- Savannah News-Press • Saturday, August 27,1904 * * *
IRA Allies
Upbeat After
Belfast Meeting
The Aeeooleted Press
BELFAST, Northern Ireland
- Political allies of the Irish Republican Army said Friday that
;their meeting with a delegation
;of Irish-Americans had fostered
I hopes of peace.
"We can look forward to the
peace process moving on as a result of these discussions and de. liberations/' said Gerry Adams,
president of Sinn Fein, the legal
political party that supports the
IRA's violent campaign against
British rule in Northern Ireland
Adams and other Sinn Fein
officials met with a delegation
led by Bruce Morrison, a former
Democratic congressman from
Connecticut. Morrison had said
he would urge Sinn Fein and the
IRA to call a halt to violence and
accept an invitation from the
British and Irish governments to
join multiparty talks.
In the evening, a failed mortar attack on a police base 20
miles southeast of Belfast damaged a pub and injured 10 people
slightly. No one immediately
claimed responsibility, but the
IRA frequently uses mortars to
attack security installations.
Bosnian Refugees Heading
Toward Confrontation Point
By HRVOJE HRANJSKI
PT«M
TURANJ, Croatia - Bosnian refugeei streamed toward a zone separating Serb-held Croatia from the
rest of the republic Friday, and U.N
officials feared they would clash
with Croatian troops determined to
keep them out.
Alemka Lisinski, spokeswoman
for the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees, said 25,000 refugees from
Bosnia's northwestern corner were
heading toward the Turanj crossing.
About 7,000 already were camped ,
out near the crossing in a no man's
land between Croatia's rebel Serbs
and regular Croatian troops With
the Croats positioning water cannons and armored vehicles at the
transit point to prevent any breakthrough, the chances for a messy
confrontation were growing.
"At the moment, they say they
won't let them in," Lisinski said of
the Croats.
U.N. officials and peacekeepers
at the checkpoint donned flak jackets as they braced for potential violence. U.N.police conceded they had
no control over the area.
Lisinski said up to 14,000 refugees
stretched from the Bosnian-Croatian
border 25 miles northward to the
separation zone between Croat-held
and Serb-held Croatia. Two refugees
were wounded by land mines littering fields along the road.
The refugees fled Velika Kladusa
In neighboring Bosnia, where forces
loyal to renegade Muslim leader
Fikret Abdic were routed by the
Bosnian government army last
weekend.
The Bosnian government pledged
there would be no reprisals if the
refugees returned. But the refugees
appeared to believe strident Abdic
propaganda warning of retaliation if
thev went home,
Velika Kladusa is at the northern
tip of a Muslim enclave known as
the Bihac pocket in northwestern
Bosnia. Abdic, a wealthy local businessman, declared Independence
from the Muslim-led Sarajevo government last fall and made his own
peace with Serbs who surround the
enclave.
It was unclear why Abdic, whose
whereabouts were not known, continued to warn refugees not to return
home. There was speculation he
might be trying to regroup his forces
with the backing of Croatian Serbs.
Drenched by rain Friday, refugees slept under trucks and buses or
built tents of wood and plastic sheeting. Others sought shelter in bombed
out buildings abandoned after Croatia's 1991 war with rebel Strbs. All
lacked adequate drinking water and
sanitation.
Croatia, already burdened with
400,000 refugees from Bosnia and
those displaced in its own war of secession from Yugoslavia, said it
could not accept them.
An estimated 10,000 people died
in the 1991 war between the Croat
government and Croatian Serbs.
Accepted for Study
Anthony P. Werenzak (kneeling at right) is accepted by Catholic Bishop Raymond Lessard
(seated left) Into study to become a priest during ceremonies recently at Blessed Sacrament
Church. Werenzak, of Savannah, and Timothy
McKeown of Augusta, will complete their studies for ordination Into the priesthood at the
North American College In Rome, Italy.
Warenzak is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph E,
Warenzak. The Bleaaed Sacrament ceremony
was sponsored by the Serra Club, an organization dedicated to fostering vocations to the
priesthood. At right is the Rev. Patrick O'Brien,
Social Critics Decry Precipitous Increase Of Billionaires In Mexico
•y ENRIQUE RANQEL
QtiMs Mpmlng N«wt
MONTERREY, Mexico - Three
'years ago Carlos Slim Helu was a
rich man but no billionaire. Today,
he's the richest Mexican and fourth:
Wealthiest man in the world, accord*
' ing to Forbes magazine.
