Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Opinion 4

Dan Shuster looks
at stem cells

A UNIQUE RELATIONSHIP: THE ICERS AND PAT BENATAR ... SPORTS, PAGE 9

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One-hundredfourteen years ofeditorialfreedom
www.michgandaziy.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXV, No. 93 @2005 The Michigan Daily

Anti-U.S.
rally held
in Lebanon

New York
photographer
Toshi Kazama
presents his
photographic
series called
Kids on
f Death Row in
the Michigan
°r League yes-
terday. The
event was
sponsored
by Amnesty
International.
SHUBRA OHRI/Daily
CAPTURING LIFE
PHOTOGRAPHER DISPLAYS SERIES ON 20 DEATH ROW JUVENILES

Protestors say they are
happy with Syrian
presence in the country
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Hundreds
of thousands jammed a central Beirut
square yesterday, chanting support for
Syria and anti-U.S. slogans in a thun-
dering show of strength by the militant
group Hezbollah - a rally that greatly
outnumbered recent demonstrations
against Syria's presence in Lebanon.
Two huge banners in Riad Solh square
read, in English: "Thank you Syria" and
"No to foreign interference." That was a
reference to U.S. and U.N. pressure on
Syria - but not to the Syrian military,
which the protesters made clear they
were happy to have stay.

non even if Syria leaves. The Lebanese
opposition, which opposes Syria's pres-
ence, has been trying to persuade Hez-
bollah to remain neutral in the country's
political crisis.
Hezbollah is the best-armed and best
organized faction in Lebanon and enjoys
strong support among Lebanon's Shi-
ite community, which at 1.2 million is
a third of the population. Respect for it
extends beyond the Shiites because of its
years of fighting against Israel.
The United Nations and the United
States have called on Syria to withdraw
its forces and for Hezbollah to disarm.
Syria, whose troops have been in Leba-
non for more than a quarter century, says
it will transfer its forces closer to the bor-
der and discuss with Lebanese officials

their eventual

W

"We're here for
the independence
of Lebanon but not
for Syria to leave,"
said 16-year-old
Esraa Awarki, who
traveled to Beirut
by bus with a num-
ber of schoolmates
from Sharkiya, in
southern Lebanon.
"Syria was helping
to protect us."
The sprawl-
ing crowds sang,
waved a sea of
red-and-white .
Lebanese flags
and burst into the
national anthem,
some touting post-
ers with pictures


"We are
demonstrating here
against foreign
intervention in our
internal affairs... .
Here we are saying.
thank you to Syria,
not asking them to
leave."
- Maha Choukair
Lebanese University student

withdrawal - but it has
not given a date for a
full pullback.
President Bush
rejects this as a half-
step and said yester-
day that "Freedom
will prevail in Leba-
non" and demanded
once again that Syria
withdraw troops from
its neighbor.
A major pullback
of Syrian forces from
central Lebanon
toward the border
began late yesterday,
when scores of trucks
carrying soldiers and
towing howitzer guns
left the Aley region in
the hills overlooking
Beirut and headed up

By Kim Tomlin
Daily Staff Reporter
Photographer Toshi Kazama's first picture of
a young person on death row was of Michael, a
boy convicted of raping, strangling and burn-
ing an elderly woman and killing an elderly
man in his small hometown in Arkansas.
Since then, Kazama has gone on to photo-
graph many young people on death row but it
was his meeting with Michael that opened his
eyes to the human side of the "monsters" he
had imagined.
"When he appeared in front of me, I was
stunned. He was so young, so normal," Kaza-
ma said.
Kazama, a professional photographer who
started his project nine years ago and displayed
it at the Michigan League yesterday, has taken
20 pictures of juveniles sentenced to death,
three of which have since been executed. Thir-
teen juvenile offenders have been executed in

the United States since 1998, eight of which
took place in Texas, according to Amnesty
International, an organization which works to
end capital punishment.
While his simple photos display a disturbing
reality, Kazama said his pictures allow him to
work as an activist fighting to end the death
penalty, a punishment applied to juveniles
in only five countries, including the United
States, according to Amnesty International.
Just last Tuesday, the organization as well as
opponents of capital punishment like Kazama
were afforded a small victory when the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that
it was illegal to execute criminals under the
age of 18.
The 5-4 decision, which overturns a 1989
high court ruling, throws out the death sen-
tences of 72 murderers who committed their
crimes as juveniles and bars states from seek-
ing to execute others. Nineteen states had
allowed death sentences for killers who com-

mitted their crimes when they were under 18.
While Kazama's work with minors will now
end in light of the Supreme Court decision, the
photographer would still like to see the death
penalty abolished because of the inhumanity in
the way he thinks the punishment is executed.
His photography collection that profiles
the young men and women on death row also
portrays the methods that are used to execute
inmates.
Among these photos are shots of "Yellow
Mama," the nickname for the electric chair
where the executions of teenagers like Michael
took place. The plain photo shows thick, black
straps tied to the wooded frame and a perma-
nent brown stain where tailbones have burned
into the seat.
Kazama told of the stench of burning elec-
trical wire that filled the room. A photograph
of an electrical chair at a different prison
shows the special bottom of the chair, which
See PENALTY, Page 7

