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World

Hope in Chile vote, Canadians say

Voters in Chile were jubilant following
the first national election in 16 years that
propelled a declared opponent of the mil-
itary regime of Augusto Pinochet into the
president’s chair, Canadian observers of the
election report.

The B.C. residents tell of spirited spon-
taneous demonstrations by thousands in
the streets at midnight following the Dec. 14
election that saw Christian Democratic
candidate Patricio Aylwin capture 55 per
cent of the presidential vote.

“In spite of what was a disappointing
result for the left, people were generally
elated about the election, and happy that
Aylwin had won,” says Vancouver resident
Judith Harper.

Harper, who represented Oxfam as part
of a 19-member delegation from Quebec
and English Canada, and Rick Craig, exec-
utive director of a B.C. based non-
governmental organization, say the fact
that Chileans had a vote after almost two
decades of fascist rule was reason enough to
celebrate.

At the same time, no one was under any
illusions about the rigged nature of the elec-
tion and the difficulties establishing human
rights and true democracy in the South
American nation still effectively controlled
by Pinochet’s U.S.-backed dictatorship.

“There was no overt fraud, but everyone
knew the deck was stacked against the cen-
tre and left,” says Harper, who reports that
gerrymandering was part of the problem.

While the election put a few members of
the left coalition known as PAIS — inclu-
ding two Communists — in the Chamber
of Deputies, most of the centre-left vote
went to the Christian Democrats. But the
vote gave the left and centre an effective
majority over the parties and coalitions
aligned with Pinochet in the lower house of
Chile’s government.

(Juan Pablo Letelier of the Socialist
Party-Almeyda, son of a former cabinet
minister slain by Pinochet’s agents and who
visited Vancouver last fall, was elected dep-
uty in District 33 for the PAIS coalition.)

The Senate, meanwhile, has a right-wing
majority, thanks to the constitution which

allowed the fascist dictator to appoint nine
of his own choices, mainly military figures,
to the upper house.

The system was clearly designed to prevent
a left and centre majority. Craig explains
that although Chile’s 60 electoral districts
are each represented by two deputies and
two senators, voters were allowed to select
only one candidate from each category.

While in several districts the left and cen-
tre candidates won the popular vote, a regu-
lation that stipulated the top two candidates
must receive at least double the votes com-
bined over the next.two runners-up handed
victories to the right.

Therefore Ricardo Lagos, a popular
leader of last year’s successful plebiscite that
defeated Pinochet’s continued presidency,
and a senatorial ‘candidate for Aylwin’s
Concertacion coalition, lost in Region XII,
although he received the second highest
number of votes after his running mate and
senator-elect, Andres Zalvidar. Elected in
Lagos’ place was the third most successful
candidate, Jaime Guzman, a member of the
right-wing UDI.

Deprived of a clear majority, the left-
centre will find it difficult to tackle one their
key priorities: changing the constitution
imposed by Pinochet that keeps the dictator
powerful through control of the armed for-
ces and the National Security Council. But
it won’t be impossible, Harper says, because
some right-wing representatives will agree
to some changes sought by Pinochet’s
opponents.

“The new government has the political
will and popular backing to push for
changes,” Craig says.

Human rights, including amnesty for the
thousands of political prisoners, is also a
critical issue, Craig notes, and both he and
Harper report Chileans’ concern that the
issue not become a bargaining chip in the
political negotiating that will take place.

Ann Thompson, a Surrey teacher who
visited colleagues in the port city of Valpa-
raiso during the election, agrees that Aylwin
will find it difficult to make the changes he
campaigned on because he lacks the neces-
sary majority to alter the constitution.

PATRICIO AYLWIN ... Chile’s new
president.

But, “I think that because ‘Aylwin got
such a clear majority, one of the major
changes will be that people will be able to
organize legally.”

People were obviously pleased with the
Christian Democratic Party leader’s elec-
tion, Thompson said, cautioning that there
is no guarantee Pinochet will not launch a
military coup as he did when he toppled the
socialist government of Salvador Allende
with CIA help in 1973.

The alliance with Aylwin, who represents
a centrist party that traditionally opposed
left wing groups, was not universally
accepted within left ranks. But there is no
denying that the vote, however rigged, was
seen as a clear victory by Chileans, Craig
says.

“No doubt, it’s a historic moment in
Chile. Not to have engaged in the election
would have been a big mistake.”

IMF plan hits Poland as ’90s open

At the stroke of midnight, as Poland
stepped into the 1990s, the new Solidarity-
led government’ s capitalist-oriented eco-
nomic program was kicked into life.

For consumers, workers, seniors (and
those soon to find themselves unemployed),
the experience was not unlike‘a cold shower.
On Jan. 1, bread prices rose 38 per cent and
coal for home heating skyrocketed by 600
per cent.

Motorists found gasoline prices had
jumped by 100 per cent. Telephone rates
also doubled. Meat prices rose by 55 per
cent and electricity at home jumped by 400
per cent.

And, to make things even harsher, the
Polish zloty had been devalued by 32 per
cent one week earlier.

Understandably, Poland’s finance minis-
ter and chief architect of the new economic
plan spent most of last week on radio and
television arguing for his government’s bit-
ter pill and urging patience. He said things
this winter will get even worse as all former
price controls disappear and former subsi-
dies on basic goods are slashed.

