D; i.*™.
Associated Press
® ^ Edited by Jennifer O'Cilka
27 feared dead after
Navy planes collide
SAN DIEGO - Two Navy subma
rine-hunting planes collided Thurs
day, and all 27 people aboard were
feared dead in cold, choppy waters 60
miles off Southern California, au
thorities said.
The Navy listed the crews as miss
ing, but there was little hope any of
the crew members from the downed
P-3 Orions survived.
The all-weather planes were en
gaged in an anti-submarine warfare
training exercise when they collided
in bad weather, authorities said.
“I think we have to be realistic
here,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer
Bob Howard, a Navy public affairs
officer at North Island Naval Air
Station. “It is very cold out there.
We’re talking about what apparently
is a mid-air collision ... two aircraft.
I would say it would be very grim.”
Still, he said, the Navy was con
ducting an aggressive air and sea search
of the crash site.
Search and rescue teams spotted
some debris from the planes but found
no signs of life.
There was no word on how long
the search would last, but Howard
said the Navy would make “extraor
dinary” attempts to retrieve remains
and wreckage.
A Navy helicopter crew flying in
the area and sailors from the destroyer
USS Merrill all reported a ball of fire
and loud explosion at about 2:30 a.m.
PST, Howard said during a briefing at
North Island Naval Air Station.
He said the accident occurred over
the Pacific Ocean about 60 miles
southwest of San Diego.
“They were operating in conjunc
tion with other surface and air ele
ments when a mid-air explosion was
reported approximately the same time
radio contact was lost,” Howard said.
The collision occurred as one P-3
Orion was arriving to relieve the other,
which had just completed its part of
the exercise, Howard said. Officials
were uncertain how much contact the
pilots had before the crash, he said.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham
Lincoln, the USS Merrill and at least
two other ships, along with helicop
ters and fixed-wing planes were as
sisting in the search.
Howard said it was believed 13
crew members were aboard one P-3
AP
Orion and 14 on the other. The planes
were on a training mission from Moffett
Naval Air Station near San Jose. Names
of crew members were withheld pend
ing notification of their families.
The P-3s were in contact with land
and sea-based air controllers during
the exercise, but officials w ere uncer
tain who was directing them at the
time of the collision, Howard said.
He called that “a very pivotal point,”
and said investigators will examine
how the two planes wound up on a
collision course.
“That’s obviously something we’re
broking at,” Howard said. “When you
conduct an investigation like this, the
one thing you don ’ t want to do is rule
anything out.”
Iraqis battle back
Rebels: Saddam using napalm
NICOSIA, Cyprus - Iraqi opposi
tion groups claimed Thursday that
Saddam Hussein s loyalist forces were
using acid, napalm and chemical
weapons to crush Kurds in the north
and Shiite Muslims in the south rebel
ling against his rule.
Iraqi troops have tried to cut off
supplies of food and medicine to ar
eas held by the insurgents, and Iraqi
warplanes and helicopters also have
attacked rebel-held northern oil fields,
setting wells ablaze, the opposition
said.
Iran’s official news agency said
the Tehran government had strongly
protested Iraq’s reported abduction
of the world’s highest Shiite author
ity.
Also Thursday, an Iraqi delega
tion began talks with allied officials
in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on
speeding up the repatriation of Iraqi
prisoners of war. Iraq freed 1,150
Kuwaitis in compliance with cease
fire terms.
The opposition Iraqi Kurdistan
Front, in a statement released to Iran’s
official Islamic Republic News
Agency, said the leader of the Patri
otic Union of Kurdistan sent a mes
sage to the U.N. secretary-general
seeking an urgent Security Council
meeting on the Iraqi uprising.
IRNA said the letter from the
Kurdish leader, Jala! Talabani, cited
the torching of the oil wells and the
use of napalm.
