Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Nation & World Military s role reduced in Indonesia by Geoff Spencer Associated Press Jakarta, Indonesia — In a move to sharply reduce the military’s political dominance, Indonesia’s new president took the radical step Tuesday of appointing a civilian to run the Defense Ministry. President Abdurrahman Whhid, whose election by parliament last week marked Indonesia’s transition to democracy, an nounced a Cabinet filled with political neophytes, Islamic party politicians and fewer military officials than ever before. Juwono Sudarsono, Indonesia’s first civilian defense minister in four decades, faces the huge task of reforming a mili tary widely accused of human rights abus es and meddling in politics and of keep ing restive parts of the country from tryipg to break away. Juwono, education minister in the Cabinet of just-ousted President B J. Habi bie, once served as vice-governor of the National Defense Institute, the military’s main think tank. “He’s nonpartisan but has a good re lationship with the armed forces,” said analyst Salim Said “He would not be con sidered a threat to the military. He would be a good bridge between the president and the military.” Juwono will take over the Defense Ministry from Gen. Wiranto, the pow erful military leader who also was re placed as commander of Indonesia’s armed forces. Wiranto, like many Indonesians, ujvii w**v i uu i iv/. Wiranto. who was awarded the se nior post of political and security affairs minister, played a major political role in Indonesia’s bumpy and sometimes bloody transition to democracy after the ouster of authoritarian President Suharto in May 1998. Whhid said Juwono was appointed at Wiranto’s suggestion. “Don’t think that the military are crazy,” %hid said. “They know that the whole society is changing now. Because of this, Gen. Wiranto also knows that the military has to change its attitude toward society.” The new Cabinet includes only six active or retired generals — the fewest ever. In an unprecedented move, Wiran to will be replaced as military chief by a navy officer, Adm. Widodo Adisutjipto, who was Wiranto’s deputy. The navy is regarded as less corrupt and brutal than the army. Indonesia’s military long has served a major political role that was trimmed back since Suharto’s departure. It has 38 of the 700 seats in the People’s Consul tative Assembly, the country’s highest legislative body, half its total from past assemblies. Juwono raised the possibility Tues day that those seats could be eliminated, as well. He also said he was considering appointment of other civilians to top de fense posts. Wahid described his new Cabinet as a “national unity” Cabinet that would fo cus on pulling Indonesia out of its worst economic crisis in more than three decades. “We have to make economic re covery our prime goal,” Wahid said in a nationally televised address. “Second is to maintain our territorial integrity.” Despite demands that he choose a completely new team, four of the 35 min isters were holdovers from the corrupt, autocratic regimes of Suharto and Habi bie. “There are some compromises,” Wahid said from Jakarta’s ornate Merde ka Palace, once home to Dutch colonial governors. Because of Wahid’s poor eyesight, Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri read the list of new Cabinet members. In two other significant reforms, Wahid abolished the Ministry of Information, used in the past to control and bully the media, and created a spot for human rights affairs. Special to The Gamecock Indonesian soldiers sit on a vintage tank outside of Jakarta while wait ing for their final withdrawal from East Timor on Tuesday. U.S. denies nuclear arms were in Iceland « by Robert Burns Associated Press Washington — The U.S. government has informed Iceland that, contrary to a magazine report last week, U.S. nuclear weapons were never deployed on the Nordic island during the Cold War. Breaking with a long-standing Amer ican policy of neither confirming nor denying the locations of nuclear weapons, the Clinton administration told the Ice landic government that the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists ’ article published Oct. 20 was wrong in naming Iceland as among 27 nuclear deployment sites. It has long been U.S. policy to obtain the permission of host governments be fore deploying nuclear weapons in their territory. The Bulletin article, written by military historians Robert S. Norris, William Arkin and William Burr, was • based on a newly declassified 1977 offi cial Pentagon history of the custody and deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons. Nine locations of weapons were listed in an appendix to the Pentagon report. Gov ernment censors blacked out the names of 18 other locations, but the Bulletin au f .. thors said they deduced from other pub licly available documents that Iceland was among the 18. “While we will not fill in the names of places that were redacted from the original documerjt, we want to make clear that the Bulletin of Atomic Scien tists’ conclusion that the document in dicated U.S. nuclear weapons were de ployed to Iceland is incorrect,” Robert Sorenson, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. Jon Hannibalsson, Iceland’s ambas sador to Washington, was given that as surance the day the stoiy appeared, Soren son said. “This is a dead issue” as far as the Iceland government is concerned, said Hjalmar Hannesson, the director of political affairs at the Foreign Ministry in Reykjavik. He