The program, worked out in co-
operation with the International Monetary
Fund and Poland’s Western creditors, was
rushed through Parliament by the Solidar-
ity majority last week over the objections of
the Communist minority opposition.

OPZZ, the communist-led trade union
central, vowed to fight the trend in which
prices soar sky high and wages are frozen.
“We reject a system,” OPZZ said, “in which
the stronger will win and and only charity is

8 ¢ Pacific Tribune, January 15, 1990

left for the weak.”

The economic package also includes
widespread privatization and allows ineffi-
cient companies to close down. It will per-
mit mass layoffs and provides for the setting
up (with the help of U.S. experts) an unem-
ployment insurance system as a response to
the estimated 400,000 Poles who expected
to find themselves jobless.

The economic plan also aims to make the
Polish zloty a convertible currency with the
aid of the U.S. and 14 other Western indus-
trialized nations (including Canada). A $1
billion fund to support this step has been set
up, accompanied by the devaluation of the

zloty which now stands at 9,500 to the dol-
lar from last week’s 6,600.

West Germany, the U.S. and Japan are
the biggest donors to the fund, contributing
$250 million, $200 million and $150 million
respectively. Canada has added $20 million.

U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for
international affairs David Mulford who,
along with the IMF, is leading the privatiza-
tion of the Polish economy, predicts short
term pain, bankruptcies and unemploy-
ment. However, he says Poland will proba-
bly receive “‘generous terms” when its sits
down next month with the so-called Paris
Club of creditor nations to reschedule its
$39-billion foreign debt.

Canada has announced a $72-million
aid package for Poland and Hungary.
Poland’s new Solidarity government had
requested the establishment of a $1-
billion Stabilization Fund to help deal
with its economic crisis..

The Canadian package, announced
by External Affairs Minister Joe Clark
includes an immediate $12 million in
food aid. A further $10-million eco-
nomic development fund will provide
technical and managerial assistance to
the private sector.

Another $20 million in revolving
credit will be made available when the

Ottawa announces aid package

country accepts the International Mone-
tary Fund proposals. These include
devaluation of the currency, lifting of
subsidies on food, housing, fuel and gas-
oline, and a previously unknown feature,
mass unemployment.

Clark also announced that Canada
will reschedule Poland’s $2.6-billion debt
and will grant Poland and Hungary pre-
ferential trading status with Canada.
Deputy Prime Minister Don Mazan-
kowski is to lead a trade and investment
mission to Poland this year.

Canada has also expressed an interest
in being part of the establishment of a
new regional bank for eastern Europe.

World News

israel encouraging
killing Palestinians

LONDON — Amnesty International
has charged Israel has “effectively con-
doned or even encouraged” its military
to kill Palestinians as a response to the
three year old intifada.

It said regulations governing weapons,
a lack of an actual investigative process
into shootings and the withholding of
medical care to victims all combine to
create an atmosphere to justify killings.

Figures released show 560 Palestinians
have been shot dead since December
1987. Of these, 130 were under 16 years
of age and 35 were under 12. Many were
shot in the back. Thousands more have .
been injured and detained, countless
homes blown up and people deported.

Eyewitnesses from a Christmas peace
march in Tel Aviv where police brutal-
ized Israeli and foreign demonstrators

report Israeli soldiers wearing helmets on

which were painted “Licence to Kill.”

Contras murder
two more clergy

MANAGUA — Contra forces shot
and killed two nuns and wounded a
bishop and a third nun as they drove
along a road 320 kilometres north of the
capital on Jan. 2. One dead nun and the
bishop were Americans. Radio Voz de
Nicaragua charged the contras were
emboldened by the recent U.S. invasion
of Panama.

In related news, Nicaragua responded
to the U.S. marine storming of the home

of its ambassador to Panama by expell-
ing 20 diplomats from the U.S: embassy _

in Managua and ordering the mission’s
staff reduced from 320 to 100.

On Dec. 29, U.S. troops raided the
home of Nicaraguan ambassador Ante-
nor Ferry in Panama City, removing
money and clothing and ransacking his
office. The Americans then apologized,
claiming they had the wrong address,
although the ambassador had shown
them a large sign on the residence identi-

fying it as Nicaraguan diplomatic terri- ~

tory.

Mass resignations —
at Jerusalem Post

JERUSALEM — Twenty senior edi-

tors and reporters at The Jerusalem Post,
charging the new publishers were turning

the newspaper into a platform for right- —

wing views, resigned Jan. 2.

The new publisher, Hollinger Com- —

pany, a Canadian chain, bought the
paper in April.

The Post, long an advocate of a politi-
cal settlement to the Arab-Israeli crisis,
has a daily circulation of 25,000 and an

international readership of 70,000. More —

resignations are expected shortly.

Environmenttreaty —

proposed by UN

UNITED NATIONS — The UN
and its 159 member states have agreed to
draft a treaty on stabilizing the earth’s
climate, to be adopted at a world confer-
ence in Brazil in 1992 which will consider
ways of controlling the environmental
impact of economic development.

The treaty would commit member
states to take action to prevent the warm-
ing of the earth’s atmosphere, and to set
goals on such issues as deforestation and
“greenhouse gases.”

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