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WORLD

Rome trial finally hears Bulgarian

_ Antonov declares innocence,

Agca changes story again

ROME — Sergei Antonov declared his inno-

cence in the frame-up case against him and two

fellow Bulgarians during his first testimony, given
July 11 in the trial on the 1981 shooting of Pope
John Paul II.

Antonov has been accused of conspiring to kill
the pope by the man who shot the pope, Mehmet
Ali Agca. Agca, who has reiterated that he is Jesus
Christ throughout the trial, also sat in the Rome
court room, often interrupting Antonov with out-
bursts.

Antonov was arrested in Rome on November 25,
1982. He was held in prison, without being charged
for months until a world-wide campaign to release
him pressured Italian officials into placing the Bul-
garian airline employee under house arrest where
he has been for the past year.

Two other Bulgarians, diplomats Zhelio Vas-
silev and Todor Aivazov, are being tried in absen-
tia.

Acga, who has also claimed that he can bring
dead people to life, was upset that the court’s
presiding judge, Severino Santiapichi, allowed
Antonov to speak.

“First of all, I would like to say that you have in
front of you an innocent man,”’ Antonov said. “‘I
would like to say that so much slander against my
motherland, against myself, against all Bulgarians
has already been pronounced in this court room.

But there exists only one truth. Iam innocent and I~

have nothing to do with this case.”

Antonov added, ‘‘I never met with the person
who accuses me. For two years and seven months I
have been away from my country, my family, my
friends because of the absurd allegations of a per-
son I have never met. I am confident that justice
will triumph and that the day will come at last when
I return home and be reunited with family and
friends..”’ ,

Antonov’s words unnerved Agca. The terrorist
then started shouting insults at Antonov. Judge

Santiapichi then asked Agca to provide evidence
refuting Antonov’s statements. Agca rambled, re-
asserted that he was Jesus Christ, and told stories
about the conspiracy which contradicted earlier
testimony he had given.

Agca, who is already a convicted murderer —
for killing a Turkish journalist — has previously
maintained that as a fascist, he hates all Commu-
nists and socialist countries.

Agca has earlier admitted that the Italian secret
services and Italian business interests made a deal
to get him out of prison if he would invent the story
about Bulgarians trying to kill the pope.

Agca altered again on July 10 his version about
the accomplices who were supposedly with him in
St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, the day the
pope was shot. When Agca was again shown the
photographs taken at the moment of the assassifia-
tion attempt, he pointed out terrorists from the

. fascist Grey Wolves organization, Amer Ai and

Sedat Kadem, standing next to him. He had earlier
asserted that another Turkish citizen, Oral Celik
was next to him.

When the prosecutor once more asked Agca to
confirm the fact of the presence of the three Turk-
ish accomplices in Rome on the day of the assas-
sination attempt and indicate precisely where they
were in St. Peter’s Square, Agca said he could not
do so.

Commenting on the trial, the Italian newspaper
“Tl Messaggero”’ wrote that the terrorist “put on
the mask of duplicity again and is weaving a
protecting web by means of lies and by altering his
previous testimony.” : \

Another Italian newspaper, ‘‘Paese Sera’’,

_ e€ditorialized this week, ‘‘Agca has so far not given

to the court proof of the involvement of the Bul-
garian citizens in the crime. Meanwhile, the role of
the Grey Wolves in organizing the attempt on the

pope’s life was clearly revealed during the trial.”’ -

— Daily World

Gorbachev responds
to U.S. scientists

By RACHEL RUBIN

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said that the Soviet
Union ‘‘is not developing attack space weapons or a large-
scale ABM system, just as it is not laying the foundation for
such a defense.’” He warned that U.S. plans for space weap-
ons are jeopardizing the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty,
which he called “‘the key link to the entire process of nuclear
arms limitation.”’

In a response to a letter from the Union of Concerned
Scientists, Gorbachev added that the USSR ‘‘will not be the
first to make a step into outer space with weapons. We shall
make every effort to convince other countries, and above all
the United States of America, not to make such a fatal step
which would inevitably increase the threat of nuclear war and
would give an impetus to the uncontrolled arms race in all
directions.”

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a U.S. organiza-
tion of hundreds of the country’s top scientists, sent letters to
both Gorbachev and President Reagan demanding a halt to the
militarization of outer space. UCS has received an answer
from Gorbachev but has not yet received one from Reagan.

The organization called on the U.S. and the USSR to agree
on the complete prohibition of the development and testing of
space arms; to introduce immediately a mutual moratorium on
further testing of anti-satellite weapons; and to reaffirm their
allegiance to the 1972 treaty on the limitation of anti-ballistic
missile systems.

Gorbachev called the UCS demand that an irrevocable poli-
tical solution be made to prevent the militarization of space
‘‘well-grounded.”’ He added that the problem requires ‘‘a bold
approach.”

Gorbachev continued, ‘‘Proceeding from this goal, the
Soviet Union, as you evidently know, has made a radical
proposal in the United Nations Organization, introducing a
draft treaty on the prohibition of the use of force in space and
from space against earth.”’

