The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 15, 2000, Page 9, Image 9
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Israel blocks roads in response
to increased Palestinian violence
by Mark Lavie
Associated Press
JERUSALEM —Israeli troops closed
off Palestinian communities Tuesday, par
alyzing life in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip in retaliation for deadly shooting
ambushes that signaled an escalation in
seven weeks of fighting.
Three Palestinians, including two boys
aged 16 and 13, were killed and 15
wounded by Israeli fire in rock-throwing
clashes in the West Bank and Gaza,
doctors said. Since Sept. 28,209 people
have been killed, the majority Palestini
ans.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak
cut short an overseas trip and scheduled
an emergency meeting of his security
Cabinet later Tuesday to discuss further
retaliation for Monday’s killing of four
Israelis — a teacher, a truck driver and
two soldiers — by Palestinian gunmen.
Barak, who was en route from the
United States to Israel, shortened a
stopover in London. A planned meeting
with British Prime Minister Tony Blair
was canceled because Barak’s flight was
delayed. The two men spoke by telephone
instead, and the Israeli leader was meet
ing with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan.
The new stage of confrontation be
tween Israelis and Palestinians shaped up
as a war over the West Bank roads. Israeli
military commentators said the army was
considering further restrictions on Pales
tinian travel, such as banning cars with
Palestinian license plates from certain
West Bank roads at certain times.
Israeli Cabinet Minister Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer, who is acting prime minis
ter during Barak’s absence, said “the
minute the situation is bad for us, it will
be very bad for them (the Palestinians).”
Ben-Eliezer said the gunmen apparently
were supporters of the militant Islamic
Jihad group, but claimed the attacks were
carried out with the support of Pales
tinian leader Yasser Arafat.
There was no immediate comment
from Arafat, who was en route to Gaza
from an Islamic summit in Doha.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, said
they would keep Israeli civilians and troops
out of West Bank villages starting Wfednes
day, the anniversary of Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat’s symbolic statehood procla
mation, made in exile in 1988.
Such a step would be a direct chal
lenge to Israel, since previous peace ac
cords grant Israel security control over
the West Bank villages.
Palestinian activists will also “cut off
roads to (Jewish) settlers,” said Hussein
al Sheik, an official in Arafat’s Fatah move
ment.
No Palestinian group claimed re
sponsibility for Monday’s shooting am
bushes which reflected a new strategy by
the Palestinians.
Investigators piece together events
of cable car disaster at ski resort
DI m C L I ,5 ^ A U.UUI
Associated Press
KAPRUN, Austria — U.S. Army
Maj. Drew Stathis and his 8-year-old
daughter were running late.
By the time they reached the base
of Austria’s Kitzsteinhom mountain just
after 9 am. Saturday, other members of
their ski club were headed up the
slope on a cable railway that traveled
nearly 2 miles through an Alpine tun
nel.
Suddenly, dark smoke rose above
the tree line. Sirens wailed and heli
copters circled.
[ “Nobody knew the gravity of
what was going on,” Stathis said.
Inside the mountain, an inferno had
engulfed the cable car. By midnight, it
was clear only a dozen people had es
caped the tunnel alive. At least 159 were
believed to have died.
Survivors say it began as a small fire.
But it ripped through the train, melding
people and cable cars into a smoldering
mass that burned down to the chassis.
Dozens of passengers managed to get
out of the train, but died trying to es
cape the tunnel.
Seconds after the car entered the
narrow concrete shaft, passengers in the
rear spotted flames. The train came to a
halt.
“We had just entered the tunnel
when another passenger said, ’Some
. thing is burning,’” survivor Gerhard
” Hanetseder told reporters.
Equipped to detect disruptions in
the system, the train stopped automat
ically at 9:02 am. The conductor, in the
front, called the base to say there was a
fire, said Manfred Mueller, the system’s
technical director. Controllers told him
to open the doors, then lost contact. It
was 9:10 am.
as me uase maue us ursi ouo can,
thick black smoke spread inside the train,
pouring through the walls. Panic broke
out.
