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[Mennonite Central Committee Communications]

  July 26, 1996
  Mennonite Central Committee Communications
  Contact -  Emily Will
   V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
   E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

Mennonite Central Committee News

1. MCC VOLUNTEERS IN BURUNDI WITNESS AFTERMATH
   OF MASSACRE
        "Each one of you, look into yourself.  What can you do to
        work for peace, without blaming the other side?" said MCC
        volunteer Susan Seitz in a June 21 address to Burundians via
        radio.  Seitz' plea came after she and another MCC worker at
        the Kibimba hospital witnessed the aftermath of a massacre. 
        On June 13 the two returned to Kibimba after a short trip to
        the capital to discover government soldiers had slaughtered
        more then 71 civilians, ranging from toddlers to an 80-year-old
        man.  After caring for some of the wounded, the two MCCers
        photographed fresh graves and interviewed eyewitnesses.  They
        drew up a list of the names of the dead, which they gave to
        U.N. observers.  The two volunteers have since completed
        their MCC assignments.

2. MCC STRESSES NEED FOR MORE DIALOGUE,
   NEGOTIATIONS IN BURUNDI
        Amid reports of a coup in Burundi and increasing calls for
        international armed intervention, MCC and the Friends
        Committee on National Legislation released a statement on
        July 25 calling for nonviolent action.  "We agree that desperate
        circumstances. . . call for the international community to take
        resolute action," reads the statement.  It lists suggestions,
        including more international support for local peacemakers in
        Burundi and in surrounding countries, imposing an
        international arms embargo on Burundi and blocking hate radio
        broadcasts.  MCC workers in Geneva, Washington, New York
        and Ottawa are distributing the statement to policy makers and
        to other humanitarian agencies.  The "Joint Statement on
        Burundi" is available from the MCC Peace Office.

3. MCC REFLECTION: A TIME FOR WEEPING IN IRELAND
        "In this place of great hatred and little room, it depends, as all
        the big questions do, on which side is speaking," write MCC
        Ireland workers John and Naomi Lederach.  Nonetheless, the
        Lederachs attempt to explain events leading up to the Orange
        Order march earlier this month that shattered Ireland's fragile
        peace.  MCC worker Joe Campbell attempted to mediate
        between the Orangemen marchers and the Catholics who live
        along the parade route.  He found the Orangemen unwilling to
        seriously negotiate and the Catholics distrustful.  The
        Lederachs describe the current situation as "extremely dark,"
        perhaps the worst in 26 years.  MCC workers in Ireland have
        appreciated the prayers they have felt. 
 
4. SIBERIAN CHILDREN'S CAMP A MUCH-APPRECIATED
   MINISTRY 
        The facilities are crude and the mosquitos merciless, but
        hundreds of children can hardly wait their turn to camp in
        Ivanovka, Siberia, in a forest of beautiful birch trees.  An
        outreach ministry of the Omsk-area Mennonite Brethren
        Church Conference, the camp this year is serving 740 children,
        60 percent of them ethnic Russians.  Inventive re-enactments
        of Bible stories, with the forest as the stage, capture the
        imaginations of the children, who have grown up without TV
        or videos.  Twenty-four churches deliver food and supplies
        daily and church members use their vacation time to volunteer
        with the children.  A sister-camp relationship has been
        established with Camp Crossroads, a ministry of the Ontario
        Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches.

5. GUATEMALAN REFUGEES: "RITE" TO DIE DENIED
        Many indigenous Guatemalans are caught in a no-win situation
        -- violence and extreme poverty in their own country or "non-
        person" status in countries where they seek refuge.  MCC
        Mexico worker Eduardo Rodriguez (accent i) tells of 81-year-
        old Maria (accent i), who could not be buried or begin her
        after-life journey, according to Mayan belief, until a doctor
        could be found who was willing to sign her death certificate. 
        A Guatemalan refugee, Maria was a "non-person" because she
        was not legally registered in Mexico.

