UN Millennium Summit
Rumblings within

From Our Correspondent

Three days, four round-tables and more than 150 speeches later, what did the UN Millennium Summit achieve? An exercise that raised consciousness about the scourge of war, poverty and disease, the largest gathering of world leaders in history pledged to make UN peacekeeping more effective in the 21st century. But the problems faced by UN were apparent to anyone who chose to raise their eyes to the rafters. So strapped is the UN for cash that the ceiling leaks—luckily for world's leaders the two days of heavy rain that preceded the summit gave way to sunshine. There is a constant danger that part of the ceiling might fall in. Yet the UN Summit got off to a hopeful beginning adding much-needed spiritual dimension to the task of United Nations, who brought together world leaders from more than 150 countries including 99 heads of state, 42 heads of government, five vice-presidents, one crown prince (Saudi Arabia) and six deputy prime ministers for the Summit in New York.

So many dignitaries in one location was a costly exercise—at least $10 million alone to cover security. More than 8000 police officers were protecting the UN building and 36 hotels, where the delegations were staying. Though the number of security officers was kept secret. Special lanes were created with cones down the middle of New York's avenue's to ensure priority for 1300 limousines, buses and cars that ferried the delegates around. More than 2500 journalists attended the summit, and eight kilometre of new cable was laid for broadcasters. In spite of the presence of so many leaders, demonstrations were small and muted. More than 91 organisations applied for permits to protest but they were scattered, as protestors targetted hotels of individual delegations. Outside the UN, the loudest protests were held by Chinese Falun Gong religions group and Free Tibet campaigners.

But there were no demonstrations on the scale of anti-globalisation protests in Seattle and Washington. Inside the UN, the Summit began with a minute's silence for meditation. The co-chairwoman called on each of the world's leaders to restrict their speech to five minutes: a green light would come on at the start of each speech and a red light 30 seconds before the time was up. First of the 150 world leaders called was US President Bill Clinton, who set a bad precedent by speaking for eight minutes. The seating was carefully organised by the UN protocol staff. Putting US and Iraq together would have been regarded as a mistake, as would the pairing of India and Pakistan. The original running order of speakers was also reorganised with delegations exchanging slots: the Europeans wanted to go on early so they could get airtime back home. Among those who stayed away from the Summit were Kim Jong-il of North Korea, Slobodon Milosevic of Yugoslavia and Mohammed Omar Mujahid of Afghanistan among others. The world leaders took part in four "interactive" round tables, designed to promote more informal and open discussion.