Wednesday, April 22, 1987
Page 2
Daily Nebraskan
By The Associated Press
Japanese emissary asks
to lift semiconductor sanctions
eagan
WASHINGTON A high-level Japanese emissary asked
President Reagan on Tuesday to lift trade sanctions against
Japan, but Reagan's chief spokesman said action is unlikely
before Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's visit next week.
Former Japanese Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe said that
during a 20-minute meeting with the president, he "menti
oned the semiconductor sanctions issue and emphasized
that this measure should be lifted as quickly as possible."
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, however, said,
"It seems unlikely to us that we will be able to make a
change in the sanctions before the prime minister's visit."
Nakasone is due in Washington on April 29 and 30 for
meetings with the president and other officials and a state
dinner. Abe said he handed Reagan a personal letter from
the prime minister.
Reagan and Nakasone have become friends in recent
years, but recent U.S. trade action has put a strain on the
relationship. The administration last Friday imposed a 100
percent tariff on some Japanes-manufactured lap-top and
desk-top computers, some television sets with 18-to-20-inch
screens and certain powered hand tools.
Reagan said he was trying "to enforce the principles of
free and fair trade."
The U.S. government accused the Japanese of violating
an agreement to refrain from selling semiconductors in
third countries at prices below cost a practice called
"dumping" and to open its markets wider to the pur
chase of U.S.-made semiconductors, also known as compu
ter chips.
Abe told reporters that during his visit with Reagan, "The
president said . . . that he would like to discuss with the
prime minister the broadly based relationship between
Japan and the United States, not just trade but the entire
breadth of our bilateral relationship."
On the trade issue, Abe said, "it is Japan's responsibility
to discharge what is expected of it and I outlined the
measure I have formulated before coming to Washington."
He said these were expanded international contributions
by Japan, expansion of manufactured and other imports and
measures dealing with "individual trade issues."
"I also emphasized that we should approach U.S.Japan
trade issues, not from the confrontation approach, but we
should try to solve them through amicable talks," Abe said.
Fitzwater told reporters, "I would say that overall our
position is that we have tried to take a deliberate approach"
to the sanctions. "We are sympathetic to the disruption
that (imposition of sanctions) causes ... so that our pre
condition is one of looking for solutions."
Fitzwater reiterated administration opposition to an
amendment to House trade legislation, sponsored by Rep.
Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., that would require the govern
ment to automatically retaliate against countries found to
have gained excessive trade surpluses through unfair com
petitive practices. ,
Accused Nasi delivered to Russia
MOSCOW Karl Linnas, who
lost his eight-year battle against
deportation from the United States,
was delivered to the Soviet Union on
Tuesday where he may face a firing
squad on charges of killing thou
sands of prisoners in a Nazi death
camp.
The 67-year-old Linnas was flown
from New York to Czechoslovakia
and handed over to the Soviets. The
official Soviet news agency Tass
said he was put on a flight and
taken to Tallinn, capital of his
native Estonia.
A handcuffed Linnas struggled
with U.S. officials Monday night
when he was put aboard a Czechos
lovak airliner at Kennedy Interna
tional Airport. He shouted that police
were carrying out a "murder and
kidnapping" by sending him to the
Soviet Union where he has been ,
sentenced to death.
When the plane landed in Prague
on Tuesday he was transferred to a
Soviet plane for the flight to Soviet
Estonia on the Baltic Sea.
Linnas directed a Nzai concen
tration camp in the Estonian city of
Tartu during the early years of
World War II and is accused of
involvement in the execution of
thousands of people, mostly Jewish
women and children.
Tass said, "He staged and con
ducted mass executions of Soviet
citizens and personally took part in
them." Tass said more than 12,000
people died at Tartu.
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Gennady Gerasimov told a Moscow
news briefing that Linnas is under
sentence of death based on a 1962
Soviet trial in absentia. Death sent
ences are carried out by firing
squad.
"The criminal has been con
demned. He was sentenced to capi
tal punishment," Gerasimov told
reporters. "He's entitled to ask for a
pardon."
Asked whether Linnas would be
allowed to speak to reported upon
arrival in the Soviet Union, Gera
simov replied: "I don't think he's
the kind of hero to take pictures of."
