Newspaper Page Text
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JULY 31,1997 AUGUSTA FOCUS
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AFRICA Bl
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EPRT AFN RRN
KENYA
Kenyans demand
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democratic reforms
MOMBASA, Kenya
(AP) Chanting “Moi must go,” thousands of
Kenyans rallied beneath a blazing sun Saturday,
charging Kenya'’s president failed to make demo
craticreformsand calling for an end to his 19-year
rule.
But as the demonstration in Kenya’s second
largest city got under way, some 20 club-wielding
men began threatening the crowd. Demonstra
tors hurled rocks to drive away the infiltrators,
allegedly hired by President Daniel Arap Moi’s
ruling party. _
Reformers are demanding constitutional
changes before a general election later this year.
They say Kenya’s electoral and colonial era secu
rity rules make it impossible to hold fair elections
because they give Moi an unfair edge.
Inanother effort at harassment, the same green
truck that had earlier dropped off the thugs,
returned as the rally of some 3,500 activists drew
to a close. A passenger threw devices that caused
two explosionsthat alarmed protesters but caused
no injuries.
“No reforms, no elections,” was the cry of the
people assembled by the National Convention
Assembly, an umbrella group of religious, politi
cal, civic and human-rights leaders. They were
urged to join a general strike Aug. 8.
“We want reforms because we are living under
an unfair government, under the most unfair
leader in the world,” said Michael Wamalwa,
leader of Parliament’s opposition.
In the 1992 elections, Moi won the Coast Dis
trict with 62 percent of the vote. Rally organizer
Ahmed Salim Bamabhriz said he expected Moi to
lose the Coast this time.
“The people are tired of the system,” he said.
“The people are hungry, the people are suffering.
There are no medicines in hospitals. The schools
are very pathetic.”
Authorities granted a license for the rally after
weeks of international pressure on Moi, who is
seeking a fifth five-year term, to open dialogue
with as many groups as possible.
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EVER WONDER
HOW A
POWER
COMPANY GETS
RECHARGED?
U.S. to Kabila: Cooperate
or face western isolation
By Robert H. Reid
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
UNITED NATIONS
Major nations will withhold economic aid
to Congo President Laurent Kabila if he
“plays games”
with a U.N. inves
tigation into al
leged massacres in
his country, U.S.
Ambassador Bill
Richardson said.
“Well, thejury is
stillout on Kabila,”
Richardson told
The News Hour
with Jim Lehreron
Monday. “The
United States and
the international
community are
prepared to help
him but only if he pursues significant politi
cal, economic and social reforms.”
Richardson said a major test for Kabila,
who seized power last May, will be whether
he cooperates with a U.N. team which plans
to investigate allegations that Kabila’s forces
massacred thousands of Rwandan Hutu refu
geesduringtheir seven-monthrebellion that
deposed Mobutu Sese Seko.
“If he is reluctant to give them full access
and plays games with the team, as he has in
the past, ... he’s going to be isolated and he’s
not going to get help.”
In June, Richardson announced that he
had won a pledge from Kabila toallowaU.N.
team to investigate the allegations starting
Uganda questions U.S. troop deployment
KAMPALA, Uganda
(AP) The Ugandan parliament has sum
moned government ministers to explain the
deployment of 60 U.S. soldiers to train the
army in peacekeeping.
The government-owned New Vision daily
reported Monday that the legislators were
concerned about the presence of American
troops without its prior approval. Many of
them also doubt the purpose of Ugandan
participationin an African peacekeeping force,
the newspaper said.
Sixty soldiers from the 3rd Special Forces
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Congo President
Laurent Kabila
Our employees volunteer
with the Boy Scouts of America,
United Way, Junior Achievement
and the American Red Cross.
Why do we give back to
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Because lighting up the lives
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cEoRGIA A
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July 7. But Kabila refused to allow a team
headed by U.N. investigator Roberto
Garreton, claiming he was biased.
Annan then decided to appoint a new
team and said its members would be an
nounced shortly. As of Monday, however,
the United Nations had still not managed to
put together a team which would meet
Kabila’s approval.
At Kabila’s insistence, the team will also
investigate incidents which occurred from
March 1,1993, when refugees began stream
ing into the country. Many refugees are
believed to have taken part in the mass
slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and moderate
Hutus in Rwanda in 1994.
Despite Richardson’s warnings of isola
tion, leaders of several key African coun
tries have rallied behind Kabila, claiming
the West is using the threat of a human
rights investigation to undercut the new
government.
Leaders of such countries as Uganda, Zim
babwe, Namibia, Central African Republic,
Eritrea, Zambia and Tanzania have issued
statements accusing the West of a “cam
paign of vilification and unjust pressures”
against Kabila’s government.
