CBS Evening News - 1999-05-16

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] News Channel 5 at 10 tonight for your

[0:02] chance to win one of 25 new sound

[0:04] babies. This is the CBS Evening News

[0:08] with John Roberts.

[0:11] Good evening. John Roberts is on

[0:13] assignment in Yugoslavia. I'm Scott P.

[0:16] We begin tonight with word that the

[0:18] Clinton administration has decided to

[0:20] release two Yugoslavian prisoners of

[0:23] war. Administration sources tell CBS

[0:25] News their release is imminent. The two

[0:27] enemy soldiers were captured by the

[0:29] Kosovo Liberation Army and they're being

[0:31] held on a US base in Germany. A senior

[0:34] administration official says that the

[0:36] president is approving the release on

[0:38] humanitarian grounds. At the same time

[0:41] in Yugoslavia today, the Mallosvich

[0:43] government is trying to force an end to

[0:45] the war by highlighting NATO's bombing

[0:48] mistakes. John Roberts has our story.

[0:53] A memorial service was held in the rain

[0:55] outside the bombed out Chinese embassy

[0:57] this morning. It was organized by one of

[0:59] the local political parties to show Serb

[1:02] solidarity against the NATO campaign.

[1:05] >> The most terrifying thing is that we

[1:07] can't see our enemy. Let him come in

[1:09] here and we will fight up to the last

[1:11] man.

[1:12] >> NATO has no plans of sending in a ground

[1:14] force and continued to hit targets from

[1:17] the safety of high altitude again last

[1:19] night. But the alliance admits its

[1:21] mission has been complicated by Thursday

[1:23] night's accidental bombing of a group of

[1:25] refugees in the Kasabar village of

[1:27] Curishia. NATO says there is evidence

[1:30] they were being used as human shields

[1:32] and that in future attacks, casualties

[1:34] among the refugees may have to be

[1:36] expected. Those refugees know fully well

[1:39] that if NATO stops its action tomorrow,

[1:42] nobody else, nobody else in this world

[1:45] is going to be there to help them uh to

[1:48] get back home.

[1:49] >> The Yugoslav army announced a partial

[1:51] pull out last week, but today claimed

[1:53] that withdrawal was being held up by

[1:56] intensified NATO attacks on its military

[1:58] positions.

[2:00] NATO, although it insists that the army

[2:03] and the police are to pull out from the

[2:05] province as the alleged prerequisite for

[2:08] the bombing to stop,

[2:11] is doing everything possible to prevent

[2:13] it. After being stalled for a week,

[2:16] diplomatic efforts to bring an end to

[2:17] the conflict are expected to pick up

[2:19] momentum in the coming days. Sources in

[2:22] Bgrade say they believe the next week

[2:24] will hold some significant developments

[2:26] that may not solve the crisis, but could

[2:28] bring it closer to a resolution. John

[2:30] Roberts, CBS News, Belgrade. And we'll

[2:33] have more CBS News in a moment.

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[3:59] >> Yes. Hi, I'm Dr. Moore. Your husband's

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[4:04] >> Thanks to advanced medical techniques

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[4:11] One issue that has divided America for

[4:13] centuries is race. This weekend, one

[4:16] family confronted the painful legacy of

[4:18] slavery and its unique role in it. But

[4:21] for now, Thomas Jefferson's descendants

[4:24] have decided not to share their

[4:26] birthright with the descendants of a

[4:28] slave woman named Sally Hemings. Randall

[4:30] Kingston looks at this uneasy family

[4:33] reunion at Monttoello.

[4:38] This cemetery is a symbolic battleground

[4:40] in a 200-year-old controversy. Whether

[4:42] Thomas Jefferson, a founding father of

[4:44] the nation, and his slave Sally Heming,

[4:46] shared a past, and whether their

[4:48] descendants will lie together in

[4:50] eternity.

[4:51] >> Come on, family. Let's all get together

[4:52] and take a picture.

[4:53] >> For the first time since Jefferson's

[4:55] death 170 years ago, the two families

[4:58] returned together to his beloved

[4:59] Montichello. An invitation pressed by

[5:02] family rebel Lucian Truscott. because

[5:04] they were panicstricken knowing that you

[5:05] were coming. They did it for PR reasons.

[5:08] But now the door's open and it's not

[5:11] going to close.

[5:12] >> What opened the door was modern science.

[5:15] DNA tests linked Thomas Jefferson to

[5:17] Sally Heming's youngest son, but not to

[5:19] other Hemings descendants, which doesn't

[5:21] seem to matter to them.

[5:23] >> And my mother knew her great-g

[5:24] grandandmother. She was the daughter to

[5:26] Madison Hemings. She knew who she was.

[5:29] No one's got to tell me who we are. We

[5:32] shall not be moved. We stand by the old

[5:35] history which has been passed down to us

[5:38] from the from previous generations. We

[5:40] want our rightful place in American

[5:44] history.

[5:45] >> But before inviting Heming descendants

[5:47] to join their exclusive association with

[5:49] burial rights in the cemetery. Many

[5:52] Jefferson relatives want a more complete

[5:54] study.

[5:54] >> I would like to to see the the truth uh

[5:58] followed however wherever it leads us.

[6:00] We do not look to rush to a decision

[6:01] this weekend.

[6:02] >> With or without DNA evidence for

[6:04] Jeffersonian purists to accept the

[6:06] Hemings connection, it might take

[6:08] Jefferson's ghost rising from his grave

[6:10] saying, "Yes, I fathered Sally Heming's

[6:12] children." Clearly, that's not going to

[6:14] happen. But if the association ever

[6:16] accepts the Hemings family, it could

[6:18] renew a pledge Thomas Jefferson was not

[6:21] able to fulfill.

[6:22] >> It will make the words of the

[6:23] Declaration of Independence come true.

[6:25] All men of are created equal. Since the

[6:28] days of Jefferson, it is a promise the

[6:30] nation often struggles to fulfill.

[6:33] Randall Kingston, CBS News,

[6:34] Charlottesville, Virginia.

[6:37] Later tonight on CBS 60 Minutes, is the

[6:40] religious right running out of steam?

[6:42] Tomorrow on This Morning, protecting

[6:44] your kids from tempting dangers in your

[6:46] garden. I'm Scott Py, CBS News in New

[6:49] York. Thanks for joining us. Good night.

[6:52] for news 24 hours a day. CBS.com on the

[6:54] internet and on our interactive partner

[6:56] America Online at keyword CBS News.

[7:07] Experience you can trust. CBS News.