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Japan Strengthening Its Forces

By Ginny Parker Associated Press Writer Friday, September 10, 1999; 1:30 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990910/V000049-091099-idx.html

TOKYO (AP) -- Since the end of World War II, Japan has kept its military on a short leash, guided by a constitution that renounces war and popular sentiment against a powerful military.

But policymakers appear to be having a change of heart -- and their decisions could have a major impact on the region's often tenuous balance of power.

Japan has embarked on an ambitious strengthening of its own forces, seeking everything from spy satellites to a mid-air refueler for its jet fighter fleet.

Japan's defense policy -- as well as other Asian security issues -- will be a topic during this weekend's economic summit of Pacific Rim nations in New Zealand. Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi also will meet with President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to discuss potential threats from North Korea.

The shift in Japan is largely the result of concern over communist North Korea's development of long-range missiles, and possibly nuclear weapons. North Korea shocked the Japanese a year ago when it test-fired a missile -- which it claimed carried a satellite into space -- over Japan's main island.

Japan's sense of vulnerability was further heightened last March, when suspected North Korean spy ships entered its waters, ignored orders to stop and then raced home after coast guard patrol boats and navy vessels fired warning shots for the first time since World War II.

North Korea is not Japan's only concern.

Intrusions into Japanese waters by Chinese navy ships and survey vessels are becoming increasingly common, as is piracy in Japan's shipping lanes. Tensions between Taiwan, Japan's southern neighbor, and China are chronic. Russia, to Japan's north, occupies several islands Japan claims.

``It's not so much about making the defense forces bigger. It's about changing strategy,'' said Isaku Okabe, a respected Japanese commentator on military affairs.

Japan has a solid base upon which to build, with 267,000 servicemen, the most sophisticated array of weaponry in Asia and an annual defense budget that ranks third behind the United States and Russia.

Some 53,000 American servicemen and women also are stationed in Japan under a mutual security pact. That presence includes one of the largest airbases in Asia, the biggest contingent of Marines outside the United States and the U.S. Navy's only fleet that has its home port in a foreign nation.

But the role of Japan's postwar military remains ambiguous.

Japan's pacifist constitution bars the use of force to settle international disputes. And having been led to destruction in 1945 by a military dictatorship, most Japanese are wary of anything that smacks of militarism.

That sentiment makes it unlikely Japan would seek its own nuclear weapons in the foreseeable future, despite the presence of several nuclear powers in the region.

Still, military planners say, Japan cannot afford to ignore the realities of security.

``The need has arisen for a more effective defense system,'' Takamasa Moriya, deputy vice minister of Japan's Defense Agency, said in a recent interview.

To that end, the government issued a defense report this summer that detailed a plan to beef up Japan's arsenal, and defense officials are asking for the first increase in military spending in three years.

To the surprise of many Japanese, the report also referred to Japan's right to conduct a pre-emptive strike on another country if it felt threatened. Officials stressed that, in practice, the Self-Defense Forces are incapable of such an attack.

Proposed arms purchases could change that.

The government's near-term wish list includes a fleet of high-speed, missile-equipped patrol boats, a bigger and faster combat support ship, and a set of four Japan-made spy satellites.

It also has agreed to conduct research with the United States on a ballistic missile defense system and says it intends eventually to acquire mid-air refueling tanker planes, which would give Japanese warplanes a greater range of operation.

Hardware is not all that's being bolstered.

Parliament passed a new set of U.S.-Japan security guidelines in May that allow Japanese forces to provide greater assistance to American troops if war breaks out in Asia and give the United States greater emergency access to airbases and seaports in Japan.

The moves to change Japan's defense stance do not rest well with Japan's neighbors, many of whom fear they are all part of a larger, more disconcerting surge in Japanese nationalism.

Such concerns grew shrill in news media across the region in August when Japan gave legal recognition to the Rising Sun flag and de facto national anthem. Many Asians, and Japanese liberals, see the symbols as too heavily tainted by Japan's militaristic past.

``I feel like we're going backward,'' said socialist lawmaker Kiyomi Tsujimoto. ``The military is beginning to gain power.''

Supporters say the military buildup is not a reversion to Japanese militarism, because it depends heavily on cooperation with the United States and exchanges with other countries.

And they say Japan has every right to rethink its defense policy and, if need be, rewrite the constitution to allow further strengthening of the military.

``Japan can't do what a country should be able to do,'' said Gen. Nakatani, a legislator for the governing Liberal Democratic Party and former army lieutenant. ``The constitution is an obstacle.''

