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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1993)
sHssszu-. News digest Reno: Abuse within cult led to FBI attack Bullet wounds found in 3 victims’ bodies WACO, Texas — Three of about 40 bodies found scattered throughout the incinerated ru ins of a cult compound had recent bullet wounds, but authorities said Wednesday it wasn’t clear if they were victims of suicide or j homicide. I * Also still unclear was federal agents’ ratio I nale for sending in tear gas-firing tanks to end < a 51-day standoff with the Branch Davidian | cult on Monday. Attorney General Janet Reno has said that | reports of child abuse in the compound led her to authorize the agents’ assault. The White j House said Wednesday that child abuse inside the compound had been continuing; the FBI , said it had only old reports and a psychiatrist’s analysis. Federal and state officials said about 40 bodies were spotted in the rubble by late Wednesday, but most likely wouldn’t be re moved before Thursday. There was no imme diate word that cult leader Dav id Koresh ’ s body had been found. Investigators were moving cautiously in the city block-sized area where Koresh and 85 others were believed to have died. Nine cultists survived. Many of the found bodies weren’t immedi ately moved because officials were being care ful to avoid possible booby traps and ammuni tion that could explode in the still-warm debris, Justice Department spokesman Carl Stem said in Washington. Charred bodies were being found “generally distributed throughout the rubble,” showing no signs of the group being huddled together as the fire spread, said Chuck McDonald, a spokes man for the state Department of Public Safety. He said at least two bodies have been found in a cinderblock-lined room where Koresh and top lieutenants are believed to have sought cover. “It’s a very gruesome scene,” said Mike Cox, another spokesman for the state agency. - a It’s a very gruesome scene. —Cox Department of Public Safety spokesman --— 99 - Stem said three of the victims had gunshot wounds and died recently. He said one had been shot in the forehead and the head of another victim was “virtually blown away.” Stem ruled out the possibility that they were victims of shootouts Feb. 28 after a raid by federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. He said it was possible that their bodies were struck by ammunition exploding during the inferno in the compound, where at least $200,000 worth of weapons were believed to have been stored. The blaze broke out at the sprawling rural complex after agents used tanks Fitted with booms to break holes in the walls and pump in tear gas. The FBI says agents saw cult members set fire to the wooden buildings in a mass suicide, and had other evidence of arson; at least two of the survivors allege that a tank knocked over lantcrs and started the blaze. Cult member Rita Riddle, 34, shouted to reporters as she left a federal courthouse Wednesday that “there was no suicide pact.” She was charged with conspiracy to murder federal agents; court documents allege she was one of five women who aimed rifles at the agents during the Feb. 28 raid. In Washington, a spokesman for President Clinton said there were “mountains of evi dence” of prolonged child abuse inside the compound. “Protecting the kids was the ultimate ratio nale for going in,” said George Stephanopoulos, the While House communications director. Koresh was “marrying children” and “sexu ally abusing children” and children were “be ing taught how to commit suicide, how to put guns in their mouths, how to clamp down on cyanide,” Stephanopoulos said. Bitter battles continue despite truce in Bosnia TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Bitter fighting between Muslims and Croats raged in central Bosnia despite a truce Wednesday, deepening the ethnic fissures of the year-long Bosnian war. U.N. officials accused the former allies of committing wan ton murders in “ethnic cleansing” operations. The battles have fractured the cen tral region into myriad fronts, fur ther diminishing hopes that a U.N. peace plan for the warring Serbs, Muslims and Croats will come to fruitjon. L The Bosnian Serbs’ leader dealt i peace efforts another blow by refus ~ ing to meet with a key mediator : Wednesday. He later said a meeting : was possible. ; U.N. officials announced they had z disarmed the Muslim defenders of Srebrenica and said a cease-fire was holding around the eastern town ringed by Serbs. Peacekeepers had asked for an extra three day s to gather the arms, but Serb leaders demanded it be completed by noon Wednesday. In Central Bosnia, a truce reached r Tuesday by Muslim and Croat com '• manders failed to stop a sixth straight £ day of combat. U.N. observers esti H mated at least 250 people had lied. £ r- 1 i Col. Bob Stewart, commanding British peacekeepers on U.N. duty, told the British Broadcasting Corp. his troops witnessed “children held in the arms of their mothers and shot.” “Whole families have most cer tainly been killed,” Stewart said. Cedric Thombcrry, deputy head of the U.N. mission in former Yugosla via, said executions and massacres were committed by both factions. Croat militia spokesman Veso Vcgar said the Muslim-Croat truce accord had been extended to the south western city of Mostar, to take effect Friday. Vegar claimed to have intercepted radio messages from Muslim com manders telling their troops to fight on. He said 450 Croat soldiers sum moned for talks with Muslim forces in the central town of Zenica were dis armed and arrested. The U.N. Security Council has voted to impose tougher sanctions on Yugoslavia beginning Monday in an effort to force a cutoff in help for Bosnia's Serbs. Lord Owen, one of the authors of the U.N. peace plan, got a hostile reception in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, when he arrived to make a last-ditch attempt to persuade the Serbs to ac cept the accord and head off sanc tions. The Croats and Muslims have accepted the plan Owen helped write. Nebraskan Editor Chris Hopfensperger 473-1716 Managing Editor Alan Phelps Assoc. News Editors Wendy Mott Tom Maln#iii Editorial Page Editor Jeremy Fitzpatrick Wire Editor Todd Cooper Copy Desk Editor Kathy Steirtauer Sports Editor John Adkleson Arts 4 Entertain- Mark Baldridge ment Editor Diversions Editor Kim Spurlock Photo Chief KUey flmpertay Night News Editors Stephanie Purdy Mike Lewis Steve Smith Leri Stones General Manager Den Shattll Production Manager Katharine PoHcky Advertising Manager Jay Cruse Senior Aoct. Ease. Bruce Kroese Classified Ad Manager Karan Jackson Publications Board Chairman Doug Fiedler 436-7162 Professional Adviser Don Walton 473-7301 FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily NebraskantUSPS 144-060) is published by the UNL Publications Board. Nebraska Union 34.1400 R St.. Lincoln. NE, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions. MMdars are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to me Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 9 a m and 5 p.m Monday through Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For Information, contact Doug Fiedler, 436- 7862. Subscription price Is $50 lor one year. Postmaster Send address changes to the Dally Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE 68588 0448 Second dass postage paid a! Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1993 DAILY NEBRASKAN 10-day Ohio prison uprising draws to a peaceful close LUC AS VILLE, Ohio—A 10-day uprising at a state prison in which at least seven convicts and a guard were killed came to a peaceful close Wednesday with inmates being es corted out of a barricaded cellblock, some on stretchers. The whereabouts of five guards held as hostages was not immediately known. About450prisoners had been holed up in the maximum-security South ern Ohio Correctional Facility since a rioton Easier Sunday. They took eight guards hostage — one was strangled and two were freed unharmed last week. The prison, 80 miles south of Co lumbus, houses some of the state’s most dangerous criminals. By late afternoon, 30 inmates had been escorted out of Cellblock L. They were led out one at a time and some were carried out on stretchers. In exchange for the peaceful sur render, state officials promised to re view the inmates’ complaints, includ ing religious objections to tuberculo sis testing and a federal law that rc: quires integration of prison cells. The surrender was witnessed by religious leaders and ihc news media. Throughout the standoff, inmates de manded that the media witness a sur render in an attempt to discourage authorities from retaliating. “This entire ordeal has been an incredible experience for us all,” Warden Arthur Tate said. “Neverthe less, I am extremely proud thus far at the manner in which everyone has joined together in an attempt to bring this tragic ordeal to a successful con clusion.” On Tuesday, three inmates and slate negotiators met facc-lo-face for the first lime, talking for two hours from opposite sides of a chain-link fence. Niki Schwartz, an inmate-rights lawyer who was brought to the prison on Sunday by stale officials, also took part. “The inmates understand that when a guard has been murdered, no one is going to promise them no prosecution or discipline,” he said. A list of 21 terms announced by inmates earlier included a promise of no retaliation against inmates. How ever, officials did not rule out pros ecution or discipline. Republicans slap Clinton with defeat of his jobs bill WASHINGTON — Democrats i abandoned their effort to push Prcsi- i dent Clinton’s jobs bill through the Senate Wednesday, as relentless Re- i publicans saddled the new president : with his first major legislative defeat. After hours of fruitless negotia tions between White House officials and Senate Democrats and Rcpubli- : cans, the Senate used a voice vote to approve the $4 billion the bill con tained for jobless benefits and strip the rest of the money from the legis lation. The move killed one of Clinton’s major economic initiatives. “While the other side is congratu lating each other on proving they arc a force to be reckoned with, they have only proved that they are the guard ians of gridlock,” said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. Hours earlier, Democrats had lost their fourth attempt to break a filibus ter by minority Republicans that had frozen the measure in its tracks in the Senate since last month. The jobs measure contains SI2.2 billion to restore forests, provide im munizations for children, create sum mer jobs for students and finance )ther programs Clinton says would ;reatc jobs and stimulate the economy. t also has $3.2 billion from the exist ng highway trust fund for road con struction. The administration said the bill ivould create more than 200,000jobs. But Republicans called it unneces sary spending that would swell the federal deficit. “When you can’t give it away, it ain’t very sweet. That’s their prob lem,” said Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Tcxas. There was bipartisan agreement that no matter what happened. Con gress would approve $4 billion in the measure needed next week to con tinue benefits for Americans out of work a long lime. But the political salvos continued unabated on Capitol Hill. “They’ve cut off the options for Americans whoarcoutof work,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said of Repub licans. Republican Bob Dole said, “There arc a lot of people scared in this country. Every day you hear from this White House they’ve got some new idea about spending money or some new tax.” Speaker says to strive for true multiculturalism By Mindy Letter Staff Reporter Molefi Asante discussed Afroccnlricism and encouraged stu dents to become self-educated in a speech Wednesday night at the Cul ture Center. Asante, a professor of African stud ies at Temple University and the au thor of several books, told an audi ence of about 35 students that Afrocentric ism represented a philoso phy in which Africans were the mas ters of their own destiny. “Afrocentric ism is aquality where people of African descent arc seen as subjects of human experience, not as objects of human experience," he said. Asante said African Americans tra ditionally had been shut out of the classroom by a curriculum designed for “white self-esteem." “Most people of African descent in American col lege sare inside the class room but outside the information,” he said. “Students arc not treated as the owners of information,” he said, “they are treated as the renters of the infor mation.” He said the achievements and ex periences of Africans were not dis cussed or studied by professors in normal classroom settings, but were relegated to the study of Africans as objects. He advised black students to take two sets of notes, one to pass the exam - 44-— It takes that view as if it is the one and only way to view the world. —Asante professor of African studies at Temple University -ft - and another to keep their sanity. “Write in the margins, ‘Check this out! * That way you don’t wind up with a negative vision of yourself, and you wart wind upClarence-ized,” he said. Asante was referring to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who some people believe has bought into the American educational system and , as a result, has forgotten his own path to leadership. Asante said it was natural for people to see the world through their own experiences. He stressed that it was not right, however, to impose those views of the world on others. “It takes that view as if it is the one and only way to view the world, he said. He said people must strive for true multiculturalism, one where people s history and experiences are part ot a shared dialogue. Asanlc’s speech was sponsored n> the University Program Council am was part of Black History Week.