The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. On the NewsHour tonight a Newsmaker interview with President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea; a Kwame Holman report on the highway bill President Clinton signed today; a look at the new regime in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation; and a Richard Rodriguez essay on speaking American. It all follows our summary of the news this Tuesday. % ? NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea received a formal welcome to the White House today. He's in Washington for talks with President Clinton on issues ranging from Asia's economy to relations with Communist North Korea. It was his first state visit to the U.S.. He had been a political dissident before being elected president last December. At a joint news conference this afternoon Kim said easing U.S. sanctions on North Korea might also ease tensions between North and South. Mr. Clinton said he wanted to see how the North replied to overtures from the South before taking such action. We'll have a Newsmaker interview with President Kim right after this News Summary. Later in the day Mr. Clinton signed into law the big highway bill known as ISTEA. It spends $203 billion over six years on roads, bridges, and mass transportation projects. Congress passed it last month. We'll have more on the program later in the program tonight. President Clinton's friend, Vernon Jordan, was back before Kenneth Starr's grand jury in Washington today. He said his story has not changed since he first testified in March in the Monica Lewinsky investigation.

VERNON JORDAN: I said that I helped Ms. Lewinsky get a lawyer; I helped her get a job; I had assurances that there was no sexual relationship. And I did not tell her to lie. That was the truth then, and that is the truth today, and I have testified five times over and over again to those truths.

JIM LEHRER: In the Senate today supporters of the tobacco bill failed to cut off debate. The vote was 56 to 42. Sixty votes were needed to stop the talk and force a final vote. Senators in favor of the bill said more efforts will be made tomorrow and Thursday. The legislation seeks, in part, to limit cigarette advertising, increase the price of a pack of cigarettes, and give the federal government new powers to regulate nicotine. At a White House news conference Mr. Clinton said there had been some positive steps today.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: It's my information-yours may be more up to date than mine-but I did talk to Senator Lott and Senator Daschle this afternoon, and we are working hard to get this thing back on track and get into a position where a good comprehensive bill can pass the Senate. And as of just a few minutes before I came over here I think there may be some developments this afternoon and this evening, which will make that possible. And so I'm just going to hang on and hope for the best and keep working at this.

JIM LEHRER: There were still four people missing today after an explosion ripped apart a grain elevator in Haysville, Kansas, south of Wichita. The blast yesterday killed two people, injured eleven others. The fire chief said the cause is yet to be determined. The explosion left a hole in the elevator and tore through other sections of an attached building. Five General Motors assembly plants were closed today because of parts shortages. Fifteen thousand workers were affected. It began Friday with a strike over work rules and job security at a Flint, Michigan parts facility. Today's plant closings were in Michigan, as well as Kansas, Ohio, and Ontario, Canada. Nigeria has a new leader today. The government of Africa's largest nation will be run by another army general. Abdulsalam Abubakar is the eighth military man to take control of the country. He was selected by top army officers last night, following the death yesterday of Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria for five years. Abubakar, a career officer, has never held political office. The U.S., Britain, and France urged him to make a quick transition to democracy. We'll have more on the story later in the program. The border feud between Ethiopia and Eritrea turned into combat today. Both sides accused each other of starting the violence. Heavy shelling, mortar and tank fire have been reported. There were no confirmed reports of casualties. Hundreds of people flocked to airports to escape the battle, Americans, Italians, and Egyptians, among them. Neighboring African nations, the U.S., and the United Nations called for a cease-fire. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to the president of South Korea; the new highway law; the Nigeria story; and a Richard Rodriguez essay. % ? NEWSMAKER

JIM LEHRER: A Newsmaker interview with Kim Dae Jung, the president of South Korea. First, some background from Charles Krause.

CHARLES KRAUSE: The inauguration of Kim Dae Jung as president of South Korea last February marked an historic transfer of power for the first time in the country's 50-year history. A candidate won who opposed South Korea's ruling conservative groups. A well-known dissident, Kim Dae Jung had been kidnapped, imprisoned, and exiled for his opposition to military rule and his support of democracy. In his acceptance speech, he promised political and economic reform.

