European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 10, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Refugees at the coma Airport seek clean water to replace the dirty disease carrying water they had been drinking. A a. A a a  1 cd a t a a t. A Quot a a a a \ a. Quot. A a a a a a. To i a / a a a Quot a to a 0  a Somalia and Rwanda death has Many different faces by Vince Crawley staff writer Wanda is not Somalia. But it is another one of those african nations that few people besides stamp collectors Ever hear about until the citizens mis govern themselves so terribly that outsiders have to step in. Four months after the solemn american withdrawal from Somalia More than 1,000 . Troops Are Back in equatorial Africa joining a worried world in trying to Cope with a refugee disaster of biblical scale. Quot our Mission Here is to save the refugees Quot said air Force maj. Dennis Mcelleny in coma Zaire. His single minded words echoed those of Marine predecessors in december 1992, who came ashore at Mogadishu Somalia to instill a tense truce and feed millions of starving nomads but Rwanda and Somalia Are not the same place Goma is As far from Mogadishu As Denver is from Tijuana in both distance and culture. Quot there is a terrible tragedy in this area Quot said Mcelleny from Ramstein a Germany and a member of the . Military assessment team that a arrived at Goma Airport within 24 hours of president Clinton ordering the analysis n humanitarian Mission. Quot but on the other hand a Mcelleny a said Quot it s very moving to see people a a from countries coming together for this humanitarian Effort. It s inspiring. The Airport has very Tough conditions Only the Barest living essentials and they re zairian guards search a fleeing rwandan Soldier for weapons. Kind of overlooking that and putting Forth As much Effort As they  Rwanda and has a different culture than Somalia does a 99 percent of the somali Are Muslim. They have arabic names like Muhammad Haman and Yusif. Rwanda is 75 percent Christian with names like Beatrice Christophe Jean Pierre and  the problems of both countries were Man made. In one civil War destroyed All traces of government and much of Modem civilization turning Somalia into a weird Bronze age deserts Cape ruled by warlords and marauding gangs with automatic weapons. Food was plundered and stolen in order to Wield Power Over the hapless populations caught in the struggle. Rwanda had been for Many centuries similar to a medieval serfdom. The Hutu peasant majority was dominated politically and economically by Tutsi cattle Barons a Warrior tribe that invaded from the norths. In 1959 the huts revolted and after bloody fighting took Over the government. The country s president Hutu Juvenal Hab Sarimana was killed in a mysterious plane crash on april 6 of this year touching off another round of violence. In which angry huts began slaughtering Tutsi tribesmen. Census figures in Ilese kinds of continued on Page 16 Short subject Spain tries to give military More Appeal by the new York times. Alarmed that nearly half of All Young men in Spain who Are eligible for the draft claim to be conscientious objectors the government has come up with a policy aimed at making obligatory military sen ice seem less like Well obligatory military service. Under the policy draftees will work Only monday through Friday for a total of 37v4. Hours per week and if they live within 40 Miles / of their Barracks they can sleep at Home. If they Are in uniform but off duty they need no longer Salute officers. When on duty they now have a right to disobey orders that violate the Law and they Are not required to perform personal duties for officers. If they feel they have been abused they can circumvent military authorities and complain directly to Spain a ombudsman the so called defender of the people. For Spain Stop brass these Are hardly changes designed to create a Tough citizens army. But if trends continue they also know they May soon be without soldiers. This year some 90,000 Young men almost half of those eligible for the draft Are expected to Register As conscientious objectors. In 1986, Only 6,407 registered. The defense ministry would prefer simply to Clamp Down on those claiming moral reasons to avoid military service but it cannot. During the Franco dictatorship conscientious objectors were thrown in jail. Today their rights Are protected under Spain a 1978 Constitution. An alternative is to improve the image of the draft but this is also not easy. In recent years wide publicity has been Given to draftees who have been victims of abuse and cruelty. Many desert or go absent without leave and last / year 13 draftees committed suicide. But it is Only since 1990 that conscientious objection to military service has caught on. Those who make the claim Are supposed to carry out 13 months of alternative social service compared with nine months of military service for those drafted. But in practice because the mechanism for assigning them to hospitals or schools is inefficient most avoid any  Western Europe Only Germany has a comparable rate of conscientious objectors but there the system has been institutionalized to the Point that Young men Are virtually free to choose Between 12 months of military service or 1& months of social service. In France too there is a Choice though alternative service lasts twice As Long a 20 months As the draft. A a a. A the Spanish government has begun a program to ensure that social service positions Are found for those claiming to be conscientious objectors. It believes that although there is a backlog of 130,000 Young men waiting to be placed fewer will avoid the draft if they know they will still be called up a and for 13 instead of 9 months. At the same the government is taking a firmer line with those who refuse to do either form of  As deserters these a Young men a estimated at 5,000 this year a Are liable to four years in jail and they often spend at least half that time behind bars. Wednesday August 10, 1994 the stars and stripes. A a a 15