6. SIDEBAR: MILLIONS OF MOBILE LATIN AMERICANS
        Every day thousands of Latin Americans move to cities in their
        own country or cross borders into other countries.  Contrary to
        popular perception in the North, they do not all head to the
        United States; many move to neighboring countries.  While
        war used to be the prime reason to move, it is now economics. 
        As a Mexican who tried to cross into the United States put it,
        "It's this poverty that makes us go to the Other Side.  We have
        nothing here.  We don't even have a piece of land to grow our
        own corn."  Migrants are often treated poorly in other
        countries; they may be scapegoated for local problems or
        perceived as taking jobs away from local people.

7. COLLAGE OF STORIES FROM 73 YEARS OF SERVICE
        Four Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) workers -- Leona
        and Peter Penner and Ingrid and Willie Reimer -- treated the
        MCC executive committee to stories from their collective 73
        years of MCC service, principally in Africa.  The combined
        stories created an image of a continent -- in some places
        decimated by war, in some places tormented with unnecessary
        deaths -- where the church and God are uniquely present.

8. AWARD-WINNING ARTICLE SHOWS BOSNIAN
   REFUGEES' INDIVIDUALITY
        An article written by Emily Will placed second in a news
        reporting category in the National Federation of Press
        Women's annual contest.  Will, a writer and editor in MCC's
        communications department, wrote the vignettes about Bosnian
        refugees for the January 24, 1995, issue of The Mennonite. 
        One judge noted, "The writer focuses on individuals and the
        reader gets to know them not as refugees, but as people."

9. 28 PARTICIPATE IN MCC SALT ORIENTATION

Mennonite Central Committee U.S. News

1. ATLANTA OLYMPICS TRY TO HIDE CITY'S POOR
        "It's exciting to see so many people from around the world
        putting their differences aside and coming together for the
        Atlanta Olympics," says Wendy Peters Bruner, program
        coordinator of the Mennonite Central Committee U.S. (MCC)
        service unit in the city.  But homeless people, and those who
        work to help them, have felt other effects of the Games. 
        "There is no doubt the Olympics have hurt people," says
        Bruner.  "The city has really tried to make poor people
        disappear." 

2. NEWS SERVICE CORRECTIONJuly 26, 1996 
1)
MCC VOLUNTEERS IN BURUNDI WITNESS AFTERMATH OF
MASSACRE

Editor's Note: This release contains sensitive material.  Please feel
free to print the article in your periodicals but don't include it on
Internet sites. 

AKRON, Pa. -- "Each one of you, look into yourself.  What can you
do to work for peace, without blaming the other side?" said Mennonite
Central Committee (MCC) volunteer Susan Seitz in a June 21 address
to Burundians via a radio broadcast.

"You Tutsi soldiers and Hutu rebels who kill people simply because
they are of the other ethnic group, think about your own wives and
your own children.  Could you kill them?" she asked.  

Since 1993 an estimated 150,000 people have been killed in Burundi's
ongoing civil war.  MCC workers in Burundi have seen the aftermath
of many atrocities committed by both government troops and rebel
militia during this time.  Seitz' radio speech in June followed another
tragedy that she and MCC volunteer Keith Miller witnessed while
working at a hospital in Kibimba.  The incident has increased the
urgency MCC feels about its peacemaking efforts in Burundi.

On June 13 Miller and Seitz returned to Kibimba after transporting
several people to the capital for medical treatment.  They discovered
that government soldiers with automatic weapons, machine guns and
bayonets had slaughtered more than 71 civilians, ranging from toddlers
to an 80-year-old man.  Among the wounded brought to the hospital
was a 9-year-old girl shot through the lungs and with half her elbow
sliced off.

When night fell Seitz and Miller, the only expatriates in the area,
investigated.  They saw smoldering houses, photographed hastily dug
graves and spoke with eyewitnesses.  One woman recounted how she
and her children hid in a coffee thicket, watching as soldiers hunted
down and killed their screaming victims.  Miller and Seitz drew up a
list of 41 names of the dead.  Some 30 other bodies could not be
identified.

When Miller and Seitz left Kibimba on June 15, townspeople were still
discovering bodies.  Up to 150 people may have died in the massacre 

that could have been in retaliation for earlier rebel killings of four
people.

Miller and Seitz filed a report with United Nations observers based in
Burundi and left the country.  From Kenya, Seitz spoke on a radio
program beamed into Burundi in the local language.  She told what
she and Miller had seen and made her plea for peace.

