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NOVEMBER 6, 1997 AUGUSTA FOCUS
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Egyptian court
militants to death
CAIRO, Egypt
(AP) A state security court sentenced two
Muslim militants to death Monday on charges of
subversion, two years after another court acquit
ted them in the same case.
Mohammed Fawzi Abdel Adhim and
Mohammed Mustafa Sulaiman were accused of
attacking a police station, killing a policeman
and injuring several others as part of the cam
paign by Islamic radicals to overthrow Egypt’s
secular government.
After the guilty verdicts and sentences were
read out in court, the defendants began scream
ing at the judge, calling him “a butcher” and
“bloodthirsty.”
“May God take our revenge from you!” they
shouted from their iron cage.
Judge Ahmed Salah Alladin Badour, who is
known for handing down tough sentences against
militants, gave no reason why the verdict dif
fered from the earlier ruling.
The attack on the police station occurred in
1993 during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan
in Tama in the province of Sohag, 240 miles
south of Cairo.
Ina 1995 trial, the two men were acquitted and
ordered released after a court ruled that labora
tory tests of bullets allegedly used to kill the
policeman did not match guns that police said
were used.
Later, the military prosecutor refused to en
dorse the ruling and referred the case to a state
security court, which found them guilty.
Abdel Adhim and Sulaiman are allegedly mem
bers of the outlawed Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, or
the Islamic Group, the main movement behind
the campaign of violence aimed at turning Egypt
into a strict Islamic state.
More than 1,100 people — mostly militants
and policemen — have been killed in the last five
years.
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It's been over five years since electric rates have changed for Georgia Power customers, And
today our rates are among the lowest in the entire country-nearly 15 pefccnt lower thmthe
national average. You see, we pledged years ago to keep power affordable and reliable for the
people of Georgia. And that makes other people's view of our state quite impressive indeed.
All;}i.;L;mmdsbothobstz:mclsetzo
peace, key to prosperity
MUNITA, government in
tug-of-war over share of
nation’s diamond wealth.
By Barry Hatfon
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
NIAGI, Angoia
Elite commandos lazing beneath mango
trees, flicking away flies in the stifling
heat, are the only outward sign that this
town is a potential flashpoint that could
reignite Angola’s civil war.
Located in northeast Angola, Nzagi lies
at the heart of Angola’s diamond region
one of the richest in the world and the
scene of recent fighting between govern
ment troops and former UNITA rebels.
Although the two sides share power ina
coalition government created last April,
sharing wealth is a different matter.
UNITA is dragging its feet on relin
quishing control of its diamond-mining
operations, which analysts say earns be
tween $250 million and SSOO million annu
ally, to the government as called for by a
U.N.-brokered peace accord.
The standoff erupted in June, when gov
ernment troops ousted UNITA soldiers
from Nzagi and surrounding towns in a
series of clashes. UNITA —an acronym for
the National Union for the Total Indepen
dence of Angola — still claims control over
more than half of diamond-rich Lunda
Norte province.
Set in fertile, rolling bushland, Nzagi
Sassou-Nguesso names new gov’t
BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Conge
(AP) Gen. Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the
victor of a four-month civil war, has named
a new government that includes his allies
as well as officials from the regime he
ousted. :
Sassou-Nguesso, who was inaugurated
president of this Central African nation
last month, reserved the most powerful
ministry — defense — for himself, accord
ing to details announced Sunday night on
state-run radio.
Two important ministries were given to
'men who had served in Sassou-Nguesso’s
1979-91 one-party Marxist government.
was a thriving diamond center under Portu
guese colonial rule.
Like most of Angola, the war has scarred
the town’s charming colonial architecture.
Its wide avenues are potholed, its imposing
townhouses are crumbling, lawns are over
grown and littered. Shantytowns have
sprung up on the outskirts.
The d:;y belies the potential riches un
m 18 miles outside Nzagi, down rough
hewn jeep tracks that are quickly engulfed
by the fast-growing bush, scattered groups
of “garimpeiros” — prospectors whose work
w but largely tolerated — toil with
and pansin red soil at the confluence
of two rivers.
