Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 4

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1997 I A-4 INTERNATIONAL Conflict, fratricide in the Mideast Saddam sons in rvf 14: 07u.iJ struggle a. mf Ahmed JadallahReuters A Jewish settler tries to run down Palestinian television journalists with his tractor during the demonstration against land confiscation. Earlier, the man fired shots from his pistol and wounded a Palestinian. Jewish settler attacks Arabs with gun, tractor Israeli troops eventually threw stun grenades to disperse the Palestinians, and shoved away journalists covering the protest. One soldier held an unexploded stun grenade near the face of a Palestinian TV cameraman, and others banged journalists' cars with their guns.

The settler stopped firing and rode off on his tractor. He was not detained by the Israelis. In Hebron, Palestinian police stayed away from the clashes yesterday, as they have done for two previous days. That prompted new allegations by Israel that the violence was orchestrated by Arafat's Palestinian Authority. "Palestinian police have refrained from acting against the violence on the Palestinian side," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Palestinian legislators, meanwhile, began debate yesterday on a proposed law that would impose the death penalty on Palestinians who sell land to Israelis and other non-Palestinians. By Ibrahim Barzak The Associated Press DEIR EL BALAH, Gaza Strip A Jewish settler screaming in broken Arabic fired dozens of shots at Palestinians in a land dispute yesterday and tried to run them down with his tractor. A deaf Palestinian was wounded by the gunfire. Israeli troops arrived midway through the half-hour shooting and did nothing to stop the settler. Palestinians who tried to tear down a fence surrounding the settlement ducked behind trees.

In a second clash in the West Bank town of Hebron, Palestinians threw stones and firebombs at Israeli troops who responded with rubber bullets. Nineteen people were hurt, including Heidi Levine, a photographer on assignment for The Associated Press. The escalating violence comes during a deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks follow ing the failure of the latest mediation attempt, this time by Egypt. The battle for land is at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. "The peace process is hitting an impasse because of Israel's provocative policies and its refusal to implement agreements," Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said yesterday.

Palestinians were also angered by a non-binding resolution approved by the U.S. Congress last week recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, despite Palestinian claims to the eastern sector of the city as a future capital. The Gaza clash began when 30 Palestinians tried to tear down a fence near the Gush Katif settlement, arguing it was part of an illegal land grab. Israeli officials said the fence stood on land that was always part of the settlement. After the protesters arrived, a bearded settler riding on a tractor shouted "Get out of here!" and began firing his pistol.

He also tried to run down Palestinian cameramen and photographers. By Peter Beaumont London Observer LONDON Saddam Hussein's murderous sons have plunged into a family struggle over which of them should eventually succeed the 60-year-old Butcher of Baghdad. Behind the scenes Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay are locked in battle over which should occupy the No. 2 position. The struggle for supremacy follows warnings from Western diplomats that, rather than being weakened by the Gulf war five years ago, Saddam has reinforced his grip on Iraq and is as dangerous as ever.

He is claimed to have purged hundreds of political opponents in recent months after the attempt to kill Uday last December, when two gunmen sprayed his car with automatic fire. Until the assassination attempt Uday, 33, was recognized as Saddam's heir apparent. Last week, however, as Iraqi television pictured him hobbling on crutches out of the Ibn Sina hospital in Baghdad, opposition members were claiming that Qusay had usurped power. The shooting, by unidentified gunmen, has done more than lamed Uday. It has left him politically crippled after years of terrorizing Baghdad and has punctured his image of invulnerability, in a culture that feels uncomfortable with illness and disability.

Watchers of Saddam's clan say that Qusay has moved quickly and taken over Uday's offices. Most importantly, they say, he has taken command of Saddam's paramilitary "fedayeen." The quiet coup has added to already strong power base within Iraq he runs Saddam's intelligence agencies, which are active again abroad, and the Presidential Guard. Few now believe Uday can claw back power. Uday's decline also marks a reshaping of the vicious politics of Saddam's clan. Saddam's wife, Sa-jida Talfah, is under house arrest along with daughters Raghad and Rana.

Less than a year ago, Saddam had his two sons-in-law, Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majeed and Saddam Kamel Hassan al-Majeed, killed after they returned from Jordanian exile on promises of forgiveness for defecting and Sajida's guarantee of their safety. One version says Uday and his cronies were the trigger men. But even in a family so bloody and treacherous, Uday has overstepped the mark. His career of rape and pillage has angered Saddam, threatening to overshadow his own Ba'ath party purges. Uday's preying on Baghdad's young women and involvement with the black market brought unpopularity to Saddam's regime even from those who notionally depend on it.

