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NeWS Digest Edl^bylm^deraen
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Hundreds of casualties reported after crackdown
Lebanon, France fight over Aoun s fate
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon and France
quarreled Sunday over the fate of Gen. Michel
Aoun, whose 11-month mutiny in the Christian
heartland was crushed by a Syrian-led military
blitz.
Aoun remained inside the French Embassy,
where he fled during Saturday’s attack and was
granted asylum.
Lebanese officials were insisting that the
55-year-old general remain in the country for
possible trial on charges including the alleged
theft of $75 million from the state treasury.
Staccato bursts of machine-gun fire echoed
across the pine woods surrounding the shell
shattered presidential palace in the Christian
suburb of Baabda. Helmctcd Syrian troops
searched the hills for supporters of the defeated
general.
The final casualty toll from the eight-hour
crackdown on Aoun’s enclave Saturday stood
at 160 dead and 800 wounded, by police count.
The casualties included 32 Syrian soldiers
killed and 85 wounded. Their bodies were
flown to Damascus by two Syrian army heli
copters, police said.
Syrian and Lebanese troops set up check
points on roads leading to the French Embassy
in Beirut’s Christian suburb of Hazmiyeh.
Embassy guards mined the walls.
Syrian soldiers and troops of President Elias
Brawi’s army besieged the embassy Saturday
night, hours after Aoun and three senior aides
took refuge there. The embassy compound also
houses Ambassador Rene Ala’s residence.
There were no soldiers in the embassy’s
immediate vicinity later Sunday.
A Lebanese neighbor of the compound, who
identified himself only by his first name, Anto
ine, said the soldiers “left this morning.”
Antoine said Aoun arrived at the embassy
entrance in an armored personnel carrier early
Saturday, 45 minutes after Syrian warplanes
and artillery started bombing the presidential
palace.
“He was met at the entrance by (Ambasa
dor) Ala. As they ran on foot toward Ala’s
residence, shells started falling on the embassy
compound. They nearly got killed,” Antoine
said.
The embassy’s swimming pool was hit by
shells, as was the main lobby. A carpet of glass
shards and debris blanketed the main entrance.
With Aoun on Saturday were his senior
aides, Maj. Gen. Edgar Maalouf and Brig.Gen.
Issam Abu Jamra. The commander of Aoun’s
military police, Col. Adel Sassine, joined him
Sunday. Sassine was seen walking into the
-44 --
France must pardon us for
not swallowing its hasty
decision to grant asylum to
Avon. Qerrj
Lebanon Cabinet Minister
-99 “
embassy dressed in civilian clothes and carry
ing two suitcases.
Antoine said he did not see Aoun’s wife and
three daughters entering the embassy, but the
Christian Voice of Lebanon radio reported
Sunday that they were found in the palace after
the fighting.
France, the traditional protector of Leba
non’s Christians, promptly granted Aoun asy
lum on Saturday. French Foreign Minister Roland
Dumas said: “We were talking with Lebanese
and Syrian authorities to allow his departure in
good condition.”
Ala met with Hrawi in Moslem west Beirut
on Sunday to try to resolve the issue, presiden
tial spokesman May Kahhalch said. Ala left
after two hours without making a statement.
“France must pardon us for not swallowing
its hasty decision to grant asylum to Aoun/'
said Cabinet Minister Nabih Berri. “He should
stand trial as a plain criminal, not a politician.”
Christian warlord Samir Geagea, whose
Lebanese Forces militia fought a four-month
power struggle with Aoun’s men early this
year, also said the defeated general “should be
brought to justice and tried as a criminal.”
Aoun’s fall tightened Syria’s hold on Leba
non, which the Syrians consider their strategic
backyard. Syria, the main power broker in
Lebanon, sent 40,(XX) troops to Lebanon under
a 1976 peacekeeping mandate.
Aoun had rejected an Arab League-brok
ered peace plan to end the w ar and refused to
recognize Hrawi as head of state, calling him a
“Syrian puppet.” The peace plan provides for
the traditionally dominant Christians to share
power with the Moslem majority.
