News Digest Edited by Eric Pfanner
S. Africa
violence
kills 18
Gunfire breaks out
after ANC funeral
TOKOZA, South Africa — Gun
men fired on people returning from
the funeral of a slain anti-apartheid
activist Monday, sparking battles that
left at least 18 blacks dead, police
said.
The bloodletting in Tokoza, south
east of Johannesburg, was the worst
outbreak of violence since the gov
ernment and leading black groups
signed a peace accord on Sept. 14.
The violence has bedeviled efforts
by President F.W. de Klerk to bring
black organizations to the negotiat
ing table to draw up a new constitution
to en(j apartheid.
Security forces had anticipated
trouble. Armored military vehicles
and scores of soldiers and police pa
trolled the streets.
Skirmishes broke out as about
15,000 people headed home from a
stadium after a funeral for Sam Ntuli,
a prominent African National Con
gress member shot Sept. 29.
Many ANC supporters who at
tended the ceremony carried guns,
knives, spears and clubs.
Police blamed most of the deaths
on gunmen who drove around Tokoza
in vans.
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Yugoslav planes
narrowly miss
Croatian leaders
ZAGREB, Yugoslavia — Yugo
slav air force jets rocketed the presi
dential palace in the capital of seces
sionist Croatia on Monday, narrowly
missing the republic’s leaders and the
federal premier.
The precision onslaught came hours
before a deadline set by the European
Community for the parties to cease
hostilities or face economic sanctions.
It also came despite an appeal from
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
not to escalate the civil war.
Many residents of Zagreb fled to
shelters Monday night. Phosphorous
flares illuminated the sky and explo
sions could be heard.
“It was by sheer miracle that we
stayed alive,” Premier Ante Markovic,
a Croat and leader of the Yugoslav
federal government, told his office in
Belgrade by telephone, according to
the Tanjug news agency.
Markovic said he was meeting with
Stipe Mesic, the Croatian chairman
of die federal presidency, and Croatian
President Fran jo Tudjman in the pal
ace when “the hall we were in was hit
by a rocket from an air force plane,”
Tanjug said.
The Croatian Defense Ministry said
the rockets were fired by a federal air
force jet. The federal military denied
ordering the bombing of Zagreb and
said, “It is not to be excluded that the
Croatian leadership staged this at
tack.” *
Abrams pleads guilty on Iran-contra charges
WASHINGTON — Former As
sistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams
pleaded guilty Monday to two misde
meanors in die Iran-contra scandal
and agreed to cooperate in the con
tinuing probe of top officials from the
Reagan administration.
Abrams, 43, appeared in U.S.
District Court, where he admitted
withholding information from the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
on Oct. 10, 1986. He concealed Ol
iver North’s involvement with a se
cret network to supply the Nicara
guan contra rebels with guns, he said.
Abrams thought that “disclosure
of Lt. Col. (Oliver) North’s activities
in the resupply of the contras would
jeopardize final enactment” of a $100
million congressional appropriation
for the contras, Iran-contra prosecu
tors saidin an eight-page statementof
facts filed in U.S. District Court.
“How do you plead?” U.S. District
Court Judge Aubrey Robinson asked
Abrams twice.
“I plead guilty,” Abrams replied
each lime in a clear voice.
“I take full responsibility for my
actions, for my failure to make full
disclosure to Congress in 1986,"
Abrams told reporters later outside
the U.S. Courthouse.
Netnraskan
Editor Jmnm Ptdtntn
473-1766
Copy Desk Editor Paul Domeier
Sports Editor Nick Hytrek
Assistant Sports Editor Chuck Green
Arts & Entertain
ment Editor John Payne
Diversions Editor Bryan Peterson
Photo Chief Shaun Sartln
Night News Editors Chris Hoptensperger
Cindy Kimbrough
Alan Phelps
Dionne Searcey
Art Director Brian Sheillto
General Manager Dan Shattll
Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
Advertising Manager Todd Sears
Sales Manager Eric Krtngel
Classified Ad Manager Annette Sueper
Publications Board
Chairman Bill Vobekta
476-2655
Professional Adviser Don Walton
473-7301
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American freed
Iran lets go engineer held on spy charge
WASHINGTON — In what could
be another sign of diminished hostil
ity toward the United States, Iran on
Monday freed a U.S. engineer im
prisoned for five years on spy charges.
Jon Pattis, 54, was said by officials
to have been heading for the United
States via Europe. Officials declined
to issue further comment because he
was released on the promise that
publicity be kept at a minimum.
His release appears to be part of an
improving climate in U.S.-Iranian
relations since the death of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini in June 1989.
Iranian officials have recently
spoken about the possibility of reach
ing agreements with the United States
on a range of issues once the hostages
in Lebanon are freed and frozen Ira
nian assets abroad are released.
Pattis worked for Cosmos Engi
neers of Bethesda, Md., at Iran’s main
satellite ground station at Assadabad.
He was arrested after the station was
bombed by Iraqi jets during the Iran
Iraq war in 1986.
He was sentenced to 10 years in
prison in 1987 by a revolutionary
court on espionage charges.
Pattis, of Aiken, S.C., reportedly
confessed to spying for the CIA. He
was quoted in a television interview
in 1986 as saying he had worked in
Iran on various projects since 1969
and supplied the agency with infor
mation on telecommunications sites
and projects, black market money
rates, rumors about the health of
Khomeini and other internal subjects.
The State Department denied in
1986 that Pattis had been working for
the U.S. government.
Iran last year freed a Savannah,
Ga., businessman, E. David Rabhan,
whom it had held for a decade on
espionage charges.
The United States and Iran have
not had diplomatic relations since
shortly after American hostages were
seized in Tehran in 1979.
Although Stale Department offi
cials declined to comment Monday,
moderates appear to have gained the
upper hand in Tehran over their more
radical rivals lately.
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