Page TVJ ATATr | ^■(O'PCf Associated Press NebiaskcHl
2 l\CWb Ulgcbl Edited by Bob Nelson £25KKh18^
American troops in Honduras
PALMERROLA AIR BASE,
Honduras — Planeloads of U.S. sol
diers began arriving here Thursday in
a show of strength ordered by Presi
dent Reagan to counter what he
called an invasion by Nicaraguan
forces.
Two battalions from the re
nowned 82nd Airborne Division of
Fort Bragg, N.C., and two battalions
from the 7th Light Infantry Division
of Fort Ord, Calif., were combined
into a task force of 3,000 troops.
A Honduran official said his gov
ernment had given the Sandinistas 24
hours to get out.
President Daniel Ortega of Nica
ragua responded that his army was
“ready to combat and liquidate the
famous forces of the 82nd Airborne
"*■ Division.”
Maj. Gen. Carl W. Stincr, com
mander of the 82nd airborne, said he
knew of no plan to have U.S. troops
enter into the battle between the
Sandinistas and the U.S.-backed
Contras.
“We have not been told to do so,”
he said before leaving Fort Bragg. He
said the force was capable of that, if
needed.
The American troops were to
engage in joint exercises with the
Hondurans.
Stincr also said there was no plan
to use the troops if more trouble broke
out in nearby Panama.
The American forces began
streaming into Palmcrola at 10:15
a.m. as part of what the Pentagon
called operation code-named
“Golden Pheasant,” carried by 26
military transport planes.
The C- 141s landed in the intense
heat at 30-minutc intervals at this air
base, headquarters of U.S. military
operations in Honduras, 40 miles
northwest of Tegucigalpa.
The deployment was about 125
miles west of the area where Reagan
administration officials say the Nica
raguan Sandinista army has chased
rebel Contra forces over the border
into Honduras.
Col. Manuel Suarez Benavides,
Honduran armed forces spokesman,
said the deadline for the Sandinistas
to leave was final.
He said 2,()(X) Nicaraguan soldiers
had crossed the border and pene
trated about six miles in pursuit of
Contra rebels. A military intelli
gence source said earlier the Nicara
guans were surrounded by about
4,(XX) Honduran troopers.
Suarez Benavides would not
comment on Pentagon reports on
new Nicaraguan attacks inside Hon
duras.
The Sandinista movements did
not appear to be a full-fledged inva
sion, Stiner said adding that he saw
the U.S. operation as a deterrent.
Lt. Gen. John W. Foss, com
mander of the 18th Airborne corps,
said it was “playing with words” to
argue what constitutes an invasion.
He said it was useful to send a signal.
Ortega would not say w hether his
soldiers had crossed the border in
pursuit of the U.S.-supported rebels.
“Here the question is not if army
troops penetrated Honduran territory
or not, but that we have dozens of
camps of mercenary forces in Hon
duran territory, in view of and toler
ated by the Honduran government,”
he said at a news conference in
Managua.
He said Nicaraguan soldiers
would not withdraw from the border
area. Ortega called the U.S. troop
deployment “a dangerous act' and
said it was “another escalation of the
war against Nicaragua.” He de
manded a meeting of the U.N. Secu
rity Council.
A spokesman for the Nicaraguan
Foreign Ministry said before the
news conference that Nicaragua had
begun pulling its troops back from
the frontier region after driving about
2 ,()(X) Con tra re be 1 s bac k i nto Hondu
ras. The Defense and Foreign minis
tries denied that Nicaraguan troops
entered Honduras.
Heavy fighting was reported
Wednesday in the Olancho border
province about 125 miles cast of
Palmcrola.
Included in the American forces
are two battalions from the 82nd
Airborne and two from a new divi
sion organized for quick movement
around the world. The 82nd Airborne
and 7th Light Infantry are part of
different corps within the Army and
arc based at opposite ends of the
country.
Panama government seizes utilities
PANAMA CITY, Panama — The
government on Thursday took over
major public services crippled by
strikes, and heavily armed soldiers
patrolled the capital to keep order
after an attempted coup against Gen.
Manuel Antonio Noriega.
Leaders of the National Civic
Crusade, an anti-government coali
tion, had planned demonstrations
Thursday, but the sight of hundreds
of soldiers carrying automatic rifles
and tear gas canisters apparently
discouraged them.
A day earlier, opposition activists
and public employees furious about
not being paid poured into the streets
in the biggest protest yet of Noriega’s
military rule.
