20A
Wednesday, August 16, 1995
UN I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
Police clash with Catholics in Northern Ireland
The Associated Press
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Police clashed Saturday with Catholics trying to block a Protestant march through their neighborhood, giving new urgency to efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.
Catholic politicians called the violence the worst since the Irish Republican Army cease-fire on Sept. 1, 1994, and said it seriously threatened chances for peace.
Ten civilians and 12 police officers were injured in skirmishes that broke out after police tried
to remove 200 Catholics who had blocked a bridge over the Lagan River. When protesters pelted them with bottles and stones, police fired rubber bullets, wounding one man in the face.
Later, police held back Catholics as some 30 members of the Apprentice Boys, a fraternal organization that celebrates Protestant defiance against Catholic King James II in the 17th century, marched across the bridge while a band played.
As they approached the betting shop where Protestant gunmen
killed five people in February 1992, one of the marchers mimed spraying the shop with machine-gun fire.
Angered Catholics broke through the police cordon to kick the armored vehicles, chanting pro-IRA slogans.
The fighting, which closely mirrored a clash between Catholics and police on the Lagan bridge about a Protestant march on July 12, increased pressure on politicians to restart Northern Ireland's stalled peace process.
As the first anniversary of an Irish Republican Army cease-fire
approaches, parties remain deadlocked over Britain's refusal to admit the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party to all-party talks until the outlawed group surrenders its weapons.
Later Saturday, hundreds of Apprentice Boys marched around the walls of London-derry, 60 miles northwest of Belfast, to mark the relief of the city in 1689 when 13 Apprentice Boys slammed its gates shut on James' army.
Chanting Catholics had tried to block the marchers from crossing the stretch of wall overlooking the Catholic Bogside area, but police stood in their way.
Fighting that exploded during the Londonderry march on Aug. 12, 1969, sparked rioting in Catholic areas all over the British-ruled province, beginning 25 years of sectarian "troubles."
That ended on Sept. 1, 1994,
when the IRA began a cease-fire.
Protestant gunmen announced a
truce of their own the next
month, on Oct. 13.
One of the most notorious Protestant gunmen, Michael Stone, was allowed a three-day
home leave Saturday, Stone, who shot and killed six Catholic funeral-goers in 1989, now supports the peace process.
A number of Catholic and Protestant prisoners have been granted short home leaves in recent months as part of a normalization process.
In Ireland, police said they uncovered a "significant" cache of explosives and bomb-making equipment in County Cork. They said they believed the IRA hid the cache well before the ceasefire.
Clinton seeks global nuclear test ban
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Clinton says his decision to support an end to even small-scale nuclear testing should make it easier to negotiate a worldwide test ban.
"A comprehensive test ban is the right step as we continue pulling back from the nuclear precipice, a precipice which we began to live with 50 years ago this week," Clinton said Friday.
The president announced that U.S. negotiators in Geneva would seek a "zero yield" test ban that bars even the smallest of nuclear explosions, despite a belief among some advisers that limited testing could help ensure the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
He tried to ease such concerns by promising to exercise "supreme national interest rights" to withdraw from the treaty and conduct tests if the United States ever loses confidence in the safety of a critical nuclear weapon.
Clinton said it was unlikely that would be necessary, since he was establishing new annual reporting and certification requirements to ensure U.S. nuclear weapons remain safe and reliable.
Ashton Carter, assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, said the Energy and Defense departments would keep the Nevada Test Site in condition to allow a quick resumption of testing.
Clinton's proposal generated concern among some Republicans that the United States could lose its ability to ensure its nuclear arsenal is safe.
Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said, "I remain to be convinced that we can monitor the reliability, safety and accuracy of our nuclear weapons without the ability to test them."
"These weapons are machines and will break down despite the intense scrutiny they undergo," Thurmond said.
The last U.S. nuclear test was in September 1992. Later that same month, Congress imposed a moratorium that was to lapse in July 1993 but which Clinton extended.
A group of private scientists recently advised the administration that some small-scale tests could marginally improve the reliability of nuclear warheads but were not worth the potential damage to efforts to conclude the treaty.
Supporters of the president's move agreed it should speed negotiations toward a treaty next year.
The Peace Action Education Fund, an anti-nuclear group, said earlier that Pentagon support for tests with explosive yield equivalent to 500 tons of TNT had called into question the U.S. commitment to a test ban and contributed to the lack of progress in the treaty negotiations.
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Saudi Arabia executes alleged political enemy
The Associated Press
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A man allegedly linked to Saudi Arabia's leading Islamic opposition group was beheaded on Saturday after being convicted of throwing acid at an undercover policeman, the government said.
It was the first execution in more than a decade in which the government has mentioned political opposition in its charges.
Nine others convicted of charges related to sedition and boarding arms — reportedly received from opposition leaders in exile — were sentenced to up to 18 years in prison and 300 lashes, according to an Interior Ministry statement.
The executed Saudi was identified as Abdullah bin Abud-Rahman bin Abdullah al-Hadeef. The statement said he attacked the policeman outside his home nearly a year ago, but it did not describe the circumstances.
It also alleged that he plotted assassinations and kidnappings and confessed to plans to use the arms, which were seized by the authorities, to attack residential complexes. The statement did not elaborate on the targets.
The accomplices tried to help him escape the country, distribute opposition leaflets and arrange meetings to discuss their plans, the statement said.
The statement said the crimes were committed under orders from Islamic opposition leader Mohammed al-Massari and his aide, Saad bin Rasheed bin Mohammed al-Faageeh.
Al-Massari heads the London-based Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights. The group seeks to oust the royal family, which it accuses of corruption and mismanagement, and to establish a stricter Islamic government in the kingdom.
In London, al-Massari said some of those convicted were associated with the group, but denied any link to the executed man.
"The regime is, as usual, lying," al-Massari said. "We challenge them to bring forward the evidence in a foreign court, where people are given the opportunity to witness not under torture."
Beheadings have been on the rise in Saudi Arabia, with more than 120 in the first seven months of this year — already more than the total for any previous year.
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