Voice of America, 99-12-07

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From: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>

CONTENTS

[01] U-N-CYPRUS (L-ONLY) BY BRECK ARDERY (UNITED NATIONS)

[02] U-N / KOSOVO (L-ONLY) BY LISA SCHLEIN (GENEVA)

[03] US - NATO - KOSOVO L-O BY DEBORAH TATE (WHITE HOUSE)

[04] KOSOVO-OSCE (L-ONLY) BY STEFAN BOS (BUDAPEST)

[05] RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (S) BY PETER HEINLEIN (MOSCOW)

[06] RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L UPDATE) BY PETER HEINLEIN (MOSCOW)

[07] E-U / ENLARGEMENT (L ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

[08] E-U SANCTIONS (L-ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

[09] CLINTON-CHECHNYA (S) BY DAVID GOLLUST (WHITE HOUSE)

[10] CLINTON-CHECHNYA (L-UPDATE) BY DAVID GOLLUST (WHITE HOUSE)

[11] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY ELAINE JOHANSON (NEW YORK)

[12] TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

[13] W-T-O REVISITED BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

[01] U-N-CYPRUS (L-ONLY) BY BRECK ARDERY (UNITED NATIONS)

INTRO: The United Nations Security Council held private consultations on Cyprus today (Tuesday) as talks involving the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders continued at U-N headquarters. VOA Correspondent Breck Ardery reports.

TEXT: The Security Council consultations came as both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders continue so- called proximity talks with U-N Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his special advisor on Cyprus. Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash each hold separate meetings with the U-N officials and a news blackout has been imposed during the talks. The talks, which are aimed at laying the groundwork toward eventual face-to-face negotiations between the two Cypriot leaders, began last Friday and are supposed to last about 10 days. However, Chief U-N spokesman Fred Eckhard says there is no time limit for the current "proximity" talks.

[02] U-N / KOSOVO (L-ONLY) BY LISA SCHLEIN (GENEVA)

INTRO: A senior U-N official is calling for international action to end violence in Kosovo. Lisa Schlein, in Geneva, reports the official says more pressure must be put on the Kosovo leadership to halt revenge attacks against Serbs and other minorities in the province.

TEXT: The United Nations reports 22 Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo have been murdered in revenge attacks this week. Deputy U-N Administrator for Kosovo Dennis McNamara lists an awful catalogue of abuse. These include attacks, killings, kidnappings and burning of houses. He says Serbs committed terrible atrocities against ethnic Albanians during the war. Now, Albanians are perpetrating similar atrocities against the Serbs. He says the only difference between these two events is the magnitude of the attacks.

[03] US - NATO - KOSOVO L-O BY DEBORAH TATE (WHITE HOUSE)

INTRO: NATO's Secretary-General George Robertson is appealing for more aid from the international community to establish a civil government in Kosovo. He made his comments following a meeting with President Clinton at the White House Tuesday. Correspondent Deborah Tate reports. Text: Mr. Robertson is warning that progress made in bringing peace and stability to Kosovo is being jeopardized by a lack of money. Although an international donors' conference in Brussels November 17th resulted in one billion dollars in aid pledges for the rebuilding of Kosovo through the end of 2000, hardly any of the money has materialized. Emerging from his meeting with Mr. Clinton - which was dominated by the situation in Kosovo - the NATO Secretary-General told reporters that at least some of the funds are needed immediately to avoid a costlier crisis later.

[04] KOSOVO-OSCE (L-ONLY) BY STEFAN BOS (BUDAPEST)

