'The Battalion
il. 73 No. 62
14 Pages
Thursday, December 13, 1979
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Program collects $106
for Cambodia children
The result of the International Students Association’s
program on Human Rights Day Monday was a $106 dona
tion to the Cambodian Children’s Relief Fund.
The ISA had four speakers talk to students about human
rights around the world, including a former president of
Cambodia, Cheng Heng.
The money was collected from donations made by Texas
A&M students, faculty and staff.
ennedy denies
riting Iran letter
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1 w ’ll pailMpEHRAN, Iran — Iranian leaders said
1 togetai^dnesday that Sen. Edward Kennedy
offered to meet Ayatollah Ruhollah
Eniversittmomeini in an effort to resolve the hostage
‘ wa s ven jrisis. but a Kennedy aide denied the re-
arsa ^ port as “totally false. ”
the puhliBlhere was disagreement in Tehran,
the idearlpw ev er, on whether the reported offer
'ted the;mvismade by letter, telegram or through an
irter said Intermediary.
Ifhe controversy over the alleged Ken-
I Idymove sharpened as the Iranian judge
| lo claimed responsibility for the assassi-
f] Of nation of the shah’s nephew said the 50
' merican hostages, now in their 40th day of
■ iptivity, will not be sentenced to death
IVen if they are tried as spies.
jBut Khomeini himself accused the Un-
ed States of fomenting internal unrest in
tn in a an effort to divert attention from
crimes of America. ”
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An official Iran radio broadcast early
Wednesday said that in the letter, written
by the Massachusetts Democrat Sunday,
Kennedy asked to meet Khomeini and
praised the ayatollah s accomplishments,
saying, “I shall give my blood for your
sake.”
The radio said Khomeini rejected Ken
nedy’s request for a meeting.
In Washington, Kennedy aide Richard
Burke said the letter was a fabrication.
“It’s not so,” Burke said. “The senator
has made no communication whatsoever
with the ayatollah and that broadcast is tot
ally false. ” He said Kennedy “would never
say anything like that.”
Despite the denial, Iranian leaders in
sisted there was such a letter.
Sayed Ahmed Khomeini, the Islamic
leader’s son, said over Radio Iran: “The
original letter is with me. But since Mr.
Kennedy has seen this published and it has
become bad (for him) this is another
matter. ”
Two weeks ago, Kennedy accused the
deposed shah of looting Iran of billions of
dollars and presiding over one of the most
tyrannical regimes in history. The state
ment was splashed in Iran’s media, which
hailed the senator’s remarks.
In the holy city of Qom, near Tehran,
Sheikh Sadeq Khalkhali, Iran’s most con
troversial revolutionary judge and a close
friend of Khomeini, said none of the Amer
ican hostages will be sentenced to death
even if they are convicted as spies.
But the judge, who has personally con
demned some 200 to 300 followers of Shah
Mohammed Reza Pahlevi since the shah
was toppled in January, told newsmen his
squads would continue to hunt down the
shah and his supporters “until we kill them
all.”
“ three-day protest ended
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United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — Police dragged five
anian students screaming “Khomeini,
Ihomeini, Khomeini through the City
Ball lobby to a waiting paddy wagon
JatheonP ec l nes ^ a y> ending their three-day sit-in
;s with -l” ci ty hall steps.
Rntl J Angry counter-demonstrators were
J ^en.-tflircatcning to kill the students.
3 f going* f° ur police officers, saying they were
later the Iranians into “protective cus-
; p>dy,” surrounded the five fasting students
Btnoon and told them, “come on, you can’t
tay here any more” after about 20 Amer-
nven
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ans threatened to rush them and tear up
heir signs and pictures of the Ayatollah
Khomeini.
Police said the Iranians were taken into
protective custody but charges of blocking
a passageway were later filed. They were
held under $40 bond each.
City Manager Tom Huebner, terming
the Iranians “fools” and the counter
demonstrators “trash,” said he ordered the
arrests because the situation had reached a
point that the four officers assigned to pro
tect the Iranians could no longer control
the situation.
