The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 9

PAGE 2AA OPINION: hrtGE 4AA PAGE 4AA War on drugs fails: A criminal-justire system overwhelmed by drug cases is becoming as myopic as the Pentagon during the Vietnam War, a Des Moines lawyer contends. COLUMNISTS: Do.iald Kaul: The Serbs are EDITORIAL: How did the Legislature do? bipartisan work on school reform deserv es praise, but small thinking lough, but nobody is that tough. Rekha Basu: What Frank Low ery has learned from a year on strike. on some issues and a failure to act on others also describe the session. Nation World AA Dcs Uloincs Sunbay Blister Sunday, May 2, 1999 Embargo 'tightens: noose' fetal YUGOSLAVIA jpjj" jjl If" i I 'i? JOHN II.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, speaks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in President Clinton bans U.S. exports of oil, software and other items to Serbia; -1 By KEVIN CALVIN Associated Washington, D.C. Presf-dent Clinton imposed a U.S. trade embargo on the Yugoslav republic of Serbia to begin "tightening the noose" around Slobodan Milosevic's military.

U.S. officials reacted cautiously Saturday to news that three captive soldiers might be freed. The sanctions forbid U.S. exports of oil, software and other items except for food and medicine to the Serbian province and coincide with a similar ban on oil products imposed by the European Union that also took effect Saturday. The executive order, signed by Clinton on Friday night, also froze all official Yugoslav assets in the United States and banned imports from Serbia.

Clinton exempted the Yugoslav province of Clinton formally notified Congress on Saturday aboit the embargo. "With these strengthened sanctions, we will diminish the Belgrade regime's ability to continue its campaign of repression and defiance, while allowing needed supplies to reach victims of its reckless and brutal conduct," the president said. "As we continue to intensify the air campaign, this is another step in tightening the noose around President Milosevic's war machine," National Security Council spokesman David Leavy said. European countries and the United States already had barred the sale of arms to Serbia and restricted financial transactions. The main thrust of the new order was to begin cutting off oil to Milosevic's forces.

Administration officials were not immediately able to calculate what effect the broad embargo would have on the Serbian economy. Clinton exempted Montenegro from the sanctions because NATO allies are concerned that any actions taken to weaken Milosevic could have a negative effect on the democratic leadership of the other Yugoslav republic. By DERRICK DePLEDGE Knight Ridher Newspapers Washington, D.C. They were the faces of America's frustration in Yugoslavia. Three young soldiers captured by the enemy and put on display as a consequence of war.

Now, the Rev. Jesse Jackson is bringing them back as symbols of peace. "This is a gesture that should not be ignored," the civil rights leader said Saturday after Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic agreed to release the trio without conditions. Jackson's successful mission to Yugoslavia mirrors his at times controversial role in American public life over a generation. Again and again, he has traveled across the globe to rescue Americans and pursue peace.

Dangerous Game His critics say he plays a dangerous game, misleading dictators and tyrants about America's foreign policy objectives and allowing himself to be used as a public relations prop by our enemies. But to the families of the Americans he has rescued, the politics don't matter. Whatever the outcome in Yugoslavia, the rescue mission is likely to be viewed as a triumph for Jackson. capable of rallying people," said Lorenzo Morris, a Howard University political science professor who wrote a book on Jackson's unsuccessful 1984 presidential campaign. "He is personally at ease with both activists and heads of state.

And it certainly doesn't hurt that he has a religious title." Although Jackson, 57, has been a personal and political adviser to President Clinton, his journey to Yugoslavia was not sanctioned or endorsed by the administration. In fact, U.S. IADER FIRE Developments SOLDIERS FREED: Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic agrees to release three captured U.S. servicemen. BUS STRUCK: A NATO missile reportedly strikes a bus, killing civilians.

TRADE EMBARGO: President Clinton imposes a U.S. trade embargo on the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. Lawmaker: U.S. military stretched thin Associated Press Washington, D.C. Rep.

Robin Hayes, a Republican whose North Carolina district includes two major military bases, said Saturday that the Clinton administration has neglected military spending and left the military's resources stretched too thin. In the weekly GOP radio address, Hayes said a smaller military has been called on to handle crises all over the globe, with action in Yugoslavia taking a further toll. "While we have fewer resources, our military is continuously being asked to do more and more," Hayes said, citing peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and warplanes patrolling the skies over northern and southern Iraq. He noted that the only aircraft carrier in the Pacific has been moved to the Balkan region, and that some aircraft have been transferred from missions in Iraq to fly over Kosovo. Assim hated The wreckage of a bus smolders below a bridge in Luzane, about 12 miles north of the Kosovo capital of Pristina, after a NATO missile strike Saturday.

worked to rescue Americans from the Persian Gulf after Iraq invaded Kuwait. His delegation to Yugoslavia included Baptist, Greek and Serbian Orthodox ministers, as well as Rep. Rod Blagojevich, who is of Serbian ancestry. The visit was an appeal for peace and reconciliation. "I'm sure Yugoslavia is counting on this to increase their otherwise bankrupt moral credibility," Morris said.

"They have to assume that it is going to have some lurvivor of traumatic consequences in international relations." Ivo H. Daadler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, a public-policy group, predicted that Jackson's involvement in the fate of the three soldiers would have little meaning by the time the conflict is eventually resolved. "This is what happens when you're at war," Daadler said of the capture. "I think the attention being paid to this story is way out of proportion." It1 1 i i Belgrade on Saturday. Scores die as NATO strikes bus Associated Belgrade, Yugoslavia A NATO missile struck a civilian bus crossing a bridge in Yugoslavia on Saturday, killing dozens of people, news reports and witnesses said.

