US-Russia Relations Hurt by Kosovo By GREG MYRE .c The Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) -- U.S.-Russian relations are at their lowest level in the post-Cold War era over NATO's attacks on Yugoslavia, but a weakened Moscow simply can't afford to sever ties to the West. Russia's waning global clout has suffered a double blow this month: NATO welcomed three former Soviet satellite countries as new members, and now the alliance is pounding Russia's ally Yugoslavia, brushing aside Moscow's noisy, but toothless protests. If Russia can't deter NATO from bombing a friend in Eastern Europe, what are Moscow's prospects for influencing any major international questions of war and peace? ``Russia has ceased to be a strong country to be reckoned with,'' said Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, considered one of the favorites in next year's presidential poll. Still, relations are tense. Gunmen with grenade launchers and an automatic rifle shot at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Sunday, in an attack apparently linked to ongoing protests there by Russians opposed to the NATO bombings. Russia's dilemma was neatly encapsulated last week when the NATO airstrikes began. President Boris Yeltsin and the rest of the Russian leadership denounced the strikes as ``open aggression.'' At the same time, Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was asking the International Monetary Fund for billions of dollars in loans to revive Russia's depressed economy. In the rosy post-Cold War days of the early 1990s, Russia and the United States were expected to start working together on key global issues, and in some ways they have. The countries regularly discuss nuclear non-proliferation, both nations have contributed peacekeepers to Bosnia, and Russia was taking part in a partnership agreement with NATO -- at least until the bombing of Yugoslavia. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying the fighting in Yugoslavia could affect neighbouring countries including Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Hungary. But the current imbalance between American might and Russian weakness often means that on sensitive issues, the United States acts as it wants, while the Russians are ignored. In the past year, the United States has launched military strikes against four countries -- Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan -- and Russia has objected every time, to no avail. ``What's happening now is a classic example of a uni-polar world leading to aggression (by the Americans),'' said Vladimir Volkov, head of the Institute for Slavic Studies in Moscow. When conflicts arise in Yugoslavia and elsewhere, Russia often tries to project itself as if it were still a major power, only to end up feeling marginalized, isolated and humiliated. Yeltsin regularly raises the notion of a ``multi-polar world,'' which is intended to replace American global dominance with several centers of world power, one of them being Moscow. In theory, Russia wants to build stronger alliances with large Asian nations such as China and India, hoping to construct a counterweight to the United States and Europe. But in practice, Russia has often ended up tilting toward countries that many in the West regard as pariahs, such as Iraq, Iran and Yugoslavia. America doesn't want Russia turning inward and becoming openly hostile toward the West. Russia still has a huge nuclear arsenal and has more territory than any country in the world. An unstable Russia could cause all sorts of global problems. Some hard-line Russian politicians have threatened to scale back cooperation with the West, but Russia would be the biggest loser if it severed ties. American money helps keep many of Russia's scientists employed and keep its space program aloft. Foreign investment has created hundreds of new firms throughout Russia. And the country desperately needs new loans from the International Monetary Fund to revive an economy that's been in recession for most of this decade. Germany criticizes China, UN veto By Alastair Macdonald BONN (Reuters) - Germany's defense minister launched a sharp attack Friday on China and on the right of the established nuclear powers to block United Nations action in Yugoslavia and other crises. ``Can we forever tolerate that the world community live with the right of veto established due to the role of the nuclear powers and that, as a result, justice cannot be done?'' Rudolf Scharping asked parliament. He was responding to criticism by some on the German Left and abroad, notably in Russia and China, that the air strikes by the NATO Western alliance on Yugoslavia broke international law by attacking a sovereign state without a mandate from the U.N. Security Council. Scharping defended the NATO action by saying it was a humanitarian act intended to protect ethnic Albanians in Kosovo from attacks by Serb military forces. A U.N. mandate for it is out of the question, however, due to the fierce opposition of Moscow and Beijing, which enjoy permanent veto powers along with the three other established nuclear powers France, Britain and the United States. Nonetheless, Scharping said, NATO felt its attack had U.N. support since a clear majority of the 15-member Security Council expressed support for the action. China, Russia and one of the 10 rotating members of the Council, Namibia, have come out in opposition. Scharping singled out China for particular criticism, recalling its veto last month on a renewal of a mandate for a U.N. peacekeeping force in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia and criticizing its record on human rights in Tibet. ``Is it justifiable that such a major power, because of its interests in Tibet, believes it can make the whole world accept ethnically based genocide simply because this takes place within the borders of a state?'' Scharping asked the chamber. Germany, the dominant economic