He explained that if the U.S. joined the vast majority of
member-states that support the treaty, “‘the issue of space
weapons could be closed once and for all.”

Gorbachev stated that as well as seeking an agreement for a
full ban on Star Wars at the Geneva talks, the Soviet Union has
repeatedly taken unilateral steps which should set a good
example for the U.S. One example is its moratorium, begun
two years ago, on placing anti-satellite weapons in outer

International Focus

Canada’s bias
Is showing

As the Special Joint Com-
mittee on Canada’s Interna-
tional Relations begins its hear-
ings (from east to west) July 15,
a couple of ‘‘minor items’’ sur-
faced as if to show Canada isn’t
at all the honest broker Ottawa
sometimes likes to portray.

The first informs that the
federal government made a big
pitch to NATO urging the
building of a major jet fighter
base at Goose Bay, Newfound-
land.

So keen are the NATO-
types, we are spending $93-
million in advance for airport
updating to lure NATO into the
deal. Turkey is the other
bidder.

A big part of the selling pitch
Canada is touting is that the
region is similar to that of the
Soviet Union.

Dr sak aK

The other item says that Ex-
ternal Affairs will permit a
U.S. scientific ship to carry out
“research”’ in Canadian wat-
ers off Nova Scotia to help the
Pentagon ‘determine the accu-
racy of nuclear missiles aimed at
the Soviet Union’’.

Inertial guidance systems, it
Seems, are affected by the
€arth’s gravitational variations

and Joe Clark’s department
will help ensure U.S. nuclear
rockets hit the USSR dead on.

These two items, added to
the controversial Cruise test-
ing which also had the public
purpose of vaporizing Soviet
cities, must sometimes make
the Soviets wonder at Cana-
da’s sanity.

Imagine our reaction if a
state with which we conducted
normal relations was openly
carrying out activities designed
to destroy us. Imagine Rea-
gan’s outrage if Canada per-
mitted Soviet tests here to en-
sure the end of the U.S.? We’d
be invaded by next weekend.

Remember why the Cruise
was tested here? Because the
terrain was similar to that of

the Soviet Union.
If by now the Soviets ha-
ven’t figured out that Ottawa’s

intentions toward their country |
are less than benign, they'll‘

have to wait for even more
Overt provocations.

Ace Novelty’s
World Fair

While on the issue of selling
our sovereignty, a word should
be said about the Expo 86 scam
going on in British Columbia.

It turns out that the federal
government’s pavilion at the
fair, Canada Place, is forbid-
den from using any trademark,
symbols or phrases associated
with Expo 86. They can’t even
use the name “‘Expo 86” in any

way.

HE CURRENT COMPLEXITY OF WORLD
AI DEMANDS THAT WE SUNMON
OUR DEEPEST INTELLECT 10 DEAL
WITH THE SITUATION...

Bate Hopaniand TRIBE

space. — U.S. Daily World
ees.
Tom Morris

Why? Because all trademark Haiti is the poorest nation in

rights were sold for $1-million
to Ace Novelty Ltd., of Seat-
tle, Washington. The U.S. firm
expects to rake in between
$75-$90-million peddling Expo
86 souvenirs, and isn’t about to
worry over the fact that the
Canadian government is fro-
zen out of its own world fair.
To make this scam complete,
Ace Novelty grabbed the
trademark rights contract
without it having been put up
for public tender.

There’s not likely a single
country in the entire world that
would put up with such an in-
sult. In most, the person who
negotiated that deal would
wind up before a judge.

Picture of
a ‘good ally’

Before he died in 1971 Papa
Doc Duvalier, Haiti’s dictator,
appointed himself president-
for-life.

His son, Baby Doc Duvalier
(who else?) became dictator
and (what else?) appointed
himself president-for-life.

Last month, the joke called
the country’s National As-
sembly passed a constitutional
amendment giving Baby Doc
the right to name his successor
as president-for-life.

the western hemisphere, but a
“good ally’ of the USA.
Staunchly anti-communist
with a no-nonsense regime,
just the sort Reagan recom-
mends for the entire region. No
human rights problem in Haiti.
No need for contras or pirate
radio stations or economic
blockades which Washington
uses against Cuba or Nica-
ragua.

And where does Reagan’s
good ally stand now? Based on
1980 figures, this is the picture:

Haiti’s per capita income is
$260 (Canada’s is $10,300).
Male life expectancy is 47.1
years (69.5 in Canada). Haiti
has 72 hospital beds per
100,000 (875 per 100,000 here).
There are sever doctors per
100,000 in Haiti (178 in Cana-
da).

Haiti has nine teachers per
1,000 students and a literacy
rate of 22 per cent. Canada has
40 teachers per 1,000 and a lit-
eracy rate of 98 per cent.

Dictators, poverty, illitera-
cy, police state, goon squads,
fake elections — all on Ameri-
ca’s doorstep. But no tough
speeches from the White
House, no Grenada ‘‘rescue
missions’? or fleet manoeu-
vers.

Haiti suits Reagan just fine.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 24, 1985 e 5

ie