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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 1995)
Russia offers cease-fire, hopes to end offensive WORLD GROZNY, Ru* «ia (AI’) — At the end of a day of brutal fighting. th» Russian gov eminent late Monday offered a 4A*hour conse firv to prevent further bloodshed Russian tanks and artillery hammered the city's heart with hundreds of shells and rex kels Monday as outnumbered (.h«H hen rebels fought to hold the presi dential palate and other key installations The Russian cease-fire offer, obtained by The Associated Press, was set to begin at H a m Tuesday (midnight Monday EST) It was uim lenr whether Russia would cease its offensive without the Cher hens' agree ment to its terms, iru hiding laying down arms anti retreating from their positions. The offer restated the key Russian demand to restore Most ow's control over the breakaway repuhlit There was no immediate Chechen response. Chechnya's president, whose where abouts have been unclear for days, appeared on television Monday night to comment about the war Technical prob lems muted his message Russian troops pushed Into Chechen positions from several directions on a chilly, overcast day. and the independent news agency Interfax said they controlled two-thirds of the capital Chechen fighters armed with rocket grenades ducked in and out of shattered Buildings, trying to knock out Russian tanks blasting their positions. Artillery shells and rockets slammed into buildings around the palace as huge plumes of black smoke towered over Grozny. There were strong indications of prep# ration* for another major assault Several armored Russian battalions with dozens of tanks and armored personnel earners moved toward Grozny Others dug in at new locations around the city l-arge transport planes (jurying Russian tnx>|ts and supplies landed every half-hour at two nearby Russian air bases, apparently ferrying in more reinforcements for the offensive, which Iwgnn Dec t J The Russian government claimed its troops had advanced to within a few hun dred yards of the palai e ori two sides by midanemoon and had the building — the ( enter of Chechen government — "com pletely blocked " It claimed 5<X) Chechen fighters had been killed by Russian troops in the previous 24 hours Russia sent tens of thousands of troops 1.000 miles south of Moscow to restore Kremlin control. Several thousand people have been killed or wounded, and the Kiwi Cross estimates 350.000 are refugees nearly one in four Chechen residents In its cease-fire offer. Russia urged the Chechens to "(.ease fire, leave their post lions and military materiel, lay down their weapons and return people who were seized during the military confrontations " In return, Russia said Chechen fighters who lay down their arm* would l>e allowed to return to their homes It also said Russian commanders had been "given the necessary orders on lous ing fire in this period." Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin saicl earlier Monday that a two-day cense fire would lie 'only the beginning of the negotiation process, according to Russia s Human rights commissioner. Sergei Kova lyov. Kovalyov said Monday that the tease fire was designed to give both sides time to remove their dead and wounded Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott headed for Brussets. Belgium Monday for urgent talks on Chechnya with Russian and NATO officials Willy Claes, Secre tary f .eneral of the Western alliance, called for an end to the fighting in the breakaway region "1 am looking to the Russian author ities to decide without delay to end the violence against the Chechen people and to promote a peaceful settlement of the issue, the NATO leader told a conference in Brussels organized by a Belgian Roman Catholic organization. Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev appeared lalrn in a television appearance wearing his military fatigues The broad cast had no sound due to technical prob lem*. so the content of his remarks was nut known. It was unclear when or where the footage* was shot Placards saying "Arise Chech nya. arise to gazavat (holy war)!" were shown on the screen. But rebel morale seemed to founder ( Jiechon fore es. eyes red with lack of sleep, faced increasing pressure as the* area they control shrank Threat tests strength of four-month Bosnian-Serb truce SARAJKVO, Bosnia Herzegovina SAP) The Bosn ian government today an used rebel Serb* of threatening a fragile four-month truce by ignoring some of its key ele moots Die ( Inirgo was made bv Bosnian Vice President Kjup Canto after talks with Yasushi Akashi, the chief U N envoy to former Yugoslavia, at U N headquarters in Zagreb. Croatia (.ami said Croatian Sort) fort es still have not pulled out of the besieged northwest Hdiai region, and the ho i ailed "Blue Routes' linking Sarajevo with other gov ernment-hold territory in Bosnia have not vet been opened (ianii said he had called on Akashi "to push very hard to *4xi this agreement Implemented Otherwise. it will col lapse altogether" A Serb pullout from the Uihai region is provided for hv the latest tnn <■ pai t. but the Croatian Serb* and retxd Muslims, who Ixith have Ixxtn fighting government fortes in the northwest, are not party to the agreemunt, Another stumbling block was a dispute over the with drawal of government troops from a demilitarized /.one on Mount Igmnn smith of Sarajevo I’ N troops planned an inspection to see if tins last poai tion held by government forces Imd been vacated On Sunday, the Serbs insisted on withdrawal of gov ernment troops from two points east of the DMZ. file latest condition Was made by Bosnian Serb mili tary t ontmander (■•■n Ratio Mladu . who met with the t' N (ornmander for Bosnia, l.t (am Sir Midi,ml Rose It seemed unlikely the government army would accept sin h a demand, which would wipe out gains from the army s offensive in the mountains south of Sarajevo last fall But Rose failed in an attempt to dissuade the Serbs from insisting on additional government w ithdrawals Apart from lingering disputes over points of the four month truce. Mnj Herve Gourmeion, a U N. spokesman in Zagreb, said the situation in Bosnia was generally qui et with minor cease-fire violations He said of the lf> cease-fire violations in the last 24 hours. 