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SOUTH AFRICA: CHURCH SPEAKS OUT ON ARMS SALES


From Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>
Date 10 Sep 1997 12:10:26

Sept. 3, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.8.5.5]

SOUTH AFRICA: CHURCH SPEAKS OUT ON ARMS SALES

(ENI) South Africa's Anglican leaders have rebuked President Nelson
Mandela's government for selling weapons on the international market and
for buying  military equipment with money which, the Church leaders say,
isbadly needed to alleviate poverty and to pay for social services like
health and education.

The rebuke was made in a memorandum presented by Archbishop Njongonkulu
Ndungane, the Anglican Primate, to the chairman of the National
Conventional Arms Control Committee, Professor Kader Asmal in Cape Town
on 21 August. In the memorandum, drawn up by leaders of the (Anglican)
Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA), the Church expressed
astonishment that after the apartheid struggle, the South African
government was willing to sell arms enabling foreign leaders to suppress
human rights.

Professor Asmal is a cabinet minister in the Mandela government. His
committee was set up to oversee and control the country's arms trade,
and ensure it was conducted responsibly with respect for human rights.

The statement was made soon after a visit by South Africa's  Defence
Minister, Joe Modise, to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to promote arms sales
from South Africa. Archbishop Ndungane said in the statement: "I, as
Archbishop of Cape Town and Metropolitan of the Church of the  Province
of Southern Africa, have opposed the sale of arms to Syria and to
Rwanda, among others, and seriously questioned the continued promotion
of the South African armaments industry."

With several major civil wars on the African continent having recently
ended and others still threatening, transparency in the arms trade was
of the greatest importance, the statement said.

"It is a matter of disquiet that as a country which has placed great
emphasis on the protection of human rights, we do not mind enabling
ambitious rulers in other countries to obtain arms in order to deny
rights to their subjects or to threaten their neighbours."

The sale of obsolete equipment by South Africa to foreign powers was
inexcusable, the Church leaders said in the statement.  The statement
called on the government to destroy any other obsolete weapons it had in
stock and might be tempted to sell.

"The CPSA is also appalled at the prospect that the South African
government is apparently prepared to spend money, desperately needed for
reconstruction and development projects, for the eradication of poverty,
for education, health and welfare schemes, among others, on the purchase
of unnecessary military equipment."

South Africa was not at war and there was no military or moral
justification to warrant the expenditure which would be incurred if the
government went ahead with major military purchases, the statement
said.

"As a Church, we had hoped that members of a government, for so long
on the receiving end of tough and violent actions that often accompany
the acquisition of military equipment, would understand the need to
promote a balanced policy in its handling of military issues.

"We fear that we will see a return to the grotesque culture of the
military that was so much part of  'the South African way of life' 
before 1994," the Church statement said. (The apartheid regime was
replaced in the country's first democratic elections in 1994.)

South Africa should set an example to its neighbours and fellow African
countries, as well as to the rest of the world, the statement said.  Not
only was it possible to achieve peace through negotiation and mediation,
but also to maintain it without negative investments in the armaments
industry, and the sale of arms to other countries.

"A fresh lead is required from government.  Our war is over, and we
thank God for this," the Church leaders said, referring to the
anti-apartheid liberation struggle and the former regime's attempts to
crush its opponents.

"We need to move away from the culture of the military society which for
so many years retarded our economic, social, moral and spiritual growth.
It would be irresponsible for us to promote any actions that would cause
further damage to our country, region or continent, or which could be
construed in any way as advancing the cause of war, crime and
violence," the statement concluded.


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