The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 27, 1994 - 7 400,000 flee outbreak of pneumonic plague in industrial Indian city 0 officials in nearby state also report 31. cases of bubonic plague SURAT, India (AP) - Authorities listed no plague deaths in this industrial city yester- day for the first time in six days, but they reported a disturbing development: an out- break of plague in a neighboring state. Soldiers searched shantytowns for more plague victims and guarded Surat's main hos- pital to stop infectious patients from fleeing. Officials said 56 new plague cases were re- corded in the city. Since pneumonic plague was first reported in Surat last Tuesday, at least 51 people have died, more than 450 have been hospitalized and an estimated 400,000 have fled the city. Unofficial death tolls run as high as 300. South of Surat, officials in Maharashtra state reported 31 cases of bubonic plague - a less deadly form of the disease that ravaged 14th century Europe and Asia as "the Black Death." "This development makes us worried" Ramanand Tewari, Maharashtra's health sec- retary, said of the outbreak in the city of Beed. An outbreak of bubonic plague in villages around Beed last month infected 93 people but caused no deaths. In Surat, a port in western Gujarat state, doctors into slums where most plague cases were reported. The troops helped search for plague sufferers being kept home by their families and watched for looting of medicine being distributed by health officials. City workers cleaned up piles of garbage, dead cows and rats left in the slums by mon- soon floods. The plague is spread by fleas that have bitten infected animals and by bacteria ejected into the air by the coughing of infected people. Soldiers with automatic weapons stood guard at the Civil Hospital to keep patients from leaving before being cured by antibiot- ics. At least 60 people fled before the federal government sent in 800 soldiers Sunday. Doctors described the fugitive patients as "time bombs" who could quickly spread the disease from one mud hut to another in the many shantytowns on the banks of the filthy Tapi River. With nearly one-fifth of the population having fled the city, Indian officials fear the plague may be spread to other regions. A few patients with pneumonic plague symptoms were being examined in hospitals in Maharashtra state and in New Delhi, the federal capital. Although plague can be cured with antibi- otics, the 600 million people who live in rural India often have little access to doctors or medicine, and many die of curable diseases. Officials declared Surat a disaster zone and rushed in millions of capsules of antibiotics. "No deaths in 24 hours, that is since 5 p.m. on Sunday until 5 p.m. today," said Kundan Lal, a city administrator. Lal also told The Associated Press that two patients from neighboring villages died at the hospital Sunday. They were the first plague victims from outside the city. In a dispute at Civil Hospital, many doc- tors and nurses reportedly staged a brief strike Sunday night because of a clash with city officials over the building's cleanliness. The city government also reportedly sus- pended at least six hospital employees Sun- day because they refused to report to work since the plague broke out. soldiers in blue-gray fatigues accompanied *Panel suggests new imigration rules WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal commission will propose that Congress change immigration laws to make families who bring relatives to the United States legally responsible for supporting them. The plan follows an explo- sion in the number of immigrants receiving welfare benefits. Authorized by Congress in 1990 to examine immigra- tion policies and their impact on society and the environ- ment, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform will issue its first report to lawmakers on Friday. According to the commission's executive director, Su- san Martin, the nine-member advisory panel headed by former Rep. Barbara Jordan wrestled for days with the complex and politically explosive issues surrounding wel- fare and immigrants. In a series of unanimous decisions, the commission will recommend to Congress that illegal immigrants be barred from most public aid, aside from immunizations, emer- gency medical care, school lunches and child nutrition programs. The commission also believes there should be no broad ban on welfare benefits to legal immigrants, as some law- makers have proposed, but that the families who bring their relatives to the United States must be held responsible for supporting them. "We can't lift the safety net for legal, permanent resi- dents," Martin said in an interview. "But at the same time, families have to take more responsibility." Most legal immigrants are the spouses, children, parents or siblings of U.S. citizens and long-term, permanent residents. If immigrants cannot show they have financial resources or a job in the United States, their sponsors must be able to support them and are required to sign a non-binding affida- vit of support. Martin said commissioners believe these affidavits must be made legally binding on the sponsors, with exceptions in cases of unexpected illness, injuries, a death in the family or the loss of a job. "The decision to bring someone into country shouldn't be made lightly," Martin said. "It must also be clear to people what the expectations are." The commission also will ask Congress to strengthen immigration laws to keep people out of the country when it is clear they will apply for welfare within first five years of their arrival. Congress should also make it easier to deport immigrants with long spells on welfare. "We should not admit people likely to become a public charge," Martin said. "It should be the extraordinary event, not the routine one." A TOUCH OF GREEN U.S. repatriates 221 Haitian boat people Los Angeles Times PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - With glum resignation, vague hope and lingering fear, 221 Haitian boat people came home yesterday after- noon, filing off the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Northland at a Port-au-Prince harbor now teeming with U.S. com- bat forces in a ceremony U.S. offi- cials called the first concrete demon- stration of why America intervened militarily in Haiti. Clad mostly in T-shirts and shorts or soiled dresses, their belongings tied up in plastic garbage bags. the men, women and children who fled Haiti's horrors of poverty and vio- lence in rickety boats just months before were the first Haitians to vol- untarily return from amakeshift camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba since thousands of U.S. forces entered Haiti a week ago. "This is, in effect, a reverse flow of what we had a couple weeks ago," said U.S. Ambassador William Lacey Swing, who stood by the Coast Guard cutter's gangplank with the U.S. Forces commander, Lt. Gen. Hugh Shelton, to welcome the boat people home. Arresting the tidal wave of Hai- tian refuge seekers that had filled the Caribbean with a precarious armada bound for U.S. shores was high among the reasons President Clinton used to justify a costly military intervention that already has left 11 Haitians dead. On the surface, yesterday's cer- emony appeared to confirm how the U.S. presence and the promised return ofexiledPresidentJean-Bertrand Aris- tide can end the U.S.