date:20020426


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=2382680&startrow=1&date=2002-04-25&do_alert=0

Licking the hand that beats you


YUGOSLAVIA TO JOIN PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE 

BELGRADE, April 25 /from RIA Novosti's Alexander
Slabynko/ - Yugoslavia's federal government determined
today to launch procedures for joining the NATO
programme, Partnership for Peace. The prospect fully
complies with the nation's foreign political
priorities, and eventual membership will bring
Yugoslavia closer to current European integration
efforts, says the cabinet. 

Goran Svilanovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was
ordered to announce the resolution to the two houses
of the Skupstina, federal parliament, and notify the
NATO top. 

The resolution gives an official footing to
negotiations on Yugoslavia to join the programme, the
Foreign Minister said yesterday


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Revulsion grows toward Vajpayee's party [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

2002-04-26 Thread Sandeep Vaidya (LMI)


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---

ALLEGED BJP TOLERANCE OF BRUTALITY
Revulsion grows toward Vajpayee's party
By B. GAUTAM
Special to The Japan Times
NEW DELHI -- India's secularism is in flames. The western Indian state of Gujarat, 
perhaps the most economically prosperous region in the entire country, has been in the 
midst of communal carnage for many weeks now. The majority Hindu population there has 
been systematically butchering members of the minority Muslim group in what is 
ironically considered "the land of peace." 
It is in Gujarat that Mahatma Gandhi was born, the man who won India its independence 
from British rule in 1947 through nonviolence, which he chose to describe as ahimsa, a 
word coined thousands of years ago by Gautama Buddha. Gandhi's ashram pacifist colony 
stands to this day in Ahmedabad, the city that has been witnessing horrific brutality. 
Just one incident is enough to highlight this. Last week, a Muslim woman on her eighth 
month of pregnancy was seized by a Hindu mob, her abdomen ripped open and her fetus 
scooped out and thrown into a fire. 
The United Nations Human Rights Commission condemned the Gujarat atrocities, and said 
that they were as bad as -- if not worse than -- what happened in Nazi Germany, where 
Hitler and his men killed 6 million Jews in carrying out his "Final Solution." 
Curiously, in what is seen as an abject exercise to tutor the young and the 
impressionable in the Nazi doctrine of extermination, students of Class 12 in Gujarat 
appearing for their final examination were asked a question on Hitler's ruthless 
methodology. 
As part of an English grammar exercise, the boys and girls were asked to join the 
following sentences into one: "There are two solutions. One of them is the Nazi 
solution. If you do not like people, kill them, segregate them. Then strut up and 
down. Proclaim that you are the salt of the Earth." 
In Gujarat where hundreds of innocent Muslim men and women have been murdered, the 
perversion of an educational exercise appears to be part of a provocation process, 
which understandably led to an uproar not just within the nation, but also outside. 
Finland has made a strong protest over the handling of the Gujarat massacres, ignoring 
Indian accusation of "interference in internal affairs." 
In Britain, cases have been filed in court calling for the extradition of Narendra 
Modi, Gujarat's chief minister and a leader of the Hindu nationalist party, Bharatiya 
Janata Party. The BJP, which heads the national coalition government in New Delhi, can 
find itself on a sticky wicket, because the U.K. is in a strong position to pursue the 
demand, given the fact that a few British citizens are among those dead in Gujarat. 
The Economist news magazine, in a strong indictment of the Gujarat barbarism, has 
called the BJP "shameless." It adds: "The BJP has for several years seemed to treat 
its Hindu nationalist ideology as a political liability. Now, when that ideology is 
showing its dangerous and shameful side, the party has suddenly chosen to reaffirm 
it." 
The atrocities began as a revenge for an attack by Muslims on a train carrying Hindu 
pilgrims. About 60 of them were burned to death. In retaliation, hundreds of Muslims 
in Gujarat were "slaughtered," and according to independent reports and eyewitness 
accounts, Hindu mobs were incited and the killings were orchestrated by the Modi 
administration itself. 
Yet, the nationalist BJP has been resisting just about every conceivable move to have 
Modi removed from chief ministership. Supporting him in a shocking display of bad 
judgment is India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose reputation for 
misplaced tolerance has until now endeared the BJP, which he heads, to most coalition 
members. "The massacres are condemnable" he said, "But who lit the fire and how did it 
spread?" 
Understandably, this has produced a sense of revulsion among the nation's opposition 
parties, which refused to let Parliament function for days until it was agreed that 
Gujarat would be on the table for a debate and vote on April 30. The Vajpayee 
government is bound to face uncomfortable questions that day. 
With even some of his own coalition partners perturbed and angry over the massacres, 
Vajpayee could soon well be in hot water. 
His party's directive to Modi hold early elections in the troubled state, and the 
national BJP's tryst with the Indian electorate in 2004, when the current term of 
Parliament ends, seem to point to an uncertain future for the Hindu nationalist party. 
The Japan Times: April 26, 2002
(C) All rights reserved 

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Georgia Continues Armed Provocations In Caucasus [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=2382149&startrow=21&date=2002-04-25&do_alert=0

GEORGIAN-ABKHAZIAN NEGOTIATIONS IN SUKHUMI ENDED WITH
NO RESULTS 

-[In] the Kodori Gorge, in the area of the
Georgian-Abkhazian conflict "there stayed more than
900 armed people." The press secretary stated that
Georgia was describing them differently: "as
reservists, frontier guards or something else, but
they were armed and subordinate to the Georgian
Defense Ministry." 

MOSCOW, 25 April. /RIA Novosti correspondent Vladimir
Pakhomov/. Press secretary of the Abkhazian government
Zaira Tsvizhba informed RIA Novosti on the phone that
the Georgian-Abkhazian negotiations ended with no
results. The Georgian delegation left the capital of
Abkhazia (a self-proclaimed republic in the territory
of Georgia). 

While finalizing the second half of negotiations with
the Georgian delegation Abkhazian prime-minister Anri
Jergenia stated that "we did not move a step forward."
He emphasized that "until Georgia withdrew its armed
formations from the Kodori gorge and ensured
monitoring, the Abkhazian side would not consider any
issues." According to Zaira Tsvizhba, "judging by the
documents presented by Georgia" in the course of the
negotiations, in the Kodori Gorge, in the area of the
Georgian-Abkhazian conflict "there stayed more than
900 armed people." The press secretary stated that
Georgia was describing them differently: "as
reservists, frontier guards or something else, but
they were armed and subordinate to the Georgian
Defense Ministry." Zaira Tsvizhba reported that the
Georgian side was of the opinion that the negotiations
were eventually of some use as "the issues for further
discussion were raised". The press secretary stated
that "possibly, a meeting of the Security working
group of the Coordination Council would be held.
Dieter Boden, representative of the UN Secretary
General was insisting on that." She emphasized that
"General Aleksandr Yevteyev, commander of the
Collective peace-keeping forces also put forward his
proposals. But the participants of the present meeting
did not agree either a venue, or the date when that
might happen." 




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US Military To Arrive In Georgia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=2381140&startrow=51&date=2002-04-25&do_alert=0

US MILITARY INSTRUCTORS TO ARRIVE IN GEORGIA BY LATE
APRIL 

TBILISI, April 25, 2002 (From RIA Novosti
correspondent Yelena Imedashvili) -- American military
instructors are expected in Georgia in late April.
Deputy Georgian Defense Minister Gela Bezhuashvili
said to journalist on Thursday. 

At the same time, according to Bezhuashvili, the exact
date of their arrival within the US program for
training and equipping the Georgian Armed Forces is
not yet known. 

The program provides for training a number of units of
the Georgian Armed Forces, including the ones to carry
out anti-terrorist operations. The 11th
motorized-rifle brigade of the Defense Ministry of
Georgia, the Kodzhor center of Rapid Deployment, the
Sachkhersky Mountain battalion and the Yalgudzha
training center will receive US training. 

Gela Bezhuashvili said that the first stage on
settling work and training officers of the General
Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces will take up to 3-4
months. 



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Washington Post Fawns Over NATOite King [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51380-2002Apr25.html

A Former Boy King's Big Vision for Bulgaria 
By Nora Boustany

Washington Post
Friday, April 26, 2002; Page A24 


Elegant and remarkably regal despite a four-day
Washington whirlwind of politicking and meetings,
Bulgaria's former boy king and present prime minister,
Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, said the most notable change
he has witnessed since his return from exile has been
the country's painful transition to a market economy.
He has been struck, he said, by the spirit of
entrepreneurship of his fellow Bulgarians, whom he has
pledged to lead out of the economic doldrums of the
postcommunist era.

Exiled by the communists at the age of 9 in 1946,
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha went on to become a successful
banker and investor; he lived in Spain until 1996.

With a pressing mandate to prepare his country for
integration into the world community by joining NATO
and the European Union, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, at 64, is
now putting his worldliness, savvy Western ways and
business acumen to work for Bulgaria -- and working
full tilt. The World Bank is currently funding nine
projects worth $350 million there and is proposing a
lending program of as much as $750 million -- a plan
that will go to a vote at the meeting of bank
directors May 9.

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha sleeps only five hours a night after
putting in marathon days that rarely end before 10:30
p.m., according to Gen. Nikola Kolev, deputy chief of
the general staff of the Bulgarian armed forces, who
accompanied the prime minister along with Justice
Minister Anton Stankov and Stanimir Ilchev, chairman
of the Foreign Policy, Defense and Security Committee
in Bulgaria's National Assembly.

Crowned at age 6 in 1943 after his father's sudden
death, Simeon II, as he is also known, fled Bulgaria
three years later for Egypt, where he lived for four
years before going on to study at Valley Forge
Military Academy in Pennsylvania, among other places.
He breaks into flawless, Egyptian-accented Arabic to
prove his fluency.

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's favorite recollection of a visit
in the early 1960s to Chicago, where about 50,000
Bulgarian Americans reside, is an encounter with the
late mayor, Richard J. Daley (father of the current
mayor), who was impressed when the young exile noted
that the Windy City was known for its old churches.
"Well, I'll be darned," was Daley's response, he
recalled. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, slim and slightly
bearded, is still amused by the description of him in
the Chicago Tribune then as a "somewhat deflated
version of actor Peter Ustinov," an insight that both
men got to check out firsthand much later when they
met, he said with a chuckle.

Last April, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha formed a small political
party, which went on to a landslide victory in
elections in June. He wishes to be addressed as "Mr.
Prime Minister," he specified when asked Tuesday
evening. Earlier in the day, over breakfast with
journalists at the Hay-Adams, he did not rule out a
possible restoration of the monarchy -- not by decree,
but only if the electorate so decided at a later
point.

"In the final analysis, it is a matter of great pride
to me that I have not simply been czar of Bulgaria,
but have been prime minister, elected by a substantial
majority of the Bulgarian people. That, at least, can
never be taken away," Saxe-Coburg-Gotha said.

On Monday he pressed the right buttons during a speech
at the Heritage Foundation when he said that including
Bulgaria in a robust NATO, along with other "qualified
aspirants, will contribute to the victory in the war
against terrorism." He underlined his countrymen's
recent peacekeeping contributions in the Balkans,
stressing that further NATO enlargement to the south
would make European borders more secure.

He took his case for Bulgarian membership in NATO to
the White House on Tuesday at a meeting with President
Bush, as well as to legislators on Capitol Hill.



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US Pushes 'Big Bang'; UK Swears Fealty To US & NATO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/fr/fr020425_1_n.shtml

Jane's Defence Weekly

Britain rethinks NATO's role: do the Americans need
it?

As far as media attention is concerned, the only
question facing the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
this year is how many new members, drawn from the
ranks of the former Warsaw Pact, are going to be
invited to join the Alliance. 

Scenarios range from one invited country (Slovenia) to
five (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia and
Slovenia) and even seven (all the above, plus Romania
and Bulgaria). Most Western governments are engaged in
either dismissing or encouraging one of these
scenarios. 

The received wisdom from Washington, the capital
which, as always, will have the final say over such
matters, is that at the NATO summit, which is
scheduled to take place in Prague this November, all
seven candidates will be admitted together. For the
Alliance, this seems like a good compromise: unlike
previous enlargements, there will be no disappointed
candidates this time. However, there is one NATO
member state that is unhappy about the entire debate:
the UK. 

The British are not against enlargement itself, yet
they are irritated that an Alliance which is facing a
critical test for its very survival seems more
preoccupied with counting its new members than putting
its own house in order. The British government has
thus put together an elaborate and ambitious plan for
the rejuvenation of the Alliance. 

Like many European countries, the British are alarmed
by the fact that the Americans do not trust the
Alliance's decision-making capacity. The reason for
this mistrust is Washington's experience during the
Kosovo war in 1999. The overwhelming majority of the
military assets deployed against Yugoslavia at that
time were American, as were the satellites that
identified targets for air strikes. 

However, the USA had to get the agreement of all other
18 member states before any operation, and often this
involved heated debates and compromises, sometimes
over single targets. The Europeans may be right to
claim that this debate was a necessary price to pay in
order to maintain Alliance solidarity; the Pentagon in
Washington, however, saw it as an unnecessary
encumbrance which should not be repeated. 

So, when NATO responded to the terrorist atrocities in
the USA last September by invoking the famed Article 5
in its founding treaty (which deems an attack against
one member state as an attack against them all), the
USA thanked the Alliance for its concern, but
proceeded to mount its own independent operation in
Afghanistan. The Europeans were duly involved in this
operation but as individual allies of the USA rather
than as part of the Alliance. 

In most European capitals this was seen as nothing but
another indication of the Bush administration's
alleged unilateralist sentiments, an inevitable trend
which has no immediate cure. Not so in London: the
British government is determined to rectify the
situation in order to make clear that NATO will again
become the centrepiece of American security
arrangements. The British are aware that the
institutional changes which they propose cannot be
made legally binding: the Treaty of Washington which
founded the Alliance more than half a century ago is a
document that cannot be easily amended. The British
strategy, therefore, is to introduce informal changes
designed to address American concerns at least in
practice if not in a formal legal sense. 

NATO operates on the principle of equality:
theoretically, Luxembourg can veto any Alliance
action. But the British point out that times have
changed. During the Cold War, NATO fully expected to
go into battle with all its members at the same time.
Today, the Alliance may mount various operations -
such as those in the Balkans - but none of them
critically affects the security of the entire
continent and few of them require the contribution of
all member states. The result is what NATO military
planners call 'Coalitions of the Willing' - ad hoc
arrangements in which a number of countries are
involved. 

The British proposal is that every member state should
have the freedom to decide whether or not to
contribute to individual operations - in return, if a
country does not contribute to the operation, it
cannot expect to have the same say over its conduct.
The result of the proposal would be that if the USA
provides a majority of troops to an operation it would
also call all the political shots - precisely what the
Americans have always demanded. 



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Croatian Armed Forces NATOized; Ready For Deployment Abroad [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK


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http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/bo/Qcroatia-army.RLt__CAP.html


Croatia reorganizes its armed forces 
Thursday, 25-Apr-2002 

ZAGREB, April 25 (AFP) - The Croatian government
announced Thursday a reorganization of the country's
armed forces aimed at modernising the military and
brining it into line with NATO standards, national
radio reported.

The reorganization notably includes the reduction of
armed forces staff to 21,000 active military personnel
and 4,000 civilian employees, Prime Minister Ivica
Racan said.

The future status of some 13,000 redundant employees
should be settled within the next few months, Racan
said, adding that they would be offered early
retirement and retraining.

Racan said that reforms were carried out in line with
NATO standards adding that Croatia also wanted to
"increase the efficiency and power" of its military.

Croatia became a member of NATO's Partnership for
Peace programme in mid-2000, a few months after
pro-Europeans took over from nationalists in the
country's parliament.

The programme is seen as the first step to joining the
US-led military Alliance.

 

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A Salute To Earthquakes [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=8020

Monteith's main HQ building shut down following Kosovo
quake

By Marni McEntee, Kosovo bureau
European edition, Friday, April 26, 2002

CAMP MONTEITH, Kosovo  Troops remained unable to use
the main headquarters building on Camp Monteith on
Thursday after an earthquake Wednesday cracked walls
and sent roof tiles tumbling to the ground.

Yellow hazard tape and a security detail blocked
access to Stryker Hall, which houses the headquarters
for two battalions and a variety of other units at the
Armys main maneuver base just outside Gjilane.

A local structural engineer was scheduled to examine
the four-story building Thursday to determine if it
was safe to move back in, camp Sgt. Maj. James Hardy
said. Most of the visible damage was on the third and
fourth floors, he said.

Along with the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment
and the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, offices
used by military police, civil affairs, public
affairs, finance units and others had to be evacuated
Wednesday.

Most moved to other Army-built structures on base.

"Its an inconvenience, but there has been no
degradation of operations," Hardy said.

Stryker Hall is one of only a handful of permanent
buildings that existed before Americans moved in three
years ago. Before 1999, the Serbian army had an
artillery base there.

McGraw Hall, just across a courtyard from Stryker
Hall, was evacuated Wednesday but reopened Thursday
morning.

The magnitude-5.1 earthquake shook the central Balkans
just before 1 p.m. Wednesday. Most of the damage was
centered in Gjilane, where one man was killed by
falling debris and dozens of others suffered cuts,
bruises and broken bones.

No soldiers were injured in the quake. Several
aftershocks overnight Wednesday jarred some soldiers
awake, Sgt. 1st Class Will Leavitt said.

In addition, many units are swapping SEAhuts for tents
anyway because 10th Mountain Division soldiers are
beginning to rotate out of Kosovo and be replaced by
1st Infantry Division soldiers.

Debris still littered sidewalks in downtown Gjilane on
Thursday and many of the stores remained evacuated.
Several families had opted to remain outdoors on
blankets and camp chairs, fearing aftershocks.
 


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Be Vigilant Against 'New Empire Theory' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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http://english.people.com.cn/200204/26/eng20020426_94777.shtml

People's Daily (China)
April 26, 2002

Editorial

Be Vigilant against 'New Empire Theory'
Recently, around the time when the US government
dished out the "Theory of Defeated Nations", External
Policy Advisor Robert Kubo of British Prime Minister
Tony Blair published in the British paper, Observer,
his fantastic talks, which advocate saving the world
with new imperialism. 

Exactly the same as past colonialism and imperialism
which needed to find an excuse for colonization and
aggression and expansion, modern power politics and
new interventionism also need a certain kind of
theoretical packing and the creation of public
opinion. This clamor for the self-styled "longing for
new empire", which puts a fashioned cloak on the mummy
of old colonialism and divides the world into three
types of country groups: The first type are "front
modern countries" composed of Somali, Afghanistan and
other former colonial countries; the second type are
"rear empires and rear modern countries" composed of
former colonizers; the third type are "traditional
countries" made up of China, India, Pakistan and some
other countries. In brief, the "new empire theory"
maintains that the defeated country group formed by
former colonies are the breeding grounds of turmoil
and threat, it stands for the use of the means of new
colonization, thinking it is acceptable for "rear
empire" to export stability and freedom abroad. 

The "new empire theory", based on colonialist concept
and logic, advocates that the rear modern country
group should be accustomed to double standards, i.e.,
they should guarantee security through law and
cooperation within themselves, whereas in dealing with
former colonial countries outside Europe, they should
adopt the previous century jungle law-force,
preemptive attack, deception, as well as any methods
needed for dealing with those countries still living
in the 19th century. Moreover, the "new empire theory"
lists many developing countries in the "defeated
countries" group that endanger world security and
stability, claiming that these countries have lost the
legality of using force. To give green light to new
imperialist military intervention, the "new empire
theory" gives farfetched footnotes that making Afghan
warfare serve as "defensive imperialism" is
"understandable". 

The "new empire theory" sums up the European union as
"voluntary imperialism", asserting that the rear
modern European union has offered a "cooperative
empire" prospect, sticking the label "voluntary global
economic imperialism" on the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank. On the other hand, in order
to legalize the new empire group's intervention in the
affairs of nearby regions, the "new empire theory"
fabricates the concept of "neighboring country
imperialism". This theory is based on the war chaos
and instability of the Balkan region, thinking that
the rear modern country group not only should send out
peace-keeping and international protection forces, but
also should provide police, judges, chief wardens,
bankers, etc., at the same time, they should supervise
and organize election. To put it plainly, if only they
rely on the creed of "neighboring country
imperialism", the new empire group can more
unscrupulously interfere in the regional affairs of
neighboring countries, including even toppling the
regime of a country and changing its social system. 

