*>__- .._. . ___ ___ ___
Kohl quits after finance scandal
BERLIN (AP) - Helmut Kohl
resigned Tuesday as honorary chair
man of the Christian Democratic
Union, brought down by a campaign
financing scandal that now marks the
stunning unraveling of one of
Europe’s most respected statesmen
and the man who reunited Germany.
Defiant to the end, Kohl gave up
the influential post rather than capit
ulate to demands that he identify
donors who made illegal campaign
contributions and help clear up a
scandal that threatens to ruin the
party.
Kohl’s single-handed leadership
facilitated Germany’s swift reunifi
cation in 1990. But he also tolerated
no dissent and finally ceded influ
ence in the party he tightly controlled
during 25 years as chairman after its
executive committee effectively iso
lated him during an emergency ses
sion.
In an extraordinary step that
clearly pained Kohl’s successor and
protege, Wolfgang Schaeuble, party
leaders earlier Tuesday threatened to
suspend Kohl as honorary chairman
until he agreed to cooperate. The post
was a rare honor bestowed when
Kohl gave up the party leadership in
1998 after the loss of national elec
tions to the Social Democrats.
“We are convinced that Helmut
Kohl breaches his duty as honorary
chairman if he refuses to contribute
to overcoming the crisis,” a pale and
dejected Schaeuble told reporters
after the emergency session.
The leaders also demanded Kohl
name names to save the party - some
thing Kohl flatly refused to do even
when fellow conservatives insisted it
would end speculation that anony
mous donations were tied to political
favors.
“I cannot bring myself to break
the promise I made to several person
alities who financially supported my
work in the CDU,” Kohl said in the
statement.
“The decision to resign the hon
orary chairmanship was not easy for
me,” he said. “I have been a Christian
Democratic Union member for 50
years. It was and is my political
home.”
Kohl, however, retains his seat in
parliament, which will make prose
cuting him for irregularities more
complicated by requiring a parlia
ment vote to lift his immunity.
The resignation ended the power
** The decisions of the Christian
Democrats have neither cleared up
anything nor led to a self-cleansing.”
Gerhard Schroeder
German chancellor
struggle in the party, with Kohl the
loser. Schaeuble said the party had
asked him to stay on and clear up the
scandal, despite grumbling by some
party members that he, too, was taint
ed and should step down.
The governing Social Democrats
and Greens charged that the opposi
tion had forfeited the chance to deal
with the crisis head on. '
“The decisions of the Christian
Democrats have neither cleared up
anything nor led to a self-cleansing,”
said Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer
said the party was still “hurtling
downward in an avalanche.”
Kohl’s defiance - even after
admitting in an interview last month
that he violated the constitution - has
been increasingly viewed as a liabili
ty to the party as it tries to clear itself
of accusations that it broke party
financing laws by keeping donations
off the books.
Kohl admitted accepting up to $ 1
million in unreported campaign
funds in the 1990s, when the
Christian Democrats led Germany’s
government.
Prosecutors in Bonn are investi
gating whether Kohl should be
charged with breach of trust for
financial irregularities. He also is the
subject of a parliamentary inquiry,
which officially gets under way
Thursday parallel to a parliamentary
debate on the scandal.
Schaeuble was also under grow
ing pressure in the tangled plot of
apparently illegal cash payments and
suspicions of influence peddling
after disclosing he accepted $52,000
from a businessman.
Russian forces start final attack on Grozny
■ Russia tries to crush
Chechen rebellion and
punish militants for alleged
apartment bombings.
URUS-MARTAN, Russia (AP) -
After weeks of ferocious fighting,
•Russian forces penetrated the center of
Grozny on Tuesday.
The troops started a final assault to
take control of the capital of separatist
Chechnya, Russian officers said.
Russian troops were pushing into
the center from east and west and had
established control over part of central
Grozny, said Lt. Col. Konstantin
Kukharenko, a Defense Ministry
spokesman. “The decisive phase of the
liberation of Grozny has started,” he
said, adding that the city would soon
fall.
The military’s claims could not be
confirmed. There was no immediate
indication that the estimated 2,000 well
entrenched rebels in Grozny had tied
the city.
The city has been the center of
Chechen rebel resistance, and its cap
ture would give Russian forces a huge
victory after humiliating military set
backs.
Russia has boasted several times
that it was close to capturing Grozny,
only to be driven back by the rebels,
who have launched counterattacks in
recent weeks in and around the capital.
After facing little resistance in their
steady march across Chechnya’s north
ern lowlands, Russian troops have been
stalled at Grozny for months and only
recently began pressing into rebel
strongholds in the southern mountains.
Chechen and Russian troops fought
heavily in central Grozny, Chechen
commanders said Tuesday.
The Russians were trying to reach
“the most strategically important” site
in Grozny, a bridge crossing the Sunzha
River that is a major transit route for
rebels, Aslanbek Ismailov, the
Chechens’ deputy chief of staff, told the
Interfax news agency.
A Russian spokesman, Valentin
Astafyev, told NTV television that fed
eral troops have reached the bridge.
Russia sent troops into Chechnya in
late September to crush militants who
were blamed for armed incursions into
the neighboring Russian region of
Dagestan.
The militants were also blamed for
a series of apartment house bombings
that killed about 300 people.
The rebels had captured Grozny
and declared independence following
two years of fighting that ended in
1996.
Russian aircraft and artillery bom
barded rebel positions without pause on
Tuesday.
The air force said its planes and
helicopter gunships flew 80 combat
sorties over Grozny and southern
mountain regions Tuesday morning.
The raids would be stepped up through
out the day, the ITAR-Tass news agency
reported.
