THE dimlnuihe. ebu Went Archbisliop of Cape Town stood in the pulpit in London's Westminster Abbey on July 20 and Md it like it was *1 entered a polling booth for the first tune to my 62 years and emerged Ion the other side and said. ‘Hey! Tin free. ’Now. he I added." we can only say WOWT I Moments later phologra phers caught Desmond Tutu dancing half a jig as he left a celebratory service by the Abbey s Great West IXx^

The elections in South Africa brought great hope in 1994. If an intransigent prob tern like this could be unblocked. people asked, why not others? After all. we had already seen the Berlin Wall come down, the Cold War end.

The question was soon answered. After 50 years of conflict the beginnings of a Palestinian homeland took shape and Jordan and Israel made peace. After 30 years of war there were real signs that peace was coming to Mozambique and Angola. And after 20 years of violence a :cease-flre took place In f Northern Ireland.

। These were the areas of 1 hope in 1094 — a year in ; which boxer George Foreman sent his own message of hope to the over-40s by becoming a world heavyweight champion: the year West Indies batsman Brian Lara became the world's highest cricket scorer, the year Brasil reclaimed the World Cup on a 3-2 penalty i shoot-out: and the year drugs became the big Issue in. sport worldwide.

The grim side of 1994 was the horror of Rwanda, the continuing bitter turmoil in p the former Yugoslavia and the | 80-odd other wars that were still sputtering aro.und the | world: Sudan. Liberia. Iraq. ! Afghanistan. Burma. Sri Lanka.

and dozens more — almost every one a civil conflict.

In the last years of the 20th Century II was civil, not liner-.national, strife that was cursing humankind. For relief and peace, attention was Increasingly focussed on the international organisations, the United Nations and the bur- ■ geonlng regional bodies.

Their success was limited. The UN and European Union struggled In Bosnian and the Organisation of West African States (ECOWAS) was bogged down In Liberia, but use of the first Pacific peace force In Bougainville. Papua New Guinea, and diplomatic intervention In Burman by the UN and the Association of South East Aslan Nations (ASEAN) did hold promise. For the first time the military leaders of Burma talked In September to their house prisoner of six years. Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Hope had to be tempered with concern, that as the year 1995 approached — dubbed by the UN the Year of Tolerance — all the signs were of growing iptolerance born of increasing materialism. The capitalist world that had emerged with #the eclipse of socialism was ever more greedy for money.

More and'more arms were being sold with scant regard of humanity while the communl-

Ing for mercy and then Irelng shot dead at his car door caught the final graphic chapter of Boer struggle.

in one violent day in Johannesburg 53 died and hundreds were injured as inkatha followers attacked the headquarters of Mandela's African National Congress party.Car bombs followed Just days before the elections. And yet. when the day came for people to put their X on the long, complicated ballot form, peace reigned as it had not in South Africa for decades.

It was not a totally free and fair election. Organization was-patchy, tricks were pulled, ballot boxes were stuffed, the count was often a muddle. But it was the first proper, ope-person-one-vote election ever held in South Africa and the result was accepted by all the parties. A government, of national unity took over with former president F W de Klerk as one of two vice-presidents and all the main parties represented having Cabinet posts.

It- had truly been a miracle because, uniquely, a minority had handed over power to a majority without a fight. In

. much smaller Zimbabwe a waf' had been fought for ten years at a cost of 30.000 lives. In

cations explosion was being misused to spread around the worlds a culture of mediocrity Corruption. long seen by many in the rich world as the pre serve of the poor world, was rampant under the new god known quite simply as the market "

Perhaps it was |ust that easy communication was bringing more openness If so. that was good, whatever the reason In Britain MPs were found out for accepting payment from lobby Ists to ask question in the House of Commons, persls tence by mepibers ol the Judi clary in Italy led to the prose cution of top politicians, even past pnme ministers, and ac cusations against the new hi cumbent media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi

In 1994 the world still lacked leaders of real distinction. Clinton began to dlsap point. Mitterrand was fading out. Kohl survived re-election, but only just; Deng was now a shadow: Yeltsin was a survivor and probably underrated, but understandably consumed bf affairs in his own backyard.

