Church World Service Protests For Religious Freedom

Church World Service is protesting the recommendations in an advance draft it received yesterday of a new report by the Bush Administration’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba.

|TOP|The humanitarian agency reports that if accepted would end its ability to provide basic relief aid to people in need in the island nation.

Chaired by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and co-chaired by Secretary of Commerce George Gutierrez, the report has not yet been officially released.

”If the recommendations contained within this report are accepted by President George Bush and put into effect by the Commerce Department, it is likely that we will no longer be allowed to provide humanitarian aid through
the Cuban Council of Churches, our agency¹s partner in Cuba for 60 years,” said CWS Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough.

In addition, Church World Service would view any resulting regulations indicated in this report by the Bush administration as hurting their religious freedom.

|AD|”The report is an assault on ecumenical relations not only in Cuba, but internationally and sets a dangerous precedent. This tries to dictate the very ways in which we deliver humanitarian aid to people who need it. If the
way we provide aid can be curtailed in Cuba, our relief and response work could be threatened anywhere else.”

One of the report recommendations reads as follows:

"Tighten regulations for the export of humanitarian items, other than agricultural or medical commodities, to ensure that exports are consigned to entities that support independent civil society and are not regime
administered or controlled organizations, such as the Cuban Council of Churches."

CWS represents 35 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican
denominations in the United States which themselves represent tens of millions of members in their respective local churches.

"To hinder this activity is to strike at the heart of our religious identity and freedom. Religious freedom was a key principle to the founders of the American Republic,” says Martin Shupack, associate director for Church World Service public policy.