SEATED on the podium. under the great United Nations seal in the world body's sombre official briefing room, the ambassador for amusement looked an incongruous sight.

In a setting more attuned to besuited and ponderous officials delivering weighty pronouncements, the fra?» ckle-faced junior envoy — wearing a red-and-yellow jersey bearing the legend "1-800 Ha-Ha-Fun" — was cracking jokes with the press corps.

Twelvd-year-old Mark Semotiuk was launching his own UN peacekeeping mission in the shape of a 120-page book. 401 Goofy Jokes for Kids. It is designed to unite children from different countries through laughter, and raise money for worthy causes, including child victims of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, who contributed to the contents.

"This book is one example of what children can do to advance the cause of worldwide tolerance." said Mark, from Edmonton, Alberta, in

western Canada.

The UN General Assembly declared 1995 the Year of .Tolerance, and while there were not many takers among the member nations with their ethnic animosities and traditional rivalries, the idea found fertile ground ^nong Mark and his friends.

The book contains jokes, cartoons, riddles and puzzles contributed by hundreds of children from Canada. Ukraine and the United States. Governments of the three countries co-sponsored Mar-k's UN press conference to launch the venture.

He told journalists that the book project was a con-'tribution to laughing together and getting along together from all those who participated. Love of laughter bound children together from around the world. "I wished to demonstrate this." he said.

He did so by placing an advertisement in a newspaper in tlkralne, the country’ of his grandparents. He had learned some Ukrainian in a bilingual programme in his school, and sought to test his skill. Within two.months, he had received more than 2.000 replies — many from child cancer sufferers, whose Illness was caused by the 1986 nuclear disaster.

Almost 700 cases of thy roid cancer linked to fallout from the wrecked reactor at Chernobyl have already been confirmed among children in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Many are aged 10 and under, and became contaminated when they were vulnerable infants.

Doctors now fear that thousands more will fall victim in the years ahead. Sufferers can survive if the dam‘ aged thyroid gland is cut out.

but they then become dependent for life on regular dbses of the hormone thyrox-iri»O

Healing though humour is one of Mark s aims. It took him and his father, Andy, several months to sort through and select the material. One of Mark's favourite jokes included in the compilation is:

Airline pilot announces to passengers. "All the engines are out and there's only one parachute. But please don't worry — I've taken the parachute and gone for help!"

At the UN, Mark entertained reporters with his "best bits'' selection, but became serious when a correspondent asked him what he hoped to achieve in Ukraine, where the clean-up fund is several hundred million dollars short of requirements, and nuclear experts say prob-

lems are getting worse.

Picking up a banana skin In the street helps," replied Marten iwifh conviction. "Everybody must do what they can."

401 Goofy Jokes for Kids has two beneficiaries other than the Chernobyl children: the -bilingual school programme in western Canada and another project from

Mark's region. Junior Achievement, that teaches young people about business.

It gave me the push to think, to dream and achieve,' says Mark. He credits Junior Achievement and his parents for encouraging him to presa on with the project.

Asked about his family. Mark says his father ia a lawyer and his mother a health worker. Grinning, he adds: "Obviously. I didn't get my comical side from them!"

ELVI RUOTTINEN Is Gemini News Service correspondent at the United Nations.