8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, December 5, 1996
NATION /WORLD
Algerians suspected in Paris bomb
PARIS (AP) -- Clue by clue, a shadowy network of
Algerian militants emerged yesterday as the prime
suspect in a deadly Paris subway bombing.
A gas canister. Black powder. Nails to cut flesh. All
were hallmarks of a wave of bombings last year
claimed by Algeria's Arned Islamic Group. All were
present at the scene of Tuesday's attack, which killed
two people and seriously wounded 35.
The black powder mix was the same. So was the
timing and the target: evening rush hour on a train line
shuttling thousands of suburbanites to and from Paris.
And, investigators note, despite dozens of arrests
and 14 months of peace, an Algerian thought to be a
ringleader of the 1995 bombing wave remains at large.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the
bombing at the Port Royal station. But the evidence in
hand forced investigators to focus on the theory that a
network of Algerian radicals, thought to be all but dec-
imated, had been reborn.
The bombing shares "great similarities" with those
of the summer of 1995, when eight people were killed
and 160 were wounded, Premier Alain Juppe told law-
makers.
Killed in Tuesday's attack were Lucien Devambez,
a 41-year-old Frenchman, and an unidentified
Canadian woman, French radio reported.
Rabah Kebir of the Islamic Salvation Front -
Algeria's banned opposition movement - con-
demned the bombing last night, saying it "doesn't
serve the Algerian cause."
But judicial sources said the black powder that
filled a gas canister contained the same explosive mix
as that used in the 1995 attacks.
The canister, hidden in a bag packed with nails, was
tucked under a seat in the fourth car of the train. It
exploded as the doors shut before departure.
The Port Royal station is just two stops up the line
from the site of the July 1995 bombing at St. Michel,
the first and most deadly in the wave of attacks that
put France on edge for months.
"We're scared because we know there's danger, here
or in the Metro (the subway)," said Dominique
Chapuis. "I take the Metro every day and who knows
what can happen."
Juppe tried to allay fears.
"All means," the premier told lawmakers, will be
used to capture the criminals and protect the popula-
tion from "the blackmail of fear and violence.
Hundreds of police and soldiers armed with assault
rifles were deployed in airports, train stations, sub-
ways and high-risk areas from Paris to Marseille.
France closed some border crossings with Belgium,
Germany and Luxembourg, and said it was temporar-
ily suspending its participation in the accords that
opened borders across much of Europe.
Investigators, who kept the Port Royal station sealed
yesterday, were examining all hypotheses, including
Basque, Corsican and Moroccan connections. More
than 30 Moroccans are to go on trial Monday for trying
to destabilize the North African monarchy.
But Algerian Islamic militants, who claimed
responsibility for the 1995 bombings as well as the
deadly Christmas 1994 hijacking of an Air France
flight, quickly surfaced as the prime suspects.
"Numerous alerts were brought to the attention of
specialized services in the past few months," the daily
Le Monde quoted an unidentified official as saying.
In an internal memo, France's counterespionage
agency signaled that an Algerian Islamist living in
Afghanistan was preparing in September to leave that
country to "commit an attack against French inter-
ests," Le Monde reported, quoting the memo.
AP PHOTO
A security guard checks the bags of customers at a Paris department store yes-
terday, one day after a bomb exploded in the Paris subway killing two people.
U.S. faces dilemma in
relations with Serbian pres.
Los Angeles Times
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - It only
took a couple of hours for the besieged
government of Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic to use the visit of a
U.S. official to its advantage.
Even as thousands of demonstrators
rallied in Belgrade, the Serbian and
Yugoslav capital, in protests well into
their third week, a U.S. commercial
officer met with a senior official of
Milosevic's regime in view of state tele-
vision cameras.
As anyone could have predicted, the
night's news broadcasts on the only tele-
vision Yugoslavs can watch portrayed a
visit of support, a new effort by the
Clinton administration to "improve eco-
nomic relations" between the United
States and Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.
The meeting Tuesday underscored
the dilemma that growing opposition to
Milosevic poses for Washington.
Milosevic has been the man relied
on by a series of U.S. mediators, espe-
cially star negotiator Richard
Holbrooke, to draft the Bosnia-
Herzegovina peace accord, keep the
Bosnian Serbs more or less in line and
ensure regional stability.
Despite his reputation as a ruthless,
power-hungry manipulator, Milosevic's
affability and his penchant for fine
food, whiskey and off-color humor
made him one of Holbrooke's favorites
throughout the arduous peace negotia-
tions.
And in the year since the peace
accord negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, was
signed, Holbrooke's successor,
Assistant Secretary of State John
Kornblum, has repeatedly flown to
Belgrade to seek Milosevic out when it
came to exacting Bosnian Serb cooper-
ation.
But now support for Milosevic
means condoning blatant electoral
fraud, the gagging of free press and the
trampling of basic democratic rights -
something Washington wants no part
of. U.S. officials have condemned spe-
cific steps Milosevic is taking but with
words that were only slowly gaining
force.
The reality is that the Clinton admin-
istration, with little leverage against
Milosevic, is reluctant to push too hard,
lest the precariously balanced Balkan
house of cards begin to tumble, analysts
say.
"Actually, I didn't expect as much
support (for the opposition forces) as
we are seeing" from Washington, said
Milan Protic, director of the Institute
for Balkan Studies, a think tank in
Belgrade. "They have so much at
stake, so much invested in Milosevic.
U.S. diplomacy since 1994 has been a
tremendous effort based on dealing
with Milosevic no matter how rough it
got.
"It is not sufficient pressure2 Protj
added, "but it 1
more than a lot of
us expected."
News Meanwhile,
there were no
Analysis signs of letup in
protests triggered
by Milosevic's
decision to annul
Nov.17 municipal
elections in which many oppositil
candidates apparently won. Yesterday,
crowds that diplomats and journalists
said were the largest so far rallied out-
side the federal parliament building and
marched to the door of Milosevic's
offices.
And in the first sign of an anticipated
purge of Milosevic's Socialist Party,
Mile Ilic - the Socialist leader of
Serbia's second-largest city, Nis - was
fired. Ilic, whose reputation for corru
tion was only exceeded by his ego, w
a lightning rod for opposition attacks
and is said to have botched his party's
electoral efforts in Nis, where some of
the most egregious fraud took place.
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