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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Nel
son Mandela walked through a prison gate
to freedom Sunday, setting off joyous cele
brations and violent clashes as blacks na
tionwide welcomed their leader back from
I 27 years in jail.
“Comrades and fellow South Africans, I
greet you all in the name of peace, democ
racy and freedom for all,” Mandela told
tens of thousands of cheering supporters
who thronged outside City Hall, many get
ting their first look at the African National
Congress leader.
“I stand here before you not as a
prophet, but as a humble servant of you the
people.”
Mandela has clearly lost weight since the
1960s; both his face and his body are leaner
than when he was a sturdily built boxer de
cades ago. At 71, his face is creased with two
thick lines that frame his strong, confident
smile.
Violence broke out about the same time
Mandela’s motorcade arrived in Cape
Town from Victor Verster prison. Police
said a black looter was shot to death by offi
cers, and first aid workers said more than
100 people were injured when riot police
fired shotguns after groups of black youths
smashed shop windows in the city center.
Some youths retaliated by hurling bottles
at the officers. Hundreds of terrified peo
ple waiting to hear Mandela ran for cover
as police fired blasts of shotgun pellets.
Clashes between police and celebrating
blacks were reported in at least two other
College Station, Texas
Monday, February 12,1990
sparks celebrations, riots
•Bush phones Mandela/Page 15
•AP analysis of S. Africa/Page 16
areas, including the tribal homeland of Cis-
kei, where hospital officials said police
shooting killed three people and wounded
20.
In Natal Province, where ANC support
ers have been feuding with a more conser
vative black group, police said 12 blacks
were killed in factional fighting Sunday. It
was a harsh reminder of the bitter feuds in
volving black factions who disagree on the
best way to fight for equality.
Elsewhere, hundreds of thousands of
blacks danced and jogged through the
streets of big cities and impoverished town
ships, rejoicing at Mandela’s freedom.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking at a
church service outside Cape Town shortly
before Mandela was released, commended
the South African government for making
a “courageous step” but said “the pillars of
apartheid remain in place.”
Government television broadcast live
Mandela’s exit from prison and later
showed most of the ANC leader’s speech.
“We have waited too long for our free
dom,” Mandela told the crowd. He said that
until the proper climate was created for
peaceful negotiations, the armed struggle
was still a policy of the ANC.
“The factors that (caused the need for
armed struggle) ... exist today,” Mandela
said. “We have no options but to continue.
“We express the hope that a climate con
ducive to a negotiated settlement would be
created.”
Mandela spoke of “my long and lonely
years in prison.”
“I am content that your pain and suffer
ing was far greater than my own,” he said,
adding that he would make further
statements after consulting his ANC com
rades.
“There must be an end to white monop
oly of political power and a fundamental re
structuring of our political and economic
systems to ensure that the inequalities of
apartheid are addressed,” he said.
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University of Texas at Arlington centerfielder Jose Rubiera per
forms his ritualistic leap off of first base, which he did at the end
of every inning, during the second game of a doubleheader at
Olsen Field Saturday. See game stories/Page 10
Peace Corps head
stresses awareness
By JILL BUTLER
Of The Battalion Staff
•‘Future of Foreign Aid’/Page 13
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If the United States is to continue
as a world leader, Americans must
develop a strong international out
look, the director of the U.S. Peace
Corps said Friday at the Student
Conference on National Affairs.
Paul D. Coverdell, director of the
Peace Corps since May 1989, said
the world is changing quickly and
events in the past year made 1989 a
"wonder year.”
“Communism appears mortally
wounded and the Cold War has en
ded,” Coverdell said. “We are enter
ing a bold new era in history.”
This era is characterized by a
shrinking world in terms of commu
nication, transportation and eco
nomic interdependence, he said.
Also, Coverdell said, inhabitants of
our global village are becoming
smarter, and business executives and
private companies are playing an en
larged role in public policy issues
and international relations.
“Fortune magazine said ‘this will
be an era of possibility,”’ Coverdell
said.
However, Coverdell is not sure he
agrees.
He said events in 1989 that did
not make the headlines will have an
enormous influence on the future.
These events occurred in the
Third World, where three-fourths
of the world’s population lives.
“Here (in the Third World) we
still find disease, conflict, opression
land ecological devastation,” Cover-
dell said. “The developing world is
moving steadily toward a dank,
- dreary, dark age.”
Understanding the developing
world is important to help solve its
problems, Coverdell said. He said
Americans do not understand the
world outside of the United States.
He said Americans between 18
and 24 years old know less about
world geography than any other age
group in any country in the industri
alized western nations.
Plus, one-third of the world’s
Ph.D. recipients, electrical engineers
and scientists are in the Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe.
