By IPS Correspondents
MOSCOW, Dec 30 1994 (IPS)

The costs of Russia’s military intervention in the breakaway republic of Chechnya are mounting each day with warnings that the war may prove to be too expensive.

Chances of a prolonged military campaign have prompted dire economic forecasts and underscored Moscow’s inability to deal with a growing refugee crisis.

Estimates of how much Russia may be spending to crush the separatist revolt vary between nearly 300 million dollars to one billion dollars.

But there is a consensus that the government can ill-afford to fund the operation which may knock the bottom out of the 1995 budget.

The exodus of tens of thousands of refugees is adding to budgetary worries at a time when the government is squeezing spending on vital industrial, agricultural and defence sectors.

Fighting between Russian forces and Chechen separatist militants entered its 20th day Friday and the military stalemate on the ground continues despite Moscow’s orders to bring the operation to a swift and successful end.

Official sources Friday indicated that militants loyal to Chechen president Jokhar Dudayev were putting up defensive barricades around the presidential palace along a one-kilometre radius in the capital city of Grozny.

The Russian government press service quoted the military command as saying that the fighters had overnight attempted to break through cordons around them but failed.

However, the military intervention which began on Dec. 11 has not run according to the script as earlier advances on Grozny got stalled due to civilian protests and the final assault on Dudayev’s hide-out has met fierce resistance.

Injured Russian soldiers brought back to Moscow for treatment on Friday told an international news agency that no quick end is in sight. lieutenant Oleg Rudnyuk has been quoted saying: “This war will last a long time, the Chechens will never lay down their arms.”

“They are experienced fighters. They have weapons and fight like the tough mountaineers they are for their land,” said Rudnyuk — who was wounded one week ago.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
PENANG, Malaysia, Dec 30 1994 (IPS)

A drastic shift in global health strategy has been silently taking place in the past few years, away from the principle of state responsibility for providing health care for all people.

In many countries worldwide, public health budgets have been cut, health-related fees have shot up, and the health situation, especially of the poor, has deteriorated.

And according to health experts, problems such as malnutrition and child deaths and the resurgence of cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, and plague will worsen if such policy trends continue.

David Werner, author of ‘Where There Is No Doctor’, the best- selling primer on community-based health practice, perhaps explains best why the public should be worried about the shift in global and national health strategies.

Werner, who works with the U.S.-based Healthwrights group and is a consultant for the World Health Organisation (WHO), recalled at a recent meeting of experts here how the concept of primary health care was adopted by virtually all governments at the 1978 global health conference that endorsed the Alma Alta Declaration.

To achieve ‘Health for All by the Year 2000’, the Declaration promoted the principles that all people are entitled to basic health rights and that the state is responsible for meeting the people’s health needs, regardless of gender, race and class.

The declaration’s centrepiece was a comprehensive strategy that included an equitable, consumer-centred approach to health services and also addressed social factors that influence a person’s physical and mental well-being.

At the international meeting on health strategies held here in early December, Werner said these high expectations have not been fulfilled. He added: “It is painfully evident that the goal of ‘Health For All’ is growing more distant not just for the poor but for humanity.”

During the 1980s, child mortality rates dropped, but undernutrition and morbidity rates rose. In the early l990s, the decline in child mortality rates slowed or stopped. Now, child mortality rates are rising, especially in Africa.

Werner says three factors have undermined primary health care.

First, instead of adopting a comprehensive health and social programme, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) compromised and opted for selective primary health care aimed at limited reducing child mortality through selected interventions like oral rehydration therapy (ORT) and immunisation.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
MOSCOW, Dec 29 1994 (IPS)

Her fists clenched tight in anger, middle- aged Lena Andreyeva does little to conceal her fury against the Chechens. “We should finish this problem once and for all. Why should our army hold back from hitting civilians when they are all against us?”

