Dioxin deadline
set for Jan. 30

VANCOUVER (CP) Canadian
pulp mills have until Jan. 30 t
explain how they intend to tighten
the taps on dioxins.

The provincial and federal Envir.
onment Departments set the dead
lines in the wake of unprecedented
closures of British Columbia fisheries
because of dioxin contamination.

A senior Environment Canada
official warned 47 Canadian pulp
mills that use chlorine to bleach
paper — including 17 of B.C.'s 22 pulp
mills — that the federal ministers of

environment and health “have reason
to believe that your mill is dis.
charging dioxins, furans and chlorin
ated organic compounds into the
Ci ian environment,

‘Our concern has been heightened
by the recent fishery closures in
British Columbia,” Bernie Heskin,
regional director of environmental
protection, wrote.

Federal Fisheries Minister Tom
Siddon last week ordered closures of
prawn, shrimp and crab fisheries in
Howe Sound, north of Vancouver,

The B.C. Environment Minis.
try has presented a pulp mill
with a $300 penalty for polluting
Howe Sound.

Western Pulp Partnership
Ltd. has until Jan. 3 to contest
$100 and $200 tickets issued
under new regulations of the
Waste Management Act

Last week, after the unpre
cedented closures of Howe
Sound prawn, shrimp and crab
fisheries because of dioxin pollt
tion from two Howe Sound pulp
mills, B.C. Environment Minis.
ter Bruce Strachan promised
“stringent regulations” on dioxin
discharges hy py mills

“I reiterate that we are
looking at fines of up to one
million dollars and closure of
mills if necessary to ensure that
our new legislation will be
followed,” Strachan said again in
a news release on dioxin contam.
ation in B.C. salmon.

“MILL FINED $300
FOR DUMPING WASTE

Provincial conservation officer
Rod Olsen said the ministry
issued the $100 ticket for the
company's alleged failure on
Nov. 29 to comply with pollution
limits required by a B.C. waste
mhanagement permit. The charge
involves the toxicity limits for
the liquid wastes dumped by
Western Pulp's Woodfibre mill
into Howe Sound

The $200 ticket involves a
charge that the company al-
lowed on Nov. 29 the introduce.
tion of “business wastes” into
the environment. In this in
stance, Olsen said, the business

tes were contaminated wat
ers leaching out of a hog fuel
dump at the Woodfibre mill near
Squamish

The tickets, issued under new
provisions of the B.C. Waste
Management Act, can be con.
tested in provincial court in
Squamish on Jan. 3

because of dioxin contamination.

Dioxins, chemical compounds pro-
duced by the chlorine-bleaching pro-
cess used by pulp mills, have been
linked to cancer and genetic defects
in laboratory animals.

The closed areas surround the
Canadian Forest Products pulp mill
at Port Mellon, as well as the
Western Pulp Partnership Ltd.
pulp mill at Woodfibre. Siddon also
stopped crab harvesting around the
Skeena Cellulose pulp mill . near
Prince Rupert in northwestern re.
gion of the province.

DEADLINE SET

In Victoria, Environment Minister
Bruce Strachan set the same dead.
ine in a government release head
lined “dioxin cleanup initiated.”
Neither official spoke of eliminating
dioxin discharges, but of “reducing”
dioxins.

Brian McCloy, of the Council of
Forest Industries of British Colum
bia, anticipated that pulp and paper
companies “will do everything in
their power to fully comply with re-
quests made (Thursday) ... We are
still studying the documents.”

Environment Canada’s warning
contains a legal notice demanding
technical information on how the
pollutants are produced and dis.
charged. It asks mills to detail ex.

Lietz tell Santa Claus what

SANTA VISITS . . . Mandy Parks and Wessley

they want for

Christmas when he visited the City Centre
Square in Castlegar Saturday afternoon

CosNewsPhoto

isting or proposed gies for
removing or reducing the pollutants,
as well as plans and schedules for
implementing pollution controls.

The demand is made under the
Canadian Environmental Protection
Act, which became law in June.

“I must draw your attention to the
penalties for not complying with this
information request under (the act),”
Heskin wrote.

For the Prince Rupert and Howe
Sound pulp mills, which must start

ling programs, the maximum

Firm says it will
eliminate dioxins

VANCOUVER (CP) — Fletcher
Challenge Canada Ltd. will spend $30
million on technology to eliminate
dioxins produced at its British Col
umbia mills, the company said.

