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The Prince George
Citizen
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1989
60 CENTS
Low tonight: -2 High Saturday: 3
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Bridge..._________ ...........25
Business............. ......12,13
City, B.C__________ ......2,3,9
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Comics............... ...........29
Commentary..... ...........JS
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International.... .............7
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Mine has new role 6 Havel leads Czechs 7 Quebec gets goalie 17
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NEW GOVT TAKES CONTROL
Romania: Sweeping changes
NORIEGA URGED TO LEAVE
From AP-Reuters
VATICAN CITY (CP) — The Vatican called the United Slates an “occupying power” in Panama but said today that it’s urging ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Antonio Noriega to leave the Vatican Embassy in Panama City.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro also criticized U.S. activities outside the embassy — or papal nunciature — and said “steps” would be taken if the disturbances continue.
U.S. forces have staked out the mission and blasted rock music from a stereo system in the street in an apparent effort to pressure Noriega, Panama’s former military leader, to surrender and be prosecuted on U.S. drug trafficking charges.
“The nuncio is doing his best to convince Gen. Noriega to abandon the nunciature on his own, by himself,” Navarro said. “At the same lime, he cannot force Noriega to leave, nor can he consign him to U.S forces.”
Navarro denounced U.S. “interference” in the embassy’s autonomy.
“An occupying power cannot interfere with the works of a diplomatic mission nor can it demand that a person seeking asylum in that mission be handed over to it,” Navarro said.
It was the first time the Vatican has labelled the United States an occupying power, and the first time the Vatican said publicly that it was trying to persuade Noriega to leave. However, Navarro said the possibility had been discussed with Noriega since he look refuge at the mission on Sunday.
The Vatican has insisted that its embassy cannot legally turn the general over to U.S. forces because, under accepted international procedures, an embassy is only empowered to deal with the government of the host country.
Navarro was asked about Panamanian officials’ statements that the new government of President Guillermo Endara has sent a letter to the Vatican asking that Noriega be expelled from the embassy.
“We haven’t got that letter,” Navarro said today. Asked why, he replied: “I don’t know, ask the post office, the Telex” office, he said.
The Vatican spokesman said there had been progress in negotiations between the United States and the Holy See over Noriega’s fate. “The positions are clearer,” he said.
He was asked to comment on U.S. tactics, such as the stopping of the nuncio’s car and the shooting out of street lights to blacken the area at night.
“If this is going to continue, further steps will be taken” by the Vatican, the spokesman said, without giving details. He said, however, that the Vatican was not in a “clash” with the United States.
On Wednesday, he estimated the standoff would be resolved within a few days.
He said today that he still expects the matter to be resolved in days, but that “it could be 20, 30 or 40 days.”
Citizen photo by D«ve Milne
Prince George RCMP Const. Gary Godwin checks a driver In this simulation of a CounterAttack program road check.
Many drivers ignore warnings
by MARILYN STORIE Citizen Staff
With the often alcoholic festivities of New Year’s Eve looming, Prince George motorists are not taking the dangers of driving while inebriated to heart this year.
Forty-eight impaired driving charges have been laid since the program began Dec. 8, according to Christmas CounterAttack statistics compiled by RCMP during the holiday season, compared to 30 impaired driving charges laid during the 1988 Christmas CounterAttack program.
“That’s about twice as many impaired driving charges, consid-
ering 7,907 vehicles were checked last year and 3,119 vehicles have been checked so far this year,” Sgt. Garry Rogers of the Prince George RCMP traffic department said today.
During the CounterAttack program this month in Prince George, there have been two people killed in motor vehicle accidents. There have been 48 motor vehicle collisions involving 71 injuries and 181 property damage accidents.
Rogers said alcohol was a factor in 14 of the accidents. Police have issued 26 24-hour roadside suspensions and 1,441 written warnings during 36 road check hours. A total of 996 charges
have been laid against motorists, with the majority of charges laid because of people not wearing a seatbelt.
The Christmas Counterattack has meant a total of 1,326 working hours for Prince George RCMP in addition * to an intensive campaign launched in local media outlets. Rogers said he is not sa-tisificd with the results.
“In light of the stats so far this year, many people in Prince George are obviously not taking heed. The only improvement I can report is in property damage accidents. Those are down from 317 in 1988 to 181 this year.
“The number of personal injury accidents is also down, with
48 reported so far this year as compared to 69 last year.”
There’s little excuse for drinking and driving on New Year’s Eve, when free rides are available through the Prince George Transit System. Bus rides are free all night long thanks to the sponsorship of local businesses and associations, from 7 p.m. until 4:30 a.m.
A New Year’s Eve timetable is available from any bus driver, or information is available through the New Year’s Eve hotline at 564-RIDE (7433) or the regular transit information line at 563-0011.
The Christmas Counterattack program continues to Jan. 3.
FREE TRADE OPPOSED
Poll reveals economic fears
Citizen news services
Canadians are ending the year deeply concerned about the economy, their own finances and the
free-trade deal, results of a national survey released today indicate.
“Not only do most Canadians now oppose the free-trade agreement, but almost one-half believe the new bilateral trade agreement has already taken a toll on the Canadian economy,” the Winnipeg-based Angus Reid Group says in an analysis of the survey it conducted in the middle of this month.
The results were reported by
Southam News.
Fifty-three per cent of those surveyed oppose the deal, 31 per cent strongly, while just 39 per cent
support it and only 14 per cent
strongly, the survey results show.
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The poll of 1,501 respondents has a 95-per-cent chance of being accurate to within 2.5 percentage points.
