NT PTATC "D i opcf KSaled Press
JL ^1 W * w & RS l&nVkJ t Edited by Jana Pedersen
Walesa wins Poland presidential election
WARSAW, Poland - Lech Walesa,
the shipyard worker who helped lead
his country out of Communism, swept
to a landslide victoiy in Poland’s first
popular presidential vote Sunday,
according to exit polls.
Walesa defeated emigre business
man Stanislaw Tyminski, a virtual
unknown before the campaign, by a
margin of 77 percent to 23 percent,
according to an exit survey of 22,500
voters at 303 representative polling
stations nationwide.
“There are terribly difficult tasks
waiting for us,” a smiling but serious
Walesa said as he sipped a congratu
latory glass of champagne before the
television cameras and adoring sup
porters in Gdansk, where his Solidar
ity movement began.
“I hope that we will be building
Poland’s future together. I want to
behave firmly, I want to firmly cor
rect everything that is wrong, and
make firm accounts for everything
that has not been accounted for yet.”
Tyminski declined to concede
defeat immediately, saying he did not
trust the polls. He said he would remain
active in Polish politics.
Outgoing President Wojciech
Janizelski, who sent Walesa to jail
under martial law nine years ago, sent
his congratulations. He wished the
new president “fruitful activity for
the good of our homeland.”
Turnout was estimated at 55 per
cent, according to the survey con
ducted by the German Infas service
and state television.
The first actual results, from 165
of the country’s more than 22,000
polling stations, showed 74.7 percent
for Walesa and 25.3 percent for
Tyminski, the television said.
Full official results were expected
late today, but the exit polls have
nmvp.n accurate to within 2 percent
The Solidarity leader and 1983
Nobel Peace Prize laureate had asked
voters to give him a broad mandate to
lead the country to a market economy
and a European-style democracy.
The polls showed that he did well
among all social groups — nearly
doubling the 40 percent he got in the
first round in November.
Tyminski, who performed well in
the first round, appeared to have been
damaged by numerous questions raised
about him at the end of the campaign.
“I’m surprised, but I won’t make
any comments at the moment,”
Tyminski told reporters after inspect
ing the returns posted at his home
voting district in Pecice, outside
Warsaw. He then traveled downtown
to his campaign headquarters in the
Stalinist-cra Palace of Culture, where
he declined to make a statement.
Walesa had split the Solidarity
movement when he opposed Prime
Ministei Tadeusz Mazowiecki in the
first round of voting Nov. 25.
But this time, he ran with the back
ing of the powerful Roman Catholic
Church and virtually all political and
social organizations.
“I voted for Walesa. How could
anyone vote for a clown?” said Jan
Grzesiak, 52, a Warsaw building
superintendent. “Walesa is a worker,
he went through hardship, and he is
an honest man — contrary to Ty
minski.”
“I think Walesa is better than an
SB (secret police) agent,” said 79
year-old pensioner Zofia Krzyszta
lowska.
Tyminski, a self-proclaimed mil
lionaire, beat Mazowiecki in the first
round based on his promise to bring
Western business know-how to Po
land and improve the economy in a
month.
Although he returned to Poland in
September after 21 years in Canada
and Peru, there were reports that he
had ties with former Communist and
police operatives.
Tyminski’spolitical tract,“Sacred
Dogs,” was co-written with an ex
correspondent for a Communist Party
daily, and he acknowledged that sev
eral ranking campaign aides were party
members or secret-police veterans.
Also, he failed to clearly explain
how he would carry out his promise to
improve the economy. And questions
were raised about his claimed mysti
cal experiences in the Amazon jungle.
Tyminski, 42, who owns computer
related and communications businesses
and leads the fringe Libertarian Party
of Canada, had railed against the
economic “treason” of Mazowiecki.
He appealed especially to young
voters not under the spell of the Soli
darity legend and eager for financial
success. He also found votes among
fanners, miners and others threatened
by the government’s tight-money and
profn-or-perish market policies.
Presidential Runoff
Election Results
Based on exit surveys of 22,500
voters at 303 representative polling
stations nationwide.
Lech Walesa
Hoad of Solidarity
trade union; leader
of anti-communist
movement since
1980; received 1983
Nobel Peace Prize.
Stanlslaw Tymlnskl
Independent; self-made millionaire who left
Poland In 1970 and returned recently; citizen
of Canada and Peru and leader of small
Canadian right-wing party.
iii-1-1-1t i
0 20% 40% 60%
AP
, , ,
Which one are you bringing home
for the holidays?
A. laundry
■ , I 1 I
AtfTCffmS
Both of the above, right? You’re on your own
with laundry. But as far as shopping goes, you’d be
surprised how much Downtown Lincoln has in
store for Christmas...no matter how much you have
to spend. Get yourself a Downtown Christmas
Guide at the Union and you’ll see what we mean.
You can find fun little presents, Nebraska
souvenirs and lots of creative gift ideas—even
high-end fashions, electronics, jewelry and more if
you want to spend some bucks. There are
interesting shops to explore, plenty of places to
grab a bite to eat and unwind, and none of those
obnoxiously long lines you get at the mall. Collect
free parking stickers with Park ’n Shop and you
can park free on Saturdays at the Centrum and
University Square garages.
When you’re ready to get into the Christmas
shopping mode, stick around Downtown. You’d be
surprised at how much Downtown Lincoln has in
store for you.
