wfn.org | Episcopal Church responds to the Kosovo crisis

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick @dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-052
Episcopal Church responds to the Kosovo crisis

In a statement issued March 26, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the
Episcopal Church deplored the "terrible spectacle of violence and civil
strife being visited upon the people in the state of Kosovo and wider
Yugoslavia" and expressed the hope that the United Nations Security
Council would exercise its primary responsibility for maintaining
international peace and security by playing a leadership role in
resolving the tragedy unfolding in Kosovo and neighboring countries.  As
the violence continues and the number of refugees increases to nearly
800,000, the Presiding Bishop has reiterated his plea to all parties to
pursue the path of negotiation and for the church and all people of good
will to pray fervently for peace.

In responding to the humanitarian crisis of thousands of refugees
pouring into Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania, the Presiding Bishop's
Fund for World Relief-the humanitarian assistance arm of the Episcopal
Church-notified parishes around the country that the Fund was receiving
contributions in response to the crisis. The Fund channeled emergency
assistance through ACT (Action by Churches Together), providing an
important early response to the Kosovo crisis. This Sunday parishioners
will receive inserts in their service bulletins urging them to
contribute generously to the Fund to support further assistance to the
refugees, including support for their longer-term rehabilitation and
resettlement.  To multiply the impact of its assistance, the Presiding
Bishop's Fund works ecumenically with Church World Service and ACT in
responding to humanitarian crises around the world.

Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), the refugee resettlement and
refugee advocacy program of the Episcopal Church, has with other
national resettlement agencies  urged the US Government to  increase
humanitarian assistance to support  those  countries that have suddenly
found themselves hosting  thousands of  uprooted ethnic Albanians.  The
well-being of the refugees and the preservation of avenues of escape for
those who may yet flee Kosovo require that host countries be sustained
in their effort to provide hospitality to those still in flight.  A
corresponding concern will be the fate of the thousands of internally
displaced Kosovars-a number that will increase if access to neighboring
countries is blocked. 

EMM and its national partner agencies have actively opposed the US Naval
base at Guantanamo Bay as a relocation center for the 20,000 ethnic
Albanian deportees whom the US Government has offered to assist.  While
applauding the Clinton Administration's initiative in relieving the
refugee burden of those nations receiving the brunt of the refugee
crisis, EMM with its partner agencies has written to the Administration
indicating a preference for a relocation option that recognizes the need
for the vast number of separated families to be reunited as soon as
possible. Additional reasons for rejecting Guantanamo as their temporary
home include the overwhelming desire of uprooted Kosovars to return home
and the inappropriateness of placing traumatized refugees in a setting
as inhospitable and isolated as Guantanamo. We prefer to maintain the
refugees in the Balkan region with generous US aid to the impacted
nations or arrange for displaced Albanians to be resettled in the US
until their voluntary repatriation could be accomplished.

Many people have called about sponsoring Albanian refugees. EMM is
registering interested parties and, more particularly, those relatives
willing to sponsor family members affected by the violence.  However,
EMM has made it clear that there is no immediate prospect of resettling
Albanian refugees in the United States as the US Government and the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are focusing all efforts
on relieving the present humanitarian crisis facing the refugees and
their eventual  return to Kosovo.  Depending on future developments,
resettlement could be an option for some Kosovars. 

The Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington,
D.C.,  monitors Congress and the Administration in this constantly
changing crisis and collaborates with ecumenical partners in attempting
to influence an early and peaceful solution to the current Balkan
crisis.  The office will seek opportunities to join the voice of the
Episcopal Church with other denominations in strategizing about how the
churches can be instruments of peace and reconciliation in this tragedy.

To contribute to the Episcopal Church's collection for refugee aid, make
each check payable to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, note
on the check that it is for Kosovo Refugees and mail it to:

PBFWR
C/o Bankers Trust
P.O. Box 12043
Newark, NJ 07101

Persons making credit card donations may call (800) 334-7626, ext. 5129.

The executive director of the Fund is Sandra Swan, (800) 334-7626, ext.
6020.

Persons inquiring about refugee sponsorship may call Richard Parkins,
director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, at (800) 334-7626, ext.
6252. The Office of Government Relations can be reached at (800)
228-0515.