Wednesday, September 22, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 9
World
University in South Africa will apologize to med students
The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG. South Africa—In the twisted world of apartheid, Black medical students weren't even considered good enough to examine white cadavers.
The handful admitted to apartheid-era medical schools were denied specialist training, cordoned off in separate changing rooms and dining halls and thrown out of lectures. Only in the 1980s were they allowed to see white patients — but not in gynecological or obstetrics wards.
Now, five years after the end of white minority rule, the nation's leading medical school is doing something rare in post-apartheid South Africa: issuing an apology for the mistreatment of Black people.
Administrators at the health sciences faculty of the University of the Witwatersrand recently completed a draft apology. In the coming weeks they will circulate it for approval among the 150-member faculty board. The text will accompany a plaque to be unveiled on the campus in February, said Yosuf Veriava, deputy dean at the university.
"A lot of the hurt by our Black colleagues and students can only be healed with an emotional response," said Trevor Jenkins, the retired head of the human genetics department. Cited by the commission report for his resistance to apartheid, Jenkins had a hand in drafting the apology.
"To say sorry in the right context, with an emotional component, will bring what we all want — healing," he said.
Black leaders have made the same plea. A year ago, the revered chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission — Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu — appealed in a widely published commentary for white leaders to say, "We had a bad policy that had evil consequences. We are sorry. Please forgive us."
Senate votes to bypass embargo
U.S. could export food and medicine to barred Cuba
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON—With pressure from the farm lobby, a coalition of liberals and conservative lawmakers hopes to open a hole in the 40-year-old trade embargo against Cuba that would allow the sale of U.S. food and medical supplies.
The Senate overwhelmingly approved an amendment last month to a must-pass agricultural spending bill that would allow licensing of such exports. The provision is likely to be a major issue as House and Senate negotiators try to work out the final version of the appropriations measure this week.
"We need to have freedom to
market products from our agricultural sectors with any and all customers," said Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash.
The Clinton administration decided this summer to allow sales of food and medicine to three other countries listed as terrorist states — Iran, Libya and Sudan — but was barred by law from including Cuba.
The Senate provision, whose co-sponsors include conservative Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., and liberal Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., would allow the government to issue licenses for up to one year for food and medicine sales to public institutions in Cuba but would bar the Agriculture Department from subsidizing them.
The legislation also would prohibit the president from including food and medicine in future embargoes of other countries without congressional approval.
"This is something that has
absolutely been pushed onto the radar screen by the ag lobby groups," said Jose Cardenas, Washington director for the Cuban American National Foundation. "They've been playing this for all it's worth, that Mr. and Mrs. Family Farmer are being pushed off their farms."
Negotiations on the spending bill were scheduled to start this evening. In addition to the trade measure, lawmakers also have to work out a multibillion-dollar bailout for the farm economy. The Senate approved a $7.4 billion package of farm assistance in August, but farm organizations are seeking more.
Farm groups and agribusinesses are clamoring to move a glut of grain that has depressed commodity prices for the second year in a row, and they've been pressuring Congress and the Clinton administration to remove all barriers to food exports.
U.S. to stand by Pakistani constitution
Officials warn military leaders against ousting Prime Minister
The Associated Press
NEW YORK—The Clinton administration is sending a quiet message to military leaders in Pakistan designed to head off any effort by them to oust Prime Minister Nawaz Sarif because of his handling of the Kashmir crisis.
"We believe the Pakistani military remains committed to support the constitution," said State Department spokesman James P. Rubin yesterday.
Rubin, with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for a special session of the U.N. General Assembly, stressed that U.S. support for democracy in Pakistan transcended advocacy for any particular political figure.
At the same time, though, senior U.S. officials are signaling some worry that the military may get out of line. Consequently, Rubin said the United States opposed any extraconstitutional actions.
"The United States favors the strengthening of democracy in Pakistan." he said.
In addition to discontent in the military, Prime Minister Sharif faces relentless protests from political opponents, who have formed a grand alliance to depose
him.
U. S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Clinton administration had seen no threat of imminent subversion of the democratic process in Pakistan. Nonetheless, they said, indications of potential instability have prompted the administration's reaffirmation of support for the constitutional processes.
they noted that there have been suggestions within Pakistan for the military to replace Sharif with a government of technocrats. One of Sharif's biggest problems is a plummeting economy.
Sharif's problems with the military stem largely from his promise to President Clinton to withdraw Pakistani troops at the height of the summertime crisis with India because of Kashmir.
While expressing a strong preference for democracy in Pakistan, the United States has shown an ability in the past to work well with military governments. An example was the martial-law rule of President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq.
Political leaders opposed to Sharif have promised demonstrations throughout the country to depose him. He has imposed a two-month ban on demonstrations in the southern Sindh province, where the party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is strong. She has been removed from power twice on corruption charges.
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