European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 11, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Thursday february 11,1993 world the stars and stripes b Page Aristide Backer decries observer n port a Prince Haiti a prominent supporter of ousted leftist president Jean Bertrand Aristide and a leading far right politician attacked an agreement wednesday that allows human rights monitors into Haiti. Both sides scoffed at the . And . Portrayal tuesday of the pact As Akey step in a plan to restore democracy. The first 40 . Observers including15 americans Are due in Haiti by sat urday state department spokesman Richard Boucher said. Boucher said Washington has contributed $2 million to the Mission which will last at least a year. Aristide supporters said the Compro Mise agreement Between a . Envoy and the military backed government of prime minister Marc l. Bazin undercuts the Power of any observer Force and would prolong the Rule of the army and the conservative elite. Aristide declined to comment until he reads the agreement said a spokesman for the ousted president who was attend ing the socialist International meeting in Athens Greece. Aristide supporter Paul do can called the agreement s provisions a horror and accused . Envoy Dante Caput of betraying Aristide. Aristide Haiti s first democratically elected president had re Quested the observer Force last month. Dejean also said the agreement showed that president Clinton was inclined to follow the ineffectual Haiti policy of the Bush administration which Clinton had promised to change. The Mission will be ineffective said Dejean a human rights activist who on monday won France s 1992 human rights prize. They International policy makers have forgotten there arc 7 million haitians whose lives Are at stake Haiti s army backed government had been seeking to water Down the . Initiative and the text of tuesday s agreement gave Bazin much of what he wanted. It was not immediately Clear How Haiti s unruly soldiers Many opposed to any negotiation with the International Community would react to deployment of the observers. Far right politician Hubert de Ronco Ray told haitian radio that Bazin had no right to sign the agreement which recalled illegal and senseless sixteen observers from the Organiza Tion of american states have been in Haiti for months but the military has restricted their movements. Haitian soldiers toppled Aristide in september 1991 and killed about 400 i Mihans in the Days that followed. Since the coup tens of thousands of haitians have fled economic devastation and Polit ical repression in their Caribbean Home land. The United states has refused entry Topmost of the haitian boat people shipping them Back to Haiti. The Oas demanded that Aristide be reinstated and imposed an embargo on Haiti to press its position. Mitterrand visits site of wartime French mistake Hanoi Vietnam a in a spirit of reconciliation wednesday president Francois Mitterrand of France visited the Dien Bien Phu Valley where a epic Battle in 1954 drove the French colonialists out of to criticism in France that he should not visit a site of defeat Mitterrand said he did so to rethink experience that which a Frenchman can feel when faced with the sacrifice of his after returning to Hanoi he told a news Confer ence that France s War in Indochina appeared to me to be a colonialism had to understand the Neces sity of turning the Page. From the moment the War ended i thought that it All merited a rethinking. I find it satisfying that France is the first Wester country that has come Here to show its desire for reconciliation he arrived tuesday for the first visit by a Western head of state since communist forces Defeated a .-backed government and reunified the country in april 1975.the French attempt to dig in against a communist offensive at Dien Bien Phu surrounded by mountains about 200 Miles West of Hanoi became Syno Normous with disastrous military strategy. During the 1968 tet offensive against the .forces who replaced the French the americans Wor ried that the siege against the Marine base at Khe Sanh would become another Dien Bien during the 55-Day Battle 2,242 French Soldier were killed and 6,463 wounded about 8,000 Viet namese lost their lives. At an official dinner in Hanoi on tuesday Mitterrand sat next to Gen. To Nguyen Giap the celebrated strategist who won at Dien Bien Phu. Mitterrand said wednesday i was Able to meet with world War ii German generals. Our Effort in Europe was aimed at reconciliation with for Mer enemies. Why not do the same elsewhere Mitterrand s entourage includes Many business leaders As Well As Cabinet members responsible for the budget research and space affairs. Later this week Mitterrand was to go to cambo Dia another former French Colony. French president Francois Mitterrand is greeted wednesday by vietnamese officials in Hanoi. Husband refuses divorce despite 30 years in prison Jerusalem a a Man imprisoned More than 30 years under israeli Law for refusing his is standing firm despite promises of Freedom a newspaper reported Avraham 80, withstood pleas from seven rabbis for two hours monday the mass circulation be doth Ahro Noth t do it can t do it go away the daily Edioth quoted Avraham As to jewish Law both parties must agree to a divorce. Israel leaves issues of marriage and divorce to the Rabbinate and the Law provides for imprison ment As a last resort method of pressure. Shula Meiri a prison service spokeswoman con firmed tuesday that Avraham remained in jail after 30 years in the divorce Case. The newspaper said Avra Ham s time spent in prison is a record for divorce recalcitrance. Meiri said that because of Avraham s age he was kept in the Hospital of Ayalon prison in Tel Aviv. Ora Avraham 64, first applied for divorce after 12 years of marriage. His behaviour was abhorrent she told the newspaper. He treated me like the Abrahams were married in Yemen when she was 12 and he was 28. She told the paper they had two daughters but he berated and abused her for not Bear ing sons. Kohl backs off of military Cut minister says Bonn Germany up German Chancellor Hel Mut Kohl has backtracked on his plan to Cut the military budget by about 3 billion Marks $1.8 billion in the next four years defense minister Volkir Riiho says. Ruhr said tuesday that Kohl had agreed to cutbacks in the defense budget that arc Well below the previously announced Levels. No new figure was Given however. In what German Media described As a fight betwee Kohl and Ruhr the Chancellor on monday reprimanded his defense chief for suggesting that the spend ing and troop cuts were dictated by finance minister Theo Waiges. Speaking after a meeting of the parliamentary group of Kohl s Christian democratic Union Riiho said that now there will not be such drastic he said Kohl stated he would give his full support tothe new savings measures. He did not indicate however whether the Chancellor might also backtrack on his controversial announcement of major troop cuts. Without naming him Kohl also rebuked nato Secretary general Manfred Wornor a former defense chief under Kohl. Werner had said the proposed reduction of German forces could undermine the North at lactic treaty organization. Military experts said the government planned to re Duce its total forces to about 300,000 by the end of 1995, from a previously planned draw Down to 370,000.Germany forces currently total about 430,000. Highway fee plan outrages germans Bonn Germany a germans love their Auto Bahns those legendary thoroughfares with Long stretches where Speed is limited not by Law but by your Horn Power but if Chancellor Helmut Kohl has his Way starting next year germans and everybody else will no longer Beable to use these speedways free of charge. Kohl s government said tuesday that it wants to Star charging everyone a hefty fee to use the autobahn. German newspapers on wednesday revealed details of the plan saying motorists would have to pay 360marks $225 a year 60 Marks $37.50 a month or 25 Marks $15.60 a week for stickers that would let them use the autobahn. But his plan has created an uproar. Many politicians even some of Kohl s political Al lies said germans should t have to pay for driving on the autobahn. Georg Brunnhuber a parliamentarian with Kohl Christian democratic Union said in wednesday s editions of the Bild newspaper that the plan really an Noys Brunnhuber said the Federal transportation minister Gunther Krause must urgently rethink this Kohl s government also plans to eventually sell Stockin the autobahn privatizing the state owned network of superhighways. Revenues from the Stock would be used to modernize the rail system
