The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 16, 1990 - Page,3
British
reporter
.:hanged
In Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Yester-
day, Iraq hanged a London-based
'journalist it accused of spying, ignit-
wing a storm of protest from Euro-
pean governments. Britain recalled
its ambassador from Iraq and halted
,ministerial visits.
"Thatcher wanted him alive. We
sent him in a box," Information
Minister Latif Nassayif Jassim said
tin breaking the news of the execu-
tion.
Prime Minister Margaret
;Thatcher had led the campaign to re-
peal the death sentence imposed on
'Farzad Bazoft. Bazoft was working
for the Observer, a London weekly,
ilnvestigating reports of an explosion
:at an Iraqi military facility when he
,was arrested.
Iraq claimed Bazoft had spied for
'Israel and Britain, charges Bazoft and
Ohs colleagues denied.
Observer editor Donald Trelford
;and about 200 journalists held a
'vigil outside the heavily guarded
* Iraqi Embassy in London. Journal-
ists left a single candle burning in
Bazoft's memory in St. Bride's
church, Fleet Street, London's
former newspaper row.
"It's an awful day for the news-
paper," said Trelford. "We have had
one of our number killed for simply
being a reporter."
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq
had said repeatedly his country did
not fear Britain's anger, and the in-
formation minister repeated this after
the execution.
"It seems the British could not
understand our psychology that we
are not intimidated," Jassim said.
Bazoft's body was handed over to the
British Embassy.
In London, Thatcher said, "This
Is a very, very grave and serious
matter. The Iraqi government's
action is an act of barbarism which
is deeply repugnant to all civilized
people."
Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd
;announced that Ambassador Harold
Walker had been recalled from Bagh-
dad. Hurd called off a trade mission
;o Iraq and said all ministerial visits
had been halted.
Hurd also said all six Iraqi mili-
tary trainees in Britain were being
ordered to leave the country. But he
said trade sanctions would likely
harm Britain and "not alter the stance
of this regime" in Iraq, so there were
Ino plans to implement them.
Britain has a trade surplus of
about $648 million with Iraq.
Bazoft, an Iranian-born journalist,
vas detained in September near a
nilitary industrial complex south of
)3aghdad. He was investigating re-
ports that hundreds of people had
died in an explosion at the complex
in August.
Robin Kealy, the British general
consul in Baghdad, visited Bazoft
* hortly before his hanging at the
Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
realy left the prison at 10:15 yester-
Jay morning.
The television report said that
when Bazoft was seized, security
agents found reports he had written
on the weather in Iraq and the mili-
tary site he visited. Weather reports
were considered classified informa-
ion during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq
war.
I
A
2
delegation:
Nicaraguan
elections honest
,k t
Campaign on the Diag "^'"'"L"'"D
Valerie Ackerman, representing the Democratic and Green Parties of Ann Arbor's second ward ,
campaigns on the Diag yesterday and reminds students of the upcoming City Council elections on April 2.
Ackerman graduated from the School of Social Work last year.
BrailanPresident inaugurated;
eoe
by Josh Mitnick
Daily City Reporter
Nicaraguans were provided with a
free and honest presidential election
which is a model of efficiency and
fairness, concluded a 21-page report
released last week by the Ann Arbor
delegation that observed the proceed-
ings. The Ann Arbor group was in-
vited to the country last month be-
cause Juigalpa, Nicaragua, the site of
the elections, is Ann Arbor's sister
city.
According to the report the elec-
tions, while fair, but were unjustly
influenced by United States. "The
choice available to voters was not so
much between political parties, can-
didates or their philosophies but on
how to answer the question of how
to end the war and economic crises
that were manipulated by the U.S.
government," the report concluded.
The report said the participation
of 90 percent of registered voters in
the elections proves the desire of
Nicaraguans to be part of the demo-
cratic process.
"It was a very open process," said
City Councilmember Ann Marie
Coleman (D-First Ward), a member
of the delegation.
On election day, members of the
delegation split into teams of two
and visited every one of Juigalpa's
36 election sites. Coleman said vot-
ers turned out to the election sites at
4:30 in the morning on the day of
the election - two and one-half
hours before the polls opened.
The nine-member delegation re-
turned to the United States on March
1 after spending almost two weeks
meeting with observers from other
organizations, visiting election sites
and witnessing the counting of bal-
lots in Juigalpa.
Ann Arbor's delegation was one
of 40 U.S. sister-city groups to ob-
serve the elections. Sister-city dele-
gate Kurt Berggren said the delega-
tions coordinated their efforts, cul-
minating in a 55-page joint-issued
report which will be released na-
tionwide today.
"There was a real sense of solidar-
ity between the sister city groups]-
Berggren said.
The Nicaraguan Supreme Elet1
toral Council gave the delegation
members special cards which entitled
them to watch every stage of the
election process.
Richard DeVarti, manager of
Dominick's restaurant and bar anal
delegation member, said there was
almost no celebration in NicaragV4
when UNO candidate Violetta
deChamorro was declared the winner
of the elections. "One person said ii
was like a bomb dropped on them,",
he said.
Delegation member Phyllis Pon-
vert said one reason the election out-
come favored deChamorro is because
she pledged to end the draft if sli
won.
