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News Digest
Monday, September 20,1999 Page 2
More troops to arrive in E. Timor
DILI, Indonesia (AP) - The com
mander of the multinational peace
keeping force promised East Timor’s
terrorized population Sunday a new
life “free of threat,” with his troops set
to enter the province early Monday.
As thousands of troops sailed
toward Dili, Australian Maj. Gen.
Peter Cosgrove toured streets devastat
3d by rampaging militias, passing
:harred houses and buildings reduced
to smoking ashes.
“This is not a time for idle threats
3r words,” he said after meeting the
Indonesian military commander of the
territory. “This is a time for the force to
arrive and to get about its tasks of
helping to create a secure environ
ment.”
The announcement two weeks ago
that 78.5 percent of East Timor’s vot
srs approved a break with Indonesia
led to a murderous rampage by pro
Indonesia militias that drove more
than 300,000 people from their homes
and cost at least several hundred lives.
The foreign intervention is a major
humiliation for Indonesia, whose
army had fought for nearly 25 years to
put down separatist rebels.
President B.J. Habibie’s decision
to invite the peacekeepers a week ago
has led to a nationalist backlash in
Indonesia and has sent angry protest
ers into the streets.
Humanitarian aid to hundreds of
thousands of refugees, some of them
facing starvation, was to be the first
priority of the U.N.-approved peace
mission.
The first combat troops in the
7,500-member force were due to
arrive at 6:30 a.m. local time Monday
(6:30 p.m. EDT Sunday) aboard a C
130 Hercules transport plane, begin
ning a mission that Australian Prime
Minister John Howard said was
fraught with menace.
By Monday afternoon, 2,500
Australian soldiers, helicopters and
armored personnel carriers would be
on the ground in Dili, said Maj. Gen.
Kiki Syahnakri, commander of the
Indonesian forces in East Timor.
I
<f-—
This is a time for the force to arrive and to get
about its tasks of helping to create a secure
environment”
Peter Cosgrove
Australian major general
Nine warships from Australia,
Britain and New Zealand were sailing
toward East Timor. About 250
Gurkhas, Nepalese fighters who serve
in the British army and carry their
trademark 13-inch kukri knives, also
were to be among the first internation
al troops.
Cosgrove said the force would
have 3,200 troops in East Timor with
in a week. The mission will probably
last several months before making way
for a follow-up U.N. peacekeeping
force, he said.
Cosgrove flew from Darwin, the
staging port in northern Australia
where troops from a score of countries
were assembling. He was greeted on
the tarmac at Dili airport by
Syahnakri, the Indonesian comman
der, whom he met for 90 minutes to
coordinate the deployment.
Indonesian soldiers were posted
every 200 yards along Cosgrove’s
route as he went on a 20-minute tour.
While Cosgrove toured the city,
the few militiamen who have not left
brandished machetes as families hur
ried aboard crowded Indonesian navy
vessels and rusty cargo ships.
Bradley: statement on
gays his ‘personal view*
WASHINGTON (AP) - Bill
Bradley said Sunday he did not con
sult with military officials prior to
elling a gay and lesbian magazine
hat homosexuals should be permit
:ed to serve openly in the military.
“This is a statement of my per
sonal views, my personal belief that
’ays should be allowed to serve open
ly in the military,” the Democratic
^residential candidate said on ABC’s
This Week.”
In an interview with The
\dvocate, released last week, the for
mer New Jersey senator said gays
also should be protected under the
1964 Civil Rights Act.
Bradley also said he would not
support a California ballot question
[hat seeks to outlaw same-sex mar
'iages, although he said he remains
opposed to such unions.
He was asked in the wide-ranging
\BC interview whether he consulted
mth senior military officials about
vhy they view the armed services
iifferently from other areas of gov
ernment where gays serve openly.
Bradley said he did not and did not
see a need to.
Bradley said gay Americans
should be allowed to serv e in the mil
itary if they can serve the country as
police officers, nuclear scientists,
doctors and lawyers.
“There have been gays in the mil
itary as long as there’s been a mili
tary. They’ve only had to hide,” he
said.
Bradley, who is challenging Vice
President A1 Gore for the Democratic
nomination, described the Clinton
administration’s “don’t ask, don’t
tell,” policy on gays in the military as
a near failure. The 1993 policy allows
homosexuals to serve in the military
as long as they do not discuss their
sexual orientation openly. Military
superiors also cannot inquire about
the sexual orientation of their troops.
On other topics, Bradley said:
■ Illegal drug use by a presiden
tial candidate mattered. “I do think
that if someone violated the law, they
should state whether they did or not,”
said Bradley, who has used marijuana
“but never cocaine.”
■ The booming economy was
more responsible for substantial
drops in the number of people on
welfare than a 1996 reform law.
Bradley said he would suggest fur
ther improvements to the system later
on in the campaign.
Trfc^JST_
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1999
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
laiks on future
of KLA continue
■ NATO insists the Kosovo
Liberation Army disband
as deadline approaches.
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -
NATO and the Kosovo Liberation
Army were reported in intense discus
sions Sunday in an effort to reach
agreement on what will become of the
former rebel army after the deadline
for it to disband.
NATObfficials insisted that the
June agreement for the KLA to dis
band by midnight Sunday remains in
effect. But they acknowledged that
unspecified problems prevented the
two sides from signing an agreement
on transforming the KLA into a 5,000
member civilian Kosovo Corps.
