Daily Sitka Sentinel from Sitka, Alaska • Page 12

Page 12, Daily Sitka Sentinel, Sitka, Alaska, Friday, March 22,1991 Iraq Military Death Toll: More Than WASHINGTON (AP) More than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers died in the Persian Gulf War, most of them killed during allied air strikes, a senior military official estimates. The exact war toll on the Iraqi side may never be known, but it stands in stark contrast to the 124 American combat deaths. Iraq has shown no interest in offering an estimate of its war dead. The U.S. command insists it never took a count and thus cannot provide a credible estimate.

But a senior allied officer in Riyadh estimated that 60,000 to 80,000 Iraqis were killed by the relentless allied air strikes before the ground war started, most of them buried alive when their bunkers collapsed atop them. An additional 15,000 to 25,000 Iraqi troops likely were killed in the four days of combined air and ground attacks, said the officer, who had access to battlefield damage and intelligence reports. "A ballpark figure of 100,000 is about as good as we can do for now," said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Officially, the U.S. military is not interested in a body count, a practice in Vietnam that drew criticism and doubt about the reliability of the numbers.

"We're unlikely ever to know how many Iraqis were killed," Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said recently. "We have no idea how many were killed and shipped north during the campaign. We have no idea how many were killed and buried in the theater during the campaign." Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the Desert Storm commander, was adamant in avoiding body counts during the war.

In a briefing just after the 100-hour allied ground blitzkrieg end- Continued from Page 1 the scene of fierce fighting between government forces and Kurdish rebels. The pilot of a second Iraqi plane, a PC-7 propcllor aircraft, reportedly bailed out when the Su-22 was downed. His fate was not known. It was the second Iraqi plane shot down in less than 48 hours, and came after President Bush warned Iraq that U.S. forces would not hesitate to shoot down other Iraqi planes.

On Wednesday, an American F- 15C shot down one of two Iraqi Su-22 jets spotted near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit about 110 miles north of Baghdad. The other jet landed. In other gulf-related developments: --Kurdish sources said Jalal Tala- bani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and aides were on their way to northern Iraq by road from Syria. The Kurds claimed they captured Kirkuk on Wednesday and that most of the mountain region has been purged of government forces. --In Saudi Arabia, former Cabinet member Elizabeth Dole said the logistics chief for the Central Command told her commanders expect U.S.

troops to remain in Saudi Arabia long Continued from Page 1 agreed with Calhoun's summary, adding that the Assembly had not rejected the Jacobsen study, even though he and other Assembly members had problems with portions of the report. Jacobsen provided a "matrix" of salaries and job classifications with formal methods for comparing jobs and salary rates both within the city and across the region. Employee requests for increases, Hallgren said, could be inserted into the matrix and used to calibrate it Hallgren said the matrix did contain step increases, but that the Assembly had not formally adopted that section of the plan. He also said employees were told that, because of expected shortages and other requests, even cost-of-living increases might have to be accompanied by a reduction in the work force. Hallgren, Mayor Dan Keck and cd, Schwarzkopf refused to offer an estimate of Iraqi dead, saying only that it was a "very, very large number." A Defense Intelligence Agency official said DIA was asked informally by a senior Defense Department official if it was possible to make a reliable estimate of Iraqi dead and responded that only Schwarzkopf's Central Command could make a tally.

"And I'm not sure we'd trust theirs. The guys in the field just weren't counting. They still aren't," the DIA official said. "They just poured them into common graves and covered them." U.S. troops who raced across Iraq recall a battlefield littered with Iraqi casualties and occasional mass graves.

On the highways from Kuwait to Iraq, hundreds if not thousands of Iraqi troops were killed as they retreated. But so varied are the estimates of Iraqi dead that most military historians consider them meaningless. "I would distrust any answer I did get," said LL Col. Piers Wood, an Army reservist who is chief of staff at the Center for Defense Information. "There are no good counts." Others who have offered estimates include Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who has speculated that Iraq suffered 85,000 to 100,000 dead and wounded.

