Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Nation & World _ Flag issue a dilemma for Georgia governor by Dick Pettys The Associated Press Atlanta — When Zell Miller tried to remove the Confederate battle emblem £ from Georgia’s flag, it nearly cost him re election as governor. Seven years later, a new attempt is gaining steam, but law makers backing it seem intent on help ing Gov. Roy Barnes avoid the political misery that befell Miller. “I want the governor of this state to just respond to whatever the Legislature sends him. I don’t expect nor do I ask the governor to take the lead on this,” said Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, a veter an civil rights activist. “Roy is a good governor, and 1 do not want to make any attempt to sacrifice Roy Barnes over this flag debate,” said Sen. Charles Walker, D-Augusta, who as £ Senate Democratic leader is one of the Legislature’s most influential blacks. If Democrats are trying to help Barnes find political cover, there are good rea sons. Few issues have proven to be so di visive as Miller’s 1993 attempt to change the flag. It came one year before his re-elec tion campaign, which he won by a scant 33,000 votes out of the 1.5 million cast. If lawmakers push the change again next year, as they have vowed to do, it will come one year before Bames must seek re-election. Unlike Miller, who personally initi ated the last attempt, Bames has not pub licly associated himself with the push to change the flag, even though his 1998 election was aided by a record black turnout. He has said it is an important is sue, but he doubts it can pass the Legis lature. Even so, many lawmakers expect the flag to be a key issue next year, at least in part because of the national attention that has been focused on neighboring South Carolina. Attempts to remove the Confeder ate battle flag from the South Carolina Statehouse, where it flies along with the state flag, have included a boycott' that has cost the state millions of tourism dollars. A similar boycott has been threat ened for Georgia. Georgia and Mississippi are the on ly states that include the Confederate em blem on their official state flags. The political dilemma for Bames and for legislative Democrats is whether to risk alienating one important constituency — black voters — by failing to change the flag, or risk offending another—white voters — by changing it. “To the extent that the flag issue is one that blacks really feel strongly about, his failure to resolve it would contribute perhaps to a weakening of the coalition that put him in office,” said Emory Uni versity political science professor Mer le Black. “The other risk is that moving on the flag will alienate conservative whites.” Black noted, however, that many con servative whites have been voting Re publican for some time. “I don’t know how many hard-core flag supporters are still Democrats,” he said. Even so, many Democrats consider the issue to be loaded with political risk, fearing that a vote to change the flag would set off howls of protest among their con stituents and make them easy prey at the next election. Brooks said that’s not necessarily so. The fact that three Republican lawmak ers declared their support this year for changing the flag shows times are chang ing, he said. The only way to allay the fears of De mocrats and pass a flag bill in the Legis lature is through a bipartisan effort, Brooks said, adding that will be his initial ap proach to next year’s effort. “Once we lay the foundation of bi partisanship, we should inform the gov ernor,” he said. “Then if he decides to join the effort, so be it.” ‘Once we lay the foundation of bipartisanship, we should inform the governor. Then if he decides to join the effort, so be it.’ Rep. Tyrone Brooks D-Atlanta Barak hints at Palestinian state by Jack Katzenell The Associated Press Jerusalem — Preparing Israelis for substantial land concessions, Prime Min ister Ehud Barak on Sunday all but of fered the Palestinians an independent state and said he would give them suburbs around contested Jerusalem. Israeli hard-liners criticized him, but the Palestinians said his proposals don’t go far enough. In statements made at Sunday’s Cab inet meeting and released by his office, Barak outlined what he would — and wouldn’t — concede in a blueprint of a final peace treaty, due next month. Barak said he would turn over West Bank land that would give the Pales tinians the territorial contiguity they need for statehood. “No serious person believes that the entity that will be created will be a pro tectorate or autonomy made up of var ious noncontiguous patches on the map without its residents being able to leave its territory freely,” Barak told minis ters. * He assured his hard-line Israeli crit ics that Jerusalem would remain unit ed under exclusive Israeli sovereignty but said Palestinian suburbs just outside the city, claimed by both sides as their capital, would be handed over. “We always looked to Jerusalem when we prayed, but we never di rected our prayers to el-Azariya or Abu Dis,” he said, naming Jerusalem sub urbs that Israel has so far refused to concede as part of interim troop withdrawals. He said Israel had no in terest in annexing the 50,000-60,000 