UNITED NATIONS - Leaders of territories listed by the United Nations as colonies in need of liberation have asked the world body to stop interfering in their affairs.
The Governor of American Samoa said he wants the South Pacific island group struck from the UN's list of "colonized" peoples altogether, explaining that islanders are happy with the freedoms they enjoy as a United States dependency.
The Governor of Guam, an American-administered Pacific island also on the colonized list, said the United States represents "real freedom" in his homeland.
The Chief Minister of Gibraltar, a British possession on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, blasted backing for Spain's "anachronistic claim to recover the sovereignty of our homeland."
The leaders spoke at a UN decolonization conference in Cuba that launched a Week of Solidarity With the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories that began on Friday.
Few territories among the 17 on the list said they want to cut ties with their respective parent countries, but the UN is launching a "Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonization" to do just that. The first decade covered the 1990s.
The push has the backing of Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General. "We must see the process through to its end," he said in a message to the conference. But some say the UN's focus has been set by an anti-Western lobby in the UN General Assembly.
Administered by the UN's special decolonization committee, the list consists exclusively of territories administered by four Western democratic powers: the United States, Britain, France and New Zealand.
Absent are territories that have for years clamoured for self-determination, among them Tibet, ruled by China.
While Western democracies have no seat on the decolonization committee, China is among its 24 members. Other members include Indonesia, Iraq, Russia, Syria and Yugoslavia, all accused over the last decade of imposing their authority over peoples who, to different degrees, have desired more say in their affairs.
"If the committee is really interested in the eradication of colonialism, it should look at the situation in Western Papua New Guinea, a clear example of colonialism," said Eni Faleomavaega, American Samoa's representative in the U.S. Congress.
Last June, Indonesia ruled out independence for West Papua, which is rich in copper and gold.
"Too often the special committee has been used as a platform to attack the United States," Mr. Faleomavaega added.
His words add to growing Congressional impatience with the UN over the recent ejection of the United States from the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva and efforts to ban a leading U.S.-based pro-democracy group.
U.S. control began in 1900 in American Samoa, which lies 4,000 kilometres south of Hawaii. The territory, often referred to as the tuna capital of the world, has had its own constitution and an elected legislature for 40 years. Islanders don't even pay federal taxes.
"We have proven that our model has worked for 100 years," said Tauese Pita Sunia, the Governor.
Carl Gutierrez, Governor of Guam, said the people of the island are Americans and view U.S. interests in Guam as an integral part of their life. A vote on the future of the territory is planned for September, 2002.
Peter Caruana, Chief Minister of Gibraltar, asked: "If self-determination was a 'fundamental human right,' how could it be denied to the colonial people of a territory simply because the territory was subject of a claim by a third party?"
Also receiving special attention at the conference were Puerto Rico, an American Caribbean possession that has repeatedly voted to remain with the United States; the Falkland Islands, a British South Atlantic possession where the local population opposes Argentina's claim of sovereignty; New Caledonia, a French territory 1,500 kilometres east of Australia, where a 1998 agreement postponed discussion of independence until at least 2013; and Western Sahara, a former Spanish territory claimed by Morocco.