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Voice of America, 99-08-26

Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>


CONTENTS

  • [01] KOSOVO SHELTER (L-ONLY) BY LISA SCHLEIN (GENEVA)
  • [02] KOSOVO PRISON (L) BY TIM BELAY (PRISTINA)
  • [03] QUAKE SITREP (S) BY SCOTT BOBB (IZMIT, TURKEY)
  • [04] QUAKE HOMELESS - TEXT BY SCOTT BOBB (TURKEY)
  • [05] TURKEY HOMELESS/VOLUNTEERS BY SCOTT BOBB (IZMIT)
  • [06] U-S RESCUE TEAM DEPARTS (L/O) BY SCOTT BOBB (IZMIT, TURKEY)
  • [07] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)
  • [08] THURSDAY'S EDITORIALS BY RALPH ECKHARDT (WASHINGTON)

  • [01] KOSOVO SHELTER (L-ONLY) BY LISA SCHLEIN (GENEVA)

    DATE=8/26/1999
    TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
    NUMBER=2-253141
    CONTENT=
    VOICED AT:

    INTRO: The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-C-R, says its shelter rehabilitation program in Kosovo is in full operation. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the Agency says it is absolutely vital that basic repairs to homes damaged during this year's war be completed before winter.

    TEXT: The U-N Refugee Agency has so far distributed nearly six-thousand basic shelter kits. The program is meant to provide enough material to help homeowners temporarily weatherproof at least one room in their house before winter.

    // OPT //

    The rehab kits include heavy-duty plastic sheeting for roof repairs and clear plastic to cover broken windows. //END OPT//

    U-N-H-C-R Spokesman Kris Janowski says these materials are not meant to provide the total reconstruction of a home, but rather serve as a temporary measure to get people through the winter.

    ///JANOWSKI ACT///

    We've had cases, unfortunately, of people actually turning down shelter kits and being a bit disappointed that they are not being given full-fledged reconstruction help. And, that basically they are not given the possibility to rebuild their home before the winter. This is not going to happen. We are not a reconstruction agency and it is unrealistic to expect the international community to rebuild Kosovo before the winter.

    ///END ACT///

    Mr. Janowski says these kits may be the only help available before the onset of winter. So he says the reasonable thing for people to do is repair their homes and make them habitable for the next few months.

    // OPT //

    The U-N Refugee Agency is only handling about one-third of the total shelter kits. Others are being provided by the European Community and the U-S Agency for International Development. Mr. Janowski says kits from the three agencies will help nearly 400-thousand people. // END OPT // He says about 47-thousand houses in Kosovo are beyond repair. To help those homeowners, he says the U-N Refugee Agency will try to place them with host families. The Agency will provide assistance to host families to try to encourage them to give shelter to the homeless this winter. For those who have nowhere to go, Mr. Janowski says the U-N Refugee Agency will set up temporary community shelters as a last resort. (SIGNED)
    NEB/LS/PCF/RAE 26-Aug-1999 09:28 AM LOC (26-Aug-1999 1328 UTC)
    NNNN
    Source: Voice of America

    [02] KOSOVO PRISON (L) BY TIM BELAY (PRISTINA)

    DATE=8/26/1999
    TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
    NUMBER=2-253150
    CONTENT=
    VOICED AT:

    INTRO: A survivor of massacres at Yugoslavia's Dubrava prison says not enough is being done to help Kosovar Albanians who are being held in Serbia. Tim Belay reports from Pristina.

    TEXT: The survivor -- Bajrush Xhemajli -- calls himself a former political prisoner. He is now free after serving six-years in Serbian prisons. Mr. Xhemajli says more than 100-prisoners were killed and more than 200-injured as a result of three brutal attacks on the prisoners at Dubrava. He says the incidents took place just after NATO bombed the prison on May 19th and 21st. Mr. Xhemajli says the massacres took place May 22nd. He speculates that Yugoslav officials decided to carry out the attacks against prisoners so they could blame NATO for the additional casualties.

