News Digest Edited by Jennifer O'Cilka
Baker and Syrians hold extended talks
DAMASCUS, Syria - Secretary of State
James Baker held extended talks Wednesday
night with Syrian President Hafez, Assad on a
U.S. formula to bring peace to the Middle East
by having Israel give up territory in exchange
for Arab recognition.
Nearing the end of a five-nation trip to the
Middle East, Baker also discussed with Assad
a flurry of rumors regarding American hos
tages in Lebanon and a burgeoning plan to
guard the Persian Gulf oil fields with an alli
ance of Egyptian, Syrian and American troops.
The session in Assad’s office completed
Baker’s consultations with the key figures in
the Arab-Israeli dispute.
He added Lebanese Foreign Minister Fares
Bouez to his schedule on Thursday morning,
before flying to Moscow to measure the situ
ation in the restive Soviet Union.
The American and other Western hostages
are believed to be held in Lebanon by Hezbol
lah, an Iranian-backed group, and Baker wants
to get the latest wcrd from the Beirut govern
ment on the situation.
He also appealed to Assad for help, but U.S.
- it---"7"
I haven’t seen anything pessimistic coming out of the Baker
reports.
President Bush
------ $9 -
officials said Syria’s intervention may not be
enough to gain the hostages’ freedom. Iran,
they said, holds the key.
The United States has no direct relations
with Tehran and depends largely on intermedi
aries such as Assad on behalf of the hostages.
The officials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said they had no evidence of a
break in the situation, but President Bush and
Baker have vowed to persist, hoping the post
war climate in the region might produce re
sults.
There was no immediate information on
possible progress from the Baker-Assad meet
ing.
“I think that the secretary feels that the
climate is now better than it has been in a long
time for making progress” in the region, Bush
said in Ottawa, Canada, first stop on a diplo
matic journey to discuss the postwar gulf with
the leaders of Canada, France and Britain.
“I haven’t seen anything pessimistic com
ing out of the Baker reports,” Bush said. “There
is some kind of change,” he said, following the
war in which the army of one of Israel’s most
threatening enemies was vanquished.
Bush said it was “impossible to have nor
malized relations” with Iraq as long as Saddam
Hussein remained in power. Still, he said, he
was concerned about instability in the region
because of internal unrest in Iraq.
Bush also cautioned Iran against trying to
take any Iraqi territory.
A day before Baker’s arrival in Moscow,
Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Vitaly
Churkin said that Gorbachev had sent mes
sages to Arab leaders outlining Soviet views on
security in the Persian Gulf and soliciting their
views. Churkin said the messages were sent to
“a wide range of Arab states,” but he would not
list them nor say whether Saddam was among
them.
In other gulf developments Wednesday:
•In Iraq, demonstrators in the northern oil
city of Mosul stormed two prisons and released
4,000 political prisoners, according to Kurdish
leaders who claimed to control almost 75 per
centof Iraqi Kurdistan. An opposition leader in
London said Kurdish forces had surrounded
Mosul.
•In New York, Kuwait’s ambassador to the
United Nations said Iraq’s occupation and plunder
of Kuwait may cost the emirate up to SI00
billion in damages.
•In Washington, the Army presented Purple
Hearts and Prisoner of War medals to five
former POWs, praising them for paying “a
steep price in the name of freedom.”
Nay vote could shatter U.S.S.R.. official says
MOSCOW - A resounding “nyet”
on a referendum this weekend could
shatter the Soviet Union and the po
litical authority of President Mikhail
Gorbachev, a top Communist Party
official said Wednesday.
Yuri Prokofiev predicted the poll
question would pass, and cited public
opinion surveys that said 60 percent
of the voters would cast ballots Sun
day in the nonbinding vote on whether
to preserve the Soviet Union. He said
up to 70 percent of the participants
would vote “yes” and about 25 per
cent “no.”
The vote is to be counted by each
republic, and not compiled as a na
tional total in this land of 285 million
residents. Six of the 15 Soviet repub
lics, including the three secessionist
Baltic states, are boycotting the refer
endum.
“If the majority says no, it will
mean the collapse of the political
prestige of Gorbachev,” said Prokof
iev, head of the Communist Party in
Moscow,
The referendum has developed into
a political contest between Gorbachev
and Russian federation President Boris
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Yeltsin, Prokofiev complained.
“It’s not a question of Gorbachev
or Yeltsin. It is a question of the
destiny of the country,” he said.
The conflict between the two men
sharpened Wednesday as Yeltsin
demanded state television give him
40 minutes of air time Friday night.
Gorbachev, as president and head of
state, will make a televised address
Saturday night.
In a televised appearance Feb. 12,
Yeltsin accused Gorbachev of lead
ing the nation to the brink of dictator
ship and demanded he resign.
Prokofiev said the referendum is
intended to sound out the public on
whether to keep the Soviet Union as it
is or to conclude a new Union Treaty
that Gorbachev is pushing to bolster
central control over the republics.
“It’s being carried out to learn the
senuments of the population,” Prokof
iev told a Moscow news conference.
But, he said, “We are very clear
about the consequences that might
ensue if the referendum answer is in
the negative ... the downfall of our
union.”
Exxon agrees to pay
$ 1 billion for oil spill
WASHINGTON - Exxon Wednes
day settled government claims aris
ing from the nation’s worst oil spill
by agreeing to pay a record $100
million fine for four environmental
crimes and to spend an additional
$900 million to finish cleaning up
Alaska’s coast.
Exxon already has spent $2.5 bil
lion on the cleanup.
The civil settlement and guilty pleas
to the four misdemeanors will avert
lengthy court fights over the March
24, 1989, grounding of the tanker
Exxon Valdez, which spilled more
than 10 million gallons of oil into
Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
Attorney General Dick Thornburgh
said the deal with the federal govern
ment and the state of Alaska “repre
sents a clear and unmistakable signal
to those engaged in environmental
crime tliat their activities are not going
to go unnoticed and unprosecuted.’’
The record criminal fine, involv
ing one misdemeanorcharged against
Exxon and three others chaiged against
its Exxon Shipping Co. subsidiary,
shows that “answering for environ
t-—
A
menial spoilage cannot be done sim
ply by paying damages," the attorney
general said.
Proceeds from the fine will be split
50-50 with the state of Alaska to help
finance the cleanup. By law, the fed
eral share must go into the general
treasury.
“I think it’s a good settlement for
the state of Alaska, it’s a good settle
ment for the federal government...
it’s a good settlement for the environ
ment,* said Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel,
who was also governor 13 years ago
when the discovery of Alaska oil was
announced on this date.
Under the proposed consent de
cree, which must receive court ap
proval after a 30-day public comment
period, Exxon would pay $900 mil
lion over the next 10 years to a trust
fund administered by federal and state
officials.
The fund would be used to pay for
costs of the continued cleanup by
Exxon, which has already spent $2.5
billion to remove oil from the sound
and its shores.
- —i
Nebraskan
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