In the face of widespread walk
outs by public employees, Noriega’s
Defense Forces took control Thurs
day of all major utilities, most gov
ernment ministries, railroads, ports,
airports and the post office.
The employees were striking
because the cash-starved govern
ment, under economic pressure by
the United Stales, was unable to pay
them.
Shops and stores in the central
business district gradually reopened
Thursday and electricity was re
stored to most of the nation after an
18-hour outage caused by an electri
cal workers’ strike. Taxis and buses
that had deserted the capital’s streets
began running again.
Banks, which shut their dogrs
March 4, remained closed.
“Nobody is buying anything,”
said a lottery vendor, displaying a
fistful of unsold tickets.
The United States, seeking
Noriega’s ouster, has applied eco
nomic pressure including a freeze on
Panamanian government accounts in
U.S. banks and the withholding of
Panama Canal revenues. This has
dried up the supply of U.S. dollars,
Panama’s national currency.
There were differing opinions
Thursday on how the coup attempt by
a group of officers had affected Nori
ega, chief of the 15,000-member
Defense Forces and the power beh i nd
Panama’s civilian government.
New date set by court for Joubert execution
The Nebraska Supreme Court has set an April 26 execution date for r
John J. Joubert, although attorneys for the state and for Joubert don’t ;
expect the date to be final.
An execution date set last July was canceled by continuing appeals.
Mel Kamelohr, Nebraska assistan t attorney general, said he expects the
same thing to happen to the April 26 date.
“He still has open to him what we call a post-conviction action back
in the Sarpy County District court,” Kamelohr said Wednesday.
“Then (there are) the federal courts. He can go through the federal
district court, the U.S. Court of Appeals and try to get back to the U.S.
Supreme Court that way. He has a lot of opportunities yet.
Joubert faces the death penalty for the 1983 slayings of two Sarpy
County youths, Danny Joe Eberly and Christopher Walden.
Joubert’s attorney Joseph McQuillan confirmed Wednesday that he f
is going to ask for a stay of execution and said he expects to get it.
The last person executed in Nebraska was mass-murderer Charles j
Starkweather in January 1958.
Plane with 136 passengers crashes in Colombia
CUCUTA, Colombia — A Boeing 727 jetliner carrying 136 passen
gers on a domestic flight crashed Thursday in northern Colombia, local
police said.
Police in the town of Zulia said they had been told by three witnesses J
that the plane crashed into trees and later slammed into the earth. The s
witnesses said the plane burst into flames and no survivors were
apparent, the police said.
There was no immediate confirmation from Avianca Airlines or the j
Civil Aeronautics Agency.
Study links cholesterol to heart attack deaths
SANTA FE, N.M. — A 25-year study of 1,969 men has shown a
direct link between increased cholesterol in the diet and an increased
risk of a fatal heart attack, researchers said Thursday.
Many previous studies have shown that too much cholesterol in the I
blood raises the risk of dying from a heart attack, but th is is the first study
to show convincingly that cholesterol in the diet can raise blood |
cholesterol and in turn increase the likelihood of death from heart
attacks, researchers said.
Furthermore, the study may explain why the incidence of heart
disease is falling in the United States, said the study’s author, Richard !
Shekelleof the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.
The men Shekclle studied, workers at a Western Electric Co. plant
in Chicago, had a median intake of 737 milligramsof cholesterol per day
— roughly the amount in three eggs — when the study began.
Mecham takes stand in his impeachment trial
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Gov. Evan Mecham testified Thursday that he j
never ordered anyone to hamper an investigation into an aide’s alleged
death threat, but said he told Arizona’s top police officer not to
cooperate with the probe.
Mecham, fighting for his political life, insisted he was kept in the
dark about details of a death threat allegedly make by one of his staffers. \
When he did hear about it, he indicated, he didn’t consider it a serious j
threat.
“Two somewhat excitable people had a verbal exchange and some
where along the line there were those who determined they would make
something out of it,” he said. “It’s a total manufactured thing.
Mecham acknowledged in his second day of testimony, however, j
that he ordered the state’s top lawman not to cooperate with an attorney
general’s investigation of the alleged threat.
In “Non-smokers respond” (DN
March 17) the story refers to a clean
indoor air policy. The policy was
passed by the University of Nebraska
Board of Regents in 1935. The Legis
lature passed its Nebraska Clean In
door Act in 1980.
