Former NATO general sounds a warning

‘SURVIVAL OR HOLOCAUST’

TORONTO — Italian Senator Nino
~ Pasti, former NATO general and Allied
preme Vice-Commander in Europe
for Nuclear Affairs told the press here
Oct, 26 that the deployment of the Cruise.
‘Missile in Europe (sheduled for 1983)
May be the end of any possible agree-
Ment to control nuclear forces.”
Senator Pasti, using only data from
Official U.S. sources, said his visit to
a is to raise ‘“‘the most important
Problem of our time — the problem of a
a nuclear holocaust or survival.
This is, in real terms, the choice we
Ve in front of us.”’

Pasti made his position crystal clear:

‘T'm not here to argue which social sys-
tem is better, capitalism or socialism,
ach one can decide this himself. This is
Rot the issue. ,
This issue is: who is leading the arms
Tate; who is preparing a nuclear holo-
Caust. Any choice of social systems will

ee on whether we are able to sur-
Ve.” ?

Balance of Forces

Giving figures on the relative military
Sténgths of the Warsaw Pact and its ad-
Versaries (NATO, China, France), Pasti
Pointed out that the Warsaw Pact has 6
million troops versus 10 million. In addi-
Hon, Pasti said, ‘we must remember that
€€-quarters of the territory of the
USSR is in Asia which requires it to split

Mts defencés across vast expanses.”
According to the Stockholm Inter-
National Institute of Research, the mili-
budget of the Warsaw Pact is just

one-half ofits opponents’ spending, Pasti

said. ‘‘This means the U.S. and its allies-

are far stronger than the USSR and its
allies — and have always been.

The 17,000 additional nuclear
weapons being produced by the Reagan
administration under its new program,
Pasti warned, added to the 30,000 NATO
now possesses, will destabilize the ba-
lance of power. “‘They say very clearly
they are planning for a limited nuclear
war which will destroy the USSR and
Europe,’’ Pasti charged.

He argued that a limited war is im-
possible. “‘Those not dead from direct
hits will die from nuclear fall-out. These
are the sad facts of nuclear war, as many
physicians have told us. This is why I’m
here to speak to you, this is why we must
act now.

**1983 will be a crucial year because of
NATO plans to deploy the Pershing-2
and Cruise missiles in Europe — ex-
tremely destabilizing to world peace.

Change of Course
Pasti outlined the broad terms of U.S.
foreign policy change from the 1963
Kennedy speech in which the former
president committed his country to the

search for peace to a position today

where the philosophical and military
groundwork is being laid for nuclear war
against the socialist states.

‘Wt is within this framework that the
USSR has made a number of proposals,
among which two are of particular im-
portance,’’ Pasti said.

“The first is a nuclear weapons’
freeze. That is — while we discuss the
reduction of nuclear weapons, let us stop
the production of them. It is illogical, as
Washington argues, to say we will in-
crease nuclear weapons’ arsenals in
order to decrease them.

‘‘The second important Soviet prop-
osal is the ‘no first use’ pledge — which it
has already made publicly. But the Pen-
tagon responds by claiming the USSR
has an edge in conventional forces thus
forcing it to deploy nuclear weapons in
Europe. ‘‘But this is not true,’’ Pasti
said, quoting from U.S. documents show-
ing NATO strength in Europe to match
and surpass that of the Warsaw Pact.

‘*What is clear is that the U.S. refuses
to accept strategic nuclear parity with the
USSR. They refuse to ratify SALT-2
which is one-document. What it forbids

- for one it forbids for the other; what it °

permits for one it permits for both. It was
a balanced treaty establishing a top level
for both sides.

‘It’s not true,’’ Pasti charged, ‘‘that
the U.S. abandoned SALT-2 because of
Soviet action in Afghanistan. Re-
member, SALT-2 was signed by Carter a
full six months before Afghanistan.”’

Stepping Back

In setting out the vital need to step
back from the nuclear brink, Pasti told
the press that a “‘no first use’’ agreement
coupled with a nuclear freeze*‘are pre-
liminary steps. They will give us time to
discuss a way out. They are not anend in
themselves.

e——..

THE CRUISE ... dirty, dangerous, deadly and destabilizing. :

[Ran

NINO PASTI: “I’m in Canada to convince
people to fight against this madness.”

‘‘Not accepting a freeze and producing

’ 17,000 new nuclear weapons vastly in-

creases the danger of war. By refusing to
agree on these two points, the U.S.
shows it is preparing for war.”’

Pasti outlined previous unilateral steps
taken by the USSR — including its
pledge to not deploy further medium-
range missiles in Europe, withdrawal of
20,000 troops and 1,000 tanks from the
GDR and its “no first use’’’ pledge as
indications of that country’s desire to
seriously work for disarmament.

