wfn.org | Church Holds Computers for Cuba

[umethnews-request@ecunet.org]

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3021 notes).

Note 3021 by UMNS on June 18, 1996 at 16:36 Eastern (2284 characters).

SEARCH:   computers, Cuba, Pastors for Peace, fast, Fassett,

  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                       307(10-30-71){3021}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           June 18, 1996

Last of Cuba-bound computers
released to church agency

     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- The last of the computers seized by U.S.
Customs Feb. 17 -- those taken in Highgate, Vermont -- were
released June 14 to the custody of the United Methodist Board of
Church and Society.
     A total of 395 computers bound for Cuban clinics and
hospitals have been received by the board acting for a coalition
of denominations and church agencies.
     This coalition includes the board, the National Council of
Churches, the Episcopal Church, several Baptist denominations, the
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries.
     The group has received ownership from the Interreligious
Foundation for Community Organization/Pastors for Peace and is
working to send the used computers to Cuba without requesting a
U.S. government license.
     "We're looking ahead to the next step: transfer of the
computers to Cuba," said the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, general
secretary of the Board of Church and Society. Currently he is
negotiating with the Treasury Department on behalf of the national
church groups and said he hoped agreement could be reached within
a week.
     The release follows the 94-day Fast for Life led by the Rev.
Lucius Walker, a Baptist clergyman who heads IFCO/Pastors for
Peace, which obtained the donated computers and was transporting
them to Cuba, when they were seized.
     Walker said a national campaign for a more humane U.S. policy
toward Cuba has grown around the fast.
     Canadian owned modems are expected to be released shortly. In
Cuba the equipment will be distributed by churches to rural
clinics and hospitals to form an island-wide medical information
network.
                              #  #  #

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 To make suggestions or give your comments, send a note to 
 umns@ecunet.org or Susan_Peek@ecunet.org

 To unsubscribe, send the single word "unsubscribe" (no quotes)
 in a mail message to umethnews-request@ecunet.org

-----------------------------------------------------------------------