Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Kostunica admits killings by Katarina Kratovac Associated Press BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Yu goslavia’s new president has admitted foi the first time that Yugoslav army and po lice forces committed widespread killing: in Kosovo last year. \bjislav Kostunica’s remarks during a television interview marked the first time any Yugoslav leader has accepter responsibility and expressed remorse foi any of the conflicts in the last decade in the Balkans. His remarks were reported as the new president scored a significant vic tory Tuesday, persuading the Serbian par liament to approve a power-sharing ad ministration to run Yugoslavia’s main republic until early elections in De cember. Those elections will give the democ racy forces a chance to rembve the last major bastion of Milosevic support with in the Yugoslav leadership. Milosevic has never admitted wrong doing in Kosovo, steadfastly blaming the West for instigating violence in the re gion. He was indicted last year for war crimes by the international court in The Hague for atrocities committed by his troops in Kosovo. “I am ready to... accept the guilt for all those people who have been killed,” Kostunica told CBS News’ “60 Minutes ■ II,” according to a transcript. “For what Milosevic had done, and as a Serb, I will take responsibility for many of these, these crimes.” Asked whether Yugoslav forces were guilty of genocide in the southern province of Kosovo, Kostunica admit ted that crimes had occurred, but that both Serbs and ethnic Albanians were killed. The interview was to be aired Tuesday night. “Those are the crimes, and the peo ple that have been killed are victims,” Kostunica said, adding “there are a lot of crimes on the other side and the Serbs have been killed.” Under Milosevic, Yugoslav forces launched a massive crackdown on eth nic Albanian separatists in Kosovo in 1998. Thousands of ethnic Albanian civil ians were killed and tens of thousands of others forced to flee their homes. Milosevic depicted the crackdown as a heroic attempt to save Serbia’s me dieval heartland from independence minded ethnic Albanian extremists. He and four of his officials were charged by the U.N. war crimes tribunal last year for atrocities committed in Kosovo. Since taking power after a popular revolt, Kostunica has moved to bring about democratic changes and has shown willingness to cooperate with the tri bunal. He has not yet moved to arrest Milosevic, saying the tribunal was a po litical entity created by the West and that his country doesn’t recognize it. Asked by CBS whether he thought Milosevic would ever stand trial, Kos tunica replied, “Somewhere, yes.” Milosevic’s party still holds a sig nificant amount of power, which has pre vented Kostunica’s camp from pushing through much-needed democratic re forms. Prospects for change improved sig nificantly, however, when Serbia’s par liament voted Tuesday to replace Ser bia’s republican government with a transition administration until early elec tions are held on Dec. 23. Milosevic’s party holds 110 of the 250 seats in the republican legislature. Under the formula, the current Ser bian government will be replaced by a temporary one in which pro-democra cy forces will share power to prevent any rigging of the balloting. Previously, the legislature wasn’t due for new elections until the fall of 2001. Parliamentary approval came after Milosevic’s former allies in the Radical Party accused Kostunica’s camp of stag ing a “coup” by forcing changes in the republican administration. The Radicals, which hold 82 seats in the 250-seat assembly, filibustered for seven hours, forcing parliament to ad journ its session without a vote on the reorganization plan. The assembly met again Tuesday, although the session was delayed after Radicals walked out to protest a decision by state television not to broadcast the event. Yugoslavia is a federation made up of Serbia and smaller Montenegro, each with their own elected governments. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, but the United Nations and NATO took over the province in June 1999 following NA TO’s 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia. Kosovo Serbs, the minority in the province, now commonly complain of being the target of attacks. A rocket-pro pelled grenade exploded Monday at a neighborhood where most remaining Serbs in Kosovo’s capital of Pristina live, blowing a hole in one of the buildings. Teen-ager holds classroom hostage by Joel Eskovitz Associated Press GLENDALE, Arnz. — An armet teen-ager briefly held a classroom full o children and a teacher hostage Tuesday at his former elementary school be for; surrendering to authorities. No one wa; injured. The former student at Pioneer Ele mentaiy School gave up after talking witf members of a police SWAT team, police spokesman Matt Brown said. The stand off in the eighth-grade classroom-lastec about an hour. “He came here with a purpose, bul thank goodness he didn’t carry it out,” Brown said. He did not elaborate beyond saying the boy discussed the reason for his actions with authorities. Brown said the portable classroom was full when the student walked in with a 9mm handgun, but he gradually let stu dents go. There were still several people . in the room at the time t' st dent sur rendered. The school has classes . .dnder garten through eighth grades and the chil dren involved were about 13 or 14 years old, Brown said. Other students were bused to a high school where parents could pick them up, and the school was closed. Courtney Smith, who lives across I the street from the school, said she saw ' the suspect enter the school grounds at about 11:15 a.m. He was wearing cam ouflage and had a hood over his head, but she didn’t see a weapon. “I didn’t think anything of it. Next thing we know, there were girls running out of the classroom screaming. They told us there was a kid inside with a gun holding kids hostage,” Smith said “They were hysterical, crying and screaming. They told us he’d threatened to kill them.” Terra Churchill was in her backyard next to the school yard, when she heard the words “Code 9” announced over the loudspeaker. Her three daugh ters, Whitteny, 8, Britteny, 10, and Tiffeny, 12, all attend Pioneer. Churchill immediately called the school and was told the campus was in lockdown. About an hour later, she was standing in Smith’s front yard when she saw police bring the suspect out. “This is very frightening,” she said “Just to think of what all those kids are going through.” Barak seeking to form 1 coalition government with opposition leader ■ Ihree dead after latest clash in West Bank by Laurie Copans Associated Press JERUSALEM — Israeli troops and Palestinians clashed in rain-drenched streets Tuesday, while Israeli Prime Min ister Ehud Barak pressed ahead with negotiations to bring hawkish opposition leader Ariel Sharon into a coalition government. With no current prospects for a Mideast peace deal, Barak was searching for partners to bolster his vulnerable mi nority government, which is in danger of collapse. His negotiators held a second day of talks with parliamentary factions, including Sharon, the man many Pales tinians blame for igniting the present spasm of violence. “Friends, this is a time of emergency, and in an emergency, brothers walk to gether,” Barak said on Israeli radio. Meanwhile, Israeli army Col. Noam Tivon, a commander on the West Bank, said the military didn't expect the clash es to end soon. “We definitely need to prepare for a long period of conflict,” he told Israel radio. Clashes again broke out in the Qiza Strip, where the weather was dry. Rain appeared to dampen but not extinguish clashes in the West Bank on Tuesday. Palestinian authorities reported three more deaths. A 55-year-old Palestinian man was killed in his house overnight when he was hit in the head by gunfire in Hebron. Af ter daybreak, Palestinian rock throwers confronted Israeli troops along the main street of Hebron, in the West Bank. A Palestinian teen-ager was shot and killed Tuesday in clashes near the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Is rael, the Shifa hospital said. Also, a 13 year-old Palestinian boy, Iyad Shaath, died | of a gunshot wound to the head suffered * four days earlier in the Gaza Strip, the hospital said. For Palestinians, Tuesday was a hol iday marking the ascension of the Mus lim Prophet Muhammad to heaven from Jerusalem. The Israeli military called on Palestinians “not to send schoolchildren to violent confrontations with the secu rity forces.” The Palestinians accuse the Israelis of using excessive force in the daily confrontations. In almost four weeks of fighting, which erupted following Sharon’s Sept. 28 visit to a disputed holy site in Jerusalem, 126 people have been killed and thou sands injured, the vast majority Pales tinians. Israeli