NATION/WORLD
Friday, April 14, 1995
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5B
Police watch Japanese cult
The Associated Press
According to police sources, sect followers have telephoned their families and told them to be careful in the next few days. And there were rumors in the sect that sarin — the nerve gas used in the subways — might be scattered in a Tokyo night-club district, the Kyodo News Service reported.
Police have arrested more than 70 cult members on a variety of pretexts since the March 20 subway attack that killed 11 people, sickened 5,500 and stunned a nation that had thought itself free from terrorism.
TOKYO — After weeks of moving cautiously, police threw a wide dragnet yesterday around Japan to find the leaders of a cult suspected in the deadly nerve gas attacks on Tokyo's subways.
In a book released last month, Shoko Asahara, a cult leader, predicted a disaster to happen this weekend in Tokyo. Police patrolled the city's most crowded neighborhoods and its government district yesterday in case cult members interpreted the prediction as a sign to do damage.
Now, however, police apparently believe they have enough evidence
At least 20,000 officers fanned out to search cars at roadblocks, while the coast guard checked boats leaving the country. Police in Tokyo went on emergency alert fearing cult followers might launch an attack this weekend.
The cult denied involvement in the incident and said the tons of chemicals seized in weeks of raids on its facilities were for making fertilizer, not nerve gas.
Still, suspicions have focused on the sect, reinforced by daily revelations of potentially deadly chemicals, weapons parts and military paraphernalia seized in raids on the cult's property.
Across the nation, police mobilized about 20,000 officers at 1,000 checkpoints, according to Yomiuri, Japan's highest circulation daily. Kyodo put the number of police at 30,000.
to arrest most of the top figures of the Aum Shinri Kyo, or Supreme Truth, sect.
A senior cult member was seized yesterday and charged with blackmailing a businessman. News reports identified him as a former gangster and current leader of the cult's commando corps, which recaptures escaping members and pressures believers for donations.
Police also planned raids this weekend at more than 110 cult facilities and hiding places, Kyodo said. Asahara and other top leaders of the sect have dropped out of sight, although followers say Asahara is still in Japan.
In addition to looking for Asahara, police were searching for another clerat leader wanted for kidnapping. Reports said bloody gauze, surgical
Police would not comment on any of the reports.
Hideo Murai, head of the cult's science and technology ministry, dismissed allegations that police found gun parts at cult facilities. In a interview with Kyodo, Murai said an alleged gun factory found in a cult compound at the foot of Mount Fuji was manufacturing molds for plastic products.
tools and medical diagrams of his face were found in a bungalow, indicating he might have had plastic surgery before fleeing.
Asahara, the cult leader, predicts a war between Christians and Buddhists will set off World War III in 1997, and says sect followers must prepare to survive.
In another report, police said they had discovered that cult members were retooling replica guns into functioning weapons. Civilian use of handguns is banned in Japan, but model guns are legal.
The cult, which calls itself Buddhist but is a mixture of various beliefs, claims 30,000 members in Russia and 10,000 in Japan.
A notebook also was reportedly seized from an arrested cult official that contained plans for buying tanks and other military goods from Russia.
Last week, police found dozens of what they said were gun parts in a car owned by the cult. The national Asahi newspaper reported yesterday that police also had seized a computer program used to control lathes on which the parts were made.
Dahmer's brain, body preserved
FAST MACS/NEW SOFTWARE
1401 W. 23rd • 832-copy
The Associated Press
His brain, which was removed during the autopsy, a common practice, is in a jar at the offices of the state pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
MADISON, Wis. — Jeffrey Dahmer's brain is being kept in a jar for possible scientific study, and his body is in a freezer until the trial of the man accused of murdering him is over.
Dahmer's mother asked that the brain be preserved because she was exploring some possible studies that might have explained his abnormal behavior, Epps said.
memberment, was clubbed to death in prison Nov. 28, allegedly by inmate Christopher Scarver. 26. No trial date has been set.
Dahmer's corpse is on ice in an old basement morgue in case Scarver's lawyers want to have it examined, Columbia County Coroner Keith Epps said Wednesday.
Dahmer, who was convicted of killing 16 boys and men in an orgy of necrophilia, cannibalism and dis-
The serial killer had asked to be cremated.
CENTRAL AMERICA WEEK
Friday, April 14
Lecture:
Lecture
"Liberation Theology in Central America"
Daniel Grippo, Latin American Studies
12:30-13:0 p.m.
Kansas University
Documentaries:
Documents:
"Killing Priests is Good News" (El Salvador)
"God and Politics" (Honduras and Nicaragua)
3:30 & 4:15 p.m. Room 3, Lippincott Hall
Lecture by:
Franklin Chang-Diaz (Costa Rican astronaut)
presented by the Costa Rican Student Association
7:00 p.m., Ballroom of the Kansas Union
Sponsored by Central American Program of Undergraduate Scholarships(CAMPUS 7&9), Center of Latin American Studies, International Studies and Latin American Solidarity.
Board of Class Officers Elections!
Applications are available in the O.A.C.office in the Kansas Union
Due: 5:00 p.m. April 18,1995
All applicants must attend: Informational meeting 5:00 pm. April 18 Alcove A, Kansas Union
For questions: contact Jeff Russell at 841-4235
Operators are standing by to cut you off.
When it's time to get your electricity turned off, the only line you'll have to deal with this year is the one attached to your telephone.
Just call 1-800-794-4780 anytime day or night.
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