2The Daily Tar HeelMonday, March 28, 1988
World and Nation.
Israeli coovoctedl of
From Associated Prw reports
JERUSALEM Mordechai
Vanunu, the former nuclear techni
cian who said he acted as a spy for
the common man when he gave
Israeli atomic secrets to a newspaper,
was sentenced Sunday to 18 years in
prison for treason and espionage.
The sentencing climaxed a seven
month, closed-door trial that focused
worldwide attention on Israel's
nuclear capability.
The 34-year-old Israeli, who told
a British newspaper his country
possessed nuclear weapons, was
convicted Thursday.
The charges can carry a death
penalty, but the prosecution
requested a life term, which Israeli
law limits to 20 years. The court then
reduced the term by two years, citing
Vanunu's cooperation with investiga
tors, apparent signs of regret and the
difficult conditions of his 18-month
Ethnic turmoil stops business in
From Associated Press reports
MOSCOW The official Soviet
press said Sunday most business
halted in a city claimed by Arme
nians, and dissidents described the
stoppage as a general strike.
The government newspaper Izves
tia said that authorities had blocked
the central streets of Stepanakert in
the republic of Azerbaijan and that
militiamen were patrolling Saturday.
Armenians began strikes and street
rallies Feb. 13 in Stepanakert, the
main city in the region of Nagorno
Karabakh. They have demanded
annexation of the region, about the
size of Delaware, to the neighboring
republic of Armenia.
Armenians make up more than
three-quarters of Nagorno
Karabakh's population, but they say
they suffer racial, cultural and eco
nomic discrimination in Azerbaijan.
Sandinistas release 1
From Associated Press reports
MANAGUA The leftist Sandi
nista government announced Sunday
it was releasing about 100 political
prisoners in preparation for further
peace talks with U.S. -supported
contra rebels.
An Interior Ministry announce
ment said the prisoners were to be
released Sunday afternoon, but
officials refused to give immediate
details for security reasons.
In another development, President
Daniel Ortega suggested that the
United Nations send a multinational
peacekeeping force to the
Nicaraguan-Honduran border to
stabilize the area. Ortega said Satur
day night that he made the proposal
to a U.N. technical commission
visiting the border area.
Most of the prisoners to be released
If yfetf 111 Wflgto &
solitary confinement.
Under Israeli law, Vanunu could
be released on good behavior after
12 years. But legal commentators said
his early release was unlikely given
the severity of the crimes.
Defense attorney Avigdor Feld
man has said he will appeal his client's
case to Israel's Supreme Court.
The sentencing climaxed an affair
shrouded in secrecy that began when
Vanunu, a 10-year employee of
Israel's Dimona nuclear facility, gave
photographs and details of the facility
to The Sunday Times of London.
Based on that information, the
paper reported Israel had stockpiled
the world's sixth largest nuclear
arsenal.
Israel has never confirmed or
denied that it has nuclear weapons.
It has said only it will not be the first
country to introduce such weapons
Most Armenians are Christians,
while Azerbaijanis are mostly Shiite
Moslems.
At least 32 people have been killed
in ethnic violence in the Azerbaijani
city of Sumgait since the protests
began.
Despite official claims that tensions
had eased, the Communist Party
newspaper Pravda reported Sunday
that 1 ,500 civilian auxiliary police had
been deployed in Sumgait and that
similar forces were in place in the
Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
"Only reinforced voluntary public
order squads, made up of workers
with red armbands who assist militia
in the streets, indicate that some
tension still persists in Baku," Pravda
said.
The protests have spread to Arme
nia itself, and troops with attack dogs
were deployed Saturday in the
Sunday were workers arrested for
joining illegal strikes or people who
demonstrated against the Sandinista
government.
The release was ordered under an
amnesty law the National Assembly
approved by a margin of 82-2 Sat
urday night. The law could result in
the release of about 3,300 political
prisoners jailed since the Sandinistas
seized power in a 1979 revolution that"
overthrew President Anastasio
Somoza.
There was little opposition to the
amnesty bill. The Sandinistas hold 61
seats in the 96-member assembly.
According to the legislation,
another undisclosed number of con
tra rebels taken prisoner during the
six-year civil war will be released at
an unspecified later date. The govern
ment also plans a general review of
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ibreaspiro, espionage '
into the Middle East.
Vanunu, a Jewish-born convert to
Christianity, testified during his trial
that he made his revelations to warn
the world of the dangers of nuclear
weapons, not for personal gain or out
of a desire to harm his country.
In a poem quoted by his attorney
on Israeli television after the verdict,
Vanunu called himself a "spy for the
common man."
He had negotiated a lucrative
contract with The Sunday Times
pending publication of a never
completed book and earlier
approached several news organiza
tions offering to sell his story for large
sums.
Vanunu made a last-ditch appeal
at Sunday's court session, but his
remarks were not made public and
his attorney refused to talk to waiting
reporters.
Armenian capital of Yerevan to crack
down on street rallies, the official
press and activists have reported. A
Moscow dissident, Alexander Ogo
rodnikov, on Saturday described
Yerevan as a "dead city" with most
people staying inside in silent protest.
