News Digest
PAGE 2THURSDAY DECEMBER 12,1996
Aid readies starving refugees in Zaire 1
United Nations and
UNICEF are working
to provide relief to
millions of Rwanda.
GOMA, Zaire (AP) — Security
guards with sticks beat hundreds of
hungry residents back from the en
trance to a food warehouse Wednes
day, as Zairians scrambled for the
crumbs of the first aid to arrive in more
than two weeks.
Nearly a month after fighting broke
out in eastern Zaire between Tutsi
rebels and the Zairian army, neither
food nor medical aid has reached the
1.1 million Rwandan Hutu refugees
Sixteen trucks and jeeps came in
from neighboring Rwanda on Monday,
1 1
but the 16 tons of beans and rice they
carried were just a drop in this region’s
ocean of need.
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali said Wednesday that
Canada has agreed to lead a military
contingent that could bring up to
20,000 troops to try to restore calm and
aid refugees in eastern Zaire.
He said details of the proposed
Canadian-led military intervention are
still being settled.
“People are taking between 10,000
and 20,000 (troops),” Boutros-Ghali
told reporters, speaking in Rome the
day before the opening of the U.N.
World Food Summit. He would not
estimate when the first soldiers could
arrive.
Canadian officials say they have
committed 180 soldiers in a Disaster
Assistance Response Team and ex
pressed a willingness to provide 1,500
additional troops.
Canadian Prime Minister Jean
Chretien spoke to 15 world leaders
over the weekend, trying to firm up
participation in the force, his aides said.
Desperation was increasing even
among Goma’s 80,000 residents,
thought to be slightly better off than
the refugees.
“We come here every day just in
case there are some beans or rice for
us,” said Muhima Kishuba, a 35-year
old Zairian teacher and father of four.
“There’s hardly any food at the
market, and we have no money to buy
it with anyway,” he said, as he stood
outside Goma’s main food aid com
pound. “There are many hungry people
inGoma.”
Michele Quintaglie, spokeswoman
for the U.N. World Food Program, said
aid representatives were negotiating
with the rebels who control Goma, as
well as the Zairian cities of Buka vu and
Uvira farther south, to try to get the
food to the people who need it.
“At this pace, it’s going to be nearly
impossible to get aid to the thousands
who need to be reached,” she said.
International aid workers fled the
chaos in Goma and Bukavu more than
two weeks ago and have not yet been
allowed back in.
An estimated 100,000 Hutu refu
gees scattered in the hills above Uvira
need food but are afraid to come down,
and more than 60,000 refugees are re
ported to be converging on Kisangani,
330 miles northwest of Goma, U.N.
officials said Wednesday.
UNICEF and other aid agencies
now plan to airlift emergency aid from
the Zairian capital of Kinshasa to
Kisangapi, U.N. spokeswoman Ruth
Marshall said.
At Goma’s main hospital, workers
struggled to get by without electricity,
running water, medicines or supplies.
More than half the staff has fled. Shell
ing wrecked the last ambulance, and
the hospital’s 40 remaining patients lay (
in rancid-smelling wards.
Issues of politics, sovereignty and
security all stand in the way of getting
aid to the hungry Zairians and the
Rwandan refugees.
U.N. agencies and international aid
organizations have flown supplies into
neighboring Rwanda, but delivery has
been stalled by lack of access to the
area and security problems.
senator calls tor buyer awareness
WASH1NUTON (AP) — As
Americans watch their children unwrap
gifts this holiday season, they should
think of the youngsters who probably
made them for pennies a day in for
eign countries, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin
said Wednesday.
He and consumer advocate Ralph
Nader asked parents to avoid buying
toys and other gifts thht could have
been made in countries with wide
spread abusive child labor.
“It’s ironic that when consumers
buy a can of tuna fish, they know if
dolphins are protected, but when they
buy their holiday gifts, they don’t know
if children are protected,” Harkin, a
Democrat, said.
“In this country, child labor is ille
gal,” Nader said. “But child labor
abroad can produce items like carpets
and sell them legally in this country.”
