Ukraine to Complete 2 Nuke Reactors
Tuesday, August 31, 1999; 10:35 a.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990831/V000740-083199-idx.html
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine will need more than two years to complete two new nuclear reactors before the Chernobyl power plant can be closed, unless Western nations help finance the project, the country's nuclear energy chief said Tuesday.
The former Soviet republic presently finances construction of the reactors on its own, while outside financial aid would allow the country to finish both by 2000, said Mykola Dudchenko, who heads the state nuclear energy company Energoatom.
``But irrespective of whether we get the assistance or not, these reactors will be built,'' Dudchenko told a news conference.
The reactors at the Khmelnytsky and Rivne nuclear plants are more than 80 percent finished, and Ukraine says it needs both in order to compensate for the energy that would be lost when Chernobyl shuts down.
Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded and caught fire in April 1986, spewing radiation over large areas of Ukraine and neighboring former Soviet republics of Russia and Belarus. Presently, only one reactor remains operational at Chernobyl.
Western nations have been slow to help and some argue that Ukraine, whose nuclear power plants provide more than 40 percent of the country's electricity, could find alternative energy sources.
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Ukraine not ready to close Chernobyl by 2000
11:52 a.m. Aug 31, 1999 Eastern By Olena Horodetska
http://www.dogpile.com - search Infoseek
KIEV, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Ukraine is likely to miss an early 2000 deadline to close its troubled Chernobyl nuclear power plant because it needs its energy supply for the coming winter months, officials said on Tuesday.
``We will not have enough time to complete all construction works which might allow the safe shutdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant by January 1, 2000,'' Mykola Dudchenko, president of Energoatom, the state nuclear power agency, told a news conference.
Dudchenko said Ukraine first had to live through the difficult winter when the cash-strapped former Soviet republic could face energy shortages. Only after the winter could it make a final decision on the closure.
Ukraine promised the Group of Seven leading industrial nations in 1995 to close Chernobyl by 2000 in exchange for aid to finish building two replacement reactors in western Ukraine.
Reactor number three is Chernobyl's last operating unit after its number four reactor exploded in April 1986, spewing a cloud of radioctive dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of western Europe.
Thirty one people were killed outright and thousands more affected by the world's worst civil nuclear disaster.
A second reactor was stopped in 1997 after it exhausted its safe lifespan, while another has still not been rehabilitated after a fire in 1991.
Dudchenko said nine of Ukraine's 14 nuclear reactors were generating electricity and five were undergoing repairs.
Vissarion Kim, Energoatom's vice-president, said it was impossible to close Chernobyl soon because much-needed reserves of fuel at the plant would last for more than a year.
``In case of a closure we will have just to throw it (nuclear fuel) away and we are not that rich,'' Kim told the news conference.
Dudchenko said a lack of money to buy fuel and pay for current repair works, as well as mounting consumer debts had complicated the situation in the nuclear energy sector.
``Western partners treat our problems with understanding,'' he said, adding that Ukraine had spent $51 million to secure enough fuel and repair equipment while consumers owed the sector 2.6 billion hryvnias ($593 million) as of August 31.
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Company Press Release
Kurchatov Research Holdings, Ltd. Announces First Revenue Generating
Project Using EKOR Expected At Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor
August 31, 4:08 pm Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/990831/dc_kurchat_1.html
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 1999--Kurchatov Research Holdings, Ltd.(OTCBB: KRHL - news) is pleased to announce that the first revenue generating project using EKOR is expected to commence at Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor No. 4 in the immediate future.
Based upon an agreement between Kurchatov Research Holdings, Ltd. and Eurotech, Ltd.(OTC: EURO - news) the two companies have an equal interest of 50% (percent) of the net profits generated by Eurotech, Ltd. from the sale or licensing of EKOR. As a result, Kurchatov Research Holdings, Ltd. will financially benefit from every contract negotiated and signed by Eurotech, Ltd. in accordance to the previously announced net-profit sharing agreements between KRH and Eurotech.
Kurchatov Research Holdings, Ltd. and Eurotech expect that the first revenue-generating project to employ the EKOR compound will be a site-wide application at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. The future application of EKOR at Chernobyl would occur some time after a successful application demonstration of EKOR requested by the Chernobyl authorities to suppress nuclear dust and isolate fuel-containing masses under the various conditions present at the reactor.
In 1997, the G-7 nations approved the Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP) to increase the safety and stability of the shelter by 2005 using international funds. So far, $760 million has been allocated since SIP began in 1998. The total clean-up cost to suppress dust at Chernobyl is estimated at over $3.1 billion by the Ukraine Ministry.
EKOR is a patented silicon geopolymer developed by scientists at the Kurchatov Research Institute in Moscow specifically for use at Chernobyl. Application of an EKOR foam layer will prevent radioactive dust from leaving the area surrounding Chernobyl because it forms a permanent barrier between the soil and the air thus trapping the contamination. The EKOR barrier will not permit water penetration and will remain in place for centuries without degrading. For nuclear fuel encapsulation, EKOR is effective for extended periods of time because it does not degrade under radiation as most material such as glass. An EKOR coating will eliminate the threat of radioactive materials leaking to the air, soil, surface or ground water from these dangerous fuel-containing masses.
Furthermore, per Eurotech's press release dated August 30, 1999, Eurotech is ``in the final negotiation stages for agreements to use radiation-resistant EKOR technology for nuclear waste encapsulation in the United States and Europe. More details are expected when negotiations are complete. Best estimates of the results of these negotiations are that the EKOR contracts could generate significant revenues - in the tens of millions of dollars.''
Kurchatov Research Holdings, Ltd. is a diversified technology holding company organized to identify, assess, acquire and commercialize technologies developed by scientists, engineers and research institutes worldwide.
