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fol.90 No. 73 GSPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, January 16,1991
Persian Gulf perches on brink
jsociated Press
The midnight deadline for Iraqi
teident Saddam Hussein to pull
is forces out of Kuwait passed
iednesday and more than 680,000
S. and allied troops began a new
juntdown — to war.
Barring an attack by Iraq, the start
fa Persian Gulf war lay in the
sinds of President Bush and allied
(jders. Bush, armed with congres-
jonal authorization to drive Iraq
join Kuwait, was described Tues-
Jay as resolute and “at peace with
jnself.”
(^risisinthe Q ulf
^Bush’s tactics
questioned/Page 2
]Crisis in the Gulf/Page 3
Iraq declared a “furnace of hell”
waits anyone trying to dislodge its
;»5,000 troops from Kuwait, taken
wer in an Iraqi blitz on Aug. 2. Whal
iaddam faced was thousands of
mibat aircraft, scores of warships
aid some of the world’s most sophts-
xated weapons, spearheaded by
|!15,000 U.S. troops.
The Defense Department said
[Iraqi forces in Kuwait were continu-
jig to dig in against a multinational
kce that included 35,000 troops
pm Britain, 10,000 from France,
150.500 from Saudi Arabia and
18.500 from Egypt. The Pentagon
iidl/.S. forces ran battle drills and
ikw air combat exercises in the
iours before the deadline.
NBC News said Tuesday night
I iiat B-52 bombers had been moved
to bases in a gulf country it did not
dentify. The Air Force has never
tonceded that B-52s have been as
signed to Operation Desert Shield,
tat a detachment is known to have
teen based at Diego Garcia, in the
. Indian Ocean.
It. Col. Stuart Wagner, a Penta
gon spokesman, said he could not
See Deadline/Page 8
Student protesters march
for peaceful resolution
ByJAYME BLASCHKE
Of The Battalion Staff
Nearly 100 people gathered out
side Texas A&M’s Academic Build
ing seven hours before the United
Nations deadline to protest the use
of force to resolve the Persian Gulf
Crisis.
Chanting “No blood for oil,” and
“Peace conference, not war,” the
protestors marched across A&M to
the corner of University Drive and
Texas Avenue, where the Medicine
Tribe organized a candlelight vigil.
Passing cars honked support for
the rally as protesters lined the road
side and waved signs with anti-war
slogans.
The U.N. deadline for Iraq to
withdraw from Kuwait was at mid
night last night.
Susanne Chase, whose brother is
stationed in Saudi Arabia, told the
crowd the United States had no right
to go to war with Iraq.
“The politicians in Washington
are not representing our interests,”
Chase said. “They are going to war
with an army that is 65 percent mi
nority. The minorities of this coun
try are going to suffer the most in
any conflict. That is not democracy.
“Secretary of State James Baker
said Nov. 29 for Iraq to respect the
U.N. deadline or risk all,” she said.
“I’m saying if the president commits
this country to war, Bush will risk
all.”
Irwin Tang, an organizer of the
event, said he supported U.S.
troops, and that was why he was pro
testing war.
“If we let sanctions work, then no
Americans will die, but Bush is drag
ging this country into war,” Tang
said.
“Saddam Hussein must be
stopped, but not by fighting,” Tang
See March/Page 8
Liberty Clinton (left) joined peace marchers in a candlelight vigil
at the corner of University and Texas avenues, (below) The
marchers were countered by students who support U.S. poli
cies.
KEVIN IVY/The Battalion
)
US. investigates Chinese persecution
Student alerts Congress
By LYNETTE
CLARK
Of The Battalion
The Chinese
eovernment has
Begun a new
round of perse
cution against
demonstrators in
volved in events
lhat led to the
Tiananmen
Square massacre,
a Texas A&M
Chinese graduate
student told U.S.
congression al
leaders last week.
Ge X u n , a
physics graduate
student and pres
ident of A&M’s
China Club, re
turned to College
Station late Sun
day after a week
of meetings in
Washington, D.C.
with Assistant
Secretary of State
Richard Schifter,
MIKE C. MULVEY/The Battalion
Ge Xun, a physics graduate student at Texas A&M, holds a picture of his friend
and his friend’s wife. Ge recently went to China to help gain his friend’s release
from state authorities.
congressmen, Chinese student
leaders and experts on China.
While in the nation’s capital, Ge
aid he voiced his concerns about
human rights violations now taking
place
in China.
“For so long, they have done
nothing, but now that the gulf situa
tion is so tense, they want to take this
opportunity to finish this business,”
Gesaid.
Ge went to China last month after
reading that a close friend had been
arrested for participating in the Tia
nanmen Square demonstratihns.
