------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Nuclear renaissance has to reckon with Chernobyl
Duratek
Nuke Accident Test Fax Draws Red Faces
TALKS ON NUCLEAR SITE
Doubts Trail 'Son of Star Wars' Proposal
China, Russia slam U.S. plans
Athens to examine missile-shield plan
Californians Favor Nuclear Plants
Babbitt backs plan for Yucca repository
Cheney calls for rational debate on nuclear power
For Cheney, a Positive Reaction
Nuclear Power Gains in Status After Lobbying

MILITARY
Powell Opens Africa Trip
Deal Reached on Sale of Jets to Chileans
Argentine Arms Probe Widens
Rumsfeld Worries Europeans On Bosnia
Where are we headed in the Balkans?
Where Troubles Are No Joke
U.S. Pressures Colombia Military
French No Longer Africa Gendarmes
India Ends Kashmir Ceasefire, Invites Pakistan
India Invites Pakistan to First Peace Talks Since 1999
Long and Short of Iraq Sanctions
Plan for Lifting Iraqi Controls Is Delayed
Aziz: Brit Proposal a 'Big Lie'
Sharpton Sentenced to Prison for Vieques Protest
Doctor Disciplined In Vaccine Case
Pilot Reprimanded Over Bombing Accident
U.S. still searching for MIAs, and not just in Vietnam

OTHER
Energy shortages impair U.S. prosperity
California Leaders Sue to Force U.S. Energy Agency to Limit Power Prices
U.N. Treaty On Chemicals Is Approved
Bush vs. the American Landscape
U.S. Scientists Praise New Peruvian National Park
Rat Poison Spills Off New Zealand
Fires Believed Set as Protest Against Genetic Engineering
New Group To Monitor Human Research
U.S. Seeks IMF, World Bank Reform
Taliban Plan Identity Label for Hindus
Iran Says It Hanged CIA Spy

ACTIVISTS
Military School Protesters March
Internet Campaign For The Release of Reformasi Activists


-------- NUCLEAR

Nuclear renaissance has to reckon with Chernobyl

UK: May 23, 2001
Story by Duncan Shiels
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10923

LONDON - The evening of April 26, 1986. Europe's media alert the public to unusually high atmospheric radiation readings over Scandinavia.

Days later, the fearful continent learns why.

A huge explosion has blown the roof off Reactor Four at Chernobyl in Soviet Ukraine and a radioactive cloud is blowing northwestwards.

According to the United Nations, some five million people were exposed to the radiation or otherwise affected by the Chernobyl disaster. More than 4,000 people who took part in the former Soviet Union's clean-up attempt have since died and another 40,000 involved in the operation became ill or were disabled.

But after 15 years the nuclear industry has received the endorsement of President George W. Bush which it hopes could herald its rehabilitation into public acceptance.

Bush last week unveiled a national energy plan to boost domestic U.S. energy supplies, with fossil fuels and atomic power playing a key role.

The industry has always maintained that the Chernobyl accident resulted from a design flaw which Western reactors do not share - the lack of a structure to contain radioactive material in the case of an accident.

It has also pointed to poor regulation inherent in the centrally planned Soviet system which disintegrated a decade ago.

Such reasoning failed to convince the United States - which had its own near-meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 - and governments in Europe that the public would accept new nuclear plants to meet expected increases in electricity demand. So what has changed?

The answer is global warming.

Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels - oil, coal and gas - which fire 80 percent of the world's power plants, are being linked to rising world temperatures which threaten to melt the polar ice caps, engulfing lowland areas and wiping low-lying Pacific islands from the map within a century.

But as Vaughn Gilbert, spokesman for U.S. reactor manufacturer Westinghouse says: "The only carbon emissions that come from a nuclear plant are from the nostrils of the people working there."

30 NUCLEAR PLANTS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

In fact, around 30 Western-designed nuclear reactors are under construction around the world, all outside the U.S. and western Europe, adding to the current total of over 430.

Within the European Union, only Finland is considering building a new plant and a parliamentary decision on that was delayed recently until the end of the year.

But Foratom, the Brussels-based European nuclear industry umbrella group, believes Washington cannot be ignored.

"What we observed in the past was (that) most of the developments in the energy field started in the U.S., then Europe followed - with a time delay but sometimes with higher amplitudes," says Foratom's executive secretary Wolf-Juergen Schmidt-Kuester.

"We know that utilities are seriously investigating the question of whether they should be building new nuclear plants."

Analysts question the economics of building new reactors, given the colossal capital costs involved and the long period of construction, traditionally around 10 years.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates current designs have capital costs of $2,000 per kilowatt of electricity, compared to $1,200 per kWe for coal-fired plants.

Economists also point out that newly liberated energy markets mean wholesale electricity power prices, which govern the rate of return on investment, are no longer fixed in advance but move with commodity-type power markets, making it very hard to commit resources.

"Profits in most developed power markets are insufficient for the level of return companies are looking for unless there is a payment for emission reduction or electricity prices go up because of penalties on gas and coal power generation," said Neil Cornelius, analyst at ICF Consulting.

Benito Mueller of the Oxford Institute for Energy Research says that companies which invest also want government guarantees on decommissioning when the reactors reach the end of their operational life.

"That is one reason the industry cannot be properly privatised because without government guarantees on decommissioning no one is going to touch them with a barge pole," he said.

But British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL)-owned Westinghouse, who also supply and process fuel and service existing plants, says it is in no hurry to construct new units in the U.S.

It is already involved in new plants and upgrades in Japan, South Korea, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic and the Bush plan has already given it a shot in the arm by encouraging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to extend current licences for many of the U.S.'s 100-odd reactors by 20 years.

"Virtually all of those plants are going to apply to extend their operating licence by 20 years, which, as our basic business now is providing fuel and services to those plants, guarantees us a long-term market," Gilbert said.

Gilbert challenges the view that plants will remain prohibitively expensive, particularly as Westinghouse's latest model, the AP600, will take only three years to build.

He says the company is already in negotiation "with a number of U.S. vendors" to build new reactors and turns Cornelius's argument around, citing liberated prices for fossil fuels as a stimulus to build nuclear.

"So much of the new generation built in the past decade has been gas-fired, the demand for natural gas is going up and consequently the cost is going up while nuclear costs have gone down," he said.

And plants will soon no longer have to be big.

The revolutionary pebble-bed modular reactor which Exelon Corp is developing in South Africa with utility Eskom and BNFL, is small at around 110-120 megawatts, compared to up to 1,000 MW for current plants, and cheap at roughly $150 million, or $1,300 per kWe, Exelon says.

JUDGING THE PUBLIC MOOD

However, economics is one thing, public support is another and Bridget Woodman of the environmentalist group Greenpeace in London believes people's fears about plant safety will not be easily allayed.

"I suspect Bush thinks it's going to be an easy ride, especially in view of the Californian energy crisis, but I think there will be an enormous amount of public opposition to new nuclear power stations in the U.S.," she said.

Mueller believes power shortages in California are a false pretext for building new plants as they were caused by a badly managed liberalisation of the power market under which producers withheld electricity to get better prices.

"California is being used to justify everything including Alaskan drilling which is not going to come on stream for six years. It's all political, I'm afraid."

And he believes that even after a decade and a half, Chernobyl is still too fresh in the European consciousness for its citizens to newly embrace nuclear.

"Chernobyl might be a while back but if you go to Germany I don't think the sensitivity has particularly decreased," he says.

"If the industry says the public has misperceived this, that's tough. It's not the public's problem to misperceive the industry, it's the industry's problem - they have to deal with that."

-------- business

Duratek

IN BRIEF
Washington Post
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63350-2001May22?language=printer

• Duratek, a Columbia radioactive-waste disposal firm, has been awarded a two-year, $3.5 million contract to process and dispose of waste for Niagara Mohawk Power's Nine Mile nuclear stations near Syracuse, N.Y. Niagara Mohawk Power is a subsidiary of Niagara Mohawk Holdings, which provides electricity to more than 1.5 million customers in upstate New York. The company also delivers natural gas to more than 540,000 customers in eastern, central and northern New York.

-------- germany

Nuke Accident Test Fax Draws Red Faces

Wednesday May 23 8:58 AM ET
Reuters
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010523/od/exercise_dc_1.html

BERLIN - The German Environment Ministry unintentionally released a practice warning statement about a fictitious nuclear accident at a French power plant on Tuesday -- which embarrassed officials rushed to withdraw.

``French authorities confirm a fault at the Gravelines nuclear power plant,'' read the headline on the statement erroneously sent to Reuters. ``Currently, no effects on Germany.''

``Since the German weather service shows a stable easterly wind over Germany, France and in Gravelines itself, radioactive material... would be transported westwards in the direction of southern England and Northern Ireland,'' it said.

``Currently it is not expected that radiation protection measures will be necessary in Germany.''

Asked to explain the statement headed ``practice'' in small letters, a ministry spokeswoman said there had been no accident at the Gravelines power plant in northern France near the Belgian border. He said the statement was issued by mistake.

``The press statement reflects a fictitious scenario of the exercise. No fault has really occurred at Gravelines today,'' the ministry said in a second statement sent hours later.

``The aim of the exercise is to test the effective communication between the states and international organizations and the national emergency protection regimes,'' it said.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency in France said 54 countries and five international organizations were taking part in the nuclear emergency management exercise centered on Gravelines.

-------- korea

TALKS ON NUCLEAR SITE

May 23, 2001
World Briefing
Don Kirk
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/23/world/23BRIE.html?searchpv=nytToday

NORTH KOREA: A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency is to open talks today to try to persuade the North to provide full access to its nuclear complex at Yongbyon. North Korea is expected to press its demand that a consortium led by the United States stop delaying construction of twin nuclear reactors to fulfill the North's energy needs, as provided in a 1994 agreement. It has threatened to resume work at the site, where it was suspected of making weapons-grade plutonium, if the reactors are not built by 2003. (NYT)

-------- missile defense

Doubts Trail 'Son of Star Wars' Proposal
Military: The cost and architecture of a defense shield still unresolved.

By PETER PAE,
Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://www.latimes.com/business/20010523/t000043144.html

Protecting Americans from a foreign missile attack has become the most daunting military challenge of the last two decades--a technological feat that some say is more difficult and costly than building the atom bomb.

Setting aside those risks, President Bush pushed missile defense to the forefront of his national security plans earlier this month, reigniting intense debate here and abroad over the political ramifications of fielding such a system and over whether it is even possible.

In theory, the system finally would erase the last vestiges of the Cold War threat of instant annihilation, providing the U.S. and its allies protection from ballistic missiles through an array of weapons fired or launched from the ground, sea, air and space.

But critics contend that in the nearly two decades since President Reagan launched the "Star Wars" program, and after spending about $75 billion searching for the perfect antimissile system, the Pentagon isn't any closer to deploying an effective shield against nuclear attack.

"This is the most difficult thing that the Defense Department has ever tried to do," said Philip Coyle, the Pentagon's former chief of test and evaluation. "We're trying to do something that is more difficult than developing the atom bomb, but without the urgency or the national commitment."

Military planners still have not resolved the overall architecture of even a limited shield against a missile attack or defined how all the advanced elements of a defensive system would work.

Moreover, each element of the system would require advances in a broad range of technologies, including sensors to distinguish real warheads from decoys, high-powered chemical lasers able to shoot hundreds of miles and "kill vehicles" with unparalleled reliability.

"It's going to be very tough to weigh all these disparate systems and put them together into an integrated architecture," said Loren Thompson, an advocate of missile defense at the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute. "They have different operators, different technologies and they all have to be coordinated. It's going to be very complicated."

Estimates of the cost of even a limited system vary widely, from an economical $80 billion to as much as $300 billion. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called the criticisms of the technology a "red herring," although he acknowledged that more research is needed.

"We have no intention of deploying something that doesn't work, but what the definition of 'work' is, is terribly important," Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "If anyone thinks that you're going to deploy something full-blown that works perfectly--I mean, if that were the case, the Wright brothers failed dozens and dozens of times before they flew the airplane. If they'd quit after the first failure, we wouldn't have airplanes."

Allies, Foes Have Been Unreceptive to Plan

The Bush administration is facing stiff resistance to the plan from allies and foes. Dozens of envoys have been sent to meet with foreign officials, arguing that deploying the system would help alleviate concerns of nuclear proliferation. But the reception so far has been cool.

China has been one of the more vocal critics, contending that much of the system, including the proposal to build a battery of interceptors designed to destroy about a dozen ballistic missiles, or about what China reportedly has in its arsenal, specifically targets them.

Indeed, a strategic review underway in the Pentagon reportedly recommends redirecting the focus of military planning from Europe to Asia, including developing new long-range weapons to counter China's military power.

To build a meaningful missile defense, the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty would have to be significantly modified or scrapped. The treaty, itself controversial since the day it was proposed, restricted the Soviet Union and the United States from building a shield against intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of spanning half the globe in 30 minutes and showering a city with multiple nuclear warheads.

Behind the treaty was the idea that if both countries remained naked to attack neither would risk starting a nuclear war. The concept of "mutual assured destruction" was considered a powerful deterrent to launching the missiles.

But Bush and missile defense proponents say much has changed. The Soviet Union collapsed, ending the Cold War, and new threats have risen as additional nations have obtained nuclear weapons, built missiles or threatened to do so.

"We need a new framework that allows us to build missile defenses to counter the different threats of today's world," Bush said in his May 1 speech, kicking off what is now being called the "Son of Star Wars."

"We have more work to do to determine the final form the defenses might take," he said. "We will explore all of these options further."

Exactly what Bush will choose is still up in the air. But from his speech and in recent remarks made by Rumsfeld, analysts have gleaned some idea of the shape of Bush's missile defense plan.

Bush probably will call for accelerating work on ground-based interceptors that President Clinton set in motion last year with the idea of eventually developing a "layered shield" involving antimissile weapons based in the sea, air and ultimately in space, Thompson said.

Hoping to sell the idea to its allies, the White House already has begun dropping the word "national" from missile defense, saying the system could protect nations from both intercontinental ballistic missiles and short-range rockets such as Iraqi Scuds used during the Persian Gulf War.

Under the scenario envisioned by the Pentagon, satellites with infrared sensors initially would detect missile launches and track the flight path, providing information to the various antimissile systems.

A short-range missile could be shot down by U.S. Army-operated ground-based lasers and missiles, by Navy ships off the coast or by a modified Air Force Boeing 747-400 aircraft flying nearby and carrying chemical lasers.

Space-based lasers orbiting above and interceptor missiles based in Alaska could knock out intercontinental ballistic missiles during their booster and mid-course stages.

All of the systems are in varying degrees of development with the interceptor closest to deployment, perhaps a limited one within three years. Space-based laser is by far the most complex technology and it could be another generation or more before it could be deployed, according to the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis.

Critics contend missile defense offers a false sense of security, citing other previous attempts at defending the U.S. from attacks, including batteries of 1960s-era Nike missiles that ringed many U.S. cities.

The history of missile defense is replete with failed starts. In the early days of the program, the Pentagon poured billions into such exotic technologies as beam weapons, orbiting nuclear reactors, space-based mirrors and electromagnetic rail guns that would fire high-velocity bullets from space.

By 1991, then-President George Bush backed a streamlined $41-billion missile defense system--called GPALS for global protection against limited strike--that aimed to quickly deploy a system that could counter an attack by 200 missiles. Then, as now, the technology was unable to discriminate between real missiles and decoys and the interceptors proved unreliable.

"They have been testing this for the last two decades and they have missed more often than not," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense and space policy group that has been a vocal detractor of missile defense. "Are any of these things going to make me sleep easier at night? No, I'll still be afraid of nuclear war."

Jon B. Kutler, president of Quarterdeck Investment Partners Inc., a defense investment bank, said, "This could be the most expensive video game that didn't work."

Land-Based Interceptors

As the primary system for National Missile Defense, the $60-billion program involves launching a booster rocket carrying a "kill vehicle" that would seek out and slam into a warhead in space. The idea is similar to firing a bullet at a bullet.

Coyle said the task is even more difficult than shooting down a bullet with a bullet. "It's like trying to hit a hole in one and the hole is moving at 17,000 miles per hour with a whole bunch of other decoy holes," Coyle said.

Although two of three test launches failed to hit a missile, Pentagon advisors are devising a preliminary plan to deploy a limited system by 2004, two years earlier than planned and before the end of Bush's term.

