'
Doctors:
Pinochet
not fit
for trial
LONDON (AP) - Doctors
ruled that Gen. Augusto Pinochet
was unfit to stand trial on human
rights abuse charges, the govern
ment announced Tuesday, open
ing the possibility that the former
Chilean dictator could win his
battle against extradition.
The Home Office said the
four-member medical team who
examined Pinochet on Jan. 5
unanimously agreed that he was
too ill to face trial, “and that no
change to that position can be
expected.”
They did not immediately
make details available on why he
was considered unfit. But The
Sunday Times reported in
London last weekend that the
doctors had found Pinochet was
suffering from a viral infection,
diabetes, heart disease and the
effects of two mild strokes. His
diabetes reportedly has caused a
loss of sensation in his hands and
feet.
The decision could halt
efforts to try Pinochet in connec
tion with the disappearances and
killings of thousands of Chileans
during his 17-year rule there. He
could be released on humanitari
an grounds.
The statement also said
Home Secretary Jack Straw felt
that he should not extradite
Pinochet to Spain until hearing
arguments from parties to the
case.
The news was greeted with
protest and support in Chile.
Officials with the
Organization of Relatives of
Missing Detainees, a group dedi
cated to dissidents who disap
peared after being arrested under
the Pinochet dictatorship, said
they were disappointed.
David Blumenfeld/Newsmakers
DEMONSTRATORS SEND a message to Shepherdstown, W. Va., negotiators during a protest in Tel Aviv, Israel,
Monday. The largest rally in Israel’s recent history took place to protest returning the Golan Heights to Syria in
exchange for peace.
Barak keeps peace aims
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - A-confi
dent Prime Minister Ehud Barak said
Tuesday he could sell a land-for-peace
deal with Syria to the Israeli public,
despite growing opposition at home to a
likely pullout from the Golan Heights.
As Barak returned home after eight
days of talks with the Syrians, two min
isters in his government were threaten
ing to bolt rather than accept a with
drawal from the strategic plateau, and
polls indicated public opinion was hard
ening on the issue.
On Monday night, more than
100,000 people demonstrated in a'Tel
Aviv square against a withdrawal.
Barak remained unruffled.
“When we bring an agreement that
will secure Israel’s defense, its future
and that of its children, most of the peo
ple in the square yesterday will be with
us on the agreement,” he told Channel
Two television.
“We are reaching the decisive
stage,” he said, rejecting suggestions by
opponents that he slow down the talks.
He agreed with the assessment by
President Clinton, who sponsored the
talks in West Virginia, that a core agree
ment could be in place in two months.
The talks are set to resume next
Wednesday.
Barak acknowledged he could not
offer anything concrete from his jour
ney - but he said that was not the point
of this round of talks.
Asked if Israelis could expect any
confidence-building measures from
Syria, he responded: “At this stage, no.”
The benefit of this round, he said,
was simply that “for the first time, pro
fessional Israeli and Syrian teams met
on security, water, normalization and...
borders.”
But the vigor of the opposition
clearly spelled impending trouble for
Barak, who campaigned for office on a
peacemaking platform, then put togeth
er a broad-based government of dovish
secularists, hawkish Orthodox Jews and
immigrants from the former Soviet
Union.
A poll published Friday by the
Yediot Ahronot daily indicated that in
the referendum Barak has pledged to
call on a deal with Syria, 49 percent of
Israelis would favor exchanging almost
all of the Golan for peace, with 44 per
cent opposed. A similar poll last month
indicated 59 percent would favor giving
up almost all of the heights, while only
35 percent were opposed
Friday’s poll, conducted after the
launch of the talks in Shepherdstown,
W.Va., had a margin of error of 4.5 per
centage points.
The shift in opinion has been seen
partly as a result of the icy atmosphere at
the talks. Israeli columnists have repeat
edly noted Syrian Foreign Minister
Farouk al-Sharaa’s refusal to even shake
Barak’s hand.
Opponents of the emerging deal say
the Golan is too important strategically
to risk, especially in a peace accord they
saySyria might not keep.
Housing Minister Yitzhak Levy,
head of the settler-oriented National
Religious Party, said he would leave the
coalition and work to defeat the peace
deal if Barak agreed to a withdrawal.
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Sports Editor: Sam McKewon
A&E Editor: Sarah Baker General Manager: Daniel Shattil
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Virginia rape case argued
WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme
Court justices appeared to doubt
whether Congress could try to protect
women against violence by letting rape
victims sue their attackers in federal
court.
