BBC - Tuesday, 30 April, 2002

A new series of Russian stamps is causing controversy for carrying the portraits of six of Stalin's secret policemen. They have raised concern among human rights groups that the power and influence of the country's secret services may be growing.

Anyone receiving a letter in the Russian post is likely to be a little unnerved by the faces staring up at them from the envelope. They are a rather unlikely group of celebrities. They include:

• Sergei Puzitsky, responsible for the deportation of thousands of peasants during the 1930s
• Vladimir Styrne, a man said to have instigated widespread repression when he was in charge of a local branch of the secret police

Susanna Pechora, who spent five years in the Gulag, has little sympathy for the new heroes of the Russian postal system.

"There's no way I'd put one of those stamps on one of my letters. That would be an insult. Can you imagine modern Germany putting members of the Gestapo on their stamps?" she said.

"It's a slap in the face to the millions who died in that totalitarian system. It's just awful that we live in a society where hangmen and murderers are glorified".

Full story here.

The editor-in-chief of a newspaper in the Volga region of central Russia has been shot dead in what reports suggest was a contract killing. He was the fifth journalist from the town to be killed in unexplained circumstances in recent years.

Full story here.

A Russian military court has sentenced the former head of the military budget and financing department to three years in prison for failing to prevent a serious case of fraud.

General Georgy Oleynik was found guilty of abuse of office, by authorising the transfer of $450m to Ukraine as payment for materials, which were never delivered.

General Oleynik was accused of caring more about his own career than the good of the defence ministry. This is one of the biggest cases of fraud to have passed through the Russian courts.

Full story here.

Red Army soldiers raped two million German women, and thousands of Soviet women in occupied Eastern Europe, says a book published on Monday.

Mr Beevor, whose previous book Stalingrad became a best-seller, says in Berlin alone it was estimated up to 130,000 women were raped, of whom up to 10,000 committed suicide.

Altogether two million German women are believed to have been raped and almost half of those suffered gang rape. One woman was raped by 23 soldiers.

He said the Soviet hierarchy turned a blind eye, and even condoned the rape as a form of revenge for what the German Army - the Wehrmacht - had done during Operation Barbarossa.

Full story here.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 20 U.S. soldiers arrived in the former Soviet republic of Georgia Monday to pave the way for anti-terrorism training for the Georgian military, a Pentagon spokesman said.

The troops are the first of about 150 to 200 American special operations forces who will teach military tactics to Georgian soldiers and officials, Maj. Tim Blair said. The first classes for Georgian officials should begin in about a month.

The United States also will give the Georgian military guns, ammunition, communications gear, medical equipment, fuel and construction equipment, Blair said.

The $64 million program is aimed at helping Georgian forces battle terrorists, particularly Muslim extremists in the Pankisi Gorge near Georgia's border with the breakaway Russian region of Chechnya. Russian and Georgian officials say militants from Chechnya have holed up in the remote and rugged region. U.S. officials say those fighters could be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.

On Monday, Georgian national television reported that three Arabs were apprehended in a special police operation in the gorge. The report said guards at a nearby hydroelectric station were shot at hours later, and a relative of one of the three seized Arabs was wounded in the return fire.

Georgia had asked the United States for help battling the insurgents in the Pankisi Gorge. Many Russian officials have expressed anger over the plans, saying the Russian military could roust the rebels from the gorge with Georgia's help. Russian President Vladimir Putin has reacted calmly to the U.S. project, however.

The training program is part of the worldwide campaign against terrorism. U.S. troops are providing similar anti-terrorist training to forces in the Philippines and plan to do so in Yemen.

The American forces will teach a 70-day course on coordinating anti-terror operations for the Georgian military and other security services. The U.S. troops also will teach 100-day sessions on combat tactics for small units of soldiers.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- A senior official of the U.N. war crimes tribunal demanded Saturday that all high-profile war crimes suspects -- including Serbian President Milan Milutinovic -- surrender immediately.

Mathias Helmann, the head of The Hague, Netherlands-based U.N. court's Belgrade office, told reporters in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad that the tribunal did not recognize ``immunity of any of indicted war crimes suspects, including Serbia's president Milutinovic.''

Milutinovic, 60, president of the larger Yugoslav republic Serbia, has been indicted on charges he committed war crimes during the 1998-1999 Serb crackdown against rebellious ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. He was a close aide to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial on war crime charges in The Hague.

Milutinovic, who is charged along with former army chief of staff Col. Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic and former Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, enjoys immunity from arrest and extradition until the end of 2002, when his term as president expires. The Belgrade government argues Milutinovic cannot surrender to The Hague before his term ends because it would prompt early presidential elections.

On Friday, Ojdanic pleaded innocent at the U.N. war crimes court to charges of murder and expulsion in Kosovo. He voluntarily surrendered Thursday.

Another top war crimes suspect, retired Col. Veselin Sljivancanin, who has been indicted for atrocities he allegedly committed 1991 in Croatia, told the Vesti daily that he has ``absolutely no intention of surrendering'' to the U.N. court.

``I have not committed any crimes and I will not surrender to The Hague Tribunal even at the cost of my life,'' Sljivancanin was quoted as saying by Saturday's issue of Vesti. The Serb-language daily is published in Frankfurt, Germany.

Russian gay activists have staged a protest outside the lower house of parliament, the State Duma.

They were objecting to an amendment put forward by a group of deputies which would make homosexuality a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison.

The protesters wore concentration camp-style uniforms, decorated with pink stars - to draw attention to the fact that homosexuality was illegal in both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Full story here.

DRESDEN/BERLIN, Apr 25, 2002 -- (dpa) Victims of communist-era East German political persecution have announced plans to pursue compensation in a series of court cases across Germany, a report said Thursday.

An organization called the Union of Victims of Stalinism said honor pensions should be awarded to all victims of political persecution in the former German Democratic Republic, the daily Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten reported.

Harald Hemmerling, who heads the association, said victims of Nazi persecution receive monthly honor pensions of 700 euros and that his group was prepared to see the GDR cases through to the Federal Constitutional Court, if necessary, to ensure communist-era victims receive the same.

Hemmerling told the daily that preparations for the lawsuits were well underway. "We have already received 20,000 euros in donations for our efforts," Hemmerling said. "The claims are going to be watertight."

He said the payments should be a form of recognition and compensation for the political resistance that led to imprisonment and professional ruin in the GDR, which in turn has forced many victims into poverty in the post-communist era.

Besides the lack of an honor pension, ex-political prisoners from the GDR complain that, unlike Nazi-era victims, they are forced to provide documents proving their imprisonment led to illnesses or psychological problems in order to receive higher pensions.

The requirement to prove victims were damaged by their imprisonment creates an impenetrable barrier to payments and better health care since such documentation in most cases does not exist, said Hans Schwenke, who leads the group Alliance of Victims of Stalinist Persecution, also involved in the legal fight for victims' compensation.

BERLIN, Apr 25, 2002 -- (dpa) Germany and Iran have moved to carve out closer economic ties, with Iranian Minister for Industries and Mines Eshaq Jahangiri putting his nation's case to Berlin on Wednesday for greater direct German investment in his country.

Visiting Berlin during a four-trip to Germany, Jahangiri, who is heading a 12-head political delegation to Europe's biggest economy, held talks Tuesday with German Economics Minister Werner Mueller.

The two ministers also discussed drawing Iran into the World Trade Organization and the European Union's moves to prepare a co-operative agreement with Tehran. Washington has been resisting Iran's involvement in the WTO.

Speaking after the meeting, Mueller said that the relationship between Germany and Iran was continuing to strengthen in line with the growing political ties between the two states.

Jahangiri is to meet German Minister for Co-operation and Development Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul on Thursday.

During his trip to Germany Jahangiri also held talks with German industry, including a visit to the giant car maker DaimlerChrysler AG in Stuttgart.

The principal problem facing the economic relationship between the two nations, said Mueller was the need to boost the quality of products made in Iran for export so as to address the imbalance in trade between the two nations.

Improving the quality of Iranian products was a major theme of the talks between Mueller and Jahangiri.

The Iranian minister sees German firms as playing a key role in helping his nation's industry to lift the quality of their products so they have greater acceptance on the world market place.

As a measure of the growing German-Iranian ties, Jahangiri's visit to Germany coincided with the signing of a series of agreements between German business and Tehran.

