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FBIS3-24656_22 | FOREIGN PRESS SURVEY--FB PSE 94-006--WEST EUROPE | While EU officials "showed understanding," they expressed doubts that the 1994 budget, which promises to lower the deficit, can be adhered to if austerity is not followed. EU doubts are shared by Defense Minister Yerasimos Arsenis, Commerce Minister Kostas Simitis, and alternate National Economy Minister Ioannis Papandoniou, who also advocate austerity measures. They argue that of the three elections scheduled during the government's term--European Parliament, municipal, and legislative elections--the most critical one is the last, allowing the government time to enact politically costly austerity measures. While Papandreou shares his ministers' concern, he rejects tighter economic policies at this time, fearing that austerity will plunge the economy into an unprecedented recession from which it would be difficult to dig out. He is thus advocating Yennimatas's policy of only tightening tax collection. According to the article, this "formidable" task cannot be carried out by Yennimatas, who is ill with cancer, alone and Deputy Minister of Finance Alexandros Papadhopoulos may soon have his responsibilities expanded to help out. (RM) (Athens TO VIMA TIS KIRIAKIS in Greek 9 Jan 94 p A4) REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANK ESTABLISHED IN SALONICA--The Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, whose members are Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine, selected Salonica as the site for its newly-created Black Sea Development and Commerce Bank. The selection of Greece for the bank is a significant challenge for Greece, as well as a "window of opportunity" for the country to promote Greek entrepreneurship and economic leadership in the Balkans and the Black Sea region. The bank is scheduled to open in 1994. However, it may be delayed because of its members' different levels of development and national political and economic goals. The bank presidency will rotate among its members. The first governor will be Turkish and his deputy Bulgarian. Greece will be responsible for the bank's organization and operation. Each country will contribute to the financing of the institution with alternative funding to come from the "plethora" of EU, European Reconstruction and Development Bank (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), and World Bank programs. (RM) (Athens T0 VTMA TIS KTRIAKTS in Greek 9 Jan 94 p D13) ITALY MODERATE POLITICAL PARTIES' ECONOMIC PLATFORMS--An article in the Rome daily IL MESSAGGERO reported answers from the economic experts of the five "moderate" parties running in the 27-28 March national elections who were asked where they stand on current economic issues. Following |
FBIS3-24656_24 | FOREIGN PRESS SURVEY--FB PSE 94-006--WEST EUROPE | is a summary of the positions the advocate: * Mario Baldassari, Pact for Italy --Guarantee a tax ceiling, reducing tax rate from 43 to 40 percent. Broaden the tax base through agreements with the self- employed. Reduce the number of taxes from 200 to no more than 10, since 80 percent of revenues come from six taxes. --Modify public assistance regulations. Intervene to save the pension system by raising minimum pension age, establishing compulsory contributions, and creating private pension funds. --Increase the pace of privatization and include municipal companies and local savings banks. Create a network of merchant banks for small- and medium-sized companies. * Giancarlo Pagliarini, Northern League --Establish a tax ceiling, with a rate which has a "fair" percentage share of GDP. --Pay for health care and pensions through the EU's budget. Change to a contribution-defined system rather than a benefit- defined system. Those outside the system who do not contribute should receive state benefits. Contributions should be managed by pension funds in competition with each other rather than by the National Agency for Social Security (INPS). --Extend privatization to everything because "it makes no sense for the state to manage the economy." * Roberto Pinza, Italian Popular Party --Do not impose a tax ceiling before country's finances are in order. Meanwhile, follow the policy established by the current legislature for the next few years. Simplify and return tax refunds as quickly as possible. --Seek and maintain a balance between efficiency and state benefits, especially health-related benefits. Give public assistance to those who really need it and require those less needy to pay for it. --Privatize but keep strategic industries under state control. Additionally, Pinza is "worried" about privatizing savings banks. He would recommend not allowing local governments to control all the savings banks. * Antonio Martino, Forza Italia --Establish a tax ceiling to control spending. --Find more efficient methods of parcelling out state aid. Provide non-negotiable vouchers to purchase health insurance plans, allowing personal choice of which one. Martino claims this would produce more efficient health care for everyone at half the present health care cost --Extend privatization to many industries which are currently under political and bureaucratic control. Martino views the linkage of economic and political interests as the principal cause of corruption in Italy. * Maurizio Gasparri, National Alliance --Limit spending, either through a constitutional mandate or through law. Reduce tax rates to fight tax |
FBIS3-24662_0 | Croatia--Bosnia-Herzegovina | Statements Suggest Scope of Zagreb's Intervention in Bosnia SUMMARY Zagreb has agreed under threat of sanctions to consider withdrawing forces it admits are present in border areas inside Bosnia-Herzegovina while continuing to deny that it has intervened in the Bosnian war. At the same time, some recent statements from Zagreb suggest that Croatia is more deeply involved in the Bosnian war than its leaders have previously admitted. END SUMMARY In the wake of a UN Security Council demand issued on 2 February that Croatia withdraw all elements of its army from Bosnia- Herzegovina--and having received warnings from the United States and from European Union of the possibility that it could be put under economic sanctions like Yugoslavia--Zagreb has promised to comply with the UN's ultimatum. At the same time, the government of President Franjo Tudjman has claimed that it is only minimally and indirectly involved in aiding the war efforts of the Bosnian Croats. Zagreb television, apparently attempting to downplay the Croatian government's implicit acknowledgment that Croatian Army (HV) units are present in Bosnia-Herzegovina, reported that Foreign Minister Mate Granic had sent a letter to UN Secretary General Butrus Butrus-Ghali assuring him of Croatia's "readiness" to "reduce tensions" between the Croatian and Muslim sides" in the Bosnian war (Zagreb TV, 11 February). In a television interview the next day, Granic explained that HV units would withdraw from "border areas," but that Croatia would insist that the UN establish "control" over the Croat-Bosnian border (Zagreb TV, 12 February). At a 14 February UN Security Council session, Croatian Ambassador to the UN Mario Nobilo, without directly addressing the issue of the HV's intervention in Bosnia, reiterated Zagreb's willingness to cooperate with the Security Council. He stressed that the Croats hoped that the success of recent talks between the Croatian side and the Bosnian government would reduce the threat to Bosnian Croats (Zagreb TV, 15 February). Denials of Large-Scale Intervention Despite the announcement that it would comply with the Security Council's demand that it withdraw its forces from Bosnia, the Croatian government has continued to deny that its army units are fighting against Bosnian government forces. Insisting that troops arriving from Croatia to fight are volunteers of "Bosnian origin," the Croatian Council of Defense and Security, a body chaired by Tudjman, declared that "about 2,000 volunteer soldiers" had been "allowed" to leave the Croatian Army and "go to help their kin" in order |
FBIS3-24663_4 | Russia: Zhirinovskiy's Vision of Russia's Future: "The Last | while eliminating internal borders drawn on ethnic lines. He will revive Russia's economy, chiefly by reconverting plants to military production and selling their products on the world arms market. Russia will be restored to the greatness it enjoyed under the tsars and the Communists. In the longer term, LDPR rule will-bring Russia to the millennium, an era that Zhirinovskiy sees as the end point of Russian history, the ''resolution of a global task,'' Russia's last great historical mission," which will usher in a period of world peace and stability. Russia and the other great powers--the United States, Germany, and Japan--will agree to divide the world into spheres of influence. This agreement will enable Russia to turn its attention from East-West relations to its agreed sphere- -the area from its present southern border to the Indian Ocean. Zhirinovskiy envisions that the consolidation of Russian domination over this region will end the threat to Russia from the conflicts now taking place on Russia's southern borders in the Caucasus and Afghanistan, save Russia from the pan-Turkic designs of Central Asians, and free the world from the Islamic radical threat. This move to push its dominance southward will free Russia, which has been pushed "into the tundra," where nothing can live and develop," (i.e., the northern latitudes to which a truncated Russia would be confined) and will gain it a warm water "platform" and access to the world's markets. Russia will ally itself with India and Iraq, who will guard Russia's flanks. The drive to the south will simultaneously fulfill Russia's historic fate and accomplish the "task of saving the Russian nation" from destruction. Similarities with Other Russian Nationalists Although Zhirinovskiy's prescriptions for the future differ from those of other extreme Russian nationalists, his view of Russia's present difficulties is essentially the same as theirs. For example, the now infamous open letter "Word to the People," printed in the pro-communist and nationalist newspaper, Sovetskaya Rossiya in July 1991, spoke of "greedy and pompous.. .apostates," who, in league with foreign "money grubbers," were plotting the "slavery and subordination" of Russia to "our all-powerful neighbors." The letter called the Soviet Army the savior of Europe, saying it had "won the respect of mankind" for the "selfless deed" of saving civilization from Hitler and called "the homeland and the state" the "supreme and most sacred object of life" (Sovetskaya Rossiya, 23 July 1991). The letter, commonly believed |
FBIS3-24663_25 | Russia: Zhirinovskiy's Vision of Russia's Future: "The Last | industry) with the south, where there is basic food stuffs and raw materials for light industry, then YES, we will have a market economy. (Zhirinovskiy article published in LDPR newspaper, Liberal, No.2, 1993) The division of spheres of influence is better [for managing world affairs]. . . . The Japanese and Chinese can go south into Southeast Asia. . . . Russia can go south. . . . West Europe can go south into the African continent. Finally, Canada and the United States can go south--the whole of Latin America. . . . So allocation according to this geopolitical formula would be very favorable for all mankind. . .. Both world order in general and economic order--via external ties--would be established. We would also save the planet environmentally. (LDTTS, p.19) Russia consolidates its sphere of influence in the South In foreign policy, one must move from the East-West relationship to the North-South relationship. . . . We will . . . come to an accommodation with Germany. A strong Turkey and Iran are in the South but Russian soldiers will no longer shed their blood in the Transcaucasus. We will reach accord with the Turks and with Iran all the sooner. (Speech to Russian Congress of People's Deputies, Russian TV, 22 May 1991) Mr. Zhirinovskiy promised that if he comes to power, he will restore order in Europe by forming an alliance with Germany. . . . "Let the Germans move east to the new Soviet-German border while we move south," Mr. Zhirinovskiy said. He also voiced the need to support the liberation struggle of the Kurds with the help of "Cuban mercenaries and Russian weapons" and "explode Turkey and Iran" with their hands. (Comment on Zhirinovskiy stump speech, INTERFAX, 7 May 1992) According to Zhirinovskiy, Russia is losing its positions in the Middle East, where "Iraq is its most reliable ally." . . . V. Zhirinovskiy said that in the eastern and southern directions Russia ought to bank on building allied relationships with Japan, China, and India. . . . He added "As for the allied relationship with India, it will depend largely on whether Russia helps it repulse the Muslim threat. . . . Zhirinovskiy believes that access to the Indian Ocean should become a goal of Russia's foreign policy in the southern direction. In this case Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey will have to be "neutralized," which, according |
FBIS3-24670_0 | Tokyo Signals Concern Over Long-Term Impact of Failed Talks | SUMMARY While Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa has won fairly broad domestic support for his refusal to accept U.S. demands to establish objective criteria to measure Japan's import performance at the failed 11 February U.S.-Japan summit, comments by Japanese political and business leaders and by the Japanese media have contained a strong undercurrent of concern about the long-term impact of the failure of the framework negotiations. These concerns appear to center around the further rise of the yen, possible U.S. sanctions against Japan, and the potential danger that increased trade friction may damage the political and security relationship between the two countries. To help contain such future developments, the Japanese Government appears to be planning to draw up a variety of measures to increase imports and relax regulations governing the Japanese market in certain areas. The scope of these measures, however, is still uncertain and they may face resistance from entrenched interests in the Japanese bureaucracy. END SUMMARY Prime Minister Hosokawa's refusal to accept U.S. demands to establish objective criteria to measure Japan's trade performance won support across a broad political spectrum in Japan. Senior members of Hosokawa's increasingly fractious coalition backed the prime minister solidly on the issue in comments made over the past few days. In comments on a 13 February TV Asahi panel discussion, Chief Cabinet Secretary Masayoshi Takemura, who has recently reportedly clashed with the prime minister on a variety of issues, including tax reform, defended Hosokawa's stance and stated that acceptance of targets would have been "totally impossible." He added that any policy under which the government would have agreed to set targets for the private sector would have "threatened the very foundation of the nation's economic system." Minister of International Trade and Industry Hiroshi Kumagai made similar comments during a 12 February FNN Television round table discussion, and Ichiro Ozawa, Secretary General of one of the key parties in the coalition and one of the leading figures behind Hosokawa's government, endorsed the prime minister's stance in an interview in the 14 February Yomiuri Shimbun. Ozawa stated that it was "proper" for Hosokawa to reject the targets because Japan had grown more independent of the United States and must now "act with responsibility as a mature nation." Ambivalent LDP Stance The opposition Liberal Democratic Party has also supported Hosokawa's stance on targets, confining their somewhat ambivalent and muted criticism of his performance at the summit to |
FBIS3-24678_77 | PACIFIC RIM ECONOMIC REVIEW -- 23 FEBRUARY 1994 | in developing countries will become another variable in the market, To cut costs, strengthen their competitiveness, and maintain their current market position, ROK steel producers must adjust their structures and develop innovative technologies, HKS concludes. POSCO, whose annual production can satisfy domestic demand, plans to raise its steel quality to world-class levels, according to HKS. It will focus on developing production technologies, investing 28 billion won ($35 million) in melting reduction technology and 52.2 billion won ($65.25 million) in strip casting technology. POSCO hopes to use the latter in its production process by 1998. By 1996, POSCO will build a thick slab plant (annual capacity, 1 million tons) at its Kwangyang facility. HKS reports that in 1993 P0SCO invested an amount equal to 1.5 percent of sales to develop high value-added products, and intends td raise this investment to equal 2.1 percent of sales by 1996. The company will also change its distribution structure, raising the percentage of materials and products transported by ship to 38 percent, compared to 28 percent in 1993. It will reduce distribution costs to 9.7 percent of sales (compared to 11.5 percent in 1993), according to HKS. Finally, POSCO is developing overseas resources in order to expand its supplies of iron ore and bituminous coal, and will increase its local investment in China, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia. POSCO is not alone in increasing its direct investment in these areas. The 5 January HANGUK KYONGJE SINMUN reports that ROK steel firms are expected to increase their direct investment overseas, as they face rising labor costs at home and observe the growing demand for steel in China and Southeast Asia. POSCO's efforts include negotiating for a 50:50 joint-venture tin plate plant (annual capacity: 20,000 tons; cost: $102 million) in Shanghai and a 50:50 joint-venture cold-rolled steel plant (annual capacity: 150-200,000 tons; cost: $100 million) near Tianjin. POSCO is currently building a steel pipe factory (annual capacity: 30,000 tons) and a reinforcing bar factory (annual capacity: 20,000 tons) in Hanoi. Koyang and Pusan Pipe are working with POSCO on these projects. HKS notes that Dongyang Tin Plate Industrial Company plans to conclude a 70:30 joint venture agreement with Benxi Steel. The company will build a tin plate plant (annual capacity: 150,000 tons; cost: $60 million) in Benxi, Liaoning. Hanbo Steel is constructing thick slab and reinforcing bar plants in Asan, ROK, and plans to transfer its Pusan plant |
FBIS3-24678_80 | PACIFIC RIM ECONOMIC REVIEW -- 23 FEBRUARY 1994 | and there are even rumors of a possible "embargo" on scrap iron exports. HKS predicts that problems with scrap iron supplies will probably continue, as the number of thick slab casters, who use scrap iron as an input, grows from two at present to an estimated 44 worldwide by 1996. The expected supply-demand imbalance for scrap iron has kept all ROK electric furnace steel producers--except Hanbo--f rom bringing in thick-slab casting technology, according to HKS. Even so, steel producers expect scrap iron supplies to continue to be a problem for some time, as growth in production capacity (39.4 percent in 1992) continues over the next two to three years and the growth in stockpiled steel (9.9 percent in 1992) is unable to keep up. To address the problem, experts suggest that South Korea systematize scrap iron recycling, expand its scrap iron collection and processing sites, revamp the distribution process, and work to increase the use of alternatives to scrap iron. FEATURE: New Approach To Collecting Foreign S and T Information Noted - SUMMARY: Cooperative research agreements with foreign institutes, although numerous, have failed to provide the commercial technology South Korea needs to stay competitive, according to the head of a leading ROK research institute whose remarks are reported in the Seoul press. The broad, general approach characteristic of ROK collection efforts to date will be replaced, in part, by a new program in which methods and goals are tailored to the realities of the target country. South Korea's "cooperative" links with foreign research institutes will be expanded this year, while a concurrent effort is made to exploit these connections in ways commensurate with the ROK's real needs, according to reports in the 29 December and 24 January MAEIL KYONGJE SINMUN (MKS). Addressing a symposium held 28 December and titled "Building the New Economy, and a Strategy for Internationalizing R and D," the director of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) complained that "cooperative research" with other countries gives the appearance of being vigorous, but in fact is "much too weak." In his view, the practical consequences of agreements made between ROK state-funded research institutes and foreign S and T establishments in particular have been unsatisfactory. For example, a total of 48.3 billion won ($60 million) was "invested" by South Korea between 1985-92 in 260 international projects. However, the nature of these projects or the manner of their execution |
FBIS3-24679_15 | FOREIGN PRESS SURVEY--FB PSE 94-007--WEST EUROPE | other benefits, then the incentive to work weakens. For the Youth SMIC, however, this is not the case since it applies to those 16 to 25, while such benefits as the RMI apply to those over the age of 26. 2. Reduce Labor Costs on Low-Wage Workers * Reducing employer social security costs does not affect the workers' income. However, this solution costs the government Fr50 billion in lost revenues. * Reducing employer social security charges for lower income workers would be particularly expensive for France. Moatti, who claims such a reduction would not be significant below a level of 1 percent of GDP, cites former INSEE Director General Edmond Malinvaud as advocating in a recently published paper that European countries should establish a sliding scale for exempting employer social security charges for those earning between one and two times the SMIC. However, such an exemption would be particularly expensive for France where the majority of salaries are clustered at the lower end of the scale. The French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE) has calculated that the Malinvaud solution would cost 2.7 percent of GDP or around Fr190 billion. The increase in jobs would in theory reach around 400,000 after some years. In fact, probably much less. * The question of who pays for the shortfall in social security revenues is key to the debate. Suggestions for how they can be shared include: --Increase VAT taxes. Moatti points out, however, that is regulated by single market regulations. --Increase company taxes. This would "would be taking with one hand while giving with the other." --Increase social security deductions from medium- and high- income earners. The OFCE study concludes this would be the most efficient way to promote employment of the unskilled because of the "substitution effect" which would replace skilled worker with unskilled. However, this would penalize those most skilled in the work force who are already the targets of direct taxation. --Increase income taxes. Again burdening the already burdened and dampening economic recovery. --Establish a pollution tax. Proposed by the EU Commission, but energy taxes are already very high in France. --Increase the General Social Tax (CSG). This has the same effect as increasing income taxes. --Lower corresponding social spending, such as on health. Moatti suggests that France may one day be presented with the choice of health care or employment. Included in the commentary is a chart detailing the |
FBIS3-24680_2 | FOREIGN PRESS SURVEY--FB PSE 94-008--WEST EUROPE | plans, including the Cohesion Fund, the Structural Fund, and the Medium-Term Research Program. Additional funds, she argues, could be raised through the existing European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund, which is to be established this year. Taken together, these financing sources could raise around 30 billion European Currency Units (ECU), an amount Matthaeus-Maier contends should be sufficient to fund the job creation program. Matthaeus-Maier also maintains that an independent EU financing authority is undesirable. First, she points out, there is good reason for the provisions in the Maastricht Treaty which require that the EU budget not be financed through debt but exclusively through the resources of the member states. An EU financing capability, she argues, would create a new source of indebtedness which would take on a life of its own. Member states would have a new loophole enabling them to escape limits on indebtedness at the national level. Second, Matthaeus-Maier asserts, new indebtedness at the EU level would undermine the convergence criteria the Maastricht Treaty requires member states to meet to join the European Monetary Union (EMU). Any financial obligations taken on by the EU ultimately would have to be divided up among the member states, making it even more difficult for them to meet EMU's limits on debt as percentage of GDP. Third, Matthaeus-Maier contends, new EU debt would make a decline in interest rates even more difficult, thus hindering investment in new jobs. The deeper the EU went into debt, the greater the eventual pressure for counterbalancing spending cuts and tax increases, steps which would be "poison for economic growth." Fourth, the interest on new indebtedness at the EU level would still have to be paid by the member-states, and any increase in member-state contributions would probably increase opposition to the EU. What the EU really needs, Matthaeus-Maier suggests, is not a new way to increase debt but rather a reduction of debt at all levels and strict adherence to Maastricht's convergence criteria. If available financial resources are insufficient, she concludes, then the Union's existing budget must be redistributed to fund the measures envisioned in the "White Book." (RoH) (Duesseldorf HANDELSBLATT in German 21/22 Jan 94 p 3) DENMARK MINISTER ANNOUNCES APPRENTICESHIPS--Danish Labor Minister Jytte Andersen has announced that recently enacted legislation gives municipal authorities a new tool in the fight against youth unemployment: local government authorities can now offer poorly educated youth a two-year |
FBIS3-24680_10 | FOREIGN PRESS SURVEY--FB PSE 94-008--WEST EUROPE | 2,269,562 in a decade, indicating that between 12 and 15 percent of the Spanish work force is employed in the public sector. The CEOE notes that Spanish industry has lost 340,000 jobs and more jobs will be lost in the agricultural sector as the country adheres to EU agricultural guidelines by reducing the number of farm workers. The authors note that the service industry cannot absorb this large a number of unemployed people. Economics professor Ramon Tamames describes the unemployment rate as "extremely alarming." In his book "Alternative Spain," Tamames characterizes the causes of Spain's unemployment as an example of excessive "bureaucratization and waste." He adds, it is "incomprehensible" that the birth rate in Spain should have only grown by a modest 3 percent during the past decade while the government bureaucracy increased by 32 percent in the same timeframe. The problem is more serious in the autonomous communities, according to PP deputy Manuel Nunez where "veritable colonies" have developed around the governing parties, "which goes against Title VIII of the Constitution." In Andalusia, for instance, the bloated bureaucracy has led to an increase in high level posts. Nunez writes: "Compared to Catalonia, the Basques have three times as many public officials and compared to Madrid, the Catalans have twice the number of public officials." A PP study indicates that the excessive number of high level posts is hindering government administration. (CH) (Madrid Diario 16 in Spanish 24 Jan 94 p 8) SWEDEN ABB SETS UP JOINT VENTURE IN RUSSIA--The Swedish-Swiss electronics firm Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), which already controls 45 companies in Central and Eastern Europe, has announced the formation of a joint venture with Nevsky Zavod, the leading Russian producer of gas and steam turbines. The new firm, to be based in St. Petersburg, plans not only to supply Russian power plants with ABB equipment and technology but also to sell entire prefabricated facilities as well. Percy Barnevik, the head of ABB, foresees Swedish manufacturers making components that can then be assembled in Russia. Barnevik noted that, at a time when many firms are skeptical about investing in Russia, "it means a lot to the Russians psychologically that there are some companies who are continuing to invest in the country." (WS) (Stockholm SVENSKA DAGBLADET in Swedish 28 Jan 94 p C1) TURKEY COMMENTARY SCORES GOVERNMENT ECONOMIC POLICY--According to Al tan Oymen writing in MILLIYET, Turkey's current economic situation |