KIM DAE JUNG: [speaking through interpreter] The historic significance of today's inaugural ceremony is great. Today is a proud day when a democratic transition of power is taking place on this soil for the first time. Moreover, it is a historic day when a government is being born that embraces both democracy and the economy as the nation's goals.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Kim's election came at a time of severe economic crisis in South Korea. The industrial powerhouse suddenly had to deal with a falling currency, and some of its big conglomerates and banks going bankrupt. In return for a $58 billion bailout, the International Monetary Fund demanded economic reforms, including measures that resulted in the layoff of workers. Two weeks ago thousands of South Koreans took to the streets in protest. It wasn't the first time that the president has faced a difficult situation. Born into modest circumstances nearly 73 years ago, when Korea was still under Japanese rule, Kim started a shipping company as a young man, which quickly made him a fortune. He entered politics in the 1950's as an opposition figure. After ten years in the national assembly, Kim ran for president in 1971. His passionate speeches made him a popular candidate, and he narrowly lost the election. A few years later, Kim was kidnapped by South Korean intelligence police while he was staying in Japan. He was put on a ship and--by his account--tied to concrete weights in preparation for being thrown overboard. He was released after behind-the-scenes intervention by the U.S. Government and, in particular, the CIA. In 1981 the new military government arrested Kim and sentenced him to death for alleged subversive political activities. The Carter and Reagan administrations, as well as human rights groups, protested. And Kim's death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. Kim was eventually exiled to the United States. He received a fellowship to Harvard, spoke out for democracy to Korean communities around the United States, and wrote a book about the Korean economy. Kim returned to South Korea in 1985, and was put under immediate house arrest, which continued off and on until 1987. That year he again ran for the presidency and, again, he lost. In 1992 Kim ran for the presidency for the third time, losing to Kim Young Sam, and announced he was retiring from politics. But three years later he was back leading a newly created opposition party, and on his fourth try for the presidency in 1997, he won.

JIM LEHRER: And I spoke with President Kim last night at Blair House in Washington. The opening subject was North Korea and his view about helping the moderates against the hard-liners there with a more flexible policy. He said it was a closed-door country but not on the verge of collapse.

JIM LEHRER: Mr. President, welcome. You have suggested that the United States consider lifting sanctions against North Korea. Why?

KIM DAE JUNG, President, South Korea: Well, that is very imperative to let North Korea open door to outside. As far as I know, there is two groups in the North, hard-liners and the moderate. So moderate is insisting that North Korea should open door to outside. Otherwise there will be no hope for North Korea in the future, but at this stage hard-liner is stronger than the moderate. So such a sanction gives a good excuse for hard-liners to maintain present isolation. And also, as you see, when we take up the Soviet Union case, and the China case, and the Vietnam case, America has maintained a, you know, flexible policy, backed by a strong security posture. So such a flexible policy made those countries open door, and finally America succeeded. So I think if we, you know, develop such a flexible policy, then there is much possibility that we can make North Korea open door, and in Korea our government is now, you know, implementing such a policy. There is some sign that North Korea is changing recently. There is ongoing successful negotiation to have a military talk to Pan Mung Yung, which has been stopped for seven years. And also North Korea is now willing to allow Korean top businessmen to visit North Korea with 500 cows on the truck. So American, you know, American people may watch that scene through TV in the near future, this month. So that's why I am, you know, encouraging American government to be flexible to North Korea, together with us. But absolute condition is we must maintain a firm security posture against North Korea, any kind of possible operation.

JIM LEHRER: Do you believe that the sanctions should be lifted unilaterally, or should North Korea do something in exchange? In other words, lift the sanctions, North Korea, you do such-and-such, or just do it and see what happens.

KIM DAE JUNG: This problem of negotiation for the U.S., the U.S. can propose North Korea, we are ready to lift sanctions to such a degree, and then you can have a much more moderate attitude such as you should have dialogue with South Korea. Then we can have a further lifting of the sanctions, so that's a problem of negotiation.

JIM LEHRER: What is your own view of the North Korean people? Do you see them as the enemy, or do you see them as brothers and sisters who have gone wrong, or--help us understand how we should see North Korea based on how you see North Korea.

KIM DAE JUNG: Ethnically speaking, they are brothers. But as a communist, they are our enemy. We never allow, you know, communization of South Korea; we never allow any little aggression by North Korea to us in South Korea.

JIM LEHRER: In your dream world, do you see North and South Korea coming together again? Is that your goal?

KIM DAE JUNG: Well, at this stage, you know, unification is not my government's goal. To realize peace on the Korean peninsula, and to develop exchange, cooperation between both Koreas, they are the, you know, immediate target of our government. Unification is not our present goal. That is a future program.

JIM LEHRER: Now what is your reading now about how serious the famine and other problems are in North Korea? Is the country close to collapse? What is your reading of that?

KIM DAE JUNG: It is a closed-door country. But as far as I know, there's no immediate sign, no sign of immediate collapse of North Korean regime. But North Korea is very much suffering from economic difficulties, especially shortage of food. So social order is very much, you know, wavering. So if North Korea continues present isolation, it then, with such economic difficulties, the North Korean government must meet a very serious situation in the future.