Added a tough-looking youngster in a studded leather jacket: “For the first time since 1991, Yeltsin is doing the right thing. We would want to see the Chechen revolt completely crushed.”

They were part of a small rally in central Moscow Thursday, the few dozen demonstrators fully backing President Boris Yeltsin’s military strike against the rebellious republic and expressing a longing to see napalm bombs dropped on Chechnya.

It was a bizarre sight which few political observers could have imagined they would see in Russia: Yeltsin getting a firm foothold in the nationalist camp even as he loses his balance on the second foot that was once planted with the democrats.

But it is a fact that Yeltsin has won the unqualified backing of ultra-nationalists for directing the military intervention in Chechnya while his erstwhile supporters on the democratic side have deserted him.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party is one of only two recognised parliamentary factions which has endorsed the armed operation in Chechnya. Ironically, the other one is the Reformist Union led by ex-finance minister Boris Fyodorov, which has also come out in favour of the use of force to squash Chechen separatism.

In Chechnya, Russian armed forces continue to consolidate their positions inside the capital city of Grozny while fighter bombers have reportedly been used again Thursday though the defence ministry earlier denied such strikes.

The end of 1994 brings with it more churning in Russia’s turbulent political seas as the operation in Chechnya unfolds confounding the leaders in Moscow and forcing new alliances even as earlier ones are broken.

Yegor Gaidar, once a close Yeltsin ally who ushered in the first phase of radical economic reforms during 1992, on Wednesday announced that his Russia’s Choice parliamentary faction had severed ties with the Russian president.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
LONDON, Dec 28 1994 (IPS)

Relief workers who have visited Rwandan refugee camps in Zaire warn that the army of the deposed Hutu led government is preparing to launch an attack on the new government formed by the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

Earlier this year, the army had killed hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis before the RPF overpowered the Hutu government, and this in turn triggered a massive exodus of Hutus across the Rwandan borders into neighbouring regions.

The massacres had erupted soon after Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed in an April 6 plane crash.

Now, Aid agency workers returning from camps for refugees and the displaced in Zaire, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda report that thousands of soldiers of the exiled army have regrouped and are engaging in vigorous training regimes and manoeuvres in readiness for a planned invasion.

“In all of the camps it is possible to see military training going on, usually early in the mornings,” said John Magrath of London-based aid group Oxfam.

“During the mornings they don’t use weapons, they just do exercises, but at night time they train with weapons. This is alarming. These guys are serious. It would be tragic if there is a resumption of the war,” he said.

According to Magrath, thousands of troops have been moved by the military leadership from the camps in Goma to a military base in Kivu (both in Zaire) to await orders to begin their offensive.

In other camps, relief workers report that thousands of teenaged boys have been recruited and are undergoing military instruction. Sources say they are dispatched to the military base once they become battle-ready. The base is some 80 kms from Zaire’s border with south-west Rwanda.

Said Juliet Sober, a worker with the British Red Cross: “We are keeping a close watch on these alarming developments. If war breaks out again it could destabilise the whole region.”

Analysts here say that the only way to avert another bloody war in Rwanda would be the immediate dispatch by the United Nations or the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) of a peacekeeping force into both Rwanda and Zaire.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
HINIGARAN, Philippines, Dec 28 1994 (IPS)

The past few months have been busy times here in this sleepy town, which happens to be the hub of the pyrotechnics industry in central Philippines.

Filipinos like to greet each new year with a bang, and the people of Hinigaran, some 535 km south of Manila, have been occupied with churning out all sorts of explosives that will be purchased by the dozen and set off once the clock strikes twelve on New Year’s Eve.

Among those slaving away here is 12-year-old Wilfredo Montebon, who spends at least ten hours each day hunched over a low table, deftly putting toxic potassium nitrate into stiff paper, which he folds into tiny triangles.

Wilfredo is one of Hinigaran’s child firecracker makers. Town elders say children here have been wrapping potassium nitrate for ‘trianggulo’ or making wicks for firecrackers for decades.