Bandar offered no breakdown. Retired Army Col. Trevor DePuy, a respected military historian, puts the Iraqi war dead at 30,000 to 40,000, and estimates as many as 110,000 additional Iraqi troops were wounded. Still-emerging details of the war complicate any efforts to tally Iraq's war dead. Hickel Continued from Page 1 sandbagged by the departments." The Legislature has started work on its own budget, virtually ignoring the governor's plan.

Early completion of the fiscal 1992 budget is the Legislature's top priority. But nobody expects it to embrace anything near the 5 percent overall cut Hickel wants. "We have some major disagreements on the budget," said Eliason, R-Sitka and a Hickel ally. going to be a confrontation over that in the near future. I'd be surprised if the Legislature even reduces the bud- geL" Lawmakers say they want to finish the budget early to avoid the usual end-of-the-session rush in which the thick document is tossed on lawmakers' desks with no time to even scan it before the final vote.

There's another, more political motivation as well. Lawmakers expect Hickel to use his line-item veto liberally to reduce the Legislature's spending plan. Once the Legislature passes it, Hickel has 15 days to issue his vetoes. By finishing the budget early, lawmakers hope to still be in session at the end of those 15 days so they can try to override the vetoes. The finance committees in both houses are far ahead of the usual budget-drafting schedule.

Lawmakers recently got an update on the stale's revenue situation and are not waiting for Revenue Department's official spring forecast. "To tell you the truth, I think sometimes in the past we've waited for that as an excuse," said Pourchot, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Grussendorf said the House plans to vote on the operating budget and one of Hickel's supplemental 1991 budgets next week. Lawmakers say this is not a session that will be remembered for passing landmark legislation. That's partly because there are only a few major issues before it, and none is generating much excitement.

Hickel has taken the lead himself on two of the thorniest issues. He has formed task forces to find solutions to the mental-health trust lands dispute and the controversy over subsistence hunting and fishing rights. That's just fine with most lawmakers. "We've reached a dead end on some of those issues," Eliason said. "I'm willing to let the governor take the lead role on those, knowing we're going to have to play a part at a later date." There also is less pressure to act on legislation this year because it is the first session of this two-year Legislature.

Bills that fail to pass this year can be brought up in 1992 at the same point in the committee process where action stops in May. Lawmakers will find themselves busy enough in the final 60 days with the budget, the Exxon Valdez settlement and a long list of confirmation hearings for Hickel's appointees. "There's just not a lot of time to develop new issues between now and the end of the session," said Rep. Ramona Barnes, R-Anchorage. "It's really getting very tiring.

I don't know how much longer we can keep up this pace." Eliason and Grussendorf s'ay they want to finish the session early. But others note such talk is heard every year, and the Legislature always uses all 121 days the constitution allows. "In the eight years I've been down here, the rumors of early adjournment start not too long after the beginning of the session," Pourchot said. "They usually don't end until the 120th day." Ooligans Mean Spring Has Reached Ketchikan after most of the forces return to the United States in time for the Fourth of July holiday. --In Kuwait, the political opposition attacked the government, defying bans on public meetings, demanding a coalition government and criticizing the leadership of the ruling Al-Sabah family.

Wreckage of Plane Spotted ANCHORAGE (AP) The wreckage of a small plane with at least two people on board has been sighted near Moose Creek, north of Denali Park. Joette Storm, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said Thursday that the Piper 12 was spotted by another plane. She said it was not known when the crash occurred, but that it was thought to be earlier this week. The second plane did not land, but its pilot said he saw two bodies among the wreckage, Storm said. She said the wreckage was strewn near the 4.000-foot level.

Dave Dapcevich represented the Assembly at the session. Assembly members Tom Pratt and Jud Fager were absent and excused, while Ann Lowe and Frank Richards were not excused, City Clerk Melinda Jenkins said today. Hallgren said Sitka Community Hospital laboratory supervisor Sue Padilla got a round of applause from the assembled employees when she chastised Assembly members for their poor attendance. Padilla said Assembly members only meet with employees twice a year and showed a lack of respect by not coming to the meeting. Padilla said that was especially irksome since city employees are expected to come to Assembly meetings, even on short notice, when asked by the Assembly, Hallgren recounted today.

