Deny equal status to military rulers: Annan

WARSAW, JUNE 28. Meeting against the backdrop of recent coups in Pakistan and Fiji, over 100 countries have called for ``prompt response'' from various organisations to prevent takeover of power by unconstitutional means and also to check state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.

A Warsaw declaration issued at the end of first-ever dialogue among 107 nations last night appealed for global efforts to stamp out challenges to democracy, including all forms of terrorism.

Speaking at the conference, the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, admonished military rulers in Pakistan and other countries and endorsed a proposal to deny them equal status in any assembly of elected heads of state.

He said he was looking forward to the day when the U.N. General Assembly would follow the lead taken by African leaders at their Algiers summit last year when they declared that governments which came to power through unconstitutional means could not expect to be received as equals to elected heads of state.

The inter-governmental dialogue, which focussed on the theme of ``community of democracies'', was attended by Foreign Ministers and other representatives from 107 nations, including India's External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh.

Mr. Annan made a pointed reference to Pakistan being reverted to military rule while highlighting a ``troubling number of cases'' last year where democratic rule had been subverted, or maintained in name only, while in reality authoritarian government had taken over.

Addressing a joint news conference at the end of the two-day meeting, representatives of the seven-member convening group proposed setting up an ad hoc panel of experts to examine ways to deal with crises arising out of threat to democracy.

France, however, refused to sign the Warsaw declaration after a spat with the U.S. over the exact significance of the document.

India along with the hosts Poland, the U.S., South Korea, the Czech Republic, Chile and Mali are represented in the key convening group to formulate strategies to deal with among other things common long-term challenges faced by democracies.

``All views of the democratic governments were incorporated in the Warsaw declaration and it was a smooth affair,'' said India's Ambassador to the U.S., Mr. Naresh Chandra, deputising for Mr. Jaswant Singh who had to leave for Lisbon to attend the Indo- European Union summit.

The ministerial panel on ``sharing best practices'' chaired by Mr. Singh proposed voluntary initiatives from member- countries to hold dialogues on specific issues concerning the democratic process.

The ministerial participants agreed that sharing best practices was an effective way to realise the common objective of preserving and strengthening democracy. The communique noted the ``support'' for creating a ``democracy caucus'' within existing international financial institutions and wanted these agencies to consider the benefits of good governance and rule of law in their deliberations.

- PTI

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