This included agreements covering the aluminum and automotive sector as well in shipbuilding.

Editor's commentary: While Germans are being murdered in Tunis by terrorists sponsored by Iran, Schroeder is increasing economic cooperation with Iran and helping them get more money to buy more weapons of mass destruction and sponsor terrorism. When Schroeder loses in September, German Left will start asking questions about German voters and why they are dissatisfied with SPD and Schroeder.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal began getting back to business on Thursday as people defied a general strike called by Maoist rebels battling to overthrow the constitutional monarchy, despite fear of reprisals.

Traffic was almost normal on the bustling streets of the ancient capital Kathmandu although most vehicles' number plates were covered and security was tight with soldiers and police out on patrol.

Many people said they could not afford to sit out the rebels' five-day strike that began on Tuesday.

``I have to open because I have to serve my regular clients and support my family as well,'' butcher Sarala Shahi said. Brick mason Youth Maharjan said: ``The strike isn't good. It's only hurting poor people who have to earn money every day to survive.''

The guerrillas are fighting an increasingly bloody war to topple the Hindu kingdom's political establishment and install one-party communist rule.

More than 3,500 people have been killed since the rebels, inspired by Chinese leader Mao Zedong's drive to empower peasants and end what was seen as the corrupt urban elite's privileges, began their revolt six years ago.

The rebels launched a campaign of intimidation in the run-up to the strike, including a series of bomb blasts in the capital, and the first two days of the strike paralyzed the impoverished nation as people stayed at home in fear.

Although the rebels' main strength is in rural areas, they run a network of sympathisers in Kathmandu and other cities and towns.

Residents said many people feared the insurgents would punish anyone defying the strike. ``They might firebomb, they might chop us. They are very cruel to people who don't do what they say,'' one said.

The guerrillas torched the prime minister's country home on Tuesday night in the latest in a wave of high-profile raids on the kingdom's leadership. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was not there at the time.

The traditionally tranquil country, birthplace of Buddha, is still reeling from the June massacre of popular King Birendra and other royal family members by Crown Prince Dipendra who later shot himself.

Analysts say the Maoists control about a quarter of Nepal's 57,920 square mile territory sandwiched between China and India.

Nepal declared a state of emergency and ordered the army to take over from the police against the rebels in November when the Maoists broke a truce and walked away from peace talks.

They have not attacked trekkers and climbers venturing into the Nepali Himalayas, which include Mount Everest, but mountaineering Web sites have reported that the rebels have demanded cameras and extorted money from some expeditions.

Several foreign governments also have issued travel warnings.

Editor's commentary: So much about Chinese communists' double standards regarding terrorism. They know to complain about Muslim rebellion in Xinjiang province but they sure continue to massively support red terror in Nepal. Now it is perfectly clear that Maoist rebels are responsible for recemt royal massacre in Nepal. Assassination of foreign leaders and rulers is obviously not prohibited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP). How about if some rebels would enter Fidel's palace in Havana and killed everyone? CCP leaders would scream about CIA plot to kill Castro and establish American puppet regime but they are very silent on current situation in Nepal. It would be tragic to let this beautiful Himalayan country become communist gulag and Mount Everest become Mao's Mountain. Nepal definitely needs someone who is experienced in dealings with communist terrorists, someone like Alberto Fujimori who is currently retired. His advices would be extremely helpful in getting rid of terror and anarchy in Nepal.

MARACAY, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez ordered troops and tanks into Caracas' streets to confront a massive opposition demonstration that ultimately ended in a blood bath, according to an audiotape released Wednesday.

The bloodshed led disgusted generals to oust Chavez on April 12. Loyalist troops and thousands of Chavez militants rebelled April 13, and Chavez was restored to power on April 14.

In the tape released by the Venezuelan media, Chavez is heard ordering the activation of ``Plan Avila,'' a state security emergency plan, to contain hundreds of thousands of civilians who marched on the presidential palace April 11 to demand Chavez resign.

``I order you to start Plan Avila. The first move we must make is to send the Ayala Battalion,'' Chavez tells an unidentified officer via radio.

Venezuelan generals have said they refused to obey the order requiring them to use force against unarmed civilians. At least 17 people died that day anyway, and several investigations are under way to determine who is to blame.

A radio journalist, Marianela Salazar, initially released the tape but declined to say how she obtained it. The tape was widely reported by news media Wednesday.

Carlos Rojas, a spokesman for the presidency, refused comment on the tape but said it was ``a communication between the defense ministry and the president.''

Venezuelan generals didn't deny the tape's authenticity at a ceremony on Wednesday in the central city of Maracay, where most of Venezuela's armed forces are concentrated.

Gen. Lucas Rincon, Venezuela's top officer, defended Chavez's order, saying Plan Avila ``isn't to mistreat and repress the population. No, it's to guarantee security.''

He spoke during the installation of a new Air Force chief, Gen. Angel Valecillo, after former chief Gen. Luis Acevedo died in a helicopter crash April 19.

The Defense Ministry released a statement saying Plan Avila was meant ``to persuade the multitude of protesters who were heading toward the Miraflores (presidential) Palace to avoid possible confrontations with citizens who already were there.''

Those citizens were thousands of Chavez supporters, some of them armed.

Gen. Luis Camacho, former vice security minister and one of the officers who rebelled against Chavez, said Wednesday he had refused to obey the president's order.

``The pure presence of the police and National Guard would have resolved'' security problems posed by the demonstration, Camacho said.

Analysts said the tape will further hurt Chavez, who since his temporary ouster has adopted a conciliatory tone toward his legions of opponents him and has changed his high command to bolster his support.

The tape shows that Chavez was prepared ``to shoot against the protesters as a last resort,'' said Fausto Maso, a columnist with El Nacional newspaper.

There was no immediate comment from the presidency.

Congress is trying to establish its own truth commission to investigate the April 11 deaths and subsequent violence that killed more than 50 people, wounded more than 400 and destroyed hundreds of stores.

Also Wednesday, National Assembly Vice President Rafael Jimenez said it was possible Chavez will shortly reshuffle his cabinet to placate the opposition.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) -- Uruguay's president announced Tuesday that his country was breaking diplomatic ties with Cuba, days after Uruguay sponsored a U.N. human rights vote targeting Fidel Castro's government.

The surprise announcement by President Jorge Batlle came as the Uruguayan leader charged Cuba with a series of insults against this South American nation.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, who was speaking live on a government television program in Havana when the announcement was made, characterized Batlle as ``a lackey.''

Uruguay sponsored a resolution targeting Cuba that was passed Friday by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The vote was a tight 23-21 with nine abstentions.

The resolution invited the communist-run country to provide its people with greater civil and political rights. It also exhorted Cuba to allow a U.N. representative to visit the island -- an idea Havana rejected.

Almost all Latin American nations on the 53-member commission approved the human rights measure, prompting Cuba to term them all ``Judases.''

Castro seemed unconcerned as he read the story about Uruguay aloud on air.

He said that that while Uruguay was breaking relations with Cuba, plans were under way to vaccinate 300,000 Uruguayan children with meningitis vaccines donated by Cuba to the South American country.

On Monday night, Castro had referred to Batlle as that ``hungover, abject Judas who presides over Uruguay.''

Leading up to the U.N. vote in Geneva, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque accused Uruguay of ``genuflecting'' and of ``being servile'' to the United States by sponsoring the resolution.

At a news conference late Tuesday, Batlle bluntly complained that insults by Cuban leaders ``continued to escalate in tone'' to the point that Uruguay was forced to act.

``The rupture will remain until it is clear that the Cuban people have peace and liberty,'' Batlle bristled at the news conference in this South American capital.

Batlle said he instructed Foreign Minister Didier Opertti to carry out the necessary steps to formalize the break. He did not elaborate.

But Guillermo Valles, an undersecretary to Opertti, later told The Associated Press that Cuba's ambassador would be ordered to leave the country within 72 hours.

The Cuban ambassador to Uruguay, Jose J. Vazquez Portela, had no immediate comment. And there was no immediate word if Cuba would take any similar steps toward Uruguay.

Diplomatic relations between Uruguay and Cuba were restored in 1986, a year after the end of 12 years of right-wing military-dictatorship in Uruguay that had interrupted ties.

