fall
result
dy says
loes show is that
•esources now in
e getting very low
hat we really need
>very effort to ex-
re of the interna-
" he said,
rain and unsea-
>1 temperatures
ogress of crops in
the state,
biggest crop, cot-
the 25-county re-
Lubbock, was hit
: of the 3 million
on planted there
1 and replaced by
Estimates of the
'gion's economy
$1.5 billion,
ow if you'd say it
is not real good,' 1
his, who leads the
Economics depart-
Tech. "The cotton
everely hurt by
e second year in a
s farmers havere-
:ommodities have
U in the past two
^reduction costs
d 3 percent, An-
eports
tous
and the markets
of the July unem-
ort, scheduled foi
ay, Dodge said.
; expect a gain of
ifarm payrolls foi
rease in the unem-
to 7.7 percent. la
ell 117,000 and un-
eached 7.8 percent
Federal Reserve to
rates. That has
stock and bond
reacted little to as
omic data released
;overnment said its
ig gauge of future
vity, the Index of
ators, fell 0.2 per-
; first decline in six
paign
ican life, that's cer-
rayle both attend-
foreclosing any
her Quayle should
:ket.
red by reporters in
der Bob Dole's of-
xates that up to a
ty's senators may
P convention later
ouston.
)w that's trueal
"But I'll tell you
Republican sena-
blican convention,
5 to be able to see
)t going to be hid-
rent."
'makers applaud-
: reference to the
articipation in the
r ention of Democ-
ial leaders,
ae left the Capitol
eat meeting, very,
upbeat."
ng ready for otu
riuch more, we’re
take them on in
ish said. "It was a
-ting."
iof glass
ntion
Surface Toward
i measures out-
me neared com-
s were installing
in-link fence be-
m and the park-
s began clearing
s the street from
jse as the "offr
an site.
head of sched-
"Almost every-
except for chairs
or. Obviously, 2
need to be cov-
d."
Vol. 91 No. 189 (6 pages)
e Battalion
“Serving Texas A&M Since 1893” Thursday, August 6, 1992
Notice
The next issue of The Battalion will
be published on Aug. 26. Normal
publication will resume on Aug. 31.
Serbs force Muslims out of homeland
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)
- Some 300 women, old men and chil
dren walked through a no-man's land to
reach the battle-scarred capital Wednes
day after being forced from their homes
by Serb militiamen.
The refugees said the Serbs drove them
by bus from Rogatica, 52 miles east of
Sarajevo, early in the day, and forced
them to walk most of the last five miles
between Serb and Bosnian government-
held lands.
"They told me to get out and crawl,"
said Bajro Misic, who lost his legs in an
accident 10 years ago and arrived in Sara
jevo with one artificial limb.
He raised his hands to reveal palms
bloodied from crawling along the moun
tain road.
The refugees arrived just before curfew
Wednesday night as mortars began
pounding Sarajevo. The Muslim-led gov
ernment has been battling for most of a
week to break the Serb encirclement of
the city. It has failed so far.
Over a million Bosnians have fled their
homes in the fighting that pits Serb na
tionalists against the mostly Croat and
Muslim forces of the Bosnian govern
ment. Many of the refugees were forced
out in "cleansing" campaigns intended to
create ethnically homogenous areas. Most
of these accusations have centered on the
Serbs.
The Rogatica refugees, fed at a
bombed-out school and then taken to a
relief center, said they had been held for
up to two months at a school in their
hometown.
The refugees said they generally were
well-treated there, but Misic said Sakib
Gagula, a friend who helped him get
around, had been shot at point-blank
range by the Serbs.
"They pointed the gun and pulled the
trigger," said Misic. Others confirmed the
account.
On Wednesday, the Serbs entered the
school and ordered the people to leave,
with no explanation, they said. Hajrija La-
tovic, a Muslim woman, said a soldier hit
her in the ribs with his rifle butt.
