Voice of America, 99-08-06

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From: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>

CONTENTS

[01] KOSOVO - RUSSIANS (L-ONLY) BY PHILIP SMUCKER (PRISTINA)

[02] ROBERTSON - NATO BY ANDRE DE NESNERA (WASHINGTON)

[03] TURKEY / HUMAN RIGHTS BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

[04] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

[05] U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

[01] KOSOVO - RUSSIANS (L-ONLY) BY PHILIP SMUCKER (PRISTINA)

INTRO: NATO officials today (Friday) warned against attacks on their forces as Russian troops came under fire in the east of Kosovo. In three separate attacks on their sandbagged checkpoints, unidentified assailants fired shots at Russian soldiers. Details from reporter Philip Smucker in Pristina.

TEXT: NATO officials say that Russian troops came under fire three times Thursday night after a quiet day across Kosovo. One Russian soldier was shot in the arm and taken to an American military facility in eastern Kosovo. Russian officials say that ethnic Albanians had fired on the soldiers. Vladimir Ulasevich, a political adviser to the Russian army, says the violence stemmed from rising tensions between the Serbs and the Albanians in the town of Kamenica. Both U-S and Russian soldiers guard checkpoints there and patrol the town. Albanian citizens in Kamenica began demonstrations two weeks ago aimed at forcing the Russians to leave town. The Kosovo Albanians see the Russians as close allies of the Serbs, despite assertions by their officers that they are engaged in neutral peacekeeping. But most of the casualties in the town of Kamenica have been Serbs. Since NATO and Russian troops arrived in Kosovo in June, 17 Serbs have been kidnapped in and around Kamenica. Relatives of the missing believe they are dead. The bodies of nine other Serbs have been discovered and identified. Most of them are elderly males over 55 years of age. Russian forces have vowed to defend Kosovo's Serbs. But the Serbs in Kamenica are now critical of the Russians for not acting more aggressively to end the violence. On most mornings in Kamenica, Albanian residents of the town chant "Russians go home" during the demonstrations that sometimes turn into rock- throwing contests with Serbs living near Russian posts. The demonstrators are well organized by men in black, who wear red armbands -- a sign that they have close ties to the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army. American special forces' officers acknowledge the violence is getting worse, but say it is too early to condemn the Russians for inaction. They say the Russians are just beginning to adjust to the challenging environment in Kamenica. (Signed) NEB/PS/PCF/rrm 06-Aug-1999 09:01 AM EDT (06-Aug-1999 1301 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[02] ROBERTSON - NATO BY ANDRE DE NESNERA (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: British Defense Secretary George Robertson is expected to take over the post of NATO Secretary- General in mid-October. In this report from Washington, National Security Correspondent Andre de Nesnera discusses some of the main issues he will face during his four-year tenure.

TEXT: Traditionally, the post of NATO Secretary- General is reserved for a European - just as the alliance's top military commander is always an American. British Defense Secretary George Robertson was offered NATO's top job after his German counterpart, Rudolph Scharping turned it down. Paul Beaver - senior defense analyst with the British publication "Jane's Defense Weekly" - says despite the fact that Mr. Robertson was not the first choice to head the alliance, he is perfectly suited for the job.

[03] TURKEY / HUMAN RIGHTS BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

INTRO: Turkey's new coalition government, led by leftist Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, has pledged to enact a set of sweeping reforms aimed at curbing widespread human-rights abuses. As Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara, both Turkey's Western allies and non-governmental human rights organizations have applauded the proposed legislation aimed at preventing torture. But they all agree the proposals must be put into practice.

TEXT: That very point was stressed Thursday in an Ankara press conference called by the U-S assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, Harold Hongju Koh.

[04] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were down today (Friday) reflecting continued concerns about inflation and interest rates. V-O-A Business Correspondent Breck Ardery reports from New York.

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10- thousand-714, down 79 points. For the week the Industrial Average gained 59 points. The Standard and Poor's 500 Index closed Friday at 13-hundred, down 13 points. The NASDAQ Index lost three-quarters of one percent. As they have all week, inflation worries gripped Wall Street. The government reported that both the number of new jobs created in the United States, and the average wages of American workers, both exceeded expectations last month. The figures convinced most analysts there is now little doubt that the Federal Reserve Board - the U-S central bank - will raise interest rates later this month.

