Annan opens UN rights forum amid Ko

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Annan opens UN rights forum amid Kosovo protest 
09:53 a.m. Mar 16, 1998 Eastern 
By Stephanie Nebehay 

GENEVA, March 16 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the
annual U.N. Commission on Human Rights on Monday as 300 Albanian women with
children demonstrated silently outside the talks against Serbian police
repression in Kosovo. 

In a speech to some 2,000 government officials and activist groups attending
the six-week talks at the U.N. European headquarters in Geneva, he called
for combating violations. 

The U.N. forum will look into abuses in five continents, including massacres
in Algeria and violence in Kosovo. At least 80 people, mainly ethnic
Albanians, have been killed this month in a crackdown on nationalists in the
troubled Serbian province. 

Other states expected to be in the dock include Afghanistan, Burma,
Cambodia, Colombia, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq,
Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Sudan. 

But China appears set to escape censure at the 53-member body after the
United States joined the European Union at the weekend in deciding not to
push for a resolution on Beijing's record. China has blocked all debate of
criticism since 1990. 

Annan did not name any rogue states or specific conflicts. 

``I am here today to tell you that the next century must be the age of
prevention. I am here to say that we can no longer claim that a lack of
available resources prevents us from acting in time,'' he said. 

``Today's human rights violations are the causes of tomorrow's conflicts.
This vicious circle of violations and conflict, leading to new violations,
can and must be stopped. 

``If we do not speak out, individually and collectively, today and every day
when our conscience is challenged by inhumanity and intolerance, we will not
have done our duty -- to ourselves or to succeeding generations.'' 

The U.N. chief called for pushing for ratification of human rights treaties
to make rights binding worldwide. 

``All people share a desire to live free from the horrors of violence,
famine, disease, torture and discrimination,'' he said. 

But he conceded: ``Human rights violations remain a widespread reality which
we have not been able -- nor in some cases willing -- to stamp out.'' 

Individuals as well as countries had a duty to promote basic rights in the
50th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Annan said. 

The session named Jacob Selebi, a former African National Congress (ANC)
activist and political prisoner who is now South Africa's ambassador to the
U.N. in Geneva, as its chairman. 

In an acceptance speech, Selebi called on the Commission to make sweeping
reforms to its agenda. It should pass a resolution agreeing to send a draft
declaration on protecting the rights of human rights defenders to the
General Assembly for adoption. 

``By electing a South African to this most important of international human
rights bodies, the Commission is sending a very important and symbolic
message,'' Selebi said. 

``No country or situation before or since has captured the attention of the
Commission in the way that apartheid South Africa did,'' he added. ``Like
other societies, we are coming to terms with our past and struggling to
create our future.'' REUTERS