Trouble & Attitude 1/Trouble and Attitude - Issue 01.iso/pc/troublea.tti/EW Report 3B.TXT

Text File | 1995-05-29 | 28KB | 664 lines

BEGINNING OF EW REPORT VOLUME 13,  PART TWO
Misconnects

American ╥greens╙ are anemic.  Money is tight.
Environmental giving has dried up since the 1992
Earth Summit in Rio.  Europeans are likely to
mainstream environmental responsibility in a
manner similar to fiscal responsibility - external
audits will ensure that laws are met and that
proper and due care is taken with the use of
environmental resources.  In the United States,
lawyers play a much larger role because of liabil-
ity issues: a firm conducting a $20,000 audit can
be held responsible, at least partially, for the
outcome of subsequent decisions based on the
audit results.  Elsewhere, the firm at worst is
liable for the cost of the audit.

Environmental regulations can be an effective
disguise for protectionism and increase tensions.
Take, for example, the recent Christmas tree
debacle between Mexico and its two northern
trade partners, Canada and the United States.
The tree growers hoped to sell them to Mexico.
Obviously, gypsy moths and other pests from the
North must be kept from Mexico; but Mexico
kept changing the rules on how to show that trees
sent south had a clean bill of health.  Often, the
decision was left in the hands of ill-informed
border guards and customs officials with tremen-
dous scope for delay.  Not only were there
demands for mordida [╥little bites╙ - bribes] to
help speed the process, but the fragile and perish-
able trees often would be unloaded, shaken down
for bugs, left standing in the sun, then reloaded
only to be unloaded again.  A round of plant
quarantine negotiations is scheduled.

Recently, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt
directed the National Park Services to increase
from 107 to 184 the number of visits by cruise
ships to Glacier Bay National Park in southeastern
Alaska.  Environmentalists contend that by virtue
of its climate and remoteness, the area is too
fragile and home to too many threatened species
to endure a 72 percent increase in ship visits.
Babbitt╒s order is a victory for Alaska╒s Republi-
can Senator Frank Murkowski, the new chairman
of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee, as well as Alaska╒s Republican Con-
gressman Don Young, chairman of the House
Public Lands and Resources Committee.  The Park
Service fears that increasing the number of vessels
from 107 to 184 during the 92-day season could
disrupt wildlife, increase air pollution and degrade
the wilderness experience for kayakers and other
hardy users.  The bay, accessible by air and sea
only, is one of Alaska╒s finest locales.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Clinton plan for
forest management was upheld by a federal judge
in Seattle who rejected legal challenges by envi-
ronmentalists and the timber industry.  The plan
requires the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of
Land Management to protect most, not all, of the
remaining stands of old-growth timber in the
Northwest, where only 10 percent of the original
pristine forest remains.  Under the plan, thE
agencies would be able to sell one billion board
feet of timber a year from these lands [about
one-fourth the levels of the 1980s], but must
protect wildlife habitat and corridors along
streams.  Assistant Agriculture Secretary James
Lyons greeted the ruling saying, ╥We╒ve done what
no previous administration has been able to do: put
together a plan that protects natural resources,
provides a sustainable timber harvest and is con-
sistent with the law, and we╒re proud of it.╙  The
battle will be rejoined in Congress by all sides.

Babbitt, in the context of his ╥reform-is-the-
art-of-the-possible╙ approach, has abandoned the
grazing reform that was his main initial priority.
He abandoned his plan to double fees paid by
ranchers who graze cattle and sheep on 264 mil-
lion acres of federal land from $1.98 to a com-
mercial rate of $4.28 per cow per month and to
impose stricter range-protection standards on
ranchers.  Now the government will focus on
ensuring that ranchers abide by environmentally
sound grazing practices.  Implementation of this
part of the grazing plan will be delayed six
months to allow Congress time to review it.
Environmentalists feel that the Republicans will
remove any teeth from the plan, and charge that
Babbitt ╥sanctions taxpayer-funded destruction of
the public lands.╙  They claim Babbitt ╥is scraping
the bottom of the barrel in an effort to make
friends with those who will always be his enemies,
and now he╒s making enemies out of those who
used to be his friends.╙

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a
notice in the December 15 Federal Register that it
is ending its listing of the Alabama River stur-
geon as an endangered species.  The reason: dur-
ing searches for the rare fish, none were found.
If a sturgeon is found and listed as endangered, it
is unlikely to stop ongoing habitat-destroying
dredging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
keep the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers open for
commercial barge and other traffic.