Accounts of ethnic cleansing and of
concentration camps allegedly run by
some groups led acting U.S. Secretary of
State Lawrence Eagleburger to call
Wednesday for a war crimes investiga
tion for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The United States also sought an ur
gent meeting of the U.N. Human Rights
Commission in Geneva.
The leader of Bosnia's Serbs denied his
forces were operating concentration
camps, and invited international agencies
to see for themselves.
The Muslim-led Bosnian government
also invited the United Nations, Red
Cross and journalists to inspect its prison
er-of-war camps.
Stabbing
victim
recovering
Student attacked
behind Northgate
Julie Chelkowski
The Battalion
Chad Owen Dickson, a 24-year
old Texas A&M veterinary med
ical student, is in stable condition
after being stabbed early Tuesday
morning.
Dickson was injured in the
parking lot behind the Dixie
Chicken after an argument broke
out among three men.
According to a College Station
Police report, a white male and a
Hispanic male were arguing with
the victim, when the white male
took a handgun from his truck
and pointed it at the victim. After
the victim backed away, the sus
pect put the gun down and the
two engaged in a fist fight.
Witnesses reported that during
the fight, the Hispanic male ap-
! preached the victim and stabbed
i him several times.
Dickson was transported to St.
Joseph Hospital where he was
treated for two stab wounds in
his abdomen and two lacerations
on his right arm. One of the
wounds was reported to be eight
inches long.
Lt. A.W. Onstott of the College
Station Police Department said
the suspects were identified as
Tony Compion and Curtis
Breedlove.
"It (the stabbing) was an
incident where a person
was confronted by a jerk.
When you have 3,000
people in one area and
one looking for trouble,
it's hard to find that one."
-Richard Bennig, manager of
Duddley's Draw
The two suspects involved in
the incident have been arrested
and charged with aggravated as
sault.
Compion was charged with
the actual stabbing of Dickson
while Breedlove allegedly bran
dished a loaded 9mm semi-auto
matic pistol.
The argument started because
of comments directed towards a
woman Dickson was with, On
stott said.
: This past year, the University
Police Department and the CSPD
have combined forces to patrol
the Northgate area.
Richard Bennig, the manager
of Duddley's Draw, said with the
help of UPD and CSPD, assaults
in the area are not common.
"This is the safest place to be,"
he said. "It (the stabbing) was an
incident where a person was con
fronted by a jerk. When you have
3,000 people in one area and one
looking for trouble, it's hard to
find that one."
This is the second stabbing in
College Station this week. The
College Station Police reported
that Michael Blakeley of Caldwell
was stabbed in the abdomen Sun
day night by a white male in the
Wolf Creek Recreation Center
parking lot after an apparent ar
gument. Blakeley was admitted
to Humana Hospital and released
Tuesday.
The two stabbings are an un
usually high number of assaults
for this time of year, Onstott said.
But with the change of season,
these numbers may soon increase.
"This is pretty rare," he said.
"It (the summer) has been real
slow, but it's starting to pick up
since people have been moving
back to College Station."
NASA takes rest, rethinks project
L.A. police face
federal charges
Officers receive civil rights indictments
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)
— Atlantis' astronauts reeled out
a satellite on a thin cord Tuesday
in a risky experiment never before
performed in space. But the 12
1/2-mile cord jammed at about
850 feet, and the crew gave up for
the night.
"We're going to do some dis
cussion here about where we
want to go from here," Mission
Control told the crew.
Mission Control told the astro
nauts to get some rest for another
attempt at mid-morning on
Wednesday; some of the seven
crew members had been up for 20
hours.
Four crew members went to
the bed; the rest kept watch on the
satellite, left flying above the shut
tle at the end of 843 feet of cord.
NASA extended the mission to
an eighth day, to Saturday, be
cause of trouble with the cord and
a delay in releasing another satel
lite over the weekend.
The astronauts were supposed
to unreel the half-ton Italian satel
lite on a 12 1/2-mile, wire-and-
fiber tether as thick as a shoelace.
Scientists expected the tether,
when fully extended, to generate
up to 5,000 volts of electricity as it
swept through Earth's magnetic
field during a planned 30-hour
South
test.
