1990

The year Pinochet and Thatcher lost power. The end of monetarism? Pinochet’s defeat was at the hands of the electorate in a referendum, Thatcher was ditched by her own party fearful of electoral defeat as a result of her increasingly unpopular policies. Free elections held in East Germany on the 18th March, followed by reunification on the 3rd of October. It was the end of the cold war as we know it.
In a climate where tensions and military threats should be winding down, as the cold war appeared to be thawing, hawkish elements in the US kept stoking it back up again. Dick Cheney, desperate to avoid disarmament, as Defence Secretary, in January took the view that the US will continue to need a large navy to deal with brush fire conflicts and threats to American interests in places like Latin America and Asia. The Warsaw Pact and NATO signed the Force Limitation Treaty, in Paris, in a OECD meeting, 19th to 21st November. But the Pentagon wasn’t about to roll over and die. America’s secret government had been growing in size, Tim Weiner’s “Blank cheque” claimed that the total black budget was about $35bn in 1990. The government’s disclosed intelligence budget in 1997 was only $2.6bn.

Gorbachev announced a unilateral force reduction, so the US had to get real creative when it came to reasons to stay armed up to the eyeballs. The options were to stir things up in Latin America or the Middle East, but also to attempt to undermine Gorbechev as they had done to Krushchev decades earlier. This time though it really was time for the USSR to duck out of the arms race -–it was bled dry – even the feeble counter revolution to keep things on track puttered out almost as soon as it started. The Soviet Union would soon be no more. But that’s next year, right now it’s not immediately apparent that the end is so nigh. A bright new future of east-west co-operation seems possible to the masses and that’s what they want.

The 80s “boom” was a time of rich get richer, poor get poorer. 55% of wealth increases went to 0.5% of the population while the poor and ‘middle class’ lost $256bn in wealth. Now the top fifth wealthiest of the population held 80% of the wealth. In July 1990 the American economy suddenly plunged into recession. Over the next 8 months GDP fell by 2.2% and unemployment rose from 5.5 to 7.7%. It wasn’t as bad as the 1982 recession when the GDP fell by 3.3 % and unemployment reached 10.8%. But it took till mid 1992 for renewed growth, long enough to finish Bush’s chance of being re-elected.

The year started badly for Washington DC’s mayor. Marion Barry was arrested in an FBI sting  - drug possession charges.

Movie releases: Wild At Heart by David Lynch.

Scandal as Indonesian blood bath became a major story. Kathy Kadone (see 1965/66) – her story originally ran in the Spartanburg, SC. – Herald – Journal 19th May 1990. Picked up by the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and Washington Post. New York Times ignored it till 07/12/90 and then attacked Kadane’s credibility. By Michael Wines. Was this because of their pro-Suharto write up in 1965/66?

Iran-Contra
Feb 6th North appeal Oval arguments.
Feb 16th to 17th Reagan gave videotape deposition in Poindexter case.
Feb 22nd Thomas G Clines is indicted on tax charges.
Feb 22nd Walsh testified on CIPA in a closed session of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
March 5th April 17th Poindexter trial resulting in five count conviction.
July 20th US court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s Circuit vacates North’s convictions and orders further hearings by trial court on immunity issue.
September 6th Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals upholds trial circuit’s rulings in Fernandez case.
September 4th to 18th, Clines trial resulting in conviction on four felony charges.
October 12th Fernandez dismissed after Attorney General notified trial court that he has made a final determination not to withdraw CIPA 6(e) affidavit to bar use of classified information.
October 24th to 25th, Walsh reported to the congressional intelligence and judiciary committees on final outcome of Fernandez.

Latin America
Apart from the fall of Pinochet, there was a resurgence of democracy in Brazil. However the new president, Collar de Mello, who took up the reigns of power in March, wasn’t able to escape from the neo-liberal orthodoxy of an IMF dictated economic policy.
Some things improved however. It seemed that the killings had stopped. A mass grave was discovered containing 1,200 victims of Brazil’s military rule, which ended in 1985.
De Mello froze over £100bn in bank accounts, disrupting lives and temporarily stopping industry. He failed to kill inflation, which refused to drop below 20% during most of 1992. His policies led Brazil into its worst recession in half a century.

