Around the World

U.N. study reveals a need for reform

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. sanctions are often ignored, but when they do strike home, it's often innocents who are hurt and not the rogue regimes they targeted, according to the first case-by-case report card on their effectiveness.

The report highlights a dilemma Secretary-General Kofi Annan has raised repeatedly with regard to Iraq, and comes after a decade in which the United Nations imposed more sanctions than at any other time.

''The Sanctions Decade: Assessing U.N. Strategies in the 1990s,'' is expected to generate a lengthy debate when it is presented to the Security Council on Monday, when it takes up the issue of reforming sanctions.

For the most part, the 274-page report backs ''smart sanctions'' that target regimes with specific measures and not broad-based trade embargoes that often hurt innocent civilians.

It cites a ban on Angolan rebels' diamond exports as a good way to starve the rebels' ability to finance their military campaign - but notes that the ban was never enforced and was only imposed after the rebels had earned nearly $4 billion from gem sales.

The book examines the Angola ban and 10 other U.N. embargoes imposed in the last 10 years.

Opponents warn of Fujimori's campaign

LIMA, Peru - Opposition activists were jubilant yesterday after forcing a second round in Peru's presidential elections, but experts warned that supporters of President Alberto Fujimori would step up a campaign of dirty tricks and electoral fraud to hold on to power. Fujimori fell a hair short of the majority he needed and will face upstart challenger Alejandro Toledo, an international economist who once shined shoes to help out his impoverished family.