UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, March 11, 1997
7
Albanian rebels beef up firepower
Jet fighters, guns stolen from army
The Associated Press
TIRANA, Albania — Rebels in southern Albania seized more territory yesterday, looting assault rifles, heavy machine guns and MIG fighter planes from government bases as police and army units fled north.
Ih Kucova, 75 miles south of Tirana, the capital, rebels towed three Chinese-made MiGs off the tarmac of Albania's largest military air base — now abandoned — to hide them from government forces.
A shopkeeper pleaded for people to put down their guns, but they answered by firing Kalashnikovs into the air. Violence in the town injured eight people, the Health Ministry said.
Security forces withdrew 25 miles north to the town of Lushinha.
In Trana, President Sall Berisha met with opposition leaders to discuss the composition of a new coalition government, which would run the country before elections held by June. Opposition politicians, however, do not control the armed civilians, who have said they would accept nothing less than Berisha's resignation.
Berisha agreed to the election and the new government in an attempt to quell the rebellion, which was sparked by public rage about high-risk investment schemes in which nearly every Albanian family lost money.
Many blame the government for not warning people away from the pyramid schemes, and some claim that the government profited from the funds.
Berisha and the Socialist opposition agreed yesterday that the new government would have a prime minister from Berisha's Democratic Party and a deputy prime minister from the opposition, the state news agency reported. Other posts would be shared evenly between the two sides.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns welcomed the agreement.
But as politicians debated, the insurrection in the south grew.
"We now strongly urge all parties in Albania to implement this agreement, to implement the amnesty, the cease-fire, and to work toward a formation of the new government," he said yesterday.
State TV reported unrest in Gramsh, 60 miles south of Tirana. There were unconfirmed reports of two dead there. Hurma Rredhi, a local reporter in Fieri, just south of Gramsh, said that the police and armed supporters of Berisha's ruling Democratic Party had fled.
In Permet, farther south, residents looted an artillery brigade yesterday after more than 2,000 soldiers switched sides and let civilians into the base.
In New York, Macedonian officials asked the United Nations to suspend plans to cut its peacekeeping force there because of the unrest in neighboring Albania. The force includes 500 U.S. troops.
The 1,100-member peacekeeping force was sent to Macedonia in 1992 to prevent fighting in Bosnia from spreading there. In November, the Security Council decided to keep the peacekeepers in Macedonia for another six months.
Clinton fears delays in Israeli peace talks
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Clinton intensified his criticism of Israel yesterday for deciding to build 6,500 new Jewish homes in Jerusalem and said that negotiations about the city's future probably would be delayed.
But Clinton urged the Palestinians, who want to make Jerusalem the capital of a state carved out of Israeli-held land, to hold their fire. Speaking as Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces on the West Bank, Clinton said they wind up losing every time they resort to violence.
"They have made dramatic progress in self-government," Clinton said at a joint White House news conference with visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "We are urging always on the Israelis more opportunities to let them progress."
Clinton said the decision did not build confidence as the two sides prepared for negotiations about the future of the city, borders, refugees and other touchy issues.
Last week Clinton criticized the decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to build the new Jewish housing units in Jerusalem, which he vows to retain as Israel's eternal and undivided capital.
Yesterday Clinton was more explicit in his objections. He said that ownership of the land on which Netanyahu intended to build was disputed and that the decision was perceived by the Arabs as illegal.
The result, he said, was that the Saturday deadline for beginning negotiations may not be met.
"When the parties get together and negotiate in good faith, good things happen," Clinton said. "When they attempt to preclude the process of negotiations, or pre-empt it, or are insensitive to the needs of the people ... it becomes more difficult to make peace."
Trial of accused torturers begins
Bosnian prison camp officers are charged
The Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Shifting uneasily in their seats, three Muslims and a Croat heard a war crimes prosecutor describe yesterday how the four men allegedly raped, tortured and murdered Bosnian Serbs.
The four on trial, Zejil Daletic, 48, Esad Landz, 24, Hazim Delic, 32, and Zdravko Mucic, 41, rolled their eyes, fiddled with pencils and seemed bored as prosecutor Eric Ostberg opened the trial before the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.
Serbs held for months at the Celebici camp in Muslim-controlled central Bosnia were murdered, tortured, raped and beaten by prison guards and by outside persons who were permitted into the camp, Ostberg said in his opening statement.
About 500 Serbs, most of them civilians, were kept in the camp.
Imprisoned for months or years, inmates were beaten with steel cables and wooden and metal
bars, burned with heated scissors,
and wrapped with fuses, lit on fire
and kept in vats of water, a 49-page
indictment alleges. At least 14
died.
Women were raped, it said, and one man died after a badge with a Muslim party logo was nailed to his head. Some prisoners were forced to act like animals or perform oral sex on each other.
The indictment points to different roles the four may have had in the camp. Delalic, a corulent, wealthy entrepreneur, became a Muslim military commander in 1992. Mucic, a Croat, was the camp's commander. Delic was his Muslim deputy, and Landzo was a guard.
Some survivors have said that Mucic, who feverishly scribbed notes during most of yesterday's four-hour session, tried to lessen their suffering but could not control the guards who carried out most of the atrocities.
There has been no evidence that Delalic or Mucic personally committed atrocities. Even so, they were indicted as men in charge who knew about the crimes and could have stopped them.
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