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^ X %J VV X/IIbC^* Edited by Diana Johnson Friday, March 17,1988
Anderson sees 4th anniversary
Hostaees on hold
WASHINGTON - Terry Ander
son began his fifth year as a hostage in
Lebanon Thursday. The Bush ad
ministration called his detention a
“criminal act which serves no
cause” and joined his relatives and
fellow journalists in demanding his
release.
“Enough is enough_This can
not continue,” Peggy Say, Ander
son’s sister, told a ceremony attended
by members of Congress, Anderson’s
colleagues and relatives of the hos
tages. Her brother, she said, is “tired
of being caged like an animal.”
“Our hearts cry out in protest”
over Anderson’s plight, said Louis D.
Boccardi, president of The Associ
ated Press, Anderson’s employer.
“It’s time for those holding Terry
Anderson to release him and to end
the unconscionable suffering of an
innocent man. Each of us in our own
special way should mark this day
with contemplation and prayer for
Terry’s release,” Boccardi said in a
statement transmitted to The AP’s
staff.
President Bush, through his
spokesman, expressed sympathy for
Anderson’s family and for those of
the eieht other American hosLanes
held in Lebanon, as State Department
officials said they “have not forgot
ten the hostages.”
“The president certainly is con
cerned about the hostages,” said
Marlin Fitzwater, Bush’s spokesman,
who was in Houston w ith the presi
dent. “He is aw'are of Terry Ander
son’s captivity being four years
now'.”
“Marking these anniversaries is
difficult for the families,” but they
serve to remind all Americans that
their countrymen are held in Leba
non, he said.
The administration pledged to
continue w-orking for the release of
Anderson, the longest held of the
American hostages, but officials re
peated their policy of not cutting
deals w'ith pro-Iranian Moslem
Shiites believed to be holding the
hostages.
“We continue to hold the kidnap
pers responsible for the safety and
w'ell-being of the hostages,” said
State Department spokesman Char
les Redman. “Their continued deten
tion is a criminal act which serves no
cause.”
He said the captors should release
the hostages “immediately and un
conditionally” in accordance with
“universal humanitarian obliga
tions.”
“We call on all countries with
influence over the hostages, such as
Iran, to use that influence to obtain
freedom for all the hostages,” Red
man said, adding that the administra
tion is working with the United Na
tions and other governments to
achieve freedom for the eight.
Journalists’ unions worldwide
used the occasion to demand more
intensive diplomatic efforts to free all
15 foreign hostages held in Lebanon.
At the European Parliament meet
ing in Strasbourg, France, the Inter
national Federation of Journalists
urged the diplomatic community not
to foresake the hostages.
The parliament adopted a resolu
tion demanding the immediate re
lease of the hostages and calling on
the 12-mcmber European Economic
Community to inform Middle East
governments known to “have influ
ence” on the kidnappers that good
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the release of the hostages."
The Committee to Protect Jour
nalists, a New York-based group,
called on Bush to use “every means
at his disposal to bring Terry Ander
son home.”
At the anniversary ceremony in a
House office building, Tom Brokaw
of NBC News said Anderson has not
been forgotten by his colleagues dur
ing the four years he has lived in a
small, dingy room - often without
light. The ceremony was co-spon
sored by No Greater Love, a humani
tarian organization, and the Journal
ists Committee to Free Terry Ander
son.
“We can’t turn our backs when
people are denied human rights,”
Brokaw said.
Colleagues w ho knew and worked
with Anderson,41, talkedofhisdcdi
cation to his job, his desire to tell the
story of the war-torn nation and his
w illingness to take risks.
m
p.
Public wants Brown treed;
attorney says outcry hurts
___ _ __ ^ f_n_ oj !_ .
L-Ulumdia, -- wnne
inmate James Brown works with a
prison choir, the voices of support
ers trying to win early release for
the “Godfather of Soul” ring loud
across the country.
Jesse Jackson urges compas
sion for Brown, who is serving a
six-year prison sentence for trying
to run over two police officers
during a two-state chase last fall.
