UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, March 3, 1994
7
Grenades explode U.N. cease-fire in Bosnia
Serbs blamed for attack, stranding of relief convoys
The Associated Press
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — The prospects for peace proved short-lived Wednesday when Bosnian Serbs answered the world's appeals for an end to fighting by poundting Muslim enclaves, blocking relief convons and violating the Sarajevo cease-fire.
Bosnian Serb artillery hammered the Muslim enclave of Maglaj in northern Bosnia, where 19,000 refugees have been under siege most of the past year. Troops pressed an offensive against the northwestern Bihac pocket.
U. N. officials also said Serbs fire three rocket-propelled grenade Wednesday at Bosnian positions around the Jewish cemetery in downtown Sarajevo.
U. N. spokesman Lt. Col. Bill Alkam said Serb artillery fired on the Muslim town of Breza north of Sarajevo from just outside the 13-mile exclusion zone around the capital.
They quoted Serbs as telling the United Nations that they did so because Muslim-led government forces were reinforcing their trenches in violation of the U.N.-sponsored cease-fire reached three weeks ago.
Russian troops are in the Jewish Cemetery on the Serb side, French soldiers are on the Bosnian side, and "tensions are certainly increased in that area." Alkman said.
U. N. officials had suggested they would get tough with Serbs to ensure smooth movement of relief convoy, but two of them remained stranded Wednesday.
Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Sarajevo, said a convoy for Sarajevo, blocked since Monday by Serb women, was still stuck at Haddzici, 10 miles from Sarajevo.
Another convoy for Maglaj was stranded in Zenica, and it may take two or three days before permits are approved by the Serbs to proceed through a half-mile of Serb territory past the last Crout checkpoint at Brankovici, Janowski said.
Serb, Muslim and Croat leaders all have signed accords pledging free passage for aid convoys, but they have been ignored repeatedly, especially by Serb commanders.
Magal depends almost entirely on airdropped aid, which is risky to retrieve from combat zones and often does not reach intended recipients. The town has received no land convoys since October.
Bosnian radio said Serbs fired 300 tank.
howitzer and mortar rounds at Maglaj early Wednesday, and that at least two people had been killed the previous 24 hours.
Serbs also stepped up their offensive against Bihac in Bosnia's northwest corner, where Serbs support a small Muslim faction that has declared autonomy from the Jarejevo government.
Fighting was reported on the Muslim-Serb frontline northeast of Blihac, particularly in the village of Spahici, said Capt. Oliver Barnay, a spokesman for the U.N. French battalion in the pocket.
"The fighting has increased since Tuesday morning at Grabez Plateau and Spahici," and Bosnian Serb forces seemed to be gaining the upper hand, he said.
"They shortly can reach the Una River and cut the main road leading to Bilac," said Barnay, who was reached by telephone from Zagreb by The Associated Press.
Barnay could not confirm Bosnian radio reports of heavy casualties.
The offensives against Magjal and Bihac contrast starkly to the Sarajevo truce and to Tuesday's agreement by Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Kadaric to allow the re-opening of an airport at Tuzla in northern Bosnia for U.N. aid flights.
The Serbs attacks also come against the backdrop of agreement in Washington by Bosnia's Muslim and Croat factions to cease hostilities and form a confederation.
Bosnian Croats and the Muslim-led government were allied at the start of the war. They have since fought for territory not claimed by Serbs, who control most of Bosnia.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which started 23 months ago when the minority Serbs, armed by the Yugoslav federal army, rebelled against independence from Yugoslavia.
Doug Hess / KANSAN
Enerv conservation
Tom Chavez, Kansas City, Kan., resident, removes windows in Stauffer Flint Hall. Chavez and other workers from the Energy Savers store, a private contractor, were replacing them with more energy-efficient windows.
Lebanese man arrested in attack on Jewish students
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A Lebanese man was arrested yesterday in a bloody attack on a van full of Jewish students Tuesday that left four injured, one of whom has been declared brain-dead.
Assad Baz was arrested in the New York City borough of Brooklyn less than 24 hours after an incident that outraged the Jewish community and stoked fears of Mideast terrorism in the streets of New York.
Standing by Mayor Rudolph Gulliani, Police Commissioner William Bratton announced the arrest at a news conference at City Hall.
Bratton declined to comment on a possible motive or whether the attack could be tied to the mosque shooting Friday in the occupied West Bank, in which a Jewish settler from Brooklyn gunned down at least 30 Muslim worshippers.
Baz was being charged with 15 counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault and weapons charges, Bratton said.
During a search of the suspect's Brooklyn home, police found a cache of weapons, including a submachine gun, a fully loaded shotgun known as
a "street sweeper," a silencer and a stun gun, Bratton said.
A blue Chevrolet used in the attack also was found in a Brooklyn body shop. Shells were found in the car, and that helped police locate the suspect, said a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The car's passenger window was broken, but it was not clear whether it had been taken to the body shop for that reason.
Police believe Baz was the armed motorist who blasted away at the van Tuesday morning.
Police said the assailant opened fire with two 9 mm semiautomatic pistols at three points, blowing out his own passenger side window before escaping across the Brooklyn Bridge into Brooklyn.
