US Says North Korean Nuclear Move 'Step Backward'

The United States Tuesday called North Korea's announced decision to suspend the disablement of its nuclear facilities a "step backward" in the six-party disarmament process. North Korea said it took the step because it has not been taken off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

U.S. officials say the North Korean announcement is of great concern and they are expressing hope it does not signal any intention on the part of Pyongyang to roll back progress made in the six-party process.

North Korea said it was halting the disabling of its Yongbyon nuclear complex, and would consider restoring the main reactor there, because of the United States refusal to remove it from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

President Bush, in late June, announced his intention to take North Korea off the blacklist, dependent on Pyongyang providing an acceptable verification program for the declaration of its nuclear holdings it made at that time.

In a talk with reporters, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said North Korea is well-aware of what it needs to do to be taken off the terrorism list and that it should provide the long-awaited verification plan.

Wood said stopping the disabling process at Yongbyon would be a step backward and certainly a violation of the principle of "action-for-action" that has guided disarmament process.

"Its obviously something we view with great concern. It's in violation of commitments they've made in the six-party framework, and its clearly a step backward," he said. "And we'll be having discussions with our other partners in the six-party talk to see how things play out in the coming weeks."

North Korea shut down the Yongbyon reactor and committed to permanently disabling the facility in exchange for energy aid in the first phase of the Chinese-sponsored six-party accord finalized in 2007.

The provision of a verification program for the North Korean declaration would open the way to the next phase of the accord, in which Pyongyang is to scrap its nuclear program in exchange for, among other things, and end to terrorism-related U.S. sanctions and various diplomatic benefits.

Wood declined to say how the North Korea decision was communicated to the United States, but said the U.S. understanding is that that the move is "temporary."

He expressed hope the decision would not lead to resumed operations at the Yongbyon reactor, which produced the plutonium for North Korea's presumed small arsenal of nuclear weapons.

He noted that there have been "ups and downs" in the disarmament deal and that he wouldn't preclude further complications before the intricate process is complete.

source : www.voanews.com

Mugabe heckled in Zimbabwean Parliament

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe opened Parliament in the capital, Harare, on Tuesday to rambunctious heckling from opposition members of Parliament just hours after the police arrested three more of them, bringing the total in custody to five.

Mugabe, who has ruled the country during 28 increasingly repressive years, declared that he had "every expectation" of striking a power-sharing deal with the opposition, but by locking up a growing roster of political rivals his government was further embittering its rivals and complicating the prospects for negotiations.

The police had sought to arrest eight members of Parliament before they were able to vote on Monday for the powerful speaker of the lower house of Parliament, opposition officials said, but backed off when legislators summoned reporters, wanting to avoid a public scene. The opposition's candidate was victorious on Monday by a margin of 12 votes. For the first time since the country's independence in 1980, it gained majority control of Parliament.

But between 1 and 3 a.m., the legislators on the police's wanted list heard knocks on the doors of their hotel rooms. Their lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, who said he feared for their lives, counseled them not to let anyone in until he could get there. More than 100 opposition supporters have been killed since the disputed March elections, according to human rights groups.

The government said in the state newspaper Tuesday that the legislators were being sought on charges ranging from rape to kidnapping to incitement of political violence, but the opposition charged that their real motive is to try to regain control of Parliament. The governing party, ZANU-PF, has 99 seats, to 100 for the main opposition party, with 10 more held by a opposition faction.

The Movement for Democratic Change, which challenges Mugabe's right to rule after a violence-prone electoral season, sought to shout him down in the Parliament chamber, calling the president's ZANU-PF party "rotten."

"People should fear there will be more violence, more unlawful arrests, more disappearances, more harassment," said Muchadehama, the attorney representing the arrested opposition leaders. "That is where we are heading."

The nation's long political crisis came to a head with presidential elections in March and June this year. The opposition claimed ascendancy in the first round of voting, but Mugabe insisted on a runoff vote, which the Movement for Democratic Change boycotted. Since then, the two sides have held inconclusive power-sharing talks, stalled on what the opposition maintains is Mugabe's refusal to abandon executive power.

Mugabe's party still controls the Senate, which can block legislation approved by the lower house.

The opposition had initially indicated that it would boycott the opening of Parliament on Tuesday, news reports said. But its decision to attend and heckle offered an unusual situation for Mugabe, who is more used to being obeyed than challenged.

source : www.iht.com

Afghan Opium Production Falls, U.N. Reports

Opium production in Afghanistan declined by 6 percent this year, the sharpest decline since the United States toppled the Taliban rulers there, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.

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Afghan opium production was down about 500 tons, according to the U.N. 2008 Afghanistan Opium Survey. The amount of land dedicated to opium poppies fell even more dramatically, dropping 19 percent because of severe drought and the efforts of a handful of Afghan governors, tribal and religious leaders to persuade local farmers to abandon the elicit crop.

The U.N. report cautioned that Afghanistan remains the world's top source of opium, producing more of the illicit drug than the world consumes. It expressed caution that Afghan growers had stockpiled massive stores of opium that will guarantee large supplies on the international market even if new supplies dwindle.

Still, U.N. officials characterized the decline as a watershed that showed that internationally backed Afghan efforts to curb the trade were not doomed to failure. "The opium flood waters in Afghanistan have started to recede," Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the Vienna-based UN Office of Drugs and Crime, wrote in the report. "This year, the historic high-water mark of 193,000 hectares of opium cultivated in 2007 has dropped by 19 percent to 157,000 hectares."

The Bush administration welcomed the findings, saying the report provided vindication for its much-criticized counter-narcotics strategy in Afghanistan. But a State Department spokesman said "the drug threat in Afghanistan remains unacceptably high. We are particularly concerned by the deterioration in security conditions in the south, where the insurgency dominates."

The number of Afghan provinces where opium cultivation has ceased increased last year by fifty percent, from 13 to 18, including Badakshan, Balkh and Nangarhar. The most significant turnaround occurred in Nangarhar, Afghanistan's second highest opium producing province in 2007. This year, Costa wrote, Nangarhar, "has become poppy free."

Today, more than fifty percent of Afghanistan's 34 provinces are opium free, according to the report. Most of the country's opium cultivation --about 98 percent-- is now concentrated in seven provinces in south-west Afghanistan that house permanent Taliban settlements and provide organized crimes groups that pay taxes to the Islamic movement in exchange for a free hand in running their illicit trade.

"The most glaring example is Hilmand province, where 103,00 hectares of opium were cultivated this year -- two thirds of all opium in Afghanistan," Costa wrote. "If Hilmand were a country, it would once again be the world's biggest producer of illicit drugs."

The Taliban earned $200 million to $400 million last year through a 10 percent tax on poppy growers and drug traffickers in areas under its control, Costa said in an interview in June. He estimates that Afghan poppy farmers and drug traffickers last year earned about $4 billion, half of the country's national income.

Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan Sherard Cowper-Coles told the BBC that "we're not satisfied and we will never be satisfied until we really start squeezing poppy cultivation out of the Hilmand economy."

"We have an extremely competent governor in Helmand who has a plan . . . for getting farmers to switch from poppy cultivation in the coming season," Cowper-Coles said.

source : www.washingtonpost.com