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Monday, October 26,1998 Page 2
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Peace deal causes discord
Palestine, Israel agreement not papular with many on both sides
urKA, west tfantc (at) - a
Mideast peace deal reached Friday
between Israel and Palestine has caused
violence and political dissidence on
both sides as their leaders returned
home this weekend
Jewish settlers took to the streets
across the West Bank chi Sunday, vow
ing to scuttle die agreement that gives
more land to Palestinians.
The demonstrations came several
hours before Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu returned to Israel, hoping to
convince hard-liners that the deal he
made with Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat was die best possible.
The agreement signed at die White
House on Friday calls for Israel to hand
over 13 percent more of the West Bank
to Palestinian civilian control. That
means some Jewish settlements will be
surrounded by Palestinian-controlled
territory, except for access toads.
Arriving back in Israel to a red-car
pet welcome, Netanyahu said security
concessions won from die Palestinians
during the nine-day summit outside
Washington would justify ceding more
West Bank land.
“We are returning after a long and
difficult effort to bring... security and
peace to Israel,” he said. “We achieved
such a deal - we achieved die best deal
... We did something good for the state
of Israel”
Before leaving the United States,
Netanyahu said he entered the agree
ment reluctantly.
“Any inch of land that we cede to the
Palestinians is painful for me to cede,”
iNetanyanu said. //- tneneaa and later died
At least 20 in a Jerusalem hospi
settlers - once With the Lom S help, tal.
Netanyahu’s The confrontation
staunchest sup- we Will USe Cill OJ OUT broke out after
porters-were , , . , Palestinian intelli
arrested, and pOWeVS tO break thlS gence agents searched
two police offi- ,, Fatah headquarters,
cers were hurt in agreement. looking for illegal
Sunday’s wide- weapons. A crack
spread demon- AHRON DOMBE down on unlicensed
strations, settler leader annsisaneofthepro
including one visions of die agree
outside Israel’s meat
miemauonai airport alter iNetanyanu s
arrival.
“With the Lord’s help, we will use
all of our powers to break this agree
ment,” said settler leader Ahron Dombe.
Near the settlement of Ofra north of
Jerusalem, about 50 settlers and their
supporters rushed past Israeli police and
sat cross-legged on the highway, block
ing the route. Some settlers held morn
ing services at the roadside.
“I’m here to show that this is a sad
day,” said Natan El, 38, an engineer, sit
ting in the middle of the main north
south highway through die West Bank.
“We are in danger of losing our land, die
land we have returned to after 2,000
years.”
Tensions also boiled over in the
West Bank town of Ramallah, where
infighting broke put among Arafat’s
supporters. Members of the Palestinian
leader's political faction, Fatah, batded
Palestinian security forces with rocks
and bullets.
One 16-year-old youth was shot in
m israei, politicians predicted
Netanyahu would face political tunnoil
as a result of the agreement when he
brings it before his Cabinet today.
Twelve hard-liners in Netanyahu’s
government say they will vote against
him in upcoming no-confidence
motions in Israel's parliament, where
Netanyahu has only a one-seat majority.
Netanyahu made overtures to the
settlers to try tocahn their fears, but they
mostly went unheard.
“I say now here to our friends listen
ing, you are us, you are us, and we are
you. We love you, and we are fighting
for you, and there is no other govern
ment that will fight like this,”
Netanyahu said.
But Dombe said he was deeply dis
appointed with Netanyahu and the min
isters who voted for the accord and
would begin polling settlers today to ;
find a candidate to challenge '
Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu is no longer die leader
of our national camp,” Dombe said.
Democratic fund raising targeted
■ House investigators
find bank records pointing
to misconduct in 1993.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House
investigators unearthed bank records
that confirm a long-held suspicion that
$45,000 in Democratic donations made
♦
Nahffftbiii
Questions? Comments?
Ask for the appropriate section editor at
(402)472-2588
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Editor: Erin Gibson
Managing Editor: Chad Lorenz
Associate News Editor: Bryce Glenn
Aaaodate New* Editor: Brad Davis
Aasteustat Editor: KaseyKerber
Opinion Editor: Cliff Hicks
Sports Editor: Sam McKewon
A&E Editor: Bret Schulte
Copy Desk Chief: Diane Broderick
Photo Chief: Matt Miller
Design Chief: Nancy Christensen
by the controversial Lippo Group at a
1993 event featuring Vice President A1
Gore were reimbursed with foreign
money.
