Page 4 the Other Press Monday, March 28, 1988

 

 

 

 

by Daryl Katayama

WOLFVILLE (CUP) -- Twenty-
eight students occupied one of
Acadia University’s main buildings
recently to hold a 72-hour fast in
support of the people of Nicaragua.

"Depriving your body of food for
three days is a drastic step, but it
does indicate how serious we are.
It’s not life-threatening in any way,
but I think next year we'll do a
dance-a-thon," said elementary
school teacher Linda Sacouman.

The fast raised about $2000 for
Tools for Peace, a national group
which sends medical and farming
supplies to Nicaragua.

Sacouman said it’s important
students know what’s going on in-
ternationally, and that’s why the

 

 

US out

by Aeriol Alderking

On Saturday over 200 people
gathered to listen to speakers and
march to the American Embassy.

The main point made by all the
speakers was that the US should
leave Central America and let them
solve their own problems.

Pamphlets read:

REMEMBER VIETNAM

The US war in Southeast Asia
has come home to Central America

As you read this, 3200 troops of
the US 82nd Airborne have been in
Honduras almost a week.

They havebeen transported to
the Honduran-Nicaraguan border
by US helicopter gunships as part of
"Operation Golden Pheasant", to
fight what US officials call an "in-
vasion" by 2000 Sandinista troops
from bordering Nicaragua.

Under the Guatemala Peace Ac-
cord signed last year, Honduras
agreed not to provide territory or aid
for the contras, or allow foreign
troops on their soil. But US-backed

- Now

contras continue their seven-
year campaign of terrorist attacks
out of Honduras against peasant
cooperatives, medical clinics and
schools in Nicaragua.

The US administration has
created. a "crisis" atmosphere in
order to:

* "strongarm" congress into
approving more aid to the
contras. The last US aid to
the contras expired Feb. 29.

* allow for direct military aid
to the contras. US troops
bring with them military
equipment to be left behind
and used by the contras.

* divert public attention from
the recent US Supreme

Court indictments

against former National

Security Council

officials’ directing illegal

contra activities.

* violate the Guatemala
Peace Accord to bolster
US military presence
in the region.

Natives join CFS

VANCOUVER (CUP) -- The
lure of a national lobbying network
to increase the profile of native is-
sues has prompted Vancouver's
Native Education Centre to be-
come the first native student body
to join the Canadian Federation of
Students.

Sixty-five per cent of the
centre’s 250 students voted in
favour of paying the $3.75 per stu-
dent per semester necessary to join
the student federation.

Phil Stewart, head of the native
student body, said the first priority
be to address the proposed spend-
ing cap on federal assistance to na-
tive students.

The recommendation, intro-
duced by the minister of Indian Af-
fairs, restricts eligibility to existing
programs. New mature students for
example, will not receive govern-
ment funding to attend the Native
Education Centre.

"It is hypocritical of the govern-
ment to encourage natives to pur-
sue studies while lowering their
financial support,” said CFS re-
search coordinator Stephen Scott.

Stewart said it is vital to con-

vince the government and the
public that native education is a
pressing issue.

"Only 2 per cent of B.C. native
youth graduate from public high
schools. Better funding and a
leadership role from both levels of
government would really help
young native people who battle
problems of unemployment and al-
coholism."

Stewart said the government
should take an active part in dis-
couraging discrimination and im-
plementing native issues in a
school setting. ;

He said 85 per cent of the
school’s graduates go on to posi-
tions in the job market or to further
studies.

Founded twenty years ago, the
Centre offers adult native students
a curriculum ranging from native
art to computer training. Through
its "project access" it helps or-
ganize native education facilities
within other communities.

Courses are taught at Vancouver
Community College and Douglas
College, and are administered by
the Musquem band which benefits
from a tax-exempt status.

Meanwhile, Canada remains
complicit with US intervention in
Central America. Pat Carney,
Canadian trade minister, recently
suggested the US is justified in its
military actions in Honduras.

Recently CBC showed a
documentary on the Sandinista
government. Sandinista is working
to eliminate illiteracy (especially
among women) and reduce the in-
fant mortality rate due to diarrhoea
and dehydration.

   
   

four-year-old chapter focuses its ac-
tivities on campus.

"These students must under-
stand that what’s happening in
the world affects them. I think
these issues are people issues:
They (students) will grow up
some day.

"They'll buy a t-shirt, take a
pamphlet, sit down and watch a
video... then in the fall when we’re
collecting things, there’s a good
chance they’ll throw in a pack of
pencils," Sacouman adds.

The Wolfville chapter of Tools
for Peace has collected $15,000

Peace for Tibet

by Aeriol Alderking

Several supporters of the 15
hunger strikers in New Delhi, India
held a three hour prayer vigil at the
Vancouver Art Gallery on Satur-
day.

The hunger strikers have
decided to strike until death if their
demands are not met. Demands in-
clude immediate release of political
prisoners arrested since September
27th, 1987; a United Nations
tribunal to investigate the number
of Tibetans wounded, killed and
imprisoned since September 27th,
1987; the United Nations to prevail
on China to permit "Amnesty Inter-
national" to investigate human
rights violations and foreign jour-
nalists to work in Tibet, and release
all other political prisoners held in
Tibet since 1959; and the United
Nations to support the Dalai Lama’s
five point peace proposal.

The proposal is outlined as fol-
lows:

1. Abandonment of China’s
population transfer policy which
threatens the very existence of the
Tibetans as a people.

- 2. Respect for the Tibetan
people’s fundamntal righis and
democratic freedoms.

Fast raises $2000.

worth of medical equipment and
helped buy roofing materials, but
usually concentrates on school sup-
plies.

The American government’s
economic embargo has left
Nicaraguans without access to
everyday consumer products.
Central America observers say the
country’s financial resources are
being eaten up by the civil war.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan
dispatched 3,000 soldiers to Hon-
duras boundary between the two
countries while pursuing
American-backed Contra guerillas
waging a civil war against the
Nicaraguan government.

But Sacouman, who recently
spent two weeks in Central
America, defends the military’s ac-
tion.

"The line isn’t painted; it’s a
jungle area. They (the
Sandinista’s) have to get rid of the
Contras to stop the war and get
on with building the country."

Reagan is serving his last term as
president, and Sacouman accuses
him of grandstanding.

"It’s his one final big thing-- he
has nothing to lose right now."

The Honduran government has
allowed Contra rebels to locate
camps along the border at the insis-

by Darly Katayama

3. Restoration and protection of
Tibet’s natural environment and the
abandonment of China’s use of
Tibet for the production of nuclear
weapons and the dumping of
nuclear waste.

4. Transformation of the whole
of Tibet into a Zone of Peace.

5. Commencement of earnest
negotiations on the future status of
Tibet and of relations between the
Tibetan and Chinese people.

 

Ma Hia Hila,
Burma

 

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