Banner Graphic, Volume 10, Number 177, Greencastle, Putnam County, 31 March 1980 — Page 2

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The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, March 31,1980

Decision on transfer of hostages expected soon

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PRESIDENT CARTER Tough warning

Calf crop in peril after three-day snowstorm

By C.W. MIRANKER Associated Press Writer Still digging out after 2 feet of snow, concerned Nebraska and Montana ranchers were rounding up new-born calves and taking extra hay to their cattle today as a new snowstorm bore down on them from the Colorado Rockies. In the rain-battered South, residents were urged to leave Franklinton, La., as a second flood crest rolled toward the homes they fled two days ago. And hundreds of Mississippi residents in low-lying areas between Jackson and Columbia fled to high ground, waiting for the Pearl River to crest today. In Montana, Sweetgrass County authorities searched for a rancher who was reported lost in deep, swirling snow after he left Big Timber for his ranch 40 miles away. A winter storm watch was posted for Nebraska through tonight, after a day-long respite from a three-day storm that left more than 2 feet of snow.

The Four Remaining legs of oil drilling platform Alexander Kielland (above left) show above the surface of the North Sea Friday after it sank Thursday. At right is the Albuskjell platform. The sinking of the oil rig is recorded as the worst disaster in the North Sea drilling program. (AP Wirephoto).

Banner-Graphic "It Waves For All” (USPS 142-020) Consolidation ol Tha Daily Bannar Eatabllahad 1850 Tha Herald The Dally Graphic Eatabllahad 1883 Telephone 653*5151 Published twice each day except Sundays and Holidays by LuMar Newapapers, Inc. at TOO North Jackson St., Oreencastle, Indiana 48135. Entered in the Post Office at Qfeencaaile, Indiana, as 2nd class mall matter under Act ol March 7,1878. Subscription Rates Pdr Week, by carrier $.85 P»r Month, by motor route $3.70 Mall Subscription Rates R.R. In Rest of Rest of S Putnam Co. Indiana U.S.A. 3 (Months 510.25 511.25 513.75 8 (Months 20.25 22.50 27.25 Ifear 40.25 44.00 54.45 Wall aubscrlptlons payable in advance ... not accepted In town and where motor route service is available Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press Is entitled exclusively to The use for republlcation of all the local news primed In this newtpaper

By The Associated Press The Iranian government may announce new steps in the hostage crisis as early as tonight, perhaps including transfer of the 50 Americans to government custody, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. At the same time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini attacked the United States for what he called threats of military force to free the American hostages. “It was all words,” he said of the U S. stance. “Even now it is all just words. Never be afraid of such words because they are not followed by action,” he said in a Tehran Radio broadcast, monitored in London. He also condemmned the Soviet Union’s intervention in At ghanistan and predicted the Russians would “eventually be defeated," saying no power can impose its will on the world. A Foreign Ministry spokesman contacted by a Western journalist in Tehran said the subject of a hostage transfer was taken up by the ruling Revolutionary Council and that President Abolhassan Bani Sadr would discuss the matter tonight with Khomeini, Iran’s revolutionary leader who would have the final word. The student militants holding the hostages at the U S. Em-

world

The heavy, wet snow caught Nebraska cattlemen at the peak of calving season, and officials feared a new storm could devastate the calf crop. A 1975 storm killed 56,000 calves, costing cattlemen $4 million. One cattleman, Oran Magnuson, of Arthur, Neb., said he’d already had at least 30 calves suffocate in snow drifts of up to 12 feet. He called the situation “desperate.” Many ranchers in Nebraska and Montana were gathering cattle into protected areas, feeding them extra hay and keeping a close watch on them and the weather. Hundreds of motorists stranded overnight in armories left for home Sunday, but secondary roads in western Nebraska still were blocked by drifts. Winter storm warnings covered most of Montana, and the south-central section was hardest hit, with 25 inches of snow in Lewistown. Driving conditions were poor in most parts of Montana on Sunday. Rogers Pass

