Voice of America, 99-09-28

Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>

CONTENTS

[01] CLINTON - TURKEY (L) BY DEBORAH TATE (WHITE HOUSE)

[02] CLINTON - TURKEY WRAP (S) BY DEBORAH TATE (WHITE HOUSE)

[03] TURKEY - U-S / KURDISH PROTEST (L) BY PAMELA TAYLOR (WASHINGTON)

[04] TURKEY / PRISON RIOTS (L ONLY) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

[05] CLINTON-KOSOVO (S-ONLY) BY DAVID GOLLUST (WHITE HOUSE)

[06] KOSOVO ATTACK (L ONLY) BY TIM BELAY (PRISTINA)

[07] YUGOSLAVIA/U-N (L) (CQ) BY NICK SIMEONE (UNITED NATIONS)

[08] BELGRADE / SOUP KITCHEN (L ONLY) BY PHILIP SMUCKER (BELGRADE)

[09] GERMAN ATTACK (L ONLY) BY JONATHAN BRAUDE (BERLIN)

[10] I-M-F TUESDAY WRAP (L-ONLY) BY BARRY WOOD (WASHINGTON)

[11] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

[01] CLINTON - TURKEY (L) BY DEBORAH TATE (WHITE HOUSE)

INTRO: President Clinton -- encouraged by improving ties between Turkey and Greece -- is sending his special envoy for Cyprus to the region to seek a resumption in talks aimed at resolving the dispute over the divided island. The White House announced the move after Mr. Clinton met with Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit Tuesday. Correspondent Deborah Tate reports.

TEXT: U-S officials say special envoy Al Moses could travel to the region as early as next week to try to get the parties back to the negotiating table. Mr. Clinton -- pleased by Greece's quick response to Turkey's devastating earthquake last month and Turkey's prompt aid to Greece after a smaller temblor there this month -- spoke of an improving relationship between the two countries that could promote a resolution of the Cyprus issue.

[02] CLINTON - TURKEY WRAP (S) BY DEBORAH TATE (WHITE HOUSE)

INTRO: President Clinton - encouraged by improving ties between Turkey and Greece - is sending his special envoy for Cyprus to the region to seek a resumption in talks aimed at resolving the dispute over the divided island. The White House announced the move after Mr. Clinton met with Turkish Prime Minister Boulent Ecevit Tuesday. Correspondent Deborah Tate reports. Text: U.S. officials say special envoy Al Moses could travel to the region as early as next week to try to get the parties back to the negotiating table. Mr. Clinton - pleased by Greece's quick response to Turkey's devastating earthquake last month and Turkey's prompt aid to Greece after a smaller temblor there this month - spoke of an improving relationship between the two countries that could promote a resolution of the Cyprus issue. He reiterated U.S. support for the effort at the start of his meeting with Mr. Ecevit:

[03] TURKEY - U-S / KURDISH PROTEST (L) BY PAMELA TAYLOR (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit met with President Clinton at the White House (Tuesday), as about 50 Turkish Kurds and their sympathizers rallied across the street (in Washington's Lafayette Park). The protesters demanded immediate action by the two leaders to help reconcile differences between Kurds and Turks. V-O-A's Pamela Taylor reports.

TEXT:

[04] TURKEY / PRISON RIOTS (L ONLY) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

INTRO: Turkish police (on Tuesday) detained scores of demonstrators, including human rights activists in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district. As Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara, the demonstrators had gathered to protest the killings by security forces of 11 leftist prisoners in an Ankara jail.

