| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
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| 142.1 | Where to put them all...? | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Oct 03 1986 15:35 | 62 |
| Associated Press Fri 03-OCT-1986 10:49 Iceland-Summit
Soviet, U.S. Advance Teams Begin Work
By MARCUS ELIASON
Associated Press Writer
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - U.S. and Soviet officials began touring
Reykjavik today in search of a "cozy little place" for the superpower
summit.
The Iceland government favors the Saga Hotel, the capital's most
luxurious, as the site for the Oct. 11-12 meeting between President
Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. But also under
consideration are a sports hall, an art gallery and a museum of
reconstructed old Icelandic houses, Hugh Ivory, head of the U.S.
Cultural Center in Reykjavik, was quoted as saying.
The daily Morgunbladid newspaper quoted Ivory as saying both sides were
looking for "a cozy little place where the leaders can talk in peace.
They don't want to sit alone in some huge hotel." Ivory declined to
comment on possible locations when contacted later, saying various
possibilities were under consideration.
Only a few officials from the Soviet Union and United States have
arrived so far. The main advance parties are expected to arrive late
today.
The island of 240,000 inhabitants faces what Morgunbladid called "a
gigantic task" - arranging in 11 days a superpower summit that will be
the focus of world attention. The newspaper ran a cartoon showing Prime
Minister Steingrumur Hermannsson welcoming the superpower leaders into
a dingy looking living room and saying, "You are most welcome to stay,
gentlemen, but I hope you like my cooking." It showed a pot with a
whale's tail boiling on a stove.
After initial bewilderment at their country being chosen for the
summit, Icelanders began to pick up the spirit of the occasion. Henson
Co., a clothes manufacturer, began marketing T-shirts with pictures of
the two superpower leaders at 685 krona ($17) each.
With hotel rooms at a premium, Icelanders were urged to offer private
rooms for rent, and U.S. television networks reported some offers of
houses at $3,000 a night.
The networks and the Soviet government were chartering ocean liners to
berth in Reykjavik harbor in an effort to accommodate journalists.
Reykjavik has 1,500 hotel beds, and the government has sequestered the
four best hotels under special powers provided by the constitution.
Judging by past summits, the island can expect several hundred
officials and as many as 3,000 journalists to flood Reykjavik in the
coming days.
Icelandair, the privately owned national airline of four DC8s and two
Boeing 727s, said it was adding extra flights from London; Copenhagen,
Denmark; Luxembourg and New York. Public relations manager Margret
Hauksdottir said the number of extra flights would depend on demand.
"It's quite a lot busier than usual. ... We're quite out of the way but
I wouldn't say it's difficult to get to Iceland."
Icelandair is the only scheduled airliner serving Iceland.
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| 142.2 | Cozy => things that go bump in the night | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Sat Oct 04 1986 11:02 | 58 |
| Associated Press Sat 04-OCT-1986 08:40 Iceland-Summit
Paper Says Meeting Site Chosen
By MARCUS ELIASON
Associated Press Writer
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - A Reykjavik newspaper said today that U.S.
officials have accepted a 77-year-old banquet hall on the city's
waterfront as a site for talks between President Reagan and Soviet
leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Morgunbladid, Iceland's leading newspaper,
said the U.S. delegation was awaiting Soviet agreement on using the
Hofdi, a graceful two-story building overlooking the capital's bay and
volcanic mountains.
The newspaper, quoting unidentified sources, said Reagan and Gorbachev
would meet three times. A first meeting of two hours was scheduled for
Oct. 11, a second two-hour talk was set for the afternoon, and the
third, of undetermined length, would be Oct. 12, the paper said.
The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on later reports that both
sides agreed on the Hofdi as the site for the two leaders to hold
private talks during the summit. Formal talks between Reagan and
Gorbachev are expected to be held at a separate location.
Morgunbladid mentioned the possibility that the superpower leaders
would attend the opening of the winter session of the Althing,
Iceland's 60-member parliament in the center of Reykjavik. The
1,000-year-old Althing is the oldest parliament in Europe.
The Hofdi - with its pine-paneled interiors, fireplace, landscape
paintings and grandfather clock - is the mayor's official banqueting
hall. The cozy, unpretentious parlor appears to offer the kind of warm
intimacy which the two leaders are looking for as an escape from the
more formal talks involving their aides, which are expected to be held
in the conference hall of the Saga Hotel.