Some analysts believe that only about five interceptors could be ready by then, a fraction of the 100 envisioned. The interceptors, designed primarily to defend against North Korea, Iraq and Iran, would be based in Alaska with a second potential site in Grand Forks, N.D.

A complement of 100 interceptors could protect the U.S. from China's current inventory of about two dozen long-range missiles but would have little effect against any massive launch from Russia.

Although it is closest to deployment, it is also the most controversial. Fifty Nobel laureates signed a letter last year warning that decoys easily can fool it and that deploying the interceptors could ignite another arms race.

A critical fourth test scheduled for August could weigh heavily on Bush's plan. Boeing Co. is the lead contractor and its engineers in Anaheim are working on the booster rocket.

Sea-Based Interceptors

Many missile defense advocates believe the Navy's sea-based system could be the most promising because of its mobility and its flexibility to shoot down missiles in both booster stage and mid-course.

Under Pentagon plans, the Navy's Aegis Cruisers, which were designed to defend Navy ships against short-range cruise missiles and aircraft attacks, would be expanded to carry interceptors to knock out ballistic missiles.

But analysts say the Navy interceptors, armed with kill vehicles to destroy warheads, must be deployed close to the launchers to be effective. Interceptors could shoot down missiles fired from North Korea but would be useless against missiles launched further inland. Interceptors also face the same decoy problems as their land-based cousins.

Because Aegis cruisers already are in operation, equipping the ships with the interceptors would be less costly than a ground-based system. The Navy, which estimates the system would cost about $15 billion, is hoping to have a theater defense system to protect against short-range missiles on Aegis ships by 2006. Under the plan, seven new Navy ships costing about $1 billion would be built, produced either by General Dynamics Corp., based in Falls Church, Va., or Woodland Hills-based Litton Industries Inc., now a unit of Northrop Grumman Corp.

The Council for a Livable World, an arms control advocacy group, contends the program costs will exceed $47 billion.

Airborne Laser

The U.S. Air Force's marquee $11-billion project involves equipping a modified Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet with a chemical laser that would be able to shoot down short-range ballistic missiles.

Designed to protect troops in the field, the program eventually would include fielding seven ABL planes by 2009. Two planes would be in the air at all times, flying in a circle-eight pattern while five would be able to rush to a combat zone within 24 hours.

Because of the laser's limited range--about 200 miles (exactly how much is classified)--the plane's primary role would be to provide defense for a regional conflict.

The plane would fly at about 40,000 feet and shoot down a missile as it clears the clouds, because its infrared sensors can't see through them. Once a missile was detected, the beam director would track the missile and measure atmospheric distortion before the laser was fired through a mirror that instantly would adjust the laser beam for the distortion.

But critics question the accuracy of the beams and whether the laser can adjust for the atmospheric distortions. They also worry that the plane flying near hostile territory could be vulnerable to attack.

Boeing is providing the airplane and TRW Inc.'s space group in Redondo Beach is developing the laser.

Space-Based Laser

Although furthest from deployment, a space-based laser could be the most promising option for defending the U.S. and its allies. It is also closest to President Reagan's vision for a national missile defense that has been derided as "Star Wars" because of its focus on lasers.

The project is dubbed "Death Star," and Air Force officials say it could launch a demonstration laser by 2010 with an in-orbit shoot down of a missile about 18 months later, more than two years ahead of schedule. Developing, launching and testing the demonstration laser is projected to cost about $4 billion.

Full deployment, which would involve sending six laser-equipped satellites into space, won't occur until well into the next decade and could cost $70 billion to $80 billion. If the U.S. were to pursue only a space-based laser option for missile defense, 24 such satellites would be needed, Air Force officials said.

Much of the architecture is similar to what the Air Force is installing on its airborne laser.

The laser is undergoing tests at TRW's Capistrano test facility near San Clemente.

----

China, Russia slam U.S. plans

By Vladimir Radyuhin,
The Hindu,
May 23, 2001
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2001/05/23/stories/03230006.htm

MOSCOW, MAY 22. Russia and China have reiterated their opposition to U.S. plans for a missile defence and vowed to work jointly for preserving the existing arms control mechanisms.

``Russia and China have again asserted that they oppose plans for the deployment of a `global anti-missile defence', banned under the 1972 treaty, and do not find convincing the reasoning and arguments of the plan's supporters,'' said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a communique on Russian-Chinese consultations on disarmament in Moscow.

The sides exchanged views in the wake of consultations with U.S. envoys the President, Mr. George W. Bush, sent to Europe and Asia to explain his plans.

Russia and China ``stated proximity or coincidence of views on the key aspects of the problems under discussion and mapped out joint and parallel steps to preserve intact the architecture of arms control and arms reductions set up in recent years by the entire international community,'' said the Russian statement.

The two sides favoured prioritising ``non-military, political methods of upholding global and regional international security'' and called for strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation to achieve this goal.

They urged further dialogue on strategic stability involving the United Nations, its Security Council, including the five nuclear powers, the Conference on Disarmament and ``other universal forums open to all interested nations''.

----

Athens to examine missile-shield plan

May 23, 2001
By Gus Constantine
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010523-779359.htm

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou promised yesterday that Athens, together with its European allies, will look closely in the coming months at the specifics of Bush administration plans to build a missile defense against threats by rogue nations.

"The United States seems to have decided to go ahead with such a defense but has pledged close consultations with its NATO allies on the matter," the foreign minister said at a breakfast for reporters.

He carefully avoided criticism of the proposal, which has run into strong resistance by Russia and China and has raised doubts even among America´s closest European allies.

The concern in both nuclear powers is that such a defense would undercut existing arms control treaties.

The foreign minister´s conciliatory approach to the issue prompted one reporter to ask why the Greek official was not being more critical.

"We need more information and more dialogue about the U.S. plan," Mr. Papandreou replied. "So far the proposal is in its theoretical stage."

Mr. Papandreou posed several questions for which he said Greece and other European nations were waiting for answers.

"Who is the missile defense supposed to protect, just the United States, or its allies as well? What is the nature of the threat? How, specifically, will it affect treaties in place?" he asked.

The Greek official is the scion of a politically active family. His father and grandfather both served as prime ministers of Greece and together built the PanHellenic Socialist Union (PASOK), which rules Greece today.

His father, Andreas, struggled against the coup that saddled Greece with military rule from 1967 to 1974.

On Monday Mr. Papandreou met with Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Also on his agenda were meetings with members of Congress and addresses to a number of think tanks including the Woodrow Wilson Center.

He arrived in New York last week, where he promoted one of Greece´s pet projects for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens -- a U.N.-sponsored Olympic truce.

The idea is to promote a cease-fire in areas of the world where conflict is raging.

"This is part of our Olympic heritage," Mr. Papandreou said.

"The ancient games were not just about the display of athletic skills. They were called as a way to bring about a pause in hostilities that were then tearing at heart of the Greek city states."

In addition to the obvious discussions about bilateral relations, including the thorny question of whether Greece is doing enough to combat terrorism, the Greek diplomat discussed with his American counterparts the situation in the Balkans.

The question of how long U.S. forces will remain in Bosnia and Kosovo became a political football during last year´s campaign, as Bush associates signaled opposition to an open-ended U.S. commitment.

-------- u.s. nuc facilities

-------- california

Californians Favor Nuclear Plants

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-California.html?searchpv=aponline

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A surprising 59 percent of Californians now support building more nuclear plants, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The pollsters said the findings suggest how deeply the power crisis has affected people in the state, which has been hit by rolling blackouts and soaring electric bills over the past few months.

The last time the organization polled Californians about nuclear energy was 1984 -- five years after the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania -- and it found 61 percent opposed to nuclear power.

``In my interpretation, the current energy crisis has some bearing on the public's changed attitudes on nuclear power,'' said Mark DiCamillo, spokesman for the Field Institute, a nonpartisan polling organization. ``The public is searching for clean ways to add to the capacity. I think the poll is saying that nuclear should be included in that consideration.''

The Field poll comes as the Bush administration pushes for a renewed look at nuclear power.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who heads the president's energy task force, has promoted nuclear power as essential to America's energy needs and said that at least some of the 65 power plants that need to be built annually to meet future electricity demand ought to be nuclear.

No utilities have ordered any new nuclear power plants in the United States since 1978.

The poll 1,015 California adults was taken May 11-20. It showed that 59 percent of Californians favor nuclear power and 36 percent are opposed. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Carl Zichella, the Sierra Club's regional staff director for California, Nevada and Hawaii, said Californians have not thought about nuclear energy for about 20 years and do not have as much information as they did around Three Mile Island.

``I think this number really reflects a lack of knowledge on the part of the public about the problems that drove nuclear power underground,'' he said. ``The more people know about nuclear power, the less they're going to like it.''

-------- nevada

Babbitt backs plan for Yucca repository

May 23, 2001
By Benjamin Grove <grove@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/archives/2001/may/23/511861289.html

WASHINGTON -- Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, on Tuesday embraced the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, giving the dump a rare endorsement from a noted environmentalist.

Babbitt in an interview after a speech stressed that his former department had no direct dealings with the scientific studies led by the Energy Department at the proposed site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But based on his knowledge of the project, Nevada is the best place to permanently bury the nation's nuclear waste, Babbitt said.

"There's not much left to quarrel about out there," Babbitt told a pro-nuclear crowd. "It is a safe, solid, geological repository."

Babbitt, long considered a stalwart environmental advocate, is in private practice at Latham and Watkins, a Washington law firm. He was speaking at the Nuclear Energy Institute's annual conference, a gathering of about 400 officials from the nation's nuclear power utilities, this week in Washington.

The comments were a striking departure from statements made by many politicians, and even former politicians, who urge caution and a close look at the scientific studies at Yucca, where the government wants to store 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste for thousands of years.

The DOE has not issued a final recommendation that the site is a safe place to store waste.

Many officials, even some Yucca supporters, typically stress that "science, not politics" should determine whether waste is buried there, and do not outwardly endorse the plan.

Babbitt also said Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign were a notable, bipartisan political team that stand in the way of the project winning political approval, especially since the Senate is evenly divided with 50 members in each party. Reid is a Democrat; Ensign is a Republican.

The Yucca proposal is "a political problem, period," Babbitt said.

Babbitt in his speech said increasing nuclear power was necessary to meet the nation's rising energy needs. Most environmentalists blindly oppose nuclear power, without considering the role it plays in producing emissions-free electric power, he said.

As be began his speech to the mostly Republican crowd, the former Clinton Cabinet member said he sensed a question in everyone's head: What is Bruce Babbitt doing here? But he pleased the crowd with clear support for Yucca.

"You can tell I'm not in politics anymore," Babbitt said at one point during his talk.

In an interview after his speech, Babbitt again confirmed his belief that Yucca is the "appropriate" place to bury nuclear waste.

"I really believe that," Babbitt said.

Babbitt said he was still friends with Reid and former Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., who bitterly oppose a nuclear dump at Yucca. Babbitt clearly has "differing opinions" with them on the Yucca issue, he said.

-------- us nuc politics

Cheney calls for rational debate on nuclear power

May 23, 2001
By Bill Sammon and Patrice Hill
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010523-262301.htm

Vice President Richard B. Cheney yesterday called for a cessation of the emotionalism that for decades has plagued the debate over nuclear power, which he vowed will supply a much greater share of America´s electricity in the future.

"Everybody stay calm and cool and collected and try to be objective and as nonemotional as possible," Mr. Cheney said at the Nuclear Energy Institute´s annual conference in Washington.

The vice president said the debate over nuclear power must take place "without people falling back on the stereotypes that have so often characterized these kinds of discussions in the past."

He was referring to the demonization of nuclear power by liberals, who have redoubled their efforts since President Bush announced this month that America must embrace nuclear power to help solve the burgeoning energy crisis.

"Nuclear power is a very important part of our energy policy today in the United States," Mr. Cheney said. "One out of five homes in America today runs on electricity generated by nuclear energy. American electricity is already being provided through the nuclear industry efficiently, safely, with no discharge of the greenhouse gases or emissions."

The Bush administration, stung by Democratic accusations that it is environmentally insensitive, is playing up the fact that nuclear plants emit none of the smoke and particulates of coal-fired plants.

"We want to assess the potential for nuclear energy to make a major contribution in terms of improving air quality," Mr. Cheney said.

He made it clear that if environmentalists succeed in derailing the administration´s push for more nuclear plants, the nation will be forced to build even greater numbers of fossil-burning facilities.

"The bottom line is we still have inadequate supplies," Mr. Cheney said. "And the only way to close that gap is to generate more electric power."

"It´s going to be coal-fired, it´s going to be gas-fired, or it´s going to come from nuclear power," he added. "If we reduce the amount of power generated from nuclear energy, we will, in fact, have to make that up from other sources."

Rather than reduce the amount of nuclear energy, the Bush administration is trying to stimulate greater nuclear development. It has pointed to countries such as France, where nuclear plants generate 60 percent of the electricity, triple the U.S. level.

But in recent decades, U.S. utilities have shied away from building new nuclear plants because of the onerous licensing and regulatory process. Environmentalists and other intervenors add years in construction delays and billions in cost overruns through lawsuits.

"We want to encourage the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expedite applications for new advanced technology reactors, with the top criteria being safety and environmental protection," Mr. Cheney said. "We want to encourage the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to relicense existing plants that meet or exceed safety standards."

No new nuclear plants have been commissioned in the United States since a 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania. Although the core of the reactor went into partial meltdown, no one was killed or injured.

In fact, no one has been killed by radiation in the history of the U.S. nuclear industry. Although coal routinely claims the lives of miners both through accidents and black-lung disease and also ends up in the lungs of people who live near coal-fired power plants, coal plants are viewed as safer than nuclear plants by many Americans.

Since nuclear plants emit no harmful emissions, its biggest environmental drawback is where to store the spent fuel, which remains radioactive for many years. Most states oppose construction of long-term nuclear waste facilities within their borders.

"As we prepare to increase nuclear generating capacity in the future, we also want to get on with the business of finding a geologic repository for long-term waste disposal," Mr. Cheney said.

Mr. Cheney´s pledge to resolve the storage question -- perhaps as soon as this year -- would remove the single biggest obstacle to development of nuclear power in the United States, analysts say.

While the vice president acknowledged nuclear power is an issue that causes "considerable controversy," he emphasized that Mr. Bush "didn´t come to town to duck the tough issues."

In his speech, Mr. Cheney alluded to the administration´s review of Clean Air Act regulations that do not give nuclear power plants credit for being free of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other pollutants regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Changing those regulations could give nuclear power plants a major economic advantage they don´t now have, enabling them to sell credits for their reduced emissions to other utilities that go over their limits.

Mr. Cheney´s promotion of nuclear power as a "green" and seemingly limitless source of electricity comes just as environmental groups were mounting a major campaign to kill the industry, which until a few months ago they believed was dead and buried.

To the consternation of environmentalists, opinion polls this year have shown increasing public support for building new nuclear plants in the wake of California´s electricity crisis, prompting the Bush administration to take an aggressive stand promoting the industry.

After appearing quiescent on the issue for much of the year, major environmental groups last week came out in force when the White House announced its nuclear plans, making it clear that blocking nuclear power has once again become a top priority.

Still, much of what the administration wants to do to promote nuclear power can be done administratively, analysts say. If the White House takes action through executive order and the regulatory agencies, environmentalists may have to take their battle into the courts.

Another development that complicates the administration´s task is unexpected opposition from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, which argues that the nuclear power industry could not survive without government insurance and other subsidies and should be allowed to die.

"The administration needs to practice the free-market rhetoric that it preaches and put away its nuclear pompons," Cato analysts Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren wrote in a newspaper opinion article last week.

----

For Cheney, a Positive Reaction
Nuclear Power Convention Applauds Energy Program

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63054-2001May22?language=printer

The nuclear power convention sported the bold slogan "A Flourishing Renaissance," and Vice President Cheney went before the reactor executives yesterday to accept their adulation and underline the administration's enthusiasm for nuclear power.

The energy policy President Bush released last week includes promises to speed up relicensing for safe and efficient nuclear reactors and take a number of other steps to encourage production of nuclear power. The report refers to it as a "clean and unlimited source of energy."

Cheney was the policy's architect, and was greeted by two standing ovations from the crowd of 375 at the Nuclear Energy Assembly. The annual conference is sponsored at a Washington hotel by the industry's major trade group, the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Cheney said the nuclear industry is allowing electricity to be generated "efficiently, safely, with no discharge of the greenhouse gases or emissions."

