By The
Associated Press
Edited by Kristine Long
NEWS DIGEST
Nebraskan
Wednesday, April 13, 1994
Mitchell withdraws from court search
WASHINGTON — President
Clinton’s Supreme Court search was
scrambled Tuesday as Senate Major
ity Leader George Mitchell abruptly
withdrew from consideration.
Mitchell said he was convinced
health care reform, and I don’t want to
do anything to detract from that,”
Mitchell said.
Clinton told Mitchell Monday night
he was inclined to nominate the 60
year-old Maine Democrat for the va
cancy created by Justice Harry A.
Blackmun’s retirement.
Mitchell said Clinton “reluctantly
accepted” his assessment that he might
not be able to undergo the demanding
confirmation process and keep his
promise to shepherd health care re
form through the Senate this year.
Congress has “a rare opportunity”
to enact “comprehensive, meaningful
health care reform and I don’t want to
do anything to detract from that,”
Mitchell said.
Mitchell served briefly as a federal
judge in his native Maine, and his
political skills were viewed as an im
portant asset on a court narrowly di
vided on many controversial issues.
U.S. District Judge Jose Cabrancs
of Connecticut was also high on
Cl inton’s list, and the favorite of some
advisers who want Clinton to name
the first Hispanic to the high court.
Solicitor General Drew S. Days III is
another contender along with two fed
eral appeals court judges, Richard
Arnold of Arkansas and Amalya
Kearse of New York.
They were described as the “most
active” prospects from a 1 ist of a dozen
compiled by Clinton’s search team.
Administration officials said it was
possible Clinton could suggest or re
quest new names, and not out of the
question that he might look for anoth
er political figure.
Clinton advisers said a firm time
table for filling the vacancy had not
been established, but it would be only
a few weeks at most.
Cabrancs, Days, Kcarse and Arnold
also were on Clinton’s initial list last
year.
Cabranes, 53, a native of Puerto
Rico, was also considered during the
Bush administration. He was recently
passed overby the White House for an
appeals court vacancy. Administra
tion officials said he was a top con
tender, and some Clinton political
advisers not involved in the search
said naming Cabrancs could give the
president a boost with the fast-grow
ing population of Hispanic voters.
Arnold, 58, is a moderate who has
■* •
been repeatedly praised by Clinton in
conversations with friends, associates
and key senators about Supreme Court
prospects. However, Clinton may be
reluctant to turn to a fellow Arkansan.
Kearsc, who has a moderate to
liberal judicial record, was mentioned
frequently early in Clinton’s search a
year ago before falling from conten
tion. If chosen, she would be the first
black woman named to the court.
Days, 52, is among the administra
tion’s highest ranking black officials.
As solicitor general, his job is to argue
the administration’s views before the
Supreme Court, and the position has
served as a springboard in the past.
Rebels surround Kigali
as foreign refugees flee
KIGALI, Rwanda — Amid the
crash of mortar fire, French and
Belgian paratroopers evacuated the
last large group of foreign refugees
Tuesday as a major rebel force be
gan pushing into Kigali from the
north.
With the advance of the rebels,
tensions in the capital were ex
tremely high. A trip through the
outskirts gave the impression of an
entire city primitively at arms.
The roadsides were lined with
Hutu men, some dressed in new,
warm winter coats apparently loot
ed from stores, others barefoot and
armed with clubs, machetes, axes
and makeshift spears and bows-in
arrow.
“They arc afraid of the rebels,
and I don’t blame them." said Guy
Stcunes, a Belgian businessman.
“The rebels call themselves the
Rwandan Patriotic Front,but they’ll
probably start killing Hutus, just
like the presidential guard killed
Tutsis.”
An estimated 20,000 people have
been slain in a week of violence.
Ten Belgian soldiers taking part in
a U N. pcacekccpingoperationdied
during the first day of fighting,
which was sparked by a plane crash
Wednesday at Kigali’s airport that
killed the presidents of Rwanda
and Burundi. Six Belgian civilians
and at least three French also have
been killed.
