Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 11

Thursday, April 1, 19931 The Clarion-Ledger 11A Progress but no dates reported in Haiti talks Coast gives Amtrak whistle-stop welcome A- SCALE IN MILES I wmm Train route 1 LA- M'Si 12:40 a.m. Mon. Wed- Mon. Thu Sr 0SUnd- prmTt 1 (Miss. rjr pfflt-l Firi I 1:10 a.m.

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envoy Dante Caputo ended 10 days of negotiations here Wednesday, saying he made headway in trying to end an 18-month-old standoff between the army and the elected president it toppled. But Caputo cautioned that change will not come "abruptly," and all sides agreed that the talks failed to tackle key issues in negotiator a return to democracy for this desperately poor Caribbean island. Before flying to New York, Caputo urged the army and the civilian government it supports to turn over power quickly to U.S.-backed politicians or technocrats acceptable to deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, diplomatic sources said. The governing powers have rebuffed all attempts to get them to quit, despite increased pressure by the Clinton administration and the United Nations. A timetable for Aristide's return from exile has not even been advanced, the officials said.

Aristide, a radical Catholic priest, became Haiti's first freely elected president in February 1991, but was ousted that September by the army. Loved by the masses, he is reviled by most of the military and civilian elite. Caputo has apparently not yet persuaded coup leaders to agree to negotiate such crucial issues as lift ing of economic sanctions or the status of military coup leaders. He is to return next week after consultations with U.N. and U.S.

officials, the diplomatic sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is my impression that Caputo has not yet begun negotiations per se. He will begin them when he returns," said Duly Brutus, a former president of the Chamber of Deputies who met with Caputo on Tuesday. Brutus' socialist party supports the military-backed government of Prime Minister Marc Ba-zin. Antoine Izmery, a prominent Aristide supporter, dismissed reports of spectacular progress as "trial balloons," intended to shake up recalcitrant officers, officials and business people.

"The negotiations, in fact, are preliminary negotiations, but the Haitian masses the real force to be reckoned with in the country are being left out of them," Izmery said. After a meeting with business ex-ecuives Wednesday, Caputo an Argentine diplomat and former U.N. General Assembly president stressed that restoring democracy cannot be done By Emily Wagster Clarion-Ledger Gult Coast Bureau Gulfport celebrated Amtrak's arrival Wednesday with hot dogs, antique cars and lots of red, white and blue bunting. Biloxi brought out oysters, a depot cake and politics. The battle over which city will become Harrison County's permanent Amtrak stop is still raging hot and heavy and far from a settlement.

"We look forward to a long association, with Amtrak bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors to this historic city," Biloxi Mayor Pete Halat said at a welcome ceremony at the city's old passenger station at Reynoir Street and Ester Boulevard. Putting in a punch for his city, Halat called Biloxi "the number one choice for the Mississippi Gulf Coast (Amtrak) site." Gulfport Mayor Ken Combs kept the feud out of his remarks at Union Station, sticking instead to general words of welcome. "I didn't think that was the time or the place to bring it up," Combs said later. Amtrak's transcontinental Sunset Limited schedule through Oct. 30 includes stops in Bay St.

Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula. Amtrak officials have said they want only one Harrison County stop as soon as possible. A study to be commissioned later this month should help officials make the decision, said Ted Hearn, director of Coast Area Transit. The Gulfport-based Gulf Regional Planning Commission will pick a firm in the next couple of weeks to investigate long-term coast transportation needs. "We hope to have some answers by September," Hearn said this week.

Combs said Gulfport has spent about $118,000 to restore and up date its depot, built in 1906 at 27th Avenue and 14th Street. Biloxi is not using the inside of its depot, which has stood at least 50 years, Halat said. The city spent $55,000 to build a platform and add wheelchair lifts to meet Amtrak mandates. If chosen as the Amtrak city, Biloxi plans to build a new station near Edgewater Mall. Hearn said the transportation study also should answer questions about commuter-train service between Mobile and New Orleans.

Congress last fall mandated Amtrak to start the short-distance commuter service by this October but did not provide money for the project. "Until the money passes hands, you can't expect much to happen," Hearn said. Local planners aren't waiting on the federal government. A committee of the Gulf Regional Planning Commission has been meeting once a month for the past few months, trying to draft plans for a public-private cooperative to make the Mobile-New Orleans route a reality, Hearn said. The Sunset Limited, on a route from Los Angeles to Miami, passes through the Mississippi Gulf Coast three times a week and some stops are in the middle of the night.

"There's obviously no way you could use that as a commuter service," Hearn said. "The key thing would be to have morning and evening service. It doesn't do you any good to get over to New Orleans if you can't get home." Even with questions remaining about coast Amtrak stops, a state official said he's optimistic that passenger rail service will help south Mississippi. "Can you imagine if people took the train all the time from the coast to New Orleans?" Chester Smith, energy division director for the state The above are departure times for Amtrak's Sunset Limited, which begins regular passenger service April 4. The schedule is valid through Oct.

