8A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 9, 1995
Bosnia, Serbia battle for
territory before cease-e
AP PHOTO
A group of Bosnian government troops make their way to the front lines near the Serb-held town of Samski Most Satruday.
Ecolic poweb pledge
to help Bosniarbuld
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina(AP) -A shell blamed
on Serb rebels slammed into a government-run refugee camp
yesterday, killing at least six people, as both sides battled for
precious land and better negotiating positions ahead of a
cease-fire.
A local doctor told state-run radio that the attack at
Zivinice, near Tuzla in northeastern Bosnia, also wounded
about 30 people, 20 of them children;
"The beautiful day probably drew them out," Duska
Bericevic said, adding that many of the wounds were
serious.
U.N. estimates of the minimum death toll at the camp -
which houses mostly Muslims driven from Serb-conquered
areas - ran from six to 10 people killed. Bosnian army
headquarters in Tuzla said more than 10 people were killed,
the majority children.
The United Nations did not say who was behind the attack,
but state radio blamed the Serbs and said the shell contained
several explosives that detonated above the refugee center.
The attack came as Bosnian government forces made
gains against Serbs in the north and launched a counteroffen-
sive in the northwest. Both sides are trying to grab as much
territory as possible before a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire freezes
front lines. The truce, a prelude to a peace conference, is
scheduled to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Bosnian time tomor-
row -7 o'clock tonight Ann Arbor time.
The Serbs warned the truce was being threatened by
Croatian involvement in Bosnia. They had been making
headway in the northwest until the Croatian army returned to
help government troops.
"The reinforcement ... jeopardizes directly the signed
cease-fire," said a Serb statement carried by Yugoslavia's
Tanjug news agency. It said Serb forces "will do everything
to stop the aggression" should Croatian involvement con-
tinue.
Bosnian state radio suggested the refugee camp shelling
was Serb retaliation for government army gains near Doboj,
northwest of Tuzla. The radio, quoting army headquarters,
said government forces continued advances there yesterday.
Croatia's HINA news agency quoted Bosnian Croat units
as claiming some Serb warplanes dropped cluster bombs on
some of their units in northern Bosnia. There was no confir-
mation.
The Bosnian army also was on the move in the area of
Bosanska Krupa, about 50 miles west of the Serb stronghold
of Banja Luka in the northwest, said U.N. spokeswoman
Maj. Myriam Sochacki. Banja Luka, however, is considered
unconquerable.
Women, children and the elderly continued gathering
yesterday on the government-held city of Zenica in central
Bosnia after being driven out of Serb-held cities, including
Banja Luka. Sarajevo radio said 180 refugees arrived yester-
day, in addition to nearly 500 who came Saturday.
Some of Saturday's arrivals reported they crossed a river
to avoid going through a minefield and that two women
drowned in the crossing.
The driving of rival ethnic groups from conquered areas
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
world's economic powers expressed an
eagerness yesterday to provide debt re-
lief and significant financial assistance
to rebuild war-torn Bosnia, hoping that
the lure of economic aid will provide
momentum for the peace process.
Finance ministers in Washington
for the annual meetings of the Inter-
national Monetary Fund and the World
Bank said those two giant lending
agencies would be expected to take
the lead role in providing assistance
to Bosnia.
"We have to consolidate the peace
process. We have to rebuild Bosnia
quickly," French Finance Minister Jean
Arthuis told reporters.
The world's seven largest economies
- the United States, Japan, Germany,
France, Britain, Canada and Italy -
urged both the IMF and World Bank to
quickly draw up a plan of what finan-
cial resources will be needed.
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said
this study should focus on a "timely,
flexible and suitable" economic re-
sponse to Bosnia's needs.
In addition to financial aid, the ad-
ministration made clear yesterday that
President Clinton was committed to
sending U.S. troops to Bosnia to help
keep the peace.
Leon Panetta, White House chief of
staff, said on NBC's "Meet the Press,"
such U.S. military involvement "has to
happen ... I don't think we can turn our
backs on that."
While Bosnian Prime Minister Haris
Silajdzic has said his country will need
$12 billion for postwar reconstruction,
the United States and its G-7 allies were
not specific on exact amounts of aid
they were prepared to send, saying it
would depend on the needs determined
by the IMF and World Bank.
