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ELCA Bishop Joins Appeal for U.S. to Reconsider Land Mine Treaty


From News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>
Date 10 Dec 1999 22:29:20

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

December 7, 1999

ELCA BISHOP JOINS APPEAL FOR U.S. TO RECONSIDER LAND MINE TREATY
99-309-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA),  joined with leaders
in U.S. churches and related organizations Dec. 4 in calling on
President Clinton to reconsider U.S. land mine policy.
     The leaders also appealed for the United States to join 136
countries that have signed the international Mine Ban Treaty.
     The leaders made the statements in an advertisement, sponsored by
the Landmine Survivors Network, Washington, D.C., that appeared in The
New York Times on its opinion page.
     The ELCA, at its 1997 Churchwide Assembly, called for the
elimination of land mines and for the U.S. government to sign the
treaty.
     The United States has not signed the mine ban treaty, which went
into effect March 1.  Those countries that did sign the treaty agreed to
ban the manufacture, stockpiling and use of land mines.  The treaty
calls for governments to destroy all caches of stockpiled land mines
within four years and to remove mines already in the ground within 10
years.
     Others signing the Times' ad included the leaders of two of the
ELCA's full communion partners, including the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick,
stated clerk of the general assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and
the Rev. John H. Thomas, president, United Church of Christ.  Also
signing was the Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop, Episcopal
Church, and the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell and the Rev. Andrew Young,
representatives of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the
U.S.A. (NCC).  The ELCA is among 35 member churches of the NCC.
     "Someone steps on a land mine every 22 minutes," the leaders said
in the Times' ad. "One light step and a land mine explodes, whether it
is the boot of a soldier or the sandal of a child."
     There are some 80-million land mines "lurking" in more than 65
countries, the religious leaders said in the ad. "Former U.S. military
commanders assert that, like poison gas, antipersonnel land mines are
not essential to the effectiveness or safety of our forces," they said.
     The leaders appealed to President Clinton to "ensure that all may
walk in safety into the next century."
     "Lead our country to stand among those who choose life," the
leaders concluded.
     The ELCA, through its Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs
(LOGA), continues to urge U.S. government officials to work actively for
the elimination of land mines.
     "The President, as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, has to
stand up and say antipersonnel mines have got to go now," said the Rev.
Mark B. Brown, LOGA assistant director for international public policy
advocacy ministry, Washington, D.C.  LOGA is a member of the United
States Campaign to Ban Land Mines.
  "We know he (President Clinton) cares deeply about this issue, but
words without action are meaningless to the people of the United States
and the world who want to see the United States join this treaty now,"
Brown said in a story issued Dec. 2 by PRNewswire. "2006 is too late for
the thousands of innocent civilians who lose their limbs or lives to
this indiscriminate weapon each year," he added.
  In 1997 the ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted overwhelmingly to adopt
a resolution that called for "an international ban on the use,
production, stockpile, and sale, transfer or export of anti-personnel
land mines."
  The 1997 resolution called for the U.S. government to sign as soon
as possible an international treaty that bans anti-personnel land mines.
The assembly also asked the government to increase support for
international and bilateral programs for humanitarian mine clearance and
mine victim assistance.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html


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