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TASS PHOTO — A. PUSHKARYOV

The Soviet Union's Mir (Peace) space station, shown here Training Centre, marked its third year in continuous orbit F well as cosmonauts from Syria, Krikalev, flight engineer (r); commander Alexander Volkov (centre) and Valery Polyakov (not shown). Krikalev and Vokov are seen here with French cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chretien (I), who was part of a three-man mission last year.

in its simulator version at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut’s ) eb. 20. During that time, there have been Soviet crews as Afghanistan, Bulgaria and France. Currently on the station are Soviets Sergei

Growing support for peace in FRG causing headaches for U.S., NATO

By WILLIAM POMEROY

On Feb. 1, the U.S. military forces based

in the Federal Republic of Germany announced the cancellation of large-scale manoeuvres NATO had planned to hold on ERG soil in 1989. The manoeuvres, which have occurred every year for the last 20 ears, were designed primarily to test the

‘speed with which troops can be airlifted

from the United States to the FRG in the war.

see 124,000 NATO troops took part in the exercises. The manoeuvres take place in heavily populated areas and NATO has usually had to pay a huge bill for wrecked buildings, roads and bridges and for crops torn up by armoured vehicles wag- ing simulated battles in the fields.

The operation has been rescheduled for 1990, with participating forces reduced by half, but this may ultimately also be can- celled. Not because of the enormous cost, but because of the adverse reaction among the West German people.

After decades of serving as the main con- centration area for NATO members’ com- bat forces, the principal depot for every type of weapon, the site for the bulk of NATO’s medium-and short-range missiles and other nuclear weaponry, the launching pad for NATO?’s first-strike plans and the potential target of counterattack by Warsaw Treaty Organization missile and ground forces, the great majority of the people want no more of it.

A growing sore point is the constant low- level flights by NATO military jets. There have been over 100 crashes, often in or near towns, with loss of life. The latest was the crash of a U.S. Thunderbolt fighter-bomber in Remscheld, near Dusseldorf, on Dec. 8, in which six people were killed and 50 injured. It sparked anti-NATO, anti-U.S. demonstrations and protests.

FRG Undersecretary of Defence Peter Wuerzbach responded to the anger, taking

it upon himself to ban all military low-level flying from then until after the New Year.

Although forced to resign by hawkish -

Defence Minister Rupert Scholz, Wuerz- bach won the backing of much of the Kohl cabinet. Low-level NATO flights have now been cut from 100,000 to 67,000 per year. In December, an article by Adm. Elmar Schmahling — head of the Office for Stu- dies and Exercises, one of the main FRG military think-tanks — in the mass-circula- tion magazine Stern called for scrapping both NATO and the Warsaw Treaty Organization and removing all tactical weapons and allied troops from the FRG.

Poll after poll has shown that the majority of the people want their country freed from the threat of being World War Ill’s most devas- tated battlefield.

TGP CTR eT BEN ONS I Schmahling called for an end to confronta-

tion with Warsaw Treaty nations. He said funds are being “wasted on_ senseless armaments” and should be used “‘to solve the world’ real problems.”

For NATO chiefs the greatest concern is over the mass support in the FRG for detente, for the peace and disarmament initiatives of the Soviet Union as voiced by President Mikhail Gorbachev, and against the NATO drive for modernization of nuclear and other weaponry, which is seen as a move to revive the arms race and add to the nuclear arsenal on FRG soil.

The opposition to modernization has caused the back-tracking on NATO manoeuvres and low-level flights, and has led to growing friction between the Kohl

government and the United States, the main pusher for modernization. Kohl is threaten- ing to veto a NATO decision to go ahead with the introduction of new nuclear mis- siles, like a hyped-up Lance missile, and the transfer to air and naval forces of the land- based cruise missiles being removed under the INF Treaty. é

Endorsing modernization could well be political suicide for Kohl and his ruling Christian Democratic Union. The next national election in the FRG will occur early in 1990, and if the United States presses Kohl to support such a NATO deci- sion before that, a CDU defeat is felt to be inevitable. Since 1987 the CDU has lost heavily in six out of eight state elections. The losses are widely believed to have resulted from Kohl’s failure to back detente and disarmament.

Popular resentment of U.S. policies and pressure tactics was strengthened by the way the Reagan administration singled out FRG companies for condemnation, even threatening trade sanctions, over claims they assisted in building an alleged chemical weapons plant in Libya. Japanese, Swiss, French, Italian and South Korean compan- ies were also supposed to be involved, but

the FRG firms were made virtually the sole °

scapegoat.

In June, Soviet President Gorbachev is scheduled to visit the FRG. NATO officials fear that further Gorbachev initiatives will be announced on that occasion, in the areas of both disarmament and trade, stimulating further sentiment for detente.

Poll after poll has shown that the major- ity of the people want their country freed

from the threat of being World War III’s

most devastated battle-field. With 80 per cent or more now expressing the belief that the Soviet Union can no longer be viewed as a threat, it is logical to conclude that they may soon perceive the threat as coming from NATO and U.S. policies.

lranian

women urge aid | to halt — executions | —

By TOM FOLEY The lives of hundreds of Iranian women political prisoners are in “very serious and real” danger and “not a single moment can be | wasted” to try to save them, the Democratic Organization of Iran- | ian Women said in an urgent

appeal received last week.

Since the cease-fire last July in the Iran-Iraq war, the Teheran | regime has carried out mass execu- tions of political prisoners includ- ing leading members of the Tudeh Party of iran, the country’s under- 3 ground Marxist-Leninist , party. According to a Dec. 19 column by U.S. writer Jack Anderson, quot- ing froma secret letter of the Iran- ian Supreme Judicial Council to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho- meini, at least 12,000 political pri- soners were executed between July and mid-November.

The DOIW appeal said: “Accord- ing to confirmed reports, the regime is now preparing to set up for women political prisoners the same type of ‘religious’ courts which condemned thousands of male political prisoners to death.

“These ‘religious’ courts are actually nothing but simple meet- ings to which a number of political prisoners are summoned and asked by a clergyman whether they still maintain their beliefs, whether. they are prepared to recant their political views and past activities and whether they are willing publicly to announce their recantation through the Iran- ian mass media,” the DOIW explained. It pointed out that there are hundreds of women political prisoners facing the threat of death, including DOIW president Mariam Firooz and many other members of the organization. |

Families of a group of executed Iranian political prisoners recently sent an appeal to United Nations | Secretary General Javier Perez de |

|

Cuellar, urging him to do his utmost to stop the mass execution. “We must inform you,” the fami- lies said in their appeal, “that at present the Islamic Republic re- ~ime has embarked on a second .. and of criminal activity: its guns are now pointed at a new group of

political prisoners, namely women. . The lives of women political pri-

soners are in serious danger.”

Appeals to save the lives of | women prisoners in Iran — and all political prisoners — can be sent to the Hon. Javier Perez de ] Cuellar, Secretary General, Uni- ee ted Nations, New York 10017, and to Mohammed Ali Moussavi, Embassy of the Islamic Republic . of Iran, 411 Roosevelt Ave., 4th Floor, Ottawa, K2A 3X9.

Pacific Tribune, March 6, 1989 « 9