------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
The Nuclear August of 1945
Hiroshima Marks Bombing Anniversary
Hiroshima Vows to Keep A - Bomb Memory Alive
Hey Buddy, Wanna Buy a Bridge?
Conservative Coalition Pushes Missile Shield on Capitol Hill
Bush plan to close bases eyes nuke sites

MILITARY
Russia to sell arms to North Korea
Beijing arms Pakistan
Biden Doubts China Military Buildup
U.S.-China rivalry in Asia drug war
Palestinians Reject Israeli Most - Wanted List
TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND
Air Force Launches Titan Rocket

OTHER
Chinese county sets quota for abortions
Global forces silence ethnic tongues
A Health Danger From a Needle Becomes a Scourge Behind Bars
LA Police Officer Attacked by Crowd
FBI´s growth abroad adds to clashes
Report Criticizes Canada Police at '97 APEC Summit

ACTIVISTS
Castro Lauds Anti - Globalization Protests


-------- NUCLEAR

The Nuclear August of 1945

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By NIKOLAY PALCHIKOFF
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/06/opinion/06PALC.html?searchpv=nytToday

RENO, Nev. -- I was one of the first American soldiers to visit Hiroshima after its destruction by the atomic bomb 56 years ago today. Until recently, it was not something I talked about. Still now, at 77, it's hard not to cry when I picture walking into that city more than half a century ago. But it's important to remember. There are few of us around who do.

I went to Hiroshima some three weeks after the fatal day. I had been born and raised there and was going home to search for my family. My father was a member of the Russian nobility and had been an officer in the White Army. He fled Russia with my mother during the Russian Revolution and settled in Japan. I grew up eating piroshki and sushi, speaking Russian and Japanese. Before the war, when I was 16, I left Japan to go to school in the United States. The rest of my family stayed behind.

After Pearl Harbor, like many 18- year old boys, I yearned to become a soldier. With my Slavic ethnicity and Japanese language fluency, I became a member of United States Army intelligence, working in translation and interrogation.

I first heard about the bombing of Hiroshima the day it happened. I was 21 at the time, translating Japanese radio in the Philippines. No one believed my reports. My Army superiors ridiculed my translation skills. The next day, President Harry Truman announced to the world that, indeed, the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Soon afterward I was sent to Japan to help make sure the Japanese were living up to the conditions of the surrender agreement, and I traveled to Hiroshima. It was the worst moment of my life. Although I had seen wartime atrocities, I wasn't prepared for what I saw now: nothing. No birds. No people. No buildings. No trees. No life. Outlines of human bodies burned like negatives in cement.

The house I had grown up in was gone. The city had vaporized.

Fortunately, just a few days before Hiroshima was attacked, my family had moved to a house far enough away from the bomb's epicenter so that they survived. When I found them, there was a moment of joy, until they described the bomb's aftermath: People walking and dropping dead in their tracks. People running for the river, seeking escape from the scorching heat. Skin falling off bodies. Everyone desperate for water.

My family and I left for Tokyo and then went to America. I vowed never to return. What does one do after walking into a nuclear dust bowl? Like many, I believed that peace could come only from having a strong defense. I decided to remain in the Army while the United States prepared for its newest enemies, the Russians. During the Cuban missile crisis I built an elaborate bomb shelter under my house, complete with water, septic tank and canned food. I was ready for an attack.

One day the reserves called me away from work to participate in an "emergency" drill. But when I discovered they were simulating a nuclear war in the drill, and that my job was to keep the "contaminated" people away from the "noncontaminated" people, something suddenly didn't seem right. I knew that in a real nuclear war there would be few people standing around, contamination would affect everyone and most people would be dead. I began to rethink the Army's mission and soon resigned.

For a long time, despite what I had seen in Hiroshima, I thought dropping the bomb had been the right thing to do. I believed what Truman had said, that the bomb had saved lives. But as we entered the arms race with the Soviet Union, my mind began to change. I had seen the destruction that was felt for generations to come. I feared for the future of my grandchildren. Often, I envisioned my classmates, evaporated by the bomb. Why couldn't the United States have dropped the bomb on an island with no inhabitants to show Japan what a powerful weapon it had?

I have returned to Hiroshima twice since 1945, once in 1986 and once in 1995 on the 50th anniversary of the bombing. On that second trip, I walked for one month, in the scorching heat of Japan's summer, from Kobe to Hiroshima, talking to Japanese people about my experiences. I spoke at a conference in Hiroshima commemorating the anniversary, begging forgiveness for any part I might have played in what I now consider a heinous crime. It was a speech I couldn't finish. But I had come to realize that remembering and talking about such atrocities is the only way we can prevent them from happening again.

Nikolay Palchikoff is a retired businessman.

-------- japan

Hiroshima Marks Bombing Anniversary

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Hiroshima-Anniversary.html?searchpv=aponline

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) -- A bell tolled and hundreds of white doves were released Monday to mark the moment 56 years ago when the city of Hiroshima was reduced to ashes by the world's first atomic bomb attack.

Tens of thousands of people at an annual ceremony in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park observed 60 seconds of silent prayer at 8:15 a.m. -- the minute that the United States dropped the bomb on Aug. 6, 1945. City officials estimated the crowd at 30,000 to 50,000.

Those attending the ceremony bowed their heads amid sadness for the 140,000 who perished and disappointment that two world wars and countless other conflicts in the 20th century failed to bring an end to hatred.

``The end of the century of war has not automatically ushered in a century of peace and humanity,'' Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba told gatherers. ``Our world is still darkened not only by the direct violence of civil wars, but also by innumerable other forms of violence.''

A choir of children sang a song of peace at the ceremony, which is televised nationally each year. Hiroshima is about 425 miles southwest of Tokyo.

On Thursday, ceremonies were to be held to mark the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, farther south, in which 70,000 people were killed. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II.

Amid growing concern that tensions between India and Pakistan -- the world's newest nuclear powers -- and the illegal sales of nuclear weapons to so-called rogue nations could lead to atomic war, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he would redouble efforts to achieve a worldwide ban on testing of atomic weapons.

``As the only country that has experienced a nuclear attack ... we have appealed to the global community to eradicate nuclear weapons and build a lasting peace, so that the devastation of nuclear warfare will never again be repeated,'' Koizumi said.

While the 1945 atomic bombings have largely become relegated to events of history in the minds of many people around the world, Japan still grapples with the aftermath of the raids over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Courts continue to hear lawsuits filed by survivors who say they have not received sufficient medical care for ailments caused by exposure to radiation.

Also, Japanese have yet to resolve questions over their own destructive role in World War II. Many feel that Japan should apologize to neighboring countries in Asia and in the Pacific for what they call reckless military expansion before and during the war.

According to Kyodo News agency, representatives from seven Hiroshima prefectural organizations of atomic bomb survivors on Monday urged Koizumi not to carry out promises to pay his respects on Aug. 15 to the nation's war dead at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine -- to many a symbol of Japan's wartime aggressions as it was used to encourage militarist fervor during the early 20th century.

--------

Hiroshima Vows to Keep A - Bomb Memory Alive

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-japan-h.html

HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - The city of Hiroshima on Monday marked the 56th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing with a pledge to keep the memory of the horror alive, even as younger Japanese are starting to forget.

About 50,000 people, including survivors and relatives of the victims, gathered for a memorial ceremony at Hiroshima's Peace Park, near ground zero where the bomb was dropped. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi also attended.

As the solemn ceremony began, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and two citizens placed two books containing the names of the bomb's victims under the park's arch-shaped cenotaph.

Paper cranes symbolizing peace were draped around the park while incense burned on prayer alters. Many shed tears as they recalled the atomic inferno that destroyed the city instantly.

The Peace Bell tolled at 8:15 a.m. -- the moment a U.S. warplane dropped the bomb on August 6, 1945 -- then all went silent in the still and humid heat of the summer air.

The names of 4,757 people who died recently were added to the list of victims, bringing the total number recognized by the city to 221,893. A few thousand names of victims are added each year.

Akiba made a plea for nuclear disarmament, urging that the memory of Hiroshima not be forgotten.

``Passing on to younger generations the memories and the will of those who suffered the bombing is the most important step for humankind to survive in the 21st century,'' Akiba said. ''That is the surest way to bridge a rainbow to the 22nd century.''

FADING MEMORIES

With the average age of atomic blast survivors now over 70, keeping the memory alive seems more difficult with each passing year.

