The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 17, 2000, Page 4, Image 4
I
Thousands protest World Bank
Washington marchers fail to keep
finance leaders from meeting
on motorcycles charged into a crowd that
had surged toward the police line. Police
used pepper spray and what they said
were smoke bombs to drive back the pro
testers, who were convinced they’d been
tear-gassed.
“Coughing, burning, numbness around
the mouth, eyes watering, skin irritated,”
said John Hamilton, one of the victims.
But unlike the protests that over
whelmed police and smashed windows
in rainy Seattle at trade meetings late last
year, the weekend demonstrations were
largely nonviolent — and the sun beamed
on them Sunday.
, “I’ve seen a whole lot less property
damage than after a Bulls game in Chica
go,” said Han Shan, a protest oiganizer
from the San Francisco-based group
Ruckus.
More protests were set Monday, when
the resumption of the weekday rush hour
threatened horrendous traffic problems.
Police in America’s security-savvy
capital sent buses under the cover of ear
ly morning darkness Sunday to pick up
world finance ministers at their hotels,
and used circuitous routes and U-tums
to get them to work.
But some VIPs were stranded: The
finance ministers of France, Brazil,
Portugal and Thailand were thwarted by
the crowds and sat at the Watergate Ho
tel six hours after the meetings started,
wondering what to do. They eventually
made it to the spring meeting of the In
temational Monetary Fund.
“I think there is a great misunder
standing,” French Finance Minister Lau
rent Fabius said.
Police, who estimated as many as
10,000 protesters were on the streets,
blocked off a downtown area as large as
90 square blocks and let demonstrators
largely have their way outside the secu
rity zone.
“Today we had a victory party in the
streets,” said Beka Economopoulos, mem
ber of Mobilization for Global Justice.
“We have every right to tout this as a vic
tory. I think we were up against incred
ible, impossible, odds.”
Protest leaders estimated their crowds
at more than 30,000.
Shan credited police with being rel
atively restrained, if suffocating in the
size of their force. “Overall, they main
i (I
tained their composure quite a bit,” he
said. “They have brutalized a few peo
ple without provocation. ”
While the numbers Sunday were far
smaller, the security measures were not
unlike those of the giant anti-war demon
strations of the 1960s and early 1970s.
President Nixon’s White House was
once ringed by city buses parked as a bar
ricade against protesters; during the 1968
riots that followed the assassination of
Martin Luther King Jr., troops set up ma
chine-gun encampments on the steps of
the Capitol.
The atmosphere was less tense than
on Saturday, when police raided and closed
the protest headquarters during the day
and arrested more than 600 people in the
evening.
Protest seepages
Airport death
toll rises to 101
BY KAMANGA MUTOND
The Associated Press
Kinshasa, Congo — The death toll
from a string of airport blasts rose to 101,
the government said Sunday, as most res
cuers ended the search for bodies in the
wreckage of a hangar that collapsed in
the explosions.
Kinshasa Gov. Theophile Bemba Fun
du announced the new casualty figures,
while religious dirges played on state ra
dio and the president called a period of
national mourning after Friday’s blasts at
Kinshasa’s N’Djili international airport.
Hospital authorities said 216 people
were injured. About 80 of these remained
in critical condition on Sunday, Fundu
said.
By the afternoon, all but a handful of
Red Cross workers and other rescue vol
unteers were giving up the search through
the collapsed hangar, used by customs
and tax officials to handle incoming
cargo from Europe. The rescue workers
said they were hampered by lack of tools,
water and food.
One man was rescued late Saturday
evening after being buried alive be
neath the hangar for more than 30 hours,
Red Cross worker Jean-Jacques Maluta
nta said. The man had broken ribs and
legs and could not speak, he said.
“I don’t know if there is anyone else
alive inside,” Malutama said. “It is diffi
cult work. We are pulling out rubble by
hand and we did not eat yesterday so it
would be difficult to continue this
evening.”
Rescue officials had said Saturday that
they feared 100 people were still trapped
in the wreckage. It was not known how
many people were still missing Sunday
evening.
The reasons for the blast remained
murky. Explanations ranged from a short
circuit to a soldier dropping ammunition
while unloading a plane full of weapons.
The explosions of fuel and army muni
tions shattered windows, toppled build
ings and flung deadly debris several miles
away into residential neighborhoods.
Some friends and family members of
those still missing persisted in the search
Sunday. ,
Mvuezolo Nsimb, an airport porter,
vowed to carry on digging. A small clus
ter of female family members hoping for
news about missing loved ones looked
on worriedly.
