From tpl at cheerful.com Thu Oct 1 01:15:47 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 00:15:47 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 730] Gap Keeps Growing Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981001001547.006b3cb8@pop.skyinet.net> >From: BAYAN >FOR YOUR INFORMATION > >Gap keeps growing between rich and poor >by Chen Yanni >China Daily, September 10, 1998 > >THE gap between rich and poor countries continues widening regardless of >the burgeoning consumption of goods and services globally. > >This undermines the possibility of sustainable human development >internationally, suggests the United Nations Development Programmme's (UNDP) Human Development Report. > >Global consumption of goods and services will reach US$24 trillion this >year, six times higher than in 1975, notes the report. > >The UN released the document yesterday in The Hague and in more than 100 >nations' capitals, including Beijing. The UNDP has commissioned the report >exploration of major global issues by experts - every year since 1990. > >One billion people still go without basic necessities - food, water and >proper housing - while 86 per cent of the world's output is used by 20 per >cent of the population, the report adds. > >This group uses 58 per cent of the world's energy, 45 per cent of the meat >and fish, drive 87 per cent of the motor vehicles and use 74 per cent of the telephones, reveals the report. > >Three-fifths of the world's 4.4 billion people in developing countries live >in communities without basic sanitation; one-third do not have safe >drinking water; one-fourth lack adequate housing; one-fifth are without >modern health care; one-fifth of the children do not advance beyond fifth >grade; and one-fifth of the children are malnourished, the report notes. > >"The report looks beyond per capita income as a measure of human progress, >by assessing it against such factors as average life expectancy, literacy >rates and people's overall well-being," note UNDP officials. > >This year the report focuses on consumption of goods and services and >examines how this advances or hinders human progress. > >. . . From tpl at cheerful.com Thu Oct 1 01:22:10 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 00:22:10 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 731] Korean Unionists in Prison Since May Day Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981001002210.006b3cb8@pop.skyinet.net> >From: BAYAN >From: "KCTU Int. Sol." >Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 14:32:39 +0900 >Sender: Owner-Asia-HR-Alert@jca.ax.apc.org > > >Korean Confederation of Trade Unions >KCTU Alert >September 19, 1998 > > 107 Trade Unionists Imprisoned > 125 Wanted for Arrest > > by the Korean Government Led by > President Kim Dae Jung, a Nobel Peace Prize Aspirant > and the 'Most Famous Human Rights Violation Victim in Korea' > > >On September 11, two leaders of the KCTU -- Mr. Yoo Duk-sang (KCTU First >Vice-President) and Mr. Dan Byung-ho (KCTU Vice-President and President of >Korean Metal Workers Federation) -- met with Mr. Sane, the General Secretary >of the Amnesty International. > >The meeting took place in one of the tents at the Myongdong Catholic >Cathedral because the two KCTU leaders were not able to leave the tents set >up at the Cathedral ground due to the police staking out nearby with >warrants for their arrest. The two leaders, who have been at the tents for >60 days, are just two of the 125 KCTU leaders and members wanted for arrest >by the Korean government. > >107 unionists in Prison, and likely to increase even further > >At the meeting with the General Secretary of the Amnesty International, Mr. >Yoo explained that 107 KCTU leaders and members have been arrested and are >currently in prison as of September 9, 1998. > >The arrests, which have taken place since this year's May Day, makes the >current Kim Dae Jung government the most prolific in putting away trade >unionists in jail. His government surpasses the former President Kim Young >Sam government's record of 46 arrests (or wanted for arrest) set in the >first year of his term. The record is expected to reach even greater heights >in the remaining months of President Kim Dae Jung's first year in office. >The 125 KCTU unionists wanted for arrest -- now in hiding -- could easily >fill the prisons recently vacated by the Liberation Day amnesty. > >Shame, Shame, Shame -- Embarrassment for Nobel Peace Prize Aspirant > >The 107 trade unionists in prison is modest, however, when compared with the >arrests under the National Security Law by the Kim Dae Jung government. In >the first 100 days in office, President Kim Dae Jung oversaw his government >arrest a total of 245 people under the infamous National Security Law. These >arrests brings the total number of new arrests by the new President to 426 >(including the trade unionists). > >The two imprisonment figures documented by the KCTU and the Mingahyup (a >human rights organisation set up by the families of human rights violation >victims) is sufficient to disillusion any one who had hoped for improvements >in human rights situation under the new government led by a person described >by the Amnesty International as "the most famous human rights violation >victim in Korea". The recent findings also is likely to embarrass any >aspiration President Kim Dae Jung or his admirers who may have nominated him >for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. > >Facts, Facts, Painful and Shameful Facts > >Apart from the 107 unionists in prison, 34 have been indicted without >detention, 8 released on bond, and 125 wanted for arrest with warrants of >arrest issued against them. The total number of KCTU unionists facing >criminal action by the government this year is 274. > > Unionists Arrested > or Wanted for Arrest > -------------------- > 1993 46 > 1994 161 > 1995 170 > 1996 95 > 1997 35 > 1998 274 > >The people in prison include, Mr. KOH, Young-joo, the KCTU General Secretary >and KIM Ho-seun, the President of the Korean Federation of Public Sector >Unions (KFPU). > >On September 13, 1998, Mr. Kim Kwang-shik, the president of the Hyundai >Motors Workers Union was also imprisoned by police following his voluntary >report to police. Mr. Kim declared that he would report to police -- in >response to the warrant of arrest issued against him -- to prevent any >further arrests of other Hyundai Motors Workers Union leaders. Prior to Mr. >Kim's "voluntary" surrender, first vice-president, general secretary, and >planning director of the union had already been arrested and imprisoned by >police. > >The continuing arrest of union leaders at the Hyundai Motors, despite the >historic settlement of the dispute over unilateral mass dismissal for >economic reasons, is creating new tension at the largest car maker in Korea. >The arrests signify a systematic disregard for the agreement by the >management and the government which have promised to withdraw all charges >against the union leadership and members. > >The arrest of unionists jumped in leaps and bounds since mid-August when the >KCTU filed a complaint to the ILO for violation of freedom of association. >In the complaint, the KCTU noted that 57 unionists were imprisoned. But, >since then, the imprisonment has more than doubled to reach the current >level. > >Police Storming of the Strike at the Mando Machinery > >One of the key reasons for the dramatic increase in imprisonment of >unionists is the police raid on the striking workers of the Mando Machinery. > >At 6 a.m. September 3, 1998, more than 10,000 riot police -- who were not >able to come into action at the Hyundai Motors -- stormed the striking >workers at 7 Mando Machinery plants. In the early morning raid, a total of >more than 2,400 workers were 'round up' by tear gas firing riot police for >interrogation. Later, most of the workers were released while 39, including >the union president and other union officers, were formally arrested. > >The strike at the Mando Machinery broke out in mid-August when the >management declared its plan to dismiss 1,090 workers out of some 4,000 >workers. The management's declaration was a unilateral annulment of the >agreement adopted by the management and the union earlier in the year in >which the management promised not to undertake any dismissals on economic >grounds in return for union's concession. > >Layoff -- Not Negotiable; CBA -- Not a Real Contract > >Storming by the police took place as the negotiations between the union and >management was stalled by the management intransigence. The police break up >of the strike and the arrest of the union leaders is seen as a statement by >the government that 'the mass dismissal of workers by management on economic >grounds' is not a matter of negotiation between the management and union, >and a strike by a union in the process of negotiation over the issue is an >illegal strike. Furthermore, the police raid and arrest also signals the >government's approval of the unilateral annulment of a labour-management >agreement by the management. It also signifies the government approval of >the management's unilateral abandonment of collective bargaining agreement >which has become a frequent feature in the current economic crisis. > > >-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- >for more information > > Yoon Youngmo > International Secretary > KCTU > email: inter@kctu.org > fax: +82-2-765-2011 > tel.: +82-2-765-7269 >-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- > From panap at panap.po.my Thu Oct 1 17:43:41 1998 From: panap at panap.po.my (PAN Asia Pacific) Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 17:43:41 Subject: [asia-apec 732] Conference: Challenging the Global Economy Message-ID: <2645@panap.po.my> This Sunday, the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) Secretariat, in conjunction with the Pesticied Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN-AP), will host: CHALLENGING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: A Forum on Malaysia, the Asian Crisis, and Globalisation Sunday October 4, 1998 7:00pm Disted College, 340 Jalan Macalister, Penang, Malaysia Speakers: Meenakshi Raman, Consumers' Association of Penang, Malaysia "Winners and Losers in the Global Economy" Sarojeni V. Rengam, Pesticide Action Network-AP, Malaysia "You can't Eat Rubber: Food Security and Globalisation" Charles Santiago, Economist with Stamford College, Malaysia "The Malaysian Response: What the currency policies really mean" Robert David, Alternatives, Canada "Swimming Upstream: What are the alternatives?" Irene Fernandez, Tnaganita, Malaysia "Struggling Sisters: Women and the Asian Crisis" The speakers will be followed by an open floor discussion. This is a free event. All are welcome. To request an invitation please contact PAN-AP at: Tel. 604-657-0271 Fax. 604-657-7445 Email From pet at web.net Fri Oct 2 09:49:29 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 20:49:29 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 733] (no title) Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981001205306.312f0570@pop.web.net> September 30, 1998 Hansard Canadian Parliament Official Transcript (English) Official Statements ... INDONESIA Mr. Inky Mark (Dauphin?Swan River, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the Associated Press reports ?Although ethnic Chinese people represent just 4% of Indonesia's 202 million people, they dominate commerce and industry. They are frequently scapegoats during troubled times?. The Asian financial crisis is hitting Indonesia hard and Indonesian Chinese are being hit harder as scapegoats. For example, Chinese women and young girls are being gang raped. Stores and homes of ethnic Chinese are looted and torched. Many ethnic Chinese are being murdered. Some say that what is happening in Indonesia resembles ethnic cleansing. Ethnic Chinese are fleeing their homes from Malaysia, the Philippines and elsewhere to save their lives. This government brags about its human rights record. When will the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific speak up for human rights in Indonesia? * * * ORAL QUESTION PERIOD ... APEC SUMMIT Ms. Alexa McDonough (Halifax, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. The involvement of the Prime Minister's Office in the APEC matter is clear. Pelletier, Carle, Goldenberg, Donolo, the list is growing. The trail leads to the Prime Minister, and there is growing evidence that they considered the comfort of a dictator justified the repression. Why this undemocratic choice? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, here again the leader of the New Democratic Party is making false accusations. We invited people to come here for the APEC summit. These people included Jose Ramos Horta, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He came to the parallel summit at the invitation of the government and over the protests of the Indonesian government. Here is what this famous individual had to say about Suharto's arrival in Canada. [English] He said: ?Canada should welcome Suharto with dignity, but also take a hard line on human rights. They can have?? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: The hon. leader of the New Democratic Party. Ms. Alexa McDonough (Halifax, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister had a choice. He could have stood up for fundamental democratic rights or, for the sake of currying favour with a brutal foreign dictator, he could have trampled those rights. Why did did this Prime Minister choose to side with Suharto? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, one of the claims of the NDP is that we should have refused President Suharto access to Canada. I would like to inform the leader of the New Democratic Party that before he came to Canada, President Suharto was the guest of Nelson Mandela in South Africa, where he was treated as a head of state. He came to Canada as an APEC member. It was not a bilateral invitation. It was an invitation like the invitations made to any other leaders who belong to this international organization. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, like the Prime Minister, the Solicitor General cannot or will not answer questions about APEC. He cannot cite a single section of the RCMP Act which extends the commission's mandate into the Prime Minister's office, nor can he explain to Canadians why they should trust the independence of the RCMP complaints commission which is almost entirely selected by the Prime Minister himself. I ask the Solicitor General: Why should Canadians trust a minister who understands little, says less and covers up for the Prime Minister? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, unlike my hon. colleague I believe that people who choose to serve their country do not park their integrity at the door. Regardless of political affiliation, I do not accept the premise of the question that someone cannot serve their country independently because I believe they can. I believe they do. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, would the solicitor general perhaps accept the fact Elections Canada has indicated that five members of the Public Complaints Commission made a financial donation to the Liberal Party of Canada in? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. Mr. Peter MacKay: The Prime Minister has already bought the loyalty of his personal protege, Jean Carle, with a patronage appointment. Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: I ask the hon. member to get directly to his question. Mr. Peter MacKay: Mr. Speaker, I ask the Prime Minister to demonstrate dignity and integrity by speaking in the House on his role in the APEC affair. Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, there is an inquiry. It will look at all the facts. We have collaborated with the commission. It asked two persons of my staff to appear, and they will be there. Let the commission do its work. I have nothing to hide, absolutely nothing to hide. That is why we are happy that the commission will start its work on Monday. Let it do its work. When the inquiry is over I will be here. I am here every day, sir, to reply to your questions. I am not afraid at all. The Speaker: I know hon. members will remember that I am here too and that they should address me. Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, that is hard to forget. The head of the APEC operations was very specific in his memo. He said that ?the PMO has expressed concerns about the security perimeter, not so much from a security point of view but to avoid embarrassment to the APEC leaders?. This is the most damning piece of evidence in this saga so far. How much longer will the Prime Minister deny that he was involved in this affair? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as the House is well aware, I am sure, the inquiry commences on Monday. In the interest of getting to the truth, I think we should leave it to the inquiry to do that, as parliament instructed when the Public Complaints Commission was established by the House to do just that job. Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has just told the House and Canadians that he is here every day to answer the questions, so maybe he could just do that little thing for us. There are new documents that are coming forward every day. There are new witnesses every day: Craig Jones, Chief Sparrow, Mr. Vanderloo. The paper trail is getting longer and longer. Does the Prime Minister still believe there is a great conspiracy going on against the Prime Minister, or could it be the other way around? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, that is what the leader of the NDP said. They talk about somebody who apparently saw me giving orders and she heard nothing. They never apologized because the chief in question never heard anything. It is the same thing. She accused Mr. Goldenberg of calling the president of the university. It was just the reverse, and they have not apologized. They should just check their facts, and the best way is to wait for the commission that will look at all the facts. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, according to the organizer of the APEC summit the Prime Minister's office wanted to balance the wishes of foreign dictators against the rights of protesters at APEC. Well, balance; you don't balance the constitutional rights of Canadians against the feelings of a foreign dictator. Does the Prime Minister agree with his press secretary? Are the constitutional rights of Canadians to be balanced against the hurt feelings of a foreign dictator? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am sure Canadians want to get to the bottom of all these questions. There is an instrument to do that. It is called the Public Complaints Commission. It represents the interest of the public. It starts its work on Monday. I would wish members opposite would let it do its work so we can get to the truth in the interest of the Canadian public. Mr. Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, did we not hear the Prime Minister say he is here to answer our questions today? Why does he not get up and answer them? I think the Prime Minister better get his lines straight if he is to be at the Public Complaints Commission and testify. All summer long he has been saying ?I have had nothing to do with it. Don't blame me. I am innocent?. There is a paper trail that leads right to the Prime Minister's office, and the paper trail says that the Prime Minister traded the constitutional rights of honest Canadians against the dictator Suharto. Why did the Prime Minister do that? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member is trading his interest for the truth? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: The hon. solicitor general. Hon. Andy Scott: Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians want to get to the truth. I think the hon. member is trading his interest and Canadians' interest in the truth to try to score cheap political points here. The commission starts on Monday. I think we deserve to give the respect of the House to that organization, a body organized by the House which I think will satisfy the Canadian population's interest in getting to the bottom of this. * * * ... ADJOURNMENT PROCEEDINGS [English] A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved. APEC SUMMIT Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise in the House and to follow the remarks made by my colleague from Newfoundland. He spoke very eloquently and no doubt is going to be a fine parliamentarian in the same vein as the speaker previous to him, my colleague the House leader of the New Democratic Party. I am pleased to speak tonight with respect to the Liberal government's mishandling of what is now becoming the APEC security issue and the scandal surrounding it. Day after day in this House, the Canadian public and we in this chamber have been subjected to the repeated evasions and diversions to questions about the role of the Prime Minister in this matter. There is also the matter of the government's selected perception as to the role of the RCMP Public Complaints Commission in investigating last November's crackdown at the APEC summit in Vancouver. The issue extends well beyond whether the RCMP were out of line in security measures they used against protesters. It extends beyond the appropriateness of former Indonesian President Suharto even being here on an official state visit. At the heart of the issue is the mounting evidence that the Prime Minister and his office staff interfered with the RCMP in the arrangement of security to basically placate the wishes of a foreign dictator, to avoid offending him. We have seen e-mails, memorandums and notebooks which express the wishes of the Prime Minister and his staff. They are referenced there quite clearly. We have also witnessed the Prime Minister in the thick of the protest. Camera angles have caught him at that. Even the Prime Minister's assertion that he was not, in the words of the NDP, barking out orders, it certainly raises questions as to what was taking place at that time. At the very least, the Prime Minister should be given the opportunity, and I suggest he has the opportunity, to rise in this House and clarify contradictory statements made about the handling of this affair. A ministerial statement in the House is appropriate. That is why my colleagues in the Conservative Party and I have been calling for the Prime Minister to make such a statement in this House and clearly outline what role he played in directing the RCMP during the security at APEC. That is why as well we put a motion before the justice committee to conduct an independent review of the relationship between the PMO and the RCMP to determine whether political interference occurred in APEC and whether there are grounds to look at this further and perhaps clarify the boundaries of what the Prime Minister's role should be in political interference when the RCMP are handling matters such as this. Canadians rightfully want answers and the government continues to throw up smoke. It points to the inquiry conducted by the RCMP Public Complaints Commission into the APEC role as a means to get to the bottom of these questions. Regardless of the commission's inquiry, nothing prevents the Prime Minister from speaking to this matter in the House. It would not interfere with the inquiry in any way, shape or form. In fact it might raise new questions for the commission to pursue. I suggest the cloud that hangs over the commission further complicates the matter because the commission's mandate is intended to focus on complaints directed toward the RCMP. It has nothing to do with political interference. The commission is headed by a chairperson who has made political donations to the Liberal Party of Canada, thus bringing into question the arm's length integrity of that person, sadly. The recommendations that that commission might make in any event are not binding. The report is then made to the RCMP commissioner or the solicitor general himself, thus further undermining the integrity of that commission. Clearly what we need to have happen in this case is have the Prime Minister stand in his place in this chamber and give Canadians what they deserve: accountability and responsible leadership in government. Canadians need an investigative process that is open, transparent and accountable and also has the appearance of such. I call again upon the government and the Prime Minister to clarify what exactly took place in Vancouver. Let us stop the stonewalling. Let us stop talking about what the commission is charged with doing and talk about what the commission is not charged with doing, and that is the accountability of the Prime Minister and political interference that is alleged in this matter. Ms. Beth Phinney (Hamilton Mountain, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the public complaints commission was created by parliament in 1986 to act in the public interest in addressing complaints by the public against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The commission is an independent civilian board. Each year it receives on average 1,000 complaints from Canadians about the RCMP. About 300 of these complaints result annually in independent investigations. The commission has a strong list of members and has carried out its mandate with integrity. Opposition members of this House have charged that the public complaints commission will not be able to get to the bottom of the issues relating to the APEC summit because its mandate is too narrow. The terms of reference in this particular hearing show clearly how broad the scope of an inquiry can be. The APEC panel will hear all evidence and will report on ?the events that took place during or in conjunction with demonstrations during the APEC conference in Vancouver?. The chair of the public complaints commission has stated that the panel will follow the evidence where it leads and that the scope of the investigation will be broad. Any questions regarding the RCMP operations prior to and during the APEC summit are squarely within the scope of this hearing. Continued attacks on the ability of the PCC to investigate properly the APEC summit will undermine the integrity of this body, which I might emphasize has developed a strong reputation over the past 12 years for fairness and thoroughness in its deliberations. Members should be aware that the government has provided additional funding to assist the commission to hold a very complex hearing in the public interest. This funding will, for example, cover the administrative and witness costs of the APEC hearing. A number of senior federal officials from, for example, the PMO and DFAIT will testify at the hearing. I also stress that the government has co-operated fully, indeed has gone to great lengths with the commission's council for the release of documents. The government is just as interested as hon. members across the House in seeing a full and complete independent inquiry into security at the APEC summit. ... [end] ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From pet at web.net Fri Oct 2 10:08:22 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 21:08:22 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 734] Cda. Hansard, Sept.29/98 re: APEC'97 Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981001211200.312f749e@pop.web.net> September 29, 1998 Hansard Excerpts from Official Transcript (English version) House of Commons Ottawa, Canada ... ORAL QUESTIONS ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Bob Mills (Red Deer, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, yesterday the foreign affairs minister said ?Canada is very concerned about the use of the Internal Security Act to restrict the freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly in Malaysia?. He was talking about Malaysia. Why did he not express those same sentiments of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly when it came to APEC? Hon. Lloyd Axworthy (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is, that is exactly what we did during APEC. This government provided substantial support to ensure that a people's summit was held. The people's summit brought together Canadians and people from around the world to discuss APEC, those who were in favour and those who were against. The people's summit had an opportunity to present its findings to ministers and to the Prime Minister. It was the most open people's summit ever held under APEC. Mr. Bob Mills (Red Deer, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, a long, long time ago, when the foreign affairs minister was a young man, he believed in human rights and democracy. When he was a kid he even marched in civil rights marches in Alabama. Back then there was a bigoted sheriff. His name was Bull Connor. He sicced the dogs on the protesters. What happened? Why did this 1960s hippie turn into a 1990s sheriff Bull Axworthy? Hon. Lloyd Axworthy (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have to admit that at heart I really am still a hippie. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, a purely riveting statement from another Liberal. Even hippies at heart should have the right to protest peacefully. I would like to make a comment about this foreign affairs minister who supposedly supports Canadian values of free speech and democracy when he is travelling around the world, but at home it is a very? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: The hon. member for Edmonton North. Miss Deborah Grey: This foreign affairs minister talks about free speech and democracy all around the world but just does not happen to do it at home. Why is it that he cannot practice at home what he preaches abroad? Hon. Lloyd Axworthy (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I take it that this is a question coming from the resident biker of the House of Commons. Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: Perhaps we could leave our outside activities out of the House of Commons. Hon. Lloyd Axworthy: Yes, Mr. Speaker, I would be more than happy to. I hope members will understand on this very crucial question that during the APEC meetings the Government of Canada went to great lengths first to hold a year long consultation inviting Canadians from all walks of life to participate in exactly what they thought the direction of APEC should be. Second, we supported a people's summit. Third, we told all the leaders and their delegations that there would be demonstrations and that we would establish the proper sort of setting in which Canadians could express themselves. urthermore, we maintain that right of free speech not only everywhere in the world but here in Canada. Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the minister talks tough here on the floor of the House of Commons but what we see on TV is quite a different picture than that. When the minister is visiting a foreign dictatorship he does not talk about those except maybe privately he lets us know that. He missed a chance to show dictators from around the world what real democracy should look like. Just what lesson did the minister hope these foreign dictators would learn when he pepper sprayed peaceful protesters? Hon. Lloyd Axworthy (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, frankly the premise of the hon. member's question is absurd. The whole question about what happened on the UBC campus is under investigation by a commission. It will determine who is responsible. I want to make very clear to the hon. member, because I do not think she understands, that during all these meetings we were able to demonstrate very clearly that the openness of this country was expressed at APEC. We raised issues that Canadians asked us to raise. To use a comment of a previous speaker, her question was a lot of? The Speaker: The hon. member for Acadie?Bathurst. * * * ... [English] APEC SUMMIT Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, last night the Prime Minister proved once and for all that his government really is the home of the whopper when he said that his government had never been involved in scandal in the last five years. We now know that all but one of the RCMP public complaints commissioners were appointed by the Prime Minister. Why should Canadians have any faith that the public complaints commissioner will get to the bottom of the APEC peppergate scandal when this is not arm's length or accountable? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I think it is very inappropriate for a member of parliament to say that anybody who wants to do public service for their country to get to the truth in this matter can somehow not be independent. I do not accept that premise and I do not think Canadians accept it either. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, not even the Prime Minister's imaginary homeless friend believes that the government is not involved in this APEC matter. The mandate of the RCMP Public Complaints Commissioner is not holding him back. He admitted as much yesterday in his statement. Will he commit to making a ministerial statement in the House to convene a public inquiry if the commission confirms next week that its mandate does not include the involvement of political interference? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the kind of interference the hon. member is suggesting is exactly the kind of interference he is condemning. * * * ... [end] ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From ayazl at paknet3.ptc.pk Fri Oct 2 18:41:24 1998 From: ayazl at paknet3.ptc.pk (SRC-ST) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 14:41:24 +0500 Subject: [asia-apec 735] Will be back on 19th of Oct Message-ID: <002e01bdedea$da73e340$0f02000a@default> I am back from UK but going to China for a conference and will be back on 19th of Oct. for most urgent messages Pl. use following Email address. Regards Ayaz Latif Palijo Sindh Pakistan src_st@hotmail.com From pspd at soback.kornet.nm.kr Fri Oct 2 19:12:50 1998 From: pspd at soback.kornet.nm.kr (PSPD) Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 19:12:50 +0900 Subject: [asia-apec 736] Re: Will be back on 19th of Oct References: <002e01bdedea$da73e340$0f02000a@default> Message-ID: <3614A722.4CCD1227@soback.kornet.nm.kr> Dear friends, We are looking any information or articles or somce cases on legal process or comment paper on illegal tapping against human rights in other countries. In Korea, even the so-called people's govt, still use the tapping to monitor activist. We believe this is a serious human rights violation not to protect personal life.We heard the USA and other countires do not use the tapping as an dossier in a court. So we guess probably some of people who made an effort to prevent the tapping processed the campaign or struggle for basic human rights. If you have information, we would like to use it into leaflet for a campaign. We will start the campaign from next week. So it's quite urgent request. Thanks Sincerely KHIS in PSPD From wnelles at sdri.ubc.ca Thu Oct 1 14:57:35 1998 From: wnelles at sdri.ubc.ca (Wayne Nelles) Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 14:57:35 Subject: [asia-apec 737] Re: The Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly In-Reply-To: <1439@panap.po.my> Message-ID: <3.0.2.16.19981001145735.24379322@sdri.ubc.ca> Hello, I would like to apply to participate in the APEC People's Assembly both as an individual and as a journalist. I work at the University of British Columbia but also do free-lance writing. I was an accredited journalist with APEC in Vancouver last year. Please email or fax me details about dates, location, program, etc. Thank you. Wayne Nelles P.O. Box 33739 Station D Vancouver, BC. V6J 4L6 CANADA Fax (604) 822-9191 From pspd at soback.kornet.nm.kr Sat Oct 3 00:19:41 1998 From: pspd at soback.kornet.nm.kr (PSPD) Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 00:19:41 +0900 Subject: [asia-apec 738] Re: Will be back on 19th of Oct References: <002e01bdedea$da73e340$0f02000a@default> <3614A722.4CCD1227@soback.kornet.nm.kr> Message-ID: <3614EF0D.2334CC63@soback.kornet.nm.kr> Dear friends, Who have worked against illegal tapping system in other countries ? If anyone knows that inforamtion, please contact us. Sincerely KHIS in PSPD From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Sat Oct 3 03:19:44 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 10:19:44 -0800 Subject: [asia-apec 739] Van Sun: Cracks in Liberal defence, boycott KL? Message-ID: Note the talk of Canada boycotting the KL APEC summit, at the end of this story. Now that would be presumptuous, given last year's events! Protesters should get funds: Liberal MP The Vancouver Sun Peter O'Neil, Sun Ottawa Bureau Vancouver Sun OTTAWA -- MP Ted McWhinney, whose riding includes the University of B.C. campus where students were pepper-sprayed during last year's APEC summit, said Thursday that Ottawa should stop refusing to fund students' legal costs at the RCMP Public Complaints Commission hearings that start next week. But McWhinney (Vancouver Quadra) joined fellow Liberal MPs to narrowly defeat an opposition motion to force Prime Minister Jean Chretien to testify at a special inquiry on his involvement in security plans for the leaders' conference. McWhinney's defence of students before committee prompted NDP foreign affairs critic Svend Robinson to propose a motion calling on the government to pick up the legal tab. The motion will be voted on next week by the all-party foreign affairs committee. But even though McWhinney went one further by agreeing the RCMP complaints commission may be unable to answer questions about alleged political interference, he and other government MPs were not spared from scathing criticism at the hands of Reform, Bloc Quebecois, NDP and Tory MPs. The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation issue has hounded Chretien in the Commons ever since MPs returned from summer break two weeks ago. The opposition has accused Chretien and senior members of his staff of going too far to appease then-Indonesian dictator Suharto and other world leaders. "It would be easier to find Elvis Presley alive and well than to find a Liberal who will accept responsibility for wrongdoing," Reform Leader Preston Manning said following a rare appearance at the committee. "The more this kind of stonewalling goes on, the more the impression the public gets that there is something to hide." Robinson said the Liberals' refusal to probe the Asia Pacific Economic Forum meeting and the RCMP's arrest, pepper-spraying and strip-searching of some protesters marks a "black day" for democracy. "The bottom line here is that we've got a bunch of Liberal trained seals who lined up to cover up and to stone-wall for the prime minister," Robinson (Burnaby-Douglas) said. Solicitor General Andy Scott, who refused to give the students funding, told the Commons later Thursday that he believes MPs are just trying to use the foreign affairs committee to grandstand. Federal Court Justice Barbara Reed ruled in July that the complaints commission is within its rights to ask Ottawa to pick up the complainants' legal tab. Meanwhile, the Chretien government continues to ponder whether Canada should step into another human rights furore at next month's APEC summit in Malaysia. Rumblings about boycotting the summit have arisen since Malaysia's former finance minister, Anwar Ibrahim, was imprisoned last week on charges of sodomy and corruption. "There is a concern on the part of the Canadian government about the turn of events there," International Trade Minister Sergio Marchi said in an interview Thursday. For now, however, Chretien spokesman Jennifer Lang said the prime minister -- like U.S. President Bill Clinton -- is still planning to attend the Kuala Lumpur summit. Southam News _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From LZarsky at nautilus.org Sat Oct 3 06:42:34 1998 From: LZarsky at nautilus.org (Lyuba Zarsky, Co-Director) Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 14:42:34 -0700 Subject: [asia-apec 740] Re: Amnesty International News Release on Malaysia In-Reply-To: <80256687.0036503A.00@fox.amnesty.org> Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19981002144234.00875330@nautilus.org> I would really like to see Amnesty raise a protest againt the anti-sodomy laws in Malaysia--heinous in their own right on human rights grounds, represensible as a cover for political repression. Lyuba Zarsky At 10:59 AM 9/22/98 +0100, you wrote: >AI INDEX: ASA 28/20/98News Service: 184/98 >21 September 1998 -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE > >Malaysia: Amnesty International calls for Anwar to be charged promptly or >released > >The Malaysian authorities should promptly charge Anwar Ibrahim and his >political associates, >detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), with a recognised criminal >offence or release them, >Amnesty International said today. > > "In light of the events leading up to their arrest, and the past >misuse of the ISA for political >purposes, Amnesty International is concerned that Anwar Ibrahim and the >other detainees are >being held solely because of their critical political views and are >possible prisoners of conscience", >the organization said > > "The use of the ISA seems to indicate that authorities are more intent > on pursuing a >political agenda than on conducting an independent criminal investigation >leading to fair and >open trials." > > The worldwide human rights organization also called on the government >to respect the >right of Malaysians to peaceful assembly, and for the police to exercise >the maximum restraint in >their treatment demonstrators. More than 50 demonstrators are reported to >have been arrested in >recent days and their whereabouts and welfare remain unclear. > > > Those arrested with Anwar over the weekend include the head of the >youth wing of the >ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and >four senior >members of ABIM, a Muslim youth organization. > > "The improper release into the public domain of untested court >affidavits alleging Anwar?s >involvement in a series of criminal offences, which was then followed not >by charges, but by the >application of the ISA -- allowing indefinite detention without trial -- >raises serious questions about >the government?s real motivations", Amnesty International said. > > Under the ISA police are empowered to arrest without a warrant any >person suspected of >acting in ?any manner prejudicial to the security of Malaysia...or the >economic life thereof? and to >question them for a period of up to sixty days before a Minister signs a >detention order of up to two >years, renewable indefinitely. Detention orders are not open to judicial >review and habeas corpus >petitions have proved ineffective. > > Amnesty International has repeatedly protested the application of the >ISA as falling short of >international standards on the right to fair trial, and the right to >peacefully express opinion free from >the threat of arbitrary arrest and detention. > >...\ENDS > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lyuba Zarsky Director Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development ph:+1 510.204.9296 fax:+1 510.204.9298 e-mail: lzarsky@nautilus.org http://www.nautilus.org From tpl at cheerful.com Sat Oct 3 04:49:42 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 03:49:42 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 741] Opposition to Malaysia's ISA Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981003034942.006b6178@pop.skyinet.net> From: BAYAN Solidarity Message to the People of Malaysia Fighting the Internal Security Act BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance) in the Philippines joins the growing number of outraged groups and individuals all over the world in vehemently protesting the recent arrest and illegal detention of 126 persons, including Anwar Ibrahim, in Kuala Lumpur last September 21. BAYAN condemns the brutal dispersal of thousands of people peacefully protesting the government crackdown on its critics and dissenters. The Mahathir government claims that these people were engaged in "riots and violent acts." Can clapping one's hands and chanting now be categorized as violent acts? The absurdity of this charge reveals the Mahathir regime's paranoid fear of its own citizens massing up and venting their long repressed anger and discontent against an unjust government. We in Bayan note that these arrests are taking place at a time when thousands of Malaysians are jobless or have been displaced from their farm lands, are feeling the economic crisis and therefore are understandably restive. The violations of civil liberties are justified in the name of globalization. At the same time, we are inspired by the fact that thousands of Malaysians have been emboldened to take to the streets and demonstrate their views and demands in spite of the serious risk of being arrested, charged with violations of the dreaded Internal Security Act (ISA) and detained indefinitely without trial. The (ISA) is a draconian measure instituted to preempt the moves of any individual/group even BEFORE he/she/it even considers protesting or expressing legitimate grievances against the government. What kind of political system is this that does not want to allow its people to think? In the Philippines under the martial rule of the US-Marcos dictatorship, thousands of Filipinos were thrown into military camps by virtue of a presidential decree called PDA (Preventive Detention Act) which the late dictator patterned after the infamous ISA. Marcos's target was to stifle dissent emanating from a majority of the people who were straining under the dual yoke of political repression and economic hardship. The PDA was an instrument wielded by the dictator Marcos to suppress the growing anti-dictatorship movement. But the Filipino people's resistance (both armed and popular struggles) throughout the 14 years of Marcos' rule weakened the dictatorship until it was overthrown in a popular uprising in 1986. The Malaysian people are once again at a crossroad in their political life as they confront their government on the issue of civil liberties and the financial and economic crisis, as well. Powerfully ranged against them are the repressive political instruments that is the ISA, combined with police brutality and the possible instigation of Mahathir loyalists and lumpen gangs to riot in order to sow confusion and disorder and later on, to wholly blame it on the leaders of peoples' organizations, NGO workers, personages, etc. BAYAN joins freedom-loving peoples of the world in calling for the release of all ISA detainees, a stop to police brutality and harassment of protesters and their relatives and friends. BAYAN likewise calls on the Malaysian government to respect the rights of Malaysian workers, peasants, urban dwellers and other sectors to hold peaceful assemblies to express their legitimate concerns about how the government has been ruling them. Above all, BAYAN strongly urges the repeal of the Internal Security Act, the scourge of freedom-loving people in Malaysia, and calls on its people not to be cowed by the intensifying campaign of terror unleashed by the Mahathir government against critics of his rule. In 1987 when there was a wave of arrest and detention of more than a hundred activists, NGO workers, individuals who were charged with violating the Internal Security Act of Malaysia on an absurd witch-hunt campaign against Malaysians who, according to the government, were getting in touch with Filipino "communists", BAYAN then stood in solidarity with the Malaysian people. Rallies were held in front of the Malaysian embassy and through the mass media, BAYAN conducted an information campaign about the ISA as an instrument used by the Malaysian government against its own people. After ll years, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan once again links arms with the Malaysian people in their right to organize themselves to fight for their basic democratic rights. Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) September 24, 1998 Quezon City, Philippines From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Sat Oct 3 08:17:28 1998 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 11:17:28 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 742] Toronto Star Article - APEC Message-ID: The Toronto Star October 1, 1998 Arrogance of the elites the real APEC tale By Naomi Klein Stack the latest document in the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation scandal on the pile of papers pointing directly at the Prime Minister's Office. "PMO has expressed concerns about the security perimeter at (the University of British Columbia), not so much from a security point of view but to avoid embarrassment to APEC leaders," reads an E-mail from summit organizer Robert Vanderloo. It's clear the RCMP are intent on pinning the blame for their strong- arm tactics on the Prime Minister while the PM would surely like nothing more than for the whole affair to be dismissed as the actions of a few ham-fisted cops. Maybe they're both right. The RCMP may well have been out of control and their actions may indeed have violated the protesters' civil liberties. But that was, at least, partly as a result of the fact -- clearly outlined in the documents -- that Ottawa handed the RCMP demands that could not be carried out peacefully. And what exactly is the acceptable means of preventing "embarrassment to APEC leaders?" If the officers looked in their RCMP manuals under "embarrassment prevention," they would have come up empty since causing politicians to blush is neither a crime nor a security risk. Those are among the questions that the RCMP public complaints commission will be hearing next week as the blame for SprayPEC gets batted around in Vancouver. Outside the scope of this commission however, is the question of why the bodies advancing global trade -- from APEC to the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund -- are becoming lightning rods for so much global discontent. Beyond the cries that human rights are being sacrificed at the altar of corporate profits, are deeper concerns about the lack of transparency and access to these powerful decision-making bodies. In the absence of opportunities for meaning public participation citizens groups must shout to be heard. As their voices grow louder, it takes increasingly forceful measures to make sure they do not cause a disturbance -- let alone embarrassment. This is a problem faced not only by the RCMP, but by police forces around the world. Once upon a time, world leaders could have their meetings in peace. Sure, there were a few protesters shouting against nuclear bombs or whaling, but the vast majority of labour, human rights and environmental activists had their eyes focused exclusively on national battles. That time has decidedly passed. At the G-8 Summit in Birmingham, England last May, 10,000 protesters formed a human chain around the city demanding Third World debt relief. Two days later, when the leaders travelled to Geneva to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the World Trade Organization, the caravan of students, farmers and the unemployed followed like a long shadow. It was this ad hoc global network, connected through a web of electronic mail, which generated enough heat over the Multilateral Agreement on Investment that its introduction was stalled last April. But as public concern about free trade mounts, there has been no attempt to create official channels for such grievances to be addressed. In the absence of such a response, surveillance of activists is stepped up and every legitimate demonstration is regarded as a riot waiting to happen. For instance, when APEC trade ministers met in New Zealand in July, 1996, activists organized a small counter-summit. On the night before the summit, two secret service officers where caught breaking into and rifling though the home of protest organizer Aziz Choudry. His civil case is currently under appeal. When the leaders' summit was held in Manila in 1997, the police sealed all the exits from a parallel anti-APEC conference, preventing a planned protest at the summit site. In Geneva last month, police raided an anti-MAI seminar and 50 participants were detained without charge. So, do we have a conspiracy on our hands? I'm afraid it's nothing more glamorous than the garden variety arrogance of powerful people, accustomed to the comfort of closed doors, suddenly facing a horde of uninvited guests. Just ask Sylvia Ostry, Canada's Grande Dame of free trade. "Isn't there some way of monitoring these people?" Ostry asked at a Toronto seminar last November. It sounded as if she was talking about busting a ring of Internet child pornographers, but she was actually referring to politically engaged Canadians who were turning the tide of public opinion against the MAI. The real question is one which should be leveled at Ostry and other free traders who seem to believe that writing the laws of our shared global government is a private matter and not our concern: Isn't there some way of monitoring these people? From ppc at philonline.com Sun Oct 4 16:30:17 1998 From: ppc at philonline.com (ppc) Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 15:30:17 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 743] BAYAN and AWC Co-cponcored Forum-Workshop at APPA Message-ID: <199810040730.PAA25512@fiesta.philonline.com.ph> Asia Pacific People's Assembly (APPA) November 10-15, 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia APPA Forum-Workshop on Globalization and the US-Japan Security Agenda Sponsored by Asia-Wide Campaign and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN or New Patriotic Alliance, Philippines) November 11 - 12, 1998 I. Objectives 1.1. to deepen our understanding of the US-Japan Security Agenda in the Asia-Pacific region and its relation to the economic and political crisis brought about by globalization; 1.2. to learn about the joint security strategy employed by U.S. and Japan in realizing their security agenda in the Asia Pacific region; 1.3. to share and learn from experiences of people's struggles in the region to counter the aggressive assertion by US and Japan of their security interests; 1.4. to determine the urgent issues related to the US-Japan Security Agenda which can be the basis for regional action. II. Rationale Globalization, vaunted as the unstoppable and desirable integration of the vastly disparate economies of the advanced capitalist countries and the backward, pre-industrial Third World nations into a single global economy by knocking down all barriers to "free trade and free market", has begun to unravel and become exposed as a false messiah. Instead, the neoliberal policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization are becoming widely seen as delivering deathblows to the crisis-ridden economies of underdeveloped countries and the so-called newly industrializing countries (NICs). How? By throwing them wide-open to the unbridled profit-making of transnational corporations and banks as well as rendering them completely vulnerable to the vagaries of the world market. The results for oppressed peoples in the Third World are now plain for all to see: bankruptcies of domestic industries; workers thrown out of their jobs or forced to accept slave wages, hazardous work conditions, and work insecurity; peasants and indigenous peoples displaced from the land and driven to penury by landgrabbing, so-called development projects, and land and crop conversion; massive migration of the rural poor to cities only to become urban slum dwellers without jobs and homes, facing a bleak future; the commerce of women and children as the cheapest , contractual labor in sweat shops and as commodities in a burgeoning flesh trade; the continuing brain-drain as professionals, technical people, skilled workers and other trained persons are lured to become migrant workers in search of better job oppurtunities outside their home countries. The assault on the working people of industrialized countries occurs simultaneously as international capital seeks to invest and set up shop where labor costs are the lowest and trade unions are non-existent or ineffectual. Now more than ever, the historical gains of the working class are being severely undermined and set back. It is the US, long the dominant superpower in Asia, and its junior partner Japan together with other imperialist powers, which have been pushing globalization to the desperately poor, underdeveloped countries of the Asia-Pacific. These power centers of monopoly capital join hands in making the latter countries comply with GATT-WTO, IMF-World Bank and APEC economic impositions with the collusion of domestic ruling elites in every country. At the same time they vigorously compete with each other for markets and resources, expanding and consolidating their strategic spheres of influence. In a 1995 US Defense Department policy paper the following assessment was made: "The Asia Pacific region is currently the most economically dynamic region in the world, and on that basis alone, its security would be critical to America's future." US trade with Asia grew twice that of trade with Europe accounting for 36% of total American world trade. It provides for more than 3 million American jobs and contributes over $400 billion annually to the US economy. Seventy percent of the regional demand for oil is met by US-owned or controlled wells in the Persian Gulf with the precious commodity passing through narrow choke points in Southeast Asia. Forty percent of global bank reserves are reported to be under the control of seven East Asian economies (namely Japan, the PRC, HK, Taiwan, Singapore, ROK and Malaysia). The US Defense policy paper unabashedly concludes that the fundamental economic interests of the US in the Asia-Pacific region makes it strategic in terms of US national security. Japan for its part has accelerated the relocation of its assembly and sub-assembly type of manufacturing in East Asia to establish a regional division of labor comprising the NICs, China and ASEAN members. Japanese monopoly capitalists seek to take advantage of the region's rich natural resource base, huge market , and cheap and docile labor together with generous government incentives such as tax holidays and tariff-free importation of capital goods and raw materials. It is not surprising that from 1991- 1993, the rate of profit for Japanese firms in Asia was 2.4% which is more than four times as much as in Japan. Thus the high economic stakes of Japanese monopoly capital in the region corresponds to the highest priority Japan, in alliance with the US, gives to regional security concerns. The other face of globalization has seen popular struggles, uprisings and wars of national liberation waged by an increasing number of masses of people against severe economic measures and the accompanying political repression unleashed by the monopoly capitalists and their cohorts among ruling regimes not only in the Third World countries but in highly industrialized centers as well. The current financial and economic crisis which saw the crash of East Asian economies including that of Japan, the eventual collapse of the Russian economy, and which now threatens the Chinese and Latin American economies, only underscores the importance for the US and Japan of securing their economic and political interests in the region. In order to protect these immense interests and to suppress peoples' movements directly threatening them, the US and Japan have been flexing their military muscle and intervening covertly and overtly in the internal affairs of countries in the region. Despite the fact that it is the sole superpower in the world today, the US maintains 100,000 forward deployment troops in main military bases and facilities in Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Guam and Saipan, Singapore and Diego Garcia. Bilateral military treaties concluded by the US with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and others after World War II continue to be the cornerstone of US military hegemony in the region. Other Asian countries which do not have US bases are covered by Accessing and Cross Servicing Agreements (ACSA) which provide unhampered sea/air ports usage and supply arrangements. Since The US-Japan Security Treaty was signed in 1952, Japan has been providing logistical and financial support for US troops stationed in the region. In exchange, Japanese big business interests are protected under the US military umbrella. In reasserting its economic, political and military hegemony, US imperialism demands more support from Japan. The Japanese ruling class assents because of its own militarist agenda aimed at protecting and expanding its capital overseas in the face of worsening economic and political crisis in the region. Thus the US and Japan have strengthened their security alliance and stepped up their joint military activities. In April 1996, the two governments issued the Joint Declaration on Security -- Alliance for the 21st Century which widens the scope of their defense cooperation in regional and even global military adventures. At the same time, the US and Japan concluded an ACSA which allows Japanese self-defense forces (SDF) to provide greater logistical support to the US military. In November the same year, Japan mobilized 11 warships, 130 aircraft and 10,000 soldiers in a joint military excercise with the US Seventh Fleet which coincided with US-South Korea war games clearly directed against North Korea. It is in this context that the workshop, "Globalization and the US-Japan Security Agenda" is being held at the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly. The US-Japan security alliance continues to be the real source of destabilization and insecurity in East Asia as well as the rest of the Asia-Pacific. These imperialist powers have for a long time used our region as their battleground, resulting in the loss of countless lives, widespread destruction of homes and properties, unspeakable suffering and a legacy of socio-economic ills for generations to come. Peace-loving peoples of the Asia-Pacific must oppose the US and Japanese imperialists' aggressive militarist and interventionist designs in the region. III. Program November 10 Whole Day: Registration to APPA Afternoon: Registration to Workshop on Globalization and the US-Japan Security Agenda Early Evening: APPA Opening Ceremony November 11 Morning Session 8:00- 9:00 Additional Registration 9:00- 9:30 Keynote Speech: Globalization and the US-Japan Security Agenda Speaker: Capt. Dan Vizmanos, former President, BAYAN 9:30-10:30 Country Sharing on US-Japan Security Strategy - United States: Security Strategy for Asia in the 21st Century Proposed speaker: from Friends of the Filipino People or American Friends Service Committee - Japan: Its Own Security Agenda for Asia Speaker c/o AWC 10:30-11:00 Break 11:00-12:30 - Philippines: Visiting Forces Agreement - the Return of U.S. Military Forces Speaker: Dr. Carol Araullo, Vice-Chairperson, BAYAN - Korea: A Country Still Divided by U.S. Military Bases Speaker: from the National Council for Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea - Indonesia: US-Indonesia Arms Deal Proposed Speaker: from the YMB network - China: Is She a Regional Threat? Proposed Speaker: from Labor Rights Association, Taiwan 12:30- 1:00 Open Forum 1:00- 2:00 Lunch Afternoon and Evening Session 2:00- 3:30 Sharing on Peoples' Struggles Against US-Japan Security Agenda - USA - Japan A Broad Coalition Campaign Against U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa Citizens' Campaign Against U.S. Bases and the Deployment of SDFs Abroad 3:30- 4:00 Break 4:00- 6:30 - Philippines Junk VFA Movement - Korea: Minjung Movement for Peace and Reunification in Korea - Indonesia : YMB Network - Taiwan - Asia-Wide Campaign 6:30- 7:30 Open Forum 7:30- 8:30 Dinner November 12 Morning Session 9:00-10:00 Resolutions 10:00-10:30 Break 10:30-11:30 Plans 11:30-12:00 Closing Drafted by: BAYAN October 2, 1998 From ppc at philonline.com Sun Oct 4 16:34:05 1998 From: ppc at philonline.com (ppc) Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 15:34:05 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 744] BAYAN and AWC Co-sponsored Forum-Workshop at APPA Message-ID: <199810040734.PAA25776@fiesta.philonline.com.ph> Asia Pacific People's Assembly (APPA) November 10-15, 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia APPA Forum-Workshop on Globalization and the US-Japan Security Agenda Sponsored by Asia-Wide Campaign and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN or New Patriotic Alliance, Philippines) November 11 - 12, 1998 I. Objectives 1.1. to deepen our understanding of the US-Japan Security Agenda in the Asia-Pacific region and its relation to the economic and political crisis brought about by globalization; 1.2. to learn about the joint security strategy employed by U.S. and Japan in realizing their security agenda in the Asia Pacific region; 1.3. to share and learn from experiences of people's struggles in the region to counter the aggressive assertion by US and Japan of their security interests; 1.4. to determine the urgent issues related to the US-Japan Security Agenda which can be the basis for regional action. II. Rationale Globalization, vaunted as the unstoppable and desirable integration of the vastly disparate economies of the advanced capitalist countries and the backward, pre-industrial Third World nations into a single global economy by knocking down all barriers to "free trade and free market", has begun to unravel and become exposed as a false messiah. Instead, the neoliberal policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization are becoming widely seen as delivering deathblows to the crisis-ridden economies of underdeveloped countries and the so-called newly industrializing countries (NICs). How? By throwing them wide-open to the unbridled profit-making of transnational corporations and banks as well as rendering them completely vulnerable to the vagaries of the world market. The results for oppressed peoples in the Third World are now plain for all to see: bankruptcies of domestic industries; workers thrown out of their jobs or forced to accept slave wages, hazardous work conditions, and work insecurity; peasants and indigenous peoples displaced from the land and driven to penury by landgrabbing, so-called development projects, and land and crop conversion; massive migration of the rural poor to cities only to become urban slum dwellers without jobs and homes, facing a bleak future; the commerce of women and children as the cheapest , contractual labor in sweat shops and as commodities in a burgeoning flesh trade; the continuing brain-drain as professionals, technical people, skilled workers and other trained persons are lured to become migrant workers in search of better job oppurtunities outside their home countries. The assault on the working people of industrialized countries occurs simultaneously as international capital seeks to invest and set up shop where labor costs are the lowest and trade unions are non-existent or ineffectual. Now more than ever, the historical gains of the working class are being severely undermined and set back. It is the US, long the dominant superpower in Asia, and its junior partner Japan together with other imperialist powers, which have been pushing globalization to the desperately poor, underdeveloped countries of the Asia-Pacific. These power centers of monopoly capital join hands in making the latter countries comply with GATT-WTO, IMF-World Bank and APEC economic impositions with the collusion of domestic ruling elites in every country. At the same time they vigorously compete with each other for markets and resources, expanding and consolidating their strategic spheres of influence. In a 1995 US Defense Department policy paper the following assessment was made: "The Asia Pacific region is currently the most economically dynamic region in the world, and on that basis alone, its security would be critical to America's future." US trade with Asia grew twice that of trade with Europe accounting for 36% of total American world trade. It provides for more than 3 million American jobs and contributes over $400 billion annually to the US economy. Seventy percent of the regional demand for oil is met by US-owned or controlled wells in the Persian Gulf with the precious commodity passing through narrow choke points in Southeast Asia. Forty percent of global bank reserves are reported to be under the control of seven East Asian economies (namely Japan, the PRC, HK, Taiwan, Singapore, ROK and Malaysia). The US Defense policy paper unabashedly concludes that the fundamental economic interests of the US in the Asia-Pacific region makes it strategic in terms of US national security. Japan for its part has accelerated the relocation of its assembly and sub-assembly type of manufacturing in East Asia to establish a regional division of labor comprising the NICs, China and ASEAN members. Japanese monopoly capitalists seek to take advantage of the region's rich natural resource base, huge market , and cheap and docile labor together with generous government incentives such as tax holidays and tariff-free importation of capital goods and raw materials. It is not surprising that from 1991- 1993, the rate of profit for Japanese firms in Asia was 2.4% which is more than four times as much as in Japan. Thus the high economic stakes of Japanese monopoly capital in the region corresponds to the highest priority Japan, in alliance with the US, gives to regional security concerns. The other face of globalization has seen popular struggles, uprisings and wars of national liberation waged by an increasing number of masses of people against severe economic measures and the accompanying political repression unleashed by the monopoly capitalists and their cohorts among ruling regimes not only in the Third World countries but in highly industrialized centers as well. The current financial and economic crisis which saw the crash of East Asian economies including that of Japan, the eventual collapse of the Russian economy, and which now threatens the Chinese and Latin American economies, only underscores the importance for the US and Japan of securing their economic and political interests in the region. In order to protect these immense interests and to suppress peoples' movements directly threatening them, the US and Japan have been flexing their military muscle and intervening covertly and overtly in the internal affairs of countries in the region. Despite the fact that it is the sole superpower in the world today, the US maintains 100,000 forward deployment troops in main military bases and facilities in Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Guam and Saipan, Singapore and Diego Garcia. Bilateral military treaties concluded by the US with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and others after World War II continue to be the cornerstone of US military hegemony in the region. Other Asian countries which do not have US bases are covered by Accessing and Cross Servicing Agreements (ACSA) which provide unhampered sea/air ports usage and supply arrangements. Since The US-Japan Security Treaty was signed in 1952, Japan has been providing logistical and financial support for US troops stationed in the region. In exchange, Japanese big business interests are protected under the US military umbrella. In reasserting its economic, political and military hegemony, US imperialism demands more support from Japan. The Japanese ruling class assents because of its own militarist agenda aimed at protecting and expanding its capital overseas in the face of worsening economic and political crisis in the region. Thus the US and Japan have strengthened their security alliance and stepped up their joint military activities. In April 1996, the two governments issued the Joint Declaration on Security -- Alliance for the 21st Century which widens the scope of their defense cooperation in regional and even global military adventures. At the same time, the US and Japan concluded an ACSA which allows Japanese self-defense forces (SDF) to provide greater logistical support to the US military. In November the same year, Japan mobilized 11 warships, 130 aircraft and 10,000 soldiers in a joint military excercise with the US Seventh Fleet which coincided with US-South Korea war games clearly directed against North Korea. It is in this context that the workshop, "Globalization and the US-Japan Security Agenda" is being held at the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly. The US-Japan security alliance continues to be the real source of destabilization and insecurity in East Asia as well as the rest of the Asia-Pacific. These imperialist powers have for a long time used our region as their battleground, resulting in the loss of countless lives, widespread destruction of homes and properties, unspeakable suffering and a legacy of socio-economic ills for generations to come. Peace-loving peoples of the Asia-Pacific must oppose the US and Japanese imperialists' aggressive militarist and interventionist designs in the region. III. Program November 10 Whole Day: Registration to APPA Afternoon: Registration to Workshop on Globalization and the US-Japan Security Agenda Early Evening: APPA Opening Ceremony November 11 Morning Session 8:00- 9:00 Additional Registration 9:00- 9:30 Keynote Speech: Globalization and the US-Japan Security Agenda Speaker: Capt. Dan Vizmanos, former President, BAYAN 9:30-10:30 Country Sharing on US-Japan Security Strategy - United States: Security Strategy for Asia in the 21st Century Proposed speaker: from Friends of the Filipino People or American Friends Service Committee - Japan: Its Own Security Agenda for Asia Speaker c/o AWC 10:30-11:00 Break 11:00-12:30 - Philippines: Visiting Forces Agreement - the Return of U.S. Military Forces Speaker: Dr. Carol Araullo, Vice-Chairperson, BAYAN - Korea: A Country Still Divided by U.S. Military Bases Speaker: from the National Council for Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea - Indonesia: US-Indonesia Arms Deal Proposed Speaker: from the YMB network - China: Is She a Regional Threat? Proposed Speaker: from Labor Rights Association, Taiwan 12:30- 1:00 Open Forum 1:00- 2:00 Lunch Afternoon and Evening Session 2:00- 3:30 Sharing on Peoples' Struggles Against US-Japan Security Agenda - USA - Japan A Broad Coalition Campaign Against U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa Citizens' Campaign Against U.S. Bases and the Deployment of SDFs Abroad 3:30- 4:00 Break 4:00- 6:30 - Philippines Junk VFA Movement - Korea: Minjung Movement for Peace and Reunification in Korea - Indonesia : YMB Network - Taiwan - Asia-Wide Campaign 6:30- 7:30 Open Forum 7:30- 8:30 Dinner November 12 Morning Session 9:00-10:00 Resolutions 10:00-10:30 Break 10:30-11:30 Plans 11:30-12:00 Closing Drafted by: BAYAN October 2, 1998 From nacfar at mnl.sequel.net Mon Oct 5 14:30:03 1998 From: nacfar at mnl.sequel.net (nacfar@mnl.sequel.net) Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 13:30:03 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 745] (no title) Message-ID: <3.0.32.19981005132757.0068e210@mnl.sequel.net> Dear APPA Secretariat, Warmest greetings! Part of the Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) to be held parallel to the 1998 APEC Leaders Summit, is the Workshop on Globalization and Fisheries. It is being jointly sponsored by NACFAR (Nationwide Coalition of the Fisherfolk for Aquatic Reform - Philippines) and PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines) with the theme "Fisherfolk Say No to Monopoly Capital's Thirst for Profit." 0000,0000,ffffThe NACFAR Council of Leaders decided to send Ms. Myrna Carlos, Acting Officer-in-Charge of the Nacfar Secretariat to attend and participate in the upcoming APPA Conference as one of the presentors in the Workshop on Globalization and Fisheries0000,0000,ffff. In particular, she would be presenting a case study on the BIMP-EAGA’s Fisheries Cooperation. Our organization, NACFAR, initiated a study on the BIMP and had conducted in August 1997, a Fisherfolk Consultation on the same, held in Southern Philippines. It would be a great honor and opportunity for Nacfar and the Philippine Fisherfolk that she be able to attend. 0000,0000,ffffHowever, our organization is also not in a position to pay the expenses for the forum. We are now faced with wanting for substantial external support in order for Ms. Carlos to attend and participate in the meaningful Assembly. Specifically, we are humbly appealing to you to provide financial assistance for her transportation and accommodation needs by way of sponsoring her airfare, food and accomodation to the conference amounting to a minimum package sum of eight hundred US Dollars (USD 800). Please contact soonest so that we could make the proper arrangements or alternate plans with your decision. Looking forward into your eventual support, We remain For the Council of Leaders, Thelma Roxas Member, Nacfar Council fn: idelappa.doc From nacfar at mnl.sequel.net Mon Oct 5 14:32:04 1998 From: nacfar at mnl.sequel.net (nacfar@mnl.sequel.net) Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 13:32:04 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 746] Assistance for Phil Speaker on BIMP Message-ID: <3.0.32.19981005133122.0068e964@mnl.sequel.net> Dear APPA Secretariat, Warmest greetings! Part of the Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) to be held parallel to the 1998 APEC Leaders Summit, is the Workshop on Globalization and Fisheries. It is being jointly sponsored by NACFAR (Nationwide Coalition of the Fisherfolk for Aquatic Reform - Philippines) and PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines) with the theme "Fisherfolk Say No to Monopoly Capital's Thirst for Profit." 0000,0000,ffffThe NACFAR Council of Leaders decided to send Ms. Myrna Carlos, Acting Officer-in-Charge of the Nacfar Secretariat to attend and participate in the upcoming APPA Conference as one of the presentors in the Workshop on Globalization and Fisheries0000,0000,ffff. In particular, she would be presenting a case study on the BIMP-EAGA’s Fisheries Cooperation. Our organization, NACFAR, initiated a study on the BIMP and had conducted in August 1997, a Fisherfolk Consultation on the same, held in Southern Philippines. It would be a great honor and opportunity for Nacfar and the Philippine Fisherfolk that she be able to attend. 0000,0000,ffffHowever, our organization is also not in a position to pay the expenses for the forum. We are now faced with wanting for substantial external support in order for Ms. Carlos to attend and participate in the meaningful Assembly. Specifically, we are humbly appealing to you to provide financial assistance for her transportation and accommodation needs by way of sponsoring her airfare, food and accomodation to the conference amounting to a minimum package sum of eight hundred US Dollars (USD 800). Please contact soonest so that we could make the proper arrangements or alternate plans with your decision. Looking forward into your eventual support, We remain For the Council of Leaders, Thelma Roxas Member, Nacfar Council fn: idelappa.doc From nacfar at mnl.sequel.net Mon Oct 5 19:33:34 1998 From: nacfar at mnl.sequel.net (nacfar@mnl.sequel.net) Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 18:33:34 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 747] Assistance for Phil Speaker on BIMP Message-ID: <3.0.32.19981005183301.00694bfc@mnl.sequel.net> Dear APPA Secretariat, Warmest greetings! Part of the Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) to be held parallel to the 1998 APEC Leaders Summit, is the Workshop on Globalization and Fisheries. It is being jointly sponsored by NACFAR (Nationwide Coalition of the Fisherfolk for Aquatic Reform - Philippines) and PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines) with the theme "Fisherfolk Say No to Monopoly Capital's Thirst for Profit." The NACFAR Council of Leaders decided to send Ms. Myrna Carlos, Acting Officer-in-Charge of the Nacfar Secretariat to attend and participate in the upcoming APPA Conference as one of the presentors in the Workshop on Globalization and Fisheries. In particular, she would be presenting a case study on the BIMP-EAGA’s Fisheries Cooperation. Our organization, NACFAR, initiated a study on the BIMP and had conducted in August 1997, a Fisherfolk Consultation on the same, held in Southern Philippines. It would be a great honor and opportunity for Nacfar and the Philippine Fisherfolk that she be able to attend. However, our organization is also not in a position to pay the expenses for the forum. We are now faced with wanting for substantial external support in order for Ms. Carlos to attend and participate in the meaningful Assembly. Specifically, we are humbly appealing to you to provide financial assistance for her transportation and accommodation needs by way of sponsoring her airfare, food and accomodation to the conference amounting to a minimum package sum of eight hundred US Dollars (USD 800). Please contact soonest so that we could make the proper arrangements or alternate plans with your decision. Looking forward into your eventual support, We remain For the Council of Leaders, Thelma Roxas Member, Nacfar Council fn: idelappa.doc From pet at web.net Mon Oct 5 20:14:12 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 07:14:12 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 748] G&M: The Day the (Cdn.) PM was host to a despot Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981005071753.23c79e82@pop.web.net> Globe and Mail October 5, 1998 COLUMN ONE The day the PM was host to a despot Canada treated Suharto like a star. Now the unofficial spotlight at an RCMP hearing is on Jean Chretien. Monday, October 5, 1998 JOHN SAUNDERS and JANE ARMSTRONG The Globe and Mail Vancouver -- Helicopters thumped in the sky. Sharpshooters stood guard on a roof. The police made their stand at a security fence, and adrenalin flowed in student protesters' veins. From some points of view, it was a glorious day, thanks to decisions that may change the way history regards a prime minister. When Jean Chr?tien played host to an Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Vancouver last Nov. 25, he chose an awkward location and questionable company, notably Indonesia's since-deposed president Suharto, a famously corrupt ex-general who rose to power on the bodies of hundreds of thousands of his countrymen. With less courting from Mr. Chr?tien, the dictator and his armed guards might have stayed home. Memos and letters paint pictures of diplomatic grovelling for the favour of his presence, Indonesian insistence that he face no protests, and anxiety in the Prime Minister's Office that demonstrators be neither seen nor heard. The site was elegant -- a glass-walled museum full of native artifacts on the sea-rimmed campus of the University of British Columbia -- but the neighbours were noisy. Students and off-campus activists had been preparing for the day for more than an year. As they tell it, their tactics were nonviolent but definitely illegal. Among other things, they swarmed a police line to force mass arrests, pulled down part of the security fence and tried to form human roadblocks on motorcade routes. No one knows what might have happened had RCMP officers not routed them with pepper spray, a crowd-stopping substitute for tear gas. As police tell it, they had to spray because the site was hard to defend and Suharto's twitchy guards would have shot any demonstrator who got near their boss. They have yet to say how much they were influenced by the Prime Minister's do-not-disturb sign. The clashes were gentle by international standards: no rock-throwing, no baton charges, no rubber bullets. Protesters spent a day resisting what they saw as evil, tested theories of civil disobedience, were pepper-sprayed, arrested and in some cases strip-searched. They emerged little the worse for wear. None face criminal charges relating to the day's events. What they did not do was make an impression on the actual summit, nestled deep within the police cordon. The 18 APEC leaders, including the protest-shy Suharto, glimpsed scarcely more dissent than is permitted in the police states some of them run. The protesters now are taking revenge on Mr. Chr?tien, whose conduct is unofficially on trial in an RCMP Public Complaints Commission hearing that resumes today. Their persistence has made his role a national issue more than 10 months later. The Prime Minister may be a little guy from Shawinigan, Que., but he seems to enjoy rubbing shoulders with the powerful, even when they stand for things Canada officially deplores. He was eager to have Suharto at the summit, and the dictator was playing hard to get. The process can be glimpsed in a mass of documents the government has been compelled to provide to participants in the hearing, including student protesters. Although the material has not officially been made public, parts have been leaked to reporters. In the summer and early fall of 1997, officials at the Canadian embassy in Jakarta and the Privy Council Office in Ottawa worked to wear down Suharto's resistance. Memos describe Indonesian demands that he be spared "embarrassment," including any face-to-face confrontation with a protester. The occupation of East Timor, a former Portuguese territory held by Indonesian troops since 1975, was a particularly sensitive point. Indonesian officials complained "forcefully and at length about what they claimed was Canadian gov'ts failure so far to ensure that President Soeharto [sic] would not be humiliated while in Vancouver." (Memo from External Affairs official Leslie James to colleague Ingrid Hall, Sept. 9, 1997) "There is a growing possibility that President Soeharto may not come to the APEC Leaders meeting in Vancouver because of a desire to avoid embarrassment at the hands of the East Timor protesters. . . . Suggest perhaps in future you place a telephone call to President Soeharto." (Note from PCO official Jim Bartleman to the Prime Minister's Office, Sept. 19) "Do what we can to prevent embarrassment. [Censored] don't want to see any demonstrators. PM will want to be personally involved." (Minutes of an interdepartmental meeting taken by PCO official Patricia Hassard, Oct. 29) "I have directed my officials to spare no effort to ensure that appropriate security and other arrangements are made for your stay in Canada as our guest." (Letter from Mr. Chr?tien to Suharto, Oct. 3) Suharto agreed to come and the protesters were kept at bay, but his gratitude would do Canada little good. Within six months, mass protests by his own people had driven him from office. Officially, the public hearing will examine complaints about the conduct of 40 RCMP officers, but what everyone wants to know is how deeply the Prime Minister was involved in guaranteeing Suharto's hassle-free experience. The evidence so far suggests a lively interest, although it remains to be shown conclusively that he ordered a clampdown on protesters to appease a despot. "PM specific wish that this is a retreat and leaders should not be distracted by demos, etc." (Note taken by RCMP Superintendent Wayne May, Aug. 27, about discussions with Chr?tien aide Jean Carle and summit organizer Robert Vanderloo) "Jean Carle does not want the demonstrators close at all!" (Note by RCMP Inspector Bill Dingwall, Aug. 27) "PMO had expressed concerns about the security perimeter at UBC, not so much from a security point of view but to avoid embarrassments to APEC leaders." (Note from Vanderloo to his staff, Sept. 19) Whatever the verdict on their conduct, the police were in a tough spot. Bringing APEC to UBC turned out to be a terrible idea. The campus sits on a headland, with the summit site at its tip. The guests included two of the world's least-loved leaders -- Suharto and China's Jiang Zemin -- and the President of the United States. On one side was a large group of bright, politically interested young Canadians with time on their hands. On the other, the Pacific Ocean. Staff-Sergeant Peter Montague, who served as RCMP liaison to the Indonesian delegation, later told internal affairs investigators that the police knew it was a no-win situation but their misgivings were ignored. "All we ever heard back was that we're gonna go to UBC come hell or high water." As he saw it, the event should have been held at Harrison Hot Springs, B.C., "or some place on private property where we can barricade the hell out of it and no one's gonna get through. But to put an eight-foot or nine-foot-high fence across a Canadian university campus is the first time that's ever been done, to my knowledge, and it's like putting a red flag in front of a bull." Then there were the famous Indonesian guns. They would not have been allowed in the country before 1995, when Canada made a fateful decision to consider requests from visiting leaders to bring armed bodyguards. The aim was to win the same privilege for Mr. Chr?tien when he travels abroad. Requests are approved or denied on a case-by-case basis. In this case, Ottawa did not tell the reluctant guest it had been wooing for months that it did not trust his security men. The most compelling police account is Staff-Sgt. Montague's internal affairs statement, in which he portrays the Indonesians as frantic to shield Suharto from any sort of protest -- even "people swearing, making loud noise near him" -- and quite ready to shoot. If students had approached the dictator's limo or swarmed the summit site, he said, "I am absolutely convinced from all my experience in VIP security and my experience working with the Indonesians that somebody would have probably ended up dead, and that the Indonesian security forces would shoot them without any question, with great impunity. I mean, it would have been an honour for them." On the 33,000-student campus, the scene on Nov. 25 was like a cross between a rock concert and a football rally. Jeerleaders -- mock pompon girls -- led anti-APEC chants. By midday, the crowd was moving toward the security perimeter, where it was halted by a portable chain-link fence. When protesters toppled the fence toward themselves, Mounties on the other side waded into the crowd and opened up with pepper spray. They would use a lot of it before the end of the day. Alissa Westergard-Thorpe, a fourth-year philosophy and politics student, was in the first group hit. It was painful and disorienting, she said. "All you want to do is hold on to your head and crumple into a ball." She was arrested (at her own insistence) and taken to a suburban RCMP detachment, where she and other female students were strip-searched. According to police, the women were stripped and the men were not because the female officers on duty were accustomed to searching suspected drug smugglers from the airport. As the summit ended, the students blocked all three exit routes, raising the prospect of motorcades being stalled and leaders being exposed to protesters' opinions or assassins' bullets. Pepper spray cleared the way. Whether or not the spray was overkill, the Mounties face accusations that they ignored basic democratic rights. At minimum, they seem to have jumped at what they saw as lawful opportunities to remove protest signs, ban would-be demonstrators from the campus and shield the important visitors from unpleasantness. Craig Jones, then a final-year law student, was one of the less flamboyant protesters, a partisan of civil liberties, not radical chic. His college dorm faced a road on which the leaders were to pass. On the lawn, he hung twin signs on large metal garment racks saying "Democracy" and "Free Speech." Lying on the grass was his third message, "Human Rights," spelled out in individual letters on sheets of typewriter-sized paper in transparent sleeves. Mr. Jones was arrested on the morning of the summit for refusing to remove the garment racks, which police argue could have been used in an attempt to block a motorcade. As he sees it, the true intent became clear when all of his signs, including the one on the grass, were confiscated. Signs were seized from other students on grounds that they could be used as weapons or projectiles, a risk that police say was serious at such an event. Mr. Jones, now 33, will be one of the first witnesses in the RCMP complaints hearing. Separately, he has filed a lawsuit against Mr. Chr?tien, the Mounties and others for conspiracy to infringe on protesters' constitutional rights. That same day, Gail Sparrow, chief of Vancouver's Musqueam Indian Band, was to have addressed the leaders at a welcoming ceremony at UBC's Museum of Anthropology. As she recalled it last week, this is what happened: She was told at a rehearsal that her speech was too long and too touchy because of references to human rights and working conditions in APEC countries. She agreed to cut it to one minute, but a summit organizer later called to say she could not speak at all. After she threatened to go to the news media, she was told she could talk privately with the leaders. She managed a brief chat about native issues with U.S. President Bill Clinton before Mr. Chr?tien approached. He greeted her, then snapped his fingers and pointed over his shoulder as if gesturing that she be removed. Two men escorted her from the building. When she asked why, one replied, "The Prime Minister wants you to leave." This version of Ms. Sparrow's treatment differs from published reports that she saw the PM barking orders to security personnel. Ms. Sparrow says now she was misinterpreted. When contacted yesterday, the Prime Minister's press spokeswoman Jennifer Lang dismissed Ms. Sparrow's charges. "She has no credibility," Ms. Lang said. At least the summit didn't end in a firefight between Canadian police and Indonesian bodyguards. It could have happened, police say. Staff-Sgt. Montague recalled asking a colleague what they would do "if things get out of control and a foreign security officer from Indonesia shoots and kills somebody, or shoots somebody. I said, 'Picture it. We're probably gonna have to shoot the Indonesian security officer.' " Asked if he was joking, he said he was not. AN APEC CHRONOLOGY July 18, 1997: Memo from Gary Smith, Canadian ambassador to Indonesia to Foreign Affairs in Ottawa. An Indonesian offical has told Mr. Smith that "posters displayed in Ottawa by the East Timor Alert Network were 'very insulting to us.' He repeated the words very insulting three times during our conversation. The Indonesian planned to brief Suharto as gently as possible as he could well burst (blow up) as it was personally insulting." Aug. 25, 1997: Memo from Jakarta embassy states Indonesians still concerned about APEC security. Sept. 3, 1997: External Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy sends letter to Indonesian foreign affairs minister Ali Alatas, saying he has conveyed security concerns to the Prime Minister. Sept. 19, 1997 Memo from Jim Bartleman in the Privy Council Office to the Prime Minister's Office. "There is a growing possibility that President Suharto may not come to the APEC leaders meeting in Vancouver because of a desire to avoid embarrassment at the hands of the East Timor protesters." Sept. 19 Memo from APEC organizer Robert Vanderloo to staff "PMO had expressed concerns about the security perimeter at UBC not so much from a security point of view but to avoid embarrassments to APEC leaders. ACCO and the RCMP are looking at that issue...We have to find a balance that meets both concerns (we do not wish student demonstrations and efforts by the gov't to suppress the freedom of expression to become a major media story). Oct. 29, 1997: Memo from Mr. Smith to Ottawa. (Some names blanked out.) "I believe that (blank) argued for a delayed decision in order to build pressure on us...For his part, (blank) may have been recommending a no-show because he would not get the absolute guarantees he wanted from the RCMP." Oct. 29, 1997: Handwritten notes from Patricia Hassard, then Director of Operations, Security and Intelligence in the Privy Council Office. "Do what we can to prevent embarrassment," she writes. "PM will want to be personally involved." Nov. 25, 1997: Protests at the APEC summit in Vancouver lead to the arrest of 49 activists. RCMP use pepper spray on students. February, 1998: The RCMP Public Complaints Commission announces it will hold an inquiry into police response to APEC protests. CAMPUS CLASH Key sites on the UBC Campus during the November 25, 1997, APEC summit meeting Gate 3: Protesters attempt to block motorcade entry route, arriving by Chancellor Blvd. Police pepper-spray demonstrators. Student Union Building: More than 2,000 protesters mass outside the student union building. They move to library, then west to the Flag Pole plaza, which marks the perimeter of the security zone. There, students pull down barbed wire fence. Just after noon, police respond with pepper spray. Forty-eight people are arrested. Green College: Leaders drive past this graduate dormitory. Law student Craig Jones is arrested at 8:30 a.m. for displaying protest signs. Museum of Anthropology: Site of the APEC leaders' meeting. Gate 6: Protesters block motorcade route with a sit-in. Police move in with pepper spray and clear the route. We welcome your comments. Copyright ? 