OPIN ION Pa ge 4 W ed nesd ay, May 18,1994 EDITOR IN CHIEF James M. Nash EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS Patrick Javid Jason S. Lichtstein 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan. 0 Unsigned editorials present the opinion of a majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other cartoons, signed articles and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Daily. O n Saturday, May 7, an unfamiliar terror struck the city of Ann Arbor and the campus of the University of Michigan. Christine Gailbreath, a University admis- sions assistant,was found brutally murdered andraped ina wooded areaon the city's west side.Even worse than this single tragic event is the fact that the alleged perpetrator is presumed to be a serial rapist who has been linked to three prior rapes and various other attempted assaults. Perhaps most shocking inthisunfortunate sagais the deplorable fact that, before Gailbreath's murder, local po- lice did not publicly acknowledge the infor- mation that Ann Arbor was home to a serial rapist.Thisrepresentsagrossmiscalculation on the part ofthe Ann Arborpolice force, and should lead localresidents and students alike to question their assumed police protection. The police have been tracking the rapist for almost two years now. One rape in 1992 and two in 1993 have been proven - by DNA testing-to be attributabletothe same man. The testing was confirmed in early to mid-April, and thus the Ann Arbor police Ann Arbor Police: Silent but Deadly Local residents and students left in the dark had ample time to inform the public. More- over, the police were also aware of his method - he attempts to knock the victim unconscious before the rape - and the locations he generally targets: the city's west side between Main and Maple streets. Nearly a month passed with little emphasis on the danger lurking in Ann Arbor; that is, until police were confronted with a raped and murdered resident in their own city. The police have given several unsatis- factory explanations for their silent but deadly reaction. An announcement would have alerted the rapist that police were searching for him, they claim, or that pub- licity could have led to copycat assaults. Or - by far the most ridiculous of them all - they believed he had left the city because there was a six-month lapse in his patterned assaults; in fact, there are many lapses in the rapist's crimes over the past two years and he continues to haunt the city. Finally, the police claim they were quietly spread- ing the word that patterned sexual assaults were occurring in Ann Arbor, but we can- not identify any students who knew of this potentially life-saving information. These excuses may seem logical to a male police detective sitting safe and sound at his desk, but they do nothing to help the community that the police profess to serve. Despite everything the police have said to expla their lame behavior, the fact remains that a proven serial rapist has roamed Ann Arbor for almost two years -and this was unfor- tunately not passed on to the community. Steps are now being taken to protect the city.The police have setup ahotline and are receiving questions andtipsfromconcemed citizens. They have also increased their pa- trols throughout the city in an attempt thwart future assaults. A community meM ing was held last week to inform local resi- dentsonthis matter, andanotherwill soonbe scheduled toaddress the latest developments. The question remains, however: why was a community meeting not scheduled before Gailbreath's rape andmurder? It is nowtime to focus all of the city's energy on capturing andprosecuting therapist. Studentsand An Arbor residents alike must protect and iP form themselves in order to stop this crimi- nal, and prevent the insidious crime of rape. Debacle in Haiti U.S., OAS and U.N. must restore Aristide H aiti, which has been ruled for the past two years by a military elite that over- threw the democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has posed a strate- gic and humanitarian crisis for the United States, United Nations and Organization of American States (OAS). Theirpolicies con- cerning Haiti have been utter failures. No one is willing to commit to tough sanctions or collective military action to overthrow Haiti's gun-toting minority, which is now summarily executing hundreds of Haitians in their homes and in the streets. Last week's mock invasion of Puerto Rico by American military personnel sug- gests that the Clinton administration is con- sidering unilateral military action to force- fully return Aristide to office. Nearly the entire OAS strongly opposesunilateralU.S. intervention. Indeed, such action would not only overextend U.S. influence in the region but would set a dangerous precedent. Any military intervention