended up being sold in the local markets. The president of the East Timor Relief Association, Abel Guterres, says the United Nations-led relief mission is not cooperating with local East Timorese organizations on the ground. He held talks on the issue this week with the UN and independence leader, Xanana Gusmao. Mr Guterres says some people are getting no food from the agencies while others have so much they are selling it. [Guterres] Where would they get the food, where would they get the rice to sell there, where would they get oil. If it's not from the distribution from the aid agencies, because there is no other food imports into East Timor other than what has been distributed - same kind of rice, same kind of oil. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 203 LEVEL 1 - 80 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 British Broadcasting Corporation BBC Summary of World Broadcasts November 22, 1999, Monday SECTION: Part 3 Asia-Pacific; PHILIPPINES; FE/D3698/B LENGTH: 588 words HEADLINE: Leader Gusmao ditches Interfet troops for own bodyguard SOURCE: Source: RTP Internacional TV, Lisbon, in Portuguese 2000 gmt 19 Nov 99 BODY: [9] Excerpts from report by Portuguese TV on 19th November The Falintil [East Timorese guerrillas] and Interfet were on a collision course today when [East Timorese leader, president of the National Council of the Timorese Resistance, CNRT] Xanana [Gusmao] decided he could do without the Interfet troops who usually escort him and instead picked his own Falintil bodyguards. The Interfet commander, Maj-Gen Cosgrove, was not best pleased and at one point had a kind of shoving contest with Xanana's bodyguards. The matter was cleared up with mutual apologies. Our special Dili correspondent, Marcelo Sobral, has the details. [Sobral] Xanana Gusmao went into Dili in the morning and walked from the centre of city to the headquarters of UNTAET [United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor]. There was nothing surprising about the large number of Timorese all along the route, since their enthusiastic devotion to the CNRT president is well known. What was surprising were the Falintil soldiers, bearing arms around their leader, acting as bodyguards for Xanana Gusmao instead of the usual Australian Interfet troops. Today the leader of the CNRT decided to break off his ties. The Falintil escorted him from the town of Aileu, the future capital of Timor Loro Sae where he has his GHQ, to his important meeting today with the UN administrator for the transition period [the Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello]. It soon became clear that Xanana had given clear instructions to the Falintil. At the entrance to the UNTAET headquarters, Maj-Gen Cosgrove himself was temporarily barred from the building by the Falintil. Before going in to meet Sergio Vieira de Mello, Xanana gave his instructions. You Falintil will stay here [at the main door, as per footage shown, with Xanana heard giving said instructions in the Tetum dialect] standing at ease with your rifles, he said. Keep a look out. If Interfet try to come in, you stop them. If they try to force their way in, you take up your weapons and stop them. PAGE 204 The British Broadcasting Corporation, November 22, 1999 Having given his instructions, a grim-looking Xanana went in to discuss the future of the territory with Sergio Vieira de Mello. [Studio link with continuation of report omitted, returning to the same correspondent] Sergio Vieira de Mello and Xanana Gusmao talked all day long. Afterwards the administrator of the territory spoke of how things will be from now on: [Sergio Vieira de Mello] We are not speaking in terms of a protectorate, we are not speaking of imported infrastructures, we are not speaking of an authoritarian process. We are speaking of a process of inclusion, of dialogue, of participation, a participatory process, as pluralistic as possible, based on joint decision-taking. [Sobral] ... Xanana Gusmao, for his part, expressed the CNRT's total commitment and availability for the pursuit of such goals. [Xanana Gusmao] I cannot deny that there have been feelings of mistrust and frustration on the part of the CNRT when at times it appeared that there was no longer any possibility of dialogue. I would like to say that, as far as we are concerned, we are fully committed to helping UNAMET [as heard] carry out its mission of preparing the Timorese to govern their new nation. [Sobral] This meeting, described by the participants as very successful, had another item on its agenda. This was the farewell of Ian Martin, the head of UNTAET who oversaw the entire referendum process, who is leaving the territory... LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 205 LEVEL 1 - 81 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Christian Science Publishing Society The Christian Science Monitor November 22, 1999, Monday SECTION: OPINION; Pg. 9 LENGTH: 728 words HEADLINE: Don't forget refugees left in West Timor BYLINE: Eric Umansky BODY: As I walked into the Noelbaki refugee camp in West Timor, the Indonesian police assigned an East Timorese refugee named Dede to be my "escort." As soon as we left sight of the police, he whispered, "I have been forced here to West Timor. I want to go back to East Timor, but I'm scared." There are roughly 200,000 East Timorese refugees in West Timor. The United Nations estimates that 60 to 70 percent want to return to their country. But anti-independence militia - who torched East Timor in early September after citizens voted for independence from Indonesia - control many of the camps. The refugees haven't returned because the militias don't want to let them go. But they will have to. With pressure from Indonesia and the UN, the refugees are already being returned. The questions now are, how long it will take, and at what cost. The militias do not want international attention focused on the camps and harass journalists and UN workers trying to visit. I was fortunate not to be harassed, when, with the help of a police escort, I visited two camps in the first week of November as a human rights worker. The Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights, an official government agency, visited West Timor early this month and documented militia violations in refugee camps, including rape, abduction, and forced militia service. Refugees who express any desire to return home become targets. One man told me he saw militia members stab to death two men on a West Timor road who were on their way to cross back into East Timor. Until recently the UN played a passive role in repatriating refugees. Those who could make it on their own to major UN transit points got a free ride to East Timor. But the flow of refugees from West to East Timor had slowed. So early this month the UN launched "extraction operations" to rescue refugees from militia-run camps. The UN quietly takes a count of how many people want to leave, then, usually with Indonesian Army escorts, brings in enough trucks to take everyone out at once. By the time the militia knows who is leaving, the theory goes, it's too late to harm the refugees. The effort is paying off. According to the UN, in one three-day period last week, 8,000 refugees returned. The militias, which have fled their homeland of East Timor and now are without a mission from Indonesia, aren't thrilled to see their last trump card - the PAGE 206 The Christian Science Monitor, November 22, 1999 refugees - slip away. Four days after my visit, a UN convoy trying to repatriate refugees from Noelbaki was driven off by a militia group. Last week, the UN tried again to "extract" refugees from Noelbaki, but was harassed and left with just 16 people - out of 7,000 refugees. A militia group closed one border crossing last week and abducted two men. The Indonesian Army was there, but apparently decided that forcing the militia to reopen the border would be inappropriate. The border crossing stayed closed . "The problem isn't in East Timor anymore, it's here," a top UNICEF official in West Timor told me. "Embassies need to pressure the new Indonesian government to tell the militia to stop playing around." On Nov. 12, the newly elected, reform-minded president of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, met with President Clinton and promised refugees would be allowed to return. He even ordered Army planes to help the effort. Mr. Wahid should be commended for his stance, but he needs to make his word stick with the military. It won't be easy. In Indonesia, the president often orders one thing and the military does another. In order to truly guarantee the safety of returning refugees, the military needs to be willing to disarm and even fight the militias. That will be difficult. Indonesia's military would be cutting off and selling out a force it created. And pro-Indonesian forces in other wannabe break-away provinces would surely take notice. The militias are going to lose in the end. The UN will eventually repatriate everybody who wants to return. How long will it take? How many will be killed in the meantime? *Eric Umansky is the former editor of Mother Jones Interactive. He interviewed refugees in West Timor on behalf of Tapol, a London-based human rights organization that focuses on Indonesia. (c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 207 LEVEL 1 - 82 OF 156 STORIES Content and programming copyright 1999 Cable News Network Transcribed under license by Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. Formatting copyright 1999 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to Cable News Network. This transcript may not be copied or resold in any media. CNN SHOW: CNN NEWS DAY 12:00 am ET November 22, 1999; Monday 12:11 am Eastern Time Transcript # 99112202V11 TYPE: PACKAGE SECTION: News; International LENGTH: 455 words HEADLINE: U.S. Ambassador to U.N. Visits Indonesia, Brokers Agreement for Joint Timor Border Commission BYLINE: Jeanne Meserve, Maria Ressa HIGHLIGHT: For the first time since Indonesian soldiers left East Timor nearly two months ago, there was the first high-level meeting between the commander of the INTERFET and Indonesian generals. Brokered by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke and U.N. chief Sergio Vieiera de Mello, both sides agreed to form a joint border commission. BODY: THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Richard Holbrooke, is in Indonesia visiting camps housing refugees who fled East Timor. CNN Jakarta bureau chief Maria Ressa reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): On the border between West and East Timor, troops are on alert. For the first time since Indonesian soldiers left East Timor nearly two months ago, the first high-level meeting between the commander of the INTERFET, or the International Forces in East Timor, and Indonesian generals. Brokered by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke and U.N. chief Sergio Vieiera de Mello, both sides agreed to form a joint border commission. PAGE 208 CNN NEWS DAY, November 22, 1999 SERGIO VIEIERA DE MELLO, CHIEF OF U.N. MISSION: Basically, to restore confidence between INTERFET, the U.N. and the Indonesian government, particularly the Indonesian armed forces. RESSA: The goal is to prevent potential conflict on this sensitive border and allow refugees to return home. More than 250,000 people fled the violence in East Timor, filling refugee camps like this in West Timor, about four to 10 hours away from the border. Although the violence has stopped, only 70,000 have returned home. This women explains: "The militia are intimidates refugees in the camp, so it's hard to return home." Ambassador Holbrooke spoke with many refugees in this camp. All told him they didn't want to leave, but he didn't believe them. RICHARD HOLBROOKE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: No, I think their answers are meaningless in this context. The whole -- the whole camp has been terrorized by the people standing right in back of us. OK, let's go. RESSA: Following his group closely: this man, identified to CNN as an undercover agent for Indonesian security forces. But the Indonesians deny there's any pressure on the refugees. "They're doing it themselves," says governor Peet Talo (ph). "We're too poor to take care of them. Why should we prevent them from going home?" Now an agreement may help. Still, some of the generals who signed are the very same ones accused of aiding in East Timor's destruction. (on camera): It seems the situation here remains as complicated as ever. No matter what, Ambassador Holbrooke says there should be one goal: to clear the camps and settle the refugees. Either allow them to return to East Timor or set up new homes in Indonesia. Maria Ressa, CNN, on the border between West and East Timor. (END VIDEOTAPE) TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 209 LEVEL 1 - 83 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Des Moines Register, Inc. The Des Moines Register November 22, 1999, Monday SECTION: Main News Pg.2 LENGTH: 650 words HEADLINE: The World SOURCE: Registers Wire Service BODY: COLOMBIA Heroin defendant extradited to U.S. Police put a man accused of heroin trafficking on a U.S. government plane to Florida on Sunday, the first time in nearly a decade Colombia has turned over one of its nationals to stand trial in the United States. The handover of 30-year-old Jaime Orlando Lara to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration came 10 days after a deadly terrorist bomb exploded in Bogota in what many suspected was a warning against extraditions. President Andres Pastrana defiantly signed Lara's extradition papers just hours after the Nov. 11 explosion, which killed eight bystanders in an upscale shopping district. Colombia exports 80 percent of the world's cocaine. RUSSIA Grozny's rebels gird for Russian attack About 5,000 rebels have barricaded themselves in the Chechen capital, bracing for a Russian offensive as federal troops close in after weeks of relentless shelling, military officials said Sunday. On Chechnya's borders, refugees pushed through wet snow and a damp wind to flee the breakaway republic. Most were on foot, although some crossed in cars sagging with sweaters, pots and blankets. Russian forces have the capital, Grozny, 80 percent surrounded and were trying to complete the circle by advancing on the towns of Urus-Martan and Achkhoi-Martan to the south and southwest, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Sunday. The Russians were reported to be as close as 3 miles from Grozny. Russian aircraft have been shelling Grozny and suspected rebel bases throughout the Caucasus Mountains republic for weeks. PAGE 210 The Des Moines Register, November 22, 1999 INDONESIA U.S. opposes force in troubled state Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, visited Jakarta Sunday and said that the Clinton administration opposes calls for martial law in the troubled Aceh province. President Abdurrahman Wahid has also resisted emergency measures in the province. About 5,000 people have died or disappeared in the fighting between separatist rebels and security forces in Aceh over the past decade. Earlier this month, about 500,000 people staged the largest protest rally in Indonesia's history to demand an East Timor-style independence referendum. POLAND 25 people die in frigid weather The quick onset of cold winter weather has killed 25 people across Poland so far. A 48-year-old woman was found frozen to death in the yard of her Lublin home after a night of drinking, and the body of a 53-year-old man was found in a fire station. On Saturday, authorities discovered a 43-year-old man frozen to death in the fields near Sitawka. After a mild but brief fall, temperatures suddenly plunged as low as 5 degrees in late October, and winter weather with snow and subfreezing temperatures arrived last week. Last winter, police reported 225 cold-related deaths across Poland. Most were middle-aged men who had been drinking before they died. ALGERIA Child dies, 3 hurt in school bus attack One child was killed and three others wounded when Islamic militants bombed a school bus in northeastern Algeria, the Algerian media reported Sunday. Militants attacked the bus Saturday in the village of Tamerdjit, 160 miles east of Algiers, the daily La Tribune reported Sunday. Also Saturday, 15 people were killed and eight wounded in an attack south of the capital. In another attack earlier in the week, about 20 people, mostly women and children, were slaughtered. IN THE NEWS * ITALY: President Clinton's quest this week to bring peace to the Balkans is one of a half-dozen loose foreign policy strings he is scrambling to tie PAGE 211 The Des Moines Register, November 22, 1999 together in his remaining year in office. Page 3A * YUGOSLAVIA: For homeless Kosovars, the ruins of war are often the only shelter as winter sets in; relief organizations have been overwhelmed by poor planning and bureaucracy. Page 7A Photo: Jaime Orlando Lara Accused of heroin trafficking LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 212 LEVEL 1 - 84 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Deutsche Presse-Agentur Deutsche Presse-Agentur November 22, 1999, Monday, BC Cycle 11:33 Central European Time SECTION: International News LENGTH: 502 words HEADLINE: Human rights group to summons top military men over East Timor DATELINE: Jakarta BODY: Indonesia's independent human rights commission plans to summon the country's military top brass for allegedly colluding in an orgy of murder, rape and arson in East Timor, news reports said Monday. Chairman of Indonesia's Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Abuses in East Timor, or KPP HAM, Albert Hasibuan was quoted as saying on Monday by the afternoon Suara Pembaruan as saying that evidence found indicated that the Indonesian army (TNI) and the militias had worked together in East Timor. "TNI and the militia colluded in the scorched-earth policy, shootings and killings of the East Timorese people," Hasibuan was quoted as saying. Hasibuan identified the top military officials, including General Wiranto, the former military commander, Major General Zacky Anwar Makarim and Major General Adam Damiri. "There are at least five human rights violations which claimed the lives of hundreds of East Timorese people and were committed by the militia with the help of military troops there," Hasibuan said. Makarim was former head of military intelligence, while Damiri is former chief of the Bali-based Udayana military command, which previously oversaw East Timor. Hasibuan said that during a visit to East Timor, a KPP HAM team had gathered evidence and testimonies from witnesses, including East Timor's Catholic Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. "In the near future we will bring the findings as evidence of the military's involvement in helping the militia that caused the destruction in East Timor to President Abdurrahman Wahid," he said. "We will seek his (Wahid's) recommendation to summon those military leaders responsible for the human rights violations in East Timor." East Timor's Bishop Belo has also requested that the military leaders be investigated for their part in the violence which wracked East Timor. Hundreds of people are thought to have been massacred in the church compound in September in Suai, the capital of Covalima district. Their bodies have PAGE 213 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 22, 1999 never been found. Hasibuan quoted eyewitnesses as saying hundreds of bodies were taken away after being loaded into three military trucks while many others were burnt at the scene. Indonesia's nine-member commission was set up by the independence Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on September 22 and has until the end of the year to complete its job. The independent commission has the right to subpoena those whom it suspects were involved in human rights abuses in the former province. It has been touted by the Indonesian government as its official East Timor investigation. Jakarta has rejected a similar United Nations inquiry. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, on Sunday called for "full accountability" of the Indonesian military forces following allegations of collusion in the campaign of murder, rape and looting by pro-Jakarta militias in the wake of August 30 referendum for independence. dpa sh js LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 214 LEVEL 1 - 85 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Wellington Newspapers Limited The Dominion (Wellington) November 22, 1999 SECTION: NEWS; NATIONAL; Pg. 8 LENGTH: 452 words HEADLINE: Refugees test NZ troops' emotions BODY: KIWI TROOPS patrolling the border between East and West Timor are having their emotions tested as thousands of emaciated refugees return to their wasted homeland. New Zealand has put many of its logistic and support staff into front-line border crossings to deal with the flood of refugees returning from camps in West Timor. For many Kiwi troops that has meant fewer hot meals and a return to ration packs as cooks, supply and support staff don body armour and carry their semi-automatic Steyr rifles for duty at the border crossings. Army spokesman Bede Fahey said the New Zealand battalion was pulling out all stops to get as many refugees across the border as possible so they could get home and restore some normality to their lives. "The fresh meals which were being cooked are now being reduced to free up some of our people to assist in the screening of the refugees returning." Many refugees were thin, emotional and conditioned by a campaign of misinformation not to trust the Interfet (United Nations Force East Timor) soldiers, Major Fahey said. "We have a number of female cooks working down there (near the border close to the southern East Timor town of Suai) and obviously with the women and female children coming across, we are using women to process them." He said up to 30,000 refugees were waiting to cross the border from the west. At the crossing points they were put through a security check before being taken back to their home towns and villages. "Quite a few of them are ill. There has been a lot of malaria, Tb, and gastro-intestinal illness. They are very lean and have been through the mill, there is no doubt about that." Major Fahey said the New Zealand troops were all keen to pitch in and do what they could to help the refugees, but for many troops it was an emotional experience. "We have got a lot of young soldiers down there and this is the first time they would have been exposed to a humanitarian operation of this sort of scale. "With the condition and the circumstances in which these people are coming back to their homes, they are finding it quite a moving experience. They are quite uplifted by the whole thing. It is something they are very willingly and enthusiastically supporting." PAGE 215 The Dominion (Wellington) November 22, 1999 Major Fahey said the New Zealand soldiers were also providing trucks to take refugees back to their towns and villages and to assist the thinly stretched United Nations aid organisations. The troops were working alongside the Indonesian army with no problems. He said armed militiamen were occasionally seen on the West Timor side of the border but there had been no incidents in the past few weeks. -- NZPA Supplied by New Zealand Press Association LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 216 LEVEL 1 - 86 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Florida Times-Union The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL) November 22, 1999 Monday, City Edition SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL; Pg. A-5 LENGTH: 616 words HEADLINE: WORLD BRIEFING BYLINE: From news services BODY: ISRAEL: PALESTINIANS KEPT FROM JEWISH SETTLEMENTS Palestinian police joined activists in stopping thousands of Palestinians from going to work in Jewish settlements yesterday, prompting a counter-closure by Israel that confined hundreds of Palestinians to their home villages. Meanwhile, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators failed to resolve a dispute over the location of a West Bank troop withdrawal that was to have taken place last week. Angry at settlement expansion in territory where the Palestinians hope to establish a state, activists from a Palestinian anti-settlement group pitched tents at two crossing points between the Palestinian-controlled and Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza, while plainclothes police closed both checkpoints. 'We aim to prevent all workers from going to the settlements so long as they are on the map,' said Hassan Shaaban, an activist leader. In June, Palestinian police conducted a similar operation, blocking workers from reaching their jobs for several days. POLAND: FRIGID WEATHER CLAIMS 25 LIVES WARSAW -- The quick onset of cold winter weather has killed 25 people across Poland so far -- with authorities finding four newly frozen bodies yesterday. Searchers had to use a police dog to find two of the victims, young boys who fell through thin ice on a newly frozen lake near the village of Zienki, about 100 miles east of Warsaw. The boys, ages 6 and 7, disappeared Saturday after getting their parents' permission to play on the icy lake. Authorities discovered two other cold weather victims in eastern Poland yesterday. FRANCE: RESCUERS REACH TRAPPED CAVE EXPLORERS FLAUJAC -- Rescue workers yesterday reached seven cave explorers who had been trapped deep underground for 10 days by high water levels in southwestern France. The cave explorers, stranded 330 feet underground since Nov. 11, were reported in good condition. Workers yesterday began the slow process of helping them ascend. PAGE 217 The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL) November 22, 1999 Monday, For 10 days, while the fate of the cave explorers was uncertain, France followed the story closely, and people sent messages of support to family members. INDONESIA: RELEASE OF E. TIMOR REFUGEES URGED JAKARTA -- A senior U.S. envoy opposed calls for martial law in troubled Aceh province yesterday and urged Indonesia to expedite repatriation of East Timorese refugees. 'We would be delighted if 150,000 refugees in West Timor just got up and went home,' visiting U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said, 'but they are being prevented from doing so by intimidation, by misinformation, by gangs of people who call themselves militias but are thugs.' Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he had asked President Abdurrahman Wahid to speed up the return process. The refugees fled East Timor after Indonesian troops and militiamen went on a rampage after the East Timorese voted for independence Aug. 30. ITALY: POPE NAMES 10 PRIESTS AS SAINTS VATICAN CITY -- Leaning on his staff, Pope John Paul II looked weak yesterday as he gave his church the century's last saints -- 10 priests who gave their lives for their faith in Spain and two Italians. Including the 12 men he proclaimed saints yesterday, John Paul has named 296 saints since becoming pope in 1978. That's one-half of the 592 saints formally added to the Roman Catholic Church's roll of the holy in the last 500 years. The 10 martyrs -- nine born in Spain, the 10th born in Buenos Aires to Spanish parents -- perished in the 1930s, just before or during the Spanish Civil War. Throughout his 22-year-long papacy, John Paul has been passionate about singling out men and women of modern times who can serve as role models for Catholics. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 218 LEVEL 1 - 87 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Kyodo News Service Japan Economic Newswire November 22, 1999, Monday LENGTH: 236 words HEADLINE: U.N. needs more support for peacekeeping DATELINE: SINGAPORE, Nov. 22 Kyodo BODY: The U.N. assistant secretary general for peacekeeping appealed in Singapore on Monday for greater political support and resources for U.N. peacekeeping operations. 'With our deployments in Kosovo and East Timor, we are facing a new type of challenge,' Hedi Annabi, assistant secretary general in the U.N. department of peacekeeping operations, said in a keynote speech to a peacekeeping conference in Singapore. 'We are deploying into areas where previous mechanisms of government have been decisively rejected, and where physical and institutional infrastructures have been razed. Within these settings, beyond administration, we are tasked with creating the entire machinery of a working society, largely from scratch.' These new operations, he said, require a number of skills that have not traditionally been a major element of peacekeeping. U.N. peacekeeping operations urgently require expertise in customs and immigration, taxation, judicial and penal systems, civil administration and civil engineering. They also need forensic experts to address war crimes issues, translators and a public information capacity to reach out to the general public to explain their mandates, he said. 'Today, as we are asked once more to take on a broader role, it is essential that...we have clear political support for undertaking it, and that we are given the necessary resources to allow us to succeed.' LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 219 LEVEL 1 - 88 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 LENGTH: 4676 words HEADLINE: UN As Assembly debate points to uneven responses, US earmarks half of UNHCR contribution for Africa HIGHLIGHT: Need To Protect Refugees and Humanitarian Workers Highlighted; Ukraine Appeals for Aid To Deal with Problems of Chernobyl Aftermath BODY: In the midst of a debate in which many speakers pointed to biases and imbalance in international concern that yielded more humanitarian assistance for some parts of the globe than others, the United States representative announced that 50 per cent of its initial contributions to the Office of the United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the fiscal year 2000 would be earmarked for Africa, to ensure an equitable level of care for African refugees. As the General Assembly discussed ways to strengthen the coordination of United Nations humanitarian assistance and disaster relief programmes, the representative of the United States also highlighted the widespread problem of physical and sexual abuse of women and children who had been forced to flee their homes and land, and said it was the responsibility of all governments to ensure their safety. He further said that the international community must not stand by while refugees and displaced persons were exposed to cross-border attacks or forced recruitment, or held hostage by armed elements within camps, as had been the case in refugee camps in Guinea and Liberia. Speakers continued to identify the protection of humanitarian relief workers as a critical issue, and called for an integrated proactive - as opposed to reactive - strategy to address every stage of natural disasters. The representative of Nigeria said the inadequacy of resources for humanitarian relief was compounded by an uneven geographical and sectoral distribution of funds. The level of relief assistance extended to Kosovo in the Balkans, where some 1.2 million displaced persons had been resettled in two months, contrasted sharply to Angola, where some 1.6 million displaced remained largely ignored. The international community should not feign unawareness of this sad contrast, but should respond in a more balanced manner to the humanitarian needs of societies afflicted by the unfortunate elements that caused human misery. The representative of Ukraine said the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe continued to take their toll on his country. The assessment of the medical and biological consequences of the disaster was one of the most complicated tasks. Among the conspicuous consequences was a tenfold increase in thyroid cancer in children since the accident. It was still unclear how the genetic and immunity status of the population had been affected. Citing continuing problems with radiation containment and woefully inadequate levels of international assistance, he urged the holding of a donors' conference in 2001, on the fifteenth anniversary of the disaster. Statements were made by the representatives of India, Russian Federation, Chile, Mexico, Norway, China, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Egypt. The observer for Palestine also spoke. PAGE 220 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 The Assembly will meet again on Monday at 10 a.m. to continue its debate on humanitarian and disaster relief assistance, and to take up an agenda item on oceans and the law of the sea. Assembly Work Programme The General Assembly met this afternoon to continue its consideration of the agenda item on strengthening coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations. (For background information, see Press Release GA/9663 of 19 November.) Statements CHANDRESH KUMARI (India) said the principles of humanitarian assistance must continue to be based on neutrality, impartiality, full respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and the national unity of States. Further, it must be provided with the consent of the affected countries, and must respect the primacy of the role of the affected States in the implementation of humanitarian assistance within its territory. She rejected the assertion that the offer of humanitarian assistance by the United Nations conferred any right of humanitarian intervention, for which there was no legal basis under the United Nations Charter. She was deeply concerned, she said, over the recent decline in funding levels for humanitarian assistance. There was, thus, an urgent need to guarantee adequate financial resources for humanitarian assistance activities, while ensuring that such resources were not diverted from already scarce resources for development. The sole criterion for such assistance should be human need. Considering that the vast majority of humanitarian emergencies related to natural disasters, the attention those had received, compared with more complex humanitarian emergencies, had been disproportionately inadequate. Efforts must be redoubled to correct those dangerous anomalies, she said. She strongly supported the Secretary-General's view that uneven geographical funding threatened to undermine the basic principle of humanitarian assistance. There should also be a clear distinction between the peacekeeping and peacemaking functions and the principles of humanitarian access, she went on. Similarly, distinctions must be maintained between the political, peacekeeping, human rights and humanitarian work of the Organization. She said the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan had assumed serious proportions. Of great concern was the discrimination against girls, women and religious minorities. Forced displacement of civilians by the Taliban, the deliberate destruction of sparse infrastructure, including the irrigation system in the Shumali plains, and the indiscriminate aerial bombing of civilians, among others, had impeded the provision of relief materials to thousands of internally displaced persons. Hopefully, there would soon be an end to the constraints on humanitarian assistance outlined by the Secretary-General last year. SERGUEI KHETAGUROV, Vice-Minister for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disaster of the Russian Federation, said that the basic principles governing the provision of humanitarian assistance should be neutrality and impartiality; any exceptions would be inadmissible. So far, he said, no adequate steps had been taken to restore the economy of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. Basic amenities, such as hot water and electricity, were still absent; there were hundreds of thousands of internally PAGE 221 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 displaced people, and the public health situation was inadequate. Unless steps were taken to redress these problems, the country could only look forward to a humanitarian crisis. He said the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster were still a cause for concern, notwithstanding the United Nations' admirable efforts to alleviate the situation. His country had sought to implement a number of programmes to alleviate the impact of the catastrophe, but a chronic lack of financial support had made that difficult. It needed international cooperation in order to carry out those projects. He highlighted humanitarian assistance programmes being carried out in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and many parts of Africa. Particular attention must be paid to Africa, where humanitarian needs continued to be acute. The international community must realize that an investment in humanitarian assistance was an investment in peace and normalcy in a country. Noting that in recent years the world had been beset by hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and forest fires - with a death toll of some 50,000 and material damage amounting to more than $100 billion - he said it was imperative to take steps to prevent disasters or at least minimize their effects. He suggested setting up an international task force under United Nations auspices to mitigate the consequences of natural disasters. A network should be established at the country, regional and bilateral levels. It would not duplicate, but rather complement the work already being undertaken by United Nations agencies. His country would offer its expertise in emergency helicopter transport; the experience and technological expertise of other States could also be utilized. Such an international mechanism should be explored and put in place as soon as possible. He hoped a proposal to that effect could be adopted by the General Assembly. JUAN LARRAIN (Chile) said the Economic and Social Council should contribute to generate a climate of trust in humanitarian activities. Preserving the apolitical and impartial nature of such activities was an essential precondition for transparent, international cooperation. Those elements were important to maintain the credibility and universality of humanitarian activities. Moreover, it was necessary to observe principles of international humanitarian law, particularly when it came to averting the suffering of the most vulnerable groups. In that regard, the United Nations must support the work done by society, in particular, by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He said it was necessary to ensure international cooperation to assist States that lacked the capacity to respond. In that regard, there was much work to do. From the standpoint of development, the economic, ecological, environmental and social impact of refugees on host countries was a matter of great concern. Those countries that received great flows of refugees should not have to assume the high costs deriving from those humanitarian emergencies. The damage caused by refugee flows - from epidemics and deterioration of the environment, for example - constituted a serious threat for those countries. MANUEL TELLO (Mexico) said it was regrettable that, in addition to humanitarian tragedies caused by natural disasters, there were emergencies created by conflicts. Strengthening international cooperation for development was essential. Humanitarian assistance was a complex task that required clear and defined parameters. Such assistance must be provided in accordance with the principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality, with due regard to sovereignty and territorial integrity. An integral approach was needed to PAGE 222 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 ensure that the United Nations system was effective in providing leadership and coordination in countries affected by crises. He shared the concern over the security of humanitarian workers, who were key elements in the assistance programmes, and extended condolences to the families of such workers who had lost their lives. He also expressed condolences to, and solidarity with, those countries that had recently been struck by natural disasters. The many recent disasters had shown the need to shift from a response perspective to an integral strategy. In that regard, the Rio Group felt that regional cooperation should be promoted to address natural disasters at every phase. At a recent Rio de Janeiro summit, representatives of countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union had set up a programme of cooperation in that regard. He said the United Nations must have the answers to the "why, when and how" of international operations in addressing natural disasters. Humanitarian assistance was a task for all and affected all. It should be undertaken in accordance with the provisions of international law. OLE PETER KOLBY (Norway) said the growing number of natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies, as well as a brutal disregard for humanitarian norms that placed humanitarian workers at risk and denied them access to victims in conflict zones, created a "formidable" humanitarian agenda. He welcomed the progress the Organization had achieved during the past year in managing that agenda. Improved coordination mechanisms had led to a more effective response and more constant focus. He also welcomed closer relations between the humanitarian and political activities of the United Nations at the intergovernmental level, facilitating a move from reaction to prevention. He said that the respect accorded to humanitarian personnel and United Nations staff members must be reinforced, and the perpetrators of violence and harassment against them must be brought to justice. He said that neither geography nor the nature of the disaster, nor the amount of media coverage received, should dictate the right of victims to assistance. Norway was developing a more cohesive national approach to emergency, post-conflict, transition and development issues, to address the root causes of conflict and disaster. It had also striven to raise awareness of the intersection of humanitarian assistance and long-term development efforts. Improved socio-economic development for the Palestinian people living in the occupied Palestinian territories was crucial to the peace process in the Middle East, he said. Norway had renewed its commitment to the process by pledging over $170 million for the next five years to support Palestinian institutions focusing on the planning, education, water and energy sectors, among others. It had also been involved in coordination mechanisms for responses to both short- and long-term humanitarian needs. Pending implementation of a final settlement of the refugee issue, the continued assistance of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) remained indispensable to the Palestinian people. HUANG XUEQI (China) was deeply concerned at the large numbers of disaster victims and refugees who continued to live in dire misery. He deplored the low level of response from donor countries and supported the call of the Economic and Social Council for increased contributions to all consolidated appeals. The United Nations, he said, should strictly abide by the guiding principles laid down in the Charter. United Nations bodies should play their appointed roles in humanitarian efforts. Plans for rehabilitation, reconstruction and development should be drawn up at the stage of crisis management. With a development PAGE 223 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 strategy in place from the beginning, gaps in the transitional period would be reduced, leading to a more stable transition. He said that the focus of international disaster-relief efforts should be shifted from post-disaster response to disaster-management approaches that included disaster prevention and preparedness measures. Eventually, there should be a comprehensive disaster-relief stand-by mechanism. The "white helmet" initiative was such a mechanism offered by States to the United Nations on a voluntary basis. With pre-designated specialized human and technical resources at the ready, it could be an important supplement to humanitarian relief actions. He applauded the work undertaken by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and supported the proposal that the regular budget provide more funds and staff for Office so as to enable it to function even better. YURII SAMOILENKO (Ukraine) said of the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe had been felt for more than 13 years and would continue to have an effect on future generations. Nobody could adequately estimate the scale, or all the aspects, of that disaster's social, economic, humanitarian, ecological, technological and other consequences. The area contaminated by the accident covered 50,000 square kilometres in Ukraine alone. The disaster had affected about 3.5 million inhabitants of Ukraine; some 72,000 had become invalids. Assessment of the medical and biological consequences of the disaster was one of the most complicated tasks. The growth of sickness rates and worsening of the psychophysical state of the population had become more and more conspicuous year by year. The number of cases of thyroid cancer among children had increased more than tenfold since the disaster. It was still unclear how the population's genetic and immunity status had been affected. One of the most difficult problems for Ukraine was related to the transformation of the "Shelter" facility into an environmentally safe system. The "Shelter" was a highly sophisticated structure that reduced radioactive fallout from the reactor. However, that facility's short lifespan made it a factor of psychological stress for the population, since, by its hydro- technological characteristics, it presented a threat for the whole region and for the cascade of the Dnipro River, in particular. Moreover, a very serious problem with the nuclear fuel and fuel-containing materials concentrated in the "Shelter" facility had not been solved yet. Taking into account the dimensions of the problem and its long-term nature, it was necessary to mobilize additional resources for continuation of the Chernobyl projects. He proposed to hold a donor meeting in Kyiv in 2001 on the fifteenth anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe. He concluded by underlining the impact of the Kosovo conflict on the fragile economies of South-eastern Europe. The termination of navigation along the Danube had paralysed the economic activity of most Ukrainian shipping companies, ports and enterprises. Together with Romania, Bulgaria and other interested countries, Ukraine was ready to participate in the work to clean the waterway so that navigation could be resumed on the Danube as soon as possible. MOHAMMAD A. ABULHASAN (Kuwait) offered condolences to the Government and people of Turkey in respect of the devastating earthquake that had struck that country this week. He reiterated his country's pledge of support to help alleviate its consequences. Kuwait fully recognized the limited capacity of small and developing countries in meeting the challenges of natural disasters, which were on the PAGE 224 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 increase. Thousands had also lost their lives as a result of human-made actions, such as wars and the use of deadly weapons, which were meant to bring about resolutions to long-standing disputes, but seldom did. He said his country also recognized the burdens faced by many small and developing countries in the area of reconstruction and rehabilitation in the aftermath of a disaster or crisis. Both were costly exercises. Kuwait consistently responded to such tragedies, delivering all forms of assistance to affected areas. Non-governmental organizations in his country, including the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society, gave assistance in cash and kind, totalling $1.3 million, annually, to countries ravaged by natural disasters. He reaffirmed Kuwait's commitment to support development projects in many nations, stating that development and peace were organically linked and mutually supporting factors. MOHAMMAD J.SAMHAN (United Arab Emirates) affirmed his country's solidarity with States that had recently suffered floods and earthquakes. He thanked the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for its efforts to mitigate some of those problems. Its efforts, however, did not meet all the needs of the people affected because of the increase in the number of crises and the dwindling assistance provided by donor States. He called on those States who could do so to increase their financial and humanitarian assistance to countries in crisis, to enable them to overcome their problems. He also called for increased international cooperation in the adoption of long- term measures to coordinate assistance between United Nations agencies and other financial and development organizations that dealt with such crises. He said that regional and national agencies providing help for refugees and displaced persons should be strengthened so that they could help those unfortunate people to return home safely. The Palestinian people were still suffering from Israeli occupation. The Israelis had expropriated their property while restricting their movement. They had also hindered the activities of humanitarian agencies in the occupied territories. He called on Israel to put an end to its violations of international law and for financial agencies to comply with their commitment to the Palestinian people, so that they could set an independent State with Jerusalem as the capital. SIM FARAR (United States) said the United Nations system deserved a great deal of credit for alleviating the crises in Kosovo and East Timor. However, serious humanitarian problems plagued other parts of the world. The United States continued to support humanitarian operations in Africa and elsewhere and encouraged others to do the same. His country would allocate 50 per cent of its initial contributions to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the fiscal year 2000 for Africa, in order to ensure that an equitable level of care was provided to African refugees. He said the question of security was particularly important to his country. The international community must not stand by while refugees and displaced persons were exposed to cross-border attacks or forced recruitment, or held hostage by armed elements within camps, as had been the case in Guinea and Liberia. In many places around the world, humanitarian workers continued to be killed, kidnapped, injured and raped. The protection of those people was the primary responsibility of States. He called on all countries to investigate such acts and bring to justice those responsible. The international community needed to move forward on a variety of options to help provide security for civilians and humanitarian personnel caught up in armed conflict. PAGE 225 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 Highlighting the vulnerability of women and children in conflict, he said physical and sexual abuse was still a widespread problem. It was the responsibility of all governments to ensure the safety of women and children who had been forced to flee their homes and land and depended on host countries and the international community for their safety. He also expressed concern about the uneven and too often inadequate protection currently afforded to those who were internally displaced by armed conflict. "We look forward to the possibility of working with OCHA and the member agencies of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee to develop more predictable responses for ensuring that internally displaced persons receive the care and protection they need." The United States also advocated close cooperation among United Nations agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), NGOs and States to ensure the protection of internally displaced persons. LUIZ TUPY CALDAS DE MOURA (Brazil) said, although emergency relief for natural disasters was essential, it was also crucial to give attention to preparedness. A number of governments lacked the funds for major risk-reduction and disaster-prevention programmes. International assistance was the key to that problem; it would make a difference in mitigating future damages and reducing the future need for humanitarian aid and reconstruction. Prevention played an even-greater role in so-called "complex emergencies" - the euphemism used to appease the global conscience in situations where human beings had their dignity abased on a large scale as a result of poverty and conflict. Prevention did not lend itself to a shortsighted security approach, he continued. It involved the construction of solid pillars for society through cooperation for development, poverty eradication and strengthening the rule of law. Strategies to tackle humanitarian problems should focus on conflict prevention, peacemaking and post-conflict peace-building. He said that coordination was important in humanitarian assistance. The many different agencies must work in concert, based on the principle of shared responsibility, to tackle humanitarian problems. Mandates could differ, but the work of all the parties was intertwined. He attached importance to the contributions of the General Assembly, Security Council and the Economic and Social Council in producing synergy for humanitarian assistance. Also important was the concept that humanitarian assistance should exceed emergency aid. However, there was a widening gap between immediate relief assistance and longer-term development cooperation. People were easily touched by humanitarian disasters, but seemed less willing to create an environment conducive to development. MARWAN A. JILANI, observer for Palestine, said there had been pledges made by donor countries last year in Washington for assistance to the Palestinian people, which had been reiterated at a recent meeting in Tokyo, but had not been honoured. A drastic decline in contributions to the Palestinian people was a matter of great concern. Honouring pledges and making contributions were essential to socio-economic development, reconstruction and prosperity in the region. He expressed his appreciation to those who had provided support. The report of the Secretary-General had highlighted a slight improvement in the living conditions of Palestinians. However, Israel should desist from its policy of closure, which was an instrument of collective punishment. The recognition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian People and their right to self-determination and to build their country were essential to peace. AHMED H. DARWISH (Egypt) expressed condolences to the Government and people of Turkey over this week's earthquake and to the families of the persons who lost their lives in the plane crash in Kosovo last week. PAGE 226 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 He said natural disasters should be at the top of the international agenda, given their magnitude and scope. There was also a disturbing increase in military conflicts that had resulted in huge losses of life and massive displacement of people. Assaults against relief personnel should be treated as dangerous and inadmissible actions. Humanitarian intervention must be carried out with the approval of States, in conformity with the principle of national sovereignty. The General Assembly should define the appropriate procedures to follow in such cases, as well, he said. There was also a need for an integrated approach in dealing with natural disasters, he said. The provision of adequate resources would help the competent organs to discharge their mandates. However, for those purposes, resources should not be provided at the expenses of activities for development. The responses to consolidated appeals were characterized by imbalance. He called on the financially capable States to increase their contributions. Egypt supported the Secretary-General's proposal to increase the resources for natural disaster response. The United Nations agencies in the occupied Palestinian territory were contributing to improving the conditions of the people there, and deserved support. G.B. PREWARE (Nigeria) said, while his country welcomed the 30 per cent rise in the 1999 pledges for Africa, it noted with concern the increasing shortfall between need and actual funds raised. In May of this year, Africa's requirements had stood at $697.32 million, while available funds amounted to $193.74 million, covering only 26 per cent of the actual need. The inadequacy resources was compounded, he continued, by the uneven geographical and sectoral distribution of funds. The level of relief assistance extended to Kosovo, where some 1.2 million displaced persons had been resettled in two months, contrasted sharply to Angola, where some 1.6 million displaced persons remained largely ignored. The international community should not feign unawareness of this sad contrast, but should instead respond in a more balanced manner to the humanitarian needs of societies afflicted by the unfortunate elements that cause human misery. He was hopeful that the establishment of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee would enhance a coherent and clear division of responsibilities and accountability at the field level in provision of humanitarian assistance. He called for an increased emphasis on strengthening disaster preparedness and early-warning systems at the local, country and regional levels. Efforts should be made to identify regionally based experts to assist in improving the operational preparedness of governments to meet emergency and disaster situations. He also urged that special efforts be made to enhance local disaster-response capacity and to utilize existing capacities in developing countries closer to disaster sites. LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: November 24, 1999 PAGE 227 LEVEL 1 - 89 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 LENGTH: 893 words HEADLINE: UN Activities of Secretary-General in China 14-17 November BODY: The Secretary-General spent the weekend of 13-14 November in Kyoto, Japan, and departed from there to China on Sunday evening. On Monday morning, he received the President of Burundi, Pierre Buyoya, who was also in China, for a meeting at the United Nations House in Beijing. Their discussion lasted for some 40 minutes and the two leaders reviewed the situation in Burundi and the country's peace process. In addition to security conditions, they also discussed the "camps de regroupment" and the process of identifying a new moderator for the peace process. In the afternoon, the Secretary-General was briefed on the work of the United Nations in China by the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Kirsten Laitner, and the heads of United Nations agencies operating in the country. This year, United Nations programmes and funds are commemorating 20 years of cooperation with China, which includes activities in the areas of poverty alleviation, environment, health care, gender issues and good governance. During the day, the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan visited the Dong yue Temple, built in 1322, recently renovated and opened to the public in February, and the Ming Tombs, where 13 emperors of the Ming dynasty were buried. On Tuesday, 16 November, the Secretary-General started the day meeting Tang Jiaxuan, Minister for Foreign Affairs. The meeting lasted for two and a half hours. It was followed by a joint press encounter by the Foreign Minister and the Secretary-General. Discussions between the two principals continued during the luncheon offered by Mr. Tang. That afternoon, the Secretary-General met with President Jiang Zemin and afterwards had a meeting with Qian Qichen, Vice Premier. On Tuesday evening, Vice Premier Qian hosted a dinner in honour of the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan. The Secretary-General had frank and productive discussions with Chinese authorities at the highest levels on a wide range of political, economic, social, disarmament and human rights issues. They dealt not only with regional matters, but also Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans. They reviewed in detail the situation in East Timor. The Chinese authorities reiterated their support for the work of the United Nations during the transition period in East Timor, and said they were ready to increase the participation of Chinese nationals in the United Nations operation there. The Secretary-General also congratulated China's leadership on the success of the negotiations with the US on China's accession to the World Trade Organization. With the Deputy Prime Minister, the Secretary-General discussed the need to strengthen the role of the United Nations, focusing on the forthcoming Millennium Summit and Assembly. They also had a substantive exchange on PAGE 228 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 disarmament issues. The Foreign Minister and the Secretary-General discussed the possibility of Beijing hosting the Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on Human Rights, scheduled for early next year. The Secretary-General raised the Falun Gong issue with the Foreign Minister as well as with the President. The Chinese authorities explained how they saw the problem and expressed their view that the Falun Gong movement was a cult. The Government's duty, according to the Chinese leaders, was to protect the citizens from the risk Falun Gong posed. The Secretary-General was assured that the cases of those arrested would be dealt with according to the law. He impressed upon his interlocutors the importance of respecting the fundamental rights of those involved. The Secretary-General offered the assistance, should the Chinese authorities wish to make use of it, of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project on governance, in order to help strengthen the country's capacity to deal with this kind of problem in accordance with international practice and norms. On Wednesday, 17 November, the Secretary-General's last activity on his visit to China was to open the "United Nations in the Twenty-First Century", a seminar organized by the United Nations Association of China. Upon introducing the Secretary-General, the Association's President, Xie Qimoi, said that people of the world were concerned about the future of the United Nations. The Kosovo crisis, poverty and globalization were among the issues he mentioned as in need of more reflection. In his opening remarks to this scholars' seminar, the Secretary-General concentrated on two issues. The first one was on the "tension between the cardinal principle of sovereignty and the equally fundamental value of human rights - both enshrined in the United Nations Charter". The second topic was Dialogue among Civilizations. He said that the battle for tolerance and against intolerance still needed to be fought. "Without question, the conflicts of the post-cold war world - from Rwanda to the Balkans to Indonesia - were all rooted in the absence of tolerance and the demonization of particular groups or ethnicities" (see SG/SM/7223). The Secretary-General took questions from the floor, which ranged from humanitarian intervention and sovereignty to the disabled, women's rights and the relationship between development, peace and human rights. The Secretary-General participated in the seminar for over one hour. He departed for Istanbul, Turkey, in the afternoon. LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: November 24, 1999 PAGE 229 LEVEL 1 - 90 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 LENGTH: 1595 words HEADLINE: UN General Assembly President says television's potential must be harnessed for benefit of all BODY: Following is the statement of the President of the General Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab (Namibia), to the fourth United Nations World Television Forum at Headquarters on 18 November: As I look around the room this morning, I am struck by the fact that I am among some of the noted leaders of the television industry and operators of broadcasting. Your very presence here today, at this fourth United Nations World Television Forum, is testimony to your strong interest in what this gathering is all about, namely, that of evaluating the impact of television programming on conflict, peace and development. I add my voice in welcoming all of you to the United Nations and to this important annual event. I would also like to commend Kensaku Hogen, United Nations Under-Secretary-General, and his Department of Public Information for organizing this Forum; and the Permanent Missions of Italy and Japan to the United Nations for their generous support. Without them, as well as the sponsoring partners and co- sponsors, we would not be able to do this successfully. I thank all of you, for now and for future cooperation. Following the first World Television Forum held in 1996, the General Assembly designated 21 November as World Television Day, which we will observe, once again, in three days' time. Judging from the impressive record of all the Forums held so far, that decision was another timely and wise initiative by the United Nations in this field. In reflecting upon the theme of this Forum, I have asked myself how television programming impacts on one of the central missions of the United Nations; that of saving lives and promoting peace and development of the entire human family, now actually numbering 6 billion living people. I am wondering about this because, for the vast majority of the world's population living in abject poverty, even the thought of owning a television set borders on madness. Given this reality, how can television programming positively and continuously impact on war, peace and development in places where there is no television? I am reminded of an instructive philosophical question: "Does a tree falling in the forest make a sound if no one is there to hear it?" By the same token, how can the best television programming in the world impact on people who will never see it? In raising this point regarding the impact of television programming on human suffering, peace and development, we should look beyond the viewing audiences in the industrialized countries, where many homes have multiple television sets, as well as cable access to hundreds of channels. Taken together, the population of the North is but a small fraction of the total PAGE 230 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 population of the world. The majority lives in the poor, Third World - in the developing world where most of the planet's population lives. If television could impact on their lives, through education and training programming, its success would be unprecedented in human history. The power of the television image in influencing and galvanizing society into action is unmatched. We see this regularly, in the quick response of the international community to the many humanitarian disasters around the world. And again, when we witnessed the international outcry and swift response to the near and present crisis that was unleashing in East Timor in September this year. Television news was there, and its images told the unfolding disaster for the world to see. The same was true for Kosovo. But contrast that, for example, with the far too numerous bloodletting and human suffering in some regions of Africa, such as the Ethiopia/Eritrea conflict, which the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) describes as the world's largest war this year, involving over a quarter of a million soldiers, tens of thousands of casualties and 600,000 displaced persons; or the ongoing humanitarian crises in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. No need to exaggerate, but these bloody conflicts and humanitarian crises are virtually forgotten, because there are no television news teams to record the carnage and anguish. No way, therefore, to jolt the collective conscience of the world, especially those who can make a difference. Without any doubt, I believe that our perceptions and public opinion are significantly determined and shaped by the images and sounds of television. As a powerful factor of modern life, television's immense potential must be harnessed for the benefit of all. Television should be more than a medium of entertainment - for sports, situation comedies and tell-all talk shows. I strongly believe that television should also be about the business of informing, instructing and training people everywhere in skills that will improve their conditions of life and enable them to take advantage of rising opportunities. Training will lead to saving lives, development, and, surely, peace and cooperation will follow. If television is to thrive and prosper in the longer term, its programming should reach more of the world's people. There is much that you, the moulders and shapers of what the rest of us see on television, can do to effect a positive impact on the entire global audience. Naturally, we must continue to organize and hold Television Forums such as this, which offer an ideal venue for lively dialogue between the United Nations and leaders in the broadcasting industry, highlighting those themes of common interest and identifying specific areas of cooperation. Forums are also an opportunity for reflection and introspection by people in the industry with an interest in forging change for the better. At the same time, we must turn what we learn at such gatherings into concrete action. We should use television as a partner for sharing information and knowledge. Television and its images that foster enlightenment should be accessible to audiences everywhere. In the classroom, with programming in the local languages, television can teach skills needed for self-improvement and development. For people isolated by a lack of resources and geography, television can serve as a bridge to the rest of the world. But let us face the facts: The best television programming won't mean much, if the people who need it the most - the developing world - lack the necessary equipment and logistics. So, first and foremost, they need television sets and the transfer of the requisite technology. For example, one television set per village, PAGE 231 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 together with the programming to instruct and train the people, could work miracles. Within each local community, the people could gather and learn from television; from programming that would promote social change and greatly contribute to the pace of advancement and prosperity. Advanced media enterprises such as yours can, in conjunction with governments and local authorities, help them acquire the know-how and experience they need to be contributors to their societies. Television can definitely be a force for good. When utilized for training and technical assistance, it is an important delivery platform for getting a message across and helping to promote peace, development, democracy and respect for human rights. Television has been accused of never having reached its full potential due to over-commercialization. Using it to promote social change, human security and progress would help restore its tarnished reputation. You in the industry can also undertake more co-productions with United Nations Television, and others, to turn out quality educational and outreach programming. Despite its limited resources, UNTV succeeds in telling the United Nations story. Imagine how that message could be more widely and effectively disseminated if people who are left out had access to television sets to view such programming. I have raised some serious questions and issued some challenges to you, ladies and gentlemen, because I want you to reflect on them as you examine, over these two days, television's impact on human suffering, peace and development. I am convinced that, working together, you will come up with workable solutions. There are exactly 43 days to the end of the millennium. The century that is coming to a close has witnessed both the best and the worst of human nature. But out of this century, there is emerging a sense of global citizenship and responsibility, in keeping with the United Nations Charter's ideal of promoting social progress and better standards of life at all levels of society. I must reiterate that before any society can be peaceful, there must be development and poverty eradication in which all the people are participants and beneficiaries. With your help, ladies and gentlemen, we can build a planet where the North-South divide is narrowed and where no one is left behind, as we work towards achieving the global goal of creating a society imbued with a culture of peace, tolerance, caring and human security. In closing, I want you to think seriously about these questions: "If I don't do something, who will? If I can't help, who can?" Let us not waste the opportunity to engage developing countries and, in unity and solidarity, make giant strides towards creating a knowledge-based, prosperous and peaceful human society in the twenty-first century. I am firmly convinced that you, the dedicated men and women assembled here, can, and will, make a difference in charting a future course in television programming that will be inclusive and beneficial to all of humankind. LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: November 24, 1999 PAGE 232 LEVEL 1 - 91 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 LENGTH: 593 words HEADLINE: WORLD BANK International donors and East Timorese prepare to rebuild a shattered country DATELINE: CANBERRA BODY: Up to US$ 300 million over the next three years is needed to finance East Timor's reconstruction and development, a joint assessment mission by international donors and East Timorese technical specialists has estimated. "The systematic destruction of East Timor means that the country will have to be rebuilt from the ground up," according to mission co-leader Klaus Rohland, World Bank country director responsible for East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. "It has caused a disastrous drop in gross domestic product (GDP) for 1999 of about 40-45 percent, making it crucial for us to get the economy up and running again by focusing on longer term rehabilitation now that urgent humanitarian needs are being met." Close coordination and consultation were essential to ensure a smooth and speedy revival of East Timor, he noted, stressing that one of the mission's priorities had been to involve East Timorese political community leaders and technical specialists as fully as possible in planning for the future. "We only have this one opportunity to get things right," said Mario Carrascalao, head of the East Timorese technical group and mission co-leader. "Working with international specialists allows us to get the best of global experience in post-conflict reconstruction while retaining the ability to map our own economic development." Immediate economic priorities include restarting the flow of goods and services, establishing a payments system, choosing a currency, setting up a banking system, and organizing a budget for the year 2000, according to a draft report prepared after an intensive three-week mission to East Timor involving more than 40 international and East Timorese specialists in everything from agriculture and infrastructure to health and education. Next in economic importance over the United Nations transitional period is to establish and reinforce key institutions, to develop the ability to formulate economic policy and negotiate international agreements, to create a legal and regulatory framework, to gather economic and social data, and to develop a system of credit for small and medium enterprises. Among other of East Timor's urgent requirements are to create a new civil service; to take measures to rebuild and reequip public and private buildings, and to repair roads, telecommunications, the water supply and electricity grid; to revive health and education; to train East Timorese in the skills they will need to run their own country; to restore agriculture to the point where seeds can be planted, livestock replenished, fisheries initiated and other means developed of providing food and stimulating exports such as coffee. "East PAGE 233 M2 PRESSWIRE November 22, 1999 Timor, just to give one example of its destitution, has only 30 medical doctors for about 800,000 people," Rohland said. "Teachers, administrators, judges all are needed. Skills and resources are scarce and they are needed fast." He will chair an international donors' meeting in Tokyo next month where the task will be to secure the grants East Timor needs to begin the process of reconstruction. "While we need all the help we can get from the international community at this early stage," Carrascalao added, "the success of our recovery will depend on the action of the East Timorese and their ownership of the development process." For more information please see http://www.worldbank.org/eap CONTACT: Lucy S. Oh Tel: +61 2 6270 1234 Graham Barrett Tel: +61 3 9815 2832 Peter Stephens Tel: +1 202 458 2281 LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: November 24, 1999 PAGE 234 LEVEL 1 - 92 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Journal Sentinel Inc. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel November 22, 1999, Monday Final SECTION: News Pg. 9 LENGTH: 101 words HEADLINE: Envoy asks Indonesia to release refugees SOURCE: Journal Sentinel wire reports DATELINE: Jakarta, Indonesia BODY: A senior U.S. envoy Sunday urged Indonesia to expedite repatriation of East Timorese refugees. "We would be delighted if 150,000 refugees in West Timor just got up and went home," said Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "But they are being prevented from doing so by intimidation, by misinformation, by gangs of people who call themselves militias but are thugs." The refugees fled East Timor after Indonesian troops and militiamen went on a burning and looting rampage after the East Timorese voted for independence Aug. 30 in a U.N.-supervised ballot. LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 235 LEVEL 1 - 93 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The News and Observer The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) November 22, 1999 Monday, FINAL EDITION SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A9; WORLD BRIEFS LENGTH: 159 words HEADLINE: U.S. envoy urges return of refugees BYLINE: From Wire Reports BODY: Jakarta, Indonesia -- A senior U.S. envoy opposed calls for martial law in troubled Aceh province Sunday and urged Indonesia to expedite repatriation of East Timorese refugees. "We would be delighted if 150,000 refugees in West Timor just got up and went home," said visiting U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke. "But they are being prevented from doing so by intimidation, ... by gangs of people who call themselves militias but are thugs." Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he had asked President Abdurrahman Wahid to speed the return process. After the arrival of international peacekeepers Sept. 20, many militiamen fled to West Timor, where U.N. officials have accused them of terrorizing refugees. Later Sunday, Holbrooke and his delegation left for West Timor to visit the camps. Today, he is scheduled to lead a meeting between Indonesian officials and top U.N. administrators in East Timor. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 236 LEVEL 1 - 94 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 MacNeil/Lehrer Productions The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer November 22,1999 Transcript #6603 LENGTH: 9495 words HEADLINE: Hands-On Advice; Inside Bulgaria; Voice of Freedom; Series GUESTS: CHARLES JEFFRESS, Administrator, OSHA; PEG SEMINARIO, AFL-CIO; PATRICK CLEARY, National Association of Manufacturers; SOL POLANSKY, Former U.S. Ambassador, Bulgaria; NORBERT YASHAROFF, Maritza Newspapers; BATON HAXHIU, Editor, "Koha Ditore"; KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT, National Book Award, Young People's Literature; CORRESPONDENTS: SPENCER MICHELS; RAY SUAREZ; TERENCE SMITH; GWEN IFILL; KWAME HOLMAN; ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH; SUSAN DENTZER; IAN WILLIAMS; MARGARET WARNER; BETTY ANN BOWSER BODY: JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight, Gwen Ifill looks at proposed new federal rules for the workplace; Ray Suarez examines post- Communist Bulgaria, where President Clinton visited today; Terence Smith has a conversation with an Albanian journalist about Kosovo, where the President goes tomorrow; and then Elizabeth Farnsworth talks with the National Book Award winner for children's literature. It all follows our summary of the news this Monday. NEWS SUMMARY JIM LEHRER: The Labor Department proposed new workplace rules today. They would require conditions that prevent repetitive-stress and heavy-lifting injuries. The regulations were drawn by OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They would affect more than 27 million workers at one of every three job sites in the nation. OSHA administrator Charles Jeffress said the proposed rules were intended to protect workers from muscle and skeleton disorders, also known as MSD's. He spoke at a news conference in Washington. CHARLES JEFFRESS: When more than 600,000 American workers have to take time off to recover from MSD's and over a million more experience less serious MSD Problems at work, we know that we have a national problem. The good news is we know how to fix these problems and we know that fixing them will actually save money. JIM LEHRER: The rules cannot become final until next year after a comment period and public hearings. Charles Jeffress and others join us for more on the story right after this News Summary. There's been a change of attitude among American teenagers about illegal drugs, according to a study released today. 40 percent of more than 6,500 teens interviewed said they felt really cool kids avoided drugs. That was up 5 percent from '98. The Partnership for a Drug Free America conducted the survey. It's a nonprofit coalition. In another survey released Sunday, the FBI said serious crimes were down 10 percent in the first lf of this year. Rape, robbery, and auto thefts all declined. The murder rate in big cities was up 1 percent from the same period last year, but it still remained very low. President Clinton visited Bulgaria today, the first American President ever to do so. He spoke to thousands of Bulgarians gathered before PAGE 237 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 the Nevski Cathedral in the capital, Sofia. It was the site of protests during Communist rule. Mr. Clinton saluted Bulgaria for rejecting the police state and choosing democracy, and he praised it for standing with NATO during the campaign for Kosovo. He said this: PRESIDENT CLINTON: During the recent war, you could actually hear some of the bombs falling in Serbia from this square. Tonight I hope the people of Serbia can hear our voices when we say, if you choose as Bulgaria has chosen, you will regain the rightful in Europe Mr. Milosevic has stolen from you and America will support you too. JIM LEHRER: Tomorrow, Mr. Clinton will be in Kosovo for a pre-Thanksgiving meeting with U.S. troops there. We'll have more on both Bulgaria and Kosovo later in the program tonight. United Nations and Indonesian officials signed an accord today. It's aimed at stopping clashes on the border with East Timor. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke brokered the deal. It sets up a joint border commission to stop the violence by pro-Indonesia militias. Holbrooke also toured East Timorese refugee camps where some 150,000 people remain. They fled attacks by militiamen following the province's vote for independence from Indonesia. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to ergonomics on the job, a look at Bulgaria, a conversation about Kosovo, and another Book Awards winner. FOCUS - HANDS-ON ADVICE JIM LEHRER: New standards for the workplace, and to Gwen Ifill. GWEN IFILL: Each year, nearly two million U.S. workers experience work- related musculo-skeletal disorders. Known in shorthand as MSD's, these injuries usually result from overexertion and repetitive motion. Almost one-third, or about 600,000, of the repetitive stress injuries are serious enough to require time off the job. That's according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as OSHA. Today, in an effort to remedy what the government says is a growing problem, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman unveiled OSHA's new ergonomic standards. ALEXIS HERMAN, Secretary of Labor: When employees are hurt on the job, employers have a responsibility to act. And this is why today's ergonomics standard isn't just about another rule or another regulation, it is about helping real people suffering real problems, problems like back injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis-- not minor aches or pains, but serious, life-altering injuries. More than one-third of the most critical on-the-job injuries are the result of overexertion or repetitive motion. GWEN IFILL: Ergonomics is defined as the applied science of equipment design, intended to reduce operator fatigue and discomfort, or as OSHA puts it, the science of fitting the job to the worker. OSHA says a bad fit between workers and the equipment they use causes about one-third of all workplace injuries. Under OSHA's new proposal, about 1.6 million employers would be required to implement a basic ergonomics program that includes assigning someone to be responsible for ergonomics; providing information to employees on the risk of injuries, as well as signs and symptoms to watch for; and setting up a system for employees to report those signs and symptoms. In turn, the proposal would require that employees who experience MSD's receive a prompt response and evaluation of their injury, and follow-up health care. Plus, workers who need PAGE 238 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 time off could get 90 percent of their pay and 100 percent of their benefits. The guidelines would target jobs where workers perform repetitive tasks. Workers on an assembly line at a poultry processing plant, for example, reach repeatedly to grab the birds. Others work at a fast pace to cut the chickens into pieces. Delivery people as well as package handlers lift and sort heavy packages all day. And office workers who sit at computer workstations may experience musculo-skeletal disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome. 27 million U.S. workers would be covered under the proposed rules, but the agriculture, maritime, and construction industries would not be affected. GWEN IFILL: For more on safety in the workplace, we're joined by Charles Jeffress, Assistant Secretary of Labor, and chief administrator at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA; Pat Cleary, Vice President for Human Resource Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents 14,000 employers; and Peg Seminario, Director of Safety and Health at the AFL-CIO. Mr. Jeffress, what evidence does the government have that makes this such a big deal that this has to happen today? Why? CHARLES JEFFRESS, Administrator, OSHA: The information that employers report to us, the numbers, two million American workers being hurt are basically what employers report to the Labor Department as to what's happening in their workplaces. And they're spending over $20 billion a year in workers' compensation payments for these people who are being hurt -- again the employers' own data. We know that people are being hurt, real people are being hurt; there are real problems. There are also real solutions. And we over the last two years have talked to employers about what works and we've put forth a proposal today that is flexible so that people can tailor it to fit their workplace and we believe will save employers $9 billion every year from what they've currently spending on these problems. GWEN IFILL: You say you've been talking to employers about this for some time. Were they not listening? Were they not stepping up to the plate? CHARLES JEFFRESS: Many employers have put good programs in place. And this proposal that we have today is based on the successful experience of many employers. We need to take what the best of American business is doing and spread it to the rest of American businesses. GWEN IFILL: Peg Seminario from the AFL-CIO, you think this is generally a good idea? PEG SEMINARIO, AFL-CIO: Definitely. It's definitely a step in the right direction. We've been pushing for workplace ergonomic standard for a decade. And it was nine years ago that Elizabeth Dole, then Secretary of Labor, promised American workers that they would be protected. And nine years later we're at the point of the proposal. We do have some concerns about it. As you said earlier, the standard does not cover workers in construction, agriculture or maritime who have very serious problems. GWEN IFILL: That seems like a pretty big loophole hole. PEG SEMINARIO: It is a big omission. It is a very big omission. And we hope to bring the evidence to the Labor Department that these workers should be PAGE 239 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 covered so when the final rule is issued that all workers will be covered. GWEN IFILL: Mr. Cleary, you represent the business interest in this, the manufacturers. I just asked Mr. Jeffress whether that maybe employers had not been listening. Have employers been listening? PAT CLEARY, National Association of Manufacturers: Yeah. Let me spend a minute if I can on who we are. We're 14,000 people who make things in America and there e 18 million employees. We're virtually in every state in America. I'm proud to say that our members spend mightily on health and safety every year because they understand one central premise, which is that safety is good business. And they spend a lot on safety, some of the best ergonomics programs, I'm also proud to say, are from our member companies. But there's a central flaw here and that is that there is no scientific -- or no consensus in scientific or medical community about the causes of ergonomics injuries. That was true yesterday and it's true today. There was a study that was funded by Congress and the administration-- the administration agreed to it last year to the tune of $1 million which is still a lot of money to us-- to look at the causes of those injuries. That study won't be done for another year yet by the National Academy of Sciences, very well respected, above reproach. We have bought into that study. We have said let that happen, let it run its course. And once we find out from them what they believe the causes of this are, we ought to be able to move forward. And what's happened is these guys still want to regulate before that study and we think that's a mistake. GWEN IFILL: Why don't we wait on the study and find out what it tells us? CHARLES JEFFRESS: You know, on the one hand pat says that his member companies are spending lots of dollars, millions of dollars in ergonomics programs. And, on the other hand, he tells us there's no science to prove it works. In fact, your members won't be spending this money if they weren't getting benefits from it. You know that. These programs work, and the investment are being benefits for the employers that have them. Our studies show that about 18 percent of employers nationwide have these programs. A lot of others have done simple things, a chair here, a work station solution there. We're trying to get all employers that have problems, where someone is hurt to put a program in place to address their employees' problems. PATRICK CLEARY: But, Gwen, if I may, I mean, the big difference we have here is the difference of philosophy in terms of command and control. GWEN IFILL: Who gets to decide. PATRICK CLEARY: What I would say is the graph that you put up with the czar in each workplace and this whole big span of control looks to us like big government. Our members do what's right whether OSHA existed or not. Our members do what's right in the workplace because it's good business and will continue to. They don't need this one size fits all regulation. I know Charles believes that this allows for some flexibility. We don't see it that way. We think they've ought to wait until they have the science before they regulate. GWEN IFILL: Ms. Seminario, I want to ask you about cost. The Small Business Administration says this will cost $18 billion. OSHA says $4.2 billion. Do you come down in the middle or on either side of that? PAGE 240 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 PEG SEMINARIO: We actually think that the standard, when implemented, will save employers money. If you look at the experience in the workplace from those employers who are dealing with these problems, what you consistently see is that the workers' compensation cost associated with these injuries are just massive, which is why employers take action or some employers take action. And after they act what you see is the reduction of workers' compensation cost, increases in productivity and increases in employee morale. And so if we're looking at the net effect of this, this rule will save employers money but most importantly it will save hundreds of thousands of workers every year from being injured on the job and that's what this rule is all about. GWEN IFILL: But it will save... it will regulate the injuries, not the hazards, that is, not the conditions which create the injuries, isn't that true? PEG SEMINARIO: That is again one of the problems that we have with the rule is that it is triggered after a worker is injured, after there is actually a diagnosed work-related case. And so what that means is that prior to that injury occurring, even if there are clear hazards, the employer is not under an obligation to address them. So, again, we think this is a problem and we intend to bring the evidence to OSHA to have the rule strengthened so that workers can be strengthened. GWEN IFILL: Okay. Mr. Jeffress, that's two questions for you. Why are the numbers all over and why not regulate the hazard as well as the injuries? CHARLES JEFFRESS: First on the numbers, if you look at the claims of people who say this is going to cost a lot more money than what OSHA has estimated, most of those claims are based on fears that their productivity will slow down, they're have to slow down their assembly line or that people won't be as efficient. In fact the opposite is true. We had 90 different examples from 90 different companies today talk about where they put programs in place; by reducing the stress on the worker it has actually made that worker more productive. And these companies are saving money by reduced workers' compensation costs for the injuries and by increased productivity on the part of the workers. I think the estimates that you see of that increased cost and greatly exaggerated increased cost are based on a fear of lack of productivity, and that is not actually what's going to happen. You know, Pat said that his companies and his member companies are doing the right thing, there's no need for government to go forward with the regulation. If market forces alone were enough to make safe workplaces, OSHA would never exist. It's just like we have speed limits. It's important to have regulations. It's important to have rules to bring everybody to the same level playing field. And that's what this program, this proposal will do, is to provide ergonomics programs for all those workplaces where people are being hurt. PATRICK CLEARY: Gwen, if I may, on the cost estimate, the $18 billion estimate came from his administration. It came from the Clinton administration. That's not our number. We'll happily accept that number. And I think it's a good and an accurate number. I go back to it. At core here is the question of whose plan is this, will you let employers continue to do what's right as he admits we already do; why not let a million flowers bloom and let that happen? Why come in with an OSHA command and control one size fits all regulation at this time, which is going to cost $18 billion? We think it's the wrong way to go. We think you ought to work with employers. They spend three times more in enforcement than on compliance. Let's shift it into compliance and get what we want out of PAGE 241 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 this thing and get the sorts of results that we want rather than spending $18 billion on something where there is no consensus. PEG SEMINARIO: The facts speak for themselves. If employers were doing the right thing, we wouldn't have 600,000 workers suffering serious injury, workers being disabled. We heard the same argument from the industry on asbestos. We don't have enough science, we shouldn't go forward, it's going to shut the industry down. We heard the same arguments on vinyl chloride, on benzene, on lead. We have 30 years of experience in dealing with workplace safety hazards through government action. And what we have seen in every case is the same kinds of arguments, the same kind of claims in industry not borne out. And what we see is that these regulations are needed. When they're put in place, workers are protected, the injuries are reduced, the diseases are reduced and that the regulations are indeed necessary. GWEN IFILL: Mr. Jeffress, why were the agriculture, maritime and construction industries, which would seem to be a big part of the problem, if there's a problem, why were they exempted in these rules? CHARLES JEFFRESS: Over the past ten years OSHA has a lot of experience in manufacturing operations and service sectors like nursing homes, hospitals and looking at solutions that people have put in place. We have a lot of information, good science on this now. There have been studies by the National Academy of Sciences, by NIOSH, the Government Accounting Office, all showing that these ergonomics programs make sense. And OSHA has a lot of experience in general industry, if you will. So, we're going forward with the proposal that applies to the areas where we have most experience. We also have a study funded to look at maritime and what are the ergonomic issues and maritime industries. GWEN IFILL: Will you wait to that study comes out before you come up with the rules? CHARLES JEFFRESS: The NIOSH is doing that; within two years we'll have our proposal. But, you know, the studies have been done in general industry. PATRICK CLEARY: But they're all over the board. The studies are all over the board, and I would say this. I would dare say that I've spent as much time on an assembly line on the business end of an assembly line that's just about anyone making cars and glass bottles. GWEN IFILL: Certainly more than anyone at this table. PATRICK CLEARY: And what I know is that a very small percentage of the people there develop a problem, call it carpal tunnel, MSD, whatever you want. And a very large percentage do not. I don't know why that is. The NAM doesn't know and OSHA doesn't know. And until they do, they ought not pass a regulation with an $18 billion price tag. PEG SEMINARIO: That's a specious argument. PATRICK CLEARY: That's reality. That's what it's like. PEG SEMINARIO: That's a specious argument. You can say the same thing about asbestos lung disease, tobacco. Not everyone who spokes develops cancer... again, the same arguments we've heard for over 30 years. PAGE 242 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 PATRICK CLEARY: Nor the science - PEG SEMINARIO: So what? We shouldn't have regulations on asbestos, because not every worker develops asbestos. We don't know why that. PATRICK CLEARY: Why not wait till the NIS study is completed. What's the rush to regulation? The studies he mentions are all over the board. That's true. There are studies but there are some on their side and some on his side. Let's wait for one final study that we all agree to, the administration and us. Let it be done for $1 million and see where the chips fall. CHARLES JEFFRESS: They'll never do one final study. What we do know is that workers are under great stress - when you work in very awkward postures, exert too much force, there's a greater chance of them getting hurt. What this standard does says put a program in place to reduce those pressures so people are less likely to get hurt and tailor it to the workplace. That's what this says. GWEN IFILL: Is there a possibility that employers faced with these new rules that they consider to be onerous might be less inclined to hire people who they consider to be at risk, whether it's women who they don't think can lift heavy boxes or whether it's older people who they think might suffer more quickly from repetitive stress injuries? CHARLES JEFFRESS: Actually, the experience has been that employers, when they identify problems that are potentially hurting one worker put those solutions in place, they make everybody more productive. So, we don't expect to see any reduction in hiring. Certainly in this labor market that this administration has helped create, in this booming economy, we have to use every worker that's out there. GWEN IFILL: The same question to you, Mr. Cleary, is there a chance of this backfiring in that way? PATRICK CLEARY: Absolutely. I will agree with Charles to that extent. The number one problem our members face right now is finding and keeping workers at all at least skilled workers. That is hard for our folks out there. To the extent that there are judgment calls I think it will be very hard for our folks with this regulation looming out there. More than that, I want to say, you know, 10,000 of our members are small to medium employers. This is going to kill small employers and going to put them out of business. Let's not do that. Let's not pass an $18 billion cost on to them until we're absolutely sure we have the science. GWEN IFILL: Is this National Academy of Sciences study were to be released next year and it proves Mr. Jeffress right, would you embrace it with open arms? PATRICK CLEARY: Then we will work with him on the regulation to make sure it comes out in a way that is going to be constructive for workers everywhere. If he will agree to work on the regulation, I think we can work together on that. Absolutely. Why not do it? PEG SEMINARIO: We've already had one NAS study. There was an NAS study that looked at the exact same questions. It was a curve study. It was not a survey. It was a study that they brought in experts, they looked at all the evidence PAGE 243 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 in this area and they reached the conclusion that workplace factors cause these injuries and that they can be prevented. The industry didn't like the results of that study so they went to their public-- Republican friends in the Congress and got another study asking the exact same seven questions. But this year they said it had to be 24 months, which brings us beyond the Clinton administration. The study is basically just being used as a way to delay a regulation, to delay protection for workers. We'll get the same answers from the NAS-2 that we got from NAS-1. PATRICK CLEARY: That was a one-day meeting. We think this is a more in-depth study. GWEN IFILL: We're going to have to leave this fight there. Charles Jeffress, Pat Cleary, and Peg Seminario, thank you all very much. PATRICK CLEARY: Thanks. CHARLES JEFFRESS: Thank you. JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, two stops on President Clinton's itinerary, Bulgaria and Kosovo, plus the National Book Awards winner for children's literature. FOCUS - INSIDE BULGARIA JIM LEHRER: The Bulgaria story, and to Ray Suarez. RAY SUAREZ: President Clinton's visit to Bulgaria was a celebration of that country's ten-year experiment in democracy. It had both somber and festive moments. The president placed a wreath at a World War I memorial to symbolize nearly a century of diplomatic relations between the United States and Bulgaria. During a press conference with Bulgarian President Peter Stoyanov in the capital, Sofia, Mr. Clinton praised Bulgaria's cooperation with NATO during the Kosovo conflict last spring. PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, first of all, I am very grateful for the support the allies received during the conflict with Kosovo, and for the direction taken by Bulgaria under this president and this government. And we are committed to supporting Bulgaria over the long run, economically, politically, and militarily. And I think we will be doing it for many years, and I am looking forward to that. RAY SUAREZ: Bulgaria is a nation of about eight million people. It borders Yugoslavia, and was one of several Balkan states that allowed NATO jets to use its airspace. Its economy has suffered with the implosion of the former Yugoslavia, as well as its own difficult transition from Communism to market economics. Public opposition in Bulgaria to the NATO air war grew when an errant NATO missile hit a residential area outside Sofia, but Bulgarian officials continued to support the western alliance. Bulgaria's pro-western government hopes that support could eventually lead to NATO membership, a goal it has sought since it began moving from dictatorship to democracy a decade ago. This evening, President Clinton told a flag-waving crowd in Sofia's Nevski Square to stay the democratic course. A fireworks display capped the President's speech. PAGE 244 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 RAY SUAREZ: For more on Bulgaria, we get two views, from Sol Polansky, former U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria. He served from 1987 until 1990. And from Norbert Yasharoff, U.S. Correspondent for Maritza Newspapers in Bulgaria and retired from the U.S. Information Agency, he was born in Bulgaria and is now a U.S. citizen. Ambassador, we've heard Bulgaria called a model citizen in the Balkans. It's done a lot of things right as far as international business interests and monetary agencies are concerned. Yet it still is suffering economically. Why? SOL POLANSKY, Former U.S. Ambassador, Bulgaria: Well, I think there are probably a number of important reasons. I think they haven't gone ahead with the economic reforms at the speed they wanted to. I think in part if you look back over the last ten years, it really hasn't been ten years of economic reform. They've had weak governments. They had a socialist government in the mid '90s by Jan Vidanof that basically ran the economy into the ground. Inflation amounted to about 2,000 percent in the first quarter of 1997; as a result of negotiations with the IMF and the World Bank and other institutions, Bulgarians began to toward a currency board to provide some sense of stability and some sense of feeling that they could put the economy on a sound footing. And so really it's been, I think, only in the past two years that they've really had a process in place that could begin a real sense of reform, begin the whole process of privatization in a serious way. Part of that was interrupted by the war in Kosovo and all the efforts that went into that, the kind of sacrifices that the Bulgarians made, lost markets, bridges were down in the Danube so the whole question of transportation, all of the revenue from that kind of activity was lost to the Bulgarians. And they are faced with a very difficult problem: They have high unemployment. They're trying to get rid of all the state enterprises which they hope to do by the middle of May of next year. So they've got a real problem in front of them, but I think that they're on the right track. RAY SUAREZ: Norbert Yasharoff, let's talk about the Bulgarians on the street. Though international agencies talk to governments and they're reporting good news, would we get as good a report from somebody in the shops in Sofia or out in the provinces trying to do their marketing for the day? NORBERT YASHAROFF, Maritza Newspapers: It depends on whom you talk to, but let me take you back to December of 1996 when an almost unpopular uprising took place in the streets of Sofia. The people wanted the Socialists, former Communists, out completely out. There were clashes are the police in the national assembly. In April of '97, free elections were held. People were enthusiastic. I think that currently at least two-thirds of the population are still behind that first really democratic government that was put in place in April of 1997. Of course, you will find the traditional gloom sayers or-- I forget the English word-but there is doom sayers and they are mostly in that third of the population which is made up of retirees. The retirees today are those who complain every other Wednesday in front of the Sofia National Theater. They complain against the government. They claim that they don't want to topple the government but in every speech they ask for its disbandment and eventually giving over the rule to the former socialists. RAY SUAREZ: But isn't that a generation split that we see in other countries too? Older people still looking back to the older ways and younger people.... NORBERT YASHAROFF: Yes. I would fully agree with that. That's why I don't think that this should make us worry too much in the West as to the future of Bulgaria. This government is so set on becoming part of Western Europe, it PAGE 245 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 pushes so hard for membership in NATO which in its eyes will give it a legitimacy and also protection against future totalitarian or other governments or people who would like to force Bulgaria into the kind of 45-year slavery that the Communists pushed her into. RAY SUAREZ: Well, let's talk a little bit about getting into the European Union and to NATO. Many countries have made similar requests, similar applications. And there's a little bit of a backlash, a kind of disappointment, when it doesn't happen. Unless Bulgaria is put on a fast track, is there a risk that it could be... it could go the way of the Ukraine? SOL POLANSKY: There is the risk, I don't think it's very great, quite frankly. I think in some ways the European community understands that. It's my understanding that in December of this year, there will be a meeting of the European Commission with Bulgaria and several other countries that want to join the European Union and that they'll try to put Bulgaria's request for membership in the European Union on the fast track, the fast succession track. There are a number of things that Bulgaria will have to do to make that possible. One of them is to have what amounts to a full democratic system. The second is a market economy. Third is respect for human rights. And for Bulgaria there is another issue that has to be resolved, and that's the whole question of the nuclear power plants that Bulgaria has -- old Soviet power plants that are dangerous and that the European Commission, I think, will insist that somehow they be decommissioned as part of the process. RAY SUAREZ: Norbert Yasharoff, I think it's easy to see why getting into the European Union would interest Bulgaria for many reasons, the foreign policy and aid that it would get with its industries. NORBERT YASHAROFF: Right. RAY SUAREZ: But why NATO? Why is it so important to get into NATO when Bulgaria, there's nobody knocking at its borders, nobody about to declare war on Bulgaria? NORBERT YASHAROFF: As I mentioned before, Bulgaria wants a shield, a shield against any future aggressor. The lesson of the Soviet Union having subjugated the countries of Eastern Europe is still very much alive in their minds. They want to belong to the West and to be protected collectively by the West. So that is very important. In some respects it's even more important than joining the EU, the European Union, but just to add a few things to what the ambassador so well described, the commissioner for the expansion of the European Union, Gunter Hoygan, recently granted... well, several months ago granted an interview to Bulgarian Television in which he said as far as he's concerned Bulgaria is almost a member. It's only a matter of months. And the Bulgarians insist on their part that they have taken care of those more dangerous units of the nuclear reactor at Kosovo in order to satisfy the requirements of the European Atomic Energy Commission. RAY SUAREZ: With a country so resolutely looking toward the West, I guess Bulgaria is hampered a little bit by the unchangeable reality of geography. Many of the places that it would like to trade with are not close. The Danube is still blocked and the United States says until Serbia changes its government, it's unlikely to get the money it needs to fix that river and main avenue of commerce. PAGE 246 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 SOL POLANSKY: I think it's a real problem. I think the European Union apparently is looking at a program that might loosen up funds that would help Bulgaria and other countries, but I think until there is a greater sense of investment in places like Bulgaria, it is going to be a hard job for Bulgaria to pull out of its economic situation. RAY SUAREZ: And it isn't it important for the people to see that kind of inward investment too, to know that their suffering has been worth it? NORBERT YASHAROFF: Of course. Some of the people and certainly the opponents of the government are pointing out that, yes, the government has speeded up tremendously the pace of privatization but then haven't been very selective in to whom do they sell those government factories and firms and so on and so forth. Because a lot of the buyers turn out later not to have had the money that they originally pledged themselves to invest into those firms. So of course it is very important. But on the other hand, the Bulgarian media reports that they claim a very well known international firm of investment consultants, PKGP, has rated Bulgaria as one of the best investment risks in the world today. RAY SUAREZ: Well, gentlemen, thank you very much. Norbert Yasharoff, Sol Polansky. SOL POLANSKY: Thank you very much. NORBERT YASHAROFF: Thank you. CONVERSATION - VOICE OF FREEDOM JIM LEHRER: Tomorrow, President Clinton makes a brief stop to visit U.S. Peacekeeping troops in Kosovo. Last Friday our media correspondent, Terence Smith, recorded a conversation about Kosovo. TERENCE SMITH: For more than a week after the start of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia last March, ethnic Albanian newspaper editor Baton Haxhiu was officially a dead man. On the night before the NATO campaign began, the Pristina offices of Haxhiu's paper, "Koha Ditore," or "Daily Times," were ransacked by Serb police. An elderly night watchman was murdered, and the building was torched. Days later, a NATO spokesman, Air Commodore David Wilby, seemed to confirm the suspected fate of Baton Haxhiu. AIR COMMODORE DAVID WILBY: Four other prominent ethnic Albanians were reportedly executed on Sunday, including editor-in-chief of "Koha Ditore," Baton Haxhiu. TERENCE SMITH: But in early April, Haxhiu surfaced in Macedonia. He had gone underground, hiding in basements and in friends' apartments, and disguising himself to elude his Serb pursuers. BATON HAXIHU: (Translated): I was hiding for 12 days like most of the Albanians left there. There were definitely no witnesses to what has been happening in Pristina. We were the only ones, but we were in a basement. People did not make mistakes in saying that we were executed. We were as close to death as the skin to the bone. PAGE 247 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 TERENCE SMITH: Haxhiu and his paper had long been targets of Serb harassment. "Koha Ditore," the largest and most influential Albanian- language daily in Kosovo, and its editor, were fined heavily and repeatedly by Serb authorities for allegedly "inciting hatred between nationalities." Within days of his reappearance, Haxhiu and a small staff, using borrowed computers and one cell phone, set up shop in Macedonia. Once again they were publishing "Koha Ditore," distributing it free in the Macedonian refugee camps. After the bombing campaign, Haxhiu returned to Pristina where "Koha Ditore," renowned as a moderate, pro-human rights voice, is again on the streets every day. TERENCE SMITH: Joining us is Baton Haxhiu, the editor of "Koha Ditore." He is one of the 1999 winners of the press freedom awards, given by the committee to protect journalists. Welcome to you. Welcome to this country and to "The NewsHour." BATON HAXHIU: Very nice to be here. TERENCE SMITH: My understanding is that the last edition of your paper, before the NATO bombing, had a headline that said, "NATO, Just Do It," over the NIKE swoosh. BATON HAXHIU: Yeah. TERENCE SMITH: You must have known that you were a bit of a target, then. BATON HAXHIU: Between 23 and 24... TERENCE SMITH: Of March... BATON HAXHIU: ...Of March, I put it in the front page, not to air just to wait, because we were waiting for many, many months, Serbian territory in Kosovo. And so finally, we are waiting for NATO bombs in Kosovo, and to see international committee how they help Albanians. So really, between 23 and 24 was very dangerous for me because our lawyer was killed... TERENCE SMITH: Yes. BATON HAXHIU: Between 23 and 24. TERENCE SMITH: Of March, right. BATON HAXHIU: Of March. And our office is destroyed. Our bodyguards were also killed, and our print house was destroyed. So from this day, from 24, I was in hiding for many days, until seventh of April. TERENCE SMITH: What was it like to hear-- I gather you heard it on the radio or over the air-- that you were dead? BATON HAXHIU: I heard from CNN news. The press conference in Brussels, and Jimmy Shea, the -- said... And I think, on 26 or 27 of March, that yesterday, in Pristina, were executed four intellectuals, and including chief editor of "Koha Ditore," Baton Haxhiu. TERENCE SMITH: Right. PAGE 248 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 BATON HAXHIU: I was surprised, and really was... I was in deep desperation because I was separated from my family, from my wife and son, and from my parents, and they didn't know what happened with me. For many days, they think that I'm dead, so... TERENCE SMITH: And you were not able to call your wife... BATON HAXHIU: No, no, absolutely. TERENCE SMITH: ...or communicate with her in any way? BATON HAXHIU: No. I was in hiding in the basement for many days, with some apples, and with just water. TERENCE SMITH: Apples and water? BATON HAXHIU: Yeah. TERENCE SMITH: And then you slowly made your way to Macedonia? BATON HAXHIU: What's happened after 12 days in hiding, paramilitary forces were coming in this area in Pristina. TERENCE SMITH: Where you were? BATON HAXHIU: Yeah. And after that, they just give one or two minutes to... two minutes to citizens to go out of the flats, and from my basement I saw... from small window, I saw people how in deport... TERENCE SMITH: And they were just fleeing? BATON HAXHIU: And just fleeing. And so I also saw one woman with child, and I said, "Baton, it is good time to go out." I was in mask, of course, and I pleaded to this woman. TERENCE SMITH: When you say a mask, sort of a disguise of some sort? BATON HAXHIU: Yeah. So, nobody believed I am alive, because for many days people thought Baton is killed. And so, this woman said, "You are a big liar. How you can say Baton is alive?" And so after a few minutes discuss, he said, "You are really Baton Haxhiu?" I said, "yes." And so we left Pristina on second of April, with this child and this woman. TERENCE SMITH: And when you got to Macedonia, were you able to call your wife from there? BATON HAXHIU: No. She watched me on TV. I was on... I was 7 of April, in Bonn, and live conference, press conference from Bonn, and she saw me on TV. TERENCE SMITH: So, she both heard that you were dead... BATON HAXHIU: Yeah. TERENCE SMITH: ...on the air, and also learned that you were alive? PAGE 249 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 BATON HAXHIU: Yeah. Learned from TV. And people had gone to her to say "sorry for Baton." And she, for 12 days, she know that I am dead. TERENCE SMITH: Extraordinary. And then you were able to set up your newspaper in temporary quarters in Macedonia, and print and distribute to the refugees? BATON HAXHIU: Yeah. My idea was to keep alive ideas with information, with newspaper, for people who stay in the border, and to be back in Kosovo; and the second, to keep stability in Macedonia, because it was very important for us to have stability in Macedonia. TERENCE SMITH: Stability there? BATON HAXHIU: Yeah, of course. Because if in Macedonia, start to be trouble, all international focusing will be on Macedonia. Everybody will forget Kosovo, and Milosevic will have a free hand to cleansing Kosovo. TERENCE SMITH: So finally, you were able to return to Pristina. What was that like to go home? BATON HAXHIU: Oh. I thought... it's good to be back in Pristina, and in Kosovo. But Kosovo, it's too much destroyed. Kosovo is the land whose dead speaks... TERENCE SMITH: Where the dead speak? BATON HAXHIU: Yeah, where dead speak. And I think it's... now we have many mass graves. We have people who are frustrated, we have blood to revenge of course, individual crimes, now. And it's a different post-war period in Kosovo. It's a big political vacuum, it's also...we not have many institutions. It also has destroyed life in Kosovo. TERENCE SMITH: The NATO troops that are there, how long do you think they will have to stay there? BATON HAXHIU: Oh, they will stay a long time. TERENCE SMITH: Years? BATON HAXHIU: Years and years, because Balkan needs the troops for stability. If not to go on from Kosovo, we never, never can have peace in the Balkans. TERENCE SMITH: And you are now able to publish your paper again? BATON HAXHIU: We are able to publish, but also we have a problem, because people is frustrated, and people need... especially political parties need to say who is the winner of this war. And if we starting to criticize somebody, this is a very big problem. TERENCE SMITH: I understand that you have been criticizing some of the Kosovo Liberation Army units and people. BATON HAXHIU: Well, this agency of KLA, and they wrote something about me, like a Churchill before the war. I remember the letter of Milosevic to "Koha Ditore" and to me on 21 of March. And it's the same letter...now it's the same PAGE 250 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 letter and same language, but this time in Albanian. TERENCE SMITH: Right. So it's still a dangerous business being a journalist in Kosovo? BATON HAXHIU: Yeah, especially to be independent is very dangerous, because we have many problems. We have different interests. We don't have security...court system is destroyed. We have a political vacuum. We didn't have a police system. We don't have many things. And the international community works so slowly in Kosovo. This is a turtle walk in Kosovo, especially OSC. They want to establish media system and broadcast system, but they work very slowly still. TERENCE SMITH: All right. Thank you very much for joining us. BATON HAXHIU: Very nice to be here. SERIES JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, another in our series of conversations with winners of this year's National Book Awards, announced last week. Once again to Elizabeth Farnsworth in San Francisco. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The winner in the young people's literature category this year was Kimberly Willis Holt, for "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town." Set in the Texas Panhandle, it tells a 13-year-old boy's story of friendship and loss, and manages to be very sad and funny at the same time. Holt began writing fiction just five years ago. Her first book was "My Louisiana Sky," also a young adult book. She lives in Amarillo, Texas. Thank you for being with us and congratulations. KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT, National Book Award, Young People's Literature: Thank you, Elizabeth. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The first line of your book reads: "Nothing ever happens in Antler, Texas but in fact a lot happened in the summer of 1971 to young Toby Wilson." Just briefly tell us the story. KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: It's about the summer of 1971, set during the Vietnam War. It's a home front story. But it's about when Zachary Beaver, the fattest boy in the world, who is a side show, comes to a Texas Panhandle town and everybody is affected by it because he's abandoned there. Some of the same people who pay $2 to gawk at him are some of the same people who end up befriending him. One of those people is Toby Wilson, and he's the main character. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Toby has a lot happening in his life this summer too. Tell us about that. KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: Well, one of the things that happens is that his mother goes off for a contest in Nashville and she wants to be a country-western singer. He thinks she's just going because of the contest but she's really decided to leave his dad. And, of course, that means leaving Toby also. He has to adjust to that. At first he's in denial about it. And by the end of the PAGE 251 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 book, he's able to accept it. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Tell us where this image of the trailer-- it's a very stark image in your book. A trailer pulls into town and a boy who is called the fattest boy in the world is in this trailer and he sits there day after day after day after he is deserted. Where did this idea come from? KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: Well, the first seeds of the inspiration come from my own life. When I was 13 years old, I paid $2 at the Louisiana State Fair to see the fattest boy in the world. And I didn't know that I was going to grow up and write a book about this, but that image was very strong in my mind. A few years after I saw that young man, a friend of mine befriended him. He was parked in their shopping center near their work where she worked. She would pay $2 every day and eat her lunch and visit with him. She made friends with him. I was really impressed by that. I thought that was... it was interesting because I was kind of like one of the characters in the book. And I was very nosey and asked all sorts of questions. I remember thinking when she told me about her friendship with him that I had not reacted the same way. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Ms. Holt, read something for us, please. KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: I'm going to read from a part where it's early on in the book and this is before Toby realizes that his mom has really left for good. "All that food reminds me of the night she packed for her trip. I sat on the edge of her bed watching her. Every pair of cowboy boots she owned lined the wall, including the turquoise ones with red stars. She formed all her western shirts and skirts on the bed and dropped lipstick tubes from under her sick into a small suitcase. I swear she packed like she was going for the whole summer instead of a week. About the only thing she didn't pack was the pearl necklace that once belonged to her mom. She told me that some day she would give the pearl necklace to the woman I married so it would stay in the family. Mom sang, 'Hey, Good Looking' as she packed. And the entire time I couldn't help wondering if moms were supposed to be that happy to get away." ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You know what I thought about in this passage and others, you have passages when Toby is trying to talk to his father or his father is trying to talk to him, I should say and there's a silence between them that you describe so well. How do you get into a 13-year-old boy's head? KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: I really don't know. One of the reasons I write is to be in other people's skin. And I don't start to write until I hear the voice. Sometimes I'll get a premise, you know, for a book. In fact I get those quite often. And I don't commit to it until I really know the voice of that character. It's almost as if the character is speaking to me. And that's really what happened. The first words of the book came to me and they were in Toby Wilson's voice. And I just tried to be true to what a 13-year-old boy would do. I tried to be honest through the whole book and think through Toby's eyes. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Why do you think these are young people's voices that you're speaking through, because I know you've also written short stories for adults and other works for adults too? KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: I think it's because I never got over being 12 years old. I really -- most of my ideas are coming of age stories. Those were hard years for me. I think that I felt like an outsider. I always tend to write PAGE 252 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 about outsiders. And what's been fun for me is as I travel around and visit schools is that other kids that feel the same way relate to some of my characters and so I hope in some way that's helping them when they want to read about somebody that they can relate to. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And I assume from this that you wanted them to think about what it would be like to be the fattest boy in the world and to have compassion for him? KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: Well, I hope now that the story is finished that they do. But when I'm writing it, I really don't write with that in mind. I really just write to be true to the story and true to the characters. It's sort of a selfish act, if you will -- as I write. I really try to keep all... everybody out of it, even the kids that I've met. And, so after it's done, you know, in fact, I remember one time I was visiting a school and that was asked of me: What are my books about? What is the theme? And one little girl said I think your books are about acceptance, accepting others. And that was really the first time anybody pointed that out. Maybe they really are. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: I thought a lot about why this book is considered a young people's story. One could say this is a book for an adult. I mean I enjoyed reading it very much. It has a very spare style. It's very dark in many ways. What makes it a young person's book do you think? KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: Probably just the fact that it is a true coming of age story. There's so many things that happened to Toby that summer. He gets his heart broken. He, you know, his mom leaves, his friendship with his best friend is tested. And those are things we all can relate to from our own childhood. Of course, 12 and 13-year-olds are going through that now. So that's what I think makes it a young person's book. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You just started writing about five years ago, is that right, or at least writing books of this.... KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: Yeah, five-and-a-half years ago. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: How do you explain your rapid progress. Not everybody wins a National Book Award in five years. KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: I don't think I've quite realized it myself yet. But I really started looking... writing was of course something that I wanted to do since I was 12 years old, writing fiction. So I didn't commit to it so much later after that and so I really was committed to it. I looked at it as a job from day one. Sometimes I didn't want to do it but I did it because it was my job. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Tell us how you do work. What's your method of working? KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: When I'm not on the road -- because the last six weeks I've been on the road a lot -- I will write early in the morning. I try to start writing around 7:30. I wear my pajamas. That's the thing I love most about writing. I don't get changed until I actually have to go out of the house. I'll write and take a late lunch or go to a coffee shop when I get where I can't stand the four walls anymore. That's pretty much my day. I'm pretty much finished by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. PAGE 253 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 22,1999 ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What difference will this award make to you? KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: Well, it makes a tremendous difference to me just because it means somebody has recognized a body of work that, as a writer, we can't always tell if it's good or bad. So it's nice to be accepted by others especially people that, you know, the judges are people that look at children's literature all the time. They have wonderful reputations. So it means acceptance to me. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And what next? Are you working on something right now? KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: I'm working on another book that is set in East Texas called "Dancing in Cadillac Light." ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: I thought the depiction of the town in Texas by the way was one of the great parts of this book. You really, really got the feeling of this town. KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: Well, thank you. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Congratu-go ahead - I'm sorry. KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: It was one of those little towns. I always pick towns that they say if you blink you might miss it. Claude and Memphis - and I kind of combine towns. Those are small towns like that. And I try to peel back the layers and show the specialness of them, so I appreciate that. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You achieve that. Many thanks for being with us and congratulations. KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT: Thank you. RECAP JIM LEHRER: Again, the major stories of this Monday. The Labor Department proposed new workplace rules to prevent injuries caused by repeated motions and heavy lifting. An anti-drug group said a new study showed 40 percent of 6,500 teens interviewed said it was "cool" to avoid drugs. That was up 5 percent from 1998. And the FBI said serious crimes were down 10 percent in the first half of this year. We'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 254 LEVEL 1 - 95 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. The Nikkei Weekly November 22, 1999 SECTION: Asia-Pacific; Pg. 20 LENGTH: 396 words HEADLINE: Wahid: Separatists in minority Indonesian president discusses Aceh referendum, other issues on Japan visit BYLINE: EIJI HOTOPP FURUKAWA Staff writer BODY: During his two-day trip to Tokyo last week, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said Aceh Province, where calls for independence from Indonesia are growing louder, would be able to hold a referendum in seven months. It was the first time the newly elected president publicly commented on the timing of the referendum. He didn't mention whether the vote would focus on independence, however. "In general, the plan now is to have the referendum on Aceh ... seven months from now," Wahid said at the Nov. 16 press conference in Tokyo. Asked whether the referendum would be on independence or wider autonomy, Wahid said that was up to the people of Aceh. However, Wahid said he was confident the majority of people in Aceh would not opt for independence, adding that most of those participating in separatist demonstrations are pressured into doing so. "How could they establish democracy if they are undemocratic themselves?" Independence movements have been growing in other regions of the country as well since the independence vote in East Timor. But Wahid said he was confident that separatists account for a small percentage of the population. "That's why I agreed to have a referendum." When asked about the bloodshed in East Timor, Wahid said the media, which flooded in to cover the event, sent out the wrong message. He explained that Indonesia was using all its airports and military planes to return East Timorese refugees who had fled to Indonesia's West Timor. "That shows Indonesia is serious about East Timor's independence." Wahid defended the military when the issue of human-rights abuses was raised, and said he opposed moves by the United Nations to take court action against certain military leaders. He showed his support for former military chief General Wiranto, saying he has modernized the armed forces. However, Wahid acknowledged some generals have abused their power. At the news conference, Wahid also mentioned his love of Japanese culture. He expressed his fondness for the works of Akira Kurosawa, the late movie director, and Nobel Prize-winning writer Yasunari Kawabata, among others. "The most popular novel about Japan I like is 'Shogun.' (After reading the book) I came to admire Tokugawa Ieyasu (founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate). PAGE 255 The Nikkei Weekly, November 22, 1999 Tokugawa Ieyasu was the man behind the modernization. So he was like myself," Wahid said. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 256 LEVEL 1 - 96 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Plain Dealer Publishing Co. The Plain Dealer November 22, 1999 Monday, FINAL / ALL SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 9A LENGTH: 484 words HEADLINE: WORLD BODY: Colombia sends drug ring suspect to U.S. for trial For the first time in eight years, Colombia has extradited a reputed narcotics kingpin charged in the United States. Jaime Orlando Lara Nausa was loaded on a Drug Enforcement Administration airplane under heavy guard at dawn yesterday after Colombian President Andres Pastrana rejected last-minute legal motions filed by the alleged trafficker's lawyers. If convicted on charges of heroin smuggling, Lara will face more punitive sentencing than in Colombia and an American-style incarceration that little resembles the comfortable accommodations typically afforded powerful drug dealers in Colombian prisons. Colombia, which banned extradition in 1991, re-established it in 1997, but until yesterday none had taken place. Workers find 7 trapped in cave Flaujac, France - Rescue workers yesterday reached seven cave explorers who had been trapped deep underground for 10 days by high water levels in southwestern France. The cave explorers, stranded 330 feet underground since Nov. 11, were reported in good condition. About 150 people had been working to find and rescue the seven men who took refuge in an underground chamber as heavy rains lifted the water level of an underground river, blocking their exit. Family and rescuers had gathered in Flaujac, 340 miles south of Paris, above the cavern where the men were trapped. Envoy urges return of Timorese refugees Jakarta, Indonesia - A senior U.S. envoy opposed calls for martial law in troubled Aceh province yesterday and urged Indonesia to expedite repatriation of East Timorese refugees. "We would be delighted if 150,000 refugees in West Timor just got up and went home," said envoy Richard Holbrooke. "But they are being prevented from doing so by intimidation, by misinformation, by gangs of people who call themselves militias but are thugs." Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he had asked President Abdurrahman Wahid to speed up the return. The refugees fled East Timor after Indonesian troops and militiamen went on a burning and looting rampage after the East Timorese voted for independence Aug. 30 in a U.N.-supervised ballot. Following the arrival of international peacekeepers on Sept. 20, many militiamen also fled to West Timor, where they are accused of terrorizing refugees and hindering their repatriation. Jordan's king pardons 25 Hamas officials Amman, Jordan - King Abdullah II pardoned 25 officials of the militant Palestinian group Hamas who were accused of illegal political activities in PAGE 257 The Plain Dealer, November 22, 1999 Jordan. Under a deal struck with the government, the group must keep its Jordanian offices closed and prohibit its members from partaking in Hamas activities inside the kingdom. Jordan has come under pressure from the United States, Israel and the Palestinians to restrain Hamas, which opposes peace with Israel and advocates its annihilation. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH COLUMN: WORLD LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 258 LEVEL 1 - 97 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 News World Communications, Inc. The Washington Times November 22, 1999, Monday, Final Edition SECTION: PART A; WORLD; THE U.N. REPORT; Pg. A14 LENGTH: 689 words BYLINE: Betsy Pisik; THE WASHINGTON TIMES DATELINE: NEW YORK BODY: SELLING U.N. REFORM The Americans know it will take more than muscle, money and meetings to sell their concept of U.N. reform to the member states who must approve it. So on Wednesday afternoon, the State Department staged a bit of theater at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations to showcase the "new era" in U.S.-U.N. relations. Diplomats and reporters were invited to the 12th floor of the mission at sunset to witness a hastily arranged swearing-in ceremony for Donald Hays, the newly confirmed ambassador for administration and management and the mission's point man on reform. Such oaths are usually taken quickly and quietly at the State Department, but U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said afterward that he had arranged to administer the oath in New York "to offer concrete visualization . . . that Donald Hays has arrived." Surveying the hundred or so people gathered to sip California bubbly and nibble from passing trays of cheese and pastry, the American ambassador added, "Tonight, we involved the very people he will have to get to know and work with." To be sure, most of those present had never seen a full-blown hand-on-the-Bible American swearing-in ceremony, and several said they found it moving. Among those present were diplomats from Security Council nations, Australian Ambassador Penny Wensley, who heads the Budget Committee of the General Assembly; U.N. budget chief Joseph Connor; the acting head weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer; and dozens of staffers from the U.S. Mission. Mr. Holbrooke described Mr. Hays' arrival as "symbolic and fortuitous" and said the ambassador possessed "diplomatic skills rarely found in an administration and management specialist." Immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, Mr. Hays cracked: "I worked a decade for Dick Holbrooke between 1994 and 1995," when they were both in Germany. PAGE 259 The Washington Times November 22, 1999, Monday, Final Edition It must have been a good relationship. Mr. Hays, a career official with the State Department, turned down a Washington promotion to come to New York. MISSION TO TIMOR U.N. investigators left Geneva for East Timor yesterday - nearly two months after their visit was authorized by an emergency session of the Commission on Human Rights. The group of five experts, led by Sonia Picado of Costa Rica, is looking into atrocities committed by pro-Jakarta militias in the wake of the referendum on independence. They will spend two weeks interviewing witnesses, visiting sites of mass killings and piecing together the fates of thousands of civilians, including clergy, believed to have been killed and another 800,000 who have been dislocated. They are expected to file a report to the secretary-general by the end of the year. Human rights activists and East Timor spiritual leader Bishop Carlos Belo have criticized the United Nations for taking so long to get a team on the ground. They fear that evidence has been deliberately destroyed by militias or has decayed during the rainy season. NEW WASHINGTON REP Michael Marek is the new face of the U.N. Development Program in Washington. A longtime Washington insider, Mr. Marek has been a U.S. alternative representative to the World Bank since 1994. Before that he was a senior adviser on economic development and foreign policy for Rep. David Obey, Wisconsin Democrat. UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, himself a World Bank alumnus, chose Mr. Marek to replace Roy Morey, who is retiring after 22 years with the development agency. KOSOVO SLOTS NIXED The United Nations has firmly rejected the Atlantic City approach to urban renewal. Bernard Kouchner, the United Nations' de facto emperor of Kosovo, has decreed that there will be no gambling in the battered Yugoslav province. That means no craps, roulette, poker, slot machines, blackjack, electronic wagering "or any game or activity involving chance," according to a press release issued last week by the U.N. Interim Administration Mission, based in Pristina. Given the attacks on U.N. officials in the region, they may have a tough time enforcing that one. * Betsy Pisik may be reached via e-mail at unear@aol.com. PAGE 260 The Washington Times November 22, 1999, Monday, Final Edition LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 261 LEVEL 1 - 98 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 News World Communications, Inc. The Washington Times November 22, 1999, Monday, Final Edition SECTION: PART A; WORLD SCENE; Pg. A15 LENGTH: 620 words BYLINE: FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS BODY: RUSSIANS SURROUND CHECHEN CAPITAL, REBELS SLEPTSOVSKAYA, Russia - More than 5,000 rebels have barricaded themselves in the Chechen capital, bracing for a Russian offensive as federal troops close in after weeks of relentless shelling, military officials said yesterday. On Chechnya's borders, refugees pushed through wet snow and a damp wind to flee the breakaway republic. Most were on foot, though some crossed in cars sagging with sweaters, pots and blankets. Russian forces have the capital, Grozny, 80 percent surrounded and were trying to complete the circle by advancing on the towns of Urus-Martan and Achkhoi-Martan to the south and southwest, a Defense Ministry spokesman in Moscow said yesterday. U.S. ENVOY URGES REFUGEES' RETURN JAKARTA, Indonesia - A senior U.S. envoy opposed calls for martial law in troubled Aceh province yesterday and urged Indonesia to expedite repatriation of East Timorese refugees. "We would be delighted if 150,000 refugees in West Timor just got up and went home," said visiting U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke. "But they are being prevented from doing so by intimidation, by misinformation, by gangs of people who call themselves militias but are thugs." Mr. Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he had asked President Abdurrahman Wahid to speed up the return process. The refugees fled East Timor after Indonesian troops and militiamen went on a burning and looting rampage after the East Timorese voted for independence Aug. 30 in a U.N.-supervised ballot. ALGERIA BUS ATTACKED; STUDENT KILLED ALGIERS - One child was killed and three others wounded as Islamic militants bombed a school bus in northeastern Algeria, the Algerian media reported yesterday. Militants attacked the bus Saturday in the village of Tamerdjit, 160 miles east of Algiers, the daily La Tribune reported. No other information was immediately available. PAGE 262 The Washington Times November 22, 1999, Monday, Final Edition The past week has brought the worst violence Algeria has seen since President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected in April, vowing to end a 7-year-long insurgency. QUENTIN CRISP DEAD AT AGE 90 LONDON - Quentin Crisp, the eccentric writer, performer and raconteur best-known for his autobiography "The Naked Civil Servant," died yesterday after collapsing at a private residence. He was 90. Mr. Crisp, who lived principally in New York City for decades, was in his native Britain to begin touring with a one-man show. He collapsed at a private residence arranged by the Green Room Theater in the northwest England city of Manchester, where he was to begin appearing tonight, said the theater's press manager, Christopher Hodgson. SWISS PROVIDER BLOCKS 12 RACIST WEB SITES ZURICH - Swiss telecoms operator Diax has blocked access to 12 World Wide Web sites containing racist and anti-Semitic ideas, Diax spokesman Roland Ott said yesterday. Confirming a report that appeared in the German-language Swiss paper Sonntags Zeitung, Mr. Ott said the sites were operated by foreign Internet service providers, not by Diax. Swisscom, another Swiss telecoms company and Internet service provider, blocked access in October to a racist Web site that contained links to other sites offering far-right propaganda to Internet users. FREED HAMAS LEADERS ARRIVE IN QATAR DOHA, Qatar - Four leaders of the militant Palestinian group Hamas arrived in Qatar from Amman yesterday after they were released by the Jordanian government and flown immediately to the Gulf state. Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Meshal told Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite television on his arrival in Doha that the four men had not received prior notice of their release, and that they did not accept what they called their deportation. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 263 LEVEL 1 - 99 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 News World Communications, Inc. The Washington Times November 22, 1999, Monday, Final Edition SECTION: PART A; COMMENTARY; OP-ED; Pg. A19 LENGTH: 1067 words HEADLINE: Aid to gangster states; Funding graft in Russia and Africa BYLINE: George Ayittey BODY: Shed no tears for the Clinton administration's pain over the Russian money-laundering scandal. This largely self-inflicted pain stems from the administration's reluctance to learn from its own blunders elsewhere, particularly in Africa. It invested massively in the rhetoric and charisma of "leaders," thereby setting itself up to be duped by crackpot democrats. The administration seeks out an "Abraham Lincoln," and develops a warm, cozy personal relationship - or "partnership" with him to transform his country. Thus, so much faith was invested in Boris Yeltsin and a small cadre of "reformers," led by Viktor Chernomyrdin. Western aid dollars flowed. Staggering from a hangover, the administration now finds itself swindled by gangster bureaucrats, who, during the party, engaged in a massive heist of Russian assets for transfer overseas. Similarly, during his historic trip to Africa in March 1998, President Clinton hailed the presidents of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Eritrea as the "new leaders of Africa" and spoke fondly of the "new African renaissance" sweeping the continent. But barely two months after Mr. Clinton's visit, Ethiopia and Eritrea were at war, the "new African renaissance" in tatters and the rest of the "new leaders" were at each others' throats in the Congo conflict. Were this not enough, the administration's other African "partners" turned out to be reform acrobats and crocodile liberators. Like Russia, huge sums have fled Africa. According to the United Nations, $200 billion or 90 percent of sub-Saharan Africa's GDP was shipped to foreign banks in 1991 alone. Yet, this kamikaze plunder, which occurred under the watchful eyes of Inspector Clousseau and the Keystone Cops (the IMF and the World Bank), elicited no outrage from the Western media and the Clinton administration for reasons of political correctness. The administration's policies toward Russia and Africa are fundamentally flawed. The near-fatal obsession with an "Abraham Lincoln" encourages all sorts of charlatans and hucksters to project themselves as such to win Western favors and recognition. They parrot "democracy" and "capitalism" by rote, not so much out of conviction nor with the will to implement them, but because such euphonious utterances please Western aid donors. Second, the starry-eyed belief -in the teeth of abundant evidence to the contrary - that a "government" exists in the recipient country, that cares about and responds to the needs of its people, is astonishing. What is now proven PAGE 264 The Washington Times November 22, 1999, Monday, Final Edition to exist in many African countries and Russia is a gangster state - a "government" hijacked by a phalanx of vagabonds who use the machinery of the state to develop their own pockets. The chief bandit is often the head of state himself. As the director of the World Bank's own Poverty and Social Policy Department, Ishrait Husain, himself observed: " Market reform is failing in many African countries precisely because their governments misappropriate funds. They spend large sums of money promoting their own interests, building airports in their home towns, increasing military spending, and buying more fashionable cars. The third flaw is the persistent failure to distinguish between outcomes and the processes or institutions required to achieve those outcomes. A democratic Russia or Africa, based on the free market system, are outcomes of often long and arduous processes. Most critical are the transparency of the processes, the fairness of the electoral rules, mechanisms for peaceful resolution of electoral disputes, among others. By focusing almost exclusively on the outcomes and paying scant attention to bothersome details of the processes, Western leaders often become, by default, complicit in the commission of egregious electoral frauds that produce a pirate democracy. In Africa, the democratization process has been stalled by political chicanery and strong-arm tactics. Incumbent autocrats appoint their own electoral commissioners, empanel a fawning coterie of sycophants to write the constitution, massively pad the voter's register and hold fraudulent elections to return themselves to power. The record on market liberalization is even more dismal, despite the rosy portrait the Clinton administration, the World Bank and the IMF paint of Africa. More than $50 billion has been poured into Africa by USAID, the World Bank and the IMF since 1990 to support market reform in Africa. Yet, the prospects remain bleak. Ghana, Lesotho, and Uganda, for example, were all the rage two years ago. Not any more. A market economy cannot be established without secure property rights, free flow of information, the rule of law and mechanisms for contract enforcement. Since these processes or foundations are missing in Russia and most African countries, the free market economies the Clinton administration hopes to establish in these countries are pies in the sky, regardless of assurances by Mr. Yeltsin and the "new African leaders." A new approach that emphasizes institution-building or processes is imperative. Leaders come and go but institutions endure. Four are critical: * An independent central bank -vital for monetary and economic stability, as well as stanch capital flight. * An independent judiciary -crucial for the enforcement of rule of law, protection of property and to end rapacious plunder. * An independent and free media - to facilitate the free flow of information, to expose criminal wrongdoing, and to disseminate ideas. * Neutral and professional armed or security forces - to protect life and property and ensure law and order. Witness East Timor. PAGE 265 The Washington Times November 22, 1999, Monday, Final Edition At the minimum, Western aid should be made contingent upon the establishment of these institutions, which are established by civil society, not leaders. An implicit conflict of interest is involved when leaders are asked to set up the very institutions that would limit their power or the arbitrariness by which it is exercised. Re-channeling existing aid programs to reach the people or civil society would have much greater impact in transforming Russia and Africa than placing unwarranted faith in Lincoln wannabes. George Ayittey, a native of Ghana, is an Associate Professor of Economics at American University and president of The Free Africa Foundation, both in Washington. His new book is "Africa In Chaos." GRAPHIC: Illustration, AFRICA LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 266 LEVEL 1 - 100 OF 156 STORIES COPYRIGHT 1999 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE THE MATERIALS IN THE XINHUA FILE WERE COMPILED BY THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY. THESE MATERIALS MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY. November 22, 1999, Monday LENGTH: 259 words HEADLINE: HKE112253 -- 3 FILIPINOS NOMINATED TO HEAD UN FORCE IN EAST TIMOR DATELINE: MANILA, NOVEMBER 22 BODY: THE PHILIPPINES HAS NOMINATED TO THE UNITED NATIONS THREE OFFICERS OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES (AFP) TO HEAD THE U.N. PEACEKEEPING FORCE IN EAST TIMOR. DEFENSE SECRETARY ORLANDO MERCADO SAID MONDAY IN A PRESS RELEASE THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS SUBMITTED THE NAMES OF MAJ. GEN. DIOMEDIO VILLANUEVA, MAJ. GEN. GREGORIO CAMILING AND MAJ. GEN. JAIME DE LOS SANTOS TO THE UNITED NATIONS. MERCADO SAID THE UNITED NATIONS WILL SELECT THE COMMANDER OF THE U.N. TRANSITIONAL ADMINISTRATION ON EAST TIMOR (UNTAET) THAT WILL REPLACE THE INTERNATIONAL FORCE TO EAST TIMOR THAT IS PRESENTLY DEPLOYED IN THE FORMER PORTUGUESE COLONY. THE THREE ARE ALL ARMY OFFICERS AND GRADUATES OF THE PHILIPPINE MILITARY ACADEMY, THE COUNTRY'S PREMIER MILITARY SCHOOL. INDONESIA WHICH HAD PUT EAST TIMOR UNDER ITS RULE FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS UNTIL THE RESIDENTS VOTED IN A REFERENDUM FOR THE TERRITORY'S INDEPENDENCE, WANTED A FELLOW MEMBER OF THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS TO HEAD THE U.N. PEACEKEEPING FORCE. THE PHILIPPINES AND MALAYSIA WERE MENTIONED AS CANDIDATES TO LEAD THE UNTAET. IF A FILIPINO WOULD BE SELECTED TO COMMAND THE U.N. PEACEKEEPING FORCE TO EAST TIMOR, MERCADO SAID, PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT JOSEPH ESTRADA WILL SELECT FROM AMONG THE THREE AFP GENERALS RECOMMENDED TO THAT PRESTIGIOUS U.N. MILITARY POST. AT PRESENT, THE PHILIPPINES HAS A 600-MAN CONTINGENT DEPLOYED IN EAST TIMOR, WHICH IS ENGAGED IN CIVIC WORK SUCH AS MEDICAL AND DENTAL MISSION AND CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS, BRIDGES AND SCHOOLS. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 267 LEVEL 1 - 101 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 21, 1999 02:54 GMT SECTION: Financial pages LENGTH: 834 words HEADLINE: AFP Asia-Pacific news agenda BODY: Duty Editor: Alex Perry Tel: Hong Kong (852) 2802 0223 Nov 21 (AFP) - Asia-Pacific news highlights on Sunday: + Tamil Tiger rebels pound a Roman Catholic church in northern Sri Lanka, killing 35 and wounding 60. + China kicks off manned spaceflight program with successful experimental launch. + Bomb explodes in ousted Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif's home town, killing at least six. AUCKLAND: America's Cup challenger series. (Yachting-AmCup) BANGKOK: Following diplomatic attempts to ease relations between Bangkok and Yangon strained by a hostage siege at Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok last month (Thailand-Myanmar) BEIJING: China kicks off its manned space flight program with a successful unmanned experimental launch. (China-space) Zhu Rongji embarks on his first overseas trip since Beijing and Washington inked a bilateral agreement on China's entry into the World Trade Organization. (China-ASEAN) BOMBAY: Foreign insurers are busy preparing for the formal opening of the Indian insurance sector, despite misgivings over restrictions on equity stakes in joint ventures. (India-insurance) COLOMBO: Tamil Tiger rebels pound a Roman Catholic church compound in northern Sri Lanka, killing 35 civilians and wounding 60 others. (SriLanka-Tamil) DILI, East Timor: Monitoring refugee returns, relief distribution and visit by Indonesian human rights investigators. (Timor) PAGE 268 Agence France Presse, November 21, 1999 ISLAMABAD: Following developments in murder conspiracy case against ousted Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif. JAKARTA: US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke and Assistant State Secretary Stanley Roth in Jakarta. Expected to meet other foreign ambassadors to discuss East Timor before travelling to West and East Timor on Monday and Tuesday. (Timor-US) Monitoring developments of separatist movement in Aceh. (Indonesia-Aceh) Qualification match between Indonesia and Cambodia for Group Seven Asian Cup football tournament. (1000 GMT) (Fbl-Asian-Cup-Ina-Cam) KABUL: Monitoring developments related to fighting and United Nations sanctions on Afghanistan. KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's politicians hit the road for first full day of campaigning before the November 29 polls (Malaysia-vote). Ruling National Front unveils manifesto 1200 GMT. Moved advancer on tough electoral battle looming in northern ethnic Malay heartland (Malaysia-vote-Fadzil). World Cup of Golf final day. Asia Cup hockey: South Korea vs Sri Lanka 1000 GMT, Pakistan vs China 1200 GMT. LAHORE, Pakistan: Monitoring developments after six people are killed and 17 injured when a powerful bomb exploded in this major Pakistani city. (Pakistan-blast). Pictures. MANILA: Southeast Asia holds a summit meeting with the prospects of stability and economic growth boosted by democratic reforms in its largest member Indonesia and the easing of the financial crisis in the region. (ASEAN). Asian women's football championships: third place play-off North Korea vs Japan (0500 GMT), championship match China vs Chinese Taipei (0700 GMT). (Fbl-Asia-women) NEW DELHI: Covering last month's cyclone which devastated India's eastern state of Orissa leaving thousands dead. (India-cyclone). Covering Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok's visit to India. (India-Holland) PATTAYA, Thailand: Thailand international women's tennis tournament (Tennis-Tha). PHNOM PENH: Cambodia celebrates its annual water festival and public holiday with boat racing on the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers in the capital Phnom Penh. Coverage on merit. Pictures. RAROTONGA, Cook Islands: The outgoing government in the Cook Islands awarded ministers cars and increased the amount of money payable to the official opposition a day before they were voted out of office, the Cook Islands News newspaper reported. (CookIslands-vote). PAGE 269 Agence France Presse, November 21, 1999 SEOUL: North Korea proposes a joint investigation with South Korea into alleged civilian killings by US troops during the Korean War. (NKorea-SKorea) Monitoring progress of talks between the US and South Korea over Seoul's plans to extend its missile range. (SKorea-US-missile). Watching developments on the dismantlement of the Daewoo Group. (SKorea-Daewoo). SYDNEY: Pakistan set Australia a massive fourth innings target to win the second cricket Test in Hobart. (Cricket-Aus-Pak) Pictures. TAIPEI: Monitoring presidential campaigning for the island's second direct presidential elections in March. (Taiwan-politics) TOKYO: Japan is ganging up with the European Union at landmark global trade talks this month to battle head on against US plans to remove tariffs from farm trade, officials and analysts say. (WTO-Japan) World Cup men's voleyball matches. (Volley-world) Dunlop-Phoenix golf tournament. (Golf-Jpn) Tokyo Women's international marathon (Jpn-Marathon) WBA super bantamweight title match (Boxing) The timing of events can vary and is provided as a guide for planning purposes. Specific times for main stories are contained in our regular news advisories. afp LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 270 LEVEL 1 - 102 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 21, 1999 06:52 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 587 words HEADLINE: US says no to martial law for restive Aceh, urges dialogue DATELINE: JAKARTA, Nov 21 BODY: Visiting US ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke said Washington did not want to see martial law imposed in the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, a report said Sunday. The official Antara news agency quoted Holbrooke as telling journalists the US "supports dialogue between the (Indonesian) government and the people of Aceh, which Gus Dur (President Abdurrahman Wahid's nickname) is also seeking." "We are not going to interfere in the internal affairs of another country, but Indonesia is of an enormous importance to the United States. It is now the third largest democracy in the world," he said. Indonesian security authorities -- including national police chief General Rusmanhadi and army chief General Subagyo Hadisiswoyo -- have publicly suggested some areas of the staunchly Muslim province be put under martial law. Subagyo has said he saw the situation in Aceh "conducive to the implementation of martial law," while Rusmanhadi said such martial law "should be imposed following a demand by the local Aceh people and only imposed in several Aceh regions which really need it." Holbrooke said Washington supported Wahid's opposition to martial law, discouraged violence and strongly encouraged dialogue and a peaceful solution to the problems in Aceh. Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, has been wracked by increasing violence over the past months. The province, rich in oil and natural gas, has also seen public pressure for a referendum on self-determination. Aceh activists and leaders have given the government until December 4, the anniversary of the Free Aceh separatist movement, to give a decision on their demand. Current violence and fear of further violence on December 4 has already prompted thousands of people -- mostly non-Acehnese -- to flood out of the province. Top officials, including Wahid and national assembly speaker Amien Rais, have said they agreed a referendum needed to be held in Aceh but they have not elaborated on what options they would present to the Acehnese. PAGE 271 Agence France Presse, November 21, 1999 The parliament and the military have opposed the idea, saying broad autonomy for Aceh was the answer. Full accountability and freedom of the press were two important elements of democracy, Holbrooke added. "We are glad to see there is free press now and we hope to see accountability in Indonesia." Holbrooke expressed hope the Indonesian parliament "would move to put in place the system of full accountability internally." He said accountability was very important to deal with the problem in Aceh by bringing those found guilty of human rights violation to court. Resentment against Jakarta and the military following a decade of harsh anti-rebel military operations in Aceh has been further fuelled by dissatisfaction over the draining of the province's rich natural resources. The discontent has led to rising calls for a referendum and one million people held a rally in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh last week to press for a ballot. Human Rights Minister Hasballah Saad said Saturday if martial law was imposed, "chances for a dialogue will slip away" and it would mean there would be a solution through violence. Holbrooke and US Assistant State Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth, arrived here Saturday for a visit focused on the problems of East Timor. Both officials left Sunday for West Timor to visit refugees still sheltered there and will also visit Dili, the capital of East Timor. vt/bs/kf LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 272 LEVEL 1 - 103 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 21, 1999 13:26 GMT SECTION: Advisory LENGTH: 324 words DATELINE: Nov 21 BODY: We plan to file the following features: NEAR SERNOVODSK, Russia: Tired of war and the incessant artillery bombardment that had blown their homes apart, this western Chechen village told the fighters to leave and invited in Russian troops. Chechnya-scene 500 words by Nikolai Topuria MOSCOW: Russian oil companies expect to make big profits in 1999, but are preparing for large-scale restructuring next year based around a handful of leading firms. Russia-oil 650 words by Marielle Eudes DILI, East Timor: The violence which destroyed East Timor and turned its people into refugees was not expected by the United Nations mission which organized the referendum on the territory's future, the UN's outgoing mission chief says. PAGE 273 Agence France Presse, November 21, 1999 Timor-UN 750 words by Ian Timberlake MANILA: Simmering tensions in the Spratly islands in the South China Sea are expected to dominate an informal summit here of Southeast Asian leaders with their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea. ASEAN-Spratlys 650 words by Mynardo Macaraig NEW DELHI: Faced with Pope John Paul II's call to baptise Asia, Hindu zealots allied to India's ruling coalition have vowed to step up their campaign against conversions by the church. India-Church-Hindu 600 words by M.R. Narayan Swamy BEIJING: While the rest of the world celebrates the year 2000, China plans to go one better by building a massive monument to its 5,000 years of uninterrupted civilization, a major patriotic boost backed by the communist leadership. Mil-China. Picture 550 words by Patrick Baert MAJURO: Aviator Amelia Earharts mysterious disappearance in 1937 has for 62 years vexed the US Coast Guard, the navy and dozens of individuals, but the PAGE 274 Agence France Presse, November 21, 1999 answers may now be on their way with a new high-tech probe of the Pacific. Marshalls-aviation. Picture 700 words by Giff Johnson afp LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 275 LEVEL 1 - 104 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 21, 1999 13:27 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 717 words HEADLINE: The man who organized the Timor vote looks back with few regrets BYLINE: Ian Timberlake BODY: DILI, East Timor, Nov 21 (AFP) - The violence which destroyed East Timor and turned its people into refugees was not expected by the United Nations mission which organized the referendum on the territory's future, the UN's outgoing mission chief said. "No, we didn't anticipate the degree of violence in general that would break out after the ballot, after the announcement of the result," Ian Martin said in an interview with AFP. "We expected there to be violence but we thought it would be more limited, more localized and that there would be greater efforts to check it," said Martin before leaving East Timor. As head of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), Martin was in charge of implementing the May 5 international agreement that would give East Timorese a historic vote on their future. The vote, twice delayed for security and logistic reasons, was finally held on August 30, when 98.5 percent of the electorate cast ballots. Almost 80 percent voted to move towards independence and reject an offer of autonomy under Indonesia which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975. Martin's annnouncement of the result on September 4 sparked a militia rampage that left hundreds of East Timorese dead, forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and nearly drove UNAMET itself from the territory. "I think that there were two things that we were wrong about, in retrospect," Martin said. The first misconception was, as voting day neared, the Indonesians had come to accept their autonomy proposal would likely be rejected. "I think we've learned since that there was a lot of genuine shock, that there was a significant section of Indonesians - including people in the TNI (Indonesian military) - who still thought that they were going to achieve a pro-autonomy vote." Martin said UNAMET also over-estimated the degree to which officials in Jakarta would control any post-vote violence out of concern their country's international image would suffer. PAGE 276 Agence France Presse, November 21, 1999 "In that sense we under-estimated the determination of some people in the TNI to carry out the scorched earth policy." Even before September's orgy of destruction, violence and intimidation by Indonesian-back armed miltias marred the months leading to the ballot. The violence led to increasing international condemnation and forced Martin to make repeated calls for Indonesian police to take action, as a May 5th agreement required them to do. At the same time, in talks with Martin, Indonesian officials denied links between their military and the militias. "It was the fundamental untruth that the militia were a self-organized East Timroese phenomenon, rather than an extension of the TNI. The real nature of that relationship was never acknowledged. It was occasionally, privately, acknowledged by the police." As fires burned and gunshots rang out across the territory in the days after Martin announced the ballot results, UNAMET's Dili headquarters came under siege, which led to a major departure of local staff on September 10. "That was the moment when we were close to having to leave completely." At the time it was unclear whether a peacekeeping force would be sent, Martin said. He and other staff eventually left Dili temporarily, but 10 UNAMET staffers remained at the more secure Australian consulate. Martin said he hoped future investigations would reveal who was behind the planning for the destruction of East Timor. He said he knew from the start of his mission the security situation would be the essential issue. "It was clear that the agreement was going to be an extremely difficult one to implement," said Martin. Despite the violence, which claimed the lives of at least five UNAMET staffers from East Timor, Martin said he is comfortable with the decisions he made to proceed with the ballot. Had it not gone ahead: "Perhaps the one opportunity the people of East Timor had to express themselves would disappear," he said. "I feel that something extremely important has been accomplished and the East Timorese people have exercised their right to self-determination and nothing can take that away from them. "Despite all the suffering they've been through, it is a suffering that has had an outcome," he said. it-kw/jd/bm LANGUAGE: ENGLISH PAGE 277 Agence France Presse, November 21, 1999 LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 278 LEVEL 1 - 105 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Journal and Constitution November 21, 1999, Sunday, Home Edition SECTION: News; Pg. 5B LENGTH: 656 words HEADLINE: WORLD IN BRIEF BYLINE: From our news services SOURCE: AJC BODY: N. Korea seeks role in probe of war massacre North Korea proposed Saturday that it form a joint team with rival South Korea to investigate allegations that American soldiers killed hundreds of civilians during the Korean War. The U.S. and South Korean probe already under way is ''a deceptive trick to put down the wrath and anti-American feelings'' and ''designed to cover up the crimes and flee from responsibility,'' the North's committee in charge of relations with South Korea said in the unusual proposal, reported by the Communist state's Central News Agency. The North said it sent the proposal to South Korean civil organizations, indicating it would prefer to deal with them than the government. Prominent civil groups in Seoul said they had yet to receive the proposal. ASIA: U.S., China discuss military contacts A U.S. Defense Department official met with Chinese officials Saturday in an effort to re-establish high-level military contacts abruptly suspended by Beijing after the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May. A delegation headed by Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant defense secretary, arrived in Beijing on Friday, had a day of meetings with officials from the People's Liberation Army on Saturday, and will return to Washington today, an American Embassy spokesman said. The spokesman, Bill Palmer, said the delegation ''was hoping for constructive talks,'' but he would offer no information about the content of the meetings. U.S. calls for refugees' return to East Timor Visiting U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke urged Indonesia's new president Saturday to speed up the repatriation of tens of thousands of refugees who were forced to flee East Timor by rampaging anti-independence militiamen. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said he plans on visiting border camps in West Timor on today and Monday before traveling to U.N.-administered East Timor. Holbrooke said the United States was ''very concerned'' about the plight of refugees in West Timor. EUROPE: Russian forces resume strikes over Chechnya Clear skies allowed the Russian air force to renew bombing over Chechnya on Saturday, and the military claimed to have driven Islamic rebels into the mountains. The army is focusing on the Chechen capital, Grozny, which it says PAGE 279 The Atlanta Journal, November 21, 1999 it has largely surrounded, and the rebel stronghold of Bamut in the west of the breakaway Caucasus Mountains republic. The resumed airstrikes came amid intense international criticism of Russia's two-month military campaign. At a summit in Turkey last week, a defiant President Boris Yeltsin angrily rejected calls for negotiations to end the war. Quake death toll expected to rise A day after the search for survivors was called off, bulldozers moved in Saturday to cart away the wreckage of an earthquake that killed at least 705 people in Turkey. The death toll from the Nov. 12 quake increased by almost 100 since Friday, and was expected to rise further as more bodies are reached from within the piles of shattered concrete. More than 5,000 people were injured and 750 buildings destroyed in the 7.2-magnitude temblor that hit the northwestern town of Duzce, the government's crisis center said. Priests ordered to stop abortion counseling Showing impatience with the reluctance of Germany's Roman Catholic bishops to stop offering abortion counseling, Pope John Paul II told them Saturday to hurry up and obey his teaching. ''I hope that this significant activity of the church in your country will soon be put back in order definitively according to my directive,'' the pope said in a firmly worded speech to a group of German bishops at the Vatican. Abortion in Germany is technically illegal, but pregnancies can be terminated within the first 12 weeks without prosecution if the mother can provide a certificate showing she sought counseling. Catholics run 270 of Germany's 1,690 counseling centers. LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 280 LEVEL 1 - 106 OF 156 STORIES Content and programming copyright 1999 Cable News Network Transcribed under license by Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. Formatting copyright 1999 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to Cable News Network. This transcript may not be copied or resold in any media. CNN SHOW: CNN WORLD REPORT 14:00 pm ET November 21, 1999; Sunday 2:03 pm Eastern Time Transcript # 99112101V04 TYPE: PACKAGE SECTION: News; International LENGTH: 562 words HEADLINE: Aceh Vote Prompts Fears of Further Unrest in Indonesia BYLINE: Asieh Namdar HIGHLIGHT: In Indonesia, a fragile new democracy is facing challenges every day. Most immediate is the troubled province of Aceh in the northern region of Sumatra, where since 1976 the people have been struggling to establish an independent Islamic state. Recent outbreaks of violence there have many afraid of more bloodshed to come, and while the government says it is prepared to hold a referendum, so far it has only offered the option of greater autonomy, not independence. BODY: THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: We begin in Indonesia, where a fragile new democracy is facing challenges every day. Most immediate is the troubled province of Aceh in the northern region of Sumatra. Since 1976, the people have been struggling to establish an independent Islamic state. Recent outbreaks of violence there have many afraid of more bloodshed to come, similar to what happened in East Timor. The government says it is prepared to hold a referendum, but so far only with the option of greater autonomy, not independence. We get an Indonesian perspective on the situation from RCTI. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT, RCTI CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With more than one million people in Aceh gathering on November 8 to demand a referendum, it would be hard for anyone outside the restive province not to take notice. At the same time, activists also picket the United Nations building in Jakarta, PAGE 281 CNN WORLD REPORT, November 21, 1999 calling for international attention to Aceh. They have long decried the lack of international interest in Aceh compared to the huge outcry over East Timor, citing one fact that separates the two. The so-called "international community" is seen as not being well disposed towards Muslim calls for self determination and Aceh is home to a staunchly Muslim people. But there are also huge differences between the history of former Portuguese East Timor and the events leading to Aceh's current predicament. The province, at the western tip of Sumatra, has long had uneasy relations with the central authority, stretching back to Dutch colonial times. The election of President Abdurrahman Wahid in October marked a renewed result to take Aceh seriously with the president ordering a major troop pull out and promising to bring to justice even high- ranking perpetrators of atrocities in the province. Unfortunately the Acehnese, no stranger to broken promises, have little patience for words. Sukarno's pledge of autonomy to suppress a revolt in the 1950s materialized in name only, while his successor, Suharto, enforced a radically centralized system. There were high hopes last year when Jakarta lifted a decade-long military operation blamed for the deaths of countless Acehnese, many of whom had nothing to do with the armed separatist movement. But hopes were shattered when atrocities persisted, exemplified by the recent killings of more than 50 civilians at a local Muslim boarding school. Through it all, President Wahid continues his personal support for an Aceh referendum, saying it would resolve local demands for justice. Wahid is confident that most Acehnese wish to remain part of Indonesia because they are active co-architects of the Indonesian republic since its founding in 1945. The president's call for self-determination is seen by many not to reflect separatist calls but rather demands for justice after decades of unheeded aspirations. With the central government now willing to start taking concrete action, perhaps Indonesia would not end up losing one of its proudest and courageous people. This is the RCTI news team reporting for the CNN WORLD REPORT. (END VIDEOTAPE) TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 282 LEVEL 1 - 107 OF 156 STORIES Content and programming copyright 1999 Cable News Network Transcribed under license by Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. Formatting copyright 1999 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to Cable News Network. This transcript may not be copied or resold in any media. CNN SHOW: CNN WORLD REPORT 14:00 pm ET November 21, 1999; Sunday 2:07 pm Eastern Time Transcript # 99112102V04 TYPE: PACKAGE SECTION: News; International LENGTH: 548 words HEADLINE: Canadian Solders Play Major Role in East Timor Peacekeeping Mission BYLINE: Asieh Namdar, Raymond St. Pierre HIGHLIGHT: The chaos in East Timor eased only after an Australian-led international peacekeeping force arrived in the Indonesian territory in late September. Now, as the United Nations prepares to take full responsibility of East Timor, some 600 Canadian soldiers from the international force have been key in restoring peace. BODY: THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: The crisis in East Timor was triggered after a referendum for independence in August. The chaos eased only after an Australian-led international peacekeeping force arrived in the Indonesian territory in late September. Now, as the United Nations prepares to take full responsibility of East Timor, some 600 Canadian soldiers from the international force have been key in restoring peace. Canada's CBC reports from Dili. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RAYMOND ST. PIERRE, CBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the East Timorese town of Suwi (ph), a group of Canadian soldiers patrols a devastated landscape. Most of the homes were torched, burned by the pro-Indonesian militia back in September after East Timor voted for independence. The Canadians are a welcome sight. PAGE 283 CNN WORLD REPORT, November 21, 1999 UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: "Welcome to Timor." "Welcome to Timor," says the graffiti. On another wall, "I love you, military Canada." ST. PIERRE: Coporal Vincent Ganeau (ph) is a member of the Quebec-based Fondue's (ph) regiment. CORPORAL VINCENT GANEAU, CANADIAN ARMED FORCES: We want to make a presence in our sector of responsibility so that people know that we're taking care of them and so they feel a bit more secure. ST. PIERRE: The Canadians also patrol by air, scouring an area near the border with West Timor, on the lookout for militia activity. CAPTAIN STEVE BOIVIN, CANADIAN ARMED FORCES: One of our assumptions is that once they know that we are in the area, they retreat. They just go away. MAJOR GENERAL PETER COSGROVE, AUSTRALIAN ARMED FORCES: So I'm looking to you for a great contribution. ST. PIERRE: The peace mission is headed by Australian Major General Peter Cosgrove, who spent some time this week at the camp in Suwi. COSGROVE: There has been militia activity here before, so this remains an area of heightened alert. And that's why I'm delighted we have experienced troops like the Canadians here. ST. PIERRE (on camera): Some of the greatest challenges for these Canadian soldiers have nothing to do with their task of restoring peace here and everything to do with nature. There are scorpions, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, and then there's the heat. (voice-over): It's almost unbearable. On most days, the temperature is well into the 40s, something Canadian soldiers have had to get used to. Here the drinking water isn't only a thirst-quencher, it's a matter of survival. Corporal Nelson Ward (ph) is a seasoned soldier, but this mission, he says, has been the hottest. CORPORAL NELSON WARD, CANADIAN ARMED FORCES: Here it's more humid and hot and -- what do you call that -- sticky. ST. PIERRE: Canadian soldiers are here for at least six months. They will move from this camp in Suwi to a more permanent camp 30 kilometers away with better facilities. Still, it's a remote part of East Timor. But for these Canadian soldiers, there's one consolation: a phone call 15 minutes a week, a chance to talk to family back home. Raymond St. Pierre, CBC news in Suwi, East Timor. (END VIDEOTAPE) TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com PAGE 284 CNN WORLD REPORT, November 21, 1999 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 285 LEVEL 1 - 108 OF 156 STORIES Content and programming copyright 1999 Cable News Network Transcribed under license by Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. Formatting copyright 1999 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to Cable News Network. This transcript may not be copied or resold in any media. CNN SHOW: CNN WORLDVIEW 19:00 pm ET November 21, 1999; Sunday 7:10 pm Eastern Time Transcript # 99112104V18 TYPE: PACKAGE SECTION: News; International LENGTH: 457 words HEADLINE: U.S. Ambassador to U.N., Richard Holbrooke, Works to Allow East Timorese Refugees to Return Home BYLINE: Andria Hall, Maria Ressa HIGHLIGHT: The fighting is largely over in East Timor, but a quarter of a million people fled the conflict which followed a referendum in which the Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. Many are still refugees in neighboring West Timor. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, is on his way to the border between West and East Timor. He says he hopes to bring together top leaders from both sides to put in place a joint-border commission and help hundreds of thousands of refugees return home. BODY: THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: The fighting is largely over in East Timor, but a quarter of a million people fled the conflict which followed a referendum in which the Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. Many are still refugees in neighboring West Timor. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is there and so is CNN's Maria Ressa. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, is on his way to the border between West and East Timor. He says he hopes to bring together top leaders from both sides to put in place a joint-border commission and help hundreds of thousands of refugees return home. PAGE 286 CNN WORLDVIEW, November 21, 1999 Since East Timor was destroyed in early December, more than 250,000 refugees have fled across the border to West Timor. But although the violence has stopped, U.N. officials say only about 70,000 have returned home. RICHARD HOLBROOKE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: They're being prevented from doing so by intimidation, by misinformation, by gangs of people who call themselves militia but are thugs, and by a failure on the border which we hope to clarify. RESSA: Last Wednesday, a pregnant woman and her husband were seriously injured when a militia gang attacked refugees trying to return to East Timor. Ambassador Holbrooke was blunt in his conversation. HOLBROOKE: Are you a member of the militia? RESSA: "Yes," answers this man. HOLBROOKE: These people are scared of you, I think. RESSA: "Nobody here is scared," the man answered. Surprisingly, that seems to be echoed by others here, most East Timorese who wanted to stay with Indonesia. (on camera): All of the refugees Ambassador Holbrooke spoke with at this camp said they are choosing to stay here because they are afraid to go back to East Timor, not because of the militias but because of the Falentil (ph) guerrillas. These refugees say they know they're on the losing side and they're afraid of what actions the winners may take against them if they choose to return to East Timor. (voice-over): This man says it's not the Falentil guerrillas he's afraid of, but the CNRT, its political arm. With so much violence, revenge is a real fear for those who have thrown their lot with Indonesia. This mans asks, "If it's safe there, I think many will go back, but if we die, who will be responsible for us?" It's a question many here want answered before they move on. Maria Ressa, CNN, Kupang, Indonesia. (END VIDEOTAPE) TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 287 LEVEL 1 - 109 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Deutsche Presse-Agentur Deutsche Presse-Agentur November 21, 1999, Sunday, BC Cycle 10:05 Central European Time SECTION: International News LENGTH: 365 words HEADLINE: U.S. wants repatriation of East Timorese refugees speeded up DATELINE: Jakarta BODY: The United States government wants to see a speeding up of the repatriation of East Timorese refugees from Indonesia-controlled West Timor, a senior U.S. official said Sunday. "We hope to encourage a significant increase in the return of refugees from West Timor. There is no reason for continued delay for their return," visiting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke told journalists. Holbrooke also called for full accountability of the Indonesian military forces following allegations of collusion in the campaign of murder, rape and looting by pro-Jakarta militias in the wake of August 30 ballot for independence. More than 260,000 people fled or were forced to flee East Timor into West Timor during the violence that followed when the territory voted in August to split from Indonesia which had annexed the former Portuguese colony in 1976. Humanitarian workers have accused pro-Jakarta militias, widely supported by elements of the Indonesian security forces, of intimidating or terrorizing the refugees in West Timor not to return to East Timor. A separate U.N. investigation is underway into allegations of human rights abuses in East Timor by pro-Indonesia militias backed by Indonesian security forces. Jakarta has said it will cooperate, although it would not be legally bound by the results of the probes. Holbrooke, accompanied by U.S. Assistant Secretary of States for Asian and the Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth, arrived in Jakarta on Saturday. They met with President Abdurrahman Wahid, Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab and other high-ranking government and military officials. The two U.S. officials are to fly to West Timor capital of Kupang later on Sunday and visit the border town of Atambua where hundreds of thousands of displaced East Timorese were given temporary shelter. Holbrooke and Roth will then travel to the East Timor capital of Dili where they are scheduled to meet the new head of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), Sergio Vieira de Mello. The two were also expected to PAGE 288 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 21, 1999 meet East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao. dpa sh pt LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 29, 1999 PAGE 289 LEVEL 1 - 110 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company The Houston Chronicle November 21, 1999, Sunday 2 STAR EDITION SECTION: OUTLOOK; Pg. 5 LENGTH: 794 words HEADLINE: In Russia's interest to give Chechnya independence BYLINE: ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI; Brzezinski was national security adviser in the Carter administration. BODY: RUSSIAN President Boris Yeltsin may have had a tempestuous debate over Chechnya with President Clinton and other Western leaders last week, but no one should be fooled by his show of pique. He has little reason to be upset with the compromise reached by Western and Russian negotiators at a summit meeting in Istanbul on European security. It all sounds good on paper. The new charter of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe reportedly stipulates that Russia will allow the group to provide humanitarian aid to Chechnya and an outside observer to tour the war zone, steps that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called a "good foot in the door" to broader Western involvement. But for now this amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist. President Clinton was tough in his criticism of Russian actions last week, but his speech reaffirmed that the West still believes that Moscow has "the obligation to defend its territorial integrity." The West's idea of a desirable outcome in Chechnya - that the breakaway province continues to be part of Russia but is treated decently - is an oxymoron. Let's state the obvious: The only fair and workable solution, good both for the Chechens and for the Russians, is self-determination for Chechnya. Getting rid of an empire is never easy. The French learned that painfully during the Algerian war 40 years ago. But eventually the imperial homeland itself benefits from the dissolution, something Charles de Gaulle had the courage to tell the skeptical French people at the time. Perhaps some Russian leader will soon muster the needed courage to counter popular opinion in his country and say publicly, "Let the Chechens go." Unfortunately, the Russian ruling elite is still driven by imperial nostalgia. The generals thirst for revenge for the defeat they suffered in the Caucasus four years ago. And many Russians, inflamed by official propaganda, view all Chechens as terrorists and Islamic fanatics. That is why, sadly, the suppression, even the elimination, of the Chechens sounds reasonable to many Russians. For their part, the Chechens do not wish to be part of Russia, and they have been resisting subjugation for more than a century. That is also why the West's diplomatically worded appeals for "negotiations" or "a political solution" or "a cease-fire" are pipe dreams. PAGE 290 The Houston Chronicle November 21, 1999, Sunday Last week, the West once again failed to put down a marker, to remind Yeltsin of a statement he made in 1990, in the context of the dissolution of the Soviet Union: "History has taught us that a people that rules over others cannot be fortunate." Continuing a brutal war, which has created more than 200,000 refugees, will not only do enormous damage to Russia's global image and push Russian politics toward a chauvinistic extreme, but will also probably create an enduring and militant hostility among the 200 million Muslims to Russia's immediate south (not to mention some 20 million Muslims within Russia itself). The only way the world can make Russians understand this is to take the same stand that it took, for example, on East Timor. No one urged a NATO-type military operation against Indonesia to end the repression of the East Timorese. But the international community, through patient pressure but also with prudent clarity, made it plain to Indonesia's rulers that their country would suffer high financial and political costs if they persisted. That paved the way for a referendum on East Timor's independence and for an international peacekeeping force to intervene when violence followed the vote. Now East Timor is in the process of becoming an independent state. An independent Chechnya would not be an anomaly. It has a population of about 1 million people, about the same as East Timor's. The United Nations currently has 39 member-countries with populations of 1 million or less. Of course, Russia is not Indonesia - it is a former superpower and longtime empire, and it would not so easily part with a territory in which it has invested so much honor and blood. But the East Timor example is apt because it shows what consistent rhetoric, diplomatic pressure and economic leverage on the part of the West can achieve in terms of ending brutal subjugation. Certainly, the United States can exert other pressure to protest the atrocities, like cutting off loans to Russia. Still, for the democratic nations to take a clear stand that the Chechens are entitled to self-determination is the most important step toward a decent and civilized solution to the war in the Caucasus. Even if the Russian politicians and generals respond with instinctive anger, they will eventually realize that the true beneficiaries of letting Chechnya go will be the Russian people themselves. GRAPHIC: Drawing LANGUAGE: ENGLISH TYPE: Editorial Opinion LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 291 LEVEL 1 - 111 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Kyodo News Service Japan Economic Newswire November 21, 1999, Sunday LENGTH: 248 words HEADLINE: ASDF advance team heads to W. Timor to help refugees DATELINE: TOKYO, Nov. 22 Kyodo BODY: An advance team of the Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) left for Indonesia on Monday on a mission to provide support to East Timorese refugees stranded in West Timor. The 14-member advance team, including six civilian liaison officers, departed from Narita airport and is headed for Surabaya on Java Island via Jakarta, according to ASDF officials. They will discuss details of their tasks with representatives of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and make preparations for the arrival of the rest of the ASDF personnel and planes. Some 100 ASDF members will depart Japan on Wednesday on three C-130 transport planes based at the ASDF base in Komaki, Aichi Prefecture. They are scheduled to arrive in Surabaya on Thursday afternoon following fuel stops in Naha and Manila. The C-130s will be used to airlift food and medical supplies from Surabaya to Kupang in West Timor, where many East Timorese who fled or were forced from their homes are settled in refugee camps following turmoil in East Timor. After checking the 1,250 kilometer air route between Surabaya and Kupang, the ASDF team will begin transporting the supplies on Nov. 29. The planes are slated to make about five flights per week until early February. Tens of thousands of people fled East Timor after Jakarta-backed militias ravaged the territory following the U.N.-sanctioned referendum held Aug. 30, in which a vast majority of East Timorese chose independence from Indonesia. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 292 LEVEL 1 - 112 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Kyodo News Service Japan Economic Newswire November 21, 1999, Sunday LENGTH: 220 words HEADLINE: Ramos-Horta plans Dec. 1 return to E. Timor DATELINE: SYDNEY, Nov. 22 Kyodo BODY: East Timorese independence campaigner Jose Ramos-Horta will return to his homeland Dec. 1 to end nearly 25 years of exile, he said Monday in a statement released in Sydney. Ramos-Horta, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 along with East Timor's spiritual leader Bishop Carlos Belo, will take a chartered flight from Darwin to Dili accompanied by colleagues from the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT), East Timor's umbrella political party. 'I go back with a sincere sense of humility because I am conscious that the true heroes are the humble people of East Timor and I'll be at their service for the next years to come,' said Ramos-Horta, who is currently in transit from New York to his base in Sydney. A spokesperson for Ramos-Horta, vice president of the CNRT, said that upon arrival in Dili he would attend talks with CNRT president Xanana Gusmao and visiting Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Da Gama, before traveling overland to Baucau, East Timor's second largest city. Ramos-Horta left East Timor just days before Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in December 1975. He has since acted as an international spokesman for the independence movement in East Timor, which voted overwhelmingly to separate from Indonesia in a U.N.-sponsored ballot Aug. 30. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 293 LEVEL 1 - 113 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Kyodo News Service Japan Economic Newswire November 21, 1999, Sunday LENGTH: 131 words HEADLINE: Howard to visit Australian troops in E. Timor DATELINE: SYDNEY, Nov. 22 Kyodo BODY: Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Monday he will travel to East Timor this weekend to visit Australian troops stationed there. 'I will speak for the entire nation in conveying our thanks and gratitude and respect for the job that they have done and continue to do,' Howard told parliament in Canberra. The prime minister's office said details of the visit are not yet available. Opposition leader Kim Beazley also announced he would visit troops in East Timor next week. Australian troops make up more than half of the 9,000-strong U.N.-sanctioned multinational force currently deployed in East Timor, which is commanded by Australian Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove. The Australian-led force is to be replaced by U.N. blue-helmet peacekeepers early next year. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 294 LEVEL 1 - 114 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Hankook Ilbo Korea Times November 21, 1999, Sunday LENGTH: 835 words HEADLINE: [Going Global in New Millenium - (11) Korea on World Stage BODY: A wise person once said: If a man is gracious and courteous to a stranger, it shows he is a citizen of the world.'' Through the ages, all societies have grasped that citizenship involves both privileges and obligations. This is evident in Korean society, where traditional obligations to family and elders have played an important role in ensuring social harmony. Now, as we stand on the threshold of a new millennium, tradition is challenged by innovation and globalism is a fact of life. The world we live in is as much global village as it is global marketplaceand national boundaries, while still important in a sovereign sense, cannot prevent the flow of new ideas or debates about norms and values. Korea is a good example of this trend. In just five decades, it has moved from colonial occupation, the devastation of internecine war and successive military dictatorships to emerge as a leading industrial nation, a vibrant democracy and a human-rights advocate. This is a major achievement, especially for a divided land that still suffers from the legacy of the Cold War. The Korean people have a well-deserved reputation for hard work and resourcefulness. But they are also keenly interested in issues and values, and recognize the role that human will and human actions play in building a better, safer worldwhich is what good global citizenship aims to do. Diplomacy advancesg lobal citizenship through such means as aid programs, promotion of human and civil rights, nonproliferation regimes and confidence-building and cooperative security measures. Nations are judged not only for the way they promote narrowly defined national interests but also for the humanity and altruism they project onto the world stage. The United Nations' intervention in the Korean War was a good example of global citizenship. Sixteen nations (including Australia) dispatched military forces to assist in the defense of South Korea. As a result, the Republic of Korea was established in circumstances that allowed it to prosper. It may be ironic that the modern state that grew out of the hermit kingdom'' was a product of international action but the significance of that fact has obviously not been lost on the Korean people. The Korean decision to dispatch troops to help restore stability in East Timora decision that was applauded widely by the international communityshows that Koreans understand the need to assist with collective action aimed at restoring peace and stability, upholding democratic principles and providing humanitarian relief to refugees and to populations in distress. It is gratifying that, notwithstanding the debate about sending combat personnel, the Korean people acknowledged the international community's mission in East Timor as just, and supported Korean participation. The Korean reaction to the tragic events in East Timor embodies the spirit of good global PAGE 295 Korea Times November 21, 1999, Sunday citizenshipa willingness to take action that brings little direct national gainb ut which is dictated by concern for one's fellow man. Good global citizenship can be manifested close to home, too. Korea's activism in promoting peace and security on the Korean peninsula has its roots in a desire to avoid war and to advance the interests of all Koreans. But the Korean problem'' is even bigger than the underlying inter-Korean problem, as was demonstrated by international reaction to Pyongyang's nuclear program in the early 1990s, and to its Taepodong missile test of August 31st last year. For better or for worse, the Korean peninsula is a strategic crossroadsvital yet potentially volatile. Australia, for example, benefits strongly from stability in North-East Asia, which is home to many Australians and is the focus of one-third of our global trade. Accordingly, we applaud Korea's role in forging a framework of consultations with the United States and Japan on policy towards North Korea. Australia also supports Korea's policy of engaging North Korea and applauds Korea's leadership role in KEDO, which will help keep the peninsula free of nuclear weapons (We have donated close to $20 million in humanitarian aid to North Korea, and $14.8 million to KEDOmaking Australia the fifth-largestc ontributor to KEDO). Korea's alliance with the United States also represents ani mportant contribution to the security of the Asia-Pacific region. Australia tooh as an alliance relationship with the United States and so appreciates how important it is for nations that value democratic and free-market principles to support and facilitate U.S. strategic engagement in the region. Koreans often focus on the measures that need to be taken to further enmesh Korea in the global community. Many initiatives which are under way, such as the move toward a knowledge-based economy, are significantthough challenges remain. But in the sphere of global citizenship, Korea has real stature and Koreans have much to be proud of. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 26, 1999 PAGE 296 LEVEL 1 - 115 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 P.G. Publishing Co. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette November 21, 1999, Sunday, TWO STAR EDITION SECTION: WORLD, Pg. A-6 LENGTH: 809 words HEADLINE: SREBRENICA - LESSON IN PEACEKEEPING BYLINE: PHILIP SMUCKER, SPECIAL TO THE POST-GAZETTE DATELINE: WASHINGTON - BODY: The United Nations' bold admission this week that it should have done more to save thousands of Bosnian Muslims from a Serb mass murder in 1995 is likely to have a major impact on future peacekeeping missions around the world. The long-awaited report on the Srebrenica massacres - the worst in Europe since World War II - says that "we tried to keep the peace and apply the rules of peacekeeping when there was no peace to keep." Starting on July 11, 1995, Serb forces overran the eastern U.N. "safe area" of Srebrenica, which was being "defended" by 150 Dutch peacekeepers and a rag-tag Bosnian-Muslim army. That offensive led to the slaughter of an estimated 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys over the age of 14. Some 2,500 bodies have been found, and thousands more lay strewn in shallow graves across the Bosnian highlands. The U.N.'s failures in Bosnia have already affected the planning of peacekeeping missions since those tragic days in the summer of 1995. From Bosnia to East Timor to Kosovo, international powers, usually led by Western armies and U.S. troops, have turned to the notion of making peace with a robust foreign force before trying to keep it with a lighter U.N. contingent of soldiers or policemen. But even with the admission of failure to use adequate force in Bosnia, the U.N. report raises new questions as to why - after four years - more force has not been used to arrest the Serb leaders most responsible for the massacre at Srebrenica. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in the 155-page report on Srebrenica that "the cardinal lesson . . . is that a deliberate and systematic attempt to terrorize, expel or murder an entire people must be met decisively with all necessary means, and with the political will to carry the policy through." While the report blasts the Serb leadership for its campaign of "ethnic cleansing in eastern Bosnia," it also comes down hard on a Western policy led by Europe and the United States that responded to the war in Bosnia with an arms embargo, humanitarian aid and an ineffective U.N. peacekeeping force. It says the U.N. Protection Force's refusal to return weapons to Bosnian Muslims for self-defense was "particularly ill-advised given UNPROFOR's own PAGE 297 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 21, 1999 unwillingness to consistently advocate force as a means of deterring attacks on the enclave." The flawed Bosnia policy, begun under President Bush, continued during the Clinton administration and carried out by the U.N., amounted to what Annan characterized as "appeasement." The idea of "appeasement" in Europe is closely associated with the Western policy, particularly that of Great Britain, toward Nazi Germany when it began rolling tanks into Czechoslovakia and other countries prior to World War II. The U.N. report acknowledges the advantages of strategic bombing, which were consistently overlooked in Bosnia but which came to be central in the strategy to stop Serb aggression in Kosovo this year. "We were, with hindsight, wrong to declare repeatedly and publicly that we did not want to use air power against the Serbs except as a last resort and to accept the shelling of the safe areas as a daily occurence," said Annan's report. The war in Bosnia was eventually halted with the assistance of NATO air strikes on Serb targets. In a similar way, the civil war in Kosovo ended when the Western alliance pummeled Serbia from the skies. But Western analysts argue that in both cases the actions were belated and might have been less damaging to all parties had a more credible threat and use of force been employed earlier in those conflicts. "There is a role for peacekeeping - a proud role in a world still riven by conflict - and there is even a role for protected zones and safe havens in certain situations," reads the report. "But peacekeeping and war fighting are distinctive activities which should not be mixed." The report addresses the need to distinguish between good and evil even in battle, but it does not look critically into the post-Srebrenica failure to bring evil-doers to justice. Gen. Ratko Mladic, who led the offensive against the U.N. "safe area," has traveled between homes in Bosnia and Serbia on numerous occasions in the last four years. The psychiatrist-poet and former president of the Serb Republic, Radovan Karadzic, is believed by U.S. officials to still reside in Bosnia alongside NATO peacekeepers. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was arguably the person most responsible for the overall policy of "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia that led to Srebrenica, was not even indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal until a full year after he began yet another campaign of terror and slaughter, this time in Kosovo. Philip Smucker is a freelance journalist based in Yugoslavia who writes frequently for the Post-Gazette. PAGE 298 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 21, 1999 LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 299 LEVEL 1 - 116 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Star Tribune Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) November 21, 1999, Sunday, Metro Edition SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8A LENGTH: 743 words HEADLINE: World digest BODY: Chechnya: Russian troops ring Grozny As clear skies allowed renewed bombing, Russian troops tightened their ring around the Chechen capital of Grozny, the key prize in Moscow's two-month campaign in the breakaway republic. Meanwhile, Russian officials were trying to restore basic utilities to areas occupied by troops. Military officials said that Russian forces were within 3 miles of the capital and had the city nearly surrounded, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. . Indonesia: U.S. urges fast repatriation of refugees Visiting U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke urged Indonesia's new president to speed the repatriation of tens of thousands of refugees who were forced to flee East Timor by anti-independence militiamen. Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he plans to visit border camps in West Timor today and Monday before traveling to U.N.-administered East Timor. . Sri Lanka: Shelling kills 35 villagers Artillery shells fell around an ancient Dutch-built church full of refugees in northern Sri Lanka amid fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, a church official said today. The shelling killed at least 35 villagers and injured 80. . Russia: Deputy prime minister hurt in wreck Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko was hospitalized with two broken legs and a concussion after a car accident in central Russia that killed three others, officials said. Matviyenko was returning from a visit to a PAGE 300 Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) November 21, 1999, Sunday, Metro Edition museum in the Penza region, about 350 miles southeast of Moscow, when an ambulance ran head-on into her Chevrolet, according to the Russian government's press service. . Tanzania: At least 34 alleged witches killed At least 34 people have been killed this year in western Tanzania as suspected witches, the newspaper Nipashe reported. Most of the victims were elderly women whose eyes turned red from years of standing over cow dung cooking fires. Although villagers often accuse red-eyed women of being witches, investigators say this is often used as an excuse by family members to get rid of women in order to seize their property. . Russia: Officials will aid money-laundering probe The Russian prosecutor general's office will help U.S. investigators in their probe into the alleged laundering of Russian money by the Bank of New York, a news agency reported. The United States has charged that $7 billion from Russia was illegally funneled through accounts at the Bank of New York. . Zimbabwe: Compensation review panel is promised Zimbabwe's president has promised traditional chiefs that he will establish a committee to consider compensation for atrocities committed by his troops in quelling a rebellion in the 1980s. As many as 20,000 civilians died when President Robert Mugabe's troops tried to crush the 1982-1987 rebellion in Matabeleland Province by 200 guerrilla fighters of the minority Ndebele tribe. . North Korea: Joint team sought for investigation North Korea proposed that it form a joint team with rival South Korea to investigate allegations that U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of civilians in the Korean War. The North said it sent a plan to South Korean civil organizations, indicating it would prefer to deal with them rather than the government. The Associated Press reported Sept. 29 that U.S. Army veterans said their unit killed a large number of civilians at No Gun Ri in July 1950. . PAGE 301 Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) November 21, 1999, Sunday, Metro Edition Iraq: Baghdad rejects plan to extend U.N. aid Iraq rejected a two-week extension of U.N. humanitarian aid as being too brief to be of any help, but it did not indicate whether it would stop selling oil to raise money for food the keystone of the program. The two-week extension was approved as a stopgap to give Security Council members time to resolve a deadlock on a comprehensive policy on Iraq. . Afghanistan: Stranded refugees may get food Afghanistan's ruling Taliban army offered to let the United Nations deliver food to tens of thousands of refugees stranded in the opposition-controlled Panjshir Valley. Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil said the army, which controls the roads into the valley 80 miles north of Kabul, the capital, will guarantee U.N. convoys safe passage. The United Nations also must help about 40,000 refugees living in Kabul, Muttawakil said. They are victims of fighting last summer north of Kabul. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 302 LEVEL 1 - 117 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Star Tribune Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) November 21, 1999, Sunday, Metro Edition SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 25A LENGTH: 384 words HEADLINE: When U.N. pledges to make a safe haven, and doesn't SOURCE: Wahington Post DATELINE: Washington, D.C. BODY: From an editorial in the Washington Post: . It is not easy to admit the truth of Srebrenica, the Bosnian town where thousands of Muslim men were executed and hundreds buried alive, where a grandfather was forced to eat the liver of his grandson. But in its report released on Monday, the United Nations accepts its share of the blame. It designated Srebrenica a safe haven but failed to supply enough troops to make the safety genuine. When Bosnian Serb militias set about the massacre in July 1995, the U.N. force of 110 soldiers in Srebrenica offered no resistance. By the United Nations' own reckoning, as many as 20,000 Muslims died in this and other "safe" areas that the United Nations had sworn to protect. The U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, should be commended for this stark admission. The question, however, is whether his honesty will spur bolder peacekeeping in the future. In the conclusion to his long report, Annan invites U.N. member states to reflect on "the gulf between mandate and means; the inadequacy of symbolic deterrence in the face of a systematic campaign of violence; the pervasive ambivalence within the United Nations regarding the role of force in the pursuit of peace; (and on) an institutional ideology of impartiality even when confronted with attempted genocide." During the Bosnian war, Annan's predecessor called for 34,000 troops, but the Security Council gave him only 7,400. In the recent case of East Timor, the council supported the idea of a U.N. referendum on independence but refused to send troops to deter a blood bath that was widely predicted. Sometimes the United Nations' failure is built into its structure. Where a permanent member of the Security Council opposes intervention, no action will be authorized: hence the United Nations' current silence about Russia's war crimes in Chechnya, and its early impotence on Kosovo. But in cases where the council does approve action, it is fair to insist that it be serious. The U.N. member states need to embrace force to secure peace; they need to shove neutrality aside and denounce evil in order to combat it. As Annan PAGE 303 Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) November 21, 1999, Sunday, Metro Edition says, the U.N. mission to end conflict does not preclude moral judgment. On the contrary, it makes it necessary. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 304 LEVEL 1 - 118 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Straits Times Press Limited The Straits Times (Singapore) November 21, 1999 SECTION: (Review Cover Story); Pg. 38 LENGTH: 1168 words HEADLINE: Walking a tightrope BYLINE: Felix Soh BODY: NEW INTERVENTIONISM The issue of humanitarian intervention versus sovereignty was crystallised by the crises in Kosovo and East Timor. FELIX SOH discusses the debate on reconciling the two concepts, while our correspondents examine the positions of individual countries IT WAS Kofi Annan's theme. Professor S. Jayakumar spoke about it. So did Bill Clinton. As did other world leaders, including Tang Jiaxuan, Robin Cook, Lionel Jospin and Joschka Fischer. The hot topic: Interventionism and walking the tightrope between sovereignty and humanitarian intervention. With the backdrop of the political and military dramas which unfolded in Serbia and East Timor, it was not unexpected that the international community embarked on a collective soul-searching at this year's United Nations General Assembly on what has been dubbed the "new interventionism". As a result, a fresh look is being taken at the concept of humanitarian intervention and its impact on traditional concepts of sovereignty. UN chief Annan kicked off the debate by calling for a more active interventionist policy by the world body. He told the world's governments to be prepared for a new era of UN interventionism, pointing out that the Security Council could not be passive when gross human-rights violations occurred. But he also sounded a warning that the danger was that others, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in its bombing of Serbia over Kosovo, would take international law in their own hands if the Security Council did not enforce its decisions. Singapore's position, as articulated by Foreign Minister Jayakumar, was that the UN must devise new rules for intervention or risk being irrelevant in the next century. PAGE 305 The Straits Times (Singapore), November 21, 1999 He agreed with Mr Annan's view that objective criteria for intervention must be set urgently as the world could expect to face many more situations that demanded reconciling sovereignty with humanitarian intervention. He said greater direction was needed as the international response to crises like Kosovo had been mainly ad hoc. "We lurch from crisis to crisis with no clear sense of direction or consistency," he said. Noting that concern for human rights had always been selective, he posed these pertinent questions: "Why Kosovo or East Timor and not Africa? Are the rights of humans everywhere not universal? How to choose when to intervene amongst the too many conflicts?" Although the issue of intervention has been crystallised by events in Kosovo and East Timor and has found an attentive audience in the UN, it has actually been on the boil in the international relations front for almost a decade. But the question of sovereignty, some observers of international relations feel, is being presented in too stark a term. It has become a case of either preserving sovereignty or surrendering sovereignty by allowing others to intervene. However, sovereignty is never absolute. It is restrained by a coalition of people or by self-restraint. For example, countries submit sovereignty to the majority interest by living in peace with each other. Cooperation in the international arena -in fields such as the environment or dealing with transnational crime -already implies restriction of sovereignty. Non-interference is also not absolute. Interdependency means that we are interfering with each other's interests. By going to the UN, we are also giving up some sovereignty. We are abrogating sovereignty to the Security Council. That said, it is a fact that the notion of sovereignty is central to international relations. But since World War II, there has been another current -human rights. These two strands, sovereignty and human rights, have been co-existing for some time now. The logical way to reconcile them is through international organisations, such as the UN. The problem with humanitarian intervention is that it covers a period when the UN Security Council mechanism is not working very well. The council guards its privileges jealously, marginalising third world countries in the decision-making process. In any case, it is not possible to insist on absolute sovereignty anymore. Once a country plugs into the global economic system, it is in effect giving up its sovereignty. PAGE 306 The Straits Times (Singapore), November 21, 1999 Countries are accepting this intellectually. There is no choice really. Like it or not, we are all already plugged into the global economy. Interventionism is a trend that countries have to deal with as it can be destabilising to the world. As one diplomat puts it: "We can ignore what is happening in Rwanda, but we must assuage the concerns of China and Russia which, if not attended to, can destabilise the international system." The bottomline is that as the world becomes more and more interconnected, there must be greater involvement by countries in global crises. This would mean involvement by the UN General Assembly, which has greater political legitimacy than the Security Council. Namibian President Sam Nujumo, speaking at the UN General Assembly, was right on the money when he pinpointed the Security Council and the veto power held by its members -US, Britain, France, Russia and China -as the source of the problem. He said that, in some cases, divisions within the council had prolonged conflicts and human suffering, rendering it ineffective on many issues. He was right. Germany also shares a similar view. Its Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said at the UN that the introduction of an obligation for a state to explain to the General Assembly on why it was vetoing a resolution would make it more difficult to do so to satisfy national interests. Supporting this point, Singapore's UN Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani proposed to the world body that if and when the Security Council is paralysed "in the fear of a real crisis", then the General Assembly should review the problem. He pointed out that the General Assembly's key advantage is that it is a universal body. It is also far more transparent in its working methods. "Would it not be worthwhile to try and build political consensus for humanitarian interventions before undertaking them?," he asked. "The General Assembly's decisions are not binding. However, they can be legitimising and consensus-building -perhaps more so than the Security Council because of the General Assembly's universal membership." The balance between the need for quick action and the need for political consensus on such action could be struck in the General Assembly. Discussion on this must proceed urgently. The international community would do well to take heed of an almost-prophetic warning given 35 years ago by then-UN Secretary-General U Thant to the Security Council during the Cuban missile crisis. He had said: "Today, the UN faces a moment of great responsibility ... the very fate of mankind. If today, the UN should prove itself ineffective, it may have proved itself so for all time." PAGE 307 The Straits Times (Singapore), November 21, 1999 * The writer is The Straits Times Foreign Editor. GRAPHIC: The problem of intervention was managed well for East Timor, say several countries, because Indonesia agreed to invite different countries to participate. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 308 LEVEL 1 - 119 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Straits Times Press Limited The Straits Times (Singapore) November 21, 1999 SECTION: (Review Cover Story); Pg. 38,39 LENGTH: 457 words HEADLINE: Country's sovereignty first BYLINE: Mary Kwang, China Correspondent BODY: * CHINA BEIJING -China's stand is clear: A country's sovereignty and territorial integrity remain paramount despite the current debate about humanitarian intervention. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said arguments that humanitarian concerns could override a country's sovereignty were a new manifestation of hegemony and power politics. "They violate the aim and principles of the UN Charter and are a negative trend in international diplomacy," he said. "We oppose using humanitarian intervention as an excuse to interfere in the internal politics of a country. We oppose even more citing humanitarian intervention to use force against a country without first seeking the sanction of the UN Security Council," he added. The spokesman warned that any move to weaken the authority of the UN Security Council was extremely dangerous. According to observers, China's vociferous opposition stems in part from its concern that outsiders could make use of the new interventionism argument to interfere in matters it considers sensitive, namely its territorial rights to Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan. Professor Wang Jie, director of International Organisations Research Centre of Beijing University, spelt out two conditions that would make foreign intervention acceptable. They are: * The country concerned must itself ask the UN Security Council to intercede; and * all peacekeeping actions, even by a regional group of nations, must have the approval of the UN Security Council. According to her, sovereignty remained vital because it gives developing nations a voice on the international stage. PAGE 309 The Straits Times (Singapore), November 21, 1999 For peacekeeping efforts to be successful, she said, the decision to send in outside help must have the acceptance of the country concerned. She cited Cambodia as an example of a successful peacekeeping operation and the Kosovo crisis, in which Nato acted without the UN Security Council's nod, as a disaster. She added that the UN should set up peacekeeping rules. But first it would have to analyse peacekeeping actions undertaken since the end of the Cold War, study the causes which had led to such operations and why they succeeded or failed. Rules were needed because peacekeeping operations now reflected the interests of major countries, she said, contrasting the US positions on Kosovo and East Timor. She said the UN did not have to take part in every peacekeeping operation. It could delegate the task to a regional group of countries. Asked if it was acceptable if more deaths or human-rights violations occurred while the UN dallied over a decision to deploy a peacekeeping force to a troubled country, she pointed out that the UN could act quickly under pressure, as in the case of East Timor. GRAPHIC: The Kosovo intervention (above), in which Nato acted without the UN Security Council's nod, is a disaster, says China. It cited Cambodia as an example of a successful peacekeeping operation. (Page 39) LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 310 LEVEL 1 - 120 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Straits Times Press Limited The Straits Times (Singapore) November 21, 1999 SECTION: Review Cover Story; Pg. 39 LENGTH: 460 words HEADLINE: KL wary of new concept BYLINE: Douglas Wong in Kuala Lumpur BODY: * MALAYSIA MALAYSIA is no stranger to international peacekeeping operations, but its approach to the question of a new United Nations framework on humanitarian intervention is one of caution. "We have to be wary of new concepts which might compromise sovereignty in the name of humanitarianism, that is not the role of the United Nations," said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar recently. "Our view is that humanitarian intervention must be very carefully pursued," he said when asked about the recent discussion on the subject at the UN General Assembly. Analysts note that Malaysia has approached instances of humanitarian intervention on a case-by-case basis. "In the case of the former Yugoslavia, Malaysia supported United States-led intervention, and even participated in the UN operation in Bosnia," said Mr Baladas Ghoshal, a visiting professor of strategic and security studies at the National University of Malaysia. "On the other hand, Malaysia is very vocal on the question of national sovereignty, and has been silent on other humanitarian situations such as the Myanmar Muslims. While Malaysia has participated in over a dozen international operations from the Congo to Cambodia, its leaders, from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad down, have attacked perceived neo-colonialist efforts by various countries. Mr Abdul Razak Baginda, executive director of Malaysian Strategic Research Centre, agreed that the issue was not straightforward and said that humanitarian intervention has been used as a rationale for interference in domestic affairs, citing the Iraqi Kurds situation. "It can be misused, so while some humanitarian issues like natural disasters or instances where the country concerned invites assistance are clear-cut, the definition and scope of humanitarian need is a concern," he said. PAGE 311 The Straits Times (Singapore), November 21, 1999 Prof Ghoshal said as with all countries, Malaysia's position on international intervention would be driven by domestic support and national interests. "Malaysia may not use the term, but it practises flexible engagement on this issue," he said. He added that as a current member of the UN Security Council, the country was prepared to play a role in drawing up a new set of rules or guidelines on humanitarian intervention. "Definitions and safeguards must be put in place first. Malaysia does believe that there are circumstances for UN-sanctioned intervention on humanitarian grounds, but there must be safeguards to ensure there is no unilateral action, for example." While US President Bill Clinton suggested that regional humanitarian interventions could proceed without UN authorisation, Malaysia has opposed this. Mr Abdul Razak said: "Intervention must be under UN auspices." GRAPHIC: Malaysia's army officers bound for East Timor. It handles instances of humanitarian intervention on a case-by-case basis. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 312 LEVEL 1 - 121 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Straits Times Press Limited The Straits Times (Singapore) November 21, 1999 SECTION: Review Cover Story; Pg. 39 LENGTH: 486 words HEADLINE: UN has right to intervene BYLINE: Edward Tang, Thailand Correspondent BODY: * THAILAND BANGKOK -Interventionism is a key element in the foreign policy of the present Thai government. Since the Chuan Leekpai government was formed in 1997, it had been trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to win support for the idea from Asean governments. The right to intervene in the affairs of another state for humanitarian reasons is a broad policy that is influenced strongly by human rights and democracy, political ideals that are identified closely with the ruling Democrat Party. While previous governments have adhered to the principle of non-interference, the Chuan government has articulated the reasons for its pro-active stance, most forcefully by Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan at the Asean Ministerial Meeting last year. He had argued that a country was entitled to comment on the affairs of another state if its own interests were threatened by the policies of that state. He proposed "constructive intervention", later watered down to "flexible engagement", as the new guiding principle for Asean nations to conduct relations. But even he may not have foreseen at that time that Asean countries would be sending troops to another member-state as in the case of East Timor. His proposal was rejected, but Thai officials now claim the seeds of "new interventionism" were sowed then. "We were criticised for raising the issue. Events have proven us right. Can we shy away from it?" said a senior Thai official, in reference to the presence of Asean troops in the peacekeeping operation in East Timor. Thailand's position on interventionism is believed to be motivated by national interests that are linked to bilateral relations with its immediate neighbours -Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia -which have not always been smooth. In recent years, some of these countries have experienced bouts of internal instability that had the potential of spilling over into Thailand. Therefore, PAGE 313 The Straits Times (Singapore), November 21, 1999 it is in Bangkok's interests to seek a broad agreement from neighbouring countries on the criteria for interventionism in case a need might arise. Thai Army Chief General Surayudh Chulanont, an advocate, said recently when speaking of the East Timor problem: "We cannot carry on our normal lives when our neighbours are heading towards perpetual unrest and catastrophe." With interventionism gaining better understanding in the region, the question now is one of approach. Should the United Nations lead or should a group of willing countries take the initiative to defuse a crisis? There appear to be differences within the Thai camp. Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra seemed to favour the regional approach. However, others, including Dr Surin, seem cautious in response to calls on Asean to play a leading role in solving crises such as running a peacekeeping operation. Said a senior Thai official: "Can Asean do the job? I don't think we are ready." LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 314 LEVEL 1 - 122 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 News World Communications, Inc. The Washington Times November 21, 1999, Sunday, Final Edition SECTION: PART C; WORLD SCENE; Pg. C11 LENGTH: 647 words BYLINE: FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS BODY: U.S. ENVOY URGES TIMOR REPATRIATION JAKARTA, Indonesia - Visiting U.S. envoy Richard C. Holbrooke urged Indonesia's new president, Abdurrahman Wahid, yesterday to speed up the repatriation of tens of thousands of refugees who were forced to flee East Timor by rampaging anti-independence militiamen. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said he plans on visiting border camps in West Timor today and tomorrow before traveling to U.N.-administered East Timor. DALAI LAMA SEEKS PEACE WITH CHINA TEL AVIV - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader said yesterday he was not seeking Tibet's independence from China and stressed the importance of good relations with Beijing. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after it was occupied by Chinese Communist troops. China accuses the Dalai Lama of being a separatist and uses heavy military force to keep Tibet under control. NORTH KOREA WANTS ROLE IN MASSACRE PROBE SEOUL - North Korea proposed yesterday that it wants to form a joint team with rival South Korea to investigate allegations that American soldiers killed hundreds of civilians during the Korean War. The North said it sent the proposal to South Korean civil organizations, indicating it would prefer to deal with them than the government, which it calls a U.S. puppet. SNOW SNARLS TRAFFIC IN SOUTHERN EUROPE PARIS - Heavy snow brought chaos to southern Europe with thousands of drivers trapped in their cars on French motorways. Heavy snow fell across southern France, Switzerland and northern Italy, bringing joy to skiers who enjoyed an early start to the season in the Alps but mounting problems for police. ISLAMIC MILITANTS KILL AGAIN IN ALGERIA PAGE 315 The Washington Times November 21, 1999, Sunday, Final Edition ALGIERS - Seventeen persons were killed and six injured at a false roadblock south of Algiers Saturday as violence flared ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The massacre - the second this week - employed a common tactic used by Islamic extremists on one of the country's most important thoroughfares, which is dotted with military checkpoints and gun installations. JEFFREY ARCHER QUITS RACE AMID SEX SCANDAL LONDON - Millionaire novelist Jeffrey Archer said yesterday he was pulling out of the race to become London's mayor. The decision to quit came after a tabloid newspaper said it was to publish fresh revelations about Mr. Archer's alleged relationship with a prostitute 13 years ago. EU MEMBERSHIP CLOSER FOR TURKEY ISTANBUL - Turkey's dream of membership in the European Union has received a boost after successfully hosting a European security summit this week. EU leaders assured the Turks they will become formal candidates for membership at a summit next month in Finland. HOCKEY TEAMS NIX PORN-LOVING ROCK STAR Gary Glitter, the disgraced British pop star, was hit in the pocket after North American ice hockey teams last week dropped one of his hits from the playlist of songs broadcast during games. Although the hit - known as the "Hey Song" - is as familiar to fans as the American and Canadian national anthems, few Americans or Canadians know the identity of the singer, a convicted child pornographer. IRAQ CALLS SANCTIONS REPRIEVE MEANINGLESS BAGHDAD - Iraq yesterday rejected as "meaningless" a two-week extension of the United Nations humanitarian program that has helped the country live through crippling economic sanctions over the past three years. But the report by the official Iraqi News Agency did not indicate if Iraq will immediately stop selling oil, which permits Iraq to import food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS HITS SOUTHERN INDIA NEW DELHI - An outbreak of Japanese encephalitis, more commonly known as brain fever, has claimed 133 lives over two months in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, an official communique said yesterday. Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain caused by a virus. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH PAGE 316 The Washington Times November 21, 1999, Sunday, Final Edition LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 317 LEVEL 1 - 123 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 South Bend Tribune Corporation SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE November 20, 1999, Saturday INDIANA, MICHIGAN, MISHAWAKA, PHM, TRIBUNE SECTION: OPINION, Pg. a9 LENGTH: 639 words HEADLINE: First Amendment rights sacrificed BYLINE: MARIE COCCO; Newsday BODY: As Rep. Chris Smith sees it, there are universal truths. And universal rights. Freedom of religion. Freedom of expression. Freedom of movement. What American would disagree? They are the staple phrases of stock political speeches. Smith does not take them out and dust them off every so often when he is asked to preside, as congressmen do, at a parade or at a laying of wreaths. He uses his power to promote them. This puts the New Jersey Republican out of sync with the prevailing Washington ideology, which is this: American business and military interests come first. Human rights abroad come second. You can always count on Smith to make a passionate speech about religious and political repression in China. To harangue his colleagues about Tibet or East Timor. To pen a scathing letter about persecution on the eve of an important overture to Vietnam. To prod the United States into recognizing the abuses of Northern Ireland's Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Protestant police force that wields power over the province's Catholic majority. Smith draws the line, though, at people at home and abroad who do not share his own religious views about abortion. He wants those people governed by what could be called the Smith Exception to International Human Rights. The exception is for women. And for groups that advocate abroad for women to have access to safe and legal abortion. In the doctrine according to Smith, they must be muzzled. To make sure they are silenced, Smith has driven the now-successful budget move to tie payment of back U.S. dues to the United Nations with reinstatement of the Reagan-era global gag rule that prohibits population and family planning groups from using their own money to advocate legal abortion abroad. That's their own privately raised money. Not the taxpayers' money. The law already bars the use of American funds for abortion or abortion advocacy overseas. The president and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright have vociferously and repeatedly fought this gag rule in the past. Albright has argued with passion that it undercuts fundamental principles of U.S. foreign policy. It is a rule, she has said, "that would punish organizations for engaging in the democratic process in foreign countries and for engaging in legal activities that would PAGE 318 SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE November 20, 1999, Saturday be protected by the First Amendment if carried out in the United States." But now she wants the U.N. dues paid. The price is the rape of the First Amendment. The capitulation is done. The White House is putting out the line that this is no big deal, that the president will use his authority to grant "waivers" to groups so they will be able to keep advocating ways to prevent the 75,000 deaths--and 30 times more debilitating maternal injuries--from unsafe, illegal abortions every year. The waivers literally come at a price: For each one granted, the program that funds family planning services overseas is to be cut by about $12.5 million. The anti-abortion Republicans insist that this money may not be used for birth control. Specifically, they have taken a stand against using these funds to teach impoverished women in the developing world how to use birth control to space their pregnancies. This is what they really think of freedom. This is what they really think of women. "The poorest women in the world, the poorest children, are bearing the brunt of an ideology based on religion," said Amy Coen, president of Population Action International. "If we don't see it, believe me, the rest of the world does." This is the first time it will be written into U.S. law that private groups using private funds are subject to government censorship, by censors who are motivated by religious belief. That's one heck of a human rights message for the indispensable nation to send out to the world. LOAD-DATE: January 7, 2000 PAGE 319 LEVEL 1 - 124 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Africa News Service, Inc. Africa News November 20, 1999 SECTION: NEWS, DOCUMENTS & COMMENTARY LENGTH: 1708 words HEADLINE: Western Sahara; Sahara Weekly News Update BYLINE: Western Sahara Referendum Support Association BODY: Geneva - WEEK 46 14.-20.11.1999: 13.11.99 Interview - Whether Driss Basri is dismissed or not, that is a detail for us. That is not the change that we are waiting for. We are expecting the new king of Morocco to show that he wants peace, and that he wants to put an end to the Moroccan expansionist policy it has been pursuing until now against our country", the Saharawi Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Ould Salek, pointed out. (El Watan). 13.11.99 Spain, Canary Islands Illegal immigration coming from Southern Morocco and from Western Sahara is growing with 450 arrivals in Fuerteventura in the month of October alone. Investigating in Tarfaya (Southern Morocco), a Spanish journalist revealed that among the immigrants there are a number of Saharawis close to the Polisario Front, such as the two sisters of the Saharawi Minister of Foreign Affairs. They had been imprisoned for 17 years in Morocco, with their parents, only because of their relationship to the Saharawi minister. (El Mundo). Other journalists investigating on the ground uncovered the workings of a real traffic in illegal immigration. The majority of the would-be immigrants meet in Beni Mellal, a hundred kilometres from Marrakech, from there they are taken by bus to El Ayoun. Accommodated in hotels, they are then directed to the embarkation points at Sidi Ifni, Ouad Amma Fatma, 100 km to the south of Tan- Tan, Amgraw, 25 km to the north of El Ayoun port or La Palangana, 25 km south of El Ayoun. In Fuerteventura they are given the documents they need to get into Europe. (El Pais). 14.11.99 Germany A manifesto of solidarity with the victims of the repression in El Ayoun, demanding a commission of inquiry and reaffirming their support of the UN Peace Plan was published by six German NGOs: Terre des Hommes Germany, Medico international, Kritische Oekologie (Critical Ecology), Gemeinschaft f/r Menschenrechte im Freistaat Sachsen (Association for Human Rights in Freestate Saxony), die Falken (Falcons) and the Gesellschaft f/r bedrohte Volker (Society for threatened Peoples). Similar appeals were addressed to Mr. Kofi Annan and to the German Minister for Foreign Affairs by several German parliamentarians and well-known public figures. PAGE 320 Africa News, November 20, 1999 14.11.99 Anniversary of the Madrid Accords About fifty members of the Association of Friends of the Saharawi People in Lesn met in Lesn to protest about the new delay in the referendum in Western Sahara. About twenty people did the same in Valencia.. 16.11.99 Confrontations in Tan-Tan Demonstrations for the right to work and dignity degenerated into confrontations with the police, causing considerable material damage. This city in Southern Morocco, including a large Saharawi population, is the scene of repeated demonstrations following the example of those in El Ayoun. Discontent is particularly keen following unkept promises after the visit on 3 November of a ministerial delegation, during which Basri was set aside. 15 & 17.11.99 Sentences On 15 November, the court in El Ayoun sentenced 23 Saharawi demonstrators arrested during the events of 22-23 September last in El Ayoun. Several relatives of the accused and hundreds of sympathisers were prevented from being present at the hearing by police forces who formed a security cordon around the court building. Two days later 23 other people, arrested in October, appeared before the court. Twelve sentences of eighteen months in secure prison were handed down, while three further people received three year suspended sentences. (SPS). 15.11.99 Fall of Basri (continued) The investigation concerning the fire in the DST brought to light that the accounts destroyed would have proved the systematic misappropriation, over 20 years, of more than a half of the annual budget of the DST (Moroccan counter- espionage). An investigation is also under way on the misappropriation of funds destined for the Sahara, of which only a part ever reached the intended recipients. The rest had been used either for buying off notable Saharawis or had disappeared into the pockets of corrupt civil servants. (El Periodico) A list of about thirty people has been issued to Moroccan border posts, in order to prevent them from leaving the country. Among them the names of Mahmoud Archane, ex-police superintendent known as a torturer, an MP and president of the MDS Party, Faycal Elmeziani, governor of Boujdour (Western Sahara) and Mohamed Azmi, ex-coordinator with MINURSO are to be noted. Further, the directors of the official agency MAP and the first TV station, TVM, have been dismissed. A complaint has been lodged against the recently sacked Minister of the Interior in the Belgian courts by a Moroccan of Belgian nationality, held and tortured in Morocco by the DST in 1984. 17.11.99 Assassination The body of a Saharawi citizen, Yahdhih Ould Sreissir, reported missing for over a month, was found on Thursday, 4 November, in the region of Kdeyat Sbaa, between Guelta Zemmour and Boucraa. The deceased had had his throat cut. The SPS, which reported this information, indicated that the victim had had a dispute several days before his disappearance with the commanding colonel of PAGE 321 Africa News, November 20, 1999 the 59th Battalion of the Moroccan Army, stationed in the region of Guelta Zemmour, following the theft of part of his herd of camels by the colonel. (SPS). 18.11.99 Occupied Territories The Saharawi agency SPS, quoting reliable sources, announced that a colony of Moroccan settlers to the south of Dakhla, consisting of 70,000 fishermen, wishes to settle permanently. These settlers, who have already been there for several years could stay within the infrastructures put in place in the region "to receive the refugees during the referendum". Meanwhile the campaign of forced conscription of young Saharawis into the Moroccan army in Western Sahara and Southern Morocco carries on. The figure of over 500 young people from El Ayoun and Dakhla alone is given.(SPS) 19.11.99 Referendum Representatives from Associations of solidarity with the Saharawi People from various regions of Spain entered the UN Information Centre in Madrid to hand to the official in charge a communique, in which they denounce the repression suffered by the Saharawi population in the occupied territories, as well as the obstacles to the Peace plan raised by Morocco. Referring to the precedent in East Timor, they call on the United Nations and the international community to give proof of a firm and decisive attitude. The demonstrators chained themselves to the spot until they had been able to give their message to the official in charge, who promised to hand it on to the Secretary General. This high profile action signals the beginning of a national campaign for the referendum of self-determination, to demand of the UN the implementation of the Peace Plan according to the timetable and in the best conditions. Hunger strikes started on 19.11.99 in Andalusia and in the Basque country. Lasting for three days, they will link up following a precise timetable throughout all the autonomous regions of Spain. Public personalities, parliamentarians and many militants for the Saharawi cause have announced their participation. The action will culminate with a joint hunger strike in Madrid on 11.12.99, some days before the Security Council decides on the future of the Peace Plan. 19.11.99 Demonstrations Some hundred Saharawi students from Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir, Fes, Tetouan, Marrakech joined by formed prisoners of Tazmamart and Kalaat M'Gouna manifested in Rabat against the speedy trialss and repression in the occupied territories. Their protest march through the city concluded with a sit-in before the Ministry of Justice. There is also another protest going on at Assa since 4 days with the same goals. The saharawi inhabitants of Zak manifested their solidarity with the protesters of Rabat and Assa. (SPS) 20.11.99 Repatriation The UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR), Soren Jessen- Petersen, is undertaking a tour of the region. He will go first to Algiers, then to Tindouf and El Ayoun and will finish his five-day trip in Rabat. He will meet officials of the Polisario Front and Algerian and Moroccan ministers. PAGE 322 Africa News, November 20, 1999 "Quote of the week: "Mr. Basri's sacking was more significant than an ordinary settling of scores between the old guard and the new. Even so, important questions remain. Does the minister's demise herald a transition towards a liberal democracy - or will it merely give the makhzen a facelift? The answer, probably, lies somewhere in between." The Economist, London, 13.11.99." SOLIDARITY Cards The Grenada Association of Friends of the Sahara is offering eight greeting cards illustrated with photos by Luis Bonete, proceeds will go to humanitarian aid for the Saharawi people. For further details: http:/www.arrakis.es/ saharagr The Swiss Committee of Support for the Saharawi People also has a series of 6 postcards costing 500 ptas or FS 5. Further details from: baesch@giub.unibe.ch or stefanie.gass.1@sm-philhist.unibe.ch 12.11.99, Lorqum, Murcia: The Associations of Friends of the Saharawi People of Molina de Segura and of Lorqum organised an exhibition of Saharawi arts and crafts. 13.11.99, Melilla: The Youth of the Melilla People's Union have collected food and health products for the Saharawi refugees. 13.11.99, Armentia, Alava, Basque country: the Basque caravan consisting of 12 all-terrain vehicles, an ambulance, four buses, two water tankers, a mobile workshop carrying a radio studio and 1300 pairs of shoes set off for the Saharawi refugee camps. It will join up with other convoys of the same type in Alicante to travel on to Oran. NEW on the WSC UK webpage The 25th European Conference on Co-ordination of Support for the Saharawi People, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. (http:/ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Julie-Thorpe/hotnews2.htm) Including the text of the Final Resolution: (http:/ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Julie-Thorpe/eucoco25.htm) Prepared by ARSO (Association de soutien a un referendum libre et regulier au Sahara occidental). CP 2229, CH-2800 DELEMONT 2. Tel./Fax: 0041 32 422 87 17. E-mail: arso@arso.org; WWW: http:/www.arso.org. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 323 LEVEL 1 - 125 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Africa News Service, Inc. Africa News November 20, 1999 SECTION: NEWS, DOCUMENTS & COMMENTARY LENGTH: 1708 words HEADLINE: Western Sahara; Sahara Weekly News Update BYLINE: Western Sahara Referendum Support Association BODY: Geneva - WEEK 46 14.-20.11.1999: 13.11.99 Interview - Whether Driss Basri is dismissed or not, that is a detail for us. That is not the change that we are waiting for. We are expecting the new king of Morocco to show that he wants peace, and that he wants to put an end to the Moroccan expansionist policy it has been pursuing until now against our country", the Saharawi Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Ould Salek, pointed out. (El Watan). 13.11.99 Spain, Canary Islands Illegal immigration coming from Southern Morocco and from Western Sahara is growing with 450 arrivals in Fuerteventura in the month of October alone. Investigating in Tarfaya (Southern Morocco), a Spanish journalist revealed that among the immigrants there are a number of Saharawis close to the Polisario Front, such as the two sisters of the Saharawi Minister of Foreign Affairs. They had been imprisoned for 17 years in Morocco, with their parents, only because of their relationship to the Saharawi minister. (El Mundo). Other journalists investigating on the ground uncovered the workings of a real traffic in illegal immigration. The majority of the would-be immigrants meet in Beni Mellal, a hundred kilometres from Marrakech, from there they are taken by bus to El Ayoun. Accommodated in hotels, they are then directed to the embarkation points at Sidi Ifni, Ouad Amma Fatma, 100 km to the south of Tan- Tan, Amgraw, 25 km to the north of El Ayoun port or La Palangana, 25 km south of El Ayoun. In Fuerteventura they are given the documents they need to get into Europe. (El Pais). 14.11.99 Germany A manifesto of solidarity with the victims of the repression in El Ayoun, demanding a commission of inquiry and reaffirming their support of the UN Peace Plan was published by six German NGOs: Terre des Hommes Germany, Medico international, Kritische Oekologie (Critical Ecology), Gemeinschaft f/r Menschenrechte im Freistaat Sachsen (Association for Human Rights in Freestate Saxony), die Falken (Falcons) and the Gesellschaft f/r bedrohte Volker (Society for threatened Peoples). Similar appeals were addressed to Mr. Kofi Annan and to the German Minister for Foreign Affairs by several German parliamentarians and well-known public figures. PAGE 324 Africa News, November 20, 1999 14.11.99 Anniversary of the Madrid Accords About fifty members of the Association of Friends of the Saharawi People in Lesn met in Lesn to protest about the new delay in the referendum in Western Sahara. About twenty people did the same in Valencia.. 16.11.99 Confrontations in Tan-Tan Demonstrations for the right to work and dignity degenerated into confrontations with the police, causing considerable material damage. This city in Southern Morocco, including a large Saharawi population, is the scene of repeated demonstrations following the example of those in El Ayoun. Discontent is particularly keen following unkept promises after the visit on 3 November of a ministerial delegation, during which Basri was set aside. 15 & 17.11.99 Sentences On 15 November, the court in El Ayoun sentenced 23 Saharawi demonstrators arrested during the events of 22-23 September last in El Ayoun. Several relatives of the accused and hundreds of sympathisers were prevented from being present at the hearing by police forces who formed a security cordon around the court building. Two days later 23 other people, arrested in October, appeared before the court. Twelve sentences of eighteen months in secure prison were handed down, while three further people received three year suspended sentences. (SPS). 15.11.99 Fall of Basri (continued) The investigation concerning the fire in the DST brought to light that the accounts destroyed would have proved the systematic misappropriation, over 20 years, of more than a half of the annual budget of the DST (Moroccan counter- espionage). An investigation is also under way on the misappropriation of funds destined for the Sahara, of which only a part ever reached the intended recipients. The rest had been used either for buying off notable Saharawis or had disappeared into the pockets of corrupt civil servants. (El Periodico) A list of about thirty people has been issued to Moroccan border posts, in order to prevent them from leaving the country. Among them the names of Mahmoud Archane, ex-police superintendent known as a torturer, an MP and president of the MDS Party, Faycal Elmeziani, governor of Boujdour (Western Sahara) and Mohamed Azmi, ex-coordinator with MINURSO are to be noted. Further, the directors of the official agency MAP and the first TV station, TVM, have been dismissed. A complaint has been lodged against the recently sacked Minister of the Interior in the Belgian courts by a Moroccan of Belgian nationality, held and tortured in Morocco by the DST in 1984. 17.11.99 Assassination The body of a Saharawi citizen, Yahdhih Ould Sreissir, reported missing for over a month, was found on Thursday, 4 November, in the region of Kdeyat Sbaa, between Guelta Zemmour and Boucraa. The deceased had had his throat cut. The SPS, which reported this information, indicated that the victim had had a dispute several days before his disappearance with the commanding colonel of PAGE 325 Africa News, November 20, 1999 the 59th Battalion of the Moroccan Army, stationed in the region of Guelta Zemmour, following the theft of part of his herd of camels by the colonel. (SPS). 18.11.99 Occupied Territories The Saharawi agency SPS, quoting reliable sources, announced that a colony of Moroccan settlers to the south of Dakhla, consisting of 70,000 fishermen, wishes to settle permanently. These settlers, who have already been there for several years could stay within the infrastructures put in place in the region "to receive the refugees during the referendum". Meanwhile the campaign of forced conscription of young Saharawis into the Moroccan army in Western Sahara and Southern Morocco carries on. The figure of over 500 young people from El Ayoun and Dakhla alone is given.(SPS) 19.11.99 Referendum Representatives from Associations of solidarity with the Saharawi People from various regions of Spain entered the UN Information Centre in Madrid to hand to the official in charge a communique, in which they denounce the repression suffered by the Saharawi population in the occupied territories, as well as the obstacles to the Peace plan raised by Morocco. Referring to the precedent in East Timor, they call on the United Nations and the international community to give proof of a firm and decisive attitude. The demonstrators chained themselves to the spot until they had been able to give their message to the official in charge, who promised to hand it on to the Secretary General. This high profile action signals the beginning of a national campaign for the referendum of self-determination, to demand of the UN the implementation of the Peace Plan according to the timetable and in the best conditions. Hunger strikes started on 19.11.99 in Andalusia and in the Basque country. Lasting for three days, they will link up following a precise timetable throughout all the autonomous regions of Spain. Public personalities, parliamentarians and many militants for the Saharawi cause have announced their participation. The action will culminate with a joint hunger strike in Madrid on 11.12.99, some days before the Security Council decides on the future of the Peace Plan. 19.11.99 Demonstrations Some hundred Saharawi students from Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir, Fes, Tetouan, Marrakech joined by formed prisoners of Tazmamart and Kalaat M'Gouna manifested in Rabat against the speedy trialss and repression in the occupied territories. Their protest march through the city concluded with a sit-in before the Ministry of Justice. There is also another protest going on at Assa since 4 days with the same goals. The saharawi inhabitants of Zak manifested their solidarity with the protesters of Rabat and Assa. (SPS) 20.11.99 Repatriation The UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR), Soren Jessen- Petersen, is undertaking a tour of the region. He will go first to Algiers, then to Tindouf and El Ayoun and will finish his five-day trip in Rabat. He will meet officials of the Polisario Front and Algerian and Moroccan ministers. PAGE 326 Africa News, November 20, 1999 "Quote of the week: "Mr. Basri's sacking was more significant than an ordinary settling of scores between the old guard and the new. Even so, important questions remain. Does the minister's demise herald a transition towards a liberal democracy - or will it merely give the makhzen a facelift? The answer, probably, lies somewhere in between." The Economist, London, 13.11.99." SOLIDARITY Cards The Grenada Association of Friends of the Sahara is offering eight greeting cards illustrated with photos by Luis Bonete, proceeds will go to humanitarian aid for the Saharawi people. For further details: http:/www.arrakis.es/ saharagr The Swiss Committee of Support for the Saharawi People also has a series of 6 postcards costing 500 ptas or FS 5. Further details from: baesch@giub.unibe.ch or stefanie.gass.1@sm-philhist.unibe.ch 12.11.99, Lorqum, Murcia: The Associations of Friends of the Saharawi People of Molina de Segura and of Lorqum organised an exhibition of Saharawi arts and crafts. 13.11.99, Melilla: The Youth of the Melilla People's Union have collected food and health products for the Saharawi refugees. 13.11.99, Armentia, Alava, Basque country: the Basque caravan consisting of 12 all-terrain vehicles, an ambulance, four buses, two water tankers, a mobile workshop carrying a radio studio and 1300 pairs of shoes set off for the Saharawi refugee camps. It will join up with other convoys of the same type in Alicante to travel on to Oran. NEW on the WSC UK webpage The 25th European Conference on Co-ordination of Support for the Saharawi People, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. (http:/ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Julie-Thorpe/hotnews2.htm) Including the text of the Final Resolution: (http:/ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Julie-Thorpe/eucoco25.htm) Prepared by ARSO (Association de soutien a un referendum libre et regulier au Sahara occidental). CP 2229, CH-2800 DELEMONT 2. Tel./Fax: 0041 32 422 87 17. E-mail: arso@arso.org; WWW: http:/www.arso.org. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 327 LEVEL 1 - 126 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 20, 1999 08:06 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 476 words HEADLINE: The AFP 0800 GMT news agenda DATELINE: Nov 20 BODY: The 0800 GMT news agenda: Duty editor: Stephanie Griffith Tel: Paris (202) 414-0541 ATHENS: US President Bill Clinton continues his visit to Greece with talks with government officials after his arrival in the Greek capital is greeted by violent anti-US rioting Greece-US Expect update GROZNY, Russia: Russian troops advance to within two kilometres of Grozny's western-most districts, as federal forces tighten the noose around the rebel capital and pursue a relentless artillery and aerial barrage of the breakaway republic. Chechnya 600 words around 0930 GMT by Alvi Zakriyev KUALA LUMPUR: The opposition party of Malaysia's jailed former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, in a last-minute PAGE 328 Agence France Presse, November 20, 1999 change of strategy as the election campaign begins, scraps plans to try to nominate him as a candidate. Malaysia-vote,lead 700 words around 0800 GMT. Picture by Eileen Ng We will also move: Malaysia-vote-Anwar,3rdlead POINTE-A-PITRE, Guadeloupe: Newly downgraded from a hurricane, tropical storm Lenny continues to dump heavy rains on the eastern Caribbean, after leaving several people dead and destroying hundreds of homes. Caribbean-storm, moved Expect update BEIJING: A Pentagon delegation meets Beijing officials in first moves to restore military contacts with China following the Belgrade embassy bombing by NATO last May China-US 450 words around 0900 GMT by Patrick Baert KUWAIT CITY: Four OPEC oil ministers meet in Kuwait in another series of top-level talks focused on extending the cartel's production cuts. Kuwait-OPEC-oil Expect update JAKARTA: Two senior US officials begin a visit to Indonesia PAGE 329 Agence France Presse, November 20, 1999 and East Timor to help assure the smooth operation of the United Nations on both sides of the border. Timor-US 550 words around 0830 GMT KASSEL, Germany: Despite plummeting popularity and the negative effect of sharing in government power, Germany's Greens intend to remain a force for radical change. Germany-politics Expect update PARIS: France's divided RPR conservative party votes for a new leader with four candidates vying for the top job left empty for the past five months due to internal bickering within the Gaullist movement. France-politics-RPR Expect update PARIS: A new French eurosceptic rightwing party holds its founding conference, challenging President Jacques Chirac's battered and divided mainstream opposition Gaullists. France-politics-RPF FLORENCE, Italy: Left-wing political leaders from six Western countries face off at a conference in Tuscany to seek some answers to global challenges on the PAGE 330 Agence France Presse, November 20, 1999 threshold to a new millennium. Italy-summit Expect update Meeting titled Progressive Governance in the 21st Century starts at 1930 GMT afp LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 331 LEVEL 1 - 127 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 20, 1999 08:48 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 340 words HEADLINE: Jakarta rejects demand for opening of East Timor representative office DATELINE: JAKARTA, Nov 20 BODY: The Indonesian government on Saturday said it will not meet a demand from an East Timorese pro-independence movement to open a representative office here. The decision over the demand by the National Council of East Timorese Resistance (CNRT) led by Xanana Gusmao was made during a cabinet meeting chaired by Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs General Wiranto said. "CNRT is only representing one political interest and there are several political interests in East Timor," Wiranto was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency. "Because it does not represent the whole spectrum of the political aspiration (in East Timor) we cannot yet accept (the demand)." The general, however, said Jakarta would open an interest office in Dili, the capital of East Timor, which in the future will be able to become the Indonesian embassy when East Timor becomes an independent state. The Indonesian parliament last month ratified East Timor's August 30 independence vote, formally surrendering its claim to the former Portuguese colony which it invaded in 1975 and formally annexed the following year. Authority has been handed over to the United Nations, which will administer the territory until a free state of East Timor comes into being some two to three years from now. Wiranto also reiterated Indonesia's commitment to remain consistent in assisting the repatriation of East Timorese refugees to the territory. More than 260,000 people fled or were forced to flee East Timor into Indonesian-controlled West Timor during the violence that followed the pro-independence vote in East Timor. Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Shihab said earlier Saturday that some 230,000 displaced people remained in West Timor. Human rights and humanitarian groups have said pro-Jakarta militias, with at least the tacit approval of the Indonesian security forces, were intimidating the refugees in West Timor and terrorizing them not to retrun to East Timor. PAGE 332 Agence France Presse, November 20, 1999 bs/kf LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 333 LEVEL 1 - 128 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 20, 1999 12:03 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 459 words HEADLINE: Senior US officials raise refugee problem with Indonesian minister DATELINE: JAKARTA, Nov 20 BODY: Two senior US officials met Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab on Saturday at the start of a trip to help assure the United Nations operation in East and West Timor. Shihab said US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke and US Assistant Secretary of States for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth expressed concern for the thousands of East Timorese refugees still living in camps in West Timor. "'It is hoped that the East Timor problem would not tarnish Indonesia's image which is now improving'," Shihab quoted Holbrooke as saying. "'We hope that (the repatriation of) the 230,000 refugees in Atambua can be completed'," he added. Shihab said the US delegation would visit Atambua in West Timor to see the refugees, many of whom have been living in fear of militias which rampaged throughout East Timor following the former Portuguese territory's vote to split from Indonesia in August. After visiting the camps, they will travel to the East Timorese capital Dili where they are expected to meet the new head of the UN Transitional Adminstration in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, as well as the commander of the International Force for East Timor, Major General Peter Cosgrove. They are also scheduled to meet East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao but a venue was not specified. Gusmao is staying in Aileu, a town 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) south of Dili. "Maybe they will be accompanied by a minister," Shihab said without elaborating. The UN High Commission for Refugees said in Geneva on Friday that it was being forced to mount "commando-style snatch-and-run" operations in Indonesian West Timor to help East Timorese refugees return home. Militia are harrassing refugees and staff, forcing the UN agency to make alternative arrangements, a UNHCR spokesman said. The UN said it was forced to find new ways to repatriate those who fled or who were pushed out of East Timor when pro-Indonesia militia launched a PAGE 334 Agence France Presse, November 20, 1999 campaign of violence following an overwhelming vote for independence. More than 260,000 people fled or were forced to flee to West Timor during the violence which rocked East Timor following the announcement of the pro-independence ballot results early in September. The bulk of the refugees have sheltered in camps in the Belu district which borders East Timor and of which Atambua is the main town. The Indonesian parliament last month ratified East Timor's August 30 independence vote, surrendering its claim to the territory which it invaded in 1975 and annexed the following year. Authority has been handed over to the United Nations, which will administer the territory until a free state of East Timor comes into being in two to three years. tn/smc LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 335 LEVEL 1 - 129 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 20, 1999 13:31 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 1360 words HEADLINE: Indonesian rights team gathers evidence on East Timor violence DATELINE: DILI, East Timor, Nov 20 BODY: Indonesian investigators have gathered substantial evidence and identified suspects in their probe into the violence and human rights violations in East Timor that followed the territory's vote for independence, one inquiry member said Saturday. "Based on our investigation here ... we might still need to get testimony from ex-militias who are now residing in other places outside Indonesia," said Todung Mulya Lubis. "Once we think we have significant evidence we might start calling people, including high-ranking military officers." An overwhelming vote against autonomy under Indonesia on August 30 led to a campaign of murder, rape and forced deportation across the territory by anti-independence militias which UN officials and rights campaigners say was orchestrated by Indonesian security forces. Lubis is one of the investigators from the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights looking into human rights abuses in East and West Timor since January, when former president B.J. Habibie offered the options of autonomy or independence to East Timorese. Lubis and another member of the commission, Albert Hasibuan, have been in East Timor since Wednesday and are expected to leave on Sunday. The inquiry has gathered "a significant amount" of documentary and witness evidence, Lubis said. "And a number of suspects also," Hasibuan added, refusing to identify them. The commission, appointed on September 22 under Habibie's government, has subpoena power. If evidence pointed even to the highest levels of the Indonesian military, which at that time was commanded by General Wiranto (Eds: one name), these people will be sought, Hasibuan said. "Yes, and they have to abide us," he said. The commission, which will work until the end of the year, is separate from a United Nations human rights inquiry panel which is to arrive in East Timor PAGE 336 Agence France Presse, November 20, 1999 Wednesday. On Thursday Jakarta rejected the UN commission, but pledged to bring to justice anyone found to have taken part in or planned the violence. Lubis and Hasibuan spoke shortly before they flew out of the East Timorese capital of Dili to the town of Suai, 110 kilometre (68 miles) southwest of here, where hundreds of people are thought to have been massacred in a church compound in September. Their bodies were never found. Two former UN staffers from Suai joined the Indonesian team for their trip. They will return to Dili later Saturday. it/bs/ajp The former commander of Indonesia's armed forces General Wiranto (Eds: one name) is to top the list of those sought for questioning by an Indonesian inquiry into human rights abuses in East Timor, one of the investigators said Saturday. it/tn/ajp The former commander of Indonesia's armed forces General Wiranto (Eds: one name) is to top the list of those sought for interrogation by an Indonesian inquiry into human rights abuses in East Timor, one of the investigators said Saturday. Other senior military officers were also expected to be among those called by the panel, set up under the new government of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid. "It will be a long list," Albert Hasibuan, chairman of the Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Abuses in East Timor, told reporters in the East Timorese capital Dili Saturday. He said the first name on the list would Wiranto, commander of the Indonesian armed forces during September, when a campaign of murder, rape and looting by anti-independence militia swept the territory following an overwhelming vote to break from Indonesia. The United Nations, rights groups and witness accounts have blamed Indonesian security forces of orchestrating and taking part in the violence. Hasibuan also named General Adam Damiri, who was the regional commander overseeing East Timor, and General Zaki Anwar Makarim. "These names, I think , will be on the list to be called by us and interrogated," Hasibuan said. it/tn/ajp Indonesia's top military brass plotted the systematic destruction of East Timor and the murder of all independence leaders should the territory vote to break from Jakarta, the country's own human rights investigators said Saturday. PAGE 337 Agence France Presse, November 20, 1999 Naming the former commander of Indonesia's armed forces, General Wiranto (Eds: one name), as topping their list for interrogation, the inquiry panel alleged the military's complete collusion in the campaign of murder, rape and looting by anti-independence militia which swept the territory in September. The inquiry, which is independent of the government, has powers of subpoena which can be enforced by the police and has been touted by the Indonesian government as its official investigation. Jakarta has rejected a similar United Nations inquiry. Albert Hasibuan, chairman of the Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Abuses in East Timor, told reporters in the capital Dili that plans for the destruction of East Timor were made during a meeting in Dili between Indonesian military intelligence and the militia. "In that meeting it was instructed then that if the result of the referendum in East Timor was (to) be free then they must destroy all the buildings and kill all the pro-independence leaders," Hasibuan said. Indonesian General Zaki Anwar Makarim attended the meeting, he said. He is also being sought for questioning, along with General Adam Damiri, who was the regional commander overseeing East Timor, said Hasibuan. Wiranto was commander of the Indonesian armed forces during the violence. Other senior military officers were also expected to be among those called by the panel. "It will be a long list," Hasibuan said. "These names, I think will be on the list to be called by us and interrogated." Commission member and noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis also said: "Human rights abuses in East Timor have been done in a brutal, blatant, gross and systematic way. "There's been a collusion between the militia, TNI (Indonesian armed forces) and the police in every human rights abuse." The special nine-member commission was established by the independent Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on September 22 and has until the end of the year to complete its work. Hasibuan said his allegations were in part based on testimony from a former militia member now in the Portuguese enclave of Macau. The United Nations, rights groups and witness accounts have all accused Indonesian security forces of orchestrating and taking part in the violence. Hasibuan said the commission would have to speak to President Abdurrahman Wahid to seek permission for Wiranto to be called as the general is now the minister for politics and security affairs. Zaki is now based at the military headquarters in Jakarta, while Damiri remains head of the Bali-based Udayana military command which used to oversee security in East Timor, though he is due to be transferred. PAGE 338 Agence France Presse, November 20, 1999 The commissioners gave other examples of evidence they said indicated links between the military and the militia. A witness told the commission that General Syafrie Syamsuddin, former Jakarta military commander, was present during the September attack on the compound of Nobel peace laureate Bishop Carlos Belo, Hasibuan said. He said that during a trip to the southern town of Suai on Saturday a witness identified Lieutenant Sugito and other armed forces members as being involved in a massacre of hundreds of refugees and priests at a church compound in Suai. "He saw the killing of the three priests with his own eyes and also the killing of hundreds of people ... brought by military trucks to another place that he doesn't know," he said. On Friday the commissioners met a militia member in Los Palos town who said he was under instruction from the military when he attacked nine people, Lubis said. "There will be a human rights court which up until now has not been created but I think in the near future, next year, it will be set up," he added. "All of us are committed to investigate, committed to bring justice." A separate United Nations human rights inquiry team is to arrive in East Timor Wednesday. it/tn/ajp/kf LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 339 LEVEL 1 - 130 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse November 20, 1999 03:34 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 360 words HEADLINE: Independence figure leads clean up effort in ruined capital DATELINE: DILI, East Timor, Nov 20 BODY: Independence leader Xanana Gusmao on Saturday led a city clean up campaign attended by thousands of people in the ruined East Timorese capital. Gusmao entered the Rising Sun hall in central Dili to the applause and cheers of the thousands awaiting inside. Dressed in his trademark battle fatigues, he briefly addressed the crowd in the local Tetum language. "He called on the people to take part in efforts to clean up the city, begining with the burned central post office," a Timorese summed up Gusmao's speech. Unlike his appeareance to the UN compound for talks with the new UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello on Friday, Gusmao's security entourage now included some seven members of the Brazilian military police assigned by the International Force in East Timor (Interfet) to assure his protection. His private guards from the Falintil, the armed wing of the pro-independence movement National Council of the East Timorese Resistance (CNRT) which he heads, were this time unarmed. The appearance of armed Falintil soldiers alongside Gusmao to the talks with de Mello on friday, had sparked the ire of Interfet Commander, Major General Peter Cosgrove. Cosgrove deplored the presence of the armed guerrilas on UN grounds, saying it was a violation of an earlier agreement which prohibited Falintil members from walking around armed outside of their assigned cantonment areas. After addressing the crowd at the public hall, Gusmao took part in the clean up of the post office alongside thousands of people for some two hours. Meanwhile thousands of people began to converge towards the center of Dili, around the governor's office and the nearby public hall. The clean up operation was followed by entertainment, with singers and dancers performing in the packed public hall. Dili and many other towns across East Timor was laid to waste by a week of violent rampage by Indonesia military-backed militias following the PAGE 340 Agence France Presse, November 20, 1999 announcement in early September of the pro-independence results of the August 30 ballot held by the United Nations there. East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, three to one. naw/bs/rob LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 19, 1999 PAGE 341 LEVEL 1 - 131 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Journal and Constitution November 20, 1999, Saturday, Home Edition SECTION: News; Pg. 4A LENGTH: 658 words HEADLINE: WORLD IN BRIEF BYLINE: From our news services SOURCE: AJC BODY: New president seeks peace on Mexico campus The new president of Mexico's most important university vowed during a swearing-in ceremony Friday to end a student strike that has paralyzed the school for seven months. Juan Ramon de la Fuente, who was Mexico's health minister prior to his appointment, promised to defend the reputation of the 268,000-student National Autonomous University, or UNAM, and to acquire the financial resources it needs. He invited striking students to immediately begin a dialogue. Hundreds of students rallied outside in support of the strike, chanting slogans denouncing university and government leaders. De la Fuente replaces Francisco Barnes de Castro, who resigned last week --- reportedly at the request of President Ernesto Zedillo. Barnes had been severely criticized for failing to find a solution to the strike, which students began in April to protest a tuition increase. Barnes backed off the increase, which would have raised tuition from a few cents to $ 140 annually, but the strike became a battle over academic standards, the right to a free university education and Mexico's movement toward a free-market economy. ASIA: Pakistan's ousted chief appears in court Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appeared in public for the first time since he was deposed, arriving at court in an armored personnel carrier. The court ordered him held until formal charges of hijacking and treason are filed against him Nov. 26. E. Timorese insurgents confront U.N. forces Armed independence fighters broke their pledge not to enter East Timor's capital, arriving in Dili and briefly blocking the commander of the peacekeeping force from a U.N. compound. But the breach of the agreement between the guerrillas and the international force will not hurt ties with the U.N. mission in the province, said United Nation's chief envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. Under the agreement, members of the Falintil rebel group that resisted Indonesian rule can carry their arms only in designated areas. Independence leader Jose Alexandre ''Xanana'' Gusmao broke the agreement when 20 of his men escorted him to his first meeting with de Mello, the new U.N. representative to the PAGE 342 The Atlanta Journal, November 20, 1999 territory. Indonesia removes ex-president's guards The Indonesian military has withdrawn hundreds of soldiers that stood guard around former President Suharto's house for the past 20 months. Military officials said there was no serious threat to Suharto's life and that hundreds of troops were no longer needed to protect him. EUROPE: Party woes threaten Ireland peace accord With the fate of Northern Ireland's peace accord at stake, Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble launched a bitter battle with rebellious Protestant colleagues trying to thwart a compromise. Trimble predicted ''a quite significant endorsement'' when his party's ruling council votes Nov. 27 on a new plan engineered by American mediator George Mitchell. U.S. career soldier faces sex charges in Germany A female sergeant who accused the U.S. Army's senior enlisted man in Europe of sexual assault testified in Germany that he took advantage of her after they drank beer and tequila and she passed out. The woman wept at one point while testifying at a military hearing to determine whether Sgt. Maj. Riley C. Miller, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, should face a court martial. THE AMERICAS: Gates Foundation gives UNICEF $ 26 million The U.S. Committee for UNICEF received a $ 26 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The gift will be used in efforts to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus, a disease responsible for nearly 250,000 deaths in 1998 in developing nations. COMING UP Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are scheduled to meet Sunday in Jerusalem to try to resolve differences that resulted in Israel postponing the handover of additional West Bank territory. LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 343 LEVEL 1 - 132 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Austin American-Statesman Austin American-Statesman November 20, 1999, Saturday SECTION: News; Pg. A2 LENGTH: 235 words HEADLINE: The World BODY: Pakistani prime minister appears in public KARACHI, Pakistan -- Looking fatigued after more than a month in what he described as a cold room in the hills, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appeared in public Friday for the first time since he was deposed, arriving at court in an armored personnel carrier. Sharif, counterattacking after being charged with seven others with hijacking and treason, said it was the military coup makers who hijacked democracy by overthrowing an elected leader. He faces the death penalty or life in prison if convicted. Diplomat wants justice for slain Timorese DILI, East Timor -- Indonesian army officers responsible for the violence that followed East Timor's independence referendum must be brought to justice, the departing chief of the U.N. mission in the territory said Friday. U.N. diplomat Ian Martin told reporters that the Indonesian army was directly linked to the slaying of hundreds of East Timorese independence supporters. University president to resolve student strike MEXICO CITY -- Juan Ramon de la Fuente, the new president of National Autonomous University, pledged during a swearing-in ceremony Friday to resolve a student strike that has paralyzed the 268,000-student school for seven months and forced out his predecessor. The strike began in April to protest a tuition increase. Students now want a greater voice in decision-making. GRAPHIC: Lebanese fighters: Fighters of the Lebanese Resistance Platoon fire a B-10 rocket during a live maneuver in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Friday. The Lebanese Resistance Platoon was founded last year to fight Israel, which is occupying southern Lebanon. LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 344 LEVEL 1 - 133 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Baltimore Sun Company THE BALTIMORE SUN November 20, 1999, Saturday ,FINAL SECTION: TELEGRAPH ,16A Foreign Digest LENGTH: 737 words SOURCE: From wire reports BODY: Top Protestant party to decide support for N. Ireland peace plan BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Northern Ireland's Ulster Unionist Party called yesterday for a convention Nov. 27 to decide whether to back a new peace formula, as tensions rose in the ranks of the province's most powerful Protestant party. Political analysts expect UUP leader David Trimble to carry the day at the convention, but they say he will be severely weakened if he does not get a comfortable majority in favor of the plan. Colombian president calls rebels' attacks a betrayal BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Andres Pastrana lashed out at Colombian rebels' "demented attacks" yesterday after the guerrillas responded to his end-of-year truce offer with a bloody offensive. Coordinated attacks in six rural provinces this week by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, left nine police and soldiers dead and several town squares in ruins. Pastrana, who has vouched for the rebels' sincerity in peace talks begun this year, labeled the latest violence a betrayal. U.N. envoy urges punishing Indonesian army officers DILI, East Timor -- Indonesian army officers responsible for the violence that followed East Timor's independence referendum must be brought to justice, the departing chief of the United Nations mission in the territory said yesterday. "It is now clear that what happened was planned, premeditated evil, which involved murder, rape, forced deportation and physical destruction on an extraordinary scale," U.N. diplomat Ian Martin said. He linked the Indonesian army directly to the killings of hundreds of East Timorese independence supporters. Mussolini mementos on view after 40 years ROME -- The Treasury Ministry unpacked a crate of Benito Mussolini's belongings yesterday, displaying a hodgepodge of mundane and magnificent items tucked away for 40 years in a ministry storeroom. PAGE 345 The Baltimore Sun, November 20, 1999 Officials spread the goods on three tables and said the items were found in a farmhouse near Lake Como in northern Italy, where partisans shot Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, on April 28, 1945. The ministry will ask historians to study the items before a decision is made on what to do with them, said Linda Lanzilotto, a ministry official. Heirs of the fascist dictator unsuccessfully tried in 1969 to win control of the material. Doctors Without Borders halts aid to Burundi camps NAIROBI, Kenya -- The humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders has suspended assistance to government-organized camps in Burundi, saying its intervention has had "little impact." The aid group, which had been providing assistance to 54,000 people in three camps, said in a news release Thursday that the settlements are rife with hunger and disease. It also said fighting between rebels and government forces had prevented aid workers from traveling to remote camps. The aid group, which is receiving this year's Nobel Peace Prize, will continue its activities elsewhere in the Central African country and will be prepared to intervene "in case of epidemic emergencies," it said. Break-ins at Croatia homes of Americans are decried ZAGREB, Croatia -- The U.S. Embassy confirmed yesterday that the homes of two Americans were broken into recently, incidents that U.S. officials reportedly view as government-backed harassment of those promoting democracy in Croatia. The embassy's confirmed a New York Times article yesterday about the break-ins. Officials told the Times that U.S. intelligence agencies have evidence tying the government of President Franjo Tudjman to the break-ins, which they view as an effort to intimidate U.S. diplomats into cutting off their contacts with opposition political parties in the final weeks before parliamentary elections. U.S.-North Korea talks end; progress is reported BERLIN -- Talks to improve relations between the United States and North Korea ended with progress yesterday and prepared the ground for a high-level meeting, a North Korean official said. "We had very constructive and businesslike talks," North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said. "We talked about improving relations and about nuclear weapons. We talked about preparations for a high-level meeting between our countries." In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin called the talks " serious, businesslike and constructive." PAGE 346 The Baltimore Sun, November 20, 1999 LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 347 LEVEL 1 - 134 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 British Broadcasting Corporation BBC Summary of World Broadcasts November 20, 1999, Saturday SECTION: Part 3 Asia-Pacific; PHILIPPINES; FE/D3697/B LENGTH: 644 words HEADLINE: Defence secretary interviewed on heading Timor force SOURCE: Source: Radio Australia, Melbourne, in English 1105 gmt 18 Nov 99 BODY: [10] Text of report by Radio Australia on 18th November [Presenter Peter Mares] Manila has responded cautiously to the UN's request for the Philippines to lead the next phase of peacekeeping in East Timor. Government officials in Manila have expressed doubts about the country's ability to take on such a task, because of limited resources and other demands on its security forces. Melinda Ogden reports. [Ogden] The Philippines was one of the first countries to contribute to the present Australian-led multinational force. Manila has 600 soldiers in East Timor, but is pledged to increase its contingent to around 1,000 when the Blue Helmets move in. While the country's defence secretary, Orlando Mercado, says the UN's leadership offer is prestigious, the Philippines may not be able to afford such prestige. [Mercado] Well, we are honoured by the offer, but we would like to clarify it first as regards to the responsibilities, considering the fact that our resources are not that plentiful. We have to use it wisely, and we also do have some threats internally in the country today. But we would be happy to perform any task. When we joined Australia in this particular effort it was not with anything in mind. We did not set any conditions as regards leadership, and if it is a collective decision then we will assess what our responsibilities should be. And if we feel that we can perform it within the limits of our resources, then we will do so. [Q] Is the Philippines capable of leading a peacekeeping force in Timor? [A] Well, that's the question we are still asking, because we would like first [for it] to be clarified exactly what is expected of us. As we mentioned, we did not ask for this. We are not asking for it, but if it is felt that we can do something about it, then let's clarify things - what are the limits of our responsibilities, what is expected of us, we've got to know that. We have no illusions about our resources. We are not a rich country. We are part of this effort only because we believe that it is in the interests of our regional security that stability in East Timor be established. [Q] Is the Philippines under-equipped to lead such a mission? PAGE 348 The British Broadcasting Corporation, November 20, 1999 [A] Well, I guess so - that's quite obvious. We don't have the resources, that I mentioned. And if we are going to be expected to put up the resources necessary to keep the forces together in East Timor, that may be a little difficult. So that's the reason why I have asked the chief of staff to undertake discussions and determine exactly what is expected of us, in case we are indeed nominated to head this particular effort of the United Nations. [Q] Any idea of the cost involved? [A] Well, none. That's exactly what I think they should be discussing. Our diplomats, our chief of staff just went to a meeting with other counterparts, heads of the armed forces of the other countries. And I guess they'll give me a detailed report as regards this particular (?issue). But I have no idea exactly how much costly [as heard] this would be, and considering, as I said, our position today, we have to tread very carefully. [Ogden] Mr Mercado says the Philippines has good relations with Australia, but as a member of ASEAN also maintains close ties with Indonesia. [Mercado] (?As part of these) good relations, we have performed our international commitment by very quickly responding to the call for troops. But we are also very careful to underscore the fact that we value our relationship with Indonesia. They have helped us in the past many a time, settling our Moro Islamic problem in Mindanao as well as during times of crisis. And we feel that it is our obligation to join other countries led by Australia to stabilize things in East Timor, and this is not meant to be an affront on the Indonesian government. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 19, 1999 PAGE 349 LEVEL 1 - 135 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Deutsche Presse-Agentur Deutsche Presse-Agentur November 20, 1999, Saturday, BC Cycle 02:43 Central European Time SECTION: International News LENGTH: 447 words HEADLINE: NEWS FEATURE: East Timor killings come to light BYLINE: By Tom Fawthrop, dpa DATELINE: Dili BODY: Few people in East Timor eat seafood these days. Most residents of the newly liberated half-island fear the denizens of the deep are bloated with the remains of humans dumped at sea by the Indonesian military. Investigators searching for evidence of atrocities believe their fears might be justified. Foreign troops found many towns deserted after the militia carnage that followed the August 30 vote for independence. Mercenaries paid by Jakarta murdered countless people, laid waste dozens of towns and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes and into squalid refugee camps in Indonesian-held West Timor. Human rights investigators expected to find mass graves like those in Cambodia and Kosovo. They didn't. But evidence is slowly mounting that corpses were dumped at sea, there to be eaten by the sharks that abound in the Timor Sea. Australian intelligence sources claim that more than 90 bodies have washed up on beaches on in recent weeks. In some cases the hands and feet were tied. Other bodies were mutilated or burnt. Sergeant Major John Harvey, in charge of investigations for the Australian-led multinational International Force for East Timor (Interfet), has found evidence to back this theory. "We have detained a driver for the militias who has admitted to driving a truckload of corpses from Maliana to the sea," he said. In Maliana, near the border with West Timor, eye-witnesses said that pro-Jakarta militias executed 47 independence supporters in the compound of the local police station. PAGE 350 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 20, 1999 Harvey said the truck driver admitted he was one of the drivers of several lorries that trucked the bodies off to Batugade on the coast. In another documented massacre, in Suai, three priests and more than 200 refugees seeking sanctuary inside a church were killed. All the bodies were removed, according to eye-witnesses, with only some bone fragments left behind. While some bodies may have been dumped at sea, most of the survivors claim that the corpses were carted away to a crocodile-infested swamp across the border in West Timor. The East Timor Human Rights Commission, a local non-government organization, is also investigating reports that many other people were killed aboard ship and then dumped overboard in the first two weeks of September. According to one report, about 100 Timorese students returning from Indonesian universities to Dili on September 7 were murdered and thrown overboard. The U.N. Has finally approved the mandate of the Human Rights Commission set up to investigate the reported mass killings. The U.N. panel of five is expected to arrive in Dili this week. dpa tf fz sa LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 351 LEVEL 1 - 136 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Deutsche Presse-Agentur Deutsche Presse-Agentur November 20, 1999, Saturday, BC Cycle 12:56 Central European Time SECTION: International News LENGTH: 395 words HEADLINE: Jakarta turns down request for East Timor representative office DATELINE: Jakarta BODY: The Indonesian government on Saturday said it will reject a demand by an East Timorese pro-independence movement to open a representative office in Jakarta. General Wiranto, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs told reporters that the decision over the demand by the National Council of East Timorese Resistance (CNRT) led by Xanana Gusmao was made during a cabinet meeting chaired by President Abdurrahman Wahid. "CNRT is only representing one political interest and there are several political interests in East Timor," Wiranto was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency. "Because it does not represent the whole spectrum of the political aspiration (in East Timor) we cannot yet accept it." However, Wiranto said Jakarta would open an interest office in Dili, the capital of East Timor. The office could be turned into the Indonesian embassy when East Timor becomes an independent state. The Indonesian assembly last month ratified East Timor's August 30 independence vote, formally ending its claim to the former Portuguese colony annexed in 1976, several months after Jakarta sent in troops in a bloody invasion. Authority has been handed over to the United Nations, which will administer the territory until a free state of East Timor comes into being some two to three years from now. Wiranto also reiterated Indonesia's commitment to remain consistent in assisting the repatriation of East Timorese refugees to the territory. More than 260,000 people fled or were forced to flee East Timor into Indonesian-controlled West Timor during the violence that followed the pro-independence vote in East Timor. Meanwhile, two senior U.S. officials met Foreign Minister Ali Shihab on Saturday as part of their trip that will also bring them to West Timor where displaced East Timorese were sheltered. PAGE 352 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 20, 1999 Shihab said the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke and U.S. Assistant Secretary of States for East Asian and Pacific Stanley Roth had both expressed concern at the plight of thousands of refugees still living in camps in West Timor. Human rights and humanitarian workers have accused pro-Jakarta militias, widely supported by elements of the Indonesian security forces, of using terror and intimidation to persuade refugees in West Timor not to return to East Timor. dpa sh mb LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 353 LEVEL 1 - 137 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Florida Times-Union The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL) November 20, 1999 Saturday, City Edition SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL; Pg. A-7 LENGTH: 289 words HEADLINE: WORLD BRIEFING BYLINE: From news services BODY: ENGLAND: PRIME MINISTER, WIFE EXPECTING FOURTH CHILD LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife are expecting their fourth child in May. Cherie Blair had only a few words yesterday for reporters camped outside the couple's Downing Street residence: 'I was surprised.' Downing Street confirmed the news Thursday, saying the couple was 'delighted at the news, which came as a total shock.' Cherie Blair, 45, is a prominent lawyer who practices under her maiden name of Cherie Booth. She and the prime minister have two sons, Euan, 15 and Nicholas, 14, and an 11-year-old daughter, Kathyrn. ITALY: PAINTINGS FROM 17TH CENTURY STOLEN ROME -- Five 17th century paintings were stolen from a museum in Rome while it was closed for restoration, city officials said yesterday. The loss raised fears of increased theft during the 2000 Jubilee, when 20 million pilgrims are expected for festivities kicking off Christianity's third millennium. The stolen paintings include Holy Family and St. John Baptist by baroque artist Giovanni Francesco Barbiero, better known as Guercino; and Sacred Family and Saints by Ludovico Carracci, of the Emilian school. The paintings are valued at $ 700,000. EAST TIMOR: U.N. OFFICIAL LINKS ARMY TO KILLINGS DILI -- Indonesian army officers responsible for the violence that followed East Timor's independence referendum must be brought to justice, the departing chief of the U.N. mission said yesterday. 'It is now clear that what happened was planned, premeditated evil, which involved murder, rape, forced deportation . . . ,' U.N. diplomat Ian Martin said. He linked the Indonesian army directly to the slaying of hundreds of East Timorese independence supporters. PAGE 354 The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL) November 20, 1999 Saturday, LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 355 LEVEL 1 - 138 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Star-Telegram Newspaper, Inc. THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM November 20, 1999, Saturday FINAL EDITION SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 13 LENGTH: 1171 words HEADLINE: International digest BYLINE: Wire Reports BODY: U.N. approves extension to Iraqi food program UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council approved a two-week extension of its humanitarian program for Iraq yesterday, allowing more time to break a monthslong deadlock over a new comprehensive policy on Iraq. Britain and the United States said there may be momentum to reach an agreement, but Russia and China said that major differences remain and that there can be no "artificial deadline." The United States has demanded that Iraq fully disarm before the United Nations suspends the sanctions it imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The current six-month phase of the oil-for-food program expires today, and Security Council members have not bridged their differences over what the new policy should include. The United States proposed a simple extension for six months, but Russia proposed major amendments to expand the program, covering issues being debated in the comprehensive resolution. Indonesian army officers accused in East Timor DILI, East Timor - Indonesian army officers who instigated violence after East Timor's independence referendum must be brought to justice, the departing chief of the U.N. mission in the territory said yesterday. "It is now clear that what happened was planned, premeditated evil, which involved murder, rape, forced deportation and physical destruction on an extraordinary scale," U.N. diplomat Ian Martin said. He directly linked the Indonesian army to the slaying of hundreds of independence supporters, including at least one prominent leader of the independence coalition in Dili. Martin, who saw the territory through the Aug. 30 vote for independence and then watched it plunge into chaos, said those PAGE 356 THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM November 20, 1999, Saturday responsible for the violence must be held accountable. He also urged the international community to keep up pressure for the return of an estimated 200,000 East Timorese who fled to Indonesian-held West Timor as pro-Jakarta militiamen terrorized the region. Polish bill designed to increase family size WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Parliament approved a bill yesterday to extend paid maternity leaves, a move aimed at encouraging women to have more children. Parliament's lower house, the Sejm, voted 230-170 to extend maternity leave to 20 weeks, and to 30 weeks for women who deliver two or more babies at once. Women are currently entitled to 16 weeks of maternity leave after bearing a first child, 18 weeks for subsequent births and 26 weeks for multiple births. The bill was proposed by the governing Solidarity bloc and backed by the Roman Catholic Church, which wants to preserve the traditional model of large families with mothers not working outside the home. Doctors Without Borders suspends work in Burundi NAIROBI, Kenya - The humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders has suspended assistance to government-organized camps in Burundi, saying that its intervention has had "little impact." The Burundian army began forcing villagers in Rural Bujumbura province into camps in late September to stem attacks by Hutu rebels. At least 300,000 mostly Hutu civilians reside in 50 settlements. The aid group, which had been providing assistance to 54,000 people in three camps, said that the settlements are rife with hunger and disease. It also said that fighting between rebels and government forces has prevented aid workers from traveling to remote camps in the province, which encompasses the capital, Bujumbura. Germany grants amnesty to about 20,000 foreigners GOERLITZ, Germany - In an amnesty for asylum seekers, Germany will grant permanent residency to about 20,000 foreigners who have lived in the country illegally for years, officials said yesterday. Marieluise Beck, Parliament's commissioner for foreigner affairs, said the decision by state interior ministers is a boost for the integration of foreigners into German society. PAGE 357 THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM November 20, 1999, Saturday Families who arrived in Germany before July 1, 1993, and whose asylum applications have been rejected, will be allowed to stay if they have legal jobs and their children are attending German schools. Similar rules apply to single people who sought asylum before Jan. 1, 1990. Turkey's quake victims welcome halt to rains KAYNASLI, Turkey - After days of torrential rains, the sun came out yesterday and helped ease the misery of tens of thousands of people made homeless by Turkey's latest devastating quake. At least 619 people died in the Nov. 12 quake in northwestern Turkey, an area ravaged by an even more powerful quake in August that killed at least 17,000 people. Authorities announced yesterday that the active search for survivors is over, the Anatolia news agency said. A 42-year-old woman was rescued Wednesday. Since last week's quake, the homeless in Kaynasli, a wheat-growing town of 7,000, and in other small towns have been spending chilly nights in tents or under drafty shelters of plastic and timber. Jerusalem deal vital for pact, Arafat Cabinet says RAMALLAH, West Bank - Yasser Arafat's Cabinet said yesterday that no final peace agreement will be reached with Israel unless the Palestinians are allowed to establish their capital in east Jerusalem. "There won't be an agreement if Jerusalem is not accepted as the capital of an independent state," said a Cabinet statement issued after a meeting late yesterday in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The dispute over the eastern sector of the city, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed, has been one of the thorniest issues of the peace process and was saved for the last phase of negotiations. Israel has insisted that it will not agree to surrender control over any part of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Cabinet said that because east Jerusalem is captured land, it should be returned with other occupied territories according to U.N. resolutions. Italy displays belongings of dictator Mussolini ROME - The Treasury Ministry unpacked a crate of Benito Mussolini's belongings yesterday, displaying mud-splattered overalls the dictator's mistress is believed have worn when they tried to flee Italy in disguise at the end of World War II. PAGE 358 THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM November 20, 1999, Saturday The dark blue garment was among a hodgepodge of Mussolini items tucked away for 40 years in a ministry storeroom. Officials said the items were found in a farmhouse near Lake Como in northern Italy, where partisans shot Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, on April 28, 1945. In October, the Treasury Ministry announced that it would reveal the contents of more than 500 crates and boxes before transferring them to the custody of the Bank of Italy. Along with the mechanic's overalls, the items displayed yesterday included a soft-sided hat lined with sheepskin and an army field blanket, various bank notes, including a fake dollar bill, and an assortment of military and commemorative medals. PHOTO(S): The Associated Press LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: December 17, 1999 PAGE 359 LEVEL 1 - 139 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Star-Telegram Newspaper, Inc. THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM November 20, 1999, Saturday FINAL EDITION SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 13 LENGTH: 1162 words HEADLINE: International digest BYLINE: Wire Reports BODY: U.N. approves extension to Iraqi food program UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council approved a two-week extension of its humanitarian program for Iraq yesterday, allowing more time to break a monthslong deadlock over a new comprehensive policy on Iraq. Britain and the United States said there may be momentum to reach an agreement, but Russia and China said that major differences remain and that there can be no "artificial deadline. " The United States has demanded that Iraq fully disarm before the United Nations suspends the sanctions it imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The current six-month phase of the oil-for-food program expires today, and Security Council members have not bridged their differences over what the new policy should include. The United States proposed a simple extension for six months, but Russia proposed major amendments to expand the program, covering issues being debated in the comprehensive resolution. Indonesian army officers accused in East Timor DILI, East Timor - Indonesian army officers who instigated violence after East Timor's independence referendum must be brought to justice, the departing chief of the U.N. mission in the territory said yesterday. "It is now clear that what happened was planned, premeditated evil, which involved murder, rape, forced deportation and physical destruction on an extraordinary scale," U.N. diplomat Ian Martin said. He directly linked the Indonesian army to the slaying of hundreds of independence supporters, including at least one prominent leader of the independence coalition in Dili. PAGE 360 THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM November 20, 1999, Saturday Martin, who saw the territory through the Aug. 30 vote for independence and then watched it plunge into chaos, said those responsible for the violence must be held accountable. He also urged the international community to keep up pressure for the return of an estimated 200,000 East Timorese who fled to Indonesian-held West Timor as pro-Jakarta militiamen terrorized the region. Polish bill designed to increase family size WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Parliament approved a bill yesterday to extend paid maternity leaves, a move aimed at encouraging women to have more children. Parliament's lower house, the Sejm, voted 230-170 to extend maternity leave to 20 weeks, and to 30 weeks for women who deliver two or more babies at once. Women are currently entitled to 16 weeks of maternity leave after bearing a first child, 18 weeks for subsequent births and 26 weeks for multiple births. The bill was proposed by the governing Solidarity bloc and backed by the Roman Catholic Church, which wants to preserve the traditional model of large families with mothers not working outside the home. Doctors Without Borders suspends work in Burundi NAIROBI, Kenya - The humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders has suspended assistance to government-organized camps in Burundi, saying that its intervention has had "little impact. " The Burundian army began forcing villagers in Rural Bujumbura province into camps in late September to stem attacks by Hutu rebels. At least 300,000 mostly Hutu civilians reside in 50 settlements. The aid group, which had been providing assistance to 54,000 people in three camps, said that the settlements are rife with hunger and disease. It also said that fighting between rebels and government forces has prevented aid workers from traveling to remote camps in the province, which encompasses the capital, Bujumbura. Germany grants amnesty to about 20,000 foreigners GOERLITZ, Germany - In an amnesty for asylum seekers, Germany will grant permanent residency to about 20,000 foreigners who have lived in the country illegally for years, officials said yesterday. Marieluise Beck, Parliament's commissioner for foreigner affairs, said the decision by state interior ministers is a boost for the PAGE 361 THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM November 20, 1999, Saturday integration of foreigners into German society. Families who arrived in Germany before July 1, 1993, and whose asylum applications have been rejected, will be allowed to stay if they have legal jobs and their children are attending German schools. Similar rules apply to single people who sought asylum before Jan. 1, 1990. Turkey's quake victims welcome halt to rains KAYNASLI, Turkey - After days of torrential rains, the sun came out yesterday and helped ease the misery of tens of thousands of people made homeless by Turkey's latest devastating quake. At least 619 people died in the Nov. 12 quake in northwestern Turkey, an area ravaged by an even more powerful quake in August that killed at least 17,000 people. Authorities announced yesterday that the active search for survivors is over, the Anatolia news agency said. A 42-year-old woman was rescued Wednesday. Since last week's quake, the homeless in Kaynasli, a wheat-growing town of 7,000, and in other small towns have been spending chilly nights in tents or under drafty shelters of plastic and timber. Jerusalem deal vital for pact, Arafat Cabinet says RAMALLAH, West Bank - Yasser Arafat's Cabinet said yesterday that no final peace agreement will be reached with Israel unless the Palestinians are allowed to establish their capital in east Jerusalem. "There won't be an agreement if Jerusalem is not accepted as the capital of an independent state," said a Cabinet statement issued after a meeting late yesterday in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The dispute over the eastern sector of the city, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed, has been one of the thorniest issues of the peace process and was saved for the last phase of negotiations. Israel has insisted that it will not agree to surrender control over any part of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Cabinet said that because east Jerusalem is captured land, it should be returned with other occupied territories according to U.N. resolutions. Italy displays belongings of dictator Mussolini ROME - The Treasury Ministry unpacked a crate of Benito Mussolini's belongings yesterday, displaying mud-splattered overalls the dictator's mistress is believed have worn when they tried to flee Italy in disguise at the end of World War II. PAGE 362 THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM November 20, 1999, Saturday The dark blue garment was among a hodgepodge of Mussolini items tucked away for 40 years in a ministry storeroom. Officials said the items were found in a farmhouse near Lake Como in northern Italy, where partisans shot Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, on April 28, 1945. In October, the Treasury Ministry announced that it would reveal the contents of more than 500 crates and boxes before transferring them to the custody of the Bank of Italy. Along with the mechanic's overalls, the items displayed yesterday included a soft-sided hat lined with sheepskin and an army field blanket, various bank notes, including a fake dollar bill, and an assortment of military and commemorative medals. PHOTO(S): The Associated Press LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: December 1, 1999 PAGE 363 LEVEL 1 - 140 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 International Herald Tribune International Herald Tribune (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) November 20, 1999, Saturday SECTION: Opinion; Pg. 6 LENGTH: 728 words HEADLINE: Self-Determination for Chechnya Is in Russia's Interest BYLINE: By Zbigniew Brzezinski; New York Times Service DATELINE: NEW YORK BODY: President Boris Yeltsin may have had a tempestuous debate over Chechnya with President Bill Clinton and other Western leaders on Thursday, but no one should be fooled by his show of pique. He has little reason to be upset with the compromise reached by Western and Russian negotiators at a summit meeting in Istanbul on European security. It all sounds good on paper. The new charter of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe reportedly stipulates that Russia will allow the group to provide humanitarian aid to Chechnya and an outside observer to tour the war zone. For now this amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist. The West's idea of a desirable outcome in Chechnya - that the breakaway province continues to be part of Russia but is treated decently - is an oxymoron. Let's state the obvious: The only fair and workable solution, good both for the Chechens and for the Russians, is self-determination for Chechnya. Getting rid of an empire is never easy. The French learned that painfully during the Algerian war 40 years ago. But eventually the imperial homeland itself benefits from the dissolution, something that Charles de Gaulle had the courage to tell the skeptical French people at the time. Perhaps some Russian leader will soon muster the needed courage to counter popular opinion in his country and say publicly, ''Let the Chechens go.'' Unfortunately, the Russian ruling elite is still driven by imperial nostalgia. The generals thirst for revenge for the defeat they suffered in the Caucasus four years ago. And many Russians, inflamed by official propaganda, view all Chechens as terrorists and Islamic fanatics. That is why, sadly, the suppression, even the elimination, of the Chechens sounds reasonable to many Russians. For their part, the Chechens do not wish to be part of Russia, and they have been resisting subjugation for more than a century. That is also why the West's diplomatically worded appeals for ''negotiations'' or ''a political solution'' or ''a cease-fire'' are pipe dreams. Continuing a brutal war, which has created more than 200,000 refugees, will not only do enormous damage to Russia's global image and push Russian politics toward a chauvinistic extreme, but will also probably create an enduring and militant hostility among the 200 million Muslims to Russia's immediate south (not to mention some 20 million Muslims within Russia itself). PAGE 364 International Herald Tribune, November 20, 1999 The only way the world can make Russians understand this is to take the same stand that it took, for example, on East Timor. No one urged a NATO-type military operation against Indonesia to end the repression of the East Timorese. But the international community, through patient pressure but also with prudent clarity, made it plain to Indonesia's rulers that their country would suffer high financial and political costs if they persisted. That paved the way for a referendum on East Timor's independence and for an international peacekeeping force to intervene when violence followed the vote. Now East Timor is in the process of becoming an independent state. An independent Chechnya would not be an anomaly. It has a population of about one million people, about the same as East Timor's. The United Nations currently has 39 member countries with populations of one million or less. Of course, Russia is not Indonesia. It is a former superpower and longtime empire, and it would not so easily part with a territory in which it has invested so much honor and blood. But the East Timor example is apt because it shows what consistent rhetoric, diplomatic pressure and economic leverage on the part of the West can achieve in terms of ending brutal subjugation. Certainly, the United States can exert other pressure to protest the atrocities, like cutting off loans to Russia. Still, for the democratic nations to take a clear stand that the Chechens are entitled to self- determination is the most important step toward a decent and civilized solution to the war in the Caucasus. Even if the Russian politicians and generals respond with instinctive anger, they will eventually realize that the true beneficiaries of letting Chechnya go will be the Russian people themselves. The writer was national security adviser in President Jimmy Carter's administration. He contributed this comment to The New York Times. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 365 LEVEL 1 - 141 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Irish Times The Irish Times November 20, 1999 SECTION: CITY EDITION; WORLD NEWS; Pg. 15 LENGTH: 574 words HEADLINE: Border tensions rise as Jakarta gives East Timor refugees 3-month deadline Falintil gunmen breached UN rules amid rising Timor tensions, reports Conor O'Clery, Asia Correspondent BODY: Jakarta is to give East Timor refugees in West Timor just over three months to decide if they want to stay in Indonesia or go home, the official Indonesian news agency reported yesterday. The announcement comes at a time of increasing tension on the southern section of the border due to the presence of militiamen among those returning. A New Zealand-led battalion of the International Force in East Timor (Interfet) is processing refugees, mainly women and children, returning to the south-west of East Timor from Indonesian West Timor. It includes a platoon of 30 Irish Rangers used mainly for reconnaissance patrolling. Since Tuesday, some 2,000 refugees crossed into East Timor at a newly-opened border post at Salale. A New Zealand officer, Brig Martyn Dunne, was reported as saying the security situation was "medium", with angry local people identifying returned militiamen. Indonesian soldiers and local pro-Jakarta militiamen killed dozens of people and razed the nearby town of Suai after East Timor voted for independence on August 30th. Several deserters from the Indonesian Army (TNI) and militiamen are also believed to have crossed into East Timor on a foraging mission, but left before New Zealand troops arrived. Maj Gen Peter Cosgrove, the Australian head of Interfet, warned the Indonesians that such incidents would not be tolerated. Gen Cosgrove also accused the East Timor independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao of breaching policies set under the United Nations mandate by turning up at a UN compound in Dili yesterday with 20 guerrillas from his Falintil resistance movement armed with automatic weapons. He did not take action however, according to reports from the East Timor capital, which quoted him as saying only that it was "an item of some note and from my point of view, of considerable regret". Falintil guerrillas may go anywhere unarmed, but must confine themselves to set cantonment areas if they PAGE 366 The Irish Times, November 20, 1999 have weapons. Mr Gusmao's explanation was that there had been a communication breakdown but the issues were clearly a potential cause of friction. As leader of the National Council for the Timorese Resistance (CNRT), Mr Gusmao met Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, the new head of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor to express the CNRT's concerns that they were being ignored by the international community regarding the reconstruction of the country and its political future. They also discussed the return of refugees in the light of yesterday's statement by Indonesia. "By March 2000 at the latest, any East Timorese refugees in Indonesia must have made up their mind whether they want to go back to East Timor or become Indonesian citizens," Indonesia's Co-ordinating Minister for Welfare was quoted as saying. However, armed militias still control camps in West Timor, where many displaced people are living. Over 200,000 refugees were expelled or fled from East Timor in September when militias went on the rampage. The UN refugee agency warned it would suspend the return of refugees if militia intervention continued. This follows an attack by 30 militiamen on a convoy of refugees in a truck in Atambua, 40 km from the border with East Timor. "They beat up two refugees including a pregnant woman," UN Human Rights Commissioner for Refugees official, Ms Ariane Quentier, said in Dili yesterday. "The police were standing there virtually doing nothing." LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 367 LEVEL 1 - 142 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Irish Times The Irish Times November 20, 1999 SECTION: CITY EDITION; EDITORIAL PAGE; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 17 LENGTH: 280 words HEADLINE: Human Rights In Chechnya BODY: Sir, - For at least the third time in 1999, we are watching the destruction and annihilation of an ethnic group by their larger and more powerful neighbours. Unlike Kosovo and East Timor, six weeks of terror have passed in Chechnya and there has been but the mildest expressions of condemnation from those nations whose influence could prevent these atrocities from continuing. Once more, we are seeing political expediency on a grand scale from the international community. Meanwhile, the army and government of the Russian Federation are free to commit genocide against a people in the name of fighting terrorism. Massive human rights violations are being perpetrated against the civilian population of Chechnya. There are estimates that the population has been halved as a result of the Russian bombardment. The UN Security Council, of which Russia is a permanent member, is standing silently by and is now complicit in this genocide as in so many before where it does not suit members' strategic interests to intervene. The Russian Federation is not content to just bomb Chechnya, it also finds it necessary to ensure that the Chechen people's right to flee the bombing and the terror is impeded. Russia has violated and continues to violate the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols and is guilty of committing war crimes. Will these be punished by an International War Crimes Tribunal or will the end result of this war be the political success of Vladimir Putin in the upcoming election and the creation of yet another despot by the West? - Yours, etc., Justin Kilcullen, Director, Trocaire, Booterstown Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 368 LEVEL 1 - 143 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Japan Times Ltd. The Japan Times November 20, 1999, Saturday LENGTH: 183 words HEADLINE: SDF to fly supplies to Timor refugees BODY: Self-Defense Forces aircraft will fly humanitarian aid supplies to East Timorese refugees in West Timor, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono formally announced Friday. The decision was made in response to appeals for aid by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Kono told reporters after the day's Cabinet meeting, during which the request was approved. Under the operation, 150 ASDF members and six coordinators will transport aid supplies from Surabaya on Java Island to Kupang in West Timor using five aircraft. The first team will leave for Indonesia on Monday and the main body is to depart Wednesday. They are expected to engage in transport work until February. "I will be glad if the operation is useful as an international contribution suitable for Japan," Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told reporters. "I think Asian countries will also realize the importance of such international cooperation provided by Japan." Japan has already committed Dollars 2 million in humanitarian assistance for East Timor. Kono said the government will actively consider further refugee aid. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 22, 1999 PAGE 369 LEVEL 1 - 144 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Kyodo News Service Japan Economic Newswire November 20, 1999, Saturday LENGTH: 163 words HEADLINE: Xanana's request to open Jakarta office rejected DATELINE: JAKARTA, Nov. 20 Kyodo BODY: Indonesia on Saturday rejected a request by Xanana Gusmao, leader of the National Council of the Timorese Resistance (CNRT), to open a representative office in Jakarta, saying the CNRT represents only one political interest group. While rejecting the CNRT's request, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Gen. Wiranto said Jakarta plans to open an 'interest section' in East Timor capital Dili. He did not elaborate. An 'interest section' is an office that is elevated to embassy status upon formal establishment of diplomatic ties between two countries. 'The CNRT only represents one political interest group. There are various political interest groups in East Timor,' Wiranto told reporters. He said the Indonesian government cannot grant the CNRT request because the council 'does not represent all political aspirations' in East Timor. East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence in a U.N.-organized referendum on Aug. 30. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 370 LEVEL 1 - 145 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 Kyodo News Service Japan Economic Newswire November 20, 1999, Saturday LENGTH: 260 words HEADLINE: Indonesian human rights group accuses army of massacre DATELINE: DILI, East Timor, Nov. 20 Kyodo BODY: A subcommittee of Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights said Saturday it has obtained a large number of testimonies indicating the Indonesian military took part in a rampage of killing, burning and looting in East Timor in early September. The fact-finding team for East Timor, a committee set up by the independent human rights commission, arrived in Dili on Wednesday to investigate until Sunday the rampage following the Aug. 30 referendum in which East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. The team's chairman, Albert Hasibuan, told a news conference there were strong suspicions that not only local militias, but also some members of the Indonesian military were involved in the atrocities. The team will question several military leaders, including former military commander Gen. Wiranto, Hasibuan said. He also said militia groups are committing human rights violations in West Timor against East Timorese refugees. He said the team plans to urge the Indonesian government to quickly disband the militias. The team is scheduled to draw up a final report on the East Timor case by January and hold a human rights tribunal in February to question militia and military leaders about their involvement in the atrocities. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of people in East Timor are believed to have been killed in the spate of violence that started Sept. 4, following the official announcement by the United Nations that Indonesia's offer of autonomy was overwhelming rejected by the East Timorese. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 371 LEVEL 1 - 146 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The National Journal, Inc. The National Journal November 20, 1999 SECTION: INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS; Pg. 3372; Vol.31, No.47 LENGTH: 3792 words HEADLINE: Sovereignty's Struggle BYLINE: Julie Kosterlitz HIGHLIGHT: A smaller globe faces old and new questions about who, or what, is really in control of national destiny. BODY: In 1980, a third-party candidate with a shock of silver hair hoped to ride into the White House on a wave of disaffection with the status quo. Then-Rep. John B. Anderson, R-Ill., included in his quixotic campaign a call for a standby international military force under the direct control of the United Nations. Anderson envisioned the force handling emergencies like the American hostage crisis then unfolding in Iran. Two decades later, in a far more prosperous era, another erstwhile Republican believes a deep current of unhappiness in the land will win him a third-party nomination and the presidency. But Pat Buchanan, a Reform Party candidate, doesn't sound much like Anderson. Petulant Pat is pledging, instead, that ''not one United States soldier will be forced to swear allegiance to an international organization'' and that the United States will ''withdraw from the United Nations and global organizations that do not serve U.S. interests.'' Today, Anderson--still an independent spirit--is preparing to return to Washington as the chief executive of the World Federalist Association--an outfit formed 52 years ago to promote democratic global government. ''I was one who took it seriously when President George Bush declared in 1991, with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the dawn of a new era and of a new international order,'' says Anderson by phone from Florida, where he teaches law. Buchanan's candidacy, he says, ''saddens me very much.'' In fact, Anderson is thinking of challenging Buchanan for the Reform Party nomination. Americans, descended from independent-minded colonists who cut their ties to the British crown, have never been of one mind about how much autonomy they are prepared to cede--even in the name of global peace and prosperity. And populist sentiment for internationalism has shifted with the times. But rarely in the past two or three decades has there been so much ferment--at home or abroad--as there is today about multiplying threats to PAGE 372 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 the internal sovereignty of nation-states: that is, the right of nations to establish and pursue their chosen domestic policies. From NATO bombs bursting over Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to the report of Australian rifles firing in East Timor, multilateral forces intervened twice this year in the internal affairs of other countries on the grounds of human rights; the impact, and wisdom, of those actions are still debated. So, too, is U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's declaration in late September ''that massive and systematic violations of human rights--wherever they may take place--should not be allowed to stand.'' Annan, speaking at the opening of the annual General Assembly meeting, said that one of the core challenges for the United Nations in the new century is to get member nations united behind this principle of humanitarian intervention. ''Nothing in the charter precludes a recognition that there are rights beyond borders,'' he said, provoking a spirited debate in the chamber. And on Nov. 30, even as the world still celebrates the 10th anniversary of the symbolic end of the Cold War--the breaching of the Berlin Wall--the United States will witness perhaps the starkest public clash yet on this issue, when the World Trade Organization convenes for the first time on U.S. soil, in Seattle. While trade ministers from around the world try to agree on an agenda for a new round of trade liberalization, thousands of trade unionists, environmentalists, consumer activists, human rights advocates, anarchists, and odd and sundry hangers-on will take to the streets to protest the conclave. They will voice many and varied grievances, including those against the fresh deal to bring totalitarian China into the WTO. But mostly they will decry the elevation of commerce and capital above all other values and the power of a secretive, unelected supranational body to overrule the popular will of democratic nations. Although Buchanan and his followers may not be in Seattle physically manning the barricades, they will be there in spirit. ''The final payment for any global free-trade zone is an end to American sovereignty and the loss of American independence,'' Buchanan told the National Press Club in June. Globalization Unmasked The Battle of Seattle represents not merely a change in the tenor of the sovereignty debate, but the opening of a new front. The threat is not just--as the critics would have it--from more faceless bureaucrats and jealous representatives of second-rate powers, but from ''globalization'' itself--an inchoate concept by which different people mean different and often contradictory things. For some, globalization represents the impersonal forces of the marketplace and technology that allow billions of dollars to flow from Manhattan to Hong Kong in a nanosecond and that are fast creating a stock market that never sleeps. For others, it is the result of capitulation by national governments to the power of multinational corporations, international investors, and currency speculators. PAGE 373 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 The governments of wealthy nations spent the first three decades following World War II constructing an elaborate system of regulatory and social programs to insulate citizens from risk. But, led by Britain and the United States, they have shifted their priorities toward privatization and market deregulation. The U.S. Congress and President Clinton conveniently dramatized this shift on the eve of the Seattle conclave by repealing long- standing laws barring mergers between the worlds of banking, securities, and insurance, to the applause of merger-happy financiers and bankers, who increasingly have global aspirations. But academics note that this seemingly inexorable and insidious attack on national sovereignty only seems new, because Americans have both a short history and even shorter memories. In the real world, national sovereignty has never matched its textbook definition. To those who believe that nation-states have been autonomous and inviolable since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648--which ended the Thirty Years' War and bestowed independence on the European states of the former Roman Empire--Stephen D. Krasner says, hogwash. In the 19th century, says Krasner, a professor of international relations at Stanford University and author of the book Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy, countries often surrendered national sovereignty, or intruded on the sovereignty of others, in the interest of international stability. Specifically, many nations yoked their currencies to an international gold standard and sacrificed their own flexibility to print money when their domestic economies may have needed it. During the 1878 Congress of Berlin--which forged independent Balkan states from the wreck of the Ottoman Empire-- the European powers required the new states to uphold minority rights. In the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, Poland and other states carved from a defeated Germany also had to agree to minority rights, and aggrieved minorities were entitled to take their complaints to the International Court of Justice. Today in Kosovo, as then, the international community intervened both for humanitarian and security reasons, Krasner notes. ''The relations between rulers and ruled has always been on the table'' for the international community, he says. ''The idea that nonintervention was always honored is complete crap.'' A new global economy? That, too, is balderdash. During the so-called Golden Era from 1870-1914, Krasner recalls, the world was by many measures as economically integrated as it is now. Economist John Maynard Keynes wrote in 1919 of the era: ''The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep. He could adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world.'' Trade Transcends Still, what matters is that these challenges to sovereignty PAGE 374 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 appear new to a new generation, and especially to this nation. After all, the United States was not a party to the Congress of Berlin, nor was it nearly as enmeshed in the world economy as was Europe at the turn of the past century. Besides, today there may be a genuine qualitative change afoot. At some point, the vast increases in the speed and volume of commercial and financial transactions create a difference in the kind, and not merely the degree, of globalization. The development of sophisticated new financial instruments, from mortgage-backed securities to derivatives-- which are basically wagers on the change in value of other securities or currencies--has created a web of ties between financial institutions around the world. The speed, reach, and complexity of these transactions link the economic fortunes of many countries more closely than ever and simultaneously make it harder for national regulators to exert much control over them. As trade has become more liberalized, the pressure to make markets even more open than they've been has led to a new focus on ''nontariff barriers,'' which encompass a wide range of domestic consumer, environmental, and cultural policies that were once mainly the province of local and national governments. And even as trade agreements gave signatories license to poke their noses into one another's private rooms and perhaps urge a change in decor, the creation of a binding dispute resolution system along with the new WTO in 1995 also gave this body economic power to punish those who wouldn't take its redecorating advice. Global Activists Business and investors may have been the first to wield worldwide influence, but consumer, environmental, and other groups that are opposed to further liberalization are now increasingly linked across national boundaries and are fast posing a serious challenge--not merely to business interests, but also to governments. A case in point was last year's demise of negotiations between members of a group of developed nations on a Multilateral Agreement on Investment. The MAI was supposed to make it easier for investors to start or acquire businesses in one another's countries by, among other things, limiting the conditions that one state could put on the investors of another. U.S. activists, however, saw a global capitalist cabal plotting to do away with everything from minority business assistance to the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to lend in low-income areas. Foreign activists had parallel concerns. After a concerted lobbying effort against the MAI in Washington and European capitals, the French withdrew and the negotiations collapsed last year. ''That was definitely a victory'' for nongovernmental organizations, says Debi Barker, the deputy director of the International Forum on Globalization (http://www.ifg.org), a San Francisco think tank and advocacy group formed in 1994 in PAGE 375 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 reaction to the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. IFG adherents, who include Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, a former presidential candidate, and Ralph Nader, the father of U.S. consumer activism, believe globalization is an unwelcome restructuring of the planet's natural social, economic, and political arrangements. In Seattle, some citizens groups hope merely to slow the pace of trade liberalization and are arguing for a more inclusive process. But a few hope to bring the official proceedings to a halt. Citizens groups may lack the power of international businesses and financiers, but they have the power outsiders have always had: the power to disrupt and to say no. And now the outsiders themselves have gone global. The American public tends to be a bit more nuanced in its views than are the activist groups of the left or right. A just- completed survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which is run by the University of Maryland, suggests Americans think that the trends toward ''globalization'' and liberalized trade are more good than bad--but not overwhelmingly good. And globe-trotting business leaders beware: The public doesn't see trade providing much benefit to many sectors of society besides the business community. Majorities also signaled their belief that the U.S. government and the World Trade Organization are overly attuned to the interests of business and insufficiently responsive to the interests of the public. The public overwhelmingly wants the WTO to consider ''issues like labor standards and the environment.'' Small Is Beautiful? The poll found enough disparate sentiments to embolden a spectrum of activists. Buchanan, of course, would detach the American ship of state from the international armada and send it back to home port. There, he would reinforce the armor plating and install enough cannons so that, should it need to venture into international waters, it could do so alone and with impunity. Anderson argues that the time when America could go it alone has passed. ''With the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and new nuclear powers being created all the time, and the spread of biological weapons,'' he says, ''the impetus for knitting together an organization with the capacity to keep the peace is greater today than before.'' He applies the same logic to the WTO. ''I'm not going to suggest that everything the WTO does is going to be pleasing,'' he says. ''But everybody accepts that we're going to live in a global economy, so somebody has got to make the rules. If we do it on an individual basis, there are going to be more disputes.'' Support for more and stronger global government would not appear to be robust--judging by the World Federalist Association's membership numbers. From a peak of 40,000 in 1949-- two years after its founding during a bout of profound war PAGE 376 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 weariness--membership has fallen to just 10,000, where it languishes. Half the loss came with the advent of the Cold War, the other half during the Vietnam War. But the University of Maryland survey suggests that there may, indeed, be public support for Anderson's views. Strong majorities favor strengthening international institutions, such as the United Nations, the WTO, and the World Court. Majorities supported intervention by the international community for a wide range of reasons--environmental matters, terrorism, economic crises, and government atrocities. A hefty two-thirds supported the idea of an International Criminal Court to address war crimes and human rights abuses, and 53 percent supported a standing U.N. peacekeeping force. Only the International Monetary Fund and the idea of a global central bank got less-than-majority support. And lest it appear that Americans favor globalism only for the other guy, majorities did say the United States should go along with rulings of the WTO and the World Court. The Left, too, can find some encouragement in the public's doubts about who benefits from trade and in its apparent desire for paying more attention to the needs of workers and the environment. And yet the Left, where opposition to globalization is a many-splendored thing, also knows that the need to avoid offending any of its diffuse constituencies has complicated the search for an alternative vision and made it harder to advance myriad and often-conflicting goals. The difficulty can be surmised from reading the set of principles the International Forum on Globalization recently established as alternatives to globalization. Among them: global institutions and national governments should be open, democratic. They should do only what cannot be done at lower levels of government and tread carefully on local prerogatives. Global institutions and compacts to mitigate the damage--environmental and otherwise--done by global capitalism should have more power, while global institutions designed to promote trade and investment--the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and WTO--should have less. Ultimately, the Left is forced to retreat to a modest and nostalgic common denominator: Small Is Beautiful. Indeed, the final principle in the IFG declaration says: Global trade and investment should be curtailed and refocused. Liberalized trade and investment, Barker argues, is ''devastating for workers, the environment, and equity. . . . We emphasize domestic production for domestic markets and believe we should make trade and investment serve local, community needs and make it more sustainable.'' Economists Sigh This vision strikes the same kind of terror in the hearts of mainstream economists that the Kansas Board of Education causes at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Like the fundamentalists' insistence on creationism, the Left's reaction to globalization goes against everything the citadels of learning believe they have proved: that all nations PAGE 377 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 are better off when each specializes in what it can produce most efficiently and trades for everything else; that more prosperity is created when capital is allowed to flow freely to wherever it can receive the best returns. But the vision does confirm one thing economic historians hold to be true: Global economic integration is neither inevitable nor irreversible. It will exist only as long as sovereign states can support it. The U.S. Senate's rejection this fall of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty suggests the same point holds for global political cooperation. ''We voluntarily lowered our external sovereignty, but we can re-erect it so governments can once again exercise internal sovereignty,'' says Wolfgang H. Reinecke, a senior partner in the Corporate Strategy Group at the World Bank. It happened in 1914, when belligerent nation-states went to war and brought an end to the global integration of the Golden Era. And despite the seemingly globalist views of the public, as measured by the University of Maryland poll, the power of organized pressure groups can often trump the widely held views of a passive public. Until people turn out in droves at meetings of the World Federalist Association or like-minded organizations, the citizen viewpoints the U.S. Congress hears will come mainly from the right and the left. To Reinecke, the threat to further economic integration from groups on the left and right comes only when global pressures undermine national governments' ability to deliver ''public goods''--education, public safety, safe food, sound banks, and economic stability--that neither citizens nor private enterprise can provide alone. To continue this bread-and-butter function, governments must find a way to match the global reach of business and citizen activists, or else internal backlash will force them to close their borders--to trade, investment, and immigration. Signs of incipient backlash are everywhere: from the streets of Seattle to the recent elections in Austria and Switzerland that enhanced the power of strident nationalists. But Reinecke, it turns out, is not so gloomy about the future. He is working on a background paper for U.N. Secretary- General Annan, who plans to unveil his vision for the future role of the United Nations at a special Millennium Summit next year. For Reinecke, hope rests with something he has given the unfortunately wonkish name of ''global public policy networks.'' These are, roughly, ad hoc task forces--often narrowly focused and time-limited--that bring together governments, businesses, citizen groups, and international organizations to tackle problems beyond the reach of governments or problems that private groups can't solve on their own. Some 50 of these networks are already up and operating, concerned with everything from fisheries to malaria, Reinecke says. Among his favorite examples is the World Commission on PAGE 378 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 Dams, a two-year endeavor begun in 1998 to end a worldwide stalemate on dam construction after opposition from local citizens and international environmental groups brought most such construction to a standstill. Members include national government agencies, multilateral development banks, various regional river basin authorities, research institutes, hydropower companies, and affected citizens groups. Participants are casting a critical eye on the role that dams have played in development and are trying to agree on criteria for building them. What Reinecke likes about such projects is that they are both more inclusive than the international organizations comprised solely of nation-states--and their attendant bureaucracies--and more nimble in an era when speed matters. He is fleshing out his vision both on a Web site (http://www.globalpublicpolicy.net) and in a forthcoming article in Foreign Affairs. The policy networks need not be hostile to traditional international organizations, nor do they need to supplant national governments--since any proposed solution still must pass governmental muster if it is to be implemented. The networks merely increase the chance of broader acceptance, while sparing individual nations, businesses, and environmental groups the need for serial battles. In that sense, Reinecke argues, these networks are allies that will help preserve national sovereignty in the global millennium. It's hard to imagine ''Global Public Policy Networks Now!'' adorning placards in Seattle or becoming anyone's campaign slogan. Reinecke's idea lacks the sweep of Anderson's One World vision, the bravado of Buchanan's America First credo, and the romanticism of IFG's Small Is Beautiful. But that's three reasons it may be closer to what actually happens in the new century. Internet links and background information related to this article are available to all National Journal subscribers on our Web site, Cloakroom. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 379 LEVEL 1 - 147 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The National Journal, Inc. The National Journal November 20, 1999 SECTION: LEGAL AFFAIRS; Pg. 3388; Vol.31, No.47 LENGTH: 1781 words HEADLINE: The Whole World's Watching BYLINE: Peter H. Stone HIGHLIGHT: In fits and starts, the world is building a framework to support the prosecution of all war crimes. BODY: The decades-long struggle to erect a system of international laws and institutions to bring individuals accused of war crimes to justice seems to be finally gaining ground. And traditional notions of national sovereignty are being reshaped as international law extends its reach across borders. In just the past year, the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London, the indictment of Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic by an international tribunal, and the arrest of escaped Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon in Switzerland have been seen as milestones in the fight against war criminals. Paradoxically, 1999 has also witnessed a notable surge in war crimes--including massacres of civilians and widespread rapes--in conflicts from Kosovo and East Timor to Chechnya and Sierra Leone. ''The world has become a much smaller place for dictators to hide,'' says Diane F. Orentlicher, a professor of law and the director of the War Crimes Research Office at the Washington College of Law at American University. ''For the past 50 years, states have been inclined to look the other way and haven't exerted themselves to hold perpetrators accountable. It almost seems to take wholesale failures for the international community to stiffen its resolve and to respond appropriately the next time.'' The issue of accountability for war crimes, and even how they might be prevented or curbed, is one that legal scholars, government officials, and nongovernmental organizations worldwide are struggling to address. Two tribunals established by the United Nations to prosecute war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia have waded into new legal territory. Momentum is building for the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court that would have jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes PAGE 380 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 against humanity, and genocide. ''We've made very rapid progress in the last 50 years in the evolution of norms,'' said Neil J. Kritz, the director of the rule of law program at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan federal institution in Washington that studies and promotes the peaceful resolution of international conflict. ''Now we're just starting to figure out the architecture and the means of enforcement. That forces us to debate questions of national sovereignty. At what point does a national government lose its claim to sovereignty?'' This century's carnage has added fuel to the debate. Civilians, not soldiers, have been the chief victims of 20th- century conflicts. In late 1998, Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, the retiring president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, estimated that in this century, 210 million people have been the ''victims of mass killings.'' Of that total, more than 80 percent were civilians. ''Slaughter, torture, and wanton destruction have become instruments, rather than consequences, of war,'' McDonald concluded in a talk at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. In fact, international efforts to curb war crimes go back centuries, but progress accelerated after World War II with the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes tribunals. In broad terms, international humanitarian law accepts the reality of war, but tries to mitigate its worst excesses. In 1948, the world's nations promulgated a Genocide Convention to codify laws against the most heinous crime. The next year, four Geneva conventions codified rules mainly for wars between states, including the treatment of prisoners of war and noncombatants. These conventions also covered the treatment of the wounded and sick during land battles, and for those shipwrecked in wartime. In addition, a 1954 Hague Convention covered the protection of cultural monuments, such as churches and historic buildings. In 1977, two protocols to the 1949 Geneva conventions expanded the definition of war crimes to cover some atrocities in civil and national liberation wars. International law has moved forward in the 1990s, thanks in part to the tribunals established to prosecute war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. In 1995, the Yugoslav tribunal ruled that serious war crimes could be prosecuted even if they were committed in internal conflicts and didn't take place in wars between states. More recently, that tribunal ruled for the first time that rape constitutes a crime of war and is subject to prosecution. But some experts say that progress has been too slow. McDonald, the outgoing chief justice for the Yugoslav tribunal, recently accused the U.N. Security Council of failing to meet its responsibilities by not forcing Serbia and Croatia to turn over suspected war criminals for trial. McDonald attacked the 15- member Security Council, which includes the United States, for PAGE 381 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 not arresting such key war crimes suspects as Milosevic and ex- Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. Nonetheless, the Yugoslav tribunal, which was created by the United Nations six years ago, has to date publicly indicted 91 individuals on charges of committing war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity in the conflicts in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Croatia. Still others have been secretly indicted. Altogether, there have been eight convictions; 32 people are in custody and awaiting trial. Similarly, the Rwanda tribunal recently came under heavy criticism for a ruling that Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, a senior official in the country's foreign ministry, should be freed on a serious technicality. He played a key role in helping to organize the 1994 massacre of 800,000 Tutsis by Hutus. The tribunal's decision provoked outrage in Rwanda, and Rwanda's government has suspended its dealings with the court. This isn't the first time that the tribunal has drawn fire for its slow pace and weak penalties. The international tribunal thus far has issued only five judgments against war criminals; by contrast, Rwandan domestic courts have tried and ruled on some 1,500 cases. Such tribunals could become moot if a permanent International Criminal Court is established. In the summer of 1998 in Rome, 120 nations voted to approve an agreement to create such a court. The United States was one of a handful of nations that voted against the accord. The United States has demanded that the proposed court provide sufficient legal protection for U.S. personnel abroad, particularly U.S. military forces. The United States has been pushing to strengthen treaty provisions that permit national courts with the means and capabilities to do so to try their own citizens. ''We have 200,000 soldiers overseas,'' says David J. Scheffer, U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues. ''We've made the point that there's far more to gain by accommodating U.S. concerns.'' Scheffer also said: ''We don't want to expose U.S. personnel to the jurisdiction of the court prior to the U.S. joining the treaty.'' But some human rights advocates say that the United States is vastly exaggerating the threat to U.S. personnel. ''The U.S. concerns are fanciful,'' says Aryeh Neier, the president of the Soros Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed by billionaire financier George Soros that seeks open discourse in all societies. He also heads the foundation's Open Society Institute in New York, and is author of War Crimes. ''The U.S. is concerned about a rogue prosecutor who might bring indictments against U.S. troops stationed abroad.'' PAGE 382 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 The court will be effective when 60 nations ratify the treaty--which is probably a few years away or more. Even though the United States hasn't endorsed the treaty, American officials have been working with other governments to help set up tough guidelines in such areas as the rules of evidence, Scheffer said. Meanwhile, many champions of international law argue that in addition to erecting and strengthening international legal bodies, the world community needs to beef up local judicial institutions, including courts and prosecutors. ''The ultimate objective of all these new norms of international law is to create local societies that embody and uphold the rule of law so that these kinds of atrocities are less likely to be committed,'' says Kritz of the U.S. Institute of Peace. ''We don't spend enough resources on developing strong legal systems.'' Steven R. Ratner, a professor at the University of Texas law school, says that when local tribunals are competent and independent, they ought to be used first. But Ratner adds that international tribunals are needed in some countries to ensure honest trials. Ratner, one of three legal experts appointed by the United Nations to consider how to bring Khmer Rouge officials to justice in Cambodia, says that he and the other two experts pushed for an international tribunal because of the ''inadequacies of the Cambodian judicial system and the possibilities of interference in domestic trials.'' The United Nations never took up the proposal for a tribunal because of Cambodia's antipathy to the idea and because of the distraction of Kosovo. Currently, the Cambodian government is weighing a proposed U.S. and U.N. compromise that would create a new Cambodian court with a majority of Cambodian judges, but that would require its verdict to be approved by at least one foreign judge, too. Averting atrocities before they occur is also becoming a topic of debate. In late October, the State Department served as host to a conference on atrocity prevention at the Holocaust Museum. Several speakers pointed out the importance of finding ways to squelch hate radio, which played a big role in fomenting Rwandan atrocities. Late last year, the Clinton Administration set up an interagency working group to monitor dozens of possible trouble spots around the globe. Scheffer's office, which heads up the working group, has also been focusing on early detection of the conditions that can breed atrocities--such as persecution or systematic discrimination against minorities--and Scheffer himself has been visiting countries that seem to be on the brink of disaster. ''Our motto is, 'timing is everything,' '' says Scheffer. ''The costs of mopping up are greater than facing down early stages of mass killings.'' LANGUAGE: ENGLISH PAGE 383 The National Journal, November 20, 1999 LOAD-DATE: November 23, 1999 PAGE 384 LEVEL 1 - 148 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company The New York Times November 20, 1999, Saturday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 6; Column 4; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 79 words HEADLINE: Timor Rebels Enter Capital BYLINE: AP DATELINE: DILI, East Timor, Nov. 19 BODY: Armed independence fighters arrived here today, breaking their pledge not to enter East Timor's capital. They briefly kept the commander of the peacekeeping force from entering a United Nations compound. But the guerrillas' arrival should not hurt ties with the United Nations mission, its chief envoy here said. Members of the Falintil rebel group, which resisted Indonesian rule for almost 25 years, had agreed to carry their arms only in designated areas. http://www.nytimes.com LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 385 LEVEL 1 - 149 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company The New York Times November 20, 1999, Saturday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 2; Column 3; Metropolitan Desk LENGTH: 1228 words HEADLINE: NEWS SUMMARY BODY: INTERNATIONAL A3-6 European Summit Ends; Mild Stand on Chechnya World leaders ended a 54-nation summit meeting on European security with the adoption of a treaty placing new limits on the size of conventional armies in Europe and a new charter proclaiming that local conflicts were the legitimate concern of all European states. Discussion of the war in Chechnya yielded only a call for a political settlement and a visit to Chechnya by an envoy from the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe. A1 Russian troops and helicopters mounted attacks on a half-dozen towns in Chechnya, and the military said the capital, Grozny, was nearly surrounded. Officials said they would take the rebel stronghold Bamut, in western Chechnya, this weekend after weeks of shelling. (AP) A Toast and Tumult in Greece President Clinton raised a glass to American-Greek relations in the Presidential Mansion as thousands of demonstrators clashed with police in an ugly but contained protest against the president's arrival. A5 Complaints on Missile Defense A senior American official who flew to Europe this week to defend administration plans to deploy a national missile defense system got "an earful of complaints," according to a senior diplomat in Washington. A5 Hearing for Ousted Pakistani The ousted prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, appeared in public for the first time in five weeks and told a judge that he was not guilty of any wrongdoing. The brief proceedings were in an anti-terrorist court, which Mr. Sharif had introduced. A4 U.N. Discord Over Iraq Plan Tempers flared in the Security Council over the inability of the major powers to agree on how to resume the process of disarming Saddam Hussein and lifting sanctions. A4 Timor Rebels Enter Capital Armed independence fighters arrived in Dili, breaking their pledge not to enter East Timor's capital. They briefly kept the commander of the peacekeeping PAGE 386 The New York Times, November 20, 1999 force from entering a United Nations compound. (AP) World Briefing A6 NATIONAL A7-11, 14 Senate Ends Budget Fight With Passage of Last Bills The Senate, voting 74 to 24, sent President Clinton the last budget bills, ending a year of political gridlock and breaking spending limits that lawmakers had set for themselves for the second straight year. A1 Bush on Foreign Policy Gov. George W. Bush, in the first major foreign policy speech of his presidential campaign, called for an end to international aid to Moscow unless the Russian government stopped "killing women and children." A1 Incentives for Army Recruits The Army is offering bigger enlistment bonuses -- up to $20,000 -- and shorter hitches for some recruits in an effort to fill the ranks in an era of prosperity and relative peace. A8 Crash Investigator's Complaint The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, James E. Hall, said "some unidentified sources" of news reports on the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 were "just flat wrong" and that such misinformation had harmed relatives of victims and American-Egyptian relations. But Mr. Hall did reiterate that investigators believed the crash could have been deliberate. A10 Teamsters Ex-Official Guilty A federal jury in Manhattan convicted the former political director of the Teamsters union, William Hamilton, of fraud and conspiracy, concluding that he helped divert union money to finance the re-election of the union's former president, Ron Carey. A7 Call for Worker Safeguards The A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s president, John J. Sweeney, who was already angry about last week's trade agreement with China, called on the Clinton administration to scuttle a worldwide round of trade-liberalization talks unless negotiators first took steps toward protecting workers' rights. A10 The president of the Southern Baptist Convention invited Jewish leaders to a meeting on the contentious issue of Baptist support for "messianic Jewish" or "Hebrew Christian" groups, which assert that one can be both Jewish and believe in Jesus. A11 NEW YORK/REGION B1-7 City to Arrest Homeless Who Refuse to Use Shelters Mayor Giuliani said the homeless have no right to sleep on the streets and the police commissioner said they would be arrested if they refused shelter. Advocates for the homeless reacted with disbelief. The announcements came three days after a woman was critically injured in what the police believe was a random attack by a homeless man. A1 PAGE 387 The New York Times, November 20, 1999 Toll Increase to Be Sought The New Jersey Turnpike Authority intends to propose next week that tolls be raised by 10 percent in 2001 and then again in 2003, though commuters who used the E-ZPass system and motorists who avoided the peak hours would get deep discounts. B1 Snag on Principals' Contract The Giuliani administration and the union representing school principals disagree over whether tenure changes for principals will also apply to assistant principals. B1 A Greenway Through the Bronx New York City is devising a $60 million plan to build hiking and bicycling trails along the Bronx River. B1 New Round of Taxi Enforcement Undercover police and taxi officials hailed more than 1,500 cabs, citing 6 drivers for passing up someone because of race and 7 drivers for refusing to go to a particular location. B3 Disagreement on Ethics Ruling The head of the Office of Government Ethics complained to the White House that the Clintons had mischaracterized a ruling by his office on the the purchase of a New York house. B5 ARTS & IDEAS B9-20 SPORTS D1-8 OBITUARIES C15-16 Alexander Liberman The editor and dominant creative force at Conde Nast Publications for more than half a century was 87. C15 BUSINESS DAY C1-14 Mediator for Microsoft Case The federal judge overseeing the Microsoft antitrust trial said Richard A. Posner, chief judge for the 7th United States Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, had agreed to serve "in a private capacity" as a mediator to bring about settlement talks. All sides expressed approval. A1 $127.7 Billion Offer Rejected Vodafone Airtouch raised its offer for Mannesmann to $127.7 billion in stock, which was spurned. C1 I.R.S. Backs Down on Inquiries The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration, bowing to complaints from his own investigators, rescinded a plan to have the number of I.R.S. workers to be investigated for misconduct nearly equal the number of Americans to be investigated for tax fraud. C1 Magazine Executive Dead Kimberly Smith Jensen, 44, the chief operating officer for Mortimer B. PAGE 388 The New York Times, November 20, 1999 Zuckerman's three magazines, The Atlantic Monthly, Fast Company and U.S. News and World Report, was found dead in a Maryland hotel room last Saturday. A fellow executive, Ira Ellenthal, said she had recently been quizzed about some missing funds. C1 Business Digest C1 EDITORIAL A12-13 Editorials: Mr. Bush's foreign policy; disclosing hidden fats; the bishops and the universities; Michael M. Weinstein on Social Security. Columns: Frank Rich. Bridge B16 TV Listings B20 Crossword B16 Weather B18 http://www.nytimes.com GRAPHIC: Photos LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 389 LEVEL 1 - 150 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company The New York Times November 20, 1999, Saturday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 5; National Desk LENGTH: 2034 words HEADLINE: Bush Questions Aid to Moscow In a Policy Talk BYLINE: By R. W. APPLE Jr. DATELINE: SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 19 BODY: Barely 24 hours after President Clinton and other Western leaders confronted President Boris N. Yeltsin of Russia at a meeting in Turkey, condemning his actions in Chechnya, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas went them one better today, calling for an end to international aid to Moscow unless the Russian government stops "killing women and children." "We cannot excuse Russian brutality," Mr. Bush said this morning in the first major foreign policy speech of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. "When the Russian government attacks civilians, it can no longer expect aid from international lending institutions." Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in the dry hills outside Simi Valley, a suburb 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Mr. Bush walked a fine line, balancing tough talk with more moderate formulations. But he made it clear at the outset that he would hew to the internationalist principles of his father and fight those in his own party as well as those outside it who have sought "to build a proud tower of protectionism and isolationism." "This," he said, "is the shortcut to chaos." While the governor implicitly criticized those Republicans who reject trade agreements with China and turn their backs on the United Nations, he was more explicit in his criticism of President Clinton, accusing him, without citing him by name, of allowing the nation "to move from crisis to crisis like a cork in a current." Comparing Mr. Clinton's leadership unfavorably with President Bush's, Governor Bush declared: "Alliances are not just for crises, summoned into action when the fire bell sounds. They are sustained by contact and trust. The gulf war coalition, for example, was raised on the foundation of a president's vision and effort and integrity. Never again should an American president spend nine days in China and not even bother to stop in Tokyo or Seoul or Manila. Never again should an American president fall silent when China criticizes our security ties to Japan." PAGE 390 The New York Times, November 20, 1999 Mr. Bush delivered his 35-minute speech with considerable aplomb, turning in a well-versed, well-drilled performance that on several occasions rose to a presidential level. He quoted Burke and Pericles and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and he even echoed a bit of Churchillian rhetoric when he promised a foreign policy built upon "idealism, without illusions; confidence, without conceit; realism, in the service of American ideals." Foreign policy seldom plays a central part in American presidential campaigns. But it can prove decisive if a candidate gives the impression that the management of the nation's affairs overseas is beyond his reach. That happened to Gov. George W. Romney of Michigan in 1968, when he said he had been "brainwashed" by American officials in Saigon, and some Bush backers had feared that he faced similar risks. He had called the Greeks "Grecians" and had failed to identify important foreign leaders when given a pop quiz by a Boston television reporter. His confident performance today put such fears to rest for the moment. But Mr. Bush will face a much tougher challenge in a series of three debates with his Republican rivals, starting in New Hampshire on Dec. 2. They will press him, no doubt, to say more specifically than he did today what he meant when he asserted that "American internationalism should not mean action without vision, activity without priority and missions without end -- an approach that squanders American will and drains American energy." Mr. Bush argued that "unless a president sets his own priorities, his priorities will be set by others -- by adversaries, or the crisis of the moment, live on CNN." Few would disagree with that. The problem is defining priorities and criteria for action, which Mr. Bush made no real effort to do. A president, he said simply, should extend the peace, build a united Western Hemisphere linked by free trade, seek Middle East peace, check the spread of weapons of mass destruction and do it with "patience, wisdom and strength." Robert Blackwill, a lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, who worked on the National Security Council in the Bush administration, said that the governor had concentrated heavily today on Russia and China because those nations, "not Haiti, not Somalia," impinged directly upon the national interests of the United States. In fact, Mr. Bush made no mention at all of Africa. Mr. Blackwill is a member of a small group counseling Mr. Bush on foreign policy matters. The group also includes Condoleezza Rice of Stanford University; Paul Wolfowitz of Johns Hopkins University; Robert Zoellick of Harvard, the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Goldman, Sachs; and Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute. All have served in past Republican administrations, and several were with Mr. Bush today. "Two of Eurasia's greatest powers, China and Russia, are powers in transition, and it is difficult to know their intentions when they do not know their own futures," Mr. Bush told a largely invited audience of about 400 people. "If they become America's friends, that friendship will steady the world. But if not, the peace we seek may not be found." PAGE 391 The New York Times, November 20, 1999 Consistency was one of Mr. Bush's main themes, especially on China. Again without naming Mr. Clinton, he said the administration had called the Chinese leadership "the butchers of Beijing" one year and embraced the Chinese leadership as a "strategic partner" only a few years later. For his part, the governor said, he would stand up to China if it threatened democratic nations in its region, like Taiwan and South Korea. He promised again to help Taiwan defend itself. And he welcomed the idea of Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization, while warning that "it will take a strong administration to hold them to their word," given what he termed "China's poor record" in honoring international agreements. "We must deal with China without ill will, but without illusions," Mr. Bush said in one of his many this-and-that statements. China "will be unthreatened, but not unchecked," he added a few moments later. Introduced as "a person who thinks for himself" by former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who is an unofficial member of the Bush brain trust, Mr. Bush spoke as part of a yearlong forum series sponsored by the Reagan Library. Nancy Reagan was in the audience, as she was when Senator John McCain of Arizona, Mr. Bush's leading Republican rival, spoke here in September. Mr. Bush had many reasons to choose the Reagan Library as the venue for his speech. California has more delegates to the Republican convention than any other state, and Mr. Reagan went directly from two terms as governor to the presidency without any previous Washington experience, just as Mr. Bush is trying to do. In addition, Ms. Rice said, Mr. Bush wanted to contrast Mr. Reagan with Mr. Clinton, especially with regard to the Californian's "strength, leadership and choosing a few goals, a few regions, and concentrating our national resources on them." Mr. Bush won his loudest applause when he took a tough, Reaganesque line in defense of what he called "America's interests, America's obligations and America's honor," and when he obliquely criticized Mr. Clinton. He pledged to develop and deploy both shorter-range regional and national missile defense systems, and he ripped into the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that the Senate recently rejected. The treaty, he said, "does not stop proliferation, especially by renegade regimes, by a wide margin. It is not verifiable. It is not enforceable. And it would stop us from ensuring the safety and reliability of our nation's deterrent, should the need arise." On the United Nations, he was again evenhanded. "I will never place U.S. troops under U.N. command, but the U.N. can help in peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts," Mr. Bush declared to warm applause at one point. "If I am elected president, America will pay its dues, but only if the U.N.'s bureaucracy is reformed and our disproportionate share of its costs is reduced." There was even a slight bow to the French and their argument that the American formula is not a one-size-fits-all model for democracy. PAGE 392 The New York Times, November 20, 1999 "We value the elegant structures of our own democracy," the governor said, "but realize that, in other societies, the architecture will vary. We propose our principles but we must not impose our culture." Mr. Bush pre-sold his speech in telephone calls to columnists and reporters in recent days, and his potential opponents, like Vice President Al Gore, had their aides calling to comment on it before it had even been delivered. Clearly it was a big event in the unfolding campaign. Mr. Gore was put in a difficult position by Mr. Bush's call for an end to international aid to Chechnya. Mr. Gore is closely associated with the Russians, and he supported the administration when it held up aid to Indonesia when its soldiers were killing people in East Timor. It will be hard to argue that what the Russians are doing in Chechnya is different. Weighing Republican criticism, the administration is reassessing whether to announce a major resumption of American aid to Russia in the next week or so, in the form of a half-billion dollars in loans by the Export-Import Bank. In His Own Words GEORGE W. BUSH Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, at the Ronald Reagan Library today in Simi Valley, Calif., explained his approach to foreign policy, as recorded by the Federal News Service, a private agency. "Few nations have been given the advantages and opportunities of our own. Few have been more powerful as a country, or more successful as a cause. But, there are risks, even for the powerful. 'I have many reasons to be optimistic,' said Pericles in the golden age of Athens. 'Indeed, I am more afraid of our own blunders than of our enemies' devices.' America's first temptation is withdrawal. To build a proud tower of protectionism and isolationism. In a world that depends on America to reconcile old rivals and balance ancient ambitions, this is a shortcut to chaos. It is an approach that abandons our allies and our ideals. The vacuum left by America's retreat would invite challenges to our power, and the result in the long run would be a stagnant America in a savage world. America's foreign policy cannot be founded on fear, fear that American workers cannot compete, fear that America will corrupt the world or be corrupted by it. This fear has no place in the party of Reagan or in the party of Truman. In times of peril our nation did not shrink from leadership. At this moment of opportunity I have no intention of betraying America's interests, America's obligations and America's honor. America's second temptation is drift, for our nation to move from crisis to crisis like a cork in a current. . . . American policy can become random and reactive, untethered to the interests of our country. America must be involved in the world. But that does not mean our military is the answer to every difficult policy situation, a substitute for strategy. American internationalism should not mean action without vision, activity without priority and missions without end -- an approach that squanders American will and drains American PAGE 393 The New York Times, November 20, 1999 energy. America's foreign policy must be more than the management of crises. It must have a great and guiding goal to turn this time of American influence into generations of democratic peace. This is accomplished by concentrating on enduring national interests. And these are my priorities. An American president should work with our strong democratic allies in Europe and Asia to extend the peace. He should promote a fully democratic Western Hemisphere bound together by free trade. He should defend America's interests in the Persian Gulf and advance peace in the Middle East based on a secure Israel. He must check the contagious spread of weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. He must lead toward a world that trades in freedom. And he must pursue all these goals with focus, patience and strength." http://www.nytimes.com GRAPHIC: Photos: Gov. George W. Bush speaking at the Reagan library yesterday. (Monica Almeida/The New York Times)(pg. A1); Gov. George W. Bush greeted the crowd yesterday at the Ronald Reagan Library near Simi Valley, Calif., before giving a speech on foreign policy. The candidate for the Republican presidential nomination laced his address with quotes from Burke and Pericles and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. (Monica Almeida/The New York Times)(pg. A8) LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 394 LEVEL 1 - 151 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999, Telegraph-Herald Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) November 20, 1999, Saturday SECTION: National/World; Pg. b 11 LENGTH: 861 words HEADLINE: Foreign Briefs BYLINE: Associated Press BODY: U.N. OKs extension for Iraq oil-for-food program UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council approved a two-week extension of the U.N. humanitarian program for Iraq on Friday, but it remained deeply divided on a new long-term policy toward Baghdad. The 15-member council voted unanimously on the brief extension for the oil-for-food program, which was set to expire today, but still differ on how and when it should be expanded in the future. Britain and the United States say the next two weeks offer a major opportunity for reaching agreement on a comprehensive resolution on Iraq, but China and Russia said Friday there are still major problems. Deposed Pakistani premier blasts coup leaders in court KARACHI, Pakistan - Looking fatigued after more than a month in what he described as a cold room in the hills, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appeared in public Friday for the first time since he was deposed, arriving at court in an armored personnel carrier. Sharif, counterattacking after being charged with hijacking and treason, said it was the military coup-makers who hijacked democracy by overthrowing an elected leader. Throngs of police and soldiers encircled the former premier to keep the crowds back and whisked him into the court building, where he was ordered held until formal charges of hijacking and treason are filed against him Nov. 26. Justice in East Timor sought DILI, East Timor - Indonesian army officers responsible for the violence that followed East Timor's independence referendum must be brought to justice, the departing chief of the U.N. mission in the territory said Friday. "It is now clear that what happened was planned, premeditated evil, which involved murder, rape, forced deportation and physical destruction on an extraordinary scale," U.N. diplomat Ian Martin told reporters. He linked the Indonesian army directly to the slaying of hundreds of East Timorese independence supporters, including at least one prominent leader of PAGE 395 Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) November 20, 1999, Saturday the independence coalition in Dili. Cuba, Venezuela strengthen ties HAVANA - A playful Fidel Castro slowly substituted Cuba's Pan American Games baseball champions in place of old-timers in a friendly match against Venezuela, playing a joke on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a game that had as much to do with politics as sports. But Chavez turned out to be the star - winning plenty of hearts by playing all nine innings of a good-natured match that Castro's team won, 5-4. The game marked the strengthening of a bond and nascent political alliance between two of Latin America's most colorful and controversial leaders. U.S., S. Korea discuss missiles SEOUL, South Korea - U.S. and South Korean officials sat down again Friday to discuss Seoul's desire to develop longer-range missiles that can cover all of communist North Korea. The delegates made no comment at the close of their second consecutive daylong talk. South Korean officials said the two sides will make a joint statement after their final meeting today. Sect member faces sentencing BEIJING - China plans to sentence a member of the banned Falun Gong sect, days after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was concerned about the government's treatment of sect members. The sentencing scheduled for Sunday is the second court action in what is expected to be a long series of prosecutions of Falun Gong members. Human rights activists say authorities plan to try about 300 sect members as part of the government's four-month campaign to crush the movement. Four members were convicted and sentenced Nov. 12 to prison terms of up to 12 years for "using an evil cult to obstruct the law." Trimble battles party for peace BELFAST, Northern Ireland - With the fate of Northern Ireland's peace accord at stake, Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble launched a bitter battle Friday with rebellious Protestant colleagues trying to thwart a compromise. Trimble, designated to lead the Protestant-Catholic government envisioned at the heart of the long-deadlocked 1998 accord, predicted "a quite significant endorsement" when his party's ruling council votes Nov. 27 on a new plan engineered by American mediator George Mitchell. North Korea expels American SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea expelled a U.S. citizen Friday on spy charges, the country's media said. PAGE 396 Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) November 20, 1999, Saturday The American, identified as So Son Dok, was "caught red-handed" collecting military secrets on Sept. 29, the North's Korean Central News Agency said. So was staying in the Rajin-Sonbong free trade zone for a joint venture business when he was arrested, the news agency said. Serb opposition joins Balkan pact BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Serbian opposition members seeking to topple President Slobodan Milosevic will participate in the Balkan Stability Pact, an international effort to develop democratic policies and market economies in the region, Yugoslav media reported Friday. Speaking in Istanbul, Turkey, Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic told the independent Beta news agency that the agreement was reached after meeting with Bodo Hombach, special coordinator for the pact. LOAD-DATE: November 24, 1999 PAGE 397 LEVEL 1 - 152 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 U.P.I. United Press International November 20, 1999, Saturday SECTION: INTERNATIONAL NEWS LENGTH: 358 words HEADLINE: UPI Focus; US officials to visit E. Timor DATELINE: JAKARTA, Indonesia, Nov. 20 BODY: Two senior U.S. officials expressed concerns on Saturday for thousands of East Timorese refugees still living in Indonesian West Timor. Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab says U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke and U.S. Assistant Secretary of States for Asian and Pacific Affairs Stanley Fisher expressed their hopes that the East Timor problem not tarnish Jakarta's image. Shihab said the U.S. delegations would visit Atambua in West Timor to see the refugees, many of whom have been living in fear of militias which rampaged throughout East Timor in the wake of U.N.-organized Aug. 30 independence referendum. More than 260,000 people fled East Timor into Indonesian-controlled West Timor during the violence that followed the balloting. Human rights and humanitarian groups have said pro-Jakarta militias, with at least the tacit support of the Indonesian security forces, were intimidating the refugees in West Timor. After visiting the camps, the U.S. officials will travel to East Timor capital Dili, where they are expected to meet with the new head of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello and East Timor independence leader Xanana Gusmao, Meanwhile, the Indonesian government said Saturday it will reject a demand from an East Timorese pro-independence movement to open a representative office in Jakarta. Indonesian Military chief Gen. Wiranto said the National Council of East Timorese Resistance, led by Gusmao, is only representing one political interest and there are several political interests in East Timor. ''Because it does not represent the whole spectrum of the political aspiration (in East Timor) we cannot yet accept (the demand),'' Wiranto said. However, he said, Jakarta would open an interest office in Dili, which in the future will be able to become the Indonesian embassy when East Timor becomes an independent state. PAGE 398 United Press International November 20, 1999, Saturday The Indonesian assembly last month ratified East Timor's Aug. 30 independence vote, formally ending its claim to the former Portuguese colony, which Jakarta annexed in 1976, several months after a bloody invasion. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 399 LEVEL 1 - 153 OF 156 STORIES COPYRIGHT 1999 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE THE MATERIALS IN THE XINHUA FILE WERE COMPILED BY THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY. THESE MATERIALS MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY. November 20, 1999, Saturday LENGTH: 131 words HEADLINE: HKE112002 -- MAJOR NEWS ITEMS IN LEADING PHILIPPINE NEWSPAPERS DATELINE: MANILA, NOVEMBER 20 BODY: THE FOLLOWING ARE MAJOR NEWS ITEMS IN LEADING PHILIPPINE NEWSPAPERS SATURDAY. MANILA BULLETIN -- THE PHILIPPINE ECONOMY GREW AT A SLOWER PACE IN THE THIRD QUARTER THAN IN THE SECOND, BUT THE EXPANSION WAS MORE BROAD-BASED AND NOT AS RELIANT ON THE FARM SECTOR, ECONOMISTS SAID. TODAY -- FOR LACK OF FUNDS, THE OFFER OF U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN FOR A FILIPINO TO HEAD THE U.N. PEACEKEEPING FORCE IN EAST TIMOR MAY HAVE TO BE REFUSED, A SENIOR PHILIPPINE OFFICIAL SAID. THE PHILIPPINE POST -- THE CENTRAL BANK OF THE PHILIPPINES KEPT THE KEY OVERNIGHT RATES UNCHANGED FRIDAY TO WARD-OFF ILL IMPACT OF THE LATEST HIKE IN THE U.S. RATES, AS WELL AS THE DETERIORATION IN THE BUDGET POSITION OF THE GOVERNMENT, ON THE PESO. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999 PAGE 400 LEVEL 1 - 154 OF 156 STORIES COPYRIGHT 1999 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE THE MATERIALS IN THE XINHUA FILE WERE COMPILED BY THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY. THESE MATERIALS MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY. November 20, 1999, Saturday LENGTH: 184 words HEADLINE: HKE112018 -- U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N. VISITS INDONESIA DATELINE: JAKARTA, NOVEMBER 20 BODY: THE UNITED STATES SATURDAY ASKED INDONESIA TO HANDLE THE PROBLEM OF EAST TIMOR REFUGEES IMMEDIATELY SO AS TO PRESERVE THE COUNTRY'S IMAGE WITH THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY. THE U.S. REQUEST WAS CONVEYED BY U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS RICHARD HOLBROOKE DURING A MEETING WITH INDONESIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ALWI SHIHAB HERE. "THE PROBLEM OF EAST TIMOR SHOULD NOT HARM INDONESIA'S GOOD IMAGE. INDONESIA CAN HANDLE THE PROBLEM OF 230,000 REFUGEES IN ATAMBUA (EAST NUSA TENGGARA)," ALWI TOLD REPORTERS. HOLBROOKE CAME TO INDONESIA AT THE HEAD OF A U.S. DELEGATION TO DISCUSS EFFORTS TO HELP EAST TIMOR REFUGEES AS WELL AS ASSIST INDONESIA IN PRESERVING ITS INTERNATIONAL IMAGE. HE WILL GO TO KUPANG, CAPITAL OF EAST NUSA TENGGARA PROVINCE, ON SUNDAY BEFORE VISITING REFUGEE CAMPS IN ATAMBUA AND THEN PROCEEDING TO DILI, CAPITAL OF EAST TIMOR. "THE DELEGATION WILL GO THERE (ATAMBUA), TO SEE THE CONDITIONS OF THE REFUGEES. MAYBE THEY WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY A MINISTER," ALWI SAID. HOLBROOKE, WHO ARRIVED HERE SATURDAY MORNING, WILL DEPART FROM DILI ON TUESDAY. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 21, 1999 PAGE 401 LEVEL 1 - 155 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn SECTION: FEATURES; Vol. 22, No. 4; Pg. 47 LENGTH: 8148 words HEADLINE: What Does it Mean to be Modern? Indonesia's Reformasi BYLINE: Patrick Smith HIGHLIGHT: Raymond W. Baker on the biggest loophole in the free-market system; Patrick Smith on Indonesia's reformers; Margarita Mathiopoulos and Istvan Gyarmati on European defense; and Elizabeth Pond on Kosovo's importance to Europe BODY: - Patrick Smith, a correspondent in Asia for many years, is the author most recently of Japan: A Reinterpretation (Pantheon, 1997; Vintage, 1998). How is a nation born? Otto von Bismarck, with his terrifying face, his huge body, and his heavy clothes, would answer "Through blood and iron." . . . However, it is also essential to hold on to myths and even dreams -- no matter if the dreams are a little stupid, or are something called "imagination." -- Goenawan Mohamad, 1983. n1 In the days before Indonesia's national elections this past June, the foreign observers arrived in Jakarta like package-tour sightseers -- always in groups, always a bit bewildered, always looking as if they had come from another world. There was a large corps -- 135 monitors -- from the European Union. Others came from the Australian government, the Japanese government, New Zealand, the American Chamber of Commerce, and sundry "civil society" organizations: the International Republican Institute, based in Washington; the Asian Network for Free Elections, or Anfrel, whose offices are in Bangkok; and the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections, or Namfrel, which set up shop in Manila at the end of the Marcos era. Most prominent was the contingent from the National Democratic Institute-Carter Center, a hybrid of two American groups. Led by former President Jimmy Carter, they were one hundred strong. This is the democracy industry, as a friend among the monitors put it. In all, fourteen organizations sent more than five hundred people to watch Indonesia's first open elections since 1955. Including the United Nations (UN), they are said to have spent some $ 90 million as observers fanned out across an archipelago of 13,000 islands to scrutinize the voting and counting and recording of results at some small fraction of the 320,000 polling stations set up for this momentous event. When it was over, all fourteen groups of foreign monitors pronounced the contests to have been "free and fair" -- those freighted words by which the arbiters of democratic practice dispense legitimacy across the globe. PAGE 402 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn This was undeniably a laudable exercise. Here is a nation -- with 210 million people, the world's fourth-largest -- embarked upon a grand experiment. Indonesians spent 31 years under the repressive, psychologically suffocating "New Order" of Soeharto, who ran one of the most corrupt regimes that modern East Asia has yet produced. Now Soeharto is gone -- deposed a year before last summer's polls -- and Indonesians have a chance to make of their country a democracy. The elections, surely, marked a huge step in this direction. In the national legislature, 462 of 500 seats were contested. (Reflecting the military's established role in politics, it fills the remaining 38 by appointment.) Long-suppressed political opposition parties were the big winners. And of 130 million eligible voters, nearly 112 million cast ballots -- an extraordinary percentage. Who would argue that this was not an endeavor worthy of support -- an occasion to witness, and afterward to celebrate? There was an immediate problem. The monitors had not boarded flights home before the reports of irregularities began. Almost all of the allegations -- bribery, ballot tampering, miscounts -- implicated Golkar, Soeharto's old party apparatus and sponsor of his chosen successor, President B. J. Habibie. The monitors ought to have been ready for this: Golkar is much practiced in such matters. During the campaigns, Golkar and the Habibie government stood accused of manipulating international food aid and $ 800 million in welfare funds to the party's political benefit. Election officials eventually found trouble in almost half of Indonesia's 27 provinces. Credit must be given: Without the observers, the corruption may otherwise have been more extensive. But the foreign contingent got it only half right for all its effort and good will. These elections were free, but they were not entirely fair. That lapse in judgment urges a larger issue upon us. How much could the foreign visitors see as they journeyed through Indonesia with their clipboards and cellular phones? Were they not confined to the present, a not very meaningful here-and-now, and then charged with rendering a judgment made futile because it could have no context and no content -- no history, no sense of the whole? Free and fair, or not: There is something of the thumbs-up, thumbs-down movie critique in such a verdict. I happened to be in Bali on June 7, election day. It struck me then that the monitors had to watch the elections a little as the tourists watched the Balinese dancers at the beach hotel where I stayed: They could see all the movements, and they might recognize that there was beauty in them. But they could hardly have much understanding of what the movements meant, or what it was that made them beautiful. Elections such as Indonesia's once had a particular significance. During the Cold War decades, they were a kind of admission ticket. In the global defense against the Communist threat, polls of minimal credibility -- and sometimes not even that -- were enough to allow Americans to claim any number of grim regimes as allies. Soeharto's was prominent among them. Like many others, he depended upon an old habit among Westerners, particularly Americans: the habit of not looking too closely at the domestic affairs of troubled allies. Display-case elections that Golkar invariably carried by vast margins enabled the United States to cast Soeharto as a great modernizer and to support the military apparatus he needed to defend himself and his idea of what being modern meant. Soeharto's political language, a language of obfuscation and euphemism, was accepted without much question. His New Order produced "dynamic stability," and few asked what it was, how it worked, or how it was achieved. Mikul dhuwur mendhem jero, Lift high appearances, bury problems deep: It was among Soeharto's favorite Javanese adages. And the Western world came to like it, too. PAGE 403 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn The memory of those years was scarcely lost on Indonesians as they went to the polls this year. That is partly what lent the elections such significance. They marked the passing of an era for the simple reason that they counted. And that changed nothing less than everything. The thousand foreign eyes watching Indonesians vote were ours: They watched for the world. But do we think our seal of approval had any of the old importance? Are we stuck in an interlude of history? If so, we are tourists from the past, lost in the future. The only "free and fair" that truly mattered this time was the one Indonesians rendered or withheld. And that signals something very new in the world. The process now unfolding in Indonesia is complicated and simple all at once. Reformasi, as Indonesians call it, extends far beyond restoring the democracy Indonesians once and briefly knew. That would be momentous enough of itself. But the endeavor is larger, more encompassing. It is better understood as a matter of national reinvention. There is no revolution near at hand; no new ideology is about to be revealed. What Indonesians propose is more daunting still: a revaluation of the very ideals the West urges upon the world -- democracy, liberty, equality, self-determination, modernization, progress. These ideals are to be remade and understood anew. In all its dimensions -- political, economic, social, administrative, and so on -- the project is the creation of a new ethos by which Indonesians will live in the new millennium. It is not so novel an idea as it may seem. The same impulse is evident here and there across the globe, from Germany to Japan to Nigeria to Iran to Guatemala and beyond. The task begins with a nation's idea of itself that springs from within, not from the way the world has divided itself. "Become who you are!" Nietzsche once admonished. In Indonesia and elsewhere, it is not a bad summary of the end-of-century imperative. In no case is there any guarantee of success. But complete failure is out of the question. In the age of globalism, Indonesians are turning inward. It is but one of many paradoxes one finds among them. To understand the political process now unfolding -- to see the project beneath the project -- one must also recognize that Indonesians are finding their way forward by looking back. They propose a new order by discarding the New Order that was long and widely accepted by others. Autonomy is a vital issue in Indonesia today. These diverse people will stay together only if they agree to come apart. Reinvention: The very word carries within it a paradox. It is just as well, for it should remind us, the Westerners, that we may soon face one of our own. At issue in Indonesia today are the uses of universal ideals. Will we who have preached these ideals for centuries applaud if Indonesians succeed in adopting them? The New Order Becomes the Old Among the core concerns of Cold War thinking in the West, none was more important than the notion of progress. How should primitive nations make themselves modern? This was a much-posed question in the 1950s and 1960s, as East-West tensions raged and millions of decolonized people contemplated the proper way forward. The Western answer was simple: Backward people became modern people by following the example of Europeans and Americans, who invented the very idea of progress. With their traditions of rational inquiry and their belief in scientific solutions, they had built successful, powerful nations. Success and power came from industry, which provided a measure of material prosperity unparalleled in human history. The industrial nations professed democratic ideals, to which others could aspire and whose mechanisms -- PAGE 404 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn constitutions, elections, legislatures -- they could adopt. To modernize, then, meant to Westernize. All that was primitive or traditional -- history itself -- was cast in a new light, and would be of little use in this project. It was not a new idea. But during the Cold War years it assumed a new utility. In the academy, it was dressed up as "modernization theory." And in the underdeveloped world, it had many attractions. n2 Until Soeharto took power in 1967, Indonesia had spent its first two decades as an independent nation finding its feet. Sukarno, Soeharto's populist predecessor, wanted nothing to do with modernization theory, in whatever guise. He was a nationalist, a "politics first" man: His concerns were democratic government, however messy it would prove, and nonalignment in the East-West context. It was a common course at the time -- a not-unexpected set of priorities for a leader who spent his formative years fighting the Dutch colonial power. But by the mid-1960s, Sukarno had given opponents plenty of reasons to advance a new course. The democratic experiment -- Guided Democracy, Sukarno had taken to calling it -- was flickering. The economy was in trouble, and nonalignment was antagonizing the West. "Go to hell with your foreign aid," Sukarno famously told the Americans in 1964 speech. That was typical of the tone. Soeharto's New Order, by contrast, was modernization theory made flesh in many respects. Of what did it consist? What was it, in essence? It began both badly and rather well. After a coup attempt against Sukarno in 1965, the army spent more than a year clearing the ground before Soeharto took the presidency -- murdering, by most estimates, something close to half a million Communists, suspected Communists, and sympathizers. The Central Intelligence Agency, with a detachment that belied U.S. involvement, ranked this rampage among the century's worst atrocities. Of the many curious facts about this episode, two are worth noting. First, while there is much to suggest that Soeharto and the army inspired the coup themselves, its origins remain unsettled in the history books. Second, Indonesians are said to have paused little after the rivers ran red around the nation. After the relentless challenges and disarray of Sukarno's later years, they welcomed Soeharto's New Order with alacrity. It would take only half a dozen years for Soeharto to match the corruption Sukarno's Indonesia fell into -- and then supercede it by magnitudes. As early as the mid-1970s, the disillusion was evident. But in the interim, the economy turned around decisively, and Indonesians thought they had finally found the best way to make themselves modern. n3 Political violence and rampant corruption were never features of modernization theory, of course. But they were hardly unknown in other underdeveloped nations that imported the Western idea of progress during the Cold War era. They were extremes that indicated a pervasive imbalance. Progress was to be measured in material, not political terms. In the war against the socialist alternative, the essential thing was industrial advancement. The appearance of democracy would be enough. Of course, corruption and violence can always be relied upon to fill the void when democratic institutions are weak. But these were not the only consequences. To one degree or another, public man and public space, to use Richard Sennett's terms, were obliterated. n4 Civil discourse was confined to small corners of society, where the language of politics became a kind of Latin. PAGE 405 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn In Indonesia's case -- and in this it was not unique -- party politics was replaced by a form of corporatism peculiar to our age: corporatism dressed up as party politics. n5 Sukarno was sliding in this direction; Soeharto got there with giant strides as soon as he took office, when he pushed the army into politics. Golkar, its vehicle, was explicitly corporatist. It takes its name from golongan karya, meaning functional groups. The New Order's complexities are many. But it offered essentially the same social contract adopted elsewhere and notably across Southeast Asia: Democracy was exchanged for a kind of police-state prosperity. In its essence, this is the "Asian values" argument: Amid great material change, traditional morals and hierarchies -- Confucianism and Islam are the fonts of authority in Asia -- must be maintained. Among the notable things about Asian values is how the West, for all its criticism of the idea now, so long and so recently liked it. It is how modernization theory worked out on the ground. New Order Indonesia is a familiar phenomenon. Anyone who has not seen it has seen something like it, in person or in pictures. In the ubiquitous imagery, cognitive dissonance is the running theme: skyscrapers hard by the houses on stilts, petrochemical plants at the distant end of rice paddies, girls in sarongs or Islamic cowls at lab tables or assembly lines. That is Soeharto's Indonesia: advances amid stasis, great change amid no change. Immensely rich in resources and ambitious to build industry, its average economic growth approached 6 percent per annum during Soeharto's years. But for many Indonesians, the similarities between the modern economy and the extractive economy of the colonial era are scarcely debatable. All provinces serve Jakarta (and the Javanese, many other ethnic groups would argue). Irian Jaya, with extensive mineral deposits, oil and gas reserves, and chronic poverty, could simultaneously claim to be the nation's sixth wealthiest province and its poorest, depending on how one chooses to count. When Soeharto was deposed in 1998, a year into the Asian economic crisis, few were surprised that he chose Habibie as his successor. Though his reputation among the educated elite is as a bright, squeaky-voiced oddball, Habibie was Soeharto's closest confidante for much of the New Order era. When the moment came for Soeharto, Habibie represented the path of least retreat: In naming him interim president, Soeharto surrendered as little as possible of the system he had built over the previous thirty one years. It was a holding action. Who knew what even the immediate future held? Habibie could be counted on, certainly, to avoid a campaign of corruption mongering, Marcos-style -- a point that surely figured in Soeharto's thinking. And he is a man of the New Order -- a man dedicated to the New Order way to modernization. Indeed, among the interesting things about Habibie is how purely he reflects the model. Educated in Germany, enamored of his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Habibie is a technologist with a fervent belief in the uses of religious values -- Islam is the faith of most Indonesians -- to maintain social order. As Soeharto's research and technology minister, Habibie saw advanced industry as Indonesia's salvation. His most famous project was an indigenous aerospace industry that would design and build jet planes. Monumentally impractical, it did much to further Habibie's reputation as an eccentric. Yet Soeharto let Habibie spend heavily: He had put two designs in the air before his patron was deposed, and he was planning a third. Amid it all, and with Soeharto's blessing, Habibie helped launch the Association of Muslim Intellectuals, a sort of steering committee intended to guide the nation toward its idea of how to combine the old and the new. n6 PAGE 406 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn Habibie has done well as an interim president this past year. Clumsily, perhaps precipitously, he put the East Timor question, which had festered since Indonesia invaded the territory in 1975, squarely on the table. More broadly, Habibie has released some, though not all, of Soeharto's many political prisoners. He has freed the press, unleashing a daily riot of commentary and political chatter. And he broke the locks on the nation's political life. Forty-eight parties fielded candidates in the June elections. Golkar was among them, of course, but it now has a leopard-and-spots problem: While the party is still a potent political force, it will have to convince Indonesians that it can purge itself of an undemocratic past if it is to survive. The corporatist phase is clearly over, and Indonesians can thank Habibie for that. But when he declared that he would run for president, in indirect elections to be held later this year, the country turned against him. "What we all need is a new government that is free of the elements of the New Order regime," a prominent opposition leader said at a campaign rally in late May. n7 That seemed aimed at both Golkar and Habibie. And as the elections showed, most Indonesians thought it was the logical place to draw the line. Why there? One need not look far to find answers having to do with politics and economics. The Asian crisis swiftly revealed how thin and fragile was the New Order's prosperity. In two years, it had pushed seventy million Indonesians, one-third of the population, back below the poverty line which raised the incidence of poverty to 40 percent. The economy contracted by almost 14 percent in 1998 and will finish this year somewhere either side of zero. n8 The social contract, the offer Indonesians could not refuse, was broken. As to politics, who would not wish to push decisively beyond a regime so repressive and enervating? Indonesians needed to breathe again; it was natural to crave fresh air. And the New Order was suddenly old and stale. But the impulse runs much deeper. This was clear by the time Indonesians voted last June. At issue now is not just a new set of faces to cope with the crisis, or even a new government to grasp the reins and lead the country back on track. At issue is a fundamental change of direction. Yes, history must be squared. Human rights violations, corruption, and the Soeharto family's billions have been of much concern in Indonesia this year. But one senses this to be more a matter of putting the record straight so that Indonesians can begin to forget Soeharto. For many ordinary Indonesians, even his successor has slipped into the past. That is why the violence that has erupted from time to time already could so easily return if Habibie is given a new term as president later this year. He no longer has a place -- not in the Indonesia that beckons. The question is no longer Soeharto or the New Order: It is the path he chose, and the costs of his choice as measured in things more important than money. In conversations with Indonesians today -- with ordinary people and with writers, psychiatrists, teachers, priests, social psychologists, and so on -- certain words and ideas recur. Among them are these: pride and shame; dignity and resentment; cynicism; modesty and greed; fear and distrust, the price of everything and everybody. This is the vocabulary Soeharto's Indonesia has left behind. Everyone was part of the New Order, many Indonesians will tell you. And the shame and resentment come from what this acquiescence made of them. While few have yet engaged the New Order's grim beginning, the coup and the massacre of 1965-66, it is no longer possible to believe this passage of the past will remain buried, or that it has not all along been a source of profound sorrow, anger, and regret among those alive at the time. In the years that followed, there was nothing that could not be purchased, and nothing left to PAGE 407 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn be proud of. Distrust corroded discourse until an odd silence prevailed in a naturally noisy nation. Soeharto made much of tradition -- Javanese and no one else's -- but only to manipulate it to his own ends. No one knew, at the end, what it meant to be Indonesian. "We forgot that we are a nation." That is how Luh Ketut Suryani, a psychiatrist friend in Denpasar, the Balinese capital, put it. And that is why the nation, as it emerged from the Soeharto years, seemed for a time to be in danger of falling apart. Another word one hears frequently is "loss." It is usually used in connection with the past and the future. It is a clue to the widespread desire to regain something of what was once given up as useless, or too ambitious, or too charged with political energy, or too defiantly Indonesian. If Indonesians are eager to record the immediate past so as to release it from memory, it is partly to rediscover another past -- something we may call a usable past. "We look at the past from our current perspective and we create it," the writer Goenawan Mohamad said in conversation one day last summer. "The point is to choose the right past. And the right past is the one that goes well with the idea of what you want to be." Another Way of Being Modern She is a mystery to many, Megawati Sukarnoputri. And because of the jubilant enthusiasm she engenders, she seems to make a mystery of Indonesia. The unpopular Habibie, a puzzled American scholar recently observed, "is one of the most Westernized figures in Indonesian political history," while Megawati is "a lady solidly rooted in the feudal past." In this he found "a lot of sense of irony." n9 It is an altogether typical perspective. But it misinterprets Indonesia's new dynamic almost entirely. Why has Habibie won so little gratitude for all his reforms? As every Indonesian knows, they are at bottom concessions required by the sheer force of popular opinion. It is Habibie, through his reforms, who is trying to save something Indonesians have decided to discard. Megawati is given to looking back, certainly. The habit is literally in her genes: She is Sukarno's daughter. But in her looking back supporters see the making of something new of Indonesia. There is nothing "feudal" in this: In the Indonesian context, that has become a misleading, even objectionable epithet. For now, at least, Indonesians need to reconnect with their past more than they need indigenous jet planes and high-tech factories that glint in the sun. Looking back is the essence of the exercise, but going forward is the object. There are several common images of Megawati abroad among Indonesians. In one, she is acknowledged for her modesty and quiet determination. Here is another: "She is a nice, plump lady," says Dr. Onghokham, a historian at the University of Indonesia. "The mother is such a central figure for the Javanese. Nice-looking and plump -- you couldn't do better." n10 She was a legislator for many years, and she is remembered now for snacking impassively in the People's Representative Council. As leader of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDIP, she emerged as a national figure only in the last few years of the New Order. In 1996 Soeharto tried to ban her from politics -- which only increased her appeal. The New Order abused Megawati, as it had abused her late father. Indonesians understood that. Famously, neither Megawati nor her party appears to have many fixed policy positions. During the campaigns last spring, she was notably quiet -- almost PAGE 408 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn an enigma. Some liked her because she supported business and free markets: She was a globalist. Others were certain she was a statist on the side of what the Javanese call wong cilik, the little people, and would redistribute the national wealth. On those issues Megawati engaged, she could run directly counter to popular opinion. No, she did not support constitutional revision -- an important step toward making a democracy that works. No, she did not wish to see Soeharto stand trial. No, she saw no reason to abolish the concept of dwifungsi, dual function, meaning the army's place in politics. And no, she did not want to discuss provincial autonomy -- and still less independence for East Timor. It would be easy to overinterpret all of this. At fifty-two, Megawati may fit the image of the Javanese mother figure, but there is nothing to suggest she draws upon it for her appeal. Considering the pitiable role to which Soeharto reduced the New Order's lawmakers, eating fruit and crackers does not seem an unreasonable way to get through tedious legislative sittings. It is easy to imagine Megawati biding her time -- wholly focused on the larger issue. As to her pronouncements, they seem less a measure of fixed views than a lack of experience, an awareness of her position, and a desire to avoid early mistakes. She has already indicated flexibility on the East Timor question. At the same time, she has been quietly negotiating with General Wiranto, the army commander-in-chief, as to his political future. Net of all the confusion, the message seems to be simply that nothing is fixed, a fact Indonesians seem intuitively to grasp. Megawati is untested, which does not distinguish her. An entire generation has been left without so much as a political language. That is merely another of Soeharto's legacies. At this writing, in the midsummer of 1999, it is not clear who Indonesia's next president will be. He or she is to be elected indirectly this autumn. In a direct election -- a system Indonesians are already discussing -- Megawati would probably win this time by a considerable margin. Even with all the reported irregularities, the PDIP was the clear victor in the June legislative polls. But whether or not Megawati gains the presidential palace her father once occupied, she is unquestionably the most interesting figure in Indonesia today. She is something of an empty vessel that Indonesians have filled to the brim. For now that is how she ought to be engaged. What are people pouring in? What meanings attach to the icon? If she is a shard of history, then it is true, as Goenawan Mohamad asserts, that Indonesians will have to learn that Megawati is not her father. It is also true that the memory of Sukarno alive among PDIP supporters is selective. But that is precisely why it is worth understanding the Megawati phenomenon. Sukarno exhausted Indonesians with his exhortations, his enemies everywhere, and his constant political challenges. One senses that somehow he believed in too much too soon -- as many in the generation of Nehru, Nasser, and Nkrumah did. Like them, he saw too much of what was possible and not enough of what was, or that not everyone could keep up with him. By the end, his public had abandoned him; students wanted Soeharto to try him (as they are calling for Soeharto to be tried now). And in this we find the core of Megawati's appeal. If nearly everyone partook of the New Order, she is among the few whose hands can be considered clean. To support her is almost a kind of redemption. It is a way of speaking and remembering after the forgetting Soeharto urged and the silence he enforced. PAGE 409 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn What is it Indonesians remember? One immediately plunges into the morass of manipulated history and memory: They forget what they were supposed to remember about Sukarno and remember what they were told to forget. In the forget column, there is a clear tendency to gloss Sukarno's Guided Democracy years -- the chaos of which Soeharto always stressed as the New Order's raison d'etre. In the New Order's immediate aftermath, Indonesians eagerly remember the young and energetic Sukarno of the post-independence era, 1945-59. This is known as the parliamentary democracy period, and its name speaks for itself. In Soeharto's careful manipulation of the past, it is another interlude he sought to obliterate. He called it simply "the Old Order." In the New Order version of the past, the parliamentary period was a detour, a waste of time, the wrong product imported from the West. It is easy to imagine the argument as it came from early advocates of what are now called Asian values: Too much debate led to disorder; competing interests squandered national energies. There was nothing to be gained from raking through the remnants. New Order schoolchildren grew up on such ideas. A revisionist view has been building for some years among Indonesian intellectuals. Was parliamentary democracy a mistake -- or did the error lie in abandoning the course when the game got rough? In this context, Megawati has done no more than move this discourse onto the national stage, where it is resoundingly welcomed. One may argue that Indonesians have artificially isolated these years -- that they are bad historians. But that is to miss the point. The parliamentary period was as confused and frenetically political as the first years of many post-colonial countries. But amid the necessarily messy experiment, Sukarno gave Indonesians things they have come to see as precious. The debate tends to focus on constitutional safeguards, checks and balances, civilian leadership -- all practices and institutions that the New Order wiped away. But that is an incomplete list. Sukarno is recalled for giving Indonesians voices in a lively, pluralist polity. Having fought the Dutch, he understood that unity was an imperative. But he also knew that some things from the past -- even the deep past -- are worth saving. Bhinneka tunggal ika, he said often: Many peoples but one, which he made the national motto in 1950. It gave Indonesians -- 300 ethnic groups speaking 250 languages -- the first sense of self-possession they had ever known in the modern world. Sukarno sought to place Indonesians in a new context, one that was neither colonial nor post-colonial. Whatever one thinks of the Non-Aligned Movement, his primary role in it during the 1950s created relationships with others in which Indonesia was a contributor of ideas, not simply unprocessed commodities. Indonesians had an identity -- because Indonesia had one. There is another, simpler way to express these notions and explain the appeal of these years today. As they move forward from the Soeharto era, Indonesians see in them another way of being modern. Grasping that is probably Megawati's greatest challenge. It is impossible to say if she will or whether she will then measure up to it. She cannot, at this early moment, announce imaginative views on the army, the constitution, and other vital questions. She is too conscious of the fragile balance of forces that still run the country. But whoever is made president later this year will have to engage such issues -- sympathetically or severely. A working democracy is still distant in Indonesia. Surely we know by now that elections or individual leaders, of themselves, cannot establish it nor guarantee it. But it has begun to arrive with all the grace of a jack-in-the-box, after three decades of accumulated pressure. And it is not, for all that, entirely without form. The nation's leaders, in some PAGE 410 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn important respects, are behind those who ordinarily follow. And that in itself is a suggestion of things to come. Maps that Lead to the Future If it is possible to bring the process of becoming modern down to the making of certain choices, then the essence of the project lies in deciding what to keep, what to modify, what to throw out, and what to learn from others. To judge by the world's success rate during our half of the century, this is as difficult to execute as it is simple to state. Wrong choices and imbalances inevitably end in excess, if not failure. Yet new choices and altered balances are daunting, as Indonesians know from the past and are discovering again. It is another reason, perhaps, for a pervasive preoccupation with Sukarno. He was starting again, too -- inventing a nation. And there are echoes of his early ambitions in what Indonesians seek as they reinvent it for themselves now: a more just political system, a better balanced economy, respect at home among provinces and ethnic groups, and respect abroad. Another way to view Megawati's caution and reticence is to consider whether she, more than anyone else, understands how imposing it will be to take up such a list. The new Indonesia has so far been concerned primarily with deciding to make a journey and then setting its course. In many respects it is still in the map room. That is why the June elections were not contests of rival policies. Repudiation, cleansing, the admission of regret, the looking back -- it is all prelude to the main movements, the hard, practical decisions. At the same time, one can hardly say that Indonesians are waiting for some signal that their moment has begun. As even a brief visit to the country will reveal, the energy and imagination released since the New Order became old are already finding direction. What is missing -- it could not be otherwise at this moment -- is a sense of limitations and the new balances that will have to be struck. What we have now are merely new impulses at large. And precisely because Habibie's reforms are reactive, they are one early indicator of where these impulses may lead. The political system has been turned upside down -- from top down, as the phrase goes, to bottom up. Whether it stays that way is open to question. But that is the pattern all through the nation. There are several areas where the urgency is evident. Enlarging the political franchise is the only way Indonesia will build anything that lasts. And as even Megawati surely knows, any fundamental political advances must involve constitutional change -- in particular to remove the army from the political fray. Constitutions float like driftwood in the river of modern Indonesian history. The original document, the constitution of 1945, was drafted by Indonesians during the Japanese occupation and has much of Axis ideology in it. Four years later came the Federal Constitution, drawn up after a cease-fire with the Dutch and under Dutch influence. Sukarno replaced it in 1950 with a constitution of 146 articles, a detailed set of basic laws that saw Indonesia through the parliamentary period. It was the best statement of governing principles Indonesians have ever had. But with Guided Democracy came a return to the 1945 law, under which Indonesians now live -- and which is the basis for the military's political role. Once again, the search for the future leads back to a passage in the past. Will Indonesia make itself the first nation to pursue a low-growth economic strategy? One is often invited to think so. Among economic thinkers, from street-level activists to the academy, there is widespread awareness of the PAGE 411 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn high price Indonesia paid for its rank among the Pacific region's high-performing Asian economies, HPAEs, as the World Bank put it before the Asian crisis. n11 Now it is an LPAE, of course, and this has given Indonesians time to think. The talk everywhere is of "sustainable development," the virtues of modest growth, "doing what we do well," and "the people's economy," meaning an emphasis on developing human resources and integrating those too-many whom the New Order made marginal. "The economic agenda will be rather complex," says Hadi Soesastro, executive director of Jakarta's Center for Strategic and International Studies. "But whoever comes to power cannot leave these questions out. For now, at least, we need to forget about integrated steel mills and petrochemical complexes." Among the large questions there is, finally, Jakarta's role in running the nation. This also involves restitching a badly tattered social fabric by reviving the institutions of a civil society. In one respect, the central government is likely to grow but in another, decline. How much should government do to establish and manage a social safety net? The question is being asked across East Asia, where social welfare has by tradition been a family and community matter. But the old, informal system can no longer suffice, especially if the region is to accommodate the kind of economic change the world urges upon it. Here, the solution is curious: It involves looking inward and outward, backward and forward at once. If there is a Western model, it is Europe. But any lessons learned there are likely to be combined with local tradition -- with what has been and what is -- to produce a welfare system made of a mix among families, communities, and the state. The Habibie government has already passed legislation mandating greater autonomy from a central government that came, under Soeharto, to treat outlying provinces like dependent possessions. With independence movements raging in some provinces and threatened in others, the lesson has finally come clear: Cohesion lies not in forced or imposed uniformity, but in the acknowledgment of differences, ancient or modern, along with a clear commitment to transcend them. Under the new law, the details of which have yet to be fixed, the capital will retain control over security, foreign affairs, the currency, and a few other functions. The 27 provinces hope to take charge not just of revenues and finance -- the key issue -- but over the numerous decisions that determine their economies and character: everything from the kinds of projects they undertake to zoning, education, and the regulation of foreign investment. Somewhere in the distance, economics and culture meet: How a province makes its living will often reflect cultural priorities. In effect, Indonesia is headed for a form of federalism. Oddly, the nation has a tough time casting its new administrative arrangements in such terms, because the Dutch employed a federalist structure to divide and rule the East Indies. But it can read this aspect of its future in that unlikely chapter of the past. Even a brief review of Indonesia's immediate agenda should suggest two essential features. An old apposition in the New Order's discourse, between the traditional and the modern, is dissolving. It is now recognized that being authentically modern necessarily means having a vital connection with one's past. It is not a matter of elevating the traditional and diminishing all that is contemporary -- the stuff of college-campus "movements." It is to rethink the choices that modernization requires, to strike new balances. There is no issue today of Indonesia becoming an Islamic state. But Islam, with its stress upon community, responsibility, and mutuality, is very likely to leave its print on Indonesia's reinvented ethos. And that we will learn to call modern. PAGE 412 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn This leads directly to the second point: The frame of reference in nations such as Indonesia is no longer the West. After all the hocus-pocus of the New Order and its values, Indonesians are now prepared to acknowledge such things as democracy as universal ideals. But that is no longer to say, as humanity has for centuries, that these ideals are to be passed on from those who have them to those who do not. We come to another paradox, one of great movement: What is universal can be neither exported nor imported; where it works, its origin is always indigenous. Lessons for Neoliberals Indonesians are looking too intently inward now to understand the larger implications of their endeavor. They have hardly begun to add up the meaning of all they imagine for themselves in terms of foreign relations and their place in the world. But the implications are many and large. Atop all the rest, they will require of themselves a new way of seeing. Even amid last spring's rambunctious campaigns, for instance, it was essential to see citizens where they once may have seen mobs. It is the same for the rest of us. We must learn to view Indonesia differently if we are to understand what it aspires to become. The quick judgments of visiting observers will not do now. There are no immense policy shifts in prospect, and none are spoken of. Given the severity of the economic crisis -- and the fact that it continues despite talk of imminent recovery -- Indonesians have little room for maneuver at the moment. But reformasi cannot, in the end, stop at the border. A genuine democracy, provincial autonomy, an economy with a populist tilt -- none of this can be realized without having a direct impact on everything from environmental and labor law to corporate governance. No Indonesian will hesitate to assure the foreign visitor that the nation's commitment to the global economy remains intact. But it is unlikely to remain the same commitment the New Order had. Many Indonesians list the debts accumulated during the Soeharto years -- and more broadly, the nation's relations with global capital -- among the causes of their fallen national pride, another matter requiring redress. Tempered ambitions in this regard, as in many others, are more or less a certainty. But it is impossible to imagine any new government willing to risk dimming hope to the extent that nothing changes. The bind is scarcely unfamiliar: domestic constituents, global imperatives. But the fact that the equation is repeated today, from Mexico to Russia, suggests a challenge to market logic and the assumptions of mainstream neoliberals that does not seem yet to have registered in either Washington or New York. What is globalism, after all, if not a re-rendering of the old idea, to progress you must be like us? This is part of what we mean when we talk about seeing anew. It may be upon this very point that a new Indonesian leader -- Sukarno-like but without quite the fire, perhaps -- seeks to put the country back on the map, not merely as an investment platform, but as part of a larger political force. It is not unthinkable. Considering Indonesia's size and evident energy, its potential weight in the region and the larger world is hardly recognized. In 1995, when the nation celebrated fifty years of independence, a prominent journalist in Jakarta anticipated this question with striking prescience. We soared like an eagle at the beginning, and then we scratched the earth like chickens, he said. "Shall we continue with the practical, pragmatic approach, with all its excesses? Or will we strike a balance, eagle and chicken, somewhere in between?" n12 PAGE 413 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn For Americans, in particular, the issue of vision extends further than the reigning economic orthodoxy. It has to do with how we see our past and ourselves, too. If we are to maintain sympathetic relations with Indonesians, we will have to change to reflect changes among them. The longtime student, in the best of outcomes, will become the teacher in a certain respect: Should we not view the impulse toward autonomy in the provinces as one worth reproducing in the larger context? In the post-Cold War era, the point is becoming perfectly clear: Healthy relationships will be those with sufficient distance to allow for differences that were too long obscured. This is not only a matter of looking forward, but of looking back, too. Part of the evolution of our relations will require us to answer to history. This question is now arising the world over: Too much of the pasts of other people resides in our national security files. In Indonesia's case, from the mid-1960s to the present, there is much to bring to light. Implicitly at this point, the new Indonesia asks us to recognize that the Cold War was in important ways a blight even for those sheltered under the Western wing. It is a case study in how others, by having to choose between East and West, lost out long before the conflict ended. Vital connections were severed; processes begun in the 1940s and 1950s, the great era of independence, were suddenly disrupted in the name of greater matters. Now those processes are resumed -- uncannily, in case after case, precisely where they were broken off. This presents Americans with an irony one hopes we will some day be large enough to accept. What is the true fruit of our victory? We are never going to get away with the notion that history ended when the Berlin Wall fell. At that moment, Americans made it possible for others to go their own way again -- into their own pasts, into their own futures. Notes 1. Goenawan Mohamad, "Imagination, Not Just Blood and Iron," Sidelines: Thought Pieces from Tempo Magazine, trans. Jennifer Lindsay (Jakarta: Lontar, 1994), pp. 85-86. The original version of this essay appeared in Goenawan Mohamad, Catatan Pinggir, 2 (Jakarta: 1982, 1989, 1991), p. 426 (excerpts from Goenawan's Tempo columns.) 2. Modernization theory, though rarely named outside the academy, has been a powerful influence since the 1950s. It has more or less defined the way most Americans, particularly those who now hold a globalist perspective, view and interpret world events. The most succinct account of it that I know of -- its genesis, intent, and logic -- is by John Dower, the noted Japan scholar, and appears in his introduction to John Dower, ed., Origins of the Modern Japanese State: Selected Writings of E. H. Norman (New York: Pantheon, 1975), pp. 31-65. 3. For a contemporary text, see Adam Schwarz, A Nation in Waiting: Indonesia in the 1990s (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1994). 4. Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977); The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities (New York: Knopf, 1990). 5. See David Reeve, Golkar of Indonesia: An Alternative to the Party System (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1985) and David Reeve, "The Corporatist State: The Case of Golkar," in Arief Budiman, ed., State and Civil Society in Indonesia (Melbourne: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1990). I have also drawn upon conversations with David Reeve and Herb Feith at Gadjah Mada University in Jogjakarta, June 1999. 6. See V. S. Naipaul, Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples (New York: Random House, 1998), pp. 3-129, in which the author considers Habibie's combination of technology and Islam. PAGE 414 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn 7. Jakarta Post, May 29, 1999, p. 1, quoting Alexander Littay, secretary-general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, in Jayapura, May 28, 1999. 8. See Angus Armstrong and Michael Spencer, "Is Asia's Recovery Sustainable?" Global Emerging Markets (London: Deutsche Bank AG, May 1999), pp. 1-21. Armstrong and Spencer predict GDP contraction of 2.6 percent for 1999, a figure that will probably prove slightly too pessimistic. 9. Seth Mydans, "Indonesia's Vote: Reformers May Be Disappointed," New York Times, June 22, 1999, p. A3, quoting John Bresnan of the East Asian Institute, Columbia University. 10. David Jenkins, "The Angry Archipelago Goes to the Polls," Sydney Morning Herald, May 31, 1999, p. 14. I also thank Jenkins, a student of Indonesia for 30 years, for his guidance over the course of many conversations. 11. See The East Asian Miracle: A World Bank Policy Research Report (Washington: The World Bank, 1993). 12. David Jenkins, "The Eagle Comes Down to Earth," Sydney Morning Herald, August 17, 1995, p. 15, quoting Jak ob Oetama, the longtime editor of Kompas, Indonesia's leading daily. LOAD-DATE: November 3, 1999 PAGE 415 LEVEL 1 - 156 OF 156 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn SECTION: HUMAN RIGHTS, ETHNICITY, AND NATIONAL IDENTITY; Vol. 22, No. 4; Pg. 113 LENGTH: 5971 words HEADLINE: An Anti-Ethnic Diatribe BYLINE: Thomas Goltz HIGHLIGHT: John A. Gentry exposes the cancer of human rights; Thomas Goltz engages in an anti-ethnic diatribe; and G. Pascal Zachary explores race and culture in a letter from Ireland BODY: - Thomas Goltz writes and lectures on the Turkic world for leading publications and universities, and is the author of Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post Soviet Republic (M. E. Sharpe, 1988). He is currently at work on books on Georgia, Chechnya, and the Kurds. Dateline: Livingston, Montana -- I had my ethnic epiphany in the former Yugoslavian rump republic of Montenegro. It was there that I was forced to confront a truth I had been resisting for a long time, namely, that I am an ethnic nonentity -- an American. Some even make the argument that I do not exist, or have as little right to do so as, say, the Soviet Man who established his own theoretical extinction in 1991, or the Ottoman Man who went into terminal hibernation circa 1923. There are, no doubt, many more Darwinian disaster types I could list or readers could add, the "Yugoslavian Man" being chief among them. They were, and then Poof! like the last of the Mohicans, they were not. Anyway, my ethnic epiphany happened something like this: For six weeks last spring, and then again for another three weeks in late summer, I bounced around the Balkans by train and bus and plane and boat, from Istanbul to Sofia to Skopje to Thessaloniki to Budapest to Bucharest to Zagreb to Sarajevo to Podgorica to Tirana and, of course, Pristina, trying to get a handle on the nature of ethnicity and nationalism as those things are expressed in the closing days of the twentieth century. I also tried to divine what it all means for America, the future of the world and, not content with those challenges, tried to figure out what the apparent misery associated with ethnicity and nationalism means for a confirmed nonethnic, miscegenational creation like good old Montana Me. That was my essential approach to Kosovo. Although I was on assignment from a major American magazine to add copy to composite stories written back in Washington, I tried to keep the focus local and immediate (but not intermediate) by filing larger pieces that I knew would never be used by the national magazine to my hometown paper, whose circulation of 3,000 reaches folks who fit the personality profile of disinterested hicks in the hinterland to a "T." They PAGE 416 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn are truck drivers, bar keeps, poker players, fishing guides, small-town bankers, the odd real cowboy -- those sort of Middle American folks who are generally cited by national editors as being incapable of understanding and utterly indifferent to "world news." But they were interested. And they kept on writing letters to the editor, demanding more copy, with the result that the good folks of Livingston, Montana, arguably had more original copy pumped into their paper about the Kosovo crisis than most residents of major cities, even if the unique news digest about ethnic strife in and around the former Yugoslavia came from a certain antiethnic perspective, namely, mine. Kosovo itself was a hot story. There were so many compelling and contradictory elements that it was virtually impossible to stay away, speaking journalistically. The entire region was swarming with hacks, most desperately trying not to stumble over one another in the classic quest to get the unique angle, the unique pitch. There were plenty of angles: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at war, at last; the personalities of Slobodan Milosevic and his Lady MacBeth wife, Mira Markovich; the litany of anguish experienced by the Kosovar Albanians flushed by their Serbian tormentors into massive flight over mountain into multi-ethnic and mixed-up Macedonia and Europe's weirdest country, the orphan state of Albania itself (the mixture of Enver Xodja's legacy and the John Belushi/Mother Teresa connection was difficult not to succumb to). Then there were the Serbian Orthodox priests in Pec who sheltered Muslim Albanians in the middle of Hell and the "We Are All Targets" campaign of the residents of Belgrade, camping on the city's bridges to defend them from attack. The eventual revelations that much of the "J-V" (Yugoslav Army) armor zapped by NATO smart bombs had really only been dummy tanks crossing fake bridges connecting non-roads that were really only pieces of black plastic sheeting artistically stretched across fields was sexy and sobering at once, as was the Russian military jumping the gun and entering Kosovo from Bosnia, via Serbia, to occupy the Pristina airport and thus deal itself back into the game of high-stakes international politics to the deep chagrin of Washington, London, Paris, and Bonn. All these images and issues are now, as they say, ancient history -- as is the debate about whether the Kosovars had been flushed from their homes by Serbian thugs or NATO bombs or whether they had been subjected to "genocide" or merely massive "ethnic cleansing." The much-feared and eagerly anticipated ground war never happened. NATO peacekeepers arrived to secure village and city; the 800,000 refugees flooded home under the care and guidance of crisis-competing international aid agencies sporting so many acronyms that one tried to recognize a new language in the nonwords painted on Toyota land-cruiser doors and Mercedes truck tarps. Yes, indeed. The Kosovo story was pretty rich, and packaged in a good guy -- bad guy way that few modern dramas are: it had a beginning, a middle and (apparently) an end. To paraphrase Caesar's famous Vini, Vidi, Vici: They Split (in appalling circumstances), They Suffered (in public), They Survived (with Our Help). The journalists covering the conflict, whose number often seemed to exceed that of refugees and then returnees themselves, might be forgiven for having shoved off to new projects. By the time these musings appear on the printed page there will probably be another half-dozen or more "ethnic conflicts" grabbing the morning's headlines PAGE 417 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn or leading the Brokaw/Jennings/Rather evening news in 1.5 minute info-chunkettes: Kashmir, Iraq (again), or East Timor. I'd like to see the network news folks try applying their instant expert techniques to some other potential disaster zones, such as the Vojvodina Hungarians in Serbia, or maybe the remaining Magyars of Transylvania, quiescent since the Treaty of Trianon of 1921 deconstructed the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but still yearning for an honest, ethnic shake in the new Romania. Romania is a state that has its own East German complex over the "sister," former Soviet Republic of Moldova next door, which is itself a synthetic creation populated not only by post-Soviet Romanians and autonomy-seeking Christian Turks called the Gagauz but Trans-Dniester Slavs, who effectively seceded upon the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and who remain an armed camp today. And did I forget the Ruthenians of western Ukraine/Poland/Slovakia? According to reports emanating from the region known as Trans-Carpathia, Europe has not heard the last of these Unanist Orthodox Catholics thought to have disappeared from the map in the mid-nineteenth century. To paraphrase Hermann Goering, when I hear the word "Trans"-anything, I know that someone is reaching for their gun. But I am getting ahead of myself. I began this essay with the announcement that I had undergone an ethnic epiphany during the course of the Kosovo conflict. If I were to pinpoint a time and place where this happened, a moment so deliciously described by William Burroughs in his Naked Lunch as that instant when you understand exactly and completely just what is "on the end of your fork," I would have to say that it occurred not in the squalid Stankovich refugee camp (where every refugee seemed to have a cell phone glued to an ear), nor the Albanian nationalist hothouse of Tetova in Macedonia (where visitors to the newly opened Internet Cafe seemed more interested in surfing websites offering hard-core pornography than interactive ethnic discussion or even reports from the progressing war). It did not occur in the chaotic, car-wrecked, brigand-heavy highway system of Albania (where multimillion dollar NATO fighting vehicles were obliged to wait for hours behind drunken knots of donkey cart drivers and meandering bicyclists) nor in that pearl of the Adriatic port-town of Dubrovnik in Croatia, where cash-strapped but gloating tourism operators savored the real meaning of the German word Schadenfreude as they reflected on the fate of their bombed and burnt and totally ostracized former senior partners in Tito's Yugoslavia, the Serbs. It did not occur on Palm Sunday in Sofia, where the pious Orthodox Christians formed a line for blocks to get into the Alexander Nevski Cathedral and other churches, apparently giving thanks that they had managed to get over their own bout of ethnic madness a decade ago with the collapse of the Todor Zhivkov regime and its ridiculous campaign to rid the country of 1.5 million ethnic Turks (and Gypsies and Pomaks) not by killing or expelling them, but forcing them to assume Slavic Christian style names. It did not occur even in the Greek Second City of Thessaloniki, where in addition to the joint Serbian/English/French/Greek cemeteries marking the graves of the Salonika Front against the Turks/Austrian-Hungarians/Germans during World War I, the wandering, investigative eye might have noticed the curious sight of Ouzo-sipping patrons of the city's better taverns embracing anti-NATO graffiti-scribing punks wearing Serbian flags for shirts and flashing the three-finger victory salute of the Milosevic regime. No. My ethnic epiphany happened on a shattered bridge over the River Lim, crossed by a small road into Kosovo from the little podunk town of Murino in Montenegro. Locals thought I was there to inspect the degree of degradation PAGE 418 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn to the infrastructural target, to use the new NATO-speak, and that I was about to employ my fancy new Iridium telephone to call in a second aerial strike to complete the task. This was a bit illogical, because I would presumably have been calling down cluster-bombs on my own head. In the opinion of most, however, this was just a detail. The main thing was that lynching me would somehow make up for the four children killed on the bridge a few days before. "NATO spy!" screamed a man of about 40, his face transmogrified into a mask of hate. "You have come back to inspect the damage and see what needs to be done to finish the job! I'll slit your throat with my teeth and throw your trash-and-garbage body to the dogs!" He was barely constrained by the town mayor, who, although of a similar disposition, intervened to spare me on the basis of the memory of some 500 mainly American pilots from World War II who had been saved by locals after having been shot down on their bombing missions more than 50 years ago. "We built an airfield on a mountain meadow so they would not have to crash and die," said the mayor, Branislav Ototchovich. "But I pity any NATO pilot who falls into our hands today. No. I do not pity them. I pray they do come and visit us on this sacred, Serbian soil. Let the cowardly pilots come down from the sky and fight like men. We welcome the prospect of a ground war so that we can tear you apart with our hands." So, what was the epiphany? Simple: although I could have lied and told the people on the bridge that I was from Russia, Ukraine, or some other friendly Slav country -- telling folks that I am a half-Russian guy from Baku or Tblisi is a favorite fabrication of mine -- at that particular moment, standing on the remains of the shattered bridge, taking pictures of the smashed town square and trying to coax quotations from utterly distraught mothers and fathers, I just could not do it. Lie, that is. When an elderly woman with recent history etched in her eyes asked me where I was from I started to say 'Azerbai . . . ' but then stopped, paused, and admitted the truth. "Ja sam iz Amerika," I said in my best Serbian. "American." That is when the mob formed; I was about to be lynched because of my nationality, which is about as close to having an ethnic identity as most melting-pot Americans like me ever get. Then Mayor Ototchovich intervened. Actually, he started conducting a public, pre-execution interrogation by checking my documents which, though issued by his government, that is, the "reformist" regime of the Western-oriented Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic, were worth nothing but trash in his eyes. I was delivered from a nasty end precisely because of my Americanness and his distant memory that people of that nationality/ethnicity had not always been the enemies of the Serbs. Then the air-raid sirens started to wail, the mayor told everyone to leave the vicinity, and I and my two companions and guides (a boyfriend/girlfriend combo named Veljko and Tanya, whom I will return to presently) jumped in our car and roared off to another crossing point into Kosovo, cracking stupid jokes and turning up the stereo volume to high in order to block out the sound of incoming bombs every time we crossed a bridge or viaduct. We were happy when we PAGE 419 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn encountered security forces that wore newer uniforms because that meant they were Montenegrin police, and thus theoretically friendly, and concerned whenever we got pulled over at checkpoints manned by guys in old military togs, because that meant they were Viyska, or Yugoslav Army recruits or reservists, and thus theoretically very mean. The paradox was that individuals wearing different security uniforms might likely come from the same village, or even household, and yet the former were somehow more ethnically "Montenegrin" than Serb, and the latter more ethnically "Serb" than Montenegrin, as if there really was any distinction to be made at all. Thus my second ethnic epiphany of the day: I was becoming a witness to something far more interesting than my own survival. I had been privy to the splitting of an old ethnic identity and the birth of a new one that would, perforce, result in yet another claimant to world concern and attention: the Montenegrin. "I can trace my family heritage back to the eleventh century in Montenegro, with only a fifty-year break," boasted Veljko, a 22-year-old journalist and radio disc jockey who was driving. "We are the true Serbs." When I asked how he would rank himself in terms of self-identity, however, Veljko insisted that he was Montenegrin first and Serb second -- even though his girlfriend Tanya (whose father was driving a Yugoslav army truck somewhere in Kosovo) insisted on a reverse order of identity. Both, however, supported the anti-Milosevic government of Milo Djukanovic, and both were in complete agreement that whether Serb or Montenegrin first, they would rank the identity category "Yugoslavian" last, if at all. They were, or regarded themselves to be, Good Serbs -- and if one had to change one's ethnic moniker to "Montenegrin" to underline the difference, so what? Good Serb, Bad Serb, Non-Serb? Well, yes -- even though the leadership of the Bad Serbs were actually all from Montenegro and not Serbia, and the Good Serbs from Montenegro were blamed by others (Bosnians, Croats, Gypsies, etc.) for being as bad as the Bad Serbs as recently as a few years ago, for participating in such things as the shelling of Dubrovnik and the destruction of Srebrenica. But that was yesterday -- just like the yesterday when the Kosovo Albanians, and especially the KLA, were referred to as Yugoslav Albanians in cahoots with the gun-running, drug-smuggling Greater Albania dreamers once in power in Tirana, and not Kosovars (whatever that means, ethnically speaking). And the Macedonians were southern Slavs or Bulgarian-esque language speakers and not the descendants of Alexander the Great. And Egyptians were Arabic-speaking folks who lived along the banks of the Nile and not sedentary Gypsies around Lake Ohrid who legally changed their collective names in order to be different from the Roma. Now, I had been through a lot of this confused confessionalism and conflicts involving the concept of the greatest, deepest, and longest ethnic continuum before, and have to admit delighting in it all to a certain degree. Ethnic strife, in the post-Soviet Caucasus (Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Osetia, and so forth) was, after all, kind of how I made a name for myself as an informational roughrider in the early-and-mid-1990s. No ethnic strife; no career. PAGE 420 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn Even during my post-Kosovo down-time in Montana, the subject of blood and belonging followed me around like a half-rabid cur: my summer reading list of articles, periodicals, and books (Ash, Barber, Cohen, Gall and de Waal, Ehrenreich, Ignatieff, MacKenzie, McCarthy, Rieff, Sudetic, Volkan, Vucinch, and Emmert, to name just a few authors and no titles) was almost exclusively devoted to aspects of the burning question of how others dealt with the subject of ethnicity, nationalism, and patriotism, almost to the exclusion of planting my garden and new orchard of fruit trees. Much of the literature was very enlightening on a theoretical basis; some was very powerfully written indeed, and I recommend them all to everyone. But it was there in Montenegro that the true insanity of ethnic consciousness in the late twentieth century hit me full blow: an Orthodox Christian, Serbian-speaking people of the mountains were starting to insist on recognition as distinctly different ethnicity from other, Orthodox Christian, Serbian-speaking people who inhabited the lowlands -- and for no particular objective reason other than the vagaries of nineteenth century diplomatic history and that since the battle of Kosovo Polje of 1389 (or really, Serbian capitulation to the Ottomans 75 years later), the former lived mainly free in the mountains whilst the latter, kith and kin, lived mainly enslaved in the valleys. The fact remains, however, that they both remained Serbs until this year, when the curious mixture of NATO bombs, beaches empty of naked German tourists for the 10th straight year, Slobodan Milosevic's policies toward Kosovo, and the rest of the former Yugoslavia too, for that matter, and the Good Serb/Bad Serb divide-and-rule policies of the Western capitals finally managed to drive a wedge between the national concepts of Serb-of-Montenegro and Montenegrin pure and simple. In sum, the war over Kosovo has now resulted in the de facto if not yet de jure creation of two new nationalities which will almost ineluctably become recognized as two new "ethnicities" -- Montenegrins and Kosovarians -- just like the war in Bosnia gave an international stamp of national/ethnic recognition to the Muslims, who had, in fact, achieved internal recognition as a Yugoslav nation some years before, purely on the basis of religious difference. Then there are those whom the international community would appear to want to become national groups with the eventual goal of becoming a different (or at least sub-) ethnicity, but who refuse to do so. I refer specifically to the Serbs of the Republika Serbska in Bosnia, who were forced to live in a mini state within a state that they did not want (lest Bosnia-Herzegovina, whose reason for existence at all would appear to be as a multi-ethnic state, cease to have a reason to exist), and then proceeded to democratically elect a government that was unwanted by the same people who gave them the unwanted state. One is tempted to recall the phrase used by Charles de Gaulle when it came to splitting supine Germany in 1945: "I like Germany so much that I think there should be two." That game of national smoke and mirrors lasted until 1989; how long does the Western world think it can prevent the Serbs from re-uniting? A slightly different situation applies to another group of Serbs -- those of the Croatian region known as Krajina, which was cleansed of its Serbs in a blitzkrieg action mounted by the government of Croatian president Franjo Tudjman with tacit Western backing in the summer of 1995. In a matter of days, the entire population -- known as the best armed, most militant, and proud-to-the-point-of-paranoia group of Serbs in the world -- were subjected to exactly the same sort of treatment as the Kosovo Albanians this last Spring, and with exactly the same result: caravans of tractors pulling flatbed wagons PAGE 421 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn packed high with abject refugees and their paltry belongings, moving into exile. While the action is now pointed to as the best example of how to deal with Slobodan Milosevic -- air force bombings backed by brute force on the ground -- Croatia's cleansing of Krajina of unwanted Serbs presents international peacemakers with a dilemma: if the Kosovo Albanians, like the Iraqi Kurds in 1991, have a right to return to their homes under security guarantees, then why not the Krajina Serbs? Officially, this is United Nations (and U.S.) policy -- to recognize, encourage, and organize the Right of Return of every last one of the 300,000 or so who fled their homes rather than become a defanged minority in someone else's state. The reality, however, is that only a fraction have chosen to do so (Croatia claims 58,000; international aid workers put the number closer to 20,000) -- and most of the returnees fall into the acronymic category of Extreme Humanitarian Need (EHN), meaning mainly widowed old ladies with nowhere else to go to live out the rest of their lives, die, and get buried. The Right of Return, a sort of international aliyah, to borrow from the regulations governing Jewish emigration to Israel, is now the idealized means of dealing with the mass displacements of people that have resulted from the ethnic wars of the late twentieth century, and it sounds pretty good from afar. But where does the international community draw the Line of No Return? If the Kosovo Albanians who fled their lands in 1999, and theoretically, the Krajina Serbs who got flushed in 1995, why not the 250,000 Georgians from Abkhazia and the 1,000,000 Azeris from Valley Karabakh who were forced by fear to leave their farms and domiciles in 1993? Why not the 300,000 Baku Armenians, who bolted from their apartments in the capital of Azerbaijan in 1990? The 100,000 Miskhetian Turks who fled Uzbekistan that same year and still yearn, like the 200,000 Crimean Tatars, of turning back the clock to their original forced exile by Stalin and Beria from western Georgia in 1944? What about the million-odd anti-Taliban Afghanis still cooped up in Iran for more than a decade? The reader could no doubt make up a long list of his or her favorite places faced with the same dilemma: Kashmir; Punjab; East Timor; Sri Lanka; Bandaladesh; the Koreans scattered around Central Asia (thanks, again, to Stalin's mendacity); the Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews; the Armenians of the crumbling Ottoman Empire now living in India, Lebanon, France, and Los Angeles; the Irish Americans of Boston and Chicago; the Hmong mountaineers from Laos who now dwell in Missoula, Montana; the Pontic and Smyrna Greeks of Thessaloniki and the Famagusta Cypriots of Larnaka; the anti-Castro Cubans in Miami and Buenos Aires; the die-hard Dixie Confederates who moved to Brazil rather than live under Damn Yankee Reconstruction; and the penal colonists from Yorkshire and Wales who got shipped to Australia. And then what about the New World Indigenous Peoples, such as the Lakota Sioux on their appalling Pine Ridge Reservation? Rather than doll the place up in accordance with the promises made during Bill Clinton's Poverty Tour of America this past summer, why not just let them return to the relatively resource-rich Minnesota woodlands around from which they were driven 150 years ago? And what about the native Hawaiians now evoking the hallowed concept of Self Determination to take back Pearl Harbor and reestablish the Hawaiian monarchy deconstructed in 1893, or the Hispanic descendants of Santa Ana's soldiers who thought that taking out those minority Anglo separatists led by that creep Travis back at the Alamo in 1836 would secure home and hearth for future generations of Spanish/Mexican rule in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California? PAGE 422 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn The list goes on and at the end one is left with the following rhetorical question: Does history ever stop? Or does it only stop or at least grab enough attention to be reverted to some theoretical status quo ante when there has been enough television and press coverage of the before and after? Are there to be no losers at the game of territorial aggrandizement anymore, so long as there is CNN? Moving Away From Ethnic Consciousness This brings me back to my first epiphany -- that as the miscegenational product of multiple immigration, I have no other ethnicity aside from that muddled thing about being "an American." The funny thing is that most ethnics in the wider world (with the exception of Mayor Ototchovich of Murino), when squeezed, have a tendency to say that there is no such thing. Increasingly, I regard that as more than just a challenge to my own decidedly nonethnic identity. It is a very specific denial of it. I do not deny the self-conscious ethnics the right to be "ethnics," but I have to admit that I am getting a little weary of ethnic consciousness as a whole. The reason is that so often that consciousness leads directly to conflict, meaning war, over ancient and almost incomprehensible feuds and nuances of doctrine and perceptions of which tree stump or dried-out creek marks the "real" border of the Great State claimed by one or another of the contending parties, a piece of real estate that neither party can possibly live without due to the fact that it is their font of culture, language, and national being. What about mine? That is, being an American -- or maybe even being that even trickier thing, a cosmopolitan. Full stop. Is an American (or cosmopolitan) someone with no ancient, communal ethnic greatness to fall back on when faced with personal doubt? Is it someone with no other homeland to go and defend when threatened by another, equally ancient and great ethnic folk with a claim that pre- or antecedes that of my bloodline kith and kin? Is it a matter of being such a multicultural mongrel that you no longer can divide yourself up save by amputation -- sort of Left-Arm-German-Right-Leg-Irish-Blue-Eyes-Norski-Tart-Tongue-Creole/French? This is perhaps a curious way of defining one's ethnicity (or allowing others to define you) but it does not seem to be the wave of the future. Everywhere one looks or reads, people are going more ethnic than ever before, and in ways that I find increasingly disconcerting. Whatever happened to the melting pot? Well, we are helping smash the other melting pots of this world, so maybe it is time for someone to smash ours, too. First, came the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it, the half-baked, new nonethnic idea of the Soviet Man. Yes, yes, I know -- the Soviet Union was just a huge jail where Lenin, Stalin, Beria, and the rest kept the captive nations under the lock and key of Great Russian Chauvinism until Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika allowed the prisoners their first glimmer of daylight, at which point the Abkhaz/Armenians/Azeris/Balts/Belorussians/Chavushes/Chechens/Dagestanis PAGE 423 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn (shorthand here for the 50-odd ethnic groups making up that confused piece of real estate) and everyone else in the Soviet space down to the Shapsugs of Sochi (a lesser branch of the Circassian Adagii) made their bold breaks for freedom and self-determination, even if the ethnic homeland was only a neighborhood in a small, provincial city. "Take all the sovereignty you can swallow," Boris Yeltsin famously intoned while pushing for greater Russian rights in the then-Soviet space, thus throwing in his lot with the very ethnic nationalists Gorbachev was attempting to keep in check, lest, as ultimately happened, the Soviet Union and the Soviet Man be reduced to a failed concept in modern history. BOOM -- and then there were fifteen recognized republics, a smattering of unrecognized ones that freed themselves by force from the fifteen, and a score or more of potential or smoldering conflicts to be manipulated by a future generation of "ethnic entrepreneurs" able to manipulate minor economic discontent into major culture clash. But what about the Soviets? By that I mean the real thing, people like my old pal Sergei Vesmanov from deepest darkest Uzbekistan, a man whose English and connections allowed him to flitter back and forth between Tashkent and Seattle, its sister city, making all manner of business deals ranging from building satellite communications uplinks to leasing vast tracks of cotton plantation, planting potatoes for McDonalds and building small hotels for foreign guests. Today, Sergei is a refugee living in Moscow, unable to return to either Tashkent or Seattle. The reason? Poor Sergei was, and is, an unrepentant Soviet, cursed by his bloodlines to be a neither/nor kind of guy in the new, ethno-obsessed post-Soviet world. Part Jewish, part Ukranian, part Russian, and a member of the late Soviet elite in Central Asia to boot, he became a nonperson because he declined to be Uzbek, could not be a "real" Jew because his mother was not, could not claim Ukrainianness because he never lived there, and is now obliged to rely on his categorization as a Russian Near Abroadist for his post-Soviet identity, even though he is equally adamant that he is not "Russian." I could name scores of others in the post-Soviet space faced with the same definitional dilemma because their parents or grandparents actually bought into the concept of the Melting Pot, Soviet-style -- only to watch that particular world come crashing down on their nonethnic heads in 1991. Do I yearn for the bad old days of the Evil Empire like some of them? No. But I am increasingly sympathetic to those in the old Soviet Union and else-where who are being subjected to the demand to choose and stick to blood-lines, or lose their identities entirely. As an adaptation of the old saw, There But For The Grace of God (and economic and political collapse) Go Modern Mulatto, Mixed-Blood, American Me. Who were the Soviets, the Yugoslavs, and the other multi-ethnic, "new" peoples of the World who are being erased from history as we speak, and why was the political glue that held them together so weak when push came to pull? Oddly, perhaps, I find myself reflecting increasingly not so much on the United States and other New World nations such as Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, but on the fate of the Ottoman Empire for a paradigm of future ethnic development. PAGE 424 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn The Ottoman state, the last of the great, multiethnic, multicultural, Muslim empires to hit the ash heap of history in the face of the pestilence of nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century European ethnonationalism (the same people who brought you the delights of Waterloo, the Franco-Prussian Wars, the Siege and Fall of the Paris Commune, the First and Second Balkan Wars, the Great War, and then, of course, Hitler and World War II) has been reviled throughout our present century and the one preceding it as a study in corruption and internal decay, moral turpitude, and general nastiness. Leading the charge in lumping calumny and opprobrium on the memory of that erstwhile state, ironically enough, are the successors to the Ottoman tradition -- the leadership of the Republic of Turkey, especially the founder of that new ethnic state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. "Ne Mutlu Turkum Diyene," ("How Happy is He/She Who Calls Himself/Herself a Turk!") he famously said -- and then had the adage carved into mountainsides across the country, lest any of the 70-odd greater and lesser ethnic groups who inhabited the new state (Adagiis, Arabs, Hemshins, Kurds, Laz, Uighurs and the rest, including, no doubt the last of the Hittites) forget the new, collective ethnic identity inspired by Europe and imposed from above. The capture, trial, and sentencing of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdish separatist organization known as the PKK, is one answer to the mono-ethnic attitude that has cost upward of 30,000 lives and more destruction than that visited upon Kosovo, albeit over a time frame of fifteen years and not just two months of bombing by friends. No, when I reflect on the way ethnicity used to be in the bad old days of the nasty old Ottomans, I prefer to think about the life and times of Sokollu Mehmet Pasha, the Grand Vizier whose splendid mosque is tucked down a side street under the walls of the site of the original imperial palace of Constantine in Old Istanbul, atop which have been built the famous Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque and parts of the Topkapi Palace, all of which are also monuments to the quirky, fifteen hundred years of multiculturalism that was the Ottoman Empire and the Byzantine Empire before it, both of which had no place for the concept of ethnicity as understood, and indeed promoted, in our modern world today. Sokollu Mehmet Pasha was born an Orthodox Serb in a small village near the Drina River that defines the frontier between today's Serbia and Bosnia sometime in the late fifteenth century. He was taken to the Sublime Porte in Istanbul as part of the annual culling, or Devshirme, of Christian youth from the provinces, for membership in the elite Janissary Corps who were, theoretically, the slaves of the Sultan. They were supposed to forget about all aspects of their previous lives in exchange for being able to rise, as Muslim converts, to the very pinnacle of power in the Ottoman state. Sokollu did just that and eventually achieved the position of Grand Vizier under Suleyman the Magnificent and three of his successor sultans, which was no mean feat, given the tendency of new Ottoman leaders to get rid of all potential rivals to their absolute powers, including younger brothers, by means of the silk garrot. It would be, in a sense, rather like Henry Kissinger acting as secretary of state for not just Nixon and Ford, but Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton, too. But Sokollu's uniqueness goes much further than this. Violating the Ottoman law of amnesia for the Sultan's well-heeled slaves, the Grand Vizier used his position to trace his roots back to the banks of the Drina and his home village. Over the river, he had built the famous bridge at Visegrad, celebrated in the Nobel Prize-winning novel, Bridge on the Drina, by Ivo Andric, which PAGE 425 The Washington Quarterly 1999 Autumn transformed the local economy of his home region by making it a transportation hub. In his native village, he made contact with his forgotten family and used his considerable influence to educate a younger brother (some say nephew) in the ways of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who eventually became known as the Patriarch Makarije when Sokollu Mehmet ordered the restoration of the Serbian national patriarchy at the Kosovo city of Pec in 1557 -- all this while remaining the loyal servant to the Muslim Ottoman sultans who owned him. "Without Sokolovic [sic]," writes the Serbian historian George Vid Tomashevich, "Serbian culture might not have survived as a civilization." What does this have to do with Good Serbs, Bad Serbs and Non-Serbs, ethnic identity, and, ultimately, war and peace in and around and outside of the Balkans today? Perhaps the rediscovery of grand actors like Sokollu Mehmet Pasha by the two-bit ethnic entrepreneurs trotting over today's stage might be just the tonic needed for Yugoslavia, the Balkans, and other parts of our ethnically obsessed world as it enters the twenty-first century. Myself, I think I will plant a few more trees in Montana, and keep my powder dry. LOAD-DATE: November 3, 1999 MAIL-IT REQUESTED: FEBRUARY 2, 2000 10580X CLIENT: PAUL LIBRARY: NEWS FILE: ALLNWS YOUR SEARCH REQUEST AT THE TIME THIS MAIL-IT WAS REQUESTED: KENYA AND OUTER SPACE AND (DATE AFT 12/1998 AND DATE BEF 1/2001) NUMBER OF STORIES FOUND WITH YOUR REQUEST THROUGH: LEVEL 1... 56 LEVEL 1 PRINTED DISPLAY FORMAT: FULL SEND TO: WEBSTER LIBRARY, # 1 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 7141 SHERBROOKE STREET WEST MONTREAL, QUEBEC CANADA H4B 1R6 **********************************05648********************************** PAGE 1 LEVEL 1 - 1 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 2000 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 LENGTH: 2082 words HEADLINE: UN Conference on Disarmament to open year 2000 session on 17 January DATELINE: GENEVA (UN Information Service) BODY: The Conference on Disarmament, the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, will open its year 2000 session on Monday, 17 January, at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The first public meeting will take place at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 18 January. The year 2000 session will open under the presidency of Ambassador Harald Kreid of Austria. The presidency of the Conference rotates amongst its Member States according to the English alphabetical order for four week periods. During the first part of the session, which will continue until 24 March, the presidency will also be held by the Ambassadors of Bangladesh and Belarus. The second part of the Conference will take place from 22 May to 7 July and the third part from 7 August to 22 September. In accordance with its Rules of Procedure, the Conference "shall adopt its agenda for the year at the beginning of the session. In doing so, the Conference shall take into account the recommendations made to it by the United Nations General Assembly, the proposals by its Members and decisions of the Conference." In 1999, the Conference was not able to reach agreement on its programme of work. While agreement had been reached on most of the elements of a programme, differences remained on nuclear disarmament and prevention of an arms race in outer space. At its fifty-fourth session, the General Assembly adopted 47 resolutions and 4 decisions concerning disarmament and international security. Among other issues, the General Assembly urged the Conference to fulfil its role as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum and regretted the lack of progress in disarmament negotiations, particularly nuclear disarmament, during the 1999 session. The General Assembly called upon the Conference on Disarmament to establish, on a priority basis, an Ad Hoc Committee on nuclear disarmament to commence negotiations early in 2000 on a phased programme of nuclear disarmament and for the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, through a set of legal instruments, which might include a nuclear weapons convention. PAGE 2 M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 The General Assembly also stressed that sustained efforts were needed, within the framework of the Conference and under the umbrella of the United Nations, to make progress on the entire range of disarmament issues. It welcomed the decision of the Conference to admit five new members, and noted that the Conference recognized the importance of continuing consultations on the question of expansion of its membership. The Conference was encouraged to continue the ongoing review of its agenda and methods. During its 1999 session, the Conference considered the following questions: Cessation of Nuclear Arms Race and Nuclear Disarmament Nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, covered under item 1 of the agenda entitled "Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament", were among the most debated issues in the Conference. The rotating presidency of the Conference continued, throughout the session, to pursue intensive consultations and to seek the views of the Member States on appropriate methods and approaches for dealing with agenda item 1, taking into consideration all proposals and views in this respect. In its 1999 session, the General Assembly called upon the Conference on Disarmament to establish, on a priority basis, an ad hoc committee on nuclear disarmament to commence negotiations early in 2000 on a phased programme of nuclear disarmament and for the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, through a set of legal instruments, which might include a nuclear weapons convention. It noted with regret that the Conference on Disarmament, during its 1999 session, had been unable to establish such an ad hoc committee. The General Assembly called for the convening of an international conference on nuclear disarmament at an early date with the objective of arriving at an agreement or agreements on a phased programme of nuclear disarmament and for the eventual total elimination of nuclear weapons, through a set of legal instruments, which may include a nuclear weapons convention. The General Assembly also stressed that in order to make advancements towards the ultimate goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, it was important and necessary to pursue such actions as intensive negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament on the early conclusion of a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other explosive devices on the basis of the report of the Special Coordinator of 1995 and the mandate contained therein, and pending its entry into force, a moratorium on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Another resolution called on the Conference to re-establish the Ad Hoc Committee under item 1 of its agenda of a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices and urged all States to observe a moratorium on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive PAGE 3 M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 devices. It also called upon the Conference to establish an appropriate subsidiary body to deal with nuclear disarmament. In other resolutions, the Assembly called upon all States to conclude agreements for nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and confidence-building measures at the regional and subregional levels. The Assembly stressed that sustained efforts were needed, within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament and under the umbrella of the United Nations, to make progress on the entire range of disarmament issues. It also called for the examination of ways and means to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in security policies, so as to enhance strategic stability, facilitate the process of the elimination of those weapons and contribute to international confidence and security. The General Assembly also urged the Conference to fulfil its role as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum and regretted the lack of progress in disarmament negotiations, particularly nuclear disarmament, during the 1999 session. It emphasized the need for the Conference on Disarmament to commence negotiations on a phased programme for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons with a specified framework of time. Negative Security Assurances Effective international arrangements for guaranteeing non-nuclear-arms States against the use or threat of use of such weapons is one of the items on the provisional programme of work of the Conference. The General Assembly, in a resolution on conclusion of effective international arrangements to assure non- nuclear-weapon Sates against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, noted with satisfaction that in the Conference on Disarmament, there was no objection in principle to the idea of an international convention to provide such assurances to the non-nuclear-weapon States. The Assembly noted that difficulties with regard to evolving a common approach acceptable to all had also been pointed out and recommended that the Conference actively continue intensive negotiations with a view to reaching early agreement and concluding effective international arrangements to assure the non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, taking into account the widespread support for the conclusion of an international convention and giving consideration to any other proposals designed to secure the same objective. Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space The prevention of an outer space arms race continued to be one of the two major blocking stones which have not allowed the Conference to adopt its programme of work. On this subject, the General Assembly called in a resolution upon all States, in particular those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the prevention of an arms race in outer space and to refrain from actions contrary to that objective in the interest of maintaining international peace and security and promoting international cooperation. The PAGE 4 M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 Assembly noted that there were no objections in principle in the Conference on Disarmament to the re-establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee on the prevention of an armed race in outer space and invited the Conference to establish this Ad Hoc Committee as early as possible in the year 2000 session. It reiterated that the Conference, as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, has the primary role in the negotiation of a multilateral agreement or agreements as appropriate on the subject. Anti-Personnel Landmines In 1999, the Conference applauded the entry into force of the Convention of the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. The Conference was expected to continue in the year 2000 discussions on the best method for it to debate a ban on the transfer of landmines. The General Assembly in December 1999 invited all States that had not signed the Convention to accede to it without delay. Transparency in Armaments In a resolution on transparency in armaments, the General Assembly invited the Conference on Disarmament to consider continuing its work undertaken in this field. The Assembly continued to take the view that an enhanced level of transparency in armaments contributed greatly to confidence-building and security among Sates and that the establishment of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms constituted an important step forward to the promotion of transparency in military matters. Issues Regarding Organization of Work of Conference The General Assembly welcomed the decision of the Conference on 5 August to admit five new members, and noted that the Conference recognized the importance of continuing consultations on the question of expansion of its membership. It also welcomed the Conference's strong collective interest in commencing substantive work as soon as possible during its 2000 session. The Conference was encouraged to continue the ongoing review of its agenda and methods. Conference on Disarmament The Conference, which works on the basis of consensus, emerged from the decisions of the 1978 special session of the General Assembly on disarmament. Membership stands at 66. The annual sessions of the Conference are divided into three parts. The Secretary-General of the Conference is Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, who is also the Personal Representative PAGE 5 M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 of the United Nations Secretary-General. Member States of Conference The 66 members of the Conference are: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador*, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland*, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan*, Kenya, Malaysia*, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia*, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe. The five new members admitted on 5 August are marked with asterisks (*). Representatives of the following non-member States also participated in the 1999 work of the Conference as observers: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Holy See, Iceland, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malta, Mauritius, Nepal, Oman, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, Sudan, Swaziland, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Yemen and Zambia. ((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com)). LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: January 17, 2000 PAGE 6 LEVEL 1 - 2 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 2000 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 LENGTH: 2082 words HEADLINE: UN Conference on Disarmament to open year 2000 session on 17 January DATELINE: GENEVA (UN Information Service) BODY: The Conference on Disarmament, the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, will open its year 2000 session on Monday, 17 January, at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The first public meeting will take place at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 18 January. The year 2000 session will open under the presidency of Ambassador Harald Kreid of Austria. The presidency of the Conference rotates amongst its Member States according to the English alphabetical order for four week periods. During the first part of the session, which will continue until 24 March, the presidency will also be held by the Ambassadors of Bangladesh and Belarus. The second part of the Conference will take place from 22 May to 7 July and the third part from 7 August to 22 September. In accordance with its Rules of Procedure, the Conference "shall adopt its agenda for the year at the beginning of the session. In doing so, the Conference shall take into account the recommendations made to it by the United Nations General Assembly, the proposals by its Members and decisions of the Conference." In 1999, the Conference was not able to reach agreement on its programme of work. While agreement had been reached on most of the elements of a programme, differences remained on nuclear disarmament and prevention of an arms race in outer space. At its fifty-fourth session, the General Assembly adopted 47 resolutions and 4 decisions concerning disarmament and international security. Among other issues, the General Assembly urged the Conference to fulfil its role as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum and regretted the lack of progress in disarmament negotiations, particularly nuclear disarmament, during the 1999 session. The General Assembly called upon the Conference on Disarmament to establish, on a priority basis, an Ad Hoc Committee on nuclear disarmament to commence negotiations early in 2000 on a phased programme of nuclear disarmament and for the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, through a set of legal instruments, which might include a nuclear weapons convention. PAGE 7 M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 The General Assembly also stressed that sustained efforts were needed, within the framework of the Conference and under the umbrella of the United Nations, to make progress on the entire range of disarmament issues. It welcomed the decision of the Conference to admit five new members, and noted that the Conference recognized the importance of continuing consultations on the question of expansion of its membership. The Conference was encouraged to continue the ongoing review of its agenda and methods. During its 1999 session, the Conference considered the following questions: Cessation of Nuclear Arms Race and Nuclear Disarmament Nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, covered under item 1 of the agenda entitled "Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament", were among the most debated issues in the Conference. The rotating presidency of the Conference continued, throughout the session, to pursue intensive consultations and to seek the views of the Member States on appropriate methods and approaches for dealing with agenda item 1, taking into consideration all proposals and views in this respect. In its 1999 session, the General Assembly called upon the Conference on Disarmament to establish, on a priority basis, an ad hoc committee on nuclear disarmament to commence negotiations early in 2000 on a phased programme of nuclear disarmament and for the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, through a set of legal instruments, which might include a nuclear weapons convention. It noted with regret that the Conference on Disarmament, during its 1999 session, had been unable to establish such an ad hoc committee. The General Assembly called for the convening of an international conference on nuclear disarmament at an early date with the objective of arriving at an agreement or agreements on a phased programme of nuclear disarmament and for the eventual total elimination of nuclear weapons, through a set of legal instruments, which may include a nuclear weapons convention. The General Assembly also stressed that in order to make advancements towards the ultimate goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, it was important and necessary to pursue such actions as intensive negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament on the early conclusion of a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other explosive devices on the basis of the report of the Special Coordinator of 1995 and the mandate contained therein, and pending its entry into force, a moratorium on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Another resolution called on the Conference to re-establish the Ad Hoc Committee under item 1 of its agenda of a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices and urged all States to observe a moratorium on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive PAGE 8 M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 devices. It also called upon the Conference to establish an appropriate subsidiary body to deal with nuclear disarmament. In other resolutions, the Assembly called upon all States to conclude agreements for nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and confidence-building measures at the regional and subregional levels. The Assembly stressed that sustained efforts were needed, within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament and under the umbrella of the United Nations, to make progress on the entire range of disarmament issues. It also called for the examination of ways and means to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in security policies, so as to enhance strategic stability, facilitate the process of the elimination of those weapons and contribute to international confidence and security. The General Assembly also urged the Conference to fulfil its role as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum and regretted the lack of progress in disarmament negotiations, particularly nuclear disarmament, during the 1999 session. It emphasized the need for the Conference on Disarmament to commence negotiations on a phased programme for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons with a specified framework of time. Negative Security Assurances Effective international arrangements for guaranteeing non-nuclear-arms States against the use or threat of use of such weapons is one of the items on the provisional programme of work of the Conference. The General Assembly, in a resolution on conclusion of effective international arrangements to assure non- nuclear-weapon Sates against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, noted with satisfaction that in the Conference on Disarmament, there was no objection in principle to the idea of an international convention to provide such assurances to the non-nuclear-weapon States. The Assembly noted that difficulties with regard to evolving a common approach acceptable to all had also been pointed out and recommended that the Conference actively continue intensive negotiations with a view to reaching early agreement and concluding effective international arrangements to assure the non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, taking into account the widespread support for the conclusion of an international convention and giving consideration to any other proposals designed to secure the same objective. Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space The prevention of an outer space arms race continued to be one of the two major blocking stones which have not allowed the Conference to adopt its programme of work. On this subject, the General Assembly called in a resolution upon all States, in particular those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the prevention of an arms race in outer space and to refrain from actions contrary to that objective in the interest of maintaining international peace and security and promoting international cooperation. The PAGE 9 M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 Assembly noted that there were no objections in principle in the Conference on Disarmament to the re-establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee on the prevention of an armed race in outer space and invited the Conference to establish this Ad Hoc Committee as early as possible in the year 2000 session. It reiterated that the Conference, as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, has the primary role in the negotiation of a multilateral agreement or agreements as appropriate on the subject. Anti-Personnel Landmines In 1999, the Conference applauded the entry into force of the Convention of the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. The Conference was expected to continue in the year 2000 discussions on the best method for it to debate a ban on the transfer of landmines. The General Assembly in December 1999 invited all States that had not signed the Convention to accede to it without delay. Transparency in Armaments In a resolution on transparency in armaments, the General Assembly invited the Conference on Disarmament to consider continuing its work undertaken in this field. The Assembly continued to take the view that an enhanced level of transparency in armaments contributed greatly to confidence-building and security among Sates and that the establishment of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms constituted an important step forward to the promotion of transparency in military matters. Issues Regarding Organization of Work of Conference The General Assembly welcomed the decision of the Conference on 5 August to admit five new members, and noted that the Conference recognized the importance of continuing consultations on the question of expansion of its membership. It also welcomed the Conference's strong collective interest in commencing substantive work as soon as possible during its 2000 session. The Conference was encouraged to continue the ongoing review of its agenda and methods. Conference on Disarmament The Conference, which works on the basis of consensus, emerged from the decisions of the 1978 special session of the General Assembly on disarmament. Membership stands at 66. The annual sessions of the Conference are divided into three parts. The Secretary-General of the Conference is Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, who is also the Personal Representative PAGE 10 M2 PRESSWIRE January 17, 2000 of the United Nations Secretary-General. Member States of Conference The 66 members of the Conference are: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador*, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland*, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan*, Kenya, Malaysia*, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia*, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe. The five new members admitted on 5 August are marked with asterisks (*). Representatives of the following non-member States also participated in the 1999 work of the Conference as observers: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Holy See, Iceland, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malta, Mauritius, Nepal, Oman, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, Sudan, Swaziland, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Yemen and Zambia. ((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com)). LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: January 17, 2000 PAGE 11 LEVEL 1 - 3 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 2000 The Cincinnati Enquirer The Cincinnati Enquirer January 7, 2000, Friday ALL EDITIONS SECTION: TEMPO, Pg. W10 LENGTH: 916 words HEADLINE: 'Shine' put director in spotlight; 'Cedars' visual impact attracted Australian Hicks BYLINE: MARSHALL FINE SOURCE: Gannett News Service BODY: Some filmmakers - whose first international feature is as successful as, oh, let's say, Scott Hicks' Shine - might feel the pressure of audience and critical expectations with their next film. But Mr. Hicks is not one of them. His new film, Snow Falling on Cedars (his first since Shine turned him into a hot property), goes into wide release today after a limited holiday opening. "Let me tell you: Worrying about how your work will be received after you've had a success is nowhere near as stressful as wondering if anyone will ever pay attention to what you've done," says Mr. Hicks, 46, who lives in Adelaide, Australia. "I've been around long enough to know what it's like when no one is interested in your work. "Making Shine wasn't the sum total of my desire - but it was a long-term dream. Incredibly, it opened a whole new landscape for me." 'Shine' a thrill ride That landscape, for the moment, is the fictional San Piedro Island off the coast of Washington State. It's the central setting for Snow Falling on Cedars, the film Mr. Hicks adapted from David Guterson's best-selling novel. Mr. Hicks is the first to tell you that, had Shine not been an international hit, he'd still be in Australia, making documentaries to pay the rent while trying to make another feature film. Instead, he got to strap himself into the kind of career-launching thrill ride he'd only dreamed of. "The experience of Shine and the journey from Sundance (Film Festival) to the Oscars was like riding a solid-rocket-fuel booster launch into outer space - and then floating back to Earth," Mr. Hicks says. A tall, almost-spindly man with graying, center-parted shoulder-length hair, sweater and jeans, Mr. Hicks looks like a literature professor at a small liberal-arts college. "The Sundance experience told me, 'It's your turn. The spotlight's on you, just when you felt you would be part of the chorus forever.' It was never my PAGE 12 The Cincinnati Enquirer, January 7, 2000 intention that Shine would change my life. Suddenly, I was able to contemplate a career, rather than lurching from one attempt at getting a film made to another." Born in East Africa to British parents, Mr. Hicks spent his childhood in Kenya, where his father was a civil engineer. The family moved to England, before resettling in Australia when the future director was 14. After college, Mr. Hicks worked in the Australian film industry, making documentaries for TV even as he tried to raise money for feature films. He made a couple of low-budget efforts that went nowhere, while harboring and shaping the script for Shine, the story of pianist David Helfgott. Intensely visual When he finally did get Shine made, it created a sensation at Sundance in 1996, sparking a bidding war among American distributors. It went on to win a variety of critics' awards, Oscar nominations and an Academy Award for its star, Geoffrey Rush. As a result, Mr. Hicks was inundated with offers of work from Hollywood, though most of the scripts he received seemed to be pale imitations of Shine. "It occurred to me that, that's the lesson: You will be offered what you've done before," he says. "If I'd made a film about a dog and a (parakeet), I'd have been offered Free Willy 4." The one that did capture his interest was Snow Falling on Cedars, a book he'd read while making Shine in 1994. At that point, when he checked and found that the rights had already been purchased, he thought no more of it. Then, in the wake of Shine's success, the screenplay of Snow found its way to his desk. The appeal? "The book was intensely visual," Mr. Hicks explains. "The detail in the writing really conjured an unfamiliar world. There were these strong, finely detailed characters and a sense of lives being lived. And yet it was about fundamental issues of decency, human behavior and how we treat one another as people. That cluster of ingredients made it very compelling." Mr. Guterson's spare prose serves a plot that flows back and forth in time. Though, ostensibly, the story of a murder trial in the early 1950s, the book (and the film adaptation) dealt with a long-past romance between two of the characters. In a larger sense, they also deal with the way the residents of San Piedro Island treated their Japanese-born neighbors after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. "The weave was challenging," says Mr. Hicks, whose documentaries, The Great Wall of Iron and Submarines: Sharks of Steel, are among the highest-rated in the history of the Discovery Channel. "It was a question of how to take three strands of plot and braid them together without telling three separate stories. That's the power you have: to take 10 pages of writing and communicate it in the blink of an eye. You can do it, as long as you have the right ingredients." Mr. Hicks is developing two more novels for adaptation: Donna Tartt's The Secret History and Ian McEwan's Enduring Love. Though unsure what his next film project will be, he plans to take advantage of the sudden breadth of choice PAGE 13 The Cincinnati Enquirer, January 7, 2000 he's been given. "We all want to test our mettle in bigger arenas with more resources at our disposal," Mr. Hicks says. "Everyone wants to have success early. You thirst for it. You see it happen to other people and think, 'Why them?' But it's a tremendously sweet feeling when it comes off the back of a lot of hard work." Universal Pictures - Doane Gregory Director Scott Hicks (left) talks with actor Max Von Sydow on the set of Snow Falling on Cedars. LOAD-DATE: January 14, 2000 PAGE 14 LEVEL 1 - 4 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 2000 Gannett Company, Inc. Gannett News Service January 6, 2000, Thursday SECTION: Pg. ARC LENGTH: 929 words HEADLINE: 'Cedars' director Hicks still glowing from 'Shine' spotlight BYLINE: MARSHALL FINE; Journal News BODY: Some filmmakers -- whose first major feature is as successful as, oh, let's say, Scott Hicks' "Shine" -- might feel the pressure of audience and critical expectations with their next film. But Hicks is not one of them. His new film, "Snow Falling on Cedars" (his first since "Shine" turned him into a hot property), goes into wide release today (Jan. 7) after a limited holiday opening. "Let me tell you: Worrying about how your work will be received after you've had a success is nowhere near as stressful as wondering if anyone will ever pay attention to what you've done," says Hicks, 46, who lives in Adelaide, Australia. "I've been around long enough to know what it's like when no one is interested in your work. "Making 'Shine' wasn't the sum total of my desire -- but it was a long-term dream. Incredibly, it opened a whole new landscape for me." That landscape, for the moment, is the fictional San Piedro Island off the coast of Washington State. It's the central setting for "Snow Falling on Cedars," the film Hicks adapted from David Guterson's best-selling novel, which received mixed-to-positive reviews when it opened just before Christmas. Hicks is the first to tell you that, had "Shine" not been an international hit, he'd still be in Australia, making documentaries to pay the rent while trying to make another feature film. Instead, he got to strap himself into the kind of career-launching thrill ride he'd only dreamed of."The experience of 'Shine' and the journey from Sundance to the Oscars was like riding a solid-rocket-fuel booster launch into outer space -- and then floating back to Earth," says Hicks. A tall, almost-spindly man with graying, center-parted shoulder-length hair, sweater and jeans, Hicks looks like a literature professor at a small liberal-arts college. PAGE 15 GANNETT NEWS SERVICE, January 6, 2000 "The Sundance experience told me, 'It's your turn. The spotlight's on you, just when you felt you would be part of the chorus forever.' It was never my intention that 'Shine' would change my life. Suddenly, I was able to contemplate a career, rather than lurching from one attempt at getting a film made to another." Born in East Africa to British parents, Hicks spent his childhood in Kenya, where his father was a civil engineer. The family moved to England briefly, before resettling in Australia when Hicks was 14. After college, Hicks worked in the Australian film industry, making documentaries for TV even as he tried to raise money for feature films. He made a couple of low-budget efforts that went nowhere, while harboring and shaping the script for "Shine," the story of pianist David Helfgott. When he finally did get "Shine" made, it created a sensation at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, sparking a bidding war among American distributors. It went on to win a variety of critics' awards, Oscar nominations and an Academy Award for its star, Geoffrey Rush. As a result, Hicks was inundated with offers of work from Hollywood, though most of the scripts he received seemed to be pale imitations of "Shine." "It occurred to me that, that's the lesson: You will be offered what you've done before," he says. "If I'd made a film about a dog and a (parakeet), I'd have been offered 'Free Willy 4.' " The one that did capture his interest was "Snow Falling on Cedars," a book he'd read while making "Shine" in 1994. At that point, when he checked and found that the rights had already been purchased, he thought no more of it. Then, in the wake of "Shine's success, the screenplay of "Snow" found its way to his desk. The appeal? "The book was intensely visual," Hicks explains. "The detail in the writing really conjured an unfamiliar world. There were these strong, finely detailed characters and a sense of lives being lived. And yet it was about fundamental issues of decency, human behavior and how we treat one another as people. That cluster of ingredients made it very compelling." Guterson's spare prose serves a plot that flows back and forth in time. Though, ostensibly, the story of a murder trial in the early 1950s, the book (and the film adaptation) dealt with a long-past romance between two of the characters. In a larger sense, they also deal with the way the residents of San Piedro Island treated their Japanese-born neighbors after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. "The weave was challenging," says Hicks, whose documentaries, "The Great Wall of Iron" and "Submarines: Sharks of Steel," are among the highest-rated in the history of the Discovery Channel. "It was a question of how to take three strands of plot and braid them together without telling PAGE 16 GANNETT NEWS SERVICE, January 6, 2000 three separate stories. That's the power you have: to take 10 pages of writing and communicate it in the blink of an eye. You can do it, as long as you have the right ingredients." Hicks is developing two more novels for adaptation: Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" and Ian McEwan's "Enduring Love." Though unsure what his next film project will be, he plans to take advantage of the sudden breadth of choice he's been given. "We all want to test our mettle in bigger arenas with more resources at our disposal," Hicks says. "Everyone wants to have success early. You thirst for it. You see it happen to other people and think, 'Why them?' But it's a tremendously sweet feeling when it comes off the back of a lot of hard work." ---- (Marshall Fine covers entertainment for The Westchester (New York) Journal News and Gannett News Service.) LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: January 07, 2000 PAGE 17 LEVEL 1 - 5 OF 56 STORIES Content and programming copyright 2000 Cable News Network Transcribed under license by Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. Formatting copyright 2000 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to Cable News Network. This transcript may not be copied or resold in any media. CNN SHOW: CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL 06:14 am ET January 3, 2000; Monday 6:14 am Eastern Time Transcript # 00010315V54 TYPE: SPECIAL SECTION: News; International LENGTH: 2997 words HEADLINE: Millennium 2000: Clearing the Air GUESTS: Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos BYLINE: Colleen McEdwards, Leon Harris HIGHLIGHT: Turn out your lights, hold the butterflies, put away the snowmobile and walk: Pollution is not just litter anymore. The pollution of our planet is a pesky problem that, to some, seem impossible to solve, a problem to which there is no simple answer. Some industries that notoriously pollute may be the only source of income for some parts of the world, and it is not just industry doing the pollution. A look at the problem of, and solution to, pollution, including a discussion with Athens, Greece, Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos and the solutions his city developed. BODY: THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Turn out your lights, hold the butterflies, put away the snowmobile and walk: Pollution isn't just litter anymore. LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The pollution of our planet: It is a pesky problem that, to some, seem impossible to solve. It's a problem to which there is no simple answer. MCEDWARDS: Some industries that notoriously pollute may be the only source of income for some parts of the world, and it's not just industry doing the pollution. HARRIS: That's right. Let's start now down under, where pollution is threatening the Great Barrier Reef. PAGE 18 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 3, 2000 (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (voice-over): From the silent waters of the Pacific, a subtle warning: The world's colorful coral reefs are slowly dying. Undersea, on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, divers can now see white, dead zones. It is called coral bleaching, and its cause is a mystery. A slow warming of the oceans is suspected, as is drifting bands of water pollution. The small animals who build up the coral reefs are sensitive to both. Why do we care? One-fourth of the fish that live in the ocean make coral reefs their home, and countries like Australia rely on these reefs to attract billions of tourist dollars. MCEDWARDS (voice-over): In Malaysia and Indonesia, it was a burning season like no other. Farmers clearing land and logging companies torching underbrush unleashed an environmental disaster in 1997. The thick smoke settled over southeast Asia. On the island state of Sarawak, a state of emergency forced authorities to buy masks for 300,000 people. The visibility was so bad flights had to be canceled. Still, one plane crash was blamed on the acrid smoke. By the time the fires were put out, more than 70 million people in the region had been effected. Some lost just a few days of school, others were sick for weeks and months. Late rains and slow government action shared the blame for the disaster. HARRIS: Lanzhou, China. Residents of one of the world's most- polluted cities tackle their air quality problem one chip, one rock, one mountain at a time. The smog-choked, railway hub is surrounded by mountains, and an environmental entrepreneur hopes that leveling one of them will free trapped pollution and sweep clean air through the valley. Two years after the project started, one-fifth of Big Green Mountain is gone, but the money ran out before the mountain did, and the work has come to a halt. Skeptics were never sure the fresh air would flow once the mountain was demolished, but, with the project on hold, they may never find out. Meanwhile, Lanzhou is trying more traditional ways to deal with its pollution problems. The local government says it has clamped down on polluting factories and air quality is beginning to improve. MCEDWARDS: Mt. Everest, the highest mountain on earth, has become a junkyard. This is the base camp of Mt. Everest as you've probably never seen it. More then 700 people have now reached the summit, and each one has left behind a mountain of garbage. Everest is littered with tin cans and discarded equipment. But now people are climbing 17,000 feet to the base camp just to take out the trash. Last year, it cost an expedition $350,000 just to haul out 8,300 pounds of garbage. This year's clean-up was canceled because there wasn't enough money. HARRIS: Jerusalem. Muslim clerics watch the skies for the new moon to signal that the holy month of Ramadan is to begin the next day, but each year the glare from the ground is making it more difficult to detect the faint outline of the crescent moon. In fact, Ramadan began on different days in different Arab countries, last month, because clerics could not agree on the day the moon PAGE 19 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 3, 2000 first appeared. Long considered a problem for star gazers in urban areas, light pollution is creeping into even more remote areas of the planet. The International Astronomical Union has asked the United Nations to classify light sources as global pollutants and push for solutions that will help clear up our view of the cosmos. MCEDWARDS: Athens, Greece. Can one of Europe's most-polluted cities clean up its act by the 2004 Olympic games? Greenpeace calls Athens the ozone capital of Europe, and residents have nicknamed the smog hanging over city Nephos (ph), which means "cloud." Smog mixed with rain forms an acid liquid which for decades has eaten away the surface of ancient marble monuments. But today, government officials say Athens is making progress in its battle to clean up the air, a promise it made to the International Olympic Committee. The Environment Ministry says carbon monoxide levels have dropped 30 percent in the last decade, and the ministry hopes the completion of a metro system will help get cars off the road and further improve the quality of Athens' air. HARRIS: Curitiba, Brazil. Residents are trading bags of trash for bags of food. In 1991, the city launched a unique program to clean up the streets while helping feed the poor. Instead of spending money on waste collection and slums, the city spends it on food from local farms. Low-income families collect the waste themselves, take it to a collection site and exchange it for a bag of fruits and vegetables. MCEDWARDS: West Yellowstone, Montana. From the roar of a snowmobile, from the wail of a car alarm, the World Health Organization says noise pollution may be harming your health. In 1996, the WHO declared noise to be a significant health threat, saying it could cause both psychological and physiological damage. Sustained exposure to 85 decibels can cause permanent hearing loss. The interior of a car registers at 80 decibels. Loud or constant noise can also cause stress, raise your blood pressure and lower your work productivity. Organizations like the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse are hoping to turn noise control into a civil liberties issues. They want the public protected from noise in the same way they're protected from second-hand smoke. HARRIS: San Francisco, California. A butterfly release sets dozens of monarchs free. Nature's showiest insect is the newest star at grand openings, weddings and even funerals, but biologists warn butterfly releases can be a form of environmental pollution. The freed butterflies can introduce disease and may compete with native species for shrinking habitat. The released insects may also lack natural predators which help keep the population in check. That scenario led to environmental disaster in the 19th century. gypsy moths were introduced to Massachusetts in hope of starting a silk industry. Instead, the moths destroyed forests, which eventually led to wide-spread use of pesticides. Today, some states are trying to head off potential damage by requiring permits for butterfly releases. Arizona and Alaska prohibit releases all together. PAGE 20 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 3, 2000 So, if not butterflies, how to mark a special occasion? One biologist recommends that celebrants sprinkle flower pedals instead. (END VIDEOTAPE) MCEDWARDS: And coming up after a break, we'll hear from a government official in Europe who has to deal with pollution problems every day. From Athens, Greece, the mayor, Dimitris Avramopoulos. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MCEDWARDS: Our "Millennium 2000" theme, this hour: the threat of pollution. And joining us to talk about that, from Athens, Greece, Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, for joining us. Describe... MAYOR DIMITRIS AVRAMOPOULOS, ATHENS, GREECE: The pleasure is mine. First of all, allow me to extend to you and to all the people around the world a very warm message from the city of Athens for a happy millennium dedicated to mankind and nature. MCEDWARDS: That's very, very kind of you, thank you, and we'll send the same to you. Describe what the air is like in Athens on a bad pollution day. AVRAMOPOULOS: First of all, I must tell you that all these pictures we have from the past do not represent the reality of today in our city. During the last five years, we have managed to reduce down the pollution to 35 percent, thanks to a number of projects we have implemented in order to make this city more humane. Now, of course in view of the Olympics of 2004 there are more projects to be implemented. Let's hope that by this date Athens will be one of the cleanest cities all around the world. MCEDWARDS: So, how did you do it over the last five years? How did you bring that pollution rate down by 35 percent? AVRAMOPOULOS: As you maybe know, first of all we have a new metro system that's going to be operational by the end of this month. In the meantime, we have convinced the citizens of our city to replace their cars with new ones equipped with carborators (ph). We have sent away all the industrial units that had been sublet (ph) in our area. In the meantime, we have replaced all the busses that are circulating in the center of the city with new ones equipped with protective mechanisms for the environment, and of course we have enhanced the green zones around the city, and we have implemented new systems in order to clean the waters all around the area of Attica. So, with all these measures and with more to come, we believe, as I said in the beginning, that Athens will be an example in the beginning of the next century of how we can change a city that was very well known around the world PAGE 21 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 3, 2000 for being polluted to a clean city. HARRIS: Mayor Avramopoulos, Leon Harris, here, in Atlanta. I'd like to ask you... AVRAMOPOULOS: Good morning. HARRIS: Good morning. I'd like to ask you what you did to change the minds of people, there, in Athens. You changed a lot of the equipment and the cars and the machinery, but what did you do to get the people to get behind this effort? AVRAMOPOULOS: It's a very good question, because if you are not helped by your co-citizens then you can do nothing. And one of the first things we did, years ago, was to force the environment and ecological consciousness of the citizens, and the response was very, very positive, believe me; otherwise, nothing would have been done in our city. And of course, we have one more reason. As I said in the beginning, we are in view of the Olympics of 2004. This city must be ready to welcome more than 15 million people who are going to visit us. They must find a clean and friendly and humane city. So, helped by the people and by all institutions, including a very good and good-faith cooperation among local governments, regional governments and central government, we gave this spectacular result. Nobody would ever believe in the beginning of the last decade, that Athens would become, as I said before, a good example for the whole world. And we are on the good track, and we hope more for the future. MCEDWARDS: Would the city have done all this, honestly, if the Olympics weren't coming in 2004? AVRAMOPOULOS: Sorry, can you repeat your question, because the sound's not good? MCEDWARDS: Would the city have taken all of these steps it weren't for the coming of the Olympics in 2004. AVRAMOPOULOS: Absolutely. Don't forget that all these measures had been taken before we decide to bid for the Olympics, including the infrastructure for the Olympics -- for the Olympic games themselves. So, what we had done was done for the city as a token of respect to our heritage, to our culture and our rights to life. The fact that it coincides with the Olympics is one more very convincing and dynamic motivation in order to change the city as soon as possible. In other words, the projects we had implemented now follow a faster way in the field of implementation. MCEDWARDS: All right, how much has all of this cost? AVRAMOPOULOS: Well, a lot of money, it is true. But, you know, for us, the values of life do not have price. PAGE 22 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 3, 2000 MCEDWARDS: All right, Mayor Avramopoulos, thank you very much for you time, today. AVRAMOPOULOS: The pleasure was ours. Thank you for hosting Athens. And we wish you a happy millennium. MCEDWARDS: You, too. HARRIS: All right, happy new year and a happy millennium to you as well. AVRAMOPOULOS: Thanks. MCEDWARDS: All right, there is still more to tell you on this subject, including a look at a fragile spot, and this is it: Mother Earth. But sometimes the stuff we send into outer space comes back to haunt us. That's just ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MCEDWARDS: We continue our focus on pollution with a look at the hazards of energy sources. In the 19th century, coal was king, but by the middle of the 20th century we thought that nuclear power would be the future. Most potential energy sources have draw backs, and as we start the 21st century we are still trying to deal with them. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (voice-over): Chernobyl, Ukraine. The world's worst nuclear accident has left behind a deadly legacy. In 1986, Chernobyl's nuclear reactor exploded, spewing radiation over the best farmland in Ukraine and Belarus. Four years ago, doctors started seeing hundreds of sick children. The World Health Organization says thyroid cancer in children has skyrocketed in the towns closest to the accident. Few of those children have died, but workers who struggled to contain the radiation have not been so lucky. Officially, the death toll from the accident is 32, but the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists disagree. They claim that by 1990, 5,000 clean-up workers had died. They also say the world will probably never know how many of those deaths were because of radiation. Along the La Grande River in Quebec, a massive hydro project is being blamed for releasing toxic mercury from the soil. These dams are designed in part to power America's huge appetite for cheap electricity. But even as the kilowatts flow downstream, the stagnant waters allowed mercury to build up in the fish. Many of those fish are eaten by the Cree Indians. The reservoir has flooded what was once their hunting land, and there are no grocery stores. One 1984 survey found 64 percent of the Cree in one village had unsafe levels of mercury in their bodies. Concerns like these forced the company to stop an expansion of the project, and the local people have been told to stop eating the fish. Forty years ago, Mexico City was known for its clean mountain air. No one can say that now. Those who track the pollution say the air is satisfactory just 30 days of the year. Old (ph) cars, fires, dust and factories combine to create the toxic soup. One study showed more infants die in Mexico City on bad air days. The government has struggled to solve the problem for 20 years. For example, you can no longer buy leaded gasoline. But 70 percent of all auto pollution is still caused by cars made before 1985. There are many possible PAGE 23 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 3, 2000 solutions, but putting giant fans on the mountains sounded better than it worked. Tiny air filters have been installed on thousands of light posts. Says one scientist, it's a start. (END VIDEOTAPE) MCEDWARDS: And now to other toxic pollutants. Man's carelessness has fouled rivers and oceans, dirtied our air and littered our ground. It has even extended beyond the confines of Earth. Now the potential remedies are equally far-reaching, from the most primordial of nature to the most sophisticated of man. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (voice-over): The Earth's orbit. The European Space Agency says more than 150,000 pieces of space junk are orbiting the Earth. From derelict satellites to discarded rocket motors, the agency says space pollution can be hazardous to both satellites and spacecraft. It says a half-inch piece of junk can destroy a satellite, and a four-inch piece can demolish a shuttle. In fact, the Shuttle Discovery has had to dodge space debris flying towards it at a speed of more than 17,000 miles-per-hour. The European Space Agency recommends curbing rocket explosions in space, which contribute to 41 percent of space trash. The agency adds the junk that's already orbiting the Earth should be moved to a space cemetery thousands of miles away from the planet, or it should be destroyed with a laser. Kenya. Cholera victims seek treatment in a makeshift hospital. The bacteria is spread by human waste polluting rivers and drinking water. Cholera strikes quickly. Severe diarrhea, vomiting and rapid dehydration occur, then the victim lapse into a coma. Without medical intervention, an infected patient can die within days. The World Health Organization reports that Africa had more cholera cases than any other continent in 1999, more than 167,000 patients and some 7,000 deaths. The WHO says the best way to prevent the international spread of cholera is not by restricting trade or travel. The organization says the only way to contain the disease is to stop it at its source: clean up contaminated water. In Alabama and across much of the U.S., there is a new ally in cleaning up toxic waste: plants. The Tennessee Valley Authority is a pioneer of this technology. Here in Alabama, they built a manmade wetland to capture toxic runoff from an old strip mine. For the next 150 years, it will clean and filter the water, just like Mother Nature. It cost $650,000 to build. Nationwide, manmade wetlands are being used to clean up sewage and contaminated runoff like fertilizers. They can even clean up soil contaminated by explosives. (END VIDEOTAPE) MCEDWARDS: Coming up in about two hours, in the 9:00 a.m. Eastern hour of our special millennium coverage: "A Drop to Drink." We'll look at the world's dwindling water supply. The guests will be Mikhail Gorbachev, one-time president of the former Soviet Union, and Shimon Peres, former Israeli prime minister. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com PAGE 24 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 3, 2000 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: January 3, 2000 PAGE 25 LEVEL 1 - 6 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 2000 The Federal Capital Press of Australia Pty Limited The Canberra Times January 2, 2000, Sunday Edition SECTION: Part A; Page 13 LENGTH: 1974 words BODY: > SAO SILVESTRE ROAD RACE In Sao Paulo, Brazil December 31 - Results of the Sao Silvestre 15km road races: MEN: 1 Paul Tergat (Kenya) 44.36, 2 Tesfaye Tola (Ethiopia) 44.39, 3 William Kiplagat (Kenya) 44.44, 4 Marilson dos Santos (Brazil) 44.57, 5 Silvio Guerra (Ecuador) 45.20. WOMEN: 1 Lydia Cheromei (Kenya) 51min 30sec, 2 Delillah Asiago (Kenya) 52.45, 3 Esther Kiplagat (Kenya) 52.47, 4 Martha Tenorio (Ecuador) 53.05, 5 Erika Oliveira (Chile) 53.33. > CANBERRA WEST December 31 - Open Pairs: Winners: B Abrahams, K Helgesen; R/up: R Thomson, F Ongania; Third: G Allen, L Cowen. RSL INTERSTATE CARNIVAL At Pine Rivers, Queensland December 31 - Jack Hamilton VC Trophy: Queensland 1, NSW 2, Victoria 3. Dr Sydney Krantz Trophy: Western Australia 1, NSW 2, Tasmania 3. SOUTHERN CROSS WODEN December 31 - Men's Social: Winners: R Cousins, J McDermott, B Reed; R/up: B Done, H Frei, M MacPherson. YOWANI January 1 - Mixed Social: Winners: P Monaghan, T Monaghan; R/up: D Anscombe, N Buchanan. > 1999 INTERNATIONAL CRICKET RESULTS Combined Test and One-Day Cricket M W L NR T % Won AUSTRALIA 51 34 13 22 66.67 SOUTH AFRICA 37 24 6 61 64.86 PAKISTAN 37 24 11 11 64.86 INDIA 53 26 22 50 49.06 WEST INDIES 43 16 25 11 37.21 NEW ZEALAND 39 14 16 90 35.90 ENGLAND 29 10 16 30 34.48 ZIMBABWE 32 10 18 40 31.25 SRI LANKA 43 13 22 71 30.23 BANGLADESH 12 2 10 00 16.67 KENYA 13 2 11 00 15.38 SCOTLAND 5 0 5 00 0.00 Total 197 1999 Test Cricket M W L NR % Won AUSTRALIA 14 9 3 2 64.29 SOUTH AFRICA 10 6 0 4 60.00 PAKISTAN 8 3 4 1 37.50 NEW ZEALAND 13 4 4 5 30.77 INDIA 10 3 4 3 30.00 WEST INDIES 8 2 6 0 25.00 SRI LANKA 9 2 1 6 22.22 ENGLAND 8 1 4 3 12.50 ZIMBABWE 6 0 4 2 0.00 Total 43 Highest innings totals: 5 (dec) 621 South Africa v New Zealand, Auckland. 594 Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Dhaka. 7 (dec) 583 India v New Zealand, Ahmedabad. 575 Australia v Pakistan, Brisbane. 7-572 South Africa v England, Durban. 7 (dec) 518 India v Sri Lanka, Colombo. 9 (dec) 518 New Zealand v West Indies, Wellington. 3 (dec) 505 India v New Zealand, Chandigarh. 8 (dec) 498 South Africa v New Zealand, Wellington. 