The five, some screaming “Imperial
ism,” were rushed into a paddy wagon and
taken to the Bexar County Jail.
Fiji offers island refuge
for shah to live in peace
United Press International
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PACIFIC HARBOR, Fiji — The prime
| a $4 (W I1 ‘ n ’ s ^ er °f Fiji Wednesday invited the de-
’ollegetf )oset ^ s hah of Iran to take refuge on one of
Pearl Id “l natio “’ s islands.
tricted! T 16 P oor man has suffered enough and
eandSU )ersona lly I think the man, whatever
dsevM ■ las committed, has been aban
doned by everybody except the United
c tates, Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese
bra told newsmen Wednesday.
Mexico, the shah’s home in exile since
IJune, has refused to renew his visa but
JEgypt has offered him asylum and reports
paid a number of other countries are consid-
| er ing a similar offer.
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi is re
cuperating at Lackland Air Force Base in
ISan Antonio.
the ui*
“It is my personal belief that we should
give the shah the opportunity to live in
peace on one of our islands. Even Christ
promised relief to a thief alongside him on
the cross,” said Ratu, prime minister of the
South Pacific island nation.
“Any decision on this invitation would
have to go to the Cabinet, but it is my
personal opinion that the shah has been
persecuted enough. ”
The prime minister was asked where
Fiji, which has 106 habitable islands out of
the country s 322, gets its oil.
“We receive our oil from Australia and I
hope Australia will not suffer as a result of
this,” he said.
“Fiji is a Christian nation and those of us
who profess to be Christians should stand
up and be counted.”
A motley crowd — including members of
such diverse groups as the Ku Klux Klan,
Bandidos Motorcycle Gang and Brown Be
rets — had taunted the Iranians for two
days as they read the Koran and prayed on
the steps.
The crowd cheered as police hauled
them away, then grabbed their signs,
Khomeini pictures, blankets and jackets,
stomped on them and packed them tightly
into a nearby trash can. Some members of
the group stood in a tight circle and talked
of killing the protesters if they returned.
‘“The Iranians were fools for sitting out
here in the rain,” Huebner said moments
after the arrests, “and, unfortunately, we
have enough trash in town to come over
here and make a scene about it. ”
Huebner said he had made a decision not
to assign any more than four policemen to
protect the Iranians, protesting the pre
sence of deposed Shah Mohhammed Reza
Pahlavi, who arrived at Lackland Air Force
Base 10 days ago.
It took 30 policemen standing shoulder
to shoulder two deep around the five pro
testers Tuesday night to protect them from
an angry crowd of 200 screaming residents
waving American flags and shouting anti-
Iranian obscenities.
City Council Tuesday night upheld
Huebner’s decision last week not to grant
any parade permits for demonstrations
while 50 Americans are being held hostage
in Tehran. At the meeting, several speak
ers urged the council to “find a way” to halt
the sit-in and hunger strike on city hall
steps, warning it could lead to violence.
There were indications the protective
custody arrests may be the method city
officials have chosen to defuse the angry
confrontation.
Asked whether the Iranians would be
taken into custody again if they resumed
the sit-in, City Attorney Jane Macon said,
“We ll just have to wait and see. We ll just
have to play it by ear.”
1,950 to graduate this weekend
But*
About 1,950 graduate and undergradu-
a te students are expected to receive de
grees in two ceremonies this weekend in G.
Rollie White Coliseum.
Commencement exercises will be Friday
a t 7:10 p.m, for those graduating from the
alleges of Architecture, Engineering, Sci-
en ce, and Veterinary Medicine.
The students graduating from the col
leges of Agriculture, Business, Education,
Geological Science, and Liberal Arts, and
Texas A&M Universtiy at Galveston will
receive degrees Saturday at 9 a.m.
Speakers at the ceremonies will be
Harold J. Haynes, chairman of the board of
Standard Oil of California, and Michel T.
Halbouty, Texas A&M graduate and pet
roleum engineer.
Commissioning of officers for the Corps
of Cadets will take place Saturday at 1:30
p.m. in G. Rollie White. The commission
ing officer will be Rear Admiral Paul C.
