c. 1996 Religion News Service
Amnesty International slams China’s human rights record
(RNS)-Amnesty International, the London-based human rights groups, said Tuesday (March 12) that despite giant economic strides, “human rights violations occur on a massive scale in China.”
The international rights group’s criticism was contained in a 121-page report, “No One is Safe: Political Repression and Abuse of Power in the 1990s.”
While praising China for “remarkable achievements” in meeting the needs of the country’s 1.2 billion people, it said the Beijing government breaks both its own human rights laws and international law.
“Time and again, the authorities have demonstrated that they are willing to use any means, whether legal or illegal, to protect the established order, particularly when confronted with rising levels of criticism,” the report said.
Chinese officials have persecuted human rights advocates, political dissidents, labor activists, Tibetans, Muslims, Christians, prisoners and some pregnant women, according to the report.
Harassment and surveillance, arbitrary arrest and “verdict first, trial second” judicial procedures were cited in the report as examples of human rights violation in China. In addition, the report said, those imprisoned face cruel treatment, including torture and forced labor.
The Amnesty report comes on the heels of a report last week by the U.S. State Department that spoke of a “nightmarish human rights situation in China.”
Next week, a session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission is expected to focus on China, the Associated Press reported from Beijing. The United States and the European Union, the political federation of 16 European governments, have said they will co-sponsor a resolution deploring human rights abuses in China during the U.N. session.
China has consistently rejected criticism of its human rights record, telling the international community its treatment of its citizens is no one else’s business.
On Sunday (March 10), in response to the State Department report, the Chinese government issued a statement responding to the State Department report, contending the United States has a much worse human rights record. It cited the large prison population in the United States, racial tensions, drug abuse and the AIDS epidemic.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Tuesday rejected the Amnesty report as “not even worth refutation,” Reuters reported.
American-born Israeli detained for allegedly threatening Arabs
(RNS)-An American-born Israeli rabbi has been sentenced to 60 days administrative detention for allegedly “calling for harming Arabs,” according to a statement from Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ office.
Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg, head of the ultra-right wing Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, or religious school, was arrested Sunday (March 10). Ginsburg, 51, is originally from St. Louis and is aligned with the Hasidic Chabad movement.
Yigal Amir, the confessed killer of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, frequently visited the yeshiva, which is located in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Nablus is one of the half-dozen West Bank cities that Israel has turned over to Palestinian control.
Peres, in a statement carried by the Associated Press, said Ginsburg “has a rich background in incitement and calling for harming Arabs. … He has recently increased his (published) intentions, from religious motives, to harm Arabs.”
Amir has said he killed Rabin only after receiving rabbinical approval to do so. Speculation in the Israeli media has centered on Ginsburg as the likely rabbi, but he denied ever giving his approval.
Last week, Ginsburg organized a celebration marking the two-year anniversary of the Hebron massacre of 29 Palestinians by another former American, ex-New Yorker Baruch Goldstein.
At the time of the massacre, Ginsburg praised Goldstein for “sanctifying God’s name, saving Jewish lives, revenge, uprooting evil and fighting for the land of Israel.”
Israeli law allows administrative detention for up to six months without trial when terrorism is suspected. The law has been used mostly against Palestinians.
Belfast Protestants warn violence looms
(RNS)-Pro-British Protestant guerillas in Northern Ireland said Tuesday (March 12) they are ready to retaliate against the renewed campaign of violence by the Irish Republican Army, Reuters reported.
“We are poised and ready to strike to effect. We will give them blow for blow. As in the past, whatever the cost, we will gladly pay it,” the Combined Loyalist Military Command, an umbrella group of Belfast-based Protestant militants said in a statement.
The statement came in response to explosions in London over the past five weeks that have killed three and injured more than 100. The IRA has claimed responsibility for the bombings, ending a 17-month cease-fire.
Peace talks between Britain and Ireland are set for June 10. But in order for the IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein to participate, a new cease-fire must be in place, according to negotiators for both sides.
Pope again indicates desire to visit Israel
(RNS)-Pope John Paul II Tuesday (March 12) again said he hoped to visit Israel.
