2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, April 22, 1996 NATION/WORLD MATLOCK Continued from Page :A 26, McClain said. McClain said she was merely acting as the "point person" between the Uni- versity and the state police. Machen denied that the group had decided towrite a letter that Friday. "We did not make a decision to write a letterat thatmeeting," Machen said. "What we realized was that we could solve this without an outside investigation." Cole said the sole intention of the meeting was to discuss ways to resolve issues like this in the future. "We were going to ask them to sus- pend the investigation so we could sit down and talk about how we got into a situation like this," McClain said. Cole said that when the University realized the investigation had begun, they encouraged everyone to cooperate. Cole denied that there was any inten- tion to obstruct justice. "I don't understand how it got inter- preted as being that," she said. Cole did say, however, that the letter may mistakenly have gotten into the hands of some student witnesses. "Student witnesses were confused about what was going on," Cole said. "Once the confusion got straightened out, they were able to do their investigation. It was a misunderstanding, nothing more." Even though the investigation may have been stalled, Cole said it should not be labeled as an obstruction. LSA senior Andre Hewitt, the founder of the Black Volunteer Network, refused to comment yesterday. The Black Volun- teer Network sponsored the basketball tournament Matlock was attending when he was arrested at the CCRB. McClain said she did not know the letter had been shown to students until si heard about it from reporters. 3ut McClain said detectives told her .ney experienced some trouble talking to students. According to published ex- cerpts from the police report, detectives visited campus during the investigation to question several top administrators, including Duderstadt and Harrison. "When the detective came to visit me, he was indicating they were having trouble getting students to talk to them," McClain said. She described this incident as an- other "miscommunication" between the police and the University. "I think at first they thought we were telling students not to talk to them," McClain said. "That wasnot true. There was no intent to interfere with the in- vestigation." Soble said students could decide for themselves whether they wanted to talk with detectives. "Students have a right to either talk to the police or not talk to the police. No- body told the students not to give a. statement to the police," Soble said. "That is a decision made by each witness. Soble said the newspaper reports were "blown out of proportion. My prefer- ence would be that this case be tried in the court and not in the press." State Police Sgt. Edward Pitts would not comment on the investigation. He said the department would defer all comments on the matter until today. Regent Laurence Deitch (D- Bloomfield Hills) said he is "not con- cerned at all" about the charges levied against the administration. "I'm confident the University offi- cials involved acted properly," Deitch said. "Jackie McClain is a deeply re- spected official at the University of Michigan." Deitch said his career as a lawyer has shown him that the substance of the investigation is more important than preliminary allegations. "Obstruction of justice sounds very bad, but I have to take these things with a grain of salt," Deitch said. - Daily Staff Reporters Sam T. Dudek and Jeff Eldridge contributed to this report. Peres aims for cease-fire talks with U.S. JERUSALEM -Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday he intendG to negotiate a cease-fire in southern Lebanon with the United States - and nol with the Russian, French and other officials who are shuttling around the Middl East in hopes of making peace. Citing the long history of the U.S. role in Middle East peace negotiations dating to the 1979 Camp David accords, Peres warned that the efforts by other govern- ments to end the fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia fo# might become too disorganized and chaotic. "If there will be more than one channel (for cease-fire talks), there will be total confusion," Peres said after talks here with Secretary of State Warren Christopher "And the responsible channel that has both the experience