EDITORIAL U.S. should act on test ban If U.S. President Reagan is type-cast as a warmonger that’s his doing, not somebody else’s. As a long-time Hollywood property he should know that his cooing and coy smiles are bound to be unconvincing while he is going about escalating the nuclear arms race, plotting star wars and violating treaties solemnly signed. If this has escaped Reagan, he was reminded of it June 20 when the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate voted 77 to 22 demanding action on treaties to ban nuclear testing. Pressing Reagan to move on two treaties with the Soviet Union, whose ratification was neglected by both Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, when they were presi- dent, the amendment wants them submitted for con- gressional ratification “‘at the earliest possible date.” One is the 1974 Threshold Test Ban Treaty, outlawing underground tests of more than. 150 kilotons, and the other deals with controls on non-military detonations. The Senate also demanded “the immediate resump- tion of negotiations toward conclusion of a verifiable comprehensive test ban treaty.” Talks on this were cut off by the U.S. in December, 1979. In recent days the Senate has also called for talks aimed at banning space weapons and sea-launched cruise missiles. It also asked for a general summit on nuclear weapons “without preconditions or assurance of success.” ' To complete its worthwhile stand on these matters the Senate would have to call for withdrawal of the destructive “preconditions” already introduced by the U.S. in the form of deployment of Pershing II and cruise missiles in western Europe. Peace is at the centre of the concerns of millions of people the world over today. It is shocking that the president of the U.S. uses peace talk for playing politics — hoping to get re-elected on the strength of his hypocrisy. _ Again and-again the Soviet leaders have proposed genuine measures for peace, and again and again the Reagan administration finds excuses for stalling, while turning the U.S. and the U.S.-dominated part of the planet into one big weapons range. The pressure the U.S. Senate is exerting is welcome. More pressure is needed from every quarter, to expose ~ Reagan’s hypocrisy and get peace negotiations moving. Blocking water diversion The matter of fresh water diversion to south of the border is becoming'an ever louder clamor. There need to be clear cut policies on the part of the federal and provincial governments if a disastrous situation is to be avoided. While the rivers and lakes of Canada and the boundary waters of the Great Lakes may seem ample, thoughts of draining away millions of litres to satisfy U.S. farm and industrial needs raises a very real danger. Recently there has been talk about how Canadian rivers could be diverted and sent coursing into the U.S. _ And there have been probes to see whether unilateral siphoning of Great Lakes water would raise the outcry and protest it should. The interfering U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Paul Robinson, recently assured Canada: ““We don’t want it. _ We don’t need it.” He was responding.to concerns about U.S. designs on Canadian fresh water and the water in the Great Lakes. But Ontario’s Natural Resurces Minister Alan Pope. offered a different estimation. ‘“‘What bothers me,” he said, “is the governments say no (they are are not seeking water) but private interests are making plans.” Earlier this month businessmen from Illinois and Wisconsin sounded out the Ontario government on water exports. It is not simply a question of what is ours we keep. Nor is it simply a matter of pointing out that the U.S. is probably the most wasteful and destructive of resources country on earth, which should practise some conserva- tion of its own resources — for example those being squandered on building a global war capacity. What is at stake in the short run is the ruination of countless social and economic factors, in the long run the struggle to survive. When it is considered that the same monopoly circles who squander our water are the ones who recklessly pollute what remains, the need for stringent laws becomes clear. A drop in the Great Lakes levels would affect a very large population. Hydro power would be affected, pol- lution would be more concentrated, shipping installa- tion and shipping cargoes would be affected, fisheries and bird migration would suffer, and the tourist trade would be hit. What the Ontario resources minister said bears atten- tion. We need to be alert to see that entrepreneurs from the world of