MonitoRadio Daily Program; [1993-11-15]

This is Monitor Radio, a worldwide broadcast service of the Christian Science Monitor. I'm David Brown and Boston coming up lawmakers line up at the last minute to board the NAFTA Badwagon or bail on the free trade deal. So what happens if NAFTA fails? A study of what one might call a Black Wednesday scenario. The flood five months on residents of the Midwest discover it's one thing to rebuild a house, quite another to regain a sense of home. It's a ghost. My past is there. I not only lost a physical setting, but I lost all of the things that were my memories. And the story of one who found home among the enemies, an Iraqi soldier who said goodbye to Baghdad, hello New Hampshire. Those stories and more coming up on Monitor Radio, first this news. From American Public Radio, I'm Kristen Browman at the Radio News Desk of the Christian Science Monitor, a senior aide to Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat has been shot and killed in South Lebanon. It's the sixth attack on

PLO official since a peace agreement with Israel was signed in September from PLO headquarters in Tunis Al -Framida reports. His killing is the latest in a series of attacks against leading PLO officials. A week ago, another starter official was wounded in a similar attack in Lebanon, while four senior Arafat supporters have been killed in these rarely occupied territories in the past few weeks. No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but suspicion has fallen on radical Palestinian factions opposed to the peace agreement signed with Israel in September. They have branded Arafat as a traitor warning that he would die for the treaty with Israel. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm asked to meet her in Tunis. Nine more U .S. lawmakers have announced their support for the North American Free Trade Agreement and four have come out against it. President

Bill Clinton is meeting with small groups of legislators today to press them for NAFTA's passage ahead of Wednesday's vote in the House of Representatives. The head of the so -called GAT World Trade Talks has issued a warning to the U .S. Congress. Speaking at a business conference in Britain, Peter Sutherland said if the House rejects NAFTA, it could jeopardize the entire future of world trade. From London, monitor radio Stephen Beard reports. Rejection of the North American Free Trade Agreement on NAFTA said Peter Sutherland would dash confidence that the U .S. can keep its free trade promises. It would be a victory for protectionist forces and would further jeopardize the chances of wrapping up the GAT World Trade Talks before their December 15 deadline. Even if NAFTA is approved by the Congress, time is running out for the international trade talks. We are 30 days away from the end of the biggest trade negotiation ever undertaken, said Sutherland, and when I say the end, I mean the end. No further chances are going to be offered this time. For the Christian Science Monitor, this is Stephen Beard in London. Croat

forces pounded Muslim troops for more than eight hours today in a heavy shelling attack in the central Bosnian town of Gornivakouf. UN peacekeepers told reporters there was no sign that any ground had changed hands. The United Nations has invited the leaders of Bosnia's three -waring factions to meet in Geneva Thursday to discuss aid operations during the upcoming Balkan winter. A UN official said it was hope the talks would avert a humanitarian catastrophe. Just before the hour, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 10 .62 points at 36 .73 .89. You're listening to Monitor Radio News on APR. Workers striking to protest a 700 percent increase in fuel prices in Nigeria closed businesses and grounded domestic flights today. Police broke up one street protest with tear gas. Nigeria's military -installed government raised prices from 12 cents a gallon to 82 cents last week to help ease the nation's budget deficit. It was the fourth strike since the military nullified the results of presidential elections

in June. Air traffic controllers and bankers walked off the job most businesses were closed in Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital with 7 million residents. An estimated 5 to 10 ,000 students marched through the streets of Paris today to protest overcrowded classrooms and a lack of teachers and materials in universities across France. Similar demonstrations took place in at least five other cities. Sarah Chase reports from Paris. One of Monday's demonstrators stated the demand simply. Rooms, monarchs, and teachers. In universities, throughout France, students pack into the aisles of overflowing classrooms and science classes do without laboratories. Before the debate, education minister Francois Fillon blamed the situation on the former socialist government, saying this year's conditions are a result of last year's budget. We can't go faster than the bricklayers, he said, referring to plans to expand classroom space. But students call a 6 percent increase in next year's education budget too little, too late. They're planning to join a nationwide strike by public service employees on

Thursday. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Sarah Chase in Paris. US oil worker Kenneth Beatty was freed by Iraqi authorities today after being held for eight months. Beatty flew to Jordan after a US senator appealed in person for his release to the government of Saddam Hussein. The oil exploration worker was arrested in April when he crossed the Iraqi border after checking an oil well in northern Kuwait. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for illegally entering the country. This is Monitor Radio News on American Public Radio. This is Monitor Radio's daily edition. I'm David Brown.