This release may include ``forward looking statements'' within the meaning of various provisions of federal and state securities laws and judicial interpretation of such laws. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not historical facts and may be forward-looking and, accordingly, such statements involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Whether actual results will conform to KRH's expectations and predictions is subject to the risks and uncertainties described above that may cause actual results to differ materially. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and KRH undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
For additional information, please contact: Hans Joachim Schuerholz at 011 49 171 630 6100 or Ms. Yolanda Velazquez at International Media Solutions, Inc. at (407) 786-0990.
Contact:
Kurchatov Research Holdings, Ltd. Hans Joachim Schuerholz, 011 49 171 630 6100 or International Media Solutions, Inc. Yolanda Velazquez, 407/786-0990.
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Japan, fearing N.Korea, seeks bigger defence budget
04:58 a.m. Aug 31, 1999 Eastern By Teruaki Ueno
http://www.dogpile.com - search Infoseek
TOKYO, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Japan's Defence Agency sought its first budget rise in three years on Tuesday, seeking more funds to cope with the possibility of biochemical warfare, guerrilla attacks by infiltrators and rogue ships.
The agency submitted a 4.99 trillion yen ($45 billion) budget request for the fiscal year beginning next April, a rise of 1.6 percent from this year and the first increase since 1997/98.
The request would need to be approved by the government as part of its budget bill in December and then enacted by parliament by the end of March.
Japanese concerns about a military threat from North Korea played a key role in determining the content of the budget requests, agency officials said.
It regards North Korea as its main security threat and has been concerned over possible attacks since last August, when Pyongyang launched a three-stage ballistic missile that passed over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Citing the intrusion in March by two ``mystery'' ships which Tokyo believes were North Korean spy ships, the agency said it needed at least 31 billion yen in the next fiscal year to deal with such ``suspicious ships.''
The budget request included proposed purchases of two 200-tonne high-speed patrol ships equipped with guided missiles, one 4,600-tonne destroyer, one 2,700-tonne diesel submarine, four auxiliary ships and mobile night-vision equipment.
The navy also wants funds to form a 60-man special squad to patrol and inspect rogue ships in Japan's territorial waters.
The Defence Agency asked for 2.7 billion yen to improve ``combat'' simulation facilities to train soldiers so they can respond to attacks by guerrillas or commandos.
Officials said the agency planned to hold military exercises next year simulating a guerrilla attack by North Korean infiltrators.
Japan has drawn up a scenario in which North Korean agents launch attacks on nuclear reactors, airports, and U.S. and Japanese military bases in Japan.
In its annual white paper issued in July, the Defence Agency said the secretive Communist nation has a 100,000-strong special squad assigned to conduct intelligence and terrorist activities.
The agency also asked for 2.4 billion yen to set up special units within the Ground Self-Defence Force, Japan's army, to develop equipment and explore how to deal with attacks involving nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
The agency said it plans to send military officials to the U.S. Army Chemical School and other U.S. institutes next year to study techniques to detect and guard against biological and chemical weapons.
Agency officials said Japan was currently not fully prepared to respond to attacks using weapons of mass destruction, particularly biological weapons.
The Defence Agency has said it believes North Korea already has facilities capable of producing both chemical and biological weapons.
The agency also requested that 2.1 billion yen be earmarked for joint research with the United States on an anti-missile defence system known as the Theater Missile Defence (TMD).
With a wary eye on North Korea's advancing ballistic missile programme, Tokyo and Washington signed an agreement last month to begin sharing technology on the ballistic missile defence.
Japan has allocated 1.1 billion yen for its part of joint missile research in the budget for the current fiscal year, and the Defence Agency has estimated that the research will cost around 20-30 billion yen over the next five to six years.
The Defence Agency also proposed 3.8 billion yen be used in the next fiscal year to build a security system to prevent computer hackers from stealing top military secrets or destroying the agency's computer system.
``Hackers have improved their technology nowadays, and therefore we must build an advanced system to defend ourselves from them,'' one agency official said.
($1-111 yen)
((Tokyo Newsroom +81-3 3432 8018
tokyo.newsroom+reuters.com))
---
North Korea Marks Missile Launch
By GINNY PARKER Associated Press Writer August 31 6:06 AM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19990831/wl/japan_nkorea_missile_2.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Japan-NKorea-Missile.html
TOKYO (AP) - North Korea marked the anniversary of its launch of a long-range missile over Japan one year ago today with boasts of scientific and technological advances.
Japanese government officials and media, meanwhile, urged vigilance lest the North decide to launch yet again.
``Over the course of the year, our scientists and engineers have seen the successful results of over 50 meaningful research and development projects,'' said a broadcast by Korean Central Radio, which is monitored in Tokyo by the Radiopress agency.
The report said the projects included a voice recognition system for the Korean language, a program to refine lead and the development of an electron microscope.
On Aug. 31 of last year, the isolated communist country test-fired a missile that sailed over Japan and into the Pacific. The action rattled Japan, prompting the nation to begin strengthening its defense system and spurring plans to research a missile defense system with the United States.
Western officials believe the launch was a test of a Taepodong missile with a range long enough to strike any part of the Japanese archipelago.
Pyongyang, however, claims it launched a satellite. Korean Central Radio said the satellite was still in orbit.
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said today that Japan is ready to resume dialogue with the North, but only if it allays international concerns on its suspected plan to test-fire a missile.
``Regrettably there is yet no clear information that North Korea has given up launching a missile again,'' he said.
The Asahi newspaper, a major Japanese daily, urged Japan to lift sanctions and restart normalization talks with North Korea - saying that opening the communist nation to the outside world is the only way to solve the problem.