TEXT: Turkey's Justice Ministry and the Ankara prosecutor's office have launched separate investigations into circumstances surrounding the outbreak of violence Sunday at Ankara's Ulucanlar prison that resulted in the deaths of 11 leftist inmates. As word of the shootout spread, leftist inmates at other prisons seized scores of prison guards and continue to hold at least 60 of them hostage. Human rights groups described the storming of the prison by security forces as a "pre-planned massacre," and there are widespread allegations that some of the victims bore wounds inflicted by blunt instruments and had their throats slit. Lawyers for the prisoners say they cannot confirm the allegations because they were denied permission to see their clients' bodies. Turkish authorities say Sunday's prison raid was launched following a tip-off that a group of inmates belonging to armed extremist left wing organizations were digging a tunnel through which they planned to escape. Turkish authorities on Monday showed reporters weapons and explosives they say they had been found in the prison dormitory. Critics say lax security and widespread corruption at Turkey's overcrowded prisons facilitates the smuggling of weapons, drugs, and cell-phones by inmates. Prisoners often take hostages or stage hunger strikes to protest living conditions or to show solidarity with illegal political or armed groups that they support. Turkish officials say negotiators are continuing to talk to the rebel prisoners to secure the safe and speedy release of the prison guards. (Signed)
NEB/AZ/JWH/JP 28-Sep-1999 11:43 AM EDT (28-Sep-1999 1543 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America

[05] CLINTON-KOSOVO (S-ONLY) BY DAVID GOLLUST (WHITE HOUSE)

[06] KOSOVO ATTACK (L ONLY) BY TIM BELAY (PRISTINA)

INTRO: Two people have been killed and 39 were injured-- at least four of them seriously -- in a grenade attack Tuesday at a market in central Kosovo. Tim Belay reports from Pristina that officials have arrested four ethnic Albanians in connection with the attack.

TEXT: The attack took place at mid-morning Tuesday in the village of Bresje, six kilometers southwest of the capital, Pristina. Two grenades hit the marketplace. The victims are said to be ethnic-Serbs. A spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, Ole Irgens, says it is not certain if the attackers used rifle-propelled or hand-thrown grenades. The attack came as ethnic Serbs and Albanian Kosovars in the area entered a third day of violent confrontations. Peacekeeping troops closed off access to the region on Monday after an ethnic Albanian man was dragged from his car and severely beaten when he mistakenly drove into a Serb demonstration. In response to the grenade attack Tuesday, Serbs reportedly have blocked the main road connecting Pristina with Kosovo's main airport. The major city in the region, Kosovo Polje, has a mostly Serb population, but the villages that surround it are populated predominately by ethnic Albanians.

[07] YUGOSLAVIA/U-N (L) (CQ) BY NICK SIMEONE (UNITED NATIONS)

INTRO: The United Nations Security Council has rejected Yugoslavia's criticism of its decision to transform the Kosovo Liberation Army from an ethnic Albanian rebel group into a civilian protection force. Correspondent Nick Simeone reports from the United Nations where Belgrade has been arguing that this protection force is just a reconstituted version of the K-L-A.

TEXT: Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic charges the K-L-A is being allowed to exist in another form. He says this is a violation of a U-N resolution which demands some 200-thousand Serb refugees be allowed to return to Kosovo and live in safety. He told reporters the K-L-A's transformation earlier this month from a rebel group to a lightly armed civilian protection force amounts to an attempt to legalize what Belgrade regards as a terrorist organization.

[08] BELGRADE / SOUP KITCHEN (L ONLY) BY PHILIP SMUCKER (BELGRADE)

INTRO: Winter is approaching in Serbia and lines at local soup kitchens are already growing longer. Philip Smucker went to the Seventh Day Adventist church in downtown Belgrade, where food is in short supply and diners say they expect things to get much worse.

TEXT: At the Seventh Day Adventist Soup Kitchen, the pressures are growing. Church leader Zoran Stanevic, who helps coordinate the free lunch, says that he feeds 200 people, all of whom have an income of 20 dollars or less a month. He says that already, the hungry mouths outnumber the meals that the charity ADRA (AH-drah) can pay for.