One man shone out in 1994 and he was 76 years old: Nelson Mandela. The transl Uon of South Africa to a fully democratic state was often de scribed as a miracle and by the end of 1994 it still seemed just that. It has been touch and go. As preparations went ahead for an election on April 27 by millions who had never known what It was to vote. Chief Mangosulthu Butheiezi refused to let his Inkatha Freedom Party take part. More and more concessions were made to pull him in. Not until days before did he agree

Meantime, the extreme Right, poorly organised but dangerous, had made a last stand in the "homeland" of Bophuthatswana. Horrific Him . of a bearded Afrikaner plead-

South Africa there had been a long struggle with sporadic vt olente but no all out war

The installation of Mandela brought a galaxy of world leaders to Pretoria from being the world s pariah state South Afric a was suddenly its darting and the dignity of the man who had spent 27 years in prison and lived to become head of state was universally admired Rarely in modern times has there been such a worldwide feeling that right had tri umphed It was the stuff dreams arc made of

Il sent strong signals ev erywhere about racial toler ante that would have lasting inlet national influence and It S.ud that If deadlock in South Afrit a could be broken the same must be possible elsewhere.

Soon. South Africa was back in International organizations from which Mt had been excluded for decades. On June 1 it rejoined the Commonwealth, and It became a member of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) for the first lime.

The effect of wlwt had happened tn South Africa was soon felt In the whole southern Africa region. An attempt to topple the newly-elected government in Lesotho was frustrated with help from Mandela, who sent Jets on a warning flight over the capital and put troops on the border.

His influence on the parties in Mozambique helped after a first election was held there under UN supervision in November Hie ruling Frvliino. led by President Jaaqulm Chiaaano. won comfortably and Renamo. the former rebel movement led by Afonso Dhlakama. ultimately accepted the verdict

South African pressures were at work. too. to bring to an end months of Angolan peace talks In Lusaka. Zambia, between the government of President Eduardo dos Santos and the stubborn Jonas Savimbl of the rebel Unita movement Yet more bitter fighting took place as the talks dragged on Finally a peace deal

was signed in Mandela's presence In November. Even than. Savtpibl did not turn tip for the Signing, and nervousness remained about whether the 30-year war really had ended. The country was In ruins.

The rejoicing in April over South Africa was soon muffled ns hqrror piled on horror In Rwanda, more than 2;000 miles to-the north. No-one will ever kpow how many people died In fighting that started when the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed in a plane crash near Kigali, the Rwandan capital.

'The death, of President Juvenal Habyarlmana ended the pact he had signed with the rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) and within hours hundreds died as members of the security forces rampaged through the streets. The deatf included the woman Prime Minister and ten Belgian members of the UN mission In the first days 20.000 died and the people fled Kigali

The UN reduced Its force from 2.500 to 270. Salim Salim Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity, said the contrast with what I he UN was doing in

Bosnia showed it had double standards for Africa and Europe. By the end of May it was estimated 500.000 people. mainly from the Tutsi minority, had died and 1.5 million had fled to Tanzania and Zaire. It had been an act of genocide.

As the RPF took over the country the French sent In troops on June 23 (and soon withdrew them) and in the face of international outcry the I N began to deploy 5.500 troops. Refugee camps set up ui Goma, a bare area just uisldc Zaire, were the scenes of appalling squalor and violent e that shocked television viewers across the world.

By contrast with what was happening in Rwanda. Malawi presented a totally different picture. There, the first multi party election since indepen dence in 1964 was held. Kamuzu Banda, who had once declared himself Life President and was now into his nineties, was rejected by the voters after ruling for 30 years. In a peaceful and well-orga nlzed election Bakiii Muluzi liecaiiie the new President.

In West .Africa the anglophone countries marched'In a different’ direction. Under General Sani Abacha. Nigeria made no progress towards ‘civilian rule. As the economy slid, repression grew. Prodemocracy campaigners were arrested, draconian decrees Introduced and newspapers closed.

In June. Chief Moshood Abiola, generally believed to have won the aborted 1993 presidential election, declared himself president and called for a national uprising to force Abacha out. He was arrested and accused for treason. A two month strike stopped the oil Industry. Violence on the streets Increased. Abiola's health deteriorated in jail and" Nobel prize-winner Wole Soyinka slipped out of the country after his UN passport had been seized. '

. In , the liny state of The Gambia. President Str Dawda Jawara was ousted In a coup by junior officers on July 23. Lieut Yahya Jammeh named hlniseif President and Jawara Aed to a US warship aftef 30 years In power tn what was regarded as one of Africa's most peaceful states.