But, Iraqi dissidents abroad say, it is within the family that he has made his most serious enemies clearing space for Qusas move. Saddam's half-brother Watban Tikriti, once a powerful figure, lost his leg after being shot by Uday during an argument in 1995. Both of Saddam's other half-brothers, Bar-zan Tikriti and Sabawi Tikriti, also have major grievances against Uday: Barzan over Uday's treatment of his daughter, whom he married, and both Barzan and Sabawi for having been pushed from power. Relatives of Hussein Kamel and Saddam Kamel also have reason to hate Uday. Salah Omar Ali, a member of Iraqi National Accord Assembly, is one of many who believe Uday's power is in rapid decline.

"He is disabled now and we understand that his brother Qusay is moving to take over his power. Uday cannot control things any more. He is seen now as being vulnerable and more a target for attack." WORLD BKHFS Tudjman win called flawed ZAGREB, Croatia Even as President Franjo Tudjman reveled in his re-election yesterday, international monitors said the vote was flawed and challengers who had promised more democracy said it was tarnished by low turnout. The criticism by foreign ob-' servers was the harshest against a Croatian election since the country's 1991 war of independence from the old Yugoslav federation. Tudjman's Croatia has come under increasing fire for its undemocratic ways and poor treatment of minority Serbs.

In addition, Croats appear to be growing disillusioned with or disinterested in the 75-year-old leader. Although he is widely respected as the father of his nation's dream of independence, about 40 percent of the electorate stayed home Sunday. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Sunday's elections were below minimum democratic standards. Milosevic's support BELGRADE, Yugoslavia In a further sign of his intention to seek the Yugoslav presidency, Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic was endorsed yesterday by a neo-Communist coalition led by his powerful wife. Milosevic must by law give up the Serbian presidency this year, and he is seeking a new base to extend his decade in power.

The presi-. dency of Yugoslavia the federation of Serbia and small Montenegro has few powers, but he is seeking to strengthen them. Soldier suicidal NAOUR, Jordan A Jordanian soldier accused of gunning down seven Israeli schoolgirls in March has a personality disorder and tried to commit suicide in 1989, a psychiatrist testified yesterday. Dr. Nabil Hmoud, a Jordanian army major, told a military hearing that Cpl.

Ahmed Daqamseh, 26, is mentally sound but suffers from a personality disorder that may lead him to harm himself or others. He did not say what the personality disorder was. Twins, different dads In a rare finding, a pair of twins has been shown to have different fathers. The case came to light when a woman in Spain gave birth to twins and the husband, suspecting they were the result of an affair, demanded DNA fingerprinting to see if he was the father. The report in the June issue of Fertility and Sterility indicated that the woman later admitted she had sex with another man within a few days of having sex with her husband.

Apparently her ovaries released two eggs that month instead of the usual one, and each was fertilized by a different man's sperm. Woman in Cabinet? TEHRAN, Iran A woman will serve in the Iranian Cabinet for the first time since the 1979 revolution brought the Islamic republic to power, a newspaper reported yesterday. The English-language Iran News said a woman would become health minister after President-elect Mohammed Khatami succeeds his ally. President Hashemi Rafsanjani, in August. Two women legislators, Fatemeh Ramazanzadeh and Qodsiyeh Seyed Alavi, are the front-runners for the post, the paper said.

Both women are members of the 270-seat Majlis, or parliament. Drug crackdown BEIJING Police arrested more than 16,000 drug addicts in the southern province of Guangdong and seized 165 pounds of heroin during an anti-crime sweep, a newspaper reported yesterday. Botticelli on display FLORENCE, Italy The Uf-fizi Museum put the earliest known work of Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli back on display yesterday after two years of restoration. "Fortitude," an allegory portraying a woman embodying the virtue of Inner strength, was painted in 1470 on a commission from the Florence merchant's guild. Zimbabwe retreats on plan to trade ivory Canada may send Saudi bomb figure to U.S.

today By James Vicini Reulers News Service WASHINGTON U.S. officials said last night that deportation to the United States was imminent for a suspect held in Canada over the truck bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen last year. The officials said the suspect, Hani Abdel-Rahim Hussein al-Sayegh, who has been held in an Ottawa prison, would be sent to the United States, perhaps by today or tomorrow. Officials said today was the most likely date for Sayegh's deportation, although they acknowledged it still could be delayed by last-minute problems.

FBI agents have been standing by in Ottawa to bring him to the United States. Sayegh has been identified in Canadian court documents as the driver of a car that gave the go-ahead signal for the bomb-laden truck involved in the attack on Khobar Towers. U.S. officials have long sought to question Sayegh about the June attack on the compound that housed U.S. military personnel in Dhahran in eastern Saudi Arabia.