Harkin advised shoppers to:
• Look for a “Made in the USA”
label. While such a label does not guar
antee a product wasn’t made through
“child exploitation or other labor
abuses,” he said, child labor is largely
a problem with foreign-made goods.
• Ask retailers what steps they re
taking to stock products that are not
made by children and urge them to
carry products that are certified “child
labor free.”
• Contact manufacturers directly
and the celebrities who endorse their
products to ask what they’re doing to
ensure their products were not made
with child labor.
• Call trade groups and local cham
bers of commerce to urge them to sup
port independent monitoring efforts.
Tell friends and neighbors about the
problem and urge them to get involved.
• Ask their elected officials to sup
port a bill Harkin will introduce that
would ask manufacturers to voluntar
ily label their sporting goods and cloth
ing products as free of child labor.
About 250 million children be
tween the ages of 5 and 14 are work
ing in developing countries, according
to the International Labour Organiza
tion. About 61 piercent of child work
ers are in Asia, 32 percent are in Af
rica and 7 percent live in Latin
America, the group said.
ii
The caring
consumer must be
willing to inquire,
to suggest or to
protest.”
U.S. Rep. George Miller
“The caring consumer must be will
ing to inquire, to suggest or to protest,”
Rep. George Miller. D-Calif., said in a
written statement. “If enough consum
ers take these steps, companies will re
spond.”
Harkin said he also will reintroduce
another bill that would ban importa
tion of goods made through abusive
child labor when Congress reconvenes
in January. The bill drew little support
during the 104th Congress.
Russia, NATO negotiate new ties
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) —
Russia accepted a NATO overture
Wednesday to negotiate ties with the
military alliance but denounced its
plans to expand eastward as likely to
divide Europe again.
“We continue to be against NATO
enlargement,” Foreign Minister
Yevgeny Primakov said at a joint news
conference with NATO Secretary-Gen
eral Javier Solana. “This is based on
the firm belief that enlargement of
NATO will lead to a new division of
Europe.”
He added: “We think security
should be individual; security should
extend to all of Europe.”
But Primakov said Russia was will
ing to hold talks with NATO on a new
relationship with the alliance provided
the result is a document that “deals with
our concerns.”
He did not appear to be mollified
by NATO’s pledge Tuesday not to de
ploy nuclear weapons in Central and
Eastern Europe when former Soviet
allies are accepted as members.
Solana, for his part, said he had re
affirmed to the Russian minister
NATO’s intention of building “a good,
partnership with our Russian friends.”
Solana said NATO would like to
have the relationship worked out by
this summer’s planned summit meet
ing when potential new members are
invited to begin bargaining for mem
bership. The summit is set for Madrid
July 8-9.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State
Warren Christopher assured a nervous
Russia that nuclear weapons would not
be deployed in Eastern and Central
Europe if NATO proceeds with an east
ward expansion.
But the former Soviet allies would
be backed by the nuclear-armed United
States and the rest of NATO if they are
attacked, American officials said.
Christopher offered the assurance
to Russia in his ninth and final speech
to the North Atlantic Council. He is
retiring next month.
Ti' *
“We are declaring that in today’s
Europe, NATO has no intention, no
plan and no need to station nuclear
weapons on the territory of any new
members,” Christopher said, “We are
affirming that no NATO nuclear forces
are presently on alert.”
In a meeting Tuesday night with
Christopher the Russian foreign min
ister did not shrink from criticizing
NATO’s plan. “We treat this nega
tively” he told Christopher in an 80
minute meeting at NATO headquarters.
Under the NATO charter the United
States and the 15 other current mem
bers “will enjoy the protection that
comes with NATO membership,” in
cluding nuclear weapons, State Depart
ment spokesman Nicholas Bums said
later.
Bums also stressed NATO would
not be deterred from expanding east
ward, whatever Russia’s views. “No
country will have a veto,” he said.
study shows drop m campus cnme rates
WASHINGTON (AP) — With
three out of four campuses employing
police officers with arrest power, the
nation’s colleges have far lower vio
lent and property crime rates than the
country as a whole, the Justice Depart
ment reported Wednesday.