    /// XHEMAJLI ACT ONE - IN ALBANIAN - FADE UNDER ///
    He says Yugoslav armed forces and prison guards used the NATO bombings as an excuse to come after the prison population with automatic rifles, machine guns, and hand grenades. He says they shot from watchtowers using snipers. The shooting lasted for one-half hour. Mr. Xhemajli says that was first of three attacks against prisoners at Dubrava on May 22nd. He says the survivors of Dubrava have had very little help from international organizations.
    /// XHEMAJLI ACT TWO - IN ALBANIAN - FADE UNDER ///
    He says he is especially concerned about the plight of those injured in the massacres who still are in prison. And he says there has been no aid from international organizations, except from the committee of the Red Cross, which has simply made a registry of the prisoners. Mr. Xhemajli says he can not understand what he described as the indifference of the international community. In July, the Serbian Justice Ministry released the names of two-thousand-95 people who were arrested in Kosovo and taken to jail in other parts of Serbia. They were accused of what the Yugoslav government calls -- offenses against the security and integrity of the state. The prisoners' families demonstrate almost every day in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, to call for their release. (SIGNED)
    NEB/TB/JWH/RAE 26-Aug-1999 12:06 PM LOC (26-Aug-1999 1606 UTC)
    NNNN
    Source: Voice of America

    [03] QUAKE SITREP (S) BY SCOTT BOBB (IZMIT, TURKEY)

    DATE=8/26/1999
    TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
    NUMBER=2-253137
    CONTENT=
    VOICED AT:

    INTRO: Earthquake relief efforts continue in Turkey. But as V-O-A's Scott Bobb reports, there also is an effort to resume normal work-day activities.

    TEXT: The stock exchange in Istanbul reopened (Thursday), 10-days after the devastating earthquake in Turkey. Civilian employees also returned to work at the naval base in Golcuk which was nearly destroyed. The U-S rescue team and the U-S naval emergency surgery team have pulled out. But, meanwhile, volunteers from all across Turkey and heavy earth-moving equipment are coming in to help with the excavation and relief efforts, as caring for the survivors of the earthquake begins to become organized. (SIGNED)
    NEB/SB/JWH/RAE 26-Aug-1999 07:46 AM EDT (26-Aug-1999 1146 UTC)
    NNNN
    Source: Voice of America


    [04] QUAKE HOMELESS - TEXT BY SCOTT BOBB (TURKEY)

    DATE=8/26/1999
    TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
    NUMBER=2-253138
    CONTENT=
    VOICED AT:

    INTRO: Text of a report from Scott Bobb who visited a tent city for people left homeless by the earthquake in Izmit, Turkey.

    TEXT: I am standing in a public park in the middle of Izmit that has been converted into a tent city of about one-thousand people and several-hundred tents. But we have seen a lot of smaller camps with little assistance. But in some of these larger ones -- and I have seen two now -- we see the beginnings of an organized effort to provide some care to the people. Workers are putting together toilets and showers -- there are still very few. In this camp there are only three showers for one-thousand people and six toilets. Food distribution is working a bit better. Food is donated by businessmen and charities -- many of them in Turkey. This camp is being helped by workers from another city in another part of Turkey. And the people here are very grateful. However, they say they have received no help from the government and very little from the military, to date. (SIGNED)
    NEB/SB/JWH/RAE 26-Aug-1999 07:52 AM EDT (26-Aug-1999 1152 UTC)
    NNNN
    Source: Voice of America


    [05] TURKEY HOMELESS/VOLUNTEERS BY SCOTT BOBB (IZMIT)

    DATE=8/26/1999
    TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
    NUMBER=5-44142
    CONTENT=
    VOICED AT:

    INTRO: As rescue efforts and emergency aid to victims of last week's earthquake in Turkey wind down, attention is turning increasingly to helping those who survived but were made homeless by the disaster. Authorities estimate that nearly one-quarter-million people lost their homes and are living outdoors. Correspondent Scott Bobb has been visiting these people camped out across northwestern Turkey. He filed this report from Izmit, an industrial city 80- kilometers west of Istanbul.

    TEXT: The number of people who have been made homeless by the earthquake in western Turkey could populate a small city. But most are scattered across the region, living in small groups not far from their shattered homes. Some are staying in cars and vacant warehouses. Others have taken shelter under bus stops and open-air markets. Most are camped out in parks and schoolyards.