Fletcher spokesman Stu Clugston
said the company had placed orders
for “chlorine dioxide generation
equipment” at its pulp mill near
Campbell River on Vancouver Island
and at Mackenzie in the B.C. Interior.

The company said it spent $15
million to install the equipment in
May at a third pulp mill at Crofton,
also on Vancouver Island

LAKES

continued from front page

part of a delegation from the minis.
try which addressed a number of en
vironmental issues at the RDCK
board meeting.

Robertson said the size of kokanee
in the lake is “decreasing steadily,”
the number of eggs found in female
kokanee is decreasing and the num
ber of kokanee is “diminishing.”

“The trends are not encouraging,”
said Robertson, who blamed the
problem on a lack of nutrients in the
lake.

However, he said the current
situation could continue for “quite a
while” before having a
mpact.

“I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to
a kokanee crash,” he said. If it does,
he said the loss of kokanee would in
turn reduce the number of Gerrard
rainbow trout which feed on the
kokanee.

“That could be very serious in
terms of tourism and the economy to
the region,” Robertson said.

He said fertilization of the lake is
one option to halt the decline of
kokanee but “that would be a monu

serious

Lottery numbers

The following are the winning
numbers drawn in Wednesday's lot:
teries:

Lotto 6/49 — 4, 17, 22, 28, 30 and
47.

The bonus number was 46. There
was no winner of the jackpot prize of
$4,863,658. The four Extra winning
numbers for B.C. Wednesday were
18, 22, 83 and 95.

The Pick — 11, 14, 19, 30,
and 50

The following are the winning
numbers drawn in Thursday's lot
tery:

The Pick — 4, 6, 17, 18, 40, 51, 55
and 56.

36, 46

The technology, which results in
lower use of chlorine through the use
of chlorine dioxide as a substitute, is
based on research by the Pulp and
Paper Research Institute of Canada

Dioxins, chemical compounds pro
duced by the chlorine-bleaching pro
cess used by pulp mills, have been
linked to cancer and genetic defects
in laboratory animals.

The Fletcher announcement came
a day after the provincial and federal
Environment Departments set a Jan.
30 deadline for,Canadian pulp mills to
explain how they intend to reduce
the release of dioxins into waters.

mental undertaking and cost a lot of
money.”

“We have budgets that are pretty
screwed down and there's no leeway
for a big operation like fertilization,”
Robertson told the directors.

He said the West Arm of the lake
suffers from similar problems but a

bination of techniqu luding
net penning of kokanee fry, is helping
alleviate the problem there.

The Arrow lakes, Robertson said,
are showing “good growth of kok
anee” and transplanted Gerrard
rainbow trout

However, Robertson said’ he
wouldn't want to see a rush to
develop additional _fishery-related
facilities on the Arrow lakes just yet.

“We're anxious not to give people
the idea that it’s going to be the
savior of the fishery in the West
Kootenay,” he said. “While we don’t
want to destroy economic develop.
ment on the Arrow lakes, we don't
want to rush into it.”

WESTAR

continued from front page
coast for that material,” said Lang.
“We're going to continue doing that.”

He said Westar is trying to get as
much “junk” wood out of TFL 23 as
possible so the company can re
forest with better stock. He added
the push for decadent wood removal
is part of Westar’s plan to “rehabil
itate” areas in TFL 23 which have
long stopped producing quality wood.

The proposal also allows Westar to
cut 10 per cent, above or below its
projected annual allowable cut after
five years. Westar is covered by the
proposal if the company falls short or
exceeds its cut projections by 10 per
cent overall on TFL 23 after the
five-year term.

As well, Westar is allowed to cut
50 per cent more or less of a
particular stand of trees each year,
provided the cut averages out after

penalty is a $300,000 fine and six
months in prison for pulp mill
executives.

Zalm
slammed
again

VICTORIA (CP) — A group that
includes several theology instructors
has condemned Premier Bill Vander
Zalm for espousing Christian prin
ciples while ignoring the plight of the
province's poor.

The criticism came Friday in reac
tion to a speech in which Vander
Zalm promoted Christian standards
and ethics in government

Reg Clarkson, a religion instructor
at Vancouver College Catholic High
School, said the group criticized the
premier for what it perceives as a
contradiction in what the premier
says and does.

