Fragmentation follows disintegration

East Timor Braces for Turmoil

Saturday April 1, 2000

DILI, East Timor (AP) - East Timor may be heading for renewed political turmoil as its former independence movement - now relieved of the common enemy that once united it - begins to crumble, party leaders warn.

Having succeeded in evicting the Indonesian occupiers after 25 years of struggle, the coalition known as the Timorese National Council of Resistance, or CNRT, is now fracturing as its member parties vie for power in the new political landscape.

While some fear such a split could lead to a repeat of the bloody civil war that preceded the Indonesian invasion in 1975, others see the trend as a logical progression to East Timorese democracy.

``The grassroots are very nervous with the notion of the CNRT ending too soon and we go back to the instability of the seventies,'' said Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel laureate and vice president of the CNRT.

In an effort to rid the tiny territory of Indonesian occupation, 21 disparate political parties united into the CNRT. Its aim: to kick out the Indonesians and establish an independent state.

It largely achieved that goal last September, after East Timorese voters opted overwhelmingly to separate from Indonesia in a U.N.-sponsored plebiscite.

Though the CNRT is made up of numerous factions, two are dominant: the right-wing Timorese Democratic Union, or UDT; and the leftist Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, or Fretilin.

After East Timor's colonial masters, the Portuguese, withdrew in 1975, the two groups engaged in a civil war that Indonesia exploited to justify its invasion.

Ramos-Horta warned that the CNRT could disband at its national congress in August. Fretilin leader Francisco Xavier do Amaral predicted the same thing.

Ramos-Horta said there was fear that the fragmenting of the CNRT along party lines would mean a renewal of the bloodshed.

Others seemed willing to take the risk.

``If we are going to have a democratic nation, then we must have different political parties,'' said do Amaral, one of the CNRT leaders.

UDT head Joao Carrascalao said the CNRT's factions will go their own way as soon as the United Nations adopts a new law on political organizations.

``When that law on political parties is ... approved, then the political parties will start their activities,'' he said.

It will be another two years until East Timor gains full independence. The United Nations has a mandate to prepare the territory for self-rule and its officials regularly consult with CNRT leaders on administrative matters.

Outside the CNRT there is only one group that has refused to be included under the its umbrella. The nationalist Council for Popular Democracy for the Democratic Republic of East Timor is critical of the CNRT's links to former colonial power Portugal.

``CNRT is a puppet, a manipulated body, set up in Lisbon, imported from Lisbon and imposed by Lisbon,'' said Cristiano da Costa, the party's chairman. ``We don't want to be re-colonized by the Portuguese.''

In February, East Timor's political leaders chose Portuguese as the territory's official language, saying they are indebted to their former colonial masters.

The United Nations has not set a date for general elections. But it is generally believed that independence leader Jose Alexandre ``Xanana'' Gusmao, CNRT's charismatic leader, will become the country's first democratically elected president.

He says it's not a job he wants, but will accept it should it be thrust upon him.

``We read about many other failures, many other countries, in which heroes of the struggle became the leadership of the new country,'' he said. ``A new country needs more capability to lead, to govern and to guide.''

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Worth noting!

Ukraine Bans Danish Beef Over Mad Cow Fears

30th March 2000

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine has banned imports of Danish beef after an outbreak in Denmark of mad cow disease, or BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), an official said on Thursday.

"We have banned all beef imports from Denmark due to BSE. Our order came into force on March 6," Mykola Bilous, Ukraine's senior veterinary inspector, told Reuters.

"Besides Denmark, beef imports have also been banned from Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland."

The Danish government reported last month that health authorities had found one milk cow afflicted with BSE.

The BSE case, at a farm in the north of the Jutland peninsula in western Denmark, was the first since 1992 in Denmark, which prides itself on strict food hygiene and veterinary standards. A few years ago Ukraine banned British beef imports on fears that BSE could be linked to brain disease in humans. Bilous said he did not expect the bans to be scrapped soon.

Ukraine, whose agriculture was once highly developed but now faces difficulties, does not import significant volumes of beef. Imports of meat and livestock comprised just 0.9 percent of Ukraine's total imports in 1999.

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The only times they are lying is when their lips are moving!

US And Britain Assure EU They Are Not Spying...

By Janet McEvoy

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000330/1/a2nki.html

March 31 2000

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has said it has received assurances from the United States and Britain that their intelligence services are not involved in industrial espionage.

European Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said the U.S. State Department and Britain's EU representation had issued the guarantee on the eve of a European Parliament debate on the Echelon electronic surveillance system.

Echelon, set up during the Cold War, is capable of intercepting millions of telephone, fax and e-mail messages. A British journalist has accused the United States of using the system, with Britain's help, for industrial espionage.

"We have yesterday received a letter from the United States Department of State which states that the U.S. intelligence community is not engaged in industrial espionage," Liikanen told the European parliament.

Britain, which helps Washington operate the Echelon system of satellites and listening posts along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand, had written with a similar assurance, he said.

The European parliament is mulling setting up a committee of inquiry into an allegation by British journalist Duncan Campbell that the United States used Echelon to beat the European consortium Airbus to a major airplane deal with Saudi Arabia in 1994.

Campbell's report to the parliament last month contained no hard proof.

SUPPORT FOR INQUIRY

Green members of the 626-member EU assembly have garnered enough support to demand a special committee of inquiry.

"The letter states that the United States government and the intelligence community do not accept tasking from private firms and do not collect proprietary commercial, technical or financial information for the benefit of firms," Liikanen said.

Britain's participation in Echelon has drawn charges of disloyalty from EU partners, notably France. Liikanen said Britain had assured him its intelligence services had not acted wrongly.

"(Britain) states that the British intelligence agencies work within a legal framework laid down by the United Kingdom Parliament, and which sets out explicitly the purposes for which interception may be authorised..." he said.

Those purposes included national security, protecting Britain's economic well-being and fighting serious crime.

The European Commission has been guarded in its response to the allegations and Liikanen said it was impossible to know what was happening in the secretive world of intelligence.

"It is the very nature of intelligence activities that those who are not involved in these activities are not able to confirm nor deny their existence," he said.

EU parliamentary leaders have the final say over whether a formal probe is launched. Such committees are rare and the idea faces opposition from some, notably British deputies. Some deputies told a debate on Thursday the idea was unworkable.

"Asking for a committee of inquiry to be set up is a way for the Green or Liberal deputies to play James Bond," German European People's Party deputy Ewa Klamt told the debate.

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Demons make dollars while the wars rage!

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UK arming African countries

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More hurdles for the People of the Lie

Click on the following link to read the article:

Swiss man goes on trial over gas chambers denial

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