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Reuters-FOCUS-Clinton calls for cla



Subject: Reuters-FOCUS-Clinton calls for clampdown on child labour 

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<font size=3>FOCUS-Clinton calls for clampdown on child labour<br>
11:05 a.m. Jun 16, 1999 Eastern<br>
By Steve Holland<br>
<br>
PARIS, June 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Bill Clinton opened a
week-long<br>
European tour with a high-profile appeal to the international community
on<br>
Wednesday to stamp out child prostitution and slavery.<br>
<br>
On the first day of a trip expected to be dominated by the aftermath of
the<br>
Kosovo war, Clinton told the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
in<br>
Geneva in a speech:<br>
<br>
``We must wipe from the Earth the most vicious forms of abusive
child<br>
labour. Every single day, tens of millions of children work in
conditions<br>
that shock the conscience.''<br>
<br>
Afterwards he flew to Paris with his wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea
for a<br>
24-hour visit including dinner at a restaurant with President
Jacques<br>
Chirac.<br>
<br>
He is also due to visit Germany and the former Yugoslav republic of<br>
Slovenia. U.S. officials were exploring the possibility of Clinton making
a<br>
stop at an ethnic Albanian refugee camp in Macedonia.<br>
<br>
Clinton became the first U.S. president to address the Geneva-based ILO,
the<br>
U.N. organisation responsible for establishing world labour
standards.<br>
<br>
He threw U.S. support behind a treaty that, if approved as expected
on<br>
Thursday, would require the ILO's 174 member states to take immediate
action<br>
to prohibit and eliminate the worst forms of child labour and remove
the<br>
children from them.<br>
<br>
The treaty will ban the use of children under 18 in all forms of
slavery,<br>
prostitution, pornography and other work that harms their health, safety
or<br>
morals.<br>
<br>
Clinton said some children were working chained to dangerous
machines.<br>
``These are not some archaic practices out of a Charles Dickens novel.
These<br>
are things that happen in too many places today.''<br>
<br>
He singled out Myanmar, formerly Burma, saying its government was
violating<br>
human rights by forcing people into labour, and called on the ILO's<br>
governing body to take action.<br>
<br>
``Until people have the right to change their destiny, we must stand by
them<br>
and keep up the pressure for change,'' he said.<br>
<br>
Clinton said the goal was to keep free trade flowing around the world
while<br>
also protecting the interests of working people.<br>
<br>
<br>
He said the ILO should not stop at closing factories where children
were<br>
forced to work long hours. Abuses would continue unless children
were<br>
assured access to schools and their parents had jobs, he said.<br>
<br>
Clinton said he would submit the treaty to the U.S. Senate for
ratification<br>
soon after it was approved in Geneva. He said he had already directed
the<br>
U.S. government to ensure it did not purchase any products made with
child<br>
labour.<br>
<br>
Gene Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council,
said<br>
the president wanted Senate action on the treaty this year.<br>
<br>
In Geneva, Clinton also met Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss. White
House<br>
spokesman Joe Lockhart said they had discussed the situation in Kosovo
and<br>
the challenge of returning hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians
to<br>
their homes.<br>
<br>
After formal talks on Thursday with Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel
Jospin,<br>
Clinton was to travel to Cologne, Germany, for the annual summit of
leaders<br>
of the Group of Seven major industrial democracies plus Russia.<br>
<br>
Buoying the leaders as they work on the global financial system and
debt<br>
relief for poor nations is the NATO alliance's victory in its 11-week
air<br>
war against Yugoslavia.<br>
<br>
But an embarrassing dispute with Russia is hanging over the summit.
Moscow<br>
is refusing to let its peacekeeping troops fall under NATO command
in<br>
Kosovo, and sent paratroopers rushing into the province ahead of
allied<br>
soldiers on Saturday.<br>
<br>
U.S. officials had been expressing confidence that agreement could
be<br>
reached before Clinton meets Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Germany
on<br>
Sunday, but Lockhart was non-committal:<br>
<br>
``I expect we'll reach an agreement. I'm not going to venture a guess on
a<br>
timetable to get it resolved.''<br>
<br>
U.S. Secretary of Defence William Cohen was meeting Russian Defence
Minister<br>
Igor Sergeyev in Helsinki on Wednesday for talks on the issue.<br>
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