Murder suspect becomes symbol for elderly Americans 1? A onirAAn HJTJ / a \ o _ I r $ • < ...... .. _ . . M

EASTWOOD, Md. (AP) Sympathetic letters from around the country are pouring in to a quiet, lean 68-year-old retiree charged with killing a teen-ager he says threw snowballs at his house. He has been interviewed by a national magazine and a network television news show. The charges against Roman Welzant are serious in May he will be tried for second-degree murder, assault with intent to commit murder and related firearms counts yet people are contributing to a defense fund. More than $1,700 has been collected, in small contributions, many from elderly people. To many, Welzant has become a symbol of the oppressed, elderly American, living on a fixed income, fearful of assault or robbery. “Apparently from the letters we’re getting from all over, people are suffering the same as we did,” said Welzant. More than 10 years ago, Welzant began having skirmishes with the local teen-agers who hung out behind

between Missoula and Great Falls was closed to all but emergency traffic. In Mississippi, two dozen National Guardsmen helped evacuate residents along the Bogue Chitto as authorities warned Franklinton residents to stay away from home as a second flood crest rolled down the river. About 200 families fled their homes near Columbia, Miss., as the Pearl continued to rise. And in Hattiesburg, 70 families were evacuated after the Leaf River spilled its banks. A fisherman drowned Saturday in the Pearl’s floodwaters near Bogalusa. His companion clung to a tree for hours before being rescued. In Natchez, Miss., workers used bulldozers and backhoes to clear the rubble left when a rain-soaked bluff overlooking Natchez-Under-The-Hill crumbled onto a bar Saturday, killing two persons.

bassy have rejected previous demands to turn them over to the government. CBS reported that the council had decided Sunday night, by a vote of 7 to 6 to get the Americans transferred to government custody and presumably use force if the militants balk. But Tehran officials denied any decision was reached. The Foreign Ministry spokesman today said announcement of a decision on the transfer may be made after tonight’s council meeting. Earlier he said Bani-Sadr is expected to make an imporant statement on the hostage issue and U.S. President Carter’s latest messages at Tuesday celebrations of the Iranian republic’s first anniversary. The report of the council’s deliberations on the hostage transfer came after a White House spokesman said President Carter sent messages last week to Bani-Sadr but denied a report from Tehran that the White House admitted making mistakes in its policies toward Iran. Presidential press secretary Jody Powell was forced to make the admission after the Swiss government confirmed that its ambassador in Tehran had delivered two messages from Carter to Bani-Sadr, early last week and on Sunday. But Powell insisted that his denial of the Iranian announcement of the first message

Hammer-lock on nomination

Dole joins forces with Reagan camp

By LEE BYRI) Associated Press Writer Kansas Sen. Robert Dole, who once exhorted voters to make him president “if you want a younger Ronald Reagan,” is now rooting for the elder one in an effort timed to bolster the Republican frontrunner in Tuesday’s farm-state primaries. Dole turned up at Reagan’s side Sunday night and declared to an audience in Overland Park, Kan., that it is time for the GOP to unite behind the 69-year-old former governor of California. “More than ever,” said Dole, “grass-roots Republicans want Ronald Reagan.” He added that Reagan has “a virtual hammer-lock on our party’s nomination.” Rep. John B. Anderson, meanwhile, indicated he is

Two captives freed; more to follow soon?

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Leftists holding the Dominican Republic’s Embassy for more than a month freed two of their 29 remaining captives on Palm Sunday and were expected to free six or eight more before Easter. The release at dusk Sunday took the military police surrounding the embassy by surprise. After a shout rang out from the embassy, two men appeared in front and began to push a red Volkswagen. The car

his rowhouse in this blue-collar Baltimore suburb. “It was a general day-to-day thing, a rock coming through a window, an egg splashing against the side of the house,” Welzant recalled. His war, for that is what it became, reached a climax Jan. 4 when he allegedly shot and killed Albert Kahl, 18, and wounded James Willey, 16. His attorney, Russell White, said the teens had thrown snowballs at his house, then assaulted Welzant when he went outside to identify them. Welzant chain-smoked as he sat in White’s office, recounting what he said were years of constant harassment. He and his 64-year-old wife, Genevieve, said they lived in fear of being attacked and of having their house vandalized. “We were always under tension or stress not knowing what the night would bring. You never knew what might happen or what they might do,” he said of the teen-agers who gathered on the grounds of Eastwood Elementary School behind his home.