``We must consider how to encourage and hasten, in cooperation with the international community, needed changes in North Korea's policy,'' it said.
North Korea has recently indicated it is willing to resolve the missile issue through dialogue.
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.
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Aid Could Stop N.Korea Missile Test
By Kyong-Hwa Seok Associated Press Writer Monday, August 30,
1999; 8:07 a.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990830/V000824-083099-idx.html
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Lifting decades of economic sanctions and increasing food aid are likely to prevent hunger-stricken North Korea from launching a new long-range missile, a U.S. congressman said today after visiting the communist country.
``North Korea wants to not only negotiate, it wants us to continue food aid and lift sanctions. If we do that, they will respond in a favorable way,'' Rep. Tony Hall told a news conference.
The Ohio Democrat flew to Seoul after making a four-day visit to North Korea, during which he met Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan and other top Pyongyang officials to discuss the missile and other issues.
Kim is the North's principal negotiator in talks with the United States. He is set to meet U.S. envoy Charles Kartman in Berlin next week for talks on easing Cold War tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The missile issue is expected to top the agenda.
``If the United States lifts sanctions, we will certainly respond with good faith,'' Hall quoted Kim as saying. ``Sanctions drive (North Korea) into a corner.''
Western military analysts believe the North is poised to test an advanced version of a long-range missile it fired over Japan a year ago. The newer missile is believed to have an extended range that could hit Alaska or Hawaii.
The United States, Japan and South Korea have warned that another launch could trigger economic penalties against North Korea.
But North Korea said today it will continue to build up its defense capability to counter an anti-missile defense system supported by the United States and Japan.
``We will continue to increase the country's national defense capabilities in every way to cope with any military offensive of the enemy,'' a spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a report by the country's foreign news outlet, KCNA.
The unidentified spokesman said the anti-missile defense system, commonly known as the Theater Missile Defense, is primarily aimed at North Korea. The TMD system is designed to destroy incoming missiles in the sky, before they reach their targets.
Japan views the program as crucial for regional defense because of what it sees as nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.
With the help of outside aid, North Korea's food crisis has eased considerably, but the reclusive country faces serious health problems, Hall said.
Drinking water is scarce and tuberculosis and diarrhea are at an ``epidemic proportion,'' he said.
Medicines and power to heat homes and hospitals are in extremely short supply, Hall said.
Hall also criticized the North Korean government, saying many of its officials tried to hide what is happening and aid workers rarely have access to officials with relevant expertise. But he stressed other nations should continue food aid.
North Korea has been largely dependent on foreign aid to feed its people since 1995. Its agricultural industry collapsed after decades of mismanagement and years of bad weather.
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Sumitomo Metal Ind, Kobe Steel to set up alloy JV
August 30, 9:44 pm Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/990830/7g.html
TOKYO, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd and Kobe Steel Ltd said on Tuesday they would set up a joint venture by April 2000 to produce and sell special alloy pipes for nuclear reactors.
The equally-held joint venture will be the biggest player in the market for such alloy pipes with a share of 60 percent, they said.
The new company's annual sales are expected to reach about four billion yen.
Sumitomo Metal Industries and Kobe Steel have a combined output capacity of 200,000 units of the four-metre special alloy pipes per year.
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Chinese A-Bomb Victim Sues Japan
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Japan-China-Compensation.html
TOKYO (AP) -- A Chinese man who was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945 sued the Japanese government and a trucking company today, demanding the equivalent of $226,000 in compensation.
Zhang Wenbin was among tens of thousands of Chinese who were captured by the Japanese military during World War II and forced to work as laborers in Japanese mines and other businesses.
After his capture in 1944, Zhang labored for more than 10 hours a day at a dock in Niigata, 160 miles northwest of Tokyo, unloading coal and lumber, his lawyer Osamu Kaneko said in a telephone interview.
Zhang was arrested in March 1945 on suspicion of being a spy and taken to Hiroshima, in southwestern Japan, where he was convicted. Zhang denies the spying charges.
He was in a Hiroshima prison when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, in an effort to bring the Japanese to surrender.
Zhang, 78, who now lives in Hunan province, in southern China, suffers from various ailments believed to be caused by the bombing, including a low white blood cell count as well as stomach and rectal cancer, Kaneko said.
``This lawsuit attempts to bring to light what Japan has denied responsibility for 50 years and tried to bury in darkness,'' Kaneko said. ``It also represents the voice of other Chinese who were forcibly brought here.''
The lawsuit demands that a formal apology be printed in major newspapers in China and Japan. It also targets Rinkocorporation in Niigata, the transport company that operated under a different name when Zhang was forced to work there in the 1940s.
The Justice Ministry declined comment. The official in charge of legal affairs at Rinkocorporation was not immediately available for comment.
Besides Zhang's case, several lawsuits filed by Chinese in similar situations are still before Japanese courts. There have been a few rulings in the cases of Korean former laborers, who filed similar lawsuits demanding redress. None have won in the courts.
The government also has been sued by women from other Asian countries who are demanding compensation and an apology for having been forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.
Between 1910 and 1945, the Japanese military brought about 40,000 Chinese into the country to help offset a domestic labor shortage. Among them, 7,000 died of malnutrition and violence by their employers.
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China Tests Ground-To-Air Missiles On Plateau
August 31 7:01 AM ET Reuters
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990831/wl/china_military_1.html
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990831/07/international-china-military
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has successfully test-fired a ground-to-air anti-aircraft missile on a high plateau, the Liberation Army Daily reported Tuesday.
It was the first time China had tested the mid-range missile on a plateau, the People's Liberation Army newspaper said without specifying where the test was conducted or identifying the missile.
