Tuesday, October 19, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
1
Section A · Page 7
Nation/World
Russia claims U.S. wants arms race
Washington makes proposal to change 25-year-old treaty
The Associated Press
MOSCOW—Russia is warning that the world could be pushed into a new nuclear-arms race because the United States wants to change a key agreement that has helped control nuclear weapons for the past 25 years.
The U.S. proposal has alarmed and outraged Russian political and military leaders, who claim that Washington wants to acquire nuclear invincibility at a time when Russia's nuclear forces are in shambles. Moscow may have to build new atomic weapons to counter what it sees as a major threat, they say.
If Washington persists with its proposal, Russian officials say, it could endanger the whole framework of nuclear agreements on limiting or scrapping nuclear weapons that took decades to construct.
decales to construct.
"All agreements that have been signed or are being prepared, will come under threat — namely, START I, START II and consultations on START III," said Col. Vladimir Yakovlev, commander of Russia's strategic rocket forces.
At the heart of the Russian fears are a U.S. proposal to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty so that both countries could build missile-defense systems to protect themselves against limited nuclear attacks. The bedrock treaty was key to starting arms control pacts during the Cold War.
After denouncing Washington's ABM proposal when it was announced this summer, Moscow was furious
after the U.S. Senate's Oct. 13 rejection of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The vote made the United States the first nuclear power to reject the 154-nation agreement on ending nuclear weapons testing.
Russia was disillusioned and seriously concerned by the vote, the Foreign Ministry said, calling the Senate's decision part of a trend that indicated the United States was trying to destabilize the foundations of international relations.
Washington says it wants to amend the ABM treaty so that both countries can defend themselves against nuclear attacks by rogue nations such as North Korea. It has tried to allay Moscow's fears by offering to help build a Russian defense system — a proposal Moscow has yet to respond to.
Moscow hates the United States is exaggerating the threat from minor nuclear states. Instead, Russian off-
cials fear, Washington wants to develop an ABM defense that could defeat a major missile attack. This would make Moscow's nuclear arsenal useless and leave Russia vulnerable because it does not have the resources to build a defense system of its own.
Russia may be forced to abandon arm-control pacts to ensure its nuclear forces remain effective, officials say. One option is rebuilding multi-warhead land-based ballistic missiles, which have been banned by arms control deals.
arms control deeds.
"The U.S. approach might destabilize the international situation and call into question all existing arms treaties between the two countries," said Pavel Felgenhauer, a prominent military analyst.
Troops pull away from India
Country says Pakistani move has no significance
The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Pakistani army troops began pulling back from the Indian border yesterday, almost a week after the military took control of Pakistan's government and four months after a bitter border dispute threatened to erupt into full-fledged war.
Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who overthrew the democratically elected government of Nawaz Sharif, said the redeployment was a peaceful gesture toward India. But India responded cooly, saying it had no military significance.
In London, meanwhile, Commonwealth foreign ministers suspended Pakistan from councils of the association of Britain and its former colonies. The decision yesterday by the eight ministers was the first formal step toward suspending Pakistan from Commonwealth membership; under the group's rules, only the heads of state can do that.
The foreign ministers called on the military regime in Islamabad to set without delay a time frame for restoring democracy. Pakistan army spokesman Col. Saulat
Brijesh Mishra, a top security aide to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, dismissed the withdrawal.
Raza said the withdrawal only was along the 460-mile-long international border, and did not apply to the cease-fire line in Kashmir, a territory split between rival nuclear nations. India and Pakistan have fought two wars because of Kashmir.
"Tension was not on the international border. It was on the Line of Control," he said, referring to the 1972 cease-fire line in Kashmir.
"We shall assess the situation and our deployment on the basis of the overall security situation along the international border as well as the Line of Control,"the Press Trust of India news agency quoted him as saving.
In New Delhi, India's army commander,
Gen. V.P. Malik said the Pakistani pullback
had little military significance and said his
forces would not immediately respond.
Washington welcomed the pullback. U.S. Ambassador William Milam called it a gesture of faith, adding that the coup had not worsened the regional situation.
In his first policy speech since taking control of Pakistan, Musharraf on Sunday said he was creating a six-member National Security Council of army soldiers and experts to govern the country.
The Associated Press
KINGSTON, N.Y.- Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she won't make her final decision about running for the Senate from New York until sometime next year.
Hillary Clinton to make final decision next year
A nd
Clinton said that while she favored campaign finance reform, she won't eliminate any potential fund-raising means in her quest for the Senate, other than
not accepting tobacco money.
Her fund-raising team hopes to raise $25 million for the race that is expected to pit her
Clinton: Fundraising team hopes to raise $25 million
Following a forum on pensions and economic security held at a community center in Kingston, Clinton said she was looking forward to making a decision after the first of the year.
against Republican New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
But Clinton gave every indication that her candidacy is a go.
"I'll be doing interviews after the first of the year, when I become a candidate," she told reporters just a few minutes after saying at the forum that she would begin doing one-onone interviews with the news media.
While both the First lady and Giuliani have begun raising money for the Senate race, neither has formally declared their candidacies. The Clintons have purchased a five-bedroom home in suburban Westchester County that will allow Clinton to establish residency in New York.
Despite some protests, Hitler's Berlin bunker to be paved for road
BERLIN - Construction workers have dug up the bunker where Adolf Hitler spent his final days, exposing the concrete site for a last time before it will be paved over again with a new road in the heart of Berlin.
The Associated Press
Despite calls from some to preserve the bunker — buried for decades beneath the Berlin Wall's no man's land — the city said Friday it saw no reason to maintain the Fuehrerbunker, where Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945.
The exact spot of the bunker has been known since 1990. Peter Strieder, the city's top development official, said exposing the steel reinforcements raised no new arguments for overturning a 1994 decision not to preserve the site.
Rusted metal rods protrude from a patch of concrete barely visible through a thin layer of dirt, but not much else can be seen of the 13-foot-tall structure. Workers dug into the roof of the bunker while trying to make sure no unexploded World War II bombs remained in the area.
Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the decision to return Germany's government to the former Nazi seat of power, much of central Berlin has been turned into a construction site. The bunker lies next to a spot where several German states are building their offices in the capital.
As World War II wound to a close, and the Soviet Red Army advanced into Berlin, Hitler retreated to the bunker — built deeper than others to allow him to survive stronger bomb blasts.
After World War II, the Soviets, unable to destroy the heavily fortified bunkers, blasted their interior and filled them with sand. The East German army ripped out the main section in 1988 before apartment houses were built around the site.
Germany also has destroyed other sites connected to Hitler, such as a home in southern Germany, for fear they would become shrines for neo-Nazis.
Still, some argue against destroying the relics of Germany's past. The former head of the city's archaeological office said he favored preserving the bunkers to show that Germans aren't afraid to confront the dark side of their history.
The city wants to get rid of its Nazi past, said Dietmar Arnold, author of a book on Berlin's tunnels and bunkers. "This is not the right way with history," he said. "You can understand the history from this place only if you have everything together."
place only if you live in an apartment building near the bunker, was more concerned the new street would cut into her lawn and bring more noisy traffic. But she also said there was no need to pre-
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