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Annan ducks
air-strike issue

SECRETARY-GENERAL Kofi Annan told the Security Council yesterday that most of the recent atrocities in Kosovo were committed by Serb forces and their attacks on ethnic Albanians increased after a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire.
In a widely anticipated report, the UN chief said he did not have the means to verify whether Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic had complied with UN resolutions demanding an end to the hostilities. He recommended that the Security Council determine such compliance using his report as a guideline.
Nato members had been waiting for the report to decide whether they would take military action in the southern Serb province, where Serb forces have tried to crush an independence movement by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.
It was not clear if Annan's report would be the decision-making document Nato had sought. Though strongly worded in its condemnation of the atrocities and Serb attacks, Annan reiterates what others have said for weeks and dodges the thornier issue of making a final determination of Serb compliance with UN Resolutions.
Nato Secretary-General Javier Solana said yesterday that Yugoslavia had not yet complied with UN resolutions on Kosovo and stressed that the alliance is ready to launch a military attack. Supreme Allied Commander Europe Wesley Clark said that, once given the green light, Nato's military operation would likely be fast and furious.
"Nato action, should a political decision be taken, could come in a matter of hours and days," Clark said.
Solana went beyond Annan's assessment and added: "I'm sure that Mr Annan has put in his document what he thinks is the reality. The reality according to us is that the compliance has not taken place," he said.
Solana had already met earlier with US special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who said the military situation in Kosovo remains critical despite a lull in fighting and the removal of some Yugoslav tanks and troops from the battlefield. After a meeting with Solana and Clark, Holbrooke said that "while the level of fighting may have abated temporarily, capacity for its resumption is there."
Holbrooke was on his way to Belgrade for a meeting with Milosevic.
A senior US official said the report clearly laid out that the Yugoslav government had failed to comply with council demands.
The official cited the report's condemnation of the atrocities, the worsening humanitarian situation and the continued fighting by Serb forces even after the council adopted its latest resolution.
In his report, Annan decried the "appalling atrocities in Kosovo," and said it was "clear beyond any reasonable doubt" that Yugoslav forces were responsible for the bulk of them.
He noted that ethnic Albanian forces also have been fighting and said there was reason to believe that they were responsible for atrocities in the conflict as well.
In its latest resolution, adopted on September 23, the council demanded a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Milosevic's special forces from Kosovo and a negotiated settlement. In yesterday's report, Annan reported that in the week following the September 23 resolution, government security forces "intensified their operations, launching another offensive in the Drenica region," and elsewhere.
Fighting continued despite the Serb prime minister's statement that Serb operations had ended and peace reigned in Kosovo, he said.
As a result, another 20,000 people were displaced, Annan said.
Serbia is the larger of two republics comprising Yugoslavia.
Milosevic launched a crackdown in February against independence-seeking rebels in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians constitute 90% of the province's population. Hundreds have died in the fighting, and 275,000 have been routed from their homes.
The West is opposed to independence for Kosovo, but wants Milosevic to return the autonomy he stripped from the province in 1989.
Though the council asked the UN chief to give his assessment of compliance with UN resolutions, Annan said he couldn't supply that assessment because the United Nations has no political presence on the ground in Kosovo.
Last week he declined a Serb invitation to Kosovo and Yugoslavia to make his own inspection.
Annan has relied for his report on information from other organisations and European sources, and yesterday's was no different. Annan said he could provide information on compliance only about the humanitarian situation through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian groups in Kosovo.
"Therefore, the council may wish to make its own judgement in this respect on the basis of the present report," Annan wrote, referring to Serb compliance.