But the cord unwound in fits
and starts, and after three at
tempts, the astronauts had man
aged to reel out the satellite no
more than 843 feet.
Mission Control said the prob
lem could be a snag on the reel.
Twice during the attempt to
unreel the spacecraft, the satellite
swung over the shuttle on its
cord.
But commander Loren Shriver
fired the shuttle's jets to steady
the tether and satellite and avert
the possibility of an out-of-control
satellite wrapping its cord around
the shuttle.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Feder
al civil rights charges have been
leveled against the four policemen
whose acquittals on most state
charges in the beating of motorist
Rodney King led to deadly riots.
Indictments handed down late
Tuesday and unsealed Wednes
day charged officers Laurence
Powell, Timothy Wind and
Theodore Briseno with aiding and
abetting each other in beating,
stomping and kicking King under
color of law.
The fourth defendant, Sgt.
Stacey Koon, was charged with
failing to prevent an unlawful as-
sault by the officers under his
command.
U.S. Attorney Lourdes Baird
said prosecutors will not allege
that the beating was racially moti
vated, although the defendants
are white and King is black.
"As far as a racial motivation,
that is not part of these charges
and we are not making that alle
gation," Baird said.
She said the right that is al
leged to have been violated is the
right of all citizens to be free of
unreasonable assault by police of
ficers "regardless of race or sex."
King was "very emotional and
to a certain extent overwhelmed
with the moment" as he watched
the announcement on television,
said his attorney, Steven Lerman.
Attorneys for Briseno, Wind
and Koon didn't immediately re
turn calls seeking comment.
"I'm not real happy about it,"
Powell said of his indictment. "I
didn't do anything wrong. I can't
believe they're doing this to me
again."
The indictments capped three
months of grand jury hearings
launched shortly after the April 29
verdicts in the officers' state trial
set off rioting so severe that Na
tional Guardsmen were sent in.
The riots caused millions in dam
age and 52 people were killed.
President Bush denounced the
state jury's decision. Baird main
tained there was no political pres
sure to return indictments before
the presidential election and said
she never discussed the case with
the White House.
The state trial was moved from
Los Angeles County to suburban
and predominantly white Simi
Valley in adjoining Ventura
County. Baird said she expects no
such shift of location in the federal
trial. The federal district draws on
seven counties for its jury pool.
She said the investigation was
continuing but declined to say if
additional indictments were ex
pected.
The defendants were expected
to surrender Thursday, she said.
Each defendant was charged
under a post Civil War-era civil
rights statute that carries a maxi
mum penalty of 10 years in prison
and a $250,000 fine.
Baird said the indictment re
flects no criticism of the state case
against the officers.
Riot victims
question food
stamp delay
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Despite President Bush's dec
laration of a disaster after the
Los Angeles
riots, more
than 20,000
needy resi
dents had to
wait more
than a
month for
emergency
food stamps
because the
Agriculture
Department
decided they could get by
without the aid. Some are still
waiting.
Bush declared Los Angeles
a disaster area on May 2, after
four days of the worst civil
disturbances in the nation's
history. The declaration was
followed by promises of aid
from a number of federal
agencies.
The Agriculture Depart
ment responded quickly with
tons of free food. But local offi
cials said there were long lines,
not enough free food to fill the
need, and emergency food
stamps were still necessary.
Applicants for those food
stamps said they were unable
to obtain fresh food, milk and
baby formula because of the
fires, looting, power outages
and lost income from disrupt
ed jobs.
Los Angeles County's re
quest for them was rejected
May 8 by Sharon Levinson, the
Western regional administra
tor of USDA's Food and Nutri
tion Service, which runs the
food stamp program. Levinson
wrote to the county ;hat it had
failed to demonstrate the need
for the stamps.
Protests in
for change in
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Nelson Mandela
led 100,000 cheering black marchers to the seat of
white power Wednesday in one of the biggest
demonstrations ever to demand an end to President
F.W. de Klerk's government.