Seitz pointed out that more than 90 percent of Burundians are
Christian and that Christ asks us to love our enemies.  She challenged
the listeners, saying, "Love is action.  What action will you take?"  

MCC works behind the scenes to support various Burundian church
leaders from both Hutu and Tutsi groups to explore what role the
church can play in facilitating dialogue that may offer peaceful
resolution to Burundi's violence.  With the depth of pain and division
that already exists, this is difficult and delicate work, depending on a
fragile trust developed over the last two years of careful involvement.

Both Miller and Seitz have now completed their MCC assignments. 
Miller of Nairobi, Kenya, is a member of a Quaker church.  Seitz of
Holt, Mich., attends a Friends meeting.  
                                  -30-
pls26july1996            

MCC photo available: Pictured is a Burundian woman near Kibimba. 
She is one of thousands displaced by the violence that has torn
Burundi apart.  (MCC photo by Dave Klassen)July 26, 1996 
2)
MCC STRESSES NEED FOR MORE DIALOGUE, NEGOTIATIONS
IN BURUNDI 

Editor's Note: This release contains sensitive material.  Feel free to
print the article in your periodicals but don't include it on
Internet sites.

AKRON, Pa. -- Ongoing massacres such as the one Mennonite Central
Committee (MCC) workers in Burundi witnessed in June (see article
#1 in this news service package) and one last weekend in which some
300 people were killed, are increasing calls for international armed
intervention to alleviate Burundians' suffering.     

"We agree that desperate circumstances . . . call for the international
community to take resolute action," reads a statement released by MCC
and the Friends Committee on National Legislation on July 25. 
However, the two groups stress the need for increased dialogue and
negotiations.

After consultation with MCC workers in Africa, MCC has drawn up a
list of actions the international community could take, including: 

  more support for the local peacebuilding being done by religious
and community leaders in Burundi and in surrounding countries;  

  continuing presence of internationals in Burundi; perhaps even
sending a contingent of trained, unarmed civilians that could be
deployed throughout the country;

  continuing negotiations at the diplomatic level;

  imposing an international arms embargo on Burundi and

  blocking hate radio broadcasts and instead beaming messages that
promote reconciliation.

MCC workers in Geneva, Washington, New York and Ottawa are
distributing the statement to policy makers and to other humanitarian
agencies.

"We don't believe in combatting violence with violence," explains
John Rempel who serves as MCC liaison to the United Nations in New
York.  "Additionally, armed intervention could escalate the violence
because there are not two organized armies lined up to fight each other
but rather pockets of people acting in anarchistic ways."

MCC has two MCC Burundi workers; both are currently studying
language in Tanzania.  Since 1994, 10 MCC volunteers have served in
Burundi, most in short-term assignments.  Previously MCC workers
had been involved in relief programs in Burundi from 1962 to 1967.

The full text of the "Joint Statement on Burundi" is available from the
MCC Peace Office; phone (717) 859-1151.
                                  -30-
pls26july1996

MCC photo available: In this 1994 photo from Kibimba, a Burundian
man reveals his scarred back.  He narrowly escaped being burned alive
in an attack that killed some 70 others, including many children, in
1993.  In 1994 MCC decided to place workers in Kibimba because it
had become a symbol of hate and human savagery.  Some six short-
term "peace presence" volunteers have served there, working in the
hospital, organizing peace committees and conducting peace seminars,
among other activities.  (MCC photo by Dave Klassen)
TOPIC: MCC reflection: A time for weeping in Ireland

     
July 26, 1996 
3)
MCC REFLECTION: A TIME FOR WEEPING IN IRELAND

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- "In this place of great hatred and little
room, it depends, as all the big questions do, on which side is
speaking."  

How often we have felt this to be true as we have tried to understand
the depth of feelings on both sides of the long-standing conflict here in
Northern Ireland.

Although it is far too simplistic to talk about the conflict here as
between Roman Catholics and Protestants, it is one way to discuss the
issues.

But a fuller "reading" of what happened here last week with the
Orange Order marches -- events that tore asunder Ireland's fragile
peace process -- requires some understanding of the many sub-groups
and their histories.

