wfn.org | WARC pleads for end to sectarian violence in Indonesia

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6151 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

10-August-2000
00288

WARC pleads for end to sectarian violence in Indonesia

Christian-Muslim conflict threatens Maluku Islands

by Paraic Reamonn
World Alliance of Reformed Churches Communications Secretary

BANGALORE, India -- The Executive Committee of the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches has adopted the following statement on the situation in
the Maluku Islands and in Central Sulawesi. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
is represented on the Executive Committee by stated clerk the Rev. Clifton
Kirkpatrick.
	The World Alliance of Reformed Churches is extremely concerned by the
communal conflicts in the Maluku islands and in Central Sulawesi, in which
hundreds of places of worship have been burnt and thousand of lives taken.
	During the WARC Executive Committee meeting in Bangalore, India, from July
20 to 29, 2000, the Department of Cooperation and Witness received
additional information on the escalating human rights violations against the
people in North and Central Maluku and Central Sulawesi.
	In spite of the efforts that the Indonesian government is making, this
tragedy and its escalation greatly disturbs WARC, an ecumenical community of
faith consisting of 75 million Christians from 215 member churches in 106
countries.
	WARC, which has 26 member churches throughout Indonesia -- two of them in
the Maluku islands and one in Central Sulawesi -- is seriously concerned
that, despite the declaration of a state of civil emergency in the Maluku
islands, the situation has continued to deteriorate.
	It has always been our basic aspiration and hope that all religious
communities could peacefully co-exist and work together for peace and
justice in the society where they are situated.  We are convinced that
religious communities should be a symbol of peace rather than sources of
tension in society. With this position, WARC urges the Indonesian government
to take decisive measures to restore the peaceful coexistence of the two
religious communities in the Malukus.  Our concern is peace for all --
Muslims, Christians and people from other religions.
	The WARC Executive Committee:

* encourages all prayers for peace in Maluku and in Central Sulawesi.
* affirms that it stands in solidarity with the majority of Christians and
Muslims in Indonesia,  who have been and are living in harmony, in their
support for peacekeeping efforts.
* rejects all circumstances in which religious communities are abused or
manipulated by political or economic powers.
* appeals to President Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia to take all measures
in his power to stop the conflict immediately and to restore peace among the
people in the troubled area.
* appeals to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to do
whatever is necessary to restore security and peace in this region,
including the following means:
	- A team of observers from the UN;
	- A peace-keeping force in the near future;
	- An urgent evacuation airlift for people in danger, in particular on small
islands.
* urges all member churches to remember in their prayers and thoughts the
people in Maluku and Central Sulawesi, as well as their sister churches, the
Protestant Church in the Moluccas, the Protestant Church in Halmahera and
the Christian Protestant Church in Central Sulawesi, who are in crisis.

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