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Voice of America, 00-01-18Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>CONTENTS
[01] KOSOVO CRIME - L BY JIM RANDLE (PENTAGON)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-258186 CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: U-S Army officials say they are still looking into allegations of murder and sexual misconduct against an American Staff Sergeant in Kosovo. V-O-A's Jim Randle reports,the accused is jailed in Germany while investigators, lawyers, and others move toward a trial. TEXT: U-S Army paratrooper Frank Ronghi is accused of `indecent acts' (sexual misconduct) with an eleven year old girl and killing her. Staff Sergeant Ronghi is one of the 50-thousand members of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo. He is the only peackeeper to be charged with such a serious crime. U-S Army investigators are collecting information that will be used to decide if there is enough evidence to court martial (hold a military trial of) Sergeant Ronghi. Meantime, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon calls the incident `extremely regrettable.' /// Bacon act ////// end act ///NEB/JR/ENE/PT 18-Jan-2000 16:05 PM EDT (18-Jan-2000 2105 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America [02] Q&A - ALBANIAN GIRL (CQ) BY TIM BELAY / FRANK WHITEIS (TIRANA / WASHINGTON)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-258182 INTERNET=YES CONTENT= VOICED AT: /// RE-ISSUING TO FIX WORDS IN LAST PARA (OUTRO) ///INTRO: A U-S Army staff sergeant is in a military
prison in (Mannheim) Germany, charged with the murder
of an 11-year-old Albanian girl in Kosovo. The
accused man, 35-year-old Frank Ronji [pron: `RON-gee]
is under investigation for sexually abusing and
killing the child. Reporter Tim Belay, in Tirana,
Albania, has been following the story. He talks with
V-O-A News Now's Frank Whiteis:
BELAY: Officials are being fairly quiet about whether
or not there is a conclusion drawn here [in the
investigation of the child's death]. I will add as
well, that they were very quick to make the arrest of
Staff Sergeant Frank Ronji.
WHITEIS: Has there been any evidence released ...
that you know about yet?
BELAY: No information about evidence. It sounds as
if, you know, again they were very quick to go to him.
So perhaps, and I'm just speculating here, but perhaps
there were some witnesses or somebody saw something
happen and they're calling in an investigator from the
U-S military to conduct a complete look at what may or
may not have happened here.
WHITEIS: What has been the reaction of the populace
there?
BELAY: There were some complaints about the general
conduct of U-S military in the area but the father of
the victim said he did not hold anything against the
U-S military in general. Now keep in mind that U-S
forces are very well thought of in Kosovo province.
There is a certain amount of division, in terms of how
highly other nations' soldiers are held ... but it
seems the U-S reputation -- the adoration of U-S
forces -- has always been high.
WHITEIS: Have there been any public demonstrations?
BELAY: Not that I'm aware of. Again, there were some
discussions... Where this happened was the town of
Vitina, a town of around 15-thousand people. There
were some complaints and there was plenty of shock as
well, but there were some complaints about the general
behavior of U-S troops. Now that's all that reports
have indicated, so there hasn't been as much detail
about what those complaints were. But there have been
no reports so far of any large-scale demonstrations of
anti-U-S sentiment. Euphoria was really the word to
use when the K-FOR [Kosovo peacekeeping force] troops
arrived in Kosovo. [That] is not really existent at
this time, but they're still given a warm reception,
and ethnic Albanians see, especially, American troops
as a guarantee against the return of Serb forces.
OUTRO: Reporter Tim Belay in Tirana, Albania. He
says the top U-S military commander in Kosovo has
expressed his sympathy to the murdered girl's family.
The military also is promising an official
investigation of the case.
