Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 95

Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, April 26, 1994 Section 1 7 NationWorld Rwanda capital under severe rebel shelling Coup bid fails in nearby Burundi Japan's new leader faces disunity Socialists quit, undercut premier to? A -i 1 -A XS army's Tutsi soldiers over a government plan to bring more Hutus into the armed forces. Interim President Sylvester Ntibantunganya, a Hutu, was never in danger during the coup attempt, officials said. Ntibantunganya was put in office after a suspicious plane crash killed the Hutu presidents of both Burundi and Rwanda on April 6. That crash touched off Rwanda's latest warfare, in which an estimated 100,000 people have been killed. A similar number were slain in Burundi after soldiers assassinated President Melchior Ndadaye last October in another failed coup.

In Rwanda, the Patriotic Front rebels tightened their grip on Ki-j gali Monday before the cease-fire. UN sources said the rebels had encircled the city's Hutu strong--hold of Ruhengeri and controlled the main northern towns. The Patriotic Front announced Saturday a unilateral cease-fire from midnight (5 p.m. CDT) Monday. But it warned that if the cease-fire was to continue, Hutu-, led government forces would have to stop massacres within 96 hours in areas they controL A government team signed a cease-fire agreement Sunday brok- owvl Yiir 7airo 4iiit iYia tahalo rlirl Reuters photo Tsutomu Hata (left), Japan's new prime minister, meets Socialist leader Tomiichi Murayama.

on Monday. Their talks seeking conciliation failed and the Socialists said they were quitting the ruling coalition. Reuters NAIROBI, Kenya Heavy shelling thundered across Rwanda's blood-soaked capital, Kigali, and rebel forces evacuated hundreds of people hours before their promised unilateral cease-fire Monday. "Heavy shelling is continuing. Initially, rebel positions were shelled and the rebels only returned fire," said Abdul Kabia, executive director of the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda.

"But now the firing seems to be coming from rebel positions into the city," he said by telephone from Kigali. He said Tutsi rebels of the Rwanda Patriotic Front evacuated hundreds of displaced civilians from Kigali's Amahoro stadium, where they have been trapped for more than two weeks, to the town of Byumba in the north. An estimated 11,000 Rwandans were staying at the stadium. The majority Hutu and minority Tutsi ethnic groups have waged bitter war against each other off and on for centuries. The animosity erupted again Monday in neighboring Burundi, where a coup by paratroopers failed when other soldiers, fearing they would trigger a tribal bloodbath like the one in Rwanda, refused to take part The Burundian capital of Bujumbura slowly returned to normal after the early morning coup bid failed, although sporadic shooting broke out in the suburb of Kamenge, witnesses said.

Kamenge is a Hutu slum and a center of opposition to the Tutsi-dominated army. Six soldiers, including four army captains, were arrested and three others were being sought in the coup attempt, said army spokesman Lt. Col. Nicodemus Nduhirubusa. Nduhirubusa said the coup failed when the paratroopers went to five barracks but could not muster enough support The motive for the attempted coup was not clear, but Nduhirubusa said earlier that there was resentment among the By Merrill Goozner Tribune Staff Writer TOKYO Japan's new prime minister, Tsutomu Hata, billed as a conciliator, faced an immediate challenge Monday when the largest party in his ruling coalition bolted over a political dispute and left Hata in charge of Japan's first minority government in four decades.

And without a Cabinet, too. Hours earlier, Hata was chosen to become Japan's sixth prime minister in five years after the six-party ruling coalition suspended two weeks of backbiting long enough and just barely long enough to chose him as the next leader of the world's second largest economy. An unlikely rebel, Hata is known for his ability to build alliances among Japan's fractious political parties. That skill was tested almost immediately. Less than 12 hours later, the left-wing Social Democratic Party of Japan largest party in the coalitionannounced it was quitting.

