wfn.org | U.S. should act immediately to end wars in Africa: bishops

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Nov. 9, 1998    Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
{649}

NOTE: This story is a sidebar to UMNS #648.  

By Robert Lear*

NORCROSS, Ga. (UMNS) -- Responding to an emotional plea from colleagues
in Africa, United Methodist bishops Nov. 5 called on President Clinton
and the U.S. government "to intervene ... now" to bring an end to
regional conflicts ravaging central and southern Africa.
   
"We beg you, in the name of Jesus, bring peace to Africa," said Bishop
Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo, living in exile from his assigned North Katanga
Area in the Congo. "Africa needs peace. We want the church to be
peacemakers."
   
The conflicts have been responsible for thousands of refugees, displaced
persons and deaths, the bishops said in their call for action. The
leaders of the United Methodist Church addressed the issue during their
Oct. 31-Nov. 6 autumn meeting at Simpsonwood Conference and Retreat
Center.
   
In the resolution adopted unanimously, the United States was asked, "as
the leader of the free world and promoter of peace and stability," to
use its power and influence to engage itself "in those countries where
warlords are still carrying on destructive wars."
   
Most of the "conflicts and wars are fueled by the countries which aim at
the neo-colonization and destabilization of the nations of Africa," the
bishops' resolution said. Cited specifically were conflicts in Sierra
Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Angola, Burundi and Rwanda.
   
African states want the fighting to stop, bishops from that continent
told their colleagues. "If America says that the war should end, the war
will end."
   
The bishops asked the government, Christians and churches in the United
States and the international community as a whole "to act firmly in
stopping the deadly arms trade underneath every single armed conflict in
Africa." 

According to the Council for a Livable World, U.S. weapons exports
around the globe totaled $10.9 billion in l997, with Egypt being the
largest purchaser.

                                       # # #

*Lear is a retired staff member of United Methodist News Service
residing in Wernersville, Pa. 

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