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Vol. 91 No. 100
College Station, Texas
‘Serving Texas A&M since 1893’
8 Pages
Tuesday, February 25, 1992
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to halt repatriation of Haitians
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme
burt refused Monday to halt the repatri
ation of Haitian refugees as Haiti's politi-
ians reached an accord providing for the
eventual return of exiled President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide.
The high court's 8-1 ruling upholding
the Bush administration's program to
brcibly return Haitian refugees shifts the
debate to Congress, which this week will
debate emergency legislation to tem
porarily halt repatriations.
The political settlement reached late
Sunday in Washington between Aristide
and his rivals in Haiti's National Assem
bly would set up a "consensus govern
ment" before the president's return to
power.
The deal set no date for Aristide's re
turn. It called for the appointment of
moderate communist leader Rene
Theodore as interim prime minister.
It was unclear whether the accord
would be honored by the Haitian mili
tary, which deposed Aristide in a Sept. 30
coup that brought down the first demo
cratically elected government in the coun
try's history.
"It's promising but very uncertain in
that there are forces at play in Haiti that
haven't come to terms in the agreement,
including the army," Arthur C. Helton,
who monitors Haitian affairs for the
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights,
said of the agreement. "It is not a crisis
that has ended or likely will end for some
time."
Doubts about whether the accord
would stick arose Monday when Aristide
and Theodore failed to settle all remain
ing unresolved issues.
Aristide emerged from the talks to say
he did not want an amnesty provision
agreed Sunday to include Haiti's military
commander, Gen. Raoul Cedras, because
of his role in the coup.
That would appear to be a retreat
from what Aristide had agreed to Sun
day.
In Port-au-Prince, the communist par
ty's second-ranked official. Max Bourjol-
ly, said the army had accepted the agree
ment.
Foreign Relations Minister Jean-
Robert Simonise said there was strong op
position to Aristide's return and the con
sensus government "will not be easy to
set up."
I A knowledgeable diplomatic source
said that Haiti's top military commander.
Gen. Raoul Cedras, was satisfied with the
package that contains a general amnesty
and acceptance of all parliamentary ac
tions since Aristide was forced into exile.
Aristide's acceptance of parliamentary
actions was seen as allowing Cedras to re
main, at least temporarily, as army com
mander, according to an Organization of
American States source.
The amnesty provision did not apply
to criminal acts and it was unclear
whether Aristide agreed to give amnesty
to officers who plotted his overthrow,
said sources familiar with the deal.
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HUY NGUYEN/ The Battalion
Vinca Soedianto, left, an industrial engineering senior,
demonstrates the techniques of Indonesian puppetry to Veronica
Resendez, a senior marketing major from Bryan, in the Indonesian
booth stocked with artifacts.
Cultural displays open in MSC
By Karen Praslicka
The Battalion
During International Week
the Memorial Student Center be
comes a gathering place for cul
tures from around the world.
Students contribute cultural dis
plays, music, dance and food for
the event.
The opening ceremonies for
the week took place Monday in
the MSC Flagroom. Dr. Emily
Ashworth, assistant provost of
international programs, officially
began the ceremonies with a rib-
bon-cutting.
"There are 2700 international
students at A&M, representing
110 countries," she said. "This
speaks well of A&M's education
al philosophy-leadership, devel
opment and teamwork."
Ashworth said international
week is the largest event of its
kind in the southwest United
States, and congratulated the stu
dents for their hard work.
Cultural displays will be open
on the first floor of the MSC to
day from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. The
displays provide those interested
in the countries with an opportu
nity to talk with students from
those countries to learn about
their culture and customs. There
are 55 international student clubs
representing 48 countries at this
year's celebration.
"Each country is uniquely
displayed for us to experience,"
said Tina Watkins, director of In
ternational Student Services.
"With the sights and sounds of so
many nations, it's like traveling
all over the world."
Watkins said international
week provides students with the
opportunity to work with others
of their own nationalities to cele
brate their cultures, and provide
an example of living and work
ing together.
"Upon arriving at A&M, stu
dents unify as Aggies," she said.
"Most of these students go about
A&M as most American students
do."
Rhonda Bolich, International
Student Association president,
said the cultural displays are for
both informational and educa
tional purposes.
"It's an easy way to travel
around the world without leav
ing Bryan or College Station,"
she said.
Bolich said it's also significant
to notice that everyone involved
enjoyed working together and
being a part of the event.
A recent addition to the
events is a model United Na
tions, in which 40 countries are
represented by American and in
ternational students. The stu
dents meet and discuss different
political attitudes and topics, and
on Thursday will have a mock
general assembly.
