Rise and shine
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Details, page 2
March 12, 1987
Vol. 97, No. 114
(USPS 650-640)
House approves resolution to cut aid to contras
Measure faces Senate.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The House approved a symbolic resolution yesterday that would cut off military aid to the contras, rejecting Republican accusations that members were handing Central America over to the Soviets.
The measure, which passed the House 230-196 in an extremely partisan atmosphere, would suspend for six months all assistance to the contras, notably the final $40 million of a $100 million package that Congress approved last year. The resolution also demands a public accounting of millions of dollars already sent to the contras.
The resolution was supported by 213 Democrats and 17 Republicans and opposed by 40 Democrats and 156 Republicans.
Speaker Jim Wright of Texas conceded the resolution stood little chance of passage in the Senate and no chance of being enacted over President Reagan's veto. But he said it would send a potent message to the White House that arming and aiding the contra is near death.
Wright cə $ ^{1} $
uplimacy and economic aid to curtail subversion in Central America and warned that Reagan's request for $105 million in aid in fiscal 1988 faced probable defeat later this year.
The measure faces a likely filibuster in the Senate where there was strong opposition to the contra program before the revelation of the Iran-contra scandal in which profits from U.S. arms sales to Iran apparently were used to bankroll the contras at a time when Congress banned such aid.
During the often emotional debate yesterday, Republicans accused Democrats of selling out U.S. interests in the region. Opponents such as Rep. Trent Lott, R-Miss., repeated the statement, "I do not want to be recorded as handing Central America over to the Soviets."
But House Democratic leader Thomas Foley of Washington called that accusation a poor and limp excuse in support of a failed program. He said the Soviets knew Congress was united in pledging not to permit Nicaragua to have offensive weapons that threaten any nation.
members to say what they think should happen in the future.
directed any nation.
"It is lawful to govern its nations."
Wright and Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd said that even if the measure passed Congress, they did not have the votes to kill Reagan's anticipated veto of the resolution.
The speaker said passage of the resolution meant Reagan should abandon his request for the $105 million — a request that could die by a majority vote in either chamber and didn't invite a veto because no legislation would go to the Oval Office.
Rep. Robert Mrazek, D.N.Y., countered by saying he refused to have his name recorded "in favor of handing Nicaragua over to the Contras."
Republicans were clearly putting themselves in the position to blame aid opponents for a possible victory by the Soviet-armed Sandinista army over the Contras.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., called the policy one of deception, lies, and cover-up and said opponents of the Sandistas "don't have the guts to ask for a declaration of war." It is
KU experts say U.S. reputation could sour
By ROGER COREY
Staff writer
The United States' reputation as a peace-loving power and representative of international law in Central America could be destroyed if President Reagan continues to support the contras, according to three KU Latin American specialists.
House leaders admitted that the resolution had little chance of passage in the Senate. They also acknowledged that it had little chance of being enacted over Reagan's veto.
Yesterday, the U.S. House suspended 230-196 the final $40 million of a $100 million package of aid to the contras that Congress approved last year. The resolution also demanded a public accounting of millions of dollars already sent to the contras.
"The $40 million can't be stopped politically," said Charles Stansifer, director of Latin American studies.
Stansifer said that the real issue was not the $40-million outlay but the funds diverted to the contras from the Iran arms sale.
Before Congress votes
Jack Bremer, director and campus pastor of Ecumenical Christian Ministries, said the most humane action for Congress and the administration would be to end all contra support
million." Stansifer said.
"I saw the effects of the contra action," said Bremer, who just returned from a trip to Honduras, Nicaragua and the war zone area. "It was mostly terrorism against unarmed civilians."
Bremer said the administration had blocked peace proposals by the Contadora group and by Costa Rican president Oscar Arias Sanchez because it did not want to see a Central American government free of U.S. influence.
"Since 1850, when we sent the Marines to Central America, we have controlled Nicaragua." Bremer said. "It's evident the administration wants to overthrow the Nicaraguan government."
Bremer said the administration's policy actually was helping the communists by bringing death to inno-
i) power in the last century,
the United States was relatively gentle.
"And we are still pursuing the same policy," he said.
But U.S. police in Central America
the past six or seven years has
been involved in the killing of
Barbara Waggoner, adjunct lecturer in Latin American studies, said the current Central American policy was not effective in terms of U.S. goals.
Waggoner said she had been watching developments in Central America since her first trip there in 1966. She said the effect of the war against the Sandinistas was vast. Farmers' land was being taken over for airstrips, and the fighting had increased economic pressures on Nicaragua. The war also had affected El Salvador and Costa Rica.
Waggoner said the United States had never been considered a beneficent nation by Central Americans. And the last thing the region needed right now was a war, especially in the name of democracy.