INTRO: The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says executions, abductions and other ethnic-related violence have continued in Kosovo, despite the presence of tens of thousands (40- thousands) of NATO-led peacekeeping troops. Stefan Bos reports from Budapest that the OSCE made public Monday these conclusions based on findings in its first, official report, on human rights violations in the troubled province. Text: The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe or OSCE concludes that revenge motivated violence against especially Serbs and Gypsies accelerated, since the NATO-led peace keeping force arrived in the troubled province six months ago. Although OSCE officials acknowledge that the forty- thousand peacekeepers are no policemen, the rapport indirectly criticizes NATO for not doing enough to intervene, as ethnic Albanians attempt to retaliate for a decade of Serb oppression. OSCE officials mention for instance an area in Kosovo controlled by U-S troops, which had been largely untouched by the war. They say when their investigators arrived in the region in June only one house had been demolished--- But by October, well after the establishment of a NATO peace force, almost 300 mainly Serb homes, had been burned or destroyed by ethnic Albanians. The rapport, notes that this kind of violence forced tens of thousands of Serbs to flee Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians also attacked Gypsies, who were accused of having collaborated with Serb fighters during the war. The OSCE says that many Serbs and Gypsies were even killed or abducted by ethnic Albanians. In addition, the organization says there is also a disturbing trend of religious intolerance against non- Muslims, such as Christians, in part because many of them stayed in Kosovo during the conflict. More recently even Catholic Albanians were victims of harassment by other, predominantly Muslim Kosovar Albanians. The OSCE says the Kosovo Liberation Army sometimes organized the violence, a charge the rebels have denied. But the rapport also reveals that the revenge violence goes back to the experiences of ethnic Albanians, during the war, which it says was clearly orchestrated by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosovic. It accuses Serbian forces of killing, rape, and kidnap of ethnic Albanians after Nato began its air strikes against Yugoslavia. OSCE investigators, who interviewed nearly three- thousand Kosovar refugees, describe how for instance Serb forces on March 27 surrounded the Central Kosovo village of Kladernica. One witness cited by the report said the Serb fighters, some of whom were wearing black masks and gloves, separated a group of about 30 Albanian men from in the village. Soon after, gun shots echoed throughout the mountains, as all men were shot death by the Serb fighters. So far there was no official response to the OSCE report by the Serbian government. (Signed)
NEB/PT 06-Dec-1999 20:56 PM EDT (07-Dec-1999 0156 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[05] RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (S) BY PETER HEINLEIN (MOSCOW)

INTRO: Russia's military commanded has defended its threat to kill anyone remaining in the Chechen capital, Grozny, after a Saturday deadline. V-O-A Moscow correspondent Peter Heinlein reports.

TEXT: Russian General Viktor Kazantsev, commander of northern Caucasus operations, Tuesday denied that his warning to the residents of Grozny to get out or face death constitutes an ultimatum.

[06] RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L UPDATE) BY PETER HEINLEIN (MOSCOW)

INTRO: Russia has brushed aside the outpouring of international outrage at its five-day "leave or die" ultimatum to Chechens in Grozny, calling it -- counterproductive. Moscow correspondent Peter Heinlein reports newly arrived refugees from the rebel capital are asking for an extension of the deadline.

TEXT: As expressions ranging from concern to condemnation poured in from around the world, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stood firm. Mr. Putin, who has seen his popularity ratings soar from zero to the top of public opinion polls in recent months, dismissed the foreign pressure as being well- intentioned, but misguided.

[07] E-U / ENLARGEMENT (L ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

INTRO: European leaders, who meet later this week in Helsinki, are expected to announce they will be adding six more countries to the six who are already negotiating membership in the European Union. Meanwhile, as V-O-A Correspondent Ron Pemstein reports from Brussels, the first six countries have held their fourth negotiating session with E-U officials.

TEXT: The environment is the latest issue for the six countries that are trying to conform their laws to those of the European Union. The Czech Republic says it will cost seven-billion dollars to upgrade its drinking water and to dispose of wastewater. It wants the European Union to grant it a period of transition to make those investments. Hungary, considered the best prepared of the applicant countries, says it will need a transition period for the environment costs as well. The negotiations for membership in the European Union are becoming more complicated. By the end of next March, the European Union will be negotiating membership with 12 countries. But the European Commissioner for enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, says through an interpreter that he told the original six countries they have no reason to worry about a slowdown in their negotiations.

[08] E-U SANCTIONS (L-ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

INTRO: European Union (E-U) foreign ministers meeting in Brussels have decided to explore sanctions against Russia for its use of force in Chechnya. V-O-A correspondent Ron Pemstein reports from Brussels that they have also tightened their visa ban against Yugoslavs associated with the government of President Slobodan Milosevic.

TEXT: Along with President Slobodan Milosevic and his family, the European Union has added the names of 388 more Yugoslavs who will not be allowed to enter the 15 member countries of the E-U. The new names bring the total people banned to more than 600. They range from the director of the Pancevo oil refinery to the owner of the so-called "Taboo" fashion house. The European Union calls them "persons close to the government whose activities support President Milosevic." Javier Solana, the E-U's representative for foreign and security matters, says the Union will continue working with opposition forces to President Milosevic following Mr. Solana's meeting with the opposition last week.

