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Tuesday, November 9,1999 ■*:■ * Page 2
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -
Setting a 100-day deadline to craft the
broad outlines of a peace that has
eluded them for a half century, Israeli
and Palestinian negotiators launched
landmark talks Monday with hand
shakes, smiles - and frank acknowl
edgments that great gaps divide them.
The convening of so-called final
status negotiations in the West Bank
town of Ramallah marked the first
real attempt by Israel’s new govern
ment and the Palestinian leadership to
grapple with the most contentious
issues bedeviling the peace process.
Those issues include the borders
of a future Palestinian state, the fate
of Jewish settlements in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, what will hap
pen to millions of Palestinian
refugees kid above all, the status of
Jerusalem.
The two delegations spent 75
minutes behind closed-doors, then
emerged saying their goal of a frame
work agreement by mid-February
was difficult, but achievable.
The very length and intractability
of their dispute, both sides suggested,
had led to an intimate grasp of the
issues, and that could help speed talks
meant to lead to a final peace accord
just nine months into the new millen
mum.
“After several decades of conflict
... and negotiations for almost six
years, all the problems between us are
known,” Oded Eran, the Israeli dele
gation chief, said at a joint news con
ference. Echoed Yasser Abed Rabbo,
his Palestinian counterpart: “We are
not here to invent a new basis for the
process.”
The talks were shadowed by a
bomb attack Sunday that injured 33
Israelis.
While no group has claimed
responsibility for the pipe-bomb
blasts, both sides at the Ramallah
talks calmly acknowledged that
progress on the peace front raises the
specter of violence by those who seek
to block an accord.
This threat “should motivate us to
work hard to achieve peace,” said
Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian infor
mation minister. “We will not give
them the chance (to disrupt the peace
proces^), and we will not yield to
their plans and schemes.”
Despite expressions of good faith
and goodwill - even from Abed
Rabbo, who is known for sometimes
fiery anti-Israeli rhetoric - both sides
hewed to opening positions that have
remained basically unchanged since
it
' After several decades of conflict... and
negotiations for almost six years, all the
problems between us are known ”
Oded Eran
Israeli delegation chief
1993.
The Palestinians insist on an
Israeli withdrawal from lands cap
tured in the 1967 Mideast war - the
West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Abed Rabbo said the Palestinians
have the right to self-determination
and that millions of Palestinian
refugees must be allowed to return or
be given compensation.
Abed Rabbo also demanded a halt
to Jewish settlement-building,
denouncing it as the principal obsta
cle to peace.
Eran, for his part, said Israel
would never agree to giving up part of
Jerusalem - which both sides claim
as their capital - or to withdrawing to
the 1967 borders. He insisted that a
majority of the 200,000 Jewish set
tlers in the West Bank and Gaza must
remain under Israeli sovereignty.
About a mile from the hotel,
Jewish settlers staged a small demon
stration urging Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak not to dismantle settle
ments as part of any accord.
Palestinians, meanwhile, rallied in
the West Bank town of Hebron to
mark Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat’s still-unrealized 1988 decla
ration of Palestinian statehood.
Both sides repeated a commit
ment to U.N. Security Council resolu
tions 242 and 338, which call for an
Israeli withdrawal from land occu
pied in the 1967 and 1973 Mideast
wars. But they interpret the measures
very differently. Israel maintains the
resolutions do not require a pullback
from all of the territory.
Chechnya bombings
continue, killing nine
Anti-U.S. protest
staged in Athens
GROZNY, Russia (AP) -
Russia boosted its military offen
sive in Chechnya on Monday,
sending more soldiers, artillery
and tanks to the southern republic
and striking its capital with mis
siles, Russian and Chechen offi
cials said.
At least nine civilians were
killed and up to 50 wounded in the
missile attacks, which also hit a
village just south of Grozny,
Chechen officials said.
Chechen fighters sent a bar
rage of rockets to try to halt a
Russian ground advance in the
Alkhan-Kala region near Grozny
and launched ground attacks in
other areas, Chechen military
headquarters said.
They said they had attacked
Russian units overnight near
Gudermes, the republic’s second
largest city, which Russian forces
have been shelling for weeks.
The Chechens destroyed a
Russian tank and killed up to 17
Russian soldiers in the attack, they
said. Two of their own fighters
were killed, and five were wound
ed.
The reinforcements were to be
r_ ~ ; ~
i -
sent to Gudermes, which lies along
a strategic highway linking Grozny
to the Russian republic of
Dagestan. •
Although Russia said its
assaults were aimed only at rebel
positions, its bombardment of pop
ulated areas has caused many civil
ian casualties.
The civilian deaths are a focus
of growing international criticism
of Russia’s two-month campaign to
wipe out Islamic militants, who
twice invaded neighboring
Dagestan this summer and who are
blamed for apartment bombings
that killed about 300 people in
Russia in September.
U.S. State Department
spokesman James P. Rubin said
Monday that Russia was “not in
keeping” with the Geneva
Conventions by inflicting casual
ties on civilians.
