Protests and demonstrations that shook the Serbian government for three months were recently suspended by opponents of President Slobodan Milosevic after his government conceded to the overwhelming demand to recognize municipal election victories by the opposition in Belgrade and 13 other Serbian cities. Zoran Djindjic, chairman of the Democratic Party, was inaugurated as the new mayor of Belgrade February 21.

Albania police attack protesters
Truckloads of Albanian cops swarmed on 1,000 people February 20 who were waiting to withdraw their money from a so-called holding company that had frozen all accounts in January. Cops fired live rounds of ammunition into the air and threw rocks back at protesters who stoned the police. The clashes were the worst eruption of violence since anti- government protests exploded January 15. Earlier on February 20, some 7,000 people rallied at a football field outside Tirana to demand the government cover their losses from failed "pyramid schemes," which wiped out the savings of hundreds of thousands of Albanians. An increasing number of Albanians are now demanding the resignation of the pro- capitalist regime of President Sali Berisha.

On February 19, Vefa, the country's largest "holding company," which reportedly controls 240 businesses and has 80,000 investors, announced it would allow those with deposits of $5,000 or less to pull out their funds. That could mean paying 48,000 people about $240 million over the next two to three weeks, London's Financial Times reported. Vefa has been financing its operations through its own pyramid schemes, offering up to 50 percent interest on deposits. The company froze all accounts in January. On February 20, more than 2,000 people gathered around Vefa's main payout office to get their money back.

Austria rightist bans immigrants
Karl-Heinz Grasser, a right-wing official in the provincial government of Carinthia, in southern Austria, announced February 20 a ban on contractors who employ workers from outside the European Union from winning public- sector construction projects. Some 15 percent of the 10,000 construction workers in Carinthia come from Yugoslavia and many more from throughout Eastern Europe. "With 30,000 jobless workers in Carinthia, we have to ensure Carinthians find jobs and income first," Grasser, economics councilor in the government of Carinthia, declared. Unemployment in Austria recently exceeded 300,000 for the first time since World War II.

Grasser is a close aide to Jorge Haider, leader of the ultraright Freedom Party, which won 28 percent of the votes in the European Parliament elections last October. Carinthia, with the highest jobless rate in the country, is a stronghold of the fascists. The Freedom Party leadership endorsed Grasser's order and demanded similar measures across Austria. In mid-February, Haider called for the deportation of all jobless immigrants during a special parliamentary session.

Turkish women blast sexist laws
More than 8,000 women filled the streets of Ankara, Turkey's capital, February 15 defiantly chanting "We are women, we are strong, we are against sharia [Islamic legal code]." A February 16 Reuters dispatch reported that women's groups and opposition parties have accused Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan and his Welfare Party of trying to chip away at Turkey's official secularism and erode women's rights with a series of proposals that would impose parts of the Islamic code onto public life. Tansu Ciller, leader of the conservative True Path Party, who became Turkey's first female premier in 1993 and has joined the governing coalition with the Welfare Party, was jeered at by protesters for siding with Erbakan. "We are here, where is Tansu Ciller?" protesters shouted.

Madrid arrests six Basques
The Spanish government arrested six leaders of the Basque political coalition Herri Batasuna February 19 for alleged involvement with the E.T.A., an armed Basque nationalist group. In addition, 25 members of Batasuna's executive committee were earlier summoned for questioning in Madrid by Spain's Supreme Court. Eugenio Aranburu, a member of Herri Batasuna's executive board, committed suicide on February 10 - just hours before he was to be detained. Herri Batasuna heads the regional parliament in northwest Spain, where Bilbao is the capital, and favors an independent Basque country. It has repeatedly called on the E.T.A. to give up its armed guerrilla campaign.

Tensions have been high since February 15 when a march for Basque independence in Bilbao was raided by cops who fired live ammunition and wounded two men. On February 17 a car bomb exploded, killing a policeman driving to the courthouse. Madrid blamed the E.T.A. for the bombing and the death of a Supreme Court judge, one week earlier.

Clinton to `certify' Mexico
The Clinton administration plans to certify the government of Mexico as one of its allies in the so-called "war against illegal drugs." The announcement came after Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, top anti-drug official of Mexico, was arrested on charges of being linked with drug dealers. At the same time, Washington insists it will "decertify" the Colombian government of Ernesto Samper for a second time as failing to stem drug trafficking.

"Department heads declined requests for interviews, as did others at the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Treasury Department," noted an article in the February 22 New York Times. The bourgeois daily said that "the prospect of certifying Mexico but not Colombia highlights the inconsistency that political considerations have interjected into the certification process since it became law in 1986." One U.S. government official justified Washington's foreign policy on this question stating, "Mexico is in the vital national interest, and Colombia isn't." Mexico is Washington's third largest trading partner in the world.

Okinawans angry at firing of U.S. uranium bullets
Okinawan government officials formally objected to Washington's military presence on the Japanese island and denounced the firing of bullets containing uranium by U.S. Marines during military exercises there. The resolution adopted by Okinawa's state assembly February 21 also called for guarantees that the local government will be notified quickly of military accidents. The lawmakers were particularly incensed by the recent discovery of 1,520 uranium-containing bullets fired in Okinawa by U.S. troops in late 1995 and early 1996.

The Clinton administration waited for a year before notifying Tokyo, which took another month to inform the Okinawa government. Both the U.S. and Japanese governments said the use of the bullets was "regrettable" and described it as an accident.

"The resolution indicated growing frustration among Okinawans who feel they don't control their own land," said a February 14 news item by Associated Press. "Incidents like this seem to have no end, and the anger of the people is reaching a high point," the resolution stated. Okinawa makes up less than 1 percent of Japan's total land, yet hosts about 66 percent of the 47,000 U.S. troops stationed in the country. According to AP, Tokyo has tried to move some of the bases off Okinawa since the 1995 rape of a 12- year-old girl by U.S. Marines, but "few areas are willing to accept them."

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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