[03] RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L) BY EVE CONANT (MOSCOW)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-258172 CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: Russian military officials say federal troops have broken through rebel lines into the center of the Chechen capital, Grozny. Moscow Correspondent Eve Conant reports federal forces are also attacking targets in Chechnya's southern mountains. TEXT: Russia's military says its troops have reached the center of the rebel-held capital, Grozny. Military commanders say troops were expanding their zone of control following heavy air and artillery attacks. A Defense Ministry spokesman said federal forces were approaching the center from two directions and that, in his words -- the decisive phase of the liberation of Grozny has started. Russian military press spokesman Valentin Astafayev says the military is working to avoid casualties. /// ACT ASTAFAYEV, RUSSIAN IN FULL AND FADE UNDER ///NNNN Source: Voice of America [04] UNHCR / CHECHNYA (L ONLY) BY LISA SCHLEIN (GENEVA)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-258171 CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: The United Nations refugee agency, U-N-H-C-R, has expressed alarm at Russia's intensified bombing of the Chechen capital, Grozny. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the agency says it is worried about the fate of the city's civilian population. TEXT: The U-N refugee agency says almost no one is leaving Grozny. U-N-H-C-R spokesman Kris Janowski says all escape routes out of the city have been cut off. He says the refugee agency is extremely concerned about the fate of the city's civilian population, which he describes as very grim. The Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, reports that Russian troops have broken through rebel lines and reached the center of Grozny. The city has been under heavy, sustained artillery and aerial bombardment for the past day and night. Mr. Janowski says no one knows how many civilians remain in Grozny. Official Russian figures put their numbers at 12-thousand. But other sources say as many as 40-thousand civilians are trapped in cold, dank cellars with little or no food. Mr. Janowski says there is little humanitarian aid agencies can do to help these people. He says the U-N cannot send its workers into Grozny because it is a battlefield. /// JANOWSKI ACT ////// END ACT ///NNNN Source: Voice of America [05] GERMANY POL (L ONLY) BY JONATHAN BRAUDE (BERLIN)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-258179 CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: German opposition leader Wolfgang Schaeuble has survived -- for now -- an attempt to remove him from office over the Christian Democratic Party's financial scandal. But as Jonathan Braude reports from Berlin, former Interior Minister Manfred Kanther has been forced to resign from parliament and there is pressure on former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to do the same. TEXT: For the moment, at least, Germany's main
opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union -- or
C-D-U -- has expressed confidence in its leader,
Wolfgang Schaeuble, despite his revelation this month
that he accepted campaign funds from an arms dealer.
Emerging tense and tired from a crisis meeting of the
party top officials Tuesday, Mr. Schaeuble said he
would remain at the head of the party. But he said
the leadership had called on his predecessor, former
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, to step down as the
party's honorary chairman unless he names the donors
of the million dollars' worth of funds he kept secret
from the public during his last years in office.
Mr. Kohl has admitted he ran secret bank accounts to
manage the campaign funds, in contravention of German
law. But he will not name the donors, because he
says the cash was given to him in confidence.
Mr. Schaeuble, who was Mr. Kohl's deputy at the time,
insists he knew nothing of the secret accounts. And
Mr. Kohl agrees he kept the accounts secret from his
deputy. But Mr. Schaeuble has now admitted he
accepted almost 50-thousand dollars from the arms
dealer whose revelations blew Mr. Kohl's cover in the
first place.
Unfortunately for the C-D-U -- which has plummeted in
public opinion polls since the scandal first broke
late last year -- the financial manipulation did not
stop at the top.
Last Friday, the party leadership in the state of
Hesse -- which, unlike the federal government, is run
by the C-D-U -- admitted it falsified party accounts
and hid money in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
As the C-D-U tries to pull itself out of the crisis,
the first person to lose his job has been the former
chief minister of Hesse and former federal interior
minister, Manfred Kanther.
