Debate rages over nuclear dump for Aust outback

21 Aug 1999 16:00 Australian Broadcasting http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-21aug1999-38.htm

The Australian Conservation Foundation has rejected claims Australia must take part in the disposal of global nuclear waste.

Prominant scientist Sir Gustav Nossal has told a nuclear waste isolation seminar at the University of Western Australia in Perth that Australia must help in the clean-up of nuclear waste.

Sir Gustav says he is not endorsing the creation of a nuclear waste dump in the outback, but the proposal should at least be examined.

"If it is true that the only places in the world that are really suitable geologically are Western China, Southern Africa, Argentina, and central Australia," he said.

"Of those four I think spaceship earth would be best served by this stable democracy playing its part in the solution of the problem."

Pangea Resources, a British company behind plans to establish a nuclear waste dump in outback Australia, is also taking part in the seminar.

Conservationists are staging a protest rally at the University of Western Australia at the same time.

The ACF's vice president Doctor Peter Brotherton says Australia should not have any involvement in the nuclear industry.

"It is an absolute myth to suggest that we have a responsibility to deal with other people's nuclear waste," he said.

"Particularly at a stage when there is no agreement, that in fact these proposals are in fact safe and sound.

"The primary responsibility for managing any form of hazardous waste relates to the generator of that waste."

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Australian 'Regret' Comes Under Aboriginal Fire

Updated 4:27 AM ET August 26, 1999, By Trevor Datson
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990826/04/international-australia-aborigines

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia expressed public regret Thursday for past mistreatment of its Aboriginal minority, but a motion of reconciliation passed by parliament came under immediate fire as not going far enough.

Acknowledging the "most blemished chapter in our national history," Prime Minister John Howard submitted a seven-point motion he said aimed to draw a line under past injustices.

Howard moved that parliament "expresses its deep and sincere regret that indigenous Australians suffered injustices under the practices of past generations, and for the hurt and trauma that many indigenous people continue to feel."

The motion reaffirms Australia's "whole-hearted commitment" to reconciliation and commits to dealing with the social and economic disadvantage experienced by many Australians.

But Howard came under immediate fire from Aboriginal leaders, who said only a full apology would do.

Howard's reluctance to issue an apology has been seen as an attempt to head off claims for compensation, but a court ruling Thursday rejected what had been seen as a test case in the fight by Aborigines for damages.

Tracker Tilmouth, a member of the "Stolen Generation" of Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their parents and brought up as whites, said regret alone was insufficient and accused Howard of ignoring the issue.

"That's not good enough for me or others taken away. He must say sorry, not some play on words or legal squirming phrases designed to get him off the hook," Tilmouth said in a statement.

And Aboriginal leader Terry O'Shane described the motion as a "Clayton's (false) apology."

"This is a nothing about nothing," he said. "Howard will say to the world this is all he needs to do to undo past wrongs."

But the public contrition was welcomed by Democrats senator Aden Ridgeway, the sole Aboriginal member of parliament, who has spearheaded political efforts toward a "journey of healing."

"It is a watershed in Australian history, it provides an opportunity for this country to move forward in terms of reconciliation... I hope that in time other indigenous leaders can be persuaded to come on board," Ridgeway told reporters.

Australia's 386,000 Aborigines represent 2.1 percent of the country's 19 million people and are it's most disadvantaged group.

Recent statistics show Aborigines are more than twice as likely to die at birth than other Australians and are more likely to experience a life of poverty, unemployment and crime.

The motion passed unopposed, supported even by Len Harris, the only senator of Pauline Hanson's far-right One Nation party.

In the "Stolen Generation" test case ruling, New South Wales Supreme Court Judge Alan Abadee said 1990s morality could not be imposed on Australia in the 1940s.

Aborigine Joy Williams, a state ward from 1947 to 1960, had claimed damages from the NSW state government for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty by the then Aboriginal Welfare Board.

"These events occurred in a different Australia, a society with different knowledge and with different moral values and standards," Abadee said in his 400-page judgement.

