Caravan Weekly, Vol. 74, No. 16

              Caravan
The Student Newspaper of the American University in Cairo
W eekly
                                                 This just in.
••
   Tibetan nuns face the music...14 Buddhist nuns currently in prison in Beijing had their five year sentences tripled after they recorded pro-Tibetan independence songs from their jail cells. The songs, recorded last June, were circulated on cassette tapes throughout Tibet. Each nun gave her name, then dedicated a song or poem to her family or supporters. The nuns, loy^ to the exiled Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama, conveyed the strong pro-independence sentiment widely held by Tibetans who oppose the Qiincse government’s assertions that Tibet has been part of China since the 13th century.
   An indecent proposal...In Bangladesh, a Muslim cleric whose call for the public stoning of a woman drove her to commit suicide, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. Abdul Mannan, a priest at a village mosque called for the stoning of a 20-year-old divorcee known as Noorjahan after he decreed her second marriage illegitimate and branded her as an adulteress Noorjahan was ordered to stand in a waist deep-hole in the ground as eight villagers threw 101 stones at her, some of which were as large as baseballs. She then shut herself in her room and committed suicide by drinking pesticide. Mannan claimed that Noorjahan's second marriage ceremony was not properly perform^, yet prosecuters said he unfairly voided the wedding because he once wanted to marry her and was spumed.
    But will it glow in the dark?,..Mercedes-Benz and Swatch watchmakers are combining forces to make an environmcntally-friendly compact car call^ the Swatchmobile. The automakers plan to sign a joint venture accord with Swatch next month and claim that the car will be an ideal city car, Nicholas Hyak, father of the Swatch watch, hopes to produce a small car that will run with a mix of battery and gasoline powered engines and drive up to 100 km on only 3 liters of gasoline, or 78 miles per gallon.
Compiled from Associated Press reports by the staff
Recent events cut MUN attendance
   By Firas Al-Atraqchi
   Although the agenda for this week's Sixth Cairo International Model United Nations (CIMUN) concerns such explosive issues as Bosnia, Azerbijan, and water rights in the Middle East, it seems that explosions and threats of a different nature have kept many participating delegates away from Cairo this year.
   According to several sources within the MUN camp, such violent incidents as Wednesday’s explosion in Garden City have dealt a severe blow to the international attendance expected by the organizers of this year’s conference, scheduled to open on Wednesday.
   Mostafa Ismail, director of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and a veteran MUNer, revealed to the Caravan Weekly that the number of foreign delegates dropped from 110 last year to only 32 this year, coming from such schools as Lincolnland Community College in the United States and Shettfield College in the United Kingdom.
   However, Mazen Nagi, Secretary-General to the conference, saw another reason for the drop but did not mle out the fact that media coverage of the recent incidents did play a significant role in the drop.
   “Last year’s conference was co-sponsored by the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) and
that meant that we received overseas     help      and  greater
publicity. Every year they pick a conference," said Nagi.
    Although last year’s conferences did manage to give CIMUN conferences a b<x)st and enable it to reach an peak, Nagi feels that the same international turnout would have been achieved this year had it not been for the scaring      away       of     many
participating schools.
    “They [schools] simply said that the security situation is such that they do not feel comfortable funding trips here,” he lamented.
    On a brighter note, however, this year witnessed an unprecedented surge in student interest in CIMUN and its related activities. Earl Sullivan, political science professor      and  faculty
advisor to    MUN for many years,
said that there are about 250 people participating in the conferences and that those from AUC were interviewed and chosen last semester. Needless to say, the eight days scheduled for interviews were extended an extra two days due to the unexpected turnout of students.
    "We had to run interviews from eight in the morning to eight in the evening," said Nagi.
    For many, the Sixth annual conferences will be their first shot at dealing with pertinent world issues and debating resolutions. Rouba El Salem, delegate of what remains of Yugoslavia to the {See' M US" continued on page 5)
Site of la.st Wednesday's explosion in Garden City, shortly after iftar time. The blast originating in the Egyptian American Bank on Ibrahim Naguib street, sent shards of glasss everywhere and caused damage to several cars parked in the vicinity. No casualties were reported, however.
(See related article page 5)
                              Photo hy Amr Hosny
Earl Sullivan, CIMUN's faculty advisor
                             Before the president, there's the SJB:
SU elections are approaching
      By Keim Bashier
      It’s a time    when strange faces
   appear    from   every comer     and
   hound you to vote for so and so, when your nerves are frayed by the constant nagging and pleading that’s thrown at you.It’s the Student Judicial Board (SJB) elections, starting in three weeks.
      Although the buzz around university right now is the presidential elections, candidates for the   SJB    posts have already
   begun     to spread the         word
   inconspicuously          throughout
   university by way of campaigners.
      According to the Student Union (SU) 1983 Constitution, five members will be elected by the General Assembly two weeks prior to the presidential elections. Each candidate should be a full-time student at AUC for a minimum of three semesters and will nominate themselves one week before the actual elections.
      "All candidates will be screened by a committee consisting of the Dean of Students, the SU President, an ex-SJB member, and a representative of the General Assembly, who will ask general questions about the constitution and V university mles and regulations. Whether or not a candidate is recommended to the voters is based on their decision,” said Ahmed Ramadan, a current SJB member.
      The actual duties are mainly to monitor SU activities, to dismiss a member of the SU if he or she is found to have seriously violated the constitution. and to review complaints about student conduct. Members of the SJB serve a one-year term.
    “A candidate does not need specific qualifications or past experience to run for SJB. The strength of their campaign mainly lies in their popularity and how many campaigners they can gather to ‘spread the word’,” said Ramadan. He added that most are first-timers who were not involved in any SU activities before.
    One first-time candidate said that the idea to run for the post of SJB committee came to him last year; the reason was that he was interested in being involved in university activities, particularly in the SJB, which primarily makes important decisions concerning university rules. "My friends will be my main campaigners,” he added.
  In This Issue
YABS go beyond
the headlines......Page 2
MUN lectures
preview conference...Page 2
Have a Coke
and a smile........Page 3
Former AUCian
takes to the theater....Page 4
Music group
in jeopardy.......Page 4
Behman Hospital:
An unlikely oasis ....Page 5
Bombing close
to home...........Page 5