The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 06, 1990, Image 1

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he Battalion
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/0I.89 No.126 USPS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, April 6,1990
uperpower leaders schedule summit in U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush
land Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev
[will meet for a superpower summit in the
lUnited States beginning May 30, U.S. and
|Soviet officials said Thursday as both sides
|returned to bargaining on possible arms-
Icontrol treaties.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwa-
Iter said several major agreements could
lemerge at the summit, including a long-
Isought Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to
jlimit long-range nuclear weapons.
But Bush said merely that the summit
[would provide “time for a lot of dialogue
land a lot of discussion.”
Fitzwater said the summit — Bush’s sec-
|ond meeting as president with the Soviet
[leader — would be a “tough love” encoun-
|ier, with the crisis in Lithuania a central
topic.
Bush and Gorbachev last met early in De
cember at the Mediterranean island of
Malta. Since then, pushes for independence
in Lithuania and other regions of the Soviet
Union — and the Soviet response to them
— have strained superpower relations.
The timing of the summit, earlier than
the late-June schedule originally envi
sioned, raised new doubts on whether all
details of an arms pact could be nailed
down in time.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on the
condition of anonymity, said “it depends in
some part on what we’re able to do here” in
Washington talks between Secretary of
State James A. Baker III and Soviet For
eign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
The official said there was a good chance
that major issues could be resolved by the
summit date, but “realistically” the actual
treaty-signing might have to wait until later
in the year.
Soviet negotiator Yuri Nazarkin was even
more blunt, saying: “Taking into account
(the summit is) in seven weeks, it’s impracti
cal, 1 think, to expect it (the treaty) is going
to be signed at the summit.”
Simultaneous announcements of the
“T
I aking into account (the
summit is) in seven weeks, it’s
impractical, I think, to expect it
(the treaty) is going to be signed
at the summit.”
— Yuri Nazarkin,
Soviet negotiator
summit came from the White House and
the Soviet news agency Tass early Thursday
as Baker and Shevardnadze were holding
their second day of meetings on arms con
trol and other issues.
“There’s still a lot of work to do, partic
ularly in light of the fact that the summit
will begin on the 30th,” Baker told report
ers. “So we have our work cut out for us.”
Shevardnadze, who will meet with Bush
on Friday, echoed Baker’s remarks. “There
is very little time, only seven weeks,” he
said.
Both the Washington and Moscow an
nouncements gave the summit dates as May
30 to June 3.
However, Fitzwater said all five days
might not be used. “It could turn out to be a
two or three-day summit, depending on
travel schedules,” he suggested.
U.S. officials were also vague on whether
the meeting would take place entirely in
Washington, or at some other location as
well — such as the president’s oceanside
home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
Gennadi Gerasimov, the Soviet Foreign
Minister spokesman, told reporters at the
State Department on Thursday, “It’s going
to be a working visit; no time for sightsee
ing.”
Just this week, the Bush administration
was talking about, the last two weeks in June
for the summit. Neither side on Thursday
gave any precise reason for moving the
dates up other than scheduling difficulties.
Gerasimov said that Bush had a heavy
schedule in June and that Gorbachev
wanted time to prepare for the meeting of
the Soviet People’s Congress in early July.
Standing alongside pop singer Michael
Jackson at a Rose Garden ceremony honor
ing the musician, Bush said he was pleased
that the summit dates had been set. “Dia
logue is important,” he said. “And I’m
looking forward to seeing Mr. Gorbachev
here.”
Fitzwater said that the crisis in Lithuania
would “undoubtedly be an issue” at the
summit and that the president intended to
raise it. “If anything, Lithuania makes the
summit even more important,” the spokes
man said.
“I would characterize this summit more
in terms of demonstrating the kind of
tough-love working relationship that we
were able to develop with the Soviet Union
by virtue of four or five summits,” Fitzwater
said.
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Pro-choice activists rally against Williams
rurwroi Candidate tops state list
National fcbottionw#^ as threat to movement
By BILL HETHCOCK
Of The Battalion Staff
• Gramm backs state Republicans/Page 5
• Study on long-term effects/Page 7
ring
chool 1
[on.
23
up!"
Around 100 people gathered in the MSC Thurs
day for a pro-choice rally. Students from more
Photo by Jay Janner
than 60 universities and colleges nationwide par
ticipated in abortion rights rallies Thursday.