It said he urged the Security Coun
cil to “act resolutely to prevent Sad
dam’s forces from persisting in these
acts of gross environmental terrorism
and to prevent the indiscriminate
destruction of civilian areas by
Hussein’s forces.”
Jalabani, in an interview with The
Associated Press in Damascus, said
he would return to Iraq this weekend
to join forces with other opposition
leaders.
“This is the spring of freedom for
Kurdistan,” said the guerrilla leader.
“We would invite them to inter
vene on the side of their Iraqi brothers
to promote an Arab solution to the
struggle and thereby prevent any inter
vention by other foreign forces,” said
Imam Sayed Hussain al-Sader, the
general secretary of the council.
The Supreme Assembly of the Is
lamic Revolution in Iraq, an umbrella
of opposition groups, claims Iraqi
forces have used ground-to-ground
missiles against rebel-held cities,
shelled them with artillery and tank
cannons, and used napalm and chemi
cal weapons.
Legislature endorses Union referendum
MOSCOW - Lawmakers urged
national and republic leaders on
Thursday to use the recent referen
dum on preserving the union as a
springboard to approving a new treaty
to join the republics.
After a day of relatively calm dehate.,
the Supreme Soviet legislature ap
proved an eight-point resolution de
claring that “a majority of people
(agreed) that the fate of the country’s
peoples is indivisible, that only through
joint efforts will they be able to suc
cessfully resolve questions of eco
nomic, social and cultural develop
ment.”
The legislature had scheduled the
referendum at the urging of President
Mikhail Gorbachev. The resolution
gave Gorbachev another card in his
bid to hold the republics together under
a new Union Treaty.
Neither Gorbachev nor his chief
foe, Russian Federation President Boris
Yeltsin, has commented publicly on
the results of Sunday’s referendum.
Nine republics, including the huge
Russian Federation, took part in the
referendum; six boycotted it. More
than 82 percent of the eligible voters
in the nine republics cast ballots, with
about 77 percent voting in favor, ref
erendum committee chairman Vladi
mir Orlov told lawmakers.
“The referendum and its results
can be viewed as the success of So
vietdcmocracy and a triumph of those
forces which associate the future of
their native land and their personal
destinies with the preservation and
unity of the U.S.S.R.,” Orlov said.
Voters were asked: “Do you con
sider it necessary to preserve the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics as a
renewed federation of equal, sover
eign republics in which human rights
and freedoms of any nationality will
be fully guaranteed?”
Thursday’s resolution was given
preliminary approval, then deputies
made mostly minor changes before
giving it a final OK point by point.
The final version says national and
republic governments “shall be gov
erned in their practical actions by the
decision of voters to support renewal
of the (union) in the referendum, whose
results are final and have mandatory
force in the whole territory of the
U.S.S.R.”
Lawmakers recommended that
Gorbachev and his Federation Coun
cil, made up of leaders of the repub
lics, “energetically carry out work to
finish the new Union Treaty, based
on the results of the referendum, for it
to be, based on the results of the
referendum, for it to be signed in the
shortest period.”
They also urged leaders to hasten
their work on a new Soviet constitution,
something Gorbachev has promised
to undertake after the treaty is signed.
Eight of the 15 republics have
indicated they would sign the treaty,
which has been sent to the republics
for consideration.
The resolution urges the Federa
tion Council and the Cabinet, a smaller
working body close to Gorbachev, to
enforce economic links between the
republics and thccentral government.
Other articles urge the protection
of civil rights against ethnic conflict
and recommend that the legislature’s
constitutional oversight committee
review conflicting laws.
The resolution orders the coun
try’s chief prosecutor and the Interior
Ministry to investigate allegations of
voting fraud during the referendum,
and singles out six republics — Molda
via. Armenia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithu
ania and Estonia — for rejecting the
vote on their territory.
