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How the world was spinning, this February 20, 1996.
In Bosnia, the peace process was proceeding; shaky but steady. The guns that shattered schoolrooms and market stalls are silent, the armies separated. But the hard part is still ahead. Bosnia has indeed emerged from war, thanks to a NATO-led force that has carved out a twisted maze of buffer zones and polices them with world-class firepower. Peace is far from assured, however, despite renewed pledges of cooperation from Balkan leaders at a weekend summit in Rome. Foremost among the pitfalls, say Western generals and diplomats, is the lack of goodwill and trust among Bosnia’s Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders.
Rather than plunging wholeheartedly toward peace, they seem to be maneuvering for advantage in some future round of diplomatic or military confrontation. While they all have different motives for avoiding genuine reconciliation, most of them view continued ethnic tension as the best way for them to stay in power.
It was Election ’96 in America and Primary season was in full swing – This day voters in New Hampshire were going to get the final word. Bob Dole wrapped his campaigning up the previous night with a rally in Milford, New Hampshire. In his speech as he has throughout his campaign, Dole stressed his experience and character. Buchanan had Dole’s character on his mind too but he took a different view of it. He rushed a new radio ad onto the air in response to Dole attack ads defending his record and calling on Dole to stick to the issues. Lamar Alexander completed his walk across the state accompanied by a far bigger crowd than when he started it last July. While saying his has been the most positive campaign he still took a poke at Dole. Steve Forbes flipped a pancake and dropped it. He got it right on the second try and said he was sure he wouldn’t flop in today’s voting. Alan Keyes and Bob Dornan were right there flipping with him. And in Nashua Dick Lugar said that he has the answers if not the gimmicks that attract attention. So where does all that leave the New Hampshire voters? According to the polls Dole Buchanan and Alexander are neck and neck and neck with Forbes not far behind. The pundits said that may leave three candidates with a reason to claim to victory when all is said and done. If it’s numbers they were after, consider these; At Laconia High School yesterday Dole walked away with a big win. He walked away with 28% of the vote and Buchanan 12 percent. Dole fared even better in the first real voting of the primary. In Dixville Notch last night he got 11 votes Alexander five and Buchanan two Forbes took one and Lugar one.
And a top-level Iraqi defector who once swore to topple Saddam Hussein said yesterday that the Iraqi leader has “welcomed” his request to go home. “I’ll be returning to Iraq with my wife and my children hopefully within days”. Lt Gen Hussein Kamel al-Majid told The Associated Press in Jordan where he has lived since defecting Aug 8. Al-Majid a son-in-law of Saddam and a key figure behind Iraq’s secret weapons programs would not say when he would go back. He said he decided to go home because of “international changes against Iraq primarily the statement of the American defense secretary” He refused to elaborate.
And that’s a small slice of what happened today, February 20, 1996 as presented by the PRI-BBC World Service program The World.