"We want, as a matter of national policy, to encourage continued advancements in this industry -- improved safety and efficiency in nuclear plants, safe disposal of nuclear waste and perhaps even technology that reduces the amount of toxicity of waste going forward," he said.

The vice president said Bush "recognizes that these are difficult and challenging issues, and there's been plenty of controversy over the years."

The nuclear executives seemed in a buoyant mood, after enduring 20 years of mainly hostile public attention. Conference organizers handed out Super Balls that glow in the dark. The warm-up speaker for Cheney, Thomas J. Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said, "Up until the last few months, it was not polite to talk about nuclear energy."

Cheney and his task force changed all that. John R. McGaha, president of Entergy Operations Inc., which operates five nuclear plants in the Southeast, said Bush and Cheney have shown themselves to be "leaders, not politicians."

Perhaps chastened by the response to remarks last month that were widely seen as being dismissive of conservation, Cheney said more of the recommendations from Bush's energy task force "are devoted to conservation and renewables than are devoted to increased supplies."

Cheney asked the executives to support the administration's "reasonable policies" on energy.

"There's a lot of talk from some of our critics that somehow it's only focused, for example, on additional supplies of energy -- that we didn't look adequately at conservation or renewables," he said. "That's simply not true. I would say anybody who says that hasn't read the report."

However, Cheney did not back away from the administration's contention that massive new production infrastructure should be built.

He said Bush's policy assumes "very significant" savings from conservation and increased use of renewable energy sources such as sun and wind, but said they will not be enough to meet the nation's energy needs.

"That means," Cheney said, "it's going to be coal-fired, it's going to be gas-fired or it's going to come from nuclear power."

----

Nuclear Power Gains in Status After Lobbying

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/23/politics/23NUKE.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, May 22 - As the White House was putting together the energy plan that President Bush released last week, there had been almost no talk of nuclear power as a component of the nation's energy strategy. The nuclear industry thought this was a glaring omission, and a handful of top nuclear industry officials decided they needed to take their case to the administration.

In mid-March, a cadre of seven nuclear power executives sought and won an hourlong meeting in the White House with Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's top political adviser. Also attending were Lawrence B. Lindsey, the president's top economic adviser, Andrew Lundquist, the executive director of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, and others involved in devising the energy plan.

"We said, Look, we are an important player on this energy team and here are our vital statistics, and we think that you should start talking about nuclear when you talk about increasing the nation's supply," Christian H. Poindexter, chairman of the Constellation Energy Group, recalled today.

And then a surprising thing happened.

"It was shortly after that, as a matter of fact I think the next night, when the vice president was being interviewed on television, he began to talk about nuclear power for the first time," Mr. Poindexter said.

Mr. Cheney first discussed nuclear power as an alternative to dirtier fossil fuels in a March 21 interview on CNBC. "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions," he said, "then you ought to build nuclear power plants because they don't emit any carbon dioxide, they don't emit greenhouse gases."

Mr. Cheney had missed the meeting with nuclear executives because he was on Capitol Hill, talking to members of Congress who themselves were pushing nuclear energy.

In a quick chain reaction, Mr. Cheney put the long-maligned nuclear power industry back on the political map. In the energy plan released last week, the administration breathed new life into the industry, declaring nuclear technology, which provides 20 percent of the nation's electricity, much safer than it was 20 years ago.

Today, Mr. Cheney appeared before 350 nuclear industry executives meeting in Washington - 100 more than showed up at last year's annual meeting of the Nuclear Energy Institute - and told them the administration wanted to encourage the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expedite applications for new reactors, relicense existing plants and "increase the resources devoted to safety and enforcement as we prepare to increase nuclear generating capacity in the future." He said the administration also wanted to renew the Price-Anderson Act, which limits nuclear plant operators' liability in case of an accident.

Mr. Poindexter is still incredulous. "In my wildest dreams, when I was over at the White House in March, I couldn't imagine them getting so behind us," he said.

He was skeptical for good reason. Few industries have enjoyed the kind of renaissance that nuclear power may be poised to undergo. Accidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in Ukraine seemed to seal the industry's fate as too dangerous, too uncontrollable and too expensive to win back a frightened public or secure the financial backing of Wall Street.

The last nuclear power plant to enter operation was ordered in 1973. There still is no solution to the vexing problem of nuclear waste storage. And while recent polling shows that Americans more lopsidedly oppose dirtier fossil fuels than they oppose nuclear power, they still do not want to live near nuclear power plants.

For those wary of a nuclear revival, these problems are no less real today than they were two decades ago.

"The Bush administration should at most be looking to proceed with what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was planning - an orderly phase-out of existing power plants," said Paul L. Leventhal, president of the Nuclear Control Institute and co- director of the Senate investigation into the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island. "Instead, they're talking about a new rebirth, and it frankly just doesn't make sense."

The Union of Concerned Scientists, using data from the industry itself, says that aging plants have experienced eight forced shutdowns in the last 16 months.

And Mr. Leventhal said that replacing coal with nuclear power would not appreciably diminish global warming because most of the pollutants that cause global warming come from cars and trucks.

Another problem, and one that Mr. Cheney fully acknowledges, is the lack of a national repository for the storage of nuclear waste. In his speech today, the vice president warned that the lack of a storage site could be a deal killer. Without a site, he said, "eventually the contribution we can count on from the nuclear industry will, in fact, decline."

The storage problem will not be solved at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, if Nevada politicians and the gambling industry have anything to say about it. Senators Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican, have made opposition to nuclear waste dumping in their state their priority.

"Until they get the waste problem solved," Mr. Reid said, "nothing's going to happen on nuclear power."

Peter Bradford, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who now teaches energy policy at Yale, said that apart from the safety issues, nuclear power was economically problematic.

"The types of long-term investment necessary to sustain nuclear energy are going to prove very hard to find in this kind of volatile marketplace," Mr. Bradford said.

Still, there are cheerleaders. One is Representative Billy Tauzin, the Louisiana Republican who heads the Energy and Commerce Committee. He spoke today at the Nuclear Energy Institute's annual meeting and summed up the surprise that others feel at the recent turn of events.

"As we gather here in Washington," Mr. Tauzin said, "who would have thunk that we'd be discussing the possibility of nuclear construction in this country?"

-------- MILITARY

-------- africa

Powell Opens Africa Trip

MAY 23, 05:50 EST
By TOM RAUM
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=AFRICA&STORYID=APIS7C5OJV80

BAMAKO, Mali. (AP) - Opening a four-nation African tour, Secretary of State Colin Powell conveyed the Bush administration's deep interest in the continent and promised Wednesday to find a ``right balance'' for U.S. participation in humanitarian missions.

Powell voiced support continued limited U.S. training of African peacekeeping troops such as those used in Sierra Leone.

He told reporters aboard his plane that he knows his views are not always the same as those of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has been looking for opportunities to scale back U.S. commitments overseas.

``We're always tugging at this. ... But it's not a fight,'' Powell said.

Powell is visiting Mali, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.

After arriving at the airport in Bamako, Mali's capital, Powell's motorcade passed a busy outdoor market, teeming with shoppers, many women balancing large baskets on their heads.

He told reporters the tour ``gives me a chance to learn on the ground what's really going on.''

The primary theme was the global battle against AIDS and other infectious diseases.

But Powell said he also plans to discuss a range of political and economic issues in meetings with the region's leaders.

``Obviously, I'm moved by the fact that I'm the first African American secretary of state to visit Africa,'' Powell said. Powell, who was traveling with his wife, Alma, said the experience brought an ``emotional twinge''

But Powell noted that he had also visited Africa as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the first Bush administration.

``I'm pleased to be able to represent the foreign policy interests of the United States and of the new Bush administration to Africa to show that we have an interest in Africa. The president has a deep interest in Africa,'' he said.

``We realize the importance of the continent, the opportunities in the continent and especially the problems that the continent is facing.''

As to his first stop, Powell paid tribute to the West African nation as ``a successful democracy.''

Powell was meeting with Mali's president, Alpha Oumar Konare, and planned to tour a malaria research center jointly financed by Mali and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

He also was to visit on Thursday a center where peacekeeping forces headed for Sierra Leone are being trained, including by some U.S. advisers.

``The president is supportive of the focused relief effort which is under way to train the remaining Nigerian battalions,'' Powell said.

He said the United States had an obligation to support such efforts ``where there are nations willing to commit those units to peacekeeping and peacemaking operations.''

Noting that he and Rumsfeld didn't always agree, Powell said, ``Secretary Rumsfeld is always looking for opportunities to back off on some of the overseas commitment that we have.

``And that's his job, the president wants to do that. But we have to balance it against our responsibilities. ...

``It's just trying to find the right balance between getting too committed and not getting committed enough,'' Powell added.

Powell said he saw ``nothing on the horizon'' that might suggest the need for U.S. combat troops on the continent.

He noted that, in the Sierre Leone conflict, the United Nations has assembled a force of 17,500 troops. Of that, the only U.S. role is ``a few liaison and training'' personnel, Powell said.

On other subjects, Powell:

-Predicted that the administration would increase its political and humanitarian efforts to help victims of the long civil war in Sudan. He said he expects to discuss the conflict when he's in east Africa this weekend.

-Defended Bush's announcement of a $200 million U.S. contribution to a global $5 billion to $7 billion fund to combat AIDS - against criticism that it was inadequate. ``I don't think America has anything to apologize for,'' he said, saying the amount was just ``seed money'' and that more would come later.

-Said he looks forward to discussing with South African President Thabo Mbeki the recent strife in neighboring Zimbabwe. ``I'd like to hear President Mbeki's assessment, and I will have my own assessment to present to him.''

Powell was last in Africa two years ago, when he joined former President Carter in helping monitor elections in Nigeria.

-------- arms sales

Deal Reached on Sale of Jets to Chileans

May 23, 2001
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/23/world/23CHIL.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, May 22 - The Bush administration has reached a deal with Senate Democrats that would allow the sale of 10 F-16 jets to Chile, the first transfer of sophisticated American fighter planes to Latin America in nearly two decades, Congressional officials said today.

Under terms of the agreement, the administration has pledged not to include advanced medium-range air- to-air missiles to Chile in the sale, which is valued at more than $600 million, the officials said.

The move was a concession to Senate Democrats, who were concerned that the United States might provide Chile with technology beyond its defensive needs and possibly unleash an arms race in South America. The sale has stirred little opposition in the House.

Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and eight other Democrats urged President Bush in February to withhold the missiles as well as a state-of-the-art navigation system and fuel tanks that would give the planes extended range.

They called the introduction of such items "unnecessary and potentially destabilizing."

But Chilean officials, who announced their intention in December to buy the jets from Lockheed Martin, had insisted publicly that the jets be equipped with the latest technology, including air-to-air missiles, which are radar-guided missiles that can hit targets beyond visual range. Under the prodding of Chile's armed forces, the Santiago government is seeking to update a jet fleet that dates from the 1960's.

A Chilean official conceded tonight that opposition among Congressional Democrats was such that his government would not be able to buy planes equipped with the missiles or the navigation system. In recent talks, Chile has sought an American commitment to sell such technology if it is obtained by Chile's neighbors, he said.

Lincoln Bloomfield, a Bush nominee to become assistant secretary of state, notified Mr. Dodd last month that the administration would quickly sell the missile technology to Chile only in the event that a foreign nation introduces a comparable missile into Latin America.

Bush officials had previously suggested selling Chile the technology but not delivering it until another nation had acquired it.

--------

Argentine Arms Probe Widens

MAY 23, 14:51 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=CSA&STORYID=APIS7C60DAO0

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - A former defense minister who served in Carlos Menem's government was detained Wednesday by order of a federal judge, widening a high-profile investigation of illegal arms trafficking.

Antonio Erman Gonzalez is the first former Cabinet minister to be taken into custody in connection with the probe of illicit arms sales to Croatia in 1991 and Ecuador in 1995.

Corruption accusations have swirled for years about several of Menem's former aides, but Gonzalez was the first high-ranking official to be formally accused.

Federal Judge Julio Speroni said he would prosecute Gonzalez for ``aggravated smuggling of arms and gunpowder.''

Gonzalez, who was detained after giving testimony Wednesday morning before the judge, faces between four and 12 years in prison if convicted.

According to investigators, 6,500 tons of weapons officially listed as bound for Panama and Venezuela ended up in Croatia and Ecuador. At the time, Argentina was bound by international agreements to withhold arms from those countries.

Ecuador and Peru had waged a brief border war in the 90s, and Croatia's embargo stemmed from fighting in the former Yugoslavia.

Former Menem aide Emir Yoma, brother of Menem's ex-wife Zulema Yoma, was detained April 7 and is awaiting trial on charges of complicity in the alleged arms ring.

Zulema Yoma grabbed media headlines here when she appeared in court Wednesday to testify before Judge Jorge Urso, who is also investigating the arms sales.

Yoma, who separated from Menem in a bitter divorce in 1991, has said that their son, Carlos F. Menem, told her details of the arms sales shortly before he was killed in a helicopter crash in 1995.

Menem, 70, who is to be married Saturday to former Miss Universe Cecilia Bolocco, 36, also is to appear before Urso on July 13 for questioning in the case.

Menem, who left office in December 1999 after serving two consecutive five-year terms, has not been implicated in the case. He has repeatedly defended the sales as ``absolutely legal.''

-------- balkans

Rumsfeld Worries Europeans On Bosnia
Allies Warn U.S. Against Withdrawal

By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63341-2001May22?language=printer

PARIS, May 22 -- European policymakers and governments have reacted with concern to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's comments in a Washington Post interview last week that he was "pushing" to have American peacekeeping troops withdrawn from Bosnia.

The remarks fed European anxieties that the Bush administration has a penchant for taking actions and making statements unilaterally without consulting its allies. The statement came at a time when continuing fighting in Macedonia suggests to many Europeans that instability in the Balkans could spread and possibly require greater involvement by NATO allies, including the United States.

Taking U.S. troops out of Bosnia "would be a very bad signal," Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner of Austria said she told Secretary of State Colin L. Powell during a meeting in Washington on Monday afternoon. Nationalistic extremists in the region "will think that the Americans are no longer interested," she said.

Powell told her that the NATO allies went into the Balkans together and will come out together, she said. He has frequently expressed U.S. policy that way.

Speaking today at a meeting with Washington Post editors in Washington, Ferrero-Waldner said that U.S. troops would be needed to stabilize Bosnia for at least another five years. The 3,300 Americans there are part of a NATO-led force that went into the country in 1995 at the end of four years of war and now numbers about 20,000.

Another peacekeeping force deployed into the Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999; Rumsfeld did not say he wants to remove the U.S. troops there.

Europeans have in recent weeks become accustomed to sometimes conflicting signals from the new administration, often taking the form of institutional differences between the Pentagon and Foggy Bottom. Some said they are waiting for President Bush to clarify the administration's position on the Balkans next month during his first trip to Europe.

The Rumsfeld interview "doesn't contribute to having a clear vision of American policy toward Europe," said Spanish legislator Rafael Estrella, president of the NATO parliamentary assembly, which links lawmakers in the alliance countries. The Rumsfeld statement, he said, "drew my attention. That's something the secretary of state has already dismissed, and now it comes up again in a very strong manner."

What is needed, Estrella said, is a full review through the North Atlantic Council, NATO's top policymaking body, for "a common exit strategy and a replacement for the military component."

Some Europeans say they are puzzled that Rumsfeld seems to believe that the Bosnia operation is affecting U.S. military preparedness. "I don't think it's fair to say using 3,000 troops for that mission is weakening or affecting the overall posture of the American military," Estrella said.

In Bosnia, the government expressed uneasiness over the statement. "We are definitely worried," an official from the country's foreign ministry told the Reuters news agency. "You know what America has done so far to protect peace and maintain a stable environment."

Richard C. Holbrooke, one of the chief architects of the peace deal that ended Bosnia's civil war, also was critical of Rumsfeld's remarks. "It doesn't make sense to think about a withdrawal yet," he told reporters in Washington today.

Still, in Western Europe, many officials appeared to take the statement in stride. Karl Kaiser, research director of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said that many people believe that Powell settled the issue earlier with his assurances against a precipitous U.S. withdrawal.

There was no immediate official reaction in France, which also has a contingent in Bosnia. But foreign policy analyst Dominique Moisi, of the French Institute of International Relations, said the Rumsfeld remarks are likely to sour the mood for Bush's maiden voyage to Europe.