[09] GERMAN ATTACK (L ONLY) BY JONATHAN BRAUDE (BERLIN)

INTRO: A German police chief has written to the U-S Ambassador to Germany to express regret for an attack by neo-nazi youths against five U-S military bandsmen. Jonathan Braude reports from Berlin.

TEXT: U-S military authorities are playing down the incident. But district Police President Ute Leichsenring and officials in the eastern German state of Brandenburg are embarrassed. Five U-S military bandsmen, on a goodwill visit to the German military garrison in the small town of Prenzlau outside Berlin, were accosted in the street by a group of local youths, and beaten with a wooden club when they failed to respond to a neo-Nazi salute. The district prosecutor's office says the bandsmen had taken part in a concert at the garrison headquarters earlier in the evening. They had changed into civilian clothes and taken a walk through the town. Although both German authorities and U-S military officials said they would be seeking further evidence from the five soldiers, the outlines of what happened next are clear. As the soldiers were returning to the garrison at about five in the morning, ready to travel back to their own barracks in southern Germany, five young men and a girl came up to them, gave a Nazi salute, and shouted "Sieg Heil." When the U-S soldiers failed to respond, the German youths attacked them and ran away. A U-S military spokesman said the men suffered only a few minor bruises and scratches and even one soldier with a broken nose did not think the matter was very serious. But the Brandenburg government is less relaxed. The former East German state has an ugly history of attacks against foreigners. In addition, the state has one of the worst records for racial attacks anywhere in Germany. Interior ministry spokesman Manfred Fueger said officials are especially concerned because the number of attacks has risen in 1999 after falling last year. There were 40 cases of right-wing, anti-foreigner or anti-semitic violence in the state in the first six months of this year and 27 violent attacks against individuals. In her letter to U-S Ambassador John Kornblum, police chief Ute Leichsenring said the state government is doing its best to re-educate local opinion. The police have set up a special anti-xenophobia unit and racial tolerance is taught in schools. But Brandenburg authorities say they are fighting an uphill battle. Unemployed and disaffected youth are still attacking foreigners. And in elections this month, Brandenburg put neo-Nazi deputies in the state parliament for the first time since the end of World War Two. (Signed)
NEB/JB/JWH/JP 28-Sep-1999 13:17 PM EDT (28-Sep-1999 1717 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America

[10] I-M-F TUESDAY WRAP (L-ONLY) BY BARRY WOOD (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: The annual meeting of the Interational Monetary Fund and World Bank is underway in Washington. V-O-A's Barry Wood reports on the first day's highlights.

TEXT: I-M-F managing director Michel Camdessus opened the meeting by noting the impressive economic recovery underway in East Asia and parts of Latin America. The world economy, he said, is in much better condition than it was a year ago. Mr. Camdessus said the I-M-F, which is owned by its over 180 member governments, will stand behind its commitment to Russia and not cut off lending despite worries about possible theft of foreign money. World Bank president James Wolfensohn said debt relief for the poorest countries will be a principal accomplishment of the meeting. Indonesia used the I-M-F meeting to express its commitment to democracy and express deep regret over the loss of life in East Timor. Central bank chief Sjahril Sabirin said the government accepts the decision of the East Timorese to seek a new destiny outside Indonesia. Mr. Sabirin promised decisive action to overcome a new financial scandal involving the diversion of bank money to members of Indonesia's ruling party.

[11] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)

INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were down today (Tuesday) in a very volatile session. V-O-A Business Correspondent Breck Ardery reports from New York.

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10- thousand-275, down 27 points. The Standard and Poor's 500 index closed at 12-hundred-82, down one point. The NASDAQ index lost a small fraction of one percent. Stock prices were down most of the day with the Industrial Average plunging more than 200 points or two percent. But bargain-hunters substantially cut the losses late in the session. Analysts say traders continue to focus on next Tuesday's meeting of governors of the Federal Reserve Board, the U-S central bank. Until the bank governors make a decision on short-term interest rates, analysts say, financial markets will probably remain volatile.

Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next Article