European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 03, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 28 the stars and stripes saturday february 3,1990 news Brief officials deny dispute kept Cheney from meeting Washington is Pentagon officials arc denying reports in the West German Media Hal Secretary of defense Dick Cheney has declined to attend the annual Chr Kundic defense conference in Munich this weekend because of a protocol dispute. The reports said Cheney sent word that he would not attend the annual meeting of Western defense officials because he was not scheduled to be inc first speaker to open the conference. That Honor is traditionally Given to the West German defense minister. A Pentagon official who asked not to be identified said Cheney could t attend the Confer ence because inc release of the fiscal 1991 Bud gel was delayed. Originally the budget was to have been re leased Jan. 22. And the president s state of the Union address was to be delivered on Jan. 23, the official said. But that was delayed by the White House and the budget was t released until monday Date with the state of the Union address two Days later. By Law. Cheney is required to appear on Capi Tol Hill to begin testifying on the defense budget immediately after the release of the budget and the address the official said. Since he was t Able to Start testifying until thursday it came Down to a simple scheduling conflict he said. Independent counsel sought in Pierce cose Washington a attorney general Dick Thornburgh wants an Independent counsel to deter mine if former housing Secretary Samuel r. Pierce or. And his aides broke the Law by steering Federal a Cal subsidies to politically connected developers. Thornburgh. Stressing that the special prosecutor Law left him no other Choice said an inde pendent counsel is needed to determine if Pierce and other former housing officials May have violated Federal criminal Law in the Way they chose developers to participate in the moderate rehabilitation program Between 1984 and 1988. The department of housing and Urban development program provides rent subsidies and lucrative tax Breaks to developers who perform a moderate amount of rehabilitation on Low in come housing units. Thorburgh s formal application to a special court cited reports of a widespread perception among developers and local officials that funds were being disbursed in disproportionate amounts to projects backed by prominent republicans acting As consultants or by former  search for drugs shows cuban freighter clean from wire reports Tampico. Mexico no drugs were found aboard a cuban chartered freighter that was at tacked by the . Coast guard after refusing to submit to a search in International Waters. Inc mexican Navy said thursday. The panamanian registered freighter was riddled with bullets fired by a coast guard Cut Ter before Dawn wednesday after the vessel s skipper refused to allow it to be searched. Drive for United Germany is picking up momentum East Berlin a West German foreign min ister Hans Dietrich guns Char said Friday he is seeking support from the four world War ii allies for German unification. Meanwhile the soviet Union has proposed that europeans americans and canadians vote on the Issue. In an interview published Friday in Moscow soviet foreign minister Eduard a. Shevardnadze said the outside groups should vote or hold wide parliamentary discussions because they suffered so much from a unified Germany in world War ii. The soviet envoy gave the Kremlin s strongest endorsement yet to unification but repeated conditions that this must not destabilize Europe. The interview was carried by the official soviet news Agency Tass. Guns Char made his comments in a radio interview before flying to Washington to discuss the Prospect of unification with Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii. Guns Char said he also was consulting with British and French officials and would meet with Shevardnadze this week. East Germany s Premier Hans Modrow on thursday outlined a plan for a United fatherland that would be governed from Berlin but would re main militarily Neutral. Guns Char joined Chancellor Helmut Kohl in reject ing neutrality for the future German state. But he also said that East Germany a member of the Warsaw pact should not be drawn into nato. Uniting the two Germany has become Likely since a pro democracy revolution ousted hard line East Ger Man Leader Erich Honecker on oct. 18, opened the Berlin Wall formed a coalition government and scheduled elections in March. Kohl said in a statement issued by his office in Bonn on thursday that he would agree to talks with East German leaders As soon As a new government is elected on March 18. But he added i strongly reject the concept of Ger Man  officials in both Ger Many welcomed president Bush s proposal to Cut superpower troops in Central Europe to 195,000 on each Side to correspond to a recent diminishing of tensions Between nato and its rival Warsaw pact. Modrow s government predicted the White House initiative would Speed a conventional armed forces reduction being negotiated in Vienna. At least 17 killed 72 Hurt As commuter trains collide Frankfurt West Germany a two crowded commuter trains collided at the height of the Rush hour outside Frankfurt Friday killing at least 17 people and injuring 