“What’s missing is a sense of ur
gency within our nation about the
opportunities that exist for us,” Cov
erdell said. “All of us in the govern
ment and private sector must get
busy training international experts
so lacking in our country.”
Coverdell said joining the Peace
Corps is an excellent way to get in
ternational training and view other
countries and cultures first-hand.
“The 120,000 Peace Corps volun
teers over the past 29 years have
brought valuable international skills
to the United States,” Coverdell said.
He said communication and ideas
will shape the face of the world in
the 1990s, and the Peace Corps is an
important element for communicat
ing images about America with other
countries.
“In most of the countries the
Peace Corps volunteers work in, the
Peace Corps is the largest American
presence,” Coverdell said.
He said this communication is vi
tal for a global renaissance to occur.
“There can be no global renais
sance unless all nations and all peo
ples are included,” Coverdell said.
He said a global renaissance
would include free-flowing trade
and commerce, international coop
eration and nations with economic
stability helping nations which have
not achieved economic stability.
“The age of global integration
and interdependence is here,” Cov
erdell said. “The last vestiges of
American isolationism must die if we
are to play an important role in the
bold new era.”
Students take sides in war
over Aggie Cinema movie
Photo by Scott D. Weaver
Jason Marshall, shortstop for A&M, called time
out against U.T.A. while at bat when something
blew into his eye during Friday’s game.
By SUZANNE CALDERON
Of The Battalion Staff
Students are taking sides and drawing battle
lines as the petition war over the showing of an
X-rated movie at Texas A&M rages on.
A petition calling for the boycott of MSC Ag
gie Cinema for showing “The Last Woman” as
part of its International Film Series has
prompted three more petitions. This time, how
ever, the petitions are in support of Aggie Cin
ema.
Chet Laughlin, a senior computer science ma
jor who helped draft one of the petitions, said
his petition was drawn up to show Aggie Cinema
there are people who enjoy international movies
and would like to have the option to watch them
regardless of their ratings.
Jay Easley, a sophomore electrical engi
neering major who worked with Laughlin on his
petition, said the authors of the first petition
should have seen the movie.
“Personally I think it is irrational and childish
to condemn something you haven’t even seen,”
Easley said. “It’s one thing to go there and say,
‘Boy, this is sick. I don’t think we need to have
this on campus,’ but it’s another thing to never
see it and say the same.”
Matt DeWoody and Jennifer Wolling, the au
thors of the first petition, said they are in a no-
win situatihn. “If we had Seen the movie we
would have been called hypocrites,” DeWoody
said. “As it is, we are being called ignorant. We
•Opinions about movie/Page 2
• Letters to the editor/Page 3
had sufficient information beforehand on the
objectionable content of the movie through its
rating, The Battalion preview and through the
significant number of warnings.”
Robbie Chamness, a freshman political sci
ence major who worked with Laughlin on his pe
tition, said he is concerned about students losing
the right to choose.
“The issue is not whether the movies that
come to campus are immoral or not,” Chamness
said. “The issue is the liberty of the individual to
go to the movie and decide for himself whether
it is moral or not. I have no doubt that if I saw
the movie I would find it offensive, but I don’t
like the idea of taking that right away from me.”
DeWoody and Wolling, however, said that
right to choose is not a guaranteed right at a
public institution.
“We shouldn’t have to support it (the right)
with our money,” DeWoody said. “They could
go and see the movie somewhere else where we
are not forced to pay for it.”
Easley said the cultural aspects of bringing in
ternational movies to the campus are important
in order to get a well-rounded education and see
the world as other cultures see it.
“You can see the world as the French see it, as
See Cinema/Page 15
Bush keeps quiet library’s location
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
Not even the CIA could break the
code of silence that surrounds the lo
cation of the Bush Presidential Li
brary.
Officials at the White House,
Texas A&M, University of Houston
and Rice University are not saying
anything on any recent devel
opments in the decision, which Pres
ident Bush is expected to make
sometime this year.
Not even the President’s son, who
was contacted at his Texas Rangers
office in Dallas, has any clue about
where his father wants the library
built.
“No one knows any timetable be
cause he hasn’t made his decision
yet,” George Bush Jr. said. “He
knows what kind of library he wants,
so he doesn’t need to ask for my in
put. I don’t have much of an interest
in it. I’m more worried about win
ning the World Series.”
President Bush met with officials
from A&M, Houston, and Rice in
January to accept the universities’
proposals for the library. Bush’s
alma mater, Yale University, is also a
proposed site, but Yale has not acti
vely campaigned for the landmark.
A spokesman from the White
Home Media Relations Office said
that any newspaper articles about
the location of the library are only
speculation.
