RFE/RL - May 27th, 2002

MOSCOW, May 27, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) U.S. President George W. Bush called for Russian troops to show restraint while conducting military operations in breakaway Chechnya, so that civilians are not harmed.

Bush said Russian forces could learn a lesson from the way the United States and its allies are conducting their anti-terror operations in Afghanistan. Bush said the war against terrorism "can only be won by simultaneously protecting the rights of the population, particularly ethnic minorities."

After the speech, a group of Chechen mothers gave Bush a list of 10 male relatives they say disappeared during a Russian security sweep south of the Chechen capital Grozny. They said they hoped Bush would bring to the Russian president's attention what they called "unprecedented" human rights violations in Chechnya.

Russia has compared its fight with separatist rebels in the breakaway Chechen republic to the U.S. war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Independent human rights organizations have criticized Moscow for numerous alleged violations committed by Russian forces against civilians in the republic.

PLOVDIV, Bulgaria (Reuters) - Pope John Paul on Sunday will honor three priests executed by a communist firing squad in Bulgaria in 1952 as he brings to a close a five-day trip that has renewed concern over his health.

The Pope will say a three-hour mass in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city and the main town in the heartlands of the 80,000-strong Roman Catholic minority. Most of Bulgaria's eight million people are Orthodox Christians.

The Pope, who has praised Bulgaria for its tradition of religious tolerance and commended its Christians for struggling to keep their faith alive during four decades of communism, will beatify three Bulgarian Catholic clerics shot by Stalinists.

Beatification, conferred on those who lived exemplary lives, is the penultimate step before sainthood in the Church.

Kamen Vichev, Iosafat Shishkov and Pavel Dzhidzhov were convicted at a show trial in which 40 Bulgarian Catholic priests were charged with being spies of the Vatican.

They died beside Bishop Evgeni Bossilkov, who was beatified by the Pope in 1998 and is considered the first Catholic to be martyred as a direct result of the Stalinist regimes installed in Eastern Europe after World War Two.

The Church got official confirmation of Bossilkov's death only in 1975 when Bulgaria's then president visited the Vatican.

Across Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union communist regimes preached atheism and persecuted Catholics, closing churches and confiscating properties which have been gradually returned since the revolutions of 1989 restored democracy.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslavia's ruling DOS coalition said on Friday it planned to sack 50 of its deputies in the Serbian parliament who had blocked reforms by failing to turn up to vote.

Almost half are from the party of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, so the move was likely to fuel a power struggle with the other main figure in the creaking coalition, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

Kostunica and his Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) have found themselves increasingly at odds in recent months with the rest of the bloc that ousted autocrat Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and sent him to stand a U.N. war crimes trial in The Hague.

Djindjic and his allies have failed several times in recent weeks to muster a quorum to debate key reformist legislation because so many parliamentarians were absent.

``Deputies are paid to do their job like all other citizens and this is not acceptable behavior,'' Djindjic told a news conference after a meeting of the policy-setting DOS Presidency.

Kostunica denounced the plan, complaining of ``attacks and threats'' against his party and protesting that staying away from parliament was a ``legitimate political act.''

``Now we have in Serbia a system of rule by decree and poorly prepared, false reform moves,'' Kostunica said in a letter addressed to the meeting and distributed to the media.

When the plan is finalized the truant legislators would be replaced by 50 lower down the DOS list from the last general election in December 2000. A DOS official said that would mean Kostunica's DSS losing 23 deputies and gaining just 13.

It was not clear exactly how or when the scheme would be implemented, but a DOS statement said there would be some scope for investigation of why deputies were absent.

Analysts and diplomats say the coalition has been drifting ever closer to formal collapse, as camps around Djindjic and Kostunica maneuver for position in a new political landscape to replace the unwieldy 18-party bloc.

Elections for the Serbian presidency are due at the end of the year, and Kostunica wants early parliamentary elections too.

Kostunica's party has already withdrawn or lost all of its ministers in the Yugoslav and Serbian governments and launched a boycott of the DOS presidency, effectively withdrawing from the bloc in all but name.

The rift reflects differences of style and policy between Kostunica, a legalist who describes himself as a moderate nationalist, and the more pragmatic, Western-friendly Djindjic.

The presidency stopped short of setting the schism in stone by formally expelling the DSS, as some media had speculated. Djindjic said the meeting did not discuss that issue.

Yugoslavia comprises Serbia and the small coastal republic of Montenegro. It is in the process of redefining itself as a looser union of states, after Montenegro bowed to Western pressure to shelve independence plans for three years.

Corruption is rife in Yugoslavia. Stories of cigarette smuggling, of mafia backhanders, all are common here. Indeed it seems to permeate all walks of life.

Take for instance the recent case of a high school teacher in Belgrade. Miodrag Selic was arrested after offering to give one of his students better marks in exchange for a bribe.

The student - an 18 year-old who attends the "11th High School" in the city - reported the offer to the police who set up a sting operation to catch the teacher.

Full story here.

CHISINAU, May 23, 2002 -- (dpa) A Moldovan parliament member missing for more than a month was kidnapped by extremists connected with the Russian Orthodox Christian church, an opposition newspaper reported Thursday in the capital Chisinau.

Vlad Kubryakov, a member of the opposition Moldova Christian Democrat Party (MCDP), disappeared from public view in late April.

Extremists kidnapped Kubryakov in retaliation for his support of a Moldovan Christian Orthodox church unaffiliated with Moscow-based Patriarch Alexy II, the MCDP-funded newspaper Tsara reported on Thursday.

Tsara cited unidentified Moldovan intelligence officials in the report. Moldova security agencies were aware of Kubryakov's present location, but were unable to take steps to free him "because of possible complications in relations with Russia", the report said.

Mikhail Plemedele, chairman of the Moldovan parliamentary commission investigating Kubryakov's disappearance released a statement, said his group had no information corroborating the Tsara report.

Mikhail Elkin, press secretary for the Russian embassy in Chisinau, said claims linking Kubryakov's disappearance to Russian extremists would have to be "studied closely" before providing official comment.

Moldova, one of the poorest former Soviet republics, is dominated by ruling Communists. The party supports slow economic reforms and Moldovan independence.

The MCDP supports nationalist Romanian policies for Molodvan politics, and calls for the eventual absorption of Moldova into Romania.

Most of Moldova was part of Romania until the beginning of World War II.

Moldova's minority Russian speakers live in the region Trans-Dniestr. The province became part of the Russian empire in the 18th century, and seceded from Moldova after a short war in 1992.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian officials declared Thursday that this former Soviet republic will start the process to seek membership in NATO.

Yevhen Marchuk, chief of the State Defense and Security Council, said that President Leonid Kuchma attended the meeting where the decision was made and is expected to sign a corresponding document.

