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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EASTERN EUROPE


RUSSIA, U.S. FUNDING DISPUTE DELAYS DISARMAMENT


MOSCOW – Disputes between Russia and America over funding and lucrative contracts are hampering an international effort to destroy the world’s largest chemical weapons arsenal, experts said yesterday. With a commitment to destroy 44,000 tons of chemical weapons by 2012, Russia has eagerly courted foreign funding. More than 20 countries – including members of the Group of Eight – have pledged money for the program, which has been beset by shortfalls. Western countries have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, but only a fraction of that money has been channeled through the Russian government, with most going directly to contractors – the vast majority of them non-Russian. A deputy assistant to the U.S. defense secretary, Patrick Wakefield, who is responsible for chemical disarmament and threat reduction, alluded to “some problems” between America and Russian officials over the last year. “The problems have increased costs and delayed schedules,” Mr. Wakefield told a conference in Moscow on Russia’s progress toward meeting its chemical weapons destruction goals. He did not elaborate, but his comments appeared to be a warning to Russian officials to improve cooperation with Western funders.


– Associated Press


EAST AFRICA


BURUNDI’S LEADER FIRES TUTSI VICE PRESIDENT


BUJUMBURA, Burundi – Burundi’s Hutu president dismissed his Tutsi vice president yesterday but agreed to name a Tutsi replacement in an effort to save a fragile power-sharing agreement, officials said. President Ndayizeye accused the vice president, Alphonse Kadege, of undermining efforts to end Burundi’s 11-year civil war by failing to support a constitutional referendum, presidential spokesman Pancrace Cimpaye said. A permanent constitution – needed to replace an interim one that expired November 1 – is a key step in a peace agreement brokered in 2000.The peace deal also calls for the main Hutu and Tutsi parties to share the presidency and vice presidency. The dismissal of a key member of the most influential Tutsi party could undermine the deal. Tutsis – who have mostly controlled Burundi’s government and military since independence from Belgium in 1962 – want the constitution amended, saying it favors Hutus. The charter divides power in government and Parliament, giving 60% of seats to the majority Hutus and 40% to the minority Tutsis. Civil war broke out in Burundi in 1993 after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country’s first democratically elected leader, a Hutu. The ensuing conflict between the Tutsi-dominated army and Hutu rebel factions claimed more than 260,000 lives, mostly civilians, in the country of about 6 million people.


– Associated Press


NORTH AFRICA


SUDAN TALKS END WITHOUT A LONG-TERM PACT


ABUJA, Nigeria – Sudan’s government and rebels ended talks on the country’s troubled Darfur region yesterday, with agreements on security and refugees but no pact on a long-term resolution to the violence. A later round, expected in mid-December also in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, would work on a political accord, delegates said. Twenty-one months of violence in Darfur have killed tens of thousands and driven 1.8 million refugees from their homes, international officials say. Sudan’s Arab-dominated government and tribal fighters who support it are accused of launching coordinated attacks on non-Arab farmers after two rebel groups rose up in February 2003. Sudan denies targeting civilians or allying with the so-called janjaweed militia. The talks ending yesterday were the first of three rounds to reach even partial deals. Sudan and the two main rebel groups signed two accords Tuesday, one promising aid organizations unfettered access to Darfur’s displaced and the other banning “hostile” military flights over Darfur.


– Associated Press


WESTERN EUROPE


YUSUF ISLAM GETS PEACE PRIZE FROM GORBACHEV


ROME – Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Russian leader, honored the singer once known as Cat Stevens with a peace prize yesterday, praising him for charity work and for standing by his convictions despite personal hardships. Yusuf Islam was awarded the “Man for Peace” prize in Rome at the opening of a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates. He last made headlines in September, when he turned up on Washington’s no-fly list for having suspected ties to terrorists – a claim he has strongly denied. The “Peace Train” singer, who largely gave up music after converting to Islam in the late 1970s, mused about the strangeness of being barred from one country while being honored in another. “Perhaps it’s part of the irony that sometimes you have to go through a test in order to achieve a prize,” he told reporters. “So maybe that’s a symbol. Today I’m receiving a prize for peace, which is actually, I would say, a bit more descriptive of my ideas and my aims in life.” The British musician was expelled from America in September after authorities diverted his London-to-Washington flight to Maine to remove him, saying he was suspected of ties to terrorism.


– Associated Press


SOUTH ASIA


PETITION TO RELEASE PAKISTANI SCIENTIST DISMISSED


Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a petition against the detention of disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan after he submitted a letter saying he was being “looked after well.” Mr. Khan has been under virtual house arrest in Islamabad since a scandal broke in December over his black-market dealings that allegedly supplied nuclear weapons technology to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. The scientist admitted in February to passing nuclear technology to other countries but was pardoned by President General Musharraf, who cited his service to the nation. Mr. Khan remains confined to his home. Supporters have complained about the fall from grace of a national hero who led the development of the country’s nuclear deterrent against rival India, and they have launched a legal battle to win Mr. Khan’s release. A friend of Mr. Khan’s, Hussam-ul Haq, had petitioned the court, claiming that the scientist was in poor health and had recently suffered a mild heart attack – which Pakistani authorities denied.


– Associated Press

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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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