Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 13, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba U u Winnipeg free press january Page 15 news review David Macdonald Washington editor envoy blasts lax Oas Washington after three weeks of almost unanimous International denunciations of the 20 intervention in Lawrence the new panamanian ambassador to the organization of Ameri can had had on the Day this week that brazilian ambassador Ber Nardo Pericas and Canadian ambassador Jeanpaul Hubert were formally seated in the Oas permanent Chewning Cut he gave it hot and Strong to his Council sandwiched Between a Peri Cas Call for consolidation of democratic institutions and a Hubert offer of Canadian help to fight sensational head lines about the Oas with a Public relations offensive that he called a better communications Chewning powerful blast about Oas gut Les Ness and uselessness Dur ing the panamanian crisis was As Welcome As rat Poison to most of the coming just before Cana Das ambassador broke his silence in the it raised some of the fundamental questions about the Oas that canadians would have asked if prime minister Mulroney and external affairs minister Joe Clark had Given them a some of the faces around the Council table altered from in passiveness to this sign of life further Deve loped at the end of the fiery when some turned to gape in amazement at a tiny group that applauded enthuse whatever might be thought of Chewning argument that we do not consider ourselves invaded by the United we consider ourselves liberated by the United his fighting words did temporarily electrify a body whose Patron Saint could Well be rip Van Canadian ambassador Richard Gorham alluded to this Early in the week after depos iting Canadas instrument of having been can Adas permanent observer at the Oas since he had plenty of experience on which to base his reference to Punk which is a characteristic of we gringos from the far North As one Canadian scholar has termed he did not need to add that punctuality is not a characteristic of the Oas monday after Noons extraordinary Council ses called by Nicaragua to protest about the military search of its ambassadors panamanian started 38 minutes wednesday mornings business which included formal seating of Canadas new began 40 minutes in Nei ther Case did the gossiping delegations one delegation find ing 40 minutes too hectic a wandered in 60 minutes after Chewning rage about Oas inertness was based on some thing More than the need for a new ambassador to make propaganda for his new gov although he was appointed Only he had been panamas alternate representative to the Oas until he he because his dignity and religious feelings prevented me from collaborating with an illegitimate and corrupt gov during his prudent exile in he watched in mounting disgust As the Oas proved itself to be unable to do anything about Manuel Antonio Noriegas dictatorial including his annulling of the opposition Victory in the May 7 National that he told the Council this was the worst of featuring fear and corruption under the Iron fist of see diplomats Page 22 by John Douglas Winnipeg free press deep lines engraved on his face and heavy bags under his eyes speak volumes about the weighty decision on Lloyd Axworthy the dashing Liberal who finessed his Way through 11 years of Federal politics has been reduced to a frustrated Man who looks a decade older than his 50 after a week of lat night phone Calls from his three room office on parliament Axworthy met with his five closest advisors in a quiet Boniface hotel room wednesday night and decided not to seek the Liberal three Days an outpouring of financial and moral support from the West persuaded him to it has become a Case of hear versus practical the somber Manitoba meeting was a straightforward analysis of the work to the question to be answered what had gone so wrong that a hopeful Campaign had turned to dust in three Short months the tides and currents of politics Are a source close to Axworthy when they Are with you its a great but just As quickly they can turn around and pull you under for time to sink or Lloyd has been treading water for a couple of weeks just trying to keep his head above it was time to sink or soft evaporating finances and no momentum indicated the decision should have been but Axworthy heart and close supporters believed the former Cabinet minister and Veteran of five Federal campaigns had earned a Chance to Lead the heading the review was Morris Axworthy Campaign offering advice was David Drew fellow my and longtime Friend David and his brother Bob Axworthy had earlier talked with his other brother who for years acted As former prime minister Pierre Trudeau after wednesday i was he i just decided that i be in the glue for by the end of this that was Only the it could snowball very quickly and under those flagging support forces Axworthy to review run for Liberal leadership circumstances i cant do the meeting left close friends bitter toward the party and the As a close Friend i find it disheartening to see Axworthy struggle for so Many years to represent the interests of so Many Ordinary Only to corns up Short at this Point in his Walker its one thing to say that people owe him this Opportunity and another to collect the this is a difference liberals and the if someone in the nip stands up for years and represents the labor machine produces the organizational Money and the staying that is not the Case in the Liberal party and it Cost us while five leadership contenders Jean Paul Martin Sheila Dennis Mills and Clifford Lincoln plop their Money on the table and enter the race in the next two Axworthy will continue to Ponder his political just a few months the Winnipeg South Centre my was pleased with his positioning in the sunup to the june 23 convention to choose a successor to John while National polls continued to show Axworthy in third place behind Chretien and the Reading he got party faithful indicated support in every although Quebec was admittedly by late organizers had forged the beginnings of a National a ragtag network of supporters was in place and the Promise of Money was three people Western to magnate Izzy Axworthy brother Tom and Toronto lawyer Frank Odea were working different parts of the country to scare up talk was by there were commitments for about and prospects for banking by if we can get that initial boost and be seen As a Axworthy said at the the feeling is that another will come in and we can run a modest Campaign of about but some promises were broken and r support less than was although All three were v successful in see leadership Page 22 nationalism poses crisis for soviet Union by James Blitz the sunday times Moscow there can hardly be two More Dis similar places than the soviet republics of Lithuania and in the lithuanian Capi on the Edge of Scandin the climate is cold and the shops Well stocked and the pople but in the capital of Azerbaijan on the far Flung Caspian the air is the climate hot and the people the republics Are As different As Maine is from new but unlike the the United states these people Are yearning for Independence from the stifling grip of Central during the past and More than Ever in recent they have been United by a passionate determination to rid themselves of membership of that vast conglomerate of republics and Peoples called the so Viet for Mikhail the Man who has Given Eastern Europe its holding together this heterogeneous huddle remains his greatest Challenge the outcome will decide not Only his Fate but that of the Union of soviet socialist in a nation so vast it is no Surprise that republics Are seeking their goals in different from behind Hestenes dealings to mass rallies or even last week the lithuanians were trying to per Suade Gorbachev to recognize their decision to form an Independent lithuanian communist it was tantamount to a declaration of Independence after All it is Only through the party network that the Kremlin can control the outlying lose the party and you have lost the this Bells tolled and candles burned As More than lithuanians gathered thursday to show Gorbachev they want Independence for their Baltic Gorbachev assured a smaller crowd earlier thursday in Vilnius that lithuanians would have a say in their republics but he cautioned that a confrontation with Moscow could Lead to later during a meeting with fac tory Gorbachev promised a new Law would be proposed pro Viding a mechanism for soviet re Kazakhstan Tan Kirghizia Tajikistan Public to exercise their constitutional right to the soviet Constitution in theory gives such a but there has not been any legislation spelling out a procedure and any conditions for there is an article that foresees secession from the soviet but each Republic must think Hun thousands of times before taking such a Gorbachev he said the draft Law would be presented to committees of the so Viet parliament and debated pub soviet foreign ministry spokes Man Gennady Gerasimov said the draft would be published in Cathedral the heart of old a Large crowd estimated at Between and massed to offer emotional Testa ment that their dream of Independence had not died after nearly 50 years of soviet in Tho scene of so much unrest last nationalist rebellion has been a bloodier three people were killed in demonstrations along Tho Border with Iran see Kremlin Page 19 ;