jnjews Digest
Friday, November 11,1994 Page 2
Children’s murders
raise race issues
UNION, S.C. — The Rev. Jesse
Jackson praised the sheriff who
looked into the disappearance of
two white boys whose mother said
they were taken by a black
carjacker, but deplored the racial
climate he said her claim revealed.
“The sick woman was innocent
until proven guilty. The black man
was guilty until proven innocent,”
Jackson said. “She exploited a cli
mate of racial hostility and fear
that is much bigger than Union.”
Susan Smith has been charged
with murder in the drownings of
her two sons, 3-year-old Michael
and 14-month-old Alex. Nine days
after she claimed they were ab
ducted by a black caijacker, police
said she told them the location of
the bodies.
Jackson, who laid a wreath be
side the lake where the boys died
Oct. 25, acknowledged that inves
tigators had no choice but to ques
tion blacks because Mrs. Smith
“did sound believable.”
He said he had found no evi
dence of brutality or violence
against the black men who were
questioned. When Mrs. Smith was
arrested, Jackson called on the Jus
tice Department to look into the
way the criminal investigation was
handled.
“I think the sheriff handled
himself under these circumstances
in a commendable way,” Jackson
said.
“The sick woman was
innocent until proven
guilty. The black man
was guilty until proven
innocent. She exploited
a climate of racial
hostility and fear that
is much bigger than
Unioti. ”
m
REV. JESSE JACKSON
Mrs. Smith, who is in prison
without bond awaiting trial, was
taken off suicide watch Thursday
and placed in a regular cell, the
Corrections Department said.
Union County Sheriff Howard
Wells said he had tried to be care
ful during the investigation be
cause a black had been named as a
suspect.
UI said 'alleged abductor.’ 1 said
'suspect’ at every opportunity. I
would not label, I did not use a de
finitive term, purposely. ... You
take whaf s given to you and you
follow it until something tells you
differently,” he said.
Saddam Hussein’s government
recognizes Kuwait sovereignty
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Iraq on
Thursday abandoned territorial
claims to Kuwait that had origins in
the Ottoman Empire, hoping to win
an end to trade sanctions that have
strangled its economy.
The official Iraqi News Agency
said the National Assembly voted for
“Iraq’s recognition of the sovereignty
of the state of Kuwait, its territorial
integrity and independence.''
The statement also said Iraq rec
ognized and respected the “inviola
bility” of new Kuwaiti borders, de
marcated by a U.N. committee after
the 1991 Gulf War.
Saddam Hussein’s ruling Revolu
tionary Command Council later en
dorsed the legislation, according to a
dispatch by the agency, monitored in
Cyprus.
There was no official reaction
from Kuwait, where distrust of Iraq
runs deep since it invaded the emir
ate in August 1990. That wariness
intensified last month when Baghdad
sent tens of thousands of soldiers to
the emirate’s border.
The White House welcomed the
measure as a promising first step but
said it wasn’t enough to earn
Washington’s support for lifting the
sanctions, imposed to punish Iraq for
invading Kuwait.
The emirate was part of Iraq un
der the Ottoman Empire, which col
lapsed at the end of World War 1. The
British, who took .over that region,
jpive Kuwait independence in 1961,
and the border had been in dispute
since.
The Revolutionary Command
Council said Iraq’s move was de
signed “to stress its resolve to com
ply with all relevant U.N. Security
Council resolutions, prove its peace
ful intentions and dedication to re
gional stability and security.”
The statement, signed by Saddam,
said the decision was effective imme
diately, the news agency reported.
If Kuwaiti recognition is “true in
practice as well as in words, that’s
positive,” White House press secre
tary Dee Dee Myers said. “But there
are a number of other elements to
the U.N. resolutions that Iraq must
adhere to before we can even discuss
lifting the sanctions.”
Iraq, she said, has to permanently
stop threatening Kuwait’s borders
and stop talking about Kuwait as the
19th province, she said.
The United States has also insisted
that Baghdad dismantle its weapons
program, release political prisoners
and return property seized from Ku
wait.
Iraq’s parliamcntaiy session was
attended by Foreign Minister Andrei
Kozyrev of Russia, who has been
working with Baghdad to try to get
sanctions relaxed.
“Let us not forget that there is a
wall of ice surrounding Iraq, intended
to isolate it, but the sun has now risen
to melt this ice,” INA quoted Kozyrev
as saying after the recognition-deci
sion was announced.
Iraq’s bid to end its economic iso
lation has split the five permanent
members who have veto power on the
U.N. Security Council, which im
posed the sanctions.
Russia, China and France have a
strong financial interest in resuming
trade with Iraq. The United States
and Britain are not eager to end the
embargo, hoping the hardship it has
caused will bring down Saddam.
The United States and its Western
allies had demanded that Iraq’s top
bodies — the ruling Revolutionary
Command Council and rubber-stamp
Krliament — recognize Kuwait’s
rders before they consider easing
the embargo. _
Kuwait
pi?T
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German feds
bring down
Nazi group !
BONN, Germany — In the
sharpest blow against the fas
cist movement in months, the
government outlawed a para
military neo-Nazi organization
Thursday and police seized
knives, propaganda and bank
accounts in nationwide raids.
The group. Viking Youth, is
the fourth fascist organization
banned by the federal govern
ment in two years. No arrests
were reported.
Federal Interior Minister •
Manfred Kanther said Thursday
that Viking Youth wants to re
store a fascist state in which
Jews would be forced to wear
yellow stars and people the ex
tremists considered "inferior
beings" would be sterilized.
Tne group has been giving
paramilitary training to young
Germans and teaching them
neo-Nazi beliefs, Kanther said.
According to the Interior
Ministry, group members idol
ize Adolf Hitler and see them
selves as successors of the Hitler
Youth, a Nazi-era youth orga
nization.
Led by 30-year-old Wolfram
Nahrath, called the "federal
fuehrer," the Viking Youth has
about 400 members, federal au
thorities said.
Most members are adults,
the Interior Ministry said. But
school-age boys and girls
marched at a Viking Youth rally
shown on German television
earlier this year.
Dieter Heckelmann, Berlin’s
interior minister, said the group
has acted as a link between
members of neo-Nazi groups
that have previously been
banned.