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U.S.-Russia Nuke Arms Talks Begin

By The Associated Press, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-US-Arms-Talks.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- The United States and Russia began talks Tuesday on reducing their nuclear arsenals and on U.S. plans to set up a new anti-ballistic missile defense system.

The three days of talks were not expected to produce any agreements, although the sides were likely to explore the possibility of a START III treaty that would cut their nuclear weaponry to 2,000 to 2,500 warheads each.

The U.S. team was led by Undersecretary of State John D. Holum. Grigory Berdennikov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department for security and disarmament, led the Russian team.

The existing START II treaty, signed by both countries in 1993 but not yet ratified by Russia's parliament, calls for both countries to scale back to 3,000 to 3,500 warheads each.

Russia has also agreed to listen to U.S. proposals on amending the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. The United States is considering a proposal for an anti-ballistic missile defense system that is currently banned under the ABM treaty.

The U.S. plan calls for a defense system that could shoot down a single missile or a small number of missiles from such countries as Iran or North Korea. It would not be designed to counter the kind of large-scale missile attack that Russia is capable of launching, the Americans say.

Moscow adamantly opposes such changes, saying a new anti-missile defense system in the United States would upset the strategic balance. But Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed to discuss ABM modifications when he met President Clinton in Germany in June.

Many Russian politicians continue to oppose any changes to the ABM treaty. ``Such actions, far from helping to cut nuclear arsenals, can trigger their buildup and draw new participants into this process,'' said Andrei Nikolayev, a former general who is now a member of the Duma, the parliament's lower house.

Military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said the Russian military and diplomatic elite have been deeply critical of Yeltsin's decision to discuss the ABM treaty, seeing it as a ``betrayal of national interests.''

However, Moscow has expressed a strong interest in a START III agreement, which would allow the cash-strapped government to save money.

The current talks are expected to be continued in Washington at a session of the Russian-U.S. Strategic Stability Group in September. Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov would take up these issues with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright when the two meet at the U.N. General Assembly's session later in September.

But the new treaty cannot be formally agreed upon until the Russian Duma ratifies the START II treaty.

The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in 1996, but Communists and other hard-liners in the lower house have balked at its approval, saying it endangers Russia's security.

The Kremlin has urged the Duma to make START II a priority, but lawmakers say there is virtually no chance of approval until after a new parliament is elected in December.

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Why Russia Risks All in Dagestan

By ROBERT D. KAPLAN, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/17kapl.html

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. Russia's assault on Chechen and Dagestani rebels in its southern republic of Dagestan is but one new chapter in the larger, bloodstained history of the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. As the Russians resume their centuries-old battle with Muslim warriors in the North Caucasus, many in the region believe they are also trying to destabilize Georgia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet states, to the south. These are strategically important countries, future conduits for large quantities of oil from the Caspian Sea. Their regimes are sufficiently unstable that it might not take much to topple them, especially if the West fails to pay sufficient attention.

The Caucasus is Russia's Wild West; Russians have been fighting Caucasian Muslims since Cossacks entered the Terek River region on the Chechen-Dagestani border in the 16th century. For the Russians, the Caucasus, bordering Turkey and Iran, is both a defensive wall and a listening post that they are desperate to maintain.

From 1994 to 1996 the Russians carpet-bombed Chechnya, Dagestan's neighboring republic in Russia, to put down the rebellion there. But the Chechen guerrillas, who fought with all the resourcefulness and ferocity of the Vietcong, humiliated the Russian army and exposed its many weaknesses.

The stakes in the region are high because of the Caspian oil boom. Dagestan shares a long border with Azerbaijan, which is emerging as the junction for an oil and natural gas pipeline network that will one day extend from the Caspian westward through Georgia and Turkey to the Mediterranean, and southward through Iran to the Persian Gulf. In a decade, Western companies could be pumping as many as four million barrels of oil daily from the Caspian, making it almost equivalent to the North Sea. If the Russians lose Dagestan, it would significantly hurt their leverage over neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Russia, though, still has military bases in Armenia, Azerbaijan's enemy. Russia also has various ways to influence Georgia and Azerbaijan politically and economically. For example, Russia backs the separatist Georgian province of Abkhazia, and smuggled goods, which are not taxed, flood into Georgia from Russia via South Ossetia.

Since 1992, there have been 19 reported plots and at least two full-fledged attempts -- a gun-and-grenade attack and a car bombing -- on the life of Eduard Shevardnadze, the President of Georgia. Many in the region believe that Russian forces have been behind all of them, at least indirectly.