---

06:26 a.m. Sep 10, 1999 Eastern
http://www.dogpile.com - search Infoseek

TOKYO, Sept 10 (Reuters) - A nuclear fuel shipment to Japan that has stirred up protests by environmentalists is expected to reach port aboard two British cargo ships on September 22, Japanese public broadcaster NHK television said on Friday.

The ships, carrying MOX fuel, a mixture of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel, will arrive at a port near the city of Iwaki, about 215 kilometres (130 miles) north of Tokyo, NHK said.

The armed British cargo ship Pacific Teal left the French port of Cherbourg on July 21 and subsequently linked up with the Pacific Pintail, its sister ship, for the journey to Japan.

The Pacific Pintail had been loaded with MOX from Britain's Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant.

After unloading part of their cargo at Iwaki, the ships will round the northern tip of Japan's main island of Honshu to haul the remainder to a nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture, on the Japan Sea in northwest Japan, with arrival likely on September 27, Kyodo news agency said.

An official at Japan's Science and Technology Agency said he could not confirm when the ships were likely to enter port.

A spokesman at Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc (TEPCO), which will take the shipment for Iwaki, also declined to comment on when the ships would arrive. TEPCO is co-sponsoring the shipment with Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, which operates the nuclear plant in Fukui.

The voyage marks the first transfer of so-called ``direct use'' nuclear material, considered easily convertible into weapons-grade material, since 1992, and sparked protests in Cherbourg prior to the departure of the Pacific Teal.

Greenpeace activists say the combined cargo of the two ships could be converted into 60 bombs.

Japan relies heavily on imports for its energy needs and buys some 80 percent of its energy resources from overseas.

Nuclear power, the source of about 30 percent of Japan's electricity, is considered crucial by the government to meet the country's growing energy needs.

Japan favours using MOX fuel partly because it enables reactors to cut their use of primary nuclear fuel by 20 to 30 percent.

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AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Washington
September 11, 1999 South China Morning Press
http://www.scmp.com/News/China/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-19990911025850693.asp

Beijing's arsenal targeting the United States is likely to grow over the next 15 years to include mobile missiles with smaller warheads, according to US intelligence made public yesterday.

The smaller warheads were built in part with stolen US technology, the report said.

China last month tested its first road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which US analysts believe has an 8,000km range and will primarily target Russia and Asia.

The National Intelligence Estimate of missile threats said it expected "a test of a longer-range mobile ICBM within the next several years; it will be targeted primarily against the US".

"China is developing the JL-2 SLBM [submarine-launched ballistic missile], which we expect to be tested within the next decade," it said. "The JL-2 probably will be able to target the US from launch areas near China.

"By 2015, China will likely have tens of missiles targeted against the US, having added . . . more survivable land- and sea-based mobile missiles with smaller nuclear warheads - in part influenced by US technology gained through espionage."

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By Michael Laris Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, September 11, 1999; Page A16
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/11/079l-091199-idx.html

BEIJING, Sept. 10-Tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers, using missiles and bombs, shot their way onto "enemy" beaches in a mock invasion of Taiwan earlier this month, China's state-run media announced today.

The exercises in southern China's Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces were the biggest demonstration of China's military might since Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui infuriated Chinese leaders when he called on China to treat Taiwan as an equal state.

Soldiers were shown on the evening news scorching an urban area with flamethrowers as part of their massive landing operation. The scenes were intended to increase pressure on Lee to reverse his stance and to demonstrate China's military might.

"The military exercises provided a spectacular sight of a straits-crossing and landing operation by Chinese forces armed with high-tech weapons," according to the official New China News Agency. The 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait separates the two sides.

But military analysts said the footage showed preparations for a military operation that is unlikely to occur. Beijing considers Taiwan part of China and has vowed that it will invade Taiwan if it declares independence. But Lee has not made such a declaration. Experts say that if China chooses military action to punish Lee, it would be limited.

For instance, China has 120,000 fishing boats in the provinces across the strait from Taiwan, according to Andrew Yang, a military analyst at the Taipei-based Council of Advanced Policy Studies. China could authorize them to fish in Taiwan's waters, and send military ships to escort them, he said.

"They can conduct non-lethal, low-intensity guerrilla warfare in the strait," he said. "I don't think Beijing will take the first shot. If they push Taiwan to take the first shot, then they have an excuse."

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By DAVID E. SANGER, September 11, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/091199clinton-apec.html

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- President Clinton arrived here on Saturday and prepared to repair the damage from what some of his aides call one of his biggest foreign policy mistakes this year: walking away from an agreement to get China into the World Trade Organization.

