MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UN sponsors one place, one only name.

The United Nations has undertaken the mission of standardizing world's places names and is working on two 150 pages papers to be distributed next year to all governments.

Growing diplomatic, military and communications concerns have convinced the UN of accelerating attempts to address the world's places names confusion. UN officials fear that if governments can't agree on an only accepted name for a place or toponym, wars could break out, aid to those in need could not reach and no mail will be distributed.

"What we need is a great data base. Toponyms are not among the top priorities like drinking water or health, but they certainly contribute to the welfare of communities if they are well known and are not ambiguous", said Helen Kerfoot, head of the UN Experts in Geographical Names which recently met in Glasgow for the International Geographic Congress. "Internet and satellite technology make places accepted identification more urgent", emphasized Ms. Kerfoot.

The issue is particularly serious in many developed countries were governments don't necessarily have a knowledge of all existing communities which becomes a burden for the aid agencies and for the infrastructure improvement.

The essence of the UN standardization project is for each country to agree on names of different places, and once this has been achieved at national level, a Roman name version will be requested for the data base.

Beijing is a classic example of the Chinese delivering a Roman version for the name of their capital.

Naftali Kadmon from the Jerusalem University said during the Glasgow meeting that names confusion can increase military tensions dangerously as happened when the Republic of Macedonia split from Yugoslavia. Greece with a northern province that has the same name feared that the new republic could spark an independent move and locked the borders.

UN experts in geographic names were consulted and they suggested the new country should be named the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia.

Similarly during the first Gulf War US fighters bombed the wrong place because of geographical names confusion, according to David Munro from the Royal Scottish Geographic Society.

Another area of confusion is the South Atlantic archipelago, Falklands for the British and Malvinas for Argentina. Actually the July 14 Declaration of 1999 which opened the Islands to Argentine passports holders also includes a toponymics chapter, still pending, which is supposed to standardize places' names in the Islands.

For the United Kingdom the places names issue is so serious that there is a Standing Committee on Geographical Names chaired by Professor David Munro who advises British forces and the diplomatic service.

"If you wish to communicate the language of names is important. Take names from maps and you're lost", says Professor Munro.