During the years the Republicans controlled
the executive, the Democrats controlled Congress
and checked the Republican environmental line.
During the past two years when the Democrats
controlled the White House as well as Congress,
they failed to enact the expected sweeping toug-
hening of environmental regulations.  Now, with
the Republicans controlling Congress while a
Democrat is in the White House, some fear that
the Rush Limbaugh view of environmentalists as
╥wacko╙ will prevail though 83 percent of voters
told opinion pollers they are ╥environmentalists.╙
Meanwhile, the real issues have shifted from
broad environmental clean-up and global environ-
mental concerns to basic questions: water and how
to assure enough potable water for the growing
world population; food and how to ensure ade-
quate and safe supply, and infrastructure suffi-
cient to make settlements viable and habitable for
diverse population needs.

             Yeltsin and the Security Services

In September 1993, aides to President Boris Niko-
layevich Yeltsin publicly acknowledged that he
was suffering from radiculitis.  The diagnosis had
been made earlier that year by Spanish doctors,
who travel to Moscow every three years to moni-
tor  Yeltsin.  They examined him in connection
with trauma to the spine that he sustained as a
result of a 1990 forced landing his plane made in
Spain.  According to Russian doctors, Yeltsin╒s
medical case history records ╥contusions received
from being thrown in the river,╙ a reference to a
serious political dispute during the days of Mik-
hail Gorbachev, and a contusion to the head sus-
tained when the presidential limousine collided
with a compact car on the streets of Moscow.

It should be noted that radiculitis - inflamma-
tion of the nerve endings - is known in Moscow
as the illness of presidents.  Gorbachev was
described as a sufferer of the condition during the
attempted coup of 1991.

German and American physicians, who have
watched Yeltsin for the past three years believe he
suffers from the after-effects of complications
from an acute inflammation of the middle ear,
cirrhosis of the liver and renal insufficiency, and
that recently Yeltsin has shown signs of rapidly
progressing stenocardia.  On January 10, at an
unrelated press conference, Andrey Karaulov, host
of the television program ╥Moment of Truth,╙
reported that President Yeltsin has ╥sclerosis of
the blood vessels of the brain, and he passes out in
the middle of the work day, forgets words, and is
in no condition to take independent decisions.╙

Government decisions are being made by
Yeltsin╒s National Security Council, whose most
powerful members are First Assistant Viktor
Ilyushin; Major General Aleksandr Korzhakov,
chief of the Presidential Security Service (SBP);
Vice Premier Oleg Soskovets; Security Council
Secretary Oleg Lobov and the head of the presi-
dent╒s administration, Sergey Filatov, probably
soon to be displaced by Yeltsin╒s old friend from
his Sverdlovsk period, Yuriy Petrov.

The Security Council has the advantage of
protection by the Presidential Security Service.  In
December, the SBP staged an ostentatious show of
force in a raid on the MOST bank in the center
of Moscow.  The SBP roughed up the bank╒s
head, the opulent and very showy Vladimir
Gusinskiy, as a general warning against supporting
any rival to Boris Yeltsin - a warning that was
sufficient for Gusinskiy to send his wife and son
urgently to Germany.

Despite this eruption of activity and a stream
of position papers, analyses and public statements
on economic and social conditions and the war in
Chechnya distributed from the SBP╒s own press
office, headed by Andrey Oligov, the SBP remains
a most mysterious special service.

It is significant that the function of the SBP╒s
press office is not to give out information, but to
deal firmly with the press, investigate publications
writing about the security services and ╥work on╙
excessively curious authors.  In addition to this,
officials from the SBP╒s press office this year,
have been circulating compromising material on
certain Kremlin bureaucrats, members of the
Duma [parliament] and Moscow businessmen.

There is no record in the Kremlin╒s list of acts
of the head of state showing how, or when the
SBP was formed and placed under the command
of Major General Korzhakov, [reported to have
had accelerated promotion from the rank of major
in October 1993, when he distinguished himself in
the attack on the White House].  Moscow observ-
ers believe that it was separated out of the Main
Security Directorate (GUO) in January or Febru-
ary 1994.