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ROBERT DOLE At Reagan's side

closer than ever to offering himself as an independent alternative should Reagan head the GOP ticket and President Carter wins Democratic renomination. The Illinois Republican said on national tele-

apparently belonged to one of them and had been parked at the embassy since the guerrillas stormed the building during a diplomatic reception Feb. 27. The men were taken to a military hospital to be examined. A Foreign Ministry source said they were Simon Rodriguez, a magistrate from the Cundinamarca district, and Jorge Valencia, a business executive. Their release left 27 hostages, and today is their 33rd day of

Over the years, the Welzants said their house was stoned and battered with snowballs in the winter, eggs at Halloween. They said their lawn and hedge were set on fire, their car was vandalized. Once, they were trapped in their car by youths throwing snowballs. The Welzants say their lives are no better since January. Fearing reprisals, they have fled their home of 26 years where they planned to spend their retirement years together. They have been married 45 years. “We haven’t been back, except to pick up some clothes. We were really driven out,” Welzant said. In a sense, their home had not really been their own for sometime. “I couldn’t keep anything on the porch, they tore my flower boxes up,” Mrs. Welzant said of the youths who gathered nearby. “We no longer sat out there,” her husband added. F rom the late 19605, the Welzants said they suffered repeated abuse and vandalism against their property.

was accurate because of the way he phrased it. Radio Tehran announced Saturday that Carter sent a message to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolutionary regime, saying the Carter administration “inherited a very sensitive international situation which is the result of other policies and circumstances and made all of us commit mistakes in the past.” Powell on Sunday repeated the denial he made the day before, that “no message such as the one reported from Tehran had been sent by the president or any other American official to any Iranian official.” “That statement is in fact accurate,” added Powell, who spoke to reporters in Madison, Wis., during a brief visit prior to Tuesday’s Wisconsin presidential primary. He gave no information on the contents of either of Carter’s messages. But the New York Times reported that one U.S. official in Washington said the messages were toughly worded warnings of retaliatory measures planned by the United States unless the hostages were freed. The Times also reported from ' Tehran that Bani-Sadr said Carter sent him “an ultimatum.”

vision that many of his supporters “simply would be unhappy” with a Carter-Reagan choice, and “I am not going to let down the people who have put their faith and trust in me.” Every major candidate of both parties except the president himself focused on Wisconsin today. That state will chose 75 delegates to the Democratic national convention and 34 to the GOP convention in Tuesday’s balloting. Kansas will pick 37 Democratic delegates and 32 Republicans. Anderson and former U.N. Ambassador George Bush both took swipes at the burgeoning confusion over U.S. contacts with Iran. Bush declared in Madison, Wis., that “It’s time for Jimmy Carter to level... the American people are getting silence or doubletalk.” Similarly, Anderson said the

captivity in the embassy. They include U.S. Ambassador Diego Asencio and 12 other ambassadors and acltgo9mbassdors, six consuls, four other foreigners, two Colombian civilians and two Colombian protocol officers. The leader of the guerrillas, who calls himself Comandante Uno, told a priest who visited the embassy Friday with a message from Pope John Paul II that he would release all those without diplomatic rank