In preparation for a meeting scheduled for later Saturday with President Jiang Zemin, Clinton's aides have been scrambling to make sure that China is still willing to make the broad market-opening concessions that it offered in April. At that time Clinton rejected the deal, after some top aides advised holding out for an even better deal.

Within days, the President decided that this was a mistake. Business executives flooded the White House with protests, complaining that he underestimated the extent of Chinese concessions.

But subsequent events -- from the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade to the accusations of Chinese nuclear spying -- led Beijing to suspend the talks, amid a vigorous debate in China over whether Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and Jiang were giving away too much.

That debate continues. But the mood in the Clinton Administration has changed, and Clinton is clearly primed to move a deal along -- even if one is not achievable at Saturday's meeting.

"There is a sense that if we are going to get the relationship with China back on track, this is the only concrete step we can take," one of Mr. Clinton's top foreign policy advisers said.

The chief negotiator for the deal, Robert Cassidy, went to Beijing last weekend to lay the groundwork for Saturday's meeting. Then his boss, the trade representative Charlene Barshefsky, met her Chinese counterpart here and agreed that the two nations would work to get China into the World Trade Organization within three months. That would be before the world's top trade officials gather in Seattle in December to begin a new round of negotiations over agriculture.

Assuming a deal is struck, the big remaining obstacle is Congress. Any agreement with the United States would require that China be given permanent preferential trade status -- depriving Congress of its annual trade debate, which has become a venue for venting frustration with China's human rights record.

Another problem in Congress is whether Democrats can be convinced that the deal protects American workers. Labor unions vow to lobby against getting China into the trade organization.

One of the mysteries for the Administration is how badly Zhu, and perhaps Mr. Jiang, were hurt by Ms. Barshefsky's decision in April to publish a summary of China's trade concessions. That list helped build support for a deal among American business executives.

But it outraged many powerful Chinese, who fear that the deal would remove protections against foreign competition.

---

By Rohan Sullivan Associated Press Writer Saturday, September 11, 1999; 4:28 a.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990911/V000601-091199-idx.html

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Clinton-Down-Under.html

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) -- Despite longtime bitterness over nuclear issues and new tensions over lamb exports, New Zealand's prime minister is looking to avoid any fights with President Clinton.

Clinton, who meets Prime Minister Jenny Shipley today, is only the second U.S. president ever to visit New Zealand, following a 1966 trip by Lyndon Johnson.

His visit -- to attend a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders -- comes amid a slow process of trying to improve the two countries' relations, which fell apart in 1985 when New Zealand barred all nuclear-armed or -powered ships from entering its waters.

Now the two countries are locked in a trade dispute after Washington imposed steep tariff on New Zealand lamb imports to protect local producers.

Shipley said her talks with Clinton over the lamb dispute would be limited to ``an expression of disappointment.'' She also said she expects no resolution of their differences over New Zealand's ban on U.S. warships.

``We will be discussing issues of mutual interest, like environmental matters and ... trade liberalization,'' Shipley said.

One reason for backing away from trouble spots: Shipley's conservative government is falling in polls ahead of November elections. Hobnobbing with Clinton and other world leaders at the summit could boost her support.

After the 1985 ban -- part of a massively popular anti-nuclear policy -- the United States downgraded its diplomatic, political and military contacts with New Zealand.

The key defense alliance of Australia, New Zealand and the United States, which had begun in 1952, splintered.

Relations between the United States and New Zealand have begun to improve recently, helped by New Zealand sending support ships during the Gulf War, and diplomatic support for NATO in the Kosovo crisis.

Shipley also visited the White House early this year.

But that was before the new trade dispute.

After the United States imposed its tariffs on lamb, Shipley's government complained to the World Trade Organization, demanding the tariff be lifted. Lamb exporters in New Zealand -- where sheep outnumber humans 12 to 1 -- said the tariffs would cost them $12 million over three years.

Since coming to power 20 months ago, Shipley has not tried to lift the ban on nuclear-armed or -powered ships, even though her government is far more conservative than the leftist one that began it.

The policy simply remains too popular among New Zealanders.

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Jessica Aldred and Christina Frangou, Journal Staff Writers The Edmonton Journal - August 27, 1999
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/stories/990827/2782830.html

The devastating earthquake in Turkey last week has led to renewed calls for Canada to withdraw its bid to sell a nuclear reactor to the earthquake-prone country.

Scientists, environmentalists, Greek- and Turkish-Canadians and Canadian politicians who oppose the bid say the recent quake, which killed more than 13,000 and injured 26,000, is evidence why Turkey should not have nuclear power.