The bombing killed 19 Americans and injured hundreds. Justice Department officials were planning to indict Sayegh on terrorist conspiracy charges in connection with an unrelated extremist attack that was never carried out, the Washington Post reports today. Under a tentative deal reached with Sayegh, he would plead guilty to that charge and begin providing information about the Khobar Towers attack, although law enforcement sources told the paper the deal was fragile and Sayegh has been unpredictable in his previous dealing with U.S. officials. The two main unresolved points that previously held up his deportation involved his legal status once he comes to the United States and what provisions might be provided for his family, the officials said.

They said it was unclear how much Sayegh knew about the bombing. One U.S. law enforcement official privately expressed doubts Sayegh would be that valuable to the investigation. The official said he has doubts about how much Sayegh knows. In Ottawa, there was little activity at the prison where Sayegh was being kept, and a prison official said Sayegh was still inside.

Canadian Citizenship and Immigration spokesman Rene Mercier said the government would only give out details after Sayegh was gone. "We will not be talking about where he is going or when he is going ahead of time," he said. By Angus Shaw The Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe Zimbabwe threatened to defy the world ban on ivory trading yesterday, but Western anger quickly persuaded the government to tone down its stance during an international meeting on wildlife conservation. Environment and Tourism Minister Chen Chimutengwende said Zimbabwe would not resume ivory trading until the U.N. Convention on Trade in Endangered Species deems its trade controls effective against poaching.

"We will want the panel of experts to come again and see if our controls are now good. If they are satisfied, trading will Chimutengwende told reporters. Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana have lobbied intensely during the convention for permission to sell more than 150 tons of combined ivory stockpiles. Ivory trading has been banned since 1990. "Our people are hungry.

They should be allowed trade in resources that are rightfully theirs," said Jerry Gatora of Zimbabwe. He runs a program that uses hunting revenues to build schools, clinics and recreational facilities in remote bush areas where families typically earn about $200 a year. Chimutengwende's assurance that Zimbabwe would wait to resume ivory trading was seen as damage control. A state-controlled newspaper had reported yesterday that Zimbabwe would defy the ban, regardless of what the 138 convention members decide today when they vote on whether to ease the embargo. The report angered the.

United States, European nations and independent conservation groups, who say resuming trade would increase poaching. "We feel it would be premature at this time," said Pat Owori, representative of the Species Survival Network, a coalition of 40. world conservation groups. Chimutengwende promised that Zimbabwe would stop trade if there was any evidence it led to more poaching. He said he was "very optimistic" his side would win today's vote, saying it had the support of several Asian, Latin American and Caribbean states.

But he said many of the 1,500 delegates and hundreds more environmentalists and observers at the conference were hostile to the pro-trade lobby. Russia-bolstered economic summit to focus on Africa tion for the leaders at the governor's mansion in Denver on Friday night, after which they will discuss Bosnia and other foreign policy matters over dinner at the University of Denver. On Saturday, the venue shifts to the Denver public library for a morning meeting and luncheon. In the afternoon, there'll be a one-hour session on international economic policy without Yeltsin. But the Russian leader will join his colleagues for dinner at a Western-style restaurant that night and an evening of what is being billed as "uniquely American entertainment" at the National Western Complex.

The final communique will be issued Sunday. While the group has no power to enforce any recommendation on a member nation or anyone else, by turning the spotlight on specific issues, leaders hope to influence public opinion. from these summit meetings are drafted and mostly agreed upon before the first toast of welcome is voiced. The emphasis is always on consensus, with rarely even shadings for disagreement. This year, for instance, the leaders are expected to include a statement on Hong Kong in their final communique that will express their expectation that China will abide by its 1984 agreement with Britain that calls for maintaining Hong Kong's autonomy and free market, democratic society.

But criticism of China's human rights policies will likely be missing from the statement as too sensitive and controversial, coming in the midst of debate in Washington on whether to continue normal trade relations with China, and the interest of several European nations, particularly France, in increasing their trade with China. Clinton will be host to a welcoming recep Onetime G-7 to stress more political concerns By Pat Griffith Post-Gazette Washington Bureau WASHINGTON President Clinton will hold separate private meetings with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, French President Jacques Chirac and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Denver on Friday as a prelude to a weekend gathering of leaders of the world's major industrial nations. This marks the first time that Yeltsin will be a full participant except for a one-hour discussion on international monetary and fiscal policy from which he is formally excused in what until now has been the annual meeting of the G-7, meaning the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. This year the long-standing economic forum will take on a more political hue as the first Summit of the Eight. As this year's host for the meeting that rotates among member countries, Clinton has set an agenda that will focus on promoting political and economic stability and growth in new democracies from Russia to the African continent.

Today, he plans to announce a new initiative aimed at strengthening market economies of emerging African nations that will be offered for discussion and adoption at the Denver summit. The leaders will also be working on a cooperative approach to dealing with international terrorism and crime, improving nuclear safety, and combatting the spread of emerging infectious diseases. Typically, the final communiques that come For world news updates LA call PC, Link at 261-1234; then press 2120. i.