Word: beret
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...controls the notorious Black Berets? That question has intrigued Moscow correspondent James Carney for months as the Soviet government has frequently denied responsibility for the brutality of the paramilitary unit's actions against the Lithuanian independence movement. Last month the Soviet Interior Ministry granted Carney permission to interview Major Boleslav Makutinovich, who commands the Black Beret unit in Vilnius. But when Carney arrived earlier this month at the group's heavily fortified base, he found himself at the business end of an automatic rifle wielded by a sentry who told him to come back the next...
...January he was with Lithuanian demonstrators at the television tower in Vilnius when Soviet army paratroopers opened fire nearby, killing 15 civilians. Says Carney: "For the first time, it seemed clear that Gorbachev wasn't entirely in control." That sense was reinforced during Carney's visit to the Black Beret base. Says Carney: "To a man, the Black Berets spoke of defending the Soviet system to the end, regardless of Moscow's policies. Though Gorbachev is pressing forward with reforms, peaceful transformation in the Soviet Union is far from guaranteed...
...sentry duty for OMON, a paramilitary unit of the Soviet Interior Ministry. Nearby, an armored personnel carrier stands guard in front of the unit's fortified headquarters. Two more sentries pace the roof. "If they try anything, there won't be a problem," says Seryak, 33, his trademark black beret tilted high on his forehead. "We're always ready to fight...
...custodians of all this disarray are vulnerable as never before to censure, pressure and restraint from abroad. Mikhail Gorbachev wants and needs the approval and assistance of the West. When his friends George, Helmut and Francois urge him to call off the Black Beret commandos who are harassing the Balts, Gorbachev listens. In fact, he obeys. (Whether the Black Berets always obey him is another matter...
...seeming contradictions: a black conservative who made it out of dirt-poor rural Georgia to Yale Law School and the highest ranks of government yet is opposed to all racial preferences; a founding member of the Black Student Union at Holy Cross and a Black Panther sympathizer dressed in beret and combat boots who became the darling of right- wing Republicans; a lawyer who once called the Supreme Court's overthrow of segregation in Brown v. Board of Education "one of the most significant cases decided by the court during this century," but later criticized the ruling on the ground...