ichael . benson on Thu, 22 Jul 1999 00:35:30 +0000 |
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Syndicate: lights off/lights on |
There's power, and then there's power, the subject. There's a switch, and it's either on or off. Below it is a nuclear warhead, or not. Browsing through today's Washington Post, I stumbled on one of the best illustrations of the weird, scary, powered-up, powered-down times we're living in. It takes the form of two stories: (1) Power to Russian Nuclear Forces Is Shut Off By Sharon LaFraniere Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, July 21, 1999 MOSCOW, July 20 -- In the latest sign of the Russian military's financial straits, units in charge of Russia's nuclear forces in the Far East reported being left without power this week because the utility bill has not been paid. The cutoff temporarily incapacitated military radar in the Khabarovsk region on the border with China, local air defense chief Anatoly Nogovitsyn said, according to the Associated Press. Water pumps quit working and dozens of garrisons went dark, according to unit commanders. The Russian news agency Interfax said electricity was cut off to units responsible for the strategic rockets that make up Russia's "nuclear shield" and for controlling Russia's air border. The central command of the Strategic Missile Forces later said in a statement that the cutoff had only affected support facilities, not combat units. However, the military's press service acknowledged the situation was worrisome. It was at least the third time in a year that sensitive military installations have found themselves without power because of unpaid bills. A local authority switched off electricity to a northern naval base where nuclear-powered submarines were located last fall, and a missile testing site was also temporarily left in the dark. To military experts, the cutoffs are only one of the more obvious signs of how Russia's control over its nuclear arsenal continues to weaken. Its early warning system for detecting ballistic missile launches has deteriorated to the point that space satellites can no longer cover U.S. missile sites around the clock. The conventional forces are in no better shape: Soldiers live in deplorable conditions and sometimes solicit passersby on city streets for money to buy bread. The Russian government, determined to show its military is still a force to be reckoned with, has staged large-scale military exercises in recent months. The Kosovo war provided the military its best argument in some time for more funding, and Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin has promised to increase defense spending. But in the Far East this week, the Khabarovskenergo power company got tired of waiting. Company officials said the military owed more than $16 million and had ignored all pleas and warnings. Military officials contend the debt was less than $6 million, and say complaints should be directed to the Finance Ministry in Moscow, which has failed to send the funds. After a meeting with the regional governor, power was restored--but only for the next three weeks, according to the newspaper Izvestia. (2) Lights Back on in Kosovo By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 21, 1999 OBILIC, Yugoslavia, July 20 -- With the flick of a match and fuel from an oily rag, one of five aging generators was up and humming here today at Kosovo's main power plant, promising the first supply of reliable electricity since the end of the war. But the problems encountered by NATO forces in restarting the coal-fired plant--not to mention lingering doubts about how long the Communist-era relic will hold out--illustrate just how difficult it will be to rebuild this rubble-strewn province and bring together its ethnic Albanian and Serbian communities. The assembly of a joint work force of 600 ethnic Albanians and 250 Serbs has been marred by periodic threats and harassment from both sides, NATO officials said, and workers say the two groups try to avoid each other as much as possible. Ethnic Albanians grumble that NATO's efforts, which have focused on building a multiethnic work force, have allowed too many Serbs to hold well-paying jobs. Employees on both sides predict that the Serbs, who held more jobs and privileges than did ethnic Albanians before the war, will leave once NATO troops stop overseeing security. Many Albanians were fired from the plant a decade ago, when the Belgrade government stripped the ethnic Albanian-majority province of autonomy and installed local Serbs in most key positions. "We can't cooperate with them," said Miftar Mehani, 37, an ethnic Albanian electrical technician who has worked at the plant for a decade. "We are still seeing the horrors, and there are people who I work with who were part of that. . . . There's nothing for them here now." The 36-year-old power plant is a mess, a casualty of years of neglect, but NATO officials insist it will provide for Kosovo's near-term electrical needs until a more modern plant can be reopened nearby. But several workers said the older plant desperately needs major upgrades, both to modernize equipment and correct shoddy repairs and lax maintenance. The boilers that power the generators are patched, employees said, and spare parts were spirited away long ago. Officials say it will take weeks before the plant is operating at capacity. Then there is the problem of pollution. Zoran Stanisavlievic, an engineer, said that each of the plant's towering smokestacks emits 20 tons of acidic coal ash per hour, sending up a gray-brown plume that frequently blankets nearby Pristina, the Kosovo capital, in the wintertime. "I will give it maybe 10 days," said Ingsabit Hyseni, 45, who oversees one of the plant's control rooms. "It's very unstable, and we are working it very hard. The whole electrical grid is very damaged." Nearly a third of Kosovo's people have no power, including more than half the residents and businesses in the hard-hit western part of the province, according to Col. Max Heron of the British Royal Engineers. Both neglect and NATO's 78-day bombing campaign badly damaged the electrical "supergrid" that covers Kosovo, forcing officials to rely on local grids for power. Most heavy industry here has been shut down for weeks or months, and a lack of power has been a major obstacle to getting it restarted. Pristina and other urban centers have also had to contend with regular electrical and water outages since NATO ended its bombing campaign five weeks ago. With its one operating generator and electricity imported from nearby countries, Kosovo now has the minimal amount of power it requires, officials said. With winter looming, maintaining and increasing that capacity will be vital. "In the last 24 hours, we have effectively doubled the power available in Kosovo," Heron said, standing in sight of an aging plaque extolling Tito, who founded communist Yugoslavia in 1945. "Quite clearly, restoration of power is one of the main objectives. . . . The first thing we have to do is get people back to work." Heron and other NATO officials said the plant's management eventually will be turned over to the U.N. agency responsible for rebuilding the province. British troops will continue to guard against sabotage or conflicts between workers in the near term, officials said. ----------------------------------------- Michael Benson <michael.benson@pristop.si> <http://www.ljudmila.org/kinetikon/> Michael Benson <michael.benson@pristop.si> <http://www.ljudmila.org/kinetikon/> ------Syndicate mailinglist-------------------- Syndicate network for media culture and media art information and archive: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate to unsubscribe, write to <syndicate-request@aec.at> in the body of the msg: unsubscribe your@email.adress