``Today we talked about the necessity to of developing a long-term strategy, at the end of which Ukraine should join the collective security system on which NATO is based,'' Marchuk was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Ukraine wants to officially inform NATO about its decision on July 9 during a visit by alliance Secretary-General George Robertson, Marchuk said.

He said it was early to state a target date for membership in the military alliance because Ukraine needs to bring its economy, democracy and human rights to international standards.

Russian politicians, who are sensitive about Ukraine's foreign policy and its ties with the West, took the announcement calmly.

Russian Ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin said the decision was ``the business of sovereign Ukraine,'' according to Interfax.

Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It declared itself neutral, but has actively participated in numerous NATO-sponsored exercises and U.N. peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and African states.

Ukraine's relations with NATO had irritated Russia until Russian own ties with the alliance became warmer as both sides came to understanding on international security issues, including necessity to combat global terrorism.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A former Khmer Rouge rebel commander was read formal charges of terrorism and being an accomplice to murder on Wednesday in connection with the 1994 slaying of three backpackers from Britain, France and Australia.

Sam Bith -- a fugitive from the law for more than two years -- was detained in pre-trial custody, officials said.

Security was tight at the central Phnom Penh municipal court as a frail-looking Sam Bith arrived. He was flanked by police armed with AK-47 rifles.

The 69-year-old former rebel and Cambodian army general was captured on Wednesday in northwestern Cambodia and flown to the capital Phnom Penh to face the charges.

``I read the charges to Sam Bith and returned him to custody,'' investigating judge Mong Mony Chakriya said after meeting Sam Bith in his office at the courthouse.

``He has been charged on six counts: terrorism, accomplice in the killings, damaging public and private property, robbery, illegal detention and membership of an illegal armed group.''

Sam Bith was one of three Khmer Rouge rebel commanders charged with abducting Briton Mark Slater, Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet and Australian David Wilson during a train ambush in Cambodia's southern Kampot province in July 1994.

About a dozen Cambodians were killed when the train was attacked.

The three young foreigners were marched to a nearby rebel base and held for about two months before they were killed as government forces attacked the camp.

Khmer Rouge commander Nuon Paet was jailed for life in 1999 for the killings, he maintained throughout his trial that orders came from his superior, Sam Bith.

Sam Bith -- a former deputy to feared Khmer Rouge military chief Ta Mok -- is believed to have been in charge of rebel forces in the Kampot area when the three backpackers were kidnapped, held hostage for two months then killed.

He defected to the government in 1996 and was awarded the rank of two-star general and adviser to the Ministry of Defense -- part of a national reconciliation deal to woo communist fighters back to peace.

Suspects can be held in Cambodia for up to six-months before a trial.

An estimated 1.7 million people died from torture, overwork, disease, execution and widespread famine during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge ``killing fields'' regime.

Television pictures of a policeman punching a child in the face have shocked viewers in Russia. The image was captured in Vladivostok, as police attempted to deal with a picket staged by fishermen and their families.

The footage shows a policeman involved in angry exchanges with one of the protesters, a young mother carrying her daughter in her arms. As the argument continues, the policeman advances and lashes out with his fist, punching the child in the face.

Full story here.

MOSCOW, May 21, 2002 -- (dpa) Russians pay bribes to officials worth about 37 billion dollars a year, or equivalent to half the federal budget, a leading political analyst said in Moscow Tuesday after an extensive study of the problem.

"The level of corruption in Russia has not decreased in the past ten years," said Georgy Satarov, head of the INDEM political think- tank.

Simple day-to-day dealings with bureaucrats produced 2.8 billion dollars worth of bribes, Satarov said in remarks reported by the Interfax news agency.

Another 600 million is paid unofficially to ensure good medical treatment, while 449 million dollars illegally buys acceptance to higher education institutes.

Traffic police officers cream off 368 million dollars and court officials 274 million.

Some 33.5 billion dollars is paid under the table in business affairs with only minimal risk to the giver, he said, estimating that the "reliability of corrupt deals in Russia is 98 percent".

The study was compiled on the basis of numerous interviews with former high-ranking bureaucrats, police officers and entrepreneurs.

The Berlin-based corruption watchdog "Transparency International" last week also placed Russia and China as world leaders in terms of corruption in its latest study among companies.

CHISINAU, May 16, 2002 -- (dpa) A leader of the Moldovan opposition demanded the Communist government explain allegations Chisinau illegally sold weapons abroad with the assistance of Iranian agents, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

Stefan Sekerianu, vice chairman of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CDPP), said the government should explain allegations Moldova conspired during 2000 and 2001 with leaders in the unrecognized Republic of Trans-Dniestr to sell arms and unsanctioned technologies to Iran.

Reports of possible arms smuggling links between Chisinau and Teheran first surfaced in Moldovan newspapers over the weekend.

Economic agents from Teheran stationed in Moldova took advantage of wide-spread corruption in the former Soviet republic to purchase "hydroacoustic and self-loading systems for medium- and long-range missiles", Sekerianu claimed.

The shipments, made through a Chisinau-based firm called "Reut", officially went to India but were diverted to Iran, Sekerianu said.

Russian businessmen stood behind the deals, he added, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the problem of illegal arms transfers to Iran during a recent visit with Moldovan Foreign Minister Vasyl Tarlev, he said.

There was no immediate comment on Sekerianu's allegations from the Moldovan Foreign Ministry. In past remarks Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has labeled opposition allegations of possible wrongdoing in the government "political stunts".

International watchdog groups such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) however have identified Trans-Dniestr as one of Europe's leading sources of illegal weapons transfers, and have criticized the high level of corruption in the Moldovan government.

Moldova's past and present government have little official relations with Russian speaking Trans-Dniestr, which seceded from Romanian- speaking Moldova after a short war in 1992.

Serkianu's claims of a Moldovan arms smuggling conspiracy with Iran came less than a week after media reports surfaced in neighboring Ukraine linking Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and the Iranian government with alleged illegal arms shipments to Bosnian militants during 1994.

Kuchma also was accused in March by opposition politicians and a former bodyguard of plotting to sell anti-Stealth radars to Iraq.

Kuchma and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense have denied all the allegations.

Russian businesses are the most likely foreign firms to offer bribes in developing countries, according to a new report.

The findings mark the first time that Russian companies have featured in the survey by the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.

Launching the report, the group's chairman Peter Eigen described the scale of bribery by Chinese and Russian companies as "exceptional and intolerable".

No surprises here. Full story here.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- Slobodan Milosevic wanted to reduce the number of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to ensure that the province would never gain autonomy, a Serbian politician testified Tuesday during Milosevic's war crimes trial.

Ratomir Tanic, the first of the so-called political ``insiders'' to testify against the former Yugoslav president, said he was involved, with the former leader's approval, in ``discrete political dialogue'' for several years with the Kosovo Albanians to try to reach a political settlement, but those attempts were abandoned abruptly.

Milosevic faces five counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes stemming from the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict, during which about 800,000 ethnic Albanians were driven out by Serb forces.

