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Peoples Workers' friend
Sunday Business Post - Ireland ^ | May 6, 2001 | Sunday Business Post

Posted on 09/30/2001 9:35:12 PM PDT by CommiesOut

Peoples Workers' friend
Sunday Business Post - Ireland; May 6, 2001

Gerry Gregg

Age: 44

Appearance: Bearded '60s leftie

Newsworthiness: Producer/director of controversial four-part series on Des O'Malley for RTE

In 1992, the Irish Times' Moscow correspondent, Seamus Martin, was rooting around the official archives of the Soviet Communist Party when he made an interesting find.

Martin discovered two letters on Workers Party (WP) headed notepaper, addressed to the international department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

The letters were dated July and September 1986, and were apparently signed by the general secretary of the Workers Party, Sean Garland.

The September letter sought a grant of GBP1 million from the CPSU and referred to WP fundraising through "special activities". The party later claimed that this letter was a fabrication, but never denied the authenticity of the earlier letter.

That letter, sent on July 1 1986, was a request by Garland to the CPSU to meet Gerry Gregg - then on leave from his job as an RTE television producer - who had recently formed his own TV production company, Iskra Productions. (Iskra was the name of the Bolshevik newsletter in 1917.) Iskra, wrote Garland, was interested in producing films on Soviet life.

Garland explained that the Workers Party in Ireland had devoted a lot of time and money to combating the "capitalist media" and to educating "the working class".

"As part of this struggle," he continued, "some members of the Workers Party recently formed Iskra Productions. Iskra productions functions in an environment hostile to a Marxist analysis of many of the problems confronting western society.

"However, Iskra Productions also recognises that, within the western media there is a commercial appetite for 'stories' which, paradoxically, may embody a critique of the dominant ideology or power structure of western society."

Garland described the company as "a Marxist film-making enterprise which commands this party's full support. Iskra is potentially a useful propaganda device for the socialist cause, for a small party like ours it promises much by way of building up the intellectual, ideological and financial resources of our party."

Garland said Iskra's "very talented team" included Gregg, his fellow TV producer Eoghan Harris, and radio producer John Caden. All three were longtime and vocal Workers Party supporters in RTE.

Gregg was a paid-up member of the party who would later later go on to make its political broadcasts at election time.

Gregg confirmed to the Irish Times that he had sought Garland's assistance while looking for contacts in the Soviet Union. He said that Iskra had set out to make films which were distinctive, challenging and radical, "which wouldn't have been a million miles away from the Workers Party in terms of world affairs or, indeed, in terms of Northern Ireland".

It is not known whether Des O'Malley recalled the Iskra letter last year when he agreed to grant Gregg exclusive access for a four-part documentary on his life. What is known - now that the first part has been broadcast - is that Gregg has managed to pull off the sort of ideological media coup that Garland had promised the CPSU back in 1986.

In what was marketed by RTE as a straightforward biography of O'Malley, Gregg has produced, in my opinion, a piece of old-style Workers Party propaganda, unmoderated by any dissenting view. The production is now causing great embarrassment to RTE, following its week-long drubbing by commentators and politicians.

Gregg himself can hardly be accused of deviousness. He has never hidden his politics, nor the fact that his work and his politics are entirely interlinked. Virtually every documentary he has made since the 1980s has challenged the mainstream nationalist and religious consensus.

With that as a backdrop, just how likely was it that Gregg was going to produce a balanced view of O'Malley - and particularly his line on the North? Two days before the first part was broadcast, RTE executives were satisfied that the programme was "balanced", although this itself may be a reflection of the effort that went into talking Gregg down from what was seen as complete sycophancy.

What is so remarkable about the O'Malley documentary is that Gregg succeeded in peddling his views through one of the most important and costly political profiles that RTE has broadcast in decades. What is even more remarkable is that RTE let him. No one at senior level in RTE was unaware of Gregg's politics. Apparently, some also knew that Harris was a co-director of Gregg's latest production company, Praxis Pictures.

Harris and Gregg are not just ideological soulmates. Harris has also provided a chorus of approval through his Sunday Times column for virtually all Gregg's productions over the last few years. One was described as "spellbinding", another as "brilliant", another as worthy of an award.

The documentaries - in a nutshell - have dumped on Sinn Fein or the Catholic Church, or both.

Gregg and Harris share broadly similar backgrounds. Both were working-class, both had relatives who fought in 1916, both came from families with strong republican leanings and both had formative experiences that turned them against nationalism. They developed a view of Northern politics which was closely aligned with that of Conor Cruise O'Brien and later the Workers Party, which emerged in the early 1980s from Official Sinn Fein and the Official IRA.

Dublin-born Gregg, like his father and uncles before him, joined the Labour Party at the age of 18. He left the party while at UCD. By the time he joined RTE in the late 1970s as a trainee producer, it was Official Sinn Fein to which he gave his allegiance.

In an interview last year Gregg laid out his ideological stall. Ireland, he said, was a corrupt, hypocritical, inegalitarian society, and the legislative framework of the Catholic state was still very much in place.

There was a debate within RTE to democratise it and open it up and there was a split between those who embraced the critique - roughly the Workers Party camp - and those who didn't - roughly the Provo camp. The debate was at its most virulent on the national question, and there was no hiding place between the two factions.

In the 1980s the WP ideologues chose RTE's flagship current affairs programme as their battleground.

