b
te Battalion
ORLD & NATION
15
)onday, March 5,1990
.S. soldier dies; sixteen wounded
Disco visited by Americans in Panama site of grenade attack
MSC POLITICAL FORUM
POLITICAL
AWARENESS
DAY
PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) — An Ameri-
i soldier has died of injuries suffered in a gre-
fe attack on a discotheque, and 13 U.S. serv-
men remained hospitalized Sunday, the U.S.
Ilitary said.
|A statement from the U.S. Southern Com-
nd said Army Spec . Anthony B. Ward, 21, of
juston, died at 5:15 p.m. Saturday of injuries
the chest and abdomen. He died at the U.S.
litary’s Got gas Hospital in Panama City.
IWard was among 16 American servicemen
|d 12 Panamanians injured late Friday in the at-
k on the disco My Place, which was known to
fequented by Americans.
Witnesses said two men yelling “Long live No-
ga!” threw a grenade through a glass wall of
disco at about 11:30 p.m., then sped away in a
There was no immediate claim of responsibi-
Iv. It was the first such attack on U.S. soldiers in
Panama since the Dec. 20 invasion that ousted
dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.
“We are sacidened by the death of Army Spe
cialist Anthony B. Ward and convey our heartfelt
condolences to his family,” said a White House
statement from Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater.
“This is an unfortunate incident that mars the
heroic steps the people of Panama are taking in
building democracy.”
Panamanian police said they had questioned
several witnesses to the bombing but announced
no arrests.
“We ask Panamanian citizens to free their so
ciety of these types of terrorists and criminals,”
Maj. Gen. Marc Cisneros, commander of the U.S.
Army South, said Saturday. “We must work to
gether to bring these criminals to justice.”
The 13 hospitalized Americans were reported
Sunday in satisfactory condition. Hospital offi
cials said 12 Panamanians had been injured and
that three were in intensive care, but in stable
condition.
Southern Command officials and the head of
Panama’s Judicial Technical Police met Saturday
to discuss the case.
Although organized resistance to the Ameri
can invasion died out quickly and Noriega’s De
fense Forces have been disbanded, Panamanian
officials have expressed concern that paramili
tary groups Noriega organized could resurface.
Large caches of weapons are believed to remain
hidden around the country, officials say.
The attack occurred hours after Noriega’s
wife, three daughters and grandson left Panama
for Havana. As they left Panama City, they were
surrounded by hundreds of jeering people who
shouted “Go away beggars!”
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G?>
ran, Syria
neet to discuss
lostages’ plight
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A
ienior Iranian envoy discussed
ffoits to f ree Western hostages
leld in Lebanon when he met
Sunday with Syria’s foreign min
ster, an informed source said.
The source, w ho ref used to be
identified further, said the meet-
ng between Mahmoud Hashemi
)f Iran and Farouk al-Sharaa of
Syria “appears to he to coordinate
dfons between the governments
if Syria and Iran to gain the re
lease of all the hostages” held by
pro-Iranian Shiite Moslem mili
tants in Lebanon.
He said Hashemi, the brother
sf Iranian President Hashemi
Rafsanjani, delivered "a vet v cor
dial message” to Shataa f rom Ira
nian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar
Velayati, including an invitation
for him to visit 1 ehran to meet
with Rafsanjani and Iran's spiri
tual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khame-
i.
Fite source said Hashemi ar
rived in Damascus, the Syrian
capital, earlier after a visit to Bei
rut. where he met with senior
Shiite Moslem figures on the hos
tage issue
The source gave no other de
tails of Hashemi's trip to Lebanon
or the one-hour meeting with
Sharaa.
But another source noted:
This appears to be a serious ef
fort, the first in some time, to end
the hostage ordeal ... But I don’t
think we’ll see anyone out tomor
row.
"Nobody can be precise about
how long the process will take.
There appears to he a genuine
desire by the Iranian President to
end this ordeal. But there are still
difficulties,” said tfie source.
Earlier, the offic ial Syrian Arab
News Agency reported that Ha-
sherni’s talks with Sharaa, at
tended by Iranian Ambassador
Hasan Akhtari, centered on “bi
lateral relations and issues of
common interest.”