He also faces another 61 counts of war crimes, including genocide, for earlier conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia.

Tanic, 46, was a low-ranking official in the New Democracy party, which formed a coalition government with Milosevic's Socialists in the late 1990s. It now is in the pro-democratic coalition in Belgrade.

He described himself as a former special adviser for international affairs and Kosovo, although he admitted meeting Milosevic only a handful of times.

Tanic testified before the U.N. tribunal as a protected witness -- his image was blurred on television monitors broadcasting to a public gallery and prosecutors said he would be relocated after his testimony to protect him from reprisals.

At one point during Tuesday's hearings, Milosevic denied knowing him. While protesting the introduction of a document into evidence, Milosevic said, ``This person, who I do not know, has been saying untruths only, until now.''

Tanic said Milosevic wanted to deny the province autonomy granted under an earlier settlement and considered the high number of ethnic Albanians to be a problem.

Tanic said Milosevic created his own chain of command sidestepping constitutional authorities urging the army and police to operate lawfully.

People close to Milosevic made it clear ``the Serbian authorities should first of all, quite simply, reduce the numbers of Albanians to realistic numbers and to settle accounts with terrorism,'' Tanic told the three-judge court.

Asked by prosecutor Geoffrey Nice how this was to be achieved, Tanic said: ``Well, nothing was said. ... There is only one way to do that, and that is through ethnic cleansing. This is no speculation,'' he said.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Some 500 Maoist rebels stormed a Sanskrit university in west Nepal, set the building on fire and destroyed office records, an official said on Monday.

District officer Mathur Prasad Yadav told Reuters that the guerrillas snapped telephone lines and overpowered the night guard of the Mahendra Sanskrit University in Dang in west Nepal late on Saturday before setting the building ablaze.

``No one was injured in the incident,'' Yadav said, adding that several office rooms had been destroyed.

The rebels, who are fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy in the world's only Hindu kingdom, oppose the teaching in schools of Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language.

Nepal mobilized its troops against the guerrillas last November after the rebels walked out of peace talks and attacked police posts and government installations.

Hundreds of rebels have died in the past two weeks as the army stepped up its offensives.

Over 4,000 people have been killed in the conflict that began six years ago.

BELGRADE - Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic said Friday that the current Serbian government has nothing to do with the war crimes committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and that is why, as its president, he does not feel the obligation he has to apologize for the middeeds of the former regime to the states that emerged from the former common state.

Djindjic, reacting to the statement made Friday by US Senator Joseph Biden, who asked from the Serbian premier and from Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica to fulfil the fourth condition of apologizing, for the United States in turn to appove financial aid to Yugoslavia, reminded that the Serbian was not a government of continuity, as are the govermments of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of Croatia.

"Our government has at great risk, and thanks to the courage of millions of our citizens, broken up with the past in these territories and it is the only goverment in which do not sit representatives of the former regime and that is why I think that the demand is not appropriate," Djindjic said.

TEHERAN - Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly President Ayatollah Mehdi Karrubi has said he is satisfied with the strengthening of ties between Iran and Yugoslavia and urged parliamentary, economic and cultural cooperation.

The Iranian English-language daily Teheran Times reported on Thursday that in talks with Yugoslav Minister of National and Ethnic Communities Rasim Ljajic in Teheran, Karrubi had supported the work of a joint economic commission and said that parliamentary cooperation would help promote relations between the governments in Teheran and Belgrade.

HAVANA (AP) -- In an unprecedented challenge to Fidel Castro's 43-year-old rule, activists delivered more than 11,020 signatures to the National Assembly on Friday, demanding a referendum for broad changes in Cuba's socialist system less than two days before a visit by former President Carter.

Known as Project Varela, the signature-gathering campaign is seen as the biggest homegrown, nonviolent effort in more than four decades to push for reforms in Cuba's one-party system.

The petitions propose a referendum asking voters if they favor civil liberties like freedom of speech and assembly, and amnesty for political prisoners.

``In Cuba, change for all rights will only be achieved if the majority of Cubans decide to conquer them peacefully,'' campaign coordinator Oswaldo Paya said.

The delivery of the petitions appeared timed with the visit by Carter, who arrives Sunday for a five-day visit at Castro's invitation.

Carter, who historically has been an advocate for human rights and democracy, has been pressured by the White House and the Cuban exile community to press those themes during his trip.

Specifically, the State Department is asking him to tell Castro that it's time for a rapid and peaceful transition to democracy.

The former president also should urge Cuban officials respect their people's freedoms of speech, assembly and choice of leaders, department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday.

Carter plans to meet with Cuban activists to discuss human rights and religious matters next Thursday, his staff has said. He also may meet with petition organizers.

``The Varela Project is the most important issue former President Jimmy Carter can possibly deal with on his trip to Cuba this week,'' said Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, a powerful Miami-based lobbying group.

One of Cuba's best-known veteran activists said the campaign wouldn't necessarily spell the end of Castro.

``Project Varela does not say that the government should go, but rather that it make some modernizing changes,'' said Elizardo Sanchez, who also coordinated the campaign. ``The important thing about Project Varela is the mobilization of Cuban society ... the rupture of the culture of fear.''

``The heroes are these Cubans, more than 20,000 who signed this demand for an opening in a written declaration,'' said Paya. He said that of the 20,000 signatures activists gathered in recent months, volunteers verified 11,020 -- those that were delivered.

Paya and two other men showed up Friday morning outside the offices of the National Assembly with two white boxes labeled ``Citizen Petition.''

Two uniformed guards let them inside, where they stayed just seven minutes before delivering the petitions.

Cuba's constitution says the National Assembly should schedule a national referendum if it receives the verified signatures of 10,000 legal voters.

There was no immediate response from Castro's government.

Asked by reporters in April about the campaign, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said he doubted it would succeed and accused its organizers of being on the U.S. government payroll.

Paya, who says the project has received no money from any government or group outside Cuba.

``This is not project of the opposition, but a citizens' project to attain the rights of all Cubans,'' Paya said, reading a prepared statement. ``The world should know that we Cubans are traveling our own road to improve our society. Whoever wants to express solidarity with Cuba, and respect the self-determination of Cubans, should support this demand for a popular vote.''

According to Paya, state security agents have harassed workers on the petition drive. He said agents had confiscated several thousand signatures, but volunteers had gone out and collected more.

Named for Felix Varela, Cuban independence hero and Roman Catholic priest, the signature drive was discussed by activists here as early 1996. But it wasn't until the last year that volunteers begin collecting signatures in earnest.

Volunteers in recent months have verified signatures, visiting each person who signed and ensuring name, address and national identity documents match.

Castro was scheduled to speak live on state television Friday night to respond to U.S. charges that it is trying to develop biological weapons for transfer to countries hostile to the United States.

