SELA follows

example

Anns cut in Soviet north

By FRED WEIR

MOSCOW — The USSR last week put into place yet anot
plank in its comprehensive program for curbing the nuclear arms
race and relieving cold war tensions, particularly in Europe. 4%

During:a state visit to Finland, Soviet politbureau membel
Yegor Ligachev, made the surprising announcement that t
USSR had already dismantled a large number of its medium

By A. ALARD

In a meeting at the end of Oc-
tober, 26 countries of Latin
America and the Caribbean,
members of a group known as the
Economic System of Latin
America (SELA) sent out a joint
communique saying their foreign
debt is over $370-billion, that they
cannot pay it under present condi-
tions, and that they recommend
extending the payment of inter-
ests on the income obtained from
their exports. For the member
countries of SELA, the total
payment of these interests will be
impossible if they hope to keep up
with their objectives for devel-
opment of the region. For these
countries, only a hard political
discussion between debtors and
creditors will bring about a resolu-
tion of the problem.

In the final communique, which
was signed by states as differ-
ent as Cuba and Chile, the
proposal of Peruvian President
Alan Garcia was taken under con-
sideration — that is to create an
organization of Latin American
and Caribbean states without the
presence of the United States.
The proposal will be further
examined at their next meeting
and will be put into effect at the
beginning of 1987.

This communique, sent out
after two and a half days of meet-
ings by a group of countries which
are among the most debt-ridden in
the world, indicated that in Latin
America today there is “a grave
economic situation’’ which came
about as a consequence of the fall
of prices of raw materials and of
protectionist measures adopted
by the most industrialized coun-
tries. Conclusions adopted

are the hardest they have taken on
the foreign debt since 1982 when
Mexico decided not to keep up
with its payments.

As one Peruvian diplomat said,
‘“‘the basic fact is, and we have
made it perfectly clear, that it will
be our capacity to keep abreast of
these payments and not the de-
mand of foreign banks which will
determine how we act.”’ In addi-
tion, the countries of the Latin
American and Caribbean region
indicated that they intend to dis-
cuss their position with industrial-
ized nations during the General
Assembly of the United Nations
where the problems of the foreign
debt was first brought up.

Last year, Peru was the first to
limit its payment of interest on its
debt to 10 per cent on income re-
ceived from its exports, measures
which have caused problems with
the International Monetary Fund
which has frozen the option to
authorize new credits for that
country. Now the banks have
warned Peru that if the country

doesn’t make ‘‘a significant pay-

ment’’ of over $630-million in »

back interest payments, they will
not resume negotiations of their
external debt.

Peruvian vice-minister of Eco-
nomics, Gustavo Saberbein, said
that his country cannot make this
‘‘significant payment’? demanded
by these private creditors who are
now looking.at the possibility of
dissolving a bank committee
which will permit the creditors to
bring Peru to trial.

Brazil, the world’s top debtor
nation, decided last July to cut its
payments to 2.5 per cent of its
gross national product. Mexico,
another large debtor, will receive

‘renewed credit of $6-billion from

the banks, bringing its foreign
debt to more than $100-billion.
The re-negotiation of the Mexican
debt package is part of the so-
called U.S. ‘‘Baker Plan’’ which
involves the contribution of addi-
tional resources from banks and
international organizations to the
debtor countries so they can keep

region.

same regions.

facilitate the peace process.

range nuclear launchers in the northwest of the country.
This unilateral step, he said, was taken in hopes of opening ne
door toward achieving a nuclear-weapons free zone in the Baltic

Gone are all medium-range nuclear weapons from the Kola
Peninsula (which borders on Finland) and also most weapons Of
similar types from the Leningrad and Baltic military districts.

In addition, Soviet authorities say they have removed sever
battalions of tactical — short-range — nuclear weapons from tm

However said Ligachev, ‘‘we expect reciprocity ... so far
have not seen any positive response from the United States
NATO,” to numerous unilateral measures taken by the USSR

Soviet leaders say they are prepared to negotiate a nucleé
weapons free zone that would extend across the whole of no
ern Europe. If agreement on this concept can be reached betwee
the several nations concerned, they say, the USSR will be P
pared to dismantle all such weapons on corresponding SO
territory, stressing that this would include withdrawal of nuc
missile submarines presently in the Baltic area. =

If a nuclear weapons-free zone can be achieved in northe!
Europe, it may well have a significant global impact. As a
fidence-building measure, it would help enormously to rel
tension in the current delicate east-west equation. It would al:
serve as a model for the creation of similar nuclear weapons-
zones in other parts of the world. ‘G

The World Peace Council in a Nov. 18 statement greeted
latest Soviet actions and hoped that they would augment
efforts of the peace forces in the Nordic countries in their fight!
a nuclear weapons-free zone in northern Europe.

up with their payments and pro-
grams of economic growth.