The test was in line with the policy of the air force's Communist Party cell to ``solidify combat readiness,'' the newspaper said in apparent reference to Taiwan.
Beijing and Taipei have been locked in a war of words and military posturing following Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's declaration last month that ties should be on a ``special state-to-state'' basis.
China, which has threatened to invade if Taiwan declares independence, saw Lee's move as a lurch toward statehood. Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunified with the motherland.
The newspaper said missiles downed several drone ``enemy aircraft'' from different angles and heights.
The anti-aircraft unit overcame transportation difficulties, bad weather and lack of oxygen, the newspaper said.
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Siamese Twins
FOREIGN AFFAIRS / By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
August 31, 1999 New York Times Editorials
http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/friedman/083199frie.html
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- No one knows if China is going to invade Taiwan, but if it does it will affect not only Asian politics but also Asian rock-and-roll. You see, the most popular singer in China today is Taiwan's sexy, silky-voiced Ah Mei. When Ah Mei recently performed in Beijing and thanked the Chinese Ministry of Culture for letting her appear, the Chinese audience reportedly booed at even the mention of their own Government. Rock-and-roll über alles. Two countries, one Elvis.
I recall this story because it helps to explain why -- for the moment -- the most important thing happening in the Strait of Taiwan is what is not happening. China, for all its distress at President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan for his assertion that Taiwan is a separate "state" from China, hasn't reacted in any substantive way. In part this is because China always moves slowly, and in part it's because Beijing may have concluded it's better to just wait until Taiwan holds its new elections in March and replaces President Lee, because any alternative will be better.
But one thing China's forbearance is surely about is Beijing's awareness that Taiwan and China are now so intertwined that neither can shoot the other without shooting itself. They have mutual assured economic destruction.
Consider just a few facts: In 1995-96 when China threatened Taiwan, the Taiwan stock market crashed, but China's little markets were unaffected. This time, when China rattled its saber at President Lee it knocked down Taiwan's stock market, the Taiex, by 20 percent. What people didn't notice, though, was that the Shanghai Stock Exchange B-share index plunged 40 percent! Two countries, one stock market.
Moreover, Western investment in China has dropped sharply this year. Why? China has been the Ama zon.com of countries -- a place where people were ready to make huge bets, and take huge losses, on the assumption of huge profits one day. But more and more Western investors are questioning whether that huge payday will ever be there, and the corruption and hassles don't seem worth it anymore. At the same time, overseas Chinese from Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia have had to cut back their investments in China because they got hit by the Asian economic crisis.
This leaves the Taiwanese -- who avoided the Asian economic flu and don't mind the cowboy capitalism required for doing business in China -- more important to China than ever. There are roughly 46,000 Taiwanese-funded enterprises operating in China today.
According to The Far Eastern Economic Review, Taiwan's total contracted investment in China is now $46 billion. "Taiwan is China's biggest capital supplier today, because [Taiwanese businessmen] are ready to play by the local rules, but this may not last forever," says Douglas Hsu, chairman of Far East Textile, one of Taiwan's biggest firms. "I am torn right now. China is a big market. Where am I going to find an alternative to this market? But I am living under this cloud of uncertainty with them. I am an industrialist. I have enough problems building plants and finding customers. I can't be worried about missiles flying back and forth. This is a cloud, and if it stays there, [China] is going to pay a price."
In addition, China seems keen again about joining the World Trade Organization -- which would also bring with it permanent most-favored-nation trade status with the U.S. Since 1990 China has earned $65 billion from trade with the U.S. -- half of its total foreign reserve growth in that period. The W.T.O. rules are the lever that China's reformist Prime Minister, Zhu Rongji, wants to use to overcome his domestic opponents and force more openness on China. A war with Taiwan now would torpedo both U.S. trade and approval for China's entry into the W.T.O.
None of this economic integration guarantees that China won't invade Taiwan. Preventing Taiwan's independence is a popular, gut issue for China, and no Chinese leader can ignore it and survive. But what all this economic integration does guarantee is that if China does invade Taiwan the economic costs are going to be enormous -- much larger than commonly realized -- and therefore much more destabilizing for all of China, and therefore much more destabilizing for all of us.
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China Threatens Taiwan Again
August 31, 1999 Associated Press
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19990831/wl/china_taiwan_1.html
BEIJING (AP) - China's People's Liberation Army recently conducted submarine warfare exercises and missile tests, the military's newspaper reported today.
News of the war games came as President Jiang Zemin, in an interview with an Australian newspaper, reiterated Beijing's insistence on its right to use force against Taiwan.
Although China's state-controlled media have toned down a campaign of anti-Taiwan rhetoric, they continue to report on military exercises and to publish commentaries lambasting Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui for demanding that Beijing deal with the island on a state-to-state basis.
China's official Xinhua News Agency criticized Taiwan's ruling party today for supporting Lee's stance.
The move by Lee's Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, after a weekend party meeting ``will put an end to the future of the Kuomintang, and push Taiwanese people to the abyss of war,'' the news agency said.
China and Taiwan split in 1949 following a civil war, and Beijing considers the island a renegade province to be retaken by force if necessary.
The People's Liberation Army Daily reported that an unidentified naval division carried out submarine-aircraft combat games in the East China Sea, to the north of Taiwan. The report did not say when the war games took place.
In a separate report, the newspaper said the air force had conducted tests of a new medium-range, surface-to-air missile on an unidentified ``high plateau,'' presumably in China's far western region.
China's president, in an interview with the newspaper The Australian published today, reiterated his government's refusal to give up the option of using force against Taiwan.
``If China were to undertake not to use force, the peaceful reunification of China would become hollow words,'' the newspaper quoted Jiang as saying in a report from Beijing.