Pyrotechnics manufacturer Arturo Canson says children are “adept” and adds: “They work fast once they’ve learned on the job. After a few years, they become real experts, like my workers, who were still kids when I took them in.”

Philippine laws ban the employment of children 15 years old and younger, except under the sole supervision of their parents or guardian. Republic Act 7658 says under no condition shall a child work if his employment “endangers his life, safety, health and morals, or impairs his normal development”.

Hinigaran’s fireworks makers say their child workers are not given dangerous jobs, such as mixing or sifting gunpowder. They say the children are limited to making wicks, wrapping potassium nitrate or sealing firecrackers with paste.

Yet the industry is considered one of the most hazardous in the country. Only last month, an explosion in a firecracker factory here injured two children and ignited a blaze that razed 70 homes. A few weeks later, a similar incident occurred in a nearby village.

In rural towns like Hinigaran, the ‘factories’ are nothing but clusters of huts made of dried palm fronds. Although the law says there should be fire extinguishers in the workplace, the fireworks ‘plants’ just have big barrels of water.

No one knows how many children work in the pyrotechnics industry in the Philippines, but officials concede Hinigaran is not the only town in the country that has child firecracker makers.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
BONN, Dec 26 1994 (IPS)

A lack of cohesive economic policies among North African countries continues to make regional integration a “very difficult” goal to attain six years after the Union of the Maghreb (UMA) was formed, says a new European bank study.

The UMA comprising Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia was set up in Feb 1989 with the aim of encouraging joint ventures and establishing a common market.

This objective is however far from being achieved and may remain out of reach in the near future, according to a report prepared by the Banque Nationale de Paris for ABECOR, an association of European banks.

The group includes: Banca Nazionale de Lavoro, Bank Austria, Banque Bruxelles Lambert, Banque Internationale a Luxembourg, Barclays Bank and the Hypo-Bank. The study made available to IPS by Germany’s Dresdner Bank, analysed the situation in Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.

Taking note of the instability in civil war-torn Algeria, the report highlighted that the political situation in the four countries is as divergent as their economies.

While Algeria and Libya depended for 95 percent of their export income on hydrocarbons, oil accounted for 12.8 percent of Tunisia’s exports in 1993 and its importance as foreign exchange earner was declining since the 1980s.

On the other hand, Morocco is for more than 80 percent of its foreign exchange earnings, dependent on export of food, semi- finished and other goods as well as on tourism, noted the study.

Providing a synopsis of the economic performances of the four countries under study, the report said that Algeria owed toward the end of 1993, a total of 25.1 billion dollars abroad, and debt service accounted for 80 percent of its foreign exchange receipts.

Algeria is a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). And the fall in oil prices in 1986 had led to a sharp fall in export revenues.

Still, the government insisted on servicing foreign debt without undertaking a formal debt rescheduling. This forced the authorities to introduce drastic cuts in imports which in turn disrupted both the operation and the modernisation of the economy, reducing the standard of living.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
LONDON, Dec 26 1994 (IPS)

The ongoing trial in Ethiopia of former officials in the defunct Mengistu regime for crimes against humanity represents an overwhelming victory for human rights and decency, say international campaigners and observers.

In the dock are 3,400 former officials who, during the 17-year rule of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, are alleged to have murdered, raped and tortured both opposition figures and ordinary civilians during the communist military dictatorship.

This reign of terror — the so-called Red Terror — came to an end in 1991 when anti-government guerrillas ousted the regime. Only Mengistu — who fled to Zimbabwe — and a handful of his top henchmen, escaped.

In their wake they left at least 100,000 dead, according to conservative estimates, while tens of thousands more starved to death when the junta sought to hide the scale of the 1984 famine from the world and otherwise manipulated the country’s periodic food shortages to stifle dissent in the countryside.

“What is happening now in Ethiopia is an overwhelming victory for human rights and decency and deserves the full support of the international community,” says Dr Martin Hill of Amnesty International.

