Students Form Group to Aid Cambodia

A newly formed student organization to aid starving Cambodian refugees announced plans yesterday to lobby for legislation in Washington, circulate petitions, and sponsor a jazz concert and a fast.

The immediate goal of 'Student Activists for Cambodia" (SAC) is to activate the flow of aid designated to Cambodia by a Congressional bill passed on Oct. 10, co-founder and Kennedy School Student Charlotte E. Ward, said yesterday.

Get Going

Although the bill, which allots Cambodia $30 million in emergency funds, passed both houses unanimously, conferences about several amendments have delayed its execution. One controversial amendment stipulates that no funds can be used for abortions, Ward said.

Famine has plagued Cambodia since Vietnamese forces invaded last December and overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime. The refusal of the current Heng Samrin regime to send food to supporters of ex-Premier Pol Pot has complicated international relief efforts.

Contacts

Robin L. Schmidt, vice president for government and community affairs, said yesterday that he has helped the group by contacting his associates on Capitol Hill who might politically aid the group's effots.

Schmidt encouraged students to exert pressure on their local Congressmen.

The organization also plans to circulate a petition among faculty and graduate students which SAC can present to legislators.

"The U.S. government has demonstrated unconscionable neglect toward Cambodia," co-founder Llewellyn C. Werner said yesterday. This summer Werner directed Operation California, which has airlifted more than $3 million worth of food and medicine to Southeast Aisan refugees.

SAC has scheduled a University-wide fast November 15 in conjunction with OXFAM, an international relief agency. They are also planning a jazz benefit next month.

Speaking at a slide presentation yesterday. Stephen B. Young, assistant dean at the Law School, compared the Cambodian tragedy to the Nazi Holocaust.

"If they were European whites, there would be an uproar," he said.