The report said Jiang sought to reassure Taiwan about Beijing's vision for reunification.
``Taiwan will keep the existing social and economic systems as well as the way of life, and enjoy a high degree of autonomy,'' Jiang was quoted as saying. ``The central government will not garrison any troops in Taiwan and people from Taiwan may take office in the central government.''
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Taipei Plans To Build Its Own Missile Shield
TAIPEI, Aug 23, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse)
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=87237
Taiwan's Defense Minister Tang Fei said Monday Taipei planned to build a low-altitude missile shield to counter any threat from China's missile program.
Tang said the defense system would come under a "national missile defense" project, which he said had been mistaken as being part of the American-led Theatre Missile Defense (TMD).
"Many said we want to join the TMD. No, we're not going to join it," Tang said in an interview with state television. "We want to set up our own."
Tang added the system would target China's ballistic and other missiles and any attacks launched by the mainland's military aircraft.
The military's weapons research unit, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, would play a key role in the project, he said, although some weapons and equipment would also be imported.
Establishing such a shield could take 10 years and cost Taiwan up to 300 billion Taiwan dollars ($9.38 billion), he said.
"Because of their accuracy, cruise missiles of the Chinese communists could pose an even greater threat to Taiwan than did the ongoing ballistic missiles," he warned.
Beijing is reported to be developing cruise-type missiles, similar to the U.S. Tomahawk, but Tang said it might be some time before they were in service.
The People's Liberation Army lobbed ballistic missiles into the shipping lanes off Taiwan in mid-1996 to intimidate the island's first direct presidential elections.
The United States and Japan agreed last week to start research on a multibillion dollar missile umbrella.
China has been expressing opposition to the project for several months. The shield would take in Japan, and China suspects it will also include Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province.
China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek's defeated forces fled to the island to set up a non-communist enclave.
Last week Taiwan's cabinet approved a draft report making clear it wants a missile defense system "in order to cope with the missile threat of the Chinese communists".
It called for the swift establishment of an early warning system, which would give the island more time to prepare for any mainland attack as well as the gradual setting up of "a comprehensive missile defense system".
The report, which will be formally made public when parliament convenes on September 17, came a day after President Lee Teng-hui reportedly gave his backing to Taiwan's participation in the U.S.-Japan TMD scheme.
But the U.S. State Department has said it was unaware of Lee's official interest. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)
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Taiwan Plans Live-Fire Test Of Patriot Missile
LINYUAN, TAIWAN, Aug 27, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse)
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=88190
Taiwan plans a live-fire test of U.S.-made Patriot missile weaponry amid calls for the establishment of a nationwide low-altitude missile shield to counter any threat from China's missile program.
"The three Patriot batteries now serving the army have been verified by the United States...after they passed mock tests," said Major-General Wang Chao-tai, the commander of a Tienkung missile base in the southern county of Kaohsiung. "We're working to prepare for a live-five test."
But mindful of the tensions with rival China following President Lee Teng-hui's controversial statehood claim, Wang said a "live-fire test would be conducted only after U.S. approval."
Defying Beijing's anger, Washington sold three PAC-II batteries to Taiwan in 1993. The three units have been put into service to defend the populous greater Taipei area.
Wang would not say if Taiwan plans to buy more Patriot batteries, saying it would be up to defense budget and political considerations.
Local media have said Taiwan has plans to procure up to six batteries of PAC-III, the improved version of PAC-II, to protect built-up areas in central and southern Taiwan.
Wang made the remarks in the first ever opening of the Tienkung missile base to the media, a move the state-funded Central News Agency said would help boost the public confidence when Beijing repeatedly said it would not renounce the option of force against the Nationalist island.
"Our major task is to safeguard the southern area," Wang said.
The base sits atop a hill overlooking the greater Kaohsiung area, which houses the island's leading steel and shipbuilding plants and the prime naval base.
The underground missile cells, each housing four homemade Tienkung ground-to-air missiles, is protected by a concrete wall measuring one meter in width.
"It is able to resist earthquakes and attacks by bombs and chemical weapons," a proud Major-General Ma Ying-chu said.
But Wang said the weaponry was not designed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles, although he did say it proved to be effective sometimes in intercepting missiles.
Tienkung II missile, brainchild of the Chungshan Institute of Science of Technology, has a range of 200 kilometers (124 miles), twice that of the Tienkung I.
The People's Liberation Army lobbed ballistic missiles into the shipping lanes off Taiwan in mid-1996 to intimidate the island's first direct presidential elections.
Defense Minister Tang Fei said last week Taipei planned to build a low-altitude missile shield.
He said the defense system would come under a "national missile defense" project, which he said had been mistaken as being part of the American-led Theatre Missile Defense (TMD).
"Many said we want to join the TMD. No, we're not going to join it," Tang said in an interview with state television. "We want to set up our own."
Tang added the system would target China's ballistic and other missiles and any attacks launched by the mainland's military aircraft.
Establishing such a shield could take 10 years and cost Taiwan up to $300 billion Taiwan dollars ($9.38 billion), he said.
The United States and Japan agreed last week to start research on a multi-billion dollar missile umbrella.
China has been expressing opposition to the project for several months. The shield would take in Japan, and China suspects it will also include Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)
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SC notice to Centre on uranium pollution (India)
By The Hindu Legal Correspondent, August 31, 1999
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/08/31/stories/0231000b.htm
NEW DELHI, AUG. 30. The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Union Government and three others on a public interest petition seeking a direction to take immediate steps to insulate people living in the vicinity of a uranium mine in Bihar from the hazards of untreated effluents and pollution of uranium mining.