Palestinians living around Jerusalem. Barak said most Jewish settlements in the West Bank would be annexed to Israel in a permanent peace treaty. He said Israel would consider giv ing the Palestinians an “advance” on the last interim troop withdrawal, due in June, by handing over land next month. Nabil Abourdeneh, an aide to Pales tinian leader Yasser Arafat, rejected Barak’s outlines, repeating the Pales tinian position that Israel must with draw from the entire Gaza Strip, West Bank and east Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Protest from page 4 About 20 people were arrested Sun day, police said. One police officer was 0 hospitalized for back pain and another for heat exhaustion. The protesters chanted, beat on plas tic buckets and wore papier-mache pup pet heads cast in the likeness of the lead ers they hold in contempt It was all meant to disrupt the World Bank and IMF meet ings being held Sunday and Monday. But the anger sprang from a bazaar of causes — human rights atrocities in Ethiopia, the “prison industrial com plex,” biotechnology in food and much more. “Keep your genes out of our beans,” said one T-shirt. “In all your decadence people die,” said a sign. Protesters accused the World Bank and IMF of burdening poor countries with crushing debt payments, unsafe food, 0 environmental destruction and sweat shops. Responded Michael Moore, director general of the World Trade Organization: “Blaming the World Bank for poverty is a bit like blaming the Red Cross for start ing World Wars I and II.” One group of demonstrators, some holding sections of chain link fence, charged toward motorcycle police and an anti-riot squad dressed all in black. Police counterattacked with clubs and six to nine volleys of irritants, ac cording to Associated Press radio reporter Ross Simpson, who was both clubbed and sprayed. Stunned demonstrators were dragged away by friends and taken to medical teams standing by with jugs of water to flush eyes. Protesters thought they were tear gassed but Police Chief Charles Ramsey said “smoke dragons” were used, canis ters containing less severe irritants. He said homemade versions of pep per spray were used against police, and some officers were hit by stones and bot tles, but none seriously hurt. Ramsey also said a protester in a black mask was taken into custody and found to have at least four bottles of flamma ble liquid believed to be gasoline. The bottles were to a laboratory for analysis. Kate Standish, 19, of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., hand ed out carrots, granola and water. She wore a sign that said “Food.” Most demonstrators were in their 20s, but some, like Elizabeth Burke, 66, of Santa Barbara, Calif., have been activists for decades. “In Vietnam, some jumped on the bandwagon to save their own skin,” Burke said. But here, “Nobody’s going to be drafted, so here it’s different.” Washington Mayor Tony Williams said, “Whenever you’re dealing with a situation like this you’re going to be up on the boundary line in terms of consti tutional rights.” At the head of the day’s parade was a huge puppet, its sunny yellow face stand ing 10 feet tall, and outstretched arms holding a banner saying “Globalize Lib eration.” Cal Woodward, Alice Ann Love and Will Lester also contributed to this story. Soldiers, police and firemen based at the airport, many of whom witnessed the blast, were still reeling Sunday morning from the tragedy. “It was infernal and apocalyptic. Everyone is searching their heart for an swers,” said Elie Zambeli Rubega, the air port’s chief firefighter. The explosions initially set off panic in Kinshasa, where people living near the airport fled for the city center, fearing an escalation of Congo’s 20-month civil war. The blasts took place on the first day of a cease-fire signed by the warring sides a week earlier. All international flights over die week end to and from Kinshasa were canceled, airline officials said. , Airport from page 4 hospitals issued an urgent appeal for blood donors to treat the injured. President Laurent Kabila declared a national “time of bereavement,” Fundu said without giving details. He also an nounced an aid package worth $750,000 and said victims’ hospital and funeral ex penses would be paid for by the state. Bargain hunters gathered Sunday be hind airport walls and buildings to buy salvaged computers, televisions and cloth ing looted from the customs hangar by soldiers. H Oi heard the soldiers were selling so I came to the airport right away,” said Julien Ndolo, a resident of the nearby Kingasani neighborhood. Delta Sigma Pi - would like to welcome our new brothers of Spring 2000 Shai Marcotsis Jeff Masters Nico ..,, _ , rilMaxey Calc Lee Murdaugh ,1 Erika Manganv Matthew Whitehead Congratulations! del%«¥g^T PI jjjiffigi A yv",.;' -wS/tt JBStz where !& i' I gjj 8 r® ' ! fcu « t - I L I g|«| 1^. 'I'; /* „... fglji *-M i ••- ., ‘ buy them back ©follett’s Addam’s Get Up To 10% More For Your Bookstore Books With Bonus Bucks! Serving the University of South Carolina Community Find us on the web at efollett.com an ^partner of ^ follett.com m . NEW & USED COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS ( *current market value applies f ill- ■ , -j ,v k