-bound exodus. In reality, the group of voluntary repatriates, plucked from the sea just months ago by Coast Guard patrols, were part of a weeks-old program to convince the 14,000 Haitians still at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, that it is better to come home than to live in limbo. And already, U.S. officials said, 5,783 Haitians have done so voluntarily on Coast Guard vessels since July 25. But timing was everything on yes- terday. Ambassador Swing said the group's arrival - the first under the watchful guard of dozens of U.S. sol- diers in full battle gear - was a dem- onstration that security in the country has improved sufficiently to entice the rest back in what he predicted will be a rapidly escalating program. Formost of the refugees, the home- coming from a painful journey that ended where it had begun was clouded Ameica split on Clinton's policies toward Haiti WASHINGTON - Americans are sharply divided over President Clinton's handling of the Haiti crisis and an overwhelming majoritydoubt that the administration has a clear idea of what to do in that troubled Caribbean nation, according to anew Washington Post-ABC News Poll. The survey found that 45 percent of those interviewed said they ap- proved of the way Clinton is han- dling the situation in Haiti - up from 36 percent last month- while 47 percent disapproved, unchanged from August. One out of four re- spondents-25 percent--believed that the administration "has a clear policy" on what to do in Haiti, while 66 percent said he does not. The survey found no evidence that Clinton's actions in Haiti have affected his overall popularity. In the latest poll, 44 percent of those inter- viewed said they approved of the way Clinton was handling his job as president while 51 percent disagreed, unchanged from a month ago. However, these survey results should be interpreted cautiously. They represent the public's first re- action to Clinton's decision to send troops into Haiti to restorePresident Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and those impressions could change quickly and dramatically in response to new developments. A total of 1,004 randomly se- lected adults were interviewed Wednesday through Sunday. Mar- gin of sampling error is ± 3 percent- age points. with uncertainty. None had abandoned the dream of reaching American soil someday, but most said they agreed to return largely because they were re- signed to the impossibility of ever reaching it from Guantanamo Bay. "I'm worried about just getting home from here," said Ansell Marcelus, 33, who was among agroup of 36 people from the northern town of Port-de-Paix who left together on July 5 and returned together on yes- terday. "Port-de-Paix is still run by army and the Macoutes, the terrorist army that made us run away in the first place." Art School junior Suni Hatcher works with University horticulturist Anne Kralik to replant Hastas in the Art and Architecture courtyard yesterday. Sen. Mitchell declares health-care reform dead for 1994 Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - Senate Ma- jority Leader George J. Mitchell (D- Maine) formally pronounced health care reform dead for the year yester- day, rendering a final, if somewhat * anticlimactic, verdict reflecting a re- ality that has been apparent for weeks. Yet there was an undeniable poi- gnancy to the moment as the retiring majority leader, having forfeited a chance to be on the Supreme Court so he could fight for a bill he saw as the crowning achievement of his legisla- tive career, conceded: "The combina- tion of the insurance industry on the outside and a majority of Republicans on the inside proved to be too much to overcome." Though some of his allies had urged him to continue to push for health legislation, Mitchell said he feared that the effort would jeopardize the re- maining business before Congress - most notably an international trade agreement, which GOP leaders had put "in the position of being hostage to health care legislation." President Clinton vowed to renew his drive next year, despite the fact that an expected surge in the number of Republicans in Congress could make it even more difficult. "This journey is far, far from over," he said in a statement. Mitchell's decision effectively dooms House efforts as well, since no legislation can be passed without the approval of both houses. Clinton handed off the issue to Congress a little more than a year ago, offering as a starting point a 1,342- page bill produced by a task force that had been headed by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. It has preoccupied Capitol Hill ever since - to the ex- clusion, many Democrats and Repub- licans concede, of most other mean- ingful accomplishments in the latter half of the term that is scheduled to end in two weeks. It began as an effort to produce the most important piece of legislation since the Great Depression - one that would revamp one-seventh of the U.S. economy and provide health coverage to the almost 40 million Americans who now lack it. In the end, warring factions were unable to agree even upon a modest set of changes in insur- ance industry practices that are almost universally condemned. such as those that make it impossible for people with known illnesses to get coverage. ° ALL THE NEWS Congressman calls for 'serious BE HAxRn!!! personnel changes' at CIA Sign on to the Daily's public confer. Type confer. it.umich.eduat the Which Host? prompt, then jou mich-daily The Washington Post. WASHINGTON-The chairman of the House intelligence committee said yesterday that reform of the CIA would be "illusory" unless "serious personnel changes are made" follow- ing criticism of the agency in the CIA inspector general's report on the case of confessed spy Aldrich H. Ames. Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.) whose own committee staff has been looking into the matter during the agency's internal investigation, said that CIA Director R. James Woolsey's own leadership will be measured by the steps he takes. "How much risk he is willing to take," Glickman said of the CIA director, "will determine how serious he is." Woolsey has been forced to step up his schedule by several days for making personnel decisions based on the in- -.Ik wee . nH u . £ . nnt and "now the challenge is will he (Woolsey) do it." Recalling that the director insisted in the weeks after Ames's arrest last February that he would await the IG report before mak- ing any personnel decisions, DeConcini said, "Maybe this report is what he wanted to have before bring- ing in new people." Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) rank- ing minority member of the Senate panel, said yesterday decisions on who gets fired or disciplined should not be Woolsey's alone. "It's a burden that falls on the director," Warner said, "but I expect the president and his national security adviser (Anthony Lake) will review this case and the actions recom- mended before it's final." A White House spokesman said, "We will be informed prior to any announcement and we are confident what is recommended (by Woolsey) Ue:tip