Two and just short of 50. On this Monday before a congressional vote on the free trade agreement, those are the NAFTA numbers that seem to matter most. With two days to go, an associated press head count of the House of Representatives shows 48 fence sitters. Though the White House continues to express confidence it will garner enough votes to pass NAFTA, opponents say they've got the deal buried. We'll know who's right when the undecideds begin to take sides. As Monitor Radio's Jim Kayon reports from Washington, the Clinton administration, industry, the unions and the voters are all applying pressure as the vote draws near. I'm going to vote no on the North American free trade agreement. After much deliberation, I have decided that I will vote for the North American free trade agreement. Democrat Robert Torres -Seli of New Jersey decided to vote no and Democrat Norm Maneta of California decided to vote yes. And they were only two of the previously undecided House members who began to announce their decisions on the controversial North American free trade agreement today. With lawmakers just

returning from a long weekend at home in their districts, and with the vote just two days away, decisions are finally being made known. House Democratic Whip, David Bonyer, who opposes NAFTA and is counting the votes against it, insisted that he already has more than the 217 votes he'll need to kill the trade agreement. Congressman Torres -Seli announcing his opposition to NAFTA agreed with Bonyer that the treaty is dead. He condemned the NAFTA side agreements for failing to ensure the Mexican workers right to organize their own unions and bargain for their wages. And he said the agreement does not put enough pressure on Mexico to reform its political system. After my judgment is also a missed opportunity to use the leverage of economic growth for political reform. But as confident as NAFTA opponents sounded today, its supporters claimed that they had more momentum on their side. California Democrat Norm Maneta returned from a long weekend in his home district to announce that he'll vote for NAFTA, despite concerns

that it might hurt the cut flower industry in his state. He told reporters that President Clinton agreed the government would have to try to help that industry, but he added that the White House made no specific promises. No other assurances other than, yes, I'd like to work with you in terms of getting some kind of help. Maneta said he had spent time trying to find out how his constituents feel about NAFTA, especially in the last few days. I heard from labor, from the working person on the street, up to the presidents of the unions. In the business sector, I heard from the CEOs and the CFOs and COOs, everybody else. But I didn't hear from any of the workers in those companies. And I finally said to them, all right, I've heard enough from you, I want to hear from your workers. And so, Hula Packard and IBM and Ray Cam and a few others, the high -tech companies in our district, then put together a forum for me last Thursday. And for the first time, I really heard from those workers of

those high -tech companies saying why this was so important to them. Following announcements in support of NAFTA by Maneta and a handful of other lawmakers, Democrat Robert Matsui of California told reporters he believes the trade agreement will pass on Wednesday, though not by much. And he says the outcome will most likely be known before the vote begins. I think we will know when we go in there where our votes are. Is it a matter of them not having announced their decisions or not having made their decisions? I think in most cases, there are some that haven't announced their decision, but most cases, members are making their decision now. And as those members make their decisions, the White House keeps the pressure on. President Clinton continued personally lobbying representatives and asked small business owners gathered in Washington today to lobby their representatives as well. I implore you again. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but talk to the members of Congress. Tell them you know all about insecurity, but you know that we can compete and win if we have enough customers to sell to them. For the next two days, expect to hear President Clinton

continue those please and expect a steady stream of House members stepping before the microphones to announce their decision on what many of them had called the toughest vote they've ever had to make. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Jim Kane in Washington. Joining us now is John Desauer, international economist and publisher of the newsletter, Desauer's Investors World. John, let's explore this scenario. Nafta comes up for a vote on Wednesday and it's defeated. What happens then is Nafta dead and that's that? I don't think that Nafta is dead politically. I think that this unfortunately has gotten mixed up with kind of a referendum on the Clinton presidency. So there is a chance that Nafta will indeed be defeated and I kind of would hate to see it defeated, but I think the odds are at least 50 -50 that it will be. Well you know many people have said that they like the idea of Nafta, this North American free trade agreement, but they don't like some of the specifics in this particular deal. Can the U .S. Mexico and Canada sort of go back to the drawing board and come up with something workable? Well I don't think

so and I don't think there are any specifics in here to which people really have a valid objection. There are always side arrangements and every single one of these major accomplishments when it comes to trade and they expire after a while. So the real objective is longer term and I think as many economists have said in the short run with any trade agreement like this, they're going to be winners and losers and the losers scream loud and clear as they should, but in the long run everybody wins. The irony to me is that in the short run I think it's Mexico that loses not the United States on this one. So I find it difficult to understand how the drum beat has gotten to be so loud here against the Nafta based upon jobs. So we've got something to gain but not a whole lot to lose if it doesn't go through. That's right. I mean we may lose a few jobs that are high paid jobs in areas that can be done more effectively somewhere else, but there's a story I wanted to tell it's a true story. A Mexican pizza factory that's moving from Mexico to Texas, NAFTA or no NAFTA and they're doing that to get away from problems with electrical power surges, problems with telephones and they're going to be

able to do the job in Texas with seven people where it takes 35 people in Mexico. So even with higher wages in the United States the U .S. wins on that one. So there's a lot more to the story of trade and business and productivity than just wages alone and I think Americans are making a big mistake to oppose NAFTA on those grounds. Some people who've been pushing NAFTA say that if we don't get this deal that Europe or some of the Asian nations won't hesitate to fill that gap to try to come up with their own deals with Mexico. Do you think there's anything to that? Oh I think there is absolutely. I mean trading with the with Latin America, Mexico included has been in the U .S. best interest for a long long time and every time we falter as we did during the Latin debt crisis in the early 80s and now we're faltering with NAFTA, our competitors in the world commitment take advantage of the situation. So I've no doubt that if we don't pass NAFTA that the Japanese or the Germans or someone else will cut quietly some sort of a side deal to help the Mexicans out. Mexico needs money capital badly and that's the other side of the story. Mexico will get that money from someone because

