News Digest
Thursday, April 8,1999__ Page 2
Main Kosovo border crossinos closed
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Yugoslav
authorities sealed off Kosovo’s main border crossings
Wednesday, preventing ethnic Albanians from leav
ing as the wave of refugees approached the half-mil
lion mack. As NATO stepped up its airstrikes, a
Cypriot mediator sought freedom for three captured
U.S. soldiers.
NATO planes and cruise missiles struck military
targets in Kosovo and inflicted heavy damage else
where in Yugoslavia.
Albania’s parliament approved NATO plans to
send in 24 U.S. Apache attack helicopters - a move
that should bolster the alliance’s firepower against the
Yugoslav tanks and armor that have driven ethnic
Albanians from their homes in Kosovo.
After forcing more than 400,000 refugees out to
neighboring countries, Yugoslav authorities closed
the main exit route on Wednesday without explana
tion, forcing tens of thousands of people back toward
the burned villages they had been escaping from.
German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping
warned that the Yugoslavs may be planning to use the
civilians in Kosovo as “human shields” against NATO
attack.
In Morini, the crossing point for Kosovo refugees
into Albania, the flow of cars and tractors suddenly
stopped at 3 a.m., witnesses said. Yugoslav border
guards could be seen laying what appeared to be
mines and digging fortifications just inside their terri
tory.
1 he refugees... were told to return to then places
of residence - whatever is left of those places,” said
Doran Vienneau of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, which has been monitoring
the border.
Scharping said Yugoslav forces had begun forcing
ethnic Albanians back from the border areas into the
province. He showed aerial photos that he said
showed Serb tanks surrounding a Kosovo village, sep
arating the men and women, and then opening fire on
houses.
The former president of Cyprus, Spyros
Kyprianou, began a mission to win the release of three
American soldiers seized along the Yugoslav border
with Macedonia on March 31. Cyprus, which is not a
NATO member, has historically had close ties with
Yugoslavia.
Allies question Milosevic’s motives
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - The offering of a
unilateral cease-fire and a possible willingness to
release three captured U.S. soldiers could be an
indicator that President Slobodan Milosevic is be
looking for a way out in his confrontation with
NATO over Kosovo.
And there are signs the people of Serbia may
welcome a compromise with the enemy after two
weeks of air strikes.
“Clearly (Milosevic) miscalculated his options
and realizes that this has been going on too long,”
Belgrade journalist Dusan Radulovic said.
In particular, the cease-fire, announced
Tuesday, may be an attempt by the Yugoslav leader
to head off any effort by the NATO allies to send in
ground troops to bring an end to the conflict that
has forced hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Albanians out of Kosovo.
“Milosevic is fast approaching a point where
getting some kind of negotiations are in his interest
in order to halt the bombings and to forestall the
decision to introduce ground forces,” said Ivo
Daalder, a former Clinton administration official
now with the Brookings Institution in Washington.
“Milosevic can survive a prolonged aerial war
and proclaim victory in fee end, but he cannot sur
vive fee introduction of ground forces,” he said.
But it’s also possible that fee cease-fire was an
attempt by fee Yugoslav leader to play to fee home
audience - making an offer he knew would be
refused so he could continue to portray NATO as a
Kyprianou flew to Athens, where he said he was
“waiting for the green light from Belgrade” before
going to Yugoslavia today.
He said he believed fee release of fee soldiers was
imminent.
Another nightmare was brewing for the tens of
thousands of Kosovo refugees who had made it across
into neighboring Macedonia only to be trapped for
days in squalid conditions.
Wife frightening efficiency, Macedonian officials
emptied the border city of Blace on Wednesday, hus
demonic force bent on destroying Serbia.
Anthony Cordesman, a professor of national
security at Georgetown University in Washington,
said Milosevic looked to be trying to “improve the
very negative image of Serbs-as-aggressors in the
West”
“Dealing humanely with die POWs is one way,
as is opening up negotiations... His best strategy is
to hope that these moves will weaken NATO’s
resolve,” he said.
But are Washington and the NATO allies ready
to cut a deal?
If the cease-fire was an attempt to split the
Western alliance, it apparently failed - even mem
ber nations less hawkish than die United States and
Britain were reported determined Wednesday to
continue the air attacks.
Even so, Daalder said, Milosevic is “a brilliant
tactician and he’s now testing with his various
probes how little he has to do to get NATO to split
I believe you’ll see other probes like this in coming
days.”
President Clinton dismissed Yugoslavia s
cease-fire against ethnic Albanian guerrillas in
Kosovo as a hollow promise and said Washington
and its NATO allies are “determined to stay united
and to persist until we prevail.”
The heaviest night of airstrikes since the NATO
assault began March 24 followed Milosevic’s
cease-fire offer Tuesday, making clear that NATO
countries continue holding out for much more.
tling thousands of refugees onto buses so quickly that
some were separated from their families.
r Macedonia, which has been criticized for condi
tions at die makeshift camp, said it shipped 10,000
refugees to Albania and moved 25,000 others to
NATO tent camps further in-country.
At NATO headquarters, Air Commodore David
Wilby said alliance aircraft struck before dawn
Wednesday at dozens of military targets and what
NATO called “fielded forces in and around Kosovo”
with “surgical precision.”