Three international consortiums, including one led by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, want the nod from the Turkish government to build a nuclear reactor at Akkuyu Bay.

"The eastern Mediterranean is an earthquake-prone region -- for God's sake, don't put a nuclear plant there," said Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis. "I'm terrified that an earthquake of the magnitude of the one several days ago would happen in Akkuyu."

Although it's more than 500 km from the site of the Aug. 17 earthquake, the proposed nuclear site at Akkuyu Bay lies just 25 km north of another major fault line than runs through southern Turkey.

Experts from Germany, Switzerland, and Canada have examined the site and, with approval from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, have declared it one of the safest places in Turkey to build the reactor, said AECL spokesperson Larry Shewchuk.

The strongest earthquake to occur in the vicinity registered 5.6 on the Richter scale some decades ago, said Tarek Aziz, AECL civil designer for the project.

"We never said Turkey was a quiet area seismically É but this is probably one of the quietest areas in the country," Aziz said. "We design for the most extreme circumstances," he said.

The reactor would be built to withstand an earthquake of up to 6.5 on the Richter scale directly, or 8 from 60 km away, Shewchuk said.

The recent earthquake that rocked Turkey measured 7.4.

But opponents of the Akkuyu Bay plant say no major research has been conducted on the fault line in the last 15 years and new technology may reveal it to be less than stable.

"We know that quakes like the one on Aug. 17 occur every few years, therefore it's very irresponsible to build a nuclear reactor in Turkey," says seismologist Karl Buckthought, president of Earthquake Forecasts Inc.

Dave Martin, research director for the environmental information group, Nuclear Awareness Project, said he has repeatedly asked Ottawa and AECL to withdraw their bid, or to conduct more research on the area.

He added the planned reactor is not as earthquake-proof as it should be.

Martin said he is also worried about a second proposed site for a nuclear power plant that is closer to the epicentre of the Aug. 17 earthquake.

But Shewchuk said in light of the recent quake, "it's rather unlikely that Turkey would approve a bid to build in that particular region."

The Greek-Canadian community launched a letter-writing and petition campaign last winter, calling on the Crown corporation to withdraw its bid. They cite the region's frequent earthquakes, as well as concerns about nuclear proliferation.

"If an earthquake comes up, it's going to be complete destruction for the area," said Gus Bottas, president of the Greek community in Edmonton. He called the bid a "murderous decision."

The reactor would be a boon for Turkish energy production, particularly in light of the country's air pollution problems, Shewchuk said.

But, with last week's tragedy etched firmly in their memories, some members of the Turkish-Canadian community have expressed their reluctance about building a nuclear reactor upon their often-volatile homeland.

"I wouldn't build a house in Turkey right now, let alone a nuclear reactor," said Soner Yasa, president of the Turkish Canadian Youth Association in Edmonton.

He considers himself lucky -- his family overseas survived the quake.

Turkey was to select a bidder by mid-October, but the announcement will likely be delayed because of the quake.

During the 1970s, Canada had an agreement with the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu to build five reactors in Romania, however, only one plant was finished and became operational in 1995.

Canada's most recent sale of nuclear reactors was to China. The Communist country bought two in 1996.

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By STEVE TILLEY -- Edmonton Sun, September 10, 1999
http://www.canoe.ca/Television/sep10_dragon.html

The life story of Canadian nuclear scientist Louis Slotin is so ripe with drama and irony, isolating just one element of it is like splitting the proverbial atom.

It could be that the Winnipeg-born Slotin sacrificed his life to save seven fellow scientists in 1946, when an experiment with samples of intensely radioactive plutonium went horribly wrong.

It could be that Slotin created the trigger mechanism for history's first atomic bomb, and was to have been part of the team that assembled the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - except his security clearance wasn't approved because of his Canadian citizenship.

Or it could be that despite his contribution to the double-edged sword of the Manhattan Project, Slotin's name is virtually unknown, even in his home country.

More than 50 years after Slotin's death, Winnipeg journalist Martin Zeilig teamed up with Edmonton's own Great North Productions for Tickling the Dragon's Tail: The Story of Louis Slotin. The one-hour documentary airs tonight at 7 on ITV, its first broadcast in Alberta.

Edmonton director Tom Radford, who co-wrote the script with Zeilig and helmed the production, said the story remained untold for decades due in part to the secrecy surrounding the race to build the atomic bomb, as well as Canada's odd ignorance of its own heroes.

"It was such a fascinating project to have dropped in your lap," Radford said from Fort McMurray, where he's now shooting a biography of legendary bush pilot Wop May for an episode of History Television's The Canadians.

