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
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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.”
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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
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