The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 10, 1990, Image 11

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    The Battalion
WORLD & NATION 11
Tuesday, April 10,1990
oo
Phone company
replaces models
to combat drugs
ST. PAUL, Minn. <AP) — A
telephone company is taking a
technological leap backward in an
effort to fight the drug problem.
U S. West has replaced push
button pay phones with rotary
models at about ! 8 Twin Cities lo
cations to make it harder tor drug
dealers to conduct business with
telephone pagers, U.S. West
spokesman Mike Breda said.
Because most pagers don’t
work unless the call comes from a
push-button phone, drug dealers
with pagers can’t use the rotary
phones.
Pagers have become a way of
life for dealers, who often fear
their telephone lines are tapped.
“Everybody's got them, Lt.
James Singer of the St. Paul po
lice narcotics unit said of the pag
ers.
Customers order drugs by tele
phoning a dealer’s pager and
then punching in a phone num
ber or a pre-arranged code, po
lice say. The dealer responds by-
calling back or showing up with
the drugs.
In the past, Minneapolis and
St. Paul police regularly asked the
telephone company to remove
pay phones in drug-infested
areas or to adjust the phones so
they don’t accept incoming calls.
But removing public phones can
hurt people who can't afford pri
vate telephones.
"We have noticed a decrease in
traffic in at least a couple of loca
tions where we changed the
phones,” said Minneapolis Coun
cil member Jackie Cherryhomes.
Protest commemorates
assault by Soviet soldiers
Attack fueled Georgian independence movement
TBILISI, U.S.S.R. (AP) — Thousands of Georgians
chanting “Occupiers! Occupiers!” rallied outside a So
viet military base Monday, capping a day of protests re
calling a bloody clash that sparked their republic’s inde
pendence movement.
The day of commemorations drew almost 200,000
people to three separate rallies. It served as a show of
strength by independence activists who have scored sev
eral major victories in the past month.
Soldiers assaulted a peaceful pro-independence pro
test in front of government buildings in Tbilisi on April
9, 1989, with shovels and gas. Nineteen people died.
The attack unleashed hitter criticism across the coun
try. Several investigations have placed the blame for or
dering the attack as high as the Communist Party Polit
buro. But no one has been blamed officially.
Protesters near the Caucasus Military District head
quarters posted signs reading, “Get out of Georgia!”
and depicting a hooded executioner wearing a military
star and holding a bloody shovel.
Early Monday morning, about 100,000 people gath
ered in candlelight on Rustavelli Boulevard, the site of
the clash. About 70,000 more nearly Filled the repub
lic’s main stadium Monday evening in a similar rally.
At an intersection outside the walled military base,
about 10,000 people gathered in the afternoon and
shouted through megaphones for the soldiers to aban
don their posts.
There was no visible reaction from the few soldiers
seen on the base. Authorities did not interfere with the
protest, and Georgian policeman helped keep order.
Protests in other Soviet republics have included anti-
military elements, among them calls to boycott the
draft, but Monday’s demonstration was one of the larg
est directed specifically against the Soviet military.
Top Soviet generals have complained in recent
months about a growing “campaign to discredit” the
army, particularly in republics with rising indepen
dence movements.
In the Baltic republics, this spring’s military call-up is
expected to bring large numbers of draft dodgers, and
Georgians said they expect the same.
Georgia is not the only republic with a strong inde
pendence movement. The Baltic republics of Lithua
nia, Latvia, and Estonia; Moldavia; and the neighboring
Caucasus republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia also
have strong independence movements.
Lithuania’s is the strongest — it declared itself inde
pendent from the Soviet Union on March 11, and the
standoff with the Kremlin continues. In Moscow on
Monday, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his
top advisory body said new economic and political steps
would be taken to break Lithuanian intransigence. No
details were given.
The leader of Latvia’s Supreme Soviet said Monday
he is certain Latvian legislators also will vote to secede
from the Soviet Union when they meet next month, but
that the independence process will be gradual.
Zviad Gamsakhurdia, an independence activist long
considered the dean of Georgian dissidence, told re
porters Sunday the April 9 anniversary was a “day of
great sorrow, but also a day of victory” for Georgians.
