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Vol. 93 No. 31 (8 pages)
The Battalion
1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993
Monday, October 11,1993
w
eekend
rap-up
Israeli hikers die
in guerrilla attack
JERUSALEM — Palestinians
shot and stabbed two Israeli hik
ers in a gorge in the occupied
West Bank on Saturday in the first
fatal guerrilla attack on civilians
since the signing of the Israel-PLO
peace accord last month.
Israel radio said there were re
ports a woman hiker was also
hurt, possibly killed, and that
searches would continue Sunday.
The killings came only hours
after the Israeli navy thwarted
an infiltration attempt from
Lebanon claimed by a radical
PLO faction opposed to reconcil
iation with Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin on Saturday condemned
the attacks, but vowed to stick
with the peace process.
The two Israelis were stabbed,
bludgeoned with stones and shot
at about 2:30 p.m., the army and
media reports said.
American stabbed
in South Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -
An American math teacher was
in stable condition Saturday after
being stabbed several times at
the school where she worked.
Police said robbery appeared
to be the motive for Friday's at
tack on Danielle Marlin, 23, of
Brattleboro, Vermont. She was be
ing treated at Groote Schuur Hos
pital for stab wounds in the neck
and left side.
Marlin was due to return to the
United States next month after
volunteering for a year at the Zon-
nebloem Nest School in District
Six, a sprawling black township
near Cape Town.
Marlin, who is white, had
come to South Africa as part of a
community service program orga
nized by her alma mater. Brown
University, said Zonnebloem Nest
principal Geoff Jacobs.
No peace plan, no
NATO, U.N. says
ZAGREB, Croatia — NATO
won't commit forces to Bosnia un
less a sweeping peace plan is
signed and its terms are met, the
U.N. commander in the former
Yugoslavia said Saturday.
"If, starting on the day of signa
ture of the agreement, things go
fairly well, then we can probably
count on NATO's arrival," said
Gen. Jean Cot of France, who
heads a United Nations peacekeep
ing force of nearly 25,000 troops.
But he added: "If, conversely,
things go badly, NATO will not
come."
Cot's remarks came a day after
the presidents of Bosnia and
Croatia appealed for a deploy
ment of NATO troops in disputed
Bosnian territory, followed by ar
bitration on a partition plan.
Beavis, Butt-head
blamed for fire
MORAINE, Ohio - MTV said
it will take another look at its show
"Beavis and Butt-head" after a
woman whose 5-year-old son set a
fatal house fire blamed the cartoon
for promoting burning as fun.
Austin Messner, whose 2-year-
old sister died in the fire, watched
an episode in which the cartoon
characters said fire is fun, said
Moraine Fire Chief Harold Sigler.
"According to the mother, right
after that she caught him playing
with matches," Sigler said.
Austin; his mother, Darcy
Burk; and her boyfriend, Steve
Sears, escaped. His 2-year-old sis
ter, Jessica Matthews, died in the
fire Wednesday.
"Beavis and Butt-head" fea
tures animated two teen-agers
who comment on rock videos
and spend time burning and de
stroying things.
Officials work to avoid oil spill after ship blast
The Associated Press
GALVESTON — Salvage crews Sun
day scrambled aboard a fire-ravaged
gasoline tanker where an explosion
peeled part of the deck back "like a sar
dine can" and is believed to have killed
three people.
At the same time, Coast Guardsmen
strung hundreds of yards of containment
booms in hopes of averting an environ
mental disaster off the coast of Galveston.
Two men were confirmed killed and
one other was missing and presumed
dead after the explosion and fire Satur
day night aboard the 660-foot tanker OMI
Charger. At least a dozen others were
hu' t and required some hospitalization
Coast Guard officials said they were
convinced none of the 8,700 barrels of
Bunker C fuel oil used to power the ship —
the equivalent of more than 365,000 gallons
— had escaped into the Gulf of Mexico.
Booms were set up protectively
around the ship and along nearby sensi
tive wetlands on the Galveston shoreline
about 50 miles southeast of Houston until
crews could remove the fuel.
"There is a potential for a major
spill," Capt. Paul Prokop, commander
of the Coast Guard station at Galveston,
said. "We have deployed a major
amount of boom."