Anti-Iraq coalition may fall
if U.S. still supports Israel
** i
WASHINGTON - Two months after the United Slates recruited
some unlikely partners to stand against Iraq, experts arc asking whether
the group can withstand the diverse views of its members.
The clash between the United Stales and its allies over a U.N.
. resolution condemning Israel, and Friday’s assassination of an Egyp
\ tian leader, highlight the possible risks to the international coalition.
From its largest shareholders, the United States and Britain, to its
smallest participants, Norway and Denmark, the anti-Iraq grouping has
achieved an unparalleled degree of unanimity.
Its stated goal, in defense of which members have deployed military
forces and stopped trade with Iraq, is to oust President Saddam Hussein
from Kuwait and stop him attacking other oil-rich neighbors.
The first major test of the cohesion came last week, when Yemen, an
ally of Iraq, introduced a resolution condemning Israel for killing 19
Palestinians after Jewish worshipers were attacked in Jerusalem.
In an attempt to placate its Arab coalition allies, the United States
broke with precedent and agreed to condemn Israel. But it also wanted
the U.N. resolution to criticize the Palestinian violence, and rejected
language calling for U.N. measures to protect Palestinians under Israeli
occupation.
Israel says it won’t cooperate
with investigation of shootings
JERUSALEM - The government
decided Sunday against cooperating
with a U.N. team investigating the
shooting deaths of 19 Palestinians by
Israeli police, and said the delegation
should stay away from Israel.
“We have read the Security Coun
cil ’s decision ... and it is completely
unacceptable,” a Cabinet communi
que said. “As a result Israel will not
receive the delegation of the U.N.
Secretary-General ”
Radio stations said right-wing
Housing Minister Ariel Sharon pro
posed that the investigators be barred
from Israel, but Sharon’s spokesman,
Nimrod Granit, denied that.
Israeli officials, however, made it
clear that they expect the three-man
mission to stay away.
“This is not an invitation to come;
it’s an invitation not to come,” said
Deputy Foreign Minister Bcnyamin
Netanyahu.
Police opened fire Oct. 8 on Pal
estinians during a riot on the hal
lowed Temple Mount, sacred to both
Moslems and Jews. The Moslems cal I
it Haram-es-Sharif.
The riot began when Palestinians
threw rocks onto worshipers praying
below at the Western Wall, Juda
ism’s holiest site. Police first used
tear gas and rubber bullets, then live
ammunition.
The U.N. Security Council voted
Friday to condemn Israel, and to send
a delegation to investigate. In a rare
gesture, the United States joined in
the censure of its ally.
Israel’s Cabinet, at its regular
weekly session Sunday, said it saw no
reason for the United Nations to inter
vene when it had ignored worse inci
dents in other countries.
But opposition politicians ques
tioned the Cabinet decision.
Haim Ramon, head of the opposi
tion Labor Party’s parliament fac
tion, said the U.N. mission could not
be prevented from coming and should
be allowed into Israel at a non-diplo
matic level.
“I wouldn’t play angry with the
whole world. I would accept the dele
gation at a low level, to meet with
police officers,” Ramon told Israel
television.
Foreign Minister David Levy said
the U.N. investigation would violate
Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem
and pave the way for stationing U.N.
forces in the city. f
The Temple Mount is in Arab cast
Jerusalem, which Israel captured in I
the 1967 Middle East War and later
annexed. Israel maintains its police §
were provoked by the harrage of stones I
onto Jews at the Western Wall, also r
known as the Wailing Wall. ■
An Israeli human rights group on
Sunday accused police of indiscrimi
nate shooting and “criminal negli
gence” in the bloodshed. The group, 1
Bctsclcm, said the government has
attempted to “hide the facts, mislead \
the public ... and evade responsibil
ity” in the shootings.
Officials first said Palestinians
planned the stoning of Jewish wor
shipers in advance, hoping to pro
voke an incident that would divert
world attention from the Persian Gulf
crisis.
But Police Commissioner Yaacov
Temer later said he believed the riot
was spontaneous.
