Green, but far from naive
Activists on the trail of nuclear shipments

JACK LESTRADE, JANET HEARD, August 15, 1999 South Africa Sun Times
http://www.suntimes.co.za/1999/08/15/news/cape/nct13.htm

GREENPEACE activist Mike Townsley is equally at home in a suit yelling at parliamentarians or wearing an orange survival jacket in an inflatable dinghy out at sea.

He and fellow campaigner Femke Bartels have spent the past week in South Africa protesting, debating, challenging and providing scientific information on the hazards of nuclear shipments.

The two campaigners reject the dated stereotype of scruffily dressed and sandaled green activists.

Armed with actuarial maths and political science degrees, Townsley and Bartels have sophisticated knowledge at their fingertips. They have turned rabble-rousing into a profession.

Their polished performance has paid off. Far from being dismissed as "a lunatic fringe", said the visiting activists, they had been welcomed by politicians, government ministers and maritime safety officials in South Africa.

"We have been taken seriously and that is encouraging," said Townsley, who insisted that Greenpeace's outrage at the dangers of nuclear shipments could not be dismissed as unsubstantiated hysterics and hype.

The two activists warned that there was no time for complacency now that the news had broken that the two British ships, which sparked the latest protests, rounded the Cape coast without incident this week.

The Pacific Teal and the Pintail, which are transporting 450kg of mixed oxides of uranium and plutonium fuel from France to Japan, are now on their way towards Australia and New Zealand.

"This was just the first trip. We are about to see a massive escalation around the Cape coast. More ships are on their way. In fact about 10 shipments a year are planned over the next decade," warned Townsley, 34.

Their mission has been to "cut through the veil of secrecy, to provide the information the industry won't release because it hopes to conduct all operations in secret", said Townsley.

It was Greenpeace that alerted South Africa to the route of the two shipments a month ago. "They would have left (Europe) in secret. In response to our efforts they did announce a route - two days after leaving. I call that dictation, not consultation."

The activists have also attempted to counter "the slick public relations that emanates from the nuclear shipping industry".

For instance, Greenpeace refused to accept the argument that the shipments were safe.

"If they were safe, why is there so much secrecy? Together, they are carrying the equivalent of 60 nuclear warheads of plutonium, the ships have 13 heavily armed private security officers on each vessel.

"How can that qualify as an innocent passage?" Townsley said.

For the past three years Townsley has worked for Greenpeace International as one of six full-time nuclear campaigners and his controversial work has seen him banned and jailed.

Bartels, 28, who is based in Amsterdam, does not travel as extensively as Townsley. She works full-time as an energy campaigner for Greenpeace Netherlands.

Bartels, who holds a masters in political science and environmental management, said she would not be satisfied doing any other work.

"I know it may sound naive, but my mission is to make the world a better place."

Since the ships left Europe over three weeks ago, the campaigners have tried to track their passage. They had hoped to leave the Cape armed with a photograph of the ships but were unsuccessful, even after chartering a private plane for four hours over South African waters.

However, that would have been "the icing on the cake", said Townsley.

They had succeeded in their main aim - to create heightened awareness. "We, together with local green groups, have created an awareness that in months and years will bear fruit. We are in this for the long term, we don't expect things to happen overnight." Ultimately, Greenpeace is pushing for anti-nuclear countries to join together to halt all shipments.

In the meantime the two activists have tried to persuade the South African authorities to demand information from the nuclear industry, to implement an emergency plan to limit the dangers in the event of an accident and to investigate options of compensation and liability.

"At the moment, their plan consists of crossing their fingers and closing their eyes in the hope that nothing goes wrong," said Townsley.

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India PM seeks consensus on signing test ban pact

02:58 a.m. Aug 16, 1999 Eastern
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NEW DELHI, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said on Monday that his government was seeking to build a national consensus on India joining a nuclear test ban treaty.

He said his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance, which is expected by opinion polls to win power in the coming mid-term elections, will take a decision on signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) after the elections.

``There has to be a broad national consensus. We are trying to evolve that consensus. After elections a final decision will be taken in this regard,'' Vajpayee told a news conference in response to a question on whether India will join the treaty.

