Nation/World
University Daily Kansan / Monday, February 13, 1989
7
Last 300 soldiers to leave Kabul
The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Soviet soldiers yesterday handed over their last and most dangerous outpost as they prepared to return home and leave the Afghan army to defend the capital against Muslim guerrillas.
The Soviet-backed Afghan government has renewed its offer to negotiate with the guerrillas.
A Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman said the remaining 300 Soviet soldiers in Kabul would leave tomorrow, weather permitting.
The departure would be a day ahead of the deadline set by a U.N. sponsored accord to end nine years of Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
The last soldiers were guarding the Kabul airport while the Soviets completed a food airlift to the capital, in a bid to ease the situation, before when the Red Army is gone.
An Ethiopian airliner made one flight to Kabul, unloaded 32 tons of wheat and then refused to return to the city, said Sadruddin Aqkhan, coordinator of the U.N. Office of Afghanistan Assistance to Afghanistan.
A U.N. airlift of food, medicine and blankets was suspended yesterday after Ethiopia pulled out of the program officials said.
"I'm not able to say if or when the next flight will be," Aga Khan said at a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan.
U.N. stops airlift after Ethiopian airline pulls out
The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A U.N. plan to airlift emergency supplies to Afghanistan was suspended after a second airline pulled out of the program, and it cancelled, officials said yesterday.
An Ethiopian airliner that made one flight to Kabul last week and unloaded 32 tons of wheat refused to go again, said Sudrudhina Aga (Dalit) Khalifa, the Office of Economic and Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan.
The pilot of the Boeing 707 "received instructions from (the Ethiopian government) that he should not proceed to Kabul" again, Aga Khan told a news conference in the Pakistani capital.
day, Soviet troops turned over their last outpost, on the edge of Kabul airport.
During a heavy snowstorm yester-
Afghan soldiers raised their nation's red, black and green flag, and Soviet and Afghan troops as the changeover was completed.
The instructions came as the crew prepared for its second emergency airlift Saturday, he said. "I'm not able to say if or when the next flight will be," he said.
Early last week, Egypt Air refused to fly into Kabul, claiming security at the airport was Enhanced. The airlines agreed to ferry the supplies.
The Afghans arrived with luggage, blankets and other personal belongings, as well as automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Aga Khan said he was trying to find out why the Ethiopians pulled out of the project.
"I cannot speculate or extrapolate. Some people may be getting cold feet," he said. The United Nations, he said, tried to keep a "cool head and warm heart without getting cold feet."
The airlift, originally expected to supply Kabul with 360 tons of
food, medicine and blankets during a two-week period, may be canceled, he said.
"Time is running out," Aga Khan said.
The United Nations had hoped to finish the airlift before Feb. 15, when the last of the Soviet Army is to be out of Afghanistan.
Kabul has been hit by severe food and fuel shortages because of the bitter winter weather and blockades by Muslim rebels, who have been fighting the Soviet government for the past 10 years.
Aga Khan said U.N. workers in Kabul identified more than 30,000 people, mostly women, children and elderly, who were desperate
The airport, the capital's key link to the outside world, has been a frequent target of guerrilla rocket attacks and has not been hit in more than a month.
"Ive never seen a man in unit form starve," said Aga Khan.
At a briefing yesterday, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Nabi Amani said a government declaration renewed a 2-year-old offer to negotiate with guerilla commanders inside Afghanistan.
The declaration asked the insurgents to submit proposals for ending the civil war and guaranteed the government would consider them, he
"All countries are using Afghanistan for their own benefit. We ask them not to be tools of others but to help the flooded areas, help end the bloodshed." Amani said.
More than 1 million people have died in the war.
Democratic chairman praises Jackson
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The newly elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ronald H. Brown, said yesterday that Jesse Jackson had the skills and capabilities to be a "terrific national leader."
However, Brown avoided saying directly whether he thought Jackson — to whom he was once an adviser — was fit to be president.
