News Digest
w Friday, September 16, 1994 Page 2
Clinton tells nation U.S. must act in Haiti
WASHINGTON — In a terse
ultimatum from the Oval Office,
President Clinton told Haiti’s mili
tary leaders Thursday night, “Your
time is up. Leave now or we will
force you from power.”
Against a chorus of opposition,
Clinton used a prime-time address
to build his case for an American
invasion of Haiti.
“We must act,” Clinton said in
televised address from the Oval
Office. - J
The president emphasized alle
gations ofhuman rights abuses. The
United States estimates 3,000
people have been killed in three
years of political assassinations.
“Cedras and his armed thugs
have conducted a reign of terror,”
the president said. “Executingchil
dren. Raping women. Killing
priests. As the d ictators have grown
more desperate, the atrocities have
grown ever more brutal.”
As long as Cedras rules, Clinton
said, Haitians will continue to seek
sanctuary in the United States. More
than 14,000 Haitians are housed at
theU.S. naval base atGuantanamo,
Cuba, and the United States has
spent $ 177 million to support them
and maintain the economic embargo
on Haiti, Clinton said.
Some 300,000 Haitians are in
hiding in their country, eager to
flee, Clinton said.
“I f we do not act, they will be the
next wave of refugees at our door,"
he said. “We will continue to face a
mass exodus of refugees and a con
stant threat to stability in our region
and control of our borders."
He said that the United States’
mission in Haiti would be “limited
and specific” — to “remove the
dictators from power and restore
Haiti’s legitimate democratically
elected government.”
Upwards of 20,000 U.S. troops
were mobilized for the invasion.
Clinton also signed an executive
order authorizing the call-up of
1,600 reservists to support the in
vasion force.
“1 assure you that no president
makes decisions like this one with
out deep thought and prayer,” the
,lThe message of the
United States to the
Haitian dictators is
clear: Your time is up.
Leave now or we Will
force you from power. ”
■
BILL CLINTON
president
president said. “But it is my job as
president and commander in chief
to take those actions that I believe
will best protect our national secu
rity interests.”
He said IJ.S. forces would help
train a civilian police force, but
would not get involved in rebuild
ing Haiti. Clinton said the “vast
majority of our troops will come
home in months, not years.”
It is widely assumed that most of
Haiti’sragtagforceswouldrunfrom
a fight, throwing off their uniforms
and trying to melt into the civilian
population. The fear is that Ameri
cans Would become targets of am
bush and guerrilla warfare.
Blaming the military rulers for
abusing Haitians and driving them
deeper into poverty and despair,
Clinton said, “I know that the United
States cannot and should not be the
world's policeman. But we have a
responsibility to respond when in
humanity offends our values.”
“And we have a particular inter
est in stopping brutality when it
occurs so close to our shores,” he
said.
In forceful, measured words,
Clinton said, “The message of the
United States to the Haitian dicta
tors is clear: Your time is up. Leave
now or we will force you from
power.”
Cedras cautioned the United
States not to invade. In a CBS inter
view, Cedras said, “I am prepared
to fight with my people.”
In Washington and in the Carib
bean, every sign pointed to an inva
sion within a matter of days. Twenty
American warships ominously
shadowed Haiti’s coast, and two
troop-laden aircraft carriers were
on the way, expected to be on sta
tion by the weekend. One high
ranking official said an invasion
was not likely before Monday.
William Gray, U.S. special en
voy on Haiti, said “There will be a
firm deadline” for Cedras to sur
render power but that it would not
be publicly announced “because
we’re not going to jeopardize
American lives and our military in
case the multinational force does
have to go in.”
Liberian civil war
demolishes capital
MONROVIA, Liberia — The African
intervention force in Monrovia used tanks
and gunboats to pound Liberia’s presi
dential mansion Thursday, trying to dis
lodge rebel soldiers who claimed to have
taken over the country.
Mortars and gunfire rocked the capital
as dusk fell. The fighting heralded the
advent of yet another armed faction in
Liberia’s nearly 5-year-old civil war. The
rebels were led by Gen. Charles Julue, a
ruthless commander in the army of slain
dictator Samuel Doe.
Julue had fled Liberia in 1990 after
Charles Taylor, a former Doe aide, in
vaded from the Ivory Coast on Dec. 24,
1989. A fax sent by a group in Philadel
phia claimed he had seized control.
“The Liberian New Horizons has taken
over the affairs of government... to stop
the madness in our country,” the fax said.
Liberian factions have representatives in
the United States.
Taylor’s popular rebellion to oust
Doe's dictatorship ballooned into a tribal
war that the United Nations estimates has
killed more than 150,000 people. Doe
himself was killed by a breakaway rebel
faction in 1990.
