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bl.89 No.135 USPS 045360 14 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, April 19,1990
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Pro-Iranian group promises hostage
BEIRUT, Lebano'n (AP) — A pro-Ira-
lian group holding three U.S. educators
lostage promised on Wednesday to free
me of the Americans within 48 hours as a
mmanitarian gesture and said he would
arry a message for President Bush.
Reliable diplomatic sources in Damascus,
Syria, confirmed an American would be
freed Friday in the Syrian capital.
The group, Islamic Jihad for the Liber
ation of Palestine, did not say which of the
three would be freed. Its statement was ac
companied by an instant photograph of
Jesse Turner of Boise, Idaho — the first
photo of him alone since three months after
his 1987 abduction.
However, the White House rejected one
demand of the hostage-takers: that a senior
U.S. diplomat fly to Damascus to coordi
nate the release.
The Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of
Palestine holds Turner, Alann Steen and
Robert Polhill. All were abducted from the
campus of Beirut University College on
Jan. 24, 1987. They are among 18 Western
ers, including eight Americans, held by
pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
The longest-held is Terry Anderson,
chief Middle East correspondent for the
Associated Press, kidnapped March 16,
1985.
The kidnappers demanded that John
Kelly, U.S. assistant secretary of state for
near eastern affairs, fly to Damascus.
“The arrangements for the release
should be accomplished by the arrival of
John Kelly in Damascus to coordinate some
final steps to guarantee success within 48
hours,” the handwrittein statement said.
It did not specify what the kidnappers
expected Kelly to do in Damascus. Kelly
served as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon
from 1983 to 1988, when the eight Ameri
cans were seized. Kelly was in Bonn, West
Germany, on Wednesday.
Diplomatic sources in Damascus said
Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa last month
carried a letter on the issue from Syrian
President Hafez Assad to President Ha-
shemi Rafsanjani in Iran.
The letter stressed the necessity to close
the hostages’ file, according to one of the
sources, speaking on condition of anonym-
Uy.
He said the Syrians were following a
pledge made by Sharaa in February to hos
tage families to seek the release of all the
captives in Lebanon.
In Washington, a State Department
spokesman, David Denny, said: “We have
release
long called for unconditional release of the
hostages in Lebanon. We see this as an im
portant humanitarian issue. I cannot pre
dict any releases for you at this time; noth
ing would be served by speculation.
“We would, of course, welcome the re
lease of any hostage, as we continue to urge
the release of all of them.”
The kidnappers said the decision to re
lease a hostage came in response to behests
from Iran and Syria. Iranian newspapers
associated with Rafsanjani have urged the
hostages be released on humanitarian
grounds.
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Students protest logging of rainforests
Action group
demonstrates
at Mitsubishi
By SUZANNE CALDERON
Of The Battalion Staff
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Motorists honked, shouted and
gave the peace sign to members of
the Texas A8cM Rainforest Action
Group as they demonstrated
Wednesday afternoon in front of
University Mitsubishi, 1912 Texas
Ave.
Mike Worsham, founder and
spokesman for RAG, said the group
is protesting the logging of rainfo
rests in Sarawak, Malaysia, by the
Mitsubishi International Corn.
While sounds of a tropical rainfo
rest played on a portable radio, the
14 protestors shouted “Save the
rainforest” to passing motorists and
carried signs reading ‘Mitsubishi
Rills Rainforests,’ ‘Mitsubishi Stop
Logging Malaysia’ and ‘The Roots
Of Our Life System Are Planted In
Rainforests.’
The purpose of the protest was to
raise awareness about the logging
operations, Worsham said.
“We want to make everyone who
is concerned about the earth — rain
forests in particular — about the in
terconnectedness of companies, the
economy, as well as people,” he said.
“If people want to help out they can
write Mitsubishi and boycott their
products.”
Worsham said RAG is not en
dorsing a boycott of Mitsubishi
products. He said that is a decision
consumers have to make for them
selves.
Mitsubishi has a subsidiary log
ging company called Daiya Malaysia
which has been logging the rainfo
rests in Sarawak for the last 15 years,
Worsham said.
He said about 80 percent of the-
original rainforests in Malaysia are
gone, primarily due to logging oper
ations.
According to literature from the
Rainforest Action Network, the na
tional organization that RAG at
A&M belongs to, the Mitsubishi
Corp. also owns 25 percent of Agu-
san Wood Industries in the Philli-
pines and 49.5 percent of a company
in Brazil, both which manufacture
plywood.
Worsham said A&M’s RAG joined
Jason Busch, A&M senior political science major,
and 13 others picket University Mitsubishi
Photo by Scott D. Weaver
Wednesday afternoon to protest the destruction
of rainforests by Mitsubishi International Corp.
groups in Colorado, Washington
and San Francisco, as well as RAG
groups worldwide on Wednesday to
protest Mitsubishi’s logging opera
tions.
But Mitsubishi is not the only Jap
anese company involved in logging
operations, Worsham said.
“There are quite a number of Jap
anese companies that are involved in
logging in rainforests,” he said. “Mit
subishi is one of them, it’s not even
the one doing the most logging, but
it’s the one people are most familiar
with.”
Ron Yokem, general manager of
University Mitsubishi, said he is not
familiar with Mitsubishi’s operations
in Malaysia.
“I am not familiar with what’s
going on in Malaysia and as a result,
I would not want to make a com
ment on it,” Yokem said.
The A&M RAG has about 20 ac
tive members and has been in exis
tence for a year.
Worsham said that in the past
RAG has had benefit concerts to
bring attention to other rainforests
being destroyed.
Permits proposed to
aid bike registration
By JULIE MYERS
Of The Battalion Staff
Bicycle permits, which were made
mandatory in a revision during an
April 10 Faculty Senate meeting, will
be free if they are implemented —
and will not be mandatory.
