Banner Graphic, Volume 19, Number 271, Greencastle, Putnam County, 24 July 1989 — Page 2

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THE BANNERGRAPHIC July 24,1989

The fortunes of politics

Japan’s Uno resigns after scandals lead to party’s defeat

TOKYO (AP) Prime Minister Sousuke Uno today announced that he would resign after his scandalplagued party suffered a stinging electoral defeat losing control of a house of parliament for the first time in its 34 years. The long-governing Liberal Democrats had seen their popularity plummet over the Recruit influence-peddling scandal, a new 3 percent sales tax and the liberalization of agricultural imports, which farmers say hurts their livelihood. UNO, WHO HAS been prime minister for less than two months, said his party’s loss of control of parliament’s upper house in Sunday’s elections was ultimately his responsibility. “It was a very difficult election,” he told a nationally televised news conference, speaking calmly. Uno had been criticized by women’s groups and others for his alleged extramarital affairs with women including a geisha who said he paid her to be his mistress for several months. He said he hoped a successor could be found “promptly.” Analysts said they expea the process to take at least several weeks. UNO’S RESIGNATION will result in the dissolution of the entire Cabinet and a restructuring of the governing party’s leadership. In the balloting for half the 252 seats in parliament’s upper house,

Iran’s Rafsanjani so confident of victory he won’t campaign

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran’s wily Parliament speaker, is so confident he will be elected the Islamic Republic’s fourth president that he isn’t even campaigning. “People don’t expea me to put up posters and photos,” the 55-year-old cleric was quoted as telling the Tehran daily newspaper Jomhuri Islami. POLLS PUBLISHED by some newspapers indicate that when Iranians cast ballots on Friday, Rafsanjani will win 86 percent of the vote. They give his only challenger, Abbas Sheibani, a colorless former

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SOUSUKE UNO Accepts responsibility

the big winner was the Japan Socialist Party, led by Takako Doi, the first woman head of a major Japanese party. Of the 126 seats at stake, the Socialists won 46, the Liberal Democrats 36. The Socialists’ total strength in the chamber rose from 43 to 66; the Liberal Democrats fell from 142 to 109. Rengo (Confederation), a new labor-based group, was received 11 seats and the centrist Komeito (Clean Government Party) 10 with the rest split among smaller parties. MRS. DOI SAID her party would quickly call a meeting of

agriculture minister, a paltry 11 percent Three percent of Iranians questioned said they would not vote. The media, much of it controlled by the speaker’s brother Mohammad and Rafsanjani’s allies, are already speculating about who will be in Rafsanjani’s Cabinet Little is reported about Sheibani’s campaign. ALTHOUGH HE IS not stumping, Rafsanjani has kept a high profile through newspaper interviews. He has stressed that his priority is rebuilding Iran’s sagging economy, slashing inflation, boosting production and creating jobs.

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TAKAKO DOI Building a coalition

opposition leaders to form a coalition against the Liberal Democrats, who still hold 293 of the 512 seats in parliament’s more powerful lower house. While most major opposition parties have called for an abolition of the unpopular new sales tax, they vary broadly on other issues such as defense policy, relations with the United States and nuclear power, and any opposition coalition is expected to be fragile. With the loss of their majority in the upper house, however, the Liberal Democrats will face greater difficulties in passing legislation.

The presidential vote, originally schedu ed for Aug. 18, was moved up three weeks to accelerate the transition of power following the June 3 death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s revolutionary patriarch. That transition has been smooth so far, despite bitter rivalries within the Tehran hierarchy between Rafsanjani’s so-called pragmatists and radicals led by Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtashemi. RAFSANJANI IS certain to inherit a more powerful presidency than his predecessor and ally, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was chosen Iran’s supreme religious leader following Khomeini’s death. A national referendum that will be held alongside the presidential vote is expected to win approval for proposed constitutional amendments that will increase the president’s powers, making him head of government and scrapping the post of prime minister. The reforms will streamline Iran’s government by eliminating competing power centers that have virtually paralyzed decisionmaking and delayed the formulation of a sound economic strategy following the cease-fire last August in the 8-year war with Iraq. ANALYSTS SAY that election of the popular Rafsanjani would usher in a new, more liberal era in Iran, which was dominated for the last 10 turbulent years by Khomeini and his fundamentalist Islamic ideology. It would probably bring new moves to build bridges with the West. Rafsanjani and Khamenei have

THE UPPER chamber can vote down bills and can delay but not block the budget and treaties. Differences between bills passed by the two houses must be ironed out by a conference committee. Ms. Doi said the Socialists* first priority would be to pass a bill in the upper house abolishing the unpopular sales tax. Such a bill is unlikely to be approved by the lower house, however, and a standstill over the issue could add to pressure for early elections for the lowochamber. Elections for the lowa house do not legally have to be held for 12 months. A loss in the lowa house would threaten the governing party’s 34year hold on power since that chamber chooses the prime minister. ABOUT 65 PERCENT of Japan’s 90.3 million eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday’s election. Uno became prime minister June 2 after former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita resigned to take responsibility for a scandal in which the Recruit Co., a publishing conglomerate, allegedly distributed millions of dollars in underpriced stocks and political donations to obtain favors. The governing party spent weeks finding a successor for Takeshita unsullied by the stock scandal, eventually drafting Uno. But shortly after taking office, Uno was linked to the sex scandal.