corporate monopoly do not foil the wishes of the people of Canada. There are those in this country who would sell off this life-giving resource for fast dollars, as they do with other resources. Public pressure should compel measures to protect our water resources. Unfazed that it’s not a household name, Carena Bancorp Hold ings Inc., a management-holding company, had after-tax profits 0 $10,030,000 for nine months ended March 31. A nice jump from $7,787,000 in the same period a year earlier. : =“IRIGUNE | Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON Business & Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Graphics — ANGELA KENYON Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 125 Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada — $14 one year, $8 six months Foreign — $20 one year; Second class mail registration number 1560 International Focus Tom Morris KAL 007 coming home to roost In the din of debate over re- sponsibility for the downing of Korean flight KAL 007 over Soviet territory Sept. 1, 1983 words like ‘‘shock’’ ‘‘re- vulsion’’, ‘“‘horror’’ and ‘tanger’ were used with aban- don by the western media. Calling the Soviet charge that KAL 007 was on a spy mission for the U.S., ‘‘a claim just about nobody outside the Communist world believed’’, ported that president Reagan used the word “‘massacre’’ six times in his speech on the in- cident. The magazine’s cover boasted, ‘‘Putting Moscow on the defensive’’. Almost a year later, a British magazine, Attache’’, depicts a series of events leading up to KAL 007’s fate which essentially proves the Soviet point. The magazine says that the Korean jet was helping the U.S. space shuttle Challenger Time magazine dutifully re-- ‘‘Defence. Media in full cry: Time’s Sept 19, 1983 cover. Caught with his . espionage pants down, Reagan blames Soviets for ‘KAL incident. spy on Soviet defences. It’s role, ‘‘Defence Attache”’ writes, was to trigger Soviet _radar and electronics signals so that Challenger and a U.S. spy satellite could monitor them. It further says that a U.S. reconnaissance plane, an RC-135 with a similar profile’ on radar screens, flew in the area shortly before KAL 007 entered Soviet air space as a decoy to alert defence systems. ‘Defence Attache”’ isn’t the first Western source to dispute 4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 27, 1984 U.S. and Korean claims the Boeing 747’s three Inertial Navigational Systems failed together, or that the crew was so inept it couldn’t tell it was miles off course, or that it ’ didn’t notice Soviet fighters firing warning shots ordering the airliner to land. ok * * When the USSR blew Fran- cis Gary Powers and his U-2 out of the air in 1960 it pro- duced both the aircraft and the pilot for the world to see. Then, there was no nitpicking over the fact the U.S. overflies Soviet airspace regularly and uses every means to monitor Soviet defences. There ’ shouldn’t be too much trouble in getting the point of the KAL 007 episode: the U.S. (and its Korean partner) got caught in an act of espionage. And in getting caught, they used the only defence they know — take the offensive. It’s not likely, but a simple: apology to the USSR and to the victims’ families along with an agreement to end dangerous overflights would be far more acceptable than all the hollow bluster. Portrait of a combatant Maria Oralia Carranza Riias was born in Santa Elena, El Salvador on January 31, 1963. She attended elementary school in San Vincente while working in a supermarket. In 1979 she took part in stu- dent actions and in October, 1980 was picked up by police, beaten and thrown out ofa veh- icle, left for dead. This experience and Maria’s loyalty to her people led her to join the first units of the FAL guerrillas where she partici- pated in early military actions against the National Guard. In a few years, now known as ‘“‘Iliana’’, Maria rose rapidly in the ranks of the people’s armed forces and in 1981 was platoon leader of the Silvia Pla- toon, a women’s unit named in honor of a heroic combatant killed earlier that year. The unit became legendary, taking part in heavy fighting in the San Pedro Hills and in actions along the Panamerican high- way. ; In 1982 she requested ad- mission to the Rafael Aquinada Carranza Battalion and saw ac- tion in the victories at Tenan- cingo, Tejutapeque, Chalate- nango, Guadelupe and San Sebastien. It was during the fighting for San Sabastien on April 8 liana died in battle. She was twenty-one. Despite repression and battle. deaths, the struggle continues. Photo: peasant march in San — Salvador.