Graffiti writers turn spray paint into global artwork

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) - When "Neon" hopped on a plane to New York earlier this year, it wasn't to gawk at skyscrapers or take the tourist boat to the Statue of Liberty.

''I went there to spray,'' says the 25-year-old graffiti writer from Munich. ''It's like a pilgrimage to the birthplace. We want to know our roots and feel life there.''

That quest is luring young urban Europeans across the Atlantic to make their mark in the motherland of graffiti art, while Americans head the other way to paint Europe's trains and walls.

It has developed into an international circuit, linked partly by the Internet, in which graffiti writers, known as taggers, swap invitations to put each other up and lead the out-of-towners to the hottest places to paint.

Germany - with its many urban centers and the new capital of Berlin considered a mecca of alternative culture - has become a hub of the international graffiti scene.

Sgt. Robert Galvin, who heads an anti-graffiti unit of the New York Police Department, said the taggers arrange contacts through underground magazines and the Internet.

But whether in Cologne or New York, it's the risk of getting caught that provides the kicks for underground graffiti in the first place.

Galvin knew of at least 11 European taggers arrested in New York in the past 18 months - from Germany, Britain and the Netherlands.

Kuros Rafii, 25, who helps run an agency for taggers who do commercial art in Frankfurt, said,''It fills a gap because it's not sport, not fashion, but a creative trend that challenges each individual.''

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Calm restored as unease remains in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The streets outside the ransacked opposition headquarters are closed, guarded by soldiers who spend hot afternoons smoking and cleaning their rifles.

Hundreds of other troops guard office buildings downtown, enforcing peace in the Indonesian capital after a police raid last month sparked riots that killed four people.

While the government has quieted the streets, it has done little to address the causes of the public's anger - frustration at poverty and the autocratic rule of President Suharto, a former general in power since 1966.

During the protests of July 27, rioters targeted banks, state offices and businesses owned by some of Suharto's wealthiest associates, leaving 22 buildings gutted by fire.

Suharto has refused to address that anger, blaming protests on a tiny leftist political party and rejecting any compromise with pro-democracy forces.

Suharto's resistance to change has fed uncertainty that could hurt Indonesia's economy. No company has announced plans to pull out of Indonesia, but investors appear to be waiting to make new commitments.

Indonesia's problem, according to Sjahrir, an economist who like many Indonesians uses only one name, is that ''while our economy is going global, our politics is still in the era of 'Jurassic Park.'''

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Lebed plays peacemaker, vows no assault on Grozny

GROZNY, Russia (AP) - President Boris Yeltsin's security chief declared yesterday that he had won a reprieve for the embattled people of Grozny, on the eve of a threatened all-out military assault on the rebel capital.

Alexander Lebed, who initiated new peace talks last week after separatists had overrun the city on Aug. 6, has said air raids would only expand the conflict.

Civilians continued to stream out of the city, although their numbers diminished by evening as the deadline for the threatened attack approached. Some held babies or led scared children by the hand. Old people hobbled along on walking sticks.

''They're worse than the Hitlerites. Bombs and shelling all the time on women and children. They're just killing everyone,'' said Ivan Barkov, a World War II veteran who was one of eight people crammed into a little Zhiguli car.

Russian troops trying to encircle the Grozney blocked mostroads out of the city.

Estimates of civilians remaining in Grozny, which had a prewar population of 400,000, ranged from 50,000 to 200,000. Many of those remaining are elderly, ethnic Russians with nowhere else to go.

Yeltsin himself has remained largely absent, dogged by reports of serious health problems.

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