Hearing arguments Tuesday in the
case of a former Virginia Tech student
who wants to sue two football players
she says raped her, the justices noted
such issues are traditionally left to state
courts.
“Your approach... would justify a
federal remedy for alimony or child
support,” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
told Solicitor General Seth Waxman as
he asked thejusticeafo reinstate a key
portion of the 1994solence Against
Women Act *
Julie Goldscheio, the former stu
dent’s lawyer, argued along with
Waxman that the federal law, thrown
out by an appeals court, was needed
because gender-based violence restricts
women’s choices in jobs and travel.
Justice Antonin Scalia said all types
of crime could have similar effects.
Such logic “would allow general feder
al criminal laws on all subjects because
all crime affects interstate commerce,”
be said.
Michael E. Rosman, representing
the two former football players, said the
law encroaches on traditional state pow
ers and does not come under Congress’
power to regulate interstate commerce.
Allowing Congress to enact such
laws could “relegate die states to a triv
ial and unimportant role,” Rosman said.
The nation’s highest court has
increasingly tipped the balance of
power away from the federal govern
ment and toward the states in a series of
5-4 decisions, including a ruling
Tuesday that shielded state govern
ments against federal age-bias claims
by their employees.
It seemed likely that the Violence
Against Women Act case could follow
the same pattern when it is decided by
this summer.
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the
law’s author, said after the argument
session that the court should show def
erence to Congress’ conclusion that
states were not doing enough to protect
rape victims.
Waxman told the justices Congress
found that “archaic prejudices and
improper stereotypes” about women
were affecting the outcome of cases in
state courts. The government’s court
brief contended violent crime against
women costs the nation at least $3 bil
lion a year.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsbuig, for
merly a pioneering women’s rights
advocate, suggested that the Violence
Against Women Act could be seen as an
“alternative remedy.”
-WORLD/NATION—
■ Netherlands
Bosnian Serbs charged with
genocide plead innocent
THE HAGUE, Netherlands
(AP) - Two Bosnian Serbs who
allegedly led an onslaught that
killed hundreds of Muslims and
Croats and sent tens of thousands
fleeing for their lives, pleaded
innocent Tuesday to 12 counts of
genocide, war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
The case of Gen. Momir Talic
and Radoslav Brdjanin comes as
the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal
reaps a harvest of increasingly
senior Serb military commanders
detained for trial.
Prosecutors are aiming high
for the first genocide conviction in
the seven years since the interna
tional court was established.
Talic, the current Bosnian
Serb military chief, and Brdjanin,
a former deputy prime minister,
appeared at a pretrial hearing on
their joint indictment.
I
■ Florida
Miami judge’s affiliations
questioned
MIAMI (AP) - A spokesman
for Elian Gonzalez’s Miami rela
tives earned $10,000 as a political
consultant for the judge who
defied a federal order and awarded
temporary custody of the Cuban
boy to a relative in the United
States.
Miami-Dade County Circuit
Judge Rosa Rodriguez said
Tuesday she was not required to
remove herself from the case
because of the affiliation, a sug
gestion made by a legal expert.
Armando Gutierrez, who has
spoken on behalf of the 6-year-old
boy’s relatives, said he worked for
Rodriguez during her 1998 elec
tion campaign.
Gutierrez, who runs a public
relations firm, said he hasn’t spo
ken with the judge in 18 months
and that his work for her did not
influence her ruling.
■ Texas
A&M bonfire’s log ropes
cut before collapse
COLLEGE STATION, Texas
(AP) - Four stabilizing ropes were
cut on the stack of Texas A&M
bonfire logs just hours before they
collapsed and killed 12, a report
said.
But a senior who helped build
the bonfire last year said Tuesday
that the cutting of the lines was a
standard procedure and probably 1
did not cause the collapse.
Douglas Keegan visited the
site of the 7,000-log stack about an
hour before the disaster, which
killed a dozen of his fellow Aggies
and injured 27 on Nov. 18.
The lower four of eight guy
lines stretching from perimeter
poles to the center pole - the spine
of the stack - had been cut a few
hours earlier, according to an
engineering firm’s report released
by the school Monday.
■ Washington, D.C.
Stamp prices may increase
in the next year
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Expect to pay a penny more to
send cards and letters starting
early next year.
The cost of mailing magazines
and catalogs is expected to go up
significantly - proposals that are
stirring up a hornet’s nest in the
business community.
Letters would cost 34 cents
under rates proposed Tuesday.