the opportunity is real and whoever gives them the money is going to get some kind of a favorable deal. Let's look at the short term. What would happen on Wall Street? What are markets like you to do on Wednesday or Thursday if it looks like NAFTA is going to go down? Well I kind of have a feeling that stock markets in this country and elsewhere do for a little bit of a down tick anyway so they may use NAFTA as an excuse to do that and I don't think that in the short run there's really changes corporate profit pictures anywhere significantly. Well let's pull back for just a moment and look at the international implications if NAFTA goes down. What does this mean in terms of perception that the U .S. is becoming more isolationist? And what about the general agreement on tariffs and trade, GAT? Well David, in my opinion I don't think that NAFTA's failure would make the U .S. really any more protectionist but I do think that it would change the world's view of us in that regard and over the last several years the United States has been a leader in the GAT especially when it comes to campaigning for reducing trade barriers and opening markets and I have no doubt that if the Congress turns down NAFTA that

the members of the GAT will look at the United States and have some questions about our sincerity and all of that and therefore our leadership position in world trade would certainly be subject to question but eventually I think NAFTA is going to be passed in this country even if it has to wait until the elections in 1996. So we're talking about something temporary rather than something permanent. John Desaurs, an international economist and publisher of the newsletter, Desaurs Investors World. Thanks very much for joining us John. Thank you David. This is monitor radio. Now a quick check of world news headlines. Here's Kristen

Brumman. In Nigeria a strike has closed many businesses and affected air travel today workers are protesting a 700 % increase in fuel prices and that's a look at world news headlines. This is monitor radio. Heavy rains

pelted parts of the Mississippi valley with up to six feet of water this weekend and portions of Missouri, Arkansas and Indiana were flooded. These rains may continue for several days. It's been nearly five months since Des Moines Iowa was officially closed down by the worst flooding in that city's history. For most people in Des Moines life has returned to normal but for others it's still far from routine. Mark Moran reports on preparation for the upcoming holiday season for those still trying to cope with the aftermath of the floods. Lin Moran her family will never live in their house on Bell Avenue again. The modest white one story they called home was destroyed when a wall of water rushed out of the raccoon river and into the house last July. In fact unless she absolutely has to Lin Moran won't even go near her former home. It's a ghost. My past is there. I not only lost a physical setting but I lost all of the things that were my memories, my pictures, my clothes, my father's cold ring. They're all

lost. But Mrs. Morse has had to go to what's left of her house to show inspectors the damage when applying for federal aid. There will be no Christmas on Bell Avenue for her family this year. Five of them are living in a two bedroom apartment not far away. The flood put a strain on the family budget and dampened enthusiasm about the upcoming holidays. Thinking about having to put a tree up in an apartment when there isn't even room for beds is very difficult. I can't help my older son with his tuition and my younger children will get boots and coats instead of toys and books for Christmas. That will be hard. That will be very hard for me. All moms want to overload their kids with things and Christmas time. The mortgages will not leave Des Moines. They will have to stay in the tiny apartment until financing is approved for another home they hope to buy here in the city. But a few doors away from what was the mortgages home, Lois Navels hopes her house will be repaired in time

to have her entire family home for Christmas. The damage wasn't quite as bad there, but she had to fight the city for a building permit to repair. Des Moines wanted to condemn the property and buy it from her. Lois Navels wouldn't take what she considered and insulting offer. Now she just wants the family together in the house for the holidays. There's 21 grandkids right now and two more on the way. So you can imagine what it was like around here, just based on Christmas Eve. Now they all want to come back on Christmas Eve, they're all waiting. Well I have hope. I have faith that it'll happen, but I don't know, but don't. Kids all say I'll be back in for Christmas. Tony Navels, one of Lois's sons, is the driving force behind the move to get his mother back in by Christmas. In fact, with the help of several thousand dollars from the

Federal Emergency Management Agency, he claims he'll have the house ready for her to reoccupy by December 1st. Tony Navels is doing most of the repair work on what was left of the house. We had to block up three sizes of basement, put new block on it, had to completely rewire the house and take all the plaster and laths off down to the tube of course. Now we're in the process, put new sheetrock on. The small white structure was virtually destroyed by the raccoon river in July. Just four months before that, Navels husband died. They had been married 53 years, 38 of them spent in this house. That's one of the reasons Lois Navels wants to rebuild and not move to higher ground. Of course, even if the house is ready for the holidays, she says Christmas won't be the same without her husband. It'd be the first time that we've been not together since my husband had gone. Like I said, I wanted things to be left just like they were when he was here. I don't know, just maybe more closer, but can't be that way.

