World Tibet Network News Wednesday, April 22, 1998

LOS ANGELES, April 22, 1998 (Fox News) U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says there's concern the current impasse in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians could lead to further violence in the region.

He said Tuesday that there was "considerable frustration'' among Arab leaders at the lack of progress in the peace process, adding, "There are those who are concerned that if we do not make progress ... desperate people will resort to violence again.''

Annan made his remarks in Los Angeles, where he wooed Hollywood, courting celebrities, producers and directors to boost the U.N's image and stressed the important role the world body has to play in the lives of everyone.

Addressing 2,200 members of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and the Town Hall of Los Angeles, two public forums that include entertainment industry leaders among their members, Annan said he had appealed to Palestinian leaders, "not to embrace violence.''

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat agreed Monday to meet Secretary of State Madeleine Albright separately in London on May 4 in an effort to restart the talks, which have stalled over the extent of a proposed Israeli troop pullback in the West Bank in return for Palestinian moves to combat Muslim militants.

Annan said Israel also had to demonstrate its willingness to implement a U.N. resolution calling for it to remove its troops from Lebanon.

Fresh from a diplomatic triumph in Baghdad that averted threatened U.S. bombing of Iraq, Annan said the United Nations was now getting better cooperation from the Iraqis.

He cautioned, however, "We are only two months into the agreement and what we are looking for is long-term cooperation cooperation that will allow the (U.N. weapons) inspectors to do their work in an unrestricted manner.''

As he addressed the audience in the Westin Bonaventure hotel in downtown Los Angeles six Tibetans who have been on a hunger fast for a week sat outside while their supporters carried placards and chanted "Free Tibet now.''

Annan said as far as the United Nations was concerned Tibet was a part of China, but stressed that human rights applied to all people, including Tibetans.

He also repeated his demand that the United States pay its $1.5 billion debt to the United Nations, saying that because of the unpaid bill, "Technically speaking, the United Nations is bankrupt ... The United States is our biggest debtor ... We are being held hostage by the United States over domestic issues within the United States.''

Following his speech Annan resumed his celebrity quest, meeting with former Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Magic Johnson, presenting him with a plaque and anointing him an official "U.N. peace messenger.''

Annan also attended a star-studded reception at the Beverly Hilton hotel hosted by Jack Valenti, President of the Motion Picture Association, and was scheduled to have dinner at ''Greenacres,'' a swank Beverly Hills restaurant.

Among those on the guest lists for the functions were such Hollywood luminaries as actors Karl Malden, Tony Curtis, Robert Stack and Michael York, media mogul and Fox Studios owner Rupert Murdoch, game show producer and hotelier Merv Griffin, comedian Steve Allen and movie producer Jerry

Weintraub.