The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, April 7, 198873
Panelists discuss
Soviet withdrawa
fromm Afghanistan
By ERIC GRIBBIN
Staff Writer
The proposed removal of Soviet
troops from Afghanistan would
not precipitate an immediate end
to turmoil within the nation, but
it would be an important first step,
a six-member panel of experts said
Wednesday afternoon.
Each member of the panel,
which was chaired by UNC
anthropology professor Louis
Dupree, presented a different
viewpoint on the effect an end to
the Soviet occupation that began
in 1979 would have on Af
ghanistan and surrounding
nations.
Nazif Shahrani, a native of Af
ghanistan and an anthropologist
at UCLA, said the Soviets are not
the entire problem.
"What the Afghan rebels are
fighting for is the establishment of
an Islamic government," he said.
If this is not resolved, the war
will not end."
lt is important to think of the
political implications of Islam,"
said Robert Canfield, chairman of
anthropology at Washington Uni
versity in St. Louis. "The notion
that God's will is supreme ... is
very attractive to the people's sense
of self, family and national well
being. The Islamists have set up
an effective resistance against the
Soviets."
Farhad Kazemi, chairman of
the political science department at
New York University, said Af
ghanistan is a secondary concern
to Iran because of the Iran-Iraq
war.
"The extent of support for the
Afghan rebels increased after the
Soviets objected to Iranian entry
into Iraq," he said. "When Iran
went into Iraq against Soviet
wishes in 1983, Iran began to
increase material support to Afgh
anistan and relaxed its limits upon
Afghan immigrants into Iran.
There is now much more coordi
nation of Iranian efforts to aid
I - j
if
4
Nazif Shahrani
Afghanistan, but until the Iran
Iraq war ends, the Afghans will
remain a secondary concern."
Robert Wirsing, professor of
international relations at the
University of South Carolina, said
a Soviet withdrawal would be "a
major victory for Pakistan's for
eign policy and diplomacy."
Alex Alexiev, a native of the
Soviet Union now working for the
Rand Corporation in Santa Mon
ica, Calif., said the Soviet Union
hasn't met its goals in Afghanistan.
"When the Soviet Union sent
troops into Afghanistan, it was as
unprepared as an army could be
for the type of fighting that it
would face, such as mountain and
desert fighting and guerrilla war
fare," he said. "The morale of the
Soviet soldiers is low. The resist
ance and determination of the
Afghan rebels to fight and die for
their cause is something which the
Soviets have not faced before.
"It is fairly clear that the Soviet
Union has been defeated militarily
and politically, and I believe that
the Soviet Union will disengage
from Afghanistan within a year."
Ae5og legal 5oe for homosexoaD
By TAMMY BLACKARD
Staff Writer
The federal government targeted
homosexuals for discrimination for
years, until the AIDS crisis dramat
ically altered the relationship between
the gay community and the govern
ment, the executive director of the
National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force (NGLTF) said Wednesday.
"The U.S. government is not only
silent about homosexuals, but it seeks
us out for discrimination," Jeffrey
Levi said at the AIDS and law
symposium at the School of Law.
Levi also represents the gay and
lesbian community in Congress.
"Laws dealing with the criminaliza
tion of sexual behavior of gays and
straights are selectively enforced
against gays."
Homosexuals are the most invis
ible of the minorities, he said, and
they all have one thing in common
oppression.
"There is government-supported
discrimination in these sodomy laws
and in immigration laws which
prohibit homosexuals from entering
the country," he said. "The laws that
restrict homosexuals from entering
the military and laws that prohibit
homosexuals from getting national
security clearance are a reflection of
society's condemnation of
homosexuality."
One in five gay men and one in
10 lesbians have either been kicked,
punched or hit because of their sexual
preferences, according to a 1984
NGLTF survey of 2,100 people in
eight cities.
Levi became the head of the
NGLTF after being fired by an Ohio
state senator because of his
homosexuality.