' With a fortune estimated at $6.6
I billion, Slim is three times as rich as
Row Perot.
''' But to Mexicans, the fact that
Slim, 54, is now the wealthiest man
in the country is no big surprise.
Slim, after all, controls Telefonos
tie Mexico, or Telmex, the recentlyprivatized telephone monopoly He's
also head of Grupo Carso, one of
J
Mexico's most powerful conglomerates with holdings ranging from cigarette manufacturing to financial institutions.
What's shocked and even angered
some is how fast Slim has become
flfte wealthiest man in the country
that Mexico, a developing na-
Uon, now has 24 billionaires, compared with 13 last year,
Only the United States, Germany
and Japan - all industrialized countries - have more, according to the
magazine.
"It's something that we should all
be ashamed of," said Maxlmino
Hernandez, leader of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRO, in
the state of Nuevo Leon. "How can
you explain to poor people that while
they keep getting poorer, the rich
are getting richer?"
Through their respective offices,
Slim and other billionaires on the
Forbes list declined to comment or
didn't return phone calls.
President Carlos Salinas de
Gortari, who has been the target of
criticism from those who say that
his government has favored the rich,
hasn't commented publicly on the
Forbes ranking.
Only two of the 24 billionaires
have commented.
Roberto Gonzalez Barrera,
founder and chief executive officer
of Grupo Maseca, the world's largest seller of tortillas, said recently,
"It fills me with pride because I
come from a very humble family.''
Gonzalez, whose wealth is estimated at $1.1 billion, made the
Forbes list for the first time.
But another first-timer wasn't
thrilled. Jorge Martinez Guitron,
whose fortune is estimated at $1 billion, complained to Mexico City
newspaper El Financier© that
Forbes overestimated his family's
wealth. Martinez and his brother
Jose Martinez Guitron are majority
owners of Grupo Sidek in Guadalajara. The group has interests in tourism, steel manufacturing and in El
Banco Naclonal de Mexico, or
Banamex, the country's largest
bank.
Martinez said he's also upset
about being on the list because it
makes him and his family targets
for kidnapping.
Earlier this year, Alfredo Harp
Helu and Angel Losada Moreno, also
billionaires, were kidnapped and
eventually released after each of
their families paid ransoms of about
$30 million to their respective captors,
Besides Slim, Gonzalez, Martinez, Harp and Losada, the magazine's list includes other well-known
Mexican billionaires such as Emilio
Azcarraga Mllmo of Mexico City
and the Garza Sada family of Monterrey.
. ....
Azcarraga
controls Grupo
Televise, the largest television network in the Spanish-speaking world.
His fortune Is estimated at $5.4 billion and he has made the Forbes list
every year since 1990 when there
were only two Mexicans on it.
The Garza Sada family was broken into two clans this year, one led
by Bernardo Garza Sada and his
nephew Dionisio Garza Medina, and
the other headed by Adrian Sada
Gonzalez.
The combined worth of both fam-
ilies is estimated at $2.3 billion. The
Garza Sada family has made the
Forbes list since 1986, the first year
that the magazine published the
names of the wealthiest people in the
world.
, •
Critics such as Hernandez claim
that the rich in Mexico keep getting
richer with the government's help.
They note that some of the wealthiest men such as Slim and Ricardo
Salinas Pliego (who is not related to
the president) became very wealthy
when the government privatized its
holdings such as Telmex and Television Azteca, a television network.
But others disagree.
The state-owned companies
"were sold for a lot of money," said
Federico Arreola, a well-known columnist for El Financiero and for the
Monterrey newspaper El Dlarlo.
"Slim and Salinas Pliego took a big
risk when they bought those enterprises."
Maria de los Angeles Posas, a researcher
at
Monterrey-based
Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a Tijuana-based think tank, said that
what many critics overlook is that
some of Mexico's billionaires made
their fortunes in the stock market.
Jorge Gonzalez Davlla, an economist at Trinity University In San Antonio and a Monterrey native, said
no one should be surprised that there
are 24 billionaires in Mexico.
"They've been rich for a long
time; it's just that people didn't
know it," he said. In the past, Gonzalez said, the rich would invest
their money in the United States or
other countries.
An increasing number of rich
people in Mexico have now become
philanthropists in the tradition of the
Rockefellers, the DuPonts and other
prominent U.S. families.
"They're setting up foundations
and supporting a new social agenda," Dr. Whiting said. "They believe
in giving something back to the community."
