Spring and Summer 1988 - Newspaper headlines and Snippets
The Times of London
KINNOCK ADVISES TGWU TO SETTLE DISPUTE BEFORE HIGH TRAVEL SEASON: HINTS AT GOVERNMENT FORCED BACK-TO-WORK LEGISLATION
The Daily Mirror
TODD TELLS PM TO “FLY-OFF” WITH “JACKBOOT” TACTICS
The Croydon Advertiser
WITH LOOMING RAIL STRIKE: HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF A HOME-BASED HOLIDAY THIS SUMMER
Le Monde (Translated)
LE GRAND GACHIS RETURNS AS GOVERNMENT, CFDT, CGT FAIL TO REACH WAGE AND HOURS AGREEMENT
MITTERRAND FACES SQUEEZE FROM COMMUNISTS AND RIGHT AS ECONOMY SLOWS
The Economist
AFTER FOURTEEN YEARS, IS MITTERRAND TOO TIRED TO GO ON?
Francois Mitterrand has been President of the Republic for fourteen years now, with three years left in his non-renewable third term of office. With a record of energetic executive leadership, both at home and in the world, the longest serving President of the Fifth Republic has set a pace few of his peers could match. Yet lately, there have been signs that he is slowing down, leaving observers to wonder if the years of action are catching up with Mitterrand, who at the age of 71, was until recently described as “spritely, like a man half his age.” Indeed with the return of Le Grand Gachis (translated as roughly “the big mess”), an intense conflict between the Socialist government and France’s Labour Unions, abetted by the Communist Party, both key political supporters of the long serving Socialist government, the term is starting to be applied to the President personally as much as to France’s economic woes…..
The Guardian
UN REBUFFS EFFORTS BY PRESIDENT DENTON TO HAVE SANCTIONS LIFTED.
United Nations Secretary General Simón Alberto Consalvi today indicated that the world body will adopt a “wait and see” attitude before lifting trade sanctions levelled against the United States during the term of former President Donald Rumsfeld.
“We are interested in seeing a restoration of the United States to a normal condition as a world nation,” Consalvi said in a carefully worded statement. “However, the member states have expressed a deep concern over the state of internal politics in the United States, and whether the current situation can give rise to the United States participating as a constructive measure of the international order.”
President Denton was well received on his recent trip to Geneva, where he addressed the UN General Assembly and attempted to draw a line under the Rumsfeld years by stating, “we cannot undo the past, but we will set our course for a better, more democratic future, wizened by the grim lessons of the past few years.”
President Denton has also agreed with a framework to withdraw American troops from Cuba, which he has described as “a misguided adventure with no good outcome.” The withdrawal will begin as soon as a UN observer force can be deployed to Cuba to oversee the arrangements.
Cuba authorities, lodged in mountainous guerrilla hideouts in that islands rugged mountains, had initially resisted a UN observer force, calling instead for all US forces to lay down their arms and accept Cuban custody. Portugal, Cuba’s staunchest ally during the recent war (an estimated five thousand Portuguese “volunteer” troops fought alongside the Cubans) has reportedly intervened to persuade Cuban leader Fidel Castro to accept the international agreement. The Portuguese were reportedly prodded to do this by their Soviet ally. The Soviet Union is no longer well regarded in Cuba after it failed to provide troops and other military aid to the Castro regime during the recent US invasion.
UN officials have not comment on this point directly, but behind-the-scenes comments have indicated that the permanent leadership of the Security Council, which today is Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the Republic of China (Taiwan), is waiting for the outcome of the next American elections, currently scheduled for November 1988, but likely to be postponed until November 1989 in order for the United States domestic political scene to recover from years of Rumsfeldian oppression, before making any decisions. While President Denton is currently well regarded, he is only an interim leader (having ruled out running for another term), which reduces his clout with the Security Council. Mr. Denton’s position is further weakened by the fact that he was appointed to the Vice Presidency by the former President Donald Rumsfeld, and as such his political pedigree is suspect. ----
Global Papers
TRUCE TALKS BREAK DOWN IN INDIA: ALL SIDES WANT UNCONDITIONAL VICTORY
PAKISTAN CONTINUES TO ABSORB INDIAN TERRITIORY IN THE PUNJAB AND KASHMIR. INDIA TOO WEAK TO RESIST.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL THREATENS TO INCREASE SANTCIONS AGAINST PAKISTAN IF IT CONTINUES TO “GOBBLE-UP” INDIA.
PAKISTANI PRESIDENT ZIA TELLS UNITED NATIONS TO “MIND YOUR OWN D—N BUSINESS!”