Tom Williams, director of Park
ing, Transit and Traffic Services,
said “mandatory” should never have
been used to describe the bike per
mits because their is no way to en
force such a provision.
The price for the permits also was
not announced during the April 10
meeting, because the permits will
not cost anything, he said.
Faculty Senate resolutions are for
mal recommendations for action.
A&M President William Mobley or
the Board of Regents determine reg
ulations.
Williams said the voluntary per
mits are a way to increase bicycle
registration and connect bicycles
with their owners.
“At the end of every year, hun
dreds of unclaimed bicycles are
hauled off and later auctioned at
campus lost-and-found auctions,”
Williams said.
If more bicycles were registered
with parking and transit, the owners
could be located easily and reunited
with their bicycles instead of auc
tioning off the property, Williams
said.
Additionally, registration of bicy
cles is a good idea, Williams said, be
cause some homeowners’ insurance
policies will not cover the theft of bi
cycles that were not registered.
He said Student Services, the Uni
versity Police Depatment and park
ing and transit want to know how
many bikes are on campus so those
departments can begin to develop a
bicycle and pedestrian system.
In the future if bicycle riders want
services like bike trails or more bike
racks, Williams said they might have
to pay a fee for those services which
only they use.
“If they want such a system, then
we will truly go in and enforce regu
lations,” Williams said. “Students
with parking permits for cars
shouldn’t have to pay for what they
don’t use.”
Williams said there is no way to
guarantee that everyone registers
their bikes because bike registration
is voluntary. But he said he hopes
students will cooperate because
there are no drawbacks to registra
tion.
It can only benefit the students,
Williams said.
Supervisor: A&M lags
behind in census return
By DEAN SUELTENFUSS
Of The Battalion Staff
Mary Basmann is not happy.
Many Texas A&M students, it
seems, have not turned in their 1990
census forms, which were due last
week. And time is running out for
the Census Bureau’s special places
operations supervisor.
“This operation has to close out
entirely within this coming week,”
Basmann said. “My job ends. So we
don’t have a lot of leisure time to de
vote. And we feel that for a group
like this we should have gotten a bet
ter response, and we should have
gotten it more promptly. This does
come only once every 10 years.”
Basmann, who is in charge of tak
ing the census to schools, nursing
homes and prisons in a 16-county
area that includes Brazos County,
said A&M students are lagging be
hind other Texas students in return
ing their census forms.
She said about 64 percent of A&M
students have returned their census
forms, while up to 98 percent of the
students at some Texas colleges have
done so.
“It’s probably because they con
sider it more important,” Basmann
said. “And maybe they just have a
little different idea about the reasons
why one should do it. I don’t really
know why others are better. I’m very
See Census/Page 7
East European diplomats arrive for lecture series
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Leaders focus on change
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
Two officials from East Germany
and Hungary visiting Texas A&M
believe hard times lie ahead of their
two countries as they seek to democ
ratize nations that were under com
munist systems for almost 50 years.
Ambassador Andre Wieland of
the German Democratic Republic
and Ambassador Andre Erdos of
Hungary spoke candidly in an inter
view Wednesday night about Ger
man reunification, economic prob
lems, and the improvement of East-
West relations taking place in their
countries.
Wieland and Erdos are two of five
guest speakers participating in the
A&M MSC Wiley Lecture Series,
“The Changing Faces of Commu
nism,” which is Friday night. The
lecture will be moderated by ABC
journalist Sam Donaldson.
The director of the Arms Control
and Disarmament Agency under
former President Reagan, Kenneth
Adelman; deputy chief of the Propa
ganda Subdepartment of the Com
munist Party Central Committee,
Nikolay Shishlin; and Solidarity eco-
nomic advisor, Witold
Trzeciakowski also are scheduled to
lecture Friday.
Wieland, who currently serves as
head of the East German delegation
to the Open Skies Conference in Ot
tawa, Canada, has been at the fore
front of events affecting superpower
relations and German reunification.
Erdos is head of the Department
of International Multilateral Rela
tions in the Hungarian Foreign Min
istry.
Both men believe many economic
roblems face their countries, which
ave been Warsaw Pact nations since
the end of World War II.
“A lot of problems have to be
solved in the next five years,” Wie
land said. “Of course, they will be
hard times. But we hope that the liv
ing standard will increase; hope
fully, dramatically.”
Erdos said, “No matter what gov
ernment comes to power in Hun
gary, it inevitably will have to take
very unpopular measures. Possibly
the next two to three years will be
difficult for the population.”
Unemployment rates will be
among East Germany and Hunga
ry’s most pressing problems when
state companies, which Wieland
See Diplomats/Page 7
Photos by Fredrick D. Joe
Committee
greets guests
By JILL BUTLER
Of The Battalion Staff
Six members of Texas A&M’s
MSC Wiley Lecture Series Commit
tee rolled out the maroon carpet
Wednesday for three diplomats
from Eastern Bloc countries at Eas-
terwood Airport.
Polish Minister Witold
Trzeciakowski, East German Ambas
sador Andre Wieland and Hungar
ian Ambassador Andre Erdos ar
rived in College Station from Dallas
to take part in the program.
The lecture series, “The Chang
ing Faces of Communism,” features
a discussion involving four foreign
diplomats and Kenneth Adelman, of
the United States.
Twelve members of the Ross Vol
unteers helped welcome the three
diplomats by forming a saber arch
for the diplomats to walk under
upon exiting the plane onto a 12-
foot strip of maroon carpet.
The three diplomats left the air
port after meeting members of the
lecture series committee and toured
Andre Wieland (left) of East Germany and Andre Erdos of Hungary discuss hardships ahead.
See Welcome/Page 7