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WORLD —

Trial politically motivated

Three Bulgarians’ indicted

_ The Bulgarian Government reacted quickly to Italian
Judge Ilario Martella’s ordering of a trial for four Turks
and three Bulgarians on charges of conspiracy to assas-
Sinate Pope John Paul II in May, 1981.

Throughout the Italian investigation of the plot and
Particularly following the arrest in Nov. 1982 of a Bulga-
Man citizen, Sergei Ivanov, Bulgaria has vigorously de-
nied any involvement in the assassination attempt and
has accused ‘“‘those circles of the U.S. and NATO,
whose interests lie in worsening East-West relations”’ of
Carrying out an anti-Bulgarian, anti-socialist campaign.

The so-called ‘‘Bulgarian connection”’ rests entirely
On statements made to police by a right-wing Turkish
terrorist, Mehmet Ali Agca, sentenced to life imprison-
ment in July, 1981 for shooting the Pope. Agca has
Tepeatedly changed his story, lied, and, according to
Martella himself. , ‘is an unpredictable person capable of
anything.”’

Despite this assessment, Judge Martella signed a
1,243-page summary of his investigation indicting the
three Bulgarians along with four Turks.

An Oct. 26 statement by the Bulgarian news agency
BTA says in part:

__ ‘According to statements of investigating magistrate
Martella, the (three) Bulgarian citizens are to be ar-
Taigned without proof of guilt. The basis of evidence
alone, said to offer sufficient grounds for a trial, is the
evidence of Mehmet Ali Agca.

_ “No details are known about the finding of the
Mvestigating magistrate. It should be stressed, however,
that objectivity and impartiality can hardly be expected
by either the investigation or Italian justice. We have
every reason to believe this, having in mind the slander-
Ous charges against the Bulgarian citizens and the
Bulgarian state contained in prosecutor Albano’s report,
which were deliberately made public ...

‘‘A gross breach of the investigation’s secrecy was
Committed in violation of the principle that an accused is
tnocent until proven guilty. :

“For almost two years Bulgaria has spared no effort in
offering unreserved cooperation to Italian investigative

authorities to establish the objective truth — a fact
praised by Judge Martella himself. Unfortunately, the
Italian investigation has failed to overcome its prejudices
and to reject the slanders under which the Bulgarian
citizen Antanov was detained.

‘It has become clear to every unbiased person that
this is not a matter of judicial error, but is a political
conspiracy against Bulgaria and socialism. There is no
doubt who the instigators and organizers of this con-
spiracy are ... those circles of the U.S. and NATO
whose interests lie in worsening East-West relations, in
increasing international tensions and in stepping up the
arms race.

‘*A large part of the responsibility rests with certain
circles in the Italian administration which did not hesi-
tate to join the campaign of vilification in spite of holding
senior government posts. A precedented disrespect has
been shown for the fundamental standards of conduct in
international relations ...”’

BTA concludes by declaring that Bulgaria will con-
tinue to seek clarification of the truth, endeavor to prove
the innocence of its accused citizens and to expose the
instigators of this anti-Bulgarian, anti-socialist pro-
vocation.

Indira Gandhi
assassinated

Messages of condo- [~
lence poured in from jg
around the world follow-
ing the assassination Oct.
31 of India’s third Prime }
Minister Indira Gandhi,
66, in New Delhi. One
assassin, a member of
her security force, was
shot dead, one wounded
and another arrested un-
harmed. |

Her son, Rajiv Gandhi,

40, was immediately sworn in as Prime Minister and
appealled for calm over national television as unrest
swept the country. Indira Gandhi became Prime
Minister in 1966, a post she held until her defeat in
1977. She was re-elected in 1980 and led her country
of 740 million until her death.

Indira Gandhi’s key role in the non-aligned move-
ment was exemplified by her election in March 1983
as leader of that world organization.

FULLERTON, Calif. — The
chairman of the U.S. Committee
for Scientific Aid to Vietnam was
murdered on Oct. 9, a fact which
has gone unreported in Canada
and sparingly mentioned in the
; - tific activities.

Prof. Edward Cooperman, 49,
of the physics department,

Head of U.S. Vietnam group murdered

California State University, of Ful-
lerton (Orange County), had re-
ceived various death threats from
Vietnamese reactionaries based in
California because of his work in
assisting Vietnam to build its scien-

His committee collected scienti-
fic books, journals and articles for

Vietnamese libraries and arranged
for visits of Vietnamese scientists to
U.S. scientific centres and for the
visits of U.S. scientiest to Vietnam.

A 20-year-old Vietnamese
emigré student has been arrested
for shooting Prof. Cooperman in
his office at the university.

