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- W M W x . ' . n ~ . i