TSUNAMI  NEWS

Medical  News

Dec 04/Jan 06

Jurisdiction of Aceh's New Human Rights Tribunal in Dispute 
By Nancy-Amelia Collins 
Jakarta
23 August 2005



VOA - Aug 23/05 - The newly signed peace agreement between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels in the province of Aceh calls for the establishment of a human rights tribunal. The government and the former rebels can't agree whether the tribunal will have jurisdiction over abuses committed during their decades-long civil war.

Although the Aceh peace accord provides for a human rights tribunal, the Indonesian government says the court will not be used to try cases that occurred before last week's peace agreement was signed.

Information Minister Sofyan Djalil says the tribunal is being created for "future needs, not for the past."

But Bahtiar Abdulah, a spokesman for the rebel Free Aceh Movement, says this is not what the two formerly warring parties agreed to when they signed the Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, on August 15.

"To our understanding, it will be retroactive," he said. 


All of this is so recent that the new Aceh Monitoring Mission, composed of officials from the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is not set to begin operations until September 15.

Still, a mechanism for resolving disputes between the two sides will soon be in place, and Sidney Jones, head of the International Crisis Group in Indonesia, says disagreement over the tribunal's jurisdiction is unlikely to sabotage the hard-won peace process.

"I think it's probably something that isn't going to derail the whole process, but it's going to be a source of contention that if something else happens later, this could add to the mix of one side saying, our understanding was that the government promised this, and then they went back on it," she said. 

International human rights groups have accused the Indonesian military and police, and to a lesser extent the rebel group, also known as GAM, of committing gross human rights violations during almost 29 years of conflict.

Another possible source of contention between the government and GAM is the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Indonesia set up such a commission to deal with abuses committed in East Timor before and after that territory voted for independence from Indonesia in a U.N.-sponsored vote in 1999.

Ms. Jones of the International Crisis Group says the Timor commission has been roundly criticized for granting amnesty to anyone who asks, and she is concerned it will be the same with the Aceh Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

"The way the commission has been set up, it is completely and utterly toothless, and there's been a lot of criticism of the law setting up the Indonesian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, precisely because it too easily gives amnesty to anyone who confesses their crime," she said. 

More than 12,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians, died during the Aceh conflict.

June 24, 2005 

CHRISTIANS CHALLENGED TO 'RADICAL ABANDONMENT' IN PURSUIT OF BRINGING RELIEF TO THE WORLD’S HOTSPOTS
Mission Agency Seeks To Train Believers To Respond Rapidly To War, Disaster and Persecution

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service 

BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA (ANS) -- For seven years a Midwestern missions relief agency -- Strategic World Impact (SWI) -- has trained Christians in how to respond to tragedy in some of the world’s troubled hotspots, including bringing relief to some of the 53 million refugees in many countries around the world.

This week Christian believers from across the United States have been meeting in the seventh such conference, known as Disaster Awareness Response Team (DART) Training -- which started with little more than a dozen attendees and offered two classes: community health and disaster assessment. (Pictured: Strategic World Impact President Kevin Turner with his daughter Emily delivers a bag of grain in a Third World country. Courtesy: Strategic World Impact).

The number of conferees has grown and the slate of course offerings ranges from Missions 101 to Biblical Storying, Understanding Islam and Disaster Medic Training, to Stewardship, Trauma Counseling and -- my personal favorite -- Land Mine Awareness, where this reporter defied middle-age and diabetes to crawl on his belly like a snake in order to be certified to travel to some of the world’s most difficult locations with this one-of-a-kind missions group. (Pictured: ASSIST News Service Chief Correspondent Michael Ireland probes the ground in front of him for a buried land mine during missions training provided by Strategic World Impact).

DART Training is the brainchild of SWI President Kevin Turner, who spent 15 years on the mission field in humanitarian relief work, including a 5-year stint in Bosnia where he narrowly missed being hit by incoming 155 millimeter shells.

Turner and the Bartlesville, Oklahoma-based ministry, specialize in bringing relief to war zones, disaster areas, and the Persecuted Church, which suffers human rights abuses in many areas of the world.

Turner’s ministry organizes the yearly conference to help teach Christians how to become involved in rapid response teams to areas of the world where terrorism, human rights violations and natural disasters abound.

