Voice of America, 00-03-28

Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

CONTENTS

[01] BALKAN STABILITY (L ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

[02] U-S / KOSOVO (L-ONLY) BY KYLE KING (STATE DEPARTMENT)

[03] TURKEY / RIGHTS (L-ONLY) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

[04] TURKEY / FILM BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ISTANBUL)

[05] CHINA-EU-WTO (L) BY ROGER WILKISON (BEIJING)

[06] FRANCE / GOVERNMENT (L-ONLY) BY PAUL MILLER (PARIS)

[07] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY LARRY FREUND (NEW YORK)

[08] TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ERIKA EVANS (WASHINGTON)

[01] BALKAN STABILITY (L ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (BRUSSELS)

INTRO: Officials from 44-countries and 36- international organizations are to discuss economic rebuilding projects for Balkan nations during a meeting this week in Brussels. Correspondent Ron Pemstein reports from Brussels this will be the first such donor conference organized under the so-called Balkan Stability Pact.

TEXT: In the normal donors' conference, countries and organizations pledge money for unspecified future projects. That is what has happened for Bosnia and Kosovo in the past. This conference is different because the donors will pledge money for specific projects offered by seven Balkan countries. This conference will match 35 economic reconstruction projects with expected pledges of more than one- billion-dollars. The European Commission and World Bank expect to raise between one-point-six and one- point-eight-billion-dollars during the next two-days for projects that can be started during this year. Senior European Commission official Catherine Day says organizers are looking for projects that can make a quick start and help integrate the Balkan countries into the European mainstream.

[02] U-S / KOSOVO (L-ONLY) BY KYLE KING (STATE DEPARTMENT)

INTRO: U-S officials say they are greatly disappointed that an ethnic Albanian militia group in Kosovo has failed to lay down its weapons as promised. From the State Department, V-O-A's Kyle King reports.

TEXT: U-S officials met with ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo last week to discuss ways to halt attacks on Serb police just outside Kosovo's administrative boundary. During those meetings a shadowy militia group believed to be made up of former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters pledged to end its insurgency. But a report in the Washington Post newspaper says despite last Thursday's pledge, the militiamen continue to wear uniforms and conduct military exercises. State Department spokesman James Foley says the United States is disappointed by this development, and sees the militia's activities as reneging on its pledge.

[03] TURKEY / RIGHTS (L-ONLY) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

INTRO: One of Turkey's most prominent human-rights defenders has returned to prison to finish his punishment for calling for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict in Turkey. Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara that Akin Birdal has six-months remaining of a sentence he received last year.

TEXT: Akin Birdal was seen off by scores of journalists, human rights advocates, and well wishers as he entered Ankara's Merkez prison for the second time within a year. Just days before, he had been warmly greeted by Turkish President Suleyman Demirel at a public gathering, in yet another example of the contradictions characterizing Turkey's intricate political landscape. Mr. Birdal was sentenced to nine-months in prison under Article-312 of the Turkish penal code. He was charged with inciting hatred and enmity based on racial and religious discrimination. Earlier this month, Necmettin Erbakan, the founder of Turkey's Islamic movement and a former prime minister, was banned from politics for life under the same article for suggesting that Kurdish school children were just that -- Kurdish. The 75-year-old Mr. Erbakan will spend a year in jail if an appeals court upholds the verdict. Analysts say Mr. Birdal's imprisonment will likely spark a fresh round of protests from European governments. It is also seen as another blow to Turkey's efforts to begin negotiations for full membership talks with the European Union. Mr. Birdal had been released from prison last year for health reasons. He was hoping to extend the six-month reprieve after an Ankara hospital certified that he was unfit to return to jail. An Istanbul forensic medicine institute overruled that decision. Mr. Birdal is a former chairman of Turkey's Human Rights Association. He nearly died in May 1998 during an attack by ultra-nationalist gunmen with alleged links to some officials within Turkey's security apparatus. (SIGNED)
NEB/AZ/GE/RAE 28-Mar-2000 08:21 AM EDT (28-Mar-2000 1321 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America

[04] TURKEY / FILM BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ISTANBUL)

INTRO: Turkish moviegoers are being exposed for the first time to scenes from the violent Kurdish rebellion that has wracked their country's southeastern region for 15 years. Amberin Zaman spoke to the director of the award-winning film called "Journey to the Sun" and filed this report from Istanbul.

