Tuesday, October 12, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
Nation/World
Chechen leader offers peace plan
Fighting continues following terrorist bombings in Russia
The Associated Press
GROZNY, Russia— Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Chechnya needs to give up suspected terrorists before there can be any talks on ending the fighting in the rebel republic.
Chechnya's President Aslan Maskhadov offered a peace plan Sunday, and said he would crack down on renegade warlords if Russia pulled troops from Chechen territory.
Chechen militants operating beyond Maskhadov's control invaded the neighboring region of Dagestan in August and were suspected in a wave of apartment bombings in Russia last month. The violence prompted Russia to send troops into Chechnya two weeks ago.
RUSSIA
"I view Maskhadov's plan in a positive light, but I would change the priorities," Putin said. "First, the terrorists guilty of attacking
Ellie Hajek / KANSAN
peaceful villages in Dagestan and bombing attacks on apartment houses must be extradited. Give us the men whose hands and arms are stained with blood, and we will be prepared for full-scale talks."
Russian and Chechen forces clashed this past weekend along the Terek River, which cuts across the northern third of Chechnya and has effectively become the front line.
The Chechens said they inflicted heavy casualties and now hold the villages of Cervlyonnaya and Chervlyonnaya-Uzlovaya on the
north side of the river, just 15 miles from the Chechen capital Grozny
“It’s a small victory, but it gives us self-confidence,” Chechen commander Said-Magomed Chunbulavev said.
In his peace proposal, Maskhadov called for Russia to end all combat actions immediately and said the two sides should observe the basic principles outlined in a 1997 peace accord signed following the 1994-96 war. The peace accord gave Chechnya effective independence.
He proposed deploying peacekeepers in the Caucasus Mountain region of southern Russia to prevent further raids, with Chechen soldiers taking part in the contingent. However, the plan did not specify whether forces from Russia would be allowed to patrol inside Chechnya.
Maskhadov, a former Soviet army colonel, is considered a moderate and has stressed the need for economic relations with Russia, while insisting that Chechnya must be independent.
Chechen militants have denounced him for being too willing to cooperate with Russia, and in turn, the Russians have criticized him for not bringing the militants under control.
Officials in Israel confirm exodus of hundreds of Jews from Cuba
The Associated Press
ASHKELON, Israel — Israel's latest secret immigrants made a complex exodus from Cuba that involved at least three foreign countries and help from the Jewish granddaughter of Emiliano Zapata, the legendary Mexican revolutionary.
Israel confirmed yesterday the 400 Cuban Jews were brought to Israel in the past five years in a secret operation that had the blessing of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Israel's military censor lifted a ban yesterday on reporting on their arrival.
Cuban immigrants interviewed at a center in the southern coastal town of Ashkelon said the operation was common knowledge in Cuba.
Everyone in Cuba knew the Jews were coming to Israel, said Alexei Colon Mizrachi, 23, who now lives at the center with his twin brother and father.
A spokesman for the small Jewish community in Cuba angrily denied any secret operation, saying some Cuban Jews had left for Israel, but not in high numbers and not as part of a secret pact.
"That is absolutely false," said Jose Miller, president of the Jewish Community House of Cuba. "In Cuba, there is a general immigration movement to many countries, but there has been no agreement to take members of our Hebrew community to Israel."
Yesterday's revelation allowed the media to broadcast a host of previously censored reports.
including a 1996 Israel radio interview with Margarita Zapata, Emilio Zapata's granddaughter and a revolutionary comrade of Castro.
Two former Cubans who emigrated to Israel shortly after Castro's rise initiated contact with Zapata when she toured Israel in the early 1990s as a guest of the left-of-center Meretz party.
David Roth and Monica Pollack, members of Kibbutz Gazit, a Meretz-affiliated communal farm, handed Zapata a list of Cuban Jews they knew wanted to come to Israel.
Zapata, whose maternal grandmother was a Polish Jewish refugee, took the list to Castro, with whom she had worked closely in the 1950s when he was a guerrilla leader.
The immigrants left Cuba with visas provided by countries sympathetic to their desire to come to Israel — France, Canada and Spain.
Israel and Cuba do not have diplomatic ties, but Castro is known to want to improve Cuba's image abroad and encourage Washington to consider lifting the nearly 40-year-old economic embargo that has hurt Cuba's economy.
The immigrants said they enjoyed life in the relaxed beach town that is their temporary home, but they longed for work so they could move away and support themselves.
Alexei Colon Mizrahi said he would never leave Israel, but would love to return to Cuba for a visit. "I miss baseball," he said. "And Fidel."
New NATO leader wants to increase European defenses
The Associated Press
LONDON— Strengthening European security forces and increasing the number of troops available for deployment will be one of NATO's top priorities, the alliance's incoming leader said yesterday.
George Robertson, who will become secretary-general this week, said the alliance was stretched to the limit after deploying 40,000 troops in Kosovo.
"Critical shortages of employable, rapidly available troops have got to be ironed out," he said.
Robertson said he also would look at improving Europe's sea transport to improve NATO's ability to access trouble spots.
"The Europeans spend two-thirds of what the Americans spend, but we don't get anything like that in terms of capabilities," Robertson said. "That's because we duplicate, because we compete and, in many ways, we are still spending on the defense needs of the Cold War rather than the defense we're going to face tomorrow."
Robertson stressed that the strengthened European defense force would remain within NATO, not become a rival to it.
"There are some people in the United States who believe that the European defense initiative is about decoupling of NATO, the Europeans building a capability that is duplicating and may eventually split away from NATO," he said. "They're wrong, and part of my job is going to be to reassure them that's not on the agenda."
Robertson, S3, currently Britain's defense secretary, is scheduled to take the NATO helm Thursday. He will replace Javier Solana, a former Spanish foreign minister who is ending his four-year term a few months early to take up the new European Union post of foreign policy coordinator.
Robertson said he expected Russia's deployment of troops into Chechnya two weeks ago to be discussed at the Oct. 22 EU-Russian summit in Helsinki, Finland, but would not comment directly on the situation. Russian troops now control the northern third of the breakaway republic.
"Clearly the violence in the northern Caucasus are of concern to the Russians, are of concern to anyone in the region," Robertson said.
As for Kosovo, Robertson said no deadline for withdrawing troops had been set.
"It's going to take a long time. Stability in the Balkans demands it," he said.
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