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Greenpeace: Chelyabinsk Schools, Hospitals Given Radioactive Fish

MOSCOW, Aug 25, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=87808

Authorities in Chelyabinsk, in the Urals, have allowed the sale of radioactive fish to schools and hospitals in the region, ecology activists Greenpeace said Tuesday.

More than two tons of fish from Lake Alabuga, tainted with strontium-90 and celsium-137, have been delivered to public institutions in the region since early 1998, Greenpeace said in a statement.

Authorities authorized the sale of fish with 10 to 20 times the level of contaminants normally allowed, the organization said.

Lake Alabuga was contaminated in a September 1997 accident at the Mayak factory which produced uranium and plutonium for military use.

The lake "is not guarded and is accessible to poachers who can then sell the contaminated fish throughout the region," the Greenpeace statement alleged. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

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Russia Confirms Air Attack On Chechen Territory

Updated 4:12 AM ET August 26, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990826/04/international-russia-chechnya

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Defense Ministry Thursday confirmed its forces had dropped bombs into breakaway Chechnya late Wednesday following their defeat of Islamic rebels backed by Chechen warlords in neighboring Dagestan.

"Federal forces retain the right to bomb concentrations of guerrillas," a ministry press spokesman based in the Dagestani capital Makhachkala told Reuters.

"The federal forces carried out an air strike near a lake on Chechen territory near Vedeno but the residents of the village were not hit," he said.

Local residents streamed out of the Vedeno gorge Wednesday evening after Russian planes hit camps belonging to the Islamic guerrillas.

One woman told Reuters seven planes had hit the camps twice. The residents said they did not know of any civilian casualties but that windows and roofs had been damaged by the blasts.

Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Kazbek Makhashev told Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio Thursday the Russian planes had hit civilians but had failed to hit the guerrillas' bases.

Russian troops Wednesday claimed victory over the guerrillas, who came from Chechnya and for two weeks held several villages in the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan.

The Defense Ministry spokesman said federal forces were now clearing mines from the territory previously occupied by the rebels, who sought to establish Islamic rule in Dagestan. "They even planted bombs in the local churches," he said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had said strikes could be launched at guerrilla camps in Chechnya, where the Russian military said rebel forces were massing for new attacks.

Moscow withdrew its forces from Chechnya in 1996 after suffering a humiliating defeat in a war against Chechen separatists.

Chechnya claims it is independent, but Moscow says it is still part of Russia even though the federal government has no control there.

Chechen leaders said they were not involved in the rebel raid on Dagestan.

But two leading Chechen field commanders, Shamil Basayev and Hattab (one name), were among the military leaders of the insurgency. They are at odds with the Chechen president, Aslan Maskhadov, and he effectively has no influence over them.

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Russia Bombs Retreating Militants

By The Associated Press, August 26, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Rebels.html

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) -- Russia's military said today that its planes bombed a column of Islamic militants retreating to Chechnya from fighting in the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan, but officials gave conflicting accounts of whether Chechen territory was targeted.

Chechen officials claimed the Russian jets made 16 bombing runs against bases in Chechnya belonging to the insurgents, who had taken part in the occupation of several villages in Dagestan.

The Russian Defense Ministry's press center in Dagestan said Russian jets bombed the militants in Dagestan near the Chechen village of Buniaul, but denied earlier military reports that Chechen territory was attacked. The center claimed the jets destroyed three vehicles carrying rebels leaving Dagestan.

``The Russian command has reserved for itself the right to deliver strikes on the rebels wherever they are,'' the press center said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev and Air Force Chief of Staff Anatoly Kornukov also denied that Chechen territory had been bombed Wednesday.

``No strikes on Chechen territory were delivered yesterday,'' Sergeyev told Interfax during a trip today to the Astrakhan region.

Russian jets have bombed rebel bases in Chechnya several times since Islamic militants seeking an independent Dagestan crossed the Chechen border into Dagestan's Botlikh region on Aug. 7 and took at least six villages.