JIM LEHRER: You don't see it in your country's interest, then, for North Korea to collapse, in other words, to not help them-quite just the opposite; to help facilitate their collapse?

KIM DAE JUNG: I don't think so. Because such immediate collapse means we must take up North Korea. So we are not strong enough to, you know, feed North Korea. You know, North Korea, its situation is far worse than East Germany, and South Korea is weaker than West Germany. So South Korean ability is very much limited to handle North Korean, you know, difficulties. So we don't want to see an immediate collapse of North Korean regime.

JIM LEHRER: Do you still view North Korea as a military threat to South Korea?

KIM DAE JUNG: Yes. Yes, much. So we should prepare, together with, you know, the U.S. we should prepare to any kind of possible such military operation. That is very necessary.

JIM LEHRER: How important are those 37,000 American troops to the situation? Are they going to have to be there forever? When can they come home, if ever?

KIM DAE JUNG: I think so, because you know Northeast Asia is becoming a very important, you know, region economically, militarily, and politically. And I think American international interest rests much there. So such an American troops presence in Korea in the South and Japan, total some 100,000 should stay there forever, even after unification of Korean peninsula. American presence is, you know, the major cause of balance of power and the stability in this region. You know, even collapse of Soviet Union and East European countries, America still maintains, you know, military in Europe to maintain stability and power. Likewise, this Northeast Asia better needs a presence of American troops for a long time.

JIM LEHRER: Even if there was peace between North and South Korea, even if there was reunification, you think the U.S. should still have a presence in Korea?

KIM DAE JUNG: Unification is one thing, and, you know, stability in Northeast Asia is another thing. If America would withdraw from South Korea, there could be a power struggle between such as China and Japan. That's a problem. I think that will also greatly damage American national interest. So for mutual interest, I do want American presence in this region.

JIM LEHRER: Have the nuclear tests by Pakistan and India affected the North Korean situation, the North Korean nuclear situation, from your perspective, from the South Korean perspective?

KIM DAE JUNG: Well, there may be a psychological influence of North Korea, but North Korea can hardly, you know, commit the production of a nuclear weapon, unlike, you know, Pakistan or India, because North Korea knows our determination, you know, by the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, our determinations are so strong, if North Korea, you know, started to have such a nuclear weapon, then North Korea must meet the serious, you know, reaction from our side. And also, we are providing, you know, a nuclear power plant in the North to light-water system to some $4 billion or $5 billion we are providing to meet with North Korean requests on the condition North Korea will not produce a nuclear weapon. So I don't think North Korea can immediately take any, you know, measure to produce a nuclear weapon. It is impossible for North Korea.

JIM LEHRER: Your economy--we'll talk about the South Korean economy--that's one of the purposes of your trip here, in fact, is to--give us your assessment of where you are. Do you still consider it to be in a state of crisis?

KIM DAE JUNG: Well, I don't deny there is some possibility of a crisis. But, you know, foreign exchange crisis has been much reduced. But there is a problem of unemployment--some 6.7 percent, 1.5 million unemployment problem. So now we are pushing economic reform, bank reform, and, you know, enterprise reform. So we can finish that reform this year, in September or October. Then our economy may be much more, you know, normalized.

JIM LEHRER: Mr. President, what would you say to Americans in Congress and elsewhere who are seriously questioning whether or not the U.S. has a vital interest through the IMF, through the International Monetary Fund, helping South Korea and other Asian nations pull out of this crisis? What would you say to the average American--why their money should be at risk to help you and your country?

KIM DAE JUNG: Such Asian economic situation is directly linked to American economy, and also IMF has made a good law, a political role in Korea, because it has very much encouraged South Korean government to practice, you know, market economy from the past also authoritarian economic system, unfair economic system. So I think we are now pushing economic reform--but there is a distance from, you know, western rights groups. But such IMF pressure is very much helpful for me to push such a, you know, reform. So in this sense I think IMF is very much, you know, helpful for Asian society. I think a major cause of present Asian economic difficulties mainly come from, you know, lack of market economy. So IMF is, you know, absolute condition needed to produce a market economy. So in this sense IM-I think IMF is helpful.

JIM LEHRER: Mr. President, finally, a personal question; you are now the president of your country. You were a dissident; you were imprisoned; you were harassed; you were almost killed by the government that you now run. Are you comfortable in this position now?

