NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Fridav April 15, 1994
9
'Something went wrong'
Source: News reports Dave Campbell / KANSAN - Ron Codington, Jeff Dionise, Judy Treible and Reed Karaim / Knight-Ridder Tribune
U.S. helicopters shot down over Iraq;26 killed
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — American fighter jets mistakenly shot down two U.S. Army helicopters over northern Iraq yesterday, killing all 26 people aboard. "Something went wrong," said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and President Clinton promised to find out what.
Twenty-one of the dead were military officers from the United States, Britain, France, and Turkey supporting the U.N. humanitarian relief operation for the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq. Five Kurd passengers also were killed.
The helicopters were shot down by two F-15C fighters enforcing the "no-fly zone" over the area.
Clinton expressed "terrible sorrow" and pledged a thorough investigation. He ordered U.S.flags on public buildings throughout the nation to be flown at half-staff through sunset Monday "as a mark of respect for those who died as a result of the tragic incident."
The incident occurred at 2:30 a.m.
CDT 9:30 a.m. local time in Iran
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary William Perry said the fighter pilots mistook the UH-60 Black Hawk choppers for Iraqi "Hind" helicopters.
Both jets apparently had the hell-copters in sight during the daylight mission, and both fired missiles, Perrysaid.
"The pilots of the F-15s feel they had positively identified the Hinds," said Lt. Gen. Richard Keller, chief of staff of the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. Audio and camera tapes from the aircraft will be studied in the investigation, he said.
One F-15 fired a radar-seeking AMRAAM missile, the other a heat-seeking Sidewinder. Keller said.
Asked what threat the helicopters might have posed that justified shooting them down, Keller replied, "I honestly don't know."
manders at the jets' base in Incirlik, Turkey.
Gen. John Shalikavhili, the Joint Chiefs chairman, said the final order to shoot normally was given "on the scene" and not from military comers in Salahaddin, the central region of the Kurdish zone.
U. S. warplanes and helicopters normally use electronic identification systems designed to tell friend from foe. Shalikashvili did not say whether the Pentagon knew if the helicopters' identification beacons were on or if they emitted the proper coded messages.
A Kurdish representative said the helicopters were ferrying military officers from the U.N. office in Zakho, near the Turkish border. The group planned to meet Kurdish leadpublicly express their sorrow and condolences to the families of those killed.
Clinton said those who died were a part of a "mission of mercy. They served with courage and professionalism, and they lost their lives while trying to save the lives of others. The important work they were doing must and will continue," he said.
"I take full responsibility for today's tragedy," Perry said, adding that he and the general wanted to
Both Perry and Shalikashvili appeared shocked by the event.
American and allied warplanes have been patrolling the "no-fly zone" over northern Iraq since shortly after the end of the Persian Gulf War. Allied planes have been enforcing a similar air umbrella over southern Iraq, south of the 32nd parallel, to protect Shite Muslims since August 1992. The zones are aimed at stopping Iraqi air attacks on rebel groups such as Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south.
Drunken pedestrians make driving hazardous
The Associated Press
About 1,720 drunken pedestrians died in car accidents that year, three times the number of pedestrians killed by drunken drivers, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
ATLANTA — Anti-drunken driving campaigns have done little to reduce the problem of tipsy pedestrians. Of the more than 5,500 pedestrians killed in traffic accidents in 1992, a third were under the influence, the government said yesterday.
"Alcohol is a serious problem, not just for drivers but for pedestrians as well," said David A. Sleet, a behavioral scientist with the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
"Drivers need to be aware of the hazards and pedestrians need to be aware of the dangers of walking while intoxicated," he said, adding that messages targeting drunken drivers aren't reaching
the pedestrian.
During 1982-92, more progress was made toward reducing deaths among intoxicated drivers than among inebriated pedestrians, the CDC said.
In 1982, the percentage of drivers in fatal alcohol-related crashes was 39 percent, but that fell to 29 percent by 1992.
By contrast, the percentage of all deaths among drunken pedestrians dropped only slightly, from 39 percent in 1982 to 36 percent in 1992.
"People are trying to avoid drunk driving," said Scott Punk, a spokesman for The National Commission Against Drunk Driving. "People are choosing a neighborhood place to where they can walk instead of drive."
A study in Baltimore sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is reviewing drunken pedestrian accidents to determine how anti-drunken driving measures could be adapted.
"This is an invisible problem," said psychologist Al Farina, who is leading the study. "Most of the focus is on the drunk driver."