By the 1990s SAPs were in place across the third world resulting in a massive haemorrhage of wealth from the poor nations to the rich – an estimated $50bn in 1985 alone. Cooperation between IMF and World Bank meant Third World nations continued to pay the interest on their debts – even as they accumulate new ones. The social effects have been devastating: malnutrition, illiteracy, infant mortality and poverty. UNICEF estimate half a million children died in 1998 alone as a result of debt induced austerity measures.
Governments are powerless against IMF and World Bank who wield most power. Policies enable bankers to collect interest. Competition for scarce export markets holds down prices and depress wages.

The main winners are western consumers and multinationals. South and North drain of wealth increases.

Haiti
An election. Jean Bertrand Aristide – a priest – captured 68% of the vote against 10 comparatively wealthy candidates. He became Haiti’s first democratically elected president. America should be pleased, you’d think. It’s democracy in action, surely, you’d think. That’s good isn’t it? No. He shouldn’t have won – pro US forces had done all they could to keep him out of power, threats, disruption, corruption and terrorism and still he won.
But he didn’t stay in power for long which is about what you should expect in America’s back yard.

Nicaragua
The US claimed credit as Nicaragua held elections this year. These elections, however, had always been on the schedule and never in doubt. If anything the US action were jeopardising the elections, which is what Washington wanted.
The White House and Congress threatened that unless Nicaraguans voted as the US dictated the terrorist war and the embargo would continue. The US vetoed, with Israel, a UN General Assembly resolution calling on US once again to observe international law and call off these illegal actions. The Sandinistas lost the election and were removed from power, because the people could stand no more. Washington’s favoured candidate won, and the Latin American press interpreted the results as a victory for Bush. They elected the devil they knew to get the Yankee devil off their backs.
Nicaragua had finally accepted US terms, officially rejoining the “Free World”. Deaths from malnutrition of children under four increased by 35%. There was massive starvation and a huge epidemic in drug addiction. America has selflessly saved another country from the perils of freedom.

Panama’s governmental Human Rights Commission (Jan 1994) reported that the right to self-determination and sovereignty of the Panamanian people continues to be violated by the “state of occupation by a foreign army”.

“Chicago Boys in Chile met privately with the military and the other groups who were turning in favour of a coup, and drew up a plan for a new Chile, to be implemented when the gun-smoke had cleared.”

Protests in Ecuador.

Yugoslavian War
EVENTS
 1990 Slobodan Milosevic abolished the autonomy of Kosovo and instituted a purge of ethnic Albanians in the province.
1990 -- Serbia dissolved the Kosovo assembly. Ethnic Albanian legislators in the province declared independence. - Dr SD Stein, Stuart.Stein@uwe.ac.uk, ©S D Stein, http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/Kosovo/Kosovo-chronology3.htm
April: Franjo Tudjman and Croatian nationalists won elections in Croatia on platform of succession from Yugoslavia.
December:Slovenes vote for independence.

 “The [Balkan] War engineered by the KLA and the USA in Kosovo it produced great destruction, an immense flight of refugees, thousands of casualties and a fresh injection of hatred on all sides that contradicted the NATO aim of producing a genuine multi-ethnic community. This was followed by a massive ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Roma, Turks and Jews by the NATO supported KLA and Kosovo was left ‘without a legal system, ruled by illegal structures of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and very often by competing mafias’”, Jiri Dienstbier, UN Human Rights rapporteur in Kosovo.
“Under NATO auspices, and helped by leaders of Albania a new advance was made in the aim of Greater Albania in Macedonia and possibly elsewhere. Finally, Serbia was very badly damaged by the war….reduced to penury and dependency, conflit ridden and with a sham democracy in place.”

The revolution in 1989 allowed tensions “that had built up slowly” to suddenly become unleashed. The six republics, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, all set their own agendas, mostly incompatible with each other’s.

In January The League of Communists – the Yugoslavian Communist Party – split along ethnic lines. Violent riots in  Kosovo then necessitated the use of the JNA. But other ethnic groups then feared that the JNA would become a tool of the Serb oppression.

