6A
Monday, February 12, 1996
NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IRAbomb shatters peace
The Associated Press
LONDON — Police searched yesterday for clues to the identities of Irish Republican Army bombers who attacked a London business district, and the top British official on Northern Ireland vowed that the peace process "will never die."
But while both Britain and Ireland scrambled to get the search for peace back on track, both sides were sticking to oid positions that previously had led nowhere.
The explosion Friday in a parking garage killed two people and injured dozens. Five people remained hospitalized yesterday.
The explosion came one hour after the IRA, complaining of the slow pace of the peace process, announced it was calling off the 17-month-old cease-fire it had declared in its 24-year struggle for a united Ireland. The IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing on Saturday.
Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew said the bombing left the peace process seriously damaged, then added, "But it is not terminally injured, and we are
If they made the decision to start the violence, they can equally make the decision to stop it.
John Bruton Irish Prime Minister
going to keep it going."
Even so, no proposals that might revive the process appeared imminent.
British officials promoted their plan for an elected peace assembly in Northern Ireland to pave the way for talks. The IRA-allied Sinn Fein party, the Irish government and Irish nationalist parties oppose that.
Irish Prime Minister John Bruton
called again for loosely-structured talks based on the successful Bosnian peace talks in Dayton, Ohio — a proposal rejected by Britain and Northern Ireland's pro-British Protestant parties.
Bruton said he would not meet with Sinn Fein until the IRA restored its cease-fire.
"If they made the decision to start the violence, they can equally make the decision to stop it." he said.
However, Bruton said that Irish officials were still in contact with Sinn Fein.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, who said he did not have prior knowledge of the bombing, asked Bruton to reconsider.
"Let's put it together again," Adams said. "Don't give up the ghost."
John Hume, the moderate Catholic politician whose 1993 meetings with Adams helped bring about the IRA cease-fire, warned against freezing out Sinn Fein.
Pro-British Protestant paramilitaries, who called their own ceasefire in October 1994, have said they would not to retaliate for the bombing.
3 hurt in Bahrain blast
MANAMA, Bahrain — A bomb exploded outside a luxury seafront hotel in Bahrain yesterday, and an Islamic organization claimed responsibility.
The Associated Press
Three people reportedly were injured.
The blast occurred after weeks of anti-government unrest in the Persian Gulf island-state, a financial hub in the region and a key U.S. naval base.
He said three people were wounded and taken to hospitals after the 9 p.m. (11 a.m. CST) explosion.
A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a bomb was placed near one of the entrances to the 15-story downtown Diplomat Hotel, which overlooks the Gulf.
Witnesses said several employees of the Diplomat Hotel were rushed to hospitals.
A Pentagon spokesman said he had no reports of American casualties.
A man claiming to speak for the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, the most militant of the groups opposing the government, claimed responsibility for the blast in a telephone call to The Associated Press.
"We put a bomb in the Diplomat Hotel 20 minutes ago," the man said, speaking in English. "Tell the government, which has arrested 2,000 people, that after the feast we will destroy every place."
He was referring to the three-day feast ending the current Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. The feast begins around Feb. 21.
A Dutch guest at the Diplomat,
Simon Paul, said the explosion
occurred in the street outside the
hotel lobby.
He said he leaped under the table when the bomb exploded.
A 42-year-old Indian businessman who was in the hotel restaurant, just off the lobby, said the explosion was close to where he had been sitting.
"If I hadn't moved to the salad
bar, I'd have had it," he said.
He declined to give his name.
Guests streamed out of the hotel, crying and hugging each other.
Carol Mason, an American guest,
said she and her husband just
grabbed their luggage and ran as
the lobby filled with smoke.
Police have arrested hundreds of people in the current wave of unrest that flared in January. On Jan. 17, a small bomb exploded in a ground-floor toilet at the plush Royal Meridian Hotel, but there were no casualties.
Opposition leaders say the protesters want the restoration of parliament, which was suspended in 1975 for criticizing the government.
Other demands are freedom of speech, more job opportunities and the release of all political prisoners.
Bahraini authorities accuse Iran of inciting the violence, which has involved the emirate's Shilite Muslim majority. Iran denies the allegation.
Blast fails to dislodge boulder as hope for survivors fades
The Associated Press
FURUBIRA, Japan — Rescuers blasted the side of a mountain with dynamite yesterday in an attempt to reach about 20 people trapped in a collapsed highway tunnel, but the explosion failed to dislodge the boulder, which is nearly the size of a 20-story office building.
Hope was fading late yesterday, more than 36 hours after the accident, that anyone would be found alive. Residents of this small, northern Japanese fishing village could only wait as rescuers prepared for a second blast attempt.
More than half of those aboard the bus were from this village, about 550 miles north of Tokyo on the northern island of Hokkaido. With a population of less than 5,000, most residents here know one another.
The giant slab of rock peeled off the mountain and crashed through the tunnel roof early Saturday, apparently crushing a bus carrying 19 people, including teen-agers on their way to nearby Sapporo for an annual snow festival.
The attempt to topple the boulder into the sea with a blast of 550 pounds of dynamite only crumbled the lower portion of the rock into
Officials believe a car carrying one person also was trapped in the collapse.
dust, leaving the rest of the rock intact and upright.
Rescuers were planning another blast today that they hoped would allow them to dig through the rubble.
Military specialists had gotten far enough into the tunnel to spot the bus' mangled bumper and a battered license plate piled over with rock. They found the driver's cap and gloves, but did not hear any voices or receive any other indications that anyone was alive.
Officials believe the boulder, about 70 yards tall and 40 yards wide, weighs about 50,000 tons. The rock appeared to be directly on top of the bus.
Takako Watanabe gradually has lost hope that there would be any survivors.
"The past few days I've cried and cried while watching this unfold, until I just don't have any more tears," Watanabe said.
Her lifelong friend, Nobuko Hattori, was on the bus accompanying her grandmother to the next town for a visit to the doctor.
Anguished family members kept a vigil as snow swirled around the opening of the tunnel and the temperature dropped to a bone-chilling 23 degrees.
"They haven't told us anything," said Tetsuo Honma, whose son, 17, was among the teens in the bus. Honma, who was waiting for news near the mouth of the tunnel, spent the night at the spot.
Fearing that any survivors would have frozen to death in the hours since the collapse, several family members grew angry at the pace of rescue efforts and yelled at police to hurry up.
Rescuers had milled around the site for almost 11 hours after the accident while officials discussed how to get through the rubble without setting off another collapse.
The failure of the initial blast to dislodge the rock was further discouragement for some 60 people who gathered at a one-room town hall about eight miles from the site to monitor rescue operations on live television.
"It sure doesn't look good from here," 51-year-old farmer Yasuhiro Iwamoto said. "It looks like they were crushed all over again."
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