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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 1991)
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Page 11 Columns: Christina Maimarides on funding education Matt McBurnett on bouncing checks The Battalion Vol. 91 No.18 USPS 045360 College Station, Texas "Serving Texas A&M since 1893" 12 Pages Wednesday, September 25, 1991 Pro-Iranian kidnappers free British hostage of three years DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — In another breakthrough in the hostage crisis, kid nappers freed 77-year-old Briton Jack Mann on Tuesday after holding him for 865 days, and a Shiite Muslim leader said an American hostage may soon follow. Walking painfully and stooped over, Mann was led by officials into a packed news conference at the Syrian Foreign Ministry, where he angrily denounced his captors for chaining him and ordering him around. "This morning I started another dreadful day. ... I wondered how many more months I've got to stay. ... I won dered how much longer, how much longer, how much longer. Wondering how many more months I've got to stay here," the white-haired, former World War II pilot said in a hoarse, anguished whisper. "My voice has gone after 2 1/2 years of chaining, of saying: 'Do this, do that. Don't do that!' or 'Be quiet!"' Mann said. Asked if he had any news of the other hostages, Mann said, "None at all." British officials said Mann would proba bly be flown to a Royal Air Force base at Lyneham in southwest England on Wednesday. Prime Minister John Major of Britain said he had heard that Mann was "a little unwell," and a 10 Downing Street spokesman had said the government was "disturbed" about reports of Mann's health. U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar has sought a broad exchange involving the Western hostages, an ac counting of five missing Israeli service men and the release of hundreds of Arabs held by Israel. Perez de Cuellar said in statement Tuesday he was "encouraged by this fur ther step in a process which he hopes will lead to a full, speedy and satisfactory so lution of the problem of all detainees and missing persons." "I hope it's not the end of the release program," President Bush said in New York. "There are many more. ... It's so tragic." He said the United States could not have normal relations with Iran as long as any hostages are held. Hussein Musawi, a leader of Hezbol lah, the umbrella group for most of the factions holding Westerners, told re porters in the Bekaa Valley town of Sohmor: "If things continued to proceed normally an American hostage will be re leased. Maybe within a week or less than a month." He said Mann was set free "to facili tate Perez de Cuellar's mission. The other side is required to facilitate his mission too." He apparently referred to the kidnap pers' demands that Israel release 20 more Arab prisoners, or possibly Sheik Abdul- Karim Obeid, the Hezbollah leader seized by Israeli commandos in 1989. Yossi Olmert, an Israeli government spokesman, said Mann's release was a "a positive and welcome development." He noted that Israel still seeks word on five missing servicemen and added: "If more information comes our way, we will reciprocate." Military budget cuts leave Corps unaffected By Susan Maguire The Battalion Nationwide cuts in the number of military bases and personnel have only slightly affected the number of freshmen entering Texas A&M's Corps of Cadets, and those cadets seeking a com mission, said Corps Commander John Sherman. Last year, 600 to 650 freshmen entered the Corps and this year slightly less than 600 entered. The Corps usually commissions 50 to 70 officers to each of the four branches and, Sherman said, the same number is expected this year. The country's military cut backs include a 25 percent reduc tion in personnel and 12 to 16 base closings during the next five years. "Any effect the military cuts have made on the Corps has been small," Sherman said. "The slight ly lower number of entering fresh men could mean that we're not re cruiting in the right places. Also, a lot of my emphasis this year is on retention of cadets." Sherman said he believed the Persian Gulf War would help in crease the number of new cadets, but, in actuality, it had no effect on the Corps' size. Because the United States is going to have a "leaner, meaner" military in the future, Sherman said, there will be fewer contracts awarded. He predicted 70 percent of the cadets will not aim for a commission. If that is the case, he said, the Corps will need to cater to the needs of the non-contract cadets. "We need to look at them in high school and appeal to business and career training," he said. Col. James Crumbliss, a profes sor of aerospace studies, said the military cutbacks have not had a direct impact on the ROTC pro grams. "There wasn't any growth though, that was the negative," he RICHARD S. JAMESrThe Battalion Right this way Bryan Police Officer Sgt. David Patterson directs traffic afternoon. The signal light was out due to a power at William J. Bryan and Texas Avenue late Tuesday outage that affected much of Bryan. Yeltsin scores own coup Russian president negotiates Armenia-Azerbaijan cease-fire since Sunday. Rebel Georgian National Guardsmen captured four armed supporters of Gamsakhurdia and held them in the center. Tengiz Kitovani, commander of the maverick guardsmen, claimed Gamsakhurdia's backers were trying to provoke the oppo sition, which is insisting that he step down. On Tuesday, Gamsakhurdia singled out former Soviet Foreign Minster Eduard A. Shevardnadze of directing the opposition. Gorbachev's new spokesman, Andrei Grachev, praised the "sons of perestroika." The spokesman denied the two republic leaders had upstaged the president, say ing reforms that Gorbachev began in 1985 had enabled them to se cure the truce. "The fact that the two most im portant leaders of the Soviet re publics are looking for a compro mise solution to offer to some oth ers ... does not mean the president is not functioning," Grachev told reporters. Yeltsin and Nazarbayev had persuaded leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno- Karabakh to meet Monday in a neutral Russian town to discuss the conflicting claims to the en clave. The sides announced Tuesday they agreed to put down their guns immediately and restore lim ited self-rule by Jan. 1 under Rus- MOSCOW (AP) - Boris Yeltsin scored a diplomatic coup Tuesday by arranging a cease-fire between warring factions in Ar menia and Azerbaijan. But strife raged in Cen tral Asia and Georgia's leader ordered a state of emergency in the Georgian capital. Yeltsin and Kazakhstan President Nur sultan Nazarbayev negotiated at least a temporary end to the con flict in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has claimed 800 lives and driven tens of thousands from their homes since 1988. The settling of the dispute was a diplomatic breakthrough that had eluded President Mikhail S. Gorbachev for years. "We don't exclude the possi bility that he will get involved in other places," Yeltsin spokesman Pavel Voshchanov told The Asso ciated Press, referring to conflicts simmering elsewhere in the Soviet Union. Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia said he would clamp a state of emergency on Tbilisi on Wednesday and vowed to oust hundreds of armed oppo nents who have occupied the re public's broadcasting studios Yeltsin Tensions prompt U.S. to send troops, missiles to Saudi Arabia Iraqis detain inspectors WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States will send nearly 100 Patriot missiles and 1,300 troops to Saudi Arabia to ease that nation's concern over rising tensions in the Persian Gulf region, a senior Pentagon official said Tuesday. The Patriots, which played a spectacular role in foiling Iraqi Scud missile attacks dur ing the Persian Gulf War, "are getting ready to go now " and will leave from Germany on Wednesday morning the official said. Word of the decision came as Iraqi troops for a second time detained 44 U.N. inspectors searching for evidence of a nuclear weapons program ift that country and President Bush condemned Baghdad's "unacceptable behav ior." The U.N. Security Council demanded re lease of the'inspectors. Bush said last week that he would pro vide the missiles to the Saudis for defensive purposes. The Saudis requested the weapons as ten sions heated in the Persian Gulf region over Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's refusal to cooperate with the U.N. inspectors. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Iraq still possessed "several hundred Scud missiles of the type used against Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War." Bush also made clear that he was willing to send warplanes back into the Gulf if neces sary to allow the U.N inspectors to go about their business. The official said that the U.S. contingent will be made of two Patriot missile battalions. Each battalion will have 48 missiles and will be accompanied by 690 soldiers, the offi cial said. A formal announcement may be made "once the deployment starts," the official said. The Pentagon announced last week that it intended to make the weapons available from its stocks. The number and the timing of the UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iraqi troops on Tuesday detained 44 U.N. inspectors for the second time, and officials accused them of being spies. The inspectors said they videotaped documents showing which foreign compa nies supplied materials for Iraq's secret nuclear weapons program. President Bush condemned Baghdad's "unacceptable behav ior," and warned Saddam Hus sein not to "miscalculate" as he did during the Gulf War. "We don't want to see any more anguish inflicted on the Iraqi people, but overriding that is the international community's determination that these resolu tions be fully complied with," Bush said in New York. The U.N. Security Council de manded that Iraq release the in spectors before an emergency council meeting Tuesday evening. The council also de manded the Iraqis agree to allow U.N. helicopter flights to search for hidden weapons in Iraq with out restriction. It "would be in their interest" to meet the deadline, said the Se curity Council's president, French Ambassador Jean-Bernard Mer- imee. He declined to speculate on what the council might do if the Iraqis did not meet the demands. At a news conference in Bagh dad, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz accused the leader of the U.N. team of being "an officer of the U.S. intelligence service," the official Iraqi News Agency re ported. He contended the inspectors gathered material Tuesday to use against individual Iraqis and were not looking at documents related to Iraq's nuclear program. On Monday, the same U.N. team was detained for 12 hours in a Baghdad building after finding what they said was evidence that Iraq has been trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iraqi troops seized the papers and returned some early Tuesday. U.N. offi cials said key documents ap peared to be missing. The officials said the docu ments found Tuesday gave a fuller picture of Iraq's secret nu clear program, detailing the peo ple overseeing the work and the foreign companies that supplied nuclear materials. They did not name the companies or their countries. Iraqi troops surrounded the U.N. team Tuesday and refused to let it take away papers and photographs of documents gath ered in an unannounced search at the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commis sion. Iraqi officials said the in-