He resigned his parliamentary seat early Tuesday to
take responsibility. But party sources say it is not
likely he will be the last to go. (Signed)
NEB/JB/JWH/gm
18-Jan-2000 12:55 PM EDT (18-Jan-2000 1755 UTC)
[06] GERMANY POL (L UPDATE) BY JONATHAN BRAUDE (BERLIN)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-258183 CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has resigned as the honorary chairman of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (C-D-U), amid a scandal over his handling of secret accounts during his final years in office. Jonathan Braude reports from Berlin. TEXT: Helmut Kohl's decision was a shock to the party, but was almost inevitable after the leadership called on him Tuesday to resign as honorary chairman or reveal the names of the donors of party funds he has kept secret. The party leadership expressed its confidence in the current chairman, Wolfgang Schaeuble, despite his belated admission he had accepted almost 50-thousand dollars from an arms dealer he had previously claimed to know only slightly. But in confirming Mr. Schaeuble, the German opposition party turned on Mr. Kohl. He should resign, it said, if he was not prepared to make his contribution to overcoming the crisis in the party and clearing up past mistakes. That was a barely disguised call for him to reveal exactly who it was who had donated the approximately one-million dollars he had filtered through secret accounts he had not even disclosed to Mr. Schaeuble -- who was his deputy at the time. Shortly after the crisis meeting where the party made the call, Mr. Kohl said he had no choice -- he would not reveal the names. He did not see himself in a position, he said, to break the promise he made to certain personalities who had supported his work in the C-D-U. This is the apparent end to the career of a man who led the party for 25 years, spent 16 years in office as Chancellor, and has long been regarded as the driving force behind German reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall ten years ago. But the resignation may do much to heal the party. It has been torn apart by the revelations and scandals of the past few months, and has seen its popularity plummet since it won a series of state elections in the second half of last year. /// BEGIN OPT ////// END OPT ///NNNN Source: Voice of America [07] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY ELAINE JOHANSON (NEW YORK)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-258187 CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were mixed today (Tuesday) as profit-taking and rising market interest rates hurt the blue-chip (largest) companies. V-O-A correspondent Elaine Johanson reports from New York: TEXT: The Dow Jones industrial Average dropped 162 points, or one-point-three percent, closing at 11- thousand-560. The Standard and Poor's 500 index fell nine points. The technology-weighted Nasdaq composite resisted the downward pressure and gained over one and one-half percent. Analysts say the stock market is being pulled in different directions - a battle between good corporate earnings reports and higher interest rates. The yield on the 30-year government bond rose to its highest level in two and one-half years. /// BEGIN OPT ////// FREEMAN ACT ////// END ACT ////// END OPT ////// REST OPT ///NNNN Source: Voice of America [08] TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST NUMBER=6-11638 EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS TELEPHONE=619-3335 CONTENT= INTRO: A growing domestic controversy over anti- illicit drug messages inserted into popular U-S dramatic television programs at the urging of the White House is the day's most popular editorial topic. Internationally, several papers are commenting on the murder of an alleged Bosnian Serb warlord, personally responsible for hundreds of deaths during the war. Other topics include; Russia's deteriorating army; the now postponed Israeli-Syrian peace talks; and a new, improved rice. Now, here is ___________ with a closer look, including some excerpts, in today's Editorial Digest. TEXT: It has been disclosed that the White House office of drug policy, which tries to talk children and adults out of using illegal drugs, has encouraged some of the most popular U-S television programs to incorporate anti-drug sentiments in their plots. When they did, the networks got credit for running regular, anti-drug public service announcements which the government pays for, but which the networks did not want to run. The practice has caused an uproar in many newspapers, including Boston's "Christian Science Monitor", whose headline reads: "TV Viewers, Beware." VOICE: In effect, to win federal dollars, networks altered many scripts. The shows - and sometimes the scripts - were shown to the White House, whose criterion was that a show include such concepts as "peer refusal skills" or "parent efficacy." It is a practice with a noble purpose and no official censorship. But it undermines the creative independence of a major commercial media and violates a trust with TV viewers. TEXT: "The New York Times" calls the plan "Television's Risky Relationship," and sums up its discontent