Daily Sitka Sentinel from Sitka, Alaska • Page 10

Page 10, Daily Sitka Sentinel, Sitka, Alaska, Friday, July 19,1996 More Details Emerge In Killing of Postmaster FAIRBANKS (AP) the man who is expected to be charged in last month's grisly murder of Ruby postmaster Agnes Wright had been named by villagers early on as a suspect in the killing, according to an Alaska State Trooper investigator. But trooper Capt. John Myers said follow-up was stymied when Abram Paul Walter couldn't be found. "We pretty much discounted him because of the search and rescue that failed to produce him," Myers said Wednesday. Walter, a 23-year-old trapper from the McGrath area, apparently staged his own drowning in the Takotna River in early June.

His overturned canoe was found, but an intensive two-day search failed to turn up his body. Walter was arrested Tuesday while driving a stolen car on the Parks Highway near Fairbanks, a few hours after the post office in Ester was robbed at gunpoint. He is the suspect in that robbery, in which blank money orders were taken. He is also thought to have stolen a money order imprinter in a burglary at the same post office last Friday. Myers said blank money orders were found in the car Walter was driving, which gave investigators a big break in the Wright case.

Money orders and a money order imprinter had been taken from the Ruby post office after the postmaster's June 20 murder. "We knew," it was the same guy, Myers said. "No one does that kind of stuff. Then there's two, exactly alike, minus the murder?" Trooper investigator Jim McCann said Wednesday that Walter has ad- mitted to killing Wright. Killing a postal employee engaged in official duties is a federal crime punishable by death.

U.S. Attorney Robert Bundy said in Anchorage on Thursday that federal charges have not yet been filed against Walter. He said postal inspectors and troopers weree still investigating, and that no federal charges were expected for at least two weeks. Walter told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that he knew the family of Agnes Wright, but couldn't adequately express his thoughts. "What would I say?" said Walter, who was being held at Fairbanks Correctional Center on $500,000 cash bail.

"Any words would be so insignificant." He said he planned to plead innocent to the murder. 'I have he said. "It's too early in the process." When asked if he had faked his own death, Walter said: "Yeah, it's public knowledge now, isn't it?" At the time he disappeared, Walter was facing petty burglary and theft charges last month for robbing vacant houses near McGrath. After Wright's killing, Walter quickly surfaced as a suspect, villagers and troopers said. "They found his canoe and never found him.

And he was running from the law." said Wright's father, Harold Esmailka. "That was our prime suspect all along." Investigators did pull a file on the name Abram Walter, who was frequently" named by villagers as a suspect, Myers said, "just because he was capable of it." Forest Service to Cancel Logging at Moose Pass? By ROSANNE PAGANO Associated Press Writer ANCHORAGE (AP) Chugach National Forest said Thursday it may call off salvage timber operations planned for an 875-acre tract at Moose Pass following restrictions issued by the federal government. Chugach Forest Supervisor Larry Hudson said in a telephone interview that revisions issued July 2 by the Agriculture Department mean the Moose Pass operation -woods could not go forward. Bids were scheduled to be opened Tuesday from loggers interested in the roadless tract along the north shore of Kenai Lake. "We do not expect to go to bid opening," Hudson said Thursday.

"It appears Moose Pass (logging) will be almost entirely if not entirely -within a roadless area." A directive from federal agriculture secretary Dan Glickman bars salvase logging on certain roadless tracts within the national forests. Roadless areas tend to be pristine and are valued as wilderness said the fate of two other Kenai Peninsula sales the Sixmile salvage area and the Resurrection Creek-Palmer Creek area also may be decided by restrictions approved by Glickman. Both sales are in early stages and neither was ready for bids. Hudson said a preliminary review showed that the Sixmile tract was entirely outside a roadless area while the Resurrection-Palmer sale area near Hope was partly in and partly outside a roadless zone. Environmentalists nationwide have criticized the emergency timber salvage logging law, signed last year by President Clinton.

The measure telescopes the public comment and strictly limits appeals that may be brought by individuals opposed to the timber sales. Anchorage-based environmentalists praised Hudson's preliminary decision to call off the Moose Pass operation. "That's great news, that's fantastic," said Jay Stange, a spokesman for the Alaska Center for the Environment. "The biggest timber sale on the Kenai Peninsula is gone." Matthew. Siegel, a spokesman for the Wilderness Society, said he was "very pleased" that Moose Pass logging could be canceled.