PAKISTAN’S ZIA USES THREAT OF UN SANTCIONS TO STIR-UP NATIONALIST SUPPORT.
ZIA TELLS PAKISTANIS “WE HAVE TAKEN WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY THE PAKISTAN PEOPLE’S LEGACY FROM THE INDIAN INVADERS, AND NO SANCTIONS WILL MAKE US GIVE BACK WHAT GOD HAS DECREED AS BEING OURS.”
WESTERN CHINESE CALIPHATE HAS MADE GAINS AGAINST WARLORDS
Since the self-styled “Western Chinese Caliphate” gave-up its futile and deadly attacks against the Soviet-backed rump People’s Republic of China in Sinkiang, its forces have made significant progress against the warlord strongholds in the central part of the nation once known as China.
A sea change in strategic thinking seems to have occurred in the mysterious leadership behind the “Western China Caliphate.” The regional theocracy has no fixed geographic capital, and its leaders remain largely unknown to the outside world. They appear to roam nomadically through their lands, establishing headquarters as they need them. For a time the self-styled Caliphate’s policy appeared to be to liberate what it referred to in its propaganda as “East Turkestan” or alternatively, “Free Turkestan” and, at one point, “The Islamic Domain of Turkestan.” This reference however, seemed to favor the Uighur ethnic population which is the majority in this region. The so-called Caliphate has for years been absorbing refugee Han Chinese populations with promises of food and security. In return, it was expected that these Han refugees would convert to Islam, and according to available accounts many have. It now appears than the so-called Caliphate leadership has decided to turn this increase in Islamization of the population into a larger, pan-Chinese nationalism (although conquered populations are still expected to convert from indigenous beliefs to Islam). Whether this indicates that the older so-called Caliphate leadership has been replaced by a new generation of leaders, perhaps lead by ethnic Han members, is unknown. ---
ARABIAN REPUBLIC FAILS TO DISLOGE INSURGENTS: DEADLY WAR CONTINUES IN THE DESERT.
REMANTS OF PJO NOW THOUGHT TO BE HIDING IN ATLAS MOUNTAINS: GUERILLA WAR BETWEEN PJO AND EUROPE-USSR MULTINATIONAL FORCES CONTINUE.
EGYPTIAN MILITARY KILLS 2,000 IN CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.
EGYPTIAN MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD LEADER AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIR DENOUNCES EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT AS CORRUPT. CALLS FOR JIHAD FROM HIS HIDING PLACE.
WITHOUT US AID MALAN REGIME APPEARS TO BE CRUMBLING. EUROPE DIVIDED OVER WHETHER AND HOW AID SHOULD BE EXTENDED TO SOUTH AFRICA.
MALAN PROMISES END OF MILITARY GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA. PROMISE WIDELY DISCOUNTED AS “WINDOW DRESSING.”
LEADERSHIP OF US CORPORATE GIANT TRW INDICTED FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY BY WORLD COURT IN THE HAGUE. CHARGES RELATE TO SOUTH AFRICA RESULTING FROM YEARS OF RUMSFELD SUPPORT FOR MALAN REGIME.
CUBAN LEADER FIDEL CASTRO ANNOUNCES “COMPLETE AMNESTY” FOR ALL US TROOPS WHO DEFECT TO THE CUBAN CAUSE.
US SOLIDERS APPEAR AT LISBON PRESS CONFERENCE TO DENOUNCE THE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES OF LIBERTY BATTALIONS.
At a press conference in Lisbon today, Captain Nicholas Coppola, formerly of the U.S. Army airborne forces, and Marine Lance Corporal James Smith, both detailed their first hand accounts of atrocities committed by the Liberty Battalions in Cuba. Their allegations included the murder, assault and rape of Cuban civilians, as well as the murder of wounded U.S. military troops. Captain Coppola also explained that the U.S. military had a “no prisoners policy” when it came to Cuban soldiers who were to be, “shot down like dogs even if they tried to surrender,” Coppola explained.
Coppola showed a U.S. document he claimed to have captured from a Liberty Battalion field command post which detailed that taking prisoners, and treating the American military’s own wounded, had been discouraged by the Rumsfeld Administration as being “not cost effective.”
“Dead bodies are cheaper than medicine or food for prisoners,” Lance Corporal Smith explained. “Anything that we did had to be done on the cheap. That’s why we were supposed to be mass-murderers, and our equipment wasn’t worth sh-t!”
