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The World Today
June, 1998
The dramatic resignation of President Suharto on May 21 confirmed the continuing critical role played by the country's armed forces. It was apparantly a late night meeting with his senior generals which prompted Asia's longest serving rular to conclude that he could not continue in office. Significantly, General Wiranto, the Defence Minister, has promised to support his successor President Habibie and 'protect' Suharto. For his part, Habibie, who had been Vice-President, has made it clear that he wants to continue in office until 2003 maintaining much of the substance of the Suharto regime. The absence of troops on the streets ‰during the rioting of May 12-15, and their massive presence on May 20, the eve of Suharto's departure, now takes on added meaning. It was in effect a vote of no confidence in Suharto by the army.
Micheal C. Williams is a Senior Consultant with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This article represents his personal views.
Revelations about the alleged role of Sandline International in the Nigerian-led efforts to reinstate the democratically elected government in Sierra Leone raise serious questions. On the surface, restoring to power President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah appears to be an altruistic mission, but this conceals deeper security concerns.
Funmi Olonisakin is a Research Associate at the Centre for Defence Studies at Kings College, London, and is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
A great deal of attention has recently focused on the issue of child labour. The Global March — which got under way in the Philippines in January — has been travelling the world raising awareness of the negative effects of long working hours, hard physical labour and loss of schooling, and urging governments to take immediate action. The march will end in Geneva this month, where the International Labour Organisation is to discuss a new convention on the most intolerable forms of child labour, due to be completed a year from now.
David Westbrook is Child Rights Advisor in the Policy and Research Department of World Vision UK.
After years of UN debate, a treaty to establish a permanent international criminal court may be ready for signature in Rome in July. It is still uncertain whether agreement can be reached and which countries will sign, ratify and enforce the treaty. The international legal community is itself now on trial.
Benjamin B. Ferencz a Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, writes and lectures for world peace.
Many articles have been written about the changes globalisation has brought in the past decade. Advances in technology, transport and increased freedom of movement have enhanced the quality of life for millions of people. The simultaneous breakdown of traditional political divides has similarly improved economic and social development. However, globalisation has brought problems for the international community which did not exist twenty-five years ago and they will require some creative solutions. This is particularly true in the area of drug control.
Pino Arlacchi is the Executive Director of the United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNDCP).
Tackling drugs problems involves more than words. What matters most is how ideas will be put into action. Pino Arlacchi, the UNDCP's Executive Director, has been busy trying to galvanise international political support for the agency's fight against drugs. Although the UNDCP usually avoids controversial military metaphors in articulating its anti-drugs strategies, Arlacchi invoked such images at a press conference in Vienna: 'The war on drugs has not been fought and lost,' he said, 'it has never started.'
Ken Bluestone is Policy Officer for the Catholic Institute for International Relations in London. Tom Blickman is a Researcher for the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam.
President Bill Clinton is about to visit China, the first occupant of the Oval office to go there since the suppression of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. What is even more controversial is the President's plan to visit the Square itself. Those backing the trip argue that China is changing in ways that deserve support. Our two articles examine the prospects for China and whether changes there will be enough to achieve the ultimate prize: reunification with Taiwan.
Richard Grant is Head of the Asia Pacific Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
A large clock has been set up in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to count down the five hundred or so days until the small Portuguese-ruled territory of Macau is returned to China on 20 December1999. This follows the precedent set prior to the handover of Hong Kong last July. The smooth and successful completion of these two reunifications is seen by the Chinese as symbolically important for ending the 'century of humiliation' at the hands of foreign imperialists. They are also crucial to the ultimate goal, the return to the fold of the recalcitrant 'breakaway province' of Taiwan. Has the metaphorical clock already started ticking for Taiwan?
Brian Bridges of Lingnan College in Hong Kong was formerly Head of the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House.
In the first half of May, India carried out two series of nuclear tests. These have both global and regional implications. The principle issues of global concern are proliferation into the Middle East and the dissolution of the emerging norm against nuclear testing. The regional implications involve both Pakistan and India.
William Hopkinson is Head of the International Security Programme at Chatham House. He was previously Assistant Under Secretary (Policy) at the Ministry of Defence in London.
Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo by Miranda Vickers
Kosovo: Avoiding Another Balkan War, edited by Thanos Veremis, Evangelos Kofos
Kosovo: A Short History by Noel Malcolm
Sir Reginald Hibbert, a retired British Diplomat, is an honourary fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, and was Director of the Ditchley Foundation.