A recent survey by the western city of Hiroshima showed 64.8 percent of elementary school children did not know the exact date and time of the bombing, up 20.5 percentage points from five years ago.

The bomb killed some 140,000 people by the end of 1945, out of Hiroshima's estimated population of 350,000.

Thousands more succumbed to illness and injuries later.

The southwestern city of Nagasaki was bombed three days after Hiroshima, leading to Japan's surrender and the end of World War Two.

Koizumi repeated a pledge that Japan -- the only nation to suffer an atomic attack -- would work for nuclear disarmament.

``Japan will continue to stand at the forefront of the international community and do its utmost to seek a complete end to nuclear weapons,'' he said at the ceremony.

SENSITIVE SHRINE VISIT

The prime minister has come under criticism from peace activists and Japan's Asian neighbors for a plan to visit a shrine dedicated to the nation's war dead, including executed war criminals.

Later in the day, survivors of the bombing met Koizumi and asked him to forego the visit.

``I would like to express the honest feelings of the survivors,'' Akio Kanzaki, head of a survivors' association, was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying. ``We want you to cancel plans to make an official visit to the shrine.''

Koizumi, however, merely reiterated that he would make an appropriate decision on visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine after listening to advice from various quarters.

Koizumi has repeatedly said that, in the case of a shrine visit, he wants only to pay respects to Japan's war dead, and has no intention of justifying or glorifying the war.

-------- missile defense

Hey Buddy, Wanna Buy a Bridge?

FULL COURT PRESS
August 6, 2001
by ERIC ALTERMAN
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010806&s=alterman

The problem of punditocracy ignorance does not usually constitute a national security threat. If most Americans walk around misinformed about Gary Condit's sexual escapades or Elián González's emotional state, the Republic will probably survive. But on an issue like missile defense--where so many generals and admirals consider it part of their patriotic duty to mislead the public--its ramifications become considerably more worrisome.

When a Pentagon spokesperson recently announced that it had carried out a "successful test in all respects" over Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, some pundits swallowed this line faster than you can say "student deferment."

In a column titled "The 'Smart People' Were Wrong," the Washington Post's Michael Kelly beat his chest and snarled: "In the blink of a video screen going blinding white on July 14, it became impossible to offhandedly disdain a missile defense system as 'weapons that don't work.' It does work. No one can any longer assert that missile defense is unattainable." Melanie Kirkpatrick of the Wall Street Journal crowed about the "resounding success--putting the lie to the it-can't-be-done crowd."

I don't know Kirkpatrick, but the gullible Mr. Kelly covered the Gulf War and should know better. It was back then that the Pentagon sold the pundits on a remarkably successful "kill ratio" for US Patriot missiles attempting to destroy Iraqi Scuds over Israel. This too was said to be proof that Star Wars worked. Kelly's conservative comrades like Fred Barnes insisted that the Patriot's alleged success proved that "we need SDI." Patrick Buchanan declared: "The debate is over." Then-President Bush "ought to insist on the restoration of full funding for SDI and entertain no counterargument." Wall Street Journal editors concurred, adding, "The epic debates over ABM and SDI, after all, were over whether to give American civilians the kind of protection Israeli civilians have just received."

In fact, according to a GAO study released in 1992, Patriots had a success rate of only 9 percent during the war. Israelis were actually safer without them, suffering more damage in fewer attacks when "protected." In the event of a genuine attack on the United States, a missile defense system like the Patriot would have left Barnes, Buchanan and the Journal editors a heap of radioactive ash.

Pundits seem to lose not only their skepticism when writing about Star Wars but much of their intelligence. William Safire is no dummy, but swearing fealty to Star Wars last year, he committed perhaps the single silliest sentence his newspaper published since A.M. Rosenthal accused a man of killing Abe's sister with his penis. Admitting that the technology for missile defense was nowhere to be found on earth, the former PR man countered, "But many who insist it will never work were doubtful our technology could ever put a man on the moon." Aside from the obvious illogic involved here, are there actually any mortals on the planet who fit Safire's description? Repeated entreaties to Safire and his editors have failed to turn up any such evidence.

Any journalist with even a hint of historical memory would know better than to accept at face value what Pentagon officials claim for Star Wars technology. A year ago William Broad of the Times quoted a top Star Wars official admitting that "none of the tests address the reasonable range of countermeasures." It found a retired scientist who had worked on the program at Lockheed who explained, "The only way to make it work is to dumb it down. There's no other way to do it.... It's always been a wicked game."

In 1984, in an instance of fraud that remained a secret for a full nine years, a test of Lockheed's Homing Overlay Experiment turned out to have been rigged by the placement of a beacon in the target missile so that it could easily signal its location to the interceptor missile. In 1996, Nira Schwartz, a computer software expert who worked for TRW, sued her employer because, she said, she was being forced to misreport her data on the crucial matter of whether the interceptor missile could discern the difference between a real warhead and a decoy. Denials ensued, of course, but she was backed up by other witnesses. After reviewing the classified data on these and other tests, MIT missile expert Theodore Postol concluded that Pentagon officials "are systematically lying about the performance of a weapon system that is supposed to defend the people of the United States from nuclear attack."

Even the July 14 "successful" test that sent Kirkpatrick, Kelly and others into such rapture hardly stood up to a single day's scrutiny. In a story reported by the Los Angeles Times, but followed up by few others, the program's spokespeople were forced to admit in the test's aftermath that its radar system proved unable to tell ground controllers whether a kill vehicle had destroyed its target, falsely reporting that the interceptor had missed the dummy warhead. In the event of a genuine attack, this failure would cause a system to waste missiles on targets already destroyed, making it even easier to overwhelm. No surprise there, I'm afraid. In May, after fighting ferociously to keep it secret, the Pentagon reluctantly released its own internal study reporting that despite an investment of more than $70 billion, Star Wars technology remains so elementary that "a rigorous assessment of potential system performance cannot be made."

The public is not clamoring for this silly science fiction project and, should they ever notice, will not appreciate throwing another $300 billion down this sinkhole. Yet the Bush Administration continues to push it in the apparent hopes of abrogating the ABM treaty, undercutting NATO, sparking a new cold war with Russia and China and inspiring a rash of nuclear proliferation on the Asian subcontinent. Meanwhile, "smart" pundits like Michael Kelly and William Safire cheer this insanity like drunken frat boys at a college football game. It's almost enough to make one despair of the value of the First Amendment, to say nothing of the alleged benefits of higher education.

--------

Conservative Coalition Pushes Missile Shield on Capitol Hill

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By JAMES DAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/06/politics/06MISS.html?searchpv=nytToday

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 - A coalition of conservative organizations, concerned that their top military priority is facing a tough battle on Capitol Hill, has begun a national lobbying campaign to pressure Congress into supporting President Bush's plans for a missile shield.

The coalition, Americans for Missile Defense, intends to collect more than one million signatures, inundate lawmakers with letters and e-mail messages and raise money for a campaign in time for the September budget debate, the organizers said.

"Missile defense, like very few other issues, has the capability to immediately unite conservatives of all stripes," said David A. Keene, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which is helping to spearhead the coalition.

One of the coalition's goals will be to bolster Congressional Republicans who are being pressured by Democrats to trim the missile defense budget in favor of increasing spending on conventional weapons like jet fighters and warships.

Democrats have argued that President Bush's proposed $8.3 billion missile defense budget, a $3 billion increase from last year, is exorbitant when other basic needs, like maintaining ships and buying ammunition, are being squeezed.

They have proposed transferring nearly $1 billion from the missile defense plan to an array of other programs requested by senior military commanders.

Another major challenge for the administration and its allies will be to convince voters that the nation needs a large increase in missile defense spending when the Soviet Union is gone and military issues are generally considered a low priority, most polls show.

Those polls also indicate that while voters tend to support the idea of building a missile shield, their support declines when they are informed that more than $60 billion has been spent on the program in the last two decades.

Still, the coalition's organizers said they were confident that once Americans learned that the United States could not defend itself against long- range missile attacks, they would clamor for a shield.

"When you tell people we can't shoot a missile down," said Frank Gaffney Jr., the president of the Center for Security Policy and a founder of the coalition, "people start getting out of their chairs and saying, `That's crazy.' "

The coalition includes Americans for Tax Reform; United Seniors Association, which ran a $2 million advertising campaign for President Bush's tax cut last spring; High Frontier, a leading advocate for missile defenses in the Reagan administration; and the Eagle Forum.

The group also has a celebrity spokesman: Jeffrey Baxter, the ponytailed former guitarist for the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan.