Captain Coppola and Lance Corporal Smith were smuggled out of Cuba after they were themselves captured by Cuban resistance units. After they detailed their stories to Cuban interrogators, along with a desire to switch sides (Captain Coppola also handed over his documents to the Cubans), they were handed over to Portuguese troops, who in turn arranged for them to be sent to Lisbon, where a public press conference could be staged. –
MONGOLIAN PREMIER SODNOM DECLARES THAT CHINA STILL OWES REPARATIONS TO MONGOLIA FOR 1973 INVASION.
SODNOM TELLS RHYZKOV AT MOSCOW MEETING THAT MONGOLIA WILL NOT RELINQUISH CLAIM TO INNER MONGOLIA AS PART OF 1973 REPARATIONS CLAIM.
CUREDAN PROTESORS TAKE CONTROL OF SALTA, SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMAN: PROTECTED FROM ARGEINTINE ARMY BY LOCAL PEOPLE.
ARGENTINE PRESIDENT LUDER RESIGNS AFTER CUERDAN SEIZURE OF WESTERN CITIES.
ARGENTINA IN CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS AS DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT COLLAPSES AMIDST CUERDAN PROTESTS.
ARMY RETURNS TO GOVERNMENT IN ARGENTINA, ALTHOUGH LEADING FIGURES WILL BE CIVILLIANS.
CIVILLIAN LEADERS OF NEW ARGENTINIE GOVERNMENT DENOUNCED AS “FIG LEAVES” FOR MILITARY STRONGMEN.
ARAB POPULATION IN ISRAEL DOWN TO 25% OF PE-1976 FIGURE. MOST NON-CITIZEN ARABS HAVE BEEN EXPELLED TO CAMPS IN LEBANON, JORDAN AND EGYPT.
RYZHKOV REJECTS LETTER FROM ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER MILO STATING THAT THE USSR WILL NOT IMPROVE RELATIONS UNTIL ISRAEL ENDS “ARAB HOLOCAUST.”
ISRAEL PM MILO CALLS RYZHKOV “HOLOCAUST” REFERENCE “AN INSULT BEYOND WORDS.”
SOVIET FOREIGN MINISTER HOLDS TALKS WITH LEADERS IN AMMAN AND DAMASCUS.
RYZHKOV ANNOUNCES SOVIET UNION WILL EXTEND AID TO JORDAN AND SYRIA IN RETURN FOR TRADE AGREEMENTS
SISOWATH SIRIK MATAK REPLACES LON NON AS PRESIDENT OF THE KHMER REPUBLIC. LONG SERVING DICATOR FORCED TO STEP DOWN AFTER PRESSURE FROM THAILAND AND SOUTH VIETNAM.
ISRAEL PM MILO ANNOUNCES ISRAEL WILL “GO IT ALONE” IF NECESSARY: REBUFFS WORLD CONDEMNATION OF “CLEANSING OF JUDEA AND SAMARIA” THROUGH MASSIVE DEPORTATIONS.
MILO DENOUNCES HOLOCAUST COMPARISON: “OUR POLICY IS LIVE AND LET LIVE,” PM DECLARES. “THEY LIVE IN ARAB LANDS: ISRAELIS LIVE IN OUR LAND. THIS IS NO HOLOCAUST. NO, THIS IS JUSTICE.”
AUSTRALIAN PM TONY STREET, LIBERALS WIN SECOND TERM IN OFFICE. STREET PROMISES BETTER ECONOMY.
GENERAL YU HAK-SEONG SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT OF SOUTH KOREA. REPLACES UNPOPULAR CIVILIAN PRESIDENT RHEE IN-SU.
AS YU COMES OUT OF THE SHADOWS, PROSPECTS FOR DEMOCRACY IN SOUTH KOREA DIM.
FORMER SOUTH KOREAN GENERAL CHUN DOO-HWAN, ONCE POLITICAL RIVAL OF PRESIDENT YU, ACCIDENTLY SHOOTS HIMSELF WHILE CLEANING HIS GUN.
NORTH KOREA UNVEILS NEW COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP. NEW GOVERNMENT HAS MORE CIVILIANS, FEWER GENERALS IN CABINET. ARMY AND WORKER'S PARTY REMAIN DOMINANT IN CAUTIOUS BALANCING ACT.
YASUHIRO NAKASONE SECURES ANOTHER TERM AS PM: NEW JAPAN PARTY ALLIES WITH NATIONALIST, CONSERVATIVE COALITION. PLEDGES TO CONTINUE THE "WISE POLICES" OF RETIRED DEFENCE MINISTER MINROU GENDA.
HIDEAKI KASE NAMED MINISTER OF EDUCATION IN NEW JAPANESE GOVERNMENT: PLEDGES TO END JAPAN'S "RETREAT FROM HISTORY."
What he might do to put off the inevitable however...