|
|
|
WEB SPACE kindly donated by
|
APC SA Newsletter September 2000
Report for U.N. Calls World Trade Body "Nightmare"- by Robert Evans - Geneva (Reuters) August 11, 2000 - A United Nations-appointed study team has labelled the World Trade Organization (WTO) a "nightmare" for developing countries and suggested the body should be brought under the UN's purview. In a report presented this week to the UN's sub-commission on protection of human rights and made available on Friday, the team also dismisses the WTO's open trading rules as based "on grossly unfair and even prejudiced" assumptions. The report also calls for a "radical review of the whole system of trade liberalization" and critical consideration of whether it is geared toward shared benefits "for rich and poor countries alike." But although it echoes criticism of the trade body from Western anti-globalization groupings, the 40-page report rejects the idea many of these groupings promote of linking trade rules to human rights, labor and environmental standards. Many "civil society" groups in developing countries also oppose such linkage, arguing that it would provide Western countries with an excuse to put up more barriers against goods from poorer states…. The document, a study of the effect of globalization on human rights, was written by two jurists, J. Oloka-Onyango of Uganda and Deepika Udagama of Sri Lanka. In a discussion on the report, UN sub-commission member El-Hadji Guisse of Senegal, accused the WTO -- of which his country is a member -- of carrying out a "second colonialization process in which the only interest was profit," according to a U.N. summary of his remarks. If the U.N. were consistent, it would oppose the existence of the trade body whose driving motivation was "money, domination and exploitation," he said. Another sub-commission member, Yozo Yakota of Japan, said the WTO should be encouraged to enter into a relationship agreement with the U.N. so that its activities could be reviewed for compliance with international standards. Nader's "Concord Principles" -- An Agenda for a New Democracy (back to top)Control of our social institutions, our government, and our political system is presently in the hands of a self-serving, powerful few, known as an oligarchy, which too often has excluded citizens from the process. Our political system has degenerated into a government of the power brokers, by the power brokers, and for the power brokers, and is far beyond the control or accountability of the citizens. It is an arrogant and distant caricature of Jeffersonian democracy. Written by Ralph Nader in 1992, The Concord Principles sets forth ten arguments of how democracy has been abused, and the constructive tools that citizens can use to regain their rightful participation in their own destiny. Nader urges all Presidential candidates to adhere to these principles in their campaigns and in whatever public offices they may hold. Written for the U.S., the principles apply to people everywhere. First: Democracy must empower and enable citizens to obtain timely and accurate information from their government, enable citizens to band together in civic associations in pursuit of a just society, and communicate their judgments through modern technology. Second: The … people should have reasonable control over the public lands, public media airwaves, pension funds, and other societal assets which the public legally owns, rather than having these public assets controlled by a powerful few. Third: We need modern mechanisms so that civic power for self-government and self-reliance can correct the often converging power imbalance of Big Business and Big Government that weakens the rights of citizens. Fourth: Citizens should have measures to ensure that their voting powers are not diluted, over-run, or nullified. Such measures include easier voter registration, state-level binding initiatives and referendums, public financing of campaigns, and term limits not to exceed 12 years. Fifth: Citizens must have full legal standing to challenge in the courts the waste, fraud, and abuse of government spending. Overly complex, mystifying jargon in our laws and procedures must be simplified and clarified so that the general public is not shut out from readily understanding and challenging them. Sixth: Citizens should be accorded computerized access in libraries and in their homes to the full range of government information. Inserts in billing statements from monopolized utilities and financial companies should invite consumers to join consumer action watchdog groups. The public, which owns the tv/cable/radio media airwaves, which are leased for free to large commercial businesses, should have its own Audience Network to inform, alert, and mobilize democratic citizen debate and initiatives. Seventh: Effective legal protections are needed for ethical whistleblowers who alert [people] to abuses or hazards to health and safety in the workplace, or contaminate the environment, or defraud citizens. Such conscientious workers need rights to ensure they will not be fired or demoted for speaking out within the corporations, the government, or in other bureaucracies. Eighth: Working people need a reasonable measure of control over how their pension monies