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Members play to own tune at Millennium Assembly |
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September 14, 2000
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The General Assembly got down to the business of implementing the Millenium Summit agenda, but debate soon was dominated by the widely differing priorities and interests of member states. Four days after nearly 150 world leaders unanimously pledged to reduce poverty and promote peace, speakers on the opening day of the General Assembly's follow-up ministerial session on Tuesday reiterated their countries' commitment to those broad goals. But the priorities and interests of individual states, from the powerful United States to tiny Liechtenstein and impoverished Nepal, consumed the debate from the first day. The United States took aim at Iraq and Myanmar. The European Union shunned Yugoslavia over human rights. Brazil complained about the industrialized world's trade policies. Chile urged all countries to support the establishment of an International Criminal Court to avoid jurisdictional conflicts like the one that engulfed the Augusto Pinochet case. Bulgaria complained about damage to its economy from sanctions on neighboring Yugoslavia. Nepal lamented that commitments to help developing nations "are forgotten before the ink on them dries." And Liechtenstein criticized international financial restrictions aimed at fighting money laundering. Secretary-General Kofi Annan put the onus on the 189 U.N. member states, saying in a speech opening the two-week session that they must agree on how to implement the Millennium Summit agenda, and find the money to do it. "The key decisions lie in your hands," he stressed. A few of the speakers from 18 nations Tuesday mentioned the targets of last week's summit - to cut in half the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day and ensure primary education for children worldwide by 2015. To meet summit goals, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said every government "has an obligation to observe international norms on human rights, uphold the rule of law, fight corruption and raise awareness about HIV/AIDS." Then she attacked Iraq for refusing to allow U.N. weapons inspections and warned Myanmar that "the world is not fooled" by its campaign to blame pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been confined to her home since Sept. 1, and her party for their own repression. France, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said Yugoslavia was being barred from a conference on the Balkans this fall because of President Slobodan Milosevic's regime. French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine also touched on the EU's role as an increasingly important world player, saying the 15-nation organization plans to create an army of 60,000 soldiers and a 5,000-member police force to respond to crises. Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, criticized developed nations for tailoring the rules of global trade to fit their own interests. "They are not alone in the world," Foreign Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia said. Chile's Foreign Minister Maria Soledad Alvear Valenzuela "enthusiastically" supported creation of an international war crimes tribunal, saying it could avert disputes over jurisdiction. Former Chilean dictator Pinochet spent 16 months under house arrest in Britain pending possible extradition to Spain to stand trial for human rights abuses. He was allowed in March to return home, where the Supreme Court stripped him of immunity from prosecution. Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova, her country hurting from economic sanctions against neighboring Yugoslavia, said assistance to third countries should be considered when U.N. sanctions are imposed. Nepal's Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola said there was a credibility problem with the United Nations, which in the last decade set targets to reduce poverty and promote development that could not be achieved. "We must narrow the gap between what we say and what we do," Bastola said. Liechtenstein, a tiny Alpine principality of 32,000 people, complained about proceedings by some international financial and regional bodies directed against it over allegations it was a money laundering haven for Central American drug barons, the Russian underworld and the Mafia. "The lack of transparency and the manner in which this was done are not in conformity with the established principles of international cooperation," said Andrea Willi, Liechtenstein's foreign minister.
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