“The official word from here is
nothing,” the spokesman said.
Dr. Charles Johnson, associate
dean in the College of Liberal Arts,
said there is no intent on the part of
anyone to keep news a secret. John
son served as a consultant to an
A&M academic committee formed
to help bring the library here.
“There is no intent on secrecy,”
Johnson said. “There is just a recog
nition that this is a decision for the
resident and it is appropriate to let
im make it without a lot of hoopla.”
The Battalion could not obtain a
copy of A&M’s proposal, but it is
widely believed that the primary site
selected is on Jersey Street in College
Station. The College Station City
Council voted last fall to change Jer
sey Street to George Bush Avenue.
The University of Houston’s pri
mary site proposal is 35 acres of land
on the east side of the main campus,
which UH President George Magner
said is easily accessible from Inter
state 45.
Dr. George Rupp, president of
Rice, said he had no comment about
the library.
A Yale representative was unavail
able for comment.
There have been reports that Rice
and Houston have presented a joint
proposal to build the library in Her
mann Park near Rice, but Magner
said each university has its own sepa
rate proposal.
“There has been a lot of talk about
Rice, UH, Texas Southern and the
medical centers all collaborating, but
at this point, we have presented our
own proposals,” Magner said. “In
Houston, we could have many joint
academic projects, but we haven’t
been publicizing our own proposals
much.”
Magner said although the formal
campaigning is over, he expects the
regents from the schools involved to
still make their case.
“Knowing the importance of a
presidential library, I imagine there
is ongoing activity from all parties
concerned,” Magner said. “I have a
hunch that the boards of regents
and members of the community are
still trying to influence the decision.”
Presidential libraries contain all
the records and documents of the
presidency and are built with private
funds. They are staffed, maintained
and partially designed, however, by
the U.S. Archives Office.
The naming of a site for the presi
dential library is not normally big
news in the second year of a presi
dent’s term, but some say that Bush
wants to name the site early.
Former President Ronald Reagan
did not make the decision until his
second term as president. His library
is being built in Thousand Oaks,
Calif., and is scheduled for comple
tion in 1991.
Magner said he thinks A&M got
the jump on the library campaign,
but UH and Rice aren’t getting beat
by A&M’s aggressive campaign.
“It continues to be an aggressive
push from A&M, but I think Rice
and Houston have picked up and
both schools have good proposals,”
he said.
Students and faculty at A&M and
the University of Houston have
voiced their overwhelming support
for the library. A petition signed by
10,000 A&M students last fall will be
sent to the White House soon. The
faculty senates of both schools also
have unanimously passed resolu
tions in favor of building the library.
Magner said he hopes the Univer
sity of Houston has an edge over
A&M since President Bush considers
Houston his hometown.
“I have no idea, but I hope so,” he
said. “Obviously we think it belongs
in the major metro area in the state.
I hope we have the inside track.”
Johnson said, however, it is specu
lation to say UH has an edge over
A&M.
“That’s sheer speculation,” he
said. “A&M has made its best shot
and I know the other schools have
made good proposals. But there’s no
way to tell.”
Memorial
announced
for A&M vet
A memorial service will be held
for Dr. Eduardo Bessoudo, 36,
Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the All
Faiths Chapel.
Bessoudo was a 1983 graduate
of the Texas A&M School of Vet
erinary Medicine and was near
ing completion of graduate stud
ies in animal science.
He died at his residence Jan.
25 of a heart attack. Services were
Thursday in Mexico City.
Survivors include his mother,
Celia Bessoudo of Mexico City;
his sister. Rutty Bessoudo of Mex
ico City; and his brother. Dr. Ri
cardo Bessoudo of Toronto.
Motorists can purchase Aggie plates;
sales will benefit scholarship funds
By BILL HETHCOCK
Of The Battalion Staff
Aggie motorists have a new way to show their school
spirit thanks to a program that allows drivers to buy li
cense plates bearing a school’s logo and have the money
from these plates go to the school’s scholarship funds.
Texas A&M is the first university to have its colle
giate license plate approved by the Texas Department
of Motor Vehicles, Robert Smith, vice president of fi
nance and administration, said.
In November a bill was passed in the Texas Legis
lature directing the department to develop license
plates for any college or university that could assure
sales of at least 1,500 plates, Smith said.
About six weeks ago, A&M guaranteed the Depart
ment of Motor Vehicles that sales of A&M license plat
es would reach the 1,500 purchases minimum, Smith
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
TEXAS
said. “We were the first ones to get our request in and
we were the first ones to get our facsimile license plate
back.” %
The plates cost $30 more than regular license plates,
Smith said. Of this, $25 goes to scholarships for A&M
See Plates/Page 14