Human rights campaigners bill the long-awaited trial as the biggest ever for government-led genocide and crimes against humanity since those held for Nazi war criminals at the end of the second world war.

They all agree that with the trials, Ethiopia is sending a strong warning to leaders across the continent and beyond that the abuse of authority will not be tolerated. “This is an important sign that there will be no impunity for massive human rights violators,” Hill said.

“Trials for major human rights violations are necessary — in former Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, Rwanda or elsewhere in the world. They show that people responsible for political killings, torture and other violations will not get away with their crimes,” Hill added.

Added Rakiya Omar, co-director of the London-based group Africa Rights: “Ethiopia is helping to stamp out the culture of impunity we see in many regions of the world.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
PRAGUE, Dec 26 1994 (IPS)

The Czech Republic’s new entrepreneurs are learning that elaborate packaging — often a lot of it — can mean more sales, but environmentalists are concerned that it is also leading to a bigger pile-up of waste.

Gone are the days of rows of products in grey and brown paper sacks, each one distinguished from the next by little more than stenciled lettering on the bag: detergent, beans, paint, eggs, bread crumbs.

Czech stores now look much like shops in Western Europe or the United States, with a choice of several brands in most items, and colorful labels with pictures identifying what is inside.

Everything from toys to electronics to milk to car parts is now packaged more elaborately here than it was before the Velvet Revolution that overthrew communism five years ago.

“As a consumer, you buy the beauty of the product,” said Chris Steinbrecher, managing director of the multinational Unilever’s soap, deodorant and perfume divisions in the Czech Republic. “The products are there to make you beautiful. … If you want to look beautiful, the product must be appealing.”

But if the drab products are disappearing, so too are many of the returnable and recyclable packages they were delivered in.

Today, individual servings of orange, apple and grapefruit juice fight for shelf space with blister packs of gum and candy, non-returnable plastic bottles of mineral water and foil-wrapped bags of potato chips, crackers and peanuts.

“I would not say that ecological concerns were the primary goal of the socialist system, but in terms of packaging, there was less of an adverse impact on the environment,” said Pavel Novak, a ministry of environment official who deals with issues of municipal waste.

“But,” he added: “Socialism did not take into account the comfort or convenience of the consumer.”

Comfort and convenience, of course, are almost synonymous with success in a capitalist system. And most Czechs seem quite happy to relegate communism’s returnable packages to the dust bin of history, even if it means burying themselves in a pile of garbage at the same time.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 23 1994 (IPS)

Palestinian-Americans, sent back to their ‘homeland’ by their parents, believe they have a key role to play in the future development of the fledging Palestinian state.

“We had neglected our homeland during our struggle for our livelihood in the United States,” said Walid Al-Asmar, a Palestinian American, pharmacy owner and vice president of the Palestinian American Society based in Jerusalem.

“However,” he said, “We have been thinking of returning to our homeland when our children grew up.

He added: “…we realised that our return for the sake of our children’s future is imperative,” said Asmar who said that the majority of Palestinian Americans think about returning before their children reach the ages of 10 or 11 years old.

Asmar is among several thousand Palestinian-Americans who have returned to learn about Palestinian culture.

Asmar, originally from a village near Nablus called Turmosayah, spent nearly 27 years in New Jersey, New York working as a pharmacist before deciding to return to Palestine.

The Palestinian American Society was established two years ago at Asmar’s initiative, to establish an organisation to serve the Palestinian American community and to be a link between the returnees and their friends and relatives in the United States.

The Society’s statement of purpose clearly states: “Believing in our role and our essential entity and our being as an indivisible part of the Palestinian people, a number of Palestinian Americans convened and discussed the course of events. They were convinced of the necessity of forming a society to achieve their aims and goals…”

According to the organisation’s by-laws, the Society does not have any political affiliation. At the same time Asmar says the Society’s purpose is to promote democracy, equality and freedom to defend the Palestinians’ right to freedom and self-determination and to highlight their right to return to their homeland.