The premier spoke Oct. 28 to a
gathering of Christian professionals
as part of a conference organized by
the British Columbia wing of the
U.S.-based evangelical organization,
Campus Crusade for Christ

In the speech, Vander Zalm said
his government would be guided by
“pure Christian standards.”

In an open letter to the premier,
the group says: “It was reported
that you claim your government is
guided by Christian ethics. It is our
opinion that you are hot following
Christian ethics in your dealing with
poor people.”

“We the undersigned are followers
of Jesus Christ and claim knowledge
of Christian ethics. Let us compare
your actions with Christ's teachings
about the poor. Christ came to give
good news to the poor, you bring
them hardship and shame when your
welfare rates condemn them to
extreme poverty.

five years.

Ted Evans, Arrow Forest District
manager in Castlegar, said the
provincial forest ministry has been
working with Westar on the prop:
osal. The report is in the Arrow
District office and is expected to re-
ceive approval from the provincial
chief forester at the end of the
month. The ministry has viewed the
proposal and has specified all the
commitments necessary for Westar
to receive the rights to manage the
provincially owned TFL.

Lang said Westar has been man
aging the TFL 23 area “since the 50s”
and is looking forward to managing
the area in the future. Provided the
plan is approved at the end of the
month, he will start work on the next
five-year working and management
plan for TFL 23 three years from
now.

Cady back in chair

——By CasNews Staff

Area D Director George Cady was
re-elected chairman of the Regional
District of Central Kootenay board
Saturday at the board's inaugural
meeting in Nelson.

Cady was unopposed for the chair
manship-

In a brief address to the board
following his election, Cady said the
regional district faces in the coming
year some of the same issues it
grappled with in 1988.

Cady said he expects the district to
square off in court in the spring

Obe

OTTAWA (CP) — Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney has named veteran
B.C. MP Frank Oberle acting for
estry minister as part of a post

LaFortune
receives
nomination

By CasNews Staff

A Castlegar woman has
nominated to be a part of a group
which will work with the provincial
government to improve the quality of
life for disabled people

Cathy LaFortune has been nom
inated to serve on the premier's
advisory council for persons with
disabilities.

The 12-member council will make
recommendations on all aspects of
life which are a struggle for someone
with a disability, such as access to
facilities and social and economic
issues. The council was the idea of a
provincial task force on the disabled.

Neither the premier’s office nor
the task force could confirm La
Fortune's appointment to the council.
An announcement of the premier's
advisory council could be made in
January.

LaFortune has been the director of
the Hobbit Hill Daycare Centre since
1982. Her 16-year-old son is disabled
and she is actively involved with the
Castlegar Abilities Awareness Com
mittee.

WHARF

continued from front page
The contract stipulates he must be
finished by Jan. 10.

Gienger is also working with the
Castlegar Development Board to
build a wooden dock alongside the
wharf.

“We're considering putting in a
little over 200 feet of dock alongside
so that people have somewhere to tie
their boats,” said Harry Stan, execu
tive director of the development
board.

Gienger has saved some of the
beams it removed from the wharf to
be air-dried over the winter and used
on the dock. Stan said the board is
working on getting some lumber
donated and the dock will be built
through volunteer labor if every-
thing goes as planned

been

against B.C. Hydro over the com
pany’s exemption from property
taxes.

Noting that the district's seven
hospitals are all underfunded and
have their “backs against the wall,”
Cady said additional revenue from
Hydro would help.

“If nothing else, we would gain for
the hospitals in this area,” he said.

The issue of pesticide spraying in
the district will likely be an issue
again this year following what Cady
called “disregard by certain minis
ters of the Crown” in not having the
spraying stopped.

rle gets

election move to patch up his cabinet.

Oberle (Prince George-Peace
River), rumored to be the favorite to
get the forestry job when Mulroney
announces his new cabinet after
Christmas, was one of six MPs given
double duty at the cabinet table.

They are replacing six cabinet
ministers who lost their seats in the
Nov. 21 federal election.

The creation of a forestry depart
ment was announced prior to the
election campaign, and B.C. MP
Gerry St. Germain was given the
post. St. Germain lost his Mission
Coquitlam seat to New Democrat Joy
Langan.

Oberle, also the minister of state
for science and technology, inherits a
forestry portfolio that has limited
jurisdiction because natural re
sources is a provincial responsibility.

One of the main responsibilities of
a federal forestry minister is in the
area of reforestation.