While Lois Navels hopes her house will be repaired soon, Lin Moore is also hopeful. She and her husband are in the process of buying another home across town, but that one is not far from the again within a few miles, and I had to go out and visually look at it and see that yes, it was totally downhill so that I could not get flooded again. I don't care if we don't have any furniture. We'll go there and put the tree up and break out the sleeping bags if we have to. It's just that Christmas is a place where people should be together and relax and enjoy and watch snowflakes. The hundreds of victims of the 1993 flood have also pinned their hopes on the city of Des Moines. They want levees around the raccoon and Des Moines rivers raised to withstand future floodwaters. Climateologists say the winter and spring in the Midwest will be wetter than normal, and already saturated soil could mean even worse

flooding next year. Residents here want to be protected if that happens. For the Christian Science Monitor, this is Mark Moran in Des Moines. Kenneth Beatty is heading home. The U .S. oilman spent 205 days in an Iraqi jail. Beatty was accused of entering Iraqi illegally, but he was seen by many in the West as a victim of the ugly relationship between the U .S. and Iraq. During the Gulf War, when the United States was bombing Baghdad regularly, and Iraqi scud missiles were being lobbed at Saudi Arabia and Israel, and American and an Iraqi soldier became friends. The American was part of an army unit building prisoner of war camps. The Iraqi was a prisoner. Today they live under the same roof. The former Iraqi soldier

is a permanent guest in the American's home in New Hampshire. Monitor Radio's John Rudolph has their story. Tiny cups of sweet tea, flavored with cardamom, are served each night after supper at the home of Eric and Rachel Marsh in Belmont, New Hampshire. The marshes were introduced to this custom a little more than a year ago. When a former Iraqi prisoner of war, Ali Hassan came to live with them. My job, Iraqi army, anti -aircraft guns. So before the war, about five days, six days, everything is said. So I ran away. Several days after deserting, Ali surrendered to American forces near the border between Iraq and Kuwait. Like thousands of other Iraqi soldiers, he was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Saudi Arabia. In the camp, Ali was assigned to a work detail, supervised by Army Master Sergeant Eric Marsh. In the course of that time that he

was with me, pretty close to three weeks, we got to know each other not well, but we got to know each other. His English was limited. My Arabic is horrendous. But we did communicate. And when they left, they were taken by the Saudis into Saudi POW camps, or resettlement camps, refugee camps. I left them with my little address label that my wife would put on the envelopes and I said, if you ever get your freedom because they were looking for refugee status anywhere in the world, they couldn't return to Iraq. Perhaps we may see each other someday. A few months after Marsh returned from the Persian Gulf, he received a letter from Ali asking for Marsh's help in getting him out of the Saudi camp. To Ali's surprise, Marsh invited him to live in New Hampshire. It took about a year of negotiating with the State Department, Saudi authorities, and United Nations officials, before Ali was admitted to the U .S. as a refugee. Eleven months later, two of his brothers, also former prisoners of war, were admitted. All three now live with the Marshes.

Eric Marsh says he took in the brothers as a humanitarian gesture, and in recognition of their role in bringing the war to an early end. Yes, they were the enemy. What would have happened if they didn't put down their arms? We would have been sending home Vietnam -sized bodybags and other 50 ,000 young soldiers. This is a small way now, again in retrospect, for me to say thank you. Ali and his brothers are clearly thankful to be in America. They say before the war, two of their other brothers were killed by Iraqi authorities for opposing Saddam Hussein's government. Now they worry about the safety of surviving members of their family still in Iraq. They are also aware that not everyone in the U .S. welcomes them. It's estimated that as many as 1000 former Iraqi POWs have been admitted to the U .S. as refugees. The U .S. Senate has approved a non -binding resolution against continuing this

practice. Florida Congressman, Republican Clifford Sterns, has sponsored a similar resolution in the House. When you bring Iraqi POWs over here, they're entitled to a whole set of entitlements. And I think at this point there's a lot of veterans that are concerned that these Iraqi prisoners, former prisoners of war, are getting entitlements and benefits while some of them are having a very hard time. And I have to say it's a bizarre set of priorities. Representative Sterns also argues that Iraq is still an enemy of the United States. And he's concerned that allowing former Iraqi soldiers into the U .S. increases the risk of terrorism. This kind of talk troubles Eric Marsh while cultural, political, and religious differences often separate him from his Iraqi guests. He is convinced that the brothers do not pose a security risk to the U .S. or to his family. For the people that say to me, hey, there's still an enemy. No, these are people. I know them. They live in my home with my wife. I leave my home for weeks at a time. I'm going to leave

three enemy in my home with my wife. I do it. Marsh says the Iraqis are welcome to stay with him as long as they like. He says they've been accepted by both his family and his neighbors, although he admits some of his friends have criticized him. Marsh is encouraging the Iraqis to go to school, to learn English and improve their skills. But the three brothers have a different idea. Ali is already working as a construction laborer, and the other two also want to get jobs. Nasir Hassan believes that working at a job, no matter how menial, will earn him a place in American society. When the people say they are, any of me, they are coming here to stay here. They are coming here to know pay attacks. Maybe somebody thinks that. But I want to give a good approval to these people. I am just a human. For the Christian Science Monitor, this is John Rudolf in Belmont, New Hampshire. You're listening to Monitor Radio's Daily Edition. I'm David Brown

in Boston. I'm David Brown, I'm David Brown, I'm David Brown, I'm David Brown. This