“We tried desperately to get the
doors open, but couldn’t,” Hanetseder
said. “In the meantime, this little fire
had set the whole cabin aflame. Already
at that point we began to lose hope. There
was no way we could get out”
A couple of passengers broke through
the Plexiglas window using “a ski boot
or a ski or something.” Hanetseder, an
Austrian, watched someone climb
through the shattered window, and then
grabbed his 12-year-old daughter, Chris
tine.
“At first she couldn’t get through,
so I gave her a push and she fell down,”
he recalled “Then I climbed after her
and fell down, too. I don’t know ex
actly how we made it out, because the
hole was so small.”
As the first rescue crews arrived at
9:14 am., flames and smoke swept up
ward through the tunnel, like a chim
ney. Noxious fumes poured out, instantly
killing two tourists and an employee at
the Alpine Cen ter on top of the moun
tain.
Inside, a man who had escaped the
burning car screamed through the dark,
“We’ve got to go down! Everybody
down!”
Identified only as Erwin G., 36, from
Germany, his call is credited with sav
ing the lives of those who survived by
stumbling in their ski boots down a nar
row metal stairway, back toward the val
ley.
Other passengers Mowed what psy
chologists describe as the natural instinct
to climb. They ran right into the fire and
poisonous smoke.
News of the accident spread quick
ly through the tiny village of Kaprun.
\blunteer firelighters raced up the moun
tain.
By 9:20 a.m., calls went farther
afield. Helicopters, medics and rescue
teams arrived from across Austria and
neighboring Germany.
But rescuers outride the tunnel stood
by helplessly as it became clear that lit
tle could be done. By 1 p.m., police
reported that three people had died. They
ominously noted the train could hold up
to 180 passengers.
By late afternoon, about 2,000 skiers
who had taken to the slopes that day be
gan coming down the mountain on the
gondola system. They were asked to reg
ister as they reached the valley, and of
ficials began to figure out who was miss
ing.
As night fell, people hoping their
relatives had missed the 9 am. cable car
tried to remain optimistic. But shortly
past 11 pm., authorities confirmed every
one was off the mountain.
Those who had not returned prob
ably had not survived.
Sonja Denk, from Lower Austria,
had last heard from her 34-year-old hus
band, Franz, and their son Guistoph on
Saturday morning, when they called to
say they were heading up the mountain.
She had stayed home with 5-year-old
daughter Nathalie.
After hours of waiting for them to
call again, she headed for Kaprun. Helped
by police, she found the family’s car,
alone in a parking lot.
“The way that car was just standing
there, I knew that it was over,” she told
Austrian state radio.
By midday Sunday, the smoldering
remains had cooled enough for author
ities to enter the tunnel. Charred bod
ies were trapped below the remains of
the train. Others were scattered along
die steep metal stairway. Most were so
disfigured they could not be identified.
Authorities asked relatives for vic
tims’ toothbrushes and razor blades, hop
ing to find shreds of DNA that could help
identify them.
Eight Americans are believed to be
among the dead, including a family of
four with two young children and a cou
ple who became engaged last week.
Dozens of Austrians, Germans, several
Japanese and people from Great Britain,
Slovenia, the Netherlands and the Czech
Republic are also believed to be among
the victims.
Members of die ski clubs from Army
bases, mostly in Germany, sadly board
ed buses Sunday.
“In the Army, you enter situations
of hostility where you expect this kind
of thing,” said Maj. Stathis, who stayed
behind to handle official matters. “But
not when you’re going skiing. At
most, you expect a broken leg, but not
this.”
I
'In the Army, you enter situations of hostility where
you expect this kind of thing. But not when you’re
going skiing. At most,* you expect a broken leg, but
not this.'