TOKYO, May 10, 2002 -- (dpa) Japan will soon send senior government officials to China to investigate an incident Wednesday in which the Chinese police seized five North Korean asylum-seekers who ran past guards into inside the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang without Tokyo's consent, a top government spokesman said on Friday.

The spokesman Yasuo Fukuda said Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi earlier in the day to send the high-ranking officials to the northeastern Chinese city.

The team will determine whether local Japanese staff acted properly in handling the case. The local staff have come under fire for allegedly allowing Chinese police to enter the consulate and carry on almost at will.

The Japanese government has asked Beijing to turn the apparent asylum-seekers over, claiming the Chinese police officers violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by entering the extraterritorial area of the consulate general.

The Vienna Convention stipulates the premises of diplomatic missions "shall be inviolable", and "the agents of the receiving state may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission".

Some media reports said the Japanese consulate staff only watched the Chinese officers enter the consulate and seize the North Koreans.

Fukuda criticized the Japanese staff at the Shenyang consulate for having failed to prepare for such visits of North Korean asylum-seekers.

"Similar cases have occurred in embassies based in China. So, officials at the consulate should have mapped out possible measures to take should such a case happen" on their own premises, Fukuda said.

BELGRADE - The Belgrade police on Thursday, immediately after receiving instruction from the Belgrade district court, initiated proceedings for the arrest of 17 persons indicted by war crimes tribunal in The Hague who failed to voluntarily surrender to the tribunal within the set deadline, the Belgrade police told Tanjug.

The Belgrade district court announced this morning that it had instructed the Belgrade police to take all the necessary measures to find and bring before the investigative judge all 17 suspects, sought by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The Hague tribunal arrest warrent is treated as an order for the issuing of an All Points Bulletin, Belgrade district court president Vida Petrovic-Skero said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A blast tore through a Victory Day parade in southern Russia on Thursday, killing at least 29 people, including seven children.

President Vladimir Putin described the attackers as ``scum'' who should be treated like Nazis.

He blamed the attack on ``terrorists,'' the usual Kremlin term to describe separatist rebels in Chechnya, which borders the impoverished province of Dagestan where the attack took place.

``This crime was carried out by scum who hold nothing sacred,'' a solemn Putin told a Kremlin reception after the main parade in Moscow's Red Square to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany 57 years ago.

``We have every right to treat them as Nazis, whose sole aim was to spread death, sow fear and to murder,'' he said. The audience observed a minute of silence.

Putin has made combating terrorism a rallying cry of his two-year-old rule, and says Russia is fighting the same brand of militants in Chechnya that Washington blames for the September 11 suicide attacks on the United States.

Police said a remote-controlled mine hidden in bushes exploded as a military band surrounded by children and World War Two veterans marched through Kaspiisk, a Caspian Sea port some 1,000 miles from Moscow.

Abdul Musayev, head of the interior ministry press office in Mahkachkala, said 29 people, including seven children and 14 servicemen, had died in the attack.

Itar-Tass reported that local authorities put the death toll at 30.

Police said nuts, bolts and nails in the device were designed to cause maximum injury. Security services sealed off the area as sappers checked the area for more mines.

The blast was the bloodiest since a series of apartment bombings in September 1999 killed more than 300 people.

STREET CARNAGE

Pictures broadcast by the private NTV channel showed wrecked drums and other musical instruments scattered across the blood-splattered main street in Kaspiisk.

Wounded servicemen covered in blood, their uniforms torn in the explosion, were seen on stretchers receiving treatment in hospital, while nurses tried to resuscitate one victim.

NTV correspondent Ruslan Gusarev said the blast erupted as the band was on foot, not in a bus as initial reports suggested, and surrounded by crowds of children and World War Two veterans.

``The scene is horrifying. There are body parts everywhere and an overpowering smell of blood,'' he said by telephone.

The blast came just before Putin addressed the traditional Victory Day parade outside the towering red walls of the Kremlin, urging the nation to unite to defeat the common threat as it had done to crush Adolf Hitler.

``Only by uniting the effort of the people and the state can we confront these threats,'' Putin said.

``That was well proven by the anti-Hitler coalition. The coalition countries defeated the enemy. And today, we are again uniting and finding allies against a common threat.

``Its name is terrorism.''

He summoned security chiefs to the Kremlin and ordered the head of the FSB domestic intelligence agency, Nikolai Patrushev, to lead the investigation launched by the local authorities.

``Nobody doubts that this was a terrorist act,'' Putin said after meeting his top security officials. ``In the shortest possible time, we will find, convict and punish the criminals.''

MAY DAY HOLIDAY

The May 9 Victory Day parade is the most revered public holiday in Russia.

World War Two, which Russians call the Great Patriotic War, cost 27 million lives in the Soviet Union and the victory remains one of the few achievements of the Communist era which continues to unite Russia, a vast and often fractious country.

Dagestan announced a day of mourning for Friday. Regional leader Magomedali Magomedov said the ``scoundrels'' responsible for the attack ``must be destroyed as traitors who are not letting humanity live,'' Interfax quoted him as saying.

Dagestan is no stranger to violence, bordering Chechnya where Russian troops returned in 1999 in an ``anti-terrorist'' drive to restore Moscow's control over the rebellious region.

Bombs have rocked Russian regions, mostly those close to Chechnya, since Moscow sent troops back into the secessionist province in 1999 to bring it back to its fold.

Although the authorities say the military phase of that operation is over, Russia continues to lose soldiers almost daily in ambushes and bomb attacks.

On April 28, seven people died in a bomb attack on a market in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia which also borders Chechnya. Last November, five people died in an explosion in the same city. In July 2000, another five people were killed in two blasts in provinces bordering Chechnya.

The authorities have routinely blamed the blasts on separatist guerrillas.

Editor's commentary: Since we all know that current terror campaign in Russia is orchestrated by FSB in order to blame Chechens and therefore justify Russian invasion and destruction of Chechnya it is commendable that Putin has finally decided to stand up against FSB and try to protect innocent Russian civilians from brutal FSB terror campaign. This is certainly the step into the right direction. Read more here about current FSB terror campaign. Until this day no evidence against Chechens have been found. Additional stories:

MOSCOW (AP) -- Amid the tide of patriotism sweeping across Russia in the run-up to Thursday's celebration of Victory Day, a small number of activists have been calling for a more balanced look at Soviet actions during World War II, including some ugly aspects that were swept under the rug for decades.

``The war is one of the most mythologized parts of our lives,'' said Yelena Zhemkova, executive director of the Memorial human rights group. ``We need to take a fresh look at what happened.''

The 57th anniversary of the Allied victory over the Nazis was proudly remembered across Russia with parades and pageantry. But a celebration in southern Russia turned deadly when a remote-controlled mine exploded, killing at least 20 people and injuring about 100 others. The victims included children, veterans and musicians in a military band marching down a main street in the Caspian Sea port of Kaspiisk, near the troubled breakaway province of Chechnya.