"This is negotiations," Hallgren said. "That's a fair comment" Suspect in 5 Slayings Described as 'Normal' JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) John J. Fautenberry, a drifter suspected in at least five slay ings from New Jersey to Juneau, is a seemingly normal and personable fellow with a deadly knack for making friends, police say. "One of the frightening things about people like that is he's really very normal," police Capt. Mel Personett said Thursday.

"He relates well with people." Fautenberry so far has been interviewed by police from two states and the FBI. "He has elected to speak with law enforcement several limes, and I would say he has not been uncooperative," Personett said. Fautenberry, 27, has been held at the state prison hi Juneau in lieu of SI million cash bail since his arrest Sunday on murder, kidnapping and theft charges stemming from the slaying of Christine Guthrie, 32, of Portland, Ore. He also is a suspect in the slayings of: --Jeff Diffee, a 39-year-old miner at the Greens Creek silver mine near Juneau. Diffee was found stabbed to death Saturday in his home.

Witnesses saw the two men drinking and talking in a rural bar hours before Diffee was slain earlier last week. --Joseph Daron 45, of Milford, Ohio. The insurance executive's body was found Monday, a month after he disappeared. He had two gunshot wounds in the chest. --Gary Farmer, 27, a truck driver from Springfield, Tenn.

Farmer's body was found at a truck stop in Bloomsbury, on Feb. 5. He had been shot in the head. Trooper Daniel Cosgrove of the New Jersey Stale Police said Thursday that Fautenberry confessed to Portland officers and to ihe FBI in Juneau that he killed Farmer. --An unidentified man who is missing and is believed to have been killed in Oregon.

Portland police say they have a general location where the man's body may be but have yet to search the area. They have released no other details of the case. Personetl would neither confirm nor deny that Fautenberry had confessed to any of the slayings. He said the Diffee case likely will be taken before a grand jury next week. An April 11 hearing in Juneau is set on the fugitive warrant in the Guthrie case: Authorities in Clermont County, Ohio, said Thursday they planned to ask a grand jury to indict Fautenberry for Daren's slaying.

The motive in the slayings appears to have been robbery, police say. Credit cards, automatic teller machine cards and other personal effects linking Fautenberry with Diffee, Daron and Guthrie were found on him when he was arrested, Personett said. "What I see is a pattern where it seemed to get easier and easier for him just to kill somebody for money," Portland Detective Tom Nelson said at a news conference in Portland Thursday. Other than being a large man, Fautenberry does not stand out, Personett said. "Most people have described him as not being really notable, or somebody to look out for." He apparently would befriend his victims, gain their confidence, get them alone and kill them, police say.

Fautenberry arrived in Juneau March 4 by plane from Seattle. He stayed in a motel for two days, then went to work on a fishing boat before returning to Juneau on the 13th, Personett said. It was that night he was seen in a bar talking to Diffee. Police plan to retrace Fautenberry's sleps to determine if he may be linked to other slayings, Nelson said. By JUNE ALLEN Ketchikan Daily News An AP Member Exchange KETCHIKAN (AP) Years ago the late Bill Baker, Ketchikan's Hometown Reporter, would open his newscast one day each year by saying, "Spring is officially here.

Bert May's Satellite is in with a load of opligan." Times have changed a little. Bill Baker's gone, Bert May now owns The Empress and has since passed on responsibility for the ooligan catch at the Unuk River to Walter and Louie Wagner of Metlakatla. Every year, starting in mid-March and going into April, schools of the small, sparkling fish head for the Unuk to spawn. And each spring for centuries there have been Native fishermen waiting to net them during the three days when the fish choke the mouth of the mainland river that empties into Behm Canal at the north end of Revillagigedo Island. "It's the one time when we know every Native, and a lot of non-Natives, will be feasting on the same thing at the same time ooligan," said Walter Wagner, who goes by the nickname Bo.