must be agreed upon by either the United Nations or OAS and should include multilateral forces. Moreover, the Congressional Black Cau- cus and numerous human rights groups have criticized the U.S. .policy of forced repatriation of Haitians. Then-Gov. Clinton, during the 1992 campaign, promised to overturn President Bush's racist immigra- tion policy, one that denied Haitian refu- gees asylum in the United States. In prac- tice, however, President Clinton has frowned upon the immigration of great numbers ofpoor Blacks to the United States, even though these same refugees face ex- ecutions and torture in their native country. Clearly, the United States must act deci- sively in humanitarian crises - and spe- cifically,in Haiti-toprotecthumanrights and to remain a credible power. The U.N. attempt to pressure Haiti's mili- tary regime to step down with an economic embargo has also been a failure. Haiti's poor have sufferedfromtheembargo intheirlack of food and medical supplies. As the people suffer,the military elite have supported them- selves with the help of the Dominican Re- public, which has never much liked Aristide and is letting shipments of oil into Haiti. Sanctions can only work completely if they serve to make the government illegitimate in the minds of the people. In an undemocratic, military-ruled nation such as Haiti, sanctions are unlikely to produce a total success. All this equivocation is tragic. It proves that the United States and its neighbors are indifferent in the face of massacre. Nobody seems to care about Blacks who are suffering at the hands of political repression in Haiti (or in Rwanda and Burundi, for that matter) any more than they cared about the boat full of Jews turned away from American shores at the height of the Holocaust. In 1943, the ship St. Louis was sent back to Europe, and most ofthemendedup in Nazi concentration camps. History has a way of repeating itself. Bosnian politics Clinton should help lift the arms embargo n 1991, President Bush and the United echoed in the words of Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), Nations imposed an arms embargo on the who warned thatunilateral action could se@ former Yugoslavia. The calls for lifting the dangerous precedent in unstable regions of embargo were clamoring during the attack the world such as Korea. on the Muslim enclave of Gorazde, but have The U.N. Security Council does not yet subsided in the wake of Richard Nixon's favorliftingtheembargo.Onereasonforthis death. Now, three years after it was first isthattheBritishandFrench stillhavepeace- imposed, the U.S. Senate has passed two keepers on theground. If the Bosnians were amendments to urge President Clinton to given weapons to defend themselves, these repeal this ban. The first, proposed by George foreign troops would obviously be in more M. Mitchell (D-Maine), is a recommenda- danger. Therefore,President Clinton shout tion thatClinton work withintheframework push fortheremovaloftheineffectivepeace- of the U.N. Security Council to lift the em- keepers and give the Bosnians a fighting bargo. The second, offered by Robert Dole chance at survival. (R-Kan.), requires Clinton tounilaterally lift In any case, it isunlikely that either mea- the ban and help to arm the Bosnian Mus- sure will be anything more than symbolic. lims. Both will meet stiff opposition in the House Both senators feel that the United States if they ever make it out of committee. How- has a moral obligation to help the Bosnian ever, the fact that the Senate has passed two Muslims, but Dole feels that this obligation resolutions on this issue should be awake-up is strong enough to breach the U.N. resolu- call for the president. Clinton has yet tJ tion against the importation of arms. While establish a cohesive foreign policy. Perhaps no one wants to see the conflict continue, by persuading the United Nations to lift the lifting the arms embargo may be the only embargo, Clinton can help his cause in two way to check the slaughter in Bosnia without ways. First, it will be an example of how the foreign military intervention. However, at United States can still be amajorforce within the same time that the United States wants to the confines of the United Nations. Second, help the Muslims, it must also think of future Clinton may be ableto bolster his own ailing geopolitics. If the United Nations is to suc- foreign policy by helping the Bosnian Mus- ceed in its role as the world's peacemaker lims fight on a more level battlefield. and consensus-builder, the United States Muslims have found themselves outgunne cannotactunilaterally in the post-Sovietera. since the beginning of the war - but with Even the United States must obey the man- foreign military hardware they can at least dates of the United Nations. This idea is have a fighting chance.