Tuesday, January 27, 1998
WORLD AND LOCAL
THE MAROON TIGER
PAGE 6
In Short
*' , h:r*. '■ :
CANADA - A Canadian army captain offered to buy his
soldiers a case of beer if they shot a Somali - any Somali -
on a night patrol in Somalia in 1993, a soldier testified in
court. Master Cpl. Marco Favasoli said he heard Capt.
Michel Rainville make the offer as members of the
Canadian Airborne Regiment prepared for a patrol March
4, 1993. Several shootings, plus the torture-slaying of a
Somali teenager, produced a scandal that led to the
disbanding of the Airborne Regiment, the formation of
an inquiry commission and the recent resignation of the
military's chief of staff.
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA - A federal judge rejected the
first constitutional challenge to a law that allows a secret
court to permit searches by government intelligence
agents without evidence of a crime.
ANTARTICA - The continued depletion of Earth's
protective layer appears to be producing its first adverse
effects of wildlife around Antarctica. Researchers at the
U.S. Palmer Station revealed that starfish embryos are now
developing ugly deformities due to the radiation, and die
before they are born. Some sea Urchins have stopped
reproducing, and certain plants have started to create their
own "sunscreen."
KINGSVILLE, TEXAS - In this friendly, little ranching
town, "Hello" is wearing out its welcome. And Leonso
Canales Jr. is happy as heck. At his urging, the Kleberg
County commissioners unanimously designated
"Heaven-0" as the county's official greeting. The reason:
"Hello" contains the word "Hell.'' "When you go to school
and church, they tell you 'hell' is negative and 'heaven' is
positive," said the 56-year-old Canales.
LOS ANGELES - A burglar was sentenced to 13 years in
prison for scaring a 60-year-old woman to death. Alfonso
Blackmon, 27, was charged with murder but pleaded
guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Janet
Doering, a widow with heart trouble. Doering was in her
bedroom in 1994 when she heard a noise and saw a
flashlight beam under her door, and dialed 911. She was
flushed and sweating when police arrived, and died later
that night of a heart attack.
MIAMI - Venezuela's former anti-drug chief has been
charged with smuggling cocaine into the United States at
the same time he was working the CIA on counter
narcotics missions. The federal indictment charges Gen.
Tamon Guillen Davila with conspiracy to smuggle cocaine
from 1988 to 1992. Guillen, who lives on the outskirts of
Caracas, Venezuela, proclaimed Tuesday that any such
drug shipments were authorized by the U.S. government.
Exit Mobutu, Enter Kabila
By Saeed Ahmed
VV& L News Editor
1997 saw the last of
Africa's old-time dictatorships
crumble under the challenge
of an obscure bunch of
revolutionaries, and the world
witnessed the rebirth of a
country.
Ailing strongman Mobutu
Sese Seko — after 32 years of
bilking Africa's third-largest
nation of untold millions —
finally fled Zaire May 17,
hastened by the easy advance
of Laurent Kabila's rebel
troops, who seized control of
the country in a matter of
months.
Kabila promptly assumed
the presidency of the country,
renamed it the Democratic
Republic of Congo, changed
its flag, and promised
democratic elections in 1999.
But the new leader's grip
on power is tenuous, and the
country faces enormous
challenges.
In order for Zaire to
reclaim its geopolitical clout,
Kabila will have to maintain
the unity of the country, deal
with an infrastructure
devastated by corruption and
neglect, and reestablish
functioning institutions that
benefit all ethnic and
geographic groups, not just a
chosen few.
But thus far, Kabila's
commitment to rebuilding the
country has been insincere.
Instead of working with
political opposition to allow an
inclusive slate of candidates to
emerge from civil society,
Zaire's new leader, banned
political meetings and rallies,
suppressed opposition voices,
and eliminated the positions of
vice president and prime
minister.
The United Nations,
meanwhile, investigated
allegations that Kabila and his
troops abused the human
rights of millions of refugees
who found a haven in Zaire
from the devastating wars in
neighboring Rwanda and
Burundi.
And Kabila, for his part,
did little to ease this
perception when he blocked a
U.N. investigation into the
alleged massacre of tens of
thousands of Hutu refugees.
Meanwhile, the
flamboyant Mobutu — who
spent the Cold War period
enjoying the support of
Western countries and
squandering his looted
fortune — succumbed to
prostate cancer and died
September 7 in exile in
Morocco.
But the new leader's grip on power is tenuous, and
the country faces enormous challenges.
The Silent Famine in North Korea
By Saeed Ahmed
W& L News Editor
In North Korea, politics
are killing people. Literally.
In a calamity being played
out in slow motion, nearly 1
million people died last year
and another 2.5 million have
been starving — silently and
painfully — for almost three
years, as a result of severe
droughts, floods and
disastrous agriculture policies.
But it was only recently
that North Korea finally
abandoned its political
isolation, owned up to the
problem, and asked the
nations of the world to help
combat its severe food
shortages.
Since 1995, massive
flooding for two consecutive
years followed by widespread
droughts the third year has
devastated North Korea's
harvests. These conditions,
coupled with the inefficient
controls on agriculture by the
Pyongyang government, have
created food shortages so
severe that people are forced
to harvest seaweed and try to
grow vegetables on the roofs
of houses.
The German Red Cross
has called the famine "the
worst the world has seen since
Word War Two" and said
10,000 children are dying each
month. In August, aid
officials estimated the nation's
24 million people were living
off an average of 150 grams of
food per day — about 12
spoonfuls. Some have
reportedly resorted to eating
grass, while others,
particularly in rural areas, are
eating tree barks and roots in
order to fill their stomachs
with something.
This includes 80,000
severely malnourished
children. Video from one
United Nations fact-finding
mission showed 11-year-old
children who looked like they
were 6, and 6-year-old who
looked 3. A medical doctor for
the non-profit organization
World Vision International
described the children as
"skin and bones with the faces
of old men."
But while various world
aid organizations have
repeatedly warned that North
Korea could run out of food by
April, the western
government and media,
taking its cue from its South
Korean ally, have focused
precious little attention to the
famine.
South Korea worries that
any food aid given to their
communist adversary would
be used to feed the million
man North Korean Army. The
long-held mistrust between
the pro-western Southand the
North dates back to the Korean
War in 1953 when the former
was invaded by North Korea.
Since then, the Peninsula has
been divided into two with
little or no contact between the
countries.
But while South Korea has
seen spectacular economic
growth, becoming one of the
so-called "Asian Tiger"
economies, North Korea's
industry and infrastructure
has all but collapsed, with the
country unable to produce
enough food to feed itself.
Earlier this month, the
United Nations World Food
Program appealed for $378
million in emergency aid to
avert widespread starvation
and malnutrition. This
amounts to over 650,000
metric tons of staple foods —
and represents more than 50
percent of the food North
Korea needs this year to
significantly relieve the
famine.
In a departure from its
customary silence, the United
States Department of State has
finally said that will seriously
consider the plea.
