Santa Maria Times from Santa Maria, California • 1

Sunday Jill 27,1111 So Tr fl" TTj 1 n-ro-n a 1 1 on r.i i 11 uj After the killing, Kosovo's dead shadow landscape and lives l8L'ra King Associated Press Writer What the people of Kosovo are finding they return to their homes is nothing less than a giant charnel house. (I So far, the numbers are only estimates! Western military and humanitarian officials say upwards of 10,000 people may have died in a concerted campaign of atrocities by Serb police, troops and paramilitary men this mm Body parts clog family wells. In some village homes, corpses still lie where people were cut down in the midst of ordinary tasks cooking a meal, or watching a TV program. Any plot of open land might have become a boneyard. Belongings lie scattered in rain-soaked gardens and on muddy roadsides: a teddy bear, a pink blouse, a bedroom slipper.

As returning neighbors find one another alive, they embrace and deliver stark news of disaster? I saw your brother. His body was burning. Or: Your cousin's throat was cut. Or: They made them lie on the ground, and then shot them. Your uncle was one.

"Murder is a folk art," the Yugoslav-born writer Charles Simic wrote in "Orphan Factory," a collection of poems and essays published last year. "They keep perfecting it without ever being pleased with the results." PRISTINA, Yugoslavia Kosovo is a land wnere'the voices of the dead speak as loudly louder, perhaps than those of the living. The dead are nowhere and everywhere, some never to be found, others scattered in nameless grdves, their bones heaped in the rubble of what wefe once pretty village homes, their last moments etched in the memories and the haunted faces of those who lived through what happened here, Everyone, it seems, is on intimate terms with ifyese dead. Nearly every village, every neighborhood, every family has been somehow touched by the savage spasm of killing whose dimensions are only becoming fully clear now, as "NATO peacekeepers fan out across Kosovo fillid" ethnic Albanian refugees flood back across the borders. in a province whose prewar population was put at about 2 million.

Over the past week, the reckoning has begun in earnest, as refugees whose chaotic exodus from Kosovo over the past three months already represented the greatest mass displacement seen in Europe since World War II come home and confront the proof of terrible doings in their absence, or in the midst of their flight. They find it, at times, on their very doorsteps. EtSiRlC JUiESnlSa Ana Lek'ay is comforted by family and friends after faintina durina the burial of four close members of her family at their See KOSOVO, page A-6 funeral in Cerovik, near Pec, Kosovo, Saturday. Flowers on peraiie Stodly says FBI 'striking out9 1 in convictions 'Ay, (y William Kates Associated Press Writer SYRACUSE, N.Y. The FBI obtains convictions in just one in four cases, the worst average among major federal law enforcement agencies, according to a new study of Justice Department statistics.

From 1993 through 1997, the FBI referred 222,504 cases for prosecution. Only 27 percent resulted in a conviction, said researchers at Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC. In about one-third of cases the FBI referred, federal prosecutors declined to take action because of weak or insufficient evidence, or after deciding there was minimal or no federal interest. An FBI spokesman called the study "meaningless." TRAC, a research organization that analyzes U.S. Justice Department data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, is co-directed by David Burnham, a former New York Times reporter.

Burnham suggested the FBI may be asked to do too much. "Congress has pushed the FBI into being all things to all people," he said. "They've passed all these white collar crime laws. They've passed all these drug laws. There's heavy pressure from presidents, Congress and industry for the FBI to handle everything." TRAC found that in 1997, half of the FBI's 12,324 convictions involved drug or bank theft cases, crimes that Burnham said could have been handled by state or local authorities.

The study, released to the media Saturday night, found the FBI spent less time on cases where it has primary or exclusive respon-, sibility: national security (12 convictions); official corruption (233), organized crime (400), civil rights (99) and white-collar crimes such as medical fraud (202) and embez- See FBI, page A-6 KsrceSSS V.lilZ, 5, adjusts her-flower tiara as she prepares to sell leis during the Lompoc Flower Festival Saturday. At right, Denise Low, 6, from Compton dances and shouts with the Ralph Bursch Elemen- tary School Berrettes during the Lompoc Flower Parade Scan DraperTtaMS Hollywood goes on defensive Directors' Guild passes resolutions on violence in films Maftha Bellisle Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES Fearing that lawmakers who blame Hollywood for recent acts of youth violence will strangle filmmakers' freedom, the Directors Guild of America voted Saturday to lobby against legislative restrictions and provide legal help to directors who become targets of "government intrusion." The 2 1 -member national board of directors unanimously approved a resolution that also calls for establishing a task force of leading directors to "explore and research the issue of violence." The task force would devise methods to educate guild members, the "creative community" and the public on violence and the "rights and responsibilities of Hollywood," the resolution said, iJOur mission is both to ensure that the First Amendment rights of our members are not trampled upon by overzealous legislators and also to raise the consciousness level of the entertainment community with regard jhe social responsibility of filmmakers," DGA President Jalk Shea said in a statement. i'The guild represents about II JOOO film and television directors and assistants across the country. Since the April 20 high school massacre at Littleton, President Clinton and Congress have taken Hollywood to task, suggesting the industry has contributed to a culture of violence through bloody images. The Senate authorized an investigation J'iJtd the marketing of violent fames and shows to children and a federal study into the psycho-lf gical effects on youths of vio-lentvideo games and music, it also passed a requirement that government agencies consider a show's violence level before granting a permit to film on rederal property.

