Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 1989)
I W ill J> :;v > : he Battalion WEATHER TOMORROW’S FORECAST: Partly cloudy, cooler HIGH: 58 LOW: 40 Vol. 89 No.48 USPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, November 7,1989 Care package from R.C. Dan Debenport, a junior at Texas A&M and a football locker room before working out with the member of the 12th Man kickoff team and Corps team Monday afternoon. The Aggies do not play of Cadets, reaches for his practice jersey in the another game until Nov. 24. Crowds pack E. German streets iemanding free elections, travel I BERLIN (AP) — A half-million East Germans thronged the streets oi Leipzig in a hard, cold rain Mon day night to demand free elections and unlimited freedom to travel abroad. I More than 135,000 people rallied in other cities, including Schwerin, d a ll e > Cottbus, Dresden and Karl- darx-Stadt, the . news agency re ined. While East Germans at home pro tested, mass flight continued. The official news agency ADN said 23,200 citizens had gone to West Germany since the suspension of exit rules Saturday. Lutheran Church sources said some marchers in Leipzig shouted “The Wall must go!” — demanding demolition of the Berlin Wall, sym bol of East German repression for three decades. hild shot at day care onscious, improving I Kenny Archer, the 3-year-old who shot himself accidentally on Oct. 31 at a Normangee day care center, is Bno longer on a ventilator and listed Hn guarded condition, a spokesman ■or Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston said Monday. A friend of |the Archer family said that Kenny Bvas conscious and showing im provement. He said the doctors have given Kenny a strong chance of sur vival. I Kenny shot himself above the right eye with a .22-caliber pistol car ried by Kenda Mahaffey as part of a Halloween costume. Mahaffey, an employee of the Twice As Nice Play school, where the shooting occurred, believed that the gun was unloaded. Leon County Deputy Attorney Tuck McLain said that Mahaffey was indicted Friday morning by a Leon County Grand Jury. Mahaffy was in dicted on two third-degree felony charges of reckless injury of a child and unlawfully carrying a weapon where prohibited. McLain said that he expects Mahaffey will be ar raigned Nov. 27, when the court meets for its regular docket. ADN said banners demanding “Free elections” and “Travel law without restrictions” waved above the crowd, and others challenged Communist Party supremacy. It said “several hundred thou sand” people took part in the biggest rally so far in Leipzig, where some of the largest protests of the pro-de mocracy campaign have been held. Michael Turek, a Lutheran pastor in the southern industrial city of 650,000, said by telephone about 500,000 people marched. A rally Saturday in East Berlin, where the crowd was estimated at 1 million, was the largest protest in the com munist nation’s 40-year history. Members of New Forum, the larg est pro-reform group, addressed the crowd in Leipzig, ADN said. Dresden’s march was authorized by authorities and led by Mayor Wolfgang Berghofer and the re form-minded local party chief, Hans Modrow. ADN said it was the first officially approved demonstration in the city. Earlier Monday, the government published a new draft law that is ex pected to take effect before Christmas and will permit travel abroad for up to 30 days a year. Committee plans program to slow drinking at bonfire By Michael Kelley Of The Battalion Staff The Bonfire Subcommittee on Al cohol Awareness and Safety is plan ning to “Keep Alcohol From Shat tering the Tradition” by discouraging alcohol use at the bon fire site. The group also hopes to de crease the number of persons who get drunk before going to watch the burning of bonfire. “The concern of a lot of people — administration, community, stu dents and former students — is that in the past few years, due to the size of bonfire, we’ve had an increased problem with alcohol at the site, as well as people coming to bonfire in toxicated,” said Jo Hudson, coordi nator of the Bonfire Subcommittee on Alcohol Awareness and Safety. Hudson, assistant to the vice pres ident for student services, credits the increase in number of persons at bonfire to successful Aggie football teams and the increasing student en rollment at Texas A&M. The biggest complaint against bonfire has been from College Sta tion residents who live across from Duncan Field, Hudson said. She said it is not from fear of their homes catching fire from the bon fire’s flying emoers, as bonfire lead ers have been told in the past. The residents are angry because bonfire watchers loiter and leave trash, such as beer cans and bottles, strewn across yards in the community. Hudson said if the situation is not resolved, then there is a very good ossibility future bonfires will not be eld at its present site at Duncan Field, but will be moved to one where such problems will not create these disturbances within the