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-------- activists
Anti-nuke activities at Dimona and the Knesset
From: nukeresister@igc.org
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 09:42:57 -0700
Dear friends, A new anti-nuclear coalition, including a wide range of groups, is in the beginning stages in Israel. Women activists, primarily from the organization Bat Shalom, are organizing an International Women's Day of Disarmament teach-in and demonstration at Dimona on May 26. There will also be a panel of experts on nuclear weapons at the Knesset on May 24, hosted by Knesset member Tamar Gozansky. I will be attending both of these events, as well as vigiling in front of Ashkelon Prison (where Mordechai Vanunu has spent nearly 14 years). Also attending will be Nick and Mary Eoloff, Vanunu's adoptive parents from the U.S., and Marie Stone, who is active with the U.K. campaign to free Vanunu. FYI, below is the announcement for the Dimona event. Peace, Felice
AFTER THE USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS-NO SIDE WILL HAVE WON. WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR PEACE AND DISARMAMENT OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS In the midst of the state of Israel there is a Nuclear Reactor which has manufactured, up to the present day, hundreds of atomic bombs. If a failure occurs, unestimatable damage will be done to the surrounding population, and if this failure is a grave one, the damage could spread over the entire area between the Jordan river and the sea..
The nuclear weapons, which are in the hands of Israel, encourage nuclear weapon competition in the region . This will lead to a reality where the majority of countries in the Middle East will have nuclear weapons - in other words- a reality of a nuclear balance of horror. If an atomic bomb is dropped over Tel Aviv the whole area from Hulon to Ramat Aviv and from Givatayim to the sea-will evaporate. People, houses, cars will not turn to dust ; they will turn into gas. About half a million will die and the number of the wounded will be twice as many. The entire area will radiate cancer long after the bombing is over and it will be impossible for people to live there.
Many experts say that the Nuclear Reactor in Dimona is very old. Reactors of a similar type and age have long been closed down in other countries. Moreover, from the little information that the public received recently, we learned that the active radio waste, which is a very dangerous by-product of the reactor, is being buried close to it Esteemed experts of Environmental Protection warn us against this manner of burying the waste. Geologists remind us that Dimona is located in an area of a geological rift, and nobody can guarantee that the buried waste will stay buried.
The only way to prevent the disaster that is liable to happen in our area is to make sure that no country in the region possesses weapons of mass destruction. The U.N. and the government of the United States support this stand, but all Israeli governments continue to oppose it. During the last few years we have witnessed an ever-growing international activity, which calls for the disarmament of nuclear weapons. The international Court of Justice in Hague, in 1997, ruled that atomic weapons are illegal. The realization that after the use of nuclear weapons no winning side will remain, is penetrating the consciousness of the entire world.
Women representing various organization throughout Israel, are organizing a day of protest and study opposite the Nuclear Reactor. The studies will deal with the following issues :
-The right of citizens to obtain information regarding the nuclear capabilities of Israel-
-Health and environmental damages- -Israel's nuclear policy and the ramifications of a nuclear balance on the political reality of the Middle East.-
-The contribution of women to the struggle-
We call upon both men and women to join us in the protest and study tent, near the Reactor in Dimona on Friday, 26. 5. 2000
The Coalition of Women for International Women Day for Peace and Disarmament of Nuclear Weapons
----
Chernobyl Media Distortions & Institutionalized, LEGAL "Chernobyl Roulette"
From: "Nukewatch" nukewtch@win.bright.net and "Bill Smirnow" smirnowb@ix.netcom.com
http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/1993/ja93/ja93Halverson.html
"Ticking Time Bombs: East Bloc Reactors"
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/crac.html
CRAC-2, NRC Allows Catastrophic Radiation Dangers
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/probability.html
NRC Admits To 45% Chance Of Reactor Meltdown
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/locations.html
Locations Of Nuclear Facilities Worldwide
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/violations
Public Citizens "Critical Mass" Allows NRC To Break The Law At Reactor Sites Around The USA
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/chernobyl.html
Chernobyl Health Effects
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/victims.html
Dr Rosalie Bertell documents how the nuclear industry disallows radiation induced illness definitions and deaths and 1.3 BILLION radiation induced cancers, deaths, & diseases
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/rickover.html
The Commercial Nuclear Industry Would Have Ended If President Jimmy Carter Hadn't Covered THIS Up
In summary, we're all guinea pigs at the mercy of the international nuclear industry.
-------- arms sales
A Scourge of Small Arms
With a few hundred machine guns and mortars, a small army can take over an entire country, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands
by Jeffrey Boutwell and Michael T. Klare,
Scientific American, June 2000 Issue
http://www.sciam.com/2000/0600issue/0600boutwell.html
Most media accounts of the 1994 Rwandan genocide emphasized the use of traditional weapons--clubs, knives, machetes--by murderous gangs of extremist Hutu. As many as one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu perished, many of them women and children. To outsiders, it appeared as if the people of Rwanda had been caught up in a violent frenzy, with common farm implements as their favored instruments of extermination.
But this isn't the whole story. Before the killing began, the Hutu-dominated government had distributed automatic rifles and hand grenades to official militias and paramilitary gangs. It was this firepower that made the genocide possible. Militia members terrorized their victims with guns and grenades as they rounded them up for systematic slaughter with machetes and knives. The murderous use of farm tools may have seemed a medieval aberration, but the weapons and paramilitary gangs that facilitated the genocide were all too modern.
The situation there was far from unique. Since the end of the cold war, from the Balkans to East Timor and throughout Africa, the world has witnessed an outbreak of ethnic, religious and sectarian conflict characterized by routine massacre of civilians. More than 100 conflicts have erupted since 1990, about twice the number for previous decades. These wars have killed more than five million people, devastated entire geographic regions, and left tens of millions of refugees and orphans. Little of the destruction was inflicted by the tanks, artillery or aircraft usually associated with modern warfare; rather most was carried out with pistols, machine guns and grenades. However beneficial the end of the cold war has been in other respects, it has let loose a global deluge of surplus weapons into a setting in which the risk of local conflict appears to have grown markedly.
The cold-war-era preoccupation with nuclear arms and major weapons systems has left those of us in the arms-control community with very little knowledge about the global trade in small arms (technically, pistols, revolvers, rifles and carbines) and light weapons (machine guns, small mortars, and other weapons that can be carried by one or two people). Over the past few years, however, many of us have begun to examine why these weapons are so easily accessible and how they affect the societies now flooded with them. The disturbing findings are driving a new arms-control movement, led by a loose coalition of the United Nations, concerned national governments and nongovernmental organizations.
Small arms and light weapons are weapons of choice in most internal conflicts for a number of reasons: they are widely obtainable, relatively cheap, deadly, easy to use and easy to transport. Unlike major conventional weapons, such as fighter jets and tanks, which are procured almost exclusively by national military forces, small arms span the dividing line between government forces--police and soldiers--and civilian populations. Depending on the gun laws of a particular country (if such regulations even exist or are enforced), citizens may be permitted to own anything from pistols and hunting guns to military-type assault weapons.
In contrast to the declining trade in major weaponry since the end of the cold war, global sales of small arms and light weapons remain strong. No organization, private or public, provides detailed data on the global trade in these weapons, in part because of the difficulty of tracking so many transactions (and because of the low level of attention that has been paid to the problem). Reliable estimates of the legal trade in small arms and light weapons put the annual figure between $7 billion and $10 billion. A large but unknown quantity of small arms--worth perhaps $2 billion to $3 billion a year--is traded through black-market channels. Because data are so scarce, comparing these numbers to those for small-arms exports during the cold war is difficult. But studies in southern Africa and the Indian subcontinent do indicate that during the 1990s the availability of modern assault rifles increased considerably.
Governments transfer vast quantities of small arms, either through open, acknowledged military aid programs or through covert operations. And as the size of their militaries has dwindled, Western and ex-Communist countries have sold off their excess weapons to almost any interested party. Most arms, though, are sold by private firms on the legal market through ordinary trade channels. Although such sales are supposedly regulated, few countries pay close attention. The U.S. probably has some of the strictest controls, but even so, it sold or transferred $463 million worth of small arms and ammunition to 124 countries in 1998 (the last year for which such data are available). Of these countries, about 30 were at war or experiencing persistent civil violence in 1998; in at least five, U.S. or U.N. soldiers on peacekeeping duty have been fired on or threatened with U.S.-supplied weapons.
We have few data on the quantity or dollar value of small arms sold by other manufacturers. Based on existing weapons inventories of military and police forces around the world, though, certain major suppliers can be identified: Russia (maker of the AK-47 assault rifle and its derivative, the AK-74), China (maker of an AK-47 look-alike known as the Type 56 rifle), Belgium (FAL assault rifle), Germany (G3 rifle), the U.S. (M16 rifle) and Israel (Uzi submachine gun).
Common small arms such as the AK-47 are cheap and easy to produce and are extremely durable. Manufactured in large quantities in more than 40 countries, they can be purchased at bargain-basement prices in many areas of the world. In Angola, for instance, a used AK-47 can be acquired for as little as $15--or a large sack of maize. Cost is a crucial factor: many of the belligerents in these internal battles are poor and have often been barred from the legal arms market. As a result, they consider cheap small arms and light weapons, perhaps traded illegally, to be their only option.
The proliferation of automatic rifles and submachine guns has given paramilitary groups a firepower that often matches or exceeds that of national police or constabulary forces. Modern assault rifles can fire hundreds of rounds of ammunition per minute. A single gunman can slaughter dozens or even hundreds of people in a short time. With the incredible firepower of such arms, untrained civilians--even children--can become deadly combatants. Unlike the weapons of earlier eras, which typically required precision aiming and physical strength to be used effectively, ultralight automatic weapons can be carried and fired by children as young as nine or 10 [see "Children of the Gun," on page 60].
Although the figure of $10 billion spent on small arms and light weapons each year may seem insignificant when compared with the roughly $850 billion spent annually on military forces around the world, the money for light weapons has had a hugely disproportionate impact on global security. In addition to ravaging so many countries, the arms have drastically increased the demands placed on humanitarian aid agencies, U.N. peacekeepers and the international community. To cite but one statistic, international relief aid for regions in conflict increased fivefold during the 1990s, to a high of $5 billion a year. At the same time, long-term development aid dropped overall. Short-term remedies have replaced more lasting cures for the worst ills of poverty, deprivation and war. Moreover, armed militias equipped with but a few thousand assault rifles have erased the benefits of billions of dollars and years of development effort in many poor countries.
From 100 Men to the Presidency
Nowhere has the relation between the accessibility of light weapons and the outbreak and severity of conflict been more dramatically evident than in West Africa. Liberia was the first to suffer. On Christmas Eve in 1989, insurgent leader Charles Taylor invaded the country with only 100 irregular soldiers armed primarily with AK-47 assault rifles; within months, he had seized mineral and timber resources and used the profits to purchase additional light weapons. Had he needed to equip his forces with heavier weapons such as artillery, armored cars and tanks--the weapons conventionally associated with a conquering army--Taylor would have faced crippling logistical obstacles. In comparison, a few boatloads of assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns were simple to transport and provided more than enough firepower. In 1990 Taylor's ill-trained and undisciplined insurgents toppled the government of President Samuel Doe (who had come to power in a conventional, albeit bloody, coup 10 years earlier). Fighting continued for seven more years.
The firepower of modern small arms--and the rapid escalation of violence that such weaponry makes possible--was evident even in the early stages of Liberia's civil war. In August 1990, in retaliation for Ghana's participation in a West African peacekeeping force (which had tried but failed to stop the fighting), Taylor's troops slaughtered 1,000 Ghanaian immigrants in one day in the Liberian village of Marshall. Likewise, forces loyal to Doe massacred 600 ethnic Gio and Mano--Liberian groups that favored Taylor--as they vainly sought refuge in a church in the capital city, Monrovia.