Shea has said the First Amendment rights of filmmakers are as threatened now as during' the 1950s era of anti-Communist blacklisting. 'The DGA resolution states tfiat "the issue of the portrayal of violence in motion pictures and television should be decided Between filmmakers and their Audience," and that guild director who are subpoenaed by government agencies will receive guild support and legal representation. Filmmakers must be protected from "unwarranted and unconstitutional government intrusion," the resolution states. China overpowers Hong Kong courts in immigration case 0 Gray skies dampen spirits at festival Scott C.Seckel times Staff Writer LOMPOC Overcast skies, a low turnout, and muted crowds made for a lackluster Lompoc Flower Festival Parade. Even the paraders seemed less than excited to be there.

An unsmiling Lompoc Portugese Association Queen Conine Satterfield gave the crowd a yawn at one point. About SjOOO people turned out for the parade, "a lot less than other years," said Lompoc police Sgt. Mike Collins. "Probably part of it's the weather. I don't know.

If I did, I'd be Cherridah works at Santa Barbara Bank Trust, which is open on Saturdays. For the past few years she has had to work. "I came a lot when I was younger, and I worked the parade for a few years for the high school, selling stuff. This year I told my boss I'm taking the day off and I'm taking my daughter to the parade." Larry Hood and his wife Betty were in Lompoc from Illinois. Betty's brother Patrick Flynn was -one of the organizers.

It was the Hood's first time at the parade, "but we've heard about it for years." a marketing millionaire." The parade's 49th year saw Filipinos in sarongs and red pajamas, mariachis, soldiers, twirlers, plumed musketeers, and marching bands in their Babes in Toyland uniforms. Santa Barbara Renaissance Fair marching unit came along in doublets, hose, mail, and armor, yelling "God save the queen!" Fifteen month-old Jordan Weigel had a good time, though. "It's her first year at the parade," said her mother, Cherridah. "She loves it; she's clapping for the bands and everything. See, look." Jordan patted her pink hands together.

Dirk Beveridge Associated Press Writer HONG KONG (AP) After two years of mostly hands-off control of Hong Kong, China showed its power Saturday, telling Hong Kong's highest court it had ruled wrongly in an immigration case and had to start interpreting the law differently. The Hong Kong government had asked China to intervene in the case that threatened to flood the territory with migrants from the mainland, saying it hopes this was a one-time plea for help from Beijing. But critics said the territory was surrendering some of its autonomy in a dangerous precedent. Since returning to Chinese rule in 1997, Beijing has largely left the former British colony alone, allowing anti-communist protests, active opposition parties and a fiesty press. Outside government headquarters, hundreds of would-be migrants from the mainland and political activists shouted and waved signs, accusing Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa of ruining the territory's rule of law viewed as crucial to the for mer British colony's position as an international finance center.

Tung accused critics of ignoring the "the constitutional basis on which we have solved the problem," saying they are trying to spread misinformation through the international news media. "We treasure the rule of law as one of the most important pillars of Hong Kong's, success," said Tung, who also told reporters that appealing to Beijing "is not something we would like to do again if we can help it." Critics scoffed. "Mr. Tung, in his statement today, kept repeating that he cared about the rule of law," said Law Yuk-kai, director of the Hong Kong Human Rights Mon itor. seems to believe that if he keeps saying that, people will overlook what he has actually done.

He ill go down in history for having fatally damaged tho legal system, which was Hong Kong's pride." Most Hong Kong residents can go to mainland China freely; but mainlanders must have per mits from Chinese immigration See CHINA, page A-6 Santa Maria Times gamers two state awards place in the general excellence category. It also took first for editorial page, first and second for spot news reporting and second in both the lifestyle coverage and environmental reporting categories. In the same daily circulation division, The Tribune of San Luis Obispo took second place in the spot news photo category. San Luis Obispo's New Times took several awards in the weekly newspaper division that included publications ith a circulation of 25J0OO or more. Its awards included first place for public service; first place feature story; first place comments, commentary, criticism; Times Staff PASADENA Eight Central Coast newspapers captured 25 top awards.

Saturday in the California Newspaper Publishers Association's 1998 Better Newspaper Contest. The Santa Maria Times took second place among daily newspapers with a circulation of for its October special issue about Avila Beach. The newspaper's 14-story series on Proposition 227, the Unz Initiative, which ran in April 1998, earned second place in the investigativeenterprise reporting category. Competing amongst dailies with a circulation of 25j0Ol-75jDOO, the Santa Bartara News-Press took first See CKPA, page A-6 imo tesfcttt B-4 iwKctN d-2 Weather CtMnSMh IMvtM 3 TMfV CMtfCS tvftntltl A-2 Sunny after morning cloud Cmwwl F- tfWtl F-2 68-48 ComuI. J4.

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