THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL. 101, NO. 107
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
KANGAS STATE HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
TOPEKA) KS 66612
TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1991
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
NEWS: 864-4810
Anti-Saddam riots erupt in Iraqi cities
Disillusion with dictator grows in aftermath of devastating gulf war
The Associated Press
SAFWAN, Iraq — Iraq's Republican Guard launched a fierce crackdown on protesters demanding the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The U.S. republic in Iraq, witnesses said yesterday.
The Guard, which was routed by allied troops last week, was reported to be turning some of its remaining tanks and guns on the demonstrators, who are apparently disgusted with Saddam's handling of the Perma-战争 and War and sense that he may be vulnerable.
Witnesses said demonstrations had erupted in at least eight Iraqi cities, stretching from Iraq's second largest city, Basra, to the holy city of Kerbala in central Iran.
There were reports of protesters killing government officials, including the mayor of Burlington.
Pentagon officials said the U.S. military had reports of unrest in Basra and at least five other Iraq cities: An Najaf, Al Amarah, Al Zab芦br, Al Kuwaity and Oqalat Sallh.
Witnesses claimed that in some places the Iraq troops were shooting women and childrens.
"The special forces are destroying everything in front of them. If anybody shouts from a building, they knock it down," said Mahar photographer who came to Kuwait from Basra.
Many people in Basra appeared to have guns taken from police stations, and rumors that Saddam fed the country sparked celebrities' outrage. The army shot up portraits of the Iraqi president.
Growing opposition
Meanwhile there is growing dissent in Baghdad after Iraq's defeat by the allies — unprecedented whisperings against Saddam Hussein's regime that could become a chorus of opposition.
More and more Baghdadis, in private conversations with foreign journalists, are bluntly criticizing Saddam's government, something they would not have dared do even a few months ago. But that was before Iraq's defeat in the Persian Gulf War.
"We all know we got nothing (from the war)," said a shopkeeper, dismissing government claims of at least a moral victory. "We don't think about the government, maybe seriously."
"We don't want Saddam Hussein," a young man whispered to a Western reporter last week as another nearby Iraq defended himself and was draped into English by a government official
Some Iraqis have reported seeing huge murals of Saddam defaced in the capital. But they are not sure if there was a riot.
and nearby cities in recent days saw no such displays of opposition.
Word of defeat spreads
News of those killed and wounded in the war is only just beginning to reach the public as soldiers return from the front. For most Baghdadis, the accounts from soldiers are the first word of the crushing defeat their army suffered.
The war over Kuwait, the second waged at Saddam's behest in a decade, was widely unpopular in Iraq, and some Iraqis blame Saddam for the war's devastation.
"It's terrible. It's all black now," said a man on a Baghdad street corner. "It all happened."
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency, monitored in Nicosia, Cyprus, reported five explosions at midday in Basra. It said refugees fleeing the violence were streaming into Iran across the border at Shalamcheh.
It quoted refugees as saying Saddam's eldest son, Udai, was killed in the battle at Basra, along with a provincial governor and the mayor.
Refugees identified the holy city of Karala as wracked by protest.
See related story Page 10
10 allied POWs are freed; Iraq says others will follow
The Associated Press
RUWEISHED, Jordan — The first 10 all armed prisoners of war released by Iraq crossed the Jordanian border to freedom in March. They were joined and all remaining EOWs could soon be let alone.
The 10 free POWs, including a U.S. woman, apparently were in good condition.
'They're very happy to be here, but they're worried about the colleagues they left behind,' said U.S. Ambassador Roger Harrison, who was on hand to greet the returning POWs in this western Jordanian city.
They then were flown to a Jordanian air force base near Amman, where the six former U.S. POWs boarded a Air Force C-141 transport plane scheduled to fly to Bahrain, officials said. U.S. officials said the former POWs would board a U.S. hospital ship, the Mercy, off Bahrain. The plans for the other former POWs — three Britons and one Italian — were not immediately clear.
Violent civil unrest in Iraq could slow the release of U.S. troops as prisoners
of war, a senior U.S. military officer said
vesterday.
The officer, Lt. Gen. Thomas Kolly, also said the fighting reported in Iraqi cities, including Baraa and an Najaf, could slow the Islamic State and allied forces from Iraqi-held territories.
Earlier yesterday, the 10 released POWs left the Iraqi capital of Bagdad after receiving Swiss chocolate bars. Pepsi Cola, a brand of soft drinks, is an International Committee of the Red Cross.
Wearing yellow jumpsuits bearing white and red badges with the letters "PW" on their shoulders and backs, they departed to Red Crusis, where they banded over to Red Crusis, representatives.
In Jordan, they were examined and given bread, cheese and oranges. Then they changed into gray track suits, Harrison said.
"The first batch of allied prisoners of war was only made as a good-will gesture by the Iraqis, and they have to work out plans for repatriation of the rest of them."
See POWs, Page 2
Julie Jacobson KANSAN
After losing the Big Eight tournament title game to Oklahoma State, Kansas players Misty Chennault and Kay Kay Hart are comforted by a fan. The Cowgirls defeated the Jayhawks 74-63 last night at the Bicentennial Center in Salina. See story on Page 9.
Runners-up
War's end does not allay worries of Arab students
By Lara Gold
The Persian Gulf War is not over for some Arab students at KU.
"Now that the Iraqi issue is finished, the biggest issue that needs to be solved is the Palestinians issue. We need Sawaha, Amman, Jordan, junior
Sawalha said tensions in the Arab world might prevent the long stand- Palestinian-israeli conflict from being settled.
"The Kuwaitis don't like the Jordanians and the Palestinians because they supported Saddam," he said.
