OMe

TANKER THREAT

TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON

Vancouver's version of the Raging Grannies cuts it up at demonstration against low-level fighter jet testing in Canada, outside
Canada Place on Nov. 28. Story page 3.

December 4, 1989
50°

Vol. 52, No.44

Further oil
spills feared

Oil tanker traffic in Vancouver harbour
increased 2,000 per cent over the last five
years and will increase another 600 per cent
by 1991 — meaning the port is secretly
being turned into a deep sea port, without
public input, a coalition of prominent Brit-
ish Columbians and civic groups warn.

And the consequences will almost cer-
tainly be a Valdez-type oil spill, says the Call
for Inquiry.

Members of the Call for Inquiry group
sounded the warning Nov. 27, following a
visit the previous week to the port by the
88,250-tonne Honshu Spirit, a supertanker
the length of 2% football fields carrying
three times the oil that fouled Alaska’s
Prince William Sound when it spilled from
the Exxon Valdez last March.

That group, and citizens organizations in
Burnaby and Port Moody, have demanded
a full scale inquiry into the transshipment of
oil and petrochemicals passing through the
harbour. And last week Burnaby municipal
council and Vancouver city council backed
the call.

see TANKER page 2

Next Tribune
out Dec. 18

There will be no issue next week as
the staff takes an extra week to pre-

pare the year-end issue. It will be out
Dec. 18.

In what was announced as the second
_ phase of military operations, the Fara-
‘bundo Marti National Liberation Front
pened up three combat zones in the
fluent neighbourhoods of the capital
ov. 29 in a renewed bid to end govern-
ment human rights abuses and establish
negotiations for peace in El Salvador.

As fighting raged in the San Salvador
neighbourhoods of Escalon, San Benito
and Lomas de San Francisco, the
FMLN General Command urged U.S.
personnel stationed in the areas to stay
out of the fighting.

Meanwhile an urgent appeal has gone
out in the wake of the arrest of two
Salvadoran Communists who were
taken away by soldiers of the First Infan-
try Brigade on Nov. 28.

The FMLN launched its action in the
early morning hours of Nov. 29 in afflu-
ent neighbourhoods that house govern-

_ment officials, army headquarters, diplo-

Ze Ss

mats and U.S. military and civilian

personnel.

The movement’s General Command
said in a statement: “The FMLN calls on
U.S. personnel to remain in their homes
and in the case of encountering our for-
ces are asked to identify themselves. Our
military units are instructed not to attack
any North American personnel.”

Radio Venceremos, the clandestine
station operated by the FMLN, carried
an FMLN statement that denounced
recent government attacks on the offices
of human rights organizations and trade
unions. “The persecution, imprisonment
and assassination of popular leaders and
activists has not been enough. Today
(Nov. 24) the military chiefs devoted
themselves to the physical destruction of
trade unions, co-operatives and human
rights organizations,” the statement
charged. ee

see CLAIM page 11

Pact reached on coalition
gov't for Czechoslovakia

Tribune Combined Sources

In a dramatic development following
Monday’s general strike across Czechos-
lovakia Monday, representatives of the
country’s emerging popular movement
Civic Forum and the government agreed
Tuesday to propose the formation of a
new Czechoslovak coalition government
which is to be in office by Dec. 3.

The announcement was made follow-
ing a two-hour meeting between Civic
Forum leader Vaclav Havel and Prime
Minister Ladislav Adamec Nov. 28 and
capped a week of tumultuous changes in
the country brought about by a wave of
popular demonstrations for democratic
reform.

Like the movement for change that
rocked the German Democratic Repub-
lic a month ago, the demonstrations for
reform in Czechoslovakia grew larger
and more encompassing by the day,
culminating in a two-hour general strike
Monday in which millions of Czechoslo-

vaks took part.

The meeting between Havel and
Adamec, the second between the two in
as many days, was of historic importance
in opening the door to a new govern-
ment, based on a broad representation of
forces in the country.

According to Czechoslovakia’s Orbis
News Agency, the statement adopted by
Havel and Adamec pledged the prime
minister to propose to the president to
appoint a new government by Dec. 3. “It
is expected that it will be formed on a
broad coalition basis, of representatives
of the Communist Party of Czechoslo-
vakia, members of other parties and per-
sons without party affiliations. It will be
a party of experts and professionals,”
Orbis reported.

The new government will propose to
the federal assembly, the country’s legis-
lative body, three constitutional changes,
the news agency stated. They are:

see AGREEMENT page 8