1 i came from the Bosnian Serb army, three from government troops Then* was some small-arms fire in the Bihat "safe anwi" and in the horde r region near V'elika Medusa where occa sional explosions were also heard, Courmelon said. Also in Sarajevo. Rii hard Holbrooke, the visiting U S BMilUmi m ret.irs of state, said the ( on tar t Group of rep resentatives from the l Ini Uni States, Russia. France. Britain and Orman v would travel to Sarajevo, Zagreb and Bel grade starting Wednesday to try to get talks on a longterm peace plan going again. But Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajd/jc complained that the Contact Group had failed to hack up its promise to punish the Bosnian Serbs for not accepting the peace plan that would give the Bosnian Serfis -t<t percent of Bosn ian territory, down from 70 percent they now hold. Holbrooke said it was the goal of the group to gain nccup tam e of the plan "as a starting point for negotiations, and we believe this is vitally important now that a cease-fire and i essation of hostilities are essentially in place." "It is vitally important for the plan tola1 accepted." he said "There is no change of the plan.” Bosnia's war began in April 1992 when Serbs retail led after Muslims and Croats voted to secede from Serb-dom inated Yugoslavia More than 200.000 people are dead or missing. • A* ****** **r*r*» . WUNPtRlANP am ainrci PUBltC MARKET 683-8464 r vwco apvinturi \i VAI L t V ftfV'l R m AX A ALL DAY TUESDAY s p A G H E T T I \ $ ALL % YOU * CAN EAT EVERY TUES! Garlic Bread 11:30 am-10pm PIZZfl VfcT£$ ITALIAN KITCHEN 2673 Willamette • 484-0996 Iran may be 5 years from having nuclear arms NK ()S1A. I \ pros (At1) Iran hns sinned mi SHOO million dual with Russia to finish building « nui I ear facility halted by th«> 1970 Islamic revolution The agreement heightens concerns that I ehmn is developing nuclear weapons Although state-run Iehran tele vision said the facility will pro duce only elm tricity. Iren is thought to lie less than five years away from producing nuclear arms Sunday’s agreement was signed by Russia's atomic ener gy minister. Viktor Mikhailov, and the head of Iron’s nuclear agency, Re/j» Amrolhthi. an ord ing to the television report, mon itored by the British Broadcast mg Corp The report wild the deal would enable Iran “to make proper ami peat eful use of nuclear energy and to provide part of the coun try's required electricity" within the next four years Russia’s partli ipation in the deal was condemned by Iran’s largest opposition group in exile, the Baghdad bused Mu|ahedeen khalq "Such undertakings only assist the religious-terrorist dictatorship in Iran to pursue expansionist goals to acquire nuclear weapon r\, said the group s spokesman. Ali Safavi Oh Sunday. U S Defense Sec retary William Perry warned dur ing a visit to Israel that the Clin ton administration is "very much concerned about the potential that Iran might become a nuclear power." Earlier reports indicated the agreement covered only one of two unfinished 1,300 megawatt reactors tn Hushehr. reportedly a major Center for nuclear research located 450 miles south of Tehran on the Gulf coast. Both reactors were started by Germany's Siemens/raftwerke Union before the Islamic revolu tion, which brought Muslim fun damentalist rule to Iron Germany has since refused export permits for vital equip ment Iraqi bombing raids dam aged the facility in the 1980-88 I ran-Iraq war Moscow agreed in principle in late 1993 to rebuild the facility and appears to be honoring the commitment despite U S. pres sure against it. Moscow's ITAR-Toss news agency said over the weekend that the long delay in imple tnenting the agreement was due to “a number of technical and financial problems " In .September, the CIA warned that Russia was a key source of nuclear technology and exper tise for Iran's drive to become a nuclear power. The United States and Israel believe Iran may lx< only five year* away from developing its own atomic bomb. Hut some experts doubt Iran has the capacity or knowhow to sustain a clandestinely acquired nuclear program. Israel and PLO determined to fulfill agreement I K! /. (UNCTION. Gaza Strip (Al») - Israel and the PLO today reached an agree ment on safe passage routes linking the autonomous Palestinian areas, the release of prisoners and a passport that the self-rule authority plans to issue PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres declined to give details about the agreements after a *><>-■ minute meeting near the Krez border cross ing Both said despite diffii allies plaguing negotiations, they remained determined to implement the PLO-Israel agreement We ure making progress," Peres said "In spite of all the worries and skeptic ism ... the agreement is l>eirtg implemented. It takes a little more time, more difficulty, but we are changing almost daily." About four hours before their talks began, « rigged donkey (art exploded near an Israeli bus taking passengers to a Jewish settlement in the (>aza Strip There were no injuries or damage Arab reporters said the explosion otcurred as the bus neared the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom. They said the explosives were wrapped in plastic bogs and buried under boxes of oranges on the ( art Ihorv was no immediate claim of respon sibility for the blast A land dispute with Jewish settlers near the oc( upied VVest Bank town of Bethlehem last month and the killing of to Palestini ans and a Jewish settler last week threatened to break the fragile Israeli-Palestinian ties Arafat said the explosives found on the ( art were old mines left over from Israel's 27 V«nrs controlling the strip lit* said the Palestinian Authority had asked Israeli sappers to help dismantle the mines, and 85 were uncovered in Gaza recently. Arafat also said the Palestinian authority was sensitive to Israel's security concerns. Wn are interested to understand more and more the security needs of lsratd in this second stage and what we have to do together to overcome all these obstacles step by step,” Arafat said. He said there will be another top-level meeting between the Israelis and Palestini ans next week Arafat said the Israeli government approved the new passport the self-rule gov ernment plans to issue, a red one for VIPs and a green one for ordinary Palestinians