and the mechanism to do so is the United States of America." With Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov preparing to fly to Israel on behalf of his country's peacemaking efforts, Peres said that "whoever wants to come in is welcome. But we cannot have three agreements on the same issue. because this will mean no agreement at all." As the diplomatic efforts continued, Israeli gunboats and planes pounded southern Lebanon and Hezbollah guerrillas fired more rockets at northern Israel yesterday. GOP maps election- year budget strategy WASHINGTON - Republicans gird- ing for an election-year budget battle hope to heal wounds they suffered last year and bloody President Clinton. But right now, they're not precisely sure how to do it. House and Senate leaders agree that the fiscal 1997 budget Republicans will start writing later this month will look broadly similar to the GOP package Clinton vetoed in December. It will call for lower taxes and claim balance in 2002, relying chiefly on savings from Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and a host of domestic programs. Republicans will be able to propose some smaller reductions than they did a year ago, which they hope will undo some of the political damage Clinton inflicted on them by accusing them of recklessly slashing crucial programs. This will be possible because of an im- proved deficit picture, caused by a stron- ger economy and savings Congress and the states have made in some programs. "We can emphasize our areas of spending priorities-education, crime, some low income programs," said a recent internal memo to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domedic (R-N.M.) from his staff. But Republicans have enough inter nal differences over strategy and detail that the House and Senate budget com mittees, which had planned to approve similar packages next week, won't dc so until at least next week. Gays appeal to i church conferences DENVER - As delegates to, the United Methodist General Conference enter the convention center, gay Chris- tians hold doors open for them - sym- bolic acts for the policy they want tl church to adopt toward homosexuality Homosexuality once again is at the forefront of the agenda for the 8.5 mil- lion-member church's quadrene meeting, just as the issue will dominat the July meeting of the Presbytoriat Church (U.S.A.) in Albuquerque ,. and just as it's dominated nearly every national gathering in the last generatiot of the Episcopal Church and the Evan gelical Lutheran Church in America. There are 1,000 or so delegates to the policy-making body.of the nation's sec ond-largest Protestant church. . CfF ll fVta- tEaNbl)4 f R c. t- mtt*v GIT4 +}Fi if tt3cK ii{ Zov& ! tvESDA ( ltr tAtVta% ...^. $Ec4y5 W 57wi m e, o QeN %,Alt W IN f°¢ N M RALLY Continued from Page 1A survivor," urged audience members to fight against increases to welfare cuts. "Link up the struggle," said Karin Schauman, who also spoke at the event. "Go back to classrooms, churches, or- ganizations and request that they do welfare simulations. Familiarize your- self with the system." But, within the group of speakers, disagreements arose. After speaker Linda Yeager called state Sen. William Van Regenmorter (R-Hudsonville) "a great guy," another speaker, Don Richberg, voiced disagreement about Yeager's endorsement of a man who does not support same-sex marriages. "Van Regenmorter, in my opinion, is responsible forhomophobic legislation. ... We have a right to choose," Richberg said of same-sex marriages. Marchers were mindful that their concerns may be brushed aside by some observers. "Sometimes I think people are like, 'Crazy, stupid feminist,"' said LSA senior Linda Weesies. "Some will be impressed and others will think (the march is) a joke." But most women said they came to feel solidarity with strong women. A significant amount of men showed up for the speeches before themarch. One community member, Matthew Capa-Ra, brought his 6-year-old sister, Martina. Capa-Ra sat in the County Building parking lot bouncing his little sister on his lap while whispering explanations of the rally's purpose. "I was really excited to bring (Martina)," he said. He added that he wanted his sisterto seethe strong women "to compare with all the ideas she gets from the Disney movies and cartoons my parents have her watching." . A.. EO U.N. moves toward Rwanda. Bu