World & Nation
Page 8
The Battalion
Monday, April 27,
Rebel factions fight over Kabul
Congress considers
Rival groups trade gunfire
as residents mark war's end
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —
Rival rebels fought over
Afghanistan's fallen capital on
Sunday, and the followers of a
moderate leader gained the upper
hand with help from troops of the
collapsed communist government.
The Red Cross said it had treat
ed 50 wounded rebels since the
Muslim guerrillas swarmed into
the capital by the thousands on
Saturday, and that at least seven
had died.
With 14 years of civil war ap
parently coming to an end, Kabul
was jubilant and peaceful when
the rebels began arriving, and ri
val groups even cooperated in tak
ing over government buildings.
But by Saturday night the fight
ing among the rebel factions be
gan. Gunfire, rocket and tank
shells shook the city of 1.5 million
Sunday.
The central bazaar, normally
bustling, was nearly empty on the
sunny day. By nightfall, streams
of red tracers stitched the sky, and
white and green flares flashed on
the horizon.
Most of the fighting was at the
presidential palace and other
strategic spots, and was between
radical guerrillas under rebel lead
er Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader
of the fundamentalist Hezb-e-Isla-
mi, and those led by moderate
commander Ahmed Shah Ma-
sood, of the Jamiat-e-Islami.
Masood's men, fighting along
side remnants of the military,
drove Hekmatyar's men from the
presidential palace and some sub
urbs of Kabul. But Hekmatyar still
held the Interior Ministry building
and pockets of the city with anti
aircraft weapons.
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali, whose plan to re
store peace collapsed with Presi
dent Najibullah's ouster earlier
this month, pleaded for all sides to
end the bloodshed.
"Now is the time for healing.
tolerance and forgiveness," he
told reporters in Islamabad, Pak
istan.
Hekmatyar has demanded the
formation of a strict Islamic state,
and opposes Masood's vision of a
moderate state in place of the old
communist government.
Most of the other rebel groups
have allied with Masood, and
their political leaders say the mili
tary commander is in charge in
Kabul until a multiparty interim
government arrives from Pak
istan.
Rebel chieftain Sibghatullah
Mojadidi, head of a 50-member
commission of guerrilla comman
ders, religious scholars and repre
sentatives of the major parties,
planned to leave for Kabul later
Sunday to start the transition.
Officials endorse outline of aid package
Countries reach tentative agreement on economic assistance to former U.S.S.R.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Finance officials
from the world's seven richest industrial coun
tries on Sunday endorsed the broad outlines of
an economic assistance package for the former
Soviet Union that could, over time, rival the
Marshall Plan in its scope.
The endorsement by the so-called Group of
Seven countries — the United States, Japan,
Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada —
represented a victory for President Bush, who
first unveiled the proposed $24 billion Western
aid package for Russia earlier this month.
In a joint communique issued late Sunday
night, the officials said their countries were
ready to provide up to $18 billion in individual
aid to Russia and an additional $6 billion fund
to stabilize the Russian currency, the ruble.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yegor
Gaidar, key architect of the Russian economic
reforms, made a personal appeal for assistance
during the afternoon Sunday.
The finance officials spent 14 hours over
two days discussing the Russian aid package
and other issues facing the world economy.
The meeting ran four hours longer than
scheduled Sunday, but officials later said that
it was not the Russian financing package but
disagreement over policies needed to spur the
sluggish world economy that caused the delay.
In a statement on economic policy, the fi
nance officials said they remained concerned
that economic activity this year will be below
potential and "inadequate to achieve a reduc
tion in unemployment."
The communique noted that global interest
rates in many cases remained at high levels, a
point Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady has
been making for over a year.
While stopping short of making specific
commitments to cut interest rates, the commu
nique did pledge efforts to boost growth in
their nations and noted specifically that the de
cline in the Japanese currency, the yen, was not
contributing to the process of getting the world
growing at a faster rate.
Japanese finance officials had complained
before the weekend meetings that they were
unable to cut their interest rates further be
cause such an action could put more down
ward pressure on the yen.
By specifically noting the yen's level, the fi
nance officials apparently were signalling
world currency markets that they would be
ready to intervene by buying yen on the open
market to support the Japanese currency
should the need arise.
On the question of aid to Russia, the com
munique said finance officials from the United
States and its allies "welcomed the reforms al
ready undertaken in Russia."
balanced budget bill
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Thanks to a few thousand bad
checks at the House bank, a
constitutional amendment to
balance the federal budget
looks like an idea whose time
has come.
