—_ World World News S.A. police whip reporter WINDHOEK — A CBC reporter Covering a story was whipped by South African police here in the capital of _ Namibia. The incident took place as a gtoup of supporters of the South West African People’s Organization gathered to mark the 10th anniversary of the pas- Sage of UN Security Council resolution 435. The resolution called for withdrawal of South African troops, free elections and independence. The demonstration took place outside ‘the home of South African Administrator- General Louis Pienaar. Armed police Who had been bused in used whips against all the demonstrators including Nigel Wrench, a reporter for CBC. Wrench, whose shirt was covered in blood, said later: “The police gave abso- lutely no warning. Suddenly one of them gan lashing at me with his whip for no Teason.” Several demonstrators were also arrested by police. Truce extended hy Sandinistas The Nicaraguan government has - nounced it will extend its unilateral - Mternational Ceasefire for another month. The move fame despite continuing provocations along the Honduran border and the Técent approval by the U.S. Congress of More funds for the contras. Following historic negotiations earlier this year, the Nicaraguan government and the contras agreed to a ceasefire in arch. But since that time, the contras deposed their leaders and continued their attacks while the Sandinistas held strictly to the deal. They limited military action ‘0 responding to contra terrorism. The Sandinista daily Barricada last Week labelled a “death blow to peace” the decision by U.S. Congress to give $27 Million in so-called humanitarian aid to the contras and to free up $16 million in Military aid if Nicaragua engages in Unprovoked attacks on the contras, vio- ates the Central. American peace cords or receives “unacceptable” amounts of Soviet military equipment. Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega Charged last week that the build-up of ‘S. and contra forces on the Honduran Order was an attempt by the Reagan administration to provoke a serious inci- €ntin order to use Nicaragua’s response 48 the pretext for increased U.S. military 4d and possibly intervention. VOA to open Moscow office Soviet Union announced last week that it as given the U.S. government-run Voice % America permission to open a per- Manent office in Moscow. The announce- Ment came at the end of three days of Igh-level talks between media represen- latives of the two countries. _Among topics discussed were ways to 8lVe journalists easier access to all sectors of U.S. and Soviet society, a possible "xchange of newspaper commentaries Nn relations between the two countries, Seminars for journalists on domestic and developments, develop- Ments of ties between publications and News agencies and exchanges of working Wsits for journalists. Agreements were also reached on book publishing and between the Otion Picture Association of America _ &Nd its Soviet counterpart, Goskino, to low for greater access to each other’s lms while improving copyright protec- ton in both countries. CPSU posts echo changes The wind from the 19th CPSU confer- ence howled through Moscow again last week, profoundly shaking the country’s leading bodies and leaving almost everyone convinced that even more sweeping changes are imminent. Last July’s Communist Party conference mandated deep staff reductions and an overall streamlining of the CPSU’s struc- tures. Last week, that promise came home. A sudden — but obviously well-planned — meeting of the party’s full Central Committee assembled for barely an hour on Sept. 30 and agreed unanimously to mea- sures that will totally re-structure the party’s central apparatus and change its composi- tion. The next day, an extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet, the nation’s partlia- ment, elected Mikhail Gorbachev chair of its presidium — effectively the country’s head of state — and introduced a number of other major personnel changes that will have loud reverberations down through the USSR’s republican and local state and party organizations. : At the Central Committee plenum, two members of the CPSU’s Political Bureau, the venerable Andrei Gromyko and Mik- hail Solomentsev, stepped down, as did two alternate members, Vladimir Dolgikh and Pyotr Demichev. In a particularly surpris- ing development, the long-time former Soviet ambassador to the United States and Central Committee secretary in charge of the International Department, Anatoly Dobrynin, also announced his retirement. Elected to replace them were one new full member of the Politbureau: Vadim Med- vedev, for several years a rector of the CPSU’s Academy of Social Sciences; plus two alternate members: Anatoly Lukyanov and the Politbureau’s first woman in a very long time, Alexandra Biryukova. More important than the face changes is the re-structuring of the CPSU’s apparatus, a process that will set the pace for party bodies down the line in the weeks and months to come. All of the Central Committee’s 22 “departments” are to disappear. Some of Fred . Weir FROM MOSCOW them, such as those dealing with industrial affairs, are to be transferred out from CPSU auspices altogether, to become part of the relevant government departments. The Central Committee will henceforth have just six “commissions,” each headed by a Politbureau member, which will concern themselves with setting and maintaining the party’s strategic direction. They are: a party-building and personnel commission, chaired by Georgi Razu- movsky; an