limited basis c0 1al tibunal non-governr lieve there sh UNITED NATIONS - The United cial body to Nations is moving slowly toward agree- such crimes ment on the need to create a permanent international criminal court to deal with 26 deac genocide and crimes against humanity. But human-rights activists complain mudsli( that progress toward this goal is likely to come at the cost of what they see as RIO DE J severe limits on the proposed court's rential rainsl independence and effectiveness. And, on a shantyt these critics charge, the United States, a yesterday, k leading advocate of such a court, also is Another l among the nations that want to limit its the mudslid powers. the foot of At issue is whether the international Salvador, a community needs a tribunal able to northeast of prosecute criminal acts arising from the Freire, a spo alarming number of regional conflicts civil defens involving antagonistic ethnic groups The rain st that have broken out in the post-Cold urday afterni War period. evening and The Security Council, prodded by which stoppe the United States, created a special court With forec at The Hague to deal with the atrocities rain, the cit spawned by "ethnic-cleansing" cam- worked to ev paigns in the former Yugoslavia and - t that court operates on s. Many governments an mental rights advocates be hould be a permanent judi investigate and prosecute worldwide. d after rain, de in Brazil JANEIRO, Brazil - Tor brought a mudslide dowi own in northeastern Brazi illing at least 26 peopl. 5 people were injurad ac e, which covered a slum"a a hill on the outskirt coastal city 1,000 m f Rio, said Maria Emilii kesperson for the Salvado e. arted coming down onrSat oon, gained strength in thf turned into a downpour ed yesterday morning. casts calling formore heav y's civil defense worker vacuate residents. From Daily wire serv I III The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by. students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $85. Winter term (January through April) is $95, year-long (September through April) is $165. On-campus subscriptions for fait term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of the Associated Press and the Associated collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. PHONE NUMBERS (All area code 313): News 76-DAILY; Arts 763-0379: Sports 747-3336; Opinion 764-0552 Circulation 764-0558; Classified advertising 764-0557; Display advertising 764-0554; Billing 764-0550. E-mail letters to the editor to daily.letters@umich.edu, World Wide Web: http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/Ir NEWS Amy Klein, Managing Editor EDITORS: Tim OConnell, Megan Schimpf, Michelle Lee Thompson, Josh White. STAFF: Patience Atkin. Erena Baybik, Cathy Boguslaski, Matt Buckley. Jodi Cohen. Melanie Cohen, Lisa Dines, Sam T. Dudek, Jeff Eldridge, Kate Glickman, Lisa Gray, Jennifer Harvey, Stephanie Jo Klein. Marisa Ma. Laurie Mayk, Heather Miller, Rajal Pitroda, Anupama Reddy, Alice Robinson, Matthew Smart, Ann Stewart, Carissa Van Heest. Christopher Wan. Katie Wang, Will Weissert. Maggie Weyhing. 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SUB-EDITORS: Melissa Rose Bernardo (Theater), Brian A. Gnatt (Music), Jennifer Petlinski (Film, Ted Watts (Fine Arts) James Wilson (Books). STAFF: Colin Bartos, Eugene Bowen, Jennifer Buckley, Neal C. Carruth, Christopher Corbett, Jeffrey Dinsmore, Tim Furlong, Lise Harwin. Emily Lambert, Bryan Lark, Kristin Long, Elizabeth Lucas, James Miller, Greg Parker. Heather Phares. Ryan Posly, Michael Rosenberg, Dave Snyder, Prashant Tamaskar. Alexandra Twin, Kelly Xintaris, Michael Zilberman. PHOTO Mark Friedman, Jonathan Lurie, Editors STAFF: Josh Biggs. Jennifer Bradley-Swift, Tonya Broad. Diane Cook, Nopporn Kichanantha. Margaret Myers. Stephanie Grace Lim. Elizabeth Lippman, Kristen Schaefer. Sara Stillman, Joe Westrate, Warren Zinn. COPY DESK Elizabeth Lucas, Ed* STAFF: Matthew Benz. Amy Carey, Jodi Cohen, Lili Kalish, Jill Litwin, Heather Miller, Matt Spewak. ONLINE Scott Wilcox, Editor STAFF: Dennis Fitzgerald. Jeffrey Greenstein. Charles Harrison, Travis Patrick, Victoria Salipande, Matthew Smart, Joe Westrate. Anthony Zak. DISPLAY SALES Dan Ryan, Manager ASSOCIATE MANAGER: Erin Green STAFF: Shavannia Anderson-Williams, Chris Barry, Mary Coles. Alexis Costinew, Bryan Freeman, Stephanie Hu, Keith Litwin, ..................