Sierra Leone was next. In 1991 Taylor and a disgruntled army officer from Sierra Leone, Foday Sankoh, initiated an informal alliance. Soon weapons and fighters were flowing back and forth across the border between the two countries. By 1999 the civil war in Sierra Leone had claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people, while another 100,000 had been deliberately injured and mutilated. Only in the summer of 1999 did the combined efforts of the U.N. and West African peacekeepers prove successful in helping to broker a peace agreement--an agreement that included a campaign to collect and destroy former combatants' weapons.
The current peace efforts in Sierra Leone and Liberia remain tenuous and highly dependent on what happens to the tens of thousands of weapons now in these countries. By October 1999 the disarmament program in Liberia had destroyed some 20,000 small arms and light weapons and more than three million rounds of ammunition. Across the border in Sierra Leone, however, U.N. officials complain that former rebels surrender to peacekeepers without also turning in their weapons, despite a $300 cash incentive to relinquish their guns. Unfortunately, this inability to disarm former combatants has led to renewed outbreaks of fighting during the past several months.
Much the same cycle of violence engulfed Rwanda--but on an even more horrific scale. The majority Hutu government and the minority Tutsi opposition both had been amply supplied with small arms and light weapons. France, Egypt and South Africa outfitted the government; Uganda and China equipped the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). While government forces held off the RPF with mortars and machine guns, Hutu militiamen armed with guns and machetes slaughtered up to one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu in May and June of 1994. The genocide ended only when most Tutsi in Rwanda had been killed or had fled to areas controlled by the RPF.
Similar acts of brutality routinely characterize today's ethnic and sectarian violence. Once competing groups have been armed with automatic weapons, any minor dispute can escalate quickly into a major bloodbath. And the availability of such weapons, even in remote and inaccessible places such as southern Sudan and eastern Congo, makes it difficult for the international community to bring the warring parties to the bargaining table--and, when a cease-fire is signed, to curb the cycle of bloodletting. Brokering peace has proved especially difficult in countries such as Angola and Sierra Leone, where rebel forces have been able to exchange diamonds or other commodities for guns and ammunition on the black market.
The Corrosive Effect of Guns
The root causes of ethnic, religious and sectarian conflicts around the world are of course complex and varied, typically involving historical grievances, economic deprivation, demagogic leadership and an absence of democratic process. Although small arms and light weapons are not themselves a cause of conflict, their ready accessibility and low cost can prolong combat, encourage a violent rather than a peaceful resolution of differences, and generate greater insecurity throughout society--which in turn leads to a spiraling demand for, and use of, such weapons.
In 1998, in a comprehensive survey of the problem of small-arms proliferation, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) noted its deepening concerns about this issue, particularly regarding the safety of civilians. As a leading guardian of international humanitarian law, the ICRC stated that it was especially troubled by three dangerous trends. First, the group expressed its alarm at the growing number of civilian deaths and injuries--which often reach 60 to 80 percent of total casualties--that occur in modern conflicts. Equipped with rapid-fire automatic weapons, untrained and undisciplined fighters, few of whom know anything of the Geneva Conventions on human rights, either specifically target civilians or fire indiscriminately into crowds, killing and wounding scores of noncombatants, including women and children.
Second, civilians now suffer increased pain and deprivation when international relief operations must be suspended more frequently because the aid workers themselves have become targets of attack. In the 1990s more than 40 ICRC personnel were killed in Chechnya and Rwanda alone, compared with the 15 who lost their lives in all conflicts between 1945 and 1990.
Third, societies awash in weapons often find themselves caught in a culture of violence even after the formal conflict ends. For young ex-combatants who have known little else besides war, their weapons become a status symbol and a means of making a living, either through individual acts of street crime or as part of an organized criminal operation.
By conducting interviews with its field personnel and by analyzing medical data collected during its operations in Cambodia and Afghanistan, the ICRC has been able to document the high rates of civilian death and injury caused by small arms and light weapons, both during armed combat and after the fighting had stopped. In looking at the data from Afghanistan, for example, researchers found that weapons-related injuries decreased by only one third after the civil war ended and that gunshot fatalities actually increased. In many postconflict societies, up to 70 percent of all civilians still possess military-type firearms, mainly assault rifles such as the M16 and AK-47. ICRC personnel indicate that these weapons are responsible for more than 60 percent of all weapons-related deaths and injuries in internal conflicts--far more than land mines, mortars, grenades, artillery and major weapons systems combined. From El Salvador to South Africa, the story is depressingly similar: years of internal conflict are followed by high rates of social and criminal violence made possible by the easy access to small arms and light weapons.
Faced with the chaos and devastation wrought by the influx of small arms and light weapons, political leaders are now beginning to push for their control. In July 1998 representatives of 21 countries (including the U.S., Brazil, the U.K., Germany, Japan, Mexico and South Africa) met in Oslo and agreed to work together to curb the proliferation of these weapons. The U.N. has also called on member states to tighten their munitions-export regulations and to cooperate in efforts to suppress illicit trade in small arms. But although there is widespread agreement that something must be done, there is considerable uncertainty as to what. Nevertheless, arms experts and others are beginning to devise practical and enforceable methods for controlling the small-arms trade.
Proponents of small-arms control have largely abandoned the goal of enacting a single, all-encompassing instrument like the land-mine treaty. When signed in 1997, that treaty seemed a natural model for an agreement that would prohibit most exports of small arms and light weapons. But eliminating all transfers of small arms between states would never receive the support of those countries that depend on imported weapons for their basic military and police requirements. Many states, including China and Russia, also view guns as legitimate items of commerce and are thus reluctant to embrace any measures that would restrict their trade. Accordingly, the favored approach emphasizes a multidimensional effort aimed at eliminating illicit arms transfers and imposing tighter controls on legal sales, along with promoting democratic reform and economic development in poor, deeply divided societies.
Setting Sights on Arms Control
No widely accepted blueprint describes how to accomplish such broad goals. Arms-control experts have agreed, however, on five basic principles. First, timely information on global trafficking in small arms must be made available for the identification of dangerous trends (such as the buildup of arms stockpiles in areas of instability) and for the facilitation of local or regional curbs on imports. Some data on small-arms deliveries are now made public by individual suppliers--the U.S. and Canada have been particularly forthcoming in this regard--but at present there is no international system of reporting. The only existing mechanism of this kind, the U.N. Register of Conventional Weapons, covers major weapons only.
Second, major military suppliers should adopt strict standards for the export of weapons through legal channels. Although the manufacture of small arms and light weapons is widely dispersed, a dozen or so countries are responsible for the bulk of arms sold on the international market. These include the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council--the U.S., Russia, China, the U.K. and France--plus a number of other European, Asian and Latin American countries. If these countries could agree to a common system of restraints on exports, the sale of arms to areas of instability should fall substantially. Some weapons would still flow through clandestine channels, but most large-scale transactions would be subject to international oversight.
Third, no system that regulates the supply of arms can be entirely effective without an effort to dampen the global demand for arms, especially in areas of recurring conflict. Significant progress has been made in this direction in West Africa, the locale of several of the most pernicious conflicts of the 1990s. In 1998, under the prodding of Alpha Oumar Konaré, the visionary president of Mali, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) adopted a three-year moratorium on the import, export and manufacture of small arms and light weapons. This moratorium represents the first time that a bloc of states that import large numbers of light weapons has adopted a measure of this kind and stands as an important model that other regions can emulate. Already member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have considered such a step; a group of East African states met in Kenya in March to discuss a similar enterprise.
Fourth, efforts to control the legal trade will have only limited effect unless steps are taken to eradicate the black-market trade in arms. The Organization of American States (OAS) has been especially active in working to curb this trade. Recognizing the close link between illicit arms sales, drug trafficking and violent crime, the members of the OAS adopted a convention in 1997 that requires member states to criminalize the unauthorized production and transfer of small arms and to cooperate with one another in suppressing the black-market trade. (The U.S. has signed the treaty, but the Senate has not yet ratified it.) The Clinton administration is pushing to have similar measures incorporated into the Transnational Organized Crime Convention, now being negotiated in Vienna, to make them applicable in every region of the world. To promote further cooperation in this area, the U.N. plans to convene a conference on illicit arms trafficking next summer.
Finally, as U.N. peacekeepers in Angola, Rwanda, Somalia and elsewhere have learned, peace agreements must help reintegrate former combatants into the civilian economy, or fighters are likely to drift into careers as mercenaries, insurgents or brigands--taking their guns with them. The collection and destruction of used and surplus weapons is perhaps the most challenging aspect of the small-arms problem. Nevertheless, individual states and nongovernmental organizations have begun to devise and test possible solutions such as weapons "buy-back" programs. The European Union and the World Bank have also promised to assist in the development of job-training programs and other services for ex-combatants seeking to reenter civil society in war-torn areas of Africa and Latin America.
None of these measures by itself can overcome the dangers posed by the uncontrolled spread of small arms and light weapons. The problem is far too complex to be solved by any single initiative. Yet each time international leaders have sought to enact controls on nuclear, chemical or biological arms, they have dealt with similar problems. The foundation has now been laid for the world to bring small arms under effective control. If we fail, we are likely to face even greater bloodshed and chaos in the decades ahead.
The Authors
JEFFREY BOUTWELL and MICHAEL T. KLARE are co-directors of the Project on Light Weapons at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-editors of Light Weapons and Civil Conflict (Rowman and Littlefield, 1999). Boutwell is associate executive officer at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he heads the program on international security studies. Klare is a professor of peace and world securities studies at Hampshire College and is director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies.
-------- australia
South Australia Blocks High Level Nuclear Dump
May 18, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2000/2000L-05-18-02.html
ADELAIDE, Australia, The government of South Australia has moved to ban the construction of a medium to high level nuclear waste dump in the state.
Premier John Olsen announced Wednesday that legislation will be drafted to prevent the Commonwealth from constructing a facility to store medium to high level nuclear waste in outback South Australia.
John Olsen is Premier of South Australia (Photo courtesy Office of the Premier)
Under the legislation any breach will attract a maximum fine of A$5 million.
"There is significant community opposition to the establishment of a nuclear dump in South Australia," Premier Olsen says. "My position and the South Australian government's position has been very clear - we share that opposition.
"While we support the establishment of a single facility for the storage of low level radioactive waste, we are strongly opposed to a high level waste facility and will not tolerate outback South Australia being used as a nuclear dump," the premier said.
Meanwhile, the search for Australia's national low level radioactive waste repository has been narrowed to five possible sites in the central-north region of South Australia.
The selection of the sites was discussed Wednesday at a meeting of the Regional Consultative Committee, a group which consists of key regional stakeholders including pastoralists, representatives from local and state government, Aboriginal groups and local industry.
Australian Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Senator Nick Minchin (Photo courtesy government of Australia)
Federal Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Senator Nick Minchin, said, "All sites are located in flat, stony desert country on pastoral leases between Woomera and Roxby Downs. Two are in the Woomera Prohibited Area, and the other three are east of the Woomera/Roxby Downs road."
"The search for a low level waste repository should not be confused with the search for a store for intermediate level waste," Senator Minchin explained. "The search for the store has not yet commenced - when it does, it will involve a nationwide search and further public consultation. No decision has been made to co-locate the store at the site of the repository."
Test drilling at the five sites is expected to begin shortly. In addition to four sites which were studied last year, one new site on the Woomera Prohibited Area has been selected for work.
The Woomera Prohibited Area, covering about 127,000 square kilometers, has been set aside by the Australian government for military and approved civil applications. It is home to the Woomera Instrumented Range which supports international and national space, aircraft, air and ground weapons testing and evaluation programs.
Woomera has been revived as a site for satellite launches, with the November 1998 signing of an agreement between the Australian government and the U.S. based Kistler Aerospace Corporation. But the town is shrinking. After 29 years, the Australia/U.S. Joint Defence Facility closed in October 1999. The town shrank from 1,200 to about 300 people in April.
