Section A · Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, August 25, 1997
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ATTENTION SOFTBALL PROSPECTS!
University of Kansas Softball is holding Walk-on tryouts Sept.2.
Informal meeting on Wednesday,Aug.27 at 7 pm at the north end of Allen fieldhouse.
For more info please call (785) 864-4737.
African troops learning art of keeping the peace
The Associated Press
KALAMA HILL, Uganda — Flat on their bellies in crackling new American uniforms, Ugandan soldiers aim their AK-47 assault rifles and mimic the sounds of gunfire.
"Incoming! You've got artillery! Get a clock direction, and move out!" barks Sgt. 1st Class Rick Masters.
The Cincinnati native is one of 120 American soldiers sent to Uganda and Senegal to train the embryo of what the United States and other Western nations hope will become an African force to keep peace on the fracious continent.
"Africa should be able to take care of its own problems. It's the old concept: If a person's hungry, don't give them a fish. Teach them how to fish," said Maj. Matthew Dansbury of Trenton, N.J., commander of the 54-man Army training team in Uganda.
The soldiers from Fort Bragg,
N.C. — some from the Special
Forces Group, others from the 18th Airborne Corps — arrived July 21 at this hilltop overlooking the Kabamba military training school, 150 miles west of Kampala, Uganda's capital.
Fresh from fighting rebels in the restive northwest, the 770 Ugandan soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 307th Infantry Brigade, camp in more modest conditions and live off cornmeal porridge and chapatis.
Many of the soldiers know the American trainers from earlier courses in Uganda aiming to improve the quality of the Ugandan People's Defense Force, a former guerrilla army that helped President Yoweri Museveni come to power in 1986.
Although the program covers military basics like marksmanship, it
The United States is conducting its first peacekeeper training exercises in Uganda and Senegal to show support for the two countries, which have democratic and human rights records seen as fairly clean by African standards.
stresses the philosophy and tactics of peacekeeping.
With a $15 million budget put up by the United States, the training program now has camps at Kalaima Hill and at Thies, Senegal, and is to be expanded by year's end with camps in Mali, Ethiopia and Malawi. Three other locations are still to be named.
The idea of an all-African peacekeeping force first was floated by then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher during an African tour in late 1996. Response was less than enthusiastic. South Africa was downright hostile, fearing Washington wanted it to shoulder the responsibility.
But after Western-led peacekeeping debacles in Somalia and Rwanda — where U.N.-mandated forces either failed to resolve a conflict or failed to intervene to stop a genocide—and the rebellion in the former Zaire with its thousands of refugees, the big seven industrial nations and Russia threw their support behind the idea in June.
Thailand's economy struggles as investors lose confidence
The Associated Press
Monetarv Fund.
MANILA, Philippines — Five years ago, Philippine officials hoped their country's sagging economy could duplicate Thailand's stunning growth.
No longer. In only a few months, a currency crisis has turned Thailand from a Southeast Asian economic success into a case study of growth gone wrong. The Philippines and other regional countries are struggling to convince investors that they have not made Thailand's mistakes.
Just as Thailand's achievements helped make investors bullish on Southeast Asia, its turmoil dragged many of the region's currencies sharply lower and brought a reappraisal of other Southeast Asian economies.
Thailand's currency, the baht, was battered last week, hitting a new low against the U.S. dollar despite a $17 billion rescue package approved Wednesday by the International
The region has learned that open markets can be exceedingly painful.
Together, Southeast Asian countries have spent about $30 billion in scarce foreign reserves in recent unsuccessful attempts to prop up their currencies in the world's free-wheeling foreign exchange market.
In less than two months, the baht has fallen 23 percent against the dollar, the Philippine peso is down 14 percent, Indonesia's rupiah has
dropped 20 percent and Malaysia's ringit is off 12 percent.
Jitters over the currency fluctuations have pushed most regional stock markets sharply lower, and higher interest rates threaten to slow economic growth.
One benefit is that the devaluations should make the region's exports cheaper and more competitive. But weaker currencies also raise the costs of imported oil, factory equipment and components that many Southeast Asian nations rely on.
On July 2, Thailand's government allowed the baht to float, yielding to heavy pressure from currency traders who felt the currency was overvalued.