THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.86
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING:864-4358
MONDAY.FEBRUARY3.1992
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Deportation of Haitians begins
The Associated Press
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The U.S. Coast Guard shipped home 250 Haitian refugees yesterday, and military officials said the 10,000 expatriates remaining in a makeshift tent city would be deported as soon as possible.
"At this point, there really is no choice in the matter for the Haitians," Cmdr. Randy Beardsworth said as the crew climbed aboard the cutter Bear.
It was the second group of Haitians sent home since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled late Friday that the Bush administration could resume the forced deportation. The first shipload of about 150 refugees was expected to arrive last night in Port-au-Prince.
More than 14,000 Haitians fled the impoverished Caribbean nation after a Sept. 30 military coup ous'd Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first freely-elected president. The Coast Guard intercepted the refugees, many of whom usedICKety boats to flee their homeland.
About 1,450 refugees are still packed aboard four Coast Guard ships await-
Yesterday, dozens of Haitians crowded along the rail of the cutter Mohawk to watch as their countrymen docked alongside, for the trip home.
in space at the camp set up at the U.S. Navy base here. Some have been waiting for five days, sleeping on the deck under a huge net tarpaulin.
The Haitians were denied political asylum because the United States says they are fleeing poverty, not political repression as asylum cases could be handled. Court set aside a federal judge's order that had blocked their return.
They stared in silence as the others climbed the gangplank with their meager belongings bundled in cloth carryalls and clear plastic bags.
The State Department said that about 5,500 refugees found ineligible for asylum would be sent home first, and the rest will be素材s for the others remain to be decided.
Marine Corps Brig. Gen. George Walls, who has been in charge of the refugee camps since it began in Nov. 1982, said that the reaction to the repatriation order has been subdued.
"At some point in time there may be a situation where we've got people who aren't going to want to cooperate and go, and we're prepared to deal with it," he said, declining to elaborate.
Walls said that the news of the Supreme Court decision had been broadcast in the camp and that many of those in the first two groups had volunteered to be among the first sent home.
Silotesse Jean-Jacques, 34, a political activist and Aristide supporter who had been at the camp since Nov. 23, said that he decided to return to Haiti to take care of his wife and even children.
"They don't know if I am alive and I don't know if they are alive," he said. "If I have to die, I'll die with my family."
Walls said Haitians remaining at the tent city will be sent home as quickly as possible, but that it might take until summer to complete the task.
The determining factors are how fast the Haitian government can take them in and how many cutters we have available," he said.
The Red Cross will handle the influx
Life went on as usual for the thousands of refugees remaining in the mile-long tent city set up along an airstrip. Women drew water from spigots and washed clothes in white buckets issued by the Navy.
of refugees into the Haitian capital. Beardsworth, commander of the Bear, said that the 185-mile trip would be stretched out over two days to avoid overtaxing the facilities in Port-au-Prince.
As dozens of journalists and television crews interviewed the 250 refugees being processed for the trip home, about 100 other Haitians crowded up against a fence separating them from the reporters.
They clapped, sang and shouted pro-Aristide slogans as they vented their anger over the Supreme Court decision.
Yvette Augustine, 28, said that she left Haiti because government officials were shooting civilians and burning down houses but that she volunteered to be among the first deported because there was nothing for her at the camp.
Knight-Ridder Tribune New
Walls said that there were 10,921 Haitians, including those deported yesterday, at the camp. Of that number, 2,000 have been granted political asylum and are awaiting word from the Immigration and Naturalization Service about when they can enter the United States.
So far, 1,400 refugees have reached the United States to pursue asylum claims; 955 have returned to Haiti and 350 went to a third country.
Peggy Woods/KANSAN
Hostess Qienwen Licoaxes Flower Jiang, 4, into singing the chorus of a song performed at the Chinese New Year's celebration. The fest'vities, marking the beginning of the year of the monkey, took place last night at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building.
Students from China celebrate New Year's
By Janet Rorholm
Kansan staff writer
The year of the monkey begins tomorrow in China, and the year of the sheep ends.
Xin Nain Hao, or Happy New Year!
Yesterday, members of the Chinese community in Lawrence welcomed the traditional Chinese New Year at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave. The Chinese Student and Scholar Friendship Association provided food and entertainment for the party. The association also elected new leaders.