Gorbachev is expected to stay in the Royal Suite of the 162-room hotel,
and Reagan at the U.S. Embassy, a couple of minutes' drive away.
What almost certainly was not taken seriously into account by officials
who visited the Hofdi on Friday is a legend that the house is haunted.
The Hofdi belonged to the British diplomatic mission, but was put on
the market in 1951 by the then-ambassador John Greenway, who allegedly
believed it was haunted.
``Greenway wrote to his superiors that `noises and bumps in the night'
had convinced him ghosts were afoot, and he was permitted to sell the
house,'' Brian Holt, a consular assistant at the time, told The
Associated Press.
Soviet and U.S. advance parties met several times Friday and toured the
city in search of meeting places. Icelandic police and officials at the
island's Keflavik Airport stepped up security noticeably.
With a huge influx of foreigners expected, the Justice Ministry
authorized the airport to turn away people who had not booked
accommodations.
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| 142.3 | Plausable explanation for nightly bumps: | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Oct 06 1986 10:07 | 63 |
| Associated Press Sat 04-OCT-1986 15:47 Iceland-Summit
Waterfront Lodge, Rumored Haunted, Likely to be Summit Meeting Place
By MARCUS ELIASON
Associated Press Writer
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Icelandic officials confirmed Saturday that
President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev are likely to meet at the Hofdi,
a picturesque Reykjavik bayside house said to be haunted by the ghost
of a drowned woman. Foreign Ministry spokesman Sveinn Eldon said a
final decision had not been made, but that neither side had voiced any
objections to the Hofdi, a two-story white clapboard house.
The Hofdi, overlooking Reykjavik Bay with a panoramic view of the
volcanic mountains, seems to meet the two leaders' requirements for a
cozy place for their private discussions Oct. 11-12. It was open to
visitors until Saturday, when a uniformed policeman was posted inside
and barred unauthorized visitors.
A senior Icelandic government source said the Saga Hotel, Iceland's
initial preference for the meetings, now looked unlikely. Speaking on
condition of anonymity, he said Gorbachev would stay at the Saga, but
added that the leaders preferred the Hofdi. Reagan is to stay at the
U.S. Embassy.
It was not clear if Reagan and Gorbachev would have any formal meeting
involving large delegations from each side. The precise agenda for the
talks has not been released, but is expected Monday. White House
spokesman Larry Speakes said Friday the emphasis in Iceland would be on
face-to-face discussions between the two leaders, rather than the
extensive talks among aides which have characterized previous,
full-fledged summits.
At the Saga Hotel, the Soviet, U.S. and Icelandic flags flew side by
side, and heaps of sod were brought in to put in new lawns around the
eight-story hotel. Morgunbladid, Iceland's main newspaper, said the
leaders would meet twice on Saturday, and again Sunday morning.
A French consul built the Hofdi in 1909, with timber and design
imported from Norway. Later the British diplomatic mission owned it.
Guests have included Winston Churchill, the wartime British prime
minister, and singer-actress Marlene Dietrich.
In 1952, the British head of mission of the time, John Greenway,
obtained permission from London to sell the house on the grounds it was
haunted. "He told them he couldn't sleep for noises and bumps in the
night, and convinced them it was haunted and should be sold," said
Brian Holt, who was a consular assistant at the time.
Holt, who lives in retirement in Reykjavik, said he attended many
functions at the house since "and I was never aware of anything
unusual." He said the ghost was thought to be of a young woman whose
body was found washed ashore near the house.
Eldon joked: "The Iceland Foreign Ministry does not say the house isn't
haunted. ... We neither confirm nor deny it." In 1958, geothermal wells
were found under the house, one possible cause of Greenway's bumps in
the night, and the city bought the site.
No one lives in the Hofdi and it serves as the mayor's banquet hall. It
contains comfortable furniture, a pine-paneled interior and prized
works of Icelandic art.
|
| 142.4 | Where to put them all, Part II | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Oct 06 1986 10:14 | 50 |
| Associated Press Sat 04-OCT-1986 23:37 Iceland-Housing
Iceland Swamped By Influx Of Officials And Journalists
By LARRY THORSON
Associated Press Writer
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Hundreds of officials and journalists are
headed for Iceland for the superpower summit and rooms are in great
demand, prompting some Icelanders to offer their houses for as much as
$15,000 a week. "I've had people offer me small apartments for $3,000
for the week," said Carol Masi, a CBS employee trying to find
accommodations for CBS News staffers who will cover the Oct. 11-12
summit.
