c. 1999 Religion News Service
Rights group urges Indonesia to curb military in Christian-Muslim clashes
(RNS) Human Rights Watch, the international rights monitoring group, has called on the Indonesian government to curb its use of security forces in its effort to end violent clashes between Muslims and Christians on Ambon island.
The clashes, which broke out Jan. 19, have claimed as many 200 lives and resulted in as many as 30,000 people being displaced, the New York-based human rights agency said.
The Indonesian government sent the security forces to Ambon in mid-February, but the rights group said the forces have been using”extreme”measures in an effort to curb the rioting.”When they finally did intervene, they shot lead bullets rather than attempting to use any methods of non-lethal crowd control,”the 30-page report said.
The report did not assign blame to either the Christian or Muslim side in provoking the clashes, which it said began Jan. 19 with a fight between a Muslim youth and a Christian public-transport driver.”The Indonesian press, senior Indonesian officials and opposition leaders, and many Jakarta-based diplomats believe the violence was provoked as part of a nationwide strategy of rogue military officers … to disrupt the forthcoming parliamentary elections in June and create the conditions for a return to military rule,”the report noted.
But it said local leaders in Ambon”tended to see the violence as locally instigated for narrow communal goals.” There was no immediate response from the Indonesian government on the report.
In a series of eight recommendations to the Indonesian government, Human Rights Watch urged that the government ensure that its military forces respect international law on the use of force and that it”avoid at all costs the imposition of a state of `civil emergency’ in Ambon.”With the very clear exacerbation of the situation caused by the presence of security forces with shoot-on-sight orders, additional measures that allow the military to bypass normal civil rights safeguards are likely to make things worse,”the report said.
Lyons says investigation against him was legitimate, not racist
(RNS) The Rev. Henry J. Lyons, who this week resigned as president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, and pleaded guilty to federal charges, said Thursday (March 18) that he now believes the investigation into his wrongdoing was not racist.”We do have a ways to go in this country in terms of racism,”Lyons told Matt Lauer on NBC’s”Today Show.””Yes, I still hold that, but no, I feel that this was a legitimate investigation. I have made some legitimate and actual mistakes and … I’m here to take that responsibility.” The interview came within days of his resigning as president of the NBCUSA, against the wishes of the majority of board members of the predominantly black denomination. On Wednesday, he agreed to a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, pleading guilty to five counts of fraud and tax evasion in exchange for the dismissal of 49 other counts. He was convicted of grand theft and racketeering by a Florida jury on Feb. 27.
Lyons, who has voiced his apologies through the media on several occasions this week, reiterated on the”Today Show”that he regretted how his actions have affected his family and his denomination, but he also expressed his wish that the public could know more about him.”I see this as an opportunity … to let America know that I’m not quite the villain that has been painted here,”he said.”The church that I pastor has stood with me. My board of directors has stood with me and that’s because they know me. … One of the great tragedies of my presidency is that we were moving ahead in the convention.” Lyons and his wife, Deborah, both said they believe he is going to heaven. But he’s dealing with a more immediate destination _ the prospect of living within prison walls.”I’ll have to preach there and that I will,”he said.
Deborah Lyons sat by his side during the interview and said she loves him more now than she did when the charges were first leveled against her husband.”I have forgiven him as a Christian, and I have forgiven him as a wife, as a woman,”she said.”My husband has done so many good things in the years we have been together and certainly that outweighs what he has done since he’s been president of the National Baptist Convention, USA.”
Report: surge in enrollment at evangelical Christian colleges
(RNS) Evangelical Christian Colleges and Universities far outpace their secular counterparts in growth, according to the latest enrollment figures published in the March 5 issue of the Chronicle for Higher Education.
From 1990 to 1996, undergraduate enrollment in some 90 evangelical Christian Colleges affiliated with The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities showed a 24 percent increase in enrollment. Students at the participating schools number about 129,000. During the same period, private and secular colleges gained just 4 percent to 5 percent.
One reason for the increase may be that many Christian institutions have sought to distinguish themselves from Bible colleges by raising academic requirements and standards, the report said. Many have become savvy marketers.
Demographics may have a role, too. Children taught at home frequently attend Christian colleges, and the number of home-schooled children has been rising.
In part, the bad reputation of some secular schools may actually spark enrollment at Christian institutions, the report said. The notorious _ and sometimes deadly _ antics on some secular college campuses contrast with the”no tobacco, no dancing, no drinking,”policies of many Christian schools. So when bizarre college”hazing”rituals and alcohol-related deaths make headlines, a Christian campus can look especially appealing _ especially to parents.
Vatican won’t object to the extradition of would-be papal assassin
(RNS) The Vatican has informed Italian authorities that it has no objection to the extradition to Turkey of Menmet Ali Agca, the Turkish terrorist who shot and seriously wounded Pope John Paul II 18 years ago,Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said today.
In a statement issued in connection with a hearing on Agca’s appeal for early release or extradition, Navarro-Valls disclosed a series of exchanges between the Vatican and the Italian Ministry of Justice on Agca in 1997.
The parole board hearing is scheduled for May 30 in Ancona, three days before the pope is to visit the Adriatic seacoast city for celebrations marking the 1,000th anniversary of the Cathedral of St. Ciriaco.
There are no plans for John Paul to repeat the visit he made to Agca’s prison cell in Rome in 1983. The pope said at that time that he forgave Agca and left his case in the hands of Italian authorities.
Agca was sentenced to life in prison for his attempt on the pope’s life and faces a prison term of 10 years in Turkey where he was convicted of murdering a journalist.”On June 25, 1997, following a confidential request from the then minister of justice, Dr. Giovanni M. Flick, it was replied that there were no objections to handing Ali Agca over to Turkish authorities and that the decision was up to Italian authorities,”Navarro-Valls said.
The spokesman said that on Oct. 24, 1997, in reply to a letter Flick sent by diplomatic channels, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, assured the minister of justice that the Vatican did not object to Italy’s accepting the extradition request or to its terms.
Agca, who made a formal appeal to Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro for clemency in 1996, wrote to the pope from his prison cell in February asking him to intercede with Italian authorities on his behalf to grant him a pardon for the holy year or extradite him to Turkey.
Agca, then 23 and a member of the right-wing Turkish terrorist organization known as the Gray Wolves, opened fire on John Paul on May 13, 1981, during an outdoor general audience in St. Peter’s Square. The pope underwent two operations to repair severe abdominal wounds.
During his trial, Agca claimed that he had acted as part of a Bulgarian conspiracy engineered by Soviet secret agents. But when three Bulgarians accused of orchestrating the plot went on trial in 1985, he withdrew his charges and linked his actions to”the third mystery of Fatima”and the impending”end of the world.”
Quote of the day: Human Rights Watch’s Jemera Rone
(RNS)”Famine threatens to recur in 1999 and there is the danger that people will have compassion fatigue.” _ Jemera Rone, author of a Human Rights Watch report on Sudan, which linked famine in the country to its ongoing civil war and human rights abuses.
DEA END RNS
