Voice of America, 00-01-19

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

CONTENTS

[01] GREECE / TURKEY (L-ONLY) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

[02] TURKEY / HIZBOLLAH (L-O) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

[03] ARKAN KILLING BY NICK SIMEONE (WASHINGTON)

[04] NATO / WAR CRIMES (L-ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

[05] GERMANY / KOHL REACT (L ONLY) BY JONATHAN BRAUDE (BERLIN)

[06] NORTHERN IRELAND / POLICE (L-O) BY LOURDES NAVARRO (LONDON)

[07] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY ELAINE JOHANSON (NEW YORK)

[08] WEDNESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

[01] GREECE / TURKEY (L-ONLY) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

INTRO: Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou is scheduled to arrive/has arrived in Ankara (Wednesday) on a two-day official visit. As Amberin Zaman reports from the Turkish capital, it is the first official visit by a Greek foreign minister in 38 years.

TEXT: Mr. Papandreou's arrival in Turkey's snowbound capital marks what officials from both sides agree is another milestone in the rapidly improving ties between their historically hostile countries. Mr. Papandreou is expected to sign five separate agreements with his Turkish counterpart, Ismail Cem, including one on combating terrorism. Analysts describe the development as extraordinary, because up until last year Turkey periodically accused Greece of harboring and training Kurdish separatist guerrillas belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, also known as the P-K-K. Greece has long denied such charges.

[02] TURKEY / HIZBOLLAH (L-O) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

INTRO: Turkish police have found the bodies of 10 missing businessmen who were believed to have been kidnapped by an armed Islamic radical group known as the Hizbollah. Amberin Zaman in Ankara reports the discovery in an Istanbul house follows a shootout one- day earlier between Istanbul police and Hizbollah militants.

TEXT: During the nearly five-hour shootout, Istanbul police shot dead Huseyin Velioglu the leader of the most deadly faction of the armed Islamic group known as Hizbollah. Two other militants were captured in the operation that security officials described as the most crippling blow yet to the organization. Acting on a tip from the captured militants, Istanbul police raided a slum dwelling on the Asian side of the city where they discovered 10-naked bodies with their hands tied behind their back. Reports say it seems likely the decomposed bodies are those of several Kurdish businessmen with links to a moderate Islamic brotherhood known as the Nurcus. The businessmen had mysteriously disappeared during the past few months. There were widespread reports they had been kidnapped by Hizbollah for refusing to give them money. But these reports have not been confirmed. Elsewhere, Turkish authorities captured nine Hizbollah militants, including the group's Ankara leader, during separate raids in the capital and in the southern provinces of Adiyaman and Gazaiantep. Little is known about Hizbollah. But officials say the group has no known links with a Lebanese organization with the same name. The Turkish media has widely reported charges that Turkish security forces used Hizbollah members in the early 1990's to kill hundreds of Kurdish dissidents. Turkish security officials deny the charges and say Hizbollah is being trained and financed by Iran to subvert Turkey's secular government. They say Wednesday's raids revealed evidence that link the group to the murder of a prominent pro-secular writer last year. (SIGNED)
NEB/AZ/JWH/RAE 19-Jan-2000 13:43 PM EDT (19-Jan-2000 1843 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[03] ARKAN KILLING BY NICK SIMEONE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: There is widespread speculation in Yugoslavia that the government of President Slobodan Milosevic may have had a hand in the assassination of the fugitive paramilitary leader known as Arkan. Even though Arkan is known to have no shortage of enemies, opinion both in Serbia and abroad is that he may have been gunned down because he was prepared to cooperate with war crimes prosecutors who have not only indicted him but the Yugoslav leader as well. For years, the notorious Arkan, whose real name is Zeljko Raznatovic, has been wanted by Interpol for crimes in Western Europe and is widely believed to have been given free reign by Belgrade to commit atrocities against civilians during the wars in Bosnia and Croatia. Correspondent Nick Simeone in Washington takes a look at the mystery behind the death of the man one Western official in the Balkans calls a psychopathic mass murderer.