INS official: aliens should be screened for AIDS
DALLAS Illegal aliens who apply
for amnesty should be screened for the
AIDS virus so that those who test posi
tive can be barred from the country, a
regional Immigration and Naturaliza
tion Service official says.
But a spokesman for the agency in
Washington said the INS has not taken
an official position on requiring AIDS
tests as a part of the amnesty program.
As many as 3.9 million aliens nation
wide are expected to seek legalization
under provisions of a sweeping immi
gration reform act that became law last
year, said Stephen Martin, commis
sioner of the INS southern regional
office based in Dallas. The yearlong
amnesty period begins May 5.
Aliens who apply for legalization
under the law's provisions must submit
to a blood test for sexually transmitted
diseases, but an AIDS test is not now
part of those regulations, William
Zimmer, director of the INS regional
processing center in Dallas, said in an
interview Monday.
Zimmer said he wants federal public
health authorities to declare AIDS a
loathsome, contagious and dangerous
disease so those who apply for legaliza
tion could be tested for it and deported
if they have it.
Under present regulations, aliens
who have been exposed to the disease
can be barred only after they develop
AIDS and constitute a public health
burden.
"It would be more practical to have
these people tested for AIDS and if
they test positive, simply designate
them as inadmissible," Zimmer said.
The issue is under consideration at
INS headquarters in Washington and is
being discussed with the Department
of Health and Human Services, Zimmer
said. His Dallas office is one of four INS
regional processing centers in the na
tion. INS spokesman Duke Austin in Wash
ington said the INS as an agency won't
gw J I
take a position on the testing require
ments for AIDS until the Public Health
Service rules on whether it is an inad
missible disease.
"It's not our responsibility to make
that decision. They're the ones evaluat
ing it," Austin said. "It's their provi
sion of the law."
Federal regualtions exclude aliens
from entering the United States on
seven grounds, all involving health,
Ellen Casselberry, a spokeswoman for
the U.S. Public Health Service, said
Tuesday.
Bomb ignites inferno, 150 dead
Million dollar
computer
sold to Iran
WASHINGTON President Rea
gan's National Security Council has
approved the sale of a $900,000
computer system to Iran, industry
and administration officials said
Tuesday.
The approval represents the first
major U.S. transaction involving Iran
since disclosures in late 1986 that
the administration had been secretly
selling arms to Iran.
Analysts suggested the move un
derscored a growing sensitivity on
the part of the Reagan administra
tion to problems faced by U.S. manu
facturers of high-technology goods
as they seek to compete in overseas
markets.
The NSC had been asked to refe
ree a high-level dispute within the
administration over the sale.
Administration officials said the
council ruled late last week in favor
of Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige and Secretary of State
George Shultz and against Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger.
Approval of the sale of the com
puters, described as relatively un
sophisticated devices to be used in
an electric power grid, had been
opposed by Weinberger on grounds
the United States should not be
providing any aid to the Iranian
regime. v
Spokesman Robert Sims said Wein
berger feels "it is not in our interest
to sell Iran any equipment except
for humanitarian grounds."
Baldrige and Shultz contended
the computer involved the PDP-
1,
Vf'
: IRAk
11 manufactured by Digital Equip
ment Corp. of Maynard, Mass. had
no military application.
A spokesman for Digital, Jeffry
Gibson, said the company was noti
fied last Friday of the NSC action.
He said a second proposed sale
involved in the dispute, a $30,000
computer add-on memory system
intended for the Iranian news agency,
apparently is still awaiting NSC
action.
Digital itself did not apply for a
license. It was requested by an affil
iated Swiss company, Brown, Boveri
& Co., which has incorporated the
Digital units in a system it plans to
sell to Iran for monitoring electric
power generation.
The computer units are already
in Switzerland, Gibson said. But
under various trace agreements, the
equipment could not be shipped
from Switzerland to Iran without
approval of the U.S. government.
Last month, Baldrige told a Senate
Banking subcommittee he was baf
fled by Weinberger's opposition to
the sale, saying the computers at
issue "have technologies that are
eight to 10 years old."
In Brief
Brides wins $1.15 million after wedding
LAS VEGAS, Nev. A bride got an unexpected wedding present when
she won $1.15 million at Caesars Palace just hours after her wedding.