sur rounding community. A&M’s Office of Public Informa tion has sent a release to all Texas newspapers concerning alcohol awareness at the site. The message also is being printed on billboards along roads leading to Bryan and College Station, announced during future A&M sporting events and yell practices and spread by word-of- mouth by leaders of student and fac ulty organizations on the A&M cam pus. Hudson said she wants the sub committee’s message to be a positive one. “I’m not here to tell people that they shouldn’t go out and have a party before bonfire or that they shouldn’t go and have pizza and beer before they arrive (at Duncan Field); I don’t have a problem with that at all,” Hudson said. “I do have a problem with people who are un manageable and bring alcohol to bonfire, which is against University regulations. “We have, I think, eradicated al- Rioters flock streets to protest president BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — A strike called by Gen. Michel Aoun, the Christian army commander, vir tually closed down east Beirut on Monday and his followers filled the streets to protest the election of a Syrian-backed president. Rioting Aoun loyalists stormed the residence of Nasrallah Sfeir, the Maronite Catholic patriarch, who supported Rene Mouawad’s election as president Sunday, and forced him to kiss a portrait of the general. Mouawad, 64, and Aoun, 54, are Maronites, the main Christian sect in Lebanon. Aoun declared a “war of liber ation” this year on the 40,000 Syrian soldiers stationed in Lebanon under a 1976 peacekeeping mandate from the Arab League. He issued a statement Monday urging support ers to “limit your protests to civilized and peaceful methods.” Scnools, shops, restaurants, banks and government offices closed in Christian east Beirut and many parts of the 310-square-mile Christian en clave north and east of the city. Patriarch Sfeir, 68, fled to his summer home in an area of north Lebanon under Syrian control and said he would not return to his offi cial residence on the wooded slopes of Bkirki “until peace prevails.” Lebanese police issued a statement saying they “ensured the patriarch’s safe drive” early Monday to Diman, 52 miles north of Bkirki. “We plead with God to forgive” the attackers, Sfeir said at Diman, where he was greeted by Mouawad, Parliament speaker Hussein Hus- seini, Arab League envoy Lakhdar Ibrahimi of Algeria and many legis lators. A police spokesman said 100 sup porters of Aoun drove to Bkirki in 30 cars after midnight Sunday and stormed the walled compound. A 40-man unit of Aoun’s command as signed to protect Sfeir did not try to stop them, said the spokesman, whose name was withheld under standing regulations. “The rioters broke into the patri arch’s bedroom, dragged him out of bed, forced him to kneel with two se nior aides who rushed to help him and forced them all to kiss posters of Aoun,” the spokesman said. Other Aoun loyalists broke into at least six churches in the Christian enclave to protest Mouawad’s elec tion. cohol from the cutting site and I think we have eradicated it from the construction on Duncan Field,” Hudson said. “This has been a very positive move, but I think we want to go a little bit further in trying to discour age people from bringing alcoholic beverages to the site on bonfire night (Dec. 1) as well as discourage them from coming in a state of in toxication, in which they can’t take care of themselves and are disrup tive and a problem for everybody el se,” Hudson continued. Hudson said that any student in terested in helping the subcommit tee perform its task is welcome to at tend the next meeting, which is Monday, Nov. 13, at 5 p.m. in 208D Pavilion. All student organizations are encouraged to attend. For more information contact Jo Hudson at 845-4728 or Anne Coombes at 845- 0280. Silver Taps ceremony to honor 2 The solemn sound of buglers playing “Taps” and the sharp ring of gunfire will be heard on campus tonight as two Texas A&M students who died during the past month are hon ored in a Silver Taps ceremony at 10:30 in front of the Academic Build- ing- The deceased students being hon ored are: • James Gregory Fo ley, 33, a senior engi neering technology ma jor from Tomball who died Oct. 22. • Jan Ellen Hering, 22, a senior elementary education major from McGregor who died Oct. 22. Dating back almost a century, the stately tradition of Silver Taps is practiced on the first Tuesday of each month from September through April, when necessary. Lights will be extinguished and the campus hushed as Aggies pay- final tribute to fellow Aggies. The Ross Volunteer Firing Squad begins the ceremony, marching in slow cadence toward the statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross. Shortly after, three volleys are fired in a 21-gun salute and six buglers play a special arrange ment of “Taps” three times — to the north, south and west. nti-apartheid group ends rally in chancellor’s office y Bob Krenek f