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Show 2TheDallrUtaliCtraUcte Students at the U. organization, said. "We're hopeful the committee will debate ( recommend this to the Trustees because the Trustees have empowered them to make a recommenda- from page one The committee made the decision to study the issue for a longer period of time. "We're anxious for a response from the committee," David Pater, member of the Concerned i Rising crime rates instill more fear in South Africa tion," Pater added. The University of California at Berkeley also had a similar case brought to trial concerning student fees. U. committee members were asked to study the case to gain more knowledge of the subject and the legal issues. The U. is now seeking legal counsel to clarify whether students can or cannot vote on the issue. The committee will reconvene Tuesday, Nov. 23, at 3 p.m. I I JOHANNESBURG, South Africa Cross national comparative crime statistics are notoriously unreliable, but for the past year Johannesburg has thought of itself as the murder capital of the world. "People here are under enormous stress," said criminologist Irma Labuschagne. According to figures published by the Johannesburg Star, the per capita murder rate here is nearly 100 times that of a typical European capital, 7.5 times that of New York City and 1.5 times that of Washington. There were 6,969 murders and 27,420 armed robberies in the greater Johannesburg area last year, according to police. The area, which has an estimated population of 5 to 7 million, includes Soweto and other black townships that surround the city. South Africa differs from most violent societies in that there are two kinds of murder here political and criminal. Sometimes the categories overlap. But as a rule of thumb, roughly 15 percent of the murders are political the result of fighting among rival political, racial or ethnic groups, of economic warfare which has a political component, of conflict between citizens and security forces, and of random massacres by -- 0 . I ' f ' K ' 1 ' , 1 t- - ' 1 V agents provocateurs bent on destabilizing the transition from the apartheid system of racial separation to democracy. These are the murders that make headlines here and abroad. The rest of the killings are straightforward crimes of avarice or passion. All categories of crime have risen between 20 percent and 80 percent in the four years since South Africa's democratization process began, but the murder rate has grown most of all, nearly doubling. This reflects the increasing lethality of crime, as AK-4- 7 assault rifles and other weapons have poured across the border from Mozambique, where civil war has wound down. Among white South Africans, the a to this crime wave may seem somewhat disproportionate to response their exposure. Only 3 percent of South Africa's murder victims are white (the population is 13 percent white). On the other hand, the annual number of white victims has doubled in the past four years, of the overall murder rate. All South coinciding with the Africans, regardless of skin color, are less safe than they used to be. The response to this heightened risk has been to privatize law enforcementalthough the phrase has different meanings in different South African communities. In white areas, police are seen as understaffed, underpaid, ineffectual and demoralized. Private security companies, high walls and razor wire abound in the white suburbs. V In black townships, the reputation of the police is far worse. They are seen as agents of a racist, repressive state and as more likely to be involved in sowing violence than in solving it Not a week goes by that one black politician or another does not call on police to leave the townships altogether. In the absence of any legitimate mechanism of law enforcement in the townships, a private culture of street justice and people's courts has evolved. Most townships have criminal gangs, local warlords and units. All of this, of course, fuels cycles of vengeance killings. "People feel endorsed and applauded for their violence they feel like they are doing something for the community if they kill a criminal figure or a member of an opposition faction," said Lloyd Vogelman, director of the Center for the Study of 'Violence and Reconciliation at the University of Witwatersrand. "One way most societies maintain law and order is to morally isolate the perpetrators of violence. At the moment, we have largely lost that sanction in many communities in South Africa." 16-ye- ar near-doubli- CHRONICLE How To Talk To Your Kids... legislators 49, said that "it would be helpful if they do it Legislator Day maybe "I was amazed this was all happening. I am so pleased they legislators are here to hear our voices ... it really impressed me," Susan Johnstone, U. student. ft mmtm tumniiiitf u even a couple of times a year. I'd like to hear more of their concerns, I enjoy hearing the ideas of students." The purpose behind Legislator Day was that, "we as students wanted to make an effort to involve legislators, so they could see what the typical student does in a typical day at class," Demos said. . Prosecution of murderers limited in Rio de Janeiro Wagner Ribeiro de Souza was asleep when two gunmen entered his house last Sunday about 3 a.m. Before he could make it out of bed, one of the men fired a bullet into his neck. Six hours later, his body was still in the bed. No ambulance had come; no police had been there to investigate. Ribeiro, 30, ran a small snack stand adjacent to his home in the workingRio neighborhood of Colegio, far from the glitzy hotels on the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. An uncle interviewed in the doorway of Ribeiro's home said that only Ribeiro's wife had seen the men, one of whom wore a ski mask. He said he had no idea why any-- . one would want to kill his nephew. Ribeiro's slaying was just one of more than a dozen that took place that night. By Rio's standards, it was a pretty tame affair. Rio has a worldwide reputation as a violent place, and it is no wonder The city has registered more than 3,000 homicides a year since 1989. Nevertheless, as the world's 10th largest city in population with 5.3 million people, the number of murders per capita is still lower than in Washington, D.C, which has a population of about 589,000. What makes Rio stand out is not so much the amount of violence as its quality. This city set amid a fantastically beautiful natural panorama is also the scene of the worst form of human ugliness. Every day, the front page of the city's crime newspaper, O Povo na Rua (the People in the Street), carries pictures of murder victims from the previous night Often these are close-up- s of headless bodies or disembodied heads. Arrests for murder, let alone convictions, are rare. In nearby Duque de Caxias, an industrial suburb of Rio with a population about the size of the District of Columbia's, prosecutor Tania Maria Salles Moreira said her office handled more than 1,100 murder cases last year. Only 74 of them ever came to trial. Rio's killings take place in what a report issued last month by the Institute for Research of Religion calls a "culture of fear." In Brazil, it seems more like a culture of war. dis- from pace one 19, in her Burningnam, English class. "He was warm, open, friendly, very receptive. I felt comfortable with, not intimidated at all," she said. Rep. Russ Cannon, self-defen- se RIO de JANEIRO, Brazil PHOTOPaul Reinarz Members of the Committee of Student Affairs at the University of Utah convene with U. legal counsel to cuss the mandatory student fees. -class w.ffi rtt?ir. irysi&nei -- IfeKs3n5isjTt -- 431 Book Reviewers -- fltafcr nib ra& H I G H fn& LIGHT S r mm saw Wanted : Practical advice on how to handle your children's questions about sex & contraception Updated medical information on contraception and sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) e guide for parents on sex, birth control, and STD's Fact sheets for your kids Take-hom- Feature Writers and Apply Union 240 |
