Syndicate: lights off/lights on

[ichael.benson@pristop.si]

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/> 
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