The Armenian nationalist protests
subsided after Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev appealed Feb. 26 for
restraint, promising social and eco
nomic improvements. But the Pres
idium of the Supreme Soviet, the
country's highest executive body,
brushed aside the annexation demand
on Wednesday.
In reaction, Armenians in
Nagorno-Karabakh called for a
general strike, which began Wednes
day, Moscow dissident Sergei Grigo
. ryants said Sunday.
Izvestia said Sunday in a report
from Stepanakert: "Enterprises in the
00 political
the cases of about 1,800 members of
Somoza's now-disbanded National
Guard, Ortega said.
Speaking to reporters Saturday
night, Ortega said the former guards
men all have been accused of human
rights violations or crimes against
humanity such as the indiscrim
inate shooting of civilians during
the one-year revolution that brought
the Sandinistas to power.
Many of them have been sentenced
to the maximum penalty of 30 years
imprisonment, Ortega said. The
downfall of Somoza, a rightist pro
American strongman, ended 42 years
of iron-fisted rule by his family,
usually enforced by the National
Guard.
Ortega said the case of each
guardsman will be sent to the Organ
ization of American States'
Church authorities to discipline
From Associated Press reports
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. The
Assemblies of God hope to lay the
Jimmy Swaggart scandal to rest after
the church's highest governing body
meets Monday to discipline the
television minister for an alleged
relationship with a prostitute.
The Pentecostal denomination's
250-member General Presbytery is
charged with resolving conflict
among the Executive Presbytery, the
church's 13-member national board
of directors and church officials in
Louisiana who have proposed what
some say is too lenient a punishment
for Swaggart.
Swaggart, the denomination's
most prominent minister, confessed
Feb. 21 from his Baton Rouge, La.,
Girls-
LY
Vanunu's family, however,
expressed bitterness.
"The trial was not conducted as it
should have been," said Vanunu's
brother, Asher Vanunu. He said he
would try to galvanize international
support to press authorities for his
brother's release.
Meir Vanunu, another brother
who lives in London, said in an
interview with British Broadcasting
Co. television, "Israel wasn't able to
give justice to Mordechai."
He said Israel was trying to shield
ils nuclear capability "in all the kinds
of games that they played about it
for the last 25 years."
Meir Vanunu faces arrest in Israel
for leaking details of his brother's
journey home from London in
October 1986, several days after The
Sunday Times published Vanunu's
revelations.
Soviet city
city today (Saturday) aren't working,
except for essential services such as
bread and milk factories, transport,
water supply."
Pravda said: "There is a relative
lull in Nagorno-Karabakh . . .but the
majority of enterprises of the regional
center, Stepanakert, are idle."
None of the articles, however,
attributed the disruptions to a strike.
Andrei Bavitsky of the dissident
journal Glasnost had said in Moscow
that 15,000 local policemen were
patrolling Stepanakert Saturday. But
he described the situation as a silent
show of force rather than a general
strike.
Grigoryants, a former political
prisoner who is half ethnic Russian
and half Armenian, said the Stepa
nakert strike was scheduled to last
through Friday.
prisoners
InterAmerican Human Rights Com
mission for review before a release
is ordered to safeguard the Sandinista
government from criticism that it
acted unfairly.
On Saturday, Ortega said he had
told Gilberto Schilittler, head of the
U.N. delegation, that "it is important
to achieve the stabilization of the
border zone with Honduras and this
is only possible with a multilateral
force."
Ortega said that without a peace
keeping force, "the United States can
continue heating up the border . . .
provoking conflicts, increasing its
presence to threaten Nicaragua."
The U.N. team inspected the
border Thursday and Friday, the
scene of a reported incursion into
Honduras by Sandinista army troops
pursuing contra rebels.
pulpit to unspecified sins. Swaggart
did not elaborate publicly, but reports
have linked him to voyeurism involv
ing a prostitute.
Swaggart is not expected to appear
at Monday's meeting, said church
spokeswoman Juleen Turnage.
The Assemblies' Louisiana presby
tery recommended a two-year reha
bilitation and a three-month suspen
sion from the pulpit for Swaggart.
Turnage has said that all other
Assemblies' ministers who have
confessed to moral failure were
barred from preaching for at least a
year.
The Executive Presbytery dis
cussed the matter for 1 1 hours Feb.
25 and 26 before asking Louisiana
officials to reconsider. The Executive
Presbytery, headed by General
Superintendent G. Raymond Carl
son, apparently wanted tougher
penalites for Swaggart.
But after gathering again Feb. 29
for what was described as an emo
tional nine-hour session, the Louisi
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House speaker's adviser tried
to sell weapons to contras
From Associated Press reports
WASHINGTON An "eyes-and-ears"
adviser to House
Speaker Jim Wright tried to sell
weapons to the contras through
Lt. Col. Oliver North's private
network three months before the
Iran-contra disclosures ended the
North operation.
