The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, May 19, 1981-Page 13
Communists are
'brutal' says
Reagan aide
DOlly rhotO oy yluCK OELL
CITY COUNCILMAN Lowell Peterson urges fellow council members to ap-
prove the allocation of $3,000 far a rape awareness and prevention program.
Peterson spoke on behalf of the Ann Arbor Anti-Rape Coalition which collec-
ted more than 350 signatures in support of the allocation.
Ani-rape group
preent peition
toCit Council
WASHINGTON (AP)-Discounting a
top Senate Democrat's charge of "red-
baiting," President Reagan's prospec-
tive point man on human rights asser-
ted yesterday that communists are in
fact ,among the world's worst human
rights violators.
Ernest Lefever told the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee he op-
poses human rights violations by right-
wing and communist governments
alike.
BUT HE ADDED, "At present such
gross violations are perpetrated largely
by adversary states, notably the Soviet
Union.
"Most communist regimes brutalize
their own people and some of them are
engaged in exporting their repressive
systems by subversion and terrorism."
Lefever was assailed by several
Democrats during the first of two days
of confirmation hearings on his
nomination to be assistant secretary of
state for human rights.
REPUBLICANS were generally sup-
portive.
In the strongest attack, Senate
Democratic Whip Alan Cranston of
California said Lefever's job is too im-
portant "to be warped into becoming
simply a bully pulpit for redibaiting."
"He has generally displayed a blin-
dness towards human rights violations
by right-wing dictatorships and has
seemed to be outraged only by human
rights violations in communist coun-
tries," Cranston said.
LEFEVER DENIED that and said
assertions that the Reagan ad-
ministration is less concerned about
human rights than former President
Carter's administration is
"preposterous in every form."
"The suggestion that this ad-
ministration is going to downplay
human rights or play favorites has no
foundation in fact," he said.
He said Carter's policy' of putting.
public pressure on governments to im-
prove human rights was "less than ef-
fective."
THE HUMAN rights policies of
President Reagan, he said, will be
carried out four ways:
" Setting a "living example" on
human' rights guarantees for other
countries to follow.
* Supporting U.S. allies against
takeover threats even for "a besieged
ally whose human rights record is not
blameless."
" Using "quiet diplomacy as a more
effective way. . . than public scolding
and threats" to correct human rights
abuses abroad. "We should be concer-
ned more with results than rhetoric,
with doing good rather than feeling
good," Lefever said.
" Publicly condemning gross human
rights violations, which he said include
genocide, aggression, external subver-
sion, or terrorism "by any gover-
nment."
It was in listing the fourth point that
Lefever said communist countries are
among the worst violators.
"MOSCOW'S conquest of
Afghanistan, Cambodia's genocide, the
use of surrogate forces to subvert
African states, and Libya's sponsorship
of terrorism all deserve public con-
demnation by the United States and
other governments and by private
groups," he said.
Pressed on whether he has criticized
any right-wing government by name,
Lefever said he has publicly expressed
"my repugnance of apartheid in South
Africa."
At another point he said: "I care as
much about the tragedy in Argentina;
El Salvador and Guatemala as much as
I care about it in the Soviet Union. The
difference is in what we can and cannot
do. We can have more influence on
small countries than in large ones
where brutality is institutional, such as
the Soviet Union."
LEFEVER, 61, is director of the
Ethics and Public Policy Center, a
Washington organization specializing
in research on government ethics.
Some of the controversy over his
nomination stems from strident
positions Lefever took as a private
citizen.
He has said some human rights ad-
vocates are "zealots" whose "preoc-
cupation is almost always directed to
the regimes which are authoritarian
and not to communist regimes which
are much more brutal."
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Continued from Page )
Later, Wallin stated that currently
the Crime Prevention Unit consists of
only one full-time detective who over-
sees everything from the "Neigh-
borhood Watch" robbery protection
program to investigating rapes and
sexual assaults.
"We want to elicit $3,000 from council
to pay for pamphlets, movies about
sexual assault, general public
education, and extend the unit with the
creation of an ad hoc citizens commit-
tee to oversee the use of the money,"
she said.
WALLIN EXPECTS the Council to
act favorably on their request within
the week.
Wallin said- Ann Arbor Police Chief
William Corbett has been very
cooperative in their efforts to gain ac-
cess to official statistics on assaults.
First Ward Councilman Lowell Peter-
son and Second Ward Councilwoman
Leslie Morris have also been in-
strumental in their success with coun-
cil.
"I circulated a memo to Chief Corbett
requesting $3,000 to extend the Crime
Prevention Unit of the Anti Arbor
Police Department," said Councilman
Peterson in an address to the assem-
blymen, "and I would be very glad to
work with any councilman who would
be willing to pick up on it."
IN A TELEPHONE interview held
later that evening, Peterson said,
"Assault in the street is an important
issue in my ward as well as all wards in
Ann Arbor because of the density of the
population."
Peterson also said that he expects
appropriation of the funds within one
week as part of the entire city bufdget
and that this will be one of the first
steps in dealing with the problems of
community awareness.
WALLIN SAID that while current
statistics on sexual assaults in the area
have only this week become available
to the public, .the Ann Arbor Women's
Assault Crisis Center records estimate
that more than 300 assaults occured
between 1976 and 1978.
"Only a fraction are reported to the
police and they may occur at any par-
ticular time," Wallin said.
48 percent of assaults occur indoors
and 40 percent of the time the assailant
is known to the victim," Wallin said.
She stressed thatrpolice department'
statistics differ from those of the
Women's Assault Crisis Center because
"only a fraction of those who are
assaulted approach the Crisis Center
and only a fraction of those report it to
the police.
Jennifer Brown, a member of the
coalition and ex-Director of the Ann
Arbor Women's Crisis Center, herself a
victim of sexual assault, said she sees
"the need for the University to
prioritize the reality that they will
spend millions of dollars on their sports
program and yet will not take the
responsibility to provide night-time
transportation for students.
BROWN ALSO said rape as it exists
in our society "is the easiest thing in the
world because it's not easy to
prosecute," and that "it's important to
get women to fight back."
"Society has the tendency to blame
the victim because people think
women 'ask for it' but women have the
right to wear or conduct themselves in
any manner appropriate. It's about
time society as a whole does take some
of the responsibility'of'sotuaf assault,'?
Brownsaid.
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Getting Away From The Rooks?
Hlelping People?
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