``We would like the opposition also to be a part of that (consensus),'' said Vajpayee, who was speaking after releasing his National Democratic Alliance's manifesto for the elections due in September and October.

India staged controversial nuclear tests in May 1998 and arch-foe Pakistan reacted by carrying out its own tests. India later engaged in intense negotiations with the United States in efforts aimed at signing the treaty.

However, Vajpayee's minority coalition government lost parliamentary support in April before a conclusion could be reached. India has in the past resisted joining the CTBT, saying it was discriminatory because it allowed advanced nuclear powers to refine their nuclear technologies while restricting others from conducting explosions.

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India PM Says To Include Agni Missile In Arsenal

12:38 a.m. Aug 15, 1999 Eastern
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NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said Sunday India would add the long range, nuclear-capable Agni ballistic missile to its arsenal after successful tests.

``Pokhran gave us strength which in turn gave us self-confidence,'' Vajpayee said in reference to the site of last year's nuclear tests. ``Against pressures we also successfully tested Agni-II which will be included in our weapons program.''

Vajpayee was addressing the nation from the ramparts of the 17th Century Mughal Red Fort monument on India's Independence Day.

Shrugging off international pressure, particularly from the United States, not to conduct a missile test, India test-fired Agni-II, an upgraded version of Agni, in April this year. The new version has a planned range of around 1,375 miles and could reach deep into China or Pakistan.

Arch-foe Pakistan, which matched India's nuclear tests in May 1998, also countered New Delhi's missile test this year within days with its Ghauri-II missile.

The two neighbors, who have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947, were on the verge of a fourth war earlier this year when India launched a military offensive against guerrilla infiltrators in disputed Kashmir. The crisis ended after Pakistan agreed to seek their withdrawal.

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India says economy bucks sanctions, emerges strong

10:53 p.m. Aug 14, 1999 Eastern
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NEW DELHI, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said on Sunday India's economy had entered a strong phase after overcoming punitive sanctions that followed its nuclear tests last year.

``I can say with self-confidence that sanctions have lost their effect... We acted in such a way that it had no effect,' he said in a traditional Independence Day address from the ramparts of the 17th Century Red Fort.

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FOCUS-India PM sees hurdles to talks with Pakistan

10:42 a.m. Aug 15, 1999 Eastern, By Sunil Kataria
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NEW DELHI, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said on Sunday that Pakistan's aid to guerrillas in Kashmir was hindering peace talks between the two countries.

``Pakistan is training terrorists, and running camps for them. Groups of terrorists...are killing innocents,'' Vajpayee said in a traditional Independence Day address from the 17th century Red Fort in the Indian capital, broadcast live.

``In this atmosphere, how can meaningful talks go on?

``To raise the standards of people in both nations, there is a need for peace. Trust is important for peace,'' he said.

Vajpayee also said India would add the long range, nuclear-capable Agni ballistic missile to its arsenal after successful tests in April this year.

Indian media reported on efforts being made to crack down on alleged Pakistan intelligence agents and Kashmiri militants ahead of the anniversary speech.

Army helicopters hovered over the Red Fort ahead of the speech and police marksmen watched from nearby rooftops as Vajpayee gave his address from behind a bullet-proof enclosure.

Sporadic violence marred Independence Day celebrations.

Four police personnel were killed in a bomb explosion and a six-hour gunbattle in the southern district of Udhampur. Police said 16 others were wounded in the incidents.

Several other attacks were reported from other areas.

In the northeastern Assam state, two bombing incidents blamed on rebels resulted in one death while more than 200 separatist and tribal guerrillas surrendered to the government.

India and Pakistan stood on the verge of a fourth war this year when New Delhi's troops launched a military offensive against guerrilla infiltrators in disputed Kashmir, the cause of two of their wars since the end of British rule in 1947.

The 72-year-old leader spoke at length on the sacrifices in Kargil, where more than 400 Indian soldiers were killed. The government showered 265 gallantry medals on its Kargil heroes.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been on a roller-coaster since May 1998, when they staged rival nuclear tests. A historic bus journey by Vajpayee to Lahore in February revived peace talks but the efforts fell flat when guerrillas sneaked in near the heights of Kargil in May this year.

