Tanks rolled through Ma`an as local authorities began sweeps supposedly looking for "riot instigators." Soldiers sealed off the entrance to the city and began organizing a forced disarming of the population. About a dozen people were arrested and charged with "undermining national security" - punishable by up to five years in prison. The curfew remained in place as of February 26, despite King Hussein's statement that there were "no clashes" since February 22. Telephone lines were still cut, with only two hours of free movement a day allowed.

Palestinians: you can't seal us off
Israeli authorities erected a yard-high wall blocking off the entrance to the Kalandia refugee camp north of Jerusalem. Palestinian youth responded by hurling stones from the rooftops at cars passing through. Israeli border cops tried to suppress the protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, but were forced to retreat. One of the cops was left behind, pinned down at a Palestinian auto repair shop by the barrage of projectiles. He and the couple dozen officers sent to rescue him then began firing live bullets. Palestinians, forced off the roofs, fought cops with their fists. At least one young Palestinian was jumped by the border patrol and beaten to the ground.

Negotiations around the Israeli government's pullout from occupying the West Bank territory, is a "dialogue of the deaf," Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abourdeneh said. Only 3 percent of the land in the West Bank is under full Palestinian control.

Lebanese guerrillas retaliate
Guerrilla fighters from Hezbollah - who seek to end the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon - attacked one of Tel Aviv's military outposts February 26, killing at least three Israeli soldiers and wounding two. A statement from Hezbollah reported that all fortifications and some military vehicles were destroyed at the Blatt compound, located three miles inside of Lebanese territory.

On February 22 Israeli warplanes made 12 air strikes, bombing Iqlim al-Tiffah - a Lebanese province Israel says is a "guerrilla stronghold" - nine times in the morning and again in the evening. Since 1985 Tel Aviv has organized and maintained more than 4,000 occupation troops on 395 square miles - that is 10 percent - of Lebanese land.

More apartheid cops exposed
Gen. Nic Janse van Rensburg, a high-ranking police official under the South African apartheid system, testified during a Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing February 25 that Louis LeGrange, top police minister at the time, gave explicit orders to "neutralize" antiapartheid activists. He also told the commission - designed to reveal the brutal crimes carried out under apartheid rule - that Harold Snyman, the former cop commander in the Eastern Cape, authorized the 1985 assassinations of Mathew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto, and Sicelo Mhlauli, also known as the "Cradock Four." They were each stabbed, shot, and then burned. Snyman is also facing the commission on the 1977 death of black rights leader Steve Biko. He is applying for amnesty.

Johan van Merwe, once South Africa's highest-ranking police official, is standing trial in Pretoria for torturing Stanza Bopape to death in 1988. He denies giving it the OK, but admits hiding the killing. Meanwhile P.W. Botha, the former apartheid ruler, plead innocent before the Truth Commission February 23 and accused the commission of being "prejudiced." About 100 antiapartheid activists demonstrated outside the hearing in George, South Africa.

Turkey gov't probes new ban
The Turkish government's ban on the Welfare Party, which won the largest number of seats in Parliament in the last election, became official February 22. Ankara immediately froze the organization's bank accounts and raided its offices to seize computers, records, and other materials.

Many leaders of the Welfare Party, generally described as pro-Islamic, joined the newly formed Virtue party, which Turkish officials are already considering legal action against. One Welfare leader Sevki Yilmaz, who the Turkish government wants to put on trial, is in Germany and reportedly seeking asylum. Former prime minister and Welfare Party top Necmettin Erbakan was barred from political office for five years along with the ban on the party. Government prosecutors are looking to try him on subversion charges that would jail him for up to three years.

250,000 health workers strike in Romania
A two-week strike of 250,000 Romanian health-care workers wrested a 30 percent wage increase from the bosses who initially offered a 25 percent raise. "If we had not protested and gone on strike, we wouldn't have got at least half of what we demanded," said Adrian Birea, a Sanitas union official.

Thousands of health-care workers rallied in the capital in mid-February demanding higher pay and improved health benefits. Nurses make about half of the average monthly wage.

FBI anthrax hoax is exposed
FBI agents burst into a medical clinic in Las Vegas February 18 and arrested two men on charges of possession of biological toxins for use as weapons. Cops claimed they were tipped off by an informer that Larry Harris and William Leavitt Jr. had deadly anthrax and were planning to use it. The arrest was based on hearsay. As it turns out the chemical they had was an anthrax-based veterinary vaccine. The media played up Harris' alleged involvement in right-wing, white supremacist groups to justify undemocratic procedures and allegations of a "terrorist threat."

After the case was exposed as a hoax, cops still kept the men in "custody pending further investigation" and a court hearing. Finally charges were dropped and on February 23 Leavitt was released. The authorities still detained Harris, however, on unrelated charges. Asked if the FBI would do anything differently in retrospect, Las Vegas top cop Robert Siller said, "absolutely not."

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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