NATION AND WORLD
University Daily Kansan, November 2, 1984
Page 13
Rebels to observe cease-fire
By United Press International
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Nicaraguan rebels offered yesterday to observe a cease-fire during nationwide elections Sunday but pledged to intensify their war against the leftist Sandinista government after the contests.
Nicarguians are to vote Solely for a president, vice president and 90-member Constituent Assembly in the first elections since the Sandistas overthrew dictator Anastasiad Somoza in July 1979.
There was no immediate comment from the government on the cease-fire offer.
The ruling Sandinista Front and five minor parties, four of which also are Marxist, are promoting candidates, but the two main parties have been unable to the elections, charging they could not be held under fair conditions.
REBEL LEADER ADOLOFo Calero Portocarrero, speaking on the radio of the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Democratic Force, or FDN, announced it would observe a cease-fire from 5 a.m. Election Dav until 6 p.m.
Calero Portocarrero said the cease-fire was being offered "for reasons of security of the voters," charging they were casting ballots because of pressure from the Sandinistas.
He called the elections "a farce and an anti-historical and anti-Nicaraguan falsehood."
Enrique Bermudez, military chief of the FDN's 12,000-man rebel army operating in northern Nicaragua, pledged the fighting would be stepped up after the elections.
"After Nov. 4, the war against the Sandinistas will be more intense." Bermudez told the rebel radio station known as 15 de
September in a broadcast monitored in Managua and believed transmitted from Honduras.
EARLER, SERGIO RAMIREZ,
vice president candidate of the
Sandista Front, said he had
never considered the possibility
of an election loss for the ruling
party, whose presidential contender is junta leader Daniel Ortega.
He said Nicaragua's elections would be more legitimate than Tuesday's U.S. presidential contest because a higher percentage of Nicaraguans than Americans will vote.
Saying 80 percent of the electorate would go to the polls, Ramirez contended the Ortega government "is going to be more legitimate than that of Mr. Reagan, because only 40 percent of eligible Americans would vote."
By United Press International
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria yesterday welcomed upcoming Lebanese-Israeli military talks on an Israeli troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon, but said it was not ready to accept conditions Israel has set for a pullout.
The United States hailed as "a fine step forward" the announcement by the United Nations that Lebanese and Israeli military officers would meet Monday in the Lebanese town of Naqura, five miles north of the Israeli border.
Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam said his government approved of the meeting as a way of ending the two-year occupation of southern Lebanon by about 10,000 Israeli troops.
But speaking during a break in talks with Lebanese President Amin Gemaily at the presidential summer palace near Beirut, Khaudd warned of increased attacks on
Syria approves Lebanese-Israeli talks
Israeli soldiers by Muslim guerrillas if Israel is too rigid and the fails talk
"IF THE ISRAELIS make con-
tions... this will help to consolidate
Lebanese public opinion supporting
the Lebanese national resistance in
stepping up its attacks against the
Israelis." Khaddam said.
He also said Syria could not meet demands sought by Israel to safeguard its northern border settlements from Palestinian guerrilla
"Syria is not ready directly or indirectly. To give any guarantees to Israelis or non-Israelis," he said "Israel's security is not our duty or obligation."
Israel has lost more than 600 troops since June 1982, when it occupied southern Lebanon in an invasion to smash Palestinian Liberation Organization guerrillas who had been carrying northern Israel settlements.
THE ISRAELIS PUSHED to Betrut and then withdrew 25 miles to the Awah River in the west and the
eastern Bekaa Valley, where they face some of the 40,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon since 1976.
Among its pullout conditions, Israel demanded Damascus' pledge not to occupy positions the Israeli vacate and to prevent PLO guerrillas from attacking Israel from Syrian lines.
Israel is also seeking buffer zones in Lebanon to protect its border — one patrolled by the peace-keeping United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and the other by the South Lebanon Army, an Israeli-financed Lebanese militia.
The Lebanese-Israeli agreement on military-level talks was negotiated by the head of UNIFIL and announced at the United Nations late Wednesday. The meeting is to be held at UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura.
In Israel, the U.N. announcement was greeted with pleasure by visiting Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy, who is on his second Middle East trip in a month.
Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza and Pop
We deliver
2228 Iowa
842.1054
DRIVE THRU ANYTIME 'TIL 2 A.M.
1618 West 23rd
Dine-in/Drive-thru
Robert Day author of The Last Cattle Drive
will read "Shooting Pigeons in Topeka"
a new short story featuring
LAST CATTLE DRIVE characters
Saturday Nov. 3,4 p.m.
Saturday Nov. 3, 1
Lawrence Arts Center
9th & Vermont
Admission Free
Sponsored by the University Press of Kansas
and Town Crier Bookstore
FRIDAY & SATURDAY
3:30, 7 & 9:30 $1.50
MIDNIGHT $2 David Lynch's ERASERHEAD
2 p.m. SUNDAY $1.50