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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 1988)
Thursday, September 22,1988/The Battalion/Page 3 State and Local Ex-inmate at prison camp enjoys U.S. freedom By Holly Becka Staff Writer Imagine a country that would im- lll® -r . . prison its citizens, send them to labor camps with criminals and armed t 'ltll:HI, r d s with ferocious dogs just for r.” ha\ ing “unorthadox” beliefs. Think h o|the Soviet Union. ndctlBDeorgi P. Vins, who spoke grei jthi 3ugh translator Natasha Vins, his eadJ da'ighter, Wednesday evening at the a |i annual Aggie Corps Christian Mus ter lived this life. ,father, who was an American 10 fiti^fcsionary j n Siberia, also lived this life. He was arrested and died in a Soviet prison camp. “You are fortunate to live in a free country,” Vins said. “I think that maybe some Americans don’t realize how fortunate they are to have free dom.” Vins said this freedom especially includes the way Americans are al lowed to think freely and form Christian ideas. “I lived in the Soviet Union for 50 years,” he said. “I have no military service but I know the Soviet military well . . . For eight years I was a pris- Jn nHsOn r'J TTl OS ” Vins said he was transferred to at least 10 labor camps in Siberia dur ing the years of his incarceration. His only crime was that he had “dif ferent” - ideas that went against his society’s rules and he preached to others about them. He said in 1961 there was a spiri tual awakening in the Soviet Union and as a result, more people began think about Christianity. They were not allowed to organize formally though. “In 1962 I worked in Kiev as an evangelist,” Vins said. “Mv occupa tion was an electrical engineer and I ministered in my free time. “I was arrested for the first time in 1966 for preaching and accused of organizing a worship service. I was sentenced the first time for three years and for 10 years the second time.” He said one of the camp’s direc tors tried to persuade him to change his mind about his beliefs. “The director thought I was a fa natic,” he said. “I would not rebuke Jesus Christ.” In fact, he said he usually min istered to fellow prisoners, most of whom were criminals. Once or twice he did meet other Christians who had been imprisoned, but they were together only a short time, he said. Vins did make a friend at the first camp he went to and has written a book about him, titled “Konshaubi,” which is the man’s name. Konshaubi is still in prison. Vins said he served the first prison term and five years of the sec ond before being stripped of his So viet citizenship and exiled to the United States in 1979 in an ex- rViinge of prisoners. Vins currently resides in Elkhart, Ind., where he works with Interna tional Representation for the Coun cil of Evangelical Baptist Churches of the Soviet Union Inc. The group represents the persecuted church in the USSR and organizes aid for Rus sian Christians. “I love Russia,” Vins said. “I never had a hostile feeling toward Russia, even when I was in prison. The peo- f »le there are very nice, kind and riendly but unfortunate because they are not free to believe in Jesus Christ.” Has hi utel isor(I eellj 'Whv.l nger ?n it;:] r rkirl > r'i accur] stt] iemii -ail! thi w, era orj anCif In Advance Council discusses utility rate change The College Station City Coun- Icil will discuss possible changes in Jutility rates at 7 p.m. today. If the changes are adopted, to- Ital electric revenues will decrease [by about six percent and total wa iter and sewer revenues will in- [crease by about 13.5 percent for [residential areas and about 34 [percent for commercial areas, [Glenn Schroeder, deputy direc- [tor of finance, said. “Over the last couple of years [we have gone through a cost of [services analysis on all utility ra kes,” Schroeder said. “There are Isome shifts between different classes of customers and different [types of services. “These adjustments are reduc ing the total amount of electrical revenue and increasing the amount of water and sewage (rev enue). This more accurately re flects what it cost to provide those services.” The rate changes would in crease College Station utility bills by about $1.50 per month, Sch roeder said. Monthly utility bills for resi dential areas would include a $3.50 decrease for electricity and increases of $2.30 for water, $1.50 for sewage, $1.05 for sani tation and $.20 for a drainage charge, he said. If accepted by the city council, the rate changes will go into ef fect after Oct. 1. Igandan ambassador to visit A&M Uganda’s ambassador to the Jnited States, Stephen Katenta- ^puli, visits Texas A&M today as [art of a four-day Texas tour. He will be hosted by A&M [resident William H. Mobley at a