Obviously, the essence of the "new empire theory" aims
to clear the way for power politics in the new age, it
runs counter to the trend of the establishment of a
just and reasonable international new political order.
If the hegemonic logic and jungle law featuring the
"new empire theory" is acted upon, the world will be
thrown into utter disorder, the norms of international
law centered on State sovereignty, territorial
integrity and national dignity will be wantonly
trampled upon, the unilateralism and new
interventionism pursued by certain countries and
country groups will be running wild. After the human
society entered into the 21st century wherein peace
and development are stressed, the fact that the
"defeated nation theory" and the "new empire theory"
echo each other should arouse the full vigilance of
the international community. 



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Even Congress Sees Through Bogus 'IRA-Colombia' Casus Belli [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020425/1/2om50.html

Thursday April 25, 4:44 PM 
Links between IRA and Colombian rebels
unsubstantiated: lawmakers
 
 
 
Irate US lawmakers branded a congressional staff
report alleging links between the Irish Republican
Army and leftist Colombian rebels as not credible,
while Colombian witnesses insisted they had proof.

"I don't believe that report was very credible," said
Republican Representative Peter King at a hearing
Wednesday billed as a peek into global terrorism as
"illustrated by the IRA in Colombia."

"There is no evidence whatsoever the IRA had any
involvement at all" with three Irish nationals held
and charged in Colombia last year with training
leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
rebels in the use of explosives.

Particularly disturbing, added another lawmaker, was
the underlying suggestion that such connections should
galvanize Washington into beefing up its military aid
to help Bogota battle the guerrillas.

The report by the House International Relations staff
seemed to do nothing more than "rubber stamp a
preordained conclusion to fit a particular agenda,"
said Representative William Delahunt.

President George W. Bush, who recently met with his
Colombian counterpart Andres Pastrana, has pledged
support for Bogota's battle with leftist insurgents
and right-wing paramilitaries.

The investigative report that served as the basis of
the hearing prepared by the committee's Republican
majority staff and officially released Wednesday,
stated the "IRA has had well-established links with
the FARC narco-terrorists in Colombia since at least
1998."

It also noted that "explosives management training for
the FARC by the IRA, and possibly by other
foreign-based terrorists ... has markedly improved the
FARC's proficiency in urban terrorism in the last few
years."

King, however, was unimpressed.

"It was an investigation with an agenda from the
start," he said.

Delahunt, a Democrat, agreed. "We have been presented
with a report short on facts and replete with surmise
and opinion," he said.

Hearing witness Asa Hutchinson, head of the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) admitted that despite
the report, there was no hard evidence linking the IRA
to terrorist organizations such as the FARC.

"We do not know if they were acting on their own or at
the direction of someone else," Hutchinson told the
panel.

But Colombia armed forces chief General Fernando
Tapias insisted that of the 15 Irish men arrested and
suspected of having IRA links, firm evidence exists in
the cases of seven of them.

Tapias told the hearing that the Irish men trained
FARC in unconventional weapons making, explosives
production, and in fighting as well as intelligence
gathering techniques. He testified that the rebels'
operations became more effective after they had
received the training.

"But I cannot say if their presence was there with the
approval of the (IRA) leadership because I have no
evidence," he admitted.

Later Wednesday, in Bogota, Colombia Attorney General
Luis Camilo Osorio insisted there was proof that three
of the men actually belonged to the IRA.

"These people were in no way just passing through, or
here for a holiday, they were engaged in criminal
activity, and this is the proof we have brought and
presented before the judges so they can be tried,"
Osorio said.

"Terrorism in Colombia is not a local situation but
comes under the sign of having international links,"
he added.

In Washington, US Representative Donald Payne, a
Democrat, had concluded, however, there was "nothing"
in the report that could "point a finger at anything
other than three rogue men who happen to be Irish."

Lawmakers objected that linking the IRA to the FARC --
designated a terrorist organization by the United
States -- could undermine the delicate peace process
in Northern Ireland.

"I'm very disturbed and annoyed," Payne went on,
"because of the tenuousness of the peace process in
the north (of Ireland) and that something like this
can put some lumps in the road."

"To have a public hearing now is wrong," agreed King,
adding that the way the hearing had been presented
sent "a very false signal to the world."

Payne also dismissed European media reports implying
that Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the political
wing of the IRA, had snubbed Congress by turning down
a request to appear at the hearing.

"What is there for him to say?" Payne asked.

Adams wrote House International Relations committee
chairman Henry Hyde saying he was concerned his
attendance "may impact on due legal process in
Colombia."

Adams later said of the hearing that it "vindicated
Sinn Fein's position that we have no case to answer in
respect of the allegations levelled against our
party."

James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley
were detained on August 11, 2001, at Bogota's
international airport.

The three, who are now awaiting trial, have denied
ch

German Troops To Occupied Territories? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020425/1/2om4k.html

 
Thursday April 25, 4:28 PM 
Schroeder won't rule out German participation in
Mideast peace force
 
-Schroeder also admitted that, for obvious historical
reasons, the issue of German troops on Israeli soil
would be a sensitive one. [That only leaves one
alternative.]

 
 
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder refused to rule
out his country's participation in any future
peacekeeping force in the Middle East, but said that
any role it played would be examined on a case by case
basis.

In a speech on behalf of his center-left government to
parliament, Schroeder said Thursday: "In the Middle
East, the question of German participation in an
international security force is not on the table. But
we are faithful to our responsibility in the region."

"We are also, in the future, going to fulfill our
obligations to the international community. To that
end, we are going to decide on a case by case basis on
the size of our participation, based on what we can
and should provide," he said.

His government has come under fire because the German
army's international role, in places like Afghanistan
and Macedonia, has been widened but the military
budget has not been increased to support the
operations.

Schroeder also admitted that, for obvious historical
reasons, the issue of German troops on Israeli soil
would be a sensitive one.

Reaffirming that Israel's right to exist was an
inalienable part of German foreign policy, the
chancellor rejected applying any embargo or boycott
measures against it over its incursions in Palestinian
territories.

Germany said on April 14 that it had suspended the
supply of military equipment to Israel, becoming the
first European nation to apply direct economic
pressure on the country since the start of Israeli
incursions in the West Bank more than two weeks ago.

In reference to a security plan for the region
proposed by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer,
Schroeder said that it deserved the highest attention
at an international level and that it included an
international security component.

Fischer's plan foresees a total separation of the two
sides, an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian
territories, the closure of Jewish settlements in the
West Bank and the declaration of a provisional
Palestinian state.

 


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US Military Consolidates Control In Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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---

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52323-2002Apr26.html

Kyrgyzstan Is Hub for Anti-Terror 

-The base is home to more than 1,900 troops from eight
countries, about half from the United States. The rest
are from France, South Korea, the Netherlands,
Denmark, Australia, Norway and Spain.


By Bagila Bukharbayeva
Associated Press Writer
Friday, April 26, 2002; 4:05 AM 

MANAS, Kyrgyzstan  Officially, the military base
here bears the name of the civilian airport where it
was hastily built: Manas.

But the U.S. and other troops deployed here in
Kyrgyzstan call it Ganci air base  a tribute to Peter
Ganci, the New York City fire chief who died in the
World Trade Center attack, and a reminder of the
purpose of their mission on the steppes of Central
Asia.

The base, constructed on what was a bare field on the
airport's territory, has become a busy logistical hub
supporting the U.S.-led anti-terrorism operations in
Afghanistan. Fighter jets, C-130 cargo planes and
Boeing KC-135 refueling planes fly in and out of
Manas.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was on his way
to Kyrgyzstan on Friday, launching a Central Asia tour
intended to show gratitude to the thousands of
American and allied troops in the region and to
consult with government officials.

Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have also provided air bases
for U.S. forces and their allies in the anti-terrorism
effort. Yet Kyrgyzstan was the only nation in the
region to offer unlimited access for aircraft flying
combat as well as humanitarian and search-and-rescue
missions. It has leased Manas to the coalition for a
year.

The base is home to more than 1,900 troops from eight
countries, about half from the United States. The rest
are from France, South Korea, the Netherlands,
Denmark, Australia, Norway and Spain.

About 200 U.S. Marines arrived this month, along with
six U.S. FA-18 Hornet fighter jets. They are the first
U.S. aircraft to be deployed at the base, 19 miles
from the capital, Bishkek. Six French Mirage-2000
fighter jets are also based here, said Capt. Richard
Essary, a spokesman at Manas.

The 37-acre compound is fenced off with a concrete
wall topped by coiled razor wire. Four watchtowers
overlook the compound, and the troops patrol nearby
villages "to protect ourselves from the unknown, not
the people of Kyrgyzstan," Essary said.

Earlier this month, the South Korean contingent opened
a 60-bed military hospital on the base grounds.
Operated by a Korean staff of 89, the $5 million
hospital treats both the troops and local residents.

Ganci base has 300 khaki tents, a large fitness room,
a chapel and a post office. In the recreation room,
soldiers can make a 15-minute call home twice a week,
read and send e-mail, play ping-pong, watch American
TV shows and play video or board games.

"It took a lot of long hours and many weeks with no
days off to set up the base," said Chief Master Sgt.
David Andrews, from McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma,
Wash. "We went from a very low quality of life to a
very good one."

Tech. Sgt. James Mitchell, the assistant cafeteria
manager, said he had expected a "much tougher
assignment." For him and many of the soldiers here,
homesickness is the biggest challenge.

"I try to block my mind and keep myself busy," said
Mitchell, of Charleston, S.C.

Earlier this month, the troops had only their second
freshly cooked meal since they started arriving in
December: roast pork. Usually they get canned lasagna,
spaghetti and meat balls, beef stew, pork and beans,
and hamburgers, supplemented by locally purchased
bread, milk, fruit and vegetables.

The U.S. troops at the base are under Ground Order No.
1, meaning no alcohol, no gambling and no pornography.

"We want to be good guests in this country. We want to
set the best example we can," Essary said.

The U.S. contingent earned some negative points last
month when a servicemen ran over and injured two women
in Bishkek. The accident provoked an angry reaction in
the local media, which was already hostile over
alleged underpayment for the use of the airport and
damage to the roads.

The main concern for ordinary people is whether the
foreign troop presence in their country will help the
economy. A policeman patrolling Manas airport, who
declined to give his name, said locals did not mind
the foreign troop presence "as long as the money they
pay goes to the budget and not into some people's
pockets."

Since December, coalition troops have pumped about $14
million into the local economy in payments for fuel,
services and food, Essary said. 


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Solidarity cries over neoliberalism it created [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


Reuters. 26 April 2002. Thousands of Poles protest against labour
reforms.

WARSAW -- In a very Polish role-reversal, the Solidarity union, once in
the forefront of opposition to Soviet-backed communism, is now fighting
a rearguard action against liberal reforms proposed by the heirs to
their oppressors.

Tens of thousands of Polish trade unionists rallied in Warsaw on Friday
to protest against the left-wing government's proposed labour reforms,
which they fear will add to record dole queues.

The march began good naturedly, but later protesters let off a smoke
bomb and threw firecrackers outside government headquarters. Despite
some pushing and shoving, riot police on the scene did not intervene.

The demonstration, organised by the Solidarity trade union, marked its
first show of strength since the right-wing government it backed was
swept from power by the reformed communists in last September's general
election.

Workers from shipyards, steelworks and coal mines -- once bastions of
Poland's communist command economy -- said legislation now before
parliament to ease hire-and-fire rules could force them into the ranks
of over three million jobless.

"If they implement these changes, then we'll automatically lose our
jobs," said Slawomir Zales, 39, who has worked in a Silesian coal mine
for 19 years.

Organisers said 70,000 had come, mostly by bus, to rally on Warsaw's
vast Pilsudski Square before marching to parliament and Miller's
chancellery.

Business groups and Poland's other main trade union, the pro-government
OPZZ, have backed the proposed changes to the communist-era labour code.

The International Monetary Fund has cautiously welcomed them but said
they could go further.

Excessive red tape [read: labor rights] and high payroll taxes are major
deterrents to investment in Poland as it prepares for the economic
challenge of joining the European Union in as little as two years.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews

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Solidarity cries over neoliberalism it created [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


Reuters. 26 April 2002. Thousands of Poles protest against labour
reforms.

WARSAW -- In a very Polish role-reversal, the Solidarity union, once in
the forefront of opposition to Soviet-backed communism, is now fighting
a rearguard action against liberal reforms proposed by the heirs to
their oppressors.

Tens of thousands of Polish trade unionists rallied in Warsaw on Friday
to protest against the left-wing government's proposed labour reforms,
which they fear will add to record dole queues.

The march began good naturedly, but later protesters let off a smoke
bomb and threw firecrackers outside government headquarters. Despite
some pushing and shoving, riot police on the scene did not intervene.

The demonstration, organised by the Solidarity trade union, marked its
first show of strength since the right-wing government it backed was
swept from power by the reformed communists in last September's general
election.

Workers from shipyards, steelworks and coal mines -- once bastions of
Poland's communist command economy -- said legislation now before
parliament to ease hire-and-fire rules could force them into the ranks
of over three million jobless.

"If they implement these changes, then we'll automatically lose our
jobs," said Slawomir Zales, 39, who has worked in a Silesian coal mine
for 19 years.

Organisers said 70,000 had come, mostly by bus, to rally on Warsaw's
vast Pilsudski Square before marching to parliament and Miller's
chancellery.

Business groups and Poland's other main trade union, the pro-government
OPZZ, have backed the proposed changes to the communist-era labour code.

The International Monetary Fund has cautiously welcomed them but said
they could go further.

Excessive red tape [read: labor rights] and high payroll taxes are major
deterrents to investment in Poland as it prepares for the economic
challenge of joining the European Union in as little as two years.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews

---
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FW: SupplySideInvestor [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

2002-04-26 Thread jonathan

Title: SupplySideInvestor

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

-Original Message-From: Patrick
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]Sent: 25 April 2002
18:29To: A.P.C.Subject:
SupplySideInvestor

SUBSCRIBE to Jude's
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Memo on the Margin

April 9, 2002Send to a
ColleaguePrinter-Friendly
Version
Saddam Hussein: From Ally to EnemyTo:
Friends of President BushFrom: Jude WanniskiRe: The 1988 Turning
PointWhen the eight year Iran-Iraq war ended in September 1988,
the little Iraq of 20 million people had defeated big Iran of 60 million
people. We recently have been looking back on that period because they
speak volumes about why the Bush administration is so hellbent on going to
war with Iraq, if he ever nails down a cease-fire and settlement in
Israel. As friends of President George W. Bush, you should encourage him
to take a look at the past, as he was probably not paying much attention,
totally involved that fall in helping his father win the presidential
election. Earlier in 1988, it was conventional wisdom that Iran would beat
Iraq, which had fought a defensive war. The United States had given
support to Iraq in the war; Israel, which in 1981 had blown up Iraq's
nuclear power plant a few months after the Iran-Iraq war broke out, sided
with Iran, fully expecting Iraq would lose and be crippled thereafter. The
U.S. foreign policy establishment gave every sign of cheering the killing
on both sides, as only Muslims were involved. I urged President Ronald
Reagan to undertake a peace initiative, but he told me he was helpless in
this situation.In March 1988, the tide turned as Iraq decided to
go all out on the offensive. It borrowed another several billion dollars
from Arab friends and European banks to buy war materials from the West,
had a successful call-up of young men, and by September broke the depleted
and demoralized Iranis. We ran a report two weeks ago by Dr.
Stephen Pelletiere, who studied the action with two colleagues of the Army
War College, concluding that Iraq's decisive victory at Halabja on the
Iraq side of the border did not involve use of poison gas against its own
people. Pelletiere, who was an intelligence officer for the CIA during the
Iran-Iraq war, argued the hundreds of civilians who died in the crossfire
were felled by the kind of gas Iranians used. Iranians, though, insisted
it was Iraqi gas that killed the Iraqi civilians. Their claim got better
play in the U.S. press, which to this day refers to it as fact. The War
College report also argued that Iraqi use of gas against the Iranians was
not decisive, but that Iraq had successfully engineered Scud missiles to
travel far enough to hit the distant Iranian capital and the Iranian
people begged the Ayatollah to sue for peace. In his 2001 book, "Iraq
and the International Oil System," Dr. Pelletiere picks up the story
post-Halabja. The headline refers to Reagan's Secretary of State, George
Shultz. * * * * *SHULTZ'S MOVEWe go forward
now to the period immediately after the end of the [Iran-Iraq] war, when
the Iranians had agreed to cease fighting and when the two sides remained
at odds over how to bring the war to a close. As stated earlier, the
Iraqis were reluctant to call off their attack, given that they did not
trust the Iranians to make concessions. Hence, even though by August 20
Saddam had been pressured into agreeing to enter into negotiations, the
Iraqi army remained poised to resume the offensive. UN delegations went
out to the area; talks were set up in Geneva. There was a plan to shift
the venue of the talks to New York -- but all this was like pulling teeth,
since the Iraqis fought every move to advance the process.Then, on
September 7, 1988, America's secretary of state George Shultz invited
Iraq's junior foreign minister, Sadoun Hammadi, to Foggy Bottom,
ostensibly to discuss how the negotiations could be speeded up. Hammadi
appeared on September 8, u

News, 26.4.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---



   Deutsche Welle
   English Service News
   26th April, 2002, 16:00 UTC
 
--
   Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:

   Many Killed in High School Shootout in Germany

   At least 18 people died in a school shootout in the German city of
   Erfurt on Friday. A former student stormed into the building and
opened
   fire. The assailant is among the dead.

   To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the
   internet address below:

   http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1432_A_507221_1_A,00.html
 
--

   18 die as student runs amok in German school

   A former pupil, who was expelled from his school some weeks ago shot
   dead 14 teachers, two pupils, a police officer and then himself on
   Friday in Germany's worst mass murder since World War Two, police
   said. Six others were seriously wounded in the shooting . Armed with
   a pump-action shotgun and a handgun, the 19-year-old walked though
   the Gutenberg school in the eastern town of Erfurt, shooting teachers
   he found in the corridors, classrooms and toilet. The shooting
   coincided with a debate in the German parliament on Friday on
   tightening gun control legislation.


   Israel raids West Bank city despite Bush call

   Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Qalqilya and three
   villages on Friday in defiance of a fresh call from U.S. President
   Bush for Israel to complete a pullout from re-occupied Palestinian
   areas. About 30 people were taken away by the troops. The raid came
   only hours after Mr. Bush held talks with Saudi Crown Prince
   Abdullah, who warned the president that the U.S. risked grave
   consequences for its Middle East interests if it did not moderate its
   support for Israel's military crackdown on the Palestinians.
   Meanwhile, in New York, the United Nations said it was confident a
   U.N. fact-finding team set up following allegations of massacres in
   Jenin refugee camp by Israeli troops would arrive in the region as
   planned by the end of the week. After consenting to the mission,
   Israel now appears to be putting difficulties in its path before its
   starts by demanding that U.N. make changes to the team.


   22 dead in S.A. bus crash

   At least 22 people died and more than 45 others were badly hurt when
   their bus overturned and rolled down a cliff in South Africa's
   eastern KwaZulu-Natal province,officials said.The bus, which
   overturned after a tyre burst, narrowly missed an oncoming entourage
   that was carrying one of the wives of Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini.


   Algerian rebels kill four civilians

   Suspected Islamic rebels killed four civilians and wounded three
   others overnight in western Algeria.Two days ago, 16 nomads, eight of
   them children were slaughtered as they slept in their tents near
   Tiaret. Algeria has been wracked by violence since early 1992 when
   the authorities cancelled a parliamentary election radical Islamists
   were poised to win. More than 150,000 people, civilians, rebels and
   government soldiers have been killed since then, the government says.


   Sierra Leone - massive diamond find?

   The U.N., which, with other agencies faced allegations last February
   that aid recruits in West Africa had sexually abused refugee
   children, has now drawn up basic standards of conduct.Issued in
   Freetown, Sierra Leone, the U.N. rules say that aid workers must
   never harm children, nor condone trafficking in arms, drugs and
   diamond dealing. The behavioural code coincided with reports that a
   massive diamond had been found earlier this week somewhere in Sierra
   Leone and that efforts were being made by smugglers to take it out of
   the country. Border guards have now been put on high alert. So-called
   blood diamonds have sold abroad by rebels to finance the civil war in
   the region. Since 2000, the U.N. has promoted a certification system
   to keep track of such stones.


