"WORLD Pressure mounts for zero option BERLIN — Everything must be done to achieve the zero option in Europe. That was the unanimous conclusion of the Foreign Ministers of the European Economic Community (EEC) meeting informally in Turnhout, Belgium. They also called for immediate follow-up Negotiations on short-range missiles and that every effort should be made to pre- Vent war in Europe, either nuclear or Conventional. _ Significantly, the common position of the EEC Foreign Ministers amounts to a Ttebuff of French and British efforts to Stall an agreement on intermediate-range Nuclear forces (INF). In recent weeks both London and Paris have insisted that an INF agreement must be linked di- Tectly to an agreement of short-range nu- Clear missiles and conventional forces. Although both Britain’s Thatcher and France’s Mitterrand have put heavy Pressure on their allies, especially the 80vernment of the Federal Republic of Germany led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, to adopt a policy of linkage, it is Britain and France which are finding themselves under increasing pressure to Stick to the zero option they had ac- cepted in 1981. After Kohl’s meetings with Thatcher and Mitterrand, but one day before the Meeting of the EEC Foreign Ministers, Kohl, his Defence Minister Woerner, Foreign Minister Genscher and head of the Chancellor’s office, Teltschik, met to Work out what their position ought to be. FRG spokesman Ost announced after the meeting that the FRG government and the Chancellor personally would - Continue to support the zero option and _ Called for an agreement on INF by the end of the year. From Berlin Gerry van Houten Chancellor Kohl’s personal endorsa- tion of the zero option was a blow to Thatcher and Mitterrand on the eve of the EEC Foreign Minister’s meeting. Pressure is also growing in other quar- ters. Belgium has decided to put a moratorium on the development of Cruise missiles in that country pending the results of the Geneva negotiations. Now only a collapse of the INF nego- tiations would lead to further deploy- ment. Belgium has so far accepted 16 of the 48 Cruise missiles it committed itself to. FRG Foreign Minister Genscher has made it perfectly clear that his govern- ment rejects recent Pentagon sug- gestions that the Pershing-2 missiles could be converted into short-range mis- siles. Genscher pointed out that the zero option adopted by NATO in 1981 called for the removal of missiles. * * * In Italy, a convention of the Socialist Party, which is headed by Bettino Craxi, until recently Italian Prime Minister, demanded the removal of all missiles from Europe, the banning of chemical weapons and a treaty ending nuclear tests. Mitterrand himself is under pressure from his own Socialist Party. In its recently-concluded convention, many speakers, including party. leader Lionel _Jospin and former Prime Minister Lau- rent Fabwus, expressed their hope that the Geneva INF talks would lead to realization of the zero option. Thatcher has not been spared criticism either. While she was on Soviet televi- sion spouting her anti-agreement line, Georgi Arbatov, head of the USA- Canada Institute in Moscow, was inter- viewed on British television. He accused the British government of pursuing arms policies which would lead to a nuclear holocaust. There is considerable concern in Britain that Thatcher is trying to sabotage the INF talks. * * * In a related development, GDR gov- ernment and Socialist Unity Party leader Erich Honecker repeated an earlier proposal to the FRG to create a nuclear weapons-free corridor on both sides of. the FRG’s border with the GDR and Czechoslovakia. This proposal enjoys the active and unreserved backing of the CSSR government. In a letter to Chancellor Kohl, Hon- ecker called for immediate talks on the creation of such a corridor. Jointly for- mulated by the FRG’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the GDR’s_ Socialist Unity Party (SED), the proposal, if implemented, would create a 300-kilo- NATO has, so far, obstructed any proposal for a nuclear weapons-free zone in northern Europe. The U.S. military presence continues. meter-wide nuclear weapons-free zone. This would go a long way toward reduc- ing concerns about short-range missiles in Europe. The FRG government has not yet re- plied, though it is clear that the idea en- joys wide support in the’ FRG, as it does in the GDR and Czechoslovakia. How far that support extends into Kohl's government is still an open question. The SDP-SED plan also opens the door to creating a nuclear weapons-free zone in Central Europe which could in- clude entire regions of the