|
Server : Apache/2.4.62 System : FreeBSD fbsdweb2.web.rcn.net 14.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE releng/14.1-n267679-10e31f0946d8 GENERIC amd64 User : www ( 80) PHP Version : 8.3.8 Disable Function : NONE Directory : /domains/roger.dnai/ |
Upload File : |
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//SoftQuad//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 4.0::19971010::extensions to HTML 4.0//EN"
"hmpro4.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Mozilla/4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K) [Netscape]">
<TITLE>december</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" BGPROPERTIES="FIXED">
<CENTER><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+4">Events
of December 1997</FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1">Anne
D. Baylon</FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<CENTER><HR WIDTH="100%"></CENTER>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1">CENTRAL
EUROPE</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Czech
Republic</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 11</B> In his
annual speech to Parliament, President Václav Havel denounces the
political situation in the Czech Republic in which power is "again in
the hands of untrustworthy figures whose primary concern is their personal
advancement instead of the interests of the people." Although he does
not name former Prime Minister Václav Klaus, the President targets
him for privatization policies "that have led to widespread
corruption." Mr. Havel also addresses the "dreadful behavior of
some" toward Gypsies and criticizes the government for failing to
convince the public of the wisdom of joining NATO.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 14</B> While
former Prime Minister Václav Klaus is re-elected as chairman of the
Civic Democratic Party (the largest party in the three-way governing
coalition) and is expected to join the opposition, President Havel asks
Josef Lux, the leader of the Christian Democrats (one of the other two
coalition parties), to form a new government.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 16</B> President
Havel appoints Josef Tosovsky, a Czech banker, as caretaker Prime
Minister. As a "non-partisan technocrat," Mr. Tosovsky has the
support of both the three parties currently forming the coalition
government and the opposition.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 22</B> A survey
by the Factum polling company reveals that, despite President Havel's
enthusiastic speeches on NATO membership, less than 50 percent of the
Czechs support joining the Alliance, with 30.5 percent of the people
remaining undecided and another 26.7 percent opposed to the expansion.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Romania</FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 25</B> Tensions
between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians who are seeking "administrative
self-rule" erupt in Transylvania. Representing 7.1 percent of
Romania's population with 1.7 million people, ethnic Hungarians are
fighting for education exclusively in Hungarian, a move viewed by
Romanians as a refusal to assimilate. Religious differences also play a
part since Romanians are mostly Orthodox Christians while Hungarians are
predominantly Protestants.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1">EASTERN
EUROPE</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Belarus</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 12</B> Having
become increasingly totalitarian over the past year, the government of
Belarus is blocking the establishment of an OSCE-sponsored office in Minsk
that would monitor human rights and assist in democratic development, a
step it had agreed to in September.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Russia</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 6</B> A crash by
an AN-124 military transport plane into an apartment complex near the
Siberian city of Irkutsk causes scores of casualties and prompts angry
residents to demand a ban on flights over residential areas. Russia's past
air crashes have been due to aging aircraft and poor maintenance.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 7</B> Russia
grounds its fleet of AN-124 planes as investigators search for the cause
of the Dec. 6 crash.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 10</B> In a
surprise announcement, the Kremlin reports that President Boris Yeltsin
has a respiratory infection and has entered a sanitarium in which he is
expected to stay for up to 12 days.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 12</B> After
Russia promises to improve its collection of taxes and control government
spending, the International Monetary Fund agrees to release the next $700
million installment of a three-year $10.1 billion loan. (The Fund had
suspended the loan in October due to Russia's failure to collect taxes.)
