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(04/26/04 4:57am)
KYRENIA, Cyprus -- Hasan Beydola, a Turkish Cypriot textile exporter near bankruptcy, was glum Sunday a day after Greek Cypriots sank a U.N. plan to reunify Cyprus -- and with it, hopes that his business would get a boost when the island enters the European Union.\nNow, Beydola and other Turkish Cypriots are waiting to hear how the EU will keep its promise to reward them for supporting the U.N. plan.\nTurkish Cypriots in the north overwhelmingly voted "yes," while Greek Cypriots in similar numbers in the south voted "no" in twin referendums Saturday.\nWith the defeat of the plan, which required agreement from both sides, all of Cyprus will enter the EU, but the union's laws and benefits will apply only to the internationally recognized south.\nCyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded in 1974 to put down a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece. For three decades, international isolation of the north meant Beydola could export only to Turkey -- the sole country recognizing his breakaway state. After Turkey's 1995 customs union agreement with the EU, even those exports declined.\nThe per capita gross domestic product among Turkish Cypriots is about $4,610, compared with $14,499 among Greek Cypriots and $22,740 for the current 15 EU member states.\nA united Cyprus entering the European Union was Beydola's hope -- as well as the hope of many Turkish Cypriots.\n"I will be punished for voting 'yes' for a plan supported by the EU," said Beydola, 41. "And those who voted 'no' will be rewarded. How is this fair?"\nEU officials "should take some steps to ease the embargoes on us and to make our lives easier," he said.\nHad Cypriots approved the reunification plan that the EU helped the United Nations draft, $311 million would have flowed in to help the north and mechanisms to start trade with Europe would have been instituted.\nEuropean Union foreign ministers open a two-day meeting in Luxembourg Monday to discuss measures to help Turkish Cypriots that were promised before the vote but never detailed. Some possibilities would be creating trade opportunities, lifting tariffs on farm products or funding infrastructure development. Lifting the trade embargo may prove difficult because it was the result of judgments by the European Court of Justice.\nThe U.N. plan envisioned a federation of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot states under a weak central government. The Turkish area of the island would have been reduced to 29 percent, from 37 percent, requiring entire villages to be uprooted. The number of foreign troops -- currently 40,000 Turks and 6,000 Greeks -- would have been gradually reduced to a maximum of 6,000 by 2011 and 1,600 by 2018.\nGreek Cypriots objected that the plan did not provide for the return to homes in the north of Greek Cypriots who fled south in 1974. They also said it allowed Turkish troops to stay too long and did not address their security fears.\nGreek Cypriots say they still hope for reunification, but under a better deal, and that they bear Turkish Cypriots no ill will.\nGreek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said Sunday without elaboration that his government will make specific proposals at Monday's meeting to "enable the Turkish Cypriots to enjoy as much as possible the benefits of their country's accession to the EU."\n"The Greek Cypriots are not turning their backs on their Turkish Cypriot compatriots. On the contrary, we shall work for a solution that will meet the hopes and aspirations of both communities," Papadopoulos said.\nTurkish leaders urged the EU to reach out to Turkish Cypriots.\n"It is an undeniable fact that the Turkish side was the active and constructive side for a Cyprus solution," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "I believe that the policy of isolating, of alienating (Turkish Cypriots) will now come to an end."\nThough many Turkish Cypriots honked their horns and gathered in the Turkish side of the divided capital of Nicosia to celebrate their "yes" vote Saturday night, they have a hard time believing the outside world will welcome them. World sympathy has largely been with Greek Cypriots since 1974.