FBIS3-24682_7 | South Korea: Acquiring 'Dual-Use' Advanced Weapons Technology | would be enhanced by S and T agreements recently signed with three major arms and arms technology exporting countries--Russia, China, and Israel--a fact duly noted in the ROK press. Russia in particular has attracted South Korean media attention by its reported offers to barter advanced weapons (24 January 1994 CHUNGANG ILBO) and "enriched uranium" (25 January 1994 YONHAP) to repay its ROK debts. Infrastructure is already in place for acquiring other types of sophisticated Russian technology. In addition to various "S and T cooperative centers" and "industrial cooperation information centers" established in Russia during the past year, the ROK Government operates at least two organizations aimed at recruiting Russian scientists and transferring advanced technology, through MOST (13 October 1993 HKS) and MOTIE (9 November 1993 MKS). Arrangements to acquire Russian aerospace technology have been concluded by South Korea's three largest defense contractors, Daewoo Heavy Industries (8 January 1993 MKS), Samsung Aerospace (1 August 1993 HKS), and Hyundai--which reportedly sent some 30 PhD's to Russia to study "satellite technology" (31 July 1993 HKS), and has a joint venture with the aerospace firm Yakolev (5 November 1993 CHUNGANG ILBO). A 24 December 1992 CHUGAN CHOSON report describes how an unnamed South Korean company was able to bribe a Russian technician to hand over electronics technology that could not be obtained through formal channels; the incident suggests another route through which Russian weapons technology could be transferred. On 5 November 1993, YONHAP reported some details of an S and T agreement signed by China and the ROK on 20 September 1993, including joint development of a "multipurpose satellite, aircraft design and testing technology, and medical lasers." The satellite project was interpreted by YONHAP as "paving the way for a Sino- Korean partnership in the defense iridustry." Citing "diplomatic sources," YONHAP also noted that "cooperation in nuclear energy may be not only in the reactor sector but could possibly develop into closer and wider partnership in the field." In addition, the 5 October 1993 CHOSON ILBO reported an agreement with Israel for scientific cooperation on several levels. The paper observed that Israel, which is shifting much of its state-funded research from military to civilian projects, is entering the agreement partly out of "concern about employment for its high-level S and T personnel in defense-related industries." (Author: Hannas. Question and/or comments, please call Chief, Southeast Asia/Korea Branch at (703) 733-6522) EAG/25February1994/MILF/TECHTF/TACF/TNDF/Asia Division CB 25/2104z Feb |
FBIS3-24699_0 | Public Asked for Evidence of Dergue Regime's Crimes | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] The General Prosecutor's Office has notified the public to provide evidence, written or otherwise, of crimes committed or related to alleged criminals of the former regime. The office said that it has been gathering individual and collective evidence in a bid to prove the guilt or innocence of alleged criminals of the Dergue. |
FBIS3-24702_0 | Hundreds Protest Tax Increase in Iganga District | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] In eastern Uganda, one person was killed when the police opened fire on protesters who were demonstrating in Iganga District against the rise of local taxes. A report from the area says hundreds of demonstrators tried to overrun a police station and a local authority office. They were apparently trying to seize the official whom they thought was responsible for the rise. More than 70 people were detained. |
FBIS3-24703_0 | Two Killed; 77 Detained | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Two people have been shot dead in Iganga by police who were trying to disperse hundreds of rioting taxpayers who attempted to demolish a police post in Iganga District. The victims were shot as they tried to disarm the police, who were firing in the air to scare away the mob. According to the police commander in Iganga, over 800 stick-wielding and stone-throwing taxpayers converged on Nambale Police post to demolish it and get hold of the subcounty chief of Nambale, whom they thought had taken refuge there. They accused him the chief of overassessing them. Meanwhile 77 rioters who were arrested from the subcounties of Nabitende, Nambale and (Namungabe) have appeared in the court, charged with inciting people against payment of tax. Twenty of them pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. Those who denied the charge were remanded. Agitation against payment of the graduated tax started last Monday [24 January] in Nabitende Subcounty and later spread to Nambale, (Namungabe), and later to (Ivukwa) and Bulange in Busika County, also Bukoma in Luka County and (Namulemba) in Bugweri County. |
FBIS3-24738_4 | SADF Warns of `Large-Scale Violence,' Coup Attempt | waves through far-right underground planning structures. A "tongue lashing" over the leak was delivered "from the top." It also appears that several police generals in Pretoria were caught unawares by the report. Urgent meetings were called in the capital on Sunday night, and members of the Criminal Information Service -- the old security branch -- were summoned from Brits area to report on the situation. It has also been reliably learned that the planned take-over of police stations by the far-right is causing deep concern to the South African Police General Staff. The report was high on the agenda the whole week at police headquarters, Wachthuis. Further investigation by RAPPORT indicated that only about two commando units in the western Transvaal are not controlled by right-wing structures. The far-right has also gained effective control over the commandos and their arsenals in almost the whole of rural Orange Free State, northern Natal, far northern, northern, and southern Transvaal. Everywhere so-called area protection units have affiliated with the commandos and will therefore be eligible to receive defense force weapons. White Wolf Barend Strydom's wife Karin, his mother-in-law Trudy, and his father-in-law have apparently all been issued with semi- automatic weapons. They live near Hartbeespoort Dam in the Brits area. A very nervous source, rifle in hand, told RAPPORT: -- There are four experts in the Brits area trained in the preparation of cyanide bullets. "These people also have pipes [probably anti-tank equipment] with which to take out tanks and armored vehicles." -- A raid had been planned for last Sunday on the police base at Rosslyn outside Pretoria to get hold of more weapons. The target was described in detail to RAPPORT. An expert at opening door and safe locks, and whose name and address have been given to RAPPORT, has allegedly been involved in several incidents to date where he had to open locks to enable members of the underground structures to steal weapons and equipment. -- The recent spate of bomb attacks on power and railway lines without the loss of life must be seen as part of an armed propaganda campaign which serves as a prelude to what lies ahead. The fact that no trains loaded with black commuters have so far been blown up is ascribed to the fact that the far-right saboteurs do not wish to cause any harm to Zulus who might be on the trains. |
FBIS3-24762_1 | New Immigration Law Would Prevent Whites From Returning | interesting of all, is [word indistinct] 10 years for immigrants to be regarded as permanent residents. At present, it only takes two years of local residence in this country, but now it is going to take 10 years. [Martin] Who do you think these laws are aimed at? [(Mgazi)] The one that has raised eyebrows is the one that says that people will now lose the automatic right to live in this country, even if they are Zimbabwean-born noncitizens. Now, that is likely to affect most of all people who were resident in Rhodesia, then, because most of them were ex-Rhodesians who either emigrated to South Africa or Britain soon after independence. [sentence as heard] A lot of them have been applying to come back to Zimbabwe, unsuccessfully, but once this change becomes law, as it is widely expected to be in a very short space of time, then it is going to be extra difficult for them to come back and live in Zimbabwe again. [Martin] What is the position on their properties and their land? Would they just be trying to reclaim properties they had before? Is that what the point of this immigration law is about? [(Mgazi)] Not really, but when some of them left, they did not sell their properties. A large number of them did, but the majority did not. They either left relatives or friends in charge of their properties, so when they come back, it is not a question of them having to look for new properties as such. They will be coming back to their old properties. [Martin] What is public opinion like, on this issue? [(Mgazi)] Strangely enough, no voices of disapproval have been heard. I mean, it is two days since the proposal [word indistinct] were published in the government gazette, but as yet nobody has been heard to voice any disapproval of government intention to overhaul the Immigration Act. I mean, even the political parties who are known to oppose anything that government does....[pauses] If there is any resentment, it will be targeted at the ex-Rhodesians who left after independence because the main reason why they left was that they could not live under black majority rule and they decided to go to settle in South Africa. But black majority is imminent in South Africa, and they are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. [end recording] |
FBIS3-24764_0 | Three Reported Dead in 31 Jan Shooting Incident | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Mogadishu, 31 Jan (AFP)--At least three Somalis were killed and seven hurt in southern Mogadishu early Monday [31 January] by gunfire which witnesses blamed on U.S. soldiers. An AFP correspondent saw the bodies of two women and one man on the road leading to the airport. One of the dead had his arm blown off. There was no immediate confirmation of the clash from either U.S. military or UN sources. "He was sitting by the road. He wasn't doing anything," said a relative of another victim, who was shot in the head. A child, less than 10 years old, was hit in the throat while a man had his wrist blown up by a high-caliber bullet. Panic spread in the crowded streets shortly after the firing erupted, with passers-by screaming: "It's the Americans, It's the Americans." |
FBIS3-24847_0 | Shooting, `Ineffective' Plots by `Enemies' Viewed | Language: Persian Article Type:BFN [Commentary by the News Research and Commentaries Group] [Text] In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful. The vigilant people know that the enemies of the Islamic revolution have always been apprehensive about the Muslim nation's presence on the scene, especially during the Ten Days of Dawn, the symbol of the greatness and grandeur of Islam and the people of Iran. At various times, they have sought to neutralize or undermine this action. The incident at the mausoleum of the imam, may God be pleased with him, proved that during the festivities to mark the victory of the Islamic revolution, the powers of world arrogance and the enemies of the Islamic revolution intend to stage incidents to disrupt the popular activity. What we witnessed yesterday affirms the vigilance and alertness of the people, who, for the past 15 years, have maintained an active presence on the scene of the defense of the Islamic revolution and on the line of the late imam. The people's slogans following the random shooting at the sacred precincts of the [mausoleum of] the Islamic revolution's founder indicate that the plots of the enemies of Islam and the Islamic revolution are ineffective and constitute a declaration of allegiance to the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Everyone should know, at this critical time for the Islamic revolution and the country's construction, when the enemies' hopes are being turned into despondency, that only vigilance and alertness and knowledgeable action can steer the Islamic revolution toward its lofty goals. Everyone should know that the powers of world arrogance fear the Ten Days of Dawn and the celebration of the Day of God [Yawm- Allah] on 11 February. The 11 February marches have already perturbed the Islamic revolution's enemies. This year, as in previous years, the people will again display their unified presence at the 11 February marches and reaffirm their unwavering determination to safeguard the revolution's gains--to the chagrin of their enemies. |
FBIS3-24848_0 | Papers Cited on 10 Days of Dawn Violence, Saudi Role | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Report by Laurent Maillard] [Text] Tehran, Feb 2 (AFP)--Several people were injured and others arrested in a rare outburst of sectarian violence in southeast Iran, marring celebrations for the 15th anniversary of the Islamic republic, newspapers said Wednesday. The protest on Tuesday came the same day as a gunman fired shots during a speech by President 'Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani. And the mainly Shiite Muslim country's economic plight also cast a shadow over the anniversary when parliament cut the annual budget. An angry crowd gathered Tuesday outside the main mosque in Zahedan, one of the few Iranian cities with a Sunni Muslim majority, after rumours spread that a Sunni mosque had been destroyed in Mashhad in northeastern Iran. "Counter-revolutionary elements joined the crowd and started throwing stones at the police, breaking shop windows," HAMSHARI newspaper said. The interior ministry described the violence as a "counter- revolutionary plot" and said public buildings, houses and military vehicles had been attacked. The security forces arrested demonstrators who wanted to "sow disorder and trouble in Zahedan" at the start of the official ceremonies marking the anniversary of the 1979 revolution which toppled the shah, the ministry said. No figure was given for the number of demonstrators involved. "Counter-revolutionary elements gathered in Khayyam Avenue and began ripping down the Iranian flags and smashing the party lights decorating the street for the anniversary of the revolution," the ministry said. The newspaper KEYHAN reported Tuesday that the armed opposition group the People's Mojahedin [Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, MKO] was preparing "terrorist activities" in Sistan va Baluchestan province, of which Zahedan is the main town, "with the backing of Saudi Arabia," which sees itself as the leader of the Sunni branch of Islam. Also Tuesday, a gunman fired shots as Rafsanjani delivered a speech at the mausoleum of the republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeyni. Police arrested a 26-year-old man who said he had only wanted to frighten the crowd. Rafsanjani, standing 50 meters (yards) away and shielded by an aide, kept his composure and did not interrupt his speech at the shrine in southern Tehran. "There was nothing to worry about," he told Tehran Radio later. The noise panicked some in the crowd of several thousand who had gathered to celebrate the first of the 10 days which led to the revolution, known here as "Fajr" (dawn). After the incident the crowd started shouting "Rafsanjani, we |
FBIS3-24850_5 | Yazdi Backs Khamene'i as Jurisconsult | Republic of Iran was founded in the name of the imam [of the age]]. [passage omitted] When the Islamic government was founded it meant that during more than 1,000 years of confrontation with rulers infidelity vanished and Islam came. It was not like a dynasty vanishing and another dynasty appearing. That is most important. [passage omitted] The Islamic Republic of Iran means infidelity vanished in the government and Islam replaced it. The jurisconsult who has the responsibility of sovereignty of Islam is a theologian, a deputy of the imam [of the age] and acts according to Islam and must observe all the Islamic conditions. He himself is subject to Islamic laws and regulations. It is Islam that rules, not the individual. Under such circumstances I have a question: If during 1,000 years our jurisconsults, our religious scholars throughout the Islamic cities used to answer the people's religious problems, used to receive the religious tax and spent it on religious matters, act in areas that they were allowed to act and would say they had no duty in the areas were they could not act, and the tyrant rulers used to act at the time of the sovereignty of Islam, a jurisconsult somewhere cannot set himself up as a judge. [as received] He cannot say that there is a judicial system in the Islamic Republic and someone has been appointed as its head by the leader and they are administering the judicial system, but I am a religious scholar and wish to set up a judicial system in Shiraz [capital of Fars Province]; I can get involved in matters of jihad and war and peace; get involved in collecting tax. My insistence that the conditions before and after the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran have changed and differ is for this point. If today grand jurisconsults are sources of emulation and issue fatwas, nothing is wrong with that. Let them issue fatwas: A particular prayer must be said once or three times. That is not crucial, let them issue fatwas. What is wrong with that? [passage omitted] But if under the conditions of sovereignty of Islam a jurisconsult -- for example in a corner of say this Islamic state of Iran -- should say, after the leadership has announced that there should not be any ties with such and such country, that: he is a jurisconsult and I am |
FBIS3-24851_0 | Foreign Minister Announces Accord To Expand Irish Ties | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Tehran, Jan. 30, IRNA -- Iran an Ireland have decided to expand their mutual relations in political, economic, commercial and areas, a foreign ministry source said here Sunday. He said that Foreign Minister 'Ali Akbar Velayati in his visit to Dublin in mid January called for creation of a trade balance between the two countries, and encouraged the Irish Government to import Iranian oil and non-oil products. According to a memorandum of understanding signed between Iran and Ireland on Jan. 13, the Irish government expressed readiness to facilitate holding of exclusive exhibitions for the Iranian products in that country, he said. The two countries also agreed to cooperate in seismology, housing, and urban development areas, and to organize short-term courses on urban development. Cooperation in agriculture, livestock, forests and pasture sectors as well as joint investments in fisheries, food industries, aviation, communications, transport, and exchange of university students and instructors, are among the other topics agreed between the two countries. Velayati in his two-day visit to Ireland met with President Mary Robinson, Premier Albert Reynolds and ministers of foreign affairs, agriculture and food, defence, the marine, trade and marketing and chairman of foreign affairs committee, Brian Lennihan. Issues relevant to the developments in the region including the situation in afghanistan, Central Asia, Caucasia, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, the Middle East Peace Process, developments in Europe especially in the Balkans, unity of the two Irelands and unity of Europe were discussed during the meetings. |
FBIS3-24865_0 | Opposition Attacks Train; 2 Killed, 30 Wounded | Language: English Article Type:BFN [From the "Focus on Africa" program] [Text] The cease-fire between government forces and opposition militias in the suburbs of Congo's capital, Brazzaville, came to a bloody end yesterday. The cease-fire was agreed only on Sunday [30 January] to end months of clashes following the disputed elections last year. But the government apparently tried to take advantage and clear the railway line to the coast. The opposition objected and launched an attack on a train. There were deaths and a lot of injuries. From Brazzaville, Antoine Mouyambala telexed this report. [read by announcer] Two people were killed yesterday and another 30 injured when an opposition group attacked a train, carrying a team of workmen sent to reopen the railway line from Brazzaville to the coast. Traffic on the line had been disrupted for the past two months by opposition supporters, and the attack took place whilst the train was standing in a small station at Goma Tsetse in the opposition stronghold region of Pool, 50 km from Brazzaville. One of the dead was a senior official from the state railway company, and many of the wounded were soldiers who had been escorting the train. The victims were taken to Brazzaville yesterday afternoon, where an emergency meeting is expected to take place today between government and opposition supporters to discuss ways to bring the rising tide of violence in the country to an end. Despite yesterday's train attack, a spokesman for the pro-government presidential movement said that there would be no reversal of their cease-fire declaration made on Sunday. |
FBIS3-24896_0 | Four Acquitted of Smuggling Arms to Yugoslavia | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Kampala, Feb 1 (AFP) -- Four Ugandans facing charges of involvement in smuggling arms to war-torn Yugoslavia in a Ugandan Airlines plane in August 1991 have been acquitted and discharged, court officials said here Tuesday [2 February]. They said that those acquitted on Monday by Kampala's chief magistrate Yorokamu Bamwine included Uganda's former prime minister Abraham Waliggo, who then headed the state-owned Ugandan Airlines Corporation (UAC), two pilots Stephen Makyeri and Rogatiano Mugisha, and loadmaster David Nsubuga. But a fifth accused, Captain Jack Calnan, would continue standing trial for abuse of office. At the time of the incident, UAC officials denied that the plane, which had been leased from Aviation Leasing Groups (ALG) of Kansas City in the United States, "was on Ugandan Airlines business when it was caught smuggling arms to Yugoslavia and impounded by the Yugoslav authorities". The officials maintained that the ALG and UAC had agreed to temporarily suspend the lease between August 15 and October 15 because the Uganda flag carrier did not need the plane during that period. Under the agreement the Ugandan pilot Stephen Makyeri and his five compatriot crew members were to be retained by ALG during the period the lease was in suspension, the officials said. Consequently, the plane left Uganda on August 29, 1991 for Gaborone in Botswana, but was diverted to the nominally-independent South African homeland of Bophuthatswana, where a Canadian citizen of Yugoslav origin, Anton Ikac, who had a Ugandan Airlines ticket, apparently boarded the plane and arms were loaded, the officials recounted. It returned to Uganda's Entebbe international airport two days later carrying what was described as "technical cargo", taking off from Entebbe on the next day, but was forced to land at Zagreb in Yugoslavia, where it was found to be carrying 19 tonnes of arms and ammunition. According to the officials, money for refuelling the plane at Entebbe airport appeared to have been remitted to the Uganda branch of the British multi-national oil company, Shell-BP, from abroad, heightening suspicions here that senior officials of Uganda airlines were in on the deal. A South African arms maker denied having supplied arms to separatists in the Yugoslav republic of Croatia as had then been claimed in a report in the London weekly SUNDAY TIMES. |
FBIS3-24928_1 | Opposition Leader Calls For End to Political Impasse | object. A politician cannot try to reign over skeletons or dead bodies. We engage in politics to lead human beings who are alive. The Allied Forces are proud, really proud, and we showed it in front of the cameras. We are proud to have done what we did. When things return to normal, history will someday remember that a handful of men, who are not much talked about in this country and who did not have the ambition of obtaining the divine right of dominating others, freely and defying all dangers decided to write another page of this country's history. The Allied Forces are not asking to be worshiped, because they are not God, but only poor mortals such as yourselves. They are only asking to be judged objectively and impartially. We are not asking the media to praise us. We did what we did to the best of our knowledge and belief, before God, the nation, and history. The day will come when--as is often said--this joke will be over, and we will go to the polls to see who really leads a change-supporting camp and who does not. Leaders of a change-supporting camp are competent leaders who want progress -- they are good leaders. Those who want no change belong to a bad camp. In any case we, the Allied Forces, are aware that we have sincere friends who support us. They are not our slaves. They are our equals [words indistinct] political leaders not to be considered superior to the others, (?Because we are like the others). We are working in this spirit of truth, knowing that the people's confidence is not eternal. At a given time, the people will wake up and see whether their leaders are ruling (?as due) [words indistinct]. For us, true change comes in various phases. There is a change of men, in leadership, in institutions, and in management systems. Today, we can change our leaders, as is done normally in a democratic country, through the election process. [passage in local dialect] nothing will change. This means that the Third Republic might be the same as the second one if the people choose incompetent leaders. If the people do not put in place institutions adapted to current requirements and if these leaders chosen by the people continue to manage the country, as was the case during the Second Republic, nothing will change. |
