The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 9

WEDNESDAY 8 DECEMBER 1993 TW1 Wa News World In Brief US cals for redoubled M-E effort Indonesian party leader vote blocked Jakarta, Tuesday Government-appointed delegates have blocked an attempt by Indonesia's largest party to elect the leader it wants five months after the party's previous leadership choice was rejected. Delaying tactics by the pro-Government members last night prevented the election of Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of the late President Sukarno, as leader of the Indonesia Democratic Party. The party congress ended in deadlock after the pro-Government members delayed a final full vol until the meeting's permit ran out. Raqtfr Storm batters Luzon Tropical storm Manny veered to tie north-etit today, battering the main Philippine Island of Luzon with rain and gusty winds but sparing in area where 64 people died in a typhoon earlier this week. The Manila weather bureau said thi eye of the storm, with sustained winds of up tg 110 kmh, was about 760 kilometres east of Casiguran.

tAP UK keeps door open to China The British Government has reaffirmed its determination to tough it out with China overt JeruMlani, Tuesday The United States Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, citing the latest violence in the West Bank, today called for "redoubling our efforts to seek peace and security for all the people of Mr Christopher conferred for about an hour with the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Yitzhak Rabin, then hinted broadly that before he returned to Washington, he expected to announce plans for a resumption of bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Arab parties to the peace process. Mr Christopher said he was optimistic about setting in motion, "once again, mechanisms that can work" towards peace in the region. "The only question is, what will be the timetable when these negotiations will be resumed," Mr Rabin said. Most speculation centres on a resumption of the bilateral talks In Washington in mid-January. The Secretary of State also gave Mr Rabin a letter from President Clinton that repeated assurances Mr Clinton gave the Prime Minister during his mid-November visit to Washington.

Those included a promise to provide Israel with 50 F-16A fighter planes over the next two years. Jewish settlers, who shouted "Traitor, traitor" at Israeli soldiers after the shooting last night by Palestinian gunmen that killed a Jewish father and his son In Hebron, vowed a campaign of protests to get Mr Rabin to roll back the PLO-Israel accord. Hebron was under curfew today with soldiers using loudspeakers to order the city's 90,000 Palestinians to remain indoors. Troops were on almost every Intersection to enforce the order. "This spiralling violence simply must come to an end," said Mr Christopher.

"The enemies of the peace process are trying to snuff out the hope that burned so brightly for peace here." He praised Mr Rabin for his determination to pursue the peace agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and said, "We agreed that we would react to this by redoubling our efforts to seek peace and security for all the people of Israel." Yesterday, Mr Christopher and the PLO chief, Mr Yasser Arafat, met for two hours in the US embassy in Amman, Jordan, and discussed the economic as well as political problems confronting the Palestinian leader as he tries to assert PLO control over Gaza and Jericho. Mr Arafat pressed Mr Christopher to intervene "with all his capacity" to ensure that Israeli forces start leaving the occupied territories by 13 December as promised. But Mr Christo- A Jewish settler helps carry a Jewish boy into hospital after the boy was injured in an attack by Palestinians on a van near the settlement of Kyriat Arba. democratic reforms in Hong Kong, but Is being UN rebukes Burma junta for human rights abuses By PAUL LEWIS, New Voffc, Tuesday A United Nations General Assembly 'committee yesterday unanimously rebuked the military rulers of Burma tor their continuing refusal to hand over power to a democratically elected Parliament and deplored the vlo- lations of basic human rights there. The Third Committee, which deals With social and cultural issues, also -called for the release of political prisoners including Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner now in her fifth year of house arrest.

Although Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won 80 per cent of the vote in parliamentary elections in May 1990, it was not allowed to take power. Since 1991 the General Assembly has adopted a series of increasingly critical resolutions. This year, for the first time, It asks the Secretary-General, Dr Boutros Ghall, to Intervene with the Burma Government. Although the Clinton administration complained that the resolution did not go far enough its unanimous adoption was seen as a triumph be- cause of the powerful attack on the idea of the universality of human rights that China and other Asian countries led at the world conference on human rights in Vienna in June. At the Vienna meeting, these Asian countries argued that every culture has a different view of what human freedoms are essential.

The main business before the Third Committee on human rights is the creation of a new post of High Commissioner for Human Rights with to investigate abuses. The committee also adopted critical resolutions yesterday on Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Sudan, and the former Yugoslavia, all of which were rebuked in Similar language last year. 'The Iraq vote, passed 102-2, condemns human rights violations by President Saddam Hussein's Govern- ment, including "summary and arbitrary executions, orchestrated mass executions and burials" particularly In the northern region. Burma's ethnic Karen rebels have agreed to talks with the military junta to try to end four decades of civil war, rebel official said today. Em Martha, a spokesman for the Karen -National Union, said rebel and other opposition groups under the banner of the Democratic Alliance of Burma had made the decision after a one-week meeting.