said his government was assured “the name of Iceland is definitely not there on the list.” Arkin said Tuesday: “We may be wrong, but the evidence surrounding the nuclear history of Iceland continues to provide suspicions.” The Bulletin’s publisher, Steve Schwartz, said the Clinton administra tion’s willingness to publicly deny the Iceland story while keeping secret oth er information about nuclear deployments of decades ago “points up the problems of the nuclear secrecy regime.” Arkin initially asked the Pentagon for the nuclear weapons deployment histo ry in 1983, but the still-censored version wasn’t released until May. “It’s been a 16-year ordeal,” he said. The other blacked-out Pentagon re port entries include Okinawa, the Bul letin article said. The U.S. government hasn’t disputed that, but willn’t con firm it either, even though National Se- - curity Council documents from 1969, publicly available at the National Archives for several years, refer explicitly to “the •. nuclear weapons stockpiles on Okinawa” and discuss in detail U.S. government concerns that Japan might force the Unit ed States to withdraw the weapons. The blacked-out entry that the Bul letin authors surmised was Iceland showed nuclear bomb components deployed be tween 1956 and 1966 and complete nu clear bombs from 1956 to 1959. Flood threatens Mexican city; rains not expected to let up by Julie Watson Associated Press Villahermosa, Mexico — One of Mexico’s largest rivers rose to the top of a waist-high wall of sandbags Tuesday, threat ening to inundate the heart of this city of 475,000 people. More water was pouring through a dam upstream, fur ther endangering the 22-mile-long temporary dike. A nation al emergency official said on condition of anonymity that all of Villahermosa, a city 410 miles east of Mexico City, may have to be evacuated. Soldiers and workers from the National Water Commis sion were doubling and in some places tripling the height of the 4-foot wall of sandbags holding back the bloated Grijalva River, which passes through Villahermosa’s commercial dis trict. r The river has risen 6 feet in the last three days since au thorities opened the floodgates of Las Penitas dam upstream, releasing four times the amount of water normally discharged. The dam was beyond capacity and in danger of breaking. “If this river goes over, it could sweep away half the businesses in the city,” said Noe Ortiz Gonzalez, general di rector of the local Chamber of Commerce. Silt and trash slowed the flow of water out of the flood gates, but officials, fearful the dam could buret, cleaned the ducts early Tuesday, sending a faster stream of water down to ward Villahermosa. It was unclear how much that would raise the river’s lev el downstream. Steady rains over the past month have caused flooding across the region, leaving more than 227,000 people home less in Tabasco state alone. Local and state officials across south eastern Mexico have reported at least 404 deaths. Many bod ies have not been recovered, so the toll could be much higher. Officials warn that if steady rains resume, they may be forced to open the floodgates of three other dams upstream from Villahermosa. Even if that doesn’t happen, water levels at Las Penitas still need to drop 5 feet before officials can close the gates. “We could be looking at a major disaster,” said Jose Luis Adame, regional manager of the southern border for the Na tional Water Commission. This week’s water release pushed water to the rooftops of already-flooded homes and businesses and caused 60,000 people who had stayed behind to flee their homes. On the river, water guigles out from beneath the wall of sandbags. More than 60 percent of the city’s businesses have closed their doors. “It’s hard to sleep at night living next to this. It’s very tense,” said Raul Ramos, 30, who moved his refrigerator, tele vision and other valuables to the second floor of his home. “I’ve already seen the wall break twice yesterday, but the sol diers were able to run over and block it in time.” Once a tourist attraction, Villahermosa’s riverwalk has turned into a silent menace. “Our business has dropped by 80 percent,” said Jose Coliente, manager of a home appliances store. “People are afraid the wall might break while they are in here and they’ll get trapped.” Stewart crash puzzles investigators by John MacDonald Associated Press Mina, Si). — Investigators returned today to the site where a jet carrying golf champion Payne Stewart nose-dived into a field, taking samples of victims’ remains but cautioning there would likely be no quick explanation why the plane flew pi lotless for 1,400 miles across the country. Five others also were killed. A six-member National Trans portation Safety Board team walked through the crash site Mon day evening, hours after the Learjet crashed, and returned to the task today. Some tissue samples from the victims’ remains had been removed from the scene. Brad Randall, a special state medical examiner, said they would be tested for substances such as carbon monoxide, but there is no specific test that can be done on samples that would show oxygen deprivation. Stewart and his wife had two children, Chelsea, 13, and Aaron, 10. “He’s an irreplaceable guy,” fellow golfer DuSy ,vtdldorf said. “I think of Payne Stewart and there’s aguy that’s going to be like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, a guy you want around all those years.” Also killed were Stewart’s agents, Robert Fraley and Van Ardan, and the two pilots, Michael Kling, 43, and