"When I look at people in North Korea, Libya, Iraq and Iran, understand folks, these folks don't sit around and watch `Seinfeld' and eat Milky Way candy bars all day," Mr. Baxter said at a recent news conference. "They have a different concept, a different culture and a different way of looking at things."

Though not a member of the coalition, a Democratic union representing defense industry workers has also begun urging its 750,000 active and retired members to push for missile defense.

"To my Democratic friends on Capitol Hill, I would urge them to forgo the short-term, tactical, partisan advantage," R. Thomas Buffenbarger, the president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said recently. "Can our party really afford to be seen as weak on the defense of America's cities? I think not."

Mr. Keene declined to say how much money the coalition hoped to raise for a media campaign, but he suggested that it would be a relatively modest effort intended mainly to influence legislators.

A military industry official said that coalition leaders had begun soliciting money from military contractors. But many companies are wary of the effort lest the money come from other weapons programs.

The coalition's organizers said their first goal would be to energize several million conservative activists through newsletters and the Internet. The coalition's Web site, for instance, allows a visitor to send a form letter to Congress.

-------- us nuc politics

Bush plan to close bases eyes nuke sites

August 6, 2001
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010806-97583281.htm

President Bush is proposing that a new military base-closing commission be empowered for the first time to recommend shutdowns of Energy Department nuclear weapons facilities, administration officials say.

Expanding the independent commission's power is adding to opposition on Capitol Hill.

Congressional sources are referring to the DOE option as a "stumbling block" to winning congressional approval for another round of post-Cold War base closings.

The sources said New Mexico's congressional delegation likely would oppose the legislation because its state is home to Energy Department nuclear weapons research sites.

An administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity defended the DOE proposal sent to Capitol Hill. The official said it makes sense for the Pentagon and the commission to scrutinize bomb-making plants because Mr. Bush plans to reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal of about 7,000 warheads. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is now overseeing a nuclear forces review and is expected to make recommendations for trimming weapons this fall.

"A good third of overall DOE infrastructure relates to labs and nuclear production that is linked to Defense Department requirements," the official said. "So if we change the strategic force related to the nuclear equation, we need to look at these facilities."

While the official said the administration plans to stick by its plan despite congressional complaints, it backed away from two parts of the proposal originally outlined to congressional aides on Wednesday.

The Pentagon has abandoned a plan to give the defense secretary veto power on any base the commission added that was not on his roster of recommendations.

Under the proposed law, the president would be able to either reject or accept the entire list but would have no authority to block a particular panel selection.

Second, the administration is reverting to the old system of empaneling the nine-member commission, which will require Senate confirmation. The proposed legislation had included language that allowed the president to pick the nine members based on suggestions from congressional leaders. The revamped plan gives congressional leaders six selections and the president three.

The administration official said the now-discarded appointment plan was designed to keep politically driven appointees off the commission in favor of people with national security expertise. He noted that one panel member who served in 1995 on the last commission was a refrigerator salesman.

In another possible stumbling block, congressional sources say they want the Pentagon to change the proposed legislation to allow the defense secretary to designate certain bases off-limits because of their national security importance. If this is done, the sources said, it would spare some communities the expense of having to hire consultants to protect their bases.

But Pete Aldridge, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, seemed to rule that option out. "That would really politicize the process because everyone would be clamoring to get their bases on that list," he said last week.

The Pentagon announced its base-closing plan Thursday, saying it has 25 percent excess capacity and can save $3.5 billion annually, starting later this decade.

But fierce opposition is already placing the plan in doubt, even though key senators, including Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, are pushing base closings.

Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, Maine Republican, issued a statement that was headlined, "Snowe vows continued opposition to base closings."

"I am concerned that if another base-closure process is approved, we will lose more installations critical to the support of our military capacity," Mrs. Snowe said. Her state is home to the Portsmouth naval shipyard. The 1995 commission added the Portsmouth yard to its recommended list over Navy objections. But Mrs. Snowe and other New England lawmakers persuaded the panel to take it, and its 3,500 jobs, off the list.

Congressional sources say there are four major Army posts that are prime closure candidates: Fort Drum, N.Y.; Fort Knox, Ky., Fort Carson, Colo.; and Fort Riley, Kan. The sources said the Army has excess training capacity and could shift its armor school at Fort Knox to Fort Hood, Texas.

The administration official also said the proposed law will give the independent commission new authority to close and move federal agencies that sit on or adjacent to a military base that is recommended for closing. But the official said there will be no effort to target NASA facilities that sit next to a closing base.

Under the plan's timetable, the defense secretary will make his recommendations to the commission by March 2003. The panel will have until the following July to approve its list, which the president and Congress may either reject or accept.

Asked whether he is confident a base-closing bill will be approved by Congress, Mr. Rumsfeld said: "The answer is no, I'm not. No one could be. It is a very difficult thing to do."

-------- MILITARY

-------- arms sales

Russia to sell arms to North Korea

By MARK FRANCHETTI,
The Australian
06aug01
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,2516165%255E2,00.html

RUSSIA is to provide North Korea with short-range anti-aircraft systems, spy planes and radar in a deal reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il.

Mr Kim is reported to have pressed Russia to sell advanced weaponry such as tanks and MiG fighters, but Mr Putin agreed to provide Pyongyang with defensive weaponry only, valued at about $855 million.

In addition, Russia is to help Pyongyang modernise its armed forces, and the two leaders may agree to build a nuclear reactor for North Korea.

The deals were struck at a Kremlin ceremony on Saturday that bought echoes of the Cold War. Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed the Moscow Declaration, which renews strategic ties and stresses the opposition of both countries to US plans for a missile shield on the grounds it would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The two leaders issued a similar statement when they met in Pyongyang in July 2000.

Russia and North Korea, along with China, are strong opponents of Washington's missile defence program. The US says it needs the system to guard against threats from "rogue states" such as North Korea.

But North Korea said in the declaration its missile program was "peaceful" and posed no threat to any country that respected its sovereignty.

North Korea confirmed its plan to continue missile development but pledged to observe its missile test moratorium until 2003. Mr Kim announced the 2003 moratorium during his meeting with Mr Putin last year.

The CIA believes the communist country has the capability to develop a longer-range missile that could reach the western edges of the US.

Washington needs Moscow's consent to revise or abandon the ABM treaty, which its anti-missile program would violate. The US work on missile defence may conflict with the ABM treaty in coming months. Russia strongly opposes amending the treaty. The US and Russia are due to resume talks on missile defence and nuclear arms in Washington this week.

"The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is the cornerstone of strategic stability and the foundation of further reduction of strategic offensive arms," the weekend statement from the two leaders said.

North Korea renewed its demand for an end to the US military presence in South Korea. About 37,000 US troops are stationed south of the Korean demilitarised zone as a deterrent by Washington against military threats from the North.

Besides its political undertones, the meeting between the two leaders aimed at improving pragmatic economic co-operation.

Russia promised to help rebuild power plants and other industrial facilities in North Korea that were installed with Soviet support and technology.

The joint declaration said the two countries would work together on linking Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway with the rail systems of the two Koreas, which could dramatically boost Asia-Europe trade across Russian territory.

Mr Kim, 59, who is afraid of flying, arrived in Moscow on Friday night after a nine-day train trip of more than 6400km across Russia that was cloaked in secrecy and tight security.

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Beijing arms Pakistan

August 6, 2001
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010806-27607248.htm

A state-run Chinese company has sent a dozen shipments of missile components to Pakistan in violation of Beijing's recent pledge not to support nuclear missile programs, The Washington Times has learned.

The China National Machinery & Equipment Import & Export Corp., known as CMEC, supplied the missile components for Pakistan's Shaheen-1 and Shaheen-2 missile programs, according to intelligence officials familiar with reports on the transfers.

A U.S. spy satellite detected the latest shipment as it arrived by truck at the mountainous Chinese-Pakistani border May 1.

It was one of 12 missile component transfers sent by ship and truck detected by U.S. intelligence agencies since the beginning of the year.

The missile components are being used for production of the Shaheen-1, which has an estimated range of 465 miles, and development of the Shaheen-2, which U.S. intelligence agencies think will have a range of up to 1,240 miles.

Both missiles are strategic missile systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads, U.S. officials said.

The Chinese shipments violate the Beijing government's pledge in November not to assist foreign missile programs that can be used to deliver nuclear warheads.

China also promised to publish a comprehensive list of export controls.

"The problem is serious," a senior administration official said of the continued Chinese arms shipments.