The KLA wants the new organiza
tion to become the nucleus of a new
army of an independent Kosovo -
something NATO has refused.
NATO has insisted that the peace
keepers must be the only armed force
in Kosovo. The Russians and the Serbs
- who consider the KLA terrorists
responsible for attacks against Serb
civilians - oppose any formula that
might enable the KLA to continue with
its same organizational structure under
a different name.
The transformation agreement was
to have been signed Sunday morning
by peacekeeping commander Gen.
Mike Jackson and the KLA military
commander, Gen. Agim Ceku, but the
ceremony was canceled.
And on Monday, NATO and the
U.N. mission were to begin organizing
the Kosovo Corps. The group was to
help combat natural disasters and take
on other humanitarian and civilian
missions, such as firefighting and res
cues.
In a clear warning to the former
rebels, NATO spokesman Lt. Col.
Robin Clifford alluded to a former
agreement to disband accepted by the
KLA. He said Ceku must sign by mid
night “because after that the KLA
ceases to exist. So does its general
staff.”
Ceku’s staff told reporters the gen
eral was unavailable to speak to the
news media. A well-placed Albanian
source, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said Ceku insisted KLA
fighters be allowed to keep their uni
forms and red-and-black emblems but
that Jackson refused.
The KLA was promised new uni
forms for the Kosovo Corps but they
would not be ready for months, the
source said. The rebels also want assur
ances they can retain a military-style
command structure, the sources said.
Hours before the midnight dead
line, the two sides were still in what the
sources described as difficult and
intensive talks.
Church goes on after shooting
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -
Some walked hesitantly up the sun
washed sidewalk. A few used sunglass
es or veils to shield teary eyes. Still oth
ers marched into the church with poker
faces: heads high, eyes straight ahead.
But come they did, clad in their
Sunday best, to reclaim Wedgwood
Baptist Church just days after a shoot
ing rampage left eight dead and seven
wounded.
Over the front door hung a banner
reading, “Let the Healing Begin.”
Blood soaked the aisle and foyer
carpet Wednesday night - so church
officials had the Rigs torn up and hauled
away. In their place, scarred cement
flooring lined the aisles Sunday.
And because splattered blood
destroyed some of the pew cushions,
entire sections of seating were uprooted.
Rickety folding chairs replaced sections
of wooden pews.
The scars were evident - but shout
ed prayers, spirited singing and clap
ping hands rang off the high sanctuary
ceiling.
“Praise the Lord!” cried the Rev. A1
Meredith, taking the pulpit to waves of
applause. Behind him, the choir stood in
flowing crimson robes.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say we
were having church today.”
Packets of Kleenex were scattered
throughout the sanctuary for the
church’s first service since gunman
Larry Gene Ashbrook burst into an
evening vouth rally and opened fire.
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■ Datelines :i
■ Miami
Tropical storms predicted
in north, east Gulf Coast
MIAMI (AP) - Foul weather
building in the Gulf of Mexico on
Sunday threatened to form Tropical
Storm Harvey. Meanwhile.
Hurricane Gert, with 130 mph
winds, loomed as a threat to
Bermuda.
Forecasters at the National
Hurricane Center expected to post a
storm warning or watch for the
northern and eastern Gulf Coast later
Sunday with a tropical depression
circulating off the Florida coast with
35 mph winds. The syslem should
come ashore north of Tampa, cross
the Florida peninsula Tuesday and
shoot into the Atlantic with 55 to 60
mph winds, said hurricane specialist
Brian Jarvinen.
■ Spain
At least 29 passengers die
in bus accident in Spain
LA MUELA, Spain (AP) - A
passenger bus going on a three-day
trip to the coast careened off a high
way in northeastern Spain on
Sunday, killing at least 29 people and
injuring two dozen more, authorities
said.
All of the victims were
Spaniards, although ages and identi
ties were not immediately released,
said Juan Carlos Cordoba,
spokesman for the regional govern
ment of Aragon.
The accident occurred Sunday
afternoon near the northeastern city
of Zaragoza. The bus tumbled off the
Nil highway and down into a ditch
full of water.
■Atlantic City
Miss America’s platform
is to aid homeless veterans
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -
The new Miss America, whose
father is a disabled Vietnam veteran,
said Sunday, a day after winning the
crown, that she hopes to use her
crown to spotlight homelessness
among veterans.
Heather Renee French, 24, of
Maysville, Ky., a graduate design
student who has done volunteer
work for the Veterans;
Administration, will campaign for;
increased government assistance for:
down-and-out veterans during her
reign. -
■ Washington
Clinton jokes he’s nation’s
first black president
WASHINGTON (AP) -
President Clinton agrees with author
Toni Morrison: he is - unofficially -
the nation’s first black president.
Clinton jokingly claimed that!
distinction for himself Saturday
night at the Congressional Black
Caucus’ annual awards dinner.
He said comedian Chris Tucker
told him he’d like to see the Oval
Office to prepare for an upcoming
movie role as the nation’s first black
president.
“I didn’t have the heart to tel I him
that I’ve already taken the position.’"
Clinton said.
In an October 1998 essay in The
New Yorker magazine. Morrison
said black Americans tended to be
sympathetic to Clinton because his!
impoverished childhood and person-!
al struggles seemed to mirror many ;
of their own experiences.
