wfn.org | Kosovo: LWF calls for a return to negotiations

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

General secretary dismisses threat, use of violence as a bankrupt
strategy

GENEVA, 26 March 1999 (lwi) The general secretary of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) Dr. Ishmael Noko has urged all parties
involved in the current conflict in Kosovo to return to the
negotiating table, with broad representation of the Kosovar people as
well as representatives of the main religious communities in the
region.

In a statement issued here regarding the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)-led  military intervention in the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia, the general secretary, on behalf of the LWF,
regretted that diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the conflict and
oppression in Kosovo have failed to avert the use of violence, both
by Yugoslav's President Slobodan Milosevic and by the NATO alliance.

At stake in the NATO-led bombing of Yugoslavia on March 24, is the
refusal by Serb leaders to accept a United States-drafted peace plan
that would grant ethnic Albanians local autonomy but not
independence.

In his statement signed on 26 March, Noko says the LWF is convinced
that the current NATO attacks on Yugoslavia are the latest expression
of a culture which still sees violence as the ultimate and most
effective tool in international relations.

"A strategy which pins its last and only hopes for securing peace and
justice upon the threat and use of violence, is a bankrupt strategy,"
Noko stresses.

On the use of violence on the ethnic Albanian community in Kosovo,
the general secretary says the LWF "abhors" the brutality of
Milosevic's response to the legitimate aspirations of the Albanians,
and the suffering inflicted by his security forces upon the peoples
of Kosovo.

It is understandable that, in the face of this brutality and of 
President Milosevic's intransigence during the negotiations,  there
should be a call for armed intervention. However, the Lutheran World
Federation considers that the use of force will not of itself resolve
this complex situation, Noko explains.

He expresses the Federation's concern that the NATO bombings "will
only strengthen Milosevic's support within the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, promote militaristic nationalism, and lead to violent
reprisals against ethnic Albanians" in the country and against
neighboring countries of  NATO.

On the international community's response to the ongoing crisis, the
LWF general secretary underscores disappointment that the events in
Kosovo have not been dealt with through "the world's peak
international forum on peace and security matters, the United
Nations." He points out that although the decision to intervene in
order to curb the oppressive actions of a sovereign state is a
difficult one, with unpredictable consequences and fraught with
danger, failing to obtain broad international consensus through the
UN "can only increase this unpredictability and danger."

Noko emphasizes the need to develop an international culture in which
armed intervention is no longer seen as the ultimate tool for
resolving disputes and addressing oppression. "Violence is not the
answer to violence," he adds.

The LWF is a global communion of Lutheran churches. The Slovak
Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in SR Yugoslavia, with
a membership of 48, 248, is one of the Federation's 124 member
churches.

Meanwhile, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches
(WCC), Dr. Konrad Raiser "has expressed profound emotion following
the NATO-led bombing of Yugoslavia."  According to a press releases
from the WCC, Raiser in a pastoral letter addressed to the church
leaders of the three WCC member churches in Yugoslavia  the Serbian
Orthodox Church, the Reformed Christian Church in Yugoslavia and the
Slovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Yugoslavia,
condemns "violence and intimidation in any form, as only a negotiated
solution can bring a durable and just peace."

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/