are invested, rather than it being controlled by banks and insurance companies. Ninth: Shareholders, who are the owners of companies, should not have their assets wasted or worker morale victimized by executives who give themselves huge salaries, bonuses, green-mail, and golden parachutes, self-perpetuating boards of directors, and a stifling of the proxy voting system to block shareholder voting reforms. Tenth: Our country's schoolchildren need to be taught democratic principles in their historic context and present relevance, with practical civics experiences to develop their citizen skills and a desire to use them, and so they will be nurtured to serve as a major reservoir of future democracy. -- http://www.transparency.org/ Defence Force 'call-out' Bill amended ( back to top )The Government will now amend its recently introduced Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to Civilian Authorities) Bill 2000 to adopt all the recommendations of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation References Committee. The Bill would allow the use of the Defence Force to assist civilian authorities in protecting Commonwealth interests and States and Territories against domestic violence. Questions have been raised also by the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee. In a joint statement, the Attorney-Gen., Daryl Williams, and the Minister for Defence, John Moore, say there is currently no legislation outlining the process governing call out of the Defence Force on Australian soil to protect its own interests. Existing legislation governing call out at the request of State or Territory 'is antiquated and unworkable'. The Senate Committee's recommendations, now agreed by the Government: · Require the legislation to be reviewed by a parliamentary committee within six months of any call out, or, if there has been no call out, within three years of the commencement of the legislation; · Require enhanced parliamentary scrutiny of any incident or call out; · Parliament will be informed within 7 days of the use of the Defence Force; · Extend the prohibition on use of Reserves in connection with industrial disputes; · Commonwealth to notify States and Territories when the Defence Force is called out; · Authorisation for "a deliberate assault" must be made by the Prime Minister, the Minister for Defence or the Attorney-General, and not delegated to another Minister. U.K. Nuclear News - August 2000 ( back to top )-- 50 tonnes of depleted uranium is lying unmonitored in scrap heaps across Britain, posing a growing risk of environmental contamination and to workers, according to U.S. documents. The uranium was used in components in aircraft and hospital radiotherapy units. --Guardian, 21 August --The wreck of the Kursk has joined the many other pieces of potentially lethal naval debris that litter the seabed - and in this case the environmental effects could be catastrophic. Charles Arthur reports. --Sunday Independent, 20 August --Britain has covertly built up its nuclear arsenal in what anti-nuclear campaigners claim is a clear breach of its obligations under international peace treaties, according to an official government report obtained by The Observer. --Observer, 20 August --The British Ministry of Defence was last night threatened with unprecedented legal and industrial action if it went ahead with plans to repair the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Tireless moored off Gibraltar. --Guardian, Financial Times, 19 August --New photographs of the secret Israeli reactor at Dimona, published on the internet, confirm that Israel could have made 100-200 nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists. --Guardian, 23 August --A dog chasing rabbits into an old pipeline sparked off a potential nuclear hazard at the Chapelcross nuclear power station in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, when it was discovered that the disused cooling-water pipeline had never been sealed. Has now been made safe. --Times, 23 August --Anti-missile shields of the kind now being proposed by the U.S. were dismissed as unworkable by a British Ministry of Defence advisor nearly 40 years ago, documents released today at the Public Record Office show. --Guardian, 24 August --A new European study has found that the radiation monitors worn by thousands of workers to measure beta and neutron radiation can underestimate their doses by up to a factor of 10. --New Scientist, 26 August Veil drawn over base's role - ( back to top )by Duncan Campbell - 23rd July 2000 US intelligence officials have won a secret battle to keep Australians from learning basic information about the purpose of the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap, according to a top secret document published in Washington. The document - a September 1995 letter from the State Department to the then director of the National Security Agency, Vice-Admiral Mike McConnell - warns that were the U.S. Government even to admit that it runs electronic eavesdropping satellites in space, there would be "undesirable repercussions" in host nations such as Australia. The spy-satellite disclosure is made more controversial because of the recent revelation that Pine Gap has quietly been converted