On a recent day, an official from the state
diamond company Endiama and a group of
foreign diamond traders looked on as the
prospectors dug as much as five meters (16
feet) into the earth, turning it into a scarlet
moonscape with craters and mounds of soil.
The Endiama official said the earth along
the riverbank yields as much as six carats
per cubic meter (35 cubic feet). One of the
foreign diamond traders, who did not want
his name used, whistled in astonishment.
Analysts say such a yield would make the
soil among the richest for diamonds any
where. Each carat can fetch up to S4OO.
Although UNITA and the government
have clashed over the diamond region —
casualty figures from the fighting in June
were never released — they are secretly
negotiating carving up the diamond depos
its, both sides say.
Rodolf Adada, a former minister of petro
leum, is the new foreign minister; Col. Pierre
Oba, a former minister of information, was
named interior minister.
Sassou-Nguessoalso drew from the ousted
government of Pascal Lissouba, who was
elected president in 1992 after Sassou-
Nguesso was driven from power. Sassou-
Nguesso’s militia defeated Lissouba’s army
in October, and the ousted president is now
in exile in Burkina Faso.
Martin Mberi, once the No. 2 man in
Lissouba’s political party, was named min
ister of transport, civil aviation and ship
ping.
Karenga, USPS hit
by Kwanzaa protest
Dr. Maulana Karenga, the
founder of Kwanzaa, and the
United States Postal Service
(USPS), have become the targets
of a boycott by the National Lead
ership Council of Elders (NLCE)
after the Oct. 22 unveiling of a
stamp honoring Kwanzaa. The
nonreligious, non-heroic celebra
tion, held annually from Dec. 26 -
Jan. 1, began in 1966.
The NLCE rejects the USPS
honor because they say Kwanzaa
practitioners hold the celebration
sacred.
“We have decided that the com
mercialization and the economic
exploitation of Kwanzaa by the
USPS under the sole authoriza
tion of Dr. Maulana Karenga is an
affront to the African-American
community, an assault on the pres
Election is easy
for Sconyers to take
From page one
past 24 — and that’s not a nega
tive for him.
Look for Sconyers foes to start
monkeying with the districts
through court challenges and the
like. The current political lines
don’t favor the patrician
westsiders accustomed to manipu
lating and controlling the appara
tus of political power in Richmond
County. A likely scenario involves
a move to blunt black voting
strength by packing blacks into
fewer districts. Without political
muscle, blacks would be at the
mercy of Westside power plays
and there wouldn’t be any politi
cal advantage for Southsiders to
play ball with black lawmakers.
With the current right-wing as
A SOUTHEEN COMPANY
www.georgiapower.com
Fax your news to Augusta Focus
onr @t (706) 724-8432. -
FOR A STATE WITH SO
MANY PEAKS AND VALLEYS,
OUR POWER RATES HAVE'
REMAINED RELATIVELY FLAT.
ervation of the cultural integrity ‘
of Kwanzaa,” said Baba Hannibal
Afrik, spokespaerson for the
mxfnaddmon' the lapel
to the stamps, :
pins, greeting cards, books and -
phone c::; i:‘vill be wkould na
tionally m&w nre
gy oy
step protest: or a halt to
USPS merchandising; an insis
tence on a comprehensive educa
tion campaign about Kwanzaa;; a
demand that Karenga obtains Af
rican-based consensus for market
ing Kwanzaa’s theme and a re- -
statement of their commitment to -
fight against “efforts to under- -
mine the celebration’s cultural in
tegrity.” '
Courtesy of Corey Hall,Chicago
Weekend
sault on affirmative action and
voting rights gains in full swing,
Sconyers foes feel the time to strike
approaching.
Trying to predict or project po
litical trends on the basis of a po
litical race where there were abso
lutely no compelling issues and
where the overwhelming majority
of regular voters could not or would
not vote is tricky business. The
real strength in politicians like
Lee Beard and Henry Brigham is
that they are not isolated — and
unless they do something really
unusual — and cannot be isolated.
The only real test of Sconyers’
political juice is in a toe-to-toe
tussle. There was nothing in the
results of Tuesday’s election that
would lead one to believe that the
mayor is shaking in his boots.