Iceland, a tiny island nation with a population of 240,000, only has
about 1,500 hotel beds in the capital of Reykjavik. The U.S. and Soviet
delegations will claim at least half those beds, leaving many of the
more than 2,000 journalists expected to arrive by the end of the week
looking for other accomodations.
On Thursday, the government assumed emergency powers, emptying hotels
and commandeering schools to house visitors and set up facilities such
as press centers. The Iceland Tourist Bureau has become a clearinghouse
to meet requests for bed-and-breakfast accomodations in private homes.
Bureau spokeswoman Audur Birgisdottir said she had received about 700
requests, but only about 300 rooms to offer. She said the bureau hoped
to meet all requests by mid-week. Asked about escalating prices, she
said: "Not from us. We are handling rooms at $50 a night for a single
and $75 for a double."
Mrs. Birgisdottir said the bureau had about a dozen people checking the
rooms before they were being rented. "We don't intend to let anything
we haven't seen," she said.
Another option for visitors is to check into one of 200 double cabins
aboard the car ferry Bolette which is expected to reach Reykjavik from
Norway to help relieve the housing shortage.
The prices for private deals, meanwhile, were rising. Ms. Masi said
that last week, small apartments were offered for $1,200, then for
$2,000 and then for $3,000 a week. Others reported that some large
houses accommodating seven people were offered for as much as $15,000 a
week.
The higher prices were for homes near the Saga Hotel, the likely site
of some of the meetings between President Reagan and Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The Saga plans to ask its regular guests to leave
by mid-week.
|
| 142.5 | A profile of Iceland's prime minister | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Oct 06 1986 10:20 | 84 |
| Associated Press Sun 05-OCT-1986 00:08 Iceland-Cool Minister
Prime Minister Keeps His Icelandic Cool Through Summit Hubbub
By MARCUS ELIASON
Associated Press Writer
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - For a man given less than two weeks to set up
a superpower summit, Prime Minister Steingrimur Hermannsson has done
well to keep his Icelandic cool. The leader of this island of 240,000
people is a tall, 58-year-old Reykjavikken with reddish hair and the
complexion of an outdoorsman who likes to ski and fish. Now he's
suddenly an international celebrity.
Amid the whirlwind of phone calls, meetings and news media briefings,
one might expect Hermannsson to run for cover behind a phalanx of
aides, media consultants and bodyguards. But he still answers his home
phone himself - he's in the Reykjavik directory - and anyone who wants
to talk to or interview him need only wait by his office door until he
has a free moment.
A stranger dropping in for a talk is ushered in without ceremony. There
are no body searches or identity checks at his office in an
unpretentious two-story house in downtown Reykjavik. The prime minister
sits at a spartan desk, jacket thrown carelessly over a chair.
Through a window floats the pungent odor of the day's catch being
ground into fishmeal. Far be it from Hermannsson to complain. Fishing
is his country's lifeblood, and people call the smell "peningalykt" -
the smell of money.
Hermannsson was educated at the California Institute of Technology, and
like most of his countrymen he speaks excellent English. During an
hourlong interview he talked candidly about everything from superpower
politics to his divorce.
Asked if he regrets subjecting his small country to the onslaught of
superpower summitry, he replied unhesitatingly. "These summit meetings
are of such tremendous importance to the whole of mankind that I don't
think any country could turn down a request for a meeting to be held,"
he said.
The only note of dissatisfaction he sounded was that the two powers
were not getting vital information to him quickly enough. He needed
dates, places, word on whether or not the two governments accepted his
proposals for meeting sites. "This is slowing us down," he complained.
For his own part, Hermannsson moved swiftly but methodically. He set up
a special committee to oversee preparations, commandeered hotels, gave
orders to spruce up Reykjavik and called on every Icelander with
experience in security, from reserve policemen to mountain rescue
experts, to join a special force to guard the visitors.