"It's exactly rubbing Europeans the wrong way," he said. "In a way it would destroy the positive impact of the Americans to present missile defense as something good for Europeans." Europe has been generally critical of U.S. proposals to build a system to shoot down incoming nuclear missiles.

----

Where are we headed in the Balkans?

May 23, 2001
James Zirin
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20010523-73449583.htm

I recently returned from a NATO trip to the Balkans sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations. Our group included members from various walks of life. We visited NATO and SHAPE headquarters and then went on, via military transport, to "theater" in Sarajevo and Kosovo.

We met diplomats and generals, sergeants and privates. Our purpose was to try to understand our country´s NATO policy, which right now is mostly our country´s Bal-kans policy. Most of us emerged mystified as to where we are headed, and I concluded that our government has no clear vision either.

Let´s start with Kosovo where we sent a force under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 to maintain safety and security in the area. We went to war in Kosovo to protect the Albanians from the ethnic cleansing practices of Slobodan Milosevic. All well and good. But now Mr. Milosevic is in jail; the constitutional lawyer Vojislav Kostunica presides over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY); and U.S. Balkans policy seems to be a brand-new ballgame.

Our generals say they are busy protecting the Serbs from the Albanian "extremists," who have brought violence to the South Serbia-Kosovo border, as well as the Kosovo border with Macedonia a remarkable irony because it all started the other way around.

Change in position? The U.S. obviously would like to forge a new relationship with Mr. Kostunica, who bitterly opposes the ethnic Albanians seeking independence for Kosovo and an end to Slavic domination of Macedonia.

The Bush administration has taken a decided tilt toward the Serbian nationalist Mr. Kostunica. After all, he´s no Slobodan Milosevic. He was democratically elected. He comes to Washington seeking money in what is billed as a "historic visit," and the president receives him. Mr. Kostunica is not a Lech Walesa or a Vaclav Havel, either. Indeed, he may be a wolf in wolf´s clothing.

Unable or unwilling to confront and show the slightest degree of remorse for Serbia´s dark past, he unabashedly harbors a passel of infamous Serbian war criminals indicted by the International Court of Justice in The Hague for unspeakable crimes against humanity, notably, Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.

True, Mr. Milosevic languishes in a Belgrade house arrest on corruption charges, but Mr. Kostunica obdurately refuses to turn him over to The Hague´s authorities, nattering irrelevantly about the need for a new FRY constitution and for resolution of "procedural issues." And as for Mr. Karadzic and Mr. Mladic, the two "headline poster children" alleged, among other things, to have ordered the mass killings and atrocities in Mostar and Srebinica, Mr. Kostunica thus far refuses to take the approach he took with Mr. Milosevic and arrest them under local law on a charge of murder or mass murder or whatever they call genocide in Yugoslavia these days.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kostunica has hailed Mr. Karadzic as a great Serb patriot, and the wanted men remain at large either in Belgrade itself or in Belgrade´s client entity, the nearby Republika Srpska.

Then, there is Washington´s strange position toward Montenegro. Montenegro is now part of FRY, but it narrowly elected a Congress that wants independence from the Republic. I always thought that the U.S. since Woodrow Wilson believed in self-determination of peoples. With regard to Montenegro, however, we take the line that we are opposed to independence because secession will weaken FRY.

Also, there is Bosnia where we say we support the unitary multiethnic state mandated by the 1995 Dayton accords, which everyone you talk to in the region seems to agree were deeply flawed. Mr. Kostunica is fond of quoting Henry Kissinger, who warned against such a policy reasoning that, "there never was an independent Bosnia, why should we create it now?"

Since Dayton, we profess dedication to the concept of an independent and multiethnic Bosnia. Yet, we go about implementing it in a fashion that, by most accounts, has produced few tangible results. NATO´s implementation force after Dayton (IFOR) is now a stabilization force (SFOR), whatever that means. Its U.S. contingent reasons that any casualties are politically unacceptable and emphasizes "force protection"as a priority over mission accomplishment. For instance, SFOR soldiers recently stood by while a Serb mob prevented Muslims from rebuilding a mosque.

Gone from the military lexicon is the old "Vietnam syndrome," replaced, according to the generals, with a "Mogadishu syndrome" requiring that no U.S. soldier return home from the Balkans in a body bag.

True, no one wants a Mogadishu in the Balkans, but when Teddy Roosevelt ordered his troops to take San Juan Hill, the idea was to take the hill not to produce zero casualties.

Casualties are the tragic byproduct of every war. But zero casualties as the primary goal of a military operation would appear to be a pipe dream that prevents accomplishment of the basic objectives of the U.S. and the NATO alliance.

The military is in a funk. It is sunk in the Balkans "fortress bound" and want to get out because they know it is still a powder keg. Our NATO diplomats are in a funk. They say our policy is "ramp down," not cut and run, but can give no guidelines or milestones for success and ultimate disengagement.

Secretary of State Powell assured the NATO allies that the U.S. indeed will not cut and run, stating that "we got in this together, we´ll get out of it together." But what does this mean?

A senior German representative to NATO, estimated that the Alliance would be in the Balkans for at least 20 years. Mr. Powell surely contemplates a somewhat faster timetable, and actions speak louder than words. What appears to be the case is that the U.S. is slowly but surely reducing its commitment without formal acknowledgement.

As of this writing, KFOR is pulling out from the fourth and final sector of the so-called ground safety zone along the Kosovo-Serbian border, an ethnic fault line where two hostile communities meet, thereby opening the door for Mr. Kostunica´s Serbian army to deal repressively with the Albanian guerrillas that have nested there.

Ambiguity is everywhere. We went to the Balkans to pull Europe´s chestnuts from a fire all too painfully reverberating with the specter of ethnic cleansing, continuing violence and the burden of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing their homes with loved ones left behind to be butchered a mere half-century after the defeat of Nazidom.

We ended one war in Dayton and fought another in Kosovo, but even a cursory knowledge of modern European history teaches that a war´s end does not guarantee the peace.

The region badly needs money, but the instability exemplified by uncertainty over the future of Kosovo, a teetering "national unity" government in Macedonia and a jerry-rigged "made in Dayton" administration in Bosnia must be addressed before there can be even a modicum of economic reform. Refugees must have the confidence that they can return to their homes unmolested. The region cannot conceivably attract foreign investment where organized criminal activity runs rampant, borders are undefined and there is no dependable rule of law to bring violators to justice or even resolve civil disputes.

None of this can happen with the stroke of a pen, much less at the point of a gun, and it is obvious we need to stay for a while to reach the beginning of a definable end game. So when a West Point senior asked recently, "I´m probably going there after graduation, what should I expect to accomplish?," there was no clear-cut answer. The only stab at it is that we came to lend some stability to a part of the world plagued by ethnic hatreds that created a human charnel house this past decade, and it would be a shame if we withdrew without achieving our declared purpose to shape the peace by restoring stability to the area.

There surely must be more to our European policy than more and better missiles. If we retreat too precipitously from the Balkans, we welch on our commitment to the NATO alliance and on Dayton´s promise to the region. Then, the ethnic cleansers will only dance on the graves of their victims by waiting out American irresolution.

But the agony of the situation is that if we "ramp down" too slowly, we may find ourselves inevitably drawn into an untenable long-term involvement resulting in untold expense and unacceptable peril to our armed forces in area. We owe it to our fighting men and women to give them some clarity and a roadmap of our intentions.

James D. Zirin, a lawyer, is a partner in the New York office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP.

-------- colombia

Where Troubles Are No Joke

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63274-2001May22?language=printer

BOGOTA--In Colombia, a land beset with chronic terrorism, kidnappings, bombings, drug cartels, smuggling and chaos, it takes something of special importance to dominate the news. This is how things are, now.

Like David Letterman wisecracking about Andrea Noceti's talent performance in the Miss Universe contest: "Miss Colombia -- and this was hard to beat -- swallowed 50 balloons full of heroin."

Outrage! Uproar! Demonstrators! Official protests! Six days later, Letterman was draping himself in a Miss Colombia sash and apologizing on the air to Noceti.

The incident played out on the front pages of Colombia's leading newspapers with the intensity of an armed invasion -- and without a hint of irony. It easily disturbed more people than the kidnapping of 190 farmers last week by a paramilitary group. In terms of column inches, the Noceti-Letterman clash surpassed the huge car bomb that exploded Thursday in the nightclub district of Medellin, killing eight people and wounding more than 130.

Colombia is a country that can laugh at itself but doesn't like being laughed at by others.

Yes, the country is responsible for producing 90 percent of the world's cocaine and an increasing share of its heroin. Yes, its civilian population, particularly the poor, is being terrorized by bands of leftist guerrillas and rightist paramilitary armies that roam the countryside. More people are kidnapped in Colombia than almost any other country. And roughly 2 million people have been displaced by the conflict.

But why does everybody dwell on the negative? This is the constant lament from Bogota, where, despite Colombia's own delicate feelings, radio stations have no problem devoting long satiric segments to mocking the U.S. ambassador's Spanish accent and various other gringo idiosyncrasies and stereotypes.

The joke likely would have riled Colombia's elite -- the country's poor tend to view the world with a more developed if darker sense of irony -- no matter when it arrived. But, most likely unbeknown to Letterman, the crack followed several international insults that have deepened Colombia's pariah mentality.

Earlier this year, Spain, a dear old friend, decided to begin requiring visas from Colombian visitors. Such Colombian luminaries as Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fernando Botero, perhaps the most prominent living Latin American painter, fired off angry letters to Spain vowing never to visit again.

Then the United States delivered a one-two punch: It required Colombians to get visas even if only stopping in the country en route to another, and the State Department advised Americans not to visit. Much anger ensued, particularly among the segment of Colombians who can afford Miami shopping trips.

To make matters worse, Colombia's international smash television saga "Betty la Fea" ("Betty the Ugly") recently ended in a glow of good humor and mirth as the title character married her heart's handsome desire. Now what?

The Colombian national soccer team is struggling for the final qualifying slot in next year's World Cup, and a recent spate of urban terrorism is threatening Colombia's standing as host of this year's Copa America soccer tournament. Soccer, like beauty, is important here.

No one likes to be stereotyped, especially when the stereotype is the swashbuckling drug kingpin in a country that considers itself a faithful preserver of the Spanish language and culture.

Colombia is full of driven, talented people who not only endure but succeed amid unbelievably trying circumstances. Think of it in these terms: The number of leftist guerrillas and rightist paramilitaries who have devastated the country and its image would not fill Camden Yards. Yet they have come to define the nation.

Even within Colombia's borders the culture of suspicion and mistrust has hardened over decades to complicate daily life in a thousand small ways. Cash registers rarely contain enough money to make even the smallest change, a symptom of mistrustful managers. Nor do cab drivers carry more than several dollars -- nearly every ride ends with a frantic search for change among the kiosks and coffee shops nearby.

A wire transfer from the United States takes up to three weeks to arrive thanks to a thicket of regulations meant to reduce the laundering of drug money. Ordering taxi service requires an exchange of numeric codes -- one for the driver to ensure that the passenger is who he says, one for the passenger to ensure that the taxi is not working for a kidnapping network that intercepted the call.

Tales of drug smuggling fill the newspapers, including the story of Andres Lafaurie Restrepo. The 19-year-old was caught at Miami International Airport last November carrying a sizable load of heroin in his baggy pants. What makes him different from other smugglers is that he is the son of Maria Ines Restrepo, head of the government's vaunted crop substitution program meant to encourage farmers to give up poppy and coca crops for legal ones.

Restrepo remains in her job. Her son gave helpful testimony against the heroin smuggling ring he was working for, but will remain in a U.S. prison for several years.

So with all the bad news, Colombia tends to salute its heroes beyond all sense of proportion. A few weeks ago Formula One race car driver Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the front pages of Bogota's two leading newspapers, covered in champagne as he celebrated an apparent victory over German arch-rival Michael Schumacher. On closer look, though, Montoya hadn't won the race but finished second.

Of course the Letterman episode has made Noceti a far larger celebrity than she otherwise would have been. She failed to be one of the Miss Universe pageant's 10 finalists -- even though Colombian newspapers had assured readers she would -- but has since received more attention than the winner.

The whole matter could be chalked up to the public relations genius of Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombia's ambassador to the United States. Moreno almost single-handedly secured a massive $1.3 billion U.S. aid package through tireless congressional lobbying, and he was quick to stand up to Letterman. He sent CBS a letter expressing outrage, and rallied New York's large Colombian diaspora for a picket line protest outside the Ed Sullivan Theater.

"Well done, Luis Alberto, you taught David Letterman a lesson," reads a cartoon in the weekly magazine Semana. Noceti made the most of the opportunity as well. Before the show, she reportedly spent six hours with image consultants BSMG Worldwide, fielding every question Letterman might throw at her.

But already the nationalism of last week has turned cynical, Colombia's more natural tone.

"In this country, apparently without remedy, there is a lack of reaction to the daily massacres, the multitude of kidnappings, the car bombs, the billions in state company thefts," wrote Lucy Nieto, a columnist for the influential daily El Tiempo. "But commentaries and protests pour forth for third-degree subjects . . . like the perverse allusion about Miss Colombia from a gringo comedian."

--------

U.S. Pressures Colombia Military

MAY 23, 20:29 EST
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=CSA&STORYID=APIS7C65BNO0

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A U.S. senator ratcheted up pressure for Colombia's military to sever links with right-wing paramilitary forces by challenging a top Colombian army commander to move against a paramilitary base.

The challenge by Sen. Paul Wellstone of the Foreign Relations Committee comes weeks after the U.S. State Department listed the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, as a terrorist organization.

Concerned about the Colombian army's longtime links to paramilitaries, the U.S. Congress set human rights conditions that have to be met before aid from Washington could be spent. Colombia failed some conditions, but then-President Clinton issued a waiver last year, allowing a $1.3 billion aid package to flow.

Wellstone, D-Minn., says support for future assistance from Washington ``will erode if the Colombian military does not take prompt, effective steps to end paramilitary operations, which too often result in atrocities.''

In a letter to Gen. Martin Orlando Carreno - a copy of which the senator's office sent on Wednesday to The Associated Press - Wellstone urged the commander of the army's 5th Brigade to take action against the AUC's base in San Rafael de Lebrija, in north central Colombia.

``The base is operating openly in an area under your command, and its activities have directly caused much of the bloodshed in the region,'' Wellstone said in the letter, dated May 22.

A Jesuit human rights activist in the region, the Rev. Francisco de Roux, said such specific pressure is needed to prompt the military to act against the paramilitaries, who have been massacring suspected rebel collaborators.

``This helps to make the whole issue of (military efforts against) paramilitaries more transparent,'' de Roux said from the northern town of Barrancabermeja.

Wellstone suggested Carreno take immediate ``actions ... against this paramilitary base.''

The AP attempted to reach Carreno but a soldier answering the phone at his headquarters said he was away.

The government announced Tuesday that the army has killed 34 AUC members and captured 188 since January.

Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez insisted in an interview last March that it would be fruitless to move against some paramilitary bases, because the militiamen would flee before the government troops arrived.

-------- france

French No Longer Africa Gendarmes

By Jeffrey Ulbrich
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010523/aponline012829_000.htm

MYRIAM KORON, Djibouti -- The Mirage F-1 fighters hurtled toward the earth spitting missiles while French Foreign Legion armor pounded an imaginary enemy that had landed on the shores of this tiny, parched patch of northeast Africa.

French infantrymen ran across the rock-strewn desert in the hammering heat to contain the mock invasion until help could come from France.

It was all pretend, of course - no casualties more serious than heatstroke. It was part of France's treaty obligation to protect Djibouti, its former colony, and prevent it from being wiped off the map in one of the violent upheavals that regularly shake the unstable Horn of Africa.

As Colin Powell tours the continent for the first time since becoming U.S. secretary of state, this month's war games in Djibouti are a reminder that France, with more than 6,000 troops stationed in Africa, remains a critical player.

Nobody says too loudly, but everybody believes that if French forces ever pulled out of Massachusetts-sized Djibouti, landlocked Ethiopia would swallow it up in a New York minute.

So believes Maj. Gen. Alain Bevillard, commander of the 2,675 French troops here. So believes Ismael Omar Guelleh, president of this virtually bankrupt nation of 635,000 inhabitants on the Gulf of Aden.

