Section A·Page 11
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, August 19, 1999
World
Peruvian military kills rebel and wife
The Associated Press
LIMA, Peru — One of a dwindling number of Shining Path rebel leaders was killed, along with his wife, during a clash with military forces in Peru's northwestern jungle, officials said Tuesday.
Carlos Audel Nunez, also known as "Comrade Manuel," died Saturday in the jungle province of Tocache, 280 miles northeast of Lima, along with his wife, Mercedes Chamorro Arrieta, military officials told The Associated Press.
Nunez was considered the right-hand man of Filomeno Cerron Cardoso, who officials say now heads the Maoist Shining Path after the July 14 capture of the group's national leader, Oscar Ramirez Durand.
Military units had been sent into Peru's jungle highlands north of Lima to search for Cardoso, who fights under the name "Comrade Artemio."
Nunez's death was another blow to the weakened rebel group, which lost its destructive momentum after the capture of its legendary founder, Abimael Guzman, in a Lima safe house in 1992.
Cardoso's rebels had been blamed in recent weeks for a series of attacks and acts of sabotage, including firebombing trucks and knocking out electricity towers, affecting towns throughout the Huallaga Valley, a traditional stronghold for the rebel group.
The Shining Path in the late 1980s and early 1990s almost brought the Peruvian government to its knees, assassinating mayors and informers and waging a vicious car bombing campaign in Lima. Since 1980, the fighting has left 30,000 dead, including soldiers, rebels and civilians.
Taiwan rolls out tanks, tensions increase
The Associated Press
CHI TOWNSHIP, Taiwan — Tanks blasted at steel targets and ran obstacle courses through water and smoke Tuesday, while anti-tank launchers fired salvos in a deafening display of how Taiwan would defend itself against any invasion from China.
Such live fire demonstrations have always been common as Taiwan's government tries to show taxpayers their defense dollars are being well spent. But they've taken on a new urgency now that military tensions across the Taiwan Strait have escalated to their highest level in three years.
Beijing has reiterated its threat to attack Taiwan following President Lee Teng-hui's assertion of statehood last month. But Taiwan doesn't want a fight, and the Taiwanese military commanders said the timing of the tank drills — which had been in the works
— which had been in the works for months — was purely coenci-
After the firing stopped and the smoke cleared, Lei Yuan-chiao, deputy army commander in chief, smiled broadly and gave a thumbs up verdict on the rollout of four souped-up M-41D tanks. The tanks could play a crucial role in any war against China, even though they are almost as old as the half-century conflict that has simmered since Taiwan was separated from China in a 1949 civil war.
dental.
"We can now be assured of the effectiveness of the upgrade," Lei told reporters who watched the display along with lawmakers and residents of the mountainous area around a sprawling complex of defense factories, 120 miles south of Taipei.
The Taiwanese insisted they were not rattling any sabers.
It was likely a coincidence that the Taiwanese exercises came right after China's profile made its own high-profile display of
force Monday, parading missiles on trucks, armored personnel carriers and tanks through Beijing.
At the Taiwanese military show, a local noodle shop owner, Lin Tun, said he was impressed by the tanks but not overly worried about an attack from Beijing.
"It's really good to know that our military is on the ball," Tun said. "But I don't think China will do anything. We're not scared of
China."
China says Lee's July 9 statement that relations between the sides should be termed "state-to-state" was effectively a bold step toward formal independence, something China says will lead to war. Beijing has demanded that Taiwan repudiate Lee's remarks, but Taipei has shown no signs it will back down.
Ever since their civil war, China has viewed Taiwan as a renegade province that must eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Taiwan's military says flights by Chinese warplanes over the Taiwan Strait have become more frequent in recent weeks — including, for the first time, training flights by the Chinese air force's most sophisticated Sukhoi 27 jets. But it insists it sees no indications that China is preparing military action.
Many of the overhauled M-41D tanks will be deplored on the
heavily fortified island groups of Kinmen and Matsu just off the Chinese coast, the military said. They are considered prime targets for any Chinese show of force.
So far, 50 of Taiwan's aging corps of roughly 400 M-41 tanks have undergone the upgrade — receiving night vision viewfinders, laser sights, new diesel engines and cannons, said Chang Ke-su, an officer on the project.
