Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 2, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free november 1981 7 arg army nil Tina May keep by Stephen Kinzer Boston Globe Buenos Aires after almost six disastrous years in during which the social and Politi Cal fabric of the country has been badly the Argentine military is now seriously considering turning the government Over to one giant obstacle stands in their however the Nuremberg the problem is that Many of the nations military commanders Are accused of complicity in mass and they fear that a civilian govern ment would Force them to stand by our nearly argentines have been made to disappear by the said Jose Federico a physicist and leading human rights Many were tortured and someday these officers must be called to account for what they have they know and that is Why at this moment they Are More afraid than we researchers Here and abroad have compiled documentation of the Argen Tine which reached its Peak in 1976 and six thousand individual cases of disappearances have been documented by the permanent Assembly for human and there Are thought to be Many Argentine exiles in Europe and the United states have prepared detailed accusations against specific Navy and air Force officers believed to have participated in the the Londo based human rights group amnesty International has published a thick report entitled Testi Mony on secret detention Camps in based on statements from prisoners who were released or Man aged to the report details Tor Tures that were applied in Clandestine Camps before victims were Transfer red apparently a euphemism for in addition to local military com the generals who ran the country in the late 1970s might also expect to be prosecuted if a free court system were Ever they include former president Jorge Rafael Videla and the members of his one of whom was Roberto who succeeded Videla in the presidency last in a speech before the inter american defence Council in Washington in Omar Rivera confirmed that the dirty War against subversion in Argentina was waged on the written orders of Junta they will not forget Videla has urged the Argentine peo ple to put behind them memories of their countrymen who Are absent for but relatives of the Digap Many of whom have had no news of their loved ones for four or five Are not prepared to drop their search for every thurs1 Day several Hundred of them put White handkerchiefs on their Heads and stage a silent March in front of the Casa in downtown Buenos seat of the Argentine govern we Are not asking Freedom for said Maria Adela whose son a was abducted from a Street near his Home in we Only want to know where our children we Are willing to have them put on trial in a Normal and if they Are found guilty of any crime we Are willing to have them even if it Means the death but no government has the right to do what this government has with most argentines now United in the belief that the military has failed to resolve the country there is increasing talk Here about a return to civilian Rule after violas term expires in magazines and new spa for years afraid to criticize the have lately begun to do though most of the criticism has Cen tred on the country economic prob the sensitive subject of the disappeared has begun to emerge in the until the very word disappeared could not be it appears mainly in Des patches from military torture Chambers when several Argentine exiles appeared on television a few months ago to discuss the human rights Situa Tion one of them referred to the Clandestine Camps where the Mili tary apparently established torture the government was so enraged it demanded an apology from the american charge affaires the Diplomat had to explain that to networks in the United states Are not under government knowledgeable sources in Buenos Aires say that during informal talks Between military officers and civilian the question of Nuremberg style tribunals has come the generals and the civilians both realize that this is the main Factor preventing the normalization of the said one politician close to the Peronis Argentina largest political the generals want a guarantee that they will not be put on trial once they leave but no politician can make that because the parents Are not simply going to fade what was done Here is Well known the guilty parties Are known and there Are Many this has become the fundamental obstacle pre venting a return to democracy in a there is a Hartline group within the military which has decided that because of the Nuremberg fac civilians cannot be allowed to come to Power Leopoldo a member of the ruling Junta and commander in chief of the was quoted during a trip to Brazil last month As saying that political liberalization should be postponed because of risks which the Argentine military authorities one Western Diplomat stationed Here observed privately that the generals really dont think they did anything think they acted for the Good of the and they do not feel at All on the they think people dont appreciate the sacrifices they their View we didst want to do but it had to be done and the Job of the military is to do the dirty work that no one else has the courage to Manfred a columnist for the daily newspaper la is one of the few journalists who have Sug albeit that military commanders might someday be held responsible for their actions during the dirty in a recent he wrote there Are things that must come out in the Light of and they will come out sooner or later there Are things that cannot and should not be forgotten or covered up or hid former president Jorge Rafael and current president Roberto symbolize army fear that return to civilian Rule could mean their voting on Issue of rent control in Hiitt Hinchc i rent control has been raised As an Issue in the provincial general election with nip Leader Howard Pawley promising the re imposition of controls if his party becomes the Premier Sterling Lyon has countered by saying that legislation passed by his party fully protects tenants against rent the following article shows that the rent control Issue has become part of the current Minneapolis municipal election Campaign and has been discussed in the by Nathaniel Sheppard new York times Minneapolis hard hit by Ris ing prices and a group of citizens organized and collected a petition to put a proposal for rent control before voters in the City elections to be held Here if approved As a charter Amend the proposal will Roll rents Back to the june Levels and place a seven per cent Cap on future it also would ban for 18 months condominium which have sharply reduced the number of rental units in the with a City election that is lacklustre at Best incumbent Don a is expected to win easily rent question has emerged As the hot proponents assert that rent control is needed to Stop rent gouging and to help preserve neighbourhoods by discouraging speculative opponents of the who were unsuccessful in a court fight to keep the Issue off the argue that controls will discourage repairs and Lead to abandonment of buildings and to real estate tax hostility to rent control is not unique to earlier this year the Senate approved a measure tacked on to the administration housing Bill by new York Republican Alfonse the rejected by a House and Senate conference july would have prohibited Federal housing subsidies to localities that placed rent controls on new or vacant although president Reagan is opposed to rent he believes the Issue is a matter local governments should according to Samuel the Secretary of housing and Urban rents in Minneapolis have risen 61 per cent since 1975 and Are expected to continue to