Republican gubernatorial candi
date Clayton Williams came under
attack by abortion rights activists
during a pro-choice rally Thursday
in the MSC Flagroom.
Williams tops the Texas Abortion
Rights Action League’s list of candi
dates considered to be a threat to the
pro-choice movement, said Phyllis
Dunham, executive director of TA-
RAL. TARAL is the largest pro-
choice group in Texas.
A veto of an anti-abortion bill by
Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus
prompted the early release of Wil
liams’ name as the main candidate
TARAL has targeted to defeat in the
November election, Dunham said.
“The veto in Idaho made it clear
that we must have a pro-choice gov
ernor,” Dunham said. “We need a
pro-choice governor as a last line of
defense in case abortion-restricting
laws pass the legislature. Clayton
Williams is clearly a candidate that is
out of touch with Texas women’s liv
es.”
Mona Palmer, deputy press secre
tary for Williams’ campaign, said
Williams campaign officials do not
know what kind of effect, if any, the
TARAL statement will have.
Palmer also restated Williams’ po
sition on abortion, and his reaction
to being placed at the top of TA-
RAL’s list of politicians they hope to
defeat.
“Clayton believes in such things as
parental consent in cases where mi
nors are seeking abortion,” Palmer
said. “He anticipates that this will be
a major component of his legislative
package dealing with the issue.
“He recognizes that TARAL does
not share that belief, so it’s no sur
prise that they are endorsing an
other candidate.”
John Welch, president of Pro-
Choice Aggies, urged the crowd of
about 100 students and local com
munity members who attended the
noon rally to vote for candidates
who will not restrict abortion rights.
A voter participation drive was part
of the rally.
“We’re here to tell the Clayton
Williamses of Texas we will not sup
port them,” Welch said. “If they
don’t allow us reproductive choice,
they will not get their job.”
Dunham said the main reason she
is active in the pro-choice movement
is because she feels the choice of
whether to have an abortion should
be made by individuals, not legis
lators.
She said she hopes efforts to regis
ter and identify pro-choice voters
will discourage legislators from en
acting abortion-restricting laws.
“The woman, not some cigar
smoking, pot-bellied ‘Bubba’ in the
legislature, should make this deci
sion,” she said. “If they are out of
touch with the pro-choice majority,
they will be out of work as well.”
Bob Bingamon, field director for
the National Abortion Rights Action
League, said students from more
than 60 universities and colleges na
tionwide were participating in abor
tion rights rallies Thursday.
NARAL tagged Thursday as “Na
tional Day of Campus Pro-Choice
Action.” The goal of NARAL’s cam
pus organization project is to trans
form pro-choice energy on cam
puses into political power in the
1990 elections, Bingamon said.
Kelly Ann Robinson, a Texas
A&M student, spoke at the rally and
encouraged students to weigh the
abortion rights issue heavily when
they go to the polls.
“I consider myself a Republican,
but I will go outside of my party and
vote for choice,” she said. “This is a
very important issue, and to me it’s
worth leaving my party to show
where I stand.”
Greg Buford, a senior manage
ment major, said he attended the
rally to show his support for the pro-
choice movement and to see how
many people at this University were
interested in the issue.
“I’m here because I don’t believe
the state has the right to force a
woman to have a child if she doesn’t
want to,” Buford said. “The abortion
issue will be a very strong factor in
determining my vote.”
Authorities
close square
to mourners
BEIJING (AP) — Authorities
staged all-day rallies in Tianan
men Square on Thursday,
China’s annual day for mourning
the dead, preventing unofficial
visits to the symbolic center of last
year’s crushed democracy
movement.
It was the second time in a
week city officials held official ac
tivities in the square as an excuse
for closing it to the public.
The method appeared success
ful. There were no reports of at
tempts to lay wreaths near the
square or otherwise honor the
hundreds and possibly thousands
of people killed June 3-4, when
the army opened fire on pro-de
mocracy protesters and retook
the square where they had
camped.
In Hong Kong, however, an es
timated 20,000 people marched
in honor of the Beijing dead,
many carrying banners or bou
quets of flowers.
A wreath was left from Chai
Ling, a leading activist in the Beij
ing uprising who escaped to the
West last week alter 10 months
on the run in China.
