By The
Associated Press
Edited by Jennifer Mlratsky
Russia’s AIDS law
drastic but unclear
MOSCOW — Travelers going
to Russia for more than 90 days will
have to prove they don’t have AIDS,
under a law signed Monday by
President Boris Yeltsin. Foreign
residents who test positive would
be deported.
The measure, which takes effect
Aug. 1, also requires mandatory
AIDS tests for prison inmates and
some Russian workers.
Although the new law appears
drastic, it makes no provision for
carrying out AIDS tests, prompting
fear and frustration among the thou
sands of foreigners who live in the
Russian capital.
“It’s going to be a bureaucratic
nightmare,” said Kevin Gardner,
an adviser on AIDS to the World
Health Organization.
Officially, 890 people have
tested positive for HIV in Russia,
but experts believe the actual num
ber is much higher.
The bill was approved by parlia
ment in February with little opposi
tion. Yeltsin vetoed an earlier ver
sion that would have required even
short-term visitors to prove they
didn’t have HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS.
The new law expands the num
bers of foreigners who would be
covered by Soviet-era legislation
that required mandatory testing for
some foreign residents, notably
African students. About 400 for
eigners infected with HIV have been
deported since the old law took
effect in 1990.
Valery Kulikov, a spokesman
for the Foreign Ministry — which
issues visas to foreign correspon
dents—said responsibility for test
ing foreign residents falls under
UPDK, the state agency respon
sible for dealing with foreigners.
UPDK officials were unfamiliar
with the law. An agency spokesman
“There is just no way
to implement such a
law. ”
m
GENNADY
ROSHCHUPKIN
Russian AIDS Relief official
said implementing it would be
“overwhelming.”
Russian medical clinics are no
toriously unsanitary and most lack
disposable syringes. Many foreign
ers are afraid of catching the HIV
virus, or hepatitis, or other diseases
if they had to be tested in Russian
clinics.
“There is just no way to imple
ment such a law,” said Gennady
Roshchupkin, a spokesman for
Russian AIDS Relief. “They know
they can’t possibly check every
single foreigner. They couldn’t
afford to.”
However, Carol Metzger, direc
tor of medical operations at the
American Medical Center in Mos
cow, said the government would
probably accept test results from
about a dozen foreign-run clinics,
including the AMC, in Russia.
Still, the measure was equally
baffling for Russians because it did
not say which Russian enterprises
will require AIDS tests of their
employees, or what would happen
to those employees, or to prison
inmates, if they tested positive.
Roshchupkin thought the law
would be applied selectively, to
deter refugees and “other visitors
whom the Russian government al
ready doesn’t like.”
News... _
in a Minute
House wants to rescue D.C.
WASHINGTON—In an effort to save the District of Columbia from
its financial miseries, the House approved a plan Monday to create a
special oversight board.
The rescue plan, passed by voice vote, would limit the home rule
authority the predominantly black and Democratic city have enjoyed
since 1973. The financial oversight board would have veto power over
District spending.
“There are no viable alternatives,” said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who
heads the Government Reform and Oversight Committee’s panel on the
District of Columbia. “We are, in effect, pulling the district’s credit card
with the U.S. Treasury and setting conditions for borrowing that can lead
to economic recovery.”
The proposal, which now goes to the Senate, authorizes the president
to establish a five-member board that could reject District spending and
borrowing plans and withhold funds if budgetary goals aren’t met.
The District’s 600,000 residents still would elect a mayor and City
Council, but the mayor would be required to submit budgets to the board
for approval.
The bill requires that the District make substantial progress toward a
balanced budget over the next three years, and begin achieving a
balanced budget in fiscal year 1999.
Wife let husband rot to death
MOORE HAVEN, Fla. — A woman was sentenced to 15 years in
prison Monday for allowing her quadriplegic husband to die from decay.
A judge recounted testimony from medical workers who described
Scott Mickler’s condition at his wife’s trial: an overpowering stench as
he lay in a bed covered with flesh and body wastes, gangrene so severe
that his toes and heels were falling off.
Cheryl Mickler was convicted Feb. 6 of abuse or neglect of a disable
adult. A quadriplegic since a 1978 auto accident, her husband had won
a $3.5 million settlement and she ended up with $1.5 million after he
died.
“The defendant’s conduct was both extraordinary and egregious,”
Circuit Judge Thomas Reese said when he imposed the maximum
sentence allowed. .
The judge cited abuse, neglect and psychological trauma suffered by
Mickler before he died in 1990. Reese also ordered Mrs. Mickler to pay
$68,120.
Former United Way leader
guilty of fraud, conspiracy
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former
United Way of America president
William Aramony was convicted
Monday of stealing nearly $600,000
from the nation’s biggest charity and
lavishing it on young women, some
only in their teens.
A federal jury deliberated over
seven days before finding Aramony
guilty of 2 5 counts of fraud, conspiracy
and money laundering.
Aramony was charged along with
Thomas J. Merlo and Stephen J.
Paulachak with siphoning off money
that had been donated to the charity by
businesses and individuals. Merlo was
convicted of 17 counts; Paulachak, of
eight.
After the scandal broke in 1991,
donations to United Way fell off
sharply. They recovered slowly but
never reached the pre-scandal level of
$3.1 billion in 1990.
“This verdict sends the message
that society won’t tolerate individuals
who are charged with protecting the
precious assets of charity diverting
those assets for their own personal
use,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy
Bellows said.
