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[Mennonite Central Committee Communications]

TOPIC:  Peace prayer rally in Uganda:  Change our hearts from violence to peace
DATE:   November 24, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

by Dave and Mary Lou Klassen

KAMPALA, Uganda -- "We have come to beg the Almighty God to
change our hearts from violence to peace," invoked Rev. Jackson
Turyagyenda of the Church of Uganda.  "We are here to implore God
to inspire us in seeking peaceful means to end the armed conflicts in
the northern and western parts of our nation." 

With this first of many prayers of intercession, reconciliation and
forgiveness, participants at the Joint Prayer for Peace rally began
calling to God with a unified voice at Constitution Square here in
Kampala on November 2.
      The Catholic Cardinal, His Eminence Emmanuel Wamala,
presided over the event as special guest in his capacity as Chairman of
the Uganda Joint Christian Council.  Leaders from the Church of
Uganda (Anglican), Orthodox and Seventh-Day Adventist communities
also participated.  (There are no Mennonite churches in Uganda.)

Led by marching bands, hundreds of people from various churches
walked to the city square, carrying banners calling for peace in
Uganda.  Many stood throughout the three-hour service, despite
intermittent rain showers.

The Church of Uganda Bishop of Kitgum, Rt. Rev. MacLeord Baker
Ochello II, who has personally suffered, led a Ceremony of
Remembrance for those who have died in the violence.  In May
Bishop MacLeord's wife was killed instantly when the vehicle in
which she was riding hit a land mine.

Rather than giving up in fear and despair, Bishop MacLeord is giving
a strong voice to the suffering of his people as he challenges Uganda's
leaders to look for peaceful solutions.   He is a force of encouragement
for his people, being able to identify with them more closely through
his own personal sorrow.

Parents of abducted children joined in the prayers, beseeching God for
mercy -- for themselves, for their children who suffer at the hands of
the rebels and for the rebels themselves.

As with so many conflicts in Africa, some roots of violence can be
traced to the colonial era where different ethnic groups were singled
out for various favors, causing divisions.
      In response, one leader prayed, "Our Forgiving God, you call
us to unity and reconciliation.  Forgive us for the sins of prejudice
which cause divisions and disunity among us.  It is you only who can
create in us hearts that are clean, open, unprejudiced and ready to
respect those who have different opinions and to live and work with
them in peace.  Give us a new heart and a new spirit.  We pray to
God."

The Joint Prayer for Peace was the vision of a small group of people
from various churches in Kampala. The group included Pam and Ron
Ferguson, former Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Uganda
program directors.  Originally the event was scheduled for March, but
was postponed at the last minute due to security concerns.  Despite the
disappointment, the planning group continued to meet.  The November
2 rally was the fruit of their prayers and work.

                         -30-

pls21november1997

Dave and Mary Lou Klassen of Kitchener, Ont., direct MCC programs
in Uganda.  They are members of Waterloo (Ont.) North Mennonite
Church.    

MCC Photo availableTOPIC:  Sidebar: MCC shares food with victims of violence in Uganda
DATE:   November 21, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

KAMPALA, Uganda --  Homes are burned, crops destroyed, land
mines set and children abducted as violence escalates in northern
Uganda.  The Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group, is waging a
campaign of terror against the government but it is the local people
who are suffering. 

This month MCC contributed $14,134 Cdn./$10,000 U.S. to purchase
sorghum, millet and beans for 3,200 people in Paibony, one of the
most desperate villages.  Each family there will also receive cow pea
seeds to plant -- cow peas can be harvested in about two months' time. 
Rev. Canon Nicholas Odonpiny of the Church of Uganda, a long-time
MCC partner, will coordinate the distribution.

Earlier this year MCC contributed aid valued at $42,403 Cdn./$30,000
U.S. to people displaced by the violence in northern Uganda.  (See
article #11, "MCC provides food, seeds and tools to Uganda violence
victims," in the September 12, 1997 MCC news service.)

Over the last 11 years, the lives of people in northern Uganda have
been severely disrupted by war.  Since 1986 rebel forces have
abducted some 10,000 children -- boys and girls -- and forced them to
perform as front-line soldiers, porters and concubines.  A few have
escaped, living with the memories of the nightmare; many more have
been killed as they could not perform the duties forced on them.

The government has used predominately military solutions to address
the conflict in northern Uganda, which is beginning to spill over into
the western part of the country.  Attempts at peaceful negotiations
have been frustrated by an unwillingness on the part of various parties
to seek non-violent means to end conflicts.  

As well, some observers suspect both overt and covert support for
various factions is coming from outside Uganda.  

                         -30-
pls21november1997TOPIC:  Mexican Mennonites to help "put the pot back on" in "coffee capital"
DATE:   November 21, 1997
CONTACT:  Emily Will
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

AKRON, Pa. -- The small town of Pluma Hidalgo is the "capital" of
Mexico's coffee export business.  "Pluma" refers to a brand of coffee
known worldwide for its quality.

This small town -- in the state of Oaxaca -- is also where Mexico City
Mennonites, with financial assistance from Mennonite Central
Committee (MCC), will concentrate their relief efforts.

When Hurricane Pauline ripped through Oaxaca on October 10, it
slashed off the limbs of or totally uprooted trees that shade coffee
bushes.  With perhaps 30 to 50 percent of the coffee crop damaged,
and overwhelming work to be done cleaning up and replanting shade
trees, the people of Pluma Hidalgo are feeling that their occupational
"lifeline" is threatened, says Marlin Yoder, MCC Mexico co-director.

Yoder travelled to the coast of Oaxaca and then some 35 kilometers/21
miles inland to Pluma Hidalgo on November 8 and 9. Accompanying
him were Mennonite physician Guillermo Zuniga and his wife, Eva. 
About 20 years ago the couple had lived in Pluma Hidalgo for two
years, providing medical care.

The Zunigas were welcomed back warmly. "It was like a homecoming
for them," commented Yoder.

The Zunigas had come to know the members of a Pentecostal church
during their two years in Pluma Hidalgo.  Now they talked with
church people about how Mennonites in Mexico City might help get
them back on their feet.

What emerged is a plan called "Oaxaca '98."  It involves sending a
work team of from three to 10 participants for one week each month
during 1998.  The work groups will help with coffee harvesting, clean-
up -- including the multitude of downed branches -- and replanting
shade trees and coffee bushes.

Members of the work groups will come from among the some 750
Mexico City Mennonites.  The churches will also provide some funds
for food and supplies for the workers.  MCC will furnish the teams'
transportation costs, and has already donated a chain saw to the town.

^From the dregs of hurricane destruction, MCC, Mexico City
Mennonites and Christians in Pluma Hidalgo hope to brew a new pot
of coffee. 

                         -30-

Emily Will, MCC Communications

21november1997TOPIC:  Before you bomb Baghdad. . .
DATE:   November 21, 1997
CONTACT:  Emily Will
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

An Open Letter To Presidents Bill Clinton and Saddam Hussein
by J. Daryl Byler

WASHINGTON -- Here we go again. It's deja vu in the Persian Gulf. 
Warships steam into place. Troops are placed on high alert. The
rhetoric ratchets up.  Enemies are defined.  Fears are fed.  Even the
welcomed diplomatic olive branches are laced with threats and words
of war.  

What are you teaching our children about the proper role of
government?  Are neither of you concerned about violating the God-
ordained purpose for governing authorities?

Instead of preserving order (Romans 13:1-7), your policies seem to
promote disorder.

Instead of sustaining life (Genesis 41:46-57), your policies seem to be
snuffing out life.

Instead of protecting the most vulnerable people (Matthew 25:31-46),
you seem ready to expend them to achieve your political objectives.

What God has intended as an instrument for good, you are turning into
an implement of greed.

President Clinton, before you bomb Baghdad, please reflect on the
moral inconsistencies in the U.S. Gulf policy:

Is it really more important to protect American oil interests than to
protect the interests of innocent Iraqi children? According to UNICEF
reports, more than 100 Iraqi children continue to die daily from hunger
and diseases spawned by seven years' worth of suffocating economic
sanctions -- sanctions strongly supported by the United States.

You call on Iraq to cooperate with the United Nations, yet the  United
States refuses to pay its U.N. dues.  And when it is convenient, the
United States seems quite ready to act alone in the international
community to impose its will on others.

You have rightly called for President Hussein to relinquish weapons 
of mass destruction.  How then can you refuse to sign a treaty in
Ottawa to ban the mass destruction caused by anti-personnel land
mines?

And President Hussein, before you sacrifice more Iraqi people on the
altar of your ambitions, please take inventory:

How can you build spacious palaces even while you allow little 
children to starve? 

On what authority do you act so aggressively toward neighboring 
countries? And why do you continue to make blustering threats?

How do you justify your apparent obsession with weapons of mass 
destruction even while most nations have signed a Chemical Weapons 
Convention?

As political leaders, you are certainly students of history.  Have you
learned nothing from 1991?  What good came out of the massive
military maneuvers then?  Thousands were killed.  Children and the
elderly continue to die. Relationships in the Gulf are more strained
than ever.  Violence did not make the Gulf more secure back then and
it will not, indeed cannot, now.   

What might happen if you chose to talk face-to-face instead of lobbing
rhetorical missiles through the media?  What might happen if you
chose to think more about saving children than about saving face?
What might happen if you chose to rule out military options and,
instead, began to consider ways of working cooperatively to create
security for all people in the Gulf region?  

Certainly, the God to whom you are both accountable would be
pleased.  And perhaps then our children would catch a glimpse of the
positive role government can play in our fragile world.

I implore you to think about these things -- before you bomb Baghdad,
President Clinton ... before you sacrifice more Iraqi people, President
Hussein.

                         -30-

J. Daryl Byler directs the MCC U.S. Washington Office.

esw21november1997