1998, The Globe and Mail Company All rights reserved. ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From pet at web.net Tue Oct 6 01:31:55 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 12:31:55 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 749] Cda. Hansard, Oct.1/98, re: APEC '97 Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981005123537.08f72d58@pop.web.net> Note: In the transcript of the House proceedings for Oct.2/98, there were no references to APEC '97 (!). Expect the debate to resume next week. Sharon Scharfe Parliamentarians for East Timor -------------------- Hansard House of Commons Ottawa, Canada October 1, 1998 official excerpts, english version ... ADJOURNMENT PROCEEDINGS ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Jim Abbott (Kootenay?Columbia, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the case of Peppergate is becoming more and more complex as we have the solicitor general continuing his cover-up for the Prime Minister by using a body that was never designed for this purpose. There are many people in Canada who make a very good living at building two or three or four houses a year. They are contractors, very reputable people who build those homes. However, I would never ever use any of those contractors to build a 60 storey skyscraper because they lack experience. They are totally lacking in expertise. They just simply do not have the ability to get the job done. I make a comparison between the Public Complaints Commission of the RCMP and a small contractor. The purpose of the Public Complaints Commission is clearly set out in section 45.35(1) of the RCMP Act: Any member of the public having a complaint concerning the conduct, in the performance of any duty or function under this act of any member or other person appointed or employed under the authority of this act, may, whether or not that member of the public is affected by the subject matter of the complaint make a complaint. This is to get to the bottom of any alleged misdeeds by the RCMP. What we are talking about here very clearly and specifically is alleged misdeeds of the prime minister, of the foreign affairs minister and of this government. Furthermore, any evidence taken under this act will be taken under section 37(1) of the Canada Evidence Act which reads: A minister of the crown or other person interested may object to the disclosure of information on the grounds of the specified public interest. In other words, this board, this commission, is not an inquiry. It is a Public Complaints Commission capable of building houses, not skyscrapers, and truly we have a skyscraper. To underscore the point that this body does not have the expertise, I am not questioning any of the board members or their integrity. That is not the issue. The issue is their expertise and their ability to get the job done. I point to the finding of Justice Reed on the matter of whether the board should have called for the funding of the students. In that he came up with two reasons, and I quote: The board said that the commission's duty of impartiality would be compromised by advocating for a benefit in favour of only one of the parties before it. That is the complainant. She continues: Submissions by the commission of the federal government for the funding requested would intrude on the exclusive power of parliament to legislate the entitlement which is sought. This is not me speaking; this is the judge speaking. She says with respect to the first ground on which the commission based its decision ?the conclusion is inaccurate?. Also she says with respect to the assertion that the recommendations would intrude on parliament's executive power to legislate ?that is also incorrect?. This is the key. She says that the commission was operating on misunderstandings of the law. This is the board that is supposed to be looking into whether the foreign affairs minister and the prime minister were indeed involved in this matter. I suggest?as a matter of fact I charge?that this board is being used as a cover-up for the prime minister and for the misdeeds of he and his foreign minister with respect to APEC. That is my assertion and I say this on the basis of the fact that the board unfortunately in the judgment of Justice Reed is incompetent. [Translation] Mr. Jacques Saada (Parliamentary Secretary to Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Madam Speaker, I should repeat the mandate of this board, for the benefit of Canadians. It would appear that my colleague across the way has great difficulty grasping it, so I am going to read it word for word from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act. I will read from the English text. [English] The Commission has, in relation to the complaint before it, the powers conferred on a board of inquiry, in relation to the matter before it, by paragraphs 24.1(3)(a), (b) and (c). [Translation] What do paragraphs 24.1(3)(a), (b) and (c) say? First of all: [English] ?A board of inquiry has, in relation to the matter before it, power (a) to summon any person before the board and to require that person to give oral or written evidence on oath and to produce such documents and things under that person's control as the board deems requisite to the full investigation and consideration of that matter; (b) to administer oaths; (c) to receive and accept on oath or by affidavit such evidence and other information as the board sees fit? 1835 [Translation] Despite his protestations to the contrary, my colleague across the floor is casting doubt on the very credibility of the organization. The specific purpose of creating this board was for it to hear citizen complaints against the RCMP. This board was informed of the complaint on the initiative of the students themselves. I find it regrettable that an attempt is being made to use this as a pretext to discredit that body. [English] The Acting Speaker (Ms. Thibeault): The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1). (The House adjourned at 6.36 p.m.) [end] ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From pet at web.net Tue Oct 6 05:54:41 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 16:54:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 750] Why APEC Allegations are so serious Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981005165823.4a1f8692@pop.web.net> Globe and Mail October 5, 1998 Commentary Why the APEC allegations are so serious No prime minister has the right to interfere with police operations - not unless we want abandon the rule of law WESLEY PUE, Vancouver Allegations that Prime Minister Jean Chretien interfered with policing at the APEC summit in Vancouver are very serious, possibly more than we realize. Indeed, if proof appears, it will catapult Canada into a constitutional crisis of the first order. No prime minister has the right to interfere with police operations. The political impartiality of police - the heritage of literally 1,000 years of constitutional development - is the sine qua non of the rule of law, which is the heart of democracy. Superficial similarities make the APEC affair resemble lesser "scandals": allegations, leaked evidence, denial, evasion, "technically, legally correct" statements, and so on. That script is well known and tedious. Common sense suggests that security Was important at the APEC conference here last November, that Mr. Chretien would be concerned, and that a mix of demonstrators with large numbers of police often leads to unfortunate incidents. Pepper spray, arrests, a bit of "roughing up," if regrettable, seem unremarkable. In heated circumstances the predictable excesses of the odd "bad" (or stressed-out) cop also seem mundane. In assessing what is at stake here it is important to look past the details to matters of constitutional principle. The most serious allegations run something like this: For political reasons, Mr. Chretien wished to ensure the attendance of Indonesian president Suharto at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation conference; Suharto indicated he would not attend unless protected from "embarrassment" caused by protests, demonstrations, banners, placards, signs, etc.; The Prime Minister ordered his aides either to ensure Suharto would be spared embarrassment (not just protection from assassination, injury or assault). Or instructed the RCMP to make sure Suharto was spared embarrassment; In either event, Mr. Chretien's senior staff gave orders to the RCMP. These orders resulted in the violation of constitutionally protected freedoms (such as freedom of assembly, free speech, freedom from arbitrary arrest) for reasons that had nothing to do with security needs. As a result, dozens of people were arrested, hundreds of law-abiding - this matters - individuals were interfered, with or assaulted by police. Though the Prime Minister , s refusal to issue a candid, unambiguous and comprehensive account of his conduct is troubling, none of the allegations has been proved before any competent forum. Even assuming the accuracy of this picture, however, many wonder what the fuss is about. Let's make the issues clearer. Imagine a prime minister moving to legislate a ban on the display of posters displeasing to him. Or making it illegal to utter words displeasing to Canadian politicians within 100 metres of them. No constitutionally minded House of Commons, Senate or Governor-General would approve such legislation. If they did, it would be struck down by the courts without a second thought. Nor could such Draconian measures be justified on the grounds that certain words might cause offence to foreign despots or trading partners. No such rationale could confer legal justification under the terms of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, within the spirit of a free and democratic society (Constitution Act, 1981), or under a constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom (Constitution Act, 1867). Freedom, simply, is not made of such material. Clearly, if Parliament is prohibited from doing something, so too are prime ministers, their aides and the police. "Reason of state" cannot be casually invoked by democratic leaders. The despot's mantra, it is the conceptual opposite of the rule of law. Under the rule of law, no one can be interfered with, harassed or made to suffer except for a distinct breach of established law. And all citizens are bound by the law: police, PMO staff, prime minister, even the Governor-General-in-Council. Canada has well-developed mechanisms (all of which allegedly were circumvented at APEC) designed to protect the police from political interference and citizens from political policing. The reason is simple: Blurring the boundary renders the rest of the Constitution irrelevant. Countries where police respond to political command are neither free and democratic nor governed by the rule of law - no matter what their written constitutions say. Pejoratively but accurately, we call such places "police states." If this principle can be freely violated, the political use of police forces to harass journalists, political opponents and other inconvenient individuals is no longer unthinkable. A very slippery slope lies between the APEC protesters and the rest of us. Everything Canadians value about our Constitution flows from this buffer. Wesley Pue is the Nemetz professor of legal history in the faculty of law, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Tue Oct 6 06:56:25 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 14:56:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 751] KL-Jakarta ties 'may be affected' Says Habibie Advisor (fwd) Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 04 Oct 1998 08:40:57 From: tapol@gn.apc.org Reply-To: "Conference act.indonesia" To: Recipients of indonesia-act Subject: KL-Jakarta ties 'may be affected' Says Habibie Advisor From: tapol@gn.apc.org (TAPOL) Subject: KL-Jakarta ties 'may be affected' Says Habibie Advisor STRAITS TIMES OCT 4 1998 KL-Jakarta ties 'may be affected' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Anwar's links with Indonesia's elite are too close for them to brush his case aside, says Habibie advisor By DERWIN PEREIRA IN JAKARTA PRESIDENT B. J. Habibie's foreign policy adviser has maintained that the arrest of former Malaysian Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim is likely to "cloud relations" between Indonesia and Malaysia. Dr Dewi Fortuna Anwar said that the close ties between Anwar and many members of the political elite here meant that it would be difficult for Indonesians to just brush the issue aside. She noted that there had always been strong links between Anwar's think-tank, the Institute of Policy Research, and the Habibie-linked Centre for Information and Development Study. "There are personal implications. Anwar is close with the leadership here," she said. Such links are evident with Dr Habibie now rethinking a planned visit to Malaysia this month. Senior officials said concerns that a critical public here and abroad may misconstrue the visit could keep him from making the trip. The Indonesian press has been very critical of events in Kuala Lumpur because they parallelled domestic concerns over democracy and human rights. Anwar's arrest and alleged beating, plus former Malaysian Deputy Premier Ghafar Baba's scathing attack on the Indonesian press, sparked some hard- hitting editorials in local papers. Speaking at a seminar on "Asean at the crossroads" on Friday, Dr Dewi pointed out that the saga highlighted differences between Asean countries in how they perceived human rights now. She said: "Asean is in danger of being split between countries that regard democracy and human rights as universal values whose promotion become a common responsibility, and those that are still proponents of 'Asian values'." "While the newly-democratising government in Indonesia may hesitate to abandon the non-interference principle, the increasingly free and vocal press and non- governmental organisations will undoubtedly air their opinions regarding happenings in neighbouring countries without much regard for regional solidarity or the government's foreign policy concerns." For example, she said if NGOs in Indonesia organised a conference on Malaysia now, Jakarta would "not be able to do anything about it". Other speakers at the conference suggested that Asean's principle of non- interference was no longer relevant. Noted Mr Ikrar Nusa Bhakti from the Indonesian Institute of Social Sciences: "We should no longer be alarmed if an official of Thailand, for example, makes remarks on Indonesia or Malaysia." Dr Dewi said that Indonesia's domestic problems have meant that Jakarta could no longer exercise a leadership role in resolving regional problems or bilateral disputes between Asean member countries. She noted: "Indonesia's strong commitment towards regional harmony and role as regional mediator have been important in keeping Asean together. "Indonesia's internal preoccupation and severe economic problems may contribute to a lost sense of direction within Asean." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign 111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8HW, UK Phone: 0181 771-2904 Fax: 0181 653-0322 email: tapol@gn.apc.org Campaigning to expose human rights violations in Indonesia, East Timor, West Papua and Aceh Join us to celebrate TAPOL's 25th anniversary on 20 October 1998. Contact us for ticket details. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Tue Oct 6 06:56:53 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 14:56:53 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 752] Washington Post Editorial: Malaysian Justice (fwd) Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 04 Oct 1998 08:41:07 From: tapol@gn.apc.org Reply-To: "Conference act.indonesia" To: Recipients of indonesia-act Subject: Washington Post Editorial: Malaysian Justice From: tapol@gn.apc.org (TAPOL) Subject: Washington Post Editorial: Malaysian Justice Washington Post Editorial Malaysian Justice Sunday, October 4, 1998; Page C06 THE TRUE FACE of "Asian values" appeared in a Malaysian courtroom a few days ago. It was the face of Anwar Ibrahim, his eye blackened from a police beating he received while handcuffed and blindfolded. The display exposed Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a prime exponent of the "Asian values" theory, as a man who in truth cares only for power -- and who will do anything to hold on to it. Mr. Mahathir and other Asian autocrats have long claimed that "western-style" democracy does not suit their region. Their nations value stability over personal freedom, they have argued. But they have never been willing to put their claims to the test -- to allow their people to decide for themselves, with access to open media, what kind of government and which leaders they want. Now Malaysia has neither democracy nor stability, and the positive aspects of Mr. Mahathir's legacy -- the nation-building, the peace among ethnic groups -- is in danger. Mr. Anwar, 51, was until recently Malaysia's deputy prime minister and protege of the 72-year-old Mr. Mahathir. But tensions over when the succession should take place, aggravated by Mr. Anwar's advocacy of political and economic reform, snapped what had often been described as a father-son relationship. One month ago, Mr. Mahathir offered Mr. Anwar a chance to slip quietly into retirement; the alternative, he threatened, would be humiliation and ruin. The deputy stood up to the threats. On Sept. 2 he was fired, and on Sept. 20 he was arrested, to face a poisonous mixture of allegations of corruption and sexual misconduct. Mr. Mahathir controls the nation's press, so many Malaysians may not be aware of the maltreatment Mr. Anwar has suffered in custody. They read instead a torrent of accusations against him, none backed up by evidence. Even so, there are signs of popular discontent that suggest Mr. Mahathir's heavy-handed repression could prove his undoing. Already it has stained his reputation indelibly. © Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign 111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8HW, UK Phone: 0181 771-2904 Fax: 0181 653-0322 email: tapol@gn.apc.org Campaigning to expose human rights violations in Indonesia, East Timor, West Papua and Aceh Join us to celebrate TAPOL's 25th anniversary on 20 October 1998. Contact us for ticket details. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From mrhr at HK.Super.NET Tue Oct 6 14:36:12 1998 From: mrhr at HK.Super.NET (Migrant Forum in Asia) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 12:36:12 +0700 Subject: [asia-apec 753] 4th Intl. Migrant Workers Forum on APEC Message-ID: <199810060439.MAA25753@hk.super.net> Annoucement and Invitation 4th International Migrant Workers Forum on APEC Asia-Pacific People's Assembly on APEC 1998 November 11-12, 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia >>>Migrants' groups, advocates, support organisations, and other concerned groups are invited to the 4th International Migrant Workers Forum on APEC.<<< THEME "Neoliberal Globalisation: Internationalisation of Labour, Impacts on Migrants, and the Role of Migrants in Deconstructing It" ORGANIZERS FOR THE FORUM ? Tenaganita ? Asian Migrant Centre (AMC) 4 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2312-0031 Fax: (852) 2992-0111 Email: amc@hk.super.net Attention: Rex Varona (Executive Director) ? Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) c/o AMC Email: mrhr@hk.super.net Attention: Henry Lee (Interim Staff for the MFA Secretariat) OBJECTIVES FOR THE FORUM ? Identify key issues: impacts and trends of globalisation, Asian crisis and labour migration; ? Deepen analysis on neoliberalism and migration: e.g. internationalization of labor, how international labour migration is exploited in the modern global economy, and analysis with perspective for action/struggle; ? Develop migrants' responses: agenda for action; how do we empower migrant workers and advocates?; organizing and mobilizing migrant workers in response to globalisation and Asian crisis; evolving necessary, including new, strategies; how are rights protected in the era of globalisation and regional/global crisis?; ? Consolidate, focus, synchronise our joint regional campaigns/efforts: build up from previous discussions on migration and globalisation WORKSHOPS: Workshop 1: Neoliberal Globalisation: Impacts on Migration and the Role of Migrants in Deconstructing It Topics: ? Trends and analysis: unemployment crisis, worsening of poverty, regional/global economic crisis, intensification of labour migration and trafficking, double push of migration, internationalization/globalization of labor, other strategic impacts of neoliberalism and economic crisis; ? How neoliberal globalisation exploits migrant labour; ? The role of migrants in deconstructing neoliberal globalisation: how do we challenge globalisation, how do we empower migrants/advocates to fight globalisation? Workshop 2: The Crisis of Rights: Promoting Migrants' Empowerment & Participation Topics: ? Globalization and economic crisis result in greater erosion of migrant, labour and trade union rights; ? Globalization and economic crisis have undermined and reversed labour protection laws, social benefits and wages; ? Cost-efficiency in business vis-a-vis human rights: For example, cost-cutting measures vs. right to jobs; increased marginalisation and use of subcontracted and undocumented migrant labour; ? Disempowerment strategies employed by the state, companies and capitalists against migrant workers: the control and absence of democratic participation of migrants in decision making, and in the right to form associations or join unions, especially in receiving countries that are now becoming more repressive; ? Weakening of organising and unionizing of workers and migrants; ? Heightened tensions and divisions between migrant and local labour; ? How can rights be protected and advanced in the age of globalisation? How do we organise and empower migrants and advocates in the era of globalisation?; ? The role of international human rights instruments and migrant protection mechanisms; ? Migrants' initiatives in promoting participation in decision and policy making, and in social movements; ? Migrants' initiatives in challenging neoliberalism and in creating alternatives to neoliberal globalisation; Workshop 3: Globalisation and the Quality of Life of Migrants and Families Topics: ? Globalization and the economic crisis erode the quality of life: e.g. privatization of health services for the migrant workers; problems with housing, education and other social services; decline of the quality of life of migrants and their families; ? Discrimination and use migrants as scapegoats: e.g. perceptions that they steal jobs, bring diseases, increase criminal actvity, etc. ? Social costs of migration: the breakdown of families, introduction of values such as consumerism, materialism and individualism. INPUTS/KITS ? Declarations, recommendations from previous migrant/labor forums: - 1995 APEC forum (November, Kyoto); - 1996 Labour and Migrant Forum on APEC (November, Manila); - 1996 Migrant Workers Challenging Global Structures Conference (September, Seoul); - 1997 People's Summit on APEC (November, Vancouver); - 1998 Migrants Rights Are Human Rights Workshop (February, Hong Kong); - 1998 People's Conference Challenging Globalisaiton (September, Seoul); ? AMC Paper: "Pyramids and Slaves of the Global Free Market"; ? AMC Paper: "Surveying the Impacts of the Asian Crisis on Migrant Workers"; ? AMC Paper: "Neoliberal Globalisation: Its Impacts on Asian Migrant Workers and the Role of Migrants in Deconstructing It"; ? Country inputs/papers: updates and situationers; ? Migrants' stories and inputs; ? Photos, videos, etc.; ? Other inputs and papers based on the 3 workshop topics; ? Concrete recommendations, plans and proposals for joint implementation and action; OUTPUTS AND EXPECTED RESULTS It is no longer tenable to only have inputs. What is more important is that we work on outputs around which we can rally the most number of migrants and advocates. Possible outputs: ? Kuala Lumpur declaration on migration that describes and explains the current crisis. This can be reaffirmation, build-up and refinement of previous declarations and recommendations. It should include claims of states/governments, APEC and TNCs that we denounce, reject and oppose as well as positions, affirmations and proposals that we will jointly act on; ? We need to articulate concrete contributions to the UN "celebration" or struggle for the continuing campaign for human rights which can be circulated and popularized for the December 10th events - Upholding Migrants Rights is Advancing the Universality of Human Rights in a Globalizing Economy and Global crisis; ? Proposal for a joint regional migrant rights campaign launching on November 15th, culminating on December 10th (Human Rights Day) and climaxing on December 18th (International Solidarity Day for Migrants and Their Families); ? Coordinate and build unifying framework for our national initiatives and regional/international joint actions. One suggestion is to create campaigns revolving around the theme of "Rights and Roots": a) "Rights" campaign - migrants' human rights, ILO/UN instruments ratification, and implementation, monitoring of rights violations, gender aspects, violence against women, vulnerabilities of migrants; b) "Roots" campaign - exposing root causes and creating alternatives to the root causes of labour migration: debt, IMF, WB, SAP, globalisation, and development and poverty issues; reintegration and migrants' alternatives. REGISTRATION PROCESS AND DETAILS Migrants' groups, advocates, support organisations, and other concerned groups are invited to the 4th International Migrant Workers Forum on APEC. 1. Please contact the APPA Secretariat for registration information and forms: APPA Secretariat 57 Lorong Kurau, Lucky Gardens, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: (603) 283-6245 Fax: (603) 283-3536 Email: appasec@tm.net.my 2. Please fill out the registration form and send back to APPA Secretariat. International delegates are requested to cc their registration information to AMC at < or fax no. (852) 2992-0111. Local (Malaysia) delegates should register directly with Tenaganita . 3. Registration fee is US$50 for the whole APPA. Please pay to the APPA Secretariat. 4. Owing to budget limitations, international delegates are encouraged to subsidise their own travel expenses. Please contact Tenaganita for further information. SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITES (4th International Migrant Workers Forum): ? November 10-15: photo exhibition; display and sale of posters, migrant publications/resource materials ? November 11-12: Migrant Forum ? November 15: migrants' assembly and activities: - Launching of the "Asian Migrant Yearbook"; - Launching/kick-off of joint "Migrants Human Rights" campaign; - Press conference and the release of Migrant Forum in Asia's campaign poster; - Solidarity evening with migrant workers; General Schedule (APPA 1998) ? November 6-7: Indigenous People Forum ? November 7-10: Student & Youth Forum ? November 8-9: The 3rd Women's Conference Against APEC ? November 10: Opening ceremonies ? November 11: Consumers Forum ? November 11 & 12: Issue & Sectoral Fora 1. Labour Forum 2. Human Rights, Democracy and Militarisation Forum 3. Privatisation and Financial Deregulation Forum 4. Urban Poor Forum 5. Globalisation and Children Fourm 6. Land, Food Security and Agriculture Forum 7. Community Livelihood Forum 8. Media Forum 9. Migrant Workers Forum ? November 13-14: People's Assembly (Plenary) ? November 15: Final Assembly & Closing Activities [end] Henry Jun Wah Lee Migrant Forum in Asia Secretariat c/o Asian Migrant Centre 4 Jordan Road Kowloon, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2312-0031 Fax: (852) 2992-0111 E-mail: mrhr@hk.super.net From ua at ahrchk.org Tue Oct 6 15:00:48 1998 From: ua at ahrchk.org (AHRC Urgent Appeal) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 14:00:48 +0800 (HKT) Subject: [asia-apec 754] Announcement and Invitation: APPA - Labour Forum Message-ID: <199810060600.OAA04484@kwaifong.hk.super.net> Asia Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) Labour Forum DATE: 11 - 12 November 1998 VENUE: KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA Local Host: APPA - Labour Forum Labour Resource Centre, 57 Lorong Kurau, Bangsar 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: {603] 283 6245 Fax: [603] 283 3536 email: lrc@tm.net.my INVITATION: APPA - Labour Forum -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear friends, Warmest greetings from Malaysia. The organising committee of the Asia Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) Labour Forum is pleased to invite you to participate in the forum. The Labour Forum, which is part of the Asia Pacific Peoples' Assembly, will be held between 11 and 12 November. The main conference of APPA will be held between 10 to 15 November. The main theme for the Labour Forum is "Globalisation and Workers' Struggle for Employment Security". We call on participants to contribute papers, publications or reports related to the theme. Any materials you wish to share with other participants (even if you could not attend the meeting), please submit them to APPA Secretariat before November 5 in order to be included in the delegate folder. Although the date for APPA is fast approaching, we still have not received any confirmation for funding. If funds are available, subsidies for travel or local expenses will be provided for limited number of people. However, at the present stage the organizing committee could not commit to provide sponsorship for invited participants. We urge you to actively seek other sources of funding. Attached are several documents related the registration of the Assembly. Please fill in the relevant forms and return to the Secretariat. The registration rate of APPA is US50.00. Due to our limitation of fund, it will be helpful that if the more resourceful organisations e.g. trade unions from the North, international or regional bodies, could also contribution some financial support to the Labour Forum. Thank you and looking forward to see you in Kuala Lumpur. Solidarity, ------------------------------------ Tian Chua On behalf of organising committee Email: lrc@tm.net.my Program of the Labour Forum: Exposure: Factory Visit and exchange with trade unions and labour activists in Malaysia (electronic and automobile factories in Klang Valley) Day 1 9.00 am Opening speech: Presentation: "Workers' Struggle for Employment Security: A Regional Overview " or "Globalisation and its impact on Employment Security" by a representative of regional body (e.g. AMRC or ALARM) 10.30 am Tea break 11.00 am Workshop will be divided into 4 groups: Women workers Trade unions Community and non-formal sector Labour supporting services (Each workshop will discuss what are impacts of globalisation on respective sectors and how to defend workers' rights and employment) 11.00 am Reflection and evaluation of the present situation (problems, difficulties and opportunities) 1.00 pm Lunch 2.00 pm Discussion on demands to put forward and strategy 4.00 pm Report back and plenary 5.30 pm Close 8.00 pm Videos and informal discussion Day 2 9.00 am Inputs: Presentation: experiences of existing struggles 2 presenters from regional network, and 2 local activists 10.30 am Tea break 11.00 am Workshop on ways of: - Forging solidarity between different sector - Developing common programs 1.00 pm Lunch 2.00 pm Summary and plenary 3.30 pm Tea break 4.00 pm Evaluation of previous cooperation and common program (how to prevent duplication of tasks and avoid repetition of mistakes) 5.00 pm Resolution 8.00 pm Solidarity night Rally The workers sector will propose to workers groups and trade unions to hold a rally during the period of APEC. The theme is suggested to be on labour rights, employment and social security. REGISTRATION Labour groups and organisations, Trade Unions and other concerned groups are invited to the APPA Labour Forum. Please fill the form below and send to the APPA Secretariat =============================================================================== THE ASIA-PACIFIC PEOPLES' ASSEMBLY 57 Lorong Kurau, Lucky Gardens, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel : 603-2836245 Fax : 603-2833536 E-mail : appasec@tm.net.my URL : www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/8340 REGISTRATION FORM ----------------- Title: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fullname(Ms./Mr./others) :---------------------------------------------- Preferred nametag name :------------------------------------------------ Organization:----------------------------------------------------------- Acronym :--------------------------------------------------------------- Contact Adderss :----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Address : ------------------------------------------------------------------------ E-mail : -------------------------------------------------------------- Fax: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Tel : ------------------------------------------------------------------ Short description of Organization : ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Emergency contact :----------------------------------------------------- Name : ----------------------------------------------------------------- Address : -------------------------------------------------------------- Tel : ------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you require assistace in obtaining a visa? (Yes/No) Do you require financial support? (Yes/No) (If Yes, please complete the sponsorship request form) Will you require translation? (Yes/No) In which language :---------------------------------------------------- (Note : translation may not be available) Do you have any special medical requirements/allergies? (Yes/No) The following 16 Issue/ Sector Forums will take place during APPA. your registration with APPA entitles you to participate in any of any of these foums. 6-10 Nov Women's Conference (Nov 8-9) Student & Youth (Nov 7-10) Indigenous Peoples (Nov 6-7) 11 Nov Consumer Environment & Forestry 11-12 Nov Labour** Migrant Labour Privatisation & Financial Deregulation Food Security & Agriculture Strategies of Peasant Movements Globalisation & Children Media Community Livelihood Urban Poor Human Rights & Democracy Please select the Issue/Sector Forums you wish to register with according to priority. You cannot select forums where the dates overlap. 1. ------------------------------------- 2. ------------------------------------- 3. ------------------------------------- Will you be participating the plenary? (Yes/No) The registration fee APPA is US$50. This fee entitles you to paticipate in all issueand sector forums, the plenary, and all other APPA activites (cetain exceptions may apply). A cheque or money order is enclosed oeder is enclosed with my registration? (Yes/No) Thank you for registering with APPA. The Secretariat or the relevant Issue/Sector Foum coordinators will contact you shortly about the programme of events, travel and accommodation logistics, and financial sponsorship. l The closing date of registration and payment of registration fee is October 23. Pleasa send the completed registration forms to APPA secretariat and make all payments to LRC Communication. If your payment is not recived with this registration, please make cash payment at the on-site registration counter on November 10 before the opning ceremony of APPA. -------------------------------------------------------------------- APPA SPONSORSHIP FORM ------------------------- 1. Name:----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Organization:--------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Position: ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Address: ------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Tel : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Fax: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. E-mail : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Which forums are you participating? a. -------------------------------------------------- b. -------------------------------------------------- c. -------------------------------------------------- 9. Period os stay : From : ---------------------- To ------------------------ 10. I need sponsorship for: a. Registration fee (Yes/No) b. Travel Expenses (Yes/No) Amount:------------------------------------ c. Accomodation and will be arranged by the secretariat (Yes/No) ------------------------------------------------------------------- For Secretariat Use Only a. Regestration Fee Amount: US 50 b Travel Expenses Amount: c Accommodation (Arranged by the secretariat) Amount: Total Sponsored by:----------------------------------------------- Approved by: --------------------------------------------- Date----------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- APPA ACCOMMODATION REQUEST FORM 1. Name : ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Nationality : ---------------------------------------------------------- 3. Sex?: ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Address : --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Tel : ------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. Fax: ------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. E-mail : ---------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Period os stay : From : ---------------------------- To ----------------------------- 9. Which forums are you participating? a. ------------------------------------------------------ b. ------------------------------------------------------ c. ------------------------------------------------------ 10. Payment : a. I will pay for my accommodation and please book a room for me: i. Single Room ii. Twin Sharing Room Range of room charges i. Below US$15 ii. US$15-US30 iii. US$30-US$40 iv. US$40-US$60 v. Above US$60 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For Secretariat Use Only Accommodation Venue------------------------------------ Period of Stay : From -------- To ------------------- Payment : By Participant Sponsored by: ---------------------------------- Date : ------------------ Authorised By : ------------------ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASIA-PACIFIC PEOPLES' ASSEMBLY 57 Lorong Kurau, Lucky Gardens, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel : 603-2836245 Fax : 603-2833536 E-mail : appasec@tm.net.my URL : www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/8340 ============================================================================ ======= Kindly note the new e-mail address for AHRC Urgent Appeals : ua@ahrchk.org ********************************************************************** * Asian Human Rights Commission | Tel: +(852)-2698-6339 * * Unit D, 7 Floor, 16 Argyle Str. | Fax: +(852)-2698-6367 * * Mongkok Commercial Centre | AHRC E-mail: ahrchk@ahrchk.org * * Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR | Web: www.hk.super.net/~ahrchk * ********************************************************************** AHRC Staff: Basil FERNANDO, Executive Director [basilfwp@ahrchk.org] Sanjeewa LIYANAGE, Information Officer [sanjeewa@ahrchk.org] Louise SUN Wai Han, Administrative Secretary [louises@ahrchk.org] Catherine FOK Chiu Peng, Communication Assistant [catfok@ahrchk.org] Agnes CHEUNG, Editor Sinapan SAMYDORAI, Programme Coordinator - UA [samysd@hk.super.net] ********************************************************************** From pet at web.net Tue Oct 6 23:56:07 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 10:56:07 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 755] G&M: Suharto was key to PM's foreign strategy Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981006105952.21378070@pop.web.net> THE GLOBE AND MAIL APEC SUMMIT FALLOUT MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1998 Suharto was seen as key to PM's foreign strategy Looming Asian economic crisis heightened import of APEC summit PAUL KNOX The Globe and Mail Canada's relationship with former Indonesian President Suharto began as a diplomatic courtship dance, blossomed into a love affair, then became a solid marriage based on political and economic interests. Near the end, like a bickering couple, they were negotiating over a social engagement - last November's controversial Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Vancouver. But they weren't talking divorce. For even in his decadence, the authoritarian 76-year-old leader remained a key to one of Prime Minister Jean Chretien's prize foreign-relations strategies: increasing Canada's commercial clout in Asia. The meeting was taking on even greater importance because of the looming Asian economic crisis. Mr. Chretien, U.S. President Bill Clinton, and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, felt it was imperative to talk to the Asians, particularly Suharto, whose country's banks were among the first to wobble. But Suharto was the only leader threatening to boycott the meeting. That is the backdrop to the inquiry into the pepper-spraying of APEC protesters that reopens today in Vancouver, focusing on RCMP tactics and the involvement of Mr. Chretien's office in security planning. Documents released to the inquiry suggest that Canadian officials went to unusual lengths to get Suharto to promise to attend APEC, assuring his aides repeatedly that demonstrations would be contained. A no-show by Suharto would have been a major embarrassment for Canadians, which was staging a year of high-profile APEC-related events. "If you don't have a big important country like Indonesia, it's a signal that APEC doesn't matter," said Andrew Cooper, a political scientist and specialist in foreign policy at the University of Waterloo. Suharto and his aides knew Canada as a generous aid donor and a trading partner eager to tap Indonesia's vast market and natural resources, as well as a country whose citizens had strong views on human rights. He had endured a temporary estrangement, the suspension of new Canadian aid funds, after Indonesian troops massacred 270 funeral mourners in East Timor in December, 1991. Suharto, a former Indonesian military commander, assumed power in 1966 after anti-Communist pogroms that killed several hundred thousand people. The upheaval focused attention on Indonesia. The Vietnam war was raging, and the uncompromising Suharto represented a bulwark against communism in Southeast Asia. There were other reasons for Canadian interest. Indonesia was rich in minerals, oil and timber. It was also a huge potential market -- today it stands fourth in world population, with 200 million -- and part of a booming region. Suharto came first to Canada in 1975, a visit that was also the subject of preliminary negotiations. A glimpse of what went on is contained in documents released to Sharon Scharfe of the lobby group Parliamentarians for East Timor, author of "Complicity: Human Rights and Canadian Foreign Policy". At that time, East Timor was still a Portuguese colony, but there were rumors Indonesia was about to invade it. In one cable, Canadian diplomats reported telling the Suharto regime that any "military initiative would, in our view, have a serious impact on plans for the presidential visit." In general, Canada was eager for Suharto to come. The visit went well. Suharto said he needed locomotives, aircraft, cement and fertilizer plants and pulp-and-paper equipment, and a $200-million line of credit was established to allow Indonesia to buy Canadian goods. Four months later Indonesia invaded East Timor, touching off an independence struggle in which hundreds of thousands died. East Timor was annexed in August, 1976, but Canada took little note. The Mulroney government, which sought in some cases to link aid decisions and human-rights issues, stopping authorizing new aid projects after the 1991 massacre, a suspension lifted in 1995. Canada's energetic anti-Suharto protesters couldn't stop the trade deals, but Ottawa did seek to address human-rights concerns. It stepped up monitoring, aided operations of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission and got Suharto to allow a Canadian doctor to examine an ailing labour leader in jail. -- With report from Jeff Sallot. ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From pet at web.net Wed Oct 7 01:15:26 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 12:15:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 756] G&M: Lawyers for APEC Protesters Alter Tack Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981006121909.21ff4e38@pop.web.net> Globe and Mail October 6, 1998 INFLUENCE Lawyers for APEC protesters alter tack Tuesday, October 6, 1998 NORMAN SPECTOR VICTORIA -- As the hearings of the RCMP Public Complaints Commission resume this week, lawyers for the demonstrators who were pepper-sprayed and arrested at the APEC summit tell me they are changing tack. In the beginning, they urged the young activists to proceed methodically through the evidence before considering whether to ask that the Prime Minister be subpoenaed. These were lonely times for the demonstrators and their lawyers. Canadians seemed not to be paying attention, or to care, about what had happened at the University of British Columbia in November, 1997. Nor did anyone object when the Public Complaints Commission declined to fund the demonstrators to hire lawyers. Prime Minister Jean Chr?tien had yet to acknowledge that his famous pepper quip was not funny. And the demonstrators were still viewed as a group of wacky British Columbians -- and radicals to boot. To test whether the commission has the will and the powers to probe the highest levels of the Canadian government, the lawyers are cutting to the chase and demanding that it subpoena Mr. Chr?tien now. They are also renewing their request for more government documents and funds for their clients. The game plan changed in recent weeks along with the fortunes of the demonstrators. A flood of documents showed the Prime Minister's Office directing police activities for political and not security reasons. The demonstrators began to have some success raising funds, though not enough to offset their original plan, which was quite costly. Then Parliament resumed and responsibility began to stick to the Prime Minister. Feeling the heat, the government concluded that anything was preferable to allowing the issue to play out in Question Period with Mr. Chr?tien in the starring role. "Let the Public Complaints Commission do its work," became its refrain. The opposition turned its attention to the commission, questioning its independence and suggesting it was neither capable nor mandated to inquire into the Prime Minister and his office. It complained that demonstrators would not be funded and noted that most of the members of the commission had been appointed by the government and had contributed to the Liberal Party of Canada -- including commission counsel Chris Considine through his law firm. It also implied that the commission would not have the guts to subpoena Mr. Chr?tien. To all of these allegations, the government repeated, "Let the commission do its work." The demonstrators and their lawyers are now asking the government and the commission to show their cards to see whether they are bluffing. The evidence already in shows that Mr. Chr?tien wanted to be, and was, personally involved to an unusual degree in reassuring the Indonesians that their president would not be embarrassed. The summit was Mr. Chr?tien's parade, and he did not want Suharto raining on it. His most senior officials -- chief of staff Jean Pelletier; Clerk of the Privy Council Jocelyne Bourgon; top policy adviser Eddie Goldenberg; Mr. Chr?tien's foreign-policy adviser Jim Bartleman; and director of operations Jean Carle -- all understood his concerns and were implementing his wishes. Until now, Mr. Chr?tien has been evasive about his involvement and whether he would agree to testify before the commission. If he complies, lawyers for the demonstrators will also be able to ask him to explain the policy change that allowed Indonesian bodyguards to carry weapons at UBC -- even after they asked about the repercussions of shooting students, which the RCMP is hinting was behind some of their heavy-handed actions. If, on the other hand, the Public Complaints Commission does not issue a subpoena or if the Prime Minister refuses to comply, the demonstrators will focus their efforts on the class-action suit they have launched against Mr. Chr?tien and others they say conspired to deprive them of their constitutional rights. And no Canadian, not even a prime minister, has the right to disobey a court subpoena. E-mail: nspector@globeandmail.ca We welcome your comments. Copyright ? 1998, The Globe and Mail Company All rights reserved. ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From pet at web.net Wed Oct 7 01:15:22 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 12:15:22 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 757] G&M: MP says Minister predicted that Mountie would take the fall Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981006121905.21ff9c02@pop.web.net> The Globe and Mail October 6, 1998 An overheard remark fires up APEC furor MP says minister predicted that Mountie would take the fall Tuesday, October 6, 1998 DANIEL LEBLANC With a report from Brian Laghi Ottawa -- Solicitor-General Andy Scott was overheard saying the RCMP used "excessive force" in quashing protesters at the APEC summit last November and predicting that one officer would take the fall for it. New Democrat MP Dick Proctor was on Air Canada flight 8876 last Thursday, and said in the House of Commons yesterday that he clearly heard Mr. Scott -- who was sitting two seats away in the same row -- talking to an unidentified passenger about the probable outcome of an inquiry into the events. Mr. Proctor said Mr. Scott should resign for prejudging the results of the RCMP's Public Complaints Commission, which started its hearings yesterday. If the conversation happened as Mr. Proctor relates it, it went totally against all Mr. Scott's public comments on the matter. The commission is looking into the treatment of protesters at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit. Mr. Scott has said repeatedly over the past few weeks that anyone looking for answers about the events, including any to questions about Prime Minister Jean Chr?tien's role, should let the inquiry "do its work." According to Mr. Proctor, who took two pages of notes on the conversation, Mr. Scott said, "Hughie may be the guy who takes the fall for this." Mr. Proctor believes this was a reference to Staff Sergeant Hugh Stewart of the RCMP, who ordered the use of pepper spray to disperse protesters around the summit site. Mr. Scott responded to these allegations by saying he did not know Mr. Stewart and that he would not have referred to him as "Hughie." "I have not drawn those conclusions," he told reporters, saying his conversation may have been "simply misunderstood or misheard on a very noisy aircraft." Mr. Scott said he had been peppered all weekend long with APEC questions by constituents and could not remember any individual conversation. He said he really believes in the commission, and has no memory of talking about its possible outcome. "I can't imagine that I have drawn conclusions that I haven't drawn," he told reporters. Still, Mr. Scott was not as forceful in these denials as he had been earlier in the day in Question Period, when he was taken by surprise by the allegations. In answer to a question from Mr. Proctor, he said: "I do not know where the honourable member is getting his information, but I never said such a thing." Outside the House, Mr. Scott said he would have to consider quitting if someone confirmed Mr. Proctor's story. "If I was so reckless in discussing this in a fashion in which people would misunderstand, then I think I'd have to think about [resigning]," he said. "But the reality is I don't think there's any room for misunderstanding." According to Mr. Proctor, Mr. Scott said that "as far as he was concerned, it would come out [of the commission] that there was excessive force used by four or five Mounties over five minutes." Mr. Proctor added that he heard Mr. Scott saying with disappointment that he would not be able to attend the major-league-baseball playoffs because he had to "cover" for the Prime Minister. It is not clear what he meant by "cover," but it could be a reference to the fact that Mr. Scott has answered many questions directed to Mr. Chr?tien during Question Period about the APEC inquiry. THE DEBATE "I think he has prejudged the commission. He has been telling all of us to let it all come out at the inquiry and then he says, four days before the inquiry doors open, this is what will be seen to be the end result." -- MP Dick Proctor "If I was so reckless in discussing this in a fashion in which people would misunderstand, then I think I'd have to think about [resigning]. But the reality is I don't think there's any room for misunderstanding." -- Solicitor-General Andy Scott We welcome your comments. Copyright ? 1998, The Globe and Mail Company All rights reserved. ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From pet at web.net Wed Oct 7 01:40:37 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 12:40:37 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 758] Cdn.Hansard, Oct.5/98, re: APEC'97 Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981006124419.229f6b08@pop.web.net> Hansard House of Commons Ottawa, Canada Official Transcript (English edition) October 5, 1998 ... ORAL QUESTIONS ... APEC SUMMIT Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, this morning the chairman of the public complaints commission said they will follow the APEC fingerprints wherever they lead. So far those fingerprints seem to lead directly to the doorstep of the Prime Minister's office. Why wait for the subpoena? Why does the Prime Minister not just volunteer to appear before that commission immediately? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the commission has not asked the Prime Minister to appear. The member's question, as usual, is totally hypothetical and besides, the commission is just beginning its hearings today. Let the commission do its work. This is what the protesters want. Let the hearings take place in an active and thorough atmosphere. Why does the hon. member not want to support that sensible approach? Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the sensible approach is that this commission seems to be going a little further than just checking into RCMP activities. I think the Canadian public is looking forward to that. If our Prime Minister refuses to appear before this commission if he is subpoenaed, Canadians will never know what the truth of this story is. I would like the Deputy Prime Minister to answer my question for a change. Why will the Prime Minister evade this? Will he voluntarily appear before the commission or will he let Jean Carle be the fall guy for him? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the weakness of the assertion in the hon. member's question is shown by her admission that a former senior staff member and a current senior staff member in the Prime Minister's office are going to appear before the commission. Let us allow the commission do its work. Why does the hon. member want to hamper the commission before it even begins its work? Let the work continue. Let us see what happens as a result. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Dick Proctor (Palliser, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the solicitor general. For weeks now the government has been giving assurances that the RCMP commission will get to the bottom of the Spray-PEC inquiry. Why then did the solicitor general say that the Prime Minister will not be attending the inquiry because he would only become the focus of it but instead the solicitor general will act as cover for the Prime Minister? Why did the solicitor general say ?I'm the cover? for the Prime Minister on this issue? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I do not know where the hon. member is getting his information but I never said such a thing. Mr. Dick Proctor (Palliser, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general has been saying do not prejudge the outcome but wait for the inquiry. Why did he then ignore his own advice? Is the solicitor general denying that he said last Thursday: ?This inquiry will reveal that four or five Mounties used excessive force and overreacted?? Does the minister deny saying I wanted to go to the World Series, to New York, but I can't because ?I'm the cover? for the Prime Minister? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have no idea where the hon. member is getting his information but none of it is true. * * * ... [Translation] APEC SUMMIT Mr. Michel Bellehumeur (Berthier?Montcalm, BQ): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the acting Prime Minister. The documents on the Peppergate affair handed over to the commission by the offices of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs are apparently incomplete and censured. In the opinion of the Deputy Prime Minister, does not providing the documents requested do anything to improve the image of the Prime Minister's transparency? Is the government pulling another Somalia on us here? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, it is quite the contrary. There has been a lot of compliance with these requests for information. Large volumes of information have been made available. More information continues to come forward. There has been no allegation from anybody at the public complaints commission that they are not getting exactly what they are asking for. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Ms. Alexa McDonough (Halifax, NDP): Mr. Speaker, when the solicitor general prejudices the outcome of the Spray-PEC inquiry, as my colleague clearly heard him do on an Ottawa to Fredericton flight on Thursday evening, confidence in the inquiry is severely undermined. To remove any doubt about whether the solicitor general or anyone else is covering for the Prime Minister, will the Prime Minister commit today to appear before the public complaints inquiry? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, many times in the last two or three weeks I have stood in the House and very much protected the process to get to the truth of this matter for everyone to hear, and here it is: we will not interfere with that process. We will get to the truth in exactly the manner the House set up the public complaints commission to do. Ms. Alexa McDonough (Halifax, NDP): Mr. Speaker, too bad the solicitor general has totally compromised this process now. Our justice system depends upon the scrupulous impartiality of the solicitor general. He is one of the senior law officers of the land. Is it a proper role for the solicitor general to cover for the Prime Minister? Is it a proper role for the solicitor general to be a party to four to five RCMP officers taking the rap? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I can only say that I have stood in the House many times and said exactly what I have said just now. We will get to the truth. The public complaints commission is doing its investigation. I wish hon. members would let it do its job. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, week after week Canadians have witnessed the dodging and weaving of the Prime Minister in an effort to avoid accountability for his actions at APEC. Yet Prime Minister staffers like Jennifer Lang are allowed to comment at random on the APEC allegations, dismissing Chief Gail Sparrows as not credible. My question is for the Deputy Prime Minister. Why is it that Liberal spin doctors are allowed to comment on APEC outside the public complaints commission while the Prime Minister continues to hide? Why the double standard? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the first thing I want to do is check the accuracy of the hon. member's assertion. Certainly, as the solicitor general has said, we want the hearings to begin. We want them to be carried out thoroughly and effectively. I do not see why the hon. member raises this kind of question if he really wants these commission hearings to succeed. Let them continue and let us see what the result will be. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, William Kaplan's recent book Presumed Guilty outlines many disturbing details about the Liberal government's politicized relationship with the RCMP. One such detail is a briefing note in August 1995 on the Airbus investigation for the then solicitor general. In light of documented intervention of the Prime Minister's Office into RCMP security at APEC, I ask a question of our current solicitor general. Did he receive a similar briefing note from the Prime Minister's Office instructing him on the role of the RCMP during the APEC summit? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the security arrangements around APEC were completely and entirely the responsibility of the RCMP. I have been assured by the RCMP since the conference on many occasions that it is entirely security decisions. The RCMP will be speaking to these questions during the hearings that have started today. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Svend J. Robinson (Burnaby?Douglas, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the solicitor general. This minister who said on Thursday that he would cover for the Prime Minister at the APEC inquiry is the same minister who denied legal funds to students at the inquiry trying to get at the truth about the role of his friend, the Prime Minister. In view of the fact that the minister's cover has now been blown and his critical independence as solicitor general is gone, will he do the honourable thing and resign as solicitor general? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am sure the hon. member understands there is a process in place to get to the truth. It is a process that I have defended in the House quite consistently for the last couple of weeks. That process has to be allowed to get to the truth. I am sure they will speak to whomever they need to, to get to the truth. * * * ... [end] ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Wed Oct 7 03:33:57 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 10:33:57 -0800 Subject: [asia-apec 759] Van Sun: More heat on Chretien Message-ID: Last Updated: Tuesday 6 October 1998 TOP STORIES --------------------------------------------------------- Inquiry into Mounties' APEC conduct under way The Vancouver Sun Southam Newspapers and Vancouver Sun The chairman of the RCMP Public Complaints Commission investigating police conduct at the APEC summit said Monday his panel has the power to make the prime minister appear before it. Gerald Morin said the commission can also make findings of improper political conduct if there is evidence of such. - - - OTTAWA -- As a hearing resumed in Vancouver Monday into last November's controversial APEC pepper-spraying the Reform party threatened to tie up the House of Commons if Prime Minister Jean Chretien refuses to explain his role in the events. Chretien has said he will not testify even if the RCMP public complaints commission calls him. Reform said it will obstruct House business until Chretien backs down. "We can make it awfully rough around this place," said John Reynolds (West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast). "We can use every means at our disposal, such as not giving unanimous consent to a lot of things that need to be done in the House." Reform's tactic comes at a time when Chretien is increasingly seen as intolerant of dissent, particularly within the Liberal caucus. On Monday B.C. Liberal MP Ted McWhinney (Vancouver Quadra) was kicked off the House foreign affairs committee after saying last week that students involved in the protest at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum should have their legal bills paid. The committee was to vote on the request for funding this week. McWhinney, who represents the riding in and around UBC, where the APEC protest took place, confirmed late Monday he was dropped from the committee after his call for student legal funding. He said the was nothing sinister about that it but would not elaborate. In Vancouver, Gerald Morin, chair of the RCMP complaints commission, said the panel not only has the jurisdiction to call politicians -- Chretien included -- but it can also make findings of improper political conduct if it finds such evidence. The panel also said the commission will ask the federal government to pay complainants' legal costs. The decision to ask for legal funding on behalf of the students is a reversal of a previous decision and adds weight to a growing public demand that the government assume financial responsibility for a hearing that has quickly turned into what one lawyer called an adversarial process. The panel resumed Monday after last week's preliminaries for the start of what was supposed to be a six-week hearing. The entire day was taken up with legal motions, mostly from lawyers representing protesters, who wanted to set ground rules for how the hearings will be conducted. Morin said it is clear the commission not only has the jurisdiction to investigate any political overtones to police actions, but can also make findings of political interference. "We will go where the evidence of the witnesses takes us," he said. "We know that these are grave matters that strike at the heart of what we are, and consequently we will conduct the hearing with the dignity it deserves." Government lawyer Ivan Whitehall told the commission that the RCMP and the federal government were merely following routine security protocols when they made arrangements for the APEC summit, and that there was no other political intervention. "It was simply the way major international events are run," Whitehall said. "This is a case of how the government of Canada dealt with a major international event. We say totally appropriately. You may decide otherwise. We'll see." By the end of the day it was clear that the commission's time frame of completing testimony within six weeks was out the window. The hearing has developed into such a complicated inquiry that Chris Considine, the panel's lawyer, has said it may take upwards of six months to conclude. At least 120 witnesses, including students, police, university officials and government officials are expected to testify. Among those subpoenaed were two officials in Chretien's office. Craig Jones, a protester and vice-president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association was scheduled to begin testimony Monday, but his appearance was put off because of the raft of motions. While the hearing was taken up mostly with dry legal arguments, it was marked by outbursts by Sylvia Osberg, a regular and vocal objector at municipal council meetings and court houses. She was eventually ejected from the room after the panel took at least one short recess. ------ Last Updated: Tuesday 6 October 1998 OPINION --------------------------------------------------------- Today's Editorial: APEC fallout bounces off Chretien - so far Without all the evidence in, talk about the prime minister resigning is premature. Unless Liberal MPs are pressured by angry constituents, they are unlikely to oppose their leader. Vancouver Sun One swallow does not a summer make, or a couple of academics' views a groundswell. But Wesley Pue, a history professor in the University of B.C.'s law faculty, seconded by colleague Joel Bakan, has boldly plunged into the proposition that if Prime Minister Jean Chretien sacrificed the rule of law and the civil rights of anti-Suharto protesters pepper-sprayed by police at last November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vancouver, "he's bound to resign." Is he? As this paper has cautioned, speculation about "the Pepper-Spray Scandal" is a harmless sport, but there are all kinds of thumbs on the scales before the evidence has been produced, let alone weighed. Documents have been freely leaked, opinions aired, agendas admitted, questions dodged. But the RCMP complaint commission's hearing into the matter, expected to last six weeks or more, seriously began only yesterday. And what finally counts is sworn evidence tested by cross-examination. The rule of law is central to the issue; only application of the rule of law can resolve it. Allowing that a rush to judgment is premature, what if the commission unearths convincing evidence that Mr. Chretien, personally or by the proxy of his aides, shamelessly toadied up to an Asian dictator and -- going far beyond the requirements of security for a visiting head of state -- abrogated the constitutional right of Canadians to engage in peaceful protest? ("Peaceful" requires a stretch of definition, in some individual cases, like that of the student who declared he'd make a citizen's or "symbolic" arrest of the then-president of Indonesia.) Suppose the commission scolds Mr. Chretien, even asserting that he committed, in Professor Pue's words, "a scandalous violation of the Constitution." What then? Put aside parallels with certain current goings-on in the United States. There are none. The two systems are vastly different. Pragmatically, only the parliamentary Liberal caucus could unhorse Mr. Chretien. And the Liberal MPs probably would abandon Mr. Chretien only if they returned, sweating, to Ottawa after weekends of facing hordes of angry constituents demanding that their boss had to go. As another UBC professor, Philip Resnick, puts it: The Teflon is beginning to chip off Jean Chretien. But at this point his popularity in the polls is undiminished, strongly suggesting that many Canadians -- not universally fans of colourful campus radicalism -- see the APEC issue as just an in-house intellectual brawl of the political classes. They might collect many reasons for getting rid of Mr. Chretien at the next election. But not this one. Not yet, anyway. _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From PANAP at GEO2.poptel.org.uk Wed Oct 7 10:44:19 1998 From: PANAP at GEO2.poptel.org.uk (PANAP@GEO2.poptel.org.uk) Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 02:44:19 +0100 GMT Subject: [asia-apec 760] PRM rally stopped by police Message-ID: <109892085GEO2@GEO2.poptel.org.uk> RALLY STOPPED BY POLICE Police officer OCPD Zaini, backed by about a dozen members of the Federal Reserve Unit armed with batons and shields, plus about another dozen uniformed police personnel and an unknown number of ununiformed Special Branch (SB) officers descended on a rally that was organised by Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) Johore, on Monday night, 28 September 1998, at Kampung Melayu Majidee, Johor Bahru. The speakers lined up to address the the rally were Dr Syed Husin Ali (President), lawyer Adul Razak Ahmad (Deputy President) and Hassan Abdul Karim (PRM Youth leader). The Secretary of PRM Johore submitted to the police an application for permit to hold this rally two weeks ago on 14 September, but after being called and questioned by the police a number of times he was informed on Saturday 26 September, only two days before the rally, that no permit would be issued. By that time wide publicity had already been given to the public about the rally, and it was difficult at such a short notice to inform them about the police decision. Considering that the police decision was unfair and the law on which they acted was unjust, PRM decided to carry on with the rally. Starting about 8.00 p.m., police blocked roads leading to the place where the rally was to be held, and I was informed that a water canon vehicle was also standing by. Nevertheless, over 1,000 people managed to gather there. Hassan, as chairman, began the rally at about 9.15 p.m. with some introductory remarks and then invited Razak to speak. Razak had hardly spoken for five minutes when OCPD Zaini, accompanied by a number of police personnel, asked him to stop in three minutes time, stating that the rally was not legal. At that time Razak invited Syed Husin to speak. When the three minutes was up, OCPD Zaini asked everything to stop and threatened action. The FRU personnel came, apparently asking the crowd to disperse. In order to protect the safety of the public, we decided to call it a day. In a media conference held immediately afterwards, Abdul Razak Ahmad condemned the high-handed action of the police. He said the rally was peaceful and did not at all threaten any disorder. He urged the government and the police to allow for the airing of views on all important issues affecting the country and the people. He said that PRM would continue to inform the public and hold discourses with the people through such rallies and also other legal and appropriate means. Secretariat PRM 29 September 1998 From oxfam-uki at yogya.wasantara.net.id Wed Oct 7 11:01:35 1998 From: oxfam-uki at yogya.wasantara.net.id (Oxfam GB - Indonesia Office) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 09:01:35 +0700 Subject: [asia-apec 761] Re: PRM rally stopped by police Message-ID: <9E43337578@yogya.wasantara.net.id> Dear friend, We have received same messafge from the other e-mail address in our office. Would please not to send in this e-mail address gain then? Thanks. secretary ---------- > From: PANAP@GEO2.poptel.org.uk > To: asia-apec@jca.ax.apc.org > Subject: [asia-apec 760] PRM rally stopped by police > Date: 07 Oktober 1998 8:44 > > RALLY STOPPED BY POLICE > > Police officer OCPD Zaini, backed by about a dozen members of the Federal > Reserve Unit armed with batons and shields, plus about another dozen > uniformed police personnel and an unknown number of ununiformed Special > Branch (SB) officers descended on a rally that was organised by > Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) Johore, on Monday night, 28 September > 1998, at Kampung Melayu Majidee, Johor Bahru. The speakers lined up > to address the the rally were Dr Syed Husin Ali (President), lawyer > Adul Razak Ahmad (Deputy President) and Hassan Abdul Karim (PRM > Youth leader). > > The Secretary of PRM Johore submitted to the police an application for > permit to hold this rally two weeks ago on 14 September, but after being > called and questioned by the police a number of times he was informed on > Saturday 26 September, only two days before the rally, that no permit would > be issued. By that time wide publicity had already been given to the > public about the rally, and it was difficult at such a short notice to > inform them about the police decision. > > Considering that the police decision was unfair and the law on which they > acted was unjust, PRM decided to carry on with the rally. Starting about > 8.00 p.m., police blocked roads leading to the place where the rally was > to be held, and I was informed that a water canon vehicle was also standing > by. Nevertheless, over 1,000 people managed to gather there. > > Hassan, as chairman, began the rally at about 9.15 p.m. with some > introductory remarks and then invited Razak to speak. Razak had hardly > spoken for five minutes when OCPD Zaini, accompanied by a number of police > personnel, asked him to stop in three minutes time, stating that the rally > was not legal. At that time Razak invited Syed Husin to speak. When the > three minutes was up, OCPD Zaini asked everything to stop and threatened > action. The FRU personnel came, apparently asking the crowd to disperse. > In order to protect the safety of the public, we decided to call it a day. > > In a media conference held immediately afterwards, Abdul Razak Ahmad > condemned the high-handed action of the police. He said the rally was > peaceful and did not at all threaten any disorder. He urged the government > and the police to allow for the airing of views on all important issues > affecting the country and the people. He said that PRM would continue to > inform the public and hold discourses with the people through such rallies > and also other legal and appropriate means. > > > > > Secretariat > PRM > > 29 September 1998 From xboston at davidsuzuki.org Tue Oct 6 20:07:47 1998 From: xboston at davidsuzuki.org (Alex Boston) Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 20:07:47 Subject: [asia-apec 762] Taking Your Breath Away Message-ID: <3.0.5.16.19981006200747.211f151e@192.168.1.1> Please forward -- apologies if you receive this more than once. _______________________________________________________________ 16 000 Canadians die every year from air pollution! Global warming will increase this human toll. Industry and government policies and practices are increasing our dependence on oil, coal and gas -- the primary source of both these problems. Climate change is the greatest threat to humanity in the modern era. Explore the threats, solutions, and opportunities for action. PUBLIC FORUM TAKING YOUR BREATH AWAY CLIMATE CHANGE, AIR POLLUTION & HUMAN HEALTH WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 7 PM JUDGE WHITE THEATRE, ROBSON SQUARE, VANCOUVER Featuring top Canadian health experts, the BC Medical Association and David Suzuki Foundation Executive Director Jim Fulton. With the federal government working to weaken its international commitment, it is crucial to force it and the fossil fuel industry to make deep emission cuts here in Canada to protect our health today and for future generations. _________________________________________________________________ For more information: or 732-4228 From pet at web.net Wed Oct 7 21:18:53 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 08:18:53 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 763] Cda Hansard, Oct.6/98, re: APEC'97 Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981007082238.46cf2fc6@pop.web.net> October 6, 1998 House of Commons Ottawa, Canada Official Transcript (English version only) [English] The Speaker: Colleagues, I have notice of a question of privilege which is in order and was received in time for it to be brought up at 10 o'clock today. I recognize the hon. Solicitor General on a question of privilege. * * * PRIVILEGE APEC SUMMIT Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege. Yesterday my hon. colleague, the member of parliament for Palliser, made some very serious charges in the House. The hon. member said that in the course of a private conversation he overheard on a flight from Ottawa to Fredericton that I discussed events relating to the RCMP Public Complaints Commission inquiry into events at APEC. I categorically deny that I engaged in an inappropriate conversation that would in any way prejudice the outcome of that inquiry. I was seated with another passenger in the course of a two hour flight from Ottawa to Fredericton. We had a wide-ranging conversation covering various subjects. At no time did I prejudge the outcome of the PCC inquiry, nor did I suggest that my role was to prevent the Prime Minister from attending the inquiry. First, I have much respect for the independence of the PCC and its civilian oversight function. Second, I am determined to allow this inquiry to run its course and establish what happened at APEC and why. Third, I fully understand the responsibilities of the Solicitor General and would never jeopardize my lawful duties. Finally, I am personally offended that the hon. member has chosen to impugn my integrity, my ethics and my commitment to this process, particularly since these attacks were made by a political opponent who spent two hours eavesdropping on a private conversation. There were only two parties to this conversation, myself and Mr. Fred Toole. I would now like to table a letter from Mr. Toole which supports what I have just told the House. Mr. Speaker, I thank you for allowing me to rise on this question of privilege and to state for the record what really transpired. I am not going to say anything further about what we discussed because this was a private conversation. I have full confidence in the independence and impartiality of the PCC and I would ask all hon. members to give the hearing process a chance to work. The Speaker: Colleagues, this is clearly not a question of privilege. It is a dispute as to the facts, as they may or may not be, depending on one point or the other. I am going to rule that it is not a question of privilege. The statement is on the record, but it is not a question of privilege. Mr. Dick Proctor: Mr. Speaker, may I respond very briefly to say with great? The Speaker: I have ruled that this is not a question of privilege, as we understand it in the House, so the matter is closed. I would add this addendum. I will not allow the tabling of this document at this time. There are other means by which the minister can do this. With respect to the hon. member for Palliser, although his name was mentioned in this non-question of privilege, at this point my ruling is that there is not a question of privilege. Of course the hon. member has other means at his disposal if he wishes to pursue any other points which he deems to be valuable to this House. We are now going to proceed to the orders of the day. Mr. Randy White: Mr. Speaker, if this is not considered a question of privilege? The Speaker: I ask the hon. member if this deals with the question of privilege that I have ruled on because that point is over. Hon. David Kilgour: No, Mr. Speaker, it is separate. The House can do anything it wishes by unanimous consent. I would ask for unanimous consent to table the letter in the House. The Speaker: We now have before us in this House a request for unanimous consent from one of our members to table a document in this House. Does the House give permission to put this question? Some hon. members: Agreed. An hon. member: No. The Speaker: Permission denied. Mr. Peter Adams: Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It seems to me that it is quite possible for the minister to table this document under Tabling of Documents, which will happen in Routine Proceedings fairly shortly. Under Standing Order 32(1), a minister is allowed to table any document relating to the administration of government. The Speaker: There is no question about that. The hon. parliamentary secretary is correct. Mr. Randy White: Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Surely if the minister is to make a statement or table a document in this House it should pertain specifically to that which the minister is responsible for and not a document that has been created to cover up any particular tracks in an investigation. The Speaker: We are going to proceed with the rules of the House. The hon. parliamentary secretary gave information to the House which is correct. Any one of us can see that if we just look at the rules. I do not have anything in front of me right now except the statement that I concurred with. Now we will proceed to the daily routine of business. ... ORAL QUESTION PERIOD [English] APEC SUMMIT Mr. Preston Manning (Leader of the Opposition, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, yesterday when the solicitor general was questioned about his conversation on an airplane concerning the APEC affair, he could not seem to recall anything at all that he said. However, today, after counselling no doubt from the spin doctors, he categorically denies that he said anything inappropriate. How is it that the solicitor general could not recall any of that conversation yesterday but today has total recall of that same conversation? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I said this morning in the House, I categorically deny the allegations as I did yesterday. We have established that the comments of the hon. member, I believe, were titbits of words that were floating around in a noisy aircraft and are unworthy of this place. Mr. Preston Manning (Leader of the Opposition, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, yesterday the solicitor general said he could not even remember who sat next to him. He did not know whether they were animal, mineral or vegetable. Today the minister admits that his seatmate was a friend, a lawyer and a Liberal Party supporter to boot. How is it that yesterday the solicitor general could not even remember the gender of his seatmate and yet today recalls that it was a Liberal friend? How did that happen? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have flown back and forth from Ottawa to Fredericton 300 times in the last five years. I know most of the people on that aircraft and I do not recall in each and every case whom it is that I sat with. I inquired and I found out. That is the truth. That is the answer. He will have to live with it. Mr. Preston Manning (Leader of the Opposition, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, this minister by his indiscretions has called into question the impartiality of the whole public complaints commission inquiry into the APEC affair. Now he has made matters worse by trying to cover up his own indiscretions with this cock and bull story. Where is the minister's honesty? Where is his integrity? And where is? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: Colleagues, I ask all of you to be very cautious in the words you are using. The honesty of members is not questioned in this Chamber and I would remind hon. members of that fact. Please choose your words very carefully. Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I had a conversation with the gentleman who sat on the plane. He substantiated my story and I will not dignify that question with an answer. Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general in a few short hours has gone from ?he was someone I don't know? to ?actually we have been good friends for some time?. He has gone from ?I don't know who this person is. I don't know them by name? to ?it is Frederick Toole from Saint John?. Great scott, we have gone from ?I can't recall? to total recall and now to a rebuttal. When will we go to the resignation? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has at least three inaccuracies in that question and I will not respond. Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, this story is getting more outrageous by the minute every time he opens his mouth. Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: The hon. member for Edmonton North. Miss Deborah Grey: Mr. Speaker, as I said, this story is getting more outrageous every time the minister opens his mouth. The commission is now saying that it is worried about public trust in this whole instance. I am sure the Solicitor General is the only person in the country who happens to believe his own story. The commission is in doubt. The damage has been done. The gig is up. When will he resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this process needs to work and it cannot be sabotaged by the innuendo of members opposite. [Translation] Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier?Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Solicitor General could not remember who he talked with on the flight between Ottawa and Fredericton or what they spoke about. He could not even remember whether the person was a man or a woman. But this morning, miracle of miracles, he remembered everything. He was speaking to a longtime Liberal friend. How can the Prime Minister put his trust in a solicitor whose memory is so weak and whose integrity is based solely on the vague testimony of a Liberal partisan? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Solicitor General made a statement to the House this morning. He tabled a letter from the person on the trip with him. I think that it fully explains the situation. The facts speak for themselves. I am surprised. Members will have to be careful, because tomorrow there will be people spying all around them. Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier?Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, every time a scandal looms, the Prime Minister uses the same scenario. Here again, he is doing so with the APEC story. First, the Prime Minister denies the evidence. Second, he finds a political official, sometimes the Minister of Canadian Heritage, or the former Minister of National Defence. Third, he orders an investigation to clear himself. My question is simply this: When will he produce a letter of good behaviour from the ethics commissioner? That is all that is lacking in the habitual scenario. Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, there is nothing the government wants more than for the commission of inquiry to do its job as quickly as possible. A complaint was lodged about police behaviour, and we want to find out the truth. Once the truth is known, we will act objectively. Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the Solicitor General is clearly in a very difficult situation, with not just his credibility, but also his job, at stake. My question is for the Prime Minister. Will he admit that not only is the Solicitor General in a very difficult situation, but that so is he, because his credibility and his job are hanging by a thread, and that thread is the testimony of a Liberal Party member and a friend of the minister? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, one year and four months ago, we were elected to office. Our mandate is very clear. The thread is a pretty hefty one; we hold more seats than any of the opposition parties. Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister not think he is asking Frederick D. Toole to shoulder quite a load, when Mr. Toole, good Liberal that he is, realizes that his testimony alone could make or break the government? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Quebecois does not have much of a point. We are merely saying that we want the commission to be able to begin its work. In fact, it did so yesterday, and we hope that the testimony will be heard. All those asked to testify went and volunteered to be present. I personally am not in the least worried, because I know very well that everything is done to respect international conventions, which require that the safety? The Speaker: I am sorry to have to interrupt the Right Hon. Prime Minister but the leader of the New Democratic Party now has the floor. [English] Ms. Alexa McDonough (Halifax, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is also to the Prime Minister. The Solicitor General clearly failed to maintain the impartiality required of him when he stated: ?Four to five Mounties overreacted for five minutes. I think it was excessive?. Canadians recognize the Solicitor General's remarks as prejudicial and inappropriate. When will the Prime Minister do the same and demand the resignation of the Solicitor General? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the leader of the NDP first claimed in this House that Gail Sparrow saw me giving orders, yet she failed to apologize when Mrs. Sparrow later admitted she could not hear what I was saying. Then the leader of the NDP charged that one of my staff said that he had shredded documents, yet she failed to apologize when the commission counsel refuted that claim. Then she said that one of my special advisers phoned UBC president Martha Piper to intervene in a matter related to security, yet the leader of the NDP? The Speaker: The hon. leader of the New Democratic Party. Ms. Alexa McDonough (Halifax, NDP): Mr. Speaker, even the Solicitor General in this morning's carefully worded statement did not deny that he had made these prejudicial comments. In fact his failure to recognize that his inappropriate remarks are prejudicial, that they are prejudicing the inquiry, is further evidence that he cannot do his job. The Prime Minister has no choice but to demand his resignation. Why will the Prime Minister not do that? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I do not intend to do so because I am watching the leader of the NDP once again raising baseless allegations, based on selective eavesdropping by one of her members, for which she should once again apologize. I thought the leader of the NDP had greater ambition than to become the Linda Tripp of Canada. Mrs. Elsie Wayne (Saint John, PC): Mr. Speaker, this government has a record of firing people who are competent and who do their jobs with independence and integrity. It had the chief actuary of the Canada pension plan fired because he refused to manipulate information on the CPP. It fired the chair of the fisheries committee because his committee told the truth. The chair of the foreign affairs committee was next. The Solicitor General proved his incompetence when he shared his observations about the outcome of an ongoing investigation into the APEC affair. Surely the Prime Minister must for once fire the? The Speaker: The hon. Solicitor General. Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I said this morning, I said nothing that would interfere with the process of the PCC or with the outcome. That was substantiated by the person with whom I was having a private conversation on the plane. Mrs. Elsie Wayne (Saint John, PC): Mr. Speaker, is it not odd that the Solicitor General can remember what he said yesterday when yesterday he could not remember what he said the day before? The Solicitor General was overheard prejudging the outcome of the APEC investigation. He denied such prejudgment when asked in this House. Then outside the House yesterday he claimed that he could not remember anything. Today the Solicitor General admits that he had a conversation about APEC with a personal friend which he should not have had. How can the Prime Minister allow the Solicitor General to remain in his position and still ensure the integrity of the APEC investigation? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, if we want to have an inquiry we should let the inquiry be conducted by the people. The inquiry started yesterday. Let them do their work. If it is the only thing the member wants to talk about, then we have no objections because we know the government has done nothing wrong. The police discharged its responsibilities as it was its duty to do. If there was something wrong the commission will find out. Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver?Sunshine Coast, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, this morning the chairman of the Public Complaints Commission said that comments attributed to the Solicitor General have hurt the public trust in the Public Complaints Commission. My question is to the Prime Minister. His own Solicitor General said on September 21 ?We have to protect the integrity of that investigation to get to the truth?. With the feeling in the Public Complaints Commission that their trust has been affected, will the Prime Minister ask the Solicitor General to resign until this matter is over? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the minister has denied, and it was confirmed by the lawyer who was travelling with him, that they discussed anything that interfered with the work of the commission. I am satisfied with the word of the minister and the word of the lawyer? The Speaker: Colleagues, surely we should let the person answer the question. Like many of you, I am having difficulty hearing the questions and the answers. The Right Hon. Prime Minister had the floor. I am sorry I intervened. Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien: Mr. Speaker, I will just say that we want this commission to do its work as quickly as possible so that we will know all the facts. That is what this House should wish and it is what the commission should do. The country will be happy if we let them do their work. Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver?Sunshine Coast, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, yesterday at 3.30 the Solicitor General was out in the lobby denying he ever said what he said. By 5.30 last night there is a letter in Ottawa saying he did? The Speaker: No props. Mr. John Reynolds: Mr. Speaker, there is a letter that was discussed this morning by the minister. On September 21 the minister rose in this House saying that it would be completely inappropriate to discuss any details around this investigation. The minister obviously discussed this with a friend on the airplane, which he did not remember last night but did a couple of hours later. My question is to the Prime Minister. The minister did discuss it. He said in this House he should not. Should he not resign until this commission is over? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the answer is no. [Translation] Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, clearly the Solicitor General would not have remained in his position had a friend of the Liberal Party not qualified his remarks in the plane. My question is for the Prime Minister. Is a lawyer like Mr. Toole, whose firm contributed $10,000 to the victory of the Liberal Party in the last election, capable of qualifying the remarks he heard to save the skin of the Solicitor General? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the lawyer in question, a prominent citizen of New Brunswick, sent a letter, which is now a public document. If the hon. member is saying that the lawyer is lying, let him say so outside the House of Commons, and the lawyer can take the appropriate action. Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the fact is that this is where the event is occurring and it is here we want to know whether the Solicitor General should remain in his position. My question is as follows: As the Solicitor General, the minister for public security in a way, is supposed to be above all suspicion, can he say that he remains so in order to keep his position? We do not think so. [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am very aware of my role as Solicitor General. I would not compromise it and I did not compromise it. That is what I said yesterday. That is what I said today. That is what has been substantiated by the person who sat with me on the plane. Mr. Monte Solberg (Medicine Hat, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, this is incredible. First the minister cannot remember who he spoke to, what their gender was, what the person said, and then, like in a soap opera, the 24-hour amnesia passes and all of a sudden he discovers that the mystery passenger was his good friend. That does not even pass the laugh test. Why does the minister not quit the charade and just resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, because the story as recounted is absolutely accurate. I never remembered on Monday who was on the plane the Thursday night before. I have taken this plane 300 times in the last five years with many of the same people. It is a small community. I found out last night who it was. I had the conversation necessary to remind myself of all the details and they were very consistent with what I said in the House yesterday and what I said again today. Mr. Monte Solberg (Medicine Hat, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister mentions Linda Tripp. In the U.S. they have DNA tests. Here we will have to start administering IQ tests. Mr. Speaker, in case? The Speaker: I would ask the hon. member to withdraw those last remarks about IQ tests. Mr. Monte Solberg: Mr. Speaker, I withdraw them. In case the minister does not remember, he is the Solicitor General. In case he does not remember, he is in the House of Commons. In case he does not remember, he does have some responsibilities, like telling Canadians exactly what happened on that plane. Why does he not quit fooling around, quit with the fairy tales and just resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have told the hon. member what happened in great detail and I stand by it. * * * ... [English] APEC SUMMIT Mr. Randy White (Langley?Abbotsford, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, I have listened with great regret and concern about what has happened in this House and what we have heard in here today. I have heard denials in the face of the facts. Some hon. members: Oh, oh. Mr. Randy White: Mr. Speaker, we have heard denials in the face of the facts. We have heard contradictions by the solicitor general. We have heard excuses and not apologies. The solicitor general of our country is simply not believable. Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: I ask the member to go directly to his question. Mr. Randy White: Mr. Speaker, I ask the Prime Minister very simply, will he stand in the House right now and ask for the solicitor general's resignation? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, certainly not. At 10 o'clock this morning the solicitor general made a statement from his seat in the House. He confirmed his statement with a letter from the lawyer who was travelling with him on the plane. I am satisfied with the explanation of the solicitor general. I wish the House of Commons would let the commission do its work. Mr. Randy White (Langley?Abbotsford, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, it is a little difficult to do the work when we are faced with what we are faced with today. This is about compromising a public inquiry. This is about covering up for the Prime Minister's office. The only reason the solicitor general should be on his feet today is to stand up with his resignation. I would like to ask the Prime Minister once again, if he cannot get a resignation, will he fire the solicitor general? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the hon. member just said he wanted to know what happened in the office of the Prime Minister. Without being requested, my chief of staff and the other person who has been mentioned have offered to testify. They did not wait for a subpoena, they have offered to testify. I am very anxious to know what they will say, because I know what I have discussed with them and I have nothing to fear. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, on Monday the solicitor general had a particular story to tell in the scrum outside of here. On Tuesday he came up with a completely different story. First he did not know him and now he knows him. There have been all kinds of details back and forth. Between story number one and story number two, I would like to ask the solicitor general, which story is the truth? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I was asked questions in the House yesterday and I answered them honestly and to the best of my recollection. Last night I explored further what happened last Thursday and consequently I remembered more parts of the story. This is human nature. This is exactly what happened. It is the absolute truth and I stand by it. Mr. Preston Manning (Calgary Southwest, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general is digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole. The solicitor general is one of the two law officers of the crown in this House. If anybody ought to be interested in protecting the integrity of this inquiry, it is he. In that he has reflected badly on the inquiry, why does he not do the responsible and honourable thing and stand in this House and offer his resignation? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I sat here for two weeks defending the inquiry. When allegations were made that I said something that would prejudice the exercise or the outcome of the inquiry, I denied it immediately. I denied it this morning and I deny it now. Mr. Dick Proctor (Palliser, NDP): Mr. Speaker, now that his memory bank has kicked back in and the solicitor general recalls the name of his seatmate on flight 8876 last Thursday night and that he said to Fred D. Toole ?It will come out in the inquiry that four to five Mounties overreacted for five minutes. No one knows this. I think it was excessive?, will the solicitor general not agree that those were precisely the words that he used? Will he admit it here in his place this afternoon? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): No, Mr. Speaker, those are not the words that I used. Mr. Dick Proctor (Palliser, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I would suggest from now on that perhaps the solicitor general could get the keys for the Challenger from the minister responsible for heritage because he should be taking that flight. My supplementary question is for the Prime Minister. The solicitor general said last week that he? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: My colleagues, we will hear the question. The hon. member for Palliser. Mr. Dick Proctor: Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general said very clearly last Thursday night that he really wanted to go to the baseball play-offs and the World Series but he could not because he was covering for the Prime Minister. I think the Prime Minister should do the honourable thing, allow this man to go to the World Series?and the play-offs are tonight at eight o'clock and there is still time for him to get here?relieve him of his portfolio and let him go. Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, first we will have to check that the member is not renting the seat behind him so he can listen to the comments. This used to be a House where there were some rules that applied among members that seem not to exist in the mind of this reporter for the National Enquirer. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, the very process which the solicitor general has so vigorously defended has now been compromised by his own irresponsibility. His feeble defence of tabling a letter from Frederick Toole is proof that he discussed APEC publicly. This is contrary to the previous statements that he could say nothing on APEC and is the equivalent of President Clinton's famous line ?I did not have sexual relations with that woman?. Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: I ask the hon. member to go directly to his question. Mr. Peter MacKay: Mr. Speaker, in light of this controversy, will the solicitor general now show some integrity, take responsibility for his actions and resign immediately? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I took responsibility for my actions. I looked into the allegations. They were false. I said that here this morning. It is the case. There is no necessity and I want to protect this process. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, do Canadians have to wait for the solicitor general's next flight home for straight answers on this issue? The Prime Minister has spent weeks hiding from Canadians on APEC. He hid behind his spin doctors who attacked APEC witnesses. He hid behind the solicitor general who will not talk about this issue in the House, but loves to talk about it on Air Canada. Now the Prime Minister's human shield, the solicitor general, is a human sieve. Will the Prime Minister himself answer questions on this issue and demand the solicitor general's resignation? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we have an inquiry going on. Evidently they are not interested to know what happened. They just want to have something to attack the government on. They might be suffering the problem of scandal envy because there has not been a big problem in this government for the last five years. I am telling the House that we want to know exactly what happened between the students and the police. We are very anxious for the commission to find out and tell everyone what happened on that afternoon. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general has tried to explain away his actions, saying that he has a letter from a friend that makes it all okay. Mr. Speaker, you will excuse us if we do not think that explains anything away. The public complaints commissioner this morning said that the actions of the solicitor general have broken the trust Canadians have in this commission. Does the solicitor general not see that he should resign until such time as the commission has done its work? Can he not see that? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, if I can correct the hon. member, the chair was referring to the allegations which I have denied and I stand here and deny them once again. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Svend J. Robinson (Burnaby?Douglas, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the solicitor general to test his deep commitment to the RCMP Public Complaints Commission. Yesterday the commission agreed to once again strongly urge the federal government to provide legal funds for the student complainants at the APEC hearings. At the same time the federal government has hired yet another high-priced lawyer, David Scott, to its team. In view of the minister's constant urging to let the commission do its work, will he now listen to the commissioners, to the federal court, to his own Liberal colleague from the UBC area and extend full legal funding to the student complainants at the APEC hearing? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I await the letter and I would advise the member that we increased the amount of money available to the PCC for this inquiry by $650,000. ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Grant McNally (Dewdney?Alouette, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, here is what we have heard today. We have heard the solicitor general tell two different stories. We have heard about his friend who admits he has known him for 15 years, and the solicitor general says he did not know who he was. It is clear that no matter what he intended through this letter the impression given by what has happened is that he has compromised the integrity of the PCC. In summary, I ask when this will minister resign. Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I feel very strongly about the issue of civilian oversight. I have said that for the last few weeks. I will defend that process here and I will defend it against the hearsay that is coming from across the floor. * * * ... [end] ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From pet at web.net Wed Oct 7 22:38:50 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 09:38:50 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 764] G&M: APEC: SolGen's Memory returns Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981007094234.24e774dc@pop.web.net> Globe and Mail October 7, 1998 THE APEC FUROR The overheard remark: Minister's memory returns Furor provokes Clintonesque Commons debate Wednesday, October 7, 1998 DANIEL LEBLANC With a report from Canadian Press Ottawa -- The furor over comments attributed to Solicitor-General Andy Scott grew yesterday after he said he now remembers the conversation in question -- and that it was with an old friend -- but denied that there was anything improper in it. The day took on a Clintonesque air as Mr. Scott said he did not have an "inappropriate conversation" about the APEC inquiry as alleged by New Democrat MP Dick Proctor on Monday. In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Jean Chr?tien rejected calls for Mr. Scott's resignation and linked NDP Leader Alexa McDonough with the reporting of a private conversation by calling her Canada's Linda Tripp, the woman whose secret taping of telephone conversations implicated U.S. President Bill Clinton in a sex scandal. The NDP responded by releasing more notes of the two-hour conversation that Mr. Proctor said he overheard last Thursday on Air Canada Flight 8876. Two days ago, Mr. Proctor accused Mr. Scott, the minister responsible for the RCMP and the Correctional Service of Canada, of prejudging the results of hearings by the RCMP Complaints Commission into the handling of demonstrations at last November's Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit. Mr. Scott allegedly said in his overheard conversation that one Mountie would take the fall for the violent treatment of protesters at the summit. On Monday afternoon, Mr. Scott said he couldn't recall his seatmate on the flight to New Brunswick -- or even whether the person was a man or a woman. Yesterday, he said he was talking on the plane with New Brunswick lawyer Frederick Toole. Mr. Scott and Mr. Toole have been friends for about 15 years, and Mr. Toole is a member of and a contributor to the Liberal Party of Canada. Mr. Scott said he remembered sitting next to Mr. Toole, and the nature of their conversation, Monday night after checking with the person who had picked him up at the airport. According to Mr. Proctor, Mr. Scott told Mr. Toole on the plane that "it would come out [of the commission] that there was excessive force used by four or five Mounties over five minutes." He also quoted Mr. Scott as saying: "Hughie may be the guy who takes the fall for this." Mr. Proctor believes this was a reference to Staff-Sergeant Hugh Stewart of the RCMP, who ordered the use of pepper spray to disperse protesters around the summit site. Asked whether he made this reference to "Hughie," Mr. Scott said yesterday: "Anything that would indicate that I was predetermining an outcome or claiming influence on the process simply did not happen." He said Mr. Proctor heard only "tidbits of words that were floating around in a noisy aircraft." In his public statements about the controversy over whether the Prime Minister's Office was involved in the security arrangements for the summit, Mr. Scott has repeatedly said the APEC inquiry must go ahead unimpeded. While Mr. Scott acknowledged talking about the APEC inquiry on the flight, he denied that he said anything that could be seen as prejudging its results. But his denials were not as much on the content of his conversation as on its potential impact or the way it could be interpreted. "I categorically deny that I engaged in an inappropriate conversation that would in any way prejudice the outcome of that inquiry," he said. In his efforts to prove that his notes of the conversation were accurate, Mr. Proctor released more details about them yesterday. Mr. Proctor also said Mr. Scott made unflattering remarks about principal figures in the Airbus investigation, Frank Moores, a former Conservative premier of Newfoundland and an Ottawa lobbyist, and German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. Both men, along with former prime minister Brian Mulroney, were the subject of an RCMP investigation three years ago into alleged improper payments in the sale of European-built Airbus jets to Air Canada during the mid-1980s. No evidence of wrongdoing was uncovered and Mr. Mulroney eventually won a $2-million settlement and an apology. "There was no reference to Airbus as such," Mr. Proctor acknowledged yesterday, but all the same, "Karlheinz Schreiber's name came up .-.-. Frank Moores' name came up." Robert Hladun, Mr. Schreiber's Canadian lawyer, said Mr. Scott's remarks, if accurate, would be "highly inappropriate," and would raise questions about potential political interference in the Airbus investigation." Mr. Moores was unavailable for comment but has denied any wrongdoing. The notes also quoted Mr. Scott as discussing the prospects for a Liberal comeback in the next federal election in Atlantic Canada and saying that he has a "standing offer" to be a special ambassador to the United Nations when he leaves politics. In the Commons, Mr. Scott attacked Mr. Proctor's motives. "I am personally offended that the honourable member has chosen to impugn my integrity, my ethics and my commitment to this process, particularly since these attacks were made by a political opponent who spent two hours eavesdropping on a private conversation." Mr. Proctor stood behind his initial accusations, and said he was disappointed by Mr. Scott's denials. "I think that the Solicitor-General is feeling confident now that Toole has come forward, written this type of letter. He says it's Proctor versus the Solicitor-General, and I'll take my chances. . . . I've got the notes that I heard him say. The Solicitor-General lied this morning in the House of Commons." UPON FURTHER REFLECTION "I do not know where the honourable member is getting his information, but I never said such a thing." "I don't recall who I might have been speaking with on the aircraft." "I don't recall any of these kinds of conversation." -- Solicitor-General Andy Scott, Monday "Mr. Speaker, I have flown back and forth from Ottawa to Fredericton 300 times in the last five years. I know most of the people on that aircraft and I do not recall in each and every case who it is I sat with. I inquired and I found out." "There were only two parties to this conversation, myself and Mr. Fred Toole." "Mr. Toole is a very, very distinguished, credible person." "I said yesterday that I didn't believe that I had done anything, and that is confirmed by Mr. Toole and I think that now closes it." -- Mr. Scott, yesterday 'THE LINDA TRIPP OF CANADA' In the House of Commons yesterday: NDP Leader Alexa McDonough: "Mr. Speaker, even the Solicitor-General in this morning's carefully worded statement did not deny that he had made these prejudicial comments. "In fact his failure to recognize that his inappropriate remarks are prejudicial, that they are prejudicing the inquiry, is further evidence that he cannot do his job. The Prime Minister has no choice but to demand his resignation. Why will the Prime Minister not do that?" Prime Minister Jean Chr?tien: "Mr. Speaker, I do not intend to do so because I am watching the leader of the NDP as her party is once again raising baseless allegations based on selective eavesdropping by one of her members for which she should once again apologize. "I thought that the leader of the NDP had greater ambitions than to become the Linda Tripp of Canada." TOOLE'S LETTER Here is the text of a letter dated Oct. 5 that was sent by New Brunswick lawyer Frederick Toole to Solicitor-General Andy Scott, who tabled it in the House of Commons yesterday: Dear Mr. Scott: Further to our conversation of today, this letter confirms that we were seated together last Thursday, October 1, 1998, on a flight from Ottawa to Fredericton. We talked generally about a variety of issues, including the APEC situation. I wish to state categorically that at no time did you say anything which I interpreted as an indication that the ongoing Public Complaints Commission Inquiry had been compromised or that its outcome had been predetermined. Yours sincerely, Frederick D. Toole -- from Canadian Press We welcome your comments. Copyright ? 1998, The Globe and Mail Company All rights reserved. ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From pet at web.net Wed Oct 7 22:38:45 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 09:38:45 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 765] G&M: Files show PMO involved in APEC security Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981007094229.24e70624@pop.web.net> Globe and Mail October 7, 1998 THE APEC FUROR PM's aides talked to police just before APEC incident Files show PMO deeply involved in security planning at Vancouver summit Wednesday, October 7, 1998 JANE ARMSTRONG British Columbia Bureau Vancouver -- The Prime Minister's Office was in contact with RCMP officers just moments before police dispersed a group of protesters with pepper spray at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit last fall, according to RCMP documents released yesterday. That is revealed in a transcript of what appears to be a radio conversation between two RCMP officers assigned to control demonstrators at the APEC leaders meeting at the University of British Columbia on Nov. 25, 1997. One of the two is Superintendent Wayne May, a senior officer in charge of security at the summit, who says: "Yeah, we got, looks like they are trying to block all the ah, exits here. . . . And we got to start moving just talking to the Prime Minister's Office here and they figure about 4 o'clock and if there's any delay the PM's going to be wantin', wanting a full briefing and try to figure out how to get him out." Another officer, Murray Johnson, responds: "Okay, what they are doing is they're, they're moving people over onto Southwest Marine Drive and University Avenue." The conversation was recorded moments after the leaders' meeting had broken up at UBC's Museum of Anthropology. The officers were discussing how best to get the motorcade of world leaders past the protesters. Dozens of protesters were pepper-sprayed and scores were arrested, although no one was charged. The transcript was among hundreds of pages of documents released yesterday to the RCMP Public Complaints Commission. The complainants believe RCMP officers were acting on orders from Prime Minister Jean Chr?tien's office. They believe he instructed the RCMP to disperse the crowd to shield his guests from the embarrassment of confronting protesters. His chief concern was for the comfort of former Indonesian president Suharto, who had a particular dislike for demonstrators. The boxes of documents -- contained in 10 binders -- show the degree to which the Prime Minister's Office was involved in the planning of security at the summit. One exchange of RCMP memos shows that Mr. Chr?tien's chief of operations, Jean Carle, was instrumental in changing the security zone at UBC to ensure demonstrators weren't seen by the leaders. A memo Sept. 27 from Inspector Bill Dingwall to Superintendent May states that Mr. Carle changed an agreement the federal government had already reached with UBC concerning where protests would be allowed. The university had insisted that students be able to see the leaders. "The existing path will be used (bringing the carts up to the road and then in the driveway). Plants etc. will have to be brought in to provide cover also to continue the look of the path. Jean Carle does not want the demonstrators close at all! which will mean moving back our perimeter." Another E-mail from Insp. Dingwall on Sept. 4 again notes that Mr. Carle wanted the demonstrators kept away from the leaders. It also shows that Mr. Chr?tien's chief spokesperson, Peter Donolo, had input in the matter. "As discussed, can you prepare a couple of perimeter plans outlining the possible locations for our barricades paying particular attention to Jean Carle [PMO Director of Operations] and Robert's request to have demonstrators pushed back a bit further than originally planned. As Peter Donollo [sic, PMO Director of Communications] indicated, those who want to demonstrate/make comment continue to have plenty of opportunities to do so throughout the conference." The documents released yesterday corroborate a seres of media leaks over the last two weeks that linked the PMO to the severity of the police crackdown. A lawyer for one of the complainants said the documents are proof the PMO was involved in the RCMP response. And Joseph Arvay said the material should be enough evidence to force the Prime Minister to testify. Mr. Arvay, who is representing protester Craig Jones, wants the commission to subpoena the Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, Solicitor-General Andy Scott and several other top RCMP officials. "They have relevant evidence," Mr. Arvay said. "It's clear they are central players in the APEC fiasco." If the commission declines to call the Prime Minister, it will send a message to the public that Mr. Chr?tien is privileged and above the law, he said. Other RCMP documents released yesterday suggest the police force was proud of how it handled APEC security. THE NEXT MEMO Partial Sept. 4, 1997, memo from Inspector Bill Dingwall, one of the senior RCMP officers assigned to APEC security, to Corporal Peter Koleyak: Our meeting with Robert Vanderloo yesterday refers. As discussed, can you prepare a couple of perimeter plans outlining the possible locations for our barricades paying particular attention to Jean Carle [PMO Director of Operations] and Robert's request to have demonstrators pushed back a bit further than originally planned. As Peter Donollo[sic, PMO Director of Communications] indicated, those who want to demonstrate/make comment continue to have plenty of opportunities to do so throughout the conference. THE MOUNTIE MEMO Part of a memo on Aug. 27, 1997, from Inspector Bill Dingwall, one of the senior RCMP officers assigned to APEC security, to Superintendent Wayne May, one of his superiors: The following decisions were made by Jean Carle [of the Prime Minister's Office] this morning during our briefing. . . . Reading of the declaration will be done at MoA [Museum of Anthropology] (either outdoors weather permitting or indoors in the meeting room). The area outside the glass will be cleaned up, plants brought in and water filled in around the mound. For lunch, golf carts will be used to transport the leaders to NMH [Norman MacKenzie House, the UBC president's residence]. The existing path will be used (bringing the carts up the road and then in the driveway). Plants, etc. will have to be brought in to provide cover also to continue the look of the path. Jean Carle does not want the demonstrators close at all! which will mean moving back our perimeter. Also, he likes the idea of having 5-6 musical ride members at UBC and door openers in red serge at the VTCC [Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre], BC Place and UBC. We welcome your comments. Copyright ? 1998, The Globe and Mail Company All rights reserved. ******************************************************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net ******************************************************************************** From jkellock at amnesty.org Wed Oct 7 23:16:16 1998 From: jkellock at amnesty.org (jkellock@amnesty.org) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 15:16:16 +0100 Subject: [asia-apec 766] Re: Conference: Myanmar/Burma - Amnesty International News Release Message-ID: <80256696.004DF861.00@fox.amnesty.org> News Service 194/98 AI INDEX: ASA 16/27/98 7 OCTOBER 1998 Arrest of 54 people increases deep divisions in Myanmar?s society The arrest of 54 people -- revealed in a statement made today by Myanmar?s military authorities claiming that the peaceful opposition is involved in a 'conspiracy' to overthrow the government -- is outrageous and will do nothing to heal the wounds caused by 10 years of terrible human rights violations, Amnesty International said today. "It is appalling that the State Peace and Development Council, SPDC, has made these tendentious claims against the peaceful opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), meanwhile arbitrarily arresting dozens of people who are probably prisoners of conscience," the organization said. "The NLD has always called for peaceful political change and dialogue with the military." The SPDC issued a 15-page statement, providing details of people involved in a plot to 'incite unrest'. However after reading the document Amnesty International can find no evidence that any of those named engaged in anything other than peaceful civil disobedience in Myanmar. Amnesty International calls on the SPDC to release these people immediately unless they are tried fairly for recognizable criminal offences. The organization is further concerned that the 54 are at risk of torture, which is common in Myanmar?s detention centres. Political prisoners held in Military Intelligence centres are often interrogated, severely beaten, and deprived of sleep and food. BACKGROUND The NLD, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, called on the SPDC to convene the parliament elected in 1990 by 21 August 1998. When the deadline passed, the NLD said they would convene it themselves -- but before they could do so, the SPDC arrested hundreds of NLD members-of- parliament-elect and other activists. These people remain in detention along with hundreds of students and others arrested in the last four months. According to the SPDC statement, young people and students have been distributing leaflets in Myanmar calling for the convening of the parliament and support for the NLD. The statement also claims that these groups have been supported financially by Western organizations. The statement comes one day after Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the European Union issued statements calling on the SPDC to immediately release all political prisoners in Myanmar and to begin a process of national reconciliation. ENDS.../ From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Thu Oct 8 03:02:29 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 10:02:29 -0800 Subject: [asia-apec 767] Van Sun: Spying on anti-APEC protesters Message-ID: Last Updated: Wednesday 7 October 1998 TOP STORIES --------------------------------------------------------- Wide range of protesters assessed The Vancouver Sun Jeff Lee Vancouver Sun Student groups, the Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun / Anglican Church of Canada, unions, WITNESSES WAIT: Lawyers at the native Indians, APEC hearing argue Tuesday over environmentalists -- calling the witnesses who wait even the seniors in the background. singing protest group Raging Grannies -- were listed as potential threats to APEC leaders during last November's summit in Vancouver, military documents indicate. Security forces charged with looking after the 18 world leaders concluded that the biggest threat among those assessed was student protester Jaggi Singh, who earned the only "moderate" threat designation because he was "attempting to link APEC to every social cause currently at issue in Canada and the entire world" and had pledged to stop leaders' motorcades, the documents said. The information, made public at the RCMP Public Complaints Commission Tuesday, shows that the Canadian Forces compiled regular "threat assessments" on a variety of domestic and foreign groups who they thought might protest or present security problems at the summit. The commission, which is investigating allegations of excessive police force at the conference, made public thousands of pages of documents from the federal defence department, the RCMP, Prime Minister Jean Chretien's office, the department of foreign affairs, the University of B.C. and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The Canadian Labour Congress, the B.C. Federation of Labour and native and human rights groups such as the United Native Nations and Amnesty International were the subject of security concerns. In an assessment dated Oct. 21, the military said potential threats included threats to the Canadian Forces, (Raging Grannies, Nanoose Conversion Campaign and Defenders of Nuclear Disarmament B.C.) and threats to APEC attendees (Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Bear Watch, East Timor Action Network and others). The report also included a list of 21 groups attending the People's Summit, which billed itself as the official opposition to APEC. Among those were the Anglican Church of Canada and the B.C. Teachers Federation. In later assessments, which it code-named Operation Mandible, the Canadian Forces assessed a number of groups on the basis of whether they posed low, moderate or high threats to APEC officials. Low meant that "threat capability exists but currently no evidence [exists] of intent to attack" any APEC members. Moderate was described as "intent to attack a target other than [Canadian Forces], but CF elements could suffer collateral casualties." A high rating -- which was not given to anyone -- would indicate intent to attack the forces. In all cases except one, it concluded that there was a "low" threat level. The exception was Singh, who it noted was the leader or organizer behind a number of groups. Singh is one of more than 40 complainants who have alleged the RCMP were out of line when they arrested and pepper-sprayed protesters. Joanna Nagel, a Raging Grannie, said Tuesday: "That a bunch of old ladies in funny hats could be seen as a threat is a bit silly. I don't know whether to be flattered or afraid." But Kathleen Wallace-Deering, a staff member of the Anglican Church of Canada diocese in Vancouver and an organizer of social-justice events during APEC, said she sees the actions of CSIS as legitimate. "I think it would be naive of me to not expect that those responsible for safeguarding the security of participants would not have to be assessing who might cross the lines of non-violent protest," she said. _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From panap at panap.po.my Thu Oct 8 17:52:42 1998 From: panap at panap.po.my (PAN Asia Pacific) Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 17:52:42 Subject: [asia-apec 768] Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture Message-ID: <2706@panap.po.my> Forum on Land, Food Security, and Agriculture The Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia November 11-12, 1998 ************************************************************************************************* PAN-AP and ERA Consumer will host the Forum on Food Security and Agriculture as part of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA). APPA takes place November 10- 15, 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Forum will be a two-day event at the beginning of the Assembly that will bring together concerned individuals, farmers and representatives of NGOs, people's organizations, and social movements to build on experiences, to develop strategies, and to commit to actions in opposition to current agricultural models being promoted in multilateral forums such as APEC and the WTO. ************************************************************************************************ Why a Forum on Land, Food Security, and Agriculture? Globalization has dramatically altered the rural landscape and our systems of food production. The results are devastating: Agricultural land is converted to non-food commercial crops, industrial zones, urban centres, and golf courses, and forest lands are destroyed for mining and logging. Communities are left landless, impoverished, and shattered as corporations reap the profits. Food production is shifted away from local and national needs for basic foods to the demands of transnational agribusiness. In Brazil, local populations go hungry as nearby large-scale farms grow soybeans to feed cattle destined for the North American market. The logic is to increase trade, increase the distance that food travels, increase the amount of processing, and increase the amount of packaging. Those who benefit are corporations. Today, a handful of TNCs have significant control of all aspects of the agriculture and food systems. One company, Cargill, now controls 60 percent of the global cereal trade. And, recent developments in genetic engineering and the rising number of mergers between transnational biotechnology, seed, and agrochemical companies is taking corporate control of the food system to new heights. Agribusiness corporations amass billions and farmers and rural labourers are left with next to nothing; in Malaysia, while plantation company profits rose by over 30 per cent last year alone, plantation workers haven’t received real wage increases in the last 10 years. The Asian crisis has quickly made it apparent that the export-led agriculture policies of Asian governments, which left Asians dependent on food imports, were short-sighted. As Asians watch the prices of food escalate, more and more people see the value of local food systems that do not rely on imported foods, chemical inputs, and animal feed. Governments and multilateral institutions, however, continue to ignore the lesson. Liberalisation is pushed along by the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, while unfair agricultural subsidies in the North keep prices low, Northern exports high, and small farmers in poverty. The globalisation of food production and agriculture only makes sense to the corporations, large-landholders, and elites that gain from it. For the hundreds of millions of small farmers throughout the world, the logic is devastating. But, the system continues to expand. TNCs are winning the battle in government circles and at the multilateral level. The WTO and its biggest fan, APEC, are pushing a liberalization regime that will open the world up to corporate plunder. This must change. The Forum on Land, Food Security, and Agriculture is about understanding: Who are those driving this brutal system? We will call them by name and reveal what they are doing. The Forum is about resistance: We will take actions against those responsible. We will build our own communities, our own lives. The Forum is also about solidarity: We will come together from all regions of the Asia-Pacific to unite behind a common vision that will strengthen our local struggles. Programme DAY 1 (November 11) 8:30-9:30 Registration 9:30-10:15 Opening Plenary Overview of Globalisation and its Impacts on Food Security and Agriculture Issues Speakers: Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy, India) Sarojeni V. Rengam (Pesticide Action Network- Asia and the Pacific, Malaysia) 10:15- 11:15 Overview of Trade Agreements The WTO and Agriculture (Kevin Watkins, Oxfam, UK) The Impacts of NAFTA on Agriculture and Food Security (Ana de Ita, CECCAM, Mexico) 11:15-13:00 3. Reports from Grassroots Movements: Country Specific Chiapas, Mexico Philippines Thailand Malaysia Korea 13:00-14:00 Lunch 14:00-18:00 Workshops 1. Land Issues and Resources Recent protests by peasants and farmers in the Philippines and Indonesia and the ongoing violence in Chiapas highlights the massive and unjust displacement of people that globalization has brought. Farmers and indigenous peoples are driven off their lands for industrial development, mines, tourism, and golf courses. Small farmers are displaced from their lands to make way for transnational agribusiness and large-scale, high-input industrial farms. The result is increased militarization, impoverishment, injustice, and degradation of the environment through unsustainable agriculture practices. Promised agrarian reforms have failed to materialize. What can we do to reverse this misappropriation of land and resources? 2. Aquatic Resources: Globalisation has devastating effects for small fisherfolk and food producers in fisheries. Industrial pollution, commercial aquaculture, extensive commercial fish-catch operations, and conversion/privatisation of coastal shores have depleted marine resources and devastated fishing communities and the coastal environment. Participants to the workshop will share viable options of resistance and discuss ways to oppose corporate take-over of fishing grounds. They will also develop a united position against WTO, APEC, and other trade liberalisation agreements for fisheries. 3. Trade Agreements Multilateral trade agreements such as the WTO and trade bodies like APEC strengthen corporate agriculture and deepen global inequalities. The recent WTO agreement on agriculture legitimizes US and European dumping and subsidies while it attacks the small protective barriers of the developing world. Free trade does not equal fair trade. In fact, this brand of free trade is responsible for the growing dependency of Asian, Pacific, and Latin American countries on food imports. It is also largely responsible for the widespread displacement of small farmers and the loss of local food systems, as multinational corporations swoop down to take advantage of the removal of regulations. The food system becomes more distant and less safe as wealth flows to fewer and fewer people. Nevertheless, APEC governments, committed to a narrow focus on economic growth and industrial development, continue to support these trade measures. The recent crisis in Asia shows how harmful such an approach is to food security. How can we fight these trade agreements? How can we ensure food security for all? 4. Transnational Corporations Transnational corporations, throughout the world, are rapidly taking over all levels of the food system. They are also transforming it; genetic engineering, cash crops, and chemical inputs are all on the rise. To effectively oppose transnational agribusiness, we have to properly understand it. What are the strategies of transnational agriculture corporations? What mechanisms do they use to expand their control and markets? The workshop will then look at ways to monitor and resist corporate expansion 5. Grassroots Resistance and Alternatives The growth of corporate agriculture and the displacement of people is matched by the growth of resistance. Farmers and peasant movements struggle to retain their lands and control over their own knowledge. In the face of corporate agribusiness, biotechnology, food processing, and trade liberalization, people are looking for alternatives. How can we strengthen grassroots resistance? What tactics and projects can we adopt and support to build alternatives? How should we utilize our limited resources? DAY 2 (November 12) Closing Plenary 9:00-10:40 Reports from Workshops 10:40-13:00 Development of Shared Analysis 13:00: 14:00 Lunch 14:00-16:00 Development of Shared Analysis (continued) and Adoption of Final Statement 16:00-18:00 Common Action (to be announced) To register, please contact the APPA secretariat at Last Updated: Thursday 8 October 1998 TOP STORIES --------------------------------------------------------- Mountie tried to keep tension down The Vancouver Sun Jeff Lee Vancouver Sun The head of the RCMP's Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun quick-response team at the APEC summit / PICTURES TELL A STORY OF APEC angrily demanded that PROTEST AND ARREST: How It a Vancouver police Happened: Law student Craig riot squad be removed Jones describes photographs of from a area because it his arrest during a protest at was escalating the University of B.C. as APEC tensions, documents leaders held their summit last filed at the RCMP year. He was testifying Public Complaints Wednesday at the RCMP Public Commission indicate. Complaints Commission inquiry. In the moments before police pepper-sprayed protesters who had torn down a security fence near where 18 world leaders were meeting, Staff-Sergeant Hugh Stewart shouted that the squad was not needed. And when officers were later being pressed by protesters, he urged them to remain cool, and to "not get caught up in this." Stewart later criticized APEC command, which was run by the RCMP, for sending in the Vancouver police riot squad. Stewart told the officer in charge he could hold the line of officers on his own. The information, contained in radio transcripts, paints a different picture of Stewart, the officer most identified with the pepper-sprayings, and the man Solicitor-General Andy Scott is alleged to have said would take the fall for police conduct at APEC. Scott has denied making the comments, which an NDP MP says he overheard while on an airplane. While Stewart tried to keep tensions down in an earlier confrontation, he led a team of officers who pepper-sprayed protesters after demonstrators had blocked all three motorcade routes out of UBC shortly before the leaders were to leave. Stewart waded in with a bottle of pepper spray, and one of those he hit was a CBC cameraman. The image of the camera being covered in milky white spray became one of the most-replayed scenes of the protests. It also overshadowed the role Stewart played in trying to keep tensions down during the protests. Stewart has refused to comment on what happened, except to say he will testify before the commission, which is investigating allegations that police used excessive force. Radio logs paint a picture of a man who tried first to avoid a confrontation with protesters before stepping in with the pepper spray. On the day of the leaders' visit, Stewart, a crowd control expert who had been noted in media stories before for his patience in dispersing angry protesters, was in charge of a squad whose job was to keep protesters from entering a tightly controlled security zone. When the demonstrators moved against the security fence across the road from where the APEC leaders were meeting, Stewart's officers formed a line nearby. But unknown to him, the Vancouver police riot squad had also been assembled. When Stewart noticed them, he blew his stack. "You get at the duty office and you get those f------ guys off the back of that square now. I don't want [them] there . . . . They're already raising the level of this crowd," Stewart shouted over his radio to the police command centre. When the APEC command centre officer, Brian Pap, said site commander Inspector Bill Dingwall wanted them there, Stewart said: "Okay, you, he wants me to do this job, he better do it. All this is bullsh--." When the protesters began to rally at the fence, another officer told Pap: "They got another protest going and the crowd sees all these other guys coming on, they're going nuts and Hagie's [Stewart's nickname] just steaming and we got a call into [the riot squad commander] to back them off . . ." Later, Stewart apologized to Pap for blowing up, but said "I can hold this and do it well." A half hour later, when students were again rushing the fence, Stewart was overheard telling his officers: "Standby . . . don't lose your cool; back, back . . . don't get caught up in this . . . do not deploy, do not deploy, hold the line, hold the line, you're doing fine here." But his demeanour changed three hours later, after the command office discovered all routes out of UBC were blocked by protesters a half hour before the leaders' motorcades were to depart the university. With 15 minutes before the first motorcade moved, police decided to crack open the route at Gate 6 on Southwest Marine Drive. Stewart told officers they would have to move in quickly. "Well, we're gonna push, yeah, but, see, they won't be organized. If you want them out of the way, we're gonna, we're just gonna go down there, we're gonna hit 'em, wham, nail 'em." In the meantime, police command sent the riot squad, this time in full battle dress, to Gate 6. But before they could get there, Stewart stepped in with a handful of officers and told the protesters they must disperse. Almost immediately, he began spraying the crowd, including the cameraman. Within one minute he had the road cleared, and 13 minutes later the first of the motorcades passed through the area. APEC SECURITY The RCMP was responsible for over-all site security and the safety of the 18 world leaders who attended the November conference. Using a special command centre, the RCMP controlled security at the University of B.C. and in a special zone downtown around nine hotels where the delegations stayed. In the case of the protests at UBC, the RCMP had several layers of protection between people and the leaders: - Miles of security fencing around an area encompassing the Museum of Anthropology, Faculty Club, Graduate Student Society building and UBC president Martha Piper's home, where delegates would meet for lunch. - Uniformed police officers who controlled entrance and exit points. - A quick-response team, which was given the task of dispersing protesters if they attempted to breach the fence or blocked any of the routes. - The Vancouver police riot squad, which was never used. Had protesters managed to reach the area where the leaders were meeting, they would have faced armed security officers from eight countries, as well as snipers positioned on nearby roofs. _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From pet at web.net Fri Oct 9 20:23:42 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 07:23:42 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 770] Cda Hansard, Oct.8/98, re: APEC'97 Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981009072729.318f6eee@pop.web.net> October 8, 1998 Hansard House of Commons Ottawa, ON Official Transcript (English Version) ... ORAL QUESTION PERIOD [English] APEC SUMMIT Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, that was the good news. Now the bad news. Within the last hour the lawyer for the students represented at the APEC hearings has filed a motion to kill the commission because of the solicitor general's conversation about the commission, how he compromised that system which he so piously defended. When is the government going to ask the solicitor general to resign his place in cabinet? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): I am surprised, Mr. Speaker, that the hon. member did not get up to congratulate the government on Canada's overwhelming election to the security council. The hon. member shows a very misguided sense of priorities in her question. There is no doubt that the minister is an outstanding minister who has the confidence of the Prime Minister, the government and our entire caucus. Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): That is great, Mr. Speaker. He may have the confidence of the benches on the other side but certainly not the Canadian people. The commission is going to hear this motion on Tuesday. It will be before the commission. The member for Palliser is going to appear and testify under oath about the conversation he heard on the plane between the solicitor general and his buddy Fred Toole. I would like to ask the solicitor general now, after all the clapping and the cheering on that side, will he stand up right now and say he will testify under oath, yes or no? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I said in the House many times, the invitation as to who is going to participate in these hearings is at the discretion of the public complaints commission. Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Of course, Mr. Speaker, there is a motion on the floor of that place to kill the commission because he has poisoned that process so badly. Now the premier of New Brunswick has come forward and corroborated the story of the member for Palliser. This is getting more serious by the day. The government cannot have it both ways. It cannot cherry pick. It has already acknowledged that the member for Palliser has it right. The minister can run from the truth but he cannot hide from the facts. The solicitor general has compromised his office, he has undermined the commission and he has refused to testify under oath. So there is only one question left. When will he resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this line of questioning is based on a despicable act of eavesdropping, unworthy of this place and offensive to fair minded Canadians. Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver?Sunshine Coast, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice. In jurisprudence there is an expression, notes taken at the time. In trials judges regularly ask police officers to refer to their notes made at the time to refresh their memories and these are considered admissible as evidence. The information released by the member for Palliser regarding the solicitor general's conversation is from notes made at the time. Can the justice minister, as chief attorney, tell the House how the solicitor general can claim some of these notes are true and some are false? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have had a chance to glance at copies of the hon. member for Palliser's notes. I want to say those chicken scratches show the hon. member is certainly not a certified shorthand reporter. Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver?Sunshine Coast, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, these notes have been taken as evidence by the public complaints commission in Vancouver. Yesterday the Prime Minister said: ?I cannot have a better witness than the member for Palliser?. The notes are before a public complaints commission the solicitor general oversees. We cannot have the chief officer of that commission sitting as solicitor general while notes that are saying he did something against that commission are before the commission and under investigation. Will the Prime Minister have the solicitor general resign until this commission is over with? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the law is clear, a law brought into this parliament by a party the hon. member used to be affiliated with, that this commission is at arm's length from the minister and at arm's length from the government. It is an independent body. It wants to do its work. I do not know why the hon. member wants to use the floor of the House of Commons to impede the commission from carrying out the work it has been given by a law passed by this parliament. [Translation] Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier?Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general is trying to convince us that what he said in a plane was not serious because the conversation was in private. Is he telling us that he is perfectly entitled to discuss affairs of state with just anybody, anywhere, so long as he does so in private and there are not too many people around to hear. [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as the Solicitor General of Canada, I am very proud of the correctional service and the RCMP. I have discussions all the time about the pride that I feel for those organizations and the work they do. I will continue to do that. [Translation] Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier?Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general is very proud of himself and the Liberals are very proud of him. They are the only people in Canada who are very proud of him. Since we started questioning him on the APEC scandal, the solicitor general has said he cannot comment in this House, because the scandal is before a commission of inquiry. What principle gives the solicitor general the right to talk to his Liberal friends about the APEC scandal, while he refuses to discuss it here in this House before members of parliament, as it is his duty and responsibility to do? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, quite the contrary. Many times in the House I have discussed my faith in the public complaints commission and how important that instrument is as a civilian oversight instrument. I discuss it regularly. I believe in the process and I wish members would let it work. [Translation] Mr. Richard Marceau (Charlesbourg, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said yesterday that, had the solicitor general spoken of the Airbus affair in the plane, he would have dealt differently with him. Could the Prime Minister explain why discussion of the Airbus scandal is serious enough to warrant dismissing the minister, while discussion of the APEC matter, which is also under investigation, is not serious and he will do nothing? Why the double standard? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times, I did not discuss anything inappropriate. That has been substantiated by the gentleman who sat beside me. I talked about the public complaints commission and that I had all the faith in the world in that commission, and I have. [Translation] Mr. Richard Marceau (Charlesbourg, BQ): Mr. Speaker, how can it be that a minister who does not know better than to talk about his business in public could have sufficient judgement to know that what he said can be prejudicial to an inquiry? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I would never say anything that would be prejudicial to the process or to an ongoing investigation. I can speak very proudly of the civilian oversight history in this country. The public complaints commission is a part of that, I support that commission and I wish members would let it do its work. Mr. Dick Proctor (Palliser, NDP): Mr. Speaker, yesterday in this House both the Prime Minister and the solicitor general accused me of fabricating my story. I stand in my place today to tell this House and the Canadian people I swear now that I am telling the truth. I would swear under oath that I am telling the truth. The solicitor general, better than anyone else, knows what happened. Will he now withdraw his allegation? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, on the contrary. The member for Palliser made serious allegations based on his eavesdropping on a private conversation on a noisy aircraft. That report has been discredited. I denied those allegations with the support of the person to whom I was speaking. I think it is reprehensible that an hon. member would stoop to this kind of tactic. Mr. Dick Proctor (Palliser, NDP): Mr. Speaker, far more in sadness than in anger I say that the solicitor general continues to question my honesty. I give the minister one more chance to withdraw these allegations, or is he calling me a liar? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: The question as put is in order. Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I said, the hon. member has taken snippets of a conversation that he eavesdropped on and put them together as facts. There are many inaccuracies in that report. He suggested I had said something that would prejudice the process or outcome of the public complaints commission. It has been established by the person sitting beside me that was not the case. I stand by my story. Mrs. Elsie Wayne (Saint John, PC): Mr. Speaker, when it suits the Prime Minister he likes to use the words of the member for Palliser to defend the solicitor general. The member for Palliser is reported as saying: ?The solicitor general lied in the House of Commons?. The Speaker: Colleagues, we are not allowed to use words in this House used by someone else outside the House that we ourselves are not allowed to use. I want the hon. member to withdraw that statement and I would like her to go directly to her question, please. Mrs. Elsie Wayne: Mr. Speaker, I will withdraw and I will go directly to the question. Why has the solicitor general not taken the very action the Prime Minister has threatened to take in the past if the statements made by the member for Palliser are not true? Is it because the solicitor general's friend, Fred Toole, would not be able to corroborate the solicitor general's version of the remarks he made about APEC under oath? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I said, the member for Palliser alleged that I had said something that would compromise the Public Complaints Commission exercise both by way of process and by way of the outcome, and I denied that. That denial has been substantiated by the person with whom I was speaking on the airplane. Mrs. Elsie Wayne (Saint John, PC): Mr. Speaker, only the solicitor general and the Prime Minister believe the solicitor general's changing versions of his APEC chat in the air. They use the statements made by the member for Palliser to defend the solicitor general when it suits them and deny or refuse to confirm other statements when it does not. Why will the Prime Minister not stop letting the solicitor general undermine that office and the smidgen of integrity that is left in this government and ask the solicitor general to resign? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate that the Prime Minister, the government and the caucus have confidence in the minister. He is a fine minister and he is doing a good job. I guess the hon. member does not care about veterans any more. What happened to her priority with respect to veterans? What happened to her party's concern about the economy? Is that all she has to talk about is this issue, which has been more than adequately and effectively answered by the solicitor general? Mr. Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Prime Minister stood in his place and said ?I could not have a better witness than the member for Palliser?. He then said that he was nothing but a snoop and tried to discredit him. Today I think the Prime Minister should change his mind one more time. Will he change his mind and now ask for the resignation of the solicitor general? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate that the Prime Minister has no intention of doing that. I know there is a new unholy alliance between the Reform Party and the other right wing parties, the Conservatives and the NDP, but that does not make what they are saying right. Mr. Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the member for Palliser stood in this place and vowed that he would swear under oath to the veracity of his statements. The solicitor general has not denied the statements and will not testify under oath. Meanwhile the lawyer for the students has said that the testimony of the solicitor general has compromised the commission and is asking for it to be shut down. Will the solicitor general do the right thing, realize he has compromised his position as well as the commission's and resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the situation here is extremely clear. Some hon. members: Oh, oh. Hon. Andy Scott: Mr. Speaker, I could not have imagined that in this country the principles of fundamental justice could be parked so eagerly in the interest of political theatre. [Translation] Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the only thing that is perfectly clear in this matter is that the version given by the Solicitor General, who is trying to save his skin, contradicts the version of the hon. member, who has nothing to gain except bringing out the truth. How? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: The hon. member for Roberval. Mr. Michel Gauthier: Mr. Speaker, the Solicitor General is the minister responsible for internal security. He is the one responsible for state secrets. The portfolio is so different from the others that newly appointed Solicitors General are given more training about security than other ministers. How can the man responsible for security in Canada not understand that the words he spoke, as reported by the hon. member, are unseemly and incompatible with his position? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I understand my responsibilities very well and I live by them proudly. [Translation] Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, when the Deputy Prime Minister was Solicitor General, he never got into such a situation because he understood he needed to keep his mouth shut. That is what Solicitors General have to learn, and this one did not. Someone from a foreign power, someone with an interest in getting some information on Canada, could have been the one sitting close to the Solicitor General on that plane, so what he was saying did constitute a risk to national security. How can a man in charge of national security behave in such a way as to endanger the? The Speaker: The hon. Solicitor General. [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the allegations made against me in terms of inappropriately speaking about the Public Complaints Commission by way of process or outcome have been denied. That denial has been substantiated by the gentleman with whom I was speaking directly, not an aisle and a half away. [Translation] Mr. Rahim Jaffer (Edmonton?Strathcona, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said one day ?When confidence is lost, the system no longer works?. How things change after five years in office. Canadians no longer have confidence in the Solicitor General, who is still with us. Why is the government not keeping its word? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, it is very clear what is happening. Members opposite have embraced inaccurate observations, snippets from a very noisy aircraft that have been put together as truth. There are many inaccuracies in these statements, including in my own constituency the name of the St. Mary's First Nation. It turned up across an aisle as St. Michael's. That is just an example. Mr. Grant Hill (Macleod, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the syndrome called recovered memory syndrome was largely discredited in medical circles. The solicitor general's sudden recovery of memory has actually discredited him, both in this House and through the rest of the country. Which one of this cabinet will stand up and finally say ?We are going to fire the flyer?? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see from the hon. member's question that he is now satisfied with the government's approach to the tragedy of hep C victims. [Translation] Mrs. Suzanne Tremblay (Rimouski?Mitis, BQ): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Solicitor General. The Prime Minister has claimed that the remarks of his minister have no impact on the commission of inquiry. They caused RCMP officials to say in Vancouver yesterday that they were not prepared to take the blame for anyone else in the Peppergate scandal. Can the Solicitor General not see that his chats are far from neutral, that they are having serious repercussions for the inquiry and that he must really step down? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, in the House on Tuesday I advised that the allegations made against me were not accurate. My statement on Tuesday was supported by the gentleman who was sitting beside me on the plane, with whom I was having a private conversation, not somebody eight feet away, a seat and an aisle away, on a noisy plane. [Translation] Mrs. Suzanne Tremblay (Rimouski?Mitis, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the Solicitor General must realize that since his chat in the plane, the RCMP is in a state, secret agents are giving interviews and the media talks of nothing else, from coast to coast. What does it take to get the Solicitor General to do what duty requires he do?resign? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I do not think anyone in this country would want the government to make decisions based on inaccurate information. Mr. Inky Mark (Dauphin?Swan River, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, in this government when cabinet ministers are having problems?and yes, we do have a cabinet minister with a problem, and we have been at it all week?the Prime Minister usually will not allow the minister to resign. The Prime Minister usually waits until he can shuffle the cabinet minister out the back door. Instead of waiting for the next cabinet shuffle, why will the Prime Minister not just let the solicitor general do the honourable thing and resign? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has said that he has confidence in the solicitor general and that he is doing a fine job. There is no reason the Prime Minister should follow the precedent of the Leader of the Opposition and kick people out of the caucus completely or sentence them to the back row because he does not like the way they are disagreeing with him. That is no precedent for this party or for anybody else in this House. Mr. Werner Schmidt (Kelowna, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, in his idealistic youth as Prime Minister, the Prime Minister said: ?Integrity and honesty are the cornerstones of this government?. That was 1996? Some hon. members: Hear, hear. Mr. Werner Schmidt: Will the Deputy Prime Minister now prove that statement and fire the solicitor general? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the rather uncharacteristic endorsement of the Prime Minister's policies by the hon. Reform member. It is because of the Prime Minister's daily proof of commitment to these policies that he is not going to follow the unwarranted advice of the Reform Party or any other opposition party in this matter. [Translation] Mr. St?phane Bergeron (Verch?res?Les-Patriotes, BQ): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Solicitor General. Since the Solicitor General has demonstrated his flagrant lack of judgment to all, since he has failed to convince anyone other than perhaps his Liberal colleagues of his version of the facts, since his arguments do not stand up to those of the member for Palliser, will he, in a flash of lucidity, submit his resignation right now? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, last Tuesday in this House I denied the allegations that were made with regard to the process of the Public Complaints Commission or its outcome. That denial was substantiated by the gentleman with whom I was speaking on the aircraft at that time and not by someone a seat and an aisle away. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Howard Hilstrom (Selkirk?Interlake, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general, the guardian of this nation's most sensitive information, has loose lips. His loose lips violated the elementary rule of policing, that you only release information on a need to know basis. As a former RCMP officer, the nation's top cop is a major security risk because he cannot follow this rule. When will the Prime Minister ask the minister for his resignation? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I do not accept the premise of the hon. member's question regarding the way the hon. solicitor general has carried out his duties. He is a fine minister and he deserves the support of all members of this House. Mr. Charlie Penson (Peace River, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general has lost the confidence of this House. He has lost the confidence of Canadians. He should be gone today, not in the next cabinet shuffle. If fingering your employees will not do it, if jeopardizing ongoing investigations will not do it, what will do it? How low does the bar have to go, Mr. Prime Minister? The Speaker: Colleagues I remind you to please address your questions to the Chair. The hon. solicitor general. Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this line of questioning is based on a despicable tactic of eavesdropping. The results of that exercise have been discredited in fact. I would not want to think that Canadians would see this government making decisions based on that kind of inaccurate information. Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg?Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, in his notes the member for Palliser wrote that the solicitor general said he was going to have an international college of correctional studies built in Fredericton. Yet an aide to the minister said that could not be because the only site that was being considered was Kingston. Now we have the premier of New Brunswick, Mr. Th?riault, saying that he discussed this several times with the solicitor general and credited the solicitor general with working hard on the file. Is the premier of New Brunswick fabricating a story, or do we now know very clearly where the fabrication is coming from? The Speaker: Colleagues, yesterday I permitted the word fabricated or fabrication to be used in the House but I would much prefer that you do not use that word in this question period. I am going to allow the solicitor general to answer the question, but I do not want the word fabricated used. Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, once again as I said earlier, the story that was put forward by the hon. member for Palliser was drawn from snippets of words coming across the aircraft. As a consequence the hon. member has mentioned the facility. Unfortunately he got the location wrong and there was another different project that I have been working on in the province with the premier and that is the basis of the mistake. Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg?Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, there comes a time in these kinds of affairs when a cabinet minister knows that he is a liability to the process no matter what he believes to be true about himself. The minister has arrived at that point. Whatever he believes about himself he should see clearly that he is now a liability to the process going on in Vancouver and he should do the right thing and resign. Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have more respect for fundamental justice than to do that. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, in 1996 the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of the member for Don Valley East when he breached the government's supposed ethical standards. Yesterday the solicitor general admitted to discussing the location for the centre for correctional justice, a cabinet decision that could lead to a commercial advantage to insider information from the solicitor general. Will the Prime Minister please explain why the member for Don Valley East lost his cabinet position and the solicitor general keeps his? Why the double standard? Hon. Herb Gray (Deputy Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, there is no double standard here except in the hon. member's own mind. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, there are double standards around here lately. The solicitor general needs to be one of the most discreet and security conscious members of the cabinet, as does the Minister of Justice. He needs to be trusted by our police, our intelligence, agents and our allies. In one conversation the solicitor general destroyed that trust. He spoke of APEC, Frank Moores and a pork barrel project in his riding. He cannot separate the private from the public. This is inappropriate behaviour on his part. It is a firing offence. When will the solicitor general resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, serious allegations were made. I stood in the House. I responded to those allegations. They were inaccurate. I established that the gentleman whom I was speaking with substantiated that those allegations were inaccurate. I do not feel any obligation to discuss a private conversation that has nothing inappropriate with regard to my job, that was overheard on an aircraft by an eavesdropper. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Art Hanger (Calgary Northeast, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, I believe I missed the punchline on that last commercial from that side. I have a question for the top police officer in the country, the chief administrator of law enforcement. I want to check the facts on this letter. Mr. Toole's letter does not corroborate the solicitor general's story. The letter is very carefully and legally crafted by a lawyer to say nothing. My question for the solicitor general is, is he calling the member for Palliser a liar? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: The question as it is put is in order. Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, unlike my hon. colleague from Palliser, I would never question someone's honesty. I am simply questioning the accuracy of his hearing. [Translation] Mrs. Francine Lalonde (Mercier, BQ): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Solicitor General. In the light of all these events, will the Solicitor General not now acknowledge that it is time to bow out, with dignity? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, no. Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg?Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the solicitor general. I have heard the solicitor general say many times in this place that he really believes in the process, he believes in the commission, he cares about that commission and its process. I ask him now does he not see that regardless of what he thinks about the matter, he now has a duty to absent himself from this in the name of the work of the commission and the confidence that Canadian people have to have in that process? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I believe profoundly in fundamental justice. I think it is being convoluted in this place to impugn my integrity. In the name of my integrity, I remain the Solicitor General of Canada. Mr. Jean Dub? (Madawaska?Restigouche, PC): Mr. Speaker, CBC this morning is reporting that New Brunswick Premier Camille Th?riault had full knowledge of a correctional college to be built in New Brunswick, the same correctional college that the member for Palliser overheard the solicitor general discussing on a very public plane. The member for Palliser could not make this up. In fact, he heard all too well the solicitor general breaking secrets in public. Will the solicitor general not do the honourable thing? Will he recognize his error in judgment? Will he resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I never suggested that he made it up. He just got it wrong. * * * ... [end] **************************************************************************** ****************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat, PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR EAST TIMOR Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net "... where there are profits to be defended, law, justice, freedom, democracy and peace are the victims." -- Xanana Gusmao, Jailed Leader of East Timor in Preface to "Complicity: Human Rights and Canadian Foreign Policy -- the Case of East Timor" (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1996). **************************************************************************** ********************************************* From appasec at tm.net.my Fri Oct 9 23:03:40 1998 From: appasec at tm.net.my (appasec) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 22:03:40 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 771] Latest on APPA Message-ID: <000801bdf38d$a0612020$0100a8c0@tmnet.tm.net.my> Dear friends, The national organising committee of the Asia Pacific Peoples? Assembly (APPA), would like to inform all those interested to participate in this year?s peoples assembly, that preparations for APPA are well under way and that APPA will go on as planned, regardless of the recent political developments in our country. This decision was reached at our last working committee meeting, fully realising the enormous challenge ahead of us as we prepare ourselves to host APPA. APPA will now be convened amidst a worsening economic crisis and growing political tension in Malaysia. The sacking and subsequent detention of former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has thrown Malaysia into political turmoil, as the ruling coalition tries desperately to redeem its legitimacy and the people?s confidence it so often boasted about. The Anwar Ibrahim incident has brought to the forefront many fundamental issues of injustice and democracy in our current system of administration. The little democratic space allowed by the dictatorial rule of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, has been further tightened. The police have unfailingly taken to force and brutal actions in their efforts to disperse gatherings in support of Anwar Ibrahim, and have declared a ban on ?illegal? gatherings, (gatherings without police approval). As you may have already heard, our fellow labour and human rights activist, Tian Chua, from the Labour Resource Centre, was also arrested in a demonstration, and was beaten, punched and kicked while in the police truck and lock up of a local police station. Anwar Ibrahim?s trial has been fixed for November 2-14, clashing almost fully with the dates of APPA . While many feel that APPA will not even be given the chance to go ahead, given these developments, we are confident that the international spotlight on Malaysia during this time, will in many ways force the authorities to allow APPA to go on as planned, albeit with certain conditions. After all, Mahathir himself was quoted to have given his blessings to the Peoples? Summit when attending the APEC Leaders meeting in Vancouver last year. With such backdrop, the convening of APPA will add a new page in the history of Malaysian people?s struggle for justice and democracy. Thus it is crusial that our intetrnational friends attend APPA in order to forge solidarity with the Malaysian people. With our joint effort, APPA will mark the success of regional solidarity against the despotism of globalisation. We hope to have your presence at the Peoples? Assembly this year. So, see you in November!! In solidarity The secretariat APPA From dohrs at u.washington.edu Fri Oct 9 23:16:17 1998 From: dohrs at u.washington.edu (W. Kesavatana-Dohrs) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 07:16:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 772] News: US Ties Unocal to Burma Forced Labor Message-ID: Note: Sorry this is long and dense. But the release below pulls direct quotes from a US Government report on labor in Burma. Interested readers are urged to read the report (url below). It contradicts Unocal public statements, and corroborates an admission under oath by Unocal President John Imle, that forced labor has indeed been used on a project from which the corporation hopes to profit. FREE BURMA: NO PETRO-DOLLARS FOR SLORC - PRESS RELEASE "This is a direct contradiction of Unocal's arrogant denials about forced labor, and it is the beginning of the end of Unocal's partnership with the Burmese junta" Robert Benson, professor of law, Loyola Law School For immediate release: US GOVERNMENT REPORT "BEGINNING OF THE END" FOR UNOCAL IN BURMA Los Angeles, October 6 -- A US Government report, released on the World Wide Web last Friday, may sound a death knell for oil giant Unocal's partnership with the military junta in Burma. Unocal, along with France's Total, is involved in a joint venture with the Burmese regime to pipe natural gas from offshore Burmese fields to neighboring Thailand. The pipeline is known as the Yadana project. The US report, prepared by the Department of Labor (DOL) in consultation with the Department of State (DOS), is an inventory of misery suffered by Burmese citizens at the hands of a military junta, which has violently suppressed a nationwide democracy movement and ignored an overwhelming defeat in national elections. The report is found at . Unocal has categorically denied allegations from refugees from the area and respected human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Earth Rights International that forced labor has been used on the pipeline project, saying, "There has never been forced labor on the pipeline." But findings in the US Government report flatly contradict Unocal's statements: "The preponderance of available evidence warrants several conclusions about the use of forced labor on the pipeline project. For the early phases of the Yadana pipeline project, refugee accounts of forced labor appear to be credible in light of Embassy reporting about the pipeline and the Total documents to which it refers." "This is a direct contradiction of Unocal's arrogant denials about forced labor, and it is the beginning of the end of Unocal's partnership with the Burmese junta," commented Robert Benson, professor of law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "The U.S. Department of Labor applied the "preponderance of the evidence test" which is the test that will be applied by juries in the two lawsuits pending in U.S. Federal Court against Unocal brought by Burmese refugees and trade unionists. The finding clearly supports the lawsuits. It is also more than sufficient to trigger a legal duty by Attorney General Dan Lungren of California to initiate judicial proceedings to revoke Unocal's corporate charter and put it out of existence." On September 10, 1998, the National Lawyers Guild, acting for a coalition of 30 groups and individuals, petitioned Lungren to revoke Unocal's charter but Lungren quickly refused without explanation. The report also notes that villages were forcibly removed from the pipeline path, and that this fact is even confirmed by the Burmese military. But Unocal has written to its shareholders, saying, "Allegation: Villages along the pipeline route have been depopulated and the residents forcibly relocated. Fact: Our observers saw no such evidence... They found just the opposite...If there were any possibility that our project was connected with human rights abuses, this would be absolutely unacceptable to us." The Government report conclusively states that pipeline-area workers were "hired" by the military, not by the oil companies. Elsewhere in the report, military authorities are shown conclusively to forcibly recruit those whom they claim to "hire." It states, "According to Unocal, 'The Total affiliate, as project operator, is responsible for all day-to-day operations relating to the pipeline, including hiring all labor . . . The Government of Myanmar does not provide or arrange for personnel to work on the pipeline.' However, during a January 1996 visit to the pipeline, an Embassy officer reported that, 'Total officials stressed that Total pays these local workers directly, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE HIRED BY THE ARMY.'" (emphasis included in DOL/DOS report). Further, the report says, "Refugees interviewed by Amnesty International and other groups have identified many of the same battalions identified by Total as having 'hired' civilians to work on infrastructure development projects and serve as military porters in the area of the pipeline. Transcripts of interviews published by the Karen Human Rights Group include similar allegations of forced labor and forced portering. The U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma has received accounts of abuses by these units from refugees fleeing Ye Pyu Township, who claimed that soldiers from I.B. (Infantry Battalion) 408 conducted several executions in August 1994. The Special Rapporteur also received allegations that troops from I.B. 410 raped five women from Ta Yoke Taung village in Ye Township." "Enough is enough. Unocal is now tied to rape, to murder, to forced labor and forced relocation," says Pam Wellner of the No Petro-Dollars for SLORC campaign. "Unocal is the only big US company still in Burma, not to mention the best corporate friend of Afghanistan's Taliban. Now is the time for Congress to assert that slave labor is unacceptable for American companies by targeting Unocal for sanctions, and now is the time for the Attorney General of California to take legal steps to dissolve this California-based corporate monster." Contact: Robert Benson, Loyola School of Law, 213-736-1094 Pam Wellner, No Petro-Dollars for SLORC,415-695-1946 Dr. Carol Richards, Burma Forum LA, 310-451-4493 Larry Dohrs, Free Burma Coalition, 206-784-5742 See also a report on Burmese forced labor by the International Labor Organization at: http://www.ilo.org . END From dohrs at u.washington.edu Fri Oct 9 23:16:35 1998 From: dohrs at u.washington.edu (W. Kesavatana-Dohrs) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 07:16:35 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 773] Total, Unocal may have used forced labor in Myanmar: US report Message-ID: Total, Unocal may have used forced labor in Myanmar: US report Thu 08 Oct 98 - 23:11 GMT=20 WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (AFP) - The French oil giant Total and the US-owned Unoca= l appear to have used forced labor in building a petroleum pipeline in Myanma= r, according to a new US government report. Unocal and Total -- involved in a joint venture with Myanmar's military reg= ime to pipe natural gas from the offshore Yadana field to neighboring Thailand = -- have categorically denied using forced labor. A Unocal spokesman rejected the report as "fraught with error" and charged that the US Labor Department sacrificed objectivity by hiring a former Burm= a human rights activist to assist in the investigation. "This is nothing more than the same old stuff that we have heard from activ= ist groups before," said Unocal spokesman Barry Lane, who added that the report= ed abuses are dated and the area of investigation vague. The report concluded that by 1998, in the final stages of the pipeline proj= ect that began in 1992, the oil companies had apparently stopped using manual labor recruited by the army. No one was available for comment about the report Thursday at the Departmen= t of Labor, which conducted the probe in consultation with the State Departme= nt. It also relied on worker accounts and Total documents. Villagers were allegedly forcibly relocated and coerced into serving as porters for soldiers protecting the pipeline, and to build support faciliti= es for the project. "This report is the basis for stopping any attempt by the companies to roll back existing sanctions on investment in Burma," said Carol Richards, of th= e Burma Forum. New US investment is banned in Myanmar, formerly known as Burm= a. "Even more important, this report provides the basis for Congress to enact = new sanctions against all investment in Burma," she said. The United States, Canada and the European Union, as well as a slew of US cities, counties and states, have already put in place economic sanctions a= nd boycotts to pressure the Yangon government on human rights. The 95-page report will be presented in November to the governing body of t= he International Labor Organization (ILO). In its 80 years of existence, the I= LO has only 10 times conducted an inquiry of this sort. The report shies from definitively accusing Total and Unocal of using force= d labor, noting that Labor Department officials could not independently confi= rm allegations because they could not get to the sites. Lane vigorously denied that Labor Department officials were kept away from visiting the pipeline, insisting that the The Labor Department document not= ed that a Total official told a US Embassy official that "Total pays these workers directly even though they are hired by the army." "This does not prove that Total used forced labor on the pipeline, but it i= s consistent with and lends substantial credibility to the refugees allegations," the report said. "The preponderance of available evidence warrants several conclusions about the use of forced labor on the pipeline project: For the early phases of th= e Yadana pipeline project, refugee accounts of forced labor appear to be credible," the report said. Total relied extensively on manual laborers recruited by the army during th= e early phases of the project through at least January 1996, including the infrastructure to support the pipeline construction, the report said. "At the very least, Total's documented practice of using manual labor recruited by the army and quartered in army battalions demands explanation,= " said the report. =A9AFP 1998 ____________________________________________________________________ More than just email--Get your FREE Netscape WebMail account today at http:= //home.netscape.com/netcenter/mail From pet at web.net Sat Oct 10 03:13:35 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 14:13:35 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 774] Cda. Hansard, Oct.7/98, re: APEC'97 Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981009141721.31bff4b2@pop.web.net> October 7, 1998 Hansard House of Commons Ottawa, Canada Official Transcript (English Version only) ... ORAL QUESTIONS APEC SUMMIT Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general is supposed to be the nation's top cop. He is supposed to enforce the law, not prejudge it or jeopardize investigations that are ongoing like he did last week. Why is the solicitor general still sitting in cabinet? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, it is very clear, as I said on Tuesday, that the allegations which have been made are unfounded. I denied them. The person I was speaking with supported my position. The hon. members are joining in this story when in fact there is no reality in it. Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, it is a funny thing that a Liberal lawyer might just agree and corroborate with him. Last week the solicitor general publicly bragged to his long time Liberal pal on the airplane what a hot rock he had become in Ottawa. Yet he bragged at the same time about the secret Airbus investigation and about who the fall guys might be for APEC. These petty boasts have betrayed sensitive government business. When will the Prime Minister demand the solicitor general's resignation? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I would like to refer the hon. member to what was said because she referred to Airbus in the scrum by the member for Palliser, the famous member we have to watch for all the time. ?There was absolutely no reference per se to Airbus. I do not recall the solicitor general ever saying the word Airbus in the course of the remarks that were made?. Again the hon. member does not have her facts right, as usual. Miss Deborah Grey (Edmonton North, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, it is a funny thing. If a lawyer betrayed his client he would be disbarred. If a doctor revealed sensitive information about a client he would lose his practice. However the solicitor general discusses sensitive government business about Airbus or individuals connected with it or APEC, and what does the Prime Minister do? He defends him, supports him and brags him up. How could the Prime Minister defend behaviour that would have other Canadians disbarred, banned, fined or fired? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I just said to the hon. member that the member for Palliser said the word Airbus was never used or heard by anybody or discussed. That is the best proof coming from that member. She knows it. She is bringing it up, repeating it, having no respect for what is known in the House, that there is some respect for the truth. Mr. Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, until now it has been a sacred parliamentary rule that solicitors general do not talk about cases that are under their jurisdiction. Yet this solicitor general felt at ease discussing Frank Moores and Karlheinz Schreiber who are principals in the Airbus affair, if not by name at least by implication. He was comfortable discussing the outcome of the APEC inquiry, and he did all this with a fellow passenger on a public commercial airline. That is a public forum. Does the Prime Minister not see that the solicitor general has compromised the integrity of his position and that he must ask for his resignation? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, there is absolutely no respect for the truth. There was no discussion of Airbus in that discussion. It is not only the solicitor general or the lawyer; it is even the member for Palliser who said that the word Airbus was never mentioned in relation to any of this. Mr. Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, by refusing to ask the solicitor general for his resignation the Prime Minister is setting a dangerous precedent. It means that there is a new rule for solicitors general. It means that confidential investigations under his care are fair game and open for public discussion and debate, and even prejudgment in public fora. To restore public confidence in the position of the solicitor general, the highest lawmaker in the land, will the Prime Minister do the right thing and ask for his resignation today? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I repeat that there was no discussion at all, according to the member for Palliser, about Airbus. The hon. members have written questions. They are not quick enough to correct them. They have to read them again. I am telling them not to refer to Airbus. According to the member for Palliser there was absolutely no discussion of Airbus during that? The Speaker: The hon. leader of the Bloc Quebecois. [Translation] Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier?Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, in his letter, Mr. Toole not only confirms that the topic of APEC was indeed discussed by the Solicitor General last Thursday on the plane, he also states that he did not interpret the words of the Solicitor General as prejudicial to the RCMP inquiry. Does the Prime Minister realize that the Solicitor General's alibi is nothing more than a letter from a friend, who interpreted what he heard as a good little Liberal, and that it therefore does not have much substance to it? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows very well that an inquiry has been under way since Monday. All we are asking, and all the government wants?and the House of Commons as well, I hope?is for the commission to look at the matter, hear witnesses describe what occurred in Vancouver that November afternoon, and report to the government, which will act accordingly. At this time, however, Parliament should let the commission do its job, instead of speculating about hearsay. Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier?Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister would like the investigation to focus on what happened between the protestors and the RCMP. But what we would like to know is what the Prime Minister did, and what his Solicitor General had to say on the plane. Does the Prime Minister not think that Mr. Toole's letter, his presence in Ottawa yesterday, his statement that he had not been asked to do anything further, all smack of someone following orders, just like the situation between the RCMP and the Prime Minister? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I have said, there is no need for concern, because I want the truth to be known. I owe no one any apologies for my favourable prejudice toward the RCMP. They did an excellent job at the G-7 summit in Halifax. Prior to APEC, we had visits by the President of the United States and the Premier of China, with no problems whatsoever. For that reason, I had confidence in the RCMP in connection with the important meeting in Vancouver. Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister may have faith in the RCMP, but we in Quebec know what the RCMP is capable of. On Monday, the Solicitor General suffered a complete memory lapse. Yesterday, he was able to make subtle distinctions about what he did or did not say aboard the plane. Does the Prime Minister not realize that his Solicitor General's suddenly revived memory has no credibility, makes no sense and leaves a bad smell, and that he should demand his resignation? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, at 10 a.m. yesterday, the Solicitor General rose in the House of Commons and made a statement explaining his position, which was confirmed by the lawyer with whom he had had a conversation. To me, that is good enough. As for the notes allegedly made, are they accurate or not? When we are having a private conversation, we do not expect the people around us to eavesdrop. I thought we had rules in this House requiring members to respect each other? The Speaker: The hon. member for Roberval. Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, the only thing missing in the Prime Minister's answer is the fact that a Solicitor General is supposed to have enough common sense not to discuss his business on a plane. I cannot blame the Prime Minister for wanting to defend his Solicitor General, who is his shield. Does the Prime Minister realize that there is not one single Canadian left who still has faith in the Solicitor General, his shield, and that he should boot him out? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Solicitor General has been a highly respected member of this House for as long as he has been sitting in Parliament. Some hon. members: Hear, hear. Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien: He has been involved in every social issue brought before the House of Commons, including the disabled persons issue. He has traveled extensively to advance the cause of the most vulnerable in our society. That is why I have faith in the person currently holding the position of Solicitor General. [English] Ms. Alexa McDonough (Halifax, NDP): Mr. Speaker, Canadians have heard compelling reasons why the solicitor general should go. Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: The hon. leader of the New Democratic Party. Ms. Alexa McDonough: They are trying to understand the Prime Minister's reasons for keeping him on. If the solicitor general resigns, who will act as cover for the Prime Minister? Is not that the real reason the Prime Minister refuses to fire the solicitor general? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I spend most of my life, every afternoon in the House of Commons, on this side. I have never needed any cover to defend myself. Ms. Alexa McDonough (Halifax, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister does not need cover in the House of Commons; apparently he needs cover at the commission. [Translation] The Prime Minister said it himself: Pelletier and Carle did not wait for a subpoena. They volunteered to appear before the commission. Why is the Prime Minister refusing to do the same thing? Does he have something to hide? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I ask everyone to let the commission do its work. After that, everyone will know the truth. When we hosted summit participants from 18 countries, we had a mechanism in place to ensure their safety and the peaceful conduct of proceedings, which is standard practice the world over. The Government of Canada and the Prime Minister had a duty to ensure that things went well in Canada. On the occasion of other summits and meetings held in Canada, the police did their work very well? The Speaker: I am sorry to have to interrupt the Right Hon. Prime Minister. The hon. member for Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough now has the floor. [English] Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, for weeks the solicitor general has lectured the House about the impropriety of comments on APEC. Yet all it took was a flight home and the solicitor general became Mr. Chatterbox. He chatted about APEC, Airbus, and private citizens attached to the subject of an ongoing ill-founded investigation. The solicitor general's lack of judgment proves him unfit to be in cabinet. Will the solicitor general be accountable for his mistakes? Will he act honourably? Will he resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, in the matter of acting honourably it has been established by the member across the way that Airbus was never even mentioned, but this hon. member resurrects the idea as if it was discussed. I think the request from hon. members hits back in the other direction. Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou?Antigonish?Guysborough, PC): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised Canada a government of integrity, yet he has delivered a solicitor general who talked openly about sensitive government matters in public. The solicitor general took an oath to respect the rule of law and he violated that oath on an airline chat about APEC and numerous businessmen and politicians connected with Airbus. Who is reliable? Who is credible? Who is discreet? The solicitor general general strikes out on all three of those. Will the Prime Minister now show some integrity, some leadership and ask for the solicitor general's resignation? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I quoted to the House of Commons a statement by the member for Palliser to the effect that he did not discuss Airbus at all. I cannot have a better witness than the member for Palliser. The hon. member is the fourth member to use Airbus, when the solicitor general and the member for Palliser have said there was no discussion of Airbus. Who is not following the rules? He just wants to score cheap political points. Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver?Sunshine Coast, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister. As the Prime Minister knows, our entire ministerial system of government is based on confidentiality and accountability. This minister had public discussions on the airplane. Everyone can make mistakes. He talked about the new international centre for correctional studies in Canada. That is before the cabinet of this country. This minister violated an oath by talking about something that is before this government. Should he not resign over that issue alone? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we have debate. At this moment everybody is talking about the next budget. Everybody is raising questions about what we should do. In the old days, nobody debated anything until the Minister of Finance decided. Today we have participation because we have an open government. When it is not confidential, I hope that members of the cabinet and the caucus discuss with their constituents what the government should do. That is democracy. Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver?Sunshine Coast, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, learning from this government we can say anything we want on an airplane, but just do not admit it. Let me ask the solicitor general. At 3.30 p.m. on Monday, outside this House, he did not know who the person was, male or female. Would he advise this House what time he got on the phone and talked to Mr. Toole and asked him to write a letter to defend him? What time did he do that on Monday? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I said yesterday when the question was originally put, it was unfamiliar to me. I could not recall who I was sitting with on the airplane. Over the last five years I have taken that flight 300 times. Consequently, I inquired to find out who was on the plane. I determined who was sitting beside me. I made a phone call. I found out what the discussion was about. That is the basis of my position and it is the truth. [Translation] Mrs. Suzanne Tremblay (Rimouski?Mitis, BQ): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. Even Mr. Toole, a member of the Liberal Party, does not wish to go any further than what he has written to cover the minister. Does the Prime Minister not realize that the Solicitor General's defence is pretty slim and that he should do the honourable thing and resign immediately? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we have discussed this problem. What we want is for the commission to be able to do its work as soon as possible, so that all Canadians will know exactly what went on in Vancouver last November. That would serve everyone's interests. The Solicitor General rose in the House, stated his position, confirmed by a letter from this lawyer, and I accepted that. I am confident that the Solicitor General is perfectly able to perform his duties, given his outstanding track record as a public servant in New Brunswick and his work as an MP here in the House of Commons. Mrs. Suzanne Tremblay (Rimouski?Mitis, BQ): Mr. Speaker, I would ask the Prime Minister not to change the subject. We are not talking about the commission, but about his minister. Mr. Toole's letter is clear. During the flight, the solicitor general discussed the APEC investigation, and he should not have done so in his capacity as solicitor general. What is the Prime Minister waiting for to do the only honourable thing, which is to ask for the resignation of his minister and, more importantly, to accept it? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I answered that question yesterday and again today. The solicitor general has the confidence of the government. I provided a clear reply and I am very proud to have a person of his calibre and experience serving in my cabinet. [English] Mr. Monte Solberg (Medicine Hat, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, let us summarize here. We have the solicitor general prejudging the outcome of the APEC inquiry. He is publicly commenting on Frank Moores and Karlheinz Schreiber. Finally, he is breaching cabinet security. As a Yankee's fan he must know that three strikes mean you are out. When is the minister going to resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, all three of those allegations are false. Mr. Monte Solberg (Medicine Hat, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, let me put this in words that the minister will understand. There are two exits in the front, two exits over the way and two in the back. When is he going to pick one and resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this entire exercise is on the basis of notes that were taken by a person who was two seats away from me on a plane, when in fact the person to whom I was speaking has substantiated my recollections of this discussion. I think it is unworthy of this place. I have too much respect for parliament not to suggest that this is unconscionable in this country and in this place. [Translation] Mr. Michel Guimond (Beauport?Montmorency?C?te-de-Beaupr???le-d'Orl?ans, BQ): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. Regardless of the actual content of the discussions between the solicitor general and Mr. Toole on the plane last Thursday, the fact remains that the solicitor general should never talk about his files in a public place. Does the Prime Minister not agree that the carelessness of the solicitor general makes him unfit to fulfil his duties, and that he must therefore resign? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the answer is no. Mr. Michel Guimond (Beauport?Montmorency?C?te-de-Beaupr???le-d'Orl?ans, BQ): Mr. Speaker, discretion is an essential requirement for a solicitor general. It has now been proven that this minister has loose lips. Is this not a sufficient motive for the Prime Minister to relieve him of his duties immediately? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general rose in this House. He followed the tradition by making a solemn statement, telling the House what he membered from the conversation. This has been confirmed by the person to whom he talked, while someone was snooping on them, contrary to the ethics usually followed by the members of this House. As far as I am concerned, eavesdroppers are not of the same calibre as Tommy Douglas and David Lewis. [English] Mr. Grant McNally (Dewdney?Alouette, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, what is unconscionable in this House is that this minister does not have the good sense to resign. His indiscreet comments have convicted Staff Sergeant Hugh Stewart without a trial. Headlines across the country indicate that he is the fall guy. I thought people were innocent in this country until proven guilty. I am going to ask the solicitor general again: Is he going to have the good sense here today to resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I have said many, many times, I have incredible respect for this process. I speak of the process very often publicly, in support of the process and in support of getting to the truth. I have done that on many occasions and I have done it on many occasions in the House. I believe that we have an obligation to let that process get to the truth. Mr. Grant McNally (Dewdney?Alouette, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general is attempting to fasten his seat belt and ride through the credibility storm. It is unbelievable. He has obviously prejudiced the outcome of this procedure. Because the solicitor general will not resign I will ask the Prime Minister, is he going to ask for his resignation today? Yes or no? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, six times I have said no. Maybe they are not listening. We have an inquiry that is looking into the matter at this moment. What is is amazing is that hon. members only have this to talk about. It is a great compliment to the government when I see, for example, the opposition finance critics getting up but not talking about the finances of the nation. There is only one little problem. We want the inquiry to give us the truth as much as they do and as soon as possible. They do not want to have the truth because they have nothing else to talk about. [Translation] Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier?Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, since the Prime Minister wants to speak of truth, Mr. Toole did not say in his letter that the Solicitor General had not spoken of APEC but that he had not interpreted the Solicitor General's words about APEC as prejudicial. In other words, the Solicitor General did speak of it. I am asking the Solicitor General if he will tell us today whether or not he spoke of it, because his? The Speaker: I am sorry to interrupt the hon. leader of the Bloc Quebecois. The Solicitor General now has the floor. [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I spoke of my respect for the process to get to the truth. ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Randy White (Langley?Abbotsford, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general talked publicly about fall guys in the APEC inquiry, presuming guilt before the inquiry even takes place. When the solicitor general is questioned about this the Prime Minister covers for him. When the Prime Minister is asked about it the solicitor general stands up. I would like to ask the Prime Minister, since the solicitor general really is Canada's worst security breach, why does the Prime Minister not stop covering for him and start firing him? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have replied to the same question many, many times. The answer is that the solicitor general is a man with a great reputation, who has been a member of the House for five years. He has been an extremely diligent member. He has said that he has never debated anything in relation to things that were not part of the public discussion at any time with anybody, and I believe him. That was confirmed by the lawyer with whom he was talking, but not confirmed by someone who was snooping on him. Usually a snooper does not get his facts right. Mr. Randy White (Langley?Abbotsford, Ref.): That was then, this is now, Mr. Speaker. The solicitor general mentioned Frank Moores and Karlheinz Schreiber in his conversation with Mr. Toole. If he was not talking about Airbus, exactly what was he talking about? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as has been stated even by the member for Palliser, Airbus did not come up. The rest of the conversation was private and the hon. member has no right to bring a private conversation to the floor of this House. Mr. Svend J. Robinson (Burnaby?Douglas, NDP): Mr. Speaker, it is fascinating to see the reliance on the member for Palliser. The solicitor general has now admitted that the hon. member for Palliser had it right about Airbus, right about the sweat lodge, right about the Yankees and right about his great future as an ambassador. The solicitor general cannot have it both ways. Will he now admit the member also got it right about APEC? Will he fess up? Will he tell the truth? Will he resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the member for Palliser basically took a few words out of the air and fabricated a story. This parliament is not going to operate on that level? Some hon. members: Oh, oh. The Speaker: On both sides we are getting very close in our language. I ask you all to be very judicious both in the questions and in the answers. Mr. Svend J. Robinson (Burnaby?Douglas, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my supplementary is for the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister knows the Malaysian government has brutally beaten former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar, has arrested peaceful demonstrators and gay men and has jailed opposition MPs. Since the Prime Minister has said that human rights is on the APEC agenda, does he agree with the Liberal member for Quadra that Malaysia is an inappropriate venue for the upcoming APEC summit? Will he boycott the Malaysia APEC summit? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the government the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Foreign Affairs last week protested against the Government of Malaysia very openly. At this moment there is no member of the APEC nations planning to boycott that type of meeting. Should we boycott the UN because they are at the UN? Should we boycott every international organization because they happen to be members of those organizations? I would like to repeat to the hon. member that as far as Indonesia was concerned, President Suharto was? The Speaker: The hon. member for Madawaska?Restigouche. [Translation] Mr. Jean Dub? (Madawaska?Restigouche, PC): Mr. Speaker, whether the Solicitor General's conversation was a private or public one is not the question. What is important is that the minister responsible for the RCMP has revealed details concerning an investigation that is under way to a citizen who is not a party to that investigation. This is unacceptable. That conversation, coupled with his behaviour over the past two days, leaves him no choice whatsoever. Will the minister do the honourable thing and resign? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, what the hon. member is alleging is absolutely not true. [Translation] Mr. Jean Dub? (Madawaska?Restigouche, PC): Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the Solicitor General will not assume responsibility for his actions. If the Prime Minister allows the Solicitor General to retain his cabinet seat, he is sending the message that he accepts his minister discussing, in public, inquiries that are clearly confidential. Will the Prime Minister protect the confidentiality and integrity of future inquiries? Will the Prime Minister show respect to this House by asking the Solicitor General to resign? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the minister made absolutely no allusion whatsoever to the Airbus inquiry. There was no reference to it. Even the hon. member for Palliser has said that this matter was not mentioned at any time. That, for me, is sufficient. If he had discussed it, I would act differently, but he did not. If I am given concrete, real facts with evidence to back them up, then I will act, but I will not act on hearsay and rumours like these. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. David Chatters (Athabasca, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the 1994 privy council code of conduct, which all members of the front bench opposite claim to respect, states public office holders shall act with honesty and uphold the highest ethical standards so that public confidence and trust in the integrity, objectivity and impartiality of government are conserved and enhanced. The Prime Minister and the solicitor general are making a mockery out of these principles and embarrassing this whole House in front of all Canadians. When will the Prime Minister ask the solicitor general to resign? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I understand what that oath is about. I respect it. I uphold those principles in this House. I have upheld those principles around this commission's inquiry. I take this extremely seriously. I know what the truth is and I am very confident in this position. [Translation] Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval, BQ): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. How can the Prime Minister consider what the member for Palliser says as the norm, as reliable, when he speaks on the Airbus affair, but as inaccurate and unreliable when he speaks on APEC? Should we believe him in the Airbus case, because it suits the Prime Minister, but not in the APEC case, because it would mean having to fire the Solicitor General? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, in the Airbus affair, both the minister and the lawyer said the same thing. Even the hon. member, in his attempt to embarrass the minister with his fabrication, recognized that he had not talked about Airbus. This is even better. [English] The Speaker: My colleagues, once again I ask you to be very judicious in your choice of words today because we are getting a little carried away. * * * ... APEC SUMMIT Mr. Dale Johnston (Wetaskiwin, Ref.): Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general says he did not discuss the Airbus affair on the airplane the other day. Yet he did not deny bringing up the names of Frank Moores and Karlheinz Schreiber. If he was not talking about Airbus, what was he talking about? Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, it has been established that we did not talk about Airbus. The conversation on the aircraft was private and nobody should have been eavesdropping. [Translation] Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier?Sainte-Marie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, in his letter, Mr. Toole confirms that he and the Solicitor General discussed the matter of APEC on the plane. The Solicitor General said yesterday that he had nothing further to say about the discussion, since it was a private conversation. I would ask the Solicitor General if he considers it usual to discuss, allegedly privately, but in a public place, a highly confidential matter involving his duties. Does he consider that usual and responsible? [English] Hon. Andy Scott (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I discussed in detail the public complaints commission's work, my faith in it, my respect for it and my desire that it get to the truth in this matter. That is what I discussed. * * * ... ARMS EXPORTS Mr. Daniel Turp (Beauharnois?Salaberry, BQ): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Customarily, the Minister of Foreign Affairs tables a report in this House on Canada's arms exports. When will the minister be tabling this report so we may have an idea whether the government sold weapons to Suharto's Indonesia, in 1996, for example? [English] Hon. Lloyd Axworthy (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the hon. member seems already to know what is in the report although it has not been presented yet. That is the way the opposition seems to work these days. I will be tabling the report very soon. I think the hon. member will find it very interesting. * * * APEC SUMMIT Mr. Peter Mancini (Sydney?Victoria, NDP): Mr. Speaker, there is a well known maxim in the law. I know it. The Minister of Justice knows it. The solicitor general knows it. The Prime Minister knows it. Justice must not only be done; it must be seen to be done. The public complaints commission investigating APEC is now mired in controversy as a result of the revelations and the inaction of the government on this issue. In the name of justice will the Prime Minister not now do what I asked him to do three weeks ago and set up an independent judicial inquiry to get to the bottom of this issue? Right Hon. Jean Chr?tien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the inquiry started on Monday and the testimony started this afternoon. The students will be witnesses. The RCMP will be witnesses. The people will know exactly what the facts are. They will be in a position to judge whether the RCMP acted according to what was normal under the circumstances. Three competent people were appointed to that body. They will report to the government, as is their job according to the law which was set in parliament, not by this government but by the previous government. * * * ... [end] **************************************************************************** ****************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat, PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR EAST TIMOR Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net "... where there are profits to be defended, law, justice, freedom, democracy and peace are the victims." -- Xanana Gusmao, Jailed Leader of East Timor in Preface to "Complicity: Human Rights and Canadian Foreign Policy -- the Case of East Timor" (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1996). **************************************************************************** ********************************************* From deo at igc.org Sat Oct 10 04:12:57 1998 From: deo at igc.org (David E. Ortman) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 12:12:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 775] APEC '93 WATCH / ECO Issue No. 2 Seattle, WA Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981009115816.0b3f41cc@pop.igc.org> Seattle, WA November 16, 1993 Number 2 XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX APEC '93 WATCH "ECO" __________________ ECO has been published by non-governmental groups at major international conferences since the Stockholm Environmental Conference in 1972. This issue is produced cooperatively by groups attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA, in November, 1993. __________________ NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ASK ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP OF APEC CHIEFS (Today non-governmental organizations issued the following letter to the APEC leaders) 13 November 1993 NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS' OPEN LETTER TO APEC Dear Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders: Your meeting in Seattle, Washington provides an opportunity to demonstrate your continuing dedication to the commitments and objectives you endorsed at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro. APEC, with members in both industrialized and developing nations of the Pacific Rim, provides an ideal forum to address international trade and its effects on the environment. International trade can and must be constructed to promote sustainable development. Liberalized trade can reward efficiency and promote investment in environmentally sound goods and services, or it can cause competition based on ever-lower standards of environmental protection and worker health and safety. To capture the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of trade, APEC leaders should highlight the need for environmental reform of international trade, both as part of the Pacific Rim and as part of the Uruguay Round, which will then lay the groundwork for future reform of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) as a whole. Below are some of our main recommendations: 1. The Multilateral Trade Organization (MTO) APEC countries should use this forum to declare that they will not support negotiations leading to the creation of Multilateral Trade Organizations (MTO) unless a clear, comprehensive environmental protection and sustainable development mandate has been established for the body. Such a mandate must include mechanisms for meaningful public participation. 2. Environmental Disputes within the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) APEC leaders should push for the necessary changes to the Uruguay Round text to ensure that it does not jeopardize a country's right to enact justifiable measures to protect the environment, including laws protecting animals, public health and worker safety, provided the measures are implemented in a non- discriminatory manner. Similarly, the APEC leaders should support, in the negotiating text, provisions to ensure that there is public participation and representation from all interested parties in the settlement of trade and environment disputes. 3. International Environmental Agreements Some international conventions dealing with environmental protection include trade sanctions as an important enforcement mechanism. A good example is the Montreal Protocol of 1987, amended by the London Protocol of 1990. Other international conventions, such as protocols to the Global Climate Convention, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) may include trade measures as mechanisms to bring economic pressure to encourage countries to comply with the terms of the agreement. APEC leaders should support efforts to ensure that the Uruguay Round text explicitly provides that the implementation of trade sanction provisions of international environmental conventions, treaties and protocols are not prohibited by GATT. GATT should not be the final arbiter in disputes between signatories and non-signatories to their international agreements. 4. Process Standards Furthermore, APEC governments should agree to an agenda and timetable for environmental reform of the GATT, which would be contained in a Ministerial Declaration accompanying the closure of the Uruguay Round negotiations. The APEC Declaration should call for negotiations, beginning immediately, to provide for environmental reform of GATT articles and operations, and guidelines for the justifiable use of process standards (i.e. standards relating to how a product is manufactured, rather than relating to qualities of the product itself) and other national measures aimed at protecting natural resources and the environment, including laws protecting animals. Until these environmental negotiations are complete, the APEC countries should agree among themselves and seek agreement from GATT Contracting Parties to a moratorium on challenges to existing environmental laws under the GATT, as has been called for in the European Parliament. 5. Toxic Trade The APEC countries should announce their intention to halt the rapidity increasing movement of toxic wastes, products and industries throughout the region. Dangerous wastes and products, such as pesticides, are being dumped in APEC countries as a means of avoiding more costly waste handling and occupational safety and health laws in other countries. The practice of waste "recycling" often poisons workers and leaves behind dangerous residues. In consideration of the 102 countries which have declared themselves opposed to waste imports, APEC countries should take immediate steps to declare themselves off limits to imports of dangerous wastes, products and industries. 6. Environmental Impact Assessments In addition to reforming global and regional trade agreements to take into account environmental analysis, each APEC country should commit to preparing an environmental impact analysis on any binational trade or trade sector agreement. 7. Full Price Costing of Commodities APEC should call for discussions within the relevant commodity agreements of methodology and mechanisms for incorporating "full cost pricing" into the international trade of those commodities. This would mean incorporating the cost of sustainable natural resources management, energy, including the transportation sector, and environmental protection. 8. Timber Trade as a Commodity Example Among APEC nations are the world's leading suppliers and consumers of temperate and tropical timbers. Throughout the Pacific Rim, including the Pacific Coast of North America where this meeting is being held, unsustainable forest are widespread and frequently subsidized. In order to eliminate one of the most controversial north/south disagreements over double standards regarding forests at the international level, APEC countries should support the inclusion of timber from temperate and boreal forests in the renewed International Tropical Timber Agreement. The goal of all aspects of the timber trade should be to move toward sustainable production as rapidly as possible, and to lower the pressure on natural forests. 9. Debt Relief The external debt burden faces by many developing nations in the Pacific Rim, especially the poorest countries, presents a major obstacle to sustainable development. Meeting debt payments forces massive exports of natural resources such as timber and minerals and conversion of agricultural land from subsistence to export crops. Sharply reducing the debt burdens of these countries is an absolute condition for achieving both economic viability and environmental sustainability. In addition to debt relief, we urge APEC leaders to call for the IMF and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to reorient their structural adjustment programs away from their present rigid macroeconomical focus. Human resource development and environmental sustainability must become an integral part of balance-of-payment stabilization and adjustment programs. The IMF and MDBs must analyze the impact of their programs on social and environmental sectors, incorporate degradation of environmental resources into national income accounting, and make their programs more transparent to give affected communities and local experts a voice in the design of adjustment programs. APEC can play a leadership role in ensuring that these changes happen. 10. Market Access Trade barriers preventing access to developed country markets cost developing countries billions each year in lost revenue-- much more money, in fact, than they receive annually in international 'aid'. Developed countries must recognize that market access is crucial to the success of debt-driven development programs such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The developed APEC countries therefore should seek to enhance market access for less developed members, while at the same time ensuring smooth transitions for people in the affected domestic sectors. Conclusion In conclusion, we urge that the APEC nations work together to achieve substantive progress in the areas listed above. In the regard, we believe it is vital for the APEC governments individually and collectively to establish a process for moving forward on sustainable development issues and the protection of the environment of the Pacific Rim. We would recommend that APEC outline environmental tasks for its various Working Groups and that it consider establishing a Working Group dedicated to the issues of the Pacific Rim Trade and the environment. Sincerely: Alliance for Responsible Trade American Humane Association Animal Welfare Institute Center for International Environmental Law Chinese Human Rights Alliance Community Nutrition Institute Defenders of Wildlife Environmental Defense Fund Friends of the Earth-US Greater Ecosystem Alliance Greenpeace Humane Society of the United States Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Institute for Policy Studies - World Economy Program Puget Sound Gillnetters Association Rainforest Action Network Society for Animal Protective Legislation Sierra Club U.S. Out. . . WALHI/Friends of the Earth-Indonesia WorldWise ----------------- EDITORIAL: NAFTA IN THE HOME STRETCH: For the APEC countries and their environments the outcome of tomorrow's vote in the House of Representatives will be ambiguous. If the NAFTA wins. . . To its credit NAFTA would mark the first appearance of the term 'sustainable development' in the text of a trade agreement. Beyond the rhetorical level, the NAFTA has language that, albeit still problematic, provides greater range for countries to set protective health and safety standards than would exist if the current GATT draft is accepted. This news is good since the U.S. Congress will almost certainly not pass a GATT unless it matches NAFTA in these areas. Despite these gains NAFTA's passage would also mark the success of a dangerous development philosophy: encouraging developing countries to get rich quickly and pay for clean-up later. This desperate gamble can now be expected to be applied to Latin America and the rest of the Pacific Rim. If the NAFTA loses: If NAFTA is defeated, it will be a tremendous victory for a broad coalition of environmental, labor, consumer, church, and human rights organizations. Their popular pressure on Congress will have outweighed the many millions spent by corporations and governments to pass the treaty., At heart, this coalition understands that trade agreements are no longer simply about tariffs, they are about the deepest levels of national social policy -- regulations, subsidies, incentives -- the very fabric society. Their reaction against NAFTA stems from the Agreements's willingness to hang the social fabric on behalf of corporate interests combined with its sudden deference to 'sovereignty' when it comes to promoting other goals such as democracy, worker's rights, or environmental responsibility. NAFTA is badly flawed and yet the current trade and environment situation in North America is unacceptable. This leaves NAFTA's supports and opponents with a common challenge regardless of tomorrow's vote: how to channel the inevitable and growing integration of the world economy in a fashion that promotes environmentally sound and sustainable development. APEC needs to take up this challenge. ----------------- ECO is a publication of the Non-Governmental Organizations present at the APEC Meeting to present alternative trade models that incorporate sustainable development, poverty alleviation measures and the protection of the environment. Staff: Karen Fant Alex Hittle Emily Kaplan David E. Ortman John Reese The editorial office can be reached at 206-XXX-XXXX, FAX XXX-XXXX e-mail: foewase@igc.apc.org From deo at igc.org Sat Oct 10 04:13:59 1998 From: deo at igc.org (David E. Ortman) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 12:13:59 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 776] APEC '93 Seattle, WA No. 1 Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981009115920.0b3f6216@pop.igc.org> NOTE: To provide some continuity between NGO activities at APEC meetings, the following are the issues of APEC '93 WATCH "ECO" (#1-4) published during APEC '93 in Seattle, WA. APEC NGO's should also know that during APEC '93, representatives from environmental, labor and human rights groups requested a meeting with the APEC Secretariat during APEC '93. This resulted in a two hour meeting with Ambassador Bode. We hoped to set a precedent for future APECs of the APEC Secretariat meeting directly with NGOs. However, I understand that not only has this not occured, NGO's have not even made a direct request for meetings, even in Canada last year. I would strongly urge that a meeting with the APEC Secretariat and NGOs be requested during APEC '98 . For more information, contact: David E. Ortman, APEC '93 NGO Coordinator, Seattle, WA deo@igc.org ======== Seattle, WA Early Edition 14 Nov. 1993 No. 1 XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX APEC '93 WATCH "ECO" --------------------- ECO has been published by non-governmental groups at major international conferences since the Stockholm Environmental Conference in 1972. This issue is produced cooperatively by groups attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA, in November, 1993. _________________ Welcome Delegates and News Media As part of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), non- governmental organizations (NGO's) concerned with labor, human rights and environmental issues have gathered in Seattle to address impacts of trade on citizens and environment of the Pacific Rim. Tropical and temporal forests in Asia and North America are declining. Contributions to global warming from burning fossil fuels in nonsustainable Pacific Rim economies are increasing. The Pacific Ocean remains regionally polluted from oil spills and radioactive dumping. This vast body of water is losing its biological diversity as fishing species decline. Nautilus Pacific Research recently released a report entitled "Regional Cooperation and Environmental Issues in Northeast Asia", Study for the Northwest Asian Cooperation Dialogue of the Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation, 1 October 1993. This report states: "Ecological degradation results both from the increased pace of growth and changes in the industry mix toward more toxic and polluting industries. Besides social and environmental costs, the 'grow now, pay later' strategy of unsustainable development is likely to generate large environmental financing needs in the future. In a feedback effect, these costs could undermine economic future growth. "The 'pollution/resource extraction haven' strategy in Northeast Asia is risky on three accounts. First, if pursued by all the developing countries of Northeast Asia, a 'vicious circle' of standards-lowering competition could result in a onslaught of environmental degradation. Beyond high long-term social and health costs, rapid resource depletion and ecological decline are likely to carry high opportunity costs. The income and employment stream generated by rapid and unregulated exploitation of Siberian timber resources, for example, may be less--perhaps far less--than the development of the Russian Far East as an international tourism asset. "Second, companies and industries attracted by 'pollution havens' are likely to be low growth 'sunset' industries which face a limited future. A development strategy based on non-dynamic companies is unlikely to bring technology transfer and knowledge spillovers which are crucial to sustainable, self-generating economic growth. "Third, products manufactured or extracted from 'pollution/resource extraction havens' may face important barriers in the increasingly environment and health conscious markets of the OECD. Northeast Asian timber resources may be especially vulnerable: global campaigns by environmentalists groups such as Greenpeace have already targeted unsustainable logging practices by South Korean, North korean and other foreign companies in the Siberian forests" This is the type of analysis which should be an integral part of APEC discussions. Instead we are concerned that the acronym APEC will stand for A Permanent Environmental Crisis. It is our hope that President Clinton will come to Seattle in the spirit of the Earth Summit at Rio where promises of integrating trade and environmental issues were made. _______________________ BEYOND APEC ENVIRONMENTAL PRESS STORIES IN THE ASIA/PACIFIC "NORTHEAST" Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Colombia. Tired of Port presentations, Chamber of Commerce lectures and Boeing Plant tours? Here are some suggestions: *Project Nighthawk Project Nighthawk has enlisted the help of local airplane pilots willing to fly press/delegates over Puget Sound and the cascades --at no cost--to show the loss of Ancient Forests in the Region. Weather permitting. PL Project Nighthawk XXX-XXXX TRADE ISSUES/NAFTA *Why did grass-roots environmental groups oppose this version of the North American Trade Agreement? FOE, SC *Why was a lawsuit brought against NAFTA for failing to have an environmental impact statement? FOE *Why are cigarettes the eighth (1992) biggest export from the state of Washington? FOE FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur ENERGY ISSUES *How did the region take energy forecasting away from the electric industry? NCAC *What is the NW Power Planning Council? How did energy conservation become the number one priority for the Region? NWPPC, NCAC, NRDC *How did the attempt by the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) to build five nuclear power plants lead to the biggest bond default in US history? NCAC, SC *How has the decimation of the Region's salmon resources head to the lowest electric rates in the United States? *What economic factors led to the recent closure of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant in Oregon? NCAC, FOB *What renewable energy resources are available in the Region? NCAC *Why is the United States oil industry wasting the equivalent of three Exxon Valdez oil spills a day? FOE FOB - Forelaws on Board (503) 637-3549 Lloyd Marbet FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman NCAC - NW Conservation Act Coalition 621-0094 K.C. Golden NWPPC - NW Power Planning Council (800) 222-3355 NRDC - Natural Resources Defense Council (415) 495-5996 Ralph Cavanugh SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur SOS - Save Our Wild Salmon 622-2904 Michael Rossotto/Tim Sterns FORESTRY *Why have Washington state-owned forestry lands been clearcut for exports? WEC *Are Federal and state of exports non-tariff trade barriers? FOE *What is a spotted owl? Why is it important? NAS, SCLDF *What is landscape management? SC *What is the record of US Forest Service management of our public lands? SC, IEPLC, WAFC, ONRC, WWC *How did citizens use the court system to show the Federal Government was breaking its own forestry laws? SCLDF WEC - Washington Environmental Council 622-8103 Marcy Golde FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman ONRC - Oregon Natural Resource Council (503) 223-9001 Andy Kerr NAS - National Audubon Society (206) 786-8020 Jim Pissot SCLDF - Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund 343-7340 Todd True\Vic Sher SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur IEPLC - Island Empire Public Lands Council (509) 327-1699 Dave Crandall WAFC - Western Ancient Forest Campaign 632-6041 Josh Marks WWC - Washington Wilderness Coalition 633-1992 Chris Carrel RIVERS/ANADROMOUS FISH *Why has Congress authorized the largest watershed/salmon restoration project in the country by the removal of two dams on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula? FOE *Why has salmon production in the Columbia River system plummeted from a historical amount of 20 million to less than 2 million today? Why are approximately 500,000 of these wild fish? SC, SOS, AR *Why are fish hatcheries bad for fish? OT *What environmental impacts are caused by hydroelectric dams? AR, SOS, OT *How are forestry practices related to the decline of fish population? PSGN, OT, SC, SOS FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur SOS - Save our Wild Salmon 622-2904 Michael Rossotto/Tim Sterns AR - American Rivers 545-7133 Lorri Bodi/Katherine Ranzel OT - Oregon Trout (503) 246-7870 Bill Blake PSGN - Puget Sound Gillnetters 937-1048 Pete Knutsen WATER POLLUTION *What are citizens doing to stop water pollution into the Puget Sound? PSA, PPS *Why are bottom fish in Puget Sound afflicted with cancer and salmon showing signs of stress from pollution? PPS *Why did the Washington State Department of Ecology say that their Federal programs for controlling pollution discharged from industries and cities was a failure? FOE *Why does the State of Washington have such bad record of water pollution violations? WASHPIRG *Why did citizens sue the Federal Environmental Protection Agency to correct or take back the State of Washington's NPDES (point source of pollution permitting system) program? SCLDF, PPS, FOE *Why is Victoria B.C. (Canada) still dumping raw sewage into the Straight of Juan de Fuca? PPS *Why has Washington State lost half its wetlands? WETNET *Why isn't the Clinton Administration protecting existing wetlands in the United States? FOE PPS - People for Puget Sound 382-7007 Kathy Fletcher PSA - Puget Sound Alliance 286-1309 Ken Moser FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman SCLDF - Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund 343-7340 Todd True WASHPIRG - Washington Public Interest Group 322-9064 WETNET - Wetland Network of Seattle Audubon 783-9093 Dee Arntz AIR POLLUTION *What is being done to control air pollution from home heating with wood stoves? WLA *Why did it take so long to shut down the State of Washington's major air pollution source, the Tacoma ASARCO smelter? WLA WLA - Washington Lung Association 441-5100 Astrid Borg ENDANGERED SPECIES *What wildlife and plant species are endangered in this region? NWF, WNPS, NAS *What is being done to save the grizzly bears? GEA, GBF *How is the decimation of habitat related to the increase in endangered species? GEA, GBF, NAS, NWF, WNPS GEA - Greater Ecosystem Alliance (206) 671-9950 Mitch Friedman GBF - Greater Bear Foundation (406) 721-3009 NAS - National Audubon Society (206) 786-8020 Jim Pissot NWF - National Wildlife Federation (503) 222-1429 Jacquelyn Bonomo WNPS - Washington Native Plant Society 524-7928 TRANSPORTATION *How has the region dealt with transportation policy? IT&E *Why do merchants give out parking tokens--but not bus tickets-- for shopping at their stores? IT&E *What is Seattle doing about bicycle planning? IT&E, SED, NOWBIKE IT&E - Institute for Transportation and the Environment 322-5463 Preston Schiller NOWBIKE - 654-0276 Don Bullard SED - Seattle Engineering Department 223-3074 Peter Lagerway MILITARY BASES *How many U.S. Military Bases in the Region have toxic waste problems? FOE *How did citizens stop the U.S.Navy from dumping contaminated sediments into Puget Sound from a proposed Navy base at Everett, Washington? FOE, SCLDF *Why is Hanford, Washington, considered one of the most toxic radioactive cleanup sites in the U.S.? HOA *What health impacts to the Region's citizens have resulted from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation? HOA FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman HOA - Heart of America 382-1014 Jerry Pollet SCLDF - Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund 343-7340 Todd True RECYCLING *How has Seattle achieved such a high level of residual recycling? WCFR *Why does Oregon have a returnable beverage container bill and Washington does not? WCFR *What is being done to reduce overpackaging? WCFR *What happened to Seattle's past landfills? WCFR *Where is Seattle's garbage going now? WCFR *Why have Seattle and King County citizens opposed the construction of garbage incinerators? WCFR, WTC *Why have communities across Washington State opposed the construction of hazardous waste incinerators? WTC WCFR - Washington Citizens for Recycling 343-5171 Jan Glick WTC - Washington Toxics Coalition 632-1545 Cha Smith PESTICIDES/TOXICS *What progress is being made on alternatives to pesticides? WTC *How are Seattle and King County dealing with home hazardous waste? WTC WTC - Washington Toxics Coalition 632-1545 Cha Smith MARINE ISSUES *How did citizens successfully oppose offshore oil drilling off the Washington/Oregon coast? FOE, WEC *Why did Congress establish a National Marine Sanctuary off the Washington coast? WEC *What is the Region's history with oil spills and what is being done to prevent their occurrence? WEC, PPS *Why is the State of Washington's Coastal Zone Management Program so weak? FOE *What is the status of this region's marine mammals, including whales? GP FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman GP - Greenpeace 632-4326 Cynthia Rust PPS - People for Puget Sound 382-7007 Kathy Fletcher WEC - Washington Environmental Council 622-8103 Fred Felleman NATIONAL PARKS/WILDERNESS *What is a National Park? OPA, NPCA *How is a National Park different from a National Forest? TWS, WWC, NPCA *What is a National Wilderness Area? TWS OPA - Olympic Park Associates 543-1812 Polly Dyer NPCA - National Parks and Conservation Association 824-8808 Dave Crane TWS - The Wilderness Society 624-6430 Steve Whitney WWC - Washington Wilderness Coalition 633-1992 Chris Carrel ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT/SUSTAINABLE SEATTLE *What is being done to protect the U.S./Canadian Cascade ecosystem? GEA *What is happening to move Seattle in the direction of sustainable development? SS GEA - Greater Ecosystem Alliance 671-9950 Mitch Friedman SS - Sustainable Seattle 382-5013 Richard Conlin POLITICS *How do some environmental groups work on elections and endorse candidates for office? SC, WENPAC *How did environmental groups lobby the Washington State government? WEC, PPS FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur PPS - People for Puget Sound 382-7007 Kathy Fletcher WEC - Washington Environmental Council 622-8103 Darlene Madenwald WENPAC - Washington Environmental Political Action Committee 632- 7440 Beth Doglio ENVIRONMENTAL FUNDRAISING *What is an environmental foundation? BF *How do environmental organizations raise money in the work place? ESW BF - Bullitt Foundation 343-0807 Dennis Hayes ESW - Earth Share of Washington 622-9840 Maria Denny/Chuck Perov ----------------------------------------------------------------- ECO is a publication of the Non-Governmental Organizations present at the APEC Meeting to present alternative trade models that incorporate sustainable development, poverty alleviation measures and the protection of the environment. Staff: David E. Ortman Karen Fant John Reese Emily Kaplan The editorial office can be reached at 206-XXX-XXXX, FAX XXX-XXXX e-mail: foewase@igc.apc.org MARCH AND RALLY FLYER - Last page Let's tell the APEC leaders: WE NEED FAIR TRADE...WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! We, the people, call on the leaders of the APEC nations to respect three basic rights in and trade pact: *WORKERS' RIGHTS - The right job and job security. The right to organize unions, bargain and strike. The right to health care and a decent standard of living. Corporate responsibility in the community. *HUMAN RIGHTS - Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. Release all political prisoners. Respect for international law. Recognize human dignity. Due process for all. *ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS - Sustainable Development. Energy conservation. Preservation of sensitive areas and wildlife habitats. Clean air and water. SATURDAY, NOV. 20 MARCH AND RALLY BEGINNING AT 11:30 a.m. IBEW Local 46 Hall - 2700 First Ave., Seattle SPEAKERS: Dolores Huerta, co-founder and first vice president, United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO The Rev. Dr. Robert L. Jeffery, Sr., executive director, Black Dollar Days Task Force Ron Judd, executive secretary, King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO Mark Dubois, executive director, WorldWise Organized by Seattle Citizens' Host Committee, a coalition or labor, church, environmental and human rights organizations. For more information call Washington State Jobs With Justice, 206- 448-7348, or Friends of the Earth, 206-633-1661. From deo at igc.org Sat Oct 10 04:13:42 1998 From: deo at igc.org (David E. Ortman) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 12:13:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 777] ECO APEC'93 WATCH Issue #4, Seattle, WA Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981009115902.2eb7bab4@pop.igc.org> Seattle, WA November 20, 1993 APEC WATCH ECO FINAL EDITION No. 4 --------------------------------------------------------- ECO has been published by non-governmental groups at major international conferences since the Stockholm Environmental Conference in 1972. This issue is produced cooperatively by groups attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA, in November, 1993. ------- NEWSFLASH: APEC SECRETARIAT TO MEET NON-GOVERNMENTAL REPS Non-governmental organizations concerned with labor, environment, and human rights will meet today with the APEC Secretariat. We hope that this meeting will be a model for future annual ministerial meetings. CONTENTS: WASTE TRADE page 1 APEC EDITORIAL page 2 INDONESIA page 3 Taiga page 4 Gremlin page 5 Japan Reacts page 5 Invitation page 6 Greenpeace Reports. . . WASTE TRADE TARGET: ASIA Asia is currently being targeted by the world's waste traders as an open market for unwanted wastes from industrialized countries. Without strict national laws, decrees, and policies or a regional agreement prohibiting all imports of hazardous wastes, Asia is in danger of becoming a dumping ground for vast quantities and several dangerous types of wastes. For example, between January and June 1993, the United States exported more than 19,000 tons of wastes and toxic products to Asia, including plastic wastes, scrap metal waste, and spent lead-acid automotive batteries. These shipments included at least 2,000 tons of banned or unregistered pesticides to Asia. Toxic trades have offered Asian countries countless poisons; among the commonly offered toxic wastes and products: asbestos, incinerator ash, tire wastes, industrial chemical wastes, municipal wastes, slag from metallurgical processes, leaded gasoline, banned an never-registered pesticides, useless pharmaceutical, plastic wastes, polychorinated biphenyls, lead acid battery wastes, sewage sludges and used paints to name but a few. All of these materials contain or can produce upon incineration, extremely toxic and harmful substances such as heavy metals, dioxin and furans. Almost every country in Asia has been targeted as a waste dumpsite for wastes from industrialized countries. In the first six months of 1993 along, Greenpeace has documented more than 440 waste export schemes from the United States to Asian countries. However, this number is clearly just the tip of the iceberg of the number of schemes from all industrialized countries to the region. Additionally, the number of waste shipments to Asia as a whole, as well as to certain countries, is increasing. For example, for the first six months of 1992 and 1993, the actual number of waste shipments from the United States to Asian countries increased from 422 to 440 shipments. As Asian countries are alerted to the environmental, political, and social menace posed by waste imports, Asian countries are developing national legislation to halt the waste trade pirates. For example, in 1992, the Indonesian Government banned waste plastic imports. Greenpeace discovered that in 1992, 90% of all hazardous waste export schemes from industrialized to developing countries came under the guise of "recycling," recovery," "further use," or even as "humanitarian aid" Thoughout Asia, waste traders invariably present their proposals as "development plans" that will bering jobs, roads, energy, hospitals, housing and money. The proposals never mention the "development plan's" environmental and health implications. ------ EDITORIAL: After the last trade minister has made the last trade, and the last Head of State has motorcaded out to the airport, one thing is clear. APEC will never by the same. Ambassador Bodde refers to APEC as a baby. Two new babies, Mexico and Papua New Guinea have been added to the nursery. But APEC needs to be potty- trained. A good does of citizen activism, environmental journalism (the APEC WATCH ECO newsletter) and one-on-one lobbying ha proven that democracy is a good thing and future APEC meetings should accommodate it. Saturday, while Heads of State congregate on Blake Island State Park in the middle of Puget Sound, an estuary with sick fish and closed shellfish beds, we urge President Clinton to take a chapter from Section 101(c) of the Federal Clean Water Act. Passed in 1972, Congress mandated the President, working through the Secretary of State to use all possible means to achieve zero discharge of pollutants into waters of the countries, not just our own. A declaration that Pacific Rim trade will not be conducted at the expense of the Pacific Ocean and its bays and estuaries would be a powerful signal that the era of "Trade Uber Alles" has come to an end. Log, cigarette and waste exports are obvious examples of how 'trade balances' and 'economies' are built on the hidden impacts to the Pacific Rim's citizens and environment. Finally, above all else, APEC must not pursue a closure of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade round by next month in the absence of an integration of environmental, human rights and labor issues into the GATT. We can not afford to let APEC stand for "A PERMANENT ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS." ------ WASTE: A DEADLY BUSINESS (The following article was written by WALHI, Friends of the Earth Indonesia) A government decree issued in Indonesia in 1992 banned plastic waste imports. Since then more than 5,000 tonnes of waste have been illegally imported. Indonesia has not resolved its own domestic waste problem yet waste imports from America, Europe, Japan and Australia are arriving at Indonesian ports under the guise of western countries' recycling programmes. However, only 60% of the imported waste can be recycled: the remaining 40% is unrecyclable and at least 10% is contaminated by toxic or hazardous waste. WALHI/FoE Indonesia, the Jakarta Social Institute and scavenger groups are concerned by the impact of waste imports not only bon the environment and public health, but also on the incomes of 2000,000 local scavengers, which have decreased by 50 to 75 percent since Indonesia began to import waste in 1988. The irony is that scavengers provide Indonesian cities with free recycling services which keep the environment clean and save the cities millions of dollars annually in waste disposal costs. The recycling potential of the waste industry makes it an extremely lucrative business. Waste imports are paid substantial sums to receive materials for recycling in Indonesia which are considered waste by the exporting countries. US $40 and $60 per tonne for toxic and hazardous imports are not uncommon sums, whereas countries in Europe demand $160 to $100 pr tonne to receive such waste. From these figures it is easy to see where the waste ends up. Controversy surrounding the waste imports intensified after the Government scheduled an auction to disperse the 5,000 tonnes of waste imported illegally since the ban went into effect. However, just one week before the event, President Suharto ordered that the imported waste be destroyed. Government officials were not interested in pursing alternatives to the President's directives, and balked at WALHI's suggestion that the wastes be returned to their countries of origin. WALHI has not so far met with success with appeals to embassies requesting that governments take full responsibility for the waste imports originating int heir respective countries and cover the costs of shipping the waste back. Indonesian NGOs and scavenger communities continue their efforts to re-export waste to its country of origin, and are simultaneously working to put an end to the water trade to Indonesia. WALHI is launching a letter-writing campaign to Indonesian President Suharto urging the government to enforce the existing ban on plastic imports and to return the illegal imports. This should send a clear message that developing countries in the Southern hemisphere and eastern Europe are not dumping grounds. ----- APEC INVESTMENTS THREATEN RUSSIAN TAIGA Numerous developing countries in the Pacific Rim, who are members of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), face the burden of servicing enormous foreign debts. In a struggle to gain hard currency to meet debt payments these countries have been forced to export natural resources such as timber and valuable minerals in an unsustainable manner. Although Russia is not a member of APEC it serves as an excellent example of unsustainable resource management in the Pacific Rim. Russia's current economic malaise and need to service its debt threats to accelerate destruction of the Taiga, Russia's boreal forest in Siberia. The Taiga The Taiga is situated in the sub-Arctic region of Siberian Russia. Its size is unparalleled measuring 1.6 billion acres and is about three times the size of Brazil's rainforest. There are about 30 million inhabitants, including 24 indigenous groups numbering one million people. The Taiga has 54% of the world's coniferous forests, 37% of the world's temperate forests and makes up 21% of the world's total forest area. The Taiga is also home to many rich mineral resources such as deep reserves of oil, natural gas, coal, diamonds and gold. Besides being endowed with valuable economic resources, the Taiga also serves an important global environmental function. Combined with the Tundra, the Taiga contains well over one-half of the total amount of carbon held in forests and soils globally, far grater than the amount stored in the Amazon. The Taiga is home to numerous rare animal species such as the Siberian tiger, the great grey owl and reindeer. Unfortunately the Taiga is undergoing unprecedented development. The Taiga is currently being cut at the rate of 5 million acres per year. This deforestation is a substantial contributor to global warming and a threat to its biodiversity. The rare animal species will continue to be displaced and are in danger of extinction if this destructive development pattern continues unabated. APEC Countries and the Taiga Deforestation of Southeast Asia and the depletion of forests in the United States have forced foreign countries to search elsewhere for a constant supply of timber. The Taiga with its expansive quantity of wood has been an attractive location for foreign timber companies, mainly from APEC member countries, to supply their timber and paper industries. In fact, after the fall of the Soviet Union, timber and paper companies from the United States, Japan and South Korea began offering Russia modern equipment, expertise and hard foreign currency in the Taiga region: * The Russian Supreme Court recently blocked operations by the Hyundai Corporation from South Korea. Hyundai had a contract to cut 6000,000 of Siberian timber over the next 30 years beginning in 1991. However, Russia's Regional Committee on Ecology and Natural Resources (RCENR) reported that South Korean loggers had been poaching wildlife, reneging on their obligation to reforest and overcutting in some areas of the region. Hyundai had also received numerous negative environmental impact assessments on their activities from the local Goskompiroda, the State Committee on Nature Protection. * Weyerhaeuser, from the United States, is discussing the possibility of a logging, processing and replanting operation in the region. In exchange for a nursery and restoration project, Weyerhaeuser wants a 20 year lease to cut on more than 40,000 acres in the region. * U.S. timber companies Louisiana Pacific and Georgia Pacific have also approached the Russians for timber contacts in the near future. Russian cannot afford to continue to rely on the fragile Taiga as a source of hard currency to relieve its debt burden of 80 billion U.S. dollars. The increased deforestation presents a special problem for the Taiga region. The clearcutting methods employed by timber companies make it more difficult for the Taiga region to reforest due to its severe conditions. Roughly half of all forests similar to the Taiga become swamps after enormous timber harvests. The resulting damage from such unchecked development is unfathomable and counters Russia's ability to achieve sustainable development. -------- YOU ARE INVITED: In the absence of a Pacific Rim town meeting hosted by President Clinton, the Seattle Citizens Host Committee invites people to the following rallies: FRIDAY NOVEMBER 19th - NOON - "CLEARCUT COSTS OF PACIFIC TRADE" Pike Place Market/Victor Steinbreuck Park with: MITCH FRIEDMAN - Director, Greater Ecosystem Alliance MICHAEL DONNELLY - Friends of Breiten Bush Cascades, Oregon PAUL CIENFUEGOS - Friends of Clayoquot Sound, B.C. PETE KNUTSEN- Puget Sound Gillnetters Association/ AND MORE. . . Contact: Josh Marks, Western Ancient Forest Campaign 632-6041 SATURDAY - 20th NOVEMBER - 7:00 am. PIER 62 off of Alaskan Way "FAIR TRADE FLOTILLA" APEC BLACK ISLAND SUNRISE SENDOFF RALLY Come and watch Greenpeace and the Puget Sound Gillnetters Association FLOTILLA. Depart 7:30 pm. FLOTILLA RETURNS at 10:30 am and will join the BIG RALLY AT WESTLAKE CENTER AT NOON. Contact: Cynthia Rust or Nick Morgan, Greenpeace 632-4326 SATURDAY - 20th NOVEMBER - 11:30 am March from IBEW Local 46 Hall - 2700 First Ave, Seattle, to a NOON Rally- WESTLAKE PLAZA - Down Town Seattle THE HIDDEN COSTS OF FREE TRADE- PEOPLE'S APEC RALLY HUMAN RIGHTS - ENVIRONMENT - LABOR FAIRNESS Speakers: Dolores Huerta, Co-founder and first vice president, United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO - Rev. Dr. Robert L. Jeffrey, Sr., Executive Director, Black Dollar Days Task Force - Run Judd, Executive Secretary, King County Labor Council, AFL- CIO, Mark Dubois, Ex. Director, WorldWise Contact: Washington State Jobs with Justice, 206-448-7348 ----- GREMLIN * The best technology war does not go to Boeing, but to the push button espresso/latte machine in the Press Lounge. A bit large for your kitchen, but it might fit on Air Force One. * Gremlin is no weather forecaster, but notes that Seattle and your home city have this in common: Mount Rainier can't be seen from either place. * Gremlin is no tour guide, either, but before you leave check out the famous Underground Seattle tour of Pioneer Square. Approximately 40 square blocks of Seattle that lie beneath your feet, a portion of which you can explore as a part of a guided tour. While your are down in the deep depths of this fir city, see if you can find some of these missing APEC terms: STAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - POLLUTER PAYS - GLOBAL WARMING - GREENING OF THE GATT - RIO EARTH SUMMIT. * Gremlin salutes this week's "Great American Smokeout" designed to help U.S. citizens quit smoking. How ironic that in 1992 Washington State's eighth biggest export was CIGARETTES, accounting for $451.6 million dollars. There is something wrong with a trade system that values products that kill the same way as medicine that heals. ----- JAPANESE REACTION TO NAFTA AND APEC "The Debate about the NAFTA included the environmental impact of the agreement as a high priority. But APEC is virtually ignoring the environment in its discussions. Let's see a bit more commitment to the long-term well-being of the Asia Pacific region, not just to trade growth. "We are disappointed that this meeting of APEC has committed no time to cover environmental concerns. It is only a year after the UNCED meeting in Rio de Janeiro, where governments expressed their commitment to solving environmental problems. The next meeting of APEC in Indonesia would ensure that environment is high on the agenda." Aya Saitoh, Friends of the Earth Japan ----------------------------------------------------------------- ECO is a publication of the Non-Governmental Organizations present at the APEC Meeting to present alternative trade models that incorporate sustainable development, poverty alleviation measures and the protection of the environment. Staff: Karen Fant Alex Hittle Emily Kaplan Hug Llamas Nick Morgan David E. Ortman Ita Rachmita John Reese The editorial office can be reached at 206-XXX-XXXX, FAX XXX-XXXX e-mail: foewase@igc.apc.org ECO wishes to thank the organizers of the Seattle Citizens' Host Committee, who seized the opportunity to work together as members of an umbrella coalition of environmental groups, human rights advocates and labor organizations under the theme - THE HIDDEN COSTS OF FREE TRADE. From deo at igc.org Sat Oct 10 04:13:15 1998 From: deo at igc.org (David E. Ortman) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 12:13:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 778] ECO APEC'93 WATCH Issue #3, Seattle, WA Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981009115834.2eb7bf1c@pop.igc.org> Seattle, WA November 18, 1993 Number 3 APEC WATCH ECO ----------------- ECO has been published by non-governmental groups at major international conferences since the Stockholm Environmental Conference in 1972. This issue is produced cooperatively by groups attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA, in November, 1993. ____________________ CONTENTS: Wildlife Trade page 1 NAFTA Editorial page 2 GLOBAL Response page 3 GREMLIN page 4 China Dam page 4 ----------- WILDLIFE TRADE SOARING IN ASIA-PACIFIC REGION The Asian Pacific Region's economic boom has enabled many to indulge in the consumption of wildlife. The demand for exotic wildlife drives a soaring trade, both legal and illegal, in species throughout the region. This big business already contributes to the crises of several endangered species and the degradation of ecosystems. For example, the Philippines is home to numerous endangered species including: crocodiles, pawikan, calamian deer, tamaraw, dugong, Philippine eagle, peregrine falcons and Mindoro imperial pigeon, (all listed in CITES Appendix I) as well as the pangolin, the monitor lizard, pythons, the Philippine tarsier, Palawan peacock pheasant, breeding heart pigeons, Philippine cockatoo, parrots, rufuous hornbill and several species of owls and eagles (all listed in CITES Appendix II). Yet row after row of pet shops in Manilla still openly sell some of these listed species. These wildlife also are smuggles to Taiwan and Hong Kong for distribution to the worldwide market. The Philippine's coral reefs also are victims of illegal harvesting and trading. In 1988 alone, according to the environmental group Haribon, some U.S. $500,000 worth of raw coral from Philippines was illegally sold, mostly to U.S. North America also is the world's largest importer of exotic birds. A global network feeds this demand. Smugglers wire money to Mexico City, where birds are shipped from Singapore, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires. Then birds are sent via border city of Tijuana to San Diego, where buyers in US and Canada had access to them. A sexed pair of rare black palm cockatoo plucked from the jungles of Australia, New Guinea or Indonesia easily fetches US$ 25,000. Across the Pacific Ocean, China, Japan and the so-called Asian 'Tiger' economies generate even more controversy in the subject of wildlife trade. The growing affluence of these economies creates incredible demand for wildlife for use in exotic dishes, traditional cures, arts, and tourist souvenirs, as well as for pets. Japan, the major consumer of wildlife in Asia, has been the center of global controversy over issues as elephant tusks, hawksbill turtle, bluefin tuna, whale, caiman and bengals. Asian traditional medicine also places high premium on certain animal parts, such as tiger parts, bile from bear gallbladders, internal organs from musk deer and the powdered horn from any of the five remaining species of rhinoceros. TRAFFIC, an organization monitoring the trade in endangered species, estimates that South Korea imported 1,700kg tiger bones between 1985 and 1990. It also estimates that Taiwan, in 1992, has stockpiled 10 tons of rhino horn, the take from an estimated 4,000 slaughtered rhinos. Several Asian cities have developed into centers for wildlife trade. Guangdong, the natural transit point for goods headed for Hong Kong and beyond, has become China's illegal wildlife trade center. Ranging from bald eagle, tiger meat, bones and penis, bear paw to panda, Chinese wildlife is being smuggled out in formidable amounts. In Thailand, Bangkok's Chatuchak Park is called a worldwide "laundering center" for wildlife. Thai dealers launder shipments of everything from rare orchids to South American caimans and Indonesian orangutan, and send them to zoos and traders in Japan, Europe, and North America. Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan serve as the major conduits for vast array of wildlife and parts. As Ginnette Hemley, the director of TRAFFIC (USA) put it: "Asia is the world's hotbed for illegal trade in endangered species." CURRENT EFFORT -- CITES in Action CITES -- the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora -- came into effect on July 1, 1975. The Convention is designed to protect internationally- recognized endangered species (Appendix I species) from any commercial exploitation and to subject other threatened or look- alike species (Appendix II and Appendix III species) to specific regulations and documentation controls before they can be legally traded internationally. It is a United Nations administrated international treaty. Today, about 120 nations are parties to the convention. Parties are obligated to confiscate wildlife contraband and set whatever fines or other penalties. Yet in many nations, fines and jail sentences are ridiculously low. Custom officials or wildlife inspectors are usually in charge of inspecting shipments and seizing contraband. Any shipment containing CITES- listed wildlife or related products must have a separate permit. The Convention recommends specific formats for these trade documents, but many nations usually produce their own. It is sometimes difficult to recognize authentic papers. Falsifying documents by dishonest traders and permit theft further complicates efforts to control the trade. Frequently, smugglers take a species from one country where it is protected and ship it to another country where trade controls are lax and obtain fraudulent export documents. Hence, international cooperation in investigation of illegal trade schemes is crucial. The majority of the APEC members are parties of CITES. Yet several members have not signed up. Full participation in and sincere devotion to CITES' efforts in protecting endangered species by all APEC members is essential for cracking down harmful wildlife trade soaring in the Asian-Pacific economies. APEC'S OBLIGATION -- Government Action and Citizen Action Individual governments have much to do to improve international compliance with CITES. Tough domestic legislation is crucial. Governments also need to give enforcement efforts greater attention -- strengthening port inspection capacities, educating customs officials to the peculiarities of wildlife trade restrictions, providing secure permitting systems and taking offenders to court. Better communication with CITES Secretariat and trade authorities in foreign countries would also help bolster the treaty. Major wildlife-consuming countries must bear the greatest responsibility for upholding CITES and policing international wildlife trade. They are much better equipped with the enforcement personnel, communication system, domestic legal systems and other tools needed to control wildlife trade than many wildlife-rich developing countries. Moreover, the consumer countries also have a significant base of popular support for species conservation, which can encourage governments to carry out their CITES mandate. Individual nations also can contribute to the protection of endangered species by governmental action and citizen action. The recent effort in saving the endangered rhinoceros, which is on CITES' Appendix I, shows how it can be done. In governmental action, US applies the Pelly amendment to exert pressure in the consumer countries, including China, Taiwan, South Korea and Yemen, to change their consumption pattern by possible trade sanctions. (Rhinoceros horn is highly prized in Korea, Taiwan, China as a fever reducing drug, and in Yemen for ceremonial dagger handles.) The Pelly amendment to US Fishermen's Protective Act if 1967 was originally enacted to reinforce whale conservation by authorizing the embargo of fish products from nations diminishing the effectiveness of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. In 1978, this provision was expanded to confer similar authority to embargo wildlife products from any country whose nationals are found by US Secretary of Commerce or Interior to be " engaging in trade or taking which diminishes the effectiveness of any international program for endangered species." On Nov. 12, 1992, the World Wildlife Fund and the US Interior Secretary to invoke the Pelly Amendment against the consumer nation mentioned above. US Interior Secretary Babbitt in the CITES' Standing Committee meeting on Sep. 6-8, 1993 announced the certification of China and Taiwan under the Pelly Amendment. In citizen action, a mass boycott campaign, organized by several environmental groups including Earth Island Institute and TRAFFIC Network, against Taiwan has been under way to press charges in consumption pattern. The bad publicity for Taiwan complements the Pelly amendment certification to force Taiwan moving in the direction consistent with the objective of CITES. IMPLICATION -- Sustainable Use of Wildlife If properly controlled, wildlife trade need not threaten plant and animal species. Instead, trade can be a strong force for conservation, providing countries with the economic incentive to protect habitats and managing wildlife in ways that ensure the species' long term health and survival. But to achieve this requires limitations on trade, undertaken by both producing and consuming countries. Uncontrolled exploitation and free trade, on the other hand, spells long-term disaster for both the species and the valuable resources of producer countries. ----------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- EDITORIAL: THE NAFTA VOTE The close vote (200-234) in the U.S. House of Representatives to approve the implementation of the North American Trade Agreement brings us one step closer to APEC's efforts this week to work toward the speedy closure of the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Planet Earth needs a health care program, but NAFTA is the wrong prescription. In the end, it came down to President Clinton buying votes, not an unusual feature of US politics, but particularly offensive when NAFTA is viewed as a symbol of international negotiating strength rather than on impacts to citizens and the environment. Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club and Public Citizens brought us a lawsuit asking for an environmental impact statement on NAFTA. Federal Court Judge Charles Richey agreed. The decision was overturned on procedural grounds and is being appealed. Arthur D. Little, Inc.,has hailed this decision as a landmark. In a just released analysis, whey write, "Long overshadowed by international trade, environmental 'genie' is in short,'out of the bottle." The question for APEC is how will they interpret the NAFTA vote. Will they continue to remain mute and deaf to sustainable development, polluter pays and environmental impact avoidance? Or will they understand that the global trading system must not be finalized in December without integrating these concepts as promised at the Rio Earth Summit? One test would be the rejection of the Proposed APEC Trade and Investment Framework which contains nary a drop of green. Apparently, those environmental groups which supported NAFTA have been wrong in thinking that expressions of environmental concern would be taken up by the Clinton Administration as part of this weeks APEC meetings. Thus, we see in the global arena not only the tragedy of the commons, but the tragedy of trade summits as well. _________________________________________________________________ _______________ THINK GLOBALLY - ACT LOCALLY If you have not heard about GLOBAL RESPONSE, a Boulder, CO USA organization, here is an unpaid ad: "As environmental awareness and activism help reverse destructive trends in industrialized nations, one result has been the export of severe ecological degradation to the developing world. GLOBAL RESPONSE is a letter-writing network of dedicated environmental activists focusing attention on specific environmental threats and mobilizing broad-based campaigns to hold those responsible accountable. GLOBAL RESPONSE issues GR Actions on rainforest destruction, ocean dumping and pollution, atmospheric contamination, nuclear disarmament, toxic exports, and threats to marine mammals. GLOBAL RESPONSE bases its GR Actions on information and research provided by the identified cooperating organizations that request GR to address these issues" Among recent GR Actions that cover issues along the Pacific Rim: GR 7/92 Siberian Forests/Clearcutting "Ninety percent of the trees harvested in Russia are already felled by clearcuts...The usual problems of increased erosion and watershed degradation associated with clearcuts are compounded in the delicate ecosystems of the (Siberian) taiga." (Pacific Resource and Resource Center) GR 10/92 Commercial Plutonium Products-Japan: "...the excess of plutonium from civilian nuclear programs poses a major political and security problem worldwide. From a security point of view, isolated plutonium is best kept in reactors--in the reactor fuel." (William Dircks, Deputy Director of International Atomic Energy Agency) GR 11/92 Temperate Rainforest Protection - Canada: "...the west coast of Vancouver Island remains an extraordinary showcase of environmental elegance and diversity. In many places, this is still virgin landscape governed by the unequivocal laws of nature -- a gift of nature to humanity." (Cameron Young, environmental writer, in his book "Clayoquot - On the Wilde Side") GR 2/93 Offshore Oil Drilling/Alaska USA : "...it's time that America has to face a solution and quit harming Native people...Show us that you care...There is a Arctic Ocean full of sea life. Don't add another Prince William Sound with a polar ice pack on it. Protect it. Care for it...You've already polluted too much." (Indigenous testimony on the proposed Outer Continental Shelf oil leases) GR 4/93 Toxic Waste/Malaysia:"...