Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Rain tomorrow.
Monday
May 3, 1999
Section:
A
Vol. 109 • No. 143
Online today
This site lists biographies of famous mothers, from Carol Brady to the Royal Queen Mother and includes the history of Mother's Day and ideas for gifts. http://www.biography.com/features mother/
Sports today
John Elway officially announced his retirement from the NFL yesterday after 16 seasons and two Super Bowl titles.
WWW.KANSAN.COM
SEE PAGE 1B
Contact the Kansam
News: (785) 864-4810
Advertising: (785) 864-4358
Fax: (785) 864-0391
Opinion e-mail: opinion@kansan.com
Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com
Editor e-mail: editor@kansan.com
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NATO: releases won't halt strikes
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. soldiers Christopher Stone, Steven Gonzales and Andrew Ramirez celebrate after arriving from the Yugoslav-Croatian border. The prisoners of war were freed this weekend in Belgrade after Jackson negotiated their release. KRT Photo
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — A U.S. fighter jet went down in hostile Serb territory on Sunday, but the pilot was plucked to safety by NATO search-and-rescue forces.
The alliance pounded Yugoslavia with new attacks, and a spokesman said there would be "no reward" for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for freeing three U.S. soldiers.
(USPS 650-640)
"What he's got to understand is that the decision that's going to impress us most is the decision to order troops out of Kosovo" and "clearly and unambiguously" accept an armed international force, said Jamie Shea, NATO's chief spokesman.
NATO struck a metalworks factory in Vallejo that it had attacked before, the
heavy anti-aircraft fire could be heard in Belgrade on Sunday evening. The city was plunged into darkness shortly afterward when electrical power failed. Local radio in Pancevo, a town just outside of Belgrade, reported that the blackout was caused by NATO attacks, but it gave no other details. Blackouts were reported in several other towns as well.
state-run Tanjug agency said. A missile hit Sremska Mitrovica, 45 miles northwest of Belgrade, killing one woman and wounding several other civilians, the private Beta news agency said.
Forty days into the air strikes, refugees continued to stream out of Kosovo by the thousands. Some entering Albania said Serb border police had prevented women and children from Kosovo's second-largest city, Prizen, from crossing into the country on Sunday.
Some refugees said they saw groups of Prizren residents, mostly women and children, walking back toward the city from the border and said they had been turned back by Serb border police.
Merita Nucal, who is eight months pregnant and was allowed in Sunday, said the border guards told others, "You wanted NATO—now the women and children will stay until they get killed by NATO."
The American prisoners of war, freed in Belgrade and bused to the border, walked to freedom in Croatia holding hands with Rev. Jesse Jackson, who negotiated their
See NATO on page 2A
Weather, music set stage for Day on the Hill fun
By Ezra Sykes
esykes @kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Recipe for Day on the Hill: Add one part sunshine to a blanket of soft turf, add your favorite people, and mix in six parts blaring music. Sprinkle with curious dogs and amateur Frisbee throwers. Serve at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit…
Day on the Hill appeared to come out of the oven looking pretty good this year. Weather conditions were perfect Saturday, and a crowd that seemed to constantly swell throughout the day came to watch the six music groups perform. The lineup consisted of Starsky, Frogpond, Son Venezuela, Panel Donor, Poster Children and headliner HUM.
Matt Dunehoo, SUA live music coordinator, had no complaints.
I here had been some doubts, but everything seemed to come together at the last minute," he said, mentioning a surprise performance by Poster Children. "It's been a show that will keep Day on the Hill alive."
High school students, college students, families, dogs, ferrets and junior high skateboarders attended.
Oh yeah, and the musicians.
Justine Volpe, bass player for Frogpond, stood in the shade mingling with fans and friends after her band's performance.
Volpe said yesterday's performance was a bit shaky because her band had not
See POTTER on page 5A
Above: Rose, the bassist for the band Poster Children, jams at Day on the Hill. Poster Children, from Champaign, Ill., was the headliner for Day on the Hill in 1996. Photo by Dan Elavsky/KANSAN
Left: Fans mash to the sounds of the band HUM at Day on the Hill. HUM headlined the event.
Photo by Gus Koffler/Kansan
Speech addresses imprisonment of Leonard Peltier
By Dan Curry
Kanson staff writer
By Dan Curry
dcurry@kansan.com
Iron bars in the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary keep Leonard Peltier from his freedom, but they could not prevent the former first lady of France from meeting with him Friday morning.
"He spoke very little of himself," Danielle Mitterrand said Friday afternoon to about 200 people at the Haskell Indian Nations University Auditorium. "He spoke of his family, of his community and of the life of Native Americans in the United States, and how little by little they have been obliged to give up their culture."