The House Government Reform
and Oversight Committee, which con
tinues to investigate alleged Democratic
fund-raising abuses, located the records
just as the statute of limitations for crim
inal liability expired
It forwarded the evidence to the
Federal Election Commission and
asked for a prompt investigation.
Federal law generally prohibits
donors from giving foreign funds in
U.S. elections, although a federal judge
in Washington recently put a wrinkle
into the law by ruling it doesn’t cover so
called soft-money donations made by
corporations and wealthy individuals fb
political parties.
The Justice Department or election
commission could appeal die ruling.
Three checks of $15,000 each were
written by three U.S. subsidiaries of
Lippo, an Indonesian-based financial
conglomerate, and donated in connec
tion with a Sept 27, 1993, fund-raiser in
Los Angeles headlined by Gore.
All three donations went to the
Democratic Party’s soft money
accounts, and Senate and House investi
gators have suspected for over a year
that the donations had foreign origins.
The checks - one each from Hip
Hing Holdings Ltd., San Jose Holdings
Ltd. and Toy Center Holdings of
California - were signed by two Lippo
executives and are dated Sept 23,1993.
One was John Huang, a Democratic
fund-raiser and former Commerce
Department official who has been a
focus of the fund-raising probes.
. The committee investigators said
the newly uncovered bank records show
the three Lippo subsidiaries received
reimbursements of $15,000 each from a
$45,000 wire originating Oct 15,1993,
from Lippo’s headquarters in Jakarta,
Indonesia.
Abortion provider shot, killed by sniper in New York
BUFFALO, N. Y. (AP) - Dr. Barnett
Slepian’s own words signaled a chilling
premonition of his own violent aid.
Four years before his death on
Friday, Slepian wrote a letter to the edi
tor reacting to his frequent run-ins with
“nonviolent” anti-abortion forces. In foe
August 1994 letter, he wrote: “Please
don’t feign surprise, dismay and cer
tainly mot innocence when a more
volatile and less restrained member of
the group decides to react... by shooting
an abortion provider.”
Slepian, a 52-year-old obstetrician
gynecologist, was killed by a sniper who
fired a rifle bullet through a window in
his home Friday night. His was the first
fatality among five sniper attacks on
upstate New York or Canadian abortion
providers in the last four years.
The killer remained at large Sunday 1
as an international investigation contin- 4
ued Police listed no suspects. All of the
previous attacks have occurred wifoina 1
few weeks of Nov. 11, Veteran’s Day, i
which is known as Remembrance Day j
in Canada. 1
In the 1994 letter to The Buffalo ]
News, Slepian said he did not begrudge
anti-abortion demonstrators who 1
“scream that I am a murderer and a 1
killer when I enter the clinics at which 1
they ‘peacefully’ exercise their First !
Amendment fright of freedom of 1
speech.” * <
But, he wrote, they all share the
blame when one member of the group 1
goes too far and turns to violence. j
In a statement Sunday, the founder 1
of Pro-Life Virginia called Slepian’s ^
oiler “a hero,” one who ended Slepian^
'blood-thirsty practice.”
“We as Christians have a responsi
>ility to protect the innocent from being
nurdered, the same way we would wapt
omeone to protect us. Whoever shot
he shot protected the children,” the Rev.
Donald Spitz said.
Slepian often expressed his fears
hat abortion foes were encouraging
violence. In a 1994 interview with
Buffalo television station WIVB,
Slepian said- “Maybe they arc not going
o perform it, bufthey’re settingup their
oldiers to perform the violence.”
Three years earlier, he told the sta
ion he was not afraid for himself, but
'or his family and four children. “I
hink, if I wasn’t around, what they
Mould go through,” he said
* ♦
All of his children were home when
Slepian’s wife, Lynn, called 911 after
the sniper Is bullet entered the doctor’s
bade, pierced his lung?, exited his body
and ricocheted into another room.
People on both sides of die abortion
debate condemned the killing.
The Revs. Rob and Paul Schenek of
the National Clergy Council, who
helped organize a massive abortion
protest in Buffalo in 1992, urged people
to defend life peacefully.
