Tuesday, February 24, 1987
Page 2
Daily Ncbraskan
ews Digest
By The Associated Press
JERUSALEM A survivor quivering with
emotion testified Monday that John Demjanjuk
was the Nazi guard "Ivan the Terrible" who
clubbed prisoners, gouged out their eyes and
turned on the gas at the Treblinka death camp.
"This is the man, the man sitting over there,"
Pinchas Epstein shouted in the courtroom point
ing at the retired Cleveland auto worker and
pounding repeatedly on the witness stand.
The outsburst came minutes after he was
asked to identify a picture of the guard in an
album of photographs.
Epstein's parents, sister and two brothers per
ished at the concentration camp in Poland with
850,000 other Jews. He was the first survivor to
testify at the trial of Demjanjuk, a native of the
Soviet Ukraine accused of being the brutal guard
who terrorized and gassed prisoners at Treblinka
in 1942 and 1943.
Demjanjuk, 66, denies ever being at the death
camp and claims to be a victim of mistaken
identity. He listened without emotion Monday as
his interpreter translated Epstein's accusations
from Hebrew to Ukrainian.
Epstein pointed out a 1951 picture of Demjan
juk .on the third page of the photo album and
said: "This is Ivan as I remember him."
"The picture is of an older man than the one I
knew: Nevertheless, the round face, the very
short neck, the broad shoulders, the slightly
protruding ears. This is Ivan," he said.
Epstein escaped from Treblinka during a pri
soner revolt August, 1943 in which some reports
said the brutal guard was killed.
American defense attorney Mark O'Connor
cross-examined Epstein about Ivan's appear
ance, that of a second Ukrainian guard, Nicholai,
and about several Nazi SS officers at the camp.
O'Connor has based his defense on the con
tentions that Ivan died in the uprising and that
survivors' memories more than 40 years later are
not accurate.
Epstein described how Ivan beat prisoners
and mutilated their corpses.
"He was insatiable. He committed incredible
atrocities," Epstein said. "This Ivan would come
out of the engine room and beat us mercilessly.
Sometimes he would have a bayonet, sometimes
a sword, sometimes a metal pipe."
O'Connor pointed out contradictions in
Epstein's statements Monday and earlier tes
timony he gave at the 1981 trial stripping Dem
janjuk of his U.S. citizenship and at the trials of
German SS officers at Duesseldorf, West Ger
many, in 1964 and 1965.
The contradictory testimony involved the
color of the uniform worn by the Ukrainian guard
Nicholai, the name of the SS officer who killed
Epstein's brother David, and the identity of the
Nazi soldier who separated Epstein from those
who were to be executed.
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Soviet dissident returns home;
vows to free political prisoners
MOSCOW Josef Begun came home
from prison Monday to a hero's wel
come at a snowy railroad station in
Moscow, where he vowed to keep up
the fight for Jewish emigration and
human rights until all Soviet political
prisoners are free.
"Freedom for all prisioners of Zion,"
the 55-year-old Begun shouted to dozens
of friends and supporters as he emerged
from the train that carried him to Mos
cow after more than three years in
Chistopol Prison!
His arms were raised triumphantly
over his head and his mouth was open
in a wise, gold-flecked grin. But he
looked tired and gaunt from a two-week
hunger strike and from what he called
the "inhuman conditions" of prison.
"I am insanely happy to be free,"
Begun said in Russian. "I see this is a
certain sign that all political prisoners
"will be free in the nearest future. I will
devote all my strengtrh to see that this
happens as soon as possible."
Friends tossed tulips and carnations
at the Hebrew teacher, who until Fri-
1-
day was the only prisoner still in Chis
topol under the law banning "antk
Soviet agitation and propaganda."
Other such inmates were removed
from Chistopol under a review of dissi
dents' sentences. Some were among
the 150 dissidents who Soviet officials,
say have been pardoned in recent
weeks.
Begun appeared optimistic about
the release of political and religious
dissidents and that Kremlin leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev's reforms would
leap to some liberalization of Soviet
politics, culture and society.
But he said without freedom for all
political prisoners and free emigration,
"the process of democratization will be
just a lot of statistics and not real."
Begun said he still wanted to emi
grate to Israel, but authorities had
made no promises.
He was sentenced in October 1983 to
seven years in prison and five years of
internal exile for Jewish emigration
activities and for opposing restriction
on teaching Hebrew.
In Brief
Conservation group builds toad tunnels
LONDON A conservation group concerned about the mass slaughter
of toads by traffic is building tunnels under a busy street to give toads safe
passage during their annual journey to ponds to mate and spawn.
The Fauna and Flora Preservation Society said Sunday it is working
with a concrete manufacturer to build the tunnels under a main road west
of London near Henley-on-Thames in a pioneering $1,500 plan.
The society already coordinates the national "Help a toad across the
road" campaign, which erects warning signs at nearly 200 sites across the
country where toads migrate to breeding grounds.
Senate passes death penalty again
ALBANY, N.Y. The Republican-controlled state Senate approved
legislation 40-1 6 Monday that would restore the death penalty to New York
for some murderers.
Even if the bill passes the Democratic-controlled Assembly, as
expected, Gov. Mario Cuomo said earlier Monday that he would veto the
measure as he has in each of his first four years as governor.