Maj. Drew Stathis
Ski Club Member
Police arrest suspect
for shooting death
- of Maryland trooper
■ Manhunt ends
as immigrant faces
murder charges
by James H. Ludwin
Associated Press
WASHINGTON —A Ghanaian
immigrant wanted in the shooting death
of a Maryland state trooper was arrested
- early Monday in New York City after
evading a massive police manhunt for
nearly two weeks.
Kofi Orleans-Lindsay, 23, was
charged with murder in the Oct. 30
slaying of Cpl. Edward Toatley dur
ing a drug sting operation in the Dis
trict of Columbia.
A federal magistrate in New York
ordered Orleans-Lindsay held without
bail pending an extradition hearing Fri
day. Andrew Carter, his court-appointed
attorney, indicated he planned to aigue
the suspect was misidentified.
A court affidavit indicated police
surveillance and a videotape recovered
from Toatley’s truck clearly show the
man firing the shot that killed the un
dercover officer. A police officer who
^ has known Orleans-Lindsey for more
than 10 years positively identified the
Silver Spring, Md., man as the person
on the tape with Toatley, ‘the affidavit
said.
The suspect, who bragged to asso
ciates he would never be caught, was
arrested around 1 a.m. Monday during
a traffic stop in the Brooklyn borough
of New York City.
“Kofi, the joke’s on you,” Mary
land State Police superintendent, Col.
David Mitchell, said during a news con
ference held outside Washington, D.C.
police headquarters.
Toatley, 37, a 16-year veteran who
received his promotion posthumous
ly, was working with a task force to re
duce drug trafficking in neighborhoods
along the District of Columbia
Maryland line. He had just given Or
leans-Lindsay several thousand dollars
for drugs, police said.
During the manhunt, up to 200 po
lice officers cordoned off neighbor
hoods and conducted a room-by-room
search of a 14-story hotel in Silver
Spring. Investigators now believe Or
leans-Lindsay fled to New York with
in 24 hours of the shooting, said Barry
Mawn, Assistant FBI Director in charge
of the New York office.
Wilma Lewis, U.S. attorney for the
District of Columbia, said it would take
time to determine whether to seek the
death penalty, noting, “It will be up to
the attorney general to decide.”
House removes language
about government leaks
from vetoed spending bill
by Jim Abrams
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The House gave in
to President Clinton on Monday and re
moved language from a major intelligence
spending bill that would have made leak
ing of government secrets a criminal act.
The president vetoed the bill, which
authorizes an estimated $30 billion in
spending by the CIA, National Security
Agency and other intelligence agencies,
because he disagreed with the provi
sion on classified data leaks.
Clinton, in his veto message, said he
agreed that such leaks “can be extraor
dinarily harmful” to national security.
But he agreed with misgivings that the
new penalties could silence whistle-blow
ers.
“We must never foiget that the free
flow of information is essential to a de
mocratic society,’’Clinton said.
Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman
of the House Permanent Select Com
mittee on Intelligence, said the contro
versial provision was removed in its en
tirety and the bill will be returned to the
president after the Senate signs off on it.
The House approved the revised version
Monday by voice vote.
“It is worth noting that the president
accepted a share of the blame for the ad
ministration’s ‘failure to apprise Con
gress of the concerns’ he expressed in his
veto message as the bill was making its
way through the legislative process,”
Goss said.
The crackdown on government of
ficials’ leaking of classified material had
some support within thd administration.
Attorney General Janet Reno said it would
have no dramatic increase in the number
of prosecutions and would close what she
called a “very narrow gap” in existing
laws.
The language drew criticism from
news organizations, however. They said
it could jeopardize seriously their abili
ty to obtain information vital to the pub
lic.
Four of the nation’s laigest news or
ganization, CNN, The Washington
Post, The New York Times and the News
paper Association of America, appealed
to Clinton to veto the bill.
The provision would have extended
penalties that now exist for leaking clas
sified national defense information to the
leaking of nondefense classified data that
could harm the United States if made
public or given to foreign governments.
Opponents said it amounted to the
nation’s first ever official secrets act, and
even members of Congress would be sub
ject to criminal charges for leaking
classified information.