Victory Day remains one of Russia's most crucial holidays, with triumphant music and films filling the airwaves and streets blanketed in building-size banners.

But many stories of the war remain untold in Russia. Zhemkova said the Red Army's plunder of Eastern Europe as it advanced on the retreating Nazi forces in 1944-45 is one of them -- at least here, where recent western books about Soviet atrocities have not been published.

``For years, we were taught that Soviet soldiers 'liberated' Poland and other countries,'' she said. ``People would be shocked if they knew what happened ... Hundreds of babies were born as a result of rapes in Germany. No one ever talks about that.''

There is no doubt that the Soviet Union made enormous sacrifices during World War II, also known here as the Great Patriotic War. An estimated 27 million Soviet citizens were killed in the conflict, the biggest loss of any country. Entire populations were uprooted, and many towns and cities were razed to the ground.

That sense of national pride is still very much alive 57 years after the conflict ended, even as the number of surviving veterans shrinks yearly.

But a handful of Russians are pushing for a re-examination of the war in light of new information and documentary evidence. They are drawing attention to Soviet actions that were covered up, or simply ignored, in official histories of the conflict.

Generations have been taught that the war started on June 22, 1941, when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union -- glossing over the secret Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939, in which the two sides agreed not to attack one another and, in a secret addendum, to partition Poland.

One of the more tragic legacies involved Soviet prisoners of war and others used as slave labor in Nazi Germany, said Lazev Lazerev, a WWII veteran and literary critic. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin accused them of ``collaborating'' with the enemy and had many killed or shipped off to Siberian prison camps after the war.

``Soviet POWs were in the worst position,'' Lazerev said. ``When they came home, they were unjustly accused, and continued their life in Soviet camps.''

Lazerev said books and articles are available to Russians who want to learn more about World War II, but he complained that state television, still a key source of information for many Russians, continues to show World War II films that are short on facts.

``What worries me is that all this television and these old movies are stirring up nostalgia,'' he said.

BELGRADE - President of Serbian DHS Party, Vladan Batic said today that 100,000 signatures have been collected for independent Serbia, enough to call for referendum about status of Serbia.

BELGRADE, May 8, 2002 -- (dpa) Serbian opposition leaders have traveled to Iraq, apparently to raise funds from President Saddam Hussein's regime, the private Belgrade daily Danas said Wednesday, quoting "reliable sources".

According to the report, the nationalist Serbian Radical Party chief, Vojislav Seselj, and Zivorad Igic, a high official of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, began their ten-day visit on May 3.

Eyewitnesses said that Seselj and Igic were seen in a Baghdad hotel with the former Yugoslav trade minister, Borisa Vukovic, who was believed to have developed close relations with the Iraqi regime at the time when both countries were under international sanctions.

The report alleged Vukovic was the middleman for the expected transfer of funds to the two parties, but gave no concrete details.

The previous time Seselj visited Baghdad, his arrival was announced in the local media, he gave speeches and met Saddam Hussein, whereas the ongoing visit remained secretive, Danas said.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Thursday summoned China's ambassador to protest after two people, thought to be North Koreans, were detained by Chinese police after rushing into the Japanese consulate in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the ambassador had replied to the summons and met Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi for five to 10 minutes at the ministry.

Two people scaled the wall of the U.S. consulate in Shenyang Wednesday while five more tried to rush Japan's consulate in the same city. Two of the five made it into Japan's diplomatic compound before being taken into custody.

The episode comes as Tokyo and Beijing were seeking to repair the damage done to ties by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit in April to a war dead shrine where war criminals are also honored.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Reversing decades of Justice Department policy, the Bush administration has told the Supreme Court for the first time that it believes the Constitution protects an individual's right to possess firearms.

At the same time, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer said the high court need not test that principle now.

The administration's view represents a reversal of government interpretations of the Second Amendment going back some 40 years.

"The current position of the United States ... is that the Second Amendment more broadly protects the rights of individuals, including persons who are not members of any militia or engaged in active military service or training, to possess and bear their own firearms," Solicitor General Theodore Olson wrote in two court filings this week.

That right, however, is "subject to reasonable restrictions designed to prevent possession by unfit persons or to restrict the possession of types of firearms that are particularly suited to criminal misuse."

Fully story here.

PARIS (AP) -- Diplomat and behind-the-scenes presidential adviser, Dominique de Villepin returns to the place where he began his political career 22 years ago: the gilded halls of the French Foreign Ministry.

After serving as one of conservative President Jacques Chirac's most trusted aides for the past seven years, de Villepin was appointed as France's new foreign minister Tuesday.

He has been chief of staff at the presidential Elysee Palace since Chirac was first elected president in 1995.

While a top Chirac confidant, de Villepin was behind what has been widely seen has Chirac's biggest miscalculation as president: the 1997 dissolution of parliament. It brought a Socialist-led government to power and began five years of unwieldy ``cohabitation'' -- a situation that arises when the president and prime minister hail from different parties.

Numerous people in Chirac's entourage urged the president to fire him, but Chirac consistently refused to oust de Villepin.

``It is rare to meet a man like him,'' Chirac was quoted as saying by Le Monde newspaper, saying he admired de Villepin for his leadership qualities as well as his poetry.

It was de Villepin who appeared on national television Monday to announce Chirac's selection of centrist lawmaker and former businessman Jean-Pierre Raffarin as France's new prime minister.

On Tuesday, Raffarin named de Villepin and other ministers to an interim Cabinet that is expected to hold office at least until France's parliamentary elections next month.

The son of a former French senator and a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration -- France's elite school for civil servants -- de Villepin began his political career in 1980 when he was put in charge of southern Africa at the Foreign Ministry. He later served as a foreign policy adviser on the Middle East and spokesman for the French Embassy in Washington.

He also is a prolific author and published poet.

Baghdad, 7 May, correspondent Pavel Davydov: A high-level Russian delegation has arrived in Baghdad to take part in the 7th international conference on solidarity with Iraq.

Among its members are the deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma and Liberal Democratic Party faction leader, Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, the Federation Council member and coordinator of the Russian-Arabic Interparliamentary Union, Ramazan Abdulatipov, the State Duma deputy and former defense minister Igor Rodionov, the former head of the Russian General Staff, Mikhail Moiseyev, and other public figures.

"We came to Baghdad to support our friends in difficult times, when emotional statements are made about Iraq and the date of a military attack is discussed practically in the open," Abdulatipov told RIA. Russia's stance in that matter is absolutely clear, he said. It has been stated many times, at the highest level as well.

"Everything should be done not to allow a military action against Iraq to take place," Zhirinovskiy told RIA. It is not in Russia's interests, he said. Moscow will benefit from developing relations with Baghdad.

