The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 7

rv Word k. Poland's leftists give up on centre as coalition partn Classified B4 News BIO REUTER iW I IM il IUU. HlUW.il a rpjrwrm "HM'I- I 'I Rabin sfaEcss Me on nact il I'll dissolve parliament if I lose, he says in heated debate CLYDE HABERMAN NEW YORK TIMES one of the most important legislative votes in the country's 45-year history. Because the PLO agreement involves territory that many Israelis consider theirs by divine right and indispensable to national security, the vote is considered by some to be even more important than the one in 1978 that approved the so-called Camp David accords, which led to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt the following year. Rabin further raised the stakes yesterday by saying he regarded this as a vote of confidence in his 14-month-old government, suggesting that he would dissolve parliament and call new elections if he should lose.

That seemed a slim prospect, though. As the speeches in parliament dragged on into the night, thousands of rightist protesters, many of them young yeshiva students, marched through Jerusalem from the Western Wall in the Old City to the Parliament building perched on a hillside a mile and a half away, denouncing the Rabin government as having paved the way to a alestinian state that would put Israel injeopardfy. WARSAW Poland's ex-Communists, fresh from a general election triumph, gave up attempts yesterday to lure the main centrist party into a coalition government but pushed ahead with efforts to win over two left-wing groups. The Democratic Left Alliance, which won the largest slice of votes in Sunday's general elections, said it would start coalition talks later yesterday with the Polish Peasants party and the Labor Union. The leader of the leftist Democratic party, Aleksander Kwasniewski, said he had given up on the Democratic Union, leader of the outgoing coalition, which said it wanted no part of what would be Poland's first leftist government since Communist rule ended in 1989.

"From my talks with the UD, I understand that we have to abandon the idea of a coalition with them," Kwasniewski told reporters. The UD's refusal to negotiate dented attempts to lure centrist politicians into government to enhance its international image. The ex-Communists won about 37 per cent of the seats in the 460-seat lower house of parliament and was followed by the Peasants Party with about 27 per cent. The Democratic Union was in third place with 15 per cent and the Labor Party had about 10 per cent, partial official results showed. The turnaround just four years after Poland became the first country in East Europe to sweep away communist rule was due largely to widespread dissatisfaction with the hardships brought by tough market reforms.

JERUSALEM Putting his government's fate on the line, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin appealed to parliament yesterday to approve his agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization, calling it "hope for an end to tears" and to the hundred years' war between Arabs and Jews in this battle-weary land. In rebuttal, the main opposition figure, Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party, demanded new elections, accusing the government of reneging on promises and of mistaking hope for reality, which, he said, was that Israel now stood in mortal peril. "The goal, before peace, must be life," Netanyahu said. "We want to give peace a chance, but first we want to give life a chance." Both leaders were roundly heckled as parliament began what will probably be at least two full days of debate, with nearly every one of the 120 members expected to speak before Km Ah AP Poster depicts Rabin in Arafat's garb. ighway is -s key in mw Bosnian plan Foreign minister talks of a 'good omen' MM DAVID 8.

OTTAWA WASHINGTON POST a 1 2 i mmms mmmmmmmMmmmmmmmmmm ZAGREB, Croatia The Muslim-led Bosnian government yesterday disclosed a possible solution to its demand for a land corridor to the Adriatic Sea that could clear the way for its acceptance soon of a peace settlement to the 17-month Bosnian 7 liilillliiSIMKBB; civil war. Bosnian Foreign Minister Haris Sila-jdzic, apparently countering Monday's gloomy news of another failed attempt at finding a settlement, released a detailed proposal for a future Muslim republic to be given a high AFP On a roll to worship Men on bicycles approach 18-year-old as he rolls along the ancient Grand Trunk Rd. north of New Delhi four days after starting his journey to worship at one of Indias major pilgrim sites, the temple of Vaishno Devi (Mother God of Power) in northern Jammu. He intends to roll the full 434 miles. Izetbegovic Off to Sarajevo way through Bosnian Croat-held territory to a port on the bus Icill 10 in S.

Africa rem mini REUTER MifT- mw-m Mexico hit hard by storm TAMPICO, Mexico Tropical storm Gert dumped heavy rains across a wide stretch of Mexico and killed at least three people yesterday as it moved inland after causing flooding and high waves along the gulf coast. Although it was weakening, Gert soaked northeast and central Mexico and raised fears of heavy flooding as it moved west. Veracruz and Tamaulipas states were hardest hit. They lie along the Gulf of Mexico south of Texas and were hit with hurricane force Monday as the storm hit land. The Palma Sola River overflowed its banks near the centre of Veracruz state and took three people to their deaths yesterday, state authorities said.

The rains forced thousands from their homes late Monday. Mudslides closed dozens of highways. Electricity, telephone and water services were knocked out in many communities. The remnants of the storm were expected to head into the Pacific by today. Maximum sustained winds had decreased to almost 50 kilometres an hour.

Gert killed at least 28 people in Central America last week. It weakened to a depression over the Yucatan peninsula but gained new strength once it hit the gulf, forcing the ports of Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Tabasco and Campecheto close. Corporal punishment on rise NEW YORK Reversing a 15-year trend, corporal punishment is on the rise in classrooms across the U.S., mostly in the South, Family Circle magazine said yesterday. As many as 600,000 students were paddled by teachers or administrators in public schools in 1990, says a government survey quoted by the magazine. Thousands more were punished in private and parochial schools, which might not be affected by state law or state board of education laws.

