------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Nuclear renaissance has to reckon with Chernobyl
Beijing illegally bought circuits
Radioactive material leak at Japan nuclear reactor
Japan government asks for understanding on MOX use
Thieves Dismantle Nuclear - Lighthouse
Levin Wary of Dropping ABM Treaty
CHERNOBYL MEDIA DISTORTIANS
Californians favor nuclear plants, poll says
Charges Possible in Fuel Rods Case
Uranium cleanup unfunded
YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Report dismays delegation
Nevadans Get How To Lesson in Contesting Nuclear Waste Site
Cancer toll raises worries in Mapleton
Chairmanships at Stake
GOP Missteps

MILITARY
China Debates Its Foreign Policy
Yugoslav Troops in Buffer Zone
Pakistan Responds To India Talks
ANTIAIRCRAFT POSITIONS BOMBED
Powell upholds training of peacekeepers
Frustration marks Army life, study says

OTHER
D.C. students underwent strip search on jail tour
FBI gives documents to McVeigh lawyers
21st century will transform world population
China Agrees on Return of US Plane
China, U.S. agree to ship spy plane

ACTIVISTS
'CREATIVE ACTION'
Direct Action Group to Protest Star Wars
Jubilee Plowshares found guilty, but freed
Churches seek climate justice
Sharpton Gets 90 Days in Jail for Navy Protest
A Killing in China Unsettles Hong Kong -


-------- NUCLEAR

Nuclear renaissance has to reckon with Chernobyl

Thursday, May 24, 2001
By Duncan Shiels,
Reuters
http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/05/05242001/reu_nuclear_43687.asp

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

Days later, fearful Europeans learned why. A huge explosion had blown the roof off Reactor Four at Chernobyl in Soviet Ukraine and a radioactive cloud was blowing northwest.

The United Nations says some 5 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 cleanup 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 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 the Chernobyl accident resulted from a design flaw that Western reactors do not share - the lack of a structure to contain radioactive material in case of an accident. It also points to poor regulation inherent in the centrally planned Soviet system at that time.

Such reasoning failed to convince the United States, which had its own near-meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, or 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.

Vaughn Gilbert, spokesman for reactor maker Westinghouse, said: "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, outside the United States 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," said 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, usually around 10 years. The Organization 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 companies that 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 privatized, because without government guarantees on decommissioning no one is going to touch them with a barge pole," he said.

But British Nuclear Fuels-owned Westinghouse, which also supplies and processes fuel and services existing plants, says it is in no hurry to construct new U.S. units.

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 licenses for many of the 100-odd U.S. reactors by 20 years.

"Virtually all of those plants are going to apply to extend their operating license 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.

He disputes those who say plants will remain prohibitively expensive, particularly as Westinghouse's latest model, the AP600, will take only three years to build. The firm is already negotiating "with a number of U.S. vendors" to build new reactors, he said, turning Cornelius' argument around to cite liberated prices for fossil fuels as a stimulus to 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

But economics is one thing, public support is another, and Bridget Woodman of 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 liberalization 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. 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."

-------- china

Beijing illegally bought circuits

May 24, 2001
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010524-1235285.htm

Federal authorities have uncovered a major Chinese technology transfer program that illegally purchased thousands of U.S. radiation-protected computer chips for use in Chinese missiles and satellites.

The military-related technology-buying program was revealed in court papers released in Orlando, Fla., earlier this month after a raid on a Chinese company involved in selling "radiation-hardened" integrated circuits to Chinese government missile and satellite manufacturers, including several that were sanctioned in the past by the U.S. government for their missile sales.

The company, Means Come Enterprises Inc., is under investigation for "illegally exporting radiation-hardened integrated circuits to [the People´s Republic of China] without the required [Commerce Department] export licenses," according to documents obtained by The Washington Times.

Three illegal diversions of the missile microchips by Means Come are described in a 27-page affidavit produced by the Commerce Department´s Office of Export Enforcement before a search of the company´s Orlando offices.

Commerce Department, U.S. Customs Service and Postal Service agents raided the Orlando offices of Means Come on May 3, seizing computers and documents related to the microchip transfers.

Officials of the company, which has offices in Orlando, Beijing, Hong Kong and Montreal, could not be reached for comment. Jim Hoyos, a Commerce Department export control investigator involved in the case, also declined to comment. "It´s an ongoing investigation," he said.

The illegal diversion of U.S.-made radiation-hardened computer chips to China was first reported in The Washington Times on Jan. 26.

The raid on the Orlando company took place the same day FBI agents arrested two Chinese nationals and a third man for stealing Lucent Technologies software codes and selling them to China.

According to Commerce export agent Roy A. Gilfix, who wrote the affidavit in support of a federal search warrant, Means Come sold China 2,316 embargoed integrated circuits in shipments in February, May and November 1998.The chips were made by Harris Semiconductor, a Melbourne, Fla., subsidiary of the Harris Corp.

According to the affidavit, the radiation-hardened chips are used in missiles and require export licenses before being sold abroad.

Means Come Enterprises made its first export license application in March 1997, saying it wanted to buy 7,200 radiation-protected chips for the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) for use in a satellite project, the affidavit states.

The license was turned down in June 1997 because the sale posed "an unacceptable risk" that the Chinese government-run academy would use the circuits "in missile proliferation activities," the affidavit said.

CAST and several other Chinese firms were sanctioned by the U.S. government in 1993 for selling M-11 missiles to Pakistan in violation of U.S. arms proliferation laws.

A month after the export license was rejected, Kao Ahwan, a Chinese national, and her husband, Kao Shuli, opened the Orlando office of Means Come and bought the 7,200 Harris computer chips from Atel Electronics Corp. in New York. Means Come paid $679,000 for the chips, which were sold by Atel for use only in the United States.

However, Means Come exported the circuits without a license in three shipments in 1998, the affidavit states. "Means Come Enterprises´ customer, the Great Wall Industry Import and Export, is a state-owned corporation in China´s defense aerospace industry," the document said. "It develops strategic and tactical ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles, surface-to-air missiles, cruise missiles, military reconnaissance and communication mission and civilian satellites."

Great Wall Industry also was sanctioned in the past for its sales of missiles to Pakistan, Iran and Iraq.

In October 1998, Means Come officials in Florida were questioned about the circuit exports and other weapons-related technology sales. One company executive, Francis Chan, was questioned by Commerce export control agents and told them the company recently sought to purchase "U.S.-origin nuclear electronics for export to the PRC."

The parts were to be transferred to the China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corp., known as CATIC, the affidavit said, but the sale never took place after Mr. Chan learned it required a U.S. export license.

CATIC was indicted in 1999 for illegally diverting U.S. aircraft manufacturing machine tools to a military plant. On May 11, it agreed to pay $1.3 million in fines for using McDonnell Douglas aircraft machine tools meant for commercial purposes to make Silkworm anti-ship missiles.

The company also brought officials from China´s state-run China Aerospace Corp. to the United States for inspections of technical equipment at its Orlando offices. The affidavit states that China Aerospace "specializes in various space products, such as satellites, missiles, launch vehicles and ground support systems."

Gary Milhollin, weapons proliferation specialist and director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, said the chips have military applications and could be used by the Chinese military to "improve their ability to target U.S. cities with long-range missiles."

Mr. Milhollin said the Bush administration should reverse the Clinton administration policy of "looking the other way and refusing to put Chinese companies like the Chinese Academy of Space Technology, CATIC, and China Aerospace Corp. on a special government watch list."

-------- japan

Radioactive material leak at Japan nuclear reactor

Thursday, May 24, 2001
http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/05/05242001/reu_leak_43684.asp

TOKYO, May 23 - An experimental nuclear reactor in northwestern Japan has been leaking radioactive material since January, but the fault has had no impact on the environment, local officials said on Wednesday.

The small leak of tritium had been detected at the facility operated by the government-funded Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute in Fukui prefecture, about 300 km (185 miles) northwest of Tokyo, officials said.

"A small leak tritium is natural. But this leak was slightly over the normal amount," a Fukui prefectural government official said.

"But there is absolutely no impact on the surrounding environment because the leakage was so small."

The operator has temporarily stopped the facility and inspections will be conducted this week, the official said.

"We know where it leaked from but not why," he said.

The facility has been operating since 1979 and is used for development of new fuel and research for plutonium usage.

A string of nuclear accidents in recent years has eroded public faith in Japan's nuclear industry.

In the country's worst nuclear accident, two workers were killed at a uranium processing plant in 1999 when staff used a bucket to mistakenly load nearly eight times the safe amount of condensed uranium into a mixing tank, triggering a self-sustaining nuclear reaction that took 20 hours to bring under control.

----

Japan government asks for understanding on MOX use

JAPAN: May 24, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10941&newsDate=24-May-2001

TOKYO - The Japanese government yesterday took the unprecedented step of issuing a letter asking people living near nuclear power plants to understand the importance of using a controversial nuclear fuel.

The message comes only days before a referendum is to be held in Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture, over the use of the fuel at a local nuclear reactor operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc (TEPCO), Japan's largest power utility.

The vote, which is not legally binding, will be held on Sunday.

"We are asking for more understanding of the MOX fuel plan because it is essential for Japan's energy policy," the message said, adding Japan's nuclear policy remains unchanged under the new government led by popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

MOX fuel - a blend of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel - is a cornerstone of resource-poor Japan's energy policy, which relies on nuclear energy for a third of its power supply.

Anti-nuclear activists said the message highlights policymakers' fears that Japan's nuclear policy, including its plan to use MOX, is being threatened.

"I think there is a fear that Japan's nuclear policy is about to fall apart," said Baku Nishio, an official at anti-nuclear group Citizens Nuclear Information Centre.

He added the public - many of whom are distrustful of the nuclear industry after a series of accidents - was unlikely to change its mind about nuclear power despite the message.

"It blurs the line of where the responsibility for safety lies - is it TEPCO's or is it the government's?" he said.

KARIWA ATTRACTS NUCLEAR DEBATE

Proponents of MOX fuel have been descending on the village in droves this week in an attempt to try to win over the inhabitants.

Hirobumi Kawano, head of the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, and other trade ministry officials visited Kariwa to attend a public debate with the villagers on the issue on Tuesday.

Yesterday, TEPCO President Nobuya Minami travelled to the village to talk to local inhabitants and hold a news conference.

Kengo Ishiguro, a local anti-nuclear activist, said he believed Tuesday's debate might have helped sway some people who were undecided to vote against the use of MOX.

"I think this was the first time that many of them had heard all the details about nuclear fuel and the unsolved problems related to its use, like what to do with nuclear waste," he said.

"I think the magnitude of the issue struck them, yesterday," he said.

Whatever decision the village's 4,141 eligible voters make, Japan will go ahead with plans to use MOX, a government official told reporters yesterday.

TEPCO has given no specific start date for MOX, which has yet to be used by any commercial plant in Japan.

"Even if (the village) votes against the plan, we do not have the slightest intention of changing our policy," Atsushi Ohi, director general for the electricity and gas department at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), told reporters.

"We have been promoting the plan to use MOX fuel as a very important step for Japan's energy policy." he said.

Anti-nuclear sentiment has been strong after the nation's worst nuclear accident in September 1999 at a uranium processing facility in Tokaimura, 140 km (90 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Two plant workers were killed in the accident.

Distrust of nuclear energy grew further after state-owned British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) falsified data on MOX fuel shipped to Japan's second-largest power utility, Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, in late 1999.

Japan's power industry had planned to begin commercial use of MOX fuel in 1999 but was forced to postpone its use.

-------- russia

Thieves Dismantle Nuclear - Lighthouse

New York Times
May 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Nuclear-Theft.html?searchpv=aponline

MOSCOW (AP) -- Four unemployed men in search of scrap metal dismantled generators at a nuclear-powered lighthouse in northern Russia, exposing themselves to dangerous doses of radiation, an official said Thursday.

Viktor Kozlov, an adviser on nuclear safety in the city government in White Sea port of Kandalaksha, said the men removed the lead covers on the generators that power the lighthouse.

The Russian Navy confirmed that the theft had taken place and that the lighthouse was no longer operating, but declined to provide details or say when it would be repaired.

Two of the men were hospitalized with radiation sickness, while another two are in jail, ORT television reported. The men hoped to earn $103 each from the sale of the lead, the station said.

Vera Lisovskaya, a doctor at the local hospital in Kandalaksha, told ORT that the two who were hospitalized had burned their hands and eyes during the theft.

Kozlov said the dismantled lighthouse presented no danger to the environment or to people outside its immediate vicinity, but ORT said the roads leading to the lighthouse were blocked off.

Scavenging for nonferrous metals is a widespread and dangerous practice in Russia, with railroads, electric and telephone cables and public monuments all frequent targets. The country's energy monopoly, UES, says hundreds of thieves are electrocuted each year.

-------- treaties

Levin Wary of Dropping ABM Treaty

New York Times
May 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Senate-Military.html?searchpv=aponline

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The soon-to-be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee says he's wary of any move by President Bush to abrogate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to build a national missile defense system.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he's no longer sure that's the administration's plan.

``The president has said he's going to unilaterally deploy on the one hand,'' Levin told a group of reporters in his office Thursday. ``On the other hand, he has said that he's going to consult with our allies, indeed with Russia and with China, ... before he presumably makes a decision.

``So I no longer know where the administration is on that issue, whether or not they have decided unilaterally to break out of that treaty.''

The views of the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee gained traction Thursday as Sen. James Jeffords turned the Senate topsy-turvy with the announcement he will quit the Republican Party and become an independent. That tosses the chamber's majority power to the Democrats and the Armed Services chairmanship to Levin.

At a news conference with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the committee's current chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., Levin pledged to continue the committee's bipartisan spirit.

Rumsfeld briefed about 15 members of the committee Thursday on the progress of his top-to-bottom review of the military's defense strategy but few details were revealed, even to the Senate.

``I don't have a good grasp of where the secretary is headed,'' Levin said. ``I don't think the secretary has a good grasp of where the secretary is headed. That's the very distinct impression that we have.''

Rumsfeld deflected a question about a report that he was planning to trim an Army division or two.

``I don't know how many times someone can say something before it finally sinks in, but I'll try one more time,'' Rumsfeld said. ``We have not gotten to the point of addressing weapons systems or specifics.

``There have not been any discussions by me with anybody along the lines you just described,'' he said. ``I have heard the same thing about aircraft carriers; I've heard one thing and another about weapons in space; and I know y'all have got your job, and I've got mine, but those stories are not correct.''

Levin said one thing he learned from the briefing was that details won't be available in time to have much effect on the budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Instead, it will have an impact on the budget for fiscal 2003, giving his committee and the two appropriations committees some breathing room this year.

Showing some of the bipartisanship the panel is known for, Warner and Levin agreed on a need to close unnecessary military bases, as Bush recommended in his February budget. The idea is opposed vigorously by many members of the House, where a lawmaker's constituency can be devastated when a base closes.

