China. People´s Daily Dec 15

[heikki sipilä]

Extracts.
   Friday, December 15, 2000, updated at 09:58(GMT+8)


   Iran Offers Plan to Resolve POW Issue with Iraq

   Iran has proposed a plan to resolve the thorny issue
   of prisoners of war (POWs) that is still blocking the
   normalization of ties with Iraq 12 years after their
   bloody war, an official said on Thursday, December
   14.

   The plan was welcomed by the Iraqi side during a
   recent meeting between officials of both countries,
   said Brigadier General Abdollah Najafi, head of
   Iran's commission for POWs.

   However, Najafi did not give details of the plan or
   disclose the date and place of the meeting, the
   Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

   He said the Iraqi side has pledged to study the plan
   and inform Iran's Foreign Ministry of its views in
   writing.

   The Iraqi delegation also expressed hope that the
   plan would be accepted by high-ranking Iraqi
   officials, he added.

   Iran and Iraq fought a devastating war from 1980 to
   1988, claiming some 1 million lives on both sides.

   Since the end of the war, the two countries have
   released more than 90,000 POWs through the help of
   the International Committee of the Red Cross. But
   both sides still accuse the other of holding
   thousands of others.

   Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi paid a
   landmark visit to Baghdad in mid-October and held
   talks with Iraqi officials, during which the two
   sides agreed to reactivate all joint committees set
   up more than a year ago to resolve the lingering
   problems of the war.

 

   Friday, December 15, 2000, updated at 09:58(GMT+8)


   Arafat, French FM Discuss Situation in Palestinian
   Territories

   Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met with visiting
   French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine on Thursday,
   December 14, to discuss the latest development of the
   situation in the Palestinian territories and ways of
   saving the peace process.

   During the meeting, Arafat stressed the necessity for
   France and the European Union (EU) to play a more
   effective role in helping promote the Middle East
   peace process, Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil
   Shaath said after the meeting.

   Vedrine, whose country is holding the rotating EU
   presidency, arrived in Gaza earlier in the day after
   a short visit to Egypt. He will further hold talks
   with Israeli officials.

   Shaath said that Arafat and Vedrine agreed on the
   necessity to adhere to the peace process and to exert
   every possible effort to help push the process
   forward.

   The Palestinian minister urged France to play an
   active role in helping stop the bloody clashes in the
   Palestinian territories and realize a just, lasting
   and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

   The Palestinian territories have been rocked by
   nearly 11 weeks of clashes between Israeli troops and
   Palestinians, sparked by Israeli violation of Islamic
   holy sites in Jerusalem. The violence has left more
   than 310 people dead, most of them Palestinians.

   Vedrine expressed deep concern over the situation in
   the occupied Palestinian territories, noting that
   there were strong reactions in the European public
   opinion to the current situation.

   "I will discuss, upon my return home, a number of
   ideas with EU Mideast peace envoy Miguel Moratinos to
   find a way out of the current misery," he said.

   The French minister stressed EU's readiness to make
   every possible effort to help bring the peace process
   back o

Korean Central News Agency Dec 14

[heikki sipilä]

TODAY'S NEWS (December.14.2000 Juche 89)

[CONTENTS]

   * 1st day sitting of 4th round of inter-Korean ministerial talks held

   * Greetings to Macedonian Foreign Minister

   * Joint soiree of north-south workers held

   * "International Kim Il Sung Prize" awarded to Guinean minister

   * Japan's call for "regional cooperation" dismissed as deceptive trick

   * Probe into death of S. Korean woman called for

   * Guinean President meets DPRK delegation

   * Kim Jong Il praised as sun of humankind

   * Exploits of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Suk praised

   * Korean pro-boxer retains his world championship

   * Grand gymnastic display and artistic performance praised

   * Exhibition of Koryo medicines and medicinal herbs

   * Implementation of three-point charter of national reunification called
 for


1st day sitting of 4th round of inter-Korean ministerial talks held

Pyongyang, December 14 (KCNA) -- The first day sitting of the 4th round
of the north-south ministerial
talks was held in Pyongyang on December 13 amidst growing expectation and
concern of the people at home
and abroad for the implementation of the north-south joint declaration.
Present there were the members of the north side's delegation headed by
Jon Kum Jin, senior councilor
of the cabinet of the DPRK, and its suite members and the members of the
south side's delegation headed by
Unification Minister Pak Jae Gyu and its suite members.
At the talks both sides reviewed the implementation of the June 15
joint declaration for half a year after its
publication and exchanged views on the matters which would serve as a
lesson in implementing it.
The talks will go on.
On the same day, the south side's delegation saw the demonstration of
Taekwon-do instructors and
players of the north side at the Taekwon-do Hall and enjoyed a performance
at the Pyongyang Circus
Theatre.


Greetings to Macedonian Foreign Minister

Pyongyang, December 14 (KCNA) -- Paek Nam Sun, Foreign Minister of the
DPRK, sent a message of
greetings to Srdjan Kerim upon his appointment as Foreign Minister of the
Republic of Macedonia.
Extending warm congratulations to him, the message expressed the belief
that the friendly and
cooperative relations between the two countries would further develop on
good terms in the future.
It wished him great success in the performance of his new duty.


Joint soiree of north-south workers held

Kosong, December 13 (KCNA) -- A joint soiree of participants in the
north-south workers' grand
seminar for reunification was held on Mt. Kumgang today.
Present at the soiree were members of delegations of the General
Federation of Trade Unions of Korea,
the Federation of South Korean Trade Unions and the South Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions who
participated in the north-south workers' grand seminar for reunification.
At the soiree workers of the north and the south were pleased to share
the will for reunification and
patriotism and have a clear-cut goal of struggle at the first grand seminar
for reunification and expressed their
determination to demonstrate the wisdom and stamina of the working class,
in the future, too and open up a
new history of a reunified country.
They sang songs reflecting the faith and will of working class and
other people of Korea to put an end to
the tragic division and achieve the reunification of the country in the
spirit of independence and great unity of
the nation, demonstrating that they are united in thought and desire for
reunification.
They intermingled with each other, singing songs, dancing and reciting
poems, stirring up strong desire
for reunification.
Earlier, members of the south side's delegations visited sea-Kumgang
and lagoon Samil in Mt. Kumgang
and appreciated a circus performance.



"International Kim Il Sung Prize" awarded to Guinean minister

Pyongyang, December 14 (KCNA) -- "International Kim Il Sung Prize" was
awarded to Dorank
Diasseny Assifat, Minister of National Defence of the presidency of Guinea,
who is also director general of
the African Regional Committee for the Study of the Juche Idea.
The prize was instituted to meet the ardent desire of the world
progressive figures and people to glorify
forever the immortal exploits performed by the President Kim Il Sung for
humankind.
It has been awarded since Juche 82 (1993) to prominent political and
public figures and followers of the
Juche idea of the world who have ardently espoused the immortal Juche idea
founded by Kim Il Sung and
worked hard to embody it and made outstanding contributions to achieving
global independence and world
peace.
Dorank Diasseny Assifat received a diploma, a gold medal and a souvenir
at a ceremony held in Conakry
on December 8.
Congratulatory speeches were made there by Lamine Sidime, Prime
Minister of Guinea, Moussa Solano,
Minister of Land Administration and Decentralization and Security, who is
chairman of the Guinean National

Turkey. Mainstream Bullshit

[heikki sipilä]

>
>Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

>
>
>A leading Turkish news agency says that some left-wing prisoners
>have given up their hunger strike against prison reform.
>
>Under a government directive they must be taken to hospital for
>treatment.
>
>Members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK, who are among
>two-hundred-and-fifty prisoners refusing food, gave up their
>hunger strike as many became dangerously ill.
>
>The leftist prisoners have been refusing food -- some for nearly
>fifty days -- over government plans to move them from open
>wards to small cells. On Tuesday about two-thousand police
>marched through Istanbul to demand better protection against
>guerrilla attacks.
>
>The protest followed a machine-gun attack on a police bus on
>Monday night, in which two policemen were killed and several others
>wounded.
>
>>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
>
>
>
>--
>Press Agency Ozgurluk
>In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey
>http://www.ozgurluk.org
>DHKC: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc
>
>