power in Europe, has been increasingly irritated by the status quo at the United Nations which favors the victors of World War Two. Mindful of the sensitivities, it usually does not like to moderate criticisms. The participation of German fighter-bombers over Yugoslavia as part of the NATO force this week was the first time the Luftwaffe has flown on the attack since 1945 -- symbolizing another step in Germany's rehabilitation from its Nazi past. China newspaper blasts NATO ``hypocrisy'' BEIJING, April 2 (Reuters) - An official Chinese newspaper on Friday blasted NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia as detestable and a display of hypocrisy. ``No rhetoric can justify NATO's self-proclaimed 'peace' initiative,'' the China Daily said in a commentary. It said the bombings were ``detestable'' and had killed many Yugoslavs, mostly innocent civilians, and displaced many more. ``The advent of starvation is merely a matter of days,'' it said. ``Display of hypocrisy,'' screamed the headline. The air strikes were ``at the very least amplifying a human calamity that could and should have been effectively contained,'' it said. NATO has said it launched the attacks to avert an even greater humanitarian tragedy in the Serbian province of Kosovo, where guerrillas are fighting for independence. It says Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic must accept an international peace plan that gives autonomy to Kosovo and its ethnic Albanian majority and allows in an international force to supervise the deal. The China Daily commentary said NATO accuses the Serbs of ethnic cleansing or genocide, but the Western military alliance ``actually carries out the indiscriminate slaughter'' of Yugoslavs. ``It is an even greater display of hypocrisy for NATO to speak of peace,'' the commentary added. The Chinese leadership has called repeatedly for an end to the NATO bombing and for political negotiations to resume. NATO ``would not have pulled the trigger...if peace were its real agenda'' the China Daily said. ``Must a sovereign state and victim of a foreign invasion surrender its legitimate right of national defence to foreign attacks?'' ``Should the issue of sovereignty be decided arbitrarily by a head of a state of a far-flung country?'' it said, referring to reports that the United States was considering a plan to let Kosovo break away from Yugoslavia. ``Are there any defensible arguments for NATO apologists to justify its invasion of a sovereign state?'' ``One cannot but ask: Who is the true culprit behind the worsening human tragedy there?'' the commentary added. EU challenges Chinese human rights record By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN, March 29 (Reuters) - The European Union said on Monday had challenged China on its human rights record at a conference in Berlin, but accepted that the violence in Yugoslavia showed Europe was not immune from abuses. Germany's deputy foreign minister, Ludger Volmer, said human rights was high among topics at the second Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), an informal gathering of foreign ministers from 25 EU and Asian countries. ``The question of human rights came up repeatedly, the problems in both Asia and Europe,'' Volmer told a news conference after the meeting hosted by Germany, which currently holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency. ``With the situation in Kosovo, we in Europe don't have the right to point a finger,'' he added. ``We held intensive discussions. There were many opportunities to discuss the human rights issue with China.'' Volmer added that the EU was deeply concerned'' about human rights abuses in Myanmar and said there was ``no alternative'' to respecting human rights. Leon Brittan, acting vice president of the European Commission, said even sensitive issues such as Tibet had been discussed by the foreign ministers in the forum, which produced a communique after eight hours of talks that in the end skirted the human rights issue. ``The discussion with China on human rights was very full,'' Brittan said. ``Sensitive issues were discussed in depth. Of course the positions differed dramatically.'' Volmer said the violence in Kosovo was deplorable but that the Asian ministers had expressed their support. ``Kosovo was discussed and there was considerable understanding for the European situation,'' Volmer said. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who could not attend the final briefing because of the Kosovo crisis, opened the conference by rejecting Chinese accusations that Europe was acting arrogantly by criticising human rights abuses in Asia. Fischer said EU nations had no interest in imposing western values on Asian nations. But he said improved human rights would promote peace and stability in Asia. ``It is neither intervention in domestic affairs nor western arrogance when we in Europe point to the importance of human rights. We are not in any way at all trying to impose our values on others.'' Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan rejected the criticism. He told Chinese journalists the comments constituted interference in China's domestic affairs. A separate meeting set for Tuesday of foreign ministers from the EU and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) was scrapped because the EU would not allow Myanmar to attend. The EU has long criticised Myanmar's human rights record. But Brittan said the Joint Cooperation Committee of the EU and ASEAN agreed to a meeting in May in Bangkok. Myanmar would take part ``passively'' in the meeting, according to Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan. Asia's recovery from the 1997 financial crisis was also an item central to the conference agenda. Brittan said Asian ministers reported the progress they had made in many Asian nations and reforms implemented so far. ``The progress is important, but there is a long way to go,'' he said.
