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At least 28,000 bodies retrieved from ruined ancient city
By: Stefan J. Bos
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
BAM, IRAN (ANS) -- Iran's persecuted Christians are involved in helping victims of
Friday's earthquake in the ancient city of Bam, where 28,000 bodies were retrieved amid
scenes of grief, ASSIST News Service (ANS) learned Tuesday, Dec. 30.
As mass burials continued in the devastated town, the Christian Reformed World Relief
Committee (CRWRC) announced it had contacted local evangelical churches to respond to
spiritual, physical and material needs of communities in the Bam area.
CRWRC Executive Director Andrew Ryskamp said he saw an "opportunity to witness"
the love of Christ to victims "in a powerful way," in the mainly Muslim nation.
He told Mission Network News (MNN), a Christian broadcaster, that people have shown
interest in the Gospel.
"You're here? Your so different from other people from the west. What is that?,"
Ryskamp said about questions asked by non Christian Iranians. "And, that's an
opportunity to begin a dialogue about what it means to be in Christ. That's a real place
for testimony to happen," he said.
MANY HOMES DAMAGED
Friday's pre-dawn earthquake razed much of the ancient Silk Road city of Bam in Iran,
about 630 miles (1000 kilometers) from Tehran.
The quake, which reportedly registered up to 6.7 on the Richter scale according some
estimates, damaged about 80-percent of the homes while seven out of ten people living in
the area are said to be dead, missing, injured or displaced.
Historical structures such as the 2,000-year old citadel were also destroyed and
eyewitnesses said the tallest section of the ancient mud fortress "crumbled like a
sand castle," killing also one American and injuring another.
"(The quake) reminds me quite a bit of the one that happened a few years ago in
Turkey," said Ryskamp, adding his organization was raising funds to rebuild the area
of up to 200,000 people.
Ryskamp said food, health care and housing was needed, and suggested the CRWRC would
closely work with "Middle East organizations that are into the house church network
to really respond in a way that's coming along side those communities."
SHOW "CHRISTIAN CARE"
He stressed it was part of a major effort "to show them what Christian care really
is."
Christian and other aid workers have also asked for clothing, blankets, tents, cooking
sets and medicines, as the shattered city digs out from tons of rubble and debris left in
the aftermath of the deadly temblor.
Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless by the earthquake that all but
destroyed Bam, and many of them have been without shelter in near-freezing nighttime
temperatures. One Iranian Church leader involved in the relief effort, whose identity was
not revealed for apparent security reasons, urged believers not to forget those suffering
because of the earthquake in Bam.
"It is also extremely sad that the world will soon forget the victims," the
official was quoted by a Christian news letter as saying, after officials said the total
death toll could reach 40,000, and even 50,000.
SUFFERING CHRISTIANS
It was not clear what impact the Church support would have on the attitude of Islamic
authorities toward Christians and their leaders, many of whom have been imprisoned,
tortured and assassinated by death squads and other individuals, according to several
human rights reports seen by ANS.
In addition church buildings have been closed and bibles confiscated since the closure of
the Iranian Bible Society in 1980. Human rights watch dogs say the persecution of
Christians in Iran "has decimated the leadership of the Protestant evangelical
community" in that country and created an atmosphere of terror under which the church
is presently suffering.
The Christian minority, including Muslim coverts, have been linked by militants to what
they see as Western and especially America's efforts to "colonize" the region.
While 99 percent of Iran's roughly 65 million people are Muslim, there are believed to be
thousands of born again believers in the Middle Eastern nation.
TENSIONS REMAIN
There were no indications Tuesday, Dec. 30, that relations between Washington and Tehran
improved, with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami saying he "welcomed aid" from
the United States but that only "a profound change in U.S. policy" would settle
political differences.
Diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran have been cut since 1980 following the
Iranian revolution that resulted in the taking of American hostages at the U.S. embassy in
Tehran
Despite their difference the first American military flight to Iran since 1981 arrived in
the Islamic republic Sunday, Dec. 28, carrying tons of emergency supplies.
In addition a team of 80 U.S. doctors arrived in southeastern Iran Monday, Dec. 29, with
medical and emergency supplies as the search and rescue phase from Friday's earthquake
transitions to humanitarian assistance, the Voice of America (VOA) network reported.
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