wfn.org | WCC NEWS: DR Congo & Rwanda: church leaders to meet presidents

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

>For immediate release - 11/11/2008 13:58:33

PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF WAR, CHURCH LEADERS WILL TELL PRESIDENTS OF
D.R. CONGO AND RWANDA

A delegation of church leaders from Burundi, Rwanda and the
Democratic Republic of Congo has set out to meet the presidents
of the latter two countries in order to convey them a strong
message in favor of peace. 

The 5-strong ecumenical delegation is gathering today at the
Congolese capital Kinshasa, where they expect to meet with
President Joseph Kabila before traveling in the coming weeks to
the capital city of Kigali in order to meet the Rwandan President
Paul Kagame. 

"The aim is to transmit them a message of peace," says Rev. Dr
André Karamaga, the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme
executive for Africa and general secretary-elect of the All
Africa Conference of Churches (AACC). 

The initiative was taken at a meeting of church leaders from the
Great Lakes region convened by the AACC in Nairobi, Kenya on
22-23 October. On that occasion, some 12 church leaders from
Burundi, Rwanda and D.R. Congo decided that the heads of state
and the rebel leader should hear a clear message: "People are
tired and want an end to the war," and "dialogue costs much less
than armed confrontation". 

Some 250,000 people have fled their homes in the eastern part of
the D.R. Congo escaping the fight that broke out between the army
and rebels in August. Rebels are led by renegade General Laurent
Nkunda, who says they fight to protect the Congolese Tutsi
community from being attacked by Rwandan Hutu fighters, who fled
to D.R. Congo, some of them perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan
genocide. The Congolese government seems to have failed to
deliver on its promise to stop the Hutu forces from using its
territory.

The D.R. Congo, a country the size of Western Europe and located
in the heart of Africa, is striving to recover from a long civil
war that reportedly killed some three million people, mostly
through starvation and disease. As the newly internally displaced
people join about one million already displaced in the region,
fears of a humanitarian disaster are on the rise.

The group of church leaders is led by the Anglican Archbishop of
Burundi Bernard Ntahoturi,. Ntahoturi chairs the Council of
Churches of Burundi and the Great Lakes Ecumenical Forum and is a
member of the WCC Central Committee. Also a member of the group
is the Anglican Bishop of Rwanda Onesphore Rwaje, who is the
president of the Protestant Council of Rwanda. Mbari Kioni, AACC
director of Advocacy, Research and Communication is accompanying
the team. 

The Congolese members of the delegation are: Bishop Dieudonné
Mbaya Tshiakany, moderator of the National Synod of the Church of
Christ in Congo and president of the Fellowship of Christian
Councils and Churches of Great Lakes and Horn of Africa
(FECCLAHA); Bishop Jean-Luc Kuye-Ndondo wa Mulemera, president of
the Church of Christ in Congo in South Kivu and a member of the
senate; and Rev. Dr Kakule Molo, president of the Baptist
Community in Central Africa, based ineastern Congo, and a member
of parliament. 

Churches in D.R. Congo are working to alleviate the humanitarian
crisis. While many aid groups work to assist those in camps for
displaced people, local members of Action by Churches Together
(ACT) International are striving to help the largely "invisible"
displaced families – those who are not in camps but sheltered in
family homes – and the increasingly vulnerable communities who
are hosting them. Initial plans for assistance include support
for an estimated 60,000 people, as well as access to water and
sanitation for significantly more families.

Action by Churches Together (ACT) International:
http://act-intl.org/alerts/Alerts_2008/Al44-08_DRCViol.html

>WCC member churches in D.R. Congo:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=4558

>WCC member churches in Rwanda:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=4633

>All Africa Conference of Churches:
>http://www.aacc-ceta.org

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

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 349 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.