The GUO was formed by an edict of the pres-
ident in the spring of 1992 from the Kremlin
Commandant╒s Office and the former Ninth
Directorate of the former KGB. Kremlin Com-
mandant Mikhail Barsukov became the head of
the GUO.  Both the GUO and the SBP conduct
joint measures and share a number of support
services.

The GUO and the SBP provide security teams
to guard Russia╒s leaders, their offices, cars,
apartments, dachas, institutions, ministries and
departments, plus a whole range of secret ╥objects
of state importance,╙ such as sanatoriums and
vacation homes received by the president as gifts
from the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) before it was
outlawed by Boris Yeltsin.

According, again to Moscow sources, both the
GUO and SBP are involved in surveillance oper-
ations, videotaping with hidden cameras and
monitoring telephone conversations.  There also
are reports of unconventional methods, such as a
person named Rogozin who specializes in ╥reading
and transmitting thoughts long-distance,╙ and a
lady named Dzhuna who terms herself a ╥chan-
neler of bio-energy╙ and is said to influence Boris
Yeltsin by way of astrology.  The GUO and SBP
have their own analytical subdivision, whose work
extends to the political and economic situation in
the country.

The prime analysis center is located outside the
Kremlin at 5 Varvarka Street, which houses a
staff of some 60 people, it is under the supervi-
sion of Georgiy Rogozin, deputy chief of the SBP,
who previously had worked for the KGB╒s Fifth
Directorate.  Rogozin╒s work was initially con-
cerned with operations against dissidents, but later
was said to involve matters such as extrasensory
perception and telepathy in order to divert the
attention of people from politics.

The GUO has some 25,000 employees of whom
some 5,000 are assigned to the SBP.  The pay of
the lower ranks is about one and half times higher
than that of their colleagues from the other spe-
cial services; and that of security officers is three
times higher than that of officers of equal rank in
the Federal Counterintelligence Service and the
Ministry of Internal Affairs.  The GUO budget
for 1995 is reported to be 600 billion rubles,
approximately the same amount as allocated to the
entire Russian procuracy that employs more than
40,000 people.

Comparatively, the former Ninth Directorate of
the Soviet KGB╒s ╥order of battle╙ showed some
8,700 personnel; and the entire KGB had some
35,000 personnel.  The ╥Niners╙ provided guards
to both people and facilities across the entire
Soviet Union, with between ten and twenty
guards being assigned to the entire Moscow
nomenklatura dacha settlement; now every dacha
is guarded by up to 20 GUO officers with the
numbers of dachas increasing as state bureaucrats
proliferate.

Each politician provided with protection has,
on average, several dozen bodyguards, with the
prime minister and Major General Korzhakov
having more than a hundred each.  The GUO and
SBP are both provided with electronic communi-
cations and have been issued with Val silent com-
bat assault rifles.

The GUO staff includes the Alpha antiterrorist
storm troops, which, operationally is under the
command of Korzhakov, as it was the last time
that it was activated in the autumn of 1993.

In Russia the term ╥in operative subordination╙
indicates that a regiment, brigade or division are
supported at the expense of the Defense Ministry
budget and their personnel are shown on the
Ministry╒s ╥order of battle,╙ not on that of any
other agency, such as the GUO or SBP.  Thus,
since 1993 the 118th paratroop regiment, the 27th
special-purpose motorized infantry brigade and an
amphibious assault division - all regular military
formations with armored personnel carriers,
infantry combat vehicles, tanks and rocket
launchers - are now available to Generals Barsu-
kov and Korzhakov for security purposes, without
reference to the Defense Minister and General of
the Army Pavel Grachev.

It is apparent to many Russians, including
members of the Duma Security Committee that
the GUO and SBP have, at this time, neither
legislative nor judicial authority and operate
under the executive authority of President Yeltsin.
Viktor Ilyukhin, chairman of the Duma committee
is proposing altering the Russian law to bring the
GUO and SBP under the control of the Federal
Counterintelligence Service (FSK); however Major
General Korzhakov has suggested merging FSK
with the GUO and SBP to become the very model
of a modern KGB.

                       The Final Frontier

Despite the rapture last week in the Russian and
American press over the link-up of cosmonauts
and astronauts in space, plans to build the inter-
national space station Alpha are seriously threat-
ened by the allocation of Russian resources.

