MONDAY,MARCH 11,2002
WORLD
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9A
U.S. nuclear plans cause concern
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Foreign governments reacted cautiously to news that the Pentagon has studied options for nuclear strikes on countries that threaten the United States with weapons of mass destruction. Some outside of government called it a worrisome development.
The Pentagon has informed Congress it has outlined for President Bush the possible use of nuclear weapons against hostile countries such as Iraq or North Korea that are developing weapons of mass destruction. The Los Angeles Times reported the targets could also include China, Russia, Iran, Libya and Syria.
Official government reaction from both U.S. allies and rivals was reserved yesterday. Libya's African affairs minister, Ali Abd al-Salam al-Turiki, told reporters in Cairo he found the report hard to believe.
"I don't think this is true," he said. "I don't think America is going to destroy the world."
Both the British Foreign Office and the Italian defense minister dismissed the plans as routine military planning. A NATO spokesman said it was too early to comment.
"Military forces from time to time evaluate their long-term programs even when it is hypothetical," Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.
Outside governments, many perceived the U.S. plans as a threat.
"The order indicates that the U.S. administration is to wreak havoc on the whole world in order to establish its hegemony and domination," said the conservative Tehran Times newspaper, which is close to Iran's long-liners.
"America thinks that if a military threat looms large over the head of these seven countries, they will give up their logical demands," former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
The Russian government was silent Sunday on the U.S. report to Congress, but some commentators there called it an unwelcome threat.
The United States "has always seen and sees the U.S.S.R. and post-Soviet Russia as a geopolitical rival," Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, the former head of the Defense Ministry's department for international cooperation, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
“It's about time Russian politicians realized this and stopped having illusions that Washington wishes Moscow well and prosperity,” said Ivashov, an outspoken hawk who was dismissed last year.
Dmitry Rogozin, a leading Russian lawmaker with close ties to the Kremlin, accused Washington of deliberately organizing the leak in order to intimidate Russia at a time of increasing strain in U.S.-Russia ties. Relations, which had improved dramatically after Sept. 11, have recently been marred by trade disputes over a U.S. decision to introduce new steel tariffs and a Russian ban on U.S. poultry imports.
"They've brought out a big stick — a nuclear stick that is supposed to scare us and put us in our place." Rogozin said on NTV television.
Political analyst Vyacheslav Nikonov suggested the report came at an inauspicious time for Washington, which has recently involved itself in Georgia, Russia's neighbor to the south. U.S. troops are to arrive there this month to train an anti-terrorist force. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his approval to the U.S. plans, despite initial strong protests from top officials and lawmakers.
Menzies Campbell, spokesman for Britain's third-party Liberal Democrats, was quoted by The Observer newspaper as saying the U.S. policy "completely changes the terms of debate about nuclear deterrence."
Violence rages in Israel but Arafat ban may end
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday he was prepared to end Yasser Arafat's confinement in the West Bank and negotiate with the Palestinians on a truce — but with violence at its worst levels in 17 months of fighting, he stressed he will not call off the army offensive against militants.
Sharon said Palestinian security forces had arrested the fifth and final suspect in the October slaying of Israeli Cabinet minister Rehavam Zevi, fulfilling the condition for lifting a blockade that has kept Arafat under virtual house arrest in his compound in Ramallah in the West Bank since December.
"People have been arrested. I demanded their arrest and their imprisonment," Sharon told a group of disabled war veterans. "I have said that after they are arrested we shall let him out of there." He did not say when the Palestinian leader would be allowed to move about freely.
Sharon spoke hours after Israeli helicopters pounded Arafat's Gaza Strip office to rubble, retaliation for a Palestinian suicide attack that killed 11 others near Sharon's Jerusalem residence. The Palestinian office in Gaza City had been evacuated before the helicopter attack, and no one was hurt.
"We are in a war," Sharon told his Cabinet at its weekly meeting yesterday, before he said he was ready to lift the travel ban on Arafat. "All of us must stay united and make every effort to stand up to this wave of terror."
