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st aid World News

South Africa steps up attacks

LUANDA, Angola — The Angolan Defence Ministry has
charged that South Africa has sharply stepped-up its attacks
against the southern region of the country including troop
landings and bombings.

The aggression, says Angola, is only possible due to West-
€m complicity with Pretoria and charges the attacks are aimed
at civilian settlements and economic targets. The South Afri-
can armed forces are striving to create a so-called buffer zone
between Angola and Namibia and prevent the implimentation

~ of UN Resolution 435 which calls for complete independence

for the illegally-occupied country.

Bay of Pigs — 22 years ago

_ HAVANA — The 22nd anniversary of the Bay of Pigs
invasion when 2,500 U.S.-trained mercenaries landed in the
southern coast of Cuba will be marked here April 21.

The Cuban news agency Prensa Latina describes the years
of blockade, threats and economic sanctions imposed on Cuba
by the United States and writes: “‘ The determination and hard
work of Cubans, together with the solidarity of socialist coun-
tries especially. the USSR, have made possible the con-

Solidation and development of the Revolution.”

_ Special Non-Aligned meeting held

KUWAIT — Anextraordinary meeting of the Coordinating
Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement in solidarity with the
Palestinian cause took place here April 6 to examine practical

The meeting was addressed by PLO Chairman Yasser Ara-
fat and attended by the 36 states which comprise the co-
Ordinating bureau. It was held against the backdrop of in-

_ Creased attacks against the Palestinians by the Begin regime
and two recent U.S. vetoes at the UN against resolutions
introduced to stem Israeli annexation of Arab lands.

_ Air miss covered up

CHICAGO — A spokesman for the U.S. Federal Aviation
‘Administration admitted last week the FAA made no public
announcement. following a near miss March 4 over Lake
Michigan because of a controller's error. The close call be-

tween a Trans World and Northwest Orient flight occured

when the controller ordered one aircraft to turn right rather
than left. There were 196 persons aboard the two craft. The
aircraft were under the direction of the Aurora Centre which
has 186 controllers assigned to regular duty, down from 501
before Reagan smashed the air traffic controllers union last
year.

U.S. veto condemned

UNITED NA TIONS — Nicaragua has deplored the use by
the United States of its veto against a resolution condemning
military aggression in Central America and calling for peaceful
Tesolution in the region. The resolution submitted by Panama
Came 10 days after Nicaragua called for an emergency Secu-
rity Council session to halt an ‘‘imminent”’ CIA-backed in-
Vasion of its territory.

The Security Council resolution did not name the U.S.,
Calling only for respect for the UN Charter’s basic principles
disavowing the use or threat of force and calling for negotia-
tions to ‘search for a peaceful solution” in the region.

Reagan’s ‘working holiday’

STAN] (JOM (fy

Measures to assist the Palestine people at this crucial time. .

it i i ———— LJ

UT eal

U.S. slip showing in
Falkland Islands crisis

In the. charges, counter-
charges, claims and counter-
claims filling the press over the
Falkland Islands crisis, certain
points should be kept in mind.

The big questions involved
have more to do with Western
global considerations, alliances,
natural resources and military
strategy than with simply the fu-
ture of the remote islands them-
selves. To be sure, Argentina has
for decades argued its case of its
rights to the islands, a claim
backed by many Latin American
and other Third World nations

- who see the Falklands as part of

the remnants of former colonial
Britain.

It is also evident these claims
by Argentina have conveniently
arisen — complete with armed
occupation — at the very moment
the military regime in Buenos
Aires is faced with mass popular
unrest, public demonstrations
and a demand for a return to civi-
lian rule. , :

Thatcher’s Tory government,
for its part, has so far managed to
bring back the ‘‘Glory Days”’ of
Imperial Britain, of fleets sailing
far afield to plant and protect the
flag. Pushed into the background

momentarily are Britain’s severe _

economic and political problems
and the Tories’ slipping popular-
ity at the polls. |

In certain respects, the Falk-

News Analysis

By Tom Morris

land Islands crisis serves British
Tories and Argentine generals in
the same fashion, however brie-
fly. Jingoism and ultra-na-
tionalism form part of the picture,
a well-tested smokescreen behind
which unpopular, discredited
governments historically have
hidden.

But there are larger stakes.
Frantic efforts by the United
States to ‘‘mediate”’ in the crisis
reveal more than Washington’s
desire to patch up a quarrel be-
tween two “‘allies’’. The dispute
clearly is unsettling to the White
House, pitting as it does Ameri-
ca’s ‘‘best ally’’ against a South
American military regime upon
which the U.S. places high hopes
for its Southern Cone policy.

Washington’s slip began show-
ing alittle last week. The proposal
put forward by U.S. Secretary of
State Haig that the islands be
jointly run by Britain, Argentina
and the United States while nego-

tiations get under way, reveal .