Slotin has been little more than a footnote in the historical record of the atomic bomb, and is remembered more for the way he died than his actual contributions to the top-secret Manhattan Project, the American-led race to build a nuclear weapon during the Second World War.

On May 21, 1946, Slotin was demonstrating a procedure by which scientists would determine the critical mass of a plutonium sample by resting the edge of one hemisphere of the radioactive metal atop another, and slowly closing the gap to the point where fission was about to begin.

Slotin, having been trained as a scientist in a time when computers were unheard of and much procedural work was done by hand, was carefully lowering one hemisphere of plutonium onto the other with an ordinary household screwdriver - as he had done some 40 times before - when the chunk of metal slipped off the tip of the screwdriver and slapped against its counterpart.

While it wasn't enough to cause an explosive detonation, the mating of the two hemispheres of pure plutonium triggered the nuclear fission process and instantly bathed the room with a blast of intense radiation.

The 35-year-old scientist threw himself on the plutonium and shoved the hemispheres apart, shielding his stunned colleagues closest to the device from the full effects of the radiation and stopping the fission process.

Nine days later, Slotin died in hospital of radiation poisoning and was later buried in his home town of Winnipeg inside a lead-lined casket. Because of his heroism, all seven of the other scientists survived.

"It's such a great story to begin with, in terms of the life and death of this forgotten genius," said Radford. But it takes on an even greater scope when set against the backdrop of the near-mythic Manhattan Project laboratories in Los Alamos, New Mexico, historical figures like J. Robert Oppenheimer and the moral and ethical issues faced by the scientists working on the bomb.

Tickling the Dragon's Tail, its title taken from the nickname for the potentially risky experiment that killed Slotin, was filmed on a $400,000 budget which allowed Radford and crew to do some shooting on location in Los Alamos, including the actual lab where Slotin met his fate.

The documentary is built around interviews with friends and relatives of Slotin, interspersed with narration, still photographs, newsreel footage and surprisingly poignant home movies of Slotin and his family, as well as dramatic re-creations of key events that were filmed at CFB Edmonton.

"I love documentary film and I've always loved what you'd call the docu-drama," said Radford. "I think having those documentary elements mixed in with the dramatic re-creations is the most powerful form. That's the way I like to work."

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Filed at 5:19 a.m. EDT, September 11, 1999, The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-US-East-Timor.html

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) -- Turning up the pressure on Indonesia to accept U.N. peacekeepers, President Clinton today suspended more than $100 million in American arms sales and insisted that Jakarta accept international help to stabilize East Timor.

``It is imperative that they do so,'' he said.

The White House said it expected the chaos in East Timor to be a major topic at a summit here of Asia-Pacific leaders. Signaling his sympathy, Clinton will meet Monday with East Timorese independence activist Jose Ramos Horta, who shared a 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of his people.

Clinton announced the freeze on military sales at the opening of a meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin. As he spoke, a high-level delegation from the U.N. Security Council arrived in Dili, the provincial of East Timor, to assess the situation.

Clinton said he was optimistic that the United Nations will send in peacekeepers if Indonesia asks. The Pentagon has offered technical assistance, airlift, communications and planning help for such an operation but has not offered to contribute U.S. troops.

U.N. officials said Gen. Wiranto, the head of Indonesia's armed forces, told a U.N. delegation that he will recommend the accelerated deployment of international peacekeepers to East Timor. The Indonesian government has refused to accept a peacekeeping force so far, and the United States took a wait-and-see approach about the latest development.

'' I think that there is growing pressure on Indonesia from the international community,'' said National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. ``I think they've made some statements which have been slightly more positive. But until I see them either take control of the situation or invite in an international force, then I don't think it's a breakthrough.''

Berger said that Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had spoken during the day with Wiranto.

Clinton suggested that turning up the pressure on Indonesia could help ``persuade the Indonesians to support the United Nations operation to go in and help to end the violence and secure the safety of the people there.''

``I think we're making good headway,'' he added. ``I think you'll see a development here in the next couple of days. I think something will happen.''

The White House said Clinton's order would suspend $2.5 million in government-to-government military deals and $40 million in pending commercial transactions, including agreements for F-16 spare parts.

It also put a question mark on $400 million worth of military contracts that already are underway, the administration said. Most of the deals have gone too far to stop, the administration said, but perhaps $100 million could be frozen.

On Thursday, Clinton suspended relations with Indonesia's military and threatened to suspend economic assistance to the country if its leaders continue to ignore results of an Aug. 30 referendum supporting independence for East Timor.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan initially questioned the Clinton administration's actions on Friday, saying it was ``a bit surprising'' that Clinton cut military relations with Indonesia without cutting arms sales, because both measures should be taken together.