Brown, a lawyer with a politically active Washington firm. Friday was elected chairman of the national organization, the first black to attain that post.
Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Brown said, "I happen to think that Jesse Jackson is one of the brightest, one of the quickest, one of the sharpest people that I have ever met or worked with. He certainly has
tremendous leadership qualities and skills."
Asked whether he thought Jackson
Asked whether he troubled, —waged a viprotection but unsuccessfully presidential nomination last year— was fit to be promoted, Brown said. "I think he has the skills and the capabilities to be a terrific national leader. Now whether it's at the presidential level or at other levels, I
think the American people will have to decide."
Brown said the Democratic Party had to define itself more clearly so that it would have a better chance of winning back white male voters in the election. It also voted for the Republican candidates in recent presidential elections.
"You cannot win when your opponents set the ground rules." he said.
Hungary to employ multiparty system
The Associated Press
to endorse a multiparty system.
BUDAPEST. Hungary — Hungary's ruling Communist Party has moved toward sharing power with other political groups by becoming the first Eastern European country
tee political pluralism in Hungary.
to endorse a multiparty system.
Party leader Karoly Syzsz said after a two-day meeting of the Central Committee that the policy-making body had decided a multiparty system was the only way to guarantee political pluralism in Hungary. He also indicated that the party had revised its view of the 1956 anti-Soviet revolt, acknowledging that the uprising had started with good intentions but had gone sour.
A multiparty system would "certainly provide an opportunity for alliances" and participation by groups the Communists would not be able to mobilize on their own, Grosz said.
Elections in Sri Lanka cause village massacre; 55 killed
The village massacre was persecuted by more than 50 rebels, who crept into the rice-farming village of Dutuwea and attacked with automatic rifle fire, clubs and machetes late Saturday, said a police officer contacted by telephone in nearby Horawanatana.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — At least 55 people were killed in the last two days of campaigning for legislative elections, including 36 villagers massacred while they slept, officials said yesterday.
The Associated Press
Campaigning ended at midnight last night. Most of the 1,400 candidates for 225 parliamentary seats spent yesterday addressing meetings and making last-minute appeals for votes.
"The rebels attacked a cluster of houses close to the jungle," according to the police officer, who said he was first to arrive at the scene but were heard shooting and screams but were too frightened to come out."
Dutuwewa is about 60 miles northeast of Colombo, the capital. The village is in the predominantly Sinhalese North Central Province, but with parts of Eastern Province, a main operational area for Tamil separatists.
Military officials in Colombo said
Hundreds of army commanders and police famed in out marshy jungles that surrounded the village to search for the killers, helicopters and vehicles to protect the rebels escaping, the policemen show on condition of anonymity.
Moscow celebrates new Jewish center
They will be the first parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka since 1977. A 1982 referendum doubled the northern vote of the legislature elected in 1977.
The Associated Press
"It is the worst and bloodiest election campaign in Sri Lanka's history," said Elmo Goonerate, a senior government official.
"Today is a time to say ' thank you,' " said Eile Wiesel, author and winner of the 1986 Nobel Piece Prize. "I think he deserves our respect."
MOSCOW — Hundreds of Jews filled a building in downtown Moscow yesterday to celebrate the opening of the museum, a center in the Soviet Union in 50 years.
The opening of the Solomon Mikhols Cultural Center, named after a Soviet Jewish actor who died in the Stalinist oppression in 1948, represents a significant change in relations between the government and the country's 1.8 million Jews.
the 36 victims included 20 children.
Soviet Jews and Jewish leaders from 70 nations attended the opening, and many said the reforms of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had restored a measure of religious freedom.
In the bloodiest attack, Tamil militants attacked the villagers in a remote jungle of central Sri Lanka.
More than 1,000 people have been killed since nominations for the elections began Jan. 6.
Officials blamed militant Sinhalese for the other 19 slayings, including the assassination of an opposition party candidate. He was the 14th candidate since campaigning for Wednesday's elections began five weeks ago.