The pope said he hoped to visit the Holy Land before the year 2,000, according to Tommy P. Baer, president of B’nai B’rith International, a Jewish organization. Baer led a B’nai B’rith delegation that met with the pontiff at the Vatican.
Earlier this year, John Paul told Israeli Religious Affairs Minister Shimon Shetreet that he would likely visit Israel after the start of Israeli-Palestinian talks on the final status of Jerusalem. Those talks are scheduled to begin in 1997.
Child conceived after dad’s death gets benefits
(RNS)-Judith Hart, the 4 1/2-year-old New Orleans girl who was conceived through artificial insemination after her father’s death, is eligible for Social Security survivors benefits, Social Security Commissioner Shirley Chater has ruled.
Chater’s decision to provide $700 monthly benefits to the child, issued Monday (March 11), averts a federal court battle with Judith’s mother, Nancy Hart, the Associated Press reported. Judith’s father, Edward Hart, died in 1990 of esophagal cancer.
The Social Security Administration originally turned down Nancy Hart’s request for benefits, citing a Louisiana law that says children conceived after a father’s death are not legal heirs.
An administrative law judge ruled in May that Judith was entitled to benefits. But a Social Security appeals panel overturned the ruling, paving the way for the child’s mother to take the case to federal court. But Chater, in a surprise ruling, said “it would be inappropriate” to deny the tot benefits.
“Recent advances in modern medical practice, particularly in the field of reproductive medicine, necessitate careful review of current laws and regulations to ensure they are equitable,” Chater said in a statement. The decision will apply only to Judith’s case, she added, and only until changes in to existing law are considered.
Attorneys for Nancy Hart had argued that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that benefits cannot be denied to illegitimate children and that Judith was denied benefits solely because of the circumstances of her birth.
Angry supporters of suspended Cyprus cleric storm archbishop’s palace
(RNS)-Some 500 high school students and other supporters of a suspended Cypriot Greek Orthodox priest broke down the gates and stormed the courtyard of the Archbishop’s Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Monday (March 11), to protest the church trial of the priest on immorality charges.
Archimandrite Pangratios Meraclis, 39, is accused of engaging in homosexual activities with students. Meraclis, who could be defrocked if found guilty, has denied the charges.
The incident began when about 500 mostly young people broke from a group of 2,000 Meraclis supporters gathered outside the palace of Archbishop Chrysostomos, head of the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus. The demonstrators broke through the palace gates, hurling rocks and oranges, and smashing windows before they were dispersed by police firing teargas, Reuters reported.
Earlier this year, the popular Meraclis was elected bishop of the Morphou district in northwestern Cyprus by a large majority. Chrysostomos, however, has refused to ordain him because of what he calls “moral obstacles.”
His supporters have threatened a revolt if the priest is found guilty.
Inside the Archbishop’s Palace, the island’s Greek Orthodox bishops convened a Holy Synod to hear the charges against the priest. After four hours,the meeting was suspended without a decision.
“A decision was not taken, there will be another meeting,” Meraclis told supporters after the session. No date for the next meeting was announced.
The Rev. Lawrence Jenco, former Beirut hostage, ill with cancer
(RNS)-The Rev. Lawrence Martin Jenco, 61, a missionary priest who was catapulted to fame as after being abducted and held as a hostage for 19 months in Beirut, Lebanon, has been diagnosed with pancreatic and lung cancer.
Jenco, currently an assistant at St. Domitilla Parish in the archdiocese of Chicago, is currently undergoing chemotherapy, the National Catholic Reporter said this week.
“I’m going to continue with a normal schedule-Masses, weddings, book-signing engagements and lectures,” Jenco said. “I want to live my life out as well as I can.”
Jenco wrote a 1995 book about his experience as a hostage, “Bound to Forgive: The Pilgrimage to Reconciliation of a Beirut Hostage.”
Quote of the Day: David Burton, director of the Florida Baptist Convention’s department of personal evangelism
Teen-agers should pray together before going out on a date-and take their Bibles with them, Burton said at a youth rally in Okeechobee, Fla. Okeechobee, according to a Baptist Press report, ranks ninth in the state in the number of teen pregnancies.
“It will be very difficult for young men to climb over Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to get to a young lady,” Burton said.
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