The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 26, 2000, Page A12, Image 12
Nation & World
Vietnam
from page A7
dragged ashore and I was beaten.”
Did he think he would survive?
“I wasn’t sure. In a situation like that,
you never know,” he said. 1
On Wednesday, McCain will visit
Hoa Lo Prison — the “Hanoi Hilton,”
as POWs called it, where he spent his
years in captivity. He has said his hard
ships there included beatings, a lack of
proper medical treatment for injuries,
and a total of three years in solitary con
finement for what his captors called a
“bad attitude.”
He twice tried to hang himself, us
ing his shirt as a noose, but was caught
both times by the guards, who then
beat him.
“I couldn’t control my despair,” Mc
Cain wrote in his autobiography. “All
my pride was lost, and I doubted I would
ever stand up to any man again. Nothing
could save me.”
On Tuesday, McCain, who visited the
prison on a previous trip, recalled his time
in captivity. “I had the privilege of serv
ing in the company of heroes,” he said.
“I observed a thousand acts of courage,
compassion and love and I will always
treasure that memory above all others.”
Most of the prison was tom dowri'in
1993 to make way for Hanoi Towers, an
upscale office complex and hotel in cen
tral Hanoi. One wing of the faded yel
low fortress was preserved and opened
as a museum three years ago.
One cell is devoted to the 300 Amer
ican prisoners and includes a photo of a
young McCain with several days’ worth
of beard stubble. The Vietnamese have a
rather different take on the men’s life
in captivity. “Though having commit
ted untold crimes on our people,
American pilots suffered no revenge once
they were captured and detained,” the
exhibit says. “Instead, they were well
treated with adequate food, clothing and
shelter.”
The exhibit includes a volleyball net
used by the prisoners. One photo
shows an American POW clinking glass
es at a meeting with Vietnamese jour
nalists. Another features Americans cheer
fully preparing a meal.
The Vietnamese government has in
the past rankled at McCain’s accounts of
his time in captivity, denying his allega
tions of torture at the hands of prison
guards.
During his unsuccessful presiden
tial bid this year, McCain also raised
the ire of some Asian-American groups
when he said he and his fellow Ameri
cans referred to their captors with the
derogatory term “gooks.” McCain re
fused calls to apologize for his language.
“John McCain’s words and state
ments, which lack goodwill, have hurt
the Vietnamese and Asian peoples,” Viet
nam Foreign Ministry spokesman Phan
Thuy Thanh said in Februaiy at the height
of the controversy.
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rtiMlSte agBip
Mexican candidates hold
first presidential debate
by Niko Price
The Associated Press
Mexico City — With Mexico’s pres
idential election turning into a real race,
opposition candidates attacked the rul
ing party’s nominee in a televised debate
Tuesday night and pleaded with Mexi
cans to reject the party that has ruled
Mexico for 71 years.
“In fewer than 70 days, we’ll have
the historic, unique opportunity to end
more than 70 years of bad governments,
to change more than 70 years of a cor
rupt system that has stolen from Mexi
cans the fruits of their labor,” said Vi
cente Fox of the center-right National
Action Party.
Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive
whose cowboy boots and blunt talk make
him the most flamboyant of the presi
dential field, has pulled almost even in
the polls with Francisco Labastida of the
ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party,
orPRI.
The July 2 elections could be Mex
ico’s cleanest ever and might represent
the best chance ever for the opposition
to defeat the PRI, which has held the pres
idency since it was founded in 1929.
Labastida also acknowledged that
Mexico needs change, but he urged vot
ers to support what he called “change
with direction, change with security for
the country, true change.”
“Many politicians have used power
to enrich themselves. The change that I
propose in Mexico is that power be used
to serve people,” he said.
The five opposition candidates at
tacked Labastida and his party — some
more bluntly than others — and Labasti
da seemed testy, accusing Manuel Ca
macho Solis of the tiny Democratic Cen
ter Party of being an “employee” of Fox.
Fox reached out to the other oppo
sition candidates, saying he needed them
on board in order to defeat the PRI’s po
litical machine. But earlier attempts at
an opposition alliance among the major
parties failed.
Fox, 57, has been campaigning against
Labastida on a platform of change — his
campaign slogan is “Enough already!”
Labastida, also 57, has been running
a largely traditional populist campaign,
promising more money for farmers,
schools, construction and running water.
The two have traded insults during
campaign stops, with Labastida accusing
Fox of speaking from both sides of his
mouth, and Fox, at 6-foot-3, calling the
5-foot-9 Labastida “shorty” and “more
of the same.”
For more than seven decades, the PRI
has held onto the presidency by means
fair and foul, but the party has been forced
by both domestic and international pres
sure to make itself, and Mexico’s elec
toral system, more democratic.
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^ A .A A A A a A ^ A .A
U.N. panel blasts Russia
over Chechnya abuses
by Naomi Koppel
The associated Press
Geneva—The top U.N. human rights
body accused Russia of widespread vi
olations in Chechnya in a sudden and
unexpected show of decisiveness Tues
day.
The resolution, sponsored by the
European Union, attacked “dispropor
tionate and indiscriminate use of Russ
ian military force, including attacks
against civilians. ” It also expressed con
cern at “serious crimes and abuses”
committed by Chechen forces.
The .53-nation Human Rights Com
mission called on the Russian govern
ment to establish a commission of in
quiry and asked a series of U.N. human
rights experts to undertake missions to
Chechnya But it stopped short of de
mands by human rights organizations
that the world body set up its own probe.
The resolution was approved by a
vote of 25 to 7 with 19 abstentions.
Joining Russia in voting against tire res
olution were China, Cuba, the Re
public of Congo, India, Madagascar and
Sri Lanka.
The criticism of a permanent mem
ber of the U.N. Security Council was
an unusual move for the commission,
which last week failed even to vote on
a motion attacking China’s human rights
record.
The vote came after negotiations
between the EU and the Russian dele
gation Med to come up with an agreed
statement. It took U.N. officials by sur
prise. They had expected the debate to
be adjourned until Wednesday to allow
discussions to continue.
“Unfortunately the Russian Feder
ation was not in a position to accept the
minimum that this commission must
ask for when seriously addressing hu
man rights and international humani
tarian law in Chechnya,’’ said Portuguese
Ambassador Alvaro de Mendonca e
Mount, speaking for the EU.
Russia sent troops into Chechnya
for a second time last September after
militants based in the territory invaded
the neighboring region of Dagestan.
Chechens also are blamed for four apart
ment bombings in Russia in September
that killed 300 people.
The United States and the EU have
been sharply critical of .what they call
excessive use of force by Russian troops,
widespread civilian suffering, and re
ports of human rights abuses in the cam
paign against Chechen separatists.
Russian Ambassador Vasily Sidorov
said the resolution failed to take account
of the serious danger to human rights
posed by terrorists in Chechnya. He
said it showed “absolutely no under
standing of what human rights means."
“Armed bandits have unleashed a
war against the whole peaceful popu
lation of Chechnya,” Sidorov said.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright welcomed
the decision and criticized Russia for
blocking a unified commission stand on
Chechnya, spokesman James P. Rubin
said. Rubin said Chechnya is on the agen
da for talks Russian Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov is having in Washington
with President Clinton and Albright.
Want to know
what the talk is about?
Listen and find out. _
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