"This is one of the best civilian training courses for missionaries and NGOs," says Dave Hamon, one of the many experts Turner has recruited to teach some of the skills necessary for Christians to be effective in areas of conflict and disaster around the world.

Turner faced his own personal crisis that led him to faith in Christ on Super Bowl Sunday in 1989.

"I didn’t know the Gospel," said Turner in the opening session of the DART conference. "But I experienced it." He tells of "being apprehended by the ‘Hound of Heaven’ " until he experienced abandonment to Christ in his relationship with God.

During his time in Bosnia, Turner "learned to sleep with his boots on," he said. "The things I have seen changed my life."

He recalls seeing a five-year-old girl die from a shrapnel wound, the result of incoming shells fired from 18 kilometers away.

"It takes away your innocence," he said.

He challenged conferees to pray about positioning themselves not in maximum safety or with minimal risk, but in a place of maximum obedience to God, what he calls "a place of abandonment."

"Danger or risk is a misnomer in the Christian life -- the Father of Lights doesn’t abandon His sheep. God is never caught off-guard. Risk in His will is impossible," Turner said.

He called upon Christians to surrender their lives to follow Christ wherever it may lead.

"We live in abject poverty because we fail in obedience to Christ," he said.

Turner described experiencing "the Divine Apprehension" to such a degree that the world sees such obedience as reckless. Instead, he believes Christians should view the approach as "radical."

"Let it be said of us that we turned the world upside down. It’s not extreme, it’s your destiny."

Future SWI plans call for many such mini-conferences to be held over a three-day weekend across the country to challenge and equip Christians to actively respond in a rapid and effective way to the outbreak of war, the occurrence of natural disasters, or the violation of human rights experienced by believers in closed or restricted countries.

Next year’s conference will replicate a typical refugee camp in countries where such human rights abuses take place, with conferees experiencing the trauma felt by many internally displaced persons.
 

People Respond to God's Love

HOW A PERSECUTOR WHO BEAT UP A PASTOR IN SRI LANKA BECAME A BELIEVER
K.P. Yohannan shares about this and other stories from South Asia

By Dan and Peter Wooding in India

KERALA, INDIA (ANS) -Aug 1/05 - When the devastating Tsunami swamped the coast of Sri Lanka on December 26, killing more than 30,000 people and making an estimated 86,000 families homeless, it was difficult for the Gospel for Asia (GFA) missionaries to share the message of God’s love with some of the people in that area.

But it all changed once the GFA teams moved in with their relief teams – in fact one persecutor had his life changed radically.

In an interview conducted at the 54-acres campus of the Asia Biblical Seminary situated in Kizhakan Muthoor, approximately two kilometers away from the busy town of Tiruvalla in Kerala, South India, GFA founder, K.P. Yohannan recounted this amazing incident. (Pictured: The GFA Seminary in Kerela, India).

“I was in Sri Lanka a while ago and there was a village where we worked with a Buddhist man who actually beat up our missionary and burned his Bibles and threw him out of the village,” he said. “But when the Tsunami hit he lost his wife and kids and our worker, who he had previously beaten up, was the first to pick him up and give him relief goods. He was accompanied by a doctor who had volunteered his services from Texas and he then gave him medicine.

“Because of this, that man gave his life to Christ and the first thing he said was, ‘I never knew that your Jesus was so caring.’ He then became the person to lead us to other places to share the Gospel and care for the needy.”

SAME THING OCCURRED IN TAMIL NADU

He added, “In Tamil Nadu, the same thing occurred. There, after the Tsunami hit, we went in places that they wouldn’t let us in previously to preach the Gospel, but now our people are there to care for these people.

“There are dozens of places we have churches planted as a result of working with these victims. How could we refuse food and clothes and shelter and a fishing boat and nets to people who have lost everything?”

K.P. then explained, “We don’t give it to them so they can become Christians, but they are amazed that we do this because of Jesus and then they will listen and the Holy Spirit then gives them the conviction to give their lives to Jesus. So the enemy [Satan] has done something very stupid, but God uses even this to bring Glory to his name.

LIKE A CAR GOING AT 50 MILES AN HOUR

“Before the Tsunami, we were like a car going at 50 miles per hour and now we are going at 150 miles per hour. This tragedy has just put us on the fast track. When you have 10,000 children, the victims of Tsunami, with either one or both parents dead in Sri Lank and the government there officials are saying, ‘Take all these kids’ and the people, hundreds of thousands of them are saying, ‘We have lost all hope, what shall we do?’ we know we have to help.