After weeks of bombardment by Russian forces, the rebels -- estimated at one point to have a fighting force of more than 2,000 gunmen in Dagestan -- had largely fled the region by today, but handfuls of militants remained and waged attacks against local security forces.

Also today, 20 rebels clashed with police around Andi villlage for two hours. Casualties were not known for either side.

Wounded Russian troops at a hospital in Makhachkala also claimed Wednesday that rebel snipers were still active in many villages. The soldiers, who refused to give their names, said they were hit in Tando, one of the most hotly contested villages.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today claimed victory in the ``first stage'' of the fight against the rebels.

Opening a Cabinet meeting, Putin said the government ``will continue, the same as before, to settle all acute problems only by political methods ... (but) has enough resources for repulsing any terrorists or gangsters, no matter where they hide.''

A spokesman for Interior Ministry troops in Dagestan, Yevgeny Ryabtsev, said Wednesday the remaining rebels were surrounded, cut off from supply or retreat routes, and will be wiped out by Russian helicopter gunships.

Russian Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev, who arrived Wednesday in Dagestan, said he was under orders from the government ``to have the bandit groups destroyed ... and to guarantee stability in this republic of the Russian Federation.''

Russian officials claim 1,000 rebels have been killed in the conflict, though rebel leaders put their casualty figure at just 37. Federal authorities said 60 Russian army and Interior Ministry troops were killed.

The fighting was the worst in Russia since government troops withdrew from Chechnya after a 1994-96 war with separatists, giving Chechnya de facto independence.

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Russians Push Islamic Militants Out of Dagestan, but Threat Remains

By CELESTINE BOHLEN, August 26, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/082699russia-dagestan.html

MOSCOW -- The fighting in Dagestan, in the Russian Caucasus, appeared to be over Wednesday as federal troops raised the Russian flag over mountain villages seized three weeks ago by Islamic militants who had crossed the border from Chechnya, the secessionist republic to the west.

But even Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev was reluctant to declare victory in Russia's first military conflict since the 1994-96 Chechnya war, which weakened Moscow's control over the volatile region and gave rise to a militant brand of Islam.

Sergeyev said Wednesday that while federal forces, relying heavily on air strikes, had driven the rebels from the Botlikh district in Dagestan, the threat posed by the Islamic militants remained.

"There is a danger that in moving to partisan actions, they will try to carry out terrorist acts in the region," Sergeyev said in an interview with Reuters.

The rebels were led by a Chechen field commander, Shamil Basayev, and Wednesday night a spokesman for Basayev said the militants were preparing for a clandestine phase in their fight to free Dagestan from Russian rule. Basayev, who is now presumed to have returned to Chechnya, announced three days ago that he was withdrawing his commandos from Dagestan.

"They will be everywhere and nowhere," the rebel spokesman, Magomed Tagayev, said of the militants, according to a report by the Interfax news agency. "Purely military methods will give way to military-political ones."

By pushing the Islamic militants into Chechnya, Russian military commanders were able to deliver on a promise made by the new prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, a tough-talking former KGB officer who said when he took office on Aug. 9 that the operation in Dagestan would be over in two weeks.

But if the Russian goal was to crush the rebels, that has yet to happen.

"Basayev walked away," noted Aleksandr Iskandarian, director of the Center for Caucasian Studies in Moscow. How damaged Basayev's forces were by the fighting is one of the many questions that remain unanswered after a war that has been marked by conflicting reports from both sides.

Unlike the war in Chechnya, which ended in a humiliating defeat for Russian forces, the operation in Dagestan had broad political and popular support in Russia, even in Dagestan, a province the size of Austria and home to more than 30 ethnic groups.

"The main difference is that the Chechens were fighting for independence," said Aleksei Malashenko, an expert on the North Caucasus at the Moscow office of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The Dagestanis don't want independence. They are a multiethnic, multinational society. For them, a struggle for independence means civil war."