While Levin said he wants two rounds of closings, Warner pressed for one, citing the uncertainty and upheaval such events cause for communities. Levin said, ``I would accept one round if it's the best we can do.''

Yet important policy differences remain.

Levin said the administration has placed too much focus on defending against missiles, ``the least likely means of delivering a weapon of mass destruction,'' at the expense of more likely vessels.

``We have got to spend more resources on the World Trade Centers and the embassy bombings and the Cole attacks and invest in the defenses and strategies to beat those threats and to beat those terrorists and to try to avoid the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,'' Levin said.

-------- ukraine

CHERNOBYL MEDIA DISTORTIANS-
9 BILLION CURIES MAY HAVE BEEN RELEASED

Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 05:13:37 -0400
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>

April 26th is, of course, the 15th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.

Nineteen months after the disaster, in Nov. 1987, the U.S. government officially doubled its estimate of the "background" radiation to which we are exposed every year.11 [Part 2]

YOU SHOULD ASK FOR AN EMAIL COPY OF MY ARTICLE ON CHERNOBYL FROM EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL, VOL. 12, NO. 3, SUMMER 1997, P. 28 TOO.

SINCERELY, JOHN LaFORGE

Nukewatch, P.O. Box 649, Luck, WI 54853, Phone (715) 472-4185, Fax (715) 472-4184, Web http://www.nukewatch.com _______________________________

Chernobyl at Ten:

Half-lives and Half Truths
(Part one of two)
By John M. LaForge

With a heavy dose of half-truth, the commercial press worked over-time to reduce the results of the Chernobyl catastrophe to a "nervous disorder" confined to the C.I.S. and Europe. Understated reports on the 10th anniversary of the world-wide radiation disaster help the nuclear reactor industry hold on against overwhelming opposition, in spite of what should have been the final insult from nuclear power.

The latest psychological "clean up" often went like this. Peter Crane, a lawyer at the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said that "...the explosion... sent a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere of Eastern Europe." (1) This is a true statement. It merely neglects to mention the rest of planet Earth.

Reporter Michael Specter wrote that, "The fire which burned out of control for five days, spewed more than 50 tons of radioactive fallout across Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia." (2) This loaded sentence is also literally true. The fact that the fire burned uncontrolled for two weeks, after a series of three explosions; that perhaps 190 tons of reactor fuel was catapulted into the atmosphere; or that the radioactive fallout spread world-wide 3/4 reaching Minnesota's milk for example 3/4 doesn't make of Mr. Specter a liar, only a miser with the truth.

Associated Press (AP) correspondent Dave Carpenter's description 3/4 that "deadly reactor fuel shot into the atmosphere, contaminating some 10,000 square miles and reaching as far as Western Europe" (3) is likewise "correct," but Reuters News Service reported on 28 Nov. 1995 that the contaminated areas include about 61,780 square miles.

Carpenter practiced perfect obfuscation in his dispatch, saying of the reckless nuclearists over there: "In a big lie, Soviet officials. . . first hushed up the disaster then played down its severity." What is it to understate the sum of irradiated territory by a factor of six? It isn't the pot calling the kettle black; it's the cesium calling the strontium a cancer agent.

Carpenter's AP lullaby was published widely and included the comment that, ". . .those living in the shadow of Chernobyl will be living with its deadly health and environmental legacy for years." (4)

For years? The word centuries would have been more accurate, if conservative, since radiation's health affects are multi-generational and not limited in time. Indeed, some genetic effects appear to be increasing with each successive generation.

The AP's Angela Charlson went so far as to say the reactor sent "a radioactive cloud across parts of Europe ..." (5) Understatement of the overwhelming facts was practiced as well by the editors of The New York Times, who said on April 21 that the disaster "spewed radiation across much or Europe" (6) and on the anniversary, that "...a plume of toxic gases & dust...spread across the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia." (7) Although the contamination of the rest of the world was hinted at as lately as 6 Oct. 1995, when the Times reported that the radiation spread across western Russia "and beyond," this uncomfortable fact is nowadays passé.

The Disaster's in Your Head

While the explosions' long-lived carcinogens 3/4 primarily cesium, plutonium, strontium and iodine 3/4 are well known to be deadly for decades and even centuries, Soviet officials, the U. N's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and U.S. editors have all ridiculed the common sense fear of Chernobyl's radioactive fallout.

The official Soviet paper Izvestia said in 1988 that doctors in the Ukraine were, ". . .spending more time on trying to dispel irrational fears than on treating the effects of radiation." (8)

The IAEA which at first refused to conduct a post-Chernobyl health study, claiming that all the accident's effects were confined within Soviet borders (9), dared to say in a 1991 study that Chernobyl's health effects were mainly "psychological." This heavily criticized report didn't even consider the health of the "liquidators," or the evacuees from the 18-mile exclusion zone, 8,000 of whom are now known to have died from radiation related diseases. (10)

The IAEA study failed to mention the lengthy latency period for observed cancer incidence. This cavalier white-wash of the disaster's inevitable results came from a nominal nuclear watchdog, which in fact is only the most prestigious booster of nuclear power. "After all the IAEA is in the business of promoting nuclear energy not discouraging it. For ten years the agency has attempted to downplay the consequences of the accident," wrote Dr. Alexander R. Sich in a cover story for the May/June Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. (11) The IAEA, still sticking in its vacuum, said in 1995 that any increase in cancer caused by Chernobyl would be "undetectable." (11.1)

Editors across the country have embraced the IAEA's dismissive attitude, distracting readers with headlines like, "Area Frozen In Fear," "Citizens Still Suffering Radiation Phobia," and "The Legacy of Chernobyl: Fear is the Deeper Wound." A dread of radiation doesn't appear irrational in view of last year's report that "A second catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine could happen "at any time," Western scientists have warned." (12)

Reality Officially Forgotten

A short review of Chernobyl's fallout pattern shows how irresponsible the late reporting has become. AP, 15 May 1986: "Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States, the EPA said." AP, 14 May 1986: "An invisible cloud of radioactivity spewed over the Soviet Union and Europe, and has worked its way gradually around the world." AP, 15 May 1986: "State authorities in Oregon have warned residents dependent solely on rainwater for drinking that they should arrange other supplies for the time being." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 17 May 1986: "Since radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident began floating over Minnesota last week, low levels of radiation have been discovered in... the raw milk from a Minnesota dairy." AP, 4 April 1996: "Plutonium and other dangerous particles released in the accident...have now found their way to Ukraine's major waterways. ... 'We have billions of tons of radiated earth that can't be dumped anywhere, and which will pour plutonium, cesium and strontium into Europe for decades, ' [the chief consultant to the Ukrainian parliament's Chernobyl commission] said." Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, May 1996, p. 38: "...radiation contamination was detectable over the entire northern hemisphere."

With so much disparity among so many figures, we may never know the true dimensions of Chernobyl's radiation bomb.

Notes:

(1) NYT, Op-Ed, 5 April 1996.

(2) International Herald Tribune, 2 April 1996.

(3) Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 14 April 1996.

(4) Minneapolis Star Tribune, 21 April 1996.

(5) St. Paul Pioneer, 27 April 1996.

(6) NYT, 21 April 1996, The Week In Review.

(7) NYT, 26 April 1996, signed editorial by Philip Taubman

(8) Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 1988.

(9) In These Times, 22 April 1987.

(10) AP, 23 April 1992; WISE News Communiqué, (Amsterdam) No. 449, 10 April 1996.

(11) Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, May 1996, p. 38.

(11.1) Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 1996, p. 8.

(12) The London Observer, 26 March 1995; Milwaukee Journal, 27 March 1995.


Half Lives and Half Truths: Chernobyl Ten Years On
By John M. LaForge ã
(Second of two parts)

The 10th anniversary was no party.

"I have seen the beginning of the end of the world," is how Michael Mariotte, editor of The Nuclear Monitor, put it after visiting Chernobyl's doomed landscape, everything dead or dying for miles around. "The end of the world begins in Pripyat, Ukraine, a once-thriving city of 45,000. Now it sits crumbling, abandoned, a mute but overwhelming testament to technological arrogance gone amok."1

Pripyat was the city nearest Chernobyl's Unit 4, the reactor that exploded on April 26, 1986 and burned dangerously until October, spewing tons of cancer-causing isotopes around the world.2

Mr. Mariotte is not known for emotional writing in The Monitor, but anyone who can stand to investigate the unfolding human consequences of the world's worst industrial catastrophe can understand his choice of words. Izvestia called it "the greatest technological catastrophe in world history."3

Cancers and other disease caused by Chernobyl's radioactive poisons are being recorded thousands of kilometers from the reactor site. The ninety million people who lived in the path of the very worst fallout are learning the hard way that damage done by ionizing radiation is unrelenting, cumulative and irreversible.

In the first part of this article (Spring 1996 Pathfinder) I compared the recent trivialization of Chernobyl's consequences to news accounts that appeared soon after the explosions and fire. For example, while the commercial press now tell us that the disaster "spread radiation across parts of Europe," the fact is that the federal EPA announced in mid-May 1986 that, "Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States."4

In this part I look at how much radiation Chernobyl evidently dumped added to the "background," at official skewing of the its inevitable long-term effects, and at recent reports of its human health consequences.

Answers are Blowin' in the Wind

How much radiation was released? What percentage of which isotopes were thrown into the atmosphere. Was it mostly iodine-131? How much of the total was made up of the far more dangerous cesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium?

Piecing together the truth is a dizzying job of ferreting out bias and vested interest. The pro-nuclear Time magazine reported in 1989 that perhaps "one billion or more" curies were released, rather than the 50 to 80 million estimated by Russian authorities.5 One curie is the amount of radiation equal to the disintegration of 37 billion atoms 3/4 37 billion becquerels 3/4 per second. It is a very large amount of radiation.

The U.S. government's Argonne Nat. Lab has said that 30 percent of the reactor's total radioactivity 3/4 3 billion of an estimated 9 billion curies 3/4 was released.6 And scientists at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab suggested that one-half of the core's radioactivity was spewed 3/4 4.5 billion curies, according the World Information Service on Energy, quoting Science, 6-13-86.

Vladimir Chernousenko, the chief scientific supervisor of the "clean up" team responsible for a 10-kilometer zone around the exploded reactor, says that 80 percent of the reactor's radioactivity escaped, something like seven billion curies.7 At the Union of Concerned Scientists, senior energy analyst Kennedy Maize, concluded that "the core vaporized" 3/4 all 190 tons of fuel, and all 9 billion curies.8

Former Chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Joseph Hendrie, concluded likewise, saying "They have dumped the full inventory of volatile fission products from a large power reactor into the environment. You can't do any worse than that."9

The Russians and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) claimed in a 1986 report, that 50 million curies of radioactive debris, plus another 50 million curies of rare and inert gasses were discharged. However, the rocketing incidence of cancers, leukemias and other radiation-induced illnesses, leads scientists to suspect that the higher radioactive fallout estimates are likely. Pandemic numbers of thyroid cancers led even the cautious Dr. Alexander Sich, in his Chernobyl cover story for the May 1996 Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to conclude that the "higher [radiation] release estimates support the conclusions drawn by medical experts."

Geneticist Valery N. Soyfer, founder of the former Soviet Union's first molecular biology laboratory, analyzed the 1986 report to the IAEA, which has since been condemned as a cover-up. Dr. Soyfer says that if only 100 million curies were vented, then world "background radiation doubled at once."10 This claim was unsupported by accompanying evidence, but if "background" was doubled by 100 million curies, then it was multiplied 180 times by the release of Chernobyl's "full inventory." Nineteen months after the disaster, in Nov. 1987, the U.S. government officially doubled its estimate of the "background" radiation to which we are exposed every year.11

Thyroid Cancers: More, Sooner, Untreatable

Dr. Soyfer further discovered that the Soviets focused on and publicized the fallout's radioactive iodine content, but understated the amounts of other far more dangerous isotopes. While 10 to 15 percent of the fallout was iodine-131, the long-lived radionuclides strontium-90 and cesium-137 made up more than two thirds of the total contamination.12

Furthermore, the Soviet's 1986 estimate of future cancer deaths was based only on the impact of iodine-131, and then only on external doses. As a result, the IAEA misled the world about Chernobyl's cancer threat. People contaminated with iodine-131 ingested it, first by breathing, then by drinking contaminated milk for six weeks. Thyroid cancer is caused by the iodine-131. Its rates are today ten times higher than the increase any scientist had anticipated. The U. N. has said that the number of thyroid cancers among children in Belarus 3/4 where 70 percent of the fallout landed 3/4 are 285 times pre-Chernobyl levels.13

The British Medical Journal reported in 1995 that the rate of thyroid cancer in the region north of Chernobyl3/4 Ukraine and Belarus3/4 is 200 times higher than normal, and the (British) Imperial Cancer Research Fund found a 500 percent increase in thyroid cancers among Ukrainian children between 1986 and 1993.14

Fear is growing among physicians treating the young radiation victims, because the thyroid cancers are appearing sooner than expected and growing quicker than usual. Dr. Andrei Butenko, at Kiev Hospital No. 1 in Ukraine, says of his patients, "Routine chemotherapy seems to have lost its effectiveness; something has changed in the immune system."15

Cesium's Genetic Assault: the 300 Years War

Cesium-137 contamination is probably Chernobyl's most devastating and ominous consequence. The body can't distinguish cesium from potassium, so it 's taken up by our cells and becomes an internal source of radiation. Cesium-137 is a gamma emitter and its half-life of 30 years means that it stays in the soil, to concentrate in the food chain, for over 300 years. While iodine-131 remains radioactive for six weeks, cesium-137 stays in the body for decades, concentrating in muscle where it irradiates muscle cells and nearby organs.16

Strontium-90 is also long-lived and, because it resembles calcium, is permanently incorporated into bone tissue where it may lead to leukemia.

The Soviet's acknowledged in 1986 that the influence of cesium-137 on cancer death rates would be nine times that of iodine-131. They said that the effects of strontium-90 would "perhaps have, along with cesium-137, the most important meaning."17

Early Findings Go from Bad to Worse

Exposure to radiation more often results in genetic and reproductive damage than cancer. These hereditary disorders are unlimited in time, since they pass from generation to generation in the sperm and ovum. So, as geneticist Soyfer points out, Chernobyl's enduring biological legacy will be that of inherited diseases, deformities, developmental abnormalities, spontaneous abortions and premature births.

Some recent epidemiological studies confirm the worst of these inevitable effects. The June 25, 1995 Washington Post reported that birth defects in the areas most heavily poisoned have doubled since 1986.

In a long page one story, the Aug. 2, 1995 New York Times reported that life expectancy has plummeted in Russia, making it the first nation in history to ever experience such a public health status reversal. Male life expectancy is now the lowest in the world (below even India or Bolivia) and, at the same time, infant mortality rose 15 percent in both 1993 and 1994, and there are now epidemic rates of heart disease and cancer. dr. David Hoel, an epidemiologist at the Medical University of S. Carolina, is studying whether Chernobyl's radiation is a major factor in the spread in cancers and birth defects. "Everyone assumes the connection," he said.

