Foreign Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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NORTH AFRICA


U.N. REPORTS MILITIA MOVEMENT NEAR SUDANESE BORDER


GENEINA, Sudan – Armed militiamen surged into a western border area where some Darfur refugees attempted to return to their raided village, U.N. security officials said yesterday, raising further concern about how quickly 1.4 million displaced Sudanese could return home safely.


U.N. authorities were sending a team to the area to assess the risks to refugees, said West Darfur U.N. refugee security officer Sabir Mughal.


Sudanese authorities told U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers they were calming the 19 months of bloodletting in Darfur. The region’s non-Arab African villagers and international leaders blame the crisis – which the United States has labeled genocide – largely on government-backed Arab militias known as Janjaweed.


Some of the nearly 200,000 refugees who fled into neighboring Chad were starting to return home, Social Affairs Minister Habib Mouktoun told Lubbers, “and we are welcoming them.”


But the movement of armed militia, reported by U.N. refugee security authorities around the border village of Abu Surug, could jeopardize efforts to convince refugees they can safely go home.


“A few” refugees from Chad returned to the Abu Surug area a few days ago, and the still-unidentified militia moved in after them, according to U.N. security officials.


Sudan, Africa’s largest country, is under review by the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions on its oil industry over what America, the European parliament, and some others say is genocide by the government and Janjaweed – or Men on Horseback – in Darfur.


– Associated Press


WESTERN EUROPE


GERMANY’S PUSH FOR SECURITY COUNCIL SEAT ANGERS ITALY


ROME – Germany and Italy exchanged blows yesterday after Silvio Berlusconi’s government opposed Berlin’s bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.


Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, accused Germany, supposedly one of its closest allies, of trying to divide Europe with its request for a seat by putting its national interests first.


“I will not accept competition based around national interests. That risks dividing Europe,” he said to the Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica.


Mr. Frattini’s comments appeared to be a response to a statement on Saturday by his German counterpart, Joschka Fischer, who said he found Italy’s opposition to Germany’s bid illogical and rather than campaigning against it, Italy should itself lobby for a place. “I don’t understand the position,” Mr. Fischer added. “But I say sincerely, be a candidate yourself – it would be loyal competition between countries that are friends and allies.”


With Brazil, India, and Japan, Germany is campaigning for a permanent seat on a restructured council, which would give more representation to regions and developing countries. The four countries have agreed to work together in pursuit of their goal, but their bid has brought opposition from neighboring states including Mexico, Pakistan, China, and Italy.


– The Daily Telegraph


SWISS VOTERS REJECT LOOSENING CITIZENSHIP RULES


GENEVA – Dashing the chance for almost 200,000 youngsters to get citizenship easily, voters in this Alpine country rejected two government proposals to loosen tough naturalization rules in a referendum yesterday.


Nearly 57% of voters opposed granting automatic citizenship to third-generation children born to immigrant families. In a slightly closer result, nearly 52% rejected easing naturalization rules for first- and second-generation residents raised and schooled here.


“This is a sad day for Switzerland,” Claudio Micheloni, head of a migrants’ integration association, said of voters’ third denial of citizenship liberalization in 21 years.


In other questions, voters supported a government-paid national maternity leave system, but rejected a citizen initiative to block the closure of small post offices to save money.


About a fifth of the 7.2 million people living in Switzerland are not citizens, most of them immigrants from Italy and the Balkans or their offspring. It is one of the highest proportions in Europe, partly because Swiss law makes citizenship relatively hard to get.


Immigrants have to wait at least 12 years to apply for naturalization, and their Swiss-born children and even grandchildren do not qualify automatically. Many people also decide not to seek naturalization to avoid complex procedures, which once included visits by inspectors who checked that applicants’ apartments conformed to Swiss standards of cleanliness.


– Associated Press


SOCIAL DEMOCRATS AVOID DEFEAT IN GERMAN ELECTIONS


BERLIN – Germany’s governing Social Democrats avoided major losses in local elections yesterday in the country’s most populous state, while the conservative opposition lost votes but stayed well ahead in a traditional stronghold for Chancellor Schroeder’s party, exit polls indicated.


In the last electoral test of a year that has brought Mr. Schroeder’s party a string of reversals, the Social Democrats polled 33% in voting for local councils across North Rhine-Westphalia, according to a projection by Westdeutscher Rundfunk television based on exit polls.


That compared with a score of 33.9% five years ago.


The projection put Germany’s main opposition Christian Democrats at 44.5% – down from 50.3% five years ago, when they scored a landslide victory during an early dip in the government’s popularity.


The vote was closely watched ahead of elections to the state legislature next May, when the conservatives hopes to end decades of domination by Mr. Schroeder’s party in a state that includes the industrial Ruhr region.


Amid widespread anger over Mr. Schroeder’s drive to trim the welfare state in a bid to revive the German economy, his party has been battered in a series of state elections this year, as well as in June elections for the European Parliament.


– Associated Press


EASTERN EUROPE


OUTED BRITISH SPIES REMOVED FROM BALKAN POSTS


BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro – British spies across the Balkans are being moved after they were publicly identified in a number of press reports planted by disgruntled local intelligence services.


The Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, has been forced to withdraw its chief officer in the Serb capital, Belgrade, and another spy in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, is about to leave.


A third man, who has also been branded a British spy in the Balkans, this week left the office of the High Representative in Bosnia, Lord Ashdown, to take up a post elsewhere.


A further two British intelligence officers working in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, have so far remained in place despite their cover being blown in the local press.


The series of exposes in the three capitals has markedly undermined British intelligence operations in the Balkans, previously thought to have played a vital role in the handover of the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.


But the continuing efforts of SIS officers to capture the Hague’s most wanted men have riled many local intelligence agencies in the Balkans, some of which are suspected of continuing ties to alleged war criminals.


– The Daily Telegraph


MIDDLE EAST


TURKEY BOWS TO E.U. DEMANDS OVER PENAL CODE


ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkey’s Parliament bowed yesterday to European Union demands and passed a liberalizing penal code that should open the way to talks with Ankara on E.U. membership.


Legislators were recalled from summer recess after the government of Recep Erdogan, Turkey’s Prime Minister, agreed to drop a plan to criminalize adultery.


The decision ended a week of crisis with Brussels over Turkey’s efforts to become the E.U.’s first predominantly Muslim member.


EU officials said the amended code will help Ankara secure a positive review of its democratization process in a crucial report by the European Commission to be published October 6. E.U. ministers will make a final decision on holding membership talks in December.


Mr. Erdogan expressed confidence that “membership negotiations will start in December” in a televised address to the Turkish nation.


The new penal code bars Muslim clerics from engaging in politics and stiffens penalties for the perpetrators of so-called “honor killings” of women deemed to have stained their families’ reputation. Turkey’s increasingly influential women’s groups played a significant role in pushing for the reforms. “The change is revolutionary,” said Hulya Gulbahar who campaigned for a new law that criminalizes raping spouses.


– The Daily Telegraph

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NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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