The traditional story of the 12 animals that mark a cycle of 12 years varies, but the animals symbolize what is expected of the year to come.
Jun Bao, former president of the association, said people could expect the year of the monkey to be active. Because the monkey also is clever or smart, they can expect good things to happen in their lives, he said.
But people born in the year of the monkey must be careful, because the year could be unlucky for them, Bao said.
Feb. 4 marks the actual beginning of the new year.
Ming Maxwell, Shanghai, China graduate student, said the new year meant out with the old and in with the new.
"It's called the Spring Festival." she said. "It's the beginning of the lunar calendar that is set by the agricultural season.
graduate student, said the celebration wasearly because the fourth fell on a weekday.
Jiang Zheng, Hangzhou, China.
"In China, it is the most important holiday, similar to your Christmas. It is a three-day holiday where family members get together to visit relatives and friends."
She said the party was important to many in the Chinese community because they could not be with their families and did not want to spend the holiday alone. Different new year's customs exist in different regions, but food and fireworks are tradition everywhere, Maxwell said.
John and Jan Schick, KU alumni from Lawrence, said they came to the party to see friends. The two had spent three years attending school in China through a KU program.
"Starting at 12 o'clock, firecrackers and fireworks go off for a solid hour," Jan Schick said. "It's really neat."
Sobriety checkpoints to continue in Lawrence
By Michelle Betts Kansan staff writer
Lawrence police say they plan to continue sobriety checkpoints despite a Johnson County judge's ruling last week that stated they were illegal.
Attorney General Bob Stephan said Friday that he had not read the ruling by Johnson County District Judge Franklin Davis, but that he would advise police in the state to continue the checkpoints until an appeals court ruled on the issue.
The checkpoints will continue until the attorney general or a district attorney recommends suspending them, police said.
A state law requires that officers have reasonable suspicion that someone committed a crime before they can stop them.
Davis said in the ruling that checkpoints violated that law.
Checkpoints will continue to be illegal in Johnson County until the Kansas Legislature passes a law authorizing them, he said.
The ruling came after a motorist appealed suspension of his license. Police stopped him at a checkpoint last April in Leawood and he refused to take a breadalater test. Police use the breathalyzer to determine a driver's blood-alcohol content.
The checkpoint program in Kansas began after a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled a checkpoint law in Michigan constitutional.
Lawrence attorney Don Strole said that according to the state constitution, police could continue checkpoints in Douglas County and that no judicial opinion in the county prohibited them.
*The police do lots of things that don't have to be authorization,*
*or just compliance.*
Carolyn Johnson, instructor in political science, said that according to federal law, police could search the interior of a car anywhere the driver could reach, but that they must have probable cause to search the trunk.
However, she said she did not know about Kansas' law concerning automobile searches.
Sobriety checkpoints, called "driver's license checklists" by Lawrence police, stop cars at specific areas in the city and check for drivers without their licenses, drunken drivers and defective equipment.
Lawrence police issue news releases that list locations of checklanes for specific time periods.
However, the release does not give exact dates of checklanes. Some locations may never be checklanese sites and others may be the site of repeated checklanes, said Sgt. Mark Warren, Lawrence police.
Blizzards in Turkey hamper search for avalanche survivors
Official says at least 134 have died since Saturday's snowslides
The Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey — Blizzards and snow-blocked roads hampered searches yesterday for scores of people feared buried under snowslides in the rugged southeast Kurdish region.
Gov. Necati Cetinkaya, the state-appointed chief administrator for the region, said at least 134 people had died, many of them soldiers.
"At 7 a.m. everyone was shoveling snow from the roof of their houses. Suddenly, there was a loud boom like an artillery gun going off, and we saw a whole mountain moving upon us," said Ali Ergebn of Gormec, a village 190 miles east of Diyarabakir and in Sinnak province bordering Iraq.
Rescuers, airlifted by U.S. military helicopters, were digging through the snow.
Villagers carried victims in makeshift stretchers and shoveled snow and rubble to reach possible survivors.
He had to be rescued from snow up to his neck, he told the Anatolia news agency.
Thousands of villages were cut off in eastern and southeastern Turkey. In many places, the snow was piled up to 10 feet high.
A private Turkish TV station had said officials estimated the number of dead at 322.