Hashemi is director of the
Tehran Foreign Ministry’s Third
Department, which handles
Iran’s relations with Syria, Leb
anon and some other Arab states.
He is a former senior Iranian
diplomat in Damascus arid for
mer ambassador to Belgium,
Rafsanjani, elected president
in July, has of ten used him as his
personal emissary on sensitive
missions abroad.
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WEST BERLIN (AP) — Chan
cellor Helmut Kohl of West tier-
many is embroiled in controversy
over his refusal to categorically ac
cept the Polish-German border set at
the end of World War 11.
It has become a political issue; rec
ognition of the boundary could cost
Kohl votes in the Decerriber West
German election. But his failure to
renounce any future attempt to re
gain former territories lost in the
war could delay German reunifica
tion.
Kohl has come under attack from
Poland, from the World War II Al
lies and from the opposition in West
Germany and even in his own Cab
inet for failing to give an unequivo
cal promise on the border.
There have been demonstrations
in Poland in support of Polish de
mands to take part in talks on reuni
fication.
But the chancellor faces consider
able political risk if he declares the
current border inviolable.
Kohl’s Christian Democratic
Union is running only a couple of
percentage points ahead of the op
position Social Democrats in public
opinion polls.
The CDU traditionally has en
joyed the backing of conservative
West Germans, including millions of
“I
n many speeches I
have said that no one
wants to connect the unity
of the Germans with
moving the borders. I don’t
know what more I can say.”
— Helmut Kohl,
West German Chancellor
exiles from territories now governed
by Poland and the Soviet Union.
More than 12 million ethnic Ger
mans were driven from Silesia and
East Prussia after the Third Reich
was vanquished. The lands east of
the Oder and Neisse rivers that were
German before the war are now Pol
ish territory, comprising about one-
third of modern-day Poland.
If Kohl agrees to give up the
lands, he could alienate those voters
who provide his party’s narrow lead
over the Social Democrats.
However, Kohl’s equivocating has
cost the CDU support in East Ger
many, where the Social Democrats
are expected to win a majority in
March 18 elections.
West German political parties
have been active in the East German
campaign in an attempt to increase
their voter base in anticipation of
unification.
Kohl has to be worried that the
addition of a solidly Social Demo
cratic East German electorate could
tip the political balance and deprive
him of his dream of being the first
chancellor of a reunited Germany.
“In many speeches I have said
that no one wants to connect the
unity of the Germans with moving
the borders,” Kohl told East German
television on Wednesday. “I don’t
know what more I can say.”
Democracy in Nicaragua may curtail asylum
Chance of forced return small
MIAMI (AP) — A successful switch to democracy in
Nicaragua may sharply curtail U.S. granting of asylum
to that nation’s refugees, but there is little chance politi
cal exiles will be forced to return, immigration officials
say.
In theory, people granted asylum are subject to re
view each year, and could have that status revoked, says
Duke Austin, spokesman for the Immigration and Nat-
uralization Service in Washington.
“But I know of no single case since political asylum
has been an avenue in the United States when we have
involuntarily returned someone because conditions in
their homeland improved,” Austin said last week. “It’s
in the law, but it’s never been done.”
What is more likely is that new applicants will get
tougher scrutiny of their applications.
An estimated 80,000 to 90,000 Nicaraguans are in
the United States legally, including both political and
non-political cases. Some advocates believe twice that
number live in the United States if the count includes
illegal immigrants — many of whom were pinning their
hopes on political asylum to eventually normalize their
status.
In fiscal 1989, the INS granted just under 6,000 re
quests from Nicaraguans for asylum, while it denied
more than 10,000. Between October 1989 and January
of this year, about 500 were granted and 650 denied.
In the week since U.S.-backed Violetta Chamorro
beat the Sandinistas’ Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua’s pres
idential election, Miami immigx-ation officials noted a
decrease in the asylum requests.
Dozens of Nicaraguan exiles have either dropped
their petitions to stay, or have stopped Fighting depor
tation orders.
Most of those voluntarily dropping asylum requests,
like Marlene Falcon, say they are eager to return.