The journal Nature has published a study of children born in 1994 to mothers exposed to Chernobyl's fallout in 1986. Researchers studied 79 families 186 miles from Chernobyl and found never-before-observed "germ-line" mutations: changes in DNA of the sperm and ovum. Such mutations are passed on from generation to generation.18

Nature has also reported that in Greece, 2,800 kilometers from Chernobyl, where radiation exposures were far lower than in areas close to the reactor, leukemia has been diagnosed at rates 2.6 times the norm in young people who were in the womb when the reactor exploded. The British epidemiologist Dr. Alice Stewart found long ago that only one diagnostic X-ray to the pregnant abdomen increases the risk of leukemia in the offspring by 40 percent.19 However, the report from Greece is the first to link Chernobyl's wreckage to increased leukemia incidence in children exposed in utero.20 The report has moved some experts to again warn that the low levels of radiation to which people are exposed every day "could contribute to cancer."

Even the stodgy New York Times has reported that "cancers are now believed to be the result of smaller [radiation] doses, and the amount of damage inflicted by a given dose is now believed to be larger."21

In a related study, two U.S. geneticists analyzing animals inside Chernobyl' s 6-mile radius found that small rodents known as voles "sustain an extraordinary amount of genetic damage." The study found that "the mutation rate in these animals is...probably thousands of times greater than normal." Two findings called "ominous" were, first, that one-third of the mutations that the scientists expected to see were not even detected 3/4 probably because they were lethal. "It could be that the animals were never born," said Dr. Robert Becker of Texas Technical Univ. Second, "the vole mutations were cumulative, increasing with each succeeding generation." Both researchers doubted that any species could sustain such a mutation rate indefinitely.22

Acceptable Whole-Earth Poisoning

The extent of Chernobyl's radioactive, biological and ecological damage, and the depth its psychological and economic devastation are incalculable.

What everyone does know about nuclear reactors is that they have a record of whole-earth poisoning, and that their potential for more of the same is considered acceptable 3/4 authorized in advance. This potential, for unlimited and uncontrollable radiation "accidents," has been deliberately developed, promoted, protected, ignored and then denied, or forgotten.

Sadly, denial and forgetfulness only make another Chernobyl inevitable.

Notes:

1 The Nuclear Monitor, newsletter of Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS), April 1996.

2 St. Louis Post Dispatch (SLPD), 7-23-90.

3 SLPD, 4-26-90.

4 Associated Press, 5-15-86.

5 Time, 11-13-89.

6 The Chicago Tribune, 6-22-86.

7 "The Truth About Chernobyl," Critical Mass: Voices for a Nuclear-Free Future, Ruggiero and Sahulka, Eds., 1996 by Open Media, p. 127.

8 Not Man Apart, the journal of Friends of the Earth, March 1987.

9 The Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5-19-86.

10 SLPD, 4-24-87.

11 The New York Times, 11-20-87.

12 SLPD, 4-24-87.

13 The New York Times, 11-29-96.

14 The Washington Post, 3-25-95.

15 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 12-12-94.

16 Caldicott, H., Nuclear Madness, 1994, Norton, p. 137.

17 SLPD, 4-24-87.

18 The New York Times, 4-25-96.

19 Caldicott, Ibid., p. 43.

20 St. Paul Pioneer, 7-25-96.

21 The New York Times, 6-23-96.

22 The New York Times, 5-7-96, B6. --end--

(Part One ran in NUKEWATCH The Pathfinder, Summer 1996, part Two in Winter 1996/1997 EDITION; an edited compilation of both parts is published in Earth Island Journal, Summer 1997, EIJ, 300 Broadway, No. 28, San Francisco, CA 94133.)

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

-------- california

Californians favor nuclear plants, poll says

Thursday, May 24, 2001
By Associated Press
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/05/05242001/ap_capoll_43705.asp

SAN FRANCISCO - 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."

-------- connecticut

Charges Possible in Fuel Rods Case

New York Times
May 24, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nyregion/AP-Missing-Fuel-Rods.html?searchpv=aponline

WATERFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has launched an investigation into the disappearance of two fuel rods from a nuclear power plant that's been out of operation since 1995.

In documents filed with the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, commission staff attorney Norman St. Amour wrote that the investigation could lead to criminal charges.

Misplacing the fuel rods, characterized as high-level radioactive waste, is unprecedented in the nuclear industry.

Each rod is 13 feet long and the width of a pencil. Engineers doing an inventory of the Millstone One Nuclear Power Plant's nuclear waste storage pool in November noticed they were missing. The plant, one of three at the Millstone complex southwest of New London, is being decommissioned.

The slightly damaged rods were removed in 1972 and placed in the storage pool. The last reference to the rods was in a 1979 report.

Plant officials have been conducting their own investigation, and workers are going through paperwork to determine whether the rods were transferred to nuclear storage sites or to General Electric laboratories for study.

With the exception of nuclear plants and military facilities, there is no authorized storage site for high-level radioactive waste in the country.

The Millstone complex was sold in April to Dominion, which has ultimate responsibility for the rods. The former owner, Northeast Utilities, is paying for the search.

-------- nevada

Uranium cleanup unfunded
Bush budget doesn't address tailings that leach into Colorado River

By CHRISTINE DORSEY
DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU
Tuesday, April 24, 2001
Las Vegas Review-Journal
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Apr-24-Tue-2001/news/15940832.html

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has included no money in his 2002 budget to clean up an abandoned mine site near Moab, Utah, where federal officials have estimated 16,000 gallons of water containing radioactive uranium tailings are leaking into the Colorado River each day.

Despite legislation ushered through Congress last year by Utah Republicans giving the Department of Energy authority to begin cleaning up the site, the department has set aside no specific funding to get started.

Tom Welch, a DOE spokesman, said the budget does include a $2.8 million line item to fund activities of the office in Grand Junction, Colo., that would oversee the project. An undetermined amount of that will fund a study by the National Academy of Sciences of cleanup options, he said.

Most of Southern Nevada's drinking water comes from the Colorado River, via Lake Mead, about 450 miles downstream of the Moab tailings pile. Although federal officials know of no evidence that uranium is traveling down river into water supplies for Nevada or Southern California, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said water users have expressed concern about reports indicating the tailings are leaking radioactive uranium into the river.

"I don't know what we're going to do," said Reid, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee that will review the Energy Department budget.

Vince Alberta, a spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said regular tests for "gross alpha radiation," the test for traces of radioactive substances, have consistently shown less than 6 pico-Curies per liter (pCi/l) well below the 15 pCi/l maximum federal level.

Seven members of Congress, including Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., wrote a letter last week to the House Appropriations Committee requesting $10 million for the Energy Department to fund cleanup this year. Gibbons wasn't available Monday, but spokesman Robert Uithoven said Congress will remedy the shortfalls in the appropriations process. "It (Bush's budget) is simply a blueprint," he said.

In a March 30 letter, Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, a Republican, wrote to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham urging him to include "the necessary funding" to move the tailings from where they sit, 750 feet from the river, just outside Arches National Park.

Some officials estimate it could cost as much as $300 million to remove the 13 million tons of uranium tailings left behind by Atlas Mining Corp. The Denver-based company mined uranium during the Cold War. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1997, handing cleanup to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Under legislation in a Defense Authorization bill last year, cleanup of the site will handed to DOE in September.

The omission of any cleanup funds added fuel to fires being fanned by environmentalists over Bush environmental policies. "All of our efforts to get through to the Bush people didn't work," said Bill Hedden, who follows the uranium cleanup for Grand Canyon Trust, an environmental group that tracks activities along the Colorado River.

----

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Report dismays delegation
Inspector general finds no bias

By KEITH ROGERS and STEVE TETREAULT,
Tuesday, April 24, 2001,
Las Vegas Review-Journal
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Apr-24-Tue-2001/news/15940164.html

Much to the dismay of Nevada's congressional delegation, investigators said Monday they found no evidence that bias hurt the integrity of the Yucca Mountain program despite internal documents that were "inappropriate" for the nuclear waste disposal project.

"We could not substantiate the concern that bias compromised the integrity of the site evaluation process, or that the (Department of Energy) or its contractors considered a formal or informal strategy for supporting the site characterization recommendation in violation of the law," read the 14-page report from DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman.

The probe, however, found several statements "that could be considered ... to be prematurely conclusive, or inappropriately advocating a position by the department."

The four-month-long investigation, which involved 20 inspector general personnel who interviewed 200 federal and contractor officials, was launched near the end of the Clinton administration. It focused on internal, draft documents prepared by JK Research Associates, a Las Vegas company that worked for the former Yucca Mountain Project contractor, TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc.

When a 59-page draft overview of the Site Consideration Recommendation Report surfaced late last year, Nevada's congressional delegation -- who strongly oppose the dump project -- were outraged that the document, which the energy secretary was supposed to use in deciding whether to recommend Yucca Mountain for a nuclear waste repository, jumped to conclusions about the site's suitability.

The document stated that "all evidence to date indicates that Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for a repository."

Attached to it was a "note to reviewers" that said "the technical suitability of the site is less of a concern to Congress than the broader issue of whether the nuclear waste problem can be solved at an affordable price in both financial and political terms."

Nevada lawmakers said results of the investigation failed to persuade them that the Energy Department is fairly considering the Yucca Mountain site. They noted the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, still is studying the same issues.

"As I read the inspector general's report, they could not confirm or deny they were doing things that were wrong," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. "What it does seem to me is they've done a pretty good job of covering their tracks."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who on Monday toured Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, said bias in the documents "was self-evident" and that it appeared government contractors were using employees to lobby for a Yucca Mountain repository before scientific studies are completed.

The inspector general consulted the Justice Department on the lobbying allegation and was told that no violation had occurred.

Gov. Kenny Guinn said he, too, was disappointed with the inspector general's findings. "It is my hope that this report will refocus this all-important debate on science," he said in a statement.

"The idea that political concerns could, in any way, affect a process with such severe health and safety ramifications for the people of Nevada is shocking and disheartening," he said.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., were en route to Washington and could not be reached.

In a statement through his office, Ensign said he disagreed with the inspector general's conclusion. "I am disappointed with the interpretation of the evidence," he said.

JK Research is now a subcontractor for the project's current prime contractor, SAIC Co., a company spokeswoman confirmed. A call Monday to JK Research was not returned.

The inspector general's report said neither the Site Consideration Recommendation Report nor its overview will be issued. Instead, a document titled "Yucca Mountain Science and Engineering Report" will replace those draft documents.

Department officials added little Monday about where the Yucca Mountain program stands now that the report has been completed.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham reiterated his agency's stance, saying that the department objected to the statements in question during its own review.

Abraham circulated a memo to nuclear waste program workers expressing confidence in their "scientific integrity and fundamental fairness."

But noting questions raised by the inspector general, he cautioned them to remain committed to "world-class science."

"We will all remain vigilant in ensuring that we perform our work without any preconceived opinions or bias," Abraham said. "We must ensure that our work does not even raise the perception of possible bias."

----

Nevadans Get How To Lesson in Contesting Nuclear Waste Site

By Shervin Hess
May 24, 2001
ENS
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2001/2001L-05-24-04.html

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Nevada residents learned this week exactly what they will have to do if they want to contest the controversial high-level radioactive waste repository proposed for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Officials from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held two public meetings this week in Nevada to inform the citizens of their rights with regard to permitting of the only site in the nation being considered as a permanent repository for waste from nuclear power plants.

Aerial view of Yucca Mountain (Photos courtesy DOE Yucca Mtn. Project)

The NRC is obligated to approve or deny the Department of Energy's plan for Yucca Mountain, which will call for at least 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste to be shipped to the site for long term storage from the individual nuclear power plants where it is now being held.

If the repository is permitted, many Nevadans fear water and ground contamination, as well as the threat of radiation that might be released if accidents occur during transport of the waste to Yucca Mountain.

"There have been a number of instances where lay persons have succeeded in meeting the committee threshold for denying an application," NRC Associate General Counsel Lawrence Chandler said, citing examples where the public has succeeded in preventing the construction of various reactors.

However, no one has ever successfully stopped a radioactive waste repository from being built in the United States, because Yucca Mountain will be the first that the federal government attempts to take through the hurdles of public comment.

During the NRC's licensing process, any member of the public will be able to observe prehearing conferences, act as a party in the hearing and authorize an organization to file an intervention petition.

Those who intervene in the permitting process must show that they have an interest that would be adversely affected by the outcome, and that their injury is distinct and concrete, not speculative.

But most of the some 100 Nevadans who attended the meetings said they believe speculation would be unavoidable, considering that there is no other permanent nuclear waste repository available for comparison. Yucca Mountain is the only site that is being studied for suitability as a high-level waste storage location.

Technicians use sound waves to probe the rock within Yucca Mountain for its ability to hold hot radioactive waste without emissions into the environment.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has been performing extensive scientific testing under the eye of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board to evaluate the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site. The DOE will propose a design for the repository to the NRC, but changes can be made after approval if any new significant environmental impact has been found.

Chandler explained that the emplacement of the waste must be reversible.

If the DOE application is granted, the President then decides the outcome, which can be contested by the state, after which it becomes a Congressional decision.

Nevada Senators Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican, among others, have strongly opposed this repository since it was first proposed, claiming the science is not sufficient to justify the project. The DOE has been under fire from Nevada officials and environmentalists for its alleged bias in reporting environmental impact during its scientific assessment.

But Tuesday, Bruce Babbitt, a former Arizona governor who served as Interior Secretary in the Clinton administration, endorsed the proposed Yucca Mountain repository.

Vice President Dick Cheney (Photo courtesy the White House)

Also Tuesday, Vice President Dick Cheney told the annual meeting of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobby group, that nuclear power is a very important part of the Bush administration's newly announced National Energy Policy. But Cheney had a warning for the 400 nuclear executives.

"It is also important for us to remember," Cheney said, "that if we fail to do an effective job beginning with the relicensing questions and the waste disposal questions with respect to nuclear energy, that eventually the contribution we can count on from the nuclear industry will in fact decline."

Currently, the nation's 103 reactors operating in 31 states produce nearly 20 percent of the nation's electricity.

Encouraged by the Bush administration's stance, top nuclear industry officials announced their intention to build another 50 power plants over the next 20 years.

This would add around 50 percent waste to that which already exists, says Joe Colvin, president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Colvin believes that by 2020, nuclear energy will be recognized as a safe and environmentally sound source of electricity.

-------- utah

Cancer toll raises worries in Mapleton
Seepage from nearby plant gets much of blame

Deseret News,
Tuesday, April 24, 2001
By Rodger L. Hardy Deseret News staff writer
http://deseretnews.com/dn/print/1,1442,270014675,00.html?