   Milosevic's army chief denies Kosovo charges

   Slobodan Milosevic's former army-chief-of-staff, Dragoljub Ojdanic,
   pleaded not guilty to war crimes in Kosovo on Friday, after becoming
   the first senior Serbian figure to surrender voluntarily to The Hague
   tribunal in the Netherlands. The 60-years-old general is accused by
   United Nations prosecutors of leading Yugoslav and Serb forces in a
   campaign of terror and violence against Kosovo Albanians. A further
   five indictees are preparing to follow Mr. Ojdanic to The Hague,
   where Mr. Milosevic has been on trial since February. The former
   Yugoslav president, who stands accused of atrocities in Kosovo,
   Bosnia and Croatia, was handed over to The Hague last June by the
   Serbian reformers who overthrew him in 2000.


   Fourteen rebels killed in Indian Kashmir violence

   Indian security

Jenin refugees turn away US relief trucks in protest [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---



http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2002/0425/breaking55.htm

Jenin refugees turn away US relief trucks in protest


Two US trucks delivering food, toys and tents to the Jenin refugee camp
were turned away by an angry crowd today in protest at Washington's
military aid to the Israeli army, Jenin's parliamentarian said.

"The camp's inhabitants are refusing help provided by the US because of
its foreign policy concerning the Palestinian question and because the
camp was destroyed by USmade weapons," the Palestinian Legislative
Council (PLC) member for Jenin, Mr Jamal al-Shaati, said today.

The aid was sent by the US Agency for International Development (USAID),
whose trucks bore its emblem as well as the US flag.

A large crowd of the camp's residents, including representatives of all
political factions there, threw the goods back into the trucks after
they had been unloaded at the camp's entrance, Mr Shaati said.

The trucks were then forced to leave.
USAID officials in Tel Aviv said they were not aware of the incident.
But a spokesperson for the US consulate in Jerusalem said that despite a
"mini-demonstration, the trucks arrived in the camp and their content
was delivered to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) there."

The relief agency for Palestinian refugees "will distribute US
assistance to the camp's residents over the next few days and Jenin's
governor publicly thanked us," she said. But Mr Shaati rebutted the
statement, saying that the goods were finally unloaded but "in an UNRWA
school outside the camp."

"The residents just don't want US help, is that clear?" said Mr Shaati
angrily. "Tell them (the Americans) that the camp's youth will come and
burn the goods if they (UNRWA on behalf USAID) attempt to get them into
the camp," he warned. The refugee camp in the northern West Bank was
devastated by the Israeli army's invasion in search of hardline militant
groups using the neighbourhood as a base and for launching suicide
bombings across the border in Israel.

In a week of bitter fighting, Israel used bulldozers, Apache helicopters
and tanks to crush a die-hard group of Palestinian fighters who
booby-trapped streets and houses and killed 23 soldiers.

Around 50 Palestinian bodies, most of them fighters, have been found so
far in the rubble, but the Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out a
"massacre" in the camp, a charge Israel hotly denies.

Washington provides Israel with around three billion dollars of annual
aid, of which more than half is military support.

---
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How free is our so-called free press? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

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How free is our so-called free press?

John Miller

THERE ARE facts, and then there is the truth.
When we consider media convergence in Canada — and, in particular,
our biggest media conglomerate, CanWest Global Communications — it is
important to understand that facts and truth are not always the same.
Here's a fact: Several columns that once appeared in CanWest Global
newspapers, including one by Stephen Kimber in the Halifax Daily News,
have been killed, either for unspecified inaccuracies, or because they
challenged corporate policy. All decisions, according to head office, have
been made by local editors.
Here's the truth: In a remarkable act of integrity, Daily News
editor Bill Turpin resigned this week, but not before saying that he
killed Kimber's column after being advised by Murdoch Davis, his CanWest
boss in Winnipeg. "I and other editors had been urged repeatedly by Mr.
Davis to get his advice on any prospective commentary that might run
contrary to Southam Publications' rapidly changing editorial policies,"
Turpin said in an unpublished letter. "To my profound regret, I did so in
Mr. Kimber's case. Mr. Davis told me in colourful terms that publishing
the piece would be a career disaster."
Issues of editorial control raised by his letter, and the sheer
size of CanWest Global's influence over news, have raised legitimate
questions about how free our so-called free press is.
CanWest Global owns 27 daily newspapers. That's a fact. They
include the National Post and major newspapers in Ottawa and six of 10
provincial capitals. They distribute 11.4 million copies every week. This
is dwarfed by Global's television network, which beams itself to 94 per
cent of English-speaking Canada (Source: CanWest Global). The company's
radio, film, Internet and entertainment holdings give it unprecedented
control over the information Canadians use every day.
Saying CanWest's newspaper empire is modest when compared to Conrad
Black's is like trying to justify Bosnia because it was more humane than
the Holocaust.
Saying that we don't need a federal inquiry into media ownership
because "press freedom is freedom from state censorship" (National Post)
is like hitting me over the head with a frying pan and saying it's about
cooking. Our Charter of Rights grants press freedom to everyone and stands
against censorship from any quarter, including those who own the presses.
CanWest's corporate motto is: "If you can watch it, read it, hear
it, or download it, we want to be the source." Fair enough, but its owners
want Ottawa to help by giving them more tax money, and emasculating the
CBC.
These are important public policy issues, but can we count on
CanWest to allow a full debate of the pros and cons in its newspapers? It
already orders its 14 largest papers to print identical, weekly editorials
on national issues, and forbids any dissent.
We are therefore right to ask: Do we want our newspapers edited by
people who are afraid to publish strong opinions until they are cleared
with head office?
Do we want what Doug Creighton, founder of the Toronto Sun, called
Wizard of Oz journalism — with no brains, no heart and no courage?
Concerns about the effects of convergence are growing. Something must be
done.

John Miller is author of Yesterday's News and director of
newspaper journalism at Ryerson.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1019772130235&call_page=TS_Opinion&call_pageid=968256290124&call_pagepath=News/Opinion&col=968350116695
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Peres Offer To Meet Rejected by Saudi Counterpart [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

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  Peres Offer To Meet Rejected by Saudi 
  Counterpart

  
  

  By Nathan GuttmanHa'aretz
  TEL AVIV, Apr 26, 2002 -- Foreign Minister Shimon Peres tried to meet a 
  senior Saudi official, apparently Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal, last 
  weekend in Washington, but the Saudis turned down his request. 
  The bid, which came from the Israeli side, was passed to the Saudis 
  through unofficial channels without U.S. intervention. 
  The purpose of the meeting was to give Peres a chance to persuade the 
  Saudis to join the effort in convincing the Palestinians to take action 
  against terrorism and return to the negotiating table. 
  The Saudis rebuffed the request, however, saying it was not an 
  appropriate time to meet with an official Israeli. 
  Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who is visiting U.S. President George W. 
  Bush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, warned the American leader that if no 
  solution for the occupation of the territories and the violence in the 
  Middle East is found, U.S. interests in the region will be endangered, 
  according to the emir's political adviser Abdel Jubair. 
  But Jubair added that his country does not intend to use the "oil 
  weapon" against the United States or to ask Bush to withdraw U.S. bases on 
  Saudi territory. 
  In their first round of talks yesterday, the emir called on Bush to 
  pressure the Israeli government in order to prevent threats to regional 
  stability and western interests in the region. "If they leave Sharon 
  alone, he'll drag the region into an abyss," warned Abdullah's adviser. 
  Abdullah also told Bush that the Arab world regards the United States 
  as being one-sided in favor of Israel. 
  © Ha'aretz, 2002. All rights reserved. Distributed in partnership with 
  Globalvision News Network (www.gvnews.net). 

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Palestinians Speak Out Against Suicide Missions by Children [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK

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  Palestinians Speak Out Against Suicide Missions 
  by Children

  
  

  By Omer BarakHa'aretz
  NEZTARIM, Gaza Strip, Apr 26, 2002 -- "I'm going to be a martyr." These 
  were the last words that 14-year-old Ismail Abu-Nada told his mother 
  Tuesday evening. A member of his family said later that the boy's mother 
  thought that Ismail was joking. But by midnight on that same day, his 
  parents became increasingly worried when Ismail failed to return home. 
  When they heard in the Israeli media about an incident in the Neztarim 
  area, where IDF soldiers killed three Palestinian youths attempting to 
  infiltrate the Gaza Strip settlement, they began to understand. Later on, 
  they found a farewell letter that Ismail left behind, in which he declared 
  his affiliation to Hamas. 
  The deaths of Ismail, Yusuf Zakut, 14, and Anwar Hamdona, 13, stirred 
  anger amongst Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Just one 
  week ago, another boy from the same neighborhood was killed when he 
  attempted to infiltrate the Dugit settlement in northern Gaza. These two 
  incidents are further proof of the recent trend of expanding the circle of 
  those involved in "the Palestinian resistance." But in contrast to the 
  inclusion of women in suicide attacks - a step that roused a brief but 
  fleeting outcry - Palestinians seem to be genuinely unwilling to accept 
  the inclusion of their young people in suicide attacks. The combination of 
  the young age of the perpetrators and their "certain death" that comes 
  with the operation has created something of a red line for Palestinians. 
  Hamas, which, according to sources in Gaza and the IDF, was responsible 
  for sending the three boys to their death, rushed to fall into line with 
  the official Palestinian stance, and called on teachers and clerics to 
  discourage Palestinian youth from carrying out such attacks. The 
  Palestinian Education Ministry in Ramallah, which returned to work this 
  week after 22 days of the IDF's "Defensive Shield," were busy Thursday 
  drawing up a memorandum on the subject to be sent to teachers. 
  "What happened in Gaza both saddened and angered me," Dr. Nayyim 
  Abu-Humus, deputy Palestinian education minister told Ha'aretz this week. 
  "They thought that they were going to defend their society. They were 
  victims of the current situation, and that is tragic. That is why I want 
  every one of the 45,000 teachers in the Palestinian Authority to act as 
  psychologists, to talk with our children." 
  There are 450 educational counselors employed by the PA, and Abu-Humus 
  plans to intensify training for educators and managers in this area. "We 
  must not treat this as just another newspaper article," he said. "What's 
  happening is crazy. We need a scientific solution to this problem." 
  Abu-Humus also criticized organizations that are supplying weapons to 
  Palestinian youth. That said, he doubts that he has the ability to 
  influence those organizations. 
  Prof. Fadal Abu-Hin, a psychology lecturer at the Al-Aqsa University in 
  Gaza, pins less hope on the education system. "First and foremost, I blame 
  the parents," he says. "They are the ones who should keep tabs on their 
  children." 
  In April 2001, Abu-Hin conducted a research study among 1,000 young 
  Gaza Strip Palestinians, aged 9 to 16. According to the results he 
  published, over 40 percent of the respondents said that they were actively 
  involved in the Intifada. Over 70 percent said that they wanted to be 
  martyrs. "If I were to carry out the same study today," says Abu-Hin, "I 
  am sure the figures would be even higher," adding that he believes that 
  similar figures would be found on the West Bank. Abu-Hin believes that the 
  willingness of young Palestinians to endanger their own lives stems from a 
  combination of acute disappointment with the elders' inability to defend 
  them, unsound education and exposure to the media. "In light of the 
  situation, these children and their parents are often stuck at home for 
  many hours, often watching news broadcasts for days on end." 
  "Eye on the Palestinian Media," a Jerusalem-based research group that 
  tracks the various official and unofficial Palestinian media outlets, says 
  that Palestinian television is the main culprit in encouraging young 
  Palestinians to carry out suicide missions. A study published by the group 
  provides the example of an interview with Palestinian second-graders, in 
  which one of the children, who had thrown stones at Israeli soldiers, was 
  asked was he not afraid to die. The

Pravda:Milosevic treated like complete criminal [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/26/28045.html

PRAVDA (RUSSIA)
13:19 2002-04-26
MILOSEVIC TREATED LIKE COMPLETE CRIMINAL

Former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic is expressing his
protests being at the Hague Tribunal. Milosevic appealed to the chief
judge Richard May and said he was deprived of the rights enjoyed by
other convicted. For instance, as the former Yugoslavian president says,
he has been in isolation for several months, he is allowed to meet with
his family under surveillance only. No telephone connection can be
established for Slobodan Milosevic with his aides in Belgrade. He says,
it is done on purpose.

However, the state of health of the convicted that is getting worse
because of the present living conditions, causes more anxiety. Richard
May thinks, most part of the Tribunal's charges against Milosevic are
far-fetched.

On March 7 the Serbian Socialist Party, where Milosevic is the chairman,
issued an open letter to say, life of the former Yugoslavia president
was in danger. The letter said, "Slobodan Milosevic is exposed to
maltreatment from a so-called "tribunal" in Hague. Lines thrusted on
Milosevic deprive him of common human rights. The well-schemed and
speeded up course of the trial makes it impossible for the former
Yugoslavian president to spend more time outdoors, breaks the regular
meals regime, practically no time is left for him to get ready for the
hearings and have enough rest. Obviously, the mentioned facts are
designed to frustrate Milosevic's physical and mental strength, in order
not to let him testify against real initiators of the crimes committed
in Yugoslavia."

The Serbian Social Party calls upon Skupstine to pass a special
resolution to make the Yugoslavian government provide necessary
conditions for Slobodan Milosevic to defend at the trial. The party
says, Milosevic is to be released for the period of the trial. Still,
the idea of the leftist forces was not supported in Skupstine so far.
Sergey Stefanov PRAVDA.Ru Translated by Maria Gousseva

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Abdullah Calls for Immediate Israeli Pullout [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

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  Abdullah Calls for Immediate Israeli 
  Pullout

  
  

  By Khaled Al-MaeenaArab 
  News
  CRAWFORD, Texas, Apr 26, 2002 -- Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier 
  and commander of the National Guard, yesterday held crucial talks with US 
  President George W. Bush and called for an immediate Israeli withdrawal 
  from occupied territories and lifting of the siege on Palestinian 
  President Yasser Arafat. 
  The Saudi warning prompted Bush to urge Israel to withdraw from 
  Palestinian areas and peacefully end standoffs in the West Bank towns of 
  Ramallah and Bethlehem. 
  "Israel must finish its withdrawal, including resolution of standoffs 
  in Ramallah and Bethlehem, in a nonviolent way," Bush told reporters after 
  he met with Prince Abdullah for nearly five hours at his Texas ranch. 
  Palestinians, in turn, must "do more to stop terror," he said. 
  Bush also said "Saudi Arabia has made it clear publicly they will not 
  use oil as a weapon and I appreciate that and I expect that to be the 
  case," he said. 
  The Saudi crown prince, a champion of the Palestinian cause, stressed 
  on the US president the need to arrest the deterioration of the situation 
  and find ways for a just and comprehensive peace in the region. 
  Prince Abdullah urged Washington to adopt an even-handed policy while 
  handling the Arab-Israeli conflict. "Being a sponsor of the Middle East 
  peace process the US should address the issue in a just and fair manner 
  taking into consideration the rights of the Arabs," the Saudi Press Agency 
  quoted the crown prince as saying. 
  "Allowing the problem to spiral out of control will have grave 
  consequences for the United States and its interests," Adel Al-Jubeir, the 
  crown prince's diplomatic adviser, told reporters here. 
  The Saudi prince and his delegation arrived at Bush's sprawling Texas 
  ranch in a five-vehicle motorcade that drove through green pastures and 
  down a tree-lined driveway to pull up at Bush's stone-clad ranch house. 
  Bush, wearing a suit and a large silver belt buckle, was introduced to 
  the crown prince, who wore a traditional gold-trimmed brown robe, by US 
  Secretary of State Colin Powell. 
  Arab News learns that the crown prince presented a new vision for 
  Middle East peace based on the Saudi peace initiative, the latest four 
  Security Council resolutions and the views of President Bush expressed in 
  his address to UN General Assembly last November. 
  However, the crown prince emphasized that the peace initiative depended 
  on the Israeli withdrawal and the lifting of the siege on Arafat and a 
  halt to Israeli settlements. Prince Abdullah, who also had a closed-door 
  meeting with Bush, stressed that Arafat should not be harmed. 
  Informed sources told Arab News that the Kingdom would support UN 
  Secretary-General Kofi Annan's proposal to deploy a multinational 
  peacekeeping force in the occupied Arab territories. The Saudi side urged 
  the US to provide financial assistance to the Palestinians to rebuild 
  their infrastructure destroyed by the Israeli forces. The crown prince, 
  the SPA said, underlined the significant US role in bringing about peace 
  and stability in the whole world, especially in the Middle East. 
  "The United States must support the Arab peace initiative which goes 
  along with international resolutions," the crown prince told Bush, adding 
  that the US support would give the initiative a strong push thanks to the 
  country's political strength. The talks were attended on the Saudi side by 
  Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Saudi Ambassador to Washington 
  Prince Bandar ibn Sultan. US Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of 
  State Powell, White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 
  White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and US Ambassador to Riyadh Robert 
  Jordan also took part in the talks. 
  Powell, who has just completed a trip to the Middle East region which 
  failed to achieve a cease-fire, cited one area of concern - the 
  possibility that money raised by a recent three-day Saudi telethon could 
  be used to encourage Palestinian bombings against Israel. 
  Foreign Minister Prince Saud denied the telethon was held to help 
  bombers. "The telethon was aimed at helping the Palestinian people who are 
  being subjected to Israeli atrocities," he told CNN in an interview. 
  Prince Saud said there can be no negotiations between the Palestinians and 
  Israel until Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdraws forces from 
  Palestinian areas and ends the siege on Palestinian Presiden

Bush's Master Oil Plan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

Title: Message



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Op-Ed

  
  

  Bush's Master Oil Plan

  
  

  By Michael T. KlarePacific 
  News Service 
  AMHERST, Mass, Apr 26, 2002 -- With so many new international crises 
  erupting every day, it is hard to detect any clear forward direction to 
  American U.S. foreign policy. At times, it appears that providing a 
  response to the latest upheaval is about all that Washington can 
  accomplish. But beneath the surface of day-to-day crisis management, one 
  can see signs of an overarching plan for U.S. policy: a strategy of global 
  oil acquisition. 
  In recent weeks, the Bush administration has taken bold steps to 
  implement this strategy in several far-flung regions of the world. In the 
  Caspian Sea basin -- said to harbor the second biggest reservoir of 
  untapped petroleum after the Persian Gulf -- the United States is building 
  new military bases and providing training to local defense forces. In 
  Colombia, U.S.-equipped government forces will soon be guarding the 
  Occidental Petroleum Company's Cano Limon oil pipeline. And in Venezuela 
  -- America's third largest supplier of oil -- U.S. embassy personnel 
  reportedly met with leaders of an abortive coup against President Hugo 
  Chavez. 
  All of these developments are obviously tied to other foreign policy 
  considerations besides oil. The United States clearly seeks to promote 
  stability and fight terrorism in these and other areas of the world. But 
  it is also true that the areas that are garnering the greatest degree of 
  attention from Washington -- the Middle East, the Caspian Sea basin, and 
  the Andean region -- are also areas that figure prominently in the 
  administration's long-term energy strategy. 
  The aim of this strategy is simple: to procure as much of the world's 
  oil for ravenous U.S. markets as possible. With domestic U.S. production 
  facing progressive decline and national consumption rising with every 
  passing day, the United States must obtain more and more of its oil from 
  abroad. Exploitation of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), if 
  allowed by Congress, could reduce U.S. oil imports by a tiny amount, but 
  would not make any significant difference in the larger energy equation. 
  The only way to significantly reduce imports is to increase the fuel 
  efficiency of U.S. motor vehicles -- but because President Bush is 
  reluctant to require this, the administration has instead launched a 
  global effort to expand U.S. access to foreign sources of petroleum. 
  This campaign was first laid out in the national energy plan drawn up 
  by Vice President Dick Cheney in early 2001 and released by the White 
  House last May. Because the plan calls for drilling on ANWR and was 
  prepared with assistance from representatives of the scandal-ridden Enron 
  Corporation, Congress and media have ignored its foreign policy 
  implications. But however significant the domestic debate over Enron and 
  ANWR, it is its international repercussions that are most likely to affect 
  America's long-term future. 
  In essence, the Cheney report makes three key points: 
  
* The United States must satisfy an ever-increasing share of its oil 
demand with imported supplies. (At present, the United States imports 
about 10 million barrels of oil per day, representing 53 percent of its 
total consumption; by 2020, daily U.S. imports will total nearly 17 
million barrels, or 65 percent of consumption.) 
* The United States cannot depend exclusively on traditional sources 
of supply like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Canada to provide this 
additional oil. It will also have to obtain substantial supplies from 
new sources, such as the Caspian states, Russia, and Africa. 
* The United States cannot rely on market forces alone to gain access 
to these added supplies, but will also require a significant effort the 
part of government officials to overcome foreign resistance to the 
outward reach of American energy companies. 
  In line with these three principles, the Cheney plan calls on the Bush 
  administration to undertake a wide range of initiatives aimed at 
  increasing oil imports from overseas sources of supply. In particular, it 
  calls on the president and secretaries of state, energy and commerce to 
  work with leaders of the Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan to boost 
  production in the Caspian region and to build new pipelines to the West. 
  It also calls on U.S. officials to persuade their counterparts in Africa, 
  the Persian Gulf and Latin America to open up their oil industries to

On Anti-Semitism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

Title: Message

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Published on Friday, April 26, 2002 by CommonDreams.org

On Anti-Semitism

by Marty Jezer

Among the many responses I’ve
received for my columns on the Middle East two stand out. A number of
non-Jews, in person and by e-mail, have told me, “You write what I
believe, but I’m afraid to speak out. I’m afraid to
criticize Israel because people will think that I’m anti-Semitic.”
A second response, spoken by an acquaintance whom I respect for his
decent, liberal values, was more unsettling. “I’m starting to feel
anti-Semitic,” he said without any suggestion of irony. “It is disgusting what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.”

