News Digest
Baker: Peace prospects better than ever
MOSCOW — Secretary of State
James Baker, at the windup of a five
nation Middle East tour, said Thurs
day that chances of settling the Arab
Israeli dispute were better than ever
before.
Baker arrived in Moscow from Syria
to consult with Soviet leaders on their
nation’s own turmoil, as well as con
tributions the Soviet Union might make
to a lasting Middle East peace. Dur
ing a three-day visit, he also planned
to talk to leaders of the growing oppo
sition to Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev.
The United States has promised
the Soviets a postwar role in the peace
process, but has not said what that
role should be. The Soviets supported
the U.N. resolutions demanding that
their former client, Iraq, give up
Kuwait, but they declined to send
troops for the international coalition
that drove Iraq out.
Earlier, in Damascus,a senior U.S.
official on the Baker trip said that
Syria for the first lime was consider
ing “genuine peace” with Israel rather
than simply a cessation of armed
conflict.
“The Syrians told us they have
changed their position,” said the offi
cial, who spoke on condition of ano
nymity.
Baker and Syrian Foreign Minis
ter Farouk Sharaa confirmed that
dozens of Scud-C missiles and mis
sile launchers, capable of reaching
virtually all of Israel, had been deliv
ered to Syria.
Other sources said Wednesday in
Jerusalem the weapons had arrived
on a ship from North Korea and may
be capable of carrying chemical
weapons.
Sharaa said Syria was still in a
state of war with Israel, which has “so
many weapons of mass destruction.”
On the long detention in Lebanon
of six American hostages by the fun
damentalist Hezbollah group, Sharaa
said that “the issue has to be resolved”
and that Syria would exert maximum
effort to secure their release.
“We are not pessimistic that this
will happen,” Sharaa said.
U.S. officials said that they wel
comed Syria’s help but that Iran, which
backs Hezbollah, holds the key to the
hostages’ fate.
The secretary of state said he had
“sensed a very serious intent on the
part of the Syrian government to pursue
an active peace process.”
Baker said he also had detected an
attitude in Israel that the allied vic
tory over Iraq opened “a window of
opportunity,” to move ahead on the
basis of two U.N. Security Council
resolutions adopted at the end of the
1967 and 1973 Middle East wars.
The resolutions imply the accep
tance of Israel by other Middle East
nations and cal! for withdrawal from
occupied territories.
"There is a better chance than there
was before of real reconciliation, real
peace,” Baker said after seven hours
of talks with Syrian President Hafez
Assad that ended after midnight.
Going home
Kuwaiti emir returns to ruins of proud nation
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait’s ruler Hew home Thurs
day after seven months in exile and kissed the ground
of his once-prosperous nation, wrecked by Iraq in his
! absence.
It was a relatively low-key homecoming for the
emir, Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah. Only about
5,000 people turned out to welcome him, and there was
a minimum of ceremony. He has been criticized by
some Kuwaitis for waiting so long to return.
“Thank God that our country and our land now
belong to the Kuwaitis,” Sheik Jaber said after arriving
at his temporary home in a Kuwait City suburb, where
he was cheered by a small, flag-waving crowd.
He also thanked :hc countries that helped drive Iraqi
troops out of Kuwait, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
Syria and “friendly countries led by the United States.”
“I hope that God will help us rebuild our country
after what the Iraqis destroyed,” he said.
The 64-year-old monarch, one of the world’s wealthi
est and oft-married men, arrived from Saudi Arabia on
a Kuwait Airways jet named Bubiyar,. It was named
after the Kuwaiti island that Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein had demanded before his Aug. 2 invasion of
Kuwait.
As Sheik Jaber emerged from the blue-and-whitc
jet, he stood on the top of the stairs w ith his hands over
his eyes.
When he stepped onto Kuwaiti soil, the emir knelt
and kissed the ground. The black braided band holding
his white headress, called a kcffiych. flopped onto the
tarmac.
“This is the completion. This is the final stage,”
said Minister of Planning Sulaiman Mutawa, referring
to the U.N. resolution calling for the restoration of
Kuwait’s legitimate government.
Cabinet members, diplomats and friends applauded
when the emir appeared, and mobbed him as he walked
toward a VIP tent, set up in front of an airport building
burned by the Iraqis.
