Extracts. Reunification of China Is Necessity of History: Commentary Human history has entered the new century and the new millenium. How should the United States, the world's biggest developed country; and China, the world's largest developing country, make a correct positioning and choice in regard to the Taiwan issue. In the past few months, the repeated wrong actions in relation to the Taiwan issue taken by the US government in violation of the three Sino-US joint communiques have directly harmed China's national interests, constituting damage to the foundation of Sino-US relations. **** World Backs Jakarta's Megawati Indonesia's popular Megawati Sukarnoputri has taken over the leadership of the world's fourth most populous nation, but her disgraced predecessor remained in the presidential palace early on Tuesday. World leaders have warmly welcomed Megawati's appointment as Indonesia's fourth president in as many turbulent years. The daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno has established a strong reputation as a democrat by her opposition to former autocrat Suharto, the long-serving general ousted from the presidency by a wave of public protest in 1998. The United States threw its weight behind Megawati's election and urged reconciliation and fresh efforts to end the graft that racks the Indonesian archipelago. "We urge all parties there to work together to maintain peace, support the constitution and promote national reconciliation," said Philip Reeker, deputy State Department spokesman. President George Bush, speaking in Italy, said he looked forward to working Megawati. "We hope all parties will work together to maintain peace, support the constitution and promote national reconciliation," he told a news conference. The European Union said it was pleased the transition was peaceful -- for the first time in Indonesia's troubled history -- and hoped stability could be returned to the Southeast Asian giant. Jakarta's neighbors also welcomed the peaceful change. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said his government wanted to build stronger ties with Jakarta, and his Australian counterpart John Howard said Megawati had long been a champion of democratic ideals. "Australia has an important and wide-ranging relationship with Indonesia," Howard said. Relations between the two neighbors became strained after Australia led international peacekeepers into East Timor in 1999 after it voted for independence from Jakarta. In Hanoi, ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino told reporters: "I think it's a reality, this change... parliament has spoken, the MPR (top assembly), and we have to accept that." Singapore said it hoped the change would usher in a period of calm. Relations between the two have often been tense under Wahid's presidency. He once threatened to cut off water supplies to the tiny island nation. **** Kyoto Deal Leaves U.S. Isolated Negotiators from nearly 200 countries have reached agreement on the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, but President Bush remains opposed to the pact. Negotiators from around the world cleared the way July 23 for the first treaty to combat global warming, challenging the United States to join the worldwide effort to curb polluting gases. Though the U.S. withdrawal in March punched a big hole in the treaty, the Europeans were determined to finally launch a climate change pact in the works for seven years, and they said Washington would be welcome to join. "It's a first step," EU chief negotiator Olivier Deleuze said. "To bring the United States on board, we first needed a boat. Now we have a boat." Bush has promised his own proposals, but his delegation showed up in Bonn empty-handed. At issue in the talks were rules to govern the Kyoto pact, which pledges industrialized nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, chiefly carbon dioxide from cars, power plants and factories. During two sleepless nights of bargaining and phone calls between the Bonn delegates and their capitals, Japan emerged as the key holdout because of misgivings about the enforcement provisions. Conference chairman Jan Pronk and key delegates holed up through the night and into July 23 morning, bargaining over a draft accord he crafted to avoid a failure like at the last conference in November. The breakthrough came at about 10 a.m. when Japanese Environment Minister Yuriko Kawaguchi looked at the latest compromise proposal "and said, basically, 'We can accept everything here,"' conference spokesman Michael Williams said. Two hours later, Pronk signaled adoption of the draft with the rap of a gavel before the full conference. He was greeted by a standing ovation. The final deal included core agreements on enforcement, emission credits for forests that soak up carbon, aid to promote clean energy in poorer nations, and emissions trading �� buying and selling the right to pollute. Illustrating U.S. isolation at the talks, chief delegate Paula Dobriansky drew boos from the gallery July 23 when she insited Washington is committed to tackling climate change. The EU offered a major concession by softening limits on how countries can offset obligations to cut pollution by counting the proper management of forests and farmlands, which absorb carbon dioxide. To help developing nations trying to clean up emissions so they can one day join the treaty, the EU announced a $410 million fund. **** Falun Gong Follower Dies of Self-Immolation A 19-year-old Falun Gong follower died early this month after setting himself on fire in Nanning, capital city of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, local police announced here Monday. Luo Guili, born in 1982, became a practitioner of Falun Gong in 1996 when he was a student at the Guangxi Light Industry School. On July 1 this year, he went to the Nanning Minzu Square to sit and meditate. After a while, he pulled two plastic bottles containing alcohol from a bag, doused himself and then ignited before patrol guards and police could rush to stop him. The young man was immediately sent to a hospital, where he admitted that he was a Falun Gong follower, claiming that he was trying to burn off the evil hidden in his body so as to reach a higher level in Falun Gong practice. Doctors from the Nanning No.1 People's Hospital said that they tried all available means to save the young man, but he died the next morning as a result of severe extensive burns and consequent heart