“We were not prepared for it. We were not expecting it. But thank God for the people of God in the United States at this time of crisis who went out of their way to help us financially and also the hundreds of Texas Baptist men who left their homes, including medical doctors, and came to Sri Lanka to the places where we were working to care for the sick, and the orphans and also building shelters for them. Even now, there are 20 or 30 Baptist men who are working with us in Sri Lanka and a bunch are about to come to India now to help with providing water and all kinds of stuff. This kind of love has just expanded and broadened our understanding of what the Body of Christ is; that there are people out that that are deeply concerned about these things and partnering with them gave us much more synergy and impact.” (Pictured: Two child victims of the Tsanami).

K.P. Yohannan is the founder and president of Gospel for Asia, a mission organization involved in evangelism and church planting in the unreached regions of Asia. Currently Gospel for Asia supports over 14,000 church planters in the heart of the 10/40 Window.

Born in a remote village of South India, K.P. Yohannan's personal journey toward spiritual reality began at the age of eight when he gave his heart to Christ. While he was still a young boy, his mother began fasting each week, praying God would call one of her six sons into full-time Gospel ministry. Her prayers were answered in 1966 when 16 year-old K.P., her youngest, volunteered to serve in North India with Operation Mobilization.

From 1974 to 1979 K.P. attended Criswell Bible College in Dallas, Texas, where he earned his B.A. in Biblical Studies. He was also awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Hindustan Bible College in Madras, India.

During the time he attended Criswell, he pastored a local church in Dallas. However, he was unable to forget the millions still lost without Christ in his homeland of India, and knew God was calling him to reach his own people. In 1978 K.P. resigned his pastorate and he and his wife, Gisela, organized what is now Gospel for Asia.

GFA has grown rapidly and has quickly become one of the most effective mission forces in Asia today. The ministry has expanded beyond India to support native missions in Nepal, Myanmar, and many other Asian nations. At the 54 Gospel for Asia missionary Bible colleges, over 8,000 church planters are being trained to reach the unreached.

In addition to traveling and speaking in North America, K.P. spends half of his time in Asia, consulting with Christian leaders and speaking at missionary gatherings. He's also heard throughout India by millions of people on a daily Christian radio program.

K.P. has authored more than 200 books published in India and five in the United States, Revolution in World Missions (ISBN 0-88419-195-8), The Road to Reality (ISBN 0-88419-250-4), Why the World Waits (ISBN 0-88419-303-9), Living in the Light of Eternity (ISBN 0-9632190-6-5), and Reflecting His Image (ISBN 1-56599-999-1).

He lives near Dallas with his wife Gisela. They have two grown children, Daniel and Sarah, who are serving the Lord. (Pictured: K.P Yohhannan with his wife Gisela, and their two grown children, Daniel and Sarah).

He says, “Going into all the world and preaching the Gospel is not enough! Unless all of our efforts result in local churches, we fail to accomplish God's primary purpose: making disciples and raising up a living body of believers to be the Bride of Christ and a witness to the world.

“With this focus and conviction, we send native missionaries out to take the name of Jesus to some of the most unreached people groups and remote places in Asia.

“As a result, more than 21,000 churches and mission stations have been established--all in places that previously had no churches.

“But none of this has come easy. Our native missionaries are paying a high price of suffering, hardship, intense persecution and sometimes even martyrdom to see a church established.

“A great number of these churches were planted after our missionaries prayed for someone sick or demon possessed, and the Lord answered and set them free just like in the Book of Acts. (Pictured: GFA native missionary leads group of believers in worship).

“Through such events people are able to understand that Jesus is indeed the living God.

“The churches planted in each culture are truly indigenous in character, self-governing, self-propagating and, within a short time, self-supporting.

“In Myanmar, our graduates established more than 400 churches within eight years. Seventy-five have already become self supporting, missionary-sending and mission-supporting congregations.

“In all Believers Churches, great emphasis is placed on teaching the Word of God, prayer and missions. This has resulted in believers becoming bold witnesses for Christ. Our missionary training centers reap the fruit of this as well, where up to 90 percent of the students come from these churches.

“On the average, our missionaries establish over 10 fellowships every day in Asia.

