Clinton Tells U.N. That Peacekeeping Has Its Limits

Against the backdrop of bloodshed in East Timor, President Clinton told the United Nations on Tuesday that he hopes the U.S. and other nations, through “shared responsibility,” can better protect victims of ethnic violence. But he cautioned, “We cannot do everything everywhere.”

The president’s comments on international peacekeeping, made during his seventh annual address to the General Assembly, appeared designed to answer the implicit criticism leveled against U.S. policy by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan a day earlier. In a speech to the General Assembly on Monday, Annan said the Security Council needs to act more quickly and effectively to protect civilians caught up in civil wars.

“I know that some are troubled that the United States and others cannot respond to every humanitarian catastrophe in the world,” Clinton said. “It is easy to say, ‘Never again’ but much harder to make it so. Promising too much can be as cruel as caring too little.”

Still, the president expressed hope that the U.N. can “strengthen the capacity of the international community to prevent and, whenever possible, to stop outbreaks of mass killing and displacement.”

In his speech, a hoarse Clinton invoked several themes that he has sounded in recent months during his domestic travels, with particular emphasis on helping the have-nots.

The president announced that he will convene a White House conference in “a concerted effort” to expedite the development of vaccines against tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS and other diseases that plague much of the developing world.

He also called for more open trade, new efforts to curb global warming and further disarmament of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The president seemed especially passionate when he lamented that “all our intellectual and material advances” in the 20th century haven’t improved the lives of millions of people around the world.

Yet, he said, such tools “can make the millennium not just a changing of the digits but a true changing of the times, a gateway to greater peace and prosperity and freedom.”

Improving public health may be the most important factor in reducing poverty, he said.

An array of proposals, from tax credits to the creation of special funds to buy vaccines, has been advanced to develop and then distribute vaccines for various diseases that disproportionately affect developing nations.

“To tackle these issues,” Clinton said, “I will ask public health experts, the chief executive officers of our pharmaceutical companies, foundation representatives and members of Congress to join me at a special White House meeting to strengthen incentives for research and development, to work with, not against, the private sector to meet our common goals.”

After his 25-minute address, Clinton spent the rest of his day meeting here with leaders from Africa, South America and Eastern Europe. He also attended a luncheon hosted by Annan.

In a meeting with Andres Pastrana, the president of Colombia, Clinton discussed that country’s counter-narcotics efforts but didn’t commit himself to an increase in U.S. aid to pay for them, a senior administration official said. Washington is providing $289 million this year.

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Times staff writer Norman Kempster contributed to this report.