APnc 05/04 0245 Separatists Meeting COHOCTAH, Mich. (AP) -- White separatist groups are di

APnc 05/04 0245 Separatists Meeting


   COHOCTAH,   Mich.   (AP)   --   White  separatist  groups  are
disorganized, so their leaders  therefore  can't  be  accused  of
plotting  to  overthrow  the  government,  the wife of one of the
arrested leaders says.

   But other followers agreed during a national meeting here that
they would have to band together to fight the charges in  federal
court.

   The  meeting  was held Saturday at the home of former Michigan
Ku Klux Klan leader Robert  Miles,  one  of  the  14  separatists
arrested last month on sedition charges.

   "We  can't  afford  it, but we don't have any choice," Stanley
McCollum, Grand Wizard of the Knights of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  in
Alabama, said of the court fight. "You do what you have to do."

   "This  sedition  situation is a trial for all of us," McCollum
told supporters. "If they get convictions ... then the rest of us
are left wide open.  We go on.  We do not hide.  We  do  whatever
is  necessary  to  fight  and  win,  because  we  have  no  other
alternative."

   The meeting, scheduled before the indictments, was attended by
about 50 separatists, who said they want to form their own  white
nation in the northwest United States.

   T-shirts  calling  for  creation of a U.S. Aryan nation, books
and pamphlets, Ku Klux Klan newspapers and bumper  stickers  that
read "Free Bob Miles" were sold during the meeting.

   Miles did  not attend the meeting.  Federal officials took him
Friday to Fort Smith, Ark., where he was indicted on  charges  of
conspiring  with  other  separatists to use violence to overthrow
the federal government and replace it with an Aryan nation.

   Miles' wife, Dottie, called the indictments an attempt by  the
federal government to persecute her husband for his beliefs.  She
said  one  meeting of separatists in Idaho that was listed in the
indictments had  nothing  to  do  with  coordinating  efforts  to
overthrow the government.

   "They were trying to get together to make a deal for paper for
all  of  our various publications," she said. "They couldn't even
make a deal with each other  on  that.    That's  the  right-wing
movement: They  can't  get  together  on  anything.  How can they
conspire?"

	Those indicted in last month's roundup included  four  alleged
members  of  The  Order,  a violent white supremacy group charged
with violating the civil rights of  Alan  Berg,  a  Denver  radio
talk-show host, by killing him.

   Others have been linked to the violent Covenant, Sword and Arm
of  the  Lord group in Arkansas and are accused of trying to kill
an FBI agent and a federal judge who presided over a trial of CSA
leaders.

   
Last page !