Three Palestinians and one Israeli were killed in scattered clashes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
Sharon's concession on Arafat came ahead of renewed U.S. diplomatic efforts. The United States is pressing for a ceasefire, and U.S. Mideast envoy Anthony Zinni to visit the region this week for his third attempt in recent months to work out a truce.
"He's going to stay in the region and
Ariel Sharon Israeli Prime Minister
"People have been arrested...I have said that after they are arrested we shall let him out of there."
fight his way through this." Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday on CBS's Face the Nation. "We're not going to allow acts of violence to stop Gen. Zinni from doing his work."
Vice President Dick Cheney, meanwhile, was heading Sunday to the Middle East for a visit to nine Arab nations — Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen — as well as Israel, Britain and Turkey.
Sharon has dropped his demand for a week of complete calm before talking about a cease-fire, but made clear the current Israeli military offensive will press ahead.
Cheney will discuss Middle East violence "at every stop," Powell said.
"We want to make every effort to achieve a cease-fire," Sharon said. "At the same time, we are continuing with our operations ... and if the terror continues our operations will continue."
In Egypt, meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal offered Israel "complete peace from Arab nations" in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands captured in 1967, and the creation of an independent Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.
Al-Faisal, who spoke after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, offered the most detailed Saudi comments on the kingdom's overture to Israel since it was first made public last month. Israel has expressed strong reservations, but said it is willing to explore the proposal.
Palestinians said the Jerusalem bombing and a shooting attack at a seafront hotel in Netanya, both on Saturday night, were a consequence of Israel's stepped-up military campaign. Recent Israeli raids in several refugee camps have resulted in many civilian casualties.
"This is the normal response from the Palestinian resistance for all the Israelis have done in the refugee camps, to Palestinian civilians, women and children," said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a top adviser to Arafat. "The Israelis have to expect such operations whenever they escalate their military attacks against our civiliams."
In the worst spate of violence since the fighting erupted in September 2000, more than 120 Palestinians and more than 50 Israelis have been killed in the first 10 days of March.
In a highly symbolic response to the Saturday night attacks, Israeli helicopters and gunboats fired more than two dozen missiles at Arafat's large Gaza City compound before dawn yesterday, collapsing most of the two-story office headquarters into a pile of rubble.
Arafat was not in the compound; he has been confined by Israel to the town of Ramallah in the West Bank.
After the attack, workers went through the debris to salvage documents in the complex, one of the leading symbols of the Palestinian aspirations for statehood.
An officer in Arafat's personal security unit wept upon seeing the wreckage. "This went from being a small social club to being the house of the nation, and look at it now," said Lt. Mohammed Youssef.
Arafat had received world leaders, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the late King Hussein of Jordan, at the building.
Elsewhere in Gaza, a Palestinian opened fire at Israelis at the gate of a Jewish settlement, fatally wounding a soldier and injuring a security guard before being shot to death. The Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia affiliated with Arafat's Fatah party, took responsibility for the shooting.
Elections in Republic of Congo spark opposition party dissent
The Associated Press
BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo — President Denis Sassou-Nguesso was poised for an easy victory yesterday in elections he said would restore democracy after back-to-back civil wars.
But the party of opposition leader Andre Milongo, who withdrew his candidacy Friday, slammed the poll as a "masquerade" aimed at legitimizing a post that Sassou-Nguesso seized by force five years ago.
Milongo's pullout left Sassou-Nguesso facing six challengers, none of whom was considered a serious threat.
In the capital, Brazzaville, voting started slowly but picked up slightly through the day. At one shop selling bread, lines were longer than those at most polling stations, which included schools, government buildings and even several bars.
Small groups of police and soldiers stood guard at otherwise empty corners all over the riverside city, as children took advantage of light traffic to play ball in the streets. The government banned unauthorized vehicles from the roads and sealed the nation's borders for the day in an effort to prevent possible vote-rigging.
