Monday August 3 1998
Cambodia Foreign observers of poll thanked amid complaints
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Prek Ho A week after Cambodia's election, with a
total preliminary vote count still not available and complaints of
irregularities coming in, international poll watchers yesterday accepted
government thanks for their efforts.
The international community, represented during the election by about
500 observers from more than 35 countries, has approved the polls which
the main United Nations-co-ordinated observation group termed free and
fair.
Ambassadors and representatives from at least 11 countries and scores of
observers gathered east of the capital to watch a cultural performance
sponsored by the National Election Committee (NEC) in recognition of
their work.
Many received certificates from the NEC, which offered its thanks for
the observers' work.
Despite concerns from some observers that the ceremony might have been
premature given the state of vote counting, verification and resolution
of opposition complaints, several ambassadors praised the committee.
"A year ago we weren't sure we'd make it
to elections, let alone free and fair elections," Canadian Ambassador
Gordon Longmuir said. Sven Linder, Sweden's former ambassador to China,
who served as chief European Union observer and spokesman for the
UN-co-ordinated Joint International Observer Group, also thanked the
committee.
Asked if he thought the celebration might have been a bit hasty, Mr
Linder said: "I do not. I don't want to answer any more questions."
Committee members on Saturday postponed the scheduled announcement of
the final preliminary results until at least tomorrow, citing technical
difficulties.
Dissident Sam Rainsy has accused the NEC of forcing the delay to "fix"
ballot counts in order for the final result to equal what has been
projected.
Unofficial partial returns show the ruling Cambodian People's Party of
Hun Sen in the lead with a probable 64 seats in the 122-member
parliament.
The royalist Funcinpec party of deposed co-premier Prince Norodom
Ranariddh comes next with 43 probable seats, followed by the self-named
party of Mr Sam Rainsy with 15 seats.
Both Prince Ranariddh and Mr Sam Rainsy have threatened to boycott
parliament unless their complaints of irregularities and intimidation
are acknowledged.
--------------------
Obuchi cabinet gets 32% approval rating: Kyodo poll
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's cabinet is supported by a record low 31.9%
of respondents, according to a Kyodo News opinion poll released Sunday.
In a telephone survey conducted Friday and Saturday covering 1,000 male
and female voters nationwide, 59.3% said they do not support the cabinet
installed Thursday.
----------------------------------------------
Obuchi cabinet approved by 32%, shows Asahi poll
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's cabinet is approved by 32% of respondents
in a survey, while its disapproval rating hit a record-high 47%, a major
Japanese daily said Monday. The Asahi Shimbun reported the results of
its telephone opinion poll carried out Saturday and Sunday on the
cabinet installed Thursday. The survey was conducted on 1,570 voters
nationwide. A total of 1,130 people, or 72%, responded.
-------------------------------------------------
Reno Urged To Probe Fund-Raising
By EUN-KYUNG KIM Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Janet Reno probably would come under
enough pressure to prompt her resignation if she continues to defy the
advice of her top investigators and refuses to call for an independent
counsel to examine alleged White House wrongdoing during the 1996
presidential campaign, Sen. Orrin Hatch said Sunday.
Under fire by Republicans on Capitol Hill, Reno is being pressured to
seek a special prosecutor to investigate campaign fund-raising practices
by the Clinton administration. She recently defied a subpoena by the
House Government Reform and Oversight Committee to turn over two
internal Justice Department documents that recommended she seek an
independent counsel.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., has threatened to
bring contempt charges against Reno for ignoring the subpoena.
One of the documents being sought is a November 1997 memo from FBI
Director Louis Freeh. The other was submitted last month by Charles
LaBella, who headed a Justice Department campaign finance task force.
Both memos, Justice officials have said, recommended the appointment of
an independent prosecutor to investigate the alleged violations. Reno
rejected Freeh's request last fall but she is still considering
LaBella's advice.
Hatch, the Utah Republican who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee,
said Reno has agreed to meet with him and his House counterpart, Rep.
Henry Hyde, R-Ill., after she takes a few weeks to review LaBella's
memo.
``We are not going to subpoena those (memos) until
we sit down with her probably toward the end of the month. ... If she
doesn't do the right thing here she will lose credibility, because I
believe you cannot ignore the top investigators,'' Hatch said on NBC's
``Meet the Press'' program.
``By ignoring the top people in her administration,
she is going to start losing credibility with the American people and I
think it probably would have to lead to her resignation,'' Hatch added.
The Republican-led Congress already has held extensive hearings on the
funneling of illegal foreign contributions to the Democratic Party
during the 1996 election and whether President Clinton and other senior
officials violated campaign contribution rules by asking for donations
from White House phones or using visits or overnight stays at the White
House to solicit contributions.
On Friday, the deputy majority leader in the Senate called for Reno to
resign if she fails to appoint a campaign finance special prosecutor.
``I don't think she's doing her job,'' Sen. Don
Nickles, R-Okla., said in a floor speech. ``I think she's more involved
in more of a cover-up of the president's activities or the White House's
activities than she is enforcing the law.''
Others who previously have echoed Nickles' comments include House
Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Republican National Committee Chairman
Jim Nicholson.
However, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a member of Hatch's committee, said
Reno's resignation would have little impact.
``If Attorney General Reno resigns, what reason is
there to expect that the president would appoint someone who is more
realistic about that?'' Specter said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., spent much of last year investigating
campaign fund-raising abuses as a member of the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee.