___

KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki - Finland
+358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081
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Fascism and Police working together in Turkey

[heikki sipilä]

>Subject: "[Ozgurluk.Org]" Fascism and Police working together in Turkey

>Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

>Police clamp down on prisoners in Ankara
>
>
>ANKARA, Dec 12: At least five people were injured and 66 were detained on
>Tuesday when Turkish riot police violently clamped down on two rival
>groups of protesters demonstrating here over controversial prison
>reforms, the Anatolia news agency reported.
>
>
>
>Violence erupted when police refused to allow some 300 protestors to
>march from Kizilay square in downtown Ankara to the nearby justice
>ministry to protest planned prison reform, which has prompted a
>nationwide hunger strike in the country's troubled jails.
>
>When the group, mainly prisoners' relatives, refused to disperse,
>truncheon-wielding police officers moved in on the protestors and used
>water cannons and tear gas to end the protest, Anatolia said.
>
>Footage broadcast on the all-news NTV channel showed riot police hitting
>and kicking protestors, including women, who had fallen down during the
>melee.
>
>Two journalists, two police officers and an unspecified number of
>protestors were injured during the clashes, Anatolia added.
>
>Meanwhile, a second group of protestors, making the signs of the infamous
>extreme-right "Grey Wolves" youth movement and chanting slogans in favour
>of the prison reform, attacked the anti-reform protestors, who
>retaliated.
>
>The two groups threw stones and attacked each other with metal bars for
>two hours, after which riot police, helped by dogs, moved in to separate
>them, the agency said.
>
>The windows of some shops, public buildings and cars were also smashed
>during the fighting, while some shopkeepers opted to close their business
>for the day, Anatolia said.
>
>NTV said that officers once again resorted to water cannons and even
>fired shots into the air to restore calm.
>
>Once police had arrived, the anti-reform protestors took refuge in the
>buildings of two minor left-wing parties, whose windows were stoned by
>the other group.
>
>Police later searched the party buildings and detained 66 people, the
>report said.
>
>Tension over the government's much-disputed prison reform has been
>increasing since more than 200 prisoners went on a hunger strike 54 days
>ago to protest the plans.
>
>The plan involves the opening of new jails with cells for up to three
>people, replacing the existing large dormitories that sleep up to 60
>prisoners.
>
>The prisoners fear that being split up will socially and physically
>isolate them and may lead to maltreatment and torture.
>
>Source:  AFP
>
>--
>Press Agency Ozgurluk
>In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey
>http://www.ozgurluk.org
>DHKC: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc
>
>


___

KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki - Finland
+358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081
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U.S. war crimes in Korea: Call for people's investigation grows

[heikki sipilä]

>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: "International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 19:34:46 -0500

>CALL TO ACTION BY INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER
>AND KOREA TRUTH COMMISSION
>
>People's Investigation of U.S. War Crimes Against Korea Grows
>
>International Grass Roots Groups Organize for June 23rd NYC War
>Crimes Tribunal
>
>DOES YOUR GROUP WANT TO BE LISTED AS AN
>ENDORSER?
>
>Since September of 1999, evidence of 160 instances of US led
>military attacks on Korean non-combatants during the Korean war
>have surfaced. Hundreds of thousands of children, women, and aged
>people are believed to have been massacred as a result of orders
>from U.S. military brass.  Because of the right wing atmosphere
>whipped up during the McCarthy era, an anti-war response in the
>United States never came about, and these horrific crimes never
>reached the U.S mass media. Consequently, Washington and their
>long series of south Korean client regimes have been able to suppress
>the Korean people’s cry for justice.
>
>On June 23rd, 2001 south Korean activists (including some who are
>survivors of such attacks), and Koreans from Japan, the United
>States and other Korean communities around the world, will meet in
>New York City to take part in a war crimes tribunal. The tribunal will
>be the culmination of a people’s investigation of the role of the US led
>military during the war. The investigation has included a series of trips
>to south Korea during which activists visited massacre sites,
>interviewed survivors, and saw evidence that refuted the U.S.
>contention that the numbers of those Korean civilians killed by US led
>troops during the war have been exaggerated, and that any killings
>were the result of panic or poor training of troops.  They also
>attended demonstrations against the continued division of Korea and
>against the continued presence of 37,000 U.S. troops.
>
>They will be joined by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark
>and other progressive and anti war activists. Representatives from the
>15 other countries that participated in the war will also be present.
>They will put the Washington DC war-makers on trial for their crimes
>against the Korean people.
>
>TO ENDORSE THE CALL for the June 23rd War Crimes Tribunal e-
>mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] and type Korea War Crimes
>Tribunal in the subject line.
>
>CALL TO ACTION
>
>In September of 1999, the associated press began publishing a series
>of articles that were the results of a long investigation of an incident
>that took place at the south Korean village of NoGun-ri in July of
>1950. Hundreds of villagers were pinned beneath a bridge for 3 days
>as US military forces strafed them from aircraft, raked them with
>machine gun fire, and fired mortars at them. It is believed that some
>400 villagers were massacred. This My Lai-like episode was only the
>most prominent among many that were brought out by the AP in the
>ensuing months. There is evidence that the mass executions of
>perhaps 100,000 prisoners by the south Korean regime was done with
>the complicity of their sponsors in Washington DC.  What emerged in
>the AP series and from other sources was not “mistakes by panic
>stricken troops” as the current US investigation of NoGun-ri implies –
>but rather a systematic campaign of extermination that targeted the
>broad and progressive Korean resistance movement. This movement
>was fighting against the U.S. imposed division of their 5,000 year old
>culture, and against being colonized by the United States after they
>had fought so long and hard to be free of Japanese imperialism. Like
>the Palestinian Intifada, and like the people’s movement of Colombia
>today, the Korean people wanted self-determination.
>
>The International Action Center, and the Korea Truth Commission to
>Investigate U.S. War Crimes have jointly called for this important war
>crimes tribunal in order to expose the true nature of the U.S. war
>against Korea. This call for action is not for the sake of posterity –
>but to strengthen the worldwide struggle for self-determination today.
>What happened in Korea is scarcely different than the U.S. bombing
>of a pharmaceutical factory in August of 1998 in Sudan, or the
>carnage at the Highway of Death during the U.S. war against Iraq in
>1991.
>
>Only a people’s campaign in solidarity with the Korean fight for self-
>determination and justice can end the continued U.S. presence and
>domination of northeast Asia. We hope that your organization can
>endorse this very important organizing effort and can join with us on
>June 23rd in New York City.
>
>TO ENDORSE THE CALL for the June 23rd War Crimes Tribunal e-
>mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] and type Korea War Crimes
>Tribunal in the subject line.
>
>Or fill out the following form:
>___ Yes, add my name/my organization's name to the endorsers' list
>for June 23rd.
>Name: __
>Name of organization: ___ (* if for
>identification purposes only)
>
> Yes, I can contribute to

US greed,crimes,genocides -Pt1 Ethiopia/Eritrea

[Bill Howard]

- Original Message -
From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 7:48 PM
Subject: [Cuba SI] US greed,crimes,genocides -Pt1 Ethiopia/Eritrea


from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] au
subject: US greed,crimes,genocides -Pt1 Ethiopia/Eritrea
  You may not have read it from Rob's post, but it is too important
to skip through and forget. I, and no doubt Cuba and the G77 will
agree with this and perhaps the Professor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
will continue to provide us with the facts from each African nation
and everywhere else?. Now that the non-democratic voting system has
been decided by Judges appointed by politicians to prevent social
justice advances creeping in for the poor -like Abortion and black
minority rights, but still keeping Death Row for the Bush family,
perhaps Americans can really learn how its governments are selected
and what they are paid to do! No-one can see what the voting-kept
computers do. No-one knows if they have broken down or not, as the
results have been worked out between the corporations and the top
politicians before the people fill in their forms (Butler PhD.)." JC

-Original Message-
From: "Michel Chossudovsky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 
Date: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 9:23 AM
Subject: GM Seeds Trigger Famine: The Case of Ethiopia

GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEEDS IMPOSED ON FARMERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
TRIGGER FAMINE AND SOCIAL DEVASTATION

SOWING THE SEEDS OF FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA
by  Michel Chossudovsky

Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa, author of the
"Globalization of Poverty", Second Edition, Common Courage Press,
2000. (I have ordered this book JC)

The "economic therapy" imposed under IMF-World Bank jurisdiction is
in large part responsible for triggering famine and social
devastation in Ethiopia and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, wreaking
the peasant economy and impoverishing millions of people.