into a front-line base for the controversial U.S. National Missile Defence system, which differs in name only from former President Reagan's Star Wars plan unveiled at the height of the Cold War. It has angered Russia and China and created fears of a new nuclear arms race. The 1995 letter shows that U.S. anxieties were then focused on America's three most secret intelligence stations abroad. These control and operate a constellation of high-tech listening satellites costing more than US$10billion. In the case of Australia, it appears that the State Department expected that "the government will be particularly sensitive to unfavorable speculation" about spy-satellite bases. After high-level discussions between U.S. intelligence agencies, the proposal to declassify "the fact of" overhead SIGINT (signals intelligence) collection was rejected. Since then, Canberra and Washington have continued to refuse to give MPs or the public information about what happens at Pine Gap. The State Department letter, marked "Top Secret" and "Handle Via Comint (Communications Intelligence) channels only", was obtained under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, an independent group based in Washington. Many parts of the letter were blanked out, including names of countries where the U.S. did not wish to admit that it ran spy-satellite bases. But according to project director Dr Jeff Richelson "it is clear that the department was anxious about the impact in the foreign countries where the U.S. operates ground stations for SIGINT satellites" - the U.K. (at Menwith Hill), Germany (at Bad Aibling) and Australia (at Pine Gap). The document enlarges fears loudly expressed last year by the parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, which said that MPs were kept in the dark about information that was given to the U.S. Congress or was publicly available. Members complained that although U.S. Congress officials had visited Pine Gap and received classified briefings about its functions, the Treaties Committee was "entrusted with less information than can be found in a public library". As a result, the committee was given only limited and unverified information by two professors from the Australian National University. One of them, Prof. Des Ball, told the committee: "I believe that we could have a statement that confirms that there are listening satellites in operation. I think you could say that Pine Gap is the ground station for those satellites and I think that one could canvass the type of signals which are interceptable by those satellites. Anyone who knows anything about signals propagation and antennae design can work out what sort of signals are interceptable." Pine Gap, which has been operated by U.S. intelligence since 1968, was the ground-control centre for the first CIA eavesdropping satellite, code-named RHYOLITE. Controversy over Pine Gap began 25 years ago and was linked to the downfall of the Whitlam government. Its precise functions remained secret until the arrest of a U.S. spy revealed that it was a CIA intelligence base, code-named MERINO. Although details of the plans for the expansion of Pine Gap into missile defence have been available in Washington for years, it was only a week ago that Australians were told that, since October 1999, Pine Gap had been "very much" involved in NMD. Even this admission, in an interview with U.S. Secretary of Defence William Cohen on Channel Nine, is less than the full truth. Pine Gap will be the front line of the planned tracking and missile defence network. The new system, called SBIRS (Space-Based Infra-Red System) is planned to be operational by 2004. In a third development, an aviation magazine has revealed that Australia and the U.S. have agreed not only to help run the controversial space battle system, but to build a new test range in Western Australia. The new range, north of Broome, would be allocated land extending 100 kilometres inland. According to Flight International, the new range would allow the U.S. Navy to stake a larger claim in the "Star Wars" plan by testing ship-based anti-missile systems. Simulated ballistic missiles would be launched from Australia, and - if the tests succeeded - quickly be shot down by the U.S. Navy. We don't want base, says Navy ( back to top )-- by Rebecca Rose - ACT The Royal Australian Navy says it is engaged in a fierce tug of war with the U.S. over the location of a future missile test range, with the Pentagon pushing for a facility in the Kimberley. Defence officials say they are resisting pressure from the U.S. to cooperate in a joint ballistic missile test range north of Broome. Instead, the navy is trying to get American cooperation for a range on the east coast to test wave-skimming missiles. But defence experts dismissed that as a smokescreen, claiming Australia was almost certainly investigating participation in a joint facility in WA, because it made strategic sense to become involved in the U.S. missile defence scheme. Michael O'Connor, from the Australian Defence Association, said the Defence Department was trying to divert attention from the fact that it was getting involved in the contentious U.S. defence strategy to build a missile defence shield. -- © 2000 West Australian (edited