“Anti-Semitism is not the issue,” I replied. “It’s
not Jews attacking Palestinians, it’s Israelis. Many Jewish people, myself
included, share your disgust.”
But maybe anti-Semitism is an issue, a subtext of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict that no one wants to talk openly about. In
the cauldron of the times, anti-Semitism has become an accusation, a
weapon, a way of silencing critics of Israel without having to listen to
their arguments. And when used against Palestinians, it’s a way of denying
their aspirations and ignoring their grievances.
Anti-Semitism exists, but to extract its meaning it has to be put into
perspective. Under Hitler, the German people murdered millions of European
Jews. But today most Germans are friends and allies of Jews and of Israel.
As a Jew, I still feel a gut wariness whenever I meet a German. But I also
feel elated. That we two, German and Jew, can interact empathetically
fills me with hope. The history of modern Germany is proof that people can
change, that ancient feuds and tribal bloodbaths need not dictate
humanity’s future. Blacks-whites, Hutus-Tutsis, Bosnians-Serbs, even Arabs
and Jews: we shall overcome.
Anti-Semitism exists in the Arab world. Increasingly, Arabs couch their
opposition to Israel in the anti-Semitic rhetoric that originated in
Europe. But is anti-Semitism driving the Palestinian resistance? Or is the
Middle East conflict simply a battle over land, two peoples with a
historic claim over the same territory? For centuries Jews lived amongst
the Arabs of the Middle East. Coexistence was never easy and during World
War II many Arab leaders gave verbal support to the Nazis. But Zionism,
the movement for a Jewish state in Palestine, was a European phenomenon;
Middle Eastern Jews did not look to the biblical holy land for security
and life’s meaning. After the holocaust the logic of Zionism could not be
denied. European guilt assured Israeli statehood. But it was the
Palestinians who bore the brunt. And they were not consulted.
Supporters of Israeli policy in Israel and America, rarely acknowledge
this. They speak of the conflict with the Palestinians in terms of Arab
anti-Semitism, and in the context of the holocaust and Jewish survival.
Rarely mentioned is the historic record of Israeli provocations: the
occupation of the West Bank, the military checkpoints, the continuous
expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory.
Anti-Semitism in America, except on the margins of society, rarely
includes overt acts of violence and discrimination. It is usually more
subtle, expressed politically in the belief that the United States is a
Christian nation or, among evangelical and some other fundamentalist
Christians, that Jews cannot find salvation unless they accept Christian
dogma. People have an absolute right to religious belief, but once it
enters the political arena, it opens itself to critical comment.
On April 15, an Israeli Solidarity Rally brought speakers from all
across the political spectrum. One speaker was Janet Parshall, a national
talk show host who is a director of the evangelical Christian National
Religious Broadcasters and the spokesperson for the Family Research
Council, an anti-choice, homophobic front-group for right-wing Republicans
whose web site
promotes tax cuts, bashes liberals, and says nothing about Israel. But at
the Solidarity Rally, Ms. Parshall enthusiastically identified herself
with what she considered the cause of the Jews and drew cheers attacking
the idea of “land for peace.” “We will never give up the Golan,” she
announced. “We will never divide Jerusalem,” she declared.
Jewish organizations that uncritically support Ariel Sharon in the name
of security for Israel are avidly courting the Christian right. A headline

Re: On Anti-Semitism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

2002-04-26 Thread TOOLGT


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See this

Click here: NYTimes.com 
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AFP: IRAQIS LAVISH PRAISE ON SADDAM TO MARK HIS 65TH [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]




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IRAQIS LAVISH PRAISE ON SADDAM TO MARK HIS 65TH 
BIRTHDAY BAGHDAD, April 24 (AFP) - Public praise for President 
Saddam Hussein, "the eternal spring ... the sun of the Arabs", is scaling 
new heights as Iraq prepares to celebrate his 65th birthday on 
Sunday.Shopkeepers along Baghdad's Al-Saadun Street have hung 
banners extolling the virtues of their defiant president, who has been 
in power since 1979 and holds an array of posts from secretary general of 
the ruling Baath party to prime minister and commander in chief of the armed 
forces."Saddam Hussein is the gift of Iraq", "Saddam Hussein is poetry 
and homeland", "Saddam Hussein is a great leader for a prestigious 
people", they read."Happy birthday mister president," proclaims one 
banner draped at the entrance of the Sindbad cinema, which shows three films 
a day, two American and one Arab, for a single ticket costing 500 dinars 
(25 US cents).The sidewalk poster of US film star Demi Moore is 
appealing. "That's to draw in the clients, but erotic scenes in the film 
Striptease are censored," ticket salesman Iyad Mohammad 
explains.For Mohammad, who sells more than 100 tickets a day, 
Saddam's birthday is a "lucky occasion for all Iraqis because his 
achievements as leader of our country cannot be counted."Every 
Iraqi" rejects US threats to topple Saddam's regime, he said as shoeshine 
boys stood idle nearby while an old blind man leaning on his cane sold boxes 
of matches and a toothless beggar persistently solicited 
passers-by."We are all ready to defend out country."Washington, 
charging that Iraq is again developing weapons of mass destruction in the 
absence of international arms inspections, is threatening to overthrow 
Saddam.Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937 in Takrit, in the 
province of Salahedin, 170 kilometres (105 miles) north of 
Baghdad.Since the United Nations slapped a crippling sanctions 
regime on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990, Saddam's birthdays have 
assumed an increasingly grandiose scale.Inspired by Saddam's 
warrior-like, pro-Palestinian speeches, a cloth banner flaps across the 
entrance of a chemist shop: "Iraq is Palestine: a single people and a fight 
that continues against Zionism.""We mark the president's birthday 
each year, but this time we have highlighted Iraq's solidarity with the 
Palestinian people," said shop owner Zhafer Ahmad."US threats do not 
scare us. Thirty-three states attacked us and we are still here," Ahmad 
said, referring to the US-led international coalition that expelled Iraqi 
forces from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.That was the second war 
Saddam and his regime oversaw following the bloody 1980-88 conflict with 
Iran that left an estimated one million people dead."A lot of 
medicine we can't import because of the embargo is today made in Iraq," 
Ahmad said, pointing to the stacked shelves of his small pharmacy.A 
little further away, yet another statue, recently erected in the middle of 
one of the capital's main roundabouts, is covered with a dust sheet but no 
one is in any doubt about what it is: a figure of Saddam will be unveiled 
during the birthday celebrations.The facade of the Iraqi National 
Theatre is covered in posters announcing the Saturday night premiere of the 
"Zabiba and the King" epic, an adaptation of a novel attributed to the Iraqi 
leader."The birth of leader Saddam has been a Damocles' sword 
handing over the heads of Jews and Americans," according to a banner 
outside a restaurant opposite the theatre.Iraqi authorities have this 
year granted visas to dozens of foreign journalists, including several 
representing US television channels, to cover the birthday 
celebrations.The main party, attended by the Iraqi leadership, is 
scheduled to be held Sunday in Takrit.But Saddam himself is rarely 
seen at any of the myriad occasions and usually has the media report that he 
celebrated among school children at an undisclosed 
location.
---
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Xinhua: China's Work on Weather Modification Legalized [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]




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---


 



  
  
¡¡
  

  China's Work on Weather Modification 
  Legalized
  

  

  

  
  Xinhuanet 2002-04-25 
  08:53:37
  

  
  

  
  
  BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhuanet) -- China's first regulations on 
  artificially modifying weather will take effect from May 1 this year, 
  aiming to give a legal basis to this branch of meteorology. 
  Cao Kangtai, deputy head of the legislative affairs office under 
  the State Council, said at a press conference on Wednesday that the 
  regulations would provide an important legal basis and guarantee for the 
  administration of this work. 
  According to Qin Dahe, director of the China Meteorological 
  Administration (CMA), the regulations highlight policies and principles 
  relevant to China's work on artificial weather modification and related 
  fields. 
  Qin said that the practice of artificially modifying weather was an 
  important part of meteorology, and one which benefited people's lives as 
  well economic development. 
  He said, "Taking into account social, economic and ecological 
  benefits, China's work on weather modification has made great strides in 
  preventing and fighting various disasters as well as developing the 
  resources of clouds and water in the air." 
  China's agricultural production has long faced the threat of 
  extreme weather. The technology of artificially modifying weather in the 
  forms of artificial rainfall, hail and frost prevention as well as rain 
  and fog dispersal has been widely used to prevent disasters. 
  Since 1990, frequent droughts as a result of global climate changes 
  have led to a worsening water shortage in China, damaging economic 
  development. 
  Qin said causing rain to fall by seeding clouds was an important 
  way to develop new water resources. 
  However, Cao Kangtai also pointed out that some urgent 
  problemsrelated to the practice of modifying weather needed solving. 
  An effective coordination system had yet to be set up among 
  thevarious departments involved in such work. Some technicians had 
  noformal training. Equipment like rocket-powered missiles and 
  rocketlaunchers were not 100 percent suitable, Cao said. 
  Statistics show that over 1,600 counties across 30 provinces, 
  autonomous regions and municipalities in China regularly use weather 
  modification methods, employing more than 29,000 technicians. 
  Altogether China has 2,123 aircraft which handle the bulk of 
  artificial rainfall work, over 6,790 anti-aircraft devices are used in 
  hail prevention and artificial rain. Enditem 

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PA News: BLAIR DEFLECTS IRAQ QUERY [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]




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---


 

 

PA NEWS  24th April 
2002BLAIR DEFLECTS IRAQ QUERY Prime Minister Tony Blair today 
refused to be drawn on the possibility of military action against 
Iraq.Mr Blair was challenged by Father of the House Tam Dalyell to 
say whether Kuwait had "indicated support" for action against Saddam 
Hussein's regime.The Prime Minister said the issue "has not arisen" but 
to the surprise of some MPs, he described Kuwait's annexation by Iraq in 
the 1990s as leading to "the first Gulf War".To backbench jeers, Mr 
Blair added: "We are not at the stage of military action."When and 
if that issue arises no doubt we can answer all those questions."Mr 
Dalyell (Lab Linlithgow), a persistent critic of military action against 
Iraq, asked: "Has Kuwait indicated support for further military action 
against Iraq?"Mr Blair said: "We have not got to the stage of military 
action against Iraq and therefore this issue has not arisen."I would 
simply say to you that Kuwait is a country that has as much cause to be 
fearful of Saddam Hussein as any other."After all it was part of Saddam 
Hussein's attempt to annex Kuwait that led to the first Gulf 
War."
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Telegraph(Aus): SADDAM IN HIS OWN WRITE [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]




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---


 
DAILY TELEGRAPH (SYDNEY, 
AUSTRALIA)  24th April 2002SADDAM IN HIS OWN 
WRITE BAGHDAD: A romantic novel apparently written by Iraqi President 
Saddam Hussein has been adapted for the stage and will open on Friday in 
the Iraqi National Theatre.The Ministry of Culture is calling it the 
"biggest production ever".Hussein's book Zabibah wal Malik (Zabibah and 
the King), was published anonymously in 2000 to rave reviews from the local 
press.It is an oh-so tragic tale of a ruler who falls in love with 
an unhappily married woman who is raped on January 17, 1991 -- the same 
day US-led forces launched the offensive that drove Iraq out of 
Kuwait.Babel, a newspaper owned by Hussein's eldest son, Uday, said 
his father was most likely the author but "was too modest and humble to 
reveal his name".
---
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Xinhua: Chinese, Russian Foreign Ministers Meet to Strengthen Bilateral Ties [WW




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---


 



  
  

  

  Chinese, Russian Foreign Ministers Meet to Strengthen 
  Bilateral Ties
  

  

  

  
  Xinhuanet 2002-04-26 
  06:17:28
  

  
  

     MOSCOW, April 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese 
  Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov 
  held talks here Thursday on the bilateral relations and the 
  international issues of common interest.   The two 
  ministers signed a bilateral consular pact at the end of their talks, 
  saying that the signing of this new agreement is another concrete step 
  forward to the implementation of the Good-Neighborly Treaty of 
  Friendship and Cooperation, signed by presidents of the two countries 
  last July.   The agreement is aimed at better protection of 
  the rights and interests of China and Russia and that of the citizens 
  of the two nations, they said.   During the talks, Tang 
  and Ivanov voiced their satisfaction on the smooth development of the 
  strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, they both 
  agreed that increased mutual trust in the political field, closer 
  strategic coordination and comprehensive bilateral cooperation in all 
  fields will not only bein keeping with the fundamental interests of 
  the two countries, but also be conducive to peace, security and 
  stability of the world as a whole.   The Chinese and 
  Russian presidents are expected to hold severalmeetings, and the prime 
  ministers of the two countries plan to hold talks this year, they 
  said, adding those high-level contacts will be of great significance 
  for pushing forward the bilateral ties.   The two 
  countries will cooperate closely for the success of themeetings and 
  talks, they said.   Tang is in Moscow to attend the 
  ministerial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), 
  scheduled for Friday.   The two ministers also exchanged 
  views on the preparations for the SCO summit, to be held in May in the 
  Russian city of St. Petersburg. They maintained that the development 
  in regional and international situation has called for a greater role 
  of SCO, which groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan 
  andUzbekistan.  
Enditem
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Xinhua: Germany Deplores U.S. Withdrawal From ABM Treaty [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]




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---


 



  
  

  Germany Deplores U.S. Withdrawal From ABM Treaty 
  
  

  

  

  
  Xinhuanet 2002-04-25 
  06:16:45
  

  
  

    BERLIN, April 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Germany on 
  Wednesday reiterated itsdissatisfaction with the U.S. unilateral 
  withdrawal form the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM), long regarded as a 
  cornerstone for maintaining strategic stability in the world at 
  large.   In the annual report on the status of the worldwide 
  disarmament,the German Government said that "Berlin would have greeted 
  it if the United States had avoided unilateral cancellation and found 
  a common solution with Russia on a new strategic 
  framework."   Washington announced last December that it 
  would withdraw from the 1972 ABM Treaty in six months.   
  In the report, the German Government pledged to commit more efforts to 
  worldwide nuclear disarmament and arms control after the September 11 
  terrorist attacks on the United States.   Germany will also 
  work actively for the conclusion of a bindingand verifiable agreement 
  on the issue of nuclear warheads between Washington and Moscow, it 
  said.   According to the press reports here, there are 
  differences between the United States and Russia on how to dispose the 
  warheads taken off from the missiles which both countries want to 
  put out of service in the next few years.   The United 
  States wants to keep the warheads as reserves, whileRussia seeks to 
  destroy them.  Enditem  

---
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Venezuela: Authorities Seize Israeli Arms From Participant in Coup Attempt [WWW


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---


Venezuelan Authorities Seize Arms From Participant in Coup Attempt


Xinhuanet 2002-04-26 09:41:17


CARACAS, April 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Venezuelan military agents seized on
Thursday arms hidden at the residence of one of the main participants in the
coup attempt against President Hugo Chavez.

In an operation that extended from Wednesday night to early Thursday
morning, the agents swooped the residence of Isaak Perez,the sales
representative of an Israeli arms firm Perez who fled toAruba aboard a
helicopter when the coup d'etat failed, said the military intelligence
agency.

During the raid, which was ordered by military judge Damian Nieto, the
agents seized weapons including automatic arms, ammunition, night-vision
gear and machetes, and military fatigues and hoods.

The arms were supposed to be handed over to Rear Admiral CarlosMolina,
who was involved in the coup, according to the authorities.

Chavez, who was temporarily ousted on April 12 in an ephemeral coup
headed by businessmen and the military, returned to presidency two days
later with the support of loyal troops and civilians that took to the
streets.

Enditem

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Xinhua: Explosion Occurs in Lower Manhattan, New York [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]




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---


 



  
  

  

  Explosion Occurs in Lower Manhattan, New 
  York
  

  

  

  
  Xinhuanet 2002-04-26 
  00:36:36
  

  
  

     NEW YORK, April 25 (Xinhuanet) -- An 
  explosion occurred around noon Thursday in lower Manhattan, New York, 
  with at least 21 people being injured, television reports 
  said.   The blast happened in the second floor of an 8-story 
  building that houses the Apex Technical School.    The 
  injured have been sent to hospital. There have been no reports of 
  deaths.    About 100 firefighters are working on the scene. 
  Enditem
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Afghanistan: Attacks on U.S. Forces Continue : Pentagon - Xinhua [WWW.STOPNATO.O


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---


Attacks on U.S. Forces Continue in Afghanistan: Pentagon

Xinhuanet 2002-04-25 11:12:39


WASHINGTON, April 24 (Xinhuanet) -- United States forces continue to
encounter sporadic attacks in eastern Afghanistan, Pentagon spokesman Brig.
Gen. John Rosa said on Wednesday.

It is a challenge to figure out who is behind the attacks, Rosatold
reporters at a Pentagon news briefing. "There are so many weapons, anybody
could get their hands on them.

"It could be factional. It could be criminal activity. Or it could be
former Taliban and al Qaeda," Rosa said.

In some cases, the attacks may not even be aimed at U.S. and coalition
forces. "It's hard to tell who they're targeting," he said.

"If we say from up here what we think is important in what we're seeing,
it's an obvious counter for them. But there are bad people in that part of
eastern Afghanistan. We've said that all along," Rosa said.

"These types of spurious attacks lead to instability, so training the
Afghan national army, which is due to begin in the future, is key to our
existence there," he added. Enditem

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Xinhua: Iraq Says U.S. to Launch Attacks Despite Arms Inspections [WWW.STOPNATO.




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---


 



  
  

  

  Iraq Says U.S. to Launch Attacks Despite Arms 
  Inspections
  

  

  

  
  Xinhuanet 2002-04-25 
  17:14:10
  

  
  

     BAGHDAD, April 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi Deputy 
  Prime Minister Tareq Aziz has said that the United States will launch 
  military attacks against Iraq even if Iraq allows the United Nations 
  arms inspectorsback into the country, the official Iraqi News Agency 
  (INA) reported Thursday.   "Arms inspectors will not 
  prevent the United States from committing a new aggression" because 
  the United States has publiclyadmitted that its foreign policy aim is 
  to topple the Iraqi regime,Aziz was quoted as saying during a meeting 
  with a European delegation of activists late Wednesday 
  night.   Aziz noted that the United States unleashed 
  military attacks against Iraq during 1991 and 1998 when U.N. arms 
  inspectors were working in the country.   U.N. arms 
  inspectors withdrew out of Iraq on the eve of the U.S.-British air war 
  against Baghdad in December 1998, and have since been barred from 
  re-entering.   U.S. President George W. Bush has warned Iraq 
  to re-admit the arms inspectors or face the possibility of fresh U.S. 
  military onslaught.   "The United States will not be 
  able to convince most of the countries in the world to ally with it to 
  commit a new crime against Iraq," Aziz said, adding that Britain, a 
  staunch U.S. ally, "is also facing public rejection to attack Iraq 
  again."    Rebuffing U.S. claims that Iraq is threatening 
  its neighbors, Aziz said that "Iraq has re-established relations with 
  all neighboring states, such as Iran, Turkey, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, 
  and there is no one complaining of any Iraqi threats."   
  To avert any possible U.S. military attacks, Baghdad has made 
  overtures to neighboring and other Arab countries and there has 
  been a marked thaw between Iraq and its neighbors, especially 
  Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.  Enditem 

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Guardian: Britain faced military rule after Russian N-strike [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.




