Texas ASM ||^ m m W 0
The Battalion
Vol. 87 No. 115 CISPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, March 21,1988
olice use tear gas
o end riot at beach
PORT ARANSAS (AH) — Coast
luard crews pulled a car with two
udies inside from waters of f a ferry
llnding Sunday, as authorities
■icked up the pieces after a wild
Bight that included a spring break
Beach riot requiring tear gas, heli
copters and a phalanx of police to
end.
I The small car crashed through a
Bashing barrier early Sunday, sailing
nit 75 feet in the air before crash-
Jig into the Gulf and sinking, Coast
^uard spokesman Bob Fisher said.
The identities of the two young
Bien were not immediately available,
Be said.
■ The sinking occurred just hours
Bfter an unrelated midnight beach
Hot by partying youths who became
enraged by a car accident, authori-
Hes said.
I “What you have down there is a
tiemendous amount of intoxication
Hoingon,”Jim Kaelin, a Texas De-
Hartment of Public Safety officer,
Hid. “All it takes sometimes is for
Hmeone to bump into someone else.
Hhe crowd just turned into a riot.”
B At least four people were stabbed
Hd two law officers were injured in
He midnight beach melee, police
Hid. Eight people were arrested,
Hid one person remained hospital-
Hed Sunday.
■ Port Aransas police referred all
Hieries to city manager Gordon
(Official says
Lackson has
solidified bid
I DALLAS (AP) — Jesse Jackson
' Jjas solidified his presidential bid in
Hexas and should have as many del-
Hgates as Michael Dukakis when
Hemocrats hold their state conven-
Ho n this spring in Houston, the
Hexas Democratic Party chairman
Hid Sunday.
I Although Dukakis earned more
Helegates in Super Tuesday’s pri-
Hiary voting in Texas, Jackson ap-
Heared to have gathered more at-
Hrge delegates in Saturday’s 270
Bounty and senatorial district con-
Hentions across the state.
I Those conventions determine the
Hllocation of 64 at-large delegates to
Ifihe national convention, but
statewide results of Saturday’s meet
ings were not tallied.
I With just over half of the 5,288
delegates accounted for, Jackson
Had 41 percent and Dukakis, gover
nor of Massachusetts, 36 percent.
Hlncommitted delegates were run-
Hing 10 percent; Tennessee Sen. A1
Bore had 10 percent; Missouri Rep.
Hichard Gephardt, 3 percent, and II-
Hnois Sen. Paul Simon, I percent.
Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart
had one delegate, from a district in
Houston.
If “I would just guess the state con-
vention will be composed of one-
Hiird Jackson, one-third Dukakis
and about a third of the people ei-
Hier Gore, Gephardt or uncom-
miited,” state Democratic Party
: Chairman Bob Slagle said.
■ State Democrats meet for their
Convention that will be held from
Beck. There was no answer at his of
fice telephone, and a message left by
the Associated Press on his home an
swering machine was not immedi
ately returned Sunday.
About 30,000 students were stay
ing in this island resort for spring
break.
The Saturday night mayhem be
gan when a motorist hit a girl on the
beach at this Gulf Coast vacation
spot on Mustang Island, offshore
from Corpus Christi, and tried to
leave the scene, DPS Officer A.G.
Michniak said in Corpus Christi.
“They stomped the car, broke all
the glass out of it and Hipped it
over,” UT student Tom Frazier said.
It took more than 100 police offi
cers to break up the mob with the
help of tear gas and hovering Coast
Guard helicopters with searchlights.
A portable toilet also was set ab
laze, authorities said.
The first police officers on the
scene tried to arrest two people in
volved in the alleged hit-and-run ac
cident but found the crowd too
much to handle.
“Objects were tossed and thrown
at the officers and they called for as
sistance,” a DPS dispatcher in Cor
pus Christi who would not give her
name said.
Police fired seven tear gas projec
tiles to disperse the crowd, Kaelin
said.
Michniak said the DPS received
the first call at 1 1:35 p.m. Saturday
and the disturbance wasn’t declared
under control until three hours
later.
Paul Guerra of Port Aransas said
he saw a stabbing victim while leav
ing the beach.
“All of a sudden, somebody yelled
and a guy fell,” Guerra said. “He
had blood all over his chest. I heard
them shout, ‘He’s stabbed! He’s
stabbed!’ They started tearing at his
clothes, and then the police came
running over.
“I left. I hate to say it, but I was
afraid for my life.”
The DPS estimated the crowd at
about 3,000.
“A good example would be to
think of a high school football sta
dium where everybody ran down to
the field and was packed tight,” Kae
lin said.