“Some of my friends are missing. I
cannot abandon them,” Nsimb said.
Congolese health authorities said in
ternational relief organizations had of
fered medical aid and Belgium was send
ing a plane with medical specialists. Yet
Airport seepages
News Briefs
■ Onlookers view
Oklahoma City
National Memorial
Oklahoma City (AP) — With the
opening of the Oklahoma City National
Memorial still days away, hundreds of
people spent a cloudless Sunday after
noon gazing over its grassy, meticulous
grounds, the site of the worst terrorist at
tack on American soil.
Some tried in vain to connect the qui
et landscape, dominated by trees and a
black reflecting pool, with the gritty im
ages of smoke and horror they saw on
their televisions April 19,1995.
“It’s not the way I pictured it,” said
Kristin Welbaum, a visitor from Min
neapolis. “It’s been so cleaned up and
made into such a monument that you
don’t get a feel for the devastation until
you look across to the Journal Record
Building,” she said, pointing to the still
scarred building near the former Alfred
P. Murrah Federal Building.
For others, like Monica and Harold
Swink of Oklahoma City, the memorial
offered a welcome reprieve from mem
ories still filled with pain.
“We came down a couple times right
after they stopped searching for victims
and it’s not hard to remember that,” said
Monica Swink. “It’s one of those things
that will be burned in your mind forev
er. And that’s why it’s so nice to have this
calmness.”
Where the explosion struck the nine
story Murrah building, there is now a
grassy hill with nine rows of empty
bronze-and-s.tone chairs - one for each of
the 168 people killed in the bombing.
■ President acts
to preserve giant
sequoia trees
Sequioa National Forest, Calif.
(AP) — Dwarfed by towering trees that
are among the oldest and largest living
things on earth, President Clinton set aside
328,000 acres of federal forests Saturday
to permanently preserve 34 groves of gi
ant sequoia
“These giant sequoias clearly are the
work of the ages,” the president said.
“They grow taller than the Statue of Lib
erty, broader than a bus.” He said they
were so perfectly adapted to their envi
ronment that none has ever been known
to die of old age.
In a decision praised by environ- <
mentalists but scorned by loggers and oth
ers as a federal land grab, Clinton ordered
the formation of a national monument
that will halt commercial timber sales,
mining and some recreational activities.
Motorcycles and all-terrain vehi
cles will be allowed only on regular roads
while snowmobiles will be restricted to
well-traveled areas. Hiking, horseback
riding and other recreational activities
will be permitted.
%
Father lashes out
at Miami relatives
by Mark Stevenson
The Associated Press
Miami—Elian Gonzalez's fatter lasted
out at his Miami relatives on Sunday,
accusing them of “child abuse” for turn
ing his son against him and insisting that
the 6-year-old boy wants to return to
Cuba.
With the boy’s fate still before
federal judges, Juan Miguel Gonzalez
said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he did
n’t believe a video taped at the relatives’
home in which his son said he didn’t
want to go. •
“This is child abuse and mistreat
ment what they’re doing to this boy,”
Gonzalez said. “The way they’re
abusing him, turning him against his fa
ther ... he’s suffering more here amongst
them than he suffered in the sea.”
He also accused the relatives of ma
nipulating his son to believe that his
mother still may show up someday -
in this country.
“He hasn’t had time to mourn for
and feel for the death of his mother,”
Gonzalez said. “Eveiythii^ they've done
with him has been abusive.”
Since he arrived in the United States
on April 6, Gonzalez has spoken with
Elian three times - all by telephone. He
insisted that his son has told Km he wants
to return to Cuba.
“He’s told me so,” Gonzalez told
“60 Minutes.” The Miami relatives are
“putting a bunch of toys in front of a 6
year-old. He cannot decide for himself.
The one that decides for him is me, his
father.”
At the home of Lazaro Gonzalez,
where Elian has lived for nearly five
months, protesters prayed for divine
help as Easter week began, waving palm
fronds and posters of the Cuban boy and
Jesus. Priests joined the crowd of at least
150 to offer a religious service.
“There are many people who tell us
that we should give up this fight,” said
Martin Anorga, an evangelical pastor.
“But we will follow in the path that the
Lord has shown us, despite those who
want to get in our way.”
He called on God to “reduce to ash
es” the Castro government.
Elian played in the sun and raced
with other children. His father attend
ed church in Washington.
Both sides are waiting for a response
from a federal appeals court in Atlanta,
which issued a temporary injunction
Thursday blocking Elian from leaving
the country. That order defused a tense
standoff when Lazaro Gonzalez, the
' boy’s great-uncle, refused the govern
ment's demand to hand over the boy.
