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NATION/WORLD
U N I V E R S I T V D A I L Y K A N S A N
Wednesday, August 25, 1993
U.S. asks Russia to pull troops
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Clinton administration called again yesterday for the unconditional and complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Lithuania and a prompt resumption of negotiations between the two nations.
Lithuania and the two other Baltic states, Estonia and Latvia, have the sovereign right to insist the troops depart, and protecting the rights of minorities should be dealt with separately, a senior administration official said.
Under U.S. law, Russia could lose about $700 million in technical aid if its 2,000 to 2,600 troops remain in
Lithuania after Oct. 6, the official said.
But he said the administration had not warned Russia to that effect.
"They've known about it for months," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Russian foreign ministry on Sunday announced a suspension of its troop withdrawal from Lithuania. This was followed by cancellation of a visit to Moscow on Monday by Lithuanian President Aligirdas Brazauskus to discuss the dispute with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Westerday, Thomas Pickering, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, called on Russian ministers while an American diplomat in Vihnius had a parallel meeting there with Lithuanian
They encouraged the two sides to resume the negotiations and informed them the U.S. position is that the troops should be withdrawn quickly, said the senior official.
authorities
"We're disappointed the talks have stalled," he said. "Our position all along has been that it's in everybody's interest for the troops to be withdrawn expeditiously and the Russian government has committed itself to do so.
"These are sovereign countries. They no longer want Russian troops on their soil."
Lithuania is demanding compensation for damages caused by Soviet troops over the past 50 years. The
Russians maintain they are responsible only for damages over the past 20 months — after the Baltic states regained their independence and the Soviet Union collapsed.
But the senior U.S. official said the Clinton administration was hopeful the dispute would be resolved.
Yesterday, Vitaly Churkin, the Russian deputy foreign minister, scuffed at Lithuania's demand for $146 billion in compensation. He said the country's entire population could retire on that sum.
He said the civil rights of the small Russian minority in Lathuania and the larger minorities in Estonia and Latvia should be protected.
Brazil bars journalists from jungle
The Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Brazil has barred foreign journalists and American and Canadian diplomats from the Amazon jungle site where gold miners massacred 73 Yanomani Indians last week.
The government has been criticized by Indian activists in Brazil and around the world for failing to protect the Stone Age tribe from miners, who have prospected on the Yanomami reservation illegally since 1987.
By restricting access, the government may hope to mute further criticism.
On Monday, Diane Page, a human-rights observer sent by the U.S. Embassy in Brasília, and Canadian diplomat Alan Lattulli were told to return after their plane landed at a remote air force base on the Yanomami reservation.
The diplomats, who said they had received authorization to visit the area from the government's
National Indian Foundation, were told by federal police that they had not received the proper approval.
"We were expelled," Page told the independent news agency Jornaldo Brasil in Boa Vista, capital of the northern jungle state of Roraima. They were to return to Brasília this morning, the U.S. Embassy said.
Reporters from British and French news agencies and the Miami Herald said they were also barred from visiting the site, in remote northwestern Brazil.
The Indians were massacred Aug 17 in their Amazon jungle village of Homoi-Itu. Survivors said about 15 miners lured them from their communal huts with offers of rice and sugar. Then they shot the men and used machetes to kill and hack apart women and children.
Investigators with the National Indian Foundation said 73 Yanomamis were killed.
Lacerta Costa Junior, an agent of the federal police agency, said the Justice Ministry had ordered the police to bar observers from the region.
Federal forensic experts visited the site Monday and collected 12 sacks of body ashes and bones. But police expert Sidney Lemos said there was not enough evidence to prove a massacre took place.
Francisco Bezerra de Lima, a Yanomami expert with the Indian foundation, said the victims' bodies could have been buried along the banks of a nearby river or hidden in the dense jungle.
Violence and disease have killed 2,000 Yanomani since miners entered the region in 1987. Today, about 9,000 Yanomani survive in Brazil and 12,000 in Venezuela.
In Brasilia, President Itamar Franco met Monday with the National Defense Council, the nation's highest law-enforcement body. The council said it would set up a network of federal police and soldiers to protect the Indians.
Witnesses testify in English hearing
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Jose Fabla, the son of Mexican immigrants, is no fan of bilingual education. Learning English was integral to his success, he said, and "I do not want my children to be denied an education in English."
Fabla, the owner of a food company in California, testified yesterday before a panel headed by Rep. Toby Rory, R. Wis., in behalf of Roth's bill to declare English the nation's official language.
Testifying against the measure was Sara Melendez, a Puerto Rican native who spoke no English when she came to the United States. She eventually received a doctorate from Harvard University.
The legislation wouldn't rule out bilingual education programs or bilingual election ballots, but is designed to promote English in immigrant neighborhoods.
