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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 2004)
Iraq protests UN decision to spend oil-for-food funds Revenue originally slated for humanitarian goods in Irac/ is now funding an investigation into corruption BY EDIT! I M. LEDERER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS UNITED NATIONS — Iraq has protested a U.N. decision to use $30 million in revenue from the U.N. oil for-food program for Iraq to help pay for the investigation of alleged cor ruption in the humanitarian effort. In a letter obtained TUesday, Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Samir Sumaidiaie argued that Security Council resolu tions don’t support the use of oil-for food money “for an investigation into the internal practices of the Unit ed Nations in carrying out its duties.” “My government believes that the use of such funds has no legal basis,” he said in a letter dated Nov. 19 to U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, the current Security Council president. Last month, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the council that money for the probe headed by for mer U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker would come from an ac count earmarked to pay U.N. admin istrative and operational costs for the embattled humanitarian program. The oil-for-food program was launched by the Security Council to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Saddam Hussein’s regime could sell unlimited quantities of oil provid ed the money went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay repara tions to victims of the 1991 Gulf War. Under the program. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan considered two ways to pay for the investigation: going to the U.N. General Assembly for a special assessment which would be shared by the 191 U.N. member states or tapping the 2.2 percent fund. Sumaidaie argued in his letter that using money in the oil-for-food ac count “potentially victimizes the people of Iraq twice. ” First, if the allegations of abuse prove to be true, Iraqis were deprived of needed financial resources to cope with sanctions, Sumaidaie said. And second, by requiring the people of Iraq to pay for an investigation, mon ey is being diverted from rebuilding Iraq’s shattered infrastructure and economy. ONnonin IIIIUMMU IIINTf i/ mi r nci! fiiMTQpu npiriNQi nrnri\ic iinnnN dcn iilu .iiiLimKj .uKiUiiinLutjiUiij .uuiijii .util Bliy. SELL. TRRQE. "-SR12-T. io’6 WLLRnEllE .541.68115 11 I Three locations: 1670 High 5t, Eugene 334-9411 793 N. Danebo, Eugene 463-9731 225 Q St, Springfield 744-7121 What do I know about me? I'm informed healthy. I take care of myself P Planned Parenthood FREE Birth Control Supplies A Health Services For Men <& Women. *Ca!l to see if you qualify 3phsso.org www. weeandobetter. ore Cwua Burrer 1525 Franklin Blvd. Eugene, OR 97402 541-343-2828 11:30am-9:00pm Daily Next to Campus ALL YOU CAN EAT (every night $7.99 includes drink and ice cream) come eat buffet-style or order to go Szechwan and Mandarin dishes to choose from Alcohol: Binge drinking not a social norm Continued from page 1 treated for alcohol issues. “It’s not a quick fix,” she said. “If you had that on a regular basis, it’s very hard to give up.” Uncontrolled drinking harms in dividuals in other ways. Nationwide, at least 70,000 stu dents between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexu al assault each year, according to a National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism study. About 400,000 have unprotected sex under the influence of alcohol. “It’s hard to talk about alcohol without talking about sexual as sault,” Dochnahl said. People may take advantage of an incapacitated drinker or a person may not remem ber having given consent, she said. In fact, because of alcohol’s im pact on one’s mental faculties, the University Student Conduct Code states that a person who is drunk cannot give consent because of “mental incapacitation,” due the “influence of a controlled or other intoxicating substance.” “The consent is huge and that’s why alcohol with sex is really murky,” Dochnahl said. Drinking can put students on the wrong side of the law Students who drink excessively might also find themselves at odds with the law. Criminal mischief related to alco hol costs the school and the city a substantial amount of money each year. After students were involved in several riots stemming from par ties that got out of hand, the Univer sity and the Eugene Police Depart ment have invested extra time and resources to curb future problems. Each weekend, the Eugene Police Department sends out a party patrol unit to the West University neigh borhood, which is heavily inhabit ed by students. “A typical weekend with this ex tra focus patrol runs about $4,400 in overtime costs,” EPD spokeswoman Kerry Delf said. She said riot pre vention is a high priority. In 2003, there were 567 citations for liquor violations in the West University Neighborhood, 117 on the University Campus and 92 in the South Neighborhood, which is also adjacent to campus, Delf said. Violations include minor in pos session, open containers and at tempting to buy alcohol with false identification. Citation for these violations are not cheap. A minor in possession ticket could cost a student as much as $311 in fines. And possession of a fake ID is a Class C felony with a hefty tag of up to $100,000 in fines or jail time. Hicks said DPS also makes a con certed effort to prevent alcohol-re lated crimes