“The Battalion
WORLD & NATION
7
Wednesday, November 15,1989
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Bush embraces idea
of liberated Europe,
unrestricted travel
WASHINGTON (AP) —Presi
dent Bush declared his confi
dence Tuesday that "Europe will
some day be whole and free," sa
luting a decision by Czechoslova
kia to ease travel restrictions as
just one more sign.
Bush said he was not con
cerned about the dizzying pace of
change sweeping Eastern Eu
rope. “I don’t think it’s moving
too fast and I don’t know of any
body in my administration that
feels that it’s moving too fast.”
The White House said the ad
ministration was reviewing devel
opments in Eastern Europe with
that process.
The president left open the
possibility he will stop in Brussels
to brief NATO allies after his
shipboard summit in the Mediter
ranean with Soviet President Mik
hail S. Gorbachev on Dec. 2 and
3.
“We’re thinking right now how
we might stay in touch with our
allies,” Bush said.
Bush made his remarks in re
sponse to the announcement that
Czechoslovakia, one of the last
hard-line Soviet Bloc nations, no
longer will require its citizens to
obtain exit visas to travel outside
the country. No date for the
change was given in the Czech an
nouncement.
“Gorbachev talks about a com
mon home,” Bush said. “We talk
about a Europe whole and free.
And it’s a most exciting time.”
Bush spoke about Eastern Eu
rope during several appearances
during the day. “I am delighted
with the new moves towards de
mocracy in Eastern Europe.
We’re all caught up in this,” he
told foreign ministers from the
Organization of American States.
During a meeting with mem
bers of Congress, Bush also said
he will press Gorbachev next
month to halt the shipment of
East bloc arms to the leftist gov
ernment of Nicaragua.
In preparation tor the summit,
Bush ana his national security ad
viser, Brent Scowcroft, had din
ner Monday night with former
Secretary of State Henry A. Kis
singer, who has expressed fears
that Gorbachev will try to enlist
the United States “as a partner
with him in the division of Ger
many.”
Separately, Bush told reporters
that his wife, Barbara, will not ac
company him to Malta.
Bush is being pressured by
Democrats to respond more
strongly to the changes sweeping
Eastern Europe, dramatized last
week by the opening of the Berlin
Wall and the promise of greater
democracy in East Germany.
To comment on the announce
ment from Prague, Bush broke
his own rule against answering
questions from reporters during
photo-taking sessions. On Capitol
Hill, Senate Majority Leader
George Mitchell, D-Maine, said it
was regrettable that Bush,
through his spokesman, had re
jected the idea of going to Berlin
to express American satisfaction
with the “symbolic destruction” of
the wall or to normalize trade re
lations with the Soviet Union.
White House officials said the
low-keyed approach taken by
Bush was intended to lend sup
port and encouragement to de
velopments in Eastern Europe
while guarding against doing
anything that might provoke a
crackdown or slow the pace of re
forms'.
Meanwhile, the White House
signaled its approval of a $738
million aid package for Poland
and Hungary.
Walesa accepts 8-year-old award
in front of exuberant U.S. crowd
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lech
Walesa, weeping with joy at his he
ro’s welcome to America, said Tues
day his native Poland needs massive
Western Investment to "make her
way to the shore of freedom.”
"I know that the pioneer spirit
which made this country big and
free is still around,” Walesa told a
convention of the AFL-CIO labor
federation. “I would like you to
transplant this spirit to Poland.”
“If you engage in any activity in
our country, others will emulate
your example,” Walesa said. “The
world is awaiting your signal, it is
watching you. Do not let the world
and us wait any longer.”
Walesa, weeping after a 15-min
ute standing ovation that welcomed
him to the convention hall, thanked
the American people, the labor
group and the government for prov
ing “to be our most steadfast allies in
the trade union struggle for human
freedom.”
"Today, when we are threatened
by recession and inflation rather
than police repressions, we need this
international solidarity no less than
in the past.”
Walesa was in Washington to ac
cept the AFL-CIO’s George Meany
Human Rights Award, which he
won in 1981. He did not collect the
award earlier, at first because he
feared he would not be allowed to
return to Poland, then because he
was incarcerated, and finally because
he was engaged in the eight-year
struggle that led this year to the cre
ation of the first non-Communist
government in the Soviet bloc.
“This is a meeting that has been a
long time coming,” Walesa said to
tumultuous applause.
The mustached 46-year-old trade
union leader, who won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1983, arrived in
Washington on Monday, and went
straight to the White House where
President Bush presented him with
the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
the highest U.S. civilian award.
Elsewhere in Washington, the
Senate reached a compromise to au
thorize $657 million for Poland over
three years and $81 million for Hun
gary. The House was. voting sepa
rately on a fiscal 1990 appropria
tions bill that targets $533 million in
aid and credits for the two East Bloc
countries struggling to build democ
racy and market economies.
On Wednesday, Congress
planned to honor Walesa by allow
ing him to become the first non-gov
ernmental foreign citizen to address
a joint session of the House and Sen
ate since 1824.
Walesa, addressing the AFL-GIO,
apologized to his fellow trade union
ists for encouraging American capi
talists to flock to Poland.
“Such is the fate of a Polish trade
unionist — he has to launch a public-
ity campaign for private
entrepreneurship,” Walesa told the
cheering crowd. “I would not like
anybody to think that I made an
about face.”
“Nowadays in Poland the defense
of workers is not based on demand
ing more paper money, which in our
country has no real value and for
which one cannot buy anything,” he
said.
At a news conference later, Wa
lesa welcomed reforms in other So
viet bloc nations.
