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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1987)
The Battalion id a rdi- the He he 182 No. 79 (ASPS 045360 18 pages College Station, Texas Monday, January 19, 1987 lack To Bass-ics Photo by Tracy Staton David Brodrick, a sophomore building construe- rive. The bass player said his band, “Self-Employ- ' tion major from Dallas, waits in front of Rumours ed,” practices there on weekends, though it doesn’t | snack bar for the other members of his band to ar- play there when the snack bar is open. Abduction may be fr at trade for hijacker BONN, West Germany (AP) — A West German businessman was kid napped in Beirut, the Foreign Min istry said Sunday. Two newspapers said the kidnappers apparently hope to trade him for a Lebanese jailed as a terrorist in West Germany and wanted in the United States. West German authorities said it was too early to say if Saturday’s ab- See related story, page 10 duction of Rudolf Cordes, 53, was linked to the arrest Tuesday at Frankfurt airport of Mohammad Ali Hamadi. Hamadi, 22, who was carrying a fluid used to make explosives, was later identified as a suspect in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner to Beirut. In that hijacking, the terror ists killed a U.S. Navy diver and held 39 other Americans hostage for 17 days. Police in Beirut said Sunday they could not confirm that a West Ger man had been kidnapped. The West German Embassy in the Lebanese capital was unstaffed. The Foreign Ministry in Bonn said an anonymous telephone caller told its embassy in Beirut that Cordes had been taken hostage. Cordes is Beirut manager for Hoechst Ag, a major West Germany chemical company. A company offi cial, commenting on condition of an onymity, said Cordes does not live in Beirut, but travels there frequently from his Frankfurt base. West German newspapers said Cordes arrived in Beirut from Frankfurt Saturday evening, went through passport control and has not been heard from since. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the telephone caller told the embassy Cordes and three Lebanese accompanying him were kidnapped. The three Lebanese were later released, the caller said. The caller did not identify himself or make demands, the ministry said. Ministry sources, insisting on ano nymity, said Bonn authorities last week warned West Germans living in Beirut or traveling there to take extra precautions following Hama- di’s arrest. About 200 West Germans live in Lebanon. Most are married to Leb anese citizens. Foreign Ministry spokesman Re- inhard Bettzuege said: “We cannot assume the two (Hamadi and Cordes) are linked because the (kid nappers) have not identified them selves or placed any demands on us. It could be a criminal act, or some one looking for ransom.” But Bild and Die Welt newspa pers, of Hamburg and Bonn respec tively, said senior government offi- Aquino offers talks to Moslem rebels during island tour Civil rights leader vows to return for march despite violent crowds ATLANTA (AP) — The white or- dent of the King-founded Southern [anizer of a biracial civil rights Christian Leadership Conference, narth halted by violence in an all- said Sunday that he and other civil dike county vowed Sunday to re- rights activists would decide whether urn, and black leaders on the eve of Martin Luther King Day con- mined the attack. Civil rights leaders discussed tak- ng part in another march in Forsyth Minty north of here, where Satur- lay’s “brotherhood anti-intimida- ion march” was stopped by Ku Klux (lan members and supporters. TThere’s definitely going to be an- Her march in Forsyth County,” Ip Dean Carter, the white resident If nearby Hall County who took hr the planning for Saturday’s B-ch after it was abandoned by a ? orsyth County man who had re- idved death threats. About 75 people, black and white, vho marched Saturday became the arget of rocks, bottles and racial Bs from hundreds of Klan mem- ers and supporters. Several march- Bwere hit but no serious injuries Ire reported. lEight people from the hostile Evd — seven of them Forsyth pjnty residents — were arrested hcharges including obstructing of- ms, terroristic threats and weap- P charges. All were released on oild. Carter, who was hit in the face by rock, said he would welcome the Intinued help of Atlanta City DUncilman Hosea Williams, who elpcd organize Saturday’s march, Pother civil rights leaders. “But with or without anyone else, ll going back,” he said. “I still iven’t made my statement. There’s lot of good people in Forsyth Kinty who are being hampered by |s kind of threats and intimida- k” The Rev. Joseph Lowery, presi- to stage a second march. “We’re not prepared to lay out the details of our strategy at this time,” Lowery said. COTABATO CITY, Philippines (AP) — President Corazon Aquino, touring violence-ridden Mindanao island Sunday, offered peace talks to a Moslem rebel faction whose attacks last week killed 46 people. In Manila, troops went on alert to keep Moslem violence from spread ing to the capital. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front gave no immediate reply to the offer. The group on Saturday ended five days of attacks on the island which left at least 46 people dead and 89 injured. It said it launched the attacks be cause it had been shut out of talks between the government and a rival Moslem faction, the Moro National Liberation Front. Both groups seek Moslem self- rule on Mindanao, but disagree on the terms. Of Mindanao’s 11 million people, about 60 percent are Christian and the rest Moslem. Two Manila newspapers reported that the military fears Moslem rebels might join forces with dissident offi cers and supporters of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos in a plot against the government before the ratification vote for the draft constitution Feb. 2. About 800 Marcos loyalists burned Aquino in effigy Sunday at a Manila rally as part of their cam paign against the constitution, which guarantees her a six-year term. Aquino met for 10 minutes with Haji Murad, deputy leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, dur ing a stop in Cotabato City, a Mos lem stronghold on Mindanao. It was her fourth stop on a five- city, weekend tour of the island de signed to muster support for the constitution. Murad said he would have to check with the organization’s chief, Hashim Salamat, who is in Saudi Arabia, before responding to the in vitation for talks. He said later he gave Aquino a flower “as the symbol of peace” and handed her a paper containing his group’s demands. “She thanked us and invited me to a longer talk in Malacanang,” Murad said. Malacanang is the presidential palace. During a brief speech in Cotabato City, Aquino appealed for peace. Hundreds of armed troops stood guard and police frisked spectators. cials fear the kidnapping is aimed at blackmailing West Germany into re leasing Hamadi. The United States has asked ior Hamadi’s extradition. West German Justice Depat tm < s spokesman Juergen Schmid on Suj day indicated Hamadi could be ex tradited to the United States “rela tively soon” to stand trial for murder and conspiracy to commit air piracy. Schmid made the comment aftei learning that American officials had pledged not to seek the death pen alty for Hamadi. A U.S.-West German treaty would bar the extradition of Hamadi with out an assurance that there would be no death penalty. Texas prisons may reopen doors today HUNTSVILLE (AP) —- The Texas prison system may start ad mitting inmates as usual this week after releasing about 250 convicts over the weekend, officials said tin- day. The nation’s second-largest sys tem closed its doors to new him it- s on Friday after exceeding a state law limiting the prison population. “With the number we released to day and yesterday there’s a ; *od possibility we’ll be below 95 percent, but by how many I just don’t know,” Texas Department of Corrections spokesman Charles Brown said Sun day. On Saturday, 80 prisoners were released on parole and another 135 inmates were freed Sunday, Brown said. Authorities recorded 38,414 in mates throughout the state’s 26 prison units as of midnight Thurs day, 38 over the limit of 38,376. I ri der state law, the prison system is re stricted to 95 percent of its capacity. The system’s population count from midnight Friday and the week end will not be available until today. Brown said. As part of a prison reform order. U.S. District Judge William W vue Justice ordered that steps be taken to reduce overcrowding. The Legislature passed a law ret ting the 95 percent capacity limit in 1983. In 1982, the prison closed its doors for a week because of over crowding. Interim prison director Jim Io- naugh said if the prison system is al lowed to re-open today, it may ini date an admissions system to strictly regulate the number of convicts the largest counties send. Justice has issued a contempt or der against the corrections depart ment, saying the agency failed to I ve up to agreements made in 1980 to improve inmates’ living conditions and staffing in the prisons. Blacks may face problems at ‘white’ university Editor’s note: This is the first of a four-part series on blacks at Texas A&M. This part examines how black students cope with at tending a predominantly white university. By Cathie Anderson Spetial to The Battalion Black students at Texas A&M are settling in at a university that many Texas blacks still consider a haven for the state’s white elite. But the small number of