Three of the 35-member crew remained
hospitalized Sunday although only one
was considered to be in serious condition.
The others were treated and released.
Owners of the ship and the Coast
Guard would not say what caused the
fire, which broke out about 8 p.m. Satur
day and burned out of control for some 5
12 hours.
"We don't know at this at this point
what happened," Robert Klawetter, an at
torney for New York-based OMI Corp.,
owner of the ship, said.
Cajuns credited with rescuing crew
The Associated Press
GALVESTON - The Coast Guard
says it was a boatload of heroes who
saved more than two dozen crew mem
bers from perishing aboard an exploding
oil tanker.
But Allen LeBlanc, 54-year-old captain
of the Louisiana supply boat Tim McCall,
says he and his crew are no heroes, only a
bunch of Cajuns who did the right thing.
"You try to help the other guy, 'cause
you never know. One day it might be
you," the Abbeville, La., resident said
Sunday, a day after his 145-foot boat
pulled alongside the blazing tanker OMI
Charger and rescued its crew.
LeBlanc said the Tim McCall was re
turning from delivering supplies to -an
offshore oil platform Saturday and was a
few hundred yards from the 660-foot
tanker when the first of two explosions
occurred. Residents up to four miles in
land reported feeling and hearing the
blast about 8 p.m. Saturday.
"When we got abreast of the ship, we
just heard the explosion," LeBlanc re
called Sunday aboard his boat docked at
nearby Pelican Island. "By the time I
turned around there were flames."
LeBlanc said he immediately steered
toward the tilting tanker to help douse
flames already engulfing the ship's mid
section. But as he approached, he saw
dozens of people huddled on the
tanker's stern.
LeBlanc backed the Tim McCall up to
the ship's deck and 27 stranded seamates
See Rescue/Page 4
Secretary of State:
Pro-military effort in
Somalia 'unbalanced'
The Associated Press
Amy Browning/The Battalion
EMS trainees learn to remove crash victims from vehicles Sunday morning in the Zachry parking lot.
'Rescue day' tests emergency skills
Medics take part in
training opportunity
By Geneen Pipher
The Baitauon
M edics and trainees from
Texas A&M University's
Emergency Medical Service
and Emergency Care Team took
part in a rescue day put on by for
mer A&M Emergency Medical
Technicians (EMTs) Sunday.
The training, which started at 8
a.m., consisted of lectures and
practical skills training in removal
of victims from vehicles, confined
space rescue and mass casualty in
cident situations.
Paramedic Grant Kirby, a senior
biomedical science major and captain
of the training division, said the drill
provides an opportunity to practice
skills that are not often used.
"We are continuing education and
training of our medics," he said. "Ve
hicle extrication and confined space
rescue are not skills we get a lot of
practice in because we don't get a lot
of those types of calls. Most of our
calls are sickness and minor injuries."
The training also allowed the
medics and trainees to build confi
dence in their performance of tricky
skills, Kirby said.
"We are really good at certain types
of calls because we do them all the
time," he said. "When we get a big car
accident, we often don't have the con
fidence in our abilities. That is another
reason why we are having this event,
to build that confidence, refresh our
skills and build our knowledge of how
to deal with those situations.'
Medics practiced vehicle extrica
tion in parking area 51 during the
first half of the day. They rotated be
tween three different training sta
tions: a truck, a mid-sized car and a
wrecked compact car donated by an
area wrecking service.
Paramedic Michael Fraley, a senior
poultry science major and chief of
Texas A&M University's Emergency
Medical Service, said proper handling
of accident victims is crucial, and cre
ativity on the scene is often necessary.
"All accidents are different," Fra
ley said. "Remembering that every
person and every situation is differ
ent is important. There are so many
variables associated with accidents
that you can never have one set way
to approach a wreck, so the medics
have to be creative. They have to put
together everything they have
learned and figure out a way to deal
with the problem."
After lunch, the medics met in the
Zachry Building to perfect their con
fined space rescue skills.
Kirby said the medics used the
building to create situations that might
be difficult for emergency rescuers.
"We set up situations where the
EMT's had to take patients over ob
jects and down fights of stairs and
past various obstacles," he said. "We
practiced putting patients on the
backboards, practiced spinal immo
bilization and protecting the cervical
spine (C-spine) area, which is very
important because one of the most
life-threatening injuries a victim can
sustain is injury to the C-spine area."