this way: VOICE: ///OPT /// The networks and the White House deny that content was changed or creativity dampened in the process. But according to the article ... in this week's Salon Internet magazine ... examples of how segments were revised to send their message are "as subtle as a brick through a window." /// END OPT /// ...In allowing government to shape or even to be consulted on content in return for financial rewards, the networks are crossing a dangerous line they should not cross... [toward] state-sponsored propaganda. /// OPT ///TEXT: The "Milwaukee [Wisconsin] Journal" tries to see both sides of the issue, despite its reservations. VOICE: Initial reaction to this secret arrangement has been mixed. Some have attached the word "propaganda" to the practice; the drug office says the practice is lawful and does not interfere with the creative process. Still others suggest that at the very least, programmers, in the name of full disclosure, should have told viewers what they were doing... That might have eased some of the pain for First Amendment purists, though never could it fully dispel the discomfort the practice causes. /// END OPT ///TEXT: Turning to international affairs, there is reaction to the gangland style killing of a notorious Bosnian-Serb warlord, and indicted war criminal best known as Arkan, from today's "Tulsa [Oklahoma] World". VOICE: Did Zeljkl Raznatovic deserve to be killed? Many Croats and non-Serbs who lost family members or who were tortured at the hands of his Serb paramilitary troops say yes. But his gangland-style killing Saturday has left many questions unanswered and sparked new ones. ...No doubt if Arkan, 47, had been brought to trial in The Hague international court where he was indicted for war crimes, his testimony could have been very damaging to [Yugoslavian President Slobodan] Milosevic. ... So ... it would have been nice if he had lived long enough to take [President] Milosevic and some other war criminals with him. TEXT: The nation's chief financial daily, "The Wall Street Journal" goes further, and warns not to celebrate Arkan's death, no matter how tempting. VOICE: ... whatever the mysteries that surround his death, one thing is certain: Arkan was not killed because of the crimes he . committed. ... he was killed in all likelihood as part of what now appears to be an increasingly systematic effort by Slobodan Milosevic to silence those who might implicate him directly ...the real architect of the Yugoslav catastrophe... /// OPT ///TEXT: Still in the Balkans, Denver's "Rocky Mountain News" chief foreign affairs columnist Holger Jensen is in Greece. He comments on the nervousness there about the still-unsettled Balkans. VOICE: Located on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, Greece borders Albania, Bulgaria, and Macedonia. Belgrade, the capital of ... what is left of Yugoslavia, is only an hour's flying time from Athens. Greece accounts for more than half the productivity of an otherwise poor and unstable region. It is the biggest investor in countries to the north, which buy 12-percent of Greek exports and return the favor by sending a flood of unwanted migrants southward. ... As if that were not enough, Greece also has to contend with a hostile Turkey across the Aegean Sea. Most Americans are blithely unaware of the fact that the two NATO allies routinely scramble jets - often hundreds of times a year - to counter real or imagined threats from each other. ..."It is in our best interests to have peaceful relations and economic interchange with all our neighbors," [says Konstantin Gerokostopoulos, director for Greek-Turkish relations in the Foreign Ministry] "But it will take a long time. And Americans should understand that this is a rough neighborhood. /// END OPT ///TEXT: Today's "New York Times" is expressing concern at the on-going deterioration of the Russian army, as exposed by its problems in defeating the Chechen rebels. VOICE: Moscow's recent setbacks in Chechnya suggest that the decade-long deterioration of Russia's conventional military forces has not yet been checked. The Chechnya operations have been characterized by command failures, over reliance on crude and obsolete weaponry, and sparing use of regular Russian ground forces whose combat readiness is uncertain and morale unsteady. ... Russia needs to repair its armed forces. But it should do so through rational downsizing and modernization, not by a futile attempt to rebuild along cold-war lines. TEXT: The postponment of Syrian - Israeli peace talks that are to resume in West Virginia has not disappointed the "The Philadelphia Inquirer": VOICE: It is not surprising that Israel and Syria yesterday [1/17] postponed a third round of negotiations scheduled for this week. They have advanced to the verge of an historic peace settlement. The two sides are not hassling over preliminaries ... Rather, they are tackling the core issues of boundaries; security and water. ... both sides have invested too much in these talks for them to stop here. With U-S coaxing, a new date for the next round will undoubtedly be set. TEXT: Because of a genetically engineered strain of rice there is a promise to save the