Fred Weir
four opens

Tribune Moscow correspondent
Fred Weir begins a speaking tour of
Canada this month, with meetings
scheduled for at least four centres in
British Columbia.

It is the second tour for Weir, who
_took up his assignment in the Soviet
‘Union in 1986, just one year after

Mikhail Gorbachev launched his twin
policies of glasnost and perestroika
which have transformed the Soviet
Union and have been the catalyst for
historic change throughout the social-
ist countries.

Weir’s re-
ports from
Moscow have
been widely
read, not only
in the pages of
the Tribune,
but also in
other journals
which havepub-
lished his work,
both in Can-
ada and else-
where in the world, including New
Zealand.

His tour in this province kicks off in
Victoria April 23, 7:30 p.m. with a pub-
lic meeting at Spectrum High School,
957 West Burnside.

Two other meetings are also sche-
duled for Vancouver Island: Port
Alberni, April 24, 7:30 p.m. at the Tyee
Village Motel, 4151 Redford; and
_-Courtenay, April 25, 7:30 p.m. at the
Craft Room, Florence Filberg Centre
(off 5th St.).

Vancouver residents can hear Weir
on April 27, 7:30 p.m. at the Ukrainian

WEIR

Hall, 805 East Pender St.
A meeting is also being scheduled
for the Surrey-Fraser Valley area for

April 26. The location will be
announced in next week’s issue.

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World

Namibia begins new
era of independence

By MARY MURRAY

WINDHOEK — As the clock struck
midnight March 21, Namibia became Afri-
ca’s 51st free nation.

Thousands gathered in this city’s sports
stadium, now renamed Independence Sta-
dium, to celebrate the end of 106 years of
foreign rule. Liberating this continent has
been a 33-year-long march, from Ghana
south to Namibia. White rule has now been
pushed south of the Orange River.

On the previous day, air traffic had
clogged the skies as presidential planes from
throughout Africa circled, waiting their
turn to land. Angolan President Jose
Eduardo dos Santos arrived first, followed
by a Cuban delegation headed by Council
of State Vice President Juan Almeida and
Jorge Risquet, a Communist Party leader
who played a central role in the talks with
South Africa that paved the way for inde-
pendence.

Two men were especially welcomed as
heroes by the Namibian people — Zambian
President Kenneth Kaunda, head of the
Frontline States, and African National
Congress leader Nelson Mandela.

Mandela drew cries of “Amandla” wher-
ever he went, even from the press and pro-
tocol officials at the airport. When he raised
his fist to greet the thousands gathered at
the stadium for the midnight celebrations,
the crowd chanted his name along with that
of Namibia’s first president, Sam Nujoma.

During his Independence Day address,
Nujoma called the decision by President
Frederik de Klerk to “give up Namibia an
act of statesmanship and reality.” Nujoma
expressed hope that a similar process will
unfold inside the apartheid state. “New
Namibia,” he pledged, “stands ready to
assist in whatever way asked.”

Nujoma said Namibia will request
admission to the UN, the political and eco-
nomic bodies of the Frontline States, the

: Organization of African Unity and the

‘Non-Aligned Movement. All had recog-
nized the South West Africa People’s
Organization as the legitimate representative
of the Namibian people during the years of
illegal South African rule. .

Nujoma told his audience that Namibia
must continue to consolidate the ‘“thard-
won independence not handed to us on a
silver platter but which tens of thousands
sacrificed their lives for.”

Praising the current spirit of conciliation
after a bloody and bitter war, he called for
rebuilding the country. “We cannot have

NELSON MANDELA ... hailed in

Namibia.
political freedom without economic free-
dom,” Nujoma said. He called for a mixed
economy with private investment providing
what the state cannot at this time.

South Africa, he noted, has left the new
Namibian government with a $500 million

foreign debt incurred during the years its
tule was called illegal by the United Nations
and the International Court of Justice.
However, Nujoma believes that with intelli-
gent planning and humane investment, the
nation can overcome the “legacy of colon-
ialism” by developing industry and large-
scale farming, guided by an official
investment code.

He also invited Namibia’s other parties
to join SWAPO in setting up the govern-
ment and building a new nation.

As the South African flag that flew ille-
gally over this nation for 30 years was
removed, thousands — including 300 repre-
sentatives of South African democratic
forces — broke into shouts and cheers of
“Goodbye forever!”

De Klerk’s introduction was greeted by a
cold silence until the master of ceremonies
explained that South Africa’s president was
here to take home his flag. De Klerk said he
came as “an advocate of peace” and said
Namibia’s independence marks the end of
the “season of violence” in Southern Africa
and the start of a new policy.

But he did not explain why South Africa
is saddling Namibia with a debt that will
impede development efforts, nor did he
respond to the demand of many in the
international community for Pretoria to
pay reparations to the former colony.

— People’s Daily World

Oscar Romero remembered

Continued from page 1

annual campaigns for funds and materials
for Nicaraguan groups despite the electoral
victory of the pro-U.S. UNO coalition.

Nicaraguans voted for UNO not because
they disliked the ruling Sandinistas, but to

“end to 10 years of illegal and immoral U.S.
economic, psychological, diplomatic, and
military war,” he said.

As for Nicaragua’s trade unions, peasant
co-operatives and other non-governmental
groups: “We're going to continue to sup-
port them in their struggles for economic
recovery. . .for civil rights and for freedom
to organize, demonstrate and speak out..

“Just as our own government is cutting
back on the rights of Native people and
women to organize and speak out, so too
we will protect the right of women, Native
people, farmworkers and students in Nica-
ragua to continue to press forward in their
struggle for economic > justice and social jus-
tice,” Reis declared. ~

Amalia Dorigoni, a retired teacher from
Guatemala, related the recent death of a
former student and remarked: “Behind the

police, behind the army of Guatemala, we
know is the United States.”

“Just to be a teacher is reason enough” to
be a target of death squads or government
forces, Dorigoni, who was tortured in 1980,
said later.

In a statement read to the rally, Van-
couver New Democrat MLA Tom Perry
said he and fellow MLA for Point Grey,
Darlene Marzari, were working with MP
colleagues to press Canada to rescind fund-
ing for governments like El Salvador’s, and
instead channel it through non-govern-
mental organizations. Perry and Marzari
also called for a open door policy for refu-
gees from Central America.

“Canada should demonstrate leadership
in the world community to promote real
democracy, both economic and political, in
Central America,” said Perry’s statement.

Attention was drawn to an ad in the
weekend Globe and Mail in which dozens of
Canadian organizations and _ individuals
called on the government to “pursue an
active and independent policy in support of

justice and peace in Central America.”

f° & COMPANY | |

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APRIL 19 — Saving the Urban Environment.
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CONSTANCE FOGAL. Family law, wills and
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DIRECTORY

COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA office
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Phone: 254-9836. Office hours: 9:30-12 noon;
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HALLS FOR RENT

RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME — Available for
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UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CULTURAL
CENTRE — 805 East Pender St. Vancouver.
Available for banquets, weddings, meetings.
Phone 254-3436.

TIM LOUIS

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Uncontested divorce $200*
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2 O}

Pacific Tribune, April 2. 1990 11