DATE=10/28/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=WAR CRIME CONFERENCE (L)
NUMBER=2-255587
BYLINE=JON TKACH
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A conference at the U-S Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington is calling for more money to
prevent war crimes. Human rights workers, academics
and representatives from mostly Western countries
opened the State-Department-sponsored conference
Thursday. As V-O-A's Jon Tkach (kotch)reports, Richard
Holbrooke, the U-S representative to the United
Nations called for added resources to match the
rhetoric.
TEXT:
/// FIRST HOLBROOKE ACT ///
I notice on your schedule that you have nothing
on this issue and you better clean that up in
the next two days because empty words are
insufficient.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Holbrooke says the only real way to stop
atrocities is to put money and people behind the
effort, for investigation and prosecution of persons
who commit crimes against humanity.
Conference organizers want to find concrete ways to
avoid the slaughters like those that have killed
hundreds of thousands of people in this decade from
Africa to Yugoslavia.
Mr. Holbrooke said the Clinton administration regrets
its handling of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. But he
disputed what he calls an African assertion that the
United States has a double standard when it comes to
Africa.
/// SECOND HOLBROOKE ACT ///
You all understand their accusation that we care
more about other areas of the world than Africa.
But the Africans need to care about their
continent as well. I regret their apparent
limited participation in this conference because
many of the things we're talking about are
occurring on that continent.
/// END ACT ///
U-S organizers of the conference say Burundi, Rwanda
and Nigeria did not show up, though they were invited
to attend. A representative from South Africa was
slated to speak.
During their opening remarks, delegates from Britain,
Australia, and Canada criticized the draft conference
statement prepared by the State Department for not
endorsing a permanent international criminal court.
The court was overwhelmingly supported at a conference
in Rome last year over the opposition of the United
States.
Mary Robinson, the U-N High Commissioner for Human
Rights called for ratification of the accord to
establish the court.
/// ROBINSON ACT ///
I hope that the United States will throw its
support behind the court and play a lead role on
this just as it has on many human rights issues
throughout the years. A clear message should go
out - nobody who commits atrocities should
expect to get away with it.
/// END ACT ///
U-S hosts say the conference statement is open to
amendment and that they will work with the delegates
during the two-day conference in preparing the final
document. (Signed)
NEB/JON/TVM/gm
28-Oct-1999 18:11 PM EDT (28-Oct-1999 2211 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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