The arms transfers could lead to the imposition of economic sanctions required under U.S. proliferation laws.

"We're looking at that now," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

During his recent visit to Beijing, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell raised the issue in several meetings, the official said.

The official said the U.S. government has sent several formal protest notes to Beijing seeking an explanation and calling for a complete halt to the weapons transfers. Also, China was asked to meet several specific conditions before Mr. Powell went to Beijing.

"They have not met the conditions," the official said.

China also has failed to draw up an export-control regime that could prevent state-run companies such as CMEC from selling missile parts.

China, for its part, is demanding that the Bush administration relax export controls on U.S. satellites being launched on Chinese rockets, in exchange for curbing its arms transfers, the official said.

The two sides are expected to meet on the issue. The senior U.S. official said Beijing likely will try to explain away its arms sales.

"On that score, we're not even close to agreement," the official said.

As a result of Beijing's November pledge, the Clinton administration announced it would not impose sanctions on China for its sales of missile technology and components to Pakistan and Iran.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi stated in Beijing on Nov. 21 that "China has no intention to assist in any way any country in the development of ballistic missile that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons."

U.S. officials said the CMEC missile components sent to Pakistan violate that pledge. "The Chinese have not abided by that agreement," one official said.

A second administration official said the Chinese rejected U.S. appeals to restart a dialogue on weapons proliferation.

Asked if China's arms sales could trigger sanctions under U.S. weapons proliferation laws, the official said: "I can't speculate. None have come to my attention at this point."

Several U.S. laws require the imposition of economic sanctions for transfers of missiles or related equipment covered by the Missile Technology Control Regime.

"Some of this involves specific cases," the senior official said. "Most of it does not. Most of it actually has to do with getting into a process where specific cases could be raised."

Mr. Powell "didn't sit there [in Beijing] and detail the cases that we're concerned about with the Chinese," this official said. "But they have been refusing to have conversations or discussions, a dialogue on export control and on proliferation."

The official said, "We are not there yet with the Chinese on what we really need to do on even getting a process in place.

"And that's something we're going to be pressing pretty hard on between now and the president's visit to Shanghai," the official said.

President Bush is scheduled to make his first visit to China as president in October, to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Shanghai. He also will travel to Beijing.

The intelligence on China's missile-related transfers to Pakistan supports charges made last month by Sen. Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr. Helms produced a report outlining what he said were two decades of "broken promises" by Beijing not to sell nuclear, chemical and biological weapons items and missiles to unstable regions or rogue states.

A congressional arms specialist said of China's proliferation record: "We're concerned that China has continued to transfer missile equipment and technology in contravention of both the [Missile Technology Control Regime] and the November pledge, and several U.S. nonproliferation statutes that require that sanctions must be imposed."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is heading a congressional delegation to China this week, said Beijing needs to provide "iron-clad" commitment to halt its weapons sales or risk damaging its ties to the United States.

"The idea that entering into the World Trade Organization and continued economic expansion between the United States and China can continue in the face of a policy different than curtailing and eliminating proliferation is naive and will not happen," Mr. Biden, Delaware Democrat, told Reuters news agency.

"My message to China will be that, absent an iron-clad notion that proliferation is not a problem, every other aspect of this relationship is damaged -- every other aspect," he said.

-------- asia

Biden Doubts China Military Buildup

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Taiwan-US-Senators.html?searchpv=aponline

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- The most powerful U.S. senator involved in foreign affairs scoffed Monday at the idea that China was emerging as a global military power and argued that engaging the communist nation was the best way to inspire political reform.

Sen. Joseph Biden, the new chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, made the comments before traveling to China, where he planned to meet the country's top leaders Wednesday and Thursday.

During his one-day stop in Taiwan, Biden told reporters that he was not worried about China's recent arms buildup because the nation's military budget is still relatively small -- about $40 billion annually, compared to $340 billion in America.

Biden -- who also plans to visit South Korea -- said China's numerous domestic problems should distract the country from becoming a dominating global or regional military power.

``The idea that they will be in a position to lift large numbers of people anywhere outside of their immediate border is de minimus,'' said Biden, using a Latin phrase that means unlikely.

Taiwan has been worried about China's military ambitions because Beijing has repeatedly threatened to attack the island if it refuses to reunify eventually. The two sides split when the Communist Party seized power in 1949.

America is required by law -- the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act -- to sell the island weapons necessary for its defense. Washington also maintains a vague threat to China that U.S. troops might defend Taiwan if Chinese launches an unprovoked attack.

Biden said that the United States should still closely watch China's military and be prepared to help Taiwan.

``We should make sure that Taiwan is never in a position where there is such an imbalance where they (China) are able to blackmail, threaten and, or physically dominate,'' Biden said.

Biden spoke to reporters after meeting with Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, whom the senator praised for trying to break an impasse with China.

Since he was elected last year, Chen has made several goodwill gestures to China and has invited Chinese leaders to a summit. But long-standing political disputes have blocked the talks.

Chen told Biden, ``I have initiated many concrete measures, but China has ignored them. They have paid them only lip service without any sincerity.''

Biden told reporters that China would become less repressive if it became more involved in the world economy and international organizations.

``The idea that you can integrate into a world economy and maintain a closed system is not possible,'' he said.

Biden, a Delaware Democrat, took over the Foreign Relations Committee two months ago when a senator defected from the Republican Party, giving his party a majority in the Senate and the power to name new committee heads. Biden replaced Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, one of Taiwan's strongest supporters and a harsh critic of China.

Biden is leading a delegation that includes Sen. Paul Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat; Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican; and Sen. Fred Thompson, a Tennessee Republican.

On Tuesday, the senators plan to travel to Shanghai, where they will meet the American Chamber of Commerce, Chinese graduate students at Fudan University and Shanghai Mayor Xu Kuangdi.

On Wednesday, they plan to meet with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and Defense Minister Chi Haotian at Beidaihe, a seaside resort in northern China where the nation's top leaders meet each summer.

The group is scheduled to fly to Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday and meet with President Kim Dae-jung.

-------- drug war

U.S.-China rivalry in Asia drug war
Increased military involvement projected in Thailand

TUESDAY AUGUST 7 2001
STRATFOR GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATE
WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23945

Thailand's recent call for help in thwarting drug smuggling confirms that Southeast Asia is fast becoming a second front in the global war on narcotics.

But greater support from Washington and other nations will deepen the political rivalry between Washington and Beijing for political dominance in the region.

When the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met in Hanoi on July 25 to identify new ways to cooperate to stop illegal narcotics and arms trafficking in the region, the United States and other members of the 10-nation group agreed to Thailand's proposal to bolster action in the Golden Triangle region of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.

Southeast Asia is fast becoming the next front in the global war on drugs, second only to the multi-billion-dollar effort underway in South America. Efforts to curb the region's drug-trafficking problem will attract more outside support, including increased U.S. military involvement. But the region will also turn into a political battleground as Washington and Beijing compete for regional hegemony.

With nearly 60 percent of the heroin consumed in the United States coming from Myanmar, the U.S. government has been increasing its involvement in Southeast Asia's anti-drug efforts in response to skyrocketing opium production. Although similar to the U.S. government's effort in South America, the new front lies along the southern flank of China, whose relations with Washington have become tense this year.

Thailand has led regional and international efforts to address the trafficking problem in Southeast Asia, especially in the poppy-rich Golden Triangle. The Thai government recently signed an agreement with Cambodia to strengthen military cooperation to fight cross-border crimes, according to a news report on July 20 in the Bangkok Nation. Discussions are also underway with Vietnam and other neighbors for joint policing along their borders, where drug traffickers and rebel groups often operate with impunity.

Bangkok also is struggling against a massive flood of heroin and amphetamines from neighboring Myanmar and, to a lesser extent, Malaysia. Thailand continues to trade barbs and military threats with the communist military junta in Rangoon. In April, Thailand and Myanmar amassed troops along their border and placed their armies on the highest alert in decades, according to Interfax News Agency.

But there are problems for the Thai government at home as well. Thailand suffers from rampant corruption within elements of its security forces, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and local media reports.

A significant element of the current anti-drug effort in Southeast Asia is the growing involvement of the U.S. government. This has occurred in part because of the sharp reduction of opium crops in other global drug-production centers. The Taliban has shut down poppy production in Afghanistan, China is successfully cracking down in its own border regions, and a major multi-national campaign is continuing in Colombia.