[09] CLINTON-CHECHNYA (S) BY DAVID GOLLUST (WHITE HOUSE)

INTRO: The Clinton Administration is once again warning that Russia will pay a price if it carries out its threat to kill civilians who fail to leave the Chechen capital, Grozny, by Saturday. President Clinton discussed the situation in the Caucasus with NATO Secretary-General George Robertson. V-O-A's David Gollust reports from the White House.

TEXT: Mr. Robertson told reporters he and the President discussed ways the NATO allies might back up their demands that Moscow desist from seeking a military solution in Chechnya. He declined to give specifics, saying that is for the various governments to decide. But he said there is broad agreement that Russia's offensive in Chechnya is "wrong and counter- productive."

[10] CLINTON-CHECHNYA (L-UPDATE) BY DAVID GOLLUST (WHITE HOUSE)

INTRO: The Clinton Administration is keeping up its public criticism of the Russian military offensive in Chechnya (Tuesday), but at the same time says it is not prepared to cut aid programs to punish Moscow. V-O-A's David Gollust has details from the White House.

TEXT: Officials here are reiterating President Clinton's warning that Russia will pay a price for its offensive in Chechnya, but they suggest Moscow's loss will be in international prestige, and not outside aid. Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters International Monetary Fund loans to Russia are already blocked for purely economic reasons. He questioned the logic of cutting bilateral U-S aid, which is largely aimed at promoting Russian democracy and arms control:

[11] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY ELAINE JOHANSON (NEW YORK)

INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were mixed again today (Tuesday) amid more profit-taking on the back of last week's big rally, with the technology sector continuing to show strength. V-O-A correspondent Elaine Johanson reports from New York.

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 118 points, or one percent, closing at 11-thousand-106. The Standard and Poor's 500 index fell 14 points. But the Nasdaq composite had its 20th record high closing in 27 days, gaining more than one percent. Shares of Yahoo soared over 20 percent, as the leading gateway to the Internet moves into the Standard and Poor's index. Index fund investors will now be obliged to buy Yahoo stock. Coca-Cola stock fell for a second straight day. A brokerage firm downgraded the company following the surprise resignation of Coca-Cola's chief executive officer. The latest on the U-S economy shows U-S worker productivity was up nearly five percent in the third quarter - the biggest increase in about seven years - while labor costs declined.

[12] TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: The World Trade Organization conference last week in Seattle continues to dominate the nation's editorial columns this Tuesday, with President Clinton and the Seattle police coming in for criticism. But the dominant theme is that improved world trade will eventually evolve from the gathering, and its follow- up meetings. Another apparent failure of Mars exploration is also discussed, as is a new report citing medical mistakes as killing tens of thousands of Americans each year. The editorial writers also remember Pearl Harbor on this 58th anniversary of the Japanese attack. There is concern about North Korea's new long-range missile, the Russian assault on Chechnya and the outlawing of torture by Israel. Now, here is ___________ with a closer look and some excerpts in today's Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Newsday on New York's Long Island has digested the events of last week in Seattle and proclaims in its headline: "Clinton lost big in the Battle of Seattle; now he must rebuild support for freer trade."

VOICE: The failure of the World Trade Organization parley in Seattle is so serious ... it is not going too far to say that world commerce is at a crossroads. ... While President ... Clinton has every reason to be embarrassed by the latest blow to his lame-duck administration, the consequences of the trade- talks' collapse will be felt more intensely in the 50 states and around the world than in the nation's capital. ... If [Mr.] Clinton is to build an enduring legacy as a prosperity- promoting president, he will have to step into the political crater he helped create and start rebuilding broad-based support for free trade

TEXT: Next to Pennsylvania's Tribune-Review, in Greensburg, which points out:

VOICE: Critics of the World Trade Organization didn't hide their plans to stage the "Protest of the Century" at W-T-O meetings in Seattle. So why did law enforcement seem so ill-prepared to cope with it? ... The city was brought to a standstill by the protests. More than 40- thousand mostly non-violent demonstrators were joined by an undetermined number of violent vandals, who smashed windows, scrawled slogans in spray paint and smashed police cruisers. ... The Seattle police were initially overwhelmed both by the numbers and the determination of the protesters.

TEXT: More criticism of the conference substance now from Nebraska, and the Omaha World Herald.