Vajpayee said Pakistan was ``isolated on the world's stage'' during the Kargil crisis while India received support.

Pakistan, which dismisses Indian claims that it arms Kashmir guerrillas, denied charges that the infiltrators were its soldiers but agreed under international pressure to seek the withdrawal of what Islamabad described as freedom fighters.

Trouble resurfaced last week, when India shot down a Pakistani naval plane, killing 16 on board, amid charges of air space violation.

Vajpayee said his bus trip to Lahore was not ``showmanship.''

``It was a serious, well thought step, which we took knowing fully well that there could be dangers in it,'' he said.

After the Lahore trip, and before the infiltration near Kargil, the two nations staged rival missile tests in April.

India test-fired Agni-II, an upgraded version of Agni with a planned range of around 2,200 km (1,375 miles). Islamabad countered with its Ghauri-II.

Vajpayee also said the economy had put behind the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and Japan after its nuclear tests, and had entered a strong phase.

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Indian Leader Touts Kashmir Win on Independence Day

By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, August 16, 1999; Page A09
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/16/060l-081699-idx.html

NEW DELHI, Aug. 15-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, apparently headed toward victory in parliamentary elections next month, asserted today that India has proved its might against military attackers, staved off economic crisis and united across religious and ethnic lines as it enters the new millennium.

Addressing the nation on the 52nd anniversary of its independence from Britain, Vajpayee referred proudly and repeatedly to India's recent defeat of Pakistani-based forces during a two-month border war in the Kargil region of Kashmir. He said Pakistan's attack had vindicated India's controversial decision last year to test nuclear weapons in the Pokaran desert.

"The world saw Pokaran as irresponsible, but today the world has seen what we risked for our national security. We showed we would not bow down to pressure," said Vajpayee, 73, reading in Hindi from behind a bulletproof shield atop Delhi's historic Red Fort. "Kargil showed that when our patriotism is challenged, every Indian stands up together."

The annual ceremony was held under unprecedented security because of fears of attacks by Islamic rebels or Pakistani agents. No incidents were reported, but thousands of police and soldiers surrounded the site and barred all traffic from nearby streets.

Numerous recent polls show that Vajpayee and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are likely to be swept along by postwar euphoria to a relatively easy parliamentary majority against their chief rival, the liberal secular Congress party headed by Sonia Gandhi. The first round of elections is Sept. 4.

One poll in this week's Outlook magazine said the BJP and its allies are likely to win more than 280 seats, while Congress may not capture more than 160. Other polls put the BJP tally at more than 300 seats in the 543-member lower house. Every survey shows that the Kargil victory, and national security issues in general, have helped Vajpayee's party overcome its image as a religious reactionary movement.

"Kargil has reversed the national mood and done a U-turn for the BJP," said Bhaskara Rao, a leading independent pollster who heads the Center for Media Studies, who predicts a massive BJP victory.

Vajpayee has been India's caretaker prime minister since mid-April, when Congress forced and won a vote of no confidence in his government but was then unable to form an alternative one. Since then, Congress has taken a heavy public beating for bringing down an elected government, and has been unable to reap any political gain from the Kargil victory.

Crowds of people streaming from the Mogul fort were overwhelmingly positive about the speech. Some people described Vajpayee as a strong and experienced leader who had shown his mettle in Kargil, while also reaching out to Pakistan with an unprecedented diplomatic initiative last spring.

"I have never heard such an inspiring speech by any other prime minister," gushed Vibhuti Kumar, 20, a science student who will be voting for the first time.

In his 20-minute speech, Vajpayee vowed to sustained applause that his government "will never let terrorists win." He said India and Pakistan "need to build trust again," but questioned whether that was possible when "terrorists trained in Pakistan" attack India.

In the past two weeks, there has been an increase of sabotage against military posts and personnel in Kashmir, where Islamic rebels have waged an insurgency against Indian troops for a decade. At least 37 people have died in near-daily bombings and rocket assaults.

