The Michigan Daily-- Tuesday, March 29, 1994 - 3
Distraught Southerners
survey storm damage
THE WASHINGTON POST
ROCK RUN, Ala. - A cold wind blew across
the ravaged hilltops of Alabama yesterday as
Bradford Poole, an unshaven farmer, surveyed
his world: his 100-year-old farm house gutted;
his daughter's trailer exploded; his son's new
home scattered across the highway.
"And we were the lucky ones," Poole said.
His family lost three of its homes, but escaped
without death or injury as Sunday's storm system
ripped across the area. Poole's sons had lain face
down in the basement of one house, "and they
swore they could feel that twister trying to suck
them out," Poole said.
Sunday saw one of the worst tornado ram-
pages to run through the South in years, a day
when hail the size of marbles fell in Mississippi,
funnel clouds destroyed churches in Alabama
and brilliant, violent lightning blazed across the
AP PHOTO Georgia skies.
Y. Before it was all over late in the day, at least
45 people were dead - crushed by debris churned
up by the twisters, struck by lightning or drowned
by the flood waters borne of the torrential rains
that followed the tornadoes. Hundreds more were
injured.
At the storm's peak, some 150,000 customers
around the region were without power in the
Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. Most
of the power will be restored by daybreak tomor-
row, utility officials said.
About 35 tornadoes were reported in the re-
gion on Sunday, and thunderstorms and cold
heavy rains continued yesterday, raising rivers
and causing widespread flooding. Several funnel
clouds were spotted yesterday, though none was
reported to have touched down.
The National Weather Service had been moni-
toring the storm since Saturday. It contained the
warm, moist, unstable air and strong high-alti-
tude winds with shears that can turn an ordinary
thunderstorm system into a whirling monster.
Debris from the Goshen United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Ala., is all that remains after a tornado destroyed the sanctuar
a
Mexican presidential candidate works to end one-party rule
W NEWSDAY
MEXICO CITY -- The price of
political monopoly is social instability,
and 65 uninterrupted years of control
by the Institutional Revolutionary Party
can be blamed for the turmoil currently
roiling Mexico, says a presidential can-
didate campaigning to end Mexico's
one-party rule.
"In the six years of the Salinas
*administration, the government has not
resolved the serious economic prob-
lems of the country, nor has it accepted
complaints about democratic expres-
sion in the country," Cuauhtemoc
Cardenas said in a recent interview.
"That is at root the cause of what hap-
pened in Chiapas,"where peasants took
up arms on New Year's Day to drama-
tizetheirpoverty, and about 150 people
died in the days that followed.
"It is not really a local problem; it is
the management of a political and eco-
nomic policy nationwide, extended by
corruption, by the lack of respect for
the rule of law."
Cardenas, who was warning of in-
stability before the outbreak in Chiapas
he had blamed an atmosphere cre-
ated by the government for a rising tide
of political violence that including the
killings of dozens of members of his
party - says the rebel violence is an
understandable outgrowth of decades
of desperation felt by the majority of
Mexico's 75 million citizens.
The government has been trying to
negotiate an end to the conflict with the
rebels in Chiapas. But in the aftermath
of the assassination of the leading can-
didate, Luis Donaldo Colosio, on
Wednesday, rebel leaders said they
were suspending talks and feared new
military action by the Salinas govern-
ment.
Six years ago, Cardenas, a former
governor of Mexico state who had bro-
ken with the ruling party, narrowly lost
a bid for the presidency in an election
where charges of fraud were particu-
larly sharp. He is campaigning again,
as leader of his breakaway Democratic
Revolutionary Party. Diego Fernandez
de Cevallos of the National Action
Party is another contender; the Institu-
tional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has
not yet named a replacement for
Colosio.
Colosio's accused assassin, Mario
Aburto Martinez, 23, was reported to
have told officials he had contacts with
leftist groups, possibly including forces
linked to the Zapatista National Lib-
eration Front, the rebel organization
that emerged in Chiapas.