is Monitor Radio, a worldwide broadcast service of the Christian Science Monitor. I'm David Brown in Boston coming up accusations intensify that the campaign of the Garden States Governor -elect trampled on the Voting Rights Act. We'll hear the latest. Plus, the 5 % question. Black voters in New York underwhelmed Rudolf Giuliani on election day. Now the mayor -elect is hurling a big pitch for racial unity. Still, some say Giuliani's throwing strikes. We have a mayor of a city which has the largest population of people of African descent who is woefully not just out of touch, but really alienated from millions of his own constituents. Those stories and more coming up on Monitor Radio, stay with us. From the Monitor Radio News Desk, I'm Bob Dunn. In South Lebanon today, gunmen assassinated a senior aide to Palestine Liberation Organization, Chief Yosser Arafat. Police said two men

firing submachine guns shot at a car carrying Lieutenant Colonel Moean Sabayat. He's the fifth PLO official to be killed since the Israeli -Palestinian peace accord was signed in mid -September. It was not immediately clear whether today's assassination was linked to the peace pact or infighting between various PLO factions. Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators resume talks in Egypt today. A Palestinian source said the meeting was being held in secret because the Chief Palestinian negotiator felt the media had interfered in earlier sessions. U .S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher will travel to the Middle East next month to try to help move peace efforts forward. Monitor Radio's Vic Roberts has more from Washington. Secretary Christopher will attempt mediate differences between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization over the peace accord the two sides signed in September. State Department officials say Christopher will head to the Middle East just before the December 13th deadline for Israel and the PLO to complete arrangements for Palestinian self -rule in the Israeli -occupied Gaza Strip and Jericho. Both sides have yet to agree on Jericho's boundaries and what power Israeli security forces

will have to protect Gaza's 3000 Jewish residents. During the visit, Secretary Christopher also hopes to finalize a peace agreement between Israel and Jordan, as well as get Israel and Syria to resume discussions about the future of the Golan Heights. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Vic Roberts in Washington. U .S. President Bill Clinton today urged small business owners to help him when approval for the North American Free Trade Agreement. The House of Representatives votes on the trade packed on Wednesday. UPI's Carol Van Dan reports from Washington. President Clinton pulled out all the stops, pounding it into the heads of small business owners at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, to tell their representatives in Congress in the next 48 hours they must support NAFTA. Talk to the members of Congress. Tell them you know all about insecurity, but you know that we can compete and win if we have enough customers to sell them. NAFTA proponents say they have the momentum heading into Wednesday's crucial House vote. However, they need at least a dozen more votes for it to pass. NAFTA opponents say they have enough votes to sink the trade deal, so long as lawmakers stay true to their

word. Carol Van Dan, the White House. Bosnia has announced plans to sue Britain for failing to prevent genocide in the former Yugoslavia, but suit is being filed in the International Court of Justice in the Hague. Bosnia's United Nations ambassadors said Britain was obligated under international treaties to prevent genocide. He said Bosnia was suing because Britain had been at the forefront of efforts to maintain a UN arms embargo against Bosnia. In New York, early figures show the Dow Jones industrial average dropped over seven points to close at 367724. Volume on the Big Boer total 244 million shares. This is Monitor Radio News. British Prime Minister John Major said today that the political wing of the Irish Republican Army could be included in peace talks on Northern Ireland, provided the IRA renounces violence. Aides to Mr. Major called it his most direct message yet to the IRA. The last month has seen an intense round of bombings and revenge killings by both Catholic and Protestant paramilitary groups. At the same time, Mr. Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds averaged broader

agreement on conditions for Anglo -Irish talks. President Boris Yeltsin has told a Russian newspaper that an early presidential election is a possibility after all. Just last week, Mr. Yeltsin said he intended to serve his full term until 1996, rather than call an early presidential vote, from our Moscow Bureau Andrew Harding reports. President Yeltsin's comments made in an interview with the Isvestian newspaper appear to be an exercise in damage limitation. Two months ago, as he announced his decision to dissolve the Russian Parliament, Mr. Yeltsin promised to hold early presidential elections. But a week ago, he changed his mind. His aide said that promise had been made under pressure. And Mr. Yeltsin declared he wanted to remain in office until 1996. That U -turn brought swift condemnation from opposition politicians and from a number of presidential aides. Now, Mr. Yeltsin has said he was merely expressing a personal view and that it will be up to the new Parliament to decide the issue. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Andrew Harding in Moscow.

African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela said today he'd like to see South African President F .W. DeClerk play a role in the country's national unity government. It's due to be set up after all race elections next April. The ANC is expected to win the national vote, but if Mr. DeClerk's national party came in second, it would qualify to appoint one of two deputy presidents. The deputy president positions are included in plans for opposed apartheid government. For Monitor Radio News, I'm Bob Dunn. This is Monitor Radio's daily

edition. I'm David Brown. The campaign season is over, so why is the political landscape still so unsettled? In elections in New York and New Jersey this month, two candidates squeaked by with a slimmest of victories, and the narrow margins will have long -term implications. We'll have more from New York in a moment, but first to New Jersey. Where Republican Christine Todd Whitman's gubernatorial victory is still in jeopardy. Investigators are now looking into statements by campaign manager Ed Rollins that the Whitman campaign may have paid black ministers to lay low in getting out the democratic vote. Rollins later retracted the statement, but Monitor Radio's Mike K. Hull tells us New Jersey Democrats will get to question Rollins under oath to find out the truth. The key question that New Jersey Democrats want answered is whether Ed Rollins really did mastermind a scheme to depress black voter turnout on election day. Last week, Rollins told the group of Washington reporters the GOP spent $500 ,000 convincing black ministers and democratic party workers to not encourage people to go to the polls.