With the complicity of branches of the US government, it has also
opened the door for the appropriation of traditional seeds and
landraces by US biotech corporations, which behind the scenes have
been peddling the adoption of their own genetically modified seeds
under the disguise of emergency aid and famine relief.

Moreover, under WTO rules, the agri-biotech conglomerates can
manipulate market forces to their advantage as well as exact
royalties from farmers. The WTO provides legitimacy to the food
giants to dismantle State programmes including emergency grain
stocks, seed banks, extension services and
agricultural credit, etc.), plunder peasant economies and trigger the
outbreak of periodic famines.

**  *

 Crisis in the Horn

More than 8 million people in Ethiopia  representing 15% of the
country's population  had been locked into "famine zones". Urban
wages have collapsed and unemployed seasonal farm workers and
landless peasants have been driven into abysmal poverty. The
international relief agencies concur without further examination that
climatic factors are the sole and inevitable cause of crop failure
and the ensuing humanitarian disaster. What the media tabloids
fails to disclose is that  despite the drought and the border war
with Eritrea several million people in the most prosperous
agricultural regions have also been driven into starvation. Their
predicament is not the consequence of grain shortages but of "free
markets" and "bitter economic medicine" imposed under the IMF-World
Bank sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).

Ethiopia produces more than 90% of its consumption needs. Yet at the
height of the crisis, the nationwide food deficit for 2000 was
estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at 764,000
metric tons of grain representing a shortfall of 13 kilos per person
per annum.1 In Amhara, grain production (1999-2000) was twenty
percent in excess of consumption needs. Yet 2.8 million people in
Amhara (representing 17% of the region's population) became
locked into famine zones and are "at risk" according to the FAO. 2
Whereas Amhara's grain surpluses were in excess of 500,000 tons
(1999-2000), its "relief food needs" had been tagged by the
international community at close to 300,000 tons.3 A similar pattern
prevailed in Oromiya, the country's most populated state where 1.6
million people were classified "at risk", despite the availability of
more than 600,000 metric tons of surplus grain.4 In
both these regions, which include more than 25% of the country's
population, scarcity of food was clearly not the cause of hunger,
poverty and social destitution. Yet no explanations are given by the
panoply of international relief agencies and agricultural research
institutes.

The Promise of the "Free Market"

In Ethiopia, a transitional government came into power in 199

Latin America News 12/10

[Bill Howard]

- Original Message - 
From: Jessica Sundin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 4:07 PM
Subject: [actioncolombia] Latin America News 12/10


from Colombia Action Network http://www.freespeech.org/actioncolombia
Contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe to this newslist, send a message to
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

10 December 2000, NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS, ISSUE #567

1. Argentine Government Stalls as Hunger Strikers Near Death
2. Cuba and Nicaragua Accused in Argentina
3. Cuba Waives the Death Penalty for Posada Carriles
4. New Paramilitary Massacre in Colombia
5. Colombia: Purged Soldiers Join Paramilitary Group
6. Colombian Rebels Lift Southern Blockade, Accuse Army
7. US Senator Sprayed by Herbicide in Colombia
8. USA "Outsourcing" Colombian War?
9. General Strike in Uruguay
10. Dominican Republic: Ex-President Paid Off Protesters
11. New Dominican President Continues Neoliberal Plan
12. Venezuela: Chavez Wins Union Vote
13. US Unions Sue Over Nicaraguan Maquila
14. Nicaragua: Regional Maquila Group Inaugurated
15. Mexico; Tourism Secretary Might Seek Asylum
16. Chile; Pinochet freed by Appeals Court
17. Argentina; Italian Court Sentences General
18. USA Navy Shells Vieques, Puerto Rico

1. ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT STALLS AS HUNGER STRIKERS NEAR DEATH On Dec. 7,
President Fernando de la Rua signed a decree instructing Treasury
prosecutor general Ernesto Marcer to present an extraordinary state
appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice, asking it to rule on whether a
group of prisoners--members of the leftist Everyone for the Homeland
Movement (MTP) who are serving sentences for a 1989 assault on the La
Tablada military barracks- -can have their sentences reviewed in
accordance with the recommendations made in December 1997 by the
Inter-American Human Rights Commission. [Clarn (Buenos Aires) 12/8/00]

Supreme Court president Julio Nazareno responded to De la Rua's move
with irritation, calling it an attempt to "judicialize political
issues." The prisoners, who are now hospitalized after three months on
hunger strike [see Updates #554, 559, 561, 562, 565], were also angered
by the president's decision to pass the issue to the courts instead of
resolving it himself. "All the president's resolution achieves is to
postpone the issue and the solutions being sought," said MTP
spokesperson Adrian Witemberg, who emphasized that the hunger strike
would continue. [Clarn 12/9/00]

Former Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega arrived in Argentina on Dec. 6
and immediately made contact with Argentine officials in an attempt to
resolve the situation of the hunger strikers. Deputies Eduardo Bonomi
and Edgardo Bellomo of Uruguay's Broad Front arrived on Dec. 7 for the
same purpose, and Julio Marenales and Ruben Garcia of the Uruguayan
Tupamaros National Liberation Movement (MLN) were expected that night.
Martha Fernandez, a lawyer for the prisoners, said that Jorge Soto,
former presidential candidate for the Guatemalan National Revolutionary
Unity (URNG), was also expected. [La Nacin (Costa Rica) 12/8/00 from
AP]

Several of the 13 Tablada hunger strikers are receiving intravenous
rehydration solutions, while others continue to drink liquids. They are
refusing all protein and are in a severely weakened state, suffering
health effects which may well be irreversible. [Clarn 12/10/00] On Dec.
4 Laura Bonaparte, an activist with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
(Founding Line), visited the Tablada prisoners in the Fernandez
hospital. "They don't realize that they're dying," she reported,
describing their condition as "extremely serious." [Bonaparte message
12/5/00] Messages demanding a fair and immediate solution for the
Tablada prisoners can be sent to De la Rua at fax #541-1-4328-6038 or
6039 or by email to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with copies to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For more information see http://www.tablada.org/.
[Urgent Action, undated, sent via email by Human Rights Actions Network
12/7/00]

2. CUBA AND NICARAGUA ACCUSED IN ARGENTINA: On Dec. 4 Argentine
businessperson Omar Adra filed charges in federal court in Moron, in
Buenos Aires province, accusing the Cuban government of responsibility
for the Jan. 23, 1989 assault on La Tablada, which left 39 people dead,
most of them MTP members. Luis Zuniga, director of the rightwing
Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), says that the
Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, a CANF project, is cooperating with
Adra in the accusation--which comes at a time when the Cuban government
is accusing CANF of financing terrorist actions against Cuba and Cuban
president Fidel Castro.

According to Adra's charges, Col. Andres Barahona Lopez (better known as
"Renan Montero Corrales") of the Cuban Interior Ministry (MININT)
directed the attack. Montero was reportedly the head of the "Fifth
Division" of the Sandinista Intelligence Service in Ni

EU's rapid reaction force: With or without NATO? [STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Bill Howard]

- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 6:17 PM
Subject: EU's rapid reaction force: With or without NATO? [STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK

NATO Ministers Discuss EU Military
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001214/wl/nato_2.html
 + 
Thursday December 14, 2000 - 9:19 AM ET

NATO Ministers Discuss EU Military

By Jeffrey Ulbrich, Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (news -
web sites) told fellow NATO (news - web sites) foreign ministers
Thursday that the European Union (news - web sites)'s planned military
force must coordinate with NATO for the common good of European
security.

