c. 1998 Religion News Service
East Timor bishop calls for guerrilla leader’s release
(RNS) Bishop Carlos Belo, head of the Roman Catholic Church in contested East Timor and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has called on the new Indonesian government to release jailed guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao.”Xanana must be freed in order to have a dialogue … to solve the problem of East Timor,”Belo told a news conference Tuesday (June 2).”If he is not freed, the problems will continue.” Indonesia, the largest predominantly Muslim nation in the world, invaded East Timor, a predominantly Christian area, in 1975 and declared it the nation’s 27th province in defiance of the United Nations. Since the invasion, a small band of guerrillas has conducted armed resistance in the territory _ which the United Nations insists remains under Portugal’s administrative control.
Belo was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights work on behalf of the Timorese.
Indonesia has been thrust into turmoil as a result of the Asian economic crisis and demonstrators forced President Suharto from power. But the new government, headed by Jusuf Habibie, said Habibie has no plans of changing Indonesia’s policy on East Timor, Reuters reported.
But Belo told a news conference in Dili, the capital of East Timor, he believes the Timorese should have the right of self-determination.”If I met (Habibie), I would say let the East Timorese decide for themselves whether they want integration (with Indonesia) or independence,”he said.
The Habibie government has released some political prisoners but past Indonesian policy has regarded Xanana as a common criminal, not a political prisoner.
South Africa’s Botha implicated in 1988 church council bombing
(RNS) South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said Tuesday (June 2) it has received testimony implicating P.W. Botha, the country’s last apartheid-era president, in the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches.
Botha is currently on trial for contempt of the commission after defying three subpoenas to testify before the panel investigating apartheid-era crimes.
The commission wants Botha to testify on his government’s suppression of the black resistance movement to white-minority rule.
The SAAC bombing left 21 people injured.
Botha’s involvement in the August 1988 bombing was alleged by former police minister Adriaan Vlok, retired police commissioner Johann van der Merwe, and convicted killer Eugene de Kock, in their applications for amnesty from the commission, Reuters reported.
According to the account provided to the commission, de Kock carried out the bombing. He has previously testified he was personally congratulated by Vlok and received a medal for it. Van der Merwe has acknowledged he knew at the time that the bombing was state sanctioned.
Botha has challenged the truth commission’s characterization of the bombing as a gross human rights abuse.
Methodist Bishop Peter Storey, a former official of the church council currently in the United States on sabbatical, is being flown specially to South Africa to testify in the case.
The South African Council of Churches was one of the leading groups in the nonviolent resistance against apartheid and a special thorn in the side of the white-minority government because of its ties to outside religious groups, such as the World Council of Churches.
Pope names replacement for murdered Swiss Guard head
(RNS) Pope John Paul II has named a 46-year-old Swiss army colonel to head the Vatican’s elite guard corps, replacing its previous commander, who was murdered last month.
On Tuesday (June 2), the pope named Pius Segmueller captain commandant of the colorful, 100-strong Swiss Guard, which for nearly five centuries has served as the papal army. Today, the Swiss Guard’s duties are to safeguard the pope and perform ceremonial functions.
Swiss Guard members _ all of whom are Swiss Roman Catholics _ are distinguished by their colorful striped uniforms and medieval weapons.
Segmueller replaces Alois Estermann, 43, who was slain May 4 along with his wife by a disgruntled young guardsman, who committed suicide. Estermann’s murder came just hours after he had been named captain commandant.
Estermann’s death was the first murder at the Vatican _ the 108-acre city-state _ in 150 years.
Segmueller is a native of Lucerne with degrees from the University of Zurich, the Zurich Military Academy and the General Staff’s academy, the Vatican reported.
John Paul also appointed Elmar Maeder, a 34-year-old Swiss army lieutenant, as the guard’s vice commandant.
As with India, WCC criticizes Pakistan for nuclear tests
(RNS) The World Council of Churches _ which previously criticized India’s nuclear weapons tests _ says it is”profoundly dismayed”by Pakistan’s decision to flex its own nuclear muscles.
Pakistan’s nuclear testing”has grave and unpredictable implications for the people of the (Indian) subcontinent, the wider Asian region and the world as a whole,”the WCC said in a statement Friday (May 29).”The escalation of rivalry between Pakistan and India to nuclear competition can only further exacerbate the existing tensions which have given rise already to three major wars in the last 50 years.” The WCC also lamented the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests for coming at a time when”the world appeared to be moving closer to an agreement on nuclear non-proliferation and a total ban on nuclear testing.” The”heavy costs of a nuclear arms race”coupled with the economic sanctions that both Pakistan and India are likely to face because of their decision to defy the international community and proceed with testing”will further add to the poverty”of those two nations, the WCC said.
The Geneva-based WCC is an international ecumenical agency representing more than 330 Protestant and Orthodox bodies.
Repentance, apologies highlight Tulsa ceremony marking 1921 race riot
(RNS) In a dramatic gesture aimed at racial reconciliation, white ministers led their congregants in repentance and asked for forgiveness Monday (June 1) for their ancestors’ actions as hundreds of Tulsans marked the 77th anniversary of the Oklahoma city’s 1921 race riot.
The assembly was held in a vacant lot where Tulsa’s bustling black business district once stood. The 1921 riot leveled 36 blocks of houses, businesses and churches in Tulsa’s Greenwood district.
Mabel Little, who was a 30-year-old businesswoman when the riot erupted, attended Monday’s ceremony.”I’m the happiest person in the world today,”the 101-year-old survivor told the Associated Press as she viewed the races coming together in harmony.
In response to the whites’ appeal for forgiveness, black clergy led a smaller crowd of blacks in pardoning them.
The riot started on May 31, 1921, after a black man was arrested on charges of attacking a white woman. The major confrontation happened the next day when armed whites directly attacked the area referred to as”Black Wall Street”because of the affluence of its residents.
Before the riot, 600 black-owned businesses flourished in the neighborhood, including bus companies, banks, hotels, drugstores, funeral parlors and a 700-seat movie theater called Dreamland.
In addition to the property loss from the riots, some contemporary reports put the death toll as high as 300.
Monday’s service started slowly in the evening heat. But as pleas for repentance and forgiveness grew more fervent, the worship atmosphere of the whole ceremony grew more animated with shouts of”Hallelujah!”and”Amen!” Willete DeShields’ grandfather was a successful businessman before the riot.”Our ancestors can now rest,”she said.
Quote of the day: Ronald F. Thiemann, dean of the Harvard Divinity School
(RNS)”The way of the cross passes through urban ghettos and rural wastelands, through hospital rooms of the incurably ill and dying, through those deep corridors of despair within the hearts of those who are victims of violence or abuse.” _ Ronald F. Thiemann, dean of Harvard Divinity School in an essay”Faith Seeks Understanding,”from the forthcoming book”Why Are We Here? Everyday Questions and the Christian Life,”edited by Thiemann and William C. Placher and to be published by Trinity Press International.
DEA END RNS
