1992_02 The Daily Collegian February 1992

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XYVtOYl The Daily Collegian •February 4,1JW2    Z
Women's group
irked by fees
The more things things change.
by Bruce Brenna
Over the weekend two events
occurred that ought to be scrutinized
more closely. The first is the formal end
to the civil war in El Salvador and the
second is a ruling by the U. S. Supreme
Court to allow the forced return of the
Haitian boat people by the Bush admini¬
stration. What is interesting is that as
one failed U. S. policy comes to an end,
another begins.
More than 10 years ago, in El
Salvador, a very oppressive regime was
being fought by a group of rebels called
the Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front (FMLN). Unfortunately, the
Reagan administration decided that the
FMLN rebels were a communist uprising
at our back door that needed to be
stopped. They gave nearly $5 billion ir
military aid to El Salvador in order to
fight this "communist threat." The
problem was that the adm inistration
forgot about the human rights of the
people, such as the right to live without
the fear of having a car pull up in front of
your home in the middle of the night and
be taken away or have them take away a
lovedone. Were we not fighting the
communists of the Soviet Union about
those same rights?
By giving the government of El
Salvador huge amounts of aid without
any questions, we allowed them to put
down their opposition any way they
wanted. The people were subjected to
right-wing death squads that roamed the
country looking for toy person in
opposition to the military government or
even those suspected of non-support
The uncoriscior_*_bfc .Tillers even went
after an archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo
Romero, who was struggling for the
people in in attempt to reform the
government During the 10 year civil
war, these hordes of murderers shot three
\i. S. soldien under the guise of being
the rebel opposition, raped four U.S.
church women, fixed an election by in¬
timidating potential voters, and murdered
seven priests and a maid one afternoon.
The same span of time saw 75,000
people die (25,000 at the hands of the
right-wing death squads) and 750,000 El
Salvadoran citizens flee to this country
trying to escape the madness. Today,
with communism all but dead and the
U.S. aid down to a fraction of what it   .
was before, the El Sal vadoran govern¬
ment became interested in a peace
agreement with the FMLN. The mutu¬
ally signed treaty formally went into
effect this past weekend. But that's
where the Haitian refugees come in.
Late last year the Haitian
military overthrew the Haitian govern¬
ment because they feared having their
funding clramatically cut back by a
"socialist" president Raoul Cedras, the
military leader, was afraid of Jean-Ber-
trand Aristide, a priest and the officially
elected president, the same way the El
Salvador military was afraid of Romero.
The people feared a life under the
military government, and that the only
place to go was the "politically free"
United States, less than 100 miles away.
The Haitian people left the island in
droves on rickety boats and rafts in such
numbers that we now have 12,500
Haitians at our naval base at Guantan-
amo Bay, Cuba. It is also estimated that
3,000I^tiaiisQ^edmthecoldC^brjean
waters during their journey.
The Bush adntmistjation does
not want the Haitians in the United States
because of the amount of money in their
Dockets. A new policy of the Bush ad¬
ministration, started last year, stated that
uV)sewhohadamimonuV)llanormore
could come freely into this country, but
popple with less would be subject to
closer scrutiny. After the Haitian coup
and the exodus, just a couple of weeks
before Christmas, the soHtitor general
acting on behalf of the President asked a
lower federal court to allow the shipment
the Haitian refugees back to Haiti. If
they would have been Cubans fleeing
Fidel Castro and communism, they
would have been met with open arms.
Unfortunately for the Haitians, the
tyranny they were escaping was not one
the U.S. was opposed to. Now with this
country's highest court's ruling, what
should be considered is what will happen
when those Haitians arc sent back.
In Latin America, if a person is
opposed to the traditional ruling classes,
as what occurred in El Salvador and is
now transpiring in Haiti, then those
people are eliminated. In El Salvador,
while we gave aid and looked away,
thousands died; the same will happen in
Haiti if we again act like blind mice.
If we send those Haitians back
than we are condemning them to death or
a life under severe repression. The
current military government of Haiti
views them as the opposition, just
because they tried to leave. Like the
"Baby Doc" Duvalier regime, less1 than
five years ago, this current regime relies
upon the "Tonton Macoules" death
squads for elimination of the opposition.
The administration views the Haitians as
"economically depressed" instead of
politically repressed and therefore it's
easier to look the other way. If we
continue with this policy, wherein we act
as if nothing is wrong, the violence will
continue as it did in El Salvador.
Why not keep the refugees m
Cuba until the military government that
we are "officially'' opposed to, leaves
Haiti? It couldn't be much longer than a
few years. Plus it beats what we did in
HSalv^d«~seiKhngbmioiisinand
getting large amounts of the people's .
blood back in return.
Dear Editor,
As both a concerned stu¬
dent and a representative of
the Women's Alliance. I must
tell you that I am very dis¬
turbed about what is happen¬
ing. I cannot believe thai our
government could possibly
be so ludicrous as to not only
^suggest but attempt to enact
a forty percent increase in our
fees. This substantial increase
in the money they force us to
pay for a "higher education
does not go towards increas¬
ing our facilities, < ur library
hours, our classes or our
professors. This lack of con¬
sideration to such a large
group of potential voters is
outrageous, to say the least.
What have we, as a student
body, done to protest this?
Very little. I am proud to say
that we, the members of the
Women's Alliance, denounce
the trustees of the university
board for approving this and
plan to make a phone call to
each and every person in
Sacramento who supposedly
represents us. We encourage
other groups to do the same.
Allessand ria Polizzi
Vice-president, Women's
Alliance
Columns reflect the opinions of the
\writer, not necessarily of CSUF staff or
students. Contributing columns from
\students are welcome.
Something truly free:
The ASI has offered to foot
the bill for students' tele-
| phone calls to the state legis¬
lature, in hopes of increasing
the number of voices speak¬
ing out about he proposed 40
percent fee hike. Bring your
soapbox to the ASI office on
the third floor of the Student
Union.
TiMifiimiT":i?fiii[ri-yrii
/ -r   „-..,■     \   y.