Report: Radical
Algerian Faction
Forms Government
The Assoclstsd Press
ONE DAY ONLY!
IN MOURNING: Relatives of passengers who died in the plane crash comfort one another during
a memorial service on Friday.
Suicidal Pilot Report Challenged
*VBfe. "^^^k,A T AV^XA ^ A A
m^^f
NOlNTERESP
The Area's Only Aulhnri/cd
ihnmasville Dealer!
t
TnomosviUe
JL
HOME FURNISHING*
FURNISHINGS.
A
V
T
Y ' S
7925Ab*rcorn Extension • 927-5060
Monday thru Friday 9toB^ Saturday 9to6^ Sunday Ito5
Of
to
to
tsoo
1*1*1
*v<-"»«u«t
The Associated Press
RABAT, Morocco - A flight union demanded Friday that investigators back up their report that a distraught pilot deliberately steered his plane into a
mountain, killing all 44 people aboard.
In a statement published in the newspaper Opinion, the Moroccan Association of Navigators expressed "indignation" at the "deeply grave accusabn that can only be put forth with irrefutable
/'proof"
"We obviously plan to be in touch with the investigating commission to find out on what basis its thesis
rests," the statement said.
The Royal Air Maroc ATR-42 crashed north of
Agadir in southern Morocco on Sunday, killing 40
passengers and four crew members
An investigating commission announced Thursday that the pilot, Younes Khayati, plunged the plane
to earth because he wished to commit suicide
News reports have said Khayati, 32, was in despair over his love life The head of the investigating
commission said a special panel was being set up to
uncover the suicide motive.
The flight union immediately disputed the suicide
explanation and in Friday's statement said the plane
probably malfunctioned
"As soon as Capt Khayati began positioning him-
self for takeoff, he signaled to the control tower that
he had a technical problem and wanted to return to
the parking area," the union's statement said.
In a statement Thursday, the union said it had
asked authorities for two seats on the investigative
commission, but their request was denied
All 44 victims - 20 of them foreigners - were
buried in a common grave in Agadir. An imam, a
reverend and a rabbi presided over the burial ceremony at with prayers of the Muslim, Christian and
Jewish rites.
Some relatives of victims traveled from Europe to
attend the burial
The Dutch Foreign Ministry had tried all week to
convince Moroccan authorities to ship back the four
bodies of a Dutch family so they could be buried in a
Jewish cemetery at home, ministry spokesman Rob
Swartbolsaid
Relatives had wanted to send a team of Dutch specialists to try to identify the bodies But Moroccan officials had sak) identification was impossible
Khayati "disconnected the automatic pilot and directed the aircraft toward the ground," the accident
commission said Thursday The crash was "due to
the deliberate wish of the pilot to end his life." the
panel said after examining the aircraft's cockpit
voice recorder and flight data recorder
~
ALGIERS, Algeria - The Armed
Islamic Group, the most radical of
the armed factions fighting to install
an Islamic state, has formed Its own
government led by a "commander
of the believers," sources said Friday.
Islamic sources said the 11-member "government of the Califate"
was led by the leader of the Armed
Islamic Group, Cherif Gousmi He
lives in hiding, while two other
members of the announced government are jailed.
The French news agency, Agence
France-Presse, received a statement at Us Paris headquarters announcing the government and listing
all its members.
No such text was available in Algiers.
But Islamic sources here, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Gousmi headed the socalled government and that it included the jailed All Belhadj, No. 2
member of the Islamic Salvation
Front, the main Islamic movement.
"There will be neither dialogue,
nor truce, nor reconciliation with the
apostate regime," the text quoted by
AFP said. It warned anyone against
negotiating with the army-backed
government "in the name of the Mujahedeen," or fighters.
Belhadj, in a July 22 letter, to
President Llamine Zeroual, demanded recognition and respect for
armed groups.
Abassi Madani, the No. 1 Islamic
leader, is not mentioned in the text
The Califate harks back to the
emirs who succeeded the Prophet
Mohamed, founder of Islam.
Formation of a self-styled Islamic government would present
Zeroual with a fait acccompll, forcing him to deal with a kind of counter-power
But confusion surrounded the announcement
AFP quoted Anwar Haddam. list
ed as foreign minister, as denying
any knowledge of the government
and dismissing it as a maneuver by
Algerian intelligence agents Had
dam lives in the United States.
The army-backed government
has b«en pressured by the United
States and France to talk with iU opponents rather than rely on security
measures to end the crisis,.