SAN DIEGO/TIJUANA BORDER Five participants in Pastors for Peace including the humanitarian organization's founder, Rev. Lucius Walker, entered the fourth week of their fast. They are abstaining from all food, drinking only lemonade sweetened with maple syrup. The fasters remain committed to their 'Fast for Life' until 400 medical aid computers, including computers donated by San Diegans, are released.

The computers, seized by U.S. Customs on January 31 and February 17, 1996, were part of a UN and Pan American Health Organization project called INFORMED, an on-line medical information system that will eventually connect every hospital and health clinic on the island of Cuba. Because of the 35 year old U.S. embargo, Cuba has not been able to obtain necessary medical journals and keep up with the latest life-saving techniques and medications. The INFORMED, on-line system will correct this acute deficiency and help to save Cuban lives by providing hospitals with access to location of urgently needed equipment and medicines.

San Diegan volunteers have formed a "Fast for Life Support Team" to dedicate themselves to aiding the festers with publicity to bring public pressure to bear on President Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Rubin to release the computers.

On Jan. 31, Pastors for Peace participants attempting to cross the Otay Mesa border with the boxes of medical aid were attacked and physically brutalized by customs agents. One volunteer was knocked unconscious and had to be hospitalized. Many were hurt. Eleven were arrested and jailed, although charges have yet to be fled. Eight were detained and later released. A combined force of helicopters, sophisticated surveillance equipment, police vans, tow trucks, and agents provocateurs costing tax payers an estimated $1 million turned the border into a war zone to prevent U.S. and Canadian citizens from delivering the medical aid.

On Feb. 17, Customs again seized medical computers at the San Ysidro border while allowing boxes of medicine to be carried across. "If this is a simple matter of obtaining permits as Customs implied to the news media, why were boxes of medicine without permits allowed to cross?", asks Tanja Winter, local activist and Pastors for Peace volunteer.

====================================================================================

On Feb. 7, IFCO (Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization; one of its projects is Pastors for Peace) received a Federal Grand Jury subpoena demanding documents and testimony on the 4^th and 5^th Pastors for Peace caravans to Cuba. The subpoena demands every document associated with aid caravans to Cuba in 1994 and 1995, including the names and addresses of all individual "caravanistas" participation.

Under federal grand jury laws, subpoenaed persons are compelled to give testimony in secret without the benefit of legal counsel. Refusal to answer the U.S. Attorney's questions can result in jail sentences of up to two years. Many feel that this is a return to the days of McCarthy hearings and abuse of Grand Juries during the Nixon years.

====================================================================================

Among the 400 recently seized computers were 35 belonging to Canada, a country that has normal trade relations with Cuba. Many Canadian citizens, particularly those who donated these computers to Cuba feel that this is a threat to Canadian sovereignty, as does Brian Rohatyn, a faster from Vancouver, Canada. Canadian government officials are questioning this blatant violation of international law and the NAFTA accords as an imposition of U.S. law on Canadian citizens.

The Canadian computers entered the U.S. under an official Customs bond at Blaine Washington, north of Seattle. A $100 bond stating "Cuba." as the country of destination declares that the money is a security deposit and will be refunded when the computers leave the U.S. The bond acts as insurance that the computers will not remain in the U.S. However, Customs officials have seized the computers and will not release them to the Canadians.

On Feb.17, additional computers and modems were seized when a group of 100 Canadians and Americans attempted to export them from Vermont for export to Cuba. A group of Canadian lawyers and volunteers are working to obtain the release of the computers.

====================================================================================

On March 7, U.S. Treasury Agents (Customs) broke into a private storage garage 25 miles north of the U.S. border in San Diego and seized medicines, crutches, adult nutritional formulas, second-hand computer parts and components. This donated aid was awaiting transportation back to the San Francisco Bay area and, in view of the two previous seizures, was not destined for Cuba. Rev. Lucius Walker, founder of Pastors for Peace called the latest seizure "outrageous" and many others feel it was clearly illegal.

Volunteer! For more Info., call Pastors for Peace (619) 295-0974