Two-thirds of Liberia’s 2.3 million
people are either displaced inside the
country or refugees in other nations.
Numerous peace pacts have collapsed
as the fighting has spread to encompass
six warring factions, half ofthem divided
internally.
Nebraskan
Editor Jeff Zeleny, 472-1766
Managing Editor Angie Brunkow
Assoc News Editors Jeffrey Robb
Rainbow Rowell
General Manager Dan Shattil
Production Manager Katherine Policky
Advertising Manager Amy Struthers
Asst Advertising Manager Sheri Krafewski
Publications Board Chairman Tim Hedegaard, 436-9258
Professional Adviser Don Walton, 473-7301
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT
1994 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Blood at scene
matches O.J.’s
LOS ANGELES — Final DN A tests point to
O.J. Simpson as the source of at least two drops
of blood in a trail leading from the crime scene,
and a hair found on one victim's body came
from a black person, sources said Thursday.
Simpson’s lawyers are considering calling
as witnesses hisyounger children, including his
8-year-old daughter, who reportedly told police
she “heard Mommy’s best friend” the night of
the slayings.
The genetic test results on two drops of
blood, first reported in Thursday’s Los Angeles
Times, were forwarded to the Simpson defense
and confirm preliminary results reported last
month by prosecutors, sources speaking on con
dition of anonymity told The Associated Press.
The sources said there was nothing new in
the latest results, which the defense plans to
attack as unreliable because of sloppy police
and lab work.
7 heard Mommy 's best
friend's voice and heard
Mommy crying."
■
SYDNEY SIMPSON
Simpson’s 8-year-old daughter
“You have to look very carefully at, not only
the evidence, the so-called evidence, but how it
was collected and whether or not this evidence
was contaminated,” said defense attorney
Johnnie Cochran Jr.
Simpson, 47, is charged with murder in the
June 12 slashing deaths of his ex-wife Nicole
Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
A hair whose existence was never previously
reported in the media was found on Goldman's
clothing and matches that of a black person, the
sources told the AP. The strand is being ana
lyzed to determine whether it matches Simpson’s
hair.
The finding may work in the defense’s favor,
the sources said, because if prosecutors try to
argue the hair is Simpson’s, the defense can ask
why only one hair was found on the body when
presumably the attacker would have lost more
in a struggle.
Earlier, authorities said they had found a
black person’s hairs in a ski cap at the crime
scene outside Ms. Simpson’s condominium.
The sources also said no final decision had
been made on whether to have Ms. Simpson’s
children, Sydney, 8, and Justin, 6, testify at the
Sleuthing With DNA
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A new type of DNA testing,
called PCR typing, can be used
on much smaller samples of
DNA and takes much less time
than RFLP typing, but it is less
definitive LAPD forensic
scientists have used PCR
typing on samples obtained
from the Simpson crime scene,
but did not introduce them in
the preliminary heanng. PCR
test results have not been
accepted into evidence by
courts in California. Here's how
it works:
1. DNA is extracted from tissue
or fluids and punfled.
2. The intact DNA is combined
with short fragments of known
DNA, called pnmers, and other
chemicals that cause the DNA
to be replicated. The pnmers
cause only certain segments of
DNA to replicate. With X
cycles of replication, the
amount of DNA increases 1
million limes.
3. Small quantities of the
replicated DNA are applied to
eight to 10 spots on a/eagent
strip. Each spot contains a
different segment of known
DNA. ft the replicated DNA
contains a segment match rig
the known segment a blue
color appears on the spot
4. The pattern of spots from a
sample obtained at a crime
scene is compared to that from
a suspect
Time required tor results:
PCR: One week or less
RFLP: Four to six weeks
Chance* of identical results
from two different people:
PCR: 1 in 800 to 1 m 2.000
RFLP: 1 in t million
Admissibility in Ceitfomui
courts:
PCR: No precedent
RFLP: Precedent tor
admission
> • $
. .
trial, scheduled to start with jury selection Sept.
Police have said the children were asleep
inside the condominium at the time of the kill
ings, estimated to have occurred between 10:15
p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
Sydney, who was in police custody after the
slayings, was overheard saying about the night
her mother was killed, “I heard Mommy’s best
friend’s voice and heard Mommy crying.”
It isn’t known exactly when the child heard
the voices or whether her mother was talking on
the phone or with someone at her door, or in the
house.
The defense has said in court papers that
Sydney’s statement helps clear Simpson by
suggesting somebody else was at the crime
scene.
Simpson returns to court Monday for a hear
ing on defense requests to dismiss the charges
and throw out much of the evidence, and a
prosecution request to sequester the jury.