OPINIoT Page 4 Friday, December 6, 1985 Nelson Mandela may h South African civil rights leader Nelson Mandela may be the recipient of an honorary degree from the University if campus activists can influence the degree granting committee to support the proposal. Thomas Holt, a professor of history and director of the University's Center for Afroamerican and African Studies has sent a letter of nomination to University President Harold Shapiro, who will pass the recommendation on to the Honorary Degree Committee for consideration at their meeting next spring. The Week in Review In the meantime, members of the Free South Africa Coordinating Committee FSACC will be circulating petitions within the University community to prove wide support for the nomination. According to Barbara Ransby, a graduate student and director of the FSACC, "If the University is serious about its opposition to apartheid, this would be a powerful way to demonstrate that symbolically." Action vs. graffiti has received "very strong support" from the University administration, Josephson said, although starting an Introduction to the University course is still in the planning stages. The United Front Against Racism is also considering having a "public clean-up day," when students and others would demon- strate their opposition to racist graffiti by cleaning it off campus buildings. The group hopes to have the clean-up day early next year, Josephson said. Officials from a fraternity and a sorority that were defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti over the Thanksgiving holiday say the graf- fiti was erased by Wednesday night, but the incident may increase support for an ad hoc group known as the United Front Against Racism. The group, composed of representatives of the Michigan Student Assembly, LSA Student Government, and campus minority groups, will hold a public meeting today in the Michigan Student Assembly Chambers at 3:30 p.m. MSA President Paul Josephson said the group will discuss ways to prevent the type of incident that occurred last weekend. One idea being kicked around is instituting a one or two credit mandatory course that would discuss racism and male-female relations. The course would also deal with other campus issues like how the University is governed, Josephson said. So far, the group h tl a f r n c c s h F is fl T t+ e p 1+ Computer fees The Michigan Student Assembly delayed taking an official position on the Univer- sity's controversial computer fee this week, making it even harder for the Assembly to plan concrete steps to oppose the fee next term. Several individual assembly members have privately opposed the $50 fee for next. term and $100 each term thereafter. The Board of Regents approved the fee assessment in September. MSA members in turn introduced a proposal that the Univer- sity pursue more private funding resources before charging the student fee. After the Assembly voted to table the proposal, R r ti y I Wasserman E it a t at Un t Ma Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Vol. XCVI, No. 65 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 CoNGWE *NN- NEDS A ?FTITION M~ouT CAMPNA6N CONTRIBUTIONS \NG WAN4T YOU t'ow MUMIEA Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Hidden holocaust Beyond T N{ The Michigan Daily onor University riowever, assembly members agreed that which will automatically put a student (or ;hey could have little impact on next term's students) on the State Board of Regents. assessment with classes ending next week. MSA president Paul Josephson is hoping At Tuesday night's meeting, Douglas Van that this action will prompt the University Flouweling, the University's Vice Provost Board of Regents to adopt a similar: [or Information Technology and the man measure. g responsible for the fee described it as a In the past, students have been rejected necessary attempt for the University to cat- from this position for a number of reasons. :h up with peer institutions in computer ac- It has been difficult for students to gather 2essibility. He regreted having to charge widespread political support since they are students, he said, but added that his staff often viewed as too young and inexperien- aad found no other alternatives. Van ced to be taken seriously. Flouweling did say, however, that his office Under the current proposal, the governor s "vigorously" pursuing private funding would appoint the student (or students) to for the University's computer expansion. the Board. Assembly members seemed impressed Another obstacle students have faced is with Van Houweling's remarks, and Matt the conflict of interest problem. But. P'ucker, co-author of the proposal objecting proponents argue, student concerns can best to the fee, said the assembly is unlikely to be represented by students, who should be endorse a boycott of the fee, which had involved in the decision making process. previously been mentioned by assembly For the past 20 years, students at the leaders. University have been vainly striving for a - Board seat. If Bullard's proposal passes, Student regents? Josephson and