In the distance, black smoke rose in the sky from
several of the more than 500 oil wells torched by Iraq.
In Kuwait, the emir’s plane arrived at 4:40 p.m., 40
minutes late. A military band from the six-nation Gulf
Cooperation Council played the Kuwaiti national an
them.
A Bedouin dance group brandished swords and
performed in front of the emir’s motorcade. There
were no speeches.
“I said, ‘Congratulations. Welcome home,’” U.S.
Ambassador Edward Gnehm said. “He said, ‘It’s
wonderful to be home.’”
“He was moved,” British Ambassador Michael
Wcstin said.
On the ride from the airport into Kuwait City, a half
dozen American Gls stood by the side of the road
waving Kuwaiti flags. Small clusters of Kuwailis did
the same.
Arabian Gulf Road, along the city’s coast, was
packed with car-tooting celebrants, but that has been
the case every evening since liberation.
In Washington, the Pentagon reported a U.S. Army
UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed Thursday in the
gulf area, killing six crewmembers aboard, all appar
ently Americans. No details were immediately avail
able.
The Pentagon also said a U.S. F-16 fighter crashed
Wednesday in the gulf area. The pilot was rescued
safely. No other details were available.
Ex-POWs: Captivity
filled with fear, faith
WASHINGTON — Seven former
prisoners of war told stories of fear,
loneliness and mistreatment today in
their first meeting with reporters since
returning from captivity in Iraq.
Two of the former POWs said the
statements they made on Iraqi televi
sion were given against their will.
“About 90 percent of the lime you
felt you were in danger of losing your
life,” Navy Lt. Jeffrey Zaun of Cherry
Hill, N.J., said at a suburban Wash
ington hospital.
Zaun, Navy Lt. Lawrence Slade
and five Marines appeared on an
auditorium stage at the Bcthesda Naval
Medical Center, where they are under
going treatment.
Marine Corps Lt. Col. Clifford
Acrcc said that statements made by
the POWs on videos for broadcast by
the Iraqis were made under duress,
but he declined to go into detail.
Zaun, describing the making of
the videos, said, “They took me to a
TV studio and sat me next to the big
guy and then told me what questions
they were going to ask and they told
me what my answers were going to
be.”
He said he tried to “screw up” his
answers but he didn’t think it made
any difference because they were
translated into Arabic anyway.
In the Iraqi television broadcast,
Zaun spoke in a slow monotone and
said: “I think our leaders and our
people have wrongly attacked the
peaceful people of Iraq."
At today’s news conference, Zaun
said he was apprehensive that Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein might use the
videos to convince his people that
they were winning the war, but he did
not worry about the reaction of
Americans.
“I had enough faith in Americans
to know that anybody who saw this
was going to say, This is ridicu
lous,"’ he said.
Zaun, whose badly bruised face
was widely pictured in the United
Slates after the video, said about 90
percent of his facial injuries occurred
during his ejection from his airplane
and “maybe a little bit of it was get
ting slapped around.”
Diplomatic signs
point to possible
hostage release
WASHINGTON — As Terry
Anderson ends his sixth year in
captivity, his friends and family
mounted a lobbying campaign
on Capitol Hill on Thursday,
their hopes buoyed by fresh
diplomatic signs thai he and other
hostages in Lebanon soon may
be freed.
“The news from the Middle
East is great,” said Peggy Say,
Anderson’s sister.
She has helped organize the
lobbying effort and a ceremony
on Friday to honor Anderson,
43, the chief Middle East corre
spondent for The Associated
Press.
Say’s positive feelings
stemmed from reports from
Syria, where Secretary of State
James Baker raised the issue of
the six American hostages with
Syrian President Hafez Assad
and members of his inner circle.
Asked if there has been any
progress on the hostages, Syr
ian Foreign Minister Farouk al
Sharaa responded: “We have the
feeling that the hostage issue
has to be resolved.”
The Syrian army controls the
region of Lebanon where the
hostages are thought to be held
by pro-Iranian Muslim Shiites
known as the Hezbollah.
Anderson is the longest-held
American hostage.
He said he also banged his nose in
the hope that he could disfigure him
self so he would not be shown on
television.