sight of thousands of Southeast Asian children who go blind each year. Nebraska's "Omaha-Herald" is elated. VOICE: Even the most die-hard critics of the bioengineering of food grains may find it difficult to criticize one of the latest uses of the technology. Swiss researchers have succeeded in adding genes to rice that will cause it to provide beta-carotene, which becomes Vitamin-A in the body. A quarter-million Southeast Asia children go blind every year because they do not get enough Vitamin-A. ...after further testing to make sure that rice with the genes is safe and as nutritious as other types of rice, [it] will be easy for farmers worldwide to get. TEXT: Still in the region, the arrest of a Chinese- born U-S college librarian and researchers on a visit back to China to study Chairman Mao's cultural revolution, is incensing "The New York Times". VOICE: In a country where freedom of information is not respected, possession of any kind of information can be prosecuted by the government. China has demonstrated this by arresting Yongyi Song ... a librarian at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania ... Mr. Song has permanent resident status in the United States and was scheduled to become an American citizen in September. He is not only a scholar of the Cultural Revolution, but also one of its victims, having been imprisoned for five- years in the early 1970's as a "counterrevolutionary". ... China clearly wishes to enforce a blindness to its own history since 1949. Nothing could better illustrate [that] ... than the arrest of a scholar engaged in historical research. TEXT: And lastly, a welcome into the United Nations for the world body's newest member, the state of Tuvalu, from Jacksonville's Florida Times-Union. And the question of why Taiwan still lacks renewed membership too. VOICE: ... With Tuvalu, there will be 189-members. Tuvalu abides by all U-N principles, so there is no reason to keep it out. ... But that which qualifies Tuvalu for membership also applies to Taiwan. ... Taiwan is a democracy - the oldest one in Asia, where a spirited three-way presidential campaign is under way. ... And Taiwan is a peace-loving nation that has never threatened a neighbor. ... Article Four of the U-N Charter states: Membership ... is open to all peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations." If that fits Tuvalu, it fits Taiwan equally well. TEXT: With that opinion, we conclude this sampling of
comment from the editorial pages of Tuesday's U-S
press.
[09] BOSNIAN SERB WARLORD "ARKAN" KILLED BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP NUMBER=6-11638 EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS TELEPHONE=619-3335 CONTENT= INTRO: Arkan, One of the most feared militia leaders in the Balkans has been killed. Over the weekend, two men walked into the lobby of a Belgrade, Yugoslavia hotel and fired automatic weapons at Arkan, wounding him fatally. Now, the U-S press is commenting on Arkan's life and possible reasons for his death. We get a sampling now from ___________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup. TEXT: His real name was Zeljko Raznatovic and before the Balkans fell apart into various civil wars with the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, he ran an ice cream parlor. But during the Croatian and Bosnian conflicts, Arkan headed the "Tigers" militia, one of the most feared, of the various private armies that stand accused of the brutal deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of non-combatants. /// OPT /// He was especially remembered for the three-month siege of the Croatian city of Vukovar in 1991, and later helped the Bosnian Serb army overrun northern and eastern Bosnia. His militiamen would often follow regular army troops into villages, reportedly raping the women and looting and killing the people in what has been described as an orchestrated campaign of terror against both the Croatian and Muslim populations. /// END OPT /// Many people had a grudge against Arkan, but some U-S newspapers are speculating that the person with the greatest motive for his death is Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. According to this theory, Arkan had enough information about Mr. Milosevic's role in the wars, that he could have been a very damaging witness against the Yugoslav leader at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Specifically, the speculation was that Arkan would trade his testimony against Mr. Milosevic in return for leniency in his own war crimes case. In Oklahoma, the Tulsa World wonders: VOICE: Did Zeljko Raznatovic deserve to be killed? Many Croats and non-Serbs who lost family members or who were tortured at the hands of his Serb paramilitary troops say yes. But his gangland style killing Saturday has left many questions unanswered and sparked new ones. ...No doubt if Arkan, 47, had been brought to trial in The Hague international court where he was indicted for war crimes, his testimony could have been very damaging to [Mr.] Milosevic. ... So ... it would have been nice if he had lived long enough to take [President] Milosevic and some other war criminals with him. TEXT: Turning