Resources at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan are controlled by the Defense Minis-
try, the Russian Space Agency and the State
Committee for the Defense Sectors of Industry -
the three ╥masters of Russian space.╙  Each
bureaucracy is engaged in a struggle for control
over the distribution of state resources.  All the
╥masters╙ see the only way out of the present
situation as increasing budget financing.

At Baikonur Cosmodrome, headquarters of the
Russo-American space program, food and equip-
ment are abysmal.  At the hotel used by the
Americans, drinking water must be boiled and
visitors have to wash their hands in disinfectant
because cholera is epidemic in nearby residential
areas.  There are many labor problems.  During
one recent flight, a labor union rally was joined
by off-duty Mission Control Center engineers
who denounced space agency officials who ╥use
common funds for wild foreign travel,╙ while staff
were working short weeks on reduced pay.

In March, an American and two Russians will
begin a three-month spell of living together in the
Russian space station Mir [peace], which was to
be fitted with a near ton of scientific equipment
for the astronaut.  The American space research
equipment was to be sent to the Mir separately in
an unmanned module called Spektr [ghost].  Now
the Russians say that Spektr will not be launched
before May, too late for the equipment to be put
to meaningful use during this flight.

The Russians claim that the American equip-
ment arrived late; American sources say the deliv-
eries were on time but held up by Russian and
Kazakhstan customs bureaucracies.  Americans
have many complaints about the ╥take, take╙
nature of the Russian cooperation and the poor
quality of the equipment.  They hope keeping
Russian scientists busy on joint projects will keep
Russian scientists home and not developing mis-
siles for Third World states.  The Duma╒s Space
Committee, together with Deputy Defense Minis-
ter Andrey Kokoshin and Space Agency Director
Yuriy Koptev, plan hearings this month on the
privatization of the Russian space program; but it
is not expected to make any changes in the imme-
diate future that could improve the Baikonur Mir
mission.

GLOBAL BRIEFS

ALGERIA.  Sources in Paris report that the
Clinton administration is still attempting to play a
crucial role in bringing about a common platform
in Algeria that will call for an all-party national
conference.  According to the French, the Ameri-
can policy of ╥pragmatism╙ toward the Islamic
Salvation Front (FIS) and seven other opposition
parties that participated in last month╒s Saint
Egidio colloquium in Rome was following prac-
tices established by France with the Palestinians,
Iranians and Iraqis - the policy of self-interest.

In association with the French company Spie
Capag, the U.S. Bechtel Company is building the
Algerian section of the Maghreb-Europe gas
pipeline that will link the Hasi R╒Mel gas field in
northern Algeria to Spain via Morocco and
Gibraltar.  In association with the Kellogg engi-
neering company, Bechtel is also working on
renovating a major gas liquefaction plant in
Arziw.

For historic reasons, France is the country most
strongly involved with Algeria; but Mobil, Arco,
Phillips Petroleum, Anadarko (United States);
British Petroleum (United Kingdom); Petro
Canada (Canada); Agip (Italy); Repsol (Spain) and
other companies, attracted by the country╒s enor-
mous energy reserves - in oil alone estimated at
45 billion barrels - all have made an entry into
the Algerian oil economy over the past two years.

FIJI.  A new political furor has erupted in Fiji
as members of the Fijian Christian Nationalist
Party (FCNP) led by Sakeasi Butadroka marched
through Suva outside the parliament to demand
the resignation of Prime Minister Major General
Sitiveni Rabuka.  The FCNP is outraged by what
they see as the double defection from the cause of
ethnic purity and Christianity of Rabuka.  In
1987 and 1988 when he headed Fiji╒s armed
forces, Rabuka led two coups to depose the politi-
cal party of the island╒s ethnic Indians, most of
whom are Hindus, whose ancestors were brought
there by the British as indentured servants to
labor on the sugarcane plantations and multiplied
to slightly outnumber the Christian [mainly Meth-
odist] Melanesians, whose seafaring ancestors
found the islands centuries ago.

Butadroka and his followers are incensed by
Rabuka╒s plan to permit Hong Kong Chinese
businessmen to immigrate to Fiji in exchange for
a substantial fee.  He also has proposed lifting the
long-standing Sunday observance laws that ban
commercial activity.  Worse, say the nationalists,
Rabuka has proposed using the word ╥Fijian╙ to
describe the nationality of all citizens of Fiji
whether their ethnicity is European, overseas
Chinese, Polynesian or Indian.  The nationalists
hope to introduce a parliamentary vote of confi-
dence against Rabuka.