A multi party system was adopted in Bosnia-Hercegovina Republic. And the Slovenes and Croats too took concrete steps, through the spring, towards setting up new forms of political power.  Both republics held free elections in April. Slovenia went centre-right and claimed right to secede. The HDZ – Tudman - won in Croatia. Tudman hung the red and white chequered shield, the Jahourrica from every building demoted Serbs from their status within Croatia as a majority Yugoslav nation to that of  a minority nation within Croatia. Pronounced literary Croat as the only language of administration in Croatia and dismissed Serbs’ Cyrillic script. It was senseless and provocative.
“When the militant dogs of the HDZ were unleashed and allowed to organise  purges of the state administration, Serbs throughout Croatia were shocked by the spectre of persecution. Their misery was compounded when it became clear that they would be replaced by Croats.”

 “The rural Serbs in Krajina, but also some Serbs in other parts of Croatia, were absolutely convinced that following the victory of Franjo Tudman and his Croatian Democrat Union (HDZ) in April 1990, Croats began to install the infrastructure of a fascist state in Croatia.”

In Serbia, a referendum in June, favoured forming a single party state and curbing ethnic autonomy in Kosovo and Vojvodhan. This may have knocked back to increase the paranoia of the secession movements.

“The Port of Split, just 40 miles from Knin was a new centre of militant Croat nationalism…Croats started political experiments which simply confirmed the Serb’s erroneous conviction that fascism was awakening from its slumber.”
Dr Jovan Raskovic, leader of SDS formed in early months of 1990 wanted to avoid armed conflict between Serbs and Croats organised a referendum on political autonomy for Krajina Serbs held in August and Sept of 1990. It led to the armed confrontation on weekend of August 17th.

Milan Babic elevated, with Rasovic’s support, to second most influential politician in Krajina, then Raskovic went to the USA for two months. Babic regularly went to Belgrade and built up his contacts there. As a result Krjina’s resistance movement became a well-armed and highly motivated militia.

Milan Martic organised the Marticevci. Knin became the centre of a new Serb restistance.
Rasckovic wanted Serb cultural autonomy within Croatia such as control over the local school system in Serb majority areas. Tudman and Raskovic failed to find a compromise. Which led to Babic introducing idea of territorial autonomy and policy of secession from Croatia. Babic created an atmosphere of fear amongst Serbs in Knin.

December in elections in Bosnia,  the nationalist parties won easily, capturing 90% of the votes, suggesting something other than a non-nationalistic society. In her book Johnstone provides solid evidence that Alija Izetbegovic, the Muslim leader of Bosnia in the war years, was a committed believer in an Islamic—not a multi-ethnic—state, and a person who regarded Turkey as too advanced and modernist, preferring Pakistan as his Islamic model. The thousands of Mujahidden fighters, including al Qaeda militants, that he welcomed to fight for his cause and the massive aid given him by Saudi Arabia were not supplied in the cause of multi-ethnicity.
Slovenia held a referendum in December, over independence. People voted to leave the Yugoslavian Federation. Tudman had been keeping ‘option of a new Yugoslav community until the Slovenes suddenly began a gallop toward independence.’

Discussions over Yugoslavian break up began in 1990 and continued into ‘91. They involved the six Yugoslavian presidents. All participants took a rigid stance except for the powerless Macedonia and Bosnian presidents. Milosevic opposed Tudman taking Croatia and the 600,000 Serb minority out of the Federation. Serbia and Croatia were on a collision course to war, unless one of them backed down, not likely. And neither did.

Neslon Mandella was released from prison on 11th Feb.

Middle East
In April 1990 the Bush administration was still opposing sanctions against Iraq. “They would hurt US exporters and worsen our trade deficit” according to the State Dept.
Guy Gugliotta, Charles R Babcock, and Benjamin Weisor “at war, Iraq courted Us into economic embrace,” Washington Post, Sep 16th 1990, page A1.
The administration also blocked efforts to cut back hi-tech exports to Iraq with obvious military applications. – Douglas Frantz and Murray Woas, “Bush insisted on aiding Iraq until War’s Onset”, Chicago Sun-Times Feb 23rd, 1992, p.17.
And the US was providing intelligence data to Iraq until 3 months before the invasion. – Murray Woas, Douglas Frantz, “US shared intelligence with Iraq until 3 months before invasion of Kuwait”, Houston Chronicle, March 10, 1992, page A6.

