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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 1989)
he Battalion WEATHER FORECAST for FRIDAY: Partly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers in the af ternoon. HIGH: 90s LOW: 70s Vol. 88 No. 160 USPS 045360 8 Pages College Station, Texas Thursday, June 22,1989 •y Road/693-i Williams will run for governor Former A&M student declares war on drugs as No. 1 priority Battalion file photo AUSTIN (AP) — Midland businessman Clay ton Williams became the first Republican to offi cially declare his candidacy for governor, pledg ing Wednesday that an all-out war on illegal drugs would be the top priority of his administra tion. “You can count on it,” Williams told support ers, borrowing a line from TV commercials he made for his ClayDesta Communications long distance telephone company. “As your governor, fighting this battle against these drug dealers will be my top priority. I will attack drugs on every front. I say it is time to kick in the revolving door of our prison system right back into the teeth of these vicious people,” he said. Williams, 57, undertook a 17-city campaign swing to launch his 1990 gubernatorial bid. While describing his net worth only as “nice,” the multimillionaire oilman, banker and busi nessman said he was ready to spend $3 million on the Republican primary. “I’m prepared to put up enough money that my message and the issues I’m putting in front of the public will be heard,” he said. “I don’t know how much it will take, but it’s going to be expen sive.” He said other goals would be education, eco nomic development, new jobs and rural health care. “I will be a governor who is committed to re storing family values and an old-fashioned Texas work ethic,” he said. Williams entered what could become a crowded GOP field since Gov. Bill Clements, the only Republican governor this century, isn’t seek ing re-election. Former Secretary of State Jack Rains, who re- “I I will be a governor who is committed to restoring family values and an old-fashioned Texas work ethic.” — Clayton W. Williams, Midland businessman signed last week, said he will decide on the race within 45 days. GOP sources say other possible candidates are Railroad Commission Chairman Kent Hance, an unsuccessful 1986 gubernatorial candidate; Am arillo oilman T. Boone Pickens; Rains; and George W. Bush of Dallas, the president’s son and co-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. Williams touted his Republican credentials Wednesday and downplayed criticism from some party regulars over past political contributions he made to two Democratic gubernatorial candi dates — Attorney General Jim Mattox and state Treasurer Ann Richards. \ “I’m a businessman,” he said. “I made the con tributions. I was not a politician when I did that. I’m now a politician, I’ll take my lumps.” Williams traced his GOP involvement to 1951, recalling that in his hometown of Fort Stockton, “all the Republicans . . . could meet in the coffee room at the Pecos County State Bank.” Williams said his interest in the drug battle is due in part to his own family’s experience. “My family lived the pain of drugs,” Williams said. “Our son got on drugs three years ago, but we were lucky. We helped him through a rehabil itation program . . . Today, our son is working himself back into the mainstream.” He said his anti-drug program would include building more prisons, confiscating assets of drug dealers, rehabilitation for first-time offend ers, getting tough on drug users and working in schools on drug education. A Texas A&M graduate, Williams hasn’t held public office before. But he said he has created 26 companies and 100,000 jobs in the past 32 years, experience needed to be the state’s chief executive. &M scientist links animal diseases to lack of copper in diet 50 $50 IBS 3, strains, articipate a chosen 50 $50 00 $200 ) partic- nedica- ipate. 00 $200 reliever per | le to partici- ncentiveforl COLLEGE STATION (AP) — A ■Texas A&M researcher has found that test animals without sufficient copper in their diets show symptoms 551) |hat mimic many human ailments from anemia to scurvy and arthritis. “We see the need for copper in many biological reactions,” Dr. Ed ward Harris of the Department of $5J^"Biochemistry said. “One of the most mportant is its close involvement with iron, and iron, of course, is on everybody’s mind.” In studies conducted for the Na tional Institutes of Health, Harris and other A&M researchers manip ulate copper levels in experimental animals. Illnesses that result show common features such as weakness of connective tissues. You see blood vessels that don’t support the pulse of the arteries and therefore rupture,” Harris said. “We see the same type of aneurysms in animals that are grown on copper- deficient diets that you see in a hu man that has an idiopathic medical problem. We’ve also seen very pro nounced leg weaknesses, which re flect tendons’ inability to support the weight of the animal.” In a study with researchers from A&M’s Veterinary Medical Center, scientists were able to mimic an ar thritic condition in thoroughbred horses fed copper-deficient diets. “The animal walked with a limp, just what you see with arthritis,” Harris said. And although a study in Australia hints at a possible link between ar thritis relief and the old folk medi cine treatment of wearing a copper bracelet, Harris said he wasn’t ready to endorse such a treatment. “You can’t really know if you are dealing with a psychological experi ence or if there was actual relief,” he said. 3CH f E tely >ry. please 1 bever- icted. If ise, About 30 Texas A&M students joined nuclear engineering graduate student Igor Carron at a ‘lie-down’ Wednesday af ternoon in the grassy area between the David Eller Building mmmmm Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack and the Langford Architecture Center. Carron said the pur pose of the silent protest was to show solidarity and sup port for the people of China. Two Texas businessmen forced by jet fighters to land plane in India Thirty A&M students hold ‘lie-down’ to show solidarity with Chinese people 11 be DALLAS (AP) — The State De partment confirmed that two Texas businessmen were forced down by two Indian jet fighters and interro gated in a remote town in India about possible espionage. Officials said Frank Haile Jr., 57, of Dallas and Carson Gilmore of Rocksprings, Texas, were on a round-the-world trip in a Beechcraft Bonanza V-35B. They were Hying in formation with three other planes last Friday when they were intercepted by the Student escapes