Secretary of State Lucien Bou

“We looked for legislation but none
is forthcoming yet,” Cady said.
“There has to be a better way (to
stop the spraying) than for people to
lie down on (railway) track:

In the area of resource extraction,
Cady said there has to be a balance
between the necessity for jobs and
the protection of the environment.

And noting that municipalities are
more often seeking financial assis.
tance from rural areas for facilities
within the municipalities, Cady said
the district may want to take a look
at the cost-sharing arrangements for
such joint functions.

nod

chard, rumored in recent weeks to be
headed for the environment post to
replace the defeated Tom McMillan,
was given the acting environment
minister's job.

Other post-election replacements
include:

e £xternal Affairs Minister Joe
Clark becomes acting attorney-gen
eral and justice minister. Ray Hna
tyshyn held those portfolios.

¢ Sen. Lowell Murray, govern
ment leader in the Senate and mini
ster of state for federal-provincial
relations, becomes acting communi.
cations minister in place of Flora
MacDonald.

e Defence Minister Perrin Beatty
becomes acting  solicitor-general.
James Kelleher had the post.

« Supply and Services Minister
Otto Jelinek takes over Stuart
McInnes’ role as acting minister of
public works.

Court news

In Castlegar provincial court this
week, Richard Augustine was given
a four-month jail term after pleading
guilty to failing to comply with
a probation order. He also received
five four-month concurrent jail sen
tences after pleading guilty to five
additional counts of failing to comply
with a probation order.

*_ 8 «

Melvin McArthur received a two-
month intermittent jail sentence
with one year probation after plead
ing guilty to driving with a blood.
alcohol reading over .08.

* *

Joseph Simmons received a 45-day
intermittent jail term and probation
after pleading guilty to two counts of
failing a request to provide a breath
sample.

*_ * «

Peter Voykin was sentenced to 45
days in jail after pleading guilty to
impaired di

Edward Miller was given a 16-day
jail sentence for impaired driving and
a seven-day jail sentence to be
served concurrently for mischief in
relation to property valued under
$1,000. He pleaded guilty to both
charges.

Morley Levick was fined $1,174 for
driving an overweight transport
truck.

. * .

Derek Colville was fined $500 after
pleading guilty to driving without
due care and attention.

. . «

Rodney Lang was fined $450 after
pleading guilty to dangerous driving.
* 28 8

Robert Olson was fined $55C after
pleading guilty to driving while im
paired.

* *

Angus Thodeson was fined $400
for possession of a dead wild animal
without a license or permit. Lynn
Thodeson was also fined $400 for the
same offense.

. +

Dwight Hagan was fined a total of

$150 for three speeding offences
8

Daryl Pongracz was fined $100
after pleading guilty to driving
without due care and attention.

* .

James Waddington received three
months suspended sentence proba
tion with conditions after pleading
guilty to failing to comply with a
probation order.

hy.
December 11, 1988 Castlégar

Briefly

Soviets promote Kravchenko

MOSCOW (REUTER) — Leonid Kravchenko, first deputy
chairman of the state television and radio committee for the past
three year: been appointed director general of the official news
agency Tass, the agency said.

Kraychenko, 50, was editor-in-chief of the building industry
newspaper Stroitelnaya Gazeta from 1975 to 1980 and later of the
trade union daily Trud, Tass said.

He replaces Sergei Losev, who died in October.

Pollution killing Chinese

BEIJING (AP) — Air and water pollution has given Shanghai the
highest death rate from cancer in a, a researcher said.

The annual cancer mortality rate in Shanghai is more than two
per thousand males and 1.4 per thousand females, comparable to
London and Los Angeles, said Gao’ Yutang of the Shanghai Tumor
Rsearch Institute.

The official People’s Daily, which published the findings, blamed
pollution for 80 per cent of the deaths and cited lack of zoning
restrictions, permitting construction of air-polluting factories in
residential areas.

Prayer law challenged

WINNIPEG (CP) — A law requiring daily Christian prayers in
publie schools in Manitoba is being challenged by the Manitob:
Association of Rights and Liberties.

In a statement of claim, the association asked Manitoba Court of
Queen's Bench to stike down the 98-year-old section of the Manitoba
Schools Act. No date has been set for a hearing.

The suit claims a teacher in a Winnipeg school division
discriminated against students in a Jewish family by holding morning
Christian exercises.