(04/16/02 5:40am)
JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday that troops will be out of all West Bank cities except Ramallah and Bethlehem within a week. \n"Altogether, we are on our way out," Sharon said in an interview with CNN. Israel, he said, has no intention to stay in "cities of terror." \nIn the interview, Sharon also spoke of his desire for peace but reiterated his view that Yasser Arafat is not a partner in peace and that Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is in the region, should not have met with the Palestinian leader on Sunday. \nThe United States has called on Israel to withdraw immediately from the West Bank, to end a massive military campaign that began March 29 with the aim of crushing Palestinian militias behind deadly attacks on Israelis. Israel consistently has said it cannot leave until the job is done, but previously hadn't indicated when that might be. \nPalestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat angrily rejected Sharon's statements. Erekat told CNN, "When he says he will pull out from built-up areas, it means he is turning our towns into big prisons," denying Palestinians the right to move freely around the West Bank and even preventing people from reaching hospitals. \nSharon noted the capture earlier Monday by Israeli elite forces of Marwan Barghouti, head of the West Bank Tanzim militias "that has caused most of our casualties in the recent months." Barghouti, closely linked to Arafat, is the highest-ranking Palestinian official detained during Israel's West Bank operation. \nSharon said that if Israel had withdrawn from Ramallah, where Barghouti was detained, "he would have been free and he'd be able to continue." \nAsked how quickly Israeli forces would be out of two of the towns where there had been the most fighting -- Nablus and Jenin in the northern West Bank -- Sharon said the withdrawal from Jenin would come in less than a week and in Nablus "not more than a week." \nThe two exceptions Sharon gave were in Bethlehem, where Israeli forces are engaged in a standoff with more than 200 armed men in the Church of the Nativity, and in Ramallah. \n"We have problems in Bethlehem -- terrorists took shelter in the Church of the Nativity. Once they will be leaving…we will be leaving," Sharon said. \nAsked whether within a week Israel would be out of all areas that were part of the military incursion except Bethlehem, Sharon cut in to say "and Ramallah, unless those terrorists will be handed over to us or leave there." \nThose who killed Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in October 2001 remain in Ramallah, he said. Israel has said they are inside Arafat's headquarters, which is circled by Israeli troops. \nSharon said Israel and the United States have agreed on what must happen in resolving the standoff at the Church of the Nativity -- and that the solution would require having those deemed connected with terrorist acts tried in Israel or deported, perhaps with British assistance. \n"They must leave their weapons behind. They have to come (out). They will be identified," he said. "Those who have no connection with terror will be released immediately. Those who are connected and had to do with terror and murder will be arrested." \n"Maybe the Palestinians think in a few days now there will be a change -- Israel will have to leave those places," he said. "I want to make it very clear. We will leave Bethlehem only after they either are arrested and tried in Israel or deported." \nA British plane could be used to take those deported to an unspecified third country, Sharon said. \n"We want to reach peace, and I myself am committed to peace, I saw all the horrors of war," he said. "I understand the importance of peace, but for me, peace should provide security." \nPalestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo rejected Sharon's withdrawal plan. "We don't plan to deal with these conditions," Abed Rabbo told The Associated Press. "He must leave every city that has been reoccupied without any conditions. We are not going to bargain with the Israelis over every town and village"
(04/12/02 5:11am)
JERUSALEM -- Israel pulled out of two dozen small West Bank towns and villages Thursday but swept into others and rounded up more Palestinian men despite U.S. calls and international pressure to end the 2-week-old campaign to root out militants. \nIsrael's army says 4,185 Palestinians have been detained in the operation -- nearly half of them in the past two days as fighters in the key northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus, their numbers depleted in battle, ran out of ammunition and surrendered. \nAmong those in custody were 121 Palestinians who had been on Israel's wanted list, the army said. \nU.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Israel in the evening and was expected to meet with both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been kept a virtual prisoner by Israel in his besieged compound in Ramallah. \nSharon acknowledged Thursday the fighting was causing the United States difficulties, but he refused to call a halt to the incursion. \nThere has been rising anti-American sentiment throughout the Arab world in response to Israel's offensive, launched two weeks ago to crush Palestinian militias after a series of deadly attacks on Israeli civilians. \n"(The Americans) have problems in the region -- that's true -- but I informed them that our activity will continue," Sharon said. "And it will continue." \nThe United States, along with the United Nations and European leaders, has demanded an immediate Israeli pullout from the West Bank. Powell was visiting the region in an attempt to secure a cease-fire and restart peace talks. \nIn what appeared to be a gesture ahead of Powell's arrival, Israeli forces withdrew from about two dozen small towns and villages. But in raids early Thursday, they entered the West Bank towns of Dahariyah and Bir Zeit and the Ein Beit Hilmeh refugee camp. Later, they pulled out of Bir Zeit after detaining about 300 people, mainly students in the university town. \nThe White House raised no objection to the pace of Israel's response to President Bush's pleas. "The withdrawals he called for are continuing," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. \nIn the Jenin refugee camp, scene of the deadliest fighting during the offensive, three dozen armed men, apparently the last holdouts, surrendered to Israeli troops Thursday. \n The battle in Nablus ended before dawn Wednesday, when an estimated 100 gunmen -- hungry, exhausted and nearly out of ammunition -- walked out of an Old City mosque. \nBrig. Gen. Eyal Schlein, the Israeli army's Jenin division commander, told The Associated Press on Thursday night that occasional shooting persists in Jenin "and sometimes more than that." \n "Many of the most wanted have been captured or killed, or were wounded and captured," he