“We are dual ambassadors for our homeland — Palestine — and our country — United States,” says article two of the Society’s by-law.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
VIENNA, Dec 22 1994 (IPS)

One odd result of Austria’s entry into the European Union (EU) next month will be that foreigners married to other EU citizens will find it easier to settle here than those wedded to Austrians, say migrant counsellors.

“It is ironic, but a fact,” says Wolfgang Bergmann, a jurist at the Catholic service organisation Caritas. “In some ways other EU citizens will be in a better position here than some Austrians.”

While a non-EU citizen married to an Austrian may have to wait for a year to receive the residence permit, a citizen of any of the other 14 countries of the EU living in Austria could theoretically bring his or her non-EU partner immediately, Bergmann said.

Austria is set to join the EU on Jan. 1 along with Finland and Sweden.

Currently citizens of the European Economic Area (EEA) countries — which comprise the present 12 EU members along with Austria, Finland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Sweden — are allowed to move freely within the zone.

But these rights would be expanded within the EU. European Union citizens could live and work in any of the member countries without any hindrance — should the Union principles be applied to the letter.

They will not be subjected to quota restrictions or any other system that seeks to control immigration into the respective countries of the Union. “They will have zero problems,” said Bergmann.

Actually non-Austrians would be divided into two groups: EU citizens, and the “others” — which would include those from the rest of the industrialised world as well as from developing countries.

“The generosity towards one group of people has been balanced by the restrictiveness towards the other (in Austria),” Bergmann says.

Home minister Franz Loeschnak has declared the controversial residence law would be relaxed, but many hurdles and problems remain for those wishing to come to Austria and for those foreigners already in the country.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 22 1994 (IPS)

Some Haitians are letting their hair down this festive season, while others pick up placards.

In the month that marks the third anniversary of the coup against President Jean Bertrand Aristide, some people of the Caribbean nation are partying with relish – even as awareness grows that expectations of immediate improvement raised by his recent return, was perhaps only a mirage.

Since mid-December, nightclubs and stage shows have drawn big crowds. Night-time traffic has increased. Traditional musical groups have staged parades. And there have been public concerts in some places.

After three years of severe political repression, the total insecurity that created, and the economic crisis at its backdrop, that kind of indulgence is not unexpected.

However, Father Christmas will not be present in all homes.

“I should have liked to have really celebrated this year, after three years of insecurity, but I don’t have the means to,” said one Haitian interviewed here.

“Goods are dear,” said another.

“Nothing has changed, for Aristide has left commerce to the merchants,” declared one young civil servant still waiting for his October salary.

And Jean, a mechanic, said, “I risked my life several times during the army rebellion to enable people in difficulty to cross the frontier. But where has this got me today? The president goes around in a helicopter and he has forgotten the poor.”

He added: “It is those who actually took part in the seizure of power by the military, or who helped finance it, who are now benefitting from the positive fallout from Aristide’s restoration.”

On Friday of last week, working class organisations organised protest demonstrations in front of the Presidential Palace.

They bore placards critical of government policy, especially its failure to reduce the cost of living. There was also some anger regarding the policy of national reconciliation advocated by the president since his return to Haiti.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
HONG KONG, Dec 16 1994 (IPS)

Mr O, a Hong Kong resident, was seized by Chinese authorities in June. He did nothing wrong, but his son owes money to a company in China.

Mr O’s family says it has been told his release will be secured on payment of the debt. He is still in detention without formal prosecution or trial.

Mr M, a Chinese-Australian and also Hong Kong resident was abducted in Macau and taken to Shenzhen in China after signing a paper in Portuguese that said he was leaving voluntarily. He can neither speak nor read Portuguese.

