By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 4 1995 (IPS)

The United Nations expects to host the largest gathering ever of world leaders when it celebrates its 50th anniversary in October. But the proposed summit of nearly 150 heads of state is proving to be a logistical nightmare.

A big question nagged delegates at a meeting of the preparatory committee this week: How can the United Nations place time- restrictions on a head of state addressing the world’s most celebrated talk shop?

No world leader addressing the General Assembly has ever been asked either to stick to a prepared text, watch the clock, or be counted out.

The preparatory committee, consisting of all 185 U.N. member- states, could not decide whether a head of state should be allowed to speak for “five minutes, seven minutes or five-to-seven minutes” in an institution known for its verbosity.

Benita Maria Ferrero-Waldner, the United Nations’ Chief of Protocol, said that “for logistical reasons”, care must be taken about the speaking time. She warned that there was only a limited time available to hear the political leaders and others — a total of about 190 speakers in all.

“At least a minute or more must be allowed for the arrival and departure of the 120 to 150 heads of state,” she said.

Philip Owade of Kenya noted that at the Jun. 1992 ‘Earth Summit’, which was not held at the U.N. headquarters, most heads of state went beyond the agreed five-minute time limit.

But he singled out for special praise Cuban President Fidel Castro, one leader known for his long-winded speeches but who did the most unconventional thing when he addressed the summit in Brazil: kept his speech short.

Owade said Castro delivered “a fascinating speech” that was hard-hitting and crisp in just four minutes — with 60 seconds to spare.

He argued that “discipline is important, but flexibility is of equal concern” when dealing with heads of state.

Other questions defied answers: Will the United States permit Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to arrive in New York for the talk-fest?

Both Arab leaders are considered political outcasts by a world body that has imposed economic sanctions on their countries. And along with North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba, they are on a State Department list of “terrorist states”.

If the United Nations invites them, will the same State Department allow them on U.S. soil? In an age of cyberspace and information superhighways, one way of circumventing the problem is to permit the two leaders to address the gathering by remote control.

“Since some heads of government and state might not be able to come to New York, would it be possible to get them to address the Assembly via satellite?” asked the Libyan representative.

The representative of Iraq, on the other hand, wanted an explanation as to why his president had still not received an invitation while most others already had.

Australian ambassador and committee chairman Richard Butler stopped short of saying the invitation was in the mail. Instead, he said he would “take up the matter with the (U.N.) Secretariat and provide answers shortly”.

There were other tricky questions for the rigidly protocol- conscious organisation: Should heads of state speak before heads of government? Should the list of speakers be in alphabetical order? Should a longer version of the speeches be printed and circulated — and deemed as spoken just for the record books?

The representative of Senegal posed another question with no answer: What happens if a head of state continues to speak beyond the prescribed time limit?

“The greatness of a statesman is not dependent on the length of his statement; he knows the truth could be told briefly and simply,” said the Hungarian delegate.

The French delegate, meanwhile, sharply criticised the Secretariat for producing documents relating to the 50th anniversary only in English.

The use of only one language is “scandalous”, he said, noting that documents should be in all the working languages of the United Nations: English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian.

Countries generally did agree, however, that the U.N. meeting should take place Oct. 22-24, following the Oct. 18-21 summit meeting of the Non-Aligned countries in Cartagena, Colombia.

The more than 100 world political leaders at the 1992 Rio de Janeiro ‘Earth Summit’ created a record for U.N. conferences. But as of last week, 111 heads of state had agreed to take part in yet another summit — the Mar. 6-12 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen.

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