Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 9, 1983, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free Friday september 1983 f want Chile braces for violence by Tony Alle Mills daily Telegraph several years ago there was an Oscar fining movie in which the leading a to news invited viewers to lean out their windows and shout Rve had enough and in not going to take it anymore chileans have borrowed that but instead of shouting they bang pots and they Are saying their pots Are empty and they Are beginning thursday in tens of thousands of pot angers went into action on what is the fifth your to of National protest against the dictator ship of Augusto the demonstrations Are expected to be the strongest and bloodiest so Fak they will continue until the tenth anniversary of the coup that brought Pinochet to pot banging has become a Symbol of chilean discontent and judging by the Racket during the last protest in a Pinochet is in serious the 1980s have scarcely been successful for the dictatorships of latin America civilian Rule was restored in Bolivia and Argentina Junta was forced by a disastrous series of Blun Ders to prepare for general yet the decade began Well for the Pinochet the chilean econ folded by economists who studied the free Enterprise theories of Milton Friedman at the University of was per political Strate Gies ran smoothly in 1980 and a new constitutional program was endorsed in a popular referendum that seemed to make Pinochet secure in office until 1989 at the All that changed in a brutal financial crash last unemployment shot to 30 per cent and More than one million workers were Idle out of a total work Force of four the Chicago boys were blamed for Over valuing the lowering import tariffs and encouraging overseas borrowing the very things they were praised for a few years Pinochet might have retrieved some thing from the wreckage if his govern ment had looked like it was taking proper corrective but Success Ive finance ministers tinkered ineffectually and the Economy failed to re even though the worst is said to be bankruptcies Are multiplying As Large sections of the Middle class begin to go the same Middle class that had been supporting Pinochet All the streets of Santiago Are filled with vagabonds scraping a living by Selling bags of disposable razors anything they can Lay their hands the growing discontent that followed the economic collapse has come at an unfortunate time for the 67yearold september should have been a time for it was on septem Ber that Pinochet ordered his troops to overthrow the marxist government of president Salvador Al Pinochet still proudly describes Chile As the Only country in the world to overcome a marxist regime and achieve when discussing the events of he refers not to a military coup but to the Day of nation Al but As this anniversary year unfold it rapidly became Clear that few chileans were in celebratory a previously acquiescent population had been transformed by economic misery into political opposition political emboldened by the groundswell of popular called for monthly protests to demand the return of they chilean police and demonstrators have clashed violently Ina series of protests against the government of Pinochet protesters want a return to urged their supporters to take to the streets on the Lith of june and to demonstrate in Defiance of the the angry but then on August 11 came an explosion of violence that changed the of politics in in Street fury 17 people were killed and scores were wounded by riot police and army Pinochet had ordered troops to enforce a dusk Odawn cur telling them to act the pot banging that night was an incredible demonstration of popular Santiagos four million Resi dents were officially confined to their and hundreds of thousands of them Hung from their windows Clang ing their in the Centre of Santiago it seemed that every household was crashing out a message weve had enough and were not going to take it anymore in the cites poorest the curfew was a in slums like to Hermida and la three room Sheds Are often shared by three you cant Tell these people to get off the says monsignor Juan de a prominent Liberal Many the Street is part of the living the soldiers swept through the slums on August 11 like an army on the they marched Down Muddy firing tear Gas canisters at they plunged bayonets through rickety front smashed windows with their gun Butts and knocked Down chileans foolish enough to get in their Way were brutally by the time Calm was restored after three Days of the official death toll had reached practically unnoticed during the tumult and outcry was the appointment of a new minister of the Sergio Onofre who took office the Day before the August at a quieter his appointment night have been seen As a conciliatory gesture by Pinochet Jar a is a civilian and by dictatorship standards a during the last four weeks Jar a has been the prime mover behind a Radical new government policy called Aper opening instead of increasing the As Many feared would happen after last months erupt the government proved to be extraordinarily accommodating to opposition official discussions on the future of democracy Are under Way with opposition political for the first time in 10 the state of an important instrument of was in theory at there should be no More the government is also hinting that it May speedup the return to civilian which has been scheduled for hundreds of opponents of the Pinochet regime Are being Given permission to return to Chile years of enforced exile tens of thousands of exiles still remain outside the coun but whether Pinochet and his Mili tary colleagues have moved quickly enough to Dampen popular outrage will become evident in the next few Moscow allowed too Many excuses by Richard pipes los Angeles times a few Days a soviet fighter deliberately executed 269 passengers and Crew of a korean Airliner that had wandered into soviet who had ordered this barbarous we do not know it could have been or it could have been the local military neither alternative is if Moscow Felt free to act in a manner so contrary to International Law and Ordinary human what does restrain it and if the culprit was the regional then soviet control Over its forces in the Field is much looser than one would like to believe and the chances of accidental War proportionately i leave out of consideration the possibility that the soviet air defence command had confused a Boeing 747 for a military aircraft incompetence of this kind would really be frighten it is somewhat easier to understand the atmosphere in which this outrage had been decided one can eliminate the possibility that some faction in the Kremlin had engineered it to undercut a looming press reports not nothing of the sort was As yet in the we can also dismiss As a cause soviet paranoia about territorial for while it is True that the soviet leaders Are exceedingly sensitive to encroach ments on their territory and with Good because so much of it is stolen goods there Are More conventional ways of dealing with the Point to keep in mind is that for the soviet violence constitutes the basis of authority at Home As Well As it maintains control Over its Empire Only because it has demonstrated repeatedly that it can beat off by Force any and it enjoys superpower status solely be cause it has acquired the Means to destroy much of brutal Power is so essential to its that it is not at All averse to making an occasional display of this intimidates foreigners and rallies its own subjects around the Moscow seems to act in Accord with a bitter French