On his way to Auckland, Clinton accused the Indonesian military of ``aiding and abetting'' the mayhem that has engulfed East Timor, and U.S. officials suggested President B.J. Habibie was not in control of the situation.

Clinton spent much of a long flight from Washington talking with U.S. military and political leaders about the chaos in the former Portuguese colony, annexed by Indonesia nearly 25 years ago. Indonesian troops apparently did little or nothing to stop rampaging militia gangs that sacked the United Nations compound in Dili.

---

[I'm puzzled. Read this headline and the next two. What's the truth?]

9/11/99- Updated 06:56 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwssat04.htm

UNITED NATIONS - Security Council members, condemning Indonesia Saturday for letting a U.N.-organized independence vote in East Timor deteriorate into an orgy of killings, demanded Jakarta allow an international force to immediately restore law and order.

But Indonesian Ambassador Makarim Wibisono ruled out any multinational force for the half-island territory for now, saying Indonesia's imposition of martial law on Tuesday was already helping improve the security situation in the territory.

''While fully understanding the willingness of a number of countries to provide security assistance, Indonesia does not foresee the need for the introduction of a multinational or peacekeeping force at this stage,'' he told an open council meeting. ''Such an operation may well exacerbate the situation and be counterproductive, however well-intentioned it may be.''

The refusal came after 50 ambassadors publicly aired their criticism of Indonesia for failing to live up to its obligations to maintain peace in East Timor.

On Aug. 30, three-quarters of East Timor's 800,000 people voted for independence in a U.N.-supervised referendum. Anti-independence militias with the active support of Indonesia's military and police have since waged a campaign of terror against the territory's people and U.N. staff, with aid agencies estimating that anywhere between 600 and 7,000 people have been killed.

Another 100,000 have been driven into West Timor or to other islands, and 200,000 more chased from their homes.

''The scale of the violence, death and destruction has been far beyond what any international observers anticipated,'' Secretary-General Kofi Annan told council members in an open meeting. He repeated that the atrocities may well constitute international crimes and said those responsible must be prosecuted.

Despite the condemnations, there was still no decision on whether the United Nations will intervene.

Portuguese Ambassador Antonio Monteiro warned ambassadors that failure to authorize a peacekeeping force would destroy the credibility of the United Nations in organizing other referendums around the world.

''The people of East Timor truly believed with open hearts in the United Nations,'' Monteiro said. ''They were told they could vote freely in security.

''We cannot just walk out, turn our backs and leave the East Timorese dying on their own,'' he said. ''This is crucial: It is our legal and ethical obligation to protect the East Timorese. The people of East Timor expect no less and deserve as much.''

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 as it was gaining independence from Portugal.

Monteiro in the past has said the council should consider authorizing a force for East Timor even without Jakarta's consent. But most countries that have pledged military support have said they wanted Indonesia's approval before dispatching any troops. Australia, New Zealand, France, Fiji and Malaysia have said they would participate in a force.

Council ambassadors said they would be prepared to take further action after hearing from five of their colleagues who visited Dili on Saturday. The five were holding talks in Jakarta on Indonesia's willingness to accept international help.

Russia and China - which traditionally oppose peacekeeping intervention for internal conflicts in countries - said the Security Council should have Indonesia's consent before dispatching a force.

They could veto any resolution authorizing a force. Both, however, pledged to assist any force that received the green light from Indonesia.

Other countries, such as Sudan, Cuba and Egypt, said Indonesia should be trusted and given more time to bring the security situation under control by itself.

''Hasty action by the council will aggravate an already worsening situation,'' Sudanese Ambassador Elfatih Erwa warned.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, urged Indonesia to follow through on that hint, warning that its political and economic stability was in jeopardy.

''If the crisis is not speedily and swiftly and peacefully resolved, the problem will not be contained in East Timor and will do irrevocable damage to the economy, the political process, and the people of this entire nation,'' he said.

---

Filed at 5:19 a.m. EDT, September 11, 1999, The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Indonesia-East-Timor.html

DILI, Indonesia (AP) -- In a startling reversal, the Indonesian government indicated it may be ready to accept international peacekeepers to help quell the post-independence election violence in tiny East Timor, U.N. officials said today.

Gen. Wiranto, the head of Indonesia's armed forces, told a U.N. delegation visiting East Timor that he will recommend the accelerated deployment of international peacekeepers there, U.N. officials said.

