WORLD
Page 10
THE BATTALION
Tuesday, March?,
Albright hit with eggs while
visiting the Czech Republic
ALBRIGHT
BRNO, Czech
Republic (AP) —
Shouting “death to
American imperial
ism,” two men hurled
eggs at Secretary of
State Madeleine Al
bright Monday after
she told a university
audience that defense
of common values sometimes requires
countries to pay a financial price.
The incident marred an otherwise
warm reception here on the second day
of Albright’s four-day visit to the land of
her birth.
After finishing a speech to an enthu
siastic audience at Tomas Masaryk Uni
versity in this industrial city 125 miles
southeast of Prague, Albright was
milling about in the crowded entrance
hall as bystanders cheered.
Suddenly, two men shouted “death to
American imperialism” and began hurl
ing eggs. Albright was spattered slightly
with bits of egg but most of them were
intercepted by her bodyguards, said a
U.S. official who asked that his name not
be published.
She was rushed upstairs quickly be
fore leaving for another appearance. Po
lice Capt. Zdenek Lubas said several
people were detained for questioning but
declined to give further details.
Before the speech, Albright had met
privately with about a dozen students
from the Gypsy minority to discuss af
firmative action and other ideas for im
proving their conditions. She also re
ceived a gold medal Monday from the
university named after a Czech president
who was bom near here 100 years ago.
During her speech, Albright referred
to a pledge by Czech President Vaclav
Havel to cancel a $30 million sale of
cooling duct parts by a Czech company
to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Although Iran insist the plant is for
peaceful production of electricity, the Unit
ed States fears the Iranians are hying to de
velop a nuclear weapons program.
Noting that this former Soviet Bloc
state joined NATO last year, Albright
said preventing the spread of nuclear
weapons was a high priority of the West
ern alliance.
As with any goal worth achieving, it
is not without cost,” Albright said, speak
ing in English. “To keep the best tech
nology from falling into the wrong
hands, American firms are required to
forgo many potentially profitable con
tracts. But a similar responsibility rests
upon the shoulders of all who pledged to
defend the best interests of the Euro-At
lantic community.”
Albright said Washington has urged all
its allies to “meet that responsibility so that
our common security is protected and the
future safer for our children and theirs.”
“We consider the campaign around
Bushehr conducted by the Czech gov
ernment and the local media a gift to the
American minister Madeleine Albright
linked to her visit,” Sharif Khodai, the
acting Iranian ambassador to Prague,
told the newspaper Pravo.
Albright laid a wreath of red roses
and white irises at a statue of Masaryk,
who led Czechoslovakia from 1918 un
til 1935 and was a close friend of Presi
dent Woodrow Wilson.
Albright has urged Czechs to follow
the example of Masaryk, a towering
figure in Eastern European democratic
history.
“He stood up for truth when others
were afraid to face the truth,” Albright
said in Hodonin. On Sunday, she had
said “ Masaryk’s dream was to have Eu
rope whole and free.”
U.S. officials said Albright has urged
the Czechs to undertake judicial reform
and encourage tolerance for the country’s
Gypsy minority. She has also encouraged
the Czech Republic to become more in
volved in Western moves to bring
democracy to Yugoslavia’s main repub
lic, Serbia, and to help promote ethnic
stability in Kosovo, a province of Serbia.
Albright said Sunday that the people
of Serbia “do not deserve” an autocratic
leader like President Slobodan Milosevic.
In an interview with Radio Free Eu-
rope-Radio Liberty, she said the United
States had been urging the Serbian op
position movement to end its divisions
and prove to Serbs that “they represent
an alternate choice.”
Albright also said democratically
minded leaders from former Soviet Bloc
countries could offer advice to opposition
figures in Serbia on how to unite in the face
of authoritarian rule.
China increases military spending
Play it again, Sam
BEIJING (AP)—Amid renewed tensions with Taiwan, Chi
na said today it will boost military spending by 12.7 percent this
year.
The spending hike for the People’s Liberation Army — or
PLA—the world’s largest military, comes on top of an increase
of the same percentage in last year’s budget.
In announcing his 2000 budget to the national legislature. Fi
nance Minister Xiang Huaicheng said $14.5 billion would be
spent on defense. China was expected to have an economic
growth rate of 7 percent this year.
He said the new funds would mainly cover salary and al
lowance increases for troops, as well as expenditures for main
taining forces in Macau — the territory that Portugal handed back
to China in December.
Beijing lavished double-digit spending increases on the PLA
for much of the 1990s, reflecting the militaiy’s political clout and
efforts to modernize the 2.5 million strong force. China’s grow
ing militaiy might has raised concerns among other Asian nations,
some of which have territorial disputes with Beijing.
Xiang did not give a break down of the military spend
ing, but Western analysts believe China’s actual defense
spending is three times higher than the published figure. Pur
chases of sophisticated weapons at home and abroad are not
included in the official figure.
Xiang’s comments expanded on an anti-corruption theme of
the annual 11-day session of the National People’s Congress.
Overall, Xiang said, central government spending will increase
by 12.3 percent to $ 111.1 billion; revenue will increase by 7.9 per
cent to $83.3 billion.
That will leave a record deficit of $27.7 billion, up from the
$21.7 billion deficit Xiang said was recorded in 1999.
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