KIM DAE JUNG: Yes, I wanted to become president because I had, you know, a plan and ambition to practice, you know, good politics. But when I was elected, there's such a financial crisis out of my expectation, so I am now, you know, suffering from such difficult conditions. ButI really believe I can manage this situation. And if we succeed this year to realize reform in various fields, then from next year there ought to be some hope for our country.

JIM LEHRER: A lot of Americans compare you with Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa. Do you have a model or a hero or somebody that you are trying to pattern your life now as president after?

KIM DAE JUNG: I don't know. And I don't think I can be compared with such-Mandela--a great leader--but I have a strong determination that democracy and market economy should be implemented together. So in Asia I want to make-I want to succeed to make a model of success, practicing democracy, and market economy. Then that will give a good influence over Asian countries. That is my ambition.

JIM LEHRER: Mr. President, thank you very much.

KIM DAE JUNG: You're welcome. % ? UPDATE - HIGHWAY PORK?

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, the transportation bill, changes in Nigeria, and a Richard Rodriguez essay.

JIM LEHRER: Kwame Holman has the story of a project in the transportation bill signed today by the president.

KWAME HOLMAN: The new six year, $200 billion highway bill includes some 1800 specific projects members of Congress selected themselves. Critics say the $9 billion setaside for those projects amount to nothing more than wasteful pork barrel spending. But West Virginia Democrat Nick Rahall, for one, disagrees.

REP. NICK RAHALL, [D] West Virginia: We're there every weekend. We're on the front lines of our districts. We know the needs of people in pockets of our district that perhaps a governor or state legislature might not fully be able to see.

KWAME HOLMAN: Giving members the opportunity to hand pick projects for their district is the way House Transportation Chairman Bud Shuster chose to write a small portion of this highway bill, the most expensive ever. Critics charged Shuster offered the project in order to get votes for his bill, while members got something to take home to their constituents.

TOM SCHATZ, Citizens Against Government Waste: It's to get their name on a particular project. It's to get credit for bringing home the bacon, for--

KWAME HOLMAN: Tom Schatz is president of the budget watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste.

TOM SCHATZ: These are very local projects that have very little national significance and are put there because the members of Congress on the committee are able to do so, or the chairman is able to convince other members to vote for the bill in exchange for the projects.

KWAME HOLMAN: In fact, Oklahoma Republican Steve Largent, a critic of the heavy highway bill spending, said he was offered money for a project in his home district but refused it.

REP. STEVE LARGENT, [R] Oklahoma: Our office was approached and offered $15 million for projects in Tulsa, and I told them my vote was not for sale. They were not-it was not an offer for specific projects. It was just $15 million dangling, cash, for projects for the First Congressional district.

KWAME HOLMAN: Nick Rahall is the top Democrat on the Surface Transportation Subcommittee, which had to give initial approval to the long list of projects members selected. Rahall, himself, returned home to West Virginia with one of the biggest highway projects of them all, $50 million to begin work on 12 miles of road between the towns of Logan and Man in his Southern West Virginia district.

KWAME HOLMAN: Is this what constituent service is all about?

REP. NICK RAHALL: Yes. I would say this is not something I just picked out of the air and decided is what is good for the people in my district. This is a voice of the people in this area being heard as well. It is grassroots politics.

KWAME HOLMAN: Logan, West Virginia has a population of 2100. The town of Man, at the southern end of the proposed 12-mile project, has 900 people. In-between are a half dozen smaller communities that seldom show up on a map. They're all connected by Route 10, a winding, two-lane road built around the turn of the century on the only space left after the coal-carrying railroad was built on the valley floor. So Route 10 runs along and often 200 feet above Gyandotte River on one side and sheer rocky cliffs on the other. Road signs prepare motorists for the problems ahead, and anyone leaving the town of Man is given fair warning.

DAVE CLEVENGER, West Virginia Department of Transportation: Some of the areas, as you see behind me, there's a railroad crossing, there's some bad curves, deficient curves.

KWAME HOLMAN: Just outside Logan we talked with Dave Clevenger, an engineer with the West Virginia Department of Transportation. It wasn't long before we saw firsthand how precarious driving Route 10 can be.

KWAME HOLMAN: Whoa-now, that's some serious negotiation that driver has to do, right?

DAVE CLEVENGER: Wait till you see down on the other end.

KWAME HOLMAN: And so we rode to the other end with Logan County Deputy Sheriff David Lee Belcher. Counting his 13 years with the state police, Belcher has controlled Route 10 for nearly 20 years.

DAVID LEE BELCHER, Deputy Sheriff, Logan County: There's not very many minor accidents on that stretch of road. Normally when you get a call on an accident, it's a pretty bad accident.