That U.S. involvement is becoming increasingly militarized under the Bush administration. The U.S. military has had a long relationship with Bangkok, conducting the major Cobra Gold military exercise in Thailand annually. But, for the first time, the United States, at Thailand's request, has dispatched Special Forces to train the Thai military in counter-narcotics operations. Media reports say more than 40 U.S. military trainers have been operating in the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai - near the border with Myanmar - since March.

America's deepening involvement raises the stakes in its competition with China over influence in Southeast Asia - particularly since China's only true ally in the region, Myanmar, has become one of the major drug targets.

Washington has long been active along the Thailand-Myanmar border, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service. Western anti-drug agents consider the government-allied United Wa State Army force as one of the largest and best-armed drug organizations in the world. The force, consisting of 5,000 ethnic tribesmen in Myanmar's eastern Shan state, is allied with the military rulers in Rangoon and is directly involved in drug trafficking to the United States.

Beijing has supplied the United Wa force with weapons - including surface-to-air missiles - for its fight against other ethnic groups in the region. In exchange, the United Wa is helping construct a network of roads that could enable Beijing to gain land access to ports in Myanmar. This could lead to the Chinese navy gaining access to the Indian Ocean for the first time.

Should that occur, China would be able to influence maritime operations on both sides of the Straits of Malacca, not just in the South China Sea. It would also significantly enhance the reach of its navy, something Beijing has been working overtime to accomplish but which the United States has been trying to prevent.

China-U.S. ties would also be hurt if Washington's anti-drug efforts succeed in pushing the narcotics trade back across the Chinese border, or if Washington's involvement results in closer ties with traditional Beijing allies such as Vietnam.

-------- israel

Palestinians Reject Israeli Most - Wanted List

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast.html

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority refused on Monday to arrest any of the seven men on an Israeli most-wanted list that could mark them for death under a widely condemned hunt-and-kill policy.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Israel must first take action against its own militants before the Authority could consider demands that it detain any of the seven Palestinians.

``The Israeli government should arrest 50 persons...armed settlers -- they are active as terrorists and killers,'' he said, citing the killing last month by suspected Jewish vigilantes of three Palestinians including a baby boy.

Abed Rabbo spoke a day after suspected Palestinian gunmen shot dead a pregnant Jewish settler and wounded three other passengers in a car that came under attack on a West Bank road.

Releasing its list on Sunday, the Israeli Defense Ministry said the seven men, from several Palestinian factions, ''continue to carry out attacks'' despite Israeli appeals to the Palestinian Authority to arrest them and dozens of other activists.

``This is a clear Israeli decision to execute those seven,'' said Palestinian intelligence chief Amin al-Hindi. ``Publicizing such a list of people to be murdered by Israel is a challenge to the world that requires an immediate action.''

The seven men on the list include three members of the militant Islamic Jihad group, one Hamas man, an activist from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and two men from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.

Israeli Channel Two television's military affairs reporter hinted that the roster was effectively a hit list, saying the seven ``could get hurt in future (Israeli) attempts to foil terrorist attacks.''

HOUSEPAINTER CARRIED OUT TEL AVIV SHOOTING

A day of heavy violence on Sunday included an attack, by a lone Palestinian gunman with no known political affiliation, that wounded 10 people near Israel's Defense Ministry.

The housepainter-turned-gunman, Ali al-Joulani, had appeared ``traumatized in the past few months while he watched funerals and (Israeli) assassinations almost every day,'' his brother said.

At least 513 Palestinians, 131 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the start of the uprising.

In yet more bloodletting in a 10-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence, an Israeli helicopter missile strike killed a Muslim militant in the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Sunday, an attack branded an assassination by Palestinians.

Hours later, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian who the army said was planting a bomb in the West Bank.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the Hamas activist killed in the missile attack, Amer Hudeiri, was to have given an explosives belt to a would-be Palestinian suicide bomber arrested by Israeli forces on Monday in the West Bank.

``He was supposed to put on his suit of murder and set out toward the center of the country and blow himself up,'' he told Army Radio. In a separate interview with Israel Radio, he said Tel Aviv was the target.

Tens of thousands of mourners, chanting for revenge, marched on Monday in a joint funeral procession in Tulkarm for Hudeiri and the other Palestinian killed in the West Bank on Sunday.

PALESTINIANS POINT TO ISRAELI ``DEATH SQUADS''

Palestinian officials have accused Israel of assassinating some 60 activists since the uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip erupted in September after peace talks stalled.

The United States, Israel's guardian ally, and other countries have condemned the policy described by Israeli leaders as active self-defense.

Abed Rabbo said that besides the arrest of the settlers, a move Israel has rejected, ``death squads'' under the direction of Israeli security and military chiefs should also be detained.

``When this happens, we will look at what the Israelis have declared, although many of the names they have declared are unknown to us and maybe they are even false names,'' said Abed Rabbo.

Under their names, the Defense Ministry statement listed anti-Israeli attacks in which the seven allegedly took part.

Palestinian sources said none of the men, aged between 22 and 33, was a senior leader.

--------

TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND
'Moderate' Saudis now talking war
Ambassador says taking on Israel must not be ruled out

MONDAY AUGUST 6 2001
WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23943

A top Saudi Arabian official says "moderate" Arab states Egypt and Saudi Arabia should not rule out war with Israel.

In a signed article in the London daily Al-Hayat and translated today by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Ghazi Al-Quseibi, the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom, says Arab states need to overcome their fear of a war with technologically superior Israel - a war, he says, whose result is not inevitable if the Jewish state is forced to fight on two fronts.

While many Arab states - including Iraq, Yemen, Sudan and Syria - have called for war with Israel since the outbreak of the Arab uprising led by the Palestinian Authority, this article is the first hint of a shift in thinking by the wealthy oil state with close ties to the West.

In the article, titled "To Consider What We Dare Not Consider," Al Quseibi writes: "Richard Nixon writes in his memoirs, and it is confirmed in the memoirs of Kissinger, that during the Vietnam War he wanted to give his enemies the impression that he was a 'madman,' whose reactions were unpredictable and who could do just anything. He made sure, throughout the entire crisis, to maintain this impression among his enemies, and in his words and deeds enhanced it. Before him, John Foster Dulles skillfully practiced what was known as a policy of 'brinkmanship.'"

"I don't mean to analyze these two men or to praise their policies," Al Quseibi writes. "What is important is to understand that an enemy who can know for sure that the behavior of his rival will not stray in any way from a certain framework, can freely act against him. The situation is different when this certainty doesn't exist."

He continues: "I am sure that this situation exists today between Israel and the Arab states. On the one hand, the entire world is under the impression that Israel, regardless of [which party] is in government, can at any given moment carry out an insane military action capable of igniting the entire region. On the other hand, the Arab states have become trapped in a series of agreements, summits and declarations - in the cage of peace, no matter what. You don't have to be a genius to understand that under these circumstances, Israel can 'carry on' as much as it likes. They do this consistently without fearing any true Arab reaction."

"Why are we afraid of a comprehensive war with Israel?" he asks. "Why has the mere talk of comprehensive war with Israel turned into forbidden territory? Why do we believe that the thought, the mere thought of this option, is a dangerous and irresponsible act?"

Al-Quseibi suggests it is time for Egypt to put aside its peace agreement with Israel in favor of protecting its national interests.

"It is true that there will be no war without Egypt and it is true that there is a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel," he writes. "But since when have peace agreements deterred the outbreak of a war, when from the point of view of the leaders, the highest national interest entails the need for war?"

He also hints that such considerations by Egyptian leadership are a reality today.

"The undeniable truth is that the Egyptian leadership has once again begun to seriously consider the possibility of war," he writes. "In this framework we can understand the declarations of the Egyptian President, Husni Mubarak, regarding Egypt's ability to protect the Aswan Dam and his declarations that what happened in 1967 cannot happen again. Furthermore, the press has reported that he went to Moscow on a specific mission to determine what kind of support he can garner in the case of the outbreak of war with Israel. The Egyptian president is an experienced leader with sensitive nerves. However, Israel's actions have made him think the unthinkable, namely about what the Arab leaders need to do."

Al-Quseibi writes that Israel is not invincible when fighting on more than one front.

"Israel's superiority is at its foundation a mental superiority," he writes. "Israel's strong points are known and we have memorized them. However they have mortal points of weakness [as well] that we cannot ignore. First of all, Israel is unable to fight efficiently on more than one front, as was proven in the October 1973 War. Secondly, Israel cannot absorb a large number of casualties. This we witness with our own eyes every day. Thirdly, Israel is unable to withstand a war of attrition. The present Palestinian Intifada has already tired them out more than all of the previous wars with the Arabs put together. Taking advantage of these weak points, in addition to the element of surprise, are a guarantee for bringing the Israeli 'giant' down to size."