It was the bloodiest incident in
Jerusalem since the 1967 war, and the
worst loss of life in a single day of the
34-month-old Palestinian uprising
against Israel occupation in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
i ms pul President Bush at odds with Egypt, Syria and other Aran
members of the anti-Iraq coalition, as well as with his European
partners, including France.
“It’s terribly important for Bush to succeed on this if he’s going to
retain credibility as the head of the coalition,” said Robert Hunter, a
former presidential aide who’s now an analyst at the private Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
Saddam has, from the start, tried to drive a wedge between the
United States and the Arabs by portraying himself as the protector of
Palestinians and other downtrodden Arabs in a class struggle against
wealthy Americans and their “expansionist” ally, Israel.
He has hit a responsive chord among Egyptians, Syrians and other
Arabs, splitting them from their governments which arc lined upagainst
him in the sands of Saudi Arabia. Thus, the U.S. refusal to strongly
condemn Israel has embarrassed those Arab leaders who arc called
upon to defend their positions at home.
“1 don’t think the coalition can withstand this sort of double standard
by the United Slates,” said Rashid Khalidi, Associate Director of the
Center for Middle East Studies at die University of Chicago. “It’s a
weak link.”
The resolve of the Arab leaders could also be threatened by more
concrete forms of Iraqi intimidation.
On Friday, gunmen killed Egypt’s parliament speaker and four
security men outside a luxury Cairo hotel, days after the government
warned that terrorists might punish Egypt for opposing Iraq.
There was no claim of responsibility in the slayings, but they
increased government nervousness.
Experts predicted the resolve of Egypt and other Arabs, who have
traditionally struck a united front against the West no matter what
disagreements they had, could be systematically weakened if Iraqi
| proxies start a campaign of terror.
Other experts believe that lime and an erosion of domestic support
arc the greatest enemies.
“As time goes on, each party discovers that its own interests aren’t
necessarily compatible with those of the others,” said Judith Kipper, a
scholar at the Brookings Institution.
If the confrontation with Saddam drags on without resolution,
Americans might start demanding that President Bush bring home the
165,000 troops he has sent to the region, 31 of whom have been killed
in accidents.
German states have elections
Nebraskan I
BERLIN - Voters in what used to
be East Germany chose governments
Sunday for the five states their nation
has become and again backed the
conservative party of Chancellor
Helmut Kohl, projections said.
Kohl’s conservative Christian
Democrats easily won the most votes
in four ol five stales, Thuringia, Sax
ony, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg
Lower Pomerania, according to pro
jections by the television networks
ARD and ZDF.
However, the Christian Democrats
were losing the state of Brandenburg
to the left-leaning Social Democrats,
the main opposition.
The early projections still showed
the Christian Democrats to be the
dominant party in East German terri
tory, thus giving something of a pre
view of the united German elections
Dec. 2.
Those elections will be the first
united German balloting in 60 years.
Kohl, the politician most responsible
for uniting the German stales Oct. 3,
is widely favored to win.
The stale elections were important
because they finally gave people in
East Germany governors and state
legislatures who will have to assume
a major responsibility for removing
much of the entrenched Communist
system.
The elections will help give the
former nation a new political and
regional identity.
The five state governments face
the monumental task of forming sepa
rate administrations from the vestiges
of the old centralized Communist
system, where all power emanated
from the national party bosses.
The states will have to quickly
assume responsibility for police,
education, transportation and some
social services.
The television projections said the
renamed Communist Party had won
more than 5 percent of the votes in
each of the states in the former East
Germany, guaranteeing them scats in
the state parliaments.
Elections also were held in Bav
aria, a wealthy state in former West
Germany. The arch-conservative
Christian Social Union suffered losses
but appeared able to hold on to its
majority.
ARD and ZDF, the two TV net
works, said their projections showed
the ultraright Republican Party close
to clearing the 5 percent hurdle to get
into the Bavarian legislature.
After 40 years without free elec
tions, people in the former East Ger
many have now held three in six
months, and they face a fourth in
December.
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