Mr. Shevardnadze has rescued Georgia from the civil war and lawlessness that characterized the early 1990's. His benign despotism has given Georgia a semblance of democratic rule, with a Parliament that has real meaning. Still, outside of Tbilisi, the capital, Georgia is a mass of breakaway warlordships and scruffy militia posts, and bribery and corruption are the life support system of its economy.

Thus, the assassination attempts against Mr. Shevardnadze are seen as flagrant attempts to undo a nascent democracy. The battle is on: can he survive until democratic institutions are better established and until more Caspian oil is flowing through Georgia to the Black Sea?

Georgia is a model of stability compared with Azerbaijan. Whereas Mr. Shevardnadze was a member of the Gorbachev politburo, Heydar Aliyev, the Azeri leader, is a Brezhnev-era man, and the difference shows. In the mid-1990's, Mr. Aliyev withdrew Azerbaijan from its disastrous war with neighboring Armenia and restored minimal stability to the country after the chaos of the brief democratic rule. Unlike Mr. Shevardnadze, however, Mr. Aliyev has made no attempt to restore democracy. He presides over a kleptocracy that is destroying the country. While luxury hotels, boutiques and fancy restaurants have sprung up in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, to serve foreign oilmen, most Azeris live in desperate poverty.

A personality cult defines Mr. Aliyev's one-man rule. In bad health after heart surgery, the 76-year-old leader is trying to orchestrate the succession of power to his unqualified son, Ilham. The democratic opposition in Azerbaijan, meanwhile, is no better. It engages in irresponsible rhetoric about liberating the millions of ethnic Azeris living south of the border in Iran.

With a dysfunctional opposition, a decadent regime and no civil institutions, Azerbaijan faces a power vacuum. The Russians, with their ability to create unrest, recently moved advanced fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles to its bases in Armenia. Countering the Russians are the Turks, who have increasing influence with the Azeri military through training and officer-exchange programs.

Iranian influence is growing, too. The mosques Teheran has built in rural Azerbaijan function as real community centers, and are sometimes the only signs of development.

Despite the region's instability and the Caspian's oil riches, the Caucasus does not get sufficient attention from the West. In the early and mid-1990's, the West focused on the plight of Bosnian Muslims, and paid little attention to the simultaneous violent expulsion of at least a million Azeris from the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and ethnic Georgians from breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

This does not mean the Caucasus needs the same level of Western intervention as in the Balkans. Special forces units to protect regional leaders from assassination, more cooperation with the Turkish military, normalized relations with Iran and constant engagement with Armenia to help wean it from Russian military support are some of the things that can project power without shedding blood. The West virtually ignored the Balkans until war erupted in 1991. Now is the time to think ahead regarding the Caucasus and Caspian Sea.

Robert D. Kaplan is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and the author of "The Ends of the Earth."

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More Fighters Battle Russia Forces

By The Associated Press, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Rebels.html

BOTLIKH, Russia (AP) -- Russian troops traded fire Tuesday with Islamic rebels entrenched in the Caucasus Mountains and Russian jets bombed rebel-held villages as Moscow insisted the insurgents would soon meet their demise.

Russia's armed forces repeated claims that they had the upper hand in the mountainous region of Dagestan, where they were fighting for the 11th straight day against militants who have seized several villages along the border with the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

But the rebels still had full control of at least three villages in the Botlikh region. In Ansalta, one of the villages, there were no signs of heavy casualties and the militants said 120 fighters arrived from Chechnya on Monday to join their ranks.

And at least one top Russian official admitted Tuesday that the situation in southern Russia would take months to normalize.

``Stabilizing the situation in Dagestan is a drawn-out process and will require several months,'' said Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin.

The militants, many of whom belong to the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect, invaded Dagestan on Aug. 7, and are fighting for an independent Islamic state in southern Russia.

The conflict is Russia's deadliest since Chechnya's 1994-96 war for independence. Chechnya has effectively been independent since Russian troops pulled out nearly three years ago, although Moscow still claims it is part of Russia.

Russian airborne troops traded fire with rebels Tuesday in an effort to take control of Osinoye Ukho mountain in Dagestan, and Russian jets and helicopters bombed the rebel-controlled village of Tando. The military said it carried out 12 air raids Tuesday.

``We have brought the situation under control in settlements where the militants still remain,'' First Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Kolesnikov said. ``Very few of them are left and in a short while, all of them will be banished.''

