The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 4

"4A Wm4r. Aatmt 14 1M TMI TCHMCtSEAH unger strike poses dilemma for France African immigrants' plight pits emotion against pragmatism i 111 I di rJ if a It 'A PARIS (AP) A few hunger strikers, wasting away in bright blue sleeping bags, have brought home to France that a huge African nation fast-growing and desperate lives in its midst For Africans like Sidi Diarra, 29, France is less a land of opportunity than a last resort. "What difference if I eat here?" he asked a reporter at the Paris church where 10 young men lie under the soft glow of stained glass windows. "There's nothing in Mali, either." Perhaps half a million black Africans have immigrated to France, living in loosely linked communities that contain a greater population than six African countries. Many of them have valid resident permits and working papers, if not French citizenship.

Many, however, nave no papers at alL With the hunger strike in its 40th day, the government must soon decide whether to expel weakened Africans under the glare of television lights or venture into a quagmire with Europe-wide implications. Interior Minister Jean-Louis Debre says he will stand by the law, warning that any exception would invite countless other such cases, not only in France but throughout Europe. 'Hfim I Sarajevo's airport reopens after 4 years SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegfvj- na Sarajevo's war-battered airport is to reopen for commercial flights tomorrow after being closed to all but military and relief planes for more than four years. The NATO-led peace force, which now runs most flights in and out of Sarajevo, gave the green light limiting the number of civilian passenger flights to five, per week, officials said yesterday. Ex-Nazi to be extradited FRANKFURT, Germany In what's likely to be one of the last Nazi war crimes proceedings, Germany has asked that former SS Capt Erich Priebke be extradited to face murder charges for a 1944 massacre in Italy.

Priebke, 83, has admitted that he shot two of the 335 victims killed by Nazi troops at the Ardeatine Caves outside German-occupied Rome. He said his role in the other deaths was to check off names on a list of victims. An Italian military court convicted him Aug. 1 of involvement in the massacre, but it acquitted him of acting with premeditation and cruelty. Those convictions were necessary to get around Italy's 30-year statute of limitation on murder.

He was freed, which triggered loud protests mostly by Rome's Jewish community. Police swiftly re-arrested him to face extradition to Germany, which has no statute of limitation on murder. Last flights leave Burundi BUJUMBURA, Burundi Hundreds of Burundians and a few foreigners packed the airport yesterday to catch the last two commercial flights out of the country as the world tightened sanctions against the new military regime. But 160 other people arrived "on the last flight in, eager to be home. There was no sense of urgency at the small airport in Bujumbura, the capital.

Most businessmen and students said their trips weje scheduled, not caused by fearff violence or deprivation in Burundi. The Tutsi-led army deposed Hutu President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, replacing him with retired army Major Pierre Buyoya on July 25. -TENNESSEAN NEWS SERVICES "We're here to stay. For us, we're not immigrants. We are in our native land." MASSAOUDA COUUBALY Mali refugee Moussa Keita, 29, a hunger striker from Mali, sneaked into Marseille after 13 days alone in a dark cargo hold.

He will starve before he goes back, he says. To Debre, he is an illegal alien. Privately, French officials admit they are torn between humanitarian concerns and an administrative problem of dizzying proportions. The trouble, they say, is that the status of Africans in France is so diverse. "We're here to stay," said Massa-ouda Coulibaly, a graying Malian in a robe of many colors, who came to France in 1988.

"For us, we're not immigrants. We are in our native land." Coulibaly's father fought for France in World War II. Until 1960, Mali and much of West and Central Africa was made up of French colonies. In the 1970s, African laborers for the secessionist rebels who now reign over most of the city. Winding through twisted trees, past ruined houses and down the middle of one of Russia's largest but long unused oil refineries, the path has become a surreal Chechen version of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Yesterday, a walk from the nearest village, Alkhan-Yurt, into Grozny was a treacherous journey, but the rebels moved along it seemingly unfazed. "They cant touch us here," said Imran Agimelzoya, 16, carrying a gun almost as large as he was and wearing a Chicago Bulls cap, as he Road offers path to control, cordon of French riot police during a must soon decide whether to expel quent police checks that could lead them to a plane home. Gabriel Omolade, a university art graduate from Nigeria who drives a cab, said many people still come from former French Africa, but also from other countries. No one knows how many Africans are in France. An Interior glimpse ris Yeltsin for his failed promises of peace has turned into something like a conquest Chechen commanders here say they had originally planned to teach Yeltsin a lesson by showing the vulnerability of a city that has been a Russian redoubt since early last year, and then withdraw.

But now, they say, having captured Grozny and other Chechen cities so easily in the past week, they refuse to pull out and plan to hold on until the Russians leave. "This is our city," said Akhmed Zakayev, the national security adviser to the separatist government and one of its top commanders. New York Timet News Service GROZNY, Russia There is on-Jly one open road left into this city. It is a long series of bomb craters, i really, mixed with dirt, mud and occasionally some asphalt The road starts in the deep woods just south-! west of town and runs straight to- ward the ravaged center. The road has no name, but it does not need one, because every-I body knows what it is there for.