FBIS3-24974_0 | Situation Described as Tense; Death Toll Rises to 60 | Language: English Article Type:BFN [From the "Focus on Africa" program] [Text] It's today since the Burundi opposition postponed the two-day general strike call until next Monday [7 February]. [sentence as heard] The idea was to allow people in Bujumbura to get some shopping and for workers to collect their pay packets. The strike call was a protest against the appointment of a new president to replace Melchior Ndadaye, who was killed in an Army uprising last October, and the final trigger was the sacking by the largely Hutu government of the Constitutional Court at the weekend. It was dominated by Tutsi judges. Since then, there's been a wave of ethnic killings in Bujumbura. The death toll has been put at around 60, and that kept a lot of people off the streets yesterday. And last night, more violence left a further 10 dead. On the line to Bujumbura, Josephine Hazely asked our correspondent, Bonaventure Ndiguimana, what the situation was today: [Begin recording] [Ndiguimana] I think the situation is very tense and dangerously evolving. Since yesterday night, there were so many grenade blasts, and gunfire was heard all night long. If we consider the number of casualties, 10 in one night, 10 wounded--including three gendarmes--and if we add those to the 46 announced yesterday by the gendarmerie, we can say that the situation is seriously jeopardized. [Hazely] So, have you been down to the town center today at all? [Ndiguimana] Yes, I have been downtown. The traffic was at minimum. Many businesses were closed down. Public offices were closed down, but private cars could circulate freely, since the road blockades were removed. But I can say that public transport was very much disrupted. [Hazely] Now, I understand the opposition met with the Army yesterday. Is there any word on what went on between the two groups? [Ndiguimana] No, nothing released out of the meeting. No official statement was released. Some rumors had said that they were plotting a coup d'etat, but this has been denied by the chief of staff in charge of gendarmeries. Some news had said that the Army and the opposition were organizing the coup. It is not true. [Hazely] I understand that the human rights league has made a statement about the situation in Burundi, especially in the capital, Bujumbura. What is the main source of the message? [Ndiguimana] The two human rights leagues, ITECA and SONERA |
FBIS3-25057_0 | Gunmen Attack ANC Homes Near Richmond; 12 Killed | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Durban Feb 6 SAPA--A bloody attack on women and children in the southern Natal village of Masunkazane outside Richmond early on Sunday [6 February] morning left 12 people dead and several injured -- among the dead, a three-year-old boy and an 80-year-old pensioner. Natal Police Liaison Officer Captain Henry Budhram said about 20 men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and 12-bore-shotguns had attacked seven houses just before dawn. The deceased, which included altogether six children, were: Sandile Dlamini, 7, Thuleleni Dlamini, 17, Lalani Dlamini, 65, Nonhanla Madondo, 6, Hlompile Madondo, 16, Kwazi Madondo, 3, his grandmother Rosaline Madondo, 50, Ester Zaca, 50, her sister Zenzele Zaca, 63, Fikilephi Zaca, 17, Nceke Mchunu 50 and Petha Mtolo, 80. They all died from gunshot wounds, Capt Budhram said. Police have launched an intensive investigation and have blamed the ongoing violence between the ANC [African National Congress] and Inkatha as the motive for the attack. Some of the houses were looted. The Masunkazane community has been devastated by violence since 1990 with an ongoing supremacy battle between the ANC and Inkatha. Last year alone, 1975 people were killed in the area, but peace monitors said the area seemed to have quieted down the past few months. ANC members, monitored by peace officials, spent the day campaigning 20-km away in Ixopo, and were unaware of the attack. However, the ANC media spokesman in the area, Mr Blade Nzimande, had been informed by shocked residents. He confirmed the area had been relatively peaceful of late, but said in view of the Freedom Alliance's [FA] stance towards elections he had been expecting trouble. "Its an attempt by the FA to destabilise communities to pressurise the ANC and government to accede to their constitutional demands," Mr Nzimande said on Sunday night. "But to kill women and children is particularly barbaric," he added. |
FBIS3-25100_12 | Pimo Leader Discusses Party Policies | territorial integrity of the country, and peaceful coexistence without interference in domestic affairs of other countries, with reciprocal benefits, equality, friendship, solidarity, and cooperation among peoples. Pimo also intends to have foreign relations that result in mutual benefits. Pimo does not agree with relations based on "priorities." In 1977 Frelimo diverted from its aims, surprising its militants with the announcement that it was a Marxist-Leninist oriented party. I believe this decision was made due to reasons of military cooperation, the supply of weapons, and as a reward for favors. Obviously, the model had to be imposed. Pimo hopes that what happened with Frelimo will not happen with the Renamo; otherwise, we shall have to pay in kind in the years to come for the military undertakings. Pimo is independent because it has not made this kind of undertaking, and when it approaches the international community in line with its foreign policy, it will do so freely without influences such as I have just mentioned. That is why Pimo fears for the victory of one the former warring factions and appeals to the opposition to unite as an independent party. [Alberto] You have previously stated that you had served another party. I would like to know what you think about being a politician. [Sibindy] It is difficult to be a politician, if one's movement is formed under pressure or guided by foreign interests or influences. That is difficult. Pimo favors the formation of a force or political movement that does not depend on external political influence. Even if it is an armed movement, the criteria has to be the same. We should not satisfy the interests of outside blocs in the name of national interests. We believe that a nationalist is the one who, of his free will, strives to serve the nation. Politics is easy if one follows that pattern. It is more difficult to be a politician when there is a tendency to serve foreign interests. [Alberto] Is this why you left the party you belonged to join the one that emerged recently? [Sibindy] Yes, that is the reason. Otherwise I would still belong to Frelimo. As soon as I realized that Frelimo was identifying with interests that did not correspond to Mozambique's, I realized that it was no longer a party whose aim was to serve the people. It was then that I began thinking of leaving it. |
FBIS3-25118_0 | Human Rights Commission Reports January Violence | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Report issued by the South African Human Rights Commission on 7 February on the SAPA PR Wire Service] [Text] The January death toll, while still very high, maintained the downward trend since the highpoint of July 1993. If the trend continues, violence levels should reach manageable proportions by election day. The use of unrest area declarations seems to be declining and currently is only in operation in the Eastern Cape, where ironically, political violence is minimal. The use of detention without trial, on the other hand, continues in operation, in spite of the declared undertaking to scrap Section 19 of the Internal Security Act, which so far has not materialised. No major massacres occurred during January. Amongst January victims were 2 commuters, 22 women, 22 children, 2 white civilians and 17 members of the security forces; reports identified 34 ANC [African National Congress] supporters and 14 IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party] supporters amongst the dead. Form of Repression January 1994 Total Yr 1994 Monthly 1993 Monthly to Date Average Average Formal Repression Detentions Without 57 57 57 60.6 Trial Death in Police 4 4 4 3.2 Custody Political Arrests 117 117 117 428.7 Political Trials 5 5 5 12.1 Death Sentences 1 1 1 4.5 Political Violence Incidents 498 498 498 463.5 Death: PWV 142 142 142 166.8 [Pretoria, Witwatersrand, Vereeniging] Natal 161 161 161 167.4 Elsewhere 14 14 14 32.3 Total Deaths 317 317 317 366.5 Injuries 269 269 269 361.6 There was a marginal drop in the PWV deathtoll from 158 in December to 142 in January. The region was responsible for 45 percent of countrywide deaths in January, with the East Rand sub- region again figuring prominently. The provisional figure of 161 deaths in Natal during January, suggests an encouraging downward trend from the 228 in December; however it remains to be seen if this trend will be confirmed and sustained. Other regions accounted for 14 deaths during January or only 4 percent of national total. Security force actions resulted in 11 deaths and 51 injuries in the course of 46 incidents during January. Attacks on security force members resulted in 17 death and 23 injuries in the course of 69 incidents. Right wing activity is on the increase with 22 incidents reported during January resulting in 1 death and 3 injuries. Industrial conflict claimed 1 life. A low level of taxi conflict & |
FBIS3-25118_2 | Human Rights Commission Reports January Violence | educational conflict did not result in any loss of life. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |Incidents |Deaths |Injuries | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |General Incidents |351 |287 |185 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Security Force Ac-|46 |11 |51 | |tion | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Hit Squad Activity|-- |-- |-- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Right Wing Activi-|22 |1 |3 | |ty | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Taxi Conflict |2 |-- |1 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Industrial Confli-|6 |1 |3 | |ct | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Educational Confl-|1 |-- |1 | |ict | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Total |496 |317 |269 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commuters suffered 2 deaths and 13 injuries in January. Women and children figured prominently; death: 22 women and 22 children (combined 14 percent of all deaths); injuries: 18 women and 15 children. Security force members - see above. White civilians recorded 2 dead and 3 injured. Political affiliation of the victims was reported in about 15 percent of deaths during January: ANC [African National Congress] -- 34 killed and 58 injured; IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party] - 14 killed and 7 injured. Although the national deathtoll in political violence is still at the high level of around 10 deaths a day on average, nevertheless January recorded the sixth successive declining month since the explosion of July. If the trend continues, the country could be experiencing a controllable level of violence by the date of the elections. During January, HRC [Human Rights Commission] recorded 498 incidents of political which is a little in excess of last year's average incident count of 463. The deathtoll in January of 317 is nearly 50 percent down on the highpoint of 605 last July., but still very much higher than last January's figure of 175. The injury count for January was 269, a low figure in relation to the deathtoll. No major massacres were reported in January. During January the magisterial district of Hoopstad in the OFS [Orange Free State] was deproclaimed as an unrest area. This left 14 unrest areas at the end of the month, all of them in the Eastern Cape. On 28 January, the Abolition of Restrictions on Free Political Activity Act came into effect on the advice of the TEC [Transitional Executive Council] but excluding the clause abolishing Section 29. Thus detention without trial under Section 29 is still in force. During January 57 persons were detained without trial,including 39 under Section 29. At month end, 2 persons were still being |
FBIS3-25204_0 | Commission Releases Initial Observations on Massacres | Language: French Article Type:BFN [Text] [Announcer] In Burundi, the 13 experts of the international inquiry commission yesterday published their preliminary observations on the massacres that took place after the aborted coup on 21 October. These experts, which were appointed by a consortium of nongovernmental organizations, say that between 25,000 and 50,000 people were killed. This is a frightful figure, although it is smaller than what had initially been announced -- a few weeks after the aborted coup, some observers said hundreds of thousands had been killed. The massacres took place in the wake of the aborted coup by the army. Philippe Retiens [not further identified] spoke to Monique Mas: [Begin recording] [Retiens] The coup was seemingly carried out by the majority of army officers. That is to say, the Army was responsible, actively or passively, for the coup, contrary to what sources close to the Burundian Army said. They held that a few specific units were responsible. [Mas] Who is behind the massacres that followed the aborted coup? [Retiens] The responsibility is shared. Hutus killed Tutsis in reprisals. Especially when the news of the death of President Ndadaye was announced, many Tutsis were killed. Moreover, massacres were carried out by the Army, sometimes with the help of Tutsi civilians. [Retiens] What is the situation in the country today? [Mas] It remains quite unstable, especially in Bujumbura. [end recording] [Announcer] The international inquiry commission's final report will be published by April. |
FBIS3-25216_0 | At Least 60 Killed in Interclan Fighting in Kismaayo | Language: Italian Article Type:BFN [Excerpt] At least 60 people have been killed in clashes between rival clans in the port city of Kismaayo. The delegation led by interim President Ali Mahdi reported these latest clashes. Many people have been reported missing. Calm has now returned to the area. [passage omitted] |
FBIS3-25240_0 | Deputy Foreign Minister Attacks West for Aiding UNITA | Language: Portuguese Article Type:BFN [Report on interview with Deputy Foreign Minister Jorge Chikoti by correspondent Berenice Bettencourt in Geneva; date not given--recorded] [Text] The Angolan Government has accused Portugal of supporting UNITA [National Union for the Total Independence of Angola]. The Angolan deputy foreign minister has told the UN Human Rights Commission that all the countries that authorize UNITA to set up offices on their soil share in the responsibility for the war, which has left over 500,000 people dead in Angola in one year alone. [figure as heard] Berenice Bettencourt reports from Geneva: [Bettencourt] Angolan Deputy Foreign Minister Jorge Chikoti denounced cases of involvement in the Angolan civil war by foreign countries, which support UNITA for reasons pertaining to their own interests and are, in his opinion, co-responsible for over 500,000 dead, 200,000 amputees, and the country's general state of famine and destruction. According to Chikoti, it is the aforementioned countries that--together with UNITA--are fomenting human rights violations in Angola. When I interviewed Chikoti, he told me he said this to the UN Human Rights Commission. [Begin recording] [Bettencourt] Which countries do you mean? [Chikoti] Well, directly, in military terms, there is South Africa. Then there is Zaire, which supports UNITA logistically and allows it free passage through its territory. The political support comes from all the western countries that still have UNITA offices on their soil and where UNITA resorts to all manner of false propaganda. As you know, UNITA has one or two offices in the United States, one in Britain, one in France, and one in Portugal. These are the very countries that have diplomatic relations with Angola at the same time, the very same countries that once expressed the wish that Angola should undergo a democratic process--which was done. So UNITA must not be allowed subterfuge. In so doing, these countries are trying to show UNITA that even though it is waging war, even though it lost the elections, they are still prepared to give it shelter. [end recording] |
FBIS3-25331_4 | Chissano Discusses Peace Accord, Upcoming Elections | Chicuarra [not further identified], who had been abroad but who has come back and found himself a place to stay. There is Mr. Padimbe, who belongs to another party, and there is [Mozambican Nationalist Movement President] Maximo Dias. Thus, if Renamo had wanted to cooperate, it could have begun its work without having to depend on such housing. Well, the government has complied with the terms of the General Peace Accord because this is not a matter of giving houses away. The government does not carry houses in its pockets like so many nickels and dimes. The government had to look for these houses. It did so, and it found them. In some instances, it was even necessary to remove the tenants, but Renamo only realized at a later stage that it hd to participate in the search for the houses it would be using. It was a matter of understanding things. This understanding was a bit slow in coming, but it finally came. Perhaps there are, but, off the cuff, I fail to see the reason for the government to be blamed for any major delays... [Moyana] What about the issue of logistical conditions for Renamo advisers to the provincial governors? Did the government act within a reasonable time? [Chissano] Regarding the matter of Renamo's advisers, the delay was, once again, due to Renamo itself. You will recall that it was in August that Renamo made that request. We approved it, but I only received the list before I left on leave. Those officials were not appointed, not because I was on leave, but because the territorial administration minister was not in, either. That happened in December, when everyone was on leave, but it is my belief that, even if I had continued on leave, the appointments would have been made as soon as the territorial administration minister returned. As for material conditions, once we had the men we would see why there were conditions that depended on the international community's good will. When that matter came up for discussion, the problem of increased expenses and what they would represent to the state was one of our first concerns. We also discussed the matter of the premises needed. Now, to encourage us to make a decision, the international community expressed its readiness to help us. Unfortunately, that help did not come with the speed the promises were made. It |
FBIS3-25331_11 | Chissano Discusses Peace Accord, Upcoming Elections | eat fish like any other citizen -- like you, for instance. The fact of the matter is that if I went to some province to do my party work, even if I paid for my own ticket -- and I would have liked to pay for my ticket to take an aircraft, a small aircraft -- people would say: "No, not on such a small aircraft." Were I to travel by car, they would say: "That is fine, the car can go, but there must be an escort, the protocol officials must also go, and so on." I would like to ask: What would change? The fact is that, up to now, I have traveled as head of state and I take advantage of those trips to do party work because I have no way to travel as Frelimo Party chairman without that being linked to the fact that I am head of state. It would be very convenient for me to separate those functions, but I cannot be dissociated from my position as head of state. It is impossible. Nor can I allow my party to be at a disadvantage just because its chairman is also the head of state. Nevertheless, that is bound to happen, whether you be head of state or some other official. For instance, if a minister who is also a Frelimo Party Central Committee member goes to some province and is asked questions by party members, he cannot just turn around and say: "No, I cannot talk because I am here on state duties." That is impossible, too. It would mean that parties fighting for power stop being parties when they get to power. These are party cadres we are talking about, and any party coming to power will have its cadres. Now, what is really necessary is to know how to use state property without impairing state functions. One does not spend more money just by talking of party matters when on a state visit. One spends exactly the same.... [Moyana] The fact is, should that be true, Frelimo will enjoy great political advantage over the other parties, because a large number of its members are involved in state duties and are using state funds to do their party work. There is also the example of the Frelimo Party secretary general, who is a minister, traveling to the provinces in his capacity as |
FBIS3-25331_14 | Chissano Discusses Peace Accord, Upcoming Elections | accelerated implementation of multiparty democracy, so they start talking about the need to put the cart before the horse. All over the world, there is much talk of national unity and of national interests. I also endorse national unity views because that is the Frelimo Party's philosophy, and I grew up with it, working for national unity, so there is no need for anybody to tell me about the need for it. Purely and simply, national unity must be based on real foundations. We have created a multiparty system to allow the people to be consulted in different ways. There is the need to see what the people's response will be and, on the basis of that response, to look for the best ways to guarantee national unity. The people will dictate those ways. Perhaps they will be dictated even during the electoral campaign. We will have to see the amount of support the existing parties receive, and we will to see whether Frelimo needs to consider it. The electoral campaign and the outcome of elections will provide indications. The party that has those responsibilities will have enough data to be able to say what will be needed to guarantee political stability in the country, what ought to be done to ensure greater national unity, and what should be done to guarantee greater participation by the people in all political, economic, and social matters. Sometimes there is the tendency to ignore all that and think that, just because election results were not accepted in Angola, things must be done artificially. Where does that leave democracy, though? What is democracy good for, then? What is the point of consulting with the people? In other words, we would be consulting with the people and saying: "Elect me but do not worry; this is just for the sake of electing, because we are all going to govern, so there is no problem!" You would have me saying in my campaign: "Give some votes to this party and some to that other one." That is not my duty. It is each party's duty to get votes, because we want to know exactly what people think. So, each party should put forward its program with sincerity, without thinking whether it will be in power or not. The people will choose some program and then whoever wins can say: "The people have chosen me, but they |
FBIS3-25391_0 | Foreign Affairs Minister, Opposition Leader View Talks | Language: French Article Type:BFN [Text] The first contacts between the Niger Government and the four movements of the Tuareg rebels opened yesterday afternoon in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. The meeting apparently satisfied both sides. The Niger minister of foreign affairs welcomed the fact that the desired dialogue was becoming a reality. As for the chairman of the Coordination of the Armed Resistance, he said he was glad that the problem is beginning to find a solution on African soil. In fact, the discussion in Ouagadougou will center on one word: autonomy. Mano Dayak, chairman of the Tuareg Coordination, is very keen on this word. He spoke to Christophe Boisbouvier: [Begin recording] [Dayak] We are ready to negotiate, taking as a starting point a document envisaging political and economic autonomy for the Tuareg regions--a program we consider to be good for the whole of Niger. If it is rejected by the Niger Government and other communities, however, we will demand autonomy and discuss it for our regions in the north of the country. [Boisbouvier] You are talking about autonomy, and no longer of federalism? [Dayak] Unfortunately, the word federalism frightens people in Niger and in Africa. If federalism frightens people, what we are interested in is the content. The word does not interest us, so we can also talk of regional autonomy, where our communities can manage themselves economically and politically. [end recording] The government side appears to prefer the term decentralization. Niger Foreign Affairs Minister Adbourahamane Hama also spoke to Christophe Boisbouvier: [Begin recording] [Hama] One of the political lines that the Constitution imposes on our government is that decentralization and devolution -- in other words, the taking over by peoples and regions of their own administration, development, and future -- should be effective and real. [Boisbouvier] So you are ready to discuss autonomy? [Hama] We are not talking about autonomy. You asked me whether we were willing to have the regions of Niger and the people of Niger administering themselves. That is what we are doing at the moment. We want to push this experiment forward and give it its full and real sense. [end recording] The negotiations will deal today with the number of mediating countries, and also on the timetable and location of future political negotiations. Let me remind you that since November 1991 the Tuareg question has officially left some 100 people dead. |
FBIS3-25409_0 | Political Commentator Predicts Anarchy After Election | Language: Afrikaans Article Type:BFN [Text] Professor Willem Kleynhans, the reputed political commentator and election expert, warns in this report that no nation or party in South Africa can at this juncture be ready for an election for a unitary government. He warns that disaster awaits South Africa if the wretched election is not called off. The so-called "mother of all elections in South Africa," which, due to an overwhelmingly euphoric reason, has to take place in an attempt to come out of apartheid, will destroy South Africa if it is not called off, Kleynhans said. All indications are that less than 50 percent of the alleged 22 million voters will vote in this election. The NP [National Party], IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party], ANC [African National Congress], and the SACP [South African Communist Party] are, according to their own admissions, generally unprepared for the election. The Conservative Party is on record as saying that it will not take part in the damned election, while the patriotic sector of the Afrikaner/Boer nation unanimously rejected on 29 January any participation in the election. The Zulus and the Tswanas are determined they are not going to vote. The parties keen on participation have already proved that they could never -- within three months -- be able to educate the 9 million illiterate voters and the 17 million voters who have never voted before. Besides, they will not even be able to reach all the new voters. Victimization De Klerk said his target is at least 3 million black voters. To date he cannot in any way rely on any black voters, because as soon as the communists come forward with full scale victimization -- as has in the past been done without exception in every African country -- de Klerk will probably not even get a single black vote. The ANC has held several mass meetings, but has as yet not reached the millions of rural blacks through those meetings. The overwhelming majority of potential black voters still have to be "taught" to go to the polling booths. At this stage, rural blacks have no election machinery that encourages and organizes them to vote. The mother of all elections must take place because of a euphoric consideration to leave apartheid behind, but without the very important prior education of the illiterate portion -- namely, 9 million members -- of the voters' corps. The chances |