to the national daily, U-S-A Today, published in a Washington, D-C suburb, there is a lament that Arkan died before standing trial for his war crimes charges, and testifying what he knew about others. VOICE: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright greeted the news by saying she took no satisfaction in his murder and would have preferred he stand trial in The Hague, Netherlands for his crimes. [Ms.] Albright's chilly epitaph for [Mr.] Raznatovic, known as "Arkan," hits the mark. The militia leader, suspected of mass murder in Croatia and Bosnia dating back to 1991, was indicted by the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1997. Yet, he slinked around Belgrade freely, becoming a symbol of justice denied in the Balkans - one of many. Fewer than half of the 92 men publicly indicted for Balkans war crimes have been brought into custody in The Hague. On the other side of the world, in Indonesia, war criminals are faring even better. Indonesia's foreign minister this week will lobby United Nations diplomats to prevent a new report on military-sponsored atrocities in East Timor from triggering a tribunal. His chances are good because the Timorese no longer make headlines. If a permanent court were in place to prosecute such crimes as ethnic slaughter and forced migration, justice would come more swiftly. Such a court, replacing today's temporary tribunals and freed from geopolitical pressure, might even deter criminals. /// OPT ///TEXT: The nation's chief financial daily, The Wall Street Journal, goes further, and warns not to celebrate Arkan's death, no matter how tempting it might be. VOICE: ... whatever the mysteries that surround his death, one thing is certain: Arkan was not killed because of the crimes he . committed. ... he was killed, in all likelihood, as part of what now appears to be an increasingly systematic effort by Slobodan Milosevic to silence those who might implicate him directly ... the real architect of the Yugoslav catastrophe ... TEXT: Those suspicions of the Wall Street Journal are echoed by Boston's Christian Science Monitor, in a repot from its Balkan correspondent Michael Jordan: VOICE: [Mr.] Raznatovic was the most notorious Serb [paramilitary] leader during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia from 1991-95. His Serbian National Guard, known as the Tigers, was notorious for its "ethnic cleansing" campaigns in both countries, but especially for one in Vukovar, Croatia, in which 250 Croats were removed from a hospital and murdered. If he had stood trial, observers say he may have pointed the finger at Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as the mastermind behind the Serb "ethnic cleansing' that left some 200-thousand dead and two million [people] displaced. "We certainly regret there will not be the opportunity for Arkan to stand trial," says Paul Risley, a spokesman for the court. "But certainly, there were others who worked for him, and whose orders he carried out. So the investigation into his activities will continue. As for Mr. Milosevic, who some analysts suspect of having Arkan killed, the Yugoslav leader is far from off the hook [Editors: far from "being absolved of all guilt." TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of U-S
press comment on the weekend murder of Serbian militia
leader Zeljko Raznatovic, also known as "Arkan."
[10] BRITAIN / PINOCHET (L-O UPDATE) BY LOURDES NAVARRO (LONDON)DATE=1/18/2000TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-258180 CONTENT= VOICED AT: ///// UPDATES INTRO, DEADLINE PASSED. /////INTRO: Opponents of former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet have appealed to stop Britain from freeing the general. He is being held on Spanish human-rights charges. Spain, human rights organizations, and other interested parties had their last chance to present arguments Tuesday. Lourdes Navarro reports from London. TEXT: The deadline comes one-week after British Home Secretary Jack Straw announced that he is inclined to let former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet return home, because he is too ill to stand trial. Mr. Straw said last week that he had received a report from an independent team of doctors, which showed the general is medically unfit. But he gave interested parties seven-days to submit appeals to his decision, saying he is still open-minded about the case. General Pinochet was arrested in London in October 1998 on a Spanish warrant charging him with torture and human-rights abuses during his 17-year military rule in Chile. Anti-Pinochet activists and human rights organizations worked furiously to complete submissions in time for Tuesday's deadline. Amnesty International, a key player in the case against the general, is backing an appeal by the Spanish judge on whose extradition order General Pinochet was arrested in Britain. Their appeal centers on the fact General Pinochet's medical tests have not been made public and they argue they cannot contest evidence they have not seen. /// OPT ////// REST OPT ///NNNN Source: Voice of America Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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