“After a survey of 100 unreached people groups on our mission fields, GFA missionaries pioneered churches in 62 of them within the first two years.”

Tsunami Recovery United Nations Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton 
(United States) April 2005 



13/04/2005
Press Release
IHA/1034 


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

FORMER UNITED STATES PRESIDENT CLINTON, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN


CALL FOR RENEWED COMMITMENT TO TSUNAMI REGION




NEW YORK, 13 April/05 - (Office of the Special Envoy on Tsunami Recovery) -- United Nations - Former United States President Bill Clinton and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan met today to discuss the daunting task of rebuilding people’s lives in the tsunami region.



President Clinton was appointed United Nations Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery last month by the Secretary-General and has begun working to keep the international community committed to the recovery effort. He convened a meeting of United Nations experts yesterday to assess the status of the humanitarian relief effort and the challenges which remain.



“We must remember that reconstruction does not happen overnight. It takes time and requires patience and determination”, President Clinton said. “More than three months after the tsunami killed an estimated 300,000 people, the challenge is not just to rebuild communities, but to rebuild them better. And that means rebuilding schools which are child-friendly, health-care services which are accessible to all and setting into place early warning systems so that such massive loss of life can be prevented in the future.”



In an effort to sustain the momentum on tsunami recovery efforts the Secretary-General noted that “the response to our appeals for funds has been truly amazing. But ... it’s vitally important that we have someone capable of sustaining international interest in the fate of the survivors and their communities -- and someone with the vision and commitment to ensure that this time the international community really does follow through and support the transition from immediate relief to longer-term recovery and reconstruction. Too often, in the aftermath of previous natural disasters, that has not been the case”.



Referring to the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the nations of the world in 2000, President Clinton added, “At a time when the international community has already committed itself to upholding minimum standards of development, we cannot replace poverty with poverty, and leave people as vulnerable to tragedy as they were before. We must do better, and by working together, we will.”



The former President’s Deputy, Erskine Bowles, just returned from the region where he saw first-hand the impact the tsunami had on people’s lives. He consulted with a wide range of partners -- from government, United Nations agencies, civil society groups and the business community -- to solicit ideas on how the Office of the Special Envoy can best assist in the recovery effort.



“I have seen humanitarian workers at their finest hour. And I have talked to countless people -- at the government, civil society and community level”, said Mr. Bowles. “I am convinced that we will only do the millions of people affected by the tsunami justice if we involve communities on the ground in the decision-making process. And we must never forget that when we rebuild the physical infrastructure, we must do so in a way that is protective to the most vulnerable -- the displaced, the women and the children.”



The Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery was created last month at the request of the General Assembly in an effort to sustain global attention and cooperation in the long-term recovery and reconstruction effort of the region.

Indonesia nervously watches 11 volcanoes as quakes heighten eruption chance

JAKARTA (AFP) - Ap 14/05 -  Indonesian scientists placed 11 volcanoes under close watch after a series of powerful quakes awoke intense subterranean forces and increased the chances of a major eruption.

As tens of thousands spent a third night in temporary camps after fleeing the slopes of Mount Talang on Sumatra island, where hot ash has been raining down since Monday, more volcanoes began rumbling into life. 

A similar warning was earlier issued for Tangkuban Perahu, near the west Java city of Bandung. Next week the city will host more than 50 heads of state, including China's president, at a summit of Asian and African leaders. 

Full Story Here

Hindu God of Protection found washed out at Sea by Tsunami

Mar 29/05 - Sify - Chennai: The six-inch high bronze idol which washed ashore near Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu following the December 26 tsunami has been identified as that of Jalagupta (a Myanmarese god) and the Myanmar government has given its approval for retaining it in India. 

According to Indo-Myanmar Chamber of Commerce vice-president K Gurumurthy, the idol, initially considered to be that of Lord Buddha, is actually that of Jalagupta, worshipped as ‘god of protection’ in Myanmar. 

Responding to a representation made by him, the Myanmar government, through its embassy in New Delhi, had informed him that the idol could remain in Chennai, he said. 

The chamber proposed to construct a pagoda for keeping the idol and worship it in a befitting manner, he said. 