The car sinking was witnessed by
a ferry captain and deck hand, Coast
Guard spokesman Anthony E. Lloyd
said.
“The car just flew right off the
ferry landing,” Lloyd said. “It didn’t
stop, didn’t skid or anything, it just
went right into the water, and they
saw its tail end going down.”
The Coast Guard had used a
grappling hook to search for the ve
hicle Sunday. Divers initially used in
the search were called off, Lloyd
said.
June 9-11 in Houston, where they
will chose delegates to the national
convention.
Officials claim
fight not likely
for U.S. troops
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras
(AP) — American soldiers prac
ticed military maneuvers Sunday
on a Honduran airstrip just 21
miles from the Nicaraguarf bor
der, but U.S. officials said the
threat from Sandinista troops
had subsided and combat ap
peared unlikely.
“These guys are not going to
get involved in any sort of con
flict,” Maj. Gary Hovatter,
spokesman for U.S. troops, said.
Nicaragua formally protested a
Honduran bombing raid on
Sandinista positions Saturday as
an unwarranted act of aggres
sion. It has denied that its troops
crossed the jungle-choked border
dividing the nations.
U.S. officials in Washington
said the Sandinistas appeared to
be drawing back from the Hon
duran border and predicted that
the training exercises involving
3,200 U.S. troops soon would
end.
A U.S. House delegation
viewed a military exercise involv
ing U.S. infantrymen and Hon
duran soldiers at Jamastran, a
dirt airstrip about 55 miles south
east of here and about 20 miles
from the border.
The exercise was held about 80
miles south of the Bocay border
region, where Honduran fighters
on Saturday dropped bombs on
Sandinista positions.
Honduran officials said the
raid was carried out because
about 600 Sandinistas troops
were moving too slowly from the
disputed Bocay area, which Hon
duras considers its territory. Two
Honduran jet fighters carried out
a similar raid Thursday.
No one was hurt in either raid
and no damage was reported in
Saturday’s attack.
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister
Miguel D’Escoto sent a protest
note to Honduran Foreign Min
ister Carlos Lopez, saying his gov
ernment “energetically and for
mally protests” Saturday’s attack,
which it called “aggression
against Nicaraguan territory.”
The ministry also said two F-5
warplanes flew over Sandinista
positions Saturday morning in
the frontier sectors of Mukuwas,
San Andres de Bocay, Waniwas
and Wayawas, but dropped no
bombs.
The 600 Sandinista troops
were part of a force estimated at
2,000 that was believed to have
entered Honduran territory last
week in pursuit of U.S.-backed
Contra rebels.
The action prompted Presi
dent Reagan to send in U.S.
troops to non-combat areas for
military exercises in a show of
force to the Marxist regime.
Coming home again
Seniors Perry Eichor, a marketing major, and
Wade Welkener, a petroleum engineering major,
Photo by Shelly Schluter
return to A&M Sunday after spring break. Eichor
and Welkener spent their vacation in South Padre.
Group plans
to reconstruct
ruined shack
By Richard Williams
Senior Staff Writer
The president of Texas A&M’s
Students Against Apartheid said
they will rebuild the anti-apartheid
shanty destroyed by vandals the
night of March 10.
Susan Vint, SAA president, said
the group had planned to dismantle
the shanty on March 11, but because
of the. vandals the group will build
the shanty again.
“We had let everybody know that
it was only going to be up for a 10
day period,” Vint said. “All they
made us do is want to put it back
up.”
She said before the shanty was de
stroyed the group was not sure if
they would construct a shanty on
campus again, but “somebody has al
ready made the decision for us — we
are going to put it back up.”
The shanty has been constructed
three times. It was first constructed
on Feb. 22, but A&M officials tore
the shanty down because it was built
without University permission.
A second shanty was built after
gaining A&M’s approval. The sec
ond shanty was constructed on
March 6 and two days later it was
Battalion file photo
Jeff Dyess works to construct an anti-apartheid shack on March 6. It
was destroyed before Spring Break.
vandalized. The vandals turned the
shanty over, damaged the roof and
tore one wall off.
Norman Muraya, a group mem
ber, said he urges the vandals “to use
the appropriate democratic channels
for free expression.”
“It is ironic that they tore it down
because the whole purpose was to
use the democratic channels for free
expression that we do have here in
the United States to stir up human
conscience with regards to the situa
tion in South Africa,” he said.
Vint said she is angry about the
destruction of the shanty.
“I’m really upset about it,” Vint
said. “I’m really shocked that people
would take such a violent action
against a peaceful group. We’re just
trying to make a statement for the
people on campus.”