Woomera, South Australia was established in 1947 as a rocket range by a joint project between Britain and Australia. (Photo courtesy St. Michael's Parish School)
"After the five sites have been drilled, the results will be assessed and there will be additional consultation with stakeholders," said Senator Minchin. "In late July or early August, three sites will be selected for further work. Later this year, one of the sites will be determined as the preferred site for the repository."
The preferred site will then be subject to environmental assessment and licensing. The public will have a further opportunity for comment during that part of the process.
Australia's low level radioactive waste includes hospital, research and industry waste such as lightly contaminated soil, clothing, smoke detectors, watch faces, compasses, instrument dials and gauges.
The plan is to bury it in unlined trenches at the national repository. By contrast, intermediate level waste will be dealt with through long term storage in a building above ground, Minchin said.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) objects that a national radioactive waste repository for shallow burial of low level wastes is contrary to recommendations of the 1996 Senate Inquiry "No Time to Waste" that there should be no burial of radioactive wastes in Australia.
Typical land near Woomera (Photo courtesy Australian Space Research Institute)
ACF opposes the proposed national waste dump and instead supports a radioactive waste management regime based on the principles of reduction at source and above ground, plus retrievable and monitored storage at production sites.
In 1992, Australia undertook a site selection study for a national radioactive waste repository, with what the ACF says was "the clear intention to assess the selected site for co-location of the long lived wastes National Storage Facility."
Known by its Aboriginal name of Billa Kalina, this region of central South Australia was selected for the repository site in February 1998. Eighteen potential sites were identified in the region around Woomera in June 1999; in October six preferred sites were selected.
The low-level waste candidate sites were inspected for heritage values by Aboriginal groups in late 1999, and recently a number of Aboriginal groups have conducted further heritage inspections of the sites, said Senator Minchin.
Aboriginal women from the area under consideration do not want the nuclear waste repository located there. The Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta Women's Group said, "The Billa Kalina region is very important to us. It is the place where our grandmothers' grandmothers lived. It was our home until we were forced to move off the lands," the women said in a statement published by the ACF.
The Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, a council of women elders demonstrate against the nuclear dump in Melbourne in 1998. (Photo courtesy Humps not Dumps)
"The Lake Eyre basin and country is millions of years old and Billa Kalina has ancient mound springs. We've got underground water, that's why we're worrying about the water," the women said. We don't want the poison from the dump leaking into underground water."
They are also worried about the animals. "We eat malu (kangaroo), kalaya (emu), ungkata (frill necked lizard), goanna, ngintaka (perente), porcupine, kipara (wild turkey), kalamina (blue tongue lizard), kalta (sleepy lizard). We're worried that any of these animals, birds will become poisoned and so we'll become poisoned in our turn," the women said.
Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta Women's Group is based in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy and is made up of Aboriginal women from four communities of northern South Australia.
South Australia is front and centre on the international stage this year as the state has been selected by the United Nations Environment Program as the international host of World Environment Day 2000 on June 5. World Environment Day 2000 theme is The Environment Millennium - Time to Act.
-------- bangladesh
Preparing for Jackson
Washington Times
May 19, 2000
Embassy Row James Morrison
http://www.washtimes.com/world/embassy-2000519234828.htm
Ambassador John Ernest Leigh of Sierra Leone says his government is preparing a "public relations campaign" to calm public anger over comments by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who hopes to visit the war-torn country on his current trip to West Africa.
Mr. Leigh this week said Mr. Jackson, acting as a special peace envoy for President Clinton, is expected in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, on Sunday.
Before he left on Wednesday, Mr. Jackson suggested that new peace talks in Sierra Leone should include Foday Sankoh, the leader of a rebel army that is holding 270 United Nations peacekeepers and has brutally assaulted civilians while devastating much of the country.
Mr. Jackson gave the impression that he was comparing Mr. Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) with the African National Congress (ANC), which evolved from urban guerrillas to South Africa's leading political party.
He issued a new statement on Tuesday, denouncing Mr. Sankoh and the RUF.
Mr. Leigh said his government is "readying a public relations campaign so that public anger against Jackson will evaporate during his visit, following alleged derogatory statements by Jackson linking the RUF with the ANC of [former South African] President Nelson Mandela."
Mr. Leigh, who talked by telephone with Mr. Jackson late Tuesday night, said the Clinton envoy emphasized that the "ANC is a completely different organization from the RUF and that Sankoh is the complete antithesis of President Mandela."
Mr. Jackson "deeply regrets the statement he made that caused some people to take his remarks as equating Sankoh to President Mandela. Reverend Jackson wants the RUF to forthwith cease fire and disarm," Mr. Leigh added.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday that Mr. Jackson's visit to Sierra Leone depends on "security conditions." He arrived in Nigeria yesterday and is due to visit Liberia, Mali and Guinea.
'Bangladesh matters'
President Clinton included Bangladesh on his trip to South Asia in March because "Bangladesh matters to America," U.S. Ambassador John Holzman said Thursday.
Mr. Holzman, who is ending his tour as ambassador to Bangladesh, told reporters in the capital, Dhaka, that Mr. Clinton "was not motivated by any grand strategic design" when he stopped in Bangladesh on his visit to India and Pakistan.
His visit was designed to show that "we want Bangladesh to succeed," said Mr. Holzman.
"Bangladesh is in the midst of a difficult passage from a turbulent past, marked by dictatorship and despotism, to constitutional democracy, [and] Americans understand this never-ending struggle to achieve democracy because it is our struggle too," he said.
"At peace with its neighbors, Bangladesh is a stabilizing element in the subcontinent, which President Clinton called the most dangerous place in the world, as India and Pakistan pursue their nuclear programs" he said.
Prime Minister Sheik Hasina's fall visit to Washington, the first such official visit by any Bangladeshi leader, will help to strengthen bilateral ties, said Mr. Holzman.
-------- britain
OECD study says no health risk from spent nuclear fuel
UK: May 18, 2000
Story by Matthew Jones
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6728
LONDON - An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development study published this week has found the risk to human health from spent nuclear fuel to be "insignificantly low."
Whether old nuclear fuel is reprocessed or stored, the affect on people was small, concluded the report by the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency.
The report was commissioned by the 15-nation Oslo-Paris commission, a grouping of countries aimed at protecting the marine environment of the north-east Atlantic.
OSPAR meets in June to discuss proposals from Denmark and Ireland aimed at closing Britain's Nuclear Fuel's Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant, part of the Sellafield facility.
Denmark, Ireland and Norway claim substances produced at Sellafield during reprocessing are dangerous to the marine environment.
The study examined the radiological impact - the affect of radiation on human health - from both reprocessing and storing spent fuel.
Both options presented radiological impacts "well below any regulatory dose limits for the public and for workers".
The study said there was "no compelling argument" in favour of either option. But critics of reprocessing were sceptical of the some of aspects of the report.
"I do not think the study is forward-looking enough.
Restricting the examination to the impact on people living today is short-sighed. We need to be looking at the radiological impact for future generations," Frank Barnaby, an independent nuclear consultant working for the Oxford Research Group told Reuters.
"The consequence of reprocessing is plutonium and the threat that brings of nuclear weapons proliferation," said Barnaby, a former atomic weapons specialist.
Mark Johnston, at Friends of the Earth viewed storage as preferable to reprocessing. "It is less expensive and cleaner," he said.
The international campaign against Sellafield, northwest England, has been spurred on by research showing that lobsters and other shell fish in the North Sea and Irish Sea have high levels of Technetium 99, a radioactive isotope generated during reprocessing.
-------- depleted uranium
Greens in German Parliament start initiative to ban DU
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 21:11:44 +0200
From: Peter Diehl p.diehl@sik.de
The parliamentary group of the Greens in the Federal German Parliament on May 17 announced the start of an initative for the ban of DU weapons.
The initiative comprises the following steps:
1) formulation of a parliamentary motion (together with the Social Democrats) for the ban of DU weapons; the motion would at the same time instruct the Federal Government to work for an international ban of DU weapons,
2) the Federal Government shall try to make NATO release more detailed information on DU use in Kosovo,
3) sufficient protective measures are to be taken in the areas concerned from DU weapons use,
4) the Ministry of Defense shall conduct preventive measures for the protection of German soldiers in Kosovo, and shall instruct them on possible compensation claims.
The text of the May 17 announcement is available at: http://www.gruene-fraktion.de/aktuell/neu/index-uran.htm (in German)
-------- france
Serenity for Now
Washington Post
Friday, May 19, 2000; Page A31
By Jim Hoagland
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-05/19/049l-051900-idx.html
Of the many words French and American leaders have used over the years to describe the volatile relationship that links Paris and Washington, "serenity" is not the first that comes to mind. Or even the 101st. But it was the word Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine deployed here with insistence and verve on a brief mission of pacification last week.
"This is a moment of serenity, which comes from good cooperation between our governments," Vedrine said. "Differences still exist. But they have become less and less dramatic, and can be calmed more rapidly."
Relations between the two competitively cooperative nations are never as bad, nor as good, as they seem on the surface. Our ambitions to lead have too much in common, just as our cultures have too much in contrast, for there to be eternal peace or eternal hostility. At any given moment, there is room for maneuver, as Vedrine, a skilled and elegant negotiator who has made reducing unnecessary tensions with Washington a top priority, demonstrated here.
But as I listened to Vedrine explain away his recent questioning of America's "hyperpower" role in world affairs as a matter of poor translation, and heard him offer a tentative but uncritical French reaction to a possible U.S.-Russian deal on missile defense that had once ulcerated Paris, an inevitable question popped itself: What gives? Or, excusez-moi?
The answer may have as much to do with Europe as with the United States. France moves into the chair as the presiding nation of the European Union on July 1 for a six-month term that will shape that 15-member organization's future in fundamental ways. The French have important battles to wage in Europe. A period of transatlantic calm fits France's immediate needs as well as Vedrine's long-term agenda.
Vedrine and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer see the coming six months as crucial in defining Europe's way for the next decade and beyond. They have worked together to bring back to life French-German planning for European political unity and to sketch a vision that reflects the momentous mixture of hope--and of fear--that their nations feel about the European future.
Fischer outlined much of that vision last Friday in a mold-breaking speech at Berlin's Humboldt University. The speech was so thoughtful and unconventional that Fischer had to declare he was not speaking as a foreign minister at all but as a citizen. He then dared utter support for a written constitution for an eventual federation of nations that could become a sort of United States of Europe.
The true brilliance of Fischer's speech was to wrap some hard truths about Europe's transformation in shining words: Promised expansion to Eastern and Central Europe will be slow, difficult and uneven. A core of EU countries able to pursue political and military integration must unite in a new treaty arrangement within the EU treaty. The sagging common currency known as the euro must be better managed by a European government. These conclusions were sketched without any detail, but their outlines were clear.
Vedrine was quick to welcome Fischer's ideas, which will animate political debate in Europe for months to come. But the French diplomat also stressed here that these were not formal proposals for European governments to take up at their high-level review of EU institutions at the end of the six-month French presidency. The French do not want their hands tied in advance of the review.
Nor do they want the quiet quarrels that have raged for the past year between the U.S. national security bureaucracy and Vedrine's ministry over European defense and NATO's prerogatives to continue to be a distraction. Vedrine sought in a variety of ways to turn down the static during his first formal visit here in three years in office.
Six months ago the French declared in NATO councils that they opposed any amendment of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty that would permit the United States or Russia to deploy new national missile shields. Vedrine voiced a much more supple position in an interview here: A combination of "minor changes in the ABM treaty and major benefits from a START III treaty" that would slash U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals "would clearly be an alluring package. . . . We would want to look with an open mind at the strategic consequences of such changes."
Europe has advanced in recent years through a series of lurches forward that were then followed by periods of consolidation or stagnation. The Franco-American truce Vedrine implicitly proposed in Washington last week is one more telling sign of a continent bracing itself for a new leap into the future.