for size) A bolt from the blue for councils ( back to top )-- by Sean Cowan Kimberley councils are flabbergasted at plans to test U.S. ballistic missile defences in the area. Critics say the area is subject to native title claims and does not have necessary roads or infrastructure. . . . Derby-West Kimberley Shire president Peter McCumstie said he had never heard of plans to test U.S. missile defences in the area. "But I will be asking about it now - you betcha," he said. "The other thing I would suggest is that native title would have to be taken into consideration and they would probably have to search for an existing site. . . . If they were looking for new land they would have to go way out into the desert." Labor MLC Tom Stephens said the result could be devastating to the environment and the tourism industry. "We want all the details on the table so the community can make an informed reaction," he said. "While it may make sense to some boffins in Washington or Canberra to stick it in an isolated part of the world, it could kill the pearling, fishing and tourism industries." Greens (WA) MLC Giz Watson said such activities in the North-West would contravene the 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. . . . But Kalgoorlie MHR Barry Haase said plans were still in their infancy. "If this conception analysis progresses to the stage where it might ever be considered to be viable, it will then take into consideration all manner of things," he said. Mr Haase said the plan would be open to heavy public scrutiny. . . . Broome Shire Council president Kevin Fong called on the Federal Government to keep local councils informed during the planning stage. . . . Wyndham-East Kimberley Shire chief executive Tony Brown said he would ask the Defence Department for an explanation. . . . -- © 2000 West Australian (edited for size) West Australia mooted as site for test range ( back to top )-- By Ruth Callaghan Four ballistic missiles were fired from the north of WA in 1997, tracked as they travelled 117km through the air at high speed and allowed to land in the ocean. At the time, the Defence Department stressed that the "scientific experiments" were not an indication of plans to create a ballistic missile defence system. . . . Three years later, Australia is under considerable pressure from the U.S. to help its controversial missile defence shield project and the site of the 1997 launch appears an ideal home for a permanent defence training ground. . . . Prominent aviation journal Flight International reported last month that the U.S. and Australia planned to build a major training range in WA. . . . According to reports, the exercise range would allow both nations to practise destroying ballistic missiles while still in flight over the country which deployed them. The 1997 tests, though conducted with a degree of publicity, were held at a secret location, somewhere along a 600km stretch of coast between Port Hedland and Broome. . . . Yesterday, the Defence Department said the Australian navy had no interest in learning to fire on ballistic missiles though a spokesman conceded it was of interest to the U.S. -- © 2000 West Australian (edited for size) Don't be tempted into sharing U.S. missile defence technology (back to top)( It will cost us a bomb)1 June, 2000 (Democrats Media Release) The Democrats have warned the defence policy makers not to feel tempted to take up Bill Clinton's offer to share missile defence technology. Democrats' Spokesperson for Defence and Foreign Affairs, Senator Vicki Bourne, said that Australia cannot afford such a move. "While there has been no talk of Australia becoming involved, the Democrats want to make sure that no defence planners are contemplating such a move," Senator Bourne said. "Both Australian and American academics have been pressuring Australia to keep up with the U.S. in technology terms, without thinking through the consequences both in financial or ideological terms. "We have just seen that the Department is having enough problems with the present defence expenditure," said Senator Bourne, referring to the ANAO report, which showed the Department had lost over $15 million in foreign exchange transactions. "Given that the missile defence technology program is a U.S. project, and our Defence Department has shown it is has problems not hedging against foreign exchange risks, we should not be tempted to go anywhere near this project," she said, also expressing some concern that the discussion paper that was to precede the new Defence White Paper may now be scrapped. "It is precisely because of the reactive way the Department does business that we need to see a discussion paper first," she said. The Australian Democrats have consistently called for greater planning and accountability within the Defence Dept, and will continue to do so before any thought is given to increases in defence spending. Private radioactive waste dump = Public threat ( back to top )Secret contracts set to be finalised before public scrutiny - 1 August 2000 --Australian Conservation Council Media Release The Federal Government is in growing conflict with the wider community over plans to privatise the proposed national nuclear waste repository in northern Sth Australia, according