4B
Tuesday, October 18, 1994
NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Aristide returns to power amid violence
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — President Jean-Bertrand Aristide preached anew for reconciliation from behind his bulletproof shield Monday, hours after a mob torched the family home of Haiti's new army commander.
Fifteen buildings were set afire and one man was killed in the coastal town of Gonaives after a false rumor spread Sunday night that Maj. Gen. Jean-Claude Duperval had led a coup attempt against Aristide.
After three years of army rule, Aristide faces a major challenge in persuading his nation to put aside the desire for vengeance.
At the same time, concern for Aristide's security has practically made him a prisoner of the National
Palace, where his appearances have been from behind a bulletproof shield on the palace steps.
The mob attack in Gonales, 100 miles north of Port-au-Prince, occurred after Aristide summoned Dupurval to the National Palace on Sunday to discuss how to dismantle the military, including cutting the army roster by 80 percent.
U. S. troops guarding the palace unloaded Duperval's normal sidearms, prompting unfounded rumors to spread that the army chief had tried to topple Aristide.
Radio Signal FM said U.S. and Haitian soldiers arrested 109 people in putting down the violence in Gonaives.
In a brief speech Monday at the National Palace, Aristide urged
"creating a state of law like all modern societies."
Underlining Aristide's plea for reconciliation, Duperval joined the Haitian leader on the palace stairs and helped him hoist the the Haitian flag.
Then Duperval offered Aristide a crisp salute and energetic handshake. The army chief was promoted last week to replace coup leader Raoul Cedras, who fleed into exile.
Enthusiastic crowds briefly prevented Aristide's motorcade from leaving the palace to lay a wreath at Haiti's national museum to commemorate the assassination in 1806 of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, one of Haiti's founding fathers.
U.S. to provide jobs to Haitian armed forces
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The United States will give Haiti $216 million during the coming year and provide jobs for members of the widely-hated armed forces, a top Clinton administration official said yesterday.
As President Jean-Bertrand Aristide requested, the administration has agreed to pay the salaries of soldiers not chosen to be part of a new, 1,500-member Haitian military, and ultimately provide them new jobs, said Brian Atwood, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID).
The current 7,000-member armed forces will be evaluated to see which ones are acceptable to remain in the
new force, a process expected to take some time, Atwood said. During that time, the United States will pay the soldiers salaries and ultimately integrate them into U.S.-funded jobs programs that are expected to employ 50,000 Haitians overall. Atwood said.
AID has allocated $5 million of the U.S. funding to pay military salaries and train them in new jobs.
Aristide's economic reconstruction program for Haiti calls for guaranteeing jobs to members of the armed forces, many of whom are revered by the population for their brutal tactics. Human rights groups say about 3,000 people died at the hands of the Haitian military and its civilian allies during the three years of Aristide's exile.
Aristide was restored to power on Saturday under the protection of occupying U.S. troops, following the peaceful departure of coup leaders who deposed him in September 1991.
AID will spend $15 million for a short-term jobs program that will focus on public works type projects — garbage collection, road and irrigation canal repair, erosion control and soil conservation. The former military members will be among the 50,000 people employed, Atwood said.
The overall $216 million in U.S. assistance also includes $32 million for development of local police forces, in place of the combined 7,000-member military-police force that is to be dismantled.
Bosnian Serbs hijack and loot medical convoy
The Associated Press
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Bosnian Serbs yesterday commanded a U.N. convoy carrying medical supplies to Sarajevo, forced it to a Serb hospital and unloaded its supplies, a U.N. relief representative said.
Kris Janowski, representative for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said it was the first time in the 30-month siege of Sarajevo that an entire convoy had been hijacked and looted.
The hijacking appeared to reflect a growing need by the Bosnian Serbs for basic goods after Yugoslavia — now comprising only Serbia and tiny Montenegro — closed its border to most supplies 10 weeks ago to underline its desire for peace in Bosnia.
Janowski said the five-truck convoy, escorted by a U.N. armored personnel carrier, was stopped at a Serb checkpoint at noon as it headed from the Sarajevo airport toward the city. After a five-hour standoff, the convoy was forced to drive through the Serbheld Sarajevo suburb of Ilidza to a hospital at nearby Blazuj, where all the supplies were unloaded.