TEXT: Like a New York Mafia don, Arkan's public image as a businessman and leader of a sports team hid his darker and, what prosecutors allege, more sinister activities. With close links to the Serbian army, his black-uniformed guard known as the Tigers was blamed for widespread acts of torture and terror during the Balkan wars, earning him an indictment by the War Crimes Tribunal in 1997. Cathy Ward is a senior fellow at the Coalition for International Justice, which works to support the tribunal.

[04] NATO / WAR CRIMES (L-ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

INTRO: The prosecutor of the International War Crimes Tribunal has appealed to NATO ambassadors to let alliance troops be more aggressive in capturing indicted suspects in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Correspondent Ron Pemstein reports from Brussels that NATO is capturing suspects, but important persons remain at large.

TEXT: NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia have captured 17- suspects and transported them for trials in The Hague. The prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, thanked NATO ambassadors for the efforts their troops have been making. At the same time she notes that indicted suspects remain free, including the former Bosnian Serb political leader, Radovan Karadzic.

[05] GERMANY / KOHL REACT (L ONLY) BY JONATHAN BRAUDE (BERLIN)

INTRO: The resignation of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (Tuesday) as honorary chairman of the opposition Christian Democratic Union - or C-D-U - has not dissipated the anger in or against the party. Newspapers are still highly critical and party members are calling on Mr. Kohl to go further and resign his parliament seat because of illegal fundraising. Jonathan Braude in Berlin reports, there may be more scandals revealed about corruption in the party.

TEXT: German newspaper writers rushed to their computer keyboards when Helmut Kohl stepped down Tuesday as honorary chairman of the Christian Democrats -- in the midst of a scandal that threatened to bring down the rest of the party. Mr. Kohl resigned after he would not name the donors of campaign funds he has admitted channeling through secret accounts -- in defiance of both party rules and German law. He has admitted to receiving about one- million U-S dollars of secretly-managed money in the final period of his 25 years as leader of the party. In the meantime, his successor as party leader, Wolfgang Schaeuble, has admitted he accepted (a further) 50-thousand dollars on the party's behalf and had not showed it as a donation in the party accounts. And the head of one of the party's state operations has resigned after admitting to fraudulent accounting. The conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung thundered its disapproval. It said this was not just a case of minor transgressions of party rules; this was a systematic breaking of the law over the years, which the party leadership either coordinated or at least tolerated. The newspaper said Mr. Schauble would have to step down too, if the party were to make a fresh start. That was a theme taken up by the Berliner Zeitung too, which said Mr. Schaeuble and the rest of the leadership, which confirmed him in office on Tuesday, were missing a historic opportunity to start again with a clean slate and younger, untainted leaders. And the down-market newspaper Bildzeitung -- known for its acerbic, intolerant style -- said Mr. Schaeuble would probably only be an interim leader. Leading C-D-U politicians have revealed there are up to 10-million marks -- almost five-million U-S dollars in the party coffers for which they cannot fully account and may also have originated through secret accounts. And even Mr. Schaeuble himself has reportedly suggested the party's behavior at certain times might be regarded as money laundering. Now, the pressure is on Helmut Kohl to give up his parliament seat and retire from public life. Berlin's all-news radio station reports there are even warnings the C-D-U might start proceedings to expel Mr. Kohl from the party. altogether. (Signed)
NEB/JB/JWH/JO 19-Jan-2000 13:29 PM EDT (19-Jan-2000 1829 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[06] NORTHERN IRELAND / POLICE (L-O) BY LOURDES NAVARRO (LONDON)

INTRO: The British government has announced sweeping reforms to Northern Ireland's police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (R-U-C), as part of the province's peace accord. Among the most controversial -- the R- U-C will be renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Lourdes Navarro reports from London.