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---


 

Public record office 

Britain faced military rule after Russian 
N-strike 
Secret papers warned cold war governments of 12 million deaths from Soviet 
attack 
Alan Travis, home affairs 
editorFriday April 
26, 2002The 
Guardian 
Britain would have been placed 
under the control of local military commanders with powers to take "whatever 
steps, however drastic" were necessary in the aftermath of a Soviet nuclear 
attack during the cold war according to newly-released official war plans. 
The top secret official assessment of whether Britain could survive a Soviet 
thermonuclear attack was drawn up for the cabinet by Sir William Strath in March 
1955 and formed the basis of civil defence planning throughout the late 1950s 
and 1960s. 
It was considered so sensitive that it was kept secret until yesterday, when 
it was released at the public record office. 
It estimated that a successful Soviet night attack on main population centres 
using 10 hydrogen bombs, each of 10 megatons, would kill 12 million people and 
seriously injure or disable 4 million others. "This would mean the loss of 
nearly one-third of the population. Blast and heat would be the dominant hazard, 
accounting for more than 9 million fatal casualties, against less than 3 million 
from radiation. Four of the 16 million casualties would be caused by a single 
bomb on London," concluded the report. 
"Even allowing for a degree of aiming error, the direct local effects of a 
hydrogen explosion in the most probable target areas would be of such magnitude 
that deaths from blast and fire would heavily outweigh fatal casualties from 
fallout elsewhere." 
Strath was the head of the cabinet office central war plans secretariat. He 
said that the initial phase of attack would be followed by a critical period 
during which the surviving population would be struggling "against disease, 
starvation and the unimaginable pyschological effects of nuclear bombardment". 
The report confirms defence estimates that a Soviet nuclear strike on that 
scale would be a "knock-out blow" to Britain as a major military power and says 
that in parts of the country civil control would collapse. 
"The local military commander would have to be prepared to take over from the 
civil authority responsible for the maintenance of law and order and for the 
administration of government. He would, if called upon, exercise his existing 
common law powers to take whatever steps, however drastic, he considered 
necessary to restore order." 
Emergency plans were drawn up to allow the military authorities to take over 
from regional or local authorities and to dispense justice through special 
military war zone courts. Peter Hennessy, author of The Secret State, a study of 
Whitehall and the bomb, said last night: "This is the first direct confirmation 
that post-nuclear attack there would have to be military government for a time." 

But the Strath report did conclude that if what was left of the population 
could get through this initial critical period then it would be possible for 
Britain to make a slow recovery despite the destruction of half its industrial 
capacity. 
"The standard of living of the reduced population, although substantially 
lower than at present, would still be well above that of the greater part of the 
world. The country would be left with sufficient resources for a slow recovery." 

Strath believed some of the impact of a nuclear attack could be minimised by 
mass evacuation plans, a national network of nuclear fallout shelters and 
emergency stockpiles of food. Some of his recommendations were acted upon but 
cabinet papers show that a proposal to build basement shelters in all new 
buildings was rejected on cost grounds. Instead, a top secret underground bunker 
was built in the Cotswolds to shelter the cabinet and selected military, civil 
service and intelligence figures. 
Detailed plans were drawn up to evacuate more than 15 million people from the 
target areas, but they would have taken at least nine days to implement. 
Britain's war planners worked on the assumption that it would be known seven 
days in advance that a nuclear attack was inevitable. But they could only count 
on a very short tactical alert of up to one hour that the bombers were on their 
way. If the Russians risked a low-level approach to avoid radar the warning 
could be as short as three minutes, Strath said. 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian 
Newspapers Limited 2002 
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CHINESE AIR FORCE PUT FORWARD "OFFENSIVE AIR DEFENSE" THEORY [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.U




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---


 



  
  

  
  
  CHINESE AIR FORCE PUT FORWARD "OFFENSIVE AIR 
  DEFENSE" THEORY
  

  

  
  

  
  S300PMU Kanwa 
Photo
 Having obtained S300 SAM, Chinese Air 
Force's defense strategies are undergoing some modifications. Senior 
Colonel Lu Dexi, the commander of the S300 SAM brigade, put forward the 
concept of "offensive air defense" (Gong Shi Fan Kong) in a recently 
published treatise. He believes that in order to implement the principle 
of balanced offense and defense (Gong Fan Jian Bei), an "offensive air 
defense" strategy must be established. The fundamental principle of the 
"offensive air defense" is to launch mobilized surface to air offensive 
attacks and aim the enemy's combat aircrafts at the flight routes. The 
theory stresses the importance of launching active assaults and making 
ambushes. The treatise emphasizes that with the long effective range of 
S300 SAM, when conducting air defense operations at the Taiwan Strait 
region, Chinese Air Force can launch active assaults against the enemy's 
aircrafts shortly after they have taken off. In this way, offensive air 
defense can be achieved. The article also points out the importance of 
"offensive air defense" in intercepting cruise missiles as well as the 
value of making a flexible ambush. The author puts forward the idea of 
targeting the enemy's cruise missiles and making an ambush at its flying 
route by mobilized SAM. 
The article stresses the possibility of using S300 SAM to attack 
cruise missiles, believing that its low-altitude radar has the function 
of detecting cruise missiles. Recently, it is discovered that the Air 
Force's S300 SAM was frequently involved in the series mobile exercises. 
Chinese Air Force has also readjusted its "missile/gun combination" (Dan 
Pao Jie he) air defense strategy. It is believed that in the air defense 
age of systematic confrontations, the "missile/gun combination" strategy 
must be extended to the "missile/gun/plane combination" (Dan Pao Ji Jie 
He) stage, and fighter-bombers should take aggressive actions to attack 
the enemy's air strike power and destroy its in-depth air targets. By 
crippling the enemy's overall air strike capability, the "offensive air 
defense" can be partially achieved. It can be concluded that the 
"offensive air defense" carried out by combat aircrafts now includes 
both fighters and fighter-bombers. The "offensive air defense" and 
"missile/gun/plane combination" theories naturally lead to the trend 
that China's air defense operations will be composed of the following 
sections: SU30MKK/ JH7 will be responsible for bombing or launching 
attacks upon the accumulation camps of the enemy's air strike power, SU 
27 for destroying and intercepting enemy's air targets, and S300 SAM for 
conducting long distance ground to air assaults. 
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<>

Reuters: Huge army is backbone of North Korean communist rule [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG




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---


 



  
  
Asia - Reuters

  


  
   
   News 
  StoriesNews PhotosAudio/VideoFull CoverageAll of 
Yahoo!

  
  


  
  

  


  

  
  
Huge army is backbone of North Korean communist rule Thu Apr 25, 6:47 
  AM ET 
  By Paul Eckert 
  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea (news 
  - web 
  sites)'s army, which marked its 70th anniversary on Thursday, has seen 
  no major battlefield action since the Korean War, but remains the 
  principal guarantor of communist rule in the impoverished state of 22 
  million people. 
  
  


  


  
  

  


  
Photos

  Reuters 
Photo 
  
  The Korean People's Army (KPA), the 
  world's fifth largest army, is so dominant that foreign commentators have 
  described North Korea as an army with a country -- rather than a country 
  with an army. 
  The official Korea Central News Agency said the North's political 
  system was based "on the principle of attaching priority to the army and 
  pushing forward the cause of socialism as a whole, with the army as the 
  pillar and in reliance upon it". 
  Like much about North Korea, the KPA's origins are a mix of myth and 
  history embellished to instil reverence for late state founder Kim Il-sung 
  and his son, current leader Kim Jong-il. 
  The KPA was formally founded on February 8, 1948 -- seven months before 
  the founding of the North Korean state -- and for 30 years, February 8 was 
  celebrated as army day. 
  But in 1978, North Korea suddenly announced that its army was founded 
  on April 25, 1932, when official histories say the 20-year-old Kim Il-sung 
  formed a partisan group in Manchuria, China, according to U.S.-based 
  biographer Suh Dae-sook. 
  SAVED BY CHINA 
  The Soviet-armed KPA first grabbed international attention on June 25, 
  1950, when it attacked South Korea (news 
  - web 
  sites) with a withering pre-dawn mortar and artillery barrage, 
  followed by an invasion by 10 divisions that easily overwhelmed the 
  South's smaller army. 
  The attack invited a massive intervention by U.S.-led multinational 
  force fighting under the flag of the United Nations (news 
  - web 
  sites). U.N. forces aiding South Korea rolled back the KPA to Korea's 
  border with China, almost wiping them out until Beijing intervened on 
  North Korea's side in October 1950. 
  Chinese troops by the millions pushed U.N. forces back to a line 
  roughly similar to the 38th parallel that separated North and South Korea 
  before the war and which forms the border today. 
  Today, the KPA, with nearly 1.2 million troops on active duty, is the 
  world's fifth largest army, behind those of China, the United States, 
  Russia and India. 
  By percentage of troops to population, North Korea is the world's most 
  militarised society, with about one in 20 people in uniform, augmented by 
  a reserve force estimated at 4.7 million. 
  WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION 
  U.S. military commanders estimated that at least two-thirds of the KPA 
  troops and weapons are forward deployed, close to the Demilitarised Zone 
  (DMZ) which separates North and South Korea and within easy range of the 
  South's capital, Seoul. 
  The United States maintains 37,000 troops in South Korea to augment 
  Seoul's 600,000-strong military. 
  North Korea's military has big stockpiles of chemical and biological 
  weapons and an ambitious domestic ballistic missile programme which has 
  produced hundreds of medium-rage missiles for its arsenal and for sale 
  abroad, according to the book "Armed Forces of North Korea", by Joseph 
  Bermudez Jr. 
  Pyongyang's efforts to produce nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles 
  capable of reaching Japan and parts of the United States brought it into 
  conflict with Washington in the 1990s. 
  A 1994 U.S.-North Korea agreement that froze the North's suspected 
  nuclear programme and Pyongyang's 1999 moratorium on missile testing will 
  be at the top of the U.S. diplomatic agenda with the North once the two 
  sides resume long-frozen talks. 
  President George W. Bush (news 
  - web 
  sites) last year sought to add conventional forces to the agenda, but 
  Pyongyang has refused to discuss what it considers the crucial guarantor 
  of its governmen

Reuters: North Korea hails army and "impregnable fortress" [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]




HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


 



  
  

  


  Friday, April 26, 20021:28 am (GMT+8) 
  

  

North Korea hails army and "impregnable 
fortress"

  

  
  

  


  

  

  

  North Korean soldiers stand on a military 
truck in a Pyongyang street in March. The army marked 
its 70th anniversary on April 25. REUTERS/Guang 
NiuNorth Korean 
  leader Kim Jong-il made a rare public appearance on Thursday 
  to mark army day and his defence chief told troops to deal 
  "merciless blows" if U.S. or other forces put so much as a toe 
  over the border. 
  North Korea has trumpeted the 70th anniversary of its 
  1.2-million-strong army as one of the most important festivals 
  to celebrate the achievements of state founder Kim Il-sung, 
  father of leader and supreme army commander Kim Jong-il. 
  As the climax to a 90-minute parade to mark the 70th 
  anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA), Kim walked 
  slowly along the raised dais, smiling and raising both hands 
  above his head to wave at tens of thousands of assembled 
  troops. 
  The huge crowd roared their approval, shouting: "May our 
  comrade General Kim Jong-il live 10,000 years." 
  "This is such a rare appearance and a great honour," said 
  one North Korean in the audience as thousands of colourful 
  balloons were let loose and drifted skyward and a 21-gun 
  salute boomed. 
  Kim Jong-il, dressed in a light brown Mao suit, did not 
  speak to the army, of which he became supreme commander in 
  1991. 
  "The rare wisdom, outstanding politico-military ability and 
  matchless grit of the supreme commander are the source of the 
  tremendous combat power of the KPA," the North's state news 
  agency said of Kim, who is not known to have served in the 
  army. 
  
  MERCILESS BLOWS" 
  Defence Minister Kim Il-chol opened the celebrations, 
  calling out to troops: "Let glory fall upon the Korean 
  People's Army." 
  He said Kim Jong-il had turned the country -- officially 
  known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) -- 
  into "an impregnable fortress". 
  "If the U.S. imperialists and their followers invade the 
  inviolable land, sea and sky of the DPRK even 0.001 mm despite 
  its repeated warnings, the army and the people who hold the 
  dignity and sovereignty of the country and nation as dear as 
  their own lives will deal merciless blows at the invaders," 
  the official KCNA news agency reported him as saying. 
  U.S. President George W. Bush enraged Pyongyang earlier 
  this year by branding it part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq 
  and Iran and criticising the North's human rights record. 
  But Bush said on a February visit to Seoul the United 
  States had no intention of invading. 
  There are 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, backing up the 
  600,000-strong South Korean military on the southern side of 
  the fortified Demilitarised Zone bisecting the peninsula. 
  Kim, 60, became chairman of the National Defence Commission 
  in 1993. That is still his official title, although he assumed 
  control of the state and ruling communist party three years 
  after his father died in 1994. 
  North Korea, which has the world's fifth-largest standing 
  army, has put renewed emphasis on its "military-first" policy. 

  Foreign relief workers helping North Korea stave off famine 
  say the army has first claim on the country's annual grain 
  harvest. U.N. food aid feeds about a third of North Koreans. 
  
  "ILLUSTRIOUS COMMANDER" KIM HAILED 
  Elite troops goose-stepped past the podium where Kim

People who equate Slobodan Milosevic with Ariel Sharon [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Dear friends,

I've noticed a very disturbing trend recently at pro-Palestinian rallies
that I've been to, and that is the tendency of certain people to carry signs
with slogans on them like "Sharon = Milosevic", and "Hitler, Milosevic,
Sharon, United They Stand".

I'm disturbed by this trend, because these people don't seem to realize that
Slobodan Milosevic, unlike Ariel Sharon, never was a tool of American
imperialism, in fact, he is a victim of it through his prosecution at the
"kangaroo" court in the Hague, and whether or not one agrees with all of his
policies, one should recognize this fact, and condemn that court more than
Mr. Milosevic, for being a tool of American and NATO imperialism.  I fear
that people, by carrying these signs, are just giving legitimacy to the
imperialists' campaign of demonizing Mr. Milosevic and by extension the
whole Serbian people.  When they claim to be opposed to American imperialism
by opposing US support for Israel, they should not make their point by
legitimizing imperialism in its other forms.  Would they try to make their
point that Ariel Sharon is bad by comparing him to Fidel Castro?

I've tried to approach people carrying these signs, but they've always just
responded by saying that they believe "Milosevic is a war criminal" or "he's
killing Muslims".

I'd like to know what can be done to make poeple like this see the light,
any kind of literature we can give them that might clarify the error of this
analogy?  Any suggestions, anyone?

Peacefully yours,
Nancy Hey

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SON OF "FUGITIVE" BRINGS ANTI-DEATH PENALTY [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

>From :  "Abraham J. Bonowitz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To :  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To :  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC :  [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject :  [cuadpupdate] SON OF "FUGITIVE" BRINGS ANTI-DEATH PENALTY
MESSAGE TO GERMANY
Date :  Wed, 24 Apr 2002 06:53:28 -0400



Dear Friends,

Please forward the following press release to any media contacts
or interested friends you might know in Germany (or anywhere else!).

   ALSO... BIG NEWS!!! There is a new book
coming out soon which presents a new theory about who killed Marilyn
Sheppard.  The amazing thing about this book is that the theory it
presents
is, in fact, NOT NEW! What's also not new is the *fact* that Cleveland
police KNEW about this suspect and failed to pursue the lead WAY BACK IN
1954 - while they were trying to condemn Dr. Sheppard! One of the men who

researched the information for this book, Major Mickey Warburton
(USAFR-retired) sent me photocopies of newspapers with articles right
next
to each other - one about the Sheppard trial, and the other about the
crimes
and apprehension of Major Call (who
had killed a police officer).

   Until the body of Major Call is exhumed
and
his DNA is tested against the third party's (not Sam or Marilyn) blood
found
at the crime scene, we will not know for sure. But there can be no doubt
that now there are TWO plausible suspects in this case, with much
stronger
cases against them then there ever was against Dr. Sheppard.

   Please visit Sam's revised and updated web

page at  for Sam's comment, and for a
link
to order this new book.  Also, to join the more than 300 people now on
Sam's
very low-volume e-mail update list, send a message to
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.

   And AGAIN, Please help us disseminate the
following information.

  paz!

  For Sam Reese Sheppard

  --abe
  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>




  


  PRESS RELEASE

  24 April 2002

  CONTACT:  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
  Mobile Phone:  561-371-5204


SON OF "FUGITIVE" BRINGS ANTI-DEATH PENALTY MESSAGE TO GERMANY

  Sam Reese Sheppard, son of Dr. Sam Sheppard and
Marilyn Reese Sheppard, will appear on German television and will also
make
appearances with CUADP Director Abe Bonowitz in three German cities
between
April 29 and May 4.

  Sam Reese Sheppard, whose father was wrongly
convicted
in the murder of his mother in the famous 1954 case commonly thought to
be
the inspiration for the film and television programs, "The Fugitive,"
will
tour with Abraham Bonowitz, director of the US based Citizens United for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP).  Sheppard will share insights
and
recent developments in the still unsolved case, and both he and Bonowitz
will discuss the current situation with the death penalty in the United
States, including the cases of several German citizens on death rows in
the
United
States.

  Sheppard will appear on the television program
"Menschen der Woche" ("Personality of the Week") at 10:20 on Saturday,
April
27 on two channels of the ARD, the SW and SFW (German television
networks).
(CONTACT:  Elsa Ibanez Ferrer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)

  Bonowitz and Sheppard are seeking (and have
arranged
some) meetings with government and business leaders in order to ask them
to
bring pressure on their counterparts in the United States with regard to
the
death penalty. They will also discuss and move forward an agenda which
includes the development of an economic (travel, tourism and commerce)
boycott of death penalty states by Europeans, as well as fund raising and

other support for US Abolitionists by potential European donors.
Finally,
Bonowitz and
Sheppard seek to explore the possibility of a "Walk Across (part of)
Europe" by Sam in the not-to-distant future.


  Public appearances are scheduled in Munich,
Dusseldorf, and Berlin, as follows:

  MUNICH
  Monday, April 29 at 6.30 p.m.
  Institute of American Culture and Sciences
  CONTACT:  Katrin Otremba  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
  Visit 


  DUSSELDORF
  Tuesday, April 30 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
  At the offices of Amnesty International
  Neusser Strasse 86, 40219 Dusseldorf
  and
  Wednesday, May 1 -- at the May Day rally in
Dusseldorf
  CONTACT: Astrid Weber  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
  Visit

Message to Phil Kent of Southeastern Legal re. Cynthia McKinney [WWW.STOPNATO.OR


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

>From :  "Nancy A. Hey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To :  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 CC :  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject :Re: Phil Kent of Southeastern Legal takes on U.S. Rep. Cynthia
McKinney
Date :  Fri, 26 Apr 2002 17:58:29 -0400

   Dear Mr. Kent,

   I believe you are wrong in your campaign to get Ms. Cynthia
McKinney
   suspended from her committee assignments in the U.S. House of
   Representatives.  Rep. McKinney had a lot of courage to raise the
valid
   questions she has about the events of September 11th at a time
when the
   pressure is so strong for members of Congress to act in lock-step
behind
   President Bush in his "war on terrorism" without raising any
questions
   about the wisdom of his actions.

   The American people have a right to hear what Rep. McKinney has to
say
   about the possibility of Bush's foreknowledge of the 9/11/01
attacks,
   and make up their own minds as to whether the evidence she
presents is
   convincing.  In the interst of Freedom of Speech, her efforts to
seek
   answers for troubling questions should not be censored.