New York Times careiui to Keep ine aoor open to talks. In a carefully measured statement to the House of Commons yesterday, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Douglas Hurd (right), invited Beijing to engage in fresh discussions later this month over the colony's transition to Chinese control between now pher said he would not intervene unless asked by both sides. In Cairo, Israel and the PLO made some progress today in talks on Israel's troop withdrawal from Jericho and the Gaza Strip but it was not clear they would meet a 13 December deadline, sources close to the talks said. They said final agreement was being delayed by issues such as control of border crossings, the size of Jericho and how many Israeli troops would deploy around Jewish He said a meeting between Mr Arafat and Mr Rabin was Important and should take place on the eve of the 13 December deadline "to iron out last obstacles." In Bonn, Mr Arafat said today that any delay in the Palestinian self-rule accord with Israel would hurt the credibility of the Middle East peace process. Mr Arafat said he could not imagine postponing the 13 December deadline despite difficulties in negotiations on the plan.

AP, Reuter Mr Nabll Shaath, head of the Palestinian negotiating team, said: "Draft agreements will be exchanged by both parties on Wednesday." The drafts would be subject to negotiations to achieve a final agreement, expected this month, he said. In the drafts, both sides would include their own visions of the controversial issues still dividing them. Mr Shaath said the Israeli negotiators flew home today for consultations and were expected to resume talks tomorrow. and 1997. "We strongly hope Africa marks beginning of end of white minority rule that the talks will continue," he said after months of growing tension.

Graham Barrett Energy crisis hits Ukraine A Russian-provoked energy crisis has thrown Ukraine into economic turmoil, with industry facing total shutdown and the energy supply network on the brink of collapse. Blackouts have hit hundreds of thousands of households, leaving families without power and hot water and unable to cook for days as temperatures plunged to minus 20 degrees. Meanwhile, the price of basic foodstuffs such as bread and butter almost doubled today. AFP Screen veteran Ameche dies Don Ameche, who broke Into Hollywood films In the 1930s but had to wait nearly five decades to win his first Oscar, died yesterday in Phoenix of cancer. He was 85.

To an older generation of moviegoers, Mr Ameche was remembered as the man who played the inventor of the telephone in the 1939 movie 'The Story of Alexander Bell. To younger fans, he was best known for playing elderly characters in such hit movies as 'Trading Places' and 'Cocoon'. Rautsr By ROSS DUNN, Johannesburg, Tuesday The white monopoly on power In South Africa came to an end today when black leaders took their places on a transitional authority that will guide the country towards multiracial elections. Symbolic protests by white extremists were staged in Pretoria as the Transitional Executive Council, comprising both black and white leaders, held its first sitting in Cape Town. The right-wing protesters were demonstrating against the formation of the council and the fact that it gives blacks a say in running their country after three centuries of white minority rule.

"a very important milestone to a more democratic government away from minority rule of the It was a pity that some parties such as the Freedom Alliance were not present, "but we cannot stop the process Dr de Vllllers said. The 20-member council was scheduled to meet for three hours and consider such questions as the establishment of the independent electoral commission, independent media commission and special electoral court; nominations for the seven sub-councils such as defence, law and order and foreign affairs; the council budget, and an International Monetary Fund loan which the council is expected to approve. the Government to ensure a free and fair election. As Mr Meyer was speaking a tense situation developed at Fort Schans-kop outside Pretoria when armed soldiers sealed off this South African Defence Force museum, occupied at daybreak by right-wingers in protest against the council. In the face of such protests, the ruling National Party was at pains to point out that it had not handed all power over to the council, and was In fact still the Government.

"It (the council) is not taking over government," said the National Party council member, Dr Dawte de Vil-liers. But he did describe the occasion as They are also outraged that the TEC includes the Communist Party chairman, Mr Joe Slovo, a man who for many years lived in exile and was regarded as a terrorist. There was a sense among black leaders that they were celebrating a great moment in the country's history. "This day marks the beginning of the end of minority rule," said Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, the secretary-general of the African National Congress and a council member. "Majority rule Is achieved on April 27 next year (the day of the first all-race elections)." The TEC began operating without representation from the Freedom Alliance, a coalition of white right-wing parties and black homeland leaders such as Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, president of the Inkatha Freedom Party.

In a reference to the alliance's threats to disrupt next year's elections, Mr Ramaphosa said action would have to be taken against anyone who attempted to derail the transition process. Seated with him at the old President's Council building in the parliamentary complex was fellow council member Mr Roelf Meyer, the Gov-ernment's Constitutional Development Minister. Mr Meyer said the task of the council was to level the political playing field ahead of the election. It was not an alternative government. The council's function was to cooperate with KLEPNER'S AT THE VICTORIA DIAMONDS ACmV4U0437.

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