—

International Focus

Tom Morris

Grenada where ‘‘flowers and
gentle ways are burying barbed
wire relics of war.”
_ The writer, Philip Thatcher,
1S enraptured with the place.

€ loves the inexpensive res-
taurants. He is enchanted
With ‘‘the laid back life’’, ‘‘bril-
liant oleander or delicate hibis-
Cus”’ and ‘‘a marvellous feeling
of security”’.

Thatcher informs his reader
that ‘U.S. and Caribbean
forces ... ejected Grenada’s

dictators and their Cuban
friends’’, and that the new air-
Port will boost tourism. He
Says prices are ‘‘rock bottom
— much as they were in
Mexico two years ago.”’

The paradise It’s all too wonderful! :
H ‘‘After years of turmoil’’, he
that is Grenada writes, ‘“‘the handsome,
The travel section of Toron- happy-go-lucky (sic) people of
to’s Star Oct. 20 featured — the Spice Island of the Carib-

bean seem anxious to get back
the old ways when they were
free to be themselves — just
nice people.”’

What an idyllic time
Thatcher must have had.

To be sure, he mentions
such asides as ‘‘a people who
have one of the lowest per
capita incomes in the western
hemisphere’, but what the hell
— they smile a lot.

He translates electrical
breakdowns, poor phone ser-
vice and lack of hot water in
hotels into: ‘‘you will have
more romantic candlelight
dinners than you expect”’.

The fact that Grenada today
has one dentist, a renewed

ie apace rolls through Grenada’s countryside.

drug and prostitution problem,
soaring unemployment,
foreign occupation troops
didn’t bother our intrepid
travel writer. He saw only the
flowers, tasted the lambi, rode
in cabs and smelled the nut-
meg.

If you go there, perhaps
Thatcher will lend you his
blinkers.

The devil shuts
the gates of hell

On Sunday, Oct. 28 Grena-
da’s governor-general Paul
Scoon stood on a platform
waxing poetic as he officially
opened the airport at Point
Salines.

Scoon spoke of a new dawn
saying the airport will bring in
badly needed tourism to this
impoverished island. He
talked as if history for him
began this year.

Not one word about who
built the Salines facility. Not
one word about the role of
Cuba in its construction and its
defence. Not a word to remind
the crowd that in 1983 Ronald
Reagan had labelled the airport
‘*a Soviet military base’’.

Scoon mouthed former
Prime Minister Maurice
Bishop in describing the facil-
ity as vitally necessary for
Grenada’s economy, but left
out Bishop’s name. He also left
out the fact that while Bishop
and his government were fight-

ing the Reagan attack, he was
secretly supporting it.

And so we watched this bi-
zarre ceremony unfold on the
very ground where brave men
died. We saw the traitor

» Scoon, annointed and blessed

aboard a U.S. warship, preen
and puff as his masters looked
on and the cameras rolled.

There must be a special
corner in hell reserved for such
dispicable people. Then again,
maybe not. For as Jack Lon-
don wrote: ‘‘When a scab
comes down the street men
turn their backs, angels weep
in heaven and the devil shuts
the gates of hell to keep him out

More than
eager to please

As others, including former
Prime Minister Trudeau, have
noted, the Mulroney govern-
ment has signalled its firm in-
tention to be 150 per cent
pro-American.

Mulroney himself has been
down to Washington twice in
the past few months and U.S.
Secretary of State George
Shultz has honored us with his
presence — all before Parlia-
ment has even opened.

The press conference star-
ring Shultz and External Af-
fairs Minister Joe Clark had all
the features of a great ro-
mance. The two saw eye toeye

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 7, 1984 e 9

on just about” everything.
Canada will ‘‘honor’’ its
commitment to keep testing
the Cruise, we’ve just sent a
group of Mounties to help train
Grenada’s police, we’ve re-
affirmed our agreement with
U.S. missile deployment in
Western Europe.

And last week Clark an-
nounced that Canada will not
send observers to monitor the
Nov. 4 vote in Nicaragua. This
latest move fits in perfectly
with Washington’s scenario of
branding the election in that
besieged country as ‘‘undemo-
cratic’’.

Not bothered in the least
that Nicaragua will hold its first
free election in over 50 years,
not concerned that our ‘‘great
ally” is neck deep in trying to
overthrow the revolutionary
government by force, Ottawa
quietly acquiesces by playing
Reagan’s game of trying to iso-
late Nicaragua in preparation
for intervention.

Whatever semblance of in-
dependence Canada had in
Latin America and its Carib-
bean policy is fading fast. It
will be interesting to monitor
our voting record at the United
Nations (Stephen Lewis not-
withstanding) as such issues as

South Africa, Israeli occupa- .

tion of Arab lands and dis-
armament come up.

It looks like Shultz came
here with his shopping list and
Clark gave him the store.

ge