orce ..
w nt th non,' id
year-old R ina Hyman, moth r of
three and pre id nt of the Tenan '
Action ommin t th comple,
which i under th uth rity of the
U.S. Departm nt f H usin and
Urb n D velopm nt,
"We want r lity. W want It
done," Hyman ald. "Th r are cer­
in people who don't get respect
here. The polic certainly don't get
it. They get hot at."
RR
.0.1.
ecurity A en y In . lone 0 four
cornpani biddm to patrol th 24
apartment. aid David Itkin, vice
pre ident of Alliance Hou ing
Management Inc. which manage
the proje t in Venice. The area, a
e ide community 15 mil west of
downtown. is noted for it r ially
NA llONIWORLD
H
IV
. H IZ D
the Jewi h group
hat he d cri a neighbor-
h od m t f. "They don't live down
h reo They don't h ve any ide
what' going on,' b aid. About
60 p rcent of the project' more than
200 tenants are bl k and 40 percent
are Hi panic, Itkin said.
Rubin aid a ynagogue is lo­
cated near the complex and he feared
that the Muslim patrol would dis-
ID
problem t the compl warranted
action and n t d th tHUD retary
Jac K mp has encoura ed residents
to get involved in th ir neighbor­
hoods. Sh aid in the p t she and
other re idents have h d to patrol
their apartment building themselve
to eep drug deale out. "We
topped th m tho e night .' she
aid, "but we don't want to be mar­
tyrs. "
ay it patrol 1,2 HUD units' in
Washington, D.C. But its bid in Los
Angeles ha aroused controversy be-
cause of remar Farrakhan ha
Whi you h 'ga 9
lack childre whi---
BY KILEY ARM TRO G
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW YORK -In two separate
attacks, Black children on their way to
school have been ized and spray
painted white by white youtbsclaiming
to be the Albanian Boys.
Now the Albanian community is
saying it could not be their kind doing
this sort of hideom hate crime.
They fled
their homeland after a lifetime of
hearing "You don't belong here."
Ethnic Albanians, who proudly claim
Mother Teresa as a compatriot, say
they left the torment of bigotry,
physical abuse and political oppres­
sion in Albania and Yugoslavia for
America: their Land of Opportunity.
Now, these mainstream
Americans are being linked - they
say prematurely and prejudicially -
to two racial attacks on black and
Hispanic children in the Bronx on
Jan. 6 and 13.
"The issue is being wrestled
with; the church is involved, com­
munity leaders are involved, youth
leaders are involved," said the Rev.
Arthur Liolin, chancellor of the Bos­
ton-based Albanian Orthodox
Archdiocese of America.
Bronx Albanians expressed con­
cern for the victims, but said they're
heartsick about widespread publicity
•
pr y pal
in attac
that the white thugs claimed to be
from groups called the ., Albanian
Bad Boys" and "Albanian Boys
Inc."
sanaj, a Realtor-travel agent-in­
surance broker who came here 26
years ago. "I am pure Albanian
blood, born in Yugoslavia. But the
No.1 person in my life was President
John F. Kennedy."
"We're not a racial people, so
it's kind of a surprise to me that it
would manifest itself," said Liolin. If
Albanians were involved, "it may be
a territorial phenomenon."
"The whole concept of this kind
of buse (by Albanians) doesn't
make sense: it's horrifying," said
Deborah Angus, editor of Illyria, it
biweekly Albanian-American
newspaper. "Their hearts are as
good as gold."
In reality, the attackers' eth­
nicity is unclear: No arrests have
been made. A few Bronx Albanians
wondered privately whether the vic­
tims or police gave inaccurate
descriptions, or opined that Serbs _
their enemy in Yugoslavia -had fal­
sely represented themselves to be­
smirch Albanians.
Angus estimates there are
120,000 Albanians living in
metropolitan New York City and
500,000 nationwide. The pulse of
the Bronx's Albanian community is
Belmont, a mostly Italian-American
enclave famous for its restaurants
and old-world charm. Many Al­
banians immigrated through Italy,
and feel at home here.
"I CRO MY fingers that
they're not Albanian, " aid Vic Vuk-
BELMONT IS ABOUT a mile
from the now-infamous comer of the
predominantl y Jewish and Italian
See ATTACK, p. A-10
Groups,oppose II Debtfor nature Swap"
. Minority environ­
. mentalists cteim
program is unfair
to poorer. countries
By RON SEIGEL
Cornspottd ••
DETROIT-Minorities and
those involved with minority rights
within the environmentalist move­
ment have expressed concern about
the support of main-line environ­
mentalist groups and U.S. govern­
ment officials of "debt for nature
swaps" in the third world.