army tanks positioned on the outskirts of Jerusalem fired three shells late Monday toward Palestinian gunmen shooting from the nearby Palestinian vil lage of Beit Jalla. Four Palestinians were injured in the Israeli fire. It was the sec ond night of clashes on Jerusalem’s pe riphery, sparked each time by bursts of gunfire emanating from Beit Jalla. Israel sealed Beit Jalla on Monday in Mideast see rage 5 North Korean leader indicates he might curb missile program by Christopher To r c hia Associated Press PYONGYANG, North Korea — Seeking reconciliation with the Unit ed States, North Korea has indicated a willingness to discuss curbs in its mis sile program, U.S. officials said Tues day after two days of historic high-lev el talks. Secretary of State Madeleine Al bright said she took seriously a remark delivered offhand at a gymnastic exhi bition by North Korean leader Kim Jong II that the country would refrain from long-range missile launches. Kim had raised the missile issue Monday night, when an image of a Tae po Dong I missile was flashed before the audience. “He quipped that this was the first satellite launch and it would be the last,” she said. Asked at a news conference if she interpreted that as a pledge for a permanent moratorium on missile launches, Albright said, “I take what he said as serious as to his desire to move forward to resolve various ques tions.” A State Department official, speak ing on condition of anonymity, said af ter Albright and Kim finished their talks that the North Korean leader is agree able to discussing “serious restraint” in missiles. But diplomats offered no further elaboration of Kim’s words to Albright in their six hours of talks, including whether his assurances covered all mis siles that could be used against other countries. Lower-level technical talks on mis siles were planned for next week. Many analysts in and out of gov ernment are convinced North Korea already has the capacity to strike at the perimeter of the United States with a long-range missile. That concern has been the main Albright seepages News Briefs ■ Candidates make final push as election nears MILWAUKEE (AP) — With neither candidate yet able to seize a decisive lead, Geoige W. Bush and A1 Gore are sharpening their attacks in the final two weeks of the presidential cam paign. With polls suggesting a clifihanger outcome on Election Day, Republican Bush and Democrat Gore were going after undecided voters and crossing each other’s campaign paths. Bush was campaigning Tuesday in Illinois and in Gore’s home state of Tennessee, states that went Democrat ic in 1996 but where Republicans think they have a good chance this year. Gore also was to be in Tennessee, which he should have wrapped up by now but where polls show an unex pectedly tight race. He also planned events in Louisiana and Arkansas. ■ separatists say Chinese tortured prisoner to death BEIJING (AP) — Police have tor tured to death an organizer of one of the largest uprisings against Chinese rule in China’s uneasy Muslim north west, according to a separatist group. Abduhelil Abdulmejit, imprisoned 44 months ago and repeatedly interro gated and tortured, died Oct. 17 in the Chapchal Su Detention Center in the Xinjiang region’s Yili county, said the East Turkistan Information Center, based in Germany. A detention center official con firmed Abduhelil Abdulmejit’s death, but said he died from pneumonia at the central prison in Yming, Yili’s county seat, not at the detention center. f SAMSUNG DIGIToh) everyone's invited 1 i \ i A laser printer for the price of an inkjet? | Cool. Just $199. Now you can have your very own laser printer. At a breakthrough price. Fast. Sharp. Clean. Compact. With a toner cartridge that should last you all year. And at a per page cost that's 70% less than inkjet. Plus a Toner Save button that extends | the life another 30%. Papers that stand out in a teacher's grading stack. Professional resumes. Articles | fit to submit for publication. All for the price I of a half-dozen inkjet cartridges. Better think twice. Everyone in the dorm s I gonna want to use it. Grab one at your campus bookstore I Order online. Or by phone at 800-459-3272. | Go to www.samsungusa.com/Xtreme for I more information. J The Samsung ML-4S00 Laser Printer. "16-pages-on-1" print feature and Last Page Reprint button. Microsoft 2000 and Linux compatible. c 2000 Samsung Elnctimscs Amanca Sync Mast* is a dadamart o* Samstaaj Emctiomcs Amanca