The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 1

T1 Sallna 1 1 he Journal 117th year-No. 43 Sallna, Kansas MONDAY February 12,1990 35 Cents After 27 years, Mandela's free at last! Black activist emerges from prison a leader By The New York Times The hair has gone gray, and the boxer's shoulders are shells under the awkward jacket. The booming voice that had roared for justice in the 1960s became a gentle echo many years ago in his lonely cell. But amid the perils of South Africa's future, one thing seemed clear Sunday: The years of imprisonment had not broken Nelson R. Mandela.

Emerging from Victor Verster Prison near Cape Town, the 71-year-old black nationalist leader who had not been seen or heard publicly since the 1960s raised his fist in a triumphant salute and spoke to a sea of cheering followers of their dignity and his dreams of "peace, democracy and freedom for all" in a new nation without apartheid. The face was like parchment and the voice was strained, but the passion was there. Power seemed to radiate from the lean old figure. Anyone could see that the years of prison had ravaged only the body, not the spirit. If anything, prison solidified his resolve and raised his stature as the embodiment of black liberation.

government offered in recent years to release him for a promise of non-violence, but he refused, saying his freedom and that of his people were inseparable. And finally, President F.W. de Klerk had to make concessions to him to faring his release. The man once regarded by white South Africans as a threat to everything they prized (See Black, Page 7) Nelson and Winnie Mandela raise clenched fists Sunday after Nelson's release from prison in Cape Town, South Africa. De Klerk works toward 'changed South Africa' Analysis By NEIL A.

LEWIS The New York Ttaw Little in the personal and political history of F.W. de Klerk suggests that he would be the South African leader to make the bold gestures that have set his country on a course of uncertainty and hope. De Klerk is the ninth and possibly the man to lead South Africa since it was formed in 1910. Until his selection as party leader a year ago this month, he had never taken a single initiative toward change. But when he assumed the presidency in September, he was obliged to confront a series of daunting realities, from the state of the country's economy to continued criticism from abroad.

In his inauguration speech, he urged his fellow white South Africans to join him in creating "a totally changed South Africa." One South African official suggested that de Klerk was exhilarated by the possibility of achieving a notable role in history as the man who presided over his country's transition from apartheid. When de Klerk outlined his intention last week to free Nelson Mandela and make legal such opposition groups as the African National Congress, he was keenly aware of the world audience and its high expectations toward his remarks. In 1985, de Klerk's predecessor, P.W. Botha, faced similar high expectations from abroad for a much-anticipated speech he was to give at a party congress in Durban. De Klerk is said to have pressed Botha into making a defiant speech.

That speech produced deep disappointment and fueled the internatipnal movement to impose economic sanctions against South Africa. The negative reaction to Botha's address apparently had a profound effect on de Klerk. In making the speech, Botha was following the instincts of "generations of South African leaders to look inward to the concerns of their own Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch and Huguenot settlers who arrived in the Cape Town area in the 17th century- While his predecessors were always preoccupied with their conservative constituencies, de Klerk may be the first South African leader to cast his vision more broadly, seeking approval from the world community. De Klerk grew up steeped in the Afrikaner outlook, viewing the world with a proud insularity. The Afrikaners were suspicious of the whites descended from English colonists and (See De Klerk, Page 7) Mandela says straggle must go on in S.

Africa Front The Journal's Wire Services CAPE TOWN, South Africa After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela won his freedom Sunday. Mandela urged his supporters to increase pressure against the white minority government that released him. "We have waited too long for our freedom," Mandela told a cheering crowd from a balcony of Cape Town's old City Hall. "We can wait no longer. "Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts.

To relax our efforts now would On Page 8: One of Mandela's daughters talks about her father. The years take a toll on Nelson Mandela. be a mistake which generations to come will not be able to forgive." Mandela's 20-minute speech constituted his first remarks in public since before he was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964. He was sentence for conspiracy to overthrow the government and engage in sabotage. He asked the international community not to lift sanctions against South Africa, despite the recent changes introduced by President F.W.

de Klerk. "To lift sanctions now would be to run the risk of aborting the process toward ending apartheid," Mandela said. Mandela's voice sounded firm and his words as eloquently militant as when he defended violence as the ultimate recourse at his political trial in 1964. Although he looked all of his 71 years and was grayer than artists' renditions over the years had depicted, he looked vigorous as he walked out of Victor Verster prison. A thunderous cheer went up as Mandela and his wife, Winnie, came through the prison gates.

The Mandelas gave clenched-fist salutes to the hundreds of supporters who had waited for hours outside. Although he has been viewed as a potential leader for all South Africans, he stressed time and again that his loyalty lay with the African National Congress, for which he was working underground when he was arrested. Mandela told a crowd that he remained a "loyal and disciplined member" of the ANC and still endorsed its policies, including its use of armed struggle against the white minority government. Inside Drug, alcohol treatment often too costly for poor By CAROL LICHTI Staff Writer The inability to pay for drug or alcohol treatment is limiting some people's access to "It's becoming increasingly harder to get a person who is indigent into treatment," said Mark Mitchell, chemical dependency specialist with the Saline County Community Corrections Program. Mitchell works with felony offenders who have received one last chance to reform before going to prison.