The African National Congress also staged rallies
in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and other
cities as part of its mass action campaign. Police
arrested more than 600 protesters, most for
occupying government buildings.
The demonstrations were the latest in a series of
ANC protests calling for the removal of the
government. But De Klerk, whose position seems
unshaken, has said that only negotiations, not mass
protest, will resolve the country's political crisis.
Still, the huge turnout will help buttress the
ANC's claim to represent the majority of South
Africans. The march came after a two-day strike in
Africa call
government
which some 4 million black workers stayed home to
demand an interim government by the end of the
year.
"The campaign for peace and democracy must
become a tidal wave," Mandela told the roaring
crowd in Pretoria. "An interim government of
national unity is an urgent and critical step."
"De Klerk must go! De Klerk must go!" the crowd
chanted. Some government and opposition leaders
hope the ANC, boosted by the success of its protests,
will be ready to return to the talks, saying it has a
new mandate from the people. Mandela has
indicated talks could resume within weeks.
"I look forward to the day when Mr. Mandela
will once again see me in my office," De Klerk told
reporters later. "He needn't speak to me from the
lower part of the Union Building. There's an open
door here."
fight for A&M enrollment
Navigators help provisional freshmen overcome
mandatory summer school courses, enroll for fall
Pilotfish
By Tanya Williams
The Battalion
Just as upperclassmen at Texas A&M are
fretting over upcoming finals and looking
forward to the end of the second summer
session, a special group of freshmen join
them in their relief of the end of summer.
Provisional freshmen, or Pilotfish, are
finishing their summer just as all summer
school students are, but they are not attend
ing just to get a jump on class hours, but
rather to assure that they will be allowed to
enroll as Aggies in the fall.
Provisional freshmen, students who
have applied and been accepted to Texas
A&M under a provisional agreement, must
enroll in nine to 12 class hours during the
summer before their freshman year and
maintain a GPR of 2.0 with no failing
grades in order to gain full admittance to
A&M in the fall.
The courses they take are core curricu
lum courses such as the required History
105 and 106 courses, as well as English and
Political Science courses.
"These courses are a lot more difficult,"
said Kim Henry. "A lot more in-depth."
Henry, who will be an accounting major
in the fall, credits some of her success in the
provisional program to the Pilotfish pro
gram organized by the Aggie Orientation
Leader Program and the Department of
Student Affairs.
The Orientation Leader program as
signed a number of Orientation Leaders, or
Pilotfish Navigators, to a group of eight to
nine pilotfish to help them navigate the
friendly, but sometimes dangerous waters
of Texas A&M academics.
Cris Matoon, a senior finance and ac
counting major and a Navigator, took his
responsibility as a navigator very seriously.
"I felt it was my responsibility to do
whatever it took to help the pilotfish suc
ceed at Texas A&M both academically and
socially." Matoon said.
The summer began with Navigators just
answering questions and organizing social
outings such as bowling, Matoon said.
Soon students realized that there was more
to college than a social standing.
"Soon students realized that they needed
to buckle down." Matoon said.
To deal with students' worries about
their academics. Navigators organized
study sessions for eight different subjects as
well as test and note-taking help sessions.
Matoon even went to class with students to
help them learn the proper way to take
notes.
Navigators also put together a study
group phone list of 45 to 50 students so that
other pilotfish may be easily contacted.
"The study sessions helped promote uni
ty and naturally broke down lines," Ma
toon said. "They (the sessions) built friend
ships."
All pilotfish did not choose to participate
in the program, but instead decided to tack
le A&M alone, Matoon said. Also all that
participated in the programs did not make
it through the summer.
"I had one student call today," Matoon
said. "To say she was going home and
would try to transfer into A&M at a later
date."
One of the provisional freshmen that is
remaining to enroll in A&M says she has
made it through a difficult but fun summer
and she looks forward to the fall at A&M .
"The atmosphere at A&M is so laid-
back," Cynthia Palmer, a Chemical Engi
neering major said. "I like it."