“I worked with Wang Juntao for
Rvo years at the Institute of Atomic
Energy outside Beijing,” Ge said. “I
first learned of his arrest when I
read a report that included a plea
for help from his wife.
“We were very good friends, and I
felt very deeply that I should go to
China to help,” Ge said.
In a statement prepared before
his departure, Ge said he believes
Wang Juntao and other demonstra
tors are innocent.
“Their behavior did not violate
current law in mainland China,” Ge
said.
“I don’t believe those people
wanted to overthrow the govern
ment ” Ge “They just wanted to
bring some change.”
Ge left Dec. 9 for Beijing. Once he
arrived, he began his search for in
formation about Wang’s case.
“Each place I went, they were pre
pared for me,” he said. “They gave
me no information and would not let
me know the truth.”
Ge said officials asked him if his
friend had been secretly or publicly
arrested.
“There they admitted they have
secret arrests in China,” he said.
“They also told me that Wang was
probably a political prisoner.”
See China/Page 8
A&M students
called for duty
in Middle East
By MIKE LUMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
Twenty-nine students have
withdrawn from Texas A&M af
ter being called to active military
duty in the Middle East, accord
ing to the latest University fig
ures.
Lt. Col. Donald Johnson, assis
tant commandant of the Corps of
Cadets, said the 29 students in
Saudi Arabia are members of
U.S. reserve units, and more de
partures can be expected.
About one-fourth of the stu
dents called to active duty are
members of the Corps, he said.
Pegi Morgan with Student Ju
dicial Programs, the office that
handles withdrawals for the Uni
versity, said all the students called
are men.
She said six of the 29 reservists
are graduate students, 10 are se
niors, four are juniors, seven are
sophomores and two are fresh
men.
Students leaving the University
for military obligations must
bring copies of their military or
ders to the Student Judicial Pro
grams office.
Other than that, the withdra
wal process is the same as for any
student, Morgan said.
Johnson said it will be difficult
to communicate with an individ
ual in the Middle East unless that
person left a specific address.
“We don’t have any idea where
all of them are, maybe friends or
a family member would know,”
he said. “That’s all I could sug
gest.”
The Aggie Mom’s clubs in
Texas urge anyone with the Mid
dle East address of an Aggie
listed here or a former student on
See Reservists/Page 8
Inauguration ‘91
Richards reaffirms ethics vow.
heralds start of ‘
AUSTIN (AP) — Democrat Ann
Richards, sworn in Tuesday as
Texas’ 45th governor, said her ad
ministration would be one for the
history books.
“Today, the historians will record
that a new administration, different
from any in the past, began,” Rich
ards told cheering supporters after
being sworn in to succeed retiring
Republican Bill Clements.
“The people of Texas are back,
and they’re waiting, and they’re
watching us,” she said.
The Department of Public Safety
estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 peo
ple blanketed the Capitol lawn to
watch Richards become the first
woman governor since Miriam “Ma”
Ferguson left the office in 1935.
Richards was frequently inter
rupted by cheers and applause as
she sounded the “new Texas” theme
she used to launch her campaign in
June 1989.
“Twenty or 50 or 100 years from
now, school children are going to
open their textbooks — or perhaps
switch on their video texts — and
they’re going to see a picture,” she
said. “They will see us standing
proudly on this bright winter noon.
And looking through the eyes of a
child, we will seem as distant and an
cient as portraits of our ancestors
seem to us.
“Today, we have a vision of a
a new Texas’
□ Inauguration
celebrations/Page 7
□ Pictorial coverage/Page 4
Texas where opportunity knows no
race, no gender, no color — a
glimpse of the possibilities that can
happen in government if we simply
open the doors and let the people in.
Tomorrow, we have to build that
Texas.
Richards took the oath of office
under a clear sky shortly after noon.
It was administered "by Texas Su
preme Court Chief Justice Tom
Phillips. Representatives of 35 for
eign countries and the four Mexican
states that border the United States
also attended, officials said.
Wearing a white suit, Richards
waved both arms over her head as
the crowd cheered.
Richards, a former school teacher,
said the new Texas would put a pre
mium on schools, making sure every
child receives an education that “al
lows them to claim the full promise
of their lives.”
She said state government must
act in a manner “where every deci
sion is measured against the high
standard of ethics and true commit
ment to the public trust.”
Repairs close Ross Street
Ross Street will be closed for an indefinite period of time between
Spence and Bizzell streets beginning today.
Adverse weather conditions during Christmas break delayed pave
ment repairs by the Texas A&M Physical Plant.
Tom Williams, director of Parking, Transit and Traffic Services,
says on-campus shuttle bus routes along Ross Street will be modified to
run around the perimeter of campus. Any changes with bus routes will
be posted for commuters.