Making English the official language would do little to ensure that immigrants learn English, said Melendez, a proponent of bilingual programs.
Drawing upon their personal experiences, the witnesses tested before Roth's Congressional English Language Task Force. Roth was the only member present.
Melendez argued that after more than 200 years of custom, English
is the de facto official language, with Congress, state legislatures and many of U.S. businesses conducting their work in English.
She wondered what was wrong with programs in which students learn math, science and other sub-sciences while being taught English.
"I don't understand how declaim- ing English as the official language will teach everyone English." Meléndez said.
Roth questioned what would have happened if such programs had existed when Europeans emigrated to the United States.
"Could you imagine Yiddish in New York, German in Wisconsin, Scandinavian in Minnesota ... you wouldn't have a United States of America," he said.
Fabla said his parents came to the United States from Mexico in the 1940s and didn't have the help of government programs. They had to learn English to succeed, building a company that now employs 103 people, he said.
"I am proud of my Mexican heritage and my Spanish language. But I do not want my children to be denied an education in English," Fabla said.
He described English as the "language of opportunity" and said that when the government decides to grant special treatment to other languages "it is asking for trouble."
THE NEWS in brief
MIAMI
Floridians still suffering from Andrew
Three hundred-sixty five days later, Hurricane Andrew remains a painful wound slow to heal.
Agonizing memories dog Jaime Curet, who huddled with his wife in their crumbling home on Aug. 24, 1992, watching their daughter's trailer fly by their window in murderous 145 mph winds.
"I feel bad." Curet said. "I feel real bad remembering it, looking back."
The anniversary Tuesday of the nation's most destructive natural disaster was marked with a prayer service, ground breaking ceremonies and block parties. The hurricane left 41 dead and $80 billion in damages in Florida.
But like many of their neighbors, any comfort is tenuous.
Curet and wife, Blanca, are putting their lives back together, with help from the American Red Cross and an $11,500 loan from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They have moved into a hurricane-damaged house they're fixing up.
Reminders of the devastation are everywhere. Hardly a single tall tree remains standing. Many businesses have closed forever, their empty hulks lining streets.
NEW DELHI, India Mother Teresa recovering
Homestead Air Force Base, where 8,000 people once worked, will stay open, but in a shrunken form, no longer an anchor for thousands of military retirees.
An estimated 100,000 people fed the area. Divorce is up 25 percent, domestic violence cases soared, schools reported suicide attempts and increased discipline problems.
Virtually every block has at least one rubble-strewn abandoned house.
Mother Teresa told her doctors today that she was feeling fine and would like to get out of the hospital to go back to work caring for the poor.
"But we had to tell her that she needs more rest," said Bjoy Kumar Dash, representative of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where the Roman Catholic nun has been treated for malaria since Friday.
He said Mother Teresa's fever had subsided, and she had a restful night.
"She is definitely better today, but we need to observe her health conditions for a couple of days more," Dash said.
Despite her fragile health, Mother Teresa, who turns 83 on Friday, has continued travel to run the global network of her order, the Missionaries of Charity, which for 40 years has cared for the destitute. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
WICHITA
WICHITA Clinic denied buffer zone
A federal judge denied a motion yesterday for a 100-foot buffer zone to keep protesters away from two abortion clinics
In a brief order, U.S. District Judge Patrick Kelly said he had returned jurisdiction for the protection of the clinics to the city and didn't plan to revisit the matter.
They cited the shooting last week of George Tiller, owner of Women's Health Care Services, and an incident at Wichita Family Planning in which a protester threw acid on a physician entering the clinic.
The motion also said death threats had been mailed to Wichita Family Planning.
OLATHE
Finney rethinks death penalty
Gov. Joan Finney wrote in a letter to a constituent that she would allow a bill that would reinstate the death penalty to become law despite her personal opposition to capital punishment.
The Johnson County resident wrote to Finney days after Pittsburgh State University student Stephanie Schmidt was found slain in southeast Kansas. The resident urged the governor to reconsider her opposition to capital punishment.
Finney replied that she was appalled by the gruesome murder but still personally opposed capital punishment.
"I believe that most Kansas citizens favor reinstatement of the death penalty. For this reason, should the Legislature pass a law to reinstate the death penalty, I would allow it to become law without my signature," the letter said.
Finley is not availance for comment monday. Her press secretary, Martha Walker, said the letter does not represent a shift in the governor's views.
The last executions in Kansas happened in 1965 when multiple-murderers James Latham and George York were hanged.
Scmunt, 19, of Leawood, was killed July 1 after she left a Pittsburgh restaurant with a coworker, Donald Gideon.
meenan, a convicted rapist, has been charged in Schmidt's death.
Compiled from The Associated Press.
Hey, Students... THE POOL ROOM has just EXPANDED!