That's why France's famed Foreign Legion, its air force and its navy keep practicing war in this cauldron of rock and sand. All this action about 30 miles west of Djibouti city is designed to give pause for thought to anyone lusting after the territory and its strategic port and railhead.

"This is an extremely tormented region," said the commanding general. "But it is beginning to stabilize."

Neighbors Ethiopia and Eritrea are at the end of a brutal 21/2-year border war. As a result of neighboring Somalia's decade of anarchy, Somaliland across the border has spun off into a breakaway republic without international recognition, and Puntland to the east has declared itself an autonomous region.

The big worry right now, Bevillard told visiting reporters, is Somalia itself, where a transitional government was set up after a three-month reconciliation conference in Djibouti last year but has little real power.

"The warlords are still making war, not recognizing the new government," he said of the clan-based factions that refuse to recognize the legitimacy of President Abdiqasim Hasan Salad.

The French constantly insist they are no longer the gendarmes of Africa, regularly sending French paratroopers into African conflicts. They define their policy as helping Africans defend themselves.

Besides Djibouti, France has defense agreements with Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

Now that the Cold War is over, France's stake in African stability takes on a different dimension - immigration, and the social fractures it is causing in France.

In less than 20 years, an official policy document notes, Africa's population will top 1 billion. As in the past, many will likely follow their fathers and grandfathers and attempt to migrate to Europe - with France their first choice.

The French forces stationed here are strictly tied to Djibouti. A battalion stands ready for deployment elsewhere to deal with crises, but only with the Djibouti government's agreement.

Next month, France plans to send 128 men from Djibouti to join the U.N. peacekeeping operation under way in Ethiopia and Eritrea, but it had to ask Djibouti first.

Reorganization has reduced the French armed forces' overall troop strength by 30 percent, down from about 430,000 to about 300,000. But there has been no cutback in Africa. Apart from the 2,675 troops in Djibouti, France maintains about 1,200 in Senegal, 1,000 in Chad, 700 in Gabon and 550 in Ivory Coast.

In this desolate corner of the world that France established as a coaling station in the 19th century for its ships en route to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, its military presence represents much more than security - it is the lifeblood of the Djibouti economy. The French pour in about $110 million, about 60 percent of the national budget and 20 percent of the gross domestic product.

-------- india / pakistan

India Ends Kashmir Ceasefire, Invites Pakistan

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-kashmir.html?searchpv=reuters

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India called off its six-month-old cease-fire in Kashmir Wednesday and said it would invite Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf for talks.

Islamabad pledged a positive response to the unexpected offer of dialogue, which would be the first since 1999 when the nuclear-capable neighbors stood on the brink of a third full-scale war over the Himalayan region.

Washington praised India's offer and said it was important that all sides in Kashmir exercised restraint and sought to reduce violence.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said he believed India and Pakistan ``have the opportunity now to make real progress toward the reduction of tensions and a resolution of their differences through peaceful means.''

The decision to end the suspension of hostilities against separatists and pro-Pakistani militants in Indian Kashmir came as a surprise.

Analysts said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee may have been pressured into giving up a widely discredited initiative by his violence-wearied military and by hard-liners within his beleaguered coalition government.

Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security in New Delhi that Vajpayee would invite Musharraf for talks at his earliest convenience.

``A formal invitation will be delivered shortly,'' he said, dropping India's familiar refrain that talks with Pakistan could only be held if its neighbor stopped ``cross-border terrorism.''

Pakistan denies that it arms and sends guerrillas into Indian Kashmir, but says it does offer moral and diplomatic support to a Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.

EXPECTS POSITIVE RESPONSE

Singh said India expected Pakistan to respond positively to its ``hand of friendship, reconciliation, cooperation and peace.''

But the brief initial response was guarded.

``Pakistan will respond positively if and when it (the invitation) is received,'' state-run Radio Pakistan quoted Foreign Secretary Inamul Haq as saying. There was no immediate formal statement from Pakistan.

India said it had called off its unilateral cease-fire in the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir because guerrillas, who have been fighting its rule there for more than a decade, had refused to shun violence.

``Non-initiation of combat operations is over. Security forces will act as they judge the situation best,'' Singh said.

In Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, the militant Hizbul Mujahideen group dismissed New Delhi's announcement as immaterial ``because there was no cease-fire on the ground.''

That was echoed by the All Parties HurriyatConference, Kashmir's main separatist alliance, which said India had finally realized the futility of the exercise.

``Withdrawal of unilateral cease-fire means just nothing,'' Hurriyat Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat told Reuters. ``When you withdraw a thing which never existed, what do you want to convey?''

New Delhi had been widely expected to give a fresh lease on life to the truce to keep its offer of peace talks with separatist groups in the state alive.

But increasing violence by militant groups which had rejected the cease-fire appeared to have forced its hand.

GUERRILLAS STEP UP ATTACKS

Die-hard guerrilla groups based in Pakistan stepped up their attacks on Indian security forces, and analysts say the cease-fire soon crumbled as police and paramilitaries in particular abandoned the reactive posture envisaged by New Delhi.

Overall, 1,283 people have been killed in Indian Kashmir since the truce went into effect at the end of November, nearly two-fifths of them civilians.

``What we have is the graceful conclusion of a process few people had confidence in,'' said Alexander Evans, a research associate of the Center for Defense Studies at King's College, London. ``And it throws the Pakistanis onto the defensive.''

Tahir Amin, a Pakistani fellow of the Center for International Studies at England's Cambridge University, said Musharraf had consistently sought talks with India and so was likely to accept the invitation.

But he said he was concerned about New Delhi's sincerity.

India's proposed talks with Kashmiri groups had made little headway before Wednesday's announcement, with Hurriyat saying Pakistan must be involved in any dialogue.

But Singh said the dialogue initiated by former minister K.C. Pant would continue ``unhindered'' despite the end of the truce.

--------

India Invites Pakistan to First Peace Talks Since 1999

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-India-Kashmir.html

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- India on Wednesday invited Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf to peace talks in an unexpected gesture aimed at ending five decades of hostility in Kashmir. Islamabad immediately accepted the offer.

Such talks would be the first by government officials from India and Pakistan since they came close to war while fighting on the Kashmir border in the summer of 1999.

``The prime minister has decided to invite Gen. Musharraf to visit India at his earliest convenience,'' India's Defense Minister Jaswant Singh said, adding that New Delhi is committed to ``peace, dialogue and cooperative coexistence with Pakistan.''

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would soon issue an official invitation, Singh said in a prepared statement.

In Islamabad, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Inam-ul Haq said Musharraf ``has expressed Pakistan's willingness to hold talks with India at any level, any time and at any place.''

``Pakistan believes that a solution to the Kashmir dispute should be found through dialogue and in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people,'' Haq said on state-run Pakistan television.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over control of Kashmir since they won independence from Britain in 1947. More than 30,000 people have been killed, the government says, though human rights groups put the death toll at twice that number.

Since late November, the Indian army has observed a cease-fire in Kashmir in an attempt to encourage peace talks, though it reserved the right to retaliate if attacked. Most of the Islamic militant groups rejected the truce and attacks persisted.

India on Wednesday abruptly called off the cease-fire in Kashmir, saying it had failed to quell the violence.

The cease-fire ``is now over,'' Singh said. ``These terrorist groups have hindered the restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir and have inflicted misery upon the people of that state. Hereafter, security forces shall take such action against terrorists as they judge best.''

Saleem Hashmi, spokesman for the largest Kashmiri group, Hezb-ul Mujahdeen, said at least 421 civilians have been killed, more than 500 wounded and scores of guerrilla fighters killed by Indian forces in the last six months.

``The cease-fire never existed on the ground,'' he said, while warning Musharraf against falling into ``the trap'' of India's offer to hold talks.

``It was an imaginary truce,'' Hashmi said by telephone in Islamabad.

Wednesday's developments came as a surprise to political observers in the Indian capital. Most had expected Singh to announce a fourth extension of the cease-fire, which had drawn a positive response from Pakistan.

Even though the cease-fire was rejected by Islamic guerrillas, Singh noted that the disputed frontier between the two countries, where artillery duels and small-arms fire were earlier a frequent occurrence, has been relatively quiet since November.

``The fact that Mr. Vajpayee has taken such a brave step shows that he is sincere ... the ball is now firmly in the Pakistani court,'' said independent defense analyst Manoj Joshi.

India has maintained that it would not hold peace talks with its South Asian neighbor unless Pakistan stops aiding, training and supplying the guerrillas.

Islamabad says it has no control over the rebels' movement across the border and that it provides the rebels moral, not material support.

India controls two-thirds of the Himalayan region and Pakistan the remainder. Both claim Kashmir in its entirety.

-------- iraq

Long and Short of Iraq Sanctions
U.S. Trying to Sell U.N. Simultaneous Easing and Tightening

By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63135-2001May22?language=printer

In an age of sound bites, the Bush administration has been forced to speak about its new Iraq policy in compound sentences. The American initiative to recraft the global embargo on Baghdad represents an easing of sanctions and a tightening of them: a simultaneous lifting of restrictions on most civilian imports and a stiffening of controls over oil revenue and items that can be turned to military uses.

Administration officials hope this will meet mounting international demands to lighten up on the hard-pressed Iraqi people and mollify Capitol Hill critics who worry that the United States is about to retreat from its 11-year standoff with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"There is no question they have to sell this to very different audiences," said Henri J. Barkey, an Iraq expert and former State Department official.

At the United Nations, where a U.S.-backed resolution to overhaul Iraqi sanctions was formally introduced yesterday by Britain, acting U.S. Ambassador James B. Cunningham emphasized the relief that it would offer Iraq's civilian economy. "We are trying to adopt a new approach that will free up most of Iraq's legitimate trade in ways that members of the international community and Iraq have been urging for some time," he said.

At the State Department, meantime, officials are reluctant to call it a "sanctions" policy at all. They highlight the goal of limiting Iraq's ability to develop weapons of mass destruction by calling it an "arms control" initiative.

Yet in nearly every sentence they utter about the new Iraq policy, American diplomats, from Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on down, painstakingly mention both the civilian and military elements. This is the grammar of a complex foreign policy.

With the approach of a June 4 deadline for the United Nations to renew the sanctions program, American efforts have been directed primarily toward winning the backing of the Security Council for a new set of restrictions. "The Europeans are the linchpin of this," Barkey said.

Across Europe, governments and public opinion have long clamored for an easing of civilian restrictions, refusing to accept the American argument that Saddam Hussein alone is to blame for the suffering of ordinary Iraqis. Winning broad European support for the new sanctions could help ensure the critical backing of France, a permanent Security Council member that so far has welcomed the proposal without signing off on the details.

U.S. diplomats expect a rough-and-tumble negotiation with the French over the Iraqi imports that will remain subject to U.N. review. The French want to allow a free flow of more types of items than do American officials, who say they are concerned about imports that could be diverted to the development of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Administration officials also anticipate France will seek greater latitude for its companies to invest in Iraq's oil industry.

If the French agree to the proposal, U.S. and European officials expect Russia would come under pressure to agree too. China could then fall into line, removing any opposition among the five permanent members.

European support would also help in gaining the assent of Iraq's neighbors, whose cooperation with the new border controls is essential to end widespread smuggling.

Front-line states, including Jordan, Syria and Turkey, want to ensure that the new border restrictions do not hurt their struggling economies and are looking for opportunities to revive civilian trade with Iraq. Citing the hardships of the Iraqi people, Arab leaders have long called for the economic embargo to be lifted.

"It's difficult for them to support any program seen as harmful to fellow Arab civilians. They have their own public opinion to worry about," said Robert H. Pelletreau, a former assistant secretary of state and ambassador to Egypt. Even Kuwait, which was overrun by Hussein's army 11 years ago, has told U.S. officials it is time to ease the civilian sanctions.

Though Turkey is not an Arab country, it has also asked that the civilian sanctions be eased. "We are concerned that the social fabric of Iraq has been seriously damaged. As our next-door neighbor, this is a serious concern for us because we have to live with Iraq for the rest of our lives," a Turkish official said.

On his first extended trip as secretary of state, Powell toured several Arab capitals in late February, assuring leaders that the United States was willing to eliminate most civilian restrictions. But when the proposal was reported in the American press, State Department officials objected to headlines characterizing the initiative as "lifting" sanctions. Officials redoubled their efforts to describe the proposal for the domestic audience as a tightening of the military sanctions.

"Early in its term, the Bush administration doesn't want to be seen as being soft . . . on Iraq's potential weapons program," Pelletreau said. "It isn't consistent with the message it was trying to send in the campaign and after. It doesn't help the administration with its own congressional constituency."

The administration already faces skepticism from some lawmakers, including fellow Republicans, who fear the new controls will fail to stem Hussein's military ambitions.

"If they talk about it as being an arms control proposal, they are trying to fool everybody, including themselves," said a Capitol Hill staffer. "This is nothing other than a retreat."

But Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who chairs a Middle East subcommittee, said that easing civilian sanctions will help build international support for the United States' broader Iraq policy, which will ultimately include support for the overthrow of Hussein.

Special correspondent Colum Lynch, at the United Nations, contributed to this report.

----

Plan for Lifting Iraqi Controls Is Delayed

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/23/world/23IRAQ.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 - Russia threw an unexpected roadblock today in the path of an American and British proposal to allow free trade in civilian goods with Iraq while tightening controls on military imports.

On the first day of Security Council debate on the plan, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian ambassador, produced a counterproposal that would put off a decision for six months. China and France also cautioned against haste, threatening to derail or stall Council action well beyond the June 3 deadline set by Britain, the sponsor of the resolution, and the United States.

By that date, the Council must extend - or revamp - the program that allows Iraq to sell unlimited quantities of oil to pay for the needs of its civilian population, who are living under sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

The proposal to lift controls on the import of civilian goods, and to make travel to Iraq easier, was intended to rob President Saddam Hussein of the excuse that foreigners are to blame for the suffering of ordinary Iraqis. A major objection to the proposal appears to be over a list of prohibited imports, which the United States is compiling. Apart from arms, Washington wants to restrict imports of certain technologies, communications equipment and some other goods.

Western diplomats hope that the Russian move is just an opening bid in what will be long and tough negotiations.

Mr. Lavrov said after the Council meeting that he was not rejecting the British and American proposal. "On the contrary," he said. "We want a serious - and I stress a serious - and constructive discussion of the U.K. draft, but we feel even at this stage that this will involve more time than is left before June 4," the date the next phase of the "oil for food" program would begin.

"We've seen the proposal by the United Kingdom to have what the U.K. representative himself called a new concept, a radically new regime, and we have quite a number of questions, starting with a list, which we are invited to endorse and which is not yet made available."

The French, who have apparently seen an early version of the list and decided that it was too broad, say it would be foolish to push ahead without consensus on the Security Council, or at least among the five permanent members - Britain, Russia, China, France and the United States - because a divided Council is weak in the face of Iraqi defiance. Also, any of those members, if isolated, could veto a resolution.

Ambassador Shen Guofang, China's deputy representative, said he had sent the American and British proposal, which he described as "quite complicated," back to Beijing for review. "We need more time to study the resolution," he said, adding that it would be handed to technical experts while officials consulted with other governments.

"But I doubt we can reach any consensus shortly," he said. He predicted that the current oil sales program would be continued in its present form while discussions go on, seeming to support the Russian stand.

James B. Cunningham, the acting American representative on the Security Council, said after the meeting today that the United States was refining the list of suspect items and that he saw little reason for delay. "The concept and thrust is clear," he said. "It should be negotiable before the end of this phase."

The next two weeks will be critical for the Iraq proposal, one of the Bush administration's first initiatives here. But the administration is still operating without a permanent representative at the United Nations and has not explained why it has not sent its nomination of John Negroponte to the Senate for confirmation. Other positions at the American Mission are also waiting to be filled.

Many diplomats say that unless the White House and State Department are willing to engage in high- level negotiating on behalf of this Iraq resolution, the United States may face another setback here only a few weeks after losing seats on the United Nations Human Rights Commission and International Narcotics Control Board.

While the British-American plan for Iraq would remove any remaining restrictions on trade in consumer goods and material for rebuilding public services, it would retain control of Iraqi oil profits through United Nations-administered escrow accounts. Iraq must draw on those for purchases. Some of that money is set aside for war reparations, for the Kurds in the north and for United Nations expenses.

