2The Tar HeelThursday, June 1, 1989
World and Nation
ed So Argentinian food riots
Hen
ko
From Associated Press reports .
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - The
looting of groceries and rioting that
have wracked Argentine cities for a
week, claiming at least 1 1 lives, are
putting pressure on lame-duck Presi
dent Raul Alfonsin to step down early.
Six more people were killed Tues
day and 70 wounded as troops sought
to halt the looting, much of it by
women driven desperate by the eco
nomic crisis.
The country's largest labor coali
tion and most influential business
group on Tuesday asked President
elect Carlos Menem to take office
before Alfonsin's six-year term ex
pires on Dec. 10.
The crisis stems from Alfonsin's
failure to combat the $59 billion for
eign debt, a national budget deficit
worsened by the many inefficient state
companies and months of chronic
inflation that could top 70 percent
for May.
The inflation has sparked layoffs,
food and supply shortages and de
clining real wages that has left retir
ees living on the equivalent of $25 a
month.
"The country is dying of hunger.
Factories are closing. People are
unemployed," Adolfo Perez Esquivel,
head of the human rights group Peace
and Justice Service and the 1980
Nobel Peace Prize winner, said in an
interview.
Alfonsin on Monday declared a
state of siege, suspending civil liber
ties, but the looting of groceries con
tinued in this country that is among
the world's largest grain and beef
exporters.
"Unfortunately, this government
has lost its credibility," Saul Ubald
ini, head of the 4-million-member
General Labor Confederation, said
Tuesday. A key confederation com
mittee called early transition "the only
possible solution." "Our opinion is
that it is necessary to bring about a
shortening of the period of transi
tion," said Gilberto Montagna, presi
dent of the Argentine Industrial Un
ion business group.
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After the governing Radical Civic
Union was defeated in national elec
tions on May 14, Alfonsin offered to
resign but could not agree with
Menem and the opposition labor
based Peronist Party on terms of the
transition. The two leaders were
scheduled to meet again this morn
ing. Asked Tuesday whether he favored
an early transition, Menem said, "That
would not be opportune in these grave
moments the country is going
through."
Alfonsin's 1983 election ended
nearly eight years of military dicta
torship. The latest deaths occurred in the
Buenos Aires suburbs of San Miguel
and Quilmes. Looters loading food
onto trucks threw stones at police,
who retaliated by firing rubber bul
lets, killing four, local news agencies
0 0 0
From Associated Press reports
BEIJING - China's leaders delayed
a meeting set up to purge moderates
from the government because top
officials still are locked in a power
struggle caused by the unrelenting
student-led protests, sources said
Tuesday.
A military source said the 200,000
troops surrounding Beijing have been
told to "prepare for winter," meaning
hardliners are anticipating a long battle
with moderates.
Also on Tuesday, workers and
students chanted "Down with police
thuggery!" outside police headquar
ters to protest the arrest of labor lead
ers sympathetic to their movement
for greater freedom and an end to
official corruption.
The Beijing Daily said that 11
members of motorcycle clubs that
participated in the demonstrations also
were jailed.
Students continued their occupa
tion of Tiananmen Square, trium
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said.
The incident occurred during a riot
in which looters broke windows and
emptied shelves in furniture stores,
bars, sports and shoe stores. A bus
driver who tried to prevent the theft
of his bus was shot and killed.
In a separate incident, a sixth per
son was killed in suburban Moreno
under confusing circumstances, the
independent news agency Diarios y
Noticias reported.
Rosario, a meat-packing city of 1
million, has been worst hit On Tues
day, armed bands reportedly drove
through its deserted streets after dark,
shot at police stations and looted pri
vate homes and stores.
"They left practically nothing
standing," Mayor Santos Mauro of
the suburban town of Villa Goberna
dor Galvez said. "They overwhelmed
sculpture inspired by the Statue of
Liberty in the center of the vast plaza.
Thousands cheered as the "God
dess of Democracy" a woman
holding a torch high above her head
was christened. The statue faced
the portrait of communist China's
founder, Mao Tse-tung.