The Interior Ministry said 450 rebels had been killed out of a force estimated at about 1,200. Russian military officials said 22 Russian soldiers had been killed -- including three on Tuesday -- 48 were wounded and eight were missing.

The casualty figures could not be independently confirmed.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official, Alexander Kuzmin, claimed there was ``indisputable'' evidence that the militants were being helped by several Persian Gulf nations, though he didn't specify which ones.

An Associated Press reporter visited some rebel bases Monday, and the militants said their fighters include young men from Chechnya, Dagestan and other parts of the predominantly Muslim Caucasus Mountains.

Russian military officials also have claimed that one rebel leader, known only as Khattab, was badly wounded in a recent attack, and that his interpreter was killed.

However, Khattab appeared uninjured Monday and spoke Russian with other rebels without an interpreter.

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov said Tuesday that a column of armored Russian vehicles had entered Chechen territory following Russian threats to strike at the militants inside the breakaway republic.

But the head of Chechnya's border service, Khumid Dalayev, said that no such incursion had taken place, according to the Interfax news agency. Russia's Defense Ministry also denied the claim.

In an effort to encourage the Russian troops, officials said they would be paid higher salaries, similar to those of Russian peacekeepers in Kosovo. Acting Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said a private's monthly pay would equal $1,000 under an order expected to be signed Wednesday, up from the present pay of less than $100.

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Experimental Radar Request Nixed

By The Associated Press, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-US-Radar-Korea.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff rejected a commander's request to use a new missile-defense radar to monitor a potential North Korean test, but the Pentagon denied a report that the decision was politically motivated.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Gen. Henry H. Shelton denied the request by Gen. Richard Myers, commander of the U.S. Space Command in Colorado, because he determined the radar would not add substantially to the missile monitoring equipment already in place aboard U.S. ships and aircraft near Korea.

``He felt that the assets we will have on the scene are perfectly adequate to meet the needs,'' Bacon said. ``Second, there would have been a cost to deploying the Thaad radar that he didn't think was worth spending,'' given the amount of intelligence collecting assets the military already planned to have there.

U.S. officials say there are indications North Korea is preparing to test-fire a ballistic missile over U.S. and Japanese objections. Bacon said it appeared any test launch was ``days to weeks'' away.

The Pentagon has specially equipped ships in the western Pacific to monitor electronic signals from a North Korean missile.

The radar Myers requested was developed for use with a missile defense system called Theater High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad. The system is still undergoing testing and has not been used against an armed missile.

The Washington Times, which first reported Shelton's decision not to send the Thaad radar to Asia, quoted unidentified critics as saying the Pentagon bowed to pressure from Clinton administration arms-control officials who opposed sending the radar because it might upset the Russians.

Bacon denied that arms control issues influenced Shelton's decision.

``It's the chairman's job to evaluate these requests and to allocate resources sensibly, and this is the decision that he made,'' Bacon said.

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High-tech radar will not track N. Korea missile

By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES August 17, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news1.html

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has turned down a U.S. commander's request to use a new missile-defense radar to monitor North Korea's upcoming Taepo Dong missile launch, Pentagon officials said.

Gen. Henry H. Shelton, the chairman, decided on Friday to reject an appeal from the commander of the U.S. Space Command in Colorado because of costs and because using the radar now might slow its development.

The radar system is known as the Theater High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.

A senior defense official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified by name, said Gen. Shelton's decision was based on his view that the $3 million to $5 million cost of sending the radar to Japan outweighed the benefits.

"By and large, you don't get enough benefit to justify the costs," the defense official said.

But some military officials said monitoring the Taepo Dong with the powerful THAAD radar, which can track missiles over long distances, would have been an important test against a "real world threat."

The monitoring also could have tested the radar's capability of providing early warning of a missile launch against the United States and provided valuable field training for the Army units that will eventually be deployed with the completed THAAD system, the officials said.

Critics said the Pentagon bowed to pressure from Clinton administration arms-control officials who opposed sending the radar because it might upset the Russians. A new round of strategic arms talks is set to begin today in Moscow.

Separately, a confidant of reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told CNN yesterday in an interview that his country was prepared to respond in kind to U.S. and South Korean efforts to halt a new missile test.

"If the visitor comes and offers us a cake, we'll respond with a cake," said Kim Yong-sun, secretary of North Korea's Workers Party, in a rare interview.

"But if somebody comes with a sword or a knife, we'll respond with a knife," he added.