``A lot of awful behavior occurred, a lot of it
scandalous, a lot of it illegal, a lot of the worst stuff was legal but
should be illegal,'' he said on CNN's ``Late Edition.''
But while Lieberman said he felt there was insufficient evidence to call
for an independent counsel, LaBella's report has made him reconsider.
``Mr. Charles LaBella probably knows more of what
happened in 1996 today than anyone else in the country,'' he said.
``If in fact as
rumored he is now recommending an independent counsel, that would give
me pause and make me want to reconsider my position.''
-----------------------
102 killed in Rwanda 100 feared dead in South Korea floods Genocide
trial Serb dies in cell Hospital tests King Fahd Film actress Eva Bartok
dies Tourists doped Unpaid dentist seizes dentures
102 killed in Rwanda
REBELS in Rwanda killed 102 people in an attack at Rushashi, in the
rural Kigali region, the military commander for the area said yesterday.
Col Fred Ibingira said a large group of youths had mounted
the attack overnight on Friday on the village 36 miles north of the
capital, Kigali. Most of the victims were women and
children, and both Tutsis and Hutus were cut down by attackers wielding
machetes and clubs.
According to Ibingira, the attackers originally came from rural Kigali
but appeared to have launched the raid from Hutu rebel bases in the
northern Ruhengeri region. "People
are still finding bodies in the countryside," he said. Return to top
14 July 1998: Hutu rebels massacre 34
100 feared dead in South Korea floods
MORE than 30 people died and 70 were missing after a flash
flood hit the Chiri Mountains, a popular hiking and camping area 135
miles south of Seoul. Officials said that
because of the full streams and sharp rocks in them, nearly all those
missing were presumed dead. More than 5in of rain fell in an hour.
------------------------------ To+` E.Telegraph ( Anh) ba`n ve^` vu.
ra('c ro^'i ti`nh du.c .... Confess and be saved, Clinton told By Hugh
Davies in Washington
Hamptons rally round the dress
AN offer to help Bill Clinton save his presidency if he
"came
clean" about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky was made by one of
America's most respected conservative Republicans yesterday.
Suggesting a way out of "the mess", Senator Orrin Hatch, the Salt Lake
City Mormon, said that if the President had
lied under oath he could tell Americans that he "did it to protect his
wife and daughter". It would be "a very, very
smart and good thing for him to do".
Senator Hatch said he knew of nobody "at the top of the system" who
really wanted to see Mr Clinton "hurt in this
manner" and "we may want to give him every benefit of the
doubt and show leniency here". He spoke amid reports that
Erskine Bowles, Mr Clinton's chief-of-staff, was trying to arrange for
Mr Clinton to ask the nation to forgive him.
Senator Hatch, who heads the judicial committee, said that if the
President confessed to "doing something wrong", and there was no
evidence that he had suborned perjury, he would do his best to support
him if it came to impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill. He indicated
that he felt Miss Lewinsky, in her talks with prosecutors detailing her
role in the affair, was finally telling the truth.
The suggestion is that Mr Clinton would go on television from the Oval
Office on the night of Aug 17, when his cross-examination in the White
House by prosecutors is to
be relayed "live" to the grand jury. He would give a limited version of
what he told the panel, omitting any salacious
details, and vow never to discuss the matter again.
A Democratic source said that the move was afoot "simply as a trial
balloon", but Hillary Clinton and David Kendall, his lawyer, wanted him
to stick to his flat denial of an affair. Admission of a lie would put
Mrs Clinton in a corner because she says her husband is the victim of a
Right-wing conspiracy.
Polls indicate that Americans think he lied about what happened, but are
willing to forgive him if he explains himself. A Time-CNN survey found
that 69 per cent believe
that the investigation of Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel, could
and should end if the President apologises. The thinking is that
Americans, growing increasingly squeamish about such details as the FBI
examination of a dress for possible evidence of presidential staining,
want a swift end to all the fuss.
They awoke yesterday to new TV footage of a Democratic fundraiser at
Washington's Shoreham Hotel on Oct 23, 1996, in which Miss Lewinsky, in
a midnight blue dress strikingly similar to the one being handled by
forensic experts, is seen standing at the front of a crowd, after
apparently putting herself in position two hours earlier. Mr Clinton
first places his left hand on her left shoulder in a lingering embrace,
and then, after greeting others, turns to her again, putting his right
hand on her right shoulder.
A presidential about-turn would mean that he committed perjury in a
deposition to lawyers in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, but the
feeling is that with the civil lawsuit now thrown out, the lie would be
more technical than criminal.
George Stephanopoulos, Mr Clinton's former aide, said that if Mr Clinton
had "shaded the truth", it was time for him to come forward. He said:
"If he's lied, he should tell all and hope for the best. If he doesn't
step forward now, the rest of his term will be consumed by a
prosecutorial fall-out and
the risk that he will have little credibility with the public."
1 August 1998: I'll tell whole truth, says Clinton 31 July 1998: Blair
comes to the aid of an ally 30 July 1998: Clinton 'lessons on lying'
raise the spectre of new Watergate 30 July 1998: Clinton may yet survive
29 July 1998: Lewinsky to testify on Clinton 29 July 1998: Crunch day
for Clinton: stonewall or tell all
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