The attacks continued today in Kashmir and in the northeastern state of Assam. Police and guerrillas clashed in Chenani, 50 miles north of Jammu, Kashmir's winter capital. Four officers were killed and 12 wounded, police said.

In another gun battle in southern Kashmir, guerrillas killed a policeman and wounded three others. In Assam, two bombs exploded, killing one person and wounding two, a district police official said on condition of anonymity. No one claimed responsibility, but authorities suspected separatists.

In his address, Vajpayee also spoke briefly of economic and social issues, describing his vision of India with "no hunger, no fear, no poverty."

But it was clear that BJP strategists focused on the theme of national security because of the outpouring of patriotism following Kargil, and because it is a victory for which Gandhi, the 52-year-old widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, can take no credit.

"Kargil widened the gap between people's perception of Vajpayee and Sonia," Arun Jetly, a BJP campaign committee member, said in an interview last week. "Vajpayee has come out to be a restrained, firm, mature leader both in war and peace." In contrast, he contended, Congress "shot itself in the foot in Kargil" by criticizing the government over it while the nation was at war.

On Saturday, the normally shy and solemn Gandhi held her first news conference to present her party's election manifesto and insisted that "the victory in Kargil was that of our armed forces and not of our government," which she said had "allowed intruders to occupy our territory while it was sleeping." Indian forces were taken by surprise in April when Pakistani-based fighters occupied numerous peaks in Kargil.

Special correspondent Rama Lakshmi contributed to this report.

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Attacks Mar Indian Independence Day

By Beenu Joshi Associated Press Writer Sunday, August 15, 1999; 3:33 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990815/V000461-081599-idx.html

JAMMU, India (AP) -- Separatist militants fired at a police station and set off bombs Sunday in attacks coinciding with India's Independence Day, officials said.

Police said at least seven people were killed and 17 wounded in the violence in the northern state of Kashmir and the northeastern state of Assam.

The violence came as Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in a speech in New Delhi that India wants peace, but that Pakistan must stop training and arming militants waging war in Kashmir.

``Terrorists are being trained in Pakistan,'' Vajpayee said in the speech marking India's 52nd anniversary of independence from Britain. ``They are killing innocent people and targeting women and children.''

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made the same charge against Indian forces in his Independence Day speech on Saturday. The two rival countries, the world's newest nuclear powers, have fought two wars over Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state.

The deadliest attacks Sunday took place in Kashmir, where guerrillas fired automatic rifles and rocket launchers at a remote police station in Chenani, 52 miles north of Jammu, the state's winter capital, police officials said on customary condition of anonymity.

Police reinforcements came from a neighboring town, and the guerrillas set off a land mine and opened fire on their vehicles from a mountaintop. Four officers were killed and 12 wounded, police said..

The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba rebel group sent a fax to The Associated Press claiming responsibility for the attack in Chenani.

Dozens of Islamic militant groups in Kashmir have been fighting a 10-year insurgency that has left more than 25,000 people dead. Some of the groups want independence for Kashmir, while others are seeking to join neighboring Pakistan.

In another gunbattle in southern Kashmir, guerrillas killed one policeman and wounded three others, police said on condition of anonymity. Also, police said a civilian was killed in a cross fire between militants and officers in Anantnag, 42 miles south of Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar.

In the northeastern state of Assam, two bombs exploded Sunday, killing one person and wounding two others, a district police official said on condition of anonymity.

No one claimed responsibility, but authorities suspected separatists.

Tribal militants are fighting for an independent homeland in the northeast. More than 10,000 people have been killed in fighting in Assam over the past decade.

An Assam government spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity that about 200 separatist tribal guerrillas had surrendered in the state on Sunday. The claim could not be independently verified, but would be the largest number to turn themselves in on one day.

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India, Pakistan Swap Independence Day Barbs

12:44 a.m. Aug 16, 1999 Eastern By Andrew Hill
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - India and Pakistan traded verbal Independence Day barbs this weekend, leaving little prospect of early peace talks after a two-month confrontation over Kashmir and the shooting down of a Pakistani patrol plane.

Leaders of both countries told a fifth of the world's people that they would not back down from their positions over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and they boasted of nuclear capabilities which worry the Western world.