tncheon that will be attended by everal University and University System officials. While on cam- Bus, he also will meet with several ■rofessors from the Colleges of Agriculture, Engineering and Veterinary Medicine and tour se lected facilities. Before and after his College Station excursion. Ambassador Katenta-Apuli will meet with va rious state officials and officials and faculty members at the Uni versity of Texas, in addition to participating in several programs planned by Austin organizations. Politicians team to stop shipments of dangerous dirt First day of blood drive nets 259 pints at A&M MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Republican Gov. Guy Hunt and Democratic Attorney General Don Siegelman, often at odds politically, formed a rare partnership today to fight the shipment of PCB-contami- nated dirt from Texas to Alabama. Hunt and Siegelman said they would cooperate on a federal court suit aimed at blocking plans by the Environmental Protection Agency to ship contaminated dirt from a Super Fund cleanup site near Houston to Chemical Waste Management’s haz ardous waste landfill at Emelle, Ala. “We believe the EPA has violated their own rules” by not incinerating the contaminated dirt in Texas, Hunt said at a news conference with Siegelman. “We’re getting tired of everybody everywhere trying to dump their stuff in Alabama,” Hunt said, refer ring to the growth of the Emelle landfill as well as other states looking to Alabama for possible garbage dumps. Polychlorinated biphenyls, which are found in the Texas dirt, were once commonly used in electrical transformers as a coolant, but have now been linked to cancer. Siegelman said winning the suit will be difficult because his office’s two attorneys specializing in envi ronmental issues will be up against a multi-million dollar legal staff at the EPA and Chemical Waste Manage ment. “While we would like to present a rosy picture for the people of Ala bama, that would not be correct,” Siegelman said. Siegelman said the federal court suit will be filed this week or next, probably in Washington. He also said he would file an appeal today with the EPA concerning its set tlement with Chemical Waste Man agement Inc. over what Seigelman contended was the illegal dumping of 202 truckloads of a cyanide deriv ative at the landfill. In an agreement signed Monday, EPA and Chemical Waste Manage ment agreed the company would pay a $150,000 fine and keep close records on the hazardous wastes it dumps at Emelle. By George Watson Staff Writer The Red Cross collected 259 pints of blood during the first day of the TAMU-BU APO Challenge Blood Drive Wednesday, Lynda Falkenb- ery, Red Cross assistant administra tor, said. Blood is being taken at Rudder Fountain from 10 a.m. to 4 pm. da ily and at the Commons from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. “It’s a long way from the goal of 1,766 donors,” Falkenbery said. This year’s drive is the second challenge drive between A&M and Baylor. Baylor won last year’s drive with a turnout of 4 1 /a percent com pared to A&M’s a turnout of just over 2 percent. Last year’s drive was also the most successful Red Cross drive ever held at either campus. This year’s goal at both schools is a 4V2 percent turnout. Trophies will be presented at the Baylor-A&M football game October 15 to each school that meets the goal. The challenge goal was obtained from national averages. Nationwide, only 4 1 / 2 percent of the population donates blood. A&M has an enroll ment of 39,254, which translates into a goal of 1,766 donors. The blood donated is sent to the Central Texas Region of Red Cross Blood Services in Waco, which sup plies more than 30 hospitals in 28 counties of Central Texas. The Red Cross’ processing fee is the lowest in Texas at $33 per unit. All students and faculty who do nate are covered by the Central Red Cross Blood Program because of their residence in Brazos County. The blood drive is sponsored by Omega Phi Alpha and the Aggie Blood Drive Committee of Student Government. Correction It was incorrectly reported in Tuesday’s Battalion that the Ag gie Blood Drive is a semiannual event. The Red Cross does collect blood only two times during the year; however, the Aggie Blood Drive is held five times during the year. The other three drives are held in connection with the Wad- ley Blood Center of Dallas. Also, Omega Phi Alpha “was not noted as a sponsor of the event. The main sponsor is the Aggie Blood Drive Committee of Student Government. Margie Lasek,secondary advi sor of the committee, said the committee hopes to have 4 1 /2 per cent of the student body donate blood during the drive. PARTHENON sen itisJ [iSl# TONITE Coronas Thursday 8 "11 (jTorona K t tTd Woodstone Center 764-8575