Demonstrators killed

BEIJING (CP) — Chinese forces opened fire on demonstrators in
the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, killing two people as well as wounding
several others and a western tourist, said reports received in Beijing.

Tourists contacted at two Lhasa hotels told The Associated Press
that Chinese troops fired on Tibetan demonstrators, wounding the
tourist and apparently killing two protesters.

At least two other protesters were injured in the demonstration,
which commemorated the 40th anniversary of the UN Declaration of
Human Rights, said the tourists and a worker contacted by phone at
another Lhasa hotel.

NDP reduces staff

TORONTO (CP) — The Ontario New Democratic Party may
have to lay off staff to reduce its $1.8 million debt, the party's
provincial secretary says.

This weekend, the.NDP's executive and its provincial council will
consider a proposal that calls for eliminating the debt as quickly as
possible, Brian Harling said.

Sixteen full-time employees could be affected by “some potential
layoffs or attrition,” he said. “We're going to try to be as fiscally
conservative as possible.”

In the past year, the Ontario New Democrats have seen their
party debt triple from $600,000 to $1.8 million. The party has an
annual income of about $3 million, Harling said.

Ferry passenger missing

VANCOUVER (CP) — Search and rescue personnel combed the
Active Pass area of the Strait of Georgia after a man was reported
missing from a B.C. ferry.

Wayne Henry Seibert apparently disappeared after boarding the
7 p.m. sailing Friday from Tsawwassen on the mainland to Swartz
Bay, north of Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Officials say he may have fallen from the ferry in Active Pass, a
narrow body of water in the Gulf Islands.

A Canadian coast guard cutter, two auxiliary boats and a
helicopter from CFB Comox were used in the search

UBC student safe

VANCOUVER (CP) — Wlitsa Rokans can't wait to see her son
Jimmy, who she hopes will return home by Monday.

The 19-year-old student from University of British Columbia
disappeared Nov. 29, but was found safe Friday in Toronto after an
intense police investigation.

“i've been waiting for so long,” said his mother, who stayed up
around the clock for the last nine days. “I'm very happy.”

“I waited all the time for the phone to ring or the doorbell, day
and night. I'd go to bed but I couldn't close my eyes.”

She said Jimmy, a first-year science student, was alone and
staying in a Toronto hotel that she refused to identify.

Border fighting continues

N'DJAMENA REUTER) — Chad said that 100 people were
killed in fighting between government soldiers and pro-Libyan forces
near the country’s border with Sudan.

A communique said 92 men from the so-called Islamic Legion
were killed in Thursday's fighting in Goz-Beida, 120 kilometres west
of the Sudanese border.

It said Chad, which signed a ceasefire with Libya last year in
their border war, lost eight men.

Fire destroys homes

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gov. George Deukmejian has declared a
state of emergency in Los Angeles County, where flames fanned by
Santa Ana “devil winds” destroyed at least 37 homes and burned
more than 1,360 hectares.

“It was hitting so fast I thought my hair would catch fire, my
clothing would catch fire,” said Jane Cody, 41, whose house escaped
damage from a wildfire that destroyed 15 homes in the fashionable
suburb of Porter Ranch Friday as winds gusted to 112 kilometres an
hour on the brushy hillside.

Santa Ana winds have calmed and firefighters had the blaze
more than half surrounded.

Hecklers' charges dropped

NANAIMO (CP) — Three hecklers tossed out of a Progressive
Conservative rally in this Vancouver Island city during an election
campaign visit by Prime Minister Mulroney will not be charged.

sf s

RIGHTS ANNIVERSARY ... . Former Castlegar Ald. Len Embree (left)
addresses a crowd in downtown Castlegar Saturday who gathered to
commemorate the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. An ad hoc committee of various local
human rights and church groups, including the newly formed United

Nations Association, organized
Embree and other speakers, th:
library where they placed t
declaration

the observance. After hearing
e group walked to the Castlegar
heir signs commemorating the

CosNewsPhot

Walesa praises reforms

PARIS (AP) — Poland's Nobel
laureate Lech Walesa praised re.
forms under way in the Soviet Union
and told Soviet dissident Andrei
Sakharov the changes would be good
for both countries, a Walesa aide
said.

The Nobel Peace Prize winners
met for the first time before cere-
monies got under way marking the
40th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.