But Siegel said his group was still concerned the area could be harvested under normal salvage timber guidelines, with fuller public comment and appeals The Sixmile sale would cover 221 acres while the Resurrection Creek- Palmer Creek sale would take in roughly 1,700 acres, the Forest Service said. Dan Kish, an aide to U.S. Rep. Don Young, said opponents of salvage timber sales under emergency rules were ignoring wildfire hazards posed by dead and dying timber. "They're playing with fire, literally," Kish said.

"The intent (of emergency legislation) is to not wait until the forest is infested and the timber loses its value." Kish said Young generally favored emergency logging to clear out beetle-killed timber and deprive wildfires of fuel. Alaska Army Reservists Called FAIRBANKS (AP) The Pentagon has ordered nine Army reservists from Alaska to active duty. They are part of a nationwide call-up for people with medical specialties. The reservists are being assigned to duty in Germany, where they will replace medical staff who have been transferred to Bosnia. The Army said the new round of call-ups would mean five month assignments, but that it was unlikely any of the Alaskans would be sent to Bosnia.

"It's something we've looked forward to and trained for and, well, we need to be used," said Sgt Rick Brown, a University of Alaska Fairbanks police officer whose reservist job is operating room assistant. Federal law requires that employers give the reservists their jobs back after Continued from Page 1 surface-to-air missile, perhaps fired from a boat off the coast of Long Island, could have brought the plane down. But some officials sought to dispel that possibility. "There's no American official with half a brain who ought to be speculating on anything of that nature," said White House spokesman Mike McCurry. "There's no concrete information that would lead any of us in the United States government to draw that kind of conclusion." There were reports that radar detected a blip merging with the jet shortly before the explosion, something that could indicate a missile hit.

their active duty assignment ends. That won't be a problem at the Kmart in Fairbanks, where one of the soldiers Ascension Rogers is a manager, store manager Jeff Ross said. "We want to back the military," Ross said. "The military is a very important part of the Fairbanks community." The reservists will augment Operation Joint EndeavorDetermined Effort. They join others with public affairs, postal, transportation and supply specialties who earlier were ordered back into Mollie Beattie Wilderness Area OK'd by House ANCHORAGE (AP) The U.S.

House of Representatives has given final congressional approval to a bill that proposes to name an Alaska wilderness area after Mollie Beattie, the late director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Beattie, who hailed from Vermont, recently died after a year-long fight with cancer. She was the first woman to hold the top federal fish and wildlife position. The bill seeks to name the wilderness portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after Beattie.

The Senate had previously passed the measure, which had been co-sponsored by Alaska's congressional delegation. It now goes to President Clinton for his consideration. Powell to foe Speaker at mblicin Coiiverition Rebel Suicide Squad Rams Sri Lanka Boat WASHINGTON (AP) Although he's been reluctant to on behalf of Bob Dole, retired GerL Colin Powell is going to be a featured speaker on opening night 'of thW Republican National Dole, campaigning in Cleveland today, said he talked to Powell by phone last week. The retired general confirmed his participation, Dole said, and "in my view, that's a big step forward." "I've very proud that he isv a 'Republican and proud that he will be participating in the festivities and-the very important business that will take place at the Republican- National Convention," Dole said. Powell's opening-night be part of a lineup that also includes former Presidents Bush and Ford as well as a video tribute to Ronald Reagan, convention officials said Thursday.

There also is talk that Reagan's wife, Nancy, may address the crowd and introduce Powell, who was her husband's national security adviser. The: convention gets under way Aug. 12 in San Diego. i Dole, who sought unsuccessfully to interest Powell in running mate, said earlier this week he still considers the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff a top prospect for a possible Dole administration Cabinet post. r.