The agreement obtained by the
SELA countries came about
when the majority of those coun-
tries had already negotiated their
foreign debt individually and not
as a group, a system which allows
the creditor countries especially
the United States to impose
mammoth conditions of interest
and debt payments with all the
political and social ramifications
which go with it.

However, in spite of the pres-
sures both from the IMF and the
World Bank, the agreement of the

Latin American and Carib!
countries to,extend the pa
of interests onthe. foreig!
against income on exports 1S.
haps the only way which al
them as a body of nations t0'
front a problem: which, 25
lined by Fidel: Castro and:
Latin American leaders, d0
have prospects for a solutl
The foreign debt of the ©
tries of SELA is impossible @
while the regulation to pile
est on top of interest exists @
the same time measures
taken to overcome the
development of the regio

unanimously by SELA members

‘Goebbels’ remark shows right shift

From

Berlin
ee ee ee
Gerry ~~

van Houten| 4.

When West Germany's chancellor
Kohl compared Gorbachev to Hitler’s
propaganda chief Goebbels, in a News-
week interview, he not only deeply of-
fended the Soviets but left the West
European public gaping in astonishment.
As one BBC commentator put it, ‘The
Soviets are rightfully angry.”

It seems Kohl has forgotten who
started the war which killed 45 million
people, and who, at the sacrifice of 20
million lives, liberated Europe from fas-
cism. He also seems to have forgotten
where most of the constructive sugges-
tions for securing world peace are com-
ing from and whose Star Wars program
caused the breakdown of the Reykjavik
- summit.

But has Kohl forgotten? Is he, as some
maintain, a bit stupid when it comes to
international diplomacy?

When Reagan visited the FRG three
years ago, Kohl, despite widespread in-

8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 26, 1986

ternational criticism, brought his reac-
tionary soul-mate to the Bitzberg cemet-
ery to honor imperialist Germany's war
dead, including Nazi SS officers. FRG
government officials regularly speak to
meetings of various revanchist groups
who dream of re-establishing the Third
Reich to include the GDR and parts of
Poland, Czechoslovakia and the USSR.

Communists Arrested

Recent months have also seen a
stepped-up attack on democratic rights
by the Kohl government, most recently
during the October municipal elections in
Lower Saxony where several persons
campaigning for the German Communist
Party (DKP) were fired.

In Bavaria, Franz-Josef Strauss, first
minister of this state and Vice Chancellor
in the Kohl government, has personally
led the attack against the DKP and its
press. The DKP’s city committee chair-
man and Unsere Zeit’s press spokesman
were both arrested, and after a few days
in jail, released. Strauss attempted to
muzzel the DKP’s newspaper, ostensi-
bly because it revealed his past Nazi
connections.

The real reason for this persecution, -

however, can be found in the DKP’s ef-
fort to achieve unity of the parties to the
left of the Kohl government. And the
value of such unity could be proven in
the Oct. 12 Bavarian state vote where the

Green Party and the Peace List, in which
the DKP plays a very active and open
role, formed an electoral alliance which
succeeded in breaking through the five
per cent vote threshold required to win
seats in a state or federal parliament. The
alliance elected 15, including two mem-
bers of the peace list.

Straus’ party lost seats and votes, but
the biggest losers were the social demo-
crats (SDP) who continue to pursue their
go-it-alone policy. SDP sectarianism led
to huge losses in the Hamburg state elec-
tion Nov. 9 where, for the first time in 30
years, Kohl’s Christian Democratic
Union won the plurality of seats and vot-
es. The big winners were again the par-
ties on the left other than the SDP, this
time the Greens in alliance with the alter-
native list.

SPD Sectarianism

Kohl is clearly counting on the sec-
tarianism of the SDP to assure him a
victory on Jan. 25. As Kohl sees it, he
now needs to strengthen his support
from the right and Gorbachev provided a
convenient target.

Kohl’s ‘Goebbels’? remark came
from a government which is increasing
its military expenditures and attacking
social programs and democratic and
trade union rights on an unprecedented
scale. It comes from a government which
has joined Reagan’s Star Wars program

peace; HeLMuT Om

TALKS THER Key

too close to an agreement witht
to remove medium-range nucle:
ons from Europe.

Kohl is personally accusing the
try’s huge peace movement 0
communist plot, prompting
people to ask what the alterD
peace is. If peace is synonyt
communism, then is impene®”
same as war.

Kohl is clearly of the same ©
Reagan and Thatcher. Asaman
steered the FRG through the ©
military build-up in post-W
could it be that Kohl’s **Goe?
mark was intended to deflect
from what he himself stands