Last week, the 15 EU leaders agreed on details for setting up and
operating a 60,000-man rapid-reaction corps capable of deploying within
60 days on peacekeeping or humanitarian missions and sustaining itself
for up to a year. The plan is for the EU force to have access to NATO
assets.

Now, the EU has to sort out with NATO how all this is going to work.

``In this effort, there is no room for rivalry, jealousy or
complacency,´´ Albright said. ``The stakes are simply too high. And
the consequences of a failure to cooperate would weaken NATO, the EU and
Europe as a whole.´´

The process began Thursday at the meeting for foreign ministers from the
19 countries in NATO, a collective defense alliance that includes the
United States and a range of European nations.

The Europeans members of NATO - particularly France, which is a NATO
member but not a part of its integrated military command - are insistent
that the EU rapid reaction force be truly autonomous.

``We support a stronger, more capable Europe that is able to act
effectively with us or - if the alliance chooses not to engage - without
us,´´ Albright said.

``These efforts will only succeed, however, if the EU and NATO harness
their respective strengths to a common purpose.´´

NATO has a number of problems with the EU plan, and Secretary-General
Lord Robertson said he expected it would take months to reach an
agreement.

Key among NATO's worries is France's desire to set up a separate
military planning capability.

``Setting up a completely independent planning capability for the
European Union is neither desirable nor is it necessary, and given
limited defense budgets it would be a bit of a waste of money to have
it,´´ Robertson said.

He said if the EU wants to use NATO assets, such as airborne warning and
control aircraft, intelligence and communications, it will have to use
the NATO military planning facility at supreme allied headquarters in
southern Belgium.

But French officials say that if all the planning is done at NATO, the
Americans will end up controlling EU military operations.

The United States has been particularly vocal on this issue, saying
European resources and effort should be directed at upgrading military
capability and not at building new bureaucracies.

Defense Secretary William Cohen bluntly told the European allies last
week that if they did not start spending more on capability and work out
acceptable cooperation with NATO, the alliance ``could become a relic of
history.´´

Albright said the ministers must work out arrangements for the EU to
have assured access to NATO operational planning.

``This is not a gift from NATO to the EU,´´ she said. ``Rather, it
is in our own interest to avoid duplication and enable the EU to focus
on improving capabilities in the field.´´

As the diplomats arrived Thursday, several dozen white-clad protesters
from the Greenpeace environmental organization spread out across the
main entrance of the NATO compound, voicing their opposition to U.S.
plans to develop an anti-missile defense system. Four of the protesters
forced their way into the compound. They and 29 others were arrested.
-
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
 + ===

Support Antiwar.com http://Antiwar.com; and 'Spirit FM' Catholic
Christian radio (90.5-FM, Tampa, Fla. USA) http://www.spiritfm905.com;
and Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
http://www.space4peace.org

Thanks from Kevin; age 46; online Christian peace activist and stay-home
father-of-4, in Florida (Tampa Bay area).

+ Blessed are the nonviolent peacemakers. Lord, make me an instrument of
Your peace. Help me speak truth to power. Please pray for one an

Moans Of An Empire In Decline [STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Bill Howard]

- Original Message - 
From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 12:06 PM
Subject: Moans Of An Empire In Decline [STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK

[This is exactly what the voice of wounded, worried,
impotent imperialism sounds like, whining for its lost
glory and pining for the days of unbridled hegemony,
when the world trembled at its thunderous voice. Wax
nostalgic as you will, Ozymandias, your days are
over.]

Baltimore Sun
December 14, 2000 
Foreign policy election casualty 





By Jim Anderson



WASHINGTON -- With the nation preoccupied with the
legal-electoral-political presidential crisis, U.S.
foreign policy achievements ballyhooed in the past
eight years are evaporating. 

Nobody seems to have noticed -- certainly not the
Clinton administration, nor the Congress. Clearly not
the American media, which spends more air time and ink
on a meaningless low-speed truck transport of ballots
in Florida than on the low-grade war in Colombia or
the endemic corruption in Bosnia. 

Start with the obvious. Not only has the Middle East
peace process broken down, but the United States has
lost its undisputed role as honest broker and
peacemaker. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who used
to place his trust in "my friend in the White House,"
now is calling for the Russians, the United Nations,
the European Union -- anybody -- to take the mediator
role out of the exclusive hands of the United States. 

That's important. The traditional supporters of the
United States in the Arab world -- principally Saudi
Arabia and Egypt -- have begun to openly criticize the
American supply of arms and money to support Israel
following the widespread showing in the Arab world of
videotapes of the new Palestinian uprising, or
intifada. 

The new element of non-governmental Arabic-language
satellite TV stations has created the equivalent of
then-Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser's strident
pan-Arabic radio stations in the 1960s. This time,
instead of arousing the Arab streets, the broadcasts
are roiling the computerized middle class, as well as
disrupting the stock markets. 

And then there's the oil market. Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein, who is gifted at getting under
American skin, is a maestro at playing with his oil
taps -- now turning them on, in defiance of U.N.
sanctions, now turning them off, to trouble the world
oil markets. As an added thumb of the nose, he has
insisted that his oil must be purchased for European
Union euros rather than the usual U.S. dollars. 

Baghdad airport is open again, spiting the United
States and the United Nations. Arab diplomats and
businessmen are trooping in. Mr. Hussein -- to use
former Secretary of State George Shultz's phrase -- is
no longer "in a box." 

Of course, there's always the Balkans. Slobodan
Milosevic, despite the U.S.-led effort to overthrow
him, is not gone, nor is he any closer to The Hague
war crimes tribunal. In fact, he's planning a
comeback. His successor, who has good political
instincts and was brought to office with the help of a
U.S.-financed pro-democracy movement, thinks it would
be politically unwise to meet with American officials.
He refused a face-to-face meeting in Europe with
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. 

The European Union is restive. It is understandably
cranky about isolationist tendencies it sees in the
American Congress. It is also annoyed about the
constant transatlantic trade squabbles over everything
from bananas to software and resentful over
Washington's apparent inability to live up to its own
ambitions on environmental issues such as global
warming. 

As a result of long-resisted French urging, the
Europeans are finally getting serious about their own
military force, something that used to give U.S.
officials ulcers, and still does. 

One of Vice President Al Gore's selling points in the
election campaign was his expertise in dealing with
foreign policy, especially in his specialty of being
the main man for dealing with Russia and the former
Soviet Union. In the past year he was otherwise
occupied. 

That pipeline has closed down. At last report, the
Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, was not
answering Ms. Albright's telephone calls and was
actively trying to insert himself into the former U.S.
monopoly of the Israeli-Palestinian mediation. On the
flimsy pretext of the violation of secrecy in an
agreement with the United States, the Russians have
begun to push sales of missile technology to Iran, to
Washington's intense annoyance. 

Things are not much better in Asia, with China now
openly treating the United States as a potential foe.
With Indonesia once more on the brink of ethnic
violence in the pattern of East Timor's recent
murderous past, the U.S. ability to wield moral
influence seems to have evaporated. 