MOSCOW, May 7, 2002 -- (dpa) In a revisitation of Soviet-era restrictions on foreigners' movements, the Russian government imposed a travel ban on another "strategically important" region in the country's resource- rich north, the Itar-Tass news agency reported Tuesday.

The upper part of the Yamal-Nenets region is now only accessible to foreigners with special permission from the FSB Federal Security Service. The area holds some of Russia's largest oil and gas fields.

The measure follows a similar ban imposed last November to the nickel-producing town of Norilsk in the Arctic circle. Local airlines may no longer sell foreigners tickets to these areas without FSB approval.

Russia has become increasingly sensitive about access to its natural resources.

Last month the government also classified information about the country's reserves of crude oil and some rare metals as a state secret. Revealing state secrets carries up to four years imprisonment.

CHISINAU, May 7, 2002 -- (dpa) Officials in the unrecognized republic Trans-Dniestr on Monday blocked the exit of a Russian army train loaded with ammunition, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russian-speaking Trans-Dniestr seceded from Romanian-speaking Trans-Dniestr after a short war in 1992. Moscow has promised to remove its 1,500 soldiers and to close the three Soviet-era munitions depots it still maintains in the region by the end of the 2002.

Trans-Dnestrian officials halted a train loaded with an estimated 500 tons of artillery shells and rockets and equipment attempting to exit the Russian army's Kolbasna depot, the region's largest.

Experts estimate Russia army warehouses in Trans-Dniestr hold some 40,000 tons of munitions, some dating back to before World War Two.

Trans-Dniestr last year agreed to Russian troop and equipment draw-downs in exchange for Moscow's cancellation of 100 million dollars' debt owed by Trans-Dniestrian firms to the Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom.

Trans-Dniestr's leaders stopped the Russian army munitions train on Monday because the Russian government had promised to pay Gazprom for Trans-Dniestr's old debt, but had not done so, the report said.

Trans-Dniestrian strongman leader Igor Smirnov has repeatedly stalled Russian troop drawdowns on the grounds his government is not being compensated fairly for its share of the Soviet-era military materials in the region, and because Trans-Dniestr needs the weapons to protect itself from Moldovan attack.

Moldova's government accuses Smirnov of delaying the region's demilitarization because of the Trans-Dniestrian government's close close involvement with smugglers moving oil, cigarettes, narcotics, weapons and slaves to Europe.

MOSCOW, May 6, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) Chief Military Prosecutor Mikhail Kislitsyn announced on 30 April that he has sent to the courts a criminal case against former KGB General Oleg Kalugin, who presently lives in the United States, Russian news agencies reported.

Kislitsyn told journalists that he signed an indictment against Kalugin charging him with "high treason in the form of divulging a state secret." He added that, "because Kalugin has repeatedly ignored our calls to appear for interrogation and has stated that he will not appear in a Russian court, his case may be heard by the court in abstentia."

However, Kalugin said that the real reason for the prosecutor-general's action against him may be Kalugin's recent interview on Russian television in which he suggested that the apartment-building bombings in Moscow, Volgodonsk, and Buinaksk in the fall of 1999 may have been carried out by the Federal Security Service (FSB).

MOSCOW, May 6, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) A Russian official says almost half of prisoners in Russia's overcrowded jails suffer from various illnesses -- most of them mental.

The Interfax news agency today quotes Deputy Justice Minister Yury Kalinin as saying 460,000 of 962,000 prisoners are ill. Kalinin said some 305,000 inmates - or nearly one-third - have mental illnesses.

Kalinin said some 92,000 prisoners suffer from tuberculosis, and 33,600 have HIV - the virus that causes AIDS.

Kalinin said prison administrators do not have the facilities to keep ill prisoners separate from the rest of the prisoners, and therefore only those deemed dangerous to others are isolated.

The conditions in Russian jails are regularly denounced by human rights organizations and other bodies, including the Council of Europe, of which Russia is a member.

BEIJING, May 6, 2002 -- (dpa) Police in southwestern China have detained a popular Tibetan Buddhist leader and may have linked him to two bomb explosions in the area, the London-based Tibet Information Network (TIN) said on Monday.

Local monks and residents in the Kardze region of Sichuan province have not seen Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche since he was detained in early April, possibly with three of his students, TIN said.

"Reports from the area suggest that the authorities may have charged the Rinpoche with involvement in three bomb explosions in the Kardze prefecture, and also with a minor bomb explosion that occurred in Chengdu (the provincial capital) on 3 April," it said.

Allegations against the 52-year-old Rinpoche - a reverent title for a senior Tibetan religious leader - appeared to be "very vague", Tibet sources told the group.

"They are not saying that he planted the bombs but that he was involved in some sort of conspiracy," it quoted one Tibetan as saying.

"The authorities in Kardze are known to have been concerned for some time about Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche's influence in the area, and they may also have suspicions of his connections to the Dalai Lama," TIN said.

The Rinpoche came into conflict with local authorities several times in the 1980s and 1990s, when he supported the reconstruction of several smaller monasteries, and helped to provide homes and education for poor children.

When he fled the area in 1998, after he was accused of setting up new monasteries without approval, Chinese and Tibetan residents petitioned the local government to allow him to return.

But similar charges and restrictions on his activities followed in 2000, TIN said.

At least two other local Tibetan Buddhist leaders have been detained or removed from their posts, it said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday accused three more states -- Libya, Syria and Cuba -- of pursuing weapons of mass destruction and warned it would take action to ensure they do not supply terrorists with such arms.

In a speech entitled ``Beyond the Axis of Evil,'' Undersecretary of State John Bolton said in addition to Iraq, Iran and North Korea -- which President Bush several months ago branded an ``axis of evil'' -- there were other ``rogue states'' out to acquire weapons of mass destruction, particularly biological weapons.

``America is determined to prevent the next wave of terror,'' Bolton, who oversees international security policy, told the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, in a reference to the Sept. 11 attacks that killed around 3,000 people.

``States that sponsor terror and pursue WMD (weapons of mass destruction) must stop,'' he said. ``States that renounce terror and abandon WMD can become part of our effort. But those that do not can expect to become our targets.''

He said there was ``no doubt that Libya continues its long-standing pursuit of nuclear weapons,'' as well as chemical weapons, biological weapons and ballistic missile capability.

``We are concerned about Syrian advances in its indigenous CW (chemical weapons) infrastructurepursuing development of biological weapons and is able to produce at least small amounts of biological warfare agents.''

Bolton, calling Cuba's threat to U.S. security ''underplayed,'' said Washington believes the communist government there ``has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort (and has) provided dual-use technology to other rogue states.''

He said he was making these charges public for the first time but refused to name the states Cuba has supplied, citing a need to protect U.S. intelligence sources.

MISSING LINKS

Bolton made only scant mention in his speech of Russia and China, two nuclear powers whose alleged willingness to transfer nuclear, missile and other technology to Iran, Iraq and other states has long been a U.S. concern, prompting sanctions.