"We are very grateful for the fact that here in Iceland we feel
extremely safe," he said. "I'm able to walk down the streets every day
and I'm often stopped by somebody who says `You're a nice fellow,' or
says, `I don't like you.' I don't have a bodyguard and I haven't asked
for one." Nonetheless, since the assassination of Swedish Prime
Minister Olaf Palme in Stockholm last February, a member of Iceland's
tiny SWAT team has been assigned to Hermannsson's office.
Hermannsson's father, Hermann Jonasson, was Iceland's prime minister
from 1934 to 1942. His own interest lay in engineering, he said. "I was
very determined never to go into politics," he said, so he went to
Caltech and later the University of Chicago where he met his first
wife, Sarah Jane Murray.
"But I was always interested in politics, and I suppose I couldn't keep
my mouth shut at meetings and I finally gave in and became chairman of
the Young Progressives," he said. He was elected to the 60-seat
Althing, Iceland's parliament, in 1971, and served in various Cabinet
posts until 1983, when, as head of the center-right Progressive Party,
he became prime minister in a coalition government.
Hermannsson's wife didn't like Iceland, he says, and returned to the
United States with their three children. She now lives in Ithaca, N.Y.,
and he has remarried and had three more children.
Conflicts over shipping rights and whaling recently have strained
relations with the United States, Iceland's chief ally. But Hermannsson
said, "Those problems are now behind us." Under his leadership a
national consensus has hardened in favor of keeping a NATO base at
Keflavik run by the U.S. Navy. Anti-American rhetoric, which hit a high
pitch in the 1970s, has fallen to insignificant levels.
|
| 142.6 | Beleaguered by demonstrators | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Oct 07 1986 10:13 | 96 |
| Associated Press Mon 06-OCT-1986 20:22 Iceland-Summit
Hermannsson says Can't Stop Demonstrators Who Insist on Coming
By MARCUS ELIASON
Associated Press Writer
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - A U.S. Jewish activist said he was
negotiating Monday with the Icelandic government after being refused
permission to bring a planeload of campaigners for Soviet Jewry to
Reykjavik for the U.S.-Soviet summit.
Jerry Strober, spokesman for the National Conference on Soviet Jewry,
said authorities at Iceland's international airport refused to grant
landing rights for the plane, which was to bring 50 U.S. Jewish leaders
to Reykjavik on Friday. The group works for the release of Soviet Jews
who have been denied permission to emigrate.
Strober told The Associated Press he had met with police and would meet
with Justice Ministry officials on Tuesday. He said he had not been
given a reason why the group was refused permission to land. He said he
wanted to bring the protesters in for three or four hours and fly them
home the same day. "I told them this would not be a demonstration,
there would be no signs, no megaphones, just a silent vigil at the
pre-summit site. ... We made it clear that we are not a militant
organization."
A source close to the negotiations, who requested anonymity, said
Strober was willing to reduce the delegation to 10 and restrict its
activities to a news conference about Soviet Jewry, and drop the
planned vigil. "We don't want to get into an argument with the
Icelandic government or people. We respect them as a country that has
manifested great concern about Soviet Jewry, Israel and anti-Semitism,"
he said.
President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev are to meet
Saturday and Sunday in the Hofdi, a Reykjavik bayside house. Reagan
arrives Thursday night and Gorbachev is expected the following day.
Since being chosen as the summit site, Iceland has enacted special
measures such as requiring all visiting foreigners to have
accommodation booked in advance, and demanding 24 hours notice of any
non-scheduled flight arriving in Iceland in order to decide whether to
grant landing rights.
Authorities have said the first measure stems from a lack of hotel
space in this island of 240,000, and that the other is an
anti-terrorist precaution. But many Icelanders see them as designed
primarily to keep out protesters.
The notion of Iceland revoking its tradition of civil liberties to suit
the superpowers strikes a sour note among the independent-minded
Icelanders. Morgunbladid, the country's most prestigious newspaper,
commented Sunday: "Obstructions like these have been like poison to
Icelanders and hopefully they still are."
In an interview Monday with the AP, Prime Minister Steingrimur
Hermannsson said U.S. and Soviet officials scouting Reykjavik for
suitable meeting places had indicated to him they would prefer
demonstrators be kept away. But neither side had made any demands, he
said. "They stressed they would appreciate that no outside disturbance
be allowed," he said.