[05] U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Comments about the Boy Scouts of America fill the editorial pages of America's daily papers after a New Jersey Supreme Court ruled the group cannot exclude homosexuals. Another popular topic is the potential disintegration of Colombia. There is also concern about a new North Korean missile and tensions with China over Taiwan. Other commentaries include criticism of the United Nations, a plea for peace on the West Bank, reducing American debt and Britain's Queen Mum celebrates her 99th birthday. Now, here is __________ with a closer look and some excerpts in today's Editorial Digest.

TEXT: The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled this week that James Dale, an exemplary Boy Scout, and then a Boy Scout leader was illegally removed from the organization because he is a homosexual. The Boy Scouts are coming in for a good deal of criticism on the issue. We go first to The Trenton Times, in New Jersey's capital, where the paper calls the unanimous court ruling "a gratifying victory for fairness and individual rights."

VOICE: Because of the Boy Scouts' large size and broad membership, the court properly rejected its claim to be "selective" and private. As Chief Justice Deborah Poritz wrote, the organization is congressionally chartered, some 87 million boys and men have joined since 1910, and churches, police and fire departments and other community organizations routinely sponsor local troops. She pointed out that the scouts ... teach tolerance and the understanding of differences in others, and that exclusion is contrary to the group's charter and bylaws.

TEXT: The San Francisco Chronicle says the New Jersey court has "done the nation a major service," while the national daily USA Today, published in suburban Washington, D-C, chides the group saying:

VOICE: The Boy Scouts still don't get it [Editors: slang for "do not understand."] They want all the perquisites and support due a welcoming, public- service organization -while retaining a [19]50's - style right to discriminate against minorities. /// OPT /// Fortunately, most similar organizations understand by now that it's wrong to invite the public in, use taxpayer-financed facilities and then claim the right to act like a small and sectarian private club. /// END OPT ///

TEXT: However, The Washington Times sides with the Boy Scout leadership, and insists the U-S constitutional guarantees all citizens the right to associate or not with whomever they chose.

VOICE: The land of the free just got less so. . the .court decided to update the Bill of Rights, stripping from it a freedom of association that has served the United States well for a few hundred years but which the justices decided was hopelessly and embarrassingly backward. . Justice Alan Handler [said] `One particular stereotype that we renounce today is that homosexuals are inherently immoral. That myth is repudiated by decades of social science data .' Judges are free to parade their moral superiority over the poor, benighted rubes [people] who dare to disagree, and they are free to attempt to raise the consciousnesses of the lower orders of humanity in keeping with the latest social science data. The constitutional problem comes when they chain otherwise free peoples to a view with which they disagree and compel them to bow before it. . And where does the court draw the line at behavior it considers legitimate by social science data? Boy Scouts officials say they will appeal the decision to the U-S Supreme Court and well they should. If they aren't free to associate, they aren't free to exist.

TEXT: Turning to international news, several papers continue to worry about the twin problems of continuing guerilla insurrection and narcotics trafficking in Colombia, including today's St. Petersburg [Florida] Times, which says in its headline "Colombia's war is not ours."

VOICE: For a nation that claims a war on drugs as its primary goal, the United States is treading on the verge of Vietnam-like involvement in Colombia's ever- growing political violence. Offering financial and logistical support to curb drug trafficking is one thing. Intervening with American troops in an internal guerrilla war is another entirely. . American troops don't belong in the jungles of Colombia. It's not our war to fight. A simple history lesson can teach that much.

TEXT: To Asia now and worries about that new, long- range North Korean missile possibly being readied for a test launch. The San Francisco Chronicle writes:

VOICE: Even as peace talks aimed at finding a final settlement to the 1950-53 Korean War resumed in Geneva yesterday, North Korea was threatening a long-range missile test and sounding belligerent. Pyongyang's plan to launch a Taepodong Two missile, with a [Editors: note this is the m a x i m u m ] range of almost six thousand kilometers, has cast an ominous pall over the peace talks attended by North Korea, China, South Korea and the United States. . The civilized world has few attractive choices except to prepare for the worst. If North Korea proceeds with the missile test, it will confirm its status as an outlaw nation and should be treated accordingly.

VOICE: There is also concern about China and its recent actions toward Taiwan. The Chicago Tribune suggests China is acting like someone's grouchy old aunt.

