WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday,September 21,1992
7
WORLD BRIEFS
Non-ethnic Estonians barred from election
TALLIINN, Estonia — Voters in the tiny Baltic state of Estonia chose a parliament and president yesterday in an election that barred non-ethnic Estonians — about 40 percent of the population — from participating.
After more than four decades of Soviet domination, Estonians are counting on new leaders to speed up economic and social reforms and widen the break with former Soviet rule.
In addition to a president, voters chose 101 parliament members. Turnout was estimated at 46 percent by midday. Election officials expect final results today.
About 600,000 people — residents of pre-World War II Estonia and their descendants — were eligible to vote.
The election excluded about 350,000 of Estonia's 400,000 ethnic Russians and Ukrainians.
While angering Russian-speakers and neighboring Russia, the citizenship issue did not play a significant role in the subdued campaign. Candidates focused on the deteriorating Estonian economy and on whether former Communist Party bureaucrats should be allowed to stay in government.
U.N. relief flights set to resume in Sarajevo
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — A plane carried U.N. military officers to the war-torn capital yesterday, and then left with Bosnia's president in what one U.N. official called a successful test for resuming relief flights to Sarajevo.
The airlift was suspended Sept. 3 after an Italian cargo plane was shot down and its four crewmen were killed. Relief flights are expected to resume by mid-week after the three warring parties signed pledges in Geneva to protect airlifts and overland relief convoys.
The safety of the capital's airport and new guarantees to protect an international airlift were called into question when Serb gunners shelled three Sarajevo suburbs shortly before the plane made a late morning landing.
Aboad yesterday's incoming flight were French Gen. Philippe Morillon and other officers preparing for the arrival of an expanded U.N. force in Bosnia. The U.N. plane left hours later carrying President Alja Izetbegovic and other officials. Izetbegovic is expected today to address the U.N. General Assembly, which is facing a vote on whether to suspend Yugoslavia's voting rights.
The Associated Press
France approves treaty to unite Western Europe
The Associated Press
PARIS — French voters narrowly approved a treaty aimed at turning Western Europe into a political and economic superpower, according to unofficial television projections, and supporters started victory celebrations.
"France has said 'yes,'" said Interior Minister Paul Quiles, who was in charge of the vote on the treaty to unite the 12-nation European Community. The treaty addresses issues such as common economic, foreign and defense policies and a single currency by 1999.
Quiles gave no final figure, but he confirmed the accuracy of earlier nationwide exit polls conducted for TV channels and newspapers showing victory for the "yes" camp with about 51 percent to 52 percent of the vote.
The closeness of the vote on the so-called Maastricht treaty tempered the elation, and one politician said that the views of opponents would have to be taken into account.
Business people in the financial markets anxiously watched the referendum, whose impact would likely be
felt when trading floors reopen today.
felt when trading floors reopen today. The first partial official results, reflecting about 50 percent of the vote, showed the "no" camp barely ahead, 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent. But analysts said these results included a large portion of rural areas, where many farmers fought the treaty.
Backers said the treaty would help transform the trading bloc of 338 million people into a political and economic superpower that could better compete with the United States and Japan. Opponents said France would lose control over economic and immigration policies under the treaty, which the member governments drew up with little public debate.
Defeat would have struck apossibly fatal blow to the accord, which was already rejected by Dutch voters in June. It also could have unleashed renewed turmoil in world financial markets by damaging the stature of President Francois Mitterand and other European leaders who promoted the accord and forcing the EC into a fundamental reassessment of its future.
nate the new EC were a factor in French uneasiness about the treaty
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said that while the approval margin was narrow, the French referendum would give new impetus to the European unification process.
Fears that Germany would domi-
His foreign minister, Klaus Kinkel,
welcomed the news as a very decisive
step forward for Europe. He said
national identities would need to be
taken into account, but that the treaty
should not be rewritten.
a rar-ight leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who opposed the treaty, said, "It's a pseudo-success — a mediocre 'ves.'"
"The EC can't function tomorrow like it did yesterday," said Alain Juppe, the No. 2 official of the Rally for the Republic, the largest conservative party.
The referendum on Maastricht, reached in December in the Dutch town by that name, was widely viewed as having more international ramifications than any election in French history, although it did not threaten the EC itself.
Most significant political leaders and newspapers urged passage.
Voters were asked a single question:
"Do you approve the bill submitted to
the French people by the president of the republic authorizing the ratification of the treaty on European union?"
Polling firms estimated that the final turnout would be about 70 percent, which is considered strong but still below the record 80 percent set in two of eight referendums held under the 34-year-old Constitution.
While Danish voters rejected the treaty, the Irish approved it. The other nine EC countries have ratified or plan to ratify the treaty in their parliaments, although there are increasing calls for public votes.
The currency crisis that drove the Italian lira and British pound out of the European Monetary System last week was blamed in large part on Germany's interest rates, which were kept high to combat inflation during costly unification with eastern Germany.
Treaty opponents said individual countries would lose control over their own monetary policy and could be dominated by Germany's economic powerhouse. Backers said the treaty would rein in German dominance and smooth inter-European trade.
Talks move Syria and Israel closer to peace
The Associated Press
Neither Israel nor Syria had immediate comment on the report.
TUNIS, Tunisia — Syria and Israel peace negotiators are moving toward approving a declaration formally ending their state of war. Palestine Liberation Organization officials said yesterday.
If this development is true, it would intensify the pressure on Palestinians in the U.S.-sponsored peace talks that are under way in Washington to compromise on their demand for an independent homeland or be blamed for wrecking peace prospects.
The PLO is nominally excluded from the peace talks but advises the Palestinian delegates at the talks, which recessed Thursday and resume today.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said that an Israeli-Syrian declaration might even be possible by Thursday, when the sixth round of the peace negotiations that began in October are expected to end.
The officials said the Middle East's most implacable adversaries are discussing detailed security arrangements for the Golan Heights for the first time in the 44-year-old Arab-Israeli conflict.
There still are differences on how much of the occupied land Israel would return to Syria, they said.
They said the Syrian-Israeli agenda consisted of five main points:
withdrawal from the Golan, a strategic plateau Israel has occured since the 1967 Mideast war.
a timetable for the pullout from the heights, which are a two-hour drive from the Syrian capital,
■ creation of a U.N.-policed demilitarized zone on
the Golan:
- fixed surveillance positions on either side of the zone for each country to protect its territory;
■ the size of forces on both sides of the zone and the regions they would patrol.
They have exchanged documents and maps outlining present military positions and explaining the purpose of the positions to be retained or relocated in the future, the officials said.
The Palestinian sources said the Syrians and Israeli moved on to possible areas of agreement after failing to reach common ground on Israeli territorial concessions.
The progress is attributed largely to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's declarations this month that he was willing to yield some of the Golan in return for a peace treaty and full diplomatic and trade relations with Syria.