other proponents of the bill expect the University to ride on the state The all powerful University Board of coattails and follow suit. Regents may be infiltrated by a student The Week in Review was compiled by epresentative if state legislation suppor- ing student regents is passed early next opinion page editor Jody Becker and iear. staff writers Eric Mattson, Susanne Perry Bullard is organizing an initiative Skubik and Jerry Markon. r a, To P'UT A CA? ONl "/oU N\EAN EACPI (bNGECS.N \1&ULD ThEN 'tN4EQE'S *'fE INCEt4TNVE pcrd o~ You CAN AcXE.rT BE umA1TEP TO ThE &AME NAOUNT? -M the summit 'een the two countries take responsibility for their ac- tackle any of the crucial full-time operation, tions in it," said Russell Sch- problems that separate the the ARK foundation weikert.. "If we have a future, it United States and the Soviet ncisco which afunds is because we take responsibility Uniotn. hr' lotacn SSR, Perhaps in a scious decision to suspend Summit euphoria, judgment," says Gloria Duffy. ' rnent of Commerce "Doctors the world over have "The basic premise is if you can't K permission to con- taken the oath of Hippocrates," abstract your enemy, he's less nputer line only two says Annie Head, a recreation likely to be your enemy. it was requested. therapist and director of volun- But, Duffy adds, the way power Esalen Foundation teers for the Stanford University works is different in the two coun- the first live satellite chapter of Physicians for Social tries. "I'm not sure that a lot of enting a jazz group Responsibility. "And part of that people that (the citizen's w to the US Rock can be seen as doing everything diplomacy movement is) dealing a outhern California. they can to prevent what's been with ever will end up in positions "first" is the called the final epidemic, nuclear of power . . ."' of Space Explorers, war. One way to do that is to meet On the other hand, says Nancy October by Apollo 9 with Soviet physicians and work Graham of the Institute for ussell Schweikert and on cooperative projects Soviet-American Relations, "our astronauts from the whenever possible." point is you don't start off talking ,~ and eleven other Yet despite the good intentions, about confrontational things. You $ f taims to encourage the citizen diplomacy movement start off talking about some 'i efforts in the ex- seems limited. Sch weikert's common interests, and then work space and develop- Association of Space Explorers is toward the confrontational items. ai hsources. conspicuously silent on the most Otherwise the conversation never Houth University's important space issue of today: starts." ool, Project Cork is Star Wars. It appears that the Quinones wrote this ar- ing to organize ex- only reason citizen's groups are tide for the Pacific News Ser- n the problem of able to work is because they don'tr "We want to set up vice. ommunication on q concern to both coun- lains project staffer ne Valliant, "and" hat cuts across, at a level, a wide variety ) m those countries." eft for Geneva, Pres. ealed for a student program with the n. But programs like hich sponsors univer- \, both countries - and R Youth Exchange e already way ahead- t summer, the YEP Americans and ten ~. chool students to the !!*-_ brus in the Caucasus, hest mountain. for Social Respon-- U.S. affiliate of the - International - for Prevention of , is one of the leading groups in the field of macy. This summer d a conference in ich examined areas tors from both coun- work together to at- and disease. involved in citizen1W4 ilso known as Track macy, motivation , the feeling that they d krNow, VuKETEY Ust oa ntHE OCEAN VIEWa M LI ui0p4E4A S lifference. ccr'i conviction is that the because individuals DECEMBER 7th, 1985 marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most grisly invasions in con- temporary history. Indonesia in- vaded its neighbor East Timor and left somewhere between 100,000 and 250,000 dead out of a population between 600,000 and 700,000. Congress uses the figure of at least 100,000 dead. Amnesty Inter- national says 150,000 to 200,000 and the Fretilin guerrillas and other observers from East Timor say 200,000 or more died. Despite East Timor's dwindling population In- donesia is implementing a birth control program as "one ex- tremely decisive aspect of resolving the population problem in the territory." Indonesia crushed a short-lived Timorese republic that had just gained independence from Por- tugal. East Timor's first governing party - Fretilin - has militarily engaged the Indonesians since the invasion. Today, there are between 7,000 and 20,000 Indonesian troops still occupying East Timor, which Indonesia annexed in 1976. Fretilin has been described as "populist Catholic" in a mostly Catholic country, "Marxist" and "non-communist.'' Whichever label applies, it is clear that Fretilin is a fiercely independent nationalist movement that has had to rely on its own resources. Indonesia has prevented in-. formation about Fretilin and East Timor from reaching the outside world by keeping out journalists and even forbidding a survey by the International