The key to victory, he writes, is Egyptian-Syrian cooperation -- something that has not occurred in Middle East politics since the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

"What could be better than a repetition of what happened in 1973?" he asks. "What we need is Egyptian-Syrian cooperation, with the back up of the oil states with their oil, and the rest of the Arab states, each according to its ability. Such a military confrontation, especially while the Intifada is going on, and at a time when the possibility of the Arab community within Israel to take action, will turn all the tables and all of the facts upside down."

While falling just short of calling for war, Al-Quseibi's article is the clearest evidence of a new thinking among the leadership of Saudi Arabia.

"I am not a supporter of war, but I warn you that entirely ruling out the option of war from the agenda, is the surest guarantee for the continuation of Israel's superiority - and with it the arrogance, the bloodshed, and the rampage - forever!" he writes.

-------- space

Air Force Launches Titan Rocket

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Rocket-Launch.html?searchpv=aponline

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The Air Force launched a Titan IV rocket Monday carrying a satellite designed to provide early warning of missile launches and nuclear explosions.

The pre-dawn launch of the $256 million Defense Support Program satellite had been delayed 1 1/2 weeks by concern over the rocket's guidance system.

This is the 21st satellite of its kind launched by the Air Force. The DSP system has been a cornerstone of U.S. efforts to monitor missile launches over the past three decades, and would be integral to the operation of the national missile defense system being pushed by President Bush, said Air Force Col. Charles Cornell, deputy system program director.

In 1991, DSP satellites provided advanced warning of SCUD missile launches during the Gulf War.

The satellite, about 33 feet long when deployed, uses infrared sensors to detect heat from rocket exhaust plumes. Cornell said the satellites also can monitor nonmilitary threats such as forest fires and volcanic eruptions.

The satellite was launched aboard a $453 million Titan IV rocket, the largest and most powerful unmanned rocket in the U.S. arsenal.

The Air Force plans to put two more DSP satellites into orbit over the next few years before the system is replaced by the more advanced Space-Based Infrared System later this decade.

-------- OTHER

-------- human rights

Chinese county sets quota for abortions

August 6, 2001
By Damien McElroy
LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010806-9014578.htm

HONG KONG -- A Chinese county has been ordered to conduct 20,000 abortions and sterilizations before the end of the year after communist family planning chiefs found the official one-child policy was being routinely flouted.

The impoverished mountainous region of Huaiji has been given the Draconian target by provincial authorities in Guangdong formerly Canton. Although the one-child policy is no longer strictly enforced in many rural areas, officials in Guangdong issued the edict after census officials revealed that the average family in Huaiji has five or more children.

Many of the terminations will have to be conducted forcibly on peasant women to meet the quota. As part of the campaign, county officials are buying expensive ultrasound equipment that can be carried to remote villages by car. By detecting which women are pregnant, the machines will allow government doctors to order terminations on the spot.

At the Huaiji county hospital, where most of the operations will take place, it is not only women with unauthorized pregnancies who are facing traumatic surgery in insanitary conditions.

Officials said that, as part of the drive to meet the quota, doctors had been ordered to sterilize women as soon as they gave birth after officially approved pregnancies.

The drive to perform 20,000 abortions and sterilizations in six months in a county with a population of fewer than 1 million represents a heavy assault on the women of child-bearing age in its population. It is equivalent to the number of legal abortions that take place each year in Hong Kong, a city with a population of 7 million, where women face no family planning restrictions.

Demographers believe that China has one of the highest rates of abortion in the world, with estimates running at up to 80 terminations for each 1,000 live births. In Western Europe, the figure is 10 abortions per 1,000 births.

Saying they are strapped for funds, the local county leadership decided it could buy the ultrasound machines only if it withheld part of the salaries of its 15,000 employees.

"We are a very poor county," one government official said. "As our budget is very small, we don't have the money to buy new equipment."

Employees of the county government have spoken out against the leaders who have implemented the levy. Teachers, policemen and clerks who already find their $72 monthly stipend inadequate now have to support their families on half that amount.

"Party members and officials are people, too," one official said. "We don't know why we should pay for such a heartless drive."

Beijing's 20-year campaign to curb the country's population has had a marked effect.

The 2000 census produced a tally under 1.3 billion; the number would have been much higher without the one-child policy.

"For all the bad press, China has achieved the impossible," said Sven Burmester, the U.N. Population Fund representative in Beijing. "The country has solved its population problem."

That "bad press" has included reports of babies drowned in paddy fields by officials.

There was also the testimony of Gao Xiaoduan, a former family planning official, who told an American congressional committee in 1998 that heavily pregnant women were often forced to have abortions. More recently, a woman was reported to have died while trying to escape from officials who were attempting to sterilize her.

Many of the operations carried out by the hated Family Planning Association are forced on women who are sometimes as late as 81/2 months into pregnancy.

The most common method of inducing birth is to inject a saline solution into the womb.

Abortion in Guangdong is increasing sharply as a result of a combination of a new campaign to strengthen implementation of the one-child policy and a trend for young women in the cities to have multiple terminations from an early age as a form of birth control.

Hospitals use the operations to generate cash both from local women and visitors from neighboring Hong Kong who think it is easier to travel across the border for the procedure than to go through the formalities required under the laws of the former British colony.

The clinics catering to Hong Kong and Chinese city-dwellers are a far cry from the primitive facilities in Huaiji.

Dozens of young women sit restlessly on benches waiting for their names to be called.

Once inside the operating room, they are given a general anesthetic before undergoing the 10-minute procedure.

Within hours, they are back on the streets or boarding the train back home.

If they went to the Hong Kong Family Planning Association, they would have to face background checks and be forced to accept a cooling-off period.

--------

Global forces silence ethnic tongues

August 6, 2001
By Darlene Superville
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010806-27320471.htm

Ever hear someone speak Udihe, Eyak or Arikapu?

Odds are you never will. Among the world's 6,800 languages, half to 90 percent could be extinct by the end of the century.

Half of all languages are spoken by fewer than 2,500 people each, according to the Worldwatch Institute, a private organization that monitors global trends.

Languages need at least 100,000 speakers to pass from generation to generation, says UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. War, genocide, natural disasters, government bans and the adoption of more dominant languages, such as Chinese and Russian, also contribute to their demise.

"In some ways, it's similar to what threatens species," said Payal Sampat, a Worldwatch researcher who wrote about the topic for the institute's May-June magazine.

The outlook for Udihe, Eyak and Arikapu - spoken in Siberia, Alaska and the Amazon jungle, respectively - is particularly bleak.

About 100 people speak Udihe, six speak Arikapu, and Eyak is down to one, Worldwatch said. Marie Smith, 83, of Anchorage, Alaska, says she is the last speaker of Eyak, a claim verified by linguists.

She doesn't like the distinction.

"It's horrible to be alone," Mrs. Smith, who grew up in nearby Prince William Sound speaking Eyak, said in an interview. "I am the last person that talks in our language."

It's becoming a struggle, too, to find many who can say "thank you" in the Navajo language of the American Indian tribe (ahehee), say "hello" in the Maori language of New Zealand (kia ora) or rattle off the proud Cornish saying: "Me na vyn cows Sawsnak." ("I will not speak English.")

The losses ripple far beyond the affected communities. When a language dies, linguists, anthropologists and others lose rich sources of material for their work documenting a people's history, finding out what they knew and tracking their movements from region to region.

And the world, linguistically speaking, becomes less diverse.

In January, a catastrophic earthquake in western India killed an estimated 30,000 speakers of Kutchi, leaving about 770,000.

Manx, from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, disappeared in 1974 with the death of its last speaker. In 1992, a Turkish farmer's passing marked the end of Ubykh, a language from the Caucasus region with the most consonants on record, 81.

Eight countries account for more than half of all languages. They are, in order, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Nigeria, India, Mexico, Cameroon, Australia and Brazil.

That languages die isn't new; thousands are believed to have disappeared already.

"The distinguishing thing is it's happening at such an alarming rate right now," said Megan Crowhurst, chairman of the Linguistic Society of America's endangered languages committee.

Linguists believe 3,400 to 6,120 languages could become extinct by 2100, a statistic grimmer than the widely used estimate of about one language death every two weeks.