Mary Hollins, a delegate to the
National People of Color Environ­
mental Leadership Summit held last
year, aid that the summit criticized
the "big 10" environmentalist or­
ganizations for their upport of this
program.
BOLLIN READ to The
Michigan Citizen a letter from the
Southwest Networ of Environmen­
talism and Justice, a New Mexico
organization with pbserver status at
the conference, criticizing the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), charging, "The EPA has
taken it upon itself to lobby for the
U.S. government subsidy of the so­
called 'Debt for nature swap.'"
The concept i to conserve nature
in poorer countries and prevent en­
vironmental deterioration by having
conservation groups take over the
land in exchange for erasing a por­
tion of the country's debt orpurchas­
ing the debt at a reduced rate.
living on the land involved in the
swap."
who live on the land," including even
ecological questions of toxic waste
which she charges are most often
located in minority areas.She added
there should be a larger definition of
what constitutes an environmental
concern.
HOLLiN ADO that once
groups' own the land, they .can do
what they wish with it. She ees no
reason why any of the groups that got
the land for ecological purposes
might not start exploiting the land
themselves in non-ecological ways,
once they got it, including oil ex­
ploration - compromising with our
abandoning their professed concern
about nature and the environment.
Katheryn Savory, a staff member
of the Michigan Coali tion on Human
Rights and an observer at the
minority environmentalist Summit,
said she does not feel that the West
is real y all that concerned about the
environment in the third world.She
stated that the U.S. allowed hazard­
ous materials to be shipped to the
Third World. She also noted that
pesticides were also ent there, even
though in many ca es tho e using it
were illiterate and unable to read.
afety instructions and in some cases
the instructions were not even in
their language.
Savoy believes that often the en­
vironmentalist movement is in a
"vacuum, void of ocial justice," not
concerned enough "about the people
"THEY DON'T see garbage and
rats as environmental, infant mor­
tali ty, unemployment, and under­
employment, what (homeless)
people thrown into the cold are
facing."
The Southwest Network implied
that the "Debt for Nature" swap ig­
nores the social structures that create
injustice in the Third \yorld.EPA ad­
vocates of the program, it claimed,
"let off the hook the U.S. financial
interests, which created the debts in
the first place and continue to profit
from it.
In some cases, banks are prime
beneficiaries of the swap. "Savoy
said, "The indigenous people had no
say (in the swap). They were just
hostages to debt. "Staff members of
local branches of majorenvironmen­
talist organizations such as the Sierra
Club were not available for comment
a t press time.
THE LAND IS supposed to be
held in trust for conservation and
ecological purposes. However, ac­
cording to Hollins, the Network
wrote in its protest letter to EPA
Director and Bush appointee Wil­
liam Riley that such "debt for nature"
swaps "furthers the continued ex­
propriation from third world
countrie to th United States."
"The swap tum conservation
group into creditors of People of
Color abroad," the Network
said. "This is one way of taking their
land away," Hollins said. "They lose
control over the economy of their
own land, the production of their
own land."
The Network charged that the
"Debt for Nature" swap VIolated
"the basic sovereignty and the rights
of people in these countries, espe­
ciaJly those of indigenous people
or
u
BY DAVID BAUDER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)
Having failed once already, New
York tate pro ecutors hope to b gin
a new attempt soon to convict the
Rev. Al Sharpton for alleged finan­
cial misdeeds.
Barring a federal court ruling on
an appeal by Sharpton, the tate trial
on charges that he filed a false state
income tax return in 1987 and didn't
file one at all in 1986 is scheduled to
begin Jan. 13.
The tate trial was to have begun
Monday, but late last week state of­
ficials said an unrelated court action
against Sharpton in Brooklyn would
delay the tax trial for a week.
Sharpton, who preached his first ser­
mon in Brooklyn at age 4 and spear­
headed the effort to get soul music
legend James Brown out of jail, has
become a fixture at demonstrations
in the New York Ci ty area over racial
issues.
Sharpton was found innocent in
1990 after a trial in New York City
on a 67-count indictment that he
pocketed money raised, through the
now-defunct National Youth Move­
ment, who e tated aim was to help
young blacks get jobs and register to
vote.
