c. 1996 Religion News Service
Canada to lead multinational force to help refugees in Zaire
(RNS) Canada has agreed to lead a multinational military contingent to assist in humanitarian efforts for refugees in eastern Zaire.
United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said Tuesday (Nov. 12) that the details are still being worked out, but more than 12 nations have pledged support, according to the Associated Press.
The U.N. chief did not say when the first soldiers might arrive in the region, but he estimated that as many as 20,000 troops may be involved in restoring calm.
Fighting in the region has dispersed an estimated 1.1 million Rwandan Hutu refugees and cut them off from food and medical supplies.
U.S. State Department spokesman Glyn Davies said the United States is still”intensively studying”what role it might take in any proposed multinational force.”It’s a very complicated, very complex situation and the U.S. is studying what makes sense to do, what we can do,”Davies said in a Tuesday State Department briefing.
U.N. World Food Program spokeswoman Michele Quintaglie said aid representatives were negotiating with rebels controlling some Zairean cities in an attempt to deliver food to people who need it, according to AP.”At this pace, it’s going to be nearly impossible to get aid to the thousands who need to be reached,”she said.
Security guards beat hundreds of hungry Zairians with sticks, pushing them back from the entrance to a food warehouse Tuesday. The people were scrambling for what little aid was available.
Trucks and jeeps from neighboring Rwanda arrived Monday, but the 16 tons of beans and rice they carried were far from enough to feed all the hungry.
In addition to food crises, disease is also a problem.
Cholera has broken out in a settlement of about 250,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees in eastern Zaire, the Reuter news agency reported.
Walter Bonifazio, a doctor with the U.N.-funded Doctors in Catastrophic Situations, said the cholera could wipe out many people in a few days.”The human loss will be impossible to calculate,”he said.”It is a bomb, a very big bomb, and the people will die like flies unless help reaches them soon.”
Ultra-Orthodox Jews attack Reform women at Western Wall
(RNS) Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men hurled insults and chairs at Reform Jewish women wearing skullcaps and carrying Torahs as they prayed at the Western Wall Tuesday (Nov. 12), illustrating the tension between ultra-Orthodox and Reform movements within Judaism.”I was praying, all of a sudden I heard this one guy yelling,”said Rachael Jaskow, a member of a Reform Jewish group called Women of the Wall.”Then I heard _ boom, boom. They were throwing items _ I think a chair _ over the divider.” The Western Wall, a remnant of the ancient Jewish temple destroyed in 70 A.D., is divided into separate sections for men and women, who are forbidden to pray together. An Orthodox rabbi administrates the use of the wall under strict religious rules.
The Women of the Wall group has petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to allow women to pray freely at the wall. The group has met once a month at the ancient site since 1988.
Reform Judaism offers women an equal place in religious tradition and law. The Orthodox dismiss the Reform movement because it deviates from the fundamental belief that the Bible is God’s absolute word.
Women are forbidden from reading directly from the Torah or wearing prayer shawls at the wall. Reform women have attempted to assert their equality by wearing skullcaps and prayer shawls, reserved only for men, and carrying Torahs to the wall.
Jerusalem city councilwoman Anat Hoffman said Tuesday that about 13 men threw chairs in the attack. She said the incident was the first violent attack against the women’s group.
There were no arrests made and no women were hurt in the incident.
Catholic group blasts Vatican on UNICEF
(RNS) An independent group of Roman Catholics often at odds with the church over the issues of abortion and family planning, said Tuesday (Nov. 12) it has made a symbolic contribution of $2,000 to UNICEF, the United Nation’s children’s agency, to make up for the Vatican’s withholding of its $2,000 contribution.”For the Vatican to use its symbolic donor role to intimidate and force an independent charity to follow Roman Catholic Church politics on family planning services, including contraception and abortion, falls far short of a Christian approach to charity,”said Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, an independent abortion rights group based in Washington.
Last week the Vatican said it was suspending its contribution to UNICEF, charging the U.N. agency has become involved in contraceptive distribution and abortion advocacy.
In a statement released when it announced it was ending its contribution, the Vatican also asked”local pastors and church-associated institutions”to review their support for UNICEF, including the sale of UNICEF greeting cards.
Widespread Catholic participation in a boycott against UNICEF could have a significant impact, Kissling said.”UNICEF deserves to be supported for helping children in need,”she said.”But once again, the Vatican sacrifices everything to its obsession with restricting access to contraception and abortion.”It is willing to see UNICEF’s mission to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the sick, and shelter the homeless children of the world compromised in pursuit of this goal,”Kissling said.”The Vatican seems to have forgotten these fundamental Christian values in their political actions, just as they seem to have forgotten just where the $2,000 they have denied UNICEF came from in the first place,”she said.”The money comes from Catholics in the pews, and the overwhelming majority of them reject the Vatican’s position on family planning.” Kissling said the symbolic contribution to match the Vatican’s suspension is the first step in a campaign that will encourage people, especially Catholics, to not only support UNICEF but also express their disapproval of the Vatican action.
Charles Buerger, publisher of Jewish newspapers, dies at 58
(RNS) Charles Buerger, publisher of Jewish newspapers in Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Florida and Vancouver, British Columbia, died Friday (Nov. 8) in Baltimore from complications of heart surgery.
In 1972, Buerger took over the family-owned Baltimore Jewish Times, upgraded its staff and transformed it into the nation’s leading English-language Jewish community newspaper. He later purchased or established the Atlanta Jewish Times, the Detroit Jewish News, the West Palm Beach Jewish Times, the Boca Raton-Delray Beach Jewish Times and the Vancouver Western Jewish Bulletin.
During the economic boom of the 1980s, both the Baltimore and Detroit papers routinely published more than 200 pages a week.
Buerger also published a secular magazine, Style, in Baltimore, Detroit and Atlanta, and served on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations. They included Meals on Wheels of Maryland, the University of Maryland Oncology Center, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Buerger, born in Pittsburgh, is survived by his wife and five children.
Gospel singer Kirk Franklin released from the hospital
(RNS) Gospel singer Kirk Franklin, who suffered head injuries in a fall earlier this month, was released from a Memphis hospital Monday (Nov. 11).
Franklin, 26, has returned to his Dallas home. Doctors say he will need to rest for some time to fully recover, according to a statement from his promoters.
Franklin fell 10 feet in a backstage accident on Nov. 1. His concert tour has been postponed.
Quote of the Day: Phan Thi Kim Phuc
(UNDATED) Phan Thi Kim Phuc, who was depicted in Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1972 news photo as she ran naked and screaming from a napalm attack on a Buddhist temple during the Vietnam War, spoke Monday (Nov. 11) at Veterans Day observances at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Kim Phuc, who now lives in Toronto, spoke about history and forgiveness:”I have suffered a lot from both physical and emotional pain. Sometimes I could not breathe. But God saved my life and gave me faith and hope. Even if I could talk face to face with the pilot who dropped the bombs, I would tell him, `We cannot change history, but we should try to do good things for the present and for the future to promote peace. …
I wanted to share my experience with people so that they feel better. Behind that picture of me, thousands and thousands of people, they suffered _ more than me. They did. They lost parts of their bodies. Their whole lives were destroyed, and nobody took that picture.”
MJP END RNS
