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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 1989)
s s fexas A&M The Battalion WEATHER FORECAST for TUESDAY: Cloudy and much colder, with gusty north wind and a 50 per cent chance of rain. HIGH:60 LOW:40 /ol. 88 No. 114 USPS 045360 12 pages College Station, Texas Monday, March 20,1989 alvadorans vote for new president under fire SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — alvadorans voted for a new president Sun- ese-6wii, ay as leftist revolutionaries opposed to the lection attacked military posts and army roops Countered with rockets and rifle fire. At least five guerrillas and two soldiers vere killed in lighting in nine provincial owns, military officials and witnesses said, [wojournalists and a Dutch television cam- raman also were reported killed. Early voter turnout appeared diminished >y the combat and a rebel-imposed trans- lort ban. But Roman Catholic churches rere crowded with Palm Sunday worship- rs, at least some of whom planned to vote ater. By midday, there were long lines at he downtown polling stations. Turnout was light in smaller towns. “With these problems, it’s better to stay “t Sundj laoxmg were wl tiled, ii Lama. isary of, torn ver braid “dom aai ral pario; Most ]. nation I*. home,” Jose Carlos Ortiz, 23, said. He spoke in front of his home in the capital as guerrillas retreated from an assault on a military post three blocks away. Sporadic rifle fire echoed from the slope of the Guazapa volcano north of the capital, a guerrilla stronghold, as troops from the army’s elite Bracamonte battalion pursued the insurgents. Two air force helicopters raced toward the volcano and fired rockets into the mountainside. Guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti Na tional Liberation Front are waging a 9-year- old war against the U.S-backed govern ment. Salvadorans voted to elect a president from among seven candidates. Fidel Cha vez Mena of the incumbent Christian Dem ocratic Party and Alfredo Cristiani of the rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance, or Arena led the field in polls. But neither was likely to receive the more than 50 percent required to avoid a runoff next month. Cristiani, favored to become the coun try’s next president, pledged free-market policies and reduced state intervention in the economy. His party promised to step up the war if the guerrillas do not agree to lay down their arms. Surrounded by a mob of supporters, Cristiani voted Sunday morning on the cap ital’s central Roosevelt Avenue. “I hope the United States realizes that (Salvadorans) want democracy, with this ef fort they’re making to vote. We don’t want any more bombs,” he said. President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s five- year term ends June 1. Duarte, barred by law from running for re-election, is Wash ington’s staunchest ally in the Western Hemisphere. He is dying of liver cancer. Chavez Mena is a lawyer and leader of the Christian Democratic Party’s conserva tive wing. The centrist Christian Democrats con tend Arena has not changed much since it was founded in 1981 by individuals alleg edly linked to death squads. Arena denies links to death squads. Cris tiani says the party’s ideology is similar to that of the U.S. Republican Party. The leftist Democratic Convergence, whose leaders maintain formal links with the guerrillas, is running third in the elec tion, according to polls. It was the first elec tion since 1977 in which socialist candidates have competed. About 1.83 million people out of a pop ulation of 5 million were eligible to vote. Polls opened at 7 a.m. in 243 of the coun try’s 262 municipalities and closed at 5 p.m. Nineteen towns in the north did not set up voting stations because election officials deemed those rebel-held zones'too danger ous. Ricardo Perdomo, chairman of the Cen tral Elections Council, said preliminary re sults would be available early Monday. Re bel sabotage to telephone lines and electricity, which has cut or restricted power to 80 percent of the country, were likely to slow the vote count. ill) ,s ilainis icmev i, ed fer io at; 'nt polid md unit! separai 1 the b# bui extu f (he n me of i or havii caragiE m am«i 'om hen xico C ive soi paid)! rom Ii them! Discovery crew returns home after flawless flight he ts s liol being tes bassv v was ng i his ipany USOV ap- : Au- jsibil screi SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) — The Discovery space shuttle astronauts, back from a five-day mission in which they de ployed a vital communications sa tellite, spent Sunday with their families but were to return to work the next day to discuss their nearly flawless flight. The crew’s 1.9 million-mile journey ended Saturday morning with a picture perfect landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., that was watched by a near-re cord 460,000 spectators. Discovery’s flight lasted 4 days, 23 hours and 39 minutes. It was the 28th shuttle mission overall and the third since Challenger exploded, claiming the lives of seven astronauts and halting manned spaceflights for nearly three years. The next flight is the planned April 28 launch of Atlantis, which will deploy a planetary probe that will map the surface of Venus. NASA