FBIS3-25435_2 | Frelimo Official Responds to Dhlakama's Remarks | in place. Since then, those conditions have become more solid. You must be aware that we started preparing ourselves with a view to elections being held last year. Obviously, there are certain things that you should only do when you are certain that elections will be held at the appointed date, or you may end up wasting money and the efforts made by party militants on work that will serve no purpose whatever. I am talking, for instance, about what is commonly referred to as the precampaign and the electoral campaign itself. That is where you put up money and use the militants' efforts. In addition to that, there is a level of involvement by the militants themselves, who are full time workers with the party. Obviously, they are involved in the party's work, but the intensity of their commitment to that work tends to grow. [Santos] So, Frelimo believes that elections will be held in October? [Tome] I believe elections will take place in October, barring last minute obstacles caused by people acting in bad faith. Frelimo wants elections held this year as scheduled, and there are many reasons for wanting to do so. You know that the movement of Mozambicans being repatriated from other countries is greatly limited by the uncertainty we currently experience. People want elections to be held so they can then start working to restore normality in the country. Economic activity will not occur at the pace or with the effectiveness we would desire, if uncertainty continues to beset this country for the next two or three years. Then, there is a third factor: psychological saturation. That means that people will no longer tolerate this whole situation and that could yet have some effect on voter turnout. Postponements make people start to lose confidence in the process and when the time for elections comes, they will say: I am not going to vote because I do not trust this process any more. Thus, it is imperative that elections be held at the appointed date and I would like to believe that, should the aforementioned obstacles appear, they will be promptly dealt with and removed, whether it be done by the Mozambican or the international community. [Santos] That would mean, then, that there is no truth to Renamo's view that Frelimo is making time to try and rid itself of its Marxist image? [Tome] I do |
FBIS3-25441_0 | Official Reports About 1,000 Dead in Ethnic Clashes | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Excerpt] Accra, 17 Feb (GNA/PANA) -- About 1,000 corpses have been buried by security agencies in the ethnic violence in northern Ghana, a senior military officer said on Wednesday [16 February]. Brig. Joseph Henry Smith, commander of security operations in northern Ghana told a press conference in Tamale, about 405 miles north of Accra, that security agencies were searching for more bodies. He said the military was gradually taking control of the situation and has started disarming the warring factions. Brig. Smith said more than 2,000 shot guns have been seized. He said the number of deaths cannot be estimated because many people who have been killed in the bush or have died in their rooms when their villages were burned were yet to be found. Brig. Smith said a national emergency committee under the chairmanship of the minister of defence, Mahama Iddrisu, has been established to bring the ethnic fighting in the region under control. [passage omitted] |
FBIS3-25469_0 | Eight Reported Killed in 20 Feb Demonstrations | Language: French Article Type:BFN [Excerpt] Eight dead, many injured, and sizeable material damage -- that is the toll of yesterday's demonstration in the town of Kigali, which was aimed against a meeting by the Faustin Twagirmungu (?faction) of the Republican Democratic Movement party, which was scheduled for the Nyuamirambo Regional Stadium. Here is a report by (Nshimirumuremy): [Begin (Nshimirumuremy) recording] According to gendarmerie sources from the Nyamirambo Sector, bandits disguised themselves as demonstrators and took advantage of the confusing situation to pillage houses. The population did not stand idle, and killed six of the bandits. Two other people died during a collision between a vehicle and a motorbike while they were threatened by tear gas. Among the injured are two gendarmes, a warrant officer and a corporal, who were injured by a grenade thrown by a demonstrator in Kimisagara. [passage omitted] [end recording] |
FBIS3-25492_0 | ANC Canvassers Killed in Attack in Southern Natal | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Fourteen people have been killed and two seriously wounded in an attack at Creighton in Southern Natal. Our Durban news staff reports that a group of canvassers, mainly young people, were collecting fees in preparation of an ANC [African National Congress] voter education program planned for today. The people were sleeping in a hut when they were attacked early this morning. No further details are known at this stage. |
FBIS3-25493_0 | Further on Massacre | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Durban Feb 20 SAPA -- The death toll from Saturday [19 February] morning's massacre near Creighton in southern Natal has risen to 15 after a seriously wounded victim died in Pietermaritzburg's Edendale Hospital, police said. Durban SA Police spokesman Maj Bala Naidoo said Samuel Ndizimbovu, 25, died from gunshot and stab wounds on Saturday. Police, meanwhile, were investigating the attack and no one had been arrested by Sunday night. Four gunmen opened fire on a group of mainly youths preparing for an African National Congress [ANC] voter education workshop in rural Mahehle, south-west of Pietermaritzburg. Fourteen people were killed at the scene and two were seriously wounded. Police said 11 people were killed inside a hut while three died trying to flee their attackers in the early hours of Saturday morning. Midlands ANC Chairman Harry Gwala said those killed were preparing for an ANC voter education workshop in the area at noon. South African Police spokesman Maj Bala Naidoo said a group of about 16 youths had spent the night at an abandoned house, where they came under attack by four men. The attackers opened fire on the group, while some victims were stabbed to death. Maj Naidoo confirmed a voter education programme was being planned in the area. A Creighton police spokesman said the attack occurred about 14km from the rural town, south-west of Pietermaritzburg. He said the attackers used automatic weapons and homemade guns. Midlands ANC Deputy Chairman Chief Zibuse Mlaba said he suspected "those who don't want people to vote," were responsible for the massacre. He said the area had been relatively stable with no recent incidents of political violence. Nearby Ixopo and Richmond have, however, been wracked by intense political fighting since 1990 with a massacre at Masanagazane, outside Richmond, two weeks ago when 12 people were killed. The ANC was investigating the attack, said Chief Mlaba. The ANC's Natal premier election candidate, Jacob Zuma, on Sunday told reporters he feared rural supporters would face increasing violence in the run up to elections. Maj Naidoo said police were offering a substantial reward for information leading to arrests and convictions of those responsible for the Mahehle massacre. He named the dead as: Mdeni Malunga, 15; Mbuso Nxasane, 17; Dumisani Duzela, 13; Thamsanqa Ngcobe, 15; Sokelazwa Mbanjwa, 16; Bongwela Mbanjwa, 16; Tholozami Cyril Shobo, 12; Mandlenkosi Mbhele, 26; Sifiso Ndlovu, 13; Givi Ndlovu, |
FBIS3-25517_0 | Two Opposition Leaders Arrested Following Riots | Language: French Article Type:BFN [Excerpt] Dakar, 18 Feb (AFP) -- The two main leaders of the Senegalese opposition -- Abdoulaye Wade and Landing Savane -- were arrested this evening in Dakar, it was learned from their entourage. These same sources reported that Mr. Wade and Mr. Savane, secretary generals of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) and the African Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS), respectively, were arrested at their houses at around 2100. Their arrest comes 48 hours after violence in Dakar that resulted in the deaths of six persons, including five policemen, on 16 February, following an opposition rally. Senegalese Interior Minister Djibo Ka said yesterday evening that the "incitement to violence" began at a rally organized by the Coordination of Democratic Forces (CFD), an umbrella organization for five opposition parties, including the PDS and PADS. He also stated that "more than 30 demonstrators had been arrested" after the riots and that he had been given "indications as to the instigators of this criminal act." [passage omitted] |
FBIS3-25518_0 | Government Spokesman Explains Arrests | Language: French Article Type:BFN [Text] The two main leaders of the Senegalese opposition have been held in custody since yesterday. Abdoulaye Wade and Landing Savane were arrested at their homes, and are now being questioned on their possible involvement in last Wednesday's violence, which caused the death of six people, including five policemen in Dakar. The very next day [17 February], Interior Minister Djibo Ka said that the meeting organized on the same day by the CFD [expansion unknown], a coalition of opposition parties, had encouraged violence. Abdoulaye Eliname Kane, the communications minister and government spokesman, this evening confirmed this version. Among other things, he told Nicolas Ballique why the two opposition officials were arrested: [Begin Kane recording] During the meeting, several speakers, either directly or by interrupting those who had the floor, called on the crowd to march on the palace. The organizers did not discourage them. What we fear is that....[pauses] A communique says that the organizers understand the demonstrators' decision to march to the palace. Given this, I believe that it is the duty of the relevant authorities to look for a link between these tragic events and this organization. This movement did not come from nowhere. It came from the meeting that took place on 16 February on the Avenue du General de Gaulle. On the route taken by the demonstrators, several instruments were found. The basic purpose of these instruments was to kill, to injure, to massacre. They rule out the thesis of spontaneity. [end recording] Abdoulaye Wade's party, the Senegalese Democratic Party, is suspected of involvement. The movement has reacted and denounced what it called the continuation of the government's drift toward authoritarianism. As for the Muslim organization Aira [as heard], Moustarchidines Wal Moustarchidate, which was banned by the authorities the day after Wednesday's violence, it has denied any involvement in the riots. |
FBIS3-25609_1 | Situation in Libreville Still Described as Tense | in its third day. Jean-Claude Franck Medome toured the streets of Libreville this afternoon and has this report. [Medome] This afternoon, Libreville looked like a ghost town. The reason for this is that cabs were hard to find. Cab drivers, who are usually victims of stone-throwing and attacks, preferred to be cautious. This caution is all the more justified because the atmosphere in Libreville varied from suburb to suburb. There was precarious calm in certain areas and persistent tension in others. This is abundant proof that the security forces still have their hands full. The security forces have not only reinforced their positions in areas prone to violence but have also removed the stone, wood, and tire barricades. Furthermore, the Gabonese are worried and surprised by the disturbances and excesses, which started out as a legitimate general strike to call for salary increase [words indistinct] what the future holds. There are other concerns and questions surrounding the number of victims of the disturbances. It has been officially announced that at least four people have died. Two of them were burned alive. It is, however, possible that more people died in the maze of the streets of certain suburbs. It should be pointed out that during the destruction of the National Lumberjacks' Rally [RNB] radio station by security forces, six persons including (Mba Ndakele), political adviser to the RNB leader, and (Andre Heyegei), who is in charge of security, were arrested and are still in police custody. [Paris AFP in French in a Libreville-datelined item at 2010 GMT on 23 February adds the following: "State television, quoting leaders of the security forces' crisis committee, has announced that a senior corporal paratrooper in the Gabonese Army was shot dead this afternoon in Libreville during disturbances which have been going on in several popular suburbs in Libreville over the past three days. ["State television, quoting leaders of the crisis committee also announced that the residence of the leading opposition leader, Father Paul Mba Abessole, RNB chairman, was occupied in the early evening by security forces who were chasing several `armed Lumberjack activists.' An opposition spokesman told AFP that Father Abessole was not at home at the time of the operation and was not arrested. ["It was announced on state television that Father Abessole `is in good health.' It was also announced that `some people were wounded but no one died' during this operation."] |
FBIS3-25613_0 | Violence Continues in Kigali; Government Installed Offices, Shops Closed | Language: French Article Type:BFN [Text] The town of Kigali remains at the mercy of insecurity. Hospital sources inform us that since last weekend the Kigali hospital admitted around 10 dead and injured people. This morning, five dead and 22 injured people were registered, while on 21 and 22 February the hospital registered seven dead and 21 injured people. Informed sources say numbers are growing as the killings in various suburbs continue. Police sources say that the most affected area is Gikondo where this morning a woman and her two children were killed, while last night seven dead were taken away. Another affected suburb is that (Gasaka), but the police have not yet informed us about the human and material losses there. Kigali remains a ghost town. Government employees did not go back to work because the public and private transport is at a standstill. Shops did not open. The streets are empty except for the cars of expatriates. |
FBIS3-25617_0 | Violence Continues in Kigali; Government Installed Calm Reported 24 Feb | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Kigali, 24 Feb (AFP) -- Tribal fighting in the Rwandan capital following the murder of a government minister left at least 30 people dead and some 150 wounded, humanitarian agency workers said here Thursday [24 February]. Most of the injured had been struck with pangas (machetes) or sticks, they said. After its first peaceful night this week, Kigali was "halfway back to normal," residents said, as traffic picked up, stores reopened and people gradually went back to work. The unrest delayed yet again the swearing-in of a new transitional government in which former rebels of the largely Tutsi Patriotic Front are to have portfolios. Several political parties boycotted the ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, complaining that President Juvenal Habyarimana had been arbitrary in his choice of ministers. Public Works Minister Felicien Gatabazi was gunned down here on Monday. An angry mob in his home district of Butare in the south lynched fellow Hutu Martin Bucyana the next day, blaming the hardline politician's movement for the minister's assassination. |
FBIS3-25667_17 | PAC President Explains Election Manifesto | be affirmatively actioned because I'm a white, aging, or middle-class male -- we hear a lot about that incidentally -- then I am being discriminated against because I am not a black, young, virile male. [Makwetu] How are you discriminated against, since you have been benefiting all along? [Bishop] No, I'm not...I'm not.... I'm just making an example of myself. What I'm saying is -- if you start saying: men out, women in, or white people out and black people in, it's discriminatory, isn't it? [Makwetu] No, that is not affirmative action. We are saying that doors should be opened to those who have not benefited all along, long ago, through discrimination. That is what we are saying. We are saying people should be trained to fit in into certain positions which have been denied to them all along. [Bishop] How will you do that? [Makwetu] We will do that by developing skills. Instead of importing skills, we will see to it that human resources inside the country are developed. [Bishop] Training schemes? [Makwetu] Exactly. [Bishop] No instant changeover then, you know, of people? [Makwetu] No, these things are not going to happen overnight, really. [Bishop] How long would you say it would take with a PAC government to bring about the changes you would like to see? [Makwetu] That is not an easy question to answer. I may say, for instance, seven years or eight years, but the problem is, there are people who are suffering at the moment. Are they going to be patient waiting for me for that seven years or eight years? So it's not easy for me. This is a debate amongst the factor...[pauses] people who are involved. [Bishop] I don't see, and you will know that I would spot it, anything about freedom of expression or the media in your manifesto. Did you leave it out by accident or deliberately? It's not in here. [Makwetu] No, I don't think there was a need for it really in the manifesto, because that will be covered under a Bill of Rights. [Bishop] Well, let me ask you as leader of the party: What is your approach to freedom of expression? [Makwetu] Of course, we encourage freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of movement, etc. [Bishop] Freedom of opinion, even if you don't like it? [Makwetu] Exactly, exactly. [Bishop] Hard questioning of evasive politicians. Is that |
FBIS3-25689_0 | Curfew Imposed in Dead Party Leader's Home Area | Language: Kinyarwanda Article Type:BFN [Excerpt] A curfew has been imposed in Cyimbogo commune, Cyangugu Prefecture, in southwestern Rwanda. Our colleague Nambaje tells us more: [Nambaje] The decision was prompted by the low level of safety following the killing of Martin Bucyana, who came from Cyimbogo, when some people started looting and burning the homes of Tutsis. Over the past three days, a man and a woman were killed and more than 20 houses were burned down. Some people are homeless, and others have fled. Last night, 50 people, mainly children, slept at Cyangugu Parish. Currently there are 70 people at the teachers' college in Mururu who fled their homes in fear. Today, Cyangugu Prefect Emmanuel Bagambiki met the inhabitants of (Tete) and (Mutongo) to consider ways of restoring peace in the two sectors, and throughout the entire Cyimbogo commune. In other sectors, such as (Muruhongo) and (Karenzo), the atmosphere is tense. [passage omitted]. |
FBIS3-25694_3 | PAC Official Explains Political Strategy | Ebrahim. Among these is the deal which effectively resulted in the decision at multi-party talks for a single ballot in the April elections, he says. Ebrahim added that, as things stand, the PAC would not participate in the Transitional Executive Council (TEC). But this is not an open and shut case -- "We are still involved in talks with the government and hope that obstacles in the way of the PAC joining the TEC will be removed." One of these obstacles revolves around the control over the security forces in the period up to the elections. The PAC believes the government remains in control of the army and police while the TEC only has jurisdiction over liberation armies and homeland security forces. It is of the view that all armed forces, including the SA [South African] Defence Force and the South African Police, should come under TEC command. Just how successful the PAC will be in getting its way is, however, in question. It has, for example, already sacrificed an important bargaining chip -- the armed struggle. And some dissension in its ranks relates to the PAC's suspension of the armed campaign without having secured the necessary changes to the TEC Act. There is also no certainty that the organisation will participate in the GNU, which it remains opposed to in terms of its own principles and understanding of what constitutes a democracy. But there remains a possibility that the PAC will join the GNU if it believes this will serve its strategic interests. Participation in the GNU will depend on the same process of debate and assessment that went into determining the strategic value of participating in the multi-party negotiating council, says Ebrahim. "If we find that we can meaningfully make a contribution, we will participate in the GNU." But a final decision will only be taken when the GNU is established, says Ebrahim, cautioning that the pros and cons of participation have not yet come up for discussion. This decision will be informed by the PAC's capacity to influence the final constitution. And this in turn depends on the support the organisation enjoys among South African voters, Ebrahim explains. But, if recent opinion polls are anything to go by, the PAC is unlikely to muster the support of more than two percent of the country's estimated 22.5-million voters. While Ebrahim agrees that its clout at the CA will |
FBIS3-25749_0 | Report Confirms UN Personnel Involved in Prostitution | Language: Portuguese Article Type:BFN [Text] In a report distributed to the media today, the United Nations recognizes that in some areas of the country the UN Operations in Mozambique [Unomoz] personnel have been promoting prostitution. The document states that although prostitution was obvious in the society even before the arrival of Unomoz personnel, with the arrival of thousands of soldiers in the country within the framework of the peace process, this phenomenon increased from that period. The report states that this increase is also due to the fact that the Unomoz personnel are earning more than Mozambican citizens, hence they are attractive to minors, who involve themselves in prostitution. [Begin Deputy UN Special Representative recording in English] It has been suggested that some Mozambican cities, where the incidence of Unomoz members involved with prostitutes was found to be greatest, have been regional centers of prostitution in successive periods during which foreign troops were present there. In those places, prostitution, including minors selling sex, has long been a feature of urban life. In addition, many observers agreed that patrons of the sex trade in Mozambique are not limited to Unomoz personnel. Nevertheless, it is evident that some Unomoz personnel stationed in some locations in Mozambique have indeed patronized prostitutes and that prostitution in those places has increased perceptibly since the arrival of Unomoz in large numbers. This increase in prostitution has negatively affected the quality of urban public life, and apparently in some instances generated some ill-feeling toward Unomoz personnel in some areas. It is also evident that some Unomoz personnel patronizing prostitutes sought the services of prostitutes thought by them to be minors. Now, the investigating team found that patronage of prostitutes, among them minors, by some Unomoz personnel occurred despite existing codes of discipline and the explicit instructions given to many members of the Unomoz to avoid all illegal sexual liaison with Mozambican women. [end recording] |
FBIS3-25780_0 | Government Focuses on ASEAN, Europe for Economic Ties | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By Debbie Kuo] [Text] Taipei, Jan. 28 (CNA) -- The Republic of China [ROC] is focusing on countries in Southeast Asia and Europe for economic and technological cooperation, a Ministry of Economic Affairs agency reported Friday [28 January]. Through economic and technological cooperation, the ROC boosted substantive relations with those countries, and saw bilateral ties upgraded from private to official levels, according to an International Cooperation Department (ICD) official. So far, the ROC has held ministerial-level economic and technological conferences with Singapore, Indonesia, South Africa, Paraguay, the Philippines and Vietnam. Nations that held similar conferences with the ROC at vice ministerial level included Belgium, Ireland, Holland, Saudi [words indistinct] Australia. Other nations, such as Spain and South Africa, have held economic or technological cooperative meetings with the ROC under the sponsorship of private parties, the official said. |
FBIS3-25819_0 | Government Cracks Down on `Fake Cigarettes' | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Beijing, January 29 (XINHUA) -- The China Administration of Tobacco Monopoly (CATM) burned 30,000 cartons of fake cigarettes in public here today, as part of its nationwide crusade against production and marketing of contraband cigarettes. Jiang Ming, head of CATM, said that cigarettes were a special kind of product, harmful to people's health. China has always practised strict control over the production and marketing of cigarettes, he said. China has imposed a state monopoly and a high-tax policy on the tobacco industry to restrict its production scale. However, according to the senior official, the illegal production and marketing of counterfeit cigarettes had become rampant in some localities in recent years, which prompted CATM to organize a joint crackdown on fake and smuggled cigarettes, with relevant departments of public security, customs and taxation. Marked results had been achieved in the crackdown, said the administrator. Official statistics show that since 1993, CATM has tracked down 514,000 boxes (a box contains 50 cartons of cigarettes) of smuggled cigarettes, seized 64,000 boxes of counterfeit cigarettes and burnt in public 51,000 boxes of them. The CATM has also smashed 50 production centers of fake cigarettes and banned over 100 wholesale markets which sold fake and smuggled cigarettes. The administrator said that China practised the system of state monopoly on the tobacco industry as early as in the 1980s. A large number of locally run tobacco enterprises have been closed down since then, particularly in 1993. The year saw a sharp reduction of the nation's tobacco enterprises from 300 to 100. The CATM renewed permits for nearly 1,000 enterprises which are considered qualified for the production and marketing of cigarettes. The official stressed that the system of tobacco monopoly is of great significance in checking illegal tobacco activities and it will further safeguard the interests of the nation and of the vast number of smokers. |
