The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 30, 1992- Page 7 Perez refuses to step down after coup attempt f..: 77. i. U, . CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Carlos Andres Perez yes- terday defied demands for his resig- nation in the aftermath of a coup at- tempt, but conceded he has failed to convince Venezuelans that his poli- cies aim to better their lives. Perez spoke two days after rebel troops tried to bomb him out of the presidential palace. The government .raised the death toll in the coup at- vtempt to 169, which Perez blamed on "military mafia" and "social rejects." Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters outside a prison where 42 people were slain in a rebellion that broke out in the waning hours of the coup attempt, the second in 10 months. The protesters demanded to know whether their incarcerated relatives had died. The Peruvian government was considering a request for political asylum by 93 rebel Venezuelan air force officials, including one of the coup leaders, who flew a C-130 Hercules cargo plane to Iquitos, Peru, after the coup failed. Venezuela has demanded their ex- tradition and the return of the C-130. The capital remained jittery yes- terday. Perez announced that cur- fews and other restrictions imposed during the coup would be gradually lifted by week's end, and the mili- tary said it would be detonating dud bombs dropped by the rebels. Perez has been severely criticized for his strict economic austerity measures and for failing to improve the lot of most citizens. Recent polls show his popularity rating is 9 percent. About one-fourth of Venezuelans live in extreme poverty despite one of the highest rates of economic growth in the hemisphere. The coun- try, the No. 3 producer in OPEC, also has suffered from low oil prices. At least 1,100 suspected rebels have been captured since Friday when dissident air force, navy and police factions launched the uprising in Caracas and Maracay, about 50 miles to the southwest, claiming to represent the poor. In a nationally televised speech, Perez said the coup leaders belonged to a "military mafia" and were joined by "social rejects" involved in leftist guerrilla groups in the 1960s. He said he had the firm support of the military. Claiming the attempt was aimed at ending 34 years of democracy, he said his departure from power before his five-year term ends in early 1994 "is not an issue, it never has been and it will not be." But he acknowledged that his government has failed to convince Venezuelans it was on an "orderly, sincere and courageous path to con- front our errors." He said his government has been trying to straighten out decades of mismanagement. It was not clear if that included Perez's first term in 1974-78, when he left office in dis- grace amid a corruption scandal. Michigan schools find alternatives to polluting in, out of classroom ROCHESTER (AP) - Michigan schools shouldn't confine environmental awareness to classroom lessons, an author says. "This is aimed at policy makers in the districts. We want to emphasize the benefits of reducing the pollution caused by schools," said Alice Tomboulian, who re- cently completed "Pollution Prevention in Schools: An Environmental Management Guide for Michigan School Districts." "We're looking at choices," the Oakland County res- ident said. "Do you want to throw something away and waste it, or can you find a better alternative?" Tomboulian and a team of experts worked on the project nearly two years, testing several ideas in the Brandon and Ferndale school districts. The Michigan Department of Education distributed copies of the guide to all districts statewide in September. Its nine chapters include issues such as re- cycling, energy conservation and solid waste and pesti- cide reduction. A checklist and ranking system lets school officials determine which environmental changes they can afford to make and how they would benefit the district. Royal Oak officials, for example, have switched from disposable utensils and lunch trays to a dishwash- ing system, Tomboulian said. The Huron Valley and Walled Lake districts have launched recycling programs expected to save a combined $20,000 a year while re- ducing trash volume by 40 percent, she said. "It's a whole new way of thinking," Tomboulian said. Arlene Harmon, transportation supervisor for the Brandon district, said she's making conservation tech- niques part of the regular training. "We've cut down on the time buses warm up. It used to be 15 minutes and now it's only five," she said. "We're also switching from gasoline to diesel buses for better gas mileage. The motivation is financial -but it helps the environment." But Tomboulian said the recommendations in the guide are aimed higher than individual school employees. HEATHER LOWMAN/Daily I promise this won't hurt a bit Tom Hey, an Ann Arbor city employee, strings holiday lights in one of 32 trees on South University Avenue yesterday. The City of Ann Arbor decorates trees throughout the area with lights in observance of the holiday season. The lights go up during the Thanksgiving weekend, and remain in the trees until early January. Students and Ann Arbor residents alike agree that the illuminated foliage lends the city a fantastic, beautiful image. Ann Arbor merchants hope to capitalize on the shopping rush which normally occurs between Thanksgiving and Christmas. - Sarajevo city improves medical care, safety despite war After experiencing seven months of Serb gunfre, Dobinja survis despite being most dangermus suburb of Bosnia-Hezegovina SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegov- na (AP) - Cut off from the rest of the city and exposed for seven months to close-range Serb gunfire, the high-rise suburb of Dobrinja has * become Sarajevo's state-of-the-art example of siege survival. In a desperate plight during heavy fighting last summer, Dobrinja remains one of the most dangerous areas of the capital. About 10,000 of the 12,000 housing units have been damaged. The death toll has climbed from 72 in July to 230. Instead of unraveling, the tight- knit community has improved medical care, food supply and public services so dramatically that some people now sneak in from outside. "It seems a bit strange, because we're still on the front line," said Srebren Dizdar, a community spokesperson. "But people feel more secure here, because it's better organized." The only route in and out is in easy range of Serb snipers and ma- chine gunners. Visitors speed into' a bunkered basement parking garage to check in with sentries. Residents can leave only with special permis- sion, and