(the dump site) is an open area where people used to go. I was told that the waste could be used at fertilizer and I took a drag of it to fertilize my mango tree." (Court testimony from a Bukit Merah resident during the hearing on Asian Rare Earth's operations) "...severe health problems exist in Bukit Merah...most probably related to radiation exposure..." (Canadian public health expert) GR 7/93 Reprocessing Spent Nuclear Fuel/Siberia:"Any major accident on the shores of the Yenisei and in the Taiga could become global in scope and lead to the elimination of life and economic activity from enormous regions of Siberia for many years. Radioactive contents of just one RT-2's storage facilities will be 20 billion curies or about 2500 Chernobyls." (Krasnoyarsk Ecological movement) Copies of these GR Actions are available at the Seattle Citizen Hospitality Room, 911 Stewart St. (Gethsemane Lutheran Church - 4 blocks North of the Trade Center) or contact: GLOBAL RESPONSE, Environmental Action Network, P.O. Box 7490, Boulder, CO, USA 80306-7490 Phone/FAX (303) 444-0306 ______________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------- GREMLIN - (The ECO gremlin has been latteing around APEC looking into tunnels and corners. Here is the Gremlin Report) *Gremlin agrees that TV turns the mind to mush, but Ambassador Kantor's video show (due to a cancellation to remain in D.C. for NAFTA lobbying) at Tuesday's luncheon was particularly mushy especially around his concept of "growing economic growth". Maybe he was just trying to invent a new acronym - GEG. *Rumors have it, but then rumors always do, that limousines were flown in to seattle from the United Nations to cover a local shortage. The dignitaries could have taken the Seattle Metro bus system. Then the buses would not have had to carry signs saying, "Notice schedules may be delayed due to travel congestions caused by APEC motorcades." ______________________ DISASTROUS ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES PREDICTED FOR CHINA'S THREE GORGES DAM Ground has been broken at the planned site of the biggest dam in the world. China's famous Three Gorges would be drowned behind the dam by a 350 mile long reservoir, which would back up the mighty Yangtze River nearly to Chonqging in west China. Environmentalists and engineers both within and outside of China fear serious consequences will result if the dam is built. *The dam would destroy commercial fish stocks and deprive the complex floodplain agricultural system of water and slit they need, threatening the livelihood of 75 million people who live by fishing or farming along the Yangtze's banks. *Flood inundation from catastrophic dam failure would engulf cities, towns, factories and farms, killing millions. The August 27, 1993 failure of Gouhou Dam has raised fears about a far worse disaster should Three Gorges fail. California dam safety official Don Babbitt acknowledged that Three Gorges' seismic design would not meet California criteria. *Over one million people, many of whom make their living in farming and fishing, would be forced to relocate. Nearly half a million of these people would be moved 1200 miles away to Kashgar, sparsely populated because of its harsh desert climate. Recent developments have encouraged dam opponents. The Canadian International Development Agency, which prepared the feasibility study on the dam, will not participate further in the Three Gorges project. Nor will the Bureau of Reclamation. Today at 12 Noon there will be a press conference on the Three Gorges Dam at the Gethsemane Lutheran Church. Call: 233-9678 ________________________ ECO is a publication of the Non-Governmental Organizations present at the APEC Meeting to present alternative trade models that incorporate sustainable development, poverty alleviation measures and the protection of the environment. Staff: Karen Fant Alex Hittle Emily Kaplan David E. Ortman John Reese Mason Young The editorial office can be reached at 206-XXX-XXXX, FAX XXX-XXXX e-mail: foewase@igc.apc.org From fuller at cs.ubc.ca Sat Oct 10 05:11:02 1998 From: fuller at cs.ubc.ca (Brian Fuller) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 13:11:02 -0700 Subject: [asia-apec 779] Toronto Sun: protest in winnipeg Message-ID: <981009131102.ZM1973@cascade.cs.ubc.ca> The Toronto Sun, October 9, 1998 HEADLINE: PM IN JOKING MOOD OVER PEPPER SPRAY 200 PROTEST CHRETIEN, SMASH WINDOWS IN WINNIPEG BYLINE: ANNE DAWSON, OTTAWA BUREAU DATELINE: WINNIPEG BODY: After apologizing for a previous caustic comment about pepper spray following the rough treatment of students by Mounties at last year's APECsummit, Prime Minister Jean Chretien made another crack about it last night. Here to attend a $ 300-a-plate fundraiser dinner for 1,000 Liberal Party faithful, Chretien kicked off his evening address with a joke about the pepper-spray protest. "Usually, it is a rubber-chicken dinner, but when we come to the West we have beef," he said of the prime rib dinner he was about to dig into. "Sometimes we have pepper steaks." The crowd roared with laughter. APOLOGIZED Last month, Chretien publicly apologized for the way student protesters He also apologized for joking in response to reporters' questions about therld. police use of pepper spray on the human rights demonstrators. His comment at the time was: "For me, pepper, I put it on my plate." Last night's comment is only likely to fuel the fire that's still brewing over this matter -- that Chretien doesn't take the issue of human rights seriously. An inquiry into the RCMP treatment of those student protesters which began Monday already has bogged down in another storm of controversy. Solicitor General Andy Scott allegedly was overheard on an airplane talking openly and indiscreetly about the anticipated outcome of that inquiry. Chretien, who has faced calls for Scott's resignation every day this week, has steadfastly refused to seek it. Meanwhile, a demonstration protesting Chretien's handling of the APECaffair turned ugly here last night when windows were broken and at least one arrest was made. Some 200 demonstrators -- many donning surgical masks in case of a pepper-spray attack -- chanted and waved placards protesting what they call Chretien's blatant disregard for human rights at APEC. "He violated our rights in favour of appeasing foreign dictators who are mass murderers," said Derrick Martens, 21, a University of Manitoba student who led the student protesters. "If he would have taken the time to meet with us, I would have asked him to treat protesters with more respect." Public servants were also in the crowd demonstrating the Liberal government's decision to appeal a human-rights ruling that ordered it to fork out up to $ 6 billion in pay equity for public servants. But the student and public servant protesters waited in vain outside the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Chretien was whisked away in another door and kept far from the angry crowd. He also refused to answer a Toronto Sun reporter's question about the protesters. GRAPHIC: photo of JEAN CHRETIEN "We have beef" From sbdean at sfu.ca Sat Oct 10 06:40:56 1998 From: sbdean at sfu.ca (Elsie Dean) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 14:40:56 -0700 Subject: [asia-apec 780] RAPPA Women's Forum Nov.8 &9 Message-ID: <003601bdf3cd$81cd42c0$207b3a8e@dcc> From: Second International Women's Conference Against APEC Vancouver British Columbia Canada Would like to know if the Organizing Committee for the Women's Conference on Nov. 8 & 9 received our fax and our e-mails re the conference. Look forward to a reply. Thank you, Elsie Dean -----Original Message----- From: appasec To: asia-apec listserve Date: Friday, October 09, 1998 7:09 AM Subject: [asia-apec 771] Latest on APPA >Dear friends, > >The national organising committee of the Asia Pacific Peoples? Assembly (APPA), would like to inform all those interested to participate in this year?s peoples assembly, that preparations for APPA are well under way and that APPA will go on as planned, regardless of the recent political developments in our country. > >This decision was reached at our last working committee meeting, fully realising the enormous challenge ahead of us as we prepare ourselves to host APPA. APPA will now be convened amidst a worsening economic crisis and growing political tension in Malaysia. The sacking and subsequent detention of former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has thrown Malaysia into political turmoil, as the ruling coalition tries desperately to redeem its legitimacy and the people?s confidence it so often boasted about. > >The Anwar Ibrahim incident has brought to the forefront many fundamental issues of injustice and democracy in our current system of administration. The little democratic space allowed by the dictatorial rule of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, has been further tightened. The police have unfailingly taken to force and brutal actions in their efforts to disperse gatherings in support of Anwar Ibrahim, and have declared a ban on ?illegal? gatherings, (gatherings without police approval). As you may have already heard, our fellow labour and human rights activist, Tian Chua, from the Labour Resource Centre, was also arrested in a demonstration, and was beaten, punched and kicked while in the police truck and lock up of a local police station. > >Anwar Ibrahim?s trial has been fixed for November 2-14, clashing almost fully with the dates of APPA . While many feel that APPA will not even be given the chance to go ahead, given these developments, we are confident that the international spotlight on Malaysia during this time, will in many ways force the authorities to allow APPA to go on as planned, albeit with certain conditions. After all, Mahathir himself was quoted to have given his blessings to the Peoples? Summit when attending the APEC Leaders meeting in Vancouver last year. > >With such backdrop, the convening of APPA will add a new page in the history of Malaysian people?s struggle for justice and democracy. Thus it is crusial that our intetrnational friends attend APPA in order to forge solidarity with the Malaysian people. With our joint effort, APPA will mark the success of regional solidarity against the despotism of globalisation. > >We hope to have your presence at the Peoples? Assembly this year. So, see you in November!! > >In solidarity > >The secretariat > >APPA > > > From j.kelsey at auckland.ac.nz Fri Oct 9 20:38:49 1998 From: j.kelsey at auckland.ac.nz (jane kelsey) Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 11:38:49 +0000 Subject: [asia-apec 781] Re: APEC '93 Seattle, WA No. 1 In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19981009115920.0b3f6216@pop.igc.org> Message-ID: David, thanks for the information. However you make two false assumptions: 1. that people did not subsequently make those requests; they did in Tokyo and met with Japanse officials, which left absolutely no doubt about the futility of attempting to affect the substance of the APEC agenda, and 2.that those who have been active critics of APEC have not considered the matter. Rather, many of us believe that meeting with the APEC secretariat or lead players would have no desirable effect, but would rather allow APEC to claim they are consultating with so-called 'civil society'. The documents recently obtained under the Official Information Act regarding New Zealand government plans for NGOs in 1999 confirm that this is purely a cyncial public relations exercise where any NGOs who are successfully coopted into that process will simply be used for the government's own pro-deregulation agenda. So, thanks for the advice, but no thanks to the strategy. Jane Kelsey On Fri, 9 Oct 1998 12:13:59 -0700 (PDT) "David E. Ortman" wrote: > NOTE: To provide some continuity between NGO activities at APEC meetings, > the following are the issues of APEC '93 WATCH "ECO" (#1-4) published > during APEC '93 in Seattle, WA. > > APEC NGO's should also know that during APEC '93, representatives from > environmental, labor and human rights groups requested a meeting with the > APEC Secretariat during APEC '93. This resulted in a two hour meeting with > Ambassador Bode. We hoped to set a precedent for future APECs of the APEC > Secretariat meeting directly with NGOs. However, I understand that not only > has this not occured, NGO's have not even made a direct request for > meetings, even in Canada last year. I would strongly urge that a meeting > with the APEC Secretariat and NGOs be requested during APEC '98 . For more > information, contact: David E. Ortman, APEC '93 NGO Coordinator, Seattle, WA > deo@igc.org > > ======== > > > > Seattle, WA Early Edition 14 Nov. 1993 > No. 1 > XXXXXXXX > XXXXXXXX APEC '93 WATCH "ECO" > > --------------------- > ECO has been published by non-governmental groups at major > international conferences since the Stockholm Environmental > Conference in 1972. This issue is produced cooperatively by > groups attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) > Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA, in November, 1993. > _________________ > > > Welcome Delegates and News Media > As part of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), non- > governmental organizations (NGO's) concerned with labor, human > rights and environmental issues have gathered in Seattle to > address impacts of trade on citizens and environment of the > Pacific Rim. > > Tropical and temporal forests in Asia and North America are > declining. Contributions to global warming from burning fossil > fuels in nonsustainable Pacific Rim economies are increasing. > > The Pacific Ocean remains regionally polluted from oil spills and > radioactive dumping. This vast body of water is losing its > biological diversity as fishing species decline. > > Nautilus Pacific Research recently released a report entitled > "Regional Cooperation and Environmental Issues in Northeast > Asia", Study for the Northwest Asian Cooperation Dialogue of the > Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation, 1 October 1993. > This report states: > > "Ecological degradation results both from the increased pace of > growth and changes in the industry mix toward more toxic and > polluting industries. Besides social and environmental costs, > the 'grow now, pay later' strategy of unsustainable development > is likely to generate large environmental financing needs in the > future. In a feedback effect, these costs could undermine > economic future growth. > > "The 'pollution/resource extraction haven' strategy in Northeast > Asia is risky on three accounts. First, if pursued by all the > developing countries of Northeast Asia, a 'vicious circle' of > standards-lowering competition could result in a onslaught of > environmental degradation. Beyond high long-term social and > health costs, rapid resource depletion and ecological decline are > likely to carry high opportunity costs. The income and > employment stream generated by rapid and unregulated exploitation > of Siberian timber resources, for example, may be less--perhaps > far less--than the development of the Russian Far East as an > international tourism asset. > > "Second, companies and industries attracted by 'pollution havens' > are likely to be low growth 'sunset' industries which face a > limited future. A development strategy based on non-dynamic > companies is unlikely to bring technology transfer and knowledge > spillovers which are crucial to sustainable, self-generating > economic growth. > > "Third, products manufactured or extracted from > 'pollution/resource extraction havens' may face important > barriers in the increasingly environment and health conscious > markets of the OECD. Northeast Asian timber resources may be > especially vulnerable: global campaigns by environmentalists > groups such as Greenpeace have already targeted unsustainable > logging practices by South Korean, North korean and other foreign > companies in the Siberian forests" > > This is the type of analysis which should be an integral part of > APEC discussions. Instead we are concerned that the acronym APEC > will stand for A Permanent Environmental Crisis. It is our hope > that President Clinton will come to Seattle in the spirit of the > Earth Summit at Rio where promises of integrating trade and > environmental issues were made. > _______________________ > > BEYOND APEC > > ENVIRONMENTAL PRESS STORIES IN THE ASIA/PACIFIC "NORTHEAST" > Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Colombia. > > Tired of Port presentations, Chamber of Commerce lectures and > Boeing Plant tours? Here are some suggestions: > *Project Nighthawk > Project Nighthawk has enlisted the help of local airplane pilots > willing to fly press/delegates over Puget Sound and the cascades > --at no cost--to show the loss of Ancient Forests in the Region. > Weather permitting. PL Project Nighthawk XXX-XXXX > > TRADE ISSUES/NAFTA > > *Why did grass-roots environmental groups oppose this version of > the North American Trade Agreement? FOE, SC > > *Why was a lawsuit brought against NAFTA for failing to have an > environmental impact statement? FOE > > *Why are cigarettes the eighth (1992) biggest export from the > state of Washington? FOE > > FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman > SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur > > ENERGY ISSUES > > *How did the region take energy forecasting away from the > electric industry? NCAC > > *What is the NW Power Planning Council? How did energy > conservation become the number one priority for the Region? > NWPPC, NCAC, NRDC > > *How did the attempt by the Washington Public Power Supply System > (WPPSS) to build five nuclear power plants lead to the biggest > bond default in US history? NCAC, SC > > *How has the decimation of the Region's salmon resources head to > the lowest electric rates in the United States? > > *What economic factors led to the recent closure of the Trojan > Nuclear Power Plant in Oregon? NCAC, FOB > > *What renewable energy resources are available in the Region? > NCAC > > *Why is the United States oil industry wasting the equivalent of > three Exxon Valdez oil spills a day? FOE > > FOB - Forelaws on Board (503) 637-3549 Lloyd Marbet > FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman > NCAC - NW Conservation Act Coalition 621-0094 K.C. Golden > NWPPC - NW Power Planning Council (800) 222-3355 > NRDC - Natural Resources Defense Council (415) 495-5996 Ralph > Cavanugh > SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur > SOS - Save Our Wild Salmon 622-2904 Michael Rossotto/Tim Sterns > > FORESTRY > > *Why have Washington state-owned forestry lands been clearcut for > exports? WEC > > *Are Federal and state of exports non-tariff trade barriers? FOE > > *What is a spotted owl? Why is it important? NAS, SCLDF > > *What is landscape management? SC > > *What is the record of US Forest Service management of our public > lands? SC, IEPLC, WAFC, ONRC, WWC > > *How did citizens use the court system to show the Federal > Government was breaking its own forestry laws? SCLDF > > WEC - Washington Environmental Council 622-8103 Marcy Golde > FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman > ONRC - Oregon Natural Resource Council (503) 223-9001 Andy Kerr > NAS - National Audubon Society (206) 786-8020 Jim Pissot > SCLDF - Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund 343-7340 Todd True\Vic > Sher > SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur > IEPLC - Island Empire Public Lands Council (509) 327-1699 Dave > Crandall > WAFC - Western Ancient Forest Campaign 632-6041 Josh Marks > WWC - Washington Wilderness Coalition 633-1992 Chris Carrel > > RIVERS/ANADROMOUS FISH > > *Why has Congress authorized the largest watershed/salmon > restoration project in the country by the removal of two dams on > the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula? FOE > > *Why has salmon production in the Columbia River system plummeted > from a historical amount of 20 million to less than 2 million > today? Why are approximately 500,000 of these wild fish? SC, > SOS, AR > > *Why are fish hatcheries bad for fish? OT > > *What environmental impacts are caused by hydroelectric dams? > AR, SOS, OT > > *How are forestry practices related to the decline of fish > population? PSGN, OT, SC, SOS > > FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman > SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur > SOS - Save our Wild Salmon 622-2904 Michael Rossotto/Tim Sterns > AR - American Rivers 545-7133 Lorri Bodi/Katherine Ranzel > OT - Oregon Trout (503) 246-7870 Bill Blake > PSGN - Puget Sound Gillnetters 937-1048 Pete Knutsen > > WATER POLLUTION > > *What are citizens doing to stop water pollution into the Puget > Sound? PSA, PPS > > *Why are bottom fish in Puget Sound afflicted with cancer and > salmon showing signs of stress from pollution? PPS > > *Why did the Washington State Department of Ecology say that > their Federal programs for controlling pollution discharged from > industries and cities was a failure? FOE > > *Why does the State of Washington have such bad record of water > pollution violations? WASHPIRG > > *Why did citizens sue the Federal Environmental Protection Agency > to correct or take back the State of Washington's NPDES (point > source of pollution permitting system) program? SCLDF, PPS, FOE > > *Why is Victoria B.C. (Canada) still dumping raw sewage into the > Straight of Juan de Fuca? PPS > > *Why has Washington State lost half its wetlands? WETNET > > *Why isn't the Clinton Administration protecting existing > wetlands in the United States? FOE > > > PPS - People for Puget Sound 382-7007 Kathy Fletcher > PSA - Puget Sound Alliance 286-1309 Ken Moser > FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman > SCLDF - Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund 343-7340 Todd True > WASHPIRG - Washington Public Interest Group 322-9064 > WETNET - Wetland Network of Seattle Audubon 783-9093 Dee Arntz > > AIR POLLUTION > > *What is being done to control air pollution from home heating > with wood stoves? WLA > > *Why did it take so long to shut down the State of Washington's > major air pollution source, the Tacoma ASARCO smelter? WLA > > WLA - Washington Lung Association 441-5100 Astrid Borg > > ENDANGERED SPECIES > > *What wildlife and plant species are endangered in this region? > NWF, WNPS, NAS > > *What is being done to save the grizzly bears? GEA, GBF > > *How is the decimation of habitat related to the increase in > endangered species? GEA, GBF, NAS, NWF, WNPS > > GEA - Greater Ecosystem Alliance (206) 671-9950 Mitch Friedman > GBF - Greater Bear Foundation (406) 721-3009 > NAS - National Audubon Society (206) 786-8020 Jim Pissot > NWF - National Wildlife Federation (503) 222-1429 Jacquelyn > Bonomo > WNPS - Washington Native Plant Society 524-7928 > > TRANSPORTATION > > *How has the region dealt with transportation policy? IT&E > > *Why do merchants give out parking tokens--but not bus tickets-- > for shopping at their stores? IT&E > > *What is Seattle doing about bicycle planning? IT&E, SED, NOWBIKE > > IT&E - Institute for Transportation and the Environment 322-5463 > Preston Schiller > NOWBIKE - 654-0276 Don Bullard > SED - Seattle Engineering Department 223-3074 Peter Lagerway > > MILITARY BASES > > *How many U.S. Military Bases in the Region have toxic waste > problems? FOE > > *How did citizens stop the U.S.Navy from dumping contaminated > sediments into Puget Sound from a proposed Navy base at Everett, > Washington? FOE, SCLDF > > *Why is Hanford, Washington, considered one of the most toxic > radioactive cleanup sites in the U.S.? HOA > > *What health impacts to the Region's citizens have resulted from > the Hanford Nuclear Reservation? HOA > > FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman > HOA - Heart of America 382-1014 Jerry Pollet > SCLDF - Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund 343-7340 Todd True > > RECYCLING > > *How has Seattle achieved such a high level of residual > recycling? WCFR > > *Why does Oregon have a returnable beverage container bill and > Washington does not? WCFR > > *What is being done to reduce overpackaging? WCFR > > *What happened to Seattle's past landfills? WCFR > > *Where is Seattle's garbage going now? WCFR > > *Why have Seattle and King County citizens opposed the > construction of garbage incinerators? WCFR, WTC > > *Why have communities across Washington State opposed the > construction of hazardous waste incinerators? WTC > > WCFR - Washington Citizens for Recycling 343-5171 Jan Glick > WTC - Washington Toxics Coalition 632-1545 Cha Smith > > PESTICIDES/TOXICS > > *What progress is being made on alternatives to pesticides? WTC > > *How are Seattle and King County dealing with home hazardous > waste? WTC > > WTC - Washington Toxics Coalition 632-1545 Cha Smith > > MARINE ISSUES > > *How did citizens successfully oppose offshore oil drilling off > the Washington/Oregon coast? FOE, WEC > > *Why did Congress establish a National Marine Sanctuary off the > Washington coast? WEC > > *What is the Region's history with oil spills and what is being > done to prevent their occurrence? WEC, PPS > > *Why is the State of Washington's Coastal Zone Management Program > so weak? FOE > > *What is the status of this region's marine mammals, including > whales? GP > > FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman > GP - Greenpeace 632-4326 Cynthia Rust > PPS - People for Puget Sound 382-7007 Kathy Fletcher > WEC - Washington Environmental Council 622-8103 Fred Felleman > > NATIONAL PARKS/WILDERNESS > > *What is a National Park? OPA, NPCA > > *How is a National Park different from a National Forest? TWS, > WWC, NPCA > > *What is a National Wilderness Area? TWS > > OPA - Olympic Park Associates 543-1812 Polly Dyer > NPCA - National Parks and Conservation Association 824-8808 Dave > Crane > TWS - The Wilderness Society 624-6430 Steve Whitney > WWC - Washington Wilderness Coalition 633-1992 Chris Carrel > > ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT/SUSTAINABLE SEATTLE > > *What is being done to protect the U.S./Canadian Cascade > ecosystem? GEA > > *What is happening to move Seattle in the direction of > sustainable development? SS > > GEA - Greater Ecosystem Alliance 671-9950 Mitch Friedman > SS - Sustainable Seattle 382-5013 Richard Conlin > > POLITICS > > *How do some environmental groups work on elections and endorse > candidates for office? SC, WENPAC > > *How did environmental groups lobby the Washington State > government? WEC, PPS > > FOE - Friends of the Earth 633-1661 David E. Ortman > SC - Sierra Club 621-1696 Bill Arthur > PPS - People for Puget Sound 382-7007 Kathy Fletcher > WEC - Washington Environmental Council 622-8103 Darlene Madenwald > WENPAC - Washington Environmental Political Action Committee 632- > 7440 Beth Doglio > > ENVIRONMENTAL FUNDRAISING > > *What is an environmental foundation? BF > > *How do environmental organizations raise money in the work > place? ESW > > BF - Bullitt Foundation 343-0807 Dennis Hayes > ESW - Earth Share of Washington 622-9840 Maria Denny/Chuck Perov > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > ECO is a publication of the Non-Governmental Organizations > present at the APEC Meeting to present alternative trade models > that incorporate sustainable development, poverty alleviation > measures and the protection of the environment. > > Staff: > > David E. Ortman > Karen Fant > John Reese > Emily Kaplan > > The editorial office can be reached at 206-XXX-XXXX, FAX XXX-XXXX > e-mail: foewase@igc.apc.org > > > MARCH AND RALLY FLYER - Last page > > Let's tell the APEC leaders: > WE NEED FAIR TRADE...WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! > > We, the people, call on the leaders of the APEC nations to > respect three basic rights in and trade pact: > > *WORKERS' RIGHTS - The right job and job security. The right to > organize unions, bargain and strike. The right to health care and > a decent standard of living. Corporate responsibility in the > community. > > *HUMAN RIGHTS - Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. Release > all political prisoners. Respect for international law. > Recognize human dignity. Due process for all. > > *ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS - Sustainable Development. Energy > conservation. Preservation of sensitive areas and wildlife > habitats. Clean air and water. > > SATURDAY, NOV. 20 MARCH AND RALLY BEGINNING AT 11:30 a.m. > IBEW Local 46 Hall - 2700 First Ave., Seattle > > SPEAKERS: Dolores Huerta, co-founder and first vice president, > United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO > The Rev. Dr. Robert L. Jeffery, Sr., executive director, Black > Dollar Days Task Force > Ron Judd, executive secretary, King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO > Mark Dubois, executive director, WorldWise > > Organized by Seattle Citizens' Host Committee, a coalition or > labor, church, environmental and human rights organizations. For > more information call Washington State Jobs With Justice, 206- > 448-7348, or Friends of the Earth, 206-633-1661. > > > ---------------------- jane kelsey j.kelsey@auckland.ac.nz From jono at physics.ubc.ca Sat Oct 10 14:51:31 1998 From: jono at physics.ubc.ca (Jonathan Oppenheim) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 22:51:31 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 782] APEC 97: Nail 'em! Message-ID: <199810100551.WAA20147@theory.physics.ubc.ca> Pepper Spray? Will that be Economy Size, Family Size, or Keg Size? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following are excerpts from radio transcripts, released by the RCMP Public Complaints Commission. They reveal that the Mounties were not very nice during APEC 97. Of course, students should stop whining about the whole thing. APEC 98 in Malaysia is gonna make APEC 97 look like a tea party. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1) Staff Seargeant Hugh Stewart: "I got the pepper spray...whole bunch of people" Unnamed Officer: (laughing) "is it the big size?" Stewart: "No, we just use the economy size" Unnamed Officer: "Ah" Stewart: "It was full, anyway" Staff Sergeant Hugh Stewart arrests and pepper sprays protester David Malmo-Levine the day before the APEC summit. David was arrested for "saying foolish things". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2) Stewart: "put it this way, I'm fucked" Mounties use pepper spray when a fence, held up by plastic twist-ties, collapses on a group of students. Pepper spray was used even more liberally on another group of five students who peacefully approached the police line. At this time, the police heirarchy breaks down completely. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Deputy McGuinness: "How are you?" Unnamed Officer: "Not too bad." McGuinness: "Hey listen, do you guys have any keg size OC [pepper] spray up there?" Officer: "We got a can of it sitting right here in my drawer?" McGuinness: "Big one?" Officer: "Yeah" McGuinness: "Okay, un, I wonder if you can get that out to UBC for us." ... Officer: "Okay" McGuinness: "You, you, you only got one up there?" Officer: "Ah well um, I got one in my drawer, hang on here, just a munute." McGuinness: "Okay" Officer: (aside) "We got any other keg size OC, Deputy McGuinness is on the phone here. In the berg there's one eh?" "Ah, we've got probably two or three we can get our hands on. McGuinness: "If you can as many keg size OC's as you can" The Mounties run out of pepper spray at lunch time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Hugh Stewart: "we're just gonna go down there, we're gonna hit 'em, wham, nail 'em." Moments later, the Mounties use pepper spray to clear students blocking one of the motorcade routes. Almost no warning is given. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Stewart: "Everybody's contaminated, they can't, I mean they can't even touch their dicks for Christ sakes." The mounties pepper-spraying is so indiscriminate, that they nail each other. From arnomd at online.no Sat Oct 10 17:55:52 1998 From: arnomd at online.no (=?iso-8859-1?Q?Arno_Mong_Daast=F8l?=) Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 10:55:52 +0200 Subject: [asia-apec 783] FW: U.S. AID TO RUSSIA: WHERE IT ALL WENT WRONG Message-ID: <000a01bdf42b$d31239c0$94074382@ringebu.uio.no> Here is a very recent and very IMPORTANT testimony for the US Congress Committee on International Relations, that I received from Wendell Solomons solomons@slt.lk Since it is too large to send to the mailing lists (I tried and failed): This is the link: http://www.house.gov/international_relations/full/ws917982.htm I also took the liberty of posting it on my site: http://daastol.com/wedel.html I hope the author will forgive me (She has been informed). Greetings! Arno arno@daastol.com http://daastol.com Wendell's introductory text: "I am sending you as an attachment the Dr Janine Wedel testimony to a Congress committee. The question is how around 12 people got their hands on $ 4 billion in aid money from Britain, Germany, Japan, USA, and painted themselves as "young reformers", unsupervised by the convening US government." U.S. AID TO RUSSIA: WHERE IT ALL WENT WRONG Testimony before the Committee on International Relations U.S. House of Representatives by Janine R. Wedel Associate Research Professor, Department of Anthropology; and Research Fellow, Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies The George Washington University From yapdavid at easy.com.au Sun Oct 11 08:41:16 1998 From: yapdavid at easy.com.au (David Yap) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 09:41:16 +1000 Subject: [asia-apec 784] Request for Seminar papers. Message-ID: <01bdf4a7$79e357e0$480e23cb@yapdavid.easy.com.au> Dear Director of the Seminar; I would be grateful to receive a set of the papers delivered by speakers of the seminar. I am writing a book "Advance Australia Where? The Uniting of Australia." It will have a significant chapter on the effects of globalisation on Australia. Please send by airmail to David Yap, Win-Win Developments. P.O.Box 560 Dee Why, NSW 2099, Australia.. I will send you a copy of my book when it is published in Jan. 1999. Yours thankfully David Yap. From appasec at tm.net.my Sun Oct 11 15:58:34 1998 From: appasec at tm.net.my (appasec) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 14:58:34 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 785] MALAYSIAN FRU POISED TO DISPERSE DEMONSTRATORS! Message-ID: <000001bdf4e4$aa75a740$0100a8c0@tmnet.tm.net.my> 10th OCT, 8:00 pm: MALAYSIAN FRU POISED TO DISPERSE DEMONSTRATORS! Tens of thousands who had congregated peacefully at the National Mosque moved on to Merdeka Square from 7:30 pm onwards. The crowd, reported by AFP earlier, stretched more than 3 km long. At approximately 8:10 pm, plainclothes police had started arresting some of the demonstrators. By this time, the sea of people sat down on the square. Observers said that the people were calmly chanting. The Federal Reserce Unit (FRU) brought in their 'chemical' truck, poised to spray at the crowd. The police had asked the crowd to disperse. Some people were attacked by plainclothes police. Freelance journalist, Sharaad Kuttan, was punched in the face, 'mace'-d, hit in head with a motorcycle helmet and kicked in his back, when he asked one of the plainclothes police to identify himself. The man beckoned another 'friend' before proceeding to assault Mr. Kuttan. TWENTY MINUTES LATER.... At 8:20 pm, the organisers informed the police that the crowd will disperse in 10 minutes time. They have also called another rally on the 17th of this month. By the time this announcement was made, the crowd began standing up, ready to leave the Square. At 8:35 pm, people began walking away from the Square in high spirits. By 8:58 pm, most of the crowd had already left the Square. * * * * * * * * ABOLISH I.S.A.! MANSUHKAN I.S.A! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * SIGN JUST WORLD'S * * * WHITE RIBBON/SIGNATURE * * * CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE! * ** http://www.jaring.my/just * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * ** On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, please urge our Malaysian government to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. --------------------------------------------------------- SUARA RAKYAT MALAYSIA (SUARAM) struggling for human rights in Malaysia add: 11, Jalan 1A/71E, Jalan Carey, 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia tel: 60-3-7943525 fax: 7943526 email: suaram@geocities.com, wkpeng@pc.jaring.my website:http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/1577 From appasec at tm.net.my Sun Oct 11 16:43:08 1998 From: appasec at tm.net.my (appasec) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 15:43:08 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 786] Why BN Rally Cancelled Message-ID: <001a01bdf4ea$cc169ac0$0100a8c0@tmnet.tm.net.my> Why Barisan National Rally Cancelled GERAK Secretariat has been informed that the management of the National Stadium at Bukit Jalil had withdrawn the permission allowing GERAK to hold a mass gathering at the stadium on 17 October 1998. The gathering was expected to draw about half a million people. GERAK had already booked and paid the rental of RM4,500 for the venue. It was only awaiting police permit. By withdrawing its permission on the basis that the stadium needed repair, the management had actually saved the police from having to refuse issuing the permit. This development followed an earlier police decision not to issue permit for a rally organised by the Barisan Nasional (BN) a week earlier on 10 October 1998. What really happened? Actually, Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and UMNO clearly had to bow to the will of the people. After realising that all his actions against Anwar Ibrahim could not convince the majority of people, Mahathir and UMNO had to admit that it was impossible for them to draw the crowd needed to attend the BN rally, tagged as "the leader together with the people" (more appropriately "a desperate leader wishing to be with the people"). The sign was clear when only about 2000 people attended a gathering to welcome Mahathir in Jitra, Kedah a few days earlier. Most of the 2000 present were government servants who were directed to attend and members of the Special Branch (SB) and the Federal Reserve (FRU) units. Originally the BN rally at Bukit Jalil was to be organised by the youth wing of the component parties. The target was to get 100,000 people attending. But after campaigning hard to mobilise the youths, the organisers realised that it was not possible to attract such a large number of participants. The parent body of BN tried to take over. It promissed that 150,000 people would attend. The organisers tried to mobilise all UMNO members. When this attempt did not show any sign of success, efforts were made to get teachers and students from schools and training colleges. Desirous of demonstrating his undivided support for Mahathir and hoping to be picked as the next Deputy Prime Minister perhaps, Education Minister Datuk Najib directed that every school should send at least 14 teachers. Attempts were also made to mobilise factory workers, who were offered financial incentives, to show support for the desperate leader. Yet the organisers were not confident that they would be able to achieve the set target. It finally dawned upon the organisers that they had made a mistake. They were also worried that the stadium might be inundated by Anwar supporters who would be shouting reformation and pro-Anwar slogans rather than support for Mahathir. Further, they feared that the gathering planed by GERAK a week later would successfully draw a much bigger crowd, as expected. They were in great dilemma. Finally, they decided that the BN rally for their desperate leader had to be cancelled. The most respectable thing to do was to have the police refuse issuing a permit. This could save face for the great leader of BN. At the same time, it would help make the police appear to be fair too. PRM Secretariat 10 October 1998 From markb at gn.apc.org Sun Oct 11 21:25:35 1998 From: markb at gn.apc.org (Mark Brown) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 13:25:35 +0100 (BST) Subject: [asia-apec 787] Re: ECO APEC'93 WATCH Issue #4, Seattle, WA Message-ID: <199810111225.NAA16281@mail.gn.apc.org> Hello, Could I ask why we have been sent this 5 year old information. Much as I would like to continue hearing about Asian resistance to globalisation, if this overload continues I will have to unsubscribe. Yours, Mark At 12:13 09/10/98 -0700, asia-apec@jca.ax.apc.org wrote: >Seattle, WA November 20, 1993 > > APEC WATCH ECO > >FINAL EDITION No. 4 > >--------------------------------------------------------- > >ECO has been published by non-governmental groups at major >international conferences since the Stockholm Environmental >Conference in 1972. This issue is produced cooperatively by >groups attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) >Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA, in November, 1993. >------- > >NEWSFLASH: APEC SECRETARIAT TO MEET NON-GOVERNMENTAL REPS > >Non-governmental organizations concerned with labor, environment, >and human rights will meet today with the APEC Secretariat. We >hope that this meeting will be a model for future annual >ministerial meetings. > >CONTENTS: > >WASTE TRADE page 1 >APEC EDITORIAL page 2 >INDONESIA page 3 >Taiga page 4 >Gremlin page 5 >Japan Reacts page 5 >Invitation page 6 > >Greenpeace Reports. . . >WASTE TRADE TARGET: ASIA > >Asia is currently being targeted by the world's waste traders as >an open market for unwanted wastes from industrialized countries. >Without strict national laws, decrees, and policies or a regional >agreement prohibiting all imports of hazardous wastes, Asia is in >danger of becoming a dumping ground for vast quantities and >several dangerous types of wastes. > >For example, between January and June 1993, the United States >exported more than 19,000 tons of wastes and toxic products to >Asia, including plastic wastes, scrap metal waste, and spent >lead-acid automotive batteries. These shipments included at >least 2,000 tons of banned or unregistered pesticides to Asia. > >Toxic trades have offered Asian countries countless poisons; >among the commonly offered toxic wastes and products: asbestos, >incinerator ash, tire wastes, industrial chemical wastes, >municipal wastes, slag from metallurgical processes, leaded >gasoline, banned an never-registered pesticides, useless >pharmaceutical, plastic wastes, polychorinated biphenyls, lead >acid battery wastes, sewage sludges and used paints to name but a >few. All of these materials contain or can produce upon >incineration, extremely toxic and harmful substances such as >heavy metals, dioxin and furans. > >Almost every country in Asia has been targeted as a waste >dumpsite for wastes from industrialized countries. In the first >six months of 1993 along, Greenpeace has documented more than 440 >waste export schemes from the United States to Asian countries. >However, this number is clearly just the tip of the iceberg of >the number of schemes from all industrialized countries to the >region. > >Additionally, the number of waste shipments to Asia as a whole, >as well as to certain countries, is increasing. For example, for >the first six months of 1992 and 1993, the actual number of waste >shipments from the United States to Asian countries increased >from 422 to 440 shipments. > >As Asian countries are alerted to the environmental, political, >and social menace posed by waste imports, Asian countries are >developing national legislation to halt the waste trade pirates. >For example, in 1992, the Indonesian Government banned waste >plastic imports. Greenpeace discovered that in 1992, 90% of all >hazardous waste export schemes from industrialized to developing >countries came under the guise of "recycling," recovery," >"further use," or even as "humanitarian aid" Thoughout Asia, >waste traders invariably present their proposals as "development >plans" that will bering jobs, roads, energy, hospitals, housing >and money. The proposals never mention the "development plan's" >environmental and health implications. >------ > > >EDITORIAL: > >After the last trade minister has made the last trade, and the >last Head of State has motorcaded out to the airport, one thing >is clear. APEC will never by the same. Ambassador Bodde refers >to APEC as a baby. Two new babies, Mexico and Papua New Guinea >have been added to the nursery. But APEC needs to be potty- >trained. A good does of citizen activism, environmental >journalism (the APEC WATCH ECO newsletter) and one-on-one >lobbying ha proven that democracy is a good thing and future APEC >meetings should accommodate it. >Saturday, while Heads of State congregate on Blake Island State >Park in the middle of Puget Sound, an estuary with sick fish and >closed shellfish beds, we urge President Clinton to take a >chapter from Section 101(c) of the Federal Clean Water Act. >Passed in 1972, Congress mandated the President, working through >the Secretary of State to use all possible means to achieve zero >discharge of pollutants into waters of the countries, not just >our own. A declaration that Pacific Rim trade will not be >conducted at the expense of the Pacific Ocean and its bays and >estuaries would be a powerful signal that the era of "Trade Uber >Alles" has come to an end. >Log, cigarette and waste exports are obvious examples of how >'trade balances' and 'economies' are built on the hidden impacts >to the Pacific Rim's citizens and environment. >Finally, above all else, APEC must not pursue a closure of the >General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade round by next month in the >absence of an integration of environmental, human rights and >labor issues into the GATT. We can not afford to let APEC stand >for "A PERMANENT ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS." >------ > >WASTE: A DEADLY BUSINESS >(The following article was written by WALHI, Friends of the Earth >Indonesia) > >A government decree issued in Indonesia in 1992 banned plastic >waste imports. Since then more than 5,000 tonnes of waste have >been illegally imported. > >Indonesia has not resolved its own domestic waste problem yet >waste imports from America, Europe, Japan and Australia are >arriving at Indonesian ports under the guise of western >countries' recycling programmes. However, only 60% of the >imported waste can be recycled: the remaining 40% is >unrecyclable and at least 10% is contaminated by toxic or >hazardous waste. >WALHI/FoE Indonesia, the Jakarta Social Institute and scavenger >groups are concerned by the impact of waste imports not only bon >the environment and public health, but also on the incomes of >2000,000 local scavengers, which have decreased by 50 to 75 >percent since Indonesia began to import waste in 1988. The irony >is that scavengers provide Indonesian cities with free recycling >services which keep the environment clean and save the cities >millions of dollars annually in waste disposal costs. > >The recycling potential of the waste industry makes it an >extremely lucrative business. Waste imports are paid substantial >sums to receive materials for recycling in Indonesia which are >considered waste by the exporting countries. US $40 and $60 per >tonne for toxic and hazardous imports are not uncommon sums, >whereas countries in Europe demand $160 to $100 pr tonne to >receive such waste. From these figures it is easy to see where >the waste ends up. > >Controversy surrounding the waste imports intensified after the >Government scheduled an auction to disperse the 5,000 tonnes of >waste imported illegally since the ban went into effect. >However, just one week before the event, President Suharto >ordered that the imported waste be destroyed. Government >officials were not interested in pursing alternatives to the >President's directives, and balked at WALHI's suggestion that >the wastes be returned to their countries of origin. > >WALHI has not so far met with success with appeals to embassies >requesting that governments take full responsibility for the >waste imports originating int heir respective countries and cover >the costs of shipping the waste back. > >Indonesian NGOs and scavenger communities continue their efforts >to re-export waste to its country of origin, and are >simultaneously working to put an end to the water trade to >Indonesia. WALHI is launching a letter-writing campaign to >Indonesian President Suharto urging the government to enforce the >existing ban on plastic imports and to return the illegal >imports. This should send a clear message that developing >countries in the Southern hemisphere and eastern Europe are not >dumping grounds. >----- > >APEC INVESTMENTS THREATEN RUSSIAN TAIGA > >Numerous developing countries in the Pacific Rim, who are members >of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), face the burden >of servicing enormous foreign debts. In a struggle to gain hard >currency to meet debt payments these countries have been forced >to export natural resources such as timber and valuable minerals >in an unsustainable manner. > >Although Russia is not a member of APEC it serves as an excellent >example of unsustainable resource management in the Pacific Rim. >Russia's current economic malaise and need to service its debt >threats to accelerate destruction of the Taiga, Russia's boreal >forest in Siberia. > >The Taiga > >The Taiga is situated in the sub-Arctic region of Siberian >Russia. Its size is unparalleled measuring 1.6 billion acres and >is about three times the size of Brazil's rainforest. There are >about 30 million inhabitants, including 24 indigenous groups >numbering one million people. The Taiga has 54% of the world's >coniferous forests, 37% of the world's temperate forests and >makes up 21% of the world's total forest area. The Taiga is also >home to many rich mineral resources such as deep reserves of oil, >natural gas, coal, diamonds and gold. > >Besides being endowed with valuable economic resources, the Taiga >also serves an important global environmental function. Combined >with the Tundra, the Taiga contains well over one-half of the >total amount of carbon held in forests and soils globally, far >grater than the amount stored in the Amazon. The Taiga is home >to numerous rare animal species such as the Siberian tiger, the >great grey owl and reindeer. > >Unfortunately the Taiga is undergoing unprecedented development. >The Taiga is currently being cut at the rate of 5 million acres >per year. This deforestation is a substantial contributor to >global warming and a threat to its biodiversity. > >The rare animal species will continue to be displaced and are in >danger of extinction if this destructive development pattern >continues unabated. > >APEC Countries and the Taiga > >Deforestation of Southeast Asia and the depletion of forests in >the United States have forced foreign countries to search >elsewhere for a constant supply of timber. The Taiga with its >expansive quantity of wood has been an attractive location for >foreign timber companies, mainly from APEC member countries, to >supply their timber and paper industries. In fact, after the >fall of the Soviet Union, timber and paper companies from the >United States, Japan and South Korea began offering Russia modern >equipment, expertise and hard foreign currency in the Taiga >region: > >* The Russian Supreme Court recently blocked operations by the >Hyundai Corporation from South Korea. Hyundai had a contract to >cut 6000,000 of Siberian timber over the next 30 years beginning >in 1991. However, Russia's Regional Committee on Ecology and >Natural Resources (RCENR) reported that South Korean loggers had >been poaching wildlife, reneging on their obligation to reforest >and overcutting in some areas of the region. Hyundai had also >received numerous negative environmental impact assessments on >their activities from the local Goskompiroda, the State Committee >on Nature Protection. > >* Weyerhaeuser, from the United States, is discussing the >possibility of a logging, processing and replanting operation in >the region. In exchange for a nursery and restoration project, >Weyerhaeuser wants a 20 year lease to cut on more than 40,000 >acres in the region. > >* U.S. timber companies Louisiana Pacific and Georgia Pacific >have also approached the Russians for timber contacts in the near >future. > >Russian cannot afford to continue to rely on the fragile Taiga as >a source of hard currency to relieve its debt burden of 80 >billion U.S. dollars. The increased deforestation presents a >special problem for the Taiga region. The clearcutting methods >employed by timber companies make it more difficult for the Taiga >region to reforest due to its severe conditions. Roughly half of >all forests similar to the Taiga become swamps after enormous >timber harvests. The resulting damage from such unchecked >development is unfathomable and counters Russia's ability to >achieve sustainable development. >-------- > >YOU ARE INVITED: > >In the absence of a Pacific Rim town meeting hosted by President >Clinton, the Seattle Citizens Host Committee invites people to >the following rallies: > >FRIDAY NOVEMBER 19th - NOON - >"CLEARCUT COSTS OF PACIFIC TRADE" > >Pike Place Market/Victor Steinbreuck Park with: > >MITCH FRIEDMAN - Director, Greater Ecosystem Alliance >MICHAEL DONNELLY - Friends of Breiten Bush Cascades, Oregon >PAUL CIENFUEGOS - Friends of Clayoquot Sound, B.C. >PETE KNUTSEN- Puget Sound Gillnetters Association/ AND MORE. . . >Contact: Josh Marks, Western Ancient Forest Campaign 632-6041 > >SATURDAY - 20th NOVEMBER - 7:00 am. PIER 62 off of Alaskan Way >"FAIR TRADE FLOTILLA" > >APEC BLACK ISLAND SUNRISE SENDOFF RALLY > >Come and watch Greenpeace and the Puget Sound Gillnetters >Association FLOTILLA. Depart 7:30 pm. FLOTILLA RETURNS at 10:30 >am and will join the BIG RALLY AT WESTLAKE CENTER AT NOON. >Contact: Cynthia Rust or Nick Morgan, Greenpeace 632-4326 > >SATURDAY - 20th NOVEMBER - 11:30 am March from IBEW Local 46 Hall >- 2700 First Ave, Seattle, to a NOON Rally- WESTLAKE PLAZA - Down >Town Seattle >THE HIDDEN COSTS OF FREE TRADE- PEOPLE'S APEC RALLY HUMAN >RIGHTS - ENVIRONMENT - LABOR FAIRNESS > >Speakers: Dolores Huerta, Co-founder and first vice president, >United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO - Rev. Dr. Robert L. >Jeffrey, Sr., Executive Director, Black Dollar Days Task Force - >Run Judd, Executive Secretary, King County Labor Council, AFL- >CIO, Mark Dubois, Ex. Director, WorldWise >Contact: Washington State Jobs with Justice, 206-448-7348 >----- > >GREMLIN > >* The best technology war does not go to Boeing, but to the push >button espresso/latte machine in the Press Lounge. A bit large >for your kitchen, but it might fit on Air Force One. > >* Gremlin is no weather forecaster, but notes that Seattle and >your home city have this in common: Mount Rainier can't be seen >from either place. > >* Gremlin is no tour guide, either, but before you leave check >out the famous Underground Seattle tour of Pioneer Square. >Approximately 40 square blocks of Seattle that lie beneath your >feet, a portion of which you can explore as a part of a guided >tour. While your are down in the deep depths of this fir city, >see if you can find some of these missing APEC terms: STAINABLE >DEVELOPMENT - POLLUTER PAYS - GLOBAL WARMING - GREENING OF THE >GATT - RIO EARTH SUMMIT. > >* Gremlin salutes this week's "Great American Smokeout" designed >to help U.S. citizens quit smoking. How ironic that in 1992 >Washington State's eighth biggest export was CIGARETTES, >accounting for $451.6 million dollars. There is something wrong >with a trade system that values products that kill the same way >as medicine that heals. >----- > > >JAPANESE REACTION TO NAFTA AND APEC > >"The Debate about the NAFTA included the environmental impact of >the agreement as a high priority. But APEC is virtually ignoring >the environment in its discussions. Let's see a bit more >commitment to the long-term well-being of the Asia Pacific >region, not just to trade growth. > >"We are disappointed that this meeting of APEC has committed no >time to cover environmental concerns. It is only a year after >the UNCED meeting in Rio de Janeiro, where governments expressed >their commitment to solving environmental problems. The next >meeting of APEC in Indonesia would ensure that environment is >high on the agenda." > >Aya Saitoh, Friends of the Earth Japan > >----------------------------------------------------------------- >ECO is a publication of the Non-Governmental Organizations >present at the APEC Meeting to present alternative trade models >that incorporate sustainable development, poverty alleviation >measures and the protection of the environment. > >Staff: > >Karen Fant >Alex Hittle >Emily Kaplan >Hug Llamas >Nick Morgan >David E. Ortman >Ita Rachmita >John Reese > >The editorial office can be reached at 206-XXX-XXXX, FAX XXX-XXXX >e-mail: foewase@igc.apc.org > >ECO wishes to thank the organizers of the Seattle Citizens' Host >Committee, who seized the opportunity to work together as members >of an umbrella coalition of environmental groups, human rights >advocates and labor organizations under the theme - THE HIDDEN >COSTS OF FREE TRADE. > > > #########@@@@@@@@@@@{{{{{{{{{{+++++++++++++++++******************* Street parties coming up: October 10 15:00 hours: Chasseveld Breda (Netherlands) 'streetrave against militarist bullshit propaganda' Sydney, Saturday 31 October For instant relief, take T?R?A?N?S?N?A?T?I?O?N?A?L R$E$S$I$S$T$A$N$C$E & Go here today: http://www.gn.apc.org/rts/ 88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 Mark Brown (markb@gn.apc.org) From ppc at philonline.com Sun Oct 11 22:36:12 1998 From: ppc at philonline.com (ppc) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 21:36:12 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 788] Re: ECO APEC'93 WATCH Issue #4, Seattle, WA Message-ID: <199810111336.VAA18990@fiesta.philonline.com.ph> Ditto from the Philippines. At 13:25 10/11/98 +0100, you wrote: >Hello, > >Could I ask why we have been sent this 5 year old information. Much as I >would like to continue hearing about Asian resistance to globalisation, if >this overload continues I will have to unsubscribe. > >Yours, > >Mark > >At 12:13 09/10/98 -0700, asia-apec@jca.ax.apc.org wrote: >>Seattle, WA November 20, 1993 >> >> APEC WATCH ECO >> >>FINAL EDITION No. 4 >> >>--------------------------------------------------------- >> >>ECO has been published by non-governmental groups at major >>international conferences since the Stockholm Environmental >>Conference in 1972. This issue is produced cooperatively by >>groups attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) >>Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA, in November, 1993. >>------- >> >>NEWSFLASH: APEC SECRETARIAT TO MEET NON-GOVERNMENTAL REPS >> >>Non-governmental organizations concerned with labor, environment, >>and human rights will meet today with the APEC Secretariat. We >>hope that this meeting will be a model for future annual >>ministerial meetings. >> >>CONTENTS: >> >>WASTE TRADE page 1 >>APEC EDITORIAL page 2 >>INDONESIA page 3 >>Taiga page 4 >>Gremlin page 5 >>Japan Reacts page 5 >>Invitation page 6 >> >>Greenpeace Reports. . . >>WASTE TRADE TARGET: ASIA >> >>Asia is currently being targeted by the world's waste traders as >>an open market for unwanted wastes from industrialized countries. >>Without strict national laws, decrees, and policies or a regional >>agreement prohibiting all imports of hazardous wastes, Asia is in >>danger of becoming a dumping ground for vast quantities and >>several dangerous types of wastes. >> >>For example, between January and June 1993, the United States >>exported more than 19,000 tons of wastes and toxic products to >>Asia, including plastic wastes, scrap metal waste, and spent >>lead-acid automotive batteries. These shipments included at >>least 2,000 tons of banned or unregistered pesticides to Asia. >> >>Toxic trades have offered Asian countries countless poisons; >>among the commonly offered toxic wastes and products: asbestos, >>incinerator ash, tire wastes, industrial chemical wastes, >>municipal wastes, slag from metallurgical processes, leaded >>gasoline, banned an never-registered pesticides, useless >>pharmaceutical, plastic wastes, polychorinated biphenyls, lead >>acid battery wastes, sewage sludges and used paints to name but a >>few. All of these materials contain or can produce upon >>incineration, extremely toxic and harmful substances such as >>heavy metals, dioxin and furans. >> >>Almost every country in Asia has been targeted as a waste >>dumpsite for wastes from industrialized countries. In the first >>six months of 1993 along, Greenpeace has documented more than 440 >>waste export schemes from the United States to Asian countries. >>However, this number is clearly just the tip of the iceberg of >>the number of schemes from all industrialized countries to the >>region. >> >>Additionally, the number of waste shipments to Asia as a whole, >>as well as to certain countries, is increasing. For example, for >>the first six months of 1992 and 1993, the actual number of waste >>shipments from the United States to Asian countries increased >>from 422 to 440 shipments. >> >>As Asian countries are alerted to the environmental, political, >>and social menace posed by waste imports, Asian countries are >>developing national legislation to halt the waste trade pirates. >>For example, in 1992, the Indonesian Government banned waste >>plastic imports. Greenpeace discovered that in 1992, 90% of all >>hazardous waste export schemes from industrialized to developing >>countries came under the guise of "recycling," recovery," >>"further use," or even as "humanitarian aid" Thoughout Asia, >>waste traders invariably present their proposals as "development >>plans" that will bering jobs, roads, energy, hospitals, housing >>and money. The proposals never mention the "development plan's" >>environmental and health implications. >>------ >> >> >>EDITORIAL: >> >>After the last trade minister has made the last trade, and the >>last Head of State has motorcaded out to the airport, one thing >>is clear. APEC will never by the same. Ambassador Bodde refers >>to APEC as a baby. Two new babies, Mexico and Papua New Guinea >>have been added to the nursery. But APEC needs to be potty- >>trained. A good does of citizen activism, environmental >>journalism (the APEC WATCH ECO newsletter) and one-on-one >>lobbying ha proven that democracy is a good thing and future APEC >>meetings should accommodate it. >>Saturday, while Heads of State congregate on Blake Island State >>Park in the middle of Puget Sound, an estuary with sick fish and >>closed shellfish beds, we urge President Clinton to take a >>chapter from Section 101(c) of the Federal Clean Water Act. >>Passed in 1972, Congress mandated the President, working through >>the Secretary of State to use all possible means to achieve zero >>discharge of pollutants into waters of the countries, not just >>our own. A declaration that Pacific Rim trade will not be >>conducted at the expense of the Pacific Ocean and its bays and >>estuaries would be a powerful signal that the era of "Trade Uber >>Alles" has come to an end. >>Log, cigarette and waste exports are obvious examples of how >>'trade balances' and 'economies' are built on the hidden impacts >>to the Pacific Rim's citizens and environment. >>Finally, above all else, APEC must not pursue a closure of the >>General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade round by next month in the >>absence of an integration of environmental, human rights and >>labor issues into the GATT. We can not afford to let APEC stand >>for "A PERMANENT ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS." >>------ >> >>WASTE: A DEADLY BUSINESS >>(The following article was written by WALHI, Friends of the Earth >>Indonesia) >> >>A government decree issued in Indonesia in 1992 banned plastic >>waste imports. Since then more than 5,000 tonnes of waste have >>been illegally imported. >> >>Indonesia has not resolved its own domestic waste problem yet >>waste imports from America, Europe, Japan and Australia are >>arriving at Indonesian ports under the guise of western >>countries' recycling programmes. However, only 60% of the >>imported waste can be recycled: the remaining 40% is >>unrecyclable and at least 10% is contaminated by toxic or >>hazardous waste. >>WALHI/FoE Indonesia, the Jakarta Social Institute and scavenger >>groups are concerned by the impact of waste imports not only bon >>the environment and public health, but also on the incomes of >>2000,000 local scavengers, which have decreased by 50 to 75 >>percent since Indonesia began to import waste in 1988. The irony >>is that scavengers provide Indonesian cities with free recycling >>services which keep the environment clean and save the cities >>millions of dollars annually in waste disposal costs. >> >>The recycling potential of the waste industry makes it an >>extremely lucrative business. Waste imports are paid substantial >>sums to receive materials for recycling in Indonesia which are >>considered waste by the exporting countries. US $40 and $60 per >>tonne for toxic and hazardous imports are not uncommon sums, >>whereas countries in Europe demand $160 to $100 pr tonne to >>receive such waste. From these figures it is easy to see where >>the waste ends up. >> >>Controversy surrounding the waste imports intensified after the >>Government scheduled an auction to disperse the 5,000 tonnes of >>waste imported illegally since the ban went into effect. >>However, just one week before the event, President Suharto >>ordered that the imported waste be destroyed. Government >>officials were not interested in pursing alternatives to the >>President's directives, and balked at WALHI's suggestion that >>the wastes be returned to their countries of origin. >> >>WALHI has not so far met with success with appeals to embassies >>requesting that governments take full responsibility for the >>waste imports originating int heir respective countries and cover >>the costs of shipping the waste back. >> >>Indonesian NGOs and scavenger communities continue their efforts >>to re-export waste to its country of origin, and are >>simultaneously working to put an end to the water trade to >>Indonesia. WALHI is launching a letter-writing campaign to >>Indonesian President Suharto urging the government to enforce the >>existing ban on plastic imports and to return the illegal >>imports. This should send a clear message that developing >>countries in the Southern hemisphere and eastern Europe are not >>dumping grounds. >>----- >> >>APEC INVESTMENTS THREATEN RUSSIAN TAIGA >> >>Numerous developing countries in the Pacific Rim, who are members >>of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), face the burden >>of servicing enormous foreign debts. In a struggle to gain hard >>currency to meet debt payments these countries have been forced >>to export natural resources such as timber and valuable minerals >>in an unsustainable manner. >> >>Although Russia is not a member of APEC it serves as an excellent >>example of unsustainable resource management in the Pacific Rim. >>Russia's current economic malaise and need to service its debt >>threats to accelerate destruction of the Taiga, Russia's boreal >>forest in Siberia. >> >>The Taiga >> >>The Taiga is situated in the sub-Arctic region of Siberian >>Russia. Its size is unparalleled measuring 1.6 billion acres and >>is about three times the size of Brazil's rainforest. There are >>about 30 million inhabitants, including 24 indigenous groups >>numbering one million people. The Taiga has 54% of the world's >>coniferous forests, 37% of the world's temperate forests and >>makes up 21% of the world's total forest area. The Taiga is also >>home to many rich mineral resources such as deep reserves of oil, >>natural gas, coal, diamonds and gold. >> >>Besides being endowed with valuable economic resources, the Taiga >>also serves an important global environmental function. Combined >>with the Tundra, the Taiga contains well over one-half of the >>total amount of carbon held in forests and soils globally, far >>grater than the amount stored in the Amazon. The Taiga is home >>to numerous rare animal species such as the Siberian tiger, the >>great grey owl and reindeer. >> >>Unfortunately the Taiga is undergoing unprecedented development. >>The Taiga is currently being cut at the rate of 5 million acres >>per year. This deforestation is a substantial contributor to >>global warming and a threat to its biodiversity. >> >>The rare animal species will continue to be displaced and are in >>danger of extinction if this destructive development pattern >>continues unabated. >> >>APEC Countries and the Taiga >> >>Deforestation of Southeast Asia and the depletion of forests in >>the United States have forced foreign countries to search >>elsewhere for a constant supply of timber. The Taiga with its >>expansive quantity of wood has been an attractive location for >>foreign timber companies, mainly from APEC member countries, to >>supply their timber and paper industries. In fact, after the >>fall of the Soviet Union, timber and paper companies from the >>United States, Japan and South Korea began offering Russia modern >>equipment, expertise and hard foreign currency in the Taiga >>region: >> >>* The Russian Supreme Court recently blocked operations by the >>Hyundai Corporation from South Korea. Hyundai had a contract to >>cut 6000,000 of Siberian timber over the next 30 years beginning >>in 1991. However, Russia's Regional Committee on Ecology and >>Natural Resources (RCENR) reported that South Korean loggers had >>been poaching wildlife, reneging on their obligation to reforest >>and overcutting in some areas of the region. Hyundai had also >>received numerous negative environmental impact assessments on >>their activities from the local Goskompiroda, the State Committee >>on Nature Protection. >> >>* Weyerhaeuser, from the United States, is discussing the >>possibility of a logging, processing and replanting operation in >>the region. In exchange for a nursery and restoration project, >>Weyerhaeuser wants a 20 year lease to cut on more than 40,000 >>acres in the region. >> >>* U.S. timber companies Louisiana Pacific and Georgia Pacific >>have also approached the Russians for timber contacts in the near >>future. >> >>Russian cannot afford to continue to rely on the fragile Taiga as >>a source of hard currency to relieve its debt burden of 80 >>billion U.S. dollars. The increased deforestation presents a >>special problem for the Taiga region. The clearcutting methods >>employed by timber companies make it more difficult for the Taiga >>region to reforest due to its severe conditions. Roughly half of >>all forests similar to the Taiga become swamps after enormous >>timber harvests. The resulting damage from such unchecked >>development is unfathomable and counters Russia's ability to >>achieve sustainable development. >>-------- >> >>YOU ARE INVITED: >> >>In the absence of a Pacific Rim town meeting hosted by President >>Clinton, the Seattle Citizens Host Committee invites people to >>the following rallies: >> >>FRIDAY NOVEMBER 19th - NOON - >>"CLEARCUT COSTS OF PACIFIC TRADE" >> >>Pike Place Market/Victor Steinbreuck Park with: >> >>MITCH FRIEDMAN - Director, Greater Ecosystem Alliance >>MICHAEL DONNELLY - Friends of Breiten Bush Cascades, Oregon >>PAUL CIENFUEGOS - Friends of Clayoquot Sound, B.C. >>PETE KNUTSEN- Puget Sound Gillnetters Association/ AND MORE. . . >>Contact: Josh Marks, Western Ancient Forest Campaign 632-6041 >> >>SATURDAY - 20th NOVEMBER - 7:00 am. PIER 62 off of Alaskan Way >>"FAIR TRADE FLOTILLA" >> >>APEC BLACK ISLAND SUNRISE SENDOFF RALLY >> >>Come and watch Greenpeace and the Puget Sound Gillnetters >>Association FLOTILLA. Depart 7:30 pm. FLOTILLA RETURNS at 10:30 >>am and will join the BIG RALLY AT WESTLAKE CENTER AT NOON. >>Contact: Cynthia Rust or Nick Morgan, Greenpeace 632-4326 >> >>SATURDAY - 20th NOVEMBER - 11:30 am March from IBEW Local 46 Hall >>- 2700 First Ave, Seattle, to a NOON Rally- WESTLAKE PLAZA - Down >>Town Seattle >>THE HIDDEN COSTS OF FREE TRADE- PEOPLE'S APEC RALLY HUMAN >>RIGHTS - ENVIRONMENT - LABOR FAIRNESS >> >>Speakers: Dolores Huerta, Co-founder and first vice president, >>United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO - Rev. Dr. Robert L. >>Jeffrey, Sr., Executive Director, Black Dollar Days Task Force - >>Run Judd, Executive Secretary, King County Labor Council, AFL- >>CIO, Mark Dubois, Ex. Director, WorldWise >>Contact: Washington State Jobs with Justice, 206-448-7348 >>----- >> >>GREMLIN >> >>* The best technology war does not go to Boeing, but to the push >>button espresso/latte machine in the Press Lounge. A bit large >>for your kitchen, but it might fit on Air Force One. >> >>* Gremlin is no weather forecaster, but notes that Seattle and >>your home city have this in common: Mount Rainier can't be seen >>from either place. >> >>* Gremlin is no tour guide, either, but before you leave check >>out the famous Underground Seattle tour of Pioneer Square. >>Approximately 40 square blocks of Seattle that lie beneath your >>feet, a portion of which you can explore as a part of a guided >>tour. While your are down in the deep depths of this fir city, >>see if you can find some of these missing APEC terms: STAINABLE >>DEVELOPMENT - POLLUTER PAYS - GLOBAL WARMING - GREENING OF THE >>GATT - RIO EARTH SUMMIT. >> >>* Gremlin salutes this week's "Great American Smokeout" designed >>to help U.S. citizens quit smoking. How ironic that in 1992 >>Washington State's eighth biggest export was CIGARETTES, >>accounting for $451.6 million dollars. There is something wrong >>with a trade system that values products that kill the same way >>as medicine that heals. >>----- >> >> >>JAPANESE REACTION TO NAFTA AND APEC >> >>"The Debate about the NAFTA included the environmental impact of >>the agreement as a high priority. But APEC is virtually ignoring >>the environment in its discussions. Let's see a bit more >>commitment to the long-term well-being of the Asia Pacific >>region, not just to trade growth. >> >>"We are disappointed that this meeting of APEC has committed no >>time to cover environmental concerns. It is only a year after >>the UNCED meeting in Rio de Janeiro, where governments expressed >>their commitment to solving environmental problems. The next >>meeting of APEC in Indonesia would ensure that environment is >>high on the agenda." >> >>Aya Saitoh, Friends of the Earth Japan >> >>----------------------------------------------------------------- >>ECO is a publication of the Non-Governmental Organizations >>present at the APEC Meeting to present alternative trade models >>that incorporate sustainable development, poverty alleviation >>measures and the protection of the environment. >> >>Staff: >> >>Karen Fant >>Alex Hittle >>Emily Kaplan >>Hug Llamas >>Nick Morgan >>David E. Ortman >>Ita Rachmita >>John Reese >> >>The editorial office can be reached at 206-XXX-XXXX, FAX XXX-XXXX >>e-mail: foewase@igc.apc.org >> >>ECO wishes to thank the organizers of the Seattle Citizens' Host >>Committee, who seized the opportunity to work together as members >>of an umbrella coalition of environmental groups, human rights >>advocates and labor organizations under the theme - THE HIDDEN >>COSTS OF FREE TRADE. >> >> >> >#########@@@@@@@@@@@{{{{{{{{{{+++++++++++++++++******************* >Street parties coming up: > >October 10 15:00 hours: Chasseveld Breda (Netherlands) >'streetrave against militarist bullshit propaganda' >Sydney, Saturday 31 October > >For instant relief, take T?R?A?N?S?N?A?T?I?O?N?A?L R$E$S$I$S$T$A$N$C$E >& >Go here today: http://www.gn.apc.org/rts/ >88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 > >Mark Brown (markb@gn.apc.org) > > From rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org Sun Oct 11 21:35:07 1998 From: rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org (Roberto Verzola) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 21:35:07 Subject: [asia-apec 789] Re: ECO APEC'93 WATCH Issue #4, Seattle, WA Message-ID: <199810111325.VAA00546@phil.gn.apc.org> >Could I ask why we have been sent this 5 year old information. Much as I >would like to continue hearing about Asian resistance to globalisation, In fact, there have been worse postings. This list is unfortunately becoming a dumping ground of all kinds of messages which, while interesting themselves, are not very relevant to the list topic. I am not sure if there is still an official moderator of this list, but in the meantime, I'd like to carry on the work as temporary moderator, our organization (Interdoc/Asialink) having initiated the opening of this list several years back. I'd be glad to give way as soon as the official moderators are ready to take over the moderating function. MAY I REMIND ALL to confine your postings to materials which are directly relevant to APEC, especially the coming APEC meeting and the various issues which are confronting APEC today. May I also ask APPA and the various track issue/sector forum coordinators to post on this list additional materials about their specific forums: detailed schedules, working papers, background papers, etc. We'd like to start the discussions and exchanges early on this list. There was also an incipient debate on tactics to pursue. One posting suggested that NGOs submit a request to the official APEC body to be allowed to participate in official deliberations; one reaction seemed to be saying that such a move will only be used by APEC to claim "civil society participation". It might be useful to pursue this debate on this list... Postings are welcome to explain either side. Meanwhile, may I post some questions for the APPA Secretariat? - Have you sent a formal request to official APEC bodies for representation in the official deliberations? - Is there an agreement within APPA to do or not to do this move? - If there exist some documentation about the decision on this issue (one way or the other), is it possible to make them available on this list? Regards to all, Obet Verzola Interdoc/Asialink From LZarsky at nautilus.org Tue Oct 13 04:32:05 1998 From: LZarsky at nautilus.org (Lyuba Zarsky, Co-Director) Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 12:32:05 -0700 Subject: [asia-apec 790] Re: ECO APEC'93 WATCH Issue #4, Seattle, WA In-Reply-To: <199810111325.VAA00546@phil.gn.apc.org> Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19981012123205.0083f490@nautilus.org> Thanks very much for taking this on. At 09:35 PM 10/11/98, you wrote: >>Could I ask why we have been sent this 5 year old information. Much as I >>would like to continue hearing about Asian resistance to globalisation, > >In fact, there have been worse postings. This list is unfortunately >becoming a dumping ground of all kinds of messages which, while >interesting themselves, are not very relevant to the list topic. > >I am not sure if there is still an official moderator of this list, >but in the meantime, I'd like to carry on the work as temporary >moderator, our organization (Interdoc/Asialink) having initiated the >opening of this list several years back. I'd be glad to give way as >soon as the official moderators are ready to take over the moderating >function. > >MAY I REMIND ALL to confine your postings to materials which are >directly relevant to APEC, especially the coming APEC meeting and the >various issues which are confronting APEC today. > >May I also ask APPA and the various track issue/sector forum >coordinators to post on this list additional materials about their >specific forums: detailed schedules, working papers, background >papers, etc. We'd like to start the discussions and exchanges early on >this list. > >There was also an incipient debate on tactics to pursue. One posting >suggested that NGOs submit a request to the official APEC body to be >allowed to participate in official deliberations; one reaction seemed >to be saying that such a move will only be used by APEC to claim >"civil society participation". It might be useful to pursue this >debate on this list... Postings are welcome to explain either side. > >Meanwhile, may I post some questions for the APPA Secretariat? >- Have you sent a formal request to official APEC bodies for > representation in the official deliberations? >- Is there an agreement within APPA to do or not to do this move? >- If there exist some documentation about the decision on this issue > (one way or the other), is it possible to make them available on > this list? > >Regards to all, > >Obet Verzola >Interdoc/Asialink > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lyuba Zarsky Director Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development ph:+1 510.204.9296 fax:+1 510.204.9298 e-mail: lzarsky@nautilus.org http://www.nautilus.org From oppenh at theory.physics.ubc.ca Tue Oct 13 07:50:45 1998 From: oppenh at theory.physics.ubc.ca (Jonathan Oppenheim) Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 15:50:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 791] Yet another APEC Message-ID: <199810122250.PAA24814@theory.physics.ubc.ca> [If a right-wing newspaper like the Globe and Mail is questioning APEC...] Yet another APEC sparking questions www.theglobeandmail.com Link to us. THE FOREIGN DESK Yet another APEC sparking questions Monday, October 12, 1998 PAUL KNOX If you thought Vancouver's Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting was wild, wait for Kuala Lumpur. Yes, as things stand, the whole exercise, complete with alternative summit and quite possibly raucous protests, is to be repeated in Malaysia in a little more than a month. The question is why. All along, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has been a reluctant participant in APEC's plan to form a Pacific Rim free-trade and investment regime by 2020. Now he has slapped rigid controls on his own economy. And he has become a human-rights laughingstock after claiming his finance minister gave himself a black eye after being thrown in jail. If there were a chance that APEC could help ease the current global financial turbulence, the embarrassment of shoring up Dr. Mahathir might be worth it. Unfortunately, the record points in the opposite direction. It suggests APEC is capable of causing more problems than it solves. APEC began 10 years ago as a relatively low-level forum for business networking and economic idea-sharing. Since 1993, the leaders' summit has been the most visible component. Even its most ardent boosters acknowledge that what it delivers, exactly, is a bit of a mystery. A calculation of the benefits of APEC's activities will always be difficult,; Len Edwards, assistant deputy minister of foreign affairs who headed up Canada's summit planning, told a Toronto audience last year. "This poses a real challenge to communications experts." The basic problem is that too much of APEC now hangs on the leaders. In other trade forums, representatives of sovereign states sign hard-bargained deals that commit entire governments and their successors, creating a transparent international framework. In APEC, the leaders don't even represent sovereign states. They represent "economies," which means, formally speaking, that they're accountable to no one. Rather, APEC is a classic mutual-admiration society, where the top priority is not giving offence. Can you blame Indonesia's Suharto, now ousted as leader, for thinking he could bluff his way through an economic meltdown, after Prime Minister Jean Chretien and U.S. President Bill Clinton and Chinese leader Jiang Zemin told the world they and he were reading from the same script? On paper, the goal of APEC is more open economies -- free, ideally, of the cronyism and corruption that underlay banking systems across East Asia throughout the boom years. One country that at least has charted a path toward that end is South Korea, with stiffer bank regulation and a crackdown on pricing scams that kept unproductive units of huge holding companies afloat artificially. But what led South Korea in that direction? Not an elaborate photo-opportunity for "leaders of economies," or anything anyone said in Vancouver to its former president, Kim Young-sam. Rather, it was an old-fashioned exercise in democratic decision-making -- a December election won by longtime anticorruption campaigner Kim Dae-jung. South Koreans were able to choose him, and trigger his reforms, because they have political choice -- something for which they fought hard during decades of military rule. However, APEC leaders are normally silent on the subject of political and civil rights. It is left to the activists at the alternative summit to make the link between social development, human-rights issues and economic progress. So peculiar is APEC that it can lead astray a paragon of transparency such as Canada. Never mind the pepper spray in Vancouver. All last year, environment and social advocates accustomed to having their views actively solicited found themselves shut out of pre-APEC consultations. Meanwhile, business leaders had free access. As of yesterday, Mr. Clinton was still planning to attend the Kuala Lumpur summit, which is scheduled to run from Nov. 14 to Nov. 18. So was Mr. Chrétien. But presidents Joseph Estrada of the Philippines and B. J. Habibie of Indonesia say they may stay away. Ottawa and Washington are watching closely. A move to change the summit's venue, or to postpone it, is still not out of the question. Beyond that, if this junk won't float, isn't it time to bail out? E-mail: pknox@globeandmail.ca We welcome your comments. Copyright © 1998, The Globe and Mail Company All rights reserved. ----- End Included Message ----- From y2265 at pc.jaring.my Tue Oct 13 01:25:36 1998 From: y2265 at pc.jaring.my (Yap Swee Seng) Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 00:25:36 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 792] Statement on Police Brutality by Tian Chua Message-ID: <36222D80.2497@tm.net.my> STATEMENT ON POLICE BRUTALITY (Translation from the original in Malay) 1 October 1998 Chua Tian Chang I arrived at Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) at about 5.00 p.m. on Monday, 28 September 1998. Traffic in the area was heavy as several Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) trucks were parked along the road. There were also several groups of members of the public - some seated, others standing - beside the fountain, the courthouse, and along the river. Because of the large presence of the police and the FRU personnel, the situation at the Dataran Merdeka was tense. When a helicopter began to circle overhead, the public responded with cheers of "Boo!" Suddenly, there were shouts of "Reformasi!" from groups of people beside the courthouse. Because I was at the Dataran, I did not see who started the chanting. The cheers were well received by all who were at the Dataran. Many clapped their hands and joined in the chanting. After a few minutes, the FRU took their positions and advanced towards the groups of people. One unit of FRU advanced from Jalan Tun Perak, and another from the direction of the flagstaff. The members of the public who gathered in the centre (that is, between the Federal and the Magistrate Courts) began to disperse in several directions before the FRU arrived. At the time, I was standing on the iron bridge beside the courthouse. I saw OCPD Zainal Abidin appear with a microphone. Because of the distance from him, I could not hear what he said. Suddenly the FRU charged at the people beside the river. The people then ran towards the direction of the Central Market. >From the bridge I saw many people being chased and beaten. I followed several journalists towards the direction of the FRU. Several metres from the bridge I saw a group of people being beaten by the FRU. I went closer to the side of the road so as to get a clearer view of the incident. Suddenly, a Special Branch (SB) personnel (in plainclothes, with a leather jacket) grabbed my hand and said, "Kau ikut saya!" (You, follow me!). I tried to ask for his name and the reason for arresting me, but he grabbed my hand even harder. In my agony, I asked him to release me but he responded by twistingmy hand behind my back and pushed me into a (red) FRU truck that came towards our direction. I was pushed into the truck. Several others who were arrested were also pushed inside. I estimate that I was arrested at about 6.30 p.m. Immediately, I called the SUARAM office and informed my friends that I had been arrested. Several minutes later, a FRU personnel by the name of Kumar came up the truck and began to beat the person he had arrested. After that, another FRU personnel came into the truck and also began beating and shouting to the person he had arrested. At that moment, I again called my colleague at the office and recorded the words of the FRU personnel. FRU Kumar realised I was recording their violence and came in front of me and asked me to shut off the handphone. I immediately mentioned their names: "FRU Kumar, FRU Zainuddin, ,T(B" to my colleague on the other end of the phone.. Kumar became angry and started beating me with his baton. I was hit on the shoulder, hand and leg. The beating caused serious pain in my shoulders and on my leg. After that, my handphone was confiscated by the FRU. In the truck, there were about 20 detainees. In the FRU truck, FRU Zainuddin collected our identity cards. The truck was driven back to the riverside where tens of other detainees had been gathered. Perhaps realizing his error, FRU Zainuddin returned my handphone. Once again I called SUARAM. This time, several SB and police personnel began to threaten me. A Chinese SB personnel tried to interrogate me but I refused to answer. On finding out that I am an NGO member, he and some others began to jeer and insult me continuously. After about half an hour - I estimate around 7.30 or 8.00 p.m. I, together with about 25 other detainees, was placed in a blue police truck and brought to the Selangor Police Contingent Headquarters (IPK) in Bukit Bintang. At the IPK, we were asked to sit in front of a row of desks. We were in fact gathered and processed in the IPK car park. A group of police officers were detailed to complete the investigation reports and Form 113. At the time, a journalist telephoned me. But before I could answer the handphone, several SB personnel came towards me and tried to confiscate the handphone. My hair was pulled and I was kicked in the back. But when I stood up and tried to ask who was the one who did the violent act, no officer answered. While we were waiting our turn to give our Section 113 statements, the police officers stopped threatening and scolding us. They then tried to frighten the detainees into providing information. I tried to explain to the detainees that Form 113 needed only to be answered voluntarily and that it was not compulsory for them to answer any question that could incriminate oneself. This angered some of the police officers. They then lashed harsh and insulting words at me. While I was making my 113 statement, a Malay officer who was not wearing his name tag, directed racist remarks at me. He told an Indonesian detainee that he (the detainee) should not listen to me because he should not take advice from the Chinese. He only stopped his racist harangue when I rebutted: "You don't use racist remarks. She (I pointed to the Chinese officer who was taking my 113 statement) is also Chinese." I also received a lot of threats from other officers. I do not remember their names because it was dark in the car park. I also noticed that many of the officers did not wear their nametags or badges. Those I can recall are Jagwant Singh, Rajen, Chia, and several other officers whom I can recognise but am not sure of their names. That night, OCPD Zainal did not act in a professional manner. Not only did he continue to threaten me, but he also tried to frighten me with words like: "You are now under my custody. I can do anything to you!" The behaviour and words of the OCPD encouraged the other officers to continue to direct harsh words at me. They used words like: "Orang bodoh" (stupid person), "Lawyer buruk" (dirty/unscrupulous lawyer), "stupid" and others. I regarded all their behaviour to be directed at exhibiting their power and to frighten the other detainees. Among us, were two detainees who were seriously injured. One was still bleeding in the head while we were waiting to make our 113 statement. I tried to ask the police to get him some medical attention, but they did not bother. (He was only sent to the clinic or hospital after we arrived at the Jalan Campbell Police Station lock-up, where the officers on duty there refused to receive the detainee in order to disavow any responsibility should anything untoward happen to the detainee in the lock-up.) I estimate that at about 10.00 p.m., we were sent to the lock-up at the Jalan Campbell Police Station.We (about 50 persons) were asked to sit in the central open space in the lock-up complex (not in the cell), not knowing what was to happen to us. When we entered the lock-up area, the detainees in the cells began to clap and chant "Reformasi!" A SB officer (an Indian who was not wearing his nametag) who escorted us got very angry at this and directed the officer in charge of the lock-up to open a cell. He then pulled out a detainee by his hair and immediately started to kick and beat him. Even though I was frightened, I could not put up with the sight of the SB's brutality. I shouted: "Oi! Polis tidak boleh guna kekerasan!" (Oi! The Police cannot use force.) The Indian SB got very angry, and ran towards me (followed by a Malay SB), pulled my hair and forced me to stand. While getting up, I said, "Stop it!" He immediately boxed my stomach. Because of this force, I fell to the floor. The SB kicked me again. I was kicked in the head and legs. The Malay SB followed suit and kicked my stomach. In my severe pain, I grabbed his boot in an attempt to stop his violence. He kicked me again. After several minutes, I stood up and faced the Indian SB. I said, "You try doing this again!" He boxed me again. I then challenged him: "You wait until I go out!" After this, both SBs went away and left the lock-up. We waited in the lock-up area until the lock-up officer began to release some of us in turn from around 3.00 