Many of his clients are under court order to enter treatment or be sent to prison. Many are can't afford to pay for treatment. "Most don't have insurance," he said. Some alcohol and drug treatment agencies offer reduced prices for lower-income people. Some.offer payment plans.

But even the reduced costs are too high for some people. Whet Mitchell finds a program for indigent "It's becoming Increasingly harder to get a person who Is Indigent Into treatment." Mark Mitchell, treatment specialist clients, the clients usually have to wait 60 days to get in. Offenders who used the sale of drugs to support their habits or make additional income are tempted to sell drugs again to bring in money to get help, said Pat Ackley, executive director of the Hotline-Crisis Information and Referral. Her agency receives many calls from people wanting to know where to turn for help because they cannot afford services in Salina. Hotline volunteers don't have an answer for them, Ackley said.

"I'd rather have a suicide call," she said, because with those types of calls volunteers know how to respond. But C.L. "Lefty" Engebritson, director of the Central Kansas Foundation for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, said people can receive referrals from the foundation. "If we can't provide the service, we'll refer them to someone who can," he said. The foundation has a sliding scale for services based on people's ability to pay.

If the client cannot afford the lowest fee on the scale, the client is referred to a state-supported center. The foundation offers consultation at no cost for those who cannot pay. Such help is considered a community service, Engebritson said. St. John's Assessment and Guidance Center also offers free assessments if no psychological testing is required or if no legal situation exists, said Marianne Adams, assessment counselor and social worker.

The center works with people to help them find the proper treatment program. If people want treatment, something usually can be arranged, she said. But Adams said more services for the poor are needed. The state has 227 beds available for the poor who need intermediate treatment. But there is a waiting list of about 140 for such services.

Preference is given to people who have no other resource. However, not every bed is taken by an indigent person, said Mike Flyzik, director of operations in the alcohol and drug abuse services division of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. The state has received a $465,000 federal (See Drug, Page 7) MIKE TYSON gets up on wobbly feet after apparently losing his heavyweight title Saturday night to James "Buster" Douglas. But the knockout victory by Douglas is now inidispute. See Sports, Page 9.

i ifHB LEGISLATRE will look at more property tax proposals this week. See Page 3. Classified 12-14 16 Living Today 6 3 5 On the Record 7 Opinion 4 Sports 9-11 Television 14 Weather 2 Woman lives to tell about near-embalming KANSAS Sunny today, highs around 70. Partly cloudy tonight, lows in the 20s and 30s. Cloudy Tuesday, highs in the low 30s in the northwest to the 50s in the southeast.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) Carrie Stringfellow can't remember what happened to her six months ago when she was nearly embalmed after being mistaken for dead. That doesn't stop her from joking about it. "I said, 'When I die, I'm going to stay she said, laughing during an interview last week at a nursing home. But her experience was no joke to state officials, who are tightening up the rules defining who is qualified to declare a person dead. Stringfellow, who is 88 years old and blind, appeared to low consciousness on Aug.

5 at a Springfield boarding home where she was a resident. The owner, Robbie Paid- well, said Stringfellow had no pulse. When Dennis L. Porter, director of the Dennis L. Porter Funeral Home, arrived to pick up the body, Stringfellow was slumped over in a chair Porter took Stringfellow to his fu- neral home and was preparing to move her to the embalming table when she uttered a sound.

He said it was "a very eerie feeling." "I heard that the man had taken me to embalm me, was getting his tools ready, I started talking, and he broke and run," she said. "I laughed about that." Stringfellow was hospitalized for about a week She said she was told about the incident by a doctor a few days later. "He told me they had me dead," she said. "I He said, 'Yeah, they had you dead, sure enough-' I said, 'I ain't I must have been off in a trance or something-like that. I didn't believe it.

I didn't pay him too much But she believed a nephew who confirmed the incident the next day. Stringfellow said she isn't angry or upset about what happened to her. "I couldn't blame them for thinking I was dead," she said. IcpHWilllonu SINGING OUT Ora Miller and Dorothy Hart sing with other members of the Quayle United Methodist Church Choir in a concert Sunday at the Smoky Hill Museum. About 80 people attended the event, which was held in conjunction with Black History Month and the exhibit at the museum, "Touched By Heaven: Traditions in Folk Art." House draws 1,000 visitors to see changes By MARISA DANIELS Staff Writer ASSARIA Glen and Janice Morris had a few guests drop by Sunday enough to form a line out the door and down their driveway.

About 1,000 people. toured the couple's newly remodeled home during a four-hour open house Sunday on their farm west of Assaria. They had been expecting about 150 people, Glen Morris said. 'We sent my dad to the store three times for more refreshments, and we went through 30 loaves of bread (or sandwiches," he said. The open bouse drew people from north-central Kansas, Manhattan, Phillipsburg, Hays, Wichita and Nebraska, Morris said.

The 70-year-old house uninhabitable when the couple and their two sons moved to the farm, in IN? from California. They spent two years remodeling the home, (See House, Page 7).