ideological affairs commission, with new politbureau member Vadim Med- vedev as its head; a commission on socio- economic policies, under Nikolai Slyunkov; ANATOLY DOBRYNIN ... former-am- bassador to U.S. retiring. an agrarian policy commission, with Yegor Ligachev as chairperson; a commission on international policy chaired by Alexander Yakovlev; and a commission on legal policy under former KGB-chairperson Viktor Chebrikov. This reorganization will ensure that no aspect of the Central Committee’s work will ever be “anonymous,” Vadim Medvedev told journalists after the plenum meeting ended. “It is now perfectly clear how responsibilities are divided and who is responsible for what areas of work,” he said. There will also be “‘significant” staff cuts at the centre, though Medvedev declined to name a figure. “‘Perhaps as much as half,” he finally suggested. It is now becoming clear that the 19th conference’s agenda for radical re-structur- ing of the party apparatus is, in fact, going to be pushed through. The tough, self-imposed changes, adopted by the Central Committee in barely an hour last week, suggest an urgency and determi- nation that will not easily be blunted. ALEXANDER YAKOVLEV ... international policy commission. heads Huge Berlin rally confronts IMF By BRIAN DAVIS WEST BERLIN — The largest demon- stration here in years took place over the Sept. 24 weekend. Eighty thousand people marched from the city centre to the new Congress Hall to protest against the pro- ceedings of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which were holding their joint annual meeting here. A coalition of 150 organizations filled the wide avenues of the city with banners, floats and red flags to make it clear to the bankers that they are not welcome. Members of the Catholic Students Movement carried a large golden calf through the city on their shoulders with a banner which read: “Forgive us our debts”. The Socialist Unity (Communist) Party of West Berlin (SUP) displayed a greedy capi- talist octopus which wrapped its tentacles around the wealth of the Third World. Opposition to the World Bank Congress began a week beforehand when the trade union federation (DGB) of West Berlin convened a conference to discuss the Third World debt crisis. Michael Pagels, formerly head of the policemen’s union and now chairperson of the DGB in West Berlin, set the tone of the conference by calling for a new world eco- nomic order and the cancellation of all Third World debts. He also outlined the links between the growing transfer of indus- trial work to the Third World and. the growth of union busting in those same countries. Other speakers called for the abolition of the IMF and criticized the DGB for its policy of “social partnership” with the capi- talist class. Thomas Ebermann, a parilia- mentary deputy of the Green Party, said the IMF could not be reformed. The notion of “social partnership,” he said, could only lead to a long-term planned imperialism. Before the World Bank Congress began, an international counter-congress met for two days to listen to experts from the Third World. The 4,000 participants then issued the West Berlin declaration. The declara- tion clearly states that responsibility for the Third World debt crisis lies with the banks and the big corporations. The Third World is the victim of this capitalist crisis, not its cause, the counter-congress declared. It will support any debtors’ cartel, and is firmly opposed to any conditions being att- ached to the cancellation of foreign debts; it equally condemned equity-for-debt swaps, or debt-to-nature deals, which would only lead to the further impoverishment of Third World countries, the complete loss of their sovereignty and a massive transfer of natu- ral resources to the developed capitalist world. The declaration noted that 1992 will be the 500th anniversary of Europe’s “discov- ery” of America. For 500 years Europe has systematically robbed and exploited the peoples of the Third World. This long his- tory of colonialism and neo-colonialism cannot be put right by the mere cancellation of current debts. The global cancellation of debts, the counter-congress declared, is only a prereq- uisite to a just solution of a huge problem. To ensure a new economic world order, the capitalist countries will have to pay repara- tions to the Third World to compensate them for half a millennium of oppression and exploitation. The declaration calls for a new interna- tionalism to help the Third World throw off its debt burden. To begin with, the debt crisis must be transferred to the United Nations where binding decisions can be made on the basis of one nation, one vote, - to further open the way for a just and demo- cratic world order. The people living in the major capitalist countries must struggle against “the mur- derous logic of the world market.” Only by overthrowing the power of the transna- tional corporations and the political system which safeguards their interests, the declara- tion concluded, can the growing gap between the rich and poor nations be bridged. The permanent Peoples’ Tribunal was also scheduled to meet for four days to consider the crimes committed against the peoples of the Third World. Fifteen jury members were to hear testimony from vic- tims of poverty and oppression and the ver- dict of the tribunal was to be followed by a demonstration against West German com- panies with investments in the Third World. Pacific Tribune, October 17, 1988 « 9 esa et oi SS too Ae is a 8 sapiens 2 PORNO MD Si PL NE SB