18 - The Michigan Daily -- Thursday, November 17, 1994
Ukraine to discard
nuclear armaments
CANINE COASTER
Los Angeles Times
KIEV, Ukraine - After three
years of agonized wrangling, the
Ukrainian Parliament closed another
Cold War chapter yesterday by agree-
ing to join the Nuclear Non-Prolifera-
tion Treaty and surrender its nuclear
weapons forever.
However, lawmakers qualified
their approval of the treaty by de-
manding that the United States, Brit-
ain, France and Russia sign an inter-
national agreement promising not to
attack Ukraine militarily or economi-
cally after it dismantles its 1,800
nuclear warheads, the third-largest
atomic arsenal in the world.
U.S. and Russian officials had lob-
bied hard to extract the agreement
from arecalcitrant legislature that has
long feared Ukraine's problems would
drop to the bottom of the world's
agenda once the former Soviet repub-
lic ceased to be a nuclear power.
Ukrainian President Leonid D.
Kuchma warned of financial ruin and
political ostracism if lawmakers in-
sisted on keeping the 176 missiles left
on Ukrainian territory when the So-
viet Union collapsed. "What will the
treaty give Ukraine?" Kuchma asked
lawmakers. "A goodreputation, which
we don't have now."
The Parliament, or Rada, voted
301-8, with 20 abstentions, to join the
160 other countries that have already
signed the non-proliferation treaty.
The vote means Kuchma will get a
more sympathetic reception when he
makes his first state visit to the United
States next week and asks for more
help in reviving Ukraine's moribund
economy.
U.S. Ambassador William Miller,
who watched the voting from the Rada
gallery, predicted that the vote "will
clear the way for strengthening rela-
tions between the United States and
Ukraine."
In Washington, State Department
spokeswoman Christine Shelly ap-
plauded the ratification and declared
the Clinton administration "takes a
strong interest in Ukraine's indepen-
dence, its sovereignty and its existing
borders."
t:
"Keida" frolicks with a skateboard next to the fish fountain while she waits with her owner for the Phish concert.
--
ELECTION
Continued from Page 1
ing issue. I voted yes because I've
received help from the tenants' union
myself in the past," LSA senior Sean
Kinlin said. "I think even though not
all of their clients are students, the
majority of their clients are students,
and we should support them."
Even if the campaigning in this
election has been low key until yes-
terday, the issues may bring more
people out to vote. MSA poll worker
Seth Altman said he thinks this term's
turnout will be larger than last year.
"LSA is big, and I think Rackham
may be even bigger," said Altman,
who was working at a polling site in
the Fishbowl. "I'm guessing, but I'd
say it could be 10 to 15 percent (turn-
out)."
Julie Kashen, who was working
with Altman, disagreed. "I think that
the Fishbowl isjust where most people
vote, and the turnout's not necessar-
ily different (than any other year)."
Official estimates of voter turnout
will not be available until after polls
close tomorrow, said MSA Election
Director Christine Young.
"We get a list of all registered
students from the registrar's office,
and we post it on the wall. Then we
take the ballots, check the name and
I.D. (number) to make sure that per-
son is a student here. Then we high-
light the name on the list, so we know
that person voted," Young said.
Young said the validation process
may be delayed until tonight. "I just
received the list from the registrar's
office, and we're trying to piece it @
together so we can put it up on the
walls. It's taking more time than we
expected," she said.
Some polling sites will be open as
late as 9:45 p.m.
U.N. may
lift Iraq
sanctions
United States drops
objections to lifting
sanctions after Iraq
renounces claims to
Kuwaiti territory
UNITED NATIONS (AP)- The
Security Council yesterday welcomed
Iraq's recognition of Kuwait after a
protracted debate that revealed the
near-total isolation of the United
States on the issue of lifting sanc-
tions.
In a unanimously approved decla-
ration read by U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations Madeleine K.
Albright, president for the month of
November, the council said it "con-
siders this decision by Iraq to be a
significant step in the direction to-
wards implementation of the relevant
Security Council resolutions."
Until a compromise was finally
reached, the United States, supported
only by Britain, found itself opposed
by the 13 other members of the coun-
cil on the wording of the declaration
that amounted to the United Nations'
official acknowledgment of Iraq's
renunciation of its claims to a country
it invaded in 1990, leading to the
Persian Gulf war.
On the surface, the debate sounded
like a squabble over quibbles; a U.S.
official derided it as an argument over
"semicolons and colons."
But the debate reflected deep divi-
sions within the Security Council,
and it is now clear that there is very
little support for the Clinton
administration's insistence that all
sanctions must remain in place on
Iraq until it complies with a host of
Security Council resolutions. The pre-
vailing view appears to be that if Iraq
allows a system of permanent moni-
toring for arms violations on its soil,
then the council should reward Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein in six months
or so with at least a partial lifting of
the ban on its sale of oil.
Some ambassadors also displayed
annoyance over a packet of aerial
photographs that Albright passed
around on Monday as evidence that
Hussein was lavishing more than $1
billion on the restoration and con-
struction of government palaces and
lavish residences while bemoaning
the effects of the international eco-
nomic sanctions.
"The buildings were wasteful,"
said one Security Council ambassa-
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