Although many of the rebels were reportedly Dagestani, Basayev's commandos did not get any significant support from the local population around Botlikh. His declaration of an independent Islamic state in the early days of the fighting seemed to fall on deaf ears, as hundreds of Dagestani men lined up to collect weapons distributed by local authorities, ready to join the fight against the Chechen-led militants.

But in the end, the battle was waged by Russian military forces, which continued to fly fresh troops into the region as late as Tuesday.

Casualty reports were conflicting. Russian military spokesmen put Russia's losses at 59 dead and 210 wounded, while reporting that more than 1,000 rebels had been killed. Rebel spokesman said they had lost 37 men, while reporting that Russian losses were over 1,000.

Unlike in Chechnya, where Russian planes bombed the civilian population, including Grozny, the capital, killing tens of thousands, the casualties in this war were limited to combatants. Residents of most of the embattled villages fled or were evacuated early in the fighting.

"By the end of the day of Aug. 24, all villages seized by the rebels were liberated and handed over to local administrations," a Defense Ministry spokesman said Wednesday in Makhachkala, the provincial capital. "The remains of bandit units are trying to flee the region in small isolated groups."

In the last days, two villages were completely leveled by air strikes and artillery fire, the spokesman said. "The two hamlets were unfortunate to be situated on top of the hills overlooking the area," he said.

In mounting what Russian military commanders said was a well-armed campaign that had been prepared for months, Basayev, backed by a Jordanian-born guerrilla of Chechen descent who goes by the name Khattab, said his goal was to establish an independent Islamic state, linking Chechnya to the oil-rich Caspian Sea.

Since the end of the 1994-96 war, Chechnya has slipped out of Moscow's control, sinking deeper into poverty and lawlessness. Its president, Aslan Maskhadov, struggles to defend his own authority against challenges from warlords like Basayev.

Some experts say Basayev, seen at home as a hero of the earlier war, may have intervened in Dagestan to raise his profile and re-establish his credentials as a fearless warrior against Moscow.

"Whether he succeeds will depend not on the real outcome of the conflict but on the propaganda war he is able to wage within Chechnya," Iskandarian said.

Maskhadov, who distanced himself from the Dagestani operation, may end up benefiting from Basayev's withdrawal from Dagestan.

The open-ended fight against Islamic fundamentalism is also politically useful to Moscow.

"It is very convenient for the Kremlin to show the danger coming from Chechnya, to show Dagestani officials that they have to stay close to Moscow," said Malashenko, of the Carnegie office. "From that point of view, Moscow is interested in maintaining a kind of tension in the region."

But the key issue for Moscow remains its ability to restore stability and prosperity to a region that has been torn apart by war and neglected by Russia's own enfeebled government. The challenge remains particularly acute in Dagestan, where local authorities are notoriously corrupt and the people increasingly open to the hopes held out by Muslim militants.

"The political role of Islam will increase," said Malashenko. "It doesn't mean that will explode into a struggle for independence, but people will begin to think in terms of Islamic alternatives."

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Porton Down - a sinister air?

August 20, 1999 Published at 18:52 GMT 19:52 UK BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_426000/426154.stm

A sinister air surrounds the subject of chemical weapons, quite different from the power politics of the nuclear arms race.

When terrorists targeted the Japanese subway, it was their use of Sarin gas that caught the public fear. When Saddam Hussain's crimes are mentioned, it is invariably using chemical weapons against the Kurds that is cited.

And some of the mystery is attached to the name of Porton Down, the secret chemical weapons centre in Wiltshire.

The centre, made up of forbiding buildings in 7000 acres near Salisbury, was set up in 1916. A year earlier, German troops had first used Sarin gas, against the French at Ypres on the Western Front.

To respond to the threat, the British needed somewhere to test and develop their own weapons.

Patrick Mercer, a retired army officer, spent several weeks there on courses designed to tell soldiers about chemical warfare.

"It was hideous," he said, "a hutted camp, where it seemed to do nothing but rain. There were a series of bunkers to which you were thrust from time to time to be gassed with CS gas and to go through ghastly exercises underground wearing a gas mask."

