round,
rful and
moralized
. ' THE VIOLENCE has been
aniong the worst since diCtator Jean­
Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier WIS
forced into exile by a popular upris­
�g in February 1986. In one slum
district, soldiers went door to door
killing people, d for several days
after the coup roamed the streets in
ca, firi:ng into the air and at pedes­
trianS, according to witnesses and
h�an-rights voups.
. Two weeks after the coup, any
Aiistide backers are still hiding in
the- homes of friends, relatives or
sympathizers md refusing to give
out any information about their
r. abouts, including telephone.
�bers.
-' In the coup violence, soldiers
damaged or destroyed the homes Or
businesses of many prominent Aris­
tide suppooers. His former c.npaign
�, PM-aa-Prince May<r Evam
Paul, WIS � days later and
badly beaten during an overnight
detention. A highly popular folk
singer, Manno Charlemagne, who'
was employed by Aristide's adrnini­
sttation as an expert in organizing
the poor, was arrested last week and
remains in custody.
. : Police have set up checkpoints
on some roads, stopping cars amd
arching under seats and in tnmb
for passengers or weapons. In televi­
sion and radio bro deasts, citizens
are reminded that an II-t0-5 curfew
�ains in effect. ' .
\ Local news media have been
rriUzzled by a ban on reporting thai
rntght incite violence and by fear _
sdldiers hot up and smashed equip­
ment in some radio stations after the
coup.
: AMONG THE POOR, as they
gO about their daily shopping and
other business, an undercurrent of
(eir is apparent.
"If Aristide returns now, the
so'ders will gun us down," said a 24-
yeir-old who works a maid for •
mlddle-cl family in the relatively
well-off Petionville section in the
shady hills above downtown Port­
au-Prince.
WORLD AND NATION
•
I
RT.AU·PR1 CE. Raib (AP) -
d demoralized, many ac­
ti . t k 0 Jean-Bertrand Aris­
tide hav g into hiding, d the
m P.ity poor hav y t to challenge
WIlly' guns and r ist the presi- By Leah Sam
dent' ouster. • Scaff W .
-------------------------
From exil in Venezuel , Aris-
tide c erized th failure of the
people to rise up ain the Sept. 30
military coup a "strategic" re­
treat, indicating they might do so at
any time.
But calls for "total resistance"
m by the Laval , a loose federa­
tion representing slum dwellers and
peasants, have failed to move
populace traumatized by the loss of
their leader and terrorized by the
militaty.
"They have guns. We have no
guns,. stmm.-ized an IWdent 24-year­
old Aristide supporter in the dQwn­
town slum of Post M .. chant. Con-.
servative estimat indicate at least
150 people were killed during and
after the coup as soldiers put down
peotests by Aristide's followers and
avenged the killings 0 soldiers by
pro-Aristide demonstr tors .
Ruth Apilado is busy oman.
isdoing ajobforwhich heoften
receives no th and no money. In
fact, many times she gets criticism,
harassment and threats. She is the
creator and editor of AIM, Amer­
ica's Intercultw"al Magazine.
Ruth h always been socially
conscious. In her 83 ye� of living,
she has seen a lot-she just didn't
like m t of it. So, eighteen y
go, after retiring from t bing
elem ntary hool, t out to
m gazine promoted .
racial harmony, -cultural un
standing and pe ceo
"I am very interest in social
and racial problems, and I think that
no one has th right to it around
twiddling his thumb with all this
going on," she says. "You can't es­
cape it, so I decided to fight it­
nonviolently. "
Ruth ApUado and her son, Dr. Myron Apilado, V.P. Minority Affairs,
Unlv. of Washington, Seattle, WA .
Blacks to urqe Justi e
. Department to reject
reapportionment plans
ALBANY. GL (AP) - A dele­
gation of NAACP members will
head to Washington this month to
urge the U.S. Justice Department
to reject Gtugia's reapportionment
plan and adopt one proposed by
two black legislators.