Similar legislation was' routinely vetoed by former Gov. Hugh Carey
during his eight years as governor. Both Carey and Cuomo are Democrats.
Thus far, sponsors of the legislation have never been able to muster the
two-thirds vote needed to override those vetoes in the 150-member
Assembly.
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Prizes include: $25 gift certificates, stuffed bears, wallets
sports bags, koozies, sports towels, mugs
Enter as many times as you want
categories: technical design business graphics art open
Entry deadline: February 27, 1837
Entry forms and details available at UNL Computer Shop,
CRC (326 Admin), computer user rooms, or call 472-5 103
Prizes provided by Apple, IBM, CRC, and UNL Computer Shop
Terrorism suspect denounces
"Yankee executioners" at trial
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PARIS A Lebanese man accused
in the killings of American and Israeli
diplomats said at the opening of his
trial Monday that he was an Arab figh
ter and denounced "Yankee execu
tioner "' in his homeland.
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, 35, spoke
for about 10 minutes in what appeared
to be a rehearsed monologue when he
was interrupted by Judge Maurice
Colomb, who said Abdallah was begin
ning to repeat himself.
When Colomb asked whether an
attorney representing the United States
and the wife of one of the victims would
like to respond, Abdallah objected and,
raising his voice for the first time,
shouted he should not be forced to
listen to a "Yankee criminal."
Abdallah was handcuffed and led
from the courtroom, and the judge
called a recess.
Abdallah's attorney, Jacques Verges,
later said Abdallah did not plan to
attend the remainder of the trial because
he refuses to subject himself to French
justice and objects to the U.S. govern
ment's role in the trial.
Verges said he would continue to
attend.
The case is the first to be tried in a
special seven-judge "terrorism court,"
set up under laws enacted last year.
The trial is being conducted under
heavy security. Two dozen gendarmes
were stationed in the courtroom, which
provided room for 117 journalists and
about 70 spectators. Dozens of armed
guards were stationed outside the
courthouse near Notre Dame Cathedral
in central Paris.
Abdallah is accused of complicity in
the killings of Lt. Col. Charles Robert
Ray, the deputy U.S. militaryattache in
Paris, on Jan. 18, 1982, and Yacov Bar
simantov, second secretary at the Israeli
Embassy, on April 3, 1982.
Abdallah also is charged with com
plicity in the attempted murder of the
U.S. consul-general in Strasbourgh,
Robert Homme, who was shot and
wounded on March 26, 1984.
Supreme Court to decide on
executions of teen-ae killers
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WASHINGTON The Supreme
Court said Monday it will decide
whether the death penalty is a valid
punishment for convicted murderers
who committed the crimes before they
wjsre 18 years old.
The justices agreed to hear the
appeal of Oklahoma death row inmate
William Wayne Thompson, convicted of
a murder committed when he was 15.
Thompson's appeal contends that
executing teen-age killers violates the
Constitution's ban on "cruel and unus
ual punishment."
Of the more than 1,800 men and
women on death rows nationwide,
about 35 of them were condemned for
crimes they committed as juveniles.
Of the 69 U.S. prison initiates exe
cuted since 1977, three were killed for
murders cennitted befcrs they were
Returning from a four-week recess
with a flurry of activity, the court also:
O Refused to use a case from Min
nesota to reconsider its past rulings
that let states require some girls who
seek abortions to get permission from
their parents or a judge.
O Agreed to judge the validity of a
Virginia law banning the commercial
display of some sexually explicit mat
erials where children might get at
them.
O Said it will consider killing a
12-year-old lawsuit stemming from an
armed confrontation between Indians
and federal agents at Wounded Knee,
S.D. in 1973.
O In a victory for environmental
groups, refused to reinstate federal
regulations that allow industries to cut
back their pollution trcatr.ant cfv.acta
water also treated in public facliities.-
Mo, Democrat
announces bid
for president
ST. LOUIS - Rep. Richard A.
Gephardt of Missouri announced
his bid for the presidency on
Monday, acknowledging he is
unknown to most Americans but
insisting that sheer effort will
catapult him to the 1988 Demo
cratic nomination.
The moderate Democrat, ac
companied by about 20 members
of Congress including House
Majority Leader Thomas S. Foley,
D-Wash., and House Ways and
Means Committee Chairman Dan
Rostenkowski, D-Ill., opened his
bid with a call "to make America
first again'' with a reactivated
national government.
"In this campaign and in the
presidency itself, you and I will
speak for the vast untapped
potential and possibilities of
America," Gephardt said.
Gephardt said his campaign
will center on trade. "The first
task of national leadership is to
remove the barriers that limit
what people themselves can do,"
he said. The six term St. Louis
area congressman became the
first major Democrat to officially
announce for president.
Although Gephardt has been
actively campaigning for the past
year in states with early primar
ies and caucuses, he remains low
in presidential opinion polls. In
Iowa, for example, the latest poll
showed him a distant fourth at 3
percent, behind former Colorado
Sen. Gary Hart with 59 percent,
New York Gov. Mario Cuomo with
14 percent and the Rev. Jesse
Jackson with 5 percent.
Gephardt, 46, has risen quickly
through the House ranks since
his election in 1976, currently
holding the No. 4 leadership spot
3 head cf the House Democratic
Caucus, "