By The
Associated Press
Edited by Jennifer Mlratsky
Monday, December 12,1994 Page 2
Nations sign trade declaration,
Clinton wants Chile in NAFTA
MIAMI — Leaders of 34 Western
Hemisphere nations signed a free
trade declaration Sunday that Presi
dent Clinton called “a watershed in
the history of our hemisphere.”
Clinton announced a drive to
make Chile the first South American
nation to join a free-trade pact that
now covers the United States, Canada
and Mexico.
“This should be evidence that we
intend to accelerate the process of
achieving the summit's goal of trade
without barriers across the two con
tinents by the year 2005,” Clinton
said.
Talks will begin in May to bring
Chile into what is now called the
North American Free Trade Agree
ment (NAFTA).
The Chile announcement, which
had been expected, came after
Clinton formally ended the three-day
Summit of the Americas, which he
said “has more than fulfilled our ex
pectations.”
Speaking for the smaller nations
represented in Miami, Barbados
Prime Minister Owen Arthur said,
“Trade is a matter of life or death for
the Caribbean.”
Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo
said the summit opens “a new era in
our history,” and President Itamar
Franco of Brazil declared that it will
usher in a lasting era of peace and
understanding.
Later, at a news conference—one
dominated by domestic and political
questions — Clinton defended the
summit’s failure to take a position
“This should be
evidence that we intend
to accelerate the process
of achieving the
summit’s goal of trade
without barriers across
the two continents by the
year 2005. ”
BILL CLINTON
President
denouncing Cuban President Fidel
Castro. He said the omission reflected
disagreement over how to best foster
democracy in Cuba, rather than
mixed views on Castro.
“I don’t think you should under- 1
estimate the depth of feeling through
out Latin America that every coun
try should be free,” Clinton said.
“I think the difference is over the
best way to achieve that objective...
There’s no agreement on what the
policy should be.”
Of the hemisphere’s 35 nations,
Cuba is the only one that is not a de
mocracy; Castro was not invited to
the summit.
Addressing the leaders at their fi
nal session, Clinton said: “Future
generations will look back on the
Miami summit as a moment when the
course of history in the Americas
changed for the better.”
One by one, the prime ministers
and presidents signed declarations
calling for closer economic and po
litical cooperation. The documents
contained a list of 100 separate areas
of agreement.
“With this summit, we close a
chapter in our hemisphere marked by
mistrust,” said Cesar Gaviria, secre
tary general of the Organization of
Health Care.
The centerpiece was an agreement
to negotiate a hemisphere-wide free
trade pact by year 2005, with “con
crete progress” toward the objective
by year 2000.
The final decree also calls for
stepped up joint action in combating
organized crime, illegal narcotics and
money laundering. It calls for envi
ronmental cooperation, anti-corrup
tion measures and steps to promote
democracy.
Immediately afterward, Clinton
was joined by the leaders of Canada,
Mexico and Chile to announce the
beginning of negotiations to extend
NAFTA to the South American na
tion, whose economy is one of the
fastest growing in Latin American.
Clinton thanked Mexico and
Canada for “being such good part
ners” and said the year-old NAFTA
had brought a substantial increase in
trade, despite fierce criticism in Con
gress when it was debated that it
would send thousands of U.S. jobs to
Mexico.
Serbs stop U.N. aid convoys
SARAJEVO, Bosnia
Herzcgovina — Bosnians Serbs
found new ways to thwart U N.
operations on Sunday, effectively
stopping humanitarian aid con
voys from reaching most of the
country.
The Serbs said they would no
longer allow U.N. armored per
sonnel carriers to escort aid con
voys through the 70 percent of the
country they control. Aid workers
said they could not work without
U.N. protection.
“I think this is just another way
of making life difficult for the
U.N.,” said Lt. Col. Jan-Dirk von
Merveldt, a U.N. spokesman in
Sarajevo.
l ne aeros lilted restrictions on
most of the 200 peacekeepers they
had been holding hostage, the
United Nations said, but they con
tinued harassing U.N. forces in
other ways.
