Al-Ahram Weekly | International

		Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 15 - 21 March 2001 Issue No.525
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The new race
NO SOONER was the once unthinkable decoding of the human genome announced than another, more disturbing race was launched: the quest for the human clone. At a conference in Rome on Friday, Italian fertility expert Severino Antinori and his consortium of international specialists announced that they will attempt to produce the first cloned human baby -- research they say is both humane and the last resort for infertile fathers desperate for a genetically related child. If successful, the son will be more than that: it will be an exact genetic replica of the father. Antinori and American doctor Panos Zavos called their efforts the "last frontier" in tackling male sterility, but the Vatican simply called it "grotesque". Until now, successful cloning of animals has an almost prohibitive rate of error and most scientists say that, aside from the obvious ethical and moral questions surrounding the endeavour, we are not at a point where it is feasible for humans. Human cloning is denounced by the UN, the EU and the World Health Organisation, but some places, notably Britain, permit the cloning of human embryos for disease research.
Standing ground
THE LONG shadow of corruption hanging over long-time Ukrainian politico Leonid Kuchma has darkened into storms as the tempest over his alleged connection to the murder of anti-corruption and opposition journalist Georgy Gongadze swelled into the largest demonstrations in Kiev since Ukraine's independence. Elected as the country's second president in 1994 and re-elected in 1999, Kuchma has seen the former Soviet republic through more than a decade of radical change. But a disgruntled populace have felt under-served as poverty continues to rise and Kuchma's administration weathers yet another scandal. An estimated 18,000 demonstrators trooped through the streets on Friday and numerous clashes with riot police grew violent. Timed to coincide with a ceremony remembering famed Ukrainian poet Tara Shevchenko, protesters stamped out the wreath Kuchma left on Shevchenko's grave and called for the beleaguered leader to step down. But on Saturday, Kuchma cast doubts aside and conspicuously downplayed the event, saying that he has no intention of resigning. Investigations into the death of Gongadze, whose decapitated body was found outside Kiev last November, have yielded little news.
Bowing out
EQUALLY scandal-ridden, but evidently less resolute, is careworn Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who finally signalled this week that he will step down. Installed after a hasty closed-door parley following the sudden stroke of former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi last April, Mori has been a magnet for controversy. He has barely survived two no-confidence motions and following his poor handling of the sinking of a Japanese fishing boat last month by a US submarine, his approval ratings have plunged into the single digits. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), an almost unbroken fixture of Japanese governance since the Second World War, now faces a difficult rapprochement with voters, who will go to the polls to elect the parliament's upper house in July. The fractious three-party coalition, famous for its lack of transparency, will need to elect a new leader well in advance of the election, but it is believed that Mori will not officially resign before next month so as to keep appointments with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President George W Bush this month.
Fresh skirmishes
RENEWED fighting in the tense Presevo Valley, which lies alongside the Serbian province of Kosovo, has neighbouring Macedonia and NATO forces nervous and Albania warning of a new Balkan crisis. Ethnic Albanian insurgents clashed with Serbian forces on Friday and Saturday, reviving an ongoing struggle by Albanian guerrillas. The fighting comes after claims by the Yugoslav government that they are close to signing a cease-fire agreement with Albanian leaders, but rebel leaders were angered by a NATO decision to reintroduce Yugoslav forces into a small section of the tenuous "buffer zone" along Serbia's border with Kosovo. The fighting has spilled over into Macedonia, spurring the Macedonian government to again close its borders with Kosovo and demand an extension of the buffer zone. The porous border is a key route for drug trafficking and the rebels are believed to be funded by Albanian organised crime groups. NATO has been reluctant to involve itself in the complex web of organised crime that troubles southern Serbia and its neighbours, but escalating troubles may force it to do so.
Put to the test
DESCRIPTIONS of Uganda's political stability are peppered with relative praise: popular leader Yoweri Museveni is held up as a model African president -- compared to the slew of neighbouring dictators -- and slow-moving economic development is lauded as the best in Africa. Even the violence that plagued the run-up to Monday's tense presidential election has been downplayed in comparison to former repressive leaders Idi Amin and Milton Obote. But for Museveni, a darling of the West, this campaign has been the toughest test of his 15-year career at the helm. Museveni's ideological power still holds sway with a large number of Ugandans, particularly those who lived through his five-year bush war to oust Obote. But many people are starting to feel that his once-revolutionary one-party "Movement" has finished its service. The showdown between Museveni and his main rival, Kizza Besigye, has uncovered some ugly sides to Museveni's model democracy and reports of intimidation of Besigye's supporters have resuscitated the fear of the country's former oppression.

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