During WWII Porton Down started researching a new menace - biological weapons, but during the Cold War chemical weapons became the top priority.

For many years, the mere fact that there was a chemical weapon research centre there was secret, but after it was admitted in the late 1960s, it became the most controversial military establishment in the UK.

To test the effectiveness of nerve agents such as Sarin, servicemen were offered about £2 and a pass for three days' precious leave if they voluteered to take part in tests.

Rob Evans, a journalist researching a book into the experiments, said the main reason people volunteered was because they were bored with life at their own military establishments.

"They wanted to get away for any type of break, just anything. As soon as something came up. . .they would step forward, say yes, I'll take that.

"But sadly very few actually knew what Porton Down was, or what they were letting themselves in for."

Allegations

Wiltshire detectives are investigating allegations that in 1953 one serviceman, Ronald Maddison, died after taking part in a Sarin gas experiment. It is claimed that he thought he was taking part in a programme designed to find a cure for the common cold.

But the Maddison death was not the only thing to go wrong at the centre.

Rob Evans said: "The two most embarrassing accidents, and they are more tragic than embarrassing, were the death of Ronald Maddison and also the death of one of their own scientists Geoffrey Bacon in 1962, who died of plague."

Since the end of WWI, 20,000 people have taken part in experiments at Porton Down, and it is thought that there are a further 300 servicemen waiting to begin legal actions against the Ministry of Defence.

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Leak closes nuclear unit
Tritium release poses no danger, Pickering says

By Stan Josey Toronto Star Durham Region Bureau Chief, August 23, 1999
http://www.thestar.com/thestar/back_issues/ED19990823/toronto/990823NEW01b_CI-LEAK23.html

Pickering Nuclear Plant officials closed down the Number 6 generating unit yesterday to repair a small leak of radioactive tritium into Lake Ontario and the air around the plant.

``This was a relatively small leak and the amounts being released are well within the limits allowed under our licence,'' said Pierre Tremblay, director of operations and maintenance at Pickering.

Nuclear critics, however, cited this latest leak as another reason why Ontario Power Generation should shut down the Pickering station for good.

``Any type of leak from a nuclear plant contains tritium, which is a known carcinogen,'' said Irene Kock of the Nuclear Awareness Project, based in Durham. ``Any leak of this substance is a concern because we just don't know what the long-term health effects may be.''

Tremblay said plant operators discovered the leak of heavy water earlier in the week and shut down the nuclear generator when it appeared to be getting larger. Heavy water becomes contaminated with tritium during reactor operations.

``Sometimes these leaks seal themselves, but this one persisted,'' he said.

The leak occurred in one of 12 boilers in Unit 6 where heavy water is used to create steam that turns a turbine to create electricity.

He said the leak amounted to three to six kilograms of heavy water an hour.

One nuclear reactor has 150,000 kilograms of heavy water circulating through its core.

The leaked heavy water then mixed with steam and water that found its way into the outside atmosphere.

Tremblay said there is no danger to the public from breathing the air around the plant or drinking water that comes from the Ajax water treatment plant, located near the nuclear facility.

Ontario Power Generation sets its own limit of 100 becquerels per litre of tritium at the water plant intake. A becquerel is a unit used to measure the rate of decay of radioactive isotopes.

The unit is expected to be closed for two to three weeks.

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Rio Algom writes down assets by $293 million

Canadian Press, 1999
http://www.cbcnews.cbc.ca/news/cp/business/990825/b082530.html

TORONTO (CP) - Rio Algom Ltd., one of Canada's biggest mining companies, has announced a $293-million writedown in the value of its assets.

The company said Wednesday it is reducing the carrying value of its 29.1 per cent holding in the Bullmoose coal mine in British Columbia, its one-quarter interest in the Alumbrera copper-gold mine in Argentina, its wholly owned uranium operations in the United States and its Nicolet zinc-copper project near Crandon, Wis....

