Western Front - 1990 February 2

              Accent goes underground page 3
Viking
men
in again
Sports, Page 8
TUESDAY
WEATHER
Cloudy with a chance of rain today and Satur­day.
Highs in the 40s and lower 50s.
The Western Front
February 2,1990 /Volume 82, Number fo Western Washington University please recycle
Horrors of S. Africa
exposed by expatriot
By Leah Linscott
staff reporter
Desmond Smitt is dead.
At least according to the South African government
he is.
But, to about 70 students listening to his pain-filled
plea to end apartheid, the death surrounding him consists
of the memories of his people who are dying in the fight
to free South Africa.
Smitt is a member of the African National Congress,
a political party started in 1912 as a non-racial organiza­tion.
It is supported by 85 percent of the South African
people, Smitt said. Today it is considered an outlawed,
anti-apartheid organization.
Smitt, a white South African, is also a victim and
witness to the crimes occuring in South Africa.
Smitt has written three pamphlets about some of the
incidents he has witnessed. In one incident, Smitt said an
11-year-old boy was beaten so badly by South African
police that there weren't two pieces of skin on his back
close enough to stitch together.
His crime? He was accused of throwing stones at a
police vehicle.
In 1985, a 4-year-old girl was shot in the head by a 19-
year-old soldier, Smitt said. The official response was
that the soldier "didn't mean to, he was just playing." .
In 1977, the government decided that the 25 million
people of South Africa should learn and adopt" Afrikaan"
as their native language.
Children aged 11 to 13 made posters protesting the
proposed language. As the children walked towards a
local stadium, the crowd grew to about 100,000 people.
The police announced the protest an "illegal gather­ing"
and gave the 100,000 people — mostly children —
three minutes to disperse before they opened fire. The
result was 700 dead, 4,000 injured and 14,000 arrested.
In the weeks that followed, more than 10,000 chil­dren
under the age of 13 were killed.
In another incident, South African police entered a
home and murdered its nine occupants, including a
woman in her seventh month of pregnancy, because they
were members of the African National Congress, Smitt
said.
"As the police left the house they said, 'Oh, shit,
wrong address,"' he said.
These crimes stem from the "whites" belief that
"blacks" are unintelligent and inferior beings, said Smitt.
"It is believed it is whites god-given right to oppress
black people," Smitt said.
Smitt shared these beliefs during his childhood.
"(Then) I realized those unintelligent people could
speak five languages and I could barely handle two,"
Smitt said.
Smitt didn't start out opposing the South African
government. He,was conscripted into the South African
army in 1977. Given top secret clearance, his job was to
encode secret messages from Angoria to Pretoria. He
started questioning government motives when he read a
report about civilians resisting and protesting the police
that left 2,000 civilians killed. He later found out that the
only weapons found near the civilians were five, buried
machine-guns.
In 1979, Smitt left the South African army with a
mission to end the crisis happening in South Africa. The
government put as many barriers in his way as possible.
When entering different townships he would be
stopped, questioned and accused of looking for black
prostitutes (until 1986 it was illegal to have inter-racial
relationships in South Africa).
Smitt, charged with withholding information from
the police, was stripped naked and held in confinement.
"Soldiers entered my cell, wrapped and tied a wet
blanket around me and beat me till I lost consciousness,"
Smitt said. 'The advantage of this type of torture is that
it doesn't leave bruises. This tactic was taught to the
Argentine generals by the CIA."
He was released a few hours later and no charges
were filed. '
See Smitt on page 2
i roughlylSotherpeopieon Wednesday. The
m South Africa.'
i i i i i i i i !
By Rob McDonald
IliiiiMBiliiSS^^S^J
tickets that have amassed during
|||l^ji|||il|p|I^(^^
iiiiiiiiiiBii|^ii^(i^iB!
director Ann Wallace to revise the
iBBHBHMlSliliBMl
l||^B||^^ilSllliiBIBBilB
|||||j^|^^||l(||^||M|^||
HB^S^BIBSiSBiiiBiii
ll^jilHte^^Sfclliillii^lB
|^i|J|||^|§^||||i||i|
tions is just as important as paying
iiHHl^HiilI(llil|IB!IISIl
tickets are sent at least one letter
lliBiB^iHiiiBlii^iiftil
IMIiHliiBiBliiiliBiH^B
into paying the fines by these meth-their
names referred to a collection
can before we contact a collection
i^H^(B^iiilMliiiiiiilSi
I^HIBM^iMi^BililJlllilil
BlI^^^BlWllHiiilBliiil
with several unpaid fines can still
liiiiBlS^fcB^BtlBlSi
Government says "Just say No"
Pell grant recipients must be drug -free
By Tim Cappoen
staff reporter
On Nov. 18,1988, a federal law
was passed that may very well con­cern
Western students currently re­ceiving
Pell grants from the govern­ment.
Known as the Anti-Drug Abuse
Act of 1988, in essence it states: No
federal agency shall make a grant to
any individual unless the individual
agrees to be drug free.
Pell grants are financial aid that
does not have to be paid back.
The act extends to the unlawful
manufacture, distribution, dispensa­tion,
possession, or use of a con­trolled
substance in conducting any
activity during the period of the grant
If the grant recipient violates this
law and is convicted, the government
has the power to terminate all finan­cial
aid.
While the law is imposing on
paper, enforcement efforts are tooth­less
According to Western Financial
Aid Director Ron Martinez's rec­ords,
there has not yet been a case
brought to the public's attention
concerning this law.
"No one really knows how it will
turn out,"Martinez said. "We'll just
have to wait and see. Hopefully the
first case won't be here at Western."
Ron Martinez said he appreci­ates
efforts being made by the fed­eral
government to fight the war against
drug abuse, but isn't satisfied with
this particular method involving fi­nancial
aid for students.
See Grant on page 2