It is the last harrowing route to safety each day for thousands of anguished refugees who have been driven from their homes here in the capital of Chechnya by war and i death, and it is the best entry route 0 'I 4 A An African immigrant stands near a strikers from Mali. The government were welcomed in France. Today, with French unemployment at 12.5 and a political far right that wants to send foreigners home, the picture is different Coulibaly has a visa but no job to speak of. Many other Africans are illegal, living 12 to a room in condemned buildings, fearful of fre "This is our city. Why should we leave it again?" AKHMED ZAKAYEV Separatist security adviser made his way along the muddy path toward Chernorechye, the southwest part of Grozny.

It is now clear that the Russians are losing badly in their second battle for Grozny in the past two years. What began as a rebel hit-and-run intended to humiliate President Bo MF fcMi 03 FRANKLIN Cool Springs Crossings (615) 771-7888 Hours: 9-7, Sat. 10-5, Sun. 1-5 MURFREESBORO Shoppes of Memorial (615) 848-2000 Hours: 9-6, Sat. 10-5 i I Trim .11 'm 11 ir 1 Police skeptical of mother's account of daughter's disappearance at mall AP solidarity demonstration for 10 hunger the weakened Africans.

Ministry spokeswoman did not return calls when asked for official figures. "The government doesn't know much," said Jean-Claude Chesnais of the National Institute for Demographic Studies. "They know about legal entries, but little about illegals and nothing about exits." of defeat "Why should we leave it again?" Although the two sides announced a cease-fire to begin today one of many such announcements, none honored for long the fighting continued yesterday. Jets and helicopters unleashed their assault on the Chechen separatists who stormed the city a week ago. Yet there are no Russian soldiers wandering the streets of the city; only the Chechen fighters dare.

Under the command of Shamil Basayev, who led the raid last year on the southern Russian city of Bud-yonnovsk, the separatists have split Grozny into five parts. And they appear to be running all five. How to help If you have any information about the disappearance of Lucy Meadows, call the Good-lettsville police at (615) 859-3405. guments about Dy with his wife, Meadows said, he spent the night elsewhere to cool off. After that, his wife told him not to come back, and he didn't, he said.

Yong Meadows filed for divorce, but her petition was dismissed in April by a Montgomery County chancellor for lack of proof. Meadows said he hopes to reconcile with his wife. They also have an 11-year-old son. Tom Meadows said he started eviction proceedings against Dy in late June after neighbors told him they had found Lucy wandering alone on the road and crying early one morning They reported Lucy was not well-dressed for the March weather. The neighbors said they drove Lucy back home and had to pound on the door before Dy answered, Meadows recalled.

Meadows said his wife was working, and Dy was supposed to be baby-sitting A hearing in the eviction case was set for mid-July, but Dy's attorney told the judge she couldn't come to court. Another hearing is set for SepL 13, Meadows said. Yesterday, police also asked people to help them find the occupants of a champagne- or brown-colored minivan parked one aisle away Hope you're good at making decisions. (' it NECTT820 $1995 Nokia 232 $9995 3 Richard Pope said. They compare responses to routine questions, such as a person's name or address, to their other responses, Pope said.

But polygraph examinations are generally not admissible in Tennessee courts because of questions about their reliability. Police have not named Yong Meadows or Dy as targets of the investigation. No one answered the telephone yesterday at the Clarks-ville residence they share. Last week, Meadows refused to talk to a reporter who came to the house. Police have not searched the residence and will not discuss whether they plan to do so.

Meadows' estranged husband, Tom Meadows, said he started court proceedings in June to remove Dy from the family's house. The economics professor at Austin Peay State University is now living in a triplex in downtown Clarksville. "She's been a devastating influence on my family," Tom Meadows said of Dy. He explained that his wife met Dy in the spring of 1995 at a Methodist church in Oak Grove, Ky. When Dy's husband was laid off from the military, Dy and her two young children moved in for "two weeks" so she could hunt for housing off base, Tom Meadows said.

However, for two months, Dy made little effort to find a house, Meadows said. Then, his wife insisted that Dy's family remain permanently, he said. One day, after several heated ar- .1 RICKY ROGERS 6TAFF LL Harry Bell of the Goodlettsville Police Department updates the media on the Lucy Meadows case. from the Meadows vehicle at River-gate Mall about the time Lucy disappeared. Police said a witness saw a white woman, a man with a suntan and a small child near the minivan, parked in the shade of a tree.

The child left with the man, Bell Bell said police don't know whether the people around the van could be witnesses to Lucy's disappearance or whether the child could be Lucy. hi Weekend Advantage Plan $29.95 a month. 30 minutes of airtime. Local calls on weekends are just IOC a minute. Waived activation (a $50 value).

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