Americans can afford to be supportive of the European effort to become a stronger, more reliable partner in world affairs. And enjoy the truce if it works out. The only certainty is that it won't last forever.
-------- imf / world bank
World Bank to consider Iran loan
USA Today
05/18/00
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm
WASHINGTON - The World Bank's 24 executive directors are scheduled Thursday to consider a delayed proposal to lend $231 million to Iran. The loans for two projects were delayed in April, and the United States will seek another postponement, a U.S. official said. Canada and France are understood to be aligned with the United States in opposition to the loans. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has telephoned several foreign ministers to urge a postponement, according to another U.S. official. Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, questioned ''whether Iran should be permitted to borrow from the Bank in view of their continued support for terrorism and their failure to take concrete steps to reform their economy.''
---
Bush urges Congress to expand trade with China
Washington Times
May 18, 2000
By Carter Dougherty
http://208.246.212.80/business/default-200051822657.htm
Texas Gov. George W. Bush yesterday called on Republicans and Democrats in Congress to put aside "posturing and partisanship" and approve a landmark agreement that would expand trade with China. The move came as two key congressional committees gave their support to the deal by unexpectedly large margins.
In a speech at a Boeing aircraft factory in Everett, Wash., the presumptive Republican nominee for president argued that permanent normal trade relations (NTR) for China, and bringing the Asian giant into the World Trade Organization (WTO) would further the economic, political and security interests of the United States.
"For businesses, workers and farmers [NTR] will mean lower trade barriers and enormous opportunities," said Mr. Bush, echoing many of the arguments made by the Clinton administration. "For the people of China, it holds out hope of open contact with the world of freedom."
Mr. Bush's endorsement came as House and Senate panels gave their overwhelming support to permanent NTR for China. The Senate Finance Committee approved the legislation on a 19-1 vote and the House Ways and Means Committee signed off by an unexpectedly large margin of 34-4.
Democrats, the key swing constituency in the House, flocked to support NTR. Reps. Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Karen L. Thurman of Florida and Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, all previously undecided, backed the measure in advance of the full House vote.
"We're not there yet, but this vote is a little momentum," said Rep. Robert T. Matsui, the California Democrat who has led the pro-NTR forces in his party.
The committee also passed additional legislation sponsored by Reps. Sander M. Levin, Michigan Democrat, and Doug Bereuter, Nebraska Republican, that would curb sudden surges in Chinese imports if they injure American industries. Several Democrats said their support on the House floor would be contingent on seeing other proposals by Mr. Levin included in the final package.
"The situation still remains fluid, but we do believe we will be successful next week," U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky told reporters.
In his speech, Mr. Bush stressed that, if elected president, he would pursue many of the trade measures that have eluded the Clinton administration as the American public has become increasingly skeptical of the benefits of open trade and investment.
Speaking only miles away from Seattle, where violent protests helped derail global trade talks last November, Mr. Bush said he would work to obtain the trade negotiating authority that Congress declined to grant the Clinton administration in 1997 and 1998. And, in a pointed criticism of Mr. Clinton's performance in Seattle, he pledged to restart market-opening talks in the WTO.
"They mishandled the global trade negotiations right here in Seattle," Mr. Bush said. "I will make expanding trade a consistent priority."
The China trade agreement, which Mrs. Barshefsky wrapped up last November in Beijing, represents an enormous opportunity for U.S. exporters, Mr. Bush said.
The deal would pave the way for Chinese membership in the WTO, without the need for the United States to make concessions to China, he added.
"For all these gains, we will not have to change a single sentence of our existing trade rules," Mr. Bush said.
The Texas governor also endorsed a central argument the White House has made in support of the agreement: Trade is a lever that will nudge the Chinese people toward democratic change.
"Economic freedom creates habits of liberty and habits of liberty create expectations of democracy," he said.
But Mr. Bush also drew a distinction between the Clinton administration's overall policy toward China, which has sought a "strategic partnership" with Beijing. In particular, Mr. Bush, who has described China as a "competitor," said his administration would be a stronger supporter of Taiwan.
Mr. Bush stressed that his support for the China trade deal was "not just a matter of commerce but a matter of conviction," and interviews with Bush advisers and business and labor leaders in Texas paint the portrait of an instinctive free trader. Mr. Bush's formative experience has been the commercial benefits that have accrued to Texas in the past six years from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"I think the governor is very strong on trade," said Sen. Phil Gramm, a Texas Republican who has demonstrated little patience with politicians in any party who do not support free trade.
NAFTA, which went into effect in 1994, has had a profound impact on Texas, according to state business leaders. In 1997, Mexico accounted for roughly half of the state's $84.3 billion in exports, and the amount of commercial traffic in Texas has exploded in the last six years. Far from engaging in a fundamental debate about whether NAFTA has been good, state officials spend most of their time wrestling with how to manage its effects, both positive and negative.
"NAFTA is not a panacea to solve all our problems, and the governor knows that," said Gerald Schwebel, executive vice president of the Laredo-based International Bank of Commerce.
At the same time, Mr. Bush has had little success in convincing organized labor in Texas that NAFTA is beneficial for workers.
"It's too easy [under NAFTA] to move a factory to Mexico," said Joe Gunn, president of the Texas AFL-CIO.
Partly as a result of NAFTA, Mr. Bush has developed a strong rapport with Mexican officials, including President Ernesto Zedillo, whose inauguration he attended shortly after becoming governor.
Mr. Bush is also surrounded by a coterie of advisers with strong credentials in trade policy. Robert Zoellick, an undersecretary of state from 1989 to 1993, played a major role in the negotiation of NAFTA. Josh Bolton, the campaign's issues director, and Gary Edson, another adviser, were both senior officials in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
-------- india / pakistan
US expert plays down future N-test by Pakistan
The News International (Pakistan)
May 18, 2000
From: Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
WASHINGTON: Pakistani press claims that Islamabad is about to carry out its seventh nuclear test are not credible, says a leading US expert. Dr George Perkovich, author of the recently published 'India's Nuclear Bomb' says such claims are probably being made in response to an Indian scientist's assertion that New Delhi should develop fourth generation nuclear weapons and conduct more tests to perfect the hydrogen bomb.
Dr Perkovich was reacting to a report quoted from The Pakistan Observer that Islamabad had made all preparations for a seventh nuclear test in the Chaghai hills, following intelligence reports that "India is all set for a hydrogen bomb explosion very soon".
The Pakistan Observer story said that Islamabad would sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) immediately after the test to neutralise adverse world reactions. Quoting diplomatic sources in Islamabad, the newspaper said spy satellites operating in the region had picked up evidence showing both Indian and Pakistani preparations to resume testing.
"This makes no sense from the Pakistan point of view, they will not go first," Dr Perkovich told Deccan Herald. "I would be also very surprised if India resumed testing now. When President Clinton was in India last March, Prime Minister Vajpayee told him there would be no more tests. What's the rationale for going back on that?"
The Pakistani report, Dr Perkovich speculates, is linked to recent statements by former Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) chairman PK Iyengar that India should develop fourth generation weapons, such as neutron bombs, and carry out more hydrogen bomb tests. Dr Iyengar's statement to this effect, followed by an article he recently published in an Indian newspaper, had been noted and widely circulated among US experts.
----
Pokharan In Retrospect The High Costs of Nuclearism
By PRAFUL BIDWAI
"The Times of India",
May 13, 2000
From: Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
New Delhi, Two years after India and Pakistan exploded their way into the Nuclear Club, they bristle with paradoxes. Consider just three. China went nuclear in 1964. For a good 34 years after that, India did not consider extreme or emergency measures, e.g. raise military spending by 28 percent in a single year, or build nuclear-proof shelters.
Indeed, it didn't even protest against Chinese nuclear tests until the mid-1990s. India's knowledge of Pakistan's nuclear pursuits, for over a decade before Pokharan-II happened, didn't warrant extreme measures either. But Nuclear India, supposedly far more secure, now proceeds to build underground nuclear-command shelters costing Rs. 1,100 crores-more than the Centre is spending to fight the drought! Does this speak of security or rationality? According to classical deterrence theory, nuclear weapons-states (NWSs) do not go to war with one another. Less than a year after Pokharan-II-Chagai, India and Pakistan did just that. One more year on, they appear close to yet another confrontation.
Lest it be thought that Kargil was only an "aberration," as high deterrence theory once termed the Sino-Soviet Ussuri river conflict, we are being treated to a new strategic doctrine: routine, normal, "limited wars" between NWSs! This comes not from some charlatan in the "strategic community," but from India's defence minister, who declares that we can win such conventional wars with ease-despite New Delhi's loss of overwhelming strategic superiority over Islamabad. Cold logic or nuclear bravado? Nuclearisation, many believed, would induce much-needed sobriety, stability and maturity into India-Pakistan relations.
But our government taunted, chided, and cajoled Islamabad into testing by linking nuclearisation with Kashmir. Today, instead of sobriety, we have unprecedented exchanges of vitriolic, hostile, rhetoric, heightening of tensions, and mutual demonisation. The number of Indians who believe that Pakistan's destruction is a precondition for peace in this region (and vice versa), has never been greater. One of the subcontinent's two rivals is convulsed by a coup. In the other, there is an explosion of tub-thumping chauvinism, book-burning bigotry and majoritarian prejudice. Conducive to strategic "balance" between states which can rain mega-death, but won't talk to each other? The Pokharan-Chagai balance-sheet should impel serious introspection.
Pakistan is gravely crisis-ridden. Nuclearisation has strengthened fundamentalist forces there. Chagai accelerated Pakistan's economic downslide through "austerity" measures and impounding of foreign-currency deposits. India and Pakistan together have lost to sanctions $3 billion in aid and concessional loans-equivalent to their annual foreign direct investment inflows. India's assets side too looks ungainly-despite the Clinton lovefest, lifting of sanctions, and vague talk of a Security Council seat. New Delhi is plain lucky that the long-overdue "correction" of South Asia's relations with the world, especially America, a decade after the Cold War's end, should have coincided with Mr Clinton's discovery of India, American NRIs' successes, the IT boom, and with Pakistan's marginalisation.
A gap has opened between US softness on India's nuclear posture and Security Council Resolution 1172. But it is delusory to imagine that India has gained stature as a "nation on the march" with a booming economy, or as a responsible, mature, state with a relaxed nationalism, at peace with itself and its neighbours. India has wantonly antagonised its biggest neighbour. As for India's upbeat commercial image, one IT swallow does not an economic summer make! Nor does a Kargil decisively alter regional strategic equations. Pessimistically, Indian is still one of the sick men of the world; optimistically, a country with much potential (couldn't that have been said pre-Pokharan, or 50 years ago?)-although it shines beside Pakistan. The liabilities side looks grim.
Both countries have hardened their nuclear postures-especially India with its Draft Nuclear Doctrine, ambitions for a triadic, open-ended arsenal, and cynicism towards nuclear restraint, leave alone disarmament. A special synergy now operates between nuclearism, a growing "national security" obsession, jingoism over Kashmir, and rank communalism: Two-Nation Theory prejudices are under revival, complete with condemnation of "Hindu cowardice" and Pakistan's "design" to "disintegrate" India. Never since Partition have militarist hawks and communalists worked in such perfect unison inside and across borders.
These are the heaviest political costs nuclearisation has claimed anywhere. Once "national security" mindsets and "military necessity" doctrines prevail, values of transparency, inclusion, pluralism, participation and human rights are jettisoned. Nuclearisation's economic costs could prove ruinous. Even a small arsenal, one-fifth the size of China's, could over some years cost Rs. 50,000 crores, which exceeds India's entire annual expenditure on primary education. Should India go in for a bigger arsenal, its cost could exceed a frightening three to five percent of GDP, especially if there is an arms race. India will race not just against Pakistan-utterly devastating it-but with China, perhaps devastating itself economically. Nuclear weapons manufacture imposes high ecological costs too.
