s~=_ News Digest
i ' ‘
Khmer Rouge refuses to release U.N. peacekeepers
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia —
Khmer Rouge guerrillas refused
Wednesday to release six unarmed
U.N. peacekeepers, escalating ten
sions that threaten an accord on end
ing Cambodia’s 13-ycar civil war.
U.N. officials said a helicopter sent
to look for the truce monitors was hit
by gunfire, and a French officer on the
craft suffered a back wound.
“This is very unfortunate and very
surprising,” U.N. spokesman Eric Fait
said. “Certainly the eyes of the world,
the international community, are go
ing to be looking at this episode very
carefully. I’m sure (the Khmer Rouge)
understands that it will have repercus
sions.”
In another development, Fait said
six U.N. police were wounded
Wednesday when their vehicles ran
over newly laid anti-tank mines on a
road near Siem Reap, 140 miles north
west of Phnom Penh. He said Khmer
Rouge and government troops both
operate in the area, so it was unclear
who laid the mines.
The U.N. Security Council voted
Monday to impose economic sanc
tions on the Khmer Rouge for refus
ing to disarm under terms of the peace
accord they signed a year ago with
Cambodia’s government and twoothcr
rebel groups.
The Khmer Rouge also have re
fused to give U.N. monitors unre
stricted access to the 10 percent to 20
percent of the countryside they con
trol, and its leaders are boycotting the
U.N. effort to organize democratic
elections in May.
Further undermining the U.N. mis
sion is a surge of political violence in
the past month aimed at opposition
politicians and their families. Many
people blame the government, which
denies responsibility.
But the main fear is that the civil
-ff
war could erupt again because of the
worsening relations between the
Khmer Rouge and the 22,000 U.N.
peacekeepers and off cials sen t to carry
out the peace accord.
Khmer Rouge leaders accuse the
U.N. mission of working with Viet
nam, whose army ousted the Khmer
Rouge in 1979 after a bloody reign
that tried to turn Cambodia into an
agrarian commune. The KhmcrRougc
have allegedly fired on at least a
dozen U.N. helicopters recently, but
no U.N. soldiers have been killed.
The detained peacekeepers—three
Britons, two Filipinos and a N4^y
Zealander — were seized Tuesday at
a Khmer Rouge checkpoint on the
Stoeng Sen River in central Cambo
dia while monitoring troop move
ments from a boat, Fait said.
Fait said U.N. military officials in
Phnom Penh tried to get a Khmer
Rouge official to travel to Kompong
Thom with them to negotiate a re
lease, but the request was rejected.
“We, at this stage, arc gravely
concerned,” Fait said Wednesday
night.
- it--——-—
Certainly the eyes of the world, the international
community, are going to be looking at this epi
sode very carefully.
— Fait
U.N. spokesman
President-elect
plans inaugural
bash, bus trip
WASHINGTON — President
elect Clinton will start his inaugu
ral celebration with a trademark
bus trip and end it with a White
House open house, mixing invita
tion-only affairs with lots of free
events for ordinary Americans, or
ganizers said Wednesday.
Clinton wants “an open inaugu
ral, an accessible inaugural and a
dignified inaugural,” said Demo
cratic National Committee Chair
man Ronald H. Brown, who also
chairs the Presidential Inaugural
Committee.
The five days of festivities —
running Jan. 17-21 — will cost less
than $20 million, paid for by pri
vate contributions and sales of tick
ets and souvenirs, Brown said.
There will be at least eight free
events, includingaconccrtand fire
works at the Lincoln Memorial, an
outdoor festival nearby on the Capi
tal mall, as well as several events
aimed at young people.
Clinton will can Inauguration
Day, Jan. 20, with 10 invitation
only, black-tic balls for about
65,000 people. Tickets will sell for
S125.
The decision to begin the fes
tivities outside the capital was de
signed to show the inaugural is not
just a Washington insiders’ affair,
committee members said.
“It is not just meant to signify
what touched the American people
during the course of the campaign
but to really touch American his
tory and the fact that it is more than
just what happens in Washington
but how we bring our nation and
our people together,” said Brown.
When Clinton arrives in Wash
ington, he will go to the Lincoln
Memorial for a public concert and
fireworks. Like Clinton, both
Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln
were presidents “at a lime when
government and the people were
estranged,” noted Rahm Emanuel,
the committee’s co-director.