The private Beta news agency reported 60 people dead while the state-run Tanjug agency said 40 people had been killed. The attack occurred in the village of Luzane about 12 miles north of Kosovo's provincial capital, Pristina. Four passengers survived the attack, Beta said. Tanjug said the missile struck about 1 p.m. local time, cutting the vehicle in two and sending part of it plunging off the bridge, which was damaged but not destroyed.

About an hour later, the bridge came under attack again and an emergency services doctor was injured, Tanjug said. Tanjug said the bus was part of a regular express service linking Pristina and the Serbian city of Nis. The bus left the Nis station about 40 minutes late Saturday, putting it on the bridge when the attack began, Beta said. 5 I relationship ith a man who was abusive. Her world fell apart when the state took her children.

During the past three years, when she has had only limited visits with them, she began to see things differently. After those visits, she would write down her feelings. "1 chose to one day fSv ,1 i au intent on turning life aroun I' Ml officials had urged him not to go because there were no guarantees of safety from NATO air attacks. Previous Interventions Similar warnings have not stopped him in the past. In 1984, Jackson secured the release of Navy Lt.

Robert Goodman, who was shot down over Lebanon and held in Syria. That, same year, he negotiated the freedom of dozens of prisoners from Fidel Castro's jails in Cuba. In 1990, Jackson "I chose to one day have a normal life. I didn't want to be a statistic black female, drugs, kids gone." Tiare Jones the child in tin' photo at right, ho is now J'i years old the fire at the five-story apartment on Marlborough Street until she peered at someone's newspaper on the trolley ride to work the morning of July 2'J and saw her daughter's eyes staring back at her. "I screamed: 'That's my baby! That's my she recalled.

She jumped off at the next stop and rushed to her apartment. Soon afterward, she was reunited with her daughter at New England Medical Center. Eventually, the excitement around the little survivor died down, and J'at Jones stopped talking about what had happened. For years. Tiare Jones said, she remembered nothing about the experience.

She said she only learned about it when fall is she was 12 years old and stumbled across the Forman photo on a shelf in her mother's apartment. "She was too young, but I remember everytlung," said Keysha, who was 4 in 1975. That fire began "a downward spiral for our family." Her father, Ronnie, disappeared from her life. Then, two years later, the family lived through another fire. There were no fatalities, but the consequences were devastating.

During a blizzard in 1978, while their mother was out shopping for food, Tiare and Keysha started playing with matches in bed and set their Mission Hill apartment on fire. By that time, Pat Jones was working two jobs. After the fire, she said, she asked for help from the state, and in the course of the agency's inquiry, the state asked her to quit one of her jobs so she could supervise her children more closely. She refused, and soon afterward, her two girls were taken into state custody. The three never lived together permanently again.

The girls were in and out of foster homes for most of the rest of their childhood. Pat never forgave herself for nearly losing her daughter twice. To compensate, she showered her with all the material things a steady job could ulter. "Whenever she fell again. I tried to cushion her fall." she said.

Still, Tiare felt alone. Although she was smart, IOIIN TI.I'MACKIltoSTON Ilil rtty a If 1 4 f.c- if' VrPl i i have a normal life," she said, "i didn't want to be a statistic black female, drugs, kids gone." Now, the picture Forman took of her almost 25 years ag( has taken on new meaning! Now, she said, "I could seej how it must feel to almost lose your own child." By TATSHA ROBERTSON lioSTON (il.OIIE Boston, Mass. The image of a tiny girl and a young woman frozen in midair, arms awkwardly outstretched as they fell, was burned into the memory of almost everyone who saw it. It was a hot July day nearly 25 years ago when Diana Bryant, 19, stood on the fire escape of her burning apartment, clinging to a firefighter and trying to shield her godchild from the flames. They were only seconds from safety when the fire escape collapsed, plunging Bryant five stories to her death.

The 2-year-old girl, Tiare Jones, whose fall may have been cushioned by Bryant's body, escaped without serious injury. Photographer Stanley Fortran's searing pictures of the event were published in 400 newspapers the following day and ultimately won him a 1976 Pulitzer Prize. For Tiare Jones, her stunning survival and the brief moment of public adoration that followed weren't portents of a happy life. She was in and out of foster homes and has dealt with substance abuse and domestic abuse. She's a mother herself now at 26, but three years ago, she was separated from her four daughters, ranging in age from 2 to 9.

In recent months, though, Tiare (pronounced Tee-aie-rah) Jones has begun to try again to remake her life, and STANLEY FORMANHoston IlF.R.i.n Amf.kic, This photo was snapped seconds after a fire escape collapsed on July 23, 1975, inj Boston. Diana Bryant, 19, died; Tiare Jones, then 2, escaped serious injury. this time, she said, she is determined to succeed. As a condition of regaining custody of three of her children that were taken by the Department of Social Services, she is liv ing in the halfway house in suburban Boston. She already has custody of her oldest daughter, Antoinette, 9.

Diana Bryant was a Boston hairdresser who loved children. She was especially fond of Tiare and her sister, Keysha, the two young daughters of Pat Jones, a 25-year-old single mother who worked as a keypunch operator for a bank. Bryant had volunteered to baby-sit Tiare for a few days at her apartment, giving something of a break. Pat Jones was unaware of well-spoken and good in En- glish and math, she never fo- cused on her studies at Bright- on High School. Instead, she hung out with the wrong crowd, experimented with drugs and had a child at 16.

By 25, she would have four chil- li en. Through the years, Tiare said, she stayed in a.