FBIS3-25845_4 | Paper Sees `Growing Unrest' in Rural Tibet | detained in Gutsa Prison in Lhasa. The appeal concluded: "The village has been surrounded, with each home guarded by three soldiers. On the hill to the south of the village they have set up machine-gun posts. At present, people in this village are in a state of turmoil, living under tension and terror. All the people of the village participated in this demonstration, and as a result our brothers and sisters are now undergoing severe treatment, imprisonment and torture. We Tibetans have no human rights and are facing great risk of extermination. We ask for urgent action to be taken by the United Nations." Similar, but smaller, events have resulted in numerous arrests elsewhere. Sentences of up to 15 years imprisonment have been handed down to demonstrators on charges of "spreading propaganda regarding counter-revolution". Asia Watch and Amnesty International have documentation of 75 named men and women imprisoned as a result of non-violent demonstrations in rural regions of Tibet over the last year, although the actual figure is undoubtedly much higher. There is also well-documented evidence of the routine torture and beatings of these prisoners. Ultimately, the causes of this wave of rural unrest are the same as those that sparked off the major demonstrations in Lhasa last year. As the population in Tibet swells due to the influx of Chinese settlers, prices of food and essential goods rise. Tibetans who are losing out in the increased competition for education, jobs and land rights are thus faced with destitution. However, the Chinese Government continues to encourage migration in the apparent hope it will settle their problems there once and for all. On July 21, 1993, Jiang Zemin was quoted by Xinhua as praising "individuals who have left their homes in coastal and other regions to contribute to Tibet's economic and social development". In August, the new deputy secretary of the Tibetan Communist Party, Chen Kuiyuan, said: "We should open our job market to all our fellow countrymen to participate in the economic opening." Meanwhile, the Tibetan government in exile, headed by the Dalai Lama, fears it will soon be faced with a situation in which even if there is a plebiscite over Tibetan independence, the on-going influx of Chinese settlers may put the outcome in doubt. As one of the ministers of the exiled Tibetan government, Kalon Tashi Wangdi, said: "China hopes to drown Tibetans in a sea of Chinese." |
FBIS3-25858_0 | Government Fines, Detains `Golden Venture' Returnees | Language: English Article Type:BFN ["SUNDAY POST exclusive"] [Text] Mainlanders who gave up everything for a place on the ill-fated freighter Golden Venture and a new life in the United States seem certain to end their journey inside Chinese detention centres, the SUNDAY MORNING POST has discovered. The 118 Golden Venture illegal immigrants [IIs] deported to China nine days ago are being held in Public Security Bureau (PSB) offices in Fuzhou city. If their families cannot pay fines of up to 20,000 yuan (HK$17,760 [Hong Kong dollars])--a massive sum by normal mainland standards--they will be sent to re-education centres. Receipts obtained by the SUNDAY MORNING POST bear the stamps of the Fujian Provincial Government and the Frontier Armed Police Force of Changle County, a small administrative area 40 kilometres from Fuzhou. They show that the authorities fined the illegal immigrants separately and a senior re-education centre official in the Fujian capital admitted they would be jailed if the cash was not paid. The Golden Venture, with 286 illegal immigrants on board, ran aground off New York last June. Six mainlanders died when they jumped from the ship in a desperate bid to escape from U.S. officials. Many claimed they were refugees escaping the strictures of China's one-child-per-family policy, a plea backed by a U.S. federal judge last week when he ruled it provided sufficient grounds for asylum in the U.S.. But his decision came too late for the first batch of Golden Venture illegal immigrants, and news of their harsh treatment seems certain to fuel the heated debate on human rights abuses on the mainland, and heighten demands for the U.S. not to renew China's Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trading status. Raising cash to pay the fines demanded by the authorities has already taken a high toll on some families. The wife of one illegal immigrant said they raised the 20,000 yuan for the fine by borrowing from a loan-shark--but the PSB refused to accept it because her husband, Cheng Yiulin, was a second offender, and said he must spend a year in a re-education centre. Mrs Cheng, 26, said her husband had now been detained for a week by the PSB. "They beat him up and now he has a stomach illness," she said. "They also said he would be sent to the re-education centre for a year." Pausing to light a candle--their old, brick-built house has no electricity--she continued: |
FBIS3-25871_0 | Radio Commentary Calls on Taiwan To Open Direct Links | Language: Mandarin Article Type:BFN [Commentary by station editor (Wang Huiqing): "Seize the Opportunity and Lift Restrictions on Three Direct Links"; from the "News and Current Events" program] [Text] Three major events in the mainland's diplomatic relationship occurred at the end of 1993 and the beginning of 1994. The first major event was the Sino-U.S. summit, e.g. the meeting between Jiang Zemin and Clinton in Seattle, United States, the first such meeting in five years; the second being the joint communique issued by the Chinese and French Governments on the resumption of the traditional friendly relationship between the two sides; the third major event, which occurred a little bit earlier, was German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's leading a 200-member delegation to China. The three astounding major events came on the heels of each other. International media is of the view that there will be a global China craze. Economy is the foundation of politics. Diplomacy is like a piece of mirror which reflects a nation's interests. The brilliant achievements that the mainland has scored over the past 15 years of reform and opening up shows the world that in addition to recognizing China as a political power, they should not ignore China's economic vitality and potentials. If major Western powers want to shake off recession and develop their economies, they cannot afford to neglect the thriving land of China. The attraction of China's economy has forced some Western nations to change their policy: from a policy that tried to isolate and impose sanctions on China to a policy that seeks detente, cooperation, and friendly exchange with China. While Western economies failed to stage a comeback last year, Asian economies thrived and enjoyed an economic growth rate of 7 percent. In particular, Mainland China topped the world's growth rate at 13 percent. At the same time, Mainland China has become a country that has attracted the most foreign capital. On 1 January this year, and with the rising of the red sun, five new sets of tax law were simultaneously put into force. Following that, reform on the foreign exchange was carried out. Various reform measures and laws and regulations in the areas of finance, taxation, foreign trade, and enterprises will be introduced this year. Unlike in the past, reform measures, along with other supplementary reform measures, will be comprehensively carried out this year, thus forming a systematic project. This shows that following |
FBIS3-25879_1 | Editorial Views U.S. President Clinton's Address | and create a good future. Health insurance for everyone is another issue that Clinton has insisted on. He hopes to revamp the current health insurance system so that the 37 million Americans who currently are not insured will also be taken care of. If the bill is passed, it will be the most significant U.S. social reform since the life-time social security welfare system was established in the later days of the Great Depression. While delivering the state of the union address, Clinton even threatened that he would immediately veto the Congress' version of the comprehensive health insurance plan if it could not provide health care to all Americans. Obviously, Clinton's state of the union address was designed to create a favorable climate for the Democratic Party's mid-term election campaign at the end of this year. Whether the Congress will pass the health insurance bill is something that remains to be seen. But, it is indisputable that Clinton was able to tightly grip the pulse of the times and to precisely point out the issues the American people are most concerned about. The state of the union address indeed gives us a quite clear indicator for gaining an idea of what course the United States will take in the future. As a matter of fact, many of the problems Clinton raised in the state of the union address are not unique problems of the United States. Such problems as the rise in crime rate, change in people's perception of values, and the crumbling of society's binding force are common problems that obsess many societies during their transformation periods. Therefore, Clinton's urge for rebuilding society also provides other countries with a soul-searching opportunity. What kind of foreign policy the United States will pursue at a time when the country is facing domestic difficulties is also a problem the world is concerned about. In the state of the union address, Clinton said the United States will maintain a strong national defense and will not leave the rest of the world alone -- this for the time being should give relief to those who had been worried that the United States might return to isolationism. However, this does not mean the United States is capable of establishing a single-polar power setup with the United States as the sole dominant force -- it still needs the cooperation of other countries concerned. For this reason, |
FBIS3-25897_0 | Dissident Tries To Set Up Education Foundation | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By Amy Liu] [Text] One of the top "black hands" of Tiananmen Square is back in China, promoting education and criticising the country's intellectuals. Zhou Duo who had worried about being allowed back after a year's stint in the United States is trying to set up a foundation to finance education. In Shenzhen last week, he said he would get the foundation going no matter what the government thought of it. "Although there is an official education foundation called Project Hope, it is not enough to solve all the problems," he said. His foundation, he said, would try to raise the quality of education. This was not confrontational towards the government, he said. He said he had good connections with some private enterprises and was confident he could raise the necessary funds. Mr Zhou, a prominent sociologist, was one of the prime movers of the Tiananmen Square protest in June 1989. Describing himself as a moderate, he said he supported rule by the Communist Party for now. "There is no alternative party powerful enough to take over from the Communist Party, so there is no choice but to support it for the sake of stability," he said. But he thought the party should relax its grip on the media and allow opposition parties to flourish. The party should eliminate dictatorship and become "open-minded" to save itself. Mr Zhou suggested a step-by-step reform for the party, allowing popular elections in localities, introducing rule by law and strengthening the powers of the National People's Congress, giving up some of its monopoly on benefits and sharing them with the people. He is concerned about stability in the post-Deng Xiaoping era and has urged experimentation in various styles of government. Mr Zhou said intellectuals should get more involved in the modernisation drive. He said a hands-off attitude on the part of intellectuals had allowed Mao Zedong's disastrous Cultural Revolution. Intellectuals now were too absorbed in their professions and too short-sighted, he said. Mr Zhou said intellectuals could help out in the modernisation drive through education. Intellectuals should help the government in that area, he said. "Education is very important in promoting a democracy among the people. China cannot build a really democratic system with a population which is poorly-educated and which does not understand what is rational," he said. During his stay in the U.S., mainly at Harvard as a |
FBIS3-25898_0 | Police Confiscate Journal for `Questionable' Content | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By Amy Liu] [Text] One thousand copies of Tendency Quarterly have been confiscated by local police authorities because the content of the magazine smacked of rightist tendency, the editor said. Bei Ling, 34, editor-in-chief of the quarterly, said police authorities maintained the literature quarterly contained some "questionable" content. A veteran dissident in the democratic wall movement of 1979, Mr Bei was questioned at Shanghai airport and interrogated in Shenzhen for three days last week. The police did not identify the magazine as reactionary. Police especially questioned one article, `The Nightmare of the Post-Communist', written by Czech President Vaclav Havel and translated by Shen Tong, an active dissident of the 1989 pro-democracy movement. The magazine was blamed for publishing Chinese literature written by dissidents. It reports dissident poets such as Meng Lang and Mo Mo and the prominent dissident writers in exile--Liu Qin Zheng Yi and Bei Ming. Mr Bei said 2,500 copies will be published in Hong Kong and overseas. |
FBIS3-25901_1 | Report on Crime, Punishment in PRC For 16-30 Nov 1993 | (Summary) (Beijing FAZHI RIBAO in Chinese 18 Nov 93; Hong Kong ZHONGGUO TONGXUN SHE in English 0932 GMT 18 Nov 93) The Beijing Evening News reported the execution of seven criminals for a range of serious offenses, including murder, arms trafficking, rape, fraud, and armed robbery. (Summary) (Hong Kong AFP in English 0938 GMT 19 Nov 93) The Beijing Railway Police made a raid at an inn near Beijing Station and arrested a gang of criminals who had forced women into prostitution. They found that a gang headed by Sun Zhongjie and Sun Zhongwei, from Jilin Province, had deceived seven women from Jilin's Jiaohe and forcibly brought them to Beijing's southern station in an attempt to send them to Guangzhou and Shantou as prostitutes. According to the two criminals, earlier on they had forcibly brought four other young women to the beauty parlors at Shiliuyuan and Jingguan in Shantou as prostitutes. The case is now being handled by the Jiaohe City Police. (Summary) (Beijing FAZHI RIBAO in Chinese 25 Nov 1993) A deputy chief procurator of the Beijing Municipal Procuratorate announced that between August and October, the procuratorial organs at various levels in Beijing handled 463 economic crime cases, placing 291 cases on file for investigation and prosecution, including 149 major and serious cases. One vice-ministerial-level cadre, nine bureau-level cadres, and 22 section-level cadres were involved in these cases. They will all be brought to justice. Most of the corruption and bribery cases occurred in party and government organs, and the number of major cases increased by a large margin. (Summary) (Beijing ZHONGGUO XINWEN SHE in Chinese 1129 GMT 30 Nov 93) Gansu Party and administrative penalties were meted out to five leading members with party membership at prefectural and county levels, according to a report from Wang Zhengyi of the Provincial Commission for Disipline Inspection. With approval from the provincial party committee, two prefecture-level cadres, who had seriously violated economic discipline, including Wang Wenzhong, were removed from office or given a grave warning inside the party. Three county- level cadres, including Zhu Deyao and Wei Qiming, were either expelled from the party or removed from office. All cases involved abusing power to seek personal gain in housing distribution and purchase of commodities in short supply or cars. (Summary) (Lanzhou Gansu People's Radio Network in Mandarin 2300 GMT 24 Nov 93) Gansu Province has made further progress in examining anticorruption |
FBIS3-25901_11 | Report on Crime, Punishment in PRC For 16-30 Nov 1993 | more runaways. (Summary) (Beijing ZHONGGUO XINWEN SHE in Chinese 1153 GMT 24 Nov 93) Haikou City Intermediate People's Court held a public rally on 25 November, handing down death sentences to seven criminals guilty of serious crimes of murder, robbery, and illegal possession of firearms. Execution of the seven convicts was carried out immediately after the rally. Another person was given a suspended death sentence, while 19 others were sentenced to three to 17 years imprisonment. (Summary) (Hong Kong ZHONGGUO TONGXUN SHE in Chinese 1210 GMT 24 Nov 93; Beijing FAZHI RIBAO in Chinese 25 Nov 93) In September and October, procuratorial organs throughout Heilongjiang Province investigated and tried 790 cases of various economic crimes, registering an increase of 49.62 percent over the same period of last year; 383 large cases, each with an amount of over 10,000 yuan, were included. From January to October, a total of 3,371 cases of corruption were investigated and tried; 192 state organ functionaries were involved, accounting for 5.7 percent of the total number of culprits. Forty-four cadres at and above the county and department levels were included, accounting for 1.3 percent of the total number of culprits. From January to October, a total of 733 law-breaking and discipline-violating cases were investigated and tried and 946 persons were punished, including 101 policemen, accounting for 10.68 percent of the total number of culprits. (Summary) (Beijing FAZHI RIBAO in Chinese 27 Nov 93) Hebei (Ren Xianjun), former accountant of Xingtai Prefectural Finance Bureau, took advantage of his duties and power to "frenziedly" steal from the state's wealth by successively diverting 1.15 million yuan in public funds. He was recently sentenced to life imprisonment and had his political rights taken from him for the remainder of his life. (Summary) (Shijiazhuang Hebei People's Radio Network in Mandarin 2300 GMT 29 Nov 93) Handan city recently held an open trial for the current struggle against corruption to take party, administrative, and legal disciplinary action against 11 personnel who had violated the law and discipline. Since the beginning of September this year, Handan city has regarded the work of investigating and handling "appalling and serious" cases as an important task for the struggle against corruption. Leading personnel at all levels in the city have taken personal charge of the work. The departments of discipline inspection and supervision as well as the procuratorial organs have coordinated one another and concentrated their |
FBIS3-25902_0 | Report on Crime, Punishment in PRC For 15-31 Dec '93 | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] The following is a compilation of reports on crime, investigations, trials, sentencings, and other judicial-related activities in the PRC monitored during the period 15-31 December. The source and mode of processing are given in parentheses at the end of each entry. As evidenced by the stories listed below, during the period under review, PRC crime reportage focused on corruption and major criminal activities. Central During the last three months, public security departments throughout the country have solved 22 major smuggling cases under public security ministry operation orders. The departments in Shandong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hainan, and Fujian Provinces seized a total of 1,557 smuggled vehicles; 29,100 cartons of cigarettes; 23,800 tons of scrap steel; 100 photocopiers; 300 air conditioners; and 400 cameras worth a total of 260 million yuan. (Summary) (Beijing FAZHI RIBAO in Chinese 15 Dec 93) As a result of the rapid increase in the numbers of new companies, the seal engraving industry is booming. However, some criminal elements have taken the opportunity to have the seals of government units and companies engraved and use them for fraud. Three Hunan peasants went to Shenzhen and spent 20 yuan to have the seals of many factories, malls, companies, and even Xiangtan County Public Security Department engraved. Hainan police recently crushed a syndicate which swindled 1 million yuan using false government seals and Chengdu City cracked another 1 million yuan case where the false seal of a stock exchange company was used. (Summary) (Hong Kong ZHONGGUO TONGXUN SHE 1109 GMT 15 Dec 93) Public Health Minister Chen Minzhang, addressing a convention to inaugurate the Chinese Society for the Prevention and Treatment of Drug Abuse, stressed that we must learn from countries around the world about their successes in combating drugs and hoped that the society will launch mass prevention and treatment. The convention was told that the majority of the country's 250,000 drug addicts are concentrated mainly in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Guangxi Provinces. (Summary) (Beijing GUANGMING RIBAO in Chinese 14 Dec 93) Provincial Guangdong Police in Guangdong Province's Enping County Public Security Bureau arrested two drug traffickers and seized 32 kg of heroin on 22 December. Eight other suspects were also arrested. (Summary) (Beijing ZHONGGUO XINWEN SHE in Chinese 0744 GMT 27 Dec 93) A Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission spokesman has revealed an elaborate fraud using a Shenzhen-listed stock. The suspect, an |
FBIS3-25902_9 | Report on Crime, Punishment in PRC For 15-31 Dec '93 | throughout the province and asked that they proceed in accordance with Hubei's economic construction, creating environment for reform, opening up, and economic development. (Summary) (Wuhan Hubei People's Radio in Mandarin 1000 GMT 18 Dec 93) Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolian police have rounded up 69 members of a gang trafficking in women. They operated in several nearby provinces, enticing a total of 200 unemployed women to make the journey to Inner Mongolia with the promise of good jobs and shelter. On arrival, however, the women, ranging in age from 15 to 41, were sold as wives or servants to local peasants who were having difficulty finding spouses. (Summary) (Hong Kong AFP in English 0702 GMT 15 Dec 93) Liaoning Five principal members of a criminal gang, Liu Yanxi, Liu Shaoxi, Liu Tao, Liu Bin, and Wang Xin, who perpetrated all kinds of evil in Xiuyan County, Liaoning Province, were sentenced to death and immediately executed by the Liaoning Anshan City Intermediate People's Court today. Other accomplices were given prison sentences of two to eight years. Local people applauded to express their satisfaction. This gang, of which most of the principal members were surnamed Liu, have, for a long time, collectively or individually committed serious crimes including rape, drug trafficking, hindering government officials from discharging their official duties, and gambling, greatly endangering social security and arousing strong public resentment. Based on the fact that the gang had committed 89 offenses, the Anshan Intermediate People's Court pronounced the judgment of the first instance according to the "Criminal Law" and the relevant regulations on 10 October 1993 and submitted the verdict to the Liaoning Supreme People's Court for approval. (Summary) (Beijing XINHUA Hong Kong Service in Chinese 1351 GMT 18 Dec 93) Shanghai On 28 December, Huangpu District Court in Shanghi turned down an appeal by dissident Fu Shenqi against his three-year sentence to re- education-through-labor camp in Jiangsu Province. Fu's relatives complained that they were misled as to the time of the appeal hearing, and after a prolonged dispute with court officials Fu's wife, Li Liping, was detained. (Summary) (Hong Kong SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST in English 29 Dec 93) Shanxi On 6 December, mass rallies were held in Taiyuan, Datong, Yuncheng and other prefectures and cities to pass sentence on a number of culprits convicted of serious crimes. Some murderers, robbers, arsonists, and thieves were executed immediately after the rallies. Three unemployed |
FBIS3-25927_0 | World Bank Loans Benefit Development in Xinjiang | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Urumqi, January 31 (XINHUA) -- Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China is using World Bank loans to speed up its development. By the end of 1993, the region was making use of about 300 million U.S. dollars-worth of World Bank loans for seven projects, involving the sectors of education, agriculture, communications and public health. Xinjiang started using loans from the World Bank in 1985. By 1989, most of the projects aided by the World Bank were in the education sector, such as Xinjiang's Agricultural School, Training Center for Middle and Primary School Teachers, TV University of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and some local universities. After these projects, Xinjiang began to use World Bank loans for economic construction including an agricultural project in the Tarim Basin and a water supply project and an environment improvement project in rural areas. The water supply project benefited ten counties while the the agricultural project in the Tarim Basin reclaimed 80,000 hectares of wasteland and transformed 12,000 hectares of low-yield fields. About 400,000 farmers and herdsmen benefited from the World Bank projects. Recently, the World Bank has been planning to help infrastructure construction in Xinjiang more. The newly-planned projects include two highways, basic education in poorer areas, and urban construction and environment project in Urumqi, the region's capital. It is expected that the bank loans for these projects will be 440 million U.S. dollars. |
FBIS3-25954_2 | Beijing TV Airs MOFTEC's Press Conference | membership began. Hence, the negotiations have entered a substantive stage. China also submitted lists of (?samples) during the Uruguay Round of trade talks. China will ultimately sign a comprehensive agreement on the Uruguay Round and become a founding member of the world trade organization, which may be inaugurated in the middle or latter part of next year. Before the inauguration of the world trade organization, China should be a GATT member. [Foreign correspondent speaking in English with simultaneous Mandarin translation] I am Webber from NEWSWEEK. My question is about the protection of intellectual property rights [IPR]. U.S. officials have hinted the next trade dispute with China will probably be in the field of IPR protection. Therefore, I would like to ask the minister about measures to be taken by China to avoid conflict with the United States. [Wu Yi] China and the United States concluded a memorandum of understanding on IPR protection in Washington on 16 January 1992. The Chinese Government has earnestly carried out the memorandum, and the U.S. Government has expressed satisfaction with the Chinese Government's efforts to implement it. The level of IPR protection in China has surpassed the average world level. However, I must frankly admit that problems do exist in China's implementation of the IPR protection accord. As you know, China is a country with a population of 1.17 billion. To make everyone understand the law on IPR protection, it is necessary to conduct extensive education. As for the measures to be taken in IPR protection, we will first conduct universal education at different levels to enable people across the country to understand the importance of IPR protection. IPR protection is not only the demand of various foreign countries, but also of our own. We also need to protect our own IPR. What is important now is to begin with education on IPR protection throughout the country. Second, we will actively suggest the establishment of local IPR courts in some key cities. People with clear evidence of their IPR being infringed upon may file lawsuits with the IPR court. The U.S. Government does not understand the Chinese Government's positive measures on IPR protection. It is extremely unwise for the U.S. Government to apply pressure. [Correspondent] I am (Gu Yunlong) from the Central Television Network. Minister Wu Yi, China's trade deficit in 1993 was over $12 billion. What were the causes? In 1994, or in the |