MAPLETON - Marilyn Petersen's garden fed her family for years. The garden was large, even by Mapleton standards, and provided a bounty of vegetables that graced her family's table.

Petersen watered the lush garden from a well dug in 1983 where an irrigation ditch once flowed from a canal that passed the Trojan Explosives plant at the mouth of the Spanish Fork Canyon.

Petersen, a former mayor of the rural Utah County burg, fervently believes that the canal water carried contaminants that seeped into the ground and well water.

Those contaminants have been making folks who used the water sick for decades, she believes, and an alarming number of friends and neighbors have died.

Petersen dedicates her energy to documenting her neighborhood's fatality and illness rates.

She knows ample proof is needed to prevail in a federal lawsuit she and her husband, Rodney, filed two years ago with two other families. They say the plant improperly handled, stored and disposed of toxic chemicals that seeped into water wells in the '70s and '80s.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson gave the families a small legal victory last month by denying a request by Ensign-Bickford Co., current owner of the facility, to dismiss the case. It will now be heard by a jury.

Petersen isn't relying on official studies to prove her case. She's compiling a list of people from the quiet neighborhood who have died or have been diagnosed with cancer and other illnesses since drinking the water or eating the vegetables.

She denounces a study released in 1995 by the Utah Department of Health that said the cancers in the area could not be pinned on the plant.

"Studies look at the whole city," she said, pointing to names on a list of people who moved away from Mapleton after the alleged contamination and are now either dead or being treated for cancer. "They don't look at a finite area."

Chuck Wiggins, director of the University of Utah's Cancer Registry, agrees the health department's study had some flaws. Wiggins said the study missed some cases entirely, casting doubt on its completeness.

Although some dispute its conclusions, the study by the state health department showed a dramatic increase in six types of cancers in Mapleton. The state Bureau of Epidemiology found 123 cases of cancer between 1978 and 1993 in the small town.

Six cancers - prostate, female breast, colorectal, lung and bronchial, soft tissue and chronic lymphocytic leukemia - were found to occur at a higher rate in Mapleton than in Salt Lake County, an area used for comparison.

Wiggins said the study fails to take into account the rapid growth Mapleton experienced during the period the study was conducted and the change in ZIP code that separated Mapleton residents from Springville residents in the mid-1980s.

And, he said, the study isn't clear on whether the age distribution changed. That's important, he said, because older people are more likely to get cancer and could skew the study.

Director of the Utah County Health Department Joseph Miner said when the study was released in 1995, none of the six cancers were known to be associated with nitrates, which some residents suspect as a cause.

Petersen's list includes neighbors who had large gardens and watered from the canal. She found 10 cases of people living with cancer, two cancer deaths and a third from a brain tumor in a five-block stretch on South Main. Petersen believes another cancer death south of the neighborhood also is related.

Within eight blocks of 1600 South, Petersen's list includes eight cancer cases and two other diseases. She counts six dead, including a couple who died from unknown causes.

And in three houses sitting side-by-side in the neighborhood, one spouse died of cancer in each home, said David Nemelka, a former state representative from Mapleton, who lives in the neighborhood.

On Petersen's own one-block street -1000 East - she lists two lymphomas, including her own, and one degenerative disease. Also on the list are three second-generation cancer cases, two of whom are people who grew up in the area and a third who lived there for awhile after marrying a resident.

In another south Mapleton neighborhood, resident Barbara Jensen talks of 16 cancer cases, including her own. Five have died. She noted the cancers in her neighborhood vary, while more lymphomas are found in Petersen's neighborhood.

Eleven of the cases are on Maple Street, where Jensen also lives. Ten were longtime residents. The rest of the cases were on U-89 and a few side streets just off Maple Street.

Combining Jensen's neighborhood with Nemelka's and Petersen's neighborhood, clusters of cancer are found from Maple Street and U-89 to the southeast Mapleton foothills. Although anecdotal, the clusters total more than 40 cases in an area with about 1,250 people.

Based on an age-adjusted 1995 to 1999 statistical survey by the Utah Cancer Institute, 387.4 males and 290.9 females per 100,000 population are expected to get cancer every year, Wiggins said. That rate is about 20 percent lower than the national rate, he said.

Nemelka charged that cancer was occurring eight to 20 times more often in Mapleton than in a similar population. But Miner called that an "error to the extreme" in his letter replying to Nemelka's concerns.

Some blame Mapleton's Well No. 1, which was shut down a few years ago when the chemical Royal Demolition Explosive (RDX) was found in it. RDX is a solid compound used to make plastic explosives and is also used as a rat poison.

The well had supplied water to Mapleton - not just the south side, where Petersen lives - since 1961, said Don Walker, the city recorder. The water was mixed with water from Maple Canyon and other well sources in the city's 2 million-gallon tank.

"The only time the people in the south would have gotten more of their water from the No. 1 well was after the city acquired other wells to serve the north end," former public works director Kent Wheeler said. The lines were interconnected and the flow went where the demand was, he said.

"No. 1 well was never bad enough to cause a problem with anybody," Wheeler said.

"I don't believe the city well caused the cancers," Walker said. Instead, Walker suspects private wells and a possible airborne source from the explosives company.

Don Ostler, director of Utah's Division of Water Quality, said tests have not produced any concrete evidence the plant polluted the canal. Rather, the pollutants likely seeped into the ground water at the plant and traveled north, possibly along fault lines, until it reached the aquifer that fed private residential wells.

A Trojan report, now part of a federal lawsuit against the plant, says the contaminants could have dripped into wells in south Mapleton 20 years ago.

But folks in the neighborhood quit drinking the well water when they learned an underground plume of contaminants from a 1986 spill at the plant had worked its way north into their wells. The lining of one Trojan's settling ponds had ruptured, losing its contents.

Petersen and her neighbors, including Howard Ruff, a nationally known financial adviser who also is a plaintiff in the federal suit, were warned by plant officials in 1997 not to drink the water. That was 11 years after the spill.

When the spill occurred, the county health department issued a health warning, especially directed to pregnant women. A couple of days later it rescinded it, said Laurie Fields, an attorney who represents Petersen, Ruff and a third neighbor, Charles Bates, in the federal lawsuit against the company.

But the warning letter from Ensign-Bickford, which was obtained by the Deseret News, said nothing about eating the vegetables watered with the contaminated water.

"They were told not to drink the water but not warned not to eat the food that was watered with private well water," Fields said.

All three of her clients are being treated for cancer.

E-MAIL: rodger@desnews.com

-------- us nuc politics

Chairmanships at Stake
[in Senator Jeffords' defection from the Republican Party]

Thursday, May 24, 2001; Page A27
Washington Post
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A67805-2001May23?language=printer

Republican chairmen of the Senate's leading committees, and the Democrats expected to succeed them should Democrats gain control:

Agriculture: Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

Appropriations: Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), and Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.)

Armed Services: John Warner (R-Va.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.)

Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs: Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), and Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.).

Budget: Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)

Commerce, Science and Transportation: John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.)

Energy and Natural Resources: Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)

Environment and Public Works: Robert C. Smith, (R-N.H.), and James Jeffords of Vermont, expected to become an independent.

Finance: Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

Foreign Relations: Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), and Joseph R. Biden Jr., (D-Del.)

Governmental Affairs: Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.)

Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: James Jeffords and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)

Judiciary: Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

----

GOP Missteps, Jeffords's Feelings About Agenda Led Toward Exit

By Mike Allen and Ruth Marcus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 24, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A67682-2001May23?language=printer

When President Bush sat down in front of the Oval Office fireplace with Sen. James M. Jeffords on Tuesday afternoon, he posed the question directly. "Is there anything I or my administration has done to make you feel slighted?" Bush asked the Vermont Republican.

"No," Jeffords replied, according to White House aides.

But the truth was that Jeffords's slow-motion decision to leave the GOP, which he is expected to announce in his home state this morning, was the product of both the senator's increasing alienation from the policies of his party and miscalculations by Republicans in the Senate and the White House over how to handle him.

"This is a self-inflicted gunshot wound," a senior GOP official said yesterday of his party's fumbling.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said: "I've been told that he just feels he doesn't have the friends up here he once had."

But if there were warning signs, the White House missed them. A top White House aide said Bush's high command did not realize until Tuesday -- hours before the Oval Office meeting -- that Jeffords could defect.

On Capitol Hill and in Vermont, associates of Jeffords said the problem was crystallized by the decision of the White House, after he had voted to scale back Bush's tax cut bill in a budget resolution, not to invite him to a Rose Garden ceremony honoring a Vermont social studies teacher last month.

The policy gulf between Jeffords and his party, combined with the administration's apparent decision to play hardball until it may have been too late, combined to help push the 67-year-old moderate over the edge -- and the Senate to the brink of Democratic control.

For their part, Democrats have been wooing Jeffords since the election -- and some Democrats have been mulling the prospect for even longer.

One Democrat recalled Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) musing aloud in 1996 whether he could lure Jeffords to defect. Democratic sources said Reid played a critical role in persuading Jeffords it was finally time to leave the GOP, offering to relinquish his right to chair the Senate environment committee to Jeffords.

Over the past 24 hours, Republicans were engaged in a frenzy of "who lost Jeffords" finger-pointing. White House allies said they were blindsided by the failure of the Senate GOP leadership, particularly Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), to recognize the scope of the problem. White House critics blamed political strategist Karl Rove, legislative liaison Nicholas Calio and others for mishandling Jeffords.

"Did the administration make some mistakes?" one Republican said. "Yes. It relied entirely on Lott to be their red-light warning system on Jeffords. Lott didn't sense the problems were serious."

Calio noted that education and tax cuts, the president's top two priorities, were on the floor at the same time. "Your focus is generally on the things that are most pressing," he said. As for the allegations about White House hardball, Calio said: "Categorically, there was no effort to punish Senator Jeffords."

A Jeffords aide, who refused to be named, said the senator's decision was based on "his whole comfort with the agenda" and not because he felt snubbed. "Anything else that people are bringing into it is not a part of how he made the decision," the aide said.

However, several lawmakers who talked to Jeffords yesterday said he had begun to feel beleaguered. Rep. Christopher Shays, a moderate Republican from Connecticut, criticized the Senate leadership. "Jim Jeffords is a good man, and he has been under a barrage of attacks by his own colleagues," Shays said.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said he believes Jeffords was moved to leave the party for several reasons, largely having to do with the treatment of moderates by the conservative-dominated Senate GOP. "It's been hard to be a moderate in the caucus because there are so few of us," he said. "Sometimes, frankly, it gets fairly tough."

Others put the blame on the White House. "This is miscalculation upon miscalculation," said another Republican. "In a 50-50 Senate, are you supposed to go after people with guns? Of course not. This White House was too macho."

Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a Democrat, called Jeffords "a very understated guy, but he has a real tough, principled core."

"He's not a guy you push around, and I think the White House pushed too far," Dean said.

The tensions between Jeffords and his party had been building over the past few months. The White House made Gregg their "go-to" person on the education bill because they did not want to have to deal with Jeffords.

"Jeffords didn't like the way Lott and Gregg pushed him aside during negotiations over the education bill," said one Republican. "It made him feel like, 'Gee, where's my place here?' "

On the other hand, administration and Senate leadership officials said Jeffords has been difficult and demanding, adding that they were unable to make deals with him that stuck. "They'd give him what he wanted, and then he'd say, 'Oh, I can't live with that,' " said an official involved in the process.

White House and leadership officials said relations with Jeffords began deteriorating irreparably on April 3, after an early evening meeting in the Capitol, where they negotiated the senator's demand for permanent funding for a program to help local school districts educate disabled children.

Administration officials said they agreed to $150 billion in funding over 10 years, with the stipulation that the program be changed in ways that they argued would make it more effective. They said Jeffords shook hands with them on the agreement and returned to his office. One official said that, shortly thereafter, a Jeffords aide called to renege, asserting that the senator had misunderstood the terms.

The next afternoon, Jeffords dropped by a news conference of moderate senators who were calling for a smaller tax cut package than what Bush had proposed. The first subject Jeffords mentioned was special education funding. "I finished my negotiations and unfortunately have not had an acceptable response," Jeffords said. He added pointedly: "I feel very comfortable here. First time in a while."

As Jeffords balked at the size of the tax cut, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. called a Vermont radio station and a local reporter to argue that Jeffords should support Bush.

Three weeks later, Jeffords -- who chairs the Senate education committee -- was not invited to the White House teacher-of-the-year event. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said yesterday that "nobody played hardball" with Jeffords and that a mid-level event planner could have left Jeffords off the guest list as a routine practice to keep the ceremony to a reasonable size.

One Republican said he was told that when Jeffords called the White House legislative affairs office on the morning of the event to inquire if his lack of an invitation had been an oversight, he was assured that no mistake had been made. Another called it a "stupid error," saying that if Jeffords's invitation was omitted by accident, it was "amiable duncehood," and "if it was punishment, then it was malicious stupidity."

Republicans also suggested that the administration would try to hurt Jeffords by opposing a dairy compact that benefits farmers. White House officials denied that.

Last week, "a senior GOP source" was quoted in the conservative magazine Weekly Standard as saying that the White House had "a one- or two-year plan to punish him for his behavior." White House officials said that is not true, but Jeffords allies said the report only fed the senator's feeling that he was an outcast in a party that he agreed with less and less often.

Indeed, some at the White House had been fretting for weeks about Jeffords's state of mind. Nancy Dorn, Vice President Cheney's legislative liaison, was warning others last month that the Jeffords situation could mushroom into a big problem, an official said.

But the real worrying among White House officials did not begin in earnest until over the weekend, with a flurry of concerned calls. By Monday evening, the decision was made that Cheney, who was heading to the Capitol for another meeting on Tuesday, needed to spend some time with Jeffords as well. But by then it was too late.

The Cheney meeting did not go well, and the White House called Jeffords's office to ask if he would come to meet with Bush. After that meeting, Bush officials were even gloomier. "The sense that we had was that his decision pretty much had been made," a senior aide said.

House GOP leaders and White House officials tried to minimize the damage a possible Jeffords defection would inflict on the party. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told a closed-door meeting of rank-and-file Republicans yesterday morning that they would have to stay even more united now that they face the prospect of a Democratic-controlled Senate.

"No matter what happens in the Senate, we have to keep positive and keep doing good things for the American people," Hastert said, according to participants.

Bush's counselor, Karen P. Hughes, organized a conference call yesterday afternoon with top communications aides to congressional GOP leaders, and she urged them to mute any criticism of either Jeffords or each other. One leadership aide paraphrased Hughes as saying, "Let's not go pointing fingers."

Staff writers David S. Broder, Helen Dewar and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.

-------- MILITARY

-------- asia

China Debates Its Foreign Policy

By Ching Cheong
Straits Times,
May 24, 2001
http://taiwansecurity.org/News/2001/ST-052401.htm

THE sharp downturn in Sino-American relations has triggered a major policy debate in China on how it should respond to the new political and strategic reality.

