i 8 9 Tj (P^ C ”8" Associated Press , t Nebraskan
“ -1. ^8 w w A^msmsiTk** w Edited by Jennifer O Cilka nphursday, April 11,1991
U.N. cease-fire nears; relief not enough
U.S. draws line, cautions Iraq:
Keep forces away from refugees
WASHINGTON - The United
States, drawing a new line in Iraq,
said Wednesday it had told the gov
ernment there not to use “ground or
air forces” that might be a threat to
fleeing Kurds or to relief operations.
“We are simply saying that we do
not expect the humanitarian efforts to
be interrupted or thwarted by Iraqi
military, period,” said Press Secre
tary Marlin Fitzwater.
He said the warning covering much
of northern Iraq was delivered over
the weekend through the United Na
tions and the Iraqi Embassy here.
His announcement implied ih2t any
Iraqi combat helicopters or other air
craft used against the Kurds would be
shot down.
Rebel groups have said they have
been attacked by Iraqi military heli
copters, and critics have said the Bush
administration houla have done more
to stop such attacks.
Fitzwater would not specify the
area that is now off-limits to Iraqi
military operations, saying only that
it covered the areas where Kurds have
taken refuge.
But a senior Pentagon official, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity,
said that the warning covers every
thing above the parallel that marks 36
degrees north latitude.
That takes in all of northern Iraq,
where hundreds of thousands of Kurds
live.
The While House statement as
serts U.S. military authority in north
ern Iraq for the first time since the
informal cease-fire. U.S. forces con
trol considerable territory in southern
Iraq.
Officials said the U.S. declaration
prohibited helicopter gunships and
fixed-wing aircraft from opening fire
on the tens of thousands of homeless
Kurds, and other people.
Fitzwater said there had been no
military activity in the region over
the past few days and there was no
reason to believe that Iraq would ignore
the U.S. warning. “We thought it was
nevertheless important that they know
our views,” he said.
The administration called atten
tion to its humanitarian aid, in an
effort to blunt criticism that it had
done nothing militarily to help the
Kurds from being routed by Saddam
Hussein’s forces.
Fitzwater went before live televi
sion cameras to announce the new
U.S. warning.
The spokesman reiterated the U.S.
position not to get involved in Iraq’s
Kurds’ suffering increases
despite U.S. efforts to help
IN NORTHERN IRAQ - Rebel
leaders and relief officials said
Wednesday that growing numbers
of Kurdish refugees are dying de
spite international efforts to help
them.
At the United Nations, Security
Council diplomats said an official
cease-fire is due to take effect at 10
a.m. on Thursday, if no council
members object by then. Iraq has
accepted the cease-fire terms, which
strip Saddam of much of his mili
tary might.
Rebellions by Shiite Muslims
in the south and Kurds in the north
broke out after Iraqi forces were
driven from Kuwait by the allies.
In the rebel-held highlands of
northern Iraq, Masoud Barzani, head
of the Kurdistan Democratic Party,
told reporters that cold, hunger and
disease were causing deaths among
the 300,000 to 400,000 Kurds
headed for the Iranian border.
He said none of the aid air drops
organized by the United States,
France and Britain had reached the
cold mountain passes near the Ira
nian border. Most fell near Turkey.
internal strife. But, he added, “we
will not stand by in the face of hu
manitarian need.”
“The refugee tragedy must be alle
viated,” he added.
The spokesman also announced an
increase in the U .S. aid effort and said
that heavy helicopters might be sent
in to augment the four-day-old U.S.
airdrop.
—
Byelorussian workers strike
MINSK, U.S.S.R. - More than
100,000 workers defied an appeal from
Mikhail Gorbachev fora moratorium
on protests, pouring out of factories
Wednesday in the Byelorussian capi
tal to strike for higher pay.
“The Communist Party Drove Us
Here!” read one placard held by
workers marching m a light rain to
Minsk’s central Lenin Square. “Put
Food from Chernobyl on the Govern
ment Table,” read another sign.
“The people are waking up!” Ser
gei Klyuchko, a miner from Donetsk
in the neighboring Ukraine, told the
estimated 40,000 workers and others
packed into the square at midday.
