c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)-The Treasury Department said Friday (May 17) it is releasing 21 computers seized from Pastors for Peace that the group had sought to send to Cuba for that nation’s churches and medical system.

The computers were among some 375 units customs agents seized in January and February during three failed attempts by Pastors for Peace to deliver humanitarian aid to Cuba.

Under U.S. law, trade with Cuba is prohibited. But the federal government makes exceptions for goods delivered as humanitarian aid, provided the aid is not under the control of the Castro government.

Pastors for Peace, a Minneapolis-based group of clergy and lay critics of U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean, argues that the U.S. ban on exports to Cuba is immoral. Unlike other religious groups, such as the United Methodist Church and National Council of Churches, Pastors for Peace has refused to apply for a license to ship humanitarian goods to Cuba.

The computer seizures prompted the Rev. Lucius Walker, executive director of Pastors for Peace, to begin a fast that was in its 87th day on Friday (May 17).”We are deeply concerned about the pastors and want to resolve the problem while upholding the law,”a senior Treasury Department official told reporters at a briefing. Under the ground rules of the briefing, the official could not be identified.

The computers being released by the U.S. government were purchased by Canadian citizens in Canada but intermingled with other computers purchased in the United States.

The Treasury Department official said the 21 Canadian computers will be turned over to the United Methodist Church and considered”in bond,”meaning the units will be treated as if they never were on U.S. soil.

In a letter Friday to Walker, R. Richard Newcomb, director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said he hoped the step being taken by the department would”end this difficult impasse.”My goal in writing to you now is to reaffirm our position, expressed many times before, that goods for humanitarian use, such as the computers you wish to export for use solely in the Pan American Health Organization’s InfoMed system (in Cuba), may be licensed for export, consistent with existing federal law and the policy of the (Clinton) administration to provide humanitarian support for the Cuban people.” No one from Pastors for Peace was at the Treasury briefing, and a representative of the group could not be reached at its Washington office.

On Monday (May 13), however, Walker, anticipating the release of the Canadian computers, said that the fast”will continue … until the remaining computers are released.”

LJB END ANDERSON