The pact, which also frees $1.05 billion in World Bank money, will allow
Russia to pay $1.7 billion in back wages to millions of public sector
employees before year end and will help to restore the confidence of
foreign investors.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 20</B> President
Boris Yeltsin names Farit Gazizullin as Privatization Minister and Deputy
Prime Minister. The previous minister, Maxim Boiko, was dismissed in
November for being implicated in a scandal related to receiving large
advance fees for a book on Russian privatization.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 24</B> Looking
fit and confident, President Boris Yeltsin returns home from a sanitarium
near Moscow where he was treated for a viral infection.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Uzbekistan</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>NY Times, Dec. 8</B>
Six years after declaring independence from the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan
is experiencing a revival of a variety of crafts that were viewed as "signs
of backwardness" by the Soviets and had almost disappeared. These
crafts--such as hand-dyed and hand-printed silks, hand-carved wooden
objects, hand-woven carpets, and hand-painted miniatures--are now produced
by young Uzbek artisans.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1">THE
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Bosnia</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 1</B> According
to Allied intelligence assessments, peace in Bosnia will collapse if the
NATO force of 34,000 troops, including 8,000 Americans, is withdrawn. In
particular, peace has no prospect as long as former Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic remains in power "behind the scenes."</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 2</B> NATO
Defense Ministers ask NATO military commanders to prepare options for a
new peacekeeping force that would replace the current force once its
mandate expires in June.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 4</B> In
Sarajevo, the Muslim-Croat Federation arrests suspects in attacks against
the Croatian community. Among them are foreigners from Islamic countries
who came to Bosnia during the 1992-95 war in order to help the Muslim-led
government become independent.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 7</B> In the
final results for the Nov. 22-23 Parliamentary elections in Bosnia's
Serbian enclave, the Serb Democratic Action party of wartime Bosnian Serb
leader Radovan Karadzic remains the most powerful political group
(although it has lost its majority), followed by the extreme-nationalist
Radical Party, while the Serb People's Alliance--Serb President Biljana
Plavsic's party--trails.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 10</B> Yugoslav
and Bosnian Serb delegates walk out of a two-day meeting of the Peace
Implementation Council, an annual 51-country conference (including the
U.S. and Russia) that was set up after the Dayton peace agreement in order
to promote peace in Bosnia. The delegates are protesting the final
communique's reference to "increasing ethnic tensions" in
Serbia's southern region of Kosovo (in which ethnic Albanians are a
majority) as interference in Yugoslavia's internal affairs.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 11</B> The German
state of Bavaria issues an ultimatum to the 40,000 Bosnians who have found
refuge theretof leave now or be deported in 1998. Those who feel unable to
return to Bosnia are told they should emigrate to the United States (the
U.S. has agreed to take in 12,000 Bosnians from Germany).</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 15</B> Louise
Arbour, the chief prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal, complains to
French officials that French peacekeepers in Bosnia never attempt to
arrest indicted war criminals. French authorities, backed by NATO
officials who say that the NATO strategy is decided by all of the Allies,
deny the allegations.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 17</B> According
to a <I>New England Journal of Medicine</I> study, over half of the drugs
donated during the war in Bosnia were unusable, a ploy by donors to dump
outdated supplies while receiving tax deductions for their contributions.
The World Health Organization now faces the task and financial cost of
disposing of these worthless medical supplies.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 18</B> Dutch
troops arrest two Bosnian Croat war crimes suspects and extradite them to
the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, prompting angry protests
from Bosnian Croats.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">President Bill Clinton
announces that American forces will stay in Bosnia past the June deadline
that had been set for their withdrawal. According to the President, the
forces' mission should be defined by "concrete benchmarks," such
as the creation of a civilian police force.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 20</B> A hand
grenade thrown into their compound hurts two Dutch soldiers in the town
where two Bosnian Croats suspected of war crimes were arrested by Dutch
forces on December 18.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 22 </B>Visiting
Bosnia, President Clinton hails the progress made since the war ended two
years ago. Mr. Clinton warns Bosnian leaders, however, that "the
world, which continues to invest in your peace, rightfully expects that
you will do your part."</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 27</B> The new
Bosnian Serb Parliament meets in an inaugural session. Although
hard-liners have lost the majority, they promptly make their power known
by cutting off the live televised coverage of the event.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Croatia</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>NY Times, Dec. 17</B>
On 15 Jan. 1998, Eastern Slavonia, the last Serbian-held enclave within
Croatia (Western Slavonia and Krajina were retaken by Croatian troops in
1995), which is currently under U.N. administration, is to be returned to
Croatia. Although the Croatian government has promised to respect the
rights of ethnic Serbs there, death threats and intimidation by Croats is
prompting the ethnic Serbs to flee to Serbia or to the Serbian-held area
of Bosnia.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Serbia</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 7</B> Serbia's
third attempt in three months to elect a new President fails since none of
the candidates get a majority. (Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who
had ruled Serbia for two consecutive terms, was constitutionally barred
from a third term and had to step down during the summer.)</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 22</B> In an
election described by foreign monitors as "fundamentally flawed,"
Milan Milutinovic, an ally of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, is
proclaimed President of Serbia with 58 percent of the votes.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 25</B> In the
Kosovo province of Serbia, thousands of ethnic Albanian students clash
with the Serbian police, demanding the right to study in Albanian-language
universities that have been banned by the Serbian government.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 29</B> Milan
Milutinovic is sworn in as Serbia's new President; but ultra-nationalist
party members (whose leader, Vojislav Seselj, had won the largest share of
the votes in an earlier election that was subsequently annulled due to its
low turnout) walk out of the Serbian Parliament to protest what they see
as election fraud.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1">WESTERN
EUROPE/EASTERN EUROPE</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Anti-Bribery