But relations fell on rocky times in the weeks leading up to the Geneva vote. Uruguay's government went so far as to recall its ambassador, Enrique Estrazulas, to show its displeasure.

MINSK, Apr 23, 2002 -- (dpa) Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko defied Western critics on Tuesday by saying the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) should leave the country.

In an annual speech in parliament, Lukashenko said the OSCE had requested its Minsk office remain open in order to observe the presidential elections.

Now that the elections were over, the OSCE should end its mission, the president said. But he left the date of the OSCE's departure open.

Lukashenko was re-elected last year with a large majority.

Only three European diplomats currently work in the OSCE's Minsk office along with a skeleton crew of support personnel. Belarussian visa officials two weeks ago denied entrance to a French diplomat assigned to the office.

Lukashenko said he would consider reviewing his decision to close down the OSCE office if the OSCE "changed all its staff and its policy towards Belarus".

Lukashenko also criticized the World Bank saying it too should cease operations in Belarus "because we do not need their assistance".

The World Bank's activities in Belarus are limited to programs aimed at reducing levels of tuberculosis and AIDS.

Lukashenko also warned other Western non-governmental organizations in Belarus that they would be expelled if they "meddled in Belarussian internal affairs".

BELGRADE, Apr 23, 2002 -- (dpa) The extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) on Monday hailed Jean-Marie Le Pen's advance into the second round of French presidential elections.

The SRS leader, Vojislav Seselj, wrote to the French rightist leader that his eventual victory would supply "huge hope and stimulus .. that Serb patriots and all European peoples in the clutches of mondialism would win their freedom and the right to a better future".

Through Le Pen's electoral success, Serbia, which was bombed by NATO three years ago over Kosovo, "again sees France as a truly friendly country", Seselj wrote.

MOSCOW, Apr 22, 2002 -- (dpa) Russian ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky sent congratulations Monday to right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen for his "brilliant election victory" in Sunday's presidential polls in France.

"You have shaken up France with your iron hand," Zhirinovsky wrote in a telegram to Le Pen, quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency.

The chairman of the Russian Duma parliament's foreign affairs committee, Dmitry Rogozin, saw Le Pen's strong performance in the first round of voting as a reaction to the country's immigration policy.

The "enormous flow of immigrants" had sparked a protest from the electorate, said Rogozin, who was attending a session of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

Le Pen, 73, garnered more than 17 percent of ballots cast cast, sending him through to the second round of voting.

PARIS (AP) - In a huge upset, extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen qualified on Sunday to face incumbent Jacques Chirac in the runoff for French president, a political earthquake (news - web sites) that appeared to reflect both a sense of deep voter apathy and insecurity over rising crime.

Le Pen, who virulently opposes immigration and has been accused during his long political career of racism and anti-Semitism, dealt a stunning blow to Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, whose third-place finish defied all predictions.

With 99.33 percent of the vote counted, the Interior Ministry said Chirac had 5,470,980 votes or 19.62 percent. Le Pen had 4,762,596 votes, or 17.08 percent. Jospin had 4,472,963, or 16.04 percent.

First round turnout was 72 percent — the lowest in four decades. The balloting pared a wildly diverse field of 16 candidates down to two.

A shocked Jospin announced he would retire from political life immediately after the presidential election, which ends with the May 5 runoff.

"I plainly assume responsibility for this failure," Jospin said in a choked voice, calling the results a "thunderbolt."

"And I draw the conclusions," he continued, "in withdrawing from political life after the end of the presidential election."

Chirac, meanwhile, called on all French citizens unite to defeat Le Pen in the second round.

"I call on all French men and women to gather up to defend human rights," Chirac said in a somber speech that expressed no joy at coming in first. "At risk is our national cohesion, the values of the Republic. "France needs you, and I need you."

Full story here.

The authorities in Russia say around $4bn of IMF funds lent to the country in late 1990s have been embezzled.

Sergei Stepashin, the head of the Accounts Chamber, Russia's state financial monitoring agency, said an investigation into the missing billions was expected to conclude at the end of the year.

Full story here.

MINSK, Belarus (AP) -- More than 100 protesters seeking economic reform were arrested after police moved in to disperse marchers in the Belarus capital of Minsk.

At the unauthorized march, more than 300 people gathered to demand higher wages and other improvements to Belarus' struggling, Soviet-style economy on Friday.

Protesters also demanded the resignation of autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko. ``It's Impossible to Live Like This,'' was their rallying slogan.

As the march spilled into traffic on a Minsk thoroughfare, about 500 riot troops appeared and blocked the protesters. Several sat on the ground with clasped hands to resist, and the police pounded them with batons before dragging them off to buses parked nearby.

A total of 102 people were detained, said Oleg Bebenin, a spokesman for an opposition group known as Charter-97.

BERLIN - Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic said that Serbia cannot arrest former Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, because the risk of unrest is too great."

"Should we, in order to set right a past injustice, create chaos again, which will in return give rise to injustice," Djindjic asked in an interview to the German daily Frakfurter Rundschau.

In the opinion of the Serbian premier, the arrest of the leaders of Bosnian Serbs is the task of international forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because Serbia only has 20,000 ill equipped policemen, while the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, with 50,000 troops, have been trying without success for five years to arrest Karadzic and Mladic.

Editor's commentary: What unrest? Couple of extremists financed by Moscow? Djindjic is saying here that he is a coward afraid to do his job and bring Serbia better future. What is really important here is Djindjic's blatant lying. According to him there is only "20,000 ill equipped policemen" in Serbia!? Is there any idiot out there who is going to believe in this crap? U.S. Department of State estimates, in annual human rights report for 2001, that last year Serbia had 80,000 police officers well equipped and very powerful:

The Interior Minister of the Republic of Serbia controls the powerful Serbian police, a force of approximately 80,000 officers, many of whom also served under former President Milosevic. The Serbian police are responsible for internal security and border checkpoints.

It is time for Djindjic to either step down or start doing his job that people in Serbia gave him in 2000. Djindjic continuously opposes any elections or removal of Kostunica's party DSS from DOS coalition which only prolongs turmoil in Serbia and delays important and necessary changes.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Montenegrin Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic tendered his resignation on Friday, bowing to pressure from a party angry at his decision to shelve independence plans for the coastal republic.

Vujanovic, a close ally of President Milo Djukanovic, said he had decided to quit after the staunchly pro-independence Liberal Alliance party made clear it was withdrawing its crucial support for his minority government in the Yugoslav republic.

``I hereby inform you that I am quitting the post of Prime Minister you entrusted to me,'' Vujanovic said in a letter to Djukanovic. ``The government was left without support from the Liberals and, therefore, without a majority in parliament.''

Under pressure from the European Union, which wants an end to Balkan disintegration, Djukanovic and Vujanovic last month signed a deal to keep Montenegro inside a single state with much larger Serbia for at least another three years.

Vujanovic's resignation, which triggers the fall of the whole government, had been widely expected. The Liberals announced soon after the agreement was signed that they would withdraw their support.

However, the Liberals have also indicated they would be willing to take part in talks on the formation of a fresh government and analysts believe a new coalition involving the parties now in power is more likely than early elections.

New Delhi, 18 April: A Tibetan Human Rights group Thursday [18 April] screened a video film here showing the demolition of the largest Buddhist institute in Sichaun Province of south west China by authorities.

Bulldozers ramming into the walls of Serthar, the institute, and pulling down the structure and nuns and monks trying to retrieve their belongings from the wreckage are shown in the ten-minute footage.

Screening the film at a press conference here, the Tibetan Center of Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said it "shattered" Beijing's claims about respecting religious freedom in Tibet.

The documentary, smuggled out from Tibet by ex-residents of the institute, "presents the real picture for the world to see," said Youdon Aukatsang, an official of TCHRD.

"With the help of this documentary, the world can no longer turn a blind eye to what's happening in China and on their human rights record," she added.

Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, a scholar of the institute, is under house arrest though there is no charge against him, Aukatsang alleged.

"Though China officially claims Serthar to be a large institute, in reality it accuses it of harboring anti-social elements," the official said.

ROME (AP) -- Police have arrested an alleged top mob lieutenant while trying to capture the Sicilian Mafia's No. 1 boss, officials said Wednesday.

Carabinieri paramilitary officials, interviewed on Italian state radio Wednesday, said undercover officers arrested Antonino Giuffre Tuesday during a stake out near Palermo.

