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Nation & World Land mines kill three children in Bosnia town by Alexander S. Dragicevic The Associated Press Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Helpless to save her, NATO peacekeep ers and townspeople watched from the edge of a minefield as a dying 11-year old girl waved and pleaded for hours to be rescued Ema Alic and two other children, the latest casualties of the Bosnian war that ended five years ago, died Monday af ter venturing into the minefield on the outskirts of the capital. “For two hours, the girl was show ing signs of life, waved with her little hand and called for help. Then she I went quiet,” said eyewitness NenadKre stalica, 67, who was still visibly upset Tuesday. His wife, Stana, said she was garden ing when she heard the explosion. “We all started running. We heard a child’s voice screaming for help,” she said “Wfe called the police and they came, but nobody could approach the children.” Police identified the other dead chil dren as Goran Biscevic, 12, and Haris Balicevac, 12. As the rescue team carried the bod ies of the children from the minefield Ema’s father broke into tears, turned around and told his wife: “It’s our child” other witnesses recalled. The woman fainted The presence of the minefield was well-known, and signs warned of danger, residents said Still, the field was not taped off, apparently because of lack of mon ey. Dozens of people are killed and in jured every month in explosions of some of the millions of land mines strewn across Bosnia. Minefields render large areas along the former front line unusable. Residents gathered around the mine field after the explosion Monday, fol lowed by Italian members of the NATO led peacekeeping force, but they could only watch the tragedy a few hundred yards away. Although the experts worked quick ly once on the scene, more than 2 1/2 hours elapsed between the time a dem ining team was notified and the time it reached the victims. By then, all three children were dead. “It didn’t take us more than half an hour to demine a small path to get to the children,” said Zoran Gagula, one of the deminers. “We skipped standard proce dures, risked our lives, and still, by the time we got to the children, they were dead.” Standard demining procedures are slow, with experts sometimes taking as much as an hour per square yard to min imize risk, prodding each inch of terrain for explosive devices. NATO experts arrived after a team from Norwegian People’s Aid and there fore let that squad do the demining, said a NATO spokesman, Maj. Paul Hub bard. “They really did it as quickly as they could,” Hubbard said. Andja Elek, 60, said she saw the chil dren walking earlier and warned them not to play there because of the mines, “but they obviously didn’t listen to me.” “The girl was able to lift her head a few times and call for help,” she said. Demining Bosnia could take decades. Money for the projects is in short sup ply, as the war fades in people’s memo ries. Survivor describes mass killing by Anthony Deutsch The Associated Press The Hague, Netherlands — A sur vivor of the Srebrenica massacre told a U.N. tribunal on Tuesday how he lay un der a bleeding corpse for hours as Bosn ian Serb soldiers machine-gunned truck loads of Muslim prisoners. “It went on late into the night,” the Muslim, 48, identified as witness L, told the three judges. “A man cov ered part of my face and his blood was dripping onto me.... Then another truck came and there were shots again.” He testified in the trial of Serb Gen. Radislav Krstic, accused of leading the weeklong rampage in July 1995 in the U.N.-declared “safe haven,” which left 7,500 Muslim men and boys dead or missing. The witness told the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that he was among a group of up to 2,000 refugees who were rounded up as the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in Bosnia was overrun by Serb forces. The man said he was blindfolded with a rag and given a sip of water by Serb troops before being sent off to be slaugh tered with truckloads of other prisoners. Krstic has been charged with geno cide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Con ventions on war. He will face life in prison if convicted of any of the charges to which he has pleaded innocent. Wilkins, House leaders file flag bill by Leigh Strope The Associated Press Speaker David Wilkins and nine oth er House Republicans entered the Con federate flag fight Tuesday with their own proposal to remove the banner from South “ Carolina’s Statehouse dome. Republican House leaders previous ly had stayed on the sidelines, saying they would do nothing about the flag until the National Association for the Advance ment of Colored People dropped its boy cott. Meanwhile, the Senate, after months of working behind the scenes to find a compromise, will debate a flag bill Wednesday for the first time. It was the GOP-led House in 1997 that shot down Republican Gov. David Beasley’s attempt to get the flag moved. Beasley later said the flag contributed to his loss a year later to Democrat Jim Hodges. In 1994, the House adjourned without considering a Senate-approved i> plan to remove the flag. But Wilkins, R-Greenville, said the issue must be resolved this year and “it’s got to be done within these walls.” Time constraints, not pressure from business leaders, prompted him to act, he said. The South Carolina Chamber of Com merce has launched a full-scale lobbying effort with a coalition of big companies to push for the flag’s removal. But not all flag supporters have been convinced. “I think there’s a great les son to be learned and a great message to be sent sometimes by saying no,” said Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston. “No can be a whole paragraph.” Wilkins said he also realized the NAACP would not lift its boycott. “If it’s going to get resolved, it’s go ing to get