    /// OPT ///

    For example, several families are living under the spectator stands of a small racetrack outside Izmit. They have tied plastic sheets over the metal bleachers and laid blankets on the ground. Jalal Tanks, a factory worker, heads the family of 10 people living under a section of the stands the size of a small room. They lost their apartment and most of their belongings in the quake. He says they have received no help from the government.
    /// JALAL ACT IN TURKISH-IN FULL AND UNDER
    ///
    Jalal says some wealthy businessmen have sent donations, but that is all. His wife Aisha is worried about the children.
    /// AISHA ACT IN TURKISH-IN FULL AND UNDER
    ///
    She says -- winter is coming. The children need to prepare for school. But all they can do is wait.

    ///END OPT///

    Authorities are trying to encourage the homeless to move to large camps where they can more efficiently provide them with food, shelter, and healthcare. But residents of these tent cities, as they are called, say government help to them has been minimal. One such camp lies in a park in the center of Izmit. About 350-tents have been pitched on the muddy grounds, housing an estimated one-thousand people. One of the residents is Hussein Aydemir, a retiree who heads an extended family of 13. They are sitting in front of their new home -- a wooden frame covered by plastic sheets. The earthquake did not destroy their apartment, but a larger building next door toppled against it. Authorities say it is too dangerous to stay there.
    ///AYDEMIR ACT IN TURKISH - IN FULL AND UNDER///
    Mr. Aydemir says the biggest problem in the camp is the lack of hygiene, toilets, and clean running water. He says they worry constantly about what will happen to them. He says the government has done nothing. The only help so far has come from volunteers from other parts of Turkey. A score of volunteers from the city of Adana, in eastern Turkey, are also camping here, helping to distribute the aid.

    // OPT //

    The volunteers have built six toilets and two wash stands at the edge of the camp and today are installing running water. A doctor from their city also attends to the sick in a small tent. // END OPT
    //
    Their coordinator, Kenan Gundoydu (keh-nan guun- doy'duu), says strangers helped him when his town was hit by another quake several-years ago. The volunteers expect to live here for several months.
    /// GUNDOYDU ACT IN TURKISH-IN FULL AND UNDER ///
    Mr. Gundoydu says the main challenge is to provide sanitation and psychological support to the people here. // OPT // He says military officers came today for the first time and promised to return with several hundred tents. He has not seen anyone from the civilian government. // END OPT //
    Relief workers say the damage caused by the earthquake would have overwhelmed any government. But they complain that the lack of a strong relief program was one of a number of shortcomings that has aggravated the suffering of victims of this natural disaster. (SIGNED)
    NEB/SB/PCF/RAE 26-Aug-1999 13:40 PM LOC (26-Aug-1999 1740 UTC)
    NNNN
    Source: Voice of America

    [06] U-S RESCUE TEAM DEPARTS (L/O) BY SCOTT BOBB (IZMIT, TURKEY)

    DATE=8/26/1999
    TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
    NUMBER=2-253159
    CONTENT=
    VOICED AT: (EDS: The team has left Izmit, and is due to leave Turkey on Friday. This piece may be used as an overnighter.)

    INTRO: Rescue efforts have virtually ended following the devastating earthquake in Turkey 10 days ago and most foreign emergency teams are returning home. The latest to leave is a team of American firefighters from the southeastern city of Miami, Florida. The team has been working for the past week in the city of Izmit, 80 kilometers east of Istanbul, as we hear in this report from Correspondent Scott Bobb.

    TEXT: Tired rescue workers from the Miami team loaded their dogs and equipment and dismantled their tents on the tarmac of a go-cart racing track that has been their base for the past week. Most of the workers have slept only a few hours a day since they arrived and several nap on their duffle bags as the last crates are packed. The spokesman for the group, Rafael Pozo, says in the 10 years he has been involved in emergency rescue work, he has never seen so much devastation.

    /// POZO ACT ///

    I have never seen as much area destroyed as this. It's daunting. I've been through Hurricane Andrew (which devastated south Florida in the early 1990s) and this is like Hurricane Andrew times one hundred.

    /// END ACT ///

    Mr. Pozo praised local residents whose volunteer efforts, he says, helped them in the search operation. As a forklift loads the equipment onto a truck, Mr. Pozo says the beginning of the recovery in Turkey has already started.

