Emerald
Vol. 82, No. 106
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Monday, February 23, 1981
What’s ahead for human rights?
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Photos by Erich Boekelheide
Richard Nokes
“I'm an optimist by nature. Like Martin
Luther King, I have a dream. The time
has come to right the wrongs in Latin
America."
Panelists predictions conflict
By SALLY HODGKINSON
Of the Emerald
Predictions for human rights in Latin
America ranged from "a dream to a
nightmare” in the closing panel of the
human rights conference Friday night.
“I’m an optimist by nature," said
Richard Nokes, editor of the Portland
Oregonian. “Like Martin Luther King, I
have a dream. The time has come to
right the wrongs in Latin America.”
Although other panel members em
phasized the need for human rights in
Latin America, they said reality and
dreams sometimes don’t mix.
“When it comes to Latin America and
the United States, I'm a pessimist,”
Council on Hemispheric Affairs director
Larry Birns told the crowded EMU Ball
room audience
Birns said military regimes in Latin
America are gaining power after estab
lishing order, and there is little hope for
a strong stand on human rights from
the Reagan administration.
“I have rarely seen such a collection
of cheerless, drab and intellectually
absurd people."
One of the fallacies of the new ad
ministration is its plan to establish
friendly relations with countries that are
the United States’ “traditional friends.”
With the present repfessive govern
ments in some “traditionally friendly”
countries as Agentina, Chile and El
Salvador, establishing relations with
those countries is like being friendly
with Hitler's Germany or Lenin’s Russia
on the basis of "traditional friendship,”
Birns said.
"These Reagan folk, who are intel
lectually not smart, expect their judg
ments to be unexamined. One of our
jobs is to examine their presupposi
tions.”
But state department representative
John Blacken said former Pres. Jimmy
Carter understood human rights, but he
couldn’t reconcile the United States'
power with it’s principles. Reagan will
do better, Blacken predicted.
"I think you can expect consistency
from the new administration.”
Although the crowd was generally
well mannered, many of the questions
ranged from political statements to
verbal attacks on Blacken. "How do
you sleep at night?” one person asked
him "When is the next time you expect
to spend time in the unemployment
line?” another asked.
Blacken and Rick Rolf, an aide to
Sen. Mark Hatfield, cautioned the
Continued on Page 3
Laurence Birns
"When it comes to Latin America and
the United States, I'm a pessimist."
Reagan's administration is “cheerless,
drab and intellectually absurd. ”
Media pros rap El Salvador coverage
By JEFF BAKER
Of the Emerald
American media coverage of Latin America was
graded Friday afternoon.
It received a “six or seven out of 10” from the
Oregonian’s editor, “a better press than we deserve”
from a Latin American expert, and “extremely ill
prepared” from the director of Interlink Press Service.
The panel discussion, "The Role of U.S. Media in
Shaping U.S. Perspectives in Latin America,” featured
Oregonian editor Richard Nokes, Council on Hemis
pheric Affairs director Laurence Birns, and Interlink
Press Service director Brennon Jones.
El Salvador was the focus of the discussion and
criticism.
Nokes said The Oregonian has published more
than 200 articles on El Salvador, many reflecting the
"heavy weight given human rights" in Associated
Press coverage.
Most AP coverage of El Salvador comes from
Mexico City, where five staff members rotate two-week
tours inside the war-torn country, Nokes said.
AP and Oregonian coverage "could be stronger, I
hope it will be,” he said.
The Oregonian will send a correspondent to El
Salvador if the conflict continues. Nokes said he
would "go myself, but I'm getting a little long in the
tooth to dodge bullets from leftists, rightists and
centrists.”
Nokes annoyed the EMU Ballroom crowd by
observing that there has been "direct propaganda
from your side, and plenty of it. There's a game of civil
war that's being played.
"The communist government will never be on top
of the problem. The (now-governing) junta has a
better chance of changing things than the left or
right,” he said.
Nokes concluded by saying human rights "should
be on page one of The Oregonian. It is on page one of
our hearts."
Crowd favorite Laurence Birns, fresh from a
morning grilling of state department aide John Black
en, said the U.S. press "is not a monolith. It is the most
pluralistic of institutions."
Birns explained how “conspiracies of information
dissemination” in Latin American coverage persist.
The AP often has only one correspondent in each
country who must not only report news but sell the AP
service to newspapers within the country, Birns said.
This creates a “built-in conflict” that often is resolved
by emphasizing sports, he said.
El Salvador coverage has been "generally good,”
Birns said. Unfortunately, American reporters who
vigorously pursue stories become “prime candidates
for right-wing death squads.’’ New York Times
reporter Alan Riding has received a death threat and
was afraid to return to El Salvador, Birns said.
Interlink director Jones told the crowd “several
years ago El Salvador didn't exist in the American
press. It was just another disaster on page 15."
“Trouble spot coverage” hurt the press because
they realized too late that a crisis exists, Jones said.
“We re extremely ill-prepared to face the crises
that exist in Latin America,” he said. “What’s missing
in the American press is a sense of history.”
Activist condemns Guatemalan government
By MIKE RUST
Of the Emerald
During the first 11 months of last year,
300 Guatemalans were seized and
murdered by government security
agents, the national campus coordinator
for Amnesty International said.
Craig Rock, who was on campus
Thursday to help organize a University Al
chapter, discussed the contents of an Al
report on Guatemala released last week.
‘The human rights issue that domin
ates all others in Guatemala today is that
people who oppose or are imagined to
oppose the government are systema
tically seized without warrant, tortured
and murdered,” Rock said.
“These tortures and murders are part
of a deliberate and long-standing pro
gram of the Guatemalan government.”
Rock said the deployment of official
forces for extra-legal operations “can be
pinpointed to secret offices in an annex
of Guatemala's National Palace under
the direct control of the president of the
republic.”
Gen. Lucas Garcia became president
of Guatemala in July, 1978. Since then,
Al estimates 5,000 people have been
killed by government security forces Al
also estimates more than 20,000 people
have been murdered or disappeared
from 1966 to 1976
Rock said the report includes tran
scripts of two “unique interviews.” One
is with a peasant who Al believes to be
the only survivor of political imprison
ment in Guatemala last year and the
other with a former soldier who served as
a plainclothes army agent.
Amnesty International, the interna
tional human rights association that won
the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize, has 123
campus chapters in the United States.
Campus chapters concentrate on
projects suited to a nine-month
academic year, Rock said.
In a later interview, Rock said the
human rights situation around the world
will improve as popular knowledge in
creases.
"With American students, I don’t think
it’s a question of apathy It’s more a lack
of knowledge,' he said. "Youth are still a
very moral people in this country."
Rock said his goal is a time when
“human rights will come before foreign
policy.” He opposes economic or
military aid to violators of human rights
Rock suggests that “if they want to,”
Third World countries will be able to play
an increasing role in promoting human
rights because of their economic power
Al supports "prisoners of conscience"
regardless of their political stripe.
"We’re more effective by not being
political," Rock said. "By taking the
human rights side of the issues, we at
tack the roots of the problem that creates
violence everywhere ”