The dispute is decades-long, re
flecting the enmity between the
Hutus, who dominate the govern
ment and comprise 90 percent of
the country's 8.5 million people,
and the Tutsis, who make up 9
percent of the population.
Two rebel battallions of about
500 men each pushed into Kigali
late Tuesday and had the airport
nearly surrounded.
One group moved east and then
south of the airport, as the other
tried to cut off the main road run
ning west from the airport to the
city. They hadn't succeeded by
nightfall, said Col. Marc Emonts
Gast. a Belgian military spokes
man.
Mortar and recoil-less rifle blasts
shook the airport all afternoon. The
airport has been turned into an
operating base for French and Bel
gian troops, as well as journalists.
French TV journalists slept Tues
day night on conveyor belts at the
international check-in desk.
U.N. spokesman Joe Sills in New
York said the rebels and govern
ment forces have agreed in writing
not to interfere with the evacuation
of foreigners.
Sills and other officials were
unable to confirm reports that mem
bers of the interim government had
lied a hotel in Kigali where they
had holed up for days.
Rwanda unrest
Fighting was reported Monday
between the Rwandan army and
rebels outside the capital, Kigali. The
fighting broke out after the deaths of
the presidents of Rwanda and
Burundi in a plane crash five days
earlier. The rebel group, the
Rwandese Patriotic Front, is made
up of members of the
Tutsi ethnic group
who were driven
from Rwanda to
Uganda in the
1960s and 70s
by the Hutu
dominated
government.
Snow causes power outage across state
Power lines were draped across a
highway, closing a 12-mile stretch,
and more than a dozen western Ne
braska communities remained with
out electricity Tuesday after heavy
snow and ice dragged down lines and
snapped utility poles.
Utility officials said it could be
days before the lights are back on in
some areas.
“The snow is just so heavy, it was
like putting a plaster cast on every
wire,” said Charlie Brogan, program
director at Lexington radio station
KRVN.
The storm that dumped as much as
a fool of snow on parts of Nebraska
Monday lingered in the eastern half of
the state Tuesday. Schools closed. Phelps and Kearney, NPPD officials
Roads closed. Children built April said.
wl I / *» • I IV I I .
At the height of the storm, about
half of the state was affected and about
200,000 people were without power,
said Sharon Soltero, a Nebraska Pub
lic Power District spokeswoman in
Columbus. Power was restored to
major cities but remained out Tuesday
in mostly rural areas, including Lex
ington, a south-central Nebraska city
of about 7,000.
Counties hardest hit included Lin
coln, Hayes, Hitchcock, Red Willow,
Frontier, Furnas, Gosper. Dawson,
Custer, Valley, Sherman, Buffalo,
L ight rain and snow persisted Tucs
day in central areas of Nebraska and
drizzle fell in the east, the National
Weather Service said. But sunshine
increased in the west, and highs ranged
from the upper 60s in the west to the
mid- to upper 30s in the cast.
Partly sunny skies were expected
Wednesday with highs in the 70s in
the west and the 60s in the east. Clouds
could return to the state Wednesday
night, and it could rain Thursday,
with highs Thursday from the upper
50s in the west to near 70 in the
southeast.
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Clinton taxes tirm stance
on air strikes in Bosnia
WASHINGTON — President
Clinton said American-led air attacks
against Bosnia’s Serbs may extend
beyond the Muslim enclave of
Gorazde to five other “safe areas” in
Bosnia.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out.”
Clinton said.
The president, talking with report
ers in the Cabinet Room Tuesday, said
U.S. warplanes arc at the disposal of
the U.N. commander. British Lt.Gen.
Sir Michael Rose, if he feels U.N.
personnel arc threatened.