While a few languages, including Chinese, Greek and Hebrew, are more than 2,000 years old, others are coming back from the dead, so to speak.

In 1983, Hawaiians created the 'Aha Punana Leo organization to reintroduce their native language throughout the state, including its public schools. The language nearly became extinct when the United States banned schools from teaching students in Hawaiian after annexing the independent country in 1898.

'Aha Punana Leo, which means "language nest," opened Hawaiian-language immersion preschools in 1984, followed by secondary schools that produced their first graduates, taught entirely in Hawaiian, in 1999.

Some 7,000 to 10,000 Hawaiians currently speak their native tongue, up from fewer than 1,000 in 1983, said Luahiwa Namahoe, the organization's spokeswoman.

"We just want Hawaiian back where she belongs," Mrs. Namahoe said. "If you can't speak it here, where will you speak it?"

Elsewhere, efforts are under way to revive Cornish, the language of Cornwall, England, which is believed to have died around 1777, as well as ancient Mayan languages in Mexico.

Hebrew evolved in the past century from a written and a liturgical language into Israel's national tongue, spoken by 5 million people. Other initiatives aim to revive Welsh, Navajo, Maori and several languages native to Botswana.

Governments can help by removing bans on languages, and children should be encouraged to speak other languages in addition to their native tongues, said Mr. Sampat of Worldwatch, who is fluent in French and Spanish and grew up speaking the Indian languages of Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Kutchi.

-------- police / prisoners

A Health Danger From a Needle Becomes a Scourge Behind Bars

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By DAVID ROHDE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/06/nyregion/06HEPA.html?pagewanted=all

Prison officials say that nearly 10,000 inmates in New York and thousands more across the country are infected with hepatitis C, an insidious liver infection that is difficult to treat, has no definite cure and, over many years, kills 5 percent of those who contract it.

Prison and public health officials are wrestling with how to respond to the surprisingly high rates of infection, trying to figure out how to contain its spread, and how and when to provide expensive treatment that in most cases does not work. Some states are treating hundreds of prisoners infected with hepatitis C, while others are treating none.

And beyond concerns about how to manage the problem inside the prisons - guards, for instance, fear being infected through contact with inmates' blood - health officials worry that prisoners may spread hepatitis C through intravenous drug use when they are released.

A study to be submitted to Congress this fall estimates that 18 percent of state prisoners nationwide - or about 360,000 inmates - are infected with the virus.

"There are still legitimate scientific questions about who the treatment will ultimately benefit," said Dr. Robert Greifinger, a senior fellow for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, who conducted the study for the Justice Department. "On the other hand, the infection rates are very, very high. I just don't think it's very clear yet how to manage the problem."

Dr. Greifinger based his study on projections from several state studies. Many states are just starting to survey inmates for the infection.

In New York, a first-ever survey recently estimated that 14 percent of the state's 69,000 prisoners have hepatitis C. In Pennsylvania, about 17 percent of the state's 36,500 prisoners are infected. In Connecticut, the rate is believed to be 15 percent of 17,500 inmates. New Jersey has not broadly tested for the virus.

The Northeast is hardly alone in grappling with the problem. In California, officials estimate that 33 percent of the state's 161,000 prisoners have hepatitis C. In Texas, 28 percent of the state's 157,000 prisoners are believed to be infected.

"It's simmering and brewing and if it boils over, the medical costs will be catastrophic," said Dr. Frederick R. Maue, chief of clinical services for Pennsylvania's Department of Corrections, which is actively treating infected inmates. "There will be liver transplants, multiple hospitalizations to treat liver failures, and increased numbers of deaths."

Doctors say the problem is not that large numbers of prisoners are contracting hepatitis C while incarcerated; most were infected through intravenous drug use and shared needles years ago. It is that the infection's breadth and power are only now becoming clear.

New screening tests developed in the early 1990's have found that far more people are infected than was ever expected, although many people who contract it suffer few ill effects. But some people who were infected as long ago as the 1960's are dying today, underscoring the fact that the disease can prove fatal over the course of 20 to 30 years.

Hepatitis C causes liver disease in 20 percent of its victims, and eventually kills 5 percent of those infected. Doctors describe the infection as more of a potential medical time bomb than an immediate public health threat. Roughly 2.7 million people in the United States have the infection, which is responsible for 8,000 deaths a year.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that can linger for years without symptoms. Aside from intravenous drugs users, hundreds of thousands of other people are thought to have contracted the virus from blood transfusions before better screening began in the early 1990's.

Vaccines exist for two other hepatitis viruses. Hepatitis A, which can be transmitted by food, food handlers and water, rarely kills those it infects. Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease that kills 5,000 people a year.

The infection rate among the general population for hepatitis C is far lower - 1.8 percent - than in prisons. Doctors believe that the infections are concentrated among inmates because of their high rate of intravenous drug use before being jailed.

The infection may also be gradually spreading in prisons. Studies show that 3 percent to 21 percent of inmates say they engage in intravenous drug use behind bars. Forty- four percent of those who reported drug use said they shared needles.

The infection's death toll is rising and is expected to grow steadily over the next 10 to 20 years. In New York prisons last year, where $71 million was spent to treat roughly 1,400 inmates with AIDS, eight inmates died of that disease. Nine died of illnesses related to hepatitis C.

The question of how best to treat the infection has provoked debate in medical circles. Expensive new drug treatments, costing $10,000 to $25,000 per patient annually, show signs of curbing the infection, but are effective in only 15 percent to 45 percent of cases, and sometimes make patients sicker. States are responding differently to the problem. In New Jersey, for instance, no prisoners are currently being treated, but in Pennsylvania, 417 prisoners are. New York is treating 95 prisoners at a cost of about $6 million a year.

Inmates in various states, including at least five in New York, are suing prison systems and claiming that they are being denied treatment. Last year, a federal judge in Kentucky ordered prison officials to treat an inmate at a cost of $25,000 a year. Kentucky prison officials had not provided treatment, saying it was unlikely to be effective.

The case of Edward McKenna, 55, a New York prisoner dying of the infection, shows the charged debate surrounding hepatitis C. Mr. McKenna, an inmate at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Woodbourne, N.Y., is suing the state, accusing prison doctors of denying him treatment that could save his life.

"In a roundabout way, they're telling me I'm going to die and that's the way it is," said Mr. McKenna, who expects to live only two more years at best. "They won't treat me."

In 1990, Mr. McKenna shot his younger brother during a backyard argument in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The murder, which he called an accident, led to a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years.

In July 1999, Mr. McKenna was diagnosed with hepatitis C, something he believes he contracted while injecting drugs when he was an Army private stationed in Thailand in the early 1960's.

Mr. McKenna said he asked for treatment in September 1999, but a prison doctor told him he was not eligible because he had an appearance coming up before the Parole Board within a year. New York, like other states, follows guidelines from the National Institutes of Health that say only people who will be available for a full year of intensive care should be treated. Otherwise, the treatment is ineffective.

But when Mr. McKenna appeared before the Parole Board a year later, he, like 80 percent of violent offenders in the state, was denied parole and given two more years in prison.

Jack Beck, a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society who is advising Mr. McKenna, said that prison doctors used Parole Board appearances as a pretext for denying them the costly treatment. In a medical document provided by prison officials, a doctor wrote that Mr. McKenna did not qualify for treatment because his earliest anticipated release date was his Parole Board appearance.

But Mr. Beck said the expiration of an inmate's sentence should be used when deciding on treatment because the chances of a violent offender being paroled were slim.

"It's definitely a rationing protocol," he said, referring to New York's rules for deciding whom to treat. "It's very expensive and they clearly don't want to treat people."

Dr. Lester N. Wright, chief medical officer for the New York Department of Correctional Services, said the state's procedures met national standards, and that prison doctors did not use inmates' Parole Board appearances to deny treatment. "I usually look at the conditional release date," he said, referring to the expiration of a prisoner's sentence. "We don't know what the Parole Board will do."

Prison officials produced a document on Thursday from Mr. McKenna's medical record that quoted him as telling a doctor he did not want treatment for hepatitis C. Mr. McKenna, they added, also had to be counseled to take medication for severe emphysema, and was a poor candidate for hepatitis C treatment.

Mr. McKenna denied both claims and cited 10 documents in his medical record that he said supported his version of events. When asked to provide copies of the documents on Friday, prison officials said they did not have enough time to locate them.

Mr. McKenna's infection has progressed to full-blown liver disease. Most doctors agree that once the disease reaches that level there is no point in treating it. Mr. McKenna says he is willing to try anything at this point. He has lost 50 pounds.