Presided over by Joe Mulholland - not a member of the Workers Party, but a supporter of its line on the North - Today Tonight was an unpleasant place for those with even the mildest nationalist leanings.

President Mary McAleese was a reporter on the programme when Mulholland took over. McAleese - described at one meeting by an unnamed producer as a "West Belfast Provo" - was frequently in tears after abusive jousts with her co-workers over their coverage of the North.

In an interview with the Irish Times three years after she quit RTE, McAleese said: "I was a Northern voice and I spent a lot of time there. Every weekend I was with friends and relations trying to find out what was happening in the North, but I was not listened to. Whenever I tried to explain that more and more people were being drawn into the H-Block cause because of the failure of the British government to act, they wouldn't listen to me because they felt that anyone who was bringing that message into the programme had to be a Provo supporter."

To many RTE current affairs personnel it was Gregg - because of his key producer status on Today Tonight - rather than Harris, who epitomised Workers Party thinking and influence.

One former producer said: "When people talk about the Workers Party in RTE, they're really talking about Gregg, because he was 90 per cent of it. He was - and is - unambiguously political in everything he does. He is a completely political person.

Gregg took leave of absence from RTE in 1986 and formally resigned three years later.

Iskra was founded in 1986 and from then on Gregg - as he tells it - battled to have his productions accepted by the station. In 1993 the Independent Production Unit was set up with Claire Duignan, a former TV producer, at its head.

Last year Gregg claimed that many of his proposals were rejected by the IPU because of his political agenda. However, the same proposals still managed to get airtime thanks to the support of Mulholland, who was, until March last year RTE's managing director of television.

A revisionist documentary about the republican Sean South, rejected by the IPU, was later funded by RTE's Leargas programme. Gregg's film A Love Divided, which told the true story of a 1950s Catholic/Protestant family clash over schooling, was also rejected by the IPU and then supported by Mulholland.

The history of the O'Malley documentary is somewhat complex. It appears that it was accepted by the IPU, but later withdrawn by Gregg.

It later went back on the IPU's books, after it had been endorsed by Mulholland. Commissioning editor Kevin Dawson oversaw the project, which was effectively inherited by Mulholland's successor, Cathal Goan.

A former radio producer, Goan had clashed with Gregg in the past when he dared to invite a panel on to the Day By Day programme to discuss a fawning documentary on Conor Cruise O'Brien produced by Gregg.

The IPU decision to accept the O'Malley proposal after rejecting a number of other Gregg productions was almost certainly influenced by the popular success of A Love Divided, plus the award to Gregg of an Emmy for his Channel 4 documentary on a massacre at Kosovo. RTE's publicity material on the O'Malley documentary mentioned only those two Gregg productions.

Last week one commentator after another lined up to tear the documentary apart, not just for its failure adequately to address the recent arms trial revelations, but also for its overall hagiographic tone, its crude and cruel demonising of O'Malley's enemies and its sheer dullness.

Gregg will no doubt laugh off the predictable criticism.

What he may not be able to laugh off is the likely fallout for him from RTE's embarrassment over its decision to broadcast propagnda masquerading as objective current affairs. The station's rationale for going with the documentary was to fill the gap in the station's political archives.

One suspects that, wherever Des O'Malley - A Public Life is placed once it ends, it won't be in that gap.

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Sean Garland, the general secretary of the Workers Party

1 posted on 09/30/2001 9:35:12 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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To: Alamo-Girl, Uncle Bill, Carry_Okie
Any info on Sean Garland, IRA, N. Korean NKIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, "Supernotes"?
2 posted on 09/30/2001 9:40:30 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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To: Alamo-Girl, Uncle Bill, Carry_Okie
Japan: Prosecutors seek 15 years for Red Army hijacker
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Sep 10, 2001 ....... http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010910002462

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Tokyo, 10 September: Prosecutors on Monday [10 September] sought a 15-year prison sentence for former Red Army Faction member Yoshimi Tanaka, who is on trial for the 1970 hijacking of a Japan Airlines (JAL) jet and other charges.

The defence is scheduled to deliver closing arguments on 29 October at the Tokyo District Court.

Tanaka, 53, and eight other members of the Red Army Faction hijacked the Boeing 727, with the ship name Yodogo, on 31 March 1970, after it left Tokyo en route to Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, according to the indictment.

The hijackers eventually forced the plane to land at Pyongyang on 3 April, where they were granted political asylum. En route, the hijackers inflicted minor injuries on five of the 129 passengers and crew onboard, the indictment says.

On Monday, prosecutors said, "It was the first hijacking case in Japan and caused tremendous psychological and physical pain to many passengers and crew.

"Given that it was an extreme crime ignoring and jeopardizing the rule of law and the principle of democracy, a severe penalty should be sought to forestall a recurrence of similar act," the prosecutors said.

They said that Tanaka played an important role in the incident - widely known in Japan as the Yodogo incident - as he was issuing orders to other faction members.

At the first hearing held in December last year, Tanaka admitted to the charges of hijacking the plane and inflicting injuries on the five people, and offered his apologies, saying the group took innocent people hostage and that their actions were "inexcusable."

Tanaka is also accused of throwing firebombs into a Tokyo police station and into the grounds of a neighbouring junior high school in September and October 1969.

Tanaka was arrested in Cambodia in 1996 and eventually handed over to authorities in Thailand, who accused him of using counterfeit US banknotes at a Thai beach resort.