And last year, two states, Kentucky and Arizona, overturned bans on corporal punishment, while Michigan gave in to pressure from its teachers' union and weakened its 1988 anti-paddling law, the magazine said. Man kills son in suicide TEHRAN A fired civil servant, frustrated in his efforts for reinstatement, held his 12-year-old son and jumped from the fifth floor of the Finance Ministry, an Iranian newspaper reported yesterday. Iraj Fathi, 55, was killed instantly. His son died of injuries in a hospital, the newspaper said. Eggvert' rejected BRUSSELS European Community farm ministers have rejected a British proposal to allow advertisements on eggs.

The ministers rejected the "eggvert" idea on health grounds after Spain complained printing advertisements on eggshells would harm the "purity" of eggs in the minds of consumers. British Agriculture Minister Gillian Shephard denounced the decision as an example of excessive interfering by EC bureaucrats. Neretva River as well as facilities at Croatia's port of Ploce. "The Croat side has partly agreed to what we have been asking on the Adriatic, and that is a good omen for future relations," Silajdzic told reporters here. Silajdzic said he was also encouraged by the release of more Muslim prisoners from Bosnian Croat prison camps Monday.

"I think we're making the first steps" toward a compromise with the Croat faction, he said. Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic left here yesterday morning for Sarajevo, where he is scheduled to preside over a meeting early next week of the Muslim-dominated parliament on whether to accept the road-and-port access plan. It was not clear whether the three warring Bosnian factions were on the verge of reaching agreement on the peace plan being brokered by European Community envoy David Owen anci UN mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg. The access plan was hammered out during an eight-hour meeting Monday of the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia and the Yugoslav republic of Serbia aboard the British aircraft carrier Invincible in the Adriatic. However, Silajdzic, Owen and Stoltenberg gave no indication Monday night of a possible compromise over the access issue when they returned to Split from the Invincible.

JOHANNESBURG Thirty-one blacks were killed in South Africa yesterday, including 18 shot dead when gunmen opened fire from a mini-bus. Six people were gunned down in an ambush of a taxi east of the country's financial capital and seven more were killed last night in an attack on a hostel dominated by supporters of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. A total of 87 people have been killed since Friday in Johannesburg and Natal townships. Police said gunmen firing from a mini-bus killed 1 8 people and wounded 25 others in a drive-by attack at an intersection leading to black townships. Witnesses said most of the victims were commuters at a busy taxi terminus.

Earlier yesterday six people were killed when gunmen ambushed a minibus on the old Vereeniging highway running past Tokoza, a focal point of violence in Johannesburg's satellite East Rand townships. An ANC official said seven hostel residents were killed and 40 wounded when suspected members of the rival 5 AP Residents erect barricade across road after gunment opened fire from mini-bus. Inkatha Freedom Party attacked Dur- Africa since democracy negotiators de-ban Deep hostel west of Johannesburg. cided in early July to set next April 27 as More than 1,200 people have been the date for the country's first all-race killed in political violence in South elections. Afistici liewose sanctions to force amy nanti: Exiled Haitian president says he 's still committed to returning on Oct.

30 60S DEANS and ANNE-MARIE O'CONNOR COX NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON Haiti's exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide yesterday urged resuming UN sanctions against his country to force the army and police to halt a wave of political violence in the impoverished Caribbean nation. Thugs close to the Haitian military and police forces have killed nearly 100 Aristide supporters since July 3, when the United Nations brokered an agreement with Haitian security forces that would permit Aristide to return to his country by Oct. 30. Aristide was ousted in a September 1991 military-backed coup. Aristide told reporters here that he remained committed to reluming on Oct.

30. but he said pressure from the world community is needed to bring to heel the political violence being employed by his foes in Haiti's security forces. "We have to do something in order to remove the killers from the Haitian army," Aristide said. When asked whether he endorsed sanctions as a means to press the security forces, Aristide replied: "If the UN thinks that's the best way to do it, we say yes." The United Nations last month suspended an embargo prohibiting the export of arms, oil and financial activity to Haiti. It had been imposed in the aftermath or the 1991 coup.

In New York yesterday, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said lie had no plans to recommend a resumption of those sanctions. Instead, he said he is hoping that the presence of a UN security and training force in Haiti will help to quell the politically-motivated violence there. Ha?" llii 1 ii jtiil.iilFWtiMWiiiili irtfeiiliiMi mm Space shuttle's landing rained out. PAGE BIO School cleaner becomes a teacher. PAGE B11 Chief aide of Somali clan leader arrested.

PAGE 014 Chess results. PAGE D1S Demjanjuk on his way home. PAGE F7 Ukrainian governmont to step down. PAGE F8 AfP Port-au-Prince slum residents greet Robert Malval, Aristide's priime minister. rang I I HEAT PUMP REPLACEMENT PROTECT YOUR Buy ONLY from your authorized fit' Ik -1 UAb OR UILPil FURIIACE i PI till I I fe.

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