Letters

We were very pleased to see the article on
the front page of the June 12 Pacific Trib-
une, entitled “Attack on Chinese students
deplored.” We felt the article was timely,
comprehensive and correct.

We have just returned from a 23-day tour
of China, having left Vancouver May 20.
We toured Beijing for three days and then
left for the interior of China and numerous
other cities,

While we were in Beijing our tour bus
was stopped several times in and around
Tiananmen Square where thousands of
students were gathered. However, the dem-
Onstrators were peaceful and we were
eer allowed to proceed with no prob-
em.

We read the China Daily English edition,
printed in Beijing every day, which reported
that units of the People’s Liberation Army
(PLA) were camped outside the city and
had attempted to come into the square with
truckloads of troops but each time an
attempt was made they withdrew when con-
fronted by the students,

After leaving Beijing we learned that
martial law had been imposed by the mil-
itary council and on June 3 the tanks rolled
in to clear the square. We were shocked and
horrified at the tragic consequences of this
decision.

) The brutality of the PLA against the

| unarmed peaceful students was sickening to
say the least. Then a news blackout des-
cended on the country and the only reports
we had of what transpired came from
phone calls by members of our tour group
to relatives in Canada.

. We believe the brutal.attack by,the PLA
against the students was totally stupid and
unnecessary.

Even the China Daily issue of June 2
acknowledged that the students’ protests
were winding down and that 100,000 stu-
dents in recent days were being assisted to
return home by train. This report was sub-
stantiated with a picture of the crowded
railway station in Beijing. Why then was it
deemed necessary to send in the tanks to
massacre the students who were still in the
square?

We believe that this brutal act will cost
China dearly, both in loss of prestige in the
eyes of the world and also in the loss of
millions of dollars in hard currency earned
from the booming tourist industry which
has come to a halt.

The political ramifications of this sup-
pression of the student demonstration for
democratic reforms will undoubtedly be
far-reaching and may set the nation back
for many years to come. We find this ironic
when one considers that it comes at a time
of world-wide hopes and aspiration’ for
peace and harmony amongst all 'natidins led
by Mikhail Gorbachev with such stunning

_ success.
It is also ironic in view of the evident

‘inspirational’

Please accept this cheque for $25. Good
luck in your 1989 drive. I look forward to
ever issue of the Trib, finding it informative,
inspirational and thought-provoking. It
would be a very sad day indeed if we lost a
paper that speaker up for the working men
and women of B.C. I particularly enjoy
Fred Weir’s column and your arts review
section.

In closing keep up the good work in being
the true voice of labour in B.C.

Raymond Moreau,
Surrey

.
13

achievements of the economic reforms tak-
ing place in China. As we travelled through
China by plane, train, bus and boat we were
inspired by the modernization program,
evidenced by the thousands of buildings
under construction in every city as well as
massive improvements in the infrastructure.

And again ironic when one considers the
fact that the Chinese people are peaceful,
friendly and well-disciplined. We were

impressed by the way they respect each
other in their crowded millions and interact
without conflict.

In all our travels we never saw an armed
policeman or soldier in the entire country.
What a contrast to our western world with
all the problems associated with a gun-crazy
society.

In closing, we want to say we were very
impressed by the progress made by the Chi-

nese people in modernizing their country
and we hope that the agony of the present
political crises will be short-lived and they
can once again resume the struggle for polit-
ical reforms as well as economic reforms
and move quickly ahead to improved living
standards within a socialist society.
Don Cordoni,
Margaret Cordoni,

Maple Ridge

‘Aid to El Salvador, Guatemala queried

This letter is written on behalf of the
Christian Task Force on Central America
by the Task Force’s Foreign Policy

Review Committee. As we anticipate a _

policy decision to renew Canadian aid to
Guatemala and continue aid to El Salva-
dor, we are anxious to alert concerned
Canadians so as to involve them in impor-
tant policy discussions.