TEXT: It's don't touch auntie's Taiwan cabinet.' Or `Don't do your spiritual calisthenics in auntie's living room' And, for heaven's sake, `Don't ask how your expensive nuclear device ended up in auntie's treasure chest. Don't. Don't. Don't. All this, of course, with the implied threat that if auntie gets really ticked off, [editors: angry] there will be hell to pay [Editors: very dire consequences]. Maybe so. But maybe not. Maybe what auntie really needs --for her sake and the rest of ours-is to be treated like a regular person, a regular member of the family. No tiptoeing about and sitting on pins and needles. Frank talk and straightforward behavior.

TEXT: Today's Kansas City [Missouri] Star is also concerned about the China-Taiwan-U-S issue, and says a "Firmer U-S approach [is] needed on Taiwan."

VOICE: Beijing will no doubt recall the administration's deployment of aircraft carriers to the area in 1996, when the Chinese were having fits and lobbing missiles into the sea near Taiwan. That memory, however, would be more vivid if the administration would stop leaning so heavily in Beijing's direction. Washington should make it clear that it has no intention of abandoning its military commitment to Taiwan. Fear of how U-S forces might react should continue to exercise a restraining influence on Chinese policy.

TEXT: Turning briefly to the Middle East, and the U- N's efforts to control arms proliferation there, the [Honolulu] Star-Bulletin has this response to sharp criticism by former U-N weapons inspector chief Richard Butler of Secretary General Kofi Annan.

VOICE: While the world's attention was focused on Kosovo, the continuing problem of Iraq was overshadowed. But now Richard Butler, the former chief U-N weapons inspector, who left his post in June, points out that there have been no arms inspections in Iraq for 12 months. Saddam Hussein could be trying to make nuclear, biological and chemical weapons again for all anyone knows. [Mr.] Butler . accuses Russia, China and France, Iraq's allies on the Security Council, of lying about a tiny quantity of VX nerve agent . used to test Iraqi materials [that] were left in the laboratory when [Mr.] Butler ordered UNSCOM inspectors to leave Baghdad in mid-December on the eve of . air strikes. Even though France, China and Russia knew the test standards were harmless, [Mr.] Butler charged, they urged the Security council to have [them] analyzed, intimating that UNSCOM inspectors may have laced [illegally contaminated] Iraqi warheads with the VX agent. .These are disturbing charges, a reminder that the United Nations Security Council remains an unreliable defender of world peace.

TEXT: The opinion of The [Honolulu, Hawaii] Star Bulletin.

TEXT: The New York Times, examining the current situation in Yugoslavia's Kosovo province, proclaims it still "lawless and violent" after two months of NATO peacekeeping, and warns:

VOICE: If the criminal violence pervading Kosovo is not soon ended, the province's economic assets will be controlled not by the most able and entrepreneurial but by the most ruthless and heavily armed. Fair elections will become impossible. . NATO did not drive Slobodan Milosevic's brutal occupation army out of Kosovo to allow a new era of disorder to commence.

TEXT: The Clinton administration has announced a plan to buy back some of this nation's highest cost public debt by retiring U-S bonds with a premium payment. The Dallas Morning News likes the idea:

VOICE: The plan is politically and fiscally prudent. Today's dollars will retire debt that would be a drag on the economy in future years. Congress needs to make sure it leaves room for this initiative as it sorts out budget and tax options for the next few years. As Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan argues, lowering the debt is preferable to deep tax cuts.

TEXT: Finally, a tribute to England's Queen Mother, Elizabeth, wife of the former monarch, who has now turned 99 years old, from The Tulsa World, who calls her "Queen Of Hearts."

VOICE: All of jolly old England shared the celebration with this enduring figure. In white high heels and with nary a stumble she walked across the cobblestones in front of her London home Wednesday to talk with a crowd gathered to wish her well. She has made her way through life in much the same way - keeping her balance among the good times and the bad. The respect of her countrymen was won in World War Two. . The Queen Mum . is a crown jewel. Elizabeth, even more than the late Princess Diana, is Britain's true Queen of Hearts.

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of comment from Friday's U-S press.
NEB/ANG/KL 06-Aug-1999 12:13 PM EDT (06-Aug-1999 1613 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

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