News Digest sSsaH—
Federal army responds to Croat attacks , _
Widespread fighting breaks Yugoslav truce
■ _a of tor'll
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Fierce and
widespread fighting broke the 9-day-old truce
in secessionist Croatia on Tuesday as the Serb
dominated Yugoslav army went on the offen
sive in response to Croat attacks on its bases.
Statements from Croatia and the Yugoslav
army said Tuesday’s battles were among the
worst since fighting began three months ago.
At least 600 people have been killed.
“All indicators ultimately point toward a
military solution to the problem,” said Mario
Nobilo, spokesman for Croatian President Franjo
Tudjman. - . . ,
The army seemed intent on seizing the rew
remaining Croat positions in eastern Croatia
before it gets bogged down by wet fall weather
and low morale that has caused desertions by
thousands of reservists.
There was widespread speculation that the
federal presidency, which was meeting Tues
day in Belgrade, would order a general mobili
zation to fill the depleted army ranks.
Army troops and Serb rebels fought Croats
in hand-to-hand combatoutsidc Sisak, 30 miles
south of the Croatian capital of Zagreb, Belgrade
radio reported.
Naval bombardment, air attacks and artil
lery shelling were reported around the Adriatic
ports of Dubrovnik and Zadar.
The outskirts of Dubrovnik were hit by
mortars. Navy gunboats had imposed a naval
blockade on Dubrovnik.
Fighting raged at the southern tip of Croatia,
some 20 miles outside Dubrovnik, with army
reservists from Serbia’s ally, Montenegro, poised
to strike,1 the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug
said.
Tank and infantry attacks'were reported
around the towns of Vukovar and Vinkovci in
eastern Croatia. Zagreb radio said the outcome
of the fighting there would be crucial.
Heavy fighting reportedly raged around
Vukovar on Croatia’s Danube River border
with Serbia.
Croatian Information Minister Branko Salaj
said Vukovar was “under absolutely horrible
pressure.”
Belgrade radio said the army suffered more
than 100 casualties around Vukovar in recent
days. AP photographer Srdjan I lie said at least
one soldier died Tuesday in a Croatian mortar
auaiK.
Several convoys of at least 640 military
vehicles passed through Belgrade, the Serbian
and federal capital, on Monday and Tuesday cn
route to the front lines in Croatia.
The army seemed intent on engaging Croatian
forces before the Croats could deploy 130
armored vehicles captured when the besieged
federal garrisons of Varazdin and Bjelovar
surrendered.
It was the collapse of the 400 defenders of
the Bjelovar base on Sunday that apparently
prompted the sternest army warning yet to
Croatia. The troops reportedly blew up the
turret rings on some 30 tanks in the base and
sabotaged many other vehicles.
President
sends plea
to Haiti
Ousted leader says
army chief ‘mad’
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —
Ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aris
tide sent impassioned appeals to his
countrymen Tuesday, warning of a
bloodbath and describing the army
chief who sent him into exile as “power
mad.”
Brig. Gen. Raoul Cedras overthrew
Aristide, the first democratically
elected president in Haiti's nearly two
centuries as a nation, on Monday.
Aristide and his family were put on a
plane to Caracas, Venezuela.
The loll from the uprising, staged
by rebel soldiers opposing Aristide’s
leftist policies, rose sharply Tuesday.
The Caribbean Human Rights
Network, based in Barbados, said
preliminary counts indicated that more
than 1 (X) people died.
Frantz LaMothc, a photographer
who visited the General Hospital
morgue in central Port-au-au-Prince,
said authorities reported 140 bodies
at that facility alone.
American tourists holed up in the
Olaffson Hotel, the setting for Gra
ham Greene’s famous Haitian novel
“The Comedians,” said soldiers were
still shooting Tuesday and that they
feared for their lives.
The international airport has been
closed since Monday afternoon, when
rebel soldiers seized Aristide at the
National Palace.
Aristide, 38, was a parish priest
who mobilized Haitians to vote him
the country’s first freely elected presi
dent since the former slave colony
gained independence from France in
1804.
On Tuesday, in a message to* the
Haitian people, the exiled president
accused Cedras, the nation’s acting
army chief, of mounting the coup and
warned of worse ahead.
Haiti Chronology
'..| \. o.g
1 '.WAW.MAW |iJ %
Oct. 22 Francois “Papa Doc" Duvalier
becomes president. < |
--I.[..~. 8 I
April 1 Duvalier is proclaimed
president for life.
,-cm
April 21 Duvalier dies, Jean-Claude “Baby
Doc" Duvalier becomes president.
Feb. 7 Duvalier flees into exile following
% violent popular uprisings; Lt. Gen.
Henri Namphy takes power.
j——|
March 29 Voters approve a new constitution; elections for president and
National Assembly in the hands of an independent Electoral Council.
\ Nov. 29 Election day, Assassins kilt at least 34 voters and confiscate ballots; I
Election is called off and Electoral Council dissolved. _i
.a.'
Jan. 17 Leslie Manigat, a university professor, is elected president in
army-controlled elections.
June 19 Troops depose Manigat and replace him with Namphy
Sept. 17 Namphy is ousted in a coup and exiled; Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril, chief
of the Presidential Guard and a former Duvalier adviser, becomes
president a day later.
Jan. 20 Avrii declares a state ot siege after the killing of an army colonel; fifty
opposition leaders are arrested, jailed and reportedly beaten and
tortured; seven political leaders are exiled.
March 10 Avrii steps down after anti-government demonstrations.