Namibians elect leftist party as majority;
SWAPO to hold 41 seats in new assembly
WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — The black na
tionalist movement that fought South African
rule for 23 years won a solid majority Tuesday in
national elections but will have to bargain with ri
val parties in drafting a new constitution.
The leftist South-West Africa People’s Organi
zation won 384,567 votes, or 57 percent of
670,830 ballots cast, according to results an
nounced Tuesday.
SWAPO’s leaders had predicted their
movement would easily win the two-thirds major
ity that would have enabled it to single-handedly
write the constitution.
The Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, a multira
cial coalition that favors a capitalist economy, fin
ished second with 191,532 votes, or 29 percent.
Thousands of SWAPO supporters filled the
streets of Windhoek, the capital, waving flags,
singing and honking horns tnroughout the day.
The celebration carried on into the night in Ka-
tutura, the main black neighborhood on the edge
of Windhoek.
“We struggled all the years for this day,”
SWAPO President Sam Nujoma said.
Namibians voted from Tuesday through Sat
urday for a 72-member assembly that will draft a
constitution and declare independence for Nam
ibia after 74 years of South African rule.
SWAPO will hold 41 seats in the assembly, and
the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance 21.
The United Democratic Front will have four
seats, followed by the conservative, all-white Ac
tion Christian National, with three. The Federal
Convention of Namibia, National Patriotic Front
and the Namibia National Front each won a sin
gle seat.
The assembly’s decisions must be backed by at
least 48 members.
“In spite of the difficulties, in spite of all the
odds placed in our way to victory, the liberation
movement has won,” senior SWAPO spokesman
Hidipo Hamutenya said.
The election result was seen as promising for a
peaceful transition to independence for the
sparsely populated region of southern Africa.
Some observers feared that if SWAPO won a
two-thirds majority, it might have written a con
stitution leaning heavily in its favor.
Had the organization won less than 50 percent
of the vote, it may have challenged the results
and accused South Africa of trying to prevent a
SWAPO government.
In Washington, the State Department said it
wished the Namibian people well as they start
drafting the new constitution.
“We Took forward to working with the govern
ment that emerges after independence,” the
statement said.
South Africa captured Namibia from Ger
many in World War I and ruled it under a
League of Nations mandate. That mandate was
rescinded by the United Nations in 1966, but
South Africa refused U.N. orders to withdraw.
West Germany offers aid to East, demands reforms
. Fix
TUI
dilo-
BERLIN (AP) — West Germany
said Tuesday it was willing to give
East Germany massive financial aid
in the style of the postwar U.S. Mar
shall Plan, but demanded political
and economic reforms the Commu
nists have so far rejected.
East Germany’s new premier said
the Berlin Wall must remain, to keep
AIDS, crime and other Western
problems out of his country. He
promised a coalition government
but did not say whether the opposi-
Ption could join it.
After a week of dramatic devel
opments in East European coun
tries, President Mikhail S. Gorba
chev of the Soviet Union said in
Moscow:
“They have a common direction,
which fosters the building of a Euro
pean home, for it makes the coun
tries closer, more open and creates
new opportunities for human con
tact and an equal exchange.”
The Liberal Democrats, an East
German party that is allied with the
Comrhunists but shows signs of inde
pendence, said pro-democracy
groups should be invited in “round-
table” talks about East Germany’s fu
ture.
Discussions this spring between
Polish authorities and Solidarity,
which were given that name, led to a
non-Communist government in Po
land.
Mayor Walter Momper of West
Berlin said the sudden opening of
East Germany’s borders was creating
traffic jams, currency problems and
other economic difficulties the two
governments must resolve.
Economics Minister Helmut
Haussmann of West Germany an
nounced a six-point aid plan includ-
“I
In our country there is
little criminal activity. ...Our
people are asking why
they shouldn’t just leave
that as it is.”
— Hans Modrow,
East German Premier
ing investments, joint ventures and
modernizing East Germany’s dilapi
dated communications and trans
port systems.
Haussmann did not name a figure
for the aid and said East Germany
must achieve “thorough change” in
its centrally directed economy.
Reforms promised so far by Com
munist Party leader Egon Krenz,
who took over last month from
hard-liner Erich Honecker, have re
sulted in more questions than an
swers, Haussmann said in Bonn.
He compared his proposal to the
Marshall Plan devised by Secretary
of State George C. Marshall, which
provided more than $12 billion in
American aid in 1948-51 to help Eu
rope recover from the war.
East German authorities have re
jected the idea of adopting a com
plete free-market system and new
Premier Hans Modrow, a leading re
former, says he wants “step by step”
economic changes.
Modrow appears to want a
streamlining of the bureaucracy, but
has given no indication he will urge
sweeping changes such as those m
Hungary and Poland.
He was quoted Tuesday in the
West Germany newspaper Bild as
saying the Berlin Wall can remain
open to travel, but will come down.
“In our country there is little
criminal activity . . . cases of AIDS
and drugs are virtually unknown,”
he was quoted as saying. “Our peo
ple are asking themselves why they
shouldn’t just leave that as it is.”
ADN, the official news agency,
said the government might open a
part of the wall near the Branden
burg Gate as yet another passage be
tween East and West Berlin. The
high-columned monument is near
the wall in East Berlin and is among
the city’s best-known symbols.
Before East Germany opened its
borders Thursday, the gate had
been a major rallying point for dem
onstrators seeking freedom to travel
to the West. Hundreds of West Ber
liners gathered there Tuesday in
hopes a hole would be opened.
A leader of New Forum, East Ger
many’s main opposition group, said
it could work with a revamped Com
munist Party but naming Modrow
premier was not enough.
More change could occur at a spe
cial party congress in East Berlin on
Dec. 15-17.
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