In its first study of campus law en
forcement, the department’s Bureau of
Justice Statistics found that there were
64 violent crimes and 2,141 property
crimes reported to police for every
100,000 students in 1994, the most re
cent year with complete data.
By comparison, in the nation as a
whole that year, there were 716 vio
lent crimes and 4,656 property crimes
for every 100,000 residents.
The bureau surveyed public and
private four-year institutions with
2,500 or more students last year. These
schools enrolled four out of five of the
nation’s nearly 9 million college stu
dents.
“The reason the campus crime rates
are so low is that colleges and univer
sities have recruited huge numbers of
security personnel to protect students,”
said Jack Levin, a professor of crimi
nology and sociology at Northeastern
University in Boston. “You can’t sell
an expensive college education to par
ents who believe their children aren’t
going to be safe, so colleges in urban
settings have become armed camps.
And it’s working very well.” t
Colleges and universities last year
employed nearly 11,000 full-time
sworn police officers, who had been
given general arrest powers by a state
or local government, the statistics bu
reau found.
New law relies mothers
for getting rid of guns
I
The Associated Press
A new federal law to take guns
away from anyone ever convicted
of domestic abuse may have to rely
heavily on the honor system for en
forcement.
Experts estimate there are hun
dreds of thousands of people with
past abuse convictions. No one can
say for sure how many of them have
guns.
And the law, which took effect
Sept. 30, doesn’t actually require
federal, state or local police agen
cies to go looking for the weapons.
Many such agencies just don’t
have the time, the manpower, the
records or the practical means to
systematically find and seize the
guns.
“I don’t know how we would do
that,” said Sgt. C.L. Williams, chief
of the Dallas Police Department’s
family violence unit. “Call up Mary
Jones and say, 'Hi, does Steve still
have a gun in the house?”’
If a convicted abuser gets caught
with a gun after running afoul of the
law again, police can, of course,
seize the weapon. But as for the
other hundreds of thousands of
people subject to the law, police
departments can only hope that
those gun owners will get rid of their
weapons on their own.
The law applies to anyone with
a misdemeanor conviction for us
ing or attempting to use force
against an intimate partner or fam
ily member. Violators can get up to
10 years in prison and a $250,000
fine.
The first known use of the law
occurred Wednesday, involving a
man who bought a gun at a pawn
shop and wounded his wife two
years after being convicted of as
saulting her, said Stephen Rapp,
U.S. attorney in Iowa.
William M. Smith, 20, of Cedar
Falls, Iowa, was charged with vio
lating the gun law. He was already
under arrest in the shooting.
Catching violators in any sys
tematic way would be difficult,
however. State computer records
often don’t list misdemeanors, and
many don’t specify whether a crime
was domestic violence.
The law will mostly come into
play as domestic violence cases and
other crime investigations arise,
said Drew Diamond, a retired Tulsa,
Okla., police chief now with the
Police Executive Research Forum.
“I wouldn’t see police depart
ments going and contacting every
body who’s been convicted of do
mestic violence and asking if they
have a gun,” said Diamond, who is
working with the Justice Depart
ment on improving police response
to domestic violence. “I haven’t
heard anybody suggesting that.”
John Magaw, director of the fed
eral Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms, has recommended
simply that people affected by the
law be “encouraged” to give up their
guns.
Nicholas Gess, the Justice De
partment director of intergovern
mental affairs, said it’s up to the gun
owner to decide exactly how to do
that.
“There’s nothing that says you
can’t sell or can’t give it to your fa
vorite nephew,” Gess said Tuesday.
“The law prohibits you from pos
sessing the firearm. How you dis
possess yourself is entirely up to
you.”
Gess, who works with local and
state police, added: “The goal here
isn’t to charge them. It’s to get them
not to have a gun in their posses
sion.”
The law also applies to law en
forcement officers and military per
sonnel, who use guns in their work.
The Pentagon is awaiting advice
from the Justice Department cm how
to apply the law, and some police
departments have begun disarming
officers.
Lawrence Sherman, chairman of
criminology at the University of
Maryland, estimated 100,000 to
150,000 people last year alone
could be subject to the new law, for
a total of several million Americans.
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