Page 12 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, May 4, 1984
MSU student reports on Nicaragua

LANSING (UPI) - A Michigan State
University student who recently visited
Nicaragua charged Wednesday the
United States is supporting insurgent
forces most Americans would find
"repulsive and almost obscene."
Doug Schirch, a 23-year-old
biochemistry graduate student, said he
went to Nicaragua as part of a "Witness
for Peace" program under which
Americans deliberately travel to the
war-torn countryside.

'I, have no doubt that the majority of
Americans would find (the U.S.-backed
rebels) repulsive and almost obscene.'
- Doug Schirch
MSU graduate student

there may be U.S. citizens traveling on restriction near the Honduran border,
"WE HAVE warned our government those roads and living in those towns," visiting seven towns during a one-week
that if they continue to mine roads and he said. period, asserted that the anti-gover-
fire mortars into Nicaraguan towns, Schirch, who said he traveled without nment "contras" have "very little sup-

port inside Nicaragua."
"They typically show no regard for
non-combatants in their fighting," he
said.
"I have no doubt that a majority of
Americans would find them repulsive
and almost obscene."
Schirch, who was active in opposing
U.S. Central American policy before
traveling to Nicaragua, said the protest
movement has lagged in this country
because "we're paying someone else to
do the dirty work" in Nicaragua.
Those people, the contras, "do not
have the same moral standards as
those our country holds to," he said.
Unemployment
rate climbs
in city despite
state decline
DETROIT (UPI). - Unemployment
rates in 10 of Michigan's 13 major labor
market areas dropped in February, the
Michigan Employment Security Com-
mission reported Wednesday.
The release of labor force estimates
for areas within Michigan follows the
issuance of statewide data by several
weeks. MESC had reported earlier that
Michigan's February unemployment
rate was 12.6 percent, down slightly
from January's 12.8 percent.
ANN ARBOR, Ypsilanti, Bay City
and the Upper Peninsula had the
largest increase, rising to 19.4 percent
from 18.8 percent in January.
Taylor said the unemployment in-
crease in the Upper Peninsula was not
unusual for February and was due in
part to seasonal layoffs in the area's
non-manufacturing industry, especially
retail trade. Some layoffs also occurred
in area manufacturing facilities.
All 13 areas reported labor force
growth as job seekers began re-
entering the job market. Every area
also experienced increases in em-
ployment and unemployment.
Among the 10 areas with lower
unemployment rates, the Kalamazoo-
Portage area had the largest decline,
falling from 11.5 percent to 10.1 percent.
in February.
The Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area,
despite its slight unemployment in-
crease, had the lowest February jobless
rate among the 13 areas at 8.3 percent.

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