United States Treaties

Delbert Palmer is rumbling his muddy, red Nissan across a stubble alfalfa field on what most people call the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. Palmer prefers to call it the "former" Flathead Reservation and this piece of it, just plain "my" land--240 undulating acres his Dutch-English parents bought from homesteaders in 1943. Nothing unusual about Palmer: he is one of 16,000 whites who live on this reservation, one of half a million who own property on Indian reservations nationwide.

The Bush administration has backed away from a promise made by the Clinton White House that the United States will eventually comply with an international treaty banning land mines, because it believes U.S. forces may need to use the weapon, official correspondence indicates. In a letter to Rep. James P. McGovern (D-Mass.

Leaders of the Puyallup Indian Tribe here will join local, state and federal officials today in signing the second largest native land settlement agreement in history. In exchange for relinquishing legal claims to thousands of acres of land owned by non-Indians in and around Tacoma, the tribe will receive $162 million in cash, real estate and economic development programs. Each of the 1,545 Puyallup tribal members over age 21 will receive a cash payment of $20,000 in the next two months.

At a summit already under siege by up to 100,000 protesters, President Bush found himself under political siege Saturday by his peers from the world's wealthiest nations because of his controversial rejection of a global treaty on climate change.

Now that negotiators have reached an agreement to try to curb global warming, international attention will turn to Washington, where the pact's fate in the Senate is cloudy. "What we have here is not ratifiable in the Senate in my judgment," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said from Kyoto, Japan, where the agreement was reached.

President Clinton made another concession to Republicans on Monday, the eve of the Senate's scheduled vote on the nuclear test-ban treaty, raising the possibility that the two sides may hammer out a deal to avert an almost-certain defeat of the pact. With Senate action expected late today or Wednesday, Clinton gave in to Republican demands that he put in writing a request that the vote be postponed. He wrote to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.

Acting swiftly, Vice President Al Gore injected the nuclear arms issue into the presidential race Thursday by attacking Senate Republicans for sinking the international test ban treaty. The Republican candidates backed their congressional colleagues. Gore's campaign rushed out a television ad accusing the Republican-run Senate of going "against the tide of history" and ending 40 years of bipartisan cooperation on arms control.

At a summit already under siege by up to 100,000 protesters, President Bush found himself under political siege Saturday by his peers from the world's wealthiest nations because of his controversial rejection of a global treaty on climate change.

In a bid to resuscitate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the Senate resoundingly rejected in October 1999, retired Gen. John M. Shalikashvili is to present a report to President Clinton today recommending steps to build bipartisan support for the pact. Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the treaty should be subject to joint review by the Senate and administration every 10 years.

President Bush asked Congress on Thursday for expanded authority to negotiate trade agreements, seeking to break through a political stalemate that hindered the Clinton administration. But Bush faces daunting obstacles in his quest for legislation at the heart of his trade agenda. Even though the narrowly divided Congress is led by Republicans who agree with the president's goals, by all accounts any major trade initiative will die without support from at least some Democrats.

Supporters of a treaty to reduce global warming said Wednesday that they are increasingly optimistic about rescuing the pact despite a U.S. rejection, noting that the rest of the world wants success at make-or-break negotiations that begin here today. Prospects for hammering out the last details of the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to limit emissions of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases," appeared dim before behind-the-scenes discussions got underway this week under the auspices of the U.N.

President Bush on Monday declared the Kyoto global warming agreement of 1997 to be "fatally flawed" and said more scientific research must be done before the world can devise a workable strategy for dealing with climate change. Bush's unequivocal remarks doused the hopes of environmental activists and foreign officials who thought he might show more willingness to accept some of the international community's efforts to address global warming.

President Bush asked Congress on Thursday for expanded authority to negotiate trade agreements, seeking to break through a political stalemate that hindered the Clinton administration. But Bush faces daunting obstacles in his quest for legislation at the heart of his trade agenda. Even though the narrowly divided Congress is led by Republicans who agree with the president's goals, by all accounts any major trade initiative will die without support from at least some Democrats.

A week ago, the leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations, including President Bush, signed an agreement for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, amid shouts of protesters in Quebec City and questions from skeptical legislators back home in Washington; Brasilia, Brazil; and other capitals. But the lowering of tariffs and other obstacles to international trade agreed upon in Quebec are almost a side issue to the far more important trend of foreign direct investment among countries in the hemisphere.

The Bush administration rejects the Kyoto, Japan, global warming treaty "under any circumstances" and sees little chance that talks this summer will produce a suitable substitute, a State Department memo says. Despite comments by a top U.N. official that the administration might be shifting its position, the cable to diplomatic and consular posts also said negotiations to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol do not appear to be leading to agreement.

Upset over his anti-environment image, President Bush staged a high-profile White House ceremony Thursday to announce that the United States will sign a global treaty to ban 12 lethal chemicals. The Rose Garden event was Bush's most ambitious attempt yet to demonstrate his environmental bona fides after a series of controversial acts widely regarded as pro-industry and anti-environment.

In a speech that underlined the divisions between the United States and some of its closest allies over the scope and operation of a proposed international criminal court, U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson called Wednesday for a narrowly defined tribunal firmly harnessed to the U.N. Security Council. The U.S.

Four years after the United States signed a global accord condemning torture, federal immigration authorities have finally granted protection to one of the scores of people seeking to use the agreement to avoid deportation, in this case an Iraqi army deserter who had been whipped, punched and hanged by his heels from a ceiling fan. The case creates a potentially broad new class of newcomer for the U.S.

In a bid to resuscitate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the Senate resoundingly rejected in October 1999, retired Gen. John M. Shalikashvili is to present a report to President Clinton today recommending steps to build bipartisan support for the pact. Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the treaty should be subject to joint review by the Senate and administration every 10 years.

In a last-minute concession to human rights activists, President Clinton on Sunday authorized the United States to sign a treaty creating the world's first permanent court for crimes against humanity. Sunday was the deadline for signing the accord on the proposed International Criminal Court, which would try people accused of extreme human rights violations--a role that its supporters say is neglected in the global legal system.