The final point says “state agen
cies, enterprises and organizations,
political parlies and other public as
sociations, and also the mass media,
ought to take into account the will of
the people in preserving the union
government”
That was aimed at critics of the
referendum, led by Yeltsin, as well as
newspapers and republic governments
that had urged people to boycott or
vote no.
Orlov, the referendum committee
chief, said the referendum passed by
71 percent in the vast Russian Federa
tion, 70 percent in the Ukraine, 83
percent Byelorussia, almost 94 per
cent in Uzbekistan, 94 percent in
Kazakstan, 93 percent in Azerbaijan,
94 percent in Kirgizia, 96 percent in
Tadzhikstan, and 98 percent in Turk
menia.
U .N. to litt tood embargo on Iraq
UNITED NATIONS - The Secu
rity Council’s sanctions committee
will liftthe food embargoon Iraq now
that Baghdad has agreed to allow the
United Nations to distribute the food
stuffs, a senior Western diplomat said
Thursday.
The official, who spoke cn condi
tion of anonymity, said the sanctions
committee would allow food and other
essentials into Iraq starting Friday if
the Red Cross and United Nations can
see that it reaches all parts of the
country.
Iraq will have to allow the food to
be sent into the Kurd-controlled areas
of the north, and the provinces of the
south where Shiites arc rebelling, he
said.
The Security Council on Thursday
heard a report that Iraq had been
“relegated to a pre-industrial age” by
the “near-apocalyptic” allied military
assault.
Undersecretary-General Martti
Ahtisaari’s report recommended the
sanctions committee lift barriers to
food and agricultural equipment
immediately.
“It is unmistakable that the Iraqi
people may soon face a further immi
nent catastrophe, which could include
epidemic and famine, if massive life
supporting needs are not met,” his
report said. “Time is short.”
Iraq’s U.N. Mission and Washing
ton Embassy were closed, and Iraqi
officials were not available to con
firm that they would allow food to be
distributed to all regions of the coun
“4* -
It is unmistakable that
the Iraqi people may
soon face a further
imminent catastrophe.
.. if massive life sup
porting needs are not
met.
Ahtisaari
U.N. undersecretary general
-ff -
try.
The council’s committee on sanc
tions was to meet Friday morning. Ii
■ consists of the same 15 nations as the
Security Council, under Austria's
chairmanship.
Since the council imposed an inter
national trade embargo on Iraq on
Aug. 6, four days after Iraq invaded
Kuwait, all supplies bound for Iraqi
except for medicines have had to
receive the approval of the sanctions
committee.
Food is only allowed into Iraq in
humanitarian circumstances. But the
sanctions committee can effectively
lift the embargo on food by declaring
that a humanitarian emergency ex
ists.
Western officials have indicated
that overall embargo on Iraq would
not be lifted until a permanent cease
fire is signed.
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Kuwaitis torturing detainees, group says
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti secu
rity forces and free-lance gangs are
using lit cigarettes, knives and other
instruments to torture hundreds of
people suspected of collaborating with
Iraqi troops, a human rights group
said Thursday.
Also, the body of a man apparently
beaten to death was found in a Kuwait
City neighborhood, the second corpse
to appear in the area in recent days.
U.S. officers at the scene said Ameri
can officials were urging the Kuwaitis
to investigate numerous human rights
abuses.
Middle East Watch, a New York
based group, said about 30 to 40 people
have been killed since the U.S.-led
coalition forces drove Iraqi troops out
of the emirate three weeks ago.
‘‘We have interviewed people who
described torture techniques which
are very similar to those perpetrated
by the Iraqis on the Kuwaitis,” said
Andrew Whitley, executive director
of Middle East Watch.
About 2,000 people are being held,
and many, ‘‘possibly the majority,”
have been abused, Whitley said.
Many detainees are Palestinians,
who claim they arc being victimized
as a group because some of them
assisted the Iraqis during the occupa
tion.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
won the support of many Palestinians
with his Scud missile attacks on Israel
and his repeated demands for a Pales
tinian homeland.