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Ambassador of Colombia Luis Alberto Moreno Taking Charge of a Tough Situation by Larry Luxner Foreign petroleum executives are routinely threatened, even kidnapped, by thugs posing as guerrillas with a cause. Yet Colombia holds so much promise that multinationals continue to pour billions of dollars into oil and gas exploration. Tourists are warned to stay away from Colombia, even as 240,000 cruise-ship passengers a year walk untroubled through the Spanish colonial ruins of Cartagena.... more... Richard Goldstone South Africa Judge Searches for Global Justice by John Shaw Richard Goldstone is a quiet, understated man who has made a large contribution to the cause of healing and reconciliation in his native South Africa and across the world. A justice on South Africa’s Constitutional Court, Goldstone played a key role in ending apartheid in South Africa, shaping the war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, laying the foundation for an International Criminal Court and probing the causes and consequences of the war in Kosovo.... more... Ambassador of Yugoslavia Milan St. Protic Yugoslavia Tries to Return to Normalcy by Nir Rosen Milan St. Protic is a towering man. He greets visitors to his office in unconventional raiment—black jeans and immense Harley Davidson motorcycle boots. He smokes Marlboro cigarettes. These are vestigial remnants of his youthful involvement in rock ’n’ roll and reminders that the 44-year old Protic did not climb a conventional diplomatic ladder to reach his current position as the Yugoslav ambassador. Protic himself admits that "I never dreamed I would work for the government of Yugoslavia, let alone become its ambassador to the most important country in the world." He first came to Washington in January, charged with the daunting task of reopening an embassy that had been closed since April 1999.... more...

Powerful U.S. Trade Lobby Urges End to ‘Ineffective’ Sanctions by Larry Luxner From its nondescript office at 16th and K streets, a little-known lobby backed by big business is working hard to abolish U.S. trade sanctions against some of the world’s most despotic regimes. The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) says t he United States currently imposes sanctions of one form or another against 70 countries, with "significant" sanctions against seven nations: Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Although refusing to trade with these countries may make people feel good, in economic terms these sanctions are not only ineffective, but also counterproductive, said J. Daniel O’Flaherty, vice president of the NFTC and executive director of the U.S.-South Africa Business Council. "The United States pays a high cost for these sanctions," he said, citing a study by the Institute for International Economics that claims sanctions deprive the U.S. economy of 25,000 jobs and at least $15 billion a year in lost business. "We don’t dispute that sanctions are a useful tool. We do dispute that they are a universal solution to a foreign-policy dilemma," said O’Flaherty. "China, for example, is a repressive dictatorship. It is also a very important country, clearly in transition to something else, but we don’t know to what. So, the question is how do you best influence them, by isolating them or by engaging them? Our answer is obviously the latter." more... Culture Section

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