To the north, much more serious was the deteriorating situation In Algeria caused by the increasing military of fun-

damentalism News reporting from Algeria was much ham-l»ered by the extension of violence to intellectuals, diplomats and journalists.

In January the ruling High Council of State had appointed Defence Minister Brigadier-General Lamine Zeroual as President. During the year Zeroual held talks with the five

legal opposition parties to search for ways to end the violence. but it continued un-abated and in September Zcroual said 10.000 people had died since January 1992

In 1994 the developed >orld was hesitantly moving out of recession. Inflation was low and growth rates were slowly improving. Progress was uneven There were surprising leaders in the recovery — New Zealand at one end of the world. Britain al the other.

Germany was still suffering the economic indigestion induced by reunification. Japan, experiencing its worst political instability since World War Two. Still bumped along t-he bottom with only about one per cent growth and industrial output down. The' fall of Tsutomu Hato after two months as Prime Minister led to the election of Tomiichi Murayama as the first socialist premier since 1947

The United States began recovering fast, and everywhere the Western economies became nervous of heating too ' fast and falling Into the carefree spending trap of the Eighties. They were also wide-eyed al what was happening In Asia, particularly in China and the Southeast. Annual growth rates In places such as Malaysia. Thailand. Singapore. Indonesia and Hong Kong continued at between five and nine per cent while in China it was well into double figures.

Against this background, on April 15 trade ministers from 11 I countries Anally signed in Marrakesh. Morocco. a 20.000-page agreement. It was the Final Act of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATH. Under. It Indus Irlal tariffs would be cut by up trt 40 per cent and agricultural export subsidies reduced. After nearly eight'years of negotla Uons. a trade monitoring body called the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would re place GATT. >

Not everyone was happy with the agreement. The de veloplng countries found parts of It could leave them worse off. Quarrels between the US. the European Union and developing countries continued up to the moment of signing.

■ One dispute was resolved at the last minute when the US agreed that the WTO should not discuss links between trade and workers' rights, seen as a way of erecting trade

barrlers

The developing world had other worries, particularly the failure of International Monetary Fund managing director Michel Camdessus to persuade major industrialised countries to agree an increase in the volume of reserves in the monetary system.

The reality was the economic map of the world was rapidly changing Liberalisation and privatisation were proceeding faster than ever The sharp divide between rich and poor developed and developing countries'bf the Severities and Eighties was blurring at the edges. Withtn countries, however, the dh Me wax often shaper. The nth were gettirtg richer but often the poor were getting podrer

Two areas were adrift‘tn all this — Africa and the great bloc of countries of the former Soviet Union. Some African economies were slowly Im proving, but the unstable continent was out of fashion with * Investors and was suffering from a diversion of aid re-

sources to Eastern Europe

Russia had become something of an economic nightmare. No-one should have been surprised, considering the huge change from total state ownership to a free market and the volatile political scene In Moscow, Incredibly. Boris Yeltsin managed to keep the show, and himself, on the road -Just

His antics often gave aides and hosts palpitation. When Yeltiris aircraft landed for a brief stopover in Ireland. Prime Minister Albert Reynolds waited in vain for him to emerge. Yeltsin stayed tucked up on board asleep On a visit to. Berlin escorted by Kobi he peeled off to conduct the military band, arms waving In every direction at one.

But Yeltsin was no clown. He was proving a great political survivor and Russia was muddling along. In the process there were some winners and a lot of losers and whether 'the discontent would bio) over Into turmoil was a question for 1995. Meantime. Yeltsin started the year with a new Federal Assembly and a new Cabinet and juggled almost weekly with the reformers and centrists.

In September Yeltsin and Clinton held in Washington their fifth summit in 18 months Just after US and Russian forces had held Joint exerciies in the Urals — an even of little militafry significance but a milestone politically. Historically, the visit of Britain's Queen Elizabeth In _ October wps the even of the ’ year in Russia, marking the ftrst time a reigning British monarch had stepped on Russian soil.