In response to a question, Bolton called Russia and China ''unquestionably the two largest sources of proliferant behavior internationally'' and noted the administration is discussing changes in proliferation policy with both countries.

Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran, a subject of Bolton's talks in Moscow last week, will be a ``factor'' in Bush's' summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in two weeks, Bolton said.

But he echoed other officials in voicing optimism Bush and Putin would sign a new ``strategic framework'' slashing nuclear weapons and strengthening nonproliferation measures.

According to Bolton, many states on the U.S. target list signed multilateral arms control accords, like those banning biological and chemical arms, but routinely violate them.

Libya, which the U.S. says produced 100 tons of chemical weapons, has expressed interest in joining the Chemical Weapons Convention. But Bolton was skeptical, saying Libya signed the BW Convention in 1982 but has continued its BW program.

Bolton made no specific threats of military action, saying the United States would concentrate on exposing violators and working with other countries to halt proliferation.

The United States would also crack down on suspect shipments, front companies and financial institutions that launder funds for weapons proliferation, he said.

And it will demand more effective use and enforcement of arms control and nonproliferation treaties and export control regimes, Bolton said.

BELGRADE - Extended non-working holidays of May Day and Easter will result in a drop of industrial production in May this year by 5 to 6 pct and a profit loss of hundreds of millions of dinars, Serbian Finance Minister Bozidar Djelic said Monday. Djelic said at a press conference that, according to the first calculations of the Insitute of Economy in Belgrade, a drop of industrial production in May will be the result of the extended period of non-workign holidays, although the government had opposed connecting May Day and Easter.

PARIS (Reuters) - France dealt a landslide defeat to Jean-Marie Le Pen in its presidential election on Sunday, returning conservative Jacques Chirac with more than four fifths of the vote in an outpouring of opposition to the extreme right.

With virtually all ballots counted, Gaullist leader Chirac, 69, had just over 82 percent of the runoff vote to just under 18 percent for his anti-immigrant, anti-European Union rival.

It was the widest winning margin in the 44-year history of France's Fifth Republic, but more a referendum against the far right than an expression of support for Chirac and his policies.

World leaders were quick to hail the outcome, voicing relief that voters had mobilised to see off what they regarded as a racist threat and restore some shine to France's image abroad.

``It is a victory for democracy and a defeat for extremism and the repellent policies Le Pen represents,'' Prime Minister Tony Blair said in Britain, where the far right won a toehold in municipal elections last week.

Blair's minister for Europe Peter Hain said however the advance of Le Pen had been a warning that European leaders should pay more attention to creating jobs and fighting crime and be less to ``navel-gazing'' over EU institutions.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, facing polls himself in September, hailed what he called a clear rebuff to the politics of extremism, while Washington sent Chirac its congratulations.

French newspapers, united behind Chirac for a head-to-head runoff that rallied the entire mainstream to the incumbent, were similarly relieved at the defeat of National Front chief Le Pen.

``PHEW'' was the one-word banner headline that blared from the front page of left-leaning daily Liberation on Monday. ''Immense Victory,'' read the headline of conservative newspaper Le Figaro.

Others, however, remained disturbed so many voters backed a man who once called the Nazi gas chambers a ``detail'' of history.

``The good news is that he was defeated,'' said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. Jewish group that fights religious and ethnic discrimination.

``The bad news, the sad news, is that one out of five French voters ignored the fact, or it didn't matter, or they liked the fact that he was a racist, a bigot, an anti-Semite.''

LE PEN UNBOWED

Le Pen, 73, stunned Europe on April 21 when he edged past Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in a first-round ballot to enter the runoff with 16.9 percent of the vote on a platform that played on widespread discontent with mainstream politics.

Unbowed by the voters' crushing verdict in what was probably his last run at the presidency, the veteran populist called the outcome a ``stinging defeat for French hopes'' and pledged to fight another day at parliamentary elections in June.

``I won't have to wait long to see the allies of this morbid coalition tear themselves apart,'' Le Pen said of his opponents.

His heir apparent Gollnisch rounded on French media for treating him as a pariah: ``Jean-Marie Le Pen was made out to be a monster, a hybrid between Frankenstein and Hitler.''

Relief was palpable in France's immigrant population of North African origin, western Europe's biggest Muslim community.

``For Algerians in France it's a victory,'' said Fatima Helal, who was waving an Algerian flag among thousands who turned out in the rain to cheer Chirac in Paris's Place de la Republique.

``But now Chirac has to do more to take care of immigrants.''

CHIRAC ISSUES PLEDGES ON CRIME, JOBS

Chirac, dogged by allegations of corruption and saddled for the last five years with a Socialist-led government in a power-sharing arrangement that paralyzed policy making, won only 19.9 percent in the first round, a record low for an incumbent.

He acknowledged in a speech to cheering supporters in Paris on Sunday that he also owed his victory to voters of the left and pledged action on public concerns that helped to boost Le Pen's first round score -- chief among them crime and jobs.

``One can scarcely say that this is a victory for the right. It's a victory for France,'' said Serge Lepeltier, general secretary of Chirac's Rally for the Republic (RPR) party.

Turnout was above 80 percent, well up on the first round when a record 28 percent of voters stayed at home.

France's Socialists and their Communist and Greens party allies claimed credit for two weeks of massive street protests against Le Pen and now want to turn that into victory at elections to a new National Assembly on June 9 and 16.

At least one opinion poll, however, forecast that Chirac would now go on to win a center-right majority in the 577-seat lower house, assuring him of a government of his choosing.

The Sofres poll, conducted just ahead of Sunday's vote, gave some 301 seats to the Chirac camp to around 252 for leftist parties. It also said the extreme right would enter the National Assembly for the first time since 1988 with up to three seats.

Chirac is due to name a transitional government after Jospin resigns on Monday in a step that will set the tone for his June campaign. The main favorites for the job of interim prime minister are provincial moderate Jean-Pierre Raffarin and ambitious Gaullist Nicolas Sarkozy.

Financial analysts said uncertainty over which way France would vote in June would continue to weigh on sentiment, with little prospect that whatever government emerges will have much scope for economic reforms seen as crucial to France's future.

The 12-nation euro currency, which wobbled after Le Pen's shock breakthrough into the second round two weeks ago, was steady at around $0.917 in early Asian trading on Monday. But dealers were concerned that Chirac would have little appetite for sensitive reforms to pensions and labor laws.

``I'm not overly convinced the events at the weekend over the longer term are particularly good news for euro and euro reform,'' said Westpac senior currency strategist Robert Rennie.

Among many voters, however, the immediate reaction was one of happiness that a challenge to France's cherished values of liberty, equality and fraternity had been beaten off.

``The French people wanted to teach the politicians a lesson in the first round but this time they wanted to boot out the extreme right and they did it,'' said Dany-Lois Sabarroli, 54, a teacher in Paris who said she voted for Chirac in both rounds.