Hata hadn't even selected a Cabinet when the rift occurred. It was the second party in the coalition to quit in two weeks. Moreover, it stripped Hata of his narrow majority in Parliament and immediately cast into doubt his ability to deal with tax reform and trade frictions with the United States, which have sunk relations between Washington and Tokyo to their lowest level in years. Only last Friday, the Socialists joined with other members of the coalition that has governed since last summer to designate Hata as the successor to Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, who resigned over a financial scandal Monday's dispute erupted when a group of conservative and centrist parties, led by Hata's Japan Renewal Party, agreed to unite in a single parliamentary bloc excluding the Socialists and effectively freezing them out of the not sign it and fighting Aid workers and UN officials are skeptical that the Patriotic Front cease-fire will hold for long new government The division was a familiar one. The two sides have feuded over how to pay for an income tax cut, which Washington is urging as a way of increasing Japanese consumer demand for imports.

They also differ on how to respond to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear facilities. The powerful Finance Ministry wants a guarantee of a large increase in the consumption tax to offset the income tax break voted earlier this year a move the Socialists adamantly oppose. For U.S. government and business leaders hoping for a strong leader capable of challenging the bureaucrats who really run Japan, there's little in Hata's background to suggest he is about to embark on a serious campaign to radically reform the Japanese economy and open it to more foreign goods. The 58-year-old renegade last year he split from the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to throw his support for reformlikes to brag about how he started his career as a bus company employee in Nagano prefecture.

In fact, he was just marking time until he took over his father's seat in parliament in 1969, the first of his nine terms. While a member of the LDP, he served as finance minister once and agriculture minister twice. It was in the latter role in 1987 that he made his infamous remark that Japan couldn't open its beef market because Japanese people had longer intestines and were unable to digest foreign beef. Hata later said he was joking, and a good joke would be in keeping with his regular-guy image. Those who know him well say he enjoys drinking and karaoke.

He also has extensive U.S. diplomatic and business contacts. Robert Orr, now a lobbyist in Japan for Motorola, recalls a scene when he was running a leadership exchange program for Stanford University in 1991, where Sens. Bill Bradley and Jeff Bingaman were in Kyoto for a conference on the U.S.-Japan relationship. After a deadening session, Hata tried to drag the two senators to a local karaoke bar.

They begged off. Undeterred, he grabbed their aides and a few Japan specialists from the U.S. Embassy and had his night on the town, as well as cementing future ties. He's done the same thing with numerous Japanese politicians. "He is a person with no enemies," said Sen.

Ichiji Ishii, who just left the LDP to join Hata's Renewal Party. "However, he doesn't assert his own opinions, so he doesn't provide real leadership." Hata admits as much himself. In describing his flight from the LDP and his embrace of reform, Hata said he was only an actor, while the script was written by Ichiro Ozawa, an accomplished practitioner of Japan's money politics who is considered the brains behind the reform coalition. Ozawa's long-term goal is to turn Japan into a "normal" nation with a role overseas more in line with its economic might. Ozawa also wants stronger political parties that can loosen the iron grip of the bureaucrats.

But it may only be months before those goals split the coalition that elected Hata. The trigger could be a turn for the worse in the long-simmering North Korean nuclear standoff. The Socialists insisted in the coalition platform approved last week that Japan stick with a strict interpretation of its pacifist constitution in complying with any sanctions imposed on the isolated Pyongyang regime. Any attempt to get Japanese participation in a U.S.-led coalition to blockade North Korea or impose economic sanctions may lead to a debate between the par-, ties in Hata's coalition. Tribune wires contributed to this account.

amid the chaos and lawlessness. Adding to Rwanda's horrors, the United Nations says a health dis- aster is imminent. In Kigali "there is literally nothing by way of medication, no water, no sanitation facilities, no materials to build latrines," said Peter Hansen, UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs. "In Kigali, there are decomposing bodies being eaten by dogs, rats, birds," said Hansen. Hansen appealed for $11.6 mil- lion in donations to help care for 1.3 million refugees through May.

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