United Nations

Gerald Lavin, a former United Nations officer, died Oct. 2 of complications after surgery at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The Annapolis resident was 79. Born in Queens, N.Y., he graduated from Queens College and earned a master's degree from Hofstra University. Mr. Lavin taught school in New York City and then moved to Indonesia, where he taught the children whose parents worked at the Caltex oil company based there. Upon returning to the United States, he worked as a corporate media writer, producing copy for print and film.

UNITED NATIONS -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, refused to say yesterday whether he would comply with a Security Council demand to withhold arms from Hezbollah, the Tehran-backed guerrilla group that fought a 34-day war with Israel in southern Lebanon. "I'd like to say that Lebanon's affairs are its own affairs, and we don't want to interfere," Ahmadinejad said at a news conference, when he was asked whether Iran would favor disarming the group, as called for in the council resolution that ended the combat last month.

UNITED NATIONS -- Bringing his verbal war against the White House to the United Nations yesterday, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez branded President Bush "the devil" and the United States an "imperialist empire" on the verge of collapse. "The devil came here yesterday ... talking as if he owns the world," the flamboyant leftist said from the floor of the General Assembly, making the sign of the cross. "It still smells of sulfur." Bush came to "preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillaging," Chavez continued as he waved a copy of leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky's book Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance.

UNITED NATIONS -- President Bush called yesterday for Muslims and other residents of the Middle East to reject extremism and empower "voices of moderation," offering the latest defense of his "freedom agenda" that has rankled allies abroad and drawn criticism from Democrats at home. In a speech at the opening of the annual U.N. General Assembly debate, Bush singled out Iran, Syria and militia groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas as obstacles to reform and supporters of terrorism, vowing again that Iran must not be allowed to pursue nuclear weapons.

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council voted yesterday to send a new peacekeeping force to Sudan's troubled western Darfur region, but the Sudanese government immediately rejected the resolution as "illegal." The rejection heightened diplomats' concerns about a looming humanitarian crisis in the region, where an African Union contingent has been largely unable to protect civilians and monitor a cease-fire. The Sudanese government in the capital, Khartoum, said yesterday that the U.N. force is unwelcome and that its own soldiers will pacify the region in tandem with the African Union troops.

UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations scrambled yesterday to assemble a peacekeeping force for Lebanon after an offer of only 200 troops from France, which is expected to lead the contingent. A handful of countries made firm commitments at a meeting where Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch-Brown asked for 3,500 troops who could arrive in south Lebanon within 10 days to augment the existing U.N. force of 2,000. Italy and Spain, who are expected to be Europe's largest contributors, said they must receive Cabinet approval before making specific offers.

VIENNA, Austria -- Serb and Kosovar leaders reluctantly met face to face yesterday for the first time since NATO bombs drove Serbian forces out of the Albanian-majority province in 1999. A United Nations special envoy called the meeting in Vienna, Austria, to make progress on Kosovo's future status: Kosovars want independence and Serbia opposes division. Statements after the meeting made clear that the sides are far apart and cast doubt on a negotiated solution. Kosovars and Serbs refused to appear together at the news conference; each side held its own briefing.

U.S. blocks progress on small-arms limits John Hillen's column "Small arms, big danger" (Opinion * Commentary, July 3) rightly highlights the importance of the United Nations' ongoing Small Arms Review Conference in New York but neglects to mention the intransigence the United States has shown on future United Nations efforts on the issue. Mr. Hillen states that "the United States will make the case that its laws, practices and enforcement procedures are effective models other nations should follow."

East Timor, once viewed as a U.N. success story because the world body had backed an Australian intervention to rescue the impoverished island from the grips of the Indonesian army, has become beset by poverty and civil turmoil. The latest rioting, which forced more than 100,000 people from their homes, had nothing to do with the Indonesian army, which had occupied the tiny island for 27 years. This time it was rival gangs of desperate young men, aided and abetted by members of East Timor's army, that burned down buildings and attacked each other with machetes.

DILI, EAST TIMOR --The police here, trained by the United Nations over the four years of this country's existence, melted away in the dilapidated capital yesterday, abandoning their stations for hiding places they felt would keep them safe from a vengeful military. Opposing gangs of young men, divided along lines of ethnicity and armed with rocks and machetes, roamed the streets setting fires that sent up thick smoke. All stores were closed. The city's handful of gas stations shut down when their Western owners, fearful that their employees would be attacked and their pumps emptied, were evacuated.