72 others police said. Hesse state Interior minister Gottfried mild speaking to reporters at the site of the Accident earlier said rescuers had pulled 15 bodies from the wreckage. Rescuers were still searching through the wreckage late Friday and an updated police statement later in the evening said 17 people had been killed and 72 injured 37 of them seriously. Walter Hinss a spokesman for the Federal Railroad network said the Accident occurred after one of the Drivers apparently overlooked a Stop signal. But he said officials were still investigating the cause of the disaster. The Accident occurred after one of the train Drivers apparently missed a Stop signal on the heavily used run Between Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. Hinss said. Some cars derailed and Rescue workers were unsure How Many passengers were trapped in the wreckage. The derailed cars also crashed into a Row of parked cars. The derailed cars forced authorities 19 close Down a Section of track and to reroute other trains during Rush hour. Anc from Page 1 decided to release Nelson Mandela unconditionally do Klerk said. The government will take a decision soon on the Date of his release. Unfortunately a fur ther Short passage of time is  an Anc statement however called for Mandela s immediate release. It also said the movement was concerned that some political prisoners would not be released that the slate of emergency would not be wholly removed and that detentions without trial could continue. Anc Leader Walter Sisulu and other veterans of the group were in Sweden on their first visit outside Africa since being released from prison in october where they had served 25 years of a life sentence. Sisulu asked whether negotiations with the govern ment could Start now replied no. This is merely a  the groups to be legalized in addition to the Anc include the smaller pan africanist Congress guerrilla movement the South african communist party and the United democratic front a nationwide Anli Apan acid coalition that recently declared it would defy 2 car old restrictions on it. Do Klerk also announced he was lifting restrictions imposed on 374 activists following their release from detention. He said state of Amer Ncncy detentions would be limited to a maximum of six months and emergency restrictions on inc Media would be scrapped except for some unspecified controls Over photographic and Tele vision coverage of unrest. Stressing his commitment to human rights do Klerk said the government was suspending All executions and considering proposals to Reserve capital punishment for Only extreme  the Anc was outlawed in i960 after 48 years of non violent campaigning for Black rights. In 1961, it launched a sabotage Campaign. In the past year the guerrilla Campaign has sub sided. Freeze from Page 1 people realized what it really meant and How much it was going to  he said. Air Force officials in Europe greeted inc news on Friday with Relief. We certainly were headed for a catastrophe no question about it said col. Keith Wiles director of morale and recreation for the command. The morale welfare and recreation program is one of several military Agen cies that rely heavily on non appropriated fund employees to staff their operations which include child care centers. We would have had to close child care centers Wiles said citing strict adult to child ratios and training Stan Dards for the facilities. Appropriated fund positions in child care Are exempted from the freeze because they arc required by Law. Wiles said he had expected about 1.000 of Safe s 7,600 non appropriated fund positions in morale and recreation to be vacant by the end of May four months before the freeze was scheduled to end. And it would have gotten worse Wiles said. The . Army in Europe employs 100,000 . And foreign National civil ians about 14,000 of whom Are paid from non appropriated funds. The work Force of the army air Force Exchange service is made up of about 23,000 non appropriated fund workers. Safe employs 21,000. A freeze on both appropriated and non appropriated fund positions would have left Between 4.000 and 3,000 vacancies throughout the command by sept. 30. Said John Graham the command s civilian person Nel chief. Graham said the policy reversal will slash the number of projected vacancies by about 3,000. The other freeze exemptions arc All West Berlin vacancies which arc paid for by the West German govern ment. Positions in foreign military sales. Positions in Security assistance pro Grams. Participants in the defense depart ment s priority placement program who have lost their jobs or will lose them be cause of Force reductions or base clo sures. Those workers May be hired to fill vacancies in the geographic areas where they Are registered. Individuals who must be hired to comply with an order or settlement in a judicial or administrative process. Despite the change troubles remain. We still have some problems in the appropriated fund areas with the commissaries being the primary one Gra Ham said. And with a freeze continuing we re going to have a serious problem with secretarial and clerical help which is another High turnover  base maintenance contracts in Greece Spain and Turkey Are not directly affected by the hiring freeze. Conw Liju to Ini Neon Sun Wilu Chuck a Neh in whim Ngow rot Muir Sawyn in h Tatt  it Many