The speeches of the two country's prime ministers, Atal Behari Vajpayee of India and Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan, were laced with references to the two-month crisis over the infiltration of India's Kargil heights which nearly turned into a fourth Indo-Pakistani war.

Days after India shot down a Pakistani naval patrol plane, killing all 16 on board, both leaders decorated their dead and wounded soldiers from the confrontation over Kargil and paid homage to the hundreds killed in the confrontation.

Vajpayee, ahead in polls for forthcoming parliamentary elections due partly to a hard-line stance of Kashmir, talked tough on resuming peace talks, which he linked to an end to Pakistani support for Kashmiri militants.

``Pakistan is training terrorists, and running camps for them. Groups of terrorists...are killing innocents,'' Vajpayee said in a traditional Independence Day address from the 17th century Red Fort in the Indian capital, broadcast live.

``In this atmosphere, how can meaningful talks go on?''

As he spoke, Indian security forces searched for Kashmiri militants who attacked army camps in the disputed region killing five soldiers in the latest of a string of hit-and-run raids which are fully reported in the Pakistani media.

Pakistan's Sharif, under fire at home for withdrawing what Islamabad calls the ``freedom fighters'' who occupied the Kargil peaks, pledged continued support for Kashmiris and accused India of gross violations of Kashmiri human rights.

``Slogans for (Kashmiri) freedom are greeted with a hail of bullets, houses of innocent citizens are razed to the ground, women are dishonored, children are taken to torture cells and the most brutal cruelties inflicted on them,'' he said.

Sharif said that the Kargil episode had internationalized a forgotten conflict and paid tribute to Pakistani troops and ''mujahideen'' (holy warrior) fighters who took part in it. The Pakistani government denies charges that its army occupied the peaks but says many died in cross-border clashes with India.

``What transpired at Kargil will always be written in golden words in the history of the Pakistan army and the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their liberation,'' he said.

``Because of the engagement at Kargil, world powers and international public opinion which had forgotten the Kashmiris' long struggle for liberty, were obliged to pay attention to it, and were forced to accept our contention that the subcontinent can never be at peace if the Kashmir dispute is not resolved.''

But Vajpayee said Pakistan was ``isolated on the world's stage'' during the Kargil crisis, while India received support.

Sharif said the downing of the patrol plane in an inlet of the Arabia sea showed that India was an ``aggressor.''

``The world should realize after this incident who aspires for peace, and who wants to destroy peace,'' Sharif said.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been on a roller-coaster since May 1998, when they staged rival nuclear tests. A historic bus journey by Vajpayee to Lahore in February revived peace talks but the efforts fell flat when guerrillas seized the heights of Kargil in May.

There has been speculation that foreign secretaries, the top diplomatic servants, of the arch-rivals might meet at the United Nations General Assembly session in New York this October, but neither leader gave a clue as to when the first contact might be.

Both rattled nuclear sabers. Sharif said that India would receive a ``jaw breaking response'' to any invasion.

``We have acted with responsibility and patience after becoming a nuclear power and are still behaving in the same manner. But there is a limit to everything,'' he said.

Vajpayee said India would add the long range, nuclear-capable Agni ballistic missile to its arsenal after successful tests in April this year. The weapon is thought capable of striking deep inside Pakistan or China.

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Japan, US To Share Missile Research

By The Associated Press, August 16, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Japan-US-Missile-Defense.html

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan and the United States signed a plan today to conduct joint research on a missile defense system aimed in part at shielding Japan from North Korean attack.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley signed and exchanged diplomatic notes on the program, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The agreement, first proposed by Washington and Tokyo last year, includes infrared sensors to detect enemy missiles.

The system is intended to guard against incoming ballistic missiles flying within a 1,860-mile radius by detecting them with satellites and shooting them down before they hit their targets.

Japan's Cabinet approved the plan last week.

The signing comes as fears are mounting that North Korea is preparing to test fire a long-range ballistic missile. The isolated communist country test fired a missile a year ago that sailed over Japan and into the Pacific.

