t Syistu- news Digest
S. Africa allows
blacks to govern
CAPE TOWN, South Africa—
Parliament voted Thursday to al
low blacks a role in governing South
Africa for the first time, and angry
white right-wing lawmakers warned
the decision could lead to civil war.
“This makes permanent peace
impossible,” said Ferdi
Hartzenberg, leader of the white
Conservative Party, who led his
followers in walking out of Parlia
ment after the vote. “We have lost
a golden opportunity for peace.”
The vote creates a Transitional
Executive Council, comprised of
representatives from the 26 black
and white parties that have partic
ipated in the talks on ending apart
heid.
The body will be a watchdog of
the government, with some veto
powers. It will help oversee the
holding of the country’s first mul
tiracial election April 27.
The African National Congress
hailed the vote as “a major victory
for the forces of peace and democ
racy.”
“For the first time in the history
of our country, the racist Parlia
ment has approved a bill which is
responsible to the will and aspira
tions of the majority,” the ANC
said in a statement.
By giving blacks a role in gov
ernment, the bill set the stage for
ANC leader Nelson Mandela to
endorse the lifting of remaining
international economic sanctions
against South Africa.
In Washington, President
Clinton applauded the “historic
step” and promised to provide vot
er education and training “to create
a level playing field” for all the
parties in the upcoming campaign.
The dominant white chamber of
Parliament, led by President F.W.
dc Klerk’s National Party, voted
107-36 to create a power-sharing
council, agreed upon this month at
talks with the ANC and other
-44
This makes
permanent peace
impossible.
—Hartzenberg
White Conservative Party
leader
-tf -
groups.
The council can start function
ing as soon as next month. Consti
tutional Development Minister
Roelf Meyer said.
The panel will also help oversee
foreign, economic and national se
curity policy and the April elec
tions.
The ANC is expected to win the
April ballot and create the first
black-led government in South
African history.
Three days of d iscussions on the
'bill became a bitter battle among
white Afrikaners over the future of
the country ruled throughout its
history by its white minority.
Cries of “Traitor” punctuated
debate Wednesday, and scores of
police ringed the Parliament build
ing Thursday in case of right-wing
disruptions. The vote passed peace
fully.
Supporters said granting power
to the black majority was the only
way to quell the violence and eco
nomic decline that has wracked i
South Africa.
Hartzenberg, whose party calls
for the creating of an autonomous
white Afrikaner state, said the Con
servatives would continue to resist
with a campaign of public pres
sure. He refused to rule out an
eventual “declaration of indepen
dence.”
- STATE WIRE
Bosnia student finally gets to call home
NORFOLK — Most college stu
dents try to make at least the obliga
tory 10-minute call home on week
ends. Munib Dzuho’s calls may be
more infrequent but probably have
more meaning.
The Northeast Community Col
lege sophomore is calling Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Dzuho was able to reach his par
ents by phone in the war-tom country
at around 11:30 a.m. CDT Sunday. It
was the first contact with family mem
bers since last January.
Dzuho left the former Yugoslavia
on March 29, 1992, just six days
before a civil war broke out in Bosnia.
Tension was building between Serbs,
Croats and Muslims before he left, but
Dzuho had no idea war would break
out and so many lives would be lost.
After closely following news from
his home during his first few months
in the United States, Dzuho said he
tries not to spend much time thinking
about it now.
“Ifl think about it a lot, it will mess
me up,” he said.
Dzuho said he got off to a slow start
academically his first semester last
fall, in part because of the concern
about his family.
This fall he is devoting his time to
19 credit-hours of studies, his part
time job and preseason conditioning
as a member of the Northeast basket
ball team.
In his weekend call, Dzuho, who is
Muslim, learned everyone in his fam
ily was doing fine, are able to find
food and sometimes have electricit)
in their home.
His family also told him not t(
worry because they would be OK.
“They’re more worried about m<
than I am about them,” he said. “
always tell them 1 will be OK.
“I just want there to be peace ai
soon as possible,” he said.
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St..Uncdn, NE _
Lost barge
blamed for
train wreck
SARALAND, Ala. — Investiga
tors believe a barge lost in the fog
struck and weakened a railroad trestle
shortly before an Amtrak train hurtled
off the bridge into a murky bayou. At
least 44 people were killed.
The FBI and the National Trans
portation Safety Board said they found
a dented barge near the train wreck,
along with damage that appeared to
match that on a concrete piling sup
porting the bridge.
Amtrak’s Sunset Limited, travel
ing from Los Angeles to Miami with
206 people aboard, plunged into Bay
ou Canot on the outskirts of Mobile
about 3 a.m. Wednesday. Some of the
dead were trapped in a submerged,
silver passenger car, others in a burned
engine.
At least 159 people survived the
wreck, the deadliest in Amtrak’s 23
year history, said John
Hammerschmidt of the NTSB. The
NTSB and Amtrak put the number of
missing at three. Divers resumed their
search this morning for them and for
the bodies of the three-member loco
motive crew presumed dead in the
wreckage.
A large section of the 500-foot
long, wood-and-steel bridge collapsed;
investigators were trying to deter
mine whether that happened before
the wreck or because of it.
Asked how the barge might have
struck the bridge, which crosses a
bayou that isn’t navigable by barges
and is just 7 feet above the water, FBI
agent Charles W. Archer said, “I un
derstand it was very foggy.”
The barge was one of six lashed
together and pushed by a towboat.