The Battalion Staff Students Against Apartheid fol lowed a rally at Rudder Fountain Monday with a march to Texas A&M University Chancellor Dr. Perry Adkisson’s office, where they left a signed statement of their posi- ion after being turned away by a iecretary and told the chancellor was out of town. A group of about 25 students filled the waiting room of the exec utive offices in the Systems Building before being told that only the group leaders could remain. The president of SAA, Irwin Tang, read from a poster board that said: “We, the concerned students and faculty of Texas A&M University, hereby demand that Texas A&M Univer sity, in order to promote human rights and democracy in South Af rica and Namibia, disinvest from all firms doing business in South Afri ca.” Tang signed his name along with other members of the group and in cluded phone numbers after re- ouesting that Adkisson call them to discuss the University’s position on divestment. We left our names and numbers, so he will call us if he cares at all,” Tang said. “We have never actually been able to talk to the chancellor, although we have tried to make ap pointments in the past.” The rally began earlier with the choral group Voices of Praise and featured several anti-apartheid speakers. They were offset by rep resentatives from the College Re publicans and Young Conservatives, who oppose divestment as a method of ending apartheid. The student demonstrators were encouraged by Dr. Larry Yarak, an assistant professor of history at A&M. “I am very glad to see that your moral consciousness has not been lost in the midst of busy schedules and school life,” Yarak said. Yarak said he also supported the continuation of efforts against the South African government. “We need to keep up the pres sure,” he said. “We see the release of a few prisoners, but 3,000 remain behind bars. We see 70,000 South Africans rallying against their gov ernment, but they were all breaking the law to do so.” South Africa is beginning to re spond to international pressure, Ya rak said, but many of the govern ment’s concessions are only superficial. “Pressure means sanctions,” Ya rak said. “A&M must divest itself of its holdings in South African compa nies. That is the only thing the Pre- torian regime will respond to.” The next speaker was Chester Wilson, one of the 16 anti-apartheid demonstrators who were arrested last year after staging a sit-in in the University of Texas president’s of fice. Wilson spent six months in jail as a result of the incident. One of the three main “lies spread to prevent divestment,” Wilson said, is that divestment will not work. “Why would the South African government make it against the law to advocate divestment?” Wilson asked. “The leadership knows the importance of preventing divest ment.” The second misconception, Wil son said, is that divestment would hurt the companies with South Afri can holdings. “The UT regents said divestment would hurt the university, but finan cial management experts concluded it would not hurt at all,” he said. “The financial experts proved that divestment stock portfolios outper formed non-divestment portfolios.” Regardless, Wilson said, it is not wise to invest in a country as trou bled as South Africa. “To invest in an avowed Nazi state — now that is risky,” he said. “The prudent thing to do is to pull the money out of there.” The third lie is that divestment would hurt the people of South Af rica, Wilson said. “The corollary to this is that we should promote policies to combat racism,” he said. “But this has been tried and it failed miserably. “We need to look at who does ad vocate divestment, primarily the people of South Africa,” he said. “Every major organization in South Africa makes this demand.” The anti-apartheid fighters face a difficult struggle, Wilson said, but they must continue. “They will only give us what we fight for,” he said. “We have a diffi cult road ahead but we have masses of people and the momentum of his tory on our side.” Tang spoke last and proceeded to criticize the U.S. government for its lack of action in the apartheid issue. “The present government is ex tremely apathetic,” he said. “How many of you really think George Bush cares about the South African people? Members of Students Against Apartheid Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack march to the chancellor’s office Monday. “Bush can say what he wants but he has done nothing for the South African people,” he said. “We need a change in government.” The College Republicans and the Young Conservatives set up a table next to the anti-apartheid group be cause they oppose views such as these. “Our purpose is not to make a case for tne support of apartheid; we think apartheid is reprehensible, but we feel that divestment is not the way to abolish it,” said Scott Kibb, College Republicans chairman. “We think that divestment and sanctions will upset the government and lead to a revolution,” Kibb said. See Rally/Page 5