Rollins later retracted his statement, and Whitman, vehemently denied her campaign made any effort to discourage blacks from voting. But more fuel was added to the fire last Friday when videotape of a post -election political form at Princeton University surfaced. Among the participants were Rollins, and Whitman's brother and former campaign manager, Webster Todd Jr. As Todd described some of the Whitman campaign's election efforts, he almost seemed to use the term voter suppression before catching himself. The state of New Jersey is still a state that is very susceptible to a well -run shoe leather campaign. And that is where our summer went, and that is where a lot of our effort went, and a lot of our planning, getting out the vote on one side and voter support, and keeping the vote light in other areas. Today, New Jersey Democrats sought

and received permission from Newark Federal Court to question Rollins, Todd, and one Whitman campaign lawyer. Democratic Party Attorney Ted Wells says if the investigation turns up any evidence of major wrongdoing, the Democrats will go back to Federal Court to seek a new election. Mr. Rollins is telling the truth that this gubernatorial election is tainted by fraud, and there should be a new election, and we will not hesitate to request a judge double voice overrule the election. So far, no strong evidence has surfaced of any Republican effort to lower black voter participation. Today, New Jersey Democratic Party Chairman Ray Lesniak referred to reports he said he's received indicating that some party workers were approached by Republican operatives. But when questioning about specifics, Lesniak only said that those reports are still under investigation. Ted Geeser is an attorney for the state Republican Party. A half a million dollars flying around the state of New Jersey, but the Democrat Party doesn't know it until after the fact. I've been around here 68 years. I doubt that very much. If it happened, they would have known. Financial reports released by the Whitman campaign

over the weekend show the Republicans only spent about $70 ,000 for their election day street activities. But political analysts say the reports don't include information on what monies may have been spent by county organizations, political committees, and private groups opposed to Democratic incumbent Jim Florio, like the National Rifle Association. Rollins attorney says his client will show up for questioning by New Jersey Democrats either Thursday or Friday. The other Whitman campaign officials will be questioned next week. In the meantime, several other state and federal probes into the alleged election improprieties are moving forward. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Mike Haill in New York. It's as if New York City is caught in a spikedly screenplay. The simmering racial tensions that have dominated the city in recent memories show little sign of evaporating. And so it will be a mammoth political undertaking for New York's mayor -elect Rudolph Giuliani to make harmony out of racial discord, especially given the circumstances of his election. With a slim 45 ,000 vote margin Giuliani eaked out a victory over the city's first black mayor, and the race itself was dominated by

alarmingly explicit racial overtones. From New York, correspondent Rick Miller examines Giuliani's political challenge, fostering racial unity after an election that gave him only 5 % of the black vote. At the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, Rudolph Giuliani has been looking for reconciliation. The church is one of many in a part of New York where he received no political support. Giuliani defeated incumbent Mayor David Dinkins, New York City's first black mayor, in an election that was divided on stark racial lines. Mayor Dinkins won 95 % of the black vote Giuliani received 77 % of the white vote. Since his election victory, Giuliani has met with many of his political foes, and his message has been a simple one. Work together, give us a chance to all work together, and I find that that's a very effective message. It isn't anything specific. We all have to work together to improve the city. Mr. Giuliani's call for healing, it seems to me, is a positive sign. When Giuliani made a visit to Harlem following his victory, Reverend Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian

Baptist Church was by his side. Reverend Butts supported Mayor Dinkins during the election, but he says he never turned his back on Giuliani, and is now one of the first black leaders to embrace the incoming administration. There may be more common ground than there is a difference of opinion, and I think we ought to look for it, so I'm trying to do it. He is the mayor. I mean, let me say that three times fast. He is the mayor. He is the mayor. He is the mayor. Outside on the street following a Sunday service, parishioners and passers -by had mixed few points on the next four years under a Mayor Giuliani. I'm hopeful, but not sure, and I think, uh, guardedly optimistic that he will accomplish some of the things he wants to do. You know, there's nothing in his background to indicate that he will address all the concerns of the community, and so I am not optimistic at all. I think it's going to be a hard, hard four years. I think it's a little strange that prior to the election, I really didn't notice him reaching out.

I know that he's saying that he wants to bring up people together, but somehow it just seems like his election alone has served to be very divisive. I just think as a community, we have a responsibility to be supportive of the mayor, and that as long as he reaches out, it makes every effort to be supportive of our community, we can meet him halfway. Minority leaders say they're waiting to see what type of people get chosen for Giuliani's administration, and if it will reflect the ethnic diversity of New York. Already, Giuliani has made Richard Parsons, chairman of the Dimes Savings Bank, and one of his most prominent black supporters, the head of his transition team. Like Parsons, some predict that Giuliani's black and Hispanic appointments will come from the ideological right of their communities. But Dr. Manny Marvol, director of the Institute for Afro -American Studies at Columbia University, says appointments are not enough. We are not looking for a black face in a high place. What we have to judge the Giuliani administration on are the policies, whether or not they advance or punish black voters. And

