2The Tar HeelThursday, July 27, 1989
World and Nation
Striking Sovoete question votoog laws
From Associated Press reports
MOSCOW Ethnic Russians
stopped operations at 19 industrial
plants in Estonia Wednesday and held
protest meetings about legislation they
say favors the republic's ethnic Esto
nian majority, strikers and news re
ports said.
The walkouts, which began at
seven plants on Tuesday, escalated
as Soviet officials ended a potentially
disastrous strike by roughly half the
nation's 1 million miners.
As many as 25,000 workers in
Estonia stopped working, halting
operations at enterprises from elec
tronics plants to a defense industry
factory, said Yevgeny Kolekhnik,
chairman of the strike committee at
the Baltic Shipyard in Tallinn, the
Estonian capital.
Tens of thousands of workers at
tended protest meetings this morn
ing, said Yaroslav Tolstikhov, head
of the economics section at Sovi
etskaya Estoniya, Tallinn's Russian
language Communist Party daily.
'Thousands, tens of thousands of
people took part. It's hard to say just
how many," Tolstikhov said in a tele
phone interview. "The strike isn't
having a great economic impact," he
added. "It is mostly psychological."
Many Tallinn industries are closed
for routine summer vacations.
Strikers are complaining about a
proposed law requiring that people
live in the republic two years before
they can vote, according to Rahve
Haal and Sovietskaya Estoniya, two
Communist Party dailies in Estonia.
They see the law as one more Es
tonian assertion of power. In 1988,
thousands of ethnic Russians migrated
to Estonia because the republic en
joys a higher living standard than other
parts of the Soviet Union. Therefore,
the law making people wait before
voting would primarily affect them.
The Estonian strike comes as more
miners returned to work. They began
striking July 1 1 and the unrest even
tually closed mines from the Ukraine
to the Arctic.
Miners began returning to work
last week after officials agreed to most
of their demands, including increases
in deliveries of meat and soap and
rights to share management of their
industry.
Many miners who had refused to
return went back Tuesday after Presi
dent Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Pre
mier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov signed a let
ter guaranteeing pay raises, longer
vacations and other benefits, said Yuri
A. Bolderev, a strike leader from the
Donetsk basin, the biggest Soviet coal
field.
Coal Ministry officials said Tues
day that 79 mines remained idle, most
in the Donetsk basin, 550 miles south
of Moscow in the Ukraine, Tass re
ported. The national parliament, the Su
preme Soviet, appealed Tuesday to
Soviet workers not to strike.
Lawmakers said they would adopt
laws by autumn giving workers more
control of management and profits
and ensuring democratic elections of
local government officials. Kremlin
leaders and the miners have accused
local authorities of insensitivity to
workers' problems.
The coal strikes crippled coke and
steel plants in much of the Soviet
Union, and meeting the miners'
.j demands will cost an estimated $4.6
billion to $8.6 billion, said Viktor G.
Kurcherenko, head of the parliamen
tary budget commission.
The Estonia strike appeared mi
nor in comparison. But it signals a
possible increase in ethnic tension in
Estonia, which leads the drive in the
15 Soviet republics for greater eco
nomic and political autonomy from
Moscow.
Estonians, who make up 65 per
cent of the republic's 1.6 million
people, have pushed through their
parliament a law making Estonian
the official language, causing pro
tests among Russians who comprise
28 percent of the population.
It was unclear whether the national
parliament would allow the proposed
election law to stand. The central
newspaper Komsomolsaya Pravda
reported from Tallinn that just 58 of
244 deputies present in parliament
Monday opposed the law, virtually
guaranteeing its passage.
But the parliament decided to with
hold final passage for at least 1 0 days,
said Tarmu Tammerk of Tallinn's
weekly newspaper Kodumaa.
In October, the national parliament
vetoed an Estonian law giving the
republic wide autonomy, but on
Monday Gorbachev said he would
allow regional authorities greater lati
tude in carrying out local elections
scheduled for spring.
The Estonian strike was organ
ized by the Union of Soviet Working
Collectives, according to Komso
molskaya Pravda and press reports
read by Tammerk.
Sovietskaya Estoniya carried pho
tographs showing signs plastered on
the gates of the Dvigatil defense in
dustry plant and one of the shipyards
saying, in Russian, "We are on strike."
Death penalty in Hong Eong under fire
From Associated Press reports
HONG KONG Human rights
activists say their campaign to abol
ish the death penalty when this Brit
ish territory is handed back to China
has a new sense of urgency after
Beijing's executions of pro-democracy
protesters.