FBIS3-25955_4 | Leaders Foreign Trade Reform | relations? [Wu Yi] China and the United States concluded a memorandum of understanding on 16 January 1992. The Chinese Government has earnestly carried out its promise. This has been acknowledged by the United States. The level of protection of intellectual property rights in China surpasses the average level of protection of intellectual property rights throughout the world. However, as China is a vast country with a huge population, protection of intellectual property rights has been undertaken unevenly in various localities. We will begin with education to enhance people's awareness regarding intellectual property rights, and will propose that intellectual property rights courts be established in some key cities. Whether they are Chinese or foreigners, if they have clear evidence to prove their intellectual property rights have been infringed upon, they may file a law suit with the court. Regrettably, the U.S. Government does not comprehend nor understand the positive method of protecting intellectual property rights which China has adopted, and it is unwise for the U.S. Government to attempt applying pressure. [Correspondent] What is the current state of Sino-British economic and trade relations, and what are their future prospects? [Wu Yi] As a whole, Sino-British economic and trade relations are not bad, and there is great potential for development. However, it is hard to say whether the uncooperative attitude adopted by the British Government regarding Hong Kong will affect bilateral economic and trade relations. This is what China does not want to see, but the responsibility rests entirely with the British. [Correspondent] In order to link up with the world economically, what new laws and regulations will China enact on economic and trade relations with foreign countries? [Wu Yi] With the deepening of the reform of China's foreign economic relations and trade system, and the progress of the negotiations on the restoration of China's status as a contracting party to GATT, China is changing its mode of administering foreign economic relations and trade, switching from a reliance mainly on administrative means to a reliance on legal and economic means. For this purpose, China will enact a number of laws and regulations on foreign economic relations and trade, the most important of which is the "Foreign Trade Law." The draft of this law has been submitted for examination by the State Council to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. China will adopt some methods currently practiced by the world community |
FBIS3-26036_0 | Article Urges Increasing Peasant Incomes Enlivening the Circulation of Agricultural Products and Rural Markets Continued Efforts To Underwrite the Healthy Development of Township and Town Enterprises | Language: Chinese Article Type:BFN [By Chen Junsheng (7115 0193 3932): "Rural Work Should Revolve Around Increasing Peasants' Income"] [Text] The central part of current agricultural, rural, and peasants' work is to increase peasant incomes. Why should increasing peasant incomes take center stage? One, with adequate food and clothing, income becomes the peasants' greatest concern. They will abandon their farmland if over time farming proves unprofitable. Two, increasing the effective supply of agricultural products, including growth in total volume, structural optimization, and quality improvement, is necessarily related to peasant incomes. Peasants now have a clear idea of how much they can earn or lose from what they grow and breed. Increases in output without corresponding increases in income would do nothing to stabilize agriculture. Three, agricultural development in the past often ignored peasant market roles. One of the important reasons why we have had weak market demand is the failure to widen rural markets. The demand of some 200-million strong city population cannot possibly absorb the rapid growth of the entire national economy. To enliven rural markets, it is necessary to increase peasant incomes over the years. Four, by the end of this century, people throughout the whole country, above all peasants, should be enjoying relatively well-off living standards. Comrade Xiaoping repeatedly stressed: "The whole political situation will be unstable if rural areas are unstable. Our country cannot be said to have eradicated poverty if it still exists in rural areas." Therefore, increasing peasant incomes is not an isolated problem, but a strategic problem concerning the prosperity and development of the entire national economy. To increase peasant incomes more quickly, it is necessary to take the entire political situation into account, conscientiously implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee and the Central Rural Work Conference, and pursue the following tasks properly: Increase Inputs Into Rural Areas Since the founding of the country, industrial development has mainly been based on a capital base built up by agriculture but conditions have changed. This strategy of industrial development based on agricultural accumulation must change. Adjustment should also be made in infrastructure investment, budgetary financial capital, and credit capital mix. Leading comrades from the central committee and State Council have stressed repeatedly that the urgent needs posed by agricultural development must be met, even if it means postponing a few industrial projects. Increasing input is meant to correct |
FBIS3-26036_9 | Article Urges Increasing Peasant Incomes Enlivening the Circulation of Agricultural Products and Rural Markets Continued Efforts To Underwrite the Healthy Development of Township and Town Enterprises | called the burden reduction policy one of the Communist Party's big services for the people. But down on the field, factors that may potentially increase the burdens for peasants remain. Some departments are thinking of restoring some financing and levy charges for some public charities. This is understandable. For a department, the problem is not big. But when all departments are asking money from peasants for different projects, peasants will have a hard time. They can hardly bear all these burdens with their low income. We should all think with the overall situation in mind and continue to adopt effective measures to reduce peasants' burdens. Pursue Well the Support-the-Poor Scheme At present, there are more than 80 million people across the country for whom having enough to eat and to cloth themselves is still a problem. Without this problem for this part of the population, it is hard to achieve the relatively well-off living standards for the whole country. To solve the problem of getting enough to eat and keep warm for this 80 million, the State Council has decided to formulate and implement a "eight seven plan to take on the hardest parts of the support-the-poor scheme." Under the plan, from this year up to the end of this century, the problem of having enough to eat and keep warm for this number of people will be basically solved in seven years' time; and, further, they will have eradicated poverty on their way to prosperity. The next step consists of the formulation and implementation of the "eight seven plan to take on the hardest parts of the support-the-poor scheme." One, a serious summing up of the work and study to put forward new methods and measures for the support-the-poor scheme under the new situation. Two, perfect various policies and measures and increase input into the scheme. The central authorities are continuing with the program of getting the aided areas to repay relief with grains and low-to middle-standard industrial products. The additional parts of such a program concentrate on transport and communications in poor regions to ensure that there are roads to ensure improvements in necessary production and living conditions. Three, management of funds and materials for the support-the-poor scheme must be relatively centralized to be allocated rationally on a regional mix basis, with a view to gradually spending more in the poorest areas in the central and western regions. |
FBIS3-26090_4 | ARATS, SEF Officials Report on Negotiations Negotiations Make Some Progress | Wang-Gu Talks" should be implemented. Currently, cross-strait economic exchanges and cooperation is an important content in cross-strait relations. Last year's cross-strait economic and trade exchanges showed that increased Taiwanese investments in the mainland is helpful to the mainland's economic development. On the other hand, Taiwan's ability to maintain a foreign trade surplus is also directly due to the development of indirect cross-strait trade. It has been proven in practice that the principle determined by the "Wang-Gu talks"; that is, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should strengthen cross-strait economic exchanges as well as supplement and benefit each other, is correct. The two organizations should be responsible to the people on both sides of the strait and should hold consultations on relevant issues at an early date. During the discussions, both sides felt that cross-strait cultural exchanges should be further broadened. The ARATS thanked the SEF for warmly receiving responsible persons of seven central press units during their visit at the beginning of this year. The ARATS will continue to send responsible persons and senior journalist delegations from the mainland's press units to Taiwan for visit, and is ready to warmly receive visits to the mainland by responsible persons of Taiwan's mass media. The ARATS will also promote cross-strait exchanges and mutual visits between young people and students. Replying to a reporter's question, Tang Shubei said: The experiences in cross-strait cooperation among the mass organizations in the past three years have shown that it is feasible to avoid [hui bi 0932 6699] sensitive political issues at this stage. In accordance with this principle, the two sides signed the "Jinmen [Quemoy] Agreement" and "Agreement on the Use and Verification of Notary Certificates Between the Two Sides of the Strait." It has been proven that if the two organizations were sincere to solve problems and insisted on the principle of holding discussions on people-to-people basis, ways of solving routine problems acceptable to the two sides could be found. While giving a briefing to reporters on the discussions, Jiao Renhe said: At today's discussions, the two organizations exchanged opinions on the three agenda items in their Taibei talks. The discussions of the two sides were quite specific and their exchange of views was very thorough. The two sides expressed their wishes to find ways for solving problems. He expressed the hope that more progress would be achieved during the next two days' discussions. |
FBIS3-26096_0 | Li Ruihuan Addresses Religious Leaders | Language: Chinese Article Type:BFN [By RENMIN RIBAO reporter Chen Weiwei (7115 4850 0251) and XINHUA reporter Zheng Qingdong (6774 1987 2639)] [Text] Beijing, 29 Jan (XINHUA) -- Li Ruihuan, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference [CPPCC], met and had a discussion with leaders of religious organizations from various parts of the country at Zhongnanhai this afternoon. Entrusted by Comrade Jiang Zemin and on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, Li Ruihuan first extended Spring Festival greetings to leaders of religious organization across the country and to the broad religious masses. At the discussion, Li Dezhu, deputy director of the United Front Work Department, briefed those present on a national seminar of leaders of religious organizations recently held in Hainan. The main topic of the seminar was discussing how to adapt religion to a socialist society. From the standpoint of integrating theory with practice, participants in the seminar profoundly discussed the historical inevitability and feasibility of adapting religion to a socialist society and put forward some constructive opinions and suggestions in this regard. At today's discussion, those who spoke on how to perform religious work more effectively and how to adapt religion to a socialist society included Zhao Puchu, vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee and president of the Buddhist Association of China; Ding Guangxun, vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of Protestant Churches of China, and president of the Christian Council of China; Zong Huaide, chairman of the Chinese Catholic Bishops College and chairman of the China Patriotic Catholic Association; An Shiwei, president of the China Islamic Association; and Xie Zhongxin, vice chairman of the China Taoist Association. In his speech at the discussion, Li Ruihuan said: The present situation is good in our country's religious work. In the past year, party and government organizations and religious administration departments at various levels have conscientiously implemented the party's religious policy, scoring remarkable achievements. Cooperating closely with the party and government, religious circles have done a lot of work in uniting the broad religious masses, promoting the building of material and spiritual civilization, maintaining social stability, advancing the reunification of the motherland, and increasing exchanges with foreign countries. Li Ruihuan said: Guided by Comrade Deng Xiaoping's theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, people |
FBIS3-26097_0 | Li Lanqing Comments on Adult Education Programs | Language: Chinese Article Type:BFN [By Central People's Broadcasting Station reporter Li Tao (2621 3447) and Jiang Qianfeng (3068 6929 1496)] [Text] Beijing, 28 Jan (XINHUA) -- Yesterday and today, Li Lanqing, vice premier of the State Council, inspected education programs for adults and teachers in Beijing. He also held discussion meetings with some teachers' representatives on reforming and developing education programs for adults and teachers. Li Lanqing inspected the new premises of the Beijing Municipal Adult Education College, teachers' families, the Beijing Radio and Television University, and the Beijing Teachers' University. He visited administrative and teaching personnel and examinees writing admission examinations for graduate programs. Li Lanqing extended his hope that the broad masses of administrative and teaching personnel will achieve better results and maintain good health in the new year, and wished them, in advance, a happy spring festival. After ending discussion meetings with teachers' representatives, Li Lanqing said: Adult education is a very important component of China's educational undertakings. At present, only a small number of people are able to receive higher education. Yet China's current national situation dictates that our society needs professionals of various skills. Therefore, we should strive to develop vocational and adult education programs, including radio and television education programs. The road to become a professional should not be limited to the "difficult path" of passing through an institution of higher education. We should, however, construct more "open roads" that will enable people to become professionals through various channels. We should gradually strive to realize the objective whereby willing students will be able to attend school. Consequently, after completing compulsory education, as many people as possible may have the chance for further studies by attending various education programs including vocational, adult, and radio and television education programs. Only if we provide many avenues to train professionals can we avoid the situation whereby once children enter primary schools, they begin to prepare for college matriculation examinations and thousands of applicants try to squeeze through a "single-plank bridge." Only then can we avoid cultivating and developing so many "narrow-minded and nearsighted" students so that secondary and primary school students will truly develop morally, intellectually, and physically. Therefore, the issue currently facing China's adult education programs, including radio and television education programs, is not that we should weaken these programs; on the contrary, we should continually strive to develop them. Li Lanqing said: When reforming and developing |
FBIS3-26100_1 | Peng Peiyun Addresses Women-Children Work Group | Plans for Chinese Women in the Nineties." The outline is intended to regulate, guide, and promote the development of Chinese women, safeguard their rights and interests, raise their standards, and enable them to participate more successfully in promoting equality, development, and peace and play a role worthy of the "other half" in China's modernization. The outline is also designed to help achieve the goals set for in the "Nairobi Strategy" and to greet the opening of the Fourth World Women's Congress in 1995. Peng Peiyun also called for continuous efforts to publicize and implement laws and regulations on children and women, safeguard women's rights and interests in child-bearing and labor, launch targeted struggles against kidnapping and prostitution, and conduct experiments in the "three quality projects" [quality birth, upbringing, and education]. Liu Hairong, director of the general office of the State Council's Committee for Women and Children's Work and vice president of the All-China Women's Federation, gave a report on the committee's work in 1993 and its plan for 1994. Committee members and representatives from various units discussed ways to further promote women and children's work. It was learned that the State Council's Committee for Women and Children's Work made progress in safeguarding women and children's rights and interests and promoting women and children's causes last year. The committee coordinated and organized activities to publicize and implement the law on safeguarding women's rights and interests. After an investigation into implementation of the law in seven provinces, it presented its views and suggestions on existing problems and future work and urged departments concerned to adopt measures for resolving the problems. Today, two-thirds of the governments at the provincial level in China have established agencies for protecting women and children. Last year, together with the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security, and based on the experience of the last two years in the struggle against kidnapping and prostitution, the State Council's Committee for Women and Children's Work put forward requirements for carrying out the struggle in the next stage. This has helped deepened the struggle. In addition, the committee also worked actively to implement the "Outline of Development Plans for Chinese Children in the Nineties," made good preparations for enacting the "Outline of Development Plans for Chinese Women in the Nineties," and presented specific proposals on making overall arrangements for society to bear the burden of child-bearing expenses for women workers. |
FBIS3-26105_0 | Authorities Free Three Catholic Clerics | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By Daniel Kwan] [Text] Three Catholic clerics have been set free by Chinese authorities after they were detained by mainland police who wanted to stop them from meeting foreign dignitaries. Informed sources said yesterday Bishop Su Zhimin of Baoding, Hebei Province, had returned home last Saturday [30 January]. The sources said Trappist Father Placidus Pei Ronggui of Shijiazhuang and the clandestinely ordained Bishop Jia Zhiguo of Hebei had also "gone back home safely". Sources said Bishop Su, 62, was taken away by public security officers early last month after he had had a meeting with US Congressmen Christopher Smith. It is not clear why Chinese authorities detained Bishop Jia and Father Pei at about the same time, but sources believed their detention was related to contact with foreigners. The trio are well-known figures in the underground Catholic Church and their "disappearance" was an embarrassment to Beijing because it coincided with the visit by US Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bensten to Beijing last month. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities confirmed yesterday to foreign diplomats they were keeping Catholic priest Zhang Li in a labour re-education centre in Hebei Province. Released in March last year, Father Zhang was rearrested in June. Catholic sources said he was serving a three-year sentence in a reform-through-education centre in Zhangjiakou in Hebei. The confirmation by Beijing is considered unusual because Father Zhang is apparently not on any foreign government's lists of political prisoners. |
FBIS3-26121_0 | Beijing Secretary Warns of `Threat of Unrest' | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Beijing, Feb 3 (AFP)--Beijing Communist Party Secretary Chen Xitong has demanded tighter security measures for the Chinese capital, warning of the threat of unrest, the Beijing Daily reported Thursday. "The most important duty of all Beijing authorities this year is to protect political and social stability," said Chen, an arch-conservative who was one of the chiefs behind the bloody crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement at Tiananmen Square. Chen, who is also a member of the politburo, made the comments Wednesday after a municipal meeting, flanked by Mayor Li Qiyan, the report said. "Our task will be harder this year," he said. "We must work hard to create a stable environment to enable the success of the economic reforms." Chen said that public order in Beijing was "generally good" but there were still "weak points." It was necessary to "strengthen security networks based on the masses," he said, in an oblique reference to neighbourhood committees, which play a major role in surveillance. Chen's remarks add to a a series of statements by Chinese leaders pointing to fears at the highest level of an outbreak of social unrest this year. Major economic reforms are set to be implemented in the coming months, probably adding to unemployment and inflation, analysts say. Officials have also expressed concern at the huge number of migrant workers arriving in Beijing and other major cities. In an apparent reflection of official unease, Beijing police recently stepped up their presence, launching round-the-clock patrols. |
FBIS3-26130_0 | Guangdong Officials Use Gallup Polls in Governing | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Guangzhou, February 3 (XINHUA) -- The methodology invented by the late American professor George Gallup to discover what's on the minds of the public is now helping local government officials to govern better. Public attitudes ranging from commodity prices and the image of public servants to environmental pollution and housing reform are what a small research agency in south China's boomtown of Guangzhou has been finding out since 1990. Once or twice every month, local media devote time and space to publish the findings on matters of social focus. The feedback prompts the municipal government to adopt measures to solve the problems that affect the life of local residents. Last year a survey found that 70 percent of Guangzhou people are dissatisfied with the jammed traffic conditions. The relevant departments took immediate action to ban bicycle traffic on 11 major roads. A follow-up telephone survey, however, revealed that 55 percent of the people were against the new policy. Then the city solicited ideas from the public and came up with a plan that worked. Xu Yucong, an employee at the Guangzhou public opinion research center, which conducted these surveys, said that the center aims to reflect the concerns of people and serves to jog the minds of policy makers. "In this way, we can draw more attention from the leaders whose policies can help harmonize the multi-faceted relationships in society." To date, the center has conducted over 60 surveys, involving more than 1.4 million residents. Xu said some of the findings touched on sensitive issues. But the municipal government backed their endeavors and considered the practice a main channel of communication of the Communist Party and government organizations with the general public. Xu said the center is able to keep itself objective and unbiased by maintaining total financial independence. Although the Gallup methods have not spread to other parts of the country in finding out public opinion, major cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin and the capital Beijing do have "mayor's hot lines" that citizens can dial at any time to voice their grievances and proposals. |
FBIS3-26188_0 | Article Reviews President Clinton's Address | Language: Chinese Article Type:BFN ["Roundup" by staff reporter Liu Aicheng (0491 1947 2052): "Old Problems, New Measures--Three Major Tasks Confronting the Clinton Administration"] [Text] Washington, 1 Feb (RENMIN RIBAO)--U.S. President Bill Clinton delivered his State of the Union address to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives on 25 January, and proposed that medical insurance reform, social welfare reform, and the anticrime campaign should continue to be the first duties for the government this year. Public opinion held that the three issues mentioned above have been unresolved problems for years in the United States, as well as old problems which Clinton had wished to solve but has not yet solved. For a long period of time medical and health expense in the United States has been increasing year after year, so has the number of those not covered by medical insurance. In fiscal 1993, the nation's expense in this area exceeded $900 billion, which accounted for 14.6 percent of the GDP, up from 9.6 percent in 1981. Last September, Clinton proposed a reform plan to Congress, suggesting insurance for the whole people with costs to be shared by the state, enterprises, and individuals. Since announcement of the plan, most people have expressed support for its general goal, but responded differently to the concrete measures. Some medical and health insurance companies and some pharmaceutical factories are not happy with the possible loss of income due to the reform; small enterprises which in the past seldom or never provided insurance for their employees, have expressed grievances against the government's demand that they provide their employees with a large portion of insurance premium. In Congress, the Republicans argued that the plan allows too much government intervention, involves too much money, and leads to a tax increase. Among the Democrats there are also those who are opposed to the plan, and they say the plan makes small enterprises pay a lot of expense to the extent of affecting employment. Clinton pointed out in his State of the Union address that no matter what kind of plan, it has to guarantee insurance for the whole people, otherwise, he will exercise a presidential veto on the adopted bill. Clinton's intention in reforming the current social welfare system is: Lightening the load of government and changing the burden into a motive force. According to the current social welfare system in the United States, apart |