But the acquired immune defi
ciency syndrome epidemic is forcing
Congress to address the issue of gay
rights, Levi said.
"AIDS has permanently changed
our position in government," he said.
"We are looking to government to
come in and save our lives the issue
goes beyond civil rights now."
Congress is beginning to examine
some gay rights and AIDS legislation,
he said, but some members of Con
gress, including Sen. Jesse Helms, R
N.C., continue to attack the
legislation.
Helms attached a rider saying that
no federal activities may promote or
encourage, directly or indirectly,
homosexual activity to an appropri
ations bill promoting AIDS educa
tion, Levi said.
But Levi said he was successful in
getting rid of the "indirectly prom
oting or encouraging homosexuality"
clause of the bill, which was restrict
ing educational promotions and ads.
9 -'Vy
r - '
-r pyr N
w
t i
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Jeffrey Levi
Journalist criticizes press coverage of Nicaragua!
By HELLE NIELSEN
Staff Writer
News coverage of Central America
is typical of the way the mainstream
press gives a very selective picture of
reality and rewrites history, a
nationally syndicated columnist told
about 300 people in the Hanes Art
Center Wednesday.
"(The Central American) coverage
has been grotesque," said Alexander
Cockburn in "Reagan, the Press and
the People: The Battle over Central
America."
"The Reagan agenda has been
completely accepted," he said. "(But)
you just have to walk around Mana
gua once and you'll know that
everything you read in the main
stream press (about Nicaragua) is
(untrue).
"A lot of reality is being missed.
It is the exclusion and rewriting of
history."
Cockburn, whose columns appear
regularly in publications such as The
Wall Street Journal and The Nation,
cited The New York Times' coverage
of a meeting of the international
commission to verify the compliance
of Central American countries with
the Arias peace accord as an example.
The commission unanimously
stated that U.S. aid to the contras
was the main impediment to peace
in Central America, Cockburn said.
Yet The Times reported simply that
the commission met with little agree
ment, he said.
The mainstream media accepts the
assumption that the United States has
the right to intervene in Nicaragua,
therefore reducing the debate to what
circumstances merit an intervention,
he said.
"They have never said that under
international law it is unacceptable
to intervene," Cockburn said.
Reagan's "magic hold" on the press
started to slip in the fall of 1986,
Cockburn said, when news of the
Iran-contra affair broke, and evi
dence of misinformation campaigns
by the Reagan administration
appeared. But the press should not
have been surprised by any of this,
he said.
"Anyone who looked at Central
Amercia knew for years that the
Boland Amendment had been
breached," he said. "How would the
contras have been supplied
(otherwise)?"
Selective reporting by the press
goes beyond the issue of Central
America and the Reagan adminstra
tion, Cockburn said.
"The role of the press is ... to
reassure (citizens) that the social and
economic arrangement (here) is right
and better than anywhere else."
Cockburn said the mainstream
press uses certain techniques to
engineer opinion.
The press labels
death squads and
El Salvadoran
rebels without
really looking at what they stand for,
he said, leaving the impression that,
they are all extremists. . '
But those who were killed in EJ
Salvador were teachers, human rights-,
activists and others who would not
likely be perceived as enemies by the-,
left-wing opposition, he said.
Cockburn's speech was sponsored
by the Carolina Committee on Ceh:
tral America and the Institute of
Latin American Studies, among
others.
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REPRESENTATIVE ON CAMPUS
THURSDAY, APRIL 7 AT 3:00 PM
STUDY ABROAD OFFICE, BASEMENT OF CALDWELL HALL
&ef fe Imls m km hi 3JNl 14, J"W
MARCH & EALLY
A Community Effort Against Rape &
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March will leave from Coher Arboretum behind Howell Hall &
Planetarium after music and speakers.
Come show your concern and support.
Sponsored by Campus Y Women's Forum. Call 962-2333 for information.