The Hong Kong government uses letters to protect the identities of its residents being held by authorities in China. But at the rate mainland police are detaining overseas Chinese, officials here say the alphabet may not be enough.

Hong Kong businessmen, China’s biggest investors, used to say stories like those of Messrs O and M were part of the risks of doing business in the mainland, where they have rushed pellmell with other overseas Chinese in search of profits.

Says legislator Emily Lau: “The business line was very simple: don’t make a fuss and hope it doesn’t happen to you.”

There have been reports of ruthless overseas businessmen exploiting Chinese workers, but many investors realise the different way China’s legal system works. They are concerned that the price of doing business in China could be their freedom.

In the past, it was only Hong Kong residents with no other foreign nationality who became victims of arbitrary detention in China.

But these days, mainland authorities are detaining a growing number of overseas Chinese with foreign citizenship, most of the cases stemming from business disputes with local partners.

Legislator Huang Chen Ya has noted that abductions and detention of Hong Kong businessmen without formal charges were becoming more prevalent in southern China, where Hong Kong businessmen have been investing heavily.

The human rights group, Amnesty International, believes there are at least 20 cases of overseas Chinese businessmen detained in China. But other groups say the number may be several times that because many families prefer not to go public.

Many of Beijing’s Hong Kong advisers and top businessmen with good contacts with the Chinese authorities have been approached by families of victims in recent months.

Excerpt:

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Dec 16 1994 (IPS)

The thought that her parents would be so proud of her once she finally saves enough to buy a house keeps Imelda going through her gruelling schedule of cleaning houses by day and working as a Tokyo bargirl at night.

But with the onset of the holiday season, the 26-year-old Filipina is seized by homesickness, an affliction she shares with Japan’s thousands of foreign workers.

And while many of those from countries like Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka and China do not share the religious beliefs that make the Christmas season special for workers from the Philippines and Latin America, they still miss their families most at a time when even workaholic Japan slows down to take a break.

“It’s never going to be like what we have at home,” says Naw Aung, a Burmese worker who fled his country five years ago. “But nevertheless Christmas day is even more important to us because we are together and can console each other.”

Adds Luz, a Filipina who has left her six children with her mother-in-law back home so she can work as a domestic helper here: “The terrible loneliness we have experienced through the year can be shared during Christmas.”

Imelda agrees, and says she will be one of the 25 people who will squeeze into a tiny two-room home of a friend on Christmas. “This year is even more special because the holiday falls on a week-end. Last year I had to work till eleven in the night,” she says, visibly excited days before the party is to take place.

“We will have Philippine food, and will sing and dance,” she adds. “It’s the only time we are not afraid to upset the Japanese neighbours.”

Still, Imelda’s eyes betray some sadness when she tries to explain how important the day has become for Japan’s poor and powerless migrant labour.

“Nobody misses the party because more than the fun everybody knows it is the only time we have to console each other for completing another long and gruelling year,” she says. “My friends congratulate me for sending so many presents back home and then tell me to take care of myself and work hard in 1995.”

Filipina and Thai women, who constitute the majority of Asians working in the entertainment industry, are the most vulnerable group in Japan’s estimated 200,000 foreigners working without legitimate visas.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
HELSINKI, Dec 15 1994 (IPS)

The fate of around one million ‘non- citizens’ living in the now independent Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia remains uncertain after three days of talks at a special workshop on migration issues which ended here Thursday.

Open discussion and dialogue was the main target of the workshop entitled “Citizenship, Statelessness and the Status of Aliens in the CIS and Baltic States”, which was organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

It examined the plight of the large Russian communities which remained in the two former Soviet republics after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

“This meeting was much more business-like and much less emotional than the first one we had on the theme last year,” concluded Director General of IOM, James N. Purcell Jr.

He told IPS that the framework for discussions was now in place since almost all of the new independent countries which used to make up the former Soviet Union have formulated their laws on citizenship.

Armenia, which is locked in a bitter battle with Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, is yet to ratify such legislation.