Among those believed planning journeys here are several Soviet Jewry
groups, anti-nuclear activists, and Greenpeace, the environmental
organization, which intends to sail a ship into Reykjavik harbor during
the summit.
Hermannsson said he could not stop them entering his country if they
met the government's requirements. "If they come and they obey the
rules ... I don't see how we can stop them. This is a free country," he
said.
"We do not discriminate against anyone, Israelis or Greenpeace or
anyone else. But we would be very pleased if all these groups who would
like to demonstrate would drop it for two days." He said Reagan and
Gorbachev were seeking "a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere."
He described himself as a long-time friend of Israel, and said his
country had frequently supported the Jewish state's policies. He said
he had visited Israel twice "and I have a very strong understanding of
their plight."
Turning to plans for the summit, Hermannsson was at pains to make clear
that his government had nothing to do with the surprise decision that
Gorbachev's wife Raisa would accompany them. The White House has
expressed implicit displeasure, saying the summit was supposed to be a
small, intimate meeting, and that wives, whose presence means larger
entourages, were not meant to come. It said Reagan's wife Nancy was not
coming.
"They (the Soviets) told us she (Raisa Gorbachev) would like to come,
and we said she would be most welcome," Hermannsson said. A diplomatic
source in Moscow said Monday that the Soviet delegation already
included more than 300 people and that the names of some of the
highest-ranking Soviet officials expected to attend were not yet on the
list.
|
| 142.7 | Compromise reached | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Oct 07 1986 16:37 | 74 |
| Associated Press Tue 07-OCT-1986 14:26 Iceland-Summit
Iceland Letting in U.S. Jewish Leaders for Summit News Conference
By MARCUS ELIASON
Associated Press Writer
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Iceland agreed Tuesday to let 10 U.S. Jewish
leaders fly into Iceland for a few hours to hold a news conference
about Soviet Jewry the day before the U.S.-Soviet summit. It had banned
a larger group from demonstrating here.
Jerry Strober, spokesman for the U.S.-based National Conference on
Soviet Jewry, said after talks with a senior Icelandic official that an
executive jet would fly in eight Jewish delegates on Friday. He said
Iceland had approved the participation of 10, but the jet could only
carry eight.
The Jewish delegates will be gone before the arrival of President
Reagan on Friday and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Saturday,
Strober said. He said the group will hold a news conference on the
plight of Soviet Jewry and leave in time to be home for the Jewish
Sabbath, which starts at sundown Friday.
There are about 2 million Jews in the Soviet Union. Israel maintains
some 400,000 of the Soviet Jews want to emigrate. Jewish emigration
peaked at 51,000 in 1979, but since has been reduced to about 1,000 a
year.
The delegation will be led by Morris B. Abrams, chairman of the
umbrella organization of Jewish movements in the United States and of
the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, which has 44 national
organizations and 300 local groups under its aegis.
Strober said he had asked authorities at Iceland's international
airport for permission to fly in 50 U.S. Jewish leaders who wanted to
hold a silent vigil for Soviet Jewry outside the Hofdi, the Reykjavik
bayside house where Reagan and Gorbachev will meet. But an official
rejected the request, telling him: "The government wanted to avoid any
possibility that there would be any upset in security," Strober said.
On Tuesday he met with Thorsteinn Geirsson, secretary of state at the
Justice Ministry, to offer a compromise whereby a smaller party would
hold a news conference but no vigil, and leave shortly afterwards.
Geirsson said he would bring the proposal before the government.
Explaining to reporters why the first plan was rejected, he said: "Here
in Iceland we have a very small police force."
He said the force could handle the summit and the leaders' security,
"but if we have to cope with a lot of meetings by foreigners whom the
police don't know, all about town, anyone can see that the police will
have difficulties in accomplishing the task."
A short while later, the government accepted the compromise, and
Strober appeared eager to put the initial dispute behind him, saying:
"I am prepared to accept that it was a snafu in the bureaucracy." He
said he sought landing rights from airport authorities because Iceland
had ordered all non-scheduled flights into the country to request entry
24 hours in advance.
