NEWS - Clinton Honors Apartheid Foe

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - Clinton Honors Apartheid Foe, Rights Leaders

Monday December 6 6:06 PM ET 

 Clinton Honors Apartheid Foe, Rights Leaders

 By Randall Mikkelsen

 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton on Monday honored the Rev.
Leon Sullivan, author of a code for
 U.S. firms in South Africa during the apartheid era, and four other
Americans for their contributions to human
 rights.

 ``By compelling dozens of businesses to desegregate their plants in
South Africa, his work helped to pull down
 apartheid,'' Clinton said about Sullivan.

 The president spoke at a White House ceremony to present the 1999
Eleanor Roosevelt awards, in
 commemoration of the former U.S. first lady who was an early advocate
of international human rights.

 Clinton also used the ceremony to highlight current U.S. human rights
concerns, including the Russian military
 offensive in Chechnya, China's crackdown on the Falun Gong movement,
and the rule of Afghanistan's Taliban.

 He announced that the United States would spend $3.5 million next year
to help Afghan refugees and would
 expand resettlement programs.

 Sullivan, a retired Philadelphia minister now living in Arizona, was
the author the 1977 ``Sullivan Principles,'' that
 encouraged American firms to adopt progressive policies for black
workers in South Africa.

 Since the dismantling of apartheid, Sullivan has worked to promote U.S.
investment in South Africa and to
 expand worldwide principles for socially responsible corporate
practices.

 Also honored by Clinton were:

 -- Charlotte Bunch, founder of the Center for Women's Global Leadership
at Rutgers University, for her efforts to
 place women's and gay rights on the human rights agenda, particularly
at the 1993 and 1995 U.N. conferences
 on human rights;

 -- Dolores Huerta, a co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America;

 -- Burke Marshall, who worked to dismantle ``Jim Crow'' segregation
laws as assistant U.S. attorney general in
 the Kennedy administration;

 -- Sister Jean Marshall, a Dominican nun, for her work with refugees
from Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia, Albania,
 Ethiopia, Bosnia and Kosovo.

 ``If we want truly want to honor their work, we must stay committed in
the places where the glory has not come,
 and continue to speak out for human rights around the world, from Burma
to Cuba to Sudan, from Serbia to
 North Korea and Vietnam,'' Clinton said.

 He warned Russia that it would pay a ``heavy price'' for its military
offensive against separatist rebels in
 Chechnya and said he was ``deeply disturbed'' by the heavy casualties
civilians have suffered.

 The president also said he was troubled by China's crackdown on the
Falun Gong spiritual movement, and
 urged the country to respect the principles of freedom of conscience
and freedom of association.

 Clinton established the Eleanor Roosevelt awards in 1998, 50 years
after the adoption of the Universal
 Declaration of Human Rights. Mrs. Roosevelt, as chairman of the U.N.
Commission on Human Rights from 1946
 to 1951, played a major role in developing the declaration.