MP1A7C T^jp-pcf KdaM Press
^ " IT IJ X Cm ^ Edited by Roger Price
Afghan rebels circle capital
Guerrillas near
to a agreement
on government
KABUL, Afghanistan — Guerril
las advanced to the capital ’ s edge and
joined forces with the crumbling
Afghan government Wednesday to
isolate a radical chieftain, and pre
pare for a rebel-led Islamic govern
ment.
A force of at least 1,000 Muslim
guerrillas moved to the perimeter of
the capital accompanied by an Af
ghan army colonel. Guerrilla com
manders joined army officers at secu
rity posts within sight of downtown
Kabul.
After 14 years of civil war that has
claimed 2 million lives, the mujahe
deen rebels were on the verge of
conquering the capital and seizing
power, replacing me government oi
ousted President Najibullah, who went
into hiding last week.
The takeover was delayed by their
indecision on how to share power and
who should become the nation’s leader.
For the first lime, police said, they
were permitting unarmed mujahedeen,
or Islamic holy warriors, to enter the
city.
Kabul appeared less tense Wednes
day than at any time in the last week.
Shops were open and markets were
crowded on the first sunny day since
the weekend.
After the nightly 9 p.m. curfew
went into effect, tracer bullets flashed
across the sky and tanks were heard
rumbling through the city.
The Red Cross said a field nurse
was killed by gunfire in Maidan Shar,
about 18 miles southwest of Kabul. It
gave no details, but the victim report
edly was an Icelander killed by fun
damentalist rebels.
Afghanistan’s
ethnic
landscape
Ethnic breakdown of the
population and where they live:
Pathan 50%
As Muslim rebels close in on Kabul,
many residents fear the 14-year-old
civil war may degenerate into fighting
among rival factions.
Of the major factions, the strongest
is the radical Hezb-e-lslami
supported mostly by Pathans, the
largest ethnic group. The moderate
Jamiat-e-lslami has a strong
following among Tajiks and Uzbeks.
'Other includes Chahar Aimak,
Turkoman and Baluch On the map,
•Other' includes areas of mixed ethnicity
Source: The Central Intelligence
Agency, 1992 World Almanac
AP
The cooperation in Kabul and
provincial towns between the army
and moderate guerrillas was directed
against radical forces under the com
mand of Gulbuddin Hckmalyar.
Hckmalyar has threatened to at
tack the capital unless it surrenders to
him by Monday, the anniversary of
ihc 1978 Communist coup and ihc
start of the U.S.-supported insurgency.
Ahmed Shah Masood, a moderate
and the country’s most powerful rebel
commander, belittled Hekmatyar’s
fighting ability and advised him to
help form a provisional guerrilla
government.
Recessions slow world economy
WASHINGTON — The world
economy will struggle back to growth
this year, but the rate will be just half
what had been expected, the Interna
tional Monetary Fund said Wednes
day.
The IMF’s new
economic outlook
blamed the poor
expectation on the
aborted upturn in
the United States
last fall, spread
ing weakness in Europe and Japan,
and the economic chaos in the former
Soviet Union.
The IMF projected that the world
economy would grow at a meager
rate of 1.4 percent this year. That
compares to a far more optimistic 2.8
percent projection the IMF made just
six months ago.
The IMF said that it now believed
a significant upturn in world growth
will occur a year later than it had
previously thought, forecasting growth
of 3.6 percent in 1993.
IMF officials conceded that there
were risks that even their lowered
expectations might not be met. They
listed the key threats as persistently
high interest rates in Germany and
other European nations, and a danger
the Japanese economy will not re
bound as anticipated because of such
factors as jittery financial markets.
“There arc clearly downside risks
to the forecast,” said Michael Mussa,
director of the IMF’s research depart
ment.
The IMF’s revised outlook was
issued as world finance officials be
gan arriving for the annual spring
meeting of the 156-nalion IMFand its
sister lending organization, the World
Bank.
This year’s meeting was expected
to be highlighted by membership
approval for Russia and the other
former Soviet republics. In addition
to arguments over how much in fi
nancial assistance to provide the for
mer Soviet Union, the finance offi
cials were expected to debate how
best to spur the world economy to
higher growth rates.
The Bush administration has been
pressing for cuts in interest rates to
stimulate demand for American ex
ports.
IMF officials said that they be
lieved interest rates had been cut
enough to spur an economic rebound
and that further cuts ran the risk of
making inflation worse.
“Often problems of inflation start
by trying to push the recovery too
rapidly," Mussa said.
High court hears
case on abortion
Ruling could overturn Roe vs. Wade
WASHINGTON—With legal
ized abortion potentially in the bal
ance, the Supreme Court on Wed
nesday was urged by an abortion
rights advocate to keep women from
returning to “back alleys for their
health care” while the Bush ad
ministration pressed for protection
of “those who will be bom.”
Both sides predicted the court’s
conservative majority would up
hold the restrictive stale law in an
election-year decision expected by
July. Among other things, the law
imposes a 24-hour wailing period
and requires married women to tell
their husbands before getting abor
tions.
The greater question is whether
the decision will reverse or drasti
cally undermine the court’s 1973
Roe vs. Wade ruling that abortion
is a fundamental constitutional right.
The justices will take their first
vote on the case in their regularly
sc hcduled .closed -door con fercncc
Friday, and then begin their opin
ion writing. Votes could change
during that process.
Pennsylvania Attorney General
Ernest Preaic defended his state’s
law as “an intelligent statute ...
carefully drafted to reflect the teach
ings of this court.
Solicitor General Kenneth Starr,
the administration’s top courtroom
lawyer, urged the justices to rule
that abortion is not a fundamental
constitutional right.