Cleaning up the environmental mess left behind by the US weapons programme is officially estimated to cost $250 billion-the same order of magnitude as India's GDP. There are harmful radiation and waste releases at each stage of the nuclear "fuel cycle" from uranium mining onwards, including handling, transportation and storage of nuclear materials. The social costs of nuclearisation dwarf all others. Embracing the "abhorrent" doctrine of nuclear deterrence means seeking security through insecurity, terror, and threat to cause havoc on a mass scale, with pitiless disregard for life. This is incompatible with civilised, humane, values.
Nuclearisation spells matsyanyaya-big fish swallowing small ones, as the "natural" order of things, extendable to society itself. Nuclearism entails getting our children to accept a deeply immoral state of society as normal. It means rationalising and routinising mass terror and a grotesque version of "Might is Right". From here, a "realistic" embrace of barbaric "reasons-of-state" irrationality and fundamentalism is one small step. Putting the veneer of "responsible" behaviour and "rational" conduct by "us", and the opposite by "them," won't help. We have seen restraint and sobriety take far too many knocks. Ultimately, we must ask if we want to leave this irrational, violent, legacy to future generations.
If the answer is no, we must change course-to preserve sanity and gain security. Real security can come only through democracy and pluralism, equity and social cohesion, caring and sharing, compassion and justice. Food security, minimum entitlements, gender security, human capacity-building and empowerment, are more important here than military security. India can still claim greatness if it struggles for comprehensive security. It has a historic opportunity: unilaterally freeze nuclear and missile programmes for a limited period, so that the NWSs make deep arms reductions and move towards abolition. Morally and politically, this will be electrifying. That's when the world will take real notice of India.-end-
----
Let India help
Washington Times
Richard Fisher
May 18, 2000
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/commentary-2000518155556.htm
If a benevolent nuclear-armed democracy were to offer to help deter a not-so-friendly nuclear-armed power, should the United States object? No, instead, the U.S. should cheer when later this year India sends its navy into the South China Sea to affirm its interests in defending freedom of the seas and to stand up to the irredentism of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
In fact, it is about time India has decided to act to defend its vital economic and security interests that lay outside its immediate environs. India's decision to test nuclear weapons in 1998, and to build its own nuclear missile deterrent, was in large part a consequence of the PRC's giving nuclear weapons technology and ballistic missile technology to its rival Pakistan. But the decision to seek its own nuclear deterrent seems to have led to a wider realization in India that it must also seek partners to defend real economic-security interests beyond its region.
Even though the current BJP-led government of Prime Minister Vajpayee continues to express India's traditional foreign policy of non-alignment, in February his Defense Minister George Fernandez went to Tokyo to try to encourage Indian-Japanese naval defense cooperation. While Japanese defense officials are keen to proceed, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs thinks not so fast. Sad, as both India and Japan have a vital interest in securing the sea lanes that connect Persian Gulf energy to a Japanese economy that is a main Indian partner for investment and trade.
But whether the Japanese want to play or not, India does intend to send a small naval group into the South China Sea later this year to conduct exercises with Vietnamese Navy. Both India and Vietnam have reason to be wary of the PRC's maritime ambitions. To a country on India's border, Myanmar, the PRC has just sold attack ships armed with the C-801 or C-802 anti-ship cruise missiles. PRC construction of ports in Myanmar has long been seen a cover for building PRC intelligence-gathering facilities aimed at India.
Vietnam remembers its 1988 clash with the PRC, which saw about 70 Vietnamese soldiers killed as Chinese naval and marine forces took several islands from Vietnam in the disputed Spratly Island group. And since then Beijing has proceeded to implement its territorial claim to most of the South China Sea by gradually building up a military presence in the Paracel Island Group, which now hosts a significant air base, and in the Spratly group to the south. In Mischief Reef, which sits astride a critical sea-trade route called the Palawan Trench, and only about 150 miles from the Philippine islands of Palawan, there are now two large PRC structures, one of which can service military helicopters.
Despite enormous diplomatic activity, led by the members of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, the PRC will not budge from its absurd and threatening claims to nearly the entire South China Sea. This is analogous to the U.S. claiming the whole of the Gulf of Mexico and Cuba as its own. Mischief Reef is about 800 miles from the Chinese Mainland. And the Clinton administration has been disappointingly slow to recognize a U.S. interest in convincing China to stop its aggressive behavior and to negotiate in good faith with other claimants. So there should be little surprise when other states begin to act in their self-defense.
While it may appear that India's naval sortie into the South China Sea is destabilizing, it really is not. India is emerging from its cocoon of non-alignment, and in doing so, is encouraging Japan to assume a greater security burden. This potential cooperation is a consequence of the PRC's actions, and for sure, is directed against it. But it is also a result of a lackluster U.S. response to the PRC's efforts to surround India with client states, and to Washington's slow response to PRC ambitions in the South China Sea.
This author's attendance at a recent conference on U.S.-Indian relations at India's premier private university in Manipal, India, was most instructive. In the wake of President Clinton's successful -yes, successful - visit to India and Pakistan, it appears there is a real opportunity to clear away the fog caused by 50 years of U.S.-Indian mutual mistreatment. And while influential Indians continue to view the U.S. with mixed emotions, there appear to be plenty of Indians willing to work with Washington to build such a partnership.
It is time for the United States to exercise the leadership required to ensure that the world's two largest democracies forge a real and lasting partnership, perhaps even a strategic partnership. With or without U.S. help, India is going to emerge soon in this century as the world's most populous democratic superpower. With or without U.S. help, India also is going to defend its security even if it means standing up to a growing PRC challenge.
An enlightened American policy would help a billion Indians create a democratic superpower in Asia, so that at a minimum, they can show a billion Chinese that a dictatorship is not needed to achieve security and prosperity. This policy can start by thanking India for taking seriously the responsibility of defending the freedom of passage in the South China Sea.
Richard Fisher is a senior fellow with the Jamestown Foundation.
---
Ex-Indian Naval Chief slams nuclearization
South Asians Against Nukes -
By Our Staff Reporter, DAWN
18 May 2000 Thursday
From: Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
KARACHI, May 17: People-to-people contact between India and Pakistan be increased so that they understood each other better, speakers stressed at a seminar on Wednesday. They said the misunderstanding between the two peoples had been created deliberately by the vested interests so that tension persisted.
The seminar on "prospects of peace and development in South Asia in the context of nuclearization of India and Pakistan" was organized by the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy, and Action Committee Against Arms Race.
The former chief of Indian Navy, Admiral Ramdas, said that keeping nuclear bombs was against all ethics and morality because by using it, one can kill millions of civilians who have no relation with war or armed forces.
He recalled that soon after the nuclear testing its supporters said it was deterrence against aggression, but within months there was the Kargil conflict.
He said the bomb supporters claimed it would reduce the arms expenditure, but soon after the nuclear testing a doctrine was prepared which said India should make a plan to spend Rs1 trillion in the next 10 years.
This year the Indian defence budget was increased by 28 per cent as the figure jumped from Rs430 billion to Rs580 billion. This must have put pressure Pakistan and soon it will also have to increase its defence budget.
Admiral Ramdas said a nuclear bomb, including its delivery system, its support system and the need to keep it updated, cost huge money which the economies of the two countries were unable to sustain and would eventually collapse under its pressure.
India, he said, had tested the nuclear device in 1974. So if, after the May 11 Pokharan testing, Pakistan had not gone for its Chaghi testing, it could have gained many benefits in terms of political, financial and militarily support and international respect.
He said both countries by spending huge amounts on arms were bleeding each other to death. Hunger, misery, poverty, illiteracy, and lack of health facilities were the common enemies, and the two governments should curtail their defence spending and shift the funding to the social sector development.
The former Indian navy chief said the extremists on both sides were also the common enemy and it was the duty of saner elements to make people aware of the extremists' designs and try to spread feelings of love, peace and harmony.
He talked of fanatics who lived in both countries. He feared that one day the Indian fanatics might announce plan for crossing over to the Pakistan side of Kashmir. Pakistan could face a great difficulty if over 10 million fanatics tried to cross over the Line of Control.
In reply to a question, he said Kashmir was not a real estate dispute which the India and Pakistan could decide and added that it should be settled the way the Kashmiris wanted it to be settled.
Kamal Mateenuddin, columnist M.B. Naqvi, Dr Asad Saeed, Rehana Iftikhar, Dr Zaki Hassan, and Hassan Abidi also spoke while Sheema Kirmani recited a poem at the seminar.
Terming the territorial dispute a major cause of tension between the two countries, Mateenuddin, a retired general, said that they should behave like good and responsible neighbours and start dialogue on all the issues.
He said that when the Pakistanis had forgotten the issues of East Pakistan and Siachen the Indians should forget Kargil. Dialogue must continue, he stressed.
Mr Naqvi said bombs were built only when there was an intention to use them. He said the two governments had been lying to their peoples; all the time they said they were not making nuclear weapons and then suddenly both of them conducted tests.
He said that "on one hand Pakistan was hosting the Indian prime minister, on the other it was executing the Kargil operation."
Mrs Ramdas said that message of love and peace be spread, and terrorism, wherever it occurred, should be condemned because it was crime against humanity.
-------- iran
Iran seeks help from world nuclear body
IRAN: May 18, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6718
TEHRAN - Iran asked the International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday to help run a nuclear research centre, the official news agency IRNA reported.
Iran, which says it has no ambition to develop nuclear weapons, wants Western experts to help ensure its nuclear power projects conform to top international safety standards.
"Iran is interested in receiving more technical aid from the IAEA," IRNA quoted Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, as telling visiting IAEA Director-General Mohamed Elbaradei.
Aghazadeh invited the Vienna-based IAEA to supervise an educational nuclear facility west of Tehran which conducts research on nuclear applications in agriculture and medicine, IRNA said.
A senior Iranian nuclear official recently said Iran's first nuclear power plant, under construction with Russian help in the Gulf port of Bushehr, had been deprived of top-quality supervision because of Western sanctions on "dual-use" technology.
The United States and Israel are leading a campaign against Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology, fearing it will lead to the manufacture of nuclear arms by a state they see as a threat.
"Just as we are opposed to the use of nuclear technology in making weapons, we are also against (Western) pressure against free and independent countries under the pretext of disarmament," state radio quoted President Mohammad Khatami as telling Elbaradei.
"Efforts should be made to remove the destructive aspect of atomic energy and use it for progress and development." Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a similar pact against the spread of chemical weapons.
It says Western sanctions have hampered its drive to supply 10 percent of the country's energy needs from nuclear sources within two decades.
-------- israel
Israel quits Belarus embassy fearing radiation
By Larisa Sayenko,
14:05 05-18-00
MINSK, Belarus (Reuters) - Israel evacuated its embassy in Belarus and sent its staff home to Jerusalem for medical checks Thursday over fears of radioactivity from fires near the Chernobyl power station.
But the Belarussian government insisted that fires raging across peat bogs polluted by fallout from the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, just over the border in Ukraine, posed no threat.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said a ministry doctor had taken the decision to send all staff home for routine medical checks ``because of the rise in the radioactivity.''
A senior U.S. official said Wednesday that the fires had stirred up radioactive elements left in the environment by Chernobyl and raised radiation levels downwind in Belarus.
No one at the Israeli embassy could be reached for comment but Belarussian Emergencies Minister Valery Astapov told Reuters:
``I officially confirm there is no threat to either local citizens or diplomats. The situation is within normal limits. Allegations of high radioactivity are either a provocation or nonsense.''
He said the ministry was giving embassies information from meteorologists: ``Diplomats have no reasons for anxiety, let alone evacuation.''
He said small increases in radiation had been noted in rural districts adjoining Chernobyl but added: ``These changes are so minimal that they cannot even be detected by satellites. They have no impact on the general level.''
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a reactor caught fire and exploded in 1986, spewing radioactive dust over much of the rest of Europe.
A 20-mile exclusion zone is still in force around the plant. Large areas of Ukraine and Belarus are still contaminated, including about one-fifth of Belarus's territory.