those who don't return on schedule risk having their apart- ments given away to newly arrived refugees. "It's too dangerous to run a commuter service back and forth," Dizdar said. So infrequent is contact with Sarajevo that "people there treat me like an endangered species when I visit," said Dobrinja resident Bozana Benic. Developed as part of Sarajevo's preparations for the 1984 Winter Olympics, Dobrinja now has an es- timated 45,000 residents, including about 8,000 refugees from elsewhere, Dizdar said. Some people from other parts of Sarajevo try to move to Dobrinja, 'These people are fighting for survival. They're very serious about their problems. You don't hear a lot of talk, talk, talk. They act. I began an operation with my bare hands. I had to improvise everything.' - Dr. Youssef Hajir head of Dobrinja's hospital sometimes slipping in at night, Dizdar said, because they believe the food supply is more equitably distributed. "There's no black market," Dizdar said. "In the city it's almost everywhere, and people look after themselves. We've proved that there will be a fair share. Everyone gets the same amount." Dr. Youssef Hajir, head of Dobrinja's hospital, took refuge in the suburb when Serbs overran his neighborhood at the start of the war. He's been so impressed by the peo- ple that he wants to stay after the war. "These people are fighting for survival," Hajir said. "They're very serious about their problems. You don't hear a lot of talk, talk, talk. They act." Dobrinja had no hospital before the war. Hajir single-handedly opened one in a storefront when he saw so many wounded people with no way to get to the Sarajevo hospitals. "I saw many people die," Hajir said. "I began an operation with my bare hands. I had to improvise every- thing." On June 17, when more than 200 Dobrinja soldiers and civilians were wounded, Hajir said he performed 27 operations in one day, with only local anesthetic. The hospital now has 11 doctors, 46 nurses, 30 beds, ample supplies of medicine and sophisticated equipment, much of its provided by U.N. relief officials. The hospital appears cleaner, much more modern and more efficiently run than its larger counterparts in central Sarajevo. The community government has divided the suburb into sectors and assigned leaders for each street and each high-rise entryway. "This all developed during the war," Dizdar said. "We were just a sleepy suburb before. We didn't have any sort of government. Neo -Nazi attacks against Jews, foreigners continue in Germany "We were lucky. We had a good mix of working-class people and yuppies - doctors, lawyers, engi- neers," Dizdar said. "We didn't rely on anybody but ourselves. We didn't wait for the city to help." Community leaders recently re- sumed garbage collection for the first time during the war. Repairs are under way on. the central heating system and damaged apartments. Firewood is being collected to help residents survive the winter. There are even occasional literary readings, and a TV studio broadcasts two hours of Dobrinja programming each day. Mediha Pasic teaches nine chil- dren in one of many informal schools located in private apart- ments. Her walls are decorated with their drawings, many showing weaponry and patriotic symbols. "When we have music, they want to sing fight songs," she said. "They don't want to sing normal songs." Coalition to protest incinerator in Lani ing NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) - Officials from the nation's cities and towns set their sights yesterday on bolstering their local economies through a 30 percent cut in defense spending and an overhaul of the weighty federal mandates that eat away at their budgets. Members of the National League of Cities, in their annual meeting, put forth a $10 billion economic re- covery plan that emphasizes trans- portation funds, community devel- opment programs and an aid package to troubled urban areas. It also asks for reform of federal entitlements and a 30 percent cut in defense spending, not to exceed $200 billion, with 60 percent of the savings going to federal debt reduc- tion and the remainder going into BERLIN (AP) - A refugee cen- ter in western Germany was fire- bombed yesterday as violence against foreigners continued despite a police crackdown on neo-Nazis and Chancellor Helmut Kohl's call for tolerance. In Turkey, German flags were burned amid cries of "Down with skinheads!" and "Death to murder- ers!" at the funeral yesterday for three Turkish victims of the right- wing extremist violence in Germany. In Jerusalem, the Israeli Cabinet denounced German racist and anti- Semitic attacks and demanded that German officials fight right-wing extremism with "the full force of the law." At least 16 people have died this year in some 1,800 extreme rightist attacks throughout Germany against foreigners and Jews. Neo-Nazis have often found support among those suffering economic hardship, par- ticularly in former East Germany. The Gmvernment has taken mea- clues leading to the arrests of the attackers. . In Eberswalde, 25 miles northeast of Berlin, a fire at around midnight Saturday destroyed a barracks hous- ing 60 refugees. A security guard suffered smoke inhalation. Police were investigating the cause of the fire. In an interview broadcast yester- day on Deutschlandfunk radio, Kohl vowed Germany will use the full force of the law against "the radical right mob." But he said proposed constitu- tional changes to limit the number of refugees and toughen Germany's liberal asylum policy would not re- solve the problems of racism and anti-foreigner violence. He said Germany's prosperity would have been impossible without help from foreign workers such as the Turks - Germany's largest mi- nority group, many of whom were recruited to work in labor-short Germany in the 1960s. resentative as well as four Turkish government ministers and several parliamentary deputies attended the funeral, it said. "Germany has not reverted to Nazi Germany, and will never do so," German Embassy official Hans Joerg Haber said in a speech in Turkish during the funeral. Nine people arrested on suspicion of attacks against three refugee shel- ters are being investigated for links to the Moelln arson, the worst attack since the violence flared. After the attack, authorities banned the extreme rightist Nationalistic Front and raided homes of its members across Germany, seizing explosives, weapons and neo-Nazi propaganda. The banned group has not been linked to the Moelln attack. In other attacks, a Turkish youth was stabbed and slightly injured late Saturday after an argument broke out in a youth center in f s ;U-r;