Richard Pena, a former House
Foreign Affairs Committee staff
member, contacted North's asso
ciate Richard Miller in 1986
offering material from two South
American companies. One would
sell grenades, bombs and mines,
and the other had boots at $33
a pair, according to a letter
proposing the sale.
Such activity would appear at
odds with the objectives of Wright,
who has opposed military aid to
the contras and has taken an active
role in efforts to get a negotiated
peace agreement between Nicara
gua's warring factions.
Death toll rises in West Bank
MEITHALUN, Occupied West
Bank Israel said its troops shot
three Arabs in the West Bank
Sunday after Palestinians attacked
them with iron bars and a car, but
villagers accused the soldiers of
firing at cars carrying the
wounded.
Israeli soldiers killed a fourth
Palestinian in another West Bank
town while trying to rescue an
Israeli tour bus that blundered into
the Arab community.
Left-leaning Labor Party min
isters, meanwhile, accused Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir of the
rightist Likud block at Sunday's
Cabinet session of exaggerating
the success of his U.S. tour that
ended Tuesday, Israel radio
reported.
They said the proof came in
U.S. Secretary of State George
Shultz's meeting Saturday in
, Washington with two university
professors linked to the Palesti
nian Liberation Organization.
Sunday's deaths raised to 118
the number of Palestinians killed
in 15 weeks of violent protests
against Israel's 20-year occupation
of the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
according to U.N. figures. One
Israeli soldier has been killed.
Iran attacks Indian tanker
'MANAMA, Bahrain Iranian
gunboats rocketed an Indian
tanker in the Persian Gulf Sunday,
setting its engine room ablaze and
wounding a crewman, gulf-based
shipping executives reported.
Iran and Iraq fired missiles into
each other's capitals in a brutal
long-range duel. In northeast Iraq,
Iran said its troops punched
deeper into enemy territory,
occupying strategic heights that
ana Presbytery stood by its original
decision.
The Louisiana Presbytery has close
ties to Swaggart for instance, state
superintendent Cecil Janway also sits
on the board of Jimmy Swaggart
World Ministries.
Reports were circulating that
Swaggart would leave the denomina
tion if church officials suspended him
for longer than three months, but a
spokesman for Swaggart's ministry
said the preacher has made no
decision on how he might react.
Turnage said she did not believe the
General Presbytery would be swayed
by "rumors heard through the
media."
Turnage said the church's national
officials have the final say and until
now have always been able to work
out an agreement with state leaders.
The General Presbytery, whose
members include representatives
from each of the church's state
councils, is a court of last resort on
ministerial credentials. Generally, a
News in Brief
overlook a key hydroelectric dam.
Both countries reported exten
sive civilian casualties in the
missile war.
Shipping officials, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the
24,529-ton Jainarayan Vyas,
owned by the Shipping Corp. of
India, was en route to the Saudi
Arabian port of Jubail to load
petrochemicals when it was hit.
The tanker was attacked just
before noon about 40 miles from
the Iranian-held Abu Musa
Island. The island serves as a base
for Revolutionary Guards who
attack neutral ships in armed
speedboats in retaliation for Iraqi
air riads on Iranian tankers.
The Jainarayan Vyas was hit in
apparent retaliation for Iraqi air
raids on Iranian tankers overnight
Friday.
A Danish supertanker, the
337,700-ton Karama Maersk, was
initially believed to have also been
attacked near Abu Musa.
But shipping sources said the
vessel had only relayed a distress
call from the stricken Indian
vessel.
Heavy rains in Argentina kill 18
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
Four consecutive days of
torrential rain left at least 18
people dead and forced the evac
uation of 55,000 residents of the
Buenos Aires-La Plata area, offi
cials said Sunday.
Weather forecasters said the
heavy rains that have pounded
Buenos Aires and central Argen
tina since Thursday would con
tinue Monday.
The dead included seven child
ren who drowned and two women
who were electrocuted while cross
ing flooded streets where live
cables had fallen.
Skater announces marriage
BUDAPEST, Hungary Debi
Thomas, the U.S. figure skating
champion and Olympic bronze
medalist, announced Sunday that
she had married a University of
Colorado student on March 15.
"I did not want this news to
detract from my focus on the
world championships (last week),"
Thomas said. "Now that the world
championships are over, I want to
let all my friends and supporters
know how happy I am."
Thomas' husband is Brian
Vanden Hogen.
The two met at the University
of Colorado when Thomas moved
there last year to train with her
coach, Alex McGowan, and they
were married in Boulder.
minister would appeal his case to the
group after his course of rehabilita
tion had been decided by the Exec
utive Presbytery. The Executive
Presbytery short-circuited that pro
cess when it decided March 3 to turn
the Swaggart case over to the larger
body.
The two-day meeting at the denom
ination's headquarters is to open at
2 p.m. Monday. The group will
debate according to parliamentary
rules of order, and a majority vote
will decide Swaggart's fate.
For the Record
The March 24 story, "Voices of
opposition to project grow louder in
N.C. counties," incorrectly cited the
Department of Transportation as the
department to decide the location of
the superconducting super collider.
The Department of Energy will make
that decision. The Daily Tar Heel
regrets the error.
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Swaggart