"He's high'on anybody's list. Anytime you look; around, you see Colin Dole said Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live." That same.night Dole announced his selection of New York Rep. Susan Molmari, who favors abortion rights as convention keynote speaker. The prime time appearances of Powell and Molinari at the convention that will nominate Pole, are seen as an attempt to reach out to moderates even while.Dole keeps conservatives and anti-abortion forces happy by not changing the OOP's strong anti-abortion platform plank. Internet Regulation Takes Action in Singapore (AP) An Internet provider has blocked a newsgroup posting that criticized some lawyers here, the first test of Singapore's new laws for policing the global computer network, officials said today.

The Singapore Broadcasting Authority acted on a complaint by the firm, which said the contents of the anonymous posting defamed some of its lawyers, according to me Straits Times. The newspaper said the Internet posting apparently was made by a disgruntled client who claimed he lost a case even though his lawyers told him he could win it, and he questioned the attorneys' abilities. The Times said the firm was one of Singapore's oldest, but did not identify it. It was the first Internet policing since the broadcasting agency's screening regulations for the global computer link-up took effect Monday The government now requires Singapore's three Internet service providers to remove material it finds objectionable. Ahmad Shuhaimi, a spokesman for the Broadcasting Authority, denied his agency specifically ordered the Internet provider to block the posting.

The firm, he approached the provider, which agreed to remove it; Complaints of defamation 'are outside the scope of the SBA;" which is only concerned with preventing criticism of the administration and the judiciary, pornography on race and religion, Ahmad said. Libel laws have "been extended to cover the Internet. Ahmad refused to identify the firm or the Internet provider. By DEXTER CRUEZ Associated Press; Writer COLOMBO, Sri (AP) A Tamil rebel suicide squad rammed its explosive-laden motorboat into a Sri Lankan naval ship carrying more than 40 sailors today, setting the craft afire, military officials "said. The.

120-foot Ranaviru was reported sinking, but the.fate of was not known, military officials said on condition of anonymity. The suicide boat carrying an unknown number of rebels slipped through heavy from the naval patrol which was trying to fend, off about a dozen rebel boats. The sea battle off Mullaittivu, 175 miles the capital Colombo, came on the second day of fighting surrounding a military base that serves as a lookout post to monitor rebel assault boats.and ships. Nearly 4,000 Tamil tiger rebels attacked the base early Thursday in one of the biggest in Sri: Lanka's 13-year civil war. A statement from the rebels' London office said they overran the base and removed a large number of weapons.

On rebels pinned down a cpnimando unit sent to break the rebel siege and killed the commander of the elite force, officials said. About 100 soldiers were evacuated lirider fire. Sixty were woiinded, including the commander; Brigadier Lawrence Fernando, officials said. Fernando had been in Colombo when the rebels launched their surprise attack and had attempted to return to: the base with the commando force, they said. The rebels, in a statement released from their political office in London, said they had surrounded the rein- forcements near Alampil a few miles from the military camp.

Soldiers in the base heli off aeries of assaults Thursday night by the Tigers, who were seen carrying away casualties by land and boats, the officials said. The rebel statement said they killed more than 400 soldiers and lost 40 of their fighters. -Earlier in a broadcast over rebel clandestine radio, monitored by the Tamil civilians in the northern town of Vavuniya, they said 500 soldiers and 48 rebels were killed. In military spokesman Brigadier Munasinghe dismissed the rebel claims of hundreds of soldiers "It is absurd, only for their propaganda purposes," he he declined to give his own estimate of casualties, saying that me soldiers were not in a position to ascertain numbers" while the battle raged. Military officials speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the' rebels took away four 120 mm guns and a huge quantity of ammunition and-artillery shells.

A helicopter that tried to land commandos was damaged by rebel fire but managed to return to its base today, officials said. Two helicopters were damaged Thursday. The rebels also have driven bafck naval gunboats that rushed to the arek Military planes and gunboats destroyed eight guerrilla boats, killing .14 rebels. The guerrillas damaged'a naval craft, killing a sailor. The rebel statement accused the military of shelling; a hospital in the rebel-held town of Kilinpchchi on Thursday, killing five civilians and injuring 16, including medical staff.

Military officials denied the accusation. Rebel Commander Resurfaces in Chechnya Storms Whip JVfidWest OAKFJELD, Wis. (AP) A tornado that sounded like a "steady locomotive" ripped through 'this rural community, injuring at least 17 people and leaving hundreds homeless. Probably half of Oakfield was eled by the twister that hit sometime early Thursday evening, Fond du Lac County Executive Allen Buechel said. "There are dozens of homes down a lot of damage," he said.