In general, sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and reaffirmed in 1991 after the gulf war, cannot be suspended or fully lifted until the Iraqis allow arms inspectors to return.

The last inspectors in Iraq were withdrawn by the United Nations Special Commission in December 1998, ahead of American and British bombing. After a year of stalemate, during which Iraq did not permit the return of inspectors, a new system, the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, was created by the Security Council. Iraq has barred its inspectors also.

This week, Iraqi officials said they would not cooperate with a new "oil for food" program either. Western diplomats say Iraq's acceptance or rejection is irrelevant to the Council's action. But in Baghdad on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz threatened to suspend the "oil for food" program entirely and to stop pumping oil.

Secretary General Kofi Annan, who met with the Security Council today to discuss the Middle East, said he hoped that would not happen. "If Iraq were to stop the program or refuse to participate in the program, the Secretariat will have no means of providing assistance to the Iraqi people," he said. "We use the resources from the sale of the oil to do that."

Mr. Annan said he hoped that the program would continue, since the effort was intended to help the Iraqi people. "But if Iraq were to turn off the taps," he said, "then we'd be in a very serous situation." Iraq has exported more than $40 billion in oil since the current program began in 1996. Yet it continues to stall in ordering needed supplies, according to a report covering the last six months and submitted to the Security Council by Mr. Annan on May 18.

"Much to my regret," he wrote, as of May 14 "the office of the Iraq program had not received a single application in the sectors of health, education, water and sanitation and oil spare parts." Orders for housing, electricity, transportation, communications, food handling and agriculture fell below targets.

On the other hand, the report said that nearly 18 percent of the total value of contracts sent to the sanctions committee for review had been blocked by Council members.

----

Aziz: Brit Proposal a 'Big Lie'

By Waiel Faleh
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010523/aponline063124_000.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq will not sell any oil through the U.N. oil-for-food program if the United Nations adopts a British proposal meant to ease U.N. trade sanctions, a state-run newspaper on Wednesday quoted Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz as saying.

The proposed plan, already rejected by President Saddam Hussein, is "a big lie," Aziz was quoted as saying.

"Not a single barrel of oil shall be sold through the program if the Security Council adopted the draft resolution with the American elements and American ideas recommended," Aziz told foreign diplomats in Baghdad on Tuesday night. His comments were reported in Al-Thawra daily.

The British proposal, endorsed by the United States, seeks to reform what goes in and what is kept out of Iraq by detailing prohibited items rather than goods that are allowed to be imported. British and U.S. diplomats say the plan is designed to keep Saddam from rearming 11 years after he invaded Kuwait and lobbed missiles at Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Iraq produces 3 million barrels of oil a day and has said it would like to increase the figure to 3.5 billion. But it said the U.N. sanctions committee has been holding up many of the spare parts and equipment it needs to raise production. In the past year, Iraq has exported about 1 million to 2 million barrels of oil a day.

-------- puerto rico

Sharpton Sentenced to Prison for Vieques Protest

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nyregion/23AP-VIEQUES.html

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced the Rev. Al Sharpton to 90 days in jail for trespassing on U.S. Navy land as part of a protest against military exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

The New York civil rights activist was arrested May 1 with 12 other protesters on Navy land. At least 180 people were arrested during the exercises April 27 to May 1.

"If Martin Luther King were alive, he would have come to Vieques and raised these issues," Sharpton said, appearing before Judge Jose A. Fuste.

Because Sharpton had prior arrests for civil disobedience in New York, he was sentenced as a repeat offender. He also was fined $500.

Sharpton was taken to the federal prison in suburban Guaynabo. His lawyers said they plan to file an appeal with the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

Eleven other activists who were arrested with Sharpton also appeared in court Wednesday. Nine were sentenced to 40 days in prison and $500 fines. They included New York City Councilman Adolfo Carrion and New York state legislators Jose Rivera and Roberto Ramirez.

Two defendants were put on probation because they are ill.

Other high-profile protesters arrested during the demonstrations included environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, actor Edward James Olmos and New York labor leader Dennis Rivera.

Earlier this month, Puerto Rican independence leader Ruben Berrios was sentenced to four months in jail, the stiffest sentence given to the anti-Navy protesters so far. Berrios had refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the U.S. court and did not mount a defense.

The Navy has used its range on Vieques, population 9,400, for six decades and says it is vital for national security. Critics say it poses a health threat, which the Navy denies.

Opposition to the exercises grew after a civilian guard was killed on the range in 1999 by two off-target bombs. The Navy has since stopped using live ammunition, and islanders will vote in November whether the Navy must leave in 2003 or can stay, resuming the use of live ammunition.

-------- u.s.

Doctor Disciplined In Vaccine Case

Associated Press
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63948-2001May23?language=printer

BILOXI, Miss., May 22 -- Air Force physician John Buck will not serve prison time for disobeying a direct order to take an anthrax vaccine before being deployed overseas.

An 11-member panel of Keesler Air Force Base officers sentenced Capt. Buck, 32, to 60 days of base restriction and fined him $21,000. He will also be reprimanded. He had faced the possibility of five years in prison and dismissal from the Air Force.

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Pilot Reprimanded Over Bombing Accident

By Roberto Suro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63291-2001May22?language=printer

A veteran Navy pilot has been reprimanded and relieved of his command after investigators found him responsible for a March 12 accident that killed six military observers on a bombing range in Kuwait.

Cmdr. David O. Zimmerman "improperly identified" an observation post as his target and "released his weapons before receiving clearance," according to an investigative report by the U.S. Central Command. "The cause of the incident was human error," the report concluded.

Zimmerman, who has more than 3,000 hours flying time and commanded a squadron of F/A-18 Hornets on the carrier Harry S. Truman, will not face criminal charges and is expected to retire from the Navy, a Pentagon official said. An admiral's mast, a hearing that is less formal than a court-martial, was held last week, and Zimmerman received a letter of reprimand and was relieved of his command, a Central Command spokesman said.

The accident occurred during a nighttime exercise to train pilots for close air support of ground troops. Without transmitting the proper identification of the target or receiving the final go-ahead message, "Cleared Hot," Zimmerman dropped three 500-pound bombs. They landed near a ground controller's observation post, killing five American troops and a New Zealand army officer, and injuring 11 others.

Zimmerman told the investigative board he was "deeply saddened" by the incident and refused to be interviewed, the report said.

Conditions on the desert bombing range made it difficult for Zimmerman to distinguish the observation post from the target about 1 1/4 miles away, and two forward air controllers also contributed to the accident and have been subjected to administrative actions, officials said.

In an aircraft above the bombing range, Navy Lt. Patrick T. Mowles was supposed to ensure that Zimmerman and other pilots were properly oriented toward their targets but Mowles's improper terminology may have misled Zimmerman.

At the observation post, Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy Crusing was supposed to guide Zimmerman's final approach to the target but lost track of the plane when Zimmerman asked for the target to be illuminated with an infrared pointer. When he focused on Zimmerman's Hornet again, Crusing realized that the aircraft was targeting the observation post. The sergeant shouted "Abort! Abort!" into his radio, but the bombs had already been released, according to the report. Crusing was among the injured.

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U.S. still searching for MIAs, and not just in Vietnam

05/23/2001
By Gregg Zoroya,
USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-05-23-mias.htm

MILNE BAY, Papua New Guinea - The name on the dog tag glistening in the mud of this rain-slick mountain ridge belongs to 22-year-old Army Air Corps Sgt. Robert Burns, who vanished into this wilderness with seven other crewmen aboard a B-17 in 1942 and left a widow in Illinois and parents in Pittsburgh. The bomber crew was a week from going home. The story behind their disappearance over this vast tropical island lies in pieces beneath a canopy of trees 2,800 feet above the Pacific Ocean.

The debris - a mosaic of scattered bombs, crushed fuselage, torn wings and a tail section with twin .50-caliber machine guns - remained hidden for half a century. Two years ago, a villager stumbled upon the wreckage while searching for the narcotic betel nut and following a recurring dream about "shiny" objects hanging from a tree.

Today, another villager, 17-year-old Sippi Ou Oraivele, is bursting with pride as he tenderly uncovers the dog tag with a hand rake. The American GI working next to him, Sgt. Brian Watral, 28, an explosives expert from Akron, Ohio, calls out for help.

"Anthro! We found an identification tag!"

The anthropologist he summons is part of a team from the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, created in 1976 to recover American MIAs. The searchers fan the world looking not just for Vietnam dead, but those from other conflicts, including Korea and World War II.

More World War II sites - often aircraft wreckage or battlefield burials - are being found as hunting, logging and mining push farther into wilderness areas like the dense rain forests here on New Guinea. And they are surprisingly well-preserved, mainly because they are so remote. As a result, the U.S. government has tripled, from one to three, the teams focusing on World War II, and placed special emphasis on this island.

Anthropologist Derek Benedix, 31, a Tennessee native wearing several days' beard growth and a Fiesta Bowl T-shirt, comes scrambling down the slope, working hand over hand along knotted safety ropes lashed between trees. The site of this dig is so steep and slippery that one misstep can send a man tumbling into the ravine below.

Pulling out a weathered field book, Benedix notes precisely where the dog tag, still attached to its delicate neck chain, was found. Along with remains of leather flight jackets and shoes, rosary beads, .45-caliber pistols, what looks to be a 1939 class ring, a shaving kit, toothbrushes, pocket knives, Australian coins and hundreds of human bone fragments, this will be the sixth of seven dog tags recovered.

"Awesome," Benedix later says of the site's archaeological richness, his first mission to this island. "Almost unheard of."

Now those human remains and personal effects are finally coming home.

Along a cat trail cut into the mountain, a setting like something out of TV's Survivor series, Army Sgt. Leon Hudson, 37, a mortuary affairs specialist, is sifting buckets of mud from the hillside through a metal screen, searching for bits of bone or belongings.

"They sacrificed their lives for their country," he later say of the missing airmen. "And if we can go out and recover them and bring them back home, that's the best feeling in the world."

The 78,000 still missing from World War II dwarf all other recent conflicts, including the more than 8,000 from Korea and nearly 2,000 from Vietnam.

Laboratory teams typically consist of about a dozen military personnel, drawn from all branches, and a civilian anthropologist. Missions last from 30 to 45 days. The work is not without risk: Seven team members died in April when a helicopter crashed in bad weather during a mission in Vietnam.

There are an estimated 200 to 800 crash sites waiting to be excavated in New Guinea. These sites are unusually "giving," team members say. "Here," Hudson says, "you get more. Here, everything's more intact."

The reasons are clear on this knife-edged ridge, where clouds suddenly part to reveal a spectacular view of Papua New Guinea's eastern tip and, beyond, the turquoise Coral Sea. While Vietnam War sites have been systematically scavenged, wreckages like this B-17 Flying Fortress remain undisturbed for decades, often because New Guinea culture is respectful of sites of tragedy.

"The Papua New Guinea people really look upon themselves as the custodian of our spirits," says U.S. Army Col. David Pagano, the laboratory commander.

Add to this the fact that the lumbering aircraft of World War II suffered far less disintegration than Vietnam-era jets when they struck the ground.

Excavators are left with almost a time-capsule effect. Baseball gloves and a faded letter from an MIA's fiancée were found in a B-25 Mitchell bomber crash at 13,000 feet on the Indonesian end of this island. At another New Guinea crash site, the skeleton of an American serviceman was discovered curled around an open wallet with the remnants of a photograph - perhaps something he last gazed upon.

And here in the jungle above Milne Bay, searchers found a handgun with an initial carved into the grip, two women's rings (whether engagement or keepsake, no one knows), a clear glass bottle filled with a red liquid that could be men's hair tonic or cologne, still fragrant. And a gold bracelet with the pilot's name, John Hancock, embossed upon it.

Indeed, a tree along the ridgeline grows skyward with a piece of B-17 wing still impaled upon it, like some sad shrine.

"Certainly, people often compare us to Indiana Jones, and I can see why," says anthropologist Sabrina Buck, 29, part of the first excavation crew on this site that rotated home when replacements arrived. "I can easily say this is one of the most incredible sites I've ever been on. ... They handed (the pilot's bracelet) to me, and I looked at it and I said, 'It doesn't get any better than this.' "

Back at the laboratories in Hawaii, forensic specialists will use dental and other records to link remains with individuals. DNA obtained from relatives also can be used as an identifying tool. When a set of remains is identified, arrangements are made with surviving relatives for a burial with full military honors. The entire process, given the half-century since the war, can take from a few weeks to years. In this particular case, relatives of all eight crewmen were found.

'Some resolution, some closing'

"The soul within us wishes for something, some resolution, some closing, some kind of something. Even if it's bad, it's better than not knowing," says Kay Cunningham, 58, a rancher from Quemado, Texas, and niece of the bomber crew's navigator, Lt. James Carver.

This B-17 flew into the ridge on the night of Oct. 31, or the wee hours of Nov. 1, 1942. According to military records, the bomber was part of a U.S. Fifth Air Force mission based in Australia dispatched to bomb Japanese shipping. After stops at Port Moresby and Milne Bay, the bombers headed out before midnight amid scattered thunderstorms.

This was a desperate period when the tide was turning against the Japanese. Fresh air crews from the States, young pilots with little more than 300 hours of flying experience, were plunging through darkness over mountainous island terrain with poor topographical maps and lethally unpredictable weather.

"Seventy percent of U.S. losses in New Guinea were nothing to do with the enemy, unless that was the term one applied to weather, which the young pilots did," says Australian Michael Claringbould, an authority on Fifth Air Force history.

Burns barely knew his wife, Mildred. They had met at a Moose Lodge dance in Belleville, Ill., and married before he went to war. A fan of big-band music who played the trombone, he had brought his instrument mouthpiece with him overseas to keep his lips in shape for when he returned home, says his sister, LaVerne Artnak, 78, of South Park, Pa. That he vanished without a trace stunned his family.

"My mother grieved. I think she grieved until she went to her death, and she was 95 1/2 when she passed away," Artnak says.

Sketchy mission reports placed the B-17 over the target, in Japanese searchlights and taking flak. But the Army laboratory team, left to isolate the brutish 500-pound bombs buried on the ridge, wonder if the plane ever reached the target. One of the bombs had partly detonated in the crash, scattering wreckage and crew.

A few months after the crash, the parents of crewman Curtis Longenberger received a letter from the pilot's tentmate. The writer praised the crew's courage and said they flew that night despite engine problems.

"Nothing seemed to stop those boys," wrote Lt. J.M. Moore. "Off they flew into the dark skies to bomb those who started all these heartaches and sorrows."

Guests in the jungle

Here on the ridge, the mornings are cool and damp. A mist sometimes rises from the ravine, giving the lush undergrowth a spectral quality.

The local people, subsistence farmers mostly and Pentecostal Christians, once viewed the mountain they call Oiyabahanoi as sacred. Herbs that grow wild here are said to ease pain when rubbed on the skin.

The villagers develop an affinity for the GIs who have come so far and dig so diligently for their war dead. Village boss Henry Aimano, 28, a policeman, says he likes Americans "because they get themselves all dirty working."

But to ease tensions as the days of excavation drag on, Army Capt. Jessie Massey gathers the workers for a little speech. A burly father of three girls, who writes young-adult mystery novels and turned 40 on this mission, Massey charms the villagers with his running verbal gags. But just now, he strikes a serious note, acknowledging that the jungle is their home. "We are guests," he tells them.

Then Massey talks about these Americans they've come so far to find.

"They were called to leave their home and leave their families and come to a country unknown," Massey says. "We have almost 80,000 men who have never come home. And so on behalf of the family members of these eight boys, I want to tell you how much I appreciate your work."

Some villagers make the connection and nod. For others, it's lost in the translation.

But Massey's sentiments are frequently echoed by other team members, who see their jobs as among the best in the military. What they find when they get here stays with them, some say.

"By the time I've spent every waking moment and some sleeping moments, for 30 days, thinking about finding this guy or these guys, I feel like I'm friends with them," says anthropologist Buck, whose grandfather served in the war. "To find a piece of jewelry they were wearing really brings it home to you. Because when you hold it in your hand, you know that it was something important to them, that it was meaningful.

"If they were alive today and they were watching over us, I wonder what they would say. I think they would think it was pretty cool."

-------- OTHER

-------- energy

Energy shortages impair U.S. prosperity
Nuclear power part of strategy

Wednesday 23 May 2001
Tom Doggett
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/stories/010523/5035727.html

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney said Tuesday the nation's energy problem was a "storm cloud on the horizon" threatening the economy unless the White House's new energy plan was adopted.

