World an World News UN targets population growth The United Nations has tar- geted the African continent in its Day of the Five Billion cam- paign, declared last year in an effort to arouse world concern about the population crisis. Africa has the highest rate of population growth on the globe — 2.8 per cent compared to the world average of 1.7. per cent — a situation with poses a threat to the continent’s eco- nomic and social development. The average birth rate of countries south of the Sahara was 47 per 1,000 in 1987 com- pared with the global average of 32 per thousand. Although the mortality rate in African coun- tries has declined, the continent still has the highest death rate at 18 per thousand, compared to the world average of 10 per thousand. Another feature is the large proportion of depend- ent population. In 1987, 45 per cent of Africans were under 15. Several countries have deve- loped policies designed to limit growth, including vigorous fam- ily planning. programs, and have introduced minimum age for marriage laws and abolished polygamy. A permanent organ- ization of African states has been established to study the issue, but attitudes and views on the population question widely differ. U.S. arms to South Korea As the world’s athletes pre- pare to leave Seoul, 24 F-16 fighter-bombers will fly in, courtesy of the Pentagon. The U.S. will supply $3.3-billion in military aid to South Korea this year, bringing to $50-billion the amount it has spent on military hardware since its troops moved into the country 40 years ago. Thailand’s new government wins support Chatichai Choonhavan has become Thailand’s 17th prime minister, the first elected leader since the bloody military coup in 1976. Chatichai heads a coalition government made up of of four former ruling parties and two former opposition parties. The coalition holds 230 out of the 357 seats in the House of Repre- sentatives. Sixteen parties had participated in the July 24 gen- eral election but none emerged with a majority. Chatichai’s party, the Chart Thai (Thai Nation), won with 87 seats — the largest number. Thailand’s military leader, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, has called on army personnel to “obey orders issued by the government.” The new prime minister is committed to a program of improved economic develop- ment, particularly in the coun- tryside, “more balanced rela- tions” with the U.S., the Soviet Union and China, and a quick resolution to the Kampuchean problem. Campaign to halt Iranian executions Although an uneasy truce has been called in the Iraq-Iran war, an international campaign still continues to save the lives of 70 political, trade union and peace movement leaders who face execution. Amnesty International, along with hundreds of personalities, has intervened on the prisoners’ behalf. According to Amnesty’s report to the UN Human Rights Commission “‘one hundred and sixty is the minimum figure for the number of executions in Iran in 1987.” The report also cites numerous incidents. of secret executions. Iran’s jails hold an estimated 100,000 political prisoners. Since the fundamentalist Islamic regime seized power following ‘ the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, 40,000 activists have been executed. The average Iranian has paid dearly for the bloody eight-year conflict with Iraq: 12 million Iranians live below the poverty line, while another 22 million subsist only through govern- ment subsidies on basic necessi- ties. The unemployment rate has topped 29 per cent, and half of the country’s industries have closed while the other half are devoted to war production. Co-operation in Arctic urged The Arctic needs an “ecolog- ical safety belt” monitored by the Soviet Union, the U.S. and Canada, says a prominent * Soviet scientist. Vladimir Mel- é nikov, director of the Soviet Institute for Arctic Develop- ment Problems, says he’ll make the proposal at an international symposium on the Arctic envir- onment to be held in western Siberia next year. Melnikov says the Arctic has paid dearly for the “‘oil and gas at any cost” approach. Serious ecological damage has been caused by aggressive oil and gas extraction, similar to that expe- rienced in Alaska and northern Canada. “It is a serious mistake if one thinks we don’t have to pay attention to this today,” Mel- nikov said. “International co- operation is needed to help keep the natural balance of the north intact.” 8 e Pacific Tribune, September 21, 1988 Israel repression mounts with shoot-to-kill orders Adella Abdu learned her hus- band was leaving home only hours before he was permanently expelled from the West Bank. His deporta- tion order, along with eight others, had come days earlier, but Lu’ai didn’t want the news to upset Adella who was overdue with their child. He would see his son for only a few minutes before being forcibly escorted across the border. The other deportees did not fare as well; they went straight from prison to South Lebanon with no last family Visit. é Israel has stepped up its “pun- ishment by deportation” policy. In the past two weeks 25 more Pales- tinians, including high-ranking professors, trade unionists and journalists, have been expelled — the largest single group ever to be banished — and activists warn that more expulsions could follow. In an appeal issued earlier this month, the Palestinian Commu- nist Party called for increased pres- sure on Israel to stop deportations and other repression against the Palestinian population. Israel is testing world opinion, the PCP said. If a mass public out- cry doesn’t occur, “further crimes will take place, including