4B
NATION/WORLD
Thursday, September 29, 1994
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Clinton vows to get GATT through Congress
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Clinton insisted yesterday that Congress must pass a tariff-cutting, 123-nation world trade accord this year, even if it requires a rare lame-duck session of the Senate.
"This is the biggest trade agreement in history. It's the biggest worldwide tax cut in history, by reductions of tariffs . . . I think it's important to pass it," he said at a news conference with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
The House is expected to pass the
accord, negotiated under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, with little difficulty. But Sen. Ernest Hollings, D.S.C., is threatening to delay action in the Senate.
"If for some reason the Senate does not pass it, then I will urge that they stay in session and simply go on recess for the election break and come back after the recess and pass GATT," Clinton said.
Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, said he supports the president's efforts to enact GATT this year and will work with him to get it done.
The Constitution gives the president power to call special sessions of either or both chambers of Congress on extraordinary occasions. Aides to
"This is plainly in our interests," Clinton said. "It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. And I'm going to do whatever I can, within the law, to get this done this year."
Clinton's statement came only hours after Hollings told reporters he would keep the accord in his Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee long after Congress'
planned Oct. 7 adjournment.
Hollings told reporters at a news conference that there was no chance at all that he would allow his panel to vote.
Meanwhile, two key committee votes yesterday to send the GATT bill to the House floor. The Ways and Means Committee vote was 35-3; the Energy and Commerce Committee cleared it on a voice vote.
Senior members of the Ways and Means panel predicted it would pass the House next week by a large bipartisan majority.
Mexican official assassinated
The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — A young man assassinated a key official of Mexico's ruling party yesterday, rocking a country already buffered by a turbulent year of violence and rebellion.
Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu,
secretary-general of the institu-
tional Revolutionary Party was
shot in the neck after getting into
his car following a breakfast at
party headquarters. Shattered
glass from the passenger side
window was strewn on a side street off
the busy Paseo de la Reforma
boulevard.
Abank guard tackled the gunman and turned him over to police. Officials identified him as an Acapulco resident but did not give a motive for what President Carlos Salinas de Gortari described as a hideous crime.
"This is a day of mourning for all Mexicans," said President-elect Ernesto Zedillo.
The killing shocked officials still recovering from the March 23 assassination of PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, shot at a Tijuana campaign rally. Zedillo, his successor, won the
Aug. 21 presidential election and takes power Dec. 1.
Both Zedillo and Salinas were at the Hospital Español where Ruiz Massieu, his shirt ripped open and soaked with blood, was rushed after the shooting. Doctors said Ruiz Massieu had no pulse on arrival and was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m., an hour after the shooting.
Mexico also was shaken this year by a New Year's uprising by Mayan Indians in southern Mexico, a wave of kidnappings of businessmen and narcotics-related violence.
Despite the turbulence, the party, which has governed Mexico since 1929, was able to gain 50 percent of the vote in the national election. Widely feared post-electoral violence failed to materialize.
The assassination of Ruiz Massieu, No.2 in the ruling party, jolted Mexico again just as the country appeared to be settling down.
Deputy Attorney General Mario Ruiz Massieu, the slain man's brother, announced the death. He is in charge of prosecuting drug traffickers for the federal attorney general's office, which has the suspected gunman in custody.
Lawmakers return to Haiti to begin work on rebuilding
The Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitian lawmakers cast aside years of fear to reunite yesterday — under the protection of American soldiers — and try to build a democratic society.
But gunshots slowed the first few steps toward democracy, with pro-army militiamen firing on marchers who support the return of elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. One man was critically wounded.
The shooting broke out just blocks from the seaside Legislative Palace, where politicians met under U.S. guard to begin work on an amnesty for the military leaders who ousted Aristide three years ago.
Amnesty for the coup and the human rights abuses that followed was part of a last-minute deal between the ruling junta and an American delegation led by former President Carter.
U. S. officials have strongly backed an amnesty to defuse violence by desperate Haitian soldiers, who fear retribution if Aristide returns.
As American troops wearing camouflage fatigues looked on, several of the returning lawmakers hugged
friends who greeted them as they stepped off a Boeing 737 jetliner from Miami.
"We don't want (army chief Raoul) Cedras! It is Aristide we want!" the crowd sang as a band played.
"We are happy about the amnesty bill," said one well-wisher, Nene Dordilus, surveying the scene. "These guys can finally leave, and we can go on."
Before they left Miami, several of the returning lawmakers said they opposed granting the military rulers amnesty but would go along with it in order to restore the elected government to Haiti.
At least six anesthetics proposals have been prepared, and there was no estimate when, or even if, the lawmakers would reach agreement.
In another move toward democracy, Port-au-Prince Mayor Evans Paul announced he would return to City Hall today after spending much of the past three years in hiding.
Aristide supporters planned huge demonstrations Friday to coincide with the third anniversary of Aristide's overthrow.
Fifty-four of 79 deputies and 11 of 17 senators attended yesterday's parliament session.
Perry attacks NATO policy
SEVILLE, Spain — NATO should respond "with compelling force," not just tit-for-tat, against Bosnian Serb aggressors, Defense Secretary William Perry said yesterday at a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers.
Perry said he hoped to persuade his counterparts to support a wider use of air power to respond to Bosnian Serb defiance of safe havens and other international agreements concerning the former Yugoslavia.
"When we go in, I want to go in with compelling force, force new
necessarily just proportionate to the act that was taken but enough to make it clear that there's a heavy price to pay for violating these rules that NATO has established." he said.
Stepped-up air assaults would not only prevent violations by Bosnian Serb forces but also would blunt their advantage on the ground in heavy weapons, Perry said.
Perry said he saw no support among the European allies for lifting the arms embargo against the embattled Balkan region. Countries such as France, Spain and Britain are concerned about the safety of their own U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia.
Serbs end two-week power cutoff
The Associated Press
12 trucks and 30 British peacekeepers they had held for a week.
SARAJEVO, Electricity, gas and water were restored to most of Sarajevo yesterday after a two-week cutoff by Bosnia's Serbs, but gunfire on the Bosnian capital picked up.
One U.N. source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bosnian Serb military officials were refusing to talk to the United Nations and making unacceptable demands that could keep Sarajevo's airport closed indefinitely.
Bosnian Serbs have begun demanding fuel from any U.N. vehicles moving through the Mount Igman area south of Sarajevo, threatening to "paralyze all U.N. movement on that mountain," Labarsouque said.
Serbs did release a U.N. convoy of
Despite the tension, electricity and natural gas service, cut off 13 days ago, were restored to most of the city after Serbs permitted repair missions to proceed.
Water service also began returning yesterday evening.
U.N. plan for Rwandan refugees stalls
The Associated Press
KIGALI, Rwanda—The United Nations called off its program to return refugees to their homes in Rwanda yesterday, as U.N. investigators began looking into allegations of revenge killings by the new government's army.
The United Nations suspended convys that were to have taken up to 4,000 refugees a day, mostly Hutus, from camps in southwest Rwanda back to other parts of the country.
Officials said there were not enough people willing to go in the convoy.
"We had many indications people were waiting for transport, and we thought we wouldn't be able to cope, but something has obviously happened," said Maj. Jean-Guy Plante, the U.N. military representative in Kigali.
The U.N. High Commission for Refugees last week accused troops of Rwanda's new Tutsi-led government of carrying out reprisal killings against Hutus.
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