a.m. About 30 detainees were released on police bail that morning (30 September). About 20 other were still detained. I was released on bail at 3.45 a.m. I felt pain in my left shoulder and left leg as a result of the beating by FRU Kumar. My right hand (at the shoulder joint) also hurt as a result of being forcefully twisted by the SB who arrested me. I cannot identify him as he was at my side and at the back of me when I was being arrested. What I am sure is that he is a Malay. My chest and stomach still hurts a lot as a result of the beating by the SB in the lock-up. I was examined by a doctor at Hospital Universiti on 30 September at 2.30 p.m. The medical report will be ready in two weeks. Even now, that is after 36 hours, I still feel pain in several parts of my body. In making this report officially, I hope that immediate action will be taken by those responsible so that there will be an end to the use of violent force and the abuse of power in the police force. By: Chua Tian Chang (ID: 7175745) From rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org Tue Oct 13 21:00:12 1998 From: rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org (Roberto Verzola) Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 21:00:12 Subject: [asia-apec 793] Pls use asia-hr-alert Message-ID: <199810131252.UAA04269@phil.gn.apc.org> To all who want to circulate reports about police brutality and other human rights violations: I understand that you want to news about police brutality to go around as widely as possible. Please understand, however, that the asia-apec list is meant for topics directly related to APEC. May I suggest that you subscribe to and use the list asia-hr-alert for disseminating detailed reports of human rights violations, like your story of policy brutality. This list was set up precisely for the kind of reports you posted at asia-apec. We know that your story is very important and this reminder is not meant to belittle your story or the issue behind it. We are only trying to make sure that the different lists are used according to their original purpose. You are welcome to put a brief notice on the asia-apec list, if you want to call attention to detailed accounts of human rights violations that you post at the asia-HR-alert list. Thank you very much, and we wish you success in your struggles! Obet Verzola From manipon at hknet.com Wed Oct 14 02:36:19 1998 From: manipon at hknet.com (Tony Manipon) Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 01:36:19 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 794] Re: Pls use asia-hr-alert In-Reply-To: <199810131252.UAA04269@phil.gn.apc.org> Message-ID: <199810131729.BAA05566@tigereye.hknet.com> At 09:00 PM 10/13/98 +0000, you wrote: >and use the list asia-hr-alert for disseminating detailed reports of >human rights violations, like your story of policy brutality. This Obet, it would probably be best also to inform people in this list about other Interdoc/Asialink lists pertinent to Asia and issues... descriptions of such, methods of subscription/unsubscription, listowners, moderators, etc. If people know of other lists, please share them too so others would know where to send their messages to. And so as not to clog further the asia-apec ML, I'm volunteering to compile such list of MLs, to update it regularly and post it periodically to pertinent MLs. Just send ML details to the e-mail address below. Cheers, ---- Tony Manipon ---- manipon@hknet.com From 103611.663 at compuserve.com Wed Oct 14 04:08:25 1998 From: 103611.663 at compuserve.com (Catherine Coumans) Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 15:08:25 -0400 Subject: [asia-apec 795] Pls use asia-hr-alert Message-ID: <199810131509_MC2-5C91-EEEA@compuserve.com> Dear Obet, I am a subscriber to this list and I am much dismayed that you would seek to curtail news about police brutality and human rights abuses taking place in **APEC** countries. These events bear directly on our analysis of the political regimes that are seeking to implement APEC, they often have deep roots in economic oppression and exploitation (present and planned) that needs to be analyzed in the context of the sorts of agreements the APEC leaders are trying to hammer out for us! Human rights abuses and economic liberalization/globilization are frequently linked and must be understood to be linked if we are to be effective. To set human rights abuses off in a separate category and deny a linkage is to do exactly what the proponents of APEC would like. The police brutality in Canada last APEC, for the sake of the dictator Suharto's "comfort," for the sake of a successful and complete APEC meeting, and especially for the sake of trade with Indonesia, is a perfect example of what I am talking about. I certainly hope you won't stop reporting on this or I will indeed feel this list has lost its relevance. Catherine Coumans From pet at web.net Wed Oct 14 09:05:41 1998 From: pet at web.net (Sharon R.A. Scharfe) Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 20:05:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [asia-apec 796] G&M: Security Scares May Have Altered PM's Policy Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981013200931.27475814@pop.web.net> Globe and Mail Monday, October 12, 1998 Page A3 "Security Scares May Have Altered PM's Policy" Incidents in Indonesia and Mexico as well as an Ottawa break-in could have stiffened Chretien's approach" Jeff Sallot The Globe and Mail, Ottawa Canadian officials, including Mounties in Prime Minister Jean Chretien's personal bodyguard unit, got a disturbing close-up look at th Indonesian security apparatus during a Team Canada trade visit in January of 1996. An Indonesian security officer jabbed a submachine gun into the ribs of a senior official from the Prime Minister's Office as the official tried to lead TV camera crews to their locations for the airport arrival ceremonies. A CTV cameraman was knocked down. The next day Canadian diplomats and members of the RCMP security detail had to hide a Canadian human-rights activist from Indonesian police after she tried to approach journalists with information about rights abuses in Indonesia. They managed to sneak her out of the delegation hotel and get her on the next plane out of the country. Those incidents, and others, may help explain why Mr. Chretien and his closest aides took an extraordinary interest in minute security details at the Pacific Rim summit in Vancouver last year. Mr. Chretien had always fancied himself a man of the people, most comfortable rubbing shoulders in crowds. As justice minister he brought in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the early 1980s. Yet security scares during the visit to Indonesia and an official visit to Mexico City, as well as incidents in Ottawa that included a late-night break-in at his residence, may have caused a change. In opposition, the Liberals regularly criticized prime minister Brian Mulroney for a supposedly grand presidential style that they said was out of keeping with simple Canadian traditions. So when Mr. Chretien took office in 1993, among the first things to go were the armour-plated Cadillac limousine and travel on the fancy Airbus ordered by Mr. Mulroney. This change of style, however, presented problems for the RCMP bodyguards, as became apparent during the ill-fated visit to Mexico City in March of 1995. Mr. Chretien flew directly to Mexico on a small government jet, leaving most of his entourage, including most of the Mounties, to make their way on commercial flights. But bad weather delayed connections. The Mounties reached Mexico City well after midnight and had only a few hours of sleep before they had to be up for the first official event. Things went from bad to worse when the presidential candidate of Mexico's governing party was assassinated during a campaign stop in Tijuana. Mr. Chretien and his official party tried to pay their respects the next day at the funeral hall. Mexico City was in turmoil, and the Mounties and Mexican security officers assigned to work with them were feeling jittery. The unscheduled visit of the Canadian Prime Minister at the funeral hall produced a mob scene, with weeping and shouting Mexicans jostlinga nd pushing the Mounties, Mexican security officers, Mr. Chretien, his official party and the trailing Canadian press corps. Some Mounties worried about what would happen if the scene went from merely ugly to the violent and they were unarmed. Until then the Mounties left their guns at home or on the plane during such visits, but the Mexican mob scene resulted in a new policy. The RCMP obtained permission for officers to carry their personal sidearms onto foreign soil, and offered reciprocity. Thus foreign security officers, including four of the Indonesian bodyguards accompanying President Suharto to the Vancouver Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit, were issued temporary gun permits and sworn in as special constables with the RCMP for their stay in Canada. The Indonesians wanted to know what would happen if they shot anti-Suharto demonstrators who got too close. One Mountie was so alarmed that he warned of the possibility of a shootout with the Indonesian officers. East Timorese and other Indonesian refugees in Canada who spoke out against Suharto said they often were followed and harassed by Indonesian diplomats. Indonesian ambassador Benjamin Parwoto was called in and reprimanded by the Department of Foreign Affairs for harassing the family of one Timorese woman who had found refuge in Canada. ------------------- **************************************************************************** ****************************************** For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat, PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR EAST TIMOR Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net "... where there are profits to be defended, law, justice, freedom, democracy and peace are the victims." -- Xanana Gusmao, Jailed Leader of East Timor in Preface to "Complicity: Human Rights and Canadian Foreign Policy -- the Case of East Timor" (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1996). **************************************************************************** ********************************************* From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Wed Oct 14 13:53:26 1998 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 16:53:26 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 797] NZ: Second Annual Roger Award Message-ID: MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE 14 October 1998 SECOND ANNUAL ROGER AWARD FOR WORST TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION IN NZ For the second year, three organisations - Corso, Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA), and GATT Watchdog - have combined forces to organise the annual Roger Award for the worst transnational corporation operating in New Zealand in 1998. The winner of the award will be announced at an event in Christchurch next February. The winner of the inaugural award, announced in February this year, was TranzRail, for what the judges called its "calculated, callous attitude" to people injured in rail accidents, and to the families who lost loved ones. Coeur Gold (NZ) Ltd and Independent Newspapers Ltd (INL) were awarded second equal place. The judges for this year's award are the re-elected Mayor of Dunedin, Sukhi Turner; Ngati Pikiao lawyer and Treaty activist Annette Sykes; President of the NZ Trade Union Federation, Maxine Gay; and Director of Nga Kaiwhakamarama I Nga Ture (Maori Legal Service) Moana Jackson. "Given that the award will be announced during the year that the New Zealand government hosts the APEC meetings, this year's Roger Award will be particularly poignant. Just as transnational corporations now dominate all aspects of the New Zealand economy and our lives, from the food that we eat to the clothes that we wear to the technology which we use to communicate with each other, so too has APEC been shaped primarily by and for big business interests. Successive New Zealand governments have told us that what is good for big business is good for the rest of us. We dispute that. The bottom line for transnational corporations is profit. These corporations are behind the push, through free trade and investment arrangements such as APEC, to get governments to comply with their demands to be able to operate however, and wherever they like, without any accountability to the communities they affect. The Roger Award is one way of holding big business accountable and generating some much-needed debate about the role of transnational corporations in New Zealand", said David Small, of Corso and spokesperson for the organisers of this year's Award. The award will be given to the transnational corporation judged to have had the most negative impact in each or all of the following fields: unemployment, monopoly, profiteering, abuse of workers/conditions, political interference, environmental damage, cultural imperialism, impact on tangata whenua, running an ideological crusade, impact on women, health and safety of workers and the public. Nominations from the public close on October 31 and can be sent to: The Roger Award, Box 1905, Christchurch. Dr David Small For the organisers Ph. (03) 3642268 Email: corso@corso.chch.planet.org.nz From rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org Wed Oct 14 08:57:00 1998 From: rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org (Roberto Verzola) Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 08:57:00 Subject: [asia-apec 798] Re: Pls use asia-hr-alert Message-ID: <199810140046.IAA01356@phil.gn.apc.org> > I am a subscriber to this list and I am much dismayed that you >would seek to curtail news about police brutality and human rights abuses >taking place in **APEC** countries. These events bear directly on our >analysis of the political regimes that are seeking to implement APEC, Yes, I understand your point. I hope you also noted that I did say the ff: - the asia-hr-alert list was the most appropriate forum for such detailed reports (and I forwarded it to that list, by the way) - people were still welcome to post shorter notices on asia-apec on HR abuses to call attention to the long reports they'd post at asia-hr-alert - my reminder wasn't meant to belittle the importance of such reports. If the report had contained APEC-related analysis of HR abuses, I would have made no comment. But it had no mention at all of APEC and it was purely a report on police brutality. We can of course make it an explicit rule to welcome on this list such long reports on police brutality and other human rights violations, if subscribers feel this will make the asia-apec list more useful. May I encourage other list subscribers to send me a *private* message (send it *NOT* to the list, but to my email address) how they feel about this particular issue. Regards to all, Obet Verzola From panap at panap.po.my Wed Oct 14 16:58:15 1998 From: panap at panap.po.my (PAN Asia Pacific) Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 16:58:15 Subject: [asia-apec 799] Clarifications about the listserv Message-ID: <2777@panap.po.my> To all subscribers, My apologies for not replying sooner. I think some clarifications need to be made about what, in fact, this listserv is. When the APPA secretariat was first formed in March 1998, we decided to set up an email listserv. ICHRDD in Canada, the moderator of last year's apecforum-l listserv, and JCA-NET, the operator of the asia-apec listserv, which was left unmoderated after Manila, agreed to combine listservs. JCA-NET would continue as the owner, doing the administrative work, because I could not do that from these offices, and the APPA secretariat would take over as the moderator. Next year, if any groups host another parallel gathering, they will take over as moderators. The asia-apec listserv is primarily a forum for discussion and information sharing about APPA. Therefore, the parameters of the listserv should reflect those of the assembly. This year our theme is "Resisting Globalisation: Reasserting Peoples' Rights". The listserv is therefore primarily a venue for postings about resistance to globalisation and the violations to human rights that globalisation brings, especially as they concern the Asia-Pacific region. Having said that, I do agree that there must be a some guidelines to make the listserv useful. So, as the moderator, let me suggest this criteria: 1. That all postings which are replies do not contain, within the text, the message that you are replying to. This is very costly for us and for other groups that pay for their email by the size of the documents. 2. These are the postings we want: -postings about APPA (alerts, press releases, registration and programme information, newsletters, information, logistics, updates about the current situation, messages of solidarity) -postings about globalisation and resistance to it. The first will help us in strengthening our analysis. The latter are essential to the international movement and APPA itself. -postings about APEC that help us in our analysis of APEC and in our strategies for working against its globalisation agenda and its undemocratic process. This could include debate about how we should approach APEC. -postings about the current political situation in Malaysia and the reaction of other governments to it. The current situation will defintely affect the operations of APPA and of APEC itself. Groups outside of Malaysia need to know what is happening here. -postings about APEC news outside of Malaysia. We would very much like to know what is happening outside of Malaysia. For example, being informed about the situation in Canada has helped us in dealing with the Canadian government with regards to funding. 3. If people have lengthy documents or if they wish to make available information from previous years, please send a message to the listserv saying you have this information and will send it to anyone that requests it. You could also edit texts to make them shorter and more relevant. This may take a little more effort on your part but it is necessary to the success of this listserv. I do apologize for neglecting my duties over the previous couple of weeks. Things are very busy at the secretariat and I welcome the invitation of others to help with the moderating. I also welcome input about how the listserv should operate. I will put together some type of informal report for groups that may want to take it over next year. Best wishes to everyone, Devlin Co-coordinaor APPA Sec. From ppc at philonline.com Thu Oct 15 00:15:12 1998 From: ppc at philonline.com (ppc) Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 23:15:12 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 800] 2nd invitation to BAYAN-AWC Roundtable Discussion Message-ID: <199810141515.XAA07363@fiesta.philonline.com.ph> 2nd Announcement and Invitation BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance) and the Asia-Wide Campaign (AWC) invite you to a roundtable discussion on the US-Japan Militarist Agenda in the Asia-Pacific with the theme: Iron Fists Shield Globalization from Peoples' Resistance. This forum will be held on the first two days, November 11-12, of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) being convened parallel to the APEC Leaders Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur this November. Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) November 10-15, 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Roundtable Discussion:US-Japan Militarist Agenda in the Asia-Pacific (Iron Fists Shield Globalization from Peoples' Resistance) November 11 - 12, 1998 Rationale Globalization, trumpeted as the inexorable integration of the vastly disparate economies of the advanced capitalist countries and the backward, pre-industrial Third World nations into a single prosperous world economy, has unraveled and become exposed as a false messiah. Instead, the policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization are now widely seen as delivering deathblows to the crisis-ridden economies of underdeveloped countries and the so-called newly industrializing countries (NICs). The results for oppressed peoples in the Third World are now plain to see: bankruptcies of domestic industries; workers thrown out of their jobs or forced to accept slave wages; peasants displaced from the land and driven to penury by so-called development projects and export-driven land conversions; massive migration of the rural poor to cities only to become jobless slum dwellers; the commerce of women and children in sweat shops and in a burgeoning flesh trade; the exploitation and abuse of migrant labor. Working people in industrialized countries are not spared as international capital seeks to invest and set up shop where labor costs are the lowest and trade unions are non-existent or ineffectual. Resurgent mass protests, uprisings and national liberation struggles are the peoples? response to severe economic hardships brought about by the neoliberal economic policies of globalization. In Asia-Pacific, the US and its junior partner Japan, have been most active in pushing globalization to the desperately poor, underdeveloped countries. Along with other power centers of monopoly capital, they unite in making the latter comply with GATT-WTO, IMF-World Bank and APEC impositions with the collusion of domestic rulers in every country. They also vigorously compete with each other for markets and resources, expanding and consolidating their strategic spheres of influence. In a 1995 US Defense Department policy paper the following assessment was made: ?The Asia Pacific region is currently the most economically dynamic region in the world, and on that basis alone, its security would be critical to America?s future.? US trade with Asia grew twice that of trade with Europe accounting for 36% of total American world trade providing for more than 3 million American jobs and contributing over $400 billion annually to the US economy. Seventy percent of the regional demand for oil is met by US-owned or controlled wells in the Persian Gulf with the precious commodity passing through narrow choke points in Southeast Asia. Forty percent of global bank reserves are reported to be under the control of seven East Asian economies. Japan has accelerated the relocation of its assembly and sub-assembly type of manufacturing in East Asia to establish a regional division of labor comprising the NICs, China and ASEAN members. Japanese monopoly capitalists are taking advantage of the region?s rich natural resource base, huge market, and cheap labor together with generous government incentives. It is not surprising that from 1991-1993, the rate of profit for Japanese firms in Asia was 2.4%, more than four times that in Japan. Thus the high economic stakes of Japanese monopoly capital in the region corresponds to the highest priority Japan, in alliance with the US, gives to regional security concerns. The current financial and economic crisis which saw the crash of East Asian economies including that of Japan, the collapse of the Russian economy, and now threatening the Chinese and Latin American economies, only underscores the importance for the US and Japan of securing their immense interests in the region. In order to protect these interests and to suppress peoples' movements challenging them, the US and Japan flex their military might and intervene covertly and overtly in the internal affairs of countries in the region. Despite being the sole superpower in the world today, the US maintains 100,000 forward deployment troops in main military bases and facilities in Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Guam and Saipan, Singapore and Diego Garcia. Post-world war II military treaties concluded by the US with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and others are the cornerstone of US military hegemony in the region. Other Asian countries without US bases are covered by Accessing and Cross Servicing Agreements (ACSA) which provide unhampered sea/air ports usage and supply arrangements. Since the US-Japan Security Treaty was signed in 1952, Japan has been providing logistical and financial support for US troops stationed in the region. In exchange, Japanese big business interests are protected under the US military umbrella. In reasserting its economic, political and military hegemony, US imperialism demands more support from Japan. The Japanese ruling class assents because of its own militarist agenda aimed at protecting and expanding its capital overseas in the face of worsening economic and political crisis in the region. Thus the US and Japan have strengthened their security alliance and stepped up their joint military activities. In April 1996, the two governments issued the Joint Declaration on Security - Alliance for the 21st Century which widens the scope of their defense cooperation in regional and even global military adventures. US and Japan also concluded an ACSA which allows Japanese self-defense forces (SDF) to provide greater logistical support to the US military. In November the same year, Japan mobilized 11 warships, 130 aircraft and 10,000 soldiers in a joint military exercise with the US Seventh Fleet which coincided with US-South Korea war games clearly directed against North Korea. In September 1997, the two governments revised the 1978 Guideline for US-Japan Security Cooperation which provides for joint military operations in wartime. The new guidelines provide for military cooperation in times of emergencies in surrounding areas of Japan to include the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait and Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Burma. It is in this context that the roundtable discussion, ?Globalization and the US-Japan MilitaristAgenda? is being held at the Asia-Pacific Peoples? Assembly. The US-Japan militarist alliance continues to be the real source of destabilization and insecurity in East Asia as well as the rest of the Asia-Pacific. These imperialist powers have for a long time used our region as their battleground, resulting in the loss of countless lives, widespread destruction of homes and properties, unspeakable suffering and a legacy of socio-economic ills for generations to come. Peace-loving peoples of the Asia-Pacific must oppose the US and Japanese imperialists? aggressive militarist and interventionist designs in the region. Objectives To deepen our understanding of the US-Japan Security Agreement and its role in imperialist globalization which has intensified the economic and political crisis in the Asia-Pacific region; To learn about the joint security strategy employed by the US and Japan in realizing their militarist agenda in the Asia Pacific region; To share and learn from the people's struggles in the region to counter covert and overt US and Japanese aggression to protect their economic and political interests; and To pinpoint urgent issues related to the US-Japan Security Agreement which can be the basis for regional peoples' action. Revised Programme: III. Program November 10 Whole Day: Registration to APPA Afternoon: Registration to Roundtable Discussion on Globalization and the US-Japan Militarist Agenda Early Evening: APPA Opening Ceremony November 11 Morning Session 8:00- 9:00 Additional Registration 9:00- 9:30 Keynote Speech: Globalization and the US-Japan Militarist Agenda Speaker: Capt. Dan Vizmanos, former President, BAYAN 9:30-11:00* Country Sharing on US-Japan Militarist Alliance - United States: US Security Strategy for Asia in the 21st Century Speaker: American Friends Service Committee - Japan: Its Own Security Agenda for Asia Speaker: Mr. Saito, AWC Japan - China: Is She a Regional Threat? Proposed Speaker from Labor Rights Association, Taiwan 11:00-11:30 Break 11:30-12:30 - Philippines: Visiting Forces Agreement - the Return of US Military Forces Speaker: Dr. Carol Araullo, Vice-Chairperson, BAYAN - Indonesia: US-Indonesia Arms Deal Proposed Speaker from the YMB network 12:30- 1:30 Lunch Afternoon and Evening Session 1:30- 2:30* - Korea: A Country Still Divided by U.S. Military Bases Speaker from the National Council for Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea 2:30- 3:30 Open Forum 3:30- 4:30* Sharing on Peoples' Struggles Against US-Japan Militarist Agenda - Japan Mr. Koshiro and Mr. Shiramatsu A Broad Coalition Campaign Against U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa Citizens' Campaign Against U.S. Bases and the Deployment of SDFs Abroad 4:30- 5:00 Break 5:00- 7:30 - USA - Philippines Junk VFA Movement Ms. Rita Baua, BAYAN - Indonesia : YMB Network - Taiwan 7:30- 8:30 Dinner November 12 Morning session 9:00- 9:15 Recap 9:15-10:00 - Korea: Minjung Movement for Peace and Reunification in Korea 10:00-10:30 Break 10:30-11:30 Asia-wide Campaign 11:30- 1:00 Lunch 1:00- 2:00 Open Forum 2:00- 3:00 Resolutions 3:00- 3:30 Break 3:30- 4:00 Resolutions 4:00- 5:00 Planning 5:00- 6:00 Closing * Time alloted for translation From tpl at cheerful.com Thu Oct 15 07:41:23 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 06:41:23 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 801] People's Campaign Against Imperialist Globalization: November Activities Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981015064123.006b87b0@pop.skyinet.net> >The PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST IMPERIALIST GLOBALIZATION announces the following international actions against APEC and globalization to be held this November, the month when the heads of state of APEC-member countries/economies will meet in a summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. > >This year, we will go beyond discussing the negative impact of globalization on the people and the environment. We will share strategies which people's movements use to resist monopoly capitalism and its scheme of globalization. We will discuss alternatives to globalization and plan regional and international people's campaigns and other actions against imperialism. > >We hope that you can attend any of these anti-globalization activities. Please get in touch with the respective secretariat whose e-mail address we have indicated below. > >Those who will not be able to attend are enjoined to send in papers which can be distributed to the participants for mutual learning. > > >INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ALTERNATIVES TO GLOBALIZATION >Sponsored by BAYAN and IBON Foundation >November 7-9 >Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) >Tagaytay City, Philippines >Conference Secretariat: > >INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AGAINST PRIVATIZATION OF HEALTH CARE >"Fostering International Solidarity >Against Imperialist Impositions on Health Care" >sponsored by Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) >Council for Health and Development (CHD) >Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) >and Community Medicine Development Foundation (COMMED) >November 5-10 Integration with Basic Sectors >November 11-13 Conference Proper >Manila, Philippines >Conference Secretariat: > >INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AGAINST MINING TNCs >"Linking Peoples' Resistance Against Imperialist Plunder and Domination" >sponsored by BAYAN, Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA) >and other members of the Philippine Organizing Committee (POC) >November 9-13 Fact Finding Mission >November 14-16 Conference Proper >November 17 People's Protest Action >Palm Plaza Hotel >Malate, Manila, Philippines >Conference Secretariat: >-------------------------------------------------------------- > >Within the >3RD INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S CONFERENCE AGAINST APEC >"Women, Resist Globalization! Assert Women's Rights!" >November 8-9, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia >Conference Secretariat: > >are the following workshops: > >WORKSHOP ON STRATEGIES, GAINS AND CHALLENGES >IN WOMEN'S STRUGGLE AGAINST GLOBALIZATION >sponsored by GABRIELA >Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development (APWLD) >Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED), Madras >and Tamilnadu Women's Forum >2:00 - 10:00 p.m., November 8 >Workshop Secretariat: > >ASIAN INDIGENOUS WOMEN'S WORKSHOP >sponsored by the Asian Indigenous Women's Network (AIWN) >and TEBTEBBA Foundation >afternoons of November 8-9 and November 10 >Workshop Secretariat: >------------------------------------------------------------- > >Within the >ASIA-PACIFIC PEOPLES' ASSEMBLY (APPA) >"Confronting Globalization, Reasserting Peoples' Rights!" >November 10-15, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia >APPA Secretariat: > >are the following: > >ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON THE >US-JAPAN MILITARIST AGENDA IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC >"Iron Fists Shield Globalization from People's Resistance" >sponsored by BAYAN and the Asia-Wide Campaign (AWC) >November 11-12 >Secretariat: > >FORUM ON LAND FOOD SECURITY AND AGRICULTURE, within which we have the: > >WORKSHOP ON PEASANT MEN AND WOMEN'S STRUGGLE FOR LAND >sponsored by KMP (Peasant Movement in the Philippines) >AMIHAN (Federation of Peasant Women Organizations) >Asian Peasant Women's Network (APWN) and the >Anti-Imperialist World Peasant Summit (AIWPS) - Asian Forum >2:00 - 10:00 p.m., November 11 >Workshop Secretariat: >Forum Secretariat: > >WORKSHOP ON GLOBALIZATION AND FISHERIES >"Fisherfolk Say No to Monopoly Capital's Thirst for Profit" >sponsored by PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines) and NACFAR (Nationwide Coalition of Fisherfolk for Aquatic Reform - Philippines) >2:00 - 10:00 p.m., November 11 >Workshop Secretariat: >-------------------------------------------------------------- > >The Philippine convenors of the People's Campaign Against Imperialist Globalization include BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance), KMU (May 1st Movement), KMP (Philippine Peasant Movement), GABRIELA (national alliance of women's organizations), LFS (League of Filipino Students), Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA) and KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights). The People's Campaign can be reached through BAYAN at or telephone/fax (63-2) 922 5211. > > From tpl at cheerful.com Thu Oct 15 08:08:41 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 07:08:41 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 802] Brazil: financial crisis Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981015070841.006a07d8@pop.skyinet.net> Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 13:16:08 -0400 From: Michel Chossudovsky < THE BRAZILIAN FINANCIAL SCAM by Michel Chossudovsky Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa, author of The Globalisation of Poverty, Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms, Third World Network, Penang and Zed Books, London, 1997. (The book can be ordered from twn@igc.org) Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky Ottawa 1998. All rights reserved. This text can be posted and/or forwarded. To publish or reproduce in printed form, contact the author at fax: 1-514-4256224, E-mail: chossudovsky@sprint.ca In Brazil, a multi-billion dollar financial scam is in the making. The IMF sponsored operation is a "re-run" of last year's speculative raids on Southeast Asia which led to the confiscation of more than 100 billion dollars of hard currency reserves. On Friday September 11th amidst turmoil on the Sao Paulo stock exchange, some 1.7 billion dollars had quietly left the country in a single day. In October, the pace of capital flight (funneled through the forex market) was running at the pace of 400 million dollars a day... The vaults of the Central Bank of Brazil were being ransacked by "institutional speculators" with the tacit collusion of the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The Brazilian authorities stood idle: on instructions from their Wall street masters, no exchange controls were to be instituted to mitigate the outflow of money wealth. In the words of Brazil's Finance Minister Pedro Malan, restrictions on capital movements are counterproductive and would be conducive "to all sorts of corrupt practices". (Jornal do Brasil, 5 October 1998). Instead, short-term interest rates had been artificially boosted to 50 percent with a view to upholding Brazil's ailing currency. (The exchange rate under the real-dollar peg varies between an upper and lower level). According to J. P. Morgan in Sao Paulo, the cost of the interest rate hike to the country (in terms of added debt servicing obligations) is a staggering 5 billion dollars a month. (Financial Times, 18 September 1998). It was a massive sell-out: rather than curbing the flight of capital, the structure of high interest rates had contributed to heightening the debt burden, not to mention the devastating impact of the credit squeeze on domestic producers. The country is facing imminent bankruptcy; the State apparatus is under the control of Brasilia's external creditors. Moreover, Brazil's internal debt had almost doubled in less than six months increasing from $145 billion in January to $254 billion in July (of which $45 billion are due in October)... Wall Street calls the Shots The same Wall Street money-managers who decide Brazil's macro-economic agenda are major speculative actors well versed in the art of market manipulation. Its a modern form of highway robbery: since July 1998, 30 billion dollars have been taken out of Brazil. The loot has been transferred into the private coffers of Western banks and into the overseas dollar accounts of Brazil's financial elites. This confiscation of the nation's hard currency reserves is the result of political manipulation. The speculators knew that the currency would be devalued after the October presidential elections. They had already converted their Brazilian reales into dollars using the forward foreign exchange market. The conditions enabling the outflow of the country's hard currency reserves had been carefully worked out by the IMF and the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso in consultation with the world's largest commercial banks and brokerage houses. The central bank was to uphold the Brazilian real by massively selling dollars in the forex market. In other words, central bank reserves have been looted. The reserves are being privatised... Demise of the Central Bank This process marks the demise of Brazil's central bank. Brazil's foreign currency reserves have fallen from $78 billion in July 1998 to $48 billion in September. And now the IMF has offered to "lend the money back" to Brazil in the context of a "Korean style" rescue operation which will eventually require the issuing of large amounts of public debt in G-7 countries. The Brazilian authorities have insisted that the country "is not at risk" and what they are seeking is "precautionary funding" (rather than a "bail-out") to stave of the "contagious effects"of the Asian crisis. Ironically, the amount considered by the IMF (30 billion dollars) is exactly equal to the money "taken out" of the country (during a 3 month period) in the form of capital flight.(See Peter Muello, "IMF Support Lifts Brazil Economy", Associated Press, 9 October 1998). But the central bank will not be able to use the IMF loan to replenish its hard currency reserves. The bail-out money (including a large part of the $18 billion US contribution to the IMF approved by Congress in October) is intended to enable Brazil to meet current debt servicing obligations, --ie. to reimburse the speculators. The bailout money will never enter Brazil. Behind the Scenes Negotiations The Southeast Asian bailouts constitute a "dress rehearsal" for similar multi-billion schemes to be adopted in Latin America's largest economies. During the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in October, behind the scenes discussions were held between Brazil's Minister of Finance Pedro Malan and William Rhodes, Vice-President of Citibank representing Brazil's external creditors. Ironically, these negotiations were being held at a time when G-7 leaders, anxious to appease public opinion, had called for controls on short-term capital movements. As ministers of finance were meeting behind closed doors, the representatives of some 300 global banks had gathered in parallel sessions under the auspices of their Washington think tank, the Institute of International Finance. The global banks were inviting the IMF "to sharpen [rather than soften] its techniques of surveillance" as well as strengthen its collaboration with the private financial sector. (See Dr. George Blum, Chairman of IIF, Opening Statement, Press Conference, Institute of international finance, Washington, 3 October 1998). President Fernando Henrique Cardoso had already signed a "Letter of Intent" which commits the Brazilian authorities to massive austerity measures. The latter will require substantial lay-offs of federal government employees as well as a curb on transfer payments to the state governments. In the words of Demosthenes Madureira de Pinho Neto, the Central Bank's director of foreign operations: "the budget adjustment will be dramatic, definitive and permanent". To "restore business confidence" (according to a representative of Goldman Sachs), Brazil must implement "an overshoot on fiscal adjustment" (well beyond the austerity package imposed by the New York banking committee in 1994 under the Real Plan). The "economic therapy" required to restore "the faith and trust" of foreign investors will result in further bank failures and mass unemployment. Under the Presidency of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the creditors are in control of the State bureaucracy, of its politicians. The State is bankrupt and its assets are being impounded under the privatisation programme... The Real Plan initiated in 1994 --with the blessing of Brazil's Wall Street creditors has reached a dangerous turning point. A new lethal phase of economic and social destruction has commenced: to ensure the swift payment of debt servicing obligations, the IMF will require cuts in the budget deficit of the order of 20 billion dollars (ie. 3 percent of GDP) to be implemented in the immediate aftermath of the elections. Large portions of the national economy will be put on the auction block. The privatisation programme (envisaged under the Real Plan) will be speeded up: public utilities including State telecom and electricity companies are to be sold off at bargain prices to foreign capital. The federal government has also envisaged legislation which will allow for the privatisation of municipal water and sewerage. However, the modest proceeds of these sales will only enable Brazil to meet a fraction of its debt servicing obligations. Renewed Inflation Currency devaluations in the aftermath of the elections will trigger an inflationary spiral leading to a further collapse in the standard of living. Substantial increases in sales taxes required under the bailout will also contribute to compressing real purchasing power. The proposed hikes in State revenues (to be raised largely from higher levels of taxation and the proceeds of the privatisation programme) are of the order of R10 billion ($8 billion). Impoverishment and Social Devastation In a country where more than half the population is already below the poverty line, the impacts of an the IMF bail-out will be devastating. Large sectors of Brazil's population of 160 million people will be driven into abysmal poverty. Entire regions of the country will be pushed into recession. The central government will be weakened: with the impending fracture of the federal fiscal structure, State governments will be left to their own devices. The country's regions will become increasingly balkanised; as in Indonesia and Korea, Wall Street investment houses will be invited to "pick up the pieces". The Global Economic Crisis at a Dangerous Cross-Roads The social impact in Latin America (where the IMF sponsored strucutral adjustment programme has been routinely applied for more than ten years) is likely to be far more destructive than in Southeast Asia. While G-7 leaders have formally acknowledged some of the shortcomings of the IMF's interventions, the application of "strong economic medicine" is still part and parcel of the Latin American agenda. In recent months, currency devaluations have swept the continent. In Mexico, exacerbated by high interest rates, the internal debt has spiralled. In Peru, a general strike in October --in protest against the IMF sponsored reforms of President Alberto Fujimori-- was brutally repressed by units of Army. In Argentina, the central bank already operates as a de facto "currency board" under the guidance of its external creditors. In a new wave of IMF sponsored privatisations, Argentina's largest commercial banks are being liquidated and sold off to foreign investors at bargain prices... The global crisis has reached a dangerous cross-roads as speculators and creditors extend their grip into Latin America: the IMF sponsored financial scam (implemented in Russia and Southeast Asia) is to be inflicted on Latin America's largest economies: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela. Washington's "hidden agenda" is to take over productive assets and recolonise the continent. Michel Chossudovsky Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, K1N6N5 Voice box: 1-613-562-5800, ext. 1415 Fax: 1-514-425-6224 E-Mail: chossudovsky@sprint.ca http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/chossd.htm From rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org Thu Oct 15 08:58:29 1998 From: rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org (Roberto Verzola) Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 08:58:29 Subject: [asia-apec 803] Re: Clarifications about the listserv Message-ID: <199810150147.JAA00682@phil.gn.apc.org> >The listserv is therefore primarily a venue for postings about >resistance to globalisation and the violations to human rights that >globalisation brings, especially as they concern the Asia-Pacific With Devlin's post, I bow out of my short role as temporary moderator. Writing as a list subscriber now, and without referring specifically to the posting on Malaysian police brutality, it would still be nice to see more focus on this list, and to avoid making it a dumping ground for all kinds of messages. May I also suggest an additional objective for this list: many of us will be unable to go to Malaysia/APPA meeting for various reasons. We would still like to participate in the discussions, exchanges, etc. This list is an ideal mechanism for this kind of thing. I would very much like to see on this list some of the debates and discussions at APPA, especially the original documents and background materials. Regards to all, Obet Verzola From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Sun Oct 18 11:15:41 1998 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 14:15:41 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 804] (no title) Message-ID: Subject: World Trade Organization: APEC plan maps out hard-to-swal... Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" APEC plan maps out hard-to-swallow demands for Japan (Kyodo News; 10/16/98) TOKYO, Oct. 16 (Kyodo) -- Japan looks set to face pressure to liberalize trade at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit scheduled for Nov. 17-18 in Kuala Lumpur, a draft document obtained Friday shows. The draft, prepared in working-level consultations ahead of the APEC summit and obtained by Kyodo News, sets a target of removing tariffs on fishery products by 2005, a move to which Japan has expressed strong opposition. In forestry products, another area Japan has shown reluctance to liberalize, the document calls for the elimination of tariffs on paper and pulp in 2000 and on timber in 2002. The draft presents targets for eight of nine areas covered by APEC's so-called early voluntary sector liberalization plan -- environmental products and services, energy, fisheries, forestry, toys, jewelry, medical goods, and chemical products. Telecommunications is the ninth area. Early voluntary liberalization is expected to be high on the agenda at these meetings. Japanese officials say Japan cannot accommodate early liberalization in fishery and forestry products because of political sensitivity, namely strong opposition from competing domestic industries. Japan would also like to put off discussions on fishery and forestry products until the next round of negotiations of the **World Trade Organization** (WTO). The WTO will be starting talks on agricultural trade in 2000. Exporters of fishery and forestry products such as the United States, however, are arguing for a one-package approach, calling for pledges for early liberalization in all the eight areas. Japan at this moment is isolated, a Japanese government official said. The draft also calls for tougher demands on industrialized nations than on emerging economies in reducing tariff rates for certain products as well as allowing for some flexibility, such as an extension of the target year to achieve liberalization. The draft cites a reduction in the tariff rate on jewelry to 5 % or lower by 2005. For those chemical products with a tariff rate less than 10 %, the rate should be reduced to zero by 2001. If the rate is higher than 10%, it should be reduced to 5% or lower by 2004, the document says. The document projects the elimination of tariffs on toys by 2005, on environmental goods by 2003, on medical goods by 2001 and on energy by July 2004. In these areas, Japan has already shown willingness to either remove or reduce tariffs. The APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the U.S. Russia, Peru and Vietnam will become APEC members at the November meetings. -0- {C:Kyodo-1016.00309} 10/16/98 From tpl at cheerful.com Sun Oct 18 11:12:24 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 10:12:24 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 805] On Estrada's support to Anwar Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981018101224.006c7988@pop.skyinet.net> From: KARAPATAN Letter to the Editor 8 October 1998 Amidst Estrada’s support to Anwar, the president is told: Attend to political prisoners in your own land Estrada once said: Walang tutulong sa Pilipino kundi kapwa Pilipino (Nobody will help the Filipinos but the Filipinos themselves). In his case, however, it is easier said than done. In a dire attempt to make people believe that he is a man of goodwill and an advocate of justice and democracy, the president has thrown his tremendous support to his friend, sacked deputy prime minister Ibrahim Anwar of Malaysia, who Estrada recognizes as a victim of human rights violation. He is trying hard to encourage his fellow Asia-Pacific leaders to get Anwar out of jail. But, ironic as it is, Estrada has kept mum on the release of the other victims of Mahathir's Internal Security Act (ISA), and worse, the release of all political prisoners in his own country, which he can effect with a stroke of the presidential pen. While it could at least be a good sign that the president talks about justice and due process, he should realize that a good sign is not enough. We at the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines challenge him to put his pronouncements into action and show his concern to the plight of all political prisoners in his own country. The political prisoners suffered no differently from Anwar, in fact may be even worse. They were arbitrarily arrested, denied counsel and due process, subjected to agonizing physical, mental and emotional torture from their military captors and suffer injustice up to this day. They were paddled, electrocuted, water-tortured, stripped naked and sexually humiliated. They were treated like pigs and some never reached the regular detention centers because they had been killed like chickens and others were never heard of by their families. And they were victimized further as they were charged with, and some of them convicted of, common crimes. To date, there are 199 political prisoners kept languishing in Philippine jails and detention centers nationwide, twenty-two of them convicted of criminal charges and incarcerated at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa. The president’s silence on the matter of Filipino political prisoners is even more deafening as it comes in the wake of his signing of the human rights accord with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). It is clearly stated in Part III-Article 6 of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CA-HRIHL) that the Amado Hernandez Doctrine shall be upheld to pave the way for the release of the majority of the political prisoners nationwide. Until all political prisoners are freed from the bars of repression, Estrada's pronouncements only pay lip service to justice and due process. As he goes further into an international crusade for his friend Anwar, he should include the scores of Malaysians equally victimized by the ISA, and render justice in his own land by releasing all political prisoners. (Sgd.) Benjie Oliveros Executive Director Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) (a member organization of Karapatan) From tpl at cheerful.com Sun Oct 18 11:09:22 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 10:09:22 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 806] US-Estrada-Cojuangco trio grabs land, food and water from people Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981018100922.006c7988@pop.skyinet.net> From: kmp@info.com.ph NEWS RELEASE 16 October 1998 World Food Day protests MANILA -- KMP (Philippine Peasant Movement) and Pamalakaya (National Federation of Fisherfolk Organizations) today, which is marked by the United Nations as World Food Day, slammed the Estrada government and the real powers behind his throne for the most systematic looting of the country's land, water and food supply by local landlord-compradors and foreign monopoly capitalists. Aeta elders paraded in front of the Department of Agriculture pushing a cart filled with diseased pork, chemical-ridden vegetables and imported rice discards lampooning "Erap's Rolling Store," in a symbolic protest against Estrada's anti-poor food polices. Rafael Mariano, KMP chairman, noted that the country's food problem started 26 years ago when Marcos decreed a law limiting the scope of agricultural land devoted to rice and corn, thus hampering land distribution to the real beneficiaries of land reform, the farmers. Mariano said that bogus agrarian reform schemes since the 1970s changed only in the magnitude of control, domination and demands of the international market for high value crops which displaced traditional food crops. President Estrada's privatization of the National Food Authority (NFA) and the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) removed the last guarantees for small farmers to raise their own foodcrops. KMP declares today's World Food Day as World Landless, Foodless and Waterless Day. KMP said the Estrada government is obviously attempting to establish for itself a historical distinction by harping on an ambitious modernization of agriculture and fisheries. But because Estrada continues to avoid redistribution of land, as exemplified by the deceptive stock distribution by his political patron Danding Cojuanco, the government's sham land reform program will further fail in assuring self-sufficiency in food and instead succeed in the commercial overproduction of exotic crops. The peasant movement repeated its prognosis that Erap has harbored an anti-poor and repressive agenda against the peasants and fisherfolk from day one of his administration. Mariano said that political repression and violence courtesy of the AFP, the Philippine National Police and the hired goons of landlords/warlords like Eduardo Cojuangco, Fil-Estate and the Aranetas, were unleashed against peasants who were simply defending their right to land. In related developments, the Central Luzon Aeta Association (CLAA) and AMGL (Alliance of Farmers from Central Luzon) today marched to the government offices of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to protest the Mining Act and to push for the genuine protection of their ancestral domains in Zambales and Pampanga. They accused the commission of conniving with transnational mining corporations and big real estate developers in viciously evicting both lowland and upland dwellers from their farms. KMP said that this is part of the trend in which major food basket areas are being converted and destroyed to facilate export crop production or development of real estate empires like that of House Speaker Manuel Villar. Rodolfo Sambajon, Pamalakaya national chair, said our fishery resources are served on silver platters to foreign and domestic fishing monopolies. He added that Estrada's blanket endorsement of RA 8550 or the Fisheries Law of 1998, and RA 8435 or the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) exposed any pretension by the Estrada government that it has the interest of the masses in mind. "These laws glorify corporate takeover of our marine and aquatic resources. Is this the kind of food sufficiency program that the Hollywood-style president wants us to cherish and crave for?" Sambajon asked. The two militant organizations, KMP and Pamalakaya, will launch massive peasant protests this month. It will be a week-long rural folk protest from October 17-23 at the DAR national office by farmers, fisherfolk and tribal people from Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog. Highlight is the big October 21 march-rally to Mendiola, where the massacre of peasants happened when the marines fired at a peasant-led rally in January 1997.# Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP - Peasant Movement of the Philippines) From yukihiro at jca.ax.apc.org Mon Oct 19 05:06:46 1998 From: yukihiro at jca.ax.apc.org (YASUDA Yukihiro) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 05:06:46 +0900 (JST) Subject: [asia-apec 807] NOTICE from system administrator Message-ID: <19981019050646X.yukihiro@klact.co.jp> Hi all, I'm a system operator at JCA-NET, host of this mailing list. I'd like to present some information on the list in order to make the list more useful and confortable space for information exchange. MODERATED This mailing list is "moderated", or only those who are registered as "member" are allowed to post their messages. If you are not registered member, your post will not be delivered. Non member submissions are increasing recently. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE as member if you hope to post your messages here. SUBSCRIBE To subscribe, send a mail to with only one word "subscribe" (don't type quotation marks!) in the body of the mail. Operator will add your email address to the list within a day or two, and you will have mails from this mailing list. UNSUBSCRIBE To unsubscribe, send a mail to with "unsubscribe" in the body of the mail. HELP Feel free to mail us if you have any technical question in using the mailing list. The Email address of the asia-apec mailing list administrator is . OTHER RESOURCES There are other "asia-XXX" mailing list. Please use appropriate list for effective information sharing. All the mailing lists are moderated. To subscribe/unsubscribe, please mail to the list's facilitator. asia-apec: Mailing list on APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation). Facilitator: Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (panap@panap.po.my) asia-culture: Network of cultural workers and popular educators in the Asia-Pacific region. Facilitator: Asian Council for People's Culture (acpc@mnl.sequel) asia-hr-alert: Human Rights Urgent Appeals/ Urgent Campaign Letters. Facilitator: Asian Human Rights Commission (ahralert@hk.super.net) asia-migrants: Exchange of information on Migrant workers. Facilitator: Rex Varona (mrhr@hk.super.net), Bien & Jeannine Guthrie (guthrij@hrw.org) asia-women: Information exchange concerning women's issue. Facilitator: Isis International (isis@mnl.sequel.net) Note: This mailing list is running on E-Mail Centre, Philippines. -- YASUDA Yukihiro / JCA-NET system operator, Tokyo, JAPAN E-mail: From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Mon Oct 19 11:48:10 1998 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 14:48:10 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 808] NZ Likely to change Gun Law for APEC Message-ID: Subject: CHANGE IN GUN LAW FOR SECRET SERVICE AGENTS? from IRN news CHANGE IN GUN LAW FOR SECRET SERVICE AGENTS? Whether New Zealand should change the law to allow secret service agents to carry weapons during APEC will go to a special cabinet committee over the next few weeks.=20 Our government's been under pressure to soften its stance particularly from the American, Japanese and Russians who are sending massive security forces to protect their leaders.=20 A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister says no decision has been made but security during APEC is of paramount importance.=20 Police Minister Clem Simich says he's in favour of a law change as = it'll ensure the international leaders feel safe during their stay in Auckland.=20 =A9 Copyright IRN News From amit at igc.org Mon Oct 19 16:51:56 1998 From: amit at igc.org (Amit Srivastava) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 00:51:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [asia-apec 809] AP Wire: APEC Summit Facing Unusual Risks Message-ID: <2.2.16.19981019005113.29e75356@pop.igc.org> October 19, 1998 APEC Summit Facing Unusual Risks By The Associated Press TOKYO (AP) -- The last time the Asia-Pacific region held its annual summit to promote free trade, Japan's prime minister assured everyone that his economy wouldn't be the next victim of Asia's financial crisis. Canada, the host country, was criticized by some in Canada for cracking down on demonstrations against Suharto, Indonesia's iron-fisted ruler at the time. And President Clinton, whose popularity and booming economy were the envy of the planet, joined everyone else in urging countries such as Thailand and South Korea to bite the bullet and comply with the tough economic reforms that the International Monetary Fund was demanding. My, how the challenges have grown, as the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum prepares for its November summit in Malaysia. Japan -- the world's second largest economy, and Asia's financial anchor -- is suffering through its worst recession since World War II, and that bad news cost Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto his job. Suharto, who ruled Indonesia for 32 years, was driven out of power by a violent, pro-democracy movement, and the world's fourth most populous country is in real trouble financially. Wall Street is now coping with a steep downturn. And even though Clinton has promised to attend the APEC meeting, some people wonder how he can do that while facing an impeachment inquiry back home, thanks to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Worse still, Asia's economic crisis is showing signs of going global, and more and more economists are criticizing the IMF for the way it is handling its bailouts. Other well-respected economists are going even further, questioning whether a free-market philosophy doesn't leave some countries too vulnerable to the chaos of major market speculators. In fact, Malaysia isn't the only country trying self-defense mechanisms such as capital controls. Hong Kong recently spent a fortune investing in its stock market to ward off speculators. And Washington is trying to figure out what to do with hedge funds after watching its Federal Reserve help bail out a major one that was going under, and seeing the investments of others send the U.S. dollar into a tailspin against Japan's yen. Ironically, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who made one of his typical anti-free-market comments during last year's summit, probably could have opened this year's with an ``I told you so.'' But even he is having major domestic problems. Mahathir, 72, who is widely credited with creating modern Malaysia during his 17 years in power, dismissed Anwar Ibrahim, his expected successor, in an apparent dispute over how to battle the country's economic mess. Instead of stepping aside, Anwar launched a reform movement across Malaysia that quickly led to big rallies demanding that Mahathir step down. The prime minister used riot police to thwart the protests, and jailed Anwar, charging him with corruption and sex crimes, and scheduling his trial for Nov. 2. The trial will be interrupted during the Nov. 12-18 APEC meetings, but Mahathir's treatment of Anwar and his reform movement already have been criticized by APEC members such as Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and the United States. President B.J. Habibie of Indonesia and Philippine President Joseph Estrada consider Anwar a friend, and Estrada won't say whether he plans to attend this year's APEC summit. John S. Wolf, the U.S. ambassador for APEC, recently acknowledged that it won't be easy for APEC members to meet in Malaysia as the Asian crisis ``ricochets around the world with no clear sign what will happen next.'' But he also said the leaders of the 21 APEC members should aim for a productive meeting. Wolf said such gatherings give members a chance to discuss IMF bailout strategies and the free-market philosophy, to resolve bilateral disputes, and to continue to reduce tariff rates to help struggling countries improve their exports. ``This has been a lousy year in general. It has effected all of us. It has set APEC back, and there is no silver bullet to solve the crisis right away,'' said Wolf. ``But we should welcome the chance to work together and to develop a sense of what's possible.'' So far, APEC has been criticized for doing little during the financial crisis. But next month it hopes to complete a plan that would lift trade barriers in nine key industries: environmental products and services, energy, fisheries, forestry, toys, jewelry, medical goods, chemical products and telecommunications. Besides the United States, APEC, which accounts for half of all global trade -- consists of these countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. During the Malaysia meeting, APEC also will include three new members: Russia -- one of the latest victims of the financial crisis -- Vietnam and Peru. =================================== Amit Srivastava TRAC- Transnational Resource and Action Center P.O. Box 29344, San Francisco, CA 94129, USA Tel: 1 415 561 6472 Fax: 1 415 561 6493 Email: amit@igc.org Web: http://www.corpwatch.org =================================== From ppc at philonline.com Tue Oct 20 01:28:34 1998 From: ppc at philonline.com (ppc) Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 00:28:34 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 810] 2nd invitation to BAYAN-AWC Roundtable Discussion Message-ID: <199810191628.AAA04985@fiesta.philonline.com.ph> 2nd Announcement and Invitation BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance) and the Asia-Wide Campaign (AWC) invite you to a roundtable discussion on the US-Japan Militarist Agenda in the Asia-Pacific with the theme: Iron Fists Shield Globalization from Peoples' Resistance. This forum will be held on the first two days, November 11-12, of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) being convened parallel to the APEC Leaders Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur this November. Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) November 10-15, 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Roundtable Discussion:US-Japan Militarist Agenda in the Asia-Pacific (Iron Fists Shield Globalization from Peoples' Resistance) November 11 - 12, 1998 Rationale Globalization, trumpeted as the inexorable integration of the vastly disparate economies of the advanced capitalist countries and the backward, pre-industrial Third World nations into a single prosperous world economy, has unraveled and become exposed as a false messiah. Instead, the policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization are now widely seen as delivering deathblows to the crisis-ridden economies of underdeveloped countries and the so-called newly industrializing countries (NICs). The results for oppressed peoples in the Third World are now plain to see: bankruptcies of domestic industries; workers thrown out of their jobs or forced to accept slave wages; peasants displaced from the land and driven to penury by so-called development projects and export-driven land conversions; massive migration of the rural poor to cities only to become jobless slum dwellers; the commerce of women and children in sweat shops and in a burgeoning flesh trade; the exploitation and abuse of migrant labor. Working people in industrialized countries are not spared as international capital seeks to invest and set up shop where labor costs are the lowest and trade unions are non-existent or ineffectual. Resurgent mass protests, uprisings and national liberation struggles are the peoples? response to severe economic hardships brought about by the neoliberal economic policies of globalization. In Asia-Pacific, the US and its junior partner Japan, have been most active in pushing globalization to the desperately poor, underdeveloped countries. Along with other power centers of monopoly capital, they unite in making the latter comply with GATT-WTO, IMF-World Bank and APEC impositions with the collusion of domestic rulers in every country. They also vigorously compete with each other for markets and resources, expanding and consolidating their strategic spheres of influence. In a 1995 US Defense Department policy paper the following assessment was made: ?The Asia Pacific region is currently the most economically dynamic region in the world, and on that basis alone, its security would be critical to America?s future.? US trade with Asia grew twice that of trade with Europe accounting for 36% of total American world trade providing for more than 3 million American jobs and contributing over $400 billion annually to the US economy. Seventy percent of the regional demand for oil is met by US-owned or controlled wells in the Persian Gulf with the precious commodity passing through narrow choke points in Southeast Asia. Forty percent of global bank reserves are reported to be under the control of seven East Asian economies. Japan has accelerated the relocation of its assembly and sub-assembly type of manufacturing in East Asia to establish a regional division of labor comprising the NICs, China and ASEAN members. Japanese monopoly capitalists are taking advantage of the region?s rich natural resource base, huge market, and cheap labor together with generous government incentives. It is not surprising that from 1991-1993, the rate of profit for Japanese firms in Asia was 2.4%, more than four times that in Japan. Thus the high economic stakes of Japanese monopoly capital in the region corresponds to the highest priority Japan, in alliance with the US, gives to regional security concerns. The current financial and economic crisis which saw the crash of East Asian economies including that of Japan, the collapse of the Russian economy, and now threatening the Chinese and Latin American economies, only underscores the importance for the US and Japan of securing their immense interests in the region. In order to protect these interests and to suppress peoples' movements challenging them, the US and Japan flex their military might and intervene covertly and overtly in the internal affairs of countries in the region. Despite being the sole superpower in the world today, the US maintains 100,000 forward deployment troops in main military bases and facilities in Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Guam and Saipan, Singapore and Diego Garcia. Post-world war II military treaties concluded by the US with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and others are the cornerstone of US military hegemony in the region. Other Asian countries without US bases are covered by Accessing and Cross Servicing Agreements (ACSA) which provide unhampered sea/air ports usage and supply arrangements. Since the US-Japan Security Treaty was signed in 1952, Japan has been providing logistical and financial support for US troops stationed in the region. In exchange, Japanese big business interests are protected under the US military umbrella. In reasserting its economic, political and military hegemony, US imperialism demands more support from Japan. The Japanese ruling class assents because of its own militarist agenda aimed at protecting and expanding its capital overseas in the face of worsening economic and political crisis in the region. Thus the US and Japan have strengthened their security alliance and stepped up their joint military activities. In April 1996, the two governments issued the Joint Declaration on Security - Alliance for the 21st Century which widens the scope of their defense cooperation in regional and even global military adventures. US and Japan also concluded an ACSA which allows Japanese self-defense forces (SDF) to provide greater logistical support to the US military. In November the same year, Japan mobilized 11 warships, 130 aircraft and 10,000 soldiers in a joint military exercise with the US Seventh Fleet which coincided with US-South Korea war games clearly directed against North Korea. In September 1997, the two governments revised the 1978 Guideline for US-Japan Security Cooperation which provides for joint military operations in wartime. The new guidelines provide for military cooperation in times of emergencies in surrounding areas of Japan to include the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait and Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Burma. It is in this context that the roundtable discussion, ?Globalization and the US-Japan MilitaristAgenda? is being held at the Asia-Pacific Peoples? Assembly. The US-Japan militarist alliance continues to be the real source of destabilization and insecurity in East Asia as well as the rest of the Asia-Pacific. These imperialist powers have for a long time used our region as their battleground, resulting in the loss of countless lives, widespread destruction of homes and properties, unspeakable suffering and a legacy of socio-economic ills for generations to come. Peace-loving peoples of the Asia-Pacific must oppose the US and Japanese imperialists? aggressive militarist and interventionist designs in the region. Objectives To deepen our understanding of the US-Japan Security Agreement and its role in imperialist globalization which has intensified the economic and political crisis in the Asia-Pacific region; To learn about the joint security strategy employed by the US and Japan in realizing their militarist agenda in the Asia Pacific region; To share and learn from the people's struggles in the region to counter covert and overt US and Japanese aggression to protect their economic and political interests; and To pinpoint urgent issues related to the US-Japan Security Agreement which can be the basis for regional peoples' action. Revised Programme: III. Program November 10 Whole Day: Registration to APPA Afternoon: Registration to Roundtable Discussion on Globalization and the US-Japan Militarist Agenda Early Evening: APPA Opening Ceremony November 11 Morning Session 8:00- 9:00 Additional Registration 9:00- 9:30 Keynote Speech: Globalization and the US-Japan Militarist Agenda Speaker: Capt. Dan Vizmanos, former President, BAYAN 9:30-11:00* Country Sharing on US-Japan Militarist Alliance - United States: US Security Strategy for Asia in the 21st Century Speaker: American Friends Service Committee - Japan: Its Own Security Agenda for Asia Speaker: Mr. Saito, AWC Japan - China: Is She a Regional Threat? Proposed Speaker from Labor Rights Association, Taiwan 11:00-11:30 Break 11:30-12:30 - Philippines: Visiting Forces Agreement - the Return of US Military Forces Speaker: Dr. Carol Araullo, Vice-Chairperson, BAYAN - Indonesia: US-Indonesia Arms Deal Proposed Speaker from the YMB network 12:30- 1:30 Lunch Afternoon and Evening Session 1:30- 2:30* - Korea: A Country Still Divided by U.S. Military Bases Speaker from the National Council for Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea 2:30- 3:30 Open Forum 3:30- 4:30* Sharing on Peoples' Struggles Against US-Japan Militarist Agenda - Japan Mr. Koshiro and Mr. Shiramatsu A Broad Coalition Campaign Against U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa Citizens' Campaign Against U.S. Bases and the Deployment of SDFs Abroad 4:30- 5:00 Break 5:00- 7:30 - USA - Philippines Junk VFA Movement Ms. Rita Baua, BAYAN - Indonesia : YMB Network - Taiwan 7:30- 8:30 Dinner November 12 Morning session 9:00- 9:15 Recap 9:15-10:00 - Korea: Minjung Movement for Peace and Reunification in Korea 10:00-10:30 Break 10:30-11:30 Asia-wide Campaign 11:30- 1:00 Lunch 1:00- 2:00 Open Forum 2:00- 3:00 Resolutions 3:00- 3:30 Break 3:30- 4:00 Resolutions 4:00- 5:00 Planning 5:00- 6:00 Closing * Time alloted for translation From ppc at philonline.com Tue Oct 20 01:28:41 1998 From: ppc at philonline.com (ppc) Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 00:28:41 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 811] 2nd invitation to BAYAN-AWC Roundtable Discussion Message-ID: <199810191628.AAA04996@fiesta.philonline.com.ph> 2nd Announcement and Invitation BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance) and the Asia-Wide Campaign (AWC) invite you to a roundtable discussion on the US-Japan Militarist Agenda in the Asia-Pacific with the theme: Iron Fists Shield Globalization from Peoples' Resistance. This forum will be held on the first two days, November 11-12, of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) being convened parallel to the APEC Leaders Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur this November. Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) November 10-15, 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Roundtable Discussion:US-Japan Militarist Agenda in the Asia-Pacific (Iron Fists Shield Globalization from Peoples' Resistance) November 11 - 12, 1998 Rationale Globalization, trumpeted as the inexorable integration of the vastly disparate economies of the advanced capitalist countries and the backward, pre-industrial Third World nations into a single prosperous world economy, has unraveled and become exposed as a false messiah. Instead, the policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization are now widely seen as delivering deathblows to the crisis-ridden economies of underdeveloped countries and the so-called newly industrializing countries (NICs). The results for oppressed peoples in the Third World are now plain to see: bankruptcies of domestic industries; workers thrown out of their jobs or forced to accept slave wages; peasants displaced from the land and driven to penury by so-called development projects and export-driven land conversions; massive migration of the rural poor to cities only to become jobless slum dwellers; the commerce of women and children in sweat shops and in a burgeoning flesh trade; the exploitation and abuse of migrant labor. Working people in industrialized countries are not spared as international capital seeks to invest and set up shop where labor costs are the lowest and trade unions are non-existent or ineffectual. Resurgent mass protests, uprisings and national liberation struggles are the peoples? response to severe economic hardships brought about by the neoliberal economic policies of globalization. In Asia-Pacific, the US and its junior partner Japan, have been most active in pushing globalization to the desperately poor, underdeveloped countries. Along with other power centers of monopoly capital, they unite in making the latter comply with GATT-WTO, IMF-World Bank and APEC impositions with the collusion of domestic rulers in every country. They also vigorously compete with each other for markets and resources, expanding and consolidating their strategic spheres of influence. In a 1995 US Defense Department policy paper the following assessment was made: ?The Asia Pacific region is currently the most economically dynamic region in the world, and on that basis alone, its security would be critical to America?s future.? US trade with Asia grew twice that of trade with Europe accounting for 36% of total American world trade providing for more than 3 million American jobs and contributing over $400 billion annually to the US economy. Seventy percent of the regional demand for oil is met by US-owned or controlled wells in the Persian Gulf with the precious commodity passing through narrow choke points in Southeast Asia. Forty percent of global bank reserves are reported to be under the control of seven East Asian economies. Japan has accelerated the relocation of its assembly and sub-assembly type of manufacturing in East Asia to establish a regional division of labor comprising the NICs, China and ASEAN members. Japanese monopoly capitalists are taking advantage of the region?s rich natural resource base, huge market, and cheap labor together with generous government incentives. It is not surprising that from 1991-1993, the rate of profit for Japanese firms in Asia was 2.4%, more than four times that in Japan. Thus the high economic stakes of Japanese monopoly capital in the region corresponds to the highest priority Japan, in alliance with the US, gives to regional security concerns. The current financial and economic crisis which saw the crash of East Asian economies including that of Japan, the collapse of the Russian economy, and now threatening the Chinese and Latin American economies, only underscores the importance for the US and Japan of securing their immense interests in the region. In order to protect these interests and to suppress peoples' movements challenging them, the US and Japan flex their military might and intervene covertly and overtly in the internal affairs of countries in the region. Despite being the sole superpower in the world today, the US maintains 100,000 forward deployment troops in main military bases and facilities in Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Guam and Saipan, Singapore and Diego Garcia. Post-world war II military treaties concluded by the US with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and others are the cornerstone of US military hegemony in the region. Other Asian countries without US bases are covered by Accessing and Cross Servicing Agreements (ACSA) which provide unhampered sea/air ports usage and supply arrangements. Since the US-Japan Security Treaty was signed in 1952, Japan has been providing logistical and financial support for US troops stationed in the region. In exchange, Japanese big business interests are protected under the US military umbrella. In reasserting its economic, political and military hegemony, US imperialism demands more support from Japan. The Japanese ruling class assents because of its own militarist agenda aimed at protecting and expanding its capital overseas in the face of worsening economic and political crisis in the region. Thus the US and Japan have strengthened their security alliance and stepped up their joint military activities. In April 1996, the two governments issued the Joint Declaration on Security - Alliance for the 21st Century which widens the scope of their defense cooperation in regional and even global military adventures. US and Japan also concluded an ACSA which allows Japanese self-defense forces (SDF) to provide greater logistical support to the US military. In November the same year, Japan mobilized 11 warships, 130 aircraft and 10,000 soldiers in a joint military exercise with the US Seventh Fleet which coincided with US-South Korea war games clearly directed against North Korea. In September 1997, the two governments revised the 1978 Guideline for US-Japan Security Cooperation which provides for joint military operations in wartime. The new guidelines provide for military cooperation in times of emergencies in surrounding areas of Japan to include the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait and Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Burma. It is in this context that the roundtable discussion, ?Globalization and the US-Japan MilitaristAgenda? is being held at the Asia-Pacific Peoples? Assembly. The US-Japan militarist alliance continues to be the real source of destabilization and insecurity in East Asia as well as the rest of the Asia-Pacific. These imperialist powers have for a long time used our region as their battleground, resulting in the loss of countless lives, widespread destruction of homes and properties, unspeakable suffering and a legacy of socio-economic ills for generations to come. Peace-loving peoples of the Asia-Pacific must oppose the US and Japanese imperialists? aggressive militarist and interventionist designs in the region. Objectives To deepen our understanding of the US-Japan Security Agreement and its role in imperialist globalization which has intensified the economic and political crisis in the Asia-Pacific region; To learn about the joint security strategy employed by the US and Japan in realizing their militarist agenda in the Asia Pacific region; To share and learn from the people's struggles in the region to counter covert and overt US and Japanese aggression to protect their economic and political interests; and To pinpoint urgent issues related to the US-Japan Security Agreement which can be the basis for regional peoples' action. Revised Programme: III. Program November 10 Whole Day: Registration to APPA Afternoon: Registration to Roundtable Discussion on Globalization and the US-Japan Militarist Agenda Early Evening: APPA Opening Ceremony November 11 Morning Session 8:00- 9:00 Additional Registration 9:00- 9:30 Keynote Speech: Globalization and the US-Japan Militarist Agenda Speaker: Capt. Dan Vizmanos, former President, BAYAN 9:30-11:00* Country Sharing on US-Japan Militarist Alliance - United States: US Security Strategy for Asia in the 21st Century Speaker: American Friends Service Committee - Japan: Its Own Security Agenda for Asia Speaker: Mr. Saito, AWC Japan - China: Is She a Regional Threat? Proposed Speaker from Labor Rights Association, Taiwan 11:00-11:30 Break 11:30-12:30 - Philippines: Visiting Forces Agreement - the Return of US Military Forces Speaker: Dr. Carol Araullo, Vice-Chairperson, BAYAN - Indonesia: US-Indonesia Arms Deal Proposed Speaker from the YMB network 12:30- 1:30 Lunch Afternoon and Evening Session 1:30- 2:30* - Korea: A Country Still Divided by U.S. Military Bases Speaker from the National Council for Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea 2:30- 3:30 Open Forum 3:30- 4:30* Sharing on Peoples' Struggles Against US-Japan Militarist Agenda - Japan Mr. Koshiro and Mr. Shiramatsu A Broad Coalition Campaign Against U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa Citizens' Campaign Against U.S. Bases and the Deployment of SDFs Abroad 4:30- 5:00 Break 5:00- 7:30 - USA - Philippines Junk VFA Movement Ms. Rita Baua, BAYAN - Indonesia : YMB Network - Taiwan 7:30- 8:30 Dinner November 12 Morning session 9:00- 9:15 Recap 9:15-10:00 - Korea: Minjung Movement for Peace and Reunification in Korea 10:00-10:30 Break 10:30-11:30 Asia-wide Campaign 11:30- 1:00 Lunch 1:00- 2:00 Open Forum 2:00- 3:00 Resolutions 3:00- 3:30 Break 3:30- 4:00 Resolutions 4:00- 5:00 Planning 5:00- 6:00 Closing * Time alloted for translation From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Mon Oct 19 16:13:25 1998 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 19:13:25 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 812] GATT Watchdog Media Release - MAI Message-ID: <3g1LXe1w165w@corso.ch.planet.gen.nz> GATT Watchdog PO Box 1905 Christchurch Aotearoa (NZ) MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE 19 October 1998 Scorn Poured on Latest Government MAI Moves On Eve of OECD Meeting The government's newfound "wait-and-see" approach to the controversial Multilateral Agreement on Investment should be taken with a large pinch of salt, says GATT Watchdog. "The current concern and caution seemingly emanating from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is in large part an attempt to play down the depth and complexity of international opposition to the MAI from other OECD governments, and a pathetic face-saving exercise for a government which cannot afford any more political embarrassment," said Aziz Choudry, GATT Watchdog spokesperson. "It is desperate to put a domestic spin on the mess that the MAI is in, hoping that people will forget the profoundly anti-democratic way in which it has dealt with the agreement, the uncritical zeal with which it has promoted it, and the puerile, patronising way in which it has treated critics of the agreement," he said. "The minority government wants people to embrace next year's APEC meetings without asking any hard questions about who benefits from trade and investment liberalisation. There are strong similarities between many of the provisions of the draft MAI and the APEC non-binding investment principles which member economies agreed to implement at the 1994 Bogor APEC Leaders Meeting". French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin last week told his parliament that the current draft MAI threatened French sovereignty and could not serve as a basis for the agreement. While announcing that France would not take part in tomorrow's MAI meeting, Jospin specifically referred to concerns about the current economic crisis as "the hasty and sometimes unreasonable movements that have gripped markets". He described signing the MAI as conceding "sovereignty to private interests under the pretext of a discussion of a code on international investment". "The global economic turmoil, and the massive international mobilisation against the agreement around the world have fuelled the crisis of legitimacy which is already engulfing initiatives like the MAI, the APEC process, and the model of economic development which they promote. The problems that the MAI faces vindicates our view that such agreements and processes are like Dracula - they cannot survive exposure to scrutiny in clear daylight". "Ministries like Te Puni Kokiri and the Ministry for the Environment have expressed real concerns about the impact of the draft MAI. But it is hard to tell how much these have genuinely influenced the government's newfound position, and to what extent concerns about the Treaty and the environment are merely being disingenuously trotted out now because Treasury and MFAT think that the MAI is too "watered down" to be acceptable to their narrow economic worldview. At a time when it should seriously reevaluate its blind faith in the free market the government remains desperate to cling to the myth that there is nothing wrong with the market economic model," he said. "Given the on-again-off-again nature of international trade and investment negotiations, the serious difficulties now engulfing the MAI do not spell the end of the road for such an agreement. The MAI does not exist in a vacuum. Some OECD countries have already stated that they would rather see international negotiations on investment transferred to the World Trade Organisation. The powerful economic interests behind the MAI - countries and companies - will continue to push for such an agreement at whichever forum they feel they stand to get the best results". GATT Watchdog is also highly sceptical at pledges made by Don McKinnon to consult with political parties on the MAI after this week's Paris OECD meeting and to fully inform the public of the government's position on the MAI. "The government has utterly ignored its commitment to a six-month "period of assessment and further consultation between the negotiating parties and with interested parts of their societies...a transparent negotiating process and... active public discussion on the issues at stake in the negotiations" (OECD Ministerial Meeting, April 28, 1998). For such consultation on the MAI to have had any genuine meaning it should have taken place before negotiations began in 1995", said Mr Choudry. For further comment, ph: Aziz Choudry (03) 3662803 From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Tue Oct 20 09:12:53 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 16:12:53 -0800 Subject: [asia-apec 813] Van Sun: Chretien still don't get it, hearings to cost $1-M Message-ID: Two CP wire stories from Vancouver Sun: -- Chretien opens mouth, inserts foot -- APEC/RCMP hearings to cost over $1-million In related news, the British Columbia wing of Chretien's Liberal Party has voted to ask the government to fund legal counsel for anti-APEC student protesters. The vote is not expected to change the federal governmet's mind. Last updated: Monday 19 October 1998 NATIONAL NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- Pepper spray better than baseball bats: PM ------------------------------------------------------- JIM BROWN OTTAWA (CP) - Jean Chretien touched off yet another storm over the APEC summit Monday, contending that pepper-spraying student protesters was better than bashing them with baseball bats. The prime minister, under opposition fire in the Commons, said he's sorry if anybody suffered ill effects from the spray. But he insisted it was up to the RCMP - not him - to decide on crowd-control measures. "Instead of taking a baseball bat or something else, now they try to use more civilized methods," he said. "That's why they had towels on hand at the same time to help (people)." The remark came in response to New Democrat Svend Robinson, who noted pepper spray can produce effects ranging from burning eyes to shortness of breath and nausea. Noting that Chretien has since joked about the incident, Robinson said the mother of one protester -whom he refused to name - had complained to him that the prime minister was making light of her daughter's suffering. The NDP MP, who accused Chretien in the house of "shameful and arrogant insensitivity" continued his attack outside the chamber. "Be grateful, in Canada we don't use baseball bats, we just use pepper spray," he observed sarcastically. "Is that really what it has come to . . . How much more do we have to take of this?" Reform Leader Preston Manning characterized Chretien's comment as "another ridiculous statement (and) an insulting statement to the people who were involved." Peter MacKay, Conservative justice critic, branded the remarks "callous and inappropriate." He said he has spoken to several police officers who ingested pepper spray during training and they all described it as "one of the most agonizing and hateful physical experiences that they've ever encountered." Chretien appeared anxious to make amends after blurting out the baseball bat comparison, telling the Commons later that he regrets any harm done