Any administration, in its lame-duck da

Fw: [CrashList] bit of shameless promotion

[Bill Howard]

- Original Message - 
From: bon moun <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 11:46 AM
Subject: Re: [CrashList] bit of shameless promotion


At 02:38 AM 12/14/00 -, you wrote:
> IT IS A SPECIAL PRIVILEGE OF LIST MEMBERS
>TO FORWARD SELECTED EXTRACTS FROM
>THEIR BOOKS  [BILL]

Okay.  Here's the chapter called:


Fatigue

So Titid was back for weeks now, and the anticlimax of it bore down on us,
as scorchingly oppressive and empty as the glare on the midday street.
There's a trendy phrase making the rounds among intellectuals these days;
compassion fatigue.  We've just grown so tired of caring so much about the
suffering of little black children in the Mississippi Delta, about the
barbarism directed at gays and lesbians, about the murders of Salvadoran
peasants, and the ferocious neo-colonial feuds in Central Africa, that we
just really don't have the energy to give a fuck any more.  Compassion
fatigue, along with everything else, happened to my team in Haiti, and for
the same reasons it "happens" to white liberals here.  Compassion is a
luxury of comfort, often paternalistic, frequently a thin veil over
contempt.  Solidarity is a much tougher proposition.
Liberals find it difficult to accept the elemental humanity of Haitians,
because to do so is to acknowledge our national culpability, our own daily
official collaboration in the Haitian (Vietnamese, Salvadoran, Guatemalan,
Peruvian, Rwandan, Palestinian, Balkan, et al) situation.  If they are
human, and we recognize them as such, then they are entitled to the
murderous rage seething under the veneer of temporary gratitude.  So, they
were not Dumas, or Etias, or Eaulin, or the school superintendent.  They
were "the Haitians," or more frequently, "the fuckin' Haitians."  The
troops' original "compassion" was something to get pumped up for a fight
with, something to feel good about oneself, something basically arrogant
and separated, a role...just like the bourgeois liberals for whom the guys
declared their everlasting contempt.  And so... "it"..."fatigued."
There was real fatigue, muscular fatigue, to be sure.  Physical exhaustion
was sustained by doing everything the long way, pouring gas from a five
gallon can by hand, bathing out of a bucket, flushing a toilet with a
bucket, wringing out ones clothes by hand in a bucket, bouncing endlessly
over the spine crunching potholes, sweating oneself to sleep at night,
carrying weapons everywhere, pulling guard every night.
Psychic fatigue came from the distance to one's loved ones, the lack of
structure in the days, the growing animosity between the command element
and the rest of the team, the boredom.
For me it was responsibility fatigue.  Every time someone came to the
door, I had grown to expect a problem we would have to intervene in,
delicately and diplomatically, or aggressively with an element of potential
violence.  In either case, it would be something where I was placed firmly
in the middle.  Collaborator in the betrayal of the Haitians.  Collaborator
against the never fully stated mission intent.  So I was two half-assed
collaborators, working in direct opposition to myself.

I had inoculated the locals as well as I could against the ever more
compelling reality that the Task Force policies I was beholden to carry out
were becoming more defined and antagonistic to the desires of the majority
in our sector.  My stock with the commanders, never high, was slipping.
Control was increasing over the hinterlands from Port-au-Prince, and I
found myself under tremendous pressure from the team to back off my
original alliances.
My team was tired, and I drove them through my agenda with the Haitians,
so I was becoming "too pro-Haitian."  When I reminded them how silly this
sounded, being here in Haiti, they modified the charge.  I had become "too
pro-Lavalas."  Certainly this was an indictment that could carry weight
beyond the team house, that could be used against me in Cap Haitien at the
AOB, or Gonaives at the FOB, or PAP at Task Force Headquarters.  Everyone
knew about Lavalas.  For a force supposedly designed to put the legitimate
president back in power, we had worked very hard to demonize his
supporters.  Schroer, who thirsted for my humiliation, would have a field
day with that.  More than once, I was sucked into the trap of defending,
where I found myself lecturing about what we had been through, what we had
seen, how wrong the propaganda and the intelligence summaries had been.  By
this alone, this open disdain for US Military Intelligence, my authority
was thoroughly compromised.  No amount of empirical data demonstrating the
consistent inaccuracy of received intelligence would even be acknowledged
if I were to be confronted by commanders above the level of Fort Liberte.
The boys knew it.  Mike knew it.  I knew it.
And I was crazy.  Ever since I'd snapped out the night the lights came on,
that had become the theme for mutterings of mutiny.

IMF World Bank at it in Chad,Turkey

[Bill Howard]

- Original Message -
From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 4:32 PM
Subject: [Cuba SI] Znet: Rob Hahnel -IMF World Bank at it in Chad,Turkey


from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
subject: Znet: Rob Hahnel -IMF, World Bank at it in Chad,Turkey!
Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
X-Authentication-Warning: dojo.tao.ca: znet set sender to owner-
[EMAIL PROTECTED] using -f
From: "Michael Albert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: ZNet Commentary / Robin Hahnel / Play It Again Sam /
Dec 9
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Precedence: first-class

Note: Today's Commentary is on the IMF and World Bank
machinations in
Chad and Turkey. It is longer than usual, but the topic is
fantastically timely and important, and requires a bit more words
to
address...

--> If you are not a ZNet Sustainer and you do not want to receive
these commentaries please remove yourself from our list either
for
the month only or permanently at www.zmag.org/weluser.htm --
This is
the only way to get off...and it works fine.

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Zine, the commentaries, the commentary writers, and the
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 PLAY IT AGAIN SAM: THE IMF AND WORLD BANK ARE AT IT
AGAIN By Robin
Hahnel

Just in case anyone thought the IMF and the World Bank had
gotten
the message in Seattle, Washington DC, and Prague, all he or she
has
to do is read the December 5 edition of the Washington Post to
find
out otherwise. Looming disasters in Chad and Turkey are proof
positive that nothing besides a tactical adjustment of rhetoric
has
changed at the Bank and the Fund. Anyone who thought the
World Bank
had finally learned that helping multinational companies and
banks
accelerate the extraction of third world natural resources does
not
benefit the third world poor, much less the environment, needs
to
check out what is happening in Chad. And anyone who thought
managers
at the Fund had learned from the East Asian crisis that capital
liberalization puts third world economies dangerously at risk,
and conditionality agreements only compound the crises that
result,
needs to watch the Fund repeat every mistake they made in East
Asia,
Russia, and Brazil all over again in Turkey.

Douglas Farah and David Ottaway inform us: "In June, when the
World
Bank agreed to back a controversial, 650-mile oil pipeline from
this
impoverished desert nation [where more than two-thirds of the
population lives on an average of less than $250 a year] to
Africa's
Atlantic coast, it declared that it had found a way to prevent
corrupt officials from stealing the country's new wealth.
Criticized
for years over projects in developing nations that failed to return
benefits to their populations, bank officials knew that the $3.7
billion pipeline -- the most expensive infrastructure project now
underway in Africa -- would be closely scrutinized. So
they imposed
strict accounting standards and insisted on guarantees from
the Chadian government to ensure that its oil profits would be
spent
to improve public health, education and vital infrastructure here,
rather than disappearing into secret bank accounts or funding
weapons
purchases by those in power. World Bank officials said that their
'Chadian model' would prove they could overcome the African
nation's
endemic corruption and that it might be applied to other
corruption-
prone oil-producing lands. In a press release after it approved
the
project, the bank called the agreement with the Chad
government an
'unprecedented framework to transform oil wealth into direct
benefits
for the poor, the vulnerable and the environment.' So
when Chadian
President Idriss Deby, a general who seized power in a 1990
coup, declared last week that he had used $4.5 million of the
government's first oil receipts to buy weapons instead of
bolstering
social programs, saying 'it is patently obvious that without
security
there can be no development programs,' he sent a jolt through
the
bank."

The demonstrators in Seattle, Washington DC, and Prague were
not the
only ones who warned the World Bank that this is exactly what
would
happen. Human rights activists in Chad fought the project for
years,
claiming it would "only escalate armed power struggles and be
diverted by authoritarian rulers to buy guns or to fatten their
bank
accounts." Delphine K. Djiraibe, president of the Chadian
Association
for th

ECHOES OF VIETNAM

[Bill Howard]

- Original Message - 
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 5:09 PM
Subject: Rachel #713: ECHOES OF VIETNAM


We have changed the name of the Rachel newsletter once again
because it will now be published more often than biweekly, yet
less often than weekly. --Peter Montague


===Electronic Edition
.   .
.RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS #713.
.---December 7, 2000--- .
.  HEADLINES:   .
.   ECHOES OF VIETNAM   .
.  ==   .
.   Environmental Research Foundation   .
.  P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD  21403  .
.  Fax (410) 263-8944; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   .
.  ==   .
.All back issues are available by E-mail: send E-mail to.
.   [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the single word HELP in the message.   .
.  Back issues are also available from http://www.rachel.org.   .
.  To start your own free subscription, send E-mail to  .
.  [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words   .
.   SUBSCRIBE RACHEL-WEEKLY YOUR NAME in the message.   .
.The Rachel newsletter is now also available in Spanish;.
. to learn how to subscribe in Spanish, send the word   .
.AYUDA in an E-mail message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .

=


ECHOES OF VIETNAM

by Rachel Massey*

In July, President Clinton signed into law a $1.3 billion aid
package to step up the "war on drugs" in Colombia and neighboring
countries in South America. Of this sum, $860 million is
designated for Colombia itself, mainly as aid to the military.[1]
For three decades Colombia has been torn by civil war, and the
Colombian military has a well-documented record of human rights
abuses including disappearances, arbitrary detentions,
kidnappings, and torture of civilians.[2, pg. 20] The U.S.
Congress made its "drug war" military aid dependent upon the
Colombian government improving its human rights profile, but in
August President Clinton waived this requirement so that funds
could begin to flow south. This month Mr. Clinton may waive the
human rights requirements once again so a second installment of
aid can be released.

For a number of years the U.S. has sponsored herbicide spraying
in Colombia, intending to curb illegal drugs at their source.
Starting in January 2001 under U.S. oversight, the Colombian
government will escalate its "crop eradication" activities, in
which aircraft spray herbicides containing glyphosate to kill
opium poppy and coca plants. Glyphosate is the active ingredient
in the well-known herbicide called Roundup. Opium poppy and coca
are the raw materials for making heroin and cocaine.

Representatives of Colombian indigenous communities recently
traveled to Washington, D.C. to explain how they have been
affected by spraying that has already occurred. Glyphosate, they
said, kills more than drug crops -- it also kills food crops that
many rural Colombians depend on for survival. In some places, the
spraying has killed fish and livestock and has contaminated water
supplies. One photograph from a sprayed area shows a group of
banana trees killed by herbicides; nearby a plot of coca plants
remains untouched.[3] Sometimes the spray also lands on
schoolyards or people's homes. Many Colombians say they have
become ill as a result.[4]

According to the NEW YORK TIMES, in one case several spray
victims traveled 55 miles by bus to visit a hospital. The doctor
who treated them said their symptoms included dizziness, nausea,
muscle and joint pain, and skin rashes. "We do not have the
scientific means here to prove they suffered pesticide poisoning,
but the symptoms they displayed were certainly consistent with
that condition," he said. A nurse's aide in the local clinic said
she had been instructed "not to talk to anyone about what
happened here."[4]

The U.S. State Department denies that there are human health
effects from spraying glyphosate on the Colombian countryside. A
U.S. embassy official in Colombia told the NEW YORK TIMES that
glyphosate is "less toxic than table salt or aspirin" and said
the spray victims' accounts of adverse effects were
"scientifically impossible."[4] A question-and-answer fact sheet
published by the State Department says that glyphosate does not
"harm cattle, chickens, or other farm animals," is not "harmful
to human beings," and will not contaminate water. The fact sheet
asks the question, "If glyphosate is so benign, why are there
complaints of damage from its use in Colombia?" and answers:
"These reports have been largely based on unveri

European Militarization of Space

[Bill Howard]

- Original Message -
From: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 1:55 PM
Subject: European Militarization of Space



 Dear friends!
Infos auf Deutsch zu den europäischen Plänen, den Weltraum stärker zu
militarisieren, gerne bei mir!

Recent documents and communications from the European Space Agency (ESA)
> and the European Commission leave no doubt: in parallel to creating a
> European Security and Defense Program, Europe also prepares for an
> increased use of space for military purposes. This is not to be ignored.
>
> Below, you will find a short article with some details. In addition, a
> "European" section has been created on the website
> http://www.space4peace.org, the site of the Global Network Against
> Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. There, you will find links to
> several of the relevant key documents as well as a draft letter to ESA
> President Edelgard Bulmahn. She is the German Minister for Research and
> Education and will hold the ESA office for the next two years. Some of
> the documents are available in English and German. On the website of the
> European Union, you will also find versions of the official EU documents
> in the other European languages.
>
> Please, use the letter - either as-is or in any other way you think
> appropriate - to support our efforts to prevent a European
> militarization of space. If you want the WinWord file of the letter or
> the text in a mail body to modify it for your own purposes, send me
> mail.
>
> If you publish a newsletter or magazin and want to inform your readers
> about this, contact me. Provided I find enough time, I am willing to
> write articles.
>
> Feel free to forward this mail.
>
> In peace
> Regina Hagen
> Darmstaedter Friedensforum and
> Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
> 
>
> The European Space Agency expansion to militarism
> >From Regina Hagen and Bruce Gagnon of The Global Network Against Weapons
> and Nuclear Power in Space and Dave Webb from Yorkshire CND
>
> When reading the following, please remember:
>
> · The EU was upset with the U.S. over the war with Yugoslavia.
> · The U.S. withheld vital military reconnaissance information from the
> EU in that war in order to stay in control of the military operation.
> · This angered the EU and these new developments are partly a result of
> them wanting their own space capability.
>
> INFORMATION
>
> This week, the European Space Agency (ESA) released a report from the
> So called "three wise men" who had been asked to think about the future
> of ESA and ESA strategy in the light of the expansion of the European
> Union.
>
> ESA and the European Council published a joint strategy paper on the
> role of space for Europe.
>
> The main conclusions are:
> · ESA should be expanded to act as the sole agency for all European
> space endeavours.
> · The European Council should become the body to define the European
> Space Policy and the guidelines for its implementation.
> · The European Commission should define the regulatory framework under
> which space activities are conducted and be a member of the ESA Council.
> · "The European Parliament should be given the opportunity to regularly
> discuss and review the European Space Policy." Note: the EP is not meant
> to control ESA and European space policy.
>
> This should be viewed in the light of the Eastern expansion of the
> European Union and the move towards a joint European Security and
> Defense Policy (ESDP). Just this week, the Western European Union - the
> "military" arm of SOME of the EU member states - ceased to exist. From
> now on, the EU is responsible for security and defense - including
> out-of-area missions and ensuring that the "interests" of Europe and
> European citizens are secured.
>
> The "wise men report" and other recent EU and ESA papers explicitly
> point to the fact that dual-use is inherent to all space technology.
> Moreover, it is suggested explicitly that use should be made of this,
> and:
>
> "We thus see it as logical to use the capabilities of ESA also for the
> development of the more security-oriented aspects of the European  Space
> Policy".
>
> So far, the ESA statute limits its activities to peaceful purposes. In
> this context, the report says:
>
> "As the efforts of the European Union in these fields are geared to the
> so-called Petersburg tasks of peace strengthening in the form of
> conflict prevention and crisis management, including civil and
> environmental emergencies, we do not see any problem with the Convention
> of ESA."
>
> The war in Kosovo was considered a "civil emergency" and Europe has
> since decided that it no longer wants to depend on US systems for
> observation, navigation, etc. for military use.
>
> The quote also combines environmental emergencies and "wide

wwnews Digest #203 3/3

[heikki sipilä]