resolved in spite of the NAACP and in spite of the boycott,” he said. Wilkins said he wanted to get a House flag bill into play as a precaution in case the Senate fails to approve one. Legisla tive rules require all bills to be assigned to committees by April 15. A bill must be approved by at least one chamber by May 1 or a two-thirds vote is needed for consideration. The bill is modeled after the 1994 Heritage Act that got Senate approval, and would place the flag at the Confed erate soldiers monument in front of the Statehouse. The NA ACP and some black lawmakers have said they cannot support the flag flying at such a visible location. The bill also would remove the Con federate flags hanging in the House and Senate chambers, and would protect all monuments, memorials and buildings erected or named in honor of the Con federacy or civil rights movement. Signing on to support the bill were Wilkins, Speaker Pro Tern Terry Haskins of Greenville, Majority Leader Rick Quinn of Columbia, Judiciary Chairman Jim Harrison of Columbia, Wrys and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell of Charleston, Reps. Doug Smith of Spartanburg, Rita Allison of Lyman, Bill Sandifer of Seneca, Dan Tripp of Mauldin and Bud Webb of Clemson. Summit with North Korea a big step forward/ South Korean president says by Paul Shin The Associated Press Seoul, South Korea — South Ko rea’s president said today that a summit with North Korea represents a “big step forward” in peace efforts, although he warned his people not to expect too much from the meeting. Kim Dae-jupg said South Korea would broach substantive issues at the leaders summit in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on June 12-14. Vice minis ters from the two Koreas will hold preparatory meetings in Beijing prior to the summit, Kwon Byong-hyon, South Korea’s ambassador to China, said today. He did not say when the meetings would take place or disclose further de tails. Kim said the summit would be un likely to resolve any of the major issues dividing the sides. “The national issues, which have been divisive for a half century, cannot be re solved overnight,” Kim told a Cabinet meeting. The June summit, announced joint ly Monday by the two sides, would be the first between the two Koreas since the division of their peninsula into the communist North and the capitalist South in 1945. They share the world’s most heavily armed border. The summit, Kim said, is “one big step forward in our national history and in the move toward peace.” Kim said economic assistance and co operation, reunions of millions of sepa rated family members and tension-eas ing measures will top the agenda in his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong II. The North’s agreement on the sum mit is the most important evidence yet that the reclusive country may be shift ing its long-standing policy of shunning dialogue with the Seoul government, which it officially regards as a U.S. “pup pet.” Economic benefits are the lure. With its economy in tatters, North Korea has relied on outside aid since 1995 to feed its 22 million people. By the North’s own admission, 220,000 people have died of ~ hunger-related diseases in recent years. South Korean officials have already indicated the summit could spur their countiy to invest billion of dollais in build ing roads, ports, railroads, power plants and other infrastructure in North Korea. Other possible South Korean assis tance includes shipments of fuel coal and fertilizer, they said. Seoul officials worry the summit could be scrapped if North Korea persists in its long-running demand for the withdraw al of the 37,000 U.S. troops from South Korea. Another contentious issue is North Korea’s insistence that the armistice that ' ended the 1950-53 Korean War be re placed by a peace treaty to be signed be tween it and the United States, without the participation of South Korea. “They are something we cannot ac cept,” National Security Adviser Hwang Won-tak said of those possible de mands. Culture and Tourism Minister Park Jie-won, who acted as South Korean emis saiy in secret talks with North Korea, said that those issues were not discussed in advance. “They were more interested in economic aid and assistance,” he said. A key adviser to Washington said today that peaceful coexistence seems like a good objective for the Koreas to pursue but that unification along the lines of East and West Germany was unlike ly “A very reasonable goal is a recon ciliation on the Korean peninsula—the countries living together peacefully,” said William J. Perry, the former U.S. defense secretary who has served as Clinton’s North Korea policy coordinator. “Their political systems are dra matically different. Their economic sys tems are dramatically different,” Perry said while on a visit to Hong Kong. “I just have a hard time imagining it.” Where did working at fflic (Bamccock get our 1999 2000 staff? Jobs and internships with the following organizations: The New York Times 48 Hours - CBS Newsday The Charlotte Observer The Associated Press The State Winston-Salem Journal (Spartanbuig) Herald Journal S.C. Republican Party Democratic National Party USC Sports Information Chemoff-Silver Spoleto Festival USA USC Press ] ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS!!! II •Public Relations • Broadcast •Viewpoints • University • City/State •Features • Sports • Online •Photo • Graphics •Design • Copy Desk • General assignment •Editorial board * Of (Bamccock is looking for section editors, assistant editors and gen eral assignment reporters for all sections of the paper this fall. Come by Russell House Room 333 and pick up an applica tion. No experience is necessary for general assignment reporters, public rela tions, broadcast or design teams. We will teach you everything you need to know. Job descriptions available on the Web at www.gamecock.sc.edu. 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