VOICE: The collapse of the ... negotiations actually wasn't a complete surprise. The issues were complicated and the differences among governments were great. The surprises in Seattle were that U-S officials arrived with a negotiating strategy so ill-suited to the dynamics of the conference and that supporters of an open trade system made such a feeble defense of the free market.

TEXT: Taking a more sanguine view, The Detroit Free Press suggests:

VOICE: The conference in Seattle didn't accomplish any of what its planners hoped. But the potential remains high for the W-T-O to elevate world living standards and spread the gospels of democracy and human rights.

VOICE: The goal of easing trade restrictions is still reachable. But it will take hard bargaining, reforms to the W-T-O itself, and, most difficult of all, support that runs deeper than words. Expanded trade holds huge rewards for the world's economy. // END OPT //

TEXT: The apparent failure of the Mars Polar Lander, the second U-S Mars space probe to fail in the last few months, brings this philosophical response from the San Francisco Chronicle.

VOICE: It is the stuff of science to experiment and to be disappointed, but the project had looked so promising and could have created an extraordinary connection. NASA officials, no doubt, are considering every possibility, although they may never know exactly what happened. In the meantime, earthlings can still hope that the quiet has a simple explanation, such as a badly-positioned antenna that will right itself.

TEXT: Taking a braver view, remembering the many failures that have preceded scientific discoveries over the ages, is the Chicago Tribune:

VOICE: A century or more from now, the loss of the Mars Polar Lander -- if NASA concludes it is lost -- will be a footnote in the story of humankind's incredible journey to ... explore its first planet other than Earth. Like old sailing ships that foundered at sea in the early centuries of European exploration of a New World, NASA's lost robotic emissaries to Mars will be considered inevitable, incidental losses in the more significant pioneering of a distant world.

TEXT: Editorial repercussions continue this Tuesday to a report last week citing medical mistakes by doctors and others for killing almost 100-thousand Americans each year. In Washington state, The [Tacoma] News Tribune says the medical errors "demand action."

VOICE: If just a tiny fraction of those killed by medical errors were killed instead in commercial airplane crashes, the public outcry for greater safety would have forced federal regulators to ground flights, shut down carriers and overhaul the airline industry. Yet, about 98-thousand Americans die quietly every year from medical mistakes. The number of deaths should be shocking enough to prompt Congress to act on recommendations in a recent report that says simple reforms could cut fatalities in half within five years. // OPT // By acting on the ... recommendations, Congress would force the medical community to pay more attention to details -- and save more lives in the process.

TEXT: The Tulsa [Oklahoma] World is equally frustrated at the shocking findings, noting:

VOICE: The report concluded that health care is a decade behind other high-risk industries in improving on these safety issues. The airline industry and auto manufacturers are way ahead of health care. Something is seriously wrong with that state of affairs. Going to the hospital ought to be at least as safe as getting on an airplane or into a car. This report should be taken seriously. // END OPT //

TEXT: Today, December 7th, is a painful anniversary for many in this country; it marks the 58th remembrance of the Japanese attack on the U-S Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Several papers, including the Houston Chronicle, are making sure readers do not forget.

VOICE: The date that would live in infamy, as Franklin Roosevelt called it, was, of course, the pivotal event that ushered the United States in[to] the century's second great global war. It and the December 8th beginning to the Japanese "rape of Nanking," the "forgotten holocaust of World War Two," told the world in quick succession that the sacrifices ... required to put down Nazism, fascism and brutal imperialism would be great and that the world's leading democracy would pay for it in blood ...

TEXT: Six firefighters died last Friday in an abandoned warehouse in Worcester, Massachusetts, while searching the burning building for homeless people who often stayed there. That tragedy draws this lament from the Tulsa [Oklahoma] World.

VOICE: The tragedy ... happened half a continent away from Tulsa but the valor of the six men should remind us how perilous the business of fire fighting is. Last year, 91 firefighters lost their lives across the country trying to protect our lives and ... property. ... For taking the risks that they do, firefighters everywhere are owed special appreciation. But today we should turn our sympathies to Worcester ...

TEXT: Turning to international issues, // END OPT // the continuing development of long-range, nuclear- capable missiles by North Korea and Iran elicits this comment from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

VOICE: Iraq also is capable of developing such vehicles for delivering nuclear warheads. That would give North Korea, Iran and Iraq leverage to intimidate the United States and NATO in the event of a serious policy confrontation. They would not have to match the United States or any other European power missile for missile. They would only have to brandish the threat of taking out one city.

