wfn.org | Ethiopian president asks LWF to help Horn of Africa

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

Peace is indispensable in the region

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia/GENEVA, 16 April 1999 (lwi)   Ethiopian
President Negaso Gidada has appealed to the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) to do its utmost to help Ethiopia and Eritrea cope with their
economic and social problems.

The state president made this request when he held discussions with
the visiting LWF president, Bishop Christian Krause in the Ethiopian
capital.

Against the background of the ongoing border war between the two Horn
of African countries, Gidada said Ethiopia had already gone through
difficult times of military dictatorship and civil war, and presently
"peace was indispensable."

The LWF president underlined the significance of the general
elections in Ethiopia planned for next year, and said that the polls
could only make a genuine contribution to the future peaceful
development of the country if they are conducted in a free and
democratic manner. Gidada assured Krause that all the groupings in
the country would take part in the process.

Krause was hosted by the president of the Ethiopian Evangelical
Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), Rev. Yadessa Daba. Other countries on
his itinerary during his April visit to eastern and southern Africa,
which is also his first to the region as LWF president, include
Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar and South Africa. (See lwi News Service
99-03-02 for 23 March 1999)

In an earlier meeting with the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church (EOC) Abune Paulos, the LWF president said the situation in
the Horn of Africa should not be overshadowed by what is going on in
Yugoslavia. "We in Europe and the Western world must not lose sight
of the situation in the Horn of Africa over the oppressive war in the
Balkans," he told the head of the EOC.

The Patriarch regretted that although the church leaders in both
countries have made attempts for mediation between representatives of
the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, who have so far met in Norway
and Germany, there has been no successful outcome from such efforts.
Paulos appealed to the LWF to do anything in its power to promote
peace in the region.

Meanwhile, Bishop Christian Krause has expressed sincere respect to
the people and the government of Tanzania, particularly for passing
under the leadership of former president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, what
he described as the "most humane act"  the Refugees Control Act 
which opened the doors for refugees from Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe
(formerly South Rhodesia), South Africa, Burundi and Rwanda to live
in camps and later on be repatriated to their countries of origin.

According to a press release by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Tanzania (ELCT), the visiting LWF president made these remarks in the
north-eastern city of Arusha, during a dinner hosted by Mr. Amani
Mwenegoha, the Secretary General of the ELCT. Krause said the reason
why the LWF was involved in catering for refugees since the 1960s in
close collaboration with United Nations agencies, was because at its
founding in 1947, every eighth Lutheran in the world was a refugee.

Mwenegoha thanked the LWF for its assistance to ELCT and Tanzania as
a whole and called for continued support in areas of education,
health and community projects among others.

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