New York activist A1 Sharpton
vows nationwide rallies on May 3 -
Brown s 56th birthday - to draw
■ attention to the soul singer’s
plight, while a record by a Los
Angeles songwriter-producer
team proclaims: “Free James
Brown, the man has too much
soul.”
The fight to free the soul singer
even went galactic this week when
NASA’s Mission Control in Hous
ton awakened the space shuttle
Discovery’s five astronauts with
shouts of “I Feel Good” from
Brown’s smash 1960s hit, “I Got
You (I Feel Good).”
“In a strange way, I think the
fact that James Brown is now- in
outer space . .. simply heightens
the case to a global awareness,”
Jackson said in a telephone inter
view this week from Los Angeles.
mil mu campaign uj uuu biuwh
has not persuaded South Carolina
corrections officials to move up
Brown’s parole eligibility date
from May 12, 1991.
In fact, one of Brown’s attor
neys fears such attention will only
hurt “The Hardest Working Man
In Show Business” when he ap
pears in state court in Aiken at a
probation revocation hearing Fri
day.
“Any kind of publicity hurts
Mr. Brown with regard to his
criminal trouble,” defense attor
ney Billy Weeks said. “It might
knln bu' rrt/»e\ +r\ nlbin^ *> kill it kiirfir*
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him in court. It puts pressure on the
judge to be a little bit harsher.”
Corrections officials requested
the hearing after Brown allegedly
tested positive for marijuana and
PCP in December. Brown was put
on probation after his conviction
last July for resisting arrest and
carrying a pistol; random drug test
ing is one probation provision.
He has been incarcerated at the
State Park Correctional Institute
near Columbia since Dec. 29 after
a conviction stemming from an
unrelated wild car chase wkh au
thorities from South Carolina and
Georgia on Sept. 24. Tests showed
uiumiiuaui in msayMwii wiien I
he was arrested.
Brown also is scheduled to I
appear in court in North Augusta in
mid-April on a charge of driving f
under the influence. J
The soul singer works as a
kitchen aide at the state prison
helping to serve and prepare meals
for 150 inmates. In his spare time,
he sings with the choir and com
poses on a laptop keyboard, said
state Department of Corrections
spokesman Francis Archibald.
Brown did not respond to a let
ter from The Associated Press re
questing an interview.
Despite his legal problems,
Brown’s career is hardl> faltering.
An album he recorded in Dc
rpmhpr with Arplhn Fmnklin tv
fore his conviction is to be released
in the coming weeks Cinemax is
broadcasting on cable television
Brown’s November concert tour in
Italy.
And Brown’s album, “I'm
Real,” released in August, is sell
ing well, said Johnny Musso, presi
dent of Scotti Brothers, Brown’s
Santa Monica, Calif., record label.
“We don’t think this t Brown’s
conviction) has hurt him at all,”
Musso said.
Soviet party adopts agricultural reform
.viubLUW - Lommumst Party
leaders Thursday approved sweeping
reforms giving farmers the right to
lease state-owned land to increase
Soviet food production.
Soviet consumers, who get about
half as much meat and fruit as Ameri
cans, were promised diets “up to
generally recogni/cd standards of
nutrition" by 19%, Politburo mem
ber Yegor K. Ligachev told a news
conference.
The party also elected its 100
members to the Congress of People’s
Deputies, a new 2,550-scal legisla
tive body that will meet for the first
lime in the spring. Among them was
rresiueni .viiKnaii a. uornacncv.
The plenum of the 300-member
Central Committee was cal led amid a
debate centering on Gorbachev’s
plan to give farmers long-term leases
on state-owned land to make them
more efficient.
He also has urged that farmers be
given freedom to decide w hat to plant
on that land, rather than having that
decided by the bureaucracy.
Ligachev said leases could be
signed for any period of more than
five years and be passed on to suc
ceeding generations of farmers.
