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Around the World

Brazilian diplomat to head East Timor

Sergio Viera de Mello, the United Nation's top humanitarian relief official who ran Kosovo in the weeks following NATO's intervention, will be the virtual governor of the territory. His selection, vigorously backed by the United States, likely will prove controversial among regional leaders who wanted the post to go to a Muslim from Asia.

Annan made the selection after the Timorese leadership said they would boycott any candidate from Southeast Asia, and a compromise candidate, former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi, declined the job, according to the sources.

Annan was expected to formally offer the post to de Mello at a meeting yesterday afternoon and make the announcement by tomorrow. De Mello reportedly is committed to serving for six months before returning to his current post in New York.

The decision comes days before the U.N. Security Council is expected to approve a proposal by Annan to deploy more than 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers in East Timor for three years. The United Nations hopes the peacekeeping mission can move quickly to replace an Australian-led force, which is eager to hand over the job to the world body before year's end.

Annan voiced concern in a recent interview that his efforts to react quickly to the East Timor crisis is being undermined by Washington's failure to meet its financial commitments to the United Nations.

But U.N. officials say Indonesia and Malaysia have led a campaign by a bloc of Third World countries to freeze funding for the U.N. operation in East Timor.

The two countries are demanding that the U.N. financial committee in charge of approving the budget for East Timor first approve a resolution criticizing the U.N.'s role there. "This is having a material impact on our ability to recruit people for the mission," said one U.N. source. "You can't hire staff if there is no cash in the bank."

U.N. officials say that no decision has been made on a commander for the peacekeeping mission. Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, said his government is prepared to either lead the U.N. operation or serve under another country. He said the Australia military, which has 4,300 troops in East Timor at a cost of $500 million, will provide up to 2,000 peacekeepers to the United Nations.

Demonstrators keep pressure on Zemin

Rights protesters and opponents of the Chinese occupation of Tibet were waiting when Jiang arrived on Monday, and have dogged his route since.

They waved flags and sang songs outside Buckingham Palace Tuesday night, as Queen Elizabeth II feted Jiang and his wife at a glittering state banquet. And on a barge trip down the River Thames to see the Greenwich Royal Observatory and Millennium Dome yesterday, Jiang passed beneath a banner that pro-Tibet activists unfurled from a bridge.

When the Chinese leader arrived for an engagement later at the Savoy Hotel in central London, a cyclist evaded police cordons, rode in front of the presidential limousine and waved a Tibetan flag. Two men were arrested after the incident.

Following the visit to the Savoy, where Jiang was visiting Bank of China staff, his motorcade passed within a few feet of chanting demonstrators.

After an official luncheon, Jiang, known to be a Shakespeare admirer, visited the re-creation of Shakespeare's Globe Theater on the south bank of the Thames and watched part of a performance of ''Julius Caesar.''

About 150 demonstrators waving multi-colored banners gathered opposite London's Guildhall, the ancient town hall, before Jiang's arrival for a banquet Wednesday evening.

They chanted slogans from behind police lines, and one group staged a demonstration of Falun Gong martial arts, whose practitioners have been suppressed in China.

As an army band began to play, protesters sounded air horns and sirens in an effort to drown the music out. After Jiang went inside, protesters burned a Chinese flag.

The heavy police protection afforded to him - and the distance at which many demonstrators have been kept - prompted some criticism.

10-21-99