The upgrade program, at $621,000 per tank, is far cheaper than the cost of purchasing new models. It was accelerated after China held threatening war games and fired missiles into waters near Taiwan in 1996, the last major flaring of tensions across the strait.
The 25-ton M-41 tanks dates first entered service with the U.S. Army in 1950. But for Taiwan, the model is still vital to guarding the shoreline and sinking landing vessels before they can make a beachhead, Lei said.
Rebel groups in Congo call for cease-fire in dispute
The Associated Press
KISANGANI, Congo — Four days of heavy combat in this northern Congolese city turned into an uneasy calm after Uganda and Rwanda agreed to an immediate cease-fire.
The two nations, whose fighters had been battling in the streets of Kisangani since Saturday, agreed Tuesday night to put down their arms.
"There been a cease-fire. Both sides agreed," Lt. Col. Patrick Nyavumba, commander of Rwandan forces in Congo, said Tuesday. He did not indicate the length of the cease-fire, but Ugandan state radio also announced that an accord had been reached.
Neither rebel movement signed the accord, though both said they agreed to it.
The agreement, which called for an immediate end to the fighting in Kisangani, followed talks between Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Rwandan Vice President Paul Kagame at Queen Elizabeth National Park in southwestern Uganda.
While Rwanda and Uganda were once unified in their support for rebels fighting Congolese President Laurent Kabila, a simmering feud about their backing of separate rebel factions turned into full-scale combat on Saturday.
While the two nations had initially joined a group of Congolese Tutsis, disaffected Congolese soldiers and opposition politicians fighting Kabila, their differences have deepened since Kabila and three other African nations
signed the July 10 accord in Lusaka, Zambia. At issue is which rebel leader will sign the Lusaka accord.
Wamba, who was thrown out of the main rebel group in May, insists on signing the July agreement. With Ugandan backing, he set up his headquarters in Kisangani.
His Rwanda-backed successor, Emile Ilunga, claims Wamba has no troops and no political following. He refuses to sign the accord if Wamba does.
Uganda also wants a quick withdrawal from Congo while Rwanda refuses to pull out until Rwandan Hutu militiamen, responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, are removed from Kabila's army and turned in for trial.
Russia blames peacekeepers for causing attacks in Kosovo
The Associated Press
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia — Russia blamed its NATO peacekeeping partners for attacks against Kosovo Serbs while victims of the latest violence — a mortar attack in an area where American troops are supposed to keep order — were buried.
Russia leveled its charge one day after attackers, who are presumed to be ethnic Albanians, fired nine mortars onto the southeastern village of Klokot, killing two Serbs and injuring five. The Kosovo Liberation Army was supposed to have turned all mortars and other heavy weapons over to peacekeepers, although it was unclear whether the guerrillas launched the attack.
"Violence is raging in Kosovo. The killings of peaceful civilians, arsons and robberies of non-Albanians multiply," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "In essence, ethnic cleansing is in full swing in Kosovo. This is the outcome of the 'poly'
of pacifying' Albanian separatism on the part of several Western nations."
The statement was a clear reference to American support for ethnic Albanians and the separatist KLA during the 78-day NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, which ended when Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accepted a peace plan in June.
Russia called for energetic actions to stop terrorism, separatism and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic. The statement also charged Kosovo's independence-minded ethnic Albanians of openly challenging the international community.
On Tuesday, Serb villagers in Klokot buried the victims of the mortar attack — a 23-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man. An American tank stood guard outside the Serbian Orthodox church as the procession passed through the village.
Threats by ethnic Albanian neighbors have prompted
most of the province's 200,000 Serbs to flee. But Klokot villagers vowed to stay, despite the attack.
"We don't have anywhere to go," cried Ljubica Marinkovic, a villager.
Russia vehemently opposed NATO's bombing campaign and generally sided with the Serbs, Moscow's traditional allies.
Hopes that ethnic tensions may be easing were raised Monday when ethnic Albanians in the northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica called off a planned demonstration after U.N. and French officials announced a plan to allow 25 Albanian families a day to return to their homes in the Serb-controlled sector of the city.
The city has been divided along ethnic lines the troops have been attempting to prevent violence.
On Tuesday, however, a Serbian leader in Kosovska Mitrovica denied he had agreed to the resettlement plan.
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