Adams backs Basque bid

SINN FEIN leader Gerry Adams yesterday called on the international community to help resolve Spain's violent Basque conflict.
''Powerful nations have a duty to assist, and clearly the United States is the most powerful,'' said Adams in Bilbao, capital of the North West Basque region.
He said the ceasefire by Eta ö the Basque terror group closely allied to the IRA ö provides a prime opportunity to resolve the 30 years of violence.
''We would be calling on the international community to assist in every situation, but especially one like the Basque country where an initiative has been taken,'' said Adams.
He was greeted at the start of his half-day stay by some 100 Basque independence supporters waving Irish and Basque flags.
Adams was expected to be handed a proposal for all-party peace talks signed by Basque nationalist parties grouped together in the so-called ''Irish Forum.''
The forum hopes he will pass its proposal on to President Bill Clinton when the two meet this month. Adams described Clinton's input into Northern Irish peace process as ''crucial and pivotal.''
A copy of the appeal ö credited with encouraging the armed Basque separatist group Eta to call the truce ö has already been sent to South African President Nelson Mandela and the United Nations.
On September 18, Eta began an indefinite and condition free ceasefire in its campaign for an independent Basque state that it hopes would unite territory in northern Spain and southwestern France.
The organisation, whose name is an acronym in the Basque language for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has killed almost 800 people since the late 1960s.
The Spanish government has long ruled out Eta's demand for a self-determination vote for Basques.
The Irish Forum claimed inspiration from the Northern Ireland peace process and its success in opening the door for a political settlement in the troubled British province.
Adams ö whose Sinn Fein party has long had close connections with the Herri Batasuna party allied to Eta ö called on the Spanish government to put aside its ''distrust'' of Eta and start to ''grasp this opportunity'' for a future of peace.
Conservative Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has insisted that Eta must provide greater proof of its peaceful intentions before a peace process be set in motion and this fact could well take some time to prove.
During his stay in the Basque country, Adams also visited a Herri Batasuna member Karmelo Landa in his prison cell on the outskirts of Bilbao.
Landa was jailed last December along with 22 other party leaders convicted of collaborating with Eta for using television electoral broadcast time to show a video in which the gunmen called for peace talks.
ETA commanded considerable support in the Basque region and elsewhere in Spain during the final years of the 1939-75 dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.
Today, however, most people believe an armed campaign for independence cannot be justified given the level of self-government the Basque region enjoys since democracy returned in 1978.
Adams returned to Belfast late last night.

President may have to face 15
grounds for impeachment, says judiciary investigator

PRESIDENT CLINTON could face 15 grounds for impeachment, the chief Republican investigator for the House Judiciary Committee said, yesterday.
Going much further than Kenneth Starr, David Schippers said there was ''substantial and credible'' evidence that Clinton may have been ''part of a conspiracy with Monica Lewinsky and others'' to obstruct justice. Starr, whose report sparked much criticism from Democrats, reported to the House that Clinton may have committed 11 impeachable offences.
Democratic investigator Abbe Lowell was to follow with his analysis of the evidence.
Schippers said there was evidence that Clinton gave false testimony under oath both in his testimony for the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit and before a federal grand jury.
He also may have conspired to withhold evidence and tamper with witnesses in the Jones case and before the grand jury, Schippers said.
The Republican investigator said that the lurid sexual details of the President's sexual relationship with Miss Lewinsky in Starr's report were ''at best, merely peripheral to the central issues'' in the case.
''The President and Miss Lewinsky had developed a 'cover story' to conceal their activities,'' Schippers said. The report also said Clinton may have ''aided, abetted, counselled and procured'' Miss Lewinsky to file a false affidavit in the Jones case denying a sexual relationship. Schippers listed several instances in which he said Clinton testified falsely, including his denial of a sexual relationship in the Jones deposition; his admissions in grand jury testimony of only ''inappropriate intimate contact''; and his statement in the Jones case that he could not recall being alone with Miss Lewinsky.
Schippers said it was wrong for a party to a lawsuit to lie under oath. And he said the President is ''by virtue of his office, held to a higher standard than any other American.''
The Judiciary Committee hearing began with a call from chairman Henry Hyde for ''an honest effort to do what is best for the country."

Court hears of plot to kill president

TEXAS prosecutors contend three men hatched a plot straight out of a spy novel, scheming to kill President Bill Clinton and other government officials with poison-drenched cactus needles.
Defence lawyers call the alleged scheme ''cockamamie,'' claiming the defendants stand accused of a crime they never could have committed.
The trial began in Brownsville yesterday of Johnnie Wise (72) Jack Abbott Grebe (43) and Oliver Dean Emigh (63). The men, all members of the Republic of Texas separatist group, face charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. They could face life in prison if convicted.
Their scheme, investigators say, was to modify a Bic lighter, to propel air instead of propane; coat a cactus needle with a biological agent like rabies or anthrax; insert the needle into the lighter; then shoot the needle at the intended victim.
The men, who were arrested in July, allegedly sent threatening e-mail to top government officials, including Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno, FBI Director Louis Freeh, and Texas Attorney General Dan Morales.
The message to Freeh read: ''Your FBI employees and their families have been targeted for destruction by revenge.'' Lawyers for the accused have denied the charges. Grebe's lawyer, Dan Herink, called the scheme ''fanciful'' and ''cockamamie.''
Defence lawyers also have sought to shift blame to the government's star witness who, according to court documents, agreed to tape conversations with the three men as plans unfolded.