The Orange Order, founded more than 200 years ago not far from
Portadown, has been an integral part of many Protestants' lives. 
Protestants formed it in an attempt to protect themselves at a time
when they felt under great threat by Catholics.

Expressing identity or triumphalism?

And still today, the order's parades represent a way of expressing the
members' "Britishness," their identity and determination that Northern
Ireland remain a part of the United Kingdom and not become a part of
a United Ireland.  

About 3,500 marches take place annually, most of them in July, a time
when Protestants celebrate their military victory over Catholics in
1690.  

But demographics have changed over the last 25 years of "The
Troubles," with some communities now either a majority Catholic or
Protestant.  Thus, some of the marches' traditional routes now pass
through majority Catholic communities, setting up contentious flash-
points.  Catholics are increasingly objecting to the marches: They see
the Orangemen as triumphalist; ugly incidents frequently occur during
the marches; and their communities are essentially closed off while 

hundreds of marchers pass through when, they believe, the marchers
could easily take alternate routes to avoid confrontation.

Currently the Royal Ulster Constabulary (the police) are in the
unenviable position of making decisions about the marches' routes. 
But this year, after the police told the Orangemen they could not
march down Garvaghy Road in a Catholic community, widespread
violence broke out -- rioting, looting, burning, blocking roadways,
including roads to the airport and the docks.  This intimidated
Catholics, many of whom felt forced to leave their homes.  

After a five-day confrontation with some 15,000 Orangemen, the
police reversed its decision.  About 1,300 Orangemen from the
Portadown district were allowed to march down Garvaghy Road
without restrictions.

Catholics felt betrayed.  Again, it seemed they could not trust the
police and British government to treat them equally.  And, as could
have been anticipated, Catholics also began venting their frustration
and anger.

Dangerous, discouraging, devastating times

The ensuing days and nights of riots -- petrol bombs, wanton
destruction, shooting, helicopters using spotlights -- have resulted in a
drift toward a new cycle of violence by another generation, "fed on the
mother's milk of comforting cultural stereotypes."

The current situation is extremely dark, dangerous, often described as
the worst in 26 years of the troubles, reminiscent of the most
discouraging and devastating of times.

Last year Mennonite Central Committee/Mennonite Board of Missions
worker Joe Campbell and his colleague Brendan McAllister of the
Mediation Network for Northern Ireland had mediated an acceptable
accommodation to both marchers and residents.  Local Orangemen
paraded silently down Garvaghy, no drums or bands, and police
assured Catholic residents the 1995 march would be the last.

Following the march, however, some Protestant political leaders made
a grand display of triumphalism and later denied they had made any
compromise.  

This year, after repeated, difficult and often dangerous attempts at
mediation, Joe and Brendan became aware of the Catholic residents'
depth of mistrust.  They also found the Orangemen unwilling to
seriously negotiate alternatives other than marching down the
Garvaghy.  A group of church leaders attempted to bring the opposing
groups together, and failed.

Protestant political leader and pastor Ian Paisley commented he was
glad the ecumenical group did not succeed, because it would have 

been surrender.  "The war with Dublin and the IRA must still be
waged," he declared.

A plea for forgiveness

On Sunday morning we went first to a Catholic mass and later to a
small Methodist worship service.  About 150 people were seated in the
sanctuary of the Clonard Monastery, a large Gothic building.  A
number of young girls helped with the mass.  One of them read a
prayer she had written that described how many of her friends were
Protestants, how they used to go to the city center together, lamenting
that this is all changed.

The elderly priest read a prayer appealing for peace and reconciliation
written by a Protestant.  He gave his sermon on how we can continue
to work for peace in spite of all that has happened this week.  He used
the illustration of the Catholic father whose son was killed this past
week, likely a sectarian killing.

The priest quoted the father standing at the grave site with a message
to the world.  "I forgive the ones who did the horrible killing of my
son, and I plead with the community not to retaliate."  He called for
calm and forgiveness. 

We wept again as we heard this plea, and knelt in prayer as the
congregation went forward for the sacrament.
                                  -30-
John M. and Naomi Lederach, MCC Ireland
esw26july1996

John and Naomi Lederach, of Manheim, Pa., are members of Lititz
(Pa.) Mennonite Church.  They work in counseling and mediation in
Northern Ireland.