Giuffre, described by investigators as the Mafia's No. 3 boss, has been convicted and sentenced to life in prison in connection with the 1992 bombings in Sicily that killed Italy's leading anti-Mafia magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Police were trying to capture Bernardo Provenzano, whom investigators believe heads the Sicilian Mafia. Provenzano has been on the run since 1963

The Yugoslav Government has given 23 war crimes suspects wanted by the Hague three days to surrender. BBC News Online details the war crimes tribunal's target list.

Complete list of Serb war criminals here.

The head of the Dutch army has resigned over the Srebrenica massacre, one day after the entire government stood down. The resignations follow an official report on the massacre, published last week, which criticised the Dutch Government, top military officials and the United Nations over their roles in failing to prevent the atrocity.

General Van Baal was the second-highest ranking officer in the army at the time of the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, when up to 8,000 men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces.

Full story here.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday after Prime Minister Wim Kok's cabinet resigned en-masse over a report condemning the Netherlands' failure to prevent the worst massacre of the Bosnian war.

Kok's coalition stepped down after a crisis meeting to discuss the fallout from an official report last week which blamed politicians and military top brass for the failure of its U.N. peacekeepers to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

In Srebrenica, a Bosnian town close to the Serbian border, 110 lightly-armed Dutch troops from the multinational U.N. force were assigned to protect Muslim residents and refugees in what had been designated a "safe area" for them. In the event the Serbs took the town without a shot being fired.

The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) report, commissioned by the government five years ago, condemned the Dutch troops for unwittingly assisting in "ethnic cleansing" by helping the Serbs organize the final exodus of thousands of Muslims from the town -- women and children to Muslim territory but men to their deaths, mostly by shooting in fields and barns.

But it reserved its harshest criticism for the political and military leadership for sending the troops to Srebrenica with ill-defined goals and a weak mandate.

Full story here.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico said Monday that it would support a U.N. resolution censuring Cuba for its human rights record, an announcement likely to further strain Mexico's ties with the communist island.

The resolution, expected to be voted on by the U.N. Human Rights Commission later this week in Geneva, recognizes social progress in Cuba but urges the government ``to make efforts to obtain similar advances in the area of human, civil and political rights.''

The measure also asks Cuba to allow a U.N. human rights representative to visit the island to help officials comply with the resolution -- a suggestion Cuba angrily rejected last week.

Mexico, the only Latin American country that ignored U.S. pressure to break diplomatic ties after Cuban President Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, has traditionally abstained from the annual vote.

A news release issued by President Vicente Fox's office noted that the government would depart from that tradition to support this year's Uruguay-sponsored resolution, which ``instead of containing the condemnation of past years, assumes a constructive and cooperative focus.''

Speaking in the border city of Tijuana, Fox said the resolution was ``not a condemnation, but a positive declaration for human rights.'' He added that Mexico is also supporting the measure because it condemns the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba.

Foreign Relations Secretary Jorge Castaneda said late Monday that the decision to support the censure did not represent a shift in Mexican policy toward Cuba.

``There will perhaps be some disagreements about this issue, but our relationship with Cuba remains strong,'' Castaneda told Mexico City's TV Azteca, adding that the resolution was ``a positive and constructive call to Cuba that is not critical in any way.''

Despite such explanations, Cuban officials -- and Mexicans themselves -- are likely to see the move as one more step away from the country's traditional unwavering support for the island nation.

``I think it's a huge departure from past policy and I think it's one that going to generate a firestorm of controversy in Mexico,'' said M. Delal Baer, a Mexico specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Cuban officials already have accused Castaneda -- a former communist-turned-Castro critic -- of abandoning Cuba, alleging that he bowed to U.S. pressure last month by arranging for Castro's early departure from a U.N. development summit in the northern city of Monterrey.

Castaneda has denied exerting pressure on Castro and said that U.S. officials have not pressured Mexico to distance itself from Cuba.

``I, at no time, have spoken with anyone in Washington about our relationship with Cuba,'' Castaneda said Monday.

Despite Castaneda's denials, the Communist Party newspaper Granma responded by calling Castaneda a liar and the ``diabolical and cynical architect'' of the Cuban leader's sudden exit.

Cuba insists that the United States pressured Uruguay to sponsor this year's human rights measure -- and is likely to accuse Mexico of caving in to U.S. interests by supporting it.

The United States has introduced similar proposals in the past, but this year is not a member of the Human Rights Commission for the first time since 1947. U.S. officials have denied they had a hand in drafting the resolution.

MOSCOW, Apr 16, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) A U.S.-based rights monitoring group says it is continuing to document cases of unexplained disappearances in Russia's separatist republic of Chechnya.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement today it documented 87 such cases between September 2000 and January 2002, although it said it believes the actual number is probably far higher.

Human Rights Watch says Russian forces are continuing to round up and detain people without charges, and are increasingly targeting private homes in their security sweeps.

The group says Russia has introduced some "cosmetic changes" to its military procedures in Chechnya. Search-and-seizure operations are now required to include the presence of civilian personnel, and investigations have been opened into some disappearances.

But overall, the group said, little has changed. Families of the disappeared are usually met with official stonewalling or denials that the relative was ever in custody.

KIEV, Apr 15, 2002 -- (dpa) Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has been accused of selling advanced anti-aircraft weapons to Sadaam Hussein of Iraq, Ukrainian news agencies reported Sunday.

Reports cited a statement made in California by former Kuchma bodyguard Mykola Melnichenko, who said he had shown a U.S. grand jury proof that Kuchma ordered and personally controlled deliveries of Kolchuga radars to the Iraqi dictator.

Ukrainian weapons experts describe the Kolchuga as a passive radar designed to detect stealth and other aircraft without emitting any electronic signature. Components of the system are reportedly manufactured in Kiev and Odessa.

The secret Ukraine-Iraq arms deal took place in the late 1990s and was worth 100 million dollars, Melnichenko claimed.

Melnichenko reportedly said he presented a San Francisco grand jury with original audio recordings of conversations between Kuchma and former Ukrspetsexport director Valery Malev discussing the transaction.

Ukrspetsexport is the Ukrainian government monopoly weapons export. Malev died in a car crash last month.

The tape played to San Francisco judge Martha Boersch reportedly documented Kuchma instructing Malev to disguise the radar shipment to Iraq as truck parts from Ukraine's Kremenchuh KrAZ automobile factory, and to provide false passports to Ukrainian technicians accompanying the shipment.

The recording also contained evidence of a Kuchma scheme to cut a Jordanian middleman out of the transaction, the Ukrainska Pravda web magazine reported.

Kuchma has repeatedly denied allegations he organized illegal transfers of Ukrainian weapons abroad, a charge made by his opponents in 1997. Anti-corruption deputy Oleksander Zhyr made the first public allegation Kuchma sold weapons to Iraq last month.

The Kolchuga system, were it in fact in use with Iraqi troops, could increase dramatically danger levels to U.S. and British pilots enforcing two no-fly zones in Iraq, Ukrainian military specialists said.

The Kolchuga makes no electronic transmissions and is therefore invisible to most U.S. anti-radar missiles, which home in on a radar's emissions.

TBILISI, Apr 15, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said after a crisis meeting with the commander of Russian troops deployed in the breakaway region of Abkhazia that the surprise contingent will be withdrawn almost immediately.

The Russian troops landed in the disputed Kodori Gorge in Georgia early today, prompting a swift reaction from Tbilisi. But their commander agreed to pull out by the following morning, Shevardnadze said at the airport after returning by helicopter from the area.

"We reached an agreement with the commander, and he promised to finish everything tomorrow morning," Shevardnadze said.

Georgian Defense Minister Lieutenant General David Tevzadze called for the withdrawal of the troops earlier today, threatening possible military action if the Russian contingent was not gone by the end of the day.

"The deployed [Russian] troops have been localized and are now encircled. It has been decided that fire will be open in case of any actions [taken by the Russian side] that have not been coordinated [with Georgia]. The commander of the [Russian] peacekeeping contingent has been given an ultimatum that he should ensure the withdrawal of these troops by the end of the day without much noise," Tevzadze said.

Russia has kept peacekeepers in Abkhazia since separatists drove out Georgian forces in a 1992-93 war. The United Nations also has a small, unarmed observer team there.