“We’re working very closely with
Gen. Rose, and he’s got a very aggres
sive view of his role, which I think is
good,” Clinton said. He spoke with
the press as he opened a meeting with
Democratic and Republican leaders
of Congress on Bosnia and the legis
lative agenda.
After two days of NATO air strikes
on Serb troops, there were indications
from Gorazde that the town’s Muslim
defenders were firing at Serbs in an
attempt to provoke a response, which
could bring more NATO air raids.
“We have cautioned the Bosnian
government forces not to try to take
advantage of this and violate the un
derstandings themselves,” Clinton
said. “And Gen. Rose has been very
firm on that this morning.”
Clinton said he had assured Rus
sian President Boris Yeltsin, who ob
jected to the attacks, “that we have no
interest in using NATO’s air power to
affect the outcome of the war, but we
do want to protect the U.N. mandate,
and we do want a negotiation. And I
think that’s what we’re going to get.”
“Every time we have been firm ...
in the end it’s been a winner for the
peace process, and I think it will be
here,” the president said.
-44
Every time we have
been firm ... in the
end it’s been a
winner for the peace
process, and I think it
will be here.
— Clinton,
U S. President
-ft -
He said until the Serb assault on
Gorazde, “I thought we were getting
pretty close, not just to a cease-fire,
but perhaps to a cessation of hostili
ties and a real serious bargaining po
sition. We could get back there in a
hurry.”
The rationale for NATO’s strikes
was that about a dozen U.N. peace
keepers in the town could be in danger
if Serb shelling was not halted. The
NATO attacks also aimed to hammer
the Serbs back into negotiations on an
overall settlement of the two-year war
in Bosnia-Her/cgovina.
The bombing of the Serbs serves to
erode any claim of neutrality by the
Clinton administration or NATO.
But Vice President Al Gore main
tained Monday that “it is not an aban
donment of neutrality when you de
fend the peace process against those
who are violating it and aiming artil
lery shells at the peacekeepers.”
“Gorazde was declared a United
Nations safe area and there was a clear
understanding on the part of everyone
that an offensive by the Serbs into this
area would be met with forceful resis
tance. and it has been and that’s prop
er.” Gore said on NBC.
New York Times wins
three more Pulitzers
NEW YORK — The New York
Times added three Pulitzers to boost
its collection to 69 on Tuesday in a
contest that honored gut-wrenching
photographs and stories about vio
lence against women and victims of
radiation.
The Times won its first Pul itzer for
photography in addition to prizes for
features and spot news. The Chicago
Tribune claimed two, for editorials on
child abuse and science writing.
“We were kind of hoping for more
than one,” said Max Frankel, the
Times’ retiring executive editor. “It’s
my last as editor. What a way to go!”
Edward Albce ended a nearly 20
year drought of commercial and artis
tic recognition, capturing the 1994
Pulitzer in drama for “Three Tall
Women.”
The play, which reopened off
Broadway on Tuesday night, grew out
of Albee’s stormy relationship with
his mother — “an exorcising of de
mons,” he said.
The other arts winners were E.
Annie Proulx, fiction; former Wash
ington Post reporter David Remnick.
general non-fiction; biographer Dav
id Levering Lewis; poet Yusef
Komunyakaa; and composer Gunther
Schuller. No history award wasgi vcn.
The 1994 journalism winners cap
tured America’s conscience: gut
wrenching photos from foreign lands
and stories that sought to right wrongs
against women, children and victims
of government.
The national reporting prize went
to Eileen Wclsoine of The Albuquer
que (N.M.) Tribune for her stories
about Americans unwittingly used in
government plutonium experiments a
half-century ago. Shespentycars track
ing down the story after learning of
brief government reports.
“I hope the Pulitzer will be an
inspiration to all newspapers, big and
small, and to the public who are out
there just like us trying to batter down
the stubborn bureaucratic walls,” said
Welsome, who was in New York to
receive a Polk award for the same
scries.