The issue of Bosnia was added at the
last minute to the agenda for the annual
meetings ofthe 179-nation IMF and the
World Bank.
While the world economy is per-
forming reasonably well, the discus-
sions in Washington have focused on
ways to better cope with problems such
as the near default of Mexico last De-
cember, the worst global economic cri-
sis in more than a decade.
Ruza Batkovic prays during Mass In a church that Is near
Sarajevo's Sniper Alley yesterday.
has been a hallmark of the 3 1/2-year war. Serbs have been
expelling Croats and Muslims from the Banja Luka region
since 1992. Banja Luka, meanwhile, is choked with tens of
thousands of Serb refugees who fled as Serbs suffered
defeats in northwestern Bosnia and adjacent Croatia.
Even if the fighting doesn't force postponement of the
truce, other conditions could delay it, including restorationf
of Sarajevo's electrical and gas systems.
All sides have planted mines around a hill in Kokoska,
about 12 miles west of Sarajevo, where main power lines are
damaged. U.N. officials said it may take a day or two to clear
the mines, but the electricity repairs could be finished on
deadline.
Sochacki said nearly all mines have been cleared, and that
the United Nations hoped to begin fixing the lines late
yesterday. She said the United Nations also would be clear-
ing mines from a road leading to the government-held en-
clave of Gorazde in eastern Bosnia, to meet another govern-
ment demand.
Pope tells
followers
tpromote
BALTIMORE (AP) - Preaching in
the cradle of U.S. Catholicism, Pope
John Paul II urged the faithful yester-
day to heed America's founding fathers
and bring religious convictions to bear
on political issues.
On the final day of his fourth U.S.
pilgrimage, the pope celebrated Mass
from an altar in centerfield, the location
of a saloon run by Babe Ruth's father a
century ago.
"Every generation of Americans
needs to know that freedom consists
not in doing what we like, but in having
the right to do what we ought," John
Paul said, warning of the dangers of a
permissive society lacking amoral foun-
dation.
The scoreboard at Oriole Park dis-
played the message, "He is here," as the
rock group Boyz I1 Men serenaded the
pontiff touring the baseball stadium in
his popemobile. The stadium had not
rocked to such cheers since Cal Ripken
broke Lou Gehrig's 56-year-old record
of playing in 2,130 straight games last
month.
"This is Number One," said Walter
Gentile, an Orioles usher. Ripken's
record-breaking game last month?
"That's Number Two."
Three hundred gospel singers wav-
ing yellow and white Vatican flags
sang the spiritual,"I Want to be Ready
When Jesus Comes," as the
popemobile rounded the infield under
sunny skies.
Later, the popemobile took John Paul
in a two-mile parade that police said
was witnessed by around 350,000
IRS to face budget
cuts, reduce services
AP PHOTO
John Cardinal O'Connor speaks to Pope John Paul 1i inside St. Patrick's Cathedral Saturday.
people. He then joined 19 people in a
soup kitchen for a lunch of chicken and
rice casserole, peas, carrots and choco-
late chip cookies.
"I'm enjoyingmyself, I wish itwould
go on all week," said Alphonso Alvarez,
a regular at Our Daily Bread, run by the
Catholic Church.
John Paul bent down and kissed the
foreheads of six children at the center.
One child, Baltimore Cardinal William
Keeler said, called the pontiff "Uncle
Pope."
The pope also visited the Basilica of
the Assumption. As he was leaving, he
saw a woman in a wheelchair. He
clasped her hands and said, "Bless you
my child."
"I probably had some idiot grin on
my face. I was awestruck. I kissed his
ring and said, 'Thank you Father,"' 34-
year-old Susan Grezson said later.
At the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen,
the pope challenged Catholics to de-
fend "against those who would take
religion out of the public domain and
establish secularism as America's offi-
cial faith."
Also on his schedule was a meeting
with Vice President Al Gore before
boarding his TWA plane for Rome.
John Paul delivered his stadium mes-
sage in America's oldest Catholic dio-
cese, one established in the 16th cen-
tury by English Catholics fleeing per-
secution.