A key component in the energy plan calls for using more nuclear power to generate electricity needed for computers, home appliances and other consumer demand, he said.

"We think that it does have a significant contribution to make going forward," Cheney said of nuclear power, in a speech to the Nuclear Energy Institute as part of the administration's effort to build support for its energy plan.

The plan, put together by a task force headed by Cheney and unveiled last week by U.S. President George W. Bush, promotes more oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power production.

Bush, a former Texas oilman, and Cheney, the former top executive of oilfield services giant Halliburton Co., have been criticized by Democrats and green groups for being too eager to please the energy industry, which donated millions of dollars to the Republican campaign last year.

Cheney defended the White House plan, saying more of its 105 recommendations were related to renewable fuels and conservation measures than boosting fossil fuel supplies.

Without an overhaul of U.S. energy policies, the nation risks economic damage, he said.

"You could spot a storm cloud on the horizon out there that could conceivably threaten our prosperity as a

nation and adversely affect the lives of millions of Americans," he said.

Nuclear power -- which

provides the electricity for one out of five U.S. homes -- should play a bigger role in the energy mix for the nation's prosperity, Cheney said.

To encourage more nuclear power, companies need to have speedier procedures to obtain licences for additional reactors. They also need quick action by federal regulators on license renewals, he said.

While Cheney was greeted warmly by the nuclear industry group, the White House faces stiff opposition from environmental groups.

They contend that in addition to nuclear safety issues, the federal government has yet to reach a solution on what to do with all the highly radioactive waste produced by plants.

In the White House plan, the administration said the United States could increase its use of nuclear power by doubling the number of reactors at many nuclear plant sites licensed by the federal government.

That would avoid the lengthy environmental studies and community battles over finding new locations.

The White House energy report also estimates that about 12,000 megawatts of additional nuclear electricity could be derived by letting plants use new technologies and methods to increase the capacity level at which they could operate without decreasing safety.

One megawatt provides enough power for about 1,000 homes.

There are currently 103 nuclear reactors operating at 65 sites in 31 states. Nuclear energy accounts for 20 per cent of electricity generation nationwide and more than 40 per cent of power generation in 10 states.

No new nuclear plants have been built since the 1979 accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant, where the failure of the plant's water cooling system led to the partial melting of a reactor's uranium core. That accident effectively halted the U.S. nuclear industry in its tracks.

Industry officials have said it would take about five years to build a new nuclear plant after receiving federal approval.

Separately, White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey told a bankers' conference the energy plan is crucial for U.S. businesses.

"Even if you exploited alternative energy (sources) as much as possible, we still have to build those power plants. That is the challenge before us," Lindsey said.

"We simply do not have the power we need."

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California Leaders Sue to Force U.S. Energy Agency to Limit Power Prices

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By TODD S. PURDUM
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/23/national/23ENER.html

LOS ANGELES, May 22 - California's Democratic legislative leaders filed suit today in federal appeals court seeking to force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to limit wholesale power prices on the grounds that failure to do so threatens health, safety and drinking water supplies in the nation's most populous state.

The lawsuit, which was joined by the City of Oakland, comes after months in which California officials, led by Gov. Gray Davis, have urged federal regulators to cap wholesale power rates in the state, which is facing a summer of rolling electricity blackouts.

The Bush administration has steadfastly opposed price caps, and today's action was the first effort by state leaders to move the dispute from political jawboning into the courts.

"The citizens of California are suffering immediate irreparable harm as a result of FERC's abrogation of its duty to establish just and reasonable rates for electricity," the State Senate president, John Burton, and the Assembly speaker, Robert M. Hertzberg, argued in a brief to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, which has jurisdiction over the energy regulatory commission.

The lawsuit, which legal experts say faces an uphill fight, does not specifically ask the court to order price caps, only to force the commission to uphold its statutory duty to assure "just and reasonable" prices by any appropriate means. It contends that the prospect of continuing blackouts this summer "are an imminent threat to the health, welfare and safety of every California citizen."

That is a new tack in the state's arguments in favor of price caps, which Mr. Davis has so far said are needed to help limit the huge cost of the state's buying power on behalf of its near-bankrupt major utilities. Already this year, California has spent more than $6 billion buying power, facing prices of up to $1,900 a megawatt hour, almost 10 times the prevailing price in December.

The lead lawyer for the plaintiffs is Joseph Cotchett, a prominent trial lawyer in the state, and even he and his partners acknowledge that the suit faces high hurdles in asking a court to order an independent regulatory body to act, when it is already reviewing a matter. Last month, the commission did order a one-year cap on electricity sold into California during power emergencies, but it did not set a price.

"This is a challenging approach, especially in light of the forces that are at play," said one of Mr. Cotchett's partners, Bruce Simon. "But somebody has to do something, and without challenges there would be no solutions."

The plaintiffs asked the court to order the commission to respond within seven days, and Mr. Simon said they hoped for some action in the next three weeks.

-------- environment

U.N. Treaty On Chemicals Is Approved

Reuters
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63294-2001May22?language=printer

STOCKHOLM, May 22 -- One hundred twenty-seven countries formally agreed today to a U.N. treaty to ban or minimize use of a "dirty dozen" toxic chemicals blamed for causing cancers and birth defects in people and animals.

Environment ministers or senior officials from the countries, including the United States, which came under renewed criticism for abandoning the Kyoto climate pact, agreed to the deal to eliminate 12 persistent organic pollutants, or POPs.

The treaty was approved without a vote and will be signed by delegates Wednesday, but it must be ratified by at least 50 governments before it can take effect. That could take several years.

Most POPs are pesticides such as DDT, which has been shown to have dangerous side effects. POPs are swept around the world by winds and ocean currents. The poisons linger in the environment for decades and build up in the fatty tissues of people and animals.

Most POPs will be banned immediately, although some exemptions have been issued -- DDT, for instance, will still be used as an insecticide to control malaria in developing nations.

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Bush vs. the American Landscape

May 23, 2001
By ROBERT REDFORD
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/23/opinion/23REDF.html?searchpv=nytToday

NASHVILLE - Listening to President Bush's speech on energy last week left me yearning for a straight story. His rhetoric seemed intended either to frighten or to lull one into a false sense of security. It didn't help that as he presented an energy plan - developed with help from lobbyists for oil, coal, gas, mining and nuclear power - the president buttoned up his speech by asking all of us to stop bickering, to set a new tone and listen to each other. Since Vice President Dick Cheney refused even to meet with environmental groups, it seems a rather curious, if not disingenuous, request.

Mr. Bush made it sound so simple. Build tens of thousands of miles of new pipelines, hundreds of oil and gas wells, and more than a thousand new power plants, and it will again be "morning in America." He claims it can be done with little impact. Drilling in the Arctic, off our beaches or anywhere determined to be "necessary" is a harmless matter, he says, thanks to new technologies that render the whole enterprise environmentally friendly. This is simply untrue.

Mr. Cheney has been making a point of telling anyone who will listen that the federal government hasn't granted a new nuclear power permit in 20 years. Nobody has applied for one. Three Mile Island served as a cautionary tale that even the most aggressive corporate energy interests could not ignore. Until now. The president's support for nuclear power is boldly presented with nary a nod to inherent risks associated with nuclear waste, nuclear weapons material or power plant accidents.

A look behind the rhetoric reveals that at the heart of the Bush energy plan are proposals to weaken longstanding environmental safeguards. Americans fought hard over the last three decades for these protections. But the Bush plan holds the corporate energy lobby in higher esteem than ordinary Americans who breathe the air, drink the water and overwhelmingly support protecting our wilderness. Coal and oil companies, despite record profits, now seek enormous new taxpayer subsidies and relief from environmental safeguards as payback for their campaign support.

Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is but a piece of a plan that makes oil and gas exploration and development fair game on nearly all of our public lands, even extraordinary places that were awarded protection as national monuments by the previous administration. The Upper Missouri Breaks in Montana, Grand Staircase-Escalante monument in Utah, and Vermillion Basin in northwestern Colorado may all become subject to exploitation. It's nonsense to think new oil and gas exploration and development won't destroy these incomparable wild places.

Why not tighten fuel economy standards instead? This alone could, over the next 50 years, free up 15 times as much oil as could be produced by drilling in the Arctic, and it would benefit consumers much faster. The administration wants merely to "study" this option. More study? Well, we know what that means. For electricity, simply supporting the higher air conditioner efficiency standards proposed by the previous administration would save 13,000 megawatts during periods of peak demand in 2020, equivalent to the output of dozens of power plants.

Thirty years ago, corporate America danced across the nation dumping toxic waste into our rivers, spewing chemicals into our air and ravaging pristine public lands, all in the name of progress. In response to the horrific environmental damage of the postwar era, a broad coalition of Americans began working to represent public health, safety and environmental concerns in all levels of government. Now we face an administration trying to unravel this work.

Unfortunately, we have the examples of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez accident and innumerable studies proving pollution's ill effect on public health to demonstrate that the stakes could hardly be higher. Solid science clearly shows that global warming exists and that the administration's drill, dig and burn approach will only make it worse. I continue to hope for a reasonable dialogue that actually includes the environmental community, but the administration's posture suggests that is unlikely. If he does not make environmental concerns central to his energy policy, President Bush may well leave the next generation with nothing but ashes to stand in.

Robert Redford, the actor and director, is a board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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U.S. Scientists Praise New Peruvian National Park

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/science/science-environment-p.html

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Peru Wednesday created a national park bigger than the state of Connecticut and populated with a broad spectrum of species, some endangered and others still likely to be discovered, U.S. scientists said.

The 5,225-square-mile Parque Nacional Cordillera Azul protects one of the last remaining large tracts of undeveloped, uninhabited rain forest. It is about 50 percent larger than Yellowstone National Park in the United States and ranges from lowland forest to 7,900-foot-high peaks.

Before the park was set aside, scientists from Peru and Chicago's Field Museum conducted a quick, 21-day biological inventory of the area's extraordinary biodiversity.

The scientists said they identified at least 28 previously undiscovered plant and animal species. They recorded just 1,600 of an estimated 6,000 different plants believed to be growing in the park, along with 500 bird species, 82 amphibian and reptile species, and 71 mammal species -- 13 of them endangered.

``The Cordillera Azul still offers the rare opportunity to act before habitat fragmentation and degradation forever transform the landscape,'' Debra Moskovits, director of The Field Museum's Environmental and Conservation Programs, said in a statement.

Scientists said the area was prized by loggers, but now has been preserved. The project was partially funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago, which also funds the so-called ``genius grants'' to people in many fields.

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Rat Poison Spills Off New Zealand

MAY 23, 20:25 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=AUSANT&STORYID=APIS7C65A3O0

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - A trailer packed with lethal rat poison plunged into the sea Wednesday, threatening one of the world's most famous feeding grounds for whales, dolphins and seals.

Officials were monitoring conditions off Kaikoura on New Zealand's South Island after a truck crashed on the coastal highway, and a trailer it was towing with 18 tons of rat poison fell into the sea.

The brodifacoum rat poison pellets turned the blue sea water green, police said.

Kaikoura is one of the few places in the world where whales can be seen feeding near the shore throughout the year. It is home to large colonies of dolphins and seals, attracting tourists from around the world.

Public health protection officer Paul Schoolderman said the poison would not immediately kill sea creatures because of the slow release nature of the poison, but did pose a threat. The poison was not a threat to humans, he said.

``This is a concern ... it cannot be mopped up,'' Schoolderman said.

Marine radio broadcast warnings to fishing vessels and pleasure craft to avoid the region where the poison was spreading. Local fishermen were warned not to lift lobster pots or nets in the area, as the spill drifted into waters off the coast.

-------- genetics

Fires Believed Set as Protest Against Genetic Engineering

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By SAM HOWE VERHOVEK with CAROL KAESUK YOON
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/23/science/23TREE.html

SEATTLE, May 22 - One fire gutted a research laboratory at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture here, while the other destroyed two buildings and several vehicles at a poplar tree nursery in the northwestern corner of Oregon. Both were reported shortly after 3 a.m. Monday.

Today, federal authorities were combing both sites for clues, acting on what they described as strong indications that both fires had been set by a loosely knit group of radical environmentalists adamantly opposed to research on the genetic modification of trees.

At the Seattle site, some research was conducted into modification that, as with altered foods, could potentially make trees more commerically productive. Researchers, for example, are studying a gene that could alter how often a tree grows branches. The more branches, the more wood that could be turned into pulp for paper. The fewer branches, the fewer knots on the trunk and the more valuable the wood.

Such genetic manipulation has raised concerns for some people for a variety of reasons, including the possibility of harm to the environment. Others are opposed on principle to what they see as unacceptable tampering with nature.

Managers of the 7,300-acre Oregon tree farm said they did not create or grow genetically engineered trees there, but a company that once owned the property was affiliated with a university-based group, the Poplar Molecular Genetics Cooperative.

At the Oregon site, Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie, the words "You cannot control what is wild" and "ELF" were spray-painted on the sides of one of the remaining buildings, an F.B.I. spokeswoman, Beth Anne Steele, said today.

The initials stand for Earth Liberation Front, a movement that has claimed responsibility for arson and vandalism against commercial properties in recent years, including a ski resort in Colorado, a lumber yard in southern Oregon, and housing sites on Long Island and elsewhere. Four teenagers were charged in the Long Island arsons earlier this year.

F.B.I. officials said that the timing of the fires and other factors made them almost certainly related.

A man who identified himself as a spokesman for the North American Earth Liberation Front media office, in Portland, Ore., said in a phone interview today that such acts were a justifiable response to the "genetic engineering of our forests" that he said corporations were carrying out.

"These companies are rolling the dice with the biodiversity of the natural environment," said the man, who gave his name as Leslie James Pickering.

He said members of the media office - including himself - "speak ideologically" in support of acts like the fires, but were not directly responsible for them.

Some professors at the horticulture center here in Seattle said they found a particularly unfortunate irony in the damage. Much of the center's research is geared toward protecting or restoring the environment, and the fire may have killed a good portion of one rare species.

At the center, Dr. Sarah Reichard, a conservation biologist, studies showy stickseed, a rare plant in the Cascade Mountains of Washington; only 300 individuals are left in the wild. Dr. Reichard said she feared that the fire might have killed the 100 individuals of the species that had been painstakingly raised in the laboratory after a year's work, using a technique known as tissue culture.

"That's one quarter of the world's population," she said. "They clearly did not do their homework."

At the center's laboratory, Prof. H. D. Bradshaw, a plant geneticist in whose office the fire began, expressed bafflement as to why his place of work was the focus of attacks, both now and in a separate incident in 1999.

At that time, a few days before the World Trade Organization protests here, a group calling itself the Washington Tree Improvement Association hacked down nearly 200 trees in a nearby nursery.

"I've personally never genetically engineered a tree," Dr. Bradshaw said today as he gazed at the rubble of the site, which destroyed his office and much of the laboratory.

Dr. Tom Hinckley, the center's director, said he lost more than 30 years of research files, as well as slides that meticulously document the regrowth of vegetation around Mount St. Helens in the years since it erupted in May 1980.

Dr. Bradshaw's research includes the study of genetically engineered poplars kept in a nearby greenhouse; none of those trees were damaged in the fire. He said that his own basic research was geared toward identifying the genes that affect plant growth and form, rather than the creation of a marketable product.

And some of the work done there has been supported by the Department of Energy as well as giant timber companies like Weyerhaeuser and Boise Cascade.

If the fires were the work of the ELF or a similar group, they are acts virtually no mainstream environmental group has countenanced.

Indeed, some have supported genetic research into trees, saying that the greater mass and other properties such work produces for commercial tree farms could actually help alleviate the commercial pressures to log in native and old-growth sites.

Kevin Favreau, the F.B.I.'s supervisory special agent for the Portland office's joint terrorism task force, said in a telephone interview tonight that no arrests had been made in either case, nor in a rash of other acts against timber companies and other businesses in the Northwest.

Generally, he said, fires had been set in remote places, leaving little chance that the arsonists would be caught. "The people committing these acts and getting away with them so far are very good at what they do. They do pre-raid surveillances, they know what the security situation is like," he said.

The fact that the arsonists were willing to attack an urban campus may be an indication that they have become further emboldened, Mr. Favreau said. In any event, he added, the F.B.I. believed that the two fires were related and were the work of those with "some message to spread about what they view as how to protect the environment."