A sour note for Yeltsin came with the return home of author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who had been expelled in 1974 He travelled the country declaring Russian democracy a sham

In the olher parts of the former Soviet bloc, the most serious crisis arose In tne Russian republic of Chechneya. where civil war had raged since it declared fndepen dence in 1991 Fight... g reached a peak tn December

Five years after the fall sf the Berlin Wall and the col lapse at the eastern .bloc, it remained remarkable how calmly this vast area had tak . . the huge political changes that had engulfed ft In S'Jch a short time. The old order had just faded away and the world hardiy noticed when, for example. the last Russian soldiers left Polish soil In September. The Russians also left Berlin and a few divs later French. British and US troops followed. watched by Mitterrand. Major. Kohl and US Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

The death In Chile of the architect of Communist East Germany. Erich Honecker, drew a line under a tragic era of European history.

For Europe this was a year full of symbolism, ceremony and hard memories. On June 6 the leaders of the World War Two allies stood together on Omaha Beach. Normandy, to mark the 5Oth anniversary of the D-Day landings there in 1994 This was also the year of the -Channel Tunnel when France and Britain became linked by land by a massive engineering project first dreamed about 200 years ago in Qctober the first passengers from London found themselves in Paris three hours later.

The tunnel did not symbolise however, any greater unity between Britain and Europe. The British remained reluctant partners in the 12-nation European Union that was to grow to 15 in 1995 Thev still fought to keep the Union a looser association than other members wanted — and they looked like getting their way As several other countries lined up to join, the likelihood of a federal Europe seemed remote One candidate for memLeiship. Norway. decided by referendum not to join after

The war in Bosnia continued to agonise Europe At the end of 1994 the map of the former Yugoslavia looked very much the same as it liar! al the end of 1993 Thousands more were dead Sarajevo was still under siege Two thirds of Bosnia was still under Serb control. The UN now had 38.700 troops there from 2S nations In iwrmbrr the locus was on the Muslim enclave of Bihac. declared by the UN a safe area but now under fir ne attack from the Serbsavith the international community powerless Ui save it.

Il Ijccame tricrrasin^y dill: cult jo keep the countries of western Europe. NATO (the West s mam military alliance). Russia and the US together Arguments over sanctions and whether IATO forces under the UN flag should bomb the Serbs went on all the year As 1994 ended the war looked like entering a more danger ous stage with a possible UN withdrawal.

The Bosnian war raised new questions about the role of NATO after the CoM War The purpose of its continued existence was still not clear and at the organisation's meeting in December th? Russians suddenly decided not sign an agreement for closer cooperation because it did not like the plans to embrace Eastern European countries.

At the European security conference in December Yeltsin said NATO should not move its boundaries to Russia's frontier. He told Clinton: "It is a dangerous delusion of sup-pose jfcat the destinies of cori-tinerffs and of the world community can somehow be managed from a single capital."

In other quite different way's. Western Europe was not in very good shape. In the year that Richard Nixon's death brought back memories of the Watergate scandal, the British had a word for what was going on — sleaze.

The Italian judiciary had for some time been trying to clean up corruption at the top. Former prime ministers like Giulio Andreotti and Bettino

Craxi and many other big polit leal names were exposed In March, a bftter general elec tion under new rules brought the right to power in the shape of Silvio Berlusconi.

It was supposed to be the beginning of a new. cleaner era. but even as he was elected Ms company was accused of corruption and Mafia involvement By November the its knees.

In France the right wing government of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur was hft by scandals and resignations And in Spain Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez faced a long crista

over oertmarior; following the disappearance of the former head at the CM Guard

in Britain revelations at tiaaae among politicians produced an atanost daily diet fat the newspapers Under a weak Prime Minister the government tottered from one crisis to another. An extraordinary series of episodes came to light involving suicide, homo sexuahty. marital breakups, financial scandals, and acts of corruption.' On top of all this Major found himself facing a formidable new opponent — Tony Blair Labour leade r John Smith had died suddenly and Biair was elected to succeed him.

He was a new breed of Labour leader from a genera Non born after World War Two. so youthful in appearnce Jw called him Bambi (after a dewy-eyed character In a ciao-«4c Disney cartoon) Suddenly. Major and his Tories, now 15 years in power, looked tired as they broke records for low opinion poll ratings

Then too there I be

battle royal — the continuing •aga of Diana and Charira. fill ing more media space than any American movie stars. The heir to the throne and his wife, now running separate courts tn a rjxxlcrri reflection of medieval practice, went public A novel called Frlncras In Love written a» trashy r» mantle fiction was followed by a huge and important biogra phy of Chariev telling how he had never really loved Diana and then a book giving Diana » side of the story, blaming Charles and his father fn be tween. Charles appeared in a frank two-hour television programme

Where all this left the monarchy was not clear, but if was certainly not stronger and the Labour Party started talk Ing about a sealing down of the royal paraphernalia. Queen Elizabeth retained wide respect. but the institution was tn lower esteem than at any Umr this century and republicanism. while still a remote possibility, was openly discussed in circles where once the word was never whispered.