Organizers said 64 major businesses
— including an automobile plant,
electronics factory and tractor works
— were on strike in the Minsk area.
They said the firms employed at least
100,000 people.
The walkout ignored an impas
sioned appeal from Gorbachev on
national television Tuesday for a
moratorium on strikes and demon
strations.
‘We face the danger of economic
collapse,” the Soviet president said,
citing stepped up challenges to Krem
lin authority. He also proposed a
simultaneous acceleration of the tran
sition to a frec-market system.
But Gorbachev’s plan for salvag
ing the union of 15 republics comes
amid widespread pessimism about his
ability to halt a demoralizing eco
nomic decline and his seriousness about
fundamental democratic reform.
-44 -
We have to act so as
not to allow our coun
try to (fall Into) a cas
tastrophe.
Soviet president Gorbachev
--
The action in Byelorussia, a west
ern republic of 10.4 million people,
followed a three-hour warning strike
Tuesday.
“Everything is a mess in Byelorus
sia, which until recently seemed so
stable, sensible and reliable. Now
passions are red hot,” the Communist
Party newspaper Pravda commented
Wednesday.
The demonstrators in Lenin Square
remained peaceful while listening to
speeches and folk songs, and police
did not interfere.
The strike in Minsk was the big
gest boost to the country’s fledging
independent labor movement since
coal miners began a nationwide walk
out on March 1 with economic and
political demands.
An estimated 300,000miners from
the Ukraine to Siberia are calling for
Gorbachev’s resignation and new
parliamentary elections, among other
demands.
The official Tass news agency on
Wednesday quoted Metallurgy Min
ister Serafim Kolpakov as saying the
coal strike has caused the shutdown
of 21 steel plants, is costing the coun
try billions of dollars and could jeop
ardize millions of jobs in other indus
tries.
Tass said Kolpakov proposed
improvements in work and living
conditions for steelworkers to keep
them from joining the strike.
In his speech on Tuesday, Gor
bachev urged acceptance of what he
called “anti-crisis measures” in an
address to the Federation Council,
which consists of lop national offi
cials and the leaders of the 15 Soviet
republics.
“We have to act so as not to allow
our country to (fall into) a catastro
phe,” he said.
His proposals also included a
stepped-up effort to conclude a new
Union Treaty to hold the republics
together by shifting some powers away
from the Kremlin.
Tass said the program, to be pre
sented to the Supreme Soviet national
legislature, would move the country
toward a market economy with
“measures to encourage entrepre
neurship, to demonopolize the econ
omy.”
The package includes budget cuts,
efforts to create commodity and fi
nance exchanges and to make the
ruble convertible in international
markets, the agency said.
The program also would encour
age the development of small and
medium-sized businesses, especially
in trade and the service sector, Tass
said
Baker takes peace proposal
to Arab world for approval
CAIRO, Egypt - Secretary of
State James Baker took an Israeli
peace proposal to the Arab world
on Wednesday, uncertain about the
reception it would receive but eager
to maintain momentum begun in
Jerusalem.
Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak was ready to confront
Baker with a five-point plan of his
own calling for Israel to relinquish
land in order to gain Arab accep
tance of its existence.
Other provisions in Mubarak’s
plan included a halt to new Israeli
housing construction on the West
Bank and in Gaza and the estab
lishment of a Palestinian state.
The Egyptian leader did not rule
out the regional peace conference
proposed by the Israeli government.
Israel’s plan would have the con
ference held under U.S. auspices,
preferably in Washington, with the
Soviet Union a partic ipan t. Report
ers traveling with Baker were told
the Soviets would have to restore
full diplomatic relations with Is
rael if they hoped to sponsor peace
talks.
Egypt’s approach would involve
other nations, many of which have
opposed Israeli actions in U.N. votes.
Baker and his senior aides de
clined to hazard a guess how the
Israeli plan would be received in
his talks with Mubarak and with
Prince Saud, the foreign minister
of Saudi Arabia, in Cairo.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Esmal
Abdel-Meguid warned before
Baker’s arrival from Jerusalem that
Israel could not have peace until it
yielded what he called Arab land.