Attending the ceremonies as
See Mayors/Page 4
GM marks
locations
for closing
Corporation announces plan to cease
operations at two plants, 10 suppliers
DETROIT (AP) - General Mo
tors Corp. reported a record $4.5
billion 1991 loss Monday and
marked the locations of some of
the plants that must close to the
restore the profitability of the
world's largest industrial corpora
tion.
GM Chairman Robert Stempel
announced the closings of two as
sembly plants — one each in
Michigan and New York — and
the shuttering of operations at 10
of GM's supplier complexes, af
fecting 16,000 workers.
He also described a long-range
plan to eliminate redundancies in
nearly all areas of the company's
operations, including vehicle de
sign and marketing, technical re
search and support operations.
"We must accelerate the fun
damental changes," Stempel told a
news conference.
The details answered some of
the questions left when the au
tomaker announced a broad re
structuring program last Decem
ber.
The overall plan calls for 21
plant closings and 74,000 job cuts
by the middle of the decade.
Analysts have said slow vehi
cle development, generous labor
contracts and the recession have
combined to force GM to shrink.
"I think this announcement is a
beginning of a long series of re
structurings," said John Casesa of
Wertheim Schroder & Co. in New
York. "Through the '90s, GM will
be continuously restructuring to
match its capabilities to the de
mands of the market."
GM stock lost 621/2 cents to
$37.75 in New York Stock Ex
change trading in the aftermath of
Monday's announcements.
Gov. Richards lauds decision
to keep factory in Texas open
AUSTIN (AP) - Gov. Ann
Richards, wearing a black satin
General Motors jacket, cheered the
automaker's decision Monday to
keep open its Texas factory. But
she voiced sympathy for workers
at a Michigan plant being closed.
Richards said Texas needs the
3,800 GM jobs and nearly 7,500
more related to the Arlington fac
tory. Statewide, keeping the plant
will have a $816 million economic
impact, she said.
"I cannot emphasize to you
enough the significance of this de
cision at GM and what it means to
Texas. I hope it is just the forerun
ner of things to come," Richards
said.
Saving the Texas plant means a
similar factory in Ypsilanti, Mich.,
will close. While Richards will
travel to Arlington this week to
join GM workers in celebrating,
she said she feels for those in
Michigan and hopes leaders in
Washington will take action to
help U.S. business compete inter-
See Officials/Page 8
Irish court hears plea
to allow girl's abortion
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - The
Supreme Court heard arguments
in private Monday about a 14-
year-old girl who is barred from
obtaining an abortion abroad, re
jecting pleas to permit news cover
age of the highly charged case.
Arguments were scheduled to
continue Tuesday, with a ruling
expected by week's end.
The girl's family is appealing a
High Court order barring her from
leaving the country for Britain to
escape Ireland's abortion law. The
teen-ager says she was raped by a
friend's father.
In a 1983 referendum, Irish
voters decided 2-1 to amend the
constitution to affirm the right to
life of the unborn.
The recent case has revived the
debate, and opposition parties
have called for a new referendum.
"We're going to look at every
other option between what we
hear from the Supreme Court and
indeed the possibility of a referen
dum," Prime Minister Albert
Reynolds said Monday.
Reynolds has not said how he
hopes the Supreme Court will
rule, but has said that the issue is
freedom of travel, not freedom to
have abortions.
"We have a constitutional law
in place, agreed to by the people,
which bans abortion in Ireland, so
how can that be the issue? The is
sue is that the family was prevent
ed from going to England for an
abortion," Reynolds said.
The government is paying the
family's legal costs for the appeal,
and John Rogers, a former attor
ney general, represented her be
fore the Supreme Court.
International students exchange ideas
By Melody Dunne
The Battalion
Student government repre
sentatives from around the world
exchanged ideas and mementos
native to their regions during the
12th annual Conference on Stu
dent Government Associations
this week at Texas A&M.
"This conference has been
one of the most successful we
have had," said COSGA director
Leslie Marshall, a senior market
ing major from Comanche.
The 1992 conference began
Feb. 22 and ends today with a
closing banquet. Special speak
ers, workshops on different top
ics and events such as a carnival
and a Texas Hoedown enter
tained the delegates.
COSGA is the largest student-
run conference in the nation. Stu
dents from 91 colleges and uni
versities attended the conference,
including collegiate representa
tives from Greece, Japan and
Canada.
Almost 400 delegates partici
pated in a "Swap Shop" on Mon
day, where each school dis
played mementos such as T-
shirts, pencils, student govern
ment constitutions, yearbooks
and newspapers.
The Swap Shop provides a
time for students to get to know
each other and their respective
campuses better, Marshall said.
During the swap session, two
See Swap Shop/Page 8
HUY NGUYEN/The Battalion
Linda Woodbury, who is blind, stresses the importance of seeing
things clearly at a COSGA morning assembly Sunday.