Sharpton contends Attorney
General Robert Abrams' prosecu­
tion on the three-count tax evasion
indictment is politically motivated.
Sharpton is considering challenging
Abrams and several other prominent
Democrats for the party's nomina­
tion for the U.S. Senate seat now held
by Republican Alfonse D' Amato.
"A jury found him 67 times wrong
in New York City so it should be
fairly easy to assume that a jury will
find him three times wrong in Al­
bany, " Sharpton said of Abrams'
case.
Sharpton's trial was delayed for
nearly a year as he unsuccessfully
tried to'block it with appeais through
the state court system. He claims that
the state is illegally subjecting him to
double jeopardy - trying him twice
for the same case. State courts, all
the way up to the Court of Appeals,
ruled that the indictments were
separate from the earlier prosecu­
tion.
Earlier this month, Sharpton
brought the same argument to
federal court in Albany. "This is a
tax case. It i j t a ca e," said
Edward Saslaw, chie of criminal
prosecution for the ate ttomey
general' office." It i a guy who
didn't file a tax return in 1986 and
filed a false one in 1987."
The indictment technically con­
tains two felony charges - for filing
a false return and offering a false
instrument for filings in 1987. They
are both punishable by up to four
years in jail. The punishment for
failing to file a return in 1986, a
misdemeanor, is up to a year in jail
and a $10,000 fine.
Despite the delay, Saslaw said
he's glad the state courts threw out
Sharpton's double jeopardy argu­
ments. The prosecutor aid that in­
validates what could have been a big
part of Sharpton's defense.
Sharpton said pro ecutors had to
prove he intentionally failed to file
returns. The reverend said he hired
an accountant to do his tax nd the
accountant failed. "How Can I be
prosecuted for not intending to file?
What did I pay him for?" Sharpton
said.
In addition to politics, Sharpton
said he's being pro ecuted as
revenge for his role in th Tawana
Brawley ca e. Abrams, after a
lengthy investigation, concluded '
that Brawley made up her 1987 char­
ges that she was abducted and raped
by white police officers. That was
the view supported by a state grand
jury. Sharpton was one of Brawley's
. advisers.
Sharpton's tax indictment was
announced in June 1989, after the
Brawley investigation was finished,
but Saslaw said investigators were
working on the tax- case before
Brawley even made her charges.
"His ba ic intention has been, I
think, to care us off a fairly normal
case in our bailiwick," Saslaw said
of Sharpton's charges that the indict­
ment was politically motivated.
Following Sashaw's observaon,
Sharpton announced Jan. 15, Rev.
Martin Luther King' birthday, he
will challenge Abrams and other
Democratic candidates Geraldine
Ferraro, Elizabeth Holtzman and
Robert Mrazek in a Senate primary.
Saslaw predicted the state trial,
before state Supreme Court Judge :
John Turner, would take five to six
weeks.
Civil Rights Dept. director
still avallable to public
John Roy Castillo, Michigan
Department of Civil Rights Director,
will continue to set aside most Friday
afternoons to meet with the public
during the first half of 1992.Personal�
meetings to share ideas or concerns
with Castillo may be made to talk
with the director by phone.
The meetings should not be used
to discuss possible or pending com­
plaints, the status of requests for cer­
tification or certificates of
awardabili ty. These concerns will
be referred to the appropria te
bureaus for handling.
MEETINGS WITH TB
PUBUC will be held from 2 p.m. to
4 p.m. at the following Civil Rights
offices on rotational basi :- Lans­
ing 303 West Kalamazoo, 4th Floor­
January 17, February 21, March 13,
April 10, May 1 and 22, June 19 and
July 17.- Grand Rapids, State Of­
fice Building, 350 Ottawa, N.W.,
Sui te 2BFebruary 7, March 6 and 27,
April 24, May 15, June 12 and July
10.- Detroit, State Plaza Building,
1200 Sixth Avenue, 7th Floor­
January 24, February 28, March 20,
April 17, May 8 and 29, June 26, and
July 31.
Castillo said, "Our effectiveness
depends greatly on feedback from
the public. I would strongly en­
courage Michigan residents to come
forward and take advantage' of the
Civil Rights open door policy."
The Department of Civil Rights
also offers "Comment Cards" for
visitors to provide feedback on
programs and ervices. Th e cards
are available at each of the
Department' offices and,oncecom­
ple ted, are forwarded to the Director
for action, if �cessary. •
-