Brief items for which space was lacking in earlier editions
*** EU: Finnish Presidency: Closing the Finnish Presidency in Virmajaervi (the first place the European Union entered the year 2000) on 31 December, Finnish Prime minister Paavo Lipponen said that "democracy, the rule of law, the respect of human rights, a viable market economy and a society without fractures" were the principles that had to continue to guide the European Union in the new millennium. Finland's greatest success is "our parliamentary system", he said, recalling that Finns, "both men and women", were the first, in 1907, to elect a parliament through universal suffrage (at the time, Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian empire).
*** EU/France/Pollution: After the oil slick caused in Brittany by the accident of the oil tanker "Erika", French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said that, when exercising the Presidency of the European Union Council in the second half of this year, France would propose introducing stricter controls on the navigation of oil tankers.
*** Euro/United Kingdom: According to a poll published in the "Times" last week, 59% of British reject the single European currency, and only 17% would be ready to give up the pound. In addition, six of the main British trade unions (GMB, AEEU, GPMU, KTFAT, Unifi and MSF) have decided to set up a pressure group working in favour of Britain's rapid accession to the euro.
*** Kosovo: In an interview with AFP, the UN representative for Kosoco, Bernard Kouchner, said: "Politically and morally, we cannot let down the Kosovars. Were we to abandon them, it would mean that we have understood nothing." Regretting that NATO's intervention in Kosovo had been "so late", Mr. Kouchner said he was prepared to consider the Fry as "an interlocutor like any other", especially as long as Belgrade gave information on the some 2000 Kosovar Albanians held in Serbia.
*** International Criminal Court: The spokesperson for the French government announced that France could be among the first countries to ratify the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, ratifying the treaty in the first half of the year 2000. The International Criminal Court, which will judge crimes against humanity and genocide, could be set up following ratification by 60 countries (so far, only 5 signatory countries of the 120 have ratified the treaty, which was signed in Rome in 1998).
*** Defence/Sweden: In an interview with AFP, Lieutenant-Colonel Stefan Gustafsson, responsible for "long-term development" in the Swedish army, said that General Wiktorin, Army Chief-of-Staff, "has asked us to reconvert into information technologies, which is the key to tomorrow's wars." Colonel Gustafsson said that Sweden was in contact on this subject with the United States, the United Kingdom and France, and that "with them, we hope to render European electronic defence systems inviolable".
*** Environment/Russia: Alexander Nikitin, ecologist and former Russian officer accused of high treason for having provided information on the Russian nuclear fleet in a report drawn up for the Norwegian ecological organisation Bellona, has been acquitted by the court of Saint-Petersburg. The General Prosecutor had called for twelve years imprisonment. "I wrote that report in all conscience and honesty and will never regret it", Mr. Nikitin commented. You may recall that the European Parliament drew attention to the Nikitin affair on several occasions.
*** Press: The association Reporters sans Frontieres said that in 1999 36 journalists were killed while on the job (compared to 19 in 1998). Thus, 28 journalists were killed in war zones (10 in Sierra Leone, 6 in Yugoslavia, 6 in Colombia, 3 in Chechnya, 2 in East Timor and one in Lebanon), whereas others were victims of extremist groups (especially in Sri Lanka, India and Turkey). In addition, in 1999, 85 journalists were imprisoned (93 in 1998), 46 of whom in Cuba and 19 in Turkey. According to Reporters sans Frontieres, however, the regimes that hit journalists the hardest last year were Burma, Syria, China and Ethiopia, where journalists were subjected to degrading treatment and torture.
*** Switzerland: Adolf Ogi, Swiss Minister for Defence and Sport is President of the Swiss Confederation since 1 January, for a year. Mr. Ogi, who succeeds Ruth Dreifuss, is a member of the People's Party UDC (Union Democratique du Centre) and recently said that he wanted "a UDC of tolerance", and thart xenophobes and racists "have no place in the party".
*** Chechnya/Tories: Statements on Russian policy in Chechnya made by John Maples British Tory "shadow foreign minister" led to lively reactions. "The sooner they succeed, the better", Mr. Males told Sky News.