Those countries were among those who
supported Kabila during his campaign
against Mobutu. They were also the African
countries which the Clinton administration
had been promoting as part of a new wave of
change sweeping the continent.
Nevertheless, Richardson warned that
refusal to cooperate with a U.N. rights team
would lead to “very negative repercussions
on Kabila and the way the international
community can respond to help him.”
Group based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina,
arrived in Uganda a week ago for a 64-day
mission to train Ugandan soldiers in peace
keeping and humanitarian relief.
Another 60 troops were sent to S negal on
the same mission. Once trained, Ugandan
and Senegalese troops will be part of a planned
seven-nation African force of eight to 10
battalions that could be called on to respond
to upheavals on the continent.
The other nations are Ethiopia, Mali,
Malawi, Ghana and Tunisia.
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We’ve got to stop _ T
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youth violence or : T |
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: Hugh B. Price | :
; President and
e Chief Executive Officer :
e National Urban League - 2 .
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B O S 5 R
The leading cause of death among our
Black youth is homicide. Gang membership
and gun possession continue to be on the
rise. According to Hugh Price, the new,
dynamic leader of the National Urban
League, this is an issue that must be tackled
head on. By making young people the focus of
his agenda, Price, the NUL and its 114 affil
iates are trying to get our kids off the streets
so they can do what so many others may not
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‘ ‘ b R G * @ *'T;A ‘d"
T B 4 e oo N
PSYCHOLOGIST SAYS —
Young Shahazz a
delusional firebug
B Expert says youth
has fascination with
fire and imagines self
to be character he calls
“Sinister Torch.” He
meant no harm when
he lit blaze that killed
grandmother, the psy
chologist testified.
By Jim Fitzgerald
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
YONKERS, N.Y.
(AP) The fire that killed the
widow of Malcolm X was not the
first set by her grandson, a troubled
child who sometimes imagines
himselfasa character he calls “Sin
ister Torch,” a psychologist testi
fied.
Atapresentencinghearing Tues
day for Malcolm Shabazz, Eliza
beth Osborn said the 12-year-old
boy set a pair of sneakers ablaze
when he was three and, at age
nine, while at Bronx Children’s
Hospital, “he had fantasies about
setting fires by gasoline.”
“Malcolm has a longstanding
interest in the subject of fire that
reachesunusual proportions,” she
testified. “He has the psychologi
cal profile of a repeat fire-setter,
which means he is more likely to
set fires in the future.”
Ms. Osborn’sassertions were the
first publicacknowledgement that
Malcolm had ever set a fire before
the June 1 blaze that killed Betty
Shabazz.
Malcolm, who did not appear in
the courtroom until the end of the
hearing, pleaded guilty earlier this
month to the juvenile equivalent
of second-degree manslaughter
and second-degree arson.
Family Court Judge Howard Spitz
can sentence him to 18 months
detention at most, but the sentence
can be extended year by year until
Malcolm is 18. Spitz asked the pro
bation department torecommenda
sentence on Aug. 8.
Ms. Osborn said Malcolm’s his
tory was characterized by “physi
cal abuse and familial alcohol
abuse.” She did not elaborate, but
Joseph DeCarlo, the probation of
ficer handling Malcolm’s case, said
Malcolm has “numerous scars on
his face, head and arms from alter
cations with his mother” and a
‘mark from where an unidentified
aunt had bitten him duringa fight.
DeCarlo said Malcolm’s mother,
Qubilah Shabazz, told him herson*
had been violent toward her as far
back as age 2 or 3. When he asked
Ms. Shabazz if that was just the
“terribletwos,” she said, “It’smore
than that,” he testified.
Ms. Osborn, who has written
about fire-setting tendencies, told
Spitz that Malcolm is “a schizo
phrenic boy of a paranoid type”
and recommended he spend two
or more years in a structured, re
strictive facility under 24-hour
watch, without family contact.
Malcolm’slawyer, Percy Sutton,
is trying to get him into a less
restrictive facility, but many insti
tutions will not take a child with
an arson history. One private fa
cility, Children’s Village in Dobbs
Ferry, has already turned him
down.
Sutton said the imaginary char
acter was named “Sinister,” not
“Sinister Torch,” and that it was
simply “Malcolm’s Superman.” He
noted it is not unusual for a child
to have imaginary companions.
Ms. Shabazz and one of her sisters
were in the courtroom but showed no
reaction to the testimony.
Ms. Shabazz has been in treat
ment programs for substance
abuse and police reports from
Texas, where she and the boy lived
earlier thisyear before he was sent
to his grandmother, indicated she
was often drunk.
get the chance to do - grow up.
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