The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, September 14, 1993, Page 2, Image 2

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    Ssiss,- News digest
Clinton hopes to see NAFTA passed
WASHINGTON — The Clinton
administration was preparing a high
profile start Monday to its fall lobbying
campaign on behalf of a free trade
agreement linking th^ United States,
Mexico and Canada.
And at the
same ume.
Treasury
Secretary Lloyd
B e n t s e n
confidently
predicted the
administration
will be able to
overcome
formidable congressional opposition.
President Clinton was to sign
environmental and labor side pacts to
the proposed North American Free
Trade Agreement on Tuesday with
former presidents George Bush,
Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford looking
on.
Meeting with reporters Monday,
Bentsen conceded that the
administration does not yet have the
votes to pass NAFTA, but he said
many lawmakers were withholding
judgment until after they had seen the
side agreements.
“Traditionally, you have more
opposition as you start until you get a
chance to explain the benefits,” said
Bentsen, who rejected suggestions that
the administration was holding back
its lobbying effort because of strong
opposition from labor and
environmental groups who had
heavily backed Clinton’s presidential
campaign. >
“We will win it,” Bentsen
predicted.
The Bush administration
completed the 2,000-page trade
agreement a year ago, but Clinton
demanded negotiation of side pacts in
an effort to answer concerns raised by
environmental ists and unions over lax
enforcement of Mexican laws.
The main trade agreement would
eliminate tariffs and other barriers to
the movement of goods, services and
investment among the three nations
over a 15-year period, creating a free
trade zone of360 million consumers.
Bentsen said the administration
planned to send the implementing
legislation to Congress by Nov. 1.
While that measure cannot be
amended, the administration will
spend the next seven weeks bargaining
behind the scenes on the drafting of
this legislation in an effort to attract
swing votes.
Congress will have up to 90 work
days after receiving the implementing
legislation to vote on the pact.
Senate approval is expected. Rep.
David Bonior, D-Mich. and No. 3
Democratic leader in the House, has
vowed to actively work to defeat
NAFTA and House Majority Leader
Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., has said he
opposes the pact in its current form.
Where the
Palestinians
are today
Of the 5.5 million
Palestinians worldwide
approximately 3.5
million inhabit the
region.
WEST BANK and
GAZA STRIP
1.8 million (about
750.000 are in Gaza,
rest in West Bank)
ISRAEL
About 800.000
(throughout Israel
excluding the West
Bank and Gaza)
LEBANON
About 475,000.
including 317,000
in refugee camps
SYRIA
About 400.000,
including about
250.000 in refugee
camps
JORDAN
About 1.2 million,
including about
225.000 in refugee
camps
Peace
Continued from Page 1
live in peace and renounced violence.
Israel in turn recognized the PLO as
the representative of Palestinians.
The fast-moving chain of events is
expected to continue today with
announcements by Jordan and Israel
at the State Department of agreement
on a negotiating agenda that could
lead to a peace treaty and diplomatic
relations.
The success qf the Israeli-PLO
agreement depends on the
international community providing
billions of dollars to develop the
economy of the West Bank and Gaza.
Clinton made clear he expected other
, nations to provide the lion’s share.
* “We know a difficult road lies
ahead,” Clinton said. “Every peace
has its enemies, those who still prefer
the easy habits of hatred to the hard
labors of reconciliation.”
“It’s not so easy,” Rabin said,
“neither for myself as a soldier in
Israel’s war, nor for the people of
Israel, nor for the Jewish people in the
Diaspora who are watching us now
with great hope mixed with
apprehension.”
Arafat sought to appease his critics
after the ceremony by predicting that
the Palestinian flag “will fly over
iP Jerusalem’s walls, mintages and
churches.”
_STATE WIRE ~~
Lt. Governor to step down
From The Associated Press
Lt. Gov. Maxine Moul, the
state’s first woman lieutenant
governor, plans to step down to
take a job heading the state
EconomicDevclopment
Department, Democratic Party
sources said Monday.
