JERUSALEM, Apr 11, 02 (CWNews.com) - The Franciscans inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem have issued an urgent call to international leaders to help arrange for the withdrawal of 200 armed Palestinians from inside the church.
From Rome, the minister general of the Franciscan order, Father Giacomo Bini, relayed the plea for a negotiated end to the standoff at the shrine built on the site of Christ's birth. Speaking "in the name of all Franciscan," Father Bini said that the Palestinian gunmen must be allowed to leave, in order to avoid "a humanitarian catastrophe" and "useless bloodshed."
The Franciscan leader also reiterated the insistence of the Franciscans in Bethlehem that they are not being treated as hostages. "To date, none of the roughly 200 Palestinians who are with the friars has committed any act of violence."
The spokesman for the Franciscans in Jerusalem, Father David Jaeger, told the Fides news service that the friars inside the church still do not have water or electricity-- although those utilities have been restored to the adjacent Orthodox monasteries, and even to the area where the Palestinian gunmen are staying.
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11. april 2002