KWAME HOLMAN: Belcher says in the last three years there have been more than 200 accidents along the stretch of Route 10, causing almost as many injuries. Three people have died.

DAVID LEE BELCHER: You can see the rocks hanging on your left side here, and these rocks in this type of weather where we had a lot of rain--you just never know when that tree right there is going to come off the edge of that rock cliff, or a rock is going to fall down on this road. And when a rock falls down on this road, we don't have any reaction time. Our drivers just don't have any place to go to. And this area here, you can see where the guardrail's been installed, if you look right over to your right, if you look how far down it is, we're probably talking 200 feet straight down the mountain.

KWAME HOLMAN: Very narrow.

DAVID LEE BELCHER: It's extremely narrow. It's extremely dangerous, because we have school buses that travel this road daily, as you just encountered the large truck that we just met through this particular area. There's just no place for anyone to go, when they have two vehicles meet in that particular section of highway.

KWAME HOLMAN: And there's another danger along Route 10 that's hidden from drivers almost until it reaches them. There are four railroad crossings along this stretch of Route 10. All of them provide signal and bell warnings but none is equipped with a crossing barrier. Robert Grimmett owns a small produce stand that sits along a narrow strip of land separating the railroad tracks from Route 10. He and customer Clyde Jude agree Route 10 needs to be replaced.

CLYDE JUDE: It's just following in to the railroad track down up there-it's bad-really bad.

KWAME HOLMAN: And both men say tax revenues that flow to Washington from the coal mined in these mountains over the years should more than compensate for the new road.

ROBERT GRIMMETT: They're still running the coal. Where's all the taxes going to? They're still running the coal. They ain't puttin' it back on the road.

CLYDE JUDE: Sending it to these other counties, building other roads and four lanes in other places, what a politician can get backwards and forwards to their job, that's--

KWAME HOLMAN: So you feel like you paid your dues? And maybe you deserve--

CLYDE JUDE: We've been shafted. That's definite.

ROBERT GRIMMETT: Shorted, I believe.

KWAME HOLMAN: It was in the town of Man, at the southern end of the 12-mile stretch, that a community-wide movement was launched last September to replace old Route 10 with a new four-lane highway. A town meeting drew 2300 people to the high school gymnasium, a crowd nearly three times the town's population.

THOMAS ESPOSITO, Mayor of Logan: The city of Logan supports the completion of the Man to Logan Route 10 southern road.

KWAME HOLMAN: Effort to replace Route 10 has built momentum ever since.

REV. BERNARD COOKE, Route 10 Organizer: This is the American way-a small town, a small group of people getting concerned about their community, raising up as one voice.

KWAME HOLMAN: Rev. Bernard, pastor of Man's Church of God, and social worker Mike Pollard the local organizers of the Route 10 effort. They say a new road would give life to an area that's grown economically depressed and seen many of its young people move away as a result.

MIKE POLLARD, Route 10 Organizer: We don't want our kids to have to think that they've got to leave out of Logan County and West Virginia, go to the city to get a good job, drive good roads. We don't want to feel like we're second-class citizens the rest of our life.

REV. BERNARD COOKE: People in this area have been suppressed. Coal mining families years ago were almost in slavery to these coal companies. And it's kind of like they've been suppressed all these years. And now we just-we just come together and stood up, and we want to be heard.

KWAME HOLMAN: And they were heard in Washington by their Congressman, Nick Rahall.

REP. NICK RAHALL: They have been able to at the grassroots level transfer their desire for a highway and have their voices heard in our nation's capital, and I am their spokesperson.

KWAME HOLMAN: Budget watchdog Tom Schatz says he sympathizes with the people who drive Route 10, but he insists it's a local problem.

TOM SCHATZ: It's one thing to say we need the money to do this. It's another thing to say we also want to get money from the taxpayers in California, Texas, New York, and Michigan to fund our local little project, because that's really what you're talking about.

KWAME HOLMAN: But the $50million written into the highway bill for Route 10 will only begin to do the job. West Virginia Transportation Engineer Dave Clevenger says each of the designs being considered to replace Route 10 will cost more than $300 million to complete.

DAVE CLEVENGER: The reason we're looking at such a high cost per mile in this area is because of the terrain. We're having to hang the roadway pretty much, more or less, on the hillside. We deal with a lot of mountaintops, a lot of valleys. We're also going to have a number of bridges.