9 (dec) 496 New Zealand v England, Manchester. Leading run scorers M Inn NO Runs HS50100 Avg S R Tendulkar (Ind) 10 19 3 1088 217 4 5 68.00 M J Slater (Aus) 14 25 2 1051 169 4 3 45.70 S R Waugh (Aus) 14 22 2 993 199 2 4 49.65 R T Ponting (Aus) 11 17 3 883 197 3 4 63.07 D J Cullinan (SA) 10 14 2 855 275* 1 4 71.25 R S Dravid (Ind) 10 19 1 865 190 1 4 48.06 D J Cullinan (SA) 10 14 2 855 275* 1 4 71.25 S Ramesh (Ind) 9 18 1 843 143 5 2 49.59 B C Lara (WI) 8 15 1 832 213 4 3 59.43 J H Kallis (SA) 10 15 3 830 148* 5 369.17 Highest individual scores: 275* D J Cullinan SA v NZ, Auckland; 275 G Kirsten SA v Eng, Durban; 242 D P M Jayawardene SL v India, Colombo; 217 S R Tendulkar Ind v NZ, Ahmedabad; 216* M S Atapattu SL v Zim, PAGE 26 The Canberra Times, January 2, 2000 Bulawayo; 214 M S Sinclair NZ v WI, Wellington; 213 B C Lara WI v Aus, Kingston; 211 Ijaz Ahmed Pak v Sri Lanka, Dhaka; 211* H H Gibbs SA v NZ, Christchurch; 200* Inzamam-ul-Haq Pak v SL, Dhaka. Highest partnerships: 352* (3rd) Ijaz Ahmed & Inzamam-Ul-Haq Pak v SL, Dhaka 327 (5th) J L Langer & R T Ponting Aus v Pak, Perth 322 (5th) B C Lara & J C Adams WI v Aus, Kingston 315* (2nd) H H Gibbs & J H Kallis SAf v NZ, Christchurch 281 (5th) R T Ponting & S R Waugh Aus v WI, Bridgetown 281 (4th) S R Tendulkar & S C Ganguly Ind v NZ, Ahmedabad 276 (1st) A F G Griffith & S L Campbell WI v NZ, Hamilton 269 (1st) G S Blewett & M J Slater Aus v Pak, Brisbane 239 (5th) S R Waugh & R T Ponting Aus v Ind, Adelaide 238 (6th) J L Langer & A C Gilchrist Aus v Pak, Hobart Leading Wicket Takers: MOversMdnRunsWAvg5I10MBB G McGrath (Aus) 14 560.4 168 1425 6721.27415/28 A Kumble (Ind) 10 581.5 1601461 5427.064210/74 S Pollock (SA) 10 396.5 139 800 48 16.672 0 5/33 C Cairns (NZ) 10 338.3 89 964 47 20.514 1 7/27 J Srinath (Ind) 9 392.2 93 1205 44 27.394 1 8/86 S Mushtaq (Pak) 7386.4107101142 24.07526/46 S Warne (Aus) 13 464.1 12512533832.9720 5/52 D Vettori (NZ) 13 587.4 162 1474 37 39.84 1 0 6/127 D Nash (NZ) 13 426.1 138 1054 37 28.49 1 0 6/27 D Fleming (Aus) 8 276.563765 3621.25 20 5/30 Best bowling in an innings: 10/74 A R Kumble Ind v Pak, Delhi; 8/86 J Srinath Ind v Pak, Calcutta; 7/27 C L Cairns NZ v WI, Hamilton; 7/46 A R Caddick Eng v SA, Durban; 7/50 S C G MacGill Aus v Eng, Sydney; 6/27 D J Nash NZ v Ind, Chandigarh; 6/33 V B K Prasad Ind v Pak, Chennai; 6/45 J Srinath Ind v NZ, Chandigarh; 6/46 Saqlain Mushtaq Pak v Aus, Hobart; 6/53 A A Donald SA v Eng, Johannesburg. Best bowling in a match: 14/149 A R Kumble Ind v Pak, Delhi; 13/132 J Srinath Ind v Pak, Calcutta; 12/107 S C G MacGill Aus v Eng, Sydney; 11/127 A A Donald SA v Eng, Johannesburg; 10/78 G D McGrath Aus v WI, Port-of-Spain; 10/100 C L Cairns NZ v WI, Hamilton; 10/134 A R Kumble Ind v NZ, Kanpur; 10/187 Saqlain Mushtaq Pak v Ind, Chennai; 10/216 Saqlain Mushtaq Pak v Ind, Delhi; 9/124 D W Fleming Aus v Pak, Brisbane. > VICTORIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS At North Brighton, Victoria December 31 - Semi-finals: T Bassett (Bruns) K Bald (Kal Pk) 26tp-0 26tp-9, S Ketelaars (Bruns) T Hall (ACT) 26-11 26-9. Final: T Bassett Ketelaars 0-26tp 26tp-9 236tp-24. > FEDERAL January 1 - Stableford (no. of players 108): A Grade (11 and below): W Cowlson (11) 45; P Marrs (10) 39. B Grade (12-17): S Mullamphy (16) 38, R Jones (12) 37. C Grade (18 and up): C Toland (23) 37, L Jones (27) 35. Ball comp: 33. CCR: 74. NTP's (2 balls each): 3rd S Mullamphy, 8th D Payne, 12th D Polglase, 16th K Fanner. WORLD CHALLENGE In Scottsdale, Arizona December 30 - Second round scores at the Grayhawk Golf Club today (USA unless stated, par 70): 133: Tom Lehman 68 65; 134: David Duval 65 69; 135: Tiger Woods 65 70; 137: Davis Love III 70 67; 139: Vijay Singh (Fiji) 70 69; 140: Sergio Garcia (Spain) 71 69, Paul Lawrie (Scotland) 70 70; 141: John Huston 74 67, Justin Leonard 69 72; 142: Hal Sutton 70 72; 144: Mark O'Meara 73 71; 146: Phil Mickelson 72 74. > NHL December 31 - (home team in CAPS): DETROIT 4 Chicago 4 (OT) DALLAS 5 Anaheim 4. EASTERN CONFERENCE Northeast Division W L RT T F A Pts TORONTO 23 11 24 115 82 52 OTTAWA 19 12 16 100 89 45 BOSTON 13 16 29 95 104 37 BUFFALO 15 17 15 89 98 36 MONTREAL 12 21 14 82 95 29 Atlantic Division PHILADELPHIA2111 16 117 88 49 NEW JERSEY 2112 24 110 91 48 PITTSBURGH 1617 53 119 104 40 NY RANGERS 1218 36 91 104 33 NY ISLANDERS 921 05 73 111 23 Southeast Division FLORIDA 20 13 33 108 86 46 CAROLINA 14 16 07 90 100 35 WASHINGTON 13 16 16 87 100 33 TAMPA BAY 10 20 PAGE 27 The Canberra Times, January 2, 2000 35 95 121 28 ATLANTA 8 24 34 80 134 23 WESTERN CONFERENCE Central Division DETROIT 25 9 14 13790 55 ST LOUIS 22 11 04 11279 48 NASHVILLE 13 20 25 98 112 33 CHICAGO 11 21 26105 117 30 Northwest Division COLORADO 1816 14 106102 41 CALGARY 1617 15 87107 38 EDMONTON 1217 59 95104 38 VANCOUVER 1217 37 93108 34 Pacific Division PHOENIX 2112 0411597 46 SAN JOSE 1918 34115104 45 DALLAS 1915 159391 44 LOS ANGELES 1714 26116107 42 ANAHEIM 1817 149694 41 Overtime loss also counts as regulation tie. > AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS December 31 - HERON AUSTRALIAN C'SHIPS in Perth: Ht 2: Abracadabra (D Jamieson, NSW) 1, Simply Red (T Carroll, NSW) 2, Limited Edition (P Carroll, WA) 3, Woodpecker (R Pagett, NSW) 4, Tranby (A Christie, WA) 5, Plan X From Outer Space (J Nobbes, Qld). MG14 at Lake Macquarie: Ht 7: Fireworks (A Carwardine, Qld) 1, Funk Trunk (B Carwardine, Qld) 2, Xanadu (G Reeves, NSW) 3, Mr Burns (D Lister, NSW) 4, Hellbringer (G Peatty, NSW) 5, Toy Phase (G Roche, NSW). Hcp: Fireworks, Funk Trunks, Xanadu. Final pts: Fireworks 6 Funk Trunk 13 Xanadu 14 Mr Burns 28 Toy Phase 33 Mahatma Bote (J Pirinen, NSW) 43. Hcp: Mr Burns 34 Toy Phase 36 Adios (M Warner, NSW) 39. SABOT at Yeppoon, Qld: Gordon Neilsen Snr 1UP: Fig Jam (B Mitchell Qld) Breakaway (T Barker Qld) Blind (J Beattie Qld) M n M (J Allwood Qld) Hot Stuff (S Florence Qld) Spiderbait (T Johns Qld). Jnr 2UP: Itsin (D Haydon-J Van Brederode Qld) Wild Thing (M Johns-L Balcon Qld) Rampage (T Ehrsam-L Ehrsam Qld) Visiion )M Skinner-M Kerr Qld) Funky Flounder (H Cook-L Madden Qld) Iron Yandi (K Merry-C Adie Tas). 36TH C'ships Snr 1UP: Fire 3 (A Cavill Qld) Over And Out (N Outteridge NSW) Venom (J Jochheim Qld) Geronimo (L Burger Qld) Crude Oil (S Morgan Tas) Charlie's Angel (C Darlow Tas). Jnr 2UP: The Razor's Edge (C-D Rohr NSW) Eraser (T-E Beattie Qld) The Fiddler (T-D Skinner Qld) Fire 6 (M Cavill-K Webster) Not Another Menace (M Creedy-L White Qld) Bad Boy L Mitchell-J Russell). SHARPIES at RQYS. Ht 3: Smoke (R Deussen SA) 1, The Glamour Cowboys (V Tidy WA) 2, Savage Mood Swings (M Stephens SA) 3, Filler Up (J Muir Qld) 4, Age Factor (T Timmermans SA) 5, Sheridan Sails (A Tidy WA) 6. Course time: 1hr 03min 18sec. Margins: 1min 10sec 54sec 15sec 30sec 9s. Progress points after three heats: The Glamour Cowboys 3 Smoke 6 Sheridan Sails 36.4 Lunchtime Legends (R Allen Vic) 38.7 Filler Up 41.7 Balltearer (R Outhred NSW) 43. > CHARITY MATCH In Madrid, Spain December 30 - REAL MADRID 3 (Nicolas Anelka 4, Jose Maria Gutierrez 28, Fernando Morientes 88) b SPANISH LEAGUE XI 2 (Catanha 23, Roberto Rios 82); Attendance: > MANLY SEASIDE CHAMPIONSHIPS December 31 - MS Open: A Fisher (NSW) b P Hanley (Qld) 3-6 6-0 6-2. Doubles: P Hanley (Qld)/N Healey (NSW) b D Currall (NSW)/G Knox (NSW) 1-6 7-6 7-6. N3: Singles: M Mendes (NSW) b A Urrutia (NSW) 5-7 6-2 6-2. Doubles: T Holt (NSW)/M Kerr (NSW) b J Skinner (NSW)/P Skinner (NSW) 6-4 6-4. Mxd doubles: J Odengren (NSW)/H Anliot (NSW) b R Giltinan (NSW)/L Giltinan (NSW) 1-6 6-0 6-4. N6: Singles: R Giltinan (NSW) b B Pearson (NSW) 6-2 6-4. Doubles: R Bougie (NSW)/D Osborne (NSW) b T Higgins (Vic)/A Straford (NSW) 7-5 6-3. 40yrs-over: Singles: H Smith (NSW) b I Davis (NSW) 7-5 6-0. Doubles: M Clayton (NSW)/T Grana (NSW) b N Birks (NSW)/G Dutton (NSW) 6-0 6-1. 18yrs-U: Singles: N Orie (NSW) b K Carrington/Hastings (NSW) 6-1 6-2. 16yrs-U: D Goh (NSW) b C Harradine (NSW) 6-4 1-6 6-0. 14yrs-U: Singles: G Pocklington (NSW) b B Keogh (NSW) 6-0 6-4. WS: Open: J Belobrajdic (NSW) b M Summerside (NSW) 6-1 6-1. Doubles: N Kriz (NSW)/J Belobrajdic (NSW) b S Stone (Vic)/K Pinchbecl (NSW) 6-2 7-6 (4). N3: Singles: M Anderson (NSW)/T Taira (Japan) 6-4 6-1. Doubles: S PAGE 28 The Canberra Times, January 2, 2000 Stewart (NSW)/M Anderson (NSW) b S Hasan (NSW)/M Grace (NSW) 6-4 6-1. N6: Singles: A Carroll (NSW) b A Estcourt (NSW) 6-2 6-3. Doubles: D Jakovljevic (NSW)/A Ivancevic (NSW) b L Estcourt (NSW)/A Estcourt (NSW) 6-1 7-5. 16yrs-U: K Childs (NSW) b L Gonzalez (NSW) 6-4 6-2. 14yrs-U: N Tanevska (NSW) b L Russell (NSW) 6-2 6-2. OPEN JUNIOR CHALLENGE At Kirrawee December 31 - F: BS: 10yrs/U: W Tian b T Hyatt 6-3 7-5. GS: J Swift b M Brycki 7-5 6-4. BS: 12yrs/U: R Delarosa b R Davenport 6-4 6-2. GS: R Lachat b J Ristic 7-6 3-6 7-5. BS: 14yrs/U: B Lewis b B Di Losa 6-3 7-6. GS: D Cupac b D Stegar 6-3 6-0. BS: 16yrs/U: T Hart b S Oh 6-4 1-6 6-4, GS: L Swift b R Mullinger 6-2 6-2. BS: 18yrs/U: Y Yang b P Hart 6-1 6-0. Doubles: Boys: 10yrs/U: G Stanford/W Tian b D Sorrodini/J Dixon 6-1. Boys: 12yrs/U: J Pirie/S Prasad b J Kramer/J Wright 7-6 6-4. Girls: N Morris/A Mullane b J Swift/A Walter 6-4 7-5. Boys: 14yrs/U: L Sharpe/M McCook b R Nikolov/R King 6-0. Girls: D Cupac/N Hansen b C Dixon/N Rynsardt 6-1 6-4. Boys: 16yrs/U: K Choi/J Lee b G Ko-S Ho 6-4 6-4. Girls: L Swift/R Mullinger b S Jandl/L Wang 6-4 6-2. Boys: 18yrs/U: Y Yang/C Park b S Park/Y Choi 6-1. LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: January 5, 2000 PAGE 29 LEVEL 1 - 7 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 2000 Newspaper Publishing PLC The Independent (London) January 2, 2000, Sunday SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 4, 5 LENGTH: 3668 words HEADLINE: TRAVEL: ULTIMATE GUIDE - YOUR A-Z OF THE FUTURE BYLINE: Sally Ramsden BODY: Spend time in Cuba, Ghana and on the island of Jura. Celebrate the Sydney Olympics, the Queen Mum's centenary and the Fetish 2000 Rubber Ball. Don't forget to take your dog and make sure you get a cheap - but safe - flight. Sally Ramsden on 21st-century travel trends. A is for AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL - the year begins with real millennial angst as many passengers and planes stay grounded to avoid the Y2K bug. But uncertainty will remain in the coming months as the Government reviews its plans to privatise air-traffic control. One high-tech alternative lies in the new fully automated air-traffic control systems now being tested. Advanced computers would enable more planes to fly at any one time and allow airlines to choose the most direct routes. Whatever the future holds, let's hope this year doesn't start with a bang. If you want to be safe rather than sorry this January, check out the latest news and views on those YK2 problems by contacting Taskforce 2000 at: www.2000.co.uk; and Aviation Safety Network at: aviation-safety.net B is for BETHLEHEM - birthplace of Jesus, where all the fuss about the Christian millennium began. At least two million visitors are expected to travel to this Palestinian town just outside Jerusalem, many of them to take part in special Bethlehem 2000 activities. How about "Hiking in the Holy Land", a guided walk tracing Jesus's footsteps, or perhaps the more earthly pleasures of a special wine festival at the nearby Cremisan Monastery? Whatever your bent, make this year an excuse to explore the lesser- known, more Palestinian parts of the Holy Land, made accessible by the peace process. For Christian-orientated tours, including meeting Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem and beyond, contact: Special Pilgrimages Ltd Christian Tours (tel: 01702 394000) and Interchurch Travel Ltd (tel: 0800 300 444). For details of Bethlehem 2000 events from January 2000 to Easter 2001, contact: BL2000@palnet.com C is for CUBA - for sun, cigars and salsa on the cheap, go now before one of the last communist regimes falls. Enjoy the decadence of crumbling Havana and its famous music clubs, but expect strict segregation of tourists from locals. If you want to meet Cubans, sign up for a good, old-fashioned socialist work brigade, cut sugar cane and sweat your way to fitness. Or pedal your way round the island on a sponsored bike ride for the Cuban people, joining in the Havana May Day parade. Cuba Solidarity 2000 international work brigade 10-30 July; pounds 770 for three weeks including flights, visas, food, accommodation and all visits. Sponsored bike ride, 22-29 April: pounds 200 plus pounds 1,000 minimum sponsorship. Contact Cuba Solidarity Campaign (tel: 0171-263 6452). D is for DOG - this is the year to treat your trusty hound to a foreign holiday as quarantine laws relax across the EU this spring. Just make sure you PAGE 30 The Independent (London), January 2, 2000 a) microchip your dog - or cat for that matter b) vaccinate c) bloodtest a month later d) wait six months before travelling e) shell out again for a further veterinary check-up 24 to 48 hours before returning to the UK. Total estimated cost is pounds 150. If all that seems too complicated and costly why not take Bonzo to one of the growing number of dog-friendly hotels here at home instead? For information on taking your dog to Europe contact the Kennel Club (tel: 0870 606 6750). For a directory of doggy-loving hotels get hold of Pets Welcome, FHG, pounds 4.95; or look at: www.linkhouse. co.uk/ FHG/pets.html E is for ETHICAL TOURISM - a great way to deal with 21st- century Western travel guilt. Going on an ethical holiday means meeting real people, respecting beautiful places and making sure the money you spend benefits the local community. Leading travel bodies are adopting ethical codes of practice and there's an ever-increasing choice of travel companies offering the ethical option: much more fun and useful than handing out a pocketful of coins to the nearest beggar. If all 1.5 billion of us who are expected to travel abroad by 2020 do our little bit, the world will indeed be a better place. Try Dragoman's new "Lakes, Mountains and Gameparks in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda" ethical tour - Dragoman (tel: 01792-861 1133; www.dragoman. co.uk; for a directory of UK-based ethical travel companies: The Community Tourism Guide by Mike Mann (Earthscan pounds 9.99) out in February 2000; advance order your copy through Tourism Concern (tel: 0171-753 3330). F is for FETISH - you don't have to travel too far these days to find exotic costumes and strange rituals: just check out the thriving British fetish scene, reputedly the biggest and best in the world. For shiny glamour there's always the Fetish 2000 Rubber Ball in central London this September. Elsewhere around the country check out one of the growing number of club nights packed with suburban perves in mail-order bondage. And if you want your fetish further afield, or simply cannot wait any longer, leap on a last-minute flight next Friday for the wild and extravagant Las Vegas Stiletto Ball. No need to pack jeans or trainers. All you need is something decent to wear. All your fetishes at: www.fetishball.com; Stiletto Ball, on 7 January 2000, at: www.club-stiletto G is for GHANA - for a much warmer, more friendly experience than our own Dome can offer, travel straight down the Greenwich Meridian Line until you to get to Tema, a ramshackle port just outside Accra. Here, close to the Equator, you can hang out with famous West African musicians on the beach, visit the old slave forts on the Gold Coast or travel up-country to the Ashante region. For stay-at-home types, Holderness, Humberside, is the quiet alternative to Ghana or even to Greenwich. Visit the white stone standing between the sea and a caravan site which marks the northernmost landmass on the millennium time line. For a 16- day hotel and camping holiday in Ghana contact Explore Worldwide (tel: 01252 760000). Travel along the Greenwich Meridian Line from UK to Ghana in cyberspace at: www.ontheline.com H is for HANOVER - visit the rest of the world in a day at the futuristic Expo 2000, 1 June- 31 October. This world exhibition promises to be the biggest and best yet, with a forward-looking focus on "Humankind-Nature- Technology". Saunter gently from one of almost 200 national pavilions to the next, sampling the latest in Dutch ecological building, Finnish saunas or Caribbean rum. Plus there's a vibrant nightly arts programme and another giant Ferris wheel. This one dips 10 metres underground - an unmissable millennium occasion. Expo two-night special break including one Expo 2000 ticket travelling by ferry and train from Groupways Leisure (tel: 01494 792722). Three-night, three-centre PAGE 31 The Independent (London), January 2, 2000 break in Hamburg, Celle and Hanover including one day at the Expo from DER Travel Service (tel: 0171-290 1107). Online Expo ticket bookings at: www.expo 2000.de I is for ICE - or what's left of it as global warming and greenhouse emissions create apocalyptic meltdown at the polar caps. Already an area the size of Texas has been lost in the Arctic over the past 20 years. Now polar bears and walruses are starving as their hunting season is cut short and the ice shelves retreat. No wonder there's a rush to the frozen ends of the world to see what's left before it's too late. There are already five times more ships visiting the Antarctic than there were 10 years ago and you can now go all the way to the north pole. Ideal for explorers who want frostbite. Trips to Iceland, Greenland, Lapland, Spitsbergen and Alaska with Arctic Experience Ltd (tel: 01737 218800). Visit the north pole by icebreaker July-August 2000 with Ocean Adventures (tel: 01254 826116). J is for JURA - if you're looking for a peaceful place to recover from all those millennium excesses, there are few Scottish islands more remote and empty than Jura, reached only via ferry from Islay. Extreme sport enthusiasts should head for the special fell- running competition this May. Simply run up and down Jura's seven peaks, including the three peculiarly breast-shaped Paps which dominate the misty skyline. Then retire to the island's only hotel which also boasts its only pub in the sole village for a well-deserved tot of Jura whisky. For a less strenuous trip, go this September to enjoy the island's own Scottish music festival. The Jura Hotel (tel: 01496 820243), at: jurahotel@aol.com; fell race and music festival: Isle of Jura Distillery (tel: 01496 820240). K is for KIDNAPPING - as the planet shrinks and we travel more widely to difficult and dangerous places, it is definitely worth considering taking out insurance to cover your risks. Extra insurance costs depend on variables such as where you're going, how often and why. You can end up paying anything from a few hundred to thousands of pounds more for peace of mind. But there are a few basic rules anyone can follow, such as not looking too rich and keeping a low profile - so no Gucci handbags or Harrods luggage labels please. Otherwise, avoid kidnap hotspots such as Algeria, Chechnya and Yemen completely. It's worth noting that the number of countries for which the Foreign Office advises against all travel is on the rise. Definitely not a cheap thrill. For specialist kidnap and detention insurance, contact Hugh Champion at Lambert Fenchurch (tel: 0171-560 3445), Lloyd's of London at: www.cyberapp.com/kidnap.html; Foreign and Commonwealth Office Consular Division Travel Advice at: www. fco.gov.uk/travel L is for LOW FARES - ever since Freddie Laker halved the cost of transatlantic air travel with his Skytrain more than a quarter of a century ago, fares have been coming down. The current trend is for cheap, no-frills airlines with instantly memorable names. Still, there are disadvantages. First, it means no nice, comfy first -class seats to try and upgrade to; second, you need to take your own lunch box or buy extortionate sandwiches on board and third, can anyone tell us how you get the really rock- bottom fares advertised which never seem to be available for the dates you actually want? My ideal flight of the future involves first-class cabins at rock- bottom prices. Contacts: www.easyjet.com (tel: 0870 600 0000); www.buzzaway.com (tel: 0870 240 7070); www.go-fly.com (tel: 0845 605 4321). M is for MALARIA - on the increase worldwide with many strains now quinine- resistant and likely to re-emerge in places such as Spain due to climatic PAGE 32 The Independent (London), January 2, 2000 changes. Already two million people living in the Tropics die, and more than 30,000 Europeans and Americans return home with malaria each year. But all is not lost: a vaccine may be at hand from a Colombian scientist or other teams working round the clock. There's no reason why we shouldn't enjoy our future travels free not only of malaria but everything else, including traveller's tummy. Inoculation against the bugs which most commonly cause diarrhoea is apparently only a year or two away. For more information, call MASTA traveller's health line (tel: 0891 224100). N is for NATIONAL CYCLE NETWORK - get on your bike and pedal around 21st -century Britain. Almost half of the new 5,000-mile millennium network will be open by June, with traffic-free paths linking country lanes, canal towpaths and disused railway lines. By 2005 there will be a total of 10,000 miles open. What's more, the Sustrans initiative also links in with the new National Byway, a 3,000-mile heritage cycling route passing more than 1,000 British heritage sites, as well as 300 miles' worth of new bike routes in Fife, Scotland. What more could an avid cyclist want? For information, maps and anything else you might need to make the most of the network call Sustrans (tel: 0117 929 0888). Holidays on wheels along the famous whisky trail and other Scottish parts at: www.cyclesscotland.freeserve.co.uk; www. sustrans.org.uk; www. visitbritain.com/activities O is for OUTER SPACE - reach for the stars with the new generation of space shuttles. Plans are gathering apace for orbiting hotels and a tourist resort on the moon. As we enter a new era, 60 per cent of Americans say they'd like to holiday in space, and a handful of Brits have already booked their places by placing large deposits. Obviously you'll need lots of money in the early years. Probably wise to wait until the wealthy have trail-blazed the routes and returned with glowing reports so that prices come down. For outer space, zero gravity experiences and earth-bound trips to Russian and USA space centres contact Wild Wings International, Bristol (tel: 0117 984 8040; www.wildwings.co.uk). P is for PYRAMID - a focus for alternative archaeology, mystic cults and doomsday prophets. New Egyptologists claim that terrible secrets hidden in both the Great Pyramid and under the nearby Sphinx will be revealed in the year 2000. David Icke even reckons that George Bush Snr and his devilish cohorts are plotting away deep inside these ancient monuments. Speculation has turned to frenzy following the latest delay to the unsealing of one of the Great Pyramid chambers. If such mysteries aren't quite your cup of tea, follow the Pope instead on his planned millennium pilgrimage to Mount Sinai, deep in the Egyptian desert. For holiday reading on the secrets of the Great Pyramid, try The Secret Chamber by Robert Bauval, (Century, pounds 16.99). Historical pilgrimages, camel treks and retreats in the Sinai Desert with Wind, Sand and Stars (tel: 0171-433 3684). Q is for QUEEN MUM - another year 2000 anniversary, this time the 100th birthday of the nation's favourite granny. The only Royal who has escaped the 20th century unscathed and is still looking forward to the next one. Of course, anything to do with the Queen Mother these days inevitably has an air of contingency just in case she does not quite make it to take the gun salute on 4 August. However, assuming all goes well, it's just been announced there will be a special ticketed thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral on 11 July and a centenary tribute on horseback on 19 July. A final fling with the good old days of monarchy for avid Royal- watchers. Surf the official Royal website for the PAGE 33 The Independent (London), January 2, 2000 latest info at: www.royal.gov.uk R is for ROME - for the great Giubileo (Jubilee) 2000 celebrations and a vast array of religious pomp and ceremony throughout the year. The Pope will be at his busiest-ever during Holy Week this Easter, starting with the world's biggest mass in St Peter's Square. As millions of pilgrims and culture vultures converge on the ancient cobbled streets and historic ruins, the problem is going to be crowd -control and facilities. Where will all these people walk, eat, and sleep? Millennium doom-mongers are predicting an unholy crush and horrendous queues for cafes, museums and loos. Start looking for accommodation now if you want any kind of a bed at all. For b&b bookings in Rome, telephone the new service offered by the Rome Chamber of Commerce (tel: 0039 06 678 9222). Information about the Roma2000 discount card at: www.romagiubileo.it S is for SYDNEY - go for the Olympics this September, the Paralympics in October or, even better, get there a month early to enjoy the Sydney 2000 Arts Festival in August. Goggle at the scale of the Olympic Superdome and Stadium Australia before running down to Bondi or one of Sydney's other 50 beaches. But beware surf rage - a new problem arising from too many big boys taking to the waves at the same time. And if you don't manage to get there for now, you've got a second chance as the Aussies are actually throwing their big birthday party and parades next New Year's Day to celebrate the centenary of their constitution. Good bet for those of you who know that because there was no year 0 in the Christian calendar, the millennium really starts on 1 January 2001 (www.sydney.olympic. org). For Olympics packages including flights, a week's accommodation and tickets from around pounds 1,200, contact Travelbag (tel: 08707 377787). Austravel's Great Escape pack- age includes tickets for four Olympics events and three nights' accommodation from pounds 994 (tel: 0171-584 0202). T is for TRAIN - a surprisingly trendy way to travel in the millennium, especially once you get away from all the safety, cost and delay issues at home. On mainland Europe state-of-the-art, high-speed trains will whisk you to all sorts of popular destinations in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. And from July 2000 you'll be able to travel all the way from southern Spain to the Arctic circle by train using the new bridge- tunnel link between Copenhagen and Malmo. But if you prefer your journeys decadent and retro why not take advantage of the fin-de-siecle fashion for luxury Orient-Express style services around the globe. Al-Andalus Express from Seville to Granada, Southern Spain: Sovereign (tel: 08705 768373). For Blue Train trips across South Africa: Africa Ethos (tel: 0181-542 5711). Great South Pacific Express along Australia's East Coast: Orient Express (tel: 0171-805 5100). U is for UNITED STATES - with the number of British visitors increasing more than five-fold in the past decade and Florida now our most popular long-haul destination, the USA may soon overtake our most popular excursion, still the day trip to France. With 13 international airports, six theme parks and 1,100 golf courses to choose from, Florida has plenty to offer. And that's without the new tropical park at Discovery Cove, where you can swim with dolphins, or the kerbside check-in and smart rooms at the Portofino Bay Hotel. So how come more and more Americans are holidaying on our quaint British shores? Could it be they need to get away from it all? Florida holiday information (tel: 0891 600 555), or at: www.flausa.com PAGE 34 The Independent (London), January 2, 2000 V is for VIRTUAL TRAVEL - for armchair addicts and internet junkies. Online chat rooms, info, bookings, great last-minute bargains - the internet has revolutionised the way we travel even if we never leave home. From the comfort of your living room, office or mobile phone, you can go anywhere you like. Not forgetting all the millennium paraphernalia. Maps of the apocalypse, doomsday prophecies, you name it, the internet has got it. There's even a webcam from evangelicals in Hereford trained on the Golden Gates of Jerusalem ready for the Second Coming. So far, more than 200,000 people have paid a visit just in case the end of the world is nigh. Late travel bargains at: www.lastminute. com; and at: www.qxl.com; a sneak preview of the Dome at: www.dome 2000.co.uk W is for WALES - from the new Millennium Stadium (with Rugby Experience Museum) to the new Millennium Centre (new opera house in the offing) the Welsh have really gone to town. There's also the Millennium Coastal Park, Llanelli, venue for the ancient Welsh National Eisteddfod in August 2000. And the revamped Cardiff Docks, creatively named (you guessed it) the Millennium Waterfront. And that's without even mentioning the Botanic Garden with gigantic glass hothouse designed by Lord Foster. Make time to swan round some of Britain's best new architecture this summer and tan on some of Britain's sunniest beaches. Stay at the new St David's Hotel and Spa, Cardiff Bay (tel: 01222 454045); further information at: www. cardiff -bay.co.uk X is for XANADU - the summer palace of Kubla Khan, grandfather of Genghis, now in ruins at the far end of the Silk Route on the Mongolian Steppe. You'll be pleased to know by now that the only connection with the millennium here are the lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree" - so much more exotic than Greenwich. But if even that poetic reference is too much, then head in the opposite direction to the even more remote Islamic region of Xinjiang- Uygur in north-west China. The Chinese aren't celebrating our millennium for all sorts of cultural and political reasons. And anyway, since the Chinese word for millennium is such a tongue-twister it's best not to even try it. Silk Road Expedition, including the mosques of Kashgar, from Exodus (tel: 0181-673 0859); armchair travellers should read In Xanadu - A Quest by William Dalrymple (Flamingo, 1990, pounds 8.99). Y is for YACHTING - and anything with sails, especially if you get to New Zealand in time for the Pacific Tall Ships Festival 2000. Captain Cook's Endeavour is among the old ships due to arrive in Auckland from Hawaii this January. You could stay on in New Zealand for the February finale of the America's Cup and a myriad other yachting events throughout the year. If down under seems too far to go for a bit of yacht-watching then book your train ticket to Portsmouth Harbour for 16 September and the end of the year-long Millennium Round the World Yacht Race. Happy sailing. Millennium Round the World Yacht news (tel: 01246 477377). Pacific Tall Ships Festival and other New Zealand millennium events at: www.gisborne2000.org.nz Z is for Zen Buddhism and Zoroastrianism - if you're still wondering where to go to get away from it all, you could do worse than to combine escapism with contemplation with two of the world's many religions which predate Christ. Japanese Zen is a simple, disciplined form of Buddhism involving breath-based meditation facing a wall. It's on the increase among Europeans and Americans looking for more to life than fast cars, fast food and fashion. Zoroastrianism originates from ancient Persia and focuses on the duality of good and evil. Go to Iran, now back on the travel agenda, this May for the annual festival in Yazd when Zoroastrian pilgrims converge from across the globe. Visit sacred fire PAGE 35 The Independent (London), January 2, 2000 temples. Above all, enjoy the year 2000 and all that it brings. Zen Buddhist retreats, Throssle Hole Priory, Northumberland (tel: 01434 345204); Zoroastrian Persia adventure, 14 days not including flights - pounds 1,265; Magic Carpet Travel (tel: 01344 622832); www.magic-carpet- travel.com GRAPHIC: Time lines: straddle the Greenwich meridian and still stay warm by travelling to the Ghanaian coast, left. No doubt fetishists will remain indoors for the 2000 Rubber Ball in London in September, right ROBERT; HARDING PICTURE LIBRARY; PATRICK BARTH/REX; Millennial mysteries:; Egyptologists claim the pyramids will finally reveal their secrets this year MARTIN ENRIC/APSun seeking: soon we will boldly go on holiday in space UPP This could be your last chance to sample Cuba's delights before global capitalism claims its last scalp, left; what better time to visit; Bethlehem, above, without which 2000 would just be another neat number; and the Queen Mother, below, turns 100 this year - but does she get a telegram?; WORLD PICTURES; CENTRAL TELEVISIONDown under achievers: head south for the; Sydney Olympics - then go back and party again next January LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: January 4, 2000 PAGE 36 LEVEL 1 - 8 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 2000 P.G. Publishing Co. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette January 2, 2000, Sunday, REGION EDITION SECTION: WORLD, Pg. A-4 LENGTH: 1217 words HEADLINE: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BYLINE: JERRY SCHWARTZ BODY: Children's visions of the 21st century On a day deep in the 21st century, Rohan Manocha awakes and reads the newspaper on the Internet. He eats a capsule for breakfast, takes a hydroelectric bath, and then goes for a walk on the moon. His children, meanwhile, are at school, using laptops instead of notebooks and writing to penpals on Pluto. Their clothing is air-conditioned and protects them from pollution. After school, they go to movies at malls in outer space. That evening, Rohan takes his kids to a carnival on Mars. He knows the red planet well; a lawyer, he fights "cases for the Martians on Mars." Of course, foresight is rarely 20-20. In 1999, Rohan is just 11 years old, a student at the Amity International School in the New Delhi suburb of Noida, where he likes to study and play tennis. Maybe he will walk on the moon. Maybe not. But a boy can dream. The dreams of the third millennium are being dreamed now, by children at Kyobashi Tsukiji Elementary School in Tokyo, at Narciso Mendoza Elementary School in Nezahualcoyotl near Mexico City, at Fernbank Elementary School in Atlanta, at Olympic Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya. Ten, 11 or 12 years old, they have every reason to believe that they will see the bulk of the 21st century; with luck and some medical advances, they may very well see the dawn of the 22nd. From India to Israel, they see tomorrow vividly - expressing their visions in tumbling words and hopeful drawings that show themselves grown up and smiling, the sun rising over secure neighborhoods, the Earth as the bright flower on a healthy green stem. Many imagine a Jetsonian world - a hovercraft in every garage and robots everywhere, splitsecond trips to other planets, pills that fill your stomach. But their future reflects their present. Around them, many see war, lawlessness, disease, and a world poisoning itself. So they veer from youthful optimism to bleak pessimism. PAGE 37 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 2, 2000 Listen to Tomoka Hayashi, 12, of Tokyo. "We will use too much power and one day we can no longer use any electric appliances and there will be an explosion and people die. ... Then we will start living with nature and start cooperating," she says. But perhaps, she adds, we can change - switch paper milk cartons for glass and slow the cutting of forests. "There may be a chance that people will become more aware of nature and our problems and start recycling." Gosha Khusainov, a 10-year-old student at School No. 57 in Moscow, just a couple of blocks from the Kremlin, doubts it: "I think the world'll be worse, because it'll be very cold. It'll be less trees and grass, all days will be like evening, and only at night it'll be like now." As the natural world shrinks, Anat Avraham, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Frankel Elementary School in Jerusalem, sees a time when people will share their homes with bears ["bears who don't eat people," she explains]. "My children will have lots of animals but they will barely see any nature. In my opinion, there won't be any (nature) then. I will try to help animals, especially panda bears who are endangered. I will try to prevent the death of fish." When fifth-grader Ethan Sawyer of Atlanta grows up, he expects to study Amazon rain forest ecology "on an acre of land, all that is left of the world's rain forests." Not that tomorrow will be entirely bad. Ethan says he will sleep just two hours a day, because "some gizmo" will make his sleep more efficient. He will eat "little pills filled with energy frappes. I don't think anyone will work in factories because robots will do all the work." But he agrees that wildlife will be imperiled, and Ethan loves animals - "I ADORE otters. I'm obsessed with otters." He hopes "that we will be able to save the animals. We may have to create new species. I don't know how, but there may be a way," he says. Dasha Marynova of Moscow thinks it can happen. "I want to study zoology and become a biologist because I'd like to deal with new animals, study them and meet tiger-leopards, mouse-owls, elephant-cockroach-spiders, snake-frog-crocodiles," says Dasha. Dasha sees a sunny future, full of airborne electric trains and special machines "that collect snow from the roads and don't sprinkle them with salt, which ruins your shoes." "Someone will invent a time machine, and people can be in the past, in the future, in the present. It will be much more interesting than simply going to school or playing. I also hope the time machine will return my grandfather, who died a few years ago," she says. Dasha is 10 years old; she has a 20-year-old sister, Masha and a 14-yearold brother, Alyosha. In the future according to Dasha, Alyosha will not go into the army - now enmeshed in fighting in Chechnya. PAGE 38 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 2, 2000 In that same future, the crime that has plagued post-communist Russia will be no more. Dasha wants to believe "that murders will stop, that there won't be people in prison, but that the police will arrest people on other planets for robbery." Maria del Pilar Guzman Sanches is also 10; she likes to spend her time playing with Barbies, curling her eyelashes and painting her lips in her home in Mexico. But she lives in a world scarred by lawlessness, and imagines a world without it. "No pollution, no kidnappers, no drunks, no drug addicts, no cocaine addicts or sexual violence or violence against the authorities," she says. "I see the news and they say they stole some children," Maria says. "It makes me sad and I wouldn't like that to happen to me or to my children or to my grandchildren or to my great-grandchildren." Simon Mwangi wants to be a policeman when he grows up - unless he becomes an engineer or a meteorologist. He lives in Nairobi and foresees a time when Kenya "will be very industrialized and there will not be things like crimes. The police will be everywhere, like five policemen" in a housing compound. One night last June, 15 armed, masked men invaded his house, tied up his parents and robbed them. When they entered his bedroom, Simon screamed. A watchman came running; the bandits shot and killed him. Simon wants to invent "a robot which, if things come to your house, it can demolish all of them ... it can catch them and take them to police." Simon is 12 years old; he attends Olympic Primary School, set on a low hill overlooking corrugated metal roofs. Goats munch on clumps of grass at the edges of the dirt that surrounds the school. His classmate, Esther Auma, is appalled by poverty. "People die of hunger, many things. There is no unity. You can find somebody is feasting a lot of meat, chicken, and somebody is dying of hunger and he or she is throwing (the food away). There is no love." In the future, "There will be love. People will be working in groups. There will be no corruption." In India, 11-year-old Prachi Shrivastava sees people begging on the roads. She envisions a luxurious future - "The poorest person having a luxury flat and the middle class having a big, beautiful, computerized bungalow. The richest should have their own colony." "As I would be a very, very rich person" - she expects to live in the penthouse of a 1,000-story building - "I would have powers to reach to the government and tell them to help make my dream come true." LOAD-DATE: January 2, 2000 PAGE 39 LEVEL 1 - 9 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 2000 P.G. Publishing Co. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette January 2, 2000, Sunday, REGION EDITION SECTION: MISCELLANEOUS, Pg. C-6 LENGTH: 1051 words HEADLINE: THE NEW YORK TIMES BYLINE: ROBERT D. MCFADDEN BODY: It started with a huge global party that put an end to an entire millennium. World moved into a new era one hour at a time Two thousand years after Christ's obscure birth in a dusty town in Judea, the world's 6 billion people - most of them non-Christian and many of them preoccupied with terrorism, computers, diets, bank accounts, politics and the perils of the future - have now ridden their turning blue planet across time's invisible line and, by common consent, looked into the dawn of a new millennium. What they saw first was a party. It was garish, glittering and global, and millions, setting religious considerations and personal concerns aside, joined in the festivities to celebrate the conjunction of a new year, a new century and a new thousand-year cycle of history. They also put aside the inconvenient fact that the millennium, technically, is still a year off. It hardly mattered. In New York's Times Square and across the United States, in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, in cities and towns all over the world, bells pealed, crowds shrieked and surged, skyrockets soared into the night, fireworks burst into supernovas, "Auld Lang Syne" rang out, lights pulsed, loved ones and friends embraced, and the music and champagne flowed. On a day when moods ran the spectrum from tensions and prayers to euphoria and irresistible hyperbole, what most were calling Christianity's Third Millennium arrived in 24 stages as the earth revolved through the time zones and midnight elapsed again and again in an around-the-clock, around-the-world series of golden moments that began at the International Dateline in the Pacific and raced westward across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. In New York, a vast crowd of revelers packed Times Square and much of midtown Manhattan for the biggest public event ever held in the city - a 26-hour, $ 7 million marathon of music, fireworks, confetti and deafening voices culminating as a 1,070-pound crystal ball descended at midnight, while the police sweated out an enormous potential for trouble. There were lavish celebrations in Washington, London, Paris, Jerusalem, Moscow, Cape Town, New Delhi, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and hundreds of other cities. There were parties, concerts, dances, torchlight parades and televised extravaganzas that brought the worldwide show to billions more. PAGE 40 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 2, 2000 There were millions around the world who had no reason to be festive, people like Tom Nganga, 40, who lives in Kangemi, a vast slum of Nairobi, Kenya. "We as Kenyans and people of Kangemi are very, very angry as we celebrate this millennium," he said. "People are very poor. People have nothing to eat. We have nothing to celebrate." After years of concern over Y2K computer problems that had cost billions of dollars to fix, there were no immediate reports of computer-related disasters anywhere in the world - no plane crashes, major power failures, nuclear plant shutdowns or collapses of banking, business, government or health care systems. But experts said it might take days for some computer problems to develop, in part because many businesses and government agencies were closed for the holiday weekend. There had also been fears that terrorists, publicity seekers or the insane might set off explosions or mount chemical or biological attacks as millions gathered to celebrate, while vast audiences watched on television. No specific threats had been reported, although some suspects had been seized recently. Still, there were no immediate reports of trouble, and law enforcement authorities seemed ready for almost anything. The millennium - an idea with overtones ranging from biblical to commercial - had swelled recently into a coercive miniculture as the countdown ticked away and a flood of books, articles, television specials and studied commentaries by academic, political and religious leaders reflected upon the last thousand years of human achievements and missteps, and speculated on the next thousand. Purists still insist that the millennium will not start until Jan. 1, 2001, and they are no doubt right. The calendar, at best, is arbitrary. But as Voltaire noted, history is the lie that historians agree upon, and the tide of popular opinion has swept nearly everyone along. For doomsayers who had prophesied conflagrations, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other end-of-theworld scenarios (and kept a weather eye out for UFO rescue ships), the new millennium was something of a nonevent, although the anxiety prompted by all the wild predictions of chaos was real enough. The millennium, if nothing else, was a celebration of history, marking human survival after a deadly century of wars, genocide and revolution that saw the end of colonialism, fascism and communism, as well as the achievements of the past thousand years - printing and widespread literacy; the exploration of the last frontiers on earth; the first ventures into outer space, the inner mind and the microscopic universe; and the flowering of democratic government, and of art, literature, science, technology and communications into undreamed eminences. The world on this Millennium Day was still beset with terrible problems with grinding poverty that afflicted a third of its 6 billion inhabitants, with ethnic and national strife, with the continuing curse of racial and religious bigotries, and with the exclusion of countless millions from adequate health care, education, jobs and even such basic needs as shelter and clean water, not to mention freedoms of speech and political association. PAGE 41 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 2, 2000 But with a few exceptions - notably threats of terrorism and limited wars in the Balkans, Chechnya and other regions - it was a world largely at peace, with the apocalyptic threat of nuclear annihilation receding and new understandings growing between old enemies in the Middle East, Ireland, South Africa and other long-troubled areas. And it was a world on the threshold of a new era - one that offered visions of astounding strides in science and technology and seemed to hold out anew the ancient promises of universal peace and prosperity, although the only certainty seemed to be that the world a thousand years from now would be unrecognizable. LOAD-DATE: January 2, 2000 PAGE 42 LEVEL 1 - 10 OF 56 STORIES Content and programming copyright 2000 Cable News Network Transcribed under license by Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. Formatting copyright 2000 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to Cable News Network. This transcript may not be copied or resold in any media. CNN SHOW: CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL 11:13 am ET January 1, 2000; Saturday 11:13 am Eastern Time Transcript # 00010122V54 TYPE: SPECIAL SECTION: News; International LENGTH: 5996 words HEADLINE: Millennium 2000: Space GUESTS: Col. Eileen Collins, Robert Zubrin, Frank Culbertson BYLINE: Daryn Kagan, Jim Clancy, John Zarrella, David Lewis HIGHLIGHT: The history of space exploration goes back decades, and over the years we have learned a great deal about our planet just from the solar system around us. But there are still many more questions than there are answers, and as we enter the 21st century, the possibilities for space travel appear to be almost endless. BODY: THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The history of space exploration goes back decades. The Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, but the Americans quickly caught up and overtook Moscow. JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: And over the years we have learned a great deal about our planet just from the solar system around us. But there are still many, many more questions than there are answers. As we enter the 21st century, the possibilities for space travel appear to be almost endless. Already, man has walked on the moon and lived aboard a space station. CNN's John Zarrella, who covers these kinds of things, shows us what could be in store for the next generation. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAGE 43 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You need to really get away from it all? Why not jump on a space bus and hop up to this Earth-orbiting hotel for vacation? A private company, Space Island Group, says it's not just a pie-in-the sky dream. GENE MYERS, SPACE ISLAND CORP.: Every step that you take, every movement you make, pouring a glass of wine, dropping something on the table, is going to be exotic because you're going to have only one- third gravity. It's going to look like you're living in a slow-motion world. ZARRELLA: It's an out-of-this-world vacation spot that Gene Myers says may be less than a decade away. The hotel, shaped like an orbiting wheel, would be constructed by linking together used space shuttle external fuel tanks. UNIDENTIFIED FLIGHT CONTROLLER: ... three, two, one, zero, and lift-off. ZARRELLA: Instead of falling uselessly back to Earth, as they do now, the tanks would be left in orbit. Outfitted with the proper decor, the cavernous tanks, strung together like a pearl necklace, would house hundreds of guests at $20,000 a head. While Myers' group is turning down beds in space... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just space geeks, you know? JIM BENSON, ENTREPRENEUR: Well, somebody's got to be. ZARRELLA: ... Jim Benson is hoping to turn a buck by mining heavenly bodies, like asteroids, for materials that can be used in cosmic construction. He'll also look for water. JIM BENSON, PRESIDENT, SPACE DEV: Water in space is concentrated energy, more powerful than petroleum products. It's oxygen and hydrogen. That's rocket fuel. ZARRELLA: Fueled by visions that the next gold rush will take place in space, entrepreneurs are expected to line up in the early part of the next century to grab a commercial slice of the cosmos. JOHN LOGSON, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Our children, our grandchildren are going to have the opportunity to go at least beyond this planet within our solar system, and maybe our great grandchildren will be the first to leave and do the go where no one has gone before. ZARRELLA: The problem is speed. In the 21st century, where humans will go depend on how fast they can get there because the distances are mind-bending. By the year 2020, the U.S. Space Agency hopes to have humans exploring the surface of Mars. It will take the expedition 11 months to get there and require an enormous launch vehicle on the scale of the old Saturn V moon rockets. And Mars, at 160 million miles away, would be like going to your next-door neighbor's house. Magnetic levitation might make the whole trip cheaper and faster. At the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, engineers are testing MagLev technology to accelerate a vehicle to 400 miles per hour down a track in nine seconds. PAGE 44 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 SHERRY BUSCHMANN, ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY, PROJECT MANAGER: Magnetic levitation launch assist allows us to give a reasonable launch vehicle a running start, basically, before the vehicle takes off. ZARRELLA: Within the first quarter of the next century, a variety of space planes will carry payloads into low Earth orbit. Others will ferry cargo and crews to the International Space Station when it's completed. But all of this is near-Earth activity, like playing tag in your own backyard. Unless humans can travel fast, really fast, our species will never get very far from Earth. ROBERT WINGLEE, GEOPHYSICIST: We will be tapping into something that could push us from Washington, D.C., to Seattle in about 10 seconds. ZARRELLA: University of Washington geophysicist Robert Winglee thinks he and his team might have found a natural accelerator in space, the sun -- not its light, but the wind that blows out in all directions from it at a staggering 500 miles per second. Early in the next century, Winglee's team plans to inflate a giant magnetic bubble in space. The solar wind would push it like air pushes a hot-air balloon and its gondola. Only this gondola spaceraft would travel at tremendous speeds. WINLEE: And when you deflect something, you pick up their momentum. So what the sun is going to provide us is with free, unlimited propellant that is moving at very high speeds. ZARRELLA: Most physicists believe that within the first half of the next century chemical rockets will be ancient history, replaced by much faster solar sails, fusion rockets and ion propulsion, which generates thrust by shooting out electrically charged gases. And the Mars rovers of today will look like kindergarten toys. DAN GOLDIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: We're going to see robots that have capacity to morph and learn and change. They can express emotion. And they will be the buddies of astronauts. ZARRELLA: Goldin believes living and working in space, zipping around the solar system with robotic and human explorers will likely be commonplace by 2075, give or take a decade. (on camera): But going beyond our own solar system may be out of reach for another thousand years. Using current technology, if humans were to leave today headed for the nearest star in our own Milky Way galaxy, it would take 40,000 years to get there. GOLDIN: If we don't come within a good fraction of the speed of light, there's no way to get out to planets that might exist at perhaps 10 light years from Earth, 50 light years from Earth. ZARRELLA (voice-over): Because of the distances between stars, even traveling at light speed, 186,000 miles per second, thousands of years would pass just getting from one star system to another in our galaxy. PAGE 45 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 PAUL HOROWITZ, HARVARD ASTRONOMER: The galaxy, of course, is a flattened disk of stars about 100,000 light years in diameter, containing about 400 billion stars. ZARRELLA: And light speed, most physicists say, is not even on the radar screen. GENE SCHMIDT, NASA PHYSICIST: Really, within the bounds of known science -- and that's really whet we have to work with -- right now it doesn't look feasible. But then again, you can never claim that you know everything. ZARRELLA: Traveling to the stars may not be part of the human equation, in the 21st century or ever. Many believe our ability to put people on Mars will determine whether humans explore frontiers beyond. LOU FRIEDMAN, PLANETARY SOCIETY: I think what we're doing on Mars is this experiment, a 21st century experiment, is that by the end of it, we will have an opinion of life flows out over the planet and starts to go everywhere or life hangs around at home and it's just not worth the investment to go. ZARRELLA: During the next 100 years, telescopes more powerful than Hubble will image planets circling distant stars. Chances are, we'll see blue planets just like ours, perhaps bearing life. The question is, are we destined to ever know for sure? John Zarrella, CNN, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (END VIDEOTAPE) KAGAN: Ahead on CNN's millennium coverage, preparing for our future in space. We'll talk with two shuttle commanders. That's up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) CLANCY: At this historic changeover, more questions over the future of space. What is next for humans in space? An international space station maybe. Space travel definitely. More exploration of Mars and beyond, and here to talk about that is Col. Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle commander. She's joining us from Phoenix, where she is a guest. She'll be in a parade at the college football Fiesta Bowl this day. Also with us from Houston is astronaut Frank Culbertson, who is preparing for his third mission, to work on the construction of the international space station. Col. Collins, I want to begin with you and just ask you the question about the future of space, what you see as really defining where we can go. Are there limits? Should we even speak of them? COL. EILEEN COLLINS, U.S. AIR FORCE: Well, good morning. I think the first -- the next executing thing is the international space station, as you mentioned. But why are we doing that? We'll it's to prepare for future exploration, going back to the moon permanently and going on to Mars. And I'm really excited to someday see people walk on Mars and live and work on Mars. PAGE 46 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 CLANCY: Well, I want to talk to you about the role of women in space exploration. But first, if I can ask you this crucial question right now, and that is -- I don't know whether I should say this or not -- but manned missions versus unmanned missions in space exploration, a lot of talk now that the unmanned missions, after the failure of the Mars Polar Lander, that we need a manned mission. COLLINS: Well, I think it's really the synergy between the two. We need both, you know, missions with -- robotic missions, as we say, and missions with people, because we work together on those. I think the robotic missions should go first and maybe discover the sites that are best for the people to follow. So we really work together, and I think we need a mixture of both. CLANCY: Astronaut Frank Culbertson, you have traveled in space as a shuttle commander. You're working on the space station. You'll be going back up again, probably staying about six months. How do you describe to us the experience of being an astronaut, that we should support this, that somehow we are getting something more than we even think from space travel? FRANK CULBERTSON, COMMANDER, THIRD MISSION TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: Well, as Eileen said, the presence of people makes a huge difference. And when you have people in space who are able to experience what's going on and relate it to the ground and conduct the experiments that are required for us to expand our knowledge, then you've got human knowledge being increased and people able to express what it's like to be up there, which is a beautiful experience. KAGAN: If I could just follow that up, how does it change you as a person to have that experience in space, and how does it change your theories and your beliefs about life that might be elsewhere besides on Earth? CULBERTSON: Well, I think that when you see the Earth from space, you get a different perspective, and not just the physical perspective but the fact that the Earth is a very solid rock that's floating in space, but is very small. And the environment that covers it, that allows us to live, is very, very fragile. So even though the planet is very solid and will probably be exist for billions of years, as it has in the past, the fact that we are able to live there is a very, in some ways, a chance occurrence maybe. Certainly, your beliefs and how that began are affected by being able to see that, and how it must have been guided in some way. And I think that the fragility of that is what comes across to you as you look at it from space and see the effects of pollution, the effects of changing the environment, changing the surface of the Earth. KAGAN: Col. Collins, you talked about people living on the moon permanently, about going to Mars. Do you envision a time when we take it a step past just women in space and see families in space and maybe even when the first baby might be born in space? COLLINS: Well, yes, I definitely see that. If you know, look back hundreds of years and you see how people move from, for example, from Europe to North America, we're going to see similar type things as people leave this planet and go on to the Moon and Mars. PAGE 47 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 And it's an important thing to bring women into the space program, and women have adapted very well and have contributed the same talents and abilities as men to the space program. And I think eventually, when we start sending people out into space, we're not going to be going short missions; we'll be going on long missions. So we'll need to send families. And the family is an important unit here on Earth, and it will be the same in space. CLANCY: The challenges of living in space for a long time. Certainly one of them is going to be the expense of supporting that kind of an operation. Astronaut Culbertson -- well, Col. Collins let me ask you this -- you know, a little bit about budgeting in NASA. What are we confronting right now? In order to find this future that we're talking about, what is needed from the government and from others? COLLINS: Well, the government usually takes the lead in doing things that are maybe a little more risky than something private industry would jump into, as far as the economics side of it. So the government should, in many ways, go first and do the exploring part and show that this is a feasible thing to do, and potentially, and economically good thing to do. And then private industry can follow. And I think we'll see that may be sooner than you think. We'll citizens, the average citizen flying in space some day, just having the opportunity maybe to go up and do a suborbital flight, which is maybe 15 minutes or so; and then going up later for visits to a space station. And as we start getting people into space and tourism, industry will start seeing that yes, there is a profit to be made in space, and then more and more people will have the opportunity to go. CLANCY: Astronaut Frank Culbertson, if I can ask you, the internationalization of space -- you worked on the Mir project with the Russians. Is this something that's political, or is there a real benefit to seeing nations that develop their space programs together? CULBERTSON: Well, there's plenty of politics always involved in government programs, and certainly in the space program, throughout its history politics has been involved. But fortunately, there are tremendous real benefits involved in our working together with the Russians and our other partners on the international space station. It's a tremendous mixing of cultures, technology, capabilities, operational experience. CLANCY: I know that you have to go, Col. Collins. I want to ask you a question before you do leave. And I just want to ask you this: Do you dream when you're up in space? Or even down on Earth, what are your dreams of space and your perhaps vision there of the future? COLLINS: Well, I find as far as dreaming while your -- I'm not sure what you mean by dreams -- you know, dreaming while your sleeping or dreaming of the future. I'd say, let me answer both questions. Dreaming in space or sleeping space is very similar to that on Earth. As far as dreaming of, you know, things in the future, and you know, how -- you know, maybe dreaming of better things, I think going up into space is really inspirational, and especially looking out the window; as Frank mentioned, looking back at the Earth and seeing how beautiful it is and how fragile it is, you just have dreams for yourself, and for the future of humanity and for your family that the world can be a better place and there's more that we can do PAGE 48 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 and there's more places we can go and things that we can do better. And I think being an astronaut, I think I have a different perspective on the Earth than I did before I became and astronaut, and I think I'm a lot more positive and more hopeful for the future than I was before. CLANCY: Col. Eileen Collins, our thanks to you for being with us. Good luck at the Fiesta Bowl. Enjoy the parade. Frank Culbertson, I'm going to ask you to stay there. We're going to be back, talking with you a little bit in just a few minutes. CULBERTSON: Sure. KAGAN: Even astronauts have special responsibilities, like waving at a parade on New Year's Day. Coming up on our special millennium coverage: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Develop the means to go to other planets and look for this life. We're not restricted by our own imagination. (END VIDEO CLIP) KAGAN: Searching for underground -- searching underground for clues to life on Mars. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: The search for life in space is another chapter in space exploration, and the search for life on Mars is taking scientists to some earthly places like Mexico. In a story that first aired on CNN & TIME correspondent David Lewis accompanied some modern-day explorers underground to learn more about other planets. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAVID LEWIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Once a year, descendants of the Sokay (ph) Indians of southern Mexico celebrate an ancient ritual at a cave called Vialus (ph). Their legends say it is the entrance to the underworld. A few days later, these American visitors set off on a different kind of pilgrimage to Vialus, a scientific quest. Penny Boston and Diana Northrup are exobiologists, specialists in the search for life in outer space, funded in part by NASA, the government's space agency. They've come to the Mexican jungle along with a geologist colleague. PENNY BOSTON, EXOBIOLOGIST: If the pigmented population and the less-pigmented population are living in the same habitat, why are they synchronating? LEWIS: It may seem strange, but they're here to look for clues to life on Mars, our nearest planetary neighbor. What they find could redefine biology. PAGE 49 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 Until recently, scientists believed that all life, from plants to animals, ultimately depends on sunlight and photosynthesis. But underneath the jungle floor in Vialus, a chain of life breaks the old biological rules, surviving without sunlight, getting its energy instead from chemicals in the Earth's crust. BOSTON: This cave has an exceedingly high sulfur content, and we are very interested in that because Mars is a very sulfur-rich planet. LEWIS: But the sulfur that tantalizes these exobiologists can also kill them. BOSTON: We need all the equipment we can get. LEWIS: Hydrogen sulfide gas fills most parts of the cave with its poisonous, rotten-egg stink. With special respirators, they are safe, ready to look for life beyond the sky by studying life below the ground. (on camera): In this part of the cave, we stand between two worlds: aboveground, the one we know; and this way, a little- understood world of alien life that thrives in total darkness and a poisonous atmosphere. What is it that lives here? How can it survive in such a hostile place? (voice-over): Down here, sulfur-eating microbes are the first link in a flourishing food chain that includes midges and other insects, spiders... BOSTON: Oh, cool! LEWIS: ... tiny blind fish and even mammals, bats by the thousands. They're normally fragile creatures, but they've somehow adapted to this toxic atmosphere. How, nobody knows. (on camera): It seems like there's a couple of mysteries left in this cave. DIANA NORTHRUP, EXOBIOLOGIST: A couple? BOSTON: There's far more about this cave that we don't know. NORTHRUP: Oh, they're nibbling! The little mouth is moving. LEWIS: So they're doing everyday biology -- sampling, testing -- but under extraordinary conditions. BOSTON: Right now, I have a broken bone from a November trip. And I got a giant, swollen hematoma in my leg, with a bone chip on a different trip. And I cracked a rib, and I got a big chunk of gypsum in my eye that had to be dug out. Oh! I got burning stuff on my hands, on my arms. LEWIS: On this trip, it was the sulfur that got to Penny Boston. BOSTON: (INAUDIBLE) it's hurting up here. I'm itching and burning all over. LEWIS: Apparently, sulfuric acid formed when the sweat on her body reacted with the hydrogen sulfide gas. PAGE 50 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 BOSTON: It's been exceedingly high, and these are lethal levels for humans. LEWIS: They carry a monitor to check for dangerous gases. Hydrogen sulfide -- H2S -- is deadly above 10 parts per million. BOSTON: H2S coming up -- 29, 30, 40. I'm not sure I want to stand over this much longer. LEWIS: It's been as high as 140. NORTHRUP: One of the dangers is that when you quit smelling hydrogen sulfide is right before you die. LEWIS: If they survive all the challenges, they can actually do a little science. One especially exotic lifeform in Vialus first caught their attention. NORTHRUP: Oh, look at that! LEWIS: A colony of bacteria that feeds off sulfur and forms a unique shape. NORTHRUP: That is the best baby snottite I've ever seen. (CROSSTALK) NORTHRUP: ... I have seen, yeah. BOSTON: What particularly attracted us to this cave are these -- these snottites (ph), these rather humorously named sort of gooey stalactite-looking objects. NORTHRUP: Let's get a nice juicy one. LEWIS: Snottites? How do they talk about this in polite conversations. BOSTON: Well... NORTHRUP: We're not polite. BOSTON: ... we're not polite! NORTHRUP: Why don't you bring the tube up under it, Penny. LEWIS: In fact, the bacterial snottites and the cave's entire sci-fi ecosystem represent a series scientific puzzle. NORTHRUP: You could do 20 dissertations in this cave. BOSTON: We could be working in this cave for the rest of our careers. LEWIS: In Diana Northrup's case, it's a career she literally stumbled into. NORTHRUP: I went into my first cave when I was 18 years old, tripped in a stream, fell in over my head in the water, and I was hooked. BOSTON: I was the kind of kid that was turned on by all kinds of scientific stuff. PAGE 51 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 LEWIS: Penny Boston has been intrigued by exobiology forever. BOSTON: I remember being, like, 10 or 11 years old when I first read the word, and I thought, yes! That's what I want to do! This is absolutely it. WILLIAM SHATNER: Space, the final frontier... LEWIS: "Star Trek" was an early inspiration. SHATNER: Its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds... LEONARD NIMOY: We are dealing with a silicon creature of the deep rocks, capable of moving through solid rock as easily as we move through the air. BOSTON: That was one of my favorite episodes. NIMOY: It calls itself a horta. SHATNER: A horta? BOSTON: Never thought that I would actually sort of work on miniature hortas in a cave! LEWIS: But here she is, and the work Penny Boston and Diana Northrup are doing is adding to a growing body of research on life in what NASA calls "extreme environments." (on camera): Only in the last decade have scientists realized how much life there is beneath the Earth's surface. In fact, some researchers now estimate there is more biomass -- the combined weight of all living things -- underground than there is on top. (voice-over): That's why exobiologists are hunting for obscure varieties of life in these hot springs in Yellowstone Park, at boiling vents in the bottom of the sea and beneath the polar ice cap, sites on Earth where they used to believe life could not endure, locations down here that teach scientists how to think about life out there. BOSTON: We're trying to broaden our view of all of the things that life can do in any of its many facets so that when we develop the means to go to other planets and look for this life, we're not restricted by our own imaginations. LEWIS (on camera): So life in this cave could be like... BOSTON: Life somewhere else. LEWIS (voice-over): Somewhere like Mars. NASA ANNOUNCER: The lift-off of the Delta rocket with Mars Pathfinder... LEWIS: Future Mars missions might find life, probably not little green men, but maybe microbial life below the surface. That's where Boston and Northrup's work comes in. PAGE 52 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 NORTHRUP: Some of these were collected from way deep in the cave. LEWIS: They're trying to untangle the genetic code of what they found in the cave so they can help NASA figure out what to search for. NORTHRUP: Well, this is a new shape. LEWIS: The DNA results confirm they're dealing with something science has never seen before. BOSTON: This chunk that we've just looked at is not very closely related to anybody. LEWIS: But this research is expensive and, despite money from NASA and other small grants, funding is tight. NORTHRUP: I pay for a lot of it out of my own pocket. LEWIS: The bottom line is, is you're trying to get money any way you can get it. BOSTON: Damn straight. NORTHRUP: Yeah. LEWIS: These two intrepid explorers have the enthusiasm of kids stomping in mud puddles. BOSTON: Science is filled with people who never wanted to grow up, you know... NORTHRUP: Yeah! BOSTON: ... and want to do cool, weird, neat things... NORTHRUP: Who find the world fascinating. BOSTON: Yeah, endlessly. And we don't seem to get tired of it. (END VIDEOTAPE) CLANCY: Well, just ahead as our Millennium 2000 coverage continues, we'll have an out-of-this-world chat with the founder of a space exploration firm and the author of a new book on the red planet. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) CLANCY: Well, joining us now to talk more about the future of space exploration is a very interesting man, Robert Zubrin. His books "Entering Space" and then "The Case for Mars" both samples of his expansive writing on space propulsion, as well as space exploration. Mr. Zubrin is joining us now from Los Angeles. Thanks so much for being with us. And for you, I should say happy new millennium. I think you think in those kinds of terms. PAGE 53 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 ROBERT ZUBRIN, PRES. THE MARS SOCIETY, AUTHOR, "ENTERING SPACE": Happy new millennium to you. CLANCY: OK. Most people, first question, you know, is there life out there in our solar system or beyond? You, on the other hand, say the evidence is we see that life from outer space every time we look in the mirror. What's your case there? Explain. ZUBRIN: Well, what we've discovered recently is -- is that the -- there are at least three places in our own solar system where life could have started: the Earth, Mars, Europa. We now know that most stars, or at least a substantial fraction of them, have planets. So in other words, the universe is filled with billions of places where life could have started. And in other words, what we've discovered is the universe is a much vaster, more wonderful and more complex place than we've ever thought. And the chance of life being out there is extremely high. CLANCY: You think life on Earth, though, came from outer space, that we ourselves are alien to this environment? ZUBRIN: Oh. That's a poetic metaphor. People sometimes ask me how can I say -- talk about human colonizing space when, in fact, we're native to the Earth. But in a very real sense, humans are not native to the Earth, we're actually native to Kenya. That's the environment to which we're naturally adapted. We have colonized the rest of the world simply due to our technology and our inventiveness. No one could survive a single winter in Colorado or most of Europe, for that matter, without technology and -- such as fire, clothing, et cetera. And it's our same inventiveness that has allowed us to complex the -- colonize the alien environment of the Earth that's going to allow us to colonize space. CLANCY: You are trying to push the envelope, trying to spur the imagination, the will of people all around the world to get involved in making this a civilization that is well and truly space-faring. What's the first step? Or has it already been taken? ZUBRIN: Well, the first step has been taken, which is to become a global civilization. And the second step has been taken, which is to begin to poke our nose above the atmosphere of the Earth and begin to enter space. But the decisive step for us today is to send humans to Mars. We're actually ready to do that. I mean, if we had some real political leadership in this country, like John F. Kennedy in 1961, if the next president were to get up with that kind of vision in 2001, we could have humans on Mars in 2008. This could be the decade in which we do it, in which we break out of the cradle for real. KAGAN: But one of the problems, as you say, poking around out there in space -- lately, that hasn't gone so well, looking at the recent attempts to get unmanned vehicles to Mars. Are you discouraged by NASA's recent efforts? ZUBRIN: Well, certainly, it was a setback having a couple of robotic probes fail, but you should realize that, you know, robotic probes fail all the time. They have a failure rate 30 times as great as manned spacecraft. The notion PAGE 54 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 that we can't send humans to Mars because we've had a couple of robotic probes fail -- probably the thing landed, hit a rock, has no hazard-avoidance capability -- is in no way a deterrent to sending humans to Mars. Most of our robotic probes to the moon in the 1960s failed, and our human missions succeeded well. CLANCY: Right now there are active attempts by private companies to develop space programs, taking people for rides in orbit, perhaps building a hotel in orbit. Are those beneficial to your vision of the future? ZUBRIN: Well, certainly, they'll be beneficial once they start to actually occur. But I think for such ventures to occur, we're going to have to have the government push the envelope out a bit further. I mean, before commercial ventures undertake human missions to Mars, they'll -- I think the government will have to send them first, like it had to send Lewis and Clark to the Pacific before the fur companies followed. And I think also we're going to have to have some work on developing cheap access to orbit before a lot of these commercial companies can be successful, even in Earth orbital things, such as the space hotels and so forth that we sometimes hear about. CLANCY: Robert, just very briefly, looking at the new millennium, is space the place that man belongs? ZUBRIN: Yes. This new millennium is going to be looked at in the future as the time when we broke into space. If we do what we can to -- then, you know, we can have humans to Mars in the next decade. We can have a new branch of human civilization on Mars by the end of the century. And by the end of the millennium, I believe that there will be human societies on planets orbiting hundreds of civilized stars in this region of the galaxy. And when they look back at this time, they will look back at us with wonder. CLANCY: Robert Zubrin, we thank you very much for your view of what is ahead for all of us beyond the confines of gravity here on Earth. ZUBRIN: Well, thanks for having me on your show. KAGAN: And we will continue our discussion about what is ahead for humans in space. We'll bring back Captain Frank Culbertson, the shuttle commander, on how NASA's recent problems could help shape future space missions. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Kennedy challenged this entire nation to -- to go to the moon, which I think most people thought was impossible. He challenged us to do what most thought couldn't be done. NEIL ARMSTRONG: That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This moment in history truly was a gigantic leap for all of mankind. And really, somehow, I believe, determined the challenge that we face in the future. PAGE 55 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 UNIDENTIFIED ASTRONAUT: OK, Houston. As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown (INAUDIBLE) I sort of realize there's a fundamental truth to our nature. Man must explore. (END VIDEO CLIP) CLANCY: NASA certainly no stranger to setbacks in its programs to do that exploring. Just weeks ago, scientists lost the Mars polar lander, and a shuttle mission to fix an orbiting telescope was delayed repeatedly. Well, joining us once again fro more on NASA's challenges is shuttle commander Frank Culbertson. Thanks for being with us. FRANK CULBERTSON, COMMANDER, THIRD MISSION TO INTL. SPACE STATION: Sure, Jim. CLANCY: We don't have a whole lot of time. I want to ask you this. We -- talking about colonization of Mars or the moon -- long way off. What is directly ahead is your international space station project. Is it the logical next step? CULBERTSON: I believe it is the logical next step. I want to first say right on to Mr. Zubrin. I like his vision. A lot of us at NASA like what he says and what he's proposing, and we would like to go places like that. We are, in fact, in the middle of something very serious at this moment, and that's assembling the international space station. And I think that will give us the opportunity to take those next steps. But we're still just barely out of high school here. CLANCY: Since you were a child or I was a child, we have looked up at the stars and asked that question, is there life out there? What is out there? Thus far, even the trip to the moon didn't yield a tremendous amount of science, in terms of what was on that body. CULBERTSON: Well, that's true, but you know, there's a lot of significant to that question of whether there is further life out there or not. We put life in space when we put humans up there, but life on other planets, if it's there, is going to be very, very significant when we meet it. If it's not there, and we are the only life in the universe, that in itself is extremely significant, and it gives us a tremendous responsibility to do what we're doing and continue to expand our knowledge. CLANCY: Is there a risk -- just very briefly -- that we will never know the answer to the question, just because it's too far away? CULBERTSON: Well, there is that risk. The universe is extremely large, and we may never find it in the -- in humanity's lifespan. But I do want to say that I predict that in this coming year, we will put humanity in space for the rest of time. Given any unforeseen tragedies, I think that we will put people in space to stay, and we will continue to explore. And your segments in 2005 and 2010 will -- will rival what you've done today and I think exceed it, showing what we've done on the space station and what we've done beyond that. CLANCY: Astronaut Frank Culbertson, see you up there. PAGE 56 CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, January 1, 2000 CULBERTSON: Yes, sir. Looking forward to it. And happy New Year to all my friends and colleagues around the globe. CLANCY: All right. Happy New Year. KAGAN: We appreciate that. A happy New Year with some bold predictions. Here's just a tiny little prediction. We're going to take a quick break and be back right after this. ANNOUNCER: Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to travel into space in 1961. Who was the first woman to travel into space? The answer after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ANNOUNCER: Who was the first woman to travel into space? The answer: In June of 1963, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova orbited the Earth 48 times in 71 hours. However, it took another 20 years before the United States would send a woman into space. In 1983, Sally Ride flew aboard space shuttle Challenger on a six-day mission. Women continue to make significant contributions to space exploration. So far, 36 female astronauts have made the journey. KAGAN: When CNN 2000 returns, we look at the recipe for life. CLANCY: Well, that's all for now. I'm Jim Clancy. KAGAN: And I'm Daryn Kagan. Have a happy new year, and we'll see you right back here tomorrow. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: January 1, 2000 PAGE 57 LEVEL 1 - 11 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company The New York Times January 1, 2000, Saturday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 5; Metropolitan Desk LENGTH: 2780 words HEADLINE: 1/1/00: FROM BALI TO BROADWAY; A Glittering Party For Times Square BYLINE: By ROBERT D. McFADDEN BODY: Two thousand years after Christ's obscure birth in a dusty town in Judea, the world's six billion people -- most of them non-Christian and many of them preoccupied with terrorism, computers, diets, bank accounts, politics and the perils of the future -- rode their turning blue planet across time's invisible line today and, by common consent, looked into the dawn of a new millennium. What they saw first was a party. It was garish, glittering and global, and millions, setting religious considerations and personal concerns aside, joined in the festivities to celebrate the conjunction of a new year, a new century and a new thousand-year cycle of history. They also put aside the inconvenient fact that the millennium, technically, is still a year off. It hardly mattered. In New York's Times Square and across the United States, in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, in cities and towns all over the world, bells pealed, crowds shrieked and surged, skyrockets soared into the night, fireworks burst into supernovas, "Auld Lang Syne" rang out, lights pulsed, loved ones and friends embraced, and the music and Champagne flowed. On a rainbow day whose moods ran the spectrum from tensions and prayers to euphoria and irresistible hyperbole, what most were calling Christianity's Third Millennium arrived in 24 stages as the earth revolved through the time zones and midnight elapsed again and again in an around-the-clock, around-the-world series of golden moments that began at the international date line in the Pacific and raced westward across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. In New York, a vast crowd of revelers -- the guesses ran as high as an improbable two million -- packed Times Square and much of Midtown Manhattan to watch the biggest public event ever held in the city -- a 26-hour, $7 million marathon of music, fireworks, confetti and deafening voices culminating as a 1,070-pound crystal ball descended at midnight, while the police sweated out an enormous potential for trouble. And there were lavish celebrations in Washington, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Jerusalem, Moscow, Cape Town, New Delhi, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and hundreds of other cities. There were parties, concerts, dances, torchlight parades and televised extravaganzas that brought the worldwide show to billions more at home and to the crowds in Times Square over giant video screens -- a case of celebrators watching PAGE 58 The New York Times, January 1, 2000 celebrators. To a Martian earthwatcher (tuning in with delicate ear and Cycloptic eye), it might have appeared that the inhabitants of the third world from the Sun had suddenly lost their senses or gone to war again. But it was only humanity on the threshold of a new age, exercising its primal urge to celebrate. There had been an avalanche of happy millennial overkill in recent days -- claims of the last-game, last-meal, first-baby kind -- and yesterday it was the turn of world leaders in government, religion, science and other fields, who spoke of the millennium's meaning in more serious tones. "Today, we celebrate more than the changing of the calendar," President Clinton, extending millennium greetings to the world, said in an address to diplomats and children from 100 nations. "We celebrate the opportunity we have to make this a true changing of the times, a gateway to greater peace and freedom, to prosperity and harmony." In Moscow, Boris Yeltsin, who has been plagued with heart and other problems for most of his eight years as Russia's president, unexpectedly announced his resignation. "Russia must enter the next millennium with new politicians, with new personalities and with new smart, strong and energetic people, " he said. "And we who have been in power for many years must go." At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II, fulfilling his dream to lead the Roman Catholic Church across the threshold of 2000, gave his blessing to a vast crowd in St. Peter's Square, reiterated his calls for an end to war and poverty, and thanked God for "the events of this year, this century and this millennium." There were millions around the world who had no reason to be festive, people like Tom Nganga, 40, who lives in Kangemi, a vast slum of Nairobi, Kenya. "We as Kenyans and people of Kangemi are very, very angry as we celebrate this millennium," he said. "People are very poor. People have nothing to eat. We have nothing to celebrate." While the millennium celebrations drew millions, there were relatively few casualties. In the Philippines, two people were killed by stray gunfire and a 5-year-old boy died after a firecracker exploded in his face. At least 200 other Filipinos were injured by fireworks. In Paris, 70 people were hurt in crowds. After years of concern over Y2K computer problems that had cost billions of dollars to fix, there were no immediate reports of computer-related disasters anywhere in the world, no plane crashes, major power failures, nuclear plant shutdowns or collapses of banking, business, government or health care systems. But elevators, intercity trains and subways in many American cities and in other countries as well were halted briefly over the witching hour, and some airlines canceled flights for the day, just to be safe. Many airports were all but deserted, with wary travelers staying put. Experts said it might take days for some computer problems to develop, in part because many businesses and government agencies were closed for the holiday weekend. There had also been fears that terrorists, publicity seekers or the insane might set off explosions or mount chemical or biological attacks as millions gathered to celebrate, while vast audiences watched on television. No specific PAGE 59 The New York Times, January 1, 2000 threats had been reported, although some suspects had been seized recently. Still, there were no immediate reports of trouble, and law enforcement authorities seemed ready for almost anything. The millennium, an idea with overtones ranging from Biblical to commercial, had swelled recently into a coercive miniculture as the countdown ticked away and a flood of books, articles, television specials and studied commentaries by academic, political and religious leaders reflected upon the last thousand years of human achievements and missteps, and speculated on the next thousand. Purists still insist that the millennium will not start until Jan. 1, 2001. The calendar, at best, is arbitrary. There were problems from ancient times based on inaccuracies in measuring the year's duration and its uneven division into days, weeks and months. By 1582, the spring equinox was 10 days early, and the days were dropped when the Gregorian Calendar replaced the old Julian version. While Pope Gregory's calendar uses the birth of Christ in 1 B.C. as a starting date, many scholars now suggest that the year was probably closer to 4 B.C. In any case, as Voltaire noted, history is the lie that historians agree upon, and the tide of popular opinion has swept nearly everyone along. And with the climax of celebrations, and especially when the nines rolled into zeros at midnight and humanity went ballistic, purists' talk of technicalities was the last thing anyone wanted to hear. For doomsayers who had prophecied conflagrations, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other end-of-the-world scenarios (and kept a weather eye out for U.F.O. rescue ships), the new millennium was something of a nonevent, although the anxiety prompted by all the wild predictions of chaos was real enough. The Book of Revelations, Chapter 20, speaks of a resurrection of the dead and a Judgment Day, of sinners cast into a lake of fire and Christ reigning for a thousand years. But if it was not the Second Coming of Jesus as foretold in the Bible, there was still a year to go, or this was the wrong millennium. And if, as some said, even the idea of a Third Christian Millennium was a Western conceit in a world where Christians are a minority, and one that overlooked other calendars calling this 1420 (Muslim) or 5760 (Jewish), it was also true that the world had long ago come by economic and social necessity to agree upon the Western calendar for trade, travel and other common purposes. The millennium, if nothing else, was a celebration of history, marking human survival after a deadly century of wars, genocide and revolution that saw the end of colonialism, fascism and communism, as well as the achievements of the past thousand years -- printing and widespread literacy; the exploration of the last frontiers on earth; the first ventures into outer space, the inner mind and the microscopic universe, and the flowering of democratic government, and of art, literature, science, technology and communications into undreamed eminences. The world on this Millennium Day was still beset with terrible problems -- with grinding poverty that afflicted a third of its 6 billion inhabitants, with ethnic and national strife, with the continuing curse of racial and religious bigotries, and with the exclusion of countless millions from adequate health care, education, jobs and even such basic needs as shelter and clean water, PAGE 60 The New York Times, January 1, 2000 not to mention freedoms of speech and political association. But with a few exceptions -- notably threats of terrorism and limited wars in the Balkans, Chechnya and other regions -- it was a world largely at peace, with the apocalyptic threat of nuclear annihilation receding and new understandings growing between old enemies in the Middle East, Ireland, South Africa and other long-troubled areas. And it was a world on the threshold of a new era -- one that offered visions of astounding strides in science and technology and seemed to hold out anew the ancient promises of universal peace and prosperity, although the only certainty seemed to be that the world a thousand years from now would be unrecognizable. As Dec. 31, 1999, gave way to Jan. 1, 2000, in each time zone at midnight, with atomic clocks marking it to a millisecond, celebrants went ecstatic. It began in Fiji and the Kiribati and Marshall Islands in the Western Pacific (it was 7 a.m., E.S.T. yesterday) and moved westward, hour by hour, as the earth turned and 23 more midnights fell across Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and back across the Pacific, ending in Samoa at 6 a.m., E.S.T. today. Islanders in Kiribati welcomed the millennium with the mournful sounds of a conch shell and with traditional chants and dancing on the beach of a normally uninhabited coral atoll, dubbed Millennium Island. In Japan, which has absorbed many of the trappings of the Western world while preserving its own cultural and religious traditions, bells tolled in a Buddhist ritual to dispel evil spirits as thousands flocked to temples and shrines. In Tokyo, the first of the world's major cities to mark the new year, people went to parties and crowds swarmed to bayside events, including rock concerts and lavish fireworks. In China, torchbearers in Imperial-era costumes lighted signal fires on the watch towers of the Great Wall, which snakes 3,000 miles from the Gobi Desert to the North China Sea, and President Jiang Zemin lighted an eternal flame to greet the new millennium and pledged a "great rejuvenation" by reuniting with Taiwan. Over Hong Kong Harbor there were brilliant fireworks displays, and parties abounded, a prelude to the Chinese new year, the Year of the Dragon, which starts Feb. 5. The festivities for most of India's one billion people were muted by comparison with those in wealthier nations, but hundreds of thousands danced, drank and ate at open-air stalls in New Delhi and partygoers were out in force in other major cities, celebrating the peaceful end of an eight-day hostage crisis aboard an Indian Airlines hours before midnight. Iran and its Persian Gulf neighbors largely ignored the new millennium, which fell during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a time for prayer and reflection. In Israel, where religious tension is high at the best of times, security was heavy as three religions and some doomsday cultists marked the occasion, each in its own way. It was especially tight on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives, where Christian fundamentalists had camped to witness the end of the world, and at the Old City's Temple Mount, with sites sacred to Muslims and Jews. PAGE 61 The New York Times, January 1, 2000 On the last New Year's Eve of the Christian millennium, observant Jews ushered in the sabbath, as they do every Friday, and many went to pray at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, while 400,000 Muslims flocked to the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount to mark the last Friday of prayer and fasting in the holy month of Ramadan. In Paris, with new lighting on buildings, boulevards and bridges over the Seine twinkling like the bonfires of a great Medieval encampment, people packed the Champs-Elysees from the Tuileries to the Arc de Triomphe as a digital clock at the Eiffel Tower counted down -- overcoming an old-fashioned glitch that shut it down five hours before midnight -- and announced the millennium in a burst of 20,000 electronic flashes. In London, two million people lined the Thames for a spectacular fireworks show, while Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Tony Blair and other dignitaries gathered under the 20-acre Millennium Dome, a flying-saucer-like colossus at Longitude Zero in Greenwich, to mark the transition while the bells of St. Paul's and Westminster and churches across Britain pealed. Huge street parties were held in hundreds of Britain's cities. In Egypt, floodlights, lasers and fireworks illuminated the ancient pyramids at Giza. Elsewhere, there were torchlight parades in the streets of Stockholm; fireworks and singing by massed choirs in Reykjavik, Iceland, and Helsinki, Finland; concerts and a ball at the opera house in Tallinn, Estonia; enormous street parties in Edinburgh, Scotland, and a Millennium Ball at the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. In New York, it was a day to remember. The centerpiece was the spectacle billed as "Times Square 2000: the Global Celebration at the Crossroads of the World." Worried authorities had closed 50 blocks of Midtown to traffic, banned alcohol in open containers and flooded the area with 8,000 officers just in case. All vehicles were towed away as a precaution against car bombs. Throughout the city, all 37,000 police officers were on duty, and there was plenty for them to do. The Times Square celebration was only one of 329 public events in the city, the biggest of those others were at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, at the Bronx Zoo and in Central Park and Bryant Park in Manhattan. The celebration in Times Square went off as planned with all-day, all-night pulsing music and cacaphonous entertainments by 1,000 musicians, actors, dancers, puppeteers and other performers working from a stage on Seventh Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets. Broadway, curving like a dancer's leg, was packed from 42d Street to Central Park, along with most of the sidestreets between the Avenue of the Americas and Eighth Avenue. The old wickedness of Times Square was missing, but for most in the crowd it was an adventure just to be jostling for happiness at the intersection of past and future. The party was set to run all day and night, from 6 a.m. yesterday to 8 a.m. today, and thousands showed up early to stake claims near ground zero. By the time the sun went down, the crowds were already gigantic. They came in shoals PAGE 62 The New York Times, January 1, 2000 from the suburbs, from across the nation and from countless places abroad, and they swept into the vast clogged carnival, determined to experience the exotic and illusory evening. They were in a euphoric mood, capped and scarved and padded like armadillos against the cold. They watched twilight print the sky with darkness, and the blue night city come to life, glittering like a tiara. By midevening, much of midtown was seized up in human gridlock. Laser lights slid up the skyscrapers and washed over the writhing mass of Lilliputian figures below. The crowds were squeezed into police-barrier pens to create lanes for emergency vehicles, and many had to watch events on giant video screens. The closer to One Times Square, where the ball descended, the more bleary the crowd looked, many having stood their ground for a day and a half. A stench arose from a layer of garbage underfoot. The tradition of celebrants watching others celebrate was continued on a global scale. Live video feeds from festivities around the world were pumped into Times Square, and the scenes there were beamed by 45 networks out to a worldwide audience of a billion people or more. http://www.nytimes.com GRAPHIC: Photos: BIG NUMBERS, SQUARED -- Estimates of the crowd in Times Square ran to an improbable two million. Regardless, a huge mass of people greeted 2000. (Edward Keating/The New York Times); ONCE IN A LIFETIME -- At the stroke of midnight, there were fireworks, brilliant lights and cacophony. There was also a big celebration in Times Square. (Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times)(pg. A6); TIMES SQUARE -- Up to two million people packed midtown Manhattan for a 26-hour marathon of music, fireworks and confetti. Events around the world, Pages A2-10. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times); PARIS -- An explosion of colors at the Eiffel Tower. (Associated Press); BALI -- Romance blossoms in bubbles at a disco. (Associated Press); MOSCOW -- A lighted sky over a changing Kremlin. (Associated Press)(pg. A1) LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: January 1, 2000 PAGE 63 LEVEL 1 - 12 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 Grimsby Evening Telegraph Grimsby Evening Telegraph December 31, 1999 SECTION: Pg.7 LENGTH: 2011 words HEADLINE: Telegraph quiz teaser.... BODY: The question is... do you know? 1 Two cartoon characters celebrated their 70th birthdays this year. Who were they? (4pts) 2 Which cartoon character got married this year n and who did he marry? (4pts) 3 What date is St George's Day? (3pts) 4 An old rock en' roll song lyric refers to a girl who was 'as thin as a stick of macaroni.i Who was she? (2pts) 5 Who was Elton John's Russian egirlfriend'? (3pts) 6 Paddy Ashdown retired as leader of the Liberals this year. What is his christian name? (3pts) 7 Which nearby island was bought by the British for GBP 70,000 in 1765 to stop smuggling? (3pts) 8 Where do most tigers live? (2pts) 9 Eating which dairy product protects your teeth, according to recent research? (2pts) 10 Who lost a game early this year when the beads from her hair fell onto the playing surface? (2pts) 11 Don Maclean's song eAmerican Pie' was written to mark the death, 40 years ago, of which famous singernsong writer? (2pts) 12 Everyone has heard them. They are broadcast every day. At exactly 9am on February 5, they were 75 years old. What are they? (2pts) 13 How many motors are there in a Vauxhall Vectra Motor Car, 28, 48 or 68? (2pts) 14 In what sport would you practice pole handling and waggler waggling? (2pts) 15 Who started spring cleaning early to get rid of eFluff'? (2pts) PAGE 64 Grimsby Evening Telegraph December 31, 1999 16 How many fs are there in the following sentence: Finished files are the result of years of scientific study and of hard work? 4pts 17 Three mannmade structures are visible from outer space, two ancient, one modern. What are they? 6pts 18 A British city that celebrated its 700th anniversary this year once was bought by a King for GBP 78 15s 8d. Which was it? 3pts 19 Which pensioner this year was voted the world's most beautiful woman? (2pts) 20 A horse named after a ballet dancer became famous. What was its name? (2pts) Maximum 55 pts Sport, politics, entertainment 1 Where do Angelinos live? (2 pts) 2 What was the second biggest selling Christmas record of all time? (3 pts) 3 Which old-time, saddle-sore singer sang it? (3 pts) 4 Severiano Ballesteros played 15 Ryder Cup matches. How many did he win? (2 pts) 5 'Zerafai is an Arabic word meaning 'charmingi or 'lovely one.i It is also the name of an instantly recognisable animal. Which one? (3 pts) 6 Which legendary screen sex symbol said: 'It's not the men in your life that count, it's the life in your meni? (2 pts) 7 Which super-model takes off most of her clothes in a current car ad? (2 pts) 8 What make and model of car does she advertise? (2 pts) 9 Which well known artist advertises spectacles on TV? (2 pts) 10 And which famous artist is referred to in the same ad? (2 pts) 11 Name the Welsh MP forced to resign in October. (2 pts) 12 On what famous area of London did he make new friends? (2 pts) 13 In the good old days, men and women held on to one another while they danced. Which dance craze of the 60s started the trend of couples permanently dancing apart? (2 pts) 14 Who was the female star of the film Titanic? (2 pts) 15 Two other films made about the Titanic. (4 pts) PAGE 65 Grimsby Evening Telegraph December 31, 1999 16 Can you detect who is the world's most famous driver of Jaguar cars? (2 pts) 17 Nineteen of the 20 largest hotels in the world are in which city? (2 pts) 18 In what year was the first million-selling recording made? (3 pts) 19 Who sang it? (3 pts) 20 What is the name of Chief Inspector Wexford's TV wife? (2 pts) 21 Four English soccer clubs have names that begin and end with the same letter. Name them. (8 pts.) 22 Which current sportsman has taken the most corners for England? (2 pts) 23 Paul O'Grady is a bit of a lass. Who is (s)he better known as? (2 pts) 24 President Clinton faces impeachment for lying about Monica Lewinsky, but charges relating to another woman were dropped. Who was she? (2 pts) 25 What was Muhammed Ali christened? (4 pts) 26 Richard Branson joined up with an American former rival to fly around the world in a balloon. What is his name? (2 pts) Screen Test Favourite 100 British films of the 20th century from the British Film Institute 1 The No 1 British film featured two Americans and an unusual stringed instrument. What was the film? 2pts Who were its stars? 4pts And what was the instrument? 2pts 2 The No 2 featured repressed love between two true Brits. What was the film? (2pts) Which actors starred? (2pts) 3 Which British actor famous for his stiffnuppernlip roles had a key role in one of these two films and a feature role in the other? (2pts) 4 eSherif Ali' went on to fame and fortune with dramatic entrance and a deadly riflenshot at a watering hole in the film ranked third. Who played him? 2pts PAGE 66 Grimsby Evening Telegraph December 31, 1999 What was the film? 2pts Who was the star? 2pts Who were the enemy? 2pts 5 A resourceful engineer and a variety artist with an unusual talent had key roles in film No 4 What was the film? 2pts Who played the engineer? 2pts What was the unusual talent of the variety artist? (2pts) How and why did the variety artist die? (4pts) 6 An unexpected meeting with Magwitch featured in the opening sequence of the Dickens adaptation voted No 5. What was the film? (2pts) 7 Alec Guinness fell foul of an unkindly Dennis Price on more than one occasion in film No 6. What was the film? 2pts 8 Film No 7 was shot in and around Barnsley featured a bird fancier. What was its title? 2pts 9 A Hans Christian Anderson fairyntale about a wicked cobbler was given a modern setting in the film voted No 8. What was it? 2pts 10 British Rail certainly would not have approved of the hobbies behind the innocent title of the modern British film at No 10. What was it? (2pts) 11 A misguided sense of purpose led to madness for the lead character in the prisonernofnwar film that won seven Oscars and rates No 11 in the allntime list. What was the title? (2pts) Who was the star? (2pts) 12 An eangry young man' and a climatic weekend are the focus of film No 14. Who played the angry young man? (2pts) What was the film? (2pts) 13 Perennial good guy Richard Attenborough strayed from the type to play the villain in a seaside gang in the adaptation of a Graham Greene novel voted in at No 15. What was the film? (2pts) 14 In life and on film he was/is the East End boy made good (or bad). In film No 16 he strayed to the North East of England to cause typical mayhem. Who is he? (2pts) What is the film? (2pts) PAGE 67 Grimsby Evening Telegraph December 31, 1999 15 Lawrence Olivier received a special Academy Award in 1946 for bringing film No 18 to the screen. It delved into history to provide a stirring example of courage and success in battle for wartime Britons. What was the film? (2pts) 16 Actor and scriptwriter Colin Welland won one of four Oscars awarded to film No 19, but his bold claim to the Academy Awards audience that 'the British are comingi proved premature. What was the film? 2pts And which actors took the central roles? (2pts) 17 A modern British gangster movie is at No 21. It featured a eTV policewoman' as a gangster's moll n and had as its star a cuddly cockney in a particularly unlovable role. What was the film? (2pts) Who was she? (2pts) Who was he? (2pts) 18 Humour, pathos, five getntogethers, sterling performances from true Brits and love interest from America made No 23 one of the most successful films of the e90s. What was the film? (2pts) Who was the leading man? (2pts) Who was the American? (2pts) 19 The Hebridean island of Barra was the unlikely location for a film in which a disaster at sea brought unexpected benefits for the locals n and took it to No 24 in the bestnloved list. Name the film. (2pts) 20 The steely resolve of a group of northern men uncovered rare talents among them in a comedy that achieved worldwide acclaim n and No 25 spot in our list. What was the film? (2pts) Name that tune QUESTIONS are drawn from a list of the 100 'Best songs of the Millennium.'' 1 Which song by Queen topped the chart? (2pts) 2 Four Beatles songs were in the top 20 n name them. (8pts) 3 Four Elvis Presley songs were in the top 20. Complete their titles: '........(8 letters) Trilogyi (2pts), '........(10) Mindsi (2pts)'The ......(6) of Youi (2pts) '.........(10) .........(5)i(2pts) 4 Robbie Williams had two songs in the top 10 n name them. (4pts) PAGE 68 Grimsby Evening Telegraph December 31, 1999 5 A multintalented American artist had three songs in the top 21 n name him. (2pts) 6 What was Frank Sinatra's one top 100 song? (2pts) 7 Bob Dylan featured at No 24 with a song almost featuring another band. Name it. (2pts) 8 One of the biggest selling singles of all time is at No 29. It was still selling when the duo who sang it split up. What was it and who were they? (4pts) 9 No 33 was a right royal hit for Abba. Name that tune. (2pts) 10 John Lennon made it to No 2 with which record? (2pts) 11 A shaky record made it to No 36 for the Beach Boys. Title? (2pts) 12 A song with religious overtones, also by the Beach Boys, was at No 46. Title? (2pts) 13 Louis Armstrong's optimistic view of life won him a place at No 44. Title? (2pts) 14 Which famous lady tennis player featured in the top 20? (2pts) 15 A crossword clue to a Rod Stewart's No 51 entry: Mrs Thatcher in the Spring. (2pts) 16 Otis Redding sat at the waterside for his No 57 success. Name it. (2pts) 17 A hymn of praise to an ugly aquatic creature got the Beatles in again at No 62. Name it. (2pts) 18 The Beatles' recipe for happiness (five word title) won them 93rd spot. What was it? (2pts) 19 What came out of Hell to earn a beefy character a place at No 98? (2pts) 20 Sir Cliff Richard starred in the musical, but Kate Bush got a song with the same title in at No 84. Name it. (2pts) Total n 64pts THE Millennium Pub Quiz 99 - two points for each correct answer. 1 How many claws are there on a domestic cat? 2 In photography, for what does SLR stand? 3 What is the flag flown by ships of the Royal Navy? 4 In which county is Leamington Spa? 5 In which US state is Yosemite National Park? PAGE 69 Grimsby Evening Telegraph December 31, 1999 6 Seoul is the capital of what country? 7 What is the state capital of California? 8 In which country is the Yangtze River? 9 Which is the world's largest ocean? 10 What is another name for Kampuchea? 11 Of which country is Helsinki the capital? 12 What did Johann Gutenberg invent? 13 In Australian slang what is a edunny'? 14 The basic unit of power is called what? 15 What is the second major planet from the sun? 16 What is the square root of 81? 17 Of which country is the bald eyed eagle the symbol? 18 What is your cotton wedding anniversary? 19 Who had a No.1 with I Should Be So Lucky? 20 In which city is the Royal Armouries Museum? 21 Who is the MP for Huntingdon? 22 Who was the first overseas player for Yorkshire? 23 Which soccer club began life as Newton Heath? 23 The female of which domestic pet is called a queen? 25 In which city is Lime Street station? 26 Who won most World Motor Racing Championships? 27 In which state is the Grand Canyon? 28 In which war was Florence Nightingale a nurse? 29 Of which country is Addis Ababa capital? 30 How many furlongs are in a mile? 31 Of which US state is Austin capital? 32 Which two countries contested the 100 years war? PAGE 70 Grimsby Evening Telegraph December 31, 1999 33 Which is the third planet from the Sun? 34 What is the chemical formula of ice? 35 What is a Black Molly? 36 How many continents are there on earth? 37 Which is the largest planet in the Solar System? 38 What colour is in the Ferrari emblem? 39 What is the one musical bird to fly backwards? 40 What is your paper wedding anniversary? 41 What is the largest US state? 42 Who was the first President of independent Kenya? 43 Who said 'Let them eat cakei? 44 Which sparkling group won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981? 45 Where is Poet's Corner? 46 For what is an Endoscope used? 47 For what do the initials DERV stand? 48 The distance from Sheffield to London is? 49 Name the Irish swimmer who won three golds in the e96 Olympics. 50 What does an anemometer ('anna-mometeri) measure? LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: January 6, 2000 PAGE 71 LEVEL 1 - 13 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Irish Times The Irish Times December 27, 1999 SECTION: CITY EDITION; EDITORIAL PAGE; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 17 LENGTH: 542 words HEADLINE: Nora Wall Case BODY: Sir, - We are a group of missionary women who have spent our lives respectively in South Africa, Kenya, Zambia and Brazil. To state that we have been deeply offended by media coverage of the trial of Miss Nora Wall and Mr Paul McCabe is to understate the case. We are outraged. We expect probity, substantiation and fair dealing in media coverage of child sex abuse charges. In the case under discussion, the DPP "fully and ungrudgingly accepted" that the defendants "were entitled to be presumed innocent". Why was there no apology to both defendants? Why was the judge who handed down the sentence, and who used such imprecise and intemperate language in so doing, not censured? Where were your front-page headlines declaring the innocence of Miss Wall and Mr McCabe? The series of organisational errors admitted by the DPP failed to address the main issue - a miscarriage of justice. We are appalled by the moral bankruptcy of the country to which we have returned. We refer to Louis Power's article of October 28th (The Irish Times) in which he suggests that it is time to put child sexual abuses into perspective. He states that "a visitor from outer space might be excused for assuming that all the child sexual abuse in this country had been perpetrated by Catholic clergymen". Lamentably for the children concerned, the reality is that more than half of such abuse is carried out by family members. Let no reader of your columns believe that we make excuses for the inexcusable. Those, whoever they are, who have perpetrated sexual crimes against children most surely deserve a prison sentence. As Mr Power indicated in his article, a ratio of four clerics per 1,000 have received custodial sentences. Religious orders have apologised for the pain and suffering caused by a small proportion of their members. They set up a helpline for those suffering trauma. Generations of home-based sisters, priests and brothers who served the people of this country well do not deserve the opprobrium by association cast on them by the media. Has there been any apology or sense of shame at the injustice done to them? More important than that pain, however, is the climate engendered by irresponsible and unsubstantiated coverage of accusations which has, as its corollary, the undermining of the moral and ethical foundations of a society. Nor do we wish solely to castigate the media. We have waited for governmental apology to generations of Irish women who had to put their children into care because successive governments had no policy of sufficient child support to ensure that such children grew up in their own homes. On whom may we depend for the upholding of each citizen's rights to fair and impartial information? It seems to us that Ireland has rapidly become an PAGE 72 The Irish Times, December 27, 1999 amoral society, where an imported notion of political correctness means that citizens are becoming wary of expressing their real, felt views on such issues as moral probity, decency and fair dealing. We believe that that decency will re-surface over the coming decades. - Yours, etc., Anne Coleman, Philomena Lynch, Mary M. Tyndall, Zita Cox, S.C. Brophy, Ellen Wallace, Sheelagh Morris, C. Monaghan, Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, Cavan. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: December 28, 1999 PAGE 73 LEVEL 1 - 14 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Scotsman Publications Ltd. The Scotsman December 22, 1999, Wednesday SECTION: Pg. 15 LENGTH: 1203 words HEADLINE: WALKING ON THE MOON AND OTHER VISIONS OF THE WORLD WE WILL LIVE IN BODY: ON A day in the 21st century, Rohan Manocha awakes and reads the newspaper on the internet. He eats a capsule for breakfast, takes a hydroelectric bath and then goes for a walk on the moon. His children, meanwhile, are at school, using laptops instead of notebooks and writing to penpals on Pluto. Their clothing is air-conditioned and protects them from pollution. After school, they go to see films at shopping centres in outer space. That evening, Rohan takes his children to a carnival on Mars. He knows the red planet well: a lawyer, he fights "cases for the Martians on Mars". Of course, foresight is rarely 20-20. In 1999, Rohan is just 11 years old, a student at the Amity International School in the New Delhi suburb of Noida, where he likes to study and play tennis. Perhaps he will walk on the moon. Perhaps not. But a boy can dream. At 10, 11 or 12 years old, most children around the world have every reason to believe they will live through most of the 21st century; with luck and some medical advances, some could well see the dawn of the 22nd. As you might expect, when they look into the future, many imagine a hi-tech paradise - a hovercraft in every garage, robots everywhere, split-second trips to other planets, pills that fill your stomach. But the future they imagine is also a reflection of their present -full of war, lawlessness, disease - and worry about a world that is poisoning itself. Reflecting on this, they veer from youthful optimism to bleak pessimism. In the words of Tomoka Hayashi, 12, of Tokyo: "We will use too much power and one day we can no longer use any electric appliances and there will be an explosion and people die a Then we will start living with nature and start co -operating." But perhaps, she adds, we can change - switch paper milk cartons for glass and slow the cutting of forests. "There may be a chance that people will become more aware of nature and our problems and start recycling." Gosha Khusainov, a 10-year-old student at School No 57 in Moscow, just a couple of blocks from the Kremlin, doubts it. "I think the world will be worse, because it will be very cold," he says. "It'lI be less trees and grass, all days will be like evening and only at night it'II be like now." PAGE 74 The Scotsman, December 22, 1999 As the natural world shrinks, Anat Avraham, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Frankel Elementary School in Jerusalem, sees a time when people will share their homes with bears ("bears who don't eat people," she explains). "My children will have lots of animals but they will barely see any nature. In my opinion, there won't be any (nature) then. I will try to help animals, especially panda bears who are endangered. I will try to prevent the death of fish." When Ethan Sawyer of Atlanta grows up, he expects to study Amazon rain forest ecology "on an acre of land, all that is left of the world's rain forests". Not that tomorrow will be entirely bad. Ethan says he will sleep just two hours a day because "some gizmo" will make his sleep more efficient. He will eat "little pills filled with energy frappes. I don't think anyone will work in factories because robots will do all the work". Concerned about threats to wildlife, he hopes endangered species can be saved. "We may have to create new species. I don't know how, but there may be a way," he says. Dasha Marynova of Moscow sees a sunny future, full of airborne electric trains and special machines "that collect snow from the roads and do not sprinkle them with salt, which ruins your shoes. "Someone will invent a time machine, and people can be in the past, in the future, in the present. It will be much more interesting than simply going to school or playing. I also hope the time machine will return my grandfather, who died a few years ago," she says. Ten-year-old Dasha has a 20-year-old sister, Masha, and a 14-year-old brother, Alyosha. In the future, according to Dasha, Alyosha will not go into the army - now enmeshed in fighting in Chechnya. Mario del Pilar Gurman Sanches, who is also 10, likes to spend her time playing with Barbies, curling her eyelashes and painting her lips in her home in Mexico. Living in a world scarred by lawlessness, she imagines a world without crime. "No pollution, no kidnappers, no drunks, no drug addicts, no cocaine addicts or sexual violence or violence against the authorities," she says. "I see the news and they say they stole some children. It makes me sad and I wouldn't like that to happen to me or to my children or to my grandchildren or to my great-grandchiIdren." Simon Mwangi wants to be a policeman when he grows up - unless he becomes an engineer or a meteorologist. He lives in Nairobi and foresees a time when Kenya "will be very industrialised and there will not be things like crimes". One night last June, 15 armed, masked men broke into his house, tied up his parents and robbed them. Hearing Simon scream, a watchman came running; the bandits shot and killed him. The 12-year-old wants to invent "a robot which, if things come to your house, it can demolish all of them a it can catch them and take them to police". PAGE 75 The Scotsman, December 22, 1999 In India, 11-year-old Prachi Shrivastava sees people begging on the roads and envisions a luxurious future. "The poorest person having a luxury flat and the middle class having a big, beautiful, computerised bungalow. The richest should have their own colony. "As I would be a very, very rich person" - she expects to live in the penthouse of 1,000-story building - "I would have powers to reach to the government and tell them to help make my dream come true." Emmanuel Pastor Sartolo Rangel of Mexico wants to be a doctor in a world where "people won't die as fast" and there will be no AIDS or hepatitis or diabetes. His grandmother's death from cancer left him very sad, he says. "I want that sickness not to exist." Other children are looking forward to creating world peace. "I would like to be a peacemaker," says Benjamin Mbithi of Kenya. "When the wars come, I'll just go with my group and a make peace. "I'll help those people who would have lost their legs or arms by giving those artificial legs. And those people who are having famine, I will go and support their areas with food." But for most children across the world, the future is most of all going to be fun. "Flying cars, flying trains, hotels in space, time machines, airplanes that fly at the speed of light and cities under the ocean," says Natasha Savranskaya of Atlanta. And Takafuii Masuo of Tokyo thinks learning will be much easier. "All subjects are in a helmet and if you put it on, the content goes into your head so you won't have to study." Prachi Shrivastava of New DeIhi thinks we will be wearing "electronic clothes that make us dance." And her classmate Astha Gupta is not planning on watching much television. "The hobby will be lion riding, tiger riding," she says. At only ten years old, TaI Malcha of Jerusalem is ready to take on adult responsibilities. "There will be transportation for kids; maybe they will work themselves and drive cars or became astronauts," he says. "Maybe they will even run the world." LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: December 22, 1999 PAGE 76 LEVEL 1 - 15 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 DR Partners d/b/a Las Vegas Review-Journal Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas, NV) December 20, 1999 Monday FINAL EDITION SECTION: A; Pg. 1A LENGTH: 1775 words HEADLINE: WHAT DREAMS MAY COME BYLINE: Jerry Schwartz BODY: On a day deep in the 21st century, Rohan Manocha awakes and reads the newspaper on the Internet. He eats a capsule for breakfast, takes a hydroelectric bath, and then goes for a walk on the moon. His children, meanwhile, are at school, using laptops instead of notebooks and writing to pen pals on Pluto. Their clothing is air-conditioned and protects them from pollution. After school, they go to movies at malls in outer space. That evening, Rohan takes his kids to a carnival on Mars. He knows the Red Planet well; a lawyer, he fights "cases for the Martians on Mars." Of course, foresight is rarely 20-20. In 1999, Rohan is just 11 years old, a student at the Amity International School in the New Delhi suburb of Noida, where he likes to study and play tennis. Maybe he will walk on the moon. Maybe not. But a boy can dream. The dreams of the third millennium are being dreamed now, by children at Kyobashi Tsukiji Elementary School in Tokyo, at Narciso Mendoza Elementary School in Nezahualcoyotl near Mexico City, at Fernbank Elementary School in Atlanta, at Olympic Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya. Ten, 11 or 12 years old, they have every reason to believe that they will see the bulk of the 21st century; with luck and some medical advances, they may very well see the dawn of the 22nd. And as Associated Press reporters learned while visiting their classrooms from India to Israel, they see tomorrow vividly expressing their visions in tumbling words and hopeful drawings that show themselves grown up and smiling, the sun rising over secure neighborhoods, the Earth as the bright flower on a healthy green stem. As you might expect, when they look into the future, many imagine a Jetsonian world a hovercraft in every garage and robots everywhere, split-second trips to other planets, pills that fill your stomach. But their future is a reflection of their present. Around them, many see war, lawlessness, disease and, especially, a world that is poisoning itself. Reflecting on that, they veer from youthful optimism to bleak pessimism. Listen to Tomoka Hayashi, 12, of Tokyo. "We will use too much power and one day we can no longer use any electric appliances and there will be an explosion and people die. ... Then we will start living with nature and start cooperating," she says. But perhaps, she adds, we can change switch paper milk cartons for glass and slow the cutting of forests. "There may be a chance that people will become more aware of nature and our problems and start recycling." Gosha Khusainov, a 10-year-old student at School No. 57 in Moscow, just a couple of blocks from the Kremlin, doubts it: "I think the world'll be worse, because it'll be very cold. It'll be less trees and grass, all days will be like PAGE 77 Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas, NV) December 20, 1999 Monday evening, and only at night it'll be like now." As the natural world shrinks, Anat Avraham, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Frankel Elementary School in Jerusalem, sees a time when people will share their homes with bears ("bears who don't eat people," she explains). "My children will have lots of animals but they will barely see any nature. In my opinion, there won't be any (nature) then. I will try to help animals, especially panda bears who are endangered. I will try to prevent the death of fish." When fifth-grader Ethan Sawyer of Atlanta grows up, he expects to study Amazon rain forest ecology "on an acre of land, all that is left of the world's rain forests." Not that tomorrow will be entirely bad. Ethan says he will sleep just two hours a day, because "some gizmo" will make his sleep more efficient. He will eat "little pills filled with energy frappes. I don't think anyone will work in factories because robots will do all the work." But he agrees that wildlife will be imperiled, and Ethan loves animals "I ADORE otters. I'm obsessed with otters." He hopes "that we will be able to save the animals. We may have to create new species. I don't know how, but there may be a way," he says. Dasha Marynova of Moscow thinks it can happen. "I want to study zoology and become a biologist because I'd like to deal with new animals, study them and meet tiger-leopards, mouse-owls, elephant-cockroach-spiders, snake-frog-crocodiles," says Dasha. Dasha sees a sunny future, full of airborne electric trains and special machines "that collect snow from the roads and don't sprinkle them with salt, which ruins your shoes." "Someone will invent a time machine, and people can be in the past, in the future, in the present. It will be much more interesting than simply going to school or playing. I also hope the time machine will return my grandfather, who died a few years ago," she says. Dasha is 10 years old; she has a 20-year-old sister, Masha and a 14-year-old brother, Alyosha. In the future according to Dasha, Alyosha will not go into the army now enmeshed in fighting in Chechnya. In that same future, the crime that has plagued post-communist Russia will be no more. Dasha wants to believe "that murders will stop, that there won't be people in prison, but that the police will arrest people on other planets for robbery." Maria del Pilar Guzman Sanches is also 10; she likes to spend her time playing with Barbies, curling her eyelashes and painting her lips in her home in Mexico. But she too lives in a world scarred by lawlessness, and imagines a world without it. "No pollution, no kidnappers, no drunks, no drug addicts, no cocaine addicts or sexual violence or violence against the authorities," she says. "I see the news and they say they stole some children," Maria says. "It makes me sad and I wouldn't like that to happen to me or to my children or to my grandchildren or to my great-grandchildren." Simon Mwangi wants to be a policeman when he grows up unless he becomes an engineer or a meteorologist. He lives in Nairobi and foresees a time when Kenya "will be very industrialized and there will not be things like crimes. The police will be everywhere, like five policemen" in a housing compound. One night last June, 15 armed, masked men invaded his house, tied up his parents and robbed them. When they entered his bedroom, Simon screamed. A watchman came running; the bandits shot and killed him. Simon wants to invent "a robot which, if things come to your house, it can demolish all of them ... it can catch them and take them to police." PAGE 78 Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas, NV) December 20, 1999 Monday Simon is 12 years old; he attends Olympic Primary School, set on a low hill overlooking corrugated metal roofs. Goats munch on clumps of grass at the edges of the dirt that surrounds the school. His classmate, Esther Auma, is appalled by poverty. "People die of hunger, many things. There is no unity. You can find somebody is feasting a lot of meat, chicken, and somebody is dying of hunger and he or she is throwing (the food away). There is no love." In the future, "There will be love. People will be working in groups. There will be no corruption." In India, 11-year-old Prachi Shrivastava sees people begging on the roads. She envisions a luxurious future "The poorest person having a luxury flat and the middle class having a big, beautiful, computerized bungalow. The richest should have their own colony." "As I would be a very, very rich person" she expects to live in the penthouse of a 1,000-story building "I would have powers to reach to the government and tell them to help make my dream come true." There are other dreams, of course. When Jo Warren of Atlanta was 9, she blacked out, and she was taken to the hospital. "For every few seconds of black, I would have a half of a second of sight. Until finally, everything blacked out and the only thing I could hear was the IV beeping. And then, it was all gone. Nothing." When she regained consciousness, they told her she had diabetes. Now, her fondest wish for the future is "the cure for diabetes, though that is one of many wishes." Emmanuel Pastor Bartolo Rangel of Mexico wants to be a doctor someday. In the future, "people won't die as fast" and there will be no AIDS or hepatitis or diabetes. His grandmother's death, from cancer, left him very sad: "I'd want that sickness not to exist." Others dream of world peace. "Wars should be stopped ... I can't stand it when I see people die in front of the camera," says Stefan S., 12, a sixth grader at the Schule am Griebnitzsee in Potsdam, Germany. Authorities there would not allow students' last names to be used. "I would like to be a peacemaker," says Benjamin Mbithi of Kenya. "When the wars come, I'll just go with my group and ... make peace," says this tall, solemn 11-year-old. "I'll help those people who would have lost their legs or arms by giving those artificial legs. And those people who are having famine, I will go and support their areas with food." He will be "a big man and well known by many people." Not all children have such grand ambitions and not all of the children embracet he future, and all of the changes it entails. Twelve-year-old Maximilian S. of Germany wants to be a seaman. "To keep watch with the captain at night by rough seas and to listen to the sound of the 9,000 horsepower diesel engine is so overwhelming." "But who knows if there will still be cargo ships in the future, as the romance of seafaring is disappearing with technological progress." For most, though, the future is magnificent. Their words rush, describing the fun ahead: "Electronic clothes that make us dance," says Prachi Shrivastava of New Delhi. "The hobby will be lion riding, tiger riding," says her classmate Astha Gupta. "All subjects are in a helmet and if you put it on, the content goes into your head so you won't have to study," says Takafuii Masuo of Tokyo. "Flying cars, flying trains, hotels in space, time machines, airplanes that fly at the speed of light, and cities under the ocean," says Natasha Savranskaya of Atlanta. PAGE 79 Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas, NV) December 20, 1999 Monday "Maybe a park like Disneyland will be created in Israel," says Guy Shimon of Jerusalem. In the future, says Simon Mwangi of Nairobi, "I hope that Kenya will start snowing like in places like Canada." In the future, says 10-year-old Tal Malcha of Jerusalem, "there will be transportation for kids, maybe they will work themselves and drive cars or become astronauts." "Maybe," he says, "they will even run the world." This story was reported by Judith Ingram in Moscow; Dina Kraft in Jerusalem; Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo; Maurice Frank in Potsdam, Germany; Niko Price and Julie Watson in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico; Susan Linnee and Dianna Cahn in Nairobi; Hema Shukla in Noida, India, and Jerry Schwartz in Atlanta. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: December 22, 1999 PAGE 80 LEVEL 1 - 16 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) December 19, 1999, Sunday, SUNDAY EDITION SECTION: A, Pg. 01 LENGTH: 1780 words HEADLINE: A child's view into the 21st century BYLINE: JERRY SCHWARTZ; BODY: AP National Writer On a day deep in the 21st century, Rohan Manocha awakes and reads the newspaper on the Internet. He eats a capsule for breakfast, takes a hydroelectric bath, and then goes for a walk on the moon. His children, meanwhile, are at school, using laptops instead of notebooks and writing to penpals on Pluto. Their clothing is air-conditioned and protects them from pollution. After school, they go to movies at malls in outer space. That evening, Rohan takes his kids to a carnival on Mars. He knows the red planet well; a lawyer, he fights "cases for the Martians on Mars." Of course, foresight is rarely 20-20. In 1999, Rohan is just 11 years old, a student at the Amity International School in the New Delhi suburb of Noida, where he likes to study and play tennis. Maybe he will walk on the moon. Maybe not. But a boy can dream. The dreams of the third millennium are being dreamed now, by children at Kyobashi Tsukiji Elementary School in Tokyo, at Narciso Mendoza Elementary School in Nezahualcoyotl near Mexico City, at Fernbank Elementary School in Atlanta, at Olympic Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya. Ten, 11 or 12 years old, they have every reason to believe that they will see the bulk of the 21st century; with luck and some medical advances, they may very well see the dawn of the 22nd. And as Associated Press reporters learned while visiting their classrooms from India to Israel, they see tomorrow vividly - expressing their visions in tumbling words and hopeful drawings that show themselves grown up and smiling, the sun rising over secure neighborhoods, the Earth as the bright flower on a healthy green stem. As you might expect, when they look into the future, many imagine a Jetsonian world - a hovercraft in every garage and robots everywhere, split-second trips to other planets, pills that fill your stomach. But their future is a reflection of their present. Around them, many see war, lawlessness, disease - and, especially, a world that is poisoning itself. PAGE 81 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), December 19, 1999 Reflecting on that, they veer from youthful optimism to bleak pessimism. Listen to Tomoka Hayashi, 12, of Tokyo. "We will use too much power and one day we can no longer use any electric appliances and there will be an explosion and people die. ... Then we will start living with nature and start cooperating," she says. But perhaps, she adds, we can change - switch paper milk cartons for glass and slow the cutting of forests. "There may be a chance that people will become more aware of nature and our problems and start recycling." Gosha Khusainov, a 10-year-old student at School No. 57 in Moscow, just a couple of blocks from the Kremlin, doubts it: "I think the world'll be worse, because it'll be very cold. It'll be less trees and grass, all days will be like evening, and only at night it'll be like now." As the natural world shrinks, Anat Avraham, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Frankel Elementary School in Jerusalem, sees a time when people will share their homes with bears ("bears who don't eat people," she explains). "My children will have lots of animals but they will barely see any nature. In my opinion, there won't be any (nature) then. I will try to help animals, especially panda bears who are endangered. I will try to prevent the death of fish." When fifth-grader Ethan Sawyer of Atlanta grows up, he expects to study Amazon rain forest ecology "on an acre of land, all that is left of the world's rain forests." Not that tomorrow will be entirely bad. Ethan says he will sleep just two hours a day, because "some gizmo" will make his sleep more efficient. He will eat "little pills filled with energy frappes. I don't think anyone will work in factories because robots will do all the work." But he agrees that wildlife will be imperiled, and Ethan loves animals - "I ADORE otters. I'm obsessed with otters." He hopes "that we will be able to save the animals. We may have to create new species. I don't know how, but there may be a way," he says. Dasha Marynova of Moscow thinks it can happen. "I want to study zoology and become a biologist because I'd like to deal with new animals, study them and meet tiger-leopards, mouse-owls, elephant-cockroach-spiders, snake-frog-crocodiles," says Dasha. Dasha sees a sunny future, full of airborne electric trains and special machines "that collect snow from the roads and don't sprinkle them with salt, which ruins your shoes." "Someone will invent a time machine, and people can be in the past, in the future, in the present. It will be much more interesting than simply going to school or playing. I also hope the time machine will return my grandfather, who died a few years ago," she says. PAGE 82 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), December 19, 1999 Dasha is 10 years old; she has a 20-year-old sister, Masha and a 14-year-old brother, Alyosha. In the future according to Dasha, Alyosha will not go into the army - now enmeshed in fighting in Chechnya. In that same future, the crime that has plagued post-communist Russia will be no more. Dasha wants to believe "that murders will stop, that there won't be people in prison, but that the police will arrest people on other planets for robbery." Maria del Pilar Guzman Sanches is also 10; she likes to spend her time playing with Barbies, curling her eyelashes and painting her lips in her home in Mexico. But she too lives in a world scarred by lawlessness, and imagines a world without it. "No pollution, no kidnappers, no drunks, no drug addicts, no cocaine addicts or sexual violence or violence against the authorities," she says. "I see the news and they say they stole some children," Maria says. "It makes me sad and I wouldn't like that to happen to me or to my children or to my grandchildren or to my great-grandchildren." Simon Mwangi wants to be a policeman when he grows up - unless he becomes an engineer or a meteorologist. He lives in Nairobi and foresees a time when Kenya "will be very industrialized and there will not be things like crimes. The police will be everywhere, like five policemen" in a housing compound. One night last June, 15 armed, masked men invaded his house, tied up his parents and robbed them. When they entered his bedroom, Simon screamed. A watchman came running; the bandits shot and killed him. Simon wants to invent "a robot which, if things come to your house, it can demolish all of them ... it can catch them and take them to police." Simon is 12 years old; he attends Olympic Primary School, set on a low hill overlooking corrugated metal roofs. Goats munch on clumps of grass at the edges of the dirt that surrounds the school. His classmate, Esther Auma, is appalled by poverty. "People die of hunger, many things. There is no unity. You can find somebody is feasting a lot of meat, chicken, and somebody is dying of hunger and he or she is throwing (the food away). There is no love." In the future, "There will be love. People will be working in groups. There will be no corruption." In India, 11-year-old Prachi Shrivastava sees people begging on the roads. She envisions a luxurious future - "The poorest person having a luxury flat and the middle class having a big, beautiful, computerized bungalow. The richest should have their own colony." "As I would be a very, very rich person" - she expects to live in the penthouse of a 1,000-story building - "I would have powers to reach to the government and tell them to help make my dream come true." PAGE 83 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), December 19, 1999 There are other dreams, of course. When Jo Warren of Atlanta was 9, she blacked out, and she was taken to the hospital. "For every few seconds of black, I would have a half of a second of sight. Until finally, everything blacked out and the only thing I could hear was the IV beeping. And then, it was all gone. Nothing." When she regained consciousness, they told her she had diabetes. Now, her fondest wish for the future is "the cure for diabetes, though that is one of many wishes." Emmanuel Pastor Bartolo Rangel of Mexico wants to be a doctor someday. In the future, "people won't die as fast" and there will be no AIDS or hepatitis or diabetes. His grandmother's death from cancer left him very sad: "I'd want that sickness not to exist." Others dream of world peace. "Wars should be stopped ... I can't stand it when I see people die in front of the camera," says Stefan S., 12, a sixth grader at the Schule am Griebnitzsee in Potsdam, Germany. (Authorities there would not allow students' last names to be used.) "I would like to be a peacemaker," says Benjamin Mbithi of Kenya. "When the wars come, I'll just go with my group and ... make peace," says this tall, solemn 11-year-old. "I'll help those people who would have lost their legs or arms by giving those artificial legs. And those people who are having famine, I will go and support their areas with food." He will be "a big man and well known by many people." Not all children have such grand ambitions - and not all of the children embrace the future, and all of the changes it entails. Twelve-year-old Maximilian S. of Germany wants to be a seaman. "To keep watch with the captain at night by rough seas and to listen to the sound of the 9,000 horsepower diesel engine is so overwhelming." "But who knows if there will still be cargo ships in the future, as the romance of seafaring is disappearing with technological progress." For most, though, the future is magnificent. Their words rush, describing the fun ahead: "Electronic clothes that make us dance," says Prachi Shrivastava of New Delhi. "The hobby will be lion riding, tiger riding," says her classmate Astha Gupta. "All subjects are in a helmet and if you put it on, the content goes into your head so you won't have to study," says Takafuii Masuo of Tokyo. "Flying cars, flying trains, hotels in space, time machines, airplanes that fly at the speed of light, and cities under the ocean," says Natasha Savranskaya of Atlanta. PAGE 84 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), December 19, 1999 "Maybe a park like Disneyland will be created in Israel," says Guy Shimon of Jerusalem. In the future, says Simon Mwangi of Nairobi, "I hope that Kenya will start snowing like in places like Canada." In the future, says 10-year-old Tal Malcha of Jerusalem, "there will be transportation for kids, maybe they will work themselves and drive cars or become astronauts." "Maybe," he says, "they will even run the world." ED:This story was reported by Judith Ingram in Moscow; Dina Kraft in Jerusalem; Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo; Maurice Frank in Pots dam, Germany; Niko Price and Julie Watson in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico; Susan Linnee and Dianna Cahn in Nairobi; Hema Shukla in Noida, India, and Jerry Schwartz in Atlanta. GRAPHIC: ONE COLOR PHOTO AND THREE B&W PHOTOS AP Photo Rohan Manocha, 11, gestures as he addresses the 6th-grade class at Amity International School in New Delhi, India, Dec. 10. Rohan's dreams of the future include, eating a capsule for breakfast and walking on the moon. AP PhotoNastya Astakhova, a fifth-grader, learns how to use scales during a lesson of nature studies at school No. 57 in Moscow. The dreams of the third millennium being dreamed by children in schools around the world vary from young optimism to bleak pessimism. AP PhotoTwo futuristic flying cars seem to fly through the air in this drawing from the imagination of Sarah Hudson, a fifth grader at Fernbank Elementary School in Atlanta. AP PhotoSimon Mwangi, 12, sits in a classroom at his Primary school in Nairobi, Kenya. LOAD-DATE: December 21, 1999 PAGE 85 LEVEL 1 - 17 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 LENGTH: 17461 words HEADLINE: UN Assembly urges enrichment of UN 'Internet' presence, full use of emerging info technologies HIGHLIGHT: Texts from Fourth Committee Also Adopted on Issues of Outer Space, Declaration on Decolonization, Situation of Palestine Refugees BODY: The General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to pursue further multilingual development, maintenance and enrichment of United Nations Web sites, and to continue to develop proposals for achieving parity between official languages, as it took action this afternoon on 27 resolutions and three decisions contained in the reports of its Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization). As it adopted, without a vote, a resolution on United Nations public information policies and activities, the Assembly also underlined the continuing importance of traditional mass media channels and encouraged the Secretary-General to take full advantage of recent developments in information technologies, including the Internet. It emphasized that the reorientation of the Department of Public Information (DPI) should continue to improve activities in the areas of special interest to developing countries and countries with special needs in order to bridge the gap between the developing and the developed countries. The Assembly also adopted, again without a vote, a resolution on information in the service of humanity, by which it urged international cooperation to reduce disparities in information flows; increase assistance for the development of communication infrastructures and capabilities in the developing countries; ensure professional freedom for journalists and condemn resolutely all attacks against them; provide support to training programmes for broadcasters and journalists from developing countries; and enhance regional efforts and cooperation among developing countries, as well as cooperation between developed and developing countries. On outer space issues, the Assembly two resolutions without a vote, the first calling for a renewed emphasis on space applications to address global challenges and a stepping-up of United Nations activities related to international cooperation in outer space. That text is an endorsement of the conclusions of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) held at Vienna from 19 to 30 July 1999. It also proclaims an annual World Space Week between 4 and 10 October, recalling the launch of Sputnik I and the entry into force of the Treaty on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The other outer space text deals with international space cooperation generally, and the work of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Also this afternoon, the Assembly adopted 12 resolutions concerning the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine PAGE 86 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices in the Occupied Territories. By one of five resolutions relating to Israeli practices, the Assembly called upon Israel to desist from imposing Israeli citizenship and identity cards on the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan, and from its repressive measures against the population there. That resolution was approved by a recorded vote of 150 in favour, to 1 against with 5 abstentions. (For details of the voting see Annex XI.) Adopting another text, by a recorded vote of 149 in favour to 3 against (Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, United States) with 3 abstentions (Marshall Islands, Swaziland, Uruguay), the Assembly reaffirmed that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, were illegal and an obstacle to peace and socio-economic development. (See Annex IX.) By the terms of another text, the Assembly reaffirmed that the 1949 Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians in the time of war was applicable to the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem and other occupied Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967. That draft was approved by a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States) with 1 abstention (Federated States of Micronesia. (Annex VIII.) A draft on the work of the Special Committee on Israeli Practices was adopted by 84 votes in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States) with 67 abstentions. The Assembly demanded that Israel cooperate with the Special Committee in implementing its mandate. It deplored Israeli policies and practices violating the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories (Annex VII.) By another text on Israeli practices, the Assembly called upon Israel to accelerate the release of all remaining Palestinians arbitrarily detained or imprisoned, in line with agreements already reached, and to guarantee the freedom of movement of persons and goods in the occupied territory. That text was approved by a recorded vote of 150 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 3 abstentions (Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Swaziland). (Annex X.) The Assembly adopted by 155 in favour to 1 against (Israel), with 2 abstentions (Federated States of Micronesia, United States) a resolution reiterating its deep concern over UNRWA's persisting critical financial situation and urging all Member States to extend assistance for the socio-economic development of the Palestinian people and the occupied territories. (Annex I.) Acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a related resolution on the financing of UNRWA. By another text, adopted by a recorded vote of 154 in favour, to 2 against (Israel, United States) with 2 abstentions (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands), the Assembly reaffirmed the right of all persons displaced as a result of hostilities to return to their homes or former places of residence in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967. (Annex II.) Adopting a further UNRWA text, the Assembly strongly appealed to all Member States, specialized agencies and non-governmental organizations to augment PAGE 87 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 special allocations for grants and scholarships to Palestine refugees in addition to their contributions to the Agency's regular budget. That resolution was adopted by 158 votes in favour to none against, with 1 abstention (Israel). (Annex III.) A resolution on the operations of UNRWA was adopted by 154 votes in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States) with 1 abstention (Federated States of Micronesia). By its terms, the Assembly called upon Israel to compensate the Agency for damage to its property and facilities resulting from Israeli actions. (Annex IV.) By the terms of another draft, adopted by 154 votes in favour, to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 2 abstentions (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands), the Assembly urged the Palestinian and Israeli sides to deal with the issue of Palestine refugees' properties and their revenues in the framework of the final status negotiations of the Middle East negotiations. (Annex V.) A resolution on University of Jerusalem "Al-Quds" for Palestine refugees was approved by a recorded vote of 155 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 1 abstention (Federated States of Micronesia). It called once more upon Israel to remove all hindrances in the way of establishing the proposed university. (Annex VI.) Taking up peacekeeping issues, the Assembly adopted, without a vote, a resolution by which it decided to keep open during its fifty-fourth session the item "Comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects". It also endorsed the conclusions and recommendations of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, and urged Member States to implement them. A text on the effects of atomic radiation was also adopted without a vote. By its terms, the Assembly reaffirmed the decision to maintain the present functions and independent role of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and endorsed plans for its future activities of scientific review and assessment. The Assembly also adopted eight resolutions and two decisions on decolonization issues. By 153 votes in favour, to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 5 abstentions (France, Georgia, Federated States of Micronesia, Monaco, United Kingdom), the Assembly adopted a resolution on economic and other activities affecting the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories. It reaffirmed the responsibility of the administering Powers under the Charter to promote the advancement of those Territories, as well as the rights of their peoples over their natural resources. (Annex XIII.) By a recorded vote of 99 in favour to 53 against and 1 abstention (Federated States of Micronesia), the Assembly adopted a decision on military activities and arrangements by colonial Powers in Territories under their administration. By that text, it deplored the continued alienation of land in colonial and Non-Self- Governing Territories, particularly in the small island Territories of the Pacific and Caribbean regions, for military purposes. (Annex XIV.) On information from Non-Self- Governing Territories transmitted under Article 73 e, the Assembly adopted the related resolution by 155 votes in PAGE 88 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 favour, to none against, with 6 abstentions (France, Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, Monaco, United Kingdom, United States). By that text, the Assembly requested the administering Powers concerned to transmit to the Secretary-General the fullest possible information on political and constitutional developments in the Territories. (Annex XII.) The Assembly also adopted a resolution on implementation of the Decolonization Declaration by the specialized agencies of the United Nations. That text was adopted by 101 votes in favour, to none against, with 52 abstentions. (Annex XV). Acting without a vote, the Committee approved a resolution on offers by Member States of study and training facilities for inhabitants of Non-Self-Governing Territories; a decision on the question of Gibraltar; and resolutions on Western Sahara, New Caledonia, and Tokelau, as well as a consolidated resolution on the Non- Self-Governing Territories of American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guam, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St. Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. The Assembly also took note of the report of the Fourth Committee's report on the question of East Timor. Acting directly, the Assembly adopted a resolution on implementation of the Declaration on decolonization, by which it reaffirmed all its previous resolutions on the matter, including resolution 43/47 in which it declared the Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism, which began in 1990. The Assembly called upon the administering Powers to cooperate fully with the Special Committee on decolonization to develop before the end of the year 2000 a constructive programme of work with respect to the Non-Self-Governing Territories. That resolution was adopted by a recorded vote of 141 in favour to 2 against (United Kingdom, United States) with 14 abstentions. (Annex XVI.) In its final action today, the Assembly adopted, by 141 votes in favour, to 2 against (United Kingdom, United States) with 3 abstentions (France, Israel, Monaco), a text on dissemination of information on decolonization. (Annex XVII.) Speaking in explanation of vote were the representatives of Argentina, United States and United Kingdom. The Rapporteur of the Fourth Committee introduced that body's reports. The report of the Special Committee on decolonization was introduced by its Rapporteur, while its Chairman introduced the resolution on implementation of the Declaration on decolonization. Also making statements today were the representatives of Antigua and Barbuda - - on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) - Cuba, and Fiji (on behalf of the South Pacific Forum). The General Assembly will meet again tomorrow at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Assembly Work Programme The General Assembly was expected to take action this afternoon on a number of draft resolutions and draft decisions relating to reports of its Fourth PAGE 89 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Committee (Special Political and Decolonization). Among the topics addressed in those reports are: effects of atomic radiation; international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space; the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories; comprehensive review of peacekeeping operations; and questions relating to information. The Assembly was also expected to take action on Fourth Committee reports relating to decolonization issues and to act directly on two draft resolutions, the first relating to implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, and the second concerning dissemination of information on decolonization. By a draft on effects of atomic radiation (document A/54/573), the General Assembly would reaffirm the decision to maintain the present functions and independent role of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, including the present reporting arrangements. It would endorse the Committee's intentions and plans for its future activities of scientific review and assessment, including the publication of its next comprehensive report in the year 2000. Further, the Assembly would request the Committee to continue its work, including its important activities to increase knowledge of the levels, effects and risks of ionizing radiation from all sources. Also by that text, the Assembly would express its appreciation for assistance to the Committee from Member States, specialized agencies and others, and invite the international community to increase cooperation in that field. It would invite Member States, the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations concerned to provide relevant data about doses, effects and risks from various sources of radiation for future reports of the Scientific Committee to the General Assembly. By a draft on international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space (document A/54/574), the Assembly would urge all States, particularly those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the prevention of an arms race in outer space. It would emphasize the need to increase the benefits of space technology and its applications and to contribute to space activities favourable to sustained economic growth and development in all countries, particularly the developing ones, and to the mitigation of the consequences of natural disasters. Also by that text, the Assembly would request the Outer Space Committee to resume its consideration of spin-off benefits of space technology and review their current status. It would, by other terms, approve a programme of work for the Committee's Legal Subcommittee, including the status of the five international instruments governing the use of outer space; the definition and delimitation of outer space as well as the character and utilization of the geostationary orbit, including ways to ensure its rational and equitable use. Further, the Assembly would approve a programme for the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, with attention to remote-sensing of the Earth by satellites, including applications for developing countries and monitoring of the Earth's environment; the use of nuclear power sources in space; international cooperation in human space flight; presentations on new launch systems and PAGE 90 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 ventures; and space debris. By a second text, relating to the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III), held at Vienna from 19 to 30 July 1999, the Assembly would urge governments, the United Nations system, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and the space industry to implement the Conference's final document, "The Space Millennium: Vienna Declaration on Space and Human Development". It would also proclaim an annual celebration of World Space Week between 4 and 10 October, recalling the launch of Sputnik I on 4 October 1957, and the entry into force of the Treaty on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on 10 October 1967. Of the seven drafts on UNRWA (document A/54/575), the first, on assistance to Palestine refugees, would have the General Assembly reiterate its deep concern regarding the Agency's persisting critical financial situation as outlined in the report of the Commissioner-General. It would note with profound concern that the continuing shortfall in the Agency's finances has a significant negative influence on the living conditions of the Palestine refugees most in need and that it therefore has possible consequences for the peace process. The Assembly would call upon all donors, as a matter of urgency, to make the most generous efforts possible to meet UNRWA's anticipated needs, including the remaining costs of moving the headquarters to Gaza, and encourage contributing governments to contribute regularly and to consider increasing their contributions. The second draft, on the Working Group on the Financing of UNRWA, the Assembly would request the Working Group to continue its efforts, in cooperation with the Secretary-General and the Commissioner-General, to find a solution to the Agency's financial situation. It would welcome the new, unified budget structure for the 2000-2001 biennium 2000-2001, which can contribute significantly to improved budgetary transparency. Under the terms of a text relating to persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities, the Assembly would reaffirm the right of all persons displaced as a result of those hostilities to return to their homes or former places of residence in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967. It would express the hope for an accelerated return of displaced people through the mechanism agreed upon by the parties in article XII of the 1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements. By a text on offers by Member States of grants and scholarships for higher education, including vocational training, for Palestine refugees, the Assembly would strongly appeal to all States, specialized agencies and non-governmental organizations to augment the special allocations for grants and scholarships to Palestine refugees, in addition to their contributions to the regular budget of the UNRWA. It would also request the Agency to act as the recipient and trustee for those special allocations and to award them to qualified Palestine refugee candidates. According to a draft on operations of UNRWA, the Assembly would call upon Israel to accept the de jure applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and to abide scrupulously by its provisions. It would also call upon Israel to abide by Articles 100, 104, and 105 of the United Nations Charter and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations with regard to the safety PAGE 91 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 of UNRWA personnel and the protection of its institutions and the safeguarding of the security of its facilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem. In addition, the Assembly would call once again upon the Government of Israel to compensate the Agency for damages to its property and facilities resulting from actions by the Israeli side. According to a text on Palestine refugees' properties and their revenues, the Assembly would reaffirm that the Palestinian refugees are entitled to their property and to income derived therefrom, in conformity with the principles of justice and equity. It would urge the Palestinian and Israeli sides, as agreed between them, to deal with the important issue of the refugees' properties and their revenues in the framework of the final status negotiations of the Middle East peace process. A draft on a University of Jerusalem "Al Quds" for Palestine refugees would have the Assembly emphasize the need to strengthen the educational system in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 5 June 1967, including Jerusalem, and specifically the need for the establishment of the proposed university. The Assembly would also call once more upon Israel to remove the hindrances that it has put in the way of establishing the University of Jerusalem "Al Quds". By one of five draft resolutions in the report of the Special Committee on Israeli Practices (document A/54/576), the General Assembly would commend that body for its efforts and its impartiality. It would demand that Israel cooperate with the Special Committee in implementing its mandate. Also by that text, the Assembly would deplore those policies and practices of Israel which violate the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories, as reflected in the reports of the Special Committee covering the reporting period. By a draft on applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons during time of war, the Assembly would reaffirm that the Convention is applicable to the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and other occupied Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967. The Assembly would demand that Israel accept the Convention's de jure applicability in the occupied territories and that it comply scrupulously with the its provisions. Under the terms of a text on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan, the Assembly would reaffirm that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan are illegal and an obstacle to peace and socio-economic development. Further, the Assembly would demand complete cessation of the construction of the new settlement in Jabal Abu-Ghneim and of all Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan. Also, the Assembly would stress the need for full implementation of Security Council resolution 904 (1994) in which, among other things, the Council called upon Israel, the occupying Power, to continue to take and implement measures, including confiscation of arms, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli settlers, and called for measures to guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians in the occupied territory. By a PAGE 92 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 text on Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, the Assembly would demand that Israel cease all practices and actions which violate the human rights of the Palestinian people. It would call upon Israel to accelerate the release of all remaining Palestinians arbitrarily detained or imprisoned, in line with agreements already reached, and call for complete respect by Israel of all fundamental freedoms of the Palestinian people. The Assembly would stress the need to preserve the territorial integrity of all the occupied Palestinian territory and to guarantee the freedom of movement of persons and goods within the Palestinian territory, including the removal of restrictions on movement into and from East Jerusalem, and the freedom of movement to and from the outside world. By a draft on the occupied Syrian Golan, the Assembly would call upon Israel to comply with the relevant resolutions on the occupied Syrian Golan, in particular Security Council resolution 497 (1981), in which the Council, inter alia, decided that the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan was null and void and without international legal effect, and demanded that Israel, the occupying Power, should rescind forthwith its decision. The Assembly would also call upon Israel to desist from changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan and in particular to desist from the establishment of settlements, by other terms. It would determine that all legislative and administrative measures and actions by Israel purporting to alter the character and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan are null and void, constitute a flagrant violation of international law and of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and have no legal effect. Further, the Assembly would call upon Israel to desist from imposing Israeli citizenship and identity cards on the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan and to desist from its repressive measures against the population of the occupied Syrian Golan. By a draft on the whole question of peacekeeping (document A/54/577), the Assembly would decide that the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations would continue its efforts for a comprehensive review. It would also review implementation of its previous proposals and consider any new proposals so as to enhance United Nations capacity to fulfil its responsibilities in that field. Further, the Assembly would reiterate that Member States that become personnel contributors to United Nations peacekeeping in years to come or participate in the future in the Special Committee for three consecutive years as observers, will, upon written request, become members at the following session. The Assembly has before it two draft resolutions on questions relating to information (document A/54/578). By a draft on United Nations public information policies and activities the Assembly would note with appreciation, the Secretary-General's reports on the continuous and multilingual development, maintenance and enrichment of United Nations Web sites, and on his efforts to develop and enhance the Web sites in all the official languages of the Organization. He would be requested to pursue those efforts and to continue to develop proposals for achieving modular PAGE 93 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 parity between official languages in a cost-effective manner and with a focus on textual content. Also by the 45-paragraph text, the Assembly would underline the continuing importance of traditional and mass media channels in disseminating information about the United Nations, and encourage the Secretary-General to take full advantage of recent developments in information technologies, including the Internet, to improve, in a cost-effective manner, the dissemination of information about the Organization, taking into account its linguistic diversity. The Assembly would emphasize that, through its reorientation, the Department of Public Information (DPI) should continue and improve its activities in the areas of special interest to developing countries and other countries with special needs, including countries in transition. Further, the Assembly would take note of the Secretary-General's report on the design and scope of a pilot project for the development of an international radio broadcasting capacity for the United Nations, and request the Department to start, as soon as possible, the implementation of the pilot project through, among other means, contacts with interested Member States and other specialized institutions. This would be done with a view to ensuring the assistance necessary for the project's success, taking into account the need to enhance the existing resources and services. The draft calls for the Assembly to reaffirm the importance attached by Member States to the role of United Nations information centres in effectively and comprehensively disseminating information in all parts of the world, in particular developing countries and countries in transition, and especially in those countries where there is a need for greater understanding about United Nations activities. It would note with concern that, while the co-location of United Nations information centres with field offices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has, to some extent, been able to promote the image of the United Nations, the integration has, in general, resulted in a lower level of programme delivery and a narrower range of activities. In cases of relocation of information centres to common premises with the Programme has frequently resulted in higher maintenance costs and has been suffering from leadership and staff problems. By the terms of a draft on information in the service of humanity, the Assembly would urge all countries, the United Nations system and all others concerned to cooperate and interact with a view to reducing existing disparities in information flows at all levels, by increasing assistance for the development of communication infrastructures and capabilities in the developing countries; to ensure for journalists the free and effective performance of their professional tasks and condemn resolutely all attacks against them; to provide support for the strengthening of practical training programmes for broadcasters and journalists from all media in developing countries; and to enhance regional efforts and cooperation among developing countries, as well as cooperation between developed and developing countries. A separate draft decision would have the General Assembly decide to increase the membership of the Committee on Information from 93 to 95 and to appoint Liberia and Mozambique as members. PAGE 94 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 By a draft resolution on information from Non-Self-Governing Territories transmitted under Article 73 e of the United Nations Charter (document A/54/579), the Assembly would reaffirm that, in the absence of its decision that a Non-Self- Governing Territory has attained a measure of self-government, the administering Power concerned should continue to transmit information under Article 73 e with respect to that Territory. The administering Powers would be requested to continue to transmit the fullest possible information on the political and constitutional developments in the Territories concerned within a maximum period of six months following the expiration of the administrative year in those Territories. Under the terms of a text on economic and other activities affecting the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories (document A/54/580), the Assembly would reaffirm its concern about any activities aimed at the exploitation of the natural resources that are the heritage of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories, including the indigenous populations, in the Caribbean, Pacific and other regions, as well as their human resources, to the detriment of their interests, and in such a way as to deprive them of their right to dispose of those resources. The Assembly would affirm the value of foreign economic investment undertaken in collaboration with the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories and in accordance with their wishes in order to make a valid contribution to the socio- economic development of the Territories. It would affirm the need to avoid any economic and other activities which adversely affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories. According to a text on implementation of the decolonization Declaration by the United Nations specialized agencies and associated institutions (document A/54/581), the Assembly would request those bodies to provide information on environmental problems facing the Non-Self-Governing Territories; on the impact of natural disasters, beach and coastal erosion and drought on those Territories; on ways to assist the Territories in fighting drug trafficking, money laundering and other illegal and criminal activities; and on the illegal exploitation of the marine resources of the Territories and the need to utilize those resources for the benefit of the peoples of the Territories. A text on offers by Member States of study and training facilities for inhabitants of Non-Self-Governing Territories (document A/54/582), the Assembly would express its appreciation to Member States that have made scholarships available. It would invite all States to make or continue to make generous offers of study and training facilities to all inhabitants of those Territories that have not yet attained self-government or independence and, wherever possible, to provide travel funds to prospective students. By a draft on implementation of the decolonization Declaration (document A/54/L.50) the Assembly would reaffirm all its other resolutions on decolonization, including resolution 43/47, in which it declared the Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism that began in 1990. It would reaffirm its determination to continue to take all the necessary steps to bring about the speedy eradication of colonialism and the faithful observance by all States of the relevant provisions of the Charter, the decolonization Declaration and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. PAGE 95 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Further, the Assembly would affirm its support for the aspiration of the peoples under colonial rule to exercise their right to self-determination, including independence. Calling upon the administering Powers to cooperate fully with the Special Committee on decolonization to develop before the end of the year 2000 a constructive programme of work with respect to the Non-Self-Governing Territories, the Assembly it would request the Special Committee to continue to seek an immediate and full implementation of the Declaration and to carry out the actions approved by the Assembly regarding the International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism in all the Territories that have not yet exercised their right to self-determination. Also by the draft, the Assembly would call upon the administering Powers to ensure that all economic activities in the Non-Self-Governing Territories under their administration do not adversely affect the interests of the peoples, but instead promote development. The Assembly would reiterate that military activities and arrangements by administering Powers in the Non-Self-Governing Territories under their administration should not run counter to the rights and interests of the peoples concerned, and call on the administering Powers to terminate such activities and to eliminate the remaining military bases in compliance with the relevant General Assembly resolutions. Urging all States to provide moral and material assistance to the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories, the Assembly would request the administering Powers to provide all possible assistance in strengthening the economies of the Territories. It would reaffirm that the United Nations visiting missions to the Territories are an effective means of ascertaining the situation in the Territories and the wishes of their inhabitants and call on the administering Powers to facilitate those missions. Also by that text, the Assembly would call upon the administering Powers that have not participated formally in the work of the Special Committee to do so at its session in the year 2000. It would request the Secretary-General and the United Nations system to provide economic, social and other assistance to the Non-Self- Governing Territories after they exercise their right to self-determination, including independence. The General Assembly also had before it several draft resolutions concerning various Non-Self-Governing Territories (document A/54/584). By the terms of a draft on the question of Western Sahara, the Assembly would note with satisfaction the agreements reached between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) for the implementation of the Settlement Plan during their private direct talks under the auspices of James Baker III, Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, and would urge the parties to implement those agreements fully and in good faith. Also by the text, the Assembly would urge the two parties to implement faithfully and loyally the Secretary-General's package of measures for the identification of voters, the appeals process and the revised implementation timetable. The Assembly would reiterate its support for further efforts of the Secretary-General for the organization and supervision by the United Nations, in cooperation with the Organization of African Unity (OAU), of a referendum for self- determination of the people of Western Sahara that is impartial and free of all constraints, in conformity with Security Council resolutions. PAGE 96 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 A text on New Caledonia would have the Assembly urge all parties involved, in the interest of all the people of that territory and building on the positive outcome of the review of the Matignon and Noumea Accords, to maintain their dialogue in a spirit of harmony. All the parties involved would be invited to continue promoting a framework for the peaceful progress of the Territory towards an act of self-determination in which all options are open and which would safeguard the rights of all New Caledonians according to the letter and spirit of the Noumea Accord, which is based on the principle that it is for the populations of New Caledonia to choose how to control their destiny. By a draft on Tokelau, the Assembly acknowledge that Territory's need for reassurance, given that local resources cannot adequately cover the material side of self-determination, and the ongoing responsibility of Tokelau's external partners to assist Tokelau in balancing its desire to be self-reliant to the greatest extent possible with its need for external assistance. The Assembly would welcome New Zealand's assurances that it will meet its obligations to the United Nations with respect to Tokelau and abide by the freely expressed wishes of its people with regard to their future status. By the first part of a consolidated draft resolution on the Non-Self- Governing Territories of American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guam, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St. Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands and United States Virgin Islands, the General Assembly would call upon the administering Powers, in cooperation with the respective territorial governments, to continue to take all necessary measures to counter problems related to drug trafficking, money laundering and other offences. The administering Powers, in cooperation with the territorial governments, would be called upon to facilitate political education programmes in the Territories to foster an awareness among the people of their right to self-determination. The second part of the consolidated draft deals with specific conditions in each Territory. By the text on American Samoa, the Assembly would call upon the administering Power to continue to assist the territorial government in the Territory's economic and social development, including measures to rebuild the financial management capabilities and strengthen other governmental functions of the Territory's government. By the draft on Anguilla, the Assembly would welcome the United Nations Development Programme Country Cooperation Framework for the period 1997-1999 currently being implemented following consultations with the territorial government and key development partners in the United Nations system and the donor community. It would also welcome the UNDP's assessment that the Territory has made considerable progress in sustainable human development and in its sound management and preservation of the environment, which has been incorporated into the National Tourism Plan. The Assembly would further welcome the Caribbean Development Bank's assessment in its 1998 that the Territory's medium- and long-term economic prospects were favourable. Regarding Bermuda, the Assembly would request the administering Power to elaborate, in consultation with the territorial government, programmes of development specifically intended to alleviate the economic, social and environmental consequences of the closure of certain United States military bases and installations in the Territory. By the text on the British Virgin Islands, the Assembly would request the administering Power, the United Nations system and all financial institutions to continue to provide assistance to the Territory for socio-economic development PAGE 97 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 and the development of human resources, bearing in mind the Territory's vulnerability to external factors. The draft on the Cayman Islands would have the Assembly call upon the administering Power and the territorial government to cooperate in countering problems related to money laundering, smuggling of funds and other related crimes, as well as drug trafficking. The administering Power, in consultation with the territorial government, would be requested to continue to facilitate the expansion of the current programme of securing employment for the local population, in particular at the decision-making level. By the text on Guam, the Assembly would request the administering Power to cooperate with the Territory's Commission on Decolonization for the implementation and exercise of Chamorro self-determination in order to facilitate Guam's decolonization. It would call upon the administering Power to take into consideration the expressed will of the Chamorro people as endorsed by the people of Guam, and encourage the administering Power and the territorial government to continue the negotiations on the matter. Also by that draft, the Assembly would request the administering Power to cooperate in establishing programmes specifically intended to promote the sustainable development of economic activities and enterprises by the Chamorro people of Guam. The administering Power would be further requested to continue to recognize and respect the political rights and the cultural and ethnic identity of the Chamorro people of Guam, and to take all necessary measures to respond to the territorial government's concerns with regard to immigration. The administering Power would also be requested to support appropriate measures by the territorial government aimed at promoting growth in commercial fishing, agricultural and other viable activities. With respect to Montserrat, the General Assembly would call upon the administering Power, the specialized agencies and other organizations of the United Nations system, as well as regional and other organizations, to provide urgent emergency assistance to the Territory in alleviating the consequences of the volcanic eruption. According to the text on Pitcairn, the Assembly would request the administering Power, bearing in mind the views of the people of the Territory ascertained through a democratic process, to keep the Secretary-General informed of the wishes and aspirations of the people regarding their future political status. The administering Power would also be requested to continue its assistance for the improvement of the economic, social, educational and other conditions of the Territory's population. Regarding St. Helena, the Assembly would request the administering Power and relevant regional and international organizations to continue to support the territorial government's efforts to address the Territory's socio-economic development. It would also note that the administering Power has taken note of statements made by members of the Legislative Council of St. Helena about the Constitution and is prepared to discuss them further with the Territory's people. By the draft on the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Assembly would call upon the administering Power and the territorial government to continue to cooperate to counter problems related to money laundering, smuggling of funds and other PAGE 98 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 related crimes, as well as drug trafficking. It would invite the administering Power to take fully into account the wishes and interests of the government and the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the governance of the Territory. The Assembly would welcome the Caribbean Development Bank's assessment in its 1998 report that the economy continued to expand with considerable output and low inflation. Regarding the United States Virgin Islands, the General Assembly would express concern that the Territory, which is already heavily indebted, had to borrow $21 million from a commercial bank to carry out its year 2000 computer compliance programme. It would also express concern that the territorial government is facing severe fiscal problems, which has resulted in an accumulated debt of more than $1 billion. Further, the administering Power would be requested to facilitate the Territory's participation in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Association of Caribbean States. A draft decision on Gibraltar would take note of a negotiating process between the United Kingdom and Spain, and urge the two Governments to continue their efforts towards a definitive solution in the light of relevant Assembly resolutions and in the spirit of the United Nations charter. The Assembly has two further texts from the Special Committee (document A/54/23/(Part III)) According to a draft resolution on dissemination of information on decolonization, the Assembly would approve the activities in that field undertaken by the United Nations Department of Public Information and the Department of Political Affairs. It would consider it important to continue its efforts to ensure the widest possible dissemination of decolonization information, with particular emphasis on the options of self-determination available to the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories. By a draft decision on military activities and arrangements by colonial Powers in Territories under their administration, the Assembly would deplore the continued alienation of land in colonial and Non-Self-Governing Territories, particularly in the small island Territories of the Pacific and Caribbean regions, for military installations. It would reiterate that the colonial and Non-Self- Governing Territories and adjacent areas should not be used for nuclear testing, dumping of nuclear wastes or deployment of nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction. The Assembly would take note of the decision by some administering Powers to close or "downsize" some of the military bases in the Non-Self-Governing Territories. Declaration on Decolonization The Assembly first took up the report of the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (document A/54/23, Parts I-III). FAYSSAL MEKDAD (Syria), Rapporteur of the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, introduced the Committee's report. Introducing the draft resolution on the implementation of the Declaration (document A/54/L.50), PETER DONOGI (Papua New Guinea), Chairman of the Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, said that PAGE 99 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 recommendations put forward by the Committee for the approval by the Assembly had been discussed in the Committee. Cooperation of the administering powers was essential for the implementation of the Declaration and United Nations resolutions on decolonization. For that reason, the Committee had sought to strengthen the mechanisms for consultation and dialogue. PATRICK LEWIS (Antigua and Barbuda), on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said the level of implementation of the Plan of Action of the Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism left a great deal to be desired. Major provisions had yet to be addressed. Priority actions such as the creation of political education to heighten the awareness of the people of the Non-Self-Governing Territories, as well as visits to each Territory by the Secretary-General or his Special Representative, had never materialized. It was evident that none of the remaining, mostly small island, Non-Self- Governing Territories had met the essential criteria of full and absolute equality as defined by landmark General Assembly resolutions, he said. Political equality must remain the operative standard to be applied to the self-determination process of the remaining small island Non-Self-Governing Territories. That was essential in order to avoid the inadvertent legitimization by the international community of unequal, politically dependent arrangements that still characterized the present political status of those Territories. It did not appear that full self-government in any of those Territories would be attained by the end of the year 2000. He said that United Nations regional seminars on decolonization had provided important recommendations from the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories themselves to accelerate the decolonization process. Had those suggestions been heeded, it was likely that a much more favourable picture could be presented today. In order to regain the momentum necessary to address the self-determination needs and aspirations of the people of the remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories, CARICOM would propose as part of its contribution to the Millennium Assembly, a comprehensive plan of action for a Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism. The recommendations of the regional seminars would be integrated into that new plan. The momentum generated by the 1999 Caribbean Regional Seminar held in St. Lucia last May, he said, had been critical to the inclusion of updated language in the omnibus resolution on the small Territories under consideration today, and had moved the process forward from previous years in which the General Assembly had repeatedly adopted virtually identical texts which had not taken into account any new developments affecting the Territories. Similar new language in the resolution on implementation of the Decolonization Declaration by United Nations specialized agencies also recognized new developments, especially in the area of the participation of many of those Territories in the wider United Nations system. RAFAEL DAUSA CESPEDES (Cuba) said the United Nations had achieved significant gains in the area of decolonization since the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960. That had been one of the Organization's greatest victories. However, much remained to be done, and it appeared that much of the momentum of the 1960s and 1970s had been lost. It seemed that the dream of a world without colonialism would have to wait a little longer. PAGE 100 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 He said it was unacceptable and discriminatory to put forward arguments that a territory's size, the number of its people and size of its natural resources should determine its readiness for independence. Independence was the right of all peoples, irrespective of the size of their territory, population or natural resources. Cuba appealed to the administering Powers to end the activities of companies under their jurisdiction in exploiting the resources of Non-Self-Governing Territories under their administration, he said. The use of those Territories for military purposes clearly ran counter to the interests of their peoples. Cuba was firmly opposed to any attempt to use the Territories for military activities, including nuclear testing, and the storage of nuclear wastes. He reaffirmed his country's commitment to the independence and self- determination of Puerto Rico which, he said, had suffered under the yoke colonialism for more than 100 years and yet had not lost one iota of its Latin American and Caribbean identity. AMRAIYA NAIDU (Fiji), speaking on behalf of the nations of the South Pacific Forum, said they supported the draft. The problems of the five remaining Territories in the Pacific were much the same as those recently discussed during the Assembly's Special Session on Small Island Developing States. He was concerned that the rights of the people in those territories might be subsumed by the global goals. Concerns about what sort of political structure was best suited for the people of those Pacific Territories could best be met by taking into account the traditional systems of government which had served them for many thousands of years before the arrival of outsiders. There might also be a need for change, to introduce better and more efficient systems of government, new technology and better skills to manage the environment for the benefit of the people of the Territories. Although in the past many members of the Forum had voted in favour of the resolution under discussion, he continued, they had always been skeptical about the usefulness of discontent and lack of dialogue between some administering Powers and the members of the Special Committee. He urged the administering Powers to cooperate fully with the Special Committee to develop a programme of work for each of the territories. Regarding visiting missions, he said that they should only be considered if absolutely necessary for the implementation of the Committee's mandate. If there was such a need, the programme of work should include a visiting mission to that particular territory, which could then be properly evaluated and funded at the appropriate time. On New Caledonia, he informed the delegates that a recent Pacific Islands Forum Heads of Government meeting in Palau had welcomed the signing of the Noumea Accords between the two main political parties in the Territory. The leaders agreed to a continuing future monitoring role for the Ministerial Committee on New Caledonia during the implementation process of the Noumea Accords, and encouraged the Government and all the parties in New Caledonia to maintain their commitment to implementation of the agreements. Continuing, he noted that in the Pacific, there was a military presence of the administering Powers on Guam and New Caledonia. The countries of the Pacific had never considered such a presence to be a threat to peace and good government in the territories concerned. The bases there had provided assistance in the natural disasters that afflicted many of the small nations. There was no evidence that such a military presence had been used to suppress the basic PAGE 101 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 freedoms of the people of those two territories. He therefore warmly welcomed the change of attitude of the Special Committee in respect to the provision dealing with military activities. Turning to East Timor, he said that the international community was now left with the aftermath of the ballot cast for independence. He called on the international community to provide additional assistance to the people of East Timor to rebuild their lives and nation as soon as possible. Reports of the Fourth Committee GUALBERTO RODRIGUEZ SAN MARTIN (Bolivia), Rapporteur of the Fourth Committee, introduced the reports of that body before the Assembly. Action on Texts First, the Assembly adopted without a vote the draft resolution on the effects of atomic radiation, contained in document A/54/573. The Assembly then adopted without a vote two texts on international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space (document A/54/574). Turning to the Fourth Committee's report on United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) (document A/54/575), the Assembly first adopted the draft on assistance to Palestine refugees by a recorded vote of 155 in favour to 1 against (Israel), with 2 abstentions (Federated States of Micronesia, United States) (For details of the vote, see Annex I). The draft on the financing of the UNRWA was adopted without a vote. The draft on persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities was adopted by a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 2 abstentions (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands) (Annex II). The draft on offers by Member States of grants and scholarships for higher education and vocational training for Palestine refugees was adopted by a recorded vote of 158 in favour to none against, with 1 abstention (Israel) (Annex III). By a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 1 abstention (Federated States of Micronesia), the Assembly adopted the draft on operations of UNRWA (Annex IV). The draft on Palestine refugees' properties and their revenues was adopted by a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 2 abstentions (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands) (Annex V). The Assembly then adopted the draft on University of Jerusalem "Al-Quds" for Palestine refugees by a recorded vote of 155 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 1 abstention (Federated States of Micronesia) (Annex VI) The Assembly then took action on draft resolutions on Israeli Practices (document A/54/576). It adopted the draft on the work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices by a recorded vote of 84 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 67 abstentions (For additional information, see Annex VII). PAGE 102 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 The draft on the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians time of war has adopted by a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 1 abstention (Federated States of Micronesia) (Annex VIII). The draft on Israeli settlements in the occupied territories was adopted by a recorded vote of 149 in favour to 3 against (Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, United States), with 3 abstentions (Marshall Islands, Swaziland, Uruguay)(Annex IX). The Assembly adopted the draft on the Israeli practices in the occupied territories by a recorded vote of 150 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 3 abstentions (Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Swaziland) (Annex X). By a recorded vote of 150 in favour to 1 against (Israel), with 5 abstentions (Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Swaziland, United States, Uruguay) the Assembly adopted the text on the occupied Syrian Golan. (Annex XI) On the comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects (document A/54/577), the Assembly adopted without a vote the draft resolution contained in the report of the Committee. Turning to questions relating to information, the Assembly took up the report of the Fourth Committee on that matter (document A/54/578). It adopted, without a vote, the two draft resolutions and one draft decision contained in the report. The draft on information from Non-Self-Governing Territories transmitted under Article 73e of the Charter (document A/54/579) was adopted by a recorded vote of 155 in favour to none against, with 6 abstentions (France, Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, Monaco, United Kingdom, United States) (Annex XII). The draft resolution on economic and other activities affecting the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories was adopted by a vote of 153 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 5 abstentions (France, Georgia, Federated States of Micronesia, Monaco, United Kingdom) (Annex 13). Taking up the draft decision on military activities and arrangements, the Assembly adopted it by a vote of 99 in favour to 53 against, with 1 abstention (Federated States of Micronesia) (Annex XIV) The Assembly then turned to the draft resolution on implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples by the specialized agencies and the international institutions associated with the United Nations. Speaking in explanation of vote, MATEO ESTREME (Argentina) said that his country had always supported the work of the Committee and voted in favour of the draft in question, because it agreed with the objectives of the text. However, this year, the draft did not properly reflect the specific resolutions of the Special Committee, particularly where particular Territories were concerned. Accordingly, his delegation would abstain in the voting. The Assembly then adopted the text by a recorded vote of 101 in favour to none against, with 52 abstentions (Annex XV). The text on offers by Member States of study and training facilities for inhabitants of Non-Self-Governing Territories was adopted without a vote. On the question of East Timor, the Assembly took note of the report of the Special PAGE 103 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Political and Decolonization Committee on the matter. The Assembly then adopted without a vote the draft resolutions on the question of Western Sahara and New Caledonia and Tokelau, the omnibus resolution on 11 Non-Self-Governing Territories, and draft decision on the question of Gibraltar. The Assembly then adopted the draft on the implementation of the Declaration of Independence (document A/54/L.50) by a vote of 141 in favour to 2 against (United Kingdom, United States) with 14 abstentions (Annex XVI). And finally, the draft on dissemination of information on decolonization (document A/54/23) was adopted by a recorded vote of 141 in favour to 2 against (United Kingdom, United States), with 3 abstentions (France, Israel, Monaco). Expanations of Vote Speaking in explanation of vote, BETTY KING (United States) said her delegation had once again had to vote against the draft on the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, contained in document A/54/L.50. While she wished to state her deep appreciation for the improvements in the overall text of this year's resolution, her country remained troubled by elements of the text, particularly the paragraph addressing military activities and arrangements in the Territories. The United States noted that the military presences referred to in that paragraph could be extremely beneficial to multilateral efforts to support international peace and security. For example, her country's installations in Guam were highly instrumental in providing the initial United States naval response to the multinational force in East Timor, and also served as a support location for United States aircraft, as well as foreign forces dedicated to that multinational force. Continuing, she said she appreciated the spirit of cooperative engagement and the positive working atmosphere, which had characterized this year's debate on the decolonization issue. STEWART ELDON (United Kingdom), explaining his position on the text concerning dissemination of decolonization information, said that his country remained of the view that obligations imposed by the text on the Secretariat to publicize decolonization represented an wholly unwarranted drain on the Organization's scarce resources. The resolution was therefore unacceptable. On the resolution on implementation of the Decolonization Declaration (document A/54/l.50), he said he welcomed the amendments made to the text this year, both those initiated by the drafters and those made following negotiations with the European Union. The United Kingdom welcomed in particular the recognition given in the text to the progress made in the ongoing informal dialogue between the Committee of 24 and the administering Powers. Unfortunately, he said, a few elements of the text continued to cause his country difficulties, and to force the United Kingdom to vote against the resolution again this year. Those elements included, but were not limited to, operative paragraph 12, which called on the administering Powers to eliminate the remaining military bases in the Non-Self-Governing Territories. That language was drawn from the Military Activities Decision, which the United Kingdom had also voted against. So its inclusion in the general resolution was accordingly unacceptable. He expressed the hope that the co-sponsors of that text would build on the improvements made this year, in such a way as to allow the United Kingdom to reconsider its position in the future. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom sincerely PAGE 104 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 intended to continue to participate, in a constructive and cooperative spirit, in the process of informal dialogue on decolonization issues with the Committee of 24 in the coming year. (annexes follow) ANNEX I Vote on assistance to Palestine Refugees The draft resolution on assistance to Palestine refugees (document A/54/575/Resolution I) was adopted by a recorded vote of 155 in favour to 1 against, with 2 abstentions. In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Israel. Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia, United States. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX I) ANNEX II Vote on persons displaced by June 1967 and later hostilities The draft resolution on persons displaced as a result of the 1967 and subsequent hostilities (document A/54/575/Resolution III) was adopted by a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 2 against, with 2 abstentions: PAGE 105 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 In Favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Israel, United States. Abstain: Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX II) ANNEX III Vote on offers of grants and scholarships for refugees The draft resolution on offers by Member States of grants and scholarships for Palestine refugees (Document A/54/575/Resolution IV) was adopted by a recorded vote of 158 in favour to none against, with 1 abstention. In Favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, PAGE 106 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: None. Abstain: Israel Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX III) ANNEX IV Vote on Operations of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The draft resolution on the operations of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (document A/54/575-Resolution V) was adopted by a recorded vote on 154 in favour, to 2 against, with 1 abstention, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Israel, United States. PAGE 107 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX IV) ANNEX V Vote on properties and revenues of Palestine refugees. The draft resolution on Palestine refugees' properties and their revenues (document A/54/575-Resolution VI) was adopted by a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 2 against, with 2 abstentions as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Israel, United States. Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX V) ANNEX VI Vote on University of Jerusalem "Al Quds" The draft resolution on University of Jerusalem "Al Quds" (document A/54/575/Resolution VI) was adopted by a recorded vote of 155 in favour to 2 against, with 1 abstention: PAGE 108 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 In Favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papau New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Israel, United States. Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX VI) ANNEX VII Vote on work of Special Committee on Israeli Practices. The draft resolution on the Work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices affecting human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs in the occupied territories (document A/54/576-Resolution I) was adopted by a recorded vote on 84 in favour to 2 against with 67 abstentions as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. PAGE 109 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Against: Israel, United States. Abstain: Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ukraine, United Kingdom. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Nicaragua, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX VII) ANNEX VIII Vote on Applicability of Geneva Convention. The draft resolution on the applicability to the occupied Palestinian territory of the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in time of war (document A/54/576/Resolution II) was adopted by a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 2 against, with 1 abstention: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Israel, United States. PAGE 110 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX XIII) ANNEX IX Vote on Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine territory The draft resolution on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (document A/54/576/Resolution III) was adopted by a recorded vote of 149 in favour to 3 against, with 3 abstentions: In Favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papau New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, United States. Abstain: Marshall Islands, Swaziland, Uruguay. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Comoros, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX IX) ANNEX X Vote on Israeli practices affecting human rights The draft resolution on Israeli practices affecting human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territory (Document A/54/576-Resolution IV) was adopted by a recorded vote of 150 in favour to 2 against, with 3 abstentions, as follows: PAGE 111 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 In Favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Israel, United States. Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Swaziland. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Comoros, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX X) ANNEX XI Vote on occupied Syrian Golan The draft resolution on the occupied Syrian Golan (Document A/54/576- Resolution V) was adopted by a recorded vote of 150 in favour to 1 against, with 5 abstentions. In Favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, PAGE 112 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Israel. Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Swaziland, United States, Uruguay. Absent: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX XI) ANNEX XII Vote on information from non-self-governing territories The draft resolution on information from non-self-governing territories (Document A/54/579) was adopted by a recorded vote of 155 in favour to none against, with 6 abstentions. In Favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: None. Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia, France, Israel, Monaco, United Kingdom, United States. PAGE 113 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda. (END OF ANNEX XII) ANNEX XIII Vote on economic and other activities in non-self-governing territories. The draft resolution on economic and other activities affecting the interests of peoples of the non-self-governing territories (document A/54/580) was adopted by a recorded vote of 153 in favour to 2 against, with 5 abstention, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Israel, United States. Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia, France, Georgia, Monaco, United Kingdom. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda. (END OF ANNEX XIII) ANNEX XIV Vote on military activities and arrangements by colonial Power The draft resolution on military activities and arrangements by colonial Powers in territories under their administration (Document A/54/580) was adopted by a recorded vote of 99 in favour to 53 against, with 1 abstentions. In Favour: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, PAGE 114 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan. Abstain: Federated States of Micronesia. Absent: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Nauru, Nicaragua, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda. (END OF ANNEX XIV) ANNEX XV Vote on implementation of decolonization declaration by specialized agencies The draft resolution in implementation by the specialized agencies of the declaration on granting independence to colonial countries and peoples (Document A/54/581) was adopted by a recorded vote of 101 in favour to none against, with 52 abstentions. In Favour: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe. PAGE 115 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Against: None. Abstain: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, Nauru, Nicaragua, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Yemen. (END OF ANNEX XV) ANNEX XVI Vote on implementation of decolonization Declaration. The draft resolution on implementation of the Declaration on granting independence to colonial countries and peoples (document A/54/L.50) was adopted by a recorded vote of 141 in favour to 2 against, with 14 abstentions: In Favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: United Kingdom, United States. Abstain: Belgium, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Turkey. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Federated States of Micronesia, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Jordan, PAGE 116 M2 PRESSWIRE December 7, 1999 Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX XVI) ANNEX XVII Vote on dissemination of decolonization information The draft resolution on dissemination of information on decolonization (Document A/54/23) was adopted by a recorded vote of 149 in favour to 2 against, with 3 abstentions. In Favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: United Kingdom, United States. Abstain: France, Israel, Monaco. Absent: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Federated States of Micronesia, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, Nauru, Nigeria, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX XVII) LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: December 7, 1999 PAGE 117 LEVEL 1 - 18 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 LENGTH: 24673 words HEADLINE: UN General Assembly calls for strict compliance with 1972 ABM treaty, as it adopts 51 texts BODY: The General Assembly this afternoon called for renewed efforts by the States parties to the 1972 Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Systems - Russian Federation and United States to preserve and strengthen it through full and strict compliance, by the terms of one of 47 resolutions and four decisions adopted on the recommendation of its First Committee (Disarmament and International Security). By further terms of the amended text, the Assembly also called on the parties to limit the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems and to refrain from the deployment of such systems for a defence of the territory of its country. The resolution was adopted by a recorded vote of 80 in favour to 4 against (Albania, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, United States), with 68 abstentions. (For details of the vote, see Annex V). By a vote of 111 in favour to 13 against, with 39 abstentions, the Assembly adopted, for the second time, a resolution entitled, "Towards a nuclear-weapon- free world: the need for a new agenda". It called for the examination of ways and means to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in security policies, so as to enhance strategic stability, facilitate the process of the elimination of those weapons, and contribute to international confidence and security (Annex XIV). Prior to acting on that resolution, the Assembly held two separate votes. By 150 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Pakistan), with 2 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba), it voted to retain operative paragraph 7, calling upon States that had not yet done so to adhere unconditionally and without delay to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) (Annex XII). The Assembly adopted operative paragraph 18 by a vote of 149 in favour to none against, with 4 abstentions (Cuba, India, Israel, Pakistan). That provision calls for the conclusion of an internationally legally binding instrument to effectively assure non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons (Annex XIII). The Assembly called on all States that had not yet signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) to sign and ratify it as soon as possible and refrain from acts which could defeat its object and purpose in the meanwhile, by the terms of another nuclear-related text. The Assembly further called for all States that had signed but not yet ratified the Treaty, in particular those whose ratification was needed for its entry into force, to accelerate their ratification processes. The resolution was adopted by a recorded vote of 158 in favour to none against, with 6 abstentions (Bhutan, India, Lebanon, Mauritius, Syria, United Republic of Tanzania) (Annex XXXIV). According to another nuclear-related resolution, the Assembly called for the determined pursuit by the nuclear-weapon States of systematic and progressive efforts to reduce PAGE 118 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goal of eliminating those weapons. By further terms of the text, adopted by a recorded vote of 153 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions, the Assembly called upon all States to redouble their efforts to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, among others nuclear weapons, confirming and strengthening, if necessary, their policies not to export equipment, materials or technology that could contribute to the proliferation of those weapons (Annex X). Prior to adoption of the draft, the Assembly took three separate recorded votes. It decided to retain the second preambular paragraph, concerning recent nuclear tests, by a vote of 154 in favour to 2 against (India, Pakistan), with 4 abstentions (Bhutan, Cambodia, Israel, Myanmar) (Annex VII). By a vote of 158 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Pakistan), with 2 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba), the Assembly adopted operative paragraph 1, which reaffirmed the importance of achieving universal adherence to the NPT (Annex VIII). Operative paragraph 9, underlining the importance of the 2000 Review Conference of the NPT and calling upon all States parties to the Treaty to reaffirm the decisions and resolution adopted by the 1995 Review and Extension Conference, was adopted by a vote of 132 in favour to 1 against (France), with 22 abstentions (Annex IX). Under another nuclear disarmament text, the Assembly recognized that, in view of recent political developments, the time was now opportune for all the nuclear-weapon States to undertake effective disarmament measures with a 104 in favour to 41 against, with 17 abstentions (Annex XXVI). The Assembly once again underlined the unanimous conclusion of the International Court of Justice that an obligation existed to conclude negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control, under a related text. By further terms of the text, adopted by a recorded vote of 114 in favour to 28 against, with 22 abstentions, the Assembly called upon all States immediately to fulfil that obligation by commencing multilateral negotiations in 2000 leading to an early conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention prohibiting the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, transfer, threat or use of nuclear weapons and providing for their elimination (Annex XXIX). Prior to the approval of the draft, the Assembly held two separate votes. The first was on operative paragraph 1, which had underlined the Court's unanimous conclusion on the obligation to conclude nuclear disarmament negotiations. The Assembly adopted the paragraph by a vote of 156 in favour to 3 against (France, Russian Federation, United States), with 3 abstentions (Bulgaria, Israel, United Kingdom) (Annex XXVII). By a recorded vote of 107 in favour to 29 against, with 26 abstentions, the Assembly also adopted operative paragraph 2, which called upon all States to fulfil immediately their obligation by commencing multilateral negotiations in 2000 leading to an early conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention (Annex XXVIII). Also concerning the call for a convention on nuclear weapons, the Assembly, stressing that such an international convention was an important step in a phased programme towards their complete elimination, within a specified framework of time, reiterated its request to the Conference on Disarmament to PAGE 119 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 commence negotiations, in order to reach agreement on an international convention prohibiting the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 104 in favour to 42 against, with 17 abstentions (Annex XXXI). A further nuclear-related resolution had the Assembly call for a review of nuclear doctrines and, in that context, immediate and urgent steps to reduce the risks of unintentional and accidental use of nuclear weapons. It requested the five nuclear-weapon States to undertake measures towards implementation of that provision. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 104 in favour to 43 against, with 14 abstentions (Annex XVIII). Under the terms of a text on security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, adopted by a recorded vote of 111 in favour to none against, with 53 abstentions, the Assembly appealed to all States, especially the nuclear-weapon States, to work actively towards an early agreement on a common approach, and in particular, on a common formula that could be included in an international instrument of a legally binding nature (Annex III). According to a text on a nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere, the Assembly called upon the States parties and signatories to existing nuclear- weapon-free zone treaties, in order to pursue the common goals envisaged in those treaties and to promote the nuclear-weapon-free status of the southern hemisphere and adjacent areas, to explore and implement further ways and means of cooperation among themselves and their treaty agencies. The text was adopted by a vote of 157 in favour to 3 against (France, United Kingdom, United States), with 4 abstentions (India, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Russian Federation) (Annex XXI). Prior to approval of the draft, the Committee held two separate votes. The first concerned whether to retain the words "and South Asia" in the third operative paragraph. The words were retained by a vote of 147 in favour to 2 against (France, India), with 9 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba, Cyprus, Israel, Mauritius, Myanmar, Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States) (Annex XIX). By a vote of 147 in favour to 2 against (France, India), with 10 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba, Cyprus, Israel, Mauritius, Micronesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States), the Committee retained operative paragraph 3 as a whole, which calls upon States to consider all relevant proposals for the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones, including in the Middle East and South Asia (Annex XX). Acting without a vote on three more drafts on nuclear-weapon-free zones, the Assembly: urged the countries of the Latin American and Caribbean region to ratify the amendments to the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco) approved by the General Conference of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean; urged all parties directly concerned in the Middle East to consider seriously taking the practical and urgent steps requires for the implementation of the proposal to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in that region and called upon African States to sign and ratify the African-Nuclear- Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Pelindaba Treaty), so that it could enter into force without delay. PAGE 120 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Also without a vote, the Assembly decided to include the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia in the provisional agenda of its next session. Another text on the Middle East, adopted by a vote of 149 in favour to 3 against (Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, United States), with 9 abstentions (Belarus, Cameroon, Canada, Kenya, India, Marshall Islands, Norway, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago), had the Assembly call upon the only State in the region that was not party to the NPT to accede to the Treaty without further delay and not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons (Annex XXXII). According to a new nuclear-related resolution, the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States on the issue of missiles in all its aspects, and to submit a report to the Assembly at the next session. The Assembly decided to include the item in the provisional agenda of its next session. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 94 in favour to none against, with 65 abstentions (Annex XI). Concerning drafts on other weapons of mass destruction, adopted without a vote today, the Assembly: urged all States parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) to meet in full and on time their obligations and to support the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in its implementation activities; and called upon all States parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (Biological Weapons Convention) to accelerate the negotiations for a protocol, including possible verification measures, to strengthen the Convention. Also acting without a vote on weapons of mass destruction, the Assembly: expressed grave concern regarding any use of nuclear wastes that would constitute radiological warfare and have grave implications for the national security of all States, and call upon them to take appropriate measures to prevent any dumping of nuclear or radioactive wastes that would infringe upon the sovereignty of States; and reaffirmed that effective measures should be taken to prevent the emergence of new types of weapons of mass destruction. On an outer space arms race, the Assembly called upon all States, in particular those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the prevention of an arms race in outer space and to refrain from actions contrary to that objective. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 162 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions (Israel, United States) (Annex IV). Also today, the Assembly adopted two resolutions and one decision on international security matters. Under a new text on stability and development of South-Eastern Europe, the Assembly called upon the participants of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe, adopted on 10 June in Cologne, Germany, and all concerned international organizations, to support the efforts of South-Eastern European States to overcome the negative effects of the Kosovo crisis and to enable them to pursue sustainable development and integration of their economies in the European and global economy. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 155 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions (Belarus, China) (Annex XXXIII). Acting without a vote, the Assembly reaffirmed that security in the Mediterranean region was PAGE 121 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 closely linked to European security, as well as to international peace and security. It called on all States of the region to adhere to all the multilaterally negotiated legal instruments related to the field of disarmament and non-proliferation, thus creating the necessary conditions for strengthening peace and cooperation in the region. Also without a vote, the Assembly decided to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-sixth session the item entitled "Review of the implementation of the Declaration on the Strengthening of International Security". Six drafts on conventional weapons were also adopted. Acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a text by which it requested the Secretary-General to continue his broad-based consultations on the illicit trafficking in small arms and to submit to the international conference on the subject information on: the magnitude and scope of illicit trafficking; measures to combat it; and the role of the United Nations in collecting, collating, sharing and disseminating information on the problem. Also acting without a vote on a text on assistance to States for curbing the illicit traffic in small arms and collecting them, the Assembly welcomed the Declaration of a Moratorium on the Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Small Arms and Light Weapons in West Africa, adopted by the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at Abuja on 30 October 1998, and urged the international community to support the implementation of the moratorium. By a recorded vote of 159 in favour to 1 against (India), with 1 abstention (Bhutan), the Assembly decided to give urgent consideration to the issues involved in conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels. It requested the Conference on Disarmament, as a first step, to consider the formulation of principles that could serve as a framework for regional agreements (Annex XXII). Acting without a vote, the Assembly called upon all States to conclude agreements for nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and confidence-building measures at the regional and subregional levels. The Assembly stressed that sustained efforts were needed, within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament and under the umbrella of the United Nations, to make progress on the entire range of disarmament issues. Two texts on the landmines issues were also adopted. A text urging all States that had signed but not ratified the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Ottawa Convention), to ratify it without delay was adopted by a recorded vote of 139 in favour to 1 against (Lebanon), with 20 abstentions (Annex VI). By another landmines text, adopted without a vote, the Assembly urgently called upon all States to take all measures to become parties, as soon as possible, to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons and its Protocols and, in particular, to amended Protocol II on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby Traps and Other Devices. The Assembly adopted five resolutions and one decision on confidence- building measures, including transparency in armaments. PAGE 122 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 By a vote of 97 in favour to 48 against, with 15 abstentions, it recognized the importance of achieving greater progress in the development of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms in order that it might truly enhance confidence-building and security among States and accelerate efforts towards attainment of general and complete disarmament (Annex XVII). Prior to approval of the draft as a whole, the Assembly took two separate votes. By a vote of 156 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Turkey), 3 abstentions (Cuba, Libya, Pakistan), it decided to retain the eighth preambular paragraph, which stresses the need to achieve universality of the NPT and of the Conventions on Biological and Chemical Weapons, with a view to the total elimination of all weapons of mass destruction (Annex XV). The Assembly also adopted operative paragraph 4 (b) by a vote of 93 in favour to 50 against, with 17 abstentions. By its terms, the Secretary-General was requested to report to the next Assembly session on the elaboration of practical means for the development of the Register in order to increase transparency related to weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, and to transfers of equipment and technology directly related to the development and manufacture of such weapons (Annex XVI). According to another text on the Register of Conventional Arms, adopted by a vote of 150 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions, the Assembly reaffirmed its decision, with a view to the further development of the Register, to keep the scope of and participation in the Register under review. By further terms of the text, the Assembly called upon Member States, with a view to achieving universal participation to provide the Secretary-General by 31 May, annually, the requested date and information for the Register, including nil reports, if appropriate (Annex XXV). Prior to adoption of the draft, the Assembly took two separate recorded votes. The first concerned operative paragraph 4 (b) by which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a group of governmental experts to be convened in 2000, to prepare a report on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development, with a view to a decision at its next session. The operative paragraph was adopted by a vote of 140 in favour to none against, with 16 abstentions (Annex XXIII). The second recorded vote concerned operative paragraph 6, by which the Assembly invited the Conference on Disarmament to consider continuing its work undertaken in the field of transparency in armaments. The paragraph was adopted by a vote of 139 in favour to none against, with 17 abstentions (Annex XXIV). In a related resolution, adopted without a vote, the Assembly called upon all Member States to report annually, by 30 April, to the Secretary-General their military expenditures for the latest fiscal year. It recommended the guidelines and recommendations for objective information to all Member States for implementation, fully taking into account specific political military and other conditions prevailing in a region, on the basis of initiatives with the agreement of the States of the region concerned. Also acting without a vote, the Assembly: reaffirmed the critical importance of, and vital contribution that had been made by effective verification measures in arms limitation and disarmament agreements and other similar obligations; decided to include an item on compliance with arms limitation and disarmament and non-proliferation agreements in the provisional agenda of its fifty-sixth session; and emphasized the importance of providing the States members of the PAGE 123 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa with the essential support needed to carry out the full programme of activities, in particular the organization of joint military exercises to stimulate peacekeeping operations. Prior to the adoption of the text on the Standing Advisory Committee, amendments to the text were introduced by the representative of Chad (document A/54/L.39), and adopted without a vote. Under other disarmament measures, the Assembly affirmed that scientific and technological progress should be used for the benefit of all mankind to promote sustainable economic and social development and to safeguard international security. In that connection, the Assembly urged Member States to undertake multilateral negotiations in order to establish universally acceptable, non- discriminatory guidelines for international transfers of dual-use goods and technologies and high technology with military applications. The text was adopted by a recorded vote of 98 in favour to 46 against, with 19 abstentions (Annex II). Under another text, adopted without a vote, the Assembly called on Member States to further promote, at multilateral levels, the consideration of existing and potential threats in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security. The Assembly invited all Member States to inform the Secretary-General of their views on, among other issues, unauthorized interference with or misuse of information and telecommunications. By a vote of 120 in favour to 3 against (France, United Kingdom, United States), with 41 abstentions, the Assembly reiterated its conviction that the participation of all the permanent members of the Security Council and the major maritime users of the Indian Ocean in the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Indian Ocean would greatly facilitate the development of a mutually beneficial dialogue to advance peace, security and stability in the Indian Ocean region (Annex I). A resolution on the observance of environmental norms in disarmament and arms control agreements had the Assembly call on States to adopt unilateral, bilateral, regional and multilateral measures to ensure the application of scientific and technological progress in the framework of international security and disarmament, without detriment to the environment or to its effective contribution to attaining sustainable development. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 159 in favour to none against, with 4 abstentions (France, Israel, United Kingdom, United States) (Annex XXX). Acting without a vote on other disarmament measures, the Assembly urged the international community to devote part of the resources gained from disarmament and arms limitation agreements to economic and social development, with a view to reducing the ever widening gap between developed and developing countries. In related matters, the Assembly welcomed the adoption by the Disarmament Commission of guidelines on conventional arms control, limitation and disarmament, and stressed their particular relevance in the context of the current draft resolution. Acting without a vote, the Assembly urged the Conference on Disarmament to fulfil its role as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community. A text on the Disarmament Commission was adopted without a vote, as orally amended by the representative of Mexico. The PAGE 124 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 amendment indicated that the Assembly was not yet ready to recommend two items for the Commission's consideration at its 2000 substantive session. The Assembly also decided, subject to the emergence of a consensus on its objectives and agenda, to convene a fourth special session on disarmament. In that connection, it requested the Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States on the objectives, agenda and timing of this special session. According to a series of texts on regional disarmament measures, the Assembly reiterated the importance of the United Nations activities at the regional level to increase the stability and security of its Member States, which could be promoted in a substantive manner by the maintenance and revitalization of the three regional centres for peace and disarmament. In that respect, the Assembly reaffirmed its strong support for the revitalization of the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa; reiterated its strong support of the role of the Centre in Latin America and the Caribbean in the promotion of United Nations activities at the regional level; and reaffirmed its strong support for the continuing operation and further strengthening of the Centre in Asia and the Pacific. Under the terms of a draft decision, the Assembly decided to request the Secretary-General to adjust the language in the mandate of the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters to reflect the current practice of the Board. The thrust of the amendment emphasized the Board's proactive advisory role on disarmament matters over its role to advise on various aspects of studies and research. Also acting without a vote on the question of Antarctica, considered by the Assembly every three years, the Assembly recognized that the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which provided for demilitarization of the continent, the prohibition of nuclear explosions and disposal of nuclear wastes, the freedom of scientific research, and the free exchange of scientific information, was in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. Assembly Work Programme The General Assembly met this afternoon to take action on 22 reports of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security). Those reports contain 48 draft resolutions and 3 decisions on disarmament and security related issues. The report of the First Committee on objective information on military matters (document A/54/551) contains one draft resolution under which the Assembly would call upon all Member States to report annually, by 30 April, to the Secretary-General their military expenditures for the latest fiscal year. The Assembly would recommend the guidelines and recommendations for objective information to all Member States for implementation, fully taking into account specific political military and other conditions prevailing in a region, on the basis of initiatives with the agreement of the States of the region concerned. By further terms of the text the Assembly would request the Secretary- General to make recommendations on necessary changes to the content and structure of the standardized reporting system in order to strengthen and broaden participation, and to submit a report on the subject to the Assembly at its fifty- sixth session. In a related provision, the Assembly would call upon all Member States, in time for the fifty-sixth session of the Assembly, to provide the Secretary-General with their views on the analysis and recommendations contained in his report, with further suggestions to strengthen and broaden participation. PAGE 125 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. By the terms of a draft resolution contained in the report on the prohibition of the development and manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems (document A/54/552), the Assembly would reaffirm that effective measures should be taken to prevent the emergence of new types of weapons of mass destruction. The Assembly would request the Conference on Disarmament to keep the matter under review, with a view to making, when necessary, recommendations on undertaking specific negotiations on identified types of such weapons. In that context, the Assembly would call upon all States, immediately following any recommendations of the Conference on Disarmament, to give favourable consideration to those recommendations. It would request the Secretary-General to transmit to the Conference all documents relating to the consideration of the item by the Assembly at its current session, and it would request the Conference to report the results of any consideration of the matter in its annual report. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. The report on the question of Antarctica (document A/54/553) contains a draft resolution which would have the General Assembly recognize that the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which provided for demilitarization of the continent, the prohibition of nuclear explosions and disposal of nuclear wastes, the freedom of scientific research, and the free exchange of scientific information, is in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. The Assembly would also welcome the entry into force of the Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty on 14 January 1998, which has designated Antarctica as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science. Under further terms of the draft, the Assembly would recall the statement in Agenda 21, adopted at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), that States carrying out research activities in Antarctica continue to ensure that data and information resulting from such research are freely available to the international community, and enhance access of the international scientific community and specialized agencies of the United Nations to such data and information. The draft resolution on the Question of Antarctica was approved on 11 November without a vote. According to a draft decision on compliance with arms limitation and disarmament and non-proliferation agreements (document A/54/554), the Assembly, recalling its resolution 52/30 of 9 December 1997, would decide to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-sixth session the item entitled "Compliance with arms limitation and disarmament and non-proliferation agreements". The Committee approved the draft decision on 1 November without a vote. By the terms of a draft resolution contained in the report on verification in all its aspects (document A/54/555) the Assembly would reaffirm the critical importance of, and vital contribution that had been made by effective verification measures in arms limitation and disarmament agreements and other similar obligations. It would request the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session on further views received from Member States pursuant to resolutions 50/61 and 52/31. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 5 November without a vote. A draft resolution contained in the report on the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace (document A/54/556) would have the Assembly reiterate its conviction that the participation of all the permanent members of the Security PAGE 126 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Council, and the major maritime users of the Indian Ocean, in the work of the ad hoc committee was important and would greatly facilitate the development of a mutually beneficial dialogue to advance peace, security and stability in the Indian Ocean region. The Assembly would request the Chairman of the ad hoc committee to continue his informal consultations with the members of the Committee and to report through it to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 2 November by a vote of 105 in favour to 3 against (France, United States, United Kingdom) and 36 abstentions. A draft resolution contained in the report on the African Nuclear-Weapon- Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba) (document A/54/557), would have the Assembly call upon African States to sign and ratify the Treaty as soon as possible so that it could enter into force without delay. It would call upon the States contemplated in Protocol III to the Treaty that had not yet done so to take all necessary measures to ensure the speedy application of the Treaty to territories for which they were, de jure or de facto, internationally responsible and which lay within the limits of the geographical zone established in the Treaty. The Assembly would call upon the African States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which had not yet done so to conclude comprehensive safeguards agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), thereby satisfying the requirements of the Treaty when it entered into force and to conclude additional protocols to their safeguards agreements on the basis of the Model Protocol approved by the Board of Governors on 15 May 1997. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on 4 November without a vote. According to a draft text contained in the report on information and telecommunications in the context of international security (document A/54/558), sponsored by the Russian Federation, the Assembly would call on Member States to further promote, at multilateral levels, the consideration of existing and potential threats in the field of information security. The Assembly would invite all Member States to inform the Secretary-General of their views on the following questions: general appreciation of the issues of information security; definition of basic notions related to information security, including unauthorized interference with or misuse of information and telecommunications systems and information resources; and the advisability of developing international principles that would enhance the security of global information and telecommunications systems and help to combat information terrorism and criminality. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 2 November without a vote. By the terms of a draft text contained in the report on the role of science and technology in the context of international security (document A/54/559), the Assembly would affirm that scientific and technological progress should be used for the benefit of all mankind to promote the sustainable economic and social development of all States and to safeguard international security. In that connection, it would urge Member States to undertake multilateral negotiations with the participation of all interested States in order to establish universally acceptable, non-discriminatory guidelines for international transfers of dual-use goods and technologies and high technology with military applications. In a related provision, the Assembly would invite Member States to undertake additional efforts to apply science and technology for disarmament-related purposes and to make such technologies available to interested States. United PAGE 127 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Nations bodies would be encouraged to contribute, within existing mandates, to promote the application of science and technology for peaceful purposes. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 2 November by a vote of 84 in favour to 45 against, with 15 abstentions. By the terms of a draft resolution sponsored by Egypt contained in the report on the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East (document A/54/560), the Assembly would urge all parties directly concerned to seriously consider taking the practical and urgent steps required for the implementation of the proposal to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region of the Middle East, in accordance with the relevant General Assembly resolutions, and as a means of promoting that objective, invite the countries concerned to adhere to the NPT. The Assembly would call upon all countries of the region that had not done so, pending the establishment of the zone, to agree to place all their nuclear activities under IAEA safeguards. Further, pending the zone's establishment, the Assembly would also invite those countries not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or permit the stationing on their territories, or territories under their control, of nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 8 November without a vote. A draft resolution contained in the report on assurances to non-nuclear- weapon States (document A/54/561) would have the Assembly appeal to all States, especially the nuclear-weapon States, to work actively towards an early agreement on a common approach and, in particular, on a common formula that could be included in an international instrument of a legally binding character. It would recommend that further intensive efforts should be devoted to the search for a common approach or common formula and that the various alternative approaches, including, in particular, those considered in the Conference on Disarmament, should be further explored in order to overcome the difficulties. The Assembly would also recommend that the Conference should actively continue intensive negotiations with a view to reaching early agreement and concluding effective international arrangements to assure the non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, taking into account the widespread support for the conclusion of an international convention and giving consideration to any other proposals designed to secure the same objective. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November by a recorded vote of 77 in favour to none against, with 50 abstentions. According to a draft resolution contained in the report on the prevention of an arms race in outer space (document A/54/562), the General Assembly would call upon all States, in particular those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the objective of the peaceful use of outer space and of the prevention of an arms race in outer space and to refrain from actions contrary to that objective and to the relevant existing treaties. Reiterating that the Conference on Disarmament, as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, had the primary role in negotiating a multilateral agreement, as appropriate, on the prevention of an outer space arms race in all its aspects, the Assembly would urge States conducting activities in outer space, as well as States interested in conducting such activities, to keep the Conference on Disarmament informed of the progress of bilateral and multilateral negotiations on the matter. It would invite the Conference to complete examination and updating of the mandate contained in its decision of 13 PAGE 128 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 February 1992 and establish an ad hoc committee at the earliest, during its 2000 session. The text was approved on 1 November by a recorded vote of 138 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions (Israel, United States). The report on general and complete disarmament (document A/54/563) contains 22 draft resolutions and one draft decision, A to V (the texts are listed as they are expected to be considered by the Assembly). According to draft A on the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty), the Assembly, recognizing the historic role of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of 26 May 1972 as a cornerstone for maintaining international peace and security and strategic stability, would call for continued efforts to strengthen the Treaty and to preserve its integrity and validity so that it remained a cornerstone of global strategic stability and world peace and in promoting further strategic nuclear arms reductions. In a related provision, the Assembly would call for renewed efforts by each of the States parties to the ABM Treaty to preserve and strengthen it through full and strict compliance. It would also call on the parties to the Treaty to limit the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems and to refrain from the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems for a defence of the territory of its country and not to provide a base for such a defence, and not to transfer to other States or to deploy outside its national territory ABM systems or their components limited by the Treaty. The Assembly would urge all Member States to support efforts aimed at stemming the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. The Assembly would consider that the implementation of any measure undermining the purposes and provisions of the Treaty would also undermine global strategic stability and world peace and the promotion of further strategic nuclear arms reductions. The Assembly would support further efforts by the international community in the light of emerging developments with the goal of safeguarding the inviolability and integrity of the ABM Treaty. It would decide to include the item in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fifth session. The Committee approved the draft resolution, as amended, on 5 November by a vote of 54 in favour to 4 against (United States, Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, Latvia), with 73 abstentions. By the terms of draft B on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Ottawa Convention), the Assembly would urge all States that had signed but not ratified the Convention to ratify it without delay, and invite all States that had not signed the Convention to accede to it without delay. It would stress the importance of the full and effective implementation of, and compliance with, the Convention, and urge all States parties to provide the Secretary-General with complete and timely information as required in article 7 of the Convention, in order to promote transparency and compliance with the Convention. (Under article 7, States parties are required to provide the Secretary- General, within 180 days after the treaty's entry into force, a detailed report of its anti-personnel landmine stockpiles, mined areas and steps taken to PAGE 129 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 protect nearby populations, demining and destruction programmes, destruction inventories, and technical characteristics of mines produced or possessed to facilitate mine clearance.) In a related provision, the Assembly would renew its call upon all States and other relevant parties to work together to promote, support and advance the care, rehabilitation and social and economic reintegration of mine victims, mine awareness programmes, and the removal of anti-personnel mines placed throughout the world and the assurance of their destruction. It would invite all States that had not ratified or acceded to the Convention to provide, on a voluntary basis, information to make global mine action efforts more effective. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 8 November by a vote of 122 in favour to none against, with 19 abstentions. Under draft resolution C on the dumping of radioactive wastes, the Assembly would express grave concern regarding any use of nuclear wastes that would constitute radiological warfare and have grave implications for the national security of all States, and call upon them to take appropriate measures to prevent any dumping of nuclear or radioactive wastes that would infringe upon the sovereignty of States. By further terms, the Assembly would request the Conference on Disarmament to take into account, in the negotiations for a convention on the prohibition of radiological weapons, radioactive wastes as part of the scope of such a convention. It would also request the Conference to intensify efforts towards an early conclusion of such a convention and to include in its report to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session the progress recorded in the negotiations on the subject. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. Under the terms of draft D on nuclear disarmament with a view to the elimination of nuclear weapons, the Assembly would call for the determined pursuit by the nuclear-weapon States of systematic and progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goal of eliminating those weapons, and by all States of general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control. The Assembly would call upon all States to redouble their efforts to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, among others, nuclear weapons, confirming and strengthening, if necessary, their policies not to export equipment, materials or technology that could contribute to the proliferation of those weapons. In that connection, the Assembly would stress that, in order to make advancement towards the ultimate goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, it was important and necessary to pursue such actions as: * The early signature and ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- Ban Treaty (CTBT) by all States, especially by those States whose ratification was required for its entry into force, with a view to its early entry into force, as well as a cessation of nuclear tests pending its entry into force; * Intensive negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament on, and their early conclusion of, a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for PAGE 130 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 nuclear weapons and, pending its entry into force, a moratorium of the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons; * Multilateral discussions on possible future steps on nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation; * The early entry into force of the Treaty on Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START II) and the early commencement and conclusion of negotiations for START III by the Russian Federation and the United States, and the continuation of the process beyond START III; and * Further efforts by the five nuclear-weapon States to reduce their nuclear arsenals unilaterally and through their negotiations. In a further provision, the Assembly would underline the vital importance of the 2000 Review Conference of the NPT for the preservation and strengthening of the regime anchored therein. It would call upon all States parties to that Treaty to reaffirm their decisions, as well as the resolution adopted by the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Treaty, and to intensify their efforts with a view to reaching an agreement on updated objectives for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, based on the review of achievements since 1995. The Committee voted to retain the second preambular paragraph, by which the Assembly would bear in mind the recent nuclear tests, as well as the regional situations, which challenged international efforts to strengthen the global regime of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons on 9 November by a vote of 130 in favour to 1 against (India), with 4 abstentions (Bhutan, Israel, Pakistan, Sierra Leone). The Committee approved the draft resolution on 9 November by a vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions. According to draft E on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention), the Assembly would urge all States parties to the Convention to meet, in full and on time, their obligations under the Convention and to support the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in its implementation activities. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. According to draft resolution F entitled "Missiles", the Assembly, convinced of the need for a comprehensive approach towards missiles in a balanced and non- discriminatory manner as a contribution to international peace and security, would request the Secretary-General to seek the views of all Member States on the issue of missiles in all its aspects, and to submit a report to the Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. The Assembly would decide to include the item in the provisional agenda of its next session. The Committee approved the draft on missiles on 9 November by a of 65 in favour to none against, with 58 abstentions. By the terms of draft resolution G entitled "Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: the need for a new agenda", the General Assembly would call for the examination of ways and means to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in PAGE 131 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 security policies so as to enhance strategic stability, facilitate the process of the elimination of those weapons, and contribute to international confidence and security. It would call upon the nuclear-weapon States to make an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the speedy and total elimination of their nuclear arsenals and to engage without delay in an accelerated process of negotiations, thus achieving nuclear disarmament to which they were committed under article VI of the NPT. The Assembly would also call upon the nuclear-weapon States to take early steps to: reduce tactical nuclear weapons with a view to their elimination, as an early part of nuclear arms reductions; examine the possibilities for and proceed to the de-alerting and the removal of nuclear warheads from delivery vehicles; demonstrate transparency on their nuclear arsenals and fissile material inventories; and place all fissile materials for nuclear weapons declared to be in excess of military requirements under IAEA safeguards, in the framework of the voluntary safeguards agreements in place. In a related provision, the Assembly would call upon those three States that were nuclear-weapon capable and that had not yet acceded to the NPT to reverse, clearly and urgently, the pursuit of all nuclear weapons development or deployment and to refrain from any action which could undermine the regional and international peace and security and the efforts of the international community towards nuclear disarmament and the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation. It would also call upon the United States and the Russian Federation to bring START II into force without further delay and to commence negotiations on START III with a view to its early conclusion. It would further call upon those States to undertake necessary steps towards the seamless integration of all five nuclear-weapon States into the process, leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. The Assembly would further call upon those States that had not yet done so to sign and ratify, unconditionally and without delay, the CTBT and, pending its entry into force, to observe a moratorium on nuclear tests. It would call upon those States that had not yet done so to: adhere unconditionally and without delay to the NPT and to take all the necessary measures which flowed from adherence to that instrument as non-nuclear-weapon States; and to conclude full- scope safeguards agreements with the IAEA, as well as additional protocols to their safeguards agreements on the basis of the Model Protocol approved by the Board of Governors of the Agency on 15 May 1997. The Committee approved the draft resolution as a whole on 9 November by a recorded vote of 90 in favour to 13 against, with 37 abstentions. Under draft H on the consolidation of peace through practical disarmament measures, the Assembly would welcome the adoption by consensus of the guidelines on conventional arms control, limitation and disarmament, with particular emphasis on the consolidation of peace, at the 1999 substantive session of the Disarmament Commission. The Assembly would stress the particular relevance of those guidelines in the context of the present draft resolution. The Assembly would take note of the report of the Secretary-General on the consolidation of peace through practical disarmament measures and, once again, encourage Member States, as well as regional arrangements and agencies, to lend their support to the implementation of his recommendations. It would welcome the activities undertaken by the Group of Interested States that was formed in New York in March 1998, and invite the Group to continue to analyse lessons learned from PAGE 132 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 previous disarmament and peace-building projects, as well as to promote new practical disarmament measures to consolidate peace, especially as undertaken or designed by affected States themselves. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 2 November without a vote. Draft text I on transparency in armaments, would have the Assembly recognize the importance of achieving greater progress in the development of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms in order that it might truly enhance confidence-building and security among States and accelerate efforts towards attainment of general and complete disarmament. In that connection, the Assembly would request the Secretary-General, with the assistance of the Group of Governmental Experts on the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms to be convened in the year 2000 and, taking into account the views submitted by Member States, to report to the fifty-fifth session on: the early expansion of the scope of the Register; and the elaboration of practical means for the development of the Register in order to increase transparency related to weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons; and transfers of equipment and technology directly related to the development and manufacture of such weapons. The Committee approved the resolution on transparency in armaments as a whole on 9 November by a vote of 81 in favour to 45 against, with 13 abstentions. By the terms of draft text J on assistance to States for curbing the illicit traffic in small arms and collecting them, the Assembly would welcome the Declaration of a Moratorium on the Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Small Arms and Light Weapons in West Africa, adopted by the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at Abuja on 30 October 1998, and urge the international community to support the implementation of the moratorium. The Assembly would encourage the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to curb the illicit circulation of small arms and to collect such arms in the affected States that so requested. It would also encourage the setting up in the countries of the Saharo-Sahelian subregion of national commissions against the proliferation of small arms, and invite the international community to support their smooth functioning. It would express its full support for the appeal launched by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) at its thirty-fifth ordinary session, for a coordinated African approach to the problems posed by the illicit proliferation and circulation of and traffic in small arms, bearing in mind the experiences and activities of the various regions. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 4 November without a vote. Under draft resolution K on reducing nuclear danger, the Assembly would call for a review of nuclear doctrines and, in that context, immediate and urgent steps to reduce the risks of unintentional and accidental use of nuclear weapons. It would request the five nuclear-weapon States to undertake measures towards implementation of that provision. In a related provision, the Assembly would call upon Member States to take the necessary measures to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in all its aspects and to promote nuclear disarmament, with the ultimate objective of eliminating nuclear weapons. It would request the Secretary-General, within PAGE 133 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 existing resources, to seek inputs from the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters on information with regard to specific measures that significantly reduced the risk of nuclear war, and to report to the Assembly at its next session. The Committee approved the draft on 4 November by a recorded vote of 90 in favour to 42 against, with 14 abstentions. According to draft resolution L on a nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere, the Assembly would call upon the States parties and signatories to the Treaties of Tlatelolco, Rarotonga, Bangkok and Pelindaba, in order to pursue the common goals envisaged in those Treaties and to promote the nuclear-weapon-free status of the southern hemisphere and adjacent areas, to explore and implement further ways and means of cooperation among themselves and their treaty agencies. The Assembly would also call for the ratification of those Treaties by all regional States and for all concerned States to facilitate adherence to the protocols to nuclear-weapon-free zone treaties by all relevant States that had not yet done so. The Assembly would welcome the steps taken to conclude further nuclear- weapon-free-zone treaties on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at among the States of the region concerned and call upon all States to consider all relevant proposals, including those reflected in its resolutions on the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones in the Middle East and South Asia. The Committee approved the draft resolution as a whole on 4 November by a vote of 136 in favour to 3 against (France, United Kingdom, United States), with 5 abstentions (Federated States of Micronesia, India, Israel, Russian Federation, Uzbekistan). The Committee approved the draft resolution on 4 November without a vote. By the terms of draft text M on conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels, the Assembly would decide to give urgent consideration to the issues involved in conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels. It would request the Conference on Disarmament, as a first step, to consider the formulation of principles that could serve as a framework for regional agreements on conventional arms control, and looked forward to a report of the Conference on the subject. The draft resolution was approved on 1 November, by a recorded vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 13 abstentions. Under draft resolution N on regional disarmament, the Assembly would call upon States to conclude agreements, wherever possible, for nuclear non- proliferation, disarmament and confidence-building measures at the regional and subregional levels. It would stress that sustained efforts were needed, within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament and under the umbrella of the United Nations, to make progress on the entire range of disarmament issues. It would affirm that global and regional approaches to disarmament complemented each other and should, therefore, be pursued simultaneously to promote regional and international peace and security. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. Draft text O on transparency in armaments would have the Assembly call upon Member States, with a view to achieving universal participation, to provide the Secretary-General by 31 May annually the requested data and information for PAGE 134 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, including nil reports if appropriate, on the basis of relevant General Assembly resolutions and the 1997 report of the Secretary-General on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development. The Assembly would recall its request to the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a group of governmental experts to be convened in 2000 on the basis of equitable representation, to prepare a report on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development, with a view to a decision at its fifty- fifth session. In a separate recorded vote, operative paragraph 4 (b), by which the Assembly would request the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a group of governmental experts to be convened in 2000, to prepare a report on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development, was approved by a vote of 121 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November by a recorded vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 13 abstentions. By the terms of draft text P on nuclear disarmament, the Assembly would recognize that, in view of recent political developments, the time was now opportune for all the nuclear-weapon States to undertake effective disarmament measures with a view to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. It would also recognize the genuine need to de-emphasize the role of nuclear weapons and to review and revise nuclear doctrines accordingly. In that connection, the Assembly would urge the nuclear-weapon States to stop immediately the qualitative improvement, development, production and stockpiling of nuclear warheads and their delivery systems, and, as an interim measure, to immediately de-alert and deactivate their nuclear weapons. It would also urge them to commence plurilateral negotiations among themselves, at an appropriate stage, on further deep reductions of nuclear weapons as an effective measure of nuclear disarmament. The Assembly would reiterate its call upon the nuclear-weapon States to undertake the step-by-step reduction of the nuclear threat and to carry out effective nuclear disarmament measures with a view to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. It would call for the conclusion, as a first step, of a universal and legally binding multilateral agreement committing States to the process of nuclear disarmament leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. It would also call upon those States, pending the achievement of the total elimination of nuclear weapons, to agree on an internationally and legally binding instrument of the joint undertaking not to be the first to use nuclear weapons. In that connection, the Assembly would call upon all States to conclude an internationally and legally binding instrument on security assurances of non-use and threat of use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States. It would reiterate its call upon the Conference on Disarmament to establish, on a priority basis, an ad hoc committee on nuclear disarmament to commence negotiations early in 2000 on a phased programme of nuclear disarmament and for the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, through a set of legal instruments, which might include a nuclear weapons convention. PAGE 135 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 In a related provision, the Assembly would call for the convening of an international conference on nuclear disarmament at an early date with the objective of arriving at an agreement or agreements on a phased programme of nuclear disarmament and for the eventual total elimination of nuclear weapons through a set of legal instruments, which might include a nuclear weapons convention. The Secretary-General would be requested to submit to the Assembly, at its next session, a report on the implementation of the present resolution, and decide to include in the provisional agenda of that session an item entitled "Nuclear disarmament". The Committee approved the draft resolution on 8 November by a recorded vote of 90 in favour to 40 against, with 17 abstentions. By the terms of draft resolution Q on small arms, the Assembly would decide to convene the conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects in June/July 2001. The Assembly would also decide that the scope of the conference would be the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects. The Assembly would also decide to establish a preparatory committee, open to participation by all States, with the participation as observers of the United Nations specialized agencies, other relevant international organizations and others to be determined by the preparatory committee, which would hold no less than three sessions, with its first session to be held in New York, from 28 February to 3 March 2000. The Assembly would further decide that the United Nations specialized agencies, other relevant intergovernmental organizations and relevant entities would participate, as observers, in the preparatory committee. In a related provision, the Assembly would request the committee to decide, at its first session, on the date and venue of the conference in 2001, as well as on the dates and venue of its subsequent sessions. By further terms of the text, all Member States would be invited to respond to the Secretary-General's note verbale of 20 January, to communicate to him their views on the agenda and other relevant questions relating to the conference. The Committee approved the resolution on small arms as a whole on 8 November by a vote of 143 in favour to none against, with 3 abstentions (Kuwait, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia). Under the terms of draft R on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, the Assembly would underline once again the unanimous conclusion of the Court that there existed an obligation to pursue in good faith, and bring to a conclusion, negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control. In that connection, the Assembly would call upon all States immediately to fulfil that obligation by commencing multilateral negotiations in 2000 leading to an early conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention prohibiting the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, transfer, threat or use of nuclear weapons and providing for their elimination. The Committee approved the draft resolution as a whole on 4 November by a recorded vote of 98 in favour to 27 against, with 21 abstentions. According to draft S on illicit traffic in small arms, the Assembly would request the Secretary-General to continue his broad-based consultations, within available financial resources PAGE 136 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 and with any other assistance provided by Member States in a position to do so, and to submit to the international conference on the subject, information on: the magnitude and scope of illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons; measures to combat illicit trafficking in and circulation of small arms and light weapons; and the role of the United Nations in collecting, collating, sharing and disseminating information on illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. Draft resolution T on observance of environmental norms in disarmament and arms control agreements would have the Assembly call upon States to adopt unilateral, bilateral, regional and multilateral measures so as to contribute to ensuring the application of scientific and technological progress in the framework of international security, disarmament and other related spheres, without detriment to the environment or to its effective contribution to attaining sustainable development. The Assembly would reaffirm that international disarmament forums should take fully into account the relevant environmental norms in negotiating treaties and agreements on disarmament and arms limitation and that all States, through their actions, should fully contribute to ensuring compliance with those norms in the implementation of treaties to which they were parties. All Member States would be invited to communicate to the Secretary-General information on the measures they had adopted to promote the objectives envisaged in the present draft. The Secretary-General would be requested to submit a report containing that information to the Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 2 November by a vote of 138 in favour to none against, with 4 abstentions (France, Israel, United States, United Kingdom). Draft resolution U on the relationship between disarmament and development would have the Assembly urge the international community to devote part of the resources gained from disarmament and arms limitation agreements to economic and social development, with a view to reducing the ever-widening gap between developed and developing countries. The Assembly would invite all Member States to communicate to the Secretary- General, by 15 April 2000, on the implementation of the Action Programme adopted at the International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development, as well as any other views and proposals with a view to achieving the goals of the Action Programme. It would request the Secretary-General to continue to take action, through appropriate organs and within available resources, for the implementation of that Action Programme. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 2 November without a vote. Draft V on the convening of the fourth special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament would have the Assembly decide, subject to the emergence of a consensus on its objectives and agenda, to convene the special session. It would request the Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States on the objectives, agenda and timing of the special session and to report to the Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. It would decide to include that item at the next session. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 5 November without a vote. Under a draft decision on the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in PAGE 137 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Central Asia, the Assembly would decide to include that in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fifth session. The report on Review and Implementation of the Concluding Document of the Twelfth Special Session of the General Assembly (document A/54/564) contains 6 draft resolutions, A to E (the texts are listed as they are expected to be considered by the Assembly). According to draft resolution A on the activities of the Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa (document A/54/564), the Assembly would emphasize the importance of providing the States members of the Standing Advisory Committee with the essential support they needed to carry out the full programme of activities which they had adopted at the ninth and tenth ministerial meetings, in particular the organization of joint military exercises to stimulate peacekeeping operations. In that connection, the Assembly would appeal to Member States and to governmental and non-governmental organizations to make additional voluntary contributions to the Trust Fund for the implementation of the programme of work of the Standing Advisory Committee, in particular to activities such as the joint military exercises, the creation of a mechanism for the promotion, maintenance and consolidation of peace and security in Central Africa, to be known as the Council for Peace and Security in Central Africa, and the establishment of a network of parliamentarians from the heads of State and government of the Economic Community of Central African States, with a view to the eventual creation of a parliament of the Community. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 5 November without a vote. Following the conclusion of the Committee's work, a series of amendments (document A/54/L.39) on the draft resolution concerning the activities of the Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa was proposed by Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe. After operative paragraph 4 (d) of the text, paragraphs would be inserted concerning the recently held tenth, eleventh and twelfth ministerial meetings of the Standing Advisory Committee, as well as the subregional conference on the proliferation of and illicit traffic in light weapons and small arms in Central Africa. At the end of operative paragraph 6, concerning the creation of a mechanism for the promotion, maintenance and consolidation of peace and security in Central Africa, to be known as the Council for Peace and Security in Central Africa, the Secretary-General would be requested to give his full support to the realization of that priority objective. Operative paragraph 7, which welcomes the decision of the Economic Community of Central African States to establish a network of parliamentarians from the Community, would also welcome the decision to integrate the Council for Peace and Security in Central Africa into the Community. Operative paragraph 8 would emphasize, rather than welcome, the progress made in the establishment of an early warning mechanism in Central Africa so that it would serve, on the one hand, as an instrument for analysing and monitoring political situations in the States members of the Committee with a view to preventing the outbreak of future armed conflicts and, on the other PAGE 138 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 hand, as a technical body through which the member States would carry out the Committee's work programme. That paragraph would end with a request of the Secretary-General to provide the early warning mechanism with the necessary assistance for it to function properly. After operative paragraph 10, two new paragraphs would be inserted. The first would request the Secretary-General to support the establishment of a network of parliamentarians with a view to the creation of a subregional parliament in Central Africa. The second would request the Secretary-General and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to continue to provide increased assistance to the countries of Central Africa for coping with the problems of refugees in their territories. A paragraph would be inserted after operative paragraph 12 calling on the international community, non-governmental organizations and the mass media to support the dissemination of objective information on Central Africa. Under draft text B on the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, the Assembly would reaffirm its strong support for the revitalization of the Centre and emphasize the need to provide it with resources to enable it to strengthen its activities and carry out its programmes. It would appeal again to all States, as well as to international governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions in order to strengthen the activities of the Regional Centre and facilitate the implementation of its programmes. The Assembly would take note of the report of the Secretary-General and commend the activities carried out by the Centre, in particular in support of the efforts made by the African States in the areas of peace and security. It would request the Secretary-General to provide all necessary support, within existing resources, to the Centre, and also request him to facilitate the close cooperation between the Centre and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), in particular, in the area of peace, security and development, and to continue to assist the Centre's Director in his efforts to stabilize the Centre's financial situation and revitalize its activities. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. Draft resolution C on the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific would have the Assembly reaffirm its strong support for the continuing operation and further strengthening of the Regional Centre. The Assembly would underscore the importance of the Kathmandu process as a powerful vehicle for the development of the practice of region-wide security and disarmament dialogue. In that connection, the Assembly would appeal to Member States, as well as to international governmental and non-governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions, the only resources of the Regional Centre, so as to strengthen it. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. By the terms of draft D on a nuclear weapons convention, the Assembly, stressing that such an international convention would be an important step in a phased programme towards the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, within a specified framework of time, and noting with regret that the Conference on Disarmament, during its 1999 negotiations, had been unable to undertake such negotiations, would reiterate its request to the Conference to commence negotiations, in order to reach agreement on an international convention prohibiting the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances. PAGE 139 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 The Committee approved the draft on 4 November by a recorded vote of 89 in favour to 40 against, with 18 abstentions. Draft text E on the United Nations regional centres for peace and disarmament would have the Assembly reiterate the importance of the United Nations activities at the regional level to increase the stability and security of its Member States, which could be promoted in a substantive manner by the maintenance and revitalization of the three regional centres for peace and disarmament. The Assembly would reaffirm that, in order to achieve positive results, it would be useful for the three regional centres to carry out dissemination and educational programmes that promoted regional peace and security aimed at changing basic attitudes with respect to peace and security and disarmament. In that connection, it would appeal to Member States, as well as to international governmental and non-governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions to the regional centres to strengthen their programmes of activities and implementation. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. Under draft text F on the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Assembly would reiterate its strong support of the role of the Centre in the promotion of United Nations activities at the regional level, and urge all States of the region to make greater use of the Centre's potential in meeting the current challenges of the international community, with a view to fulfilling the aims of the United Nations Charter regarding peace, disarmament and development. The Assembly would appeal to Member States, particularly those within the region, as well as to governmental and non-governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions to strengthen the Centre's activities. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. The report on review and implementation of the recommendations and decisions adopted by the General Assembly at its tenth special session (document A/54/565) contains two draft resolutions, A and B, and one draft decision. (The texts are listed as they are expected to be considered by the Assembly). According to draft resolution A on the Disarmament Commission, the Assembly would commend the Commission for the successful conclusion of the items on the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones and guidelines on conventional arms control, limitation and disarmament. It would note with regret that the Commission was unable to reach a consensus on the item on a fourth special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament. By further terms of the text, the Assembly would reaffirm the role of the Disarmament Commission as the specialized deliberative body within the United Nations multilateral disarmament machinery that allowed for in-depth deliberations on specific disarmament issues, leading to the submission of concrete recommendations on those issues. It would recommend that the Commission, at its 1999 organizational session, adopt two items to be determined in the coming months for consideration at its 2000 substantive session. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. According to draft text B on the Conference on Disarmament, the General Assembly would urge the Conference to fulfil its role as the single multilateral disarmament PAGE 140 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 negotiating forum of the international community in light of the evolving international situation, with a view to making early substantive progress on priority agenda items. It would welcome the decision of the Conference on 5 August to admit five new members, and note that the Conference recognized the importance "of continuing consultations on" the question of expansion of its membership. It would also welcome the Conference's strong collective interest in commencing substantive work as soon as possible during its 2000 session. The Conference would be encouraged to continue the ongoing review of its agenda and methods. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. Under the terms of a draft decision on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, the Assembly would decide to request the Secretary-General to adjust the language in the mandate of the Advisory Board, as set out in paragraphs 45 to 46 of the report of the Secretary-General. (The relevant paragraphs in the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Advisory Board (document A/54/218) concern the Board's improved functioning and mandate, and contain the Secretary-General's endorsement that the General Assembly approve the change of language to reflect the current practice of the Board. The Board proposes that the language of its formal mandate, adopted in 1982, be readjusted to reflect its actual functions as they have been performed for more than a decade. The thrust of the amendment would be to emphasize the Board's proactive advisory role on disarmament matters over its role to advise on various aspects of studies and research. Its function to serve as the Board of Trustees for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) would remain unchanged, and it would retain its role of advising on the implementation of the Disarmament Information Programme.) The Committee approved the draft decision on 5 November without a vote. A draft resolution contained in the report on the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East (document A/54/566) would have the Assembly call upon the only State in the region that was not party to the NPT to accede to the Treaty without further delay and not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons, to renounce possession of nuclear weapons, and to place all its unsafeguarded nuclear facilities under full scope of IAEA safeguards as an important confidence-building measure among all States of the region and as a step towards enhancing peace and security. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 8 November by a vote of 125 in favour to 3 against (Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, United States), with 11 abstentions. By the terms of a text contained in the report on the Convention on the Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons) (document A/54/567), the Assembly would urgently call upon all States that had not yet done so to take all measures to become parties, as soon as possible, to the Convention and its Protocols, and in particular to amended Protocol II on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby Traps and Other Devices. The Assembly would call upon successor States to take appropriate measures towards universal adherence to those measures. PAGE 141 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 The Assembly would express satisfaction that the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV) had entered into force on 30 July 1998. It would welcome the entry into force on 3 December 1998 of the amended Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby Traps and Other Devices (Protocol II) and call upon all States parties that had not yet done so to notify the Secretary- General of their consent to be bound by Protocols II and IV. In that connection, the Assembly would welcome the convening, from 15 to 17 December, of the first annual conference of High Contracting Parties to Protocol II and call upon all High Contracting Parties to address at the conference, among other things, the issue of holding the second annual conference in 2000, and recall the decision of States parties to the Convention to convene the next review conference no later than 2001, preceded by the preparatory committee. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 4 November without a vote. Under a text contained in the report on strengthening security and cooperation in the Mediterranean region (document A/54/568), the Assembly would reaffirm that security in the Mediterranean was closely linked to European security, as well as to international peace and security. It would call on all States of the region to adhere to all the multilaterally negotiated legal instruments related to the field of disarmament and non-proliferation, thus creating the necessary conditions for strengthening peace and cooperation in the region. The Assembly would express its satisfaction at the continuing efforts by those countries to eliminate the cause of regional tension and promote just and lasting solutions to the persistent regional problems through peaceful means, thus ensuring the withdrawal of foreign forces of occupation and respecting the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all Mediterranean countries and the right of peoples to self-determination. It would call for full adherence to the principles of non-interference, non-intervention, non-use of force or threat of use of force and the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the relevant United Nations resolutions. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 2 November without a vote. By the terms of a draft resolution contained in the report on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco) (document A/54/569), the Assembly would urge the countries of the region that had not yet done so to ratify the amendments to the Treaty approved by the General Conference of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, in its resolutions of 3 July 1990, 10 May 1991, and 26 August 1992. The Assembly would welcome the concrete steps taken by some countries of the region during the past year for the consolidation of the regime of military denuclearization established by the Treaty. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 1 November without a vote. Under a draft text contained in the report on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (Biological Weapons Convention) (document A/54/570), the Assembly would call upon all States parties to accelerate the negotiations for a protocol, including possible verification measures, to strengthen the Convention, and to redouble their efforts within the ad hoc group to formulate an efficient, cost-effective and practical regime and seek early resolution of the outstanding issues through renewed flexibility in order to complete the protocol on the basis of consensus at the earliest possible date. In that context, the Assembly would welcome the progress achieved so far negotiating a protocol to strengthen the Convention and would reaffirm the decision of the fourth review conference, urging the conclusion of the negotiations by the ad hoc group as soon as possible before the commencement of the fifth review PAGE 142 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 conference and to submit its report, which shall be adopted by consensus, to the States parties to be considered at a special conference. The Assembly would also reaffirm the call on all signatory States that had not yet ratified the Convention to do so without delay. It would also call upon those States that had not yet signed the Convention to become parties to it at an early date, thus contributing to the achievement of universal adherence, duly noting the forthcoming anniversary of the twenty-fifth year of its entry into force. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 4 November without a vote. According to a new draft resolution contained in the report on the stability and development of South-Eastern Europe (document A/54/571), the Assembly would call upon all participants of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe, adopted on 10 June in Cologne, Germany, and all concerned international organizations, to support the efforts of South-Eastern European States to overcome the negative effects of the Kosovo crisis and to enable them to pursue sustainable development and integration of their economies in the European and global economy. The Assembly would urge the normalization of relations among the States of South- Eastern Europe and the strengthening of their mutual cooperation on the basis of respect of international law and agreements, and within the principle of good- neighbourliness and mutual respect. The Assembly would stress the importance of regional efforts aimed at preventing bilateral conflicts endangering the maintenance of international peace and security, and note with satisfaction that the multilateral peacekeeping force for South-East Europe had become operational. It would also stress that closer engagement of the South-Eastern European States in furthering cooperation on the European continent would favourably influence the security, political and economic situation in the region, as well as the good-neighbourly relations among the Balkan States. It would also emphasize the importance of regional efforts in South-Eastern Europe on arms control, disarmament and confidence-building measures and call upon all States and the relevant international organizations to communicate to the Secretary-General their views on the subject of the draft resolution. It would decide to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fifth session an item entitled "Maintenance of International Security - Stability and Development of South-Eastern Europe". The Committee adopted the draft resolution on 5 November by a vote of 137 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions (Belarus, China). A draft decision contained in the report on the Declaration on the Strengthening of International Security (document A/54/571) would have the Assembly decide to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-sixth session the item entitled "Review of the Implementation of the Declaration on the Strengthening of International Security". The Committee approved the draft resolution on 2 November without a vote. According to a draft resolution contained in the report on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) (document A/54/572), the Assembly would endorse the Final Declaration of the Conference on facilitating the entry into force of the CTBT, held in Vienna from 6 to 8 October. In particular, the Assembly would call upon all States that had not yet signed the Treaty to sign and ratify it as soon as possible and refrain from acts which could defeat its object and purpose in the meanwhile; and call upon all States that had signed but not yet ratified the Treaty, in particular those whose ratification was needed for its entry PAGE 143 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 into force, to accelerate their ratification processes with a view to their early successful conclusion. The Assembly would urge States to maintain their moratoriums on nuclear- weapon-test explosions or any other nuclear explosions, and to sustain the momentum generated by the Conference on facilitating the entry into force of the CTBT by continuing to remain seized of the issue at the highest political level. The Assembly would welcome the contributions of States signatories to the work of the Preparatory Commission of the CTBT Organization (CTBTO), in particular to its efforts to ensure that the Treaty's verification regime would be capable of meeting the verification requirements of the Treaty upon its entry into force, in accordance with article IV of the Treaty. The Committee approved the draft resolution on 8 November by a recorded vote of 137 in favour to none against, with 5 abstentions (Bhutan, India, Mauritius, Syria, United Republic of Tanzania). Action on First Committee Reports CARLOS D. SORRETA (Philippines), Rapporteur, introduced the reports of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security). The Assembly first took up the report on the reduction of military budgets (document A/54/551), adopting the resolution on objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures, without a vote. The Assembly next took up the report of the Conference on Disarmament on the prohibition of the development and manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons (document A/54/552), adopting the related resolution without a vote. Turning to the report on the question of Antarctica (document A/54/553), the Assembly adopted the related resolution without a vote. The Assembly then took up the report on compliance with arms limitation and disarmament and non-proliferation agreements (document A/54/554) and adopted the related draft decision without a vote. The draft resolution contained in the report on verification in all its aspects, including the role of the United Nations in the verification field (document A/54/555) was adopted without a vote. The Assembly next took up the report of the Committee on implementation of the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace (document A/54/556), and adopted the related resolution by a vote of 120 in favour to 3 against (France, United Kingdom, United States), with 41 abstentions. (For details of vote see Annex I.) The Assembly then acted on the text contained in the report on the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (document A/54/557), and adopted the related resolution without a vote. The report on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security (document PAGE 144 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 A/54/558) contained one draft text, which the Assembly adopted without a vote. By a vote of 98 in favour to 46 against, with 19 abstentions, the Assembly adopted the resolution contained in the report on the role of science and technology in the context of international security (document A/54/559) (Annex II). The resolution contained in the report on the establishment of a nuclear- weapon-free zone in the Middle East (document A/54/560) was adopted without a vote. The Assembly adopted the resolution contained in the report on conclusion of effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons (document A/54/561) by a vote of 111 in favour to none against, with 53 abstentions (Annex III). A resolution on prevention of an arms race in outer space contained in a report of the same title (document A/54/562) was adopted by a vote of 162 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions (Israel, United States) (Annex IV). The Assembly next took up the 22 draft resolutions, drafts A to V, and one draft decision contained in the report on general and complete disarmament (document A/54/563). Speaking in explanation of vote before the vote, KIM SAM JONG (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) said the ABM Treaty was a pillar of strategic stability. His delegation would vote in favour of the related draft resolution and would have been willing to co-sponsor it. Mr. IBRAIMOVA (Kyrgyzstan) said that if his delegation had had the right to vote, it would have voted in favour of the draft on the ABM Treaty. ERIC SAZONOU (Benin) said that although he had voted in favour of the draft on the Indian Ocean (document A/54/556), his Committee vote had not been recorded. The draft, as amended, on the ABM Treaty (document A/54/563-A) was adopted by a vote of 80 in favour to 4 against (Albania, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, United States), with 68 abstentions (Annex V). By a vote of 139 in favour to 1 against (Lebanon), with 20 abstentions, the Assembly adopted the draft on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Ottawa Convention) (document A/54/563-B) (Annex VI). Acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a text on the prohibition of the dumping of radioactive wastes (document A/54/563-C). SELIM TADMOURY (Lebanon) said his delegation would have abstained in the vote on the ABM Treaty draft. EMILIO IZQUIERDO (Ecuador) said his delegation would have abstained in the vote on the ABM Treaty draft and would have voted in favour of the text on the Ottawa Convention. The Assembly then took up the draft on nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons (document A/54/563-D). In a separate vote, it adopted the second preambular paragraph, concerning recent nuclear tests, by a vote of 154 in favour to 2 against (India, Pakistan) with 4 abstentions (Bhutan, Cambodia, Israel, Myanmar) (Annex VII). By a recorded vote of 158 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Pakistan) with 2 abstentions (Cuba, Bhutan) the Assembly also retained operative paragraph 1, which PAGE 145 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 reaffirmed the importance of achieving universal adherence to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) (Annex VIII). Operative paragraph 9, underlining the importance of the 2000 Review Conference of the NPT and calling upon all States parties to the Treaty to reaffirm the decisions and resolution adopted by the 1995 Review and Extension Conference, was adopted by a separate vote of 132 in favour to 1 against (France), with 22 abstentions (Annex IX). The Assembly adopted the draft resolution as a whole by a vote of 153 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions (Annex X). The text on implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) (document A/54/563-E) was adopted without a vote. A draft text on missiles (document A/54/563-F) was next adopted by a vote of 94 in favour to none against, with 65 abstentions (Annex XI). The Assembly next considered a nuclear-related text on "a nuclear-weapon- free world: the need for a new agenda" (document A/54/563-G), and adopted the seventh operative paragraph by a vote of 150 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Pakistan) with 2 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba). That provision called upon States that had not yet done so to adhere unconditionally and without delay to the NPT (Annex XII). By a vote of 149 in favour to none against, with 4 abstentions (Cuba, India, Israel, Pakistan), the Assembly voted to retain operative paragraph 18, calling for the conclusion of an internationally legally binding instrument to effectively assure non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons (Annex XIII). It adopted the draft as a whole by a vote of 111 in favour to 13 against, with 39 abstentions (Annex XIV). Acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a text consolidation of peace through practical disarmament measures (document A/54/563-H). The Assembly then took up the draft text concerning transparency in armaments (document A/54/563-I). In a separate recorded vote, the eighth preambular paragraph was retained, by a vote of 156 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Turkey), with 3 abstentions (Cuba, Libya, Pakistan). That provision stresses the need to achieve universality of the NPT and of the Conventions on Biological and Chemical Weapons, with a view to the total elimination of all weapons of mass destruction (Annex XV). By a recorded vote of 93 in favour to 50 against, with 17 abstentions, the Assembly also retained operative paragraph 4 (b). By its terms, the Secretary- General is requested to report to the next Assembly session on the elaboration of practical means for the development of the Register in order to increase transparency related to weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, and to transfers of equipment and technology directly related to the development and manufacture of such weapons (Annex XVI). It adopted the draft resolution as a whole by a vote of 97 in favour to 48 against, with 15 abstentions (Annex XVII). Acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a draft text on assistance to States for curbing the illicit traffic in small arms (document A/54/563-J). A PAGE 146 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 text on reducing nuclear danger (document A/54/563-K) was adopted by a vote of 104 in favour to 43 against, with 14 abstentions (Annex XVIII). The Assembly next took up the resolution on the nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere (document A/54/563-L), and voted to retain the words "and South Asia" in the third operative paragraph, by a vote of 147 in favour to 2 against (France, India), with 9 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba, Cyprus, Israel, Mauritius, Myanmar, Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States) (Annex XIX). By a vote of 147 in favour to 2 against (India, France), with 10 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba, Cyprus, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Mauritius, Myanmar, Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States), the Assembly retained operative paragraph 3 as a whole, calls upon States to consider all relevant proposals for the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones, including in the Middle East and South Asia.(Annex XX). It adopted the draft as a whole by a vote of 157 in favour to 3 against (France, United Kingdom, United States), with 4 abstentions (India, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Russian Federation) (Annex XXI). By a vote of 159 in favour to 1 against (India), with 1 abstention (Bhutan), it then adopted the draft text on conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels (document A/54/563-M) (Annex XXII). Acting without a vote, it adopted a text on regional disarmament (document A/54/563-N). Prior to the adoption of another transparency text (document A/54/563-O), the Assembly took two separate recorded votes. It adopted operative paragraph 4 (b) by a vote of 140 in favour to none against, with 16 abstentions. By its terms, the Assembly requested the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a group of governmental experts to be convened in 2000, to prepare a report on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development, with a view to a decision at its next session (Annex XXIII). The second recorded vote concerned operative paragraph 6, by which the Assembly invited the Conference on Disarmament to consider continuing its work undertaken in the field of transparency in armaments. The paragraph was adopted by a vote of 139 in favour to none against, with 17 abstentions (Annex XXIV). It adopted the draft as a whole by a vote of 150 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions (Annex XXV). A nuclear disarmament draft (document A/54/563-P) was adopted by a vote of 104 in favour to 41 against, with 17 abstentions (Annex XXVI). As announced earlier, action on the draft resolution on small arms, concerning the convening of an international conference in 2001, would be taken at a later date to be announced. It next took up the draft on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of nuclear weapons (document A/54/563-R), and voted to retain operative paragraph 1, which underlined the Court's unanimous conclusion on the obligation to conclude nuclear disarmament negotiations, by a vote of 156 in favour to 3 against (France, Russian Federation, United States), with 3 abstentions (Bulgaria, Israel, United Kingdom) (Annex XXVII). PAGE 147 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 In a second separate vote, the Assembly retained operative paragraph 2, calling upon all States to fulfil immediately their obligation by commencing multilateral negotiations in 2000 leading to an early conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention, by 107 in favour to 29 against, with 26 abstentions (Annex XXVIII). The text as a whole was adopted by a vote of 114 in favour to 28 against, with 22 abstentions (Annex XXIX). Acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a text on the illicit traffic in small arms (document A/54/563-S). By a vote of 159 in favour to none against, with 4 abstentions (France, Israel, United Kingdom, United States), the Assembly adopted the draft on observance of environmental norms in the drafting and implementation of disarmament and arms control agreements (document A/54/563-T) (Annex XXX). Acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a text on the relationship between disarmament and development (document A/54/563-U). Also acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a text on the fourth special session devoted to disarmament (document A/54/563-V). The Assembly next adopted the draft decision on the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia (document A/54/563) without a vote. WILMER MENDEZ (Venezuela) said his vote in favour of reducing nuclear danger had not been adequately reflected. MEHMET SAMSAR (Turkey) would have voted in favour of the eighth preambular paragraph in draft I, on transparency in armaments. TREVOR HUGHES (New Zealand) would have voted against draft K, on reducing nuclear danger. AYMAN AAMIRY (Jordan) would have abstained in the separate vote on operative paragraph 9 of resolution D, on nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons. AMRAIYA NAIDU (Fiji) would have voted in favour of resolution T, on observance of environmental norms in the drafting of disarmament agreements. FRED BEYENDEZA (Uganda) would have voted in favour of draft P, on nuclear disarmament. The Assembly then took up the five draft resolutions contained in the report on review and implementation of the Concluding Document of the Twelfth Special Session of the General Assembly (document A/54/564). Turning to draft A, on the Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa, AHMAT HAGGAR (Chad) introduced a series of amendments (document A/54/L.39) to the draft. Acting without a vote, the Assembly then adopted the amendments. Next, it adopted draft A, as amended, without a vote. PAGE 148 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Also acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted two more resolutions, as follows: the United Nations Regional Centres for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (document A/54/564-B), and in Asia and the Pacific (A/54/564-C). By a vote of 103 in favour to 42 against, with 17 abstentions, the Assembly adopted a fourth resolution in that report, on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear Weapons (document A/54/564-D) (Annex XXXI). The Assembly next adopted a resolution on the United Nations Regional Centres for Peace and Disarmament (document A/54/564-E). Also without a vote, it adopted the draft on the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (document A/54/564-F). The Assembly then took up the two draft resolutions and one draft decision contained in the report on review of the implementation of the recommendations and decisions adopted by the General Assembly at its tenth special session (document A/54/565). Prior to taking action on the draft resolution on the Disarmament Commission (A/54/565-A), MARIA ARCE DE JEANNET (Mexico) proposed an amendment to operative paragraph 7, concerning the items to be considered at its 2000 substantive session. The subparagraphs (a) and (b) of that paragraph would be followed by a footnote in both cases, as follows: "In accordance with general decision 52/492." The amendment was adopted without a vote. The Assembly then adopted the draft, as orally amended, without a vote. The Assembly next adopted the report of the Conference on Disarmament (A/54/565-B), also without a vote. Also acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a draft decision on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (document A/54/565). By a vote of 149 in favour to 3 against (Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, United States), with 9 abstentions (Barbados, Cameroon, Canada, India, Kenya, Marshall Islands, Norway, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago), the Assembly then adopted the resolution on the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East (document A/54/566) (Annex XXXII). A draft on the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (document (A/54/567) was adopted without a vote. Also acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted the following draft texts: * Strengthening security and cooperation in the Mediterranean region (A/54/568); * Consolidation of the regime established by the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco) (A/54/569); * and, Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (A/54/570). PAGE 149 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 The Assembly adopted a new text on the stability and development of South- Eastern Europe (document A/54/571) by a vote of 155 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions (Belarus, China) (Annex XXXIII). Acting without a vote, it adopted a draft decision on the Declaration on the Strengthening of International Security (document A/54/571). By a vote of 158 favour to none against, with 6 abstentions (Bhutan, India, Lebanon, Mauritius, Syria, United Republic of Tanzania), the Assembly adopted a draft on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) (document A/54/572) (Annex XXXIV). HAZAIRIN POHAN (Indonesia) said he would have abstained in the vote on operative paragraph 9 of draft D, on nuclear disarmament (document A/54/563). (annexes follow) ANNEX I Vote on Indian Ocean Zone of Peace The draft resolution on Implementation of the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace (document A/54/556) was adopted by a recorded vote of 120 in favour to 3 against, with 41 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: France, United Kingdom, United States. Abstain: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Uzbekistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Tonga. (END OF ANNEX I) PAGE 150 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 ANNEX II Vote on Science and Technology in Disarmament The draft resolution on the role of science and technology in the context of international security and disarmament (document A/54/559) was adopted by a recorded vote of 98 in favour to 46 against, with 19 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States. Abstain: Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Georgia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Paraguay, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Samoa, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Tonga. (END OF ANNEX II) ANNEX III Vote on arrangements against use of nuclear weapons The draft resolution on the conclusions of international arrangements against the use of nuclear weapons (document A/54/561) was adopted by a recorded vote of 111 in favour to 0 against, with 53 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Antigua-Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, PAGE 151 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: None. Abstain: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga. (END OF ANNEX III) ANNEX IV Vote on Outer Space Arms Race The draft resolution on prevention of an arms race in outer space (document A/54/562) was adopted by a recorded vote of 162 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua-Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, PAGE 152 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Against: None. Abstain: Israel and United States. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Federated States of Micronesia, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, and Tonga. (END OF ANNEX IV) ANNEX V Vote on Compliance with ABM Treaty The draft resolution on preservation of and compliance with the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM Treaty) (document A/54/563- A) was adopted by a recorded vote of 80 in favour to 4 against, with 68 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brunei and Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, China, Colombia, Congo, C te d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Viet Nam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Against: Albania, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, United States. Abstain: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela. Absent: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Nauru, Nicaragua, Oman, Palau, Panama, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Tonga, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen. (END OF ANNEX V) PAGE 153 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 ANNEX VI Vote on Ottawa Convention The draft resolution on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (Ottawa Convention) (document A/54/563-B) was adopted by a recorded vote of 139 in favour to 1 against, with 20 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Lebanon. Abstain: Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, Egypt, Federated States of Micronesia, India, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Libya, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Myanmar, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Syria, United States, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Tonga. (END OF ANNEX VI) ANNEX VII Vote on 2nd Preambular paragraph of Elimination of Nuclear Weapons The second preambular paragraph, concerning recent nuclear tests, of the draft resolution on nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate eliminating nuclear weapons (document A/54/563-D) was adopted by a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 2 against, with 4 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, PAGE 154 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: India, Pakistan. Abstain: Bhutan, Cambodia, Israel, Myanmar. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Tonga, Yemen. (END OF ANNEX VII) ANNEX VIII Vote on Operative Paragraph 1 on Elimination of Nuclear Weapons Operative paragraph 1, on universal adherence to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), of the draft resolution on nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons (document A/54/563-D) was adopted by a recorded vote of 158 in favour to 3 against with 2 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and PAGE 155 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: India, Israel, Pakistan. Abstain: Bhutan, Cuba. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tonga. (END OF ANNEX VIII) ANNEX IX Vote on Operative Paragraph 9 on Elimination of Nuclear Weapons Operative paragraph 9, on the 2000 Review Conference of the NPT, of the draft resolution on nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons (document A/54/563-D) was adopted by a recorded vote of 132 in favour to 1 against, with 22 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Suriname, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: France. Abstain: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Ireland, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Russian Federation, Samoa, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela. Absent: Afghanistan, China, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Federated States of Micronesia, Gabon, Gambia, India, Israel, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Monaco, Nauru, Pakistan, Palau, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Tonga, Yemen. (END OF ANNEX IX) PAGE 156 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 ANNEX X Vote on Disarmament/Elimination of Nuclear Weapons The draft resolution on nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate eliminating nuclear weapon (document A/54/563-D) was adopted by a recorded vote of 153 in favour to 0 against, with 12 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: None. Abstain: Algeria, Bhutan, China, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, France, India, Israel, Mauritius, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russian Federation. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Tonga. (END OF ANNEX X) ANNEX XI Vote on Missiles The draft resolution entitled "Missiles" (document A/54/563-F) was adopted by a recorded vote of 94 in favour to none against, with 65 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Libya, PAGE 157 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: None. Abstain: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Nicaragua, Palau, Rwanda, Seychelles, Syria, Tonga, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX XI) ANNEX XII Vote on Operative Paragraph 7 of Nuclear Free World The Operative Paragraph 7, concerning adherence to NPT, of the draft resolution entitled "Towards a nuclear-free World: the need for a new agenda" (document A/54/563 - G) was adopted by a recorded vote of 150 in favour to 3 against, with 2 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d' Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, PAGE 158 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: India, Israel, Pakistan. Abstain: Bhutan, Cuba. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, France, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tonga, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan. (END OF ANNEX XII) ANNEX XIII Vote on operative paragraph 18 of nuclear free world Operative paragraph 18, concerning a legal instrument for non-nuclear-weapon States, of the draft resolution on a nuclear free world (document A/54/563-G) was adopted by a recorded vote of 149 in favour to 0 against, with 4 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: None. Abstain: Cuba, India, Israel, Pakistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Australia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, France, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tonga, United Kingdom, United States. (END OF ANNEX XIII) PAGE 159 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 ANNEX XIV Vote on Nuclear Free World The draft resolution entitled "Towards a nuclear-free world: the need for a new agenda" (document A/54/563-G) was adopted by a recorded vote of 111 in favour to 13 against, with 39 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Hungary, India, Israel, Monaco, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States. Abstain: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Myanmar, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Tonga, Turkmenistan. (END OF ANNEX XIV) ANNEX XV Vote on preambular paragraph 8 of transparency in armaments Preambular paragraph 8 concerning the NPT and the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions, of the draft resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/54/563-I) was adopted by a recorded vote of 156 in favour to 3 against, with 3 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, PAGE 160 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: India, Israel, Turkey. Abstain: Cuba, Libya, Pakistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Seychelles, Syria, Tonga. (END OF ANNEX XV) ANNEX XVI Vote on Operative Paragraph 4(B) of Transparency in Armaments Operative paragraph 4(B), concerning transparency in weapons of mass destruction, of the draft resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/54/563-I) was adopted by a recorded vote of 93 in favour to 50 against, with 17 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, C te d'Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of PAGE 161 M2 PRESSWIRE December 2, 1999 Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States. Abstain: Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Georgia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Tajikistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Seychelles, Syria, Tonga, Turkmenistan. (END OF ANNEX XVI) LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: December 2, 1999 PAGE 162 LEVEL 1 - 19 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company The Houston Chronicle November 11, 1999, Thursday 2 STAR EDITION SECTION: PREVIEW; Pg. 16 LENGTH: 1259 words HEADLINE: sneak preview; NOVEMBER 11 - NOVEMBER 18 SOURCE: Staff BODY: Thursday 11th The 19th annual Nutcracker Market can be a great place to fill holiday gift needs. Approximately 285 vendors from across the country sell everything from jewelry and clothing to toys and gourmet goodies. The market began in 1981 to raise scholarship money for Houston Ballet Academy. From its start in a church-bazaar setting, the event has become a four-day shopping extravaganza. Last year's market raised $ 1.28 million. 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. today, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Astrohall, 8400 Kirby. $ 8, ages 5 and younger are admitted free, but baby strollers must be checked at the entrance. Between 5 and 8 p.m., one ticket admits two. Call 713-535-3271. Israel's internationally acclaimed Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company explores the relevance of the Holocaust to present-day life in "Aide Memoire." Integrating dramatic stage and lighting effects with a musical collage, symbolic costumes and expressionistic movement, the work celebrates the spirit of perseverance and survival. 8 tonight at Cullen Theater, Wortham Center, 501 Texas. $ 22-$ 32. Call 713-227-4772. Local war veterans are honored during the Veterans Day commemoration ceremony and the second annual "Houston Salutes American Heroes" parade. The ceremony, 10 a.m. today, includes band performances, fly-overs and a cannon salute. The parade kicks off at Smith and Prairie at 11:30 a.m. today, and proceeds south to finish at Smith and Clay. More than 1,000 representatives from veterans organizations, military branches and school bands will participate. Free. Call 713-845-8019. Garrison Keillor is the guest of the Houston Symphony-Exxon Pops series this week at Jones Hall. The popular storyteller will share Lake Wobegon updates, plus his outrageous look at symphony orchestras, including The Young Lutheran's Guide to Orchestra. Philip Brunelle conducts. 8 p.m. today and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday. $ 20-$ 69. Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana. Call 713-224-7575. The UniverSoul Circus, billed as "the most soulful show on Earth," is in Houston, with performances continuing through Sunday. The nation's only African-American-owned and -operated traveling big-top-style circus, the UniverSoul operation features traditional circus acts, plus Caribbean stilt dancers, a ringmaster who sometimes dons a zoot suit and a sidekick who dances PAGE 163 The Houston Chronicle November 11, 1999, Thursday to the music of James Brown. 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. today-Friday; noon, 4:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Fiesta Mart, South Main and South Post Oak. $ 9-$ 16.50, depending on performance. Call 713-629-3700. Friday 12th Marilyn Monroe is the inspiration for the Mikimoto Limited-Edition Collection, which features costumes, photographs and original artwork. The memorabilia comes from Gene London, a Monroe expert who will address guests and sign copies of the Marilyn Monroe Keepsake book. Monroe look-alikes will model replicas of the star's costumes. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Bailey Banks & Biddle, Town and Country Mall. Free. Call 713-464-1956. Her distinctive voice, arresting presence and dramatic instinct have made Karen Akers one of the most sought-after cabaret stars of her generation. Houstonians can experience this class act when Society for the Performing Arts presents Akers in concert for two performances, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, on the Jones Hall stage. Akers has drawn ovations at prestigious venues from London to Los Angeles. She also won acclaim for roles in the Tony Award-winning musicals Nine and Grand Hotel, including a Theater World Award and a Tony nomination for Nine. Akers' performances will be presented with intimate onstage seating. $ 38. Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana. Call 713-227-4772. Houston can't seem to get enough of Buckcherry's hard-rockin' sound. The group hit town in October as part of the Rock 101 KLOL Fall Jamm V. Buckcherry returns to kick off its club-headlining tour in support of its gold debut album. Get ready to bang your head. 9 p.m. Friday. The Engine Room, 1515 Pease. $ 12. Call 713-629-3700. Houston Metropolitan Dance Company leaps into action for its fall program, The Mets on the Move. Featuring choreography by Dorell Martin, Michael Douglas, Laura Ziegelbauer and Randall Flinn, the concert spans the contemporary spectrum with ballet, modern dance, jazz, drama and humor. 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and Nov. 19-20 (second weekend also includes work by the Psophonia Dance Company). Heinen Theater, 3517 Austin. $ 12-$ 15. Call 713-522-6375. Saturday 13th PAGE 164 The Houston Chronicle November 11, 1999, Thursday Swing your partner over to the first annual Citywide Square Dance, which features plenty of do-si-dos, along with activities for the kiddies, a silent auction of quilts and barbecue dinners. Proceeds from the event benefit the Christian Community Service Center Coalition, which provides food and clothing to needy families. 5 p.m. Saturday. Houston Polo Club, 1433 W. Loop S. $ 17, $ 30 per couple, free for ages 12 and younger. Dinners are $ 8, $ 5 for ages 12 and younger. Call 713-622-7300. The rocker girls of L7 want to showcase something more than seething vocals and crunchy guitars. They want diversity, too. It's apparent on the group's latest album, Slap Happy. Much of that sense of freedom likely stems from the group's current recording situation. After trying on big-label suits with Epitaph, Sub Pop and Slash/Reprise, the band formed its own label, Wax Tadpole, for this new album. Indie rock lives on! 9 p.m. Saturday. The Engine Room, 1515 Pease. $ 10 advance, $ 12 on day of show. Call 713-629-3700. Monday 15th Twenty-seven-year-old rockin' rapper Kid Rock has found a potent blend of rap beats, heavy guitar riffs and self-aggrandizing lyrics. It's a hybrid he describes as "Lynyrd Skynyrd and Run DMC in a blender." After building a loyal following via four barely promoted albums, Kid Rock (whose real name is Bob Ritchie) signed with the Atlantic/Lava imprint for his fifth release, Devil Without a Cause. Buoyed by endless coddling from MTV, the album has been certified quadruple platinum. Don't ask us why. 8 p.m. Monday. Aerial Theater at Bayou Place, 520 Texas. $ 25. Powerman 5000 and Bolt Upright open the show. Call 713-629-3700. Sold out. Tuesday 16th Deck the halls with '80s power-pop when the Chicago Christmas Show rolls into town. Expect plenty of yuletide classics and a few Chicago favorites during this holiday-themed show. 8 p.m. Tuesday. Aerial Theater at Bayou Place, 520 PAGE 165 The Houston Chronicle November 11, 1999, Thursday Texas. $ 39-$ 55. Call 713-629-3700. Wednesday 17th The Sun Ra Arkestra claims to come from outer space, but the group has been entertaining and astounding Earthlings for years. The band features a 14-member lineup and is directed by Marshall Allen. The project was conceived by Sun Ra, a philosopher, composer and bandleader who died in 1993. He explored elements of free jazz and was among the first to use electronics and synthesizers in the medium. 8 p.m. Wednesday. MECA Auditorium, 1900 Kane. $ 13. Call 713-802-9370. Vocalist James Taylor makes a special trip to Houston to sing with the Houston Symphony at 8 p.m. Wednesday and Nov. 18. Expect all his old favorites - like Sweet Baby James, Fire and Rain, How Sweet It Is - with backing by the Symphony. Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana. $ 30-$ 90. 713-224-7575. JAY JULIUS MARUMBI OF THE AMAZING KENYA BLACK WIZARDS PERFORMS WITH THE UNIVERSOUL CIRCUS, THROUGH SUNDAY IN THE FIESTA MART PARKING LOT. KID ROCK RETURNS TO HOUSTON FOR A MONDAY SHOW AT THE AERIAL THEATER. PAGE 166 The Houston Chronicle November 11, 1999, Thursday GRAPHIC: Graph: 1. Pick of the week (b/w, text); Photos: 2. JAY JULIUS MARUMBI OF THE AMAZING KENYA BLACK WIZARDS PERFORMS WITH THE UNIVERSOUL CIRCUS, THROUGH SUNDAY IN THE FIESTA MART PARKING LOT. (color); 3. MARILYN MONROE FANATICS SHOULD CHECK OUT THE MIKIMOTO LIMITED-EDITION COLLECTION FRIDAY-SATURDAY AT BAILEY BANKS & BIDDLE, TOWN AND COUNTRY MALL. (color); 4. KID ROCK RETURNS TO HOUSTON FOR A MONDAY SHOW AT THE AERIAL THEATER. (color, p. 17); Graph: 5. Pick of the week (b/w, p. 17, text); Photos: 6. CHRISTMAS ARRIVES A LITTLE EARLY WITH THE NUTCRACKER MARKET, TODAY-SUNDAY AT THE ASTROHALL (color, p. 17); 7. THE KIBBUTZ CONTEMPORARY DANCE COMPANY PERFORMS TONIGHT AT WORTHAM THEATER CENTER. (color, p. 17); 8. GIRL ROCKERS L7 PLAY THE ENGINE ROOM SATURDAY. (color, p. 17); 2. E. Joseph Deering/Chronicle LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: November 12, 1999 PAGE 167 LEVEL 1 - 20 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 LENGTH: 14210 words HEADLINE: UN Draft text calling for disarmament aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons approved in vote HIGHLIGHT: Resolutions Also Approved on Missiles, New Agenda for Disarmament, Transparency in Armaments BODY: The General Assembly would call for the determined pursuit by the nuclear- weapon States of systematic and progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goal of eliminating those weapons, according to one of four draft resolutions approved this orning by the First Committee (Disarmament and International Scurity). By further terms of the text, approved by a recorded vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions, the Assembly would call upon all States to redouble their efforts to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, among others, nuclear weapons, confirming and strengthening, if necessary, their policies not to export equipment, materials or technology that could contribute to the proliferation of those weapons. (For details of the vote see Annex XI.) Prior to approval of the draft, the Committee took three separate recorded votes. It decided to retain the second preambular paragraph, concerning recent nuclear tests, by a vote of 130 in favour to 1 against (India), with 4 abstentions (Bhutan, Israel, Pakistan, Sierra Leone) (Annex VIII). The Committee approved the first operative paragraph by a vote of 134 in favour to 2 against (India, Israel), with 3 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba, Pakistan) (Annex IX). By its terms, the Assembly would reaffirm the importance of achieving universal adherence to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Operative paragraph 9, underlining the importance of the 2000 Review Conference of the NPT and calling upon all States parties to the Treaty to reaffirm the decisions and resolution adopted by the 1995 Review and Extension Conference, was approved by a vote of 103 in favour to 1 against (France), with 27 abstentions. (Annex X) The Committee approved a draft resolution on a new agenda for a nuclear- weapon-free world by a recorded vote of 90 in favour to 13 against, with 37 abstentions (Annex IV). Among its provisions was a call for the examination of ways and means to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in security policies so as to enhance strategic stability, facilitate the process of the elimination of those weapons, and contribute to international confidence and security. Prior to approval of the draft as a whole, the Committee held two separate votes on the text. By a vote of 128 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Pakistan), with 3 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba, Latvia), it voted to retain the seventh operative paragraph, calling upon States that had not yet done so to adhere unconditionally and without delay to the NPT (Annex II). PAGE 168 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 It approved operative paragraph 18 by a vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 5 abstentions (Cuba, India, Israel, Pakistan, Republic of Korea) (Annex III). That provision calls for the conclusion of an internationally legally binding instrument to effectively assure non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. A text on transparency in armaments would have the Assembly recognize the importance of achieving greater progress in the development of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms in order that it might truly enhance confidence-building and security among States and accelerate efforts towards attainment of general and complete disarmament. The draft was approved by a vote of 81 in favour to 45 against, with 13 abstentions (Annex VII). Prior to approval of the draft as a whole, the Committee took separate votes. By a vote of 132 in favour to 2 against (India, Israel), with 3 abstentions (Canada, Cuba, Pakistan) (Annex V), the Committee decided to retain the eighth preambular paragraph, which stresses the need to achieve universality of the NPT and of the Conventions on Biological and Chemical Weapons, with a view to the total elimination of all weapons of mass destruction. The Committee also approved operative paragraph 4(b) by a vote of 77 in favour to 45 against, with 16 abstentions (Annex VI). By its terms, the Secretary-General would be requested to report to the next Assembly session on the elaboration of practical means for the development of the Register in order to increase transparency related to weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, and to transfers of equipment and technology directly related to the development and manufacture of such weapons. A new draft resolution entitled "Missiles" would have the Assembly request the Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States on the issue of missiles in all its aspects, and to submit a report to the Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. The Assembly would decide to include the item in the provisional agenda of its next session. The draft was approved by a vote of 65 in favour to none against, with 58 abstentions (Annex I). Statements on drafts were made by Cuba, Finland (on behalf of the European Union), France, United States, Turkey, Republic of Korea, Japan, United Kingdom, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, Syria, Mexico, China, Belgium, India, Algeria, Australia, Poland, Mauritius, Canada, Solomon Islands, Egypt, South Africa, Israel, New Zealand, Jordan, Russian Federation and Colombia. The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. today to conclude its consideration of and action on all draft resolutions. Committee Work Programme The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this morning to conclude its action on all disarmament- and security-related draft decisions. It had before it four drafts on nuclear disarmament, including one on missiles, and a text on transparency in armaments. Under the terms of a text on nuclear disarmament with a view to the elimination of nuclear weapons (document A/C.1/54/L.9/Rev.1), the Assembly would call for the determined pursuit by the nuclear-weapon States of systematic and progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goal of eliminating those weapons, and by all States of general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control. The Assembly would call upon all States to redouble their efforts to prevent proliferation of PAGE 169 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 weapons of mass destruction, among others, nuclear weapons, confirming and strengthening, if necessary, their policies not to export equipment, materials or technology that could contribute to the proliferation of those weapons. In that connection, the Assembly would stress that, in order to make advancements towards the ultimate goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, it was important and necessary to pursue such actions as: * The early signature and ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- Ban Treaty (CTBT) by all States, especially by those States whose ratification was required for its entry into force, with a view to its early entry into force, as well as a cessation of nuclear tests pending its entry into force; * Intensive negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament on, and their early conclusion of, a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and, pending its entry into force, a moratorium of the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons; * Multilateral discussions on possible future steps on nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation; * The early entry into force of the Treaty on Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START II) and the early commencement and conclusion of negotiations for START III by the Russian Federation and the United States, and the continuation of the process beyond START III; and * Further efforts by the five nuclear-weapon States to reduce their nuclear arsenals unilaterally and through their negotiations. In a further provision, the Assembly would underline the vital importance of the 2000 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) for the preservation and strengthening of the regime anchored therein. It would call upon all States parties to that Treaty to reaffirm their decisions, as well as the resolution adopted by the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Treaty, and to intensify their efforts with a view to reaching an agreement on updated objectives for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, based on the review of achievements since 1995. The draft resolution is sponsored by Belgium, Croatia, Netherlands and Japan. According to a draft resolution entitled "Missiles", sponsored by Iran (document A/C.1/54/L.12/Rev.2), the Assembly, convinced of the need for a comprehensive approach towards missiles in a balanced and non-discriminatory manner as a contribution to international peace and security, would request the Secretary-General to seek the views of all Member States on the issue of missiles in all its aspects, and to submit a report to the Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. The Assembly would decide to include the item in the provisional agenda of its next session. By the terms of a draft resolution entitled "Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: the need for a new agenda" (document A/C.1/54/L.18), the General Assembly would call for the examination of ways and means to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in security policies so as to enhance strategic stability, facilitate the process of the elimination of those weapons, and contribute to international confidence and security. PAGE 170 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 It would call upon the nuclear-weapon States to make an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the speedy and total elimination of their nuclear arsenals and to engage without delay in an accelerated process of negotiations, thus achieving nuclear disarmament to which they were committed under article VI of the NPT. The Assembly would also call upon the nuclear-weapon States to take early steps to: reduce tactical nuclear weapons with a view to the elimination, as an early part of nuclear arms reductions; examine the possibilities for and proceed to the de-alerting and the removal of nuclear warheads from delivery vehicles; demonstrate transparency on their nuclear arsenals and fissile material inventories; and place all fissile materials for nuclear weapons declared to be in excess of military requirements under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, in the framework of the voluntary safeguards agreements in place. In a related provision, the Assembly would call upon those three States that were nuclear-weapon capable and that had not yet acceded to the NPT to reverse, clearly and urgently, the pursuit of all nuclear weapons development or deployment and to refrain from any action which could undermine the regional and international peace and security and the efforts of the international community towards nuclear disarmament and the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation. It would also call upon the United States and the Russian Federation to bring START II into force without further delay and to commence negotiations on START III with a view to its early conclusion. It would further call upon those States to undertake necessary steps towards the seamless integration of all five nuclear-weapon States into the process, leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. The Assembly would further call upon those States that had not yet done so to sign and ratify, unconditionally and without delay, the CTBT and, pending its entry into force, to observe a moratorium on nuclear tests. It would call upon those States that had not yet done so to: adhere unconditionally and without delay to the NPT and to take all the necessary measures which flowed from adherence to that instrument as non-nuclear-weapon States; and to conclude full- scope safeguards agreements with the IAEA and to conclude additional protocols to their safeguards agreements on the basis of the Model Protocol approved by the Board of Governors of the Agency on 15 May 1997. The draft resolution is sponsored by Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Ireland, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Samoa, San Marino, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A draft text sponsored by Egypt, Nigeria and Swaziland, on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.21/Rev.1), would have the Assembly recognize the importance of achieving greater progress in the development of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms in order that it might truly enhance confidence-building and security among States and accelerate efforts towards attainment of general and complete disarmament. PAGE 171 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 In that connection, the Assembly would request the Secretary-General, with the assistance of the Group of Governmental Experts on the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms to be convened in the year 2000 and taking into account the views submitted by Member States, to report to the fifty-fifth session on: the early expansion of the scope of the Register; and the elaboration of practical means for the development of the Register in order to increase transparency related to weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons; and transfers of equipment and technology directly related to the development and manufacture of such weapons. By the terms of a draft resolution on negotiations banning the production of fissile material for weapons purposes (document A/C.1/54/L.30), the Assembly would urge the Conference on Disarmament to establish, under the agenda item on cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament, an ad hoc committee to negotiate a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear devices. It would urge the Conference to re-establish its ad hoc committee at the beginning of the 2000 session. The draft resolution is sponsored by Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. Action on Texts The representative of Cuba, speaking before the vote on the draft resolution on missiles (document A/C.1/54/L.12/Rev.2), said it was an innovative and timely initiative. His country had carefully followed the evolution of the draft, and he felt that the revised text took into account the concerns of many delegations, including his own. The best way to advance on the issue of missiles was to begin by requesting the opinions of Member States, as the text did. The Committee was the right forum for multilateral discussions on the issue. Therefore, his country would vote for the draft resolution and hoped it would get wide support. The representative of Finland, speaking on behalf of the European Union and the associated countries, said he recognized the importance of the topic, and supported the basic thrust of the text, but found it vague on the basic concern of missile proliferation and missile technologies. His country would, therefore, abstain. The representative of France said his country would abstain because of the laconic wording of the draft text, which gave rise to questions on the most important problem of missile proliferation. He wondered what exactly the co-sponsors meant by their call for a "global, balanced, non-discriminatory approach" in field of missiles. The problem needed to be looked at in terms of the threat posed by the means of delivery for weapons of mass destruction. Efforts already made by a number of countries should be taken into account. France was prepared to help conduct a genuine debate on missiles and the best ways to deal with them, and he hoped that the true dimensions of the problem would eventually be clearly acknowledged. The draft on missiles (document A/C.1/54/L.12/Rev.2) was approved by a vote of 65 in favour to none against, with 58 abstentions. (For details of the PAGE 172 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 vote, see Annex I.) Speaking after the vote, the representative of the United States said he understood the sentiment behind the draft text, but felt it was premature to bring the issue of missiles before the United Nations. The wording of the draft was too vague and did not address key issues. He assumed its main point was to prevent missile proliferation, although the text did not say that specifically. In seeking to curb missile proliferation, the most effective way was on a regional basis, between the States directly affected. He seriously doubted whether such a vague initiative would enhance international security. The representative of Turkey said that his country's proximity to a region where there was a proliferation of missiles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction had caused him to welcome the draft resolution, in principle. The text's vagueness, however, particularly in the preambular paragraphs, could be misinterpreted as tacit approval of missile deployment, and it was for that reason his country abstained. The representative of the Republic of Korea agreed that the proliferation of missiles as a means of delivering weapons of mass destruction was a serious threat to international security. In light of recent missile tests by North Korea, and in South Asia, there was an urgent need for the United Nations to address the issue. The draft resolution, however, failed to address the problem adequately and, therefore, his country abstained. The representative of Japan shared concerns about the proliferation of missiles, and said he appreciated efforts made by the Iranian delegation in trying to focus the attention of the Committee on the problem. He had reservations about the text, however, as it contained no explicit reference to proliferation of missiles or recognition of efforts made by other States, including Japan. Turning to the draft on the new agenda (document A/C.1/54/L.18), the representative of the United Kingdom said he welcomed the willingness of the text's sponsors to engage in dialogue. He, nevertheless, felt obliged to vote against the text. His country had made clear its commitment to nuclear disarmament and to article VI of the NPT, which had been given recent practical measures, as announced in 1998 in his country's strategic defence review. Among them were significant reductions in and transparency about the British nuclear deterrent, further underlined by its ratification of the CTBT that same year. He shared the frustration of the sponsors of the text at the slow pace of wider progress towards nuclear disarmament. As such, his country had continued to urge faster bilateral progress, and it was eager to see the test-ban Treaty enter into force at the earliest opportunity. He said his delegation was impatient to begin negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty, the internationally agreed next step towards nuclear disarmament. While the present text had included support for all those measures, would going beyond that internationally agreed agenda and imposing further measures, including those which did not enjoy consensus support, promote further progress? In addition, the inclusion in the text of detaching warheads from their delivery vehicles was incompatible with the maintenance of a minimum credible deterrent. The representative of Argentina, also speaking before the vote on the new agenda text, said her country had shared the objectives of the international community in favour of disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. Unfortunately, the draft contained elements which her country had not shared. She hoped that, PAGE 173 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 in the future, the draft would be elaborated in terms which were acceptable to a greater number of members. For that reason, her delegation would abstain in the vote. The representative of Saudi Arabia said he wished to join the co-sponsors of the text. The representative of France said the Committee was being asked to take a decision for the second year in a row on the need for a new agenda. Those in favour of the text had insisted on the median approach in improving the current text. Yet, the draft continued to present a number of substantial problems. The proposals were just as dangerous and subject to criticism over its ambiguous nature. The overall approach was a dangerous one. Why the call for a new agenda? His country would continue to implement the programme of action defined by the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the NPT. He said his country could not subscribe to the appeal for a new agenda, whose contents would call into question that 1995 agenda, namely, the implementation of the CTBT, conclusion and implementation of a fissile material cut-off treaty, and the determination of nuclear-weapon States to progress systematically and gradually in reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons, and general and complete disarmament under strict and internationally effective monitoring. Had those measures become outdated? he asked. Why, for example, when there was reference in operative paragraph 16 on the importance of the full implementation of the NPT, was there also an appeal for a new agenda? That was an obvious contradiction, unless that had been designed to mask some ulterior motives. To the impressive list of proposals made in the text, he said he would refer to two of them. The United Nations Charter had acknowledged the right of all States to self-defence. Defence policies could not be decided upon by anyone other than the State concerned. Thus, how could the sponsors of the text state that the international community would determine the defence needs of others? France's nuclear policy had been based on the principle of the lowest possible armaments compatible with its security. It was currently adapting its doctrine to the emergence of potential new threats. Why was there a proposal for an international conference on nuclear weapons, when that had always been opposed by the nuclear-weapon States? he asked. The process of reducing nuclear arsenals would not be more effective if dealt with in such a framework. Moreover, what would be its usefulness if the nuclear-weapon States did not participate? The 2000 NPT Review Conference was the ideal forum for such discussions. Continuing, he noted that the text had reflected ambiguity concerning the NPT's last Review Conference in 1995. A short clause should be inserted at the beginning of operative paragraph 12, calling upon the Conference on Disarmament to establish, without conditions, the ad hoc committee under item 1 of its agenda entitled "Cessation of a nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament", and so forth. The rest of the sentence would remain unchanged. The absence of that insertion had raised the question of whether the co-sponsors were speaking a "dual language". Those in favour of the text had become the most ardent advocates of an approach to nuclear disarmament that embraced a policy of constructive ambiguity and "double talk". The draft had contained those two aspects. Nuclear disarmament was too grave a topic to be dealt with in an ambiguous or contradictory manner. His "straight talking" delegation would vote against the text. PAGE 174 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 The representative of Mozambique said he wished to co-sponsor the new agenda draft. The representative of Cuba said the text had not reflected his country's traditional position on nuclear disarmament, but the fact that it had emphasized the need for a new agenda had given it commendable merits. The final balance sheet of the draft was positive and its adoption would contribute, as part of a broad group of other initiatives, to the promotion of nuclear disarmament. Thus, Cuba would vote in favour of the draft as a whole. That positive vote should not mean that it had approved of each idea contained therein. Among the paragraphs of concern, and on which separate votes had been requested, were operative paragraphs 7 and 18. She said her country was not a party to the NPT as that was discriminatory and selective in its essence. It had legitimized nuclear Powers and had created two categories of States. That was not the way to advance the vital objective of nuclear disarmament and the total elimination of those weapons. For that reason, her delegation would abstain in the separate vote on operative paragraph 7. Concerning operative paragraph 18, security guarantees for non- nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons should be universal and unconditional. Her country could not accept that such guarantees would be granted only to States parties of a given treaty. Since she had recognized the good intentions of the main text's sponsors and their priority interest in achieving nuclear disarmament, she would vote in favour of the draft as a whole. The representative of Syria drew attention to an error in the Arabic translation of operative paragraph 16 of the new agenda draft, which should read NPT instead of CTBT. The representatives of Kuwait, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Nigeria, Guinea and Benin said their delegation would have voted in favour of the draft resolution on missiles (document A/C.1/54/L.12/Rev.2). The representative of Guyana said he would have voted in favour yesterday of the draft on the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East (document A/C.1/54/L.8/Rev.1). The representative of Solomon Islands asked if his delegation could take "a point of personal privilege" after the vote. The Committee CHAIRMAN said that could only be done in the framework of general statements. The representative of Mexico said his delegation was a co-sponsor of the text on a new agenda and, for that reason, he had no right to explain his vote nor speak out right now to say every delegation had the right to vote as it pleased. But, no delegation had the right to offend those who had submitted resolutions. The draft had not been presented by seven delegations; the number of co-sponsors was more than 60 right now, and in the text, there were no concealed intentions. The Committee Secretary said the following countries had joined as co-sponsors to the new agenda draft: Jamaica, Angola, Guyana, Saudi Arabia and Mozambique. During action on a separate vote on operative paragraph 7, the representative of Algeria, on a point of order, said it had been agreed last year that whenever the Committee was acting on a separate vote, the Committee Secretary should read out the verbatim text of the paragraph. PAGE 175 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 In a separate recorded vote on operative paragraph 7, calling for universal adherence to the NPT, the Committee voted to retain the paragraph by 128 in favour to 3 against (India, Israel, Pakistan), with 3 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba, Latvia). (Annex II) In another separate recorded vote on operative paragraph 18, calling for the conclusion of an internationally legally binding instrument of security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT, the Committee voted to retain it by 128 in favour to none against, with 5 abstentions (Cuba, India, Israel, Pakistan, Republic of Korea). (Annex III) The Committee then approved the draft resolution as a whole on a new agenda (document A/C.1/54/L.18) by a recorded vote of 90 in favour to 13 against with 37 abstentions. (Annex IV) The representative of China, speaking in explanation of vote on the new agenda draft, said his country had always supported the complete prohibition of nuclear weapons and achieving, at an early date, a nuclear-weapon-free world. Thus, he had fully understood the request of the international community regarding nuclear disarmament. His delegation had also supported the goals of the text, namely, the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons, as well as some of the specific steps contained therein, including: a call on the nuclear-weapon States to review their nuclear doctrines; conclusion of an internationally legally binding instrument to effectively assure non- nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; strengthening the NPT; and establishing nuclear-weapon-free zones. He said that preserving the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti Ballistic Missile Systems - the ABM Treaty - and preventing its repudiation and stopping the development of anti-ballistic missile systems had been the necessary conditions for progress in nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. In that connection, the draft had rightly pointed out that the ABM Treaty remained a cornerstone of strategic stability. Other proposed measures, however, such as the de-alerting of nuclear weapons, the removal of nuclear warheads from their delivery vehicles, and the transparency of nuclear arsenals and fissile material stockpiles, could only be undertaken in an international environment of peace, security, stability and trust, and should be linked with negotiations on nuclear disarmament. Under the current "unsettling" international circumstances, he said the time had not yet come and the necessary conditions were not yet there for taking such measures. The draft had also failed to urge all nuclear-weapon States to commit themselves non-first-use of nuclear weapons and their non-use or threat of use against all non-nuclear-weapon States. Those elements, however, were crucial to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. In view of those reasons, his delegation had abstained in the vote. The representative of Belgium, speaking after the vote on behalf of Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, explained his abstention on the new agenda draft resolution (document A/C.1/54/L.18). He said that he fully shared the commitment to nuclear disarmament expressed in the draft, and believed that that goal could best be achieved by the rapid continuation of the step-by-step process. He recognized that the authors of the resolution had made a serious attempt to take into account some of the objections to the text that had been adopted last year, and he could support many of the recommendations. Still, a number of elements PAGE 176 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 remained that did not reflect the most appropriate way to achieve the ultimate objectives already agreed upon. He continued to attach the utmost importance to the NPT as the cornerstone of the global non-proliferation regime. He strongly believed that progress on nuclear disarmament could only be achieved by means of the processes already under way, those based on the NPT and the goals set out in the principles and objectives of 1995. Those had already led to considerable progress, but had also sustained serious setbacks. Efforts to overcome the setbacks and achieve further progress should be redoubled on the basis of the agreed principles and objectives. There was an urgent need to revitalize the bilateral negotiations between the United States and the Russian Federation with a view to secure entry into force of START II and the opening the negotiations of START III without delay. Despite the negative vote by the United States Senate, international efforts towards the early entry into force of the CTBT must be pursued with increased determination. The Conference on Disarmament should begin negotiations on a fissile missile cut-off treaty without delay. Nuclear disarmament was primarily a responsibility of the nuclear-weapon States, he went on, but was a legitimate concern of the whole international community. He supported the establishment of an ad hoc working group by the Conference on Disarmament to study ways and means to exchange information to enhance the process of nuclear disarmament. Countries would not be judged by resolutions or declarations, but by their actions towards those goals. The most immediate objectives at the current juncture were to achieve a successful outcome of the NPT Review Conference next year and the start of fissile material negotiations at the very outset of the next session of the Conference on Disarmament. The representative of India, also speaking after vote on the new agenda draft, said genesis of the text had begun with a Joint Declaration issued in Dublin on behalf of eight countries in June 1998. Her country had welcomed that Declaration, but the draft resolution had gone far beyond its parameters. The Final Document of the tenth special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament had remained the only consensus document on disarmament, adopted by the international community as a whole. The Final Document had contained a programme of action, which remained only partially implemented. Any future agenda would have to take into account, as the starting premise, implementation of that action programme. Clearly, on the most important element, namely, nuclear disarmament, the international community had achieved little progress. She said the question, therefore, was whether there was a need for new agenda, when the most important element in the existing agenda had not yet been accomplished. The draft text had also included extraneous elements, which had been adopted in other forums. She had rejected operative paragraphs 6, 7 and 8, as those were not only extraneous to the text, but also completely divorced from the reality on the ground. Her country no longer had the nuclear-weapon option, as that option had been exercised. The text was also based on fallacious concepts, such as "those three States that are nuclear weapons capable and that have not acceded to NPT". That phrase was analytically hollow and did not correspond to reality. Continuing, she said the reference to a nuclear-weapon-free zone in South Asia was absurd and called into question the agreed principle that the arrangements for such zones should be freely arrived at among the States of the region concerned, as endorsed by the Disarmament Commission at its last PAGE 177 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 substantive session. Given the current realities, the proposal for a nuclear- weapon-free zone in South Asia had as much validity as its creation in East Asia, Western Europe or North America. Given the ominous nature of the text, there was surprising lack of any mention of doctrines of first-use of nuclear weapons. Similarly, the text ignored the efforts in certain countries to refine and modernize nuclear weapons for retention well into the next millennium. Building missile defences could further erode the international climate, she said. Instead of emphasizing that peril, the resolution had redrafted some preambular paragraphs to make them more palatable to the nuclear-weapon States. At the same time, it was silent on the current impasse in the Conference on Disarmament, which was due to the inflexibility of some delegations on the question of nuclear disarmament and outer space, while ignoring the wishes of vast majority of Conference members. The draft was also silent on the multifarious sources of proliferation which the NPT had failed to stem. All such efforts would be limited by that unequal and discriminatory framework of obligations. She said a "new agenda" could not succeed in the "old framework" of the NPT. There was a need to move beyond the old framework towards a durable international security system based on equal and legitimate security for all. The text should have included proposals contained in the final document of the meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1998 in South Africa. That final document had included concrete proposals towards a nuclear-weapon-free world. She would have preferred the designation of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, as a crime against humanity. Although she had shared the objective of the total elimination of nuclear weapons, she remained unconvinced of the utility of an exercise bound by the flawed and discriminatory approaches of the NPT, and had, therefore, voted against the draft as a whole. The representative of the United States said he had voted no on the new agenda resolution because it could not support the fundamental premise of a need for a new agenda. A broad multilateral disarmament agenda already existed, however slow and frustrating. Results could best be achieved through practical, incremental steps, taking into account the realities of the international environment. Such steps were painstaking, but the only way to achieve real progress. The current resolution, he said, called on nuclear States to take speedy efforts towards the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals. But, if the undertakings already made were not sufficient, what good did it do to add new ones? International conferences had their place, but there were already more than could be put to good use. The current disarmament agenda was full enough. Concrete, practical measures, such as a cut-off treaty on the production of fissile material for weapons, were the sort of steps needed to reinvigorate the current disarmament agenda. The representative of Japan said he shared the goal of a nuclear-weapon- free world and appreciated the enthusiasm of the draft's co-sponsors to lay out concrete measures to reach that goal. There was no other way towards the objective than proceeding step by step through realistic concrete measures. It was not constructive to take a confrontational attitude towards the nuclear- weapon States, nor would any attempt to short-cut the process be productive. While there were definite improvements in the text of this year's resolution, it still betrayed a scepticism towards the nuclear-weapon States and, therefore, although his country fully supported the goals of the draft resolution, it abstained in the vote. PAGE 178 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 The representative of Turkey said he believed that systematic and progressive efforts on part of nuclear-weapon States were essential towards complete disarmament. Improvements in this year's draft text, both in language and substance, had enabled him to abstain in the vote, whereas last year he voted no. The representative of Algeria said that in spite of some imperfections, his country had voted in favour of the resolution. He supported all efforts aimed at nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. He welcomed the improvements made this year to the draft resolution and hoped that the co-sponsors would continue to improve it, to enable more countries to support it in the future. The representative of Syria said his country was committed to nuclear disarmament and supported the draft resolution, although it had reservations on operative paragraph 9 of the text, which dealt with the CTBT. The representative of the Republic of Korea said he understood the main thrust of the draft resolution and supported some of its elements. But, any disarmament regime needed to be based on reality. A practical, incremental approach, along with strengthening of existing regimes, was more important than producing new agreements. For these reasons, he had abstained. The representative of Australia said that the resolution warranted a great deal of thought, and called important unfinished business to attention in a measured and even-handed way. It had provoked much discussion, not only in the Committee, but also in national forums. Specifics of the resolution deserved strong support, for example, upholding the importance of the NPT and its universality. He was concerned, however, with the implications of the resolution, in particular, those preambular paragraphs that cast doubt on the intention of the nuclear-weapon States to pursue negotiations on disarmament in good faith. That implied that the current disarmament regime was failing, an assumption which would he could not agree. Therefore, unable to support resolution, he had abstained in the vote. The representative of Poland said he had voted no on the resolution, not because he disagreed with its content, but because the international community needed to be realistic in its efforts towards disarmament. During the passed 20 years, much had been accomplished. There were, of course, setbacks recently, but those were only natural in such a rapidly changing world. The draft resolution tried to artificially accelerate the process, not on the main road, but on a sidetrack where the main players - the permanent members of the Security Council - were absent. Without their participation, the best new agenda would not be able to accelerate the disarmament process. The representative of Mauritius said he had abstained in the vote because of operative paragraph 9, which called upon States not signed the CTBT to do so. His country was not a signatory of that Treaty because it failed to provide the framework for a timetable for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. The representative of Canada said he had abstained from voting on the resolution last year and decided, after careful, high-level consideration, to do the same this year. The text had evolved considerably and he shared much of the new agenda coalition's assessment of the serious strains on NPT-based nuclear disarmament and on the non-proliferation regime. The resolution remained a timely, pointed reminder of the urgent need for progress on both these fronts. He said, however, that he believed that the concerted efforts needed to meet those challenges would require the broadest possible base of support. The nuclear-weapon States needed to be engaged if the goals of the new agenda PAGE 179 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 resolution were to be achieved. The issues addressed by the resolution would come up again in the April/May 2000 NPT Review Conference, when the accountability promised in the indefinite extension of the Treaty in 1995 would be put to an important public test. Canada would be working to ensure that the Conference reinforced the Treaty and restored momentum to the fulfilment of its goals. He then requested that, in light of a call taken for a vote on the draft resolution on the Conference on Disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.30), there be a 30-minute suspension of the meeting for the co-sponsors to meet and discuss how to proceed. The representative of the Solomon Islands said he felt that the heat of the insult delivered to his delegation and other co-sponsors of the new agenda resolution had cooled, and he would not respond, but rather simply not talk to the delegate in the delegate's bar. The Chairman agreed on a half-hour break. Speaking on a point of order, the representative of Egypt suggested there be a vote on the resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.21/Rev.1) before the break. The representative of Japan, on a point of order, requested that action on the draft resolution on nuclear disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.9/Rev.1) also be taken before suspension of meeting. The representative of Mexico said that 24 hours had not yet elapsed since his delegation had received the revised version of that draft, and suggested it be the last resolution taken up today. The representative of Egypt said he preferred to take action on the transparency resolution before the suspension of the meeting. The Chairman agreed to take a decision on the draft on transparency in armaments. The representative of Finland spoke, on behalf of the European Union and associated States, before the vote on transparency in armaments. He said all the countries he represented would vote against the draft, as it was not acceptable on the grounds of principle. It put the concept of transparency in conventional arms on a par with transparency in weapons of mass destruction. It reinforced the attempted linkage between greater transparency in the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms and greater transparency in weapons of mass destruction. Those could not be linked. The representative of Argentina said that, in spite of fact that the Register of Conventional Arms referred to those weapons, the principle of transparency could be applied to weapons of mass destruction, according to the report of the group of governmental experts on the functioning of the United Nations Register. The development of transparency mechanisms in the field of weapons of mass destruction, however, should not undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of existing mechanisms providing transparency in conventional arms, such as the United Nations Register. For that reason, she would abstain. The representative of South Africa said that he supported the draft resolution PAGE 180 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 based on the belief that the principles of transparency should also apply to nuclear weapons and the transfer of technology directly related to those weapons. He would abstain from the vote, however, because he did not agree with operative paragraph 4(b) of the text, which stated that a link should be established between transparency of weapons of mass destruction and conventional transparency. The representative of Saudi Arabia said he wished to join the co-sponsors of the resolution. In a separate vote on the eighth preambular paragraph of the draft on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.21/Rev.1) which concerns universality of the NPT, Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention, the paragraph was approved by 132 in favour to 2 against (India, Israel), with 3 abstentions (Canada, Cuba, Pakistan) (Annex V). In a further separate vote, operative paragraph 4(b), which concerns the Register and weapons of mass destruction, was approved by 77 in favour to 45 against, with 16 abstentions (Annex VI). The resolution on transparency in armaments as a whole was approved by a vote of 81 in favour to 45 against, with 13 abstentions (Annex VII). The representative of China, in explanation of the vote after the vote, said that transparency was the first step towards the complete prohibition of all weapons of mass destruction. The country possessing the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal should continue to take the lead in lowering its stockpile, thereby creating conditions for the transparency and the eventual destruction of such weapons. Those actions needed to be taken against a background of confidence, peace and security. Some countries, however, were still pursuing the doctrine of the first use of nuclear weapons, and contemplating undermining the ABM Treaty. Therefore, conditions were not right for transparency in nuclear weapons. Based on divergent views regarding the convening of the group of governmental experts and the expansion of the scope of the conventional arms register, his country had abstained. The representative of Canada said he had erred in his vote on the eighth preambular paragraph of the text. He had meant to vote yes, not abstain. The representative of Israel said he had voted against the resolution, because he did not think it was useful to expand the Register of Conventional Arms, as it might impair the functioning of the Register. Rather, he encouraged those States that had not yet joined the Register to do so. He was surprised that some of the sponsors of the resolution from the Middle East had called for expanding the Register, even though they themselves had failed to submit reports to it. Transparency could only be effective if based on regional arms control agreements and reciprocity. The Committee then turned to the draft on nuclear disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.9/Rev.1), on which three separate votes would be taken: on preambular paragraph 2; operative paragraph 1; and operative paragraph 9, before action on the draft as a whole. The representative of New Zealand, spoke on behalf of Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa and Sweden, in explanation of vote before the vote on operative paragraph 9. (Operative paragraph 9 underlines the vital importance of the 2000 Review Conference of the NPT for the preservation and strengthening of the regime anchored therein, and calls upon all States parties to that Treaty to reaffirm PAGE 181 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 the decisions, as well as the resolution adopted by the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Treaty, and to intensify their efforts with a view to reaching an agreement on updated objectives for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, based on the review of the achievements since 1995.) He said the language in the paragraph had raised significant problems for those delegations. In particular, it had not considered that the calls contained therein were consistent with the mandate of the 2000 NPT Review Conference, which was clear and unambiguous and had been elaborated in Decision 1 of the 1995 Review and Extension Conference. It was on the basis of that mandate that the work of the 2000 Review Conference would proceed and decisions would be taken. That was a consensus mandate, but the language in operative paragraph 9 of the draft was misleading and strayed from that mandate, raising questions about the status of agreements reached in 1995. He said the paragraph had also prejudged the outcome of the 2000 Review Conference, whose imperative was to ensure the full implementation of the 1995 decisions and not merely reaffirm them. It would be unwise for the Committee to prejudge or pre-empt the outcomes of next year's Conference. Those delegations had felt obliged, therefore, to abstain in the vote on that paragraph. The representative of Jordan said he associated himself with the statement just made by the representative of New Zealand. The Committee Secretary announced that the following countries had become co-sponsors of the nuclear disarmament draft: Germany, Canada, Norway, Italy, Finland, Luxembourg, Spain, Greece, Australia, Portugal and Austria. By a vote of 130 in favour to 1 against (India), with 4 abstentions (Bhutan, Israel, Pakistan, Sierra Leone), the Committee then voted to retain the second preambular paragraph, by which the Assembly would bear in mind the recent nuclear tests, as well as the regional situations, which challenged international efforts to strengthen the global regime of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (Annex VIII). By a vote of 134 in favour to 2 against (India, Israel), with 3 abstentions (Bhutan, Cuba, Pakistan)(Annex IX), the Committee voted to retain the first operative paragraph, which reaffirms the importance of achieving universality of the NPT, and calls upon States not parties to the Treaty to accede to it without delay and without conditions. The Committee also voted to retain operative paragraph 9 by a vote of 103 in favour to 1 against (France), with 27 abstentions (Annex X). By a vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions, the Committee approved the draft as a whole on nuclear disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.9/Rev.1) (Annex XI). The representative of India, speaking in explanation of vote, said her country had an unwavering commitment to nuclear disarmament and the goal of the elimination of nuclear weapons globally, which was the main objective of the text. However, the instrument designed to deal with those weapons and promote global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, namely, the NPT, had proved to be ineffective. The goal could be achieved if the international community looked beyond the old framework of the NPT and moved towards the goal of equal and legitimate security for all through global nuclear disarmament. The current text had added new elements, including a moratorium on the production of fissile material, and on the IAEA protocol, which had been derived from the NPT framework. PAGE 182 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 Since the reference to nuclear tests in the second preambular paragraph was also extraneous, she said her delegation had called for separate votes on the second preambular paragraph and operative paragraph 1, on which she had cast negative votes. She had also disagreed with a number of recommendations of the Tokyo Forum report in the sixth preambular paragraph. Despite its disagreement with the inclusion of such elements, her delegation had maintained its abstention in the vote on the draft as a whole, because it had agreed with the goal of the text. Unfortunately, a mention of the necessary political will and a call for negotiations were absent. The representative of the United States said his delegation had supported the draft because if offered a more realistic vision of nuclear disarmament than the others that had been presented, in terms of accomplishments and future difficulties. His country was firmly committed to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons, but that could only be accomplished through a step-by-step process. The agreed next step was a cut-off on fissionable material, on which no further delays should be tolerated. As for bilateral steps, he shared the co-sponsors' optimism in looking beyond START III, but his focus for now was simply to get those talks under way and headed in the right direction. He said that, although he had supported the draft, he had reservations on operative paragraph 9 and, thus, had abstained in the vote on the draft as a whole. His Government agreed with the vital importance of the NPT, but it was inappropriate for the First Committee to detail the actions to be taken by the 2000 Review Conference or to specify its results. That had prejudged the Conference. The States parties would take a "backward and forward" look at the Review Conference, as agreed at the 1995 Review and Extension Conference. Just how that was done should be up to the Review Conference itself. The representative of China said he agreed with the draft's main purpose of the ultimate destruction of nuclear weapons, but the draft had some important defects, as well. For instance, it failed to refer to the countries possessing the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenals, which had specific responsibilities in the area of nuclear disarmament. Nor had it called for the abandonment of nuclear doctrines characterized by the first-use of those weapons. Further, preventing the dissolution of the ABM Treaty and curbing the ABM system that undermined strategic global balance was a precondition for the promotion of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and the draft had failed to mention that, as well. In addition, he said that many elements of the Tokyo Forum report were neither realistic nor reasonable. As such, his Government could not agree to the reference of the report in the draft. For all of those reasons, it had abstained in the vote. He hope that the relevant text could be improved next year, in order to make it possible for him to support it. The representative of the Russian Federation said his delegation had traditionally supported the nuclear disarmament draft proposed by the Japanese delegation. He was impressed by the realistic approach of the text, which had differed from previous drafts by Japan. He could support the draft as a whole, under other circumstances, with the exception of operative paragraph 9, but he had abstained in the vote as a whole, not only for what it contained, but for what it had not. For example, the text had made no reference to the problem of retaining and strictly observing the ABM Treaty. There was a "deep organic link" between the inviolability of that Treaty and nuclear disarmament. The ABM agreement was part of the process of reducing strategic weapons and, of course, of nuclear weapons. The absence of a direct reference to the Treaty was the PAGE 183 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 compelling reason for his abstention. The representative of Algeria said he had supported all efforts aimed at non- proliferation and nuclear disarmament. Nonetheless, the draft was a duplication of efforts, even a contradiction of the nuclear disarmament draft tabled by the delegation of Myanmar (document A/C.1/54/L.41), which he traditionally supported. Further, the title of the text did not exactly reflect its contents, as some of the elements were not in keeping with his view of nuclear disarmament. Furthermore, the language in operative paragraph 9 had digressed from the painstaking agreement reached at the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference. The 2000 Review Conference would decide about the elaboration of new, agreed objectives. Thus, his delegation had abstained in the vote on operative paragraph 9 and on the draft as a whole. He had supported the second preambular paragraph, referring to all nuclear tests. The representative of Colombia said his delegation had abstained in the vote for same reasons put forth by the representative of New Zealand before the vote. The representative of Syria said, if he had been present for the voting, he would have voted in favour of the first operative paragraph. He had always supported efforts to achieve complete nuclear disarmament, but he would like to record his reservations to the fifth preambular paragraph and operative paragraph 4(a) concerning the CTBT. Regrettably, no reference had been made to the fact that Israel was the only country in the Middle East that had not adhered to the NPT and was preventing the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone there, which was closely linked to nuclear disarmament and the elimination of nuclear weapons. The representative of France said, regrettably, he had been unable to support the Japanese text. The wording in operative paragraph 9 had given rise to some serious reservations, even if the text as a whole had reflected his country's position and commitment to non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. For one thing, it was not up to the General Assembly to decide the results of the 2000 NPT Review Conference, and the wording in the text was subject to the work of that Conference. Once again, it was up to the States parties to agree on the best ways and means to preserve and consolidate the NPT regime. The representative of Oman said, if he had been present, he would not have participated in the vote on operative paragraph 9, due to the new language on the question of the Middle East in the decisions of the 1995 NPT Review Conference, which he had totally opposed. The representative of Cuba said, once again, her delegation had abstained in the vote because the draft had not established a minimum basis for universal acceptance of nuclear disarmament. Despite its title, its contents had really focused on questions pertaining to non-proliferation, with special emphasis on the NPT, a discriminatory instrument. Partial approaches such as those did not create the necessary conditions to work towards the ultimate objective. Rather, those were a pretext on the part of some countries to promote their obsolete military doctrines. For those reasons, her delegation had opposed the draft. The representative of Jordan said he had intended to vote in favour of the draft on missiles (document A/C.1/54/L.12/Rev.2). ANNEX I Vote on Missiles The draft resolution on missiles (document A/C.1/54/L.12/Rev.2) was approved by a recorded vote of 65 in favour to none against, with 58 abstentions, as follows: PAGE 184 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 In favour: Algeria, Angola, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia. Against: None. Abstain: Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Latvia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nauru, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Senegal, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX I) ANNEX II Vote on Operative Paragraph 7 of New Agenda Operative paragraph 7, concerning universal adherence to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), of the draft resolution entitled "Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: the need for a new agenda" (document A/C.1/54/L.18), was approved by a recorded vote of 128 in favour to 3 against, with 3 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, PAGE 185 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia. Against: India, Israel, Pakistan. Abstain: Bhutan, Cuba, Latvia. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, France, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tonga, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX II) ANNEX III Vote on Operative Paragraph 18 of New Agenda Operative paragraph 18, concerning assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT, of the draft resolution entitled "Towards a nuclear-weapon- free world: the need for a new agenda" (document A/C.1/54/L.18), was approved by a recorded vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 5 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia. PAGE 186 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 Against: None. Abstain: Cuba, India, Israel, Pakistan, Republic of Korea. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Belize, Cameroon, Chad, China, Comoros, Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, France, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tonga, United Kingdom, United States, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX III) ANNEX IV Vote on Need for New Agenda The draft resolution entitled "Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: the need for a new agenda" (document A/C.1/54/L.18), was approved by a recorded vote of 90 in favour to 13 against, with 37 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia. Against: Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Hungary, India, Israel, Monaco, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States. Abstain: Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Myanmar, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe. PAGE 187 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 (END OF ANNEX IV) ANNEX V Vote on Preambular Paragraph 8 of Transparency in Armaments Preambular paragraph 8, concerning the universality of the NPT, Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention, on the draft resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.21/Rev.1) was approved by a recorded vote of 132 in favour to 2 against, with 3 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia. Against: India, Israel. Abstain: Canada, Cuba, Pakistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Chad, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lesotho, Libya, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX V) ANNEX VI Vote on Operative Paragraph 4(b) of Transparency in Armaments Operative paragraph 4(b), concerning developing the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms to increase transparency in weapons of mass destruction, of the draft resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.21/Rev.1), was approved by a recorded vote of 77 in favour to 45 against, with 16 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, PAGE 188 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia. Against: Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States. Abstain: Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Georgia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Uruguay, Uzbekistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Bolivia, Chad, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX VI) ANNEX VII Vote on Transparency in Armaments The draft resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.21/Rev.1) was approved by a recorded vote of 81 in favour to 45 against, with 13 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia. Against: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, PAGE 189 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States. Abstain: Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Uruguay, Uzbekistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Bolivia, Chad, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX VII) ANNEX VIII Vote on Preambular Paragraph 2 of Elimination of Nuclear Weapons The second preambular paragraph, concerning recent nuclear tests, of the draft resolution on nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons (document A/C.1/54/L.9/Rev.1), was approved by a recorded vote of 130 in favour to 1 against, with 4 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, The former Yugoslav of Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia. Against: India. Abstain: Bhutan, Israel, Pakistan, Sierra Leone. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Chad, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Myanmar, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, PAGE 190 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Yemen, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX VIII) ANNEX IX Vote on Operative Paragraph 1 of Elimination of Nuclear Weapons Operative paragraph 1, concerning the universality of the NPT, on the draft resolution on nuclear disarmament with a view to the elimination of nuclear weapons (document A/C.1/54/L.9/Rev.1), was approved by a recorded vote of 134 in favour to 2 against, with 3 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia. Against: India, Israel. Abstain: Bhutan, Cuba, Pakistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Chad, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Yemen, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX IX) ANNEX X Vote on Operative Paragraph 9 on Elimination of Nuclear Weapons Operative paragraph 9, which concerns the 2000 Review Conference of the NPT, on the draft resolution on nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons (document A/C.1/54/L.9/Rev.1), was approved by a recorded vote of 103 in favour to 1 against, with 27 abstentions, as follows: PAGE 191 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 In favour: Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Swaziland, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia. Against: France. Abstain: Algeria, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, United States, Uruguay. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Chad, China, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, India, Israel, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tonga, Tunisia, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX X) ANNEX XI Vote on Elimination of Nuclear Weapons The draft resolution on nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons (document A/C.1/54/L.9/Rev.1) was approved by a recorded vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, PAGE 192 M2 PRESSWIRE November 11, 1999 Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia. Against: None. Abstain: Algeria, Bhutan, China, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, France, India, Israel, Mauritius, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russian Federation. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Chad, Comoros, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea- Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tonga, Yemen, Zimbabwe. LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: November 11, 1999 PAGE 193 LEVEL 1 - 21 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 LENGTH: 9656 words HEADLINE: UN Draft resolution calling for compliance with 1972 ABM treaty approved in Disarmament Committee HIGHLIGHT: Five Other Texts Approved on South-East Europe, Verification, Central Africa, Disarmament Special Session, Disarmament Advisory Board BODY: The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) this morning approved 5 draft resolutions and one draft decision, including an amended text on the preservation of and compliance with the 1972 Treaty on the Limitation of Anti- Ballistic Missile Systems - the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty - signed by the Russian Federation and the United States. According to the text, sponsored by Belarus, China and the Russian Federation, the General Assembly would call for renewed efforts by each of the States parties to preserve and strengthen it through full and strict compliance. It would also call on the parties to limit the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems and to refrain from the deployment of such systems for a defence of the territory of its country. The resolution was approved by a vote of 54 in favour to 4 against (Israel, Latvia, Federated States of Micronesia, United States), with 73 abstentions (For details of the vote see Annex III). Under an amendment submitted by France to the operative portion of the text, the Assembly would urge all Member States to support efforts aiming at stemming the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. A new preambular paragraph would have the Assembly recall the widespread concern about the proliferation of those weapons and their means of delivery. The Committee approved the amendments by a vote of 22 in favour to 1 against (United States), with 95 abstentions. (Annex II). In presenting the amendments, the representative of France said that the unprecedented circumstances created by one of the States parties to the ABM Treaty had made it a priority matter to evolve a draft text that would be compatible with the concerns of all States. Incorporating two main elements into the text, namely the preservation of that cornerstone Treaty and combating the proliferation of ballistic missiles, had enabled her delegation to support it. The United States representative, who had opposed both the draft and the amendments, said an obsolete Treaty did not produce stability; it only created the illusion of stability. His country could not ignore the emergence of new threats or new technologies that might be used to protect against them. Thus, it rejected the idea that a 27-year old Treaty could not be amended to reflect the current realities. Several delegations who had either opposed or abstained in the two votes explained that a bilateral dialogue between the two parties was the best way to facilitate the attainment of ballistic missile control. The representative of Latvia said "taking the initiative out of the hands of the initiators" might PAGE 194 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 damage the Treaty. Speaking on behalf of several European countries, the German representative said the manner in which the matter had been raised in the Committee did not have the support of both parties to the Treaty. Many European delegations had underlined the need for a consensus text from the very early stages of discussion, but regrettably, it had not been possible for the parties to the Treaty to reach an agreement on the issue. Both the Russian Federation and the United States, however, had reaffirmed, in statements, their commitment to the ABM Treaty. Under another new text approved today on stability and development of South- Eastern Europe, the Assembly would call upon the participants of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe, adopted on 10 June in Cologne, Germany, and all concerned international organizations, to support the efforts of South-Eastern European States to overcome the negative effects of the Kosovo crisis and to enable them to pursue sustainable development and integration of their economies in the European and global economy. The draft was approved by a vote of 137 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions (Belarus, China). (Annex I). Acting without a vote today, the Committee approved three further draft resolutions and one draft decision. According to a draft resolution on the Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa, the Assembly would emphasize the importance of providing the States members of the Standing Advisory Committee with the essential support needed to carry out the full programme of activities, in particular the organization of joint military exercises to stimulate peacekeeping operations. Under a text on verification in all its aspects, the Assembly would reaffirm the critical importance of, and vital contribution that had been made by effective verification measures in arms limitation and disarmament agreements and other similar obligations. By another text, the Assembly would decide, subject to the emergence of a consensus on its objectives and agenda, to convene a fourth special session on disarmament. In that connection, it would request the Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States on the objectives, agenda and timing of this special session. Under the terms of a draft decision on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, the Assembly would decide to request the Secretary-General to adjust the language in the mandate of the Advisory Board to reflect the current practice of the Board. The thrust of the amendment would be to emphasize the Board's proactive advisory role on disarmament matters over its role to advise on various aspects of studies and research. Statements on the drafts were made by the representatives of Algeria, Mali, Iraq, Oman, Mexico, Jordan, Russian Federation, Brazil, Belarus, Kenya, China, Egypt, Syria, Iran, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Ukraine, Canada, Venezuela, Cuba, Peru, Philippines, Nepal, New Zealand, Japan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ecuador, Argentina and Sweden. A revised draft resolution was introduced by the representative of Egypt. The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. Monday, 8 November, to continue taking action on disarmament- and security-related drafts. Committee Work Programme PAGE 195 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this morning to continue taking action on disarmament and security-related draft decisions. It was also expected to hear the introduction of revised drafts on: creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East (document A/C.1/54/L.7/Rev.1). The Committee had before it: a draft on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems, as well as an amendment to the text; two drafts on confidence- building measures, including transparency in armaments; two on the United Nations Disarmament machinery and one on international security. According to a draft resolution sponsored by Belarus, China and the Russian Federation, on the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty) (document A/C.1/54/L.1/Rev.1), the Assembly, recognizing the historic role of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of 26 May 1972 as a cornerstone for maintaining international peace and security and strategic stability, would call for continued efforts to strengthen the Treaty and to preserve its integrity and validity so that it remained a cornerstone of global strategic stability and world peace and in promoting further strategic nuclear arms reductions. In a related provision, the Assembly would call for renewed efforts by each of the States parties to the ABM Treaty to preserve and strengthen it through full and strict compliance. It would also call on the parties to the Treaty to limit the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems and to refrain from the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems for a defence of the territory of its country and not to provide a base for such a defence and not to transfer to other States or to deploy outside its national territory, ABM systems or their components limited by the Treaty. The Assembly would consider that the implementation of any measure undermining the purposes and provisions of the Treaty would also undermine global strategic stability and world peace and the promotion of further strategic nuclear arms reductions. The Assembly would support further efforts by the international community in the light of emerging developments with the goal of safeguarding the inviolability and integrity of the ABM Treaty in which the international community bore strong interest. It would decide to include the item in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fifth session. By the terms of the provisional amendment submitted by France (document A/C.1/54/L.56), a seventh preambular paragraph would be added, as follows: "Recalling finally the widespread concern about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery." After operative paragraph 4, a new paragraph would be added, as follows: "Urges all Member States to support efforts aiming at stemming the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery." According to a draft resolution on the activities of the Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa (document A/C.1/54/L.5), the Assembly would emphasize the importance of providing the States members of the Standing Advisory Committee with the essential support they needed to carry out the full programme of activities which they had adopted at the ninth and tenth ministerial meetings, in particular the organization of joint military exercises to stimulate peacekeeping operations. In that connection, the Assembly would appeal to Member States and to governmental and non-governmental organizations to make additional voluntary contributions to the Trust Fund for the implementation of the programme of PAGE 196 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 work of the Standing Advisory Committee, in particular to activities such as the joint military exercises, the creation of a mechanism for the promotion, maintenance and consolidation of peace and security in Central Africa, to be known as the Council for Peace and Security in Central Africa, and the establishment of a network of parliamentarians from the heads of State and government of the Economic Community of Central African States, with a view to the eventual creation of a parliament of the Community. The draft resolution is sponsored by Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea and Niger. Under the terms of a draft decision sponsored by France on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (document A/C.1/54/L.28), the Assembly would decide to request the Secretary-General to adjust the language in the mandate of the Advisory Board as set out in paragraphs 45 to 46 of the report of the Secretary- General. The relevant paragraphs in the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Advisory Board (document A/54/218) concern the Board's improved functioning and mandate, and contain the Secretary-General's endorsement that the General Assembly approve the change of language to reflect the current practice of the Board. The Board proposes that the language of its formal mandate, adopted in 1982, be readjusted to reflect its actual functions as they have been performed for more than a decade. The thrust of the amendment would be to emphasize the Board's proactive advisory role on disarmament matters over its role to advise on various aspects of studies and research. Its function to serve as the Board of Trustees for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) would remain unchanged, and it would retain its role of advising on the implementation of the Disarmament Information Programme. A draft text on verification in all its aspects (document A./C.1/54/L.29) would have the Assembly reaffirm the critical importance of, and vital contribution that had been made by effective verification measures in arms limitation and disarmament agreements and other similar obligations. It would request the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fifty- sixth session on further views received from Member States pursuant to resolutions 50/61 and 52/31. The draft resolution is sponsored by Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, New Zealand, Poland, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Slovakia, Ukraine and Uruguay. According to a new draft resolution on the stability and development of South-Eastern Europe (document A/C.1/54/L.40/Rev.1), the Assembly would call upon all participants of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe, adopted on 10 June in Cologne, Germany, and all concerned international organizations, to support the efforts of South-Eastern European States to overcome the negative effects of the Kosovo crisis and to enable them to pursue sustainable development and integration of their economies in the European and global economy. The Assembly would urge the normalization of relations among the States of South-Eastern Europe and the strengthening of their mutual cooperation on the basis of respect of international law and agreements, and within the principle PAGE 197 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 of good-neighbourliness and mutual respect. The Assembly would affirm the urgency of the consolidation of South- Eastern Europe as a region of peace, security, stability, democracy, cooperation, economic development, observance of human rights and good- neighbourliness, thus contributing to the maintenance of international peace and security and enhancing the prospect for sustained development and prosperity for all peoples in the region as an integral part of Europe. It would also affirm the need for full observance of the United Nations Charter and for strict compliance with the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity and inviolability of international borders of any States. In a related provision, the Assembly would call upon all States to solve their disputes with other States by peaceful means, in accordance with the United Nations Charter, and call upon them, the relevant international organizations and competent organs of the United Nations to continue to take measures in accordance with the Charter, as appropriate, to eliminate threats to international peace and security and to help prevent conflicts which could lead to the violent disintegration of States. It would stress the importance of good-neighbourliness and the development of friendly relations among States, the solution of problems among States and the promotion of international cooperation in accordance with the United Nations Charter. The Assembly would stress the importance of regional efforts aimed at preventing bilateral conflicts endangering the maintenance of international peace and security and note with satisfaction that the multilateral peacekeeping force for South-East Europe had become operational. It would also stress that closer engagement of the South-Eastern European States in furthering cooperation on the European continent would favourably influence the security, political and economic situation in the region, as well as the good-neighbourly relations among the Balkan States. It would also emphasize the importance of regional efforts in South- Eastern Europe on arms control, disarmament and confidence-building measures and call upon all States and the relevant international organizations to communicate to the Secretary-General their views on the subject of the draft resolution. It would decide to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fifth session an item entitled "Maintenance of International Security - Stability and Development of South-Eastern Europe". The draft resolution is sponsored by Andorra, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liberia, Luxembourg, Monaco, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States. A draft resolution sponsored by South Africa on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement on the convening of the fourth special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.48) would have the Assembly decide, subject to the emergence of a consensus on its objectives and agenda, to convene the special session. It would request the Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States on the objectives, agenda and timing of the special session and to report to the Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. It would decide to include that item at the next session. PAGE 198 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 Actions on Texts Acting without a vote, the Committee approved the draft resolution on the Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa (document A/C.1/54/L.5). The representative of Algeria said he wished to recall the difficulties his delegation had experienced last year concerning the eleventh preambular paragraph and operative paragraph 9, which it had deemed important. The elements contained in those two paragraphs should be considered in another Committee, but out of solidarity and since it was an African text, his delegation had joined consensus, despite its difficulties. (The eleventh preambular paragraph recalls the decision of the fourth meeting of the Standing Advisory Committee in favour of establishing, under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a subregional centre for human rights and democracy in Central Africa. Operative paragraph 9 requests the Secretary-General to provide the States members of the Standing Advisory Committee with the necessary support in making operational the early warning mechanism and the Council for Peace and Security in Central Africa.) The representative of Mali said his delegation wished to co-sponsor the draft on security questions in Central Africa. The Committee Secretary announced that the Republic of Moldova, Turkey and Haiti had joined the text on verification in all its aspects (document A/C.1/54/L.29). The Committee then approved the draft resolution on verification in all its aspects (document A/C.1/54/L.29) without a vote. Turning to the drafts on the disarmament machinery, the representative of Irak spoke on the text on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (document A/C.1/54/L.28). He said the Advisory Board's report had completely ignored acts of spying and falsification exercised by the leadership of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in Iraq and many of its inspectors. Ignoring that issue had meant that the Advisory Board had not heeded that very serious issue, which had undermined the credibility of the role of the United Nations in the field of disarmament. It had been surprising that the Board had reached its conclusions based on an informal paper presented by the former UNSCOM Chairman, Rolf Ekeus. Meanwhile, the conclusions of the report submitted by Celso Amorim (Brazil) to the Security Council had been completely different. He noted the mention in the Board's report that it had not been in a position to evaluate the scope of the secrets in the field of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. He said that conclusion had confirmed the "non-objectivity" of those who had prepared the report. Following nine years of "interventionist inspection" in Iraq and the almost daily use of United States spying aircraft, as well as the use of satellites and spies among the inspectors, UNSCOM had not provided any evidence regarding the presence of weapons of mass destruction or its components in Iraq. The Board should have reached that latter conclusion. Raising doubts without providing evidence was the most dangerous thing that disarmament experts could do. PAGE 199 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 He said the Board's report had also stated that the Iraqi decision of non- compliance had been the first regrettable step. That argument was far from the truth. The first regrettable step had been taken by the Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, Richard Butler, when he withdrew his inspectors from Iraq without the knowledge or consent of either the Security Council or the Secretary-General. A destructive step had followed, namely the launching by the United States and the United Kingdom of aggression against Iraq on 16 December 1998. That aggression had targeted not only the facilities of infrastructure in Iraq, but also most of the monitoring and verification facilities, from which the inspectors had departed hours before the bombing. The United States and the United Kingdom should "pay the price" of their aggression against Iraq and its people, he said. History moved forward and not backward. No one should expect Iraq to accept new farces, such as the farce of the former UNSCOM. The Committee then approved the draft decision on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (document A/C.1/54/L.28) without a vote. The representative of Oman, speaking after the vote on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, said that his country had joined consensus, but in the future would appreciate more information on the draft decision, in the context of transparency and the nature of the board. A draft resolution on convening the fourth special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.48) was adopted without a vote. The Committee moved into the category of international security. The Secretary said that the draft resolution on maintenance of the international security - stability and development of South-Eastern Europe (document A/C.1/54/L.40/Rev.1) had new co-sponsors: Denmark, Ukraine, United States, Czech Republic, Croatia, Canada, Cyprus, Azerbaijan and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 137 in favour, to none against, with 2 abstentions (Belarus, China). (For details of the vote see Annex I.) The representative of Mexico, speaking after the vote, said that last year his country had abstained from vote on this draft resolution, because the job of the First Committee was to deal only with disarmament issues and issues of international security related to disarmament questions. This year, the co-sponsors of the text had inserted a paragraph that highlighted the importance of disarmament activities and confidence-building measures in the region under question, which was a rather tenuous connection. His delegation hoped that in the future the Committee would stick solely to disarmament and related security issues. The Chairman said that since the morning's work programme had been completed the Committee should consider taking up the draft resolution on preservation and compliance with the ABM Treaty (document A/C.1/54/L.1/Rev.1). The representative of Jordan said the presentation of the resolution was late in reaching his delegation, and asked for more time to consider the important French proposal. The representative of the Russian Federation said that delegations had had 24 hours to review the draft resolution and that he wished for a vote today. The Chairman clarified that there was still one hour left before the full PAGE 200 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 twenty-four hour period since delegations had received the text. The representative of Brazil said his delegation was prepared to vote on all the draft resolutions now. The representative of Belarus said he agreed with Brazil and believed the Committee needed to think of effective use of time and resources. The representative of Kenya supported Brazil's desire for a vote now, saying his delegation was ready for action on all draft texts. The representative of China agreed with the two previous speakers. The Chairman announced a one-hour adjournment of the meeting to allow for the 24-hour period. The Committee Chairman, at the resumed meeting, turned to the draft resolutions in the category on nuclear weapons. Introduction of Revised Draft MOTAZ ZAHRAN (Egypt) introduced a revised draft resolution on the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East (document A/C.1/54/L.7/Rev.1). The draft resolution had been adopted by the Assembly since 1974, and by consensus since 1980. Today would be the nineteenth consecutive year of its consensus approval. The Disarmament Commission, during its 1999 substantive session, had reached agreement on guidelines for the establishment of such zones. Those guidelines, which had been adopted by consensus, were principal additions that were essential and conducive to promoting the present draft text. Reaching those guidelines, however, had been a "smokescreen" for some to continue their "secret and ambiguous" nuclear programmes and policies. He said his delegation had entered into protracted negotiations with the Israeli delegation, aimed at drawing attention to the importance of an additional preambular. The twelfth preambular paragraph had indeed reflected the spirit of what had been agreed to by the Israeli delegation in the Disarmament Commission. It was "bizarre" that a delegation would enter into negotiations with another delegation on what had already been agreed in another forum in that same year. Regrettably, such intransigence and rigidity had characterized the behaviour of some delegations. Such positions had only raised questions about the genuine positions concerning the essential issues, with significant implications for the situation in the Middle East. Omitting the reference to the Commission's guidelines in the draft resolution had been illogical and had made him wonder, he said. In order to maintain consensus on the text, however, and after protracted negotiations with several parties, the Egyptian delegation had presented the amended version of the draft, in which the twelfth preambular paragraph had been deleted. As the text was now the same as the original one, it would hopefully enjoy consensus once more. Action on Texts The representative of the United States, speaking before the vote on the amendments sponsored by France (document A/C.1/54/L.56) to the draft resolution on the ABM Treaty (document A/C.1/54/L.1/Rev.1), said he would vote "no" on the amendments. While he shared the substantive concerns reflected in the amendments, it had been a mistake to consider those concerns in connection with the draft resolution. Those amendments had not fixed the resolution. Also, he would oppose the draft, with or without the amendments. PAGE 201 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 The representative of Jordan said he was not comfortable with the amendments introduced yesterday by the representative of France, even though those had dealt with a very important domain of disarmament, namely the non- proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Whenever possible, his delegation had supported the votes on issues of non-proliferation and would certainly continue to do so, particularly in a neighbourhood where the closest neighbour had a programme that had made his country rather uncomfortable. Non- proliferation in his region and others would be welcome, but including the non- proliferation issue in the domain of maintaining the ABM Treaty had very much diluted and blurred the issue. If he were to be intellectually honest, he would vote against the amendment. In order not to be "more royalist than the King", he would abstain in the vote. The representative of Syria said he had welcomed the ABM Treaty, as that Treaty had enhanced stability and strategic balance and had constituted an important part of bilateral and multilateral agreements. The amendments, however, were far removed from the main objective of the draft under consideration, and had deviated from its main direction. Those had encouraged violations of the ABM Treaty, and had therefore fallen outside the draft's perspective. He would abstain in the vote. The representative of Iran said he would vote in favour of the draft resolution for obvious reasons - the ABM Treaty had been one of the main foundations of global security and had served as an essential element in maintaining stability and global strategic balance. The Treaty had also played an important role in restraining the arms race, particularly among the nuclear- weapon States. The expected overwhelming Committee support for the draft would manifest the strong desire of the international community to preserve the integrity of the ABM Treaty. In the same spirit, he would abstain in the vote on the amendments. While sharing some of the main points elaborated yesterday by the French delegation, the amendments were not consistent with the spirit of the text, which had called for the unequivocal support for the preservation of and compliance with the ABM Treaty. He said the concepts envisaged in the amendments might be misinterpreted to go against the spirit of the draft. Those amendments should be improved to better reflect the current realities. Although the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction had truly threatened international security, that would not be completely reversed unless those weapons were outlawed and destroyed under effective international control. Their continued proliferation had been a major concern of the global community, which had concluded conventions on biological and chemical weapons for that reason. He said his delegation had been willing to rectify the shortcomings inherent in the amendment, but due to the complexity of the issues related to the draft, the late submission of the amendments and the consultations with the sponsors of the text, it had decided not to push for any further complicating amendment. The representative of South Africa said the amendments and the emphasis placed on preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems had been fully in line with his Government's policy. While those amendments had been acceptable in terms of South Africa's national policies, those had not been appropriately proposed. He would, therefore, abstain in the vote on the amendments. In the event of their adoption, he would vote in favour of the amended draft resolution as a whole. The representative of Pakistan said the draft resolution had related to a very specific subject, namely the PAGE 202 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 preservation of and compliance with the ABM Treaty. A position should be taken on the draft on the basis of its own merits, rather than have it be distracted by any discriminatory positions. Efforts were being made to eliminate the threat of the proliferation of chemical weapons. The Biological Weapons Convention had existed for many years, and efforts were currently under way to strengthen it through a protocol. Only nuclear weapons had been the subject of widespread concern, because those had existed in the thousands and because some nuclear-weapon States had sought to perpetuate discriminatory and double standards concerning related policies and programmes. He said the reason for the amendments had not been understood and seemed to be designed to impose on the resolution the discrimination inherent in the policies of some States who had preached restraint by some countries not to acquire or produce those weapons, while keeping those weapons for themselves. He would have opposed the amendments, but because the co-sponsors of the draft had decided to abstain, his delegation would also do so. The amendments (document A/C.1/54/L.56) were approved, by a vote of 22 in favour to 1 against (United States), with 95 abstention (Annex II). The representative of Iraq, speaking before the vote on the draft on the ABM Treaty (document A/C.1/54/L.1/Rev.1), said the Treaty was the cornerstone of maintaining strategic balance and stability in the world today. Since 1972 it had contributed to the limitation of development and deployment of anti- ballistic missiles in the Soviet Union and the United States. It had played a significant role in the creation of a favourable climate for the nuclear disarmament process. He said that the United States was endeavouring to weaken the Treaty, contrary to the desire of the Russian Federation and the majority of the international community, and their aim was clear - to obtain absolute strategic superiority at the expense of the security of others. That aim extended to systems that did not exclude outer space. As an Arab State, he was concerned that the United States continued bilateral cooperation with Israel on a new defensive missile programme. The missile successfully tested by Israel several days ago was a result of that cooperation and launched a new stage of the arms race, based on reneging on international conventions already in force. That seriously jeopardized peace and security, as well as diverting more material and resources for the military, rather than economic and social development. He strongly supported the draft in its original form, and he called on other States to follow suit. The representative of India said that the ABM Treaty was an important legal instrument of continuing relevance to the international community. Each party undertook not to deploy anti-ballistic missiles for the defence of its territory, which was a substantial factor in limiting the arms race. The current resolution reaffirmed the premise of the Treaty. All disarmament agreements took place after the ABM Treaty and, until an alternative process was in place, it would still be a relevant concern of the international community. Non-compliance with the Treaty had global consequences. India had closely followed discussions on the various draft texts, she said, and supported the objective of the co-sponsors in expressing the Assembly's concern over the development of new missile defence systems. There was an imperative need for stemming such deployments and strengthening the ABM Treaty. India had abstained on the amendments to the resolution, not because it had PAGE 203 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 any quarrels with their intent, but because they were not relevant to the objective of the resolution. She would vote in favour of the resolution. The representative of Pakistan said that the ABM Treaty was the bedrock of maintaining strategic stability. Preservation and compliance was vital for international security and for promoting nuclear disarmament. Although the nuclear Powers said that disarmament was a bilateral issue, the framework for such disarmament was now in danger because of those States' own actions. Statements by the Russian Federation had made it clear that deployment of an anti-ballistic missile system in the United States could derail the Second Strategic Arms Limitation and Reduction Treaty (START II) process and delay START III. Those were not bilateral matters. His country would, therefore, vote in favour of the resolution, although it appealed to the Russian Federation to also display the same sensitivity to security concerns of his country, and reconsider the matter of their resupplying their neighbour. The representative of Kenya said that the ABM Treaty was not the only arms control treaty threatened by current developments. The Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was under even greater siege. The nuclear States had already disregarded article VI of the Treaty by their reluctance to undertake disarmament in good faith. All arms control treaties should be treated equally. It was imperative to involve the international community right from the beginning, to provide a better guarantee for survival of such treaties. Therefore, his Government would vote for the resolution. The representative of Nigeria said that to achieve disarmament agreements, bilateral, multilateral and unilateral efforts were needed. The ABM Treaty was the result of determined bilateral efforts. The repeated assertion that the responsibility for nuclear disarmament lay with the United States and the Russian Federation - those two countries with largest supply of nuclear weapons - rested on the assumption that there was a high degree of cooperation between those States. Any lack of cooperation could have a negative effect on other disarmament treaties. The ABM Treaty had been amended before, in a spirit of cooperation, and the United States and the Russian Federation should resume an ongoing dialogue in such a spirit. It was in that hope that Nigeria would abstain in the voting. The representative of Brazil said that he continued to believe that the ABM Treaty was a cornerstone of nuclear stability, but since some provisions of current draft were not in line with the current practice and law of treaties, Brazil would abstain. The representative of the Ukraine said that while the United States and the Russian Federation had reaffirmed their commitment to the ABM Treaty this year - the Cologne Statement - the United States' decision to continue with plans for development of an ABM system was cause for concern. Every State had the right to solve issues of national security, taking into account existing or potential threats. However, those issues could not be solved at the expense of international commitments. The Standing Consultative Council was the proper multilateral forum for all discussion of amendments to the ABM Treaty. He supported the main thrust of the French amendments, but the need for further analysis would make his delegation abstain on the vote. The draft resolution on the ABM Treaty (document A/C.1/54/L.1/Rev.1) was approved by a vote of 54 in favour to 4 against (United States, Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, Latvia), with 73 abstentions (Annex III). The PAGE 204 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 representative of Canada, speaking in explanation of vote on the draft, said his abstention should in no way be interpreted to mean any change in his Government's appreciation of the fundamental importance of the ABM Treaty to international security. Last week, in Boston, his Foreign Minister had underlined the importance of the Treaty to international strategic stability, and had also cautioned that, in efforts to reconcile national missile defence with the Treaty, great care should be taken not to damage the system that had underpinned nuclear restraint and allowed for nuclear reductions. He said that while the global community had an official stake in the outcome of bilateral talks, that process between the parties involved should be given more time. He questioned whether bringing the issue to light in this way, at this time, had been the best way to move matters forward. His country had remained deeply concerned about the broad issue of the proliferation of missiles, especially those carrying weapons of mass destruction. Thus, he voted in favour of the amendments. The representative of Venezuela said he shared the concerns expressed in the text. In the current circumstances, he was confident that the parties to the ABM Treaty would be able to resolve the discrepancies without jeopardizing the Treaty. The international community must remain watchful of the evolution of the process. Likewise, his country had favourably viewed the scope of the amendments by France, and had felt that the broader issue of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems could be dealt with in a timely and appropriate way. Thus, he had abstained in the vote on the text. The representative of Cuba said the international community had been making considerable efforts to adopt instruments preventing or curbing the creation and development of certain weapons and their delivery systems, such as nuclear weapons, which had threatened international security. It was really lamentable that a country that had assumed commitments under a Treaty of historic importance had been carrying out actions that had undermined or sidestepped the letter and spirit of that legal instrument. He would vote in favour of the draft, as it had emphasized the need to strictly respect the ABM Treaty. He said that any violation of the ABM Treaty, as indicated by the co-sponsors of the draft, would negatively influence not only the States parties, but the entire international community. That, in turn, would have negative consequences for peace, security, strategic balance and nuclear disarmament. The discussion in the framework of the General Assembly had been completely relevant. He hoped that during the next session, the present disturbing situation concerning the ABM Treaty would have evolved in such a way as to make it unnecessary to adopt a resolution on the subject. The representative of Peru said he wished to emphasize the traditional position of his country in favour of disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, as well as its support for the validity of the ABM Treaty. That position had inspired his vote on the draft. The representative of the Philippines said he had continued to support the sanctity of the ABM Treaty for reasons already stated. Certain points, however, as had made it difficult to support the draft. In East Asia, where the potential for conflict had existed and where the nuclear factor had hovered, potential conflicts could emerge in many geographic areas, all of them straddling the Philippines. Thus, he had to reserve his position on the text, and had not participated in the vote. PAGE 205 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 On the other hand, he said that many in the Philippines had still felt that all effort must be exerted to preserve the ABM Treaty, but the text might not be "the way to go". He had witnessed, a few weeks ago, how the United States had proceeded with important policy decisions. The United States Congress and the influence of the military contractors would swing the debate on the ABM Treaty in their favour. Any effort to persuade them otherwise would be futile. He would, therefore, reserve participation now, but would participate in the next vote on the subject next year. The representative of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia said the position of most interested parties deserved full and careful consideration. Taking into account the cornerstone importance of the ABM Treaty, his delegation had abstained in the vote on the amendments and on the draft itself. The representative of Ecuador said he was in favour of the need for the General Assembly to deal with all disarmament and international stability and arms control issues, on which measures needed to be taken. The subjects dealt with in the draft resolution on the ABM Treaty and the amendments had been relevant and should, therefore, be given the priority attention of the international community. Nonetheless, it was premature to deal with the matter, which had been reflected in his vote. The representative of Argentina said he had attached great importance to the ABM Treaty and to other agreements between the nuclear-weapon States. He had been concerned at the lack of progress in nuclear disarmament by those countries, as reflected in the lack of ratification of START II and the absence of progress on START III. There had also been a need to strengthen existing treaties. Thus, he would reiterate the appeal he had made directly to the countries involved that they should redouble efforts to strengthen existing agreements and advance new ones. Nonetheless, his delegation had abstained in the vote, because it was not convinced that the draft would create a climate conducive to reaching agreement on such areas. The representative of Latvia said that, although he had opposed the draft, he wished to emphasize his support of all efforts made to stem the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. But, initially, a continued bilateral dialogue between the Russian Federation and the United States was the best and most practical way to facilitate attainment of ballistic missile control. "Taking the initiative out of the hands of the initiators" might damage the Treaty. He supported debate among all of the nuclear-weapon States on the control of their destructive weaponry, as it had sought improved global security. The representative of Germany spoke on behalf of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom. He said those countries had decided to abstain in the vote on the draft. The manner in which the matter had been raised in the Committee did not have the support of both parties to the Treaty. He said the countries named above had underlined the need for consensus from the very early stages of discussion, and had been involved in efforts to reach such a consensus. Regrettably, it had not been possible for the parties to the Treaty to reach an agreement on the issue. He had attached great importance to the ABM Treaty, which had contributed to the broad disarmament and arms control process. Both the Russian Federation and the United States had reaffirmed, in their statements, their commitment to the ABM Treaty and their continued PAGE 206 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 efforts to strengthen it in order to enhance and strengthen its future viability. He said he had urged the parties to continue cooperation on that basis and had underlined the importance of further progress in both bilateral and multilateral efforts. The parties had also been urged to continue the bilateral process, including the early entry into force of START II and an early commencement of START III negotiations. Since the NPT had provided the global framework for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, he had called on all States parties to the NPT to strive for a successful Review Conference and had underlined the importance of continued and intensified efforts to bring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force, in particular, by the 44 States whose ratification was required. He said a political climate beneficial for further progress in nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation would be affected by such factors as preservation of the ABM regime, continuation of the START process, and further progress with regards to the CTBT. He was strongly committed to the cause of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and had fully supported the substance of the French amendments. Regrettably, he had felt obliged to abstain, as it would have not been appropriate to support amendments without being in a position to support the amended resolution. The representative of Sweden said he had associated himself with the explanation of vote made by the representative of Germany, on behalf of several European countries. The ABM Treaty had been a cornerstone of strategic stability and an important component of global stability. Its continued integrity, therefore, was of global concern, and also closely linked to the broader disarmament and non-proliferation agenda. He had followed, with close attention and concern, the developments surrounding the Treaty, and would call on the States parties to restrain from deploying anti-ballistic missile defence systems, which could negatively affect nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and create uncertainties. He said the States parties should demonstrate a commitment to the ABM Treaty by continuing cooperation in a constructive spirit. Regrettably, those parties had been unable to submit a consensus draft. In the absence of such consensus, it had been inappropriate to interfere. He had, therefore, decided to abstain in the vote on the draft, as well as in the amendments proposed by France. He would underline the importance of continued efforts towards the early entry into force of other arms control treaties, a solid ABM regime, the continuation of the START process, and further strengthening of the CTBT, as those were all vital ingredients in promoting a climate for global non- proliferation and disarmament. The representative of Nepal explained his country's vote on the draft resolution on the ABM treaty. He said he supported the text because the Treaty had heralded the era of detente in arms control, and any effort to undermine the continued relevancy of the Treaty would spark a new round of the arms race. The representative of France said that because of the unprecedented circumstances created by one State party of the ABM Treaty, it deemed it a matter of priority to evolve a draft text that would be compatible with the concerns of all States. There were two basic needs for the text: first, to preserve the Treaty, the cornerstone of strategic stability since 1972; second, to combat the proliferation of ballistic missiles. Since those two basic elements now appeared in the text, France had been able to vote in favour of it. PAGE 207 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 The representative of New Zealand said he had abstained on the vote because he had difficulty with aspects of it. But the ABM Treaty was fundamental to international stability, as made clear in the draft resolution on the new agenda, and he urged all parties to strengthen and maintain it. The representative of Japan reiterated the importance of the ABM Treaty, but abstained in the vote. Was it constructive to take the matter to the General Assembly while bilateral efforts were being made by countries directly involved? Still, he respected the right of any Member State to express its views in a resolution of the Assembly. The representative of Egypt said he had voted in favour of the resolution, but abstained from the amendments, not because he did not fully support their concerns, but because they were not linked closely enough to the issue. He affirmed his support for all those concerned with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The representative of the United States said that he attached great importance to nuclear disarmament, and that bilateral negotiations had made significant progress in reducing the nuclear stockpiles of both nations. The United States would continue to work towards reducing those stocks further. That was the most substantial action the United States could make towards fulfilling its obligation towards arms control. Arms control, however, he added, did not occur in a vacuum. There were always new developments - in technology, in political climate, in the nature of security threats. The ABM Treaty was a cornerstone, but as circumstances changed, it might become necessary to change the Treaty to reflect those new realities. Those changes needed to be made by negotiations. The ABM Treaty had provisions for amendments and had already been amended. Prudent adaptation was important to maintaining strategic stability, he said. Obsolete treaties that could not reflect current reality only created the illusion of stability. It was reckless and irresponsible to ignore the emergence of new threats, and the new technologies that could protect against them. He rejected the idea that a 27-year old treaty could not be amended to maintain stability and security. (annexes follow) ANNEX I Vote on Security of South-Eastern Europe The draft resolution on the maintenance of international security - stability and development of South-Eastern Europe (document A/C.1/54/L.40/Rev.1) was approved by a recorded vote of 137 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, PAGE 208 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: None. Abstain: Belarus, China. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Syria, Tonga, Viet Nam. (END OF ANNEX I) ANNEX II Vote on Amendments to Resolution on ABM Treaty The amendments to the draft resolution on preservation and compliance with the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems - The Anti- Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty - (document A/C.4/54/L.56) was approved by a recorded vote of 22 in favour to 1 against, with 95 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Guyana, Haiti, Ireland, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Myanmar, Thailand, Tunisia, Ukraine. Against: United States. Abstain: Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Comoros, Costa Rica, Cote D' Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom, PAGE 209 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Federated States of Micronesia, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Namibia, Nauru, Oman, Palau, Panama, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX II) ANNEX III Vote on Preservation of ABM Treaty The draft resolution on the preservation and compliance with the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems - the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty (document A/C.1/54/L.1/Rev.1) was approved by a recorded vote of 54 in favour to 4 against, with 73 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Latvia, United States. Abstain: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cote D'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Papau New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sweden, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Belize, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Nauru, Oman, Palau, Panama, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen. PAGE 210 M2 PRESSWIRE November 8, 1999 LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: November 8, 1999 PAGE 211 LEVEL 1 - 22 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 LENGTH: 4784 words HEADLINE: UN General Assembly would call for steps to prevent outer space arms race, in one of six resolutions HIGHLIGHT: Other Texts Concern Security Assurances, Nuclear Waste, Chemical Weapons, Latin America, New Weapons of Mass Destruction BODY: The General Assembly would call upon all States, in particular those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the prevention of an arms race in outer space and to refrain from actions contrary to that objective, according to one of six draft resolutions approved this morning by the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), as it began taking action on all disarmament- and security-related draft texts. The text was approved by a recorded vote of 138 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions (Israel, United States). (For details of the vote, see Annex II.) Speaking in explanation of vote, the representative of the United States said, like last year, his delegation had abstained. There had been unprecedented peaceful cooperation in outer space, which would likely continue, and it was almost incontestable that there was no arms race in outer space. Moreover, military uses of outer space, including treaty monitoring and refugee tracking, had enhanced international peace and security. Under the terms of a nuclear-weapon-related text on security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, approved by a recorded vote of 77 in favour to none against, with 50 abstentions, the Assembly would appeal to all States, especially the nuclear-weapon States, to work actively towards an early agreement on a common approach, and in particular, on a common formula that could be included in an international instrument of a legally binding nature. (See Annex I.) According to a nuclear disarmament text approved without a vote, on the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco), the Assembly would urge the countries of the region to ratify the amendments to the Treaty approved by the General Conference of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean. It would welcome the concrete steps taken by some countries of the region during the past year for the consolidation of the regime of military denuclearization established by the Treaty. The Assembly would reaffirm that effective measures should be taken to prevent the emergence of new types of weapons of mass destruction, by the terms of another text approved without a vote today. The Assembly would request the Conference on Disarmament to keep the matter under review, with a view to making, when necessary, recommendations on undertaking specific negotiations on identified types of such weapons. PAGE 212 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 Under a text approved without a vote on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention), the Assembly would urge all States parties to the Convention to meet in full and on time their obligations and to support the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in its implementation activities. Another draft resolution approved without a vote would have the Assembly express grave concern regarding any use of nuclear wastes that would constitute radiological warfare and have grave implications for the national security of all States, and call upon them to take appropriate measures to prevent any dumping of nuclear or radioactive wastes that would infringe upon the sovereignty of States. Statements on the drafts were made by the representatives of the Republic of Korea, India, Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom (also on behalf of Germany), France and Israel. The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue taking action on all disarmament- and security-related draft resolutions. Committee Work Programme The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this morning to begin taking action on disarmament- and security-related draft resolutions. It had before it two drafts on nuclear weapons, three on other weapons of mass destruction, and one on the disarmament aspects of outer space. Under a draft resolution sponsored by Burkina Faso on behalf of the Group of African States, on the dumping of radioactive waste (document A/C.1/54/L.6), the Assembly would express grave concern regarding any use of nuclear wastes that would constitute radiological warfare and have grave implications for the national security of all States, and call upon them to take appropriate measures to prevent any dumping of nuclear or radioactive wastes that would infringe upon the sovereignty of States. By further terms, the Assembly would request the Conference on Disarmament to take into account, in the negotiations for a convention on the prohibition of radiological weapons, radioactive wastes as part of the scope of such a convention. It would also request the Conference to intensify efforts towards an early conclusion of such a convention and to include in its report to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session the progress recorded in the negotiations on the subject. According to a draft text sponsored by Canada and Poland on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) (document A/C.1/54/L.11), the Assembly would urge all States parties to the Convention to meet, in full and on time, their obligations under the Convention and to support the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in its implementation activities. According to a draft resolution on the prevention of an arms race in outer space (document A/C.1/54/L.22), the General Assembly would call upon all States, in particular those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the objective of the peaceful use of outer space and of the prevention of an arms PAGE 213 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 race in outer space and to refrain from actions contrary to that objective and to the relevant existing treaties. Reiterating that the Conference on Disarmament, as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, had the primary role in negotiating a multilateral agreement, as appropriate, on the prevention of an outer space arms race in all its aspects, the Assembly would urge States conducting activities in outer space, as well as States interested in conducting such activities, to keep the Conference on Disarmament informed of the progress of bilateral and multilateral negotiations on the matter. It would invite the Conference to complete examination and updating of the mandate contained in its decision of 13 February 1992 and establish an ad hoc committee at the earliest, during its 2000 session. The draft resolution is sponsored by Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, China, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Egypt, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka and the Sudan. By the terms of a draft resolution on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco) (document A/C.1/54/L.24), the Assembly would urge the countries of the region that had not yet done so to ratify the amendments to the Treaty approved by the General Conference of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, in its resolutions of 3 July 1990, 10 May 1991, and 26 August 1992. The Assembly would welcome the concrete steps taken by some countries of the region during the past year for the consolidation of the regime of military denuclearization established by the Treaty. The draft resolution is sponsored by Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. By the terms of a draft resolution on the prohibition of the development and manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems (document A/C.1/54/L.26), the Assembly would reaffirm that effective measures should be taken to prevent the emergence of new types of weapons of mass destruction. The Assembly would request the Conference on Disarmament to keep the matter under review, with a view to making, when necessary, recommendations on undertaking specific negotiations on identified types of such weapons. In that context, the Assembly would call upon all States, immediately following any recommendations of the Conference on Disarmament, to give favourable consideration to those recommendations. It would request the Secretary-General to transmit to the Conference all documents relating to the consideration of the item by the Assembly at its current session, and it would request the Conference to report the results of any consideration of the matter in its annual report. The text is sponsored by Armenia, Belarus, Chile, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Viet Nam. A draft resolution on assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States (document A/C.1/54/L.36) would have the Assembly appeal to all States, especially the nuclear-weapon States, to work actively towards an early agreement on a common approach and, in particular, on a common formula that could be included in an international instrument of a legally binding character. It would recommend that further intensive efforts should be devoted to the search for a common PAGE 214 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 approach or common formula and that the various alternative approaches, including, in particular, those considered in the Conference on Disarmament, should be further explored in order to overcome the difficulties. The Assembly would also recommend that the Conference should actively continue intensive negotiations with a view to reaching early agreement and concluding effective international arrangements to assure the non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, taking into account the widespread support for the conclusion of an international convention and giving consideration to any other proposals designed to secure the same objective. The draft resolution is sponsored by Brunei Darussalam, Colombia, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam. Action on Texts The Committee approved the resolution on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco) (document A/C.1/54/L.24) without a vote. The representative of Saudi Arabia said his delegation wished to join the co-sponsors. The Committee Secretary announced that Myanmar had joined the co-sponsors of the resolution. The draft resolution on the conclusion of international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against use or the threat of use of nuclear weapons (document A/C.1/54/L.36) was approved by a vote of 77 in favour to none against, with 50 abstentions. (For details of the vote, see Annex I.) The representative of the Republic of Korea, speaking in explanation of vote on assurance to non-nuclear-weapon States, said the primary issues regarding negative security issues had centred on who should receive them and in what form they should be given. With respect to the first, non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), who had fully complied with their obligations under the Treaty, had a legitimate right to receive such assurances from nuclear-weapon States. The nuclear-weapon States had a corresponding obligation to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. Those mutual responsibilities would strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime. His delegation had abstained in the vote because the text had not adequately reflected its concerns over the values of bilateral and mutlilateral legally binding instruments. The representative of India, speaking in explanation of vote on the same text, said her country had consistently maintained that the only credible guarantees lay in the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Until that objective was achieved, and despite such interim measures as de-alerting nuclear weapons to reduce nuclear dangers, the nuclear-weapon States were obliged to provide assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States against the use of those weapons. That obligation should be contained in an international instrument of a binding character, which was clear, credible, universal and non-discriminatory. No delegation had been opposed to the establishment of an ad hoc committee on negative security assurances in the Conference on Disarmament, which would be an essential element in any comprehensive, balanced programme of work. She added that, conscious of its responsibility as a nuclear-weapon State, her Government had stated it would not be first to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States and PAGE 215 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 would strengthen that undertaking by entering into bilateral agreements on no first-use, or multilateral arrangements on a global no first-use. She respected the choice of non-nuclear-weapon States to establish nuclear-weapon-free zones on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at among the States of the region concerned. Also on negative security assurances, the representative of Australia said, pending the elimination of nuclear weapons consistent with article VI of the NPT, negative security assurances were an essential reinforcing element underpinning the non-proliferation and disarmament regime. Those non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT, which had renounced the nuclear option and were in full compliance with their NPT obligations, had a legitimate claim to credible, comprehensive, and effective negative-security assurances from the five nuclear-weapon States. Such assurances were also an important inducement for States still outside the NPT to accede to the Treaty. Only States willing to secure the security of others by becoming party to the Treaty should receive security assurances. The failure of the draft to give due primacy to the particular claims and interests of States parties to the NPT had prevented his Government from supporting it. The representative of South Africa said he had abstained in the vote on negative security assurances. His Government had strongly supported legally binding security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States parties to the NPT. That position had been demonstrated by its actions and in the context of proposals submitted during the NPT review process, which had included the submission of a draft protocol on the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons against States parties to the NPT. Those actions underpinned his belief that security assurances had been an integral part of the "NPT bargain", where non- nuclear-weapon States had undertaken a legal commitment not to aspire to nuclear weapons. The current text, like the one adopted last year (53/75), had not taken into account those views, which had prompted his delegation's abstention. The representative of Bangladesh said his delegation would have voted in favour of the draft on assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States, had it been present. The Committee approved the draft resolution on the prohibition of the dumping of radioactive waste (document A/C.1/54/L.6) without a vote. The Committee Secretary announced that Guyana was now a co-sponsor. In explanation of position, the representative of India spoke in regard to operative paragraph 8 of the resolution, which welcomed the adoption of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. She said that while the international community needed to remain vigilant of the dangers of nuclear waste, as a developing country, India attached importance to the complete fuel cycle, and viewed spent fuel not a waste, but as a valuable resource. The Committee approved the resolution on the Chemical Weapons Convention (document A/C.1/54/L.11) without a vote. The representative of Egypt spoke on the resolution after action. He said he symphatized with the general thrust of the resolution, but regional concerns had kept Egypt from signing the Chemical Weapons Convention until Israel had acceded to the NPT. For that reason, he expressed reservations on operative paragraph 5 of the resolution, which emphasized the necessity of universal adherence to the Convention. PAGE 216 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 The representative of Cuba spoke on operative paragraph 7 of the resolution, which welcomed cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He said he wished to record his country's concern over the lack of definition in the relationship between the United Nations and the OPCW. There was still no agreement between the two, and that created a dangerous legal vacuum that should not be allowed to continue indefinitely. There needed to be an agreement acceptable to both organizations. The representative of India said that it was a matter of concern that some State parties had not provided declarations to the OPCW as provided by article 11 of the Convention, which required States to review their export policies to prevent the proliferation of chemical weapons. She said that she hoped the situation would be redressed as soon as possible. The representative of Cote d'Ivoire said his vote on assurances to non- nuclear-weapon States did not appear on the record. He wished it to be recorded that he had voted yes. The representative of Pakistan said that, while he supported the broad thrust of the draft on the Chemical Weapons Convention, Pakistan was dissatisfied with the relationship between the United Nations and the OPCW, as stated in paragraph 7. The representative of Iran said he wished to add his voice to those who had raised concern about the relationship between the United Nations and the OPCW. He thought that was a very important issue that needed to be addressed. The Committee then approved the draft resolution prohibiting the developing and manufacture of new weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons (document A/C.1/54/L.26) without a vote. The Committee next considered the draft resolution contained in the third category, namely, the prevention of an arms race in outer space (document A/C.1/54/L.22). The representatives of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Cote d'Ivoire said their delegations wished to co-sponsor the text. The draft resolution on the prevention of an arms race in outer space was approved by a vote of 138 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions (Israel, United States) (Annex II). The representative of the United States, speaking in explanation of vote, said although his delegation had agreed with some elements of the text, the text had included provisions which were overstated or unwise. Accordingly, like last year, he had abstained in the vote. There had been unprecedented peaceful cooperation in outer space, which would likely continue. Evidently, it was almost incontestable that there was no arms race in outer space. Moreover, military uses of outer space had enhanced international peace and security. He highlighted some practical examples, which had included treaty monitoring, refugee tracking, counter-terrorism activity and sanctions enforcement. Thus, he said the international community had not needed to take an active role in preventing an outer space arms race. Nevertheless, with a view to "getting down to work" in the Conference on Disarmament on such issues as a fissile material cut-off treaty, his delegation had exhibited some flexibility on such discussions, which should not prejudge its final analysis of the issue. The representative of the United Kingdom, speaking also on behalf of Germany, said that although those delegations had supported the draft, they had wanted to make sure their vote would not be misconstrued when the subject was addressed at PAGE 217 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 the 2000 session of the Conference on Disarmament. In the past, both the United Kingdom and Germany had actively contributed to the work of the ad hoc committee. Unfortunately, it had not been possible to achieve a consensus on any of the proposals. Those two countries had recognized the continued validity of the subject and would consider the establishment of an appropriate subsidiary body, as well as a re-examination and possible updating of its mandate. He said the Conference had other important work to do in 2000, which should be given high priority, above all, an early start on negotiations for a fissile material cut-off treaty. For that reason, the positive vote on the outer space text should not be understood as endorsing agreement before the creation of a particular model for a subsidiary body to address that issue. The representative of Kuwait said his delegation had wished to join the co-sponsors of the prevention of an arms race in outer space (document A/C.1/54/L.22). In addition, his vote in favour of the text had not been recorded on the voting machine. The representative of Egypt said his country should have appeared in the list of co-sponsors to the draft on prohibition of the development and manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction (document A/C.1/54/L.26). The representative of Sierra Leone said he had expected to vote in favour of the draft on the outer space arms race (document A/C.1/54/L.22). The representative of Israel, speaking in explanation of the vote on the Chemical Weapons Convention (document A/C.1/54/L.11), said as in previous years it had joined consensus. His country had signed the Convention and had taken an active role to shape it into a workable mechanism, reflecting its vision of a world free from chemical weapons. He hoped other countries in the region would follow, among them, the chemical weapons producers that had continued to improve those weapons. Neither of those countries had signed or ratified the Convention. Rather, they had indicated collectively that they would not change their position. Given Israel's unique political environment, he said his country had not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. It had stated at the signing ceremony that it would ratify the Convention, subject to its regional concerns. Those remained no less valid today as Israel had entered into significant negotiations to bring peace and security to the Middle East. The present statement must not prejudge his Government's decision on ratification or its continued support of the Convention. Positive changes in the region's climate would affect its position on ratification. The Committee Chairman, RAIMUNDO GONZALEZ (Chile), said that once the process relating to a particular draft resolution was complete, a delegation should not subsequently explain its position in regard to the draft. Statements should be made in connection with drafts presently being examined. The representative of Papua New Guinea said that if he had been present for the voting on the draft resolution on negative security assurances (document A/C.1/54/L.36), he would have voted in favour. The representative of France, speaking in explanation of vote on the draft concerning the prevention of an outer space arms race (document A/C.1/54/L.22), said his delegation had supported the text, but its positive vote had not prevented his country from being dedicated to a compromised proposal submitted by the Algerian delegation in Geneva. He sincerely hoped that compromise would be taken into account in the discussions in January 2000, and that negotiations for a fissile material cut-off treaty would begin as soon as possible. The PAGE 218 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 representatives of Ethiopia, Guinea, Benin and Bolivia said their delegations would have voted in favour of the draft resolution on negative security assurances (document A/C.1/54/L.36), had those been present. (annexes follow) ANNEX I Vote on Negative Security Assurances The draft resolution on the conclusion of international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons (document A/C.1/54/L.36) was approved by a recorded vote of 77 in favour to none against, with 50 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe. Against: None. Abstain: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Antigua-Barbuda, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Paupa New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tongo, Turkmenistan, Zambia. (END OF ANNEX I) ANNEX II Vote on Prevention of Outer Space Arms Race The draft resolution on the prevention of arms race in outer space (document A/C.1/54/L.22) was approved by a recorded vote of 138 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions, as follows: PAGE 219 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 In favour: Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belguim, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe. Against: None Abstain: Israel, United States. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Benin, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Somalia, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tonga, Zambia. LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: November 2, 1999 PAGE 220 LEVEL 1 - 23 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 LENGTH: 8879 words HEADLINE: UN First Committee approves 11 draft resolutions, one decision on wide range of disarmament measures HIGHLIGHT: UN Conventional Arms Register, Regional Conventional Arms Control, Arms Control Agreement Compliance, Small Arms among Issues Addressed BODY: The General Assembly would reaffirm its decision, with a view to the further development of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, to keep the scope of and participation in the Register under review, by the terms of one of 11 draft resolutions and one draft decision approved this afternoon in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security). By further terms of the text, approved by a recorded vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 13 abstentions, the Assembly would call upon Member States, with a view to achieving universal participation, to provide the Secretary-General by 31 May, annually, the requested data and information for the Register, including nil reports, if appropriate. (For details of the vote, see Annex IV.) Prior to approval of the draft, the Committee took two separate recorded votes. The first concerned operative paragraph 4 (b) by which the Assembly would request the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a group of governmental experts to be convened in 2000, to prepare a report on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development, with a view to a decision at its next session. The operative paragraph was approved by a vote of 121 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions. (Annex II) The second recorded vote concerned operative paragraph 6, by which the Assembly would invite the Conference on Disarmament to consider continuing its work undertaken in the field of transparency in armaments. The paragraph was approved by a vote of 120 in favour to none against, with 15 abstentions. (Annex III) Speaking before action on the text, several representatives from the Middle East explained they would abstain in the vote because the 1991 transparency instrument - which had included seven categories of conventional weapons and no categories of weapons of mass destruction - had not met the security concerns of their countries. In order for the Register to be a truly significant confidence-building measure and enhance security and stability, the representative of Egypt said it should be comprehensive and non-discriminatory, ensure equal rights and obligations for all States, and provide a broad degree of transparency in all fields of armaments in a non-selective manner. Under another transparency text, approved today without a vote, the Assembly would call upon all Member States to report to the Secretary-General by 30 April annually their military expenditures for the fiscal year. It would recommend the guidelines and recommendations for objective information to all Member States for implementation, fully taking into account specific political military and PAGE 221 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 other conditions prevailing in a region, on the basis of initiatives with the agreement of the States of the region concerned. By a recorded vote of 133 in favour to 1 against (India), with 2 abstentions (Benin, Bhutan), the Committee approved a text by which Assembly would decide to give urgent consideration to the issues involved in conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels. In that connection, the Assembly would request the Conference on Disarmament, as a first step, to consider the formulation of principles that could serve as a framework for regional agreements (Annex I). Acting without a vote, the Committee approved a draft decision tabled by the United States, by which the Assembly would include an item on compliance with arms limitation and disarmament and non-proliferation agreements in the provisional agenda of its fifty-sixth session. Following action on that text, the representative of China said he had joined consensus because strict compliance with disarmament treaties was of crucial importance. He hoped the main sponsor of the text could "match their words with their deeds" and effectively implement and comply with the legal obligations it had undertaken. Compliance with disarmament agreements, including with the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems - the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty - should receive unanimous Committee support. Also acting without a vote, the Committee approved a text by which the Assembly would request the Secretary-General to continue his broad-based consultations on the illicit trafficking in small arms and to submit to the international conference on the subject information on: the magnitude and scope of illicit trafficking; measures to combat it; and the role of the United Nations in collecting, collating, sharing and disseminating information on the problem. A draft resolution on regional disarmament, also approved without a vote, would have the Assembly call upon States to conclude agreements for nuclear non- proliferation, disarmament and confidence-building measures at the regional and subregional levels. The Assembly would stress that sustained efforts were needed, within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament and under the umbrella of the United Nations, to make progress on the entire range of disarmament issues. Also acting without a vote, the Committee approved several texts on the United Nations disarmament machinery, by which the Assembly would: urge the Conference on Disarmament to fulfil its role as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community; and recommend that the Disarmament Commission consider at its 2000 substantive session the items submitted by the Assembly, including one on nuclear disarmament. A series of texts on the United Nations Regional Centres for Peace and Disarmament would have the Assembly: reiterate the importance of the United Nations activities at the regional level to increase the stability and security of its Member States; reaffirm its strong support for the revitalization of the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa; reiterate its strong support of the role of the Centre in Latin America and the Caribbean in the promotion of United Nations activities at the regional level; and reaffirm its strong support for the continuing operation and further strengthening of the Centre in Asia and the Pacific, and underscore the importance of the Kathmandu process as a vehicle for the development of the practice of region-wide security and disarmament dialogue. PAGE 222 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 Statements on drafts were made by the representatives of Iraq, Syria, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Kuwait. Texts were introduced by the representatives of Uzbekistan and France. The Committee will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 2 November, to continue taking action on all disarmament- and security-related drafts. Committee Work Programme The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this afternoon to continue taking action on disarmament- and security-related draft resolutions. It was also expected to hear the introduction of two draft decisions on: the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia; and the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. The draft decision sponsored by France on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (document A/C.1/54/L.28) would decide to request the Secretary-General to adjust the language in the mandate of the Advisory Board as set out in paragraphs 45 to 46 of the report of the Secretary-General (document A/54/218). Those paragraphs concern the Board's improved functioning and mandate, and contain the Secretary-General's endorsement that the General Assembly approve the change of language to reflect the current practice of the Board. The Board proposes that the language of its formal mandate, adopted in 1982, be readjusted to reflect its actual functions, as they have been performed for more than a decade. The thrust of the amendment would be to emphasize the Board's proactive advisory role on disarmament matters over its role to advise on various aspects of studies and research. Its function to serve as the Board of Trustees for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) would remain unchanged, and it would retain its role of advising on the implementation of the Disarmament Information Programme. A draft decision sponsored by Uzbekistan on the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia (document A/C.1/54/L.35) would have the Assembly decide to include that item in the provisional agenda of its fifty- fifth session. Also for action, the Committee had before it one draft on conventional weapons, two on regional disarmament and security, three on confidence-building measures, including transparency in armaments, and six on the United Nations disarmament machinery. According to a draft resolution on the Disarmament Commission (document A/C.1/54/L.3), the Assembly would commend the Commission for the successful conclusion of the items on the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones and guidelines on conventional arms control, limitation and disarmament. It would note with regret that the Commission was unable to reach a consensus on the item on a fourth special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament. By further terms of the text, the Assembly would reaffirm the role of the Disarmament Commission as the specialized deliberative body within the United Nations multilateral disarmament machinery that allowed for in-depth deliberations on specific disarmament issues, leading to the submission of concrete recommendations on those issues. It would recommend that the Commission, at its 1999 organizational session, adopt two items to be determined in the coming months for consideration at its 2000 substantive session. The draft resolution is sponsored by Croatia, Ecuador, Egypt, Indonesia, Ireland, PAGE 223 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 Italy, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Philippines, Portugal, Slovakia, and Trinidad and Tobago. Under a draft text sponsored by Burkina Faso, on behalf of the States Members of the Group of African States, on the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (document A/C.1/54/L.10), the Assembly would reaffirm its strong support for the revitalization of the Centre and emphasize the need to provide it with resources to enable it to strengthen its activities and carry out its programmes. It would appeal again to all States, as well as to international governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions in order to strengthen the activities of the Regional Centre and facilitate the implementation of its programmes. The Assembly would take note of the report of the Secretary-General and commend the activities carried out by the Centre, in particular, in support of the efforts made by the African States in the areas of peace and security. It would request the Secretary-General to provide all necessary support, within existing resources, to the Centre, and also request him to facilitate the close cooperation between the Centre and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), in particular, in the area of peace, security and development, and to continue to assist the Centre's Director in his efforts to stabilize the Centre's financial situation and revitalize its activities. According to a draft decision sponsored by the United States on compliance with arms limitation and disarmament and non-proliferation agreements (document A/C.1/54/L.13), the Assembly, on the recommendation of the First Committee, recalling its resolution 52/30 of 9 December 1997, would decide to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-sixth session the item entitled "Compliance with arms limitation and disarmament and non-proliferation agreements". A draft resolution on the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (document A/C.1/54/L.14) would have the Assembly reaffirm its strong support for the continuing operation and further strengthening of the Regional Centre. The Assembly would underscore the importance of the Kathmandu process as a powerful vehicle for the development of the practice of region-wide security and disarmament dialogue. In that connection, the Assembly would appeal to Member States, as well as to international governmental and non-governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions, the only resources of the Regional Centre, so as to strengthen it. It would express its appreciation for the continuing political support and financial contributions to the Regional Centre, which were essential for its continued operation. According to a draft text sponsored by Australia on the Conference on Disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.16), the General Assembly would urge the Conference to fulfil its role as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community in light of the evolving international situation, with a view to making early substantive progress on priority agenda items. It would welcome the decision of the Conference on 5 August to admit five new members, and note that the Conference recognized the importance "of continuing consultations on" the question of expansion of its membership. It would also welcome the Conference's strong collective interest in commencing substantive work as soon as possible during its 2000 session. The Conference would be encouraged to continue the ongoing review of its agenda and methods. Under a draft text on objective information on military matters (document A/C.1/54/L.27), the Assembly would call upon all Member States to report annually, by 30 April, to the Secretary-General their military expenditures PAGE 224 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 for the latest fiscal year. The Assembly would recommend the guidelines and recommendations for objective information to all Member States for implementation, fully taking into account specific political military and other conditions prevailing in a region, on the basis of initiatives with the agreement of the States of the region concerned. The Assembly would request the Secretary-General to continue consultations with relevant international bodies, within existing resources, with a view to ascertaining the requirements for adjusting the present instrument to encourage wider participation, with emphasis on examining possibilities for enhancing complementarity among international and regional reporting systems and to exchange related information with those bodies. It would further request him to make recommendations on necessary changes to the content and structure of the standardized reporting system in order to strengthen and broaden participation, and to submit a report on the subject to the Assembly at its fifty-sixth session. In a related provision, the Assembly would call upon all Member States, in time for the fifty-sixth session of the Assembly, to provide the Secretary- General with their views on the analysis and recommendations contained in his report with further suggestions to strengthen and broaden participation in the United Nations system for the standardized reporting of military expenditures, including necessary changes to its content and structure. The draft resolution is sponsored by Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay. By the terms of a draft text on conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels (document A/C.1/54/L.37), the Assembly would decide to give urgent consideration to the issues involved in conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels. It would request the Conference on Disarmament, as a first step, to consider the formulation of principles that could serve as a framework for regional agreements on conventional arms control, and looked forward to a report of the Conference on the subject. The draft resolution is sponsored by Czech Republic, Norway, Pakistan, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Ukraine. Under a draft resolution on regional disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.38), the Assembly would call upon States to conclude agreements, wherever possible, for nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and confidence-building measures at the regional and subregional levels. It would stress that sustained efforts were needed, within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament and under the umbrella of the United Nations, to make progress on the entire range of disarmament issues. It would affirm that global and regional approaches to disarmament complemented each other and should, therefore, be pursued simultaneously to promote regional and international peace and security. The draft resolution is sponsored by Egypt, Indonesia, Niger, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tunisia. PAGE 225 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 A draft text on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.39) would have the Assembly call upon Member States, with a view to achieving universal participation, to provide the Secretary-General by 31 May annually the requested data and information for the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, including nil reports if appropriate, on the basis of relevant General Assembly resolutions and the 1997 report of the Secretary-General on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development. It would reiterate its call upon all Member States to cooperate at the regional and subregional levels, taking fully into account the specific conditions prevailing in the region or subregion, with a view to enhancing and coordinating international efforts aimed at increased openness and transparency in armaments. The Assembly would reaffirm its decision, with a view to the further development of the Register, to keep the scope of and participation in the Register under review. Towards that goal, it would recall its request to Member States to provide the Secretary-General with their views on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development and on transparency measures related to weapons of mass destruction. The Assembly would also recall its request to the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a group of governmental experts to be convened in 2000 on the basis of equitable representation, to prepare a report on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development, with a view to a decision at its fifty-fifth session. The draft resolution is sponsored by Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Monaco, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. According to a draft resolution on the illicit traffic in small arms (document A/C.1/54/L.44*), the Assembly would request the Secretary-General to continue his broad-based consultations, within available financial resources and with any other assistance provided by Member States in a position to do so, and to submit to the international conference on the subject, information on: the magnitude and scope of illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons; measures to combat illicit trafficking in and circulation of small arms and light weapons; and the role of the United Nations in collecting, collating, sharing and disseminating information on illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons. The Assembly would encourage Member States to promote regional and subregional initiatives and request the Secretary-General, within available financial resources, and also States in a position to do so, to assist States taking such initiatives to address the illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons in affected regions. It would invite the Secretary-General to PAGE 226 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 use those initiatives as part of his consultations. In a related provision, the Assembly also encourage those Member States, in a position to do so, to take appropriate national measures to destroy surplus small arms and light weapons, as well as confiscated or collected small arms and light weapons, and to provide, on a voluntary basis, information to the Secretary-General on types and quantities destroyed. The draft resolution is sponsored by Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Senegal, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Uganda, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A text sponsored by South Africa on the United Nations regional centres for peace and disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.49) would have the Assembly reiterate the importance of the United Nations activities at the regional level to increase the stability and security of its Member States, which could be promoted in a substantive manner by the maintenance and revitalization of the three regional centres for peace and disarmament. The Assembly would reaffirm that, in order to achieve positive results, it would be useful for the three regional centres to carry out dissemination and educational programmes that promoted regional peace and security aimed at changing basic attitudes with respect to peace and security and disarmament. In that connection, it would appeal to Member States, as well as to international governmental and non-governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions to the regional centres to strengthen their programmes of activities and implementation. Under a draft text sponsored by Peru on the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Latin America and the Caribbean (document A/C.1/54/L.51), the Assembly would reiterate its strong support of the role of the Centre in the promotion of United Nations activities at the regional level, and urge all States of the region to make greater use of the Centre's potential in meeting the current challenges of the international community, with a view to fulfilling the aims of the United Nations Charter regarding peace, disarmament and development. The Assembly would appeal to Member States, particularly those within the region, as well as to governmental and non-governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions to strengthen the Centre's activities. Introduction of Drafts NODIRBEK IBRAGIMOV (Uzbekistan) introduced the draft resolution on a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia (document A/C.1/54/L.35). He said that significant progress had already been achieved towards that process, and he hoped the Committee would find consensus and it would be adopted without a vote. PAGE 227 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 HUBERT DE LA FORTELLE (France) introduced a draft decision on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (document A/C.1/54/L.28). He said that the recommendations in the draft concerned procedural matters meant to facilitate the work of this advisory body. He hoped it would be adopted without a vote. Statements on Texts The representative of Iraq commented on the draft resolution on the prevention of an arms race in outer space (document A/C.1/54/L.22). He said he was concerned at steps being taken by the United States towards the militarization of outer space. The United States had hoped to control outer space through tests of anti-satellite laser weapons and anti-ballistic missiles. If executed, American plans would violate the Convention on Outer Space, to which the United States acceded in 1967, which stipulated the exploration of space would be the common heritage of humanity. The fifth paragraph of the Convention stipulated that the use of space by all State parties would be for purely peaceful purposes. In addition, he said that he hoped that the draft resolution on the prohibition of new weapons of mass destruction (document A/C.1/54/L.26) would specifically name depleted uranium, so that it could be prohibited for use in military purposes. The use of such depleted uranium by the United States and the United Kingdom in 1991 had led to an environmental disaster in Iraq. Action on Texts The Secretary of the Committee announced that Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, and El Salvador had become co-sponsors to the draft resolution on the illicit traffic in small arms (document A/C.1/54/L.44). The representatives of Burkina Faso, Suriname, Paraguay and Mali also added their countries to the list of co-sponsors. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on the illicit traffic in small arms without a vote. Speaking on explanation of position, the representative of Cuba said the resolution on the illicit traffic in small arms covered a topic receiving priority attention and deserved the broadest possible debate. But, the discussion of adopting concrete measures needed to respect the unique features of each region and country concerned. It was up to the preparatory committee to take responsibility for final decisions on documents that must be sent in advance to the delegations to the international conference. The representative of India, speaking before the vote on the draft resolution on conventional arms control at regional and subregional levels (document A/C.1./54/L.37), said she was not convinced that the resolution - in particular operative paragraph 2, which requested the Conference on Disarmament to consider the formulation of principles that could serve as a framework for regional agreements on conventional arms control - had productive value. India had security concerns that were not confined to the so-called region of South Asia, and such a narrow definition did not reflect its true security concerns. The Committee Secretary announced that Norway had withdrawn co-sponsorship of the resolution. The draft resolution on conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels (document A/C.1/54/L.37) was approved by a recorded vote of 133 in favour to 1 against (India), with two abstentions (Benin, Bhutan). (For details, see Annex I.) PAGE 228 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 The representative of Burkina Faso said he would have voted in favour of the draft. The Committee next approved the draft resolution on regional disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.38) without a vote. Turning to the series of resolutions in the category on confidence- building measures, including transparency in armaments, the representative of Iraq took the floor on the draft resolution on verification in all its aspects (document A/C.1/54/L.29). The international disarmament conventions and the United Nations literature on the subject, including the report of the Secretary- General on verification, had shown that verification was a process in which the data was collected and analysed so as to reach decisions concerning compliance that was based on accessible information. He said the United Nations literature also had confirmed that effective verification could occur without affecting the national confidentiality. It was necessary for Member States to be able to protect sensitive information and facilities. It was also important to steer away from any abuse in the verification field. However, the experience of United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in Iraq had violated all of those concepts. The verification concept adopted by UNSCOM had changed the nature of inspections. There had been many exaggerations of various aspects of verification, which had been arbitrary and aimed at finding some kind of relationship between the verification process and UNSCOM's allegations. Indeed, he said, the previous UNSCOM had made the verification process a "cover" to implement its own policies, in particular, the policies of one or two States known to be enemies of Iraq. The objective was to enable UNSCOM to continue to impose sanctions on Iraq and perpetuate also the various false allegations for the continuing aggressions, which began on 16 December 1998. The United States had not denied the fact that UNSCOM inspectors of United States and United Kingdom citizenship had carried out information and intelligence activities through exchanging visits and information between the different intelligence systems between those two countries and Israel. Those had also implanted spying devices to monitor the movement of Iraqi officials and their communications. The Secretary-General had not denied the accusations aimed at the previous UNSCOM, he went on, and during an interview with the British Broadcasting Service on 27 June, the Secretary-General had said that accusations directed at UNSCOM inspectors of spying for the United States were "partially true". At the same time, there had been no denial by any United States official of those accusations aimed at UNSCOM. In addition, he added, the investigations carried out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the UNSCOM laboratory in Baghdad had revealed last July that the work of UNSCOM in Iraq had not been professional, and the international procedures used in the field of verification had not been adopted. There had been no documentation of work in the laboratory and the log book had been destroyed. Moreover, UNSCOM had brought into Iraq samples of VX, without declaring its presence. The objective had clearly been to leave some traces on Iraqi missiles. The behaviour of the previous UNSCOM had been largely detrimental to the credibility of the Organization and the disarmament systems, he said, including the concept of verification. The United Nations had to invest those practices PAGE 229 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 and impose disciplinary measures on those accused of negligence. Unfortunately, neither the Secretary-General's report nor the draft before the Committee had referred to those serious practices and deviation from the work of the United Nations. The Committee then approved the draft decision on compliance with arms limitation and disarmament and non-proliferation agreements (document A/C.1/54/L.13). The representative of China said his delegation had joined consensus. Strict compliance with the various disarmament agreements had been of crucial import to achieving results. For that reason, his country had always supported the resolution on the topic, presented by the United States and other countries, since 1985. Today, that item was of greater significance than ever before, but regrettably it had taken note of the significance of compliance, on the one hand, but had demonstrated a negative attitude towards the draft resolution concerning compliance with the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM Treaty) (document A/C.1/54/L.1). He hoped the main sponsor of the text could "match their words with their deeds" and effectively implement and comply with the legal obligations it had undertaken not to use double standards or jeopardize the interest of others for their own sake, or take unilateral actions in area of disarmament and arms control treaties. Such action would jeopardize the basis of disarmament efforts and hinder the process. He hoped compliance with arms limitation and non- proliferation, including compliance with the ABM Treaty, would receive the unanimous support of Member States. The Committee next turned to the draft resolution on objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures (document A/C.1/54/L.27). The Committee Secretary announced that Haiti had become a co-sponsor of the text. The text was approved without a vote. Turning to the draft resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.39), the representative of Syria said his delegation had supported the establishment of an international community free from the threat of force, where justice, equality and peace had prevailed. He affirmed his country's readiness to participate in achieving that goal. However, the draft had not taken into account the special situation in the Middle East, where the Arab- Israeli conflict had continued to rage because of Israel's continued occupation of Arab territories, as well as its refusal to implement the relevant Security Council resolutions. Moreover, Israel had been acquiring some of the most sophisticated and destructive weapons and storing them domestically. Transparency in the field of Israeli armaments had been applied only to a very small part of its arsenal. His delegation would, therefore, abstain in the vote. The representative of Egypt said that since the adoption of draft in 1991, establishing the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, his country had contributed faithfully to advocating transparency in military matters and had supported the Register's underlying objective. It had also supported the resolution from 1991 to 1993, when it was adopted without a vote, but it had PAGE 230 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 abstained beginning in 1994 when a group of experts had been unable to reach agreement on further expansion of the Register. In order for it to be a truly significant, confidence-building measure and contribute to enhanced security and stability, it should be: comprehensive and non-discriminatory; ensure equal rights and obligations for all States, and address their legitimate security concerns; and provide a broad degree of transparency in all fields of armaments in a non-selective manner. The Register, in its present form, might meet the security concerns of some States, but not of Egypt, he said. Such an instrument must show the overall military capabilities of States. Other countries, however, had not shared his enthusiasm in that regard, and wished to limit the transparency exercise to conventional arms. That approach had been inconsistent with the 1991 decision of the General Assembly regarding the early expansion of the Register's scope. It should include more than seven categories of conventional weapons. States with more advanced military capabilities had not been required to provide transparency, especially in the areas of weapons of mass destruction. The prospects for the eventual development of the Register, in terms of expanding its scope, had been unimpressive, even remote, owing to the lack of will on the part of the international community. For those reasons, he would abstain in the vote. The representative of Mexico said his delegation had been up to date concerning the information it had provided to the Register. Operative paragraph 6 of the draft had invited the Conference on Disarmament to consider continuing its work undertaken in the field of transparency in armaments. First of all, the Conference had not undertaken any work at all in 1999. In addition, the position of the Group of 21 countries of the Conference had been that the ad hoc committee that had functioned some time ago had completed its mandate. In subsequent years, there had been a special coordinator who had consulted with countries about the manner in which transparency could be pursued, but no work had been undertaken. Therefore, operative paragraph 6 did not reflect a reality. Thus, his delegation would abstain in the vote. The representative of Saudi Arabia said his delegation would reiterate its full support for transparency, as that would contribute to international peace and security. In order for any such mechanism to succeed, however, it must be inspired by clear basic principles and be balanced, comprehensive and non- discriminatory, and enhance national, as well as regional and international, security for all States, in accordance with international law. The Register had been a first attempt by the international community to deal with the question of transparency at the global level. He said that, despite the fact that its value as a global confidence- building measure and as an early-warning mechanism had been clear, the Register had faced a number of very notable problems, including that half the Member States of the United Nations had consistently refrained from providing information to the Register. He, therefore, must reiterate the need to take into account the apprehensions of States seeking universality. The statement made by the League of Arab States to the Secretary-General on 28 August 1997 entitled "The United Nations Register on Conventional Arms", had made clear that an expanded Register - to also contain information about weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, and advanced technology with military applications - would constitute a more balanced, comprehensive and less discriminatory tool and attract a larger number of participants. His delegation would abstain in the vote. PAGE 231 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 The representative of Libya said his delegation would also abstain for the same reasons expressed by the representatives of Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Of course, his country had supported transparency in armaments, but in the Arab region there was a "hostile entity that is armed to the teeth" with weapons of mass destruction and developing new ones not heard of in the world until Sunday's report in The New York Times on genetic weapons. Such information could not be found in the Register. Regrettably, his delegation would have to abstain. The representative of Kuwait said it was important to expand the scope of the Register in order to include weapons of mass destruction. He, therefore, supported the statements made by the representatives of Egypt, Syria and Libya, and would abstain in the vote. The Committee Secretary announced that the following countries had become co-sponsors of the text: Zambia, Zimbabwe, El Salvador, Haiti, Venezuela, Uzbekistan, Cape Verde and Jamaica. In a separate recorded vote, operative paragraph 4 (b), by which the Assembly would request the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a group of governmental experts to be convened in 2000, to prepare a report on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development, was approved by a vote of 121 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions (Annex II). Next, in a separate recorded vote, operative paragraph 6, by which the Assembly would invite the Conference on Disarmament to consider continuing its work undertaken in the field of transparency in armaments, was approved by a vote of 120 in favour to none against, with 15 abstentions (Annex III). By a recorded vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 13 abstentions, the Committee approved the draft resolution as a whole on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.39) (Annex IV). Speaking in explanation of vote, the representative of China said he had abstained on the draft resolution concerning transparency in armaments. For the past four years, a certain country had registered its arms sales to Taiwan with the United Nations Register by way of a footnote, which had seriously interfered in the internal affairs of China. Clearly, that was not an international sale of arms between sovereign States. That certain country had politicized the Register, and China was compelled to withdraw from participation in it. The representative of Cuba said he had voted in favor of the resolution, but expressed reservations about operative paragraph 6, which invited the Conference to consider continuing its work in the field of armament transparency. The Conference had already concluded its work on that matter. The representative of Myanmar agreed with the main thrust of the draft resolution, but expressed reservations about operative paragraph 4 (b), which requested a group of governmental experts to prepare a report on the continuing operation of the Register and its further development. It was premature and unnecessary to further develop the Register, and he questioned the usefulness of another meeting of governmental experts on the subject. There was no need for the Conference to take up the issue of transparency. Rather, the Conference should concentrate on important issues, such as nuclear disarmament and banning fissile material for weapons. The representative of Algeria said that the United Nations Register did not address transparency in a universal manner. He had difficulties with paragraph 6 of the draft, which asked the Conference on Disarmament to consider continuing its work on transparency. He believed the Conference had already considered PAGE 232 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 the issue. As the Committee turned to the next group of resolutions, the representative of Saudi Arabia said his country had joined as a co-sponsor to the draft resolution on the Report on the Disarmament Commission (document A/C.1/54/L.3). The Committee adopted the draft resolution on the Report of the Disarmament Commission without a vote. The representative of Guyana said she had voted in favour of the resolution on transparency in armaments. The Committee then adopted the draft resolution on the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (document A/C.1/54/L.10) without a vote. The representative of Bangladesh spoke before the vote on the draft resolution on the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (document A/C.1/54/L.24). He said that, while his country would vote for the draft, it would no longer be a co-sponsor, as the present text did not represent its sentiments forcefully enough. The representative of the Lao People's Democratic Republic said his country joined as a co-sponsor to the resolution. The Committee Secretary said that Uzbekistan also joined as co-sponsor. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific without a vote. The representative of Oman, speaking after the vote, said his country supported the draft and was happy to see it receiving consensus. However, it believed the Centre should have broader scope than it currently did and greater coordination with the Member States it was supporting. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on Report on the Conference of Disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.16) without a vote. The Committee Secretary announced that Jamaica had joined as a co-sponsor on the draft resolution. The Committee adopted the draft resolution on United Nations regional centres for peace and disarmament (document A/C.1/54/L.49) and the draft on the Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (document A/C.1/54/L.51) without a vote. The representative of Zambia said his country wished to go on record as being in favour of the two draft resolutions: Prohibition of the dumping of radioactive wastes (document A/C.1/54/L.6), and the prevention of an arms race in outer space (document A/C.1/54/L.22). (annexes follow) ANNEX I Vote on Conventional Arms Control at Regional Level The draft resolution on conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels (document A/C.1/54/L.37) was approved by a recorded vote of 133 in favour to 1 against, with 2 abstentions, as follows: PAGE 233 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 In favour: Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia. Against: India. Abstain: Benin, Bhutan. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Tajikistan, Tonga, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX I) ANNEX II Vote on Operative Paragraph 4 (b) of Transparency in Armaments Operative paragraph 4 (b), concerning a report of the Secretary-General on the operation of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, of the draft resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.39), was approved by a recorded vote of 121 in favour to none against, with 12 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paupa New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of PAGE 234 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Zambia. Against: None Abstain: Algeria, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Mexico, Myanmar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Belize, Cameroon, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Nauru, Oman, Palau, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tajikistan, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX II) ANNEX III Vote on Operative Paragraph 6 of Transparency in Armaments Operative paragraph 6, concerning the Conference on Disarmament, of the draft resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.39), was approved by a recorded vote of 120 in favour to none against, with 15 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Zambia. Against: None Abstain: Algeria, China, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Mexico, Myanmar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen PAGE 235 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Belize, Cameroon, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Nauru, Oman, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe. (END OF ANNEX III) ANNEX IV Vote on Transparency in Armaments The draft resolution on transparency in armaments (document A/C.1/54/L.39) was approved by a recorded vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 13 abstentions, as follows: In favour: Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Zambia. Against: None Abstain: Algeria, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria. Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cameroon, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Jordan, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tajikistan, Tonga, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe. LANGUAGE: English LOAD-DATE: November 2, 1999 PAGE 236 LEVEL 1 - 24 OF 56 STORIES Copyright 1999 M2 Communications Ltd. M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 LENGTH: 10951 words HEADLINE: UN Fifteen more disarmament texts introduced in First Committee BODY: In view of recent political developments, the General Assembly would recognize that the time was now opportune for all the nuclear-weapon States to undertake effective disarmament measures with a view to the total elimination of nuclear weapons, according to one of 15 draft resolutions introduced this afternoon in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), as it concluded the introduction and consideration of all disarmament and security-related draft resolutions. By further terms of the text on nuclear disarmament introduced by the representative of Myanmar, the Assembly would recognize the genuine need to de-emphasize the role of nuclear weapons and to review and revise nuclear doctrines accordingly. In that connection, it would urge the nuclear-weapon States to stop immediately the qualitative improvement, development, production and stockpiling of nuclear warheads and their delivery systems, and to immediately de-alert and deactivate their nuclear weapons. The other texts introduced dealt with: a request for a Secretary- General's report on missile development; nuclear disarmament; banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons; advisory opinion of the International Court of the Justice on the legality of nuclear weapons; nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere; African nuclear-weapon-free zone Treaty; chemical weapons; radioactive waste; verification; the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons; conventional arms control; small arms; the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa. Convinced of the need for a comprehensive approach towards missiles at the global and regional levels, in a balanced and non-discriminatory manner as a contribution to international peace and security, the Assembly would request the Secretary-General to prepare a report on the issue of missiles in all its aspects, according to a new draft resolution introduced by the representative of Iran. He said that the security implications of the new dimensions of missile development and the absence of any multilaterally negotiated instrument on that complex issue had required a comprehensive international study. According to a draft text introduced by the representative of Pakistan on security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States, the Assembly would appeal to all States, especially the nuclear-weapon-States to work actively towards an early agreement on a common approach and, in particular, on a common formula that could be included in an international instrument of a legally binding character. The Assembly would recommend that further intensive efforts should be devoted to the search for a common approach or common formula and that the various alternative approaches, including, in particular, those considered in the Conference on Disarmament, should be further explored in order to overcome the difficulties. Introducing a second text today, by which the Assembly would decide to give urgent consideration conventional arms control issues at the regional and PAGE 237 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 subregional levels, the representative of Pakistan said that while nuclear weapons had posed a threat of global annihilation, conventional weapons had been used in scores of conflicts worldwide. In addition, the conventional arms race had consumed the vast majority of resources spent on armaments by both rich and poor nations. Despite hopes for a restoration of balance in the immediate aftermath of the cold war, the danger of a build-up of conventional armaments and armed forces had been revived. A grave imbalance in conventional arms acquisitions could encourage aggression and create compulsions for weapons of mass destruction, he said. Under the terms of a draft introduced by the representative of Malaysia on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, the Assembly would underline once again the unanimous conclusion of the Court that there existed an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control. By the terms of three draft resolutions introduced by the representative of Canada today, the Assembly would: urge the Conference on Disarmament to establish an ad hoc committee to negotiate a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear devices; urge all States parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction to meet, in full and on time, their obligations under the Convention and to support the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in its implementation activities; and reaffirm the critical importance of, and vital contribution that had been made by, effective verification measures in arms limitation and disarmament agreements. A text introduced by the representative of Brazil would have the Assembly call upon the States parties and signatories to the treaties of Tlatelolco, Rarotonga, Bangkok and Pelindaba, in order to pursue the common goals envisaged in those treaties and to promote the nuclear-weapon-free status of the southern hemisphere and adjacent areas, to explore and implement further ways and means of cooperation among themselves and their treaty agencies. The Assembly would urgently call upon all States that had not yet done so to take all measures to become parties, as soon as possible, to the Convention on the Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects and its Protocols, and in particular, to amended Protocol II on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby Traps and Other Devices, under a text introduced by the representative of Sweden. By the terms of a text submitted by the representative of Japan, the Assembly would decide to convene the conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in Geneva in June/July 2001, the scope of which would be the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects. The representative of Burkina Faso tabled three draft resolutions by which the Assembly would: express grave concern regarding any use of nuclear wastes that would constitute radiological warfare and have grave implications for the national security of all States, and call upon them to take appropriate measures with a view to preventing any dumping of nuclear or radioactive wastes that would infringe upon the sovereignty of States; call upon African States to sign and ratify the Treaty as soon as possible so that it could enter into force PAGE 238 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 without delay; and reaffirm its strong support for the revitalization of the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa and emphasize the need to provide it with resources. The Assembly would reiterate its strong support of the role of the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean in the promotion of United Nations activities at the regional level in order to increase peace, stability, security and development among its Member States, by the terms of a draft text introduced by the representative of Peru. Statements were also made by the representatives of Chile, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mozambique, Mexico (on behalf of the Rio Group), Benin, Netherlands, Finland, Kenya, Australia, Mongolia and Nepal. The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Monday, 1 November to begin the third and final phase of its work: action on all draft resolutions and decisions. Committee Work Programme The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this afternoon to conclude its thematic discussion, as well as introduction and consideration of all disarmament and security-related draft resolutions. During the phase of its work just completed, the Committee combined the thematic discussion with consideration of drafts, as part of a reform to streamline the Committee's work. The third and final stage of its work, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, 1 November, will be action on all disarmament draft resolutions. It is expected to hear the introduction of draft resolutions concerning: missiles; nuclear disarmament; banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons; advisory opinion of the International Court of the Justice on the legality of nuclear weapons; nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere; African nuclear-weapon-free zone Treaty; and the dumping of radioactive waste. The Committee was also expected to hear the introductions of drafts on: the Convention on the Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects; the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention); verification in all its aspects; conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels; small arms; the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa. A draft text on the dumping of radioactive waste (document A/C.1/54/L.6), sponsored by Nigeria, would have the Assembly express grave concern regarding any use of nuclear wastes that would constitute radiological warfare and have grave implications for the national security of all States, and call upon them to take appropriate measures with a view to preventing any dumping of nuclear or radioactive wastes that would infringe upon the sovereignty of States. By further terms, the Assembly would request the Conference on Disarmament to take into account, in the negotiations for a convention on the prohibition of radiological weapons, radioactive wastes as part of the scope of such a PAGE 239 M2 PRESSWIRE November 2, 1999 convention. It would also request the Conference to intensify efforts towards an early conclusion of such a convention and to include in its report to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session the progress recorded in the negotiations on the subject. Under a draft text sponsored by Burkina Faso, on behalf of the Group of African States, on the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (document A/C.1/54/L.10), the Assembly would reaffirm its strong support for the revitalization of the Regional Centre and emphasize the need to provide it with resources to enable it to strengthen its activities and carry out its programmes. It would appeal again to all States, as well as to international governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions in order to strengthen the programmes of activities of the Regional Centre and facilitate the implementation of such programmes. The Assembly would take note of the report of the Secretary-General and commend the activities carried out by the Centre, in particular, in support of the efforts made by the African States in the areas of peace and security. It would request the Secretary-General to provide all necessary support, within existing resources, to the Centre for better results, and also request him to facilitate the close cooperation between the Centre and the Organization of African Unity, (OAU) in particular in the area of peace, security and development, and to continue to assist the Centre's Director in his efforts to stabilize the Centre's financial situation and revitalize its activities. According to a draft text sponsored by Canada and Poland on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) (document A/C.1/54/L.11), the Assembly would urge all States parties to the Convention to meet, in full and on time, their obligations under the Convention and to support the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in its implementation activities. A draft resolution entitled "Missiles" sponsored by Iran (document A/C.1/54/L.12) - would have the Assembly, convinced of the need for a comprehensive approach towards missiles at the global and regional levels, in a balanced and non-discriminatory manner as a contribution to international peace and security, request the Secretary-General, within existing resources, to prepare a report, for the consideration of the fifty-sixth session on the issue of missiles in all its aspects with the assistance of a panel of qualified governmental experts to be nominated by him. It would further request him to seek the views and proposals of Member States on the issue, to collect all other relevant information and to make them available for consideration of the panel of governmental experts. A draft resolution sponsored by Burkina Faso on the African Nuclear-Weapon- Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba) (document A/C.1/54/L.17), would have the Assembly call upon African States to sign and ratify the Treaty as soon as possible so that it could enter into force without delay. It would call upon the States contemplated in Protocol III to the Treaty that had not yet done so to take all necessary measures to ensure the speedy application of the Treaty to territories for which they were, de jure or de facto, internationally responsible and which lay within the limits of the geographical zone established in the Treaty.