c. 1996 Religion News Service

Refugee group urges continued sanctions on Burundi

(RNS) The U.S. Committee for Refugees says the international community should continue to press Burundi’s Tutsi-dominated government to begin negotiations with ethnic Hutu rebels.”African nations should continue to impose economic sanctions, with support from Western governments, until negotiations occur,”the non-profit agency said in a new 21-page report,”From Coup to Coup: Thirty Years of Death, Fear, and Displacement in Burundi.” The report also called on the United States and other Western nations to fund the mediation effort of former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere.”Ethnic cleansing has occurred, a military coup has unfolded, and the country lacks a legitimate government,”the report said.”Economic sanctions have been imposed by Burundi’s neighbors, Burundian society is largely segregated along ethnic lines, and many killings have been defined as `genocide’ by United Nations investigators and by the U.S. government.” The report estimated that 750,000 Burundians have fled their homes, including 350,000 who have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Amnesty International reported in September that some 200 Burundians are killed each day.

The report said that the”stratified power relationships in Burundi must change”and the country’s conflict will only end”if Burundi society changes the way it governs itself, the way it maintains order, and the way it provides or blocks opportunity for its individual members.” The land-locked African nation has been the subject of economic sanctions since July 24, when a Tutsi-led military coup ousted President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya and installed former Tutsi ruler and army major Pierre Buyoya as president. Buyoya promised to bring order to the country teetering on the brink of chaos.

A number of U.S. humanitarian and religious groups, including Adventist Development and Relief Agency International, the American Jewish World Service, Mercy Corp International, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, and World Vision Relief and Development, are pressing the U.S. government to step up its commitment to solving the Burundian crisis.

They want the U.S. government to aid countries who may provide ground troops for an intervention force if Burundi falls over the edge and into the kind of genocide that swept through neighboring Rwanda in 1994.

In a separate development, aid workers said Thursday (Oct. 17) they were struggling to control an outbreak of meningitis in the country. The World Health Organization said it had delivered 15,000 doses of vaccine to the area.”There is an epidemic of meningitis in Kirundo,”Annick Hamel, Burundi director of the France-based Doctors Without Borders, told Reuters, adding that”there is a danger that if we do nothing it will grow, especially with the onset of the dry season.”

Update: Gay protest convinces Clinton to change Christian radio ad

(RNS) Responding to criticism from gay rights groups, the Clinton-Gore campaign announced Wednesday (Oct. 16) that it had revised a new Christian radio station ad that praised President Clinton for signing the Defense of Marriage Act into law.

The original 60-second spot, which was running on about 70 Christian radio stations nationwide, portrayed Clinton as a defender of values who signed the law that prevents same-sex couples from receiving federal spousal benefits.”President Clinton has fought for our values, and America is better for it,”the ad proclaimed.

Gay rights groups including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign and ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) were offended by the ad and urged that it be pulled. ACT UP had threatened to hold demonstrations and take out newspaper ads criticizing Clinton for running the spot. Many homosexuals were outraged by Clinton’s support of the new law, which defines marriage as being between”one man and one woman.” Clinton spokesman Don Foley conceded that because of concerns expressed by several groups, the campaign had decided to release a revised ad which deletes the Defense of Marriage Act references and instead focuses on Clinton’s abortion position. The revised ad contends that Clinton would support a ban on the controversial late-term abortion procedure known as”partial-birth abortion”if it included a exception for the mother’s life and health.

In ads that began running on Christian radio stations last week, Republican candidate Bob Dole criticizes Clinton for supporting late-term abortions and gays in the military. Many evangelicals and Roman Catholics were highly critical of Clinton for vetoing a law banning the”partial-birth”abortion procedure. The Dole ad also blames Clinton for a”moral crisis”gripping America.

The Clinton ads were designed as a direct response to Dole’s, campaign officials said.

Democrats say fund-raiser at Buddhist temple `a mistake’

(RNS) The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has acknowledged that a $140,000 party fund-raiser held earlier this year at a California Buddhist temple was”inappropriate.”The committee also admitted that it failed to properly disclose expenses associated with the event to the Federal Election Commission. “In hindsight, it was a mistake to hold an event in a religious institution,”said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe in a statement released Wednesday (Oct. 16).”It was inappropriate because it’s inconsistent with their status and our practice,”Tobe added.