>smaller than Vermont and New Hampshire combined. Colombia
>itself is roughly the size of Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma
>combined.
>
>The meetings took place in a FARC encampment some distance
>from San Vicente del Caguan. A FARC official known as Lucas
>picked up the visitors and drove them to the camp. He had
>formerly worked as an accountant in one of Colombia's large
>cities.
>
>Lucas said that in the mid-1980s he had run for public
>office as a member of the Patriotic Union party. Somehow he
>managed to survive three right-wing assassination attempts.
>Rather than die a useless death, he decided to join the
>revolutionary army and fight for social change. The most
>painful thing was not being able to see his children grow
>up.
>
>Lucas is also a singer-songwriter. During a cultural
>activity in the evening, he sang a number of songs in a
>startlingly clear and appealing voice. His songs, both
>romantic and political, were interrupted at 7 p.m. The
>assembled young soldiers turned on the television news, as
>they do daily. They laughed at the predictable references to
>themselves as "drug traffickers."
>
>During the day, the visitors had seen yucca and plantain
>cultivations and chicken coops and pigpens, of which the
>soldiers were extremely proud. "This is what they refer to
>as our 'drug crops' on the news," a guide told the group
>with amusement.
>
>GOV'T CLOSED OTHER DOORS TO STRUGGLE
>
>What led the government to recognize the demilitarized zone?
>
>On many occasions during the decades-long conflict, rebel
>groups have called for a negotiated settlement or a
>political opening to allow them to participate in a peaceful
>political process.
>
>The government response until recently had been either a
>flat rejection, treachery, or a military ambush followed by
>annihilation of revolutionaries who were branded as "armed
>bandits."
>
>The most extreme example of this phenomenon came during the
>mid-1980s, when a broad coalition of groups representing the
>rural and urban working classes of Colombia formed a legal
>opposition party to contest local and national elections.
>The need for this kind of representation was so great that
>within months, the Patriotic Union was on its way to
>election victories at every level, from city council posts
>to the national presidency.
>
>However, within a few years, over 4,000 leaders of this
>group were assassinated. They ranged from small-town mayors,
>trade-union leaders and rural community leaders to senators
>and presidential candidates. This left no opening for
>political opposition other than the path of armed struggle.
>Colombia had become a democracy of assassins.
>
>With all other options for political representation closed,
>many Colombians and leaders of popular organizations turned
>to the FARC as a realistic alternative. As support for the
>revolutionary movement has grown, the government of Colombia
>was finally forced to agree to the FARC's demands for peace
>talks aimed at a political solution.
>
>PEOPLE SPEAK OUT AT HEARINGS
>
>Part of the FARC's approach to the peace talks has been to
>set up regularly scheduled hearings where people from all
>over the country can present issues they want FARC
>negotiators to raise on their behalf in talks with the
>government. This includes everything from money for building
>the local infrastructure in San Vicente to a halt to
>compliance with International Monetary Fund demands for
>privatizing the administration of health care and social
>security.
>
>A major concern raised at these hearings has been the danger
>of spraying Fusarium Oxysporum. This is a fungus the
>Pentagon has already been using in Colombia, supposedly
>aimed at wiping out coca plant cultivation. Plan Colombia
>intends to implement the spraying of this fungus on a
>massive scale.
>
>Environmental scientists who spoke with the delegation
>stated that the consequences of such a campaign could be
>devastating and far-reaching.
>
>The department of Putumayo and other areas where initial
>massive sprayings are anticipated are Amazon Basin
>watersheds. They said it is impossible to predict the
>results of the widespread introduction of an alien fungus
>into one of the planet's most biologically diverse
>ecosystems.
>
>GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE?
>
>San Vicente del Caguan is a town of approximately 30,000
>people. Their main source of work is the many cattle ranches
>in the area.
>
>During the period of demilitarization, a number of dramatic
>changes have occurred. Residents said that prior to the
>demilitarization, between nine and 15 homicides took place
>in the town per week. Some said they were mostly due to
>barroom fights and personal disputes. Others said that many
>of the deaths were at the hands of right-wing paramilitary
>squads who killed people suspected of sympathizing with the
>revolutionary cause.
>
>After the zone was cleared of government troops,
>paramilitary squads and police, the homicide rate dropped to
>zero. Residents attributed

Vietnam News Dec 14

[heikki sipilä]

>Party chief underscores unity and democracy
>
>Vietnam Communist Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu has stressed the
>importance of ensuring solidarity, unity and democracy within the Party,
>saying the nation would be stronger only if each Party cell was united and
>healthy.
>
>Mr Phieu was speaking with senior officials as part of a working visit to
>mid-land Vinh Phuc province on December 13.
>
>Underscoring democratic centralism, criticism and self-criticism, Mr Phieu
>said that the Communist Party's goal was to struggle and work for the interest
>of the people and the nation. All Party members should have a single ideal and
>work for a common goal, putting aside individualism and partialism, he said.
>
>Praising Vinh Phuc province for having achieved significant economic growth,
>Mr Phieu called for more concerted efforts from the province's Party officials
>to make it a more wealthy and prosperous. Vinh Phuc is now preparing to hold
>its provincial Party congress. (VNA)



>Government plans to tighten ODA management
>
>The government had devised a plan to revise its regulations for the management
>and use of Official Development Assistance, ODA, to meet donors' requests and
>conform to Vietnam's regulations governing investment and construction,
>Investment and Planning Minister Tran Xuan Gia has told the Dau Tu
>(Investment,) newspaper.
>
>Interviewed by the newspaper as a prelude to a donors' consultative group
>meeting to be held in Hanoi on December 14 and 15, the minister emphasized
>that the meeting would be of special importance because it would review
>Vietnam's achievements in a decade of renovation and its management and use of
>ODA since 1993.
>
>Mr Gia said the participants planned to take a more longer-term view than
>usual and focus on Vietnam's strategy for the coming decade, while discussing
>the country's needs and guidelines for ODA in the next five years.
>
>The government and donors had signed ODA agreements worth about US $12.4
>billion or 82% of the total package pledged by donors in 1993-99, in a bid to
>effectively use the aid by the end of last October.
>
>Mr Gia said about US $1.68 billion of ODA had been disbursed so far this year,
>but greater efforts must be made to quicken disbursement and remove such
>impediments as re-settlement and ground levelling. The amount of pledged ODA
>rose from US $1.81 billion in 1993 to US $2.1 billion, excluding US $0.7
>billion in support of economic reforms, this year.
>
>Completed ODA projects had helped develop socio-economic infrastructure and
>accelerate poverty alleviation and hunger elimination programmes.
>
>In addition, the government had used ODA to boost agricultural and rural
>development as well as expand medical and educational services, transport and
>energy.
>
>About 25% of ODA was used to develop the electricity sector. (VNA)




>Vietnam, China friendship associations boost co-operation
>
>The friendship associations of Vietnam and China have pledged to strengthen
>their co-operation so as to help develop comprehensive relations between the
>two countries.
>Acting President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations, Nguyen Xuan
>Hong, and Deputy Chairman of the China Association for International Friendly
>Contacts, Zhu Liang, have just discussed co-operation between the two
>associations.
>
>Zhu Liang led a working delegation to Vietnam from December 5-10. The
>delegates were received by member of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central
>Committee (CPVCC) and Director of the CPVCC's Commission for External
>Relations, Nguyen Van Son.
>
>They also had working sessions with officials of the CPVCC's Commission for
>Culture and Ideology, friendship associations and officials of Ho Chi Minh
>City and northern Quang Ninh province. (VNA)




>Dong Thap provides VND 32 billion for flood relief
>
>The southern province of Dong Thap has spent VND 32 billion drawn from its
>budget to overcome the flood consequences.
>
>To date, 17,000 households, which had to evacuate in the flood, have returned
>to their homes. People have step-by-step stabilised their lives and restored
>production. Units in the province have helped rebuild about 250 collapsed
>houses. As for people killed by the flood, the province has supported the
>family with one dead person with VND 2 million as stipulated by the
>government.





>Tidal waves pull down houses in Quang Ngai
>
>Tidal waves encroached over 100 metres deep in the land and pulled down 11
>houses in Pho Thach commune, Quang Ngai province on December 12.
>
>The tropical depression was responsible for the tidal waves.
>
>The local administration asked the relevant sectors to provide emergency
>relief aid in a bid to help these affected households buy food and arrange
>temporary houses for them.