Starr contended that the stan
dard for court review should be
whether state abortion laws arc
“rational.” He said the Pennsylva
nia regulations pass that standard.
Justice David H. Souter inter
jected, “So would complete prohi
bition (of abortion), wouldn’t it?”
Starr then suggested that a state
would have a problem if it attempted
to outlaw all abortion without
making any exception fora woman
whose life was endangered by
continued pregnancy.
That response appeared to irri
tate Justice John Paul Stevens.
“That’s not really a fair answer,”
he told Starr. “A total prohibition
would be rational. It would meet
your standard.”
Stevens, Souter and Justices San
dra Day O’Connor, Anthony M.
Kennedy and Antonin Sealiaasked
most of the questions from the bench.
Justice Clarence Thomas was
the only court member to remain
silent throughout.
200 arrested as rival activists clash
in front of a suburban Buffalo clinic
AMHERST, N.Y. — Police ar
rested nearly 200 abortion oppo
nents who charged a women’s clinic
Wednesday in a melee that was in
sharp contrast to the staid abortion
arguments being presented before
the U.S. Supreme Court.
Anti-abortion demonstrators
surged onto a four-lane highway,
and tried to rush past police barri
cades and a crowd of about 150
abortion rights activists stationed
in front of the suburban Buffalo
clinic.
The arrests occurred on the
second day of large-scale abortion
demonstrations in the Buffalo area
by Operation Rescue. At the same
time, the Supreme Court was hear
ing arguments on an abortion ease
from Pennsylvania.
Several hundred demonstrators
also waved placards and chanted
outside the Supreme Court in
Washington, D.C.
In Buffalo, the Rev. Robert
Schcnck, an abortion protest or
ganizer from suburban Tonawanda,
said the demonstration had not been
timed to coincide with the Supreme
Court arguments.
Protesters went limp and were
carried or dragged by police through
the crowd of abortion-rights dem
onstrators to buses. Police bound
protesters’ wrists with plastic hand
cuffs.
Police also used the handcuffs
to bind the feet of the Rev. John
Hunter, an anti-abortion leader from
nearby Lockport, after he broke
through the line of abortion-rights
activists and dashed toward the clinic
door.
Some of those arrested lay hand
cuffed in the street for 30 minutes
as demonstrators on both sides
taunted one another from opposite
sides of the road. Police blocked
traffic on the highway and about
100 officers tried to keep the two
sides separated.
A bus in which some Operation
Rescue demonstrators had arrived
was towed away from the front of
the clinic.
Abortion-rights activists chanted
“God is a woman, and she’s pro
choice!” They mocked abortion op
ponents by shouting, “A baby a
year until you drop!”
Anti-abortion demonstrators
prayed and sang hymns, holding
signs such as “A Baby Is a Person,
No Matter How Small,” and a poster
showing a baby in the womb with
the caption, “Mommy, Please Go
Home, I Want To Live."
Abortion
Continued from Page 1
“My guess is that wc would end up
with a very split nation regarding
abortion laws,” he said.
Duncan also predicted that the court
then would have to rule on whether a
fetus had a constitutional right to life,
or whether abortion should be legal in
the United States.
He said the court’s decision was
particularly relevant to Nebraska
because of LB78, a similar bill the
Nebraska Legislature failed to pass
this year. Opponents of LB78 argued
that the bill might have been uncon
stitutional, he said, and the Supreme
Court’s decision would clear up that
issue.
Students ask for DN apology
By Kara Morrison
Staff Reporter
Members of the UNL Arab Stu
dent Organization asked ASUN
Wednesday night to help them obtain
an apology from
the Daily Nebras
kan for publishing
an advertisement
the group found
offensive.
Rassem Dab
has, a graduate en
gineering student at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, said an ad by the
Lincoln group Jews for Pride in the
DN’s April 17 issue heightened nega
tive stereotypes of Arabs.
Part of the Jews for Pride ad said,
“Wc pray lhai in remembrance of our
common forefather Avrahom, our Arab
brethren will abandon lies, murder,
and terror and turn to am Yisroel in
peace.”
“Any educated person would not
allow such a line to be published,”
Dabbas said.
He also said the Daily Nebraskan
had “a double standard” because its
advertising department edited a word
from a Palestine Students Organiza
tion ad, but did not edit the Jews for
Pride ad.
The Palestine Students Organiza
tion ad on April 10 congratulated
Palestinians for the safe return of
Palestine Liberation Organization chief
Yasser Arafat, whose plane was re
ported missing April 7, but was found
April 8.
The ad also said, “We take this op
portunity to participate in the cele
bration with our brothers and sisters
in occupied Palestine, looking for
ward to the day when we are a nation
free on its own soil, safe in its own
home, and liberated from the chains
of occupation.”
Dabbas said the Daily Nebraskan
would not print the word “evil” be
fore the word “occupation.”
First Vice President Trent Steele
said the Association of Students of
the University of Nebraska would
discuss the Arab students’ request at
its executive committee meeting
Tuesday.
Nebraskan
Editor Jana Padarsan
472-1766
Managing Editor Kara Walls
Publications Board
Chairman Bill Voba|da
472- 2588
Professional Adviser Don Walton
473- 7301
FAX NUMBER 472-1761
The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) Is
published by the UNL Publications Board. Ne
braska Union 34, 1400 R St.. Lincoln, NE,
Monday through Friday during the academic
year, weekly during summer sessions.
Readers are encouraged to submit story
ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan
by phoning 472-1763 between 9 a m and 5
p m Monday through Friday The public also
has access to the Publications Board For
information, contact Bill Vobe|da, 472-2588
Subscription price is $50 for one year
Postmaster Send address changes to the
Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R
St .Lincoln, NE 68588 0448 Second-class
postage paid at Lincoln. NE
ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT
1992 DAILY NEBRASKAN