Under federal law, tax-exempt religious organizations are prohibited from engaging in partisan activities, including political fund-raising events.

The April fund-raiser at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif., was attended by Vice President Al Gore. It was organized by DNC fund-raiser John Huang, who has been aggressively reaching out to the Asian-American community.

The DNC admission comes as the Federal Election Commission is proceeding with a lawsuit against the Christian Coalition for inappropriate partisan politicking. In a lawsuit filed before the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the FEC alleges that the Christian Coalition illegally supported several Republican candidates in the 1992 and 1994 elections.

Since the lawsuit was filed in July, more than 600 Coalition supporters have written the FEC to protest the litigation, The Washington Post reported. FEC officials told the Post this is the largest amount of mail the commission has ever received on a single case.

The Coalition called for the letter-writing campaign in a recent newsletter to its donors.

Meanwhile, in a court hearing Wednesday (Oct. 16), District Judge Joyce Hens Green denied an FEC request for 18 more months to further investigate Christian Coalition political activities. The judge gave both sides seven more months to prepare their cases.

Maronite Catholics appoint bishop for northern Israel

(RNS) Cardinal Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has named the Rev. Paul Sayah, a prominent Lebanese ecumenist, to be the first resident bishop to serve the scattered Maronite Catholic congregations in northern Israel.”My task will be to discover _ as quickly as possible _ the spiritual, social and educational needs”of the Maronites inside Israel,”Sayah told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news service.

Sayah, former associate general secretary for the Middle East Council of Churches, acknowledged, however, that many of the Maronites in Israel had migrated or”somehow disappeared”and there is no reliable estimate of the number of congregants he will have in his new diocese. The diocese will be headquartered in Haifa.

The Maronite Catholic Church is an Eastern rite church with its own liturgy and leadership but is in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. There are an estimated 3 million Maronite Catholics in the world, the vast majority of whom live in northern Lebanon.

Sayah is a native of Lebanon who received his theological training in Dublin, Ireland, and Beirut. He holds a doctorate in psychotherapy from Boston College.

Christian relief workers killed in Cambodia

(RNS) Two staff workers with the evangelical relief group World Relief were robbed and murdered in Cambodia Wednesday (Oct. 16) after they attended a meeting of low-income women who receive small business loans.

The two female workers, Khoun Sokan and Toun Chanthom, had been affiliated with World Relief since 1994, according to a statement released by the Wheaton,Ill.-based agency. World Relief is the international assistance arm of the National Association of Evangelicals.”While exact details are still unknown, it is assumed that the two World Relief staff came away from the neighborhood meeting with repaid loan money from the group,”said the statement.

The women both worked for World Relief’s Gateway Program, which grants loans to poor women to help them start small businesses. The program also includes lessons on basic money management and good health practices. “Sokan and Chanthom paid the ultimate price as they faithfully served the needs of poor women and their children in Cambodia,”said Joel Copple, World Relief’s Cambodia director. Copple said the organization would be discussing possible changes in the program to better protect staff members from attacks.

Quote of the day: President Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole

At the presidential debate in San Diego Thursday (Oct. 17) Ron Kite, who identified himself as a minister, asked the following question:”This great nation has been established by the founding fathers, who possessed very strong Christian beliefs and godly principles. If elected president … what would you do to return this nation to these basic principles?” Here are excerpts from the candidates replies:

Bob Dole:”Honor, duty, country _ that’s what America is all about. Certainly the president of the United States _ in the highest office in the world, the most important office in the world _ has a responsibility to young people … to everyone, by example. And when it comes to public ethics, he has a public responsibility. When you have 30-some in your administration who have either left or are being investigated or in jail or whatever, then you’ve got an ethical problem. It’s public ethics _ not talking about private, we’re talking public ethics. …”… A constitutional amendment for voluntary prayer in school in my view, would be a great idea. I support it and the president opposes it. …”

Bill Clinton:”This is the most religious, great country in history, and yet, interestingly enough, we have the most religious freedom of any country in the world, including the freedom not to believe. And now we have all these people _ up the road in Los Angeles County, we’ve got people from 150 different racial and ethnic groups and they’ve got tons of different religions. But the fundamental tenets of virtually every religion are the same.”And what I’ve tried to do is to support policies that would respect religion, and then help parents inculcate those values to their children.”… One of my proudest moments was signing the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, which says the government’s got to bend over backwards before we can interfere with religious practice. …” MJP END RNS