Editorials
Monday, October 20, 1997TERRORIST crimes in the United States, Western Europe and Israel usually receive heavy news coverage but the deaths of thousands of people at the hands of terrorists elsewhere go virtually unnoticed. Victims of terrorism go
unnoticed by the worldIn Algeria, more than 60,000 people have died in six years, most of them noncombatants who were massacred with what human rights organizations called "unspeakable brutality." Last week 54 more people were killed by rebels, adding to the toll of a civil war that began in 1992 after the government canceled an election that fundamentalist Muslims expected to win.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Sans Frontieres and the International Federation of Human Rights called on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to convene a special session on Algeria.
In a joint statement, the groups said the cries of the victims "have not been heard in their country, or beyond their national borders. Up to 80,000 people have been killed behind a virtual wall of silence on the part of the international community."
In Sri Lanka, a bomb exploded in the capital of Colombo on Wednesday. Eighteen people died in the bombing and a subsequent gunbattle. Over the last 14 years, Tamil rebels have been fighting for independence in a war that has left 50,000 dead. Tamils comprise 18 percent of Sri Lanka's population and complain of discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.
President Chadrika Kumaratunga urged the rebels to put down their weapons and talk peace, but they have rejected such appeals in the past. The State Department has included the Tamil rebels on its list of organizations considered to be terrorist, barring it from raising funds in the United States.
In Rwanda, it is estimated that half a million Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutu militia during a 1994 civil war.
In the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, the new leader, Laurent Kabila, who overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko last May, has been accused of atrocities against thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees. Kabila has prevented United Nations inspectors from traveling to the sites of the alleged massacres.
This recitation doesn't begin to cover all the victims of terrorism who go unnoticed. At least it provides a sample of the suffering that goes on at the hands of merciless fanatics.
This "wall of silence" must be breached.
WHAT is it about the vice presidency that impels its occupants to sound off on moral issues in television sitcoms? In 1992 then-Vice President Dan Quayle made headlines by criticizing an episode of "Murphy Brown" in which the title character bears a child out of wedlock. Quayle contended that the program encouraged the undermining of traditional values by glorifying single motherhood. Gore on 'Ellen'
Now Al Gore has praised an episode of "Ellen" in which the title character reveals that she is a lesbian. In a speech to the Hollywood Radio and Television Society, the vice president said, "When the character Ellen came out, millions of Americans were forced to look at sexual orientation in a more open light."
That comment brought predictable praise from Joan Garry, executive director of the national Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. But Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition, accused Gore of "craven pandering to Hollywood."
If Quayle was playing to the religious right, Gore might have been trying to appease the entertainment industry. His wife, Tipper, has been a leader in a campaign against offensive lyrics in rap music, to the embarrassment of such behemoths as Time Warner.
Quayle decided he had no chance for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and was not a candidate. It's not clear whether the reaction to his "Murphy Brown" remark had anything to do with his decision. At this point it seems virtually certain that Gore will run in 2000, presumably without support from religious conservatives.
THE U.S. Supreme Court has rejected former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi's assertions that he was libeled by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Last week the nation's highest court refused to review his appeal in a $70 million lawsuit based on a July 1993 editorial. Frank Fasi loses again
In response, a disappointed Fasi said, "We had hoped that the court would take notice of and then slap down newspapers who libel and slander citizens in editorial columns under the cloak of our First Amendment." Fasi wasn't just any old "citizen," of course. At the time of the editorial, he was mayor of the City and County of Honolulu.
Newspaper opinion pages certainly have the right and responsibility to critique his performance as chief executive officer of local government. The editorial criticized his attempt to convince a landowner to "donate" 2,500 acres of its property to the city in exchange for zoning changes needed to build housing and commercial development.
The editorial referred to the mayor as "Frank 'The Extortionist' Fasi," said that the demand for a land donation was akin to "legalized blackmail" and that such tactics drive up the price of homes in already pricey Hawaii.
The Supreme Court's refusal to consider Fasi's appeal let stand a lower court's ruling that the editorial involved commentary on public issues and was protected by the Constitution. Fasi should reread and absorb the concepts in that important document if he wants to re-enter the realm of public service.
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