After being acquitted of the counterfeiting charges in 1999, he was extradited to Japan in June 2000.

Known as "Sekigunha" in Japanese, the Red Army Faction was formed in 1969 and advocated global revolution through armed struggle.

A splinter group, the Japanese Red Army, broke away two years later and gained international notoriety in the 1970s through a series of terrorist acts abroad.

Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0811 gmt 10 Sep 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright


Any info on this dude? The Red Army Faction's HQ was in Lebanon. Dude got married in N.K. and worked for NKIS. "...accused him of using counterfeit US banknotes..."--"Supernotes" affair.

3 posted on 09/30/2001 9:59:52 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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Japan: Group urges police to question returning wife of hijacker
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Sep 10, 2001 ......... http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010910002604

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Tokyo, 10 September: A group working for the release of Japanese allegedly kidnapped and held in North Korea on Monday [10 September] urged the police to question the wife of one of the hijackers of a Japanese plane in 1970 about the abductions when she returns to Japan shortly from North Korea.

Emiko Akagi, 46, is scheduled to return home on 18 September, according to a group supporting the hijackers. She is the wife of Shiro Akagi, 53, one of the hijackers of a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane that was forced to fly to North Korea.

The national council for the release of Japanese held in North Korea said it suspects that Akagi and other wives of the hijackers may have been involved in the 1983 disappearance in Europe of Keiko Arimoto, a 23-year-old Japanese university student.

The National Police Agency is planning to arrest Akagi on her return on suspected violation of the Passport Law.

The police placed her and four other hijackers' wives on the international wanted list in 1993 after they did not comply with a 1988 order to return their passports following allegations that they had contacted a North Korean agent when visiting Europe in the 1980s.

Akagi returned her passport in May this year for the purpose of obtaining travel documents to enable her return to Japan.

On Monday, members of the council, including Arimoto's parents, visited the police agency to request that a thorough investigation be conducted on Akagi.

On 31 March, 1970, nine members of the now-defunct Red Army Faction, known as Sekigunha in Japan, hijacked the JAL plane with 138 passengers and crew on board while it was en route from Tokyo to Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, forcing it to fly to Pyongyang.

At the Tokyo District Court on Monday, prosecutors are to make their closing argument in the hijacking case against Yoshimi Tanaka, one of the Sekigunha members.

Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0410 gmt 10 Sep 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright


4 posted on 09/30/2001 10:04:27 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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To: CommiesOut
None.
5 posted on 09/30/2001 10:21:21 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
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Political pawns? Hijackers' daughters arriving in controversy


It is only days before three North Korean-born daughters of Red Army Faction hijackers "return" to Japan. But are they coming back through desire -- or as pawns?

Mainichi Shimbun
Controversial arrival: from left, Asaka Tamiya, Azumi Tanaka and Ritsuko Konishi.

Critics fear it is the latter.

The three, Azumi Tanaka, 22, Ritsuko Konishi, 23, and Asaka Tamiya, 22, say they are looking forward to entering Japan, where they will live.

Tanaka is the daughter of Yoshimi Tanaka, 52, who is on trial for his part in the 1970 hijacking of a Japan Airlines jet. Konishi was born to Takahiro Konishi, 56, who is on an international wanted list, while Tamiya is the daughter of the late Takamaro Tamiya, a former senior faction member. The daughters were born and raised in North Korea after their mothers moved there to marry the hijackers.

In a supporters conference held in Tokyo on April 30, the day the Japanese Embassy in Beijing issued them with travel documents, the three were introduced via video as normal young women who liked Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki's songs and wanted to go to Tokyo Disneyland. They said they felt alienated in North Korea, where they have been living in political asylum.

Others, however, have expressed doubt. Pyon Sin-il, the 54-year-old managing editor of Korea Report, says their return is politically motivated. "North Korea is behind this," he argued.

North Korea is said to have freed itself from the worst of its financial situation, but it is also still thought to need urgent economic reconstruction. Analysts argue that support from other countries is needed. The United States, however, refuses to assist countries that support terrorism, and Pyon says the existence of Red Army members in the country has hindered aid from Washington.

"It is possible that a basic agreement has been reached between North Korea and (the Red Army Faction) members to have them (the daughters) peacefully leave North Korea," Pyon said. "I imagine preparations have been made for this day."

Writer Karin Amamiya, who has supported the daughters' entry into Japan, said they don't want to become political symbols.

"They don't want to be used by activists in the country," he said. "I want them to be left alone after they return."

The trio's entry comes after the 28-year-old daughter of Japanese Red Army founder Fusako Shigenobu acquired Japanese citizenship. The daughter arrived in Japan on April 3 from her home in Lebanon after obtaining citizenship in March.

Public safety authorities fear it is possible the Red Army Faction could link with Japanese Red Army supporters in an effort to band the two groups together. The Japanese Red Army split from the Red Army Faction after an internal disagreement many years ago.

"We cannot rule out the possibility that the two groups will link up again," a spokesman said. (Mainichi Shimbun)

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200105/12/20010512p2a00m0dm010000c.html
6 posted on 09/30/2001 10:38:44 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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Home News: Palestine delegate-general found dead at Dublin home
Irish Times; Jan 18, 2001 ...... http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010118016653
BY JIM CUSACK, DEAGLAN DE BREADUN AND JOE HUMPHREYS

The Taoiseach has led tributes to Dr Yousef Allan, the delegate-general of Palestine in Ireland, who was found dead at his south Dublin home yesterday.