Paramedic Emily. Bacon, a senior
biomedical science major, said the
rescue day helped to polish her skills
and give her knowledge to make im
portant decisions on the scene.
"These drills are showing us the
proper way to get victims out of diffi
cult situations, so we don't make the
injury worse than it already is," Bacon
said. "These drills will help us keep
calm in real situations, help us to feel
more confident in our skills and then
we can provide better patient care."
WASHINGTON — American decision-makers
"right up to and including the president" were re
sponsible for the now-discredited tilt toward military
action in Somalia, Secretary of State
Warren Christopher said Sunday.
The effort to apprehend Somali
warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid
and his followers after they began
their attacks on U.N. forces last
June "was a sound and natural re
sponse," Christopher said on
NBC's "Meet the Press.
But, he said, "I think it did get
out of balance" with too much fo
cus on the military and not enough
on the political side of the problem.
"I think we're all responsible
for that, right up to and including the president,"
Christopher said.
Retired Adm. Jonathan Howe, the U.N. special
envoy to Somalia, said a $25,000 reward for Aidid's
Christopher
See Somalia/Page 4
Earthquake in India
Student group plans
fund-raiser for victims
By Jan Higginbotham
The Battalion
Victims of one of India's worst earthquakes in his
tory will receive aid from a group of interested stu
dents at Texas A&M University.
The India Association will sponsor a Food Festi
val in early November to help raise funds for those
people affected by the devastating earthquake that
shook southwest India on Sept. 30.
Rajani Nair, vice president of the India Associa
tion, said the group has already sent a $100 check to
help victims, but Nair said, "we want to send more."
The Food Festival will be held on Nov. 10 in the
Pavilion, and Nair said the organization is plan
ning to ask members of the community to assist
with the program.
Nair said the student group is asking students
and members of the community to take part in the
Food Festival and help raise much-needed money
for the earthquake victims.
Tickets will be sold for the festival, which Nair
describes as an event that will provide "a taste of In
dia for A&M."
Nair said because India has such diverse tastes and
eating habits, the country will be divided up into sec
tions, and various regions of the country will be repre
sented by different members of the local community.
All of the proceeds from ticket sales and other do
nations will go toward helping the earthquake vic
tims of India.
The Food Festival will be a part of a week-long
celebration by the India Association to increase stu
dent awareness of the Indian culture.
Ferry capsizes off South Korea coast,
100 passengers missing, presumed dead
The Associated Press
-The Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea — A ferry capsized in
rough seas off South Korea's west coast on Sunday,
and police said up to 150 people were dead or
missing.
Police said Monday that 44 bodies were recov
ered and more than 100 others were presumed
dead. Reports of survivors varied from 67 to 94, as
did the reported number of people on the ferry.
"The ship sank in less than 30 seconds," said
Lee Sang-mun, who broke a window to escape
his second-floor cabin. "There were many
women and young people in my cabin and rew
came out."
Television reports quoted survivors as saying
most of the passengers were inside the cabins be
cause of the bad weather and were trapped when
the ferry capsized.
Most of the survivors had been on the upper
decks and jumped or were thrown into the water
before the ship went down, survivors said.
The West Sea Ferry sank off the coast of north
ern Chollabukdo province, about 140 miles
southwest of Seoul. It was carrying passengers
bound for a day of fishing and hiking on islands
in the Yellow Sea.
There were conflicting reports on the number
of people aboard the ferry because no passenger
list was available, police said.
State television quoted witnesses as saying
there were 200 to 250 people on the boat, which
had a capacity of 207.
Inside
Campus
• Beam me up! TCA to begin
airing Sci-Fi channel Tuesday
Page 2
Sports
•Aggies whomp Houston,
34-10, Greg Hill returns
Page 5
Opinion
• Editorial: A&M must learn
from mistakes in construction
Page 7
Weather
•Monday; mostly cloudy,
slight chance of rain
♦Forecast for Tuesday:
partly cloudy, highs in 80s
Texas Lotto
•Saturday's winning
Texas Lotto numbers:
2, 12, 27, 29, 38,41