Speaking through a translator, Mitterrand pledged her support for Pelletier's freedom.
"I don't think we have to sit and wait without doing anything," she said. "The French have become very mobilized around Leonard Peltier's problem. We have people that are militants that have found out how to make the situation known. There are demonstrations. There are exhibits."
Mitterrand visited Peltier at the request of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, which has its headquarters in Lawrence. Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
Four men were arrested and accused of murder. Only Pelletier, who has maintained his innocence from the beginning, was convicted.
Peltier and his supporters, who include former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Archbishop Desmond Turn, think he is a political prisoner.
Peltier: is serving two consecutive life sentences.
Mittterrand had spoken with U.S. Justice Department officials on Pelletier's behalf. The result had been discouraging.
"We left very frustrated," Mitterrand said. "They listened to us, but they did not give us answers."
Mitterrand said she would continue to fight on Peltier's
behalf, now that his face was imprinted in her mind.
There is a resistance stronger than genocide. Stronger than violence. Stronger than misery," she said. "In his cause we see that today."
Alex and Cyrus Peltier, grandchildren of Leonard Peltier.
Alex and Cyrus Peltier, gra presented Mitterrand with a shawl. The New Dawn Dancers danced the sneak-up dance. Cornel Pewwardy, assistant professor of teaching and leadership, played a song on a cane flute.
Mitterand's address
Danielle Mitterand spoke
Friday about human rights.
See page 3A
Although it was good to hear Mitterrand speak about Peltier, Raven Heavy Runner, president of First Nations Student Association, said it was ironic that it took foreign dignitaries to bring attention to Peltier's plight.
'people in other countries know more about what's going on here than we do,' he said.
Edited by Steph Brewer
Mitterrand's visit was sponsored by the LPDC, Haskell, FNSA. Food Not Bombs and several KU professors.
Re-vote possible on election complaints
By Heather Woodward
hwoodward@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The hearing board of the Student Senate elections commission might conduct new votes on complaints about alleged campaign violations that it ruled on in a closed session.
The board ruled on several complaints on April 19, including complaints against the recreation task force, Delta Force and the YOU coalition.
Winter also indicated that the elections commission should sign a consent agreement that the hearing board would be subject to the Kansas Open Meetings Act.
Douglas County Counselor Winton Winter suggested in a letter written Friday that the hearing board re-vote on its rulings in a public session.
J. D. Jenkins, Nunemaker senator, said in his complaint that he thought the board's meeting should have been open and that the board's rulings should be overturned since the hearing board voted on election complaints in a closed session.
He also requested that the referendum on a new campus recreation center be suspended until the board re-voted on his complaint, which alleged that the recreation task force misled students.
Winter's decision came after three students filed two complaints to the state attorney general on April 21 alleging that the board should conduct its hearing on election complaints in open session.
Winter said in his letter that, since the hearing board operates as a quasi-judicial body, it was required by the act to vote and hear evidence in an open session. The board can deliberate in a closed session but must vote and hear evidence in an open session, his letter said.
Elections Commissioner Jennifer Watkins said she would confer with University General Counsel Victoria Thomas early this week before deciding how to address Winter's decision.
Ann Premiere, editor of the University Daily Kansan, and Nadia Mustafa, Student Senate reporter for the Kansan, filed a joint complaint because they wanted the hearing board to conduct their hearings in an open session.
State law reads that after a formal vote, evidence can be heard in a closed session only when it is deemed as "adversely or favorably affecting a person as a student, patient or resident of a public institution." However, if the person or institution in question asks that evidence be heard in an open session, then the board must honor that request.
"I was glad to hear the county counsel's decision," Mustafa said. "The public's right to witness votes by a board such as this—especially about issues pertinent to the student body at a public institution funded by students—should be upheld."
"My recommendation to the commission will be to follow Mr. Winter's recommendations," Watkins said. "We didn't intend for this to be some secret meeting. We just wanted to make sure students' rights were protected."
Jenkins was out of town yesterday and was unavailable for comment.
Watkins said the elections commission had been unaware it was violating the act and had voted in a closed session based on recommendations from the University General Counsel's office. If the commission had been aware of the law, it could have been subject to up to $500 in fines and the board's decisions could have been invalidated.
The deadline to file new complaints was 5 p.m. on April 19. But the elections commission may reconvene to re-vote on previous complaints that were voted on in a closed session.
Watkins said the public meeting would be announced in the Kansan.
Amanda Weinberg, elections commission chairwoman, said she did not know whether the results of the votes would change.
"We will have a re-vote, but we haven't heard any new evidence that would change the results." Weinberg said.
4
Edited by Jon Campbell
6