Russian jets struck the Vedeno and
Argun gorges, which lead through
rebel-held mountains to the republic of
Georgia.
Artillery systematically shelled the
rebel town of Vedeno. Russian forces
control the heights around Vedeno, but
they have been cautious about entering
” The decisive
phase of the
liberation of
Grozny has
started.”
Lt. Col. Konstantin
Kukharenko
Defense Ministry spokesman
the town, believed to shelter many well
armed militants.
Instead, they laced footpaths and
fields around Vedeno with mines.
“But we can’t lay mines every
where,” said an exhausted Capt. Andrei
Kulov.
He said a helicopter was flying reg
ularly from Georgia to the Chechen
mountains to deliver rebels supplies.
Federal troops have been unable to
intercept the helicopter because it
changes routes, he said.
Scattered showers, Partly cloudy,
high 3 8, low 16 high 31, low 17
Net>raskan
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.- ■ - - - .. . * " - - - - ^ ^ r ^ -
Clinton wants money
to increase gun control
BOSTON (AP) - President Clinton
appealed to Congress on Tuesday to
begin the new century with a fresh slate
on gun control, saying “commonsense
gun safety” should be the first item on
this year’s congressional agenda.
Clinton requested the lawmakers’
support for a $280 million package of
gun safety and enforcement programs
he will propose in his budget package.
And he asked that they start this
new century by abandoning another
stale debate about whether the govern
ment should enforce existing gun laws
stronger or fight crime and prevent
firearms accidents through new gun
control laws.
“The real answer is we should do
both,” Clinton said.
His budget package, he said, was
designed to send an unambiguous mes
sage to criminals: “If you commit
crimes with guns or violate gun laws,
you will pay a heavy price.”
Clinton’s usual nemesis on gun
issues, the National Rifle Association,
offered cautious support for the
. grifprcement tools CHntqnrsqug^. „
Clinton wants 500 new Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents
and inspectors, plus 1,000 more prose
cutors foeusing on gun crime at all lev
els and a program to track guns through
ballistics testing.
Calling an emphasis on increased
enforcement and prosecution “long
overdue,” NRA spokesman Jim
Manown said the organization is ready
to renew its fight against two new gun
control measures that collapsed in
Congress last year.
“We certainly don’t expect the
Clinfbn-Gore administration to aban
don their push for new restrictions on
law-abiding gun owners,” he said.
Clinton announced his gun propos
al during a visit to a spotless new gym
nasium and community meeting hall in
the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury,
where reported crime was down more
than 65 percent last year.
Boston’s homicide rate dropped to
a 38-year low in 1999, thanks in part to
a program that allied law enforcement,
the clergy, community leaders and
^pgtneipb^rs sgair^eripie,.
■ Pakistan
Pakistani, Indian leaders spar
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -
Three U.S. delegations are whirling
through Pakistan this week, all carry
ing the same message for their host
and neighboring India: “Turn down
the heat.”
Last month’s hijacking of an
Indian Airlines plane unleashed a war
of words between the two rival coun
tries - who also happen to be the
world’s newest nuclear powers.
Pakistan’s military leader, Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, has warned India
he’s not a man to turn the other cheek
to the relentless “flak from across the
border.”
S.K. Singh, a former top official
in India’s Foreign Ministry, responded
that Musharraf’s comment was
regarded as “a threat, which we take
very seriously.”
Analysts fear the verbal sparring
could take both countries, which have
fought three wars, back to the battle
field.
■ London
Britain allows Chile plane
to land, stand by for Pinochet
LONDON (AP) - As Gen.
Augusto Pinochet waited under
house arrest for a ruling that could
set him free, Britain on Tuesday
allowed Chile to send a plane to
stand by to take the former dictator
home.
Human rights groups, battling to
the finish line for the 84-year-old gen
eral’s extradition, lodged formal
objections to the secrecy of the med
ical report that might allow him to
avoid trial in Spain on torture charges.
Pinochet was arrested 15 months
ago after back surgery in London. He
wears a pacemaker, has diabetes, has
difficulty walking and has suffered
three minor strokes.
British Home Secretary Jack
Straw said last week that he was
inclined to send Pinochet home after
seeing the medical report. Straw has
the final decision on extradition.
Straw didn’t say when he would
announce his final decision, but he
told British Broadcasting Corp. radio
Tuesday that “it is certainly not going
to be a matter of hours.”
■ Australia
Australian planes grounded
from fuel mishap
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - From
Wagga Wagga to Wee Waa,
Rockhampton to Lightning Ridge,
towns in the vast Australian Outback
depend on small planes to deliver the
mail, dust crops, round up cattle, shut
tle schoolchildren, bring in doctors
and evacuate medical emergencies.
For more than a week, half the
nation’s light aircraft have been
grounded because of contaminated
aviation fuel that thickens when it
contacts copper and brass engine
parts.
The contamination raises the risk
of clogged fuel lines and motors
stalling in flight.
Nobody knows how many planes
actually carry the bad fuel. The source
of the contamination is Mobil Oil
Australia Ltd., a subsidiary of U.S.
based Exxon Mobil Corp. Mobil has
no test to find out, and there is no
known method to clean contaminated
systems.
“This is a contamination crisis of
a magnitude that has never been seen
before anywhere in the world,” said
Mick Toller, safety director for the
Civil Aviation Safety Authority,
which ordered the planes grounded.
Scientists are working on a three
stage field diagnosis they hope will
identify which aircraft have tainted
fuel. But pending further tests,
grounded planes would not be in the
air before Thursday, Toller said
Sunday.