Red Cross. The media of the United States also fell silent for a number of years after 1976 according to New York Senator Daniel P.atrick Moynihan. One Congressional report said that the issue had died except for the ef- forts of one congressman. The United States bears respon- sibility in this silent holocaust. Most indicatively, past President Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger had visited only 12 hours before the invasion. Only the most naive wnuld nht that Fnrd and used in the invasion came from Washington. That arms supply continued after the invasion. Ac- cording to Noam Chomsky, United States government representatives at a Congressional hearing claimed to have enacted a six mon- th arms ban to Indonesia after the invasion; however, Indonesia never knew about it and arms in fact continued to flow. The United States voted against a victorious resolution for self- determination for East Timor in the United Nations and still does not support self-determination for East Timor. Since the invasion, the UN has condemned Indonesia 10 times with the United States' dissent on each occasion. Even if those Americans who know about East Timor do riot sup- port American policy, the United States government has its own reasons for unconditionally sup- porting Indonesia. Indonesia has a population of 150 million people. East Timor is down to 550,000. In- donesia has oil, and is a strategic ally of the United States. As always, the United States is soft on its friends and prefers to criticize repression elsewhere and where it can have relatively little practical impact - Afghanistan or Poland. The Nation published one comment by an individual who said that "if the world '"press were to converge suddenly on Timor, it would not improve the lot of a single Cambodian." While the State Department is quick to link Soviet and other brands of communism with the slaughter in Cambodia, it says nothing about genocide involving supposed American allies. Genocide or even the slaughter of 200,000 to 1 million Indonesians by the Indonesian military coup of 1965 have little to do with the con- cerns of American policy-makers intent upon supporting a pro- United States Indonesian military. Calling Fretilin reactionary terrorists, Indonesia claims that some clerics have been mislead in By Sam Quinones While the Fireside Summit is widely seen as forging a "fresh start" in people-to-people contac- ts between the Superpowers, in fact thousands of individuals and scores of groups across the coun- try have already woven their own personal ties with counterparts in the Soviet Union. The result is a "citizen diplomacy" movement that has exploded over the last six years. United Campuses to Prevent Nuclear War (UCAM) is one such effort whose aim, according to its director Sanford Gottlieb, is to "see what happens when live Soviet people meet live American people." Gottlieb tells of taking the head of the Soviet Union's Student Council to speak at Ball State University in Indiana early in November. During the speech, a farmer stood up and asked several hostile questions. But when it was over, he invited the Soviet guest to see his farm. "So Nikita went to the farm," Gottlieb recalls. "On the way, the farmer turns to an American organizer and says, 'I can't believe this. Here I am a hawk and I'm driving this Russian to my farm.' Then when they go to the farm, Nikita was looking for all these exploited migrant workers, which he couldn't find. What he found was a computer." These are the realistic kinds of impressions UCAM is trying to bring to people from two coun- tries so long at each other's throats, Gottlieb explains.. Ironically, such efforts began to take off precisely at a point when U.S.-Soviet relations hit their lowest ebb. "The intensity of citizen efforts to make contact with the Soviet Union is in inverse proportion to the civility of relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union," says Gloria Duffy, head of Global Outlook, a research and consulting firm specializing in Soviet-American relations. The Institute for Soviet- American Relations in Washington, DC, is a clearing house for information on the movement. Two years ago, it counted 187 organizations in the U.S. sponsoring exchanges with hookup betw went into initiated by in San Fra groups est with the U moment of the Departi granted AR] nect the cor weeks afteri In 1982, established t linkup pres( from Mosco Festival in S Another Association founded in1 astronaut Ri made up of U.S., USSR countries. It cooperative ploration of ment of its re At Dartm medical sch just beginni changes or alcoholism. ongoing c problems of tries," expl Dr. Carolii something ti non-political of people froi Before he]1 Reagan app exchange1 Soviet Union UCAM - wh sity tours in1 the US-USS Program, ar of.him. Last took eight, Soviet high s top of Mt. Eli Europe's hig Physician sibility, the renowned Physicians Nuclear War professional citizen diplo it sponsore Budapest wh in which doc tries could v tack hunger For most diplomacy, a Two diplo comes from can make a d "My own c world works