March 13 Supreme Court Justice Ertha Pascal Trouillot takes office as president j
of provisional civilian government to govern jointly with 19-member
Council of State and lead nation to democratic elections
Dac. 5 Seven people are killed in a grenade and bomb attack at a campaign
rally for the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Dac. 16 Aristide wins Haiti's first fully democratic election
.a..i
Jan. 7 An attempted military takeover by Dr. Roger Lafontant, former
Duvalier aide, fails.
Fab. 7 Aristide sworn in as president, retires most of Army High Command.
March 22 The U S announces first direct aid since aborted elections of 1987.
Sapt 25 Aristide addresses the United Nations, urging massive foreign aid.
Sapt 30 Aristide overthrown by military, goes Into exile the following day.
“They have a very long list of
people they plan to kill still, Aristide
said in a statement to the Haitian
Embassy in Washington. ‘They will
kill them like flics. Do everything
AP
possible to stop people from dying.”
“It’s Gen. Raoul Cedras who
mounted this coup d’etat,” Aristide
added. “He started killing everyone.
They’re going to kill everyone still.”
Iraq dears 3 U.N. helicopters
for use in weapons searches
MANAMA, Bahrain — Baghdad
gave final clearance Tuesday for three
U.N. helicopters to enter Iraq for use
by inspectors tracking down Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction, a U.N.
official said.
Alastair Livingston, head of the
regional office of the U.N. Special
Commission overseeing the search,
said the helicopters would make the
four-hour trip to Baghdad today. He
said they should be ready for surveil
lance flights beginning Thursday.
■"The Iraqis gave in to U.N. de
r
mantis last week and agreed to allow
the three helicopters, supplied by
Germany, to be used by U.N. inspec
tors for unrestricted flights to sus
pected weapons sites.
The inspection teams are operat
ing under terms of the gulf war cease
fire, which calls for elimination of
Iraq’s long-range Scud missiles and
chemical, nuclear and biological
weapons and production facilities.
A U.N. team that went to Baghdad
on Tuesday will be the first to test
v/hether Iraq will live up to the agree
mcni for use of the helicopters.
Previous U.N. weapons teams have
had to restrict their work to the Baghdad
area because they had no way to get to
f other parts of Iraq. The inspectors
also say they need their own helicop
ters so they can make surprise visits.
Douglas Englund, an American who
leads the 20-member missile team,
said he would use the helicopters to
search western Iraq and supervise
destruction of 28 known fixed-site
Scud launchers used to attack Israel
during the gulf war.
Congress Uks oenerit
extension for jobless
WASHINGTON — Congress on
Tuesday overwhelmingly approved
legislation providing up to 20 extra
weeks of benefits for the long-term
unemployed, pushing the lawmakers
toward a new veto showdown with
President Bush.
The House sent the $6.4 billion
legislation to the White House on a
300-118 vote; a few hours carl ier, the
Senate voted 65-35 to approve the
bill.
“Feel their pain, see their suffer
ing, put aside the question of parti
sanship,” Rep. Thomas Downey, D
N.Y., one of the measure’s chief
sponsors, said in remarks aimed at the
president. “Recognize one plain and
simple face that the people who elected
you president of the United States
need your help.”
The victory margiq in the House
was 11 votes beyond the 289 support
ers would need to overturn a Bush
veto, should all 433 House members
vote. Fifty-five Republicans joined
244 Democrats and one independent
in voting for the measure; 11 Demo
crats and 107 Rcpubl icans opposed it.
Republicans declared the bill dead
because its Senate supporters fell two
votes short of the 67 they would need
should all 100 senators participate in
a veto-override vole. They urged
Democrats to accept a less expensive,
GOP-wriltcn proposal Bush supports.
The legislation is aimed at helping
the 300,(XX) Americans who use up
the standard 26 weeks of jobless
benefits every month without finding
new jobs.
It would provide them with seven,
13 or 20 weeks of additional checks,
depending on the unemployment rate
in their state. The benefits would be
paid for by federal borrowing, which
would add to the budget deficit.
God Squad’
Panel to consider spotted owl exemption
U/ A CUIMCTHM r„.—: »_ . .....
.. . i iiivvi ivyi aw
retary Manuel Lujan Jr. on Tuesday
convened a special panel with the
power to exempt some Pacific North
west logging from Endangered Spe
cies Act protection of the northern
spotted owl.
In a statement announcing that he
was selling up what is known as the
“God Squad,” Lujan said he ‘‘regrets
that no solution to this problem could
be found short of this action.”
The move is designed to free raw
materials for timber-starved mills that
have witnessed dramatic logging
cutbacks over the past 18 months, in
pan because of measures taken to
protect the threatened owl.
Bureau of Land Management Di
rector Cy Jamison asked Lujan to
convene the Cabinet-level commit
tee last month so that some limber on
BLM lands in Oregon could be sold
despite the threat to owl.
Lujan emphasized Tuesday that
the exemption, if granted, would apply
to only 4,570 acres included in Jami
a uiiu nui dii me iiuiiiuii't
of acres of Northwest forests inhab
ited by the owl.
Lujan, who will serve as chairman
of the seven-member committee, has
140 days to hold a hearing and exam
ine evidence on the matter. He then
will have 30 days to make a report to
the committee, which will have 30
days to approve or deny the request.
The exemption committee is known
as the “God Squad” because of its
authority to allow a species to go
extinct due to the economic cost of
saving it.
Sens. Bob Packwood, R-Orc., and
Slade Gorton, R-Wash., are among
those who have been urging Lujan to
initiate the exemption process.
“I strongly endorse the secretary’s
decision to convene the God Squad
and will be urging him and others on
the committee every step of the way
to look at what has happened to the
people of my state,” Packwood said
in a statement.
— n 1
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