A spokesman for Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia, Igor Konyushenkov, said the troops were sent to the gorge to help maintain security for Russian and UN observers under an agreement brokered in early April.

But Georgia said the accord made no mention of armed Russian troops, and officials indicated that Tbilisi was not informed in advance of the move.

President Shevardnadze said he might demand the end of Russia's nearly decade-old peacekeeping mission in his country before leaving for Kodori Gorge, where he met with the Russian commander.

Deputies in Georgia's parliament passed an appeal to international organizations, labeling the Russian move "aggression against Georgia."

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela's military leadership forced President Hugo Chavez to resign Friday after a day of violence in which National Guard troops and pro-Chavez gunmen clashed with 150,000 opposition protesters, the Globovision television station reported.

At least 13 people were killed and as many as 110 wounded in the violence.

Globovision said Chavez handed his resignation to three generals at the presidential palace. The report could not be immediately confirmed.

A motorcade left the palace minutes later, apparently headed for Caracas' La Carlota military base, Globovision said.

The report came after Armed Forces Chief of Staff Bernabe Carrero Cubero said Venezuela's military leadership asked Chavez to resign and call elections.

Carrero Cubero said Chavez had asked him to negotiate with rebellious officers ``to avoid a blood bath.''

Chavez's supporters gathered outside the presidential palace upon word their leader was leaving.

El Universal newspaper reported that Pedro Carmona, president of the Fedecamaras business chamber, had accepted a military offer to lead a transitional government. The report couldn't be immediately confirmed, but Union Radio reported that Carmona, Rincon and retired Gen. Guaicaipuro Lameda, former head of the state oil monopoly, had entered Fort Tiuna, Caracas' main army base, early Friday.

Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel had asked for asylum at the Chilean Embassy, El Universal said. Dissident National Guard troops, meanwhile, seized the government television station.

The head of the state security police said he'd ordered his forces to remain in their barracks. A spokesman for Oil Minister Alvaro Silva said Chavez had spent Thursday evening meeting with his ministers at the presidential palace.

Small tanks arrived outside the palace late Thursday, adding to tensions in a city already racked by the day's violence, in which National Guard troops clashed with pro-Chavez gunmen and participants in a 150,000-strong opposition march.

The Jose Maria Vargas hospital said Thursday that 12 people were killed and as many as 110 wounded. Jorge Tortoza, a 45-year-old photographer with Diario 2001 newspaper, died of a gunshot wound, the newspaper confirmed Friday. Tortoza was shot in the face by a man in civilian clothing while he was covering the protest, said reporter Angel Arraez.

Chavez's family flew from a Caracas military base to the western city of Barquisimeto earlier Thursday, said Air Force Col. Marcos Salas.

Army Cmdr. Gen. Efrain Vasquez Velasco ordered his subordinates -- including Chavez loyalists -- to join him in rebellion against Chavez and said military bases throughout the nation were under the dissidents' control.

``We ask the Venezuelan people's forgiveness for today's events,'' he said. ``Mr. President, I was loyal to the end, but today's deaths cannot be tolerated.'' More than 40 other high officers rebelled, including Gen. Luis Alberto Camacho Kairuz, vice minister for citizen security.

Earlier Thursday, Chavez ordered five private Caracas television stations to close for allegedly inciting opposition protests that erupted in violence. The stations continued transmitting by satellite, however, and some were able to re-establish their signals intermittently to report on the violence and casualties. The Organization of American States demanded the restrictions be lifted.

``The Constitution obliges us to maintain internal order and avoid more spilling of blood and the destruction of our brave people and their institutions,'' the officers said in a communique read by Navy Vice Adm. Hector Ramirez.

Earlier, 11 other generals, admirals and commanders of the armed forces declared themselves in rebellion. None had active commands, palace officials said. But Gen. Carlos Alfonso Martinez, inspector general of the National Guard, condemned the armed pro-Chavez civilian groups known as ``Bolivarian Circles'' for firing on civilians.

National Guard troops fired tear gas at the front ranks of marchers bearing sticks and throwing rocks to keep them about 100 yards away from the palace and thousands of Chavez supporters. Tear gas drifted into the presidential compound.

Multiple shots were fired near the palace, and scuffles with police erupted throughout downtown. Witnesses said snipers belonging to pro-Chavez street groups fired on crowds from rooftops; Caracas Fire Department Cmdr. Rodolfo Briceno charged that snipers fired on ambulance crews as they tried to evacuate the wounded.

Pena accused government snipers of firing on crowds, especially at opposition demonstrators. ``Chavez has shown his true face. This dictator's apprentice brutally ordered the repression of a peaceful demonstration,'' Pena claimed.

``This is state terrorism. The international community must condemn these killings. This government is criminal,'' said Ramon Escobar Salon, a former attorney general.

Luis Miquilena, Chavez's longtime mentor and a powerful interior minister until earlier this year, denounced the repression.

Globovision television displayed videotape of what it said was Chavez supporters shooting civilians at random near the palace.

The violence erupted on the third day of a general strike called to support oil executives who want Chavez to sack new management he appointed at the state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela. The executives are conducting a work slowdown that has seriously cut production and exports in Venezuela, the No. 3 oil supplier to the United States.

Chavez said the TV stations and opposition ``don't want to see, hear or accept the reality'' of his authority. The news media, he said, were trying ``to create panic and generate disturbances.''

Both opposition and government supporters have been accused of violence this week.

The 1 million-member Venezuelan Workers Confederation, or CTV, and Fedecamaras, Venezuela's largest business group, stepped up their demands on Thursday.

At a rally at Petroleos de Venezuela headquarters, CTV head Carlos Ortega and Fedecamaras president Pedro Carmona demanded that Chavez resign. More than 150,000 cheered their call before marching several miles toward the palace, where the violence erupted.

A former Serbian interior minister, wanted for alleged war crimes, has shot himself in the head. He has been taken to hospital in critical condition.

Vlajko Stojiljkovic, who headed the police under former President Slobodan Milosevic, pulled out a gun and shot himself in front of the federal parliament building in Belgrade.

In a suicide note, Mr Stojiljkovic said he was acting in protest at parliament's adoption of a law allowing the transfer of war crimes suspects to The Hague, just hours earlier.

Finally something good from Milosevic's gang. Full story here.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Montenegro's government faced collapse Wednesday after four of its pro-independence ministers resigned to protest an accord that formally does away with Yugoslavia but keeps the republic in a loose union with Serbia.

The four -- including Foreign Minister Branko Lukovac -- are linked to the Social Democratic Party, the former coalition partner of President Milo Djukanovic in the government.

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and Djukanovic signed an accord last month that radically restructures Yugoslavia under the new name -- Serbia and Montenegro. Both republics would gain greater autonomy.

Parliaments in both Serbia and Montenegro on Tuesday endorsed the European Union-backed agreement. The separate Yugoslav parliament still needs to approve the accord, and the legislatures have to adopt the country's new constitution by June.

The agreement allows the republics to vote on full independence in three years. Still, proponents of independence for Montenegro -- the smaller republic that has long been dominated by Serbia -- were angered by the deal.

The four ministers who resigned Wednesday also include Deputy Prime Minister Zarko Rakcevic; Dragisa Burzan, the labor minister, and Transport Minister Jusuf Kalomperovic.

``The agreement has repercussions for Montenegro because it puts into question its independence,'' Rakcevic said, announcing the resignations.

With pro-independence deputies now part of the opposition, Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic is unlikely to find the majority needed to approve replacements for the four. That, in turn, could lead to early parliamentary elections.

``The rump government can function for only a couple of weeks,'' Rakcevic said.

Under the EU-negotiated accord, Serbia and Montenegro will share defense and foreign policies and a seat at the United Nations but will maintain separate economies, currencies and customs services.

Yugoslavia once included four other republics; Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia. But they broke away -- most of them violently -- under then-President Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s.

BELGRADE - Serbian President Milan Milutinovic "will be in a special position as long as he is in office and it would really be unusual for the current president of a country to find himself before the international court (in The Hague)," Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic said on Tuesday.

Editor's commentary: Serbian vice presidents Vuk Obradovic and Momcilo Perisic were quickly removed from Serbian parliament and stripped of their immunity although charges against them were never proven. Sexual harassment law suit against Obradovic was dismissed a month ago and it is almost certain that ridiculous charges of treason and spying against Perisic will be dismissed as well. Milutinovic was never asked to resign and his immunity removed although he is 100% guilty for crimes MUP and VJ committed in Kosovo in 1999.