KWAME HOLMAN: Most of that additional money also will come from the federal government, allocated over the next several years. The money will be taken out of West Virginia's share of federal gas tax revenues. In the meantime, residents of Logan and Man and the people who live in-between are upbeat, believing their grassroots lobbying efforts have paid off.

MIKE POLLARD: We're going to get that road-Route 10-and our kids are going to feel like, hey, mom and daddy did something to better our future, because we feel like that we're on-driving on a two-lane road, old, decrepit, falling down-

REV. BERNARD COOKE: Goat path.

MIKE POLLARD: Going into a four-lane century. % ? FOCUS - NEW REGIME

JIM LEHRER: Now the Nigeria story and to Elizabeth Farnsworth.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Nigeria's new leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, took the oath of office early today.

GENERAL ABDUSALAM ABUBKAR: I, Abdulsalam Abubakar, do solemnly swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria-

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The swearing in came just hours after the body of military dictator General Sani Abacha was removed from his residence and flown to his birthplace in the North for burial. Abacha died suddenly yesterday-military leaders said of a heart attack--at age 54. Abubakar is the nation's eighth military head of state since gaining independence from Britain in 1960. About twice the size of California, Nigeria is the African continent's most populous country, with more than 100 million people. It is also potentially one of the richest because of extensive oil reserves. But tribal and religious divisions and government corruption have produced great instability during Nigeria's 38 years of independence; and oil wealth has largely gone to the few at the top, not the many at the bottom. In recent years, Nigeria, which is one of the world's largest oil producers, has had to import refined fuels. Two hundred and fifty different ethnic groups, including the Ibo of Biafra, the Hausa and Yoruba, compete for political dominance. The North is mostly Muslim, the South--Christian. Sani Abacha and fellow generals seized power in 1993, annulling the results of presidential elections widely considered the most democratic in Nigeria's history. The businessman who won those elections, Moshood Abiola, has been in prison ever since; and some Nigerians are now calling for him to be released and allowed to rule the country. Abacha's five-year regime was repeatedly criticized by human rights groups and by leaders like South Africa's Nelson Mandela for extreme violations of people's rights. In 1995, Abacha ordered the public hanging of Nobel Prize-winning author Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others who had protested environmental damages they said were caused by oil exploration. Saro-Wiwa adamantly denied the government's charges that the activists had murdered four men.

KEN SARO-WIWA, Author: There is no possibility whatsoever that I or Mossob could have ever planned any such action.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The executions prompted worldwide denunciations of the Abacha regime, and several nations, including the United States, temporarily recalled their ambassadors. The United States also halted most aid to Nigeria and barred its leaders from traveling to the United States. Yesterday in London Saro-Wiwa's son denounced the late dictator and called for change.

KEN WIWA: Abacha has been the worst in a long line of human rights abusers in Nigeria. The thinking has always been that every successive dictator is worse than the previous one, so one hopes that we don't get another dictator because he will have quite a record to better Abacha's appalling record.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Last March, Abacha welcomed Pope John Paul II to Nigeria. Thousands gathered at open-air Masses during the three-day visit to hear the Pontiff repeatedly call for tolerance and respect for human rights. The new leader, 55-year-old General Abubakar, is a former defense chief of staff but until now he has not played a major political role in Nigeria's government.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: A spokesman for the government said today it would stick to an Abacha promise to restore civilian rule by October 1st; but the country's main opposition group called for street protests Friday to reject the newly-appointed leader and press for genuine and more immediate democratic changes.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And for more we turn to Walter Carrington, U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria from November 1993 until October 1997. He's currently a resident fellow at Harvard University's WEB DuBoise Institute for Afro-American Research; and Adonis Hoffman, a lawyer and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, who has served as an adviser to the Abacha government. Thank you both for being with us. Ambassador Carrington, what do you know about the new leader? Is he likely to take Nigeria into some sort of democracy?

WALTER CARRINGTON, Former U.S. Ambassador, Nigeria: Well, the new leader, General Abubakar, is a professional soldier, one who is highly regarded and one who has not been involved in politics before and I think equally importantly has no record of venality-no record of being involved in corruption, which was a hallmark for many of the people in the Abacha government.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Ambassador Carrington, do you have any sense of how strong he is, what kind of political strength he has?

WALTER CARRINGTON: That's very difficult to tell right now. The question is whether or not the hard-liners around Abacha are going to be able to control the new head of state, or whether the new head of state, who I think if he were able to do what he would want to do, would move as quickly as possible to return the military to the barracks and turn government back to the civilians. But there is a real problem with the old Abacha hands and whether they will try to sabotage and undercut him.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So, Adonis Hoffman, do you agree with what exiled playwright, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Wooly Suyenka, said yesterday, that this was an incredible opportunity for Nigeria?

