NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, April 16, 1997
7A
Police blunders in Belgium contribute to girls' deaths
Commission urges changes in system
The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Police blunders, inaction and perhaps even complicity with suspects allowed known child-sex offenders to kidnap and kill at least five girls, according to a parliamentary commission that called yesterday for an overhaul of Belgium's justice system.
In its 310-page report, the commission said police were negligent, and proper investigative work could have saved at least some of the girls. A half-dozen girls remain missing and are among the cases that have outraged Belgians as the extent of the bungling has emerged.
Among the lengthy list of police and judicial blunders: Twice searching a cellar — and hearing girls' voices — but not realizing children were imprisoned there; accepting a key suspect's explanation that he was putting a new drainage system in his cellar, not building a dungeon; failing to heed a warning from the suspect's mother that her son may be involved; and treating the missing girls' parents as annoyances.
The commission uncovered so much disturbing evidence that its mandate has been extended until September to investigate whether suspects received official protection.
The commission concluded that there were indications of possible protection of suspects, including Marc Dutroux, who was convicted of raping children, it said in the report.
Last August, Dutroux led police to 8-year-old Julie Lejeune's body and the bodies of three other girls who
had disappeared about a year earlier.
two other kilden victims were found alive in a dungeon Dutroux dug at his home.
Out on parole, he allegedly kept Lejeune and her friend, Melissa Russo, also 8, for months before they starved to death in the dungeon. Dutroux, 39, is jailed and awaiting trial. The date has not been set.
Last month, police arrested Patrick Derochette, a 33-year-old mechanic and known child-abuser.
He has admitted to murdering a girl, whose body was found in the garage where he worked.
The 15-member commission has investigated authorities involved with the cases, which began in August 1992, questioning police, magistrates and the victims' parents.
The conclusions presented yesterday included calls for an improved police command structure and streamlining of the various police and gendarme agencies.
Senate OKs nuclear storehouse
Nevada senators confident president will block the bill
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted yesterday to store thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste in Nevada, but the state's senators said they were confident President Clinton will block the measure if it clears Congress.
The 65-34 Senate vote to build a nuclear storehouse in the Nevada desert fell two votes shy of what would be needed to deflect a presidential veto. Supporters predicted that they will be able to sway a few senators in their direction.
"I think the votes are building," declared Sen. Larry Craig, Idaho, one of the co-sponsors of the bill that would open the way for as much as 33,000 tons of used reactor fuel to be shipped from 41 states.
The House is expected to take up
a similar bill in the coming months and supporters said that legislation might clear Congress by late summer.
But Nevada's senators, Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, said they have been given reassurances by the White House that President Clinton will veto the legislation, should it come to his desk. "He is as strong on this as on any issue," insisted Reid at a news conference after the Senate vote.
More than 30,000 tons of highly radioactive material — mostly used reactor fuel rods — are being kept at civilian reactors around the country with the nuclear garbage growing by 2,000 tons each year. Additional waste is piling up at government facilities.
Waste could be accepted in Nevada as early as 2003 under the bill.
Sen. Frank Murkowski, Alaska, said it was the government's obligation to take care of the growing pile of nuclear garbage at 109 civilian power reactors around the country. He accused the White House of
ignoring the problem that threatened the survival of some nuclear power plants and perhaps the nuclear industry.
The Nevada storage facility would be a temporary holding place for wastes until an underground burial site is built. The government has proposed a permanent burial site at Yuca Mountain, Nev., about 100 miles from Las Vegas.
But that project has been mired in controversy for years and the Energy Department does not expect to know for certain for another four years if it can keep the waste there. Even then, it is not likely to be completed until 2015.
Murkowski said an interim storage site would mean greater safety at less cost, allowing the government to consolidate at the Nevada Test Site the wastes now scattered across 41 states.
But Nevada's senators argued the interim site could become permanent if Yucca Mountain fails to materialize. "Once waste is moved to a centralized site it will never be moved again," Reid said.
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Jump Right Into Student Senate
STUDENT SENATE IS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE FOLLOWING 1997-1998 POSITIONS
STUDENT THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SENATE
- Stud-Ex Chair
- Legislative Director
- Assistant Treasurers
- Executive Secretary
APPLICATIONS ARE AVAILABLE IN THE STUDENT SENATE OFFICE, 410 KANSAS UNION
- Executive Secretary
- Treasurer
QUESTIONS? 864-3710 APPLICATION DEADLINE: April 18, 1997 5:00pm