Story Here

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

SOUTH ASIAN QUAKE HITS CHRISTIAN ISLAND
German Missionaries Converted Headhunters on Nias

By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service

Results from the Second Earthquake

GUNUNGSITOLI/WUPPERTAL (ANS) -- The earthquake off the coast of Sumatra has hit an island predominately inhabited by Christians. The quake on Easter Monday with a magnitude of 8.7 on the Richter scale devastated the Indonesian island of Nias. More than 90 percent of the 700,000 inhabitants are Protestants. In 1865 German missionaries came to the spice island and converted many native headhunters.

The United Evangelical Mission (UEM) in Wuppertal, Germany, is in contact with its member churches on the island. It is feared that the number of victims will exceed those caused on the island by the earthquake and tsunami of December 26.

So far 330 bodies have been uncovered on Nias, but the death toll is expected to rise above 500. Church officials estimate that 75 percent of the main town, Gunungsitoli, with a population of 30,000 has been destroyed.

Thousands fled in panic to higher ground around the town. Gaping holes and cracks have made some streets impassable, which were still under repair from the December tsunami. Some bridges have collapsed.

Initial reports also speak of serious damage to church buildings: at least two churches as well as schools and kindergartens have been destroyed. Many shops have also been damaged; therefore food, power and fuel are in short supply. Provisions must be brought in from outside.

Christian organizations are organizing relief efforts. UEM is an international missionary communion consisting of 34 member churches in Africa, Asia and Germany. The objective is the communion in mission and reciprocal assistance in implementing missionary tasks.

A local health official said refugees in the area of Kinniya were suffering from illnesses such as chicken pox, diarrhoea and fever.

They have been living in temporary tents for three months.

Meanwhile police say five people died in Sri Lanka during panic caused by tsunami warnings earlier in the week.

Excessive heat

Refugees in the Kinniya area say the problems of disease are exacerbated by their crowded living conditions.

They say that in many cases more than one family is living in a single tent and they have to put up with excessive heat.

Story Here

The Asian Development Bank said there was a shortfall of more than $4bn promised for rebuilding India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda said the world's attention must stay focused as work moved into reconstruction stage.

Nearly 300,000 people died in the 26 December earthquake and sea surges.

Many thousands more had their homes and livelihoods wrecked.

Corruption fears

The ADB delivered its latest post-tsunami report at an international meeting of donor countries, regional governments and aid agencies in the Philippines capital, Manila.

Story Here

Thanks but No Thanks !  - India rejects foreign aid for deadly tsunami relief work

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Dec 29/04 -  India has turned down foreign aid as it has "adequate resources" to provide relief to victims of a deadly tsunami that killed tens of thousands of Asians, a government official said.

India has been flooded with "generous offers of aid" from countries like Russia, the United States, Israel and Japan, said the official who did not want to be named.

"In fact, all friendly nations have offered help but we feel we do have the resources to handle the situation. If at a later stage we feel we need assistance we will not hesitate to ask," said the source on Wednesday.

"Right now we not only have adequate resources but have gone out and mounted a huge relief effort for Sri Lanka and Maldives. We could not have done this if we were facing a problem in Indian relief operations."

The Indian government says it has sent warships, helicopters and aircraft to distribute food, medicines and blankets to neighbouring Sri Lanka and the Maldives and has promised over 23 million dollars in monetary aid.

The official noted that India had not taken up the offers of help as Sunday's disaster was not of "the magnitude" of a brutal earthquake that struck the western Indian state of Gujarat in January 2001 killing 20,000 people.

"This disaster is just not of the same scale or magnitude of the Gujarat earthquake. In comparison to the Gujarat earthquake we have the resources to handle the situation at this juncture," he said.

Full Story Here

Tsunami Death Toll Soars to Near 77,000

Sri Lanka's war machine gears for relief as tsunami toll nears 22,500

COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka mobilised its entire public service and the military into an internationally-backed relief operation to stave off hunger and disease as the tsunami death toll neared 22,500.

The president's relief co-ordinating unit said at least 22,493 people were killed in the worst tragedy to hit a nation otherwise plagued by ethnic bloodshed that has killed 60,000 in three decades.

The government speeded up mass burials for rotting corpses left by a wall of water that killed at more than 80,000 people across Asia after it was touched off by an underwater earthquake Sunday near Indonesia.

Sri Lanka's chief relief co-ordinator, Tilak Ranavirajah, said systems were overloaded and admitted they were still trying to come to grips with the scale of the task ahead.