The Belarussian Foreign Ministry said the embassy would resume normal work next week.
-------- russia
Moscow's overlooked missile defenses
Washington Times
May 17, 2000
James T. Hackett
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/commentary-2000517164417.htm
It seems that everyone wants the U.S. to remain undefended against ballistic missiles. The United Nations secretary general, a former NATO secretary generals, the British prime minister, French, German, and Canadian officials, and just about everyone else in Europe is supporting Moscow and Beijing in opposing a U.S. missile defense. To be sure, our allies are polite, but it is disturbing to hear Europeans, with whom Americans fought in two world wars, saying we should not defend ourselves.
After all, the current plan is modest - to deploy just 20 interceptors by 2005 and 100 by 2007. This, we are told, will destroy the ABM treaty, threaten strategic stability, cause Moscow to withdraw from START and other arms control treaties, and lead to a new arms race. The widespread opposition is a reflection of America's predominant position in the world today - others join in trying to hold down the most powerful.
Besides, missile defenses devalue not only Russian and Chinese missiles, but those of our allies as well. And the allies fear that if we become secure in our defenses we will abandon them. So they join our adversaries in opposing a U.S. defense.
But why do they never mention Moscow's missile defense? It has been there for over three decades, silently defending the Russian leadership, with no adverse affects on arms reductions or global stability. It began in 1968 when 64 Galosh ABM interceptors, each armed with a nuclear weapon comparable to a million tons of TNT, were deployed at four sites some 50 miles north and west of Moscow.
The Galosh did not have to be accurate - the enormous fireball created by such a huge nuclear weapon would incinerate incoming warheads. Next came 36 Gazelle short-range interceptors, also nuclear-armed, at sites just outside Moscow, giving the city a layered defense of 100 interceptors, the same number the U.S. plans to deploy in Alaska.
In 1976, the U.S. deployed 100 Spartan and Sprint interceptors in an ABM defense at Grand Forks, N.D., but shortly thereafter deactivated the site and put the interceptors in storage. Not the Soviets. They maintained their defense of Moscow and improved it a decade ago, replacing the Galoshes with new long-range interceptors known as Gorgons. That upgraded Moscow defense, with 100 Gorgons and Gazelles armed with nuclear warheads, remains on alert today. Last November, a Gazelle was taken from its silo and flight-tested to show the system still works.
This ABM defense protects hundreds if not thousands of miles around Moscow that includes the heartland of the country - the national capital, the government and leadership, population centers and major industries - and it is supplemented by deep underground shelters for the leadership. But Russia also has thousands of SA-5, SA-10, and SA-12 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) defending against short-and medium-range missiles such as those in the arsenals of China, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, and other countries. And if these SAMs are connected to ABM radars, as some analysts contend, it would constitute a nationwide ABM network.
On Feb. 10, the Moscow press reported that a new SAM, the S-400 Triumph, was about to undergo a series of flight tests. The report said the S-400 was tested six times last year with results that showed it to be more capable than the newest version of the U.S. Patriot. By the end of this year, the report added, at least 10 flight tests will be completed against supersonic, maneuverable targets, and the S-400 will be ready to join the thousands of SAMs already protecting high priority locations in Russia.
The technically superior S-400, with a reach of 250 miles, can engage ballistic missiles with ranges up to 2,200 miles, and perhaps with longer ranges if it is connected to ABM radars. Today, Russia has the world's only ABM defense around its national capital, plus thousands of SAMs defending the country, up to 3,000 around Moscow alone, and a new model soon to go into production. Yet, the world is silent about Russia's missile defenses.
The U.S. wants similar protection against an accidental, unauthorized or rogue state launch, and against missile blackmail. But Moscow and Beijing want the U.S. to remain defenseless against their missiles, so they protest vociferously. It is ridiculous to say it is OK for Russia to defend itself, but not for the United States to do so.
Every country has the right of self-defense, especially against nuclear missiles. The U.S. should reject the foreign criticism and defend itself. Then it can expand the shield to protect the allies and lead the way to a new era in which defenses promote global stability.
James T. Hackett is a contributing writer to The Washington Times.
-------- spying
THE MIDDLE EAST
Iranian Jew Admits Crime, but Not Spying
Washington Post
Thursday, May 18, 2000; Page A20
WORLD IN BRIEF Compiled by Virginia Hamill
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-05/18/216l-051800-idx.html
SHIRAZ, Iran--The last of 10 main Jewish defendants admitted in court to collecting military information for Israel but insisted he did not consider his actions espionage, a defense spokesman said.
Javid Bent-Yacoub, 42, told the court that religious motives prompted him to collect photographs of Iranian military facilities for Israel, which he visited for 45 days in 1993, spokesman Esmail Naseri said.
"He said he knew he was committing a crime, but not espionage," Naseri told reporters after the hearing. It was not immediately clear if Bent-Yacoub's testimony amounted to a guilty plea.
Meanwhile, an Iranian court sentenced five men to jail terms of up to 15 years for their part in a March assassination attempt on Saeed Hajjariana, a leading reformer, state-run Tehran television reported.
Saeed Asghar, the main suspect, was sentenced to 15 years, and his accomplices each received three to 10 years on charges ranging from complicity against national security to illegal possession of arms. The court acquitted three other suspects.
-------- terrorism
Clinton cites variety of threats to security
USA Today
05/17/00- Updated 12:48 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed08.htm
NEW LONDON, Conn.(AP) - President Clinton said Wednesday that Jordan helped U.S. investigators shut down a terror network linked to Osama bin Laden that planned to target Americans gathered for millennium celebrations.
''In December, working with Jordan, we shut down a plan to place large bombs at locations where Americans might gather for New Year's Eve,'' Clinton said in commencement remarks to 184 cadets at the Coast Guard Academy.
''We learned the plot was linked to terrorist camps in Afghanistan and the organization created by Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for the 1998 bombings at our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which cost the lives of Americans and hundreds of Africans,'' Clinton said.
Shortly after the plan was uncovered, a Customs agent in Seattle discovered bombmaking materials being smuggled into the United States, Clinton said, ''the same material used by bin Laden in other places.''
It was the fullest accounting yet of the story behind smuggling interceptions involving Algerian natives last year.
Bin Laden, a Saudi exile believed to be in Afghanistan, is among 17 people charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to kill Americans in the embassy bombing cases. Six are in custody in the United States and three overseas.
Clinton was making the point that the new Coast Guard graduates will face a range of threats to America's security, from terrorism to smuggling to the spread of disease.
''Today and for the forseeable tomorrows we, and especially you, will face a fateful struggle between forces of integration and harmony and the forces of disintegration and chaos,'' Clinton said.
''Technology can be a servant of either side, or, ironically, both,'' he said.
By tradition, the president speaks at graduation ceremonies for one of the four service academies each year. He last spoke to Coast Guard cadets in 1996.
Clinton presented each cadet, or senior, with a bachelor of science degree and a commission as an ensign. Ensigns begin their a five-year service obligation with a tour of duty aboard a Coast Guard cutter.
Clinton cited the ''Love Bug'' computer virus as powerful proof of the new kinds of threats to American security in an increasingly smaller, faster and more computerized world, the White House says.
Clinton noted that the virus, which spread by electronic mail, disabled computers worldwide earlier this month and did millions of dollars in damage.
---
Bin Laden blamed in New Year's plots
Washington Times
May 18, 2000
By Bill Sammon THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000518223748.htm
President Clinton yesterday blamed Saudi exile Osama bin Laden for the plot to bomb New Year's Eve celebrations in the United States and Jordan last year, confirming what administration officials have been whispering for months.
"Last December, working with Jordan, we shut down a plot to place large bombs at locations where Americans might gather on New Year's Eve," Mr. Clinton said in a commencement address to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
"We learned this plot was linked to terrorist camps in Afghanistan and the organization created by Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for the 1998 bombings of our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which cost the lives of Americans and hundreds of Africans," he added.
The last time Mr. Clinton publicly railed against bin Laden's terrorism camps in Afghanistan was on Aug. 20, 1998, the day Monica Lewinsky testified before a grand jury. The president abruptly ordered the camps to be bombed that day, prompting Republicans to accuse him of "wagging the dog," or contriving a military crisis to divert attention from his domestic troubles.
Also bombed that day was a "terrorist" target in the Sudan that turned out to be a pharmaceutical plant. CIA and State Department officials later acknowledged the bombing had been a mistake and the Treasury Department released assets it had seized from the plant's owner, quietly paying him $1 million in interest.
But yesterday, Mr. Clinton made clear there was no mistake about the evidence linking bin Laden to the New Year's Eve bomb plot.
"A customs agent in Seattle discovered bomb materials being smuggled into the U.S. - the same materials used by bin Laden in other places," the president said. "Thankfully, and thanks to Jordan, New Year's passed without an attack. But the threat was real."
Vincent Cannistraro, former CIA chief of counterterrorism operations, said U.S. intelligence officials got "lucky" when border guards arrested Ahmed Ressam on Dec. 14 as he tried to exit a ferry from Canada at a port near Seattle. Officials say they found bomb materials in his rented car.
"Ressam was caught because Ressam became a nervous wreck at the border crossing, not because they had advance warning that someone was carrying a bomb across the border," Mr. Cannistraro told The Washington Times. "They didn't have advance intelligence on it.
"In other words, it was going to be a simultaneous sequence of violent explosions in Jordan and the United States around the millennium celebrations, and one of the components of that operation was compromised only by pure serendipity," he said. "We caught a lucky break, which is a little frightening, because this was very close to home and conceivably a lot of violence and a lot of death could have occurred on New Year's Eve."
Mr. Ressam, 32, has pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing explosives and transporting them with the intent to cause injury or damage. The Algerian national's trial is set to begin July 10 in Los Angeles, where it was moved because of intense media coverage in Seattle.
Also in U.S. custody is Abdel Ghani Meskini, 31, who was arrested in December in Brooklyn, N.Y., and is charged with providing and concealing support for Mr. Ressam. Another suspected accomplice is Mokhtar Haouari, 31, who remains in Montreal as the United States seeks extradition.
But bin Laden and his top lieutenants remain at large and are believed to be hiding in Afghanistan under the protection of Taleban authorities.
Bin Laden is among 17 persons charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to kill Americans in the embassy bombing cases. Six are in custody in the United States and three overseas.
"The principal people who could have been rounded up have been rounded up, while the actual leadership of these operations is beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement and has gone underground," Mr. Cannistraro said.
"The Jordanians were very effective in rounding this group up," he added. "There's no question there was cooperation with the United States, but I think the success is primarily due to Jordanian intelligence."
In order to beef up U.S. intelligence, Mr. Clinton yesterday called on Congress to increase funding for counterterrorism programs like the ones that intercept communications. The White House already has asked Congress for $9 billion to shield U.S. computers and infrastructure from terrorists.
"Today, I'm adding over $300 million to fund critical programs to protect our citizens from terrorist threats, to expand our intelligence efforts, to improve our ability to use forensic evidence to track terrorists, to enhance our coordination with state and local officials - as we did over New Year's - to protect our nation against possible attack," Mr. Clinton said.
Michael Sheehan, the State Department's ambassador at large for counterterrorism, told a conference of corporate and government security specialists last month that the New Year's period forced the U.S. counterterrorism community to be at its most heightened state of alert since the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
Mr. Sheehan said the alert was prompted by not only Mr. Ressam's arrest at the U.S.-Canadian border, but also the arrest in Jordan of a terrorist linked to bin Laden and the hijacking of an Indian airliner by Pakistani terrorists.
"We were able to thwart those and still in a sense keep a certain operational tempo, keep a high degree of readiness without exhausting people," Mr. Sheehan said in a keynote address to a conference sponsored by the National Security Institute.
Mr. Sheehan, a former U.S. Army ranger and West Point graduate, warned that terrorists "are still out there, plotting actively to attack us."
"It's only a matter of time before they break through again," he said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to disrupt it to the best of our ability."