At least four sources, who spoke
on the condition of anonymity, said
Gov. Ben Nelson planned to
announce Tuesday that he would
name his chief of staff, Kim Robak,
to succeed Moul as lieutenant
governor.
Robak’s post will be filled by
Tim Becker, a Lincoln resident
who left the Nelson administration
several months ago to become
assistant director of the Lincoln
Housing Authority, the sources said.
The governor has scheduled a
news conference for today in the
Capitol. Earlier Monday, his
spokeswoman would not disclose
the topic of the news conference
but said it involved a major
announcement.
“During the conference Nelson
will make an announcement that is
both good news for the entire state
and has statewide implications,” a
news release from the governor’s
office said.
Moul did not immediately return
a message left Monday night on
her home telephone answering
machine. NeitherRobak nor Becker
immediately returned messages left
Monday night at their respective
homes.
A former Nebraska Democratic
national committeewoman, the 46
year-old Moul is a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln graduate with
extensive experience in small
business.
Counterfeit lottery tickets being examined
OMAHA — Lottery officials
are investigating seven counterfeit
lottery tickets that were turned in
by a man who said he bought them
outside a service station.
Each ticket showed a
combination worth $10,000, said
State Patrol spokesman JefTHanson.
He said they were turned in Sunday.
John Adams, the lottery’s deputy
director, . said that lottery
investigators were looking into the
matter.
Hanson said the patrol turned
the tickets over to lottery officials
and will not be involved in the
investigation.
A tteiievue man saiu ne oougni
the tickets Friday night and later
realized they didn’t go on sale until
Saturday, the Omaha World-Herald
reported Monday.
“I scratched them off and got
very excited thinking I’d won
$70,000,” the paper quoted the man
as saying.
The scratch-off tickets, which
debuted Saturday, offer a top prize
of $5,000.
The tickets had a lottery logo on
the front, but did not have the
Nebraska scenes on the front or
official instructions on the back,
the newspaper reported.
—- SPORTS WIRE- .
Johnson will try to solve one problem
IRVING, Texas — Dallas
Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson,
addressing a problem he can do
something about, said Monday he
has summoned eight kickers for a
tryout to find a replacement for Lin
Elliott.
Elliott missed two field goal
attempts, including a 30-yardcr, in
Sunday’s 13-10 loss to the the
Buffalo Bills.
Ell iott missed a field goal and an
extra point in an opening 3 5-16 loss
to Washington.
“I dug my grave,” Elliott said
after Sunday’s game. “In practice I
do well. On Sunday I struggle. I’ve
let my teammates down. '
The other problem, unsigned A11
Pro running back Emmitt Smith, is
something Johnson can’t do
anything about.
“We just have to understand
who we are,” Johnson said Monday
Reaction
Continued from Page 1
alternative to hammering out a
solution.
“This thing had to be done,” he
said. “It could fail, but it had to be
tried.
“This could take five to 10 years
until it’s settled, but at least we’re
taking constructive steps forward.” *
Bruce Erlich, a UNL English
professor who also is Jewish, docs not
support the peace plan.
“The present agreement is a
betrayal of the martvrs who died to
defend the Jewish right to exist,” he
said.
Erlich said the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict was very complex.
“From one perspective,” he said,
“it’s a terrible solution because the
PLO is an organization of gangsters
and murderers. And what this
demonstrates is that if you kill enough
people, hijack enough airplanes, cut
the throats of enough children and
make enough noise in the world,
someone will recognize you as a
political force.”
Erlich said he thought Israel was
making a strategic move to undercut
the PLO.
‘‘1 think it’s a very shrewd move on
the part of Israel,” he said. ‘‘1 think it’s
a shrewd move because it calls the
bluff of the PLO. The blufTof the PLO
is first that the PLO is a stable
organization that has authority among
Palestinians. Two, it calls the blurt
that the PLO can in fact institute the
terms of the peace agreement.”