A three-truck Danish fuel con
voy was hijacked in Bosnian Serb
territory Saturday night after gun
men, armed with rifles and rocket
propelled grenades, blocked the
front and rear of the convoy, von
Merveldt said.
Also Saturday evening, two
Dutch communications vehicles
were hijacked along with all of
their satellite equipment, von
Merveldt said.
“This is an outrageously unac
ceptable behavior,” von Merveldt
said.
The Serbs also refused permis
sion for a plane carrying the U.N.
commander in Bosnia, Lt. Gen.
Sir Michael Rose, lo land at
Sarajevo airport on Sunday. Rose,
returning from a failed attempt to
visit soldiers trapped in Bihac in
northwest Bosnia, landed in
Sarajevo anyway, U.N. spokesman
Michael Williams said.
There appeared to be little the
United Nations could do to stop
the Serbs’ aggression. The threat
of airstrikes has been virtually
eliminated in a conflict between
U.N. diplomats and NATO mili
tary planners.
me herds nave been holding
more than 400 peacekeepers hos
tage, some for as long as two
weeks, as insurance against
airstrikes. Most of the 200 remain
ing hostages are no longer re
stricted and have been allowed to
resume their work at weapons col
lection points, said Lt. Col Patrick
Declety, a U.N. spokesman.
Declety said the only peace
keepers still being restricted were
about 40 at the Serb military bar
racks in Lukavica, outside
Sarajevo.
In Essen, Germany, leaders of
the 12 European Union nations on
Saturday endorsed keeping U.N.
peacekeepers in Bosnia for as long
as possible. Six EU nations have
contributed soldiers to the 24,000
member peacekeeping force.
The ban on armored personnel
carriers came alter Serbs had al
lowed a few aid convoys to pass in
recent days.
The armored vehicles accom
pany U.N. aid convoys to deter at
tacks and protect drivers. Without
that protection, the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees could
not send convoys through Serb
held territory, including to
Sarajevo, von Merveldt said.
Those convoys have become in
creasingly important since the hu
manitarian airlift stopped after
Serbs positioned surface-to-air
missiles near the Sarajevo airport.
The airlift supplied 80 percent of
the needs of the Bosnian capital's
300.000 residents.
The ban on armored vehicles
will affect convoys to Sarajevo and
the Serb-surrounded government
enclaves of Bihac, Gorazde,
Srebrenica and Zepa, all U.N. de
clared “safe areas.”
The Serbs claimed the ban was
necessary because of the road dam
age caused by the heavy vehicles
in winter, von Merveldt said. But
if Serbs allowed the United Na
tions to resupply its fuel stocks,
peacekeepers could maintain roads
throughout Bosnia, he said.
A convoy carrying 50 tons of
fuel for peacekeeping operations in
Sarajev o remained blocked Sunday
at Sarajevo airport.
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News... _
in a Minute
Airline grounds commuter flights
CHICAGO —- American Eagle grounded all 41 ATR commuter
airplanes at the city’s airport on Saturday, a day after the government
banned the turboprop aircraft from flying in icy weather.
The airline said 290 flights in and out of Chicago’s O’Hare Inter
national Airport were canceled Saturday. American Eagle serves about
30 cities from the airport, the nation’s busiest.
The American Airlines subsidiary said the planes will be grounded
until at least Dec. 15, when it expects to replace the ATRs with SAAB
340 planes.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday banned ATRs from
flying in icy weather after receiving new information from the plane's
France-based manufacturer, which found that control of the plane could
be lost in certain foul weather conditions.
Ice forming on the wings has been suspected in the Oct. 31 crash of
an American Eagle ATR-72 in Roselawn, Ind., that killed all 68 people
aboard. The cause of the crash is still being investigated.