Vint said the group would press
charges against individuals caught
destroying the shanty.
University Police Department Sgt.
Michael Buckley said that if the van
dals were caught they could be
charged with a class C misdeamenor.
The maximum fine for a class C mis
deamenor is $200.
A&M leaves radio network of SWC
By Richard Williams
Senior Staff Writer
1 During spring break Texas A&M
Broke from the Southwest Confer-
Hnce Radio Network because of what
Hthletic Director Jackie SherriP
Hailed “preferential” treatment for
Hhe University of Texas. SWC and
HWC Radio Network officials said
that charge is false.
1 On March 12, Texas A&M an-
Hiounced it was pulling out of the
I work, and two days
tounced the forma-
adio network.
;ar, $1 million con-
iadcast of Aggie foot-
and baseball games
a Learfield Commu-
efferson City, Mo.
aperate the network
» with Gene Ashcraft,
^er of the Texas State
A&M was leaving the
vork because of what
ential” treatment be-
: University of Texas,
cations, the company
WC Radio Network
given UT football
cWilliams a statewide
radio talk show and does all of the
printing for UT’s programs, he said.
“We have a major problem of why
Texas A&M is not as valuable (to
Host),” Sherrill said. “It gives a
school a distinct advantage to have a
coach's talk show.”
Sherrill said A&M had asked for
the same deal but had been turned
down.
Jim Host, of Kentucky-based Host
Communications, said that charge is
false.
“We made, on more than one oc
casion, an offer to work with Texas
A&M to help them in any way possi
ble, but the whole premise was tied
to the fact that we had to do the
print projects — meaning the foot
ball and basketball print programs
— in order to gain enough revenue
to then be able to support the coach’s
call-in show and other shows like
that,” Host said. “Texas A&M said
they did not want us to do the print
projects, and we said if we can’t do
the print projects with meaningful
revenue then we can’t do the call-in
shows. When we do the print pro
jects we are able to make sufficient
revenue to support the call-in
shows.”
That same offer was made to ev
ery school in the conference, Host
said.
Fred Jacoby, SWC commissioner,
said UT had not been given any
preferential treatment by Host Com
munications.
“Our position all along was that if
it was only offered to Texas it would
have been preferential treatment,
but since it was offered to all institu
tions then it was not preferential
treatment,” he said.
Host said Sherrill probably had a
different reason for pulling out of
the conference network.
“I felt it had to do with the fact
that he (Sherrill) felt Texas A&M
could gain a more decided advan
tage in terms of public recognition
by having a radio network on their
own as opposed to being a part of
the Southwest Conference network,”
Host said.
Before A&M’s decision to pull out
of the SWC network, all members
participated and received shares of
revenue based on a point system.
The agreement gave schools with
larger followings the ability to make
more money for the institutions and
conference.
However, John Keith, A&M’s
sports news director, said Host Com
munications’ “promises for an
amount of money each year never
came true.”
“One time they promised us
something like $100,000 — we got
$52,000,” Keith said. “Last year we
made a paltry $95,000 off the radio
contract.”
A&M is expected to be paid about
$130,000 for its 1987 radio contract.
Even though the announcement
that A&M was pulling out of the
SWC network was not made until
See Radio, page 6
Soldiers warned
before mob attack,
British army says
BELFAST, Northern Ireland
(AP) — Two British soldiers who
were killed in a brutal attack by
an angry mob ignored orders to
stay away from an Irish Republi
can Army funeral procession, the
British army said Sunday.
All soldiers in the British-ruled
province were told the funeral
was taking place on Saturday and
had been warned to steer clear,
an army spokesman said. He said
the army had begun an investiga
tion.
“The two corporals should not
have been where they were and
we are interested in examining
how that came about,” said the
spokesman, speaking anony
mously in keeping with British
custom.
“They would have been
briefed about the route of the fu
neral procession, and the two cor
porals were not expected to be
there and had no requirement to
be there,” the spokesman said.
Cpl. Derek Wood, 24, and Cpl.
David Howes, 23, were shot dead
in Belfast on Saturday after fune
ral mourners dragged them from
their unmarked car, beat them
and stripped them naked.
The outlawed IRA claimed re
sponsibility for the deaths and the
Royal Ulster Constabulary,
Northern Ireland’s police force,
said it was questioning three peo
ple.
Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich, head
of the Roman Catholic church in
Ireland, said, “The thought of
these two soldiers being savagely
beaten and then shot in cold
blood will give rise to feelings of
revulsion in every Irish man or
woman who has a spark of hu
man feeling.”
&
K
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