News Digest Edited by Diana Johnson
Yeltsin rally draws thousands of Soviets I
W . . . r*i I tiikiok moo • L
MOSCOW - Supporters of politi
cal maverick Boris N. Yeltsin, the
former Communist Party boss of
Moscow, rallied Wednesday against
a privileged bureaucracy and vowed
to turn in their party cards if they see
any cheating in the legislative elec
tion.
Several hundred ardent Yeltsin
supporters gathered in an intermittent
rain and waved a large Soviet flag at
the base of a statue to Moscow’s
medieval founder, Yuri Dolgoruky,
across from city council headquar
ters. A crowd of up to 5,000 onlook
ers bulged into busy Gorky Street and
pressed against a police line separat
ing them from traffic.
Authorities did not grant permis
sion for the demonstration in the final
days of campaigning before Sun
day’s election of members of a new
legislature. Busloads of police were
present but did not try to stop it.
Across town at Moscow State
University, members of the Academy
of Sciences considered a new elec
tion after a rebellion against old
guard candidates gave new life to the
candidacy of human rights activist
Andrei D. Sakharov.
More than 1,200 academy mem
bers approved only eight of a list of 23
candidates presented by its leader
ship. A new election m^st now be
held in two weeks to fill the other 12
vacancies.
“The vote yesterday was neces
sary,” Sakharov told reporters at the
gathering. “Now we can choose 12
new people. This was a result of a
great grassroots movement of the
scientific intelligentsia. If they
choose me to be a candidate and a
deputy, I will not refuse.”
While Sakharov is among the
candidates for the new 2,250-mem
ber Congress of People’s Deputies
from the Academy of Sciences,
Yeltsin is running in a geographical
district that encompasses all of
Moscow.
“Yeltsin is strongest in the
struggle with bureaucracy and dis
honesty in society,” said Olga
Ulitova, a former medical worker
who has been a Communist Party
member for 27 years.
“He is the only one in 70 years of
Soviet power who did not lake the
privileges offered by his high posi
tion,” she added.
“He struggles for the party, for a
clean partyr’ Moscow worker Val
ery Reptov shouted to the crowd.
Yeltsin ran Moscow as its Com
munist Party chief until he was
sacked in November 1987 for his
criticism of the party’s style of lead
ership and warning that a Stalin-like
cult of personality could develop
around President Mikhail S. Gor
bachev.
He has remained popular with
many Muscovites and has become an
anti-establishment symbol in his
campaign against Yevgeny Brakov,
director 01 tnc giam iovw. j
produces limousines and household
appliances.
Both as Moscow party leader and
in his campaign Yeltsin has lashed
out at special privileges that top party
and government officials receive.
They include cars and chauffeurs,
and continuing access to special
stores where they can buy hard-to
find food and consumer goods at a
time when the city’s stores arc emp
tier tiian they have been in years.
Pulling out her red-covered party
membership cards, Ulitova said she
and many others were ready to turn
them in if they believe Yeltsin is
cheated out of election.
Yeltsin and his supporters accuse
party officials of waging a campaign
to discredit him that included forma
tion of a commission by the party’s
policy-making Central Committee
last week to review whether his views
are at odds with party policies.
Yeltsin did not appear at the rally,
",,,vu man d marcn Sun
day that ended with a rally on the
same spot and drew criticism from
police. The crowd grew from several
hundred to several thousand in 90
minutes, but many people watched
quietly from the edges and did not
join in.
Sakharov, a nuclear physicist who
also won the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize
for his human rights activities, had
criticized an election process that
narrowed a list of 121 nom inccs to 23
for the 20 Academy of Sciences seats
as undemocratic.
He and other leading proponents
of reform such as space scientist
Roald Sagdeev and economist
Nikolai Shmelev were eliminated.
Their names were resubmitted
Wednesday by supporters, but acad
emy President Gury Marchuk said it
would have to form a new electoral
commission and have it approved by
Soviet officials before any action to
fill the 12 slots could be taken.
