TIME EUROPE
APRIL 10, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 14
World Watch
LONDONDERRY
After years of agitation by relatives of the 13 unarmed Catholics shot and killed during an illegal parade in January 1972 (another of the wounded died later), the British government opened an inquiry into why soldiers opened fire. An earlier, hastier report on "Bloody Sunday" found that the soldiers had fired their weapons only after being shot at, but there is considerable contrary evidence. The tragedy has been a political sore point in Ulster ever since. Some 70 lawyers are taking part in the tribunal, which is expected to work for two years and cost as much as $160 million.
NICOSIA
In an unprecedented show of popular solidarity, hundreds of Turkish Cypriots crossed into the buffer zone dividing Cyprus, offering blood samples for a bone marrow match sought by a six-year-old Greek Cypriot boy suffering from leukemia. Serdar Denktash, son of the island's Turkish Cypriot leader, led the mass movement, after 50,000 Greek Cypriots came forward this week as potential donors. Doctors say the chances of finding the right bone marrow match are one in 30,000.
MOSCOW
In the first round of voting, Vladimir Putin won Russia's second presidential election since the fall of the U.S.S.R. Putin gained almost 53%, far outdistancing his Communist rival Gennadi Zyuganov, who received 29%. Grigori Yavlinsky, the liberal economist who heads the Yabloko Party, won just 6%. Thanks to his ruthless prosecution of the war in Chechnya and the backing of state television, Putin faced little competition. But Russia's President-elect faces continued fighting in Chechnya, where Russian troops suffered yet another deadly ambush by Chechen rebels holding out in the republic's southern mountains. Russian officials reported only three dead in the attack, while the rebels' website claimed 70 had been killed.
VIENNA
After two days of talks, nine of the 11 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries voted to increase production of crude oil in order to bring down its price. Iraq and Iran--OPEC's second-largest producer--originally dissented, but hours after the decision was announced Iran agreed to fall into line with the other OPEC members. The move restores the 1.7 million barrels a day cut by the cartel a year ago.
GENEVA
Hopes for a speedy peace settlement between Israel and Syria were dashed after talks between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad broke down. The meeting at a luxury Swiss hotel, punctuated by phone calls from Clinton to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, ended in stalemate. At issue is the question of Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights. The contested area is around 21 sq km, but it includes the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which supplies 40% of Israel's water.
HARARE
Anti-government protesters clashed with supporters of President Robert Mugabe during a demonstration in the city center against the recent wave of invasions of white-owned farms. The violence highlights the growing tensions between the Zimbabwean government and opposition parties, as well as between the government and white landowners. Veterans of the 1970s war against white rule have occupied nearly 600 white-owned farms in recent months. Mugabe says he will take no action despite a court ruling ordering the squatters out. Opposition parties fear he may use the unrest as an excuse to declare a state of emergency and call off this year's parliamentary elections, which he has already postponed until May. The U.K. Foreign Office has confirmed plans to evacuate up to 20,000 Zimbabweans who hold British passports.
KAMPALA
Nearly 400 bodies were uncovered from five mass graves found in compounds and homes belonging to The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, a Ugandan religious cult, bringing the total dead to some 930. At least 530 cult members died in a fire on March 17 in a church in the country's southwest. Police at first treated the case as a mass suicide but now say it is murder. International arrest warrants were issued for five cult leaders who may have escaped the fire. Late last week the search for further victims was suspended as the government appealed for international assistance.
JAFFNA PENINSULA
A Sri Lankan military aircraft carrying 36 soldiers and four Russian crew members crashed in the north central part of the country, killing all on board. The tragedy happened as government troops and Tamil separatist rebels fought fiercely in and around the strategic Elephant Pass military camp at the entrance to the northern Jaffna Peninsula. The rebels claimed to have overrun three camps and killed over 100 government soldiers in four days, though the Defense Ministry put the death toll at 85, with 613 wounded, 234 seriously. The Tamil rebels admitted losing 29 fighters, but the government's figure was 150 rebels killed or wounded. The rebels, who are fighting for a separate state for minority Tamils in the north and east, are trying to recapture the peninsula, their headquarters for over a decade before government troops took it in mid-1995.
TAIPEI
President-elect Chen Shui-bian, in a move to reach out to his political opponents and downplay his association with advocacy of Taiwanese independence, has named Tang Fei, a retired air force general and ranking member of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), to serve as Premier. Tang, 68, a native of China's Jiangsu province and currently Taiwan's Defense Minister, said he would accept the post if his party agrees. Chen's first choice for Premier, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Lee Yuan-tseh, opted to remain in academia but will serve as one of the new administration's top advisers. The May 20 presidential inauguration will bring the opposition Democratic Progressive Party to power for the first time, ending the 55-year rule of the Kuomintang.
MOUNT USU
Smoke, ash and rocks were flung into the air and mud avalanched down the slopes as the 732-m volcano erupted after multiple earth tremors and cracks up to 100-m long had warned local people what to expect. Around 16,000 were evacuated from nearby villages on Japan's northern island, Hokkaido, to be housed in schools and public halls. The government warned against continued danger, and some 3,300 military personnel were dispatched to a nearby town. The mountain last erupted in 1977, destroying homes and killing two.
MANILA
Delegates from 16 Asia-Pacific nations, Australia, Canada, Russia, the United States and the European Union worked on a plan to prevent slavery and the traffic in women and children. Sponsored by the U.S. and Philippine governments, the meeting claimed more than 1 million women and children are trafficked yearly. Anita Botti, principal deputy director of the U.S. President's Interagency Council on Women, said women are "literally bought and sold" in Europe for up to $30,000. Syndicates traffic 250,000 women and children from Southeast Asia and 150,000 to 200,000 from Russia annually, Botti added. "The fact that we have modern-day slavery in the 21st century is defying logic," she said. In a videotaped message, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said: "This cynical and shameless trade distorts our economies, degrades our societies, endangers our neighborhoods, and robs many of our citizens of their dreams, their dignity, and often their lives."
WASHINGTON
An independent inquiry into NASA's ill-fated Mars missions reported that underfunding had led to inadequate testing of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander, both lost last year. The $125 million Orbiter probably burned up in the planet's atmosphere thanks to a confusion between English and metric measurement. The $165 million Polar Lander disappeared, thought due to accidental tripping of a switch that turned off its reverse thrusters. The report, however, concluded that exploration of Mars should continue and that NASA was capable of doing the job.
VIGIA DEL FUERTE
At least 30 people, including 21 members of Colombia's national police force, died when leftist guerrillas mounted vicious attacks on two towns on the Atrato River, possibly attempting to seize control of river traffic from rival right-wing paramilitaries. A week before, leftist rebels attacked electricity pylons and power stations, causing blackouts over large parts of the country and traffic chaos in Bogotá, in a protest against government plans to privatize state-run power companies. The guerrilla conflict has continued for nearly 36 years. Among the civilians killed along with policemen in the Atrato River attacks were a mother and her three young children.
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