The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 8

THE AGI TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 1991 World News In Brief White House reviewing the options lssMire t6-6iist 1 Si to; To believe that any existing dissident movement or Individual Is now capable of wresting power from President Saddam and his clique Is delusion, they said, Independent Western groups have complained that the sanctions are working against the wrong people, Imposing grave hardship on Iraqi citizens. A group of IS Democratic and two Republican senators cited these hardships in a letter to Mr Bush last Monday seeking strong US action to force President Saddam's compliance with a United Nations plan for food distribution. Iraq refused to consent during negotiations in Bagdad last week. British officials have said that as long as Iraq continues to comply with UN inspection and monitoring requirements, neither London nor other European capitals will support Western attempts to overthrow President Saddam. In Turkey, where permission for allied forces to operate from Turkish air bases in support of Kurdish rebels Is due to lapse on 1 January, there Is little enthusiasm for actions that would embolden the Kurds in northern Iraq to press harder for an independent state.

The US military will not push for a formal extension of the Turkish agreement because experts do not accept Kurdish claims that President Saddam's forces may move against them during the winter, officials said. Washington Post for a more active approach to the Iraqi problem than sanctions. "A lot of people here have been uncomfortable about the state of affairs Inside Iraq," one official said. "The last thing you want Is a kind of Rhodesia (outcome) where sanctions took years to have any effect There Is a lot of Interest In finding more active roles to play In Iraq," be said, Including helping disaffected Iraqi military officers. But there are differing views among officials and participating departments about whether any plan to oust President Saddam is worth the effort Looming over the discussions Is the belief of US Intelligence experts that the plans would fall, largely because they depend on some degree of US leverage over Internal Iraqi politics and some degree of cooperation among Iraqi rebel groups.

Both are virtually non-existent "There are a lot of Ideas out there (and) I would not rule out that we would move in more aggressive ways," said an official Involved In the deliberations. "The (decision) process Is very alive and nothing has been rejected." State Department policy-makers have been among the most sceptical about stepping up efforts against President Saddam. The idea of a covert action program to overthrow him was dismissed in Interviews as "out of touch with and "Oille North by department officials who deal with the Middle East. By JEFFREY SMITH Mid JOHN OOSHKO, Washington, Monday The Bush administration is now reviewing proposals for a more aggressive campaign to force the overthrow of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, official sources say. Some of the proposals are from Iraqi opposition groups and US legislators.

They Include providing Iraqi rebels with assistance such as military training, or supporting the establishment of a provisional alternative government in northern Iraq by helping to protect It The review Is being conducted by an Interagency committee under the direction of the White House. Less than a year from the next presidential election, President Bush Is increasingly concerned that the Democrats will use President Saddam's continued hold on power to tarnish the glow of the Gulf victory. Two weeks ago, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, the New York Governor, Mr Mario Cuomo, commented: "In the end, (Bush) made the worse deal. He had a war, killed people he didn't, but the war did and he fought it very well, except, in the end, be didn't get the objective, which was Saddam Hussein. And you can take pictures of Saddam Hussein now reviewing the troops." i.

US policy-makers disagree over the idea of tougher action against President Saddam. Among those advocating a new US policy is a Mr Ian Richter and his wife, Shirley, at London Airport: "The last Businessman flies home to President Saddam: tarnishing glow of Gulf victory. Democrat Congressman, Mr Stephen Solarz, a Foreign Affairs subcommittee chairman, who has urged direct aid to a coalition of anti-Saddam groups. Mr Solarz and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Mr Claiborne Pell, said they would support US diplomatic recognition and military protection for a provisional government established by Kurdish, Sbiite and Sunnl rebels in the part of northern Iraq now monitored by the United Nations. The principal aim of the plan first promoted here during a recent visit by a Kurdish leader, Jalal Tatabanl would be to induce Iraqi army troops to defect to the rebels.

Some senior Defence Department officials have also pushed lant, said after returning hugs and kisses from bis wife, Shirley, 42. Mr Richter, 45, a chemical engineer, flew from Bagdad to London Airport on a private plane with Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the United Nations special envoy for the Gulf, who negotiated his release. Mr Richter was freed after serving nearly six years of a life Jail term on charges, which he Botha threatens to reveal state secrets By ROSS DUNN, Johannesburg, Monday The former South African President Mr P. W. Botha, has threatened to expose secrets about the nation's security establishment after accusing them of spying on his family.

