| ***United
Nations Main Site***
***United Nations Millinium Summit Site*** ***I.S.R.U. Manefisto*** ***Rutgers Class Schedules*** ***Launch AOL IM !*** ***Whoa! new ISRU Web Site*** Tell 'em SpinDoctor sent you! ***Rutgers Daily News***
- The largest gathering of world leaders in history opened Wednesday to chart the course of the United Nations in the 21st century - particularly its efforts to forge peace. The meeting was clouded by a faraway reminder of the challenges facing the international body: the killings of three U.N. aid workers in West Timor. President Clinton said he was deeply saddened to learn of the ``brutal'' slaying of the three workers and told the U.N. Millennium Summit - a gathering of more than 150 world leaders - that the United Nations must be better prepared to confront such hostilities. ``Increasingly, the United Nations has been called into situations where brave people seek reconciliation but where the enemies seek to undermine it,'' Clinton said, citing U.N. peacekeeping operations in East Timor and Sierra Leone. ``But in both cases, the U.N. did not have the tools to finish the job. We must provide those tools, with peacekeepers who can be rapidly deployed with the right training and equipment, missions well-defined and well-led, with the necessary civilian police,'' Clinton said. He specifically called on the Indonesian authorities ``to put a stop to these abuses.'' Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was in the audience. At the urging of the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the leaders held a minute of silence at the start of the meeting to commemorate the deaths of the three aid workers slain Wednesday after an angry pro-Indonesian mob and militiamen attacked and burned the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Annan announced the attack to the summit, telling leaders it was a ``somber'' reminder of the dangers U.N. staff face every day. Even before rioters overwhelmed the U.N. refugee agency in the Indonesian controlled territory, there were no illusions that the three-day summit in New York would in itself change the world and cure it of its ills. ``The problems seem huge,'' Annan said, listing poverty, the AIDS epidemic, wars and environmental degradation. ``But in today's world, given the technology and the resources around, we have the means to tackle them. If we have the will, we can deal with them.'' While Annan is hoping for new commitments to the U.N. goals of ending poverty and wars, some heads of state are expected to use the three days of speeches, discussions and meetings to push their own agendas - including those critical of the United States. In a taste of what may come, North Korea denounced the United States as a ``rogue state'' Tuesday, claiming the government was responsible for allegedly ordering the search of members of the delegation as they switched planes in Germany. The incident prompted Pyongyang to call off the summit trip by No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam, who had been scheduled to meet South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. American Airlines apologized for the search and said no U.S. government agency took part. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said the search was partially a result of misunderstandings. Washington also is expected to come under fire from Cuban President Fidel Castro, who arrived in New York on Tuesday for the first time in five years. He is expected to speak out against American domination of the United Nations on Wednesday afternoon. The United States also can expect an earful from more friendly countries. In his speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred indirectly to U.S. proposals to create a national missile defense system, citing the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, which must be amended if Washington is to go ahead with the program. ``The new century of the United Nations must ... go down in history as a period of real disarmament,'' Putin said. He and Chinese President Jiang Zemin were expected to use the three-day summit to continue rallying international support against the U.S. national missile defense plans. Clinton's announcement last week that he would leave it to the next administration to decide whether and when to deploy such a system will be welcomed by many leaders who have criticized the U.S. plans as a threat to 30 years of arms control treaties. But analysts have predicted that Jiang will use the summit - and a one-on-one meeting with Clinton - to pressure the United States to cancel the proposal altogether. Jiang, however, will have his own controversies to deal with as members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement stage continuous demonstrations against the Chinese leader for Beijing's crackdown on the sect - part of the 91 demonstrations planned this week. Other protests have been aimed at Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, including a demonstration Tuesday outside Iran's U.N. mission by a coalition of Jewish groups protesting the prison sentences handed down to 10 Iranian Jews convicted of espionage. Clinton has meetings planned on the summit sidelines with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to try to relaunch Mideast peace talks. National Security Adviser Sandy Berger said Tuesday he saw little chance for a peace agreement to emerge. When the hoopla of the summit ends, Annan wants the United Nations to monitor how every world leader is implementing the lofty goals in the summit declaration. The declaration expected to be adopted Friday asks the General Assembly to review ``on a regular basis'' the progress made in implementing its provisions. And it asks Annan to issue periodic reports for consideration by the General Assembly. ``I am telling the world leaders not only to come here and approve a plan of action, but that I would expect each and every one of them to go back home and begin to do something about it,'' he said. "Religious extremism has too often oppressed or discriminated against women and minorities. Religion has often been yoked to nationalism, stoking the flames of violent conflict and setting group against group," |
Growing List of Supporters |