The CDC report found that the proportion of pedestrians killed was higher in rural areas than in urban areas, usually on roads with higher speed limits. In urban areas, the deaths often occurred near bars or other businesses serving alcohol along busy roads, according to the study.
Virginia Beach, a resort popular among young adults, has its share of alcohol-related problems, said police spokesman Mike Carey. Officers there work with a community group urging bar owners to encourage patrons to get home safely in a car. When summer tourists swell the area's population by 2 million, police close some streets to traffic to prevent accidents with drinking pedestrians.
Among age groups, the problem of drunken pedestrians was greatest among young adults.
Serbian tank confronts soldiers outside Sarajevo
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Amid fresh U.S. charges of Serbian harassment, President Clinton is warning it would be a mistake to treat U.N. peace keepers in Bosnia as enemy combatants.
"That is not what we are doing," Clinton said yesterday.
The president spoke out after a Serb tank accompanied by troops confronted French U.N. peacekeeping forces guarding a weapons depot outside Sarajevo. Administration officials told The Associated Press the tank had been hidden within the 13-mile-wide zone the United Nations ordered cleared of heavy weapons in February.
It was one of a series of Serb moves near Muslim enclaves in Bosnia, and it produced a State Department rebuke, in addition to the president's admonition.
"There continues to be repeated instances of Serbian harassment and interference with freedom of movement by U.N. personnel in Bosnia," State Department official Michael McCurry said. "This testing by the Serbs will have only one response — determination by the world community and continued enforcement of relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions."
Twice this week, U.S. warplanes,
responding to the request of the U.N.
commander in Bosnia, Lt. Gen. Sir
Michael Rose, bomb Serb positions
near Gorazde, a predominantly Muslim
enclave.
The Associated Press
Belgium announced it was pulling its troops out of the U.N. mission in Rwanda, threatening the entire multinational operation.
KIGALI, Rwanda — Rockets exploded at the capital's airport yesterday, threatening the attempts of foreigners to escape the country that daily is falling further into grusome anarchy.
Mortar shells rained down on streets already bathed in blood as government forces battled the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front for control of the city. The rebels again rejected U.N. efforts to broker a cease-fire.
More than 20,000 people are estimated to have died since fighting broke out between the army and the rebel patriotic front a week ago. The fighting and mayhem in Kigali are deeply rooted in the decades-old feud between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi ethnic groups.
The sickly smell of decaying flesh hung over the green hills of the city, its streets full of rotting corpses. Marauding gangs hacked thousands to death with machetes, knives and spears.
Muslim enclaves were designated as havens by the U.N. Security Council last year. As such, Rose has authority to ask NATO to use its air power to protect U.N. peace keepers there.
Therefore, McCurry said. "The Bosnian government feels that it's difficult for them to proceed with further discussions if they don't see a pullback from Gorazde."
"We have taken no action — none through NATO and with the support of the U.N. to try to win a military victory for their adversaries," he added
Cinton said he was encouraged by news accounts suggesting that Bosniu Serbs were willing to cease their offensive against Gorazde. But McCurry said there were no indications that the Serbs will withdraw.
"I think the Serbs would be making mistake to start treating the United Nations and NATO forces as adversary combatants," Clinton said. "That is not what we are doing. We are trying to get them to honor their words."
He said 500 Ukrainian U.N. peace keepers would be deployed in the town by the end of the month.
"More and more of the civilian population armed with machetes are ruling the streets and the army can't control them," said Philippe Gallard of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
U. N. officials in Sarajevo and U.S. officials in Washington said the standoff near Sarajevo ended quietly after about a half hour when the Serbs withdrew the tank. But U.S. officials said it may have remained within the zone.
That incident and Serb pressure elsewhere raised new concerns about Serb intentions and questions about how the United States and its NATO allies might respond.
Violence hinders foreigners attempts to leave Rwanda
"It is impossible to understand the motives of the Serbs," McCurry said.
The Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said yesterday that at least 30 Red Cross workers had been slain in Rwanda the past week.
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A fragile cease-fire between the army and rebels — reached last August after almost three years of civil war — fell apart in the ethnic fighting that followed the president's death in an April 7 plane crash.
After a relatively quiet night, the fighting resumed yesterday morning with sporadic but sometimes heavy shelling. Government artillery near the city's center shelled a nearby mist-shrouded valley. Therebels answered with mortar rounds that exploded downtown.
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While foreigners sought to escape by air, tens of thousands of Rwandans were fleeing by foot. The International Rescue Committee humanitarian organization reported an eight-mile-long column of people streaming out of Kigali.
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