Mr Botha made the thinly veiled threat during a heated exchange with Dr Niel Barnard, the man he appointed as director-general of the National Intelligence Services. This is disclosed In transcripts of their meeting, which was recorded by Mr Botha and re leased to the media. Mr Botha said: "We don't trust the service, and you are the reason. I don't trust you because of your attitude towards me. But there is more to come, don't worry doctor.

You have kept your secrets, I have kept mine. Under stand: I am far from finished. His threat to expose the securi ty establishment is an ironic, twist after a long and colorful career. It was Mr Botha who began his rule as a reformer but then turned reactionary, building up the nation's security forces and directing them to clamp down on black liberation movements. The transcripts show that Mr Botha had forced Dr Barnard to agree that the former President regularly taped Interviews held in his office.

Peace signals Phflora Penh, Monday Australian army signallers left Phnom Penh today to set up radio links between United Nations peacekeepers and the Cambodian army, under the 'l terms of a peace agreement -signed last month. One man detachment accompanied by a New Zealand military liaison officer and a doctor, left Pochentong Airport on a French Air Force transport plane for: the north-western city of Battambang. Reuter Shuttle mission The six-man crew of the US space shuttle Atlantis swung the' IA380 million early-warning spy. satellite into action early today, hours after taking off from the Florida launch pad. The Pentagon's Defence Support 1 Program satellite Is to be usedi to detect missile launches and nuclear detonations in the Soviet Union, China and the I Middle East They have been sent Into orbit since the early 1970s, and one was used during tne uuu war to aeieci iraq Scud missile launches.

AFP Leaders meet Britain's Prime Minister, Mr Major, plans to meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leaderof rn" tm ininese-ruiea Tibet, when he visits Britain next month, officials said yesterday. Mr Major did not receive the Dalai Lama in March during his last visit to 60j Britain so that It would not endanger delicate talks with China over the future of Hong Kong. Reuter Kiwi turns 110 New Zealand's oldest resident Mr Arthur Bates, turned 110 today. His birthday present was a hearing aid, which had him talking again and answering some questions as he cut his cake. Born in Liverpool, England, on 25 November 1881, Mr Bates arrived in New Zealand aboard the ship Kaikoura In 1892.

He says he lived so long because he never married. AAP M-E 'possibility' Jordan's King Hussein says a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation with a central government at Its head was a strong possibility. He told Britain's 'Independent' that his country and the Palestine Liberation Organisation were "working together" in an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence not possible before. If a confederal government was agreed. King Hussein said, it would probably be along lines Jordan first advocated in the early 1970s.

Reuter question, Senator Evans took as his text his conversation last week with the wldely-admlred leader of Kazakhstan, Mr Nursul-tan Nazarbayev. President Nazar-bayev convinced Senator Evans that a great deal of independence rhetoric from the republics' was either Just that or else a kind of naive political stage through which the components of the old Soviet Union would surely pass. Hmmm, as they say. It is President Nazarbayev's notion that once his elections are past Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk will change his intransigence towards negotiating a new central political structure. Those who have spoken to Mr Kravchuk lately shake their heads at this.

But Senator Evans has leapt on It, partly perhaps because It seems to his political instincts to be just the sort of thing any rational politician would do, and partly because as someone who has created a foreign policy with strong pretensions towards a role for Australia in International disarmament and conflict-resolution, the alternative to a continuing Soviet central government Is just too horrible to contemplate. Senator; Evans may be in danger of underestimating the force and fact of Ukrainian nationalism as the shaping Influence in Ukrainian politics and, that casts a shadow, over the survival of any Soviet central government Ukraine hardly needs Austra-' Han recognition, though should independence become a after 1 December, Australia, would do well to move quickly. This Is potentially the richest of the Soviet republics and could' soon become a considerable European power. It was Innovative for Senator Evans to begin his journey in the Soviet Far East and follow a. republics-first program.