Baker has called Israel’s pro
posal “constructive,” and it gave
his second Mideasl peace mission
in less than a month a momentum
U.S. diplomacy in the region had
lacked.
Baker held a two-hour meeting
with Prime Minister Yitzhak Sha
mir before flying to Egypt. A sen
ior U.S. official said the Israeli
leader had given “very satisfac
tory” replies to questions raised by
Baker.
Baker waited until night fell be
fore meeting with Mubarak. This
is the season of Ramadan, which
imposes a daytime fast on Mus
lims.
Baker quickly got a strong im
pression of Mubarak’s thinking
through the pages of A1 Ahram, a
newspaper that generally reflects
the thinking of the country’s leader.
It rejected Israel’s procedural
suggestion that negotiauons be held
separately with each of the Arab
governments. The objection was
designed to ensure a united Arab
front.
Netfraskan
Editor Eric Planner
472- 1766
Managing Editor Victoria Ayotta
Assoc News Editors Jana Pederaen
Emily Rosenbaum
Editorial Page Editor Bob Nelson
Wire Editor Jennifer O'ClIka
Copy Desk Editor Diane Brayton
Sports Editor Paul Domelor
Arts i Entertain
ment Editor Julie Naughton
Diversions Editor Connie Sheehan
Photo Chief William Lauer
Professional Adviser Don Walton
473- 7301
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ALL MATERIAL COP /RIGHT
1991 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Survey sharpens picture of religions
NEW YORK - New religions and
immigration from the Far East and
Arab world have barely dented the
overwhelmingly Christian composi
tion of the U.S. population, a 13
month survey of 113,000 adults has
found.
Study director Barry Kosmin of
the City University of New York
Graduate School called the findings
the most extensive religious profile
available of 20th century America.
The survey found 86.5 percent of
Americans identified with Christian
denominations, including 26 percent
Roman Catholic and 60 percent Prot
estant.
Only 2 percent refused to reveal
their religious identification, and only
7.5 percent said they had no.religion.
Richard John Neuhaus, editor in
chief of First Things, a monthly jour
nal on religion and public life, said it
should come as no surprise that
Americans are so pervasively reli
gious.
Neuhaus said the one surprise for
him in reading about the survey was
the researcher’s conclusion, after
accounting for language barriers in
the poll, that Muslims represent 0.5
percent of the U.S. population, or 1.4
million Americans.
“1 think over the last five years,
most of us in this business have used
the figure of 3 million plus,” Neuhaus
said Wednesday.
The finding indicates that half of
Arab-Americans either have Chris
tian origins or converted in America.
About 40 percent of the Muslims
arc black, but only 2 percent of the
blacks surveyed arc Muslim.
The survey also found that most
Asian-Americans are not Muslims,
Buddhists or Hindus, but Christians.
And most of those who say they are of
Irish ancestry are Protestants, not
Catholics.
“Another surprise was the way the
so-called new religions were much
smaller than we anticipated,” said
professor Seymour Lachman, CUNY
dean for community development.
The researchers estimated that
20,000 adults describe themselves as
adhering to the New Age spiritual
movement, which combines mysti
cism, psychology and holistic heal
ing.
“It’s something that’s just swirling
through the culture,” Neuhaus said.
While such movements may get a lot
of media attention and generate high
book sales, they include “a lot of
people in the Christian category that
flirt with New Age and other esoter
ica,” he said.
Kosim said his estimates should
not be expected to match figures given
oul by denominations, which use
varying standards for counting.
“This is not religious affdiation.
These are people’s perceptions of what
they are,” Kosmin said. “If I want to
call myself a duck. I’m a duck even
though I can’t swim and haven’t got
feathers.”
The U.S. Census does not ask about
religion. Nationwide polls often do,
but their samples of 1,000 or 2,000
people include too few Muslims,
Hindus and other minorities to make
reliable conclusions about them.
The City University researchers
had ICR Survey Research Group of
Media, Pa., prov ide information from
standard poll questions used in 2,000
telephone interviews a week with a
random cross-section of adults in the
48 contiguous stales. Much of the
survey was conducted last year, and
the results were released this month.