Other Arab governments do not want to support the Palestine Liberation Organization any more because supported Saddam Hussein, he said.
Sawalha said he also feared Israel's new position in the Middle East
"I'm worried that Israel is going to attack an Arab country," he said.
Hommad Elbrahim, Alwahara, Qatar, freshman, said that he wanted a peaceful solution to the issue in plain issue but that he was not optimistic.
"Nothing will happen," Elbrahim said.
He said that the United States probably would help rebuild Kuwait but that it was not interested in helping settle the Palestinians, especially since Israel was attacked with Iraqi Seud missiles.
Ghassan El-Khatib, Palestinian freshman, said a political war was going on among the Arab countries.
"The Arab countries will avoid talk about the Palestinian issue," he said.
about the Palestinian issue, he said. The Arab governments support the United States, and the United States supports Israel, he said.
El-Khatib said the people in the Arab countries, however, wanted a solution.
"The governments do not want to represent the people," he said.
The Palestinian issue should have been addressed during the gulf war, El-Khatib said.
"This is the best time to solve the Palestinian problem," he said. "We just got out of a war, and we should solve the problem before there is Israel."
Deborah Gerner, assistant professor of political science, said the students' tears about the region were understandable.
"If the United States is prepared to go to war for Kuwait, are we as prepared to work just as hard for this vastman self-determination?" she said.
The United States did not deal with the regional problems such as the Palestinian issue, creating instability in the Middle Eastern countries, Gerner said.
"The United States has gone in and done its job and can leave," she said. "The Arab world has to cope with all of the ramifications."
Local officials up in arms over proposed bill that restricts city, county annual tax revenues
By Vanessa Furhmans
Kansan staff writer
A Kansas house bill that would tighten spending limits of cities and counties has both Lawrence and Douglas County officials seeing red.
The proposed bill, which the House tentatively approved yesterday, would remove all exemptions in the tax id law approved by the 1990 Legislature. In addition, the tax id would restrict how much local governments could increase annual property tax revenues.
"We've made it very clear that that kind of tax lid would be detrimental to the city," said Mike Wilden, city manager.
Both county and city officials have sent letters and spoken to local legislative representatives urging them to vote against the bill
However, that did not stop a first-round approval by a voice vote. The House is scheduled to take a final
vote today.
Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Dawrence, said that the bill was more severe than the 1990 law but that the state needed to pass some sort of tax lid before the present one expired June 30.
"We need to take action," she said.
"If the Legislature doesn't pass anything else, then this will be the only way." The Legislature will pass this year.
According to the revised bill, the budgeted tax levies for next year could not exceed the tax revenues from this year. After one year, cities could be allowed a 1 percent growth factor to increase their revenue.
But Chris McKenzie, county administrator, said the state would be talking out of both sides of its mouth if it required local governments to pay for state-mandated programs and, at the same time,
restricted the revenue needed to pay for those programs.
"They're shooting us in the foot and at the same time sending us on a long, forced march," he said.
One of the mandated programs requires Douglas County to help finance the education of college students studying at community colleges in other counties. The county's budget for the program has increased since 1899 by more than 200 percent, he said, in 2012, $741 million, $640,000, ¥121,900.
McKenzie said the program's rate of cost increases would exceed the meager allowances provided by the union. The union also possessed piece of legislation unworkable.
"If the Legislature requires us to pay for these programs, we would have to cut other programs that are not mandated by the state," he said.
Bills that give voters more power pass to House
Kansan staff writer
By Joe Gose
TOPEKA — Gov Joan Finney's proposed legislation to give the people more power is still alive but just barely
Members of the House State and Federal Affairs Committee holly debated the need for, and amendments to, the referendum and initiative bills for almost two hours yesterdays before passing them to the full House.
The referendum bill would give the Legislature power to go directly to the voters to decide an issue, while the two anti-military bills were designed to permit the state constitutional and statutory law changes without going through the
Legislature.
The bills were amended to prohibit certain issues from being addressed, to allow only one subject to be considered and to give the Kansas governor to decide if the legislation was unconstitutional before going on the ballot.
The three bills also would negate the governor's veto power in this process.
The initiative bill that addresses statutory law was amended to give the Legislature 40 days to review it, and that has been passed before enacting them.
'This is a change in our form of government that has been around for over 200 years. I think it is obvious that something this serious in nature needs further study.'
Opponents said that the bills would increase the Legislature's propensity to pass the buck and that more time was needed to research the impact of
State Rep. Dale Sprague R-McPherson
the bills
"This bill has been designed by wimpy legislators who would rather give the decision-making process on tough issues over to the people," said State Rep. Elizabeth Baker, RDerby. "If you remember when we
passed liquor by the drink, parimutuel betting and the reclassification act, we spent more time researching these topics than this.
"And this is a much more serious issue."
State Rep. Dale Sprague, R-McPherson acred.
"This is a change in our form of government that has been around for over 200 years," he said. "I think it is serious in nature needs further study."
But State Rep. Kathieen Sebelius, D-Topea, said it was important to move the bills into the full House.
tunity to take action on it."
"These issues are very important," she said. "But if we delay any action on this any further, the rest of the legislature won't have the oppor-
But State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence, said it was important to maintain a checks-and-balances system.
"Why should one person have the ability to override the will of the majority of the population?" he said. "Look at capital punishment. When that came up a couple of years ago the governor vetoed it. But polls showed that the people wanted the death penalty."
State Rep, Robert Krebbiel,
D Pretty Prairie, said the legislature would not be shying away from its duties if the bills passed. The bills would give voters another tool with which to enact laws.
Adrian Melott,
Adrian Mellot
KU associate professor of
physics and astronomy
To learn why Melott describes the universe as a sponge, please see Page 6.