Speaking of the Earth Liberation Front, Mr. Favreau said, "what we'll get is, a couple of days to a week later, their press office will receive a communiqué whereby they will explain why this act was committed."

Mr. Pickering, the group spokesman, said it would have "no concrete comment until and even if we get a communiqué."

But, he said, some members of the group support interfering because the research "is taking a risk, a real shot in the dark" with alterations members believe could eventually harm native species of trees. Other critics have raised the specter of "Frankenforests" that could take over wild ones.

Scientists involved in the type of work done by Dr. Bradshaw and others here expressed anger today at the fires. "What's really scary is that they're attacking people like Toby and his colleagues doing top notch scientific work," said Dr. Steve Strauss, plant geneticist at Oregon State University, whose own research was vandalized in March. "I don't call them ecoterrorists anymore. They don't deserve the `eco.' They're terrorists against science."

In the attack at Dr. Strauss's laboratory, 900 trees were cut or girdled, only some of which were genetically engineered. Many were traditionally bred, "standard old hybrid poplars that have been grown for hundreds of years," he said, adding that the vandals knew the trees had not been genetically modified.

Dr. Strauss said he planned to cut back on research on genetically engineered trees, in part because of the attacks. "If we can't protect our academic institutions to do the kind of work that scientists think make sense, do we do what's dictated by these terrorists? That's a really scary prospect," he said.

-------- health

New Group To Monitor Human Research

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Human-Experiments.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As Congress considers ways to protect people who volunteer as subjects in medical experiments, a new organization is announcing plans to monitor researchers and offer them ways to accredit their programs.

The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, based in Rockville, Md., will issue standards on how researchers should choose their subjects and monitor their progress as they test everything from new medicines to behavioral therapy.

The process will be voluntary, but research institutions praised it as a way to improve public confidence in research in light of recently publicized mistakes that killed or harmed human research subjects.

``The participation of patient volunteers is vital to the discoveries that will lead to effective treatments and possible cures for millions of patients,'' said Myrl Weinberg, president of the National Health Council, which includes the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, among other groups. ``Voluntary accreditation of programs is another logical measure to ensure patient safety.''

Some members of Congress are looking for standards and reviews that could be required to conduct research or receive federal funding. Senators plan a hearing in coming days to gather testimony from researchers and families of research victims on how to address the problem.

The issue drew new scrutiny last year after an Arizona teen-ager, Jesse Gelsinger, died at the University of Pennsylvania four days after being injected with a genetic drug designed to correct a liver disorder.

A federal investigation found researchers had enrolled patients such as Gelsinger who were ineligible for the study and had failed to warn human patients that two monkeys used in the same experiment had to be put to death because they developed serious side effects.

-------- imf / world bank

U.S. Seeks IMF, World Bank Reform

MAY 23,
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS7C5MON00

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is telling Congress that an overhaul of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will be top priorities in its effort to prevent a recurrence of the 1997-98 global financial crisis.

While that pledge will play well with longtime critics of the two institutions, a broad coalition of liberals and conservatives in Congress is pushing the administration to seek change in another area, debt relief for poor countries.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill faced a barrage of questions Tuesday in his first appearance before the House Financial Services Committee on the administration's refusal to support an effort to get the IMF and World Bank to wipe out all debt owed to them by the poorest nations.

``We have created a horrendous situation. Millions of people are dying in these countries because of money going to debt relief that could be used for other purposes,'' Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., told O'Neill.

``The IMF and the World Bank should cancel and not just reduce the debt they have created,'' Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., said. ``It is keeping poor countries hopelessly in debt.''

O'Neill, expected to face more questioning on debt relief in an appearance Wednesday before a Senate Appropriations panel, said total debt forgiveness would mean wiping out $43 billion in loans to 35 of the poorest countries now being carried on the books of the IMF and the World Bank.

He said such a move would ultimately require the United States, the biggest donor to both institutions, and other countries to provide greater support so the institutions could continue with current loan programs.

O'Neill said erasing all debt, as opposed to the current program of forgiving portions of the debt, would be a blow to efforts to promote foreign investment in developing countries by multinational companies as a way of creating jobs.

O'Neill said while both the IMF and World Bank have begun making changes to avoid a repeat of the 1997-98 currency crisis, which pushed 40 percent of the globe into recession, both institutions need to do much more.

``I believe that they can do a much better job than they have in the past,'' O'Neill told the House panel on Tuesday. He called reforming both institutions a ``key priority'' for the administration.

In direct criticism of the previous administration's support of large IMF loans to Russia, O'Neill said, ``Sending the money we sent to Russia was beyond belief. It was sent by the previous administration, and I am not in favor of that kind of thing.''

O'Neill said the IMF needs to place much greater emphasis on establishing early-warning systems to sound alarms before countries are engulfed by full-blown financial crises.

``Big surprises lead to big changes in price and can trigger crises,'' he said.

O'Neill said the IMF also needs to ensure that it extends emergency loans only to countries that are taking the proper policy actions. The administration argued successfully for greater restrictions to be placed on a recent IMF loan to Turkey, and O'Neill said that approach would be followed by the administration in responding to future crises.

For the World Bank and other regional development banks, O'Neill said, greater emphasis needs to be placed on loans that improve productivity in poor nations. He said this was the only way they could emerge from poverty.

Rep. John LaFalce, D-N.Y., told O'Neill he believed the World Bank needs to emphasize both efforts to boost economic growth and combat poverty.

``It is simply unacceptable to suggest that the World Bank should ignore conditions of desperate poverty while exclusively pursuing growth policies, the benefits of which may trickle down to the poor, but only after many years,'' LaFalce said.

-------- police

Taliban Plan Identity Label for Hindus

New York Times
May 23, 2001
By BARRY BEARAK
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/23/world/23AFGH.html

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 22 - The Taliban rulers, worldwide pariahs for their harsh treatment of Afghan women and Buddhist statues, face further scorn with a proposal that would force Hindus to wear an identity label on their clothing to distinguish them from Muslims.

The plan originated with the notorious Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Taliban officials insisted today that the scheme was actually a harmless effort to safeguard Hindus from harassment.

"Hindus should not look like Muslims, for their own protection, so that they are not bothered by the religious police," said the main spokesman for the government here, Abdul Hai Mutmain.

Pickups with heavily armed militants routinely patrol city streets, making sure that Muslim women are wearing the head-to-toe burqa and that Muslim men are diligently attending the rituals of prayer.

The proposal, which would have to be approved by the supreme Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, drew immediate criticism. To some, the scheme brings to mind the yellow Star of David that Nazis imposed on Jews.

Hindus in India are waging irate protests. "We absolutely deplore such orders, which patently discriminate against minorities," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Raminder Singh Jassal. "It is further evidence of the backward and unacceptable ideological underpinning of the Taliban."

In Washington, the State Department added its condemnation. "We want to make quite clear that forcing social groups to wear distinctive clothing or identifying marks stigmatizes and isolates those groups and can never, never be justified," a spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, told a news conference. "We remain committed to bringing the Taliban and other Afghan factions into compliance with international norms of behavior on all human rights issues. And those norms would certainly preclude any step such as these."

The precise requirements of the proposal remain unclear. The militia's Voice of Shariat radio station quoted Maulawi Abdul Wali, chief of the Virtue and Vice Ministry, as saying, "The non-Muslim population of the country should have a distinctive mark such as a piece of cloth attached to their pockets so they can be differentiated from others."

The law would primarily apply to Hindus, because there are few Jews and Christians in Afghanistan, and the Sikh population is readily identified by their turbans, Mr. Wali said.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Hindus live in Afghanistan, primarily in Kabul and Jalalabad. Most of the men would be difficult to confuse with Muslims. The Hindus are clean shaven. The Muslims are required to grow beards.

"I can't understand what this is all about," said Raj Kumar, a Hindu in Kandahar. "I know the Taliban's religious police. They've never demanded that I wear a beard or given me any problems at all. As for our women, they are veiled just like the Muslims. That's been our tradition for generations."

The Taliban control 80 to 90 percent of Afghanistan, a country that has been involved in 22 years of war. Battles continue between the Taliban and their last remaining opponents, the Northern Alliance.

With the Taliban has come a stern interpretation of Islam that outlaws watching television, listening to music and playing cards.

-------- spying

Iran Says It Hanged CIA Spy

MAY 23, 05:47 EST
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=MIDEAST&STORYID=APIS7C5OIFG0

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian man has been executed on charges of spying for the CIA, state-run Tehran radio reported Wednesday.

It said Mohammad Reza Pedram was hanged Sunday at Tehran's Evin Prison, but gave few other details.

The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday reported that Pedram, 56, had lived in Reseda, Calif., where he worked for a federally funded program that helps refugees find jobs. His family later moved to Illinois, the paper said. It quoted his family as saying Pedram vanished during a 1996 trip to Iran to visit his dying father.

Pedram was hanged after his death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court, the radio quoted a statement by the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces as saying.

``Pedram had confessed to having extensive cooperation with and passing state secrets to the CIA,'' the radio quoted the statement as saying.

In Tehran, judicial authorities would not take calls from The Associated Press. They routinely refuse to speak to reporters.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency, meanwhile, said that Pedram was hired by the Central Intelligence Agency after fleeing Iran in 1986 and had passed on state secrets during the 1980-88 war with Iraq.

IRNA said he was arrested in 1996 when he was caught with a fake passport.

Iran occasionally reports the arrests and trials of people who were accused of spying for Israel, Iraq or the United States.

The United States severed ties with Iran after Muslim militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

-------- activists

Military School Protesters March

MAY 23, 07:48 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS7C5QBAG0

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Twenty-five protesters charged with trespassing last fall at the Army's training school for Latin American soldiers have gone on trial.

One woman, Catherine Dale Temple, of Asheville, N.C., avoided Tuesday's first day of trial by pleading guilty Monday to entering Fort Benning on Nov. 19. She is to be sentenced Wednesday.

About 3,400 of the 10,000 people at the protest crossed into Fort Benning, where the school is located. Authorities prosecuted 26 who had been warned after similar protests in the past.

The defendants, including an 89-year-old nun from Iowa and a 19-year-old from Michigan, could face up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted.

The protesters say graduates of the School of the Americas have been linked to human rights abuses in Latin America. School officials say their mission is to spread democratic principles among Latin American military leaders.

The school has since gotten a new name - the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation - and a new curriculum.

---------

Internet Campaign For The Release of Reformasi Activists Detained Under ISA
As a concerned Malaysian, I request your urgent intervention in the following situation in Malaysia

Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 08:51:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: eu soon eusoon@yahoo.com

Brief description of the situation.

In an ongoing crackdown of legitimate dissidents in Malaysia, the police have confirmed that the following 10 persons have been arrested under the draconian International Security Act (ISA), which provided for detention without trial.:

1) Tian Chua, Parti Keadilan Nasional vice-president

2) Mohamad Ezam Mohd. Nor, Keadilan Youth president

3) N Gobala Krishnan, Keadilan Youth secretary-general

4) Saari Sungib, 'People's Memorandum' organising committee chairperson

5) Hishamuddin Rais, media columnist and social activist

6) Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the international Free Anwar Campaign director.

7) Abdul Ghani Harun, Keadilan Youth central committee member

8) Dr Badrul Amin Baharom, Keadilan member and social activist

9) Lokman Adam, Keadialan Youth central committee member

10) Badaruddin Ismail, An activist for the human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram)

Those detained were arrested without warrant and denied access to their lawyer and families. Under the ISA, the police are not required to produce those detained before magistrates. Until now, police have not released any official information regarding the whereabouts of the detainees. The request by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to visit those detained has received no response from the authorities.

Subsequently, five of the detainees, Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua, Youth leaders Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor and Saari Sungib, Free Anwar Campaign (Freeanwar.com) webmaster Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin and social activist-cum-malaysiakini columnist Hishamuddin Rais filed their habeas corpus application.

On 25 April 2001, the High Court turned down the habeas corpus applications on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the matter as the arrests and the detention were done in accordance with powers vested in the police through the ISA. The court added that their detentions were valid in the interest of national security. The judgement effectively denied those detained any legal avenue for judicial review.

Throughout the history of ISA, detainees have been tortured, questioned and forced to make statements. There is a genuine concern for the well being and safety of those detained.

The detainees are unable to defend themselves as the authority refuses to provide them with the evidence against them.

According to Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, anyone detained on a criminal charge shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release.

BACKGROUND IFORMATION - The Internal Security Act

Section 73 (1) Internal Security Act:

"Any police officer may without warrant arrest and detain pending enquiries any person in respect of whom he has reason to believe -

that there are grounds which would justify his detention under section 8 and that he has acted or is about to act or is likely to act in any manner prejudicial to the security of Malaysia or any part thereof or to maintenance of essential services therein or to the economic life thereof." Sect 8. Power to order detention or restriction of persons.

"(i) If the Minister is satisfied that the detention of any person is necessary with a view to preventing him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of Malaysia or any part thereof or to the maintenance of essential services therein or the economic life thereof, he may make an order (hereinafter referred to as a detention order) directing that person be detained for any period not exceeding two years."

- Why the ISA is a Draconian Law

Since 1960 when the Act was enacted, thousands of people including trade unionists, student leaders, labor activists, political activists, religious groups, academicians, NGO activists have been arrested under the ISA. The ISA has been consistently used against people who criticize the government and defend human rights. It has been the most convenient tool for the state to suppress opposition and open debate. The Act is an instrument maintained by the ruling government to control public life and civil society.

The ISA provides for 'preventative detention' without trial for an indefinite period. The ISA violates fundamental rights and goes against the principles of justice and undermines the rule of law.

The ISA goes against the right of a person to defend himself in an open and fair trial. The person can be incarcerated up to 60 days of interrogation without access to lawyers.

A person detained under the ISA is held incommunicado, with no access to the outside world. Furthermore, lawyers and family are not allowed access to the detainee.

Torture goes concurrently with ISA detention. Former detainees have testified to being subjected to physical and psychological torture. This may include one or more of the following: physical assault, sleep deprivation, round-the-clock interrogation, threats of bodily harm to family members, including detainees' children. Prolonged torture and deprivation have led to detainees signing state-manufactured 'confessions' under severe duress.

In the last two years, police also conducted similar operations, resulting in mass arrests and police brutality.

14th until 17th April, 1999 (Anwar's sentencing) - 117 were arrested 14th until 15th April, 2000 - 54 people were arrested

Action requested Please write to the Malaysia authorities urging them to

1. ensure the physical and psychological integrity of the detainees; 2. order the immediate release of the detainees if they are being held in detention without any valid charges or, in the event they have been charged, bring them immediately before a competent and impartial tribunal and guarantee their full procedural rights and their right to legal counsel at all times, in conformity with the international human rights standards; 3. derogate its legislation regarding detention without trial; 4. allow lawyer and families members of detainees to visit them to ensure their well-being and safety are not threatened; 5. guarantee all human rights and fundamental freedoms and conform their actions to international human rights standards.

Send the appeals to Dato' Seri Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad Prime Minister Email :ppm@smpke.jpm.my

Dato' Seri Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs Email : tpm@smpke.jpm.my

Dato' Rais bin Yatim Minister in Prime Minister Department Email : jpmrais@smpke.jpm.my

Ybhg Tan Sri Musa Hitam Chairperson National Human Rights Commission, 29th. Floor, Menara Tun Razak, Jalan Raja Laut, 50350 Kuala Lumpur. Fax- 603-26125620 Tel-603-26125600 humanrights@humanrights.com.my

Kofi Annan Secretary-General, United Nations Room S-3800, New York NY 10017 Fax: 1-212-963 4879/2155 Email : ecu@un.org

Mrs. Mary Robinson Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des nations 8-14 avenue de la Paix, CH 1211 Geneve, Switzerland Fax : (41) 229170213 Email: webadmin.hchr@unog.ch

Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Norian Mai Headquarters of Royal Police of Malaysia Bukit Aman 50560 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Fax: +603 22731326

or to the Malaysia embassy of your country.

Alternatively, you can go to sign the online petition of Amnesty International at http://www.stoptorture.org/urgent/index.php.

Kindly inform me of any action undertaken in your reply.

Update: The authorities finally yielded to the pressure from the tremendous responses of concerned groups and individuals by allowing family members access to the detainees.

Thank you,

Yours sincerely,

Ong Eu Soon Email: eusoon@yahoo.com



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