Tuesday; June 8; 1976
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Three
I
Tuesday. June 8. 1976 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Poge Three
Cease-fire issued
as Syrian troops
advance. on Beirut
BEIRUT, Lebanon (P)-Syrian forces
launched a drive on Beirut yesterday,
hurling jets, tanks and artillery against
Lebanese leftists and Palestinian guer-
rillas who had blocked their path for six
days.
A Radio Damascus broadcast last night
said a new cease-fire had been agreed
upon. It said the cease-fire was an-
nounced in Beirut by a spokesman for
the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) and went into effect at 4:30 p.m.
EDT.
THERE WAS no immediate indication
that the Syrian advance had halted.
The Syrian troops, estimated at 6,000,
had crossed into Lebanon last Tuesday
seeking to force an end to the. struggle
between right-wing Christians and the
leftist alliance of Moslems and Pales-
tinian guerrillas. The Moslems had been
seeking a grater share of power in the
government.
The Syrians quickly f o u n d them-
selves in a bloody showdown with Ara-
fat's guerrillas, until recently Syria's
allies in the confrontation with Israel.
The Syrians also encountered opposition
from the Moslem leftists that Syria had
helped arm.
SYRIA'S DRAMATIC move to end
Lebanon's 14-month-old civil war further
fragmented Arab efforts toward unifica-
tion against Israel.
How dry 1 am
It'll be a dry Republican National
convention for the delegates from Utah.
The delegation, most of who belong to
the Church of the Latter-day Saints
(Mormon) who neither drink nor smoke,
had their motel reservations switched
from hard-drinking Missouri to Kansas
where there are no public bars. Ac-
cording to one story, the Missouri motel
complained that it would lose money
at the bar because of the non-drinkers.
Richard Richards of the Utah delega-
tion said, "It's true that he would not
do well."
Happenings...
... tonight at 8:00 the Ann Arbor Bi-
centennial commission is sponsoring a
play entitled "The North Beach Gang."
It will run until June 13, and is being
presented in the Residential College
Atd. in E. Quad ... The Ann Arbor
chapter of NOW will meet at 8:00 to-
night in the first Unitarian Church.
0
Weather or not
If you enjoyed yesterday's sun and
heat, you'll be happy to hear that more
of the same is expected for today. It
will be sunny and clear with highs in
the upper 80's, but the moderate hu-
midity should keep things bearable.
Lows will be mild, in the low 60's. By
Wednesday you may decide you've had
enough of the heat, because the mer-
cury should reach the 90's by then and
is expected to stay there through Thurs-
day. Friday will bring no heat relief,
but there is a chance of rain.
In yesterday's drive, Syrian tanks ad-
vancing along the mountainous Damas-
cus-Beirut highway pounded the hill re-
sort of Sofar while warplanes strafed
and rocketed Palestinian positions in
Beirut, 16 miles away.
Lebanese leftist warriors. and PLO
chieftain Yasir Arafat's Al Fatah guer-
rillas lined the main road through Sofar
to block the Syrians.
"WE ARE waiting for the Syrians,"
said a young gunman. "We are a wel-
come for them."
Another Syrian armored column was
reported heading toward the southern
port city of Sidon. Reports said the
Syrians clashed with Palestinian guer-
rillas around the village of Hilaliya on
the hills above the port 25 miles south
of Beirut.
The Al Fatah office in Algiers had an-
nounced the cease-fire agreement before
it was reported by Damscus radio. Al
Fatah said the pact among Syria, the
Palestinians and Lebanese leftist forces
calls for the creation of a Syrian-Alger-
ian-Lebanese commission to resolve the
crisis with the truce to be supervised by
Lebanese and Algerians.
AND IN Cairo, Arab League Secretary-
General Malsmound Riad invited foreign
ministers of 20 member states to an
emergency sesison tomorrow to consider
the Lebanese crisis, the official Middle
East News Agency reported. The meet-
ing was requested by the Palestinian
Liberation Organization, the over - all
guerrilla organization headed by Arafat.
Sami Attari, a member of Syria's rul-
ing Socialist Baath party, charged that
America, Egypt and Israel were seeking
to gain a partition of Lebanon to estab-
lish a Palestinian state on Lebanese soil.