The other respondents to whom notices were issued by a Bench comprising Mr. Justice S. P. Bharucha and Mr. Justice S.S.M. Quadri were the Uranium Corporation of India; the Atomic Energy Commission and the Deputy Commissioner, Singhbum district, Bihar.
In his petition, the advocate, Dr. B. L. Wadehra, said the workers of uranium mines at Jaduguda in the Singhbum district of Bihar and people living nearby were suffering from the hazards of radiation caused by untreated effluents discharged from the mining and processing operations. They were also suffering from radiation-related diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis, leukaemia, impotency and physical deformities, the petition said.
The petitioner submitted that the drastic corrective steps proposed by the Atomic Energy Commission ``remained largely on paper''. It was not only the human beings who were hard hit by the uranium pollution, but even plants, fish, water, food and earth. Hence the present petition for a direction to the respondents to take immediate steps to safeguard the health and lives of the people living nearby and the workers in the mines.
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India, Pakistan seen signing test ban treaty soon
07:41 a.m. Aug 26, 1999 Eastern By Rolf Soderlind
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VIENNA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - India will hopefully sign a global nuclear test ban treaty soon after its general elections this autumn, and Pakistan is likely to follow suit, treaty officials said on Thursday.
They said 152 states had now signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) banning nuclear weapons testing and any other nuclear explosions since the United Nations opened it for signature in September 1996.
But to date, only 21 of 44 key states that must sign and ratify the treaty before it can enter into force have done so. India and Pakistan are among several states which have neither signed nor ratified the agreement.
``The top priority when it comes to new signatures and ratification is really India and Pakistan,'' Wolfgang Hoffmann, executive secretary of the CTBT preparatory commission, said.
He said he would resume talks with India after general elections there in September and early October and that there was ``a fair chance to have an Indian signature fairly soon.''
``Pakistan is looking at what India is doing. Therefore it seems to me that if India is ready to sign, also Pakistan will sign,'' Hoffmann told reporters.
He said U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan would summon a review conference in Vienna on October 6-8 to take stock after three years of work on the test ban treaty.
Although ratification is still a major obstacle to enforcing the treaty, Hoffmann said most countries were taking part in the buildup of a $150 million global monitoring system to verify compliance with the treaty.
He said 100 of a projected 321 monitoring stations were already in operation and capable of registering vibrations from a nuclear explosion underground, in the sea and in the air.
In New Delhi, India's main opposition Congress party said on Wednesday it did not rule out signing the treaty, but that the country's strategic interests were paramount.
India last week unveiled a nuclear deterrence doctrine based on aircraft, ships and mobile land-based missiles. This prompted angry protests from Pakistan which said the plans endangered peace in South Asia and the rest of the world.
Pakistan said it would continue to develop its nuclear weapons as a minimum nuclear deterrent against the proposed arsenal of its arch-rival.
India staged controversial nuclear tests in May last year and Pakistan reacted by carrying out its own tests.
In the wake of these nuclear tests, Pakistan pledged to sign the CTBT by September this year, but now says it has an open mind whether to do so.
Islamabad's attitude has hardened since the two rivals went to the brink of a fourth war recently after the occupation of India's strategic Kargil heights in disputed Kashmir by what it called Kashmiri freedom fighters and India termed Pakistani troops.
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ANALYSIS-India eyes an ambitious nuclear arsenal
02:58 a.m. Aug 22, 1999 Eastern By Sanjeev Miglani
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NEW DELHI, Aug 22 (Reuters) - India's security planners are eyeing an ambitious and complex nuclear arsenal that could stretch beyond the demands of a minimum nuclear deterrent, analysts said on Sunday.
India's nuclear weapons will be based on aircraft, ships and mobile-based missiles to quickly retaliate against an atomic attack, a draft nuclear doctrine unveiled this week said.
Control and command of the nuclear weapons will rest with civilian authorities, with the button in the hands of the prime minister, the doctrine released by the government-appointed National Security Advisory Board said.
A document outlining the country's first ever nuclear doctrine left the shape, size and strength of the Indian nuclear deterrent open-ended and dependent on external factors, saying it was a ``dynamic concept.''
``Quite frankly, I am taken aback,'' said Kanti Bajpai, a professor of security studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. ``The scope seems to be much larger and ambitious than a lot of us thought,'' he said.
Soon after its stunning series of nuclear explosions in the Rajasthan desert last year, India said it would build a credible nuclear deterrent and promised not to be the first to launch such weapons or use them against countries without nuclear arms.
Eighteen months on, the nuclear doctrine points the way to full-blooded nuclear weaponisation while retaining the commitment on no-first-use of such weapons.
Within India, the doctrine has evoked different views ranging from support for making public such a sensitive document, to concern over the dangers and costs involved and also a touch of disbelief over whether the country actually has the technology to make good such an ambitious dream.
``The general impression created since May 1998 was it would be a minimalised and relaxed approach. But this doctrine spells out the classical deterrent posture with a triad structure and emphasis on rapid retaliation,'' said Bajpai.
``Triad structure'' refers to deployment on planes, missiles, and at sea in ships and submarines.
The elaborate nuclear weaponisation plans could take India down a costly road and trigger the most debilitating arms race South Asia has ever known, another expert said.
``If the draft doctrine becomes a reality, then not only will nuclear weaponisation impose a crippling financial burden on the economy, we will also be contributing to make South Asia one of the most dangerous places to live in,'' columnist C.Rammanohar Reddy wrote in the Hindu newspaper.
Reddy argued in the article entitled ``Mindless Militarisation'' that the costs of nuclearisation as visualised by the National Security Advisory Board could be anything between 500 to 600 billion rupees ($12-$14 billion) over the next decade.