   I believe you should provide evidence for your claim that the
money she
   recieves comes from people who support "terrorists".  Simply
because
   groups or individuals are Arab or Middle Eastern does not mean
that they
   support terrorists.  I happen to know of and work with several
groups
   who work for a change in US policy in the Middle East, but do not
   contribute any money to anybody who could be considered a
"terrorist"
   such as suicide bombers.  Some of these groups have asked people
to
   contribute money toward her investigation simply because they feel
that
   they investigation should go forward in the intersts of getting
the full
   truth out to the American public.

   I understand that your organization's purpose is to promote
"public
   accountability for elected officials".  However, consistant with
that
   aim, wouldn't it be appropriate to investigate the accountabliliy
of the
   Bush Administration and those who support his military actions who
have
   taken campaign contributions from oil companies?  Wouldn't it be
   appropriate to investigate the financial intersts that these
companies
   have in controlling the oil resources in Afghanistan, and how
these
   intersts may have influenced legislator's support for the military

   action in Afghanistan?

   Peacefully Yours,
   Nancy A. Hey





  From: "Phil Kent, SLF President" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
  Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Subject: Phil Kent of Southeastern Legal takes on U.S. Rep.
Cynthia
  McKinney
  Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 13:44:08 -0400

  Dear SLF Supporters:

  U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), one of the most liberal
  members of Congress who recently accused President George W.
  Bush and his administration of knowing beforehand about the
  attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 yet remaining silent - and of
  profiting from the war on terrorism, has received thousands
  of dollars in campaign contributions from Arab and Middle
  Eastern individuals and organizations who support
  terrorists!  I urge you to visit our web site for the
  latest research:

  http://www.southeasternlegal.org
  http://www.southeasternlegal.org"; >AOL Users Click
  Here

  While she is receiving these dirty dollars, she receives
  daily classified briefings on the war against terrorism from
  her postings on the House Armed Services and International
  Relations Committees!  Southeastern Legal Foundation has
  called upon House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt to
  suspend McKinney from her sensitive committee assignments
  until the U.S. House can get to the bottom of her campaign
  contribution debacle. National security demands no less!

  TONIGHT, FRIDAY, APRIL 26, I will be appearing on FOX News
  Special Report with Brit Hume (6 p.m. EST) on the McKinney
  crisis.

  On SATURDAY, APRIL 27, I will be appearing on FOX News
  FOXWIRE with Rita Cosby (10 p.m. EST) to discuss and debate
  the McKinney matter.

  As you have come to expect, Southeastern Legal Foundation is
  an effective government watchdog organization and
  constitutional law firm dedicated to public accountability
  for elected officials. The McKin

NATO to cut Balkans missions [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

Title: Message



HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


NATO to cut Balkans missions 
By David R. 
SandsTHE WASHINGTON 
TIMES 

 NATO plans substantial cuts in the size of its 
Balkans peacekeeping missions, including a reduction by nearly a third in the 
security force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping 
said yesterday.  Mr. Scharping, in town 
this week for meetings with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other 
administration and congressional leaders, said ministers from the 19-nation 
alliance are ready to sign off by the end of next month on a 20 percent to 30 
percent cut in the NATO-led security force in Bosnia, while streamlining the 
companion mission in Kosovo. U.S. and NATO 
troops have been stationed in the volatile region since the outbreak of ethnic 
conflicts in the mid-1990s, climaxing in NATO's 11-week air war against 
Yugoslavia over Kosovo. Facing the demands of 
the post-September 11 global war on terrorism, the Pentagon has been eager to 
free up U.S. forces for the fighting in Afghanistan and elsewhere, but Mr. 
Scharping said at a breakfast meeting with reporters yesterday he was confident 
the United States was not pulling out of the Balkans 
mission. The principle of "in together, out 
together" for the region "still holds from everything I was told, both publicly 
and privately," Mr. Scharping said. Discussing 
another peacekeeping mission, Mr. Scharping argued it was essential for the 
international security force now in Afghanistan to remain for an extended period 
as the interim government in Kabul struggles to assert its authority beyond the 
capital. Germany is taking a lead role in 
building up the new government's police force, but the government of Chancellor 
Gerhard Schroeder quashed early speculation that Germany would take over the 
command of the international security force as a 
whole. Mr. Scharping called Afghanistan a 
"complex case," where the allies are trying to "support the process of nation 
building and fight terrorism at the same time in the same 
country." But, he added, "if Afghanistan is not 
a success story, who will be encouraged? It will be all the wrong forces, of 
radicalism, Islamic fundamentalism and 
terrorism." NATO will hold a major summit in 
November in Prague, a gathering that is expected to include a new round of 
enlargement into Eastern Europe, while charting a new core strategic mission and 
redefining relations with Russia. The German 
minister said he expected the alliance to accept new members in Prague, but 
added NATO had to face several fundamental questions even as it 
expanded. A more important question than who is 
accepted will be strengthening the decision-making procedures for the alliance 
as it exists now, he said. "We cannot make NATO 
into an institution that is always debating its own enlargement," he said. "NATO 
is not a social club." He declined to say which 
of the nine NATO hopefuls Germany will support for membership, saying that both 
military capabilities and political factors will play a role. He noted that the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) already provides a 
broader forum in which the continent's security issues can be aired, while NATO 
has a more defined military role. "We already 
have one OSCE. We do not need a second one," he said.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020426-28680269.htm
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Description: GIF image

Re: Israel, Serbs forfeit claims [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

I do not agree with this article at all.  Unlike Israel, Serbia never stole
anybody else's land from them and occupied it for 53 years.

Peacefully yours,
Nancy Hey


Miroslav Antic wrote:

> HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
> ---
>
> http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/opinion.cfm?id=416302002
>
>The Scotsman Friday, 19th April 2002
>
>Opinion
>
>Israel forfeits all claim to legitimate self-defence
>
>There are parallels between Israels behaviour in the West Bank and
>Serbias in Kosovo.
>
>We are writing as individuals whose experiences as members of aid
>organisations working in the Balkans have caused us to reflect long
> on
>terrorism and the response to it.
>
>In Kosovo, Serbian repression of Albanian aspirations to equal
> rights,
>and the restoration of autonomous government in the province
>(withdrawn in 1989), led to the formation of Albanian guerrilla
> bands,
>which coalesced into the Kosovo Liberation Army. The KLA carried out
>numerous raids on Serbian military and civilian personnel.
>
>For the Serbs, this was simply terrorism, and their response was
>terror of their own: military occupation of Albanian towns and
>villages, mass arrests, torture of suspects, and massacres. The
>revulsion of Europe and the United States led to military action to
>force Serbia to desist from its murderous course, whether Serbs
>considered it to be counter-terrorism or not.
>
>Today, Kosovo is governed by the United Nations, and President
>Slobodan Milosevic is in The Hague on trial for war crimes.
>
>Israel stands, in relation to the Palestinians, precisely as Serbia
>did to the Kosovo Albanians. After years of harsh and increasingly
>lethal repression of all protest against settler encroachment, land
>expropriation, restrictions and humiliations of all kinds, the
>Palestinians followed the Israelis in resorting to lethal force.
>
>The attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinians are reprehensible,
>but Israel has met terror with terror, atrocity with atrocity, to the
>extent that it has forfeited all claim to legitimate self-defence -
> as
>did the Serbs.
>
>In Jenin, in particular, last week, the number of civilians killed
> may
>be numbered in hundreds; medical treatment, even water, was denied to
>the injured and dying. Rescuers of living people buried under piles
> of
>rubble were turned away, piles of corpses were bulldozed, hospitals
>were denied supplies and utilities, and the whole population kept
> from
>access to food and water.
>
>Israel has repeatedly stated that it is "destroying the
> infrastructure
>of terror", whatever that may mean. What it has certainly destroyed
> is
>all means of governance by the Palestinian Authority, and whatever
>respect the people had for it.
>
>Simple withholding of the multi-billion dollar annual subsidy that
>Israel receives from the United States could force Israeli compliance
>at any time. Unfortunately, given the nature of US politics, media
> and
>sentiment, this seems unlikely to happen.
>
>Nevertheless, we in Britain and Europe have the capacity to take
>economic and other measures which, in the long run, could be equally
>effective. But first and foremost, let our leaders be as clear,
>unambiguous and outspoken in their condemnation of Israeli excesses
>against the Palestinians as they were of Serbian excesses against the
>Kosovo Albanians.
>
>DENIS RUTOVITZ & 16 others
>Starbank Road
>Edinburgh
>
>I have read the correspondence about the Israel/Palestine war and
>reluctantly conclude that it is becoming rather one-sided in its
>opinions. Both sides in this conflict do not appear too fussy about
>their methods and tactics, but surely it is the end-game that matters
>for us all. I am neither Arab nor Jew, but it does seem to me that
>those who torment a dog should not complain when it bites.
>If the Palestinians lose out in the current conflict they will retire
>to lick their wounds and make peace noises to encourage the rest of
>the world to pour aid money into their coffers, some of which will
>almost certainly go towards preparation for the next round of blood
>letting.
>
>Failure to do so will result in more international terrorism, as we
>have seen in the past.
>
>On the other hand, if the Israelis blink first and show any weakness,
>the rest of the surrounding Arab nations will fall on them while the
>rest of the world makes noises of protest, but does nothing to
> prevent
>them from carrying out their frequently voiced threat to destroy the
>Jewish state.
>
>If the major nations of the world cannot prompt an end to the
> violence
>by diplomacy it is surely time to apply financial pressures on

Businessman involved in Chavez coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


AFP. 26 April 2002. Venezuelan businessman accused of plotting against
Chavez.

CARACAS -- Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin on Friday
accused a local businessman of conspiracy to overthrow President Hugo
Chavez, after a cache of weapons had been discovered in the man's home.

"I have always said there was a conspiracy," Rodriguez Chacin told
reporters here. "It has always been known that Perez Recao was part of a
conspiracy."

The charges came after a search in the home of 32-year-old businessman
Isaac Perez Recao conducted on the night from Wednesday to Thursday
yielded heavy weapons, ammunition and other military hardware.

"You've seen the photos of these sophisticated arms," said the minister.

"They were in the hands of people linked to the conspirators who were
behind the coup d'etat."

Rodriguez Chacin also cited a published photograph that showed Pedro
Carmona, head of the civilian-military junta that briefly seized power
in Caracas earlier this month, flanked by a bodyguard with a rifle.

"The weapon held by Marcela Sanabria, the man standing behind Carmona,
is very sophisticated," the minister explained. "It's an M-16 rifle with
a telescopic sight and a grenade launcher. Very few members of the armed
forces have it in our country."

Perez Recao, a scion of a prominent Venezuelan oil family, has fled
Caracas with his private jet and his bodyguards.

He is currently hiding in Miami, where he arrived from Aruba on April
20.

According to Manuel Corao, Miami correspondent of the Venezuelan weekly
Al Dia, the businessman is now trying to obtain political asylum in the
United States with the help of a lawyer. He has an entry visa to the
United States, which is valid until 2007.

According to Venezuelan media reports, Perez Recao, who is known for his
weakness for fast cars, weapons and hunting, was in charge of a security
firm that employed agents of the Israeli secret service Mossad.

Licenses allowing Perez Recao to import weapons were secured for him by
Rear Admiral Carlos Molina Tamayo, who prior to the coup headed the
explosives directorate of the armed forces, the reports said.

Molina Tomayo, who took part in the coup attempt and was appointed by
Carmona head of the presidential guard, is being held under house arrest
pending trial.

Carmona himself was reported to have ties to one of the oil companies
controlled by the Perez Recao family.

According to media report in Florida, other people associated with the
Venezuelan coup attempt have been sighted in that US state.

They include Jose Rodriguez Iturbe, the foreign minister in Carmona's
short-lived government, and attorney Roberto Carmona Borjas, who helped
the junta produce some of its decrees.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews

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Re: People who equate Slobodan Milosevic with Ariel Sharon [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


Nancy Hey:  I've noticed a very disturbing trend recently at
pro-Palestinian rallies that I've been to, and that is the tendency of
certain people to carry signs with slogans on them like "Sharon =
Milosevic"...

Alas, it shows the fatal flaw of thinking, common amongst Palestinians
(and elsewhere),  that the 'the system' only needs repairing.

Better analogy: Sharon = Kissinger -- another rat the US will protect to
the bitter end.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews

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US foreign aid to Israel [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


.
.
Matter in Motion through Space and Time ...
http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ]

[Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ]
.
.
- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 6:06 AM
Subject: [kominform2] US foreign aid to Israel



From: Al-Hewar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 10:09:38 -0400
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [AM] US foreign aid to Israel

From: MIFTAH

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion
of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH)

Fact Sheet: US foreign aid to Israel
April 14, 2002
Ý
A) The nature of US foreign aid to Israel

A1. Constitutes 30% of the total US foreign aid budget, which
renders Israel to be the largestÝ recipient of US aid in the world
Since 1987, the US congress has annually been approving a foreign aid
bill totaling an average ofÝ $3 billion to Israel, $1.2 billion in
economical aid, and $1.8 billion in military aid.

 After the gulf war in 1991, the US has additionally been offering
Israel $2 billion annually in federal loan guarantees, which brings
the total US foreign aid to Israel to about $5 billion, or $13.7
million per day. This amount excludes the approximate $1.5 billion in
total tax-deductible private donations from numerous Jewish charities
and individual donors.

 All in all, this is the largest amount of foreign aid given to a
country, and constitutes 30% of the total amount of US foreign aid
budget.

 A2. Started in 1948 and gradually increased over the years

Soon after the Truman decision in 1948 to recognize Israel as a Jewish
State, the US Congress approved an aid package in the form of a $135
million Export-Import Bank loan in order to take in holocaust
survivors and provide them with homes.

 Until 1973, aid was mainly made up of military, economic and
export-import bank loans, although annual economic grants ranging
between $0.1 and $74 million were also offered between the years 1951
and 1962.

 After the 1973 war, the US aid to Israel constituted largely of
military and economic grants to help strengthen the Israeli defense
forces. This included $12-80 million, which was annually grantedÝ
towards the establishment of Jewish refugee camps.

 This TABLE shows the history of US financial assistance to
Israel, as documented by the Jewish Virtual Library. Notice the
pattern of increased assistance over the years for economic, military
and Jewish refugee grants, especially after 1973. This pattern
reflects the US interests (section A3) in empowering Israel as the
only democratic, close ally in the region, and not for the pureÝ
intent to assist a developing country.

 A3. Promotes American interests in the Middle East

The US funding to Israel acts as the backbone for the strategic
partnership between both countries. By advancing Israel's
technological and military powers, the US is able to share
intelligence information regarding Arab militant groups, like
Hizbullah, as well as information regarding the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction in countries such as Iran, Iraq and Syria.

 Three quarters of the military aid to Israel goes for importing
US-made military equipment such asÝ F-16 and Apache attack
helicopters. This creates a job market for US citizens and transforms
Palestine into a test ground for US made weaponry, used daily against
Palestinians.

 Israel has cooperated with the US arms industry to develop more
effective military equipment at affordable costs to the US. About one
quarter of the military aid to Israel is contributed towards military
research and development, where several innovative jet fighters,
missiles and navigating and targeting devices have been manufactured
and sold back to the US. Examples are the ITALD, Litening, Popeye and
the UAV.

 A4. Proposed by Israel in 1998 to be reduced in an effort to
establish an economically independent country

In 1998, according to an agreement with the Clinton Administration and
Congress, Israel voluntarily requested to decrease its financial
dependence on US economic aid by phasing it out over a period of 10
years.
 The $1.2 billion in economic aid will be reduced by $120 million
each year until it is down to zero in the year 2008. This will help
Israel to become an economically independent country.

 However, 50% of the savings (i.e. $60 million) each year will be
added to an emergency military aid fund to Israel. This demonstrates
the US's persistence and commitment to help Israel gain control of the
region.

 B) The controversy for US foreign aid to Israel

 B1. Granted in disproportion to Israel's size and needs

Israel is an economically, technologically, and militarily advanced
country, with a per capita rate of $14,000, which is higher that that
of all neighboring Arab countries, including the oil-rich SaudiÝ
Arabia. It is ranked as the world's sixteenth wealthiest coun

Swedes boycott Israeli products [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 6:08 AM
Subject: [kominform2] Swedes boycott Israeli products




From: "Mashood Yunus" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 16:17:39 -0500
Subject: [AM] Swedes boycott Israeli products

Swedish Foreign Minister Boycotts Israeli Products
Lindh: Boycotting Israeli products is the least I
could do.

By Yahya Abu Zakarya, IOL correspondent in Stockholm

STOCKHOLM, April 20 (IslamOnline) - Swedish Foreign
Minister Anna Lindh announced that she will boycott
Israeli products available in the Swedish market,
especially citrus fruits and avocadoes.

Speaking to Swedish television on Friday, April 19,
Lindh said, "If I'm unable to influence my
government's policy to boycott Israel, I can at least
personally boycott their products." She called on
Swedish nationals to boycott Israeli products in the
light of the recent massacres committed by the Israeli
army in the Palestinian territories.

Lindh is a member of the ruling Social Democratic
Party and has been sympathetic with Arab issues along
with other members of the Swedish government, such as
former Foreign Minister Stein Anderson, a personal
friend of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

She had in the past asked the European Union to
suspend its relations with Israel as a way of
denouncing the occupation forces practices against the
Palestinian civilian population.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian minister for international
cooperation Nabil Shaath was visiting Stockholm on
Friday and met with Swedish Prime Minister Goeran
Persson who promised to donate 350 Swedish Corona
(nearly $ 35 million) to rebuild Jenin and nearby
areas destroyed by Israeli aggression. Persson
promised to increase the sum soon.

Shaath also met with Lindh who expressed her shock at
recent events in the Palestinian territories and
promised to do her best to help the Palestinian
people.

Besides government officials, Swedish nationals have
also been sympathizing with the Palestinian cause,
many of them wearing badges that said "boycott
Israel".

The streets of Stockholm on Thursday witnessed
demonstrations were banners were raised calling
hawkish Israeli prime minister
Ariel Sharon a mass murder, and other saying "Bush is
a killer" and "Zionism is Faschism".  Jews in Sweden
have also held counter demonstrations and a few
conflicts rose between both sides that was stopped
through police intervention.

In the Swedish city of Obsala on Friday, a silent
demonstration was held with demonstrators wearing
black and carrying candles.

The increasing number of Swedes participating in
anti-Israeli demonstrations has been noticeable and
has forced the Palestinian Issue to be featured on the
agenda of the Swedish Legislative elections which will
be held on September 2002.


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KCNA slams Japan's call for right to collective self-defense [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.U


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Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) -- The economic and fiscal policy minister
said monday the right to collective self-defense is inherent to a country
and Japan's war-renouncing constitution should be revised. In this regard,
Kyodo said, "it is rare for a serving cabinet member to comment on revising
the constitution." 
Such happening in Japan is arousing deep apprehension among the world
public as it means that the Japanese militarist and ultra-nationalist
forces' moves for overseas military aggression have entered the phase of
being legalized and adopted as a policy through a constitutional revision.
In 1946 when a discussion was made on a new constitution at the Japanese
diet, the then prime minister Yoshida expressed opposition to war and the
right of belligerency based on the "right to self-defense", confessing that
many recent wars including the Sino-Japan War and the Pacific War were
carried out under the cloak of the right to self-defense.
As Yoshida admitted, the "right to collective self-defense" was intended
to launch an overseas aggression. That was why Japan's "peace constitution"
after the Pacific War codified the renunciation of the right of belligerency
based on the "right to self-defense".
However, Japan, which remains listed as an "enemy state" by the UN
charter, is now letting its cabinet members call for the legalization of the
war doctrine, claiming the face and right of "normal state" which is
recognized by nobody.
If Japan truly wants to be recognized by the world community as a normal
state, it should make an honest repentance and apology for the crimes
committed in the last century, far from calling for the aggressive "right to
collective self-defense".
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China. People´s Daily Apr 27 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 3:11 PM
Subject: [kominform2] China. People´s Daily Apr 27




Extracts.

Saudi Arabia Warns US on Mideast Policy.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz warned US President George W.
Bush on Thursday about the risks the United States faces if it continues
with a Middle East policy widely perceived in the Arab world as favoring
Israel, a senior Saudi official said.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz warned US President George W.
Bush on Thursday about the risks the United States  faces if it continues
with a Middle East policy widely perceived in the Arab world as favoring
Israel, a senior Saudi official said.

