IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 177
IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 177 Wednesday, December 27, 2000 ___ Christmas...EidThe New Year IT'S FRESH FROM ITS INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE... VHS copies of the film 'Big Ben to Baghdad', the epic account of last year's journey in a 37-year-old Routemaster bus from London to the capital of sanctions-engulfed Iraq. The 65-minute-film costs £9.99 from the Mariam Appeal, 13a Borough High Street, London+LATEST Iraq Questions Credibility of UN December 27th, 2000 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) _ Iraq is questioning the credibility of a U.N. force monitoring the border with Kuwait, saying it does not report flights by American and British warplanes as violations to U.N. resolutions. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Iraq's foreign minister took the monitors to task over the U.S.-British warplanes, which patrol a no-fly zone in southern Iraq and frequently fire on Iraqi air defense sites that target them. The U.N. Observation and Monitoring force, known as UNIKOM, watches over a no-man's land at the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border, where its role is to monitor all land, sky and sea traffic and report any violations of either nation's territory immediately to the Security Council. ``Most of the warplanes cross the area observed by the UNIKOM posts to strike Iraq and return through the same points,'' Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said in the letter, reported by Iraqi television Tuesday night. ``By violating our territories, the warplanes commit sheer violations to U.N. resolutions, obliging the UNIKOM forces to monitor and report these violations immediately ... to the U.N. and the Security Council,'' al-Sahhaf said in his letter. The U.S.-British patrols, conducted since 1992 following the Gulf War, are not mandated by the United Nations and Iraq considers them violations of its sovereignty and international law. The United States and Britain say the patrols _ based out of Saudia Arabia and carriers in the Persian Gulf _ are necessary to protect Iraq's Shiite Muslim minority in the area from the Baghdad government. A similar no-fly zone in the north is enforced by planes based in Turkey. Iraq has been challenging the flights for two years _ locking on to the planes with its radar _ and routinely drawing fire. In its reports, including its most recent one Sept. 27, UNIKOM has highlighted air violations of the no-man's land, but has not identified the origin of the planes and has said it could not chart all violations because the aircraft were flying too high to be identified. Al-Sahhaf dismissed that reasoning in his letter, noting the allies ``themselves announce that their warplanes have carried out daily patrols in Iraq.'' ``Is flying in the no-man's land considered to be an accepted act?'' the letter asked. ``If flying at high altitudes is not considered to be a violation, then we Iraqis can do that, too.'' ``What would the UNIKOM observers then say if Iraqi planes flew over the same area?'' al-Sahhaf asked in the letter. __ Muslims mark Eid with prayers, calls to liberate Jerusalem December 27th, 2000 CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ The violence in the Palestinian territories overshadowed Muslim celebrations of the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Wednesday, with religious leaders urging the faithful to liberate Jerusalem from the Jews. As Muslims worldwide celebrated Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Islam's holiest month, clerics also urged worshippers to divert zakat, or alms, to the Palestinians. In Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the imam of Masjid Al Haram, Islam's holiest site, said ``the tragic events'' in the Palestinian territories are a ``source of sorrow to every Arab, Muslim and fair-minded person in the world.'' ``The Jewish invaders have violated the forbidden, desecrated the sacred and usurped our land in Palestine while the whole world has stood idle,'' Sheik Mohammed Bin Abdellah Al-Sabeel said in a sermon following the Eid prayers. His words were broadcast live across the region on state-owned Saudi satellite television. Muslims believe the Quran, their holy book, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over Ramadan 14 centuries ago. They mark the holy month with daylong fasts and celebrate its end with feasting. In Iraq, Baghdad's streets were quiet on the first day of Eid, when many Iraqis traditionally visit cemeteries to pray, drink tea and eat snacks _ keeping their dead beloved company on the holiday. War and sanctions have ravaged Iraq's economy. ``To hell with sanctions! People do not give money to beggars any more because they do not have it to start with,'' a beggar who refused to give his name said as he tried unsuccessfully to collect alms near a Baghdad graveyard. Muslims in many countries ended this Ramadan with few festivities. Palestinian families all over the West Bank and Gaza were mourning their dead. Nearly 350 people have been