Thursday was China’s annual
Qingming, or Clear and Bright
Festival, when families tradition
ally visit graves to mourn their
dead. Chinese dissidents abroad,
through faxes and mailed leaf
lets, urged Beijing residents to
stroll through Tiananmen Square
on Qingming in memory of the
slain protesters.
Early in the week, however,
Beijing authorities issued orders
curbing even normal mourning
activities, such as group visits to
crematoriums.
The Beijing Daily newspaper
published a letter Sunday from a
city official warning residents to
pass Qingming in a “civilized and
healthy” way and not “take ad
vantage of the opportunity to cre
ate disturbances.”
Schools and factories told peo
ple not to wear traditional signs
of mourning, such as black arm-
bands or white flowers. Some col
leges suddenly announced spe
cial, mandatory political lectures,
apparently in an effort to keep
students occupied.
Panel: Public maintains
opinions despite media
ByNADJASABAWALA
Of The Battalion Staff
The public has opinions of its
own and usually keeps them de
spite media influence, said a
panel Thursday night.
MSC Great Issues presented
the topic, “Mass Media vs. Public
Opinion: Who’s really in control”
with presentations by Ed Walra-
ven of the Office of Public Opin
ion, Dr. Richard Shafer of the
journalism department and Dr.
Patricia Griffin from the Depart
ment of Political Science. The
panel was moderated by Dr. Don
Tomlinson of the Department of
Journalism.
Shafer said about his years as a
journalist, that he was not in
fluenced by public opinion, but
rather his background.
“I don’t think public opinion
dominated what I did,” Shafer
said. “It was more from my own
historical, ethnic, religious, cultu
ral and geographical origins of
what I perceived to be the reality
of the world around me.”
Walraven, who through his job
at OPI tries to influence public
opinion about A&M, said he be
lieves the topic is “not a black-
and-white issue.”
“I guess I’m naive enough to
think that the media influences
the public opinion,” Walraven
said. “But in the long run, the
public takes control of the situa
tion.”
The “Teflon presidency” of
Ronald Reagan is an example,
Walraven said, of how the public
is in ultimate control. Reagan’s
blunders were media favorites, he
said, but no matter what he did
and how the media portrayed it,
he would often come out
unscathed.
“The public cares less than the
media does,” he said. “They care
more about (politicians’) issues
See Media/Page 8
South African exile says
laws resemble Nazi rules
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
A member of the African National Congress
exiled from South Africa for the past 15 years
compared the South African government to
that of Nazi Germany in a speech at Texas
A&M Thursday night.
Shuping Coapoge, a member of the ANC
observer mission to the United Nations since
1978, spoke Thursday as part of the MSC Po
litical Forum’s “South Africa Series.” A mem
ber of the South African government spoke
Tuesday night at A&M.
Coapoge said the South African govern
ment based many of its laws on laws erected by
Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
“They took all the laws that were passed at
Nuremburg by Nazi Germany, refined them,
and put them in the books of South Africa,”
Coapoge said.
The South African land act which confines
blacks and other non-white groups, to certain
areas of the country was passed like the Nazi
law which confined Jews to certain parts of
Germany, Coapoge^said.
la
ler’s leadership which made all marriages be
tween Jews and Germans void was passed in
South Africa titled the Mixed Marriage Act.
Coapoge compared the South African gov
ernment to Nazi Germany again by saying the
Race Classification Act in South Africa allows
the government to racially classify anyone and
place them in segregated areas, similar to what
Germany did with Jews.
“They (South African government) don’t
care,” he said. “Because of their Calvinistic
doctrine, they believe the white race was pre
destined to rule and the black race was to labor
for the white person.”
Coapoge said the five million whites in
South Africa own 87 percent of the land, while
the 27 million blacks live on 13 percent of the
land. He said this type of government cannot
be reformed.
“We cannot be told of constructive en
gagement, which failed miserably,” he said.
“We cannot be told of reformism. South Afri
can President F.W. de Klerk cannot reform
apartheid. Apartheid is there to serve the in
terests of a minority.”
He said de Klerk has been labeled a reform-
Photo by Scott D. Weaver
He said the law Germany passed under Hit- See S. Africa/Page 8
Shuping Coapoge