"We can't even think of guessing the size of the destruction," Ranavirajah told AFP. "The priority is to get the supplies to the people in most need. We have the entire public service and the military mobilised for the job." 

Full Story Here

World ramps up aid pledges as tsunami fallout mushrooms

LONDON (AFP) - Dec 29/04 -  Britain and Australia followed Japan and the United States in pledging dramatic increases in emergency aid for victims of the tsunami disaster in Asia as the world community struggled to cope with its mushrooming fallout.

London and Canberra, each pledging the equivalent of nearly 30 million US dollars (22.1 million euros), expected to raise their contributions further as awareness of the scale of the destruction, loss of life and risk of epidemics grew by the hour.

The announcements amounted to a 15-fold increase in commitments from the British government and a three-fold increase from the Australian government, a day after the United States more than doubled its pledge to 35 million dollars.

In Texas, US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said Australia, India, Japan and the United States would form a "core group" to lead relief efforts and hit back at criticism of aid offered by rich countries.

Asked about a report of a UN official referring to wealthy countries as "stingy" in their international aid, Bush said: "I felt like the person who made that statement was very misguided and ill-informed."

The United States was also sending an aircraft carrier, helicopter carrier and military forces from Asian bases toward disaster areas to help out. 

Full Story Here

Tsunami, Quake Death Toll Passes 150,000

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Jan 8/05 - Rescue workers pulled thousands more rotting corpses from the mud and debris of flattened towns along the Sumatran coast Saturday, two weeks after surging walls of water caused unprecedented destruction on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The death toll in 11 countries passed 150,000.

Hungry people with haunted expressions were still emerging from isolated villages on Sumatra island.

Staggered by the scale of the disaster, aid officials announced plans to feed as many as 2 million survivors each day for the next six months, focusing particularly on young children, pregnant women and nursing mothers.

World Food Program Executive Director James Morris said at a Jakarta news conference that the operation likely would cost $180 million.

"Many of the places where we work are remote, detached and their infrastructure has been dramatically compromised," Morris said, a day after he visited Aceh with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites). "We will be distributing food ... by trucks, by barges, by ships, by helicopters, by big planes."

Underscoring security concerns, gunfire echoed through the streets of Banda Aceh near the U.N. relief headquarters after suspected rebels allegedly fired shots at officers guarding the home of the Aceh province's deputy police chief. Police returned fire, but the gunmen vanished into the city, police Sgt. Bambang Hariyanpo said. 

Full Story Here

At its base, however, foreign aid consists of government-to-government subsidies.

On scale of stingy nations, U.S. hardly the worst 

GRATEFUL? YOU MUST BE JOKING!

When have Christian nations stepped in to help Islamic Countries ?

Now when have Islamic Countries sent aid to help Christian Nations ?

When do they even send aid or supplies to help each other ?

Indonesia Muslims express fear of Christianity & Christian ideas, Warn Against Evangelism

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Jan 14/05 - A senior Islamic leader warned foreign relief workers Friday of a serious backlash from Muslims if they bring Christian proselytizing to tsunami-struck Sumatra along with humanitarian help.

Masked health workers, meanwhile, fanned out spraying insecticide to kill mosquitos and prevent malaria from breaking out in Aceh province's refugee camps, where poor sanitation and contaminated water pose a health risk to tens of thousands of survivors.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said he would name a special envoy next week to coordinate relief and reconstruction in the 11 countries hit by last month's earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 157,000 people, two-thirds of them in Indonesia.

Annan, speaking to reporters at a conference in the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius, did not explain how the envoy's role would differ from that of the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, who has been responsible for coordinating tsunami aid.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz planned to visit Thailand on Saturday to discuss relief efforts. No other details of his trip were announced, but a U.S. Embassy official in Bangkok said privately that Wolfowitz would then travel to Aceh, which suffered the most damage in the Dec. 26 catastrophe.

At Friday prayers in the main mosque of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, a Muslim leader warned against any attempt by Christian aid workers to evangelize among tsunami survivors. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, and Aceh is particularly conservative.

"All non-governmental organizations, either domestic or international, with hidden agendas coming here with humanitarian purposes but instead proselytizing, this is what we do not like," said Dien Syamsuddin, secretary-general of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, or religious scholars.

He also condemned reports the U.S.-based welfare group WorldHelp had planned to adopt 300 Acehnese children orphaned by the disaster and raise them in a Christian children's home [since their parents were DEAD and the children had nowhere else to go]. 