``It's a victory for democracy.''

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi publicly left her house for the first time in 19 months Monday after she was freed from house arrest.

Suu Kyi drove a white Toyota sedan from her lakeside villa to the headquarters of her National League for Democracy, where thousands of supporters gave her a tumultuous welcome, chanting ``Long Live Aung San Suu Kyi.''

It took the car about 15 minutes to inch its way through the crowd toward the ramshackle building housing her party office where she planned to address a news conference later Monday.

Party members linked arms to form an aisle in the crowd for Suu Kyi to walk to the office. Others used loudspeakers to urge onlookers to make way for Suu Kyi, who arrived wearing a peach colored jacket and sarong and flowers in her hair.

Earlier in the day, Myanmar's ambassador to Washington told The Associated Press in a telephone interview: ``With regard to Aung San Suu Kyi, I have been informed that she is at liberty to carry out all her activities, including matters concerning her party, as of May 6, 2002.''

The end of Suu Kyi's detention had been widely expected for days following U.N.-brokered negotiations aimed at breaking a 12-year political deadlock in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy movement during which Suu Kyi came into prominence.

The government put her under house arrest in 1989 and called general elections in 1990, which were won by her party. However, the junta refused to hand over power.

She was released in 1995 but was prohibited from traveling outside Yangon. She was put under virtual house detention again in September 2000 after two high-profile attempts to leave Yangon.

She is rumored to have been escorted at least once out of the house for a meeting with junta leaders but there were no witnesses and it was never officially acknowledged by either side.

In a written statement released earlier Monday, government spokesman Col. Hla Min said Monday would mark ``a new page for the people of Myanmar and the international community.''

The statement did not mention Suu Kyi by name, but said: ``We shall recommit ourselves to allowing all of our citizens to participate freely in the life of our political process, while giving priority to national unity, peace and stability of the country as well as the region.''

It said the government has released nearly 600 detainees in recent months and shall continue to release those ``who will cause no harm to the community.''

Separately, Hla Min told the AP by telephone that Suu Kyi will be allowed to travel.

``She can travel. We will sort of cooperate because she is a prominent person. The government is responsible for her security,'' he said.

Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her democracy struggle, began reconciliation talks in October 2000, brokered by U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, who also predicted major political changes after his latest visit to the country last month.

But he also advised caution -- echoed by other observers -- that Suu Kyi's release will not mean an overnight return of democracy after 40 years of military rule.

Still, the release will be a symbolic acknowledgment of the government's willingness to consider the National League for Democracy as a legitimate political party and a partner in nation building.

Suu Kyi's release has been one of the main demands of the West, which has placed severe economic sanctions on the impoverished country to force political change.

BELGRADE, May 3, 2002 -- (dpa) One of Serbia's wealthier businessmen, Milija Babovic, returned home nearly six weeks after he was kidnapped in Belgrade, local media reported Friday.

Reports speculate that his family paid millions of dollars for ransom, but there was no official statement, either from him, or the police.

A heavy police presence was visible around his home in the elite quarter of Dedinje.

Babovic, the owner of a Peugeot car dealership and other businesses, was snatched on March 27 by three men with automatic weapons.

More than 40 kidnappings were reported last year, overwhelming the Serbian police and forcing it to seek help from European colleagues with more expertize, mostly Austrians and Germans.

It is believed that many kidnappings were never reported and ended with quiet payoffs.

MINSK, May 3, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) The Independent Institute of Socioeconomic and Political Studies (NISEPI) found in a poll conducted in April among 1,464 Belarussian that President Alyaksandr Lukashenko's approval rating stood at 31 percent, significantly lower than the 45 percent recorded shortly before the 9 September 2001 presidential election, Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarussian Service reported on 30 April.

"The main reason [for this drop in Lukashenko's popularity] is of course the deteriorating economic situation of the country and the population," NISEPI Director Aleh Manayeu commented.

"More than 60 percent of respondents said they were more than once affected by untimely payments of wages and pensions, while more than 35 percent said they cannot suffer [from the economic situation] any longer.

In addition, Lukashenko has not fulfilled his election promises, including those regarding economic liberalization."

KATHMANDU, May 3, 2002 -- (dpa) Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London in the middle of May, officials said Friday.

Prime Minister Deuba is leaving for Washington on Sunday for a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush before going to New York to attend the United Nations special session on children.

Deuba will meet Bush at the White House on Tuesday, the first Nepalese prime minister in almost four decades to meet a U.S. president.

Dr. Praskash Sharan Mahat, a political aide to Deuba, said the meeting with Blair is to take place in London on May 13.

The United States and the United Kingdom have both supported the Nepalese government's campaign against the Maoist insurgency and have pledged help to Nepal.

Deuba's talks with the two top Western leaders are expected to center on military aid to support the government's quest to quell the insurgency.

Dr. Tulsi Giri, then Nepal's Chairman of the Council of Ministers, met president John F. Kennedy in Washington in the early 1960s.

BEIJING, May 1, 2002 -- (dpa) China is using methods including imprisonment and torture to repress growing labor unrest, and denying workers basic rights such as freedom of association and expression, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

"Protests by angry workers over layoffs, wage arrears, poor working conditions, and management corruption have been met with repression and force," the London-based rights group said in a report released on the eve of International Labor Day on May 1.

"Clashes between workers and armed police have resulted in casualties and arrests. Such demonstrations are often unreported as the local authorities attempt to conceal the severity or extent of the protests," Amnesty said.

Police have detained and beaten many labor activists and supporters during or immediately after protests, usually releasing them after short detentions, it said.

But some organizers have been formally charged and imprisoned for long periods.

"Journalists and lawyers face intimidation and arrest if they speak out in defense of the workers", it said.

Amnesty highlighted the case of Cao Maobing, a labor activist in a silk factory in Funing, Jiangsu province, who said he was sent to a psychiatric unit for seven months last year.

Cao said he was forcibly given drugs and electric shock treatment after he led a strike and tried to fight alleged corruption at his factory.

Amnesty also published a list of people imprisoned for up to 13 years for attempting to defend labor rights in China, where independent trade unions are illegal.

A Chinese government spokesman rejected the Amnesty report but admitted China had "huge pressure of unemployment".

"This organization often issues irresponsible and incorrect reports that do not reflect the truth," foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan said.

On Monday, state media said China's urban unemployment was likely to rise by some five million annually in the next four years, bringing the most serious problem of surplus labor for 50 years.

Labor minister Zhang Zuoyi last month said there were already some 20 million urban residents, including eight million workers who newly entered the labor force and 5.15 million laid-off workers, "waiting for jobs" at the end of last year.

Several organizers were arrested after thousands of current and former state workers protested over severance agreements, pension rights and unpaid wages in two cities in northeastern China last month.

But Kong played down the protests in the northeast. "As far as I know, the situation there is now being solved in a responsible manner," he said.