Around the World

Barak may uproot West Bank settlers

The decision to uproot 15 of 42 new settlements, some of which consist only of a trailer home or two on an isolated hilltop, had been broadly hinted this week in comments by Barak and other top officials. It marks an unusual defeat for the settler movement, which has enjoyed the support of numerous Israeli governments.

"This decision breaks the relationship we had with the prime minister and with his government," Yehoshua Mor-Yossef, a spokesperson for the settlers' umbrella council, said after Barak met with the group late yesterday. "We thought he would change his mind."

The settlers vowed to protest the decision, but it was not immediately clear whether they would physically resist the closures. If they are forcibly evacuated by police or soldiers, it will increase the political risk considerably for Barak, whose governing coalition includes settlement representatives and supporters.

Barak, who based the decision on legal grounds, was scheduled to meet Wednesdaywith two pro-settlement parties in the coalition, but there were

no initial signs of instability in the government.

Leaders of the movement Peace Now, which had campaigned against the outposts for months, applauded the decision but said more was needed.

``This is only the first step on a long road to peace,'' said Mossi Raz, the group's executive director. ``This is one of the first times that the

government has uprooted settlements on the West Bank, but many more need to come out.''

Located on strategic hilltops throughout the West Bank, the outposts were established during the last year, some about the time of the signing of

the Wye Plantation peace agreement in October and others in the weeks before Barak's election in May.

Many, the residents say, were inspired by former Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon's call to settlers after the Wye deal to ``grab the hills'' to establish

so-called facts on the ground before the Palestinians did the same. The aim was to enable Israel to hang on to strategic points, even after a final

peace accord is reached.

On Tuesday, the Palestinians, who hope to establish their own state in the West Bank within the year, said that all settlements, not only the new

ones, are illegal and must be closed. There are about 160 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which the United States also considers obstacles to

peace.

``All settlements on occupied land are the same,'' said Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian negotiator with the Israelis. ``They are all illegal, and they are

all destructive to the peace process.''

(Optional add end)

He also criticized Barak's policy of expanding existing West Bank communities, saying all construction must be stopped. Since Barak entered

office in early July, the government has approved construction of nearly 2,600 houses in the settlements, a pace that exceeds that set by Benjamin

Netanyahu, Barak's right-wing predecessor.

Barak, who heads the center-left Labor Party, has said frequently that he supports Jewish settlement on much of the West Bank land captured by

Israel in the 1967 Middle East War. But in criteria announced earlier this week, Barak differentiated between long-standing settlements and some

of the 42 outposts, which were erected without legal authorization.

Gadi Baltiansky, a spokesman for the prime minister, said Tuesday that 15 of the encampments will be closed, barring a successful _ and he made

clear, unlikely _ appeal by the settlers. Sixteen others will remain in place but not be allowed to expand, he said. Three are in the process of

legalization and will receive their final permits soon; eight others are viewed as wholly legal.

``The decision relates to the prime minister's view of the law and the rule of law,'' Baltiansky said. ``Now it's clear that those that are completely

illegal will be dealt with by being dismantled.''

LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST--10-12-99 2119EDT

Annan welcomes 6 billionth child

UNITED NATIONS - A population clock at U.N. headquarters hit 6 billion yesterday and started racing toward 7 billion as an anxious world pondered what the new millennium holds for an increasingly crowded planet.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the symbolic Baby 6 Billion in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina - a boy born to refugee parents in a region returning to life after a decade of war.

Adnan Nevic's birth ''should light a path of tolerance and understanding for all people,'' Annan said.

But the tens of thousands of children born on the Day of 6 Billion are far more likely to face lives of poverty and illiteracy in developing countries. UNICEF head Carol Bellamy noted that 1 in 3 children in the world's poorest countries won't live beyond age 5.

The challenge facing the world, Annan said, is to find ''the will'' to feed, clothe and house every inhabitant of Earth.

In Washington, meanwhile, President Clinton said the world's nations must work harder to erase the grinding poverty in which many of their people spend their lives.

''We must refuse to accept a future in which one part of humanity lives on the cutting edge of a new economy, while another part lives on the edge of survival,'' he said.

U.N. demographers had determined that the population would hit 6 billion on Tuesday, a doubling of the Earth's inhabitants in less than 40 years.

The population clock in the visitors lobby at U.N. headquarters was racing so fast Tuesday morning that it skipped from 5,999,999,998 to 6,000,000,001.

''Somebody had triplets,'' quipped one U.N. official.

The clock was inside a display set up by the U.N. Population Fund, which has advocated the right of people to determine the size of their families.

It is campaigning to fulfill the goal of the 1994 U.N. population conference - to provide basic education for all children, especially girls, by 2015, since research shows that educated women have fewer children.

With more than 1 billion people 15 to 24 just entering their reproductive years, the next population milestone will depend on the decisions they make about family size.

''Their choices will determine how many people will be on the planet by 2050 and beyond,'' read the Population Fund display.

And there is another ''youthquake'' coming, with 1.8 billion people under the age of 15.

Even with fertility rates falling, the United Nations projects that by 2050, the world's population will be between 7.3 billion and 10.7 billion, with 8.9 billion the most likely figure.

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji said the birth of the 6 billionth human being would have occurred four years ago if it wasn't for the country's one-child policy. In a letter to a national meeting Tuesday on population controls, he said the strict limit on family size saved the world 300 million births.

But local officials have been accused of using threats, sterilizations and late-term abortions to meet stringent birth quotas, although the government denies it condones such tactics.

With a population of 1.25 billion, China is the world's most populous country. But India is set to hit the 1 billion mark next year, and U.N. demographers predict it will become the most populous nation by 2040.

Tuesday's announcement that India's population will be 1 billion on May 11, 2000 - the anniversary of its multiple nuclear tests - provided a stark reminder of the choice between feeding millions and becoming a nuclear power.

While humanity is adding about 78 million people a year - more than 200,000 a day - the number of older people also is increasing dramatically in both developed and developing countries.

The Population Fund's Richard Leete said the aging of the world's population is raising questions for the 21st century: Should retirement a be raised? Will people in industrialized countries be forced to work longer because their pensions won't sustain their retirement? What should be done to keep older people active mentally and physically?

10-13-99