to the Austn. Conservation Foundation. Later this month Senator Minchin's department intends to appoint a private corporation as project manager. The project manager would then engage a private contractor to construct and operate the nuclear dump. This is despite the clear opposition of an overwhelming majority of the SA community to the proposed dump plan. An Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) review of the key tender documentation also revealed that the Federal Government expect to finalise a contract for the construction and operation of the repository before the completion of the promised environmental impact assessment and licensing processes. "Senator Minchin's push to impose a nuclear dump on SA has been characterised by a failure to have regard or respect for the views of the public and regional communities," said ACF's David Noonan. "The plan to finalise the construction contract before the environmental assessment and licensing processes are completed shows complete disregard for public consultation and would prevent any legitimate public role in decision making for the dump. Senator Minchin is putting perceived private profit ahead of community safety and responsible policy." ACF has further condemned the secrecy provisions of the planned dump. Commercial Confidentiality exclusion clauses are set to be used by the Federal Government to prevent the disclosure of pivotal information submitted in the tender process. Information about the business, commercial or financial affairs of the private nuclear dump operator are also not to be disclosed to the public. "The SA community has made it very clear that it is opposed to the dump plan", maintained David Noonan. "It is fundamentally against the interests of both Australian democracy and the environment for the Government to ignore or attempt to override these concerns." Polling by the Advertiser newspaper shows 87 percent of South Australians oppose plans for a nuclear waste repository to bury low-level and short lived intermediate level wastes in northern SA. 95 percent oppose a nuclear dump for the reactor's long lived intermediate level wastes and 78 percent support calls for a referendum on radioactive waste at the next election. "Senator Minchin's threat to override any State or Territory Parliament to impose the reactor's nuclear waste dump on community has made the South Australian nuclear dump a key test of environmental democracy in Australia. This Government is on a collision course with the community" said Dave Sweeney, ACF Coordinator on Nuclear Issues. U.S. Disputes Iraqi Claims Over Damage In Bombing ( back to top )New York Times - Steven L Myers - Washington, August 15, 2000 - U.S. officials said today that a warehouse bombed by American and British warplanes on Friday in southern Iraq held anti-aircraft weapons and other military equipment, and not supplies of food as the Iraqis claimed. The officials also disputed Iraq's claims that a second attack on Saturday damaged a train station in the same town. . . . The airstrikes, which the Iraqis said killed 2 and wounded more than 20, were in Samawa, a city about 170 miles south of Baghdad. . . . Reuters reported that one of its photographers was escorted to the site after the bombing and did not see any Iraqi military units in the area. The photographer also reported seeing several nearby homes that were severely damaged. . . . NATO Troops Seize Mining Complex ( back to top )- Sara Flounders, national coordinator, International Action Center. -- Claiming they were concerned about controlling air pollution, some 3,000 NATO soldiers stormed a lead smelting plant in Zvecan at 4:30 in the morning of August 14. The plant was the only functioning industry in the vast Trepca mining complex in northern Kosovo, a few miles from the city of Mitrovica. At 6:30 a.m., in a further attack that had nothing to do with air pollution, NATO soldiers closed down and confiscated the equipment of Zvecan's Radio S -- the only station that dared to report information critical of NATO. The northern part of Mitrovica is the only remaining multi-ethnic part of Kosovo. Thousands of Serbs, Romani people, Slavic Muslims, other nationalities and peoples of mixed backgrounds have been driven out of other areas by Kosovo Liberation Army thugs and vigilante groups. Many have fled to the north side of the Iber river. There, with the local Serbian population, they have resisted more than a year of KLA attacks in an economically devastated region. The surprise attack by NATO shut down the only radio station and the main source of employment for the local population. The mines, with their smelting, refining and power centers, once constituted one of Yugoslavia's leading export industries and a main source of hard currency. It was the major source of jobs in the region. Defending the pre-dawn attack, Bernard Kouchner, the head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said, "As a doctor and chief administrator of Kosovo I would be derelict if I allowed a threat to the health of children and pregnant women to continue for one more day." UNMIK is the police force set up by NATO to administer Kosovo. Kouchner has never had a word of criticism for the environmental havoc NATO created throughout the entire region with the use of depleted uranium weapons, the bombing of chemical plants and the use of cluster bombs. If you find it hard to accept that NATO is suddenly concerned with pollution, it's worth looking for what is really at stake. 