There’s no question that news of thousands of layoffs which began early this month has helped sour Canadians on the agreement, Reid said in an interview.
While 44 per cent feel the deal has hurt Canada, only six per cent think the country has benefitted. The rest said they didn’t know.
Canadians are more pessimistic about the outlook for the economy than they’ve been since the Conservatives came to power in mid-1984, the results suggest.
“Consumer confidence in the outlook for the Canadian economy is. . .far lower than even in the immediate aftermath of the October 1987 stock market crash,” the analysis said.
The results indicate 56 per cent of respondents fear the economy will worsen, up from 50 per cent six months ago and the highest proportion ever under the Conservatives.
Only 10 per cent feel the economy will improve, down from 14 per cent six months ago and the most pessimistic response in more than five years.
There’s a pocket of relative optimism in British Columbia.
While a majority of Canadians in all regions east of the Rockies expect an economic downturn in 1990, only 39 per cent feel that way in British Columbia, which is enjoying significant economic growth.
On free trade, the Reid survey has shown such broad opposition to the agreement only once before. That was during the 1988 election campaign immediately following Liberal Leader John Turner’s
strong attack on the deal during the leaders’ debates.
In Quebec, 48 per cent still back the deal, compared with 42 per cent who oppose it. The strongest opposition was recorded in British Columbia, where 58 per cent are opposed and only 34 per cent in support.
On another front, the polling firm inquired about violence
against women.
A majority of Canadians see no connection between the Montreal massacre of 14 women and violence against women in general, suggests the poll.
Six in 10 people surveyed believe the incident was a random act by an insane person and has nothing to do with attitudes in society.
But close to four in 10 of those polled view the Dec. 6 massacre, in which the gunman railed about feminists as he fired on his targets at the University of Montreal, as a symptom of widespread male violence against women.
Overall, 37 per cent of respondents said the tragedy reflects male violence toward women in general, while 59 per cent said it does not.
The poll asked: “Do you think this tragedy says anything about the problem of male violence towards women?”
People with university education were, at 42 per cent, more likely to see wider implications in the shooting.
TRAGIC FIRE
Food, clothes needed
Donations of food, clothing and furniture are being collected in Prince George for a Fort St. James family which lost all household effects in a tragic Christmas Eve fire.
The fire destroyed the trailer in which Hilda Schelki and her five children were living and took the life of her 10-month old daughter.
Family friend Tina Gouchie of Prince George says Schelki and her four surviving children, two girls aged 11 and 14 and two boys aged 12 and 13, lost everything in the fire.
She has already delivered a load of clothing and other supplies donated by the Salvation Army in Prince George to the family in Fort St. James.
She and Leona Erickson, also of Pnnce George, are seeking further donations for the family. Gouchie can be contacted at 563-6750 and Erickson can be contacted at 563-5108.
From AP-Reuters-AFP-CP BUCHAREST (CP) — Romania’s new government assumed sweeping powers, changed the country’s name and ordered the Communist emblem removed from the national flag, the state news agency reported today.
The actions Thursday came as die-hard supporters of executed dictator Nicolae Ccausescu ignored the week-old government’s ultimatum to surrender or die and staged more fircfights in the capital.
Also Thursday, authorities arrested more members of the Ccausescu family and one of his brothers was found hanged in Vienna in an apparent suicide.
The new government, known as the National Salvation Committee, took power today in a popular uprising backed by the army, and promised free elections next year.
On Thursday it reorganized its governing council as a leadership body headed by a president, who at present is Ion Iliescu. It consists of 145 members who will elect an 11-member Executive Bureau that will take over the council’s functions between sessions, the news agency Agcrprcs said.
The governing council will appoint the prime minister, the head of the supreme court, the country’s chief prosecutor and top military ranks. It also will establish an election system, appoint a committee to write a new constitution and endorse the government budget, Agcrpres said.
It was not clear how long the National Salvation Committee’s governing council will retain complete control over national affairs.
The council changed the country’s name from Socialist Republic of Romania to Romania and said the form of government is a republic. It also removed from the national flag the centre emblem representing Communist rule, Agerpres said.
For the last week, Romanians have waved the blue, yellow and red flag with the emblem ripped out.
The new leadership published details of its program “for the building of a really democratic society in Romania and for securing and defending fundamental human and civil rights,” Agerpres reported.
It calls for abolishing the leading role of a single party, free elections in April and the separation of the legislative, executive and judiciary state powers.
The program also says the economy should be restructured for profitability and efficiency, Agcrpres said. The new leaders called for “small-scale peasant production.”
Fighting broke out at night and during the day Romanians began cleaning up Bucharest, where many buildings were destroyed in the heaviest battles of the revolt that toppled the cast bloc’s last hard-line Communist ruler.
Women swept up debris, and workers replaced hundreds of glass panes blown out of buildings.
Meech Lake plea made
OTTAWA (CP) — Breaking with the tradition of impartiality, Gov. Gen. Jeanne Sauve made an impassioned plea for passage of the Meech Lake constitutional accord in her final New Year’s address to Canadians, released Friday.
Though governors general normally don’t comment on political issues, Sauve called on Canadians to accept “the inevitable compromises” and ratify the accord.
Canadian unity is an illusion, Sauve said, unless it’s based on a defined foundation that can be tested.
“Such testing cannot be undertaken unless we accept, once and for all, the inevitable comprc mises, and unless the parties involved ratify their pact and do not let Canada drift into an unforeseeable future.”
The Meech Lake accord, which designates Quebec as a distinct society and gives the provinces more powers, will die on June 23, 1990, unless its been ratified by all provinces and the federal government.
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