An endowed chair has been named at a Northern Ireland university program for Thomas P. ``Tip'' O'Neill, the late Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
``The American Ireland Fund is proud to establish this honorable and prestigious post in memory of Tip O'Neill for his spirited dedication to resolving the differences in Northern Ireland without violence,'' Kingsley Aikins, executive director of the American Ireland Fund, said Thursday.
The program, run jointly by the United Nations University and the University of Ulster, is aimed at developing non-violent approaches to resolve ethnic conflicts. It also focuses on cultivating scholastic, economic and political links between the United States and Ireland.
The program, called Initiative on Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity, was chosen because its mission reflects O'Neill's philosophy, fund officials said.
``His life remains an inspiration to all of us,'' Aikins said.
The American Ireland Fund is a private organization that has raised dlrs 60 million for programs that encourage peace, reconciliation and constructive change in Ireland.
O'Neill died in January at age 81.
Bosnian Serbs smarting under recent battlefield gains by their Muslim and Croat enemies responded Friday by investing their leader, Radovan Karadzic, with near-dictatorial powers to wage war.
Karadzic had pushed for more power in the wake of gains by mostly Muslim government forces in recent weeks, sometimes supported by Bosnian Croat militias, that forced back the Serbs for hundreds of square miles (square kilometers) on several fronts. Government troops claimed further gains Thursday, saying they moved closer to Serb-held Teslic and Doboj in northern Bosnia. There was no confirmation from Bosnian Serb military sources. They said their troops had stopped a government offensive on Brcko, on the corridor linking rebel Serb holdings in Croatia to Bosnian Serb areas and Serbia proper. And they boasted of having government troops on the run near Bihac, in northwestern Bosnia.
The Bihac region has been hotly fought over in recent days. The United Nations on Thursday condemned rebel Serbs in neighboring Croatia of shelling Bosnian troops across the border and of launching an air attack on Bihac. Fourteen people were wounded when a war plane fired a missile at the town Wednesday. It was unclear whether the aircraft had crossed into Bosnian airspace, thus violating a U.N.-proclaimed no fly zone that could have provoked a NATO attack on the plane.