The day after his swearing in,
Clinton and his wife, Hillary, will
wind up the inaugural festivities by
welcoming the public to the White
House.
“We hope that as many people
as can fit show up,” said spokes
man George Stcphanopoulos, from
transition headquarters in Little
Rock, Ark.
U.N. to oversee troops in Somalia
American expedition worries
some African nations, China
UNITED NATIONS — U.S. mili
tary commanders will have to give up
the free rein they had in the Persian
Gulf War and accept some U.N. over
sight of troops in Somalia, diplomats
said Wednesday.
But a U.S. draft resolution for the
Security Council leaves the door open
for a U.S. general to command a
proposed American force in the fam
ine-wracked nation. Diplomats also
said daily operations would probably
be left to field commanders.
“The United States is likely to be
command ing the operation,” S ir Da v id
Hannay, Britain’s ambassador, told
reporters on Tuesday. Pentagon
sources have said 12,000 to 20,000
U.S. troops might be sent to Somalia
to get food to more than 1 million
Somalis threatened by starvation. The
Bush administration had offered up to
30,000 troops.
An international relief operation
has been hamstrung by feuding So
mali warlords and bandits in the law
less East African nation. The Slate
Department says 1,000 people in So
malia arc dying every day of starva
tion and disease. The death toll al
ready exceeds 300,000.
The draft resolution is part of a
compromise Washington is forging to
win the support of China, which has
threatened to veto a free-wheeling
U.S.-led operation. African nations
are also worried about U.S. domina
tion of their continent.
The compromise was one of the
issues to be discussed in a closed-door
Security Council meeting Wednes
day.
The Pentagon had sought com
pletecontrol over its forces, including
the right to decide when to withdraw.
But U.S. diplomats realized it might
be opposed by some Security Council
members and indicated they would
accept some degree of U.N. over
sight.
The United States met earlier in
the day with representatives of the
other permanent council members:
China, Russia, Britain and France.
The 15-nalion Security Council
was expected to adopt a resolution
Th ursday or Friday authorizing a U .S
led multinational force to safeguard
emergency food and medical ship
ments.
According to an early U.S. draft of
the resolution, member slates could
use troops in Somalia “after consulta
tions with the secretary-general for
the command and control of their
forces.” The Associated Press obtained
a copy of the draft, which the Security
Council could change before a final
vole is taken.
The United States was already
moving quickly to prepare for the
operation.
i
An amphibious unit of 1,800 Ma
rines was expected to arrive off So
malia early Thursday. Their task will
be to secure the international airport
at Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, so
troops and equipment could arrive.
A U.S. source estimated that up to
20,000 troops could be in place by the
end of the month.
President Bush may want them out
of Somalia by inauguration day, Jan.
20, but the draft resolution does not
seta specific time. Itasks U.N. Secre
tary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
to recommend when a “secure envi
ronment for humanitarian relief op
erations” has been established. At
that point, U.N. peacekeepers would
take over. A final decision on a pull
out will be made by the Security
Council.
In the Persian Gulf War, in which
a U.S.-led multinational force under
U.N. authority drove Iraqi forces from
Kuwait last year, American com
manders did not receive orders from
the Security Council.
--
Bosnians Dattie deroian tanks
outside of besieged Sarajevo
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hcrzegovina
— Fighting raged on the capital’s
outskirts Wednesday, and all efforts
to get food to the besieged city were
halted.
Bosnian defenders battled what
they said was one of the heaviest Serb
tank offensives so far. The worst fight
ing was in Otes, a suburb north of the
airport, where government forces have
been under attack for three days by
Serb artillery, tanks and mortars.
Bosnian officers claim the Serbs
used a Nov. 12 cease-fire, which has
since collapsed, to move at least 10
tanks into position loattack Otes from
three sides. They said the Serb strat
egy was to forge a link between llidza
to the west of Sarajevo and Rajlovac
to the northwest.
About 6,000 people live in Otes,
many of them refugees from else
where. Evacuation is difficult because
of sniper fire and a shortage of cars.
The Bosnians reported 14 dead —
nine troops and five civilians — and
dozens wounded in Wednesday’s
fighting. They were unsure of Serb
casualties.
