June 23, year
     Australian Prime Minister John Howard has joined a small group of government leaders who have chosen to "snub" a UN invitation to the Millennium Summit in September, the Melbourne Age reports. Australia is one of eight countries that have chosen not to send their heads of state.
     UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a written invitation to Australia in August, inviting Howard or the governor-general. Annan has said the meeting is the most important in the 55 years since the UN was established.
     Australia intends to send a minister in Howard's place, who is scheduled to speak at the event. Howard's spokesperson said the Sydney Olympics "makes it impossible" for Howard to attend.
     Annan's office said 183 countries are scheduled to speak at the summit. Other countries sending ministers instead of heads of state are Cuba, Myanmar, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand and Comoros.
     UN Assistant Secretary-General John Ruggie said in New York Tuesday that the UN sees it as "exceedingly important" for heads of state and heads of government to attend. "I am not going to criticize any one individual, but I will say that the point of inviting heads of state and government is exactly to have their political clout behind the new vision for the future of the UN," he said. "We do not want to have a more junior member of the government do it."
     Australia has been recently criticized for allegedly distancing itself from the United Nations after the world body's damaging findings against the country on mandatory sentencing laws.
     At the summit, Annan will reveal his plan for the future of the world body and ask world leaders to sign a document outlining the UN's agenda for the new century. Annan said he would ask the leaders to recommit to the UN's chief values of freedom, tolerance, equity, non-violence, respect for nature and shared responsibility.
     "The Secretary-General believes that it is an extremely significant gathering -- the largest gathering of heads of state and government ever," Ruggie said. "He has put before them in his millennium report a vision statement for the United Nations that seeks to adapt [to] the new age in which we live, which is very different from the world of 1945."
     Australia's Labor Party today lashed out at Howard for his decision not to attend the world gathering. The Australian Associated Press reports that opposition foreign affairs spokesperson Laurie Brereton said the snub is an international embarrassment.
     "By refusing to join the Millennium Summit, John Howard will join a select group of leaders including Cuban President Fidel Castro, [Myanmar's] military leader Than Shwe, Liberia's President Charles Taylor and [Cote d'Ivoire's] coup leader, Robert Guei," he said (AAP, 23 Jun). Â