White House ignore doubts
by AG over missile attack

THE White House ignored Attorney General Janet Reno when she questioned whether evidence linking Islamic extremist Osama bin Laden to the bombings of two US embassies in Africa was strong enough to justify retaliatory attacks, it is claimed, yesterday.
The New Yorker magazine said the White House kept planning for raids on suspected terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan so secret that four members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and FBI Director Louis Freeh were bypassed entirely.
The August 20 Tomahawk missile strikes hit bin Laden's purported terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and the Al Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan. President Clinton said the Khartoum raid was justified because evidence of a nerve gas component had been found at the plant. The New Yorker article, by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, said Reno believed that the evidence tying bin Laden to the embassy attacks did not meet the ''Tripoli standard,'' a gauge used to justify the 1986 bombing of Libya in retaliation for actions by Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi. Chris Watney, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said she could not comment on ''internal security deliberations.'' A Pentagon spokeswoman declined to comment.
The article also said the White House consulted the Joint Chiefs chairman, General Henry Shelton, on the raid plans, but instructed him ''not to brief the three generals and one admiral who run the nation's armed forces, nor to consult with experts in the Defence Intelligence Agency.'' So ''the four men who know more about the use of force than anyone in the White House'' were kept out of the planning loop and learned of the plan one day before it was carried out, the article said.
''There is ... widespread belief that senior officials of the White House misrepresented and overdramatised evidence suggesting that the Tomahawk raids had prevented further terrorist attacks,'' Hersh writes.
''The lack of trust shown toward the Clinton White House by the military and intelligence communities goes well beyond the usual bureaucratic backbiting over a failed military action, and is far more corrosive.''
The article said Freeh and top aides believe the agency was left out because Clinton ''questions his political loyalty.''

Straw unlawfully condemned me to die in prison, alleges Hindley

MOORS murderer Myra Hindley, yesterday, asked the Court of Appeal to rule that Home Secretary Jack Straw had unlawfully condemned her to die in prison without any real hope of parole.
She is fighting a test case which could also affect other notorious killers who have been told that, for them, a life sentence ''means life.'' Her QC, Edward Fitzgerald, accused Mr Straw of imposing on Hindley (56) ''a uniquely severe penalty'' and wrongly singling her out for special treatment ''because of her notoriety and unpopularity.''
Even though the child killer's crimes were horrific, she had acted under duress from co-killer Ian Brady and there was no ''intrinsic necessity'' for a whole life tariff, said Mr Fitzgerald.
Mr Straw's decision could not be justified if the Home Secretary had accepted , as he now claimed he did , that Hindley's account was correct and that she had been threatened by Brady, said Mr Fitzgerald. ''Quite clearly, while not excusing these appalling offences, that has to be taken into account in her favour,'' he said. ''If that is the case, one cannot on that basis impose the maximum penalty which is possible.'' Lord Longford, a long-time campaigner who has insisted that Hindley has made excellent progress in prison and become ''a good woman,'' was in court as Mr Fitzgerald argued that Mr Straw had unlawfully fettered his own discretion.
Mr Fitzgerald is asking Lord Woolf, the Master of the Rolls, sitting with Lord Justice Hutchison and Lord Justice Judge, to overturn a ruling by three High Court judges last December.
They unanimously upheld decisions by both the current Home Secretary and his predecessor Michael Howard that Hindley must spend the rest of her days in prison.
Yesterday's hearing is being regarded as a test case which could affect the 26 other murderers currently with whole life tariffs, including notorious killers Rose West (43), convicted of murdering 10 women, and Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, sentenced to life in 1981. Mr Fitzgerald accused Mr Straw of ''thwarting the manifest intention of Parliament'' when it created the parole system and stipulated that no category of offender should be excluded from eligibility for parole.
Even though Mr Straw had accepted that a prisoner on a whole life tariff could be released ''in exceptional circumstances,'' he was still fettering his wide discretion. Hindley, who is held at Highpoint Prison in Suffolk, has so far served some 32 years for the murders of Lesley Ann Downey (10) and Edward Evans (17). She was convicted with Ian Brady, now 60, who was additionally jailed for life for murdering 12-year-old John Kilbride.
Another 21 years went by before the pair confessed to killing Pauline Reade (16) and Keith Bennett (12) and burying their bodies on Saddleworth Moor on the edge of the Peak District.
From 1987 onwards, Hindley claimed she had acted under intimidation from Brady. On one occasion she had been throttled by Brady, said Mr Fitzgerald.
He argued there had been other cases where equally horrific offences had been committed and whole life tariffs were not imposed.
''On that basis there are grounds for finding that it is the notoriety and unpopularity (of Hindley), rather than the intrinsic necessity for a whole life tariff, which was the determinant of the whole life tariff.'' In 1982 Lord Lane, then Lord Chief Justice, advised that Hindley serve not less than 25 years. Four Home Secretaries subsequently intervened. In 1985 Leon Brittan fixed the minimum term at 30 years for Hindley and 40 for Brady. In 1990 David Waddington imposed the original whole life tariff, subsequently upheld by Mr Howard and Mr Straw.
The hearing was adjourned until today.