hopes to complete seven flights this year and 12 a year by 1992. Space agency officials Saturday praised the five Discovery astro nauts and the orbiter as well as the efforts of employees who have worked to get the shuttle program back on i rack. “I think the country realizes we’re back,” Rear Adm. Richard H. Truly, NASA’s associate ad ministrator for space flight, said at a post-flight news conference Saturday at Edwards. Truly also said the shuttle “is just as clean as it can be.” Al though NASA television close- ups showed numerous white marks on the black thermal tiles that protect the shuttle’s under side during the fiery re-entry through the atmosphere, Truly described them as “a few minor chips.” A little more than seven hours after touchdown, the astronauts and their wives arrived home in Houston where they were greeted by their children and Photo by Ronnie Montgomery Discovery astronaut James Bagian and his daughter Krista enjoy a welcoming party at Houston’s Ellington Field. about 500 friends, fellow workers and space fans. Discovery commander Michael L. Coats, who guided the 97-ton spaceship to its centerline land ing, said his crew worked hard both before and after blastoff Monday. “I’d like to thank all of you and American people for the oppor tunity to fly in space,” Goats added. The other Discovery astro nauts are pilot John E. Blaha and mission specialists Robert C. Springer, James F. Buchli and James P. Bagian. Blaha, Springer and Bagian were all space rook ies. Just six hours after liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Monday, the astronauts deployed a $100 mil lion Tracking and Data Relay Sa tellite. Protesters threaten to strike over ‘sabotaged’ campaign MOSCOW (AP) — Thousands of Soviets took to the streets Sunday to accuse the Communist Party of sab otaging Boris N. Yeltsin’s election campaign and to threaten a general strike if the maverick reformer fails to win office. Police and KGB agents along the route channeled the marchers but made no attempt to halt them, even though their protest violated Mos cow city regulations that require seven days’ notice of any demonstra tion. The march through downtown Moscow by 3,000 Soviets chanting “Hands off Yeltsin!” was an extraor dinary outburst of passions aroused by Sunday’s election for a new na tional parliament, the Congress of People’s Deputies. Yeltsin, 58, is running to rep resent the Soviet capital, where he headed the local party apparatus for almost two years before President Mikhail S. Gorbachev fired him. At pre-election meetings and in a televised debate with his opponent, automobile factory manager Yev geny Brakov, the stocky, white- haired Yeltsin has charged the party machine he once led of conspiring against his candidacy and restricting voters’ access to his campaign ap pearances. Thousands of Yeltsin supporters planned to rally after noon Sunday at southwestern Moscow’s Gorky Park, where a Russian folklore festi val was under way. When they were told permission for the meeting had been refused, they set off for the city’s downtown. Their anger also was kindled by a recent decision of the party’s policy making Central Committee, an nounced Thursday, to form a special commission to investigate charges that Yeltsin, who is still a Central Committee member, opposes some party policies. The campaign against Yeltsin ap peared to enter another phase Sun day when the party’s Moskovskaya Pravda printed an account about Yeltsin’s character and politics. The newspaper claimed it was a “myth” that he was more faithful to prin ciples than others. Yeltsin won the hearts of many Muscovites with a campaign against corruption and spirited attacks on the privileges, from special food stores to chauffeured limousines, available to the government and party elite. “He’s against the party mafia, and that’s why the party mafia is against him,” declared one of Sunday’s marchers, Taras Osipov, 65, a re tired engineer. “Yeltsin is with the people and for the people.” Poll finds Americans unsure about keeping money in S&Ls NEW YORK (AP) —- The nation’s beleaguered sav ings and loan industry lacks the confidence of nearly half the American public and a third of its own deposi tors, a Media General-Associated Press poll has found. Respondents to the national survey also doubted the government’s ability to find a lasting solution to the S&L crisis. And while half favored government inter vention, most opposed having the public bear the main costs. Only 53 percent of the 1,108 adults polled regarded S&Ls as a safe place to keep their money, compared with 93 percent who saw banks as safe. Of those with thrift accounts, 33 percent said they feared losing their savings. Relatively few said they were reducing their accounts because of the S&L crisis, but a fifth said they were con sidering that step and as many said they were holding off on new deposits. While S&Ls have sustained record withdrawals lately, federal analysts chiefly blame the higher interest rates that are available elsewhere. In the poll, 35 .percent of respondents had S&L accounts and just 9 percent of them said they had withdrawn money because of the in dustry’s problems. Federal insurance is insufficient to cover accounts at the estimated 350 