more geopolitics in the news: the year 2000
MORE FEBRUARY 2000 DEVELOPMENTS
TAIWAN admitted in February that it had made a serious mistake four years ago in announcing that Chinese missiles that had splashed down near Taiwan were unarmed. In doing so, Taiwan as much as announced that someone high up in China's security services was spying for Taiwan. Consequently, a massive probe by the Chinese government led to the arrest in August of 1999 of a Chinese general, his mistress, and a senior colonel. All three were soon executed. Bad news for Taiwan intelligence is also bad news for the United States, which relies heavily on Taiwanese reports on China.
THREE WEEKS into February, China was sabre rattling again, threatening Taiwan with military action if steps were not taken on unification of the island "province" with the mainland. In the past the United States has sent warships into the area as a response to such Chinese threats.
THE LONG TOLD STORY of American GI's in post-WWII Siberian gulags surfaced again in late in February. The Pentagon revealed that it had obtained the memoir of a Russian emigre who claims to have learned while in internal exile in the USSR that the Soviet Union was holding dozens of American servicemen as prisoners in labor camps. He even had names, and one of those names checked out as that of a missing-in-action serviceman. In 1992 Boris Yeltsin disclosed that Soviet forces had taken a dozen U.S. airmen captive after shooting down their spy planes. The Kremlin has since backtracked and has said to U.S. officials, "Prove it." The new account alleges that the U.S. prisoners were in a frostbitten and starved condition. The U.S. has asked Russia for archives on certain Soviet labor camps. The elapse of half a century practically guarantees that this matter will provoke no major international incident. It is, however, an interesting Cold War footnote.
RUSSIAN ATROCITIES against Chechen civilians were reported late in February. Nearly half of the Chechens at refugee camps reported that they had seen civilians killed by Russian troops. It was also reported that detained civilians were tortured with severe beatings and electric shock. The discovery of mass graves confirm that the Russians summarily executed Chechen fighters. Some of the bodies had hands and feet tied.
BRITAIN DUMPS A PROBLEM. Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet had been a problem for the United Kingdom for well over a year. He had come to Britian for medical treatment, and there he was detained by the British government after Spain asked for his extradition to face charges for the torture and murder of Spanish citizens in Chile during his rule. (About 3,000 people were killed or disappeared during his administration from 1973 to 1990.) After over 500 days of house arrest in Britain, a British court ruled that he was too ill to stand trial; accordingly, he was flown to Santiago. The Chilean military gave Pinochet a hero's welcome, but thousands of Chileans demonstrated against the return of the old dictator. Polls in Chile show that the majority of people feel that Pinochet should be placed on trial. The government promised to pursue court action against Pinochet, but lawyers say a trial is hard to imagine in Chile, where the military still inspire fear despite a decade of democracy.
MARCH 2000 DEVELOPMENTS
A REPORT published in U.S. News and World Report in March reveals the extent to which governments are interested in the prospects of cybervandalism and cyberterrorism. Evidently the government of China already has some experience in going after its enemies oversees by hacking into their computers. Likewise, the military junta in Burma allegedly has sent e-mail viruses to the computers of dissidents. The governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia, which fought a war following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, reportedly have targeted each other with cyberattacks within the last year. The worst, no doubt, is yet to come. The CIA believes that more than a dozen countries--among them Cuba, Russia, China, Iraq, and Iran--are gearing up for information-warfare. The United States, more dependent on computer networks than anyone else, may have the most to lose.
JORG HAIDER, the controversial head of Austria's far-right Freedom Party, resigned as head of the party in early March. Since his party was made a part of the coalition government in Austria the previous month, Austria has been ostracized by the other 14 members of the European Union because of their concern over Haider's past anti-foreigner rhetoric and statements viewed as sympathetic to some Nazi practices. His resignation did not make the EU feel better about Austria, and it vowed to continue to isolate Austria as long as the Freedom Party was in the coalition government. Talk about geopolitics in action!
APRIL 2000 DEVELOPMENTS
THE BIGGEST news in April in both the U.S. and Cuba revolved around the six-year-old Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, the world's most fought-over child. Rescued at sea after his mother drowned -- she had been bringing him to the U.S. to start a new life -- he was claimed (and some say brainwashed) by Miami relatives. Since those relatives refused to cooperate with the federal government, which wanted to return the boy to Cuba, Attorey General Janet Reno sent heavily-armed federal agents to "rescue" the boy and turn him over to his Cuban father. Perhaps the decision will warm the long-icy relations between the U.S. and the Castro government.