Reagan fishing in troubled waters.
The Falklands sit astride the
southern sea route from Atlantic
to Pacific and are close to Antarc-
‘tica. Oil reserves have been found
in the region, a fact in itself which

would attract U.S. oil companies

not to speak of Argentine

generals.

For years now the United
States has been courting South
American military regimes and
banking on their cooperation to
hold down the rising tide of na-
tional and social liberation.
American strategy sees the South
Atlantic as an important region;
joint naval exercises have regu-
larly taken place to batten down
the region safely for imperialist
interests.

Most certainly the U.S., while
publicly deploring this inter-ally
dispute, sees opportunities in the
situation to extend its interests in
a region it has long claimed falls
within the sphere of United States
vital concerns. It’s rather more
than 500,000 sheep they re after.

The Soviet view gives cre-
dence to Argentina’s historical
claims and argues that the dispute
should be settled through peace-
ful negotiation.

Canada’s position starts with
boycott. and sanction against
Argentina including an arms boy-
cott. Interestingly, many calls on
Ottawa not to supply arms to the
right-wing junta in the past went
unheeded, as did appeals to pro-
test the severe violations of
human rights which have resulted
in some- 15,000 “‘disappeared”
persons since 1976.

Second UN Disarmament Session

Mobilizing toward June 12

NEW YORK (DW) — As peace forces con-

International Participants

Members of the National Union of Publi
Show their concern over U.S. presiden
island which many feel is designed to con
the region for Washington’
an. Groups such as the Barbados Peace Comm
Charged the visit coincides with a heavy U.S. milita

.

ic Workers in Barbados
t Reagan’s visit to the
solidate support in

licies in the Carib-
s militaristic po ittee have

ry build-up in

tinued to mobilize for a massive demonstration at
the UN on June 12, Secretary of State Alexander
Haig has given added cause for an overwhelming
turnout.

In a speech on U.S. nuclear arms policy in
Washington April 6, Haig said the U.S. will not
renounce the possibility of a first nuclear strike,
nor will it agree to a freeze of nuclear weapons at
present levels. He maintains that these positions
create a ‘‘deterrent”’ force to protect ‘the essential
values of Western civilization.”

This position is out of sync with the thinking of
many in the U.S. and abroad, as witnessed by the
response to the call for the June 12 action in sup-
port of the UN Second Special Session on
Disarmament. Under two basic demands — a
freeze and reversal of the arms race and a redirec-
tion of military funds to human needs — thousands
are organizing to protest the Reagan Administra-
tion arms policy on June 12.

“The amount of work going on for this demonst-
ration-is tremendous,” said Leslie Cagan, staff
coordinator for the June 12 rally committee. ““Over

70 cities from across the U.S. are organizing buses, »

trains, marches, to bring people to the demonstra-
tion. We are expecting 5-10,000 international parti-
cipants alone.”

‘People from all walks of life are responding to
the call for a June 12 rally because they are con-
cerned,”’ she said. ‘It is a real possibility that
nuclear weapons may be used. That’s horrifying to
people. People also see the connection between
‘military spending and the cutbacks in social ser-
vices. They want a redirection of funds.

‘‘June 12 is part of the overall peace move-
ment,”’ continued Cagan. “‘It is helping to build a
tremendous disarmament movement in the United
States that will continue after June 12

Canada partner in arms race

TORONTO — In this city as an expert witness
on the danger of a nuclear war, Roman Catholic
priest, Philip Berrigan told the press April 13 that
the world is ‘‘closer to war than since the 1962
missile crisis’’ and, when it comes to involvement,
“Canada is in exactly the same position as the
ssi

Berrigan will testify at a trial of 23 people
charged with trespass arising out of a sit-in at the
Litton Industries plant here last November. Mem-
bers of Cruise Missile Conversion Project, the
defendants marked Remembrance Day 1981 by
blocking the driveway to the plant which is produc-
ing 407 guidance systems for the new U.S. Cruise
missile. Their trial began April 14.
~ The same plant in suburban Toronto was the
scene of a 1,500-strong demonstration Easter
weekend at which a further 20 persons were
arrested.

Berrigan called Reagan’s policy one of ‘‘trying to

roll back the Russian Revolution to pre-1917 days”
and said his government appears willing to risk

“nuclear war to do it. ** The U.S. first-strike force is

growing,”’ he said. ‘‘ Fhe Cruise is a first-strike
weapon, as are the new B-1 bomber, the Tndent
submarine and other new systems,” he charged.

‘*For the first time in history, humankind’s tech-
nology matches our will. We are capable of des-
troying oursleves.””

Berrigan argued that the USSR has always re-
sponded, not led, in nuclear weapons’ technology.

Of the trial and the defendants, Berrigan called
them ‘‘law keepers, not law breakers’. He pointed
out that more and more people are realizing the
danger of war is very real and that, “‘under moral
and international law citizens are obliged to act’.

When asked for his views on ways out of the
_ problem, Berrigan responded, “‘cut back 50%

immediately.”
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 23, 1982—Page 9