clearly, the policy agenda of that administration is against the interest of the black community. Minority leaders are worried that Giuliani will not adequately address issues of concern to their community, such as public health, housing, and social services. Again, Dr. Marvol of Columbia University. We have a mayor of a city which has the largest population of people of African descent who is woefully not just out of touch, but really alienated from millions of his own constituents. So this is the real challenge that the Giuliani administration has to recognize. Since the election, mayor -elect Giuliani has taken steps to meet that challenge and address minority concerns. For example, he said he will reconsider his campaign pledge to abolish the Dickens program that guarantees a percentage of city contracts to companies owned by minorities and women. Reverend Butts says Giuliani's willingness to enter into a real dialogue is a sign that the next four years could be a period of progress for minorities and not one of retrenchment. I don't feel lost.

I don't feel defeated. I just feel like I've got another mayor in office now that I've got to deal with. And who has said some things that, for me, represent a movement in the right direction. And I'm going to try to help him continue in that direction. But Reverend Butts points out that Giuliani was elected by a slim margin of only 45 ,000 votes. If he doesn't deliver his mayor, Reverend Butts assures that blacks and Latinos might develop the political coalition that could challenge Giuliani for years from now. For the Christian years. This is monitor radio. Great Fitzgerald joins us now for a brief look at business news. Uncertainly over Wednesday's NAFTA vote pushed the Dow Jones

industrial average down seven points today to 3 ,677. U .S. factories hummed to the fastest pace in more than three years in October, leading to the biggest jump and output in nearly a year. Meanwhile retail sales grew for the second consecutive month in September, raising hopes for a bountiful Christmas. Hyundai has announced plans to spend $4 .7 billion on research and development. The Korean carmaker says it will invest another four billion to nearly double production by the end of the decade. And American families are in the best position financially in nearly 20 years to buy a home. The National Association of Relators housing affordability index is at its highest level since the fourth quarter of 1973. That's a quick look at business headlines. This is monitor radio. In the lexicon of diplomacy there are a handful of words which have an historic relationship to

the mid -east piece process. Words like stale mate and jump start. Though many argue they're no longer applicable to the Israeli -Palestinian relationship, stale mate is certainly an accurate characterization of talks between Israel and Syria. Today Washington announced that Secretary of State Warren Christopher will visit Syria next month in hopes of, you guessed it, jump starting the peace process. The announcement came as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met with U .S. Secretary of Defense Les Aspen at the Pentagon. Monitor radio's Gene Hacklander has details. The United States has been supplying Israel with advanced military technology since the 1967 Arab -Israeli War. But this latest deal would be the first such arms transfer since the Israel Pilo Peace Accord was signed in September. Details are sketchy, but discussions are apparently focusing on a potential $1 .8 billion sale of about 20 modified F -15E long -range fighters. The most advanced aircraft of its kind in the world. Syria, which talks with Israel, have deadlocked over the strategic Golan Heights,

has called on the U .S. to postpone the Israeli arms deal, saying it would threaten the Middle East peace process. Many defense experts disagree. There is always a controversy when you make a major arms transfer. In this particular case, it is much more likely to be stabilizing than destabilizing. Anthony Cortesman is a professor of national security studies at Georgetown University. It tells Syria that there really is no military option. It can't conceivably get military parity with Israel. It can't find a way of attacking Israel or seizing the Golan, which would not lead to massive retaliatory action by Israel. President Clinton has pledged to help make the Israeli people as comfortable as possible with the Israel PLO peace accord. In the Middle East, comfort translates into military might, according to William Lewis, a defense specialist and professor of international affairs at the George Washington

University. At this stage, there is a growing sentiment in Israel, a worry in Israel about whether or not the PLO and Yasser Arafat will be able to produce the sort of acquired environment in which peace process can be prospered. And while there is this growing anxiety in Israel, this offer to provide a military aid may reinforce the feeling, at least in some circles, that the United States is fully behind the peace process. The aircraft would be paid for out of Israel's annual $1 .8 billion in military aid from the United States, and cash flow might be a problem. Secretary of Defense Aspen says discussions will continue through this week. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Jean Hacklander in Washington. A 51st star on the U .S. flag will just have to wait, but for Puerto Ricans who dream of statehood, failure to gain a clear majority in the Sunday

plebiscite is not considered a defeat altogether. According to the numbers, most islanders want Puerto Rico to remain a U .S. commonwealth, but the so -called statehooders came closer to victory than ever before. With a closer look at where Puerto Rico goes from here, Montenegro's Kurt Nielsen is in San Juan. Puerto Ricans voted to keep their political distance from the United States and Sunday's plebiscite, but the victory for Commonwealth status has left Puerto Rico's economic future as uncertain and as dependent on outside forces as it was before the balloting. The opposition popular Democratic Party, which led the Commonwealth campaign, is now planning to ask U .S. President Bill Clinton to persuade Congress to reverse legislation passed earlier this year. The bill will slash tax exemptions for U .S. companies in Puerto Rico beginning in January, those exemptions have been the main tool for creating jobs in the 41 -year -old Commonwealth. After the victory, the Secretary General of the Popular Democratic Party, William Miranda Madin, said his party will also be asking the U