The Icelandic government has ired some of its 240,000 citizens with its
attempts to curb the entry of demonstrators. A strong pro-Israel and
pro-Soviet Jewry sentiment runs through Icelandic society, and the
clampdown on demonstrators is widely regarded as a case of Iceland
compromising its civil liberties to suit the superpowers.
Morgunbladid, the country's largest newspaper and a consistent critic
of the restrictions, said, "we must welcome those who come here in
peace."
The government says it must prevent protests because one of the reasons
Iceland was chosen for the summit was that Reagan and Gorbachev want to
avoid the demonstrations that dogged their previous summit in Geneva
last November.
|
| 142.8 | Hired mouthpiece | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Wed Oct 08 1986 13:51 | 44 |
| Associated Press Tue 07-OCT-1986 17:13 Iceland-PR
Iceland Turns to Washington Publicists to Help Handle Media Horde
By JOAN MOWER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - What's the first thing a country does when it is
picked as a superpower summit site? Hire a Washington public relations
firm, of course.
Iceland has hired Gray & Co., which has several international clients,
to help handle the media invasion during next weekend's meeting between
President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. "They're a small
country and they came to us for help," said Henry Hubbard, a senior
vice president at Gray.
Three Gray executives flew to Reykjavik last weekend to assist the
Icelandic government with press work, answering questions, providing
background material and perhaps helping with "creature comforts" for
reporters, Hubbard said. He said the number of reporters, cameramen and
technicians in Iceland for the weekend meeting could swell well above
1,000, including several hundred American journalists.
More than 3,000 media people came to Geneva, Switzerland, last November
when Reagan and Gorbachev held their first meeting, but the number was
expected to be far fewer for the Reykjavik talks.
One of the principal tasks for the public relations people will be
helping television crews obtain footage and reporters get facts for
feature stories on Iceland, unrelated to the summit. Hubbard, a former
Newsweek magazine reporter, said reporters will be scrambling for
stories during the times the White House and the Kremlin impose a "news
blackout," temporarily stopping official communiques.
The public relations people will steer them in the right direction,
suggesting pieces on subjects such as Icelandic geology, thermal baths,
the oldest parliament and the capital city, Hubbard said.
Neither Hubbard nor Hordur Bjarnason, press counselor at the Embassy of
Iceland, said they knew how much Iceland will pay Gray & Co. for the
work. "I really don't know the details," said Bjarnason. But Hubbard
said Gray & Co. would file the necessary forms with the Justice
Department office where foreign agents are registered.
|
| 142.9 | Reagan's reception | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Oct 10 1986 10:45 | 100 |
| Associated Press Thu 09-OCT-1986 18:01 Iceland-Summit
Proud, Excited Iceland Prepares to Welcome Summiteers
By MARCUS ELIASON
Associated Press Writer
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - With flags, spruced-up streets and a
precedent-breaking live television broadcast, a proud and excited
Iceland greeted President Reagan on his arrival Thursday for a summit
with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Reagan arrived at Keflavik Airport, the Icelandic international airport
also serving the island's U.S.-run NATO base, at 7.02 p.m. local time.
The president was greeted in a drizzly rain by Icelandic President
Vigdis Finnbogadottir, the world's only elected female head of state,
as well as Prime Minister Steingrimur Hermannsson and Foreign Minister
Matthias A. Mathiasen.
As Reagan arrived at the U.S. ambassador's residence where he will
spend the next three nights, several dozen Icelanders lined a street
corner and cheered, clapped and squealed in delight when he waved to
them. A U.S. president in Iceland is a major event for this remote,
sparsely populated country, and as one of the spectators, 24-year-old
factory worker Smare Gudmundsson put it, "This is a big moment for
everybody."
In choosing to broadcast the arrival ceremony, Iceland's 20-year-old
state network departed from a policy of prohibiting television
broadcasts on Thursdays - a policy adopted at its inception with the
aim of enhancing family intimacy.
Iceland's state radio opened a special English-channel for the media
with music, newscasts and announcements of arrangements for covering
summit events.
The Hofdi, the graceful bayside house where Reagan and Gorbachev will
have their two days of talks, was polished up with a fresh coat of
beeswax on its wooden floor. A large pit dug outside for a sewage
project was filled in so the leaders would have an unobstructed of
Reykjavik Bay and the volcanic mountains beyond. Bleachers were set up
outside the two-story white clapboard house for camera crews. The
Icelandic government, well-attuned to superpower security demands,
commandeered neighboring office blocks to prevent them being taken over
by TV networks.
