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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1994)
h 1 t _ s"~— News Digest Thursday, October 13,1994 Page 2 Kidnapping by militant group threatens Palestinian peace JERUSALEM — A frightened Is raeli soldier, only months out of high school, stood beside a masked gun man and pleaded Wednesday for the release of Palestinian prisoners. “If not, they will kill me,” 19-year old Cpl. Nachshon Waxman, who holds dual Amcrican-Israeli citizen ship, said in a televised appeal. The young soldier's abduction by the militant Islamic group Hamas shocked Israel and thrust the Middle East peace process into its deepest crisis yet. Hamas, the leading opponent of the Palestinian autonomy accord, said it would kill Waxman unless 200 imprisoned Palestinians arc freed by Friday. Waxman is the 10th Israeli to have been kidnapped by Islamic militants since 1989. AH the previous captives were killed. Israeli leaders said they held Pal estinian leader Yasser Arafat respon sible for the soldier's safety, and threatened to freeze talks on expand ing Palestinian self-rule if Arafat did not act decisively to win his release. In a videotaped appeal Wednesday, a dazed-looking Waxman urged Rabin to comply with his captors' demands. “I ask you to do all you can so I get out of here alive.” Waxman said. A militant holding an assault rifle, a red-checkered headdress covering his face, prompted Waxman several times with questions in Hebrew and placed a hand on the soldier's shoul der at the end of the tape. “What do you have to say to your mother?" the gunman asked. “If my parents arc watching me. 1 am all right now, and I hope to re turn to you if Rabin decides to release the prisoners,” Waxman replied. The thin, dark-haired teen-ager spoke in clipped military terms and appeared to try to steady his voice. It was not known when or where the tape, broadcast on Israel's Chan nel Two, was filmed. Waxman dis appeared Sunday night, and it is be lieved he was abducted somewhere in central Israel while hitchhiking. In Jerusalem, his tearful mother Esther, 47, who immigrated from New York City 25 years ago, called on the U.S. government “to save my son who is an American citizen.” She also pleaded with the kidnap pers: “We have the same God ... and I hope they return him safe and sound, for God’s sake.” Secretary of State Warren Chris topher. who returned to Jerusalem Wednesday night after stops in Syria and Jordan, said the United States would do everything possible to as sist Israel. Rabin, speaking to Arafat by tele phone Wednesday, said Israel had proof Waxman was being held in the PLO-controlled Gaza Strip and stressed Arafat’s “absolute responsi bility” for the soldier’s safe return. A statement from Rabin's office said the Israeli leader “rejected out of hand Palestinian attempts to deny this.” Israel Radio later quoted Rabin as saying he was certain Waxman was still alive. Arafat's spokesman said Arafat met Wednesday with three Hamas leaders and asked them for help in finding the hostage. But, said Marwan Kanafani. Arafat's top press aide, “we do not have any proof that the kidnapped soldier is in the Gaza Strip.” Rabin and Arafat reportedly will share the Nobel Peace Prize to be announced Friday. Word of their se lection by the prize committee stirred controversy even before the abduction was disclosed. Palestinian police combed Gaza's Burcij refugee camp Wednesday look ing for fugitive Islamic militants and searched Hamas strongholds in southern Gaza. Israeli government ministers, speaking after an emergency Cabinet session, said that if Arafat didn't try to catch the kidnappers. Israel could Expanding autonomy and elections threatened Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is holding Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat responsible for negotiating the release of an Israeli soldier taken hostage by Muslim militants on Sunday. Israel threatened to stall negotiations on autonomy and hold up elections. nol be expected to negotiate expand ing self-rule to the West Bank or holding Palestinian elections. “If the autonomous areas turn into a shelter for murderers, Israel can not be asked to expand these areas." said Education Minister Amnon Rubinstein. “The way this matter is handled will have grave implications for the future,” Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said. Rabin suspended talks with the Palestinians when news of the kid napping broke Tuesday and ordered Gaza sealed, barring 30,000 laborers from reaching jobs in Israel. Nations unite against Hussein KUWAIT— As Iraqi troops re treated from the Kuwait border, the United States and its allies turned their focus Wednesday to heading off future crises that might be provoked by Saddam Hussein. Thousands of U.S. troops continued to stream into the region as insurance. Six Persian Gulf countries com mitted their own troops to the allied effort alter a meeting in Kuwait with Secretary of State Warren Christo pher. One option that Christopher pur sued with the Gulf ministers and with British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd involved establishing through the U N. Security Council a zone near the Kuwaiti border that would be off limits to Iraqi tanks and other heavy military equipment. Iraqi flights al ready are banned in the area. Defense Secretary William Periy was expected to continue those dis cussions when he arrived in the re gion Thursday. Facing resistance from some allies, the white House was not publicly pushing the idea on Wednesday. Although U N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright said she had raised the idea at the United Nations. White House press secretary Dee Dec Myers told reporters, “That is not a proposal that we have shopped around.” Two French Cabinet ministers said Iraq had not violated any agreements and the West should not over-react. Christopher said, “We are resolved and committed that Saddam should not be permitted to project the world into crisis at his own whim.” Saudi Arabia and five smaller oil nations — Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait it self — agreed to deploy part of their 19,000-man “Peninsula Shield” in Kuwait along with additional troops from each of the six. The total was not announced. A