The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, February 01, 1999, Page 2, Image 2
GOP sees split on conviction Republicans question if Clinton’s lies deem removal WASHINGTON (AP) Republican senators on Sunday said some of their colleagues may vote against removing President Clinton from office. House prosecutors, meanwhile, prepared to question Monica Lewinsky in a last-ditch effort to strengthen their case. As Lewinsky waited at the Mayflower Hotel for her deposition today, cracks appeared in the unified Republican front on the peijury and . obstruction charges against Clinton. “The sense right now in just listen ing to members talk is that there are Republicans who either are not going to vote for peijury or the obstruction of justice” charge, Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., said in a tele phone interview. Hutchinson declined to estimate how many might vote to acquit, but he indicated that getting even 50 votes for conviction in a chamber controlled by 55 Republican senators is in doubt “You would get much closer to getting a majority in the obstruction (charge) than on the perjury charge” as the case now stands, he said. House prosecutors have shifted their focus to the obstruction charge on the assumption that even among Republicans who believe that Clinton lied under oath, there is questionable support for the notion that the untruths were serious enough to warrant the president’s removal, according to an official who demanded anonymity. To that end, two of the three wit nesses prosecutors will question this week - presidential friend Vernon Jordan and White House aide Sidney Blumenthal - go to the obstruction question, rather than the perjury charge. , And sources close to the commit tee have said that Rep. Ed Bryant of Tennessee, who will question Lewinsky, wants to elicit information on Clinton’s efforts to conceal their affair from Paula Jones’ lawyers and Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s grand jury. But even as senators widely believe they don’t have the 67 votes needed to remove him from office, Clinton’s battles are far from over. Starr is considering indicting Clinton before his term expires. A legal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Starr’s view is that a sitting president is indictable. Colombia struggles after earthquake ■ Makeshift morgues with exhausted workers suffer through trying relief efforts. ARMENIA, Colombia (AP) - Empty coffins were piled high in the stands Sunday of the local basketball arena that served as a makeshift morgue for victims of last week’s dev astating earthquake. The floor, which had received hundreds of corpses in previous days, was now clear. Outside, a woman who had just identified her husband’s remains sat on a curb weeping into a handkerchief. With the arrival of bodies slowing to a trickle, exhausted morgue workers - many of whom had identified friends, relatives and coworkers - could finally take stock of a trying week at grief’s epicenter. Luz Patricia Rojas, who lowered a surgical mask to speak through a thick, lingering stench, said she had recog* nized one dead coworker by his mus tache and distinctively plump hands. Rojas, a morgue worker, said she was'overwhelmed on the first night of the tragedy, and had to go for a walk to collect herself. “I cried and cried and cried,” she said. She also recalled examining a mother and baby who arrived locked in a tight embrace. Rojas imitated the scene by cradling an imaginary child in her hands, sheathed in rubber surgical gloves. On the night the earthquake struck, the basketball court was filled with up to 300 bodies#at a time. Two-thirds of the nearly 1,000 people killed in Colombia’s earthquake arrived there. Now, a humming refrigerator truck keeps cool the handful of black plastic bags that contain the remaining unidentified victims of the magnitude 6 earthquake, which ravaged a coffee growing area of western Colombia on Jan. 25. Symbolic of a poorly managed relief operation, the 200 empty coffins in the Quindio state university arena had arrived after most of the dead had" already been buried. Because the coffins sat unnoticed for several days in a warehouse, many grieving relatives were forced to bury their dead in plastic bags. For many morgue workers, getting flooded with corpses for the first few days was the hardest. Not for Rojas. “It’s harder now because die cadav ers arrive in a highly decomposed state, or even dismembered,” she said. “Now we’re getting