For Britain and for the beleaguered Major, however, one great prize had come in sight — peace in Northern Ireland. After 20 years of strife the joint Downing Street Declaration made by Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds at the end of 1993 opened a process intended io end the violeri.ee.

Many months passed while Britain. Ireland and the IRA (the guerilla Irish Republican Army) haggled over Interpretation of the Declaration. The Sinn Fein party led by Girry Adams asked for "clarification.' then a visit by Adams to the US angered Britain, as did mortar bomb attacks, on London air-port in March and other rio-ience On September I. the IR/X declared a ceasefire. Ma,or

was cautious in response, demanding an assurance that the ceasefire was permanent

Adams was allowed to speak on British radio and TV (for wars government had insisted his voice must be dubWdl and he was able to enter Britain. In November he held court tn the House of Commons and was weH on the way to the kind of transformation from terrorist to statesman familiar to wo many nationalist leaders in post-colonial motion And the peace process stayed on track even when one of its main architects. Reynolds suddenly foil from nflVcr A dominant figure In Asia for nearly 50 years died sud drnly on July 8 — Kim II Sung, the "Great Leader" of North Korea. He was 82 and was said lo have had a heart attack HI# death came during a renewed International showdown over North Korea s refusal to allow lns|>ectton of two nuclear sites

Earlier while the US was lobbying the UN lo support sanctiona. former US presi dent Jimmy Carter sanctions threat and new talks with the US. the North would suspend Its nuclear programme and the Presidents of North and South Korea would hold a summit in I I’anmunjom Three weeks later Kim was dead

Two million people were said lo have lined the streets for the funeral but no foreign era were asked to it Nor was the succession made clear. Kims son, Kim Jong 11 was almost invisible In the weeks after the funeral, but he did appear to be the man in charge. Meantime, the heat went out of the nuclear crisis.

In 1994 Asia remained an area of relative peace and stability mucp of it moving on liie fast track of econoouc de velopment Vietnam was joining the so-called tiger economies as new oil and gas discoveries were made there

Uneasiness about the rote of the Khmer Rouge tn Cambodia grew when talks held with the government in June ended in deadlock- The Khmer Rouge wanted to discuss power -sharing before declaring a ceasefire. Its officials in Phnom Penh were expelled and violence in the country grew once more In July the Khmer Rouge was outlawed and two day* later it formed a "provisional government" headqi^rtered in the north.

A meeting in Jakarta of the newly-formed Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Affec). potentially the world s biggest economic bloc was marred by renewed unrest in East Timor and demonstrations by Timorese in Jakarta

The meeting was attended by President CHnfbn and this time by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of ^Malaysia who had boycotted APECs first meeting in Seattle in 1998 Mahathir r^taiped his Independent stance by repeat frig Ms fears that APEC would lead to US dornmatioq of the region He preferred a purely Asian orgonisatton

The toms in Southeast. Asia remained on Hong Kong as the c ountdown to the handover of the British aim to China feB ^tx-iow I 'JkD day* The running quarrel Pl ween the British and Cmnese caused by

Governor Chris Patten s demo cratic reforms continued. Pat ten went ahead with elec-Hons to the low-level district boards In September and the largest pro-democracy, group Ing* won the most seats

The Chinese said they would abolish the reforms in 1997 and set up n new Irglsla lure Much depended on what would happen In China when Deng Xiao ping now reported lo lie extremely frail, left the acene.

The most striking political phenomenon In South Asia was the dominance "1 womqn at the top. Aireaiiy Bangladesh had a woman Prime Minister uih! .i woituui opposition lender ami Pakistan had a woman Prime Minister Now Sri Lanka also had a woman President and a woman Prime Minister H happened wtu-n Chandrika Kuiiiaralungg, daughter of ihr world s first woman prune muuater Setana Bandarangike won a general election and then a pccaaienUal elec tion

When Kumarafunga won the first poll tn August she unme dtalely bfgan talks with the Tamil Tigers to end the 1 I year civil war But talks came to an end al Vasi temporartiy with an anack on a Sn Lankan warship three weeks later and then the assassination by a female suicide bomber, of Gamin; Dissanayake the main opposmon candidate

His widow stood in his place m the presidential Hec lion and lost to Kumaratunga. who then proceeded to appoint her own mother as Prime minister.

