SPORTS: The No. 12 Kansas baseball team takes on Nebraska in Lincoln tonight. Page 9.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.102.NO.141
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1993
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
Waco standoff ends in flames
(USPS 650-640)
Nine people survive fire set by cult
How events unfolded
Events leading up to cult compound fire
1 6:55 a.m. EDT: Federal agents warn culists to surrender or be gassed
2 7:04 a.m.: Agents tear holes in building, using a combat-engineering vehicle equipped with a battering ram, the vehicle disperses non-pyrotechnic gas through holes
3 Throughout morning: incursions
around all the buildings
SOURCE: News reports, research by PAT CARR
Shortly after 1 p.m.: Cult members reportedly set fire to compound in several places; wind spreads flames
Knight-Ridder Tribune RON CODDINGTON and JEFF DIONISE
WACO, Texas — Doomsday cult leader David Bouchard's apocalyptic vision came true yesterday when fire, believed to be set by his followers, destroyed the prairie compound as federal agents tried to drive them out with tear gas after a 51-day standoff.
As many as 86 members of the Branch Davidian religious cult, including Koresh and 24 children, were thought to have died as the flames raced through the wooden buildings in 30 minutes. Only nine were known to have survived
"I can't tell you the shock and the horror that all of us felt when we saw those flames coming out," FBI representative Bob Ricks said in a solemn afternoon news conference. "We thought, 'Oh my God, they are killing themselves."
The blaze, fanned by stiff winds, erupted just six hours after FBI agents began using armored vehicles to pound holes in the complex of buildings and spray them with tear gas.
She said she had not thought the standoff would end with mass suicide despite Koresh's warning that he should "safely" harm him would be decrypted by fire.
Attorney General Janet Reno said she personally had approved the assault in hopes of forcing a peaceful ending.
Federal authorities said they would not know the precise death toll toll们 could search an underground maze of passageways. The search was expected to start today after the site cooled down.
"We can only assume that there was a massive loss of life," Ricks said. "It was truly an inferno of flames."
He said agents had searched a buried bus on the grounds after one of the survivors had told them that the children had been hered there
But Ricks said only two or three bodies had been found there.
The FBI previously had said two of the women in the compound were pregnant, one of whom was due to deliver in May. They apparently were not among the survivors.
Ricks said that multiple witnesses, including FBI snipers positioned outside the compound, had spotted cult members setting fires.
Four of the survivors, including a 16-year-old girl, were hospitalized with burns and broken bones. The five others were being held as material witnesses in McLennan County Jail.
The agents reported seeing a man wearing a gas mask and black uniform throw something inside.
One survivor told authorities that people inside the compound had set the blaze, said Carl Stern, Justice Department representative.
NEWS:864-4810
Ricks also said that a man found yesterday afternoon in a bunker on the grounds said lantern fuel had been spread throughout the wooden complex and that the fire was started simultaneously in several places.
"We did not introduce fire into this compound," Ricks said. "David Koresh, we believe, gave the order to commit suicide, and they all followed willingly his order.
"He wanted to have as many people killed in that compound as possible."
Koresh's mother, Bonnie Haldeman, lashed out at the FBI late yesterday while the compound still smoldered.
Late in the day, Reno told reporters the FB's audit was meant to be a step forward that would increase pressure to end the standoff.
"I don't know what David did." Haldeman said by telephone. "I can't answer for the people in there or for what they did. I don't know what they were thinking.
Knight-Ridder Tribune
"There were law-abiding, Gife-
dearing people in there. They didn'
hurt anybody. It's ridiculous.
They're going to pay."
Ricks spoke calmly at a morning session with reporters about the decision to force Koresh and his followers out.
"Today's action is not an indication that our patience has run out," Ricks said. "The action taken today was, we believe, the next logical step in a series of actions to bring this episode to a conclusion."
Flames rise from the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Nine members are known to have survived the fire that was set by the cult members yesterday.
Cult's end surprises students
By Jess DeHaven Kansan staff writer
The violent end yesterday to the 51-day standoff near Waco, Texas, left some members of the KU community surprised but not especially sympathetic for members of the Branch Davidian cult.
"I think it's kind of crazy," said Aaron Keating, Overland Park sophomore. "Just don't understand radical groups like that who follow one person and do anything he says."
Keating said he was concerned about the 25 minors who were inside the compound yesterday morning.
"The adults are there of their own accord, but the children don't have any chance to leave," he said. "That's why I regret I have about the situation."
Brandy Stube, Lawrence sophomore, said she also was bothered by the children involved in the stand-off.
"The children are dying for their parents' beliefs, and that's wrong."
Tim Miller, assistant professor of religious studies and expert on religious cults, said he had not expected the violent outcome of the standoff.
Jonestown was a village in Guyana, South America, inhabited by members of the California-based religious cult Peoples Temple. In November 1978, 780 people committed a mass suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. The suicides were ordered by cult leader Jim Jones after members of the group shot and killed a U.S. congressman who was investigating the cult.