More than 17,000 people have been
killed and 110,000 wounded in a civil
war that began after Bosnia’s Croat
and Muslim majority voted for inde
pendence in February, according to
the Bosnian Health Ministry. More
than 1 million people have been forced
from their homes.
Serb forces, backed by Serb-domi
nated Y ugoslavia, have captured more
than 70pcrccniof Bosnia.Croat forces
hold most of the rest.
No food reached embattled
Sarajevo on Wednesday. The relief
airlift was suspended Tuesday after a
U.S. Air Force transport plane was hit
by small-arms fire while approaching
the airport.
A truck convoy due in the city on
Wednesday was held up in Vitez, to
the northwest, because of fears of
fighting. Officials said relief convoys
from Mostar to the southwest also
could be delayed because key ap
proac hes to Sarajevo were considered
loo dangerous.
In a related development, a top
electoral official in Belgrade said
Wednesday that moderate Yugoslav
Premier Milan Panic had failed to
produce documents qualifying him to
run against Serbia’s hard-line Presi
dent Slobodan Milosevic in elections
on Dec. 20. Panic, a Serb-born Cali
fornia businessman, had to prove he
has been resident in Serbia for a year.
Shuttle Discovery launch
caps stellar NASA year
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
Discovery safely soared into space
with five astronauts and a spy sat
ellite Wednesday after the sun
melted dangerous chunks of ice on
the shuttle fuel tank.
Nearly 71/2 hours into the flight,
Mission Control announced that
the Pentagon satellite had been suc
cessfully released.
The operation was conducted in
secrecy. Once completed, NASA
lifted a news blackout.
Discovery blasted off on the m is
sion at 8:24 a.m., almost 1 1/2
hours late because of the ice accu
mulation, a result of unusually cold
weather. NASA adopted stricter
launch-weather rules after the 1986
Challenger disaster.
Flight plans called for com
mander David Walker and hiscrcw
to release the satellite into a 230
mile-high orbit six hours after
liftoff. The Pentagon has refused to
identify the payload,citing national
security, but space policy analysts
believe it is a reconnaissance space
craft.
It was NAS A’s eighth and final
shuttle launch of the year, the most
since 1985. Only one of those flights
required more than one launch at
tempt, and that was just a one-day
delay.
But while NASA finally seems
to have its act together, funding is
down, costs arc up, the military
will soon stop using shuttles and a
While House task force is urging
speedy replacement of the licet.
“The evidence has been build
ing for years and years and years.
There’s just nothing for them
(shuttle astronauts) to do up there,
at least nothing that’s worth the risk
and the cost of putting them up
there,” said former NASA histo
rian Alex Roland, now a history
professor at Duke University.
But for NASA, hope springs
eternal.
“Pretty soon somebody’s going
to notice that (improving record)
and say, ‘Shoot, it looks like those
folks know what they’re doing,
maybe this is a good deal we’ve got
going here and maybe it can serve
the country for some time in the
future,’” deputy shuttle director
Brewster Shaw, an ex-astronaut,
said Wednesday.
- it
There’s just noth
ing for them
(shuttle astronauts)
to do up there, at
least nothing that’s
worth the risk and
the cost of putting
them up there.
— Roland
professor
-•• —
w w
Although the crew’s other or
bital work will be conducted in the
open, no views of the cargo bay
will be allowed during the seven
day flight to protect the identity of
the satellite.
Although the temperature briefly
dipped to 38 degrees, it was 51
when Discovery blasted off.
The temperature when Chal
lenger lifted off on its doomed flight
in 1986 was 36 degrees, the coldest
ever for a shuttle launch.
Discovery is scheduled to land
Dee. 9 at Kennedy Space Center.
Nebraskan
Editor Chris Hopfensperger Night News Editors Kathy Stelnauer
472-1766 Mika Lawls
Managing Editor Kris Karnopp Kimberly Spurlock
Assoc News Editors Adaana Leftln Kara Morrison
Assoc News Editor/ Wendy Navratll Art Director Scott Maurer
Writing Coach General Manager Dan Shattll
Editorial Page Editor Dionne Searcey Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
Wire Editor Alan Phelps Advertising Manager Todd Sears
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