He said no one would be forced
into leasing land and that the giant
Nebraskan
Editor Curt Wagner . Night News Editors Victoria Ayotte
472-1766 Chris Carroll
Managing Editor Jane Hlrt
Assoc News Editors Lee Rood Art Directors John Bruce
Bob Nelson Andy Manhart
Editorial Page Editor Amy Edwards General Manager Dan Shattll
Wire Editor Diana Johnson Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
Copy Desk Editor Chuck Green Advertising Manager Robert Bates
Sports Editor Jett Apel Sales Manager David Thiemann
Arts & Entertainment Circulation Manager Eric Shanks
Editor Mlckl Haller Publications Board
Diversions Editor Joeth Zucco Chairman Tom Macy
Sower Editor Kirstln Swanson 475-9868
The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board. Ne
braska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln, NE, Monday through Friday during the academic
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Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1989 DAILY NEBRASKAN
r-1- 'll. ■■■ 111 'IIMIMl'TI’rilinr ' 'I'.'l.,,.. 1 .VL-I1 .'ITT.-.-. , . . .
stale and collective tarms would
remain the backbone of the Soviet
agricultural system.
“Radical changes in rural life and
production relations should be car
ried out on a purely voluntary basis.
.. without any kind of force or repres
sive methods,” Ligachev said in his
first appearance before foreign re
porters.
Setting targets for leasing would
only encourage strong-arm tactics to
fulfill the plans, Ligachev said.
Ligachev is the Politburo member
in charge of farm policy and is w idely
regarded as a conservative force on
the Politburo. In statements before
the plenum, he listed leasing as only
n ii* *
one ol a wide variety of methods to
improve agricultural prodium •
He said the approach to gricul
lure w ill include leasing, scl inane
ing. and greater democracv in rural
life.
In a nearly two-hour speech
Wednesday, Gorbachev painted a
devastating picture ol Soviet agricul
ture, with chemically spoiled land,
investments gone sour and destruc
tion ol systems prevalent in the
1920s.
He said food shortages were inad
missible. “The shortage of food cre
ates social tension and generates not
merely criticism but actual discon
tent.”
He said conditions in ullages in
some regions were so hail that emi
gration to the cities had reached a
“critical level.”
When Josef Stalin forced agricul
tural collectivization in the Id 'Os on
a populace that was SO percent agrar
ian, millions of peasants were de
ported to Siberia and other remote
regions or fled to cities. Catastrophic
famine ensued.
Ever since, farmers working lor
state-owned farms have generally
delivered their yields to market at
fixed prices to meet quotas set hi the
stale bureaucracy.
soldier charged with E. German spying
FRANKFURT, west Germany --
An American soldier who vanished
for 11 days has been charged with
giving East German officials U.S.
plans for defending the border
against a Soviet bloc assault, the
Army said Thursday.
A U.S. military statement said the
East Germans notified U.S. authori
ties that Spec. 4 Michael A. Peri had
made contact with them. Peri disap
peared from his unit near the East
German border Feb. 21, taking a
portable computer with him.
The 21-year-old soldier from
Laguna Niguel, Calif., turned him
self in 11 days later.
In Washington, Pentagon sources
said privately that the East German
government was quietly asked for
help in locating Peri soon after his
disappearance because, one said,
we had no idea if he was a defector,
had been hurt or whatever.”
44 Several days alter the request,
we finally heard back from them
saying they had identified such a
person and had interviewed him, but
that he had left,” the source said.
“We now believe he left East
Germany, went to Austria and then
back into West Germany to his unit.
We know he once lived in Austria
belorc he joined the Army, but we
really don’t know exactly what’s
going on here.”
Peri also brought back the com
puter he look from his unit, where he
worked as an electronics warlare sig
nal specialist, officials have said.
“The specific information that we
have based the charges on pertains 10
his unit’s general defense plan, Lt.
Col. Jake Dye, the U.S. Army Mh
Corps spokesman, told The Associ
ated Press in response to a question.
“Iam not really in a position to
give any more information, lt s map
propriatc to comment any more pent
ing the outcome of the investiga
tion.”
Peri was assigned to the l *1^
Armored Cavalry Regiment, whicn is
responsible fora front-line defense a
the border.