The move appeared aimed at blunting international criticism of Indonesia's handling of the crisis in East Timor and would signal a major change in Indonesian policy. Previously, Jakarta had ruled out the possibility of allowing foreign troops into the province to restore order.

Wiranto told a delegation of five ambassadors from the U.N. Security Council who are touring the East Timorese capital of Dili that he would tell Indonesian President B.J. Habibie to consider a peacekeeping mission soon.

``The offer of an accelerated deployment of international peacekeepers must be considered as an option by the Indonesian government and I will bring my report to my president tomorrow,'' a U.N. official quoted Wiranto as saying. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, as the delegation toured the city, entire neighborhoods were burned to the ground and no pro-independence supporters appeared to be left in Dili today.

Dozens of governments have said Indonesia must accept U.N. peacekeepers in the territory, where anti-independence militias launched a reign of terror after East Timorese citizens voted overwhelmingly for independence two weeks ago.

President Clinton suspended military sales to Indonesia today to put more pressure on Jakarta to allow U.N. peacekeepers into East Timor. On Friday, Clinton described the rampage by Indonesian troops and their militia allies as ``simply unacceptable.''

Meanwhile, there was speculation that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan might close the U.N. mission in the city, where some 1,000 refugees are sheltering, raising questions about the world body's ability to shepherd East Timor to nationhood.

As the Security Council delegation and accompanying journalists drove through Dili, it was apparent that much of the city had been blackened and destroyed by fire. In some areas, whole streets have been ransacked and burned down.

In other spots, houses and shops appeared to have been destroyed in a more selective manner with untouched buildings often flying the red-and-white Indonesian flag.

Numerous soldiers patrolled the streets, and some militiamen could be seen roaming about carrying automatic weapons.

Hundreds of refugees were assembled in makeshift camps throughout the city, including one at the main police station and at Dili museum, which had been used as the main ballot counting center in the U.N.-supervised referendum on independence.

Almost four-fifths of East Timor's voters cast ballots to sever ties with Indonesia. But all people interviewed today said they belonged to the anti-independence camp.

U.N. officials at the scene said the pro-independence majority was too frightened to speak out.

``Many people are raising Indonesian flags as a form of protection,'' said Ian Martin, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission to East Timor, or UNAMET.

Refugees also crowded the port area, which the ambassadors visited to assess damage to a U.N. warehouse ransacked by militiamen.

In the meeting between the U.N. ambassadors and top military officials, Wiranto said the problem his troops faced in stopping violence was not being able to shoot at their own countrymen, according to a U.N. official present at the briefing.

Maj Gen. Kiki Syahnakai, chief of security restoration operation, said 25 members of the main militia gang in Dili had been arrested in previous days. He estimated that 1,000 other gang members were still at large in the city.

Accounts of atrocities continued to pour out of East Timor.

In one of the most shocking reports, Australian Isa Bradridge said in an interview published today that his wife saw ``thousands of bodies'' piled in a large cell in Dili's police station.

``My wife told me she saw bodies. Thousands of them,'' Bradridge was quoted as saying in today's Sydney Morning Herald. ``Stacks of bodies went up to the roof. I know it is hard to believe but it is absolutely true. My wife saw arms and legs and dripping blood.''

The claims could not be immediately verified.

The five U.N. ambassadors are to report back to U.N. chief Annan, who will have to decide -- possibly as soon as today -- whether to keep the U.N. compound in Dili open. The delegation will also meet with Habibie on Sunday.

Militiamen looted and vandalized part of the U.N. compound Friday, and Indonesian troops fired guns to intimidate the remaining U.N. staffers and around 1,000 refugees.

Last month, 78.5 percent of East Timor's registered voters approved independence for the region in a U.N.-backed referendum. However, the announcement of the results a week ago triggered a wave of violence, and has pushed Indonesia to the brink of becoming a pariah nation.

A death toll across East Timor has been impossible to determine. Estimates have ranged from 600 to 7,000 dead.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 as it was gaining independence from Portugal. An estimated 200,000 or more people have been killed in the fighting since then.

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By BARBARA CROSSETTE, September 12, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/091299timor-nations.html

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary General Kofi Annan said Saturday that Indonesia seems to be softening its position daily on the deployment of international peacekeeping troops in East Timor and that he hopes to get an official go-ahead from President B. J. Habibie on Sunday.

"There seem to be indications that there may be a shift in the Indonesian position," Annan said as he arrived for the first open Security Council debate on East Timor, at which perhaps more than two dozen nations are expected to speak over a period of two days.