Currently, disclosure of classified ma
terial that does not directly harm national
security generally is dealt with through
administrative action such as firing, but
the new language would have made such
an act a felony punishable by up to three
years in prisorr. |_
Strikes, protests mount
as president of Philippines
faces corruption charges
0
by Jim Gomez
Associated Press
MANILA, Philippines — An unusual
alliance of left-wing workers and con
servative business groups held a gen
eral strike Tuesday against President
Joseph Estrada, who faces a Senate
impeachment trial for corruption chaiges.
The House of Representatives sent
the impeachment chaiges to the Senate
on Monday. But business groups and
workers called on Estrada to resign, fear
ing a prolonged trial will further dam
age the economy.
Tens of thousands of militant la
borers, students and transport workers
went on strike and joined protests in
key cities, forcing many schools to sus
pend classes and offices to close.
About 30,000 people joined street
protests in the central city of Bacolod,
oiganizers said. Streets were empty in
Davao, a bustling southern port city,
as many office workers chose to stay
home.
About 7,000 labor and student ac
tivists gathered near, the presidential
palace in Manila, carrying streamers and
effigies of Estrada They were later joined
by about 6,000 other protesters who
marched across the city’s downtown
area, snarling traffic.
In the financial districts, brokers and
analysts in black shirts and armbands
walked off trading floors about 30 min
utes before the markets closed, clapping
their hands and chanting, “Erap resign,”
using the president’s popular nickname.
They briefly joined protesters in the
street.
“We want to send the message that
we are mourning what is happening in
our country,” stock exchange Gov.
Vivien Yuchengco said.
Fears of political instability gener
ated by the scandal have caused the coun
try’s currency, the peso, and its stock
market to plunge, although both rose
slightly Tuesday on baigain-hunting.
Estrada and other officials tried to
discourage Tuesday’s strike.
“It’s a mistake but what can we do?”
asked presidential Executive Secretary
Ronaldo Zamora. “It’s their right, and
the government’s obligation is to make
sure it is peaceful.”
A provincial governor testified last
month that he had given the president
more than $10 million in illegal gam
bling payoffs and tobacco taxes. Estra
da is the first Philippine president to be
impeached,' although motions were raised
against four others, including former
dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
There was no formal vote on im
peachment by the full House, which had
been expected Monday. House Speak
er Manuel Villar said it was unneces
sary because more than the required
one-third of the 218 members had signed
a petition endorsing the impeach
ment.
It was unclear whether the process
fulfilled the legal requirements for im
peachment. At least one lawmaker, As
sistant Majority Leader Gilbert Teodoro,
said the Senate might reject the com
plaint because of procedural flaws.
The Senate is working to draft im
peachment rules, based on those used
by the U.S. Senate during President Clin
ton’s impeachment trial. Newly elect
ed Senate President Aquilino Pimentel
Jr. said the chamber will" try to finish
the trial next month.
Estrada has acknowledged his old
friend, Gov. Luis Singson of Docos Sur
province, offered him a bribe. Estrada
said he refused it.
Singson testified to Congress that
the president had asked him to coordi
nate the nationwide collection of pay
ofis from an illegal numbers game called
jueteng. He said he personally gave Estra
da more than $8 million from jueteng
and $2.6 million from provincial to
bacco taxes.
APEC
from page 8
which threatens to slow economic
growth in the majority of the group’s
economies that are net importers of en
ergy.
Chinese Trade Minister Shi Guang
sheng and Mexican Commerce Minis
ter Herminio Blanco met for 90 min
utes Tuesday to try to resolve issues
preventing China from entering the
WTO.
Blanco said the nations remained
- _
at odds over dumping, the practice of
selling goods in another market too
cheaply, but added that he remained
hopeful.
China has been fighting for years to
get into the WTO and has reached nec
essary deals with all other key trading
partners, including the United States
and the European Union.
APEC members are Australia,
Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong
Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mex
ico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea,
Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore,
South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the
United States and Vietnam.
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