.S. for an increase in food aid and an extension of U .S. trade protection from Puerto Rican coffee to other crops. We need to have some sort of protection since we are a small island. We're a small agriculture. We want to have that. But Puerto Rico's economic future will also be determined by much larger factors like the North American Free Trade Agreement, which would eliminate Puerto Rico's exclusive terra -free access to the U .S. economy. Puerto Rico, like the U .S. has been suffering an economic recession, but unemployment here is far worse, about 18 percent. Average per capita income is about $6 ,000 a year, half that of the poorest U .S. state Mississippi. Jaime Del Valle, a professor of economics at the University of Puerto Rico, says the decision to remain a Commonwealth is a decision to stay on the same economic path. I see the continued slow deterioration of the economy. Why? Precisely because nothing has happened. My belief is that the long -term plans for the economy have disappeared. Nobody knows where we're going. After conceding defeats on day

night, Governor Pedro Rossello of the new Progressive Party said it is his responsibility to continue to press for statehood because he was elected last year on a pro -statehood platform. He says, without the ability to vote in Congress, Puerto Rico cannot prosper. Without that, history is very clear. Rules that do not have that power of participation will always be in an inferior position always. Governor Rossello says the Puerto Rican economy cannot survive under the current Commonwealth arrangement, which he says Washington could decide to discard at any moment. For the Christian Science Monitor, I'm Kirk Nielsen in San Juan. There are two ways to look at the story of Esmeralda San Diego. On the surface, her life is a classic colorful love from the Barrio success story. Girl born in Puerto Rico emigrates to New York, learns English, earns a scholarship to Harvard, and eventually becomes the president of her own film company. The view from the inside, however,

is another story, a poignant, funny, and emotionally ambivalent story of a Puerto Rican girl embracing American culture and realizing later that in the process, she had lost what, as she puts it, made her truly Puerto Rican. Esmeralda Santiago's first book is titled, When I Was Puerto Rican. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. It's wonderful to be here. Your title puts it in the past tense. Have you given up on trying to realize that sense of being Puerto Rican? No, I actually feel very Puerto Rican. The title was meant to refer to that time in my life when I felt my most Puerto Rican when there was absolutely no doubt in my mind. In fact, there was no question in my head about who I was and where I belonged. The minute I landed on the shores of New York City, I became a different person. And I think this is a process that happens to all of us who come from a different country. We cease being who we were in order to be in this country

and succeed here. But you didn't realize that you had ceased to be Puerto Rican when you landed, obviously. Oh, no, I didn't realize it until I went back to Puerto Rico about 13 years after I came, never having returned, and having to interact with that culture again, and being told time and time again, but you're not Puerto Rican. You're too Americanized. Your Spanish has an accent. You use many anglicisms. You don't even dress like us. And it was actually very, very painful for me to hear that because I had never thought of myself as anything but Puerto Rican. For me, when I was thinking about this book and I was trying to understand what I wanted to say with it, what I wanted to say was that when I was a child, I was growing up in an environment that celebrated who I was. I was very poor by American standards. I didn't know it until I came here, but I really had a sense of belonging to that place that I grew up in, that very small, very backward by today's standards,

little barrio. And the longer I've been away from it, the more I realized how much that place shaped who I am today, even more than the experience of being Americanized. You say that you feel Puerto Rican. Yes. When you hear a conversation in news analysis, whatever, talk of the 10 % of Americans who are Hispanic or Latino. How do you break that down? What is Hispanic? What is Latino? I really think we spend as a community of Latin American descent people. We spend a lot of time dealing with what we call ourselves. I understand the concept behind it is if we are all one people united in a common banner, we have a lot more power. For me, I felt a lot of rage when I had to give up calling myself Puerto Rican to call myself Hispanic or Latina because that has no meaning for me whatsoever. Hispanic is just as far as I can tell, a bureaucratic construct.

Somebody made it up as far as I know. Latino refers to something that is, again, very amorphous. Puerto Rican is very specific. When I think Puerto Rican, I think of the music, the food, the way the place looks, the fact that it's an island, all those things that go into making that place and the people from that place. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back and possibly settle there? Do you have any interest in doing that? I don't think I could do it. The fact is that because it is a small island, it is very, very, very developed and I just can't find that a place to recreate the macoon of my childhood, which is, of course, what I would like to recreate, but I can't. I just doesn't exist anymore. And yet, in a way, you have recreated it in this book. Yes. Well, I feel like I live it, even though I'm not there anymore. As Morel de Santiago, the title of her new book is when I was Puerto Rican. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you very much. You're listening to Monitor Radio, an

international source of news from the Christian Science Monitor. Monitor Radio is produced by Emily Donahue, Judy Finn, and Monique Nazareth. Trevor Nelson directs and our senior producer is Greg Fitzgerald. Hektical director is Erica Raul. Thanks for joining us. I'm David Brown and Boston. If you'd like to order a cassette of today's program, call toll free 1 -800 -767 -1929. Again, for a cassette copy of today's edition of Monitor Radio, call 1 -800 -767 -1929. Monitor Radio's daily edition is made possible in part by your public radio station and by the Archer Daniels Midland Company, ADM, supermarket to the world.