on campus, and it is worth having extra officers out. “Just having a visible presence puts a damper on it,” he said. DPS issued citations for 99 liquor related violations in 2003. In addi tion, 1,124 violations were handled through the Office of Student Judi cial Affairs, Hicks said. The University’s Student Conduct Code prohibits underage drinking or furnishing alcohol to minors on Uni versity owned property or at University sponsored or supervised activities. Students with alleged Student Conduct Code violations are sum moned to a hearing by the Office of Student Judicial Affairs. If the charges are substantiated, various sanctions could be meted out, Stu dent Judicial Affairs Director Chris Loschiavo said. Students may be re quired to take a 10-hour class called BUSTED — Beginning Underage Success Through Educational Diver sion — perform community service, or meet with a substance abuse counselor. Some students might be required to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. “The overall philosophy of the code is to be educational,” Loschiavo said. “Generally the idea is to get (students) to see that they’re heading down a path they may not want to.” Loschiavo said part of the reason some students drink is because they aren’t ready for school and are try ing to “figure out what they are do ing here.” Part of the judicial affairs process is to link these students to resources that will help them achieve their goals. Barnhart and Riley Complex Direc tor Stephen Jenkins, who also oversees the Student Conduct Code process in the halls, also emphasized the educa tional nature of the sanctions. “We can’t force behavior change,” he said. “Students have to make that decision themselves.” Students with repeat offenses may have to take an additional 20 hour class, BUSTED II, and might eventually be evicted from tne resi dence halls, Jenkins said. Repeat offenders are very rare though, administrators say. “We have a marked decrease from the first violation to the second violation,” Jenkins said. Even if they don’t cross paths with law enforcement, drunk stu dents still affect other students around them. Drunk students in the residence halls are loud, disruptive and at times destructive, Jenkins said. “It definitely has a negative im pact on the quality of life in the resi dence halls,” he said. Director of Resident Life Sandy Schoonover agrees. “We see a lot of vomiting,” she said. “They come back to their rooms and they are loud and it wakes up the entire floor.” While other students may initially find it funny, they soon get tired of the distraction because they cannot sleep or study, Schoonover said. Campus organizations address alcohol issues Several campus departments, in cluding the Office of Student Life, Housing, Department of Public Safety and the Health Center, col laborate in outreach, education and enforcement efforts to address alco hol related issues on campus. The University has a Substance Abuse Prevention taskforce made up not only of campus representatives but people from the community as well. Associate Dean of Students and Di rector of the Office of Student Life Lau ra Blake Jones said the administration recognizes that students will drink, therefore the focus is on “harm-reduc tion” rather than abstinence. Blake Jones said the administra tion employs social norm theory in its outreach efforts — the concept involves showing students that oth ers actually drink less than they per ceive, so excessive drinking is actu ally not a social norm. Most students assume others drink more than they do: In a 2002 Univer sity Health Center study, when stu dents were asked how much they thought their peers drink when they go out, 30.4 percent estimated it was three to four drinks, while 65.2 ap proximated that it was more than five drinks. In reality, results from the same survey show 31.4 percent of students said they had three to four drinks at a time, while 23 percent had more than five drinks. If these misperceptions are ad dressed, then high-risk drinkers might drink less. The University uses multiple ap proaches, Eyster said, because “there’s not (just) one thing you can do to reduce high-risk drinking.” Many of the University’s outreach campaigns are conducted by other students or peer health educators who visit classes and residence halls or go door to door before holi days like Halloween giving out in formation on responsible drinking, how to keep parties in control and alternative non-alcoholic events, Blake Jones and Eyster said. “It’s much more effective when it’s student driven,” Eyster said. She added that if students drink they should be aware of their rights and responsibilities. “We all have rights, but in a com munity we all have responsibilities too,” Eyster said. In the resident halls, the adminis tration addresses alcohol as soon as students move in, Schoonover said. Overall, administrators said it’s important for students to under stand the impact of their drinking and how to stay safe. “We acknowledge that students have the choice to drink or not, and if you do choose to, here are the consequences of drinking at differ ent levels,” Dochnahl said. ayishayahya @ daily emerald, com 98/020 Open 7 days Mon.-Sat. 10-9 Sun. 10-8 954 Pearl St. 485-716 www.brush-fire.com Make holiday Gifts. Bring donations, save For every 2 items donted to County, Musique Gourmet Classical Music Opera Broadway Filmscores CD's SACD'S DVD'S Open Noon - 5:20 Sundays Noon - 4:00 Closed Tuesdays Behind Bradfords Across from Library 942 Olive St. FpjfS i FREE PARKING 1 349-0461