sayings and loans that are failing, and the government has taken over 166 of the worst-off thrifts while Congress and the administration devise a plan to rescue the industry. The nation has 2,955 sav ings and loan associations. President Bush has proposed using $50 billion in government-backed bonds to help cover the accounts, in addition to $40 billion pledged last year to sell or prop up failed thrifts. In the poll, however, just 27 per cent said the government should pay most of the costs of salvaging the industry. Instead, a 42 percent plurality said the S&L industry should bear the brunt of the costs by paying higher in surance premiums on its accounts — a lesser feature of the Bush plan. Just 14 percent favored levying a fee on S&L depositors, an idea the administration considered and dropped. In any case, only 31 percent said they believed the government would come up with a long-term solution to the savings and loan crisis. Thirty-nine percent ex pected “only a temporary solution.” War financier’s heir requests amends Stafford woman could get $141 billion for 212-year-old debt 56 m nd HOUSTON (AP) — A Stafford woman and other descendants of a man who loaned money to help fi nance the Revolutionary War have filed a lawsuit against the federal government for repayment of the 212-year-old loan plus interest, a bill that could run as high as $141.6 bil lion. In the winter of 1777, the Conti nental Army — starved, freezing and short on supplies — was hang ing on by its fingernails at Valley Forge. Thomas Paine described the winter as “the times that try men’s souls.” Congress sent out the word to pa triots: Send money to keep Gen. George Washington’s army in the field. It promised to repay the loans plus interest. One of those who responded was Jacob DeHaven, a wealthy Philadel phia merchant. DeHaven lent the government al most everything he had, gold and supplies worth about $450,000. Washington’s army pulled through the winter and eventually won the Revolutionary War. DeHaven’s descendants contend the government stiffed him. DeHaven died childless and in poverty in 1812. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Swedeland, Penn., Peter Murphy, the family’s lawyer, said. Murphy, a professor at South Texas College of Law, and his for mer student, Jo Beth Kloecker of Stafford, filed a class action lawsuit Friday in the U.S. Claims Court for the $450,000 loan — plus 212 years of the 6 percent compounded inter est the Continental Congress prom ised. Loan officers at Texas Commerce Bank calculated last week that the “ I Uacob DeHaven loaned the government what was in effect the Pentagon budget. He virtually underwrote the war at Valley Forge.” — Peter Murphy, lawyer for DeHaven descendants principal and interest on the loan w T ould be $98.3 billion if the interest is compounded annually or $141.6 billion if it is compounded daily. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Stafford woman, Thelma Weasen- forth Lunaas and the other descen dants of DeHaven’s nine brothers and sisters and two half-brothers. “Jacob DeHaven loaned the gov ernment what was in effect the Pen tagon budget,” Murphy told the Houston Chronicle. “He virtually underwrote the war at Valley Forge.” Without DeHaven’s loan, the Continental Army might have col lapsed and the United States would have been stillborn, Murphy said. “Lunaas and other DeHaven fam ily members aren’t interested in tak ing the government for a ride,” Murphy said. “They just feel that Jacob DeHa ven made a significant contribution to the war effort, then died in pov erty after being one of the richest men in America. It (the loan) wiped him out.” He said DeHaven and his descen dants have tried several times to per suade the government to pay back the loans. During an attempt in the 1920s, President Calvin Coolidge acknowl edged the debt and said it should be paid, Murphy said. As recently as 1966, a congress man introduced a bill to repay the DeHaven loan, Murphy said. That bill died in committee. After the Revolutionary War, the question arose over whether the debts should be paid in full. Both the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution say the Revolu tionary War debts are debts of the central government. In a 1790 report on the public debt. Secretary of the Treasury Al exander Hamilton recommended that the war debt be paid in full, Murphy said. Hamilton said the government should pay off the loans because the future of America’s credit depended upon it, Murphy said. Some owners of the loan certifi cates were paid in gold. Old docu ments imply that others got land and many were paid in worthless Conti nental currency, Murphy said. “If that happened, you looked upon it as a gift to the government,” he said. DeHaven and his descendants could not sue the government after the war because the government could not be sued, Murphy said. The United States at the time was following English law that forbade lawsuits against the Crown, he said. In 1853, Congress created the court of claims and allowed lawsuits against the government in that court. Brian Mihlbachler, a graduate range science major, runs oh A&M’s fitness and jogging trail on the final Sunday of the break. Mihlbachler says he tries to run six miles everyday.