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Monday, April 17, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
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Uruguayan referendum brings low voter turnout
The Associated Press
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Gray skies and rain apparently lowered voter turnout yesterday in a referendum on a law that gave amnesty to security forces accused of murder and torture during the last military dictatorship.
Three hours before the polls closed at 5:30 p.m CDT the Interior Ministry estimated that 64 percent of the 2.3 million Uruguayans eligible to vote had cast ballots.
Voting is mandatory in Uruguay and turnout usually usps 80 percent. The first results were expected at 10 p.m. CDT.
The 1986 law gave annesty to scores of police and soldiers accused of human rights abuses in a military campaign against leftist guerrillas.
"The important thing is to decide this by public vote," said Pedro Kunzeawa, 31-year-old public employee. "The country can live with whichever side comes out abac."
Supporters of the amnesty, including President Julio Sanguinetti, say it was needed to preserve peace in this South American nation and prevent a possible confrontation between the military and the four-year-old civilian government.
Leftists political parties and human rights groups, which mounted a huge petition drive to put the issue to a vote, say trials of soldiers and police accused of human rights abuses are necessary before democracy can be considered fully restored.
Supporters of the amnesty cast yellow ballots; Opponents cast green ones.
Traditional Sunday soccer games were canceled and public entertainment was suspended during polling.
"A country that forgets its past has no future," said a woman standing in line to vote in a neighborhood along an estuary of the River Plate. A future of peace of justice depend on overturing the amnesty, said the woman, who refused to give her
name.
If voters reject the amnesty, trials would not start immediately. Vice President Enrique Tarigo said the Supreme Court then would have to decide whether the amnesty would be annulled — meaning a ruling that it never legally existed — or merely overturned.
If the law is just overturned, the change could not be applied retroactively.
The amnesty freed security forces from the possibility of prosecution in connection with a 1970s crackdown on leftist subversion. About 150 Uruguayans were killed, and 200 were arrested and never seen again. Thousands suffered physical and psychological torture under detention.
The military maintains it was fighting a war against urban guerrillas, particularly the leftist Tupamaros, whose bombings, kidnappings and assassinations had convulsed the country for years.
Two SWAPO guerrillas die during fighting with South African forces
The Associated Press
Gerhard Roux also said two more guerrillas of the South-West Africa People's Organization, or SWAPO, had turned themselves in at U.N. points, Alloghet, only seven had arrived at the U.N. posts to be taken to SWAPO bases in neighboring Angola.
WINDHOEK, Namibia - Two guerillas were killed yesterday fighting with South African-led security forces and six were captured, a territorial official said.
Roux is the spokesman for Louis Pienaar, the South African-appointed administrator of Namibia, also known as South-West Africa.
independence from South Africa, which has administered the territory since World War II. But the transition was disrupted when fightings broke out between the guerrillas and the territory's security forces.
April 1 was to have marked the beginning of Namibia's transition to
According to an agreement reached a week ago between South Africa, Cuba and Angola to end the fighting, the guerrillas are to have safe passage to U.N. assembly points in northern Namibia. U.N. and local officials have expressed doubt that the guerrillas would venture near the assembly points because of the concentration of territorial police and soldiers in those areas.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard
said Sunday that any SWAPO guerrilla captured by the territorial security forces should be turned over immediately to U.N. forces in Namibia to oversee the transition to independence.
Roux said there had been no decision on how to deal with the 28 guerrillas captured by the security forces.
He said that since April 1, 278 guerrillas and 27 members of the security forces have been killed.
Roux, in his report on Sunday's guerrilla deaths, said one guerrilla was killed in a clash with territorial soldiers southeast of Swarthbooisdrift. The second was tracked and killed by police near Okandiere, he said.
He said the government forces suffered no casualties.
1989 Jayhawker
APPLICATIONS for the 1989 Editor, Assistant Editor, Business Manager, and Photo Editor positions for the Jayhawker Yearbook are now available at the: S.U.A. Office & Yearbook Office Room 427, Kansas Union
Deadline 5:00 p.m.Friday, April 21
These are paid positions that offer great resume experience!
Call for more information. 864-3728
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