Briefly

RUSSIA

Rights unit rejects criticism on Chechnya

GENEVA — The top United Nations human-rights body spurned a call by the European Union last week to condemn suspected abuses by Russian security forces in the rebel republic of Chechnya.

The Commission on Human Rights voted heavily against the EU resolution. The Russian delegate called it “an unfriendly act.”

“Such acts play into the hands of terrorists,” the delegate said.

Moscow won the vote 23 to 12, with 18 abstentions.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Havel, 14 laureates urge Suu Kyi release

PRAGUE — Former Czech President Vaclav Havel and 14 Nobel literature laureates issued a joint appeal to Burma’s military junta for the immediate release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and writers jailed in the country, according to a text released here.

They denounced in the text an “open, unlimited and constantly growing suppression” of what they called an internationally recognized nonviolent movement for democracy in Burma. They also expressed concern at “the lack of freedom of expression for our writer colleagues and in some cases also their physical freedom.”

Mrs. Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate in 1991 and leader of the National League for Democracy, has been under house arrest for nearly a year.

SWEDEN

Persson to meet Bush in Washington

STOCKHOLM — Prime Minister Goeran Persson is scheduled to meet with President Bush during a trip to New York and Washington Tuesday and Wednesday, the Swedish government announced last week.

The two are expected to discuss the challenges posed by the situations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia and the Middle East, as well as the fight against HIV/AIDS and multilateral cooperation.

Weekly notes …

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie met with her country’s troops in Haiti last week in the first visit by a French minister since the former colony won independence in a slave revolt 200 years ago. Mrs. Alliot-Marie met in Port-au-Prince Thursday with some of the 1,000 French troops taking part in a U.S.-led peacekeeping force in the troubled Caribbean nation. … The far-right Freedom Party of Austrian politician Joerg Haider was embroiled in a new row last week as it closed ranks around one of its members who used Nazi terminology to slam immigration. Officials defended the party’s youth president, Johann Gudenus, who said Vienna risked “Umvolkung” — a term coined by Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler, meaning a change in racial composition — because of the number of naturalized foreigners in the capital.