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World & Nation
Page 10
The Battalion
Wednesday, August 28,
Fear of Soviet civil war escalates after coup attem|
MOSCOW (AP) — The shattering of
Kremlin authority has revived fears of
ethnic conflict, border disputes, nuclear
arms in the hands of fanatics and the
emergence of Boris N. Yeltsin as a bully at
the helm of Russia.
"Everything that has been created for
centuries by our ancestors, by our hands,
is collapsing," reformist lawmaker Oleg
Rumyantsev in the Supreme Soviet
legislature on Tuesday.
The fear is that the ethnic and border
disputes that have flared during six years
of change under Mikhail S. Gorbachev
will burst into a civil war and, in the
worst case, that factions might gain
control of nuclear arms.
Many ethnic groups also fear losing
new freedoms to a resurgent Russia
under Yeltsin, who has expanded his
authority after leading the resistance to
last week's botched three-day coup.
Gorbachev, Yeltsin and other leaders
are struggling to patch together a new
Soviet Union as a confederation of
neighbors .with strong economic ties and
— for those who wish it — a political and
defense alliance.
But as Gorbachev said in an
impassioned appeal to the
legislature/'Maybe the most tragic result
of the coup is that those three days have
given a boost, and a powerful boost, to
centrifugal tendencies. A real threat of a
breakup of the union has appeared."
On Tuesday, the republics continued
their stampede out of the Soviet Union, as
Moldavia became the seventh republic to
declare outright independence.
Speakers from Armenia told
parliament they worried about new
violence in the disputed border area with
Azerbaijan.
With central authority prostrate, and
the armed forces reluctant to intervene,
fighting could worsen in other hot spots
around the country such as Georgia,
Moldavia and along the Uzbekistan-
Kirgizia border.
One source of tension is the future of
ethnic Russians living in the republics
that plan to secede.
Kazakhstan President Nursultan
Nazarbayev, any ally of both Gorbachev
and Yeltsin, complained about a
statement by Yeltsin's press secretary that
Russia reserved the right to review its
borders with those republics that decide
to leave the Soviet Union.
Nazarbayev, whose republic shares a
long border with Russia and has more
Russians than Kazakhs among its
population, was quoted by the
independent Interfax news agency as
warning of trouble if Russia "raises the
question of revising its borders."
The rapid-fire decrees that Yeltsin has
issued to assert control after the coup
raised concern in the West that "Yeltsin
may be overlaying his hand," said Thane
Gustafson, a Sovietologist at Georgetown
University in Washington.
"It is the Yeltsin that we alwaysfe
was there, the two-fisted sort."
"Because he is ruling by decre
may be seeing the beginningol
emergence of a new form of totaliti
rule," Gustafson said in a telepl
interview.
Gorbachev rejected suggestion;
Yeltsin was grabbing for power ort:
"You must not think, as someont
here, that the concept of a Russian E-
is being revived, that Russian leadet
has ousted the president of the coi
that it is not thinking about
said Gorbachev, an ethnic Russia
has lived his entire life in the Ri
Federation.
Prime minister changes
Cabinet in Madagascar
ANTANANARIVO,
Madagascar (AP) — The prime
minister on Monday urged anti
government forces to accept a
new, 24-member Cabinet that
includes no opposition figures.
The prime minister of this
Indian Ocean island nation of 11
million, Guy Razanamasy,
changed the composition of the
Cabinet in an effort to end
escalating strikes and rallies led
by an opposition hoping to end
President Didier Ratsiraka's 16-
year socialist rule.
"Our objectives are without
ambiguity: restore civil peace, heal
the bitterness and prepare for
elections," Razanamasy said.
Elections have yet to be
scheduled.
The Cabinet is made up
primarily of civilians. It includes
nobody from the six-party
opposition coalition among its
two dozen members.
The new Cabinet ministers
include three officials loyal to
Ratsiraka and military officers to
head the armed forces and Interior
Ministry. Two minor parties
outside the opposition coalition
were represented with one post
each.
The opposition protests
followed clashes the past month
with security forces that left up to
51 protesters dead. The
demonstrators have ignorife
curfew' and state-of-emergtf *
decree by Ratsiraka.
The opposition seeks a:te
constitution and general eleaff
as soon as possible for this is
island off Mozambique.
■ Talks between opposi:@
representatives on forminjB
coalition government brokedmj
recently.
Anti-government fc:n
gathered again Monday ill
square in the capi:H
Antananarivo, but the crowdH
smaller. Previous demonstra
have attracted tens of thous;
of people.
Iran stepping up activity to
free hostages, reports say
GENEVA (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Javier
Perez de Cuellar resumed efforts Monday to free
11 Western hostages in Lebanon amid reports that
Iran also has stepped up activity to resolve the
issue.
A Lebanese newspaper said Iran sent the
commander of its Revolutionary Guards to Beirut
to speed up moves to release the Westerners.
One Lebanese faction holding Westerners has
demanded that Israel free several hundred Arab
prisoners, but the Israelis have demanded concrete
information on seven Israeli servicemen missing in
Lebanon.
An Israeli official said Sunday that Iran should
be able to provide such information.
Perez de Cuellar met Monday with his personal
representative on the hostage issue, Giandomenico
Picco, for a briefing on the latest developments in
Pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon are thought It
be holding all or most of the 11 Westerners.
Perez de Cuellar said negotiations still focuseJ
on an exchange of the Western hostages fw
Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.
The Western hostages include five American-
three Britons, two Germans and an Italian.
Jury selection begins
Gainesville suspect may be linked to Louisiana slayings, police say
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The main
suspect in the slaying of five
Gainesville college students may
be linked to a 1989 triple murder
in Louisiana, police said in an affi
davit unsealed Monday.
The affidavit in support of a
search warrant was released as
jury selection began in a robbery
trial for Danny Harold Rolling.
The trial began a year to the day
after the first two victims were
found in Gainesville.
Last week, police in Shreve
port, La., Rolling's hometown, ob
tained blood, saliva, and hair sam
ples from Rolling in an investiga
tion of the Nov. 4,1989, triple slay
ing-
The affidavit from Shreveport
Detective Don Ashley said
Rolling's saliva will be compared
to saliva swabbed from a h
mark on the breast of Victim Jul
Grissom, 24.
Ms. Grissom, her 55-year-c
father, Tom, and 8-year-o
nephew Sean were stabbed
death. Authorities believe 1
Grissom was the target.
Rolling is charged with hot
ing up a grocery and starting
shootout with deputies.
We’re
On
The
Move
• • I
The Battalion has moved its Advertising Office from the English Annex
to Rm. 015 in the basement of the Reed McDonald Building.
Phone numbers and hours will remain the same.
Display ads: 845-2696 Classified ads: 845-0569
Hours: Monday - Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Come See Us At Our New Location!
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The U.N. chief told reporters afterwards s '
continued to hope that "something very importer
could happen, in the sense of seeing all §
detainees free."
He said he would meet Tuesday with a:
Iranian emissary but had no plans to meet wit
any Israelis during his three-day stay in Geneva
because of Piece's recent talks in Israel.
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