Gibbons Jr. U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Edu
cation and Training.
The Houston YMCA Welcome Center, a temporary
home for these refugees, operates one of several
programs across the nation that attempt to house
and resettle members of a mass exodus of over
450,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia (now
Kampuchea), and Laos. This man does not speak
English, so his name could not be obtained.
Battalion photo by Venita McCellon
Houston provides
for refugees from
home
Asia
By VENITA McCELLON
Battalion Reporter
HOUSTON — Their first orientation to
the United States begins with a layover in a
West Coast airport. From there, a flight
brings the new Texans to a temporary
home, a place of safety. But they don’t see
the stereotyped Texas most newcomers
see. The Indochinese refugees see only an
escape from political harassment and the
harsh conditions of refugee camps in other
lands.
The Houston YMCA Welcome Center
operates one of several programs across the
nation that attempt to house and resettle
members of a mass exodus of over 450,000
refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, (now
Kampuchea) and Laos. The United States,
with the help of private programs such as
the YMCA’s, has accepted 160,000 of these
refugees and expects to admit another
25,000 in coming weeks.
The Welcome Center, a small suburban
camp of white buildings which is being
readied for the winter cold with plastic for
the open windows, serves as a second
orientation where refugees spend their first
30 days in the United States.
One of these refugees, Dao Truong, is
waiting, like the others, for a job, a social
security number, and housing. Unlike
most of the others, Dao, who served as a
chief accountant for the U.S. government
in Vietnam, speaks English.
Dao, who spent the past 11 months in a
Malaysian refugee camp, would only say,
“They (the Malaysians) were not very
friendly to us.
“There are so many pitiful stories,” he
said. Dao escaped from Vietnam with his
six-member family and 278 others on a 63-
by-264-foot boat. After three days on the
open sea without a place to sit and not
enough food or water, they arrived in
Malaysia only to be placed in a camp
crowded with over 7,000 refugees.
The influx of people such as Dao’s family
into the United States has caused the Hous
ton Welcome Center to go over its capacity
level (50-60 refugees) with a population of
about 95 refugees, said Fran Flanagan,
community resource coordinator for the
YMCA Refugee Service. Sixty of these are
children under 18, she said.
“We have them from everywhere,” Fla
nagan said. She said that 48 percent of the
people are ethnic Chinese from Vietnam,
27 percent are Vietnamese, 11 percent are
Cambodians and the rest are Laotians.
“We’ve got a cross section of just all kinds
of people, so they’re anything from farmers
and fishermen to radio engineers,” she
said.
The YMCA service, which not only runs
the Welcome Center but also resettles re
fugees, has a staff of 19, 14 of whom are
Indochinese.
“It (the service) is a buffer between the
refugee camps in Malaysia and Thailand,”
said Flanagan. “The idea is to help them
become self-sufficient and productive.”
The service, which was started by the
YMCA in November 1978, has helped
more than 600 refugees resettle. All of
these are resisters of the Communist gov
ernments that have taken over Laos, Cam
bodia and Vietnam since 1975.
One refugee close to the political prob
lems is Cheng Heng, former president of
Cambodia, who now works as a community
resources consultant for the YMCA.
Cheng, who served as president under
the anti-communist Lon Nol regime, saw
the Communist takeover of his country in
1975 firsthand.
“I left 17 days before my country fell to
the Communist regime,” Cheng said. He
said that with food being used as a political
weapon many Cambodians are starving to
death.
“The people in Cambodia are dying ev
ery day,” Cheng said. “About 3 million
people will die in the next two months if
they don’t get enough food and medicine.”
Cheng’s job with the YMCA is to lecture
at universities and to civic groups about the
need for help in his native country and the
(continued on page 6)
ter-
in 100 years
kills more than 120 in coastal area
Discarded trees
to he given to poor
United Press International ,
BOGOTA, Colombia —- Colombia s
deadliest earthquake in more than 100
years devastated the nation’s coastal re-
pons, killing more than 120 people and
paving hundreds injured and thousands
homeless.