Capl. Russell Sanborn of the Ma
rines described captivity as a “terrify
ing experience” in which the prison
ers were kept in solitary confinement.
“There was some mistreatment and
the food was less than adequate,”
Sanborn said. He described the medi
cal treatment as “minimal.”
Bush rules out PLO for talks
TROIS-ILETS, Martinique —
President Bush said Thursday that he
had no intention of renewing talks
with the Palestine Liberation Organi
zation in the search for a Middle East
peace.
He said PLO leader Yasser Arafat
“bet on the wrong horse” in backing
Iraq in the Persian Gulf crisis.
At a news conference with French
President Francois Mitterrand, Bush
also said a Palestinian state “is not the
answer” to the Arab-Israeli dispute
that underlies many Middle East
problems. But he said diplomacy af
ter the Persian Gulf war is “going to
have to address ... the homeland
question.”
Mitterrand said, “I have used the
word ‘state,’ and added that it was
dangerous to deny a people “any form
of identity.”
Bush again cautioned Iraq against
using combat helicopters to crush
internal unrest. He said, “makes it
very, very complicated” to arrange a
permanent cease-fire in the Persian
Gulf war that would permit a com
plete withdrawal of American forces.
Bush was asked about the fate of
the Western hostages being held in
Lebanon and said it was “clearly in
the interests of those countries that
have any influence” to see that they
are freed. Iran is believed to hold
influence over the hostage takers. Terry
Anderson, chief Middle East corre
spondent for The Associated Press, is
the longest-held captive, approach
ing the end of his sixth year.
Bush noted that Secretary of State
James Baker had raised the issue of
hostages on his recently concluded
trip to the Middle East.
“I don’t have any specifics (on
hopes for release) or can I say there
are any positive points of optimism,’’
the president said.
Bush and Mitterrand met with
reporters after holding private talks
on this Caribbean Island.
Saddam’s
offspring:
mother of
all cliches
Phrase runs from
battle to Bartlett’s
NEW YORK — Only Bo knows
when a catch phrase has become
clich€ so quickly.
“The mother of all (your word
here)” is popping out of the mouths
of talk show hosts, parade planners,
headline writers and hoops fans.
It’s been just two months since
Saddam Hussein promised “the
mother of all battles,” but the folks
at Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
already say the memorable line
could make their 1992 edition. It’s
enough to leave Oedipus’ head
spinning.
Consider these:
— Johnny Carson opened a
recent show by promising “the
mother of all monologues.” His fill
in, Jay Leno, later reported that
“even Saddam Hussein’s mother is
mad at him: ‘You called it the what
of all battles?”’
— Mother madness has infil
trated March Madness, the annual
college basketball craziness which
culminates in the NCAA champion
ship.
A North Carolina booster posted
a sign that promised, “The Tar
Heels will defeat the great Satan
Duke in the mother of all ACC
tournament games.” Scion Hall’s
Iirst Big East championship title
prompted alumnus Brian Duff to
proclaim it “the mother of all
victories.”
Duff likely would be challenged
by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, al
though not by Pirate coach P.J. Car
lesimo.
Pro sports are receiving the same
treatment: the New York Post head
lined a story about a New York
Knicks-Philadelphia 76crs contest.
“Streaking Knicks eye mother of all
games.”
Syndicated political cartoonist
Patrick Oliphant proposed these
postwar positions for Saddam:
proprietor of “The Mother of All
Junkyards;” owner of “Mom’s,” a
diner serving “the mother of all
Iraqi cuisine;” a salesman for
“Mother Bunker” used bunkers.
Saddam himself was named the
“father of the mother of all cliches”
in a U.S. News & World Report
story, leaving in the dust football
baseball star Bo Jackson’s “Bo
knows” commercials, which
instantly invaded public conscious
ness.
As for the coming glut of instant
books on the Persian Gulf war, ex
pect the “mother of all rush jobs,”
as one headline put it.
Nebraskan
Editor Eric Planner
472- 1766
Managing Editor Victoria Ayotte
Assoc News Editors Jana Pedersen
Emily Rosenbaum
Editorial Page Editor Bob Nelson
Wire Editor Jennifer 0'Cllka
Professional Adviser Don Walton
473- 7301
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