TEXT:

[05] CHINA-EU-WTO (L) BY ROGER WILKISON (BEIJING)

INTRO: China and the European Union have opened a new round of negotiations to secure Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization. VOA correspondent Roger Wilkison reports the talks began hours after E-U Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy arrived in the Chinese capital.

TEXT: Mr. Lamy says he is in a constructive mood, despite the failure of his negotiators to make a breakthrough in two previous rounds of talks this year. But European diplomats in Beijing say the E-U delegation is ready to leave if it does not get what it wants. The 15-nation E-U is the last major W-T-O member with which China has to reach agreement on terms of accession into the group. Beijing struck a landmark agreement with the United States last November that will open up its market to U-S goods and services. But the Europeans say that deal satisfies only about 80 percent of their concerns. And they are pushing for more concessions than China granted Washington, especially in the automotive, insurance and telecommunications sectors. Chinese news media are upbeat about the possibility their country can reach a deal with Brussels and finally get into the W-T-O after 14 years of trying. That optimism was reflected Tuesday by Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi, who, speaking through an interpreter, says there are only eight W-T-O members - including the EU -- that have not yet struck a deal with Beijing.

[06] FRANCE / GOVERNMENT (L-ONLY) BY PAUL MILLER (PARIS)

INTRO: French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has replaced several government ministers in the face of unrest among labor unions over his attempts to reform taxes and education. Paul Miller reports from Paris that Prime Minister Jospin was sufficiently worried about where his government was headed that he made his old rival, Laurent Fabius, the new Finance Minister.

TEXT: The arrival of Laurent Fabius for his first day as Finance Minister was that of a celebrity, not a government bureaucrat. He was surrounded by a crowd of photographers and well wishers. The former Prime Minister has celebrity status within the French Socialist Party - he also has a reputation within European financial circles as more of a free- market advocate than Prime Minister Jospin. That is expected to help Mr. Jospin's government in dealing with its European partners, but it was not the reason for the cabinet shake-up. The Prime Minister said the changes - the first in the three-years his leftist coalition has held power - reinforced his government's capacity to act. Recently, it has come up against the determined opposition of some of its traditional public sector union supporters - including health care workers, tax collectors, and teachers. Proposed reforms in taxes and education would have weakened the unions' power. Even the good news of larger than expected budget surpluses led to arguments among leftist factions about what to do with the money. French analysts say Prime Minister Jospin has made a bid to re-unite the party by bringing in Mr. Fabius and others linked to former President Francois Mitterand. They include Jack Lang, who becomes Education Minister, and who will try to mollify striking teachers. Prime Minister Jospin wants a broader base of support before the next French presidential election in 2002, in which he is expected to challenge President Jacques Chirac. But analysts quickly pointed out the potential pitfalls of this strategy: Mr. Jospin has now brought back to power his main rival within the party, Laurent Fabius, and the most popular politician in France at the moment, Jack Lang. (SIGNED)
NEB/PM/GE/RAE 28-Mar-2000 09:44 AM EDT (28-Mar-2000 1444 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America

[07] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY LARRY FREUND (NEW YORK)

INTRO: U-S stock prices were down today (Tuesday), as Wall Street digested the recommendation of an influential financial analyst that investors reduce their stock holdings modestly. Correspondent Larry Freund reports from New York.

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 89 points, nearly one percent, closing at 10-thousand- 936. The Standard and Poor's 500 index, broader and more representative of stock activity, was down 16 points, one percent. And the technology-weighted Nasdaq composite was down 124 points, two-and-one-half percent. Two caution signals started the day on Wall Street. The first came from a widely-quoted analyst, Abby Joseph Cohen, the chief investment strategist at the Goldman, Sachs and Company investment firm. She advised clients to reduce their assets invested in stock from 70-percent to 65-percent. She says U-S stock prices will continue to move higher, but at a less vigorous pace. Also somewhat cautious was a report on the confidence of American consumers. Confidence was down for the second consecutive month, indicating some apprehension about the economy over the next six months.

[08] TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ERIKA EVANS (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Russia's second democratic election has center stage in today's U-S press and editorials are discussing the vote itself and the win by Vladimir Putin. Pope John Paul's just-concluded pilgrimage to the Middle East also attracts considerable interest in today's U-S editorials. Other topics drawing comment include David Trimble's re-election as head of Northern Ireland's Ulster Unionist Party, and the need for parents to supervise children's access to the Internet. Now here is _____________ with a closer look and some excerpts, in today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Vladmir Putin, the 47-year-old ex-KGB agent who took over Russian leadership when Boris Yelstin resigned three months ago, received an absolute majority vote Sunday to win Russia's presidential election. The Press Herald in Portland, Maine believes the election shows Russia's constitution worked.