Dr Allan (47) was found at the bottom of the stairs in his house on Haddington Road, Ballsbridge, at 2 p.m. Postmortem tests were being carried out last night. Initial results indicated he died of a heart attack, though the final results will not be known for several days.

Expressing his shock and sadness at the death, Mr Ahern said Dr Allan was 'a great representative and a tireless worker for his country. He was extremely well known and liked in political circles in Ireland'.

He is to send a message of sympathy to Dr Allan's wife, Jane, and to the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Yasser Arafat.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said Dr Allan had been 'a friend of Ireland for many years and represented the Palestinian people here with honour and dedication'.

'Whenever we met I greatly appreciated his good humour and warm personality and with his untimely death we have lost an invaluable source of advice and encouragement on the Middle East peace process.'

Dr Allan's body was found by officers from Irishtown station who broke into his home through a back window.

They had been contacted by friends of Dr Allan who had become concerned for his welfare after he missed a lunch appointment.

Preliminary examination of the scene did not suggest any foul play, Garda sources said yesterday. There was no indication of a break-in or struggle within the home, they said.

The decision to hold a post-mortem arose because of the sensitivity of Dr Allan's position as a representative of the Palestine Authority. His body was removed to the city morgue at about 6 p.m.

Dr Allan was said to have been suffering from a cold in recent days and on Monday night, when he was last seen, he had complained to friends of chest pains.

Tributes were also paid last night by members of the Palestinian community in Ireland. One man, who did not wish to be named, said: 'Yousef was very distressed by the latest news from home. The peace process, in his view, was in a total shambles and that could have contributed to him feeling very low and very unwell.'

Israeli embassy sources expressed shock at the death, describing Dr Allan as 'a fine diplomat'. He had debated with the Israeli ambassador, Mr Mark Sofer, on many occasions and despite their political disagreements the ambassador considered him a personal friend.

The president of the Workers' Party, Mr Sean Garland, said he would be 'sadly missed by all those in Ireland who have long cherished the hope of seeing the establishment of a Palestinian state and a firm peace in the Middle East'.

In November 1999 Dr Allan was the main organiser of a charity event at a Dublin hotel that raised (pounds) 70,000 for the maternity hospital in Bethlehem. He had a wide range of contacts in the Irish trade union movement.

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7 posted on 09/30/2001 10:52:26 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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Home News: President at funeral of Palestine envoy
Irish Times; Jan 22, 2001 ......... http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010122010413
BY DEAGLAN DE BREAUN

The President, Mrs McAleese, and her husband, Dr Martin McAleese, were among the attendance at a funeral service for the delegate-general of Palestine in Ireland, Dr Yousef Allan, at the mosque of the Islamic Centre in Clonskeagh, Dublin, at the weekend.

Dr Allan was found dead from a suspected heart attack at his Dublin residence on January 17th. Several hundred members of the Muslim community attended the service, conducted by Imam Sheikh Hussein Halawa.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, and the Secretary-General of the Department, Mr Padraic McKernan, were also present. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Yasser Arafat, was represented by the delegate-general of Palestine to Britain, Mr Afif Safieh.

The mourners were led by Dr Allan's widow Jane, along with relatives who travelled from his home village of Halhoul on the West Bank.

There was strong representation from the diplomatic corps, including the US ambassador, Mr Michael Sullivan, the Chinese ambassador, Mrs Zhang Xiaokang, and the US deputy chief of mission, Mr Earle Scarlett, and his wife, Barbara, public affairs officer. The Indian, French, Dutch, Egyptian, Iranian, Portuguese, Belgian, Cypriot and Austrian embassies were also among those represented.

From the political sphere came the Green TD, Mr John Gormley, and Senators Michael Lanigan and David Norris. Many leading trade union figures also attended, including the SIPTU president, Mr Des Geraghty, the former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mr Phil Flynn, the former SIPTU president, Mr Jimmy Somers, the SIPTU equality officer, Ms Rosheen Callender, and Mr John Tierney of the National Centre for Partnership.

The Workers' Party was represented by its president, Mr Sean Garland. The Glasgow Labour MP, Mr George Galloway, and the former Labour Senator, Mr Jack Harte, also attended.

Dr Allan's remains were interred in the Muslim cemetery at Newcastle, outside Dublin.

All Material Subject to Copyright

8 posted on 09/30/2001 10:55:01 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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Red Army hijackers' daughters leave North Korea for Japan
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 15, 2001 ........ http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010515002781

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Beijing, 15 May: Three daughters of former Red Army Faction cadres who defected to North Korea after hijacking a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane in 1970 left Pyongyang on Tuesday [15 May] for Japan via China.

An Air Koryo plane with the three women aboard left Pyongyang in the morning for Beijing. But due to bad weather it changed course for Tianjin, southeast of the Chinese capital, according to officials at the Beijing bureau of All Nippon Airways (ANA).

The women - Ritsuko Konishi, 23, daughter of Takahiro Konishi, 56, Azumi Tanaka, 22, daughter of Yoshimi Tanaka, 52, and Asaka Tamiya, 22, daughter of Takamaro Tamiya, the deceased leader of the hijackers' group, plan to fly to Beijing and take an ANA flight from there to Narita airport, east of Tokyo, to enter Japan for the first time on Tuesday night.