Stephanie Bellegarrigue, 27. Francis said officials believed a sixth per son also died. The family of Bruce Borland, 40, one of Nick laus’ golf course designers, was sure he was on board, said Scott Tolley, a spokesman for Nicklaus’ Golden Bear International Inc. Borland’s wife, Kate, said she contacted the private jet ter minal Monday and spoke to an employee who confirmed her husband intended to get on the plane. The Lear 35 left Orlando, Fla., at 9:09 a.m. and was head ed to Texas, where Stewart was to attend a meeting on a pro posed golf course near Dallas and the Tour Championship in Houston. Air traffic controllers soon lost contact with the char tered, twin-engine plane. It may have suddenly lost cabin pres sure soon after taking off for Dallas, government officials said. The plane had no flight data recorder, just the voice recorder, which normally erases conversations after a half-hour to reuse the tape, Francis said. The occupants of the plane presumably were already unconscious or dead by the last 30 minutes of the flight. Planes that fly above 12,000 feet are pressurized, be cause the air at altitudes above that lacks enough oxygen for people to breathe comfortably. If a plane loses pressure, those aboard could slowly lose consciousness or, if an aircraft broke a door or window seal, perish in seconds from lack of oxygen.Once reaching a cruising altitude, pilots often switch on the autopilot. If they pass out, the plane could continue on until it ran out of fuel. The St. Petersbuig (Fla.) Times report ed today that four years ago, federal regulators ordered that valves that regulate pressure on Learjets be replaced to “pre vent rapid decompression of the airplane due to cracking and subsequent failure.” .*"**•• «■»*«* Court hacks access to secretly taped government information by Richard Carelli Associated Press Washington—A federal appeals court made it easier Tues day to obtain information the government doesn’t want to release, ruling that otherwise-secret wiretap recordings played in open court must be surrendered under a freedom of in formation law. Athree-judge panel of the US. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled unanimously that such recordings, if specifically Identified in a freedom of Infor mation Act request, are subject to release as public records. The decision was a victory for Salvatore Cottone, con victed on drug and racketeering chaiges as the result of a fed eral investigation into Colombian and Sicilian connections to drug trafficking in the District of Columbia and its north ern Virginia suburbs. Since 1992, Cottone has been seeking access to secretly taped conversations played at his trial as evidence against him _» A federal judge had barred access, ruling that the recordings weren’t subjectto FOIA disclosure. The jute relied on the FOIA’s Exemption 3, which ap plies to materials Congress meant to keep secret, such as communications intercepted under federal wiretap laws. Tuesday’s decision said the trial judge was wrong. “Un til destroyed or placed under seal, tapes played in open court and admitted into evidence... remain a part of the public do main,” the appeals court said. Federal law bars the government from destroying such evidence for 10 years, and federal prosecutors never sought to have the Cottone recordings sealed. “This is a very good ruling,” said Rebecca Daugherty of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which advocates greater access to government records. “Inthg past, it’s been hard to overcome [the FOIA’s] Exemption 3, and it’s wonderful the open court rule will apply even in the face of Exemption 3,” she said The community of scholars atjthe Uiuversityj)£South CaroJmfti lence.T?n _ | As a Carolinian... November 1st ~ 6 th, 1999 I will practice personal and academic integrity... Monday The Carolina Student Judicial Council presents THE GAME OF UFE 6:30 p.m. RusseU House Ballroom WRHA Movie Review your listing Pre-Creed Week Event Thursday, October 28 Bisexual Gay Lesbian Alliance and Carolina Productions co-sponsor THE BIRDCAGE, GAMECOCK STYLE 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Russell House Ballroom Tuesday Students Allied for a Greener Earth: ETHICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT 7:00 p.m. Russell House Room 315 Renaissance Discussion: UVING THE CAROLIN IAN CREED IN THE NEW MILLENIUM 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Faculty House, By Invitation 77i”e "Carolina Student Judicial Council and Omega Phi Alpha Ser vice Sorority present: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING A STU DENT SERVANT 5 to 6 p.m. followed by A COMMUNITY SER VICE PROJECT DROP-IN 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m Russell House Ballroom WRHA Movie Review your listing Wednesday ■ ■ orei acarpo: “JOURNEY TO A HATE FREE MILLENIUM” 7:00 p.m. Russell House Ballroom Tau Beta Sigma presents KAPPA KAPPA PSI MUSICALE 7:30 p.m. School of Music "*WRHA MoVie"” Review your listing Thursday Omicron Delta Kappa “TO FLY OR NOT TO FLY: THE CONFEDERATE FLAG LEGACY” 6 p.m. - 7 p.m. Russell House ODK/ Mortar Board Room ICE & Honors Council showcase Gerba Dancine 8 p.m. Golden Spur WRHA Movie Review your listing SPONSORED BY: ” * Office of Student Judicial Programs * Carolina Student Judicial Council * University Housing ‘ Friday Muslim Students Association Speaker & Presentation "THE HORRENDOUS INFRINGEMENTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN KOSOVO” 7:30 p.m. Russell House Theatre WRHA Movie Review your listing