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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1987)
Monday, December 7,1987/The Battalion/Page 7 World and Nation Observers think Soviets disagree on rights issue WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Reagan and Mikhail Gor bachev sit down to discuss human rights concerns, they will be on dif ferent wavelengths, say observers of life in the Soviet Union. “The Soviets stress the Marxist idea of the economic man, and ac cept the view that man and woman only want food, clothing and shel ter,” Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., said. “Our view goes far beyond that, to spiritual, intellectual and moral aspects. That is a fundamental dif ference between our two societies on human rights.” Thus, when the United States ac cuses the Soviet Union of human rights violations, it points to the esti mated 300 people imprisoned be cause they criticized the govern ment, to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who want to leave but are denied visas, and to those in labor camps or psychiatric hospitals be cause of their political and religious beliefs. The Soviets counter that U.S. offi cials should not presume to interfere in their internal affairs, or as Gorba chev put it in a televised interview last week, “You should not try and go into another man’s monastery with your own charter.” They, in turn, accuse the United States of hypocrisy. U.S. streets are full of homeless people, they say. To grow up poor and black in the United States is to be deprived of fundamental rights, the Soviets add. And they point to cases where would-be immigrants and visitors are denied visas because of their po litical beliefs. According to international human rights observers, both sides are right. “They are of a different kind, per haps a different magnitude,” Arthur Helton, director of the political asy lum project for the Lawyers Com mittee for Human Rights, said. One area of concern to human rights watchers is the use of the death penalty. Amnesty Interna tional regards that as its top human rights concern in the United States and one of many problems in the So viet Union. So far this year, Soviet authorities have imposed capital punishment on six prisoners and sentenced another 21 persons to die, according to the organization’s figures, taken from official public accounts. In the United States, there have been 25 executions and 255 new death sen tences during the same period. Susan Osnos, spokesman for Hel sinki Watch, said monitoring groups also gauge the behavior of both sides by how well they adhere to agreed- on human rights principles, like the freedoms set forth in the 1975 Hel sinki accords. While her group does not compare countries’ perfor mances, the United States generally comes out far ahead by such stan dards, and the Soviets don’t like to dwell on the subject, she said. They prefer to talk about Soviet society’s guarantees of a job, a place to live, medical care and education. “In terms of social protectedness, our society is much higher than yours,” Gorbachev said last week. Osnos said, “We talk about issues of freedom -r- freedom of express ion, freedom to travel, the reunifica tion of families, the people locked up for their political beliefs.” Soviet agents intimidate journalists at Moscow rally MOSCOW (AP) — Hundreds of burly men in civilian clothes roughed up refuseniks and jour nalists Sunday and knocked down and detained U.S. TV-newsman Peter Arnett during rival demon strations on the eve of the U.S.- Soviet summit. At least 100 refuseniks — Sovi ets denied permission to emigrate S— fiqfd story, pqg» 1 — planned to take part in a pro test against Soviet restrictions on emigration. But at least 27 were detained en route to the Moscow demon stration, and the others were overwhelmed by about 200 plain clothes KGB agents and about 100 members of the officially supported Soviet Peace Commit tee. The agents jammed Smolensky Square and jostled refuseniks who managed to get through po lice cordons blocking all en trances to the protest site — a small triangle of grass opposite the Foreign Ministry. They shoved and occasionally threw punches at refuseniks and Western journalists trying to pho tograph the clash. Alexander Feldman, a refuse nik and would-be demonstrator, told the Associated Press he spent Saturday night at his sister’s apartment in an attempt to avoid Soviet authorities. But when he left his sister’s home Sunday morning to go to the demonstration, Feldman said, three men put him into a waiting black sedan and drove him to a pxjlice station 40 miles outside Moscow. He said he was released about 2:30 p.m., two hours after the protest was over. About 15 minutes into the re fusenik protest, plainclothes agents knocked down and struck Arnett, the Moscow correspon dent for Cable Network News, and then husded him into a bus and drove him to a nearby office. Arnett said he was released af ter about four hours after being presented with a written accusa tion that he assaulted a Soviet citi zen by knocking off his hat with a microphone. Arnett said he wrote a formal denial of the allegations. At least five busloads of plain clothes agents arrived with signs proclaiming support for peace and opposition to President Rea gan’s plans for a space-based mis sile defense system, “Star Wars.” Agents surrounded the refuse niks, jabbing them with their el bows and the wooden staffs of the p>eace signs. The agents also used the peace signs to block photography by Western correspondents. 