    /// POZO ACT ///

    What we're finding is that even the towns that are out on the fringes that we covered for recognizance, water supplies and food supplies are already being restored. You see people are able to have those available to them. Housing, I think, remains what's going to be taking a while. Infrastructure is going to take a long while to reestablish here.

    /// END ACT ///

    But not all the American rescue workers are leaving at this time. The Miami team is leaving behind 300 thousand dollars worth of tools and sophisticated camera and sensing equipment, which it is donating to the Turkish government. As a result, 15 of its members are staying behind to train Turkish teams in using the equipment. (SIGNED)
    NEB/SB/TVM/PT 26-Aug-1999 15:37 PM LOC (26-Aug-1999 1937 UTC)
    NNNN
    Source: Voice of America

    [07] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

    DATE=8/26/1999
    TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
    NUMBER=2-253165
    CONTENT=
    VOICED AT:

    INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were down today (Thursday) because of apparent profit-taking. VOA Business Correspondent Breck Ardery reports from New York.

    TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11- thousand-198, down 127 points or more than one percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 index closed at 13-hundred-62, down 19 points. The NASDAQ index lost one percent. Analysts say there was no negative economic news to move the market and the sell-off in stocks was mostly profit-taking after the rallies of earlier in the week. Steve Frank of the Walter Frank securities firm says the selling did not seem to be related to any fundamental factors.

    /// Frank Act ///

    There is no reason for the sell-off other than that we have had a nice string of gains. I think it is time for the market to consolidate a bit.

    /// End Act ///

    The government revised downward the rate of U-S economic growth in the second quarter of this year. The Commerce Department now says the economy grew at a one-point-eight percent annual rate instead of the two-point-three percent rate originally estimated. Analysts say the news was positive for financial markets because it indicates the economy is slowing on its own and makes it unlikely that the U-S central bank will raise interest rates again this year.

    /// Rest Opt for long ///

    A double takeover in the high technology industry was announced. Cisco Systems, the world's leading computer networking company, will pay seven-point-four billion dollars for Cerent Corporation and Monterey Networks. Both Cerent and Monterey are involved in using fiber optic technology for data transmissions. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company will pay one- point-two billion dollars in cash for the General American Insurance Company. U-S regulators (F-C-C) have given final approval for the one-point-three billion dollar takeover of the SkyTel paging company by the M-C-I Telecommunications Corporation. Procter and Gamble, the consumer products giant, will pay 265 million dollars for Recovery Engineering, a maker of household water filtration systems. Another new stock soared in its first day of trading. Shares of Bamboo-dot-com climbed 136 percent. The company uses the internet to offer virtual tours of real estate properties for sale. A famous American icon is headed for museums. The Campbell Soup Company says its plain red and white label will be discontinued after almost 101 years. The Campbell's soup can label was elevated to the stature of popular art in paintings by the late Andy Warhol. But the company says it is time for a brighter, more interesting label that will feature a photo of a bowl of soup. (Signed) NEB/BA/LSF/TVM/PT 26-Aug-1999 17:27 PM LOC (26-Aug-1999 2127 UTC)
    NNNN
    Source: Voice of America

    [08] THURSDAY'S EDITORIALS BY RALPH ECKHARDT (WASHINGTON)

    DATE=8/26/1999
    TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST
    NUMBER=6-11440
    EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
    TELEPHONE=619-2702
    CONTENT=

    INTRO: Israeli Prosecutors have announced a plea bargain agreement with a man accused of murder in the United States, and U-S editorial writers are voicing their opinion of the matter. Also in (Thursday's) editorial pages are opinions about the U-S central bank's interest rate hike. Now, here with a closer look and some excerpts is _____________ and today's Editorial Digest.

    TEXT: Nearly two-years ago 19-year-old Alfredo Tello was murdered in a suburb of Washington D-C. Police followed a trail of blood spots from the body to the nearby home of Samuel Scheinbein. But the 17-year-old Scheinbein had fled to Israel, where he is considered a citizen because his father was born in pre-Israel Palestine. Israel had outlawed extradition of Israeli citizens, but agreed to try the accused killer. In an unexpected move, Israeli prosecutors say they have agreed to ask for a 24-year prison sentence in exchange for a guilty plea to first-degree murder by Mr. Scheinbein. A plea-bargain that by American standards is lenient. "The Washington Times" says the result is -- No justice.