Indeed, the sharp twist in bilateral ties has taken many Chinese by surprise and rendered most previous situation-analyses obsolete.

In the 1 1/2 months since the April 1 spy-plane incident, the United States has announced a series of policies, the sum effect of which was to nullify several important commitments it made when both countries established diplomatic relations two decades ago.

China's internal debate revealed some significant consensus.

Most agreed that from now on, China faces a much more hostile international environment than it had encountered since 1979 when both countries established diplomatic relations.

This would hamper its unification dream, slow down its modernisation process, and lead to greater tension with its neighbours, particularly Japan and India.

Yet Chinese strategists differed on the duration of this difficult period.

Pessimists like Mr Yang Fang of the Academy of Social Sciences, a well-known new-left ideologue, said that a new Cold-War era with China as the main target had dawned, and therefore, this difficult period would last for at least a decade.

RIGHT-WING IN CONTROL IN U.S.

HE pointed out that for the first time in half a century, or since 1952, the right-wing conservative Republican Party was able to control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

He said: 'This reflects a fundamental right-ward change in the mood of the American people.

'Since it is a change in the people's perception of China and preference, it is going to last long.'

Optimists, however, said that the current difficult period would last for two to three years as countervailing forces from the business sector would develop, creating the necessary check-and-balance.

These people, self-styled 'liberals' like social analyst Lu Jianhua, based their optimism on a strong sense of self-confidence.

As long as China was not distracted from its central task of economic construction, Mr Lu said, it would become powerful all the same, even if the external environment were hostile.

The US would soon realise that its own national interests could not be served without Chinese cooperation, he added.

This difference reflected a more fundamental issue: Was late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's assessment of the world situation, and the policy implications, still valid?

Mr Deng was the Chinese patriarch who launched the reform and open-door policy in the late 1970s that brought about two decades of almost uninterrupted growth for China.

He saw the world of his time as one 'tending towards greater relaxation' in which 'peace and development are the main themes'.

It followed that the task of the Chinese government was to make economic construction its main focus.

'Short of a major war, it should not be distracted from this central task,' he had preached.

In order to focus on economic growth, China should be ready to endure minor humiliation occasionally, he said.

In essence, this was the gist of Mr Deng's foreign-policy directives.

However, pessimists saw his world, characterised by the multi-polarity of the late 1970s, as a bygone one. The emergence of the US as the world's single most powerful country had changed the picture completely, they argued.

Said Mr Yang: 'Peace can be maintained only if there is balance of power. In the absence of this balance, the world has to obey Washington, or face reprisal.

'We are now entering a period of US hegemony in which its defence spending was roughly the sum of all its allies' and adversaries'. In such a world, we either meet US demands and conform to its values, or we perish.'

ADHERING TO DENG'S POLICY

THE policy prescription of the pessimists was therefore to reduce the economic reliance on the Western world so that when conflict with the US became unavoidable, China would still survive.

What was advocated strongly was more self-reliance and war-preparedness to make it through the difficult period.

Optimists, however, still considered Mr Deng's preaching valid and therefore were willing to adhere to his policy of tao guang yang hui - that is, hide one's real strength in order to buy time for one's own development - even though it meant enduring minor humiliation every now and then.

They believed that as long as China was not distracted from economic growth, time would solve the problem and the US would be more respectful of it.

The current period of difficulty would appear merely as a transient hiccup in the long run.

'Unless the Chinese split themselves, I don't see how the US can frustrate our national goals,' said economist Wang Jian of the State Planning Commission.

Interestingly, the government seemed optimistic too. In his address delivered at the recent Fortune Global Forum in Hongkong, Chinese President Jiang Zemin reiterated the time-honoured principles of Mr Deng.

Another area of consensus was that China should never be lured into engaging in an arms race with the US.

The Chinese strategists, including those from the military, were surprisingly cool-headed in this regard.

DRAWING PARALLELS

MOST of them drew a parallel between former US President Ronald Reagan's Star Wars plan and President George W. Bush's missile-defence and space-weapons programme.

While the former contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, they believed that the latter would do the same to China.

A vocal exception was Professor Yan Xuetong, director of the International Relations Institute at Qinghua University, who is generally seen as a hawk.

'If the US emerged more powerful from the arms race, why should China collapse necessarily because of it?' he asked.

'The crux of the problem is not in the arms race per se, but in how one conducts it,' he said.

'Unlike countries practising socialism, there is no sharp demarcation between civilian and military industries in the US. Military contracts can therefore become a strong impetus for the growth of high-tech industries, which in turn benefit the civilian sector,' he explained.

'But in socialist countries, there is little interaction between both sectors, leading to a competing claim of resources,' he added.

'What China should do is to promote a closer integration of the two sectors as well as to facilitate a speedier transfer of technology from the military to civilian sector should it be compelled to enter an arms race,' he said.

A third major consensus was that the Taiwan issue should be resolved early, lest it becomes a permanent fetter for the US to strangle China.

THE TAIWAN ISSUE

RECENT events tended to convince observers that within the first decade of the 21st century, Taiwan would formally declare independence.

Most agreed that President Bush's statements and moves, including the pledge to defend the island and to accord it semi-official status, thus departing from the established 'one-China principle', would certainly embolden the separatist movement.

The most pessimistic view, shared by Mr Yang and another strategist Lu Jiaping, put formal declaration of independence as early as next year when China faces a major power transfer at the Communist Party's 16th Congress.

Such fears are not unfounded.

According to Mr Yao Chia-wen, a senior founding member of Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the DPP government was considering changing the design of the passport.

He told a gathering of Taiwanese in Tokyo this month that instead of calling it the Republic of China (ROC) Passport, it should be renamed the Taiwan Passport.

ROC is the official name of Taiwan.

The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry did not refute Mr Yao's statement but said simply that such a change would require consensus in Taiwan.

VIOLATING 'THREE-NOS'

IF the proposal turns out to be true, this would violate one of the 'Three-Nos' commitments made by the pro-independence President, Mr Chen Shui-bian, in his inauguration speech a year ago.

The 'Three Nos' refer to first, no declaration of independence; secondly, no revision of the island's Constitution to give effect to former President Lee Teng-hui's 'two-state theory'; and thirdly, no change in Taiwan's official name.

Thus the pessimistic view that the island could be tempted to declare independence formally as early as next year cannot be dismissed totally.

The less pessimistic observers preferred the more conventional view that the island would break away formally towards the end of the decade, with the high-risk period being between 2007 and 2009.

According to this more conventional view, it would take Taiwan's separatist movement at least two presidential terms to prepare the ground for a formal breakaway.

Yet, despite the general consensus that the Taiwan issue should be resolved early, no easy solution is in sight as most observers differed on how it should be carried out.

Meanwhile, the general debate rages on and the existing policies are likely to continue - at least until a consensus is reached on a new course of action.

FROM AGREEMENT TO NULLIFICATION

China's pre-conditions for diplomatic ties, accepted by the US

1. The US to sever official relations with Taiwan.
2. The US to withdraw its troops from Taiwan.
3. The US to abrogate the Joint US-South Korea Defence Pact.

Three joint communiques

1. 1972 communique: US commitment to 'one-China' principle.
2. 1979 communique: US recognition of Beijing as sole representative of China.
3. 1983 communique: US commitment to reduce gradually arms sales to Taiwan.

Moves that nullify all previous US commitments

1. President George W. Bush's pledge to help defend Taiwan, including the extension of the Theatre Missile Defence system to cover Taiwan, amounted to a revival of the now-defunct Joint US-Republic of China Defence Pact.

2. Mr Bush's record arms sales to Taiwan violated:

l The 1983 communique, which obligated the US to reduce arms sales.

l The US domestic law - the Taiwan Relations Act - which restricted arms sales to defensive weapons only.

3. Mr Bush's permission for Taiwan's President to meet US congressmen during stopovers in the US amounted to granting Taiwan semi-official status, thus violating the fundamental 'one-China' commitment. In this regard, he was joined by the US House of Representatives motion to hoist the American flag at the office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and at the residence of the AIT chief.

4. In fact, during and after the presidential campaign, there had been calls within the Republican Party to scrap the three communiques and the one-China principle based on the argument that they were outdated.

Other moves that worried China

1. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's recommendation that the US' strategic focus be shifted from Europe to Asia.

2. Mr Rumsfeld's public statement admitting that the missile-defence systems were directed at China.

3. Secretary of State Colin Powell's open invitation to Japan to help defend Taiwan, including seeking Japanese help to build the eight submarines it promised to sell to Taiwan.

-------- balkans

Yugoslav Troops in Buffer Zone

MAY 24, 11:29 EST
By DRAGAN ILIC
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_package.html?FRONTID=WORLD&PACKAGEID=yugoslavia

MOUNT JAVOR, Yugoslavia (AP) - Several thousand Yugoslav troops on Thursday moved into the last, most crucial part of a buffer zone separating Kosovo from the rest of the country, hoping to eliminate the final safe haven for ethnic Albanian rebels in southern Serbia.

Minor incidents were reported as the Yugoslav army's de-mining units, infantry, police and light artillery spread out in the most volatile part of the three-mile-wide buffer zone, which had been in ethnic Albanian rebel hands.

Rebels fired at an army column and an army truck hit a land mine, but there were no injuries, said Col. Branislav Miladinovic. The Serb-led troops plan to meet up with NATO troops on the border with Kosovo.

``Everything is going smoothly,'' said Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, the army chief-of-staff. He said the deployment was slow because of land mines, but that a part of his troops had reached the border with Kosovo by early afternoon.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Macedonia, government forces resumed heavy shelling and helicopter gunship attacks against the northern villages of Vaksince, Slupcane and Lojane - the strongholds of ethnic Albanian rebels fighting for more rights.

Macedonian army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said government troops had started a major offensive ``to isolate and destroy the terrorist groups.'' Later, the army entered Vaksince with armored vehicles, meeting rebel sniper fire.

The buffer zone in southern Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic, was set up as part of a peace deal that ended NATO's 78-day air war against Yugoslavia in 1999. The alliance launched the campaign to force former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end his crackdown on ethnic Albanian militants.

NATO and the United Nations took over Kosovo when Milosevic's forces left, and the buffer zone was intended to put breathing space between peacekeepers and Yugoslav troops. But ethnic Albanian militants seized much of the zone in November, killing several Serb policemen and soldiers.

The rebels, known as the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, wanted the primarily ethnic Albanian villages in this part of southern Serbia to throw out Serb rule, as their ethnic kin did in Kosovo.

With Milosevic's demise in October and a new, democratic government now in power in Belgrade, NATO agreed to the phased return of Yugoslav troops in the area between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.

Recent sporadic clashes in the region underlined the potential for more violence when Yugoslav forces occupy the remaining 20 percent of buffer zone.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic, speaking in Bujanovac located near Kosovo's eastern border, said between 4,000 and 5,000 army and police troops would move into the tensest part of the buffer zone over the next several days.

He said the troops expect ``some possible hostility'' and would respond if attacked.

Some villagers fled the zone Wednesday, some saying Serb security forces wearing masks had swept into their village, Muhovac.

By late evening, at least 200 people - about a third of the population in two other nearby villages - had crossed into Kosovo, as two Apache helicopters hovered overhead to survey the situation.

Authorities said that a police de-mining team entered a small sector of the most contested part of the zone and defused as many as 15 land mines planted on a 100 yard stretch of road, hinting the whole area might be heavily mined. The unit pulled out again by nightfall.

Asked to comment on the anxieties of ethnic Albanian villagers, Covic said they had ``no reason to fear.''

Rebels agreed earlier this week to demilitarize and hand over their weapons to NATO in Kosovo, a move that came in recognition of the Yugoslav army's superior strength and lack of international support for the insurgents' aims.

Rebel commander Shefket Musliu insisted Thursday his forces would honor the agreement.

``We will hand over our weapons and urge people to stay in their houses,'' he said.

As part of the agreement with the rebels, both NATO and Belgrade authorities said militants who turned over weapons by midnight Wednesday would be free to go after having their photographs taken.

NATO-led peacekeepers said 450 men had responded.

-------- india / pakistan

Pakistan Responds To India Talks

MAY 24, 09:52 EST
By STEVEN GUTKIN
Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan on Thursday responded ``in a positive spirit'' to India's offer for peace talks, but at the same time denounced India for ending a cease-fire in the disputed Kashmir region.

The ceasefire's end has ``given the Indian forces a carte blanche to continue state terrorism against the Kashmiri people,'' Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar told reporters in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

``The Chief Executive will respond to the Indian prime minister's invitation in a positive spirit,'' Sattar said, referring to Pakistani military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He added that no official communication from New Delhi had yet been received.

Pakistan's response came a day after Indian Defense Minister Jaswant Singh invited Musharraf to peace talks. The Indian official also announced that his country was ending its six-month cease-fire with Islamic militants in Kashmir, the Himalayan province over which the neighbors have fought two wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

Musharraf has said on several occasions that he is ready to meet India's prime minister ``anytime, any place, anywhere.'' Previously, India's leader had refused, saying he wanted Pakistan to first end cross-border incursions by the Islamic militants.

Pakistan denies Indian claims that it backs the militants.

Sattar called the cease-fire a ``sham.'' He said ending it ``has removed even the pretense of restraint.''

Despite the rhetoric, the Indian invitation is a major breakthrough in the stalemate over Kashmir. The two sides broke off all talks two years ago after a bloody border conflict in Kashmir's Kargil region, and have stayed away from each other since.

The United States has long been urging India to agree to talks with Musharraf.

U.S. Statement Department spokesman Philip Reeker said both countries now had the opportunity ``to make real progress toward the reduction of tensions and a resolution of their differences through peaceful means.''

When, where or how Indian and Pakistani leaders would meet was not immediately known. Nor was it clear whether representatives of Kashmiri militant groups fighting Indian forces would attend.

Sattar told reporters that Pakistan believes such groups, who are fighting for either independence or a merger with Pakistan, should be represented.

``They are the principal party. It is their life and their futures that are at stake,'' he said.

-------- iraq

ANTIAIRCRAFT POSITIONS BOMBED

May 24, 2001
World Briefing
MIDDLE EAST
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/24/world/24BRIE.html?searchpv=nytToday

IRAQ: American warplanes struck Iraqi air-defense systems in the northern no-fly zone on Wednesday after coming under Iraqi antiaircraft fire, American military officials said. The American jets were conducting routine patrols when the Iraqi military fired from sites near Mosul, about 250 miles north of Baghdad, according to a statement released by United States European Command in Germany. All warplanes left the area safely, the statement added. The Iraqi news agency, quoting an Iraqi military official, confirmed the air raid and reported no casualties. (AP)

-------- u.n.

Powell upholds training of peacekeepers

May 24, 2001
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
By Ben Barber
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010524-13639752.htm

BAMAKO, Mali -- Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday promised not to pull the plug on U.S. training programs for African peacekeepers, but vowed that no American troops would get directly involved with fighting in Africa.

