Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 5, 1994 TAG: 9409070047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: CAIRO, EGYPT LENGTH: Medium
Compromise proposals being circulated by the envoys centered on controversial language in the draft plan dealing with definitions of ``reproductive rights'' and the family; sex education and family-planning services for teen-agers; and abortion.
These issues, while constituting less than 10 percent of the U.N. draft, have emerged as the major stumbling block to consensus at the U.N. Conference on Population and Development, which is aimed at forging a strategy to stabilize human numbers at a level considered by experts to be environmentally sustainable.
``The outstanding questions are important, but they should not be allowed to overshadow the great progress we have made,'' said Nafis Sadik, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund and secretary-general of the conference. ``Thanks to the experience of the past, we have a very specific, very candid draft document. By the time this conference is over, I hope the program of action will be part of the future.''
Even before today's formal opening speeches by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Vice President Al Gore and other dignitaries, U.N. officials were hailing the conference as a success. So far, 174 member countries and six non-members have sent delegations to the meeting, with only six - Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Sudan, Monaco, Liechtenstein and Iraq - staying away.
Security for the meeting was extremely tight, with police and paramilitary forces saturating Cairo's traffic-choked downtown, ringing major hotels and sealing off the area around the gigantic Chinese-built conference center. Islamic militants have threatened to attack foreigners attending what they have termed the ``licentious conference.''
In private meetings over the weekend, U.S. officials urged nonaligned nations to accept compromise language drafted over the summer by the European Union, participants said. U.S. officials expressed optimism Sunday that the proposal would emerge as the vehicle for breaking the logjam over the draft because it enjoys support from a broad spectrum of countries.
by CNB