Abdullah and Bush met for about five hours at Bush's ranch in Crowford,
Texas, two hours longer than the original plan.

Adel Al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to the Saudi government, told
reporters Abdullah had warned Bush about the direction of U.S. policy in the
Middle East.

"The crown prince speaks directly, he is sincere and he doesn'tmince words,"
Al-Jubeir said. "The message is, if the violence doenot diminish, there will
be grave consequences for the U.S. and its interests in the region."

Al-Jubeir said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon must withdraw Israeli
troops from Palestinian cities and towns, end thesieges of Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat at Ramallah and around the Church of the Nativity in
Bethlehem, and submit to a swift U.N.fact-finding mission in Jenin.

Bush on Thursday urged Israel to finish its troop withdrawal from
Palestinian lands and seek a "non-violent" solution to armed standoffs in
Ramallah and Bethlehem.

"Israel must finish its withdrawal," Bush said after the long meeting with
the Saudi leader. "I made it clear to him I expected Israel to withdraw. ...
I expect them to be finished."

Bush said that he and Crown Prince Abdullah had forged a "strong personal
bond" through the talks, which was dominated by the Israeli-Palestinian
crisis.

"One of the really positive things out of this meeting is the fact the crown
prince and I established a strong personal bond," Bush said.

The two sides discussed next steps in implementing a Saudi peace plan which
was endorsed by the Arab league, Bush said, describing the plan as "a
breakthrough" in defusing the Mideast crisis. The crown prince left the
ranch in Crowford without speaking to reporters.

Saudi Arabia recently complained that the Bush administration'ssupport of
Israel had damaged prospects for the Middle East peace process and soured
relations with the Arab world.

According to Bush, Crown Prince Abdullah promised during the meeting that
the country will not support any broadening of Iraq  'soil embargo to
include other angry Arab states.

"Saudi Arabia made it clear and made it clear publicly that they will not
use oil as a weapon and I appreciate that, respect that and expect that to
be the case," Bush said.

Bush Urges Israel to Complete Troop Withdrawal
US President George W. Bush on Thursday urged Israel to finish its troop
withdrawal from the Palestinian territories and seek a "non-violent"
solution to armedstandoffs in Ramallah and Bethlehem.

"Israel must finish its withdrawal," Bush said after a long meeting with
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz at his Texas ranch.

"I made it clear to him I expected Israel to withdraw. ... I expect them to
be finished,'' Bush said.

The talks began in the morning and lasted about five hours, twohours longer
than original plans, according to the White House.

Bush said that he and Crown Prince Abdullah had forged a "strong personal
bond" through the talks, which was dominated by the Israeli-Palestinian
crisis.

"One of the really positive things out of this meeting is the fact the crown
prince and I established a strong personal bond," Bush said.

The two sides discussed next steps in implementing a Saudi peace plan which
was endorsed by the Arab League, Bush said, describing the plan as "a
breakthrough" in solving the Middle Eastcrisis.

The crown prince left the ranch in Crowford without speaking toreporters.

Saudi Arabia recently complained that the Bush administration'ssupport of
Israel had damaged prospects for the Middle East peace process and soured
relations with the Arab world.

According to Bush, Crown Prince Abdullah promised during the meeting that
the country will not support any broadening of Iraq'soil embargo to include
other angry Arab states.

"Saudi Arabia made it clear and made it clear publicly that they will not
use oil as a weapon and I appreciate that, respect that and expect that to
be the case," Bush said.



Russian President Putin to Visit China, Boosting Links.

Russian Preside

UN Jenin mission to Israel Sunday [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

Title: Message



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UN 
Jenin mission to Israel Sunday 
By William M. 
ReillyUNITED PRESS 
INTERNATIONAL 

 UNITED NATIONS, April 26 (UPI) -- The U.N. 
Jenin fact-finding mission is now expected to arrive in the Middle East Sunday, 
a day later than originally scheduled and reflecting a delay granted in face of 
the Sabbath and a positive response from a special Israeli delegation at U.N. 
talks.  The Israeli delegation began talks 
Thursday with a team of senior U.N. officials led by Undersecretary-General for 
Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast.  At the 
conclusion of the talks and after briefing the Security Council the usually 
tight-lipped Prendergast told reporters only the talks had been "positive" and 
that there would be a delay of one day for the Sabbath. 
 "These discussions took place in a cordial and 
constructive atmosphere," said a spokeswoman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 
"Clarifications on the upcoming mission were provided by the United Nations. 
 "The United Nations has been informed that the 
Israeli Cabinet will take a formal decision on the matter on Sunday morning, 
April 28," said the spokeswoman, Marie Okabe. "The Foreign Minister (Shimon 
Peres) has requested that due to the Israeli Sabbath, the team arrive on Sunday. 
Given those circumstances the secretary-general has agreed to this request." 
 Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the 
fact-finding team now in Geneva, Switzerland, said it would arrive in Tel Aviv 
Sunday evening.  Council president for April, 
Ambassador Sergei Lavrov of Russia, said, "I'm sure that if something develops 
different than what is contained in the statement we will look at it." 
 Some members of the council said privately 
there was a possibility of a council session Sunday if the Israeli cabinet fails 
to deliver a formal go-ahead for the U.N. mission. 
 The deadliest fighting in the recent Israeli 
re-occupation of Palestinian territory took place in the Jenin Refugee Camp, 
where officials of the Palestinian Authority have said hundreds of civilian 
residents were killed. Amnesty International has said that it has found 
preliminary evidence that Israeli soldiers violated the Geneva conventions and 
other laws of war.  The Israeli military has 
denied there was a massacre and says its three-week incursion into to the camp 
was necessary to "uproot an infrastructure of terror." It said it tried to 
minimize civilian casualties, even putting the lives of its soldiers at risk by 
not using air cover. It says that the camp was a legitimate military target, and 
that armed Palestinians broke the laws of war by booby trapping homes, and 
deliberately taking shelter among civilians. 
 Israel said it lost 23 soldiers. About 100 
bodies of Palestinians have been recovered. 
 The Security Council endorsed one week ago 
Annan's initiative to send a fact-finding mission and Israel agreed. But after 
he announced a three-member team, with two advisers earlier this week, Israel 
balked.  Annan chose Marti Ahtisaari, a former 
president of Finland to head the team, Sadako Ogata, former U.N. High 
Commissioner for Refugees, and Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the 
International Committee of the Red Cross. The first advisers were retired U.S. 
Army Gen. William Nash and former Irish Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald. 
Additional military advisers were added later but have not yet been named. A 
Danish legal adviser and Finish forensic specialist were also added later. 
 Mission members first gathered in Geneva 
Wednesday and were to have departed for the Middle East Friday. 
 The Israelis voiced displeasure at the 
composition of the mission and wanted to broaden its makeup. Annan said while he 
would not remove any members some more could be added and talks were scheduled 
for Thursday at U.N. headquarters in New York. 
 Ambassador Yehuda Lancry, Israel's permanent 
representative at the United Nations, first brought the four-member team that 
had flown from Israel to headquarters Thursday afternoon. They returned again 
Friday to conclude the discussions. 
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Chernobyl's Legacy of Radioactive Poisoning Passed On [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

Title: Message



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  Published on Friday, April 26, 2002 by Reuters 
  

  16 Years 
  LaterChernobyl's Legacy of Radioactive Poisoning Passed On 
  

  by Elizabeth Piper
  
 
  
KIEV - Ukrainian children born with 
  genetic mutations or harmed by radioactive food form a new generation of 
  Chernobyl victims who could pass the accident's tragic legacy on to the 
  next, specialists warned yesterday. 
  On the eve of Chernobyl's 16th anniversary, specialists who have worked 
  in the region since a reactor exploded and spewed clouds of radioactivity 
  over much of Europe said the fight against radiation-related illness was 
  far from won.
  ''Today, 16 years after the accident, there remain some huge problems 
  in several regions ... especially in terms of children's health and in 
  terms of food,'' Olga Bobylova, deputy secretary of Ukraine's health 
  service, told a news conference.
  
  


  An aerial view of Ukraine's Chernobyl nucler power plant, 
the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, is seen in this May 
1986 file photo made a few days after the April 26 deadly explosion. 
In front of the chimney is the destroyed 4th reactor. Ukraine 
commemorates victims of Chernobyl catastrophe Thursday, April 25, 
2002, on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the tragedy when a 
nuclear explosion, many times bigger that Hiroshima and Nagasaki 
combined, sent a radioactive cloud over parts of then-Soviet 
Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of Western Europe. The plant was 
closed for good in 2000, but many environmental problems persist. 
(AP Photo/STR/FILE)''[In areas 
  surrounding Chernobyl] meat and milk in the private sector have high 
  levels of radioactivity. ... There are also problems with the mushrooms 
  and berries in the forests. ... Such food can have a profound effect on 
  health.'' 
  Thousands of impoverished Ukrainians live in areas affected by 
  radioactive contamination from the plant, which exploded on April 26, 1986 
  in the world's worst civil nuclear disaster.
  To boost their meager daily meals they gather berries and mushrooms 
  from fields and forests still contaminated by radioactive debris. Many are 
  unaware or reluctant to think that the food remains a health risk so long 
  after the accident.
  ''The state tries to give children good, clean food, but it cannot 
  because of a lack of funds,'' Bobylova said.
  ''We need this in the future.''
  The specialists urged Ukraine and the rest of the world not to allow 
  Chernobyl to become a forgotten crisis - a term used first by the United 
  Nations which hinted that funds could run out as interest in the disaster 
  waned.
  Evgeniya Stepanova, a specialist in radiation-linked illnesses, said 
  children were becoming sufferers years after the explosion, which killed 
  few people at the time.
  The true casualty toll in the years since is a matter of intense 
  controversy. Chernobyl has been blamed for thousands of deaths in Ukraine, 
  Belarus, and Russia and for a huge increase in thyroid cancer.
  ''[Research] has shown genetic mutations in sufferers of Chernobyl, 
  both adults and children. ... Those children and adults are more likely to 
  get cancer and pass on mutations to their children.''
  Radiation is known to cause genetic mutation, and the rate of certain 
  cancers goes up in areas exposed to nuclear fallout, scientists say.
  Stepanova said it was time to turn the world's attention to those who 
  had no choice but to suffer the consequences and those who could 
  unwittingly become the next victims of Chernobyl.
  ''We have not paid enough attention to those people who are 
  suffering,'' she said, almost shouting.
  ''Among all the problems caused by Chernobyl, the genetic [mutation] 
  problem should come first. ... It is a huge problem.''
  Copyright 2002 Reuters 
Ltd
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Argentina: Reporter's Notebook (1 of 2) [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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- Original Message - 
From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 
Cc: ; ; ; 
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 5:53 AM
Subject: [CubaNews] Argentina: Reporter's Notebook (1 of 2)


from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
subject: [CubaNews] Argentina: Reporter's Notebook (1 of 2)
Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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From: "Walter Lippmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 05:21:19 -0700
Subject: [CubaNews] Argentina: Reporter's Notebook (1 of 2)
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Argentina: Reporter's Notebook (1 of 2)
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK FROM ARGENTINA (Part 1 of 2)
By Jon Hillson

BUENOS AIRES, April 24 (NY Transfer)--"Don't cry for me, Argentina,
the truth is I never left you," implores the romanticized persona of
Eva Duarte in the musical "Evita." But the powerful fact today is
that millions do not long for her, or her husband, deceased dictator
Juan Domingo Pern. The cry instead is for justice, and struggles
breaks out everywhere as the velocity of the crisis impelling them
continues to accelerate at a breathtaking pace.

In April, a top delegation of representatives of the International
Monetary Fund, headed by Anoop Singh, arrives in Buenos Aires to
impose draconian conditions for loans, billions of dollars that will
only increase the country's impossible $142 billion foreign
debt-funds destined for the coffers of so-called lenders and the
country's rich. The marching orders, which include demands for
provincial budget cuts of up to 60 percent -- meaning bone-deep --
public service sector layoffs and further slashes of already
eviscerated social programs-are leaked to the media, some of whose
representatives confront Singh. They are written in English.

The daily newspaper Pgina 12 captures the scene in a front page
photo. The headline: "Si, bwana," "Yes boss" -- the caricatured,
servile expression popularized by Hollywood of the African colonial
to his metropolitan master, many years ago.

***

The statistics of the financial collapse of the Argentine economy
here -- the third largest in Latin America, after Mexico with three
times, and Brazil, double the population of Argentina-provide a
context to understand explains the breadth of popular anger.

The currency "adjustment," which shattered the one-to-one
convertibility of the peso to the dollar last December, has devalued
money here by 70 percent. This sparked an immense, decentralized,
virtually anarchic mass uprising which, coupled with a general strike
and the events of December 19-20, led to a sequence of five
presidents in a matter of weeks.

Since then, prices have risen 42 percent. This has gutted wages and
evaporated pensions. During the week of April 1, the costs of goods
and services rises 3.5 percent, indicating an annual rate of 180
percent.

More than three million Argentine workers are unemployed, a
percentage of over 23 percent of the workforce. This is the
"official" figure. More than 170,000 workers have been laid of since
January 1, 2002, including 65,000 March alone -- an increase of 1,800
percent since the same month last year.

Building and home construction and repair has ground to a halt, with
some 300,000 construction workers unemployed. "We want to work," says
a new poster, pasted to walls in downtown Buenos Aires, put up by
union members.

Since January, 30,000 shops in the province of Buenos Aires, with
about a third of the country's population, have closed -- 13 an hour,
everyday, since the beginning of 2002.

A survey by the government indicates that 49 percent of the people --
and 56 percent of its children -- of Argentina now live below the
poverty level, with nearly a quarter of the population "indigent" --
unable to purchase the weekly minimum of food. Of every ten people
newly impoverished, six are from the middle class -- an indication of
the level of destitution that affects the vast majority of working
people.

Homelessness, which did not exist in the capital a decade ago, has
leaped, from 1,200 last year to 3,500 today.

Aguas Argentinas, the privatized national water system, declares
bankruptcy in mid-April, as protests in barrios against it mount.
Some residents are paying hundreds of pesos every two months for
drinking water.

According to Clarn, a prestigious bourgeois daily, and the Los
Angeles Times, the Argentina ruling elite has spirited $106 billion
out of the country to foreign safe havens and an additional
$30 billion in untouchable securities -- "legally," both newspaper
note -- while for the middle class, personal savings, drastically
devalued to $8 billion, are frozen in banks, locked corallitos
[playpens]. Transfers can only be made for spending on big-ticket
items, like cars, durabl

Argentina: Reporter's Notebook (2 of 2) [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 
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Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 6:06 AM
Subject: [CubaNews] Argentina: Reporter's Notebook (2 of 2)


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subject: [CubaNews] Argentina: Reporter's Notebook (2 of 2)
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Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 05:23:01 -0700
Subject: [CubaNews] Argentina: Reporter's Notebook (2 of 2)
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Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK FROM ARGENTINA (2 of 2)
By Jon Hillson

The cab I am in turns right off avenida 9 de Julio -- one of a series
of parallel avenues that form a broad, spacious central artery,
abutted by rows of handsome buildings and divided by islands of
grass. It heads down Suipacha, towards the small hotel on Suipacha
where I'm staying. At that exact moment, 20 feet away, two pistol
shots split the night air. That's a gun, I say to the taxista.

"Someone's robbing a bank," he says matter-of-factly. Just then, a
figure hurtles out of a doorway, slips, falls, gets up, and scampers
away. "Nothing unusual," he says, shrugging off the incident.
Sensational media coverage about a wave of "street crime" --
including numerous assaults on supermarkets, is widespread, but it
has no real resonance, since millions believe the real looters and
thieves run the country and government. This is a refreshing way to
address the question of who are the real criminals in Argentina, and
elsewhere.

***

The Casa Argentina-Chile, a community center in the working class
section of barrio San Telmo is jam-packed with people. Every
Wednesday, for the last year there's been a trueque [place of barter]
set up there. People -- parents, grandparents, some with small
children or accompanied by teenagers -- bring a variety of goods to
swap. The list of items is endless, from socks and underwear to cakes
and pies, used flatware and plates, jeans, typewriters, lighting
fixtures. For each time the goods are brought, the bearer gets a
ticket indicating a credit. It is used to for exchange. "There's no
money here at all," says Teresa, a volunteer.

Over a loudspeaker crackling with static, a plumber offers his
services. Vendorsr can trade their items for a visit and work, or
someone can offer their credits, which the plumber can use to get any
merchandise, or a sausage sizzling on the grill. "We have other food
too," says Teresa, "but no meat. There's not much meat in this
neighborhood." Or money.

Despite the cramped quarters -- hundreds of people shoulder to
shoulder, with small children underneath -- there's no friction, no
bickering, no shoving or shouting, just the din of conversation, the
squeal of babies, music from some place, the amplified announcements.

Some trueques are stationary, have their own established center.
Others take place in community center like this. They crop up in
working class neighborhoods across the city as a popular, emergency
defense against the rash of indigence sweeping the country.

Who organized this one?

"We did, the people of the barrio," says Teresa, as she greets people
at the door, signs them in, and gives out the credits.

***

In the upscale Buenos Aires Recolecta neighborhood -- a more
classical, tree-shaded version of the toney upper East Side of
Manhattan, or the homes and apartments of Beacon Hill in Boston --
the elegant cafes and excellent restaurants that dot quaint streets,
are cheap now, as are the taxis to get you there, If you have lots of
pesos, or better, dollars.

"You should see this place at night," says Franklin, a waiter and an
immigrant from the Dominican Republic. The restaurant he works at is
right across from the famed Recolecta Cementary where, the rich and
famous of Argentina are buried, their coffins in rows of mausoleums.
The Duarte family tomb is there, too, and behind its barred windows
is the coffin of Eva Peron, the main attraction for tourists.

My favorite tomb is that of the great Argentine boxer, Lus Angel
Firpo -- the "Wild Bull of the Pampa" -- who fought, and lost to Jack
Dempsey for the heavyweight championship of the world. He is cast,
larger than life in bronze, in trunks and robe.

"The are private cars everywhere, no buses, private cars, nice cars,"
Franklin says, pointing to a nearby avenue that passes the cemetary,
"and lots of people are selling their cars to live, so you know
there's money." Tourists come mostly from Mexico and the United
States, and Britain, he says.

The level of social tension is not like Mexico, where units of
machine-gun toting soldiers patrol the airport in the capital city.
The intern

San Francisco: Thousands march against war, racism and poverty [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG


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Subject: PWW, San Francisco: Thousands march against war, racism and poverty


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  PWW, San Francisco: Thousands march against war, racism and poverty
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From: People's Weekly World Newspaper, Fri, 26 Apr 2002
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]  , http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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 San Francisco: Thousands march against war, racism and poverty
   by Herb Kaye and Gail Ryall

People's Weekly World Newspaper, Apr 27, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO  In the largest peace demonstration the Bay Area has seen
in many years, more than 35,000 people from all nationalities and
political persuasions rallied and marched April 20 for an end to the
real "axis of evil  war, racism and poverty." The demand for an end to
the slaughter and destruction in the Palestinian homeland, and to the
occupation by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
with complicity by the Bush administration, was a dominant demand.

Thousands rallied at Dolores Park in the traditionally Latino Mission
District and then marched through several neighborhoods to a second
rally at Civic Center Plaza. Signs, banners and graphic puppets of Bush
and Sharon proclaimed the need to "End the Occupation" and "Stop the
Killings," and for the Bush administration to stop military aid to
Israel as well as ending the "war at home and abroad."

Representatives of Peace Action, the country's largest peace
organization, carried a huge balloon in the shape of a missile, showing
that the bloated military budget is shortchanging monies to meet human
needs.

Marie Harrison, columnist and managing editor of The S.F. Bay View in
Hunters Point and a community organizer with Greenaction, reminded the
audience that April 20 is also Earth Day, and that the people in her
predominantly African-American neighborhood are being killed by
pollution from two power plants. "The war is not just abroad," Harrison
said, "but it is being played out here as well."

A large delegation marched behind the banner of Jewish Voice For Peace,
a Bay Area group that has grown rapidly and initiated militant protests
at the Israeli Consulate. One marcher with the group, Osha Neumann,
said, "Twenty years ago I was with a group of Jews protesting at the
Jewish Consulate and it was lonely. I am happy that Jews, especially,
and other progressives are no longer blind to oppression" by the Israeli
government.

