Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday. February 29. 2000
World
Austrian party leader steps down
Foreign criticism factor in decision
The Associated Press
VIENNA, Austria — Joerg Haider, whose anti-foreigner statements and past praise of aspects of the Nazi regime brought international condemnation on Austria's new government, resigned yesterday as head of the far-right Freedom Party, party officials said.
The officials said Haider made the announcement at a closed-door meeting of the group's national leadership at a downtown hotel. The officials, who asked not to be identified, said a formal announcement would be made at a news conference later
in the evening.
Haider, who holds no post in the national government, is to stay on as governor of Carinthia province. The move was seen as an attempt to reduce international criticism of the new coalition government between Haider's rightists and the center-right Austrian People's Party.
The Austria Press Agency quoted party sources as saying Haider will be succeeded as party chief by his trusted lieutenant, Vice Chancellor Susanne Riess-Passer. 39.
APA said Haider told the party leadership meeting that he was stepping down because he did not want to stand in the way of the work of the new government.
The 14 other European Union
members have downgraded relations with Austria because of the presence of Haider's party in the government, which took office Feb. 4. The outrage was based on Haider's anti-immigrant stand and his past praise of veterans of the murderous Waffen SS and Adolf Hitler's "orderly" employment policies.
Some Austrian politicians and commentators doubted that the resignation signaled the end of Haider's influence on the national government. Ries-Passer and others in the Freedom Party leadership have long-established reputations as Haider disciples who owe their political positions to him.
The newly elected head of the opposition Social Democratic party, Alfred Gusenbauer, said the resignation was simply one
of Haider's many tactical tricks and would give the coalition a respite from criticism.
Thomas Prinzhorn, the Freedom Party's candidate for chancellor in the Oct. 3 parliamentary election, said Haider's resignation did not signal his withdrawal from national politics and that the controversial Carinthia governor would remain the top man of the party.
However, Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said Haider's decision was the first sign of a breath of fresh air since Haider's party finished second in the parliamentary elections, which paved the way for the party to join the ruling coalition.
Hier said the international criticism was pivotal in forcing Haider to step down.
Tijuana police chief murdered in vehicle
The Associated Press.
TIJUANA, Mexico — In this violent border town where killings occur daily, Tijuana police tried to resolve one more case yesterday: the death of their popular police chief, whose car was riddled with bullets on a busy highway.
Investigators hope a gray Cherokee sports utility vehicle with California license plates can offer more clues in Sunday's killing of Alfredo de la Torre Marquez. Three bullet shells were found in the vehicle, suggesting this could have been the vehicle used by the attackers, said state Attorney General Juan Manuel Salazar.
The Cherokee was believed to be one of three vehicles used in the attack on a busy, six-lane divided highway in the northern edge of Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego.
De la Torre was driving to his office and was unaccompanied by his normal contingent of bodyguards when gunmen using Kalashnikov rifles and 9 mm pistols pulled up alongside his black Suburban and fired 99 rounds at him, officials said. The vehicle crashed into a palm tree on the side of the road.
Salazar said De la Torre had told his bodyguards that he had planned to stay home all day. It was not clear why he decided to go to his
"A person who does his job well goes against the interests of the bad guys."
Jaime Valencia
police forensics supervisor in Tijuana
office. De la Torre was carrying a pistol but didn't use it.
No one has been arrested, and the motive for the killing was unknown. Seventy witnesses and potential suspects were interviewed Sunday, but police had no suspects, Salazar said. Enrique Tellaeache, representative for the Baja California state Attorney General's Office, said the killing obviously was linked to organized crime, but that it was too early to tell whether it was connected to the Tijuana-based drug organization led by the Arrellano-Felix brothers, notorious for its gangland-style hits.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration considers the organization one of the most powerful and violent drug-trafficking groups. One of the brothers, Ramon Eduardo, is on the FBI's 10 most-wanted list.
De la Torre had been a police officer for 25 years, working his way up from motorcycle cop, and may have made many enemies.
"The only motive for the killing is his job," said Jaime Valencia, a police forensics supervisor who, like all his colleagues, wore a black band over his badge. "A person who does his job well goes against the interests of the bad guys."
He said de la Torre was loved by his fellow officers.
Baja California is one of Mexico's most violent states, and Tijuana is one of its most violent cities. It recorded about 300 murders last year, and the pace of killings has picked up this year.
De la Torre is the second Tijuana police chief killed in six years. In April 1994, Federico Benitez and a bodyguard were shot to death when gunmen fired on their vehicle as it drove down a highway near the city's airport.
In a speech while visiting the state Friday, President Ernesto Zedillo pledged to have federal and state officials improve cooperation.
"Organized crime has brought to Baja California a trail of violence, a trail of intimidation," he said. "We have to make these criminals understand that Baja California can't be their home, that the only places where they deserve to live are in prisons."
Volcano sends people fleeing from homes
The Associated Press
LEGAZI, Philippines — Mayon volcano erupted again yesterday, sending blackish ash and glowing red hot rocks high into the sky and many residents fleeing to safety in nearby villages, officials said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the latest explosion of the roughly 8,100-foot volcano, which began erupting Thursday in Alba province, about 215 miles southeast of Manila.
"In the current eruption period of Mayon, this has been the biggest so far," said Ernesto Corpuz of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. "People should not venture back into the prescribed danger zones."
The volcano belched a column of ash and molten rocks up to four miles high, followed by lightning and continuous rumblings, Corpuz said. Mayon also emitted pyroclastic flows — superheated clouds of volcanic ash that travel up to 50 mph and can instantly incinerate anything in their path.
In Mabinit village, scores of men, women and children ran for their lives, carrying cooking pans, clothes and other belongings after seeing molten rocks and ash hurting down Mayon's slope, said news photographer Nelson Salting.
More than 47,000 people were evacuated from nearby villages, but some have returned in recent days to check their houses and farms despite warnings by officials.
The repeated explosions indicated that magma still is rising to the dome, and volcanic activity could continue between two weeks to a month, officials said.
The volcano has been showing signs of unrest since last June but had not caused injuries. An explosion in September forced more than 5,700 people to flee their homes.
Mayon's most violent eruption, on Feb. 1, 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and buried an entire town in volcanic mud flows.
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