HASHEMI RAFSANJANI People don’t expect posters clearly outmaneuvered the radicals, including Khomeini’s son, Ahmad, 43, who was known to have had presidential aspirations. Presidential elections in Iran since the 1979 revolution have always been one-horse races. The first president, Abolhassan BaniSadr was elected in January 1980 with 75 percent of the vote, far outstripping his two nearest rivals. SHEIBANI, 58, a Frenchtrained physician, ran in the July 1981 presidential election —called when the liberal Bani-Sadr was forced into exile by Islamic hardliners against then-Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Rajaie and two other candidates. Rajaie won with a landslide 13 million of the 14.7 million votes cast and was assassinated by leftist rivals 37 days later.

Mexico, creditors agree on debt reduction plan

WASHINGTON (AP) Mexico and its creditor banks finally agree on the key points of a debt-reduction package, providing the first victory for the Bush administration’s effort to ease the $1.3 trillion Third World debt burden. The agreement announced late Sunday night ended two days of intense talks at the U.S. Treasury Department where Mexican officials and U.S. bankas were joined by Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. IN THE FINAL package, negotiators representing the commercial banks agreed to choose from three options for providing assistance. They can cut the principal on the old loans by 35 percent, reduce the intaest rate they are charging to 6.25 percent or provide new loans to Mexico. U.S. officials predicted that the debt-relief package could slash by up to one-third the $4.5 billion Mexico is paying annually to service the $54 billion it owes to commercial banks. However, officials said the exact amount of debt relief will not be known for some time because each of Mexico’s creditor banks must decide on its own the extent to which it will participate in the plan. STILL, THE agreement signified the first tangible result for the Bush administration’s debtreduction plan, which was unveiled by Brady on March 10. The strategy seeks to provide various incentives for commercial banks to voluntarily reduce the amount of Third World debt they hold. Brady, who had lobbied intensely for the final agreement, hailed the package as “a major step forward in the implementation” of the debt-reduction effort. The administration had made

Arafat claims PLO has a direct contact with Shamir

ROME (AP) PLO chief Yasser Arafat says in an interview published today that Israel has opened direct contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Arafat was quoted by the Rome daily II Messaggero as saying a member of the PLO’s executive committee met recently in Vienna with an envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. HE DID NOT identify the two officials or give any details of the talks. The Israeli government has repeatedly denied it is carrying out direct or indirect negotiations with the PLO, which it describes as a terrorist organization intent on the destruction of the Jewish state. Arafat was interviewed by n Messaggero in Tunis, Tunisia, the political headquarters of the PLO. He was quoted as saying that Shamir himself had met with Palestinian leaders in the occupied territories who are tied to the PLO. He showed the interviewer what he

NICHOLAS BRADY A victory for his plan

Mexico the test case for the Brady plan, believing that an agreement with the developing world’s second-largest debtor would establish precedents for deals with other countries. MEXICAN PRESIDENT Carlos Salinas de Gortari went on nationwide television Sunday night to praise the final package, saying, “Mexico has opened the way for other nations with similar problems.” The Bush administration had hoped to have a completed Mexican debt plan to present to the seven-nation economic summit last week in Paris. But even without a deal, the final summit communique included a strong endorsement of the approach. In an effort to break the stalemate, Brady brought the negotiators to Washington on Saturday and Sunday to resolve the remaining issues. SALINAS DESCRIBED the final talks as “difficult, complex and tense.” Mexico had begun the discussions demanding that the banks cut Mexico’s debt by 55 percent.

described as a written report about a 45-minute meeting on July 12 between Shamir and Palestinians. “SHAMIR SAYS he’s meeting Palestinian representatives of the occupied territories,” Arafat was quoted as saying. “Secret meetings, he says, against the will of the PLO. “It’s not true. None of these meetings was held against our will. We approve them from the beginning and after the talks we received complete reports from our cadres.” Shamir’s spokesman, Yossi Ahimeir, has said the prime minister held two meetings with Palestinians from the occupied territories this month. Israeli officials refuse to say who the Palestinians are, claiming the lives of the dialogue partners would be threatened by the PLO. “SHAMIR KNOWS well that there are no Palestinians inside Palestine or outside Palestine who do not belong to the PLO,” Arafat was quoted as saying. “Why is he trying to stage this show? He’s trying to open a dialogue with the PLO far away from the U.S. administration that he’s trying to deceive.” Arafat said the PLO’s dialogue with the United States had not produced any concrete results so far. “But the decision by Congress to reject the request to block the dialogue with the PLO was important,” he said. “A very positive sign.”

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