Lorraine Page, 24, of Norwalk, Calif., said her husband had been
winning all evening Saturday and she just kept reaching into his slot
maching tray for more coins.
"I had a sore shoulder," she recalled Sunday. "I wanted to stop playing
and he wanted to play. I was down to may last three coins. That's when I
hit the triple bars."
Lorraine and her husband, Robert, were married earlier Saturday in a
Las Vegas wedding chapel.
The bride is a receptionist for a law firm in Bellflower, Calif., and the
groom a salesman for a medical company.
"More than likely, we'll buy a house," Mrs. Page said while pondering
her winnings of $1,150,697.
"And I want to get her a nicer wedding ring," Page added.
Streisand releases first live album in 20 years
LOS ANGELES Singer Barbra Streisand is releasing her first live,
full-length album in 20 years and donating $460,000 to non-partisan
groups which support environmental causes and civil liberties.
Publicist Lee Solters said Monday that the Streisand Foundation
funded by the star announced the donation to organizations "supporting
such issues as safe nuclear energy and the abolishment of the threat of
nuclear war, the preservation of the environment and the protection of
civil liberties."
Solters said Miss Streisand was keeping a promise made last Sep
tember when she taped "One Voice," a pay-cable television show for Home
Box Office. The proceeds from that show are going to the Streisand
Foundation for worthy causes, he said.
Moire temrorism in Sri LamJka Pilfs family
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka A car bomb
at rush hour created an inferno at the
main bus terminal Tuesday that offi
cials said killed up to 150 people,
bringing the death toll from terrorism
in five days to nearly 300.
A Health Ministry official said about
200 people were injured and some
might die of burns or other wounds.
Many of the victims burned to death
or were killed by smoke inhalation in
six parked buses that were engulfed in
flames, police and witnesses said.
The bombing was the third attack
since Friday on this island south of
India, where Tamil insurgents have waged
a four-year war against the majority
Sinhalese for an independent nation.
Tamils killed at least 142 people in
northeastern Sri Lanke Friday and
Monday.
Witnesses said many of the Injured
at the bus terminal had severe burns.
Rescue work was hampered by heavy
rain. Police took over private cars,
buses and trucks to carry victims to
hospitals.
Windows of many cars and buildings
were shattered, but no major structural
damage was reported.
Army helicopters with searchlights
clattered overhead after dark, helping
with the resuce and the search for the
bombers.
No one claimed responsibility for
the bomb, but the government issued a
statement blaming two Tamil separa
tist groups, the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam and the Eelam Revolu- or Sinhalese.
tionary Organization of Students.
Eelam is what the Tamils wouldcall
the nation they want to establish in
northern and eastern Sri Lanka, where
members of their ethnic group predom
inate. Tamils, most of whom are Hindu,
accuse the Buddhist Sinhalese of dis
crimination. Soon after the explosion about 4:45
p.m. Tuesday, when many of Colombo's
750,000 people were catching buses
home, mobs of Sinhalese civilians stoned
Tamil-owned shops about half a mile
from the bus terminal. Police dispersed
the crowd.
There were renorts of Sinhalese
youths stopping cars and demanding to
know whether the occupants were Tamil
it i
sues to pay bills
WASHINGTON - Saddled with debt,
relatives of an American pilot killed in
Nicaragua last year said Tuesday they
have started legal action to determine
who should pay bills he incurred while
supplying the Contra rebels.
"The hurt of his death is just now
beginning to be felt," said Wallace
Blaine Sawyer Sr. in a telephone inter
view from his home in Magnolia, Ark.
After the crash, the pilot's Thai-born
widow, Kasanee, and her 4-year-old son
were paid by his private life insurer,
but they haven't received any settle
ment from his unknown employer, the
elder Sawyer said.
"Those bills were incurred in his
line of work and we don't plan to pay
them," he said.
Editor
Managing Editor
Assoc. News Editors
Jeff KorbaiSk
472-1768
Gant Genlrup
Tammy Kiup
Linda Hartmann
Lisa Oltan
James Rogers
Jeanns Bourns
Joan Rezac
Chuck Graan
Scott Harrah
Andrea Hoy
Editorial
Page Editor
Wire Editor
Copy Desk Chief
Sports Editor
Arts & Entertain
ment Editor
Photo Chief
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