Friday, April 2, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
Former Costa Rican leader voices need for world peace
By Katie Burford
kburford@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Oscar Arias Sanchez, former President of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace Laureate, employed legions of humanity's greatest thinkers and leaders to communicate his singular message of laying down arms and embracing peace.
"Let us have faith that right makes might," he said quoting Abraham Lincoln in his speech last night at Budig Hall.
The hour-long speech followed by a question-and-answer period was part of a symposium to commemorate the 40-year exchange of scholars between the University of Kansas and the University of Costa Rica in San Jose.
Arias also used cold, hard numbers to convey his message that five percent of the world consumes 86 percent of the world resources.
Some of his strongest criticism was reserved for the United States and its colossal defense budget. He said that it would only require $40 billion of the United States' $800 billion defense spending to provide basic services to the world's entire population.
"Let us abolish poverty like previous generations abolished slavery," he said.
He also criticized U.S. politicians' dependence on the opinion polls, saying that the Gallup polls had become more important than the words of
American legends like Lincoln.
"Politicians are telling people what they want to hear and not what they need to know," he said.
The crowd of about 300 people gave Arias a standing ovation after the speech.
Oscar Arias Sanchez and Chancellor Robert Hemenway enjoy each other's company during a reception held at the chancellor's house. Arias, 1987 former President of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace Laureate, delivered a lecture last night in Budig Hall. Photo by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
Nayibe Bermudez, Colombia graduate student, said that she came to hear Arias speak because she wanted to hear his opinion about the conflict in Kosovo.
Arias said he didn't think the actions of NATO represented the wishes of the global community.
He said that NATO should not replace the United Nations and emphasized that the majority of countries in the world were represented by the United Nations, whereas this was not the case
with NATO.
Bermudez said that she agreed with Arias.
"The U.S. is saying that public opinion agrees with the bombings," she said. "They haven't asked my country."
Since his presidency ended in 1990, Arias has spent much of his time advocating for global demilitarization.
On May 29, he met with seven other Nobel Peace laureates — including Elie Wiesel and the Dalai Lama — to unveil an International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers. He said that he hoped the United Nations General Assembly would vote to adopt the Code.
- Edited by Liz Wristen
Soldiers still prisoners in Yugoslavia
Continued from page 1A
them to be tried."
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the investigation was continuing to determine exactly who abducted them and from where they were taken. Meanwhile, he asserted, "at a minimum, they are entitled to POW status" or immediate release.
Word of the military trial came yesterday from Yugoslavia's state news agency. The United States reacted with outrage. Any trial would be in violation of international law, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said yesterday.
The three soldiers, shown on Serbian television, were cavalry scouts who had reported coming under fire shortly before they lost radio contact and disappeared for several hours.
The Pentagon backed away from initial assertions that the soldiers had not crossed into Yugo:la territory. Army Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the possibility was now being investigated, and he suggested that the three
may have inadvertently crossed the border while fleeing from a Serb ambush.
Clinton, who met with families of service members before his speech, pledged to stay in Yugoslavia for the duration of the conflict, despite the dangers.
"The mission I have asked our armed forces to carry out with our NATO allies is a dangerous one," Clinton said. "We will continue to carry out our mission with determination and resolve."
At a news conference shortly before Clinton's speech, Defense Secretary William Cohen said it was not yet clear how the soldiers fell into Serb hands. When asked if they were prisoners of war, Cohen said: "Their status is that of being illegally detained.
"We will do everything in our power to secure their safe return," Cohen said.
Asked whether the U.S. would try to rescue the soldiers, Shelton, appearing with Cohen in Norfolk, said "we have some initiatives that are ongoing," but he would not provide more details.
Pentagon officials strongly discounted the possibility of a military
rescue mission because of the risks involved.
Other U.S. and NATO officials demanded that the three soldiers receive humane treatment in captivity.
"We're very concerned about the safety and welfare of the three soldiers who were abducted by Serb forces," U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, the top NATO commander, said yesterday. "We've all seen their pictures. We don't like it. We don't like the way they're treated, and we have a long memory about these kinds of things."
Clark said the men had reported by radio that they were surrounded. "The radio transmission was cut off and they disappeared for several hours," Clark said. "The next we saw, they were badly beaten up there and shown on television in Belgrade."
The Pentagon identified the three as Staff Ft. Andrew A. Ramirez, 24, of Los Angeles, Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Stone, 25, of Smiths Creek, Mich.; and Spc. Steven M. Gonzales, 21, of Huntsville, Texas. Their families have been notified.
Paula Poundstone
8 p.m.
Sunday, April 11, 1999
Lied Center
$10 tickets with KUID
$12 tickets for general public
For more information, call the SUA
Box Office, 785.864.3477, or visit
our website at www.ukans.edu/~sua
RECYCLE
IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO GET KU FIT!!!!
Hollywood Theaters
SHOWS BEFORE 6 PM • ADULTS $4.00
CHILDREN/SENIORS $4.00 ALL DAY
The KU FIT Program offers fitness classes and personal training sessions. Our fitness classes include: traditional High/Low Aerobice, Step, Boxing, Aqua, Slide, Toning, Conditioning, and much morell Attend any of the 60 classes offered each week, and sign up for free personal training for only $35 for the rest of the semester. Sign up today!!
Team
For more info, call 864-3546 or stop by 208 Robinson.
TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL KU JAZZ Festival
7. 30 p.m. nightly
Thursday-Saturday
April 15-17, 1999
Lied Center
Thursday, April 15
Eddie Daniels clarinet
with the KD Symphonic Band
Friday, April 16
**Dave Douglas** Quarter
KJ Jazz Sings and
Combo 1
Saturday, April 17
David Liebman, saxophone
with KU Jazz Ensemble 1.
University of Northern Iowa
Jazz Lab One
SPECIAL DISCOUNTS FOR STUDENTS!!!
Reserved seat tickets are on sale in the KU box offices; Lied Center, 864-ARTS; Murphy Hall,
864-3982, SUA Office, 864-3477, or call Ticketmaster at (785) 234-4545 or (816) 913-3330;
$12 public, $8 students and senior citizens; VISA and MasterCard are accepted for phone order.
TOPEKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
April 24 - 8:00 pm
$15 / $20 / $25 (plus tax)
TPAC Box Office 8th & Quincy
Lobby Hours 10:30 am - 5:15 pm. M-F
Phone Orders: 297-9000 or 234-4545
WHOO
"God could do without our prayer. It's a mystery that God sets such store by it."
-Brother Roger of Taize
A Taize Worship Service
Sunday, April 4
5:00 p.m.
St. Anselm's Chapel,
at Canterbury House
1116 Louisiana
(between 11th & 12th)
Taize worship and its simple meditative music developed in the Taize Community, in southern France. It is an ecumenical community of lay and ordained men and women from all over the world dedicated to peace, openness and reconciliation.
If you are interested in simple, meditative worship dedicated to seeking God without moral prescriptions, doctrinal decrees or the trappings of organized religion, please join us. Dinner follows at 6:00 p.m.
A video tape about the Taize Community will be shown before the service.