The town, 50 miles northwest of Milwaukee, has about 1,000 The area worst hit looked like a 'bombed-out he said. Natural gas was turned off Thursday night and still had not been restored this morning, Lt. Fred Mathwig of the Fond du Lac Sheriffs Department said. Six people were hospitalized -four were listed in stable condition today, one was fair and one was listed as good. The nature of their injuries were not available.

Eleven others were treated and released. The tornado was part of a severe weather system in the'Midwest" that also dumped record rain on Illinois. The system had moved out of the Wisconsin area today arid the forecast weather rpartly In the tornado's aftermath, residents walked up and down streets scattered with tree trunks, pieces of glass and sheets of metal. Standing in front of what used to be his house, Tim Shady said he heard the tornado approaching "like a loud, steady locomotive." He and his family went to the basement and took refuge, under a pool table. Debris shot through the windows and landed around them, he said.

"My boy was under the pool table in the basement, saying, 'Please, God, take it Shady said. In Illinois, the 16.91 inches of rain that fell in Aurora in a 24-hour period that ended Thursday broke the state record of 16.54 inches, set in East St. Louis in 1957. Ex-University President in S.C. Pleads Guilty to Fraud COLUMBIA, S.C.

(AP) The man who resigned as University of South Carolina president six years ago amid allegations of excessive spending pleaded guilty today to bankruptcy fraud. James Holderman, who had earlier served probation for a tax evasion plea, appeared before U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson Jr. to enter his guilty plea to eight counts of bankruptcy fraud and have two other counts dismissed. He had been scheduled to go on trial July 29.

Holderman told the judge he did not enter bankruptcy with the intent to defraud anyone, but' he admitted he lied as the bankruptcy case progressed. "I'm sorry for that," he said. Holderman was not taken into custody and left the courthouse with his lawyer. Holderman was president of the university for 13 years before resigning in 1990 amid controversy about his spending. The following year, he pleaded guilty to receiving extra compensation and no contest to state income tax evasion.

He filed for bankruptcy in December 1993, claiming he had more than SI million in debts. However, he was charged with subsequently lying about his income and expenses. By LYNN BERRY Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) A nian claiming to be a Chechen commander who was reported dead by the Russians has surfaced, saying separatist rebels were responsible for two recent bus bombings in Moscow. He also claimed that top rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev, is alive and hospitalized at an undisclosed contrary, to reports: he was killed a Russian air. the apparent reappearance Thursday of Salman Raduyev and claims of Dudayev's survival have raised questions about a split in the rebel leadership.

Kremlin officials said today they are "100 percent certain" that Du- dayev was dead and called Raduyev's claim an attempt rally rebel fighters for new attacks on Russian troops! The man identifying himself as Raduyev said at a news conference in Chechnya that he had just returned to the breakaway republic after undergoing medical treatment. Russian media, citing military sources, reported in March that he had died of head wounds suffered in a Shootout with fellow rebels. The rebels denied it, but Raduyev has not been seen in public since. Associated Press Television footage of the news conference outside the eastern Chechen town of Gu- dermes showed a man who sounded just like Raduyev but looked substantially different from the commander who met with the press earlier this year. Wearing dark glasses and with a deep scar near his eye, he explained he had lost an eye and had to have plastic surgery as a result of his injuries, which he said resulted from being shot by Russian troops on March 3.

The man claiming to be Raduyev said the two Moscow bus bombings that wounded 33 people last week were staged by Chechen rebels, the first one "in honor of my. return." Rebel leaders have vehemently denied involvement. The man also claimed Dudayev survived. "I swear by "Allah that Dzhokhar Dudayev is alive," he said. -received an order from him that, I will fulfill at all cost will yet pay for their assassination leaders, and Dudayev's wife 7 ail said me separatist leader was killed in.

an, raid in Chechnya. Dudayev's burial place, however, has never been disclosed. Russian Nationalities Minister. Vy- acheslav Mikhailov Raduyev's reappearance "could result in a stepping up of terrorism." In the Chechen capital of Grozny, a spokesman for the pro-Moscow Chechen government, Ruslah Martagov, said the apparent resurfacing of Raduyev shows a split in the rebel leadership, the ITAR-Tass news agency Raduyev's statements that Dudayev is alive and that rebels were responsible the Moscow attacks contradict'claims by other rebel leaders. Raduyev, a 28-year-old relative of Dudayev, led a Jan.

