Bishop May urges Clintons to Support Response to Refugees

CONTACT: Linda Bloom (Release # 570) New York (212)870-3803

EDITORS NOTE: This story may be a sidebar to UMNS #569

President Clinton and the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, have been asked to utilize their "moral and spiritual authority and leadership" to help bring peace to the African nations of Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi.

In a Nov. 11 letter, United Methodist Bishop Felton May of Washington, D.C., urged the Clintons immediately to support, "by executive order," a humanitarian response for the one million refugees trapped in that region, "even if it means sending U.S. military personnel to provide logistical support and protection for humanitarian workers."

May suggested that Clinton could convene a summit meeting of African leaders and lend political and financial support to the "Great Lakes Accord" signed last year by leaders from Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and Zaire.

The United States strongly opposed a United Nations resolution -- sponsored by Germany and France -- that would have created an international military force to protect relief workers, open airports and create a buffer zone. That resolution failed in a U.N. Security Council vote on Nov. 9.

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