VOICE: It was the vote itself, and not so much the win by Vladimir Putin, that was the real accomplishment. For the first time in history, a democratically elected president of Russia has been succeeded by another democratically elected president. That's no small achievement in a nation still roiled by internal disputes, a badly functioning proto-capitalist economy and crime rates so high they make [U-S gangster] Al Capone look like a law-and-order fanatic. ...Still, the constitution that (former Russian leader Boris) Yelstin created and put into effect has had its first real victory. Now the world waits to see if it will have more.

TEXT: The Tulsa World in Tulsa, Oklahoma says the new Russian president's credentials are mixed, but he has the potential to lead his nation into a brighter future.

VOICE: Now the questions begin on just what kind of leader Vladmir Putin will be. He has been a hard-line KGB agent and still clings to the old values of order, discipline and a strong central government. He has been instrumental in the military crackdown in Chechnya. In fact, his Chechnyan policy was instrumental in his election. But he also has democratic leanings. He has supported the "fundamental rights of human liberties." He doesn't seem tied to the old communist ideology. So, [Mr.] Putin begins his tenure with a clean slate - or at least as clean as any Russian politician's slate can be. ...[Mr.] Putin could take Russia where neither Mikhail Gorbachev nor Boris Yelstin could - to a stable successful democracy.

TEXT: Undaunted by his frail condition, Pope John Paul has completed his Mideast tour and several U.S. editorials are commending him. The Philadelphia Inquirer believes the Pope handled the pilgrimage masterfully.

VOICE: It is the measure of Pope John Paul II's stature, his spirituality and his poet's mastery of symbol that he negotiated so well the perilous terrain of his visit to Israel. ...Those looking for written-to-order apologies or miracles of instant peace-making from John Paul may be disappointed by his trip to Israel. Those alive to the healing potential of a special person's oral witness will not be.

TEXT: The Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio addressed the question of whether the Pope's visit will advance the Mideast peace process.

VOICE: What Pope John Paul II reminded Jews, Muslims and Christians on his historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land was all they share, the common values of their religious traditions, the spirituality that should drive the pursuit of peace. ...Will his words echo in the peace process? That wasn't his purpose. President Clinton may have found (Syrian President) Hafez Assad unmoved during their meeting in Geneva. Jewish and Muslim leaders squabbled at an interfaith gathering with the pontiff. Difficult as their task is, the diplomats do have a renewed moral authority. John Paul reminded all what they have in common.

TEXT: The New York Times is looking at Northern Ireland and David Trimble's successful re-election as head of the Ulster Unionist Party. The paper calls Mr. Trimble the most enlightened political leader Northern Ireland's Protestant majority has yet produced.

VOICE: Mr. Trimble must take care to bring his party along with him. But he should not modify his own progressive positions to accommodate party opponents. In particular, he should not retreat from his recently stated view that he would be willing to bring his party back into a Northern Ireland government once the I.R.A made a firm commitment to disarm, without waiting for the actual handover of weapons to begin. ...Mr. Trimble's strong leadership will be needed as Northern Ireland pursues its quest for a lasting peace.

TEXT: And finally, The Union Leader in New Hampshire is addressing a domestic issue concerning the dangers of allowing children on the Internet without supervision.

VOICE: The most popular use of computers for youngsters is e-mail, instant messaging and chat rooms - three ways they can type messages to their friends and receive instant replies. ... But the Internet is a great way for child molesters to meet kids online and build relationships with them that may result in dangerous rendezvous. ...Often parents like to buy their child a computer, but don't have the desire to learn the ropes themselves. They think the Internet is for the younger generation, and they'll never be able to learn it themselves. That is irresponsible behavior. Parents teach their children to watch out for automobiles while crossing the street and tell them not to talk to strangers when they're out playing. It's time they started monitoring how their children are playing when they're in the next room, looking so intelligent and quiet before a computer screen.

TEXT: With that thought in the Union Leader we conclude this sampling of comment from the editorial pages of Tuesday's U-S press. NEB/ENE/gm 28-Mar-2000 13:43 PM EDT (28-Mar-2000 1843 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America

Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next Article