9 hostage-taking raid in the Russian republic of Dages- tan, seizing dozens of hostages before negotiating safe passage back to Chechnya. Russian forces stopped his guerrillas and dozens of hostages at the border village of Pervomayskaya, setting off clashes that killed dozens of people. The man claiming to be Raduyev said Thursday he had received medical treatment in Germany. A German Foreign Ministry official said that unlikely. Russia's Izvestia newspaper, citing rebel military leaders, reported that Raduyev had been treated in an unspecified Middle Eastern country Police: Calif.

Girl Kills Boy; New York Boy Kills Best Pal Yugoslav Woman Honored For Saving Jews from Nazis LONDON 0 By The Associated Press An II-year-old California girl who was being taunted by two neighborhood teen-agers outside her "home went inside and fired a shotsun at them through a window, killing one and wounding the other, police said. And in another shootins involving children, a 10-year-old New York boy fatally shot his best friend, police said. The girl in San Bernardino, whose name was not released, was being held in a juvenile facility for investigation of murder, police said. Her mother, Susan Heaberlin, 38, was arrested for investigation of storing an unsecured firearm. The girl got the 12-gauge shotsun from inside the house and fired once through the living room window police Lt.

Wes Farmer said. Evan Clark, 14, was struck in the head and killed instantly on the front lawn, coroner's officials said. The other boy, also 14, was hospitalized with serious facial wounds. It was unclear what the boys had been taunting the girl about, Farmer said. In New York, police arrested the 10-year-old boy, who was not identified, after the Thursday afternoon shooting that killed Levar McGriff.

District attorney's spokesman Pat Clark said the shooter's grandmother, Judy Bowles, 44, was the owner of the gun and has been charged with illegal weapon possession and endangering the welfare of a minor. Both charges are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. A police report gave little background on the reason for the shooting. The Daily News said witnesses indicated the boy was fooling around with his grandmother's gun when it went off, while The New York Times quoted unidentified detectives as saying an argument had preceded the shooting. LONDON (AP) Fifty-five years ago, Zora Sebek used false identification to help a Jewish girl escape the Nazis.

The Roman Catholic teen-ager went on to help five more Jews avoid concentration camps. On Thursday, Israel awarded her the title "Righteous Among The Nations" for saving Jews in the former Yugoslavia. "Every evidence of a gentile who saved Jews the most difficult of circumstances and at great personal penl strengthens our belief in humanity and in the triumph of good over evil," Israeli Ambassador Moshe Ra- viv said before presenting her with a citation and medal. For Mrs. Sebek, who left Belgrade three years ago after war broke out in Yugoslavia, the risk to her own life played little part in her decision to do what she could to help the Jews.

"I think it is very fortunate to be able to do something," she said in an interview. "If more people in Europe had acted similarly, there would have been fewer victims of the Holocaust." Mrs. Sebek, now 72 and living in London, said she was spurred to act by her friendship with a Jewish boy who was imprisoned in a concentration camp and by her family, who stressed the importance of religious tolerance, Mrs. Sebek was living in Mostar in 1941 when the Germans and their allies occupied Yugoslavia. She went to visit a rabbi's family in Sarajevo -and afterward used a travel pass in her cousin's name to bring five of the rabbi's relatives to Mostar.

The first one she helped was a 14- year-old named Esther who had escaped the round-up of Jews in Saraje- vo by hiding in a Muslim home with her sister. They all stayed in her mother's home with her brothers and sisters, and then went to Italy. Mrs. Sebek later hid a German Jew, ttitz Cahn, who fled to Italy and then to Yugoslavia. Her brother then helped him join the Yugoslav partisans fighting the Nazis.

After the war, Mrs. Sebek returned to Sarajevo to study to be a dental technician. She married one of her lecturers, a dental surgeon who was a fTM 11 3 30 ew. His entire family was Killed during the war..