The Prince TZeorge
Citizen
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4,1991
51 CENTS
(Plus GST)
Will message be mundane? 6
Earthquake toll high__________7
No Hall of Fame for Rose 11
Convoy didn’t exist
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19
IRAQ-U.S. CLASHES CONTINUE ON SAUDI BORDER
Iran proposes ‘direct’ Gulf talks
From AP-Reuters-CP-AFP
U.S. and Iraqi forces traded fire across the desert frontier today, and Iran’s president made a sur-offer to hold direct talks with )th Iraq and the United States to try to end the Persian Gulf War.
Coalition warplanes, meanwhile, pounded the Iraqi capital Baghdad before dawn today. Witnesses said communication centres, government offices and industrial installations were hit — some of them for the second and third times since the war began nearly three weeks ago.
U.S. officials disclosed today that the battleship USS Missouri had used its 16-inch guns in action for the first time since the Korean War, targeting prefabricated concrete bunkers that the Iraqis were moving into place in Kuwait.
Meanwhile, the newspaper of Iraq’s ruling party boasted that the Baghdad government would drag the coalition forces into a drawn-
out ground war by staging more attacks like the Iraqi push into the Saudi town of Khafji last week.
“Combat on the Saudi periphery should be based on the hit-and-run tactic formulated by our ancestors,’’ the newspaper, al-Thawra, said today.
In the Saudi port city of Jidda, shots were fired at a bus Sunday night, slightly injuring two U.S. military personnel and a Saudi security guard with flying glass, military officials said today.
Six U.S. marines died Sunday in two helicopter crashes and a U.S. air force B-S2 bomber crashed into the Indian Ocean. Three of six crewmen on the B-52 were rescued. Pentagon sources said today the body of a fourth had been found and the two remaining crewmen were still listed as missing.
A UH-1 Huey helicopter and an AH-1 Cobra helicopter went down in separate incidents in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. All four marines
aboard the Huey and both men on the Cobra were killed in the noncombat crashes, the Defence Department said.
On the diplomatic front, British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd meets European Community partners today in Brussels to discuss a new diplomatic drive to ensure peace and security in the Middle East after the Gulf War.
And former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark is in Baghdad to meet Iraqi officials today.
External Affairs Minister Joe Clark told an Edmonton meeting of federal Conservatives on Sunday that Canada’s system of equalization payments could be a model for the Mideast following the war. He said wealthy countries in the region should share their riches with poorer neighbors.
The new diplomatic effort by Iranian President Ali Akbar Hash-emi Rafsanjani was announced at a Tehran news conference. Rafsan-
jani said he's willing to talk with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein — and with Washington, provided Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approves.
In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater held out little hope for such talks.
“Our purpose is to get Iraq out of Kuwait, and we have gone through 12 UN resolutions and are engaged in a military conflict to do that That’s where our focus is and we don’t expect that to change.”
In today’s clashes along the battle front in northern Saudi Arabia, U.S. marines lobbed artillery shells at Iraqi targets in Kuwait and used air power to blast an Iraqi rocket battery after it opened fire on coalition positions, marine officials said. No U.S. casualties were reported.
The marines said neither side’s ground forces breached the border in today’s skirmishes.
In the larger of today’s engagements, a battalion-sized marine task force border hurled 155mm artillery fire at Iraqi ground radar and infantry positions near the Umm Gudair oil field in southwestern Kuwait. There was no immediate word on damage to the Iraqi installations.
Earlier today, marine light armored vehicles exchanged fire with Iraqi troops in Kuwait, marine officials said. No casualties were reported.
The Iraqi rocket site — the location was not disclosed — was destroyed with bombs dropped by two F-A-18 fighter-bombers, the officers said.
Coalition air strikes on Baghdad began after midnight and continued for five hours. There was no immediate word on casualties or damage.
There is still no electricity in Baghdad and only intermittent water supplies. The city has been
divided into five sectors, which receive water on a rotating basis.
An Iraqi military spokesman said nine coalition warplanes were shot down overnight, one of which crashed in Syrian territory. There was no immediate word from U.S. officials, but Iraq has claimed about ten times as many downings of coalition aircraft as the allies have disclosed.
The head of the Canadian air task force in the Gulf War has recommended Canada reduce the number of sweep missions it’s flying for coalition bombers en route to Kuwait and Iraq.
Col. Romeo Lalonde said Sunday in Qatar the sweeps — intended to clear air space of any Iraqi fighter jets — are “not yielding any results” because no Iraqi aircraft appear to be taking to the air to try to stop the coalition bombers.
Low tonight: 0 High tomorrow: 5
Village plans move ahead
by BEV CHRISTENSEN Citizen Staff
Plans for the proposed Carrier Village in Prince George are moving ahead with the help of students at at UBC and CNC, says Fort George band chief Peter Quaw.
Because of the positive response he’s received to the band’s proposal to establish a re-creation of a Carrier Village as a tourist attraction, Quaw says he will ask the UBC School of Architecture to assign a student to begin working on the overall concept of the village in September as a masters thesis. This will ensure the village design is authentic, he said.
During 1991 students from CNC will be asked to provide detailed designs of the many buildings that will be proposed for the site, he said.
The band is proposing to con-
struct the village on a six- to 10-hectare site site in the Hudson Bay Slough area at the southern end of Fort George Park.
“We are a river people, thus the location near the water and near the site of our traditional village (in Fort George Park),” he said.
