UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 23.1997
9
Irish peace talks not dead
IRA inclusion rankles leaders
The Associated Press
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Northern Ireland's most hard-line Protestant leader, saying the Irish Republican Army's new cease-fire doesn't offer real concessions, still declared hope for peace talks yesterday.
The Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said after meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair in London his government was a slave to the blackmall of IRA violence.
The IRA-allied Sinn Fein party "has made it clear that they're not giving up a bullet, and that they're not giving up their commitment to get the British out of Ireland," Paisley said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "And that means they want to get me out of Ireland because I'm a British. They're not giving up anything!"
Paisley vowed he would never sit
down with Sinn Fein. Blair has invited the party to join peace talks when they resume in earnest Sept. 15, if the IRA cease-fire that began Sunday holds until then.
Paisley's intransigence and other protests from inside Protestant ranks are heaping pressure on David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionists — Northern Ireland's largest Protestant party — who is still committed to the talks.
Paisley urged all politicians determined to maintain Northern Ireland's union with Britain to withdraw from the talks before Sinn Fein arrives.
"You can't write me out of the picture, because I speak for the vast majority of unionist people in Northern Ireland," he said.
The Orange Order, the long-dominant Protestant fraternal group linked with Trimble's party, also urged him to withdraw from the talks.
But liberal Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian church leaders pleaded for Trimble to stay involved. And representatives of pro-British paramilitary groups, who seem to relish the
"You can't write
me out of the picture, because I speak for the vast
majority of
unionist people in
Northern Ireland. "
ian Paisley
leader, Democratic Unionist Party
chance of tackling Sainn Fein in talks, said Paisley was just a coward.
"Any unionist worth his salt should be inside the negotiating chamber, fighting tooth and nail against the IRA, exposing the obvious weaknesses of their arguments for the world to see — not letting Sinn Fein win by default," said David Ervine, who represents the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force in the talks.
The United Kingdom Unionists walked away from the talks Monday when a Sinn Fein delegation arrived at Stormont, center of British administration in east Belfast.
The nine Northern Ireland parties already involved in the talks — ranging from Paisley to Catholic moderates — are to vote today on a document establishing ground rules for the talks once Sinn Fein gets involved.
The document, prepared by the British and Irish governments, states the IRA and pro-British paramilitary groups should make due progress on disarming during negotiations.
Who takes Sinn Fein expelled if it doesn't make commitments on when the IRA will start handing over weapons. Blair has refused to amend the document, knowing that the Irish side would refuse because it would put the IRA truce at risk.
Refugees inundate Kabul
Taliban opposition shakes up capital
The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Refugees streamed toward Kabul yesterday to escape heavy fighting north of the Afghan capital, where opposition jets pounded Taliban positions and the two sides waged a blistering artillery duel.
Packed into trucks and on foot, the refugees moved down the rocket-punched road to Kabul, passed by the occasional pick-up truck carrying dead and wounded Taliban soldiers.
The Taliban religious army captured Kabul last September and controls roughly two-thirds of southern Afghanistan, where it has
The United Nations said yesterday that an estimated 200,000 refugees had fled to Kabul this year, straining the city's meager resources.
imposed a rigid form of Islamic law. Women are prohibited from attending school or working; men are forced to pray in mosques and grow beards.
An anti-Taliban coalition, led by Afghanistan's former military chief and a northern warlord, claimed yesterday to have taken fresh territory, including the resort town of Stalliff, roughly 30 miles northwest of Kabul.
The claims could not be independently confirmed.
During the weekend, opposition soldiers pushed Taliban forces out of Charikar, capital of Parwan province, 36 miles north of Kabul and Baghram Air Base, about 24 miles north of the capital.
The advances put the opposition alliance within rocket range of the capital.
But eyewitnesses said Taliban soldiers still controlled the high ground around the capital, which makes opposition advances dangerous.
"Several times the Taliban positions came under bombardment. I saw one jet drop two bombs on the high ground," said one witness, who refused to give his name and fleed with his family when Taliban soldiers approached.