The delegates representing 15 nations got the opportunity to examine the various laws adopted, and this alone was useful, according to Regina Pintman of the Estonian delegation: “It is excellent to get this information because every law can always be improved.”

The main focus of the workshop was however, on the people who are left out of the law — the “aliens” or ‘non-citizens’.

The bulk of the “aliens” are Russians who moved and made their homes in the other republics of the former Soviet Union. Their status is of particular concern in Estonia and Latvia where they make up a major percentage of the population.

The leader of the Russian delegation, Abdulakh K. Mikitaev, who heads the department of citizenship matters Moscow, said he felt “morally better now there are no more Russian troops in the Baltic states”.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
TEHRI GARHWAL, INDIA, Dec 15 1994 (IPS)

A SMUDGY PROTEST BANNER FLAPS IN THE CHILLY WINTER BREEZE FROM THE DISTANT HIMALAYAS AS A CROWD OF LOCALS GATHER BELOW IN A SMALL TOWN IN THIS NORTH INDIAN HILL DISTRICT.

THE SCENE, LIKE THE GRAFFITI, POSTERS AND GATHERINGS IN THE HUNDREDS OF TINY TOWNS AND HAMLETS PERCHED ON THE STEEP TEHRI MOUNTAINS, IS INDICATIVE OF THE POLITICAL UNREST SWEEPING THE ONCE-QUIET CENTRAL HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS ALONGSIDE TIBET AND NEPAL.

THE TOWN SCHOOL HEADMASTER SPEAKS ANIMATEDLY: “OUR FARMS ARE TURNING BARREN, PEOPLE ARE LEAVING THE VILLAGES, THERE ARE NO TEACHERS IN SCHOOLS. ALL BECAUSE WE HAVE NO SAY IN OUR OWN AFFAIRS.”

THE GOVERNMENT IS BUILDING A HUGE DAM UPHILL, BUT TOWNS AND VILLAGES IN THE DISTRICT WILL GET NEITHER ELECTRICITY NOR WATER FROM THE SCHEME, HE ADDS.

FOR THE PAST FOUR MONTHS, TEHRI AND SEVEN OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS IN INDIA’S MOST POPULOUS STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH (U.P.), ARE IN THE GRIP OF A POPULAR MOVEMENT TO MAKE THEM A SELF-RULED FEDERAL UNIT.

THE SIX MILLION PEOPLE OF ‘UTTARAKHAND’ (NORTHERN REGION IN HINDI), COMPRISING FIVE GARHWAL DISTRICTS AND THREE FROM THE ADJOINING KUMAON REGION, ARE SORE WITH THE DISTANT AND INSENSITIVE U.P. ADMINISTRATION.

THEY BLAME THE PARENT STATE FOR TAKING AWAY THEIR ABUNDANT NATURAL RESOURCES AND AND HANDING DOWN A PATTERN OF SKEWED DEVELOPMENT WHICH HAS MADE UTTARAKHAND ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S MOST BACKWARD AREAS.

VIOLENT PROTESTS AND POLICE CRACKDOWNS DURING UTTARAKHAND RALLIES HAVE CLAIMED MANY LIVES. THE MOVEMENT HAS DRAWN FARMERS, GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, HOUSEWIVES, CHILDREN AND RETIRED ARMY PERSONNEL, BROUGHT ADMINISTRATION TO A STANDSTILL AND CREATED A MAJOR CRISIS FOR INDIA’S RULING PARTY.

“TWENTY YEARS AGO THERE WERE 120 FAMILIES IN OUR VILLAGE. TODAY ONLY 15 ARE LEFT AS PEOPLE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO GO IN SEARCH OF JOBS IN THE BIG CITIES,” SAYS DINESH CHANDRA JOSHI, A GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE IN FAKOT, A SMALL URBAN CENTRE IN TEHRI.

