European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 30, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes thursday june 30, 1977 i was Thomkins Alice Saip which is the Tom Wicker Best Way out. By s getting but the fat Little Mem Only at each other amp world opinion puts pressure on Pinochet to Venty so hunger strikers have forced Gen. Augusto Pinochet the Iron ruler of Chile to give a Little ground but not much on the question of the approximately 1.500 persons who have disappeared in Pinochet regime has been blandly disclaiming any knowledge of the whereabouts or Fate of these disappeared prison As they Are referred to by amnesty International and other human rights organizations. But on june 14, 24 women and two men. All relatives of disappeared prisoners entered the Headquarters of the economic commission for latin America Ecla in the United nations building in Santiago and began a hunger a remarkably non ideological Docu ment the demonstrators made three de mands on Pinochet that the cases of the missing persons should be cleared up once and for an International commission of chileans and other nationals be set up to investigate and report on the disappeared prisoner situation and other human rights violations in no reprisals be carried out against the hunger demands were submitted along with exhaustive lists of the disappeared prisoners compiled by the Catholic Church in Chile with the assistance of what the strikers called thousands of world figures men of culture lawyers Trade Union leaders june 23. After intervention by the United nations a White House statement of concern and supporting demonstrations in Paris. Mexico. San Francisco. No Wayand elsewhere the strike came to an end George House putting Obs before health it is a moment for a minced the House of representatives gets its Way with amendments to the clean air actor 1970. Congress will have chosen to in crease the incidences of various respiratory ailments. And it will have committed a retrograde act against the nation s natural times since 1970 Congress has delayed implementation of automobile emis Sions standards. Now the House has voted a fourth delay. Worse it has voted to weaken standards for Carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide and has created mechanism for indefinite weakening of even the weakened nitrogen oxide Stan Dards in the future. The Senate has vote for less delay and for no weakening of Carbon monoxide standards. Furthermore although the Senate has voted to weaken nitrogen oxide standards it has not provided a mechanism for indefinite weaken some extent society chooses its Dis ease rates. Societies like individuals con stantly choose Between health and competing goals and pleasures. The House has made an unacceptable Choice against the health of americans who breathe. For example the House would allow five fold increase in nitrogen oxide emis Sions Over what would be required under existing Law. About 40 per cent of nitrogen oxide pollution comes from vehicles an the percentage is substantially higher in Urban areas. Such pollution May produce the carcinogenic cancer causing Chemi cals called automobile Industry says it does not know How to meet the present unrevised standards. But the Industry has a dismal record of asserting what can t be done and an admirable record of doing what it i forced to do. The lash of necessity concen trates the should be the focus of the tight for clean air because they Are the most pervasive source of pollution. And it is easier to shape the decisions of four automobile companies than it is to Deal wit scores of thousands of fuel burning Indus tries. But advocates for the automobile Industry say that unless pollution standards arc relaxed jobs will be lost because Auto Mobile prices will Rise unreasonably and production May be disrupted. The House Bill is an attempt to secure jobs at the expense of the health of Mil Lions especially children and the More permissive automobile pollution standards will be an obstacle to Industrial growth in Many pollution already is the Maxi mum permitted Only a decrease in Auto Mobile pollution can make possible increased Industrial pollution. So the House Bill sacrifices other industries As Well As the breathing Public to the Automo bile advocates for the automobile Industry seem to have leased their science from the tobacco Industry. They argue that there is Little scientific proof of the connection Between automobile pollution and particular diseases. Such arguments Den the undeniable statistical patterns that demonstrate a correlation Between High pollution and High disease House Bill is especially unacceptable Given president Carter s Energy pro Gram. Carter s plan to substitute Coal for Oil Means increased nitrogen oxide pollution from stationary sources. So a compensatory decline in automobile emissions is provision of the House Bill if it survives the House Senate conference would justify a veto. If enjoyment of Natu ral Beauty is As i believe important to the serenity of one s soul then the House Bill jeopardizes the nation s spiritual As Well As physical Well being. It undoes the policy that prevents significant deterioration of the air in several categories of clean air House did this to permit construction of a Gigantic Coal fired generating Plant in Utah to provide Power for los an Geles. The Plant would be near Capitol reef National Park not far from Bryc Canyon and near enough to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks to cast Haze Over them on Many Days. And this House provision threatens All National Parks an wilderness areas where air is supposed to be preserved in its natural Pristine Quality. C Waining Loii Pott after Small concessions had been wrung from Pinochet by . Negotiators. ,. The general agreed to provide information about the missing relatives of the 28 hunger strikers and promised not to Reta Liate against the 26 themselves. No one had really expected him to agree to the second demand for an investigative commis Sion since he has never been willing to allow even the . Human rights com Mission or its representatives to come to Chile to look into the human rights Situa Tion there. The agreement leaves More than 1,400 disappeared prisoners not Only Unac counted for but not even officially acknowledged. And of course the Pinochet regime May yet say of the relatives of the 26 what it has usually said in the past Only that they were neither exiled nor jailed but simply left the country for reasons in so the Mere acknowledgement that the regime could provide some sort of information about the relatives of the 28 strikers was a limited admission of responsibility for at least knowledge of their disappearances. And by Extension this admission tends at least in the eyes of anti Pinochet forces in exile to acknowledge the whole list of disappeared the hunger strike also produced deeper involvement of the United nations in conditions in Chile and in the human rights problem generally. Both because the strikers were occupying . Quarters in Santiago and because of a general As Sembly Resolution of last november which condemned the practice of arresting Politi Cal prisoners and making them Digap the . Had Little Choice but to Iglesias the director of Ecla acted As chief negotiator on the instructions of Secretary general Kurt Wald Heim. The . S chief Legal officer Erik Sily. Also was involved. Waldheim also apparently met with the chilean representative to the . But these Are minor gains indeed com pared to the continuing repression and misery of the great chilean people. Inflation and unemployment though claimed by the regime to have been eased continue at extraordinarily High Levels the disappeared prisoner technique appears Mohave replaced less Subtle forms of political detention and As recently As february a special five member . Working group reported to the human rights commission that the Pinochet regime continued to Tor Ture As a regular practice those unfortunates it did hunger strike and its outcome How Ever suggest at least some sensitivity on the part of Pinochet to world opinion about his violations of human rights.