Earlier, the senior official said arms-control issues were a factor in deciding whether to send the THAAD radar to Japan for tests against North Korea's second test of a long-range missile.

U.S. intelligence agencies are closely monitoring a missile site on North Korea's east coast where the test is anticipated. Ships, spy satellites and aircraft are monitoring the test area, officials said.

The senior official said in an interview that possible violations of U.S.-Russian arms accords were not taken into account by Gen. Shelton, even though a special treaty "compliance review group" discussed the matter during a meeting at the Pentagon Friday.

Other officials said the decision not to test the radar against a real-world missile threat is a sign of the Clinton administration's bias against missile defenses.

Gen. Richard Myers, commander of the U.S. Space Command, made the initial request to send one of the two THAAD radars currently based in the United States to Japan to monitor the test.

The request was backed by the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, the U.S. Pacific Command and the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command.

The defense official said the compliance-review group "never made a decision" on whether sending the radar was allowed under U.S.-Russian treaties. The cost and other factors were the critical considerations for Gen. Shelton, he said.

Other officials said it was unusual for Gen. Shelton to reject the commander's request and was based more on political sensitivities toward Russia than on costs or operational worries.

"It is pathetic that Gen. Shelton's first impulse is to wring his hands over some convoluted -- and unfounded -- arms-control concern, instead of embracing this innovative proposal that can do nothing but enhance the nation's security," said one official angered by the decision.

"This administration has enough political hacks willing to sacrifice national security to their political concerns," this official said. "Someone needs to be an advocate for our security interests. It's clear that Gen. Shelton is not up to that task."

U.S. and Russian arms specialists will hold their first round of meetings today in Moscow to discuss new strategic arms reductions and changes to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

President Clinton signed legislation in July that says it is U.S. policy to deploy a national missile defense as soon as "technologically possible." The president said in a statement that the law does not bind him to deploy a system unless arms-control considerations are first taken into account.

Mr. Clinton has said the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty is "the cornerstone" of strategic relations with Russia. The treaty prohibits deployment of nationwide missile defenses and limits signatories to a single site. Russia has deployed its missile defense around Moscow. The United States has no system capable of hitting a long-range missile.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced yesterday that it has completed an agreement with Japan to conduct joint research on a sea-based regional missile-defense system.

The agreement calls for the United States and Japan to conduct joint research and experiments on a system that would use the Standard SM-3 missile. The missile will be used on U.S. and Japanese Aegis-equipped ships that would provide wide-area coverage of medium-range missiles.

On Aug. 31, 1998, North Korea launched a medium-range Taepo Dong missile over Japanese air space and into the Pacific Ocean. Tokyo, Seoul and Washington have been warning North Korea against a follow-up test of a missile suspected of being able to reach Alaska and Guam.

Asked if Mr. Kim's comments on CNN were a possible signal that North Korea may suspend the second test of its medium-range Taepo Dong missile, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said yesterday: "We hope this statement does mean that."

With North Korea in the midst of a prolonged famine as its economy deteriorates, the United States, Japan and South Korea have threatened to cancel a number of aid programs if Pyongyang proceeds with the missile test.

"We do certainly hope that the North Koreans choose the benefits that would accrue to their people, their country and their relations with the United States from forgoing such testing," Mr. Rubin said. But, he added, "the answer is something I'm not prepared to speculate on at this time."

Scott Snyder, a Korea analyst at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, said the "period of risk" over the missile test is far from passed, despite Mr. Kim's remarks. He noted that North Korea has benefited in the past from military brinksmanship, winning an aid package from the United States when it agreed to drop a secret nuclear weapons program in 1994.

"This could mean North Korea is ready to pursue diplomacy but also still plans to carry out the missile test," Mr. Snyder said. "This is a regime that needs crises, that relies on crises, to carry out its diplomatic strategy."

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South Korea Conducts Air Raid Drill

By The Associated Press, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Koreas-Missile.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's military Tuesday simulated a chemical attack on Seoul, rescuing civilians and cleaning contaminated areas amid fears of a possible missile test by communist North Korea.

A close adviser to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, meanwhile, accused the United States of stirring discord with repeated warnings to Pyongyang to scrap any plans for a test of a long-range missile. But he was also conciliatory, in contrast with recent rhetoric from Pyongyang.

``If things are discussed in a reasonable manner, then they will turn out well,'' Kim Yong Sun, secretary of North Korea's ruling Korean Workers' Party, said in an interview with CNN. ``I'm optimistic about it. If a visitor brings us cake, we will also give cakes. But if they bring a sword, we will respond with a sword.''