• Bill Gertz contributed to this report.
-------- ukraine
Ukraine Fires Boost Radiation In Belarus Says U.S.
May 18, 2000
Reuters
http://www.russiatoday.com:80/news.php3?id=160401
WASHINGTON, Wild fires in Ukraine have stirred up radioactive elements remaining in the environment from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and raised radiation levels downwind in Belarus, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.
"They've detected increased levels of radiation, but not high enough to warrant precautionary measures," the U.S. official told Reuters. He said his comments were based on information from U.S., Belarus and Ukrainian officials.
But in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, the duty officer at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant said on Wednesday there were no serious problems there.
"Everything is operating normally," the duty officer who declined to be named told Reuters, adding that the plant had announced a 50 percent power output cut on Monday for repairs to its steam-powered turbine.
Another duty officer at the Emergencies Ministry confirmed the plant had cut power by 50 percent since Monday and said the purpose was preventative maintenance which should last until Saturday. He said there was no danger involved whatsoever.
The U.S. official also confirmed that the remaining working reactor at Chernobyl had been reduced by 50 percent in order to fix a malfunction in a steam line that caused a hydrogen leak. He said there was no radioactive release from the leak.
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a reactor caught fire and exploded in 1986, spewing a cloud of radioactive dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of western Europe.
Ukraine has promised to shut Chernobyl's single functioning reactor later this year. It has frequently seen power cuts and temporary shut-downs for maintenance and repairs.
----
Chernobyl's Continuing Thyroid Impact
by Mary J. Shomon
http://thyroid.about.com/health/thyroid/library/weekly/aa051100a.htm
On April 26th, 1986, the worst nuclear accident in history took place in the small town of Chernobyl, located in the Ukraine region of the former Soviet Union. The Chernobyl nuclear plant, located approximately 80 miles north of Kiev, experienced a chain reaction explosion that blew off the reactor's lid, releasing dangerous radiation. More than 30 people were killed immediately, and in the ten days after the accident, clouds of deadly radioactive materials were released into the atmosphere, exposing the people of Chernobyl to radioactivity levels estimated to be 100 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. Radiation also traveled downwind, exposing Eastern Europeans to high levels of radiation, and contaminating food supplies that then affected other areas of Europe as well.
The radioactive materials released during the Chernobyl contained high levels of radioactive iodine, a material that accumulates in the thyroid. People, especially children, in heavily contaminated areas, which included Belarus, the Ukraine, and other areas of Eastern Europe, were heavily exposed to these iodines (particularly iodine-131, with a half-life of 8 days) via food, primarily contaminated milk, and also via breathing the radioactive clouds.
One of the continuing health effects of the Chernobyl accident has been the dramatic increase in thyroid cancer among children in the affected area.
According to the World Health Organization, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster will cause 50,000 new cases of thyroid cancer among young people living in the areas most affected by the nuclear disaster. Specifically, the rate of thyroid cancer in adolescents aged 15 to 18 is also now three times higher than it was before the 1986 disaster took place. The incidence of thyroid cancer in children rose 10-fold in children who lived in the Ukraine region.
The most dramatic rate increase is in children who were 10 or younger when the Chernobyl accident occurred, and most specifically, those who were under 4. Researchers have found that in certain parts of Belarus, 36.4 per cent of children who were under four when the accident occurred can expect to develop thyroid cancer. This rate is higher than earlier estimated, and is far above the rates for those exposed to radiation in other parts of the world. Researchers believe this high rate may be due to iodine deficiency in that geographic region.
According to the journal Cancer (2000;68:1470-1476) among children living in Belarus, thyroid cancer is more common and more severe in children who were younger than 2 years old at the time of the 1986 accident. The researchers believe that the rapid cellular growth that occurs in children under 2 facilitated a quicker and broader development of the cancer.
In addition to thyroid cancer, there is another thyroid related problem due to Chernobyl's radiation release. According to the medical journal, Lancet, children exposed to radioactive iodine due to the Chernobyl nuclear explosion may be more likely to develop hypothyroidism. Research conducted at the University of Pisa showed that exposure to Chernobyl's radiation caused the children to have more antithyroid antibodies than other children. These antibodies may cause the children to later develop hypothyroidism.
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----
Ukraine sees May Chernobyl closure announcement
UKRAINE: May 18, 2000
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6719
KIEV, May 17 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said on Wednesday the government would announce a firm closure date for the troubled Chernobyl nuclear power plant by the end of the month.
Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting Austrian President Thomas Klestil after talks earlier in the day, Kuchma said the date would be determined by a special commission headed by Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko.
``We have set up a government commission headed by the prime minister and the commission will determine the date of closure taking into account all the political, economic and social consequences of the Chernobyl closure,'' Kuchma said.
``The (commission) has been given May as a time frame (to announce its decision).''
Ukraine has promised the West it will close Chernobyl in 2000 in return for financial help in completing reactors at two other nuclear power plants and resolving social problems, such as unemployment, resulting from the shutdown.
Ukrainian officials have frequently complained that Western partners have failed to provide the promised funds to build the new reactors.
Chernobyl operates only one of its original four nuclear reactors.
Its number four reactor exploded in April 1986 in the world's worst civil nuclear accident, spewing a cloud of radioactive dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of western Europe.
Another reactor was halted in 1997 after it exhausted its safe lifespan, and the fourth reactor has not been rehabilitated since a fire in 1991.
----
No serious problems at Chernobyl - officials
UKRAINE: May 18, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6716
KIEV - The duty officer at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant said on Wednesday there were no serious problems there, despite news reports of a malfunction.
"Everything is operating normally," the duty officer who declined to be named told Reuters, adding that the plant had announced a 50 percent power output cut on Monday for repairs to its steam-powered turbine.
Another duty officer at the Emergencies Ministry confirmed the plant had cut power by 50 percent since Monday and said the purpose was preventative maintenance which should last until Saturday. He said there was no danger involved whatsoever.
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a reactor caught fire and exploded in 1986, spewing a cloud of radioactive dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of western Europe.
Ukraine has promised to shut Chernobyl's single functioning reactor later this year. It has frequently seen power cuts and temporary shut-downs for maintenance and repairs.
----
Ukraine fires boost radiation in Belarus - U.S.
USA: May 18, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6717
WASHINGTON - Wild fires in Ukraine have stirred up radioactive elements remaining in the environment from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and raised radiation levels downwind in Belarus, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.
"They've detected increased levels of radiation, but not high enough to warrant precautionary measures," the U.S. official told Reuters. He said his comments were based on information from U.S., Belarus and Ukrainian officials.
But in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, the duty officer at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant said on Wednesday there were no serious problems there.
"Everything is operating normally," the duty officer who declined to be named told Reuters, adding that the plant had announced a 50 percent power output cut on Monday for repairs to its steam-powered turbine.
Another duty officer at the Emergencies Ministry confirmed the plant had cut power by 50 percent since Monday and said the purpose was preventative maintenance which should last until Saturday. He said there was no danger involved whatsoever.
The U.S. official also confirmed that the remaining working reactor at Chernobyl had been reduced by 50 percent in order to fix a malfunction in a steam line that caused a hydrogen leak. He said there was no radioactive release from the leak.
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a reactor caught fire and exploded in 1986, spewing a cloud of radioactive dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of western Europe.
Ukraine has promised to shut Chernobyl's single functioning reactor later this year. It has frequently seen power cuts and temporary shut-downs for maintenance and repairs.
----
Malfunction at Chernobyl plant
USA Today
05/17/00- Updated 03:27 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed04.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - A malfunction in a steam pipeline has forced officials at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine to cut power back 50%, even as forest fires spread the remnants of radiation from a 1986 disaster at the plant, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
The new malfunction caused the turbo generator in the reactor, the only one in operation, to switch off. Repairs are expected to take until Saturday to complete, the official said.
There is no evidence of radiation as a result of the malfunction, the official told The Associated Press.
But, at the same time, the official said, forest fires in the area had caused the circulation into the air of remnants of radiation in roots and stems of plants, with the result that the radiation level in Kiev was elevated slightly,
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the malfunction a glitch that disabled the sixth turbo generator in the reactor, the only one still functioning in Chernobyl. As a result, the reactor was powered down to by about 50%, the official said.
President Clinton is due to visit Kiev June 6 after summit talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A White House official said there were no radiation concerns at this point.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no reason for Clinton to change plans.
It's not a big crisis, the official said, adding: It does not appear to be serious.
-------- us military
Area Reserve Unit Completes a Forgotten--but Risky--Mission Over Iraq
Washington Post
Thursday, May 18, 2000; Page J05
By Steve Vogel Washington Post Staff Writer
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-05/18/151l-051800-idx.html
Most Americans may have forgotten about the shooting war that takes place over the skies of Iraq on nearly a daily basis, but members of a U.S. Navy Reserve Prowler squadron based at Andrews Air Force Base are not likely to forget it any time soon.
After nearly two months conducting operations over Iraq, the squadron's four EA-6B Prowlers swooped over Andrews in a four-plane diamond formation last Thursday afternoon before landing and reuniting crews with anxious family members. A C-17 cargo plane carrying 30 squadron members landed at Andrews a short time later. Another plane carrying the bulk of the squadron had returned a week earlier.
The squadron, designated VAQ-209, was enforcing the "no-fly" zone north of the 36th parallel in Iraq and monitoring Iraqi compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions. The no-fly zone, along with a similar zone in southern Iraq, has been in place for almost a decade, and despite frequent exchanges of fire between Iraqi antiaircraft sites and allied warplanes, the action draws little attention.
The Prowlers carry weapons and electronic equipment to suppress radar and jam enemy communications.
"Most every day we go in there, they shoot at us," Cmdr. F. Clay Fearnow, leader of the squadron, said after the unit's return. "It's a pretty dangerous environment, and we're pretty lucky we haven't lost anybody yet."
"It's interesting to think that these are reservists who are not just doing their two weeks but are actually in combat on an almost daily basis," said Ensign Jim Calpin, an officer with the squadron who works for a Northern Virginia think tank.
Members of the squadron work in defense, restaurant, automobile, plumbing and roofing businesses, among others. "They come from just about all walks of life," said Fearnow. "But they come and put their uniforms on, and pick it right back up. They do it so much, it's not a problem."
About 150 members of the squadron participated in the deployment. While some served for the entire two months, others were able to get away for only three- or four-week periods and were replaced. Some of the biggest problems turned out to be on the home front. Six members of the squadron had to return from deployment in Turkey because close relatives had died back home.
Mark Kirk, an intelligence officer for the squadron, was a little late joining the mission as he had to first wage a campaign for Congress.
Kirk, former chief of staff for Rep. John Edward Porter (R-Ill.), won the Republican primary in March in the race to succeed Porter, who is retiring after 11 terms representing the suburbs north of Chicago. Kirk will face Democrat Lauren Beth Gash in the November election.
It was the squadron's second hot assignment in a year. In April 1999, the squadron deployed on short notice to Aviano, Italy, in support of Allied Force, NATO's Kosovo operation. Flying virtually around-the-clock to accompany NATO bombers on missions, VAQ-209 Prowlers were regularly greeted with barrages of antiaircraft fire and surface-to-air missiles. The squadron fired 50 HARM missiles--a high-speed, anti-radiation air-to-surface weapon--at radar sites.
Over Iraq, the aircraft encountered regular antiaircraft fire but were not fired upon by ground-based missiles, Fearnow said. On a number of occasions, the Prowlers assisted in attacks on the antiaircraft sites but did not unleash any HARM missiles because of concerns of hitting noncombatants.
"It's a proportional response," said Fearnow. "If there's any chance of collateral damage, we won't respond."
Unlike the Kosovo mission, the squadron did not fire HARM missiles in Iraq. "We came close a couple of times, but there were concerns about collateral damage," Fearnow said.
The concerns were heightened because of the Kosovo experience, when several HARM missiles fired by allied jets went astray.
At Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, where the squadron was based, the troops lived in a tent city that was relatively well appointed, at least compared to the overflowing facility at Aviano. "Compared to Allied Force, it was almost like the Taj Mahal," said Fearnow.
D-Day Paratroopers Reunite
A band of brothers gathered Saturday for a veterans dance in Maryland and showed they could still strut their stuff.
Members of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, along with other veterans, were feted at the event, held at Martin's West in Baltimore.
The paratrooper outfit was immortalized in historian Stephen E. Ambrose's book "Band of Brothers," which depicted the exploits of the unit, from the time it parachuted into Normandy on D-Day through its bitter fighting in the Battle of the Bulge to its arrival at Hitler's Eagle Nest in the Bavarian Alps at the conclusion of World War II.
Bill Guarnere, who lost a leg in the fighting, and Edward "Babe" Heffron, both 77, were among those dancing to the music of the Sentimental Journey Orchestra.
"These guys are just a different breed of people," said Charlie Kratz, 76, a World War II veteran from West Friendship who organized the event.
A little more immortality is in store for the the veterans. Director Steven Spielberg and actor Tom Hanks, who teamed up on the movie "Saving Private Ryan," are co-producing a 13-hour HBO miniseries based on Ambrose's book. Guarnere and Heffron are among those who have been interviewed for the production.
'Blue Crab' Forces in Aberdeen
Blue Crab will be in plentiful supply along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay this weekend at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
More than 1,000 reservists from all branches of the armed forces will descend on Aberdeen beginning today for Exercise Blue Crab 2000, with area reserve units from the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as active duty Coast Guard and Army units participating in the three-day training operation.
Troops will use the land, air and water around Aberdeen, which sits on the Chesapeake Bay and near a tributary, the Bush River. The scenario involves a small, friendly nation that faces an armed uprising and requests support from the United States.
In its third year at Aberdeen, Blue Crab has grown from 10 reserve units participating to 35 this year.
"Blue Crab will demonstrate that reservists from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey--whether Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Coast Guard, Army National Guard and Air National Guard--can meet the challenge when called," said Adm. Marianne Drew, commander of Readiness Command Region Six.
The command is headquartered at the Washington Navy Yard and includes more than 9,000 reservists supported by 12 reserve centers in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.
"Any time we can get out and 'play with toys' while we hone our skills for real-world application, we are training and motivating our people," said Drew.
Aircraft participating in the exercise will also be part of an Armed Forces Day parade scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m. to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the day.
Military Matters appears every other week. Steve Vogel can be reached at vogels@washpost.com via e-mail.
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Army casualties
Washington Times
May 19, 2000
Inside the Ring Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200051922399.htm
Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, has declared war on soldier suicides.
"We have a serious problem with suicides in the Army," the four-star general said in a message to the troops. "The suicide rate increased in calendar year '98 and it appears to have increased once again in calendar year '99. In the first five days of January 2000, we have already had four suspected suicides."
He adds, "Suicide prevention is commander/leader business. We must understand potential for suicides and increase awareness for recognizing individuals who are at risk or exhibiting self-destructive behavior. It is our responsibility to help our soldiers and civilians understand how to identify at-risk individuals, recognize warning signs, and know how to take direct action."
Gen. Shinseki's warning comes as the Army is experiencing a record rate of peacetime overseas deployments. The fast "op-tempo" (operations tempo) means the average soldier is spending more time away from his or her family. A recent Center for Strategic and International Studies survey found soldiers complaining of too many peacekeeping missions and too few resources to train. Young officers are quitting at an alarming rate.
Army records show suicides increased by 12 in 1998 to 68. There were 65 self-inflicted deaths last year.
An Army statement said, "This number, although very small, is extremely important to the Army since all deaths by suicides are considered needless deaths by the Army senior leadership."
The service has begun a suicide-prevention program that includes:
• Setting requirements for suicide-risk-identification training.
• Requiring a psychological autopsy.
• Creating local suicide-prevention task forces.
Gen. Shinseki's message said:
"Commanders and leaders must exemplify, by personal example, the Army's existing policies and programs. Training is critical - suicide-prevention training must be conducted to standard and the status of training tracked during command training briefs.
"We are reviewing our suicide-prevention program in a commitment to having the best possible tools and resources available to you and your commanders. The key to suicide prevention rests with commander, leader and soldier involvement in caring for our suicide-prone individuals. I need your urgent attention to this matter. We must take better care of our people."
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The Last Battle of the Gulf War
May 18, 2000
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/00/05/18/editorial/18thu2.html
The Army this week brushed off new reports that American forces needlessly attacked retreating Iraqi troops after a cease-fire was declared in the Persian Gulf war. The accounts, contained in a New Yorker article written by Seymour Hersh, cannot be so easily dismissed. Though questions about the battle were raised as the war ended in 1991, and subsequent Army investigations found no fault, there is good reason for the Pentagon and Congress to revisit the matter. Some officers familiar with the American assault offer detailed testimony that one of the country's most decorated commanders, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, ordered a punishing and unwarranted attack.
The sequence of events described by Mr. Hersh is complex and filled with the confusion and ambiguities that are common in war. There are conflicting accounts about what happened and why, and General McCaffrey, now retired from the Army and serving as the Clinton administration's top drug-control official, has vigorously defended his actions. But none of that justifies the Army's cavalier response to the New Yorker article. Few matters are more important to a democracy than the conduct of its military forces, and any credible accusation of reckless or unjustified killing by American servicemen must be thoroughly investigated by an independent panel of experts. The Army's internal inquiries are not an adequate answer.
The core issue raised by the Hersh piece is whether General McCaffrey, who was commander of the 24th Infantry Division, deliberately provoked a fight with retreating Iraqi forces after the cease-fire was in place by blocking a main escape route and then seizing on the firing of several Iraqi weapons to launch a withering assault. The ferocity of the American attack is not in question. American ground and air units all but pulverized a Republican Guard tank division on March 2, 1991, in one of the most devastating and one-sided battles of the war.
A number of General McCaffrey's fellow commanders, including Lt. Col. Patrick Lamar, who was the division's operations officer, told Mr. Hersh that excessive firepower was used against a weakened and retreating Iraqi force that did not seriously threaten the Americans. They believe that the American assault was a clear and willful violation of the cease-fire rules of engagement that had been established by the Pentagon. General McCaffrey maintains that he acted properly to defend his troops after the Iraqi forces initiated combat. He denies that he blocked their escape route in hopes of forcing a confrontation.
Mr. Hersh examines other serious charges involving General McCaffrey's troops, including reports that they massacred a group of Iraqi prisoners of war, but the evidence he cites here is not definitive. The Army's investigations of all these matters, which cleared General McCaffrey and the division, should not be the last word. The military services have a poor record of holding their own members accountable for misconduct, especially top officers.
As Walter Cronkite, the former CBS News anchorman, noted in a letter to The Times earlier this week, the Pentagon's efforts to restrict coverage of the war denied the American people an immediate and full account of the battles American forces fought in Kuwait and Iraq. More comprehensive coverage might long ago have clarified whether General McCaffrey's order to attack was appropriate.
The Senate did not inquire deeply into the 24th Infantry Division's actions when it approved promotions for General McCaffrey after the war or when it confirmed his appointment to the drug policy post. Secretary of Defense William Cohen should appoint an independent review panel. If he does not, the Senate or House should conduct its own investigation. If General McCaffrey acted responsibly, he should welcome an unflinching examination of the facts.
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Vaccines During Deployment Linked to Gulf War Syndrome
By Patricia Reaney
Thursday May 18 8:56 AM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000518/ts/health_syndrome_1.html
LONDON (Reuters) - Gulf War syndrome, the mysterious illness that has affected veterans of the 1991 conflict, is linked to the multiple vaccines given to soldiers during the war, British researchers said Friday.
Their study of 923 veterans with records of their vaccinations showed that health problems such as fatigue, muscle pain and difficulty with concentration and memory were associated with the vaccines they received during, but not before, their deployment. ''There doesn't seem to be a specific effect of an individual vaccine,'' Dr. Matthew Hotopf of the Gulf War Research Unit at King College's College in London told a news conference.
``The key finding of this paper is that multiple vaccines received before going to the Gulf War are not associated with increased risk...but if you received multiple vaccines during deployment it does seem to increase risk quite steadily,'' he said.
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The research paper was published in the British Medical Journal.
The scientists said the multiple vaccines in themselves do not seem to be harmful, but were linked to a variety of health problems combined with the physical and psychological stress of deployment.
Veterans who received six or more vaccines against conditions such as hepatitis, polio and typhoid, as well as anthrax and plague, had the most health problems.
Calls For Public Inquiry
British veterans welcomed the study -- funded by the U.S. Department of Defense -- and called for a public inquiry into other factors that may have contributed to Gulf War syndrome.
``We now have a number of pieces to a very complex jigsaw,'' said John Nichols, a Gulf War veteran and president of the Gulf War veterans branch of the Royal British Legion.
``But what this study hasn't examined and what nobody has looked at yet is the effect of multiple vaccines under stress alongside such things as smoke from the oil fires, chemical warfare antidotes, depleted uranium use, pesticides and a multitude of other inputs.''
He said a public inquiry may allay the fears of the veterans and serving military personnel and come up with a reason why so many veterans are ill and hundreds have died.
Nichols also criticized Britain for not funding the study.
``It is a sad indictment that this study has not been funded by our own country but by the United States Department of Defense,'' he said, adding that British servicemen and women deserved better treatment than they have been getting.
Hotopf and his colleagues said their finding was just a piece of a complicated puzzle of Gulf War illness and certainly not the end of the story.
``There are obviously many other health hazards veterans have been exposed to,'' he said.
The researchers said their results implied that routine vaccines for the military should be maintained during peacetime. They stressed that civilian vaccine programs are safe.
They said they were continuing their research into Gulf War syndrome and other scientists in the United States, Australia, Canada and Denmark were conducting similar studies.
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Nearly one in five fail to register for draft
USA Today
05/17/00- Updated 05:06 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndswed03.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly one in five young American men are failing to register for the military draft as required by law, risking fines and jail as well as ineligibility for a wide array of benefits including student loans and government jobs, the Selective Service Administration said Wednesday.
Agency officials said ignorance rather than willful resistance appears to be behind the compliance numbers, which were at 93% a decade ago. ''Since 1990 we have seen an erosion of about 1% a year,'' said agency spokesman Lewis Brodsky.
''Our research has consistently shown that the biggest barrier to young men's compliance is a simple lack of awareness,'' said Selective Service Director Gil Coronado. ''It's tragic to see young men potentially missing out on future opportunities because they just do not know they are required to register.''
''The consequences of not registering for whatever reasons, are enormous,'' said Education Secretary Richard Riley, who joined Coronado at a news conference where they announced the formation of partnerships with educational associations to get the word out to young men.
For men born in 1980 who are now 19 and 20 years old, the compliance rate is about 83%, Brodsky said.
A state-by-state survey issued by the agency showed some large states had low registration levels among those men - California with 79% and Texas, 77%. New Hampshire, by contrast, ranked highest with 95%.
The law requires that all young men living inside the United States and its territories register with the Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday. That includes immigrants and non-citizen residents of the United States.
The names are gathered in case a national emergency should require a military draft. Selective Service officials and members of Congress at the news conference called the system an important national ''insurance policy.'' They said the all-volunteer enlistment policy of the armed services is working as intended in peacetime. The last actual draft was in 1973 near the end of the Vietnam era.
Failure to register can cost young men their chance at student loans and grants, job training, government jobs and citizenship for male immigrations.
It is also a felony punishable by up to five years in jail or prison and a fine of up to $250,000, but such cases are rarely prosecuted. The last prosecution was in 1985, agency officials said.
''To make sure that any draft is as fair and as equitable as possible, we've got to make sure we reach everyone,'' Brodsky said. ''And it's difficult to kno