1NJ PTA7 CL Y *1 Or jP Associated Press
X ^1 V w A h*Jr w Edited by Brandon Loomis
Modrow appeals for immediate reunification negotiations
EAST BERLIN - East German
Premier Hans Modrow, pressed by
mass emigration and a crumbling
economy, appealed Tuesday for
immediate reunification talks under a
formula worked out with the Allied
victors of World War II.
WftUT*
Mod row
Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the West
German chancellor, urged Modrow’s
government to create a social secu
rity system as generous as West Ger
many’s as a means of stopping the
flight.
More than 400,000 people have
left the East for West Germany in the
last year, most of them skilled work
ers, after giving up hope of signifi
cant improvement in living condi
tions at home.
Kohl met with West German in
dustrial leaders Tuesday to draft plans
for “solidarity with East Germany,”
and told journalists his government
would help Finance unemployment
benefits and pensions for East Ger
mans.
He was vague about the degree to
which West Germany would under
write the costs of East Germany’s
transition to capitalism, however,
saying only that Bonn could provide
“start-up financing” for the benefits.
His references to German “social
unity” reflected a growing realiza
tion among West Germans that they
must pay for reunification. Kohl’s
government has been reluctant to make
firm deals with Modrow, a rcform
mindcd Communist whose interim
Cabinet will govern only until free
elections March 18.
East Germany’s parliament passed
a constitutional amendment and leg
islation Tuesday setting rules for the
elections.
The new parliament will have 400
seals, 100 fewer than the current
People’s Chamber, and no minimum
percentage of the vote will be needed
for a party to win seats. In West
Germany, a party must get 5 percent
of the vote.
Modrow, addressing the parliament
said representatives of the two Gcr
manys should “begin preparing the
‘2-plus4’ conference as soon as pos
sible.”
At a meeting in Ottawa, Canada,
last week, the United States, the Soviet
Union, Britain and France agreed with
East and West Germany on a two
stage plar for reunification.
In the first stage of what became
known as the “2-plus4” formula,
German experts would discuss politi
cal, economic and legal steps to unity.
In the second, the Germanys would
be joined by the Allies to discuss
international ramifications.
Modrow said parallel plans should
be made for a meeting of the 35
nation Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
He again expressed regret that Bonn
would not provide the $9 billion in
immediate aid he requested. “Such
aid is in my opinion necessary to
counter a further exodus, and this
should be of common interest” to
both governments, the premier said.
West Germany has approved the
equivalent of about $3.5 billion for
projects over which Modrow’s gov
ernment has little control.
East and West Germany should
issue a statement guaranteeing Po
land’s western borders, Modrow said.
Kohl, concerned about conservative
support in the December elections,
has not made a public, unequivocal
declaration that he recognizes those
borders.
Aboutone-third of Poland was part
of Germany before World War II and
the Poles have demanded inclusion in
the “2-plus-4” because of concern
over possible German claims to its
territory. Modrow supported that
position Monday, but West Germany
has resisted it.
A joint government commission
of East and West Germany met in
East Berlin Tuesday to discuss ways
of achieving monetary and economic
unity.
Earlier this month, Kohl offered to
make the West German mark the
official currency of both countries.
He said that would give East Ger
mans confidence in their future, but
the East Germans fear unemployment
as inefficient factories are forced to
close under a more competitive capi
talist system.
East Germany is planning to end
subsidies, and Modrow appealed to
citizens Tuesday not to hoard food.
He reported hearing of runs on gro
cery stores while prices remain low,
but journalists saw no unusual crowd
ing at food stores in East Berlin.
Modrow urged people to keep their
money in the banks. East Germans
worry about their savings becoming
worthless under a monetary union
with West Germany and have been
withdrawing funds.
Lincoln man seeks people
for local Ku Klux Klan
to battle ‘reverse racism’
A Lincoln man is on a one-man
mission to revive the Ku Klux Klan in
Nebraska.
Larry Trapp placed a three-day ad
in the Lincoln newspapers that of
fered information about the Klan. He
said he knew four or five local men
who were interested.
Trapp is in his early 40s, retired,
and is wheel-chair bound because of
health problems. He said Monday that
he wanted to devote his time to Klan
recruitment.
“We don’t advocate violence,”
he insisted. “We advocate going
through the courts, later-writing, trying
to do everything legally.”
He said he wanted to rectify what
he saw as reverse racism that im
pinges upon the rights of Caucasians.
“We do the same thing the NAACP
docs,” he said. “They stick up for
their people, as they should.”
Trapp conceded that minorities
deserve equal opportunities to learn
and earn, and deplored the murders of
three civil rights workers in the early
’60s.
He simultaneously lamented “race
mixing” because, tic said, it led to
“mongrclization of the races,” and,
regarding Jews, insisted, “We just
want to keep them from taking over
the country like they have been.
They’re big in banking.”
He said the Klan isn’t a hate or
ganization. He said it recently has
been involved in anti-drug campaigns,
advocating the death penally for cer
tain crimes, pushing for strict en
forcement of anti-obscenity laws, and
opposing abortion and euthanasia.
Trapp said he belonged to the origi
nal 123-year-old Klan, headquartered
in Shelton, Conn. That group, led by
James Farrands, distributes literature
that is somewhat less militant and
extreme than other Klan groups, he
said. One brochure recommended a
thrcc-ucred school system with black,
white and integrated buildings. Indi
viduals could choose which to attend.
Another brochure on the Holocaust
presented an argument that fewer than
6 million people died and those that
did probably succumbed to typhus,
not gas chambers.
