Way back when: Today in history
BY GENE CURTIS
Friday, March 15, 2013
3/15/13 at 2:47 AM
1982 - Nicaragua rights suspended
A 30-day state of emergency - including the suspension of most civil rights and censorship - was declared in Nicaragua by the leftist Sandinista government because of what it claimed were U.S.-backed plans of aggression against the country. Junta member Daniel Ortega said emergency measures were necessary because of "plans for aggression against our country" by the U.S. with the complicity of anti-government groups.
1990 - Soviet demand ignored
Lithuania's legislature, which had declared its independence and changed the country's name to the Republic of Lituania, elected a premier and deputy premier and ignored a demand from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that it return to the Soviet fold within three days. Gorbachev did not say what the Kremlin would do if Lithuania refused his demand but he and his aides had ruled out the use of force.
1992 - U.N. begins peacekeeping task
The U.N.'s then-largest peacekeeping operation began in Cambodia where Prince Norodom Sihanouk told senior U.N. diplomat Yasushi Akashi that "today the Cambodian people who have suffered so unjustly begin their convalescence." Most of Cambodia's 8 million people had never known peace because a military coup in 1970 marked the beginning of 21 years of conflict during which hundreds of thousands were killed and thousands more fled. The projected 22,000 U.N. soldiers had begun arriving in October. The lightly armed U.N. force was to disarm most of the 250,000 fighters from four factions and supervise the rest in cantonments.
1998 - Albanians demand independence
More than 15,000 ethnic Albanians, many bearing candles and anti-police placards, marched to commemorate victims of a brutal Serb crackdown and to press their demands for Kosovo's independence. The march in Pristina was the third anti-Serb protest in a week and additional protests were scheduled, including a women's march 30 miles to the Drenica area where the Serbs had killed more than 80 people.
Associated Images:
Alisia Zakaraskene shows a leaflet containing a directive from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, calling for Lithuanians to respect Soviet law, which was dropped from a military helicopter over Vilnius, Lithuania. Associated Press file
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