WASHINGTON, Apr 9, 2002 -- (dpa) U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Iran has been secretly training members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a militant movement closely linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, The Washington Times reported Monday.

The report is another sign of U.S. disaffection over Iran's support for terrorist groups. Washington has blamed Iran for arming Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian groups. U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, have charged that Iran has provided sanctuary to al-Qaeda operatives fleeing the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

The IMU's links to al-Qaeda influenced Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov's decision to back the U.S. effort in neighboring Afghanistan. About 1,500 U.S. troops are now stationed in Uzbekistan and could be a target of future terrorist attacks in Central Asia.

MINSK, Apr 9, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) On 5 April in Hrodna (northwestern Belarus), police arrested 14 local journalists who staged three unauthorized pickets in protest against the closure of the independent weekly "Pahonya", Belapan reported.

Later the same day, a local court handed down jail sentences from three to 10 days to six journalists. Two journalists were fined, while the cases of three journalists were postponed until later this week.

CHISINAU, Apr 5, 2002 -- (dpa) Moldovan Communists Thursday voted to lift immunity from criminal prosecution from the leader of the government opposition, Infotag news agency reported Thursday.

Moldova's Communist-dominated parliament voted 69 to 0 to allow courts to prosecute Yury Roshku, head of Moldova's Christian Democratic Party (MCDP).

The entire opposition in the 104-seat house boycotted the vote. Moldova's constitution forbids criminal prosecution of Members of Parliament unless a legislative two-thirds majority lifts the immunity.

The house also voted to strip immunity from Roskhu associate Stefan Sekerianu.

Roshku's MCDP has been at the center of months of nearly daily anti-government protests in the Moldovan capital Chisinau.

The so far peaceful crowds, sometimes numbering more than 50,000, demand closer relations with Europe and a halt to Communist plans for legislation supporting the Russian language.

Roshku has promised the demonstrations will continue until the Communist government retires voluntarily.

Communist President Vladimir Voronin has accused the MCDP of undermining the government because it could not achieve a parliamentary majority.

A Chisinau court last month found Roshku and two other MCDP leaders guilty of misdemeanour charges as the demonstrations were not approved by city police.

Were Roshku and Sekerianu prosecuted on repeat charges connected with the MCDP demonstrations, they could face up to five years in prison.

BEIJING, Apr 5, 2002 -- (dpa) President Jiang Zemin will discuss closer cooperation with German leaders in peacekeeping and other UN operations during talks next week, Chinese officials said in advance of Jiang's five-nation trip, which begins in Berlin on Monday.

The two countries have "identical views" on issues such as peacekeeping and anti-terrorism and want to strengthen cooperation in the United Nations and other international bodies. They also share a desire to maintain global strategic balance and a trend towards multi-polarity, said a senior foreign ministry official responsible for ties with Germany.

"Terrorism has become the common enemy of the international community. China and Germany are standing together," the official said, confirming the joint commitment made when Schroeder visited China last October.

Jiang will hold talks with German President Johannes Rau, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and other leaders, aiming to build closer dialogue on politics and diplomacy, he said.

His April 8-13 visit to Germany will enhance existing cooperation in law, the environment, and science and technology. The two sides will sign agreements on mutual recognition of educational qualifications and setting up cultural centers.

Foreign ministry officials said Jiang is scheduled to visit Berlin and the states of Brandenburg, Saxony and Lower Saxony during his five-day visit, but they declined to give his schedule. He will also give a speech to Germany's Foreign Policy Association.

Jiang's visit coincides with the 30th anniversary of the opening of diplomatic relations between China and former West Germany. He has invited Rau to visit China later this year, but no date has been fixed for a visit.

Germany is China's most important European trade partner, with bilateral trade rising 19 percent last year to 23.5 billion dollars, one-third of bilateral trade with EU countries and more than Britain and France together. Germany has invested some 13.4 billion dollars in more than 2,700 projects in China, the foreign ministry said.

Rights groups and supporters of Tibetan independence are likely to organize protests during Jiang's visit, as they did during when Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao visited Berlin last November.

Jiang will leave Germany for visits to Libya, Nigeria, Tunisia and Iran from April 13-21. The United States has accused both Iran and Libya of aiding international terrorists, but a second foreign ministry official said China saw both as "friendly countries" and that Jiang's visits were a "normal exchange of relations".

MOSCOW, Apr 5, 2002 -- (dpa) Accidents, violent hazing and suicides in the Russian armed forces resulted in the deaths of 150,000 men since the Second World War, a prominent liberal politician claimed Thursday.

The staggering figure was given by the deputy speaker of parliament, Boris Nemtsov, a leading campaigner for reform of conditions in the military, the Interfax news agency reported.

Nemtsov called for the period of conscription to be reduced from two years to six months, which he argues will topple the system of systematic hazing of new recruits by those in nearing demobilization.

Responding to remarks from members of the Russian general staff that tough treatment of servicemen hardens them, Nemtsov demanded that "this blasphemy must be punished".

MOSCOW, Apr 4, 2002 -- (dpa) The Communist Party of Russia watched its once dominant power base in the Duma parliament crumble Wednesday as its members were ousted from key committee positions.

A Kremlin-loyal majority of deputies in the Duma unseated nine Communists from committee chair posts after which the Communist speaker of the house, Gennady Seleznyov, announced his resignation.

A total of 251 MPs in the nominally 445-seat house backed the ousters, with 136 votes against. Communists left holding two other committee chairposts also resigned in protest.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov was quoted as saying the "unprecedented contempt" shown for his faction had paralyzed the work of the Duma.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly declined Zyuganov's request for a meeting, saying the upheaval was an internal affair of parliament.

The Communist Party emerged as the strongest faction from parliamentary elections in 1999, with the most committee chair posts.

Since then the Kremlin-loyal party Unity - formed to support Putin when he was still prime minister - forged close ties with other factions inclined to back the administration on key issues and now outnumber the left-wing forces.

Members of this block on Tuesday even called for an outright ban on the Communist Party but then moved only to drive its officials from top posts in the legislative.

MINSK, Apr 4, 2002 -- (dpa) Cases of rabies are increasing in regions of Belarus covered by the Chernobyl "dead zone", a health official said Thursday.

Pavel Strikh, chief veterinary doctor for the Mogilev region, said nationally reported cases of rabies in wildlife had tripled over the first three months of 2002.

Belarus health authorities reported 105 cases of rabid animals last year. Most were foxes or wild dogs.

The 1986 meltdown of a reactor in Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear accident, sent a radioactive cloud over wooded areas of Belarus and vast regions of Ukraine and Russia.

The increase in rabies is particularly worrisome because infected animals were concentrated in Belarus' less populated areas, including the country's heavily-irradiated southwest corner, Strikh said.

One person, a hunter, caught the disease after skinning a rabid wolf. The man survived.

Strikh blamed the growth on a larger numbers of infected wild animals, and less efforts by government to control their population.

MOSCOW, Apr 4, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) In what appears to be a blatant violation of instructions issued last week by Lieutenant General Vladimir Moltenskoi, who commands the joint Russian forces in Chechnya, to refrain from violence against civilians during search operations, Russian troops detained some 300 Chechens during a search operation in the village of Tsotan-Yurt between 25 March and 1 April, "The Moscow Times" and chechenpress.com reported.

All males between the ages of 13 and 65 were severely beaten to the point that they were unable to walk, but were forced to sign documents saying that they had not been mistreated. Fourteen persons vanished without a trace during the search, three houses were destroyed, and five others were looted.

BELGRADE - No one has directly threatened to impose sanctions, especially not "an outer wall" and it is important that the public is made aware of this, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said on Thursday.

"The trouble is that many local politicians over-reacted in attempts to be bigger Americans than the Americans themselves ...," Kostunica told a press conference expressing hope that financial aid by the international community would not be halted.

Editor's commentary: Why bother with extraditions when money will keep flowing to us? That's how Nazi dictator Kostunica thinks but what we are all concerned is EU statement from Tuesday confirming unconditional financial support for Nazi dictator Kostunica regardless of FRY cooperation with the Hague tribunal. It seems that genocide and war crimes will soon be legalized in EU so there is no need to apprehend those who commit these terrible acts.