The three women were born and raised in North Korea after their mothers moved there in the late 1970s to marry the hijackers.

Last October, they announced their wish to go to Japan. Applications for travel documents were filed in December at the Japanese embassy in Beijing, which issued travel documents for the women late April.

Nine people from the Red Army Faction, known as "Sekigunha" in Japan, hijacked the JAL plane with 138 passengers and crew members aboard from Tokyo en route to Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, and forced it to fly to Pyongyang.

Four of the nine hijackers still live in North Korea, three have died, and two have returned to Japan.

The Red Army Faction was a radical student group formed in 1969 and advocated global revolution through violence.

Some Red Army Faction members went on to form the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group, which gained international notoriety through a series of violent acts outside Japan in the 1970s.

Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0301 gmt 15 May 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright

9 posted on 09/30/2001 11:09:01 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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Japan sets terms for return of Red Army relatives from North Korea
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 13, 2001 ........ http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010213005372

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Tokyo, 14 February: The Japanese embassy in Beijing has told five relatives of Red Army Faction members living in North Korea it will issue documents authorizing their trip to Japan if they submit a written oath that they will comply with identification checks at Beijing airport, sources close to the case said Tuesday [13 February].

The embassy also told them they would not be allowed to enter China during the transit, the sources said.

The five are two wives and three daughters of Red Army Faction members who hijacked a Japan Airlines (JAL) jet in 1970 and forced it to land in Pyongyang, where the hijackers were granted political asylum.

Yukio Yamanaka, secretary-general of the Kyuen Renraku Centre and proxy for the kin, told Kyodo News he plans to accept the embassy's proposal.

Even if the five agree to the proposal, it will take some time for the embassy to issue the travel documents, forcing them to wait until March or later to take the trip.

The five, meanwhile, lodged a protest Tuesday demanding the embassy issue the travel documents immediately, the sources said.

The five are Emiko Akagi, the 45-year-old wife of Shiro Akagi, 53; Kyoko Tanaka, the 44-year-old wife of Yoshimi Tanaka, 52; their 21-year-old daughter; the 23-year-old daughter of Takahiro Konishi, 56; and the 21-year-old daughter of deceased member Takamaro Tamiya. Emiko Akagi and Kyoko Tanaka face arrest on their arrival in Japan on suspicion of violating the Passport Law.

Japan and North Korea do not have diplomatic ties and their travel to Japan will have to be via a third country, such as China.

Known as Sekigunha in Japan, the Red Army Faction was formed in 1969 and advocated global revolution through armed violence. A splinter group, the Japanese Red Army, broke away two years later and gained international notoriety in the 1970s through a series of terrorist acts abroad.

Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 1517 gmt 13 Feb 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

10 posted on 09/30/2001 11:13:32 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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Cuba: Science minister describes her four-day visit to China as successful
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Sep 29, 2001 ------- http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010929003465

Text of report by Nancy Zamora carried Cuban news agency Prensa Latina

Beijing, 28 September: Rosa Elena Simeon, the Cuban minister of science, technology and the environment, today ended a four-day official visit to China, during which she completed a broad working agenda.

Simeon's visit was in response to an invitation from Xu Guanhua, the Chinese minister of science and technology, with the objective of increasing, in the areas under their jurisdiction, the traditional levels of the fraternal relations between both countries.

In a statement for Prensa Latina, Simeon described her trip as successful and stressed the climate of collaboration and mutual understanding that characterized her meetings with various personalities representing Chinese scientific institutions.

In a meeting between Simeon and Xu, both ministers agreed that favourable conditions exist to move forward to higher levels of cooperation with joint research projects, in order to obtain specific results which will contribute to developing both countries as well as others.

In addition, they agreed to work hard in that direction in preparation for the 19th Inter-governmental Meeting for Economic and Commercial Relations between Cuba and China, to be held in Beijing in November.

At present, there are 38 cooperation projects between Cuba and China through the exchange of experts, advice and workshops in various scientific-technical spheres.

In the new phase, emphasis will be put on bio-computer technology, seismology and biotechnology, among other sectors, without forgetting other fields in which both countries are already working.

Minister Simeon's agenda included a meeting with Song Jian, vice-chairman of the [Chinese] People's Political Consultative Conference and president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. During that meeting, they studied the possibility of making further progress in joint projects, particularly in the area of biotechnology.

Simeon also visited the Municipality of Tianjin southeast of Beijing, where she toured special development areas of advanced technology.

Simeon also met directors and experts of the state bureaus of Seismology, Meteorology and Environment, the Development Centre for Joint Projects in Biotechnology and the Academy of Social Sciences. (...)

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

11 posted on 09/30/2001 11:21:44 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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Tianjin's electronics industry reports gross profits of RMB2.53bn for 1st half
Shanghai Securities News; Sep 24, 2001 ------- http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010924010235

Tianjin's electronics industry reported gross profits of RMB2.53bn for the first half of 2001, with a gross profit margin of 10.33 per cent. The sector expects sales to increase from US$10bn in the year 2000 to US$30bn in 2005. Tianjin and Beijing accounted for a combined 56 per cent of China's total mobile phone production in the year 2000. Motorola Tianjin Co reported output of RMB16.2bn for the first half of 2001. The company produced 13m mobile phones in the year 2000, holding a 31 per cent share of China's mobile phone market. South Korea-based Samsung Group has set up a code division multiple access mobile phone plant as well as a research and development centre in Tianjin. The number of mobile phone subscribers in China reached 120.6m at the end of July 2001, ranking first in the world.