Note to editors: The Lederachs and Campbells have coveted the
prayers and other manifestations of support they have felt in the
past week.  They ask that people continue to uphold them in their
thoughts and prayers as the situation in Northern Ireland
continues to be unsteady.  Additionally, the MCC Europe team,
some 40 people, asks for prayer as it meets for a retreat scheduled
to begin July 27 in Belfast.
TOPIC: Siberian children's camp a much-appreciated ministry
DATE: July 26, 1996
CONTACT: Emily Will
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS: mailbox@mcc.org

   
July 26, 1996 
4)
SIBERIAN CHILDREN'S CAMP A MUCH-APPRECIATED
MINISTRY

AKRON, Pa. -- Two types of mosquitos and a myriad of other small
biting flies and insects are relentlessly pesky.  The camp has no
buildings; cooking, eating and activities are done in the open, with
small tents for sleeping.  When it rains, the camping is especially
challenging, since many children lack proper clothing and bedding.

But these circumstances are no obstacle to the hundreds of children
who can hardly wait their turn to camp in Ivanovka, Siberia, in a
forest of beautiful birch trees.  They come from isolated communities
and endure long Siberian winters.  The chance to be with other
children and to run free for a few days is cherished.

The camping program -- this year serving 740 children, each for a
two- or three-day stay -- is a ministry of the Omsk-area Mennonite
Brethren Church Conference, which is affiliated with the Evangelical
Baptist Convention.  The program is an outreach; some 60 percent of
the campers are non-Mennonite Russians.

Nikolai Dueckmann, conference executive of the small but active
group of churches in western Siberia, developed the camping ministry
several years ago.  He and church members believe the church's future
lies in its ability to relate to children. 

With the current chaotic economic climate of the former Soviet Union,
the camp program relies heavily upon its volunteers' creativity and
resourcefulness.  Essential to the program are Bible stories; the
children relish these as well as the opportunity to play games and do
crafts.  

One year the campers learned stories of Jesus' healings, and
memorized the exact words Jesus used as he healed various people.  At
the end of their camping time, the children went out into the forest to
locate church members who were dressed as the Bible characters.  If
the camper remembered what Jesus had said, the "character" stood up
and was healed. 

"This made a great impression on the children, who have grown up
without TV or videos for entertainment," comments Walter Bergen,
former Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) country representative
for the former Soviet Union.

MCC began providing monetary help to the camping ministry in 1994,
when the church conference could no longer finance it.  Emigration to
Germany was reducing the number of church members and available
workers (from 2,600 to 1,700), inflation and rouble devaluation were
increasing costs, and more children than ever wished to attend camp.

But the 24 established churches still see the ministry as very much
their own, and MCC support is intended only to help sustain the
churches' outreach.  Each day a different congregation brings food,
milk and whatever supplies are needed.  Church members use their
vacation time to serve as camp volunteers.

A sister-camp relationship has also been established with Camp
Crossroads, a ministry of the Ontario Conference of Mennonite
Brethren Churches.  This year children and staff in the two camps are
exchanging letters.  For the past several years campers at Camp
Crossroads have given their offerings and shared their resources with
the Siberian camp.
                                  -30-
esw26july1996

MCC photo available: Campers in Ivanovka, Siberia, re-enact a Bible
story; the major camp activity is full-fledged, energetic dramatization
of Bible stories, carried out among graceful Siberian birches.  (MCC
photo by Ben Falk)
TOPIC: Guatemalan refugees -- "rite" to die denied
DATE: July 26, 1996
CONTACT: Emily Will
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS: mailbox@mcc.org

July 26, 1996 
5)
GUATEMALAN REFUGEES -- "RITE" TO DIE DENIED

MEXICO CITY -- It was quiet except for the distant barking of dogs. 
The air hung with the scent of incense, and in the center of the living
room lay Maria (accent i), her white dress adorned with colorful
flowers she herself had embroidered, her long hair braided.  Four lit
candles were placed around her at the cardinal points and a
Guatemalan flag hung from the wall, as well as an enormous cross of
flowers.

At age 81, Maria had lost her battle against pneumonia; to her family
she had begun her voyage into the mystical, magical other world of
indigenous Mayan belief.