"The reduced carrying value of these assets is largely driven by weakness in the commodity markets," Rio Algom president and CEO Pat James observed in a statement....

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Iraq Denies Using Human Shields In No-Fly Zone

Updated 1:01 PM ET August 25, 1999
By Hassan Hafidh
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990825/13/international-iraq-shields

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A leading Iraqi parliamentarian Wednesday dismissed as lies a U.S. statement that Iraq had used civilian houses as human shields against attacks by Western warplanes by deploying anti-aircraft missiles close to them.

"Such accusations by American officials are mere lies and nonsense," said Khalid al-Dauri, head of the parliamentary Arab and Foreign Relations Committee.

"They are trying to justify their criminal and aggressive acts against the Iraqi civilians," he said.

Meanwhile, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) quoted a military spokesman as saying that Western planes attacked civilian sites in the northern no-fly zone Wednesday. "Ten formations of the enemy crows... flew over regions of provinces of Duhok, Arbil and Nineveh and attacked our service and civilian installations," the spokesman said.

He also said that Iraqi air defenses challenged the planes and forced them to leave Iraqi airspace into their base in Turkey.

The U.S. military's European Command said Wednesday that U.S. warplanes attacked ammunition and fuel storage areas about 10 miles southwest of Mosul earlier in the day after the Iraqi military fired anti-aircraft guns at patrolling jets from a site northwest of Saddam Dam in the northern zone.

All aircraft returned safely to base, it said.

Tuesday the European Command had said new military reconnaissance photographs showed Iraqi missile sites were within 35 yards of civilian houses in the northern city of Mosul.

The photographs proved that Baghdad was willing to use civilians as human shields to protect weapons that track and fire at U.S. and British warplanes patrolling no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, the U.S. said.

Tuesday's charge, made in a statement issued in Germany, was the latest volley in a sporadic, nine-month war of bombs and words with Baghdad.

The statement also said Iraqi anti-aircraft fire, not U.S. bombs, fell back to ground in northern Iraq Monday and killed two civilians.

"This is another lie," Dauri said. "How come that a missile would return to the same location where it was fired from?"

Iraq, which does not recognize the no-fly zones set up by the West to protect minorities from attack by the Iraqi military, said Monday two civilians had been killed by Western bombs in Ba'ashiqah, a town 20 miles northeast of Mosul.

But the European Command countered Tuesday that the deaths were caused by Iraqi artillery.

U.S. and British warplanes have regularly bombed surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites and radars in the no-fly zones since last December when Iraq's military began challenging police overflights by the jets.

Dauri, who is also member of the ruling Baath party, said Iraq would continue to protest against U.S. and British planes patrolling the zones, set up soon after the 1991 Gulf War.

The Baath party's newspaper, al-Thawra, urged U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to take action to end the patrols. "It is the duty of the secretary-general to stop such daily aggression," it said in a front-page editorial.

Western planes have launched more than 110 strikes against Iraqi targets this year.

This week's attack was the first after a five-day lull after Western planes struck on Aug. 18 in Jassan, 106 miles southeast of Baghdad. Iraq said the attack killed 12 civilians and was outside the southern no-fly zone.

U.S. officials later confirmed that at least one military target outside the southern no-fly zone had been attacked because it was being actively used for Iraqi air defense. But they said they had no evidence that civilians had been killed.

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Turkish F-16 Fighter Jet Crashes

By The Associated Press, August 26, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Turkey-Jet-Crash.html

BATMAN, Turkey (AP) -- An F-16 fighter jet crashed as it landed at a military base in southeast Turkey on Thursday, and the pilot parachuted safely, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

A missile and other amunition exploded on impact, causing serious damage to the base in Batman, the report said. Firefighters quickly put out a fire at the site. Batman is 625 miles southeast of the capital, Ankara.

The jet was returning to the military base after a training mission when the pilot lost control of the aircraft. Planes at the base are used to bomb Kurdish rebels battling for autonomy in the southeast of the country.

Officials were investigating the cause of the crash.