But it may be true that the open mind he says he began his Journey with closed before he finished It And that would mean that he returns from his visit with assure ances about money In the credit side ef the ledger, but a big mis, understanding In the debit London, Monday The British businessman Mr Ian Richter arrived home to a champagne family reunion yesterday after Iraq freed him from a life Jail sentence in exchange for the release of $A1S8 million in frozen assets. "The last 24 hours have been magic. I wish they'd last forever," the South African-bora Briton, lean but tanned and Jubi II 24 hours have been magic" champagne denies, of having bribed officials. In return, Britain said it was releasing tAISM million of Iraqi assets frozen in British banks since Iraq Invaded Kuwait in August last year. The funds will be used to buy food and medical supplies from British companies to ensure none of the money Is diverted by Iraq to sidestep UN trade sanctions, officials said.

Reuter, PA The pair had met because of Mr Botha's fury at Dr Barnard's destruction of a taped conversation that the former National Party leader held with African National Congress president Mr Nelson Mandela. Mr Botha wants the tapes for the memoirs he is writing, and to prove he had demanded that Mr Mandela be released only on condition that he renounced violence, and that the ANC distance Itself from communism. He considers this important to refute suggestion's by President Mr F. W. de Klerk that his reforms are a logical extension of the path taken by Mr Botha, his immediate predecessor.

After Mr Botha had vented his anger over the destruction of the tape, he asked: "Now tell me, Dr Barnard, why are you spying on my family. Why do you allow NIS surveillance of my Do they listen to our telephone conversations? Are there instructions that our telephones should be tapped?" Dr Barnard denied that such spying was taking place. Dr Barnard defended his destruction of the Mandela recording saying that the ANC leader had no Idea it was being taped and Its existence might have jeopardised the forthcoming negotiations on a new constitution. Senator Evans: closed mind on republics. highly original for an Australian minister travelling to the Soviet Union.

An empire of 280 million people turning to little Australia with Its hand out But as troubles mount and the rouble collapses the Soviet Union will ask for help from anyone. In St Petersburg, Senator Evans had to stress to local officials that Australia was not able to give food to help the city through the winter. This followed a surge of Interest that spread through the audience at a Mel-bourne-St Petersburg sister-city business seminar when the mayor of Melbourne, Councillor Richard Meldrum, mentioned four commodities with which he thought St Petersburg might be helped: sugar, wheat wool and butter. You could sense people thinking of the goods arriving at the wharf from far-away, sunny Australia and filling the empty shelves. Senator Evans has had to quickly convince his Interlocutors that he comes with empty hands.

The senator has also shown empty hands to republican leaders who hoped that Australia might be a soft touch to grant diplomatic recognition. The Ukraine Is the prime case In point There Senator Evans tried to assuage his hosts with a proposal that Australia appoint an honorary consul a bit like turning aside a passionate declaration of love by proffering a lolly-pop. In dealing with the republican Evans talks trade, not republicanism It iif By ROBERT HAUPT, Moscow correspondent, Kiev, Monday Senator Careth Evans paid for his trip to the Soviet Union last week when, about to host a dinner party In Moscow, he Instead dashed across town to a meeting with the head of President Gorbachev's Interim Government. A short time earlier, Senator Evans had confessed at a news conference that a meeting with Mr Ivan Sllayev seemed unlikely. On top of his failure to secure meetings either with Mr Gorbachev or President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow or mayor Anatoly Sob-chak In St Petersburg, the apparent failure of the proposed meeting with Mr Sllayev threatened to leave the Foreign Minister with little to say to the question: "And what did you do on your trip, Gar- etn?" When Senator Evans arrived for the Sllayev talks, he found the subject matter was the one Australian diplomats feared.

Soviet officials asked for a renegotiation of the terms under which Austra lia offered $525 million In trade credits to the Soviet Union, $370 million of which have been taken up, requiring a first payment of $40 million next month. With all the talk about the parlous state of Soviet foreign-exchange reserves, the try-on If that is what it was was hardly unexpected. Senator Evans reportedly responded quickly and bluntly. There would be no renegotiation. At this point, Mr Sllayev entered the discussion.

The question of renegotiation did not concern the current credits, he said. All the Soviet side was seeking were more favorable terms on future credits Australia might give. In addition, the Soviet Union would Increase Its orders for Australian agricultural exports, three, five or, in some cases, 10-fold, If the better terms were granted. Meanwhile, of course the HO million would be paid. Senator Evans returned to his dinner, It has been that sort of trip, of Why the guy at the top often tho Izzt to knov.

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