Erlich said he thought Palestinians
eventually would fight each other over
this plan.
“There is going to be a bloody civil
war among Palestinians, as there was
already in the 1970s in Lebanon ... 1
expect it’s likely that something like
that will happen again.”
Erlich said he realized the peace
process would be long. But he said he
was haunted by images of 12-year-old
Palestinians being trained to Xight
Israelis.
“It’s difficult for me to sec that an
entire generation brought up in
Palestinian training camps with their
beliefs are suddenly going toputdown
the ir rifles and suddcnl y accept Israel is
as their brothers,” he said.
Palestinians, who seem to be the
main beneficiaries of the plan, aren’t
necessarily satisfied either.
Moira Ferguson, a UNL English
professor who nas served as the faculty
liaison for the Palestinian Student
Association, said both Palestinians
and Israel is could have mixed reactions
to the accord.
“Many Palestinians, I think, would
see a lot of potential problems in the
plan,” Ferguson said. “1 think many
Palestinians would have wanted some
d iscussion of the settlements and some
discussion of East Jerusalem. I think
some Palestinians would see it as an
agreement between two heads of state
rather than two peoples.”
But Ferguson said she was
cautiously optimistic.
Nebn&kan
EdNor Jeremy Fitzpatrick
472*17—
Managing EdMor Wendy Mott
Assoc. News Editors Angle Brunkow
Kara Morrleon
FAX NUMBER 472-1761
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1—3 DAILY NEBRASKAN J
Aluas
Continued from Page 1
expected me to be a part of the
Communist party,” Aluas said. “1 was
told 12 times by the high offices of the
Politburo to complete the papers for
the Communist piuly.
“Twelve times I declined.”
During this time, Aluas said
dissidence within the intellectual
community exploded.
“Many intellectuals were
imprisoned, strictly supervised, or fled
the country,” he said.
Aluas said his artistic freedom was
limited.
“When conducting Bach or a
requiem, I had to first gain approval
by the Minister of Culture within the
Politburo,” he said.
Aluas finally requested to leave
Romania in 1985, but his attempts to
escape communist restraints were
frustrated.
He was laid off from his job as
conductor of the Satu-Mare State
Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania.
“I was eventually allowed to work •
again after much persuading by some
of my associates, but with one
exception—my name was not allowed
to be on posters any longer when I
performed,” he said. “1 found it
somewhat comical.”
Prior to his exit from the country,
Aluas also was v isited weekly by secret
police, who asked him to change his
mind about leaving.
By the time Aluas and his daughter
left for the United Slates, Aluas said
he was ready for the change and the
freedom the move would provide.
“When we left, it was absolutely
an undesirable situation for day-to
day life,” he said. “It was so bad.”
“Every aspect of life was
supervised.”
Now that he is free to pursue his
own ambitions at UNL, Aluas has
several goals for the School of Music
this year.
The first is to build a strong
symphonic orchestra.
“Over the past 15 to 17 years its
reputation has declined,” Aluas said
of the orchestra. “The orchestra
program had really been neglected.
“1 consider the orchestra as the
heart of the school of music,” he said,
“and I do intend to seriously develop
a nationally —if not internationally
— talented orchestra.”
The orchestra, Aluas said, would
be open to all serious musicians from
the community. His first step is finding
enough string players for the group.
Aluas said he wanted to draw on
the talent Nebraska and nearby states
had to offer by recruiting high school
musicians to the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
“We need our state and regional
resources," he said. “There is really
no reason for competitive young
musicians to leave this region when
they have some of the best resources
right here.” . _ . ,
But his devotion to UNL s Schoo
of Music is not limited to the orchestra^
Aluas speaks highly of the othe
school’s opera program, which nas
great potential, Aluas said.
“We need a strong sympnony
orchestra in order to have a strong
opera program. These two are ve
well connected,” he said. ,
“One of my other goals this schoo
year is to schedule an opera conce
the spring,” he said.