1.   The independence referendum had provoked warnings from Gorbachev that it would lead to a breakup of the Union and hence disaster.

2.   As he toured Western Canada three weeks ago, Chretien was a picture of confidence that the independence referendum would be decisively rejected.

3.   He said that all proposals have deadlines and that he did not expect negotiations with the government in Belgrade and any independence referendum to go much past next April.

4.   The administration has faced a difficult calculation in deciding how to react to the bloodletting that began after the independence referendum in East Timor.

5.   The current peace plan dropped an earlier proposal for a Kosovo independence referendum in three years.

6.   The U.N. Security Council recently approved five months of negotiations in anticipation of having an independence referendum for the territory.

7.   They want an independent country, not a distinct society, and in their concession speeches Monday they promised that a new independence referendum is around the corner.

8.   Tuesday, at a news conference, Gusmao was asked whether in retrospect he wished that the independence referendum had not been held, considering the violence it provoked.

9.   A charismatic speaker, Bouchard is widely credited with bringing the separatists remarkably close to victory in the independence referendum last October.