The tiny living room, shrouded in shadow, was full of people, almost
all Central Americans, their prayers like soft rustling.  The priest, a
Colombian, spoke of Maria: "Now she is with the Lord, she is at rest,
she has been freed from the years of poverty, the years of violence she
suffered all her life, weighing down upon her shoulders."

Maria had arrived here in Mexico in the '80s; she was a refugee,
illegal in this country.  After living several years in refugee camps for
Guatemalans in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, Maria and her
family came to Mexico City to look for a better life; nonetheless,
malnutrition and pneumonia figured in her death, as well as old age.

Maria had almost never spoken in Spanish, only in her indigenous
tongue, and she almost never left her house for fear of being deported
to Guatemala.

Her refugee status made it difficult for her to begin the Mayan after-
life journey.  Because Maria was not legally registered in Mexico, no
doctor wanted to draw up her death certificate.  Finally the doctor who
had signed the death certificate of one of her grandchildren (he had
died of cancer eight months earlier) agreed to fill out the document.

So two days after her death, Maria was able to be buried and to
continue her journey.  But she remained registered as a Mexican in the
mausoleum, having no document of legal residence here.

Maria's son and her family will continue working in order to survive,
like thousands of refugees and economically displaced Central
Americans in this city of contrasts -- Mexico City.
                                  -30-
J. Eduardo Rodriguez (accent i) M., MCC Mexico Refugee Program

MCC Mexico has been working with refugees since 1983.  In the past
six years, J. Eduardo Rodriguez has administered the program; he is a
member of La Prensa Mennonite Church in Mexico City.

esw26july1996

MCC photo available: An elderly Guatemalan woman.  Many
indigenous Guatemalans are caught in a no-win situation -- violence
and extreme poverty in their own country or "non-person" status in
other countries where they seek refuge. (MCC photo by Sonja Gyori-
Helmuth)
TOPIC: Sidebar: Millions of mobile Latin Americans 
DATE: July 26, 1996
CONTACT: Emily Will
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS: mailbox@mcc.org

   
July 26, 1996 
6)
SIDEBAR: MILLIONS OF MOBILE LATIN AMERICANS

AKRON, Pa. -- "Latin America is a continent on the move," says the
July 4 issue of "Latinamerica Press."

Daily, thousands of Latin Americans -- driven by unemployment, lack
of land and falling agricultural prices -- move to cities in their own
countries or migrate to other countries.

And, contrary to popular perception in the North, all these people do
not head to the United States; many cross borders into neighboring
countries.

The International Office for Migration estimates more than 10 million
Latin Americans now live outside their own countries.

While war may have driven migration in the past, now economic
reasons top the list, the newsletter says.  Bolivians, Paraguayans and
Peruvians go to Argentina in search of work.  Brazilians relocate to
Uruguay.  Central Americans try their luck in Mexico.  Haitians
migrate to the Dominican Republic to cut sugar cane.  An estimated 1
million Colombians reside in Venezuela.  Salvadoran and Guatemalan
refugees now make up one-fifth of Belize's 200,000 people.

A Mexican who tried to relocate in the United States but who was
apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol said, "It's this poverty that
makes us go to the Other Side.  We have nothing here.  We don't
even have a piece of land to grow our own corn."

As "illegals" in other countries, migrants are generally regarded
negatively and stereotypically -- often as thieves and poor.  They may
be scapegoated for local problems or perceived as taking jobs away
from local people.

Latin Americans also continue to move to cities within their own
countries.  Peru offers a typical pattern.  In the 1940s, 65 percent of
Peruvians lived in rural areas and 35 percent in cities.  Today, the
figures are reversed, with 65 percent in urban areas and 35 percent
rural.

Of Latin America's nearly 500 million people, some 70 percent now
reside in urban areas, according to United Nations figures.  Many
people move to escape the misery and poverty of rural areas only to
find themselves caught in poverty belts ringing major cities, generally
lacking water or sewage, electricity, paved streets, garbage collection
and security.

Experts say a two-pronged approach is needed to allow people to
remain in their home communities, whether in the rural or urban areas
of their native countries:

 Governments must rethink policies that negatively affect small
farmers and start putting resources back into rural areas. In Mexico,