The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 1

HOLIDAY PfflafL SUMVAL GUIDE vZ MIRACLE OF A CENTURY NEWSEXlf in HUE (2 OH QtfZD JHIMI5M i VW 74 rYi to a gtoraa of protests want them? Now! Why do we want them? 30,000 reasons!" The Latvian Government, meanwhile, said it had started a criminal investigation of Mr Kalejs and called for international help in gathering evidence. In a statement issued in London, it said that if "enough evidence confirming the guilt of Mr Kalejs" were gathered, Latvia would consider requesting his extradition from Australia. Mr Straw said Australia was the correct jurisdiction in which to try Mr Kalejs and that Australia had appropriate legislation for dealing with suspected war criminals. Lord Janner, the former secretary of the British Parliament's war crimes group, called on Australia to "actively go and seek new evidence" against Mr Kalejs. "We want them to collect the evidence, charge him and send him to prison for the rest of his days," he said.

The Federal A suspected war criminal returns amid demands for his case to be reopened. By SIMON MANN LONDON and JANINE MacDONALD CANBERRA Australia faces growing international pressure over its.treatment of the suspected war criminal Konrads Kalejs who flew'into Melbourne last night after fleeing Britain amid a storm of controversy. Britain's Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said he was satisfied "on the balance of probabilities" that 86-year-old Mr Kalejs, an Australian citizen, was "complicit in war The Federal Expect a bigger surplus: Bracks By MEAGHAN SHAW Victorians can expect a much larger Budget surplus, stronger economic growth and lower unemployment than forecast this financial year, the Premier and Treasurer, Mr Steve Bracks, said yesterday. Releasing the mid-year Budgd review, Mr Bracks said the 1999-2009 operating surplus before abnorrrna) items was expected to $720.0 million $592.1 millia more than the $128.7 million surpltiS predicted by the Kennett Goverli ment in May last year. The revised Budget also predictefl Victorian economic growth would be 3.25 per cent, up from 2.75 per cent forecast in the May Budget.

Mr Bracks said the Budget review covering the transition from the coalition to Labor showed there was enormous confidence in the Victorian economy and in his new Government. He said the key driver of the economic growth was the high level of consumer confidence that led to increased private spending and housing construction. "This has been underlined by the recent pre-Christmas retail sales, with the industry predicting turnover for December of $3.5 billion a 7 per cent increase over the previous year," he said. The revised Budget predicted an unemployment rate of 7 per cent compared with an earlier forecast of 7.5 per cent, with employment expected to rise by 2 per cent, compared with 1 per cent. Mr Bracks said the Government still needed to do more to achieve Its unemployment target of 5 per cent over four years.

The mid-year review included $76 million to pay for the Government's election promises this financial year such as $17.5 million for health initiatives. It did not include $64.3 million of election commitments promised for this year but not yet implemented. Savings cuts of $45.6 million from the reduction of public-sector wastt would partly pay for the Government's initiatives. But the Budget shows the Government's savings measures would reap $28.3 million less over four years than it forecast in its election policies. Mr Bracks said the GST could have a significant effect on the Victorian economy and its growth forecast, as would movements in the Unitefl States or Asian economies.

The Opposition Leader, Dr Denis Napthine, said the rosy outlook felt the economy wasj built on the Kennett Government's work and showed its sound economic man-agement. i 1 IS' I 'fkVa t' 1 i V'y rfi -f Miir. i -'IN Opposition joined the British Government and Jewish groups in calling for a new investigation into Mr Kalejs' wartime activities. Campaigners warned that there would be international outrage if Australia, which abandoned its investigation into Mr Kalejs in 1998, simply let the matter rest. But the Govern Opposition, which shut down Australia's war crimes unit when it was in power in 1992, reversed its position yesterday and said investigations into Mr Kalejs' war-time activities must be resumed immediately.

The acting Opposition Leader, Mr Simon Crean, said the Government must find the political INSIDE NEWS EXTRA: The flight of Konrads Kalejs. NEWS 5: Investigators in battle over Kalejs case. A survivor who cannot forget will to urge the Australian Federal Police to "actively seek out new evidence" against Mr Kalejs. The Premier, Mr Steve Bracks, who said yesterday he was "not pleased" that Mr Kalejs was back in Melbourne, repeated his call for the Federal Government to investigate Mr Kalejs. Mr Kalejs was spirited out of Britain early on Thursday when he was driven to London's Heathrow Airport in a convoy of police vehicles.

Looking frail and drawn, he declined to speak with waiting reporters, before boarding Singapore Airlines flight 319. An Australian citizen since 1957, he has twice been deported to Australia from the United States ment insisted there would be no new inquiry unless someone came forward with new evidence against Mr Kalejs, who is accused of being a Latvian death squad commander during World Warll. "People can jump up and down and say there ought to be more investigations," said the Immigration Minister, Mr Philip Ruddock. "What you would be looking for is substantial evidence by people who have first-hand knowledge and are able to say that they saw certain events take place." Protesters rallied at Melbourne Airport last night to protest against Australia's acceptance of Mr Kalejs. Earlier, they gathered outside the Immigration Department's offices in Lonsdale Street, chanting: "What do we want? War trials! When do we Continued page Flying home: Deported by the US and Canada and unwanted in Britain, Konrads Kalejs flies to Melbourne.

picture, mike forster Will there be light at the end of the tunnel? 1. M-H-f-r MURRAY MOTTRAM ON NOW AT CROWN the tunnel builders, Transfield-Obayashl Joint Venture, have effectively nailed a section of the concrete base to the rock below with steel rods up to 1 1 metres long. They hope this will solve the problem of the floor cracking as ground water jets shoot up through fractures in the base rock at a pressure equivalent to three times that of a car tyre. 1 At the same time, a taskforce of TOJV engineers and a team of experts brought In by the project's overseer, the Office of the Independent Reviewer, are trying to work out exactly how the tunnel's supposedly waterproof PVC membrane Is being penetrated. Jeff Kennett, even by his standards, was exuberant.

Sixty-five metres below Olympic Park, the Premier's vision of an unbroken freeway from the south-eastern suburbs to Tullamarine was being hewn into rocky reality. It was 28 January 1998 and Mr Kennett was taking the photo opportunity of a City Link milestone. As the last wall of rock In the Burnley Tunnel between St Kllda Road and Swan Street was knocked over, he could not hide his excitement. "In less than two years from now this will be one of the most frenetic arteries and one of the longest freeway tunnels anywhere In the world," Mr Kennett said. "My only regret Is that we can't have four-and-a-half million Victorians actu- So you think you know business? What Orica used to be Last name of business tax architect Readers of The Age business pages today can test their knowledge of the field against Malcolm Maiden's summer quiz on Page 16.

Today's Business section starts on Page 15. ally down here sharing the experience." Now, Just 1 1 days before the toll road builders are contracted to have the tunnel open, no one can say when the state's motorists will be cruising the three-lane underground exit from the city to the Monash Freeway. The answer depends on a repair job being carried out on the- tunnel's concrete floor, not far from where Mr Kennett stood Just under two years ago. Aided by a British expert, Scud: 111 be playing Davis Cup 7-23 JANUARY, 2000 SPORT 20: Report 1 Continued page 4 II I qeamn Qgpggg OTPIfft iXflneday. fPT YviV-UoWni far tte moderated 3 --v.

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