ADONIS HOFFMAN, World Policy Institute: Well, I think the sentiment is right on the mark. I would not characterize it the same way that Wooly Suyenka has. I think this is an opportunity for the United States to reach out to the Nigerian government. It's a time where the country has been in transition. This is a break in the action, so to speak, and it gives the United States pause to de-personalize a policy that has characterized our relations with Nigeria. Sani Abacha is no longer a part of the equation. Now the United States has a sterling opportunity to go in, urge this new government to re-energize the political process, to bring some integrity to the political parties, and to urge those parties to go back and come back with true candidates, who can contest on their own merits.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And, Adonis Hoffman, do you think that General Abubakar is-do you agree with Ambassador Carrington that he might be able to lead this process?

ADONIS HOFFMAN: It's unclear. One thing is clear about General Abubakar, and that is that he is clearly a military man. He has shown thus far no propensity for politics. He wants to-he views himself in the tradition of the Nigerian military, which has historically seen themselves as guardians of the Nigerian republic. They played that role in the early days in the 1960's, before the country was torn apart, and the Nigerian military, those elitists-elite military men see themselves really as custodians of national unity and of the preservation of the Nigerian nation.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Ambassador Carrington, with so many opposition leaders in prison or in exile, how strong is the opposition now? Tell us about the opposition.

WALTER CARRINGTON: Well, I think we may get an opportunity to see that in a few days. Friday is the fifth anniversary of June 12th, which is a very symbolic date in Nigeria for the opposition. That is the day that Moshood Abiola was elected president in 1993. And I think that the opposition-although so many of them are in jail, and so many of them have been harassed, is still, I think, rather vibrant. I would pick up on something that Adonis Hoffman said. I think it would be a mistake for the new head of state to base any transition to civilian rule on the current parties. I think the five political parties have all been created by the government. They represent no significant political trends in the country, as was shown by the recent parliamentary elections when nobody showed up. I think those parties ought to be left alone and allow the real opposition to have a chance to organize. I think that all the political prisoners need to be released. I think that Moshood Abiola has to be given a significant role in whatever kind of transition is to take place.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Ambassador Carrington, at this point is Abiola the key opposition figure?

WALTER CARRINGTON: Well, he is the key living opposition figure. The other great opposition figure, General Yoaduya, died in prison under rather mysterious circumstances. Moshood Abiola represents a very strong constituency, especially in the Southwest of the country.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Adonis Hoffman, do you believe this process will work itself out in the next weeks, or do you think that violence is almost inevitable? I noticed again-quoting the exiled playwright Soyenka-he said if there's not a quick return to democracy, there's going to be fighting, armed insurrection in Nigeria. Do you agree with that?

ADONIS HOFFMAN: Well, there have been plans all along prior to the death of Abacha by the Nigeria pro-democracy groups to stage a series of demonstrations, principally in and around the Legos area, so that is probably not going to change. We're going to see in the short-term those demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience going forward. I expect that the Nigeria military is probably going to come down fairly hard on them to maintain and contain that-maintain some order. Let me go back to the whole notion of the five parties and, you know, this opportunity-I agree that the five parties are not perfect, but we're dealing with some political realities in Nigeria and Ambassador Carrington knows those realities very well, he's an expert on the country. The realities are, unfortunately, Chief Abiola is not going to be released. With the death of Abacha, Abiola's fate is not-he's not in jeopardy of imminent death, but his departure from detention is not going to happen. It could have happened had Abacha been elected at some point and maybe a year from that point Abiola would have been released after that transition would have occurred. Those facts are no longer present. The reality is that there are five parties that have been sanctioned by the government. The process has not been perfect, but they're the only game in town, and now that Abacha's not the sole candidate of those five parties all opposition groups and the established political elite have an opportunity now to plug into a system that admittedly is not perfect, but it's the only thing that exists. If it's scrapped, as Ambassador Carrington suggests, then you're looking at a process that could extend well beyond another 12 months, perhaps 18 months into the future. And I don't think anybody wants that for this country.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Ambassador Carrington, the only game in town?

WALTER CARRINGTON: Well, it's certainly a rigged game, and I would not want anyone to sit down in such a game. I do not think it would take the kind of time that Adonis Hoffman talked about. All it would take would be for the new head of state to announce tomorrow that they will allow the opposition parties that had tried to register originally now to compete and to free all the political prisoners. If the scenario laid out by Adonis Hoffman is true that Moshood Abiola is not going to be released, then I think we are going to see real crisis in that country and there is nothing upon which the United States can negotiate with this government. It seems to me that the bottom line in terms of our talking with that government has to be the immediate release of the political prisoners. Otherwise, we are going to see the same thing we have seen in the past-military governments making promises that they don't keep-and we will see a process that will string out for who knows how long into the future.