“But these actions were never re-
sponded to by NATO and the U.S.,”” he
said.

Refuse the Cruise

Warning again that 1983 will be deci-
sive, Pasti.said that the new family of
missiles planned for Europe because of
their size and tactical sophistication will
trigger a new and highly dangerous situa-
tion.

He said that warning times of a nuclear
attack will be cut from the present 30
minutes to four or five, not permitting
evaluation or proper detection. This new

situation will certainly trigger all-out —

Soviet nuclear response, he warned.

The senator will take his message to
thousands across the country urging the
broadest peace offensive to turn back the
drift to war.

“‘I want to spend the rest of my life
contributing to ensure peace in the
world, so that my grandchildren may
live,” he said.

a ’

Intemational Focus <

Tom Morris

‘Special ‘thanks’
from Washington

_ More insights into the mas-
Sacres at Sabra and Shatila are
_ Contained in a Le Monde inter-
View with PLO chairman Yas-

- Ser Arafat:

“T accuse America and Is-
ael of having planned the
liquidation of the Palestinians
and Lebanese left-wing

8roups’’, Arafat told Le

Rouleau. “It was with this in-
tention they obtained the with-
a Wal of the multi-national
Orce 10 days before, which
Was planned to be renewable,
Unless all parties concerned —
aytding the PLO — decided
rwise.”’
_. ‘Arafat was even more spec-
ific: the crime was committed
f “special Israeli units, in-
eaty commandos who physi-
ely Carried out the crime, ac-
pruPanied by Lebanese
ie St officers and mem-
ti TS of Major Haddad’s mili-
ied who acted as scouts in
‘ne labryrinths of the Palesti-
Tan Camps.”’

Onde correspondent Eric

“Why this cold-blooded
butchery?””, Rouleau asked
the PLO leader.

“They are trying to terrorize
us, to signal to us that the
Palestinians are not safe any-

where in Lebanon, to force us-

to flee the country. In 1948,

' Begin, who was then the leader

of a terrorist gang, succeeded
in triggering a mass exodus
from Palestine by massacring
the inhabitants of the village of
Dier Yassin.

“Sharon did the same in

1953 in the village of Qibya on
the Jordanian side of the bor-
der ==.” :

In answer to the lie that the
PLO is ‘‘anti-Jewish’’, Arafat
described the attitude of the
Palestinian people on this
score:

‘Begin and Sharon are not
Jews. The crimes they are
committing are not compatible
with either morality or Jewish
tradition. The real Jews are
those who refuse to take part in
the attempt to annihilate the
Palestinian people ... most of
all the tens of thousands of
Israelies who voiced their dis-

approval in the streets of Tel
Aviv in the middle of the war.

‘“‘To all these people, to all
the Israeli or Jewish pacifists
and democrats, I pay my re-
spects and give the thanks of

-the Palestinian people who will

never forget their solidarity in
this ordeal.”

And, in a twist of bitter irony
at U.S. treachery which set the
stage for the massacres, Arafat
commented: ‘“‘The Americans
are an ungrateful lot. In 1976
during the civil war in Leba-
non, I insured that their na-
tionals were safely evacuated
from the country.

“In 1980, it was I who ob-
tained from Iran’s Khomeini
the liberation of the first 13 hos-
tages from Tehran. And here’s
how Washington thanks me

Ottawa’s real face
toward apartheid

One of the genuinely sleazy
aspects of our government’s
foreign policy is its public-
versus-private stand on apar-
theid in South Africa.

You’ll rarely hear an MP or

Liberal minister condone that

racist system. On the contrary,
from Trudeau on down to the
backbencher, the government
publicly ‘‘deplores’’ apartheid
and uses all the stock phrases
about ‘‘equality”’ that come to
them so easily when talking
about Canada’s Native people.

But when it gets to real-
politik, Ottawa plays a hypo-
critical role, running inter-
ference for Pretoria. In the
United Nations, Canada
wrings its delicate hands and
regrets having to abstain on
votes calling for the strongest
actions to end apartheid.

Our representatives argue
for ‘‘maintaining ties and
trade’’ to bring moral pressure

-on a regime of killers and ex-

ploiters who use our gutless
position to stay in power.

The latest ploy is a new set of
guidelines — a ‘‘Code of Con-
duct’’ for companies investing
and doing business in South
Africa. It’s a questionaire and
it urges fairness toward work-
ers employed by these firms in
that country.

What a joke! South African

labor laws prevent ‘‘fairness’’.
Its national laws codify racism
as asystem. Its wealth is based
on exploitation of Black South
Africans who can’t even vote.
Every aspect of life by law
maintains racial discrimination
and genocide.

What the hell is a ‘‘Code of

‘Conduct’’ about? It’s a cover

to permit corporations and
banks to join in the super-
profits extracted by blood and
death.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER'5, 1982—Page 9

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