said. "The area is messy. There are many explosives, booby-traps…But overall, most of what we were looking for, we found." \n Reporters touring the Jenin camp, which had been off limits to journalists during eight days of combat, saw widespread devastation from army bulldozers that had sheared the front walls off homes. But no bodies were seen in the streets Thursday. \nDr. Hussam Sherkawi, director of emergency services in the West Bank, said at least 140 Palestinians have been killed during the Israeli offensive. But he said it was impossible to verify death toll estimates because rescue services had not been permitted to enter the Jenin camp. \nAn army spokesman, Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz, estimated 100 Palestinians had been killed in fighting in Jenin. He denied persistent rumors the army had dug mass graves and said Israelis hadn't removed any bodies. Twenty-eight Israeli soldiers have died in themilitary campaign, all but five of them in Jenin. Israeli troops in the Jenin camp Thursday confiscated footage filmed by an AP Television News cameraman. \nVideo footage obtained Thursday by APTN showed Arafat during recent meetings in his Ramallah compound. Arafat's pistol was visible at his waist as he met Wednesday with aides, some looking weary and unshaven. He softly read a translation of an Israeli Cabinet statement affirming continuation of the military operation. In another room, bullet holes scarred a wall, and a door and metal cabinet were propped up to block a window. \nIn Bethlehem, Israeli forces in armored personnel carriers circled the Church of the Nativity compound that has been the site of an extended standoff between soldiers and about 200 armed Palestinians. A ring of tanks controlled access from all sides. Black smoke wafted up near the compound; witnesses said the army had blown up some cars in the area. \nA U.N. convoy distributed food to a Bethlehem refugee camp and to families in the city, which has been under nearly constant curfew since the church standoff began April 2. Troops patrolled streets and blew open doors to shops and homes, especially in the Old City, as they searched for militants. \n"There is a lack of food and a lack of medicine, but the most important thing there is a lack of is freedom. I don't know when this crisis will find an end," said Tony Maria, a 45-year-old father of three looking off from his balcony at the patrolling tanks. \nIn other developments: \n• An Israeli government official said the government had agreed to allow Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher to visit Arafat. Maher said he would visit Arafat "when the time is right." \n• Israeli tanks briefly re-entered the West Bank town of Tulkarem, where troops arrested a 24-year-old Palestinian woman who, according the Israeli military, was suspected of planning a suicide attack.
(10/10/01 4:22am)
ABOARD THE USS ENTERPRISE -- U.S. fighter pilots bombing Afghanistan are running out of targets, often returning to their carrier on the Arabian Sea with unused live bombs, the captain of the USS Enterprise said Tuesday. \nPilots bombed "a couple" of Afghan planes on the ground during overnight strikes, but generally "it's not a real target-rich environment," he said. \nThe captain's name, and that of others in the force, cannot be published because of U.S. Defense Department rules aimed at protecting relatives back home from any possible threat. \nThe initial military campaign may be "short and sharp," according to the admiral of the Enterprise, which includes the carrier and other ships and craft, as well as 7,500 navy personnel. But, he said, warplanes and missile-launching ships could be called back from time to time. \nSenior commanders, pilots and senior officers aboard the Enterprise and other American ships at sea and at military bases around the region were addressed via videoconference Monday by the Army general in charge of the U.S. war. \nSpeaking from Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., Gen. Tommy R. Franks capped his address by playing a rendition of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." He stood at attention as the song ended, put his hand over his heart, and then saluted. \n"Our purpose is just to let you know what we're feeling, how proud we are of what you're doing, and how proud the nation is of what you're doing," Franks said. "I was thinking about what an honor it is to be associated with the best armed forces that the nation has ever seen." \nIn Washington, Defense Department officials said the attacks Monday included five long-range bombers, including a pair of B-2 stealth bombers and three B-1B's. They joined 10 strike planes launched from aircraft carriers like the Enterprise in sending bombs and missiles to air defense and other military targets across Afghanistan. Two U.S. naval vessels and one submarine launched 15 Tomahawk cruise missiles. \nAbout 20 U.S. warplanes participated. That was half as many as in Sunday's opening assault on Afghanistan, the country targeted because it is harboring Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. \nThe Enterprise captain said cockpit video images of the planes hit on the ground would be shown to journalists aboard the carrier later Tuesday. \n"Frankly, I don't even know how many of those planes on the ground were even flyable," he said. "They aren't now." \nThe Taliban's air force had consisted of about 15 Soviet-era jet fighters that had seen action exclusively as bombers in recent years. Afghanistan's Taliban ruling militia has been using anti-aircraft guns and some unguided surface-to-air missiles, but was not believed to have an especially capable air defense system, certainly nothing like those American forces withstood in Yugoslavia or Iraq. \nPilots spoke Monday of shifting their missions from combat air patrol to striking at ground targets, an indication the Taliban weren't putting up much of a fight in the air. \nFighter jets took off and landed through the night, with the second wave of operations still in progress by midmorning Tuesday. The Sunday night operations had lasted 15 hours and included striking targets as well as escorting planes dropping humanitarian aid. \nThe admiral said extraordinary precautions are being made to avoid collateral damage, with pilots required to confirm all sites before firing. But he said he could not say whether anyone was killed on the ground in Afghanistan. \nSome pilots spoke of running into relatively heavy anti-aircraft missile fire or spotting unguided surface-to-air missiles; others attracted only light weapons fire. \nPilots dropped packets of food and medicine designed to flutter to the ground to minimize the chance they would injure people. The humanitarian airdrop was intended to show Afghans that civilians are not targets of the air assault. \nHunger is widespread in Afghanistan, a country devastated by war and drought.