"As long as I'm breathing, there is always hope," he said.

The men and woman guarding Mr. McKenna also fear the infection. Officials with the state's correction officers' union say that a half-dozen officers have recently reported being infected by prisoners. They say officers may not make their infections public for fear of being stigmatized by co-workers.

Prison officials say only one guard has reported being infected, and there was no evidence that an inmate was the cause.

Glenn S. Goord, New York's commissioner of correctional services, said the state was addressing the problem aggressively, as it has with other medical problems. "We're committed to providing the best constitutional and community standards as we can," he said, referring to treatment. "The governor has asked me to do whatever is appropriate to protect my inmates and my staff."

Doctors say that having so many people infected with the virus incarcerated creates an opportunity for education. Before returning to the community, inmates must learn how not to infect others.

But the debate over the costly new treatments continues. New national treatment guidelines are due out this fall.

Dr. Anne S. De Groot, a Connecticut prison doctor and editor of a newsletter on infectious disease in prisons, said prisoners with identical illnesses were being treated differently in different states. "If you're in Pennsylvania you will get treated, but if you're incarcerated in other states in the Northeast you will not," she said. "It's ridiculous we don't have a standardized approach."

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LA Police Officer Attacked by Crowd

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-BRF-Police-Attacked.html

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A police officer was injured when his patrol car was pelted with rocks and bottles by a crowd of people trying to stop an arrest, police said Monday.

A crowd of about 100 people formed when police went to a housing complex in Watts on Sunday night to arrest a man on a federal warrant, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Eduardo Funes said.

Additional patrol units were sent to the complex, and the crowd was dispersed in less than an hour, Funes said.

The injured officer was treated and released after being struck in the leg by a flying object. Police made just one arrest -- the man wanted on the warrant.

Police did not release further details.

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FBI´s growth abroad adds to clashes

August 6, 2001
By Ron Kampeas
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010806-59382365.htm

The FBI's long arms reach farther than ever, with 19 of the bureau's 44 overseas offices having opened in the past five years. That presence has helped bring embassy bombers in Africa and drug dealers in Italy to justice.

But the hard-charging style of FBI agents has caused resentment and culture clashes, too.

New FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said in his recent Senate confirmation hearings that he would work to shed the FBI's reputation for arrogance both at home and abroad.

"The FBI must develop the respect and confidence of those with whom it interacts, including other law enforcement agencies, both domestic and international," he said.

Tension rose so high in Yemen that Ambassador Barbara Bodine vetoed a return visit in February by the FBI agent supervising the investigation into last year's bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Yemeni officials privately called Agent John O'Neill and his associates "Rambos."

The FBI says its overseas growth is justified by a series of successes. They included this year's conviction of four men involved in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa and the tracking of white-collar crooks who hide their money in foreign accounts.

"Crime gravitates to how the legitimate business world operates, and corporations are globalizing," said Les Kaciban, the deputy assistant director of the FBI's international operations branch. "Transportation, crossing borders, communication, financial transactions have become much easier."

The FBI's 112 overseas operatives - about 1 percent of its agents - are on the front line of the bureau's fight against computer crime, which it says has cost the global economy more than $1.6 trillion.

FBI legal attaches - known as "legats" - have been in U.S. embassies since the 1940s, when they countered Nazi espionage. But it was not until Louis Freeh became director in 1993 that their work assumed central importance. He doubled their number.

Mr. Freeh was a strong believer in international cooperation. His work with Italian authorities in solving the "Pizza Connection," a Sicily-based drug smuggling ring that dealt its product out of New York-area pizza parlors in the 1980s, earned him fame as a federal prosecutor.

He encouraged agents to cultivate what Mr. Kaciban calls "cop-to-cop" relationships with other national forces. Under his leadership, the FBI trained 50,000 foreign police at its Quantico, Va., academy and at a center in Budapest.

"Our purpose was not only to bring up their investigative standards, but also to share information," said Mr. Kaciban, who set up the Budapest academy.

Local police often credit the FBI with crucial help.

"The FBI agents did a good job together with the local police," said Tanzanian police spokesman Mohammed Mhina, who worked with the FBI in the investigation of embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and in Nairobi, Kenya. "What we learned from them is that we need modern equipment."

Other times, however, the FBI's single-mindedness can undermine delicate relations, U.S. politicians and diplomats say.

In Saudi Arabia, police would not let FBI agents interrogate suspects in the 1996 Khobar Tower bombings that killed 19 U.S. servicemen. Mr. Freeh wanted President Clinton to press the Saudis to cooperate more, but the president was mindful of offending an important ally.

In Yemen, local officials were offended that FBI investigators decamped to U.S. ships each evening instead of spending the night in Aden. FBI officials said a security threat made that necessary; Mrs. Bodine said she trusted Yemeni security.

"The FBI's view is that everything is a law-enforcement problem," said Bob Litt, a Clinton-era deputy attorney general whose responsibilities included national security. "But some things need to be addressed diplomatically or - in rarer instances - militarily."

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Report Criticizes Canada Police at '97 APEC Summit

New York Times
August 6, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-canada-.html

MONTREAL (Reuters) - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police acted inappropriately in its handling of protests at the 1997 Asia-Pacific summit in Vancouver, a report on police action obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday indicated.

The 453-page report by the RCMP Public Complaints Commission, the federal commission that oversees investigations of police conduct, was leaked to the public broadcaster but has yet to be released.

The CBC said the report stated that the pepper-spraying of demonstrators, strip-searching of female protesters and arrest of a leading demonstrator at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit were all inappropriate.

``Police failed to meet acceptable and expected standards of competence in the way they dealt with it (the situation),'' the CBC quoted the report as saying.

RCMP spokesman Guy Amyot said he could not comment on the report because it was still unavailable.

Canadian officials appointed retired judge Ted Hugues in December 1998 to head the investigation into allegations

that protesters' civil rights were violated by police, who used pepper spray to keep them from Pacific Rim leaders gathered in Vancouver.

Although the clashes at the November 1997 APEC meeting were tame compared with violence at later international gatherings, the slow pace of the inquiry has become a political issue in Canada.

The RCMP inquiry focused on the activities of police but listened to allegations by protesters that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's office directed the police action.

The CBC said the police inquiry concluded it had no mandate to comment on the prime minister's actions but that it found two cases of improper government involvement in security matters at the summit.

The report recommended the RCMP adopt a more integrated command, better training and quick-response teams.

Attorneys for the protesters have complained that the probe should have been turned over to the courts, because the inquiry does not have the legal authority to adequately investigate Chretien's alleged role.

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Castro Lauds Anti - Globalization Protests

New York Times
August 5, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-cuba-ca.html

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro on Sunday praised the large protests at meetings of world leaders in recent years and joked the heads of rich nations may soon have to meet on the International Space Station to avoid them.

Castro, in a short but militant speech to 600 young people who will attend an international youth and student gathering next week in Algeria, urged them to fan the flames of world rebellion against ``imperialism,'' which he said threatened humanity's survival.

The veteran revolutionary has been condemning wealthy nations' policies toward poor countries since coming to power 42 years ago.

Demonstrations at the Group of Eight summit in Italy last month left one protester dead and hundreds of people injured and arrested. It was the latest in a series of sometimes violent demonstrations around the world protesting globalization.

Castro said the demonstrations proved ``the growing consciousness of thousands and thousands of leaders and representatives of the whole world'' that ``imperialism'' was leading humanity to the brink of extinction, and the awakening of ``left and progressive forces after the terrible blow'' they suffered with the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago.

During Sunday night's televised speech from Havana's Convention Palace, Castro ridiculed G8 leaders for planning to hold the 2002 summit in Canada's mountains to avoid protests, saying someday the meetings might be held on the International Space Station.

The G8 is made up of the seven leading industrialized nations -- Canada, France, the United States, Italy, Japan, Britain and Germany -- as well as Russia.

The speech was the latest in over a dozen public appearances by Castro since he suffered a brief fainting spell six weeks ago at a political rally.

``Open the eyes of the people, unmask the false ones and their lies and hypocrisy, tell the truth to the people,'' Castro urged Cuba's delegation to the 15th World Youth and Student Festival, which includes over 200 students from 56 countries studying in Cuba.

The left-leaning festivals began some 50 years ago under the auspices of the former Soviet Union, and there was speculation they might disappear along with European communism.

Cuba and some other nations have worked hard to continue the youth gatherings, with Cuba hosting the 14th festival in 1997.



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