WORLD : ae
CPC urges Ottawa not to join in

U.S. anti-Libyan campaign grows

With the United States Sixth Fleet Sitting off
Libyan shores in a show of military strength,
President Reagan went on national television Jan. 7
to announce complete sanctions against the Libyan
government in the latest provocation aimed at
keeping Middle East tension on the boiling point.

Reagan’s performance was a vintage mixture of
outright lies and incredible personal attacks. When
asked for proof of Libyan involvement in the Rome
and Vienna airport attacks, Reagan offered none.
When asked about Palestinian rights, he dragged
out the old herring about the ‘‘PLO’s refusal to
recognize Isael’s right to exist.”’

What was clear was the U.S. administration’s
use of its orchestrated anti-Libyan hate campaign:
under the mantle of ‘‘fighting terrorism’’. What
-isn’t clear is whether Reagan can succeed in lining
up his allies in this exercise. Reports from Europe
indicate little support for the rash and dangerous
Reagan line. As well, at Tribune press time, the
Canadian government’s position remains unclear.

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On Jan. 9, invoking emergency presidential pow-
ers ‘‘to deal with the threat to the national security
and foreign policy of the United States,’ Reagan
froze all assets and property of the Libyan govern-
ment in the U.S. The same day, West Germany,
Italy, Spain and Portugal rejected Reagan’s sanc-
tions call and Britain said it would not actively join
the U.S. campaign.

In a press release prior to Reagan’s announce-
ment, the Communist Party of Canada’s Central
Executive Committee warned of the extreme perils
involved in the U.S. position and urged Ottawa to
use its influence with Reagan to desist from this
adventure. The CPC made these points:

“The U.S. Administration and its ally, the

Israeli government, are’moving perilously close to

military aggression against Libya and perhaps

- some other Arab states — using acts of terrorism as
a pretext for so doing.

“The enemies chosen for attack are among those

countries who support the right of the people of.
Palestine to an independent state of their own.
Both the U.S. Administration and the Israeli
government deny these rights and are even pre-
pared to exterminate the Palestinian people to pre-
vent such a situation.
“Tf the U.S. Administration and Israel under-
take a military assault on Libya they will, in effect,
declare war against the Arab peoples with unfore-

seeable consequences not only to the Middle East

but the world.

‘*These governments are playing with fire. The
Canadian government should advise them in the
strongest possible language to desist from such a
desperate and reckless adventure, an adventure in
which the U.S. Administration may try to involve
Canada as it is trying to involve its other allies.

‘In this dangerous situation it is of grave con-
cern that the Globe and Mail comes out in support
of the Reagan Administration, advises it and its
allies including Canada, to pursue a policy of con-
frontation with the Arab world. Why? Whose in-
terests is it peddling?

‘‘Terrorism must be opposed, but not by war.
Opposition to individual acts of terrorism must not
be used to mask opposition to the rights of a people
to national liberation or to solving the Palestinian
question in a just and democratic way.

“*Canadians should note that while there are great
pressures being undertaken to impose sanctions on
Libya, there is dead silence from the Canadian

government when it comes to imposing real sanc- -

tions on South Africa. They should also note that

while ‘‘concern”’ is shown about the victims who

died in Rome and Vienna, there is no real concern

by the Government about the over 1,000 Black

people murdered by the Botha Government.
‘‘Why the two standards?

‘‘Canadians should not allow Canada to be
sucked into a U.S. imperialist war or into support
of sanctions against Libya. Instead they should
demand that an international conference be held of
all countries in the Middle East including represen-
tatives of the PLO, the USA and the USSR to work
out a just and democratic settlement of the Middle
East crisis.

USS Coral Sea, its decks stacked with jet fighters, leads the U.S. Sixth
Fleet off the Libyan coast. Radar-jamming EA-6B aircraft have also been
dispatched to the region as Reagan’s provocations bring the Mid-East to
a flashpoint.

Terror mounts in fran

The Office of Organization of the ail
Iranian People’s Fedaian (Majority) |
has reported the execution of com-
rades by the Islamic Republic as part
of a new wave of killings toward the
end of 1985.

Mohammad Reza Ghabrai, alter-
nate member of the Political Bureau
of the Central Committee of the
OIPF(M) and general manager of the”
publication “‘KAR’’ was first ar-
rested in 1972 by SAVAK, the
Shah’s secret police, and sentenced
to four years imprisonment. On his
release in 1976 he played a leading
role in the rebuilding of the organi-
zation which had suffered heavily
under SAVAK attacks.

He was arrested by the Islamic Republic in March, 1982 and
taken to the notorious Evin prison where he faced constant
mistreatment and was executed in November by firing squad.