Aramony and Merlo could get about
five years in prison. Paulachak could
get about two years. Sentencing was
set for June 14.
During the three-week trial, the
government depicted the 67-year-old
Aramony as a dictatorial executive
who treated girlfriends and cronies to
all-expenses-paid vacations and tried
to intimidate or buy off those who
might expose him. j
Prosecutors said he repeatedly i
propositioned younger women and
romanced them with United Way 1
money. Aramony billed the charity
for getaways to London, Paris, Egypt, 1
Las Vegas and other spots. i
One prosecution witness testified
Aramony propositioned her at a busi- i
ness meeting with a Roman Catholic
priest.
The defense contended that
Aramony, who led the charity for 22
years until he resigned in disgrace in
1992, suffered from brain atrophy that
made him more impulsive and less
able to reason.
They also argued that any abuses
resulted from lax oversight by United
Way’s board of directors and bumbling
by his staff. The defense rested with
out calling any witnesses.
Aramony’s lawyer, William
Moffitt, noted that U.S. District Judge
Claude M. Hilton threw out about half
the charges against each defendant
last month.
“They won half the case, and we
wonTialf the case,” Moffitt said. “We
have a tremendous appeal ready. No
one won a clear-cut victory in this
case.”
Jurors acquitted Aramony of two
money-laundering counts; Merlo was
acquitted of one count of tax fraud and
Paulachak was acquitted of four fraud
counts.
The jury reviewed more than
1,000 documents ranging from in
come tax forms and accounting led
>ers to a letter detailing Aramony s
iffair with Lori Villasor, who was
17 when their four-year romance
>egan in 1986.
Juror Alan Hannen, a driver for
Jnited Parcel Service, said the most
convincing evidence related to Ms.
Villasor. “For me, it was all the money
hat went to Lori for doing very little
work,” Hannen said.
Ms. Villasor testified she was paid
i salary for more than two years, but
performed only “an hour or so” of
work. In closing arguments last week,
Bellows drew laughs when he pointed
Dut that Ms. Villasor put in more hours
testifying in the case than she did
earning the approximately $80,000
she was paid.
United Way money bought a luxury
apartment in New York City that
Aramony had told United Way offic
ers was a business office. But only he
and Ms. Villasor had keys to the apart
ment, according to testimony.
Witnesses said the pair often met in
New York, where Aramony had stand
ing orders for a limousine driver to
greet Ms. Villasor at the airport with
18 yellow roses.
Merlo, 64, was a consultant and
then chief financial officer from 1990
to 1992.
Paulachak, 49, was a United Way
executive from 1971 to 1988andpresi
dent of a spinoff company, Partner
ship Umbrella Inc.
The government claimed the three
men used the company as their “per
sonal piggy bank.”
--1
Burundi’s death toll still rising
BUJUMBURA, Burundi —
Hundreds of Hutus, mostly women
and children, were massacred in
northeastern Burundi by attackers
who shot or bludgeoned them to
death, the U.S. ambassador said
Monday.
At least 150 people were killed
between Wednesday and Friday in
the village of Gasorwe, and the
death toll for the entire region could
be as high as 450 over the past two
weeks, said Ambassador Robert
Krueger.
Krueger said he learned about
the massacres Friday and visited
the area Saturday, touring hospitals
and talking with parents of children
who had been beaten to death.
“I have no explanation for why
people would beat children’s heads
with clubs,” the ambassador said
Monday. “How can you explain
something like that? But that is what
I saw, children who had their heads
beaten in.”
“One child had been shot in the
face and had lost an eye,” Krueger
said, adding that he saw another
• child beaten so badly that his brain
had been exposed.
Survivors in Gasorwe, about 70
miles northeast of the capital of
Bujumbura, indicated the attackers
wore army uniforms, according to
Krueger.
“It began Wednesday morning
and was still going on Friday,” he
said. Ten people were killed Friday
morning.
“The village is virtually empty
of people,” the ambassador said.
“Virtually every house was va
cant. For several kilometers down
the road I didn’t see a single per
son.”
In another massacre March 25
in the nearby village of Karosi, more
than 100 people were killed, he
said, and up to 200 other people
had been killed in the area in the
past two weeks.
Krueger declined to give further
details, saying he had to talk with
Burundian officials.
Killers act with impunity in
Burundi, where ethnic violence
between the majority Hutus and the
minority Tutsis promotes the ambi
tions of extremist political parties
and leaders.
Ahmadou Ould Abdallah, the
U.N. special representative in
Burundi, said in a recent inter
view that people are never pros
ecuted for political crimes in
Burundi.
Since independence in 1962, the
Hutus and Tutsis have periodically
slaughtered each other in their
struggle for control of Burundi, a
small Central African nation that
neighbors Rwanda.
More than 100,000 people were
killed in ethnic clashes that fol
lowed a failed October 1993 coup
attempt by elements of the Tutsi
dominated army. Melchior
Ndadaye, the nation’s first Hutu
president, was assassinated during
the coup attempt.
After the assassination, Hutus
began slaughtering Tutsis in the
countryside. The overwhelmingly
Refugees flee camps
Rwandan refugees fled camps surrounding
Ngozi following ethnic violence.
Tutsi mi litary retaliated, killing tens
of thousand of Hutus.
Aide workers and diplomats say
Burundi has been suffering through
what they call “a slow-burning civil
war” since the failed 1993 coup.
With Burundi’s coalition gov
ernment weakened by infighting,
the army, which ruled the country
for 35 years after independence,
has been gaining strength.
I NefcJraskan
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