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Kurd Rebels Say They're Leaving Turkey

Updated 9:06 AM ET August 25, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990825/09/international-turkey-kurds

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's Kurdish guerrillas said Wednesday they had begun withdrawing from Turkey a week ahead of a schedule set by their condemned leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Ocalan was sentenced to death for treason in July and held responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 people in the 15-year Kurdish armed struggle for autonomy -- mostly Kurdish fighters, as well as soldiers and civilians. From his cell on an island prison, he ordered his rebels this month to end their armed struggle and pull out of Turkey from September 1.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said it had already begun.

"Without even waiting for September 1, our armed forces have started the withdrawal process in line with earlier statements," its presidential council said in a statement carried by the German-based Kurdish DEM news agency.

The statement said the rebels had decreased their activities to the "lowest level possible" and that the responsibility for any clashes that broke out lay with the Turkish army.

Turkish emergency rule authorities in the mainly Kurdish southeast said Wednesday their troops had killed 10 PKK guerrillas overnight.

Turkey refuses any negotiations with the PKK, which it labels a terrorist organization.

The rebels are most likely to try to rebase themselves in the breakaway Kurdish enclave of northern Iraq.

The PKK has announced a unilateral cease-fire in its sporadic conflict with a Kurdish faction partly ruling the region -- outside Baghdad's control since after the 1991 Gulf War.

The rebels said they would make a more comprehensive statement on September 1.

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Turkish TV Says Closure Order Political Revenge

Updated 1:17 AM ET August 26, 1999 By Suna Erdem
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990826/01/international-turkey-media

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish television station, ordered closed for a week because of its earthquake coverage, struck back at the government Wednesday, accusing it of taking political revenge.

The government has been stung by unprecedented media criticism of its handling of the aftermath of last week's massive quake in which more than 12,000 people are officially listed as and 200,000 were left homeless.

The High Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) late Tuesday ordered Kanal 6, a particularly critical outlet, shut down for a week.

RTUK accused it of "encouraging violence, terror and ethnic discrimination and allowing broadcasting that could create feelings of hatred among the people."

But Kanal 6 General Coordinator Aydin Ozdalga said the closure was ordered because the government felt humiliated at the critical tone of the channel's broadcasts.

"The real reason is that since the beginning ... we said that this isn't a minor earthquake so people should help, and that the government organization is not good enough to handle the situation," Ozdalga told Reuters Television.

He said Kanal 6 would go to court to fight the order, which takes effect Aug. 30, but he did not expect to stop the ban.

The main target for criticism is far-right Health Minister Osman Durmus, who is alleged to have spurned offers for help from Turkey's traditional foes, Armenia and Greece.

Wednesday night, Dumas urged RTUK to take action against six national television channels he accused of "directing grave insults" toward him, the Anatolian news agency reported.

An official at the ATV channel, one of the six accused by Dumas, said the minister was trying the close the stations.

"We have done our duty. The minister outraged many with his own comments," the ATV official said.

But even the powerful military has come under fire for allegedly responding too late, and state bodies have been slammed for allowing the construction of the shoddy buildings that were the first to collapse.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit distanced himself from the RTUK decision, but he signaled his agreement by saying that the media should not be putting out reports that "upset people."

"Some newspapers and television channels are having a negative effect on morale," Anatolian news agency reported him as saying. "So RTUK might have made this decision in order to provide a deterrent. It is the duty of the media to express people's criticisms, complaints and their misery, but they are going too far.

"At this time our people need a morale boost, so upsetting stories should be avoided."

Despite protestations that RTUK is independent of the government, Health Minister Durmus said in a speech in parliament late Tuesday the board should take action against media provoking public anger.

Although RTUK often orders television blackouts, stations are usually only shut down for one or two days, and rarely for political reasons. The board mainly targets programs containing sex and violence.

Radikal newspaper was clear in its interpretation of the order when it headlined its report of the shutdown -- "Censored."

That view was echoed by others.