Another OIPF(M) leader, comrade Jahangir Behtaji, was also
executed in the new wave of executions. Names and full details of
other imprisoned OIPF(M) members are being witheld by the
regime.

Mohammad Ghabrai

International Focus

Tom Morris

The real victims of terror, in

“—

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- Refusing the Greece, Mexico, India, Tan- - wayfroney’s
hand of peace zania and Sweden — jointly :
pe urged the two powers to agree toothless tiger
At the very moment werang on a reciprocal end to nuclear : : i
in 1986 with choruses of Auld testing and the early conclu- ,, Bill Davis, Mulroney's

Lang Syne and toasted one an-
other for a Happy New Year,
the world recrossed the nuc-
clear threshold.

On August 6, 1985 the USSR
announced it had suspended all
nuclear testing until Dec. 31,
1985. It did so unilaterally, and
invited the U.S. to follow suit.
Further, Moscow said it was
prepared to extend the test ban
indefinitely if Washington im-
posed a similar ban.

Answering the oft-heard
‘‘verification’’ issue, the
USSR said it would agree to
monitoring stations on U.S.
and Soviet territory as well as
to on-site inspection. It added
that today’s sophisticated
technology makes secret test-
ing anywhere impossible.

During the five months the
Soviet moratorium was in ef-
fect, the world had a golden
opportunity to return to nuc-
lear sanity. Gorbachev raised
the issue directly with Reagan
at Geneva, appealing to the
American president to grasp
the opportunity.

Six nations — Argentina,

sion of a comprehensive. test
ban treaty.

The USSR agreed. The U.S.
refused.

Worse still, the American
military closed 1985 with an
underground nuclear test and,
prior to that, conducted laser
testing — both key ingredients
in its Star Wars program.

So we enter 1986 having
watched Reagan and the
Pentagon rebuff the Soviet
offer on the vital issue of test-
ing. We see the Soviet ban run
out of time, spurned by
Washington while Reagan ap-
pears on Soviet television
spouting sweet words about
peace.

Small wonder “‘person-on-
the-street’’ responses to
Reagan’s New Year’s Day
speech from Muscovites were
that-his words and deeds don’t
match.

If the world slips back into a
frantic nuclear arms race the
responsibility will rest square-
ly in the Oval Office.

‘carried out by

‘“‘acid rain envoy’’, defended
his toothless report saying any
concrete proposals for action
wouldn’t get Reagan’s approv-
al. He was paid $1. for his ef-
forts.

Canada deserves a refund.

Tragedy heaped

upon tragedy

Communists have con-
sistently argued that anarchism
and terrorism are counterpro-
ductive, often leading to great-
er repression and providing
imperialism with reasons to re-
spond against the working
class.

In addition, terrorist acts
individuals,
especially against civilians,
provide the capitalist press and
state another chance to denig-
rate and misrepresent genuine
people’s struggles. Often the
initial goals, the real issues, are
buried under a wave of jingo-
ism and orchestrated
muscle-flexing as seen in the
current U.S. anti-Libya
campaign.

this case the Palestinian
people, become painted as
“‘the enemy’’; the perpetrators
of state terror — Israel and the
U.S. — appear avenging white
knights. Here truth becomes

_ the second or third casualty.

A thoughtful article in the
Toronto Star on the cycle of
terrorism recently shed some
light on the subject with this
description of one young man:

‘Elias Yeha Nassif (is a) 22
year-old Palestinian, a
Catholic, now jailed for life in
Cyprus for his part in the killing
of three Israelis at Larnaca
seaport. Driven from its home
in Nazareth by the Israelis, the
family first moved to
Bethlehem and then to Leba-
non, where he was born in a
refugee camp.

‘**His father was killed on a
guerrilla operation inside Israel
in 1968; one brother was killed
in 1973, his mother and another
brother were killed in 1975,
and a sister and a brother in
1982 — all in Israeli air raids on
Lebanon.

‘*And this family record is in
no way exceptional. Is this
Catholic going to take much
notice of the indignation of the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 15, 1986 e 9

Pope over the killing of 19 per- ~

sons at Rome and Vienna? For
every Israeli killed by Palesti-
nians there have been at least
100 Palestinians killed by Is-
raelies ...””

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_——- ee ee eee eh me

The USSR has issued a five
kopeck postage stamp in
honour of Samantha Smith,
the Maine schoolgirl who
wrote former Soviet leader
Andropov in 1982 about her
concerns for peace and sub-
sequently visited the USSR.
She died last summer in a
plane crash at age 13.

py pee SMA TT Ta” Te ee

pia it i cede tinataiait hae, tianlian

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