He said only a small percentage of Georgians favored
independence before the clash last April 9, but that now
the vast majority favor independence from Moscow.
On March 9, the Georgian Supreme Soviet, or parlia
ment, condemned what it said was the republic’s forced
annexation to the Soviet Union and demanded negotia
tions on restoring independence. Later the same
month, lawmakers put off local elections to give oppo
nents to the Communists a chance to organize.
At Monday’s protest, speakers urged parents to help
their children evade the draft. The protest ended with a
mass recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.
Most of the rally f ocused on hard-core politics.
Gamsakhurdia read a list of 23 demands to the Soviet
government. They included cancellation of military
service for Georgians, declaration that the April 9 clash
was “genocide against the Georgian people” and pun
ishment of those responsible.
Gorbachev offered, his condolences to Georgia on
Sunday, but independence activists dismissed them as
empty words.
Greyhound files suit against union officers
WASHING*TON (AP) — Greyhound Lines
filed a $30 million civil suit Monday against
union officers for allegedly organizing violence
in the 5-week-old drivers’ strike, but the union
dismissed the move as a ploy to keep bargaining
talks stalled.
In a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Jackson-
ville, Fla., Greyhound claimed unlawful actions
by the Amalgamated Transit Union and said 20
union officers have cost the company at least $10
million.
The strike has been marked by shootings,
| bomb threats and other incidents. The company
i has said it won't resume negotiations until a week
! | goes by without an act of violence.
The suit accused the union of violating provi
sions of tfie federal Racketeer Influenced and
I Corrupt Organizations Act and Florida state law.
Greyhound Vice President Anthony P. Lan-
| nie, who announced the suit in Washington,
\ maintained that several specific offenses showed
[ a pattern of racketeering activity, including ex
tortion, attempted murder, obstruction of jus
tice, interference with interstate commerce and
arson.
He charged that, through violent activities,
union officials were attempting to “win an in
flated financial settlement they could never
i achieve through lawf ul, collective bargaining.
| There is a word for that — extortion.”
Union officers allegedly assigned rank-and-
file members violent tasks and then paid them
from the union’s strike defense fund, the suit
contended.
“That’s false and ridiculous,” said Fred In
gram, president of Local 1493 in Gharlotte, N.C.,
“T
I heir whole plan from the
beginning has been to get rid of the
union.”
— Fred Ingram,
Union Local 1493 president
and one of two local presidents the union has
asked the court to repiace with a receiver. “We
have never ordered anybody to do anything. I
don’t know where that’s coming from.”
Strikers are paid $50 a week in strike benefits
for manning picket lines, Ingram said, charging
that the company had filed the suit to divert at
tention from its ref usal to resume contract nego
tiations.
“Their whole plan from the beginning has
been to get rid of the union,” he said.
Nick Nichols, a spokesman for the Amalga
mated Council of Greyhound Local Unions, said
the union supports prosecution of anyone re
sponsible for strike-related violence.
“We have consistently asked this company to
present its evidence,” Nichols said. “We know
that there is no evidence. They’ve simply pointed
the finger of blame at employees and used the is
sue as a smoke screen for not resuming negotia
tions,” he said.
He noted that no government agency has filed
criminal charges against union officers.
“Anyone can hire a lawyer and submit some
documents to the court,” Nichols said of the com
pany’s suit.
Lannie said the company had no immediate
plans to resume negotiations.
“We’re still waiting for a seven-day cease-fire,”
Lannie said, noting that an Arrow Trailways bus
was struck by two bullets near Fort Worth Sun
day night. No one was injured on the bus, which
is not owned by Greyhound but was scheduled to
pick up Greyhound passengers in Dallas, Lannie
said.
Talks between the company and the union
have been stalled since March 18. There have
been about 30 shootings and more than 100
bomb threats, the company said. The union con
tends there have been more than 60 incidents of
violence against striking drivers. One striker was
crushed to death by a bus in Redding, Calif, on
March 3.
Communist era in Hungary draws to close
Voters give strong mandate
to leading conservative party
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Voters ended the
Communist era by giving a strong mandate to the coun
try’s main conservative party in what could be the gene
sis of a center-right trend among Soviet bloc countries
emerging into democracy.