U.S. Transportion Secretary
Federico Pena said Thursday that the
towboat captain had radioed shortly
before the train wreck to report he was
having trouble with fog and had lost
his tow. The captain has been inter
viewed by investigators, Pena said.
“It is clear the barge hit the bridge,”
Pena told CBS. The towboat pushing
the barges was traveling on the Mo
bile River when it got lost in ttyc fog
and found itself in the bayou, the
company said. It was trying to return
Worst Amtrak accidents *"""'21“
An Amtrak train jumped the tracks on a bridge and plunged into a foggy
run thenation'slong-distance passenger trains. Sixteen people were killed
Jan. 4,1987, in an Amtrak crash in Chase, Md.
Other Amtrak accident* involving fatalities:
Sunset Limited
route from Los £,}~
Angeles to Miami
1. Jan. 4,1987: Chase Md.( 16 killed.
2 June 10,1971; Salem, HI., 11 killed.
3. July 31,1091: Camden, D.C., 8 killed.
4. July 7,1984: Essex Jet., Vt. 5 killed.
5. Nov. 12,1983: Woodlawn, Texas, 4 killed.
I' ir,?’,1.™ WoreU?aln*accident
7. Oct 121079: Harvey, III., zkwed. in the history of
8. July 23,1984: Astoria, NX 1 WHed. Amtrak with a death
la"or exceedtliesum
IQ. June 15, iv«2. tmerson, iowa, ismw. total of fatalities
Amtrak^,cddenteher
. T'"
Source: National Transportation Safety Board AP
to the river when the train when off the
bridge, said Andy Harris, Warrior &
Gulf general manager of terminals.
“We don’t yet know accurately
what happened in this incident, but
we have been, are, and will continue
to participate with all of the agencies
seeking to resolve the questions,”
company president Nicholas J.
Barchie said.
The train’s data recorder and the
bodies of the three crew members
who had been operating the train re
mained in the lead locomotive, which
was buried nose-down in 15 feet of
mud and 25 feet of water, investiga
tors said.
The train’s speed was not immedi
ately known, but the limit on that
stretch of track was 70 mph.
“We were asleep, and the next
thing 1 knew we were in the water. It
sounded like a big blast,” said Dennis
Stevens, 33, of Orange City, Fla. “I
pushed out a window and got us out. i
Fuel was burning on top otthe water.
Smoke was everywhere. Then a tug
boat came and threw some ropes to
fish us out. You could tear screams.”
The train’s three locomotives and
four of its eight cars, including two
passenger cars, went into the swamp,
which is crawling with alligators and
snakes. Another passenger car dan
gled from what was left of the bridge.
One wrecked engine erupted in
flame, setting the night sky aglow as
survivors, joined by rescuers in heli
copters and local people who arrived
in boats, worked frantically to pull
passengers from the water.
& SPORTS WIRE—
Australia beats out Beijing for 2000 Summer Olympics
MONTECARLO, Monaco—Sta
bility and reliability won out over
political risk and uncertainty Thurs
day as Sydney narrowly edged out
Beijing for the right to host tne 2000
Summer Olympic Games.
In a secret ballot by the Interna
tional Olympic Committee, Sydney
beat Beijing on the final round by just
two votes — 45-43.
Dropping out in the previous rounds
1 were Istanbul, Turkey; Berlin; and
Manchester, England.
The decision to return the Games
1 to Australia for the first time since the
1956 Melbourne Olympics was an
i nounced live to a worldwide televi
sion audience by IOC president Juan
Antonio Samaranch.
In choosing Sydney over Beijing,
the IOC went for the safer candidate,
a glamorous, cosmopolitan city with
superior sports facilities and technol
°gy. , .
“We know this is the perfect deci
sion,” said IOC director general
Francois Carrard. “The Olympic
movement is in good hands.”
Beijing had offered the powerful
symbolic impactofholding the Games
of the new millennium in a nation of
1.2 billion people as it opens up to the
rest of the world.
Awarding the Games to China
would have prompted further outcry
from human rights critics, including
members of the U.S. Congress. There
may also have been concern over the
uncertain political future in China,
ruled by 88-year-old Deng Xiaoping, t
“If there was a difference in the I
vote it was clearly between the risk- \
takers and the non risk-takers,” said
Dick Pound, a powerful executive
board member from Canada who had
lobbied for Beijing.
Some members felt it was too soon
for China to get the Games, with 2004
a more realistic target.
“Of course we are disappointed,
but they (the Australians) conducted
themselves in a sportsmanlike way,
and we are happy tor them," said Wei
J izhong, secretary-general of the Chi
nese Olympic Committee.
Chinese officials in the audience
appeared stunned by the announce
ment and offered polite applause as
members of the Sydney delegation
danced and shouted in glee.
“This decision puts the Chinese
leadcrshipon notice that they will pay
a price for the continued abuse of their
own citizens," said Richard Dicker, a
lawyer for Human Rights Watch in
New York.
Some officials had said putting the
Games in Beijing could help speed
reforms in China.
However, Bob Scott, head of the
Manchester bid committee, said there
was a definite “stop-Beijing" move
>Site of
2000
Summer
Olympics
i r -—n
mr
ment among IOC members uncom
fortable with what they perceived as
heavy-handed support of China by
some top IOC officials.
Sydney’s victory resulted from
steady insistence that the harbor city
could provide state-of-the-art infra
structure, and cater best to the needs
and wants of the athletes.