JOSHI’S VILLAGE IS TYPICAL OF GARHWAL. GENERATIONS OF ‘PAHADIS’, AS THE HILL FOLK ARE KNOWN, HAVE PREFERRED MIGRATING DOWNHILL TO THE PLAINS TO TAKE UP A VARIETY OF LOW-PAID MENIAL JOBS, RATHER THAN EKE OUT A SUBSISTENCE FROM THEIR TINY, UN- IRRIGATED FARMS.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
MOSCOW, Dec 8 1994 (IPS)

Russian free market reforms have had a severe impact on the public education system which is starved for funds, beset by falling standards, and unable to cater to the country’s new commercial needs.

Government budgetary support for education has been dwindling since the late-1980s and there is a provision for only 3.6 percent of the draft 1995 budget which envisages a total expenditure of more than 70 billion dollars.

Experts say this outlay of roughly 275 million dollars runs contrary to a 1992 law issued by President Boris Yeltsin which stipulated that at least ten percent of the budget would be devoted to the education sector.

Russian basic education and higher schooling is desperately in need of government relief and legislative support, says Vladimir Terekhov, a specialist in the Russian parliament’s think-tank.

He says: “The situation is critical. Russia’s intellectual potential, its moral foundation and culture is under threat. The result of educational degradation could be worse than that of the ill-considered economic reforms.”

Terekhov adds: “After embarking on socio-economic reforms, the government has forgotten the priority role that education has to play in this process.”

Thousands of Russia’s best teachers and professors have taken side jobs in trading houses to supplement paltry salaries and fallen prestige while university students too must earn to augment the meagre stipends given to them by the government.

Teachers’ monthly salaries average an estimated 125,000 roubles (roughly 80 dollars) while students are paid 25,000 roubles (eight dollars) with which those living in hostel are expected to buy food and look after other necessary expenses.

The number of pupils in intermediate diploma institutions — between school and college — has fallen by 340,000 and today stands at 3.8 million. Enrollment in higher education — universities and special institutes — has decreased by 57,000 and is currently estimated at 5.2 million.

Almost 700,000 teachers presently work in higher education institutions. But it has been found that nearly 40 percent of the youngest and most talented teachers are leaving their jobs.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
BRUSSELS, Dec 8 1994 (IPS)

The invitation of six central and eastern European countries to the European Union (EU) two-day summit in the south-eastern German city of Essen has caused a serious rift to develop among the 12 government leaders and heads of state.

A senior diplomat said the German initiative has caused serious disagreement among the leaders who begin their talks Friday.

EU member Greece demanded that other associated candidates like Malta and Cyprus be invited — while Denmark, Sweden and Finland wanted the Baltic states also to take part in the summit. Apparently Turkey also expressed the wish to attend the summit as an associated and possible future member.

“With the presence of the six central and eastern European leaders, a precedence has been created for the next summit. This means that the next meeting will be attended by more than 20 countries, which are not yet full members. This will paralyse decision making in the Union,” the senior diplomat said.

The leaders of Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Slovakia will meet their EU partners Saturday during a lunch.

During preparations for the summit the German presidency has been criticised for stirring up smouldering North-South differences with Bonn’s ambitious plans to enlarge the European Union in the direction of central and eastern Europe.

The southern member states Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy wanted equal attention for their hinterland– the Mediterranean Sea region. They have found support in the outgoing European Commission President Jacques Delors who has warned of the threat of Muslim fundamentalism from Algeria.

As one highranking EU diplomat pointed out: “We see it as a priority for the European Union to secure the Mediterranean rim, the threat from that side is much more serious than any that might come from the East.”

At the Essen summit the EU leaders will decide on the proposal of the European Commission to reserve 6.65 billion dollars of financial aid for the period 1995-1999 to the Mediterranean countries.

But diplomats said a majority of the leaders refused to commit themselves to the Commission’s proposal as long there is no structured programme like the Phare programme for the Central and Eastern European Countries.

Excerpt: