The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 8

The Sydney Morning Herald WORLD Saturday, January 1, 1994 Tubman demands international action to halt Bosnian offensive Croatian inter ventiom jfoiiit 4 ZAGREB, Friday: President Franjo Tudjman hinted last night that Croatia might intervene militarily in Bosnia unless Muslim forces halted an offensive which he said jeopardised the future of the republic's minority Croats. "We are doing everything possible to stop Croat-Muslim hostilities through peace talks," Mr Tudjman said yesterday. "But the Muslims must either abandon their aggression or the world will have to understand the steps we will have to take to defend Croats there." In a broad-based offensive since June, the Bosnian army has wrested six major towns from the Bosnian Croats and laid virtual siege to the central Lasva valley, populated by 70,000 Croats. Mr Tudjman, patron of Croat militia forces in Bosnia's war, said a six-month offensive by the predominantly Muslim Bosnian Government army threatened the survival of longstanding Croat communities and he expected international pressure to stop it He said the Muslim assault had displaced or trapped more than 100,000 Croats in Bosnia. Hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees sheltering in Croatia may be expelled unless it stopped, he said.

"It is a paradox that we make so much effort looking after Muslims, schooling their children while Croats in Bosnia die. It is becoming almost intolerable and we are having problems containing the wrath of Croats," he said. Tensions have been further raised by the murder of two Roman Catholic priests on November 13 by a Muslim gunman. The two priests were killed inside a Franciscan monastery in the Bosnian town of Fojnica. Many Croats across central Bosnia see the killings and the Government's failure so far to bring those responsible to justice as evidence of a widening and perhaps unbridgeable gulf between Muslims and Croats.

"It's hard for us to have faith in an army that shoots friars in the back," said the Rev Petar Andje-lovic, head of Bosnia's Franciscans, speaking in Sarajevo. "It's hard for us to consider it our own army when its ranks still contain criminals." The incident highlights the tragedy that has befallen this region's Croats, who have been uprooted en masse as a result of a failed policy of territorial acquisition carried out by the leaders of the main Croatian militia and the Muslim backlash that policy provoked. On Tuesday, Mr Tudjman's Defence Minister threatened open military intervention beyond arming and financing Bosnian Croat militias if Muslims started overrunning the Lasva valley. On Wednesday, Mr Tudjman's supreme army commander said Croatia should gird itself to defend ethnic Croats wherever they lived in large numbers outside Croatia's formal borders. About 17 per cent of Bosnia's pre-war 4.3 million population was Croat, living mainly in the north, centre and south-west.

The Serbs now hold north Bosnia after most Croats were driven out, the centre is contested and Croats control the south-west In another sign of Zagreb's alarm over Croat reverses, the Foreign Minister, Mr Mate Granic, asked the UN Security Council this week to declare that Croat enclaves were UN-guarded "safe areas" like those set up for Muslims besieged by Serbs. Mr Tudjman, co-sponsor of Geneva peace proposals to partition Bosnia ethnically, accused the Bosnian army of seeking to drive through to the Adriatic Sea and split Croat territory. "Europe has realised that Muslims are no longer only victims of Bosnian Serbs but that they have turned on Croats and are now endangering the physical existence of Croats in central Bosnia," he said. Reuter, The New York Times World's oldest cow moves on to greener pastures OBITUARY Big Bertha 1944-1993 10,130) for cancer research and other charitable causes. Mr O'Leary said her body had been sent to a taxidermist to be preserved and stuffed so that in death she could continue her fund-raising appearances across Ireland.

Associated Press The Guinness Book of Records says Big Bertha was born on March 17, St Patrick's Day, 1944. It lists her not only as the world's oldest cow but also as world holder of the breeding record for cattle, with 39 calves. Mr O'Leary, whose farm is near the market town of Kenmare in County Kerry in south-west said Big-Bertha became sick five weeks ago and died on the farm on Sunday. "We did everything we could for her and are sorry that she could not make her 50th birthday on St Patrick's Day next year," he said. St Patrick is Ireland's patron saint "It must have been old age in the end," Mr O'Leary said.

Mr O'Leary bought Big Bertha at a cattle fair at Sneem, 24 kilometres west of Kenmare, 47 years ago. He still has several of her offspring in his herd. The oldest is 35. Because of her age, Big Bertha became a celebrity in recent years at cattle shows where her appearances helped raise more than -1 DUBLIN, Friday: Big Bertha, reputedly the world's oldest cow, has died at age 49, her owner, Mr Jerome O'Leary, said yesterday. i 'X -A JEWEL (9 ART A A member of the Marinya Roscha Synagogue and a fireman try to salvage books and religious items from the rubble after a fire broke out in the synagogue, one of three in Moscow, on Thursday.

Piaur by associated prlss Fire in Moscow synagogue i been alarmed by the strong showing of ultra-nationalist Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party in parliamentary elections on December 12. Mr Zhirinovsky says he is committed to fight Zionism but denies being anti-Semitic. Reuter MOSCOW, Friday: One of Moscow's three synagogues was gutted by fire in the early hours yesterday, but there were no immediate signs that it was started -deliberately. "I have no reason so far to believe that it was arson, rather than an accidental fire," said Mr Zeev Kuravsky, a member of the synagogue council. A fire brigade officer, investigating the incident, refused to comment.

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The radical right has been blamed for at least 30 deaths since German reunificatioa AP UN shuffle UNITED NATIONS: Argentina, the Czech Republic, Nigeria, Oman and Rwanda become members of the Security Council today for a two-year term in a rotation of five of its 10 non-permanent seats. The other five non-permanent members, serving their second year, are Brazil, Djibouti, New Zealand. Pakistan and Spain. AFP Armada search DUBLIN: Ireland will try to recover galleons of the Spanish Armada which sank off its coast in 1S88, the Arts and Culture Minister, Mr Michael Higgins, said. With the help of European Community cash, Spanish archaeologists and Greek restorers, it will search for 20 ships.

Reuter New suspect NEW YORK: Police have a new suspect in the 1991 killing of an Australian Hasidic scholar, Mr Yankel Rosenbaum, during racial violence in a Brooklyn neighbourhood. A government official said a man serving a prison term was a suspect Reuter AIDS cases up JAKARTA: The number of certified AIDS sufferers in Indonesia rose this year from 19 to 99, the official Antara news agency said. The Health Minister, Suyudi, said the disease had spread to more than half of Indonesia's 27 Erovinces, with the highest num-er, 31, in Jakarta. Reuter Jewellery, Brooches OPENING HOURS Sunday 2nd 9am to 5pm Monday 3rd 9am to 5pm Tuesday 4th 9am to 5.30pm Wednesday 5th 9am to 5.30pm Thursday 6th 9am to 8pm Friday 7th 9am to 5.30pm Saturday 8th 9am to 4pm Sunday 9th 9am to 5pm Wtf $425 S84- $425 $95 Vtt $95 Stf3 $95 035T $695 JS9W $475 $485 SdXT $495 $215 $110 $5337 $2900 S3ST $149 586- $29 CAMPION TEAWARE AVEBURY TEAWARE CAMPION GIFTWARE SELECTED MAYFIELD GIFTWARE KUTANI CRANE GIFTWARE R0SEMEAD GIFTWARE ANGELA GIFTWARE UP TO 40 OFF EXAMPLES MALE SIAMESE DANCER FEMALE SIAMESE DANCER DUCK PLAYING DUCK RUNNING DUCK JUMPING COURTING CRANES BOWING CRANE PREENING CRANE DANCING CRANE MOTHER AND CUBS FLOWERS OF THE SEASON NUNS LLADR0 COLLECTORS BOOKS (Magic World of Porcelain) ALL STOCK REDUCED construed as contrition, as some Israelis had demanded. But Monsignor Celli, the Vatican under-secretary of state, also acknowledged that the moment was historic, with "a fundamental religious and spiritual significance, not only for the Holy See and the state of Israel but for millions of people throughout the "The Holy See is convinced that a dialogue and respectful co-operation between Catholics and Jews will now be given new impetus and energy, both in Israel and throughout the world," he said.

The Thursday ceremony capped 17 months of negotiations, which produced an agreement with loose ends that still need to be tied. Among the more important are tax policies and other economic matters that affect church property in Israel and are expected to require two years of talks. Israel and the Vatican will exchange "special representatives" to be raised to the status of full ambassador in what Israeli officials say should be no more than four Peace negotiations between Israel and the PLO appeared back on track today after two days of confusion over whether they could settle arguments holding up an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho. The Palestinian negotiator, Mr Nabil Shaath, said talks led by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, and the PLO's Mr Mahmoud Abbas did not solve the disputes during three days of meetings in Cairo but had made progress. He said talks would soon resume in the Egyptian resort of Taba and might finalise- the text of an agreement in the next two weeks.

The New York Tunes By CLYDE HABERMAN JERUSALEM, Friday: Formally recognising each other after decades of diplomatic aloofness and centuries of frequent Jewish-Catholic rancour, Israel and the Vatican signed an agreement on Thursday to establish diplomatic relations. The signing ceremony was held in a starkly modern room of the Foreign Ministry, where Israel and the Holy See set the course for an exchange of ambassadors and possibly the first, visit to the Holy Land by Pope John Paul II. But even as it recognised IsraeL the Vatican sought to defend its position in the Arab world and to register its demand for international guarantees of Jerusalem's status as a holy place for Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. "Behind the agreement, there are thousands of years of history, full of hatred, fear and ignorance, with a few islands of understanding, of co-operation and of dialogue," the Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Yossi Bei-lin, who signed for Israel, said. "Behind the agreement, there are very few years of light and many more years of darkness." Mr Beilin said even talk of reconciliation between Jews and Catholics may be premature.

"Do we have the right to reconciliate?" he asked. "It is not for us to say. Can we ignore the memories of so many years? No. It is wrong to ignore memories, much as it is wrong to let memories tie our hands and determine our fates." Mr Beilin's Vatican counterpart at the ceremony, Monsignor Claudio Celli, did not utter the word reconciliation or say anything that could remotely be WATERFORD CRYSTAL 50 OFF ALL MASONS LAMP BASES 40-50 off ALL DRINKWARE AND ALL GIFTWARE 30-50 off EXAMPLES LEPRECHAUN (Lge) TOWN CRIER (Lge) WIZARD (Lge) LONG JOHN SILVER (Lge) GUY FAWKES (Lge) LAWYER (Sml) EXAMPLES 3 PCE CHILDS SET SMT $49.95 2 PCE INFANTS SET $39 ONE HANDLED MUG $3550" $21 MONEY BALL 45ff $25 SAVINGS BOOK MONEY BOX $4450 $25 ALL BUNNYKINS NURSERY WARE AND FIGURES REDUCED $127 305 $150 $275- $137 $205 $99 $235 $117 $145" $59 DINNER SETS 20 PCE CLASSIC FLAIR WHITE 24 PCE EXOTIC GARDEN 20 PCE GARDEN HARVEST $320 $149 $369 $239 MANY MORE ALL REDUCED STOCKLAND MALL Sr. McFARLANE'ST Supergun in Verne's league I PARKING 1 cvzc mtutep atone awi wtvie tenure including ctfouf.

Ad under ote icalatBOf TttevuffatttU IRoad MERRVLANDSRD 201 MERRYLANDS ROAD By STEVE CONNOR LONDON, Friday: American scientists have built and tested a prototype supergun that they intend to develop into a launcher for unmanned satellites an idea mooted by Jules Verne in 1865. The barrel of the full-scale version would be 3 kilometres long and have a calibre or diameter of 1.7 metres. It might be permanently dug-in inside a mountain to launch satellites at a fraction of today's rocket costs. Researchers on the supergun project at a leading US weapons laboratory said the success of their first tests vindicates going ahead with the second and third phases of the project. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California said it had shown the feasibility of using gas guns, which use exploding hydrogen rather than gunpowder, to fire objects at up to 40,000 kilometres an hour fast enough for a satellite to enter an orbit around Earth.

It is not certain, however, whether the laboratory, already suffering cutbacks in weapons development, will ever have the funds to develop the technology. The laboratory estimates it will cost about SLS6.6 billion (SA9.7 billion) to build a working supergun, which it suggests should be called the Jules Verne Launcher after the French science fiction writer who, in his 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon, proposed sending a spaceship from Florida to the Moon using a giant cannon. Livermore scientists believe the advantage of the Jules Verne Launcher over conventional rocket launchers is cheapness. The Independent NEW. BIGGER, BRIGHTER SHOWROOM AT 201 MERRYLANDS RD.

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