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Dr. James Mathis Optometrists Welfare program fraud may cost government $1 billion this year WASHINGTON (AP) — Fraud in the federal government’s major wel fare program for mothers and chil dren could be costing $1 billion a year according to a report by the De partment of Health and Human services’ inspector general. The rep>ort estimates that federal and state governments could save $800 million a year with more em phasis on weeding out unqualified applicants under the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program. The repiort, obtained late Friday, emphasized that “for the sake of clarity, we have used the broader definition of fraud that includes unintentional misrepresentations of facts by clients” as well the kind of intentional representation that could lead to criminal prosecution. In a written response to a draft of the repiort the head of the Family Support Administration, Wayne A. Stanton, said he “agreed whole heartedly” with the need to reduce fraud and would “look into the feasi bility” of implementing the report’s recommendations. But he said he could not accept the estimate of the scope of the problem. Carol Delosreyes, a spokesman for the agency, said of the final re- p>ort: “We have just gotten it. Since we normally have about 60 days to comment, it would be inappropriate at this pxiint to say anything about it.” The AFDC program is opierated jointly by federal, state and local governments, with the states respon sible for detecting fraud. “The incidence of actual AFDC fraud cannot be accurately deter mined with existing data collection methods,” the repiort said. “How ever, experts agree it is consistently understated.” Senate to vote on tax increase as part of deficit reduction plan WASHINGTON (AP) — For the third time in six years, the Senate is about to decide whether taxes should be raised to reduce the fed eral budget deficit. Senate leaders hope to take a final vote this week on a $23 billion tax in crease that is the centerpiece of a plan to slash the deficit by $76 billion over the next 22 months. Spending cuts that account for most of the sav ing are wrapped into a giant money bill on which a Senate vote also could come late in the week. The framework for the anti-defi cit measures was worked out by Pres ident Reagan and congressional leaders in a much-publicized effort to show that partisan differences can be put aside in the national interest. Nevertheless, there is opposition to the plan from those who are against any tax increase and from others who say the spending cuts are much too timid. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas, chairman of the Finance Committee, which wrote the tax bill, predicted it will pass because it is “as painless as possible” — meaning the impact will hardly be felt by typical taxpayers. The burden will fall almost entirely on corporations and upper-income individuals. Sen. William Roth, R-Del., said he probably will vote no. He character ized the tax plan as “economic leech ing,” saying “raising taxes when we are trying to strengthen the econ omy is like bloodletting for an ane mic patient.” Even so, Roth said, “I expect the whole thing to get through because the president and the leadership are behind it.” Jury deliberates in four teen-agers’ trial for allegedly beating, killing black man NEW YORK (AP) — It is difficult to imagine the four teen-agers acting as killers as they mingle in court house haUways with parents and girlfriends, looking stiffly out of place in their fresh dark suits. Special state prosecutor Charles J. Hynes has spient the past two months trying to prove that the four white youths — Scott Kern, Jon Lester and Michael Pirone, all 18, and Jason La- done, 17 — are responsible for the death of a 23-year-old black man. The victim, Michael Griffith, was among three blacks who strayed into the largely white neighborhood of Howard Beach last Dec. 20. Kern and Lester are charged with murder, manslaughter, assault, riot and conspiracy; Pirone and Ladone are charged with manslaughter, as sault and riot. On Wednesday, a jury at state Su preme Court — the state’s trial-level court — is expiected to begin deliber ations to select between two widely diverging accounts of an incident that has taken on the symbolic weight of a lynching for many blacks in New York. The prosecution’s view is that the white youths taunted, chased and beat the black men in a racial attack that culminated when a terrified Griffith ran onto a highway and was struck by a car. Then there is the defense view — that the three black men were up to no good when they entered the white neighborhood; that they were responsible for the confrontation with the white youths; that Griffith’s death was an unfortunate accident exacerbated by his own cocaine use. Yet the job of the 12 jurors, half of whom are non-white, is hardly as simple as choosing between the two opposing viewpoints they will hear in closing arguments today and to morrow. More than 70 witnesses testified at the trial, which began Oct. 7, and their accounts are a testament to the fragility of human memory. Hardly any two poople were in complete agreement about what took place. A major point of contention is the manner and location of Griffith’s death. CELEBRATE A Winning Tradition! Our complete line of Cotton Bowl items Are Now 20% OFF Regular Price