ADONIS HOFFMAN: Prisoners have to be released, absolutely. But the fact of the matter is-and you know very well, Ambassador Carrington, that that's not going to happen overnight without some concessions on the part of the government and without some corresponding concessions on the part of the United States. Perhaps-

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Briefly, Mr. Hoffman, and I want to ask you both this question: What's at stake here? Is this the largest country, you know, the most populous in Africa? What's at stake if this doesn't work out peacefully?

ADONIS HOFFMAN: Well, clearly, the largest country in the region-in West Africa-in Africa-potential de-stabilization in the West Africa region. What's at stake really is $5 billion in American national interests, economic interests, but principally in the petroleum sector on large, vibrant, markets there for American goods and services a lot there, plus with Nigeria you have a scenario that could make Rwanda and Burundi pale in comparison. So this is a very important process, and it's very-it's important that the United States now engage in a way that it has not done so before.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Excuse me. We only have a minute. Let me just get Ambassador Carrington on what's at stake here.

WALTER CARRINGTON: Well, I would agree very much that that's at stake. The question is: How best can we avoid it? And it seems to me that if we continue the same kind of policy, trying an engagement on a process that is flawed and transparently a farce, then I think the country is going to continue its slide into chaos, a slide that we have seen it under for the four years of the Abacha regime.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Okay. Ambassador and Mr. Hoffman, thank you very much for being with us. % ? ESSAY - SPEAKING AMERICAN

JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, essayist Richard Rodriguez of the Pacific News Service on speaking American.

RICHARD RODRIGUEZ, Pacific News Service: Here in California the largest immigrant state in the union, the largest Hispanic state, we have been arguing lately about English. A few days ago Californians went to the polls and voted for Proposition 227, a ballot initiative that intends to end bilingual education. We argue about language when the unspoken issue, the question no one wants to raise is what does it mean to be an American, what does it mean to be an American now that so many people from so many parts of the world speak so many languages? Here in San Francisco you can vote in one of three languages. Everywhere there is linguistic chaos in neon, on billboards, writing on the wall the native cannot decipher. In the 1980's, in various cities and states across the country, many Americans voted to declare English the official language of the United States. On the other side Hispanic activists and many in the education establishment inclined toward the view that forcing an immigrant child too early toward English amounted to "sink or swim" pedagogy. The argument for both sides centered around "English." In truth, we Americans do not speak English. The British have been telling us that for centuries. After our rebellion from Britain, our accent began to change. It was as though those first Americans, like their cousin Australians, needed to assert independence by mispronunciation and heightened vowels. A century later there was no mistaking the voice of Huck Finn from Oliver Twist. African slaves also changed the language. They shouted it back to white America. They prayed the language, sang it, resounding it with inflections more African than European. And then the immigrants came. And the language grew as the country absorbed the newcomers. German words on the American tongue-19th century frankfurters, just as today there is sushi-and Scandinavian saunas-and French savoir-faire. Grandmother words: babushka. Grandfather slang: mensch. Until now there is no one in America who does not speak Yiddish by virtue of the American tongue, no one of us whose cadence has not been influenced by African slaves. There is no way to declare English the official language of the United States, because there are too many German words in our mouths. Alternately, the attempt to protect Hispanic children from the American tongue ignores the fact that there is so much Spanish in the American tongue already-hundreds of words. Here in the West, despite a long history of cultural antagonism between Mexico and America, between so-called Anglos and Hispanics, the Westerner in the 19th century spoke of arroyos and mesas and siestas. Our language proves it-America exists. America is not Mexico, nor is it England. But the millions of lives who came to this country left traces of their voices behind, shaped our accent, the rhythm of our laughter, and sorrow, the diction that grew every time a boat arrived at Ellis Island. Bilingual education-si or no? For me, it is more important to take my place proudly in a line with Lithuanian grandmothers and Vietnamese grandfathers to say with Walt Whitman, "I speak American." I'm Richard Rodriguez. % ? RECAP

JIM LEHRER: Again, the major stories of this Tuesday, President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea said ton the NewsHour the U.S. should join South Korea in a more flexible approach to North Korea, and President Clinton signed into law the $203 billion bill to improve roads, bridges, and mass transportation projects. We'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow even. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.