4 OPINION Page 4 Thursday, March 13, 1986 The Michigan Daily A I bre Mtiib4an ia4lu Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Don't support the Contras Vol. XCVI, No. 110 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board Authoritative move RECENT EVENTS have put the Philadelphia MOVE in- cident that left 11 dead and 60 houses razed in better perspective. On Monday, Mayor Goode respon- ded to criticism'of the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission, which he had appointed to issue an investigative report on the city's bombing of MOVE. Goode's friends and supporters made up the commission that un- tangled conflicting claims of various city government branches and different reports. Courageously the commission opened the door to criticism of the MOVE bombing instead of white- washing Goode. The commission had several pointed conclusions that the New York Times printed. " "Five children were killed during the confrontation on May 13, 1985. Their deaths appear to be unjustified homicides which should be investigated by a grand jury." " "Dropping a bomb on an unoc- cupied row house was incon- scionable and should have been rejected out-of-hand." " "Even after the bomb exploded and ignited the fire, life and property could have been saved without endangering any of the police officers or firefighters by using the officers or firefighters by using the "Squrts" to extinguish the fire on the roof while the fire was in its incipient stage." " "The firing of over 10,000 roun- ds of ammunition in under 90 minutes ... was unconscionable." * "At least one agent of the Philadelphia office of the F.B.I. made available to the Philadelphia Police Department, without proper recordation by either agency, sub- stantial quantities of C4, some of which may have been incorporated in the explosive devices used." * "The city administration discounted negotiations as a method of resolving the problem. Any attempted negotiations were haphazard and uncoordinated." " "Directives to remove the children from 6221 Ossage Avenue were unclear, poorly com- municated, and were not carried out." " "The decisions of various city officials ... would not likely have been made had the MOVE residen- ce been in a white neighborhood." The commission's report fell short of calling for Goode's resignation, but it used the language of legal suits in calling Goode "grossly negligent." Even Goode himself openly apologized for the worst day in his life and commended the commission's work. For ten months after intially sensational coverage, the MOVE bombing lurked in the back pages of newspapers. It is only ap- propriate that follow-up efforts examine the nature and causes of the MOVE bombing, especially since polls showed that a large majority of Philadelphians suppor- ted the MOVE bombing. Mobilizers of public opinion should heed the commission's recommendations-all the more because they come months after the initial uproar. There is no reason that the recommended homicide investigation should ex- clude Goode, who has penitently accepted blame for the MOVE bombing. Responsible citizens should no longer approve the MOVE bombing and instead should support criminal charges and law suits against city officials in- volved. In that way, the public will deliver a clear verdict and message to city government of- ficials everywhere against toleration of repression like the MOVE bombing. By Mark Weisbrot Nationwide efforts to defeat Reagan's proposed $100 million aid to the Nicaraguan Contras will reach a peak in the next few days. Herein Ann Arbor, a peace march to the office of U.S. Representative Carl Pur- sell (2nd Congressional District) is planned for today. The march, sponsored by the Latin American Solidarity Committee, the National Lawyer's Guild, A2mistad, and numerous other local peace groups, will begin with a rally on the Diag at noon. Demonstrators will march down State Street to Pursell's office, with the protest there to begin at 2:00 p.m. The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on Wednesday, March 19 and it is crucial that we continue to build as much pressure as possible to defeat not only Reagan's aid request, but any possible compromise that might help prolong the Contras' existence as a significant terrorist force. Pursell voted consistenly in favor of aid to the Contras last year, including the military aid package that was defeated overwhlemingly in the House, with 40 Republicans voting against it. Who are the Contras? The F.D.N. (Nicaraguan Democratic Force) has been the principal recipient of U.S. aid among the Contras, which is short for counter-revolutionaries. The revolution they are fighting against is the one that top- pled the U.S.-backed dictator Somoza in 1979. A Congressional report released in April, 1985 concluded after an investigation that "46 out of 48 positions in the FDN military leadership are held by ex-National Guardsmen" - that is, Somoza's infamous and brutal National Guard. (Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, U.S. Congress, 4-18-85). It is therefore not surprising that the Con- tras engage in the systematic murder and torture of civilians which has been documented by international human rights organizations such as Amnesty inter- national and America's Watch. The CIA which supplied the Contras with hundreds of millions of dollars of covert aid before Congress even discussed it, actively en- couraged such tactics. This is clear from the CIA Psychological Warfare Manual, developed specifically for FDN use, which describes how to select targets and plan assassinations. Weisbrot is a graduate student in economics. Former FDN leader Edgar Chamorro, who was chosen to lead the organization by the CIA, resigned in late 1984 because of the CIA's control and the "terrorist tactics" of the Contras. Said Chamorro: "The atrocities I had heard about were not isolated incidents, butareflected a consistent pattern of behavior by our troops. There were unit commanders who openly bragged about their murders, mutilations, etc. . . . I com- plained to Calero and Bermudez, and to the CIA station chief about these activities, but nothing was done to stop them." Enrique Bermudez, mentioned by Chamorro, is a former National Guard Colonel and military attache in Washington under Somoza. He was and remains the top military commander of the FDN. Calero is a former manager of the Coca-Cola franchise in Managua, who