He said Syria would not attend a con-
ference of Arab foreign ministers re-
quested by Arafat because Arafat's lead-
ership of the PLO "is illegal since its
term expired more than a year ago."
Arafat has charged that Syria wants to
destroy his Lebanon-based organization
and replace it with the Syrian-controlled
Saiqa Palestinian group.
Easy riders
Party split plagues Council
By MIKE NORTON
When the Ann Arbor City Council met
in special session two weeks ago, the
long-feuding party factions came togeth-
er amiably to pass a city budget for
1976. Smiles abounded at that meeting,
backs were patted -- cooperation and
harmony prevailed.
But that honeymoon, such as it was,
is over.
LAST NIGHT, the first Council ses-
sion since the budget meeting, showed
lines firmly drawn once again between
Republicans and Democrats as debate
flared over an amendment to the city's
street use ordinance proposed by Coun-
cil member Carol Jones (D-2nd Ward).
Jones' amendment would have chang-
ed wording in the ordinance which re-
quires written permission from property
owners before a street permit can be
issued to an artist or merchandiser to
set up a stand in front of the property.
The present wording, Jones argued,
gave adjacent property owners a de
facto "veto power" over the use of side-
walks in front of their property. Her
amendment would have required that
owners be notified of a request for a
permit and given time to make a pro-
test, but would not have required written
permission as an absolute condition.
THE FIRST Republican protest came
from Council member Wendell Allen (R-
1st Ward), who reminded his colleagues
that area merchants pay taxes to the
city while "wandering peddlers" who
might set up sidewalk booths did not.
See PARTIES, Page 14
TU lawyers file suit against judges
By MICHAEL YELLIN
Lawyers representing the Ann Arbor
Tenants Union (TU) have filed a suit
against 15th District Court Judges Pieter
Thomassen, Sandorf Elden and George
Alexander charging them with actions
"prejudicial to the plaintiffs (striking
tenants) and interfering with their ability
to receive fair trials."
Included in the suit is visiting judge
Richard Robinson who has been called in
from Howell, Michigan to preside over
the non-jury trials between landlord
Edith Epstein and striking tenants.
WITH THE suit TU members seek "to
restore the Plaintiff's (tenants') jury
trials, reasonable right to amend plead-
ings, and a reasonable trial schedule."
Council for the defendants, Asst. City
Attorney John Van Loon, responded to
the suit saying, "The kind of things
they've alleged cannot be properly
brought out in court. My position is that
the complaint is completely improper
and not in proper form." Judges Thomas-
sen and Alexander declined comment.
In their suit Legal Aid lawyers Jeremy
Rose and Jonathan Rose, acting in behalf
of striking tenants, claim that the three
local judges met secretly to discuss 19
lawsuits filed against striking TU mem-
bers in mid-March by Reliable Realty
owner Edith Epstein. After the meetings
the judges removed the 19 suits from
the "usual procedure in landlord tenant
proceedings" and "modified the pro-
cedure to the great detriment of the ten-
ants," the lawyers charge.
TENANT LAWYERS claim they were
not given adequate time to prepare coun-
terclaims and were refused the right
to amend their pleadings, thereby pre-
venting them from "properly presentitg
their proofs at trial." In the suit they
further claim tenants were unjustly de-
prived of their right to trial by jury in
four cases due to untimely payment of
the jury fee, and in four additional cases
their right to a jury trial was deprived
even though the fees were paid prior to
the time they were due, but were not
accepted by the clerk.
Throughout the trials between Epstein
and the TU, court cases have been set
at several trials per week and on some
days more than one case has been tried.
It is the tenants contention that the
acceleration of the proceedings has
strongly affected their cases as evidenced
by the fact that tenants were awarded
$2,200 rent reduction and $1900 compen-
satory damages in the first trial, when
their lawyers were given adequate time
to prepare.
Tenants also argue that the assignment
of non-jury trials to visiting judge Rich-
ard Robinson is "improper."
Stating, "There are no judges in the
15th Judicial District without a commer-
cial interest or former commercial in-
terest in landlording, either personally
or as landlords council or both .. .,"
tenants seek through the suit to impress
upon the judges the importance of being
"even handed" in their handling of the
tenant-landlord cases.