    VOICE: Mr. Scheinbein . could easily win limited freedom as early as 2003 and parole in 2013. Given the sentence he is accused of meting out to Alfredo Enrique Tello, it is incomprehensible that Mr. Scheinbein should enjoy anything approaching freedom. If tried in his hometown, as he should have been, Mr. Scheinbein could have been sentenced to life in prison. . He has escaped real justice.

    TEXT: "The Washington Post" says residents of the area in which the murder was committed are entitled to be more than a little angry about the plea agreement.

    VOICE: Israel, of course is entitled to have more liberal sentencing policies than Maryland, but the remoteness of such policies from events in Maryland is a good reason to have tried Mr. Scheinbein in the state whose laws he broke and whose citizen he murdered. While there is some comfort in the fact he will be punished, the terms of his recommended sentence are a legitimate disappointment.

    TEXT: In the state where the murder was committed, "The Baltimore Sun" says the plea bargain represents good faith efforts by Israeli prosecutors to make the best of bad Israeli law. A new law has been enacted, but does not apply retroactively.

    VOICE: It is regrettable and wrong that Scheinbein is not to be judged, sentenced and incarcerated under Maryland law. Still Samuel Scheinbein's likely sentence is no slap on the wrist. It could be no more severe were the victim Israeli.

    TEXT: Tuesday, the U-S central bank, The Federal Reserve, decided to raise interest rates one-quarter point. The bank board said the rate hike was needed to cool the country's economy to keep inflation from developing. The New York newspaper, "Newsday", says the bank's action will not cool the economy much, and that is fine because it does not need much cooling.

    VOICE: .[the rate hike] is unlikely to cost anybody a job or discourage many major purchases for very long. . It is like taking a couple of aspirin tablets because you sense a headache coming on: It will ease the pain if one is on the way, but will not do harm if one is not.

    TEXT: "The Miami Herald" says the bank's biggest problem is to maintain the economic boom while getting more of its benefits down to wage-earning Americans, the 52-percent who do not own stocks. But "The Herald says:

    VOICE: . Historically the Fed [bank] has not considered that one of its goals. Today . market pressures are building for wage increases. . Though any inflationary impact of wage increases would be offset by productivity increases that have been rising at an annual rate of two-point-two-percent. With the nation's corporate profits and executive salaries also at record highs, a round of wage increases on production lines is not just to be expected but justifiable. . Let us hope . the economy is allowed to continue to expand. Main Street's wage earners -- who have taken two blows [with interest rate hikes] in two-months without a congressional, or Wall Street, eyebrow rising -- are right to be wary. It is their jobs, raises and hopes of a new truck in the garage that are at risk.

    TEXT: "The Los Angeles Times" says Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan should be listened to.

    VOICE: Tuesday's hike in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve, though a small one, was sobering economic news, and the pressures behind the increase are even worse news. But Greenspan's underlying message, delivered with perhaps too much subtlety to be clearly heard by the markets, is one of caution about the health of the economy. . Clearly, with the adroitness with which he has guided the U-S economy through eight years of growth, Greenspan has earned the respect of markets here and elsewhere. Now, they need to listen harder to his message, which tells of a bumpy economic road ahead.

    TEXT: "The Chicago Tribune" also applauds the way the Federal Reserve is guiding the economy. It says the bank's action is like pouring water on a red hot economy.

    VOICE: In the Fed's case, the goal is to keep the remarkable American economy humming along at an optimum level without overheating. A little dousing now and then in the form of a carefully calibrated rise in interest rates just might allow this current economic expansion to reach an historic ninth birthday next spring--and grow even older to the overall benefit of the nation. This adroit Fed (bank), led by Chairman Alan Greenspan, has made it clear it will douse when necessary before the heat gets to dangerous levels.

    TEXT: That concludes this sampling of comment from some of Thursday's U-S press.
    NEB/RAE/KL 26-Aug-1999 11:50 AM EDT (26-Aug-1999 1550 UTC)
    NNNN
    Source: Voice of America


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