to the protesters. He isn't very familiar with crowd-control tactics and the various methods used by pollice to maintain order, he said. But if anybody suffered physical harm "I'm ready to apologize, I have no problem about that . . . "If this lady (referred to by Robinson) is suffering because of the activity of the police, I apologize. And that's it. What do you want more than that?" The prime minister has been in hot water ever since he joked, at the close of the Asia-Pacific summit last November, that pepper was something he put on his food. He wise-cracked about the same subject at a recent Liberal fundraiser in Winnipeg and clowned again - as did several other politicians and journalists - at the annual press gallery dinner in Ottawa last weekend. Jennifer Story of the Canadian Federation of Students, took offence Monday at the continuing jokes, saying the government is "making a laughing matter of an issue that we take very seriously." The RCMP Public Complaints Commission is hearing more than 40 complaints by demonstrators about the way they were handled at the Vancouver summit. The protestrers contend the police crackdown was ordered by the Prime Minister's Office, and perhaps by Chretien himself, to appease former Indonesian dictator Suharto, the target of most of the protests. The hearing has been dogged by controversy since some of the complainants walked out last week to protest the government's refusal to pay their legal fees. Chretien defended that decision by Solicitor General Andy Scott, who has spent the last two weeks fending off attacks that he pre-judged the inquiry's outcome in a conversation on a plane overhead by an New Democrat MP. The students can get whatever help they need from commission counsel Chris Considine, the prime minister suggested Monday. And in any event, the students are not acused of any wrongdoing - unlike RCMP officers who have government-funded lawyers to defend them. "There are no accusations against any student," said Chretien. "They are not attacked, but the RCMP is being attacked. And some people in my office have been asked to testify." The government has hired private counsel to aid a Justice Department lawyer looking after the interests of Chretien and his staff at the hearings. Last updated: Monday 19 October 1998 NATIONAL NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- APEC hearings likely to be costliest in history ------------------------------------------------------- IAN BAILEY VANCOUVER (CP) - Hearings into RCMP clashes with protesters during last year's APEC summit will be the most expensive in the history of the RCMP watchdog conducting them. "It is certainly the biggest cost hearing we have held," says Horst Intscher, executive director of the RCMP Public Complaints Commission. The commission budgeted $950,000 for the APEC hearings, which enter their third week Monday. Intscher expects the bill will be higher. "It is going to come in higher because it is going on longer and there are some additional costs being incurred for larger hearing rooms," he said, adding the complexity of the issues is also driving costs. Shirley Heafey, chair of public complaints commission, said Sunday that rising costs will not compromise the panel's ability to do its work. "There will be no expense spared to make sure that all this is done properly and that it's open and that everybody has a chance to be heard," Heafey said from her home in Ottawa. "I am trying to be careful to keep a close eye on the budget, but not at the risk that the (APEC) matter won't be explored fully." The budget covers a range of costs including legal bills for commission counsel Chris Considine, sound equipment, court reporters, meals and hotel costs for the three commissioners and the rental of hearing space. Heafey also noted that the panelists are paid $300 a day. A three-member panel is hearing evidence from more than 120 witnesses to assess RCMP conduct with protesters that sparked 49 individual complaints. Dozens of protesters were pepper-sprayed and arrested during clashes with police at the university where 18 Pacific Rim leaders were meeting to discuss trade. Before APEC, the most expensive commission hearings cost $500,000. They were held between 1989 and 1991 to assess the case of drug informant Marcela Glambeck, who complained about the way she was treated by officers. The commission's total budget for the 1997-98 fiscal year was $3.9 million. "Within two to three weeks, we will know how long the hearings will go and we will know if we need more money," said Intscher. Ottawa has already chipped in $650,000 specifically to help with costs related to the APEC hearings after the commission found it was running short of funds. The APEC hearings are expected to last six months. Then the panel will retire to write a report. The commission is an independent agency that began hearing public complaints about RCMP conduct in 1988 - two years after its creation. Although it cannot directly punish officers, it can recommend sanctions to the RCMP commissioner. This is the 17th time the commission has held public hearings on complaints. Intscher welcomes the surge in publicity the APEC hearings have brought to the commission. "If you stopped anyone on the street a year ago and asked what they knew of the PCC, they would not have known of the existence of the commission as well as they do now," he said. An enhanced public profile is a key mission for the commission, outlined in the body's latest annual report. The rising costs for APEC hearings come as federal Solicitor General Andy Scott faces tough criticism over his decision not to pay the legal expenses of protesters, who are facing a legion of taxpayer-financed lawyers for police and the government. The attacks on Scott grew sharper over the weekend. Delegates to the convention of the Liberal party's B.C. wing in Whistler on Saturday called on the government to reverse its decision. "I don't understand how we can provide legal aid for rats like Clifford Olson and Paul Bernardo and nothing for students holding a peaceful protest," said John Howe of Vancouver. Two lawyers representing nine protesters who have filed complaints with the commission have walked out of the hearings to protest the lack of funding. Prof. Robert Gordon, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University, doubts the protesters can get by without lawyers. "Anyone who can't effectively play the legal games will get slaughtered," he said. "The gamesmanship that will be played out now will be quite majestic." Lawyers for the federal government and Mounties have argued police need taxpayer-financed lawyers because their careers are in jeopardy. Commission chair Heafey agreed. "The only people right now who would be at risk would be the RCMP members. They are at risk as far as their careers are concerned," said Heafey, adding their legal costs are part of their contract. "Although (the students') issues are very important, they 're not at risk in the same way." Intscher noted a pair of legal opinions solicited since 1997 have effectively barred the commission from paying complainants' legal costs. He declined to defend or explain Scott's controversial decision handed down on Friday, but conceded Scott could have ignored the rulings. "The government can do as it wishes," says Intscher. "It considered a number of factors. At the end of the day, it chose not to pay." Commission officials - including Intscher - have said the interests of the protesters can be properly represented by Considine, who has promised to more aggressively protect witnesses from tough cross-examination. Heafey, who previous sat on commission panels, noted that commissioners have tended to cut off cross-examination that becomes too aggressive. _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From alarm at HK.Super.NET Wed Oct 21 07:13:25 1998 From: alarm at HK.Super.NET (ALARM (APEC Labour Rights Monitor)) Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 15:13:25 -0700 Subject: [asia-apec 814] Asian crisis, floods holds down exports Message-ID: <199810200720.PAA18033@kwaifong.hk.super.net> Asian crisis, floods holds down exports by Ju Chuanjian and Su Dan China Daily, 14 October 1998 YANTAI - The Asian financial crisis has created problems for China's foreign trade, a top official stated yesterday. "The essential feature of current foreign trade policy is to maintain the export growth rate on the assumption that the renminbi exchange rate remains stable," Deng Li, a senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation, told China Daily yesterday. Deng made these remarks at the Second Apec Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Exchange and Fair here. The Asian financial crisis has started to affect China's exports, as countries feeling the pinch reduce imports. Exports are also facing more intense price competition because neighbouring countries have devalued their currency, Deng said. Exports were also hit by this summer's serious floods. Not only did the disaster cause major losses in flooded areas, but it also seriously affected the supply to Guangdong, Liaoning and Shanghai fairs of commodities for export this year, he said. A bearish mood continued shrouding China's foreign trade sector last month, as the country's export volume tumbled 6.7 per cent from the same period of last year. The export volume dropped to US$15.48 billion. The January-September export growth rate slid to 3.9 per cent from the 5.5 per cent at the end of August, indicate statistics from the General Administration of Customs. China's current foreign trade policies focus on better management of foreign currency and foreign debt to stabilise China's currency, Deng said. To maintain the balance of payments, Chinese authorities have issued a series of regulations on strengthening the management of foreign exchange and foreign debt and preventing the illegal exit and trade of foreign exchange, he said. China will increase the tax rebate rate on some commodities exported. The rate for textiles was raised by 2 per cent in the first three months of this year. As the Asian financial crisis began to bite further, rebate rates for five other commodities - steel products, coal, cement, ships, and textile machines - were also increased by 2 per cent at the end of June. Rates for seven mechanical and electronic telecommunications products and five light industrial products were raised in July. China will raise refund rates for other export commodities if conditions so demand in the future, said the official. According to the promise China made to join the World Trade Organisation, the country will, gradually adapt itself to the organisation requirements after becoming a member. The govemment will continue restructuring of the foreign trade system, control the healthy development of the non-public sector, and encourage private enterprises and scientific research institutions to participate in international competition. The Temporary Provisions on Granting Direct Import and Export Rights to Private Enterprises and Scientific Research Institutions were issued recently and are scheduled to come into force on January 1 next year. *** ------------------------------------------- ALARM Project, c/o AMRC 444 Nathan Road, 8-B Kowloon, Hong Kong T# +852 2332-1346 F# +852 2385-5319 From tpl at cheerful.com Wed Oct 21 01:06:26 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 00:06:26 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 815] Final Programme Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981021000626.0069abdc@pop.skyinet.net> Dear Sisters and Friends, Below is the final programme for the Workshop on Strategies, Gains and Challenges in Women's Struggle Against Globalization which is one of the simultaneous workshops in the 3rd International Women's Conference Against APEC to be held on Nov 8-9, 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. You are invited to attend the conference and the workshop, and stay on for the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) on November 10-15. See you in Kuala Lumpur! WORKSHOP ON STRATEGIES, GAINS AND CHALLENGES IN WOMEN'S STRUGGLE AGAINST GLOBALIZATION November 8 (2:30 - 10:00 p.m.) Sponsored by Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) GABRIELA (National Alliance of Women's Organizations in the Philippines) Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED), Madras Tamilnadu Women's Forum Objectives To learn from one another's strategies and gains in the women's struggle against globalization. To determine challenges for in the women's struggle against globalization. To determine burning issues that will be the basis for regional and/or international women's action in the next years. Programme 02:30 Introduction by Elisa Tita Lubi, APWLD and GABRIELA, Workshop Moderator 03:00 Resist Imperialist Globalization: A Challenge to Women by Dr. Pao-Yu Ching, university professor and social activist, U.S. and Taiwan 03:20 Impact of Globalization and Challenges for South Asian Women by Nimalka Fernando, President, IMADR 03:40 Rural Women's Caravan against Fundamentalism by Sarawathy, Tamilnadu Women's Forum, India 04:20 Tea Break 04:40 The Indonesian Situation by women from Kalyanamitra Foundation, Aceh, West Papua and East Timor 05:40 Women Organizing in the Philippines ? Organizing Women Workers by Nenita Miranda, Secretary General, KMK (Women Workers' Movement) ? Organizing Women Youth & Students by Maricel Gavina, Secretary General, GABRIELA Youth 06:20 From the Point of View of Socialist Women by Joan Hinton a former nuclear physicist who has worked in agriculture in China in the past 50 years 07:00 Dinner 08:00 Legal Strategies in the Hands of Women by Rani Jethmalani Lawyer and APWLD Founding Member 08:20 Open Forum: Issues Resolutions Action plans for regional and international women's campaigns 10:00 Adjourn --------------------------------- Rationale Women have been in the forefront of the struggle against globalization. This comes as no surprise as women shoulder the heaviest burdens of denationalization, liberalization, deregulation and privatization, the main components of the globalization scheme that throw women and men to the sharkteeth of the so-called free market. Women workers suffer mass lay-offs, insecurity of tenure due to casualization and contractualization, slave wages, debilitating working conditions, sexual harassment and violations of their right to strike and unionize. Rural and indigenous women continue to be deprived of their right to own land due to monopoly land ownership by big landowners and agrocorporations, land conversion to tourist resorts, residential subdivisions and so-called industrial centers, crop conversion to export products, and maldevelopment projects like logging , mining by multinational corporations and construction of huge dams. Urban poor communities are driven away from their communities as their houses are demolished to give way to commercial centers. Women have to work even longer hours to keep their families afloat with additional income that can absorb currency devaluation and spiraling prices of basic commodities and social services. Small wonder that women from various sectors are forced to go abroad to earn a living, despite the low wages, terrible working conditions, violation of contracts, racial discrimination, cultural trauma, the loneliness of being away from their loved ones and even physical and sexual violence. Some women are also forced into prostitution in their own countries and abroad. Globalization, instead of easing, only intensifies the global economic and financial crisis. It benefits a few, not the majority of the peoples of the world. It is the handiwork of the centers of global power - the US, Japan and the European Union led by Germany - and the multi national and transnational corporations (MNCs/TNCs), all of them expanding their wealth and power to further exploit and dominate the poorer nations. They have their client states of the Third World and the local ruling elite as their partners. "The current economic and political agenda in the Asia-Pacific region disempowers women, feminizes poverty and disintegrates families and communities. It has also given rise to dangerous 'anti-globalisation forces' based on narrow, chauvinistic nationalisms. In South Asia, fundamentalism increases violence against women. In East Asia, 'nationalist' reactions to the crisis amplify harsh treatment of migrant workers. In Australia, the lobby against Asian immigration escalates. These emerging local and national trends are especially worrying for women." (Rag, 1 Jul 1998). It is therefore important to share and replicate pro-people and pro-women strategies of resistance and alternatives to globalization as more and more women and men among the workers, peasants, indigenous peoples, urban poor communities, youth & students, professionals, church people, health sector, teachers, government employees and local entrepreneurs have become aware of the true nature and ill effects of globalization. More and more have taken up the fight against globalization: the Assembly of the Poor in Thailand, Wheat Revival Movement in South Korea, anti-dam campaign in Malaysia and Cambodia, the Cordillera people's campaign against open pit mining in the Philippines, campaigns against trafficking of women and the International People's Campaign Against Imperialist Globalization led by the Philippine people's movement. APWLD, GABRIELA, SRED and the Tamilnadu Women's Forum are sponsoring the workshop Strategies, Gains and Challenges in the Women's Struggle Against Globalization to provide a venue through which women can: (1) share effective strategies that some of them have used in resisting globalization; (2) get inspired by the small but growing victories that they have gained; and (3) discuss how they can meet the challenges of the years to come.# From tpl at cheerful.com Wed Oct 21 08:55:25 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 07:55:25 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 816] Workshop: Globalization Intensifies Landlessness Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981021075525.0069abdc@pop.skyinet.net> BEAT THE DEADLINE! REGISTER NOW! SEE YOU IN KUALA LUMPUR. KMP (Philippine Peasant Movement), AMIHAN (Federation of Peasant Women Organizations in the Philippines, Asian Peasant Women's Network (APWN) and the Anti-Imperialist World Peasant Summit (AIWPS) - Asian Forum invite you to their workshop on how globalization intensifies landlessness of the peasantry. This workshop is part of the Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture which PAN-AP and ERA Consumer (Malaysia) are co-sponsoring on November 11-12, 1998. The Forum is part of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) which will run from November 10 to 15 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia parallel to the APEC Leaders Summit. WORKSHOP: GLOBALIZATION INTENSIFIES LANDLESSNESS "Our Struggle for Land is a Struggle for Our Lives!" November 11, 1998 Federal Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Objectives: - To show how imperialist globalization intensifies landlessness of the peasantry; - To provide a venue where men and women peasant leaders can share their experiences of resistance against globalization; and - To formulate regional/international peasant action against imperialism and its scheme of globalization. Programme (November 11) 2:30 p.m. Workshop Orientation by Teresita Oliveros, APWN Convenor, Workshop Moderator Welcome Address by Rafael Mariano, Chairperson, KMP SHARINGS 3:00 Movimento dos Trabaljadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), Brazil 3:40 All India People's Resistance Forum (AIPRF) and/or Workers Party of Bangladesh 4:00 Tea Break 4:20 Peasant Leader from South Korea 4:40 Peasant Leader from Japan 5:00 Peasant Women's Struggle for Land in San Francisco, Quezon by Carmen Buena, National Chairperson, AMIHAN 5:30 Open Forum 6:45 Synthesis by the Moderator 7:00 Dinner 8:00 Presentation and Adoption of Resolutions and Unity Statement Action Plans for Regional/International Peasant Actions 9:30 Closing Remarks 9:45 Solidarity Socials From tpl at cheerful.com Wed Oct 21 09:06:09 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (GABRIELA) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 08:06:09 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 817] reminder: workshop on globalization & fisheries Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981021080609.0069abdc@pop.skyinet.net> From: pampil@skyinet.net REMINDER: Beat the deadline! Register NOW to the Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture and join us in the WORKSHOP ON GLOBALIZATION AND FISHERIES! Join other fisherfolk in saying NO TO MONOPOLY CAPITAL'S THIRST FOR PROFIT! Hear leaders of major fisherfolk organizations share case studies concretely manifesting the impact of liberalization and privatization on their countries' fishery, their environment and their lives: COMMERCIAL SHRIMP CULTIVATION AND AQUACULTURE are viable alternatives in producing food for the need of the people. However, uncontrolled production for export and profit rather than for ensuring society's food security negatively impacts on the ordinary fisherfolk's source of livelihood, on the environment and on food sufficiency. Sharing will come from our brothers and sisters from Bangladesh, Thailand or Sri Lanka. Uncontrolled COMMERCIAL FISHING operations of transnational fishing corporations and local fishing magnates have led to the dramatic decrease in small fisherfolk catch in years. Commercial trawlers and big fishing fleets prey on communal fishing areas, monopolizing use of communal fishing grounds, which leave poor fisherfolk empty handed. We have invited fisherfolk leaders from Chile and Canada to share their experience. The BIMP-EAGA (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines -- East Asia Growth Area) projects in fisheries are ways by which corporate fishing circumvent sovereign rights and territorial integrity of nations. This concept of growth zone is actually a scheme that fishing TNCs use to guarantee swift and large-scale harvest and, of course, quick profits. NACFAR (Nationwide Coalition of Fisherfolk for Aquatic Reform) from the Philippines will share the results of its study on BIMP-EAGA. There will also be inputs on the general impact of globalization: * Liberalization & Privatization in Fisheries: Impact, Fisherfolk Resistance and Alternatives by PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines). Trade and investments liberalization, pushed to greater heights by globalization, kill fisherfolk economies and undermine food and fish security both on the local and regional levels. The input will delve into the ill effects of globalization in fisheries and present viable options in confronting globalization and realizing social justice and political empowerment of the fisherfolk. * Impact of Globalization on the Marine Environment and Aquatic Resources. This presentation by India holds transnational corporations and domestic fishing monopolies responsible for the destruction of the marine environment and depletion of aquatic resources. Corporate practices cause industrial pollution and chemical toxicity of bodies of water thereby destroying the fisherfolk's source of livelihood. All this done in the perennial corporate search for bigger profits. ---------------------------------------- REPRINT: Rationale Many of the world's most productive ecosystems are found in Asia. The region has nine of the world's top fishing nations. Ironically, the developing countries of the region have not been able to derive full benefits from their resources. It is rather the developed and affluent countries which have profited from the exploitation of the region's resources. Over the years, the fisheries sector has been on the decline all over the world, but the solutions that governments, especially Asian regimes under pressure from global powers, resort to are liberalization, denationalization and privatization. Lately, fishery plans under Asian governments have become the center of attraction in the drive for "globalization" because Asian fisheries has become the primary target of Japanese, US and European trade and investments. Wide open are the opportunities to "globalize" the capital and products of multinational and transnational corporations (MNCs/TNCs) facilitated by provisions of WTO agreements and speeded up by regional trade blocks like NAFTA and APEC. "Globalization," government leaders and technocrats claim, is the panacea to the woes of the sector and the poverty of the fisherfolk. "Globalization" has given rise instead to the uncontrolled expansion of large fishing fleets mercilessly devastating productive fishing grounds with their ever advancing technology and ever present capital. The result is monopoly of vast waters in the hands of those who already have the most concentration of capital and the "best" of technology -- the MNCs/TNCs -- and the global powers -- the US, Japan and the EU. The wholesale commercialization and subsequent disintegration of vital fishery resource bases are then used to rationalize the expansion of unsustainable corporate aquaculture operations as a placebo to the continued collapse of coastal and traditional capture fisheries production. Worsened is the degradation of the already critically fragile coastal zone ecosystems. In the end, supposed hopes of `saving the environment' become naught with the reality of unabated degradation of coastal and offshore resources and ecosystems. "Globalization" renders traditional fisheries uncompetitive through the systematic manipulation of national programs and policies to suit the profiteering motives of capital-intensive, commercially-efficient, high-valued and export-geared fisheries production. What it results into are highly unsustainable fishing practices, fishery trade crises, and the uncontrollable price increases of basic fishery commodities. The capitalist-imperialist competition for fishery enclaves causes the vicious depravity of millions of artisanal fisherfolk and the dangerous imperilment of food security all over the world. But the very same phenomenon of imperialist globalization that intensifies global economic and financial crisis strengthens fisherfolk and peoples' resolve to resist and to struggle to change their situation. Programme: November 10 Whole Day: Registration to APPA Afternoon: Registration to the Forum on Land, Food Security & Agriculture and its Workshop on Globalization and Fisheries Early Evening: APPA Opening Ceremony November 11 0830-0930 Additional Registration 0930-1015 Opening Addresses: Globalization and Its Impact on Land, Food Security & Agriculture by Dr. Vandana Shiva and Sarojeni Rengam (PAN-AP) 1015-1030 Tea Break 1030-1115 On Trade Agreements - WTO and Agriculture by Bhagirath Lal Das (author of "An Introduction to the WTO Agreements" and "The WTO Agreements: Deficiencies, Imbalances and Required Changes") - Impact of NAFTA on Agriculture and Food Security by Ana de Ita (Ceccam, Mexico) 1115-1300 Sharing from Grassroots Movements - Chiapas, Mexico - Philippines (KMP/AMIHAN) - Thailand (Assembly of the Poor) - South Korea (Wheat Revival Movement) - Malaysia 1300-1400 Lunch 1400 Start of simultaneous workshops Workshop on Globalization and Fisheries 1400-1430 Workshop Introduction 1430-1630 Presentations: - Liberalization & Privatization in Fisheries: Impact, Fisherfolk Resistance and Alternatives (PAMALAKAYA) - Impact of Globalization on Marine Environment and Aquatic Resources (India) - Case Studies: * commercial aquaculture (Bangladesh, Thailand or Sri Lanka) * extensive commercial fishing (Chile or Canada) * BIMP-EAGA (NACFAR) 1630-1700 Tea Break 1700-1900 Open Forum: Further discussion of issues and sharing of struggles and alternatives 1900-2000 Dinner 2000-2200 Open Forum: Resolutions and Statement of Unity November 12 Closing Plenary of Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture From panap at panap.po.my Wed Oct 21 21:15:48 1998 From: panap at panap.po.my (PAN Asia Pacific) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 21:15:48 Subject: [asia-apec 818] Landless peasants to swarm rural agencies in 24 town, cities Message-ID: <2833@panap.po.my> FORWARDED MAIL ------- From: kmp@info.com.ph Date: 20 Oct 98 NEWS RELEASE 19 October 1998 For immediate release LANDLESS PEASANTS TO SWARM RURAL AGENCIES IN 24 TOWNS AND CITIES MANILA (October 19) -- Militant peasants announce a week of marching, occupations of local agrarian agencies and other protests across the country in protest of "CARP-assisted" land grabbing abetted by President Joseph Estrada. In a media forum today, farmers and fishermen's groups from the Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog also announced simultaneous camp outs and marches in Manila and not less than 24 town halls as far south as Puerto Princesa and Cebu City, involving more than 20,000 protesters marking the 26th anniversary of Presidential Decree 27 or the land reform under Marcos (October 21).=20 The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) noted that peasants continue to rely on their organized strength in defending their rights to land and refuse to be misled by DAR secretary Horacio Morales' empty boasts of aiming to distribute more than 4 million hectares of private lands in four more years of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.=20 "Across the last 25 years, only 1.4 million hectares are private lands tokenly transferred to tenants, and 1.3 million are leasehold or non-land transfer schemes and reforestation contracts of public lands leased out by the DENR. Many are still being repossessed by landlords in cases crawling in courts, quasi-judicial and administrative bodies, but DAR keeps dressing up the figures," Mariano said.=20 He said paper awards cancelled by DAR, DARAB, Malaca=F1ang and the Supreme Court in the controversial cases of Sumilao and Central Mindanao University in Musuan (Bukidnon); Hacienda Looc (Nasugbu, Batangas); Mamburao (Mindoro); Montalban, Rizal; and San Jose del Monte, Bulacan; and many more are registered to give a semblance that CARP is working. "The new tack in producing five-figure additions by Morales and Estrada involves having their godfather Danding Cojuanco announce stock options similar to the Hacienda Luisita scam, which are of course only to expand his agribusiness investments and avoid sequestration."=20 For his part, Rodolfo Sambajon, chair of the fisherfolk movement Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) demanded the scrapping of CARL together with the new Fisheries Code of 1998 and the Mining Act of 1995 which the group fears will disguise the reconcentration of 8 million hectares of communal uplands, marshes and foreshorelands unto corporate monopolies, on top of the more than 7.6 million currently in private hands.=20 Its affliated chapter Haligi ng Batangue=F1ong Magdaragat (Habagat)= revealed that fisherfolk from Batangas will encamp at the DENR tonight until the 21st to exposed the inaction of the agency in stopping the pollution caused by alcohol distilleries in Balayan Bay. They will be joined by the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK) and the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) on the 21st in a 5,000-man march on= Mendiola. Local chapters of KMP and Pamalakaya will picket agency offices and local governments in Calapan, Mamburao, Pinamalayan, Roxas, Nasugbu, Lucena City, Lian, Calaca, Lemery, Rosario, Batangas City, San Juan, Gumaca, Infanta, Puerto Princesa, Catanauan, Antipolo, Sta. Cruz, San Pablo City, Calauag, Balayan and Cebu City. =20 JOINT STATEMENT OF THE PEASANT, FISHERFOLK AND PEASANT SUPPORT NETWORKS ON 8 YEARS OF CALABARZON AND 26 YEARS OF PD 27 by KMP / PAMALAKAYA /=20 KASAMA-TK/ AMGL/ NNARA / NACFAR / BINHI / IRDF / NNARA Youth / SENTRA If there is any place that the restoration not only of Marcos cronies to power but more so of the worsening of extreme feudal and semi-feudal exploitation and fascist repression are intensely experienced and felt, it is the rural countrysides. Everywhere the people try to survive by fishing and farming, Joseph Estrada's pro-poor and pro-peasant rhetoric is exposed to be as disgraceful as his attack on labor in the cities. His DAR secretary Horacio Morales has glorified Danding Cojuanco as his godfather of agrarian reform in exchange for the tiny portions from the crony's vast landholdings. Morales can only make CARP more export-oriented as dictated by the World Bank rather than resolve the fundamental problem of landlessness, his deception hidden behind his armed escorts, cold and irritated with the demands of peasants crying at the gates of his airconditioned lair in Manila.=20 The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, by the power of the Mining and NIPAS Acts, has converted 142,000 hectares in Southern Tagalog, 67,000 hectares in Cebu to mining, and hundreds of thousands more in Negros, Mindanao and the Cordillera to quarrying, commercial agroforestry, dams and eco-tourism and industrial parks. The Department of Agriculture will implement the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act and the Fisheries Code to allow local and foreign monopolies to further claim fishery areas and expand plantations for export crop production, while destroying the livelihoods and jobs of millions.=20 Pretending to champion for the human rights of Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim, Estrada ordered the Department of National Defense and the Department of Interior of Local Governments to criminalize the peasant struggle for land. The armed forces complement the private security goons of the landlords in harassing the peasant masses, often leading into arson of crops and property, illegal arrests, abductions, sickness and injury, summary executions, food blockades, forced evictions and evacuations. Victims turned up dead in Mindoro and South Quezon or jailed on criminal cases in Batangas. Large formations encamp and conduct mock battles in Hacienda Looc, in Pampanga and Mindoro. DND chief Orlando Mercado praised his soldiers for jobs well done.=20 The US-Estrada regime is clearly anti-poor, anti-peasant and anti-democratic. Estrada, drunk with the mandate bestowed upon him by Danding Cojuanco to be the chief political representative of the ruling classes, will always defend the landlord, compradors, multinational corporations and bureaucrat cronies. Landlessness and militarization will intensify given his total puppetry to imperialist domination. Technocrats take back their contempt for the dropout they scorned only three months ago and now awed by his newfound genius for his outspoken devotion to globalization and trade liberalization. The peasants, the fisherfolk, the indigenous peoples, threatened with wholesale displacement, are fighting back. Long ago we refused to be deceived by token reforms promised by anti-peasant and farcical PD 27 and CARP, we stayed on our lands and stopped the bulldozers and army trucks with our organized strength and firm determination year after year, with the support of other sectors in the media, the church, the academe and pro-people parliamentarians and public servants and other exploited and oppressed sectors. We struggled to reduce land rent and won gains in our own land reform initiatives.=20 We have learned not to be fooled by the false promises of CARP, CALABARZON, MARILAQUE, MIMAROPA, Pampanga Delta and Central Luzon Development Projects, Philippines 2000, APEC, GATT-WTO and the Asean Free Trade Area, and we will not fall for Jeep ni Erap and Makamasa. We have also learned the lesson that only we can restore the lands taken from us by foreign and local monopolies if we only sustain our resolve to bit by bit weaken the feudal power of the landlords and their imperialist backers. This week, across town and city halls of Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Mindoro, Palawan, Rizal, Cebu and Metro Manila, we will once again launch the struggle against imperialist plunder, feudal exploitation and fascist repression. We will carry forward with the struggle of the broad masses for genuine land reform and national industrialization. From panap at panap.po.my Wed Oct 21 21:13:50 1998 From: panap at panap.po.my (PAN Asia Pacific) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 21:13:50 Subject: [asia-apec 819] Dr. Syed Husin Ali on Globalisation Message-ID: <2832@panap.po.my> FORWARDED MAIL ------- From: mudali@pl.jaring.my (ali) Date: 12 Oct 98 Originally To: (Recipient list suppressed) Globalisation And Its Effects Dr Syed Husin Ali Globalisation is a process, not a situation. It generally means the process that breaks down boundaries between countries and slowly transforms the globe into a unit. In this global unit, communication becomes much faster and countries nearer. People can fly around the globe, from one city to another overnight; they can enjoy through television in Kuala Lumpur a world football match that takes place in Paris at the same time; they can carry out trade transactions of shares or commodities through the computer, without having to meet and discuss face to face. All these have been made possible by the development of electronics and communication technologies that have taken vast strides during the last two or three decades. The process of globalisation also occurs in the global economic communications and transactions, although often in very unbalanced way. This results from the expansion of multinational corporation (MNC) based in the First World, often referred to as the global capitalist centre, to the peripheries in the Third World. Many MNCs own or control large sectors of production and trade in the developing third world countries. They often extract large profits by paying low wages to labour and selling their produce at high prices. Economic control by several global capitalist countries result in strong political influence over developing countries in the periphery. All this gives rise to the development of economic and political structures at the international level, which often play more important roles than the national economic and political structures. Besides, they also encourage the dissemination of what is characterised as the global culture; for example, different types of ‘international’ entertainment, dress and food have become more popular among youths than ‘national’ entertainment, dress and food. Historical Background There is a general belief that globalisation is a new phenomenon that developed in the eighties, especially after the fall of several socialist and nationalist regimes, followed by the emergence of several Asian states as capitalist powers with strong competitive ability. Some view globalisation as the process of expansion of the influence of commerce, industry, technology and knowledge from the capitalist centres to the peripheries. So it has been regarded as an influential factor that can bring about change and modernity to the less developed peripheral states. Actually, viewed historically, globalisation process took place much earlier. It began from what is known as the ‘voyages of discovery’, when Vasco da Gama and Columbus went around the globe in search of wealth for their rulers. In other words it began with the emergence of capitalism in Europe about five hundred years ago. Its later development was in the forms of colonialism and imperialism. A characteristic of these two systems has been the economic exploitation and plunder of territories that were colonised and peoples who were dominated, in order to ensure accumulation of capital or wealth by the colonial or imperialist powers. >From the qualitative perspective, actually there is little difference between colonialism and imperialism with globalisation as it now exists. Only that globalisation process may be deeper. Therefore, many regard globalisation as a new form of colonialism or imperialism which can cause losses and underdevelopment on developing countries and peoples influenced or dominated by it. In the past colonial era, military might was often used for economic and political control or domination. This happens under present-day globalisation too, as in the case of the Gulf War. Even if military power is not used, economic sanctions may be imposed, as in the case against Cuba, Iraq or Iran, which have to pay high price for refusing to bow to the western capitalist power, particularly the USA. The superpowers can also make use of international agencies to expand their global influence. For instance, USA so often manipulates the United Nations Security Council to further its global policies or strategies. World Bank and IMF Among agencies within the economic sphere which can be used by big powers in the capitalist centre, especially USA, to influence or control the peripheral states in the Third World are the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Both were established in 1945. Voting power in both is based on the amount of funds or capital contributed by their member states. USA is the biggest contributor - 36 percent in the IMF and 35 percent in the WB. In fact, USA together with other global capitalist countries like Japan, Germany, Britain and France, have the majority capital control and so enjoy voting majority to in both institutions. When the WB or IMF give loans to any developing country, they often impose strong conditions. Among them are those referred to as structural adjustments within the economy and politics of the recipient country. Economic or corporate adjustments involve steps to reduce costs and control labour, so that competitive position can be improved. These often result in the reduction of wages or increase in productivity without wages increasing. Further, expenditures regarded as subsidies for social services, including education, health and housing are reduced, and as a result help towards the disadvantaged groups within society will be affected. Experiences in various countries (like Mexico and the Philippines) demonstrate how WB and IMF loans have resulted in them becoming dominated by USA via these institutions. LDP Policies Countries which make up the global centres strongly practise capitalism, and the most powerful among them is the USA. Capitalist systems in the global capitalist centres spread to peripheral countries which are often too weak to resist their influences. Various aspects of the capitalist system are accepted by a large number of the peripheral countries which want to follow the capitalist road to development. They may be summed up as the LDP policies, standing for liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation. Malaysia is one such country which has received almost in toto these policies. This is consistent with her objective of developing the country and modernising the people along the capitalist track. The liberalisation policy encourages, among others, free market and free flow of foreign capital. It is true that free market can encourage efficiency and healthy competition, but it is also often motivated by the desire to accumulate large profits, to the extent that the interests and welfare of the people are often neglected. Many MNCs, which enjoy monopolistic power, can determine their conditions over wages, facilities and privileges to workers. For example, in order to attract capital into the electronics sector, the Malaysian government provides many incentives which benefit foreign capital, but which also incur losses to the country and especially workers, through tax holiday to pioneer industries, restrictions for establishing unions, low wages and hazardous jobs particularly to women. Deregulation strengthens the possibility of free competition by reducing, setting aside or abolishing all restrictions or barriers, and one of the consequences is that the position of the low income groups is weakened. Let us take the regulations which exempt payment or impose low fees on health or education for the lower income groups, for example. If these regulations are removed following conditions set by IMF, which opposes subsidies being given to any group, then surely it will create extra burden to the economically weak. In addition, there are also pressures from the superpowers - through IMF, WB, World Trade Organisatio (WTO) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) - to remove trade barriers in developing countries, which are meant to protect the economic interests of these countries, so that their doors can be widely opened to capital and commodities from the powerful countries in the capitalist centres. When this happens, then ultimately the economy of the peripheral countries which are trying to develop, will be dominated by the big capitalist countries. In this way the process of neo-colonialism begins. Privatisation, as widely known now, is the policy of transferring public enterprises to the private sector. It is clear that this policy has benefited only a small and privileged group, while at the same time burdening the majority of ordinary people. It is true that privatisation can be a better alternative when the management or administration by the public sector is fraught with inefficiency, waste and corruption. But in practice it is also well-known that pivatisation does not necessarily offer a better and cleaner management. The management of water, electricity and telephones after privatisation has not become any better than before, but the charges and levies for these services have increased to the extent that they have become burdensome on the people. So too, as a result of corporatisation, fees for post-graduate students have increased, and will soon increase for undergraduates too, although the standard of university education has generally not improved, and in certain cases even deteriorated. Regional Cooperation Although the process of globalisation is taking place widely, yet at the same time we find that many countries try to strengthen their positions and protect their interests regionally. For example, several north American countries have grouped themselves to further free market though the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is a trade bloc. In fact, NAFTA benefits USA more than the other member countries , and it allows USA to carry out dumping in Mexico, especially of the most polluting industries, and to open factories which pay lower wages to local workers. Nearer home, APEC was formed on the initiative of Australia. Now it has a membership of eighteen countries in the Asia Pacific, including USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The presence of these four countries seems to serve as guarantee that APEC will not become a bloc that might compete with NAFTA. Different from NAFTA, APEC is not a trade bloc and does not give any trade or investment privilege to any member country. At present the main role of APEC is to facilitate the process of consultation which will ultimately allow for deregulation in the region, by breaking down barriers existing in the Third World countries for the purpose of protecting their own interests. It is well known that there is fear among some members of APEC, especially Malaysia, that APEC may be dominated by USA to further her interests. That was why Malaysia initiated the formation of the East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC), but this initiative could not succeed because Japan was not willing to provide the leadership requested of them, as she feared going against USA. In 1997, USA requested that APEC should give preferential access to its members. There is pressure for all protective barriers or restrictions to be removed by member countries, and this would obviously open wide opportunities to USA to increase its influence and even domination in this region. Such pressure has not been accepted for implementation, but USA will continue to put the heat on so that it will be finally implemented. In fact, it has been agreed that it will be implemented in stages by 2010 and 2020. When this happens, then the developing countries and their people will suffer heavy losses, because the capitalist or free market system that the USA wants to introduce is based largely on economic control and exploitation of the people and drawing out of huge profits in various forms. Why Accept Globalisation? Many leaders in the Third World have already realised that globalisation and the LDP policies that come with it are dangerous. These policies can, and in some countries have given rise to their own economic crisis. But these leaders are the ones who, in the first instance, have been responsible for accepting such policies. Following the acceptance of globalisation and the LDP policies, these leaders have allowed portfolio capital to flood into their countries for speculation; they approved and encouraged short term loans in foreign currency; they sponsored unproductive megaprojects; and they allowed for deficit in current accounts to increase. In the end the values of their own currency and shares depreciate. As a result prices of essential goods increase, real wages decrease, many workers get retrenched and the economic crisis becomes more serious until, in several countries, they give rise to political and social crises. To check all these, Malaysia has introduced some regulatory measures, especially to control foreign exchange. But its leaders are still very much committed to neo-liberalisation and privatisation policies. So, why do these leaders accept globalisation and LDP? Firstly, the waves of globalisation are too strong and the influence of the superpowers too great, that the leaders cannot stop them coming to and overwhelming the Third World. Secondly, in the Asian region, many countries and leaders accept capitalism as the best way to achieve progress and development. So they readily accept the influence of globalisation that originates from the global capitalist centre, although they realise some of its weaknesses and dangers. Thirdly, some of the political leaders and leading economic figures close to them regard globalisation, policies related to it, and the capitalist system can provide huge profits to the same leaders and their own groups. As has been amply shown, many among them have become rich and powerful through greed, corruption and cronyism. These indeed have caused the downfall of many of them. Petaling Jaya 10 October 1998 Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) 42, Jalan Masjid (3/69), 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Tel: 03-7918704, Fax: 03-7744531, E-mel: prm@po.jaring.my Homepage: http//www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/1773/index.html From apfischer at igc.org Thu Oct 22 12:52:24 1998 From: apfischer at igc.org (Paige Fischer) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 20:52:24 -0700 Subject: [asia-apec 820] Agenda: Workshop on Forests and Trade Message-ID: <4.0.1.19981021204953.00f1d1e0@pop2.igc.org> To all of you who are interested in participating in the workshop $(C(BForests and Trade on the Pacific Rim: How Do We Protect Our Communities:$(D(B Here is a draft agenda and list of speakers/discussion leaders for the workshop. If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact us. We welcome your input. There is still time to register for the workshop and make travel arrangements. Please feel free to ask for any information or assistance. I look forward to hearing from you. Paige Fischer SPEAKERS/DISCUSSION LEADERS (confirmed and invited) Harrison Ngau, Borneo Research Institute, Malaysia Yoichi Kuroda, JATAN, Japan Longgena Ginting, WALHI, Indonesia Chee Yoke Ling, Third World Network, Malaysia Adrianna Hoffman, Defensoras del Bosques Chileno, Chile Victor Menotti, International Forum on Globalization, USA Evelyne Hong, Salat Alam Malaysia, Malaysia Meng Chou, Ideal, Malaysia Leonie van der Maesen, Friends of the Earth/Native Forest Network, Australia Kazuko Matsue, Forest Policy Research Center, Japan Carol Young, Gender and Development Center, Malaysia Moestafa Alwi, LATIN, Indonesia Pat Rasmussen, Leavenworth Adopt-A-Tree, U.S.A Raymond Abin, Borneo Research Institute, Malaysia Russian and New Zealand forest activists will also make presentations DRAFT AGENDA (Please feel free to comment on this) Forests and Trade on the Pacific Rim: How Do We Protect Our Communities? November 11 and 12, 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (hotel and address will be made available soon) ***Day One: Wednesday, November 11*** 9:00 WELCOME 9:30 PRESENTATION: Free Trade in Forests: What does it mean for ecosystems and communities in Pacific Rim countries? 10:00 UPDATES: Case Studies which show how trade and multinational corporations are impacting forests and communities Malaysia Chile New Zealand Japan U.S. Pacific Northwest Russian Far East Philippines Mexico Indonesia 12:00 QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION: What are the problems with globalization? How can we impact consumer behavior? What tools and skills do we need to deal with problems? What questions do we need to answer at workshop? 13:00 LUNCH 14:00 PRESENTATION: How do citizens in different countries confront globalization differently and how can we work together using our various strategies? (Case studies: Japan, Malaysia, Chile, USA) 15:00 DISCUSSION 16:00 EXPLORING STRATEGIES: SMALL GROUP BREAKOUT ONE (every body pick one group) Awareness/|Education Campaigns Mobilising Communities Corporations Import/Export Bans and Controls Policy Alternatives Responsible Trade Tools Consumer Campaigns/Certification More 17:30 REVIEW DISCUSSION, SET PRIORITIES FOR TOMORROW ***Day Two: Thursday, November 12*** 9:00 UPDATES: Presentations on current initiatives and campaigns to confront globalization of forest industry and trade and investment initiatives such as APEC, NAFTA and FTAA, IMF, WTO 10:30 DISCUSSION: Ways to build networks, collaborate and join up on campaigns, identify campaigns 11:30 EXPLORING STRATEGIES: SMALL GROUP BREAKOUT TWO (every body join new group) Awareness/|Education Campaigns Mobilising Communities Corporations Import/Export Bans and Controls Policy Alternatives Responsible Trade Tools Consumer Campaigns/Certification More 13:00 LUNCH 14:00 DISCUSSION: Where Do We Go From Here? Developing Joint-strategies and Plans for Collaboration 15:00 PRESENTATION: Logistical considerations for joint-campaigns and network-building 16:00 DISCUSSION: Working out Logistics 17:30 CLOSING From pspd at soback.kornet.nm.kr Thu Oct 22 22:30:13 1998 From: pspd at soback.kornet.nm.kr (PSPD) Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 22:30:13 +0900 Subject: [asia-apec 821] Re: Agenda: Workshop on Forests and Trade References: <4.0.1.19981021204953.00f1d1e0@pop2.igc.org> Message-ID: <362F3364.412B158F@soback.kornet.nm.kr> Dear Paige, Greetigns from Korea. We, PSPD woulld like to particiate this session during APEC in Novemebr. Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS) has monitored Korean overseas invetment and campaign on codes of conduct for fair trade, Let me know whether whope trip will be supported by host group or not. We would like to send two participants who are researcher and campaign coordinator on this agenda. Sincerely. Serapina Cha, Mi-kyung Chief coordinator of KHIS in PSPD. From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Fri Oct 23 02:42:49 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 09:42:49 -0800 Subject: [asia-apec 822] Van Sun: Liberals defeat motion to fund APEC complainants Message-ID: Last Updated: Wednesday 21 October 1998 TOP STORIES --------------------------------------------------------- B.C. MPs help kill APEC legal help The Vancouver Sun Peter O'Neil, Sun Ottawa Bureau Vancouver Sun OTTAWA -- B.C. Liberal MPs voted with their caucus colleagues Tuesday to help defeat an opposition motion calling on the federal government to fund student complainants at the APEC inquiry. The seven B.C. Liberals helped kill the motion by a 135 to 105 count, even though the federal party's B.C. wing voted Sunday in Whistler in favour of asking the government to help defray the protesters' legal costs. Only Two Liberal MPs, Montreal-area MP Clifford Lincoln and Toronto MP John Godfrey, showed any resistance to the government whip. They abstained, triggering cheers and catcalls from Reform, Bloc Quebecois, New Democratic Party, and Progressive Conservative MPs who united to support funding the complainants at the inquiry into events last fall at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vancouver. Liberal MP McWhinney (Vancouver Quadra), who represents the UBC area where the violent APEC demonstrations took place, and who publicly supports government funding for the students, acknowledged he was uncomfortable voting against the wishes of the majority of grass-roots B.C. Liberals. "In a situation like this you just have to grit your teeth," said McWhinney, who withstood opposition accusations that he and other MPs were acting like "trained seals." "We're concerned obviously. It means you've got to do a great deal of work educating people that ours is a reasonable position." But McWhinney and other Liberals said they were obliged to support the government position because opposition MPs are using the funding issue to score political points. Secretary of State Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre) said she once felt, as a narrow majority of delegates did at the Whistler convention, that the students need legal aid while going against high-priced government and RCMP lawyers at the inquiry. "I have now looked at the facts . . . and I think I'm pleased that the commission will be able to get to the truth," Fry said. Rookie Liberal MP Sophia Leung (Vancouver Kingsway), who abandoned the Commons finance committee in Saskatoon fly to Ottawa for the vote, pointed out that some B.C. Liberals voted against funding students. The resolution, advanced by the party's youth wing, was passed by a narrow 105-95 margin in Whistler. Revenue Minister Herb Dhaliwal (Vancouver-South Burnaby) said he doesn't feel compelled to always vote in accordance with the resolution of B.C. grass-roots Liberals. "We have to look at those resolutions as a guide for government policy . . . But we don't respond to every resolution that comes forward." _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Fri Oct 23 03:03:30 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 10:03:30 -0800 Subject: [asia-apec 823] Van Sun: Fear of signs Message-ID: Two from the Vancouver Sun: -- Protest sign briefly closes APEC probe -- Chretien resists calls to testify Other news includes a poll finding BC'ers evently plit on RCMP actiosn during last year's APEC summit, whilke other Canadians tend to support the students. Nationally, 38% thought Mountie actions were reasonable, 47% thought they went too far. In BC, the split was 49-42. Last Updated: Thursday 22 October 1998 TOP STORIES --------------------------------------------------------- Protest sign briefly closes APEC probe The Vancouver Sun Jeff Lee Vancouver Sun The chair of the RCMP Public Complaints Commission into APEC strongly rebuked protesters who put up several offensive signs in the hearing room Wednesday, including one facing the panel that said "F--- APEC". The protest, in which students Jaggi Singh and Jonathan Oppenheim posted signs and cartoons on a column near their desk they named the "Pillar of Democracy," shut down the hearings for more than an hour. Gerald Morin, chairman of the three-member panel, ordered the signs removed. When the protesters refused and added a mini-baseball bat to the posters while television cameras filmed the action, Morin ordered everyone out of the room and told two federal commissionaires to remove the material. Singh, Oppenheim and another protester, Mark Brooks, refused to leave the room, which remained closed while commission counsel Chris Considine met with the protesters. When the room reopened, the signs were gone and Morin made it clear the panel will not tolerate any demonstrations, especially ones designed to get media attention. In a tone that thinly hid considerable anger at the demonstrators, Morin warned any further demonstrations could lead to the hearings being closed to electronic media. He then ordered the cross-examination of CBC camera operator Rob Douglas to resume. When Singh tried to interrupt, Morin cut him off abruptly and ruled him out of order. When Singh opened his mouth again, Morin forcefully said: "NO!" Singh and Oppenheim were two of the major organizers behind student protests during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last year and have emerged as focal points for media coverage of the inquiry. They are among a number of protesters and students given standing at the hearings and have the right to cross-examine witnesses. Both said they put the signs on the pillar because they wanted to exercise their right of free speech. Singh denied he was trying to show contempt for the hearing. "I don't think exercising free speech is contemptuous of anybody." Oppenheim said he didn't think the protest would weaken public support for the students because the issue of free speech is central to the entire hearing. The disruption came on a day when other protesters and their lawyers returned to the hearings despite the fact the federal government has repeatedly refused their requests for legal funding. The two events overshadowed continuing cross-examination of Douglas, who was pepper-sprayed by Staff-Sergeant Hugh Stewart during a roadblock-clearing incident at Gate Six at the University of B.C. Jim Williams, Stewart's lawyer, showed police videos of protests at a fence-tearing where Douglas said he filmed protesters being repeatedly pepper-sprayed. But Williams said the police footage showed officers sprayed protesters only twice -- once when the fence came down and once when four protesters tried to crash a barricade of police officers. Williams plans to show more police films of the Gate Six incident that he says will exonerate his client. In that incident, CBC film shows Stewart opened fire with a pepper-spray canister nine seconds after he gave a warning to protesters to clear a roadblock. Cameron Ward, a lawyer for 29 protesters who are members of a group called Democracy Street, said he and several lawyers from his office came back to the hearings because Prime Minister Jean Chretien's remarks about pepper spraying students being preferable to using baseball bats and water cannons have helped galvanize public support for the protesters. The B.C. Federation of Labour and Ward have received dozens of donations, and the federation now reports it has collected about $65,000 that will go toward representing the protesters . Last updated: Thursday 22 October 1998 NATIONAL NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- Chretien avoids question of his role in APEC security ------------------------------------------------------- BRUCE CHEADLE OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Jean Chretien says he is eager to learn the truth about any alleged police wrongdoing during student protests at last year's APEC summit in Vancouver. But he continued to avoid a direct answer Wednesday about whether he will voluntarily appear before the RCMP Public Complaints Commission to explain his own role in the controversial security arrangements. "We want Canadians to know exactly what happened there," Chretien said in the Commons in response to a Reform demand that he testify. "But I know that the Opposition, when they see the commission making progress, they are afraid to know the truth. We're not afraid of the truth at all, because we know that if something wrong had been done by the police, you know, we will be informed." The commission has heard and seen video evidence this week that RCMP officers gave nine seconds warning before blasting protesters with pepper spray at the summit site on the University of British Columbia campus last November. But the inquiry has yet to delve into evidence that student demonstrators say shows the Prime Minister's Office ordered the crackdown to save visiting Indonesian dictator Suharto from political embarrassment. "We want to know about the prime minister's actions, not the RCMP," Reform deputy leader Deborah Grey said. "We know they're being investigated." Members of the government continue to stress that the inquiry must be allowed to do its job of examining the role of police during the student protests. But they are silent on the equally pressing allegation that the crackdown was politically motivated and directed. Reform MP Jim Abbott said Wednesday that RCMP sources have told him the commission should have as evidence "boxes and boxes" of police radio tapes or transcripts from the summit. Abbott says those tapes, allegedly containing repeated references to Chretien's former director of operations Jean Carle, have not been submitted to the inquiry. "The people I have been speaking to said Jean Carle's name was on and on and on (those tapes)," said Abbott. "(Police) knew that he had the signature and the power of the prime minister behind him." Commission counsel Chris Considine said in Vancouver he would only talk about evidence during the hearing. "As you will have seen, we have not yet got to the radio transcripts in any detail," said Considine. "That will be coming up a little later and our investigation in respect to transcripts and any other documents is ongoing." Carle and Chretien's current chief of staff, Jean Pelletier, have volunteered to testify but it is expected to be several months before they appear before the commission. Liberal solidarity on a decsion to deny federal funding for lawyers representing the protesters at the hearings was called into question by opposition MPs when two Liberal backbenchers abstained in a vote on an NDP motion on the matter Tuesday. Neither Clifford Lincoln nor John Godfrey was talking Wednesday about their decisions. Godfrey sprinted out of a Liberal caucus meeting to avoid questions and neither MP returned calls to their offices. "They don't want to say anything in public," Grey charged outside the Commons. "They don't want to get the hook." Liberal House leader Don Boudria replied the government has "no lessons to learn from, of all people, the Reform party on autocratic rule." _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Fri Oct 23 11:15:16 1998 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 14:15:16 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 824] NZ: APEC Message-ID: <6B2sXe2w165w@corso.ch.planet.gen.nz> >From "Diary", The Dominion, Wellington, New Zealand 20/10/98 Planning for Apec is efficiently under way - we hope. An anti-terrorist practice in Auckland for the September conference drew an excited audience, but it turned out to be a damp squib. The only action was five cops walking briskly into the Downtown shopping centre - then out again with lunch and soft drinks. Turns out there was a communications hitch in Wellington, making it impossible to start the exercise. Here's hoping the glitches are ironed out before Bill Clinton arrives. From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Sat Oct 24 07:21:22 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 14:21:22 -0800 Subject: [asia-apec 825] Van Sun: Ottawa attacks critics Message-ID: Three articles from the Vancouver Sun: -- Ottawa claim of bias may shut down APEC hearing -- PMO demands CBC ombudsman look into APEC coverage -- Chretien avoids question of his role in APEC security Comment: Looks like a counter-attack on media critics and the government's own "independent" commission by the Prime Minister's Office. A guest column by one of Vancouver's most respected media figures follows as a separate item. Last Updated: Friday 23 October 1998 TOP STORIES --------------------------------------------------------- Ottawa claim of bias may shut down APEC hearing The Vancouver Sun Jeff Lee Vancouver Sun The future of the RCMP probe into police conduct at APEC is in grave doubt as a result of allegations that the chairman, Gerald Morin, prejudged the hearings by saying he believes the police were at fault in controlling student protests. The Vancouver Sun has learned that the federal government raised an allegation of bias against Morin Thursday. It is alleged that he told people at a casino in Prince Albert, Sask., last spring, in the presence of an off-duty aboriginal RCMP officer, that he had made up his mind and believed police acted improperly at APEC. The allegations, which were not made public, but were delivered in a letter shortly before the RCMP Public Complaints Commission was to resume hearings Thursday, immediately caused the panel to halt the proceedings pending an investigation. Although lawyers for the RCMP and the federal government were told of the reasons for the adjournment, none of the other counsel, including lawyers for students and complainants, was briefed. The government lawyers and the RCMP all entered into an undertaking not to disclose the new information. Commission counsel Chris Considine repeatedly refused to make any comment about why the hearings abruptly halted, saying only that the public would be told the reasons today. The unusual level of secrecy led to rampant rumours that the commission had discovered documents had been withheld, that audio tapes had been destroyed and that there had been political interference by the federal government. The allegations against Morin will have a devastating effect, sources close to the inquiry said. The allegations that Morin tainted the inquiry arose after the aboriginal RCMP officer in Morin's home town recounted how the chairman had allegedly told fellow gamblers at a casino that he had already determined the police were at fault in several pepper-spraying incidents at the University of B.C. The sources said the allegations will likely result in the panel being dismissed and may even result in the entire matter being taken out of the hands of the public complaints commission. Coupled with the allegations Solicitor-General Andy Scott also prejudged the panel in conversations on an airplane, this new development will likely force the government to halt the inquiry, sources said. "There is a decent chance the PCC process will get blown away when you combine this with Andy Scott's statements," said a source who requested anonymity. According to information provided to the commission, Morin is alleged to have visited a casino in Prince Albert last March shortly after the panel adjourned for the summer. The off-duty officer, who knew Morin from his local reputation, overheard him tell another person sitting at a gaming table that he had just returned from the APEC hearings in Vancouver. During the conversation the officer alleges he heard Morin say he had made up his mind and that he believed RCMP officers were at fault in several confrontations with protesters. "I know what the decision will be when I go into the hearings in the fall," Morin is alleged to have said, according to the account the federal government delivered to the commission Thursday. Sources said the off-duty officer didn't pay much attention to the remark until last week, after questions of Scott's bias arose and coverage of the APEC hearings began to get national attention. At that point, he approached his commanding officer, who in turn alerted the federal government. The witness' account was verified in several interviews, sources said. The allegations come at a time when the inquiry is under fire from protesters' lawyers who allege the commission is institutionally biased. Lawyer Cameron Ward is applying to the Federal Court of Canada for an order quashing the hearings, saying the commission has a long-standing bias in favour of the RCMP. The Liberal government has come under increasing fire from opposition parties and advocacy groups who say the complainants to the panel should be given legal funding, something the Liberals have refused to do. The panel is investigating allegations police used unnecessary force in controlling the protests, engaged in arbitrary and illegal detentions and violated peoples' constitutional rights of free speech. It is also looking at whether Prime Minister Jean Chretien's office directed security planning at APEC and ordered police to pepper-spray protesters. The panel was supposed to hear one more day of testimony today before recessing for at least 10 days. Before the allegations were made against Morin, lawyers said the hearings could last as long as six months. But the latest crisis began early Thursday just before the commission was about to convene the hearing. Federal lawyer Ivan Whitehall delivered a letter to Considine setting out the information the RCMP had received from Prince Albert, a source said. Considine conferred with Morin and panel members Vina Starr and John Wright briefly. The hearings were to be adjourned for two hours, but the panel later said it would not meet again until today, at which time there would be a statement. Last updated: Friday 23 October 1998 NATIONAL NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- PMO demands CBC ombudsman look into APEC coverage ------------------------------------------------------- BRUCE CHEADLE OTTAWA (CP) - The Prime Ministers Office has demanded a formal investigation by the CBC ombudsman into the television network's coverage of the APEC security inquiry. In a letter made public Thursday, PMO director of communications Peter Donolo accused the government-funded broadcaster of employing "a double standard" and of "broadcasting innuendo, unsubstantiated allegations and false statements." The unprecedented public war of words erupted last week over e-mail correspondence between a CBC reporter covering the APEC summit protests in Vancouver and one of the students who is alleging police brutality and suppression of dissent. The private e-mail between reporter Terry Milewski and student Craig Jones was made public after the RCMP Public Complaints Commission subpoenaed all Jones's computer records, including love letters to his girlfriend. Donolo complained to the CBC on Oct. 16 that Milewski referred to the federal government as "the Forces of Darkness" while providing Jones with a list of questions he had put to the PMO that should be followed up. Milewski was pulled off the story by the CBC. But the broadcaster also replied to Donolo with an equally tart letter, complaining of the "sustained unwillingness" of the PMO and the RCMP to answer questions on the controversy. Donolo has now fired back, saying the CBC is the only major media outlet not to reveal the contentious contents of Milewski's e-mails "in any substantive way." "The CBC uses due process in refusing to comment on Mr. Milewski's e-mails, yet rejects the legitimacy of the government to cite due process in not commenting on leaked documents," Donolo wrote. With the formalities of a written complaint and CBC's written reply now completed, Donolo insisted the matter be referred to the CBC ombudsman. Meanwhile a Reform MP on Thursday defended Milewski and called into question the government's tactics at the inquiry. Jim Abbott said "a fishing expedition" by federal lawyers forced the exposure of all Jones's correspondence. "As a result of that being splashed all over the place you now have someone who was working very aggressively on this story pulled off," said Abbott. Last updated: Friday 23 October 1998 NATIONAL NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- Chretien avoids question of his role in APEC security ------------------------------------------------------- BRUCE CHEADLE OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Jean Chretien says he is eager to learn the truth about any alleged police wrongdoing during student protests at last year's APEC summit in Vancouver. But he continued to avoid a direct answer Wednesday about whether he will voluntarily appear before the RCMP Public Complaints Commission to explain his own role in the controversial security arrangements. "We want Canadians to know exactly what happened there," Chretien said in the Commons in response to a Reform demand that he testify. "But I know that the Opposition, when they see the commission making progress, they are afraid to know the truth. We're not afraid of the truth at all, because we know that if something wrong had been done by the police, you know, we will be informed." The commission has heard and seen video evidence this week that RCMP officers gave nine seconds warning before blasting protesters with pepper spray at the summit site on the University of British Columbia campus last November. But the inquiry has yet to delve into evidence that student demonstrators say shows the Prime Minister's Office ordered the crackdown to save visiting Indonesian dictator Suharto from political embarrassment. "We want to know about the prime minister's actions, not the RCMP," Reform deputy leader Deborah Grey said. "We know they're being investigated." Members of the government continue to stress that the inquiry must be allowed to do its job of examining the role of police during the student protests. But they are silent on the equally pressing allegation that the crackdown was politically motivated and directed. Reform MP Jim Abbott said Wednesday that RCMP sources have told him the commission should have as evidence "boxes and boxes" of police radio tapes or transcripts from the summit. Abbott says those tapes, allegedly containing repeated references to Chretien's former director of operations Jean Carle, have not been submitted to the inquiry. "The people I have been speaking to said Jean Carle's name was on and on and on (those tapes)," said Abbott. "(Police) knew that he had the signature and the power of the prime minister behind him." Commission counsel Chris Considine said in Vancouver he would only talk about evidence during the hearing. "As you will have seen, we have not yet got to the radio transcripts in any detail," said Considine. "That will be coming up a little later and our investigation in respect to transcripts and any other documents is ongoing." Carle and Chretien's current chief of staff, Jean Pelletier, have volunteered to testify but it is expected to be several months before they appear before the commission. Liberal solidarity on a decsion to deny federal funding for lawyers representing the protesters at the hearings was called into question by opposition MPs when two Liberal backbenchers abstained in a vote on an NDP motion on the matter Tuesday. Neither Clifford Lincoln nor John Godfrey was talking Wednesday about their decisions. Godfrey sprinted out of a Liberal caucus meeting to avoid questions and neither MP returned calls to their offices. "They don't want to say anything in public," Grey charged outside the Commons. "They don't want to get the hook." Liberal House leader Don Boudria replied the government has "no lessons to learn from, of all people, the Reform party on autocratic rule." _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Sat Oct 24 07:21:28 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 14:21:28 -0800 Subject: [asia-apec 826] Van Sun: Chretien interference parallels Suharto actions Message-ID: Source: Vancouver Sun, Oct 23, 1998 Excerpt: Before the pepper spray and the headlines, the students and many others were protesting something very real -- the terror and repression of the Suharto regime in Indonesia. The 200,000 killed in East Timor. The 500,000 massacred in 1965 when Suharto took power. Leftists, activists, communists and thousands upon thousands of Chinese Indonesians killed.... All of us who have spent our lives in the media can only feel a sense of shame. ---------- Guest Column: Our window on the world is nailed shut The PMO must be gloating at how easily it was to silence Terry Milewski, the CBC's leading APEC reporter. It's strange how parallels to Suharto keep popping up. Daryl Duke, Filmmaker and broadcaster Vancouver Sun Terry Milewski was off the APEC story. When I heard the news I was without television, miles up the coast closing my summer place before the first frost and the end of daylight savings time. It was a Friday afternoon. I listened to CBC AM. Reporter Ian Gunn was giving an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit inquiry update. He sounded as if he was detailing the Agassiz city council's new estimate for street lighting. Then came the CBC's Afternoon Show. Katherine Gretsinger interviewed Alissa Westergarde-Thorpe, one of the APEC student protesters. In the rush to disassociate herself from Westergarde-Thorpe's remarks, Gretsinger back-pedalled so energetically I thought she would fall off her swivel chair. I felt alarmed, slightly sickened. Is this what a whiff of gunpowder from the prime minister's office can do? Turn everyone at the CBC into sheep? How satisfied Jean Chretien must have been. A good week's work, he must have thought. Solicitor-General Andy Scott had silenced the students by denying their legal funding. Peter Donolo, communications director at the PMO, had successfully removed the CBC's best reporter from the story with a letter full of innuendos and unproved charges and a request to refer the matter to the CBC ombudsman (what a ploy!). Now the RCMP Public Complaints Commission hearings could settle upon the harbour bottom of our lives and be soon forgotten. "Mes amis," I can hear the PM saying to his staff as he headed home at day's end, "We can win this one!" A week later, I realize just how much I miss Terry Milewski. I was used to him. He was my eyes and ears on the events of APEC. I miss his sardonic take. His energy. His passion. Even as he brought forth new documents and talked about pepper spray his every sentence evoked images of the whole sorry saga of the summit. The cost to Vancouver and to Canada. For what? The blocked traffic. The rushing around in self-important motorcades. The dictators wearing their matching brown leather jackets. Chretien rejecting B.C.'s Seaforth Highlanders Regiment and flying the Van Doos out from Quebec at a cost of $210,000 to be an honour guard at Vancouver International Airport. (Le Petit Gars evidently wanted soldiers who looked more Canadian than the men of our old and most honoured west coast regiment.) The sham of those APEC politicians, PR men and economists pretending Asia's financial collapse was, in U.S. President Bill Clinton's words, "just a glitch." Tell that today to Premier Glen Clark with B.C.'s economy in a tailspin. The APEC hearings were our story. They are in disarray. Without focus, without point. A contract with our heart has been broken. Milewski was our reporter. The students are our sons and daughters. They took the pepper spray on our behalf. The truth was theirs to reach. Now the story's been taken away from them and from us. Moved to Ottawa and the lockstep voting of a Liberal party whose leader brooks no dissent. No wonder the young take to the streets as a forum of last resort. As I complete my fifth decade in television I come to a chilling conclusion. In Canada today the name of the TV game is censorship. The suppression of knowledge. A skillful and centralized control of our information, entertainment and culture. Never have we had so much put before us. A river of television channels flowing past our eyeballs every hour of the day. New broadcast stations, networks galore, specialty channels, satellites in the sky. Yet never have we had so little say in what we wish to watch or what we need to see. Like orphaned children we are on the outside looking in, facing a media edifice which is almost impenetrable. Vancouverites end the century exiles in their own city, their own province, their own country. If this is the banquet we were asked to join, why do we leave the table feeling so hungry? If this is the time of plenty Izzy Asper, Perrin Beatty, Ivan Fecan and all those eastern media heavyweights promised us, why do we have that emptiness in the heart as we turn off the TV and climb the stairs wearily to our beds? The hype doesn't match the reality. TV may be our window on the world but the window has been nailed shut. We know what we see each day on the screen. We just don't know what we don't see. Like Carl Sandburg's fog, censorship in our country creeps upon us on little cat's feet. The APEC controversy makes us aware just how fragile our access to information is in Canada. Terry Milewski was removed by the CBC brass not only because of the PMO's attack but is off the air because he has become "part of the story." How ridiculous. Livingston can be front and centre, but the intrepid Stanley who went to find him in the depths of Africa must remain in the shadows? Even The Vancouver Sun, to my surprise, admonished Milewski not to cross "even fuzzy lines" in its Oct. 15 editorial. I wonder how far Bernstein and Woodward would have got with the Watergate story if they had worried about crossing "fuzzy lines?" Before the pepper spray and the headlines, the students and many others were protesting something very real -- the terror and repression of the Suharto regime in Indonesia. The 200,000 killed in East Timor. The 500,000 massacred in 1965 when Suharto took power. Leftists, activists, communists and thousands upon thousands of Chinese Indonesians killed. The New York Times called the massacres "one of the most savage mass slaughters of modern political history." Time told of "small rivers and streams that have been literally clogged with bodies. River transportation has at places been seriously impeded." The killing, the torture and imprisonment went on until last May when the Suharto regime was toppled. Despite some 60 or more TV channels, the corporate giants of Toronto that now own and run our media never found the time to brief us on the history of the man Jean Chretien was inviting to Vancouver. Strange how parallels to the Suharto regime keep popping up. As the RCMP subjected Canadians to arbitrary arrest so, too, in Jakarta before the 1994 APEC summit the Indonesian army cleared the streets of labour activists, free speech advocates and those opposing the slaughter in East Timor. In Indonesia Suharto tightly controlled all media. He closed down three magazines, Tempo, Detik and Sinar Harapam [sic], by terminating their business licences. When the journalists and editors protested on the streets they were beaten and arrested. Political interference with the police is an attack upon our person. Political interference with the media is an attack upon our mind. How easily Peter Donolo of the PMO was able to silence Terry Milewski. All of us who have spent our lives in the media can only feel a sense of shame. ---------- Daryl Duke has worked for three U.S. TV networks adn both Canadian networks, as well as having founded and chaired Vancouver's CKVU-TV. _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From tpl at cheerful.com Sat Oct 24 11:35:23 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (BAYAN) Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 10:35:23 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 827] Latest on MAI Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981024103523.006c1070@pop.skyinet.net> >Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 11:41:27 -0500 >From: Pao-yu Ching >To: Bayan >Subject: National Lawyers Guild's Convention and latest on MAI > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Maude Barlow was in town and was the keynote speaker of the >National Lawyers Guild's national convention. She was great. She just >returned from Paris and reported to the people there the latest development >on MAI. I am sending you a summary of her report. >The National Lawyers Guild was established some 60 years ago as an >alternative to the American Bar Association which was racially >segregated and opposed to Roosevelt's New Deal. In the 1950s, Guild lawyers >represented people attacked by McCarthy and the House of Un-American >Activities Committee. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) - the latest development Maude Barlow gave the following report on the latest development of MAI in her keynote speech at the opening of National Lawyers Guild's national convention in Detroit, U.S.A. on October 22, 1998. Maude Barlow chairs the Council of Canadians which has 100,000 members. She is a labor activist and has been involved in opposing MAI from the very beginning. Maude Barlow just returned from Paris where people against MAI staged protest in front of the International Chamber of Commerce. Inside the International Chamber of Commerce, the OECD was meeting for the first time since this past April to continue their negotiation on MAI. MAI was put on a six month moratorium when OECD members had failed to reach an agreement in April, 1998. (The original deadline was April, 1997.) Now, it is October, 1998 and the OECD members met again. Due to the good work of many grassroots organizations across the globe, public support against MAI has gained strength. Maude Barlow brought the good news to the people at the convention that the MAI negotiation in Paris collapsed because the French government withdrew from the negotiation last week. According to her, it does not look like the negotiation can resume anytime soon. This, of course, does not mean that the MAI is dead, because the multinational corporations are pushing the investors' state right similar to those in MAI through other treaties - the NAFTA and the extended NAFTA, APEC, and WTO. This is indeed a victory for all people who have worked against the MAI. However, there is also bad news. Maude Barlow reported that the Canadian government lost in the lawsuit which Ethyl Corporation brought against the Canadian government. Ethyl Corporation is an American multinational company and it sued the Canadian government in April, 1997 under various provisions of NAFTA for banning the gasoline additive MMT. The Canadian government banned MMT, because it is considered to be a dangerous toxin and has been banned by many other countries. Ethyl was seeking nearly $350 million in damages from Ottawa. The company said that by banning MMT, its subsidiary Ethyl Canada Inc. of Toronto was forced to close its operations and thus the lawsuit for damages. This past summer, Ottawa lost the lawsuit and had to apologize and pay 22 million Canadian dollars to Ethyl, and it also had to reverse the ban. ---------------------- Note from BAYAN: Maude Barlow and Pao-Yu Ching were plenary speakers in the 1996 People's Conference Against Imperialist Globalization convened in Manila by BAYAN and other members of the Philippine Organizing Committee. From davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca Sun Oct 25 12:20:53 1998 From: davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca (David Webster) Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 19:20:53 -0800 Subject: [asia-apec 828] Van Sun: inquiry fatally flawed Message-ID: Headline story, followed by editorial calling for a real PUBLIC inquiry. Last Updated: Saturday 24 October 1998 TOP STORIES --------------------------------------------------------- Inquiry leader denies bias as APEC hearings adjourn The Vancouver Sun Jeff Lee Vancouver Sun APEC inquiry chair Gerald Morin turned Friday to the Federal Court of Canada to clear him of government allegations he prejudged the outcome of the RCMP Public Complaints Commission hearings. But even if he is cleared of the allegations, lawyers for both sides say he will be the captain of a crippled inquiry. And a Simon Fraser University ethicist said the commission is now so badly wounded that the federal government should cancel the inquiry and launch a judicial inquiry. In the meantime, the inquiry, which has in recent weeks been bombarded with other allegations of bias, suggestions of political and media interference, and problems of legal funding for complainants, has been shelved for at least three weeks while the government tries to determine if the hearings can be salvaged. Morin refused to resign Friday from the panel after federal government lawyers raised allegations of bias against him over comments he allegedly made in a Prince Albert, Sask., casino last spring. The allegations against Morin are the gravest threat yet to the on-again, off-again inquiry, which is trying to determine whether police abused protesters at APEC and whether Prime Minister Jean Chretien's office interfered in security matters at the conference. Morin "unequivocally" denied allegations Friday that he had told people at the casino in his home town that he had decided the RCMP were heavy-handed in their control of protesters at APEC a year ago. The allegations, first reported in a story broken by The Vancouver Sun Friday, were made by Constable Russell Black, an RCMP officer in Prince Albert, who told federal lawyers he overheard Morin make the statements while gambling at the Northern Lights Casino. On Friday, the commission panel convened long enough for Morin to say the allegations are false and that he believed he could continue to chair the inquiry. "I can say for the record that I unequivocally deny the allegations. I have not done anything wrong. I have not prejudged these matters. I will not prejudge these matters. I will only judge these matters after all the evidence is in," he said. "I have confidence that I can continue to chair this panel of this hearing." During his entire address, broadcast live across Canada, his two co-panelists, Vina Starr and John Wright, sat ramrod-straight and looked neither to the right nor the left. But lawyers for both the RCMP and several student protesters say it will be virtually impossible for the panel to continue and they will argue in court the inquiry is so tainted it must be halted. Noting that the court is already being asked by protesters' lawyer Cameron Ward to rule whether Solicitor-General Andy Scott's alleged airplane conversations about APEC have biased the commission, RCMP lawyer George Macintosh said if the court finds Morin also had a bias, the hearings will have to be halted. "If both complaints of bias are made out, I will be saying that the commission is no longer an appropriate forum in which to deal with the allegations being made against the RCMP," he said. Ward, who has long argued the commission has an "institutional bias" in favor of the RCMP, was in rare agreement with Macintosh. "It is difficult to imagine an outcome other than one that disqualifies Mr. Morin and the entire panel," he said. Ward said he is suspicious of the timing of the allegations, which come right as lawyers for the protesters argue that the government is withholding documents and other material. But he said the allegations are so serious that they must be heard along with his own application that Scott's comments have irreparably harmed the inquiry process. Mark Wexler, an ethics professor at Simon Fraser University, said even if Morin is cleared, it will be difficult for any of the lawyers who would address him in the hearings to believe his opinions might not now be coloured. Combined with all of the other problems that have beset the panel, the allegations have discredited the inquiry and the government should halt it, he said. "I think they would be wise to not put more patches on a bicycle tire that is leaking in several places. My advice would be to move to a judicial inquiry," Wexler said. Both Ward and Macintosh also questioned how lawyers who will have to cross-examine Morin in Federal Court over the allegations could then expect Morin and the panel, once it reconvenes, to not be coloured by the incident. Federal government lawyer Ivan Whitehall delivered the allegations of bias to commission counsel Chris Considine Thursday, after both he and police in Saskatchewan interviewed Black about what he overheard in the casino. Considine has steadfastly refused to comment. Whitehall said Friday the allegations are extremely serious, but would not comment on whether the inquiry should be halted. "This is a very important matter. Clearly the decision of the Federal Court will affect the life of this tribunal," he said. Whitehall became aware of the allegations after Black approached superior officers last week saying he had information about comments Morin allegedly made in a casino. Two taped statements by Black -- one made on Tuesday in Prince Albert and one Wednesday in Vancouver -- will be entered as evidence at the Federal Court hearing. Black said he was sitting at a poker table at the Northern Lights Casino in Prince Albert last spring when Morin sat down and began a conversation with another gambler. Black said he overheard Morin say he had just returned from Vancouver, where the RCMP Public Complaints Commission had just begun hearings into APEC. Morin allegedly said that he would be chairman of the panel and that he had already determined that the RCMP were too heavy-handed in their use of pepper spray to control protests. "From the conversation he had and from the way I was listening to it, I knew in my mind right there and then his decision was gonna be against the RCMP," Black told Whitehall. But Black's allegations could not be substantiated. He told investigators in the earlier interview he couldn't remember the day or month in which the conversation took place, and he didn't know the names of either the other gambler or the dealer. He took no notes and he never told anyone about the overheard conversation until last week, according to transcripts of the interviews. When asked why he never said anything until now, Black said he didn't remember the incident until watching news coverage of allegations that Scott had also prejudged the APEC hearings in an conversation with an airline seatmate. The officer has since hired a lawyer and will not make any public statements. Jim Williams, lawyer for Staff-Sergeant Hugh Stewart, who was accused of abusing students during arrests and pepper-sprayings, said the allegations will not help Stewart clear his name. "The matter remains unresolved, and remains enveloped in controversy. The issue has always been to have an inquiry to determine the facts and determine the truth. And again, this will be an impediment to that process," he said. Jonathan Oppenheim, one of several complainants to the commission, said Morin shouldn't continue to be involved in the inquiry. "There's no way that Mr. Morin can now arrive at a reasonable decision, just based on the fact that it's tainted already," he said. Last Updated: Saturday 24 October 1998 OPINION --------------------------------------------------------- Today's Editorial: It's time to replace tainted APEC probe With accusations of bias floating from both sides at the RCMP hearings, the public is justified in being skeptical that this is the proper forum to investigate police and protesters' behaviour. Vancouver Sun Two weeks after Solicitor-General Andy Scott's ill-advised discussion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference inquiry cast doubts on the inquiry's credibility another shoe has dropped, and a nicely matched though sorry set they make. RCMP Public Complaints Commission chair Gerald Morin has adjourned the proceedings for at least three weeks after being accused of doing what Mr. Scott did. Mr. Scott told friend and Liberal party supporter Fred Toole, during an East Coast shuttle flight, he believed the RCMP tribunal would discipline several officers for their handling of protesters at the economic summit, and, specifically, "Hughie [most likely Staff-Sergeant Hugh Stewart] might be the guy who takes the fall." That the solicitor-general would hint at a set-up and discuss it in a public space did nothing for public confidence in the commission's ability, or inclination, to find the truth. Allegations of similar bad judgment by Mr. Morin, if proven, ought to scuttle the inquiry. RCMP Const. Russell Black says he heard Mr. Morin, at a Prince Albert, Sask., casino after the inquiry began last spring, say RCMP who pepper-sprayed APEC protesters were in the wrong and when the commission resumed in the fall he knew what its conclusions would be. The RCMP, understandably, is concerned about prejudice against it, while the protesters are applying to the Federal Court of Canada to end the hearings -- on the perfectly contrary grounds the commission is historically biased in favour of the Mounties. The Federal Court will also consider the complaint against Mr. Morin, who denies any wrongdoing or prejudice; so far, no corroboration of Mr. Black's charge is reported. Regardless of the court's findings in his case Mr. Morin appears to be in an untenable position. When the hearings resume he would be considering evidence against the same party that accused him of prejudgment. The RCMP, which already has a fear of bias on the part of the commission, could hardly be expected to view the commission with any less apprehension. So -- both the complainants and accused distrust the judges, joined by the third and largest party in the affair, the public, who to a large extent view all this with the same suspicion as they would any authority's internal investigation. Beyond the question of whether RCMP officers were excessively aggressive is the issue of the prime minister's office and how much it influenced what happened last November. The APEC incident raises many questions which require a full and fair examination. Prime Minister Jean Chretien should recognize that this inquiry is tainted beyond hope of credibility and must be abandoned. It's time to appoint a public inquiry. _ _ _ \ / "Long words Bother me." \ / -- Winnie the Pooh From arnomd at online.no Sat Oct 24 19:07:04 1998 From: arnomd at online.no (Arno Mong Daastøl) Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 12:07:04 +0200 Subject: [asia-apec 829] FW: IMF's new "Keynesianism" according to Far Eastern Economic Review Message-ID: <199810251007.LAA06302@online.no> The message in Norwegian attached to this article from the FEER reads something like: The converted IMF is now struggling to convince its Asian clints of the good sides to budget deficits. .... And then my friend Kristen asks: Might it have something to do with the US trade deficits? Greetings! Arno arno@daastol.com http://daastol.com -----Original Message----- From: Kristen Nordhaug [mailto:kristen.nordhaug@sum.uio.no] Sent: 23. oktober 1998 16:17 To: Arno Mong Daastol; Rune Skarstein Subject: IMF The times they are a-changing! IMF er blitt keynesianere som sliter med å overbevise asiatiske klienter om underskuddbudsjetteringens velsignelser! Vel, det ikke riktig sånn ... Referansen er Far Eastern Economic Review med en noe futuristisk datering. Det er interessant at man nå ikke bare maser på Japan, men også på andre asiater om å føre en mer ekspansiv politikk (eller snarere en mindre kontraktiv politikk for de sistes vedkommende). Montro om det har noe å gjøre med USAs enorme handelsunderskudd! Hilsen Kristen <<<<<<<<< Far Eastern Economic Review Rev Up Spending IMF's about-turn on fiscal stimulus won't work By Salil Tripathi in Singapore October 29, 1998 It is a policy reversal that the International Monetary Fund has begun topush aggressively. Throwing off its customary austerity, the IMF wantsThailand, South Korea and Indonesia to rev up their fiscal engines andspend their way out of the economic blues. And if they rack up budgetdeficits in the process, that's okay, too. The IMF set budget deficits in September at 3% of GDP for Thailand, 4%for South Korea and 8.5% for Indonesia, revised since the Fundannounced its policy about-turn in July. But economists say the size ofthese deficits won't be sufficient for badly needed bank capitalization andsocial safety-nets. What's more, governments are loath to fall too far intothe red, anyway. As many experts see it, this impetus isn't strong enough. "At such a time Asia needs a massive fiscal stimulus, and that's not coming through,"notes Manu Bhaskaran, chief strategist at SG Securities in Singapore. P.K.Basu, chief economist at Credit Suisse First Boston in Singapore, concurs.Using Thailand as an example, he notes that the country's budget deficit ofabout 200 billion baht ($5 billion) forecast for 1998 is "too little," given thatits current-account surplus is expected to be 418 billion baht. He points out that Thailand's GDP is targeted to shrink 8.3%. Because deficit financing is measured as a percentage of GDP, in absolute terms, Thailand's publics pending would be less in 1998 than it was in 1997. "If that isn't tight money policy, what is?" muses Basu. Indeed, some economists believe the fiscal stimulus won't work unless governments use their rising foreign-exchange reserves to increasedomestic spending. Exporters sell the hard-currency earnings they bring into the country to the central bank via commercial banks. To pay for thehard currency, the central bank either prints new money on the strength of the increase in its reserves, or reduces the capital-adequacy ratios of the commercial bank concerned. This creates new liquidity in the system-a monetary expansion that the IMF would readily approve. The main worry is that the commercial banks might use the new liquidity to boost their reserves rather than lend it out, thus weakening the fiscal-stimulus initiative. "There is an air of irrational exuberance in the IMF's thinking,"says a regional economist with a European brokerage in Singapore. The severity of Asia's economic illness prompted the IMF's monetaryrethink. Circumstances have changed since the IMF first urged tightmonetary policies on Asia's sick. The early days required austerity to helpeconomies to stabilize. "That period is behind us. Now is the time toexpand," says IMF Asia-Pacific Director Hubert Neiss, reiterating anargument that the IMF has been making for the past three months. Indeed,the region is beginning to perk up: Currencies are no longer bouncing like yo-yos; interest rates-although still high-have fallen; and foreign reserves have grown since the lows of 1997. Neiss believes a fiscal stimulus-handled properly-will help liquidity toflow back into Asia. He says confidence in the region would return byearly 1999, thus attracting private money, if global conditions arefavourable. This in turn will help governments to pay for bankrecapitalization, easing the burden of corporate debt. But the IMF's target economies aren't completely convinced. "In other countries, we have to urge governments not to run budget deficits; in Asia, we have to encourage them to expand fiscally. But Asians don't like running large deficits," said Stanley Fischer, the IMF's Washington-based deputy managing director. Indeed, Indonesia and South Korea have dragged their feet in stimulating demand because they are accustomed to running budget surpluses; in the past, multilateral agencies, including the IMF, have praised them for this. And Thailand has resisted a larger budget deficit, says an IMF official in Bangkok, despite "a blank cheque" that the fund is willing to write forsocial spending. In fact, Asian governments had wanted to steer clear of budget deficits altogether, hoping that export earnings would bounce back and foreign capital would return. Neither has happened, admits Miranda Goeltom, adirector at Bank Indonesia, the country's central bank. Exports haven't risen in dollar terms in Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia, for example, as global overcapacity has depressed prices in the key Asianmanufacturing industries such as electronic goods. Nor is it likely that the volume of exports will pick up; the pace of world economic growth is forecast to slow to 2% in 1998 from 4.1% in 1997. Foreign capital, too,remains skittish. David Hale, chief global economist at the Zurich group inChicago, doesn't think it will return anytime soon to Asia-or to any emerging market, for that matter. But the IMF's fiscal-stimulus plan perhaps offers too little, too late. If governments will spend less in absolute terms in 1998 than they did in previous years, the outlay for bank recapitalization or social safety-nets simply won't be enough. According to estimates by the Asian Development Bank early this year, social-safety schemes would cost 7% of GDP in Indonesia, and about 5% of GDP in Thailand. Calculating the cost of bank recapitalization is trickier, but Asian bankers say it could range from 25% to 50% of GDP in each of the three countries. Depending upon exchange rates used, that could amount to between $75 billion and $150 billion. But current-account surpluses for the trio are expected to collectively total just $57 billion, says SG Securities in Singapore. There are few financing options available, however. The World Bank andthe ADB can provide only a fraction of the needed funds. Tapping Asia'sprivate savings would be difficult. Few Asian countries have activemarkets for bonds, or other fiscal instruments, in which to pour savings.Depending upon the limited fiscal stimulus would be like depending upon afreak shower to reinvigorate a parched landscape. From admin at focusweb.org Wed Oct 28 04:31:38 1998 From: admin at focusweb.org (Administration) Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 19:31:38 +0000 Subject: [asia-apec 830] staff policy at arena In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.16.19960905180500.23676900@hk.net> Message-ID: <199810271250.VAA09391@mail.jca.ax.apc.org> Dear Arena Friends -- I wrote to you a month or so ago to seee if you could help us. At Focus we are trying to pull together a staff policy and it would be really helpful if we had an idea of what other similar organisation offer for salary, housing allowances, leave, health care and so on. I would really appreciate any assistance. Thanks and best regards, Nicola Bullard INVITATION FOR APPLICATIONS Position : Programme Officer for Gender Concerns Date of Commencement of Appointment : January 1, 1998 Duties and Responsibilities : A Programme Officer's main responsibility will be to coordinate and faciltiate the conceptualisation, planning, and implementation of ARENA programmes on gender issues and concerns and their accompanying modalities, i.e., research, documentatiion, publication, workshops/meetings, advocacy campaigns, and overall networking. He/she will be a member of the ARENA Secretariat and a part of a Programme Working Group/s which includes Executive Board members and ARENA Fellows with whom there will be constant interaction in programme coordination. As needed, other programme duties may be assigned from time to time by the ARENA Coordinator. Qualifications : Research, writing, and coordinating experience in working on issues of gender, social justice and social development concerns in an Asian context and/or relevant educational degree (preferably, a Masters or equivalent); experience in development NGO work and academic work in an Asian setting; able to work in and relate to a multi-cultural setting; and an informed understanding and commitment to work for gender, environmental, and people-oriented concerns. Minimum Salary : USD 1,614 (equivalent to HKD 12,500) with annual increases Benefits : Medical, employment, and travel insurance, Provident Fund, housing allowance (for those paying rent), year-end bonus, paid annual home leave with air ticket (within Asia), and incoming and outgoing relocation allowane (including air ticket). Deadline for Application : 15 October 1998 Process : Send letter of application, resume/biodata, two letters of reference, and copies of published work to : The ARENA Coordinator, P.O. Box 31407, Causeway Bay Post Office Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, Fax : (852) 1504-1986, E-mail : arena@hk.net ARENA is a regional non-governmental forum for the promotion of alternative development paradigms and strategies that will promote equity among social class,caste, ethnic groups, and gender; strengthen popular participatin in public life; improve the quality of life of Asia's underprivileged peoples, prevent the marginalisation of communities; promote ecological consciousness, and strengthen aspects of indigenous knowledge which relate to social emancipation. Its long-term goal is to participate in building and nurturing a community of concerned Asian scholar-activists, critical researcher-writers, and progrssive academics who shall contribute to the process of social awakening and the people's struggle for a new, just, and humane social order. ARENA is engaged in research studies, publications, documentation, workshop-conferences, campaigns, and regional networking. Focus on the Global South (FOCUS) c/o CUSRI, Chulalongkorn University Bangkok 10330 THAILAND Tel: 662 218 7363/7364/7365 Fax: 662 255 9976 Web Page http://www.focusweb.org Staff email addresses: ---------------------- Walden Bello W.Bello@focusweb.org Kamal Malhotra K.Malhotra@focusweb.org Chanida Chanyapate Bamford C.Bamford@focusweb.org Nicola Bullard N.Bullard@focusweb.org Ehito Kimura E.Kimura@focusweb.org Li Kheng Poh Lk.Poh@focusweb.org Marco Mezzera M.Mezzera@focusweb.org Regina Abesamis R.Abesamis@focusweb.org Soontaree Narkviroj Soon@focusweb.org Jim Charoonpatarapong Jim@focusweb.org Ranee Hassarungsee Ranee@focusweb.org Mayuree Ruechakieattikul Nok@focusweb.org Focus Administration Admin@focusweb.org ______________________________________________________ From admin at focusweb.org Wed Oct 28 04:32:28 1998 From: admin at focusweb.org (Administration) Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 19:32:28 +0000 Subject: [asia-apec 831] staff policy at arena In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.16.19960905180500.23676900@hk.net> Message-ID: <199810271250.VAA09464@mail.jca.ax.apc.org> Dear Arena Friends -- I wrote to you a month or so ago to seee if you could help us. At Focus we are trying to pull together a staff policy and it would be really helpful if we had an idea of what other similar organisation offer for salary, housing allowances, leave, health care and so on. I would really appreciate any assistance. Thanks and best regards, Nicola Bullard INVITATION FOR APPLICATIONS Position : Programme Officer for Gender Concerns Date of Commencement of Appointment : January 1, 1998 Duties and Responsibilities : A Programme Officer's main responsibility will be to coordinate and faciltiate the conceptualisation, planning, and implementation of ARENA programmes on gender issues and concerns and their accompanying modalities, i.e., research, documentatiion, publication, workshops/meetings, advocacy campaigns, and overall networking. He/she will be a member of the ARENA Secretariat and a part of a Programme Working Group/s which includes Executive Board members and ARENA Fellows with whom there will be constant interaction in programme coordination. As needed, other programme duties may be assigned from time to time by the ARENA Coordinator. Qualifications : Research, writing, and coordinating experience in working on issues of gender, social justice and social development concerns in an Asian context and/or relevant educational degree (preferably, a Masters or equivalent); experience in development NGO work and academic work in an Asian setting; able to work in and relate to a multi-cultural setting; and an informed understanding and commitment to work for gender, environmental, and people-oriented concerns. Minimum Salary : USD 1,614 (equivalent to HKD 12,500) with annual increases Benefits : Medical, employment, and travel insurance, Provident Fund, housing allowance (for those paying rent), year-end bonus, paid annual home leave with air ticket (within Asia), and incoming and outgoing relocation allowane (including air ticket). Deadline for Application : 15 October 1998 Process : Send letter of application, resume/biodata, two letters of reference, and copies of published work to : The ARENA Coordinator, P.O. Box 31407, Causeway Bay Post Office Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, Fax : (852) 1504-1986, E-mail : arena@hk.net ARENA is a regional non-governmental forum for the promotion of alternative development paradigms and strategies that will promote equity among social class,caste, ethnic groups, and gender; strengthen popular participatin in public life; improve the quality of life of Asia's underprivileged peoples, prevent the marginalisation of communities; promote ecological consciousness, and strengthen aspects of indigenous knowledge which relate to social emancipation. Its long-term goal is to participate in building and nurturing a community of concerned Asian scholar-activists, critical researcher-writers, and progrssive academics who shall contribute to the process of social awakening and the people's struggle for a new, just, and humane social order. ARENA is engaged in research studies, publications, documentation, workshop-conferences, campaigns, and regional networking. Focus on the Global South (FOCUS) c/o CUSRI, Chulalongkorn University Bangkok 10330 THAILAND Tel: 662 218 7363/7364/7365 Fax: 662 255 9976 Web Page http://www.focusweb.org Staff email addresses: ---------------------- Walden Bello W.Bello@focusweb.org Kamal Malhotra K.Malhotra@focusweb.org Chanida Chanyapate Bamford C.Bamford@focusweb.org Nicola Bullard N.Bullard@focusweb.org Ehito Kimura E.Kimura@focusweb.org Li Kheng Poh Lk.Poh@focusweb.org Marco Mezzera M.Mezzera@focusweb.org Regina Abesamis R.Abesamis@focusweb.org Soontaree Narkviroj Soon@focusweb.org Jim Charoonpatarapong Jim@focusweb.org Ranee Hassarungsee Ranee@focusweb.org Mayuree Ruechakieattikul Nok@focusweb.org Focus Administration Admin@focusweb.org ______________________________________________________ From tpl at cheerful.com Wed Oct 28 08:31:20 1998 From: tpl at cheerful.com (BAYAN) Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 07:31:20 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 832] Chossudovsky on Global Poverty Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19981028073120.006bd3d4@pop.skyinet.net> Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 06:25:49 -0500 From: Michel Chossudovsky < GLOBAL POVERTY IN THE LATE 20TH CENTURY Michel Chossudovsky Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa, author of The Globalization of Poverty, Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms, TWN, Penang and Zed Books, London, 1997. (The book can be ordered from twn@igc.org) Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, 1998. All rights reserved. The author can be contacted at fax: 1-514-4256224, Email: chossudovsky@sprint.ca THE GLOBALIZATION OF POVERTY The late 20th Century will go down in World history as a period of global impoverishment marked by the collapse of productive systems in the developing World, the demise of national institutions and the disintegration of health and educational programs. This "globalization of poverty" --which has largely reversed the achievements of post-war decolonization--, was initiated in the Third World coinciding with the onslaught of the debt crisis. Since the 1990s, it has extended its grip to all major regions of the World including North America, Western Europe, the countries of the former Soviet block and the Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs) of South East Asia and the Far East. In the 1990s, local level famines have erupted in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and parts of Latin America; health clinics and schools have been closed down, hundreds of millions of children have been denied the right to primary education. In the Third World, Eastern Europe and the Balkans there has been a resurgence of infectious diseases including tuberculosis, malaria and cholera. Impoverishment - An Overview Famine Formation in the Third World From the dry savannah of the Sahelian belt, famine has extended its grip into the wet tropical heartland. A large part of the population of the African continent is affected: 18 million people in Southern Africa (including 2 million refugees) are in "famine zones" and another 130 million in 10 countries are seriously at risk. In the Horn of Africa, 23 million people (many of whom have already died) are "in danger of famine" according to a UN estimate. In South Asia in the post-Independence period extending through the 1980s, starvation deaths had largely been limited to peripheral tribal areas. In India, there are indications of widespread impoverishment of both the rural and urban populations following the adoption of the 1991 New Economic Policy under the stewardship of the Bretton Woods institutions. In India, more than 70 percent of rural households are small marginal farmers or landless farm workers representing a population of over 400 million people. In irrigated areas, agricultural workers are employed for 200 days a year, and in rain-fed farming for approximately 100 days. The phasing out of fertiliser subsidies (an explicit condition of the IMF agreement) and the increase in the prices of farm inputs and fuel is pushing a large number of small and medium sized farmers into bankruptcy. A micro-level study conducted in 1991 on starvation deaths among handloom weavers in a relatively prosperous rural community in Andhra Pradesh sheds light on how local communities have been impoverished as a result of macro-economic reform. The starvation deaths occurred in the months following the implementation of the 1991 New Economic Policy: with the devaluation and the lifting of controls on cotton yarn exports, the jump in the domestic price of cotton yarn led to a collapse in the pacham (24 meters) rate paid to the weaver by the middle-man (through the putting-out system). "Radhakrishnamurthy and his wife were able to weave between three and four pachams a month bringing home the meagre income of 300-400 rupees for a family of six ($12-16), then came the Union Budget of July 24, 1991, the price of cotton yarn jumped and the burden was passed on to the weaver, Radhakrishnamurthy's family income declined to Rs. 240-320 a month ($9.60-13.00)". Radhakrishnamurthy of Gollapalli village in Guntur district died of starvation on September 4, 1991. Between August 30 and November 10, 1991 at least 73 starvation deaths were reported in only two districts of Andhra Pradesh. There are 3.5 million handlooms throughout India supporting a population of some 17 million people. "Economic Shock Treatment" in the former Soviet Union When assessing the impact on earnings, employment and social services, the post-cold War economic collapse in parts of Eastern Europe appears to be far deeper and more destructive than that of the Great Depression. In the former Soviet Union (starting in early 1992), hyperinflation triggered by the downfall of the ruble contributed to rapidly eroding real earnings. "Economic shock treatment" combined with the privatisation program precipitated entire industries into immediate liquidation leading to lay-offs of millions of workers. In the Russian Federation, prices increased one hundred times following the initial round of macro-economic reforms adopted by the Yeltsin government in January 1992; wages on the other hand increased ten-fold; the evidence suggests that real purchasing power had plummeted by more than 80 percent in the course of 1992. The reforms have dismantled both the military-industrial complex and the civilian economy. Economic decline has surpassed the plunge in production experienced in the Soviet Union at the height of the Second World War, following the German occupation of Byelorussia and parts of the Ukraine in 1941, and the extensive bombing of Soviet industrial infrastructure. The Soviet GDP had by 1942 declined by 22 percent in relation to pre-war levels. In contrast, industrial output in the former Soviet Union plummeted by 48.8 percent and GDP by 44.0 percent between 1989 and 1995, according to official data, and output continues to fall. Independent estimates, however, indicate a substantially greater drop and there is firm evidence that official figures have been manipulated. While the cost of living in Eastern Europe and the Balkans was shooting up to Western levels as a result of the deregulation of commodity markets, monthly minimum earnings were as low as ten dollars a month. "In Bulgaria, The World Bank and the Ministry of Labor and Social Assistance separately estimated that 90 percent of Bulgarians are living below the poverty threshold of $4 a day". Old age pensions in 1997 were worth two dollars a month. Unable to pay for electricity, water and transportation, population groups throughout the region have been brutally marginalized from the modern era. Poverty and Unemployment in the West Already during the Reagan-Thatcher era, but more significantly since the beginning of the 1990s, harsh austerity measures are gradually contributing to the disintegration of the Welfare State. The achievements of the early post-war period are being reversed through the derogation of unemployment insurance schemes, the privatisation of pension funds and social services, and the decline of Social Security. With the breakdown of the Welfare State, high levels of youth unemployment are increasingly the source of social strife and civil dissent. In the United States, political figures decry the rise of youth violence, promising tougher sanctions without addressing the roots of the problem. Economic restructuring has transformed urban life, contributing to the "thirdworldization" of Western cities. The environment of major metropolitan areas is marked by social apartheid: urban landscape have become increasingly compartmentalized along social and ethnic lines. Poverty indicators such as infant mortality, unemployment, and homelessness in the ghettos of American (and increasingly European) cities are in many respects comparable to those prevailing in the Third World. Demise of the "Asian Tigers" More recently, speculative movements against national currencies have contributed to the destabilization of some of the World's more successful "newly industrialised" economies (Indonesia, Thailand, Korea), leading virtually overnight to abrupt declines in the standard of living. In China, successful poverty alleviation efforts are threatened by the impending privatization or forced bankruptcy of thousands of State enterprises and the resulting lay-offs of millions of workers. The number of workers to be laid off in State industrial enterprises is estimated to be of the order of 35 million. In rural areas, there are an estimated 130 million surplus workers. This process has occurred alongside massive budget cuts in social programs, even as unemployment and inequality increase. In the 1997 Asian currency crisis, billions of dollars of official Central Bank reserves were appropriated by institutional speculators. In other words, these countries are no longer able to "finance economic development" through the use of monetary policy. This depletion of official reserves is part and parcel of the process of economic restructuring leading to bankruptcy and mass unemployment. In other words, privately held capital in the hands of "institutional speculators" far exceeds the limited reserves of Asian central banks. The latter acting individually or collectively are no longer able to fight the tide of speculative activity. THE CAUSES OF GLOBAL POVERTY Global Unemployment: "Creating Surplus Populations" in the Global Cheap Labor Economy The global decline in living standards is not the result of "a scarcity of productive resources" as in preceding historical periods. The globalization of poverty has indeed occurred during a period of rapid technological and scientific advance. While the latter has contributed to vastly increasing the potential capacity of the economic system to produce necessary goods and services, expanded levels of productivity have not translated into a corresponding reduction in levels of global poverty. On the contrary, downsizing, corporate restructuring and relocation of production to cheap labor havens in the Third World have been conducive to increased levels of unemployment and significantly lower earnings to urban workers and farmers. This new international economic order feeds on human poverty and cheap labor: high levels of national unemployment in both developed and developing countries have contributed to depressing real wages. Unemployment has been internationalised, with capital migrating from one country to another in a perpetual search for cheaper supplies of labor. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), worldwide unemployment affects one billion people or nearly one third of the global workforce. National labor markets are no longer segregated: workers in different countries are brought into overt competition with one another. Workers rights are derogated as labor markets are deregulated. World unemployment operates as a lever which "regulates" labor costs at a World level: the abundant supplies of cheap labor in the Third World (e.g. China with an estimated 200 million surplus workers) and the former Eastern block contribute to depressing wages in the developed countries. Virtually all categories of the labor force (including the highly qualified, professional and scientific workers) are affected, even as competition for jobs encourages social divisions based on class, ethnicity, gender, and age. PARADOXES OF GLOBALIZATION Micro-Efficiency, Macro-Insufficiency The global corporation minimises labor costs on a World level. Real wages in the Third World and Eastern Europe are as much as seventy times lower than in the US, Western Europe or Japan: the possibilities of production are immense given the mass of cheap impoverished workers throughout the World. While mainstream economics stresses efficient allocation of society's scarce resources, harsh social realities call into question the consequences of this means of allocation. Industrial plants are closed down, small and medium sized enterprises are driven into bankruptcy, professional workers and civil servants are laid off, and human and physical capital stand idle in the name of "efficiency". The drive toward "efficient" use of society's resources at the micro-economic level leads to exactly the opposite situation at the macro-economic level. Resources are not used "efficiently" when there remain large amounts of unused industrial capacity and millions of unemployed workers. Modern capitalism appears totally incapable of mobilizing these untapped human and material resources. Accumulation of Wealth, Distortion of Production This global economic restructuring promotes stagnation in the supply of necessary goods and services while redirecting resources towards lucrative investments in the luxury goods economy. Moreover, with the drying up of capital formation in productive activities, profit is sought in increasingly speculative and fraudulent transactions which in turn tend to promote disruptions on the World's major financial markets. In the South, the East and the North, a privileged social minority has accumulated vast amounts of wealth at the expense of the large majority of the population. The number of billionaires in the US alone increased from 13 in 1982 to 149 in 1996. The "Global Billionaires Club" (with some 450 members) has a total Worldwide wealth well in excess of the combined GDP of the group of low income countries with 56 percent of the world's population. Moreover, the process of wealth accumulation is increasingly taking place outside the real economy divorced from bona fide productive and commercial activities. According to Forbes: "Successes on the Wall Street stock market [meaning speculative trade] produced most of last year's [1996] surge in billionaires." In turn, billions of dollars accumulated from speculative transactions are funnelled towards confidential numbered accounts in the more than 50 offshore banking havens around the World. The US investment bank, Merrill Lynch, conservatively estimates the wealth of private individuals managed through private banking accounts in offshore tax havens at $3.3 trillion. The IMF puts the offshore assets of corporations and individuals at $5.5 trillion, a sum equivalent to 25 percent of total world income. The largely ill-gotten loot of Third World elites in numbered accounts is placed at $600 billion, with one third of that held in Switzerland. Increased Supply, Reduced Demand The expansion of output in this system takes place by "minimising employment" and compressing workers' wages. This process in turn backlashes on the levels of consumer demand for necessary goods and services: unlimited capacity to produce, limited capacity to consume. In a global cheap labor economy, the very process of expanding output (through downsizing, lay-offs and low wages) contributes to compressing society's capacity to consume. The tendency is therefore towards overproduction on an unprecedented scale. In other words, expansion in this system can only take place through the concurrent disengagement of idle productive capacity, namely through the bankruptcy and liquidation of "surplus enterprises". The latter are closed down in favour of the most advanced mechanised production: entire areas branches of industry stand idle, the economy of entire regions is affected, and only a part of the World's agricultural potential is utilised. This global oversupply of commodities is a direct consequence of the decline in purchasing power and rising levels of poverty. Oversupply contributes in turn to further depressing the earnings of the direct producers through the closure of excess productive capacity. Contrary to Say's law of markets, heralded by mainstream economics, supply doesn't create its own demand. Since the early 1980s, overproduction of commodities leading to plummeting (real) commodity prices has wreaked havoc particularly among Third World primary producers, but also (more recently) in the area of manufacturing. Global Integration, Local Disintegration In developing countries, entire branches of industry producing for the internal market are eliminated, the informal urban sector - which historically has played an important role as a source of employment creation - has been undermined as a result of currency devaluations and the liberalization of imports, including primary commodities. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the informal sector garment industry has been wiped out and replaced by the market for used garments (imported from the West at 80 dollars a ton). Against a background of economic stagnation (including negative growth rates recorded in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Sub-Saharan Africa), the World's largest corporations have experienced unprecedented growth and expansion of their share of the global market. This process, however, has largely taken place through the displacement of pre-existing productive systems, i.e. at the expense of local-level, regional and national producers. Expansion and "profitability" for the World's largest corporations is predicated on a global contraction of purchasing power and the impoverishment of large sectors of the World population. Survival of the fittest: the enterprises with the most advanced technologies or those with command over the lowest wages survive in a World economy marked by overproduction. While the spirit of Anglo-Saxon liberalism is committed to "fostering competition", G-7 macro-economic policy (through tight fiscal and monetary controls), has in practice supported a wave of corporate mergers and acquisitions as well as the bankruptcy of small and medium-sized enterprises. In turn, large multinational companies (particularly in the US and Canada) have taken control of local-level markets (particularly in the service economy) through the system of corporate franchising. This process enables large corporate capital ("the franchiser") to gain control over human capital, cheap labor and entrepreneurship. A large share of the earnings of small firms and/or retailers is thereby appropriated while the bulk of investment outlays is assumed by the independent producer (the "franchisee"). A parallel process can be observed in Western Europe. With the Maastricht treaty, the process of political restructuring in the European Union increasingly heeds to dominant financial interests at the expense of the unity of European societies. In this system, State power has deliberately sanctioned the progress of private monopolies: large capital destroys small capital in all its forms. With the drive towards the formation of economic blocks both in Europe and North America, the regional and local-level entrepreneur is uprooted, city life is transformed, individual small scale ownership is wiped out. "Free trade" and economic integration provide greater mobility to the global enterprise while at the same time suppressing (through non-tariff and institutional barriers) the movement of small local level capital. "Economic integration" (under the dominion of the global enterprise), while displaying a semblance of political unity, often promotes factionalism and social strife between and within national societies. THE ONGOING INTERNATIONALIZATION OF MACRO-ECONOMIC REFORM The Debt Crisis The restructuring of the global economic system has evolved through several distinct periods since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in 1971. Patterns of oversupply started to unfold in primary commodity markets in the second part of the 1970s, following the end of the Vietnam War. The debt crisis of the early 1980s was marked by the simultaneous collapse of commodity prices and the rise of real interest rates. The balance of payments of developing countries was in crisis, the accumulation of large external debts provided international creditors and "donors" with "political leverage" to influence the direction of country-level macro-economic policy. The Structural Adjustment Program Contrary to the spirit of the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944 which was predicated on "economic reconstruction" and stability of major exchange rates, the structural adjustment program (SAP) has since the early 1980s largely contributed to destabilizing national currencies and ruining the economies of developing countries. The restructuring of the World economy under the guidance of the Washington based international financial institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO) increasingly denies individual developing countries the possibility of building a national economy: the internationalization of macro-economic policy transforms countries into open economic territories and national economies into "reserves" of cheap labor and natural resources. The State apparatus is undermined, industry for the internal market is destroyed, national enterprises are pushed into bankruptcy. These reforms have also been conducive to the elimination of minimum wage legislation, the repeal of social programs, and a general diminution of the state's role in fighting poverty. "Global Surveillance" The inauguration of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 marks a new phase in the evolution of the post war economic system. A new "triangular division of authority" among the IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) has unfolded. The IMF had called for more effective "surveillance" of developing countries' economic policies and increased coordination between the three international bodies signifying a further infringement on the sovereignty of national governments. Under the new trade order (which emerged from the completion of the Uruguay Round at Marrakesh in 1994), the relationship of the Washington based institutions to national governments is to be redefined. Enforcement of IMF-World Bank policy prescriptions will no longer hinge upon ad hoc country-level loan agreements (which are not "legally binding" documents). Henceforth, many of the mainstays of the structural adjustment program (e.g. trade liberalization and the foreign investment regime) have been permanently entrenched in the articles of agreement of the new World Trade Organization (WTO). These articles set the foundations for "policing" countries (and enforcing "conditionalities") according to international law. The deregulation of trade under WTO rules combined with new clauses pertaining to intellectual property rights will enable multinational corporations to penetrate local markets and extend their control over virtually all areas of national manufacturing, agriculture and the service economy. Entrenched Rights for Banks and MNCs In this new economic environment, international agreements negotiated by bureaucrats under intergovernmental auspices, have come to play a crucial role in the remoulding of national economies. The 1997 Financial Services Agreement under the stewardship of the WTO, as well as the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) until recently under OECD auspices provide what some observers have entitled a "charter of rights for multinational corporations". These agreements derogate the ability of national societies to regulate their national economies. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) also threatens national level social programs, job creation policies, affirmative action and community based initiatives. In other words, it threatens to lead to the disempowerment of national societies as it hands over extensive powers to global corporations. Conclusion Ironically, the ideology of the "free" market upholds a new form of State interventionism predicated on the deliberate manipulation of market forces. Moreover, the development of global institutions has also led to the development of "entrenched rights" for global corporations and financial institutions. The process of enforcing these international agreements at national and international levels invariably bypasses the democratic process. Beneath the rhetoric on so-called "governance" and the "free market", neoliberalism provides a shaky legitimacy to those in the seat of political power. The manipulation of the figures on global poverty prevents national societies from understanding the consequence of a historical process initiated in the early 1980s with the onslaught of the debt crisis. This "false consciousness" has invaded all spheres of critical debate and discussion on the "free" market reforms. In turn, the intellectual myopia of mainstream economics prevents an understanding of the actual workings of global capitalism and its destructive impact on the livelihood of millions of people. International institutions including the United Nations follow pace, upholding the dominant economic discourse with little assessment of how economic restructuring backlashes on national societies, leading to the collapse of institutions and the escalation of social conflict. Michel Chossudovsky Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, K1N6N5 Voice box: 1-613-562-5800, ext. 1415 Fax: 1-514-425-6224 E-Mail: chossudovsky@sprint.ca http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/chossd.htm http://www.heise.de/tp/english/special/eco/ From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Wed Oct 28 15:01:35 1998 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 18:01:35 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 833] APEC 1999 - Editorial Opinion Message-ID: >From Sunday Star-Times, New Zealand, October 25 1998 Opinion We can't afford it either When a mock truck-bomb explosion blocks off parts of central Auckland as part of the run-up to next year's Apec forum, it's surely time to ask when will this silliness end? The advent of air travel has led to a proliferation of pointless conferencing on a global scale. The annual works outing has become the international forum. And too often it is elected officials who have been blazing the trail with bigger and more unnecessary gatherings. >From each pours forth press releases about what wonderful bonding has taken place between delegates. And of decisions almost made. But all most of us recall are the funny shirts the leaders get to wear. And the fact that news magazines tend to mistake our prime minister for the leader of Canada or Australia. Wellingtonians got a taste of conference nonsense last week when 500 Commonwealth parliamentarians and bureaucrats turned up for their annual bunfight. Apparently the Cook Islanders, who were supposed to host the $1.5m junket, had the sense to say they couldn't afford it. Despite our apparently parlous economic situation, we said we could. As result, parliamentary work came to a standstill, MPs were sent home, and select committees adjourned for the duration because parliamentary clerks were too busy at the conference. The theme of the conference was "Globalisation - its impact on Commonwealth Governments and Parliaments". Just what relevance it had to the condition of one Commonwealth citizen is hard to fathom. But last week's conference fades into insignificance alongside next September's Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum. Talk about a monster out of control. Created just 20 [sic] years ago by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke as a talkfest for regional leaders, Apec is now a meaningless conference of world leaders which will cost New Zealanders some $44 million to host. Former Prime Minister David Lange calls it " a farcical waste of time". He is right. At a time when pensions are being cut and patients on hospital waiting lists are dying, it is also a scandalous waste of money. It's a pity that the Government didn't have the courage of the Cook Islanders and say we can't afford it. When the President of the United States needs a retinue of 1200 to accompany him to a meeting, and a special 100-strong naval taskforce has to be trained to combat germ warfare, it's surely time to laugh and say "get real". A few photo opportunities and some bland communiques which will do nothing to improve the economic condition of any of the citizens of the countries involved is hardly worth the expense of this conference. Or most of its kind. From fingal at ottawa.cc Thu Oct 29 03:10:23 1998 From: fingal at ottawa.cc (Brian Dawson) Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 13:10:23 -0500 Subject: [asia-apec 834] CBC Radio: Horta in Ottawa to urge Canada (26-Oct-98) Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19981028131023.00afc4e0@mail.ottawa.cc> [Note: a similar report was also broadcast on CBC on "Canada at Five". These are the two major daily broadcasts for CBC radio news.] CBC Radio News The World at Six 26 October 1998 (2 minutes 15 seconds) SM: Susan Murray (reporter) JRH: Jos? Ramos-Horta SR: Svend Robinson (Member of Parliament; NDP foreign affairs critic) LA: Lloyd Axworthy (Minister of Foreign Affairs) ANNOUNCER: A winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is accusing Canada of acting in a totally abominable way in pepper-spraying protesters at the APEC summit last fall, and Jos? Ramos-Horta says Canada is not giving a great human rights lesson to the rest of the world. Ramos- Horta is in Ottawa to ask the Canadian government to support the right of East Timor to seek independence from Indonesia. Susan Murray reports. SM: Many of the student demonstrators at APEC were protesting against Indonesian dictator Suharto and for self-determination for East Timor, an island occupied by Indonesia for more than 20 years. Today the man leading the East Timor resistance movement was in Ottawa, so what does Jos? Ramos-Horta think of the treatment of the students? JRH: It was totally abominable, what they did. SM: And Ramos-Horta says Canada is not giving a good example to the world when it comes to democracy and human rights. Look, he says, Malaysia now appears to be copying Canada by starting to use pepper- spray against demonstrators. JRH: I thought, God, did they learn it from the Canadians, or what? Because the first time I heard was in connection with Vancouver; then the second time was yesterday in Malaysia. So can you imagine some great lessons Canada is giving to the rest of the world? SM: The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is in Ottawa to try to convince Canada to support self-determination for East Timor. That cause is backed by many social groups, and by the New Democratic Party. MP Svend Robinson says Canada could help make up for the pepper-spraying by supporting independence for East Timor. SR: This is an opportunity, a chance today, for Jean Chr?tien, for Lloyd Axworthy, to atone for some of their APEC sins. LA: We had a very useful discussion with Ramos-Horta SM: The minister of Foreign Affairs did meet with Ramos-Horta, and Lloyd Axworthy says Canada will provide money, training, and technical help for East Timor. But he isn't publicly backing its right to self-determination. That left the NDP saying the Chr?tien government continues to care more about not embarrassing Indonesian dictators than it does about ensuring the rights of the people of East Timor. Susan Murray, CBC News, Ottawa From gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz Thu Oct 29 15:23:16 1998 From: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz (Gatt Watchdog) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 18:23:16 +1200 Subject: [asia-apec 835] APEC & NZ Spy Agency in Spotlight Message-ID: Green Left Weekly Issue #338 October 28, 1998 NZ SPY AGENCY FIGHTS FOR SECRECY OVER BUNGLED BREAK-IN By Leigh Cookson AUCKLAND -- With less than a year to go before the 1999 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) leaders' summit here, a high-profile civil court case against the New Zealand spy agency, the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), has left many New Zealanders wondering how far the government will go in cracking down on dissent against APEC's narrow economic agenda and the extremist new right policies which it is hell-bent on pursuing. Just before New Zealand last hosted a major APEC meeting, when APEC trade ministers met in Christchurch in July 1996, two SIS agents were caught at the home of GATT Watchdog organiser (and occasional Green Left Weekly contributor) Aziz Choudry. They had entered his house, disturbing documents, but nothing seemed to have been taken. The bungled break-in occurred during an alternative forum on free trade organised by GATT Watchdog, a coalition of NGOs and community groups campaigning against GATT/WTO, APEC, the MAI and other free trade and investment arrangements. Bomb hoax After the official APEC entourage had left town, and while Aziz was away on a speaking tour with Dr Alejandro Villamar of the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade, his house was raided by police, supposedly looking for "bomb-making equipment". Police also searched the home of David Small, a speaker at the alternative conference, for the same reason. It was Dr Small who discovered the SIS agents, gave chase to them and noted down their getaway vehicle's registration number, after he had gone to Aziz's house to collect a TV and video for the GATT Watchdog forum. A hoax device marked "Apec bomb" had been left outside the Christchurch City Council offices -- after the ministerial meeting had finished -- but no-one was ever found responsible for this. On the night of the botched break-in, on the orders of a senior officer, police dropped their investigation into the incident, saying that no offence had been committed. The resulting media interest led to the vehicle registration being traced to a Wellington office called "Amalgamated Office Services", a fictitious company and a front for the SIS. While outraged, many aware of its dubious track record were unsurprised that the SIS had broken into the house of an activist. It was just that this time it had been caught red-handed. Cover-up Subsequent attempts to elicit information from the police and the SIS were largely unsuccessful. Choudry and Small complained to the inspector-general of intelligence and security, a retired High Court judge appointed to investigate complaints against the SIS. He produced a June 1997 report which many saw as a whitewash. The SIS, and the then prime minister, Jim Bolger, refused to confirm or deny SIS involvement in the affair. It wasn't until SIS was dragged into the High Court -- when Choudry sued it for trespass and breaching his rights under the Bill of Rights Act -- that it admitted its operatives had entered his house that night. Unlike the taxpayer-funded SIS, Aziz has been able to fight this case only with support from donations from the public. So far the Democratic Rights Defence Fund, set up to raise funds for the case, has brought in just over half of the estimated NZ$20,000 to see the case through. The Choudry break-in occurred within two weeks of new legislation expanding the definition of "security" which the SIS is supposed to concern itself with. The act expanded the scope of SIS targets to include those allegedly threatening “New Zealand's economic and/or international wellbeing”. Successive governments have pushed through with enormously unpopular market reforms and policies designed to lock New Zealand into maintaining one of the world's most open economies. Human rights GATT Watchdog has long argued that human rights violations and the suppression of legitimate dissent go hand in hand with the market model of development that APEC promotes. The SIS break-in seemed to be par for the course for a government which was so zealously wedded to extremist economic theories, and so desperate to convince the rest of the world to follow the “New Zealand experiment”, that it would not tolerate dissent. Auckland law Professor Jane Kelsey agreed that the incident was symptomatic of a growing intolerance of dissent about the country's economic direction. When, in a submission on the new legislation, she had raised the possibility that the new definition of “security” might be used to monitor organisations engaged in legitimate critique, she was told she was "naive and paranoid". Opponents of globalisation as far apart as Geneva and Vancouver find themselves targets of police harassment and surveillance. Swiss police raided a seminar on globalisation last month and detained 50 participants without charge. Canada's media are currently dominated by revelations that anti-APEC activists were placed under surveillance by police and other intelligence agencies in the months before last November's APEC summit in Vancouver, and that the prime minister's office gave orders for the police to spare APEC leaders such as Indonesia's Suharto from any embarrassment by non-violent protesters. What this meant in effect was the pepper-spraying, roughing up and arrest of dozens of peaceful protesters by Canadian police. Some were arrested for holding up cardboard signs saying "Free Speech"; others were arrested as part of a police plan to "eliminate" higher-profile anti-APEC organisers. Appeals In a July High Court hearing, SIS's lawyer told Justice Graham Panckhurst that Prime Minister (and minister in charge of the Security Intelligence Service) Jenny Shipley had personally considered documents about the incident and certified that producing them would prejudice the security and defence of New Zealand. However, the judge ruled that he wanted to inspect the documents himself. But he also ruled that although the legislation had not specified the methods to be used, an SIS warrant to intercept or seize communications carries with it the implicit right to break and enter the private dwelling of a person, and indeed any other premises used by the person named in the warrant. The next step in the case will be in the NZ Court of Appeal, possibly next month. Aziz is appealing the judgment in relation to the interception warrant, and SIS is cross-appealing against the judge's decision to inspect the documents that it does not want disclosed. Next year's security operation for APEC will be the biggest in New Zealand history, with a budget of over NZ$18 million for security alone. With Aziz's case still before the courts, and the SIS doing its utmost to maintain the shroud of secrecy over the incident, some hard questions are being asked about the post-Cold War role and accountability of New Zealand intelligence agencies. The kind of stability and security which countries embracing the global economy want to display to the world can exist only where ideas which threaten to reveal that the emperor of globalisation has no clothes -- and the people who promote those ideas -- are vigorously suppressed. For more information on this case, or to make a donation, write to Democratic Rights Defence Fund, PO Box 1905, Christchurch, New Zealand, or e-mail: From panap at panap.po.my Thu Oct 29 16:01:18 1998 From: panap at panap.po.my (PAN Asia Pacific) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 16:01:18 Subject: [asia-apec 836] Workshop on TNCs: Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture Message-ID: <2976@panap.po.my> HEY TNCs: YOU CAN'T FEED THE WORLD ON GREED! Workshop on Transnational Corporations November 11, Grand Olympic Hotel, Kuala, Lumpur, Malaysia Part of the Forum on Land, Food Security, and Agriculture November 11-12, Grand Olympic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia And the Asia-Pacific Peoples’ Assembly (APPA) November 10-15, Federal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Workshop Organiser: Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific Concept: “Hunger is the offspring of injustice and the unequal distribution of wealth in this world” -Fidel Castro Today, a few transnational corporations (TNCs) dominate the world’s food system. The statistics are appalling: Cargill, a US based company, controls 77 per cent of the global cereal trade; 5 TNCs control between them 90 per cent of the export trade of each of wheat, corn, coffee, tea, pineapple, cotton, tobacco, jute, and forest products; and Monsanto, one of the largest and most notorious agrochemical and biotechnology companies, is now one of the world’s largest seed distributors. Food and agriculture has become big business, and the losers far outnumber the winners. The transformation of the food system is part of globalisation. Globalisation, among other things, consolidates wealth in the hands of a few and impoverishes many. TNCs are the major beneficiaries of this process, and they have well-planned strategies to ensure that this process continues. This is certainly true of the food and agriculture industry. TNCs are now using genetic engineering and multilateral trade bodies and lending institutions to protect their interests and guarantee their markets. The current picture is bleak, but throughout the world there is resistance. Farmers and consumers in Europe are fighting against the introduction of genetically engineered crops and food. In India, farmers destroyed Cargill seeds and forced the company from opening operations at a northern port. In Thailand, farmers are leading a protest against the attempts of an American company to patent Jasmine rice. The struggle, however, is arduous; TNCs wield resources and influence. In order to succeed, we will have to understand corporate strategies and the mechanisms that they use to protect and promote their interests. The workshop on TNCs will help participants to understand corporate control of the food system and to find the best ways to resist it. Objectives: 1. Analysis: The workshop will develop an analysis of corporate strategies that highlights how TNCs seek to control the food system. The analysis will give specific attention to TNC public relations; to the benefits of trade liberalisation and trade bodies for TNCs; and to the influence of TNCs with government and trade bodies. The analysis will also focus on the impacts of corporate strategies on the food system, specifically on national and household food security. 2. Actions: Workshop participants will use the analysis to decide on a plan of action. The actions will consider various means of resistance: monitoring at the macro and micro levels; direct actions by NGOs, farmers, consumers and activists; and using existing international mechanisms and instruments or developing new ones. Programme: November 11, Grand Olympic Hotel 2:00-2:15 Introduction Sarojeni V. Rengam (PAN-AP, Malaysia) 2:15-2:45 Overview of TNCs and the Food System, Brewster Kneen, (Canada) Mr. Kneen will speak specifically about the corporate strategies of Cargill and Monsanto; two of the world’s greediest TNCs. Brewster will highlight the implications of their strategies for the global food system. He will also share his views about how trade liberalisation and multilateral trade bodies promote the interests of these TNCs. Brewster will end his talk with suggestions for action. 2:45-3:45 Stories of Corporate Greed and the Power of Resistance TNC Handouts: No Thanks! Farhad Mazhar, (UBINIG, Bangladesh) Mr. Mazhar will describe how agribusiness is using development agencies to promote its selfish interests. He will share the example of how TNCs used the recent floods in Bangladesh to push wheat imports. Farhad will then talk about the Naya Krishi movement and other ways that people in Bangladesh are resisting TNCs. Don't Believe the Hype! Barbara Dinham (Pesticides Trust, UK) Ms. Dinham will speak about the public relations strategies of Pesticide and Food TNCs in Europe. She will also describe the European campaigns and actions to counter these PR strategies. TNCs: Get out of Asia! Dr. Romy Quijano (PAN Philippines) Dr. Quijano will speak about his own experiences in confronting agribusiness corporations. He will also speak about TNC operations in Asia and what the future implications are for the Asian food system. He will then speak about the various mechanism of resistance that have been used in Asia, such as the PAN Community Pesticide Action Kit for monitoring at the micro level. 3:45-4:00 Tea Break 4:00-5:00 Deepening of the Analysis 5:00-7:00 Action Planning For more information please contact Devlin Kuyek at the PAN-AP offices: Tel: 604-657-0271 Fax: 604-657-7445 Email: panap@panap.po.my To register for The Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture please contact the APPA Secretariat (email: appasec@tm.net.my) From amc at HK.Super.NET Thu Oct 29 20:43:09 1998 From: amc at HK.Super.NET (AMC) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 19:43:09 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 837] Program/Schedule - Migrant Forum (APPA 1998) Message-ID: <3.0.32.19981029194202.00770148@is2.hk.super.net> 29 October 1998 Dear Friends, Here is the programme/schedule of the Migrant Forum (1998 Asia-Pacific People's Assembly on APEC) that was jointly drawn up by AMC, Tenaganita and the Migrant Forum in Asia. For those attending the Migrant Forum, please bring the following: * a posterful of photos (re: migrant activities, campaigns, your work in your own country) which we will post as exhibits along the wall of the conference venue * a 3-5 page brief update about migrants' situation in your own country. * other papers, materials you want to bring Thanks! Rex Varona Asian Migrant Centre ************************* MIGRANT FORUM ASIA PACIFIC PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY 1998 "ASSERTING MIGRANTS' RIGHTS IN A GLOBALIZED ECONOMY" (11-12 November, 1998) SCHEDULE DAY 1 - 11 November, 1998 CHAIR - Anwar Fazal 8:00 to 9:00 AM * Registration for Migration Forum at Hotel Stanford 9:00 to 9:30 * Opening Ceremony & Introduction 9:30 to 11:00 * Plenary Overview - GLOBALIZATION: IMPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES FOR MIGRANT WORKERS - - Hameeda Hossain - Aegile Fernandez - Mayan Villalba 11:00 to 11:30 AM Break 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM * Experiences in Responding to the Implications and Challenges for Migrant Workers With Regard to Globalization - Tati Krisnawaty - Joachim Victor - Imelda Laguindam - Rex Varona 2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. - WORKSHOPS 1 - 3 will be held as parallel workshops WORKSHOP 1: The Crisis of Rights for Migrant Workers and Their Families * Chair - Sr. Ditna Luz Trocio from Taiwan (for confirmation) * Speakers: Tenaganita - Malaysia Gina - Kanlungan - Philippines (for confirmation) WORKSHOP 2: Globalization and the Quality of Life of Migrants and Their Families * Chair - Raynah Passanha-Braganza (for confirmation) * Speakers: Tep Mony - Cambodia Padmini Wirasurya - Sri Lanka Manny Rosales - Japan WORKSHOP 3: Resisting Globalization Through Migrant Empowerment * Chair - Mayan Villalba * Speakers: WARBE - Bangladesh Yi Yoon-joo/Chong Yoon-sik - Korea Bien Molina - Hong Kong DAY 2 - 12 November, 1998 9:00 a.m. Game 9:30 a.m. Reporting of Workshop Discussion 12:00 p.m. Discussion and Consolidation of Common Points / Recommendations 2:00 p.m. Declaration 3:30 p.m. Break 4:00 p.m. Facilitators - Rex Varona and Aegile Fernandez * Launching of Migrant Rights Campaign - Rex * Press Conference * Closing Ceremony - Outside the venue of the Migrant Forum, in K.L. *************************************************** Cultural Event Organized by the Migrant Forum: *************************************************** Migrant Solidarity Evening Date 15 November, 1998 Time 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Venue Loyola Hall, St. Francis Xavier?s Church, Jalan Gasing, Petaling Jaya Asian Migrant Centre 4 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2312-0031 Fax: (852) 2992-0111 E-mail: amc@hk.super.net Web: www.hk.super.net/~amc From bisans at pc.jaring.my Thu Oct 29 17:08:37 1998 From: bisans at pc.jaring.my (Minsoc) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 16:08:37 +0800 (MYT) Subject: [asia-apec 838] (no title) Message-ID: <199810290808.QAA23366@relay5.jaring.my> Dear Friends, Re: Issue Workshop : Community Enterprises For Sustainable Livelihood An Option For Fair Trade, Environment Conservation and People-centred Development 1. We are pleased to inform you that the above workshop will be held as scheduled on the 11 and 12 November 1998 at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Jalan Tun Ismail, Off Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur. Please see the Draft Programme attached. 2. We are limiting the participants to only forty people. We still have a number of places available. We will be happy to consider new application on a first come first basis. Attach herewith is the application form and the Aide Memoire. 3. We shall be able to meet all the organising costs, including refreshments and lunch during the duration of the workshop. 4. The Asia Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) is schedule for 13th and 14th November 1998 at the Federal Hotel, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. To participate in this event a registration fee of US $ 50.00 is levied to support the APPA secretariat and defray the organising costs. 5. We strongly urge you to participate in the above event. Please register directly to: The APPA Secretariat ( contact person : Ms. Cynthia Gabriel ) 57, Lorong Kurau, Lucky Gardens, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel : 603 283 6245 Fax : 603 283 3536 Email : appasec@tm.net.my 6. If you find difficulty in paying the registration fee and meeting your own cost to participate, please make an application to the APPA Secretariat for a waiver for the registration fee. The APPA Secretariat is willing to accommodate such requests within their capacity. 7. In addition if you are unable to meet the cost of your lodging for the 13,14 and checking out on the 15 November 1998, please make an application to us. We too are willing to consider support within our capacity. 8. Please kindly reconfirm your participation. Registration will be held at the APPA opening ceremony which will be on the 10 Nov 1998. We will provide you with more details later. Thank you. Best Wishes, Bishan Singh President SUSDEN (Att: Ms. Kavitha) c.c. 1. Ms. Cynthia Gabriel, APPA Secretariat 2. Ms. Sarojeni Rengam From appasec at tm.net.my Fri Oct 16 19:29:17 1998 From: appasec at tm.net.my (APPA) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 18:29:17 +0800 Subject: [asia-apec 883] News & Stories from Asia Pacific Peoples' Assembly Message-ID: <19981114103055.IMGJ23292@[202.188.6.155]> THE RAG Resistance Against Globalisation APPA Daily Bulletin No. 6, Saturday, November 14, 1998 PEOPLE REJECT APEC APPA issue forums unanimously reject APEC's globalisation agenda Federal Hotel, Fri: The message was clear, and in no uncertain terms: APEC and its globalisation agenda must go. This was the tone of the Plenary Session on the fourth day of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) in Kuala Lumpur. The 700 participants representing people from 25 countries resolved that globalisation must be resisted and the peoples' right asserted. Speaker after speaker who touched on the economic crisis, lay the blame on globalisation. Urban poor Participants declared that: 'Globalisation has brought about rural-urban migration and urban land speculation, while governments in the Asia-Pacific are generally incapable of addressing the problems of their burgeoning cities, including the housing needs of the poor'. The forum called for governments in the Asia-Pacific to recognise housing as a basic human right, to stop forced evictions, ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and allocate a budget for social housing. Human rights The forum agreed that "economic globalisation has led to an increase in violations of civil and political rights including arbitrary detentions, unfair trials and political imprisonment as repressive governments clamp down on attempts to resist the violation of economic, social and cultural rights". According to Sinapan Samydorai of the Human Rights Forum, "the APEC process, by denying access and participation by NGOs, and putting decision making in the hands of unrepresentative governments advised by un-elected business entities, effectively violates article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". The forum called for the im-mediate release of political prisoners and the abolition of national security laws, as well as the establishment of independent national human rights institutions according to internationally recognised principles and the creation of a regional mechanism for the promotion and protection of human rights. Indigenous people The Indigenous Peoples' Forum made it clear that globalisation will further undermine the rights of indigenous peoples, most especially their inherent rights to ancestral lands. "We view the globalisation policy imposed on us by imperialist nations and international financial institutions to further the economic interest at our expense, as a threat to our existence as indigenous peoples, and we hold that this threat should no longer be tolerated but must be confronted at all levels." The forum called for Asian governments to recognise the existence of indigenous peoples in their countries and give them citizenship, particularly the indigenous peoples of Thailand and the Orang Asli of Malaysia; to ensure that affected communities are involved in development projects from inception to implementation, monitoring and evaluation; to ensure biodiversity conservation without depriving indigenous people access to their resources; and to repeal all laws that deprive the rights of indigenous people to their land and resources. Environment and forestry The forum pointed to the impact of the Asian financial crisis on forest ecosystems and community around the Pacific Rim and noted that the IMF is accelerating forest destruction. Forest activists called on all APEC countries to halt further discussions on the forest sector Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalisation (EVSL) process pending a full independent assessment on environmental and social and cultural impacts of timber trade deregulation, and full public participation in APEC decisions that affect forest use. The forum also called on APEC governments to recognise, respect and protect indigenous people's rights to traditional lands. Women "Women suffer most from globalisation in Asia where the economic crisis has brought massive unemployment and displacement. This has resulted in increased impoverishment and poverty," declared the Third Women's Conference Against APEC. It called for the establishment of standard minimum rules by the UN for the treatment and promotion of the rights of trafficked women and the rejection of APEC. Land, food security and sustainable agriculture The forum found that globalisation is destroying local food production, food security, culture, local knowledge systems and biodiversity. "It is endangering the lives of people, destroying land, forest and water. International trade mechanisms, like the WTO and APEC are destroying the structure of agricultural production and consumption, particularly in rural areas and have negative impacts on livelihood and food security. These impacts are being felt by small farmers and fisherfolk, and by consumers in the South and North." The forum demanded that the WTO?s Agreement on Agriculture be removed by 1999-2000. It called upon governments to support sustainable and ecological agriculture, ensure food security, and promote a sustainable livelihood for traditional fishing communities as well as the ban of genetically-engineered organisms, foods and seeds. Migrant workers The forum resolved to campaign against wage cuts of migrant workers and monitor pre-departure and post-arrival orientation programs so that these emphasise migrant workers' rights. It also called for the ratification of UN conventions. Privatisation and financial deregulation Limited access to basic necessities such as education, public amenities and healthcare as a result of privatisation has denied people, in particular women, access to "safe, appropriate and affordable quality preventive and curative healthcare". "We firmly believe that healthcare, public services and education should be based on need and not the ability to pay ... Public services must be publicly funded and controlled. They must be transparent in their policies," the forum concluded. The forum also resolved to resist any attempts by local or international capital to privatise and dominate these essential services and called for the regulation of global capital and the implementation of a tax on its predatory movements. Labour Globalisation and liberalisation have resulted in "the erosion of workers" rights, the greater exploitation of labour with mass unemployment, contractualisation, causalisation and flexibalisation" and the reduction and destruction of social services through privatisation. ?All these have had their most negative impact on workers, especially women and migrant workers," the forum declared. It called for a stop to global capital liberalisation and demanded the immediate release of Dita Sari and other imprisoned labour activists. Education The Education International Forum blamed privatisation for cuts in education and called on APEC governments to increase funding for education, even during the economic crisis. US-Japan militarist agenda The US and Japan have been most active in pushing globalisation, coercing countries to comply with GATT-WTO-IMF-World Bank and APEC policies to open the door to ?corporate plunder by monstrous TNCs". In order to protect these interests and to suppress peoples' movements challenging them, the US and Japan have increased their military presence in the region. The forum called for the abolition of all US military agreements and treaties (US-Japan Security Treaty and Defense Cooperation Guidelines, proposed Philippines-US Visiting Forces Agreement, Taiwan Relations Act), removal of US bases in the region, an end to US-trained Indonesian military, and a conclusion to the North Korean-US peace treaty. CULTURAL VILLAGE OFFERS WELCOME BREAK Sky room, Federal Hotel, Fri: The Cultural Village on the 15th floor opened to a steady stream of visitors today. APPA delegates seeking a break from the day's plenary session took time out to browse through a selection of books, t-shirts, bags, postcards, indigenous arts and craft, and curios. The Cultural Village is a part of The Peoples' Fest - the cultural component of APPA - and follows five nights of film, poetry and dance performances at Filmnet Cafe in Jalan Ampang. Kultcha.com member Dorothy Chen described the turn out as reasonable but hoped more participants would take time off tomorrow to visit the Village. Nevertheless, she was surprised at the brisk sales. "The books and videos sold very well,' she said, suggesting that overseas delegates may wish to shop for souvenirs here. "Some of the merchandise such as cards and tee-shirts make great presents." Over 70 publications cover topics ranging from pesticides to politics, published by organisations such as Asia-Pacific Research and Resource Centre for Women, Women's Aid Organisation, JUST Trust, Pesticide Action Network, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact and ALTSEAN. On top of this, visitors had a good time playing "congkak" (a traditional Southeast Asian game) and carom, received "hair wraps" and relaxed with Reiki massage sessions. "Beautiful, multi-coloured hair wraps cost only RM2 to RM5 each," Dorothy said. "Eu Jin, our persevering volunteer, not only did a good job with hair but also kept visitors entertained with various snippets of information; for example, did you know that a study showed that 60% of women are more likely to suffer in the mating game compared to men? Or that hair wraps can be maintained for up to a year?" Other visitors chose to pick up a brush and paint on the large banner backdrop behind the stage. Sculptor Norizan Muslim set up an environmentally-themed display of ants and scorpions made from spark plugs and various metal "throw-aways" only a short distance from a minimalist installation work by artist, Ilann. In another section of the Sky Room, participants could chill out watching a variety of videos - billed as "scenes not seen on Malaysian TV" - including Mothers of Bakun, Forced Evictions and APCET 2, the second Conference on East Timor in Kuala Lumpur which was broken up by force. Around 20 participants of the Popular Theatre Workshop facilitated by Charlene Rajendran were asked to let their hair down; one exercise had two groups competing to make the longest human line using their bodies and clothing (some even stretched their hair across the floor). Tomorrow, delegates and volunteers will have the chance to attend a Popular Education Workshop which will be facilitated by Jerald Joseph of KOMAS (a popular local communications centre). The highlight of the Peoples' Festival will be the Peoples' Concert, a cultural night which will include dances, skits, poetry readings and traditional performances in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That begins at 8pm, but organisers hope more delegates will find time to wander up to the Sky Room throughout the day. "The Cultural Village is just a good place to hang out!" Dorothy assures. ANWAR IN PERSPECTIVE By Antonio Tujan Jr., Cutting Edge When one arrives in Kuala Lumpur, what strikes any visitor is its manicured, developed beauty. Unlike most cities in Southeast Asia, KL has a greater share of tall buildings, a testament to more than 10 years of sustained growth and influx of foreign investment. Everywhere is evidence of an overall hand, as in the landscaping even in the downtown areas where you find a lot of transplanted trees and plants. More than the landscaping, a testament to this growth is the tallest building in the world, one of the longest bridges in the world, and KLIA, a new generation super-airport linked by a mini-railway similar to the Kansai Airport and the new Hong Kong airport. But this beauty and development has broken up recently in demonstrations against the imprisonment of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. The demonstrations have been sustained and have gripped the whole of the country as a mock trial progresses. Two weeks ago, these demonstrations turned violent as the police and civilian ?volunteers? turned a demonstration at a mosque into a melee, giving the police the excuse to arrest more than 100 protestors. Indeed the manicured beauty of KL belies, and also indicates, the degree of political and social control of the autocratic regime of Mahathir. The Internal Security Act provides blanket authority to stifle any form of dissent, or what looks like dissent. Three persons together can constitute a meeting or a rally, and which technically requires a permit. The ISA is not the only mechanism to keep Malaysians in check. The Printing Presses and Publications Act has become an instrument that enforces a strong form of self-censorship. Under this law, activist Irene Fernandez has been arrested and only temporarily released with a sword of Damocles over her head in the form of continued court trials. Students may not organise or link with the rest of the population under a Universities and University Colleges Act which has caused the arrest and detention of many brave students. Just like in the Philippines martial law period in the 70s, it takes a lot of bravery to dissent in Malaysia. But while Marcos, as well as Suharto, imposed a blatant form of dictatorship marked by violent repression, Mahathir?s rule has been more insidious. While the issue has been drummed up to be the issue of Anwar's incarceration in Manila, it is quite obvious that the bigger issue is social justice and democracy for the people. Just like for us Filipinos during Marcos, it was not just justice for Aquino, but justice for all. This is symbolised by the white ribbons that Malaysians wear proudly. Furthermore, the Anwar issue has similarly opened up a venue for the layperson in Malaysia to awaken and draw up courage to find truth in dissent. The Anwar issue has become a very successful vehicle to conscientise, to see through the lies and to openly talk about the situation. The Anwar issue has become a focus to resist and an opportunity for democracy to grow. THE TRUTH BEHIND APEC "A new APEC for the new millenium ... where world leaders and corporate giants meet." APEC, we have a problem. 700 participants from 25 countries assembled at the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) in Kuala Lumpur to put an end to corporate-led economic models such as APEC. APPA participants are witness to the devastating impacts on communities by neo-liberalism that APEC proposes, and represent the voices of people in the Asia-Pacific region who the APEC summit refuses to acknowledge. Not a single participant listed in the official advertisement for the APEC business summit represents the needs of the people. The fact that it boasts workshops entitled, "CEO Roundtable: Business For What? Before Profit, Beyond Profit" and "Foreign Direct Investment - Where The New Opportunities Lie" attest to this. Make no mistake about it. The corporate sponsorship of the APEC Summit makes it criminal. Not only is the primary goal of APEC to maximise corporate profits completely wrong, the track records of the corporate sponsors stink! Check this out: UNOCAL The giant oil company is currently being sued in the US on 10 counts including Environmental Destruction, Unfair and Unethical Treatment of Workers, Complicity in Aiding Oppression of Women in Afghanistan, Complicity in Enslavement and Forced Labor in Burma, Killings, Complicity in Torture and Rape in Burma and Complicity in Gradual Cultural Genocide of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Burma. Need we say more? Enron International The largest natural gas corporation in the US, Enron is taking full advantage of the privatisation of the various sectors in Southern countries under pressure from IMF/World Bank-led policies. In India and the Philippines, Enron is charging excessive prices for its services, and in complicity with the government, is responsible for various human rights violations in India, as documented by Amnesty International. In countries like Argentina, Kuwait, and Mozambique, Enron has been dogged by allegations that it used political influence in the US to win lucrative contracts. Enron is also under fire for the pipeline projects proposed in Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil. In addition, Enron?s claim of natural gas being clean energy is hogwash. Ford Motor Company and General Motors One of the two largest TNCs in the world, Ford recently sponsored a commercial-free airing of Schindler's List on American TV, an epic movie about the Holocaust. Now, that's ironic. According to a report by the United States Senate Committee on Judiciary in 1974, ?the Ford Motor Company and General Motors supplied both sides in World War II with materials needed to conduct the war... In Germany, for example, Ford and General Motors became an integral part of the Nazi war efforts ... In 1938, Ford's chief executive received the Nazi German Eagle (first class)..." To top it off, GM and Ford demanded reparations from the US government for wartime damages sustained by their Axis allies as a result of Allied bombing. Ford received around US$1 million. Had the Nazis won, GM and Ford would have appeared impeccably Nazi; as Hitler lost, they emerged impeccably American. (Ford Malaysia recently donated RM50,000 to APEC.) International Paper The single largest private landowner in the US, IP "manages" over six million acres of forest. In 1997, IP was the largest paper producer in the world operating in 31 countries with markets in 130 countries. Target of various campaigns, in 1991, the CEO and board of IP were charged with violating a variety of pollution laws, destroying evidence and lying to the US government. IP's leaders plea bargained these charges down to five felony convictions for criminal violations of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act and also paid US$2.2 million in fines. Today, IP continues to degrade communities and the environment all across the world. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Q: What's the difference between Zambia and Goldman Sachs? A: One is an African country that makes US$2.2 billion a year and shares it among 25 million people. The other is an investment bank that makes US$2.6 billion ... and shares it among 161 people. (The Guardian, 1991) Goldman Sachs has come under scrutiny by activists in recent months because of its role in the financial crisis underway. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are largely responsible for the speculative nature of financial flows that have contributed to the current crisis. They are also part of the "big five" merchant banks that are constantly consulted on the "bail-out" clauses negotiated between the IMF and impacted economies so as to minimise all risks to them. The crisis has served them well ? with the weakened currencies in Asia, both groups are actively buying up assets in all nations. Look for them to be bigger players in years to come as a result of their vulturism. Other "corporate" sponsors include the World Bank Inc. and AETNA (a "top 5" insurance company in the US looking for privatised healthcare markets). Are we prepared to do business with such corporations? What guarantees do we have that they will not destroy our communities as they have done elsewhere? Absolutely None! APPA, let us work together to put an end to such corporate-led initiatives that prioritise corporate profits over basic human rights. Please send us your TNC-specific campaign materials regularly so we can continue to document corporate abuses worldwide. Say NO to APEC! Contributed by Amit Srivastava, TRAC/Corporate Watch, USA. For documentation of the allegations made above, visit http://www.corpwatch.org or email amit@igc.org BEHIND THE SCENES Tireless APPA volunteers The Asia-Pacific People's Assembly has run smoothly, thanks largely to a group of volunteers who have selflessly contributed both time and effort to making it a success. According to Volunteers Co-ordinator Justine Yong, there are 40 regular volunteers and some 15 who just pop in unannounced to offer their services. "Frankly, I think without them a lot of things would have stalled," Yong said. "There are a lot of emergencies and last minute requirements, and they've helped out tremendously with things like registration, transportation and documenting." One regular volunteer, Clare, has been at it since Monday, collecting and keying in articles. "Our church encourages us to be actively involved in social issues and helping at this assembly has helped me understand better the issues of this region. It has been enjoyable working here and meeting people from so many different countries," she said. Walk-in volunteer Jane Chia has helped out over two nights, going home only after 3am and 5am respectively. She then tries to get some sleep before rising for work! "To tell you the truth, I didn't know what I was in for. But I wanted to help out; efforts like APPA's need to be encouraged and supported. It's one of the avenues for non-mainstream views. It's inspiring that there are people fighting against official versions of anything," she said. "It's a good cause," agreed music teacher Praem, who's been helping out with The Rag since Monday. "I've always been involved with NGOs and issues concerning the rise of the people," explained Praem. It has been a hectic week for her. For the past week she's been working through nights and sleeping in the day. But that's okay, she quipped. "I work better at night anyway." There are even some who come all the way from outstation. Students Chua Seong Khoon and Ong Ching Wen, on their semester break, are in KL to participate and help out. They were involved in the Youth & Student Forum and have been chauffering volunteers and participants about. They've also doubled up as security, keeping a look-out for unwelcome strays like the "special branch". "There's a big student movement in Indonesia right now," said Chua, "and their experiences are interesting to us." "It's a good opportunity to link up with other student leaders in the country," added Ong, "as well as activists from other countries. I'm enjoying it. It's not necessarily that holidays are about visiting tourist spots." Asked if they worry that their universities might disapprove of their activities, Chua had this to say: "It's just like your parents saying don't do something. But you do it anyway and don?t tell them. That's how I see it." "I think if we always think in terms of what the authorities dictate, we wouldn't be able to do anything. Besides, we're not doing anything wrong," Ong said.