Democracy in Bangladesh did not fare well either All 156 opposition MPs boycotted parliament and demands for new elections led to unrest on the streets. Personal hostility between Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and opposition leader Sheikh Ha Sina stoked up the crisis and In mid year the Commonwealth

was asked lo mediate Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku appointed former Australian governor general Sir Ninian Stephens to conduct talks, but after some weeks he could make no lieaIway and left

The world got its first elected communist govern mrnt under a constitutional monarch In November when Man Mohan Adhlkarl became Prime Minister of Nepal after two week* of ne^rhatkni failed to an lire a coallllrni

In September an oulbreak of pneumonic plague in hural India, made headline* round the world Airline banned nighta and In wane counirir* visitors from India were chec ked at airports II was an overblown event stirred over seas by emotive media use of the word plague

For hural the outbreak was seiiou*. with many deaths and thousands of people leaving the city in tear. But the autfior tties soon got the situation In hand The but>j«-t disappeared from the headlines as fast as it had appeared and the world naivrd on to other things

This year population prob lerns took centre stage again Tlie UN staged a third global conference on tile subject in Cairo in September A 113 page action programme aimed at keeping world population below 7 5 billion by 2015. Il is now 5 67 txlllon and if the plan failed a 12.5 billion population

projected by 2050. Some Arab countries boycotted the 182-nation conference, which was preceded by months of criticism from the Pope who said the proposals sanctioned abortion.

Global warming was still an arguable phenomenon, but in many areas weather seemed to become increasingly unseason able, with arj unprecedented drought hitting the Australian breadbasket, floods devastating northern Italy, the wannest autumn in Britain since records began in the 17th Century. In New Britain. Papua New Guinea, two volcanoes turned Rabaul into a deserted port and ships were locked into harbour waters that had turned into pumice stone

The South Pacific Forum, which groups many island countries with Australia and New Zealand, gave priority at their annual meeting to the dangers facing some of the world's last rainforests tn their region. Prime Minister Paul Keating of Australia, as host, took the leaders off into re treat in the Australian bush near Brisbane and disc ussed round a campfire a last ditch campaign to save the Jrees

Orfe Pacific country deeply

.Affected by deforestation is Papua New Guinea where Sir Julius Chan came back for a second time a* Prime Minister just after the meeting. One of Ills first acts was to negotiate a ceasefire in the six year seces Monist war on Bougainville

Latin America maintained the trend of recent years towards better democracy Elections held In Panama and El Salvador, both till recently troubled area* |wi«r1 off rrla lively uneven!fully under the ryes of thousand* of foreign observers A new president Edu at do Frei look over in Chile and promptly said be wmdd not ask the frrrnwr dk tator, genetai Augusin Pinochet. to resign as ommundcr in Chief In Bran) •oclologiat Fernando Cardoso succeeded President Itamar Franco in a peaceful election nine year* after the end of military dkuuxship

T»»c year began in Mexico with a rebelbon in Ilie south ern stale of Chlapaa Armed Indian groups took uutrol of lour town* and demanded *o cial and economic reform Aller a month's unrest and some bloodshed the government agreed lo many items, in their long list of demands In March Una Dona Ido Coloslo the presidential andidalg of the ruling party was asaassl naled — the first such events since 1928

Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon became the new candi date and the Institutional Revolutionary Party IPR1I con ttnued its 65-year run In power. Ila majority was tl>c lowest ever and the opposition candidate claimed eight mil lion voters had been left off 'he electoral role and alleged many irregularities

On September 19' American troops landed in Haiti Washington called it a 28-na Uon international force auil.o-rised by a UN resolution, bul in reality all bul a handful of the personnel involved were American. President . Clinton had hesitated for weeks to take action and at the test minute sent former president Carter to persuade I lie I'-* 'o give up power to father Jean Bertrand Aristide

In the end the Americans took ov»4 Haiti almost without bloodshed and Aristide was