Vietnam News Dec 28
Hanoi Party Congress opens Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Nguyen Phu Trong delivers a report at the congress. Hanoi opened its 13th Party Congress yesterday morning with the participation of 401 delegates representing more than 150,000 local Party members. Politburo Member and Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Nguyen Phu Trong, in his political report delivered at the Congress, said that Hanoi would promote age-old culture and its Heroic title while stepping up industrialisation and modernisation to build a more prosperous, civilised and modern city. His report also highlighted important achievements recorded by the city in many fields. The city's economy has developed with pretty high growth rate. The economic structure has seen positive changes toward industrialisation and modernisation. Hanoi is one of the localities having high growth rate in all sectors and areas with its annual gross social products growth rate of 10.6%. The political, security and defence situation has been maintained. The infrastructure construction and the city's management have seen much progress. Achievements have also been made in the social culture with the title 'The City for Peace' given to Hanoi by UNESCO. Apart from the achievements, Mr Trong also pointed out the city's weaknesses and shortcomings concerning unstable economic development, slow settlement of the resolved burning issues on social evils, slow process of administrative reform and weak Party building work. Regarding the orientation for socio-economic development over the next ten years, Mr Trong said that Hanoi strives to obtain a rapid and sustainable economic growth rate. He also put forth main targets of the five year plan: the annual average GDP growth rate of between 10% and 11%, the industrial production value increases by about 14.5 to 15.5%; service sectors, 9% to 10%; export turnover, 16 to 18% and about 4,500 to 5,000 people will be admitted to the Party each year. Meanwhile in the opening speech, Deputy Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Pham Loi said that on the City's Party Congress, the capital's people and army have strengthened the patriotic emulation movement. Hanoi has overfulfiled the socio-economic targets this year. Activities to celebrate the Thang Long-Hanoi founding anniversary have ended in success. He also said that the Hanoians' happiness and pride have been multiplied many times when Hanoi was awarded 'Heroic City' title by the Party and the State. Particularly the Politburo has recently issued a Resolution on orientations and tasks to develop Hanoi over the next ten years. This, he said, is a great honour and also creates favourabe conditions for the congress to discuss and map out plans and tasks for the city's development in the coming time. Prominent among those attending the congress were Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, Advisors to the Party Central Committee Do Muoi, Le Duc Anh and Vo Van Kiet, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh, Permanent Member of the Politburo Standing Board and President of the Presidium of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Pham The Duyet and Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh. Hanoi, the heart of country: Party leader Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary Le Kha Phieu has laid emphasis on the development of Hanoi as the core in Vietnam's national construction and defence strategy in the on-going process of industrialisation and modernisation. Addressing the 13th Hanoi Party congress, which was opened on December 27, in the presence of Advisors to the Party Central Committee Do Muoi, Le Duc Anh and Vo Van Kiet, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh and others, Mr Le Kha Phieu said : The development and political stability of Hanoi has helped accelerate the growth and political stability of the northern region and the whole country and raise Vietnam's position. It has also helped gain our friends' love for and trust in Vietnam, the Party chief recalled. He lauded Hanoi's Party Committee and people, saying that Hanoi is worthy of being the capital city of a millennial civilization, the national political nerve-centre, and a major economic, cultural, scientific, educational and international exchange centre. It is worthy of being the heroic capital of a heroic nation. Hanoi is the heart of Vietnam's socialist system and a socialist stronghold of the whole country. It also symbolises the Vietnamese people's persistent political stance and has contributed to creating and multiplying the vitality of the country's political, economic, ideological and cultural policies, Mr Phieu said. The Party leader stressed that any vague viewpoints and hesitant attitudes towards Vietnam's path of national independence and socialism in all areas should be criticized frankly and openly. Hanoi posted a high GDP
USA. Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal
-- From: Mark Clement [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 10:41:51 -0500 Subject: [pttp] FW: These Voices will be Heard! The Curtain of Silence by C. Clark Kissinger 12-26-00 It is illustrative how much the campaign to execute Muma Abu-Jamal is carried forward on the wings of official censorship. The most recent example is the attempt of the US Bureau of Prisons to prevent radio journalist Noelle H from conducting a recorded interview with me. Ms. Hanrahan, who is seeking to interview me for KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California, has been told that she can do the interview, but Warden Dennis Hasty is exercising his discretion to bar her from bringing recording equipment into the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, where I am currently a guest. Presumably Ms. Hanrahan is also free to photograph me, as long as she doesn' t bring a camera along. This incident is yet another example of growing moves by prison authorities cross the country to stifle the voices of the 2 million who are behind bars. Noelle Hanrahan, and the Prison Radio Project, have been at the forefront of the battle to allow these voices to be heard. More particularly, this is a reprise of the government's attempt to censor the voice of Mumia. It was Noelle Hanrahan who first went into Pennsylvania prisons to record Mumia's voice and make his audio journalism available to millions. When Pennsylvania authorities cut off Mumia's access to audio and video journalists, as punishment for publishing his first book, Live from Death Row, Mumia took them into federal court and won. The federal courts ruled that PA could not single out Mumia for this kind of censorship. The Pennsylvania prison system responded by changing its rules to prevent all Pennsylvania prisoners from being recorded. People everywhere must speak out against the wall of silence that official are seeking to build around America's two million prisoners. CCK Note: Clark is still not receiving the volume of mail that we know has been sent to him, nor getting access to money sent him which he can use to make phone calls. Please let his office know what response you get from contacting the following: Continue the phone calls for Clark's release, and for his access to mail and phone calls: Warden Hasty: 718.840.4200; FAX 718-840-5005 Unit Manager Lee Tatum ext. 5212Unit: Cadre 2 South US Marshal's office, Daniel Byrne: 718.254.6700 US Attorney for the Eastern District, Loretta Lynch: 718.254.7000 Judge Arnold C. Rapoport: 610.776.0369; fax, 610.776.0379 Judge Bruce Kaufman: fax, 215.580.2281 Please keep writing to Clark: Charles Clark Kissinger #53094-066 Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center 100 29th Street Brooklyn NY 11232 Phone CCK office 212-57-10962 Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com Prison Radio challenges mass incarceration and racism by airing the voices of men and women in prison. Our educational materials serve as a catalyst for public activism. To subscribe to the Prison Radio Zap-email list, send a blank email message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, send a blank email message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In order to be on the mailing list, send us a contribution of $25 or more. Prison Radio P.O. Box 411074 San Francisco, CA 94141 www.prisonradio.org -- eGroups Sponsor -~-~ eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/22961/_/978042705/ -_- Knowledge is Power! Elimination of the exploitation of man by man http://www.egroups.com/group/pttp/ POWER TO THE PEOPLE! Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Change Delivery Options: http://www.egroups.com/mygroups
DHKC Statement: 139 (Internet lies)
Date: December 27, 2000 Statement: 139 THE PATHETIC AND MENDACIOUS GOVERNMENT'S LIE THAT "WE CAUSED THE DHKP-C INTERNET SITE TO COLLAPSE" "We also caused the DHKP-C's Internet site to collapse." This was the news transmitted on all TV stations and published in the newspapers. This was said in the days when the prisons were being attacked and dozens of prisoners murdered. "They are attacking the organisation in every sphere, they are destroying it!" A LIE. Like everything else they said in connection with the Death Fast in the prisons, this too was a lie. The media also saw no drawbacks in presenting everything the way the authorities wanted them to. But none of these Internet sites named has or had anything to do with us. LET US TELL YOU WHAT THESE SITES ARE: The sites they claim to have destroyed, WWW.DHKP-C.ORG, WWW.DHKP-C.COM, WWW.DHKP-C.NET do not belong to us and have no connection with us. The sites under these rather obvious Internet names have been closed and then sold off by those whose motives are commercial. The "individuals" who buy these sites then display their own mentality by downloading a Turkish flag on them with the statement that "we have hacked into the DHKP-C site", and this is what is being presented to public opinion. We have established that the "individuals" who have carried out this work have used the telephone number "0212-259" under the address of "Cihangir Yokus, AL 81000 Istanbul" and someone using the name of "BAD SERAFETTIN" is running such sites. The "Bad Serafettins" are working for the state's efforts in the sphere of psychological warfare, or are collaborating with them. This is another display of incapacity and falsehood by the murderous authorities in the face of the prisoners' resistance, it is a new example of the pathetic and mendacious acts they have recourse to. They stupidly thought that these cheap numbers would not be revealed. This transmits a warning about how pathetic and ignorant the media are in saying and doing what the police want and believing these lies rather than engaging in their own research. For there has also been demagogy about Holland and Belgium, and the Internet sites run by DHKC Information Bureaus in these countries. The reason for all this pathetic behaviour towards the sites of our movement is an investigation in America revealing that "in the past six weeks the organisation's site has been visited a great many times". So the pathetic people who engage in psychological warfare lies have now won "a very great victory". What a victory they have won over the DHKP-C! Look how they are winning one victory after another! All our Internet sites continue to transmit the truth and the voice of the people. We are continuing to expose the true nature of the murderous authorities to the whole world and to our people. We warn the media not to believe the words and statements of the government. Do not be the victims of their lies, search for the truth, for there is the suspicion of "a high probability of falsehood" in all the words they utter. Do not let yourselves be used as tools in psychological warfare. You will be able to obtain information about the DHKP-C at the DHKC INFORMATION BUREAU SITES: www.dhkc.org (Belgium), www.ozgurluk.org (Holland). DEVRIMCI HALK KURTULUS CEPHESI (REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT)
DHKC Statement: 139 (Internet lies)
-- From: "dhkcbureau" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 01:09:18 - Date: December 27, 2000 Statement: 139 THE PATHETIC AND MENDACIOUS GOVERNMENT'S LIE THAT "WE CAUSED THE DHKP-C INTERNET SITE TO COLLAPSE" "We also caused the DHKP-C's Internet site to collapse." This was the news transmitted on all TV stations and published in the newspapers. This was said in the days when the prisons were being attacked and dozens of prisoners murdered. "They are attacking the organisation in every sphere, they are destroying it!" A LIE. Like everything else they said in connection with the Death Fast in the prisons, this too was a lie. The media also saw no drawbacks in presenting everything the way the authorities wanted them to. But none of these Internet sites named has or had anything to do with us. LET US TELL YOU WHAT THESE SITES ARE: The sites they claim to have destroyed, WWW.DHKP-C.ORG, WWW.DHKP-C.COM, WWW.DHKP-C.NET do not belong to us and have no connection with us. The sites under these rather obvious Internet names have been closed and then sold off by those whose motives are commercial. The "individuals" who buy these sites then display their own mentality by downloading a Turkish flag on them with the statement that "we have hacked into the DHKP-C site", and this is what is being presented to public opinion. We have established that the "individuals" who have carried out this work have used the telephone number "0212-259" under the address of "Cihangir Yokus, AL 81000 Istanbul" and someone using the name of "BAD SERAFETTIN" is running such sites. The "Bad Serafettins" are working for the state's efforts in the sphere of psychological warfare, or are collaborating with them. This is another display of incapacity and falsehood by the murderous authorities in the face of the prisoners' resistance, it is a new example of the pathetic and mendacious acts they have recourse to. They stupidly thought that these cheap numbers would not be revealed. This transmits a warning about how pathetic and ignorant the media are in saying and doing what the police want and believing these lies rather than engaging in their own research. For there has also been demagogy about Holland and Belgium, and the Internet sites run by DHKC Information Bureaus in these countries. The reason for all this pathetic behaviour towards the sites of our movement is an investigation in America revealing that "in the past six weeks the organisation's site has been visited a great many times". So the pathetic people who engage in psychological warfare lies have now won "a very great victory". What a victory they have won over the DHKP-C! Look how they are winning one victory after another! All our Internet sites continue to transmit the truth and the voice of the people. We are continuing to expose the true nature of the murderous authorities to the whole world and to our people. We warn the media not to believe the words and statements of the government. Do not be the victims of their lies, search for the truth, for there is the suspicion of "a high probability of falsehood" in all the words they utter. Do not let yourselves be used as tools in psychological warfare. You will be able to obtain information about the DHKP-C at the DHKC INFORMATION BUREAU SITES: www.dhkc.org (Belgium), www.ozgurluk.org (Holland). DEVRIMCI HALK KURTULUS CEPHESI (REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT) ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Japan's secret shame
- Original Message - From: Mark Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: crl [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2000 8:39 AM Subject: [CrashList] Japan's secret shame The world sees Japan as a rich, successful country. But the economy is stagnating, big companies are going bust, and workers are facing the unthinkable - the end of jobs for life. Jon Snow on an unreported disaster. Thursday December 28, 2000 The blade caught the morning sun. Despite the gloom beneath the bridge, I'd seen enough to know that it was at least the size of a carving knife. This man meant business. Even though we were on the other side of the river talking with other homeless men, he had clearly decided he was going to see to us. With a roar he grabbed his old bicycle, charged up the embankment and headed straight for us. There was a block of flats a few hundred yards away. Our film crew of four split up, and headed for different stairwells. Four floors up Mayu, a Japanese journalist working with us, was hammering on doors begging to be let in. The crazed knife wielder was closing in. As suddenly as he had come after us, he disappeared. We sneaked down the hallways and out on to the street again. In seconds he was back - but this time he had the police with him. An amazing sight, here was a dishevelled vagrant, ordering first two, then three, then five, and finally eight policemen to arrest us. And arrest us they did. Two squad cars, and even the superintendent's limo attended the scene. Our first night in Kyoto was spent in the cells. In the chaos of our arrest, Mayu had become separated, so that only the three white men of our team found themselves behind bars. The complainant arrived, still on his bicycle, but with no knife, about 10 minutes after our arrest. Our lingually-challenged confinement and eventual release lasted three and a half hours, and occupied the attention of all eight of the arresting officers. There is little crime in Kyoto, but there is much homelessness. Yet even the homeless have powers when foreigners come to call. They may have no social security, but they can still make a citizen's arrest. Somehow, you don't expect this rich, successful, country to sport rows of cardboard box homes with desolate hungry men and women beneath every span in town. Ten bridges in Kyoto, 10-20 beneath each - I suppose we met at least 200 homeless people, and there were clearly many more that that. It is a new phenomenon that has hit a society that has almost no provision for coping. For pride is the Japanese watchword and nothing assaults pride so much as the loss of everything else, hence the ire and fury that accompanied the threatening blade beneath the city's most westerly road bridge over the Kamog river. Japan is in unreported trouble. Sure, the statistics reveal little more than 0% growth for the past 10 years, a massaged 1.5% this past six months that has already dribbled to nothing. But they tell you nothing of the precipice this country is hurtling toward. Back under the next bridge, Hajime Tanaka, slurped tea. He had run a small business, lost it, lost his wife and his three children, and now he had lost his home. His pride, like his dirty white gloves, was still just about intact as he scoured the river banks for cans. He can make #7 a day selling them in a country where the average wage is #500 a week. Takashi Matsuta is only a fraction luckier. A kimono weaver, his breathtakingly fine woven wasteband lies on the table in front of his loom in the upstairs room of a sweatshop. He earns no money, but is kept by the factory owner, a distant cousin. The bottom has fallen out of the Kimono industry. We were travelling the Tokaido Way - the old 400-mile imperial route that led from the former capital to Tokyo. Travelling in a G7 economic powerhouse, an industrial miracle maker - the birthplace of my hi-fi, my microwave, my television, even the Walkman on my belt - yet now an undiscussed disaster on its knees. Even so, we don't know it, and many of them don't either. We had been sent here to find out if the recession was over, if Japan was coming back. The dense elongated concrete coastal sprawl that spawned Japan's success still feels prosperous, the trains run, the neon flashes and the cranes sprout above the skyline. But, like the white gloves of the homeless scavenger, appearances in Japan are deceptive. Beyond the convenience stores, the gambling halls and the noodle bars, there is an event taking place that dwarfs any postwar recession Britain has experienced. You can hear the factory in Hamatsu where Yamaha makes grand pianos long before you enter it. Infernal robotic fingers drum the keyboards for hours on end to see if they fall apart. It is strange to see so singular a thing as a concert grand in unfurnished rows of twenty. Four hundred people work here, four hundred jobs for life. Like all old Japanese businesses, Yamaha looks after its workforce from the cradle to the grave. Except
Korean Central News Agency Dec 28
TODAY'S NEWS (December.28.2000 Juche 89) [CONTENTS] * Kim Jong Il inspects KPA unit no. 395 * Police called in to break up sit-in strike in S. Korea * Japan's moves to draw up war constitution under fire * South side's delegation arrives * Dismantlement of concrete wall urged * Celebrations by Kothongryon * Many films for children produced * Anniversary of Kim Il Sung's work marked * Greetings to King of Nepal * Greetings to PM of Nepal * Floral basket and messages to Kim Jong Il For Spanish-speaking people * comandante supremo kim jong il inspecciona unidad no. 395 de epc * llega a pyongyang delegacion de surcorea a primera reunion de cpcens * base de creacion de pelicula infantil Kim Jong Il inspects KPA unit no. 395 Pyongyang, December 28 (KCNA) -- The Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il on December 27 inspected unit no. 395 of the Korean People's Army. He climbed up a forward command post on a height to learn about the terrain conditions and troops deployment. He said that the soldiers of the unit are now demonstrating their might in the sacred service for the defence of the country by inheriting the proud tradition of the unit and that the colours of the unit is associated with the noble soul of the revolutionary martyrs who dedicated their youth and life to the party and the leader, the country and the people. He went to the headquarters of the unit and acquainted himself with the performance of its mission and the soldiers' living, going round a lecture room, an education room and a sleeping room. He gave the unit a pair of binoculars and an automatic rifle as gifts and had a picture taken with the commanding officers and soldiers of the unit. Then he visited a civil police company under the unit on guard duty at forefront post and gave a warm pep-talk to its soldiers. After acquainting himself with their military uniforms, he gave an instruction to supply more high quality uniforms to them who are performing the most difficult mission on the forefront. Getting familiar with the living conditions of the soldiers and seeing the sideline store, he expressed great satisfaction with the sideline job done well to provide a good diet to them. He gave the company a pair of binoculars, a machine gun and an automatic rifle as gifts and had a picture taken with its soldiers. That day he inspected a power station built by soldiers of KPA unit no. 415. Looking round different places of the power station, he highly appreciated the devoted efforts of the soldiers of the unit to contribute to the building of a prosperous and powerful nation. He was accompanied by Jo Myong Rok, director of the general political department of the KPA, Kim Yong Chun, chief of the general staff of the KPA, Kim Il Chol, Minister of the People's Armed Forces, and KPA generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong. Police called in to break up sit-in strike in S. Korea Pyongyang, December 28 (KCNA) -- The police was hurled yesterday into the scene of the sit-in strike called by unionists of the national bank and the housing bank in South Korea, Seoul-based "Yonhap News" (internet) said. At least 8,000 unionists have been on a nearly week-long over-night sit-in strike against the forcible merger of the two banks in the playground of the training institute of the national bank in Koyang city, Kyonggi Province. Upset by the high spirits of the workers, the police let two helicopters fly over them early in the morning and scatter 10,000 leaflets warning strikers of punishment. Then at least 7,000 policemen of 51 companies were hurled into the scene of the strike. The low-altitude flight of the helicopters made over 150 tents collapse all at once by blowing them even 30 metres off and causing fire in different places. Japan's moves to draw up war constitution under fire Pyongyang, December 28 (KCNA) -- Shortly ago, the greatest faction within the Japanese ruling liberal democratic party worked out a draft report calling for the revision of the present constitution to enable Japan to exercise the "right to collective self-defence." The report calls for stipulating in the constitution such articles as allowing Japan to exercise the "right to collective self-defence" and keep troops for "self-defence" and designating "emperor" as "head of state" and permitting Japan to dispatch armed forces overseas to take part in joint military operations with U.S. forces. A signed commentary of Rodong Sinmun today dismisses this move as a very dangerous and serious one as it laid bare the aggressive nature and ambition of Japanese militarism. It says: There is a serious
For All Russia, Biological Clock is Running Out
- Original Message - From: Mrs. Jela Jovanovic [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: crashlist@lists [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2000 4:31 PM Subject: [CrashList] Fw: SN1066:For All Russia, Biological Clock is Running Out - Original Message - From: Elich, Gregory [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'siemvesti' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2000 2:49 PM Subject: SN1066:For All Russia, Biological Clock is Running Out New York Times December 28, 2000 For All Russia, Biological Clock Is Running Out By Michael Wines RYAZAN, Russia - If Ina Chaikovskaya does not have it all, she has more than most women in this ancient military town: brains and pluck, an apartment and a Zhiguli sedan bought with profits from her own business, a pointed wit. What she does not have, and would like, are a husband and children. At 37, she is running out of time. "There are no normal men," she complained, curled up in jeans and a sweater on a sofa, her companion - a 7-month-old orange tabby cat - staring out the balcony window. "They've all got an inferiority complex because they can't earn enough money to support a family. All of them live with their mothers. They all earn 1,000, 1,500 rubles a month," $35 to $55, roughly. "Who would want to bear a child with a man like that?" she asked. In Ryazan, a struggling industrial city southeast of Moscow, the answer is clear: hardly anybody. In the last decade, the marriage rate here has plummeted 30 percent. The divorce rate has leaped 60 percent. Not surprisingly, the birthrate is down 40 percent, too. This is the flip side to Russia's decade-long epidemic of rising mortality: a baby bust of alarming speed and size, winnowing the nation's population by millions - and likely to continue for years. Europe's highest- fertility country just a decade ago, Russia today is right down there with Spain and Italy as the lowest. New births last year in Russia occurred at the rate of 8.4 per 1,000 people, compared with 13.4 in 1990. Put another way, Russia's fertility rate - the average number of babies a woman is expected to bear - was just 1.17, down from 1.89 in 1990. The outlook, then, is for a shrinking, aging population when there is a crucial need for young people to rejuvenate Russia's farms, re-energize industry and rebuild the economy. The twin trends - rising deaths and declining births - are both rooted in the social and public-health upheavals that have swept the nation since the Soviet Union entered its death throes in 1991. Both trends have confounded experts, who expected them to be neither as serious nor as prolonged as they have been. The country's health care has collapsed in the last decade, along with the people's health. Public hospitals and clinics are short of money and medicine; doctors earn near-poverty wages; infectious diseases like tuberculosis are epidemic. No one doubts the decay has fed a rise in mortality unparalleled in recent peacetime history. And no one believes this is merely a medical issue. Rather, it is a signal that poverty and stress are eroding the government's ability to care for its own. Experts, including some at United States intelligence agencies, fear deteriorating public health could lead to political upheavals at worst, or aid emergencies at best. Low fertility is the norm in many Western nations, of course, thanks largely to women's emancipation and widespread birth control. Even in Russia, birthrates crept slowly downward for decades before the 1990's. But the latest plunge is different: driven not by women's broader choices, but by the fact that many of their options - marital, medical, social, financial - have been all but obliterated by the earthquake that destroyed the Soviet Union. Some turnaround surely will occur, but when, nobody knows. Experts once believed that Russia's mothers would start bearing children again after the upheavals of the early 1990's. Instead, Russia's birthrate fell another 10 percent. By all estimates, the population will continue to shrink. Russia has already lost 3.3 million people since its population peaked in 1992. It will lose tens of millions more, experts predict, regardless of whether births pick up. The only question is how many. According to projections prepared at the United Nations, Russia will contract in the next five decades from its current 145 million people to 121 million, the level of 1960. One Russian demographer, Sergei Yermakov, of the Research Public Health Institute, says Russia could shrink to as few as 80 million people, 10 million fewer than at the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917. "Children are being put off right now," said Sergei V. Zakharov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, perhaps the leading expert on Russian fertility. "They are going to end up being born. The question is how many - two or three. But the answer to that question isn't clear." The
