Peasants in Bolivia demand right to land
Some 20,000 Indian farmers protested in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, September 26, demanding titles to the land they work and live on. One peasant woman was killed and at least seven injured in confrontations with the cops. Public school teachers and some health workers held a 24-hour strike the same day in support of the protest. The march began August 27 in the city of Santa Cruz, 600 miles east of the capital. Thousands of farmers joined as the march wound its way up and across the mountains. Among them were farmers fighting the eradication of 11,000 acres of coca plants by the government. A land-reform bill is expected to be introduced in Congress September 30.

Strike in Haiti closes City Hall
Some 750 administrative and cleaning employees in Haiti's capital city of Port-au-Prince went on strike September 25. They joined 50 nurses at the state university hospital who walked out the day before to demand eight months in back pay. Street cleaners, who have not been paid in two years, blocked access to the municipal cemetery and protested in front of the Finance Ministry. In response, Port-au-Prince mayor Emmanuel Charlemagne said his government is broke and appealed to the federal government of President Rene Preval. Mayors from 6 of Haiti's 9 administrative districts have threatened to shut down public offices.

40,000 protest Armenian election
Tens of thousands demonstrated September 23-26 in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, charging fraud in elections that declared President Levon Ter-Petrosian reelected in one round. On the third day of protests, 40,000 demonstrators stormed the parliament building. Government troops fired at protesters, killing 2 and injuring 59. Since then armored tanks and troops have patrolled the streets and dozens of opposition activists have been arrested. According to the Associated Press, Ter-Petrosian banned public rallies. He supported the troops shooting at protesters, claiming they were forced to open fire.

Many of the demonstrators backed Vazgen Manukian, who officially received 41 percent of the vote to president Ter-Petrosian's 52 percent. Manukian is a former prime minister who ran promising to raise salaries. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which had 89 international observers overseeing the elections, criticized "very serious" irregularities in voting procedures.

POWs choose living in Chechnya
Dozens of Russian prisoners of war have chosen not to go home, preferring to remain in Chechnya. Konstantin Limonov, a former interior ministry soldier, announced on television his refusal to participate in a prisoner exchange negotiated between Chechen and Russian authorities. He said he had converted to Islam and taken a Chechen name. A senior Russian officer said that Limonov and his comrade Ruslan Klochov, who also decided to stay in Chechnya, would face trial for desertion if they returned. "The character of this whole war also plays a role in their decision," said Sergei Sorokin, an activist of the Russian Anti-Militarist Association. "They encounter a war for freedom and sometimes they cross to the other side and actually join in the fight against Russia. They chose to fight for freedom, for liberty."

Kremlin: Yeltsin is `well enough'
The Kremlin announced September 24 that president Boris Yeltsin is well enough to govern Russia, and rejected suggestions that he should resign. Although Russian premier Victor Chernomyrdin was handed the reigns of power by Yeltsin September 8, he said "it is out of the question" that Yeltsin would step down. Chernomyrdin would take control of the country if Yeltsin did resign, pending new elections. Yeltsin has had three heart attacks over the past year and a half. Revelations about the severity of the president's health problems have shaken the Russian political world and depressed Russian markets.

Uzbekistan plans privatization
The government of Uzbekistan is planning to sell off at least 300 state-owned companies, and as many as 1,000. But government officials are wary of problems that occurred in other former Soviet Union republics attempting to return to a capitalist system and property relations. "Elsewhere, the shares went to those who were rich already. We don't want a redivision of property, but a sale," said Abdullah Abdukadirov, deputy chairman of the state property committee. Peter Klein, general manger of a Dutch joint venture bank of ABN Amro, explained that "they [the government of Uzbekistan] are trying to learn from the mistakes of other countries, where privatization did not always go smoothly." The Financial Times reported that while "in Russian and other republics the employees managed to obtain a majority stake in many companies and block painful restructuring, in Uzbekistan the workers can own no more than 23 percent."

Japanese prime minister dissolves parliament
On September 27, Japan's prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto dissolved the national parliament, opening the way for new elections, expected to be held October 20. Hashimoto and his conservative party hope the move will bolster their electoral position. Hashimoto became prime minister in January, and the four-year term of the current assembly was scheduled to expire in July 1997. The prime minister's strategy comes after a tentative truce with the governor of Okinawa about reducing the U.S. military bases located there and to ensure elections take place before an unpopular national sales tax hike takes effect in April.

Veto on abortion ban sticks
Falling 9 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed, the U.S. Senate voted 57 to 41 September 26 on a motion to override President William Clinton's veto of a bill banning a type of late-term abortion. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about 1.3 percent of abortions performed annually are late term, some of them using the so-called partial-birth procedure, medically known as intact dilation and evacuation. The bill, which was passed by Congress last spring, was vetoed by Clinton in April. The U.S. House of Representatives voted September 20 to overturn the presidential veto. Clinton said he vetoed the bill because it contained no exception to protect the mother's health. The ban would have subjected doctors to up to two years in prison and civil lawsuits for violating the law.

Pentagon didn't tell troops of drugs used in Gulf War
The Pentagon decided not to tell troops fighting in Washington's 1991 war in the Persian Gulf that they had been given an "investigational" drug. The Pentagon did not get consent from people taking the drug -pyridostigmine bromide -

because of the wartime waiver granted by the Food and Drug Administration. However, even with the waiver officials are required to warn troops about the risks. Additionally, recent disclosures from the Pentagon said that U.S. troops in the Gulf may have been exposed to low levels of sarin nerve gas. A Defense Department spokesman admitted September 26, "I believe there was a conscious decision made at the time, not to tell the troops."

MEGAN ARNEY  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home