Rep. Cynthia McKinney, an
Atlanta Dernocr t who helped
prepwe the alternate proposal, told
the 49th annual state convention
of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
that the Justice Department likely
will reject the state's plan.
THE PLAN drawn up by the
Legislature t � special session in .
August fails to provide adequate
representation for blacks, he said
while outlining the NAACP dele­
gatioo's Washington lobbying trip.
Ms. McKinney said the alter­
nate plan she, Rep. Tyrone Brooks
and the American Civil Liberties
Union propo calls for 15 major­
ity blac state Senatorial districts
instead of the 11 approved by the
Le . 1 tW'e.
It also has 50 majority-bl k
state House districts instead of the
35 approved, and three majority­
bid congressional districts in-
stead of two.
Approval of this plan would
enable blacks to form a coalition
with Republicans, who expect to
end up with 45 majority districts,
that could unseat the entrenched
Democratic power structure in the
state House, she said,
�'WE'lL NOT ooly get a place
at the table, but be at the head of
the table," he said, adding tIl'at a
black speaker of the House is a
possibility.
Ms. McKinney was joined by .
state Reps. Mary Young-Cum­
mings and John White, both of
Dougherty County, in the panel
discussion.
Mrs. Young-Cummings and
Ms. McKinney urged local NAACP
members to make their complaints
about the redistricting plan known
to the Justice Department, which
is in the midst of a 6O-day com­
ment period that began Oct. 1.
MCKINNEY . the sys­
tem is not to blame for the reap­
portionment plan, only the "old
boy " who control it. "There are
sum dastardly. individuals in
charge of the process," she said.
r
m·
..
a DJgh fight 00 her
But, in between receiving thre ten­
ing I tter from th Ku Klux Klan
d other groups, h continu . On
- m y ond i he ever gets frus­
tr ted or tired of it, or if h ev
I her optimism.
"No, bee use it (th fight gainst
r cisrn) is an eternal thing. I imply
must continue to fight. I mean,
sometim you think thing have
changed, then you he about th
Rodney Kings. But I think that th
end of r cism is the!ight at th end of
a long, long tunnel. I,
She kno wh t she's talking
.about. Besid growing up in a time
when lynchings gregation were
extremely commonpl ce, she also
h multiracial family. Her hus­
band of nearly ixty ye ,I en-
"I g so' eX peop
things, though. I mean, no :
pure r ce , anyway. And no race is :
better than anoth ,either. We're all :
people. Every race hu made a con- :
tribution to th world. We ou1 't:
leave anybody out, but we also:
shouldn't p bouting about how :
the J e did this or the Blae did:
that. I'm Black, but I think th Afro-:
centrism is racist. We all want the :
same things, so fundamentally, cuI- :
ture are not that different (from:
each other).
cio, i n tive of th
Th ir d ughter-in-I mixed
European heritage. Ruth' very happy
ith h family, d proud 0 them
II.Her nly nMyronh doctor­
� and is vice-pr sid nt of Minority
Aft irs at the University of W h­
ington in Seattle. All three of her
grandchildren h ve gr duated col­
leg and are pursuing variou ca­
r rs. But over the years, th re have
n many who h r family in a
negative light.
"Wh n I fir t too up with a Fili­
pino, om of my Black mal friends
got a little miffed. But, it w n't that
I couldn't have wanted a Black man,
I just didn't fall in love with one. And
of course, we have always gotten th
typical neg tive reactions mixed
famili get.
While deeply believing in her : .
cause, Ruth is not a rabblerousing
radical. A quiet and reserved wanan, .
she tate her belief simply and .
matter-of-f ctly. And so it is with :
S AIM. PIIg A·10:
It's 'a black thing
Over 50% of all deaths amon I African-Americans arc cau-,cd hy smoking related diseases.
uit 'mol-illg. II really i'Il'1 • our 111I1l!!.
_-
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.;r Y' r old bl k· •