During the hourlong exercise, a dozen military helicopters and vehicles rushed to wash down an eight-lane boulevard in southern Seoul that was ``contaminated'' in the simulated attack. Others rescued injured civilians while special forces recovered a government building supposedly occupied by a group of North Korean soldiers.

Also in a related 20-minute civil defense drill, pedestrians in the capital ducked into nearby buildings and cars pulled over.

The exercises showed the tensions that persist on the Korean peninsula a half-century after the war between the North and South.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin said North Korea would benefit if it decided not to launch a missile.

``We certainly hope that this statement indicates that North Korea is prepared to seize the opportunity for improved relations with the United States,'' Rubin said.

Some U.S. and South Korean officials believe North Korea is using the threat of a missile launch to extract economic and other concessions in exchange for shelving the test.

Japan, South Korea and the United States have said North Korea faces economic and diplomatic penalties if it launches a new missile that military analysts believe could reach Alaska or Hawaii.

A Russian news agency quoted unidentified military and diplomatic sources in Moscow as saying North Korea could test the missile later this month or in September. The long-range ballistic missile, the Taepodong II, has a range of more than 2,500 miles, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Monday.

In a Seoul subway station, school children chatted, giggled and read comic books during the defense drill. Some people used cellular telephones to say they would be late. Police blew whistles to call back a few people who tried to sneak into the street.

The drill, which is held four times a year and first started in 1972, was held in coordination with a 12-day joint military exercise between U.S. and South Korean forces.

China expressed concern about the military exercise. ``We hope relevant parties will do more to ease tensions on the (Korean) Peninsula and refrain from exacerbating the situation,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said on state media.

The exercise mostly involves computer simulations designed to evaluate and improve joint contingency operations.

Also Tuesday, generals from the American-led U.N. Command and North Korea met again at the border village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, but failed to reach agreement on a disputed borderline at sea.

One North Korean warship sank and an estimated 30 North Korean sailors were killed on June 15 when warships from both Koreas exchanged fire in a contested zone in the Yellow Sea. Four rounds of previous talks failed to produce any agreement.

Last year, North Korea sent a rocket sailing over northern Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. Pyongyang said it had launched a satellite, but the United States said it was a missile.

In the CNN interview, Kim did not say whether North Korea would go ahead with a launch, but he said the United States had no right to complain because it has its own powerful arsenal of missiles.

``If we do have a missile, why should they necessarily think that it poses a threat to their national security?'' he said.

He also said North Korea wanted to write a peace treaty with the United States to replace the temporary armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The United States has said that South Korea must be included in any such treaty.

Last week, peace talks in Geneva involving the two Koreas, China and the United States ended with little apparent progress and no agreement on a specific date for the next round.

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U.S.-S. Korea exercise raises North's ire

8/16/99- USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwsmon02.htm

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

North Korea denounced the exercise as a rehearsal of a war on the Korean peninsula and warned that it 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.''

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said a strong defense had to be maintained to cope with growing North Korean military threats, including a missile launch.

''Through this exercise, we must let North Koreans know that our military posture is as firm and strong as ever,'' Kim said.

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 based in Yokosuka, Japan, will lead an unspecified number of warships during the exercise.

About 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea under a defense treaty between the two nations. The countries hold several joint military exercises each year, routinely prompting criticism from North Korea.

''The warmongers ... are mobilizing huge aggression armed forces, enough to undertake a war, timed to coincide with their anti-DPRK (North Korea) campaign over its non-existent 'missile threat','' said the North's ruling party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun.

Despite the North's anger, it requested a meeting with generals from the American-led U.N. command, which will be held Tuesday, the command said.

The talks, at the border village of Panmunjom, are expected to deal with the June 15 clash between the northern and southern navies in the Yellow Sea. A North Korean warship sank, killing an estimated 30 sailors.

The clash, which each side blamed on the other, remains a sore point amid other tensions between the Koreas and the United States.

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.

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

South Korean intelligence officials said today that five defectors from the North had arrived in the South - among them, four relatives of a southern prisoner from the war who was held in the North for 45 years before escaping last year.

Also, South Korean police said today they were questioning 486 leftist students held from a rally Sunday by 5,000 students calling for reunification with North Korea. The students had planned to march to the border with the North but were blocked by riot police.

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Military Exercise Concerns China

By The Associated Press, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-China-US-Koreas.html

BEIJING (AP) -- China expressed concern Tuesday about a joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise launched amid growing tensions with North Korea.

