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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1995)
The Battalion • Page 7 Thursday • January 26, 1995 Quake criticism wont necessarily lead to political shakeup in Japan Japanese expect little from leaders when disasters occur TOKYO (AP) — Job securi ty isn’t a given for Japanese prime ministers. The country has had seven of them in the last six years. So, will Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama have to take the fall for the heavy criti cism against his government in dealing with the nation’s worst earthquake in 70 years? Few think so. The situation says much about how weak the office of prime minister is in Japan, and about how little Japanese peo ple expect from their leaders when it comes to taking charge in emergency situations. Hundreds may have died in the ruins oFKobe as the govern ment dallied over accepting for eign help, sending in troops, and clearing roads for emergency ve hicles. While no one is giving Murayama an A-plus, few sup pose that other prime ministers would have done better. “Given the current system, it couldn’t be helped,” said Shige- taro lizuka, a professor of poli tics at Nihon University. “In Japan’s postwar democracy the prime minister doesn’t have ab solute, strong powers.” One illustration of that came when Switzerland offered to send specially trained dogs to search for quake victims buried under rubble. The Foreign Min istry wanted to accept the offer right away, while the Agricul ture Ministry reportedly felt the dogs needed to undergo full quarantine checks. In Japan, such bureaucratic quarrels are legion, and prime ministers rarely step in to solve them. Murayama’s response was typical: He announced he was studying the matter, then let the dogs in the next day af ter pressure mounted. Reformers have long sug gested that the powers of bu reaucrats be reduced and that the prime minister act more like an American president in giving orders. Many Japanese fear strong-arm leaders more than the sluggish bureaucracy. When Murayama visited evacuation centers, some vic tims pointedly commented that they needed food more than a visit from the prime minister. The top opposition strate gist, Ichiro Ozawa, on Tuesday blamed Murayama for taking four hours to mobilize the Japanese military after the earthquake. Russian ‘missile shootdown report false 'Missile' turned out to be rocket used to study Northern Lights MOSCOW (AP) — It’s a missile! It’s been shot down by the Russians! It’s ... all a mistake? Yep. An erroneous report that Russian forces had shot down a missile launched from northern Eu rope had governments around the world and their militaries asking questions Wednesday. The “missile” turned out to be a NASA-funded rocket that aimed to study the Northern Lights. The Norwegians launched it successfully within their own territory after informing the Russian government. It was not shot down. The Interfax news agency later acknowledged that its report was wrong. Vyacheslav Terekhov, deputy director of the agency, blamed the mis take on false information from a high-ranking military source. Following the initial urgent report, Russian government and military officials said they knew nothing about a missile shootdown. But at a time when Russia’s military is em broiled in a bloody war in Chechnya, the report set off widespread alarms. Spokesmen for NATO, the Pentagon, the Allied military command in Europe, several countries and FYesident Clinton immediately said they were look ing into the report. Later, a White House spokesman called it “totally unsubstantiated.” In Oslo, the Norwegian Defense Ministry said a research rocket was fired from the civilian An- doya Rocket Range on Andoya, an island off northern Norway, but with a trajectory to the northwest — away from Russia. It was reported to have landed in the Arctic Ocean near Norway’s Svalbard Islands. “We are a little puzzled by the report,” said spokesman Erik lanke. Valery Grishin, a Russian government spokesman, said Norwegian authorities had fully informed Moscow of the launch of a weather re search rocket. “The rocket fell on its own — no one shot it down,” Grishin said. The four-stage research rocket. Black Brent XXII, was part of a NASA project and carried in struments from American and Norwegian uni versities to study the Northern Lights. 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