“Walesa spoke of the (human
rights) problems in Poland,” Bron-
islaw Gemerek told reporters. “Sak
harov spoke of the (human rights)
problems in the Soviet Union, and
Walesa said he thinks perestroika is
a good program for both countries.”

Perestroika refers to Soviet Presi
dent Mikhail Gorbachev's economic
and social restructuring

Gemerek is travelling with
Walesa, the leader of Poland's
banned Solidarity trade union move-
ment. He said the meeting lasted 45.
minutes.

The two men later met separately
with French Prime Minister Michel
Rocard and then posed together with
Rocard.

“To be simultaneously in the
presence of Walesa and Sakharov
means we are among the most cour.
ageous activists for human rights,”
Rocard said.

U.N. troops
awarded
peace prize

OSLO (AP) — UN Secretary
General Javier Perez de Cuellar,
accompanied by blue-bereted soldi
ers including a Canadian, accepted
the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize today on
behalf of United Nations peace-
keeping troops but warned that their
mission is threatened because some
countries, mainly the United States,
have not paid their dues.

“Peacekeeping uses soldiers as
servants of peace rather than as the
instruments of war,” Perez de
Cuellar said. “It introduces to the
military sphere the principle of
non-violence.”

His hands appeared to shake with
emotion as he received the gold
medal and prize certificate from Egil
Aarvik, chairman of the Nobel
Committee. Aarvik noted that it was
the first time in the prize’s 87-year
history it was awarded to military
forces.

Representing Canada’s contribu.
tion to the UN peacekeeping effort
was Cpl. Jeffrey Burton Docksey of
Calgary and Ottawa, a 26-year-old
member of the Canadian Forces Lord
Strathcona's Horse Regiment.

Docksey, now serving a six-month
stint with UN peacekeepers in Cyp.
rus, was one of 17 UN soldiers who
served in the honor guard for Perez
de Cuellar at the Nobel ceremony in
Oslo, Norway's capital. He stood wit
the others at one side of the rostrum
during the ceremony.

The UN peacekeeping forces were
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last

Crown Council Bob Gillen said he has d all the di
and the case is closed.

Police at the Nov. 2 rally removed the three — two men and a
woman — and detailed them, saying they posed a potential threat to
Mulroney's security.

The three anti-nuclear protestors have since launched their own
civil suit. They are suing the provincial Attorney General and some
Tory organizers, claiming unlawful arrest and imprisonment.

ptember for their work in deman.
ding and hazardous war zone around
the world. More than 80,000 Cana.
dians have served as peacekeepers in
India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Korea and
the Middle East since the first force
was set up in the late 1940s. Cana-
dians are part of the UN force
patrolling the Iran-Iraq warfront.

Sakharov and Walesa were among
the dignitaries and activists who
gathered in Paris for ceremonies
marking the 1948 global pledge to
protect human rights. President
Francois Mitterrand and UN Secre
tary General Javier Perez de Cuellar
were among the scheduled speakers.
WON PRIZE

The Paris trip was the first time
Walesa has been allowed to leave
Poland since martial law was de
clared in 1981. He won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1983.

Sakharov, who won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1975, came to Paris
after a four-week visit to the United
States.

At a 90-minute news conference at
the Soviet Embassy on Friday, Sak
harov called for more steps to reduce
the size of the Soviet military. He
said one way to do this would be to
limit the length of service for Soviet
draftees.

He said Gorbachev's plans to cut
the Red Army by 500,000 troops, or
about 10 per cent, and withdraw
thousands of tanks and troops from
eastern Europe is only a beginning.

Sakharov said reductions in man
power and weapons “can be done and
will change in a major way the inter.
national situation.

“Gorbachev is going in this direc.
tion and this is very important,”
Sakharov said. “I would have liked to
see bigger cuts but what was done is
important.”

As developer of the Soviet hydro-

gen bomb, Sakharov previously was
barred from travelling abroad be.
cause Moscow said his scientific work
gave him knowledge of state secrets.

He was also restricted to the
closed city of Gorky for seven years
because of his oytspoken opposition
to Soviet military intervention in Af.
ghanistan.

But in 1986, Gorbachev personally
called him back to Moscow. Since

U.S. hop
reforms

NEW YORK (REUTER) — Pres.
ident Ronald Reagan and president
elect George Bush assured Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev during
their lunch meeting that the West
wants to see his economic reforms
succeed, the New York Times
reported today.