proverb shed tears and peo ple doubt shed blood and they be it is encouraged in this misanthropic Outlook by voices in the West that argue that no matter How brutal and otherwise disagreeable the soviet re Gime May be and few deny it is both we have no Choice but to get along with the Oil Slicks from the Des troyed korean Airliner had barely had time to reach the surface of the and already various editorial columnists and legislators began to caution us to keep our outrage under there should be no confusion Between this editorialized the Boston and the Mutual need for both countries to get a grip on Levels of armaments that threaten the existence of what does this for All its superficial really say it says that arms control is of such Paramount importance that it must be wholly isolated or decoupled from soviet soviet actions Are in nuclear weapons Are the re on these same we have been previously urged not to speak out on soviet violations of Salt lest we endanger Start not to publicize so Viet use of toxic weapons in Asia to the same end and not to inquire too zealously into Kab involvement in the attempt on the life of the Pope because evidence of complicity could prevent a Reagan Andropov but can one really Hope to separate a single area of East West relations from the rest arms control accords Are made with peo because in International relations there exist no courts to punish Viola their Success depends entirely on the contracting parties demonstrated readiness to respect Law and moral to isolate arms control agreements from the remainder of soviet activities is to cast doubt on the very viability of Salt and a Power that habitually behaves in a Lawless manner in its nonnuclear activities cannot be expected to show scrupulous respect for Law where nuclear issues Are after All it is not that make this attitude amounts to giving Moscow immunity from the accepted norms of civilized it positively invites the soviet leadership to disregard Law and secure in the knowledge that All will be forgiven for the Sake of potential arms control nor does it contribute to a deceleration of the arms race because it encourages Moscow in the belief that the More awesome its nuclear the greater the likelihood that its non nuclear barbarities will be treated As Mere and it surely does not improve the chances of peace Inas much As bad habits acquired in Small matters have a Way of spilling Over into great Richard pipes is Baird professor of history at Harvard until recently he was director of East euro Pean and soviet affairs for the National Security Downing of Jet shows the Kremlin nature what happened in the first few hours after the korean air lines jumbo Jet disappeared last week pointed out that there despite those who would argue to the quite a few differences Between the soviet Union and the United i cannot help but think had the shoe been on the other and had the americans been suspected of shooting Down an unarmed Airliner that was inside its air within a matter of hours there would have been Calls for president reagans if not a for a Public and televised Lynching of the president on the White House the outcry would not have been As it was in Canadas Case last to taking away Areo lots land ing rights and to a suggestion from the government that we certainly expected the russians to say they were sorry for doing something within the parameters of our particular is Pepin left the impression that if the soviets did say they were we would let it the would become Fred Cleverley perhaps that is where the real differ ence what is unthinkable to us is quite unthinkable to the soviet we Are reduced to quibbling Over whether the decision was an unfortunate one made by a regional commander or whether it had come right from the our leaders would not be permitted by their own people to Stonewall for let alone hours or there would have been no discussion Here about whether the responsibility Lay with a regional commander of the North american air defence we would know where the responsibility and it would be right at the we would demand an immediate the greatest pressure leaders would come under would be from because we would know what had we would have been told by our news agencies unlike soviet news Are Independent of anyone who watched the develop ments following the disappearance of the korean flight seven quickly under stood Why the soviets Are Able to act the Way they the information that was Given to the Ordinary soviet Citi Zens about the incident made no men Tion that the intruding aircraft was an civilian there was no Clear indication that the intruder had been shot even though the rest of the world was being informed of the exact fire control orders passed Between soviet ground controllers and the after he followed the reported that the target had been it is possible for the soviet authorities to Stonewall because they know first that no one is about to go to War Over the incident second that no one is Likely to undertake significant Trade Only be cause it has been proved that such restrictions Hurt the restrict or As much As they do the restricted most they will never have to the soviet Union has been Able to deliver a message that anyone Violat ing its territory will be dealt with in a manner that would never happen in the we Are told that the soviets Are paranoid about being Why they should be paranoid is beyond our because there has been no invasion of territory by a Western nation since the second world along the worlds potential Flash Point such As in West Ern armed forces Are inferior in num Bers and weaponry to those of the soviet anyone would have to be crazy to launch an attack if he is outnumbered and violations of National air space Are not at All there Are plenty of photographs available at Norad Headquarters which show soviet Mili tary aircraft being escorted out of Western air space by and Canad an interceptor the escorts Are carried out without an Exchange of weapon and both sides Are it has been sail that even the Luxembourg air Force could shoot Down an unarmed which is a Large target at the Luxembourg main military air Power is concentrated in the nato aircraft which Cany not and which Are registered in Luxem what the statement really meant that anyone can shoot Down an unarmed civilian if the shooting occurs Over the the interceptor can be pretty sure that there will be no can anyone imagine such an incident taking place in Western air space with out the world being permitted to participate in the subsequent search this is what happened in the Case of the korean air requests from Japan and other nations to participate were i certainly Hope that the incident will drive Home to All those people who Are so willing to blame the United states of America for the worlds and for leading the world toward the fact that there is another Side to the a Side where values Are quite different from what we believe they 1 would not be at All surprised if one of the major aircraft such As the or the Kitty is stationed North of Japan for some time to if there is a repeat of the korean aircraft we can expect that the appearance of several Small radar blips close by the airliners radar image will be followed by the appearance of several other Small blips which will represent aircraft quite capable of looking after their and those of the i will be surprised following the Downing of the korean jumbo there Are not quite a few More people in North America who will be More will ing to accept president reagans assessment of the soviet threat and to support his methods of countering that ;