The powerful quake, also felt across the
wrder in Ecuador, rolled through the Paci-
nc Coast jungle before dawn Wednesday
and triggered a surge of water that des-
poyed 70 percent of the fishing village of El
Vharco.
Civil Defense officials said the quake kil-
onn* ^ eas * 121 people, injured more than
and left thousands homeless in villages
al ong the coast. At least 100 others were
jpPorted missing in the country’s second
toner quake in three weeks.
“It seemed as if it would never end, a
Quito, Ecuador, resident said. “It was a
long earthquake.” . , .
The Andean Geophysical Institute m
Bogota said the quake registered 7.7 to 8.0
on the open-ended Richter scale. A level of
8.0 would classify it as a “great” earthquake
capable of tremendous damage.
Rescue efforts were hampered by block
ed roads and scarce airport facilities in the
quake zone. The Pan American Highway
was blocked when a landslide closed a tun
nel between the cities of Pasto and
P °A?eT Charco, 310 miles southwest of
Bogota, 75 bodies were recovered from the
wreckage of flimsy houses of sticks, straw
and aluminum sheeting. ,„
El Charco (the name means the puddle
in Spanish) received a second blow when a
tidal surge churned up by the quake sent a
nearby river rushing out of its banks,
washing away homes and burying victims
beneath a mountain of mud. Only 30 per
cent of the town was left standing.
Thirty deaths were reported at the Paci
fic Coast port of Tumaco near the Ecuador
an border where survivors fled the city af
ter a tidal wave alert was issued, but it
never came.
Other deaths were recorded in a half-
dozen villages and settlements in the
sparsely populated jungle area of Narino
State.
The Rev. Jose Goberna, assistant direc
tor of the Andean Geophysical Institute,
said the casualty figure was the highest
since a temblor leveled the Colombian
town of Cucuta on the Venezuelan border
in 1875, killing an estimated 2,500 people.
The epicenter of Wednesday’s quake was
125 miles offshore, just north of the
Ecuadorean border, the institute said.
There was panic in cities and towns of
northern Ecuador but casualties and major
damage were reported only on the Col
ombian side of the border.
It was the second killer earthquake to hit
Colombia in less than three weeks. A temb
lor killed 50 people and left thousands
homeless in the mountainous western cof
fee-growing region Nov. 23.
President Julio Cesar Turbay issued a
nationwide radio appeal for additional con
tributions of supplies and services to the
National Emergency Committee, formed
last month to provide relief to victims.
By RICHARD OLIVER
Battalion Staff
While some people are partying and
celebrating the coming of Christmas, some
Aggies are pausing to remember the true
meaning of the holiday — giving.
Off-Campus Aggies is collecting Christ
mas trees from fellow students going home
for the holidays to give to families who
cannot afford trees.
“I think it’s a fantastic idea,” said Carlo
Corso, community relations chairman for
the club. “We re collecting the trees from
apartments and dorms to give out to some
of the needy families.”
The organization is asking anyone who
wants to donate trees to deliver them from
noon until 4 p.m. Sunday to the parking lot
of Culpepper Plaza, under the Plaza sign.
“Most students usually throw their trees
in the trash when they leave for the holi
days,” Corso said. “This way we ll be help
ing some families who can’t have trees.”
Corso added some people may want to
deliver the trees to the families personally.
Any students who want to do so should call
696-0024 for information.
Corso, an engineering technology major
at Texas A&M, said he and his fiancee,
Vicki Deck, also an engineering technology
major, got the idea last year.
“Vicki called the Bryan Eagle and asked
for some names, and they gave her some,”
he said, “so she used those and it was really
great. We gave a tree to a lady last year, and
it was beautiful because she said her chil
dren had never had a tree before.”
Corso said he thought perhaps the idea
would be better on a larger scale, so he
introduced it to Off-Campus Aggies, and
the members decided it would be a good
project.
“It might make Christmas a whole lot
better for everyone,” he said. “I know it’ll
make mine a lot better. Maybe it’ll take
some of the commercialization out of
Christmas.