"Mothers told me 'I don't want
my sons to go into the army," Pon-
vert said.
Ponvert also said the economic
pressure placed on Nicaragua by the
United States played a major role ii
the defeat of the Sandinistas.
The Ann Arbor observers point&d
out that as part of the cooling dowW
period, campaigning stopped foir
days before the election and selling
of alcohol was prohibited for the two
days before the elections.
a
'One person said t
was like a bomb
dropped on them.'
- Richard DeVarti
Delegation membr
In Nicaraguan national parliamen-
tary presidential elections, voters are
able to chose from 10 parties ona
secret ballot. After voting, the pew
ple are marked with indelible inkto
ensure no one votes more than once,
said DeVarti.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Fer-
nando Collor de Mello took office
yesterday as Brazil's first popularly
elected president in 29 years, promis-
ing free-market style reforms and an
"unconditional war" on record infla-
tion.
"The most important target of
my first year in office is not to tame
inflation, but to liquidate it," the
conservative new president said. He
spoke for about 45 minutes to
Brazilian political leaders and foreign
dignitaries representing 121 coun-
tries.
Among the 27 heads of state at
the ceremony were presidents Daniel
Ortega of Nicaragua and Cuba's Fi-
del Castro, dressed in a military uni-
form and seated beside the Vatican's
emissary. Vice President Dan Quayle
represented the United States.
After taking the oath as Brazil's
35th president, Collor de Mello
spoke at the National Congress and
promised to open the economy to
world markets. He said Brazil must
do away with "colonial prejudices
against foreign capital."
He promised social reform to
benefit the poor majority of Brazil's
150 million people, saying "we can-
not modernize without social justice
or progress without everyone partic-
ipating."
He also pledged greater political
liberties for Brazil, which has lived
much of its 101-year period of post-
monarchy rule under dictatorships.
"My first commitment - unal-
terable - is to democracy," Collor
de Mello said.
After the ceremony, Collor de
Mello rode along the esplanade of
ministries to the presidential palace,
accompanied by a white-uniformed
color guard on white horses.
Thousands of people packed the
lawns along the concourse, cheering
and waving flags in the green-and-
yellow national colors. Banners pro-
claimed "A New Brazil."
At the presidential palace, Collor
de Mello strode up the white marble
ramp to meet outgoing President
Jose Sarney. Sarney removed the
green-and-yellow presidential sash
from his shoulder and placed it on
the new president.
The two men, bitter political
foes, appeared slightly ill at ease dur-
ing the brief ceremony and ex-
changed nervous smiles.
Sarney took office in 1985 fol-
lowing an Electoral College vote set
up by a departing 21-year military
regime. Collor de Mello's inaugura-
tion was the final step in the transi-
tion to full democracy in Brazil,
South America's largest country.
The last popularly elected president
was Janio Quadros in 1961.
Three left-wing parties boycotted
the inauguration to protest Collor de
Mello's plan to sell state firms and
fire public employees in an effort to
slash a $31 billion budget deficit.
The socialist Worker's Party,
whose candidate Luis Inacia Lula da
Silva narrowly lost to Collor de
Mello in a run-off in December, said
it would form a "parallel govern-
ment" Friday to "monitor" the new
administration.
Collor de Mello got off to a fast
start, immediately signing into law a
decree preventing federal employees
from holding more than one job.
A key campaign promise was to
crack down on so-called "maharajas,"
federal employees who earn thou-
sands of dollars a month while rarely
showing up for work. The majority
of Brazilian make less than $180 a
month.
The Program in Film and Video Studies
w.
p.
S.;
B,
Presents
}'C
a1
B,
i '
1989 Winners of the
16th Annual Student Awards,
Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences
rn
Sunday, March 18,1l990;
Michigan Theater
i.~900 pm'
Admission IS free
stes
A Cutter
MILES B1ologcal
Plasma Collection Facility
PEOPLE PEOPLE
3 40 million hospital patients
rely on PLASMA industry pro-
s 20,000 hemophiliacs in the
United States rely on PLASMA-
produced Antihemophilic Factor
concentrate daily.
" 2,000 infant deaths have
been prevented by the use of Rh
Immune Globulin prepared from
PLASMA.
-- " 120,000 burn victims, 200,000
heart surgery patients and shock
leadlee starts latest
assault on property taxes
LANSING (AP)- Tax fighter
Dick Headlee unveiled yesterday his
newest assault on taxes, a plan to
cut assessments by 20 percent over
two years.
Headlee's plan calls for cutting
the assessment rate from 50 percent
o 45 percent this year, then to 40
percent in 1991 and forcing the Leg-
islature to make up the difference to
schools and local governments.
Headlee estimated the plan would
put taxes by $200 million the first
year, then by $600 million in the
second and following years. That
voters.
After the Secretary of State's of-
fice has validated the signatures, the
proposal will be before the Legisla-
ture, which has 40 days to adopt or
reject it. If lawmakers vote for the
plan, it becomes law.
If they don't, it automatically
goes on the next general election
ballot, where voters will decide
whether they want it to go into ef-
fect.
The plan doesn't address millage
rates, but Headlee said the 1978 con-
stitutional amendment that bears his
330 S. State
761-6207 f
OPEN
SUNDAYS
12-4:30
a ft
'P