JAPAN.  Tokyo decided to reduce the size of
government somewhat through administrative
reorganization.  Three of the 92 existing publicly
financed corporations will be privatized including
the Social Development Research Institute and the
Teito Rapid Transit Authority.  Another five will
be reorganized, for example, the Livestock Indus-
try Promotion Corporation.  However, the Finance
Ministry dug in its heels to save the Export-
Import Bank of Japan, and other banks including
Hokkaido-Tohoku Development, People╒s Finance,
Environment Sanitation Business Financing and
Japan Finance Corporation for Small Business.

KOREAN AFFAIRS.  This week the North
Korean government reiterated its insistence that it
will not accept South Korean-made light-water
nuclear reactors even it that means scrapping the
bilateral agreement reached in Geneva with the
United States.  The Republic of Korea (ROK)
was to absorb a large share of the cost of building
two reactors for Pyongyang.  Under the Geneva
agreement, once the two $4 billion reactors were
completed, the Democratic People╒s Republic of
Korea (DPRK) would begin dismantling the reac-
tor at Yongbyon that is believed to be the center-
piece of the DPRK╒s nuclear weapons program.
At present, the Yongbyon reactor is off-line, its
fuel rods removed and cooling in on-site water
tanks.  The DPRK refused to allow removal of
the used fuel rods to a third country for repro-
cessing in which their plutonium would be
removed and stored outside North Korea.  The
U.S. government conceded to Pyongyang on this
point.  The DPRK did suspend construction on a
second and larger reactor at Yongbyon as agreed
in Geneva.

Already having made significant concessions to
the North Koreans, the United States is resisting
further cave-in.  The talks to arrange the opening
of diplomatic liaison offices in Washington and
Pyongyang are on hold.  Assistant Secretary of
State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Winston
Lord reiterated last week, ╥The supply of ROK-
style light-water reactors is a prerequisite to the
implementation of the North Korea-U.S. agree-
ment.  In case North Korea should reject to the
end ROK-style reactors, the Geneva agreement will
have to be virtually abrogated.╙  Last Thursday,
Defense Secretary William Perry told Congress
that if the agreement is not implemented, the
administration and Congress will consider reinfor-
cing U.S. forces in South Korea.

The Clinton administration in fact seems to be
trying a form of ╥soft pressure╙ while continuing
behind-the-scenes discussions with the DPRK╒s
negotiators.  ╥Flexible inflexibility╙ was how one
administration source characterized the U.S. posi-
tion.  Formal talks are to resume next month.
Obviously, Washington is trying not to box itself
into a confrontational position regarding the
Geneva agreement╒s April 21 deadline for con-
cluding implementation arrangements.  The State
Department commented, The date 21 April is not
the final deadline.╙

LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS.  As the border
war between Peru and Ecuador moveed into its
second month last week, a Russian Ilyushin-76
bearing Aeroflot markings landed at the Atlantic
port city Forteleza, and requested fuel to continue
its 3,000-mile flight to Peru.  Inspection of the
cargo plane determined that it was indeed carry-
ing turbines and repair parts for military helicop-
ters.  Aeroflot reportedly gave prior notification
of the cargo to the Itamaraty - Brazil╒s Foreign
Ministry.

Brazil is a guarantor of the 1942 Rio Treaty
demarcing the border between the two warring
countries.  The Itamaraty debated briefly, then
ruled that the Russian plane could refuel, but
would have to fly back across the Atlantic to
Dakar, Senegal.  The pilot agreed and filed the
appropriate flight plan.  However, as the Il-76
was leaving Brazilian airspace, it radioed for
permission to land in Georgetown, Guyana.