Copyright © Financial Times Information

12 posted on 09/30/2001 11:28:24 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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Govt OK's return of 5 Red Army faction kin
The Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri - Japan; Feb 5, 2001 ............. http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010205008425

Govt OK's return of 5 Red Army faction kin Yomiuri The government will issue temporary travel permits to allow five family members of former Red Army faction members who hijacked a Japan Airlines jet and flew to Pyongyang in 1970 to return to Japan, government sources said Sunday. The permits will be issued by the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, and the five are expected to return to Japan as early as the end of this month, according to the sources. Under the Passport Law, such a permit is issued when a party has lost a passport or visa. Applications for the permits have already been submitted by sponsors of the family members. Though applications for such permits are not normally accepted from third parties, the Foreign Ministry concluded that a clause in the Passport Law made it possible to do so. According to sources, the five returning to Japan are: Kyoko Tanaka, 44, wife of Yoshimi Tanaka, who is currently on trial in Japan, and their eldest daughter, who is 22; Emiko Kaneko, 45, the wife of Shiro Akagi, who remains in North Korea; the 21-year-old daughter of the late Takamaro Tamiya, the leader of the group; and the 23-year-old daughter of Takahiro Konishi. The applications for the permits were submitted in November by the director general of a group supporting the former Red Army faction members and their families in North Korea, according to the sources. The director general submitted the application forms along with the necessary photos and copies of family registers, the sources said. The Foreign Ministry was initially reluctant to accept the applications through a third party, claiming the five would be able to submit the materials themselves at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. However, after looking into their claims that they would be unable to leave North Korea without the permits, the ministry decided to apply Article 19 of the Passport Law, which provides for the issuance of a temporary travel permit through application by a third party, and to issue them on humanitarian grounds. Tanaka and Kaneko were placed on an international wanted list in 1993 for alleged violations of the Passport Law. Police said the two will be arrested immediately upon arrival in Japan. Four of the nine hijackers are still living in Pyongyang; in all, 32 of the hijackers and their family members are in North Korea, according to sources. If the five are able to return to Japan, the remaining family members of the hijackers are expected to follow the suit, according to the sources. During the Japan-North Korea normalization talks, Tokyo asked Pyongyang to repatriate the hijackers. Washington is also demanding that Pyongyang deport the hijackers in exchange for removing North Korea from its list of countries supporting terrorism. However, a Foreign Ministry senior official said such extraditions would not immediately follow the return of the five family members.

Copyright © Asia Intelligence Wire

13 posted on 09/30/2001 11:30:14 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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The great China ports makeover
The Straits Times, Singapore (Abstracts); Sep 22, 2001 ....... http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010922003114

China is investing heavily in the upgrade and expansion of its ports, including the major ones at Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Tianjin, and Guangzhou, in an effort to cope with increased cargo volume brought about by the economy's rapid growth. Although China's coastal ports last year reported a 16.3% rise in throughput to 1.29bn tons, the Ministry of Communication (MOC) indicated a lack of equipment for unloading crude oil and iron ore, aside from other important container-handling systems. Foreign expertise on port management and cargo-handling is a major part of China's programme, with the Port of Singapore Authority currently engaged in an 800m yuan (S$170m) container terminal project in conjunction with the Guangzhou Harbour Bureau, in addition to three other joint projects with other Chinese ports. By 2020, China hopes to have some 1,100 deep-water coastal ports and an influx of 2.8bn tonnes of cargo.

Abstracted from: The Straits Times, Singapore

Copyright 2001: Financial Times Information. All rights reserved.

14 posted on 09/30/2001 11:33:47 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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China begins first phase of construction on Penglai offshore oilfield
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Sep 10, 2001 http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010910002093

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Tianjin, 10 September: Construction of the first phase of Penglai 19-3 Oilfield, the largest offshore oilfield in China, has commenced in the southern Bohai Sea.

The oilfield, with reserves of 600m tons, is believed to be the second-largest complete oilfield after the famous Daqing Oilfield, which was discovered in 1959 in northeast China.

The Penglai 19-3 Oilfield covers an area of 50 square kilometres, and lies at a depth of between 900 and 1,400 metres near Longkou coastline in Shandong Province. It has an oil layer of 150 metres deep on average.

It was jointly prospected by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and the Phillips Oil Corporation of the United States in 1999.

The two sides signed a contract on construction of the project on 15 March this year. The Chinese side takes 51 per cent of the stake, with the remainder held by the United States.

By the end of 2002, 24 oil wells are expected to start production, with a combined annual output of 2.5m tons. The field's annual output is expected to reach 8.5m tons by 2005. By then, the output of the Bohai Oilfield as a while will top 20m tons, making it China's largest offshore crude producer.

China's oil reserves total 94bn tons, with most located on land. The country began to seek overseas cooperation for offshore oil development in 1979, as the output of many onshore oilfields had begun to decline.

Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 0009 gmt 10 Sep 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

15 posted on 09/30/2001 11:38:14 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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Beijing mayor promises garden city with clean water for 2008 Olympics
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Sep 6, 2001 http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010906009060

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Beijing, 6 September: Beijing Mayor Liu Qi said Thursday [6 September] that this host city of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games will be turned into a garden-like metropolis in seven years.