FBIS3-26188_2 | Article Reviews President Clinton's Address | from providing low-income families with medical subsides and the aged and disabled with medical care, the government also has to provide $350-400 of relief money to the poor families which have juvenile children, as well as food coupons of $70 to each of the destitute every month. At present, some 5 million families in the country are claiming relief money, and about 27 million people are receiving food coupons. These two "contingents" are still growing in strength, the government's expense has increased year after year, and currently the annual expense on relief money and food coupons has reached $45 billion. Clinton thinks that this growing burden not only affects the effort to cut the deficit, but is also harmful to economic development. Clinton announced in his State of the Union address that in the spring of this year, he will submit to Congress an overall plan of reform of the social welfare system. According to information, the plan mainly includes: Poor people who have ability to work will only be provided with relief money for two years; free training will be provided to those who have no job skills or have low educational attainment; baby sitting allowances will be provided to the women who have young children; the government will allocate funds to open service industries, to provide job opportunities to the above-mentioned people; and efforts will be made to encourage private enterprises to arrange jobs for the above-mentioned people. The plan will enable 1.5 million to 2 million adults (mostly single mothers who have juvenile children) to eventually part with government relief. Most people think that Clinton's move is in the right direction, but they are skeptical about a swift solution of this difficult problem which has existed for years. Crime, especially violent crime, is an old problem causing the most terrible headache for those within and outside the government in the United States. From 1980 to 1992, the number of violent crimes in the United States increased 27 percent, and the number of those serving their terms in prisons increased 180 percent. Last year, various kinds of violent incidents became more frequent, and murders and kidnappings became numerous. Clinton stressed repeatedly that the economic losses caused by crime in the United States reached $425 billion a year, in particular, crime increased medical expenses. Last year, the Clinton administration was able to urge Congress to pass the "Brady bill |
FBIS3-26198_2 | Editorial Attacks Patten on Airport Financing `Gift' | indeed looked like "Cleopatra's" dowry. Every person in Hong Kong was distressed at being ripped off by British Hong Kong. But Chris Patten has the nerve to describe the fourth financial package as a "spring festival gift" to the people of Hong Kong and China. Is this not utter nonsense? He is only appropriating a little more from the financial surplus for the construction of the airport. Hong Kong people are still footing the bill, and costs have not come down either. How can this be described as "Chris Patten giving a gift?" In fact, in mid-July 1991, China and Britain signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the New Airport [MOU]. If Britain had not deliberately discarded the MOU to draft financial packages which created a bottomless pit of "callable equity" (HK$45 billion by now), deviated from the provisions of Annex III of the Joint Declaration, which states that China and Britain share equally the proceeds from the annual sale of 50 hectares of land approved by the Land Commission, and had not made the improper demand that all revenues from property developments above the 62-hectare [area of land for development] railroad line should go to Britain, agreement on a financial package would have been reached long ago and many projects launched already. It is British Hong Kong which has been stalling, turning the situation into a stalemate, and deliberately creating obstacles. British Hong Kong should be responsible for the consequences which have resulted from its opposition to the MOU and the first three financial packages in the Joint Declaration. Chris Patten is describing the fourth financial package as a "spring festival gift," but the Hong Kong people will not be deceived again. Who will accept confusing the agenda, stalling, and quoting unjustifiably high prices as the bestowal of a gift? Conducting business according to the MOU and Annex III of the Joint Declaration are the obligations Britain must shoulder. No civilized country honestly complying with an international treaty would consider implementing a diplomatic agreement as the bestowal of a gift. Whatever package is proposed by British Hong Kong, the Hong Kong people will strongly demand that its financial arrangements conform with the MOU and Annex III of the Joint Declaration. Only thus will the Hong Kong people's tax burden and "ticket fare" not be increased and can the new airport project avoid low efficiency or "degenerating into a mess." |
FBIS3-26203_0 | Beijing Reportedly Releases Three Dissidents Justice Ministry Confirms Release | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Beijing, Feb 4 (AFP)--China's justice ministry confirmed Friday that three dissidents jailed after the crushing of the 1989 pro-democracy movement had been released. A ministry spokesman confirmed that Xiao Bin, a worker, Liao Yiwu, a leading poet from Sichuan province, and Ding Junze, a former assistant professor of philosophy at Shanxi University had been released. News of the releases was first announced by John Kamm, a US businessman and human-rights campaigner. |
FBIS3-26204_0 | Beijing Reportedly Releases Three Dissidents XINHUA Reports on Release | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Beijing, February 4 (XINHUA) -- Three men jailed in 1989 and 1990 for crimes in the June 1989 anti-government riot in China were recently given early releases -- in two cases many years before expiry of their sentences. Xiao Bin, Liao Yiwu and Ding Junze were recently released by local intermediate people's courts, sources here said today. Xiao Bin, 46, was released on parole. He was a worker at an aluminum window factory in Dalian city, Liaoning Province, before he was arrested. In July 1989 he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment by the Dalian Intermediate People's Court for inciting disturbance in the June 1989 anti-government riot in Beijing. On December 11, 1991, the Chaoyang City Intermediate People's Court reduced his prison term by six months because of his penitence. On February 2 this year, the Chaoyang City Intermediate People's Court decided to grant Xiao parole because of his good behavior in prison over the years. Xiao expressed gratitude for the kind treatment and regretted over his crimes. Liao Yiwu, 34, was an employee at the People's Cultural Center in Fuling city, Sichuan Province. In January 1990, the Chongqing City Intermediate People's Court sentenced Liao to four years in jail from March 16, 1990 to March 15, 1994 for his crimes in anti-government activities. On January 31 this year, the Dachuan City Intermediate People's Court decided to release him before expiry of his sentence because of his penitence and good behavior in jail. Ding Junze, formerly a teacher at Shanxi University, was sentenced by the Taiyuan City Intermediate People's Court on June 25, 1990 to 12 years' imprisonment for inciting anti-government activities in June 1989. Ding, 52, now suffers from heart disease and cervical vertebra disease, and on February 2 this year, the court decided to free him on bail for medical treatment. |
FBIS3-26205_0 | Column Views Improved Human Rights Conditions | Language: Chinese Article Type:BFN ["Political Talk" column by Shih Chun-yu (2457 0689 3768): "Human Rights Conditions in China Have Improved Significantly"] [Text] In the early seventies, a U.S. reporter, who had experience of covering news in old China, revisited China when Sino-U.S. relations began to thaw. When meeting with Premier Zhou, he said with deep feelings that during his visit he had found that China had traversed a long journey and had made great progress. Premier Zhou answered: We still have a long way to go. The Chinese are a modest people, and they normally do not brag about their own achievements to foreigners. Speaking realistically, China remains a developing country with a huge population, and still faces the extremely arduous task of modernization. Therefore, it has formulated a long-term development strategy with economic construction as its central task, and China is determined to improve its people's material and cultural lives through the unswerving efforts of several generations of people. Although time now has come to the nineties, as Premier Zhou said in the past, the Chinese people still have a long way to go. On the other hand, in retrospect, new China indeed has made substantial progress, which also should be appraised realistically and should not be denied. China has made great progress and has further efforts still to make. This is the actual condition of the country, and this is also the case in the field of human rights. Old China was bullied and humiliated by foreign powers, and the people did not have any independent political or other rights while living under colonial and semicolonial conditions. Innumerable people were killed in continuing disastrous wars, and human rights were just empty talk in such circumstances. Fundamental changes were brought about by the success of the Chinese revolution and the establishment of the People's Republic, and only after that could the people's lives and safety really be guaranteed and the nation move onto to the path of development. The liberation of China turned human rights into reality in the country. By comparison, in today's world, "genocide" is still occurring in some European countries, and human life is treated there as if it were not worth a straw; "social purification" occurred in South America, and a large number of street urchins were mistreated and killed. If they were to see this, all justice-upholding people might not underestimate the progress China |
FBIS3-26205_1 | Column Views Improved Human Rights Conditions | should be appraised realistically and should not be denied. China has made great progress and has further efforts still to make. This is the actual condition of the country, and this is also the case in the field of human rights. Old China was bullied and humiliated by foreign powers, and the people did not have any independent political or other rights while living under colonial and semicolonial conditions. Innumerable people were killed in continuing disastrous wars, and human rights were just empty talk in such circumstances. Fundamental changes were brought about by the success of the Chinese revolution and the establishment of the People's Republic, and only after that could the people's lives and safety really be guaranteed and the nation move onto to the path of development. The liberation of China turned human rights into reality in the country. By comparison, in today's world, "genocide" is still occurring in some European countries, and human life is treated there as if it were not worth a straw; "social purification" occurred in South America, and a large number of street urchins were mistreated and killed. If they were to see this, all justice-upholding people might not underestimate the progress China has made in the aspect of human rights. China's reform and opening beginning in 1978 was another emancipation. In the last 15 years, with the high-speed economic growth, the people's living standards have been enhanced, the legal system gradually has been perfected, the market mechanism has been fostered, the scope of human and material movements has been broadened, and the people's freedom and rights have been improved in many aspects. No person who holds an objective and fair attitude will deny all these facts. China is making continuing efforts to improve human rights conditions, but this is, first of all, China's own affair. The Chinese people deeply believe that advancing along this course of maintaining stability and developing the economy, greater progress certainly will be made in the aspect of human rights. Different nations view human rights in different ways, and all nations have yet to improve their own human rights conditions in various aspects. They may conduct dialogue and exchanges on this issue, thus promoting each other's improvement of human rights conditions. For example, in the United States, the social status and human rights conditions of national minorities still need to be improved; there are an increasing number of |
FBIS3-26211_0 | Bo Yibo Urges Development Speed, Economic Returns | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Beijing, February 3 (XINHUA) -- Bo Yibo, a retired veteran Chinese leader, said that China must combine development speed with high economic returns. In an impromptu speech at a forum here yesterday, he said that a "comprehensive understanding" of Deng Xiaoping's exposition on the development speed and economic returns is essential to maintaining sustained, rapid and healthy growth of China's economy. He said that the country's economy is now growing vigorously, while initial successes have been made in macro-economic control. The whole Chinese nation is trying hard to push China's economy to a new height by following the principle of seizing the current opportunity for development, deepening the reform, opening wider to the outside world, promoting development and maintaining stability, he told the forum on Deng Xiaoping's ideas concerning the improvement of economic returns. Bo Yibo also called attention to the fact that low economic returns nationwide remain largely unchanged. For example, the composite index for industrial economic returns fell at the end of 1993. He warned against the bad tendency rising in some localities toward blindly undertaking construction projects, overextending the construction scale, blindly seeking development speed and neglecting economic returns. "The scale of fixed assets investment is so large as to exceed what China's financial capabilities can withstand," he said. He criticized some mass media organizations for failing to highlight the importance of improving economic returns. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to spread Deng Xiaoping's ideas on combining the development speed with economic returns to make sure that high speed and high economic returns promote each other. Over the past ten-plus years, Deng Xiaoping has repeatedly stressed that the development speed must be combined with high economic returns, he said. "We must try our best to achieve a relatively high growth rate," he told the forum. According to Bo, it is both "possible and necessary" for China to achieve an annual growth rate of eight to nine percent in line with its economic strength, financial capabilities and materials supply. "We must combine development speed with economic returns, product quality and market demand," he noted. He opposed what he called a low development speed and underproduction which he said will adversely affect the improvement in China's overall economic strength and living standards. Meanwhile, he also warned against excessive stockpiles and redundant construction. Inventories of manufacturers covered in government budgets amounted to 170 billion |
FBIS3-26214_0 | Article Views Restrictions on Dissident Wang Xizhe | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By Daniel Kwan] [Text] As far as Chinese democracy fighter Wang Xizhe is concerned, the struggle for democracy is not confined to chanting slogans on the streets or writing big character posters. It also means how a person lives his life. One year after his release from Huaiji Prison near Guangzhou, Mr Wang is still trying to pick up the pieces he left behind when he was locked away 13 years ago for urging greater political freedom. But to the authorities, the 45-year-old Marxist philosopher is still a target of surveillance, a dangerous person who has to be watched. To them, Mr Wang is also a criminal. Repeated appeals to clear his name have proven futile and he is still required to report to his neighbourhood police station every Friday and cannot travel outside Guangzhou without special permission. Contacts with foreigners are still a taboo. Not only is he prohibited from speaking to foreign reporters, he has also been warned that he should not write articles for foreign magazines. Because of his criminal record, he cannot take part in any elections or run his own business like everybody does. Although nominally the boss of a jewellery shop in Guangzhou, the company is registered in other person's name. Even meetings with friends can be a problem, as he can only write to them, and even clients who met with him are often questioned by the police. The pressure from authorities notwithstanding, Mr Wang has shown no signs of repentance. "If the time does not permit me to be a political activist now, then I will do what everybody does. I go into business," Mr Wang said. "It doesn't mean I have given up. Instead, I want to prove that we--democracy activists--are not only good at politics but we can also run a successful business," he said. The jewellery business, he said, is his bridge to a modernised China. "I have been locked away for so many years. I have lost touch with the people ... Since everyone is now in business, I feel it is only right that I follow the trend of the society and join the business world. "I may spend one year in this business. If I am successful, then I may open a bookstore and I plan to write a book on the democracy movement in Guangzhou if the conditions permits," he added. |
FBIS3-26226_0 | Government Announces Environmental Clean-Up Plan | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By Zhu Baoxia: "State Plans for a Green China"] [Text] The government will implement a five-year environmental clean-up plan in pursuit of a "Green China", the National Environmental Protection Work Conference was told yesterday. Industrial waste treatment will be improved and biological diversity will be protected. Legislation will be hurried through to oversee the production of materials which deplete the ozone layer and control the trade in poisonous chemicals. And international environmental conventions will be respected by the plan. The measures for cleaning up an ever more polluted China are part of a National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) programme which will run up to 1998. The World Bank, the Asia Development Bank and global environmental foundations will be asked to help finance domestic waste control projects. And legislation for the control of waste transfer across borders will be introduced. Nature reserves will be expanded to cover 8 per cent of China's total land area under NEPA plans to protect biological diversity. About 80 per cent of the country's industrial waste water will be treated by 1998. At the moment only about 68 per cent is being treated. And five year targets have been set for the treatment of industrial waste gas and solid refuse. Nearly 88 per cent of gas will be treated, compared to the current 79 per cent. And 45 per cent of solid waste will be processed by 1998, compared to 1993's figure of just under 40 per cent. A pilot project to develop environment-friendly agriculture in 50 counties will be run by NEPA in co-ordination with seven State departments. Local governments will use a carrot and stick approach to tighten up on the treatment of industrial pollutants. Waste discharge licences will be necessary, and "environmental symbols" will be awarded to pollution-free products. The country's environment has become a lot worse over the last few years, especially in the mushrooming cities, according to the Nepa report. It is hoped that implementation of the programme will prevent further environmental deterioration and lead to a clean, beautiful and pollution-free China. Environmental pollution and ecological damage have impeded China's reforms and hindered its foreign relations. Products and facilities that consume excessive energy or poison the environment will be banned. Nepa will regularly update the public on the environment. And 10 model ecology projects will be built. The central government also plans to launch a "Green China" |
FBIS3-26239_2 | State Council Adopts Agricultural Development Program I. Objectives and Guidelines for Agricultural Development in the Nineties II. General Arrangements for Agricultural Development in the Nineties III. Relying on Agricultural Scientific and Technological Progress, Enhancing the Unit Output Rate of Land and Other Agricultural Resources IV. Reinforcing the Construction of Agricultural Commodities Production Bases VII. Consolidate the Establishment of the Support System for Agricultural Development VIII. Widely Opening Up Agricultural Investment Channels, Increasing Agricultural Construction Funds IX. Strengthening Construction of the Agricultural Socialized Service System X. Strengthening Leadership, Creating a Good Social Environment For Agricultural Development | 12 to 12.9 percent; the ability to monitor and forecast disastrous weather for agriculture was enhanced; and various applicable crop farming, forest-caring, animal farming, and aquicultural techniques were adopted and spread extensively; and the comprehensive grain and cotton production capacities increased from 300 billion kg and 2.5 million tonnes in the early eighties to 425 billion kg and 4.5 million tonnes in the early nineties. The comprehensive meat production capacity was also markedly increased. --The agricultural economy broke through the pattern of a natural economy and the level of commercialization and specialization was greatly enhanced. In the eighties, the central government and various local governments jointly invested nearly 5 billion yuan in building a number of production bases for supplying grain, cotton, meat, and vegetables. The commercialization rate of farm produce increased from 54 to 63 percent and the value of exported farm produce and processed products increased by 150 percent. --Agricultural development broke through the model of single-item development [dang xiang kai fa 0830 7309 7030 4099] and created a new situation of comprehensive development. Beginning in 1988, the state allocated large amounts of money for comprehensive agricultural development projects, mainly aimed at increasing the production of such major products as grain, cotton, oil-bearing crops, meat, and sugar. According to the principle of comprehensively arranging the building of forests, roads, fields, and water channels on plains and hilly land, thus comprehensively utilizing natural resources, 41 comprehensive agricultural development zones were successively set up in the country. They increased the effective supplies of farm produce and played a major role in strengthening the lasting momentum of agricultural development. In the nineties we must stabilize and sustain agricultural development to better satisfy the needs of the high-speed economic growth and the increasingly better-off people in their daily lives. At present, some difficulties still exist in the course of stabilizing and quickening agricultural development in our country. First, agriculture is a sensitive industry, facing both natural and market risks, and is also a basic industry which produces vital social effects but only yields modest economic returns. While the economic structure in our country is changing into a socialist market economy, because the economic control and regulatory mechanisms are imperfect, the economic activities are apt to be driven by immediate economic returns and funds and materials are apt to be placed in nonagricultural fields. This is unfavorable to agricultural development. Second, farmland and |
FBIS3-26239_32 | State Council Adopts Agricultural Development Program I. Objectives and Guidelines for Agricultural Development in the Nineties II. General Arrangements for Agricultural Development in the Nineties III. Relying on Agricultural Scientific and Technological Progress, Enhancing the Unit Output Rate of Land and Other Agricultural Resources IV. Reinforcing the Construction of Agricultural Commodities Production Bases VII. Consolidate the Establishment of the Support System for Agricultural Development VIII. Widely Opening Up Agricultural Investment Channels, Increasing Agricultural Construction Funds IX. Strengthening Construction of the Agricultural Socialized Service System X. Strengthening Leadership, Creating a Good Social Environment For Agricultural Development | works, which mainly include Sichuan's Wudu and Shengzhong irrigation works and Dujiangyan transformation project; the irrigation and drainage works at the Great Bend of the Huang He in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia; Shaanxi's Donglei Waterworks; Henan and Shandong's large-scale water diversion and irrigation projects; the waterworks in the irrigated areas of Anhui's Pi He, Shiguan He, and Hangbu He; the waterworks at the Chaersen Reservoir and irrigated areas in Inner Mongolia and Jilin; Gansu's project which diverts water from the Datong He to the Qinwangchuan area to the north of Lanzhou, and the Qingtai irrigation project; and Hainan's Songtao irrigation project. We will strive to increase the effective irrigated area by 5.33 million hectares within 10 years so that, by the year 2000, the total irrigated area across the country will reach 53.3 million hectares or more. 4. Hydropower projects. Increase China's hydroelectric systems by a total installed capacity of 15 million kw, of which 2.8 million kw comprise the installed capacity of medium and large hydropower stations; 6.2 million kw are from medium hydropower stations; and 6 million kw are from small hydropower stations. We will enable 500 counties in rural areas to basically have access to electricity. 5. Water and soil conservation. We must put an end to soil and water losses over a total area of 400,000 square km in the nineties, with the emphasis on stopping soil and water losses in the middle reaches of the Huang He and in the upper reaches of the Chang Jiang. At the same time, we will pay good attention to conserving soil and water in other rivers including the Zhu Jiang, the Hai He, the Huai He, and the Liao He. We will harness small rivers in the northwest and improve the ecological environment by adopting engineering and biological measures at the same time. Thirty-first, quickening the development of agriculture support industries is an important condition which guarantees the upgrading of agriculture. The major tasks in this respect are: 1. Strengthen the development of the chemical fertilizer industry. In the nineties, we will build Guizhou's Wengfu Chemical Fertilizer Factory whose annual output of double superphosphate will reach 800,000 metric tons; Hubei's Dayukou Project whose annual output of double superphosphate will reach 560,000 metric tons; the second-phase project of Qinghai's Potash Fertilizer Factory whose annual output of potassium chloride will reach 800,000 metric tons; Yunnan's highly-concentrated phosphate fertilizer project; and |
FBIS3-26281_0 | Beijing Reportedly Releases Three Dissidents Activist Confirms Release | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Excerpt] Beijing, Feb 4 (AFP)--China has released three dissidents who were jailed after the 1989 pro-democracy movement, a U.S. human rights activist said Friday. John Kamm, a U.S. businessman and human-rights campaigner, said he was told by the Chinese government that the three had been released. The three are Xiao Bin, a worker from Liaoning, Liao Yiwu, a leading poet from Sichuan province, and Ding Junze (eds correct), former assistant professor of philosophy at Shanxi University, Kamm said in a statement received here. The justice ministry, questioned Friday, said it had "no news" about any such release. Xiao was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment on June 10, 1989 on charges of counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement. He was arrested after giving numerous interviews to foreign correspondents, including an interview broadcast by ABC News in which he reported having witnessed many students killed in the military crackdown on June 4. Xiao, whose 10-year sentence was reduced by six months in December 1991, was paroled for good behaviour on Wednesday. Liao had been sentenced to four years in jail in March 1990 for counter-revolutionary incitement. He was released on Monday [31 January], two months ahead of scheduled, for good behaviour, by a court in Sichuan. Ding, jailed for 10 years in June 1989, was also released on January 31 on medical grounds. Aged 52, he has been suffering from spine problems and a heart condition, Kamm said. Kamm, who is based in Hong Kong, had predicted on January 22 that three dissidents would be released before the Lunar New Year, on Febuary 10. Kamm said he had made enquiries about other dissidents arrested after the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square, including Chen Ziming and Wang Juntao, who are serving 13-year terms, but he did not get a definite reply. [passage omitted] |