___

KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki - Finland
+358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.ko

wwnews Digest #203 2/3

[heikki sipilä]

>Unions, doctors' organizations--including the Union of
>Turkish Doctors--lawyers' and writers' organizations have
>been supporting the political prisoners. A member of the
>Turkish doctors' union recently examined the political
>prisoners because of the hunger strike. After his visit
>police arrested him.
>
>Right now the main topic in Turkey is this hunger strike.
>
>But the Turkish government has closed its eyes and ears.
>Because the level of struggle has been very high in the
>prisons, the officials are determined to break it down. They
>have tried everything. Right now they want to try a U.S.-
>made and developed system of isolation and torture called
>the "F-system."
>
>The current hunger strike is a struggle to prevent the
>imposition of the F-System by Turkish prison officials. This
>is a system modeled on U.S. maximum-security, behavior-
>modification prisons that impose high-tech total isolation
>in order to break down prisoners' morale and control them
>politically. This includes total isolation of all prisoners.
>It is a form of physical and psychological torture that
>means prisoners are being punished three times over:
>imprisonment plus torture plus total isolation.
>
>As the hunger strike continues, hundreds of political
>prisoners in Turkey's prisons are at risk of dying soon.
>
>U.S. ROLE IN TURKISH REPRESSION
>
>There are almost 72,000 prisoners in Turkey. Twelve thousand
>are political prisoners, including leftists, Kurds, writers,
>journalists and members of Muslim organizations.
>
>Truly horrific prison conditions are imposed on the leftist
>and Kurdish political prisoners. For leftists and Kurdish
>people, prisons have been the center of torture.
>
>Turkey has been known for the bad conditions in its prisons,
>including torture and sometimes murder of prisoners by
>prison guards and soldiers.
>
>For instance, in 1996 prison guards and soldiers attacked
>Kurdish political prisoners in Diyarbakir prison, killing 11
>of them. Last year prison guards and soldiers attacked
>political prisoners in Ulucanlar prison, killing 10 of them.
>
>Also this year, prison guards and soldiers attacked
>political prisoners in Burdur prison. One political
>prisoner's arm was cut off and was later found in a dog's
>mouth on the street.
>
>These are only a few examples. Because of these kinds of
>conditions, political prisoners have been resisting. But
>behind the bars, what can they do except use their lives as
>a weapon?
>
>The massive repression in Turkey is bought and paid for in
>the U.S.
>
>Turkey receives large amounts of U.S. military aid to pay
>for its services of providing the Pentagon with bases in its
>strategic location at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and
>the Middle East. These bases are used daily to carry out
>bombing attacks on the people of Iraq and help Israel in its
>genocidal attacks on the Palestinian people.
>
>Turks are sent to the U.S. to be schooled in techniques of
>torture. And U.S. aid enables the Turkish government to pay
>for new high-tech torture prisons in Turkey, while the
>people in Turkey and the U.S. need that money for schools
>and hospitals.
>
>The prison system that the Turkish government is now trying
>to implement is modeled after the one in the U.S.
>
>The U.S government is behind the repression in Turkey and is
>benefiting from it. But it is in the interest of poor and
>working people in the United States to stand in solidarity
>with their sisters and brothers inside the Turkish prisons
>and fight back against this repression.
>
>COURAGE & DETERMINATION
>
>This isn't the first mass hunger strike in Turkish prisons.
>Political prisoners went on hunger strike in the Metris
>prison in Istanbul in 1984. Four political prisoners died
>because of a hunger strike during the Turkish junta that
>lasted 72 days. Their demands were for the end of torture in
>prison and the right not to wear prison uniforms.
>
>Before this hunger strike, prisons were real torture
>centers. After the hunger strike this situation improved a
>little.
>
>A 79-day hunger strike took place in 1996. At that time,
>almost all the political prisoners from all the prisons went
>on hunger strike for the same demands. Most got sick and 12
>died.
>
>Today some of the strikers' conditions are deteriorating
>dangerously. They have lost a lot of weight and are getting
>closer to death.
>
>The position of chair of the Human Rights Commission of the
>Turkish Parliament has recently been handed over to Mehmet
>Arslan, a member of the fascist Nationalist Action Party
>(MHP). MHP members killed a lot of leftist people before
>1980.
>
>Arslan recently took some parliamentary representatives on a
>visit to the prisons. After the visit, he commented
>publicly, "Let them die."
>
>Turkish Minister of Justice Hikmet Sami Turk said that the
>government would postpone the F-system and not penalize
>political prisoners who went on hunger strike to death. But
>Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has said that the governm

wwnews Digest #203 1/3

[heikki sipilä]

>
>WW News Service Digest #203
>
> 1) Election Battle Exposes Fraudulent System
>by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 2) Oklahoma's Death-Row Double Standard
>by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 3) Turkish Repression Made in USA
>by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 4) Racist Attack on Voting Rights Looms Large
>by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 5) Solidarity Delegation Meets with FARC L:eader
>by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 6) Thousands March in NYC for Mumia & Peltier
>by [EMAIL PROTECTED]

>-
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Dec. 21, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-
>
>ELECTION BATTLE EXPOSES FRAUDULENT SYSTEM
>
>By Fred Goldstein
>
>The accidental deadlock between George W. Bush and Al Gore
>has brought to the surface the ugly underside of capitalist
>election politics. It should be a good beginning lesson to
>the masses of people about how fraudulent the whole process
>is.
>
>To begin with, Bush lost the popular vote by 300,000 and won
>the presidency.
>
>Second, he won the vote in Florida, and perhaps elsewhere,
>by a racist Republican conspiracy to exclude thousands and
>thousands of votes by African Americans. This conspiracy
>also affected Jewish voters and other poor and working-class
>voters who lived in heavily Black districts in Florida.
>
>Third, he won by the timely intervention of a one-vote
>reactionary majority of a reactionary institution, the U.S.
>Supreme Court.
>
>Fourth, the saintly high court, which is supposed to be
>above getting involved in partisan capitalist politics, was
>rolling around in the political mud fighting a tooth-and-
>nail partisan battle.
>
>Fifth, the people just found out that state legislatures
>have the power to override any popular vote by simply
>choosing their own electors to the Electoral College.
>
>WHAT THE STRUGGLE WAS REALLY ABOUT
>
>These are only some of the more glaring surface problems
>that appeared. While various pundits were describing the
>struggle as a battle over great legal principles or precepts
>of democracy, the real character of the struggle was
>described by Business Week in its Dec. 11 issue.
>
>"Let's be honest here," wrote this mouthpiece of big
>business. "The dispute over whether George W. Bush or Al
>Gore won Florida, and thus the presidency, is not about
>great Constitutional issues. It's not about federalism, or
>the separation of powers between the courts and the
>legislatures, or even a correct reading of the Florida
>Election code. At this late state of the game, it's about
>just one thing: who can best manipulate the levers of power
>to win...And once again, wrapped up in this naked power
>struggle is the U.S. Supreme Court.
>
>"Gore is at a great disadvantage in this," continued
>Business Week. "He has the support of some local election
>officials and a few Florida judges. But Bush has hooks
>everywhere. He has Florida Secretary of State Katherine
>Harris, who certified his election two weeks ago and who
>just happened to be his state campaign co-chairman. He has
>his brother, the governor of Florida, to certify a slate of
>Bush electors... He has both houses of the Florida
>legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives...And, it
>seems, he has five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, all
>of whom were either appointed by his daddy or by Ronald
>Reagan, his daddy's old boss."
>
>So much for all the legal niceties. Justice Antonin Scalia
>and his grouping stopped the recount ordered by the Florida
>Supreme Court on the grounds of "irreparable harm" to Bush.
>Losing the vote by counting is "irreparable harm" to be
>sure. But then again elections do involve counting votes and
>winners and losers.
>
>Both sides of the court agonized over "equal protection
>under the law" and "due process" without ever bringing up
>the publicly known and thoroughly documented massive
>disqualification of voters in African American precincts.
>This has been a non-subject in the court proceedings, in the
>campaigns of both Bush and Gore and in the mainstream
>capitalist media.
>
>GORE REFUSED TO CHALLENGE DISENFRANCHISEMENT
>
>The Gore forces rallied under the slogans "count every vote"
>and "every vote should count." But they steadfastly refused
>to challenge the disenfranchisement of voters in majority
>Black districts, whose ballots were rejected at a rate of
>one in five, compared to voters in majority white districts
>whose ballots were rejected at a rate of one in 14. This is
>prima facie evidence of discrimination on a massive scale.
>
>To the Gore forces, as part of the ruling-class
>establishment, the prospect of opening up a struggle against
>racism was worse than the prospect of losing the election.
>
>It is pure hypocrisy for the Bush forces to talk about
>"equal protection under the law" when this racist governor
>of Texas has sent people to death whose lawyers slept
>through their trials; who executed Shaka Sankofa (Gary
>Graham), whose innocence was virtually proven on television