The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 05, 1998, Image 12

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    # A
Thursday • Marc
v-j ^ ^|f The Battalion
World
Students protest crisis in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) —Thousands
of banner-waving university students de
manded President Suharto’s ouster
Wednesday — the largest display of anger
yet over the economic crisis that has In
donesia in an upheaval.
The protests came as the United States
and other foreign lenders stepped up the
pressure on Suharto to carry out reforms
they consider crucial to rescuing the econ
omy — reforms that could undercut much
of Suharto’s power and wealth.
“HangSuharto!” shouted protesters in the
Java island city of Yogyakarta, circling their
campus on scooters under the scrutiny of
hundreds of police and plainclothes officers.
Students also rallied in several other
cities on Java as well as on Sulawesi, anoth
er of Indonesia’s larger islands.
Five people have been killed in riots this
year over rising food costs, but Wednesday’s
rallies were peaceful.
Confined to campuses, they posed little
threat to Suharto, who has resisted calls to
overhaul the government he began shap
ing in the 1960s.
Even as the students protested, dele
gates to a special assembly were preparing
to extend Suharto’s 32-year rule. Already
Asia’s longest-serving leader, the 76-year-
old president is almost certain to get a sev
enth five-year term next week.
However, Suharto is under growing in
ternational pressure to carry out economic
reforms in exchange for $43 billion bailout
by the International Monetary Fund.
“Suharto is the
mastermind of
the crisis.”
Pedro Viera
Indonesian student
The IMF has already handed over $3 bil
lion, but still has not decided whether to
grant the second $3 billion installment,
due March 15.
The United States, which exerts virtual
veto power over the IMF, says Suharto is not
moving fast enough on reforms that would
remove business perks he, his family and
their associates have long enjoyed.
Indonesia says many of the measures,
including the slashing of subsidies, are too
strict and could provoke more social unrest.
But with the deadline nearing, Suhar
to said Wednesday that he had disman
tled a string of monopolies in line with the
IMF requirements.
In a meeting of top economic advisers,
he said the government has stripped the
state agency Bulog of all trade controls ex
cept for a rice monopoly.
Presidential spokesperson Murdiono,
who attended the meeting, quoted Suhar
to’s remarks on reform.
Indonesia’s worst economic turmoil in
three decades began when the currency,
the rupiah, plunged in value last year, push
ing up prices and unemployment in the na
tion of 202 million.
Protesters said Suharto is to blame.
“Suharto is the mastermind of the cri
sis,” said Pedro Viera, a student at the pres
tigious Gadjah Mada University in Yo
gyakarta, 310 miles east of Jakarta.
The Yogyakarta students also appealed
for the government to take action against
ethnic violence.
Floods in Pakistan leave
homeless, 1,200 feared
Pakistani shot after forbidden love affair sparks riots
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) —
The man whose marriage to the
woman he loved landed them
both in jail and sparked riots by
their rival ethnic groups was
shot and critically injured
Wednesday when he arrived at
court to face charges of having
extramarital sex.
Police arrested the bride’s fa
ther, brother and the man her
family wanted her to wed for
the shooting of Kanwar Ahson.
Doctors said Ahson was fight
ing for his life Wednesday night
with gunshot wounds in the
chest, abdomen and leg.
Ahson, a member of the Mo-
hajir community in his 20s, and
Riffat Afridi, an 18-year-old
Pathan, eloped last month
against her family’s wishes. The
marriage sparked riots in
Karachi that killed two people,
and a council of Pathan elders
sentenced Afridi to death, saying
she had dishonored her family.
As night settled on Karachi,
police stepped up patrols and
security forces stood guard in
armored personnel carriers,
hoping to ward off possible
ethnic violence.
Ethnic Pathans, who are from
Pakistan’s conservative North
west Frontier province, have of
ten clashed with Mohajirs, Mus
lims who migrated from India
after the subcontinent was par
titioned by the British in 1947.
TURBAT, Pakistan (AP) — Raging Hood
waters have submerged a remote corner of
southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 100
people and washing away huts, hospitals
and a school where dozens of students had
been trapped.
Some 1,200 people were missing and
feared dead Wednesday.
The one-room religious school was
submerged by high water Tuesday, drown
ing 35 of 39 pupils there, said Ghulam Mo
hammed Afridi, a local official in Pakistan's
southwestern Baluchistan province.
In the same hard-hit village of Marri-
abad, a man watched as the Hood swept
away two dozen members of his family. He
survived by clinging to a tree.