TEXT: Russia's intensifying assault on the capital of Chechnya, and its new ultimatum to civilians in Grozny to leave or be killed within a week, does not sit well with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

VOICE: Russian troops in Chechnya appear to be "dizzy with success," to use one of Stalin's favorite expressions. ... Initial vows of proportionality have all but been abandoned by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his top military officials. Now, having issued an ultimatum to the citizenry of Chechnya's capital city of Grozny, Russia is on the verge of creating a humanitarian disaster.

TEXT: In the Middle East, Israel's apparent back- tracking against a Supreme Court ruling to eliminate the use of torture against Palestinian prisoners draws the ire of today's Los Angles Times.

VOICE: That [Israeli Supreme Court] decision, widely acclaimed by Israeli human-rights organizations and internationally, is now under challenge. More than one-third of the members of the Knesset are supporting legislation to sanction what are euphemistically called "special interrogation means" against Palestinian prisoners. ... Such a backward step would be utterly unworthy of a country that takes pride in its humane heritage and democratic values. ... // OPT // The Knesset will soon face a fateful choice. If it makes Israel the only nation to legally sanction torture, it will earn the contempt of every other democracy. // END OPT //

TEXT: Today's [New York] Daily News is insistent that the little Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, who celebrated his sixth birthday in Miami Monday, be allowed to go home.

VOICE: If you put aside the politics, the case of little Elian Gonzalez ... is relatively (pun intended) simple. Unless there is evidence that the father is abusive or otherwise unfit -- and thus far, the U-S has not produced any -- the child belongs with him. ... It shames this nation that a child who has suffered tremendously is now to be a political pawn. [Cuban President Fidel] Castro also is guilty of using him this way, but America should be above it.

TEXT: Lastly, from The New York Times, criticism of Swiss banks in the wake of a new report about how they mis-handled the millions of dollars entrusted to them by Jews before World War Two.

VOICE: ... The report, by an international panel headed by Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, found that Swiss banks had somehow managed to lose track of a shockingly large number of these accounts over the intervening decades and that many banks had cruelly and deceptively turned away family members trying to recover lost assets. The Volcker panel was able to trace some 54-thousand of these missing accounts, far more than the Swiss have previously acknowledged.

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of editorial comment from Tuesday's U-S press.
NEB/ANG/WTW 07-Dec-1999 11:48 AM EDT (07-Dec-1999 1648 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[13] W-T-O REVISITED BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Editorial page writers across the United States are assessing the World Trade Organization conference last week in Seattle. There is considerable criticism of both President Clinton and the U-S Trade Representative's office, as well as of the Seattle police for their handling of the thousands of demonstrators on the streets. We get a sampling now from _____________ in today's U- S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: The intensity and size of the anti-W-T-O protests apparently caught the Seattle police off guard, despite months of preparation. More than 600 demonstrators were arrested in three days of protests, but at the beginning of the week, the police appeared to lose control of the streets around the conference site. Members of the Washington State National Guard (state militia) were called in to help restore order. Inside the conference, there was also a good deal of discord. The 135 delegates left Seattle Friday, after several acrimonious sessions, without having reached an agenda for continuing talks on the key issues of furthering freer world trade. We begin our sampling of editorial reaction in Northern New Jersey with The [Bergen County] Record.

VOICE: Americans have been hearing for years now about the inevitability - - and the benefits - - of the global economy, of free trade, of opening the world's markets each other's products. Yes, the global market is already here, and yes, there are benefits, as the current booming economy in this country makes clear. However, there are also consequences Americans should be ready to acknowledge. Those who went to Seattle sincerely interested in calling attention to those consequences were upstaged by the violent minority. But some of the questions the protesters raised are valid. ...

TEXT: We turn now to The Wall Street Journal, which questions President Clinton's motives at the trade conference in Seattle.

VOICE: In fact, right from the start he hinted that trade was secondary to the real prize: a chance to shore up key parts of the Democratic base on behalf of Al Gore's two-thousand Presidential bid. ... It may seem cynical to suggest Mr. Clinton was seeking tactical partisan gain by wasting the time of the 130-plus ministers from the W-T-O's member governments, not to mention American prestige and leadership. But this is a President who pardons Puerto Rican terrorists in the hope of aiding his wife's Senatorial campaign, and times retaliatory bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq at key moments of an impeachment trial over public and courtroom lies about his personal misbehavior. For the ministers leaving Seattle, there appears to be little doubt about why Mr. Clinton did what he did. ... In other words, if maintaining power means perjury and damaging the Presidency, so be it. And if it means throwing the world trade agenda into disarray on behalf of his Vice President's aspirations, that's okay too.