The Hungarian Democratic Forum campaigned on
an anti-Communist platform that incorporated univer
sal conservative values as well as a strong dose of nation
alism. It scored an impressive victory in parliamentary
elections that wrapped up Sunday.
It was the second win in two Soviet bloc elections for
conservative forces. In East Germany’s March 18 vote,
conservatives fell just short of a majority in the first free
national elections in any Warsaw Pact country. As in
Hungary, remnants of the long-ruling Communists
were relegated to a relatively minor opposition role.
Hungary's Democratic Forum captured 165 of the
386 seats at stake Sunday. In the first round of balloting
March 25, they won 42.75 percent of the vote.
Despite preliminary predictions of a close race, the
Forum left the liber al League of Free Democrats far be
hind, with 92 seats and 23.83 percent of the vote, forc
ing the rival party to bury any aspirations of sharing a
government role.
The ruling Socialists, created by reform Communists
last October, were sent packing. Despite their commit
ment to political plurality, they captured only 33 seats
or 8.55 percent erf the vote, victims of widespread senti
ment that they were the heirs of decades of repressive
Communist rule.
Its strong position left the Democratic Forum inde
pendent of any party with which it had major differ
ences. Instead, it gained the leeway to negotiate a coali
tion it could dominate with the agrarian Smallholders
and Christian Democrats, which share many of its con
servative views.
Conservatives in other East European countries pre
paring for the first free elections in more than four de
cades clearly hope that the same anti-Communist back
lash that worked in favor of kindred parties in East
Germany and Hungary will also give them an edge.
In Gzechoslovakia, where voters go to the polls June
8, the hope of victory has resulted in the Christian
Democrats in Slovakia forging an alliance with Czech
center-rightists, despite a general drifting apart of the
two constituent republics. Only the conservatives have
managed to formally coordinate their election strate
gies nationwide.
The Slovak Christian Democrats, led by Czechoslo
vak Deputy Premier Jan Carnogursky, are expected to
win up to 60 percent of the vote in their traditionally
Catholic republic, and the well-organized alliance is
likely to finish strong overall in the country, although
no one can predict how strong.
The election picture is confusing in Romania, where
about 70 political parties have sprung up or been re
vived in the wake of the December revolution that
ended the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu.
But the nation’s strongest conservative force, the
700,000-membei National Peasants’ Party, is given the
best chance of defeating the National Salvation Front,
which took control of the country in the chaos of the
revolution but was later forced to share power. It is sus
pected by many conservatives of harboring unrepen
tant Communists.
The Peasants’ hand has been strengthened by an
election alliance with the Liberals and Social Democrats
— the two other leading parties. The alliance mandates
cooperation up to the May 20 election, in an effort to
defeat the National Salvation Front.
In Bulgaria, the two traditional agrarian parties
could pose the biggest threat to the still-powerful Com
munist Party, but only if they manage to bury differ
ences ahead of election day June 10. Negotiations on
unification of the two parties continue.
Study: South’s
environment
least protected
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — The
South’s environmental health is
both less protected and worse
than that of any other region,
according to a study released
Monday by the Institute for
Southern Studies.
“The South ... has become the
nation’s biggest waste dump,”
said Bob Hall, research director
for non-profit research group
based in Durham. “The numbers
show the region also has a dispro
portionate share of hazardous
jobs, contaminated water, homes
lacking complete plumbing and
industries spewing cancer-caus
ing chemicals into the air.”
Figures from the U.S. Environ
mental Protection Agency indi
cate that two-thirds of the na
tion’s hazardous waste was
treated, incinerated, buried in
landfills or otherwise disposed in
the 13-state region. The region
includes Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Ten
nessee, Texas, Virginia and West
Virginia.
Georgia, West Virginia, Vir
ginia and Louisiana hosted 6,500
to 12,500 pounds of such waste
per person, compared with a na
tional average of 2,000 pounds.
The average in the South is 4,300
pounds per person. Texas aver
aged 5,055 pounds of such waste
per person, ranking 44th.
846-5273
108 College Main
Tuesday Night
Special
5:00 till Close
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Steak Platter
with toast and all
the fries you can
eat with tea.
$3.29 plus tax
Dine in only
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