Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 26, 1978)
Drawing by Jim Payne Packwood says U.S. blackmailed WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bob Packwood says the Carter administration has let itself be blackmailed by Saudi Arabia s oil power into betraying Israel. . The Oregon Republican likened Carter s sale of F-15 jet fight ers to Saudi Arabia to the appeasement of Hitler at Munich. However, Packwood said Wednesday that he did not mean to equate the Saudis and the Nazis. "I only likened the jet sale to Munich in the sense that I thought we should have learned something from history,” he said. “Those that are in a position to blackmail us are never satisfied with just the first response. The F-15s will no be the last demand from Saudi Arabia ** Packwood said that in general he thought Carter has done a poorer job than Pres. Nixon, Ford or Johnson on foreign policy. “At least with Lyndon Johnson in Vietnam, you knew what his policy was,” said Packwood. He also criticized the administration for being weak and indeci sive when dealing with the Cubans in Africa, overly generous with Russia in the SALT talks and stingy with the Defense Department budget. Survivor says Zairian soldiors saviors KINSHASA, Zaire (AP) — An American who survived a week of terror in Kolwezi, Zaire, says he and more than a dozen other whites owe their lives to Zairian soldiers who convinced a mob to spare some of the captives. Rick Black, 42, a Zambia resident origi nally from Los Angeles, said he, his girlfriend Jenny, and other whites were saved by a contingent of captured Zairian soldiers who had spent several days with them in a Kolwezi police station. Black told his story Wednesday at Kinsh asa airport, before he boarded an airplane leaving the country — one of hundreds of Europeans and Americans rescued by French and Belgian soldiers after being caught in an attack by Katanganese rebels against Zaire’s mineral-rich Shaba pro vince. Black said the Zairians performed the res cue on May 17, when a mob stormed the police station in apparent anger over the arrival of French paratroopers. He said, “Jenny was last inside and be fore we could close the door she had been grabbed by one arm. I said, ‘Oh, my God, no,’ and grabbed her arm and pulled her away and dosed the door behind her." Black said the Zairian soldiers donned civilian clothes and convinced the mob to leave. French paratroopers eventually freed the group. Black said that on Saturday, May 13, the day the rebels stormed the city, he, Jenny and several other whites hid in the wine cellar of their hotel. Through a ventilation strip they watched the rebels take other guests away and loot the hotel. The rebels tried to break into the cellar several times, but Black barricaded the door with wine cases. Finally, Monday afternoon the group de cided to make contact with rebels. They were taken to a police station in the black section of town where 30 Zairian troops and 12 other whites were being held. He said one rebel had a list of Gecamines copper mine employees and released five whites who were on it. On Tuesday, Black said, several more whites left. Then on Wednesday—the day of the murder of more than 30 whites at a Zairian army command post — several bloodsoaked and hysterical survivors were brought to the police station. Black said the rebels were kind to the children and fed the captives, but the terror resumed on Friday morning wnen n«nu. paratroopers arrived on their rescue mis sion. “At midday, the one remaining rebel guard disappeared but we were afraid to leave,” Black said. “At four, we saw parachutists coming into the city. “Shortly after, a large number of blacks came screaming and yelling and we thought they were rejoicing that the rebels had gone. “But as they came nearer we heard them chanting, “We’re free, we're free, long live the tigers,” the name used by the rebels. The rumor had spread that Cubans were coming and the Africans thought the parachutists were the Cubans, Black said. It was when the rebels discovered the sol diers were French that they stormed the jail. U.S. considers economic options tor z.aire WASHINGTON (AP) — The Carter administration is consider ing a list of options, none of them very promising, for helping bring stability to Zaire, a friendly country which looks increasingly like an international cripple. The country is plagued by cor ruption and inefficiency, threatened by rebels based in An gola, and teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, State Department Af rican experts say privately. Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jody Powell said Wednesday that top Carter ad ministration officials have discus sed the possibility of U.S. aid for TODAY EMU Food Service BEER GARDEN 4-7 p.m. 12 oz. glass 350 pitcher $1.50/hotdogs 250 free popcorn Free Entertainment By Full House guerrillas fighting the Cuban backed regime in Angola. But Powell said Carter hasn’t yet decided whether to seek re peal of a congressional prohibition against any such move. Though the United States, France, Belgium and other allies plan to discuss coordinated ap proaches to the problems Zaire faces, one State Department offi cial says there seems to be little that can be done to prevent a bad situation from getting worse. “Before this whole thing hap pened, the country was crippled i anyway,” said one policymaker, referring to this month’s invasion of Shaba province by Katangan rebels. The rebels heavily damaged Shaba’s major copper-mining facilities, which are Zaire’s major source of foreign exchange. Re ports reaching the department in dicate it will take at least two or three months to get the mines operating, if Zaire can persuade European technicians to return and help fix them. It could take longer than that without outside help. Kite Day Festival May 28 1-5 Free Autzen Stadium Gate 4 • Captain Kite s sky gymnastics • Kite fighting exhibition • Fly your own kite National Kite Week Special Sky-Ro-Gyro Super stunt kite with 70 ft tad. dual control dive bombs, spins figure 8 s reg $16 NOW $13.50 during National Kite Week May 21 30 Alru/n Building Downtown Mall _,qwi - s HMI*.., J An interruption in cooper ex ports is the last thing Zaire’s shaky economy needs. The country owes about $2.6 billion to Western banks and governments, and has fallen way behind in its payments. A consortium of banks, headed by Citibank of New York, was in the process of putting together a $220 million loan for Zaire to help it improve its industrial base and pay back its debts. “The bankers won’t loan the money unless they are convinced it is the only way to save their pre vious investments,” an official said.
