Spain abortion trial suspended
A court in Malaga, Spain, suspended a May 28 trial of 34 people charged with having or facilitating illegal abortions in 1986. Eight women were clinic staff members, while the other 26 were clients. The prosecution asked for a 21-year jail sentence for each staffer, for alleged involvement in 44 abortions, and six months for the other women. The postponement of the trial came when 15 of the defendants did not show up. No new trial date was set, but one of the presiding judges said arrest warrants would be issued to make all the accused be present.

For more than a decade, abortion has been illegal in Spain except for cases of rape, incest, fetal deformities, or fatal consequences for the woman The Spanish daily El Pais printed a letter in their May 28 edition, signed by dozens of unions, political organizations, and health groups, demanding that women have abortion rights on demand.

Iraqis say `Turkish troops out!'
Hundreds of people assembled May 29 in Baghdad to denounce the invasion of northern Iraq by 50,000 Turkish imperialists troops. Turkish military and government officials have stated they will remain in the region until the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is wiped out of that area. The Syrian, Iranian and Iraqi governments have all sharply criticized Ankara's moves, but beyond that there has been no attempt to stop the invasion of Iraqi soil. Turkish military officials boast of having killed 1,800 rebels and destroyed PKK camps in the Zab, Sinat, Haqurk, Zeli, Hafthanin and Kesan regions of Iraq, but there has been no independent confirmation of this claim.

Battle for control of Afghanistan
During heavy fighting in northern Afghanistan the last week of May, the rightist Taliban forces, who control most of the country, briefly seized Mazar-I-Sharif. They were routed and forced to withdraw from the city May 28 after a 15-hour battle with Shiite Muslim residents and the forces of Uzbeki general Abdul Malik, a former Taliban ally. The Clinton administration has backed the Taliban, whose northern offensive could potentially open a corridor between Pakistan and the Turkish republics that were part of the Soviet Union, bypassing Iran.

`Don't hide WWII sex slavery'
Dozens of the 200,000 Asian women who were subjugated to sex bondage in Japanese military-organized brothels during World War II picketed the Japanese embassy in Philippines May 29. They were protesting efforts to strike reference to this piece of history from school books in Japan. Demanding compensation and an official apology from Tokyo, 70-year-old protester Cristeta Alcover, said, "They should face the truth about what happened to us and admit what happened was wrong."

Indian, Bangladeshi women unknowingly sterilized
Thousands of women in Bangladesh and India have been subjected to experimental sterilization tests of the toxic drug quinacrine, without their knowledge or consent. Quinacrine, which was used as an antimalarial drug during World War II, has been labeled a chemical poison and can cause irreversible reproductive damage and possibly cancer. The tests were conducted to see if the drug could be used as a contraceptive. The result: a 14 percent failure rate in the prevention of pregnancy and a heightened chance that delivery would be fatal due to the permanent sealing of the area between the uterus and the fallopian tubes.

Military coup in Sierra Leone
The elected president of Sierra Leone, Tejan Kabbah, was ousted May 25 in a coup led by Maj. Gen. Paul Koromah. The military officers suspended the constitution, banned demonstrations, and abolished political parties. The government of Nigeria sent 900 troops to the West African country, to join 700 that were already stationed there. Unconfirmed reports say the governments of Ghana and Guinea may also send troops in an attempt to reinstate Kabbah.

Under the pretext of a rescue, on May 30 Washington deployed 200 marines with helicopters and attack vehicles to evacuate 900 people including U.S. citizens from the capital, Freetown, to an amphibious assault ship 12 miles off the shore.

CIA involved in Guatemala coup
At the end of May, the Central Intelligence Agency declassified 1,400 pages of reports on the 1954 coup it engineered in Guatemala to remove president Jacobo Arbenz from office. Arbenz became a target of U.S. imperialism for threatening to carry out modest land reforms against the interests of produce giant, United Fruit Company. In 1952, U.S. president Harry Truman gave the secret police approval to begin shipping guns and money to opposition forces and training mercenaries.

The released documents show that CIA cops trained assassins to kill 58 people put on a "disposal list." They include a 22-page how-to manual on murder. Secret intelligence officials claim none of the missions were carried out. The list of CIA targets were also subjected to "nerve war," which included death threats, phone calls "preferably between 2 and 5 A.M.," frame-ups, and other forms of intimidation. Less than 1 percent of the CIA files on the Guatemala coup were included in the declassification, with many details blacked out.

Court rules against gay rights
On May 31, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled against a woman being denied a job because she was a lesbian and planned to marry another woman. The court ruled 8-to-4 that Georgia's Attorney General Michael Bowers did not break the law when he withdrew a job offer to Robin Shahar.

Last year, a court panel ruled that Shahar had a fundamental right of intimate association with her partner and could not be fired for that reason. In March, however, the full court of appeals decided all 12 judges should hear the case and it was retried. Bowers defended the state's anti-sodomy law before the United States Supreme Court in 1986.

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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