A core of about 10,000 students
have maintained a round-the-clock
protest in the square, but the num
bers swelled into the tens of thou
sands for the statue's unveiling.
The official Xinhua News Agency
called the statue "an insult to the na
tional dignity and image" and said it
should be taken down by Thursday.
Indications appeared that the power
struggle between hardliners who
oppose political reform and moder
ates who back some democratic
change had reached an impasse.
Diplomatic and Chinese sources
said a meeting of the Central Com
mittee of the ruling Communist Party,
scheduled to begin in about 10 days,
has been postponed because the lead
ership is too divided.
The meeting was called to ratify a
purge of Communist Party chief Zhao
Ziyang, who last week reportedly was
stripped of power. The Central Com
mittee must approve leadership
changes.
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In Rosario, 186 miles north of the
capital, four people were shot and
killed on Monday, and an elderly
woman died of a heart attack during
looting. Schools remained suspended
Tuesday and most businesses did not
open.
Looting also occurred in the west
ern city of Mendoza, the provincial
capitals of La Plata and Tucuman
and about a dozen working class
suburbs of Buenos Aires.
In all, several hundred stores and
shops in more than a dozen cities,
including the four largest, have been
sacked the past week.
More than 1 ,500 people have been
arrested, two-thirds in Rosario.
On Tuesday, officials in the prov
inces scrambled to set up free food
They said the conservative fac
tion, represented by conservative
Premier Li Peng, had yet to gain the
necessary support in the Central
Committee to oust Zhao and others
sympathetic to die students.
Sources said they believed that
opposition to the purge was tempo
rary and that senior leader Deng Xi
aoping, who is masterminding the
struggle, would make Zhao step down.
In another indication Zhao is in
danger, the news did not include his
name when mentioning a series of
important speeches being studied by
high-ranking party members.
The other five Politburo members
named were mentioned, except for
Hu Qili, a Zhao ally and who also is
reported under house arrest.
The hardline faction gained an
other supporter when the Commu
nist Party committee of the National
People's Congress, China's legisla
ture, issued a statement backing mar
tial law in Beijing.
Li declared martial law May 20,
but troops have been unable, unwill
ing or ordered not to move against
the protesters who on occasion have
numbered 1 million.
At the Beijing police headquar
ters, about 1,000 students and work
ers staged a six-hour sit-in demand-
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programs and the national minimum
wage was more than doubled to 8,700
australs a month, about $57 at the
official exchange rate.
In Congress, legislators argued
about how to deal with the crisis as
Peronists withheld their votes pend
ing Radical support for increased
financial aid to the provinces.
In Santa Fe, the province that in
cludes Rosario, the legislature unani
mously approved a disaster law that
allows private property and merchan
dise to be confiscated so food and
medicine can be given to the needy.
The government has blamed ul
traleftist groups for the riots, though
little proof was offered. Vice Presi
dent Victor Martinez blamed "groups
that do not want to see the current
government end its term and another
constitutional government begin."
ers staged a six-hour sit-in demand
ing information about the three un
day. The Beijing Independent Work
ers' Union was formed May 19 in
defiance of a government ban on all
but the official All China Federation
of Trade Unions. The union, with a
claimed membership of about 3,000,
has been active in getting Beijing citi
zens to participate in the movement.
Union head Zhao Pinglu, said one
of its leaders, Shen Yinhan, a 27-year-old
official with the national"
airlines, was grabbed by police Mon
day in front of the Beijing Hotel.
Two other union leaders, both
employees of the Ministry of Rail
ways, also were arrested, he said.
The official media continued its
shrill campaign against the students
participating in the 18-day occupa
tion of the square.
The People's Daily published a
letter from seven intellectuals recall
ing the tragic leftist purges of the
1966-76 Cultural Revolution. "Warn
your sons and loved ones not to al
low a repeat of this tragedy of his
tory," it said.
Military sources said all military
personnel have been threatened with
court martial if they joined or ex
pressed sympathy with the movement.
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