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PeMkity By LYDIAN BERNHARDT Staff Writer In Paraguay, former Capt. Napo leon Oregoza sits in prison, as he has for the past 25 years. Imprisoned on a false murder charge after protesting against his country's government, he is now the most forgotten prisoner in all Para guay. According to government officials, he could have challenged the Congress committee changes in By BARBARA LINN Staff Writer To make the Student Government constitution a more unified docu ment, the Student Congress Rules and Judiciary Committee is propos ing changes in the Student Code. The committee hopes to eliminate useless sections and discrepancies in the document. Committee chairman Stuart Hath- away (Dist. 12) said the committee is considering making changes in all six titles of the Student Code. "Changes on the scale we're nroD- osing have not been made since the Campus Governing Council replaced the Student Legislature in 1972, Hathaway said. The committee has been examining student constitutions from about a dozen other universities, he said. "We have gotten a lot of ideas, but one has to be careful when taking a model from another school and placing it here at UNC because it won't turn out like it looks on paper," Hathaway said. Areas in which changes may be made are election dates, inauguration dates, congress procedures and the responsibilities of all student govern ment appointees and congress com mittees, Hathaway said. Changes in election dates have already been approved, Hathaway said. The February elections have been moved from the first Tuesday of the month to the third Tuesday. Hathaway said the committee is thinking about changing the inaug uration date from two weeks after the February elections to probably some time in April. Postponing the inaugurations will smooth out the transition between the administrations, Hathaway said. "This will allow the present admin istration to finish the programs it started, and allow the new adminis tration to organize itself before taking office." Possible changes in congress proce dures involve how legislation is implemented and how it moves from the congress speaker to the student body president, Hathaway said. Committee member Curtis Small (Dist. 5) said a few changes in the code should have been made long ago to make the campus governing process fairer. "We need to revamp the system to pass bills so that what will happen is like what happens in the United States' government," Small said. The present congress legislative system Search from page 1 Camp said it would be logistically impossible to search each person who enters the Smith Center. "How long would it take to search 20,000 people?" he asked. Camp said his chief concern is to protect the safety of Smith Center patrons, as well as those people who may be carrying something illegal. "We're trying to protect the people who have an illegal item or an illegal liquid, because once they're in there, there's nothing we can do for them," he said. "They're going to get arrested." The Smith Center must walk a fine line between protection and persecu tion of its patrons, Camp said. "On the one hand, we don't want to violate anyone's civil liberties. But on the other hand, if you're sitting on the lower level, and someone sitting on the upper level is drinking illegally and gets sick over the railing, that's also a violation ol your rights. The disclaimer has no enect on Smith Center operations, Camp said "It is a general statement written in a general way so it comforms to all general laws, he said, it is so general that it is nothing to be concerned about." Eat ess saturated fatT 0 C V American Heart Association '? is key for falsity of the charge through his lawyer, but the officials refused to let his lawyer see him. After several years of imprisonment, Oregoza was elig- ible for parole, but again the lawyer was refused access to him. Several years later, Oregoza could have appealed again for parole on the grounds of good behavior, but because of his "bad" behavior attempted suicide he was assigned the Student Code allows a bill to be killed by a congress committee so that the whole congress never sees the bill, he said. The committee is also considering increasing the number of the con gress' standing committees, Small said. The congress has only three standing committees: finance, student affairs and rules and judiciary Committee member Gene Davis (Dist. 18) said some universities have as many as eight committees, with each congress member serving on two or three committees. "We need to re-evaluate which bills go through which committees," Davis said. "We especially need to restruc ture the Student Affairs Committee. LE SAC PASSEPORT YOURS FOR 13.50 WITH PURCHASE OF ANY LANCOME PRODUCT This black canvas shoulder tote is fashioned with black web handles, inner zip pocket and snap closure, plus the Lancome stamp of approval. The Le Sac Passeport comes packed with six sensible to senational Lancome beautifiers. For your purchase may we suggest the seasonal basics from the Winter Skin Resorts. They will "winterproof" your skin. Cosmetics, all Triangle stores. BELK IN THE TRIANGLE: Belk Leggett and Hudson Belk DURHAM: South Square Mall (493-34 ; Mon.