Moscow announced September 18 that its military launched air and artillery strikes against Chechnya to crush rebels based there, who they claim have organized raids into neighboring Dagestan. Moscow said Russian warplanes would have flown up to 100 sorties by the end of that day. The Kremlin began to beat the war drums against Chechnya and ordered a crackdown on Chechens and others from Russia's Caucasus region after a spate of explosions in Moscow and other cities that killed 294 people in two weeks. Russian troops have been fighting a war in Dagestan against rebels pushing for independence of that region, who reportedly receive support from inside neighboring Chechnya.
"The main threat is coming from Chechnya," said Moscow's mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov, announcing the crackdown on Chechens and other Muslims from the Caucuses. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the explosions, police blame Chechen militants. Beginning September 14 Russian cops mounted sweeping search operations at Moscow's airports, railway stations, markets, and in private homes to check residence permits. Those unable to produce proper documents received notice of expulsion from the city. Russian interior minister Vladimir Rushailo announced September 17 that more than 11,000 people had been detained for questioning.
Sinn Fein parliamentary representative Gerry Kelly welcomed the ruling of the Belfast High Court that two soldiers convicted of murdering a man be thrown out of the British army. The September 3 decision overturns an Army order that Scots Guards James Fisher and Mark Wright can remain in the ranks. The soldiers were convicted of shooting Peter McBride in North Belfast in September 1992. Sentenced to life imprisonment, they were released by British Secretary of State Maureen Mowlam after having served only six years.
"Fisher and Wright shot an unarmed teenager in the back," said Kelly. "Any attempt by the British Army to retain the killers… will show once again that they believe themselves to be above the law. They have demonstrated this belief on countless occasions in the Six Counties throughout the past 30 years."
The Israeli government announced September 10 it had "transferred" power on 7 percent of West Bank land (about 160 square miles) to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Tel Aviv, however, will maintain military control over the area. The move came one day after the Zionist regime released about 200 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat signed early September.
These concessions on the part of Tel Aviv are a result of the unbroken resistance by Palestinian working people for the right to a sovereign nation. The PA will take control of land registries and issuance of building permits. This is important given the continued provocations by Zionist forces that attempt to occupy territories that are supposed to be transferred to the PA. The agreement originally called for Tel Aviv to withdraw from 11 percent of the West Bank. Less than 5 percent of Palestinian land is under full Palestinian Authority control.
The leader of the New Zealand First party, Winston Peters, has stepped up his nationalist rhetoric as the party competes for the electoral support of working farmers in the general election scheduled for later this year. Speaking to Northland dairy farmers in early September, he said that the New Zealand economy is based on "cheap imports, on cheap exports, and a quaint people performing for tourists." He opposed legislation that allows for the creation of a massive dairy company that will process more than half the country's milk supply, saying that it would make "grassroots farmers… enslaved serfs" of foreign business owners.
Peters, a former National Party cabinet minister, built New Zealand First into an electoral force in the last election three years ago, with a campaign blaming better-off immigrants for many of the country's ills. His demagogy targeted recent arrivals from Asian countries in particular.
Washington has "strongly urged [Colombian president Andrés] Pastrana to be more aggressive in meeting the combined guerrilla and drug trafficking challenge," the New York Times reported September 18. The White House "drug czar," Gen. Barry McCaffrey, has called for at least $1 billion to be used for beefing up the Colombian military and police. The Clinton administration has already promised Colombia's regime $289 million for its police and military that includes six Blackhawk helicopters, patrol boats, high-power machine guns, and other weapons and ammunition.
In response to this prod, the government is preparing to escalate military action against guerrilla forces there if negotiations with them collapse, presidential aide Jaime Ruíz told a group of reporters in Bogotá September 17. "A country cannot bet everything on a peace process," said Ruíz, who outlined a "peace plan" to strengthen the army under the guise of fighting the drug trade. President Andrés Pastrana will meet with U.S. president William Clinton the following week to discuss the plan, which calls for a $3.5 billion aid package from Washington.
In another probe against a woman's right to choose abortion, the House Judiciary Committee approved the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act" on September 14. The measure was backed by Congressional opponents of the right to choose and the National Right to Life Committee, which touted it as "a major new right-to-life bill." The bill would impose punishment if a fetus inside a pregnant woman was harmed during the course of a criminal act. Similar measures have been passed in 11 states.
A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals ruled July 30 that some 1,300 Black workers — past and present employees — at the Metro-North Railroad in New York can file a class-action lawsuit charging the company with racial discrimination. The complaint includes unfair disciplinary policies for tardiness and safety violations, as well as discriminatory promotion practices.
The workers have relied on company records to back their claims against the Metro-North bosses. "We conclude that class plaintiffs' statistical evidence supports a finding of commonality," said Judge Jon Newman, a member of the panel. The July 30 decision overturned a ruling by the Federal District Court in Manhattan last year that said the attorneys for the workers failed to prove the company discriminated against Blacks.
Mary Visconti, Mary Ordille, and Anna Codario are three farmers in southern New Jersey who filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1981 and 1986 saying they were denied requests for low interest loans because of they are women and Italian. They are among at least 50 women across the United States who are fighting for financial compensation for being denied services offered by the USDA.
Thousands of farmers who are Black are still fighting for financial compensation even after Secretary of Agriculture Daniel Glickman admitted racist practices permeated the government agency.
— Patrick O'Neill Maurice Williams
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