Rise 10 per cent a according to Blake a City the average rent now charged Pawley High Low vacancies Hurt Minneapolis for a on bedroom apartment is a in the same six year the vacancy rate for rental properties dropped from four per cent to per he Kevin Batt is one of those caught in the squeeze who has decided to work on behalf of rent in August he lost his Job with a social Agency when the Church financing began to Wane As a result of the bad Batt has been unable to find work other than temporary jobs that pay some weeks and in Batt and his wife were i the rent on the apartment he and his wife shared was a when i moved in he the Chea pest rent i could find was per month and that was for an efficiency apartment in a Tough neighbor i shared a in August my rent was increased to i realized then that because my lease was month to my rent could be raised at any time and i was already at the i moved in with friends and now live in a basement next to a washing machine and my wife found that she had to pay per month for a three room apartment in a neighbor Hood in which she feels to who Heads the coalition for affordable the organization formed to press for rent con said in the late some landlords were offering one months free rent or giving away television sets to lure Many of whom had moved to the then the fuel crisis drove people Back into the City and condominium conversions went into High the number of rental units declined while rents the rent control we Are seeking would provide a fair return to rent there Are real jokes along the Campaign and there Are laughing the real jokes of the such As Howard Hawleys Promise to catapult Manitoba into the Oil business for a trifling million of our or to create 400 new jobs at the Pas for a Mere or to revitalize every Small town in the province for Only redesigned to gain rather than these jokes Are something like those sales folders from the which Call on their covers for applause but really want to get our in the same category of real jokes that Are designed to get applause can be lumped Sterling Lyons attack on nip which at least is paid for by party rather than by our or Sid greens spider like invitation to Manitoba business to step into my parlor and receive some Money for the tiny consideration of allowing the government to become a those Are the real jokes of the Cam there Are other jokes that Are designed to get and generally a politician needs a joke almost As much As he needs a Catchy it seems this time a Catchy Jingle that Sells an idea rather than a jokes Are so essential to a politician that even de whose sense of Fred Cleverley humor was so according to his wife that it could be contained in half a Page of printed needed a joke or two to warm up his political jokes Are marvellous Ani with Only a few changes in they can be switched from party to part almost As easily As last elections slogans can be adapted to their new political jokes carry an other Blessing with Seldom Are they Good enough to be so that people who Are not at a particular meeting can hear or read and so they can be trotted out at meeting after and hardly lose any of their anyone who thinks slogans cannot be switched should examine the literature being distributed by Steven the nip candidate in part of it says will the last person to leave Thompson please turn off the it is intended As a comment on the dwindling population of that a dwindle that was Well established under the nip and that has continued under the it is an effective it should it was first used in in a slightly different during the 1977 then the conservatives were asking the last person to leave Manitoba to please turn off the jokes Are just As Sterling speaking at flin told about one of John Diefenbaker More stir ring Public during which a Man in the audience shouted give pm Canadas former prime minister Drew himself and delivered his assessment of the Situa he simply Tell the and it sounds like this is a joke that can be applied to nearly any politician on the indeed it has it has been used involving Tommy Bob Stanfield and even Lester Lyon says he heard it from and never questioned its the truth sounds like hell joke goes Back to the Days of president Harry give pm hell at his own nominating Howard Pawley told the joke about the newly elected Premier who was met at the door of the official office by the Man who had just been the outgoing Premier handed his successor three numbered with instructions to open them in times of when the first crisis of the new government the first envelope was it read blame the Previ Ous the instructions were followed and the crisis Digap then a and More Seri Ous crisis the second envelope read blame the Federal govern the formula a third and most serious crisis when the new Premier opened the third envelope he read prepare three Pawley got quite a laugh from that since the implication that it was time for Sterling Lyon to prepare three envelopes was the laugh the nip Leader got was almost As loud and Long As the one in the legislature doonesbury when the joke was first told in Manito that it was not Howard Pawley telling the but Sid the truth is that Pawley got to use the joke mainly because Sid dragged it out so Long during the original telling that he demolished the plans of the television reporter who was present to use jokes on like news and everything else on have to deliver their punch lines within 30 seconds or they go into the waste politicians have an uncanny sense of whether they Are doing they will never admit that they Are doing less than but deep they know one of the barometers of their Progress Al property owners because it would allow them to pass along to tenants the actual and reasonable costs they incur in keeping up their it would also be an investment in stable neighbourhoods because it would discourage landlords in buildings with no More than four apartments would be exempt from As would buildings constructed after the amendment was a Survey conducted by the coalition and the University of Minnesota found that 63 per or about of the cites rental tenants fell below the Federal Levels for moderate income and that at least of the families in the very Low a family of four earning or for paid More than half their incomes for it also found that 51 per cent of the cites renters had no leases and 25 per cent had Only month to month Mary a spokesman for the Minnesota Multi housing Assoc a an organization opposed to rent disputed the benefits asserted by we commissioned a she and it showed that rent control would Hurt citizens by increasing taxes on commercial and Indus trial properties As a result of altering Mill rates and valuations of Homes and also Lead to declining neighbor hoods by creating Strong incentives for landlords to increase their Cash flow by deferring it also would Lead to the abandonment of build More focus of Page 8 n joke is the reaction of the audiences to their the longer the and More the better the political is they realize they Are in real not when audiences laugh at the jokes they Are intended to laugh but begin snickering at the real jokes of the even snickering is notes when there should be is the most telling barometer of of this Seldom happens be fore a live the Days of the old fashioned political with its has Long politicians now speak to converted who applaud at the right and More laugh at the right you hear about scandal Rek Day in like but you n6vek dream anything like that coup happen to n2 nut thai in it was an act of gop 50methin no in Rospo Snipie for what i in the one who lbt Down amp my atl5a5t to admit web Are a lot of folks who com Mit far worse acts of fish Acel to wit 6uarp 1 ;