Agreement</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 17</B> In Paris,
the U.S. and 33 other nations sign an accord aimed at eradicating bribery
in international business. The agreement, which makes bribing public
officials in foreign countries a criminal offense when a country's laws
provide for it, is subject to approval by national parliaments and will
take effect by the end of 1998.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">European
Union Membership</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 13</B> The
European Union agrees to start negotiations with five Central European
countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia, plus
Cyprus) for membership in five to eight years from now and also agrees to
hold parallel talks with Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and
Slovakia for possible inclusion at a later date. But it singles out Turkey
as "not yet ready for the same negotiating process," based on
its human rights record and treatment of minorities. Although Turkey's
candidacy is supported by France and other nations, it is blocked by
Germany for fear that Turkey's membership will cause an influx into
Germany of relatives of its nearly two million Turkish residents.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 14</B> Turkish
Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz announces that his government will "freeze
its contacts with the European Union" and look instead for a "strategic
partnership" with the United States.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 15</B> Diplomats
from European countries urge Turkey to reconsider its "harsh and rash"
reaction.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 21</B> In a
decision that is both political and commercial, Turkey strengthens its
ties with the U.S. by signing in Washington a $2 billion contract to buy
49 Boeing airplanes. At the same time, Turkey suspends its planned
purchase of long-range planes from Airbus Industrie, a European
consortium.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">France</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 29</B> Angered by
the government's inability to reduce unemployment, jobless demonstrators
occupy nine employment offices in Paris to press for year-end bonuses of
$500. They also block trains for brief periods throughout France, causing
delays for thousands of travelers.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Germany</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 9</B> The German
magazine <I>Der Spiegel</I> reports that an elite officers' academy in
Hamburg invited Manfred Roeder, a convicted neo-Nazi terrorist with a long
history of racist activities, to give a lecture in 1995. The report, along
with an admission by government officials that the German military
supplied Mr. Roeder's organization with old trucks and jeeps, touches off
an uproar among the German public.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 15</B> According
to a government agency report, right-wing extremists are using the
Internet to stir up ethnic violence in the former East Germany. Germany
has the highest proportion of foreign residents (9 percent of its
population of 82 million) but most of them live in western Germany. Racism
in the east is therefore more attributed to mass unemployment than to the
actual presence of a growing foreign population.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Italy</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 3</B> Former
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose government lasted only seven
months, is convicted of falsifying the price of a film company bought by
his Fininvest company in 1989 in order to set up a slush fund.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Land Mines
Treaty</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 3</B> Qualifying
it a "victory for humanity," 120 nations sign in Ottawa a treaty
that bans the production, use, stockpiling, or transport of anti-personnel
mines; the nations also pledge resources and money to clear over 100
million existing land mines. Although the U.S., Russia, and China
participate, they do not sign the treaty (the U.S. has maintained that
signing would endanger its 37,000 U.S. troops in Korea).</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Russia/Baltic
States</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 3</B> President
Boris Yeltsin announces that Russian military forces will be cut by 40
percent around the Baltic. The cut is part of a larger overhaul and
reduction of the Russian military by 20 percent to 1.2 million troops by
1999.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Russia/United
States</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 1</B> The Russian
federal security service arrests as a spy Richard Bliss, an American
engineer working on a telephone project in the city of Rostov--a charge
vehemently denied by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 5</B> Russia
charges Richard Bliss with espionage. This is the first case of its kind
since the end of the Cold War.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 6</B> Following
protests by the United States, Russia releases Richard Bliss but insists
that he will be prosecuted for surveying sensitive sites.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Turkey</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 2</B> A Turkish
court sentences 33 people to death for killing 37 secular intellectuals in
a 1993 mob attack which, according to some Muslims, was "justified
revenge against atheists who sought to humiliate Islam."</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 31</B> Two
Parliament members, Sedat Bucak and Mehmet Agar, face prosecutions for "forming
organizations with the aim of committing crimes." Both men were named
in a 1997 report by a parliamentary commission investigating charges that
"successive Turkish Governments have used death squads
against...their perceived enemies." Although neither of the men
denies involvement, they insist that whatever they did was authorized by "high-ranking
officials."</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Turkey/Greece</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 22</B> Turkey
expels a Greek diplomat, Efstratios Haralambus, for spying. Denying the
charges, Greek authorities say that they will retaliate by expelling a
Turkish diplomat.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">United
Nations</FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 18</B> Efforts by
the United States to lower its U.N. dues have failed due to its refusal to
pay over $1 billion in arrears. Even traditional allies of the U.S. are "incensed
that Americans should expect [the U.N.] to carry out American policies in
Iraq, Haiti or other areas" when the U.S. is so far behind in its
payments.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><B>Dec. 19</B> The U.N.
General Assembly agrees to create the position of Deputy Secretary General
that had been requested by Secretary General Kofi Annan. The new Deputy
Secretary General will fill in for Mr. Annan in his absence and oversee
U.N. programs in economic and social affairs.</FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P></P>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<P><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#083250"><FONT SIZE="-2">Copyright @ Center for Strategic
Decision Research 1998</FONT></FONT> <BR><FONT COLOR="#083250"><FONT SIZE="-2">Strategic Decision Press</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#083250"><FONT SIZE="+1"><A HREF="dec.htm">Return to Top
of Page</A></FONT></FONT> <BR><FONT COLOR="#083250"><FONT SIZE="+1"><A HREF="index.html">Return to
NATO Workshop Homepage</A></FONT></FONT> <BR> </P>
</BODY>
</HTML>