On the first trip to Africa by the first black secretary of state, Mr. Powell was mobbed by adoring crowds of students.

"There is an emotional connection," he said.

But he focused on the tough problems of Africa and decisions the Bush administration has to make on dealing with wars in Sierra Leone, Congo and Sudan, as well as the AIDS epidemic, wavering democracies and trade.

"I´m going [to Africa] not to see it as a black problem and as a black man looking at a black problem, but as a secretary of state of the United States looking at a human problem," he told reporters.

Speaking on his plane en route from Washington to Bamako early Tuesday morning Mr. Powell conceded that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wants to "back off on some of the overseas commitments we have, and that´s his job."

"But we have to balance it against our responsibilities."

Some 500 U.S. Special Forces troops from Fort Bragg, N.C., are to arrive in this blistering hot capital in July for the Flintlock 2001 military exercises. They will spend 40 days training Malian troops to deal with military and humanitarian crises.

The U.S. training programs began in 1996 after 18 U.S. soldiers died on a humanitarian mission in Somalia in 1993, and the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

Today, Mr. Powell will review U.S. and Malian troops involved in another training program, the African Crisis Response Initiative.

The State Department is committed "to move foreign policy along by training these guys in peackeeping units," in Mali and elsewhere in Africa, Mr. Powell said.

"The president specifically told [Nigerian] President [Olusegun] Obasanjo when he was in the Oval Office a couple of weeks ago that he would continue to furnish that training.

"But I really don´t see any missions coming along where I can anticipate a need for or see a need for U.S. combat troops."

He said that the U.N. peacekeeping mission trying to halt the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone is building up to 17,500 troops -- almost none of them American.

"Aside from just a few liaison and training-type people we have there, there´s no need for U.S. combat troops," said Mr. Powell.

Mr. Powell said he supported sanctions on Liberia and said its leader, Charles Taylor, "holds a lot of responsibility" for wars being fought in the region.

Mr. Powell also said he will soon name a special coordinator to seek a political solution to a 20-year conflict in Sudan, which he will examine when he visits Kenya on Saturday, following a trip today and Friday to South Africa.

"I would expect that our interest in Sudan will remain high, and our efforts to solve the problems in Sudan, humanitarian, political, economic and otherwise, will also increase," Mr. Powell said.

The United States has cut diplomatic relations with Khartoum, which it considers a sponsor of terrorism.

Mr. Powell´s meetings with Malian President Alpha Konare and other officials, to deal with malaria, AIDS and wars, overshadowed but did not hide the personal side of the visit.

"That a black man has become secretary of state gives me a lot of pleasure and that he came here gives us comfort," said pharmacy student Mariatout Traore, 25, at Mali University where Mr. Powell visited a malaria research center backed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

"This shows that democracy works, when a black arrives at this level. It shows the voice of the people," she said.

Another student raised a hand-lettered sign as Mr. Powell toured the university campus. "Colin -- we are proud," it said.

Mr. Powell, his wife, Alma, and the newly installed administrator of the Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios, toured the malaria research labs where they saw containers filled with mosquitoes involved in tests for the first human vaccine for the debilitating disease.

Miss Traore said she and other students at the medical and pharmacy schools have been sent out to villages by the Health Ministry to teach people how to prevent malaria by cleaning out stagnant water sources and teaching people to use mosquito nets with insecticide.

Mr. Powell chose Mali as his first stop in Africa because it is making efforts to curb malaria and AIDS, and since 1991, it has held democratic elections.

"President Bush has made a commitment to do everything we can do to solve the problem of communicable disease, especially in Africa," he said. He dismissed critics who said last week´s announcement by Mr. Bush of a $200 million U.S. contribution to a Global Health Fund aimed at fighting AIDS was too little given the scope of the crisis and U.S. economic power.

"I don´t think America has anything to apologize about," he told reporters aboard his plane. "We are giving so much more to this problem than any other country or group of countries that we should be very proud of what we have done and be energized to do even more."

Mr. Powell will focus more sharply on AIDS today and Friday.

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

Frustration marks Army life, study says

05/24/2001
By Dave Moniz,
USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-05-25-army-life.htm

WASHINGTON - A rare Army study of 13,000 officers and family members reveals deep dissatisfaction with the service's culture, working conditions and leadership. The survey results, to be released Friday, provide a candid look at how Army officers view issues ranging from promotions to the relevance of training. It portrays junior officers as alienated from senior commanders, overworked and frustrated by an unpredictable life that disrupts families.

For example, 73% of those surveyed said they were unable to achieve a proper balance between the Army and family life. Sixty-six percent said quality of life standards were unacceptable, and 69% said Army housing was inadequate.

The military has known of morale problems, but the survey underscored the depth of the disaffection.

Army leaders say they have taken the findings to heart by making sweeping changes to improve the service's quality of life, education and methods for training future leaders.

"The culture of the U.S. Army has got to be set right," says Lt. Gen. William Steele, commander of the Army's Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and the study's director. "Because of the way this was set up, soldiers would communicate in an honest and candid way. All they ask in return is we take some action."

Among the changes:

• The Army now grants four-day weekends on federal holidays to relieve stress from a hectic work pace.

• Soldiers whose children are high-school seniors can request transfer delays until their kids graduate. The Army also has limited the hours soldiers might work on weekends while at their home base.

• The Army will accede to officers' desires for more combat training.

• The Army is lengthening many assignments for young officers so they can learn necessary skills before being transferred to a new job.

The study, begun last June, used surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews with soldiers worldwide. It involved active duty soldiers and reservists from the rank of warrant officer to general. The Army conducts such studies only every 15 to 20 years.

The latest study was requested by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, who has embarked on a long-term mission to transform the Army into a lighter and quicker force. One purpose of the study was to determine what qualities future leaders would need.

The survey is among the most extensive ever conducted by the military. It comes as all four service branches are struggling to retain talented officers who leave because of burdens on family and unpredictable assignments.

-------- OTHER

-------- police

D.C. students underwent strip search on jail tour

05/24/2001
USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/nation/2001-05-24-students-searched.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - As many as nine middle school students were strip-searched at a city jail during a visit arranged by a teacher and a school aide as a warning to misbehaving children, school officials said Thursday. The teacher, aide and three jail employees were placed on paid leave during investigations by the school district, city corrections officials and the FBI. None of the employees was identified. The pupils were visiting the jail as part of an in-school suspension because of misconduct. A school official said it wasn't immediately clear if their behavior at the jail prompted teachers to request the search.

"There's nothing a child could do that could warrant that response - nothing," said Steven Seleznow, who is leading the investigation for the school district.

Joseph Bennett, 14, one of the boys who took the tour, said the students were taken to a processing area where guards told him and four others to go to another room and strip.

"The officers said, 'We're going to make you take your clothes off like real prisoners,"' Joseph, a seventh-grader, told The Washington Post.

He said he removed his two T-shirts, jeans and shoes in front of his schoolmates, at least three corrections officers and one of the teachers. He said an officer removed the rest of his clothes.

D.C. Superintendent Paul Vance said he was "horrified by the chain of events" surrounding the searches. "It nullifies, in effect, all of the great things I've been seeing in the school system over the past three years," he said.

Both Vance and Department of Corrections Director Odie Washington said they would support prosecution of the employees if investigations show they committed crimes.

The jail workers showed "extremely poor judgment, perhaps an abuse of their authority," in conducting the searches, he said.

It was unclear whether the students were touched by guards or were stripped naked, Washington said. While Seleznow said nine of the 12 students may have been strip-searched, Washington said a preliminary investigation at the jail showed that only three students were told to remove their street clothes and don standard-issue jail jumpsuits.

Washington said the students were not subjected to cavity searches, customary for prisoners being processed.

Washington said school groups and professional organizations have toured the jail at a rate of three times per week since 1989. He said the program has been suspended.

--------

FBI gives documents to McVeigh lawyers

05/24/2001
USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-05-24-mcveigh-ashcroft.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday that federal officials have given Timothy McVeigh's lawyers all previously missing documents in the Oklahoma City bombing case. He said he will not further postpone McVeigh's June 11 execution. Ashcroft said a worldwide search for documents, ordered in the wake of the FBI's disclosure that it failed to produce some 3,000 pages at the time of McVeigh's trial, turned up some 900 additional documents. But he emphasized that the documents produced belatedly represented "less than 1%" of the hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence in the case.

"No documents created any doubt about his guilt, let alone established his innocence," Ashcroft told a Justice Department news conference.

Defense lawyer Rob Nigh said McVeigh has not decided whether he wants to seek a delay in the execution. But the attorney said the newly released documents - including information about the FBI's search for an alleged accomplice known as John Doe 2, who never materialized - would bolster McVeigh's request should he make one.

"Certainly, I have found information contained within the documents that is more than, 'John Doe 2 looks like my brother-in-law,"' Nigh said.

McVeigh claims he acted alone.

Some of the material covers sightings of a possible co-conspirator, illustrated in an FBI sketch after the bombing. The government maintains that the John Doe 2 material is not relevant to the case.

Ashcroft sent a clear warning the government would fight any attempts by McVeigh's lawyers to avoid his execution.

"We are prepared to defend McVeigh's conviction and the sentence that has been imposed," Ashcroft said. "Any filings that would be made on behalf of Mr. McVeigh to avoid the imposition of the sentence would be opposed vigorously by this department."

He said the defense had been given a "reasonable opportunity" to review the documents. "They have had those documents for almost two weeks, and there are still more than two weeks intervening between now and June 11."

Ashcroft released an executive summary of a Justice Department report that gave the agency's explanation of what was in the documents.

The report hinted the government would likely point to McVeigh's admissions of guilt were he to raise a legal challenge.

"Any reliance by McVeigh at this late date upon alleged JD2s or other alternative perpetrators would be at odds with his recent and explicit admissions that no such person existed," the report said.

"McVeigh's recent admissions, when coupled with the 'direct and compelling' evidence 'presented at trial,' foreclose any credible claim that McVeigh is actually innocent of the bombing," the report said.

Ashcroft said that on Thursday, the Justice Department and FBI had completed a "comprehensive effort" to identify all documents still missing and relevant to the case.

He said he was making public the results of an internal review of the documents but could not release them because of a protective order imposed by a federal court in Colorado.

Ashcroft also said, "We're talking about a relatively small amount of information," and briefly described the nature of some of the missing documents. One involved a letter written to federal authorities by a man offering information while demanding money and the release of a federal prisoner.

In other instances, he said, the missing documents were newspaper and magazine clippings sent in by "a person under psychiatric care," and letters representing offers by psychics to help.

The bureau acknowledged on May 10 - six days before McVeigh was to be put to death - that it had failed to produce thousands of pages of evidence documents to McVeigh's lawyers at the time of his trial in 1997.

The FBI says they were withheld because of computer and record-keeping blunders at the agency's field offices.

McVeigh was convicted in connection with the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and sentenced to death in the terrorist attack that killed 168 people, including 19 children.

-------- population

21st century will transform world population

Thursday, May 24, 2001
http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/05/05242001/21pop_43682.asp

The 21st century will reveal a major metamorphosis in world population according to an annual report released Monday by the Population Reference Bureau.

Population growth in the industrialized countries has essentially stopped, and demographic growth has now shifted almost entirely to the less developed countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the data reveals.

Currently, of the 83 million people added to global population each year by the difference between births and deaths, only one million are in the industrialized countries, according to Population Reference Bureau demographers Carl Haub and Diana Cornelius, who prepared the data sheet.

The "2001 World Population Data Sheet" shows that the United States is now the only industrialized country in the world with a fertility rate at or above the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman.

In 1950, there were twice as many people in the less developed countries. By 2050, that difference could be almost six to one.

The developing world's population is projected to increase by 2.9 billion by 2050, compared with only 49 million in the more developed countries.

In India, for example, much birth rate decline has taken place in the more literate and prosperous southern states. The key to that country's future population is what happens next, according to the data sheet.

In India's heavily populated northern states, where rates of illiteracy and fertility are much higher, birth rates may not decline as rapidly, leading to unprecedented growth in population. This is a key issue in India, which passed the one billion mark just last year.

Elsewhere, recent survey data from a number of less developed countries, including Bangladesh and Egypt, indicate that fertility declines measured earlier have slowed.

Except for China where the one couple-one child policy is still in effect, women in less developed countries average 3.6 children, compared with only 1.6 in the more developed countries.

Annually, about 123 million babies are born to mothers in less developed countries, while there are about 13 million births in the more developed countries - Europe, North America, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.

But the number of births in the developed countries is offset by about 12 million deaths each year.

In Europe, fewer babies are born each year than there are deaths, leading to natural decrease, or population decline, except where it is offset by immigration. This situation is due both to the low birth rate and to higher proportions of older people in the population, the Population Reference Bureau data shows.

One of the major population developments in recent years has been the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, the Population Reference Bureau report finds, the populations of several African countries - Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe - are expected to decline over the next 50 years, a sharp reversal from past projections. Among adults in Botswana's 1.6 million population, more than one in every three people is infected with the virus.

Despite AIDS, Africa will make a major contribution to global population growth, adding about one billion people between now and 2050, an addition greater than the total population of Europe including Russia.

In Russia, both the birth rate and life expectancy have dropped again. The situation is similar in Ukraine. Those two countries have the highest rate of natural decrease in modern history, a remarkable -0.7 percent per year. Life expectancy for Russian males fell for the second year in a row, to only 59 years, after having registered a comeback earlier in the 1990s.

Globally, six out of 10 couples practice some form of family planning, although the proportion is less than half (47 percent) in the less developed countries. The use of family planning is lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, where only 19 percent of couples use contraception.

World's Largest Countries Today, the world's largest country is China with 1.27 billion people. In the year 2025, China is still projected to be the world's largest with 1.43 billion people.

Today, the second largest country is India with 1.03 billion people. In the year 2025, India will still be in second place with 1.36 billion people.

The United States today is the third largest country in the world with 285 million people. In the year 2025, the United States will again be in third place with 346 million people.

Today Indonesia is the world's fouth largest country with 206 million people, and in the year 2025 it will still be the fourth largest with 272 million people.

Today, Brazil is the world's fifth largest nation with 172 million people, and Pakistan is in sixth place with 145 million. By 2025, the Population Reference Bureau predicts their positions will be reversed. Pakistan will hold fifth place with 252 million people, and Brazil will drop into sixth place with 219 million.

Russia, which is in seventh place today with 144 million people is projected to drop into ninth place in the year 2025 with 137 million people.

Nigeria, which is in tenth place today with 127 million people, is forecast to rise to seventh most populous country by the year 2025 with 204 million.

Bangladesh, in eighth place today with 134 million people, will maintain eighth place in 2025, but its population will have grown to 181 million.

The Population Reference Bureau is governed by a Board of Trustees representing diverse community and professional interests. Its activities are funded by government contracts, foundation grants, individual and corporate contributions, and the sale of publications.

