Newspaper Page Text
WORLD AND LOCAL NEWS
Parade under fire for dragging death
parody
NEW YORK— A New York City neighborhood
whose Labor Day parades over the years included
floats poking fun at Jews, Asians and gays has come
under fire for a display lampooning the dragging
death of 49-year-old James Byrd in Jasper, Texas.
Amateur videotape of this year's parade shows
about a dozen white men in blackface wearing
Afro-style and dreadlock wigs, breakdancing,
bouncing basketballs and drinking. One of the men
clings to the rear bumper and is dragged slowly
along the parade route. The float featured a banner
reading "Black to the future 2098." The Human
Rights Commission is investigating.
Calls for good Samaritan laws intensifies
LAS VEGAS — Jeremy Strohmeyer, 19,
confessed and pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting
and strangling an 8-year-old Black girl in a casino
restroom in Primm, Nevada, last month. But David
Cash, a friend of Strohmeyer, who allegedly
witnessed part of the attack but did not go for help,
may be prosecuted as well.
Cash claims he attempted to dissuade
Strohmeyer from attacking the girl, but then waited
outside the restroom for Strohmeyer to finish. The
two then resumed gambling at the casino and
returned home.
Although good Samaritan laws do not exist in
Nevada, Cash's unremorseful attitude, including
claims that his notoriety made it easier to get dates,
has outraged many, and students at, his school,
UC Berkeley, are calling for his expulsion.
Right to vote does not require renewal
WASHINGTON, DC — African Americans will
not lose voting privileges in 2007, says the
Department of Justice which has received
numerous inquiries about the rumor. The rights are
guaranteed by the United States Constitution and
are permanent, says a Department release.
The provisions that were intended to be of
limited duration were the authorization of the US
Attorney General to register Black voters, ensure
their votes are counted, and enforce that no racially
discriminatory voting changes are made.
These remedial measures are scheduled to
expire in 2007, unless renewed. However, the basic
prohibition contained in the 15th Amendment and
in the Voting Rights Act are permanent.
— Compiled by Aaron Chilton
from wire reports.
The battle rages on
The war in Congo is tearing apart central Africa
Reuters/SPECIAL
A Tutsi rebel stows a knife in his headband as he travels to the front in Congo's civil war.
Although America has not officially taken sides in the war, it does give Rwanda and Uganda
military aid, causing Congo's Justice Minister to denounce the conflict as a "Tutsi-American
imperialist plot."
By Saeed Ahmed
Editor in Chief
The battle for the
Democratic Republic of Congo
is no ordinary civil war. At
least five countries — and
maybe more — have sent
troops into a conflict that could
split not only Africa's third
largest country but also much
of Africa itself.
"The whole continent's
destiny is in danger," says
Congo's foreign minister, Jean-
Charles Okoto.
Last month, several
thousand troops from Angola,
Zimbabwe and Namibia came
to the rescue of President
Laurent Kabila, a man whose
rule grew so sour that Rwanda
and Uganda — both of which
which helped him topple
Mobutu Sese Seko 16 months
ago — are now sponsoring a
rebellion to destroy him.
Kabila's new allies have
no love for him. But they see a
fractured Congo as a worse
option.
Kabila in many ways
brought the war on himself.
Welcomed as the man who
could clean up Mobutu's mess,
Kabila promptly restored
Zaire's old name, Congo. Then
he jailed political opponents,
eliminated the positions of
vice president and prime
minister, and stacked the
government with relatives and
members of his own ethnic
group.
"We thought if he was
given some support and time
he could turn things around,
only to realize that he is not
different from Mobutu," says
a top Rwandan military
officer.
Once that reality sunk in,
Congolese began to see
another problem: too many
Tutsis — especially Rwandans
— in senior government jobs.
In late July, Kabila bowed to
popular pressure and ordered
them to leave; that was when
— with the help of Rwanda's
Tutsi-led military — the
rebellion began.
The insurrection spread
rapidly, and the rebels quickly
captured a large chunk of the
east and several key points
west of the capital city,
Kinshasa. The turnaround did
not come until the arrival of
Kabila's allies.
Angola quickly took back
the military base the rebels had
been using as a staging
ground. And Zimbabwean
and Congolese soldiers
defended the airport outside
Kinshasa. The capital itself
erupted in fierce fighting for
days, and the government
claimed it had killed or
imprisoned thousands of
rebels.
Suddenly, Kabila seemed
not doomed but invigorated.
And for now at least, it seems
like Congo and its allies have
the upper hand over the rebels.
The war, however, is far
from over. A United Nations
report released recently states
that Rwandan Hutu
militiamen and former
government troops — the
perpetrators of the 1994
genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda
— have recently crossed into
Congo, and have teamed up
with elements of Mobutu's
former army.
Kabila's most important
allies are Angola and
Zimbabwe, which have two of
the continent's best-equppied
armies. They want to keep
Congo whole for economic
reasons: Angola wants to build
a pipeline through part of
Congo, and over the last year
Zimbabwe has made several
investments there.
But more important,
Angolan authorities believe
that a balkanized Congo
would provide a sanctuary for
UNITA, the rebels who have
fought Angola for decades.
The main voice for peace
has come from South African
President Nelson Mandela.
But even with the moral
authority he commands, a
peace deal seems unlikely any
time soon.