The student who was declared brain-dead, Aaron Halberstam, remained on life support yesterday morning at the request of his family, said Allen Hirschfeld, a physician who examined him. A representative of the hospital said Halberstam is 20 years old.
Giuliani said Tuesday that "no piece of information, hard evidence" had as yet linked the attack to Friday's massacre in the West Bank
Members of the orthodox Lubavitcher Hasidic Jewish sect said the 15 young men in the unmarked van were clearly identifiable as Jews because their traditional black hats and side hair locks were visible through the windows.
The shooting began at the on-ramp to the bridge which connects Manhattan and Brooklyn. Police said the van's passengers screamed and prayed and tried to duck bullets. When the driver stopped to find out what happened, the gunman pulled up and fired again.
The van was one of many vehicles filled with men returning from a visit to a Manhattan hospital where Rabbi Menachem Schenerson, the sect's 91-year old grand rebbe, or leader, had cataract surgery.
Bratton on Tuesday discounted the theory that it was a spontaneous act stemming from a traffic dispute, but he cautioned that "we are really operating in a vacuum at this juncture as to the motive."
Emergency rooms replace doctors
Patients needing routine care are the most frequent visitors
The Associated Press
Nearly as many of them complained of coughs and sore throats as those who had symptoms that could signal a heart attack, the National Center for Health Statistics reported.
Almost 4 percent of the patients had ear infections, the most common diagnosis by emergency room physicians.
The very old were the biggest users of emergency rooms, but most of the time they came for life-threatening illnesses or injuries.
Sixty-one percent of the emergency room visits by children and young adults were for non-urgent problems, meaning the patient did not require attention immediately or within a few hours.
Shalala said it costs three times more to treat someone in an emergency room than in a doctor's office.
"This study shows how emergency rooms have become the family doctor for too many Americans," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shala. "Emergency rooms are not intended to deliver routine medical care."
The Clinton administration contends that its health reform proposal would unclog emergency rooms by guaranteeing that all Americans have health coverage and a regular doctor or clinic.
The statistics center, which surveyed 437 hospitals, estimated there were 89.8 million emergency room visits in 1992. or 36 visits for every 100 U.S. residents.
Three-quarters of the people who went to emergency
rooms in 1962 had their blood pressure checked and 29 percent had blood tests. Seventeen percent got chest X-rays, 13 percent had electrocardiograms and 2 percent had CT scans or magnetic resonance imaging.
Fifty-nine percent were for illnesses and 35 percent for injuries. But even most of the injured were not considered in urgent need of care.
Twelve million of the emergency room patients, or 13.5 percent, were admitted to the hospital. Almost 282,000 were dead on arrival or died in the emergency room.
were dead on arrival or died in the emergency room.
Of the 32 million injured people, 1.5 million were victims of violent assaults or homicides. Almost 7.7 million people were injured accidentally in falls, and 4.1 million were in motor-vehicle accidents.
Ande F. McGinnis.
Linda F. McCaig, a health statistician who wrote the study, said African Americans were 1.6 times more likely than whites to use emergency rooms.
Hospitals, by federal law, must treat anyone who comes in with a genuine medical emergency. That includes illegal aliens, who would not be covered by the Clinton health care plan.
The 10 principal reasons that patients gave for visiting the emergency room were: stomach pain and cramps, chest pain, fever, headaches, cuts on the upper body, shortness of breath, coughs, back problems, throat problems, and vomiting.
The 10 diagnoses most frequently recorded by doctors were: ear infections, chest pain and other respiratory symptoms, open head wounds, abdominal and pelvis problems, general symptoms, acute upper respiratory infections, spread sprains and strains, gastroenteritis and colitis, lower limb contusions, and open finger wounds.
ACER raises the standard. MICROTECH offers the value.
486DX-33 Multimedia System
- 256K fast cache memory
* 4MB RAM supportable to 32MB
256K fast cache memory
• 4MB RAM upgradable to 32MB
• 1.44 MB 3.5" floppy drive
• 270 MB hard drive
Windows Accelerated Video Card
CD ROM Drive w/2 titles
14" SVGA color monitor
Multimedia Sound Card w/speakers
Universal Desktop/Mid-Tower
MS-DOS 6.0/Windows 3.1
Microsoft Mouse II and Mouse Pad
$1676!
- One Year Warranty
MICROTECH COMPUTERS
2550 Iowa St. Located in The Tower Plaza
(913) 842-COMP
Everything else in life limits you
Buffet Specials Everyday!
Daily Lunch Buffet
$4.95
11:30-2:30
Mon.-Sat.
11:30-3:00
$5.95
Sun.
Daily Dinner Buffet
5:30-9:00
$6.95
IMPERIAL GARDEN
聚豊圖
25 items including...
soups, salads, appetizers,
fruit, entrees, and
fruit, entrees, a dessert!
dessert!
(Across from Dillons)
2907 W. 6th 841-1688 (Across from Dillons)
EAT
presents plays with bite . . .
A Black Comedy by Caryl Churchill About a Butcher, a Baby and a Buyer! Directed by Penny Weiner 8 PM Mar. 4-5 and 2:30 PM Mar. 6 Hashinger Hall (1632 Engel Rd.) General Admission $3