"I really had no idea how it would end, but several other experts were quite convinced it would end peacefully," he said. "There's the comparison to Jonestown, where everything came to a violent end, but I just didn't think that would be the case here."
Miller said he had not expected cult leader David Koresh to surrender without conflict.
"What was he going to expect when he came out? He faces a murder charge," Miller said. "He was looking at life in prison. So if you think about it, he really had no reason to come out."
Koresh had told FBI agents he would not end the standoff until he had a sign from God. Many have said he thought of himself as a prophet.
Miller said Koresh's image of himself was only one of the reasons he kept children from leaving.
"I have no reason to doubt that he sincerely thought he was Jesus," Miller said. "As with many cult leaders, when you have several followers affirming that you are the chosen one you start to believe it."
Miller said that he thought Koresh did think of himself as Jesus and that his belief that he was doing God's will kept him in the compound.
See related story. Page 14.
GTA case delayed third time Hearing postponed until September
By Terrilyn McCormick
Kansan staff writer
The hearing scheduled to determine whether graduate teaching assistants are public employees was postponed for the third time last week.
The postponement further delays the GTAs' unionization efforts, which some GTAs argue will create a pay and health law that pays pay and health and day-care benefits.
The hearing now is set for Sept. 20, almost a year after the original Oct. 6 hearing date.
The unionization hearing process began Feb. 25, 1992, when the Kansas Association of Public Employees filed a petition on the behalf of the GTAs to the relations board. The petition contested the administration's view point that GTAs are students — not public employees — and therefore could not form a union.
Mary Prewitt, assistant general counsel for the University, said she asked for a continuance on April 5 because Scott Stone, the GTAs' general counsel, did not submit the list of witnesses and exhibits by the March 29 deadline set by the Kansas Public Employee Relation Board, which is hearing the case.
Prewitt said Stone's failure to submit the documents gave the GTAs' counsel extra time to supplement their list of witnesses and exhibits after receiving the University's list. The continuance would give the University counsel the same advantage. Prewitt said.
Stone submitted the GTAs' witness list on April 5, a week after the deadline.
He took over the GTAs' case from Brad Avery, the GTAs' first counsel, two months ago. The change was a factor in the delay. Stone said. Avery removed himself from the case because he had been appointed head of the Kansas Association of Public Employees.
Stone said the list was late because of the large number of documents given to the GTAs' counsel from the University. The documents serve as evidence on such issues as GTA workload.
The same mass of documents that bogged down the GTA counsel's preparation caused Prewitt to ask for a delay. She said that the two weeks she had access to the documents was not adequate time to prepare.
However, Stone said Prewitt already had access to the documents before Stone submitted their list of witnesses and exhibits.
After the delay was granted, the two sides had to decide on a new date.
Prewiit said she asked to hear the case this summer, but Stone was not
Stone said the summer was not ideal for trying the case because the witnesses the GTAs would call would be out of town.
The most recent postponement of the hearing has both sides weary of the case.
"This case has extremely long time," Stone said. "I can't blame one side or the other, because both have asked for a continuance."
With his own style
Gus Wegner, principal of Vinland and Marion Springs elementary schools, brings a unique and warm style to education.
See story. Page 6.
African Americans at higher risk for cancer
Nutrition, smoking cited as reasons for health trend
African Americans have a higher risk of contracting cancer and a higher cancer mortality rate compared to other ethnic groups in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.
By Vickl Bode
Kansan staff writer
Because this trend has developed, the National Cancer Institute is sponsoring Minority Cancer Awareness Week, which lasts until Saturday.
Susan Thompson, community outreach coordinator for the Cancer Information Service at the University of Kansas. Medical
Center, said cancer was the second-leading cause of death among African Americans.
"It is important to encourage African Americans to get checked for cancer," Thompson said.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 80 million people in the United States who are now living will contract cancer at some time in their lives. Of the 80 million, 10 million African Americans eventually will contract the disease.
Since 1955, cancer deaths have increased 17 percent among white men and have increased 2 percent in white women, according to the cancer society. However, deaths have increased 66 percent among African-American men and 10 percent for African-American women.
But many of the deaths can be attributed to a lack of early diagnosis, Thompson said.
*African Americans tend to smoke
Thompson attributed the higher rates among African Americans to smoking and nutritional patterns.
"Some African Americans just don't find screening important," she said.
Thompson said there was a lack of education about getting regular cancer checks.
cigarettes with a higher tar and nicotine content," she said. "I think advertisers try to tar get African Americans."
"It isn't a big focus nationally, but I think it is coming into being," she said.
The American Cancer Society suggests a cancer-related checkup every three years for people between 20 and 40. It also recommends a checkup every year for people over
No activities for Minority Cancer Awareness Week are planned in the Lawrence area, but events will take place across the nation.
Candyce Waitley, health education coordinator at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said that minority cancer problems was a budding issue.
Cancer deaths, 1975-84
Cancer deaths, 1975-84 Below are the number of deaths due to cancer per 100,000 people for each year.
Source: National Cancer Institute
Joanne Charles / Rudder Kidder Graphics Network