Freezing weather meant it was unlikely that many of those trapped in the avalanches could survive much longer. Snow was as high as five feet in some places, said meteorologists who predicted more snow for today.
Still, there were miraculous rescues reported. Anatolia said that a soldier and four civilians were pulled out alive in Gormec yesterday after 30 hours under the snow.
Power line pylons weighted down with snow toppled down, plunging much of the area into darkness, television reported.
Worst hit by Saturday's avalanches was Gormec. Cetinkaay — without giving a comprehensive breakdown for the 134 dead — said many soldiers in a military outpost and villagers had died in Gormec.
Tunekpinier in Sirt province, Anatolia said. Another snowslide killed two soldiers returning from sentry duty in Uluder, while civilisans perished in Altkemer, Dolusalkim, Yamacil, Gectitl and Ortaklar villages, television said.
U. S. military helicopters based in Diyarbakir and at Incirik Air Base in southern Turkey ferried supplies and personnel to the disaster area and flew injured to hospitals.
Another avalanche killed soldiers in
The helicopters, along with 48 warplanes, are part of an allied air fleet which remained after helping hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Kurds who fled to Turkey. The Kurds left Iraq after failing in their uprising last year against Saddam Hussein and then were repatriated.
Kurdis revolted in March in the aftermath of Iraq's defeat by a U.S.-led coalition in the 6-week-old gulf war, which began Jan. 17, 1991.
During their flight, thousands of Kurds died of cold, disease and hunger. Hundreds of thousands remain homeless. Many are living in tents in the mountains, their children often barefoot and subsisting on tomatoes and bread. Unemployment is rife, and food is scarce.
Black History Month events (through Feb. 12)
Opening ceremonies:
"African Roots Explore New Worlds: Pre-Columbus to the Space Age" speech, 7:30 p.m., tomorrow, Big Eight Room, Kansas Union
Lectures and discussions:
■ "Black Women: Reflecting on Self Image," 7 p.m., Feb. 6,
Pine Room, Kansas Union
■ "Our Roots: Too Legit To Quit," 7:30 p.m., Feb. 11,
Downs Auditorium, Dyche Hall
■ "Black Male and Female Relationships," 7 p.m., Feb. 12,
Javakhwk Room, Kansas Union
Movies and entertainment:
"My Children! My African!"
tonight at 8, 100 Smith Hall
"Straight Out of Brooklyn",
Feb. 7 at 5.p.m., Feb. 7 at 9:30,
Hashinger Hall. $2.50.
"Roots", Feb. 7-8, 6 p.m.
Feb. 27, 5 p.m. Feb. 8 at the
Kansas Union. Free.
KU Jazz I and Jazz Singers,
7:30 p.m., Feb. 10,
Crafton-Freeman Theater
Ethnic Recruitment and Retention Conference, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Feb. 6, Kansas Union
Conferences and other activities:
Black History Month examines past, future
By Shelly Solon
Kansan staff writer
KU events for Black History Month include pursuit of academic, intellectual and historical issues, not just celebration, said Norma Norman, organizer of the events.
Norman, associate director of minority affairs, said that the month's goal was to show that African-Americans were a vital part of U.S. history.
"We have to focus on the historical significance of African-Americans," she said. "The month's events are not just songs and dances. They have to with scholarly awareness and debating issues."
The national theme for this year's Black History Month is "African Roots Explore New Worlds: Pre-Columbus to the Space Age."
Jacob Gordon, associate professor of African and African-American studies, said Black History Month was based on an intellectual premise.
Black History Month
Norman said the University of Kansas' activities would follow the theme by highlighting both the historians and the Americans and their impact on the future.
"We certainly need to know about
these, and we have to build
the past for the future."
"Most of us forget the intellectual foundation of the month," he said. "It's not a celebration for the sake of celebrating."
Gordon said that he hoped the month affected people's attitudes. He said he thought the main impact was of an academic nature.
"One of those impacts is the creation of Black studies programs," he said.
Gordon said that Black History Month was not concerned with the problems of African-Americans, but rather with the problems of white-dominated U.S. history.
"White history has to include other peoples," he said.
Bill Tuttle, professor of history, said a Harvard University history professor began what he called "The 1860s." It eventually expanded to Black History Month.
"You can't get away from the historical aspect of the month," he said. "Even though it has expanded, the focus is still history."