Streets leading to the U.S. Embassy, where Reagan will be staying, were
closed off by police ahead of the president's arrival. The weather was
40 degrees and drizzly, but in Iceland's variable weather, a sunny
summit was not ruled out.
About 50 campaigners for Soviet Jewry were expected to assemble in
Reykjavik, hoping for permission to demonstrate outside the Hofdi. They
include Soviet immigrants coming from Israel to fight for the right of
other Jews to leave the Soviet Union. The Israeli group includes two
members of parliament, and Israeli President Chaim Herzog has written
to Mrs. Finnbogadottir asking that they be allowed to hold a peaceful
demonstration. Her response was not immediately known.
The campaigners have ignored appeals from the Icelandic government to
stay away and thereby preserve the peaceful atmosphere for which the
two leaders chose Iceland as their venue. The government also said the
campaigners' activities would overburden its tiny police force.
Mayor David Oddsson, whose capital of 90,000 is the smallest and
northernmost in Europe, said about 8 million kronur - $200,000 - had
been spent cleaning up Reykjavik for the summit. He said Reykjavik was
lucky that it was celebrating its 200th anniversary as a city and had
given many of its buildings a fresh coat of paint before the summit was
announced. He said that since the summit was announced with less than
two weeks' notice, city employees had worked overtime to finish road
repairs and construction jobs up to two months ahead of schedule.
Fifty Soviet and 50 American flags were flown into the country to be
hoisted at the places the two leaders will visit. Since neither is
coming on an official visit to Iceland, no welcoming crowds were
expected. "We haven't really run into major problems organizing this,
and it's quite amazing," he said.
Aggrieved at foreign press reports of "Reykjavik in chaos," the
38-year-old lawyer and former political satirist said in an interview:
"A city of 90,000 is being descended upon by nearly 4,000 officials and
journalists. If these numbers were applied to London, it would be
400,000 people, and I'm fairly sure London would notice them."
At a cinema in eyeshot of the Saga Hotel, where the Soviet delegation
is staying, the billboards advertising "Top Gun," an American film of
the "Rambo" genre reviled by Moscow as anti-Soviet, mysteriously
disappeared. Cinema manager Fridbert Palsson insisted it was a
coincidence, saying the movie had been switched to a different cinema.
He said some of the Soviet advance party had come to see the film, even
though the Kremlin cites it as an example of anti-Soviet propaganda
coming out of Hollywood.
The International Press Center, an elaborate facility providing the
media with phones, telex lines, food and material about Iceland, moved
into high gear as the radio began broadcasting its announcements of
summit coverage arrangements. But the shortage of overseas phone lines
was becoming acute, and reporters found it increasingly difficult to
dial out of Iceland.
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| 142.10 | Tallying the costs and benefits | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Wed Oct 22 1986 11:58 | 66 |
| Associated Press Tue 21-OCT-1986 02:33 Iceland-Summit Aftermath
Icelanders Bask In Summit Recognition
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - More than a week after the superpower summit,
Icelanders were still basking in the worldwide recognition their remote
island nation gained by serving as a stage for geopolitical drama.
Even though President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev didn't
reach an agreement to reduce nuclear arms arsenals, Icelanders feel the
meeting put their country of 240,000 people firmly on the world map.
"We have proven our claim to sovereignty and shown the world we are not
a banana republic," said Sigridur Snaevarr, counselor at the Foreign
Ministry. "We are worthy as a go-between in the international state
system."
Icelanders, who keep hearing what a good job they did on the hastily
arranged summit, are slowly getting back to their routines. The special
700-member summit security force has disbanded. Four hundred security
volunteers have returned to their regular jobs on rescue squads. The
other 300 were policemen from Reykjavik and towns across the country.
The school that was turned into a press center is again filled with
children. Classrooms converted to studios by television networks
resound anew with daily lessons and the scratching of chalk on
blackboards.
The English-language radio station set up for the summit has been shut
down. Icelandair is back to its regular flight schedule and hotel
rooms, at a premium during the meeting, are again available.
