The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 2

The Beacon Journal PageA2, Wednesday, March 31, 1993 Forecast Variable cloudiness today with a chance of showers in the afternoon. High in the upper 50s. Rain tonight. Low in the upper 30s. i HP-- Canada" 7 convicted Military court sentences 2 to death by firing squad for killing POWs, raping Muslim women; trial was the first by Bosnia's government for war atrocities 1 ToltdoC'1? Woungstown 4738 ,5941 5941 I Akron xm ra 5639 I Pittsburgh Indianapolis Columbus 6540 56511 6543 I Cincinnati LmJ 5848 nf.

linll'YIiTl Charleston Louisville 7145 rVt 6855 Rain Rain''' Fair or snow High: 40, Low: 30 High: 40, Low: 25 High: 40, Low: 26 lfa only evidence against him, his lawyer complained, is Herak's testimony. Defense lawyers planned an appeal to the Bosnian supreme court, saying the trial produced no hard evidence and hinged on the disputed confession of one defendant. Given a chance to speak after sentencing, Herak said, "I deserve the death penalty. I would just like to see my father one more time and to have some cigarettes." Damjanovic said bitterly, "I just want to thank the court for this." Asked by Judge Zlatan Tefte-darija to elaborate, Damjanovic said, "This is a not a fair judgment. I am not guilty.

I'd also like to have some cigarettes." The five-man military court convicted both soldiers of crimes against civilians and genocide, based on Herak's testimony that BY DAVID CHARY Associated Press SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: A military court convicted two Serbs of war crimes on Tuesday and sentenced them to death by firing squad for atrocities that included slitting the throats of POWs and raping Muslim women. No date was set for the executions of Borislav Herak, 22, and Sretko Damjanovic, 31. Defense attorneys said they would appeal. The commander of U.N. peacekeepers urged Bosnian authorities to turn the case Bosnia's first war crimes trial over to an international tribunal to avoid inflaming ethnic passions.

Herak, his head slightly bowed as the sentence was read, confessed to killing 30 war prisoners and civilians, including a dozen young Muslims he first raped. Damjanovic claims he was tortured into falsely confessing to five murders and two rapes. The Chance of rain or snow Friday. Highs in the upper 30s to lower 40s. Lows in the 20s to 30s.

Fair but cool Saturday. Buffalo 4730 Mil Temperatures (As of midnight Tuesday) Tuesday's high: 66; low: 45; mean temperature: 56 Record temperatures for today: High: 76 in 1986 Low: 9 in 1923 A year ago today: High 53; low 25; mean 39 Precipitation (As of 8 p.m. Tuesday) Tuesday: trace Monday: .01 March 1 through Monday: 3.71 Year through Monday: 9.66 Normal precipitation: 7.5 Deviation for year: 2.16 Snow: Tuesday, none; Monday, none; March, 14.6; season, 50.6 Other data Sunset today: 6:49 p.m. Sunrise Thursday: 6:10 a.m. Pollution index Tuesday: 26 0-50 Good; 51-100 Moderate; 101-199 Unhealthful Barometric pressure: 29.88 midnight Tuesday Humidity: 71 midnight Tuesday April 6 April 13 April 21 April 29 ZD 7 p.m 56 8 p.m 53 9 p.m 52 10 p.m 51 11 p.m 47 midn't 48 1 p.m 62 2 p.m 63 3 p.m 65 4 p.m 65 5 p.m 64 6 p.m 61 uWKm i J' Indiana Rain today.

Highs 50s. Lows 30s to 40s. Colder, chance of rain Thursday. Cold and dry Friday. Kentucky Showers and thunderstorms today.

Highs in the 60s. Cloudy and cooler Thursday. West Virginia Showers today. Highs 60s to 70s. Showers and thunderstorms Thursday.

Showers Friday. Western Pennsylvania Partly cloudy today. Highs 55 to 65. Lows 35 to 45. Possibly heavy rain Thursday.

High 4o to 50. Snow showers Friday. Lower Michigan Mostly cloudy today. Highs 30s northeast to 50s southeast. Snow showers Thursday.

Heating degree days Monday, 16; March, 898; season, normal, 5,439. (A degree day is added for each degree of mean temperature below 65.) 1 a.m 45 2 am 45 3 a.m 45 4 a.m 45 5 a.m 45 6 a.m 46 a.m 48 8 a.m 46 9 a.m 46 10 a.m 52 11 a.m 57 noon 59 COLD STATIONARY SNOW Gen. Philippe Morillon, commander of U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia, said war crimes cases should be forwarded to a planned international tribunal, not prosecuted by the warring parties themselves. "It's not the time to take justice into their own hands," he said.

"We need an amnesty law, and they should send the war criminals to the international court. It's the only way to calm the anguish and mutual distrust." Herak, during two days of testimony, demonstrated how he slit the POWs' throats and described a massacre of 150 villagers. He said orders to rape Muslim women came from the Bosnian Serbs' top leader. He recounted a series of gang-rapes in which he and other soldiers would take turns assaulting a woman prisoner, then drive her to a mountainside forest and shoot her. Herak said he had never had sex with a woman until his first wartime rape, of a girl held prisoner in the village of Bioca.

