12
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, October 17, 1991
KJHX Sportstalk 90.7
TIME!!! iraq claimed in a letter to Perez de Cuellar that Israeli warplanes violated its airspace Oct. 4 and flew in formation with U.N. helicopters. The letter warned that the aircraft could be shot down.
TONIGHT at 6:30 PLACE!!! - LIVE from BENCHWARMERS
Join Pete Fulmer and Paul Proia
- Every Thursday night KU sports personalities will take questions from callers and the Benchwarmers' audience
Call 864-4746 or 864-4747 Thursday nights 6:30 - 7:30 on
The Sports Authority
KJHX
90.7
Iraq threatens U.N. flights it says shield Israeli planes
The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Javier Perez duca Cuellar yesterday denied Iraqi allegations that U.N. helicopters were being used to shield Israeli planes from Iraqi gunners.
U. N. weapons inspectors vehemently denied they were aware of Israeli flights into Iraq territory when U.N. helicopters out to search for Scud missile launchers. They said the Iraqi insurgents not hold the U.N. inspection flights.
Iraqi Ambassador Adabir Amir al-Anbari released other letters yesterday complaining about flights over Iraq by U.S. and Kuwaiti planes. The country claimed that Kuwaiti soldiers shot at Iraqi police on the border Oct. 4.
The U.N. Special Commission is destroying Iraq's weapons of mass destruction under the cease-fire that ended the Persian Gulf war.
After Iraq initially refused to allow U.N. helicopters to make flights to look for weapons, the United States hinted that it might take military aid from Iran to finance Iraq backed down last month and the U.N. inspection flights began.
In a letter to Perez de Cuellar dated Oct. 13, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ahmad Hussein alleged that U.N. inspectors had taken the lives with the Israelis over western Iraq.
*In the event of renewed Israeli aggression against our airspace, when U.N. aircraft are present in the same area, we shall not be responsible for the safety of those (U.N.) aircraft and of any U.N. inspectors on board." Hussein's letter said.
Perez de Cuellar and Special Commission official Derek Boothby both denied the Iraqi allegations.
"As an accusation, it is totally false
and unjustified. There is no basis for saying such a thing," the secretary-general said.
Bootby said, "Categorically, there was no collusion."
He said that the Special Commission provided no advance notice of its flight paths.
The appearance of Israeli planes Oct. 4 was a complete surprise to U.N. inspectors and pilots, he said.
In Bahrain, Alastair Livingston,
regional chief of operations for the U.N. Special Commission, said U.N.
Iraq's military will continue despite the Iraqi warning.
"Under no circumstances will the missions stop. Livingston said, "If we convince a problem, and if it comes to discussion, then we will ground the helicopters temporarily until we've had the discussions."
Hussein's letter said the presence of U.N. helicopters over western Iraq at the time as Israeli warplanes kept up attacks on its airspace measures to repel the Israeli aggression.
France, Germany announce plans to create joint 50,000-member army
The Associated Press
PARIS—France and Germany said yesterday that they planned to create a joint 50,000-member army they see as the foundation of a future European army. Britain called the force "dangerous" and a threat to NATO.
The plans by Bonn and Paris gave new impetus to the drive for political union in the 12-nation European Community, but the plans highlighted rifts ahead for an EC summit scheduled for December.
France and Germany outlined their plan to create a Strausberg-based corps made up of 50,000 troops in a letter to Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, whose nation holds the EC's rotating presidency.
The two nations currently have a symbolic joint brigade of 5,000 soldiers.
French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said the corps would be open to all members of the Western European Union and would foreshadow a European army.
The Western European Union, the only wholly European body devoted to defense, includes all EC members except Denmark, Greece and Ireland. All of the union's members belong to NATO, which also includes the United States.
The plan has been forwarded to other EC countries for approval. None rushed to sign up, though the proposal praise from Spain, Italy and Belgium.
The France and German vision of a Western European Union as the centerpiece of an independent European military runs counter to the strongly held British view that European defense must rest foremost with NATO.
"It is useless and dangerous to overlap what NATO is doing." British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said in Harare. Zimbabwe.
The Danish Foreign Ministry said "it is vital importance that a stronger European defense cooperation not weaken cooperation between Europe and North america in NATO."
In Washington, a State Department representative said, "We have an interest in seeing that, as the European security idea is developed, it be complementary to NATO and not detract from NATO's mission."
France and Germany, which went to war three times between 1870 and 1945, have emphasized close cooperation since the end of World War II.
France, which quit NATO's unified command structure in the 1960s, has long maintained that Europe should strike a defense posture independent from the United States.
France and Germany see the Western European Union as the future defense arm of the EC and a centerpiece of a Western European defense that will serve as a strong European pillar in NATO. They want Denmark and Greece to join and Ireland to accept observer status.
Many EC nations have been embarrassed by their disorganized response to the Persian Gulf crisis last year, as well as several recent efforts to arrange a cease-fire in Yugoslavia.
CHECK WITH BALLARDS ON HOW TO GET YOUR PRIME SEATS FOR KU FOOTBALL