Premier Prodi making direct
appeal to save Italian government

ITALIAN premier Romano Prodi is to appeal directly to parliament to save Italy's second-longest government since the Second World War which is threatened with collapse by the defection of its Communist ally.
The address to parliament is expected tomorrow, followed perhaps by Friday by the vote of confidence that will determine whether Prodi's 30-month-old, centre-left alliance survives. Prodi's far-left ally, the Communist Refoundation Party, provoked the crisis by withdrawing its support over the weekend, saying it would not vote for his deficit-cutting 1999 budget, key to Italy's participation in the European single currency.
Prodi has said he would call a confidence vote if he lost the Communists' support.
"I've always acted with coherence," Prodi said before a meeting with President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro on the crisis. "I've never changed strategy and I don't want to do political gymnastics."
The break with Prodi's government divided Refoundation. Armando Cossutta, leader of the moderate wing, resigned as party president yesterday. He said the party's desertion of Prodi was "wrong and dangerous," but at the same time promised to follow the party line.
"We are in a very complicated political crisis which could lead to early elections," Cossutta said. "And with the divisions in the left, this would mean a victory for the right."
If the crisis comes to a confidence vote and Prodi loses, he would offer his resignation. Once he does that, it is up to Scalfaro to decide what to do.
He could ask Prodi or someone else to form a new government or he could call elections 30 months early, something most analysts think unlikely. Working in Prodi's favour is the fact that few parties think they would stand to gain by early elections, including the Communist Refoundation Party.
There was speculation that Prodi would re-open negotiations that would win back the communists' grudging support, as he has managed to do in the past.
Prodi's government has held together this long in large part because of the widely shared desire to see Italy qualify for participation in the 1999 debut of the euro. That happened earlier this year , leaving the disparate allies without so clear a reason to stay together.
Prodi leads Italy's 55th government since the second world war. He has outlasted all but Bettino Craxi, who served three and a half years in two back-to-back stints from 1983 to 1987.
Refoundation is not part of Prodi's centre-left coalition, but the government needs its 34 votes to muster a majority in the lower house. It has been a difficult ally from the outset.
It broke with Prodi over Nato expansion earlier this year and on sending troops into Albania last year.
Prodi was even forced to resign a year ago after a bitter battle over spending cuts linked to the euro. The crisis was resolved, and Prodi returned to work as premier, after he made steep concessions and promised a 35 hour work week.

Bulger killer earns praise

THE detective who headed the investigation into the murder of toddler James Bulger revealed yesterday that one of the killers was making good progress towards becoming "a decent citizen".
Former Det. Supt Albert Kirby, who has recently retired from Merseyside police, said the two boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 16, were "abstractly evil". But he said that did not rule out their "redemption" and possible release.
The boys were jailed in 1993 after being convicted of murdering two-year-old James in February of that year. The court heard how they had abducted the Merseyside toddler during a trip to a shopping centre with his mother Denise. His battered body was found two days later on a railway line two miles away.
Mr Kirby said the boys, being held in unnamed secure units, were probably receiving more care than they ever had in their lives. "Certainly when I look at one of those boy's cases he's responding extremely well and he's now in a position where his educational standard is very good and hopefully ... he will come out of it as a decent citizen."
He said it would be "terribly wrong" to lock them up forever without a system to examine how they were responding to treatment and counselling.