Practical steps
urged for peace
TUNIS, Tunisia -- U.S. diplomats
told the PLO in a 4 1/2-hour meeting
Wednesday to take “practical steps”
to ease tension in the Israeli-occupied
territories, the head of the U.S. dele
gation said.
In the first formal talks since
President Bush took office, the two
sides got down to weighty subjects in
detail, according to the leaders of the
U.S. and Palestine Liberation Or
ganization delegations.
U.S. Ambassador Robert H. Pelle
treau, who headed the three-man
American team, said after the meet
ing that there was a “new dynamic”
in the Middle East “of which this
dialogue is a part.”
Pelletreau said U.S. concerns
about terrorism were discussed as
well as “practical steps that can be
taken in the occupied territories to
reduce tensions.”
He did not detail those steps, nor
did the leader of the three-man PLO
side, Yasser Abed-Rabbo, indicate
what the U.S. side has asked of the
Palestinians.
Abed-Rabbo said progress was
maue, dui ne empnasizea mat me
PLO believes the only road to peace
is an international conference involv
ing the five permanent members of
the U.N. Security Council and all
parties to the conflict, including the
PLO.
The talks in suburban Carthage
followed a 90-minute get-acquainted
session Dec. 16, the first announced
formal meeting between the two
sides in 13 years.
Police guarded surrounding
streets and rooftops.
The meeting was held amid a swirl
of confusing Middle East news. One
report quoted PLO spokesman Bas
sam Abu Sharif as saying the PLO
would accept deployment of U.S.
troops in the West Bank and the Gaza
i
Strip. A U.S. Embassy official brief
ing reporters on condition of ano
nymity dismissed the report with a
gesture of incredulity.
Another report spoke of a two
tiered U.S.-backed Israeli peace plan
accepted by the PLO, including as a
first step elections of representative
Palestinians in the territories.
Neither issue was mentioned in
the statements after Wednesday’s
talks, although Abed-Rabbo reiter
ated the PLO’s rejection of elections
in the territories while they are still
occupied by Israeli troops.
The uprising in the West Bank and
Gaza has claimed more than 400
Palestinian and 17 Israeli lives since
it began in December 1987.
“The (uprising) will continue
until the day the Israelis evacuate our
homeland,” said Abed-Rabbo, a
leader of the Marxist Democratic
Front for the Liberation of Palestine,
one of the most radical factions in the
PLO.
The future of the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip, home to 1.7 million
Palestinians, “should be discussed in
an international conference,” he
Pelleireau indicated recent Pales
tinian guerrilla raids, which had been
the subject of a number of informal
contacts between him and PLO offi
cials, were also discussed.
“The PLO is very aware of our
very strong view on violence and
terrorism,” he said.
The Israelis strongly oppose
Washington’s discussions with the
PLO, which Israel considers a terror
ist organization.
The United States reversed its
policy of not talking to the guerrilla
organization after PLO chief Yasser
Arafat in December renounced ter
rorism and recognized Israel’s right
to exist.
Nebraskan
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Editor Mlckl Haller
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America’s oldest teen steps
down from rockin’ Bandstand
LOS ANGELES - Dick Clark
announced Tuesday that he’s step
ping down as host of the “Ameri
can Bandstand” after 33 years so
someone new can lead the music
variety show into the 1990s.
The show, which helped pio
neer rock ‘n’ roll and the Motown
sound, is currently syndicated na
tionwide, and will premiere on
cable’s USA Network on April 8.
Clark, who turns 60 this year
but is known as “America’s Oldest
Teen-Ager” because of his youth
ful looks, will turn over the
“Bandstand” microphone to
David Hirsch, 26, who was discov
ered at dick dark productions in
Burbank.
Hirsch, a Detroit native, was
working as a segment producer for
“USA’s Camp Midnight,” a late
night talk show on USA network.