Several turbaned Taliban soldiers in pick-up trucks attacked journalists trying to reach the front line.
Taliban leaders declined to comment on whether it was their official position to keep journalists away from the front line.
Religious freedom not so free
Government report criticizes nations for squelching beliefs
The Associated Press
The report, which details international restrictions on religious freedom in 78 countries, also asks Russian President Boris Yeltsin to veto a proposed law curbing the activities of evangelical and other religious groups in his country.
NEW YORK — In its first report on the persecution of Christians around the world, the State Department sharply criticizes China for suppressing religious freedom, The New York Times reported yesterday.
Last year, Congress mandated a report on U.S. efforts to reduce international restrictions on the practice of Christianity, but the State Department broadened its focus to include other persecuted groups, including Tibetans in China and animists, who believe that natural phenomena or inanimate objects possess spirits, in the Sudan.
The Chinese government has regularly violated constitutional guarantees of religious rights, cracking down on unregistered Catholic and Protestant groups, raiding worship groups meeting in private
"The government of China has sought to restrict all actual religious practice to government-authorized religious organizations and registered places of worship," the newspaper quoted the report.
homes, and sometimes detaining, interrogating or beating religious leaders, the report stated.
The U.S. government, in response, said that it had pressed for religious freedom at meetings with Chinese officials — and sometimes discussed specific cases of jailed Christians. President Bill Clinton and other senior officials have met with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
Four underground Roman Catholic bishops have been imprisoned or detained, many priests have been searched and religious articles have been seized.
The Clinton administration has also asked the Russian president to veto legislation awaiting his signature that would restrict religions not registered 15 years ago, when atheism prevailed in the former Soviet Union and religious dissidents were persecuted.
In Iran, government repression of evangelical Christians increased last year, and four Bahais were sentenced to death for abandoning their faith, the report said.
Under the Russian law, independent Baptists and Mormons would not be able to own property, publish literature or worship publicly.
Cambodian factions clash; ruler 'deals' with tensions
The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodian strongman Hun Sen predicted yesterday that there would be no more war in his beleaguered country because he 'has dealt' with the extremists who caused political tensions.
But loyalists of ousted First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh asserted that they had enough ammunition to fight for three more months.
Hun Sen, Ranariddh's co-premier, seized sole power in a July 5 coup. He repeatedly has suggested the prince was amassing a militia force with defecting Khmer Rouge guerrillas and black market weapons from Taiwan.
Hun Sen's political opponents fled after the takeover. Human rights investigators said at least 40 of Ranariddh's supporters were executed.
Hun Sen has the cities and countryside well under his control, but some low-level resistance continues along the northern border with Thailand.
"There is no serious fighting. What we are seeing now are some skirmishes off the main roads," said Kong Heang, a Hun Sen loyalist and deputy governor of the northern Siem Reap province.
He insisted the government was seeking a peaceful solution, but predicted Hun Sen's troops would continue their northward push.
EVERYTHING BUT ICE BEDS DESKS BOOK CASES 936 Mass.
Affordable, Fine Dining for Family and Friends The Castle Tea Room 1307 Massachusetts by Reservation Only, Call 843-1151
THE HARBOUR LIGHTS
Monday
$1.00 Draws-Bud,
Bud Light & Coors Light
$1.25 Premium Draws
Friday
$1.50 Miller Highlife bottles
$3.00 LaBatt's Oil Cans
1031 Massachusetts Street, Lawrence, KS. 841-1960
3rd Annual Bruce Whaley Memorial Ride Saturday, September 27, 1997 6.5-mile, 25-mile or 50-mile bike tour
Time: Registration at 8 am; tour starts at 8:30 am.
Deadline: Pre-registration deadline is Sept. 2.
Fee: $20 for individuals; $40 for family of three. $10 fee for each additional family member. Fee includes T-shirt, sag service and rest stop refreshments.
Location: The tour begins at Shelter House No. 2 on the west edge of Lake Shawnee.
More information: Call 295-8992.
Come Party on the Patio