Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503280015
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and The New York Times WASHINGTON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Americans were arrested on March 13 near the Kuwaiti border. The swiftness and severity of their punishment prompted strong statements of condemnation from the Clinton administration, which had warned as recently as Friday that Baghdad could serve no purpose in holding the men longer.
``There is no justification whatsoever for these sentences,'' the White House said in a terse statement Saturday afternoon.
The administration has said that the two men, William Barloon, 39, of New Hampton, Iowa, and David Daliberti, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., who are both civilian employees associated with the McDonnell Douglas Corp., strayed into Iraq by mistake while visiting friends in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait.
But while the White House has urged that they be released as a humanitarian gesture, Iraq has shown no sign of forgiveness.
Barloon and Daliberti were tried, convicted and sentenced Saturday, according to the State Department, which said it had been told of their fate through the Polish Embassy in Baghdad, which represents American interests there.
The sentencing of the two men adds a major point of friction to the antagonistic relationship between Washington and Baghdad, which has become even more strained in recent weeks as the United States persuaded the United Nations to maintain economic sanctions first imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.
The timing of the sentencing perplexed French and Russian officials at the United Nations, who have been sympathetic to the Iraqis in their effort to get the sanctions overturned. Indeed, a major review of the sanctions is due in April.
They pointed out that the last time such a review was to take place - last October - the Iraqis began massing troops near the Kuwaiti border.
On Friday, even before the sentencing, American officials at the United Nations said they were determined not to allow the detention of the two Americans affect their positions on various resolutions concerning Iraq.
That included a resolution, to be debated as early as next week, allowing Iraq to sell up to $1 billion worth of oil every 90 days to finance its emergency needs for food, medicine and other basic staples.
Only one American has been sentenced to prison in Iraq since the end of the Persian Gulf War of 1991. He was released after serving about six months of an eight-year sentence for illegal entry.
In a clear attempt to signal that the United States will not bargain for release of the two men, the State Department said Saturday that it had made clear to Baghdad ``that Iraq has nothing to gain through this obvious misguided attempt to take advantage of two Americans.''
The State Department did not say what diplomatic channels it was using to communicate with Iraq.
But administration officials said that both the Polish government and the United Nations had served as intermediaries since Barloon and Daliberti were arrested, and that they hoped that both would continue to press for an Iraqi change of heart.
Exactly how Barloon and Daliberti came to enter Iraq remains something of a mystery. No one has explained how they could have crossed a 10-foot-deep, 16-foot-wide trench built last year by Kuwait along the 130-mile-long border without recognizing that they had done so.
But the administration has said repeatedly that they acted by mistake, and the State Department repeated that declaration Saturday. ``They committed no offense justifying jail sentences,'' it said. ``Mr. Barloon and Mr. Daliberti should be released immediately.''
Polish diplomats who were permitted to visit the two men on Thursday reported that both were in good health. But American officials said Saturday that the report also spoke of poor sanitation and food at the complex where the two men are being held.
No American officials were present during the one-day trial. Two Polish diplomats who represent American interests in Iraq attended as observers, and the men were represented by a lawyer appointed by the Iraqi government, said people close to the case in Iraq who spoke on condition of anonymity.
News organizations were not informed in advance of the hearing, and the state-run Iraq News Agency carried no reports about it. Trials in Iraq are conducted before a judge but without a jury. The maximum sentence for illegally entering Iraq is 20 years in jail.
Daliberti and Barloon are employees of American defense contractors in Kuwait.
``It's been one huge mistake, which has now mushroomed into an eight-year prison sentence,'' said Barloon's brother, Edward Barloon of Rosemount, Minn.
In Jacksonville, Daliberti's father, Raymond, expressed outrage.
``I haven't been happy with Iraq since the first time we had problems with them. I'm very disgusted with the whole situation,'' he said. ``People cross our borders all the time ... and they don't get eight years in prison.''
Daliberti's wife, Kathy, received notification Saturday morning from the State Department that her husband had been tried and sentenced, said Joyce McCall, a family spokeswoman.
She said the Dalibertis have ``a strong hope that the sentence will not have to be served completely.''
by CNB