The message was intercepted by the Brazilian
Air Force traffic control office in Recife.  The
air traffic controllers contacted the Russians,
reminded them the agreed flight plan required
them to proceed to Dakar.  After several minutes
silence, the Russian pilot said he would head for
Africa, but make one ╥technical stop╙ for refuel-
ing in the Cape Verde Islands.  Brazilian authori-
ties believe the Aeroflot transport circled around
and went to Peru anyway.  Brazilian military
attachés were checking with the governments of
Cape Verde and Senegal.  The Russian Foreign
Ministry issued an official statement saying ╥the
competent Russian authorities responsible for the
weapons trade have nothing to do with the trans-
portation of cargo by the plane in question.╙

SIERRA LEONE.  Organization of African
Unity╒s (OAU) Deputy Secretary-General Abdul-
lahi Sahid Osman called this week for a cease-
fire in the ongoing civil war and urged rebel
leaders to release the 17 foreigners and seven
Sierra Leoneans held hostage.  Osman, a Somali,
also urged the United Nations and Commonwealth
to try to mediate the conflict.  Over the past four
years, the war has claimed some 5,000 lives and
created a 40,000-plus refugee problem in neigh-
boring Guinea.  During his five-day visit, Osman
met with the president of the National Provisional
Ruling Council, Captain Valentine Esegragbo
Melvine Strasser, but was unable to make personal
contact with the leader of the Revolutionary
United Front, Corporal Foday Sankoh.  The OAU
mission coincided with a similar visit by U.N.
Special Envoy Berhanu Dimka, an Ethiopian.
The OAU mission will overlap with a Common-
wealth delegation that is expected to arrive in
Freetown momentarily.

SOUTH AFRICA.  Newspapers from the New
Nation and Sowetan to Business Day are discuss-
ing the financial controversies surrounding gov-
ernment figures Winnie Mandela, Bantu Holomisa
and Peter Mokaba.  Allegedly, each misappropri-
ated sums ranging from the thousands to the
millions of dollars.  All protest their innocence.

To these controversies is added another scandal
involving Dr. Allan Boesak.  Some $300,000 in
charitable funds went to pay for his third wed-
ding, vacations, house and new wife╒s business
debts.  Boesak╒s actions have brought international
headlines, such as one in the London, Indepen-
dent, ╥Is corruption at the heart of the revolution?╙

Observers in South Africa point out that all
those under investigation - Winnie Mandela,
Holomisa and Mokaba - are highly popular lead-
ers of the radical populist wing of the African
National Congress (ANC) and that the new inves-
tigations may have been launched by reconcili-
ation-oriented leaders such as Vice President
Thabo Mbeki, Justice Minister Dullah Omar and
Deputy Defense Minister Ronnie Kasrils, who
believe themselves and the ╥New╙ South Africa are
threatened by the radical populists as President
Nelson Mandela is unable to exercise control.

UZBEKISTAN.   Soviet-style authoritarianism
is in place in Tashkent where the trial of mem-
bers of the outlawed opposition party, Erk, has
resumed.  The prosecution, whose case was pre-
pared by Uzbekistan╒s National Security Service,
formed from the local KGB after the breakup of
the Soviet Union, charges Muhammad Solikh with
plotting to overthrow President Islam Karimov,
formerly the Communist Party first secretary, by
publishing the Erk party╒s newspaper, outlawed by
the Goskompechat [State Committee for the Press]
and ╥inciting distrust and hostility among the
people and toward the president and the govern-
ment and calling for struggle against the repre-
sentatives of legally constituted authority and for
the support of anticonstitutional organizations.╙
Also on trial are the Erk╒s editor, Dzhakhongir
Mamatov, former director of Uzbek state televi-
sion and a Supreme Soviet deputy, and Murad
Dzhurayev, also a former Supreme Soviet deputy
and mayor of Murabek.  Only family members of
the accused are permitted to attend the trial.
Observers and correspondents, local or foreign,
are barred.

VIETNAM.  ╥Saigon South╙ may shortly rise if
not from ashes like the proverbial phoenix, at
least from the farmlands just south of what now
is officially Ho Chi Minh City.  Taiwanese inves-
tors [the developer is the Phy My Hung Corpora-
tion] are planning a $60 billion investment that
will include over the course of 15 years construc-
tion of a business and financial center, commer-
cial offices, warehousing, a science park, univer-
sity and shops to service the complex to be built
in the 10 square miles set aside.  All that exists at
this time is the 600-acre Tan Thuan Export Pro-
cessing Zone (EPZ), launched with $89 million
from Taiwan╒s Central Trading and Development
(CT&D), the investment arm of Taiwan╒s ruling
Kuomintang.  Work on the Saigon South beltway
road linking the site to Vietnam╒s main north-
south road will begin next April and take seven
years to complete.  There are problems.  The
semi-official Vietnam Investment Review com-
plains of the cost-raising slowness of the con-
struction process.
END OF EW REPORT VOLUME 13,  PART TWO.