NelSraskan
Editor Mike Rellley
472-1766
Managing Editor Jen Deseims
Assoc News Editors Curt Wegner
Chris Anderson
Editorial
Page Editor Diana Johnson
Wire Editor Bob Nelson
Copy Desk Editor Joan Rezac
Sports Editor Jeff Apel
Arts & Entertain
merit editor Geoff McMurtry
Graphics Editor Tom Lauder
Asst Graphics Editor Jody Beam
Photo Chief Mark Davis
Night News Editors Joeth Zucco
Kip Fry
Art Director John Bruce
General Manager Daniel Shattll
Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
Advertising
» Manager Marcia Millet
Circulation Manager Eric Shanks
Publications Board
Chairman Don Johnson
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DAILY NEBRASKAN
IRA man buried on somber St. Patrick’s Dav
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The Irish
Republican Army buried a guerrilla Thursday
alongside the trampled graves and tumbled tomb
stones where a Prostestant gunman killed three
people and wounded 68 at an IRA funeral a day
earlier.
Wearing shamrocks and green or black arm
bands on a somber St. Patrick’s Day, 3,000 mourn
ers gathered in the Roman Catholic Milltown
cemetery to bury Kevin McCracken yards from
where the gunman opened fire and hurled gre
nades on Wednesday.
At St. Patrick’s Day services, Catholic leaders
appealed for calm amid fears the cemeterv killings
will herald new and prolonged sectarian clashes.
For the second day, police reported sporadic not
ing and car burning in Belfast’s Catholic districts
r- . ... . ... .. ■ ■
Thursday.
Police kepi a discreet distance while funeral
speakers, standing amid tombstones knocked over
in Wednesday’s pandemonium, renewed charges
that British authorities and Northern Ireland’s
mainly Protestant police force colluded in the
attack.
“Britain attacked us yesterday ... Let Britain
take a lesson from our presence here today. You
can never defeat us,” declared Jim McAllister, a
leading member of the outlawed IRA’s political
wind, Sinn Fein.
A British army patrol shot McCracken, 33, on
Monday night in Belfast after he fired on them, the
army said.
Before his funeral, three hooded IRA gunmen
fired three volleys — the movement’s traditional
salute to its dead — in a side street near his home.
They fired over a makeshift shrine of his photo
graph surrounded by wreaths.
Firing the volleys in a side street avoided
attracting police action at the funeral. Britain has
banned paramilitary displays by both Catholic and
Protestant groups in the province.
Black flags fluttered from the windows of row
houses in West Belfast’s cramped streets as
McCracker’s coffin, topped with the Irish tricolor
flag and his guerrilla insignia of a black beret and
gloves, was driven to Milltown.
Gerry Adams, president of the outlawed IRA’s
legal political wing, Sinn Fein, said the Royal
Ulster Constabulary’s denial of complicity in
Wednesday’s attack “rings hollow.” He claimed
some police officers were also members of Protes
tant paramilitary groups.
State Republicans support Reagan’s decision
The Republican members of Nebraska’s
congressional delegation said Thursday they
backed President Reagan’s decision to send
3,2(X) American troops to Honduras.
Democratic Sen. J. James Exon said fie was
disappointed that the United States was sending
troops to Honduras, but he said it “probably was
the best and most measured course of action the
United States could take at this time.”
However, he said he was concerned about
the implications of sending the troops to Hon
duras.
“It’s not unlike how we got involved in
Vietnam and elsewhere,” he said.
The White House described the movement
as “an emergency deployment readiness exer
cise” triggered by what it called itie invasion of
Honduras by 1,500 to 2,000 Nicaraguan forces
pursuing Contra febels.
But the Nicaraguan government said again
Thursday that its troops had not crossed the
border and called on the United Nations and the
Organization of American States to ‘‘establish
what the facts are.”
“I think it’s an appropriate response,” said
Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-lst District
“It is clear the Sandinistas have violated air
and ground space of Hondurans in pursuit,”
Bereuter said, calling it a violation of the
Central American peace plan.
Rep. Hal Daub, R-2nd District, said Reagan
had to make a difficult decision, “but I think a
necessary one in light of the . . . unlawful
actions of the Nicaraguan government.”
“The violation of that border was a serious
matter and if not dealt with in a forthright
manner will clearly occur again,” Daub said.
Both Bereuter and Daub said they believe
the events in Central America could change the
waV congress votes on future Contra aid.
‘‘1 think it will sober the thinking of the more
liberal members of Congress that perhaps they
will not be so naive when it comes to under
standing communist"and Marxist intentions,’’
Daub said.
Rep. Virginia Smith said she has supported
sending assistance to the Contra forces in Nica
ragua.