-------- spying

China Agrees on Return of US Plane

MAY 24, 11:17 EST
By MARTIN FACKLER
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS7C6IC2O0

BEIJING (AP) - China said Thursday that the United States can take back its stranded U.S. Navy spy plane - in pieces. U.S. officials, however, said there was still no agreement on the plane's return.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman said the two sides were discussing details and dates for the return of the plane, stranded at an air base on the southern island of Hainan since a collision April 1 with a Chinese fighter jet. Zhu Bangzao said talks included whether the pieces of the $80 million aircraft would be sent home by cargo plane or ship.

In Washington, a government official close to the situation said Thursday there is no agreement on how the EP-3E Aries II would be returned and that the Bush administration was puzzled by China's announcement.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that several days ago U.S. negotiators reluctantly proposed - as an alternative to repairing the plane and flying it off the island - to take its wings and tail off and ship it out aboard a chartered cargo plane. The Chinese replied that this was not possible because the airfield on Hainan island could not accommodate such a large cargo plane.

China said the EP-3E would have to be cut up into smaller pieces, but this is not acceptable to the United States because it means the plane could not be reassembled and returned to duty.

Visiting U.S. technicians who examined the plane said it could be made airworthy. But China has repeatedly insisted that the plane not fly home.

``We do not agree to flying this plane out of China. That is impossible,'' Zhu said at a twice-weekly briefing for reporters.

The collision, which killed the Chinese fighter pilot, plunged relations between Beijing and Washington to their lowest level since NATO bombed China's embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999 during the air war over Kosovo.

The 24 crew members of the EP-3E were held for 11 days while China demanded that Washington apologize for the collision.

The collision was one of several incidents that have strained U.S.-China ties.

Most recently, President Bush met Wednesday with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled leader, despite Beijing's protests. Two days before that, Taiwan's president visited New York over Chinese objections.

China views the Dalai Lama as a supporter of Tibetan independence from Chinese rule of the Himalayan region. It also objects to other countries having diplomatic contacts with Taiwan. Beijing claims the island as part of its territory, and has threatened to capture it by force if necessary.

Zhu on Thursday criticized the Bush administration for ``breaking its commitments'' not to have diplomatic contacts with Taiwan.

``The new U.S. administration has gone back on its word,'' Zhu said. He cited Bush's decision last month to sell submarines, destroyers and aircraft to Taiwan.

``This constitutes obstruction to the peaceful reunification of China and is also a provocation to the Chinese people,'' Zhu said.

He said China was willing to see ties improve, but only if Washington stops ``interfering in China's internal affairs.''

``The development of good ties should call on the efforts of both sides,'' he said. ``China-U.S. relations can go back on a normal track.''

China is holding war games in the South China Sea and plans to begin another round of drills on an island across from Taiwan, a Taiwan lawmaker said Thursday after meeting with military officials. China declined comment, and Taiwan's defense ministry said such war games are routine this time of year and unlikely to be linked to the president's U.S. trip.

By removing one of the biggest thorns in the side of American ties with China, the agreement to return the spy plane may signal resolve by both sides to halt the downward spiral in relations.

But a desire by China's government not to been seen as bowing to U.S. pressure may have dragged out the talks over the plane's return.

``There is a genuine nationalism that China's leaders must pay attention to,'' said Jin Canrong, an expert on U.S. affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. ``The leadership doesn't want to appear weak-kneed.

``But it's important to remember that most of China wants good ties with the United States. Most of the leadership wants good ties with the United States,'' Jin said.

He said Beijing leaders have paid unusual attention to chatrooms on the Internet, the site of emotional criticisms of the United States, in considering how to deal with the spy plane. While the more than 25 million people online are only a tiny fraction of China's population of 1.3 billion, the Internet is one of the few barometers of public opinion available to leaders.

Both online and in person, many Chinese seem to accept the government's account that the large, slow-moving U.S. plane rammed the smaller Chinese fighter. U.S. officials blamed the Chinese pilot, saying he flew too close.

China has lionized the pilot, Wang Wei, as a national hero and ``revolutionary martyr.''

The collision fed anti-American anger in China going back to the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Most Chinese still reject the U.S. explanation that the bombing was a mistake.

--------

China, U.S. agree to ship spy plane

05/24/2001
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001-05-24-china-spyplane.htm

BEIJING (AP) - China said Thursday it has agreed to a U.S. proposal to cut a stranded U.S. Navy spy plane into pieces and ship it back to the United States. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it couldn't confirm such an agreement had been reached. It said the two sides were still discussing the fate of the EP-3E Aries II, which has sat on a runway at a Chinese air base on Hainan island in the South China Sea since a collision April 1 with a Chinese fighter jet.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said the two sides were discussing details of the transfer, including the date and whether the pieces of the aircraft would be sent home by cargo plane or ship.

"We do not agree to flying this plane out of China. That is impossible," Zhu told reporters.

Zhu gave no explanation for China's repeated insistence that the plane not fly home. U.S. technicians had examined the plane and declared it airworthy.

The collision, which is believed to have killed the Chinese fighter pilot, plunged U.S.-Chinese relations to their lowest level since the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999.

The 24 U.S. crew members were held for 11 days while China demanded that Washington apologize for the collision.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said he couldn't confirm such an agreement had been reached to return the aircraft in pieces.

The two sides were continuing discussions in Beijing, said the spokesman, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity. "We don't want to speculate about possible arrangements for return of the aircraft."

The collision was one of several incidents that have strained ties between Beijing and Washington.

The most recent came Wednesday, when President Bush ignored Beijing's protests to meet with the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.

Two days before that, Taiwan's president visited New York over Chinese objections.

China sees the Dalai Lama as a supporter of Tibetan independence from Chinese rule of the Himalayan region. It also objects to other countries having diplomatic contacts with Taiwan. Beijing claims the island as part of its territory, and has threatened to capture it by force if necessary.

On Thursday, Zhu criticized the Bush administration for what he called "breaking its commitments" not to have diplomatic contact with Taiwan.

"The new U.S. administration has gone back on its word," he said. Zhu cited Bush's decision last month to allow sale of submarines and other advanced weaponry to Taiwan.

"This constitutes obstruction to the peaceful reunification of China and is also a provocation to the Chinese people," he said.

Zhu said China was willing to see ties improve, but only if Washington stops "interfering in China's internal affairs."

"The development of good ties should call on the efforts of both sides," he said. "China-U.S. relations can go back on a normal track."

China is holding war games in the South China Sea and plans to begin another round of drills on an island across from Taiwan, the China Times.com Web site reported Thursday. China declined comment, and Taiwan's defense ministry said such war games are routine this time of year for China and unlikely to be linked to the president's U.S. trip.

By removing one of the biggest thorns in the side of American ties with China, the agreement to return the spy plane may signal resolve by both sides to halt the downward spiral in relations.

Talks over the spy plane's return may have dragged out as long as they have because Chinese leaders don't want to appear to be giving in to U.S. pressure.

Many Chinese say publicly that they accept the state media's account that the larger U.S. plane rammed the smaller Chinese fighter.

The pilot, Wang Wei, has been honored as a national hero, honored by Beijing with the title of "revolutionary martyr" and a commemorative postal stamp.

The collision fed anti-American anger going back to the bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia two years ago during the Kosovo air war. Most Chinese still reject the U.S. explanation that it was a mistake.

-------- activists

Please support a 'CREATIVE ACTION' at the M.O.D. Procurement Centre, Filton, Bristol on MONDAY, 18TH JUNE.

From: davey garland - thunderelf@yahoo.co.uk

It is a non-violent protest against the procurement and use of weapons causing sickness,death and genetic damage to civilian populations and military personnel and long-term contamination of the environment.

It is being called by Direct Action Against Militarism and Depleted Uraium (DAAMDU) which is a grassroots campaign against low intensity nuclear warfare and the militarism of the New World Order..... however, you are very free to bring your own agendas, be it Trident warheads, clusterbombs, airfuel bombs or any other grouch you have against the MOD i.e.the constant bombing of Iraq!

The emphasis of the action is to raise public awareness through non-violence and creativity so bring plenty of banners, flyers, posters,ribbons, music and whatever else.

The action will start with picketing of MOD workers between 7-9am and end with a picnic at noon. There will be intervening actions. Free accomodation is offered in Bristol for the previous night and there will be a non-violent direct action and legal briefing at 7.30pm on Sunday 17th for those interested. A planning meeting will take place on 26th May in Bristol at the Resistance conference (www.resistanceconference.org.uk)

Hundreds of civil servants at the M.O.D. sit is environmentally friendlyoffices, procuring weapons which will have a devastating impact on the environment for countless generations.

Lets expose the appalling reality!Flyers for the action are available.For these and any further information.Phone 0117 954 0564 or e-mail daamdu@c4.com

Please let us know in advance if you need accomodation for the 17th.

----

Direct Action Group to Protest Star Wars at Ottawa War Research Facility November 9

Homes not Bombs Says Canada is already committed to U.S.-led space warfare program

From: Brian Burch <burch@tao.ca>

While Jean Chretien publicly plays "wait-and-see" regarding participation in the U.S.-led Star Wars program, members of the provincial Homes not Bombs network are already planning a large act of nonviolent direct action for November 9 in Ottawa based on a clear understanding that the decision to participate has already been made. Direct action trainings to prepare activists for the real possibility of arrest-an all too common police response to citizens exercising their right to dissent in Canada these days-are being lined up in cities across Ontario.

"It's clear from the research being funded by the Canadian government into space warfare that Canada has made the decision to be part of the ongoing militarization of space, whether the name is BMD, NMD, Star Wars, a protective shield, or whatever the spin doctors want to call it," says a group spokesperson.

Direct Action Festival of Life to Occupy Grounds On Friday, November 9, hundreds of Homes not Bombs members will occupy the grounds of the federal government-funded Defence Research Establishment Ottawa (DREO) on Carling Avenue, the site of Star Wars and space warfare research. The group will attempt to transform the site into a Civil Society Research Institute, and will enter the grounds in an attempt to offer a Pledge of Conscience to the researchers within demanding that they not work on military projects.

The group will also conduct an inspection of the facilities to check for violations of international and Canadian law, while a Festival of Life offering alternatives to war research will be organized on the grounds as well. Some members will also begin construction of a house on the grounds to emphasize that the federal government's funding of space warfare is completely off the wall, and that the real threat to Canada comes from poverty, environmental degradation, unemployment, and the violence perpetrated by this country's military.

(Homes not Bombs organized large act of civil resistance in Ottawa on the Mackenzie Bridge in November, 1999 to try and transform the War Dept. into the Housing Dept. Police arrested 54 people that day, but all were acquitted at trial.)

How Canada is Involved in Star Wars Research: Ground Moving Target Indication, Exo-Atmosphere Kill Vehicle, Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector Meanwhile, as prime minister Chretien denied the report in yesterday's National Post which claimed Canada will be part of Star Wars, members of Homes not Bombs point to the government's own publicly available documents to prove that Canada has already been part of developing the space warfare program.

Indeed, at military research facilities across the country run by the Canadian government's Defence Research and Development Canada, scientists are seeking the crucial answer to the burning question of the day: "Will technology allow us to fit 70 tons of lethality and survivability into a 20 ton package?" (as quoted in Defence Research and Development Annual Report, 1999/2000. The same report notes that one outcome of the Canadian Defence Industrial Research program has been the development of products useful for, among other things, the Star Wars "Exo-Atmosphere Kill Vehicle." Related technology being developed in Canada, including space-based radar and use of Canada's RADARSAT-2 satellite to produce "a ground moving target indication (GMTI) capability" will "provide an improved operational picture to the war fighter." The annual report notes without any sense of irony that "there is a high level of US interest in the Space-Based Radar GMTI Project," as the use of such sensor technology is key to any space warfare capacity.

While it has clearly been military policy to pursue Star Wars-related research since the 1994 Defence White Paper, in January, 2001, the Ottawa Citizen reported to little fanfare that Canada is involved in a Star Wars research program called the Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector, at the federal government's Defence Research Establishment Ottawa (DREO). "This project is a key contributor to the collaborative work with the (U.S.) Ballistic Missile Defence Organization [the key U.S. government branch pursuing Star Wars]," read military research reports obtained by the Citizen. The Canadian QWIP system has "significant implications for future exploitation to support U.S. Space-based Infrared Surveillance Systems, surveillance from space and missile defence applications."

The QWIP is one of a series of programs that Canadian tax dollars are subsidizing. While Canada speaks at the U.N. of keeping space for peace, its own military documents speak volumes about its real intentions. According to the Canadian government's Technology Investment Strategy 2000, "Space soon will be the fourth medium of warfare, it will not only bind all war fighting forces together but will also become strategically critical to the survival of warfighters...For future coalition warfare, space superiority will be fundamental."

The abovementioned Ottawa Citizen article notes as well that Canada has contributed to star wars through the following: *Research into linking satellites so information can be exchanged at high speed. Such a capability is essential to missile defence, where detecting and destroying incoming rockets takes place in just minutes. *Canada along with several other countries has been contributing to developing miniature sensor technology for what is known as mid-course space experiments. That experiment involves the tracking of the mid-course phase of a ballistic missile's trajectory. *The use of Canadian Black Brant rockets launched from White Sands, New Mexico, in 1997 and 1998 to gather information on the characteristics of heat produced by a missile's engine. That information allows researchers to better understand how to track missiles. *Canada has also helped out on U.S. experiments to track missiles and aircraft using space sensors. Department of National Defence researchers in Valcartier, Que., have also developed mathematical programs to help in detecting missiles using space-based optical sensors.

Space Warfare and the DREO Mandate

Space warfare is no longer the result of starry-eyed dreaming on the part of a cabal of Dr. Strangeloves, it's a notion that is re-enforced by the descriptions of work done by DREO. The facility's website boasts it is a centre of expertise to "exploit the electromagnetic spectrum" for military purposes, in addition to "Major Thrusts in the areas of Maritime Integrated Above Water Warfare, Aircraft Combat Survivability, Land Force Command and Control Information Systems and Electronic Warfare, National Level Command and Surveillance, Information Warfare, Military Information Technology Infrastructure, Space Systems and Technologies for Defence Applications, Detection and Identification of NBC [nuclear, biological, chemical] Agents." Hardly the stuff of a "peacekeeping" nation.

As Star Wars is ultimately about control of space and, consequently, control of Earth, control of the electromagnetic spectrum is a key part of that dynamic. Indeed, as Emmett Paige Jr., Assistant Secretary of Defence for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (U.S.) points out, "the world is moving toward new warfighting paradigms, and the electromagnetic spectrum holds the key" to the military's successful use of new war technology, and "the [U.S.] Department of Defense is committed to ensuring that 'in the next conflict' it is we who will control the spectrum. We know its value."