ZAGREB, Apr 3, 2002 -- (dpa) Croatian Defense Minister Jozo Rados said Tuesday that Croatia and China will boost their military cooperation in the field of army personnel education and also exchange experts.

He was speaking in Zagreb after talks with his Chinese counterpart Chi Haotiam, HINA news agency reported.

HINA quoted Chi as saying: "Our cooperation is not only in the interest of our two countries, but also in the interest of peace and stability in the region (of south-eastern Europe) and on the wider international scene."

It was the first visit by a Chinese defense minister to Croatia, and Chi said that it would be followed by an official visit by Croatian President Stipe Mesic to China in the near future.

Thousands of protesters are continuing demonstrations in Chisinau, paralysing the capital of the former Soviet republic of Moldova. They are demanding the resignation of the country's communist president, Vladimir Voronin, and the holding of new parliamentary elections.

The Kremlin welcomed the election of pro-Russian communists in Moldova, hoping to retain some influence in this corner of south east Europe. But against the background of the continuing protests, Russia has avoided open support for President Voronin, leaving him looking increasingly isolated.

Full story here.

ZHENGZHOU, China (AP) -- After 19 years in prison, China has freed an elderly Tibetan teacher -- a release one leading activist said was an attempt to please the United States.

Tanak Jigme Sangpo, 76, was set free Sunday from Drapchi Prison in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, said John Kamm, president of the San Francisco-based Duihua Foundation. Chinese officials said he was released on medical parole, Kamm said.

China's longest-serving political prisoner, Jigme Sangpo was arrested in September 1983 and sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of ``counterrevolutionary incitement and propaganda'' for campaigning against Chinese rule in Tibet, according to Kamm.

His sentence was extended twice after that and had been due to expire on Sept. 3, 2011, when he would be in his mid-80s. Prison authorities exempted him from physical labor several years ago because of his age, Kamm said.

U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, a prominent critic of the Chinese government, visited Beijing in January and asked Chinese officials to reconsider Jigme Sangpo's case.

``I deeply appreciate this humanitarian gesture by the Chinese,'' the California Democrat said in a statement. ``I urge the Chinese to make further progress in releasing political prisoners and restoring the human rights of its citizens.''

Jigme Sangpo was also one of five prisoners cited by U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt during a Jan. 21 speech in Hong Kong. ``Our goal is not that China should be just like Dorothy's Kansas, but we do insist that China abide by certain international norms,'' Randt said.

At least two of the prisoners he mentioned have now been set free.

Beijing has made a practice in the past year of releasing prisoners when it wants to curry favor with Washington over human rights -- the most persistent sticking point in China-U.S. relations.

To Kamm, Jigme Sangpo's release smacked of diplomatic initiative.

``It is clear to me ... that this is being done by China in order to improve relations with the United States,'' he said in a telephone interview.

Jigme Sangpo also spent nine years behind bars during China's Cultural Revolution, Lantos' office said.

With Jigme Sangpo's freedom, the political prisoner held the longest is Zhang Chengjian, who has been in prison since October 1983.

Jigme Sangpo has moved into his niece's home in Lhasa, but Chinese authorities agreed to consider a request to be treated abroad if he cannot obtain effective medical treatment in Tibet, Kamm said.

China removed all reference to counterrevolutionary crimes from its legal code in 1997 after repeated international complaints that the term was too vague. Today, the most common charge is subversion, which is used in similar cases.

According to Kamm, at the end of 1997 there were 1,900 people in prison on charges of counterrevolutionary activity. That number had fallen to 1,300 by the end of 1999. He estimates that the number of people still imprisoned on such charges is between 600 and 700.

Kamm started the Duihua Foundation after unsuccessfully trying to persuade U.S. businesses to lobby China for prisoner releases. He has been involved in the release of several political prisoners.

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) -- Saddam Hussein has increased money for the relatives of suicide bombers from $10,000 to $25,000, drawing sharp criticism from Washington. But Palestinians say the bombers are driven by a priceless thirst for revenge, religious zeal and dreams of glory -- not greed.

Since Iraq upped its payments last month, 12 suicide bombers have successfully struck inside Israel, including one man who killed 25 Israelis, many of them elderly, as they sat down to a meal at a hotel to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover. The families of three suicide bombers said they have recently received payments of $25,000.

The devout Muslims among the bombers, a majority, believe they will go to heaven as martyrs and spend eternity in the company of 72 virgins. In grainy farewell home videos, they often read passages from the Muslim holy book, the Quran, and praise God. Secular attackers know that after the deed, their families will win the adulation of friends, neighbors and strangers.

The other motive seems to be a strong yearning for revenge. Relatives of many of the bombers recall how many of the young men's formative years were spent in Israeli jails. The mother of one bomber said her son once watched Israeli soldiers beating his father.

Mahmoud Safi, leader of a pro-Iraqi Palestinian group, the Arab Liberation Front, acknowledged that the support payments for relatives make it easier for some potential bombers to make up their minds. ``Some people stop me on the street, saying if you increase the payment to $50,000 I'll do it immediately,'' Safi said. He also suggested such remarks were made mostly in jest.

Saddam has said the Palestinians need weapons and money instead of peace proposals and has provided payments throughout a year and a half of Israeli-Palestinian battles. ``I saw on Iraqi TV President Saddam saying he will continue supporting the (uprising) even if it means selling his own clothes,'' said Safi.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Saddam's payments inspire a ``culture of political murder.''

``Here is an individual who is the head of a country, Iraq, who has proudly, publicly made a decision to go out and actively promote and finance human sacrifice for families that will have their youngsters kill innocent men, women and children,'' Rumsfeld said Wednesday.

But Saddam is not the only one giving money. Charities from Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- both U.S. allies -- pay money to families of Palestinians killed in the fighting, including suicide bombers.

The mother of Jamal Nasser, a 23-year-old architecture student who died trying to ram an explosives-laden car into a bus carrying Jewish settlers, said she received a check for $10,000 from Iraq and another for $5,000 from Saudi Arabia. She said she plans to put the money toward buying an apartment. She wants to move her family from the small place they've been renting for more than 20 years. The money she received is about half the cost of a small apartment in Nablus.

Fifty-five Palestinians have blown themselves up in attacks on Israeli civilians in the past 18 months of fighting.

Under the new Iraqi payscale, decided on March 12 during an Arab conference in Baghdad, the families of gunmen and others who die fighting the Israelis will still receive $10,000, while the relatives of suicide bombers will get $25,000.

Safi and two others from the Arab Liberation Front visit families in the northern West Bank and make the payments. ``We go to every family and give them a check,'' he said. ``We tell them that this is a gift from President Saddam and Iraq.''

Baghdad, 2 April: Iraq has proposed forming an international political coalition headed by Russia to prevent US aggression against Iraq. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said this today during a round-table meeting to mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the friendship and cooperation treaty between the Soviet Union and Iraq. He said the countries in the coalition could constitute an authoritative force to speak against the USA's plans to get the UN Security Council to pass a resolution against Iraq.

Prime-TASS reports that Aziz said the USA would insist on a resolution putting under UN control the delivery of goods to Iraq not only by air and sea, but also by land. "Iraq will not be able to fulfil the provisions of such a resolution, because it would lead to the tightening of the economic blockade against the country," he said. Aziz said the USA could exploit this as the prelude to a military operation against Iraq. He said this is where Russia could play "an important role" in preventing events developing this way.

Aziz also said that if Russia became the head of the international political coalition, "it would also be protecting its own economic interests in terms of implementing joint projects with Iraq". "We are not calling on Russia to act against international law", Aziz stressed, "but asking the Russian side to explain to the world community that instituting sanctions harms economic contacts with Iraq."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al-Qaida terrorists fleeing Afghanistan have been allowed safe passage through Iran, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday, criticizing Tehran for a second straight day as a supporter of global terrorists.

``It certainly would be helpful if they were more cooperative, and they have not been, particularly,'' Rumsfeld said.

U.S. officials have said in recent months that Tehran had failed to move decisively against al-Qaida figures who fled over the western border of Afghanistan to Iran.

And they have accused Iran of secretly working with warlords and other allies in western Afghanistan to undermine the U.S.-backed administration of interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.