senior military official said at the Pentagon that a majority of the Iraqi forces that had been massed near the Kuwaiti border were mov ing away. “Portions of all but one brigade have moved,” the official said, though he cautioned that it was not known where the troops might be going. It will be several days before that can be learned with certainty, so no hold is being placed on the flow of U.S. troops into the region, he and other officials said. The Pentagon said Iraq in recent days had increased the number of tanks in the vicinity of the Kuwaiti border from 650 to 1,090. Iraq's foreign minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, said his country had indeed withdrawn its forces. “All troops whose deployment had caused such an uproar in the United States have completed their retreat to rear positions this evening,” he said in a statement carried by the state run Iraqi News Agency. President Clinton and other U.S. leaders have discounted such state ments in recent days. In Baghdad, Saddam met privately with Russian envoys while military attaches from Moscow and Beijing headed south to see if Iraq had with drawn its forces from the Kuwaiti border. Christopher said that if Saddam plunged the region into war again he would face “the full fury of the finest military organization in the world.” Their presence, Christopher told the troops at the Doha base, was de signed “to stop Saddam Hussein in his tracks.” Christopher flew to Israel to re sume his diplomatic effort to promote a peace treaty between Israel and Syria. There are nearly 20,000 U.S. sol diers and marines in Kuwait, an ad ditional 44,500 deployed or on the way to the area, and 156,000 on alert. Hurd said a British battalion arrived Tuesday and France was sending air and naval forces. Spc. Albert Vadnais, an Army mechanic from Wenatchee, Wash., said he was not worrying whether Saddam would send his army across the border. “We’ll take him out,” \bdnais de clared News... in a Minute -- More Nobels for Americans STOCKHOLM, Sweden — An American and a Canadian who de veloped a method for studying the building blocks of matter won the Nobel physics prize Wednesday, and an American whose research led to more efficient and cleaner fuel won the chemistry prize The physics prize will be shared by Clifford G. Shull of the Massa chusetts Institute of Technology and Bertram N. Brock house of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Both researchers, pioneers in the field of neutron scattering, devel oped neutron spectroscopy, a method of studying atoms, the elements that make up all matter. The sole winner of the $930,000 award for chemistry was George A. Olah, 67, of the University of Southern California. Olah revolutionized the study of hydrocarbons, the ingredients of oil and natural gas, and uncovered new ways to use them. Haitian regime dismantled PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The last pillar of Haiti's military re gime fell Wednesday, and once-persecuted officials of Jean-Bcrtrand Aristide’s elected government gingerly slipped back into their old of fices. Pressured by a huge American military presence, the army-installed figurehead president, Emile Jonassaint. lived up to his word and an nounced his resignation and that of his government. Hours later, joyous Haitians carrying handmade musical instruments danced outside the hillside mansion of Lt. Gen. Raoul Ccdras as the former military strongman made final arrangements for exile. A pickup truck carrying boxes left Ccdras home at midafternoon. Late Wednesday. Panama offered Ccdras asy lum. Visa lottery announced WASHINGTON — The Clinton administration announced plans Wednesday to distribute 5.000 to 6.000 immigration visas to Cubans by a lottery, giving a chance at resettlement to Cubans who thus far have been excluded. Until now, visas have been largely restricted to Cubans who qual ify I for refugee status or those with close relatives in the United States 1 who are American citizens. Details of how the lottery will be run will be announced by Nov. 1. The State Department announcement said Cubans selected through the lottery will be allowed to bring their spouses and minor children with them to the United States. As a result of the new policies. Havana will become the largest U.S. visa issuing office in the world. Skol said. Pesticide ban pending WASHINGTON — The government will review and possibly ban several pesticides that show up in processed food and may cause can cer, under a tentative agreement announced Wednesday. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Re sources Defense Council hailed the agreement, part of a court settle ment that must be approved by U.S. District Judge William Schubb in Sacramento, Calif. The agreement could be signed as early as Dec. 2 if not challenged by industry. At issue are pesticides that show up in processed foods such as raisins, cooking oil, tomato paste and flour in greater concentrations than in their raw ingredients: grapes, soybeans, tomatoes and wheal. A 1992 court ruling said those processed foods can have no trace of pesticides found to cause tumors in animals or people, regardless of now small the actual risk of cancer Jury candidates weren’t asleep LOS ANGELES — Lawyers in O.J. Simpson’s trial questioned prospective jurors in court Wednesday for the first time and the judge warned he will be “very suspicious of a Rip van Winkle” claiming to know nothing about the case. Superior Court Judge Lance Ito said possible jurors’ exposure to the case doesn’t bother him. The goal, he said, is to find jurors who can set aside their opinions and judge Simpson on evidence presented in court. None of 84 prospective jurors called into court said they have missed the intense publicity since Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were found stabbed to death June 12. Many of the potential jurors said in written questionnaires they were glued to televisions watching a white Bronco carrying Simpson meander along Southern California freeways followed bv police cars on June 17. Nebraskan T. .. ... FAX NUMBER 472-1761 ~ . .. The Daily NebraakanfUSPS 144 080) is published by the UNL Publications Board. N* braska Union 34. 1400 R St.. Lincoln, NE 68588 0448. 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