``We're concerned about this,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said on state media. ``We hope relevant parties will do more to ease tensions on the (Korean) Peninsula and refrain from exacerbating the situation.''

The 12-day exercise, launched Monday and code-named Ulji Focus Lens, is one of the largest conducted annually by the armed forces of the United States and South Korea. The exercise comes amid fears that North Korea may test-fire a new long-range missile.

The exercise 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.

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Liberia Says Guinea Is Firing Across Border to Back Rebels

By REUTERS, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/liberia-guinea.html

MONROVIA, Liberia -- Liberia accused Guinean forces Monday of using artillery to support rebel attacks on its border and said it would seek troops from allies to defend its territory.

The accusation, by Defense Minister Daniel Chea, underlined the urgency of moves by West African officials to prevent the latest fighting in Liberia from spreading.

Chea said on BBC radio that artillery fire from Guinea was impeding efforts by Government troops to dislodge rebels who attacked last week and, he said, had seized scores of hostages.

He said that fighting was continuing in the Lofa County region and that retreating rebels were killing and burning. "As of this morning, our people are engaged in dislodging the dissident forces out of Voinjama," the region's main town, he said.

At a meeting here in the capital, President Charles Taylor said Liberia was unable to defend itself because of a United Nations arms embargo and would ask for troops from its allies. "We have the right to defend our territory but our hands are tied," Taylor said.

Taylor did not name any countries, but he has had close relations with Burkina Faso and Libya since he began a seven-year civil war in Liberia in 1989. The United Nations imposed an arms embargo on Liberia in the effort to end that conflict. The war formally ended in 1997 with elections won by Taylor.

Information Minister Joe Mulbah said Saturday that rebels from Guinea had been driven out of any towns they had held. Almost 100 people, including 6 Europeans, were freed on Saturday after being abducted by rebels early last week.

The Government says the rebels are loyal to Taylor's rivals from the civil war. Spokesmen for the rebels say their group is made up of Liberians who were sent by Taylor to support rebels in Sierra Leone, but who became disenchanted with Taylor after setbacks there.

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Rwanda and Uganda Battle Over Congo

By IAN FISHER, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/081799congo-talks.html

ASMARA, Eritrea -- Rwandan leaders traveled to Uganda and held talks Monday night aimed at easing tensions after troops from the two nations, once firm allies, fought for a third day in the Congolese city of Kisangani.

It was not clear tonight what might have been accomplished in the talks. John Nagenda, a senior adviseor to President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, said he expected any troubles to be worked out given how close the governments have been in the past.

"It's such a meaningless bit of friction," Nagenda said of the fighting in a telephone interview Monday night.

But he seemed to suggest that Uganda was willing to end its cooperation with Rwanda in Congo if some agreement was not reached.

"If they feel they can do without us, they will definitely be the loser," he said.

Rwandan officials could not be reached for comment Monday night.

Earlier in the day the Rwandan News Agency reported that the fighting began after several hundred Ugandan soldiers were flown to Kisangani to drive Rwandans from the city's main airport.

Both Uganda and Rwanda have soldiers stationed in Congo as part of their mutual support for the rebels fighting to overthrow the President of Congo, Laurent Kabila. But in recent months the two allies have moved apart, backing rival rebel factions and disagreeing over how to conduct the war and more recent efforts for peace.

Those tensions erupted into fighting over the Kisangani airport on Saturday night, opening a more complicated chapter in the Congo conflict. Monday, artillery and mortar fire continued, reportedly letting up before the evening meeting.

Some doctors and aid workers reported that at least 50 people have died in Kisangani, many of them civilians.

Hundreds of women and children were also trapped inside health centers, where United Nations health workers were immunizing people against polio. Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, condemned the fighting, partly because it violated a temporary cease-fire to allow the doctors there to work in safety.

He noted that the fighting between Uganda and Rwanda broke out after they both signed an accord aimed at ending the year-long rebellion in Congo. The accord was signed on July 10 by the six nations fighting inside Congo, but its chances for success seemed slim because the three rebel factions refused to sign.

The accord was aimed at ending the fighting between Rwanda, Uganda and the rebels on one side, and Kabila and his outside backers, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, on the other.

But few people could ever have foreseen that Rwanda and Uganda would turn their guns on each other, particularly since both of them signed the peace accord, and that complication seemed only to place the accord even more at risk.

