Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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__ Nation & World Large group of Chechens abandons Grozny; 2 rebel commanders killed by Lyoma Turpalov Associated Press Alkhan-Yurt, Russia—A laige con tingent of Chechen fighters have aban doned positions in their embattled capi tal of Grozny and escaped despite a Russian blockade. Two senior rebel commanders along with scores of their fighters stum bled into a minefield and were killed. About 2,000 Chechen fighters broke out and tried Tuesday to head south to join up with fellow rebels, battling fed eral forces attempting to prevent their escape with tanks and artillery. Russian reports estimated about 3,000 rebel fight ers were in Grozny last week. Other rebels stayed in the battered Chechen capital to keep up the fierce re sistance they have mounted to months of air and artillery attacks and a five-week Russian push to take the city center. At least two prominent rebel com manders remained in Grozny with then forces, rebels said. It was unclear how many rebels remained under their com mand. A laige group of rebels got caught in a minefield on the outskirts of Grozny on Monday, and several prominent Chechen commanders were killed or bad ly wounded, witnesses said. Russian ar tillery then opened fire on the field, killing and wounding scores more fighters, they said. Notorious Chechen field comman der Shamil Basayev reportedly had his leg tom off when his car was blown up by a mine as he escaped Grozny; he was spirited away, rebels said, and his whereabouts were unknown. Among the Chechen commanders reportedly killed were Aslanbek Ismailov, who had headed Grozny's defenses, Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov and Grozny Mayor Lecha Dudayev. Russian commanders denied that the rebels escaped; a main goal of the Russ ian offensive had been to wipe out the fighters in Grozny. The rebels who left Grozny are expected to join thousands of comrades in the south to go on fight ing. The ITAR-Tass news agency said Russ ian troops clashed with rebels Tuesday in the Aigun and \fedeno gorges, which lead through the mountains. The Interfax news agency cited a rebel spokesman as saying fighting continued in Grozny on Tuesday evening. Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev insisted Tuesday that federal forces were successfully blocking rebels trying to flee Grozny. “Nobody will ever allow the rebels to leave the city other than under a white flag and after laying down their weapons,” he said. ‘Nobody will ever allow the rebels to leave the city other than under a white flag and after laying down their weapons.’ Igor Sergeyev Russian defense minister Report says IRA hasn't disarmed A by Shawn Pogatchnik Associated Press Belfast, Northern Ireland—North ern Ireland's Protestant-Catholic gov ernment was plunged into crisis Tuesday after a report by an independent com mission confirmed that the Irish Re publican Army has failed to begin turn ing over its weapons. Amid doubts that the 8-week-old Northern Ireland administration could survive, the major Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, accused the IRA-linked Sinn Fein of failing to deliver on its side of an American-brokered deal that led to their power-sharing Cabinet. The disarmament commission deliv ered its report—confirming that no spe cific acts of IRA disarmament had taken place — to the British and Irish gov ernments late Monday. They declined to make the report public Tuesday. In a statement, the IRA insisted its 1997 cease-fire should be sufficient grounds for Sinn Fein's continued place within the four-party administration, the central goal of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord. The IRA said its representatives had met directly with Northern Ireland's dis armament commission three times since the Cabinet's formation and spoke by to its members by phone on Monday night. The outlawed group said it had con sistently stressed the message “that the IRA's guns are silent and that there is no threat to the peace process from the IRA.” But the IRA gave no hint it intend ed to hand over a single bullet, much less its many tons of weapons stockpiled in hidden caches. The accord anticipated the IRA’s total disarmament by May. Ulster Unionist leader David Trim ble said the British government now had a “regrettable but inevitable” choice: to suspend the Cabinet's powers in hopes fresh negotiations could produce a more ironclad agreement involving IRA disar mament, or watch the Cabinet collapse as the Ulster Unionists back out. Referring to Sinn Fein and the IRA, Trimble said: “There was never any in tention on our part to place permanent ly in government a party allied to a ter rorist organization that was not prepared to put the means of terror out of reach, out of use on a permanent basis.” Trimble said the deal brokered last November by U.S. mediator George Mitchell required the IRA to scrap weapons in advance of the just-completed report, not merely to talk about it with the commission’s chairman, Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams re jected that account. He also warned that if Trimble and his colleagues “walk from this process, or force the governments to collapse the process, then I don’t know how we’re going to put it together again.” In Washington, President Clinton said it would be a “tragedy” if the Cabinet were derailed. “But in order to keep it going, everybody’s going to have to hon or the terms of the agreement,” he said. Clinton and Mitchell talked by phone with Adams, Trimble and the prime min isters of Britain and Ireland, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahem. Crash from page A4 geles airport. Coast Guard, Navy and pri vate vessels were joined by militar airplanes. Nearly a day after the accident searchers had pulled four bodies — on man, two women and an infant— Iron the calm sea, which is 300 to 750 fee deep in the area Hopes dimmed that any one aboard Flight 261 survived in the 58 degree water. “This is still a search for human life,’ Coast Guard Adm. Tom Collins said “The challenge is time. As time ticks oil risks go up.” On shore in Port Hueneme, passers by paused to bow their heads in prayer. “It just feels so good to stand out here and pray. It sort of cleanses you out,” said — Diane Adame, 39. “You don't realize when you put someone on a plane and i give them a hug that you might not see them again. I just feel for the people who lost their loved ones, especially the young ones. I guess that’s what really got ' me.” The flight had left Puerto Vallarta, 1 Mexico, for San Francisco and Seattle with 83 passengers and five crew mem bers. The passengers included three airline employees, four employees of its sister airline Horizon and 23 relatives or friends , of the employees taking advantage of free standby flights. bx Student Discounts on ali Processing and Printing Lab Services One Hour Color Printing One Hour Slide Developing Black & White Developing Enlargements to 20x24 Copy Negs & Duplication 'kodak Copy Print Station Digital Services Scans to Photo-CD Hi-Res Scanning Lg. Format Prints to 5 feet Mounting and Lamination Slides from PowerPoint Prints from Dig. Cameras 0 0 0 : 0 § Corner of Gervais St. § o A A Q and Gadsden o o ^ Across from Jillians o o Gets you: 715 Gervais St. § j 799-2020 o A * w v 0 0 0 *an eye exam & g t 0 *2 six packs of disposables 0 § Or Dr. C. Earl Loftis Jr. § *an eye exam & Office hours: M-Th 9am-6pm 0 g *1 pair of daily wear lenses Fri. 9am-4pm g I Soccer, Badminton, and Table Tennis entries being accepted now through February 3rd at 7:00pm. Also, sign up for Softball and Racquetball I the Office of f|||| Campus Recreation. 202 Blatt PE Center, Call 777-5261 for 35 more info. jagl Come see what nearly 300 student organizations have to offer you! Check out the following exhibitions: 12:00 noon - ]udo Club 1:00 pm- Columbia Ballroom Dance Club J Sponsored by the Departmmt of Student life • Division cf Student & Alumni Services ^