8A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 27, 1999
Brothers survive
5 days in Taiwan
quake rubble
Walking for a -cause
Pinochet's health.
fails as extradition
begins in London.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Two broth-
ers were pulled to freedom yesterday
after 5 and a half days buried alive in
the wreckage of Taiwan's killer quake,
saying they survived by eating a few
apples and playing cards in the small
space where they were trapped.
Amid the devastation and shattered
'hopes, Taiwanese were cheered by the
improbable survival of Sun Chi-kwang,
20, and Sun Chi-feng, who turned 26
Wednesday, one day into their 130-hour
ordeal in the wreckage of a collapsed
Taipei building.
The brothers were rescued even as
powerful aftershocks continue to jolt
Taiwan. A particularly strong one hit
early yesterday, killing at least three
people on top of the more than 2,000
who have already died.
Onlookers applauded as the younger
Sun, stripped to the waist but staying
upright, was lifted to safety by a crane. His
brother was rushed away on a stretcher.
Their mother, Liu Luan, heaved with
sobs of joy as her sons came out alive,
speaking so fast she was almost incoher-
ent. "I kept thinking, 'This is not possi-
ble, this is not possible,"' Liu told
reporters at the scene. "I kept praying
for them all the time'"
The brothers were hospitalized in
stable condition. Doctors were check-
ing them for possible internal injuries
or dehydration.
"They are both very clear and con-
scious of what happened," said Su
Chong-jen, chief of surgery at the hos-
pital where they were taken. "What
they need now is rest"
The Sun brothers had been playing
bridge when the 7.6-magnitude quake
struck in the wee hours Tuesday. The
12-story building they were in crum-
pled, flattening parts of the hotel,
offices and apartments it contained.
The brothers' parents and sister were
not home at the time.
The two kept up their spirits by contin-
uing their card game while they waited in
the small space, their doctor said by tele-
"Nobody here
dares to stay
home at night."
- Lee Wen
Taiwanese university student
phone. When their water ran out, they
were forced to drink their own urine.
From his hospital bed, Sun Chi-
kwang said he even managed to give his
sibling a birthday gift.
"My older brother told me that never
in my life did I celebrate his birthday
with him, so I said today I would cele-
brate with you and I gave him my neck-
lace," he said.
He told TVBS television that while
trapped he had "a very strange dream"
in which "there was someone beside
me saying that behind the fridge there
was a hole from where I could get out"
"I thought that was really strange and
I told my older brother. He asked me
what it meant and said fate could not
have been talking to me, so I went back
to sleep," Sun said.
"A little later I saw a hole, and indeed
it turned out to be a big hole," he said,
referring to the hole rescuers carved
into the rubble to reach them.
Emergency crews worked into the
night through a light drizzle in hopes of
saving more lives in the Taipei building,
though they were not certain whether
anyone else was still alive. The building
was one of the hardest-hit structures in
Taipei, the capital.
Sunday's aftershock - a sizable
earthquake in its own right - brought
down some buildings in central Taiwan,
the hardest-hit region, and cracked
walls as far away as Taipei, 90 miles to
the north. Its magnitude was estimated
at 6.5 or 6.8 by different sources.
The aftershock killed three people,
injured at least 58 and buried another
20 in the rubble.
Although there have been thousands of
aftershocks, yesterday's was big enough
to send frightened people scurrying out of
their homes to safe, open spaces. Others
donned motorcycle helmets.
"Nobody here dares to stay home at
night. They all stay in tents," said uni-
versity student Lee Wen in the town of
Puli, where water, electricity and tele-
phone service have yet to be restored.
Deaths from the new tremor, and
more bodies unearthed on Sunday,
brought the confirmed toll from the
quakes to 2,056.
The Washington Post
LONDON - The formal extradition
hearing against former Chilean
President Augusto Pinochet finally gets
under way in magistrate's court here
tomorrow, but Pinochet's future may
depend more on a hospital examination
than the courtroom proceeding.
Eleven turbulent months have passed
since Pinochet was arrested in London
on a request for extradition by a prose-
cutor in Spain. Spanish authorities have
charged the retired general with thou-
sands of human rights violations during
his 17 years as Chile's ruler, and they
want him extradited to Madrid for trial
on charges of torture and conspiracy.
With financial and legal support
from conservative politicians here,
Pinochet has fought extradition with
the same vigor he brought to the long
battle against his political adversaries in
Chile.
He has appealed every ruling against
him. The key decision by Britain's high-
est court -holding that a former head
of state charged with abuse of human
rights can be brought to trial almost
anywhere - is considered a crucial
new precedent in the emerging field of
human rights law.
Pinochet, who is living under house
arrest in a London suburb, held unchal-
lenged sway in Chile from 1973 to
1990.
The legal grounds for extradimon rul-
ings here are fairly clear, and it's gener-
ally assumed that Britain would grant
Spain's request - if the decision were
strictly a legal matter. In recent week.
though. the Pinochet camp has been
hinting that it may invoke his health as
an issue that transcends the legal ques-
tions.