according to Chamorro, was also picked by the CIA as current president of the FDN directorate. The atrocities continue. Less than one month ago, on Feb. 19, the Contras attacked a pickup truck carrying 17 civilians. Five women, whose ages ranged from 28 to 70, were killed. Also killed was a Swiss agronomist who had worked in the region for three years. (New York Times, 2-20-86). The background and brutal character of the Contras explains why, after more than five years and hundreds of millions of our tax dollars, as well as some of the "best" training and technology from highly skilled CIA paramilitary operatives, the Contras have not been able to control one square in- ch of territory within Nicaragua. Contrast this to the Salvadoran rebels, who without anything approaching the level and sophistication of military aid, have managed to control about one third of the territory of El Salvador. But, as New York Times reporter James Lemoyne noted in a recent article about the Contras, the Salvadoran guerillas "are politically com- mitted fighters who have organized public support and waged a war based on genuine grievances." (3-6-86) LeMoyne should know the difference bet- ween theContras and the Salvadoran guerillas, as well as the governments each are fighting against. Last december he visited rebel-controlled areas of Chaletanango province in El Salvador. The stories he collected are typical of people who join the armed struggle against the Salvadoran government. "Fausto Orellano, 35 years old, from the village of Patamera, said his commitment to the rebels was cemented for life when the army and rightist gunmen killed seven members of his family between 1979 and 1981. The dead included his sister Apolinaria, his niece Elvira and his mother, Ramo Caillidos, he said." "The head of thedlocal rebel village militias, whose nom de guerre is Hector, said he decided to become a rebel in 1977 when a right-wing death squad killed Rutilio Grande, a well known priest who had ac- tively supported peasant unions. Hector said he walked to the distant town of Aguilares to look at the body of a priest "who told the truth." "Paco Dubon from the town of Arcatao said a rightist gunman shot and killed his brother, Ernesto Menjivar, in 1979 because his brother was a Christian Democratic ac- tivist." " 'We all left for the hill,' Mr. Dubon said by way of explaining how he became a rebel backer." (New York Times, 12-24-85) No comparable atrocities are cited by the Contras to justify their war on the people of Nicaragua. When asked why they have taken up arms, they typically say they are fighting "communism": this is very shallow propaganda in a. country where 60-70% of the economy is in private hands. The U.S. is on the wrong side of the con- flict in Central America - or more ac- curately, as Daniel Ellsberg said about the war in Vietnam, we are the wrong side. The protest today will demand that Pursell vote against the funding of- the Salvadoran military as well as the Contras. 1986 may well turn out to be a historic year for the struggle for human rights and national self-determination. Two longstan- ding U.S.-backed dictators have already fallen. While our government's efforts behind the scenes to preserve "Duvalierisme without Duvalier" and "Marcosism without Marcos" may yet achieve at least a temporary success, the ouster of these dictators who symbolized U.S.-sponsored repression for decades can only inspire people throughout the Third World. The Contras have been practically militarily defeatedand its leaders have publicly said that they will hang it up if they don't get this funding. In major cities all across the country there will be protest and civil disobedience to make sure that they don't get it. There are lives in the balance and our presence can make a difference. For the sake of the thousands of human beings who will suffer and die if this aid passes Congress, please join in. I Wasserman r ?UBL1C OPIN OW ^ oA 00FS GAN I RAIIY '[HE cAN PSop qTo MY SIDE? lrp I ( " p 0 0 Li 0:5 S 1 0 0 Heal education cuts ~~1 T WO WEEKS ago in Washington, more than 400 top level research administrators of the National Academy of Sciences agreed that academic institutions must devise strategies to further development. The administrators decided that basic research and campus maintenance need protec- tion from federal budget cuts caused by the Gramm-Rudman- Hollings law. Last week, a White House ad- visory panel composed of 13 leaders in education and "industry issued a different study which focused on aging buildings and outmoded equipment at various in- stitutions. It recommended that $five billion go to a "catch-up" fund for the backlog in unmet maintenance in college facilities around the country. Here at the University, the con- decline as a temporary one, so they deferred maintenance of laboratories and purchases of new equipment. This greatly con- tributed to the present shortage of modern facilities at many univer- sities. However, the Reagan ad- ministration's deemphasis on education has helped this descent continue rapidly. This year's programs at the nation's univer- sities are averaging a four percent cut as a result of the deficit reduc- tion law. The cuts are so severe that research is likely to be affec- ted well into the next decade. The only research increases Reagan proposed are for military related programs. As one investigator stated, in or- der to correct this problem, real cultural and financial ties must develop between government and industry on the one hand and academic institutions on the other. 000 I WEJ MUT EVERSE i J J F I TNT C&,os; OF ct '~'\ J LETTERS: U.S. employs unjust Indian policy a To the Daily: The government of the United States is presently perpretrating a ridiculous paradox concerning its attitudes and policies toward Native American Indians, reside on the Black Mesa Plateau, an area rich in coal. A perfect example of the paradoxical policies of the ad- ministration is as follows. Because the U.S. government is opposed to the socialist policies of named) are generally supportive of the Sandinista policies and have become a political force in their own right. However, the Reagan administration twists this incident and uses it as in their homes. Despite the fir- mness of the families' resolve to keep their homes, Senator Barry Goldwater, a member of the Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation Committee, has