Citing unnamed Reagan adminis
tration officials, the newspaper said
Gorbachev expressed concern that
some in the West wished his policy of
economic restructuring, or peres-
troika, to fail in order to keep the
Soviet Union mired in economic
difficulty.

Gorbachev also suggested that
ethnic unrest in Armenia and Azer.
baijan, in which at least 31 people
have died over the last two weeks,
was due in part to bureaucratic
opposition to perestroika.

then, Sakharov has generally sup
ported Gorbachev's perestroika, or
political and economic restructuring.
SAFEGUARD LIFE

The University Declaration of
Human Rights, adopted by the UN
General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948,
is the basic document under which
member countries pledge to safe-
guard life and liberty and abolish
torture and slavery.

es Soviet
succeed

These points were part of a broad
philosophical discussion that touched
on Soviet reforms, bureaucratic
resistance to perestroika and the
need for continuity in U.S.-Soviet
relations, the newspaper said.

The lunch meeting, held at New
York's Governor's Island on Wed.
nesday, followed Gorbachev's
address to the United Nations. His
announcement to the world body of
sweeping cuts in Soviet conventional
forces, however, was not discussed
during the meeting, the newspaper
said.

It said Gorbachev stressed the
importance of completing a treaty to
reduce long-range nuclear weapons
and agreed with Reagan on the need
for a complete ban on chemical
weapons worldwide.

Gorbachev surveys damage
in quake-torn Armenia

YEREVAN, USSR (CP) —

trapped in rubble and half a million

Rescue workers climbed over piles of rubble from
shattered buildings, listening for voices from trapped
people. Soviet officials said the stricken area looked like

a war zone.

In Yerevan, the Armenian capital which escaped
the major force of the quake, visitors heard the constant
buzzing of helicopters travelling to and from the
disaster area some 80 kilometres northwest with dead

and wounded.

A small group of foreign reporters, the first
allowed into Armenia since Wednesday's earthquake,
saw roads around Yerevan's Zvarnots airport clogged
Fog slowed emergency airlifts of
supplies from throughout the Soviet Union and abroad.

with relief vehicles.

Soviet
Mikhail Gorbachev consoled survivors and consulted
with rescuers Saturday as he viewed damage from an
earthquake in the Soviet republic of Armenia that left
tens of thousands of people dead, countless others

President As in other

Soviet televi:

homeless

them the disaste:

foreign countries, official and private

efforts to aid the Armenians were under way iri Canada.
GORBACHEV TOURS AREA

sion reported that Gorbachev, touring

the earthquake-stricken city of Leninakan, was met by
crowds of weeping women and men shouting for more
equipment to save survivors.

Gorbachev, pressed by hundreds of people, told

r in Soviet Armenia was “immeasur

able,” adding he could not describe the suffering he had

seen

“It is impossible to express in words what you see
here in Leninakan, which has suffered greatly,” he

said, according to the television report

As the Krem
80-per-cent destre

lin chief visited Leninakan, which was
oyed, the Soviet government released

its first authoritative estimate of the number of people
killed in Wednesday's earthquake, which was measured
at 6.9 on the Richter scale.

Soviet Armenia

said.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced that
Canada will set aside $500,000 Cdn for survivors of
Wednesday's earthquake. The fund will be made

ble to international disaster relief organiza
tions such as the United Nations or the
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva, he

Mulroney said more money may come later and
that Canada will provide aircraft to help move
supplies to areas hit by the quake. He said Canadian
officials were talking to their Soviet counterparts to

Canada helps victims

By CP-AP-REUTERS

Canada joined countries around the world in an
outpouring of sympathy for the Soviet Union after an
earthquake that may have killed more than 100,000
people and made hundreds of thousands homeless in

determine what
provide.
The Canadi.

Thursday

The Soviet Red Cross has said its most pressing

needs are anti

League of
own

Agency offered $50,000 Cdn in emergency relief

blood-collection containers, blood substitutes, surgi
cal thread and food concentrates.

other assistance Canada can

ian International Development

biotics, syringes and needles,

Canada's Armenian community has begun its
relief efforts,

collecting medicine, winter

clothing and money.

Canada to Soviet
I's Mirabel A:

Moscow is providing twe cargo planes from

Armenia. One is to leave Mon
irport on Sunday, and the other

cmeeanenn