wfn.org | Change Would Facilitate Cuban Relief

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (165
notes).

Note 165 by UMNS on June 18, 1997 at 15:32 Eastern (2767 characters).

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                       353(10-32-71B){165}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           June 18, 1997

United Methodist executive welcomes
proposed Cuban Humanitarian Trade Act

     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- The top executive of the United
Methodist social action agency and the director of the Latin
American Office of an ecumenical organization added their voices,
June 18 here, to those supporting new legislation to ease the
delivery of humanitarian supplies to Cuba.
     The proposed Cuban Humanitarian Trade Act is being sponsored
in Congress by a bi-partisan group of 12 representatives. It also
has the support of several relief agencies, health professionals,
trade organizations and pan-American groups.
     Republican and Democratic representatives completed three
months of discussion in creating the bill because, they said, the
current U.S. policy toward Cuba makes the export process for
medicine so difficult that it creates a ban by default.
     The Rev. Tom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the
United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said he believes the
proposed legislation would greatly help women, children and
elderly Cubans adversely affected by the U.S. blockade.
     "The Report of the American Association for World Health
confirms what the United Methodist Church and other organizations
have been saying for many years concerning the impact of the
United States blockade against Cuba," he added.
     According to the report, Fassett said, death from waterborne
diseases has doubled since 1989 because Cuba is unable to buy
U.S.-made parts for the chlorination system that treats 70 percent
of the country's drinking water.
     The lack of equipment and antibiotics has forced a reduction
in the number of surgeries from 885,790 in 1990 to 536,547 in
1995, Fassett noted, using the report.
     Oscar Bolioli, Latin American director for the National
Council of Churches (NCC), vouched for the integrity of
humanitarian aid programs in Cuba. He said that in the experience
of the NCC relief agency, which has had a humanitarian program in
Cuba since 1991, the aid is reaching the needy civilians and is
not diverted to the military or other groups.
     "The United Methodist Church has consistently declared that
embargoes or blockades imposed against any country as a means of
foreign policy is wrong," Fassett declared. He said he believed
the Cuban Humanitarian Trade Act would be a step toward correcting
"an immoral and inhumane policy."
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