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ADRA Gears Up for
Afghan Refugees

n Afghan refugee commissioner in Peshawar, Pakistan, has advised the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA) that water and tents will be critical needs as people continue to flee the armed conflict in Afghanistan.

Peshawar is a border town located near the area to which 2.5 million Afghans have already fled already. As conflict continues, it is expected that this number will swell. Local authorities anticipate establishing another 100 refugee camps.

"Typically, ADRA wants to meet the most critical needs," states Frank Teeuwen, Bureau Chief for Disaster Preparedness and Response for ADRA International. "We will continue to work closely with local authorities as we respond to this horrific crisis."

Four years of drought has brought 7.5 million people in Afghanistan to the brink of starvation, according to the United Nations. The country has the world's lowest per-person caloric intake and highest maternal mortality rate in the world. It is estimated that probably one-quarter of the children in Afghanistan will die before they reach their fifth birthday.

LLU Shuts Down Medical Education
Venture in Afghanistan
In the wake of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, officials at Loma Linda University in California have terminated the medical school's long-distance learning center at Kabul University in Afghanistan.

According to the Business Press newspaper, Loma Linda had scheduled a couple staff members to go to Afghanistan, but their trip has been put on an indefinite hold. "We're hoping, as the world is hopeful, that they will find some solution so some programs can be resumed," Augustus Cheatham, vice president of public affairs for the university, told a Business Press reporter. "But it's not looking good now."

The small teaching program, which involved two-to-four faculty, began July 2 as the first phase of rebuilding the Kabul University Medical School that was ravaged by factional fighting over the past 10 years, reports Loma Linda University Today.

The project grew out of teaching visits that Dr. Gordon Hadley, a Seventh-day Adventist physician, had made to Afghanistan since 1960, says Cheatham.

Former Administrator Stands Trial in Tanzania
The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Tanzania, began hearing arguments September 18 in the trial of retired pastor and former Seventh-day Adventist administrator Elizaphan Ntakirutimana.

Ntakirutimana and his son, Gerard, have pled not guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in connection with the 1994 civil conflict in Rwanda, which claimed an estimated 800,000 lives.

Ntakirutimana and his son have been accused of collusion in the murder of a large group of people taking shelter in an Adventist complex in Mugonero, western Rwanda.

"The courts of justice are the appropriate forum for the resolution of these allegations," says Ray Dabrowski, an Adventist Church spokesperson. "We have cooperated with both the United Nations tribunal and with the defense lawyers of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana and his son."

"As a church, we reject violence as a means for conflict resolution," he adds. "At the heart of Christianity is a message of compassion, reconciliation, and love, which transcends all differences of language, race or nationality."

Ntakirutimana, a Rwandan national who had lived in retirement near Laredo, Texas, since 1994, was indicted by the United Nations tribunal in June 1996. He was arrested in September of that year and extradicted from the United States in early 2000 to stand trial in Tanzania.

The Adventist Church has some 350,000 members in Rwanda and operates three schools, one hospital and nine clinics around the country. An estimated 10,000 Adventist Church members lost their lives in the inter-tribal conflict of 1994.--Adventist News Network

News Notes
More than 100 couples participated in the second annual From This Day Forward marriage commitment celebration on October 6 in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Sponsored by the North American Division Family Ministries Department, the workshop program provided tips on building strong relationships. "At the end of the day the couples renewed their wedding vows and received specially designed certificates," says Willie Oliver, NAD family life director. In 2002 the celebrations will be held January 26 in Houston, Texas; and October 5 in Silver Spring, Maryland

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