"I will be talking to President Habibie tomorrow morning," he said, "and I hope I will be able to hear from him directly what the position is."

It appears that Indonesia may be considering allowing a previously planned peacekeeping operation to be deployed in the territory ahead of schedule, which would amount to a face-saving compromise under which Indonesia could avoid appearing to have caved in to international demands for an immediate intervention force.

Under the agreement signed by Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations on May 5, a peacekeeping force was to have been permitted to enter East Timor after the Indonesian Parliament had ratified the results of the territory's vote for independence later this year.

The peacekeepers would then be responsible for law and order as political power is transferred to the East Timorese and elections would be held in the new nation.

"Yesterday Wiranto was saying in three months time," Annan said. "Today he seems to have softened the position, indicating that they may allow the peacekeepers to go in earlier. I hope the decision will be taken soon, not later."

Saturday's unusual open session of the Security Council was demanded by Portugal, the former colonial overlord of the territory, which has spent a week pressing furiously for a public debate. All Council sessions on the issue this week have been held behind closed doors, as all member nations balked at forcing a violation of the agreement with Indonesia by deploying troops without Jakarta's consent.

"I will go straight to the point," said Antônio Monteiro, Portugal's delegate to the United Nations, said in his speech today. "Portugal has repeatedly requested this meeting of the Security Council to confront the Council with its responsibilities in managing the appalling crisis in East Timor."

"The rape of East Timor has taken place before our eyes," he said. "The United Nations cannot, must not, afford once again to intervene in a conflict only to stand by while the process then loses its course."

Arriving at the Council before his speech, Monteiro told reporters that the shift in Indonesia's position on troops was "exactly what we want."

Portugal, which abandoned East Timor in 1974, has worked for nearly a quarter of a century to dislodge Indonesia, which seized the territory by force in 1975.

Richard C. Holbrooke, the American representative here, told reporters outside the Council chamber before his speech, "It was important that the world community have this discussion today, but the obligation to fix this problem remains squarely with the people who caused it."

Saturday's Council session was the first part of a two-day meeting that will culminate on Monday with a report from a five-member Security Council team that spent most of last week in Indonesia, capped by a visit on Saturday to East Timor.

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Saturday, September 11, 1999; 4:48 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990911/V000880-091199-idx.html

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Iraq demanded Saturday the lifting of U.N. sanctions, saying it has complied with all international resolutions punishing it for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The remarks by Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf came a day before he was to chair a meeting in Cairo of Arab League foreign ministers. The ministers were expected to discuss Iraq's problems with the United Nations and the United States.

Sunday will be the first time that Iraq chairs a league meeting since its invasion of Kuwait. The chairmanship is rotated alphabetically.

``Iraq has fulfilled all its obligations and demands that the sanctions be lifted,'' al-Sahhaf said after meeting with Egypt's Foreign Minister, Amr Moussa.

U.N. resolutions oblige Iraq to prove it has eliminated its long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction before the sweeping economic sanctions can be lifted. U.N. inspectors have accused Iraq of failing to provide such evidence.

Moussa said Egypt also wants the Iraqi-U.N. confrontation to end.

``Everything which affects Iraq, its people and its children is something which we would not accept,'' Moussa said.

But that tone of reconciliation with Iraq contrasted with a statement issued Saturday by foreign ministers at the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.

The statement condemned the Iraqi regime for ``continuing to challenge the international community's decisions and its rejection of the Arab and international initiatives aimed at finding an effective mechanism'' to end the U.N. sanctions.

The same ministers are expected to attend the Arab League meeting, a Gulf diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who are in the GCC, have been the strongest opponents of allowing Iraq back into the Arab fold. In January, the two countries blocked an Iraqi proposal that the league condemn U.S.-British airstrikes on Iraq and support its campaign for the lifting of the sanctions.

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Saturday, September 11, 1999; 10:07 a.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990911/V000691-091199-idx.html

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran rejected Saturday a CIA report alleging it could be able to hit the United States with an intercontinental missile within 15 years.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman Keyvan Khosravi as saying the CIA report about Iran trying to make intercontinental missiles was ``an absolute lie.''

The report was based on ``unfounded assumptions and conjecture and is not by any means substantiated by evidence,'' Khosravi told the agency in a report received in Dubai.

Khosravi said Iran was pursuing conventional defense activities in keeping with its right to meet its own needs.

A Central Intelligence Agency report released Thursday alleged that North Korea, Iran and Iraq were trying to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The report said the prospects of Iran's acquiring such missiles by 2015 were ``probable,'' while North Korea's prospects were ``most likely'' and Iraq's were ``possible.''