of the Lebanese and, Syrian presidents.
Throughout the afternoon, loudspeakers
blared songs of resistance and officials
gave nationalist speeches.
"We are demonstrating here against
foreign intervention in our internal
affairs, and we're supporting Hezbol-
lah," said Maha Choukair, a 21-year-old
Lebanese University student. "Here we
are saying thank you to Syria, not asking
them to leave." _
Hezbollah, an anti-Israeli party rep-
resenting Shiite Muslims, organized the
rally as a way of demonstrating that it
will remain a powerful force in Leba-

the mountain road to eastern Lebanon
to mountaintops and down to the Bekaa
Valley in the east. The convoys included
several tanks on flatbed trucks, witness-
es reported.
Lebanese officials said the pullback
would be completed by March 23. Dep-
uty Prime Minister Issam Fares said he
believes the next phase, the full with-
drawal from Lebanon, will be "speedy"
- but he did not give a date.
Lebanon's state news agency estimat-
ed 1.5 million participated in yesterday's
rally, but that seemed high for the nation
See SYRIA, Page 7

Students join
Musims for
ay in the life
j~By Amber Colvin
Daily Staff Reporter
Instead of learning it in a lecture hall or reading
it in a textbook, students can participate in Muslim
rituals and experience Muslim culture through a "A
Day in the Life," presented by the Muslim Students'
Association. The program pairs non-Muslim students
with a "buddy" from MSA with whom they will be in
contact and attend events from today until Friday.
Over the course of the three days, participants
will view an Islamic calligraphy exhibit at the Uni-
versity of Michigan Museum of Art, attend prayer in
a mosque at the Muslim Community Association of
*Ann Arbor and have the option to wear a cap as some
Muslim men do or the scarf as some Muslim women
choose to wear.
"It's a more informal, personal experience," said
MSA Vice President Aisha Jukaku. "You get to have
a better perspective of what it's like (to be a Muslim)
and ask questions in a more comfortable setting."
Amjad Tarsin, LSA junior and Islam awareness chair
for MSA, said the purpose of the program is to allow
non-Muslims to gain insight into spiritual and religious
practices they would not be able to see otherwise.
"The goal of it is to build cultural and educational
bridges and clear misconceptions portrayed by the
media," Tarsin said.
Azmat Khan, LSA sophomore and social chair for


Fewer 'U
Report also shows
number of illegal drug
possessions has remained
the same in recent years
By Jeremy Davidson
Daily Staff Reporter
The proliferation of students with
forged documents has slowed, according
to a report from the Office of Conflict
Resolution. This year there were no cases
of document forgery, which included fake

I

documents forged

parking passes, between July and Decem-
ber of 2004.
The results were noted in OSCR's bi-
annual report, which summarizes cases it
has investigated concerning the Statement
of Student Rights and Responsibilities, or
"the code." Aside from parking passes,
students were also falsifying employee
timesheets.
"Apparently ... it was easy enough for
some students who were savvy enough to
duplicate (these documents)," said Keith
Elkin, OSCR director.
Gwyn Hulswit, associate director of
OSCR, attributes a significant part of the

record-low statistic to the implementa-
tion of the Automatic Vehicle Identifica-
tion security device. The AVI is a small,
blue rectangular device that is used as a
parking pass in many of the parking lots
around campus. Hulswit said the AVI
would be much harder to imitate than the
blue hang tags that it replaced.
But University Facilities and Opera-
tions spokeswoman Diane Brown said she
did not believe there have been a signifi-
cant number of fraudulent parking permits
used in recent history, and therefore did
not see a significant trend in a decline of
See OSCR, Page 7

CRIME WATCH
Charges and number of cases
Physically harming: assaulting or
batterng
Hazing, stalking, harassment
Stealing, vandalizing, damaging,
destroying or defacing property
Illegally possessing, using, dis-
tributing, manufacturing or selling.
alcohol and other drugs

7
8
10/
20

Native American icon brought
back to life in children's books

Author tells story of
Sacagawea, a Shoshone
woman who accompanied
Lewis and Cark through
Louisiana territory
By Christina Hildreth
Daily Staff Reporter

The girl was Sacagawea, the famous
companion of Captain Meriwether Lewis
and Lieutenant William Clark. Sacagawea
traveled with the two as they explored the
Louisiana territory in the early 19th cen-
tury. Thomasma - a former elementary
school teacher - spoke yesterday at four
separate events in and around campus,
spreading what he calls "the truth about
Sacagawea."
Thomasma, the author of ten histori-
,.nl c-hi; 1r.~n'e hnnkr 'I~c hnt vn~ l (T 1'Nativer

Tfiomasma said he first became inter-
ested in Sacagawea when he worked at a
summer camp in Montana that was located
along the original Lewis and Clark trail.
After reading Lewis and Clark's journals,
he became fascinated by their expedition
and especially by the Native Americans
they met along the way.
Thomasma's first children's book told
the story of Naya Nuki, a character based
on one of Sacagawea's friends, who is
referred to n Lewispukand Clahrkc's journals