Lest anyone think all this research and planning has no connection to Star Wars, they might wonder why DREO also hosted a visit in November, 2000 from a leading U.S. NMD cheerleader, Dr. Hans Mark, Chief Technical Advisory to the U.S. Secretary of Defence and Undersecretary of Defence for Acquisition and Technology. According to a DREO press release, "Dr. Mark is the highest-ranking [Pentagon] science and technology director to visit Canada... In his presentation to DREO researchers and staff, he used his own experience in the development of high energy lasers to illustrate the point that it can take several decades for technologies and processes to realize applications in military systems. Dr. Mark was a pioneer in the development of lasers in the 1960s and has championed the trials of missile defence technologies in which lasers successfully downed small missiles."

Star Wars as Canadian Business Opportunity

Never far behind in such matters, the Canadian military industry smells blood, and a potential profit windfall. Last summer, the Canadian Defence Industries Association produced a paper with the hopeful title, "The National Missile Defense Program: An Assessment of Market Opportunities for Canadian Industry."

"Canada has the capability to support the industrial requirements of the National Missile Defense program," the report concludes. "Under the existing conditions, Canada can expect, at a minimum, about $270 million in NMD-related exports over the next 15 years. With appropriate levels of Government and industry action, there is a potential for that to increase to more than $1 billion in exports...and creating significant additional commercial opportunities."

Indeed, Cambridge, Ontario-based COM DEV, long a developer of space technology, was one of the corporate consultants to the U.S. Space Copmmand Vision 2020 document that concludes "Space systems are crucial to this nation's ability to wage war. "

Thus, while public debate focuses on whether Canada should or should not be involved, it misses the point that this country has already made a commitment to the overall framework that space will be the newest, most profitable medium for warfare. Adding these things up doesn't make this seem so much a game of "wait-and-see" as "ready when you are."

Members of Homes not Bombs will be shortly be in contact with DREO officials about plans to transform the facility into a non-military research institute.

----

Jubilee Plowshares found guilty, but freed

24th May 2001
From: Stephen Kobasa <skobasa@pop.snet.net>

The fourth day in the trial of the Jubilee Ploughshares activists at Chelmsford Crown Court has ended with the jury still considering their verdict.

Susan van der Hijden (32), from Amsterdam, and Father Martin Newell (33), from Canning Town in London, are charged on two counts of criminal damage, totalling £31000, after disarmament work on a nuclear weapon convoy truck at Wittering in November last year.

Justice Darroch did not allow the defence's legal arguments, based on the illegality of Trident under international humanitarian law, to be put to the jury. Martin's barrister Terry Munyard told the eight men and four women that Martin had acted out of principle - there was nothing criminal in his intentions. History was full of examples of people who had brought about essential change by doing what they knew was right and technically breaking the law, such as the Suffragettes, anti-apartheid activists and Rosa Parks, who had defied segregation laws in Alabama.

In her final speech Susan told the jury that she had no choice but to act as she did. She pointed out that there had already been a number of acquittals of Trident Ploughshares activists. It would be nice if the jury would acquit, but she was only asking them to do what was right according to their own hearts. Wishing them peace in the jury room she sat down.

In summing up Justice Darroch said there were three possible defences in such cases, the defence of necessity, the commission of a crime to prevent a greater crime and the commission of a crime to protect property. He claimed that that none of these could be applied to this particular case. The jury then had 1 hour and 50 minutes of deliberation but had not reached a verdict by the end of the session.

25th May 2001

Sentenced Jubilee Ploughshares Activists Will Carry On Jubilee Two Given 12 Months But Walk Free

At Chelmsford Crown Court today the two Jubilee Ploughshares activists were found guilty on all charges against them. Although sentenced to twelve months in prison they are now free since they have already served at least half that time on remand.

Susan van der Hijden (32), from Amsterdam, and Father Martin Newell (33), from Canning Town in London, were charged with criminal damage, totalling £31000, after disarmament work on a nuclear weapon convoy truck at Wittering in November last year.

In passing sentence Justice Darroch advised Susan and Martin that they were technically on parole and could be brought back to complete their sentence if they re-offended during the next six months. He also warned them that they would be facing a more severe sentence if they "committed such an offence" again.

Susan and Martin have been found guilty in the same week that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland not only reaffirmed its implacable opposition to Trident but gave specific encouragement to civil resistance against it.

A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said: "It is unfortunate that the jury got it wrong but much more disturbing is the way Justice Darroch ensured they did not have the full facts by blocking expert witnesses and not allowing the jury to hear the defence's legal arguments. He appears to be uncritically supportive of the criminal activities of this nuclear weapon state. We look forward to the day when a genuinely independent justiciary will honestly face the implications of international humanitarian law. In the meantime the campaign continues and we take great encouragement from Susan and Martin's courage, single-mindedness and humanity."

----

Churches seek climate justice

May 24, 2001
By Larry Witham
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010524-15595760.htm

Environmental activists from churches in 39 states yesterday closed a three-day meeting here to discuss ways to promote ecological policies back home.

The gathering of 350 Protestant and Orthodox church workers at the "Environmental Justice" conference also held a rally on Capitol Hill Tuesday and visited 200 congressional offices, organizers said.

They carried talking points opposing the Bush administration´s energy policy and the revision of some environmental regulations.

"We hope to bring a moral voice to environmental issues," said the Rev. Richard Killmer, director of the eco-justice unit of the National Council of Churches, which sponsored the conference.

The group issued an open letter calling for energy conservation and "climate justice," which refers to how industrial nations unfairly cause climate change that affects everyone. The letter was signed by 39 Protestant, Jewish and Orthodox religious leaders and was sent to the White House.

"This is the first energy debate in a generation," the letter said. "We have a moral obligation to choose the safest, cleanest and most sustainable sources of energy to protect and preserve God´s creation."

Proposals in the letter and the talking points for Capitol Hill match the agenda of the top environmental groups. They urge signing of the Kyoto Protocol on pollution, spending on alternative energy, and rejection of nuclear power and oil drilling in natural parks and refuges.

The talking points also urge caps on energy costs in California, funding for mass transportation, curbs on sport utility vehicles, and vigilance on "price gouging" by the oil industry.

During yesterday´s closing sessions on the campus of Catholic University, word that Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont might leave the Republican Party drew nearly unanimous cheers.

The sentiments, which reflect the NCC´s affinity for the Democratic Party, contrasted with the praise evangelical Hispanic clergy gave President Bush on Tuesday at a meeting here on faith-based welfare initiatives.

The NCC´s environmental office, formed in 1983, has held the justice conferences every two years since 1997.

The Rev. Robert Edgar, NCC general secretary, said that conserving and sustaining energy for the poor is "one spoke" in the council´s 10-year focus on fighting poverty.

"God is calling us to be stewards of this fragile planet Earth and to whisper to our congregations that, 'The ice is melting,´" Mr. Edgar, a former seminary president and Democratic lawmaker from Pennsylvania, said in a midday sermon.

Using the Luke text in which Jesus told fishermen in "shallow water" to go into deep water, Mr. Edgar cited predictions that global warming could melt ice caps and raise the sea to disastrous levels.

"Minds are frozen about the environmental degradation," he said, reminding activists that they are a minority for this cause. "None of us is too young or too old to get involved."

In a session yesterday, activists described how churches have done "energy audits," cleaned up pollution, added ecology to Sunday school and urged clergy to give "green sermons."

They also emphasized using Bible references in advocacy because many churchgoers associate environmentalism with New Age beliefs.

"There was some worry about that in the beginning," said Elizabeth Sedin, who started up a committee on the "stewardship of creation" for the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

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Sharpton Gets 90 Days in Jail for Navy Protest

By Eileen McNamara
Associated Press
Thursday, May 24, 2001; Page A40
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A67792-2001May23?language=printer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, May 23 -- A federal judge sentenced New York activist Al Sharpton to 90 days in jail today for trespassing on U.S. Navy land as part of a protest against military exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

"If Martin Luther King were alive, he would have come to Vieques and raised these issues," Sharpton said in an appearance before U.S. District Judge Jose A. Fuste.

Sharpton was taken into custody for transport to the federal prison in suburban Guaynabo.

He was arrested May 1 with a dozen other protesters. At least 180 people were arrested in their attempt to stop the exercises April 27 to May 1, which the demonstrators claimed were a hazard to residents' health. The Navy denies that the exercises have led to any health problems.

The sentencing came one day after Sharpton hinted he might make a run for the White House in 2004. Political analysts said that the jail time wouldn't hurt him, despite the additional notoriety, and that he was likely to gain support.

"He will get a lot of attention, and that's something that he always covets as a community activist," said Lee Miringoff, a pollster at the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. "His actions are not necessarily to appeal to all of the electorate. In this instance, this is one that he calculated, or understood, would be intensely supported by some of the electorate."

Sharpton was convicted of a misdemeanor, but because he has been arrested before for civil disobedience in New York, he was sentenced as a repeat offender. He also was fined $500.

His attorney, Sanford A. Rubenstein, said lawyers are working to file an appeal with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston on Thursday and will ask an appeals judge to allow bail. Fuste did not allow Sharpton a stay of his sentence pending appeal.

Rubenstein complained that Sharpton had only one day's notice of the hearing in Puerto Rico, which prevented him from compiling a proper case.

Eleven other activists who were arrested with Sharpton also appeared in court today. Nine were sentenced to 40 days in prison and fined $500. They included New York City Councilman Adolfo Carrion and Bronx County Democratic Party Chairman 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 V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), 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 an anti-Navy protester so far.

----

A Killing in China Unsettles Hong Kong -
Murder of Human Rights Activist Stirs Suspicions

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 24, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A66909-2001May23?language=printer

HONG KONG -- The Park Book Store is easy to miss, a small shop specializing in gay-oriented literature, hidden above a vendor of children's slippers and a Rolex dealer in Hong Kong's bustling Mong Kok neighborhood. Up a dimly lit flight of stairs, left past the 30-percent-off sign, is where Leung Wah was last seen alive.

The employees knew Leung only as the store manager, but his friends knew him as a quiet idealist who worked with Chinese exile groups and helped smuggle students out of China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. When Leung disappeared in November after a trip to the mainland, many worried that the 44-year-old Hong Kong native had been arrested.

Then, last month, Hong Kong authorities made a startling announcement: Leung had been discovered dead, his body bound with rope, burned beyond recognition and dumped in the bushes near a hospital in Shenzhen, the Chinese city across the border. What happened to him remains a mystery, but the crime touched a nerve in this former British colony, playing on residents' worst fears about China and the power of the police there to detain people without telling anyone.

A person from Hong Kong could cross the border into China proper, it seemed, and just disappear.

The case exposed Hong Kong's mixed feelings about integration with China. Nearly four years after the handover from Britain, people here see China as the land of their ancestors and a place of tremendous business opportunity. But they are deeply suspicious of its government -- suspicious enough to believe it could kill one of them.

News of Leung's slaying came as the Hong Kong media had already worked themselves into a frenzy over the mysterious arrests of several local scholars, some of whose relatives were never notified by Chinese police. In addition, Hong Kong businessmen have been routinely detained in China, sometimes for months, at the behest of well-connected Chinese partners with a gripe.

Hong Kong's leaders, who operate with a great deal of autonomy from Beijing, tried to fix the problem in January by working out a pact with mainland police under which each side would help the other notify the families of people they arrest. But the agreement highlighted just how different China and Hong Kong still are.

It applies to everyone arrested by police or customs. While that covers almost everyone in Hong Kong's jails, it misses nearly half the people detained in China, including those arrested by the State Security Ministry and those held without being charged, according to Hong Kong officials.

There is no evidence Leung was in Chinese police custody when he died. But many of Leung's friends suspect he was, in part because he had been detained and interrogated by Chinese agents a few months earlier and in part because they worry his body was burned to hide evidence of torture. In addition, authorities in Guangdong province and Shenzhen have refused to provide details about the investigation into his death, or even to confirm that an investigation is underway.

The dearth of information has left the Hong Kong media proposing all manner of theories: Leung was a spy for Taiwan, he had a dispute with a gay lover, he got mixed up with the Chinese mafia.

"For people who knew Leung, none of those things make any sense," said Frank Lu, a fellow democracy activist and a friend of Leung's for more than a decade. "The chances that Chinese state security were involved are small, but it's more likely than any of those scenarios and it's all we have to go on."

Hong Kong police have limited comments on the case out of respect for their Shenzhen counterparts. In addition, Hong Kong detectives have not been informed of many details, including the precise cause of Leung's death, said Wai-Kit Ng, director of operations for the Hong Kong police.

Ng said he has no reason to doubt the professionalism of Shenzhen police. "If Chinese agents were involved, why didn't they just get rid of the body completely?" he asked.

But without hard facts, many of Leung's friends remain skeptical.

"They may have abandoned the body in a panic, or maybe they were trying to make it look like a random crime," said Thomas Yan, a journalist and longtime friend of Leung's.

Leung was apparently under scrutiny because he had been secretly bringing money to dissidents and their families in China on behalf of the New York-based group China Peace, making a half-dozen trips in the past several years, according to Tang Baiqiao, the group's executive director.

On the last trip, in May, state security agents stopped Leung at the border and questioned him for two hours before releasing him, Tang said. Spooked, Leung aborted the mission and told Tang that he believed the agents had been aware of his plans. The men agreed that Leung would stop making such trips.

Then, in July, Leung wired some of the money to a Chinese dissident, Tang said, "and maybe that got them angry."

Leung was killed shortly after he attended a San Francisco meeting of a dissident group for which he was the Hong Kong representative. Friends said Leung usually tried to stay out of the spotlight, but one activist who attended the meeting said Leung drew attention to himself at this session by delivering an emotional speech.

Hong Kong police say the U.S. trip took place in October, but his friends insist the meeting occurred in early November and that Leung returned to Hong Kong on about Nov. 14. On Nov. 17, police said, officers acting on a tip raided the Park Book Store, seized a large amount of pornography and charged Leung with possession of obscene articles for publication. He was released on bail.

That same day, a stranger left a message at the store for Leung using a Chinese mobile phone, according to Lu, who obtained the message from a store employee. On Nov. 22, Leung went to Shenzhen, apparently to discuss a business venture with the person.

On Nov. 23, Shenzhen police discovered a burned corpse in the bushes near the Shangnan Emergency and Casualty Center in Shajing county. They notified Hong Kong police the next day, partly because the pants on the body were made by a Hong Kong tailor, Ng said.

But Hong Kong police did not suspect it was Leung until more than three months later. When Leung missed his December court hearing and a friend reported him missing, police assumed Leung had fled to avoid prosecution. Then, on April 2, after local newspapers suggested Leung had been detained by Chinese police, a Hong Kong detective began to ask if Leung was the man found dead in Shenzhen, Ng said.

Police searched Leung's room at a YWCA guest house and tracked down his dentist. Ten days later, police said, they traveled to Shenzhen with his dental records and confirmed the body was his.


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