The Japanese Defense Agency and the U.S. Defense Department are also scheduled to exchange a separate memorandum of understanding dividing up the research work between the two countries, the agency said.

Tokyo and Washington will share an expected $440 million to $525 million tab for the research, with Japan shouldering $175 million to $265 million of it, according to Japanese news reports.

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Japanese Mark War Anniversary With Less Reticence

By HOWARD W. FRENCH, August 16, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/081699japan-military.html

TOKYO -- The young would-be soldiers in spotless uniforms hoisted vintage rifles and marched smartly in the scalding heat Sunday. Occasionally, a few veterans of World War II would join them at the head of their formations, withered and bleary-eyed but still bolt erect.

Loudspeakers blared out everything from prayers of peace to right-wing calls to arms on this day of commemoration of the end of that war.

But for most of the the former combatants who gathered at the Yasukuni Shrine, the Shinto monument to Japan's war dead, Sunday was simply a day for honoring lost comrades, catching up with old friends and reminiscing.

Driven in part by the perceived growing threat of a missile attack from North Korea, from the rising sense of insecurity in East Asia, and from a general weariness with war guilt 54 years after World War II ended, Japan has broken out of its reticence about the country's military past, just as it has begun pushing to build up its feeble defenses.

Just last week the government won ratification of bills that make the country's rising sun flag and its national anthem, a hymn to the emperor, the legal symbols of the nation for the first time.

The government has also said that it will soon seek changes in the country's so-called peace constitution to let Japan cooperate more fully with the United States in regional military operations, and to organize its own "collective self-defense."

Others say the Japanese air force must be given the authority to strike back in case of attack by North Korea.

But for the dwindling remainders of an older generation -- men in their 70s or older who were the last Japanese to fight a war -- all of these ideas are, if anything, way overdue, although many disapproved of the way younger Japanese men paraded about in uniform.

Looking back, their view of the world is a bittersweet mixture of yearning for the power that Japan once enjoyed and both pride and resignation over the station this country has attained.

Eight government ministers attended the ceremony at the Yasukuni shrine Sunday, and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Emperor Akihito went to a ceremony elsewhere, where they made routine anniversary statements of regret.

Seeking to do away once and for all with a lingering national shame over Japan's militarist past, Hiromu Nonaka, the most senior aide to Obuchi, recently proposed that the country's worst war criminals somehow be dissociated from the more than two million ordinary soldiers with whom they were enshrined here. That would allow government ministers to come here without embarrassment.

"Somebody has to assume responsibility for the last war," Nonaka said recently, explaining his controversial proposal. "We want to have the Class A war criminals take the responsibility and have them enshrined somewhere else."

Among the veterans here Sunday, almost to a man, any discussion of the past involves an evasion of history's harder facts and yet a grudging acceptance of the way things have turned out in the end.

"What is a Class A or a Class B criminal," asked Taro Yamada, a 77-year-old pilot whose unit was training to fly kamikaze attacks when the war ended? "We certainly didn't decide.

"Nonaka is a cheater for playing around with such issues. Government officials should not be worrying about the feelings of other countries. They should simply come to the shrine to pay their respects like everyone else does."

Like scores of other war veterans on this blistering day, Jiro Takeda, a former Imperial Army engineer, took refuge in the cool shade of the shrine's cherry trees.

"Who do you think the Class A criminals sacrificed themselves for," he asked, as cicadas cried piercingly and white pigeons flocked on the ground nearby? "For the country, of course," he quickly volunteered."

Through conversations like these, a view emerges of a generation of men who, naturally enough, love their country deeply, but who have only rarely managed to look history in the face.

"The last war was fought to make things better," said Kanjio Suzuki, a 67-year-old who was training for combat as a young teen-ager when the fighting ended. "They say that we attacked, but the truth is that we were forced into war. If you look at Taiwan or South Korea, they have become good countries because of our good administration. We educated those people."

Almost no one in this crowd seemed prepared to acknowledge that Japan is still widely loathed by many Asians for a militaristic past marked by war atrocities, sexual slavery and economic exploitation.

"As a result of our efforts, Indonesia, Burma, and Malaysia were liberated," said Takashi Matsui, a 71-year-old pilot who saw action in those countries. "If not for us, they would still be colonized."