and lung failure. **** Demonstration Held Against US Position on Comfort Women A demonstration was held on Monday in front of the US State Department, protesting the US support of Japan's refusal to provide justice to women who were forced into rape camps by Japan during World War II. The demonstrators, coming from some major US cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and New York, chanted slogans: " Japanese Emperor must Apologize!" "Justice for Comfort Women!" and "Punish War Criminals!" The demonstration was sponsored by 11 US-based organizations, including National Organization for Women, Young Koreans United of USA and Truth Council for World War II in Asia. In a letter delivered to the State Department and cosigned by over 300 US-based organizations, the demonstrators urged the US government to immediately withdraw a recent "State of Interest" in which it opposed and requested the dismissal of a class action lawsuit filed by some "comfort women" victims on September 18, 2000. The lawsuit, the first-ever of its kind which was filed in a federal court in Washington D.C., demands redress from the Government of Japan for the comfort women victims. "We must convey our shock, disappointment, and condemnation of this action (of the US government)," the letter said. "We demand that the U.S. stand on the side of justice and human rights, and take steps to assist -- not hinder -- the comfort women's quest for justice," it noted. Between 1932 and 1945, an aknowledged number of over 400,000 women and young girls from some Asian countries or regions as well as the Netherlands were rounded up by the Japanese military and forced into sex camps where they were raped by up to seventy soldiers a day, tortured, beaten and sometimes murdered. Some of the victims -- known euphemistically as "comfort women" -- were as young as ten years old when their ordeal began. **** Third Sino-German Human Rights Seminar Opens in Beijing The third Sino-German Human Rights Seminar opened here Tuesday under the theme of "human rights development and improvement of the legal system." More than 30 Chinese and German experts and scholars are expected to focus on discussions on such topics as the "influence of the legal system on the development of culture and human rights, " "human rights development and the promotion of democracy in rural China" and "enforcement of international conventions on human rights." Addressing the opening ceremony, Huang Hua, honorary president of the China Foundation for Human Rights Development (CFHRD), said that since China is a developing country, the subsistence and development rights are the core of the human rights cause in China. He reiterated that the principle of mutual-respect and equality should be abided by in conducting international exchanges in the field of human rights. German Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin said that China not only has made marked economic achievements in recent years, but also has written "administering the country in accordance with law" into the constitution. Germany supports the dialogue and exchange with China on the basis of mutual trust in the field of human rights, he said. The seminar, jointly initiated by the CFHRD and the Friedrich Ebert Fund of Germany in 1999,is sponsored by the CFHRD, the Chinese Association for International Understanding, and the Friedrich Ebert Fund. **** China, Malta Sign Three Documents on Cooperation China and Malta signed three documents Tuesday in Valletta intended to strengthen bilateral cooperation in culture and tourism. Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who is here on a state visit, and Maltese Prime Minister Edward Fenech Adami witnessed the signing of the documents on the establishment of a cultural center in Malta, cultural cooperation between the two countries for 2001- 2003, and a plan to organize trips for Chinese tourists to Malta. Jiang and Adami held talks before the signing ceremony. They exchanged views on the development of bilateral relations and on some major international issues. The Chinese president said China and Malta should make joint efforts to push forward bilateral relations in political, economic and cultural areas. "I'm fully confident of the development of Chinese-Maltese relations in the future," Jiang said. Adami said Jiang's current visit to Malta will strengthen bilateral relations and expressed congratulations on Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. He mentioned his last visit to China in 1994 and said he hoped to visit China again. He stressed that his government will firmly uphold the one-China policy. Malta is the last leg of Jiang's five-nation tour of Europe, which also took him to Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. He is expected to wrap up the visit Wednesday. **** Hezbollah Reiterates Right to Resistance Against Israel Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah on Tuesday reiterated that it has the "legitimate right" to launching resistance against Israel. In a statement to react to a report released by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Hezbollah said that it has the "legitimate right to fighting against Israel because it is occupying Lebanese lands, detaining Lebanese people and infringing the Lebanese airspace." In the report to the U.N. Security Council, Annan complained that Lebanese government is "reluctant" to deploy troops in the south, leaving the area under the control of Hezbollah guerrillas. Cross-border attacks by Hezbollah, or Party of God, against Israeli troops were "a main source of concern" in the Middle East, Annan claimed, urging Lebanon to deploy troops along the border with Israel. He also criticized Israeli warplanes' incursions into Lebanon's airspace. Hezbollah counterattacked Annan's comment by saying that Israel is the "source of troubles," stressing that "we have the right to strike back to the continued invasion of Israel." Hezbollah spearheaded the resistance against Israel before it withdrew from south Lebanon in May 2000 to end a 22-year occupation. But the guerrilla group says it will continue fighting against Israel as long as it occupies the Shebaa Farms, which Beirut and Damascus say belong to Lebanon. Israel, however, insists that it captured the Shebaa Farms from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War and that the issue be resolved in its negotiations with Syria. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
