Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 12, 1991 TAG: 9103120370
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Cox News Service and The Associated Press
DATELINE: JERUSALEM LENGTH: Long
After a working dinner with Foreign Minister David Levy, Baker said his talks with leaders of eight Arab states had revealed "signs of new thinking" and "a willingness to consider new approaches" to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Whether that attitude "ripens to concrete commitment will depend in large part if there's a similar attitude coming from the other side of the equation, and we hope very much there will be," Baker said with Levy at his side.
Levy said Baker's account of the Arab talks contained "definitely encouraging signs that were not there yesterday or the day before."
Baker - who meets today with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli opposition leaders and a Palestinian delegation - said he did not ask Levy to accept the principle of exchanging land for peace, which Washington supports but Jerusalem rejects.
"I do not come to Israel, to the region, with any specific blueprint with regard to peace," Baker said.
He came "to reason, to cajole, to plead and to offer our good offices to see if we can seize this opportunity for peace," Baker said. He advocated moving ahead simultaneously with efforts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts.
Also on Monday, Iraq said it would turn over the remains of 14 allied military personnel killed in Operation Desert Storm to the Red Cross.
U.S. military officials, who confirmed the plan, prepared to receive the bodies at a military mortuary at the Dhahran air base today. They didn't know whether any of the soldiers were American.
"Initial identifications will be attempted there, and the remains will then be returned to the appropriate country representatives," said Air Force Lt. Col. Virginia Pribyla. "If any are Americans, they will be sent to Dover, Delaware, for positive identification."
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's troops shelled Shiite Muslim rebels in mosques in the besieged holy city of Karbala, and defected by the tens of thousands elsewhere, opposition leaders reported Monday.
They said the Shiite fighters, as well as civilians trapped in the crossfire, were being slaughtered, and that 500 have been killed or wounded since Friday.
In Jerusalem, outside the hotel where Baker and Levy met, about 100 protesters from the ultra-right Kach party carried signs that said, "First the Butcher, then the Baker, go home troublemaker," and "Mr. Baker, the land of Israel is not yours to give away."
In answer to a reporter's question, Baker said he would like to see Israel ease economic strains on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The areas have been under varying degrees of a military curfew since mid-January.
Noting that Israel is the only "real democracy" in the region, Baker said, "We would like to see freedom of expression and democratic principles permitted to flourish" in the West Bank and Gaza.
In response, Levy said Israel would like to see Palestinians feel and live better, but that until Israelis stopped being "prisoners of violence," they had to defend themselves.
Late Monday afternoon, about five hours before Baker and Levy spoke, two Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip and two others injured when a car driven by a Palestinian plowed into their foot patrol.
A military spokesman said the driver was arrested and the army was investigating to determine whether the incident was accidental or a deliberate attack.
Shortly before 4 a.m. Monday, the Israeli military said, soldiers killed six gunmen who had crossed the border from Jordan. Three Israeli soldiers were injured in the fire fight near Levy's hometown of Bet Shean, south of the Sea of Galilee, the army said.
Defense Minister Moshe Arens suggested the infiltration, the fifth and largest from Jordan this year, means King Hussein might be losing control. At least two of the dead men were discharged Jordanian army soldiers, Israeli military sources said.
Four Israeli women were buried Monday, a day after they were stabbed to death by a Palestinian from Gaza in a working-class neighborhood of Jewish West Jerusalem.
As a result of those murders, Baker canceled a walking tour of part of the walled Old City with Mayor Teddy Kollek, saying a sightseeing tour was "inappropriate" under the circumstances.
He called the murders "an effort to kill peace, and it makes us even more determined to work just as hard as we can to see that we can arrive at peace between Arabs and Israelis."
After they met, Kollek said Baker was "horrified" by the murders and promised to see the Old City another time.
Meanwhile, Iraq's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan claimed the government has rounded up 5,000 Kurds, mostly women and children, and is using them as human shields to forestall an attack on the oil-industry city of Kirkuk.
The group also said rebels had been able to seize the strategic oil town of Khanakin, about 36 miles from Baghdad.
Official sources in Baghdad claimed Republican Guard troops have re-established control of Karbala, 60 miles south of the Iraqi capital, after several days of fierce combat.
by CNB