Nearby, another man, a bemedaled 80-year-old who wore the uniform of a sergeant but declined to give his name, said: "The idea was to prosper together with the other Asian nations. It was natural for us to take a leadership role, even if our military sometimes went too far."

If few of these grizzled veterans could find fault with their country's past, many seemed deeply ambivalent about Japan today. For men like these who fought with extraordinary tenacity against the United States in the briefly brilliant -- and then disastrous -- campaign known to the Japanese as the Pacific War, it is still hard to swallow Japan's very much junior partnership with the United States in today's world.

Nonetheless, for even the bitterest among them, the famous capacity for compromise among the Japanese seems to have reconciled them to the nearly irreconcilable.

One after another, these men said that if they hated relying on the United States for Japan's defense, they recognized the prosperity this relationship had brought their country and believed that in today's world there is little choice.

"My hope is that Japan can take charge of its own affairs one day and not just be the kind of place that catches the flu when America sneezes," said a 71-year-old naval veteran who would give his name only as Nouguchi. "Most of all I'd like to see Japan take up its own defenses. But with all of the constraints binding us today, that just seems impossible."

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US, SKorea Military Exercise Begins

By The Associated Press, August 16, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Koreas-US-War-Games.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea involving warships, computer simulations and thousands of soldiers got underway today, amid fears the communist North may test-fire a new long-range missile.

North Korea warned that the 12-day joint exercise will hurt relations with the South, and adversely affect talks under way between Pyongyang and Washington.

Lee Ferguson, spokeswoman for the U.S. military command in Seoul, said the drill, which has been conducted every year since 1974, is ``no more than a routine, defensive training exercise.''

The exercise, code-named Ulji Focus Lens, is one of the largest conducted annually by the armed forces of the United States and South Korea. It largely uses computer simulations designed to evaluate and improve joint operations.

The training involves 14,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea and 5,400 others brought from the U.S. mainland, Japan and Guam, along with 56,000 South Korean troops.

The Blue Ridge, the flagship of the U.S. 7th Fleet, will lead an unspecified number of warships during the exercise. The Blue Ridge is normally based in Yokosuka, Japan.

``The (U.S.-South Korea) Combined Forces Command's preparedness is an effective deterrent to external aggression, and serves as the foundation for diplomatic efforts to achieve peace and stability on the Korean peninsula through dialogue,'' said a joint U.S.-South Korea statement issued earlier.

About 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea under a defense treaty between the two nations.

The United States and South Korea hold several joint military exercises each year, routinely prompting criticism from North Korea.

``The joint war drill, a war gamble, shows that no one can predict when they will unleash a total war on the Korean peninsula,'' said a statement on Sunday from North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a powerful government body.

The North is reportedly preparing to test-fire a long-range missile capable of striking Hawaii or Alaska, ignoring repeated warnings from the United States, Japan and South Korea that such a move will bring economic and diplomatic sanctions.

North Korea sent shock waves through the region last August by launching a multistage missile over Japan and into the Pacific.

Meanwhile, South Korea's Red Cross handed over the bodies of three North Korean men today at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. They had been swept into southern territories in floodwaters early this month.

Four days of torrential rains buffeted the Korean peninsula, leaving 44 dead and 20 others missing in South Korea. At least 42 people were killed and 94 others badly injured in isolated North Korea, according to Red Cross officials.

The two Koreas are still technically at war, since they signed no peace treaty at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

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NATO Peacekeepers Plan a System of Controls for the News Media in Kosovo

By STEVEN ERLANGER, August 16, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/081699kosovo-media.html

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- The United States and its allies charged with peacekeeping in Kosovo are establishing a system to control the news media in the province that would write a code of conduct for journalists, monitor their compliance with it and establish enforcement mechanisms to punish those who violate its rules.

A draft plan of operation for Kosovo's Department of Media Affairs, which already has been established, was drawn up earlier this month by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, calling for a staff of 50 people.