Malaysian Minister ordered
to face corruption charges

MALAYSIA'S charismatic politician Anwar Ibrahim, who was arrested last month, was denied bail yesterday and ordered to face trial on four corruption charges.
A visibly thinner Anwar appeared in court wearing a neck brace for injuries he has said were sustained in a police beating after his September 20 arrest. He pleaded innocent to the charges.
''I've been treated worse than any other criminal,'' he said. Turning to reporters, he tugged at his trousers to show his weight loss.
Anwar, 51, was deputy prime minister until he clashed with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad over economic policy as Malaysia sank into recession.
Anwar was fired a month ago but continued to challenge Mahathir, accusing him of corruption and demanding his resignation. He has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.
Anwar was arrested under the Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without charge and restricts other rights.
In the Kuala Lumpur courtroom, a row of burly policemen blocked Anwar from talking with his wife, mother and daughters, who sat behind him.
But his wife, Azizah Ismail, reached out between two plainclothes officers to stroke his brow, and he reached back stiffly to hold his daughter's hand.
The judge set his trial date to start November 2. The trial will be suspended on November 14, during an 18 nation summit of Asia-Pacific leaders, then resume on November 23 to take up five charges of illegal homosexual acts.
High Court Judge Augustine Paul issued a gag order against all public statements about Anwar's guilt or innocence and said the trial would be conducted in English ''so that justice can be seen to be done.''
Paul ordered police to let Anwar's lawyers visit him to discuss the case, and denied bail, saying the prosecution had convinced him that doctors were attending to the jailed politician regularly and that Anwar might interfere with witnesses.

Oslo politicians face moral pact

POLITICIANS wanting to run for office in Oslo on the Conservative Party ticket will have to sign a moral pact pledging their closets are free of embarrassing skeletons.
The pact is intended to keep convicted criminals and tax cheaters off the party ticket. It does not cover personal matters such as sexual orientation.
"If exposure could lead to problems for the party, then it is better to take precautions and perhaps drop being a candidate,'' said Oslo party leader Anders Sjaastad.
The party guideline will apply for next year's local elections in Oslo. The Norwegian news media generally respect the private lives of public figures. However, when it comes to legal and tax matters, the nation's reporters will dig as aggressively as any in the world.
In recent years, a Central Bank governor and a top Labour Party official both resigned following reports of tax improprieties.
Sjaastad said candidates should expect investigations of their financial matters, but that he hopes probes in Norway never resemble those carried out in the United States.

Schroeder will not bring in
a speed limit on autobahn

GERMANS have voted for change, but not a speed limit on the autobahn.
Chancellor-elect Gerhard Schroeder rallied behind the nation's powerful car-makers and much of the public, yesterday, warning his future coalition partner, the environmentalist Greens, not to spoil Germany's love affair with fast driving.
Schroeder's comments to the nation's most-read newspaper, Bild, came as both sides haggled over policies for a government to replace Chancellor Helmut Kohl's outgoing administration.
With no general speed limit, Germany's autobahn is unique among European highways and a symbol of freedom in a rule-bound country. Building cars to handle autobahn conditions is also a selling point for companies from Volkswagen to Mercedes. Those arguments carry weight with Schroeder, a Social Democrat with a business-friendly reputation , he sits on VW's supervisory board. And the Social Democrats are in no mood to start off their return to government after 16 years with a shock to the nation. But Schroeder needs a coalition partner to have a majority in parliament.
Talks with the Greens began last week, and already look like they might get bumpy. Schroeder bristled at suggestions by Greens MP Gila Altmann that the new government might slap a speed limit of 120-130 kph (75-80 mph) on the autobahn.
''I can only warn people against attacking the auto industry,'' Schroeder said. ''Industry growth isn't what it has been, and we are not going to endanger jobs. We have entirely different worries.''
Speed limit backers, including the Greens, have long pointed to studies showing pedal-to-the-metal driving leads to more highway deaths and pollution.
A recent autobahn trial with a speed limit of 130 kph (80 mph) showed that accidents declined by 11%, the Federal Highway Office said.
Deaths and serious injuries fell even more, by 23%.
But a government survey this year found only about half of Germans support slowing down the autobahn.

© Examiner Publications Ltd, 1998