The group told The Associated Press on Thursday it had dropped the idea.

"This is a reminder. Do not do this in this kind of situation," Syamsuddin said. "The Muslim community will not remain quiet. This a clear statement, and it is serious." 

Full story Here

War Against Christians

Indonesia's powerful Laskar Jihad has launched a campaign against Christian villages in Sulawesi

http://www.time.com/time/asia/photoessays/laskar_jihad/1.html 

UN Warns Sri Lanka Rebels Over Tsunami Children

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Jan 14/05 -  The United Nations (news - web sites) said on Friday it had received reports Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers were recruiting children displaced by Asia's tsunami and had told the rebels to leave under-age survivors alone.

Indonesia found almost 4,000 more bodies, taking the global death toll from the disaster to more than 162,000 with searches completed in areas most damaged by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

But life was starting to return to normal in towns and villages on battered Indian Ocean coasts with markets reopening and fishermen casting their nets again.

U.N. officials said the threat of disease to survivors had diminished but doctors reported children were dying from pneumonia. Health workers said they remained on guard.

The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF (news - web sites)) said three children were reported to have been recruited in Sri Lanka's east, where the Tamil Tiger rebels control large pockets of jungle.

"Recruitment ... was an issue before the tsunami. It's an issue that continues to be of concern," UNICEF's Sri Lankan representative Ted Chaiban told Reuters in an interview.

"We know of three cases of reported under-age recruitment that took place in the east," said Chaiban.

"We said (to the rebels) ... you send out instructions that no child that has been displaced by the tsunami should in any way be affected or harassed by any person."

Two of the children had been reunited with their family but a 15-year-old girl was still missing from a camp for the homeless, said Chaiban. 

Full story Here

Aid agencies fear tsunami orphans prey for Tamil Tigers

TRINCOMALEE, SRI LANKA - Tsunami orphans have become prime targets for forced labour and the sex slave industry, but they're also sought in Sri Lanka by the Tamil Tigers (a communist insurgency group) as child soldiers, say international aid agencies.

On Thursday, Ted Chaiban, the chief of UNICEF in Sri Lanka, verified three girls, aged 11, 12 and 15 had been recruited. He said the agency was working with the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam to get them released. 

Full Story Here

U.N. asks Indonesia not to impose deadline on foreign military relief aid

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Jan 13/05 -  The United Nations appealed to Indonesia not to impose a deadline on foreign troops providing relief assistance in strife-torn Aceh province after the tsunami disaster.

Jan Egeland, a top UN relief official, also expressed concerns over possible restrictions on movements of relief workers by the Indonesian authorities.

On Wednesday, Vice President Yusuf Kalla said he wanted all foreign military to leave Indonesia by the end of March or "the sooner the better", saying the emergency would be over in that timeframe.

"I am sure the Indonesian government will agree with me that the most important thing is to save lives and not have deadlines," Egeland, UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordination, told a videoconference from New York on the tsunami relief efforts.

"We may need certain military assets throughout the period," he said.

But he said that the March deadline was unlikely to pose major problems to aid efforts because by then roads would be cleared to move relief supplies to affected areas.

At present US armed forces are spearheading relief work using helicopters and other military aircraft.

Egeland said he was more concerned about foreign aid workers in Aceh. "I am worried of insecurity and possible movement restrictions either by insecurity or by political restrictions on our movements," he said.

"We have an important meeting in Indonesia today to clarify both the issue of when the military assets would have to leave, if at all, and also the question of possible reporting and restrictions on movement outside of Banda Aceh and Meulaboh (the two worst hit areas)," he said. 

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POPE JOHN PAUL II DIES AT 84

THERE IS NOT ONE CHRISTIAN NATION ON EARTH WHERE MUSLIMS ARE PERSECUTED.

Yet in most nations where the majority of the population are Muslims, there is systematic government persecution of Christians.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

--Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights--

Christian Conversions - According to the Bible - Can NEVER be forced.

Any Conversion to Christianity which would be "Forced" would NOT be recognized by God. It is in His True and KIND nature, that those who come to Him and choose to believe in Him, must come to Him OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL.



Don't Let anyone tell you that Christians support Forced Conversions.

That is False. True Christianity is NEVER forced.

Core Universal Rights

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief

India - Spiritual News 

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