FICTION
The Goat Skin
By Roger Corey
Staff writer
Two years a activists would demonstration courted arrest University of business interest Today, most even attend a South Africa crusade Frustration to persuade ulevist and reqt to South Africa the steam out some former a "We've done the proper chop "Boog" Highbiz student a of the committee. "A lot of people heads against it and when you got to give." At the height activity in 199 members ate meeting. That about 15 last Munson, Lea committee's group
S. A activdorn som
By JOSEPH REI Staff writer
At the height activity in 19 members ate meeting That about 15 last Munson, Leav committee's c The commit the fall. When
Farly one evening Namongo was returning from the fields when he saw his father coming from the river. His father carried two small fish.
Namongo gazed up at the darkening sky. It had changed from red to purple as he walked back to the village along the narrow path from the fields. He rubbed a hand across his face.
Namongo's father asked this question because the young Dioula had been of marriage age for several months, but had not taken a wife.
"Because," he said, "I have not found a good woman."
The following day Namongo's father told everyone in the village that his son would marry if he found a good woman. The word was passed around Kolia and then to other villages. Many fathers gazed thoughtfully at their daughters.
"Namongo," the young man's father said. "Why haven't you married?"
The village of Kolia was on the road to Gbon, and one day a man and a young woman walked up the road from that direction.
Namongo stood up from the cookfire, where he had been sitting, and gazed at the young woman. She was tall and thin like a palm tree. Namongo shook his head. He didn't want a wife like a palm tree. He said thank you but no, he would keep looking.
They had been walking for eight kilometers and were dusty and tired. The man was a distant cousin of Namongo's mother, and the young woman was his daughter. The cousin had come from Gbon to offer Namongo the hand of his daughter.
both sides to ins and congoner said.
Two months later another cousin arrived in Kolia with a daughter. She was a plump young woman with very dark skin.
"Namongo," Achou-Noire's father said. "My daughter will live in your compound until the new moon. When the moon is full, she will return to our village . . . unless you ask her to stay."
Her name was Achou-Noire, and she gazed shyly at Namongo as her father spoke.
"This is just," Namongo said. He was not struck
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by Achou, but he didn't dislike her either. Perhaps in time, he thought.
As weeks passed and the old moon filled out, Achou-Noire stayed in Namongo's compound. She worked hard to please the young man, hauling firewood from the fields, pounding yams and preparing sauces. But every night Namongo paced in front of his hut, troubled.
When the new moon arrived, Namongo's father saw his son walking through the cassava field alone.
"Where is Achou-Noire?" he asked, gazing across the field for the plump figure of the young woman.
"She has gone." Namongo said absently.
Sue this gone.
He has no angry "Tencha," he scolded.
"Twice you have been offered healthy young women as wives and have refused. Now you must find a wife for yourself!"
His father turned and walked back to the village.
His father turned and walked back to the village. Namongo was upset. He truly wanted to find a wife, and he began to wonder at his hesitation. Hadn't the marriage of his father and mother been arranged? He felt confused and walked into the bush to think.
Several hours had passed when Namongo returned to the village. His father said, "It is good that you have come, Tencha. A third cousin has brought a daughter."
She wore a bright cloth and many strands of colored beads around her neck. On the fingers of her right hand she wore rings of bone, and from her ears dangled shiny earrings. Whenever she laughed, she covered her mouth discreetly, though her teeth were straight and white.
Namongo grimaced at the thought of another refusal, but then his eyes caught sight of the young woman. She sat with her father in the shade of a mango tree. Her hair was braided, showing off a finely shaped head.
Her name was Mabintou.
A tribal scar adorned Mabintou's left cheek. The bush tribes often marked themselves with scars. Some scars fanned out across the face like the whiskers of a lion, others were circular or horizontal. Mabintou's scar was less than an inch in length and cut parallel to her eye. It accented the darkness of her eyes like a beauty mark.
When Namongo saw Mabintu he said happily to himself, "Now I shall marry, for I could not find a better wife if I walked to the coast . . . and that is a long journey."
Namongo's family was excited. At last the young man would have a wife and a compound of his own.
The next morning Namongo sat down with Mabintou's father to discuss the conditions of the marriage. The elder was seated on a wooden stool near a large porcelain bowl of boiled yams. Beside the porcelain bowl was a smaller bowl of peanut sauce. Namongo's father had killed and skinned a bush rat to eat with the sauce.
As the men dipped their fingers in the sauce, Namongo said to Mabintou's father, "Cousin, I am a poor man. I cannot offer you a goat or sheep for your daughter."
Mabintou's father licked the sauce from his fingers and gazed steadily at the young man.
Namongo wiped the sauce nervously from his mouth.
"For the hand of my daughter," the father said. "You must bring me 10 kola nuts and three meters of cloth. The cloth is for Mabintou. I will keep nine of the kola nuts for myself, and the 10th you will break and eat in the marriage ceremony."
See HCITION, p. 20
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10. KANSAN MAGAZINE/March 11, 1987