Cartel leaders indicted in cocaine case
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - An as
sociate of Bahamian Prime Minister
Lynden Pindling and reputed leaders
of Colombia’s Medellin cocaine car
tel were charged with drug traffick
ing in a federal indictment unsealed
here Wednesday.
The indictment also accuses al
leged cartel leader Pablo Escobar
Gaviria of organizing the assassina
tion of Colombian Justice Minister
Lara Bonilla in 1984.
Other major figures among the 30
indicted were Everette Rannktrr a
close friend of Pindling’s, as well as
reputed cartel kingpins Jose Gonzalo
Rodriguez Gacha, Jorge Ochoa
Vasquez, Fabio Ochoa Vasquez and
Gonzalo Mejia.
U.S. Attorney Robert W.
Genzman said the indictment covers
1974 to the present and involved the
importation of 44,000 pounds of
cocaine.
The prosecutor refused to answer
questions about continuing allega
tions that Pindling himself was in
volved in the drug operation.
The document charges that Barry
Seal, an informant for the Drug En
forcement Administration, was
killed at the direction of Fabio
Ochoa, Escobar and other cartel
members.
Also indicted today was Jack
Carlton Reed, co-defendant of cartel
leader Carlos Lchder Rivas. They
were convicted here last year of con
spiring to import cocaine, and Lchdcr
is serving a life sentence.
“The case was investig; :d after
the trial of Carlos Lehder, who is
named as a co-conspirator in the in
dictment as a follow-up to the trial,”
said Genzman.
The indictment accuses many of
the defendants of running a continu
ing criminal enterprise - punishable
by a maximum life sentence - and
conspiracy to import drugs.
Bannister, who lives in Nassau, is
charged with receiving bribes to al
low the cartel to use islands just off
Florida as a way station for drug ship
ments.
Genzman said the United States
would seek extradition of Bannister.
As lor the cartel leaders, he noted it
had taken six years to gel Lchdcr to
the United States and expressed be
lief the others would eventually be
brought to justice.
Gorman Bannister. Everette Ran
nister’s son, is a protected federal
witness who testified in the Lehder
trial.
During the trial, Bannister charac
terized his father, chairman of Baha
mas World Airlines and a consultant
to Resorts International, as an influ
ence-peddler who took protection
payoffs from drug smugglers and
regularly supplied Pindling with
money.
Several witnesses in the Lehder
trial testified that they had made
payoffs to high Bahamian officials.
The chief prosecution witness,
Edward Ward, said he gave Baha
mian cabinet minister George Smith
and Everette Bannister $ 100,000 that
was vnnnrKfvt to on tn Pindfins.
George William Baron III testi
fied in Lehder’s trial that he paw
bribes to Pindling. He said h: handed
a briefcase containing $400,000 in a
crowded casino lounge in September
or October 1980 to Pindling.
Pindling has since denied the alle
gation. In 1984, the Royal Bahamian
Commission cleared him of any
wrongdoing concerning allegations
that he took payoffs from drug snriug
glers. Pindling, first elected in 1 m/,
in 1987.
TV ew bugs to wage war against pests
w Abrilino iun ~ A century af
ter an Agriculture Department scout
found an Australian beetle that saved
California’s citrus crop, the govern
ment on Wednesday announced an
escalation of it bug-vs.-bug program
of biological warfare against nature’s
pests.
The department said agreements
had been reached to send American
scientists to China and the Soviet
Union this summer to search unex
plored areas for natural enemies of
destructive insects and weeds.
Taiwanese-born pathologist Yang
Shaw-Ming will go to Inner Mongo
lia in search of a fungus that can
destroy the leafy spurge, an aggres
sive weed which drives grazing cattle
and horses away from rangeland at a
cost to ranchers that he estimated a
$50 million.
At the same time, five Agriculture
Department scientists will go to tne
Soviet Union to look for enemies o
the Russian wheat aphid, a pest tna
was appeared in Texas three yea
ago and has spread into 15 states.