The government has maintained that
Aburto acted alone when he shot the
PRI's candidate during a rally in a
Tijuana slum. He has been moved to a
maximum-security prison outside
Mexico City.
Cardenas, who deplored the kill-
ing, called for an independent panel to
determine whether the assassin indeed
acted alone.
Cardenas, 59, dropped out of the
PRI, prior to the 1988 elections and
formed his party, declaring the politi-
cal machine controlled by the govern-
ment had become corrupt and inatten-
tive to the needs of a majority of Mexi-
cans. Unlike other opposition politi-
cians', his decision had special weight.
Cardenas' father was President
Lazaro Cardenas, a revered general
and leader of the 1940s. The father is
perhaps best remembered for having
nationalized the Mexican petroleum
industry, thereby taking a stand against
traditional U.S. domination of that sec-
tor, which now is the single largest
source of exports for Mexico.
In the 1990s, his son also took a
nationalistic stand, being one of the
strongest critics of President Carlos
Salinas de Gortari's negotiations with
the United States and Canada that led
to the North American Free Trade
Agreement. Cardenas has moderated
his opposition to the pact, but says the
agreement must be based on equal treat-
ment for all three nations.
Clinton rebounds from
6 PLO snipers killed
y in shootout with Israel
'Whitewater
THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON - Public sup-
port for President Clinton has surged
in the wake of his prime-time news
conference last week on the
Whitewater affair, according to a new
Washington Post-ABC News Poll.
The news conference performance
appeared to restore Clinton's stand-
ing, after signs that Whitewater had
begun to sharply erode his popularity,
and most respondents said they be-
lieve Whitewater has diverted the gov-
ernment from more important national
concerns.
The survey, which was conducted
over the weekend, found that more
than half of those interviewed now
approve of the way Clinton is han-
low in polls
dling the Whitewater matter. Three
weeks ago only one-third expressed a
similar view.
More than half - 55 percent -
now say they do not think Clinton did
anything illegal, up from 44 percent
earlier in the month. And a larger
majority said the president is "mostly
telling the truth" about his involve-
ment in the failed Arkansas land de-
velopment company.
But the new survey found that two
out of three Americans acknowledged
they understand little or nothing about
the Whitewater affair, suggesting that
attitudes on Whitewater could change
again if additional details become
known about the Clintons' involve-
ment.
THE WASHINGTON POST
JERUSALEM - Six armed Pal-
estinians affiliated with the Fatah wing
of the Palestine Liberation Organiza-
tion were killed lastnight in a shootout
with Israeli undercover troops in
Jabaliya, a Gaza Strip refugee camp,
Palestinians and the army said.
One soldier and two Palestinian
bystanders were wounded in the ex-
change of fire, the most deadly since
Israel signed the Gaza-Jericho peace
accord with the PLO last September.
According to witnesses, the six were
distributing leaflets in two cars when
the firefight with the undercover unit
broke out.
It is not known what triggered the
exchange of fire. In the past, the Is-
raeli undercover units have dressed
up in Arab garb to take suspected
fugitives by surprise. Israel has kept
the controversial undercover units in
operation even as it tries to finish
negotiating the peace deal with the
PLO.
The killings come at a delicate
point in the negotiations. The PLO
broke off talks on implementing the
Gaza-Jericho accord last month after
the massacre of 29 Muslims in Hebron
by a Jewish settler. PLO leaders in
Gaza called yesterday for a three-day
general strike and mourning period.
Today in Cairo, Israel and the PLO
are scheduled to discuss creation of a
Hebron security force, composed of
Norwegians and International Red
Cross personnel, as well as a Palestin-
ian police force. Agreement on secu-
rity in Hebron could lead to resump-
tion of separate talks on carrying out
the Gaza-Jericho autonomy plan, Is-
raeli officials said.