-Sat. 10AM-9PM CHAPEL HILL: University Mall (942-8501) Mon.-Sat 10AM-9PM RALEIGH: Downtown (832-5851) Mon. & Fri. WAM-9PM, Tues.-Thurs., & Sat. 10AM-5:30PM Crabtree Valley Mall (782-7010) Mon.-Sat 10AM-9-.30PM CARY: Gary Village Mall (467-5050) Mon.-Sat. 10AM-9.30PM CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-662-7221 Amnesty to solitary confinement instead, Now, after 25 years, Oregoza is due to be released from prison on Dec. 17. In August 1987, however, the Supreme Court of Paraguay made an annual visit to the jail to review the prisoners and their cases. During this visit, Oregoza screamed his name to them and begged for release through the window of his eel!. The officials' response was to brick up the window. sua It gets all the new business in Student Congress. We need to take some of the load off that committee." Before changes can be made to the Student Code, Hathaway said, "We need to make sure the committee itself is satisfied with what it is proposing." He said committee members hope to bring their proposals to the congress at its Dec. 2 meeting. Changes to Title I of the Student Code would require a constitutional referendum. Changes in Title II, Part 1 would require approval by two thirds of the Student Congress. Changes in other titles would require approval by a majority of the con gress, Hathaway said. ggests 0 C J ( ' -If -m - "t&J? W .... NTvjv Iff ' - '-"v" 3 I - ' ' - - -:: i - I a Irtematioiniail9 speaker says It is doubtful, now, that he will be released. Oregoza's case has been adopted by Amnesty International. James David Barber, former chairman of the board of Amnesty International and a Duke University professor, told students during a speech at UNC Friday night that the next step in Oregoza's case will be bringing it to the attention of the public. Barber spoke as part of the Campus Y's Human Rights Week. To raise awareness of Oregoza's situation, Barber said Amnesty Inter national will employ a tactic it does not usually use: media sensational ism. "Media is a frontier for us," Barber said. "We have the information, but we need to understand how to work better with the media to get it out. The next generation the one that's in college right now is important to us because they will be the next ones to continue our work, and they're the visual generation. They're used to watching movies and televi sion to get information, which means that our organization should take a new direction and learn to target these media." Drama and timing have become essential to engineering the release of prisoners, Barber said. Barber said such a process could sNUTRIX j Hndlre&tmnt (MRefULeggett The Daily Tar be used in Oregoza's case. "Often, there is one dramatic event that enables us to enliven a case," he said. "Bricking up the window was the event that helped us enliven Oregoza's and get some news out. But these methods alone are not enough. "Pope John Paul has plans to visit Paraguay next spring. Paraguayans don't like Americans, but they do respect the Pope and value his opinion of their country. We hope to write the Pope before his visit and ask him to request the release of Napoleon Oregoza during his visit." Barber quoted television newscas ter Ted Koppel's explanation of why the press doesn't cover more human rights violations: "Suffering isn't news." "We've got to make it news," Barber said. "We have to find an angle on it that makes it newsworthy. Our aim is to get these people out of jail. If we have to jazz it up, well jazz it up. Well get Bono to sing and Sting to smile if we have to. How do we get this stuff on the evening news? By getting people to think about it dramatically. Human rights is becoming fashionable." The organization works by "adopt ing" a prisoner on a completely global, non-partisan basis and work ing to get that person released, usually through writing letters directly to him, his government and his jailers. LANCOME 6k PARIS HeelMonday, November 22, 19873 The group also writes informational letters to the U.S. government. "Letter-writing is effective," he said, "because the first thing they tell someone that they plan to torture is that no one knows, or cares, where they are, and no one will be able to find them. If the prisoners and government suddenly receive a flood of letters from people worldwide, this system breaks down." All the prisoners who are adopted are "prisoners of conscience," which means they have not committed a violent crime and are not in prison for advocating violence. Barber said this stipulation keeps people from being afraid to endorse the release of violent prisoners and keeps Amnesty International from being associated with violence. "Our goal is to establish the individuality of human rights vic tims," he said. "We're making some progress in the universality of caring." Although the public is becoming more educated, Barber said, the jailers are too. "Opponents of human rights are more rich, more powerful, more sophisticated than ever before," he said. "They hire consultants in the lobbying business to promote their cause in Washington. They work on getting loans for countries that torture throughout the prison system. Those countries then rationalize to make torture seem plausible."
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