“The murder of Barnett Slepian “is
wrong, sinful and cowardly” th^ said.
Dr. George Tiller of Kansas, who
was wounded in an August 1993 shoot*
ingin the parking lot ofhis clinic, called
it “a well-orchestrated political
Armageddon against women and their
freedom.”
Jamaica faces offshoots
of Hilrricane Mitch
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -
Driving rain squalls spawned by
Hurricane Mitch forced churches to
cancel Sunday services, flooded sheets
in the Jamaican capital of Kingston
and sent residents scurrying for provi
sions.
Under menacing skies, seaports
closed and buses and taxis stayed off
Kingston’s streets as Mitch, the 13th
namal storm of the Atlantic hurricane
season, swirled in the western
Caribbean Sea south of Jamaica.
Packing 145-mph winds, Mitch
was a powerful Category 4 hurricane
that also could threaten the Cayman
Islands, Cuba, Honduras and
Colombia’s tiny islands off Central
America, the U.S. National Hurricane
Center said.
Taiwan Krnvpe tnrrantial
rains from Typhoon Babs
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Typhoon
Babs brought torrential rain and land
slides to Taiwan on Sunday after
killing at least 156 people in the
Philippines and leaving hundreds of
thousands homeless.
The typhoon was cratered about
185 miles southeast of Hong Kong by
evening with gusts already lashing the
territory.
Babs caused downpours over the
island of Taiwan, with eastern towns
recording more than 20 inches of rain
in 24 hours. Authorities evacuated
hundreds of people using rubber rafts
from their homes near flooded rivers.
killed by car bomb in Russia
GTtOZNY, Russia (AP) -
Chechnya’s top anti-kidnapping offi
cial was killed Sunday when a bomb
tore his car to pieces cm the day he was
to launch an offensive on hostage-tak
ers in the breakaway republic.
Shadid Bargishev, 27, died on the
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the blast in the parking lot of the anti
kidnapping department office in the
Chechen capital of Grozny.
The explosion came as law
enforcement officials were preparing
an operation to rescue people kid
napped in Chechnya. Baigishev’s col
leagues insisted they would go ahead
with the offensive.
Two bodyguards and several
passers-by also were seriously injured
; in the accident, doctors said.
Group demands Malaysian
prime minister’s resignation
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
(AP) - One day after a policecrack
down turned an anti-government
protest into a riot, a leading Malaysian
human rights gmnp riftmarvtaH Sunday
that Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad resign.
Saturday fc protest spun out of con
trol when police arrested dozens of
people, shot water laced with pepper
spray at thousands of demonstrators
and bombarded a mosque with tear
gas. More than 241 people were arrest
ed and injuries were reported on both
sides.
Demonstrators have staged a series
of protests since ousted Deputy Prime
Minister Anwar Ibrahim was jailed
Sept 20. Protesters demand political
reforms, an aid to Mahafhirfs 17-year
rule and Anwarb release.
Russian supply ship lifts off
for Mir space station
MOSCOW (AP) - A cargo ship
with the last supplies this year for the
Mir space station blasted off smoothly
Sunday alter more than two months ot
delays so the Russian government
could scrape up die needed cash.
Amid the food, water, fuel and
bundles of Newjfearfegifts aboard the
Progress cargo ship was a giant space
mirror designed to illuminate sun
starved northern cities.
The launch originally was sched
uled for August but was delayed sever
al times, including a Oct 15 postpone
ment when Russia’s space agency said
it still couldn’t afford to buy the boost
er rocket from its manufacturer.
Serbian newspaper fined
for criticizing Milosevic
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -
A Belgrade court fined die editors and
publishers of an independent newspa
per $260,000 tor criticizing Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic, an edi
tor said Saturday.
Under aharsh media law passed by
Serbia’s parliament Thursday, a
Belgrade district judge ruled the jour
nalists were guilty of “trying to under
mine the constitutional order” of
Yugoslavia by criticizing Milosevic
and his rule.
The editors, Slavko Curuvija and
Dragan Bujosevic, and publisher Ivan
Tadic, along with die publishing house
of the independent weekly,
Evropljanin, were ordered to pay die
fme within 24 hours, Curuvija sakL