The board made no mention of the costs involved in setting up the nuclear force and the control and command infrastructure such as space-based early warning systems.
The nuclear doctrine will be up for approval when a new government takes office after elections starting next month.
But the draft policy unveiled by National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra has triggered harsh words from arch rival Pakistan and ripples of concern in foreign capitals.
Islamabad, which answered India's nuclear explosions with first tests of its own last summer, promised to review its own deterrence if New Delhi went ahead with its nuclear plans.
Washington said the Indian desire to develop a nuclear doctrine was not in the security interest of India or the subcontinent or the United States.
Indian officials said they had the right to determine the country's security interests in an unpredictable environment and the nuclear policy was not aimed at a particular country.
``This is a not a country specific policy. It is question of deterrence in a nuclearised environment,'' Mishra said.
($-43 rupees)
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Pakistan Wants India to Compensate
Monday, August 30, 1999; 3:32 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990830/V000092-083099-idx.html
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan demanded $60.2 million in compensation from India on Monday for shooting down a naval surveillance plane.
There was no immediate comment from India.
Pakistan says India shot down the French-built Atlantique plane Aug. 10 well inside its airspace roughly 120 miles from the southern port city of Karachi, killing 16 servicemen. India denies and says the plane violated its airspace.
``The two countries were not in a state of war at the time of the shooting down of the aircraft,'' the Foreign Office said. India violated all international norms by shooting down the plane, which was on a routine training flight, it added.
Earlier Monday, Indian Air Chief, A.Y. Tipnis said the downing of the Pakistani plane was ``a clear message to our adversary not to take liberties.''
India and Pakistan, world's two newest nuclear powers, have already fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947. Two of the three wars were fought over Kashmir, now divided between them. The two countries claim Kashmir in its entirety.
The two poor South Asian neighbors were at the brink of a fourth-full scale-war in May, when India started an operation against pro-Pakistan Islamic fighters, who had captured mountain peaks in Indian Kashmir's Kargil area. After 11-weeks, Pakistan withdrew.
India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, meanwhile, accused Pakistan on Monday of sponsoring terrorism in South and Central Asia, Press Trust of India news agency reported.
``Pakistan is encouraging terrorism and this is becoming a threat to the entire region,'' PTI quoted Vajpayee as saying at an election rally in northern Haryana state.
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For Holbrooke, a New Job, but the Old Balkan Difficulties
By STEVEN ERLANGER, August 31, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/083199holbrooke-balkans.html
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Richard Holbrooke, America's new delegate to the United Nations, stood at the edge of a mass grave near Stara Cikatova, 25 miles west of here, facing the television cameras, struggling a little to find apt words to say.
So far, 129 bodies have been excavated from three sites near a quarry. Some Albanians, investigators say, had been marched to the edge of the quarry cliff, shot and then dumped over, with dead cattle piled on top of them, and then the whole pile set alight.
It was Holbrooke's first stop in Kosovo, on his first trip here since the war and his swearing-in last week, at the end of a very long day and a half that started in New York. He winced, just a little. After all, he had brought the press and the cameras, who would have insisted on coming anyway.
The stop itself was the symbol, but his message was predigested and clear for the cameras: NATO fought the war against the Yugoslavs for a reason, and the dead must be honored by the peace. Still, at a place like this, it is not easy to get it right.
"We are here to bear witness," he finally said. "We are not learning anything here that isn't in previous accounts. But to be in the physical presence of the events, that's different. To be on the soil where you know people have died is a powerful event.
"While we are trying to forge a peace, we need to remember what brought us here," he added. "And this drainage ditch, that had bodies in it, is a reason."
Holbrooke, finally in place at the United Nations after nearly a year of congressional problems, was also trying to tell the world that he was back -- making an effort, as he does, to feed the press but also to put it to work for him and his message.
Holbrooke, after all, is deeply associated with the region -- with Bosnia and the 1995 Dayton agreement that ended that vicious war, and with Kosovo, the unfinished business of Dayton.
His message, it seemed, was to try to drag the world's attention, in the quiet days of August, to the complications and difficulties of creating a lasting peace in Kosovo, and to emphasize the Clinton administration's commitment to success here.
He pressed rival Albanian officials -- the Kosovo Liberation Army leader Hashim Thaci, the longtime political leader Ibrahim Rugova, the rebel chief of staff Agim Ceku and others less well known -- to live up to their declarations about democracy and the rule of law, and to stop using violence and corruption as political tactics.
As the U.N. delegate from the most powerful nation on the Security Council, Holbrooke tried to give a boost to the officials of a slightly discouraged and slow-starting U.N. mission in Kosovo, and to its leader and longtime Holbrooke friend, Bernard Kouchner of France.
Holbrooke had at least three meals with Kouchner and six meetings, and they praised each other at every turn, sometimes at excruciating length. At one "press opportunity," Holbrooke went on about Kouchner and all his projects and progeny for some five minutes, and then, asked by French television to do it again in French, made a game effort to do so.
In a similar way, Holbrooke, wary of any story about rivalries at the outset of his job, was careful always to mention President Clinton and especially Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in superlative terms, stressing that he came on their behalf and with their imprimatur, and would report back to them.
With the simultaneous visits of important Democratic Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, of the Appropriations Committee, the long Holbrooke visit also seemed part of an administration effort to insure that Clinton and his chosen heir, Vice President Al Gore, stay on top of any potential problems from Kosovo.
In a news conference Monday, for instance, Biden warned Thaci that "if the KLA reneges on its commitment to demilitarize on Sept. 19 -- if the very forces and people we came to help are not engaged on a path toward democratization -- then support for continued involvement in Kosovo in the U.S. Congress will disappear very, very quickly."
