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“The people in my country were very disappointed when no treaty was concluded at the Reykjavik summit because of Presi- dent Reagan’s attitude towards SDI but this offer by my government could break the stalemate at the arms talks,” Elena Kame- netskaya told the audience of some 300 at the meeting organized by the Congress of Canadian Women.

Kamenetskaya, a lawyer specializing in space law with the Institute of State and

Soviet arms proposal called key compromise towards disarmament

The recent Soviet proposal for the elimination of intermediate nuclear missiles in Europe is “an important compromise, an important step forward in the relaxation of international tensions,” a representative of the Soviet Women’s Committee said Sunday at a Vancouver International Women’s Day celebration.

Law in Moscow, and Connie Van Praet, director of research and operations at the Institute for Security and Co-operation in Outer Space in Washington, D.C. were in Vancouver as part of a cross-country speak- ing tour to highlight the alternatives to the U.S. Star Wars program and promote the upcoming World Congress of Women in Moscow.

At a press conference Friday, Van Praet likened the present Soviet disarmament

ah

Unity is the theme as some 600 march in the a aturday. The march, the highlight of the weekend

of the art gallery. There, keynote speak

the government of Canada has not praise = on “ed ae She called on Ottawa to cancel cruise testi - Speaker Ligia Prieto of the Women’s Union of Paraguay urged everyone

America

ternational Women’s Day parade through Vancouver streets on

ea a which several organizations — including the Congress of Nadia tion of Labor — held conferences to mark IWD, was followed by arally on the steps n Women and the B.C. Federa from Women of Color told the crowd that one “cannot separate the

or Rare Ifare."” Vancouver East MP Margaret

March 11, 1987 40°

Vol. 50, No. 9

initiative to the zero-option proposal put forward by the Reagan administration at the negotiations in Geneva that broke off in 1983. She said the offer was “‘a good test for Reagan. The world will be waiting to see if he remembers that it was his idea.”

Although Van Praet welcomed the Soviet initiative she stressed the need to “get on with the broader picture of solving the arms race, and that means dealing with the Stra- tegic Defence Initiative. This is the barrier to a comprehensive move to ending the arms race.”

Both speakers emphasized the necessity of an organized campaign against Star Wars. Noting that March 23 was the fourth anniversary of Reagan’s announcement that the program was to proceed, Van Praet urged “joint actions between the Canadian and U.S. peace movements. We have much in common. Working together we can influence the people in power,” she said.

Van Praet said her institute, formed just months before the Star Wars program was announced, promotes co-operation between all nations for the peaceful use of outer space, and the use of outer space to help solve human needs on earth.

see ARMS page 3

Plan revives Stalled talks

MOSCOW — Let’s put aside our differ- ences for the moment and just try to agree on something, Mikhail Gorbachev has told U.S. leaders in a blunt, conciliatory state- ment issued here last week.

The Geneva talks on nuclear and space weapons have become bogged down over differing interpretations of what was agreed at Reykjavik, the Soviet leader noted: How- ever, one component of the arms control “package” — the problem of medium- range missiles in Europe — is ripe for a deal, he said.

“There is actually a ready accord for such a step,” the Soviet leader said.

“It was agreed in Reykjavik that the USSR and the U.S. would eliminate all their medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) in Europe within the next five years. Within the same period the number of Soviet MRBMs in the Asian part of our country

-would be reduced to 100 warheads on the

“understanding that the U.S. could maintain an equal number on its own national terri- tory.”

Soviet sources indicate that there are cur- rently 243 Soviet SS-20 misiles capable of striking Western Europe, all of which would be dismantled under such an agree- ment.

Furthermore, Gorbachev said, the USSR is prepared to withdraw all of its tactical nuclear missiles capable of reaching NATO

see SOVIET page 7