FRG, Bel- gium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, GDR, Czechoslovakia and Poland. This would free all of Central Europe between France and the USSR of nuclear weapons. Also gaining wide support is the idea of creating a nuclear weapons-free zone in Northern Europe to include Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Fin- land. So far, NATO has obstructed this proposal despite the fact none of these countries have nuclear weapons on their soil — at least officially. Clearly, demands for a nuclear weapons-free world are growing. They have to be made irresistible. INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris Democracy’s voice with Pinochet’? as the Pope watched and listened. hermetically sealed in a travel- black skirt, Mila a black eve- Central America, Reagan launched into his usual crude’ breaks through Even when trying to put his best foot forward during the Pope’s visit, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet planted it firmly in his mouth. The whole plan was to pre- sent Chile as ‘‘moving toward democracy’’. It was to depict the remaining problems as that of ‘‘hard-core Marxists which the regime had every right to deal with firmly to “preserve law and order’’. But when 80,000 people jammed into Santiago's Na- tional Stadium, whose soil had soaked up the blood of hun- dreds of Pinochet’s victims, they began chanting ‘‘Down Fire hoses, tear gas and bul- lets were the response. The world press caught the real story of Chile’s heroism, of young people battling with sticks, of banners proclaiming freedom and justice. Neither the dictator’s steel fist, nor the Pope’s syrupy ‘reconciliation’? advice were able to prevent the voice of Chile’s people from breaking through. Travelling in acocoon ‘*He travels in such a co- coon, the trip is devoid of any contact from local reality. He’s ling capsule,’’ said a White House correspondent in an interview with the Toronto Globe & Mail, talking about Reagan’s visits abroad. The journalist, and others who travel frequently with Reagan inside the U.S., say the Ottawa trip, in which the White House was almost liter- ally transferred to Canada for the president’s 25-hour visit, didn’t differ from his trips in- side his own country. Amazing. Reagan travels hermetically sealed. His en- tourage arrives and leaves without knowing (or caring) where they’ve been. Thousands of Canadians are kept out of sight so their pro- tests don’t reach Reagan. Police with clubs line the streets to keep people away from the procession. U.S. Sec- ret Service agents check out everyone, even entering people’s hotel rooms (and get- ting caught). Some 130 ‘‘selected Cana- dians”’ dine with the Reagans on lobster aspic and cham- Pagne, watercress soup and breast of young guinea-fow! with wine sauce ... Nancy wears a yellow blouse and ning gown. Even a satirical skit planned by local high school students where Nancy and Mila were to visit, met with U.S. objections and was “‘sanitized’’ by whimpering little Canadian protocol types. Brian Mulroney’s face must be sore from grinning for 25 hours without let-up. But give him credit: he spared us another off-key rendition of When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. So Reagan came and went. So what? Reagan’s insults, dumbstruck MPs Sometimes it seems priori- ties get completely out of whack. When Reagan was allowed out of his private cocoon for a few minutes to address Parlia- ment April 6, he must have blinked, looked around, and thought he was in some quaint state assembly house. Ignoring the fact that Cana- dians have not permitted Mul- roney’s eager Tories to com- pletely embrace U.S. policy on PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 15, 1987 e 9 attack on Nicaragua. ‘‘Shame’’, replied some NDP members who later called Reagan’s remarks ‘“‘totally false’’ and ‘‘unacceptable’’. Too bad more MPs didn’t give the arrogant and ignorant U.S. president the same message. Instead, we hear Liberal leader Turner and some Tories bleating about ‘‘discomfort”’ and ‘‘embarrassment’’ at see- ing Reagan heckled. His insult- ing speech, it seems, is okay with them. They are prepared to sit quietly through it like the yokels the U.S. administration thinks they are. _ There’s Reagan standing in Canada’s House of Commons filled with dumbstruck MPs, leading a government which has all but declared economic and cultural warfare on this country, which refuses to recognize our arctic borders, which strangles us with acid rain, which threatens us with its nuclear insanity — and Tur- ner worries about manners. A real Liberal tiger! And he wants to be Prime Minister.