Missouri keeps weapons bill
JhPPhKSUN Cl 1Y, Mo. (AP) -
Missouri’s residents have decided to
keep the stated outlaw-era ban on car
rying concealed weapons, despite a
$3.7 million campaign by the National
Rifle Association.
With 99 percent of votes counted
early Wednesday, Proposition B,
which would have lifted the ban, had
failed 52 percent to 48 percent, or
674,378 votes to 625,689 votes.
Opponents said voters weren’t swayed
by the gun lobby’s pitch.
“Missourians have said they just
do not want guns carried into football
games and bars and schools,” said
Harry Wiggins, a state senator from
Kansas City who opposed the mea
sure.
r
The referendum Tuesday was the
first time a state had put the question
of concealed weapons before voters.
Thirty-one other states allow citizens
to carry concealed guns, but those
measures were enacted by legislators.
Missouri banned concealed
weapons in a crackdown on gunsling
ing in 1875, when notorious bandit
Jesse James was still at-large. He was
shot to death seven years later in St.
Joseph by a member of his gang.
Under Proposition B, state resi
dents would have needed a second per
mit to carry a concealed weapon.
Applicants would have had to
undergo criminal and mental health
background checks, take at least 12
hours of state-approved training and
have no violent offenses on their
records for at least five years.
Supporters said allowing law
abiding people to pack guns would
keep the criminals guessing.
Critics said Proposition B would
simply put more guns on the streets,
and lead to more firearm violence
because of lax requirements on train
ing, eligibility and a permit applicant’s
past history of violence.
Although the measure was
approved in 91 mostly rural counties,
it failed by wide margins in St. Louis
and Kansas City.
Nearly three out of four voters in
St. Louis and a similar percentage in
the city’s suburbs rejected the propos
al.
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Giuliani to
teach police
manners
NEW YORK (AP) - “Hello,
ma’am. Drop the gun, please.”
New York’s finest are getting a
manners lesson from Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani, who wants the
nearly 40,000 police officers to be a
little more civil, professional and
courteous.
“Police officers are going to be
required to refer to people in a
respectful way,” Giuliani said
Tuesday. “They will be required to
refer to people as ‘Yes, sir’ and ‘No,
sir’ and ‘Yes, ma’am’ and ‘No,
ma’am.’
“And they will be required to
explain the nature of their conduct
when they make a mistake.”
Lest they forget all of this in a
city that prides itself on being
brusque, officers will have wallet
size cards listing the common cour
tesies.
Teens will be referred to as
young men and women, and police
are urged to respect “each individ
ual, his or her cultural identity, cus
toms and beliefs.” Officers should
apologize for any inconvenience.
The initiative follows the indict
ment of four white police officers
on second-degree murder charges
in the Feb. 4 shooting death of
Amadou Diallo, an unarmed black
West African immigrant.
I I
■Washington, D.C.
Park service hunts
for destructive beaver
The Associated Press - The hunt
is on for a beaver dial’s toppling cher
ry trees near the Jefferson Memorial.
The National Park Service began
preparing traps Wednesday to catch
the sharp-toothed rodent who’s
chewed its way through nine trees in
less than a week, spokesman Earle
Kitdeman said.
Officials bemoaned that it’s cho
sen die middle of the capital’s annual
Cherry Blossom Festival for its
destructive campaign.
■Washington, D.C.
Errors caused agency’s
overstated numbers
The Associated Press -The feder
ally funded agency that provides free
legal aid for poor Americans overstat
ed the number of cases it handled in
1997 by tens of thousands, drawing
the ire of lawmakers who rely on the
figures to decide how much money to
give the program.
Legal Services Corp., a target of
Republican budget cuts, says it
cleared up bookkeeping errors and
expects to report 200,000 fewer cases
to Congress for 1998 - a 10 percent
drop from the previous year’s figure.
■Washington, D.C.
Starr to testify on law
on independent counsel
The Associated Press -
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
and the three-judge panel that
appointed him will testify April 14
before a Senate committee consider
ing whether Congress should renew
the Watergate-inspired law that pro
vided for his job.
The Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee, chkired by Sen. Fred
Thompson, R-Tenn., will hear from
Starr and federal judges, the panel
announced Wednesday.
In his own statement, Starr con
firmed that he would testify and said
he looked forward to it
■ Texas
Plant faced threat of
non-nuclear explosion
AMARILLO (AP) - Three tech
nicians at the Pantex nuclear weapons
plant were reassigned because of a
safety mistake that created a danger of
a non-nuclear explosion.
There was no threat of a nuclear
blast a spokesman said Wednesday.
The technicians failed to detach a
weapons component from a missile
warhead before running an electrical
test on the part March 29, according to
government and contractor reports.
The technicians quickly realized
the mistake after taking a test reading.
■Spain
New cases of torture
added to Pinochet Jist
MADRID (AP) - A Spanish
judge has added 11 new cases of tor
ture to his extradition petition against
former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto
Pinochet, reports said Wednesday.
This is the third time that Judge
Baltasar Garzon has extended his
extradition request since the Mar. 24
ruling by Britain’s highest court that
restricted the range of charges possi
ble against Pinochet to those after the
British adoption of an international
convention on torture in September
1988.