TEXT: Former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten headed the commission that looked into how to make one of the symbols of Northern Ireland's troubled past, its police force, into a part of the province's post-peace accord future. The international commission empowered by the 1998 Good Friday Northern Ireland accord, spent more than one-year gathering public opinion on the Royal Ulster Constabulary and submitted its report last September. It offered 175 proposals to transform the mainly Protestant, terrorism-hardened force into a more representative organization that would enjoy greater support from Catholics. Catholics amount to 40- percent of Northern Ireland's population, but only eight-percent of the R-U-C force. Most of the proposals have been accepted by leading police officers -- including increasing the Catholic representation in the force to 30 -percent in a decade. But, the symbolic change in name has caused outrage among many Protestant groups. For many Protestants, the R-U-C has been seen as a bulwark against terrorism. Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Mandelson, told parliament that the R-U-C late this year will be renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland, symbolizing a fresh start.

[07] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY ELAINE JOHANSON (NEW YORK)

INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were mixed again today (Wednesday), as investors seemed to be searching for some direction. V-O-A correspondent Elaine Johanson reports from New York:

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 71 points, six-tenths of one percent, closing at 11- thousand-489. The Standard and Poor's 500 index gained less than a point. Meanwhile, strength in biotechnology and the Internet sector gave the Nasdaq composite a record high closing, with a gain of one-half of one percent. The Dow Jones and the Nasdaq, for the most part, have traded in opposite directions since the beginning of the year. Analysts expect the stock market to stay volatile for a while.

[08] WEDNESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Chile is a popular topic in U-S press editorials on Wednesday for two reasons: the recent election of a socialist president and the possible return to Chile of its former leader, General Augusto Pinochet, from house arrest in Britain. Other topics include the murder of an indicted Serb war criminal; a growing controversy over the use of the U-S Confederate battle flag in South Carolina; the recessed Syrian - Israeli peace talks; and a stunning conclusion from the latest university research at Cornell on dumb Americans. Now, here with some samples is ___________ and today's Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Chile has elected its second socialist president in the past thirty years, and the U-S press appears relatively pleased, with the choice and with the process. The Miami Herald praises the peaceful election as "elegant," saying:

VOICE: On the right was Joaquin Lavin, a former aide to General Pinochet; on the left Ricardo Lagos, of the party of Salvador Allende, the democratically elected president ousted ... during the Pinochet-led coup in 1973. ... A cooperative approach [from both candidates in their post-election speeches] bodes well for a Chile tired of re-stitching wounds repeatedly reopened in 30 years of revolution, dictatorship and return to democracy.

TEXT: One of the first difficult chores for the new Chilean president-elect, according to the Los Angeles Times, will be dealing with the return of former dictator General Augusto Pinochet from Britain, after a year of house arrest. He was held on a international war crimes warrant from Spain.

VOICE: Wisely, [President-elect] Lagos has directed the fate of the 84-year-old former tyrant toward its proper setting, the courts. Good sense would dictate that [General] Pinochet not resume his seat in the Chilean senate. He should be buried politically, as he and his henchmen buried, literally, so many Chileans fighting for democratic government.

TEXT: Boston's Christian Science Monitor pairs General Pinochet and another military man with a violent past, Turkey's Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan, as it hails a change of attitude away from vengeance in both nations.

VOICE: Two upwardly mobile nations, Chile and Turkey, have suddenly lost their zeal to severely punish two warriors who terrorized people in their land. ... It's difficult for many to see why mercy should replace vengeance for their atrocities ... And yet the standard of justice has shifted in Chile and Turkey. Both are maturing into fuller democracies - examples of a global trend in the post-cold-war era. And as in any democracy, justice is more than "an eye for an eye."

TEXT: On to the fate of Serbian militia leader Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, who was shot down in a Belgrade hotel lobby over the weekend. An understandable, but still unfortunate, killing as the Chicago Tribune writes:

VOICE: Arkan and his Tigers militia were infamous pioneers of the systematic intimidation, torture and slaughter of Serbia's enemies - in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.... It is therefore neither particularly surprising nor lamentable that he died last weekend in a gangland-style fusillade of gunfire ... But Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had it right when she said the United States took "no satisfaction in Arkan's murder and would have wanted him to stand trial in The Hague for his crimes." Indeed, it is distressing that he didn't live to be tried by the war crimes tribunal...