Inspired by his mentor George Bush who had recently invaded Panama, Saddam Hussein decided to invade his wee southern neighbour with all the oil, Kuwait – “effectively an Anglo-American oil protectorate” (Pilger). He probably thought he’d get away with too, as Bush had been giving all the right signals for him to go ahead. But it was a trap. Bush wanted conflict and an excuse to move into the Middle East in a big way. One State Department briefer, according to Pilger, described SH as “an uppity bastard”.

On August 2nd Saddam invaded Kuwait; just weeks before, the CIA was still feeding copious intelligence to Iraq . Investigative reporter Bob Wood: “Hussein, inspired by US action in Panama, invades Kuwait. Bush feared that Saudis would “bug out at the last minute and accept a puppet regime in Kuwait” after Iraqi withdrawal. His advisers expected that Iraq would withdraw, leaving behind “lots of Iraqi special forces in civilian clothes.”
Lawrence Freedman and Efraim ?!? Kersh ?!? of University of London: - “Saddam apparently intended neither officially to annex the tiny emirate nor to maintain a permanent military presence there. Instead he sought to establish hegemony over Kuwait, ensuring its complete financial, political and strategic subservience to his wishes” much as intended by the USA in Panama.
It only went wrong as the US and UK did not follow their usual practise of vetoeing or otherwise nullifying the international reaction to such “text book cases of aggression” as US-South Vietnam; Turkey-Cyprus; Indonesia-East Timor; Israel-Lebanon; US-Panama etc…
The industrial powers responded with an array of economic sanctions of unprecedented severity (these were broadly supported), and threat of war (only US and UK and various Arab dictators supported this bit).
Chomsky:”Both responses were initiated at once, even before Iraq’s annexation of the invaded country”. The US moved quickly to “ensure that sanctions could not be effective and to bar any diplomatic initiative”.
Bush declared: “America stands where it always has, against aggression, against those who would use force to replace the rule of law.” The standard explanation “that with the US victory in the cold war, Soviet obstructionism and the shrill anti-western rhetoric of the third world no longer render the UN ineffective.” This is of course, a load of old cock.
Washington blocked all diplomatic efforts and refused to discuss “problems of armaments, security and others in a regional context” which made Iraqi withdrawal less likely. This was the question of “linkage” with Iraq making certain demands to be met in return for their compliance.
Iraq proposed a settlement linking its withdrawal from Kuwait to withdrawal from other occupied Arab lands: Syria and Israel from Lebanon and Israel from its occupied territories. New Iraqi offer on August 23rd, initially suppressed in west, made no mention of US withdraw or other preconditions. The US continued to dismiss increasingly desperate offers from Iraq – until they demanded nothing but to be allowed to withdraw and negotiate without a war.
Bush rallied a surprised nation - on September 11th – to support a war in the Persian Gulf with reports of a massive Iraqi army that had poured into Kuwait and moved south to threaten Saudi Arabia. The Department of Defence estimated as many as ¼million Iraqi troops. This was, as we now know, not true. Russian satelite photos have shown otherwise.
France made a last minute effort to avoid a war on January 14th 1991, supported by Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and some non-aligned nations. It was rejected by US and UK.

Writers like Krauthammer supplied the ideological “Saddam is Hitler” formula that helped to press for the attack against Iraq – supported by neocons.

History
US State Department in 1945 described the oil fields of the Middle East as “one of the greatest material prizes in world history”. Oil was discovered in the late 19th century and Europe scrambled for it. France took Syria, Lebanon and Northern Iraq while Britain took Baghdad and Basra in the south. Iraq with a puppet government stayed a British oil colony until Suez in 1956. In 1958 the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown by nationalist Abd al-Karim Kassem. A measure of plurality included a decentralised administration and recognistion of the Kurdish Administration and recognition of the Kurdish language and national identity. Threats to nationalise Iraq Petroleum Co n 1963. The US engineered a coup .