black students — only 780 out of 36,570 in Fall 1986 — has kept them from becoming too com fortable. Dr. Bernadine Duncan, a counseling psychologist at the A&M Student Counseling Cen ter, says black students at pre dominantly white universities run into a variety of problems because the environment they may be ac customed to changes drastically. “Blacks who come from a large urban area to a community they perceive as small would be greatly affected because of the . . . lack of the socio-cultural activities or background they’re used to,” she says. “When they’re at home and they go away somewhere and in teract with another race, they can return home to their own people. “Here (at A&M), they go home (to their rooms) and they’re not with their own race, and some times that can be hard to adjust to because they’re on their guard all the time. “The things they’re used to doing and the openness they’re used to showing with their own people is no longer possible. They can’t be that way because a lot of people don’t understand them or their culture.” Barry Davis, an associate direc tor at the Office of School Rela tions, says this is one of the most difficult adjustments for inner- city minorities. (School Relations was established in 1979, and, as one of its duties, the office coor dinates recruitment of black and Hispanic students.) “It’s a heck of a thing when you live all your life within one partic ular ethnic background,” Davis says, “and then when you go to college, you’re placed among dif ferent groups. Even if that hap pened in high school, you were able to go home and be in a dif ferent environment. When you’re here, you’re with other ethnic groups on a minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, month- to-month, year-to-year basis, and some people can’t make that ad justment.” Duncan says that since slavery, blacks have had to develop cop ing mechanisms to deal with so ciety, and black students who at tend predominantly white universities still use the same re sources to help them get by today. “One of their coping mech anisms lets them go only so far,” she says. “Then they stop because they could be misinterpreted. If they know a person of another culture doesn’t understand where they’re coming from, many times they just don’t show that side of themselves.” Thus blacks on predominantly white campuses become more re served, Duncan says. She says a very supportive fam ily structure also helps blacks cope with their positions. “This is one thing that keeps blacks here hopeful,” she says. “Parents give them a lot of sup port. The father and the mother are standing behind them.” These families instill in them the will to succeed no matter what obstacles may be thrown in their way, she says, and students build up a kind of determination. “They are determined to come through it despite those negative influences that are out there,” Duncan says. But if someone con tinues to put them down and there’s no motivation, she says, they may drop out. “They say, ‘Hey, I don’t need this. I’ll go somewhere where someone will show me the right models,’ ” she says. “But if the students can get motivation from friends, parents or significant role models, often that will be enough because they can stay down for only so long . . . before their problems lighten.” Often students’ religious faith can bring them through a bad pe riod, Duncan says. Religion re mains a source of hope for blacks of today as it was for their ances tors, she says. Other students have a strong desire for a comfortable future and believe that their present sac rifices are only temporary, Dun can says. “They say, ‘OK, I’m going through this right now, but when I have my degree. I’ll be better off,’ ” she says. Duncan says that while black students are undergoing many of the same stresses that white stu dents are, blacks — who rep resent only 2 percent of A&MV. total student population — aren’t a part of the norm at A&M, so their academic and personal problems escalate. Duncan says other complica tions arise for minority groups on predominantly white campuses because of the different attitudes these groups have. Some of the potential for prob lems is evident when talking to A&M students. One student, who wished to re main unidentified, said some blacks at A&M have a problem in accepting blacks who have white friends. “I like mixed friendships,” she says. “That’s nothing to me, but a lot of people here think you have to mix with other blacks, and if you don’t, then something's wrong with you. “I’m not used to that. I thinf it’s stupid for people to make judgments just because you have white friends. . . .” There’s always going to be a barrier because all races of people speak and behave differently, she See Blacks, page 14