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AP-Human Rights Panel Opens Session



Monday March 22 2:57 PM ET

Human Rights Panel Opens Session
By CLARE NULLIS Associated Press Writer

GENEVA (AP) - The U.N. Human Rights Commission opened its annual six-week
session today with a plea for more efforts to prevent abuses and punish the
guilty.

``We meet today at the end of a century which has witnessed brutality on a
scale without historical precedent,'' said Mary Robinson, U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights. ``It has also charted a new course in the
protection of human rights.''

``Protection and prevention must define the Commission's work in the years
to come,'' she told the 53-nation watchdog.

Robinson, a former president of the Irish Republic, said more must be done
to implement existing international law and try those accused of crimes
against humanity.

During the six-week commission meeting, violations in countries including
Iraq, Sudan and Myanmar as well as the Yugoslav province of Kosovo will come
under the spotlight.

The European Union announced today that it had decided not to press for
formal condemnation of China, which has recently clamped down on dissidents.
The West dropped long-running efforts to push through a censure motion on
China last year after developing countries repeatedly sided with Beijing to
block the motion.

The EU could not agree on a resolution, but said in a statement it would use
the Geneva meeting to ``express its growing concerns on the human rights
situation in China.''

Chinese President Jiang Zemin will meet Robinson in Geneva on Friday, but
will not address the commission. Robinson said in a statement that she
continued to be ``concerned about human rights issues in China.''

A four-man U.N. technical team returned from Beijing after giving advice to
authorities on how to ratify two international covenants on political and
economic rights.

Many foreign dignitaries are due to speak - including eight foreign
ministers on Tuesday. Dozens of non-governmental organizations are on hand
to lobby for their causes.

Anne Anderson of Ireland was elected president of the meeting at its opening
session.

``Ours is an island still seeking to finally heal the scars of history,''
she said. ``Like so many countries here we have learned the long and hard
way how much human rights matter.''


The meeting opened under unprecedented security, with the U.N. compound
barricaded by barbed wire and guarded by armed soldiers to prevent Kurds
from invading the building to protest Turkey's detention of their leader,
Abdullah Ocalan.

About 25 Kurds began a demonstration today in front of U.N. headquarters.