"Because of the check
bouncing scandal, members are
trying to explain their position
and this is the only ship afloat.
They need something to go
home with," says Rep. Robert
Smith, R-Ore., a leader of the
drive for the amendment.
After years in which the pro
posal has been headed off or
narrowly defeated by its Demo
cratic opponents, foes and sup
porters of the measure say
Congress seems likely to vote
its approval this year.
With Congress returning
from a two-week Easter vaca
tion Tuesday, support is grow
ing for the measure, aided by
lawmakers' desires to demon
strate an ability to act in the
wake of the publicity over more
than 24,000 bad checks at the
House bank.
Even House Speaker Thomas
Foley, D-Wash., an opponent,
conceded last week that "my
guess is the votes are there to
pass it."
Eliminating a deficit of $400
billion will require either large
spending cuts or huge tax in
creases or both. But, as critics
point out, the amendment sim
ply requires a balanced budget,
leaving the politically sensitive
tax and spending decisions for
well into the future.
The House Budget Core
tee begins hearings on thepn
posa! next week, and Hots
and Senate votes could coraei
early as May. An amendme Vol. 91
requires ratincation by 38ste
after Congress gives its s;
proval; the last one
18-year-olds the right to vole;
1971.
Several versions of tl
amendment are in circulate
They all would require theps
ident to submit a balancedfc
get, something President Bid
has never done, despite hisss;.
port for the legislation. As
T<
TCA
they all would make it diffe lollege
for Congress to run a defidt
It would forbid eachya:
spending from exceedingip
otiatir
onside
orrecti
enues without a vote fi erns oi
three-fifths majorities to
Tax increases could on!
proved by majorities of thee
ssued t
Allej
uded e
fire Congress, not just map plaints £
• ties of lawmakers actually if idents a
The
mg.
The arguments on bothsa
of the issue have changed litd
since similar amendments^
just shy of the requiij|
two-thirds majority inf
House in 1990 and the Senates
1986.
Democratic opponentsaip
that a requirement for ah
anced budget would leads
Draconian slashes in needs
government programs.
They also say the measa
could necessitate steep tans
creases. That frightens busias
groups like the U.S. Chamber!
Commerce. BELG
tard-lin
reate a
Be
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Yi
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VIENNA, Austria
than 10,0
sion of S
Mace'
run-off presidential electiopi las not
called Sunday after no
received the needed
states b(
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succeed controversial Presiie tfcoveh
Kurt Waldheim.
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suits, the Social Democn!
Rudolf Streicher led
The V
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torn Sei
|nd relin
four candidates with 40.7pc® ^roatia.
of the vote, and Thomas Klesti
the conservative People's^ [rationii
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had 37.2 percent. The two part
have dominated Austrian
since World War II.
Austrians hope the selection 1
a new president will end then
tion's international isolation^
cause of Waldheim's role witli
German army during the war.
Streicher and Klestil will be
the ballot May 24. Both hope. ..
win supporters of therighW VvOITl^
Freedom Party and envim
ment-oriented Green party.
Heide Schmidt, candidate-
the Freedom Party, finished"! 1
16.4 percent of the vote,®
Robert Jungk of the anti-E' 1 '
pean Community and pro-n®
trality Greens had 5.7 percent.
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MOSCOW (AP) - Joy<
Muscovites crowded into can!
lit churches Sunday to celeb
Russian Orthodox Easter, and
the first time in 74 years Krc 1111
bells pealed in Red Square in^
or of the holy day.
Many Albanian Orthodox^
lievers also celebrated Eas’ 1
freely for the first time, bulbil
shed in Bosnia-Herzegovinak
many people home.
The patriarch of theOrthody
believers worlds
Bartholomeos I, led a two-bc-
service in Istanbul, Turkey,wbf
the church's patriarchate isb-
ed.
"Hristos Anesti (HappyE®'
er)," the patriarch, ingoldc^
monial robes and a crown, said;
he blessed the faithful af! ;
George Church.
In Jerusalem, the holiday"'
marked quietly by Eastern^
Christians at the Churchof^
Holy Sepulcher. The nafif
streets of the ancient walledcfj
were crowded with thousands"
tourists, many of them Greek ft [Desert Tr,
osing ra:
thodox pilgrims.
Evans l