He said he didn't enjoy it because guards watched. Associated Press out and also was taken to Tuzla hospital. His face lit up when reporters gave him news of his wife, Hasnija, who had kept an all-night vigil for him. The couple fled their farm nearly a year ago, when Serbs attacked their village of Kameni-ca, and they had been on the run ever since. His wife had sat crying by an empty mattress in the sports hall.

"One nurse said to me, this bed is for you, and this one is for your husband," she said. "All night, he didn't come." Akron Beacon Journal I TO KNIGHT u245 RIDDER No. 351, IMth Year (USPS 010-720) is published daily and Sunday by the Beacon Journal Publishing Co. for 2.75 per week home delivered (or Jl 15 Sunday only). Postmaster: Send address changes to mailing address, The Beacon Journal, 44 E.

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Tigelman Dir. Information Systems Read. Then Recycle. he and Damjanovic killed people during so-called "ethnic cleansing" operations to purge Muslims from villages the Serbs took over. Herak also was convicted of crimes against prisoners of war, based on his confession that he slit the throats of three POWs.

A third defendant, Nada Tomic, was sentenced to three years in prison for harboring goods stolen by the soldiers. She will receive credit for time served. The three defendants were captured Nov. 11 after blundering into a Bosnian army checkpoint. The trial, which opened March 12, was the first attempt by Bosnia's Muslim-led government to prove in court its claims that Serb nationalists carried out widespread atrocities during the savage 12-month-old war.

Senad Mesetovic, a spokesman for Bosnia's government-appointed war crimes commission, said hundreds of alleged atrocities are under investigation. In an interview, he said the commission would give evidence to Bosnian or international courts. "The important thing is to show the world the facts," he said. the bread than the shrapnel wounds to his head, suffered when a shell smashed into the family's home. "I was ill and had to eat that awful bread," he said.

"I'm sick of that bread." Mirseta Udovcic, eight months pregnant, was taken to Tuzla hospital when the convoy arrived. She traveled with her two daughters, 7 and 4, standing all the way. When the trucks sped up or traveled over rutted mud roads, "we fell on each other," she said. "I was vomiting the whole time. My youngest daughter, too." As she lay in the hospital, she worried about her children, hoping they were in the sports hall, cared for by her mother-in-law.

She didn't know if her mother had made it or not. Ibrahim Osmanovic, 65, passed tograph in Saturday's paper. The officer's name is Jerome Hall. The photographer was given the wrong information. The Beacon Journal geeks to be (air and accurate In all news stories.

We recognize that errors occur and use this space to correct them when they are discovered either by oar staff or by readers. Mistakes may occur In gathering news or In the mechanical production of the newspaper. It Is the policy of the Beacon Journal to coTflct mistakes. Refugees from the besieged Muslim enclave of Srebrenica fill trucks provided by the United Nations on Sunday for evacuation to Tuzla. In their eagerness to flee, the refugees mobbed the trucks and triggered many accidents.

Stampede to safety a nightmare "When the trucks started to go, I saw my mother. I was crying and I asked her, 'Should I come She said, 'No, go, save yourself because there's no life in fai pi rim FLURRIES SHOWERS TSTORMS RAIN mmwwmm. i City Too. Today lira. City Toe.

IMay Thu. 5239 5335 3628 Louisville 7943 6855 5750 Albuquerque 6234 6534 6634 Memphis 8358 7058 6050 Anchorage 4426 4532 4532 Miami Beach 8269 8570 8371 Atlanta 8353 6558 6448 Milwaukee 5636 3838 3533 Atlantic City 5546 5241 4442 Mpls-St Paul 4644 4037 4023 Baltimore 6751 6342 5046 Nashville 8150 6756 5847 Birmingham 8449 7160 5847 New Orleans 8369 7365 6952 Bismarck 3834 3927 4321 New York City 5346 5845 4541 Boise 5729 6436 6539 NorfoIk.Va. 6053 6247 5750 Boston 5040 4839 3832 Oklahoma City 6852 5243 5433 Buffalo 5935 4730 3633 Omaha 4844 4339 4229 BurHngton.Vt. 4934 4329 3522 Orlando 8556 8265 8166 7156 7457 7459 Philadelphia 5850 6042 4441 6247 7145 5646 Phoenix 7450 8254 8557 7945 6853 6850 Pittsburgh 6847 6540 4842 Cheyenne 4233 4227 4824 Portland, Maine 5238 4532 3324 Chicago 6634 4947 3833 Portland.Ore. 5539 5741 5743 8143 7250 7053 Providence 4941 5438 3934 Concord.N.H.