The trucks returned empty to Sarajevo, Janowski said. U.N. officials contacted Serb headquarters in Pale to demand the return of the supplies.
The convoy carried supplies from the World Health Organization that were to be unloaded at a Sarajevo depot, then distributed among government-held and Serb-held areas of Sarajevo, Janowski said.
Monarchy turned upside down as Charles claims the love bug passed him by
The Associated Press
loved her.
LONDON—His father rebuked him and others castigated Prince Charles yesterday for talking about his unhappy childhood and miserable marriage in a remarkable outpouring that has rocked Britain's troubled royals.
Princess Diana was reportedly numbed by Charles' admission in an authorized biography that he never
Charles' father, Prince Philip, showed his disapproval. But royal aides denied the family was split, calling it a "healthy debate."
Prime Minister John Major interrupted his working day yesterday to assure the public that the British monarchy was "very sound and very secure."
And supporters said the fact that
Charles crashed through royal convention to discuss personal heartache may set the House of Windsor on course to becoming a more open and modern monarchy, with less mystique.
"We need a new sort of public life and we need a new sort of monarchy to go with it," said David Starkey, a leading British constitutional expert.
To the chagrin of the Conservative
government, the furor overshadowed yesterday's departure of Queen Elizabeth II and Philip on the first state visit to Russia.
"Ive never discussed private matters and I don't think the queen has either. Very few members of the family have," Philip, 73, said in a rare interview with London's Daily Telegraph published yesterday ahead of the trip.
Syrian Jews head to United States; long-awaited promise finally fulfilled
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Yesterday Israel lifted the curtain on a secret two-year operation that brought more than 1,200 Syrian Jews to the Jewish state via the United States, an exodus soon to include the group's chief rabbi.
The migration fulfilled a promise made by Syrian President Hafez Assad to the Bush and Clinton administrations. Israeli ministers lauded it as a sign of Syrian good will.
The chief rabbi of Syrian Jewry, Rabbi Avraham Hamra, was to arrive in Israel today to join 1,262 members of his community, most of them living in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Holon and Bat Yam.
In Jerusalem, Immigration Minister Yair Tsaban said the exodus "took a long time, a lot of hard work under great secrecy."
The Jewish Agency that is responsible for immigration said that 3,670 Jews had left Syria for the United States since April 1992. Israel then secretly flew 1,262 of them to Israel, an agency statement said.
The Israeli government had never confirmed reports that some of the Syrian Jews were arriving in Israel. More than 2,400 settled in New York City and about 300 remain in Syria.
Assad lifted travel restrictions on Syrian Jews in April 1992 at the request of the United States. However, there were many delays in issuing the exit permits, leading to speculation the ban had been reimposed.
The announcement came a few hours after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin initialed a draft peace treaty with Jordan. He said he hoped the agreement would have positive repercussions on Israel's talks with Syria.
Islamic militants protest arrests
The Associated Press
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In a growing challenge to Yasser Arafat, thousands of Islamic militants rioted outside the central jail yesterday, demanding freedom for arrested fundamentalists.
Mahmoud Zahar, a leader of the fundamentalist Hamas movement, threatened bloodshed unless the 210 activists detained last week after the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier were released.
Palestinian officials persuaded the crowd to disperse after three hours. They released 60 detainees and promised the rest would be home within days.
It was the third day of anti-Arafat protests in Gaza, where a fragile
But a Palestinian commander said the police would soon begin confiscating - unregistered weapons, signaling a possible crackdown on lizzedin al-Qassam, Hamas' armed wing.
coexistence between the five-month-old autonomy government and its fundamentalist opposition appears to have been thrown off balance by the kidnapping last week of an Israeli soldier.
Sgt. Nachshon Waxman's captors killed him Friday as Israeli commandos stormed their safehouse north of Jerusalem. A commando and three kidnappers also died.
Hamas denounced PLO leaders for allegedly giving information to Israel that led to the kidnappers.
Israel had mistakenly believed that Waxman, who was kidnapped Oct. 9, was being held in Gaza and pressed Palestinian authorities to find him. Palestinian troops arrested scores of Hamas activists in searching for Waxman.
Palestine Liberation Organization Brig. Gen. Ghazi Jabali said a political dialogue with Hamas would resume soon in hopes of persuading the faction to participate in self-rule.
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