The Canadian government’s own stated

criteria for determining aid appropriations |

(Sharing Our Future, page 30) are:

© a country’s needs;

© commitment and capacity to manage
aid effectively;

@ quality of economic and social poli-
cies or commitment to improve its poli-
cies;

@ Canada’s political and economic
relations with the country;

© human rights record; and

_ @ Commitment to participation’ in the
} devélopment process. |”
‘» “Tt is fhe failure of both the Guatemalan

and El Salvadoran governments to meet
the above criteria that lead us to question
the renewal of bilateral aid.

In the case of Guatemala, when the
government announced its decision to
renew aid in November, 1987 many expe-
rienced people argued that Guatemala
should not receive aid because of its failure
to comply with sections of the Esquipulas
Peace Accord (commonly known as the
Arias. Peace Plan) — especially those
dealing with human rights violation. Now,
in the spring of 1989, there is an even
stronger case to be made against the
resumption of bilateral aid.

The original official justification for
resuming Guatemalan aid was to support
the civilian government of Vinicio Cerezo
and thereby keep the military at bay, but
that has unfortunately not happened. And
regardless of intent, resumption of aid is

an endorsement of the recipient govern-
‘ment (and its close alliance with a repres-
sive army.) We argued in 1987, as now,
that Canadian aid is unlikely to “support
basic development for some of the most
marginalized people in Central America,”
given Guatemalan institutions and struc-
tures.

This has proven true in El Salvador,
where the form of Canada’s recent aid
project could not have helped the poor.
Since the Canadian government has no
control over the distribution of Canadian
fertilizers within El Salvador, fertilizers
sold on the open market can only be pur-
chased by people able to pay for
them — that is, larger agricultural pro-
ducers and the army. The profits from
these sales are then channelled to Non-
Government Organizations. Many Cana-
dian NGOs have serious reservations
about this project due to the requirement
of reporting to and sharing information
with Salvadoran authorities.

One observes in both Guatemala and El
Salvador extremely poor and rapidly dec-
lining living standards. The New York
Times (Oct. 16, 1988) reported that 70 per
cent of Salvadorans now live in poverty.
Guatemala has the world’s fifth lowest
rate of expenditures on social programs in
relation to income (Inter-Church Com-
mittee on Human Rights in Latin America
Annual Report on Guatemala 1989).

_ Ninety-two Guatemalan children dieevery_
day from nutritionally related diseases and

nearly 3.5 million people live in extreme
poverty. President Cerezo has not demon-
strated any commitment to addressing the
root causes of these problems.

On the human rights front, it is the
reactivation of death squads in both coun-
tries that is perhaps the most distressing
development. In El Salvador, soon after
the March 1988 electoral victories of

ARENA, death squad-type killings began
to escalate. America’s Watch committee
reported that the total number of civilian
victims of political violence during the first
six months of 1988 was 103 per cent higher
than in the first half of 1987.

ARENA is staunchly opposed to any
negotiated approach to a settlement, illus-
trated in their rejection of the significant
Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front (FMLN) peace initiatives made in
February of this year. ARENA now also
controls the presidency and many of its
prominent members call for a “total war
strategy.”

In Guatemala, any political space
opened up after 1986 has abruptly closed
since the May 11, 1988 coup. The coup
was clearly successful in limiting freedoms
and the subsequent political closing is
keenly felt across popular sectors. Ameri-
ca’s watch figures for August alone pro-
vide evidence of 312 killings.

As the Canadian government considers
a further recommitment of bilateral aid to
EI! Salvador and the resumption of aid to
Guatemala, we would like to emphasize
the sober realities and human toll of peo-
ple’s suffering. We very much hope that
the Canadian government will consult and
take seriously the concerns of many Can-
adian NGOs. As Canada is a participant
in the Central America Peace Process, it
will be most unseemly for it to make poli-
cies counter-productive to the real needs
of the peoples in that region.

If Canada fails to listen to human rights
organizations and concerned Canadians,
then Canada cannot claim to be serious
about its support for UN Conventions and
Declarations about universal human
rights.

Margie Oevering,
. Christian Task Force on Central America
Vancouver

;
/

Pacific Tribune, June 26, 1989 e 5