No agreement over Hebron
As 1996 came to a close, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators failed to reach agreement on whether, how, or when Tel Aviv will withdraw its troops from the West Bank city of Hebron. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to abide by the withdrawal, stipulated in the earlier PLO-Israeli accord. Netanyahu has also been aiding and financing the building of new Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including in east Jerusalem, which may provoke new hostilities between Tel Aviv and Palestinian patriots.

On December 30, hundreds of thousands of workers walked off their jobs in Israel, shutting down many businesses and services. The strike, organized by the Israeli Histadrut Trade Union Federation, was called to protest privatization plans, cuts in social services, and higher taxes on gas and cigarettes that Israeli trade union officials say will lead to large-scale layoffs and lower wages. According to Associated Press, some among the strikers also oppose Netanyahu's policy of giving large subsidies to Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Paris bids adieu to U.S.-led surveillance flights in N. Iraq
The French government is pulling out of the U.S.-led flight surveillance mission over northern Iraq, effective early 1997. Beginning in 1991, Washington and other imperialist powers used a Kurdish uprising suppressed by the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein to try to get a toehold in the Middle East. The U.S. government and its allies set up Operation Provide Comfort, a so-called humanitarian mission allegedly to protect the Kurds in northern Iraq.

Paris opted out of the surveillance flights claiming the stated aims no longer include "the humanitarian element." Paris will continue to participate in similar missions over southern Iraq. The French government has had profitable relations with Baghdad, once a major French trading partner. Many reports in the news media also noted the growing disagreements between Paris and Washington in the last year - from the election of a new United Nations secretary general to the structure of NATO's southern command.

Thai workers torch Sanyo plant
About 2,000 workers at a Sanyo Universal Electric plant in Thailand burned the office building and four-story warehouse containing refrigerators, TVs, and air conditioners, to the ground December 17. They were protesting a substantial reduction in year-end bonuses. Bonuses and overtime pay make up a substantial proportion of take-home wages for most workers in Thailand. "The management says they don't have enough money to give us more," a factory worker, who identified herself as Anna, told reporters. "But they are lying. I've been working here seven years and this is the first time they'll give us less than the previous year." Police arrested and charged six workers with setting the blaze; the workers denied the charges.

The following day authorities responded to another protest against reduced bonuses, this time by 1,500 workers at the Krung Thai Bank, Thailand's second largest commercial bank. The government offered to make up the difference with last year's payment.

Protesters arrested in Nepal
Nepal police arrested 139 protesters December 12 following an antigovernment strike on the eve of a no- confidence vote in parliament. Some activists reportedly stoned and burned cars. Krishna Dhoj Khadka, a member of Samyukta Jana Morcha, a left-wing group leading the strike, said protesters were barred from holding antigovernment demonstrations. Morcha accused the ruling regime of killing 70 activists this year who opposed deals between the governments of India and Nepal giving India joint river access. He also said the government failed to bring development to Nepal. The strike shut down some businesses. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his 14-month-old coalition government was thrown into crisis a week earlier. Some members of the National Democratic Party, a coalition partner of the ruling Nepali Congress party, said they could no longer support Deuba as prime minister. Five NDP members resigned from Deuba's cabinet.

U.S. jet drops bomb near Okinawa airport
On December 12 a U.S. jet fighter dropped a 1,000-pound bomb just seven miles west of Naha airport, the main civilian airport in Okinawa, Japan. The Pentagon said the pilot was forced to jettison the bomb as he was trying to land the plane at a nearby U.S. military base. U.S. Marine Corps officials claim the deactivated bomb, lying 150 to 200 feet below the surface, will not explode. Japan's Maritime Safety Agency issued a warning for all boats to stay away from the site.

This incident took place a week after Washington and Tokyo agreed to reduce the U.S. armed forces on the island. U.S. forces occupy 20 percent of Okinawan land. The agreement came after many protests by Okinawans, tormented by the noise and the harassment of the military bases.

Guatemala `peacé accord signed
The Guatemalan government and representatives of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) signed a "peace" accord December 29. The agreement formally ends the civil war in that country and requires the disarmament of the guerrilla fighters over the next month. It includes a general amnesty that "extinguishes criminal responsibility" for offenses deemed to be political. More than 140,000 people were killed and 40,000 are listed as "disappeared" in 36 years of civil war, most of them civilians killed by the Guatemalan Armed Forces. In the early 1980s the regime burned entire villages in a "scorched-earth" policy. Approximately 1 million Guatemalans were forced into exile or displaced by the fighting, out of a population of 10.5 million.

Wall St. bubble keeps swelling
The Dow Jones industrial stock average hit a new high December 27, closing at 6,560 on the eighth straight day of increases. The upswing took the leading stock indicator more than 100 points higher than when Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan provoked a sell-off in early December by warning of "irrational exuberance" in the markets.

Warning that worldwide deflation could endanger the soaring international stock markets, an article in the December 21 Financial Times of London cautioned, "Equities are priced on the assumption that earnings will continue to grow - something that worldwide recession might prevent." Barton Biggs, director of global strategy at the Morgan Stanley investment bank, commented, "My instinct is very strong that things have just been too good for too long."

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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