hands and sections ofbodies.” For John Jaime Botero, a morgue doctor, the week’s most excruciating moment was when morgue staff identi fied die body of a 20-year-old universi ty student who had volunteered in sev eral of their offices. Cheers had gone up hours before' when an erroneous news report declared the young woman was alive in the wreckage of a caved-in building. “First came the tragedy, then the happiness of finding her alive, and then death,” Botero said. The earthquake has crippled areas surrounding Armenia, which was more than half destroyed. At least 200,000 people are homeless, thousands have fled to other cities and health condi tions are deteriorating because of food shortages and a lack of running water and electricity. RHA recommends allowing non-honors students to stay RHA from page 1 sary, he said, because of a shortage of rooms for honors students in Neihardt. “The measure will give room to 50 students,” he said. “That is a sub stantial amount for us.” The Neihardt representatives cast the only votes against the recommen dation. But Neihardt President Jocelyn Walsh said she is still looking for a solution to the problem. “It is ribt done yet,” she said. At the meeting, Berger said the Honors Program has acted appropri ately by trying to meet the demands --— of honors and non-honors students. “Announcing the new policy half a year in advance should meet the demands of non-honors Neihardt res idents,” he said. _ Abel Senator Matt Knobbe said non-honors students shouldn’t be forced to move out of Neihardt because they have become part of the honors community. Although University Housing forced RHA Treasurer Brian Opplinger to leave Neihardt last sum mer, he said he supports the new pol icy. “Non-honors students from Neihardt have enough time to find a different place to live,” he said. Pound President Kasey Kerber said he is disturbed that students are not included in housing decisions. “Students need to have more input in issues like these,” Kerber said. Beiger said the new housing poli cy also implies that beginning in the fall of 2000, honors students who drop out of the honors program must move out of Neihardt at the end of the spring semester. “It is not our intention to tell them on Nov. 26 to move out on Dec. 15,” he said. “That would not have been nice.” Questions? Comments? Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588 ' or e-mail dn@unl.6du. THE DAILY NEBRASKAN Editor: Managing Editor: Associate News Editor: Associate News Editor: Assignment Editor: Opinion Editor: Sports Editor: A&E Editor: Copy Desk Chief: Asst. Copy Desk Chief: Photo Co-Chief : Photo Co-Chief: Design Chief: Art Director: Web Editor: Asst Web Editor: General Manager: Publications Board Chairwoman: Professional Adviser: Advertising Manager: Asst Ad Manager: Ciassifield Ad Manager: Erin Gibson Brad Davis Sarah Baker Biyce Glenn Lindsay Young Cliff Hicks Sam McKewon Bret Schulte ' Tasha Kelter Heidi White Matt Miller Lane Hickenbottom Nancy Christensen Matt Haney Gregg Steams Amy Buike Dan Shattil Jessica Hofmann, (402)466-8404 Don Walton, (402)473-7248 Nick Partsch, (402)472-2589 Andrea Oeltjen Mary Johnson ■ Israel U.S.-arranged peace deal not in place by deadline ■ Northern Ireland Former IRA bomber beaten for published accusations BELFAST (AP) - A former Irish Republican Army bomber was abducted and beaten Sunday, his sis ter said, apparently for published comments he made accusing die IRA and Sinn Fein of targeting dissidents. Paddy Fox, 29, was badly bruised by his captors during 10 hours in their custody, according to his sister, Patricia Kearney. Fox knew his abductors, she said, adding that they “didn’t do much questioning, and were quiet for most of the time.” JERUSALEM (AP) - A peace deal tailored by the United States to meet the security needs of Israel and grant Palestinians 13 percent of die West Bank was to have been com pleted by Sunday; but after three months, little has been implement ed. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of using the Israeli elections as an excuse to hold up the deal. Netanyahu countered that the Palestinians are violating the deal by releasing militants rather than cracking down on them. ■ Alaska ■ Iraq Iraqis criticize ILN.’s move to assess situation slowly BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq criti cized the U.N. Security Council’s decision to create study panels to assess Iraqi disarmament, humanitar ian needs and the fate of missing Kuwaitis, saying Sunday that the move was nothing more titan “pro crastination.” On Saturday, the Security Council agreed to form the study panels in its first, modest step to break the diplo matic logjam. Iraq instead wants the Security Council to condemn U.S. and British aggression. Siberian air freezes state with 70-below temperatures The Associated Press - An out break of bitterly cold air - even by Alaskan standards - has the 49™ state shivering. Air temperatures have dropped to minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the state’s interior, with wind chills plummeting to minus 100 in the coldest weather in a decade, the National Weather Service reported. A blocking pattern in the atmos phere is causing frigid air from Siberia to spill into northern Alaska, and as it spreads further to the Southeast the cold will begin affect ing more populated areas, such as Fairbanks. Ireland sentenced to 15 to 20 years in jail IRELAND from pagel Ireland’s record, Flowers said, was a 1989 high speed chase in Oklahoma, from which Ireland face^almost no penalty. Deputy County Attorney Andy Jacobson said that during the 1989 chase Ireland ran into the back of a police cruiser and his tires had to be shot out to end die chase. Flowers also said that in 1997, Ireland abandoned a chance to treat his alcohol problem. In a statement before the sentence, Ireland addressed the overflowing courtroom and asked the Cocksons to forgive him. “I know there is nothing I can say to take the pain away,” Ireland said. “I know what it is like to lose a child, but that does not excuse what I did.” In February 1997, Ireland’s fiancee shook and killed their 17-month-old son, and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in jail for manslaughter. During Ireland’s apology, Eva Cockson started crying. After the hear ing, she said she was touched by his statement. “The motherly part of me feels sorry for him,” Eva Cockson said Ireland said he was truly sorry for what he had done. “I could care less about what I get or what these charges are,” Ireland said “I care about other people’s feelings.” Ireland^ attorney, Brett McArthur, told the judge that Ireland’s remorse was unusual in his experience. Against McArthur’s advice, Ireland salt a letter of apology to the Cocksons last fall. But the family said it was little con solation. “I think he is sorry, but he is sorry for himself,” Bob Cockson said ' ^ On March 14,1998, Bob and Eva ‘Cockson woe in Lincoln for Gamma Phi Beta Sorority’s Mom’s Day activi ties. Laura was a member of the sorori ty, as is her sister, Sarah. Ireland, driving on a suspended license, was driving two friends home from a bar when the accident happened. Ireland accelerated through a red light and into the Cockson car in an attemptio evade the police car follow ing him Bob and Eva Cockson came upon the scene of the accident minutes after it happened. Sarah Cockson, 20, and Erin Cockson, 16, were taken to the hospital in critical condition, and Laura was pronounced dead at the scene. “At the emergency room we spent our time in hell,” Bob Cockson said • “We had to spend the days upstairs with Sarah and Erin, and know^that Laura was dead downstairs.” Bob Cockson said he and his wife wanted to grieve 100 percent for Laura and give 100 percent to each of their injured daughters, but they just didn’t have 300 percent in them. As he talked about his daughter Laura, Bob Cockson had to pause to compose himself several times, the strain evident in his voice. And as Bob Cockson talked about Laura’s accomplishments, Ireland, who mainly stared down at the table in front of him, had to wipe a tear from his cneeic At the request of the Cockson fam ily, who did not want to endure a trial, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Ireland on Dec. 3. Outside the courthouse afterward, Ireland’s friend, Rodney Watts, who was in the car with Ireland that night, asked the Cocksons to forgive Ireland. “I had my jaw wired shut for a month,” Watts said. “If I can forgive him, the Cocksons should be able to.” Bob Cockson said that forgiveness is part of die healing process, but it has not happened yet. “As a Christian it is important to forgive, but in the real world it is not easy,” Bob Cockson said. Laura Cockson’s best friend from high school, Jill Hicks, said she would be glad to be done with the court hear ings, but she hoped Ireland would be able to reform. “I really hope more than anything that he can come out of prison and do something with his life.”