World Scene

HAITI

Annan seeks mission to replace force

NEW YORK — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called yesterday for a broad new U.N. mission in Haiti that would include 6,700 troops, more than 1,600 international police and staff to help turn the Caribbean nation into “a functioning democracy.”

The U.N. military contingent would replace the 3,600-strong U.S.-led multinational force sent to bring stability to Haiti after a three-week rebellion forced Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to flee in February.

The U.N. special envoy to Haiti, Reginald Dumas, said last month that 10 international missions to Haiti in the past decade have failed because there was no sustained commitment.

ARGENTINA

Judge orders arrest of ex-President Menem

BUENOS AIRES — An Argentine judge has issued an international arrest order for former President Carlos Menem, who failed to return from Chile to appear in court in connection with a graft case, a court source said yesterday.

Judge Jorge Urso is investigating Mr. Menem in connection with the suspected embezzlement of up to $60 million from two prison-construction contracts during his tenure.

Mr. Menem, 73, whose 1989-99 presidency was tainted by accusations of rampant corruption, has refused to return to Argentina.

FRANCE

Wife-beating defense gets cleric deported

PARIS — Authorities have arrested and are preparing to deport an Algerian Islamic cleric because of his comments that wife-beating is authorized by the Koran.

Abdelkader Bouziane, imam of a mosque in the city of Lyon, made the remark to a local magazine in an interview in which he also said he was polygamous and that he hopes “the entire world becomes Muslim.”

INDONESIA

Wiranto wins right to run for president

JAKARTA — A former Indonesian general indicted for human rights abuses in East Timor was nominated yesterday by the party of former dictator Suharto to contest the country’s first direct presidential elections July 5.

Gen. Wiranto, 55, the last armed forces chief under the disgraced Indonesian strongman, was chosen by Golkar Party officials at a convention instead of the party chief and favorite, Akbar Tandjung.

Golkar led in voting April 5 for legislative elections, but polls show that no Golkar candidate will be able to beat the presidential front-runner, former Chief Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, or incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

FIJI

Mara funeral plans hit as ’hypocrisy’

SUVA — A state funeral for Fiji’s founding prime minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who died Sunday, will be the “height of hypocrisy,” his former official secretary, Joseph Browne, said today.

Mr. Browne told the Fiji Times the involvement of the military and others in the funeral next week was farcical because those institutions ridiculed Mr. Mara during a 2000 coup.

Asked what he thought of preparations for the funeral, Mr. Browne told the newspaper, “What we are going to witness is the height of hypocrisy.”

On May 19, 2000, George Speight — since convicted of treason — and a group of special-forces solders seized Fiji’s parliament and held then-Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and politicians hostage for 56 days.