Holbrooke tried to mix his cheerleading role with a fact-finding one. Perhaps most unusually, he spent nearly three full days in Kosovo, returning to meet key figures more than once -- for instance, Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson, the commander of the peacekeepers -- to get more than the once-over possible on the usual official visit of a few hours.
It was his eighth visit to Kosovo, Holbrooke said proudly in an interview. "I'm not a parachutist," he said. "You don't learn much from first meetings. It's important to go back and see people again."
In private, he pleased most of the U.N. leadership here -- though he made some others uncomfortable -- when he urged them not to ask the permission of the infamous U.N. bureaucracy in New York at every turn. "Don't ask -- just do it," he told them, banging the table, emphasizing that they should do what was required to solve problems, whether it was the creation of a bank or of a document that would allow Kosovo residents to travel; many of them are without Yugoslav passports, even though Kosovo remains part of Yugoslavia.
Holbrooke said he thought that the United Nations had learned lessons from Bosnia, had become organized more quickly in Kosovo and had a more seamless connection between civilian and military authority, which was badly divided in Bosnia.
But he also understands the chief, glaring difference with Bosnia. "Here the core issue is unresolved, which is the political status of Kosovo," he said. The Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, accepted Bosnia's independence even before the 1995 Dayton agreement that ended the war and that pushed Holbrooke, its chief negotiator, into the public spotlight.
But in Kosovo, the United Nations and the West recognize Yugoslavia's sovereignty. "But no Albanian feels that way," Holbrooke said. "And if Milosevic's successor was named Thomas Jeffersonovic, the Albanians would still want the Serbs out of Kosovo."
While Holbrooke deplores the exodus of Serbs and Gypsies from Kosovo -- no more than 25,000 to 30,000 remain from a prewar total of about 180,000 -- there is a degree of lip service paid. "It was inevitable that the Albanians would drive many of the Serbs out," he said. "I always felt that there was no chance that Serbs and Albanians could live together peacefully without a security force."
But a multi-ethnic Kosovo must be pursued, although it will take time, Holbrooke said. He recalled telling Milosevic on March 23, just before NATO began bombing Yugoslavia, that the Yugoslav leader was the "best recruiting poster for the KLA," and "if he keeps this up, every Serb will be driven out of Kosovo."
Milosevic answered with great intensity, Holbrooke recounted, saying, "If there are no Serbs left in Kosovo, it will still be Serbia." Holbrooke paused. "It's no joke," he said. "It's still unresolved."
Winning the postwar struggle for a multi-ethnic democracy is a crucial test for the Albanians and their divided leadership, Holbrooke said. His biggest worry leaving here, he said, is Albanian political cohesiveness.
"They're so used to keying all their behavior off Serbian repression that they don't know what to do with their freedom," he said. "Are we seeing the flowering of early democracy here, or chaos?"
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Ethnic Albanians Warned To Disarm
By The Associated Press, August 31, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Yugoslavia-Kosovo.html
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Saying racism is at the root of ethnic tensions in Kosovo, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke told ethnic Albanian leaders that congressional support will evaporate if they don't disarm their guerrilla army.
Heavy rains forced Holbrooke, newly confirmed as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to cancel a trip to Albania today for talks on ways to stabilize the southern Balkans after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
Instead, he flew to Macedonia, where he met with Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov and praised his policies for keeping the country at peace in an area wracked by war. Holbrooke was scheduled to fly to Bosnia later today.
In Pristina, Holbrooke urged an end to the postwar ethnic violence blocking international efforts to establish normality in Kosovo.
``Let me just stress again what ethnic differences in this region really are. They're just racism,'' Holbrooke said Monday after meetings with ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo. ``The Serbs of this region have a historic right to live here, too.''
Holbrooke was referring to attacks against Serbs by ethnic Albanians seeking revenge for the atrocities committed against them by Serb-led Yugoslav forces during President Slobodan Milosevic's 18-month crackdown.
Those attacks have persisted despite the presence of 40,000 NATO and Russian peacekeepers who arrived June 12 in Kosovo.
Holbrooke was joined Monday in the Kosovo capital by the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Joseph Biden.
Biden made clear that the Kosovo Liberation Army must cease to exist as an armed force by a Sept. 19 deadline set in an agreement between NATO and the ethnic Albanians.
``If it appeared as though the very forces ... and people we came to help were now not engaged on a path that was moving toward democratization, support from the U.S. Congress would evaporate overnight,'' Biden said at a joint news conference Monday with Holbrooke.
On Monday, the KLA's military commander assured Holbrooke that the former guerrillas would honor the demilitarization agreement and meet the deadline.
However, the commander, Agim Ceku, also said the KLA would become a ``Kosovo army,'' an entity not provided for in the June demilitarization agreement.
``The KLA will transform in several directions, not just into a military guard,'' Ceku said. ``One part will become part of the police, one part will become civil administration, one part will become the Army of Kosovo, as a defense force. And another part will form a political party.''
Holbrooke refused to comment on Ceku's remarks or explain how they would coexist with the conditions set down in the June deal that followed the NATO air campaign.
Biden said that despite ethnic violence, Washington remains committed to building a multiethnic society in this troubled province.
``I don't see a short-term solution,'' Biden said. ``But I think it would be a mistake of historical proportions if the West concluded that there was no possibility of multi-ethnicity in Kosovo and there was de facto partitioning in Kosovo.''
There has been little sign of reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians, who formed 90 percent of Kosovo's prewar population of 2.1 million. As a sign of the bitterness, ethnic Albanians in Orahovac refused again Monday to lift the barricades they erected a week ago to prevent Russian peacekeepers from entering the town.
Albanians claim Russian mercenaries fought with the Serbs during
the 18-month crackdown.