The Carrier Village concept would be similar to the federal government’s reconstruction of the Hudson Bay Company’s fort at Fort Sl James where people reenact the life of the time, he said.
Earlier this month more than 30 municipal, regional district, business and native representatives attended a meeting at city hall to hear more about the proposal. At the conclusion of the meeting Mayor John Backhouse and Junior Chamber of Commerce representative Rolahd Kreuger joined Quaw on a committee to develop plans for the proposal.
The majority of the chiefs of the 13 nations represented by the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council have also responded positively to the proposal, he said.
Quaw said Thursday the band is not waiting for the construction of the village before beginning activities to attract people to the area. Plans are already under way to hold a major native dance competition or pow-wow here during the summer. The date and location of the pow-wow have not yet been decided. But Quaw says native dancers from throughout western North America will be invited to attend to compete for the estimated $50,000 in prizes. A pow-wow princess pageant is also being planned. The winner will be entered in the Miss Indian World Pageant to be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in April, 1992.
An annual pow-wow will be incorporated as part of the plans for the Carrier Village, he said.
The band has also been invited to submit a proposal to a major tour company for a salmon barbecue at their traditional fishing site near Fort George canyon.
“More than 500 tour buses pass through Prince George each summer and, if we can incorporate a salmon barbecue into their itinerary, they will stay here overnight,” Quaw said.
The band is planning to purchase two large jet boats to transport the tourists down the Fraser River to the canyon. There they will be invited to help prepare the salmon caught in the band’s nets then while the salmon is barbecuing, the guests will be entertained by elders relating native legends while seated in a gazebo to be constructed on the site, he said.
INDEX
Ann Landers . . . . 15
Bridge..... . . . 18
Business ....
City, B.C. . . . . . .2,3
Classified . . . . 16-19
Comic.....
Commentary .
Crossword . . .
Editorial ....
Entertainment . . . 14
Family..... . . 15
Horoscope . . . . . . 18
International . . . .7
Lotteries .... ----6
Movies..... . . 14
National .... ____6
Sports..... 11-13
Television . . . . . 18
'She's gonna spend my $18 tax refund on a $400 coat."
Skeena action urged
VANCOUVER (CP) — British Columbia fishermen should launch a $l-million publicity campaign if they hope to rescue “the last great steel-head watershed in North America,” a spokesman for a U.S. conservation group said Sunday.
The editor of a magazine representing 65,000 American sport fishermen told members of the Steelhead Society of B.C. they should embark with Americans on a 10-year campaign to rescue steelhead in the Skeena River system in northwestern B.C. from a spiralling decline.
Far from rejecting Trout Magazine editor Tom Pero’s views as those of an outside meddler, the society expressed gratitude that the magazine had elevated political and public awareness about the fish. The magazine carried an article that blames indiscriminate commercial fishing methods.
“The Skeena River and its remarkable runs of fish is a world-class natural resource,” Pero said. “It is no more local than is the Parthenon, or the last herds of wild elephants or a wall of paintings by Claude Monet”
Mardi Gras edition inside
Prince George’s annual cure for cabin fever is almost upon us, and inside today’s Citizen you will find a complete prescription for Mardi Gras fun.
The 24-page supplement has a schedule of what’s on, as well as articles featuring some of the regular happenings and some of the new events planned for the 16th annual celebration.
Senator links firing
to way she voted
VANCOUVER (CP) — Senator Pat Camey says she’s been fired from a key committee because she voted against her party on the abortion bill.
Camey said that Senator Lowell Murray, the Conservative government leader in the Senate, has removed her from a special joint comittee on constitutional review.
She was fired by Murray on Friday, only a day after the abortion legislation was defeated after a stunning 43-43 vote in the Senate.
The tie vote killed the bill.
The bill would have placed abortion under the Criminal Code, and prohibited abortions except when a doctor determined that the mother’s physical, mental or psychological health was likely to be threatened.
Camey, a former Tory cabinet minister, joined six other Conservative Senators and voted against Bill C-43 after the government announced it was to be a free vote.
She made a special effort to attend the session, despite plans to stay in Vancouver during January to receive treatments for her arthritis.
“Basically, they didn’t understand that on a vote of conscience involving life and death, of course I would show up.
“When I spoke to Lowell Murray and asked him why I was removed, he said, ’Because you showed up.’ ”
But Murray said Sunday he had removed Camey from the committee because he felt her attendance is unreliable.
“Of course, she’s speculating
that I took her off because of her vote on the abortion bill,” Murray said in an interview from Ottawa.
“It’s not her vote on the abortion bill that troubled me so much as the four votes she missed last week on other bills and the fact that she hasn’t been around. Pat has got other interests and other commitments.”
Murray denied retribution was a factor in his decision.
“There were seven. . . of them that voted against the bill. I’m not going to single her out particularly.”
Camey said she expects the government will take further discipline against her.
“If they’re going to do this I’m sure they’re going to do everything else,” she said.
NATIVE TOURIST ATTRACTION
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
A solitary yearling trumpeter swan swims along the icy shore of the Nautley River near Fraser Lake, about 150 kilometres west of Prince George. It is one of a small flock of the swans which were saved from extinction by Ralph Edwards of Lonesome Lake in the Trumoeter Chilcotin around the 1930s. Edwards fed a large flock of the birds
u ™ v until they were able to survive on their own. According to Dr.
James Smith of the science faculty at UBC, even during the coldest part of the winter, they can be found on open running
water as far north as the Crooked River. They survive on water
plants plucked from the river bottom. The birds gain their more familiar white plumage in their second year.
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