Mideast, Africa draw concern of U.N. Millennium Summit

World leaders gather at the historic United Nations Millennium Summit on Wednesday in New York

Deaths in West Timor cast shadow over historic conference

In this story: Arabs seek justice for Palestinians Barak, Arafat pledge to work for peace Putin, Zemin:T tempered praise for U.N. RELATED STORIES, SITES

By KC Wildmoon
CNN.com Senior Writer

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak challenged his Palestinian counterpart on Wednesday to be "courageous and wise enough" to meet the challenge of the United Nations Millennium Summit, which convened in New York with an unprecedented number of world leaders on hand.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat responded, saying that the Palestinians had already made "significant and painful concessions" toward compromise and asking the United Nations to hear the cry of the Palestinian people for peace.

The historic summit, charged with charting the U.N.'s paths to peace for the 21st century, opened Wednesday morning on a somber note, with a moment of silence for three U.N. staff members killed in West Timor just hours before the conference began.

"This tragedy underlines the danger faced by unarmed humanitarian workers serving the U.N. in conflict and post-conflict situations," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said.

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U.S. President Bill Clinton stressed the importance of the U.N. peacekeeping missions in a welcoming address, challenging the conference to "rewrite human history in the new millennium."

"We now see fewer wars between nations, but more wars within them," Clinton said, adding that the U.N. must find a way to not only protect sovereign borders, but also the people who live within them.

"Everywhere in every land people of every station matter. Everyone counts," he said. "Everyone has a role to play. We all do better when we help each other."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair echoed Clinton's words, narrowing the focus to Africa, where civil wars have kept an entire continent in tumult for decades.

"What can we do for Africa?" the British leader said. "We can build a partnership for Africa in which Africans lead."

Arabs seek justice for Palestinians

The Mideast conflict, which has drawn tantalizingly close to solution on numerous occasions only to fall back into distrust and animosity, was high on several speakers' minds. Many Arab leaders, particularly, touched on the issue.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, without mentioning Israel and the Palestinians by name, noted that "peace, stability and prosperity still elude many of the countries" of the world, while a more pointed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the "Syrian Golan and Palestine".

But Barak, repeating a common Israeli concern that the Palestinians were not willing to go as far as Israel to achieve peace, said that success required compromise on all sides.

The Israeli leader noted that Jerusalem -- claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital, but under Israeli control since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war -- was revered by three religions as well as the whole Palestinian people.

This summer's Camp David talks screeched to a halt over the issue of Jerusalem, but Barak insisted the obstacle was not an insurmountable one.

"Jerusalem will remain united and open to all who love her," he said.

Barak, Arafat pledge to work for peace

While Arafat listened, Barak noted that the two Mideastern adversaries were "at the Rubicon and no one can cross it alone."

"History," he said, "will judge what we do in the next days and weeks."

"Were we courageous and wise enough (to complete a peace accord) or did we shrink back at the water's edge, resigned to wait for the rising tide of bloodshed?" said the Israeli prime minister, the Jewish state's most decorated soldier.

Arafat said the Palestinians had already agreed to a Palestinian state on less than a quarter of the land that was historically theirs. He also noted their willingness to "share Jerusalem" while remaining "committed to our national rights over east Jerusalem," the heavily Arab section of the ancient city that the Palestinians want for their capital.

"Let this Millennium Summit be the beginning of the end of the historical oppression that befell our people and signal a new life, a new beginning for all the people of the Middle East," Arafat said. "May it be beacon of hope for the region, for the children and coming generations."

Putin, Zemin: Tempered praise for U.N.

Clinton headed a list of 63 world leaders slated to speak on Wednesday, a slate that included 37 presidents, 15 prime ministers, two kings, a chancellor, a vice president, a crown prince and a deputy prime minister.

In his opening remarks, Annan told the assembled leaders that their "peoples look to you to solve problems, expect you to work together as governments ... with other institutions."

"We need to decide our priorities ... adapt so that in the future those are reflected in clear and prompt decisions," he said. "That, my friends, is what the people expect of us. Let us not disappoint them."

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the U.N.'s 55-year record, saying that its values have "become the norm of international relations" in a period of both "revolutionary breakthroughs and profound disillusionments."

The next few years, Putin said, "must become a period of real disarmament," with agreements on proliferation and production of nuclear weapons. Putin also proposed a conference on the militarization of outer space to coincide with the anniversary next spring of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's trip in 1961 aboard Vostok I -- the world's first manned flight into space.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin also had words of praise for the world body, but reminded the leaders in the U.N. chamber that "local conflicts keep cropping up (and) the imbalance in world development is worsening."

"Both history and the realities tell us," Jiang said, "that countries will not be able to live in harmony unless they live by the ... principles of the U.N. charter" -- including the right of all people to determine their own form of government.

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United Nations
  • Millennium Summit

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