Page 12-Tuesday, May 15, 1979-The Michigan Daily Left-wing mitants in El Salvador seize churches, hostages SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) guerrilla groups also are trying to over- - Supporters of left-wing militants throw Romero. holding hostages in two embassies and Bloc members seized San Salvador's occupying San Salvador's cathedral downtown cathedral and the French seized three other churches yesterday and Costa Rican embassies May 4, and stopped work in 14 factories, a demanding the leaders' release. spokesperson reported. HOSTAGES HELD in the Costa The spokesperson for the Popular Rican Embassy escaped yesterday, Revolutionary Bloc, an organization of and the militants inside were given safe workers and peasants demanding passage to Panama. The next day, social reforms, said groups of bloc police opened fire on a pro-bloc demon- members barricaded themselves inside stration outside the cathedral, killing or Roman Catholic churches in Suchitoto, mortally wounding 24 persons. Apopa and Aguilares, three towns near On Friday, the Romero regime San Salvador. released two bloc leaders in an effort to WORKERS AT 14 small factories in defuse the violence and claimed the the capital struck for four hours, and a other three were not held. Later that union leader said the job action was day the group seized the Venezuelan called to support the Bloc's demands Embassy and took four hostages, in- for the release of three leaders it claims cluding the ambassador. are still in jail. The government says At the French embassy, six hostages they are not being held and it does not still are held. know where they are. ARMED POLICE have sealed off the The bloc, which claims a member- areas around both embassies and the ship of 30,000 students, peasants, cathedral, but food and some visitors workers and intellectuals, is the largest are being allowed in. of half a dozen leftist groups seeking the Both foreign governments said they ouster of Gen. Carlos Romero's have sent special emissaries to military-backed regime. Three negotiate a solution. Members of the Popular Revolutionary Block in San Salvador raise their fists in protest at a rally Sunday. A student was killed by police earlier in the week, and bwut the incident students were angry aesin ch e l i n n o .Protesting children killed iceraAfcnnaion . PARIS (AP)-The imperial guard of Emperor Bokassa I bayoneted, clubbed and stoned to death as many as 10 children last month in the Central African Empire because they protested wearing uniforms to school, Amnesty International said yesterday. The Paris section of the London- based human rights organization said the children, aged 8 to 16, were rounded up in the capital city of Bangui on April 18 and taken to the central Ngarangba Prison to be punished. THE AMNESTY International report said the children had thrown stones at official cars, including Bokassa's. GET COOL FOR THE SUMMER U-M Stylists Dave & Chet at the UNION Amnesty International, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for its work on the plight of political prisoners, cited "numerous, varied and reliable sources, both African and European" for its report on the slayings but would not identify the sources further. Officials at the Central African Em- pire's embassy in Paris refused com- ment, and efforts to reach government leaders in Bangui by telephone were unsuccessful. Operators said the few in- ternatonal telephone links to the coun- try were booked for at least 24 hours. AMNESTY SAID Bokassa's guards swept through the Bangui neigh- borhoods of Malimaka, Boy-Rabe, Zan- de, and Nzakara and arrested several hundred children. "Some of the children were stoned by the imperial guards to punish them for having thrown stones at the imperial car," Amnesty said. "Others were stabbed with bayonets, others died from blows by clubs con- taining nails. Probably nearly 10 children were killed and buried in a common grave during the night by the guards," the report said. THE ORGANIZATION said the students were locked in small cells sealed so tightly that about 20 of the children suffocated. Amnesty said one witness alone coun- ted 62 bodies. The next day, the 58-year-old Bokassa, who describes himself as "the father and protector of the children who are the future of the country," announ- ced he was going to free those still in custody. "IT APPEARS that in fact some were released," Amnesty said. Bangui youths have been restive sin- ce January when the Ministry of Education ordered students to begin wearing the uniforms. The students said they could not afford the new clothes. January's protests developed into violence when university students rioted in Bangui, damaging two fac- tories and many shops around the university. Sources in Paris, who asked not to be named, estimate that between 50 and 100 persons were killed in those disturbances. THE HUMAN rights organization said it has sent a telegram of protest to the emperor and has brought the case before the United Nations secretariat of the International Year of the Child. Travelers from the Central African Empire, a former French colony of 234,000 square miles, say "a reign of terror" has existed in Bangui since January. The country, a landlocked nation in the heart of the African continent, gained independence from France in August 1960, when it became known as the Central African Republic. Before that it was known as the Ubangi-Shari territory in colonial French Equatorial Africa. Its first president banned all political parties and was ousted in a military coup led by Bokassa in 1966. Then-Col. Bokassa declared himself president and dissolved the parliament. In sub- sequent years he converted to Islam but renounced the conversion to become Emperor. He was crowned in Decem- ber 1977 in a lavish ceremony modeled after the coronation of the French Em- peror Napolean in 1804. The festivities surrounding the ceremony reportedly cost an estimated $50 million, half the national budget. Smper Wkags. COPIES OVERNIGHT Copies Happy Rok thday from she Doily staff Located in The Michigan Union 530 S. State Street open days until 10:00 665-8065 Typing Fliers Designed lJ