“We’re here not because we want to be, but because
of the repression,” she said. “I couldn’t see any use to
continue battling a political asylum claim that didn’t
have any validity.”
The INS rules on political asylum, in large part, are
based on State Department advisory opinions for each
individual. Most denials occur because analysts rule ap
plicants are economic, rather than political, refugees.
The State Department cautions it is too early to be as
sured that democracy will stick in Nicaragua, but a
spokesman says its asylum policy will be reviewed.
Nat Kingsley, of the State Department’s Human
Rights Bureau, emphasizes that under U.S. law, each
application is treated individually, whether it comes
from England or Albania.
Although the asylum evaluations are individual, INS
officials say in reality the changes are reflected widely.
buttle completes military mission
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) —
pace shuttle Atlantis landed safely on a Califor-
ia desert runway Sunday, completing a secret
lilitarv mission that included the launch of a
500 million spy satellite.
"Congratulations on a great flight, guys, and
(elcome back,” Mission Control communicator
teveOswald said.
Atlantis, carrying a crew of five military men,
lunged through the Earth’s atmosphere in a
ung fiery dive, flashed over the California coast-
ne north of Los Angeles and touched down at
dwards Air Force base at 12:08 p.m. GST.
With mission commander John O. Creighton
t the controls, Atlantis landed smoothly on a dry
tkebed runway. It rolled to a stop a minute and
5 seconds later on the center line, ending a 4.5-
iy mission.
Fifty-one minutes after the landing, the astro-
lauts stepped out of the shuttle into brilliant Mo-
ive Desert sunshine, shook hands with NASA
fficials and posed for NASA photographers. A
light surgeon examined them briefly before
hey disembarked.
“You can probably tell by the smiles on our
aces we had a great time,” Creighton, a Navy
aptain. told a crowd of 100 NASA workers and
fiends, going on to refer to the many delays be-
ore takeoff. “It was terrific flight when we fi-
allygotoff the ground. I think we accomplished
amething that was important for the country.
Creighton, Casper and the other crew mem
bers, Air Force Col. Richard Mullane, Marine Lt.
Col. David Hilmers and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Pierre
Thuot, then boarded two jets for the flight back
home to Houston.
They arrived at Ellington Field, an Air Force
base in Houston, about 7:45 p.m. CST.
As 40 mph winds kicked up dust, NASA crews
v
¥ ou can probably tell by the
smiles on our faces we had a great
time. It was terrific flight when we
finally got off the ground. I think we
accomplished something that was
important for the country.”
— John O. Creighton,
mission commander
towed Atlantis off the unpaved landing strip to
prepare it for a piggyback jet ride to Kennedy
Space Center, Fla., on Saturday.
The spacecraft as it returned to Earth experi
enced a pressure dip in a hydraulic system that
controls flaps and steering. The astronauts
switched to backup systems. Later, Mission Con
trol said pressure was restored in the primary
system.
A Pentagon-imposed blackout blocked public
announcement of the mission activities, and be
cause of the secret nature of the mission, the
landing was closed to public spectators. A few
hundred invited guests, however, watched as the
shuttle landed.
NASA spokeswoman Lise Malone said a pre
liminary inspection showed about 62 of Atlantis’
heat-shield tiles suffered “dings,” but that the
count likely would change Monday.
Atlantis was launched Wednesday from Ken
nedy Space Center in Florida after five delays,
four caused by weather.
NASA sources, who spoke on agreement of
anonymity, said the Atlantis astronauts deployed
the spy satellite Thursday. The satellite, sources
said, is capable of taking high resolution photo
graphs and listening in on electronic communica
tions all over the world.
Atlantis was launched on a path that carries it
over points on Earth farther north and south
than any previous space shuttle. This enabled the
astronauts to place the satellite in an orbit that
will cover parts of the Soviet Union never before
photographed by a shuttle-launched spy satellite.
A network of amateur observers, which in
cludes posts in Canada, Alaska and Scotland, re
ported Saturday they had sighted Atlantis and a
satellite in separate oribts.
Atlantis’ flight was the 34th shuttle mission
and the sixth dedicated solely to the military.
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