30. Sunset Limited becomes the nation's first transcontinental train. Over the years, individual rail passenger cars have been transferred from one train to another. This is the first time a whole train has made the trip. Amtrak has operated trains between Los Angeles and New Orleans for years.

The New Orleans to Miami route is new. Amtrak will use CSX Railroad tracks between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Fla. The Sunset Limited's trip from Los Angeles to Miami will take 68 hours. The train travels through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Amtrak recommends passengers make reservations as early as possible.

Fares vary according to destination and how long in advance a space is reserved. The Sunset Limited is "heavily booked" its first month, Amtrak public affairs director Clifford Black said. "Because of way our booking is set may want to call more than once to check on availability," he said. Premier seeks ends to perks, repairs for French economy "Can you imagine all the energy we'd save and all the emissions that wouldn't get into the air?" Smith said. "That'd really be something." Department of Economic and Com-munity Development, said Wednesday as he rode the Sunset Limited's inaugural run.

Activist rebuffed in British deportation appeal Train From 1A Houston Chronicle ters to cut office expenses by 10 percent as part of his plan, still mostly under formulation, to streamline government expenses. Balladur told Labor Minister Michel Giraud to draw up "urgent measures to deal with the employment situation," Budget Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters. The number of jobless in France, announced Tuesday as Balladur, 63, took office, topped 3 million, 10.6 percent of the work force. On immigration, Balladur told Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and Justice Minister Pierre Me-haignerie to come up with a policy considering "the problems of nationality, immigration and security," Sarkozy said. Pasqua, who cracked down on immigration as interior minister in the last conservative government of 1986-88, told the TV network TF-1 he would be flexible.

The Cabinet lunch was "a low-key meeting, not a council of ministers," said Daniel Hoeffel, deputy minister for regional planning. The first real Cabinet meeting, with Socialist President Francois Mitterrand present, is Friday. The Associated Press PARIS Premier Edouard Bal-ladur ordered his newly appointed Cabinet ministers on Wednesday to set an example in leaner times by forgoing such perks as limousines and government planes. He said he would do his part, beginning by cutting entertainment costs at the prime minister's office by 20 percent. On his first full day in office, Bal-ladur listed fighting unemployment as his No.

1 priority. Balladur invited his 29 Cabinet ministers to lunch for a general strategy session. His conservative coalition upset the former Socialist government by taking a whopping majority in National Assembly elections Sunday. He says he wants to trim $3.7 billion in expenses from the state budget. Ministers were to use their personal cars instead of government limousines, and commercial flights instead of the government's fleet, Balladur told them over a lunch of salmon with basil, with strawberries for dessert.

He also said he expected minis means to challenge the deportation order. Treshman's lawyers filed an appeal with the Immigration Appeal Tribunal on Tuesday, but it sometimes takes two months to get a hearing before that body. High Court review of Treshman's case could shorten the appeal process. While about 30 anti-abortionists watched in the courtroom gallery, some holding rosary beads and whispering prayers, Crystal argued that Treshman's was an exceptional case, deserving the High Court's attention. "This is a most important case, Schieman said after Crystal's 45-minute argument.

"But it isn't right that this applicant should receive special treatment more than someone who has received less newspaper coverage." Schieman politely picked apart Crystal's argument that Treshman was unjustly being detained, pointing out that the anti-abortion activist has a legal right to a bond hearing. LONDON An appeal filed on behalf of Rescue America leader Don Treshman, jailed and facing deportation under a British law often applied to terrorists, fell on deaf ears Wednesday in the second highest court of the land The 49-year-old anti-abortion activist was not present at the High Court hearing in London and remained in custody at the Haslar Immigration Detention Center in Gosport near England's southern coast. Treshman was arrested Monday night outside British Broadcasting Co. Television headquarters in London and served with a notice of intent to deport after a controversial interview on the television program News-night. He arrived in London Friday to stage a string of abortion protests.

In Wednesday's High Court hearing, Judge Konrad Schieman declined to hear Treshman's appeal, ruling that the Rescue America leader had not exhausted other "I've never been to this part of the country, so for me, it's fascinating," said Katz, a self-described train buff. "I'm sure it's that way for people from your part of the country who have never been out West." The New Orleans-to-Pascagoula journey gave even some longtime coast residents a fresh look at their home turf. The train snakes out of New Orleans' station near the Su-perdome and gives passengers a long look at an above-ground cemetery before heading over Louisiana and Mississippi marshland. The train passes a panorama of azalea-filled neighborhoods, school playgrounds and golf courses and gives riders a good look at Keesler Air Force Base. Along the way Wednesday, people who weren't part of organized celebrations stopped what they were doing to wave from back yards, street corners and gas stations.

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