TEXT: Wisconsin's Milwaukee Journal agrees, suggesting that a court would have been the right place to punish Arkan:

VOICE: If [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic was responsible for Arkan's assassination, it would be one more crime - - although hardly his most outrageous - for which he ought to be held accountable. A lot of people will say Arkan got what he deserved, but political assassination is not the proper business of any government.

TEXT: One of the week's biggest domestic issues has to do with the Confederate Battle Flag flying over the state capital in Colombia, South Carolina. Many African-Americans view the flag as a racist symbol of the civil war and want it taken down. The Akron [Ohio] Beacon Journal agrees with them, noting: "There is] Only one right answer: South Carolina should remove the ... flag..."

VOICE: [Only] the legislature - - and the people of South Carolina - - can right this wrong. Until they do, the [National Association for the Advance of Colored People] will lead a boycott of South Carolina tourism, the state's number one industry.

TEXT: Turning to the Middle East, Newsday on New York's Long Island laments that: "It will take active White house intervention to get [the] Mideast peace talks [between Israel and Syria] back on track."

VOICE: The trick now for the Clinton administration will be to find a way to reach agreement simultaneously on the three or four major points of the negotiation. That a peace agreement is in the interest of both sides still seems to be the case. ... No one has forgotten that when the talks last broke down, the time-out also appeared to be a tactical pause. It took another four years for them to resume.

TEXT: However the Los Angeles Times says "It's too soon to know whether the abrupt suspension ... represents a procedural bump in the negotiating road or a more serious setback." Elsewhere in the Middle East, the threat of Iran's developing a nuclear bomb elicits this worry from the Kansas City [Missouri] Star:

VOICE: It is sobering news ... that the Central Intelligence Agency is worried about whether Iran has gained the capacity to make a nuclear weapon. ... The C-I-A's new fears ... stem from the difficulties involved in tracking nuclear materials and technology on the international black market. ... Last year American intelligence officials estimated that by 2010 Iran might be ready to test a missile that could hit targets in the United States. ... Americans need to be thinking carefully about where we should draw the line [,] as dangerous, hostile [,] regimes seek to build weapons ...to terrorize us. It is one of the most important questions that might be asked of this year's presidential candidates.

TEXT: Regarding Iraq's weapons program, today's New York Times is angry that Russia, France and China blocked the appointment of Rolf Ekeus as the new head of a revitalized U-N inspection team for Iraq.

VOICE: Richard Holbrooke, America's U-N representative and council president for ... January, has the diplomatic skills to be the point man [Editors: leader] in this effort, but ... will need the energetic ... support of President Clinton and his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.

TEXT: In Europe, the scandal involving former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's acceptance of millions of dollars in political funds for his Christian Democratic Party has led to his resignation as honorary chairman of his party. The Wall Street Journal writes of Kohl's party:

VOICE: The C-D-U must now do two things if it's to survive. It must come fully to grips with the extent of venality in its own ranks ... [and] ... far more important ... as Germany's party of the right, [it] must bring to the fore new leadership of Thatcherite bent [Editors: translation "tough like former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.]

TEXT: And lastly, some startling new research from Cornell University in New York draws this sarcastic comment from today's San Francisco Chronicle.

VOICE: The latest "duh" [Editors: current U-S slang for a "dumb or idiotic statement"] study to hit the headlines comes from Cornell University, where researchers report that ... many incompetent, ignorant people don't realize they're incompetent, ignorant people. That's right, ignorance i s bliss. ... Maybe someone should study the self-monitoring skills of psychology professors who keep telling us things we already know?

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of editorial comment from Wednesday's U-S press.
NEB/ANG/KL 19-Jan-2000 12:08 PM EDT (19-Jan-2000 1708 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

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