U.N. BROCHURE ANSWERS ‘AMERIKA’

The United Nations, stung by a forthcoming television series it regards as hostile, Friday published an illustrated brochure about its peacekeeping operations in various parts of the world.

The pamphlet is intended as an antidote to an ABC television miniseries titled “Amerika,” about life in the United States 10 years after its supposed occupation by the Soviet Union.

The U.N. is particularly irked by the series’ depiction of so-called “United Nations Special Service Units” that brutally enforce the occupation.

The U.N. regards this as a travesty of its efforts to help restore peace to trouble spots around the world, and hired a lawyer to convince ABC to run some factual programming as a counterbalance.

The brochure, consisting of a single folded sheet, provides background about the history of U.N. peacekeeping and gives details of current U.N. operations in the Middle East, Cyprus and Kashmir.

A U.N. spokesman said its publication in advance of the “Amerika” premiere on Feb. 15 was no coincidence. “It is an effort on our part to make available to people accurate information about peacekeeping programs of the United Nations.”

ABC has said its miniseries is fictional and that the organization depicted in it bears no similarity to the present United Nations.

Earlier this week nearly a dozen prominent Americans, including former secretaries of state and U.N. ambassadors, urged ABC to devote some time to the way United Nations peacekeepers actually operate, to offset the negative effects of the series.