The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, February 24, 1989, Page 2, Image 2

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    News Digest Edited by Diana Johnson
Kidnappers vow revenge, presses to print
>> Cologne!
|f 6ft\
I
Pro-Iranian militants. noiuing
American hostages in Lebanon today
vow.cd revenge for the publication of
“The Satanic Verses,” but publish
ers in France and West Germany
reversed decisions not to put out the
book, and two U.S. bookstores re
turned it to the shelves.
Former pop singer Cat Stevens,
who gave up a successful music ca
reer in 1977 after becoming a Mos
lem, supported Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini’s execution order on the
book’s author, Salman Rushdie.
Rushdie, 41, bom into a Moslem
family and living in London, was in
hiding for the ninth day along with his
wife, American novelist Marianne
Wiggins.
Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of
Palestine released a statement threat
ening to take revenge against
Rushdie, the book publishers and
their supporters. The statement was
accompanied by photographs of the
hostages but it did not specifically
threaten the men or any of the 12
other foreign hostages in Lebanon.
Some say “The Satanic Verses”
insults' Islam by portraying the
prophet’s wives as prostitutes and
Mj^gcauiifc, nt wiuic uic rvuian ratner
than receiving it from God. Iranian
clerics offered $5.2 million to anyone
who killed Rushdie.
In West Germany, the prominent
Kiepenheuer and Witsch publishing
house of Cologne said today it will
publish the German-language edition
of “The Satanic Verses.”
The publishing house last week
said it would not publish the novel
because it feared reprisals against its
employees, but it changed its stance
after West German writers and other
cultural institutions appealed for the
book to be published.
In London, Stevens, whose hits
included “Peace Train” and “Wild
World,” endorsed Khomeini’s death
sentence, telling Moslem students:
“The Koran makes it clear - if some
one defames the prophet, then he
must die.”
The U.S. bookstore chains of B.
Dalton and Barnes & Noble, which
last week pulled the book from their
shelves, both reversed themselves
after nationwide rallies by writers
and said Wednesday they would have
“The Satanic Verses” in stock in
about 10 days.
Immigration drops
after jailings begin,
few refugees apply
B AYVIEW, Texas - The flood
of Central Americans applying for
refugee status slowed to a trickle
Wednesday, and imm ig ration offi
cials said their get-tough policy of
immediately jailing those denied
asylum appeared to be working.
Only 12 people showed up at
the asylum-processing center at an
immigration jail when it opened
Wednesday morning, compared
with hundreds who had camped
overnight since processing was
1 moved iicre from Harlingen a
week ago.
1 Fewer than i percent of the im
migrants applying were granted
refugee status, and at least 100
denied asylum were jailed.
Immigration and Naturaliza
tion Service officials said it was
too early to declare a trend but that
the sharp drop in applicants indi
cated the plan to speed up process
ing was deterring frivolous ampli
cations, as it was intended to do.
“Evidently the message is get
ting out,” said Mario Ortiz, chief
regional spokesman for the INS.
“Maybe we can pul ourselves
out of business,” said Omcr G.
Sewell, Harlingen District director
for the INS. “I hope so,”
But immigration attorney
Linda Yanez said immigrants have
merely gone underground.
“My guess is that most people
are probably going to just take
their chances and set appre
hended,*” said Ms. Yanez, who
helped organize attorneys to pro
vide free representation for those
denied asylum under the new pro
gram.
“If diey get apprehended,'' she
said, “then they re before an im
migration Jt4go (to submit asylum
applications): where they're going
to gel a fair hearing, as opposed to
this kangaroo court that they’re
conducting over there.”
Ortiz agreed that some people
may have decided to avoid the sys
tem.
Of 233 applications submitted
Tuesday when a new one-day ad
judication procedure began, the
INS granted asylum to only two
people, said spokeswoman Vir
ginia Kice.
The exact number of people
applying was not immediately
known because minors applied
jointly with parents.
A total of 215 applications were
rejected after State Department
and INS officials working until 2
a.m. Wednesday determined the
applicants were not fleeing perse
cution in their countries, a require
ment for political asylum.
Sixteen other applicants were
issued notices of ‘ ‘intent to deny,’ ’
released and told to obtain further
documentation for their cases.
The new procedure calls for
immediate arrest and detention of
unqualified applicants, who are set
for deportation and scheduled to
appear before immigration judges,
where they may resubmit ineir
asylum claims.
Previously, processing of appli
cations took weeks and involved
relaying information to and from
Washington; immigrants who
were denied asylum were freed on
their own recognizance while
awaiting appeals or deportation.
The lNS has added extra staff
arid brought in State Department
officials lo issue on-the-spot asy
lum decisions.
Those dented refugee status
included 103 Nicaraguans, $1 £1
^v^ffs«38 HoXansand 13
Girl’s death linked to Mandela
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
- Police said today that a 13-year-old
girl was killed m an attack on a
Soweto home that may be linked to
the controversy surrounding Winnie
Mandela.
The killing late Wednesday was
the fourth in the past two months that
has involved people connected di
rectly or indirectly to Mrs. Mandela
and her unofficial group of body
guards known as the Mandela United
soccer club.
Police said gunmen fired on the
house with an AK-47 rifle and set the
dwelling ablaze with a firebomb.
A few hours before the attack, an
occupant of the house was detained in
connection with the killing last week
of Maxwell Madondo, a member of
Mandela United, police said.
A former member of Mandela
United, Andrew Ekancng, Was
charged with Madondo’s killing.