5241 5029 3223 Raleigh-Durham 7545 7346 6552 Dallas-Ft Worth 8163 7047 7241 Reno 6142 6638 6243 Denver 4334 4731 5428 Richmond 7153 6943 5647 Des Moines 5347 5346 4132 Sacramento 6950 6645 6250 Detroit 6750 5140 4234 St Louis 7656 6658 4240 Duhith 4135 3432 3912 Salt Lake City 5335 6135 6538 E3 Paso 7147 7343 7443 San Antonio 8461 8052 7646 Fargo 4336 3729 3818 San Diego 6752 6853 6655 Flagstaff 5631 5626 6127 San Francisco 6652 6351 5952 Hartford Spgfld 5644 5537 4032 San Juan.P.R. 8874 8673 8673 Honolulu 8370 8470 8571 Santa Fe 5730 5830 6030 Houston 8469 7855 7846 Seattle 5640 5945 6145 Indianapolis 7242 5651 4040 Spokane 5133 5936 6138 Jackson.Mlas. 7657 7062 5846 Tampa-St Ptrsbg 8257 8267 8066 Jacksonville 8755 7762 7565 Topeka 6551 4743 4535 Kansas City 6653 4944 3832 Tucson 7141 7945 8249 Las Vegas 7450 8253 8254 Tulsa 7457 5443 4635 Little Rock 7559 6555 6242 Washington.D.C. 6952 6546 5247 Los Angeles 7057 7354 7155 Wichita 5848 4740 4935 As thousands escaped the panic of Srebrenica, families were separated and babies met death BY TEDDIE yveyr Associated Press TUZLA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: Children screamed when they saw their parents left behind. Soldiers fired into the air, adding to the panic among the thousands of refugees who stormed U.N.

trucks to escape the misery of Srebrenica. One baby suffocated in the crush of people packed on the flatbed trucks during the nine-hour journey to safety in Tuzla. An old man also died en route. More than once, the back of a truck flung open and people fell out, including another baby who died. More than 24 hours later, refugees and aid workers told of the ghastly trip that brought 2,346 people to Tuzla, a Bosnian government-held town 45 miles northwest.

About 10,000 people began mobbing the trucks on Monday afternoon, according to accounts from witnesses, some of whom would speak only anonymously. Aid workers and even Bosnian soldiers watched helplessly as at least one baby was trampled to death, they said. Pelle Lemdsten of Sweden, the lead driver of the convoy, said mothers were so desperate to escape the crush that some threw babies into the trucks. They came "from everywhere," he said. Tahira Ahmetovic, 19, managed to cling to her 17-year-old sister, Sabena.

Their mother and two brothers, one 10 years old and wounded, were left behind to continue enduring the freezing nights in Srebrenica's roofless buildings and streets. "We wanted to go all together, but there was a great panic and crowding, and we were separated," Tahira said in a listless voice as she sat in a Tuzla sports hall with the other refugees. TAHIRA AHMETOVIC Bosnian refugee "When the trucks started to go, I saw my mother," Tahira said. "I was crying and I asked her, 'Should I come She said, 'No, go, save yourself because there's no life in Bosnian soldiers tried to empty the trucks so 650 people the United Nations had previously listed as needing immediate evacuation could board. But no one would budge.

The soldiers began pulling people off and fired into the air to keep the throngs at bay. Finally, the trucks edged their way out of town. Safeta Turnadzic, 34, managed to escape with her wounded 13-year-old son, Admir, and a gray loaf of bread she baked with the last of the corn she carried when she and her child fled a Serb attack on Cerska three weeks ago. With a child's resilience, Admir seemed almost more bothered by CORRECTIONS The correct frequency number for the new WKSU radio station, WKRW, is 89.3 FM. Incorrect information was supplied by WKSU and appeared in a story Tuesday.

An incorrect phone number for information on two summer educators' conferences at John Carrol University was published March 23. For information about "Leadership in a Changing Environment," sponsored by the Center for Learning, call 331-1404. A police officer playing basketball was mfeidentified in a pho Mi HI HI HI fflLt Amsterdam 46 30 Cairo 72 48 Jo'burg 64 55 Rio 93 71 Athens 64 45 Calgary 39 32 Lima 81 69 Rome 55 34 Auckland 73 62 Caracas 88 66 Lisbon 70 52 Santiago 86 52 Bangkok 95 81 Copenhagen 39 31 London 57 48 Sao Paulo 74 66 Barbados 86 77 Dhahran 84 57 Madrid 73 43 Seoul 54 39 Barcelona 66 39 Dublin 54 50 Mexico City 81 55 Singapore 86 75 Beijing 64 45 Edmonton 37 31 Montreal 50 40 Stockholm 36 30 Beirut 66 55 Frankfurt 46 25 Moscow 41 34 Taipei 68 59 Berlin 46 28 Geneva 47 27 Nassau 84 62 Tel Aviv 70 54 Bermuda 75 68 Halifax 44 40 New Delhi 84 52 Tokyo 55 37 Bogota 64 50 Havana 84 71 Nicosia 64 41 Toronto 58 41 Brtabane 84 55 Helsinki 39 32 Ottawa 54 34 Vancouver 52 44 Brawls 55 28 Hong Kong 66 61 Oslo 42 25 Vienna 43 34 Bu'lipest 39 28 Istanbul 54 41 Parts 57 36 Warsaw 36 32 B'Airas 81 62 Jerusalem 64 46 Regina 34 29 Winnipeg 37 33.