However, last night's deaths in
Gaza could intensify pressure on PLO
Chair Yasser Arafat to slow down the
talks with Israel, especially since those
killed were affiliated with Arafat's
Fatah movement, the main faction in
the secular PLO.
Last week, Israel laid siege to an
apartment block in Hebron, bombard-
ing it for two days with anti-tank
missiles and machine-gun fire in pur-
suit of suspected fugitives from the
armed wing of Hamas, an Islamic
Resistance Movement.
Court bars insanity defense
THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON-Yesterday, the
Supreme Court allowed states to forbid
defendants from claiming that they were
insane at the time they committed their
crime.
The court, without comment from
the justices, let stand a ruling from the
Montana Supreme Court that said abol-
ishing the insanity defense does not
violate the Constitution. While the
court's order does not apply beyond
the individual case, other states could
follow Montana's lead.
"It would be a mistake if a large
* number of states did this," said Univer-
sity of Virginia law Prof. Richard J.
Bonnie, an expert in the field. "But I
don't think the momentum is there. We
went through an important test of that
after (John W.) Hinckley (Jr.)" was
acquitted on charges of shooting Presi-
dent Ronald Reagan in 1981.
The insanity defense, adopted from
centuries-old English law, arose from
the notion that some people are so
mentally diseased or unable to under-
stand their actions that it is unfair to
hold them responsible for criminal be-
havior.
While the defense is rarely invoked,
it has arisen in numerous high-profile
trials. Most recently, Lorena Bobbitt
used the insanity defense to convince a
jury to acquit her of charges related to
cutting off her husband's penis.
A Palestinian youth kicks an Israeli tear,
Currently, only Montana, Idaho and
Utah bar the insanity defense, reflect-
ing concerns that some defendants ex-
aggerate their mental conditions to win
"not guilty" verdicts.
After Hinckley's acquittal, several
states adopted legislation restricting the
defense by raising the burden of proof
for a defendant who claims insanity, or
allowing juries to find someone insane
but still guilty and eligible for prison.
gas canister in yesterday's clashes.
'Eercise Room *"StudiLounge '/Lounge
Computer Room *0LaunrfFaciities
24 iourfittendedLo4 ~* Game Room
beat and'Water Include'
University Tow Aprments
536 S. Forest Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
761-2680 3
Corrections
Journalist-in-residence Bruce Finley said he believes that "accurately assessing the situation in South Africa will depend
on understanding ordinary citizens." This was incorrectly reported in yesterday's Daily.
David Busfield is president of the Dekers Club. Wally Grant is the vice president. This was incorrectly reported in
yesterday's Daily.
Group Meetings
Q American Movement for Is-
rael, Hillel, 7 p.m.
Q Ann Arbor Festival of Origi-
nal Plays, Auditions, 3032
Frieze Building, 7-10 p.m.
Q Arab-American Students' As-
sociation, Michigan League,
Room A, 7:30 p.m.
Q Asian Pacific Lesbian-Gay-Bi-
sexual Support Group, 3116
Michigan Union, 5:30 p.m.
Q People Opposing Weapons
sembly, Michigan Union, Baits tivities Building, 4:10 p.m.
Room .9 n m
aeweu, ,, F.aaa.
Events
Q From Backpack to Briefcase,
sponsored by Career Planning
and Placement, 3200 Student
Activities Building, 5-8 p.m.
Q Historical Knowledge and the
Russian Crisis," Moshe Lewin,
sponsored by the Center for
Russian and East European
Studies, 4633 Haven Hall, 4
Student services
Q 76-GUIDE, peer counseling
phone line, call 76-GUIDE, 7
p.m.-8 a.m.
Q Campus Information Center,
Michigan Union, 763-INFO;
events info., 76-EVENT; film
info., 763-FILM.
Q International Center, health
insurance, 9 a.m.; practical
training, 10 a.m.
i
i
AV