The US had other backyard trouble. After the first antl-government riots In Cuba for 35 years President Fidel Castro lifted restrictions in August on people leaving the country By the end of the month 20.000 h«d sailed for the US Many more followed and soon there were 21.000 in the US base at Guantanamo atone. Cuban and US negotiators agreed on men

If Haiti had seemed a sue

cess for ciMtonz he got few Cheers from the American people who gave him the thumbs down in the US mid term elections in November He tost control of the House of Representatives as well as the Senate and his survival into a second term In 1996 was now to doubt

It was not too difficult to understand why he was so in tensely dislike by the Washington establishment, but why he was unpopular with the people was less obvious although persistent scandal stories about his private life and dealings when he was gov ernor of Arkansas hardly helped

Clin I on recognised President Hafez Asad of Syria as the key Arab' player in the region and in 1994 the two men met twice - In Geneva in January and later in the year in Darnasmi*

On May 4 Yaaaer Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister luhak Kateri signed an agreement in Cairo giving Palestinians self rule in ihr Gaza Strip apd Jencho On July I Arafat stepped on Palestinian Iknd for the^firM time for 25 years Amid much controversy in Norway the Nobel Peace Prize went this year to Arafat and Katen

In Seplriniwr Kuwait came back into ihr headlines when Saridam Hussein moved troops lo ils border Clinton deployed US forces and Sacklani backed down Within weeks Saddam recognised the sovereignty of Kuwait for the first time

The new mood of peace and reconciliation In the Middle East was reinforced In November when 5.000 people watched In the desert the signing of a peace treaty be tween Jordan and Israel It was tlx end of 46 year* of hostility

A two month civil war in Yemen broke out when the south tried to secede only four year* after unification as a single slate The northern forces of PreMdenl All Abdullah Saleh crushed the southern Democratic Republic of Yemen whose leaders fled abroad, leaving Aden devas tated Saleh promised to respect democracy and free speech in the unified Mate

Two sea disaster* In 1994 had contrasting outcomes. In the Baltic Sea a car ferry bound for Sweden from Estonia sank In September with the loss of 900 people, renewing doubts about the safety Of these rollon roll-off ships In November the Italian crulae liner Achille Lauro eaught fire and sank off Somalia. All but three of 1.000 jxople aboard survived

Halfway through the lost decade of the century the peace of development in the field of information technology ’ had beeome ditzy.

increasingly, it seemed that In the richer countries everyone was becoming so mesmerised by the mean* of delivery they could lose Interest In the qual liy of whal their own clever nr** was producing

Hie great Western artist* who died in 1994 reminded >■« of what already seemed a gentler, less complicated age .Iran Loul* Bamih. the marg! cal French mime. Eugene Ionescu, the Romanian surreal 1st playwright of Rhinoceros fame. Buri Lancaster, one of the intelligent greats of the cinema; Mal Zrtterllng. grace fill, expressive Swedish actress and film director. John Curry, one of the finest Olympic skaters: Derek Jarman, the ex trsordinary film talent that blossomed even as he wa* dy Ing of Alda; Merlins Mercouri, the Mar of Never on Sunday who campaigned a* Orsek Minister of Culture for the re-

turn of the Elgin Marbeis

In 1994 with the onset of the Information superhighway people began to raise huge question* about the future of hut cultural heritage Would, for example people read from the printed page any more0 Would book* exlat In 50 years time’’

The answer kinked like Yes After all. the theatre had aur vlved the cinema The cinema has survived television Film was now making something of a recmerv Th I* wa* the year of box office hit* like Four Weddings and a fgncral Forrest Gumj> and The IJtxi Kino

Neven hefess television had turned most people Into watcher* rallwr than ctoera. Aa more and more people sat working at their computers and faxr* al borne the com munity o of foctory life began to dMoppror

And while all this was happening in the wealthier world, in whole areas elsewhete noth inc had changed For the poor and simple villager there was no superhighway Th^bitter civil wars and the ^Bering went on There v.ereBplI two worlds and perhapsKn even wider divide

Yet the reconciliation in South Africa had brought (peat hope and expectation far be yond Its boundaries It had sent a message of hope io ten* of millions more around the world that people* of different creeds, colours and race* couki heal their division*. The impossible couki happen

Archbishop Tutu had Mimmed it up in three letters. WUW!

DCRKK iftGRAM wasJkdttor of llemtnl News Service Hr 27 ururs and Is now Its GtkBflrmi