wfn.org | Republic of Congo: Churches suffer heavy impact of fighting

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

Some clergy have been killed, others have disappeared

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo/GENEVA, 31 August 1999 (lwi) - Ahead of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plans to send
extra staff to Gabon to look after tens of thousands of people who have
fled from fighting in the Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville) in
recent weeks, reports reaching lwi say that the war has taken a heavy
toll on the six communities which are members of the Conseil oecumenique
des Eglises chretiennes du Congo (COECC) - Council of Christian Churches
in Congo.

According to the pan-African ecumenical All Africa News Agency (AANA),
about ten clergy from among the COECC member churches in the regions
affected by the renewed fighting in the last three months have been
murdered, while others have fled into the jungle and there is no news of
them.

The Republic of Congo Christian council comprises the Evangelical
Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Salvation Army, Kimbanguist and
Orthodox churches. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Congo (EELC),
which is affiliated to the Lutheran Communion in Western Africa (LUCWA)
has contacts with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The LUCWA works
in close cooperation with the LWF as one of its three sub-regions in
Africa. The regional body comprises 12 Lutheran churches, among them
non-LWF members.

The AANA reports say that nearly 8,000 persons have been killed and
there has been significant destruction during the last three months of
renewed fighting in the capital Brazzaville and four administrative
districts in the southwest of the Republic of Congo.

The churches have not been spared this violence; the dismemberment and
destruction of buildings, looting of possessions, murders and forced
relocation of church personnel have seriously weakened their energy for
mission, AANA reports.

The 132 days of the Brazzaville war in 1997, and the degeneration into
new clashes since the end of last year, have exposed the true nature of
these Congolese. "Never in human memory has there been a moment when
they were so warlike, so hateful and barbarous," a pastor is quoted
saying during a sermon.

"They kill shamelessly, they are raping, looting and destroying with
diabolic ingenuity their entire social, cultural and economic heritage,"
the clergy added. According to the AANA report, these words are a
perfect summary of the depressing situation in Congo. The southern
districts of Brazzaville and the main centers of church and secular life
have been systematically stripped of even the bare necessities; clinics,
schools, orchards and fields have been vandalized, when not burned.

The current fighting which broke up in the nation of three million
people late last year is said to have left officially at least 1,000
people dead although unofficial estimates put the death toll at much
higher. The parties in the conflict -- militiamen backing former Prime
Minister Bernard Kolelas and former President Pascal Lissouba -- are
battling government troops of former Congolese military strongman, now
state president since 1997, Denis Sassou-Nguesso.

By financial estimations, the extent of the devastation is beyond
measure. The greater part of church structures has been systematically
gutted and the contents carried away. Among others, the plundering of
the Protestant Theological Faculty, which opened in October 1998, forced
the institution to cancel its entire school year and send the students
home.

Generally the churches have suffered material losses. However, during
the worst period of the war in the capital, Brazzaville (December 1998
to May 1999), all the churches provided moral and material help to the
thousands of stricken and displaced persons who took refuge in their
local churches in the Atlantic Ocean port city of Pointe Noire.

The churches have invested their energies in seeking solutions to the
war and have offered to serve as mediators. But the tragedy at Mindouli,
where six mediators from the COECC were murdered under suspicious
circumstances in November 1998, has considerably dampened the
initiatives of church leaders.

And as the Central African country celebrated its 39th independence
anniversary on August 14, an official of the state's health ministry
cautioned that there is a possibility of a humanitarian disaster and
urged international intervention.

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. Its
highest decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven
years. Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council
which meets annually, and its Executive Committee. The LWF secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information is the information service of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material presented
does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various
units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (lwi), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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