Tiny farm hazardous
CARBONDALE, 111. — Agriculture is one of America’s most dan
gerous jobs, and if you think working the back 40 is rough, try surviv
ing a day on one of Richard Steffen’s farms.
Steffen, a Southern Illinois University safety expert, builds minia
ture farms loaded with hazards found on real ones. From their start as
teaching aides for children on field trips, the models have grown into
popular attractions at farm shows around the country.
“I don’t know what spurred me to do this, other than the fact that I
have been in a couple of situations where I've had to pick people up
from accidents,” said Steffen, who grew up on a grain and hog farm in
El Paso, 111.
Steffen’s farms sprawl over 6-foot-long plywood sheets. He uses
tiny John Deere tractors, model buildings and sanded-down toy sol
diers, but also lets his imagination run wild with cellophane-topped
toothpicks for com stalks and dried baby’s breath representing rows of
soybeans.
Corporal accused of violating
‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy
WASHINGTON — Marine Cpl.
Kevin Blaesing thought his sessions
with a military psychologist were
confidential, so he told her he was
questioning his sexual orientation.
As the session ended, the counse
lor said she believed she was required
to tell his commanding officer.
Blaesing was charged with violating
the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that
subjects homosexuals in the military
to possible discharge if they reveal
their sexual orientation.
A board voted 2-1 to kick Blaesing
out of the Marines. But the decision
was overturned on appeal at the
Charleston, S.C., Naval Weapons
Station.
Since then, however, a new com
mander has taken charge and he gave
Biaesing a low re-enlistment recom
mendation. Blacsing’s lawyer con
tends that the commander is retaliat
ing because he believes the corporal
is gay.
Michelle Benecke, a former Army
officer and co-director of the
Servicemembers Legal Defense Net
work, says the Biaesing case is a clear
example of how the new policy is
worse than the one President Clinton
abandoned after taking office in 1993.
The Clinton policy bars the mili
tary from questioning personnel or
recruits to determine their sexual ori
entation. But it also calls for dis
charges of those who state their
sexual orientation and cannot subse
quently prove they wouldn’t engage
in homosexual conduct.
“Under the old policy, this case
wouldn’t have gone anywhere be
cause (Biaesing) did not say, i am
gay, ”nsaid Benecke, whose nation
wide organization has advised some
200 people accused under the new
policy of homosexual conduct or who
claim harassment. “Under the new
policy, a gay statement is a statement
that you’re gay ... or it’s this nebu
lous thing called a nonverbal state
ment of one’s orientation.’’
The patient-doctor confidentiality
that Biaesing relied upon does not
apply in the military services, “and
the reason is for one of mission readi
ness,” said Maj. Tom Schultz, a Pen
tagon spokesman.
“Ourposition is and the
evidence at his hearing
showed there was no
intent to convey that.
Therefore the policy
wasn 't violated. ”
PETER TEPLEY
Blaesing’s attorney
In a case like Blacsing’s, Schultz
said the counselor would have to re
port the individual and the com
mander would be duty-bound to con
sider discharge.
But Peter Tcplcy, Blaesing’s attor
ney, said he thought his client had
not stated a sexual orientation and
therefore, should not have faced dis
charge.
“If people want to tell, they know
where the mess hall is, they know
where the commander’s office is,” he
said.
Tcplcy said the policy defines
“telling” as a statement “that a rea
sonable person would believe indi
cates the speaker’s propensity to en
gage in homosexual acts.”
“Our position is and the evidence
at his hearing showed there was no
intent to convey that. Therefore the
policy wasn’t violated.”
The Marine inspector general’s
office investigated Blacsing’s low re
cnlistmcnt rating and said earlier this
month that it could not substantiate
the bias allegations, according to
Tcpley.
The inspector general has offered
to extend Blaesing’s enlistment for
one year, after which he will be re
evaluated, Tepley said.
The Pentagon reports that the dis
charge rate for homosexuality is hold
ing steady, despite the new policy that
Clinton said would make life better
for gays already in the services.