The message was aimed at pushing
Roman Catholics to raise their voices in
the public policy debate, and to pro-
mote what the church holds as moral
truths.
"Can the biblical wisdom which
played such a formative part in the
very founding of your country be ex-
cluded from that debate?" John Paul
asked.
"Would not doing so mean that
America's founding documents no
longer have any defining content, but
are only the formal dressing of chang-
ing opinion? Would not doing so mean
that tens of millions of Americans could
no longer offer the contribution of their
deepest convictions in the formation of
policy?"
After a especially busy schedule in
New York on Saturday, John Paul ap-
peared less vigorous than he had during
Mass there in Central Park. He seemed
to slouch in fatigue in his green vest-
ments as he sat on the altar, set up at the
410-foot mark in deep centerfield.
In a week, the 75-year-old pontiff
will begin the 18th year of his papacy,
the second longest this century, behind
Pius XII.
WASHINGTON (AP) - On the
theory that it takes money to make
money, the Clinton administration asked
Congress to increase the IRS budget by
10 percent. Instead, the Republican-
controlled Congress is cutting it by
nearly 2 percent.
That will translate into staff reduc-
tions, fewer taxpayer phone calls an-
swered and trouble shrinking the
agency's $150 billion backlog of un-
collected taxes, IRS Commissioner
Margaret Milner Richardson said.
"If you were running a business ...
you might spend money to make money.
But that's not often the way the federal
budget process works," she said.
The appropriations bill funding the
agency in fiscal year 1996 is in confer-
ence between House and Senate nego-
tiators, who are hung up on the unre-
lated issue of whether to restrict lobby-
ing by tax-exempt organizations.
But they've agreed to spend $7.35
billion on the IRS, compared with $7.48
billion in 1995 and an administration
request for 1996 of $8.23 billion.
As a result, the agency will have to
reduce its staffing --at the equivalent of
114,000 full-time positions--by as many
as 8,000 positions, Richardson said.
The IRS has had a hiring freeze in
effect since July but may have to fur-
lough or lay offemployees to live within
its reduced budget, she said.
Congressional Republicans, how-
ever, criticize the IRS, saying the agency
wastes money and continues to expand
while other agencies have been forced
to cut back.
"The IRS must learn to operate more
efficiently with less just as all govern-
ment entities are trying to do," said Sen.
Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of
the Appropriations subcommittee with
jurisdiction over the IRS.
"It's difficult to view this as anything
but a penny-wise and pound-foolish
move," said Robert Tobias, president of
the National Treasury Employees Union,
which represents IRS employees.
HeIn for taxnavers will also he
Clinton ma
aOw Social
Security cuts..
WASHINGTON (AP) - Thy
Clinton administration could accept
smaller cost-of-living increases for
Social Security recipients, but not
merely as an expedient way to bal-
ance the budget, White House Chief
of Staff Leon Panetta said yesterday
Panetta said economists, and not
politicians, should determine
whether the current formula for ad-
justing government benefits for in-
flation is overly generous and needs
to be changed.
The Consumer Price Index, the
standard for measuring inflation,
should not become "a grab-bag mn
order to try to fill a need in terms o
the budget," Panetta said on NBC s
"Meet the Press."
Panetta's cautious approach to
rethinking changes in Social Secu-
rity benefits drew a quick reproach
from Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
(D-N.Y.), who said the administra.i'
tion was being intimidated by se-
mor citizens' groups.
Moynihan, the senior Democr
on the Senate Finance Comm ittee'
has said reducing the CPI by a fRil
percentage point could save the gov
ernment $634 billion over the net,
decade, mostly from Social Security.
Many economists say the CP1
now rising at something under 3;
percentage points a year, overstate'
the actual inflation rate,
Moynihan pointed out that one-'of
the admi ni strati on's top economnis
Alice Rivlin of the Office of Ian-,
agement and Budget, last year con,
eluded the CPI formula sbould
adjusted to bring it closer to realiy.
Senior Republicans, including
Major loses hold on House of Com ns
LONDON (AP) - A government lawmaker has
tempt by too many Tories," he said in his resignation
It cast a new cloud over the four-day annual party
maptnar.tn;incrt-mrrnwTm .neratives have