'Most Valuable Piece Of Real Estate'On July 8, 1998, New York Times reporter Christopher Hedges wrote, "The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex is the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans." Hedges described glittering veins of lead, cadmium, zinc, gold and silver. The Stari Trg mine is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal treatment sites, warehouses, freight yards, railroad lines, a power plant and the country's largest battery plant. It is the richest lead and zinc mine in Europe. There are also 17 billion tons of coal. It was George Soros, the multi-billionaire financier, who wrote Kouchner's script. Paris-based journalist Diana Johnstone, in a February 28 report, described a policy paper by the International Crisis Group. This is a think tank set up by Soros to provide guidance in the NATO-led reshaping of the Balkans. The think tank publicly called on Kouchner to take over the management of Trepca and to use the pretext of environmental hazards to shut the Zvecan smelter down. The Soros group stressed that the takeover should happen before new elections in Yugoslavia so that the opposition could blame Yugoslav President Milosevic for the loss of Trepca. The elections are now six weeks away. At the time this proposal was made there was no pollution -- the lead smelter was not even in operation. It was closed for several months after the NATO bombing. Production in this state-owned industry started again only two months ago, at great sacrifice and expense. The hard currency it could have earned was desperately needed to rebuild Yugoslavia's ravaged economy. Skimming The ProfitsWith the seizure of the smelting plant in Zvenca, NATO will control the entire Trepca complex. Proving once again that NATO is the military arm to insure primarily U.S. corporate control, the first move after seizing the complex was to turn it over to a consortium of private mining companies. This consortium -- ITT Kosovo Ltd -- is a joint venture of US, French and Swedish companies. The most interesting partner in this deal to control Trepca is the U.S. company Morrison Knudsen International. On July 7 Morrison Knudsen merged with Raytheon Engineers and Constructors, a major military contractor that makes Patriot missiles and radar equipment for the Pentagon. This is an enormously lucrative deal. ITT Kosovo Ltd. will administer Trepca, appoint executives and a board of directors, develop the investment strategy and skim the greatest profits from every possible deal. Those in the Albanian population who hold illusions that control by these corporations will mean the return of the thousands of well-paid, secure jobs with benefits that existed before the war should read the plans multi-billionaire Soros has in store. Once NATO has control of the whole industrial complex, according to the International Crisis Group, foreign investors will develop a very modern, highly profitable facility with a small workforce. In this outright theft of an industry that was built by the efforts of all the peoples of Yugoslavia, Soros's think tank recommends that the management and administration be made up of foreign executives "in order to prevent corruption"! -- International Action Center 39 West 14th St, Rm 206 New York, NY 10011 USA fax: 212 633-2889 Moon Pads for East Timor: - a message of thanks ( back to top )Thank you for including my appeal in your newsletter. I had three responses on your form, adding another 13 pads towards the 800 which have been so far donated. When we add them to the 850 purchased by Oxfam, almost 1,700 pads are now available for these women who have so little with which to rebuild their lives. The response has been wonderful. As many have replied by letter, some of your readers may be included in those without me recognising them. Please thank you readers for their part in helping to make this project happen. Latest news from East Timor is that funding has been obtained for the first 2 sewing machines to be purchased for a Women's Co-operative to begin making pads in Suai. So as soon as they have the machines our focus will change to finding fabrics and sewing needs (scissors, needles, cottons) for them. If any of your readers have suitable fabrics (cotton flannelette is best, 100% cotton towelling and 100% cotton fleecy knit are also useful) they can mail them directly to : Pads for East Timor Project, c/o Oxfam International. PO Box 152, Dili, Timor Larosae. New and clean second-hand fabrics are welcome. Again, I thank you for helping the women of rural East Timor. Yours sincerely, Pip Buchanan, Moon Pads PO Box 118, Sandy Bay, Tasmania, Australia, 7007 Ph (03) 6223 5151 ABN 47 602 059 395 Manufacturer of Moon Pads washable menstrual and
stress-incontinence pads. Moonpads will be on the Web soon at: www.moonpads.alltasmanian.com
|
Site updated
|
|
Opinions expressed on this website do not necessarily reflect those of the APC
This site Copyright of the Australian Peace Committee , contact
APC-SA |