Phil Doherty, the Department of Fish and Game's area management biologist for commercial fisheries, said he has been told by people who live along the Unuk that in recent years there have been fewer ooligan running up the river and his worry is that the possible harvest tonnage could exceed safe levels for the resource. The commercial fish division's official interest in the species came only in the early 1980s when the ooligan began to be fished for commercial processor use. Only the two Wagner boats now fish for ooligan, which have in the past few years been joined by two other boats that fish for a diversified commercial processor. "Our interest is to protect the resource for subsistence harvest," said Doherty. The Indians pronounce (and spell) the fish ooligan.

The biologists pronounce it hooligan and spell it eula- chon. Other sources say oolakan and other variations. The fish, members of the smelt family, are also known as candlefish because when dried and fitted with a wick, they can be used as a candle, or so it has been written. What's definitely known is that they begin their annual spring runs as far south as the Russian River, above San Francisco, and as spring progresses work their way northward as far as the Pribilofs in the Bering Sea, f44 Bring the best in movies on your screen or on our screen! Video Concession Hours: Fri. 3-11 p.m.

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Gross, President, General Manager LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman Music by Alan Menken Centennial Building March 22, 23, 29,30, 1991 8:15 p.m. Based on the film by Roger Gorman. Screenplay by Charles Griffith. spawning in the good-sized rivers along the way. Ooligan have been prized by Pacific Coast and Alaskan Natives for centuries because of their oil, unique among fish oils because it becomes solid at room temperature and is used as butter.

Ketchikan Natives say the Unuk ooligan are superior to runs elsewhere because the fish are caught right at high water as they enter the river. In other areas they are harvested after the fish have run up miles of river and have used up much of their oil to survive the lengthy run. In the earliest days, recalled in stories passed on through the generations, the Tlingit fishermen would dig a 20- by 20-foot holding pen in the snow. Then they would dip-net the fish by hand and toss them into the holding pen. They had to work quickly during the three-day spawning period to get the harvest Then they feasted on the spot and finally rendered the oil to take home.

Today a fishing boat anchors off the Unuk river mouth and a skiff is taken in to set a net, about the same mesh size as a herring net, but smaller even than a beach set net. May and Doherty are worried about the future of the ooligan fishery. May said he feels his heritage is threatened by possible future Fish and Game regulations. His great-grandfather owned the Unuk fishery and he fears it will be lost to commercial interests. "He owned the Unuk," May said of his great-grandfather.

"One great- uncle owned the Chickamin and another the Boca de Quadra. Ownership of the fish streams was respected by everyone then. If someone else needed fish, they came and asked for them, and my great-grandfather or great-uncles would make the catch and those who needed fish got them, free of charge. "With the harvests of ooligan they netted, my ancestors would sail all over the region and trade for things they needed maybe harvested seaweed or dried halibut," May said. Doherty said he worries about entrepreneurs, ever quick to move into a new fishery if they believe there is money to be made.

The present practice of allowing permits per boat could mean trouble for the fish if more boats and fishermen decided to enter the fishery. Additional commercial intrusion could offset the balance. If it comes to that, Doherty said he would have to think hard about next year's "announcement of spring." Fairbanks Property Values Level Off After 4-Year Drop FAIRBANKS-(AP) After four years of steady decline, the assessed value of property in the Fairbanks North Star Borough has leveled off this year, according to the borough's assessor. Lenny Reagin estimated the value of taxable property in the borough as of Jan. 1 at $2.782 billion, down only slightly from the certified assessment of $2.784 billion in 1990.

Reagin said the new figure may indicate that real estate values have stopped declining. "I'm not saying things are increasing, or are anywhere near five or six years ago, but it's just an indication that things are leveling off," he said. The assessed value of property in the borough had declined steadily since 1987, when it totaled $3.5 billion. "As far as good news, we've had builders in that we haven't seen for five years or so, looking for lots to build on," Reagin said. "I'm not saying they're going to build any, or that it's time to build any, but it's time to look." The trans-Alaska pipeline provides a large chunk of the borough's tax base.

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