mass deportations.” The ultra right is vocally campaigning for the remo- val of the entire Palestinian population — 1.5 million people. The UN Security Council reacted to the deportations with a strong protest, accusing Israel of violating the Geneva Conventions which forbid the deportation of civilians. Meanwhile, heightened Israeli repression has shocked even the battle-hardened population of the occupied territories. For the second time in the eight-month uprising, journalists were banned from the territories and a total curfew placed on the entire Gaza Strip fol- lowing the murder of three workers August 9. Arsonists in Or Yehuda, near Tel Aviv, locked the three Gaza - labourers in a hut and set it on fire. In related attacks, five Palestinian Last appeal for Sharpeville Six An Irish priest who works in the Black township of Sharpeville in South Africa has expressed con- cerned over the health of Theresa Ramashamola, the only woman ever sentenced to death in the his- tory of the apartheid regime. Ramashamola, 24, is one of six defendants condemned to the gal- lows for alleged involvement in the murder of four town councillors during rent strike protests in the summer of 1984. Rev. Patrick Noonan said his parishioner is becoming increas- ingly depressed. He described her as a politically unsophisticated woman, who was caught up events not of her making. Indeed, Ramashamola was in her own home at the time of the killings but in a precedent-setting ~ decision, the court ruled that even though the “Sharpeville Six,” as they have come to be known, were not personally involved in the kil- lings, their very presence at the pro- tests had a “common purpose” workers in Tel Aviv were brutally beaten, and their Jewish employers . warned not to hire Arab labour. Four Palestinians were killed, scores wounded and five houses were demolished by the Israeli army in accordance with its “‘col- lective punishment” policy. Several hundred Israeli human rights activists, along with former Palestinian detainees, rallied in Tel Aviv to demand a government investigation into recent events at the notorious Ansar-3 prison camp in the Negev Desert. The open-air tent compound contains 3,000 people, including children, held under Israel’s deten- tion without trial law. Known as the “camp of slow death,” it was the scene last month of a brutal attack on prisoners. Two died when guards opened fire on the unarmed detainees, and 70 were badly injured by the massive amounts of tear gas used. The prisoners were attacked when they walked back to their tents without permission. They had been forced to sit for hours in the desert sun as punishment for refusing to clean the guards’ quar- ters, work they said violates the Geneva Conventions. An Israeli, who was a guard at the camp during his active duty which made them culpable. The ruling sent shock waves throughout the international legal community. In a clemency petition presented by leading members of the South African bar, law profes- sor Edwin Cameron of Witwaters- rand law school called the decision “deeply disquieting.” For the first time, the law of common purpose was applied in “a way that could implicate a crowd of thousands in murder and render them liable to the death sentence. It also established, for the first time in South African criminal law, that conduct not proved to contribute causally to death can, nonetheless, lead to conviction for murder.” Most ominous of all, Cameron said, is that the “‘appeal court has widened the doctrine of criminal liability in response-to evidence of township revolt.” South Africa’s best known defence lawyer, Sydney Kentridge, returned from England this month HOUSE-TO-HOUSE SEARCHES IN GAZA... repression stepped up with deportations, shoot-to-kill orders. . service,-confirmed prisoners’ 1 , unhealthy food preparation, ope! tortured to death. “t6 shoot afiy-stone-throwing dem ports of inhumane condition’ including little drinking watel latrines, beatings and torture. That same week, three Palestin' ans died in Israeli detention cet tres. The army claims they commit: ted suicide; the young mens families say their bodies all show signs of severe beatings. Fellow prisoners report the men had bee! Last week, on the eve of the two” day Jewish New Year holiday, 45) Palestinian leaders were detaint while Israeli Defence Minister Yi hak Rabin gave the army free rel? onstrators. This is part of Israel’s campaigh aimed at “going on the offensiv? against the Palestinians in th¢ occupied territories. Public mech ings have been banned and thé Popular Committees outlawe?: The committees fulfill a variety of social and administrative functio™ for the Palestinian populatio®: allowing them to bypass thé Israeli-appointed town coundl and administrators. The face ? Palestinian self-sufficiency, Rab!” called them “the nucleus of th? uprising.” to lead the legal defence teat which is conducting a last-dit¢ appeal to save the lives of the si* He is asking the court to reopen trial. Meanwhile the United Nation® Commission on Crime Preventio? and Control, meeting in. Vienn4 has urged steps to prevent exert tions and safeguard the rights © those facing the death penalty. The Committee adopted a rest lution urging the provision 4 mandatory appeals or reviews 49 the legal option of granting ¢l@ mency or pardon in all cases ? capital offenses, establishing A maximum age beyond which 1 person could be executed and eli” inating the death penalty for thé suffering from mental retardatio® or extremely limited mental co™ petence. The resolution is binding 9 UN-member states and deman® sanctions against any coun which does not abide.