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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 27, 1999)
From the Wire ; NATO launches broad strikes on Yugoslavia By Candice Hughes The Associated Press BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Blasts reverberated throughout dozens of Yugoslav cities Wednesday during a record num ber of NATO attack flights, which zeroed in once more on President Slobodan Milosevic’s villa and hit army barracks and command posts. Allied jets bombarded Koso vo’s capital, Pristina, its sur roundings and the northern city of Novi Sad, Serb media reported. Sustained NATO strikes also were reported in central and southern Yugoslavia as well as an area north of the port of Bar in Montenegro, the pro-Western re public that along with Serbia makes up Yugoslavia. NATO reported early Wednes day that it had flown 650 sorties in the previous 24 hours, includ ing a record 284 attack flights, hit ting artillery, tanks and mortars in Kosovo. It said all aircraft re turned safely. Targets also included television and radio relay stations in Bel grade and several other cities. A wide range of army barracks, am munition storage sites, command posts and petroleum storage sites also were hit. Alliance jets also focused again on Milosevic’s villa just west of Belgrade, which NATO says con tains a command and control bunker. It is believed to be Milo sevic’s main hideout, but his whereabouts were unknown at the time of the attack. It was the fourth time NATO has targeted the villa. The Serb-run media center in Pristina said two children were killed and one seriously hurt Wednesday morning when a NATO missile hit the village of Radoste near Orahovac, 40 miles southwest of Pristina. The state-run news agency Tanjug said a woman and a child were wounded when three mis siles hit their home in the village of Gazivode, in northern Kosovo. Tanjug also said three people were injured when a missile hit the courtyard of a private home in a suburb of Novi Pazar, about 100 miles south of Belgrade. Serb media also reported at tacks on the cities of Uzice, where an airfield has been targeted re peatedly; Izbica, also near Novi Pazar; and Mount Tara, 85 miles southwest of Belgrade. The Beta news agency said two missiles slammed into and damaged apart ment buildings in the outskirts of Zajecar, 115 miles southeast of the capital. In neighboring Albania, an As sociated Press Television News team at the Morini border cross ing saw several mortar rounds ex ploding and heard automatic weapons and tank fire as Serbian forces clashed with guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army. International monitors from the Organization for Security and Co operation in Europe reported Serb shelling of three Albanian villages near the border and said a man and a young woman were killed when a mortar shell hit a house in the village of Sahani. More than 840,000 people — mostly ethnic Albanians — have fled Kosovo. Before the NATO air campaign began March 24, Koso vo had a population of 2 million of whom 90 percent were ethnic Albanians. Despite the NATO bombings, Milosevic has so far rejected die key element of a U.S.-backed peace plan for Kosovo — the de ployment of NATO-led troops to secure the safe return of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees who have fled his crack down. NATO officials maintain that they are not planning a ground in vasion, but NATO’s top policy making body, the North Atlantic Council, approved a plan Tues day to enlarge a proposed Kosovo peacekeeping force to 50,000, from the 28,000 originally planned. The force is intended to head into Kosovo once Serbian troops leave, and NATO officials contend it needs to be in place quickly to be ready if Milosevic bends. Lawmakers push increased security at weapons labs By H. Jose! Hebert The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Responding to a House report on Chinese espionage, mem bers of Congress pledged Wednesday to push proposals increasing security at U.S. weapons laboratories and tightening con trols on technology exports to China. In the Senate, the defense bill was expect ed to be used to advance plans to increase monitoring of Chinese rocket launches and to beef up security and background checks at the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons labs. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R Miss., alluding to the reports of Chinese es pionage, said that while “I don’t think we should rush to judgment... we should un derstand the full ramifications of what hap pened here.” Lott proposed a package of proposals he would like included in the $288.8 billion defense spending bill for 2000 that the Sen ate was debating on Wednesday. It would: —Require the president to notify Con gress about investigations of satellite-tech nology transfers and give the CIA more power to review technology export licenses. —Put the FBI in charge of background checks for DOE weapons laboratory workers. —Require the Defense Department to strengthen its program monitoring Chinese civilian rocket launches. Sen. Bob Graham, R-Fla., said he would propose a bipartisan commission that would conduct a government-wide review of all counterintelligence activities. One proposal under consideration would require that a new senior official at Energy Department oversee all department research labs and report directly to Congress. The labs traditionally have had widespread in dependence. The Clinton administration has signaled it would oppose such a plan. Meanwhile, the two principal authors of the 871-page House select committee report on China’s 20-year campaign to steal Ameri ca’s nuclear secrets made the rounds of Capitol Hill with briefings before both Sen ate and House committees. The report was released Tuesday. China has obtained secret information “about every single [nuclear] weapon in the U.S. arsenal,” Rep. Christopher Cox, R Calif., said in briefing lawmakers. But he said Congress might be able to forestall Chi na from being able to convert the U.S. war head design information into deployable weapons. “The question is,” added Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash., who joined Cox in the brief ings, “can [China] take what they have stolen ... and produce an actual weapon. We’ve got to watch this to see what happens.” News Brief Tree protesters sue Eugene police, city EUGENE — Protesters who were doused with pepper spray after climbing trees to save them from being cut down in 1997 have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against police and the city. The tree-sitters claim they were treated brutally by police, accord ing to the lawsuit filed Tuesday with a U.S. District Court. Demonstrators said those who climbed into the trees were sprayed repeatedly with pepper spray, while others were ordered to sit on a sidewalk that had al ready been sprayed. Josh Laughlin, James Flynn and Brett Cole claim in the lawsuit that police violated their constitution al rights to be free of unreasonable force and to be given equal protec tion under the law. “We want accountability. We don’t ever want this to happen again. It was completely unac ceptable,” Laughlin said Tuesday at a news conference. The three were among 10 demonstrators who scaled a fence and climbed trees early on the morning of June 1,1997, to protest tree-cutting for a commercial and residential development. The police’s actions resulted in a criminal investigation of the offi cers and a review of department policies on the use of chemical agents. The Associated Press University of Oregon w ^CR AFT CENTER Charles H. Lundquist College of Business Dave Dusseau, Undergraduate Minor Program Director 346-3398 http://uosiunffler.iiorepn.eda/ Book Your Summer in Orecon
