t
Page 2 I
Martial law set in Indonesia
W’v „v~. ^
■ Thousands flee as world
leaders call for Indonesia to
provide security.
DILI, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia
imposed martial law in East Timor
early Tuesday as thousands of refugees
fled the capital and anti-independence
militias continued a wave of terror,
torching homes and reportedly slaugh
tering hundreds of civilians.
World leaders indignantly called
for Indonesia to make good on its
pledge to provide security in the
provincial capital, Dili. But witnesses
said Indonesian troops were aiding the
militias and trying to intimidate jour
nalists and U.N. workers into fleeing
the territory.
Stung by international criticism,
President B.J. Habibie signed an order
imposing martial law. It wasn’t until
Monday that senior officials even
acknowledged security had broken
down in East Timor.
“There are many dead,” military
spokesman Brig. Gen. Sudrajat said
Tuesday. “Nothing is working, and
there are so many refugees.”
With the military already out in
force on the island, it was not immedi
ately clear what effect the order would
have. However, it would formally give
the armed forces full control over the
province where civilian administration
has virtually collapsed.
The Clinton administration on
Monday joined several other govern
ments in urging Indonesia to quell the
disorder or invite in outside forces to
keep the peace.
The city spiraled into chaos after
the announcement Saturday that East
Timorese had voted overwhelmingly in
favor of independence from Indonesia
in a U.N.-supervised referendum.
Bands of pro-Indonesian militia set
houses ablaze, fired rocket-propelled
grenades and bazookas and shouted
through megaphones for those remain
ing in the city to get out. Witnesses said
militiamen and Indonesian troops
loaded people onto trucks and sent
them to West Timor.
“There is very clear evidence of
collusion between elements of the
(Indonesian) security forces and the
militias to deport East Timorese
forcibly to West Timor and elsewhere,”
said Mary Robinson, the U.N. high
commissioner for human rights. “An
integral part of this campaign is to ter
rorize the population with the most
gruesome abuses of their fundamental
rights.”
Portuguese President Jorge
Sampaio said the U.N. Security
Council was responsible for the deteri
orating situation.
“The international community,
which knows how to intervene in cases
of serious human rights violations,
must adopt the same measure under die
«--—-—.—
There is very clear evidence of collusion
between elements of the (Indonesian) security
forces and the militias to deport East Timorese
forcibly to West Timor and elsewhere
Mary Robinson
U.N. high commissioner for human rights
threat of witnessing a people’s geno
cide,” he said.
Indonesia invaded the former
Portuguese colony of East Timor in
1975 and has held it in an iron grip ever
since. It is estimated that 200,000 civil
ians were killed in the past 25 years.
Refugees streamed into West
Timor at a rate of 1,000 per hour
Monday, the International Committee
of the Red Cross said in Geneva. Some
25,000 people had already been forced
from the capital, it said.
Pro-Indonesian militiamen killed
more than 170 people Monday, accord
ing to the East Timorese International
Support Center, based in Darwin,
Australia.
Witnesses reported seeing soldiers
escort militiamen during an attack on
thousands of refugees hiding in the
home of Bishop Carlos Belo, East
Timor’s spiritual leader and the winner
of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize.
The militia fired at the refugees,
killing at least 39, and left Belo’s house
burning out of control, said pro-inde
pendence leader Manuel Carrascalao.
That death toll could not be indepen
dently confirmed. Belo was at home
during the attack, but was uninjured.
He was later evacuated to the eastern
townofBacau.
U.N. officials evacuated 300 of its
elections workers Monday, but left
some 400 delegates in Dili.
President Clinton focused on the
issue Monday with U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan. Clinton
spokesman Barry Toiv said the two
“discussed ways to encourage
Indonesia to do what is required to
bring security to East Timor,” Toiv
said.
'jt
Clinton’s statements on
NEW YORK (AP) - Angered by
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s statements
opposing clemency for imprisoned
Puerto Rican nationalists, Rep. Jose
Serrano (D-N.Y.) said he would no
longer encourage the first lady to run
for fellow Democrat Daniel Patrick
Moynihan’s US. Senate seat.
“I’m rescinding my encourage
ment of her candidacy,” Serrano said in
Monday’s New York Times. “Because
to me, this is as important as Ireland is
to the Irish, Israel is to the Jews.”
Clinton, who has not yet declared
her candidacy for the Democratic nom
ination, said Saturday that President
Bill Clinton’s offer of clemency for 16
FALN members should be withdrawn
because they have not renounced vio
lence.
The Clintons have come under fire
from Republican critics and some law
enforcement officials who claimed the
president’s clemency offer was aimed
at helping his wife gamer votes among
New York’s 1.3 million Puerto Ricans.
Clinton’s statements caused reac
tions of anger and amazement among
several Puerto Rican leaders, but none
more than Puerto Rican-bom Serrano.
“This is an action that will make
people go out and make sure that she’s
not our next senator,” Serrano told the
Times. “Maybe it’s time to go out and
find out who else is interested.”
Serrano’s office was closed for the
Labor Day holiday on Monday, and He
could not immediately be reached for
comment.
Three other Puerto Rican officials
- New York State Assemblyman Ruben
Diaz Jr., City Councilman Jose Rivera
and Bronx Borough President
Fernando Ferrer - did not go as far as
Serrano in threatening to pull their sup
port but expressed disappointment.
