CLINTON, UN TO DISCUSS WAR ON DRUGS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Armed with suggestions for halting the flow of drugs
across international borders, President Clinton is huddling with other world
leaders about the problem in a special session today at the United Nations.

Clinton was to deliver the opening address at the U.N. General Assembly
special session on drugs before representatives of about 150 countries,
including 35 heads of state and government. Before that, he was meeting
privately with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The focus of the U.N. session is on curbing the laundering of drug proceeds
and reducing demand among drug users. In his address, Clinton was to again
appeal to the world's nations to unite behind a common strategy for fighting
both, White House spokesman Josh Silverman said Sunday.

That would give Clinton a chance to advance his own proposal for containing
other international threats, such as terrorism, illegal immigration,
trafficking in people and global crime rings that are a threat to newer,
weaker democracies. He made the proposal last month before the annual summit
of the world's eight largest industrialized nations in Birmingham, England.

Among those expected to hear Clinton today were Presidents Jacques Chirac of
France, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Rafael Caldera of Venezuela, Alberto
Fujimori of Peru, Hugo Banzer of Bolivia and Ernesto Samper of Colombia.

After his U.N. visit, Clinton was traveling to Connecticut for a
fund-raising reception for Democratic Rep. Barbara Kennelly. Tonight, he
also was to attend the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's ``New
York Celebration'' at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel before returning to Washington.

The United Nations has estimated that, even with aggressive interdiction,
law enforcement agencies would be able to seize only about 10 percent of
heroin shipments and 30 percent of cocaine shipments worldwide.

Worried that the fight against drugs would be too punishment-oriented,
several world figures have appealed to Annan for discussions on shifting
drug control policies more toward public health concerns.

In a letter from the private Lindesmith Center, about 500 prominent people
decried the routing of resources to ``ever more expensive interdiction
efforts'' without adequate attention to ``realistic proposals to reduce
drug-related crime, disease and death.''

Those who signed it included former Secretary of State George Shultz, former
U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, former Greek President
George Papandreou, former President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica and former
German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett