Voice of America, 99-08-30

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From: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>

CONTENTS

[01] KOSOVO-BIDEN (L-ONLY) BY TIM BELAY (PRISTINA,KOSOVO)

[02] RED CROSS - KOSOVO (L-ONLY) BY LISA SCHLEIN (GENEVA)

[03] TURKEY-MONDAY (S-ONLY) BY SCOTT BOBB (ISTANBUL)

[04] TURKEY PSYCHOLOGISTS BY SCOTT BOBB (ISTANBUL)

[05] RUSSIAN / DAGESTAN BY PETER HEINLEIN (MOSCOW)

[06] EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

[07] I-R-A THREATS (L-O) BY LAURIE KASSMAN (LONDON)

[08] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

[09] MONDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

[01] KOSOVO-BIDEN (L-ONLY) BY TIM BELAY (PRISTINA,KOSOVO)

INTRO: One of the top foreign policy experts in the United States Congress arrived in Kosovo Monday. Tim Belay reports from Pristina that U-S Senator Joseph Biden came with a stern warning for the Kosovao Liberatiuon Army (K-L-A).

TEXT: Senator Biden, a member of the democratic Party from the state of Delaware in the United States, was a leading supporter of the use of the U-S military against Yugoslav Armed Forces in Kosovo. Now, he says the Kosovo Liberation Army must meet a September 19th dealine for total demobilization if Kosovar ethnic Albanians want to enjoy the continued support of the U-S Conmgress.

[02] RED CROSS - KOSOVO (L-ONLY) BY LISA SCHLEIN (GENEVA)

INTRO: The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that about two-thousand ethnic Albanians who lived in Kosovo are being detained in Serbian prisons. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the Red Cross says it is possible that several thousand others may also be detained.

TEXT: The International Committee of the Red Cross says some of the ethnic Albanians were detained in Serbia even before the war began. Others were moved there during NATO's three-month bombing campaign against Yugoslavia which took place between March and June. The rest were taken to Serbia when Yugoslav forces withdrew from Kosovo. Edith Baeriswyl has headed the Red Cross mission in Kosovo since May. She says Serb authorities have provided a list of two-thousand detained ethnic Albanians. But she says it is likely many others are also being held. She says the Red Cross has no exact figure on how many people remain unaccounted for.

[03] TURKEY-MONDAY (S-ONLY) BY SCOTT BOBB (ISTANBUL)

INTRO: Banks and government offices were closed in Turkey today (Monday) as the country marked an important national day holiday. But Correspondent Scott Bobb reports from Istanbul that most celebrations were canceled, as Turks continue to mourn victims of the earthquake in which more than 14- thousand deaths have been recorded.

TEXT: Officials laid wreaths at monuments to modern Turkey's founding father, Kemal Ataturk, but parades and most ceremonies were canceled. The atmosphere was somber as efforts continue to provide shelter to the estimated one-half-million people made homeless by the disaster. Most of the destroyed buildings in Istanbul have been cleared, but it will take months to clear the rubble of the thousands of buildings near the quake's epicenter in northwestern Turkey. The Turkish government is seeking foreign funds to finance the reconstruction, estimated at 10-billion dollars. And psychologists have been sent to the region to counsel the thousands of people suffering from shock and trauma. (SIGNED)
NEB/SB/PCF/RAE 30-Aug-1999 12:38 PM LOC (30-Aug-1999 1638 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[04] TURKEY PSYCHOLOGISTS BY SCOTT BOBB (ISTANBUL)

INTRO: In Turkey, the efforts continue to clear rubble from the earthquake which struck nearly two weeks ago. The disaster has left hundreds of thousands of homeless people, and psychologists have begun to move into the area to help people deal with the trauma. Correspondent Scott Bobb reports that the large number of people affected by the quake is making the job very difficult.

TEXT: Mehmet is lying on a cot in the intensive care tent of the field hospital in Adapazari, one of the hardest hit cities in western Turkey. He says he doesn't remember the earthquake because he was unconscious for a long time, but when he awoke he was lying in his bed under tons of debris. He says it took rescue workers seven hours to free him. His legs are injured and he cannot walk.

[05] RUSSIAN / DAGESTAN BY PETER HEINLEIN (MOSCOW)

INTRO: Russian forces last week declared victory over Muslim insurgents who captured several villages in the remote mountains of the southern Dagestan region. But that declaration may have been premature. Just a few days later, Russian helicopter gunships and artillery are back in action against the insurgents at another village not far from the scene of the earlier fighting. Moscow Correspondent Peter Heinlein examines the roots of the Dagestani uprising.

TEXT: President Boris Yeltsin paid solemn tribute (Monday) to Russian troops killed battling Islamic rebels in the mountainous Botlikh district of Dagestan. He told relatives of the dead soldiers there would be no letup in the campaign to crush the insurgency.

[06] EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

INTRO: The European Parliament has begun confirmation hearings on the 19 commissioners nominated to the new executive body known as the European Commission. Correspondent Ron Pemstein reports from Brussels the hearings are likely to set the tone between a newly appointed commission and a newly elected parliament.

TEXT: The last time the European Parliament clashed with the European Commission, the Parliament won. The Commission was forced to resign for the first time in its history last March. The resignation followed a parliamentary report that accused the Commission of fraud, mismanagement, and nepotism. To show how things have changed, former Commission President Jacques Santer is now a member of the newly elected European Parliament. His successor as Commission President, former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, has forced his 19-commissioners to publish their private interests and to sign a code of conduct that rules out conflicts of interest. Mr. Prodi's spokesman, Ricardo Levi, tells reporters the new commission is ready for the parliament's questions.

[07] I-R-A THREATS (L-O) BY LAURIE KASSMAN (LONDON)

INTRO: Seven teenage boys have been forced to leave Northern Ireland after death threats from Irish Republican Army (I-R-A) paramilitaries. Correspondent Laurie Kassman reports from London that the new threats jeopardize the stalled peace process.

TEXT: The latest I-R-A threat was made against a 19- year-old, who was beaten with clubs and told to get out of Northern Ireland or be shot. Four other teenagers left for London last weekend after receiving I-R-A death threats. A 15-year-old received a similar warning on Sunday. The new death threats follow Britain's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Marjorie Mowlam's, declaration the cease-fire is still holding. Immediately, the "Ulster Unionist Party" complained that the death threats, sporadic killings, and more than 300 I-R-A beatings, known as `punishment attacks,' in Catholic neighborhoods should be considered violations of the cease-fire. Under the 1998 Good-Friday peace agreement, any political party linked to the offending paramilitary group could be expelled from the peace process. That would jeopardize participation by "Sinn Fein" - the I- R-A's political wing. The Ulster Unionist Party, under the leadership of David Trimble, meets Tuesday to decide whether to go ahead with a critical review of the stalled peace process. The party is also considering a legal challenge to Mrs. Mowlam's ruling. The peace process has been stalled for more than a year over the issue of disarming I-R-A paramilitaries. Protestant First Minister David Trimble refuses to let Sinn Fein join an all-party executive council before the I-R-A starts handing over its weapons. London's transfer of home rule powers to Belfast hinges on setting up the council. Compromise efforts have failed to bridge the gap. A review of the peace process is set to get underway next week. Former U-S Senator George Mitchell, who helped mediate the 1998 peace agreement, is again on hand to offer advice and mediation. (SIGNED)
NEB/LMK/GE/RAE 30-Aug-1999 11:37 AM LOC (30-Aug-1999 1537 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[08] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were down sharply (Monday) as traders continued to worry about U-S interest rates. Business Correspondent Breck Ardery reports from New York.

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10- thousand-914, down 176-points or more than one-and- one-half-percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 Index closed at 13-hundred-24, down 24-points. The NASDAQ index lost one-and-one-half-percent. Analysts say both stock and bond traders continued to worry about the possibility of higher interest rates. Many Wall Street observers now say that strong economic statistics may give governors of the U-S central bank the rationale they need to again raise short-term interest rates when they meet in October.

[09] MONDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Scanning the nation's editorial pages this Monday, there is concern over new information about the FBI siege, in 1993, against a religious cult in Waco, Texas. There are also comments about the East Timor election; disturbing, anti-democratic signs in Venezuela; the withdrawal of troops from a still- unstable Haiti; Russia's money problems, a farewell to the MIR space station and an endangered bird is saved in the United States. Now, here is ____________ with a closer look and some excerpts in today's Editorial Digest.

TEXT: More than six years after an assault by federal law enforcement agents on a heavily armed religious cult outside Waco, Texas, the issue is very much back in the news. A retired Federal Bureau of Investigation official told The Dallas Morning News that the agents used incendiary tear gas canisters in their attack, in which 80 people died. The new information follows six years of denials at all levels of government that federal agents could have caused the fire that consumed several buildings. The Sun in Baltimore says:

VOICE: The F-B-I assault on the heavily armed and deluded Branch Davidians in Waco . on April 19, 1993 burned into the nation's consciousness and fueled paranoid fantasies that were used as excuses for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and other acts of lawlessness and terrorism. So the nation is entitled to know that it heard the whole truth about Waco, wherever that leads and without public servants protecting their bureaucratic backsides.

TEXT: "The Los Angeles Times" is calling for an independent investigation of the new information, n o t conducted by the same F-B-I accused of potential mishandling of the siege. And in Georgia, "The Atlanta Journal" comments:

VOICE: Recent fiascos leave us wondering if anyone's in charge at the Justice Department these days. It certainly doesn't appear to be Attorney General Janet Reno, who seems almost as much in the dark ["uninformed"] about department operations as John Q. Public.

TEXT: And Little Rock's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sneers:

VOICE: Now our attorney general says she is determined to get to "the truth" about what happened that terrible day at Waco, but will the truth she comes up with be any more reliable than the truth she swore she was telling before?

TEXT: Turning overseas, the San Francisco Chronicle looks to the troubled island of Timor, in the Indonesian archipelago, where voters on the Eastern half, are choosing either independence from Indonesia or autonomy within Indonesian's government.

VOICE: After nearly a quarter-century of repression and horror, East Timor is being offered a ray of hope today. . The United States and Australia tacitly allowed Indonesia President Suharto to invade East Timor in 1975 and then declare it the country's 27th province after the collapse of the Portuguese empire. What followed was one of the most gruesome mass slaughters of the century. More than 200-thousand East Timor residents died in the fighting, disease and famine that followed .

TEXT: There is continued apprehension over the actions of Venezuela's new president who appears, to several U-S dailies, headed on course to become a dictator. Boston's Christian Science Monitor writes:

VOICE: /// OPT /// If Venezuela weren't the largest oil exporter to the U-S, Washington might not be worried that one of Latin America's oldest democracies has just effectively taken over a corrupt Congress and court system by something close to mob rule. But it is worried, not just because of oil security but because Venezuela might set a precedent in Latin America for rolling back democracy. /// END OPT /// . This throw-the-bums-out approach to cleaning up democratic institutions was led by Hugo Chavez, a former Army officer whose failed 1992 coup led to his election as president last December on a promise of "peaceful social revolution." His tactics . carry a danger that any constitutional government may be stripped of its powers if popular will demands a quick solution.

TEXT: The concerns of The Christian Science Monitor. Still in the region, there is concern that with the final pullout of U-S troops from Haiti after roughly five years of peacekeeping, the island will revert to lawlessness. The Washington Post calls the U-S intervention "a debacle," while Newsday on New York's Long Island, suggests it may be worth some special maneuvering at the United Nations, giving authority for a peace keeping force to the General Assembly rather than the Security Council to keep it in place. VOICED: ///OPT /// . China is almost certain to use its veto to block renewal of the police mandate, because Haiti's government has established formal ties with Taiwan. To get around that obstacle, the United States, Canada and other governments supplying the international police force support an alternative: Shift responsibility for the force from the Security Council to the General Assembly, where no nation has a veto. /// END OPT /// That has never been done before. . but . seems reasonable. . If adopted,[however] the Haiti plan should be time- limited and subject to review and renewal .

TEXT: Continuing stories of how Russian officials and businessmen are squandering international financial aid, draws comments from several papers. The Los Angeles Times calls the situation a case of "Russia Ruined by Looters," adding:

VOICE: ///OPT /// Capital appears to have become one of money-starved Russia's biggest exports. Last year, according to an estimate from the state prosecutor general's office, about nine-billion dollars illegally left Russia, an amount double what the International Monetary Fund spent trying to shore up Russia's collapsing currency. Some of the continuing capital outflow comes from the proceeds of organized crime. Some was looted from companies that were set up under economic reform policies to take control of Russia's rich natural resources.. ///END OPT /// Russia, as it stumbles toward a free-market economy, has been seen in the West as too important to let fall. But as evidence piles up that Russia's wealth is being systematically drained by criminals and corrupt oligarchs . political support for helping sustain Russia erodes. The looting of Russia will be halted only when a government in Moscow is willing to act.

TEXT: Today's Boston Globe is bidding a fond farewell to the amazing Russian space station Mir, which went well beyond its expected life span.

VOICE: Mir, launched more than 13 years ago . added enormously to the store of knowledge about prolonged space flight, which will be critical to the next big undertaking --the international space station . Both Mir's successes and its woes bode well for that effort, because they taught hard lessons about coping with adversity in space and on the ground.

TEXT: Today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette is upset at the way the government has been handling the charges of Chinese espionage at several U-S nuclear weapons laboratories.

VOICE: Of all the scandals in recent years, perhaps none has the potential to harm the national interest as much as the security breaches at the nation's weapons laboratories. And with so much blame to go around, identifying scapegoats has been easier than finding the truth. . It is no surprise that those in positions of authority when the scandal broke have begun pointing fingers at each other. Notra Trulock, the intelligence official who set off the investigation of Chinese spying at Los Alamos, resigned last week after weeks of controversy. Mr. Trulock has been blamed . for singling out as a suspect a Chinese-American scientist named Wen Ho Lee, who was fired from his job in March but has not been charged with any crime. .it is the Clinton administration that has the main obligation to review closely whether Mr. Lee has been fairly treated.

TEXT: The[Little Rock] Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is pleased that a high-ranking Bosnian Serb military officer has been brought to account.

VOICE: The chief of staff of the Bosnian Serb army and killing machine, Momir Talic, made the mistake of attending a military conference in Austria last week and promptly found himself under arrest. . The world dithered for almost a decade, but now memory begins to speak, and accuse. And today General Talic is in the custody of the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Netherlands. He is entitled to a speedy and fair trial-the speedier and fairer the better.

TEXT: Lastly, some good news from here in the United States, about the world's fastest animal, the peregrine falcon. The Tulsa [Oklahoma] World writes.

VOICE: Last week the peregrine falcon was officially removed from the U-S government's endangered species list . [joining] the bald eagle and the Aleutian Canada goose on this summer's species-saved list. In 1970 there were only 39 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons. Now, thanks to federal protection of habitat and government-supported breeding programs, there are more than 16-hundred-50 pairs. . Overall, the Endangered Species Act has been a success story. Of course, all 120hundred remaining plants and animals probably can't be saved. But as proven by the bald eagle, Aleutian Canada goose and the peregrine falcon, some can be saved--and it's well worth the time and money.

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of editorial comments from Monday's U-S press.
NEB/ANG/KL 30-Aug-1999 11:48 AM EDT (30-Aug-1999 1548 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

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