Cable briefs

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 6

Cable briefs

Bullet bid fails A bid to put Britain in the dock over the use of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland failed yesterday. The European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg rejected as inadmissible an application by the mother of a teenager killed in Belfast nearly eight years ago. Kathleen Stewart, whose son, Brian, aged 13, was hit in the head by a plastic bullet fired by a soldier, has already lost a claim against the Ministry of Defence for compensation, and a subsequent appeal. The commission ruled that she could not bring a case before the European Court of Human Rights.—Brussels. Rebels jailed

Three alleged leaders of the defunct Uruguayan Tupamaros guerrilla movement, detained since 1972, have been given long prison terms by a military court. Marcos Mauricio Rossencoff Silberman, a 39-year-old writer who was allegedly a member of the Tupamaros executive committee, was condemned to 30 years hard labour followed by 10-15 years more of less rigorous imprisonment. Henry Willy Engler Golovchenko, aged 31, a student at the time of his arrest, was given 30 years hard labour and 13-15 years imprisonment. He was accused of having ordered the execution of an American official, Dan Mitrione, who was kidnapped in the early 1970 s and held in a “people’s prison.”

Hijacker ‘executed’

A Pakistani who led the hijacking of a Pakistani airliner to Afghanistan three years ago has been executed, Kabul radio reports. Salamullah Khan, also known by the nickname, “Tippu,” had killed two men and had been sentenced to death by a court in accordance with the Afghan penal code. He led a group of

three gunmen who seized a Pakistan International Airlines plane on a domestic flight from Karachi to Peshawar in March, 1981. A man was shot in Kabul before the hijackers forced the plane to fly on to Damascus, where they were given sanctuary. Kabul radio said that Khan had entered Afghanistan illegally last year and killed a Pakistani student living there.—lslamabad. Cellist defects A second cellist from East Germany’s Staatskapelle Berlin Orchestra has defected in Japan and flown to West Germany. Jochen Ameln, aged 31, had declared that he did not want to return to East Germany. Last week another cellist in the orchestra also left for West Germany after defecting in Japan—Tokyo. Stay planned A Soviet film director, Andrei Tarkovsky, who left his country 18 months ago to make a film in Italy, says he plans to remain in the West. He had not yet applied for political asylum in any country, he said. It was reported yesterday that Mr Tarkovsky would ask for asylum in the United States.—Milan. Jets crash Two West German Starfighter fighter-bombers crashed yesterday in separate mishaps in northern Germany, killing one woman and injuring two men on the ground in one of them Both pilots ejected from their aircraft before the crashes. The West German Defence Ministry said that the crashes had raised to 220 the number of Starfighters lost in various mishaps since 900 went into service with the Luftwaffe and Navy in the early 1960s.—Bonn.