;* /• \ «.
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Israel bans torture
during interrogation
JERUSALEM (AP) - Setting a
landmark in Israel’s decades-old con
flict between democracy and security,
between respecting human rights and
protecting citizens from terrorism,
the Supreme Court on Monday
banned the use of torture in interroga
tions.
The ruling came just one day after
two car bombs went off, just the latest
of dozens of attacks that have killed
hundreds of Israeli civilians in recent
years.
Shin Bet security agents will no
longer be allowed to tie Palestinian
suspects with their hands behind their
backs to a rail under an air condition
er in the middle of winter.
They will no longer be able to
grab suspects from behind and shake
them violently, a practice that led to
the death of at least one Palestinian.
They will no longer be permitted to
force Palestinians into the dreaded
“shabeh” position, bent backward
over chairs, hands and legs shackled
beneath, or be allowed to put a putrid,
choking hood over their heads.
v For Fatima Hreizat, 65, from the
West Bank town of Hebron, the deci
sion came too late. Her son, Abu
Samed, died in 1995 while under
interrogation. Hanging laundry out
side her house, she said simply: “If
there wasn’t any torture, he would be
alive.”
Still, Defense Minister Efraim
Sneh worried that the ruling would
deprive the Shin Bet of tools it needs
to extract the information needed to
prevent extremist attacks.
Joyce Boim agreed.
In May 1996, a Palestinian shot
and killed her 17-year-old son David
as he stood in front of his^school.
“These things may be torture,
they may be horrible, but what did
they think... when they drove by and
shot my son,” Boim said.
On Sunday, two car bombs were
66-—
How many lives have
been saved by getting
confessions even with
these methods? ”
. Joyce Boim
Israeli immigrant
set off in the northern Israeli cities of
Tiberias and Haifa. The three men
killed in the attacks were apparently
the bombers. -
Boim, who immigrated to Israel
in 1985 from New York with her fam
ily, said Israel must use any means
necessary to prevent attacks.
“If this is what it takes, how many
lives have been saved by getting con
fessions even with these methods?
Hundreds of lives were saved,” she
told The Associated Press.
Investigating an incident in which
Shin Bet agents looking for a bomb
beat a Palestinian to death after
removing him from a bus he hijacked,
an official commission ruled in 1987
that agents may use “moderate psy
chological and physical force” to
extract “ticking bomb” confessions.
Human rights groups charged that
gave the green light to torture.
The methods banned by the court
are not used only to prevent imminent
attacks, said Eitan Fellner, director of
B’Tselem, a human rights group.
Though they unanimously
banned the practices, the justices
noted that the state still has the right to
defend itself. If the Shin Bet believes
it must torture a suspect to reveal the
location of a “ticking bomb,” the tor
turer would be put on trial, but a court
might accept the argument that phys
ical force was necessary.
■ Yugoslavia
Three Serbs killed,during
shootings in ethnic clash
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -
Russian peacekeepers trying to break
up an ethnic clash killed three Serbs
on Monday after the Serbs disregard
ed an order to stop beating two
wounded ethnic Albanians and
instead started shooting at the
Russians, NATO said.
NATO spokesman Maj. Roland
Lavoie said the shootings early
Monday in the American sector were
under investigation but that the
Russians acted under the rules of
engagement, which allow peace
keepers to use force to defend them
selves.
According to Lavoie, Russians
rushed to an area northeast of
Gnjilane after a firefight erupted
between Serbs and ethnic Albanians
near Korminjane village. One
Albanian was killed, and two others
were wounded in the gun battle,
Lavoie said.
■ Russia
Islamic rebels invade
republic of Dagestan
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP)
- Government tanks and artillery
Monday bombarded but failed to dis
lodge hundreds of Islamic insurgents
who invaded the southern Russian
republic of Dagestan for 4he second
time in a month. *
At least 14 members of the gov
ernment security forces were killed
in fighting Sunday and Monday in
Novolakskoye, a village in western
Dagestan. The rebels surrounded a
police station for hours Monday until
Russian tanks broke through. There
was no immediate word on rebel
casualties.
The death toll reached 50 from a
rebel bomb attack Saturday night that
demolished an apartment building
for military families in central
Dagestan, Russian news agencies
reported. Scores of people were
injured, and 58 remained hospital
ized Monday.
■ Virginia
Dennis’ storm waters fail to
quench parched East Coast
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - The rem
nants of Dennis spread rain across
the mid-Atlantic states on Monday,
but authorities said days of precipita
tion and flooding weren’t enough to
cancel the devastating drought.
Once a hurricane, then a tropical
storm and now downgraded to a trop
ical depression, Dennis spawned
minor flooding in Virginia and
threatened to cause showers in
Maryland, - Delaware and
Pennsylvania.
Although heavy rains drenched
parts of North Carolina, Virginia,
Maryland, New Jersey and New York
Sunday, much of the East remains
parched.
It would have been more helpful
if the quick and heavy downpours
were spread out more evenly, said
Jim Poirier, a Weather Service mete
orologist in Mount Holly, N.J.
The hard, dry ground can only
soak up so much water, and the rest
just runs off into storm drains and
streams.
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