It has been circulating on a restricted basis to member countries, who have been asked to nominate suitable personnel. A copy was provided to The New York Times by someone disturbed by the contents. International news media groups also have heard about it and already have expressed criticism.

A senior Western official involved with the plan, who spoke on the telephone from Kosovo, said it was based on a similar program in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The proposed "Media Regulatory Commission" and "Media Monitoring Division" are not intended to intimidate or to censor the local news media but to support and tutor them in the ways of a Western free press, he said, until they can operate on their own.

"The idea is not to censor anyone," he said. "The idea is to bring people up to Western standards, so you need to present Western standards to observe. And it will all be done in consultation."

On the other hand, he said, the department is charged with preventing "the abuse of the media, especially radio and television, so it can't be used to urge people to go out in the streets and create riots."

But in Montenegro and Serbia, which together make up Yugoslavia, Clinton administration officials are actively engaged in supporting politicians and news media outlets opposed to the continued rule of the elected Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic. In Serbia they are helping the opposition to organize large street demonstrations intended to press Milosevic to resign.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is charged by the United Nations, which is in overall control of Kosovo, with the "democratization" of the province, including running free and fair elections. News media development is a crucial part of the organization's task, the officials say.

The Kosovo Media Affairs Department, situated in Pristina, the province's capital, is most urgently charged with allocating frequencies and issuing broadcasting licenses for Kosovo. Various businessmen, publishers and potential politicians are already drawing up plans for new television and radio ventures for the province.

The department proposes to create a Media Regulatory Commission, in part based on America's Federal Regulatory Commission, which governs the airwaves. But the commission would also write (in vague consultation with Kosovo journalists) and administer a "broadcasting code of practice" and "a temporary press code" for print journalists, and then "monitor compliance and establish enforcement mechanisms," the plan says.

As in Bosnia, the commission would have the right to censor material, to fine stations or to order certain journalists or stations off the air.

A "media monitoring division" would follow the content of local journalism, report on compliance with the codes of conduct and "track the treatment of journalists to insure freedom of expression and movement as well as responsible behavior by journalists."

The plan calls for the appointment by the United Nations of an "international appellate body," to which local news media could appeal decisions or rulings by the commission.

There would also be an "independent media council" of local journalists and civic leaders, also appointed by the United Nations, to "advise" the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The department also plans to name new management for Radio Television Pristina, the former Yugoslav state television and radio outlet in Kosovo, and to turn it into "a public-service broadcaster," with programming in Albanian and Serbo-Croatian. When it was run from Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital, it also used to broadcast in Turkish.

"This arrangement," the draft plan says, "will also assist" the U.N. mission in Kosovo "in its urgent need to communicate directly with the population on matters vital to civil administration." Eventually, the station, along with the Media Regulatory Commission and all its powers, would be handed over "to duly constituted Kosovar authorities."

According to the plan, the Media Department will also take responsibility for coordinating international donors to the news media, including private or nongovernmental agencies, while making recommendations of media outlets worth sponsoring. It would also work to develop a nonpartisan news agency for the province and to establish a journalism school.

Media watchdog groups are critical of the plan. Marilyn Greene, the executive director of the World Press Freedom Committee, a group largely financed by American publishers and the Newspaper Guild, said: "The infringement of press freedom is obvious. Unfortunately, the lessons of Bosnia -- how not to operate a reconstruction program -- were apparently not learned."

Bosnia was an extremely difficult case, said the Committee's European representative, Ronald Koven. "But hard cases make bad laws," and journalists are bound to feel pressure "to adopt certain kinds of codes."

"There is a kind of colonialist mentality," Koven said. "Foreigners are going to impose their standards and codes of conduct on independent media journalists in Kosovo in a situation where before the war there was a perfectly adequate independent Albanian-language press that knew what it was all about."

He cited a forthcoming study of foreign media management in Bosnia by professor Monroe Price of Cardozo Law School, Yeshiva University, who wrote, "The time to intervene or control propaganda is when brutality is imminent," not to protect the political environment afterward.

"The line between information intervention and censorship becomes blurred," Price wrote. "One of the great dangers of international action to restrict free speech is that it provides apparent democratic justification for any nation to use its police power to close down media outlets."