Rains that began Sunday turned the
usually dry Dasht River into a torrent that
roared over hundreds of homes, most of
them made of sun-baked mud and straw,
said Noor Ahmed Shah, an official in
Baluchistan province.
Residents of Ttirbat, a city of several
thousand, said the rains had Hooded
dozens of homes, shops and at least two
hospitals. Medical equipment was dam
aged and patients had to be moved to
higher ground.
In Marriabad, a village of6,000, there was
barely a home still standing, said Nasir Mo
hammed, who lost 24 members of his family.
Family members had stacked beds on
top of each other to escape as the water
rose Monday and Tuesday. Then, a gush of
water swept them all away, he said.
“I clung to a tree and I held on,” he said.
"I watched as everything just washed away.
A
AFGHANISTAN j (,
' Isla-
• Quetta
BALUCHISTAN
PAKISTAN
Turbat
Flash floods
Arabian Sea
It was there and then it waste
thing. Everyone." ht
I he only other membero:.a
survive was his father.
Relentless rain and poor-
pered relief and rescue effor
i 70 miles west of the portcirl ■
Afridi estimated that 50(
had been left homeless, andt
bmely enough aid for a fe>|
I he'. h,i\ r (injpped off200te:
"Who am I supposed togive:|
The Pakistan governmeni:
vately t un Hdhi emergency'll I”!
helicopters with supplies in;
soaked areas. ca|
AilwiI
/ al
Mick said, "They made my lips explode!"
Stevie said, "They're a Wonder!",
Bobby McFerrin said, "Don't
worry, be happy, at
Accl 230
Test Review
Mon Mar 9
6pm-9pm
Teat Review
Mon M»r 9
Opm-Ham
Bana303
Buffa
Part I
Sun Mar 8
5}>m-7pm
Part H
Mon Mar 9
5pm-7pm
.
Part HI
Tue Mar 10
5pm-7pm
Tart IV
Wed Mar IT
5pm-7pm
Biol 113
Part t
Sun Mar 8
or
8pm>11pm
Part II
Mon Mar 9
Spm-Hpm
or
8pm~l!pm
Part III
Tuc Mar 10
5pm~7pm
or
8pm-t0pm
Fine 341
Part 1
Sun Mar 8
7pm-10pm
Part II
Mon Mar 9
7pm-!0pm
Fart HI
Tue Mar to
7pni-9pm
'
Econ 203
Parti
Toe Mar 10
6pxn~9pm
Part II
Wed Mar II
6pnv9pm
Tickets gt
Sunday at
on sale jj
12:00 p.m. 1
;kets go on 1
jrsday 1
p.m.
Econ 311
Parti
Sun Mar 8
j4pm-7pm
Part II
Mon Mar 9
6pm-9pm
1 sale Th
at 6:00
Math 141
Part 1
Sun Mar 8
7pm'9 pm
Part II
Mon Mar 9
7pm-9pm
Part III
Tue Mar 10
7pm-9pm
Part IV
Wed Mar 11
7pm-9pm
Math 151
Part 1
Sun Mar 8
9pm-H pm
Part II
Mon Mar 9
9pm-!!pm
Part III
Ttie Mar 10
9 pm-11 pm
Part IV
Wed Mar tl
9pm-tlpm
Math 152
Part I
Sun Mar 8
Upm-lam
Part II
Mon Mar 9
Upm-lam
Part III
Ttoe Mar 10
Upm-lam
Part tV
Wed Mar 11
Hpm.lam
Mgmt 211
Part!
Sun Mar 8
tpm-3pm
or
3pm-5pm
Part IT
Sun Mar 8
5pm~7pm
or
7pm-9 pm
Question;
Which animal is
known as "the
noble beast of
the forest"?
(First 5 to call
with answer
get free
review!)
Answer appears Thursday
Last week's answer: The $1 uu
bill is the largest now minted.
696-TUTOR (8886)
4.0 & GO
HQ
- GMing*. BluaJi
■SUL KaJiktua-u -
T'h
lA'Jn
TAMU
Look for our ads
in the Batt on
Mondays
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Interested in recruiting students for AM;
Come to our informational meeting wmi
to 1
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Applications available in ACAD 101 or check out our wfpsyc
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http://honors.tamu.edu/hip.htm
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Is open to female and male freshman through seniors, Officer Candidates class open to seniors^ruc
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GUARANTEED AVIATION for qualified students (both male and female) with 20/30 or better .qq)-, f
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Military Police, Computer Science, Air Traffic Control, and Logistics Management.
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Call 846-9036/0273 for more information
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