TEXT: That was the view of the Wall Street Journal. Pennsylvania's Tribune-Review in Greensburg, levels some of its harshest criticism at the Seattle police, who had prepared for this conference for months.

VOICE: Critics of the World Trade Organization didn't hide their plans to stage the "Protest of the Century" at W-T-O meetings in Seattle. So why did law enforcement seem so ill-prepared to cope with it? ... the city was brought to a standstill by the protests. More than 40- thousand mostly non-violent demonstrators were joined by an undetermined number of violent vandals, who smashed windows, scrawled slogans in spray paint and smashed police cruisers. ... The Seattle police were initially overwhelmed both by the numbers and the determination of the protesters.

TEXT: In the upper Midwest, the [Minneapolis, Minnesota] Star Tribune says the demonstrators proved a point that appears to have eluded most of them, that domestic considerations will continue to govern international trade relations.

VOICE: As delegates to the [conference] ... slunk home from Seattle, one of their most vocal critics claimed victory. Lori Wallach, a trade expert with Ralph Nader's [group] Public Citizens told the New York Times: "We have succeeded in turning back the invasion of the W- T-O into domestic policy decisions." Actually, the collapse of last week's talks ... shows exactly the opposite: Domestic politics trumped [defeated] multilateral interests time after time ... which only shows that both the W-T-O and its critics have some work to do if the world is going to achieve any consensus about the virtues of globalization.

TEXT: In Ohio, The Akron Beacon Journal sums up its frustration on the general outcome this way:

VOICE: World trade requires rules. More important, it involves broad principles, that the global economy benefits from open markets, that countries should be encouraged to produce what they can most prosperously. Unfortunately, in Seattle, those principles suffered amid the many clashing agendas.

TEXT: Florida's St. Petersburg Times is quite critical of the U-S government's trade office.

VOICE: While there was chaos on the city's streets, it was evident in the world Trade Organization talks that there was a lack of adequate diplomatic preparation. The chaotic collapse of last week's ... meeting was an embarrassment for Seattle and for the Clinton administration. Seattle will recover quickly enough, with its chastened civic leaders having learned that the astonishing wealth their community has amassed through the new global economy can create almost as many problems as it solves. It is less likely that the Clinton administration, or its successor, can so quickly reassert leadership on matters of international trade.

TEXT: Newsday on New York's Long Island has digested the events of last week in Seattle and proclaims in its headline: "Clinton lost big in the Battle of Seattle; now he must rebuild support for freer trade."

VOICE: While President Bill Clinton has every reason to be embarrassed by the latest blow to his lame-duck administration, the consequences of the trade-talks' collapse will be felt more intensely in the 50 states and around the world than in the nation's capital. ... If [Mr.] Clinton is to build an enduring legacy as a prosperity-promoting president, he will have to step into the political crater he helped create and start rebuilding broad-based support for free trade ...

TEXT: More criticism of the conference substance now from Nebraska, and the Omaha World-Herald.

VOICE: The collapse of the ... negotiations actually wasn't a complete surprise. The issues were complicated and the differences among governments were great. The surprises in Seattle were that U-S officials arrived with a negotiating strategy so ill-suited to the dynamics of the conference and that supporters of an open trade system made such a feeble defense of the free market.

TEXT: Taking a more sanguine view is The Detroit Free Press.

VOICE: The conference in Seattle didn't accomplish any of what its planners hoped. But the potential remains high for the W-T-O to elevate world living standards and spread the gospels of democracy and human rights.

TEXT: The San Francisco Chronicle also strikes an optimistic note.

VOICE: The goal of easing trade restrictions is still reachable. But it will take hard bargaining, reforms to the W-T-O itself, and, most difficult of all, support that runs deeper than words. Expanded trade holds huge rewards for the world's economy.

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of editorial reaction to the problems that beset the World Trade Organization conference last week in Seattle. NEB/ANG/gm 07-Dec-1999 16:12 PM EDT (07-Dec-1999 2112 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

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