"To the extent that there may be a separate bilateral issue between Rwanda and Uganda -- that concerns us greatly," said one United States Administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The United States -- allies of both Rwanda and Uganda -- has been helping the search for peace. Gayle Smith, the top official for African affairs in the National Security Council, traveled to the region on Friday to try to convince the rebel groups to sign the peace accord.

But Monday she ended up meeting with Rwandan officials and later traveled to Uganda, where President Museveni met with President Pasteur Bizimungu and Vice President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

Nagenda, the adviser to Museveni, denied that Uganda had begun the fighting. A statement from the rebel group backed by Uganda said the fighting started after Rwandan soldiers blocked the road to the airport and fired at Ugandan soldiers.

When the rebellion began last August, both Rwanda and Uganda supported the same rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy. But since then Uganda and Rwanda began to back different elements within the group -- a split that became formal in May when the group ousted its original leader, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba.

Wamba dia Wamba, claiming he remained the movement's true leader, maintained the support of Uganda and established headquarters in Kisangani. The Rwandans backed the new leader, Dr. Émile Ilunga, a longtime opposition leader in Congo.

--

Related Articles

Rwanda and Uganda Battling to Control Key City in Congo (Aug. 16 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/081699rwanda-uganda-ap.html

Issue in Depth: Civil War in Congo
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/index-congo-1998.html

Map Democratic Republic of the Congo from Microsoft Encarta Concise Encyclopedia
http://encarta.msn.com/find/mediapreferredmax.asp?ti=02640000

Forum Join a Discussion on Africa in Transition
http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?13@@.eebfc6b

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Iran Proceeds With Spy Trial

By The Associated Press, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iranian-Jews.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iranian authorities have decided to proceed with trial of 13 Jews on charges of spying for Israel, an official of a leading American Jewish organization said Tuesday.

Prosecutors will take that move Thursday, said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The 13, in custody since their March arrests, were ``absolutely innocent,'' Hoenlein said as he appealed to Iranian justice to return them to their families. He said his information came from ``official sources,'' whom he declined to identify.

In Jerusalem, Israel's Chief Sephardic rabbi, Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, asked for prayers for the safety of the Jews. He said their trial was to begin Wednesday.

State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said he had no information about the reported trial, noting that there is no U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Iran has denounced the United States for objecting to the arrests, saying no country had a right to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.

The State Department has criticized the charges as unfounded and unacceptable. Jesse Jackson also has appealed for their release.

Espionage is a capital crime in Iran, a nation of 60 million people, many of them Shiite Muslims.

Iran has executed 17 Jews on espionage charges in the past two decades, including two in 1997.

Iran had a long history of tolerance toward Jews, through the reign of the shah. About 200,000 were living in the country when Islamic revolutionaries overthrew the Peacock throne in 1979.

All but about 25,000 Jews fled. Those who remained were allowed to practice aspects of their religion but are forbidden to teach Hebrew and they face restrictions on emigration.

On Monday, a former member of the Jewish community of Mashad who now lives in Israel reported that bulldozers had uprooted the headstones at the Jewish cemetery in the Iranian city, 450 miles east of Tehran.

``They didn't leave a single grave,'' Moshe Zvulini said.

The 13 Jews detained are from Shiraz and include at least one rabbi and several teachers.

The Iranian government daily Jomhouri Eslami said they were accused of having ``set up an espionage network in Iran for gathering ... intelligence from sources inside some of Iran's state organs ... (which) were then passed on to Mossad (Israel's intelligence agency).

The case's outcome could reveal the extent of the moderation that the Clinton administration said it saw in the election of President Mohammad Khatami two years ago.

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Iraq Has Extended Missile Range

By The Associated Press, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-US-Iraq.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iraq has extended the range of one of its best anti-aircraft missiles, but the retooled weapon poses no significant additional threat to U.S. and British pilots patrolling no-flight zones over Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Iraq has challenged the patrols since last December by attempting to shoot down the planes; on Tuesday it fired anti-aircraft artillery and tracked U.S. planes with radars used by surface-to-air missiles, U.S. officials said. In response, U.S. planes bombed Iraqi missile sites.

Kenneth Bacon, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said the frequent U.S. and British air attacks this year -- following a four-day bombing campaign last December -- have reduced by 40 percent to 50 percent the number of Iraqi anti-aircraft missile batteries in the no-flight zones over northern and southern Iraq.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is protecting his remaining air defense systems by placing most of them near Baghdad, the capital, and Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam and his closest relatives. Both Baghdad and Tikrit are outside the no-flight zone and therefore off-limits to U.S. patrols.