Beijing will be a green city with a blue sky and clean water, the mayor told a forum on forest and environmental protection.

"With green vegetation and flowers everywhere, Beijing will be a place pleasing to both the eye and mind."

To reach that goal, the mayor said the municipal government is drafting, among others, an action plan to build a 10,000 sq.km. green ecological shelter belt in the mountainous areas in the suburbs.

A green shelter belt totalling 125 sq.km. will be built inside the city, while 1,230 sq.km. of areas along its five major rivers and 10 highways and expressways will be planted with trees in the coming seven years, he said.

By 2008, the forest coverage rate for hilly areas in rural Beijing will reach 70 per cent while the vegetation rate for the urban area will be 45 per cent, he said.

The Chinese government has decided to turn green 7.8m ha of land in 75 counties in Beijing and its neighbouring Tianjin, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Shanxi province in a bid to erect a shelter belt for the capital city.

To reduce industrial pollution, Beijing has earmarked 5bn US dollars for environmental projects during the 1998-2002 period, and the investment will reach a record-breaking 6.6bn US dollars in the five years before 2008.

The figure represents four to five per cent of the city's gross domestic product for the same period. The mayor said the second Shaanxi-Beijing natural gas pipeline will be laid to pump gas into Beijing, which will increase the supply of natural gas for Beijing to 5bn cubic meters by 2008.

"Clean energy will then account for 80 per cent of the total energy consumed, similar to that of developed countries."

Beijing will introduce the exhaust gas emission standards European II and III by 2004 and 2007, respectively, so that the amount of exhaust gas emissions from new cars running in Beijing will be cut by 60 per cent, he said.

Liu said 90 per cent of the buses and 70 per cent of taxis in Beijing will be fuelled by natural gas by 2008.

The city's subway and light railway systems under construction, which total 100 km in length, will be operational by the time the games starts.

The city plans to double the transportation capacity of its buses, trolley-buses, and subway systems by 2008, which stand at 9. 86m and 2.66m, respectively.

The mayor said the city will continue to improve its industrial mix, relocate polluting firms from within the city proper, as they have in the several past years, in a bid to cut industrial pollution in the coming years.

Beijing's Capital Iron and Steel Group Co has been ordered to cut its iron and steel production by 2m tons in the coming year.

Beijing plans to build 12 more waster water treatment plants before 2008, increasing its treatment capacity to 2.8m tons per day, or 90 per cent of the total, the mayor said.

By that time, half of the waste water will be recycled, he added.

Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 1533 gmt 6 Sep 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

16 posted on 09/30/2001 11:41:14 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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China Supports Foreign Leftists
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, May 11, 2001
WASHINGTON (UPI) - A U.S. surveillance plane flying near China´s coast four years ago picked up secret communications on a meeting between a senior Chinese Communist official and an Irish leftist linked by U.S. intelligence to counterfeit U.S. currency, the Washington Times reported Thursday.

The Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance flight in late May 1997 revealed the meeting between Sean Garland, president of the Dublin-based Workers´ Party, a communist political party, and Cao Xiaobing, the Times said, citing a classified National Security Agency report.
"Garland is suspected of being involved with counterfeiting U.S. currency, specifically, the Supernote, a high-quality counterfeit $100 bill," the report said.

Cao was described in the report as bureau director of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing´s official office for supporting foreign communist parties.

The classified report did not say what was discussed at the meeting, but a spokesman for the Workers´ Party told the newspaper the discussions were "political" in nature.

According to the London Sunday Times, Garland was a leading member of the Irish Republican Army in the 1960s and early 1970s.

A 1986 Russian document made public by dissident writer Vladimir Bukovsky stated that Garland wrote a "Dear Comrade" letter to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev asking Moscow for the equivalent of $1.42 million to fund Workers´ Party activities.

Intelligence officials said the report highlights China´s support for foreign communist parties, a role once played by the now-defunct Soviet Union, the Washington Times said.

In addition to Ireland´s communists, Beijing is also backing Japan´s Communist Party and other parties once supported by Moscow, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/5/10/151457.shtml

17 posted on 09/30/2001 11:58:49 PM PDT by CommiesOut
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NORTEL|NT|||CA6658151064|
AFX Europe; Aug 29, 2001 http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010829009126

||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| 2001-08-29 06:37:05 Nortel Networks signs 8 mln usd network upgrade deal with China Telecom HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) - Nortel Networks Corp said it has signed an 8 mln usd agreement with China Telecommunications Corp to upgrade the latter's multiservice backbone networks in Yunnan and Heilongjiang provinces and Tianjin and Chongqing municipalities.

In a statement, the company said the upgraded networks will enable China Telecom to offer advanced ATM, frame relay, internet protocol, virtual private networks and other end-to-end data services from a single, high capacity platform.

China Telecom plans to replace its existing backbone switching equipment in its networks with Nortel Networks solutions, it said.

ra/rc

MMMM

World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright

18 posted on 10/01/2001 12:05:12 AM PDT by CommiesOut
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China supports foreign leftists

By Bill Gertz
The Washington Times
Thursday, May 10, 2001

A U.S. surveillance plane flying near China´s coast four years ago picked up secret communications on a meeting between a senior Chinese Communist official and an Irish leftist linked by U.S. intelligence to counterfeit U.S. currency, according to a classified National Security Agency report.

The Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance flight in late May 1997 revealed the meeting between Sean Garland, president of the Dublin-based Workers´ Party, a communist political party, and Cao Xiaobing. Miss Cao was described in the report as bureau director of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing´s official office for supporting foreign communist parties.

The report, labeled "top secret," states that Mr. Garland was the managing director of GKG Comms International Ltd., a Dublin company, and noted that Miss Cao and the Irish communist discussed "unidentified business opportunities" during a meeting.

"Garland is suspected of being involved with counterfeiting U.S. currency, specifically, the Supernote, a high-quality counterfeit $100 bill," the report said.

Mr. Garland confirmed in a statement issued last week in London´s Sunday Times that he met Miss Cao in Beijing.

"This was in a public place in offices of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China," Mr. Garland stated. "Afterwards we had dinner in a hotel."

The statement did not say what was discussed at the meeting, but a spokesman for the Workers´ Party told the newspaper the discussions were "political" in nature.

According to the Sunday Times, Mr. Garland was a leading member of the Irish Republican Army in the 1960s and early 1970s. A 1986 Russian document made public by dissident writer Vladimir Bukovsky stated that Mr. Garland wrote a "Dear Comrade" letter to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev asking Moscow for the equivalent of $1.42 million to fund Workers´ Party activities.

"Ten years ago it was the KGB and the Workers´ Party which were accused of plotting all kinds of subversion," Mr. Garland said in his statement last week.

He said the letter to Moscow "has been going the rounds for many years now" and "it is well past its sell-by date."

Mr. Garland also confirmed that he was director of GKG Comms, a firm "involved in sourcing power projects in China and Eastern European Companies." He said the company is "no longer trading."

Miss Cao, a leading Communist official involved in youth issues and arms control matters for decades, later visited Ireland at the invitation of the Workers´ Party.

She headed a delegation of Chinese Communist Party officials, Mr. Garland said.

According to the Sunday Times, the Workers´ Party in the past was linked to forged currency, specifically fake 5-pound notes. A party spokesman said Mr. Garland´s meeting with Miss Cao did not include any discussions of counterfeiting. The spokesman dismissed the claims of illegal activity, saying counterfeiting accusations against the Workers´ Party have appeared "every so often."

Intelligence officials said the report highlights China´s support for foreign communist parties, a role once played by the now-defunct Soviet Union.

In addition to Ireland´s communists, Beijing is also backing Japan´s Communist Party and other parties once supported by Moscow, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

19 posted on 10/01/2001 12:18:32 AM PDT by CommiesOut
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China should be a partner not an enemy, Clinton tells global forum

Agence France-Presse
Thursday, May 10, 2001

HONG KONG, May 10 (AFP) - There was no need for Beijing and Washington to be enemies, former US president Bill Clinton told a global forum here Thursday a day after talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Clinton said the world would be a better place if they were partners.

"Of course there are difficulties and bumps on the road," he said, citing recent strained ties following the collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a US spy plane, and US arms sales to Taiwan.

"The important thing it seems to me is not to assume that the relationship is necessarily adversarial. The world would be a better place in the next 50 years if we were partners."

Clinton met Jiang for about an hour Wednesday but did not refer to the talks in his closing address at the Fortune Global Forum, which covered topics ranging from global warming to AIDS.

His spokesman was quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying the pair enjoyed "a wide-ranging discussion on US-China relations".

China's official Xinhua news agency described the meeting as friendly and quoted Jiang as saying the two countries should promote a "healthy and stable" relationship.

Under Clinton's administration, Washington pushed ahead with a policy of constructive engagement with Beijing and described China as a "strategic partner."

But the new team of George W. Bush has taken a tougher line, describing China as a "strategic competitor."

Clinton also acknowledged the "different perceptions of political and religious freedoms" with China.

The forum of corporate heavyweights here has been marred by anti-China protests amid claims of police brutality and a Beijing-initiated blacklist to deny entry to known activists from the Falungong spriritual group.

Australia joined the United States and Britain in questioning why several of its nationals were refused entry to the territory ahead of the forum.

A spokeswoman at the department of foreign affairs in Canberra said Australia was seeking clarification from the Hong Kong government.

"It is important for Hong Kong to avoid actions that could be seen as inconsistent with the freedoms of association and expression that are guaranteed in Hong Kong," she said.

More than 100 Falungong practitioners have been refused entry in the past few days, according to the group. Hong Kong officials have defended the territory's right to keep out "undesirable elements."

Protestors complained of being kept out of sight of forum delegates but Financial Secretary Antony Leung said a balance had to be struck to allow the conference to go ahead without disruption.

But he added: "I believe the freedom of information and freedom of expression is very important for a financial centre."

About 30 Falungong followers staged their final meditation exercise as part of a series of protests urging Jiang to relax a mainland crackdown on the spiritual group, which is legal in Hong Kong.

The Chinese president's visit was marred by a variety of protests, including by activists demanding China revise its verdict that the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre was a legitimate crackdown on an insurrection.

A noisy demonstration by supporters greeted the appearance in court of three of the activists, members of the radical April 5 group, who clashed with police on Tuesday.

They had attempted to present Jiang with a mock coffin symbolising the death of democracy in China.

The trio were released on bail after being charged with affray and injuring police officers. One of them had tried to kill himself in custody using a ballpoint pen.

20 posted on 10/01/2001 12:21:57 AM PDT by CommiesOut
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