Russian politicians have reject
ed the criticism, as well as calls for
negotiations to end the fighting. A
parliament member on Monday
said negotiations could begin only
after Russia liquidated the mili
tants, the ITAR-Tass news agency
reported.
■ Clinton and other
NATO leaders charged with
genocide in a mock trial run
by Greek protesters.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -
Demanding that President Clinton
cancel a coming visit to Athens, thou
sands of demonstrators gathered in
the Greek capital on Monday to
attend a mock trial condemning
American foreign policy.
Standing beneath umbrellas to
ward off a light drizzle, the protesters
chanted “Clinton, butcher of the
Balkans, you are unwanted here,” and
“Americans: Murderers of the peo
ples.”
They huddled around a stage set
up to look like a Greek court and
watched as Clinton and the other
NATO heads of state were “chaiged”
with genocide and war crimes for
their part in the bombing of
Yugoslavia earner this year.
Actors and activists played the
parts of the judge, prosecutor,
Clinton’s lawyer and witnesses to the
NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia.
A video wall on the edge of the stage
showed footage from the war.
The demonstration tapped into a
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widespread mistrust of the United
States, which many Greeks blame for
instigating turmoil in the Balkans and
accuse of favoring rival Turkey.
Anti-U.S. sentiment reached a
pinnacle during NATO attacks on
Yugoslavia, seen by many Greeks as
a regional ally because of a shared
Christian Orthodox faith. NATO
member Greece signed the attack
plan, but the public steadfastly
remained supporters of the Serbs.
Protesters later marched to the
nearby U.S. Embassy, which was sur
rounded by hundreds of riot police.
After throwing a note containing
their symbolic conviction of Clinton
and other NATO leaders through the
embassy gates, they dispersed peace
fully.
Clinton is scheduled to arrive
Saturday to open an 11-day, four
nation trip highlighted by a summit of
the Organization of Security and
Cooperation in Europe in Istanbul,
Turkey.
Monday’s rally was the first of
many planned protests but was much
smaller than organizers expected,
with ahout 2,500 people turning out,
mostly from communist parties or
organizations.
Clinton’s 48-hoUr trip to Greece
comes just before the Nov. 17
anniversary of a 1973 crackdown of a
student uprising against the then-mil
itary dictatorship. Many Greeks criti
cize the United States for its per
ceived role in supporting the junta,
and Nov. 17 is traditionally a day of
anti-American rallies.
The terrorist groupNovember 17,
which takes its name from the student
revolt, has killed 21 people, including
three American officials, since it first
appeared in 1975.
In Washington, State Department
spokesman James P. Rubin said U.S.
officials were working closely with
Greek authorities to ensure the presi
dent’s safety during his visit.
“Obviously, security is a major
issue,” Rubin said.
■ Rhode Island
Robot begins search
for Flight 990 black boxes
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - A
tougher, nimbler underwater
robot with a seven-jointed titani
um arm was lowered into the sea
Monday to find the black boxes
that may answer what doomed
EgyptAir Flight 990.
Searchers hoped the Magnum
would succeed where another
robot, the Deep Drone, failed,
after exploring the murky, sunless
depths over two days. “
More than a week after the
plane plunged from 33,000 feet
and killed all 217 people aboard,
the cockpit voice and flight data
recorders that could hold the
most complete picture of what
went wrong remained 270 feet
beneath the Atlantic.
Investigators are looking into
all possibilities, including
mechanical failure, human error
and sabotage.
■ New York
Dow Jones, Nasdaq rise
despite Microsoft woes
NEW YORK (AP) - The Dow
Jones industrial average rose
Monday, and Nasdaq stocks
climbed to another record as
Microsoft’s shares fell only
slightly after a stinging antitrust
ruling that branded the software
maker a monopoly.
The Dow Jones industrial
average closed up 14.37 at
10,718.85.
The technology-dominated
Nasdaq composite index was up
41.68 at 3,143.97, according to
preliminary figures, for its sev
enth straight record dose.
Microsoft, added to the elite
Dow average just a week ago, fell
as low as $83.50 a share in early
Nasdaq trading before recovering
to $89.933/4, down $1.62*/2 or 1.8
percent from Friday’s close.
More than 120 million shares
changed hands, or about five
times the average daily volume
for Microsoft.
■ New York
Beatles songs translated j
into Latin by student
NEW YORK (AP) - All!
together now: “Eihat abhine vig
inti annis hodie, Centurio Piper
catervam canere docebat.”
What’s that? Don’t know the
words? . !
There’s hardly a baby boomer]
alive who wouldn’t recognize the
first line of the 1967 Beatles song
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts:
Club Band” - (“It was 20 years
ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the
band to play”) - if only it weren’t
in Latin.
Benjamin Joffe, 23,
Cleveland native and senior at
- Yeshiva University in New York,
managed to combine his two
loves - Latin and the Beatles - by
translating the 12 “Sgt. Pepper”
songs into Latin.
Why? To get into the National
Classics Fraternity.
The annual initiation rite,
which dates to the 1950s, requires
fraternity pledges to translate]
something from contemporary
culture into Latin. , i