Riad Morrar, a U.S. citizen born and raised in Palestine, who marched
with his family, said, "There is nothing else I can do but tell
President Bush: 'You're wrong. Stop killing my people.'"

Kate Raphael, who recently returned from a visit to a refugee camp near
Bethlehem, told of seeing holes ripped in the walls of houses and
children not being able to go to school for two months and having to do
without food, water, electricity, and yet maintaining their spirits and
pride as Palestinians.

The rally protesters, who included longtime activists from many
progressive causes and newly mobilized people, including whole families,
came from around California and other Western states. Palestinians and
Arab Americans were a large part of the crowd. Demonstrators denounced
corporations like Enron, the World Bank and capitalist globalization.
Environmentalists had a prominent presence. Signs called for an end to
the embargo on Cuba, and for an end to U.S. military involvement in the
Philippines, Puerto Rico and Colombia. A large union contingent
participated as well.

Richard Mead, president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union
Local 10 in the Bay Area, sharply criticized initiatives by the Bush
administration to promote open-ended war abroad and squelch dissent at
home in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 tragedy. He warned that, in the
wake of Sept. 11, the shipping companies and the Bush administration may
be trying to take away the union hiring hall, in the name of "national
security," in current contract negotiations that expire July 1. In case
of a possible lockout by the employers or being forced to strike, Mead
said, "I hope you will all come down to the docks in that event and help
us win our fight."

Jeff Patterson, of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, told the crowd that
Gulf War veterans are now de

US, Del Ponte Threaten FRY; NATO Meets With UCK Terrorist Chief [WWW.STOPNATO.OR


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---

http://www.rferl.org
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

[As war criminals from five continents retire
peacefully to their mansions in California, Florida,
Hawaii and New York tonight.]
 
26 April 2002
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
U.S. CALLS ON BELGRADE FOR MORE COOPERATION WITH THE
HAGUE 
Referring to General Dragoljub Ojdanic's surrender to
the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington on 25
April that Belgrade must do more, Reuters reported
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 April 2002). He added, "We
recognize it is a difficult thing for an individual to
do. [Ojdanic] has done the right thing and I think
that deserves a little bit of credit... We are
encouraged that the authorities in Belgrade are
working to improve their cooperation with The Hague
tribunal. Further necessary steps are for the Yugoslav
government to take remaining indictees into custody
and transfer them to The Hague as soon as possible."
Boucher also noted that, "while we see [Ojdanic's
move] as a positive step on the part of the
individual...as well on the part of the government of
Yugoslavia for facilitating this, at this point we
have not made any further decisions with regard to
certification" of further U.S. aid payments to Serbia.
PM 

DEL PONTE WANTS EU TO PUT MORE PRESSURE ON BELGRADE 
Speaking in Madrid on 25 April, Carla Del Ponte, who
is the war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, said
the EU should increase pressure on the Yugoslav
authorities to cooperate more fully with The Hague,
RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service
reported. She added that she is still waiting for a
concrete answer from Belgrade about the extradition of
the 23 indicted war criminals believed to be on
Yugoslav territory, including General Ratko Mladic and
Radovan Karadzic. Unlike the U.S., the EU has
previously said that it will not impose sanctions on
Belgrade for its failure to cooperate with the
tribunal (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 and 9 April 2002).
PM 


NATO AMBASSADOR TO MACEDONIA MEETS FORMER REBEL LEADER

Ambassador Nicolaas Biegman and NATO's Director of
Operations, Crisis Management, and Defense Robert
Serry, met on 24 April with Ali Ahmeti, the leader of
the disbanded ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army
(UCK), Makfax reported. They discussed the roadblocks
set up recently by Albanians near Tetovo and other
obstacles to the planned return of ethnically mixed
police to former rebel-held areas. Also on the agenda
were the issue of ethnic Albanian prisoners held by
the authorities, as well as the fate of kidnapped
Macedonians and Albanians. According to U.S.
Ambassador to Macedonia Lawrence Butler, the meeting
was planned already in 2001. "NATO wanted to hold a
meeting with Ahmeti in order to make sure that the UCK
was really disbanded and that all of them, including
Ahmeti, work against violence and on the
implementation of the [Ohrid] Framework Agreement,"
MIA quoted Butler as saying. UB 


ROMANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS U.S. HAS ACCEPTED OFFER
TO PROVIDE TROOPS FOR 'ENDURING FREEDOM' 
Ioan Mircea Pascu told journalists following a cabinet
meeting in Bucharest that the U.S. has accepted
Romania's offer to send troops to participate in the
operations under way in Afghanistan, Romanian radio
reported. MS 

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT COMMENTS ON PACE RESOLUTION 
Vladimir Voronin said on 25 April that Moldova "wishes
to assure the international community of the firm
determination [of its leadership] to overcome an
artificial situation created and maintained by forces
that were sanctioned by the electorate in February
2001," RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Voronin
described the previous day's resolution of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
as "objective" and reflecting the "neutrality" of the
assembly's two rapporteurs on Moldova. He said the
resolution demonstrates that Moldova has "chosen the
right path, overcoming the difficulties of the
transition period by initiating a constant dialogue
with society." Voronin said that all Moldovan
political forces must begin a "constructive dialogue,
without any trace of ultimatum tone," but added that
such a dialogue is "impossible if the Popular Party
Christian Democratic does not stop the
[antigovernment] demonstrations." MS 

BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER MEETS HEADS OF WORLD BANK,
IMF 
Simeon Saxecoburggotski met with World Bank President
James D. Wolfensohn and IMF Managing Director Horst
Koehler on 24 April, BTA reported, citing a government
press release. After the meeting, Wolfensohn said the
government's program is in line with the development
strategy coordinated by the World Bank. Wolfensohn
told Saxecoburggotski that the World Bank's board of
directors will discuss at the beginning of May a
possible $450 million loan to Bulgaria.
Saxecoburggotski said after his meeting with Koehler
that the IMF official was impressed by Bulgaria's
anticorruption measures. UB

Korea. KCNA Apr 26 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

2002-04-26 Thread sipila


HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


Korean Central News Agency

Extracts.



Congratulatory message to Kim Jong Il from NDFSK CC
     Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il on April 25 received a
congratulatory message from the central committee of the National Democratic
Front of South Korea on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the heroic
Korean People's Army. The foundation of the Korean People's Revolutionary
Army by President Kim Il Sung 70 years ago was a birth of the genuine
revolutionary army, the national army guided by the great brilliant
commander and the great idea for the first time in the national history
spanning thousands of years, and a historic event which gave origin to the
building of the Juche-based revolutionary armed forces, the message said,
and went on: 
    Kim Il Sung defeated the most ferocious U.S. and Japanese imperialists
in one generation to liberate the country and honorably defend the
sovereignty of the country and the nation, thus performing the undying
feats. 
    His Juche-based army-centred idea and cause of army building are being
successfully carried forward by you the respected supreme commander century
after century. You have strengthened and developed the KPA into the army of
the leader and the party and the main agent for the accomplishment of the
Juche cause. 
    In particular, you have led the struggle for defence of socialism of
Juche to victory with your original army-based policy, brilliantly
glorifying the 20th century as Kim Il Sung century and opening a broad
avenue for the building of a powerful nation.
    This is the greatest feat remarkable in the history of Juche-based army
building. 
    The NDFSK and the patriotic people from all walks of life will make
positive contributions to brilliantly adorning this year as a year of
opening up a decisive phase of national reunification.



Greetings to Tanzanian President
     Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium
of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, on April 19 sent a message of
greetings to Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa on the occasion of
the 38th anniversary of the foundation of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Extending warm congratulations to the president, the government and the
people of Tanzania on this occasion, the message wished them greater success
in the work for the national unity and the independent development of the
country. 
    The message expressed belief that the relations of friendship and
cooperation existing between the two countries would continue to grow
stronger. 



Floral baskets to DPRK missions abroad
     Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- Foreign organizations and personages sent
floral baskets to DPRK missions in different countries on the occasion of
the 90th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. Among them were the
first vice-president of the council of ministers of Cuba who is also
minister of the revolutionary armed forces, the deputy general secretary of
the Arab Socialist Baath Party of Syria, the president of the People's
Council of Syria, the deputy prime minister and concurrently minister of
defence of Syria who is also deputy commander-in-chief of the army and armed
forces, the minister of cooperation of Iran, the vice-minister of defence
and armed forces logistics of Iran, the coordinator (leader) of the national
executive committee of the Workers' Party of Mexico, and political parties,
organizations, institutions and personages of Denmark, France, Italy and
Hong Kong of China.



Talks held between DPRK vice-premier and Russian plenipotentiary
representative
     Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- Talks were held between Jo Chang Dok,
vice-premier of the DPRK cabinet, and Konstantin Borisovich Pulikovski,
plenipotentiary representative of the president of the Russian Federation to
the far east federal district, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall yesterday. At
the talks both sides exchanged views on the matter of expanding and
developing the relations of friendship and economic cooperation between the
two countries and a series of issues of mutual concern.
    Present at the talks were vice-minister of foreign trade Kim Yong Jae
and officials concerned, entourage of the plenipotentiary representative,
Russian ambassador to the DPRK Andrei Gennadievich Karlov and embassy
officials. 



Reception in honour of Russian plenipotentiary representative
     Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- The DPRK National Defence Commission
(NDC) yesterday hosted a reception in honor of the plenipotentiary
representative of the president of the Russian Federation to the far east
federal district. Yon Hyong Muk, member of the N

FYROM: Kosovo Raid Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Injured [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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---

The Irish Times
April 26, 2002

One dead in shooting on Macedonia-Kosovo border   

An ethnic Albanian was killed and two others injured
when Macedonian troops exchanged fire with assailants
near the country's border with the UN-run Yugoslav
province of Kosovo, a Macedonian military official
said.
The incident occurred near the northern village of
Belavce when a Macedonian army patrol came under fire
from assailants in a truck, said the official, who
asked to remain anonymous.
The troops returned fire, killing one person in the
truck and wounding two others.
Five ethnic Albanians were arrested and handed over to
representatives of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in
Kosovo (KFOR) following the incident.
The Macedonian official did not indicate if the
assailants were from Kosovo or were Macedonian
citizens, nor if the truck was spotted entering or
leaving the former Yugoslav republic.
In a statement released in Skopje, the US embassy said
that US KFOR troops were in the vicinity and responded
to a request for assistance and provided first aid.
The UN Mission in Kosovo has asked the Macedonian
foreign ministry to "clarify" the incident," Mr Andrea
Angeli, a spokesman for UNMIK, said.
The Macedonian government signed a Western-brokered
peace agreement with ethnic Albanian rebels last
August to end a seven-month insurgency.
Under the accord, the rebel National Liberation Army
officially disbanded and the country's constitution
was changed to offer the minority ethnic Albanian
population more rights.
Violence in Kosovo, which is predominantly ethnic
Albanian, has decreased since June 1999 when the KFOR
troops entered the southern Serbian province after
NATO's 78-day bombing campaign. [sic]


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US, British Troops Fighting In Pakistan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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---

The Irish Times
April 27, 2002 
  
US and British special forces are hunting al-Qaeda in
Pakistan
>From Chris Stephen, in Bagram, Afghanistan
US and British special forces are operating in
Pakistan as the war against al-Qaeda spreads beyond
the borders of Afghanistan, a military source has told
The Irish Times.
The operations involve small teams of elite soldiers
from the US Delta Force and the British SAS, with
increasing numbers being deployed in recent weeks as
the focus of the war shifts to Pakistan.
Coalition planners believe the remnants of al-Qaeda
and the Taliban have moved into Pakistan to escape the
increasing numbers of coalition troops facing them in
Afghanistan.
"We've had special forces operating in Pakistan for
months," said a Western military source. "They have
also been in Afghanistan, in Kazakhstan, in
Uzbekistan. They are operating with the full
co-operation of the Pakistan government."
He said the operation was conducted directly from
Washington and London, a mark of the sensitivity of
the operations in Pakistan, a country where the
Taliban and al-Qaeda enjoy broad support.
"They do not operate in the normal way, they are not
under control of commanders in Afghanistan," said the
source.
"They will be tasked from London and Washington, they
won't necessarily come under brigade control. They are
operating with Pakistan's full consent."
There is urgency behind the operation: Snow is melting
in the mountains and there are fears that the Taliban,
rested and rearmed, will launch new offensives.
Stopping at Shannon airport en route for a tour of
Central Asia and Afghanistan, the US Defence
Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said yesterday: "My
guess is as spring comes and the weather improves, and
as they find ways to communicate with each other, that
they will probably again try to attack the interim
(Afghan) authority and opposing factions in the
country as well as US and coalition forces."
He acknowledged that the chance to trap al-Qaeda in a
major set-piece battle has now gone. "My impression is
that the al-Qaeda and Taliban are avoiding, for the
time being at least, concentrating themselves in
larger groups," he said.
While arms caches continue to be found, the al-Qaeda
units who escaped the coalition offensive last year
appear to have dispersed themselves throughout the
mountain belt in south-western area of Afghanistan.
The special forces units, working in small groups, are
trying to pinpoint "safe houses" and cut supply routes
through the towering Paktia mountains, some of the
most inhospitable terrain in the world - the so-called
Tribal Belt. This area is the Taliban's birthplace: It
was from madrasas, or religious colleges, here that
the Taliban - who's name means "religious student" -
sprang in the mid-1990s to seize control of
Afghanistan.
Thousands of trails lead across the border, many old
smuggling routes. Although much of Afghanistan has
defected away from the Taliban, they remain popular in
this zone.
Pakistan has denied coalition involvement: "No US
personnel are present in Pakistan's tribal areas
searching for al-Qaeda men," said Mr Aziz Ahmad Khan,
spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.
Politically, the mission is risky for Pakistan, where
anti-American sentiment is strong.
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan is holding a
referendum next Tuesday on his presidency, three years
after he seized power from the democratically-elected
government. He has defied strong anti-US sentiment to
support the war against al-Qaeda and there are fears
that news of US involvement would turn support away
from him.Major political parties in Pakistan have
announced a boycott of the referendum saying it is
unconstitutional and not how a president should be
elected.


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Russia-China Defense Pact Against US-NATO In C. Asia? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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The Hindu
April 27, 2002


-The newspaper quoted sources in the Russian National
Security Council as saying that the growing American
military presence in Central Asia had made Moscow more
amenable to China's participation in the allied
security arrangements that Russia had in the region.
"The threat of being squeezed out smoothly and
gradually [from Central Asia] by China scares Russia
less than the aggressive and fast ouster by the
Americans and their allies," the VN said. 
- "The deployment of U.S. and NATO bases in the region
has raised the need [for the SCO] to work towards
establishing in future a full-fledged military union,"
the paper said. 
It added that the union would essentially be between
Russia and China, as three other members of the SCO 
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan  were already
members of the defence pact with Russia. 


Russia, China forge defence union?  
By Vladimir Radyuhin 
MOSCOW   APRIL 26  . Russia and China are forging a
defence pact under the umbrella of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Vremya Novostei
newspaper reported. The two countries will take a step
towards forming a military union when they sign the
Charter of the SCO, a regional security organisation
that also unites Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan. 
Meeting in Moscow on Friday, the Foreign Ministers of
the six member-states approved a draft Charter, to be
signed at a June 7 summit of the SCO in St.
Petersburg. The draft has not been published, but the
VN said that Moscow had earlier agreed with Beijing's
proposal to "use the experience of the Collective
Security Treaty [a defence pact among six former
Soviet states] in preparing basic documents" of the
SCO. 
The newspaper quoted sources in the Russian National
Security Council as saying that the growing American
military presence in Central Asia had made Moscow more
amenable to China's participation in the allied
security arrangements that Russia had in the region.
"The threat of being squeezed out smoothly and
gradually [from Central Asia] by China scares Russia
less than the aggressive and fast ouster by the
Americans and their allies," the VN said. 
The Shanghai group took the first practical step
towards joining forces in the security sphere when
their border-guard chiefs, at a meeting in Kazakhstan
on Wednesday, agreed to set up a coordinating body to
exchange information and conduct joint security
operations in Central Asia. 
Speaking after Friday's meeting, the Russian Foreign
Minister, Igor Ivanov, said an accord to set-up "an
anti-terrorist structure" would also be signed at the
summit in St. Petersburg. "The deployment of U.S. and
NATO bases in the region has raised the need [for the
SCO] to work towards establishing in future a
full-fledged military union," the paper said. 
It added that the union would essentially be between
Russia and China, as three other members of the SCO 
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan  were already
members of the defence pact with Russia. 
The sixth member, Uzbekistan, withdrew from the
Russian-led pact in 1999 and did not attend the
Shanghai group border-guard meeting this week.


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Reservist Killed, 30 Shootings In 'NATO-Disarmed' FYROM [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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---

Macedonian army reservist killed in crisis region,
government says   
Fri Apr 26, 9:55 AM ET 
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer 
SKOPJE, Macedonia - A Macedonian army reservist has
been shot to death in the area where ethnic Albanian
insurgents fought government troops last year, the
Interior Ministry said Friday.
The reservist  identified as Zlatko Trajcevski, 28 
was found dead late Thursday with two bullet wounds in
the head, authorities said. His body was found in a
car belonging to his brother. The car was parked on a
side road near the northwestern village of Zelino,
some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the capital,
Skopje.
Trajecevski likely was shot Thursday, and he wore
civilian clothes when he was killed, police said.
Police also reported 30 shootings overnight in the
region of the northwestern city Tetovo, populated
predominantly by ethnic Albanians. Such shootings
occur almost every night, but police said Thursday
night was more intense than usual.
Police stations in the area were attacked three times
in the past week.
Rebels fighting for more rights for the ethnic
Albanian minority fought a six-month insurgency
against government troops last year in northwestern
Macedonia. The conflict ended in August after
politicians representing the two sides signed a
Western-brokered peace deal, but tensions remain high.
In a positive sign, ethnic Albanian villagers Friday
lifted all but one of the roadblocks sealing off 17
villages in the crisis region. The villagers erected
the roadblocks Wednesday to prevent ethnically mixed
police units from patrolling the area, arguing
remaining ethnic Albanian prisoners should be released
before patrolling begins.
International observers and Western diplomats in
Skopje harshly criticized the roadblocks, calling them
a violation of the peace agreement.
It was unclear why the villagers dismantled the road
blocks, or why a blockade near the village of Palatica
remained. No prisoners have been released, the
government said all ethnic Albanians jailed in
connection with the insurgency had already been
pardoned and that the villagers were now demanding the
release of common criminals.
After the cease-fire last year, NATO troops arrived to
collect some 4,000 weapons from the rebels, who then
disbanded. European observers and alliance troops
stayed to monitor the implementation of the peace
process.
Under the deal, parliament adopted an amnesty law for
the former rebels and changed the constitution to
upgrade rights for the ethnic Albanian minority, which
makes up a third of Macedonia's 2 million people.


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Croatia To Host 23 Nation NATO Exercise [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


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Croatia to host international emergency rescue
exercises 
Friday, 26-Apr-2002 10:20AMStory from AFP 
ZAGREB, April 26 (AFP) - Croatia's interior ministry
announced Friday that the country would host an
international civilian-military fire fighting and
rescue exercise, under the auspices of NATO and the
Balkans Stability Pact.
The exercise, due to be held from May 22 until May 24
in the southern Adriatic region of Dalmatia, is aimed
at developing cooperation and coordination in cases of
disasters, the ministry said in a statement.
Some 1,200 participants from 23 countries including
members of NATO, its Partnership for Peace programme
and the Balkans Stability Pact, will participate in
the exercise, dubbed "Taming the Dragon - Dalmatia
2002."
It will be the largest exercise of its kind ever held
in Europe, the ministry said.
A team of NATO experts will evaluate all parts of the
exercise, which is to include open air fire fighting,
mountain and water search and rescue exercises as well
as handling hazardous materials and evacuation.
Croatia wants to show its readiness to meet the
demands of civilian-military cooperation with other
European countries in cases of disasters, Interior
Minister Sime Lucin said.
"We want to show that (Croatia's) civilian part is
also ready and can meet NATO demands and standards,"
Lucin said.
Croatia joined NATO's Partnership for Peace programme,
seen as the first step to joining the Alliance, in mid
2000, a few months after pro-Europeans defeated
nationalists in general elections.


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Britain Saber Rattles At Greece [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]