SGC PAR me - firing, the state of siege was extended another 90 +m ee 4 Em ae 2) World News ‘nae. $ Contadora meet cancelled MEXICO CITY — Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador have pulled out of the Contadora meeting scheduled for Panama City, Feb. 14, citing a ‘diplomatic dispute’? between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The Contadora states were to have met with representatives of five Central American na- tions to work out a new section on verification and control of the arms reduction plans included in the peace treaty. Since agreeing to the Contadora plan last year, Nicaragua has charged the U.S. has backed away from its proposals and pressured its allies to follow suit. Pinochet fires critics SANTIAGO — Chilean dictator Pinochet has fired two key members of his Cabinet for urging him to end the state of siege which has been used to step up repression. The fired members are the civi- lian chief of cabinet, Interior Minister Sergio Jarpa and Finance Minister Luis Escobar. Following the days. Nuclear plans ‘unravelling’ WASHINGTON — The Reagan administration is concerned its allies are more nervous about becoming involved in its nuclear options and have sent cables to their embassies abroad urging con- formity. ‘‘We are concerned with an unravelling here’’, an administration official said. The problem surfaced when news was leaked that the U.S. has secret plans to deploy nuclear weapons in such countries as Iceland and Canada without informing these governments. Afghanistan protests interference by China MOSCOW — As reported in the press here, Afghanis- tan has recently protested Chinese interference in its internal affairs at two levels. One protest was at the Party level. The other was at the state level. Ina letter from the Central Committee of the. People’s Democratic Party to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, attention is drawn to the fact ‘‘of the increasing interference of China in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and to its increasing support to the counter-revolutionary forces which are fighting against the Afghan revolution.” It categorically states that weapons with the “‘Made in China’’ markings have been captured along with weap- ons from the USA and other NATO countries. The letter accuses China of openly waging a hostile campaign against the Revolutionary Government of Afghanistan and resorting to lies and slander. ‘Chinese official representatives,’ it is said in the protest, ‘‘are openly talking about continuation in the future of huge military and other assistance to counter- revolutionary bands who are committing crimes on the soil of the Afghans. : The inter-party statement reminds the Chinese party that China tasted the whole enormity of imperialist op- pression and that its people paid a very heavy price for their liberation struggle, first against the Japanese occupationists and then against the Kuomintang forces which depended on the support of imperialism and first and foremost the USA. After reminding the Chinese side of the vital support China received from the Soviet Union in successfully conducting its long struggle for liberation, the Afghan statement says bluntly: ‘‘It was expected that China, which has gone through such trials, would have come out in support of the April, 1978 revolution, because Afghan patriots are still fighting, in many respects, for the same goals for which thousands of Chinese revolutionaries sacrificed their lives ...”” ‘‘We have fought and are still fighting,’’ says the statement, ‘‘for independence, for the liberation of the Afghan people from poverty, ignorance, deprivation and backwardness; from the oppression of landlords, feudals and userers, and for the building of a society free of the exploitation of man by man.” ” From Moscow Jack Phillips The PDP statement describes as “‘unnatural’’ the de- facto unity of imperialism, and reaction in the region and the Afghan counter-revolution and China. ‘‘How has it happened that a country which is talking so much about imperialism and social progress is helping imperialism and different reactionaries who have united on the basis of their hostility to revolution and progress ...!"” The PDP charges China with aiding the counter-rev- olutionaries inside Afghanistan by establishing camps in Sinkiang, province of China, near Afghanistan’s bor- ders, where Chinese instructors are training and arming counter-revolutionaries and then sending them to Afghanistan to fight against the government. ““We would like*to remind you,”” declares the state- ment ‘‘that at certain times the Soviet Union, in pur- suance of the noble principles of international solidarity, gave vast military assistance to the People’s Liberation Army of China. All the equipment and weapons from the one-million-strong Kwantung Army, which was defeat- ed by the Red Army in 1945, were given to you.” The statement closes by calling on China ‘“‘to end its hostile policy towards the Afghan revolution and to stop supporting the counter-revolutionary forces. This is in accordance with the interests of our two peoples and the cause of global peace.”’ The protest declares that the actions of the Chinese authorities contradict China’s claim of favoring a poli- tical settlement of the situation in Afghanistan. ‘‘They hinder the search for a peaceful solution to the problem existing between Afghanistan and its neighbors. These acts evoke the indignation of the people of Afghanistan who have become the victims of armed intervention from abroad.” : International Focus Tom Morris But he’s not Lech Walesa... President Reagan’s love for ‘‘dissidents’’ is legendary — certain ‘“‘dissidents’’. Poland’s Lech Walesa is his darling, as are the assorted ‘‘refusniks’’ and others in the USSR who win Reagan’s heart by attacking socialism. He falls all over Nicaraguans who de- test the revolution for having taken away their former privileges and praises Cuban ‘‘susanos’’ encamped in Florida since 1959 vowing to return and ‘“‘liberate’’ their country. Special affection is reserved Kim Dae Jung (centre) arrives at Seoul into the arms of police. for groups of Ukrainians, Lat- vians, and others who have been gnashing their teeth at socialism since the end of World War Two. After all, old friends are golden. Then there’s Korean opposi- tion leader Kim Dae-jung who returned to South Korea last week during the country’s - election campaign to get him- self promptly roughed up and arrested by the dictatorship. As.a matter of fact, so did sev- eral prominent Americans who travelled to Seoul with Kim Dae-jung. This is a more ‘‘difficult”’ dissident for Reagan who plans to meet with President Chun Doo Hwan in April. The prob- lem? Reagan’s 40,000 troops stationed in South Korea are currently carrying out joint military maneouvers (Team Spirit °85) with 200,000 South - Korean troops along the bor- der with North Korea. And Chun Doo Hwan is a rabid anti-communist. That’s good, says Reagan, he’s America’s ally. ; What of the dissident Kim Dae-jung? He will simply have to understand that Reagan’s ‘‘democratic principles’ are flexible. Dreaming in a rose garden . History is, sometimes, un- kind to journalists. The Nov.-Dec. issue of Dr. James Endicott’s Far Eastern Newsletter publishes an article (presumably by Dr. Endicott) titled: ‘‘Democratic Kam- puchea Advances’’. In it, we read: ‘‘Democratic Kampuchea has made im- portant gains recently in its - struggle against Vietnamese imperialism which is sup- ported by the Soviet Union.” That’s for openers. After dealing with continued backing for the Pol Pot regime at the UN, the article informs us: ‘“The Kampuchean Army - is now able to launch military attacks on provincial capitals ... From now on (it) will go more and more on the offensive.”’ It concludes: ‘‘There is now a coalition government headed by Prince Sihanouk. They are promising a parliamentary form of government and a re- formed type of economy which will include a large measure of free enterprise.” Curious: The ‘‘Kampuchean Army”’ he speaks of are the. terrorist remnants of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge camped on the Kampuchea-Thai border with the blessings (and backing) of China and the U.S. Rather than advancing, they are being wiped out by a major joint Kampuchean- Vietnamese military offensive. The coalition mentioned is a rag-tag bunch including Pol Pot and Prince Sihanouk (who lives in Peking) which the ‘Chinese and U.S. would dearly love to impose once more on the Kampuchean people. Omitted from the article is the record of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge — the decima- tion of two million Kampuch-. eans between 1975-78. — Having rid the country of this terror, with Vietnamese aid, Kampuchea is no more ok PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 20, 1985 e 9 likely to welcome Pol Pot and the Prince back, than it is to embrace a ‘‘free enterprise”’ system which even Endicott knows is a license to plunder. As others have discovered, uncritical backing of the Chinese line has its pitfalls. In this case the genocidal Khmer Rouge is touted by Endicott as Kampuchea’s savior; “‘free enterprise’ the carrot. It sounds like a U.S. State Department news release. Aman of courage ANC leader Nelson Mande- la, after 22 years in apartheid’s jails, has refused to agree to the regime’s terms that he re- nounce his struggle as the price for his freedom. Mandela instead invited the hated regime to end apartheid and its violence against the people. The regime’s re- sponse: Mandela will stay im- prisoned. When Canada’s UN ambas- sador Stephen Lewis double- talked about apartheid last year he invoked Mandela’s name. Here a real chance for Lewis to speak up on apartheid _— if he had one-tenth Man- dela’s courage.