attacker by going through window A Texas A&M student escaped from an attacker at her College Station residence early Tuesday morning after breaking out a bedroom window to call for help. The 21-year-old student re ported that a man attacked her at about 1 a.m. after she stepped out of her upstairs bathroom. She told police she struggled with the man and was able to run to a downstairs bedroom where she broke out the window and called for help. She cut her arm and shoulder when she broke the window. Several neighbors heard her screams and came to help, but the man already had escaped I through another bedroom win dow. The student was taken to Hu mana Hospital after being treated by paramedics. Indian air force fighters near India’s northwestern border with Pakistan, the State Department said. Also detained were two West Ger mans in another aircraft, officials said. The two other planes flying in the formation successfully slipped away, officials added. Haile and Gilmore left an airport in the far north Dallas suburb of Ad dison three weeks ago, friends and relatives said. Haile’s wife, Joan Haile, said she has spoken with her husband once since he was detained and believes he is safe. “But I really don’t know since I haven’t spoken with him since Satur day morning,” she said. Haile is the owner and president of a Dallas-based engineering firm, has flown around the world twice. By Mia B. Moody STAFF WRITER About 30 Texas A&M students laid out in the summer heat Wednes day not to tan, but to show Chinese people that they care. Igor Carron, a graduate student in nuclear engineering, announced his intentions to lie on the ground at 12:15 Wednesday afternoon be tween Langford Architecture Cen ter and David Eller Building in a let ter to the editor published in The Battalion June 20. In his letter, he invited other students to join him. “I wanted to do something to get involved, ” Carron said. “I felt that nobody but the Chinese community was concerned. I am from France and I believe that if I were from China, I would have been involved in the Tiananmen Square protest.” Though the students who partici pated in the lie-down had different reasons, they all had basically the same motive — they wanted to get involved. David Dunaway, senior psychol ogy major from Conroe, partici pated. “I got involved because I feel pow erless to do anything except protest, since we are so far away,” he said. Rusty Lawrence, a senior horticul ture major from Dallas, said he wanted to show that he cares what is going on in the world. “Yesterday I heard that three stu dents were executed by the govern ment,” Lawrence said. “I don’t think that is fair. I believe that democracy should be everywhere. I believe this lie-down will show people that we John Loleta, a sophomore politi cal science major from Houston, said he became interested in the Chinese cause when he heard a speaker on the subject. “A Chinese activist came and spoke to one of my sociology clas ses,” Loleta said. “He said the Amer icans are helping a lot, because it is through the American media the Chinese people are finding out what is going on. He said he is so happy that the American government is giving a lot of support, then he burst into tears.” Chinese execute three, condemn 17 for roles in protest BEIJING (AP) — China executed three men Wednesday and up to 17 others were condemned to die for their roles in student- led protests that challenged the power of the Communist Party. The executions in Shanghai were carried out despite appeals for clemency by President Bush and other Western leaders. Premier Li Peng denounced the foreign criticism. He told visiting Foreign Secretary Hu- mayun Khan of Pakistan that most of the mil lions of Chinese who took part nationwide in marches, sit-ins and hunger strikes for a freer society would be treated leniently “even if they had extremist opinions.” But Li said, “The tiny minority of criminals will be punished according to the law.” The meeting w'as the first top-level contact with a foreign delegation since the crackdown began June 3-4, when the armv fired on stu dents and supporters in Beijing to end their pro-democracy demonstrations. More than 1,600 arrests have been re ported nationwide since, and the nation’s highest court has urged lower courts to deal swiftly and severely with protest-related cases. In addition to the those sentenced to death Wednesday, 11 — including the three exe cuted — were condemned previously. The Shanghai men were convicted of set ting a train on fire on June 6 after it plowed into a barricade set up by protesters, killing six people. They were shot to death in front of a crowd Wednesday after Shanghai’s highest court re jected their appeals, a spokesman at the city’s Foreign Affairs Office said. He said he did not know other details and refused to give his name: The national television news reported the executions but did not show them carried out. The men were Xu Guoming, a brewery worker; Yan Xuerong, a radio factory worker; and Bian Hanwu, who was unem ployed. Beijing radio said 45 people who “seriously endangered public order” were tried in front of an audience of 10,000 people in Jinan in eastern China’s Shandong province. It did not give details of their alleged crimes, but said some were given the death penalty. Others were given death sentences suspended for two years with the possibility of being commuted to life in prison, the radio reported. An editor at the state-run Jinan Daily said 17 of the 45 were given death sentences, but said he did not know if the figure included those given two-year reprieves. The public trial in Jinan and public execu tions in Shanghai underscored China’s em phasis on using the death penalty as a deter rent. China does not release figures on execu tions and not all are reported in the official media. By Western count, more than 10,000 people were executed in a period of several years after an anti-crime drive began in 1983. Death sentences usually are carried out by a bullet to the back of the head. In recent years, relatively few have been carried out in public, a practice reserved for especially hei nous or political cases in which the govern ment wants to send a message to the public. Death sentences sometimes are commuted to life in prison but there is no record of a sentence being overturned on appeal in Com munist China. Li defended China’s actions as necessary to put down a “counterrevolutionary rebellion.” “When China is in difficulties for the time being it sees clearly who are true friends and who are false ones,” the television news quoted him as saying.