The press -  or the control of the press – was a major issue in this war. After Vietnam the Pentagon wasn’t about to let the press spoil things for them again. Excerpt tfrom the Grauniad, 30 March, 2000. In the Falklands War “The 17 correspondents eventually accredited had to sign forms agreeing to accept censorship at source by six MoD “public relations officers”. The result was reported exactly how the military wanted it to be.”
“From this success a theory developed. If you confronted the media and told them that, unlike Vietnam, this was a war that they would not be allowed to cover, they would become so despaerate that you could do a deal – they would be allowed coverage but only on the military’s terms.
“This theory was tested in the US invasions of Panama and Grenada, and worked well in the Gulf War. There the US and GB operated a “pool system”. Only a limited number of journalists would be allowed near the battlefield; they would be escorted by officers who would decide what they would see; and the journalists would have to make their reports available.”

The Rest
In June, 1990, (board members Hilary Clinton and David Rockefeller, Jr) produced America’s choice: high skills or low wages? (proposing “certificate of Initial Mastery”), which greatly influenced the establishment of the secretary’s commission on achieving Necessary skills (SCANS) by the Department of Labor.

Another effect of Soviet collapse was Namibia’s independence in 1990. Thanks due to withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola and closure of ANC bases leading to the speeding up of a UN agreement to end South Africa’s occupation of Namibia. Namibia gained independence on 21st March.

Gay people were slowly making progress. The Hate Crime Statistics Bill was passed by Congress in February 1990. And the Gay Games had survived and flourished, with the 3rd event being held in Vancouver, British Colombia, bigger than ever before. The Annual Conference of American Rabbis decided that gays can be accepted as Rabbis.

Elections in Burma – National League for Democracy won 82% but were never allowed to govern – persecuted.

Douglas Wilder was inaugurated as the first elected black Governor of a US state, on 13th January 1990, in Virginia.

Germany
German reunification was planned for 3rd October 1990 – indecently soon after the collapse of the communist government.
In 1994 Gunter Grass wrote his book “To Far Afield” – an attack on reunification, “annexation” (anschluss), “a crude and often corrupt take-over of East German’s public assets by capitalists”…”he finds it troubling that west Germans were more ruthless in rooting out and sacking everyone who was linked, however loosely, to the East German regime, including school teachers and university professors, than they were with former Nazis 50 years earlier.”

Joachim Gauck took office as head of the newly formed Stasi File Authority.
GDR – only country that opened its files on its people. West Germany wanted to destroy or lock away  the Stasi files for fear of what they recorded about West Germany anmd other western countries.
August 1990 the first elected parliament of the GDR.
After this parliament voted for the people to see the files – West Gaermany in its draft Unification Treaty prescribed that the files would be delivered to the Federal Archives in Koblenz where they would be locked away.
Protest began on 4th September 1990

Honecker was arrested in early 1990 – July 1992 extradited to Berlin for trial. May 1994 – died of liver cancer without facing trial.

Yugoslavia disintegrates
Dec. 23: Germany, Belgium, and Denmark recognize Croatia and Slovenia. Thus the war is started. CHECK YEAR

Rwanda
Warfare broke out in Rwanda in late 1990. Guerillas of the largely Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded the country from neighbouring Uganda. Their goal was to topple Juvenal Habyarimana’s Hutu-dominated government, which was installed in the 1973 military coup.
January 1991 to December 1993: New York Times ran stories on Rwanda, half of them brief wire service dispatches. The Washington Post didn’t have a single story on Rwanda during that period, while ‘The Wall Street Journal’ ran a grand total of four sentences in three one-paragraph filler items. WashBab page 55
In 1991 Bush increased US aid to Rwanda to $15m up from $9m in 1990. Habyariman’s government received far more important support from France, which deployed combat troops to Rwanda after war with the RPF began. The French also rushed in advisors, helicopter parts, mortars and munitions. The war led to increased human rights violations – elections were announced by Habyarimana scheduled for 1992 and nine new parties formed in anticipation.