Gorbachev makes a visit to Chernobyl
MOSCOW - Mikhail S. Gor
bachev inspected the site of the Cher
nobyl nuclear disaster for the first
time today, and an official said the
president discussed safely measures
taken since the 1986 reactor explo
. sion.
The 57-ycar-old Kremlin chief
visited the Chernobyl nuclear power
plant’s control room and the hall
where turbines generate electricity,
said Yuri Risovany, a spokesman for
Kombinat, the company running the
plant.
The April 26, 1986 explosion, the
world’s worst nuclear power disaster,
sent a cloud of radiation around the
world and killed at least 31 Soviets. It
also shocked many Soviets into rcas
scssing the safely of nuclear power.
Gorbachev met with plant manag
ers and workers and discussed safety
measures taken after the explosion,
the spokesman said in a telephone
interview.
Three of the plant’s four reactors
were operating during Gorbachev’s
visit, Risovany said. The damaged
No. 4 reactor, encased in a stccl-and
concrcte shell, does not operate.
The visit to the plant, 80 miles
north of the Ukrainian capital of
Kiev, came on the third day of a four
day trip to the Ukraine.
Gorbachev then traveled to
Slavulich, a town 30 miles to the west
built to house plant workers after the
accident. Workers previously lived in
Pripyat, a city just a few miles from
the siriken plant.
Gorbachev met with Kombinat
officials to discuss their work and
returned to Kiev, Risovany said.
In Kiev, Gorbachev met workers,
farmers and Communist Parly activ
ists and other Ukrainians, the official
news agency Tass reported.
The official Soviet media carried
no immediate reports on Gor
bachev’s visit to Chernobyl and
Slavutich.
In Kiev on Monday, Gorbachev
assured residents concerned about
the safely of a nuclear power plant
being built on the Ukraine’s Crimean
Peninsula that Soviet officials arc
taking a very cautious approach to
nuclear power.
Calero: Money not for North s use
WASHINGTON - Nicaraguan
rebel leader Adolfo Calcro testified
Thursday in Oliver North’s criminal
trial that he hadn’t expected North to
make personal use of any of the
$90,000 Calcro gave him to help free
American hostages in Lebanon.
“I had absolute trust in what Colo
nel North was doing so I was not
intent in demanding an accounting”
for the money, Calcro said. “He said
that he had an accounting. We talked
about getting it, but I guess I never got
around to it.
Prosecutor John Keker asked Cal
cro if he expected North, who is
charged with taking $4,300 of the
money, to spend any of it on himself
No, said Calcro.
Calcro, one of the top leaders of
the Nicaraguan rebels, known as
Contras, testified that he gave North
the funds in traveler’s checks after
the White House aide “mentioned
the need to help rescue Americans
held hostage.”
The money came from a Miami
bank account that had received $32
million in deposits in eight months
after Calero gave North the account
number, he testified.
The money began flowing in, he
said, in June 1984, soon after official
United States financial support for
the Nicaraguan guerrillas stopped.
“I informed Colonel North of
everything I did,” Calero said. “He
was the one who listened to all our
laments, to all our problems.”
Calero, who w.is president of the
Nicaraguan Democratic Force - FDN
■ was pi second prosecution witness
at North’s trial. As he waited to take
the witness stand, Calero did not look
at the defendant, who was staring at
him intently.
The leadoff witness. Rep. Lee
Hamilton, D-Ind., testified he had not
known ai the lime aboul Reagan
administration solicitations of help
for the Contras from other countries
in return for increased U.S. military
and economic aid.
Hamilton said he didn’t know then
that Secretary of State George P.
Shultz asked an Asian country to
provide communications equipment
to the Contras because the rebels’
devices were antiquated.
He also said he wasn’t old that
Shultz and thcn-Naiional Security
Adviser John M. Poindexter knew of
a plan by a Central American nation
to provide aircraft to help train Con
tra fighter pilots.
And he didn't recall being told that
Poindexter’s predecessor as national
security adviser. Robert McFarlunc,
authorized North to contact “a senior
military official of an Asian country ’ ’
to arrange “the sale of missiles to the
resistance.”
He said, loo, lhal he was nol told
that Gen. John W. Vcssey Jr., then
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
also met with the Asian official to
arrange the sale.
None of the countries involved
was identified.
Hamilton, answering questions
from North lawyer Brendan Sullivan,
said he was nol told of these and other
efforts on behalf of the Contras in the
1984-1986 period when direct U S.
military assistance was forbidden by
law.
“My recollection is that my
knowledge of the events came subse
quent to the time frame,” Hamilton
said repeatedly as Sullivan fired
questions.
Sullivan’s questions were based
on a fought over 44-page admission
by the U.S. government that it made
deals to gel other countries to support
the rebels.
Nebraskan
Editor Curt Wagner Night News Editors Victoria Ayotte
472-1766 Chrta Canon
Managing Editor JaneHIrt librarian AnneMohrt
Assoc News Editors lee Rood An Directors John Bruce
Bob Neiftoi. Andy Manhart
Editorial Page Editor Amy Kdwarde Genera! Manager OenShattll
Wire Editor Diene Johnson Production Manager Katherine Poilcky
Copy Desk Editor Chuck Green Advertising Manager Robert Bates
Sports Editor Jeff Apei Sales teenager Oavld Thiemann
Arts A Entertainment Circulation Manager Iric Shanks
Editor Mlokl Haller Publications Board
Diversions Editor Jovth Zucco Chairman Tom Macy
Sower I dro Klretln Swanson 47S-AS66
Supplements Editor Deanna Neieon Professional Advisor Oon Walton
Graphics Editor Tim Hartmann 47V7301
Photo Chief Connie Sheehan
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