In a rebuke Monday, Rumsfeld said Iran, Iraq and Syria ``are inspiring and financing a culture of political murder and suicide bombing'' in the Middle East. Rumsfeld specifically accused Iran and Syria of funneling arms to Lebanon for use by terrorists and criticized Iraq for offering payments of up to $25,000 to families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

Rumsfeld was asked Tuesday to be more specific about how unhelpful Tehran has been to the Bush administration war against terrorism.

``There is no question but that al-Qaida have moved into and found sanctuary in Iran. And there is no question but that al-Qaida have moved into Iran and out of Iran to the south and dispersed to some other countries,'' he said.

``I can't think of a thing I've said that anyone by the wildest stretch of their imagination could characterize as helpful,'' Rumsfeld said at a press conference with Norwegian Defense Minister Kristin Krohn Devold. ``They're all harmful and contributing to the problems with respect to global terrorists.''

He acknowledged that the Iranian-Afghan border is porous and that it's impossible to know with certainty everything going on there.

CIA Director George Tenet also recently said in congressional testimony that the United States sought help from other countries bordering Afghanistan to which Taliban and al-Qaida have been escaping. He mentioned Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

Among those believed to have fled to Iran is key al-Qaida organizer Abu Musab Zarqawi, a U.S. official said.

Zarqawi, who goes by the alias of Ahmad Fadeel al-Khalayleh, is considered among the top 25 al-Qaida leaders. He is believed to have helped organize a foiled millennium bombing plot in Jordan and to have fled Afghanistan to Iran sometime after U.S.-led air strikes began in October. His whereabouts now are unclear, the official said.

Iran has rejected charges it is tied to the those fleeing Afghanistan.

``We have no common ground with these terrorist groups and the Taliban,'' Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar said early last month.

Asked Tuesday how the United States could get at the problem inside Iran, Rumsfeld said ``ultimately the (Iranian) people are going to have to change their circumstance.''

``The people are being repressed. They are being denied rights that most other people around the world seem to find a way to get for themselves,'' he said. ``And I suspect that the leadership in Iran will find itself with difficulties over time.''

Iran condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America and offered help uprooting terrorism. At the time, Iran also publicized opposition to Afghanistan's then-rulers, the Taliban.

Relations chilled when President Bush named Iran as part of an ``axis of evil'' with Iraq and North Korea.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty will start broadcasting to the troubled North Caucasus region this week, officials said Tuesday, after a month's delay amid concerns at angering Russia over the war in Chechnya.

Sonia Winter, a spokeswoman for the U.S. government-funded broadcaster, said the two-hour daily programming will start Wednesday, produced by nine staffers of the newly established North Caucasus service. The service will be in the regional languages Chechen, Avar and Circassian, as well as Russian.

The broadcast had been scheduled to begin Feb. 28 but was delayed at the request of the State Department on grounds it could set back efforts to start a dialogue on ending the Chechnya war.

In Washington, however, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the delay was sought to allow the department time to consult Congress on the best use of funds.

Reeker added that RFE/RL are not subordinate to the State Department and do not broadcast editorials in support of U.S. government policies. The stations attempt to provide objective reporting, he said.

Winter said Tuesday the last meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors that oversees U.S. international radio broadcasters decided to proceed with the programming and ``instructed us to go ahead.''

In January, Russia warned the U.S.-funded radio that officials will closely monitor its coverage of the war in Chechnya and may take away its license if they see a pro-rebel bias.

``We are not going to feel pessimistic at all in advance but we shall keep an eye on the programs to be broadcast in these languages,'' Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin's chief spokesman on Chechnya, said Tuesday.

Alexei Volin, deputy head of the Russian government's administration, warned that ``members of radical Chechen groups'' will use the station to encourage extremism, according to Interfax news agency.

``We take no sides in any local conflict,'' Winter said Tuesday.

Radio Free Europe is a private, nonprofit corporation that receives funding from the U.S. government. It was established in 1949 to spread pro-Western news to countries behind the Iron Curtain and to promote democratic values and institutions. It was merged in 1975 with Radio Liberty, which was broadcasting in the Soviet Union.

In 1998, the station started broadcasting to Iran and Iraq. On Jan 30, it restarted broadcasts to Afghanistan in the Dari and Pashto languages after a nearly 10-year pause as part of the U.S.-led war against terrorism.

According to the poll conducted in Serbia between March 28th and April 1st, 65% of those interviewed are in favor of independent Serbia.

TANJUG - April 2nd, 2002

Gas cuts inevitable because of obligations toward Russia's Gasprom

NOVI SAD, April 2 (Tanjug) - Serbian oil industry NIS Acting Director General Dimitrije Vukcevic said in Novi Sad on Tuesday that it was inevitable to cut the gas supply for households because of the March debts to Russia's Gasprom.

EU continues providing aid to Belgrade

BRUSSELS, Apr 2 (Tanjug) - The European Union announced Tuesday that it would continue providing economic aid to Yugoslavia as planned, without any conditions as regards deadlines and regardless of Washington's decision to freeze financial aid and support to Belgrade in international financial organizations.

French anti-globalisation activist Jose Bove faces deportation from Israel after making a dramatic show of solidarity with Yasser Arafat.

The radical farmers' leader had joined pacifists and foreign pro-Palestinian activists in visiting the besieged Palestinian leader in Ramallah on Sunday.

He is more like terrorist supporter and agent of world communism and Russian imperialism. Full story here.

KIEV, Apr 1, 2002 -- (dpa) Unknown assailants shot dead a Ukrainian candidate for parliament on the eve of elections, the Interfax news agency reported Saturday.

Mykola Skribliak, 42, was hit late Friday night by nine bullets in an ambush in the doorway to his apartment building. National parliamentary elections are scheduled in Ukraine on Sunday.

Doctors at a regional hospital pronounced Skribliak, struck several times in the torso, dead at 2.30 a.m.

Police found over 20 shells apparently expended in the assault. The attackers used at least one automatic weapon, police said.

Skribliak had been a contender in an electoral district in the western Ukrainian city Ivano-Frankivsk. He had served as vice governor of the region since 1997. During the election campaign he headed the local office of Ukraine's Social Democrat Party (SPDU).

The SPDU is closely linked with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and generally supports laws favoring business tycoons.

A statement from the government-supported For A United Ukraine (FUU) said the FUU and the Social Democrats had agreed that Skribliak would run for both parties as a joint candidate.

Ivano-Frankivsk voters generally support Ukrainian nationalist or economic reformist candidates, and are often hostile to SPDU policies and politicians.

Both the SPDU and FUU statements claimed the attack was intended to prevent Skribliak's "probable" victory in Sunday polling.

Ukraine Vice Prosecutor-General Oleksei Bahanets said police were investigating three possible motives for the attack: an attempt to skew election results, a business dispute, and simple robbery.

Ivano-Frankivsk Governor Mykola Vyshvaniuk said he was sure the murder was politically-motivated. Calling the attack a "terrorist act", Vyshvaniuk announced a 48,000-dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of Skribliak's killers - by Ukrainian standards an unprecedented sum.

Skriabnik's killing marks the first death in this year's tense parliament race in Ukraine.

Opposition candidates in recent months have complained of beatings, police and judicial harassment, and biased reporting by government-controlled media in the run-up to the vote.

Sunday's election is expected to produce a dramatic shift in the Ukrainian political landscape. Economic reformers and groups loyal to the president are battling for control of the next legislature, where the long-powerful Communists this year are predicted to face dramatic losses.

KISHINEV, Apr 1, 2002 -- (dpa) Over 50,000 anti-government marchers gathered in the Moldovan capital Kishinev Sunday, the Infotag news agency reported.

Demonstrators were protesting Communist government policies supporting the Russian language, and closer ties with Russia.

March organizers estimated the crowd at 80,000 participants. Government officials judged the crowd at 40,000.

Marchers carried placards saying "Communism to the dustbin of history", "Down with Russification", "Hello European Union, Good Bye CIS", and "The Communist party is a party of occupation".

Police did not interfere with the march, which had not been as required by law registered before hand with city authorities.

Demonstrators made no attempt to break police cordons around government buildings.

The opposition Christian Democratic Party (CDP) of Moldova used party funds to bus participants into Kishinev from all over the country. The CDP It began organizing demonstrations on an almost daily basis early this year.

Some 64 percent of Moldovans speak Romanian as a first language. The remainder almost without exception speak Russian.