``We have scared him to the point where he doesn't want to turn on his radars, and missiles that aren't guided by radars aren't particularly threatening or dangerous,'' Bacon said. ``We think that basically the (U.S. and British) responses to the attacks that he is making against our planes are slowly but measurably degrading his air defense system. They are draining resources that he might spend on other parts of his defenses or his military machine, and they are forcing him to keep his head down.''

Iraqi air defense forces began firing a longer-range version of the SA-2 surface-to-air missile a couple of months ago, Bacon said. He had few details but said, ``It has not been a significant capability in terms of increasing the threat'' to allied pilots.

He said Iraq's efforts to rebuild its air defenses have been slowed by the loss of a missile and radar repair facility at Tagi that was destroyed in last December's bombing campaign.

In Baghdad, the official Iraqi News Agency quoted the military as saying eight people were killed in attacks in the northern zone Tuesday and 11 were killed in the south.

The agency also quoted the military as saying the bombs targeted ``civil and service installations, people's houses and military positions'' in the northern no-fly zone.

The U.S. European Command, which oversees U.S. operations in northern Iraq, insists only military sites are targeted.

In a statement Tuesday, the U.S. European Command said U.S. Air Force planes bombed a surface-to-air missile site west of the city of Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad, and a missile support system south of Mosul. It described the U.S. attacks as acts of self defense in response to Iraqi provocations.

The U.S. planes left the area safely, the military said.

The attacks Tuesday coincided with a visit by Army Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Incirlik air base in southern Turkey that is home to U.S. planes patrolling the northern no-flight zone.

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Bosnian Leaders May Have Stolen $1B

By The Associated Press, August 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Bosnia-Corruption.html

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Bosnia's Muslim president on Tuesday branded as lies allegations by international officials that top Muslim, Croat and Serbian officials may have stolen more than $1 billion in public funds and international aid.

The allegations, based on findings of the anti-fraud unit of the Office of the High Representative, appeared Tuesday in The New York Times. Alexandra Stiglmayer, spokeswoman of the OHR, which oversees implementation of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, said the report was largely correct.

Alija Izetbegovic, the Muslim member of the country's three-man presidency, disputed the report.

``I declare that these are lies and assert that they were conjured up to smear the Bosnian government and avert friendly countries from financial and military engagement in Bosnia,'' he said.

The United States and other donor nations have poured about $5.1 billion into Bosnia since the end of the war in 1995 to reconstruct infrastructure and try to stitch together a viable government.

``Most of the money that has been lost is local taxpayers' money,'' Stiglmayer said. ``The money has been taken from the budgets. The figure is probably higher than $1 billion.''

Investigations continued because ``corruption is ongoing,'' she said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin acknowledged the corruption in Bosnia.

``The fact of the matter is that Bosnia still reflects in many respects the communist economic system and the black market created during the war, and there is an environment that still exists for corruption and criminality,'' he said.

``United States government assistance has not been misused or abused to the best of our knowledge. We obviously investigate any serious allegations to the contrary,'' he added. ``We do agree the corruption and criminality are problems and we are taking an active role in addressing these problems.''

The Times said the corruption is so rampant that relief agencies and embassies downplay the thefts for fear of discouraging international donors.

The American-led anti-fraud unit named several officials with ties to the governing nationalist parties, accusing them of profiting from the fraud, the Times said. Although 15 officials have been dismissed by the High Representative or have been blocked from holding office, most retain authority, the newspaper said.

The report, which has not been made public, cites one incident in which 10 foreign embassies and international aid agencies lost more than $20 million deposited in a Bosnian bank. Only the Swiss Embassy has publicly acknowledged the loss.

According to the Times, the anti-fraud unit is investigating 220 cases of alleged fraud and corruption. The pilfered funds were meant to help rebuild Bosnia's roads, buildings and schools and to provide municipal services in towns across the country.

Izetbegovic demanded that the OHR publish the full corruption report. He said the allegations surfaced at a time when Austria's Wolfgang Petritsch is taking over from Carlos Westendorp of Spain as head of the OHR.

``In the meantime, a lie can be spread, unhindered, throughout the world, bringing damage to Bosnia as much as the war the country went through,'' Izetbegovic said.

The vice president of the country's biggest opposition party, the Social Democrats, also urged the report's release.

``It is clear that corruption is ongoing in this country and Bosnian citizens need to know about all details,'' Sead Avdic said.