Friends say Pinochet. 83, is deepl
depressed about his arrest and the poli'
cal controversy it has spawned. La
week, he went to a London hospital fora
diagnostic brain scan.
Newspapers have since carried
reports that he is sutfering from dizzi-
ness and a heart problem.
As a legal matter, poor health would
not necessarily bar extradition. But if
Pinochet is widely perceived to be too
frail to defend himself against the
Spanish charges, there would
increased political pressure in London
to let him go home. Home Secretarv
Jack Straw, the Cabinet officer respon-
sible for legal matters, has broad discre-
tion to stop the extradition proceeding.
Earlier this month, the Home Office
decided not to bring charges against a
London woman newly revealed to ha'\ e
been a Russian spy. The reasoning wIs
that the ex-spy is 87 and her alleged
crimes were committed decades age.
As conservative politicians quicl
noted, that sounds a lot like Pinochet.
AP PHOTO
Participants in AIDS Walk Michigan carry signs, yesterday, while walking
down Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit.
Russians claim Bin Laden behind bombings
Los Angeles Times
MOSCOW - With the spate of recent terrorist
bombings in Moscow and southern Russia, the nation
learned a name already familiar, and frightening, to
Americans: Osama bin Laden.
After the apartment bombings that killed more than
300 Russians and terrified the nation this past month,
the Saudi millionaire's name was suddenly all over the
Russian media, and the threat of international terror-
ism was on every politician's lips.
Russians digested the news that their newfound
enemy may be the same as America's -- the man said
to be behind the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa
a year ago.
Russia's old foes have suddenly become more sinis-
ter, amid speculation that bin Laden is supporting
them. The No. I threat to the country is no longer just
separatist bandits such as Shamil Basayev and
Khattab, but international terrorists such as Shamil
Basayev and Khattab.
With Russian intelligence blaming the two guerril-
la leaders for the bombings - and linking bin Laden
to the pair - the attacks raised the specter that Russia
now faces a strong, highly organized and fanatical
enemy capable of taking the Islamic fundamentalist
fight for control of the Caucusus right to the heart of
Russia.
Since last month, Basayev and Khattab - who
goes by only one name - have been leading a guer-
rilla campaign to split Dagestan, which neighbors
separatist Chechnya. But is bin Laden the hidden
enemy funneling vast amounts of money and fight-
ers into Chechnya, as the Russians claim? Or are
the enemies just some of the same rebels Russia
fought - and lost to - earlier this decade, but with
higher ambitions ?
Russian officials are invoking the name of bin
Laden to sharpen the popular appetite for a new wave
of punitive military action against Chechnya - inten-
sive air attacks against its villages (or, as Russia tends
to call them during military operations, rebel bases).
Basayev and Khattab are now a threat to be
whipped up, not downplayed the way they were as key
Chechen commanders who helped defeat Russia in
the 1994-96 war over Chechnva's bid for indepen-
dence. In those days, Russian generals dismissed the
enemy as "bandit formations" and the war as "mop-
ping-up operations."
According to an account by intelligence sources
published in the Russian daily Sevodnya after the
bomb attacks, bin Laden is funding Chechen rebel
forces, organizing terrorist training camps in
Chechnya and even plans to set up key bases of his
own there. The FSB, a KGB successor agency, claiO
he is investing 10 percent of his funds in the Chechen-
Dagestani effort. The Interior Ministry claims that bin
Laden has ordered the collection of S30 million for the
cause.
"If we had as much money as is being claimed, if
we had such possibilities, we would hardly be in
such a difficult situation. What we have is gathered
penny by penny, and today there is nobody who
would provide any significant help to us," Basayev
said, denying the link to bin Laden in an interview
before the big Moscow bombings, publis.
September 9. by the Czech newspaper Lido e
Noviny. "Had there been someone who would coop-
crate with us on specific terms, Russia would have
ceased to exist long ago."
Yossef Bodansky, author of "Bin Laden: The Man
Who Declared War on America" and director of the
U.S. Congress Task force on terrorism, believes that
bin Laden has a long relationship with Basayev, going
back to early 1994, several months before the war over
Chechen independence began.
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Fireworks storage site
blows up in Mexico
MEXICO CITY - A series of
explosions and a fire. destroyed a
section of downtown Celaya in cen-
tral Mexico yesterday, killing at
least 50 people and injuring 76 oth-
ers, state officials said.
Media reports said the tragedy
apparently began when a fireworks
storehouse across the street from the
city bus station exploded about
10:30 a.m., starting a fire that
caused cooking gas tanks at nearby
restaurants to explode a few minutes
later.
The second explosion apparently
trapped some rescuers who had
responded to the first blast.
"It's a very big tragedy," Mayor
Ricardo Suarez said in an interview
with the national Azteca TV
work.
Francisco Aguilar, spokesperson
for Guanajuato state, told reporters
that 76 people were injured in addi-
tion to the 50 known dead. His com-
ments were reported by the govern-
ment's Notimex news agency and
local radio stations.
Among those reported dead were
a police officer, two Red Cross
workers, two fire fighters, a k i
reporter and four children.
. Martin J. Powers
Professor of History ofArt and
Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures
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