“To tell you the truth,” Trapp
said, “the main headquarters (of the
Klan) had almost given up on Ne
braska and Iowa until I got started.”
He said he hoped to distribute lit
erature, recruit members, organize
Klavems (units of the Klan) and dis
pel what he termed misconceptions
about the group primarily spread by
the media.
As for past violence, “I can’t an
swer for things that happened during
Reconstruction. I wasn’t there. We’re
not responsible for what happened
then.”
A Nebraska native, Trapp alluded
to working briefly as a police officer
and getting a degree from the Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln. Heclaimcd
to have fought as a mercenary soldier
in what was formerly Rhodesia in
Africa.
It was there he came to despise
communism, he said, noting that he
fought side-by-side with black sol
diers.
“I believe in racial pride. I believe
black people should be proud of being
black. I believe white people should
be proud of being white.”
He said there were more people
interested in joining the Klan lhan
many would assume.
“The minority organizations are
here, and I’m not saying they don’t
have a right to be here. But we have a
right to be here, too.”
Nebraskan
Editor Amy Edwards Graphics Editor John Bruce
472-1766 Photo Chief Dave Hansen
Managing Editor Ryan Sleeves Night News Editors Jana Pedersen
Assoc News Editors Lisa Donovan Diane Brayton
Eric Planner Art Director Brian Shellito
Editorial Page Editor Bob Nelson General Manager Dan Shattil
Wire Editor Brandon Loomis Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
Copy Desk Editor Darcle Wlegert Publications Boara
Sports Editor Jeff Apel Chairman Pam Hein
Arts & Entertainment 472-2588
Editor Michael Deeds Professional Adviser Don Walton
473-7301
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Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1990 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Bush administration considers
caterpillars in war on drugs
WASHINGTON - The Bush
administration is pushing research
into a possible new combatant in
the war against cocaine - a cater
Sillar with a taste for coca leaves --
ul officials said Tuesday that the
insects won ’ t be deployed in South
America unless local governments
approve.
“We are not undertaking any
biological war,” said President
Bush’s spokesman, Marlin Fitzwa
ter. “Neither troops nor caterpil
lars will go in without prior re
quest and consultation.”
Peruvian and Bolivian growers
supply the vast majority of the
world’s coca leaves, the raw mate
rial for cocaine.
The embassies of Peru and
Bolivia did not respond to several
requests for comment on the pro
posal, first reported by The Wash
ington Post in Tuesday’s editions.
The administration’s drug
budget proposal for the Agricul
tural Research Service for fiscal
1991, starting Oct. 1, is S6.5 mil
lion, a $5 million increase over the
SI.5 million to be spent this year.
The principal focus of that re
search is the malumbia, a white
moth that, when it is still in its
caterpillar stages, cats coca plant
leaves, officials said.
“This is quite a voracious cat
erpillar,” Waldemar Klasscn, as
sociate deputy administrator for
the ARS, told the Post. “If we
could pul them down there in suf
ficient number, we could then
defoliate the plants.”
Both Fitzwater and Don Ha
milton, a spokesman for national
drug control policy director Wil
liam Bennett, emphasized that the
insect research program is in the
experimental stage.
“The Department of Agricul
ture is studying not just coca but
other drug plants as well to learn as
much about them as possible,”
Fitzwatcr said. “This research
includes study of herbicide and
natural enemies of these plants...
. This program is experimental.
Absolutely no potential tool will
be considered for use until it is
proven to be safe and effective.”
Fitzwatcr said the subject of
biological war against drug crops
was not broached at last week’s
drug summit in Colombia.
Environmental activists were
divided over the proposal.
Maureen Hinkle, the National
Audubon Society’s director of
agricultural policy, said, “1 think
that it’s an approach that bears
exploring.
“Biological controls, when they
work, they work like a ballet,”
Hinkle said. “The only problem is
they need to make sure that the
selectivity of the caterpillars is for
the coca plants and not to other
crops."
But Sandra Marquardt, pesti
cide information coordinator for
-4 4
We are not untier
taking any biologi
cal war. Neither
troops nor caterpil
lars will go in with
out prior request
and consultation.
Fitzwater
White House spokesman
-1 f -
Greenpeace U.S. A., said the ‘ ‘drug
bug” idea “might be a proposal
that needs to be nipped in the bud. ’ ’
“It’s an expensive proposition
and probably won’t work the way
US DA wants it to work,” Mar
quardt said. “The reason is that
USDA wants to use an insect and
the coca growers have insecticide,
so they will just use insecticide to
kill USDA’s insect.”
Coca growing and processing
already are “extremely destruc
tive” to the environment because
of the insecticides and the harsh
chemicals employed, Marquardt
said. But instead of the caterpillars
producing “a nice biological con
trol, you’ll have growers adding
ever more insecticides to an al
ready destructive production pro
gram.”
Eric Christensen, a Natural
Resources Defense Council attor
ney, said he is “extremely dubious
that such a program could be
launched without producing po
tentially major environmental
consequences, either from spread
ing an exotic pest that could have
far-reaching consequences, or from
producing a m^jor increase in pes
ticide usage.”
Hamilton, Bennett’s spokesman,
said the proposal is to look “at all
drug plants to try and learn as much
as we can about them, including
herbicides and natural enemies of
the plants. This isn’t something
that is an option yet. It’s a prospect
of an option....
“If we didn’t look into this stuff,
I think we’d be irresponsible,”
Hamilton said.
Bui he cautioned that even if the
caterpillar successfully wiped out
coca crops, “You’ve still got other
drugs.... This doesn’t end every
one’s problems by any stretch of
the imagination.”