Milongo, a former prime minister, accused authorities of a lack of fairness and transparency and urged his supporters to boycott the vote. It was unclear whether they had heeded the call.
His campaign director, Thierry Moungalla, protested that the electoral commission set up by the government was not independent.
Electoral officials reported minor irregularities, including insufficient ballots at some polling stations and confusion over where people should go to vote, but said these were addressed. There were no immediate reports of violence.
"I am satisfied to know that the vote is taking place peacefully across the country. This is a good thing for our democracy," said Sassou-Nguesso, who arrived in dark sunglasses and a tan suit to cast his ballot at a local government office decorated with yellow flowers. He and his wife were the only voters there at the time.
the process yourself, you've won before it starts," he said yesterday. Sassou-Nguesso "will be elected, but it won't be legitimate because the process has not been transparent or fair. We consider it a masquerade."
"If you fix all the rules, and you organize
Joaquim Miranda, head of a 43-member European Union observer mission, said his team had detected no major problems in the run-up to the vote.
"Essentially what we want to see is that the results of the election reflect the desires of the population." Miranda said.
At several polling stations, the locks required to seal ballot containers were only placed on after journalists asked where they were.
Sassou-Nguesso, 59, first took power in a popular revolt in 1979, heading a one-party Marxist state for 13 years.
An estimated 1.7 million of the nation's 2.9 million people were registered to vote yesterday. The winner must take more than 50 percent of the vote or face a runoff April 7 with the second-place finisher.
Republic of Congo, an oil-rich country bordering the much larger Congo, gained independence in 1960.
Carter criticizes African AIDS policy
The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa The ruling African National Congress accused former President Jimmy Carter yesterday of being arrogant and contemptuous for criticizing the government's AIDS policies, and said he was trying to foist unsafe drugs on South African AIDS sufferers.
Carter, who visited South Africa Friday before flying to Nigeria, urged the government to do more to fight AIDS and offered to help raise funds for anti-AIDS programs.
Specifically, he said the government should make available at public hospitals the AIDS drug nevirapine, found effective in reducing the mother-to-child transmission of HIV, a major problem in South Africa.
The African National Congress questioned Carter's motives, saying the safety of nevirapine was still unproven, though it has been approved for use by the U.S. Food
Its refusal to make the drug universally available has brought the ruling party condemnation from many quarters — including from Nelson Mandela, the country's widely revered former president.
and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization. A study commissioned by the South African government found the drug to have no negative side effects.
In Abuja, Nigeria, Carter praised that country's leaders at a church service in the presidential villa's chapel Sunday for the work they have done to fight HIV, making a veiled reference to South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki.
"We find it alarming that President Carter is willing to treat our people as guinea pigs, in the interest of the pharmaceutical companies, which he would not do in his own country," the party said in a statement.
"We came earlier this week from another country, which I won't name, where the president has avoided this responsibility completely and AIDS is rampant and growing every day." Carter said.
The South African government has restricted nevirapine's use to a few pilot programs, saying the country does not have adequate infrastructure to administer it properly.
"We have created the impression that we don't care about the thousands of people who are dying," yesterday's Independent reported him as saying.
The government estimated last year that 4.7 million South Africans — one in nine — were HIV positive, more people than any other country.
Mandela said he would try to persuade the African National Congress to change its
The African National Congress also accused Carter of reneging on an agreement not to involve himself in the debate over AIDS drugs and said South Africa could solve its problems on its own.
policies when the national executive committee takes up the matter later this month.
"We do not need the interference and contemptuous attitude of President Carter or anybody else," it said. "We are not arrogant to presume that we know what the U.S. should do to respond to its many domestic challenges. Nobody from elsewhere in the world should presume they have a superior right to tell us what to do with our own challenges."
Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo refused to comment on the party statement. African National Congress spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said Mbeki had not seen it.
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