Oktay Eksi, who heads the Turkish Press Council, said the closure order did nothing to prove Kanal 6 broadcasts were unacceptable, but had made it clear that RTUK answers to political masters.

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EU Officials View Turkish Quake Damage

Updated 7:48 AM ET August 26, 1999 By Suna Erdem
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990826/07/international-quake-turkey

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Senior European Union officials surveyed the devastation caused by last week's Turkish earthquake Thursday as relief teams took advantage of a break in the weather after days of heavy rain.

Foreign Minister Tarja Halonen from current EU president Finland and EU External Relations Commissioner Hans van den Broek were the first of a number of foreign officials expected to inspect the damage from the quake, whose confirmed death toll stood at 13,000 so far, with some 200,000 homeless.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was to fly by helicopter to two of the worst hit cities, Yalova and Izmit.

"The human tragedy which we have here now requires quick action with as much cooperation as possible," Halonen said.

In addition to relief supplies already sent, the EU has promised financial support to overcome a catastrophe that Turkey's central bank chief has said will cost $5-7 billion.

Ties between Turkey and the EU have been strained since Ankara was excluded from the EU's eastward expansion because of its human rights record and disputes with EU member Greece.

"We've noticed that relations between Greece and Turkey are also better. We hope that this common feeling of solidarity can continue with this close cooperation," Halonen said.

The EU delegation met the mayor of Istanbul's quake-hit Avcilar district, visited a crisis center and viewed two collapsed apartment blocks. They then flew to Ankara to meet Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and Foreign Minister Ismail Cem.

The central crisis center raised the confirmed death toll by about 500 to 13,009, with 26,606 injured.

Wednesday officials had rescinded a sudden upward blip in the death toll of about 5,000 -- blaming it on a local official who had hoped to attract more aid for his area.

But the toll is still expected to rise sharply as more bodies are found beneath the rubble. Officials are reluctant to predict a final figure amid fears it could reach 40,000.

Recovery operations have been hindered by torrential rains and flooding as part of the coastline sunk into the sea.

The U.S. Sixth Fleet said it was sending three more ships to the coast to help with the relief effort. The ships have a combined capacity of being able to produce 100,000 gallons (454,600 litres) of drinkable water a day, the fleet said.

"Even though these ships can produce large quantities of water under normal conditions, there are still many logistical, distribution, ecological and infrastructure challenges caused by this devastating earthquake that must be overcome," the Sixth Fleet said in a statement.

Turkish media kept up their criticism of the government's handling of the quake, despite the closure of a local television station for a week for coverage critical of the government.

"You'll have to silence all of us!" the mass-circulation Milliyet daily retorted in its main headline.

The Anatolian news agency reported that controversial far-right Health Minister Osman Durmus had urged the broadcasting watchdog to act against six national television channels for directing "grave insults" at him.

Durmus is alleged to have spurned offers of help from Turkey's traditional foes, Armenia and Greece. Newspapers also questioned whether aid that was coming in from other countries and international organizations would reach those most in need.

The liberal daily Radical said people had no confidence that tax increases being imposed by the government to pay for the earthquake would hit their mark, and feared the money would be channeled through companies close to the political parties.

Istanbul, where about 1,000 people died, woke up to sunshine after heavy rain soaked the homeless huddled into flimsy tents.

But drizzle was lingering over coastal areas which bore the brunt of the quake, where many were shivering in tent cities.

On waste ground near Golcuk, the Gul family were washing and preparing for the day after a soggy night under canvas.

"It's muddy and damp. I'm old and sick and I can't breathe. It's not healthy," said Fatma Gul.

Soldiers were shoveling gravel onto the muddy paths between the tents and putting down wooden pallets to serve as walkways.

Muzaffer Gul, who worked at the Golcuk naval base, said he had sent his wife and five-month-old baby to stay with relatives in Istanbul while he waited for officials to assess the losses his family had suffered when his apartment building tipped over.

Many family heads like him are afraid to leave what is left of their homes, fearing they will miss out on compensation.