Dozens killed when violence erupts at funeral

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) Troops cleared the streets of San Salvador to maintain order after dozens of persons were killed and more than 250 injured at the funeral of El Salvador’s assassinated archbishop. Morgues and hospitals reported at least 40 persons killed in the violence in front of San Salvador’s Roman Catholic cathedral on Palm Sunday. Church sources confirmed 26 dead, indicating some of the victims may have been counted twice. The outdoor funeral for Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, an outspoken critic of military repression and political violence, was brought to a hurried conclusign after an explosion and then gunfire erupted about noon as the throng of mourners filled the square in front of the cathedral.

administration should immediately “come clean on the whole question.” He added that if it is true, as reports from Iran insist, that Carter has communicated with the government there in an apologetic tone, then it amounts to the “latest example of ineptitude.” White House press secretary Jody Powell admitted in Madison that Carter sent messages last week to Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, but denied that they admitted mistakes in past U.S. policy. In Kansas, Reagan repeated his recent declaration that had he been president when the American Embassy and 50 hostages were seized in Tehran, he would have allowed only 48 to 72 hours to explore a diplomatic solution. “There’s no need to take any longer than that,” Reagan said. If diplomacy had

during Holy Week. But it was not known whether he would free the protocol officers, who are on the staff of the Foreign Ministry but don’t have diplomatic rank. The priest said the pope urged the guerrillas to free all the hostages. The papal nuncio to Colombia, Monsignor Angelo Acerbi, is among the hostages. The guerrillas, who are members of the M-19 or Movement--19 organization, are demanding that the government release 28

There were conflicting reports on how the firing started, but armed leftists who had taken up positions in the square began shooting, and the crowd stampeded. Within minutes, 3,000 to 4,000 people, many of them leftists, rushed into the cathedral for safety as other leftists took up positions around the church and apparently blasted away at anything that moved outside. Many of the casualties were victims of the panic, not of bullets. There appeared to be at least as many casualties from trampling or suffocation as from gunfire. The archbishop’s coffin was hurried inside and put in a crypt. People huddled together on the floor of the cathedral. Priests urged calm. Nuns prayed. Leftists among the crowd chanted of the struggle

They were often afraid to leave home, even to go shopping. “I expected to have something done every time we went away. We’ve had every window broken except one or two,” Mrs. Welzant said. “I became an expert at replacing broken windows,” Welzant said. They say they were not the only neighborhood residents who were victimized but they were the most often abused because their house was closest to the elementary school. They also believe their age played a part. “They found us an easy target. We were an elderlv couple and we were alone,” said Welzant. On the advice of attorney White. Welzant does not discuss the evening of Jan. 4. But White maintains Welzant was attacked when he went outside to identify the youths who were throwing snowballs at his home '

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BANI-SADR Receives ultimatum

then failed, he said, he would have privately told the Iranian government to release the hostages to a neutral government by a specified deadline “or on that date something very unpleasant is going to happen to your country.” Democratic challenger Edward M. Kennedy, meanwhile, scored the president once more for his handling of inflation and demanded that Carter “come out of the Rose Garden and talk with the people of Wisconsin, Campaigning in a state he had virtually conceded to Carter before an upsurge in his fortunes last week, Kennedy also took heated issue with the president’s use of the words “demagogue” and “misleading” while referring to the Massachusetts senator’s economic strategy.

jailed members of their organization in exchange for the diplomats. The government has repeatedly refused, claiming those jailed were convicted of common crimes and their release would violate the constitution. The guerrillas take their name from the April 19, 1970, presidential election, which they claim was rigged. When they invaded the embassy, they took 56 hostages. They have released 28.

that “the people” would win. After an hour, when the army still remained in its barracks, the atmosphere inside the church calmed. People began walking out and cautiously crossing the square with their hands above their heads. The troops did not appear until 4*2 hours after the trouble was over. Then they stopped minor looting and ordered everyone off the streets for the night. Reporters near the front of the cathedral when the violence started heard a loud explosion followed by gunshots. A few seconds later there was general gunfire from several directions. One leftist said the first shots were fired by three armed men in a jeep who drove by and opened fire. Others who were near that point in the square said they saw no such thing.