The government has not released an estimate of the total cost of
hosting the Oct. 11-12 summit. "The bills are coming in," said
Snaevarr. "But the benefits outweigh the costs."
The road near Hofdi House, the reputedly haunted banquet hall
overlooking the sea where the two leaders met, had been a ditch and was
repaired shortly before the meeting. "Workers had to fill the ditch up.
Now they have had to dig it up again to put in sewer pipes. The cost of
this work alone is at least 2 million kronar ($50,000)," said Jenny
Einarsdottir, an administrative assistant with the United States
Information Agency.
A ship used to lodge journalists was paid for by the government. "The
cost of getting the boat from Norway and using it for the press as
accomodation cost the government between 10 and 11 million kronar
($250,000 to $300,000),"said Kjartan Larusson, the director of the
Iceland Tourist Bureau and chairman of the Iceland Tourist Board. "We
provided at least 1,500 people with bed and breakfast accomodation but
at least 1,000 others were accomodated in private homes," he said.
The summit was a boon for hotels. The Hotel Loftleidir became a press
center for the White House press corps with over 30 telephone lines,
photocopying machines, telexes and satellite dishes. The Saga Hotel was
headquarters for part of the Soviet delegation.
Taxi drivers also fattened their wallets. "I was driving the Russians
in my taxi for 10 days. I worked for 14 hours (a day) and at the end I
got a free bottle of vodka and 150,000 kronar ($3,750)," said Gisli
Sigurjonsson, a cab driver with the BSR Taxi Company. Oli Olafsson,
another taxi driver, worked for a press agency from 8 a.m. until 2 a.m.
"I made 54,000 kronar ($1,350) for four days of driving."
But for Snaevarr, the event's importance was not measured in the costs
or the money that poured in. "We've received press coverage from all
over the world," she boasted.
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| 142.11 | Soviet's poor timing | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Oct 24 1986 11:34 | 23 |
| Associated Press Fri 24-OCT-1986 01:36 Iceland-Soviets
Soviet Ambassador Recalled To Moscow Amid Talk Of Dispute
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Soviet Ambassador Evgeny Kosarev has been
recalled to Moscow, apparently over dissatisfaction with the timing of
the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's arrival for the superpower
summit, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The newspaper Morgunbladid quoted unidentified diplomats as saying
Prime Minister Steingrimur Hermannsson's government apparently was
annoyed with alleged bungling by the Soviet Embassy in planning for the
Oct. 11-12 meeting.
Iceland reportedly had asked the Soviets to schedule Gorbachev's
arrival so as not to coincide with the parliamentary occasion but the
request went unheeded and the Soviet leader's plane touched down Oct.
10 at almost exactly the same time as the session's opening. President
Reagan arrived for the summit on Oct. 9.
The newspaper said Kosarev returned to Moscow Wednesday. He had served
two years in Reykjavik in what is normally considered a four-year
posting.
|
| 142.12 | Soviets appoint new ambassador | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Dec 08 1986 09:49 | 28 |
| Associated Press Sun 07-DEC-1986 14:44 Soviet-Iceland
Soviet Union Names New Ambassador to Iceland
MOSCOW (AP) - The Soviet Union has appointed Igor Krasavin, a
56-year-old career diplomat, as its new ambassador to Iceland, the
official news agency Tass reported Sunday. The former ambassador,
Yevgeny Kosarev, 67, was recalled soon after the Reykjavik summit.
Tass said Kosarev was relieved of his duties "in connection with his
retirement on a pension." Press reports in Iceland said he was recalled
to Moscow because of the timing of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev's
arrival for his Oct. 11-12 summit with President Reagan.
Gorbachev landed on Oct. 9 as Iceland's Parliament began its fall
session. Iceland's president and prime minister could not greet
Gorbachev at the airport because of the opening ceremonies. An official
of the Soviet Embassy in Reykjavik said the embassy informed Moscow
earlier of a potential problem over the timing of Gorbachev's arrival,
but received no response.
Asked whose fault it was that Gorbachev arrived during Parliament's
opening session, an official in the Gorbachev entourage said, "If the
ambassador is still here tomorrow, you'll know that it was not his
fault."
Kosarev left Iceland little more than a week after the summit. Krasavin
has been in the diplomatic service since 1953, Tass said.
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