The government wants the ap
peals court to suspend the injunction
and order Lazaro Gonzalez to release
Elian so he can return with his father to
Cuba. The relatives want the court to
let them meet with Elian’s father with
out being required to let Elian go.
The Clinton administration has said
only Juan Miguel Gonzalez can speak
for his son on immigration matters.
Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin. the nun
and university president who presided
over an earlier meeting with the boy’s
Cuban grandmothers, told ABC’s “This
Week” that the family will meet with
the fatter but is concerned about Cuban
influence.
“The family is prepared to go any
where at this point where adult mem
bers can speak, come to grips, if they
have to yell and scream, and perhaps
end with a reconciliation and healing,”
O’Laughlin said Sunday. “Holy Week
could be the time to do this.”
Fight over state legislatures could
determine control of Congress
by Kathy Barks
Hoffman
The Associated Press
Ann Arbor, Mich.—At 22, Erin Carey
is a foot soldier in a hard-fought but lit
tle-noticed battle to control state legis
latures and redraw congressional districts
in Michigan and 19 other states.
Come summer, the University of
Michigan graduate student and a few thou
sand other recruits and volunteers will
be marching door-to-door here, handing
out campaign literature for a Democra
tic state House candidate.
Carey will be paid by Democrats
2000, a Washington, D.C.-based group
that is recruiting young adults nationwide
to help gain or protect Democratic ma
jorities in state legislatures.
It’s a sign of how important those
seats are in a nationwide political web
that could determine everything from
• state tax and welfare policies to who con
trols Congress - and whether the next
president will have an easy or hard time
turning proposals into law.
“We have an opportunity to change
the course of history,” U.S. House Mi
nority Whip David Bonior told Carey
and other University of Michigan stu
dents last month.
With redistricting based on the 2000
census, state lawmakers elected this year
will have a large say in how the lines di
viding legislative and congressional seats
look for the next 10 years.
Draw the lines one way, and districts
now held by Democrats could include
more GOP voters. Draw them another,
and it could increase Democratic voters.
The results will likely decide the ma
jority in the U.S. House.
That’s given the parties ample reason
to pour their resources into legislative
races this year in Michigan, Arizona, Cal
ifornia, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illi
nois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mis
souri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
In each state, a change of six or
fewer seats would flip control in at least
one legislative chamber.
Seven other states have the same nar
row balance, but they are considered less
critical because they have fewer con
gressional districts.
If Democrats gain a majority in the
U.S. House, there is a chance Michigan’s
Bonior could become speaker.
But if the Michigan House remains
in Republican hands, after the 2002 elec
tions, “I certainly will be out of a job ...
because of the way they draw the lines,”
Bonior said.
Republican Gov. John Engler of
Michigan is as focused as the Democrats
on control of the state House. Republi
cans now hold a 58-52 m<yority; in 1997
98, Democrats held a six-seat edge.
Engler says GOP candidates can give
voters lots of reasons to keep the state
House in Republican hands.
“They will have a record that is a nice
contrast with the two years previous,
<
where things weren’t happening under
Democratic leadership,” Engler said.
Republicans don’t have an exact match
‘ for Democrats 2000, which was found
<
ed more than a decade ago to create a
farm team of Democrats who could ad
vance to higher office.
Instead, the Republican Legislative
Campaign Fund plans to funnel mil
lions of dollars into states to help win
GOP legislative majorities.
Democrats 2000 is more concerned
with giving candidates trained workers
like Carey, executive director Kelly Young
said. j
In Michigan, more than a dozen state
House races are targeted. So is the race
for a U.S. House seat left vacant by De
mocrat Rep. Debbie Stabenow, and her
challenge of Republican U.S. Sen. Spencer
Abraham.
Democrats 2000 is recruiting and
training 2,000 field directors and vol
unteers in eight states. It plans to spend
$30,000 in Michigan, with field direc
tors in 20 races and volunteers to
knock on more than 100,0Q0 doors, Young
said.
<
They will have a record that is a nice contrast with
the two years previous, where things weren’t hap
pening under Democratic leadership.’ «
John Engler <
Governor of Michigan
by Larry Margasak
The Associated Press
Washginton—Thousands of marchers
failed to stop world finance leaders from
meeting Sunday, but paraded through the
capital in a show of celebration and anger
that provoked one ugly episode — a surg
ing crowd met by a stinging cloud of ir
ritants fired by police.
Festive street theater with giant pup
pets coexisted with pushy confrontations
between police and protesters agitating
about the plight of the poor and “deca
dence” of the rich.
At one point, police in riot gear and
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