DOWNTO INCOLN
Evacuation should be complete within days
First freed hostages leave Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The first
Americans to be freed under an Iraqi
decree releasing all foreign hostages
left Baghdad Sunday on a U.S.-char
tered flight for Frankfurt, Germany,
ending a four-month ordeal.
“I am stunned and still cannot
believe it. It seems like a miracle,”
said Lyonell Hoffman, 51. of Mel
bourne, Fla., who had worked as a
contractor in Kuwait before Iraq’s
Aug. 2 invasion.
About 175 Americans were among
an estimated 325 people aboard the
jumbo jet. The Americans were ex
pected to spend the night in Frankfurt
and travel on to the United States
today.
U.S. officials said they planned to
charter another flight in three or four
days to evacuate the rest of the esti
mated 750 Americans in Iraq and
Kuwait.
The first foreigners to leave
Baghdad under the decree issued by
Saddam Hussein were a group of 240
hostages, mostly Italians, who left
aboard an Italian-chartered jumbo jet
for Rome earlier Sunday.
However, Western diplomats
complained that Iraqi authorities had
thrown up some last-minute bureau
cratic roadblocks to the exodus.
Foreigners in cities other than
Baghdad were told they must obtain
exit visas from those cities. Those
who had been under work contracts
were told that Iraqi law requires them
topresenta letter releasing them from
their obligations.
Iraq has refused U.S. requests tc
waive visa requirements for freed
hostages, and the processing of the
visas alone had been expected to delay
some departures for days.
However, diplomats said Iraqi
officials were working quickly Sun
day, processing an estimated 80 exit
visas an hour. One diplomat said it
normally takes up to half an hour to
process a single exit visa.
“They clearly have a different set
of instructions now,” said the diplo
mat.
In addition to the Americans aboard
the Frankfurt-bound jet, airport sources
said passengers included 93 Britons,
31 Canadians, 12 Irish, five Greeks,
three Austrians and one each from
Argentina, Denmark, Italy, the Neth
erlands and Switzerland.
About 20 former American hos
tages landed in Houston early Sunday
after flying out of Baghdad a day
earlier aboard a jet chartered by for
mer Treasury Secretary John Con
nally, who was in Iraq on a private
hostage-freeing mission.
Their release was arranged priorto
Iraq’s decree freeing all foreigners.
“God bless America!” said one of
the arriving Americans, Bil! Nelson
of Los Angeles. He said he was held
at a munitions plant about 35 miles
south of Baghdad.
Three U.S. Embassy employees in
Iraq also were on the flight, along
with relatives of the former hostages.
About 8,000 Westerners had been
detained since Iraq’s invasion of
Kuwait, including about 600 who were
held at strategic sites in an effort to
deter an attack. The hostages included
about 900 Americans as well as other
Westerners, Eastern Europeans and
Japanese.
Voice of America broadcasts ad
vised Americans in Kuwait, includ
ing those who have been in hiding
since Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of the
emirate, that they could leave on
Sunday’s charter Bights.
Netfraskan
Editor Eric Planner
472- 1766
Managing Editor Victoria Ayotte
Assoc News Editors Darcie Wlegert
Diane Brayton
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Wire Editor Jana Pedersen
Copy Desk Editor Emily Rosenbaum
Sports Editor Darran Fowlar
Arts & Entertain
ment Editor MIchaal Deeds
Diversions Editors Lee Rood
Amy Edwards
Graphics Editor John Brucs
Photo Chief Al Schaben
Night News Editors Matt Herek
Chuck Green
Art Director Brian Shelllto
Writing Coach Amy Edwards
General Manager Dan Shattll
Production Manager Katharine Pollcky
Advertising Manager Loren Melrose
Sales Manager Todd Sears
Publications Board
Chairman Bill Vobejda
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473- 7301
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Arab diplomats project peace,
but want to get rid of Saddam
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Some
diplomats and other observers can
see the rough outlines of a peaceful
solution to the Persian Gulf crisis
emerging.
But any face saving formula that
induces Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait
leaves a long-term question: what to
do about his large and powerful mili
tary.
“We can’t accept being next to a
country ready to invade any morn
ing,” said a senior Saudi diplomat,
who like his colleagues spoke on
condition of anonymity.
A Saudi source knowledgeable on
military affairs said Sunday that the
release of hostages by Saddam may
signal a planned withdrawal from
Kuwait, and that chances of peace arc
better than those of war.
So lar, Saddam has shown no in
clination to pull his 460,(XX) troops
liom the Kuwait theater and reinstate
the Kuwaiti ruling family, two key
U.N. demands.
But he has agreed to release for
eign hostages, which the Security
( ouncil has repeatedly called on him
to do. I he lirst group of them ilew out
on Sunday.
Whether or not the hostage release
signals a peaceful solution to the cri
sis, an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait
is seen as only the first step in strip
ping Saddam of his military capabili
ties.
“If you don’t get rid of him now,
you’ll have to do it two years from
now, or three years from now, or five
years from now. And you’ll have to
pay a much higher price," said the
Saudi source.
Saddam has threatened to use his
chemical arsenal and some observers
believe he could develop a nuclear
bomb during this decade. With that
firepower, he could dictate his neigh
bors ’ actions without necessarily
moving troops. .
But it would be difficult to
U.S. soldiers into action now on ihc
basis of a possible future w ar