FBIS3-26289_0 | `Backgrounder' Notes Prospects for U.S., Vietnam Trade | Language: English Article Type:BFN ["Backgrounder": "U.S.-Vietnam Trade: How it Starts and Where It'll Go" by Wang Nan] [Text] Washington, February 4 (XINHUA) -- For Washington, which lifted its 1975 trade embargo against Vietnam on Thursday [3 February], the South East Asian nation is an emerging market worth billions of dollars in business. In a few weeks, U.S. federal agencies including the Commerce Department will complete the drafting of U.S. trade and investment regulations in Vietnam. Related tax codes are expected to come out too. Among the existing U.S. laws banning U.S. trade with Vietnam are the 1993 Foreign Aid Appropriations Bill and amendment laws to the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Officials from Treasury and State Departments will head for Vietnam for talks on U.S. Government and private property claims stemming from the war, estimated at between 140 and 200 million U.S. dollars. Washington said its share of Vietnamese market will worth six billion U.S. dollars a year. Before 1996, trade in aviation, telecommunications, heavy equipment and construction will be four billion dollars. According to the 110-member U.S.-ASEAN council, the lifting of embargo will generate more than eight billion dollars in new export opportunities for U.S. firms in five years. Since 1975, the embargo has costed U.S. firms 1.5 billion dollars in annual sales, according to the papers released by the council on competitiveness. Observers here said U.S. investment chances in Vietnam are mainly in power generation, medical equipment, transportation equipment, construction, engineering, telephones and commercial aircraft. Vietnam also represents a vast market for U.S. information technology, banking services, oil and gas exploration technologies, accounting and legal services. On the other hand, the lifting of trade embargo will boost Vietnam's exports of garments, textiles, shoes, toys and others to the U.S.. The JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, a major trade newspaper, reported today that as many as 300 U.S. companies stand ready to trade with Vietnam, like Boeing, Digital Equipment and Motorola. Already, three dozen U.S. firms have set up representative offices in Hanoi since U.S. dropped its opposition to loans to Vietnam by international financial institutions last July. Among the U.S. companies catching up quickly in trade with Vietnam are Pepsi-Cola International, Coca Cola, Eastman Kodak Co., General Electric Co., Mobil Corp. and Citibank. American Express will sign an agreement with Vietnam's Bank of Foreign Trade that permits the use of its credit cards in Vietnam. United Airlines is seeking permission to start |
FBIS3-26299_0 | XINHUA Reports Hashemi-Rafsanjani Assassination Attempt | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Tehran, February 6 (XINHUA) -- Iranian leader Ayatollah 'Ali Khamene'i today blamed the "satanic powers" for Tuesday's [1 February] aborted assassination of President Hashemi-Rafsanjani. He warned against plots of "satanic powers" to physically eliminate those Iranian people who are efficient and helpful for the country, Islam and Moslems. It is understood that the "satanic powers" refer to the United States and Israel. Iranian authorities said that President Hashemi-Rafsanjani was the target of the unsuccessful assassination attempt on February 1. Shots were fired into the air at the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini as Rafsanjani was delivering a speech at a ceremony there to mark the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic revolution. Ayatollah Khamene'i termed the Islamic revolution as a great storm which thwarted treacherous conspiracies and ambitious plans of the United States and its lackeys in Iran when he was addressing a large group of people today. At the same time, the local daily "TEHRAN TIMES," which usually expresses the views of the Foreign Ministry, today and Saturday also blamed the United States and Israel for the assassination attempt. The daily said in its editorial that the United States and Israel are the two countries which consider Iran and its Islamic revolution detrimental to their interests. The editorial added that both Israel and its master, the United States, have a long history of assassinating world leaders. |
FBIS3-26310_0 | Editorial Criticizes PRC, U.S. in MFN, Human Rights Debate | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Editorial: "No Time To Trivialise Human Rights"] [Text] The news that Chinese authorities have released three political prisoners is indeed welcome. But we are profoundly uneasy about how China's Western critics have been drawn into what one human rights group described as "a cynical trade in political prisoners". Both sides -- not just China -- are treating prisoners of conscience as mere tokens, commodities suitable to be bartered for tariff reductions, export quotas, satellites, or arms proliferation deals. Xiao Bin's only crime was to tell a U.S. television reporter what he had heard about the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing. His mistake was to speak in front of a camera. For this he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The other two freed dissidents had also been convicted of "counter-revolutionary crime". Ding Junze, a philosophy instructor in Shanxi had been sentenced to 12 years for the crime of "inciting anti-government activities." Liao Yiwu, a Sichuan poet, was sentenced to four years for "antigovernment activities." This, apparently, was the making of an art video which expressed sympathy for the victims of the 1989 massacre. Under China's legal code counter-revolution is defined as "all acts...committed with the goal of overthrowing the political power of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist system." It embraces "acts" of speech deemed to be "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement." The existence of this so-called "law" is the sole basis for Foreign Ministry spokesman Wu Jianmin's fraudulent claim that China has no political prisoners. Wu's preposterous statement last Thursday that the functioning of China's judiciary "is something that the Chinese government cannot interfere in" was a bald application of the "Big Lie" techniques first perfected by Stalin and his apologists. We are expected to believe that the trials of political dissidents in China remotely resemble due process, and that they are not carried out strictly according to the instructions of party leaders. Wu's smug defence of China's suppression of dissent as "legal" and therefore unrelated to human rights is bad enough. Equally cynical, however, are the circumstances surrounding the release of Xiao, Ding and Liao, just one day after the release of the U.S. State Department report on human rights. We are poised for another round of cynical manipulation as the annual charade of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trading status negotiations meander to a conclusion on June 4, exactly five years after |
FBIS3-26316_0 | Government Views U.S. Senate Moves To Authorize Arms Sales | Language: Mandarin Article Type:BFN [Report by Liu I-mei; from the "Hookup" program -- recorded] [Text] The U.S. Senate adopted 92-8 the $12 billion State Department Authorization Act, which includes a bill submitted by Republican Senator Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Asia-Pacific Group, proposing the arms sale provision in the Taiwan Relations Act -- which is related to the part on arms sales in the 17 August Communique signed between the United States and the Chinese Communists in 1982 -- be changed to permit an increase in defensive weapon sales to China [Taiwan], instead of gradually reducing them. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the move after the news was learned in Taipei. An official of the ministry said: Although the bill has not been adopted, it shows that the Senate has begun to highly assess the efforts made by our side following the break in Sino-U.S. diplomatic relations 15 years ago. The State Department [words indistinct]. The amendment bill concerning our country submitted by Murkowski also included the following issues: President Clinton should send cabinet-level officials to visit China [Taiwan]; discussion of the annual report on Sino-U.S. economic cooperation submitted by the State Department; and that Americans of Chinese origin should be allowed to stamp Taiwan as their place of birth in their American passports. The official said: After the Senate adopted the authorization Act by an overwhelming majority, the Senate and House will hold separate meetings in the near future to deliberate the articles of the Authorization Act and the amendment bill. After a consensus is reached, the package will be sent to the White House to be signed by President Clinton. Once it is signed by the President, it must be carried out by administrative departments. [words indistinct] |
FBIS3-26331_4 | Li Peng Continues Trip to Shenzhen, Zhuhai Lauds Daya Bay Nuclear Plant | when the project was under construction, many leading comrades of the party Central Committee and the State Council involved themselves personally and resolved problems as they occurred in an effort to help the project progress smoothly. Localities and departments -- including the Power Industry Ministry, the China National Nuclear Corporation, Guangdong Province, and Shenzhen city -- have done a lot of work to help construction of the nuclear power plant, have created various conditions, and have provided effective support in various aspects. The plant is also a product of the constructive efforts of both the central and local governments. Li Peng expressed his hope: Chinese and foreign suppliers and contractors, as well as Chinese and foreign personnel at the work site, should continue to make efforts and contribute to finishing the whole nuclear power plant project comprehensively and efficiently. Not only should we properly construct the new nuclear power plant, but we should also manage it properly. In a sense, it is more difficult to manage a nuclear power plant properly than to build it properly. Therefore, when operating the power plant in the future, all personnel must persistently pursue the principle of "quality and safety first" to ensure that electricity is safely, efficiently, and continuously generated and supplied to Guangdong and Hong Kong and so promotes economic prosperity in the region. Li Peng said: China needs a lot of electricity. While vigorously developing thermal and hydroelectric power stations, we should also appropriately develop nuclear power plants as local conditions demand. The construction of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant has generated successful experience on which the development of China's nuclear power industry can be based, and has trained a large number of specialist nuclear power professionals. Meanwhile, it has also created favorable conditions for the development of the second-phase construction project at Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant. At present, China is comprehensively implementing the guidelines of the 14th CPC National Congress and the Third Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee, it is deepening reform and opening wider to the outside world. Foreign investors have been very enthusiastic about investing in China. China has continually improved its investment environment and has further widened the scope for new investment. We welcome foreign investors to join us in developing China's basic industries and infrastructural facilities and warmly invite friends from various countries to carry out further economic and technological cooperation |
FBIS3-26357_0 | Article Views Separate Taxation Reform | Language: Chinese Article Type:BFN [By reporter Liu Hong (0491 4767)] [Text] Beijing, 31 Jan (ZHONGGUO XINWEN SHE) -- The reform of the separate taxation system, which is to be implemented from 1 January this year, indicates that China's financial reform has entered a new track of operation. Undoubtedly, the purpose of introducing the separate taxation system is to establish a financial system suited to the market economic system and to arouse the enthusiasm of both the center and localities. However, we cannot evade the reality that implementation of the separate taxation system will have both positive and negative effects. Bai Jingming, associate professor of the Financial Science Research Institute under the Finance Ministry and doctor of economics, said: The existing contract system implemented by localities has proved in practice to have more defects than advantages. It has resulted in departmentalism and economic barriers erected between regions and has weakened the unity and complementarity of macroeconomic policies between central and local governments. But the separate taxation system can bring about the following benefits to economic development. First, the separate taxation system will enable central revenue to become a steadily increasing mechanism and enhance the capability of macroeconomic regulation and control of the central government. Second, the separate taxation system will enable the government at all levels to show more concern for cultivating tax sources, consciously broaden sources of taxes within the scope permitted by law and policies, and not rely on tax exemptions to develop the economy. Third, the separate taxation system will speed up the establishment and perfection of China's financial budgetary system at all levels, enhance the budgetary binding mechanism, and gradually increase the efficiency of spending. Dr Bai Jingming pointed out at the same time: Implementation of the separate taxation system in the early period is likely to yield the following negative effects: First, the status quo of the interest structure remains unchanged during the initial stage of financial reform and no major changes will be effected in the behavior of local governments. However, the center will take over duties imposed on cigarette and liquor, which are high and profitable, a move which will easily dampen the enthusiasm of localities. Second, if 1993 is taken as the base period for central finance to check and ratify local tax return, the sharp increase in the previous year will relatively slow down this year's tax revenue and increase pressure on |
FBIS3-26400_0 | U.S. To Boost Worldwide Population Control Aid | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Washington, February 5 (XINHUA) -- The U.S. Government is to increase its financial assistance to the worldwide population control, official sources said here today. "If we can't stabilize the world's population, we're not going to be able to control any other problems," said State Department Counselor Tim Wirth, who is in charge of population policy. President Bill Clinton announced last Monday the 1995 U.S. Federal Budget will include 585 million U.S. dollars population control assistance, up from about 503 million dollars this year, press reports here said. The U.S. is also teaming up with Japan to boost aid for population stabilization programs in poor countries. When Japan's Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa visits Washington later next week, he and Clinton will announce an accord on population assistance. Japan is expected to commit 3 billion dollars by the end of the decade for population programs and combating AIDS [acquired immunodeficiency syndrome] in developing countries, an AP report quoted U.S. Government officials as saying. Population experts project today's world population of 5.5 billion will grow by 1 billion over the next decade, and double to 11 billion in 40 years. By the year 2050, it will reach 12 billion, with more than 90 percent of the growth occurring in developing nations. The present U.S. population of 259 million, growing at a slower rate, is projected to reach 392 million by the year 2050. The Clinton administration has decided that stabilizing population is crucial to alleviating poverty and hunger. The 1995 U.S. Federal Budget of around 1.5 trillion dollars will boost U.S. assistance to the U.N. Population Fund - which was cut off during the Reagan and Bush administrations - from the current 40 million dollars to 60 million dollars a year. Wirth said that he hopes the U.S. population assistance to the U.N. Population Fund to top 1 billion dollars by the end of the decade. The goal is to ensure that every woman who wants family planning assistance can get it. |
FBIS3-26407_0 | `Roundup' Views Impact of NAFTA on Asia | Language: Chinese Article Type:BFN ["Roundup" by Zong Wen (1350 5113): "Impact of North American Free Trade Area on Asia"] [Text] The North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA], signed by the United States, Canada, and Mexico in August 1992, came into effect on 1 January 1994. NAFTA countries have a population of 360 million, GNP of $650 million, and an annual export volume of around $600 billion. In terms of economic strength and market scale, NAFTA exceeds the EC and ranks first in the world. Hence, it is bound to affect the economy of other parts of the world, including Asia. The reaction of Asia, particularly East Asian nations and regions, to establishment of NAFTA is relatively complicated. On the one hand, as trade volume between the United States and East Asia accounts for one-third of each side's exports and the United States is one of the main investors in East Asia, the economic benefits brought by the free trade area to North America will also benefit Asia. On the other hand, the establishment of NAFTA will have an adverse influence on Asia's economy in the near future. According to the provisions of the NAFTA agreement, tariffs for most of the commodities of the three North American countries will be abolished within 5 to 10 years while that of a small number of sensitive commodities will be abolished within 15 years. However, countries outside NAFTA have no right to enjoy such preferential treatment. This objectively produces a discriminative effect. The agreement also stipulates that over 65 percent of the component parts of the commodities enjoying preferential treatment must be produced within NAFTA countries. Such a provision concerning place of origin will restrict exports by other countries to the U.S. market. The development stage of Mexico's economy is similar to that of many East Asian countries. As it is adjacent to the United States and also enjoys favored tariffs for place of origin, it will be in a better position in competing with Asian products. Moreover, the United States will inevitably reduce its quotas to Asian countries in order to give more consideration to NAFTA. This will produce a great impact on Asian countries and regions, particularly the four "small Asian dragons" and ASEAN, which depend on the United States for their export trade. Their textiles, garments, toys, electronics, and other labor-intensive products will face a stern challenge in the North American |
FBIS3-26412_1 | `News Analysis' Views President Clinton's Budget | for primary schools will be slightly more. Some 2.7 billion dollars with regards to fighting crime are also added. Congress republicans complained that there were only some minor changes in the new budget as compared with that of Former President George Bush. "But I still think it had teeth in it," said Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole. "I think republicans ought to help the President in eliminating some of these programs," Dole said on Sunday [6 February], although he, like other republican lawmakers, foresaw that some massaging will take place. Observers predicted a lot of fire around the budget, which did not include, for example, the full effects of Clinton's two major proposals: welfare and health care reform, making it an incomplete presentation of all added costs. "Both health care and welfare reform have profound budgetary and economic consequences," said Representative Alex Mcmillan, a republican from North Carolina, who called the missing "especially distressing." The budget included tax increases on tobacco and business, and proposed cuts in Medicaid and Medicare, instead of the costs of some new entitlements and subsidies, observers noted. "The budget is remarkable for what it's missing," Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole said. He said he was worried that the elimination of some programs might affect the low-income Americans. The budget is controversial in three major cuts: urban mass transit subsidies, community development grants like public housing for the elderly, and subsidies for the poor to heat their homes, the last of which was protested in a letter signed by 51 senators. The three have become "non-negotiable items," said Kweisi Mfume, a democratic representative from Maryland. He stressed that "there are other things to look at" when cuts are considered and compromises are made. Explained Budget Director Leon Panetta, "We are pumping money on one end, and its not coming out the other end in terms of constructing public housing." According to the Congressional Budget Office, the deficit will dip to 171 billion dollars this year and 166 billion dollars in the next fiscal year, but it will rise to over 300 by the year 2004. "If we were not doing what we're doing, (the deficit) will be much higher," said Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen on Sunday. Despite the efforts in deficit reduction, the total federal spending will continue to rise over the past five years by about 23 percent, according to the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office. |
FBIS3-26415_0 | Increased Sino-U.S. Cooperation Seen in Fighting Crime | Language: Chinese Article Type:BFN ["Special article" by staff reporter Chang Shao-wei (1728 1421 1218): "China and the United States Increase Cooperation in Cracking Down on Crimes"] [Text] "The Chinese and U.S. Governments have clear differences in terms of human rights, missile proliferation, and trade methods and we neither deny nor ignore them. However, since internationalized crime poses a common threat to both our countries, we are making joint efforts to face squarely the common interests we have on this issue." That is the view aired by Robert Gelbard, U.S. assistant secretary of state for international narcotics matters, in a speech in Hong Kong yesterday. It was precisely for this reason that Gelbard recently led a high-level delegation to China to seek increased cooperation in cracking down on crime. Since President Jiang Zemin and President Clinton met last November, Sino-U.S. relations have further improved. Gelbard's trip proves that, as two big powers, China and the United States have many spheres of cooperation. With the rise in international organized crime, the focus of the crackdown has shifted to how to get more information to accurately deal a crushing blow from top to bottom at transnational crime syndicates. This makes it necessary for the law-enforcement departments of various countries to work with good cooperation. In his speech, Gelbard described how transnational organized crime syndicates carry out illegal activities with advanced weapons, telecommunications, and transport facilities, as well as monetary means. He said: "If the boss of an Asian syndicate enterprise wants to fix up a kidnapping case in New York, he can order his subordinate in New Jersey by directly dialing his subordinate's mobile telephone number using satellite telecommunications equipment. Afterward, they can make contact again by coded fax. If funds are needed, the money can be remitted to the United States electronically, possibly through a Hong Kong bank. The ransom can also be remitted to a bank in the Bahamas, then sent again from there to Panama, eventually arriving in a numbered Swiss bank account. The entire process can be completed in one day." This description is like the plot of a movie but it is really shocking, especially the fact that what has been revealed is only the tip of the iceberg. Given such modern methods of committing crime, it has become even more difficult to crack down on crime. Gelbard pointed out that half the drugs on the U.S. market |
FBIS3-26427_1 | CNA Views Indonesia as Major Target of `Southern Strategy' | Teng-hui to the Southeast Asian country. According to foreign wire service reports, Li is scheduled to visit the tourist island of Bali this week. During his three-day stay, Li will meet with Indonesian President Suharto and Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie. Indonesia is one of the major targets in Taipei's "southern strategy" launched late last year to promote bilateral cooperation with Southeast Asia. Other countries targeted by the plan include Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. During his visit to Indonesia, Li is expected to raise the question of Taiwan's planned US$10 billion investment on the island of Batam, 20 kilometers southeast of Singapore. Taipei is attaching even greater importance to Indonesia these days because Indonesia is the current chairman country of the non- aligned movement and the host of the 1994 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meetings. Taiwan, with 56 investments worth more than US$1.056 billion, was the biggest investor country in Indonesia in 1991, according to Indonesian Government statistics. In 1993, Taiwan investments dropped to 21 projects worth US$131 million. And by the beginning of this year, Taiwan's ranking slid to fourth place, behind Japan, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. Local economic analysts attributed the decrease in Taiwan investments in Indonesia to increasing Taiwan investments in Mainland China and Vietnam. Indonesia, however, is expected to become the best choice for Taiwan investors in 1994, rather than Vietnam, according to Liu Tai-ying, chairman of the Taiwan Institute for Research. With its Five-Year National Economic Development Plan reaching maturity, Indonesia is expected to record 7 percent economic growth this year, Liu said. Taiwan investors will succeed in Indonesia if they choose the right businesses with right partners, he added. Economics Minister P.K. Chiang, who visited Indonesia twice recently, said Taiwan Sugar Corp.'s plan to set up a sugar refinery in Indonesia will be a good beginning for Taiwan's state-run enterprises to explore the rich raw materials resource and cheap labor force in that country. Jeffrey Koo, chairman of the Chinatrust Commercial Bank which has established business links with Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, said Taiwan should emulate the Japanese formula by locating Taiwan banks in Indonesia where the banks can directly serve Taiwan investors. Koo added that peripheral industries, including service industry, to help with investment are difficult to find in Indonesia. He suggested that potential investors should form their own investment army, including up-mid- and down-stream operations. |
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