"We certainly are intensifying our
efforts," said Andrew Stables, a for
mer chairman of the local Amnesty
International branch.
Amnesty today submitted a peti-
FREE RENT
or FREE
WASHER
and DRYER
The choice is yours!
When you move into Woodbridge Apartments before
August 15, 1989, you'll receive one month's free rent or
the use of a washer and dryer throughout your lease.
You'll enjoy all of our luxuries, including:
Jacuzzi and exercise facilities
Lighted tennis courts
Distinctive, luxurious floor plans
Two gorgeous clubhouses, complete with two pools
Vaulted ceilings, fireplaces, miniblinds, bay windows
Location! Two miles from UNC and Memorial
Hospital, 17 miles from RTP and Duke SSa&'f,?!
Certain reslrictions apply during 12-month tease term.
3. , V,. ,ii in i it I'm 1 ""cas.., jaf
n
WooqBndqg
967-0955 APartment
601 Jones Ferry Rd., Carrboro, NC
Rental office open seven days a week
Developed and managed by Charier Properties, Inc.
I
1
tion to local lawmakers urging the
abolition of capital punishment, say
ing that events in China had height
ened concern of local residents over
the issue.
"It doesn't require too much imagi
nation to think of possibilities" of
abuse of the death penalty in Hong
Kong after 1997, when the colony
reverts to Chinese sovereignty, Stables
said.
Murder and treason are capital
crimes under Hong Kong law, but
the colonial governor has commuted
all of the more than 230 death sen
tences since 1966 usually to life
imprisonment because executions
are not allowed in Britain.
When Hong Kong is returned to
China, laws previously enforced in
the territory will be kept on the books.
While capital punishment may remain,
there is no guarantee the automatic
commutation of sentences will con
tinue. "After 1997, we are not sure
whether this tradition (of commuta
tion) can be respected," said Rev.
Louis Ha, spokesman for the local
Catholic Church.
What human rights campaigners
find particularly worrisome is, in the
words of Stables, the "fairly liberal
use" of the death penalty in China.
Several dozen executions are
known to have occurred in China since
the pro-democracy movement was
crushed by troops June 3-4, but Bei
jing authorities have linked just 12 of
those reported to die protests. Many
Chinese believe the number is far
higher.
Hong Kong government officials
say they have not removed the death
penalty statute because the public
supports the law. They claim there is
no evidence that recent executions in
China have swayed local opinion.
Africa asks for debt relief
From Associated Press reports
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Africa's leaders called Wednesday
for Western nations to emulate the
United States and France and write
off the continent's official foreign
debt.
The leaders, closing the annual
summit of the 50-nation Organiza
tion of African Unity, also urged the
international community to develop
"a more comprehensive strategy to
address all aspects of Africa's debt
problems, both official and commer
cial loans, on an enduring basis."
Heads of state and ranking minis
ters of 42 member states had made
Africa's foreign debt of $230 billion
the dominant theme of their meeting
in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capi
tal. Africa's economy, never healthy,
has been in decline for the past dec
ade. Leaders said the industrialized na
tions should follow the example of
Washington and Paris, which have
written off large sums of African debt.
While unanimous on the need for
an urgent bail-out, some delegates,
including Uganda's President Yow-
eri Museveni, noted a lot of past fi
nancial help has been squandered
through corruption and waste.
The summit's resolution on debt
also called for special relief from the
World Bank and International Mone
tary Fund. They called for the Western-funded
institutions to create and
direct an agency to purchase outstand
ing African debts at discount rates.
Also Wednesday, Tanzania's
Deputy Prime Minister Salim A.
Salim, was elected secretary-general
of the organization.
Gold Connection
HAS GREAT PRICES EVERYDAY!
plus 25 OFF to all summer
school students! So come on ml
128 E. Franklin St. QT T ""M FX
Downtown Chapel Hill ZO -VIWLD
next to Johnnu T-Shirt
- r.
yyyyyyyyyysssssA0
.1 I . , I u t,,.. l ..! I, I , I , I nt-l-l .LI. I,. I
l"T"l"l "1 rT'T'T'l I I "i ,r"t""Y"""i i "y'Y'i i i ll,llllW1'"TT
HelpYourselfTo
Self-Service
Copies.
NO COINS
Open 24 hours
7 Days A Week
Happjrhouri
12 AM. 7 A?
copies
3
cents
'.v on lime. Or it's on u.
105 N.Columbia St.
933-2679