World Council of Churches - Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org For immediate release - 22/05/2006 02:14:34 PM
RISK OF RENEWED CONFLICT IN SUDAN, WCC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE WARNS
Leaders of the World Council of Churches (WCC) issued an appeal today for the churches and international community to urgently refocus efforts to safeguard the fragile peace process in Sudan, and warned of the risks of an "ominous humanitarian crisis of gigantic proportion" if those responsibl e for crimes against humanity in the Darfur province are not brought to justice.
"There is a real danger of renewed conflict unless the churches of Sudan, the ecumenical fellowship and the international community together respond to the political and economic challenges and move from monitoring to action," the executive committee emphasized in a statement on Sudan agreed during its 16-19 May meeting at Bossey, outside Geneva.
"States can no longer hide behind the pretexts of sovereignty to perpetuate human rights violations against their citizens and live in total impunity," the statement notes, referring to the decisions of the WCC's recent 9th Assembly on The Responsibility to Protect.
Welcoming the UN Security Council Chapter 7 Resolution adopted on 16 May, the executive committee encourages the UN to take "urgent and decisive" action to ensure Sudanese civilians are protected. The statement also calls on African and other states involved in the peace process to bolster the implementation process of the Sudan comprehensive peace agreement signed in 2004 and to hold the parties accountable to that agreement.
The committee condemns the "atrocities committed on innocent Sudanese civilians, particularly women and children, by parties to the conflicts," and refers to the systematic killings, rape, displacement and looting that have characterised the armed conflict in Darfur as "crimes against humanity, by some even considered as 'genocide'". The human suffering and humanitarian emergency which result "pose a serious challenge to the international community that has a moral responsibility to bring the perpetrators to justice," the committee states.
The WCC has a long-standing involvement in efforts for peace in Sudan, and recently appointed a new special representative to facilitate ecumenical efforts for reconciliation and rehabilitation in the region. Since 2004, the WCC has worked through the ACT International alliance and with the Caritas network as part of a major international church response to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur province.
The full text of the 18 May 2006 WCC executive committee "Statement on Sudan" is available at: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=2260
The WCC's 9th Assembly statement on The Responsibility to Protect is available at: http://www.wcc-assembly.info/en/theme-issues/assembly-documents/1-statement s-documents-adopted/international-affairs/report-from-the-public-issues-com mittee/responsibility-to-protect.html
More on WCC work on Sudan/Darfur:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/regconcerns-sudan.html
This material may be reprinted freely.
Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
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The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 348 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.