wfn.org | Some computers for Cuba freed

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (2967 notes).

Note 2967 by UMNS on May 21, 1996 at 15:58 Eastern (2447 characters).

SEARCH:   Pastors for Peace, fast, computers, Cuba

  UMNS stories may be accessed on the Internet World Wide Web at:
                   http://www.umc.org/umns.html

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

Contact:  Joretta Purdue                       253(10-30-71){2967}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722            May 21, 1992

Some computers for Cuba released;
Canadian breaks his fast

                 by United Methodist News Service

     United Methodist Bishop Roy I. Sano and a representative of
Pastors for Peace picked up Cuba-bound, Canadian-donated computers
from federal authorities in San Diego May 17.
     These computers were part of a larger shipment of used
computers that were being sent to Cuban medical centers and
churches but were seized Jan. 31 and Feb. 17 by U.S. government
agents.
     On Feb. 21, five of the volunteers who had been taking the
computers to Mexico for shipment to Cuba began a "fast for life"
to free the 400 computers. One faster had to drop out for medical
reasons after being hospitalized late in March.
     When Brian Rohatyn of Vancouver, B.C., saw that the computers
he had accompanied from Canada had been released, he broke his
fast after 87 days.
     Three other people, who are from the United States, continue
to fast until the more than 350 computers that had been collected
in this country for the Cuban health care system are freed.
     The Rev. Lucius Walker, a Baptist clergyman who heads Pastors
for Peace, a project of the Interreligious Foundation for
Community Organization, said the group refuses to buy a license to
take humanitarian aid to another country. Walker, 65, is one of
the people who continue to fast.
     Several denominations had volunteered to receive the
computers, Sano said, "and I was the most immediately accessible
so I was happy to go."
     He indicated that a document petitioning for the computers'
release and vouching for their use in health care had been signed
by the Rev. Randolph Nugent of the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries and the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett of the
denomination's Board of Church and Society. Others who signed
included officials of the National Council of Churches and several
other denominations.
                               # # #

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