wfn.org | WCC NEWS: End "Plan Colombia", work for the conflict's peaceful resolution – WCC asks

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

>World Council of Churches - News release
>For immediate release: 26 February 2010
>Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363

WCC CALLS FOR A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF THE COLOMBIAN CONFLICT

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has requested its member churches to  advocate for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Colombia, the full  respect of human rights and the cessation of the so called "Plan Colombia".

"The violent conflict in Colombia can be overcome only through dialogue  and political negotiations", the WCC executive committee said in a minute  approved at the end of its 23-26 February meeting in Bossey, near Geneva,  Switzerland.

The WCC minute calls on the churches in the United States of America "to  press their government for an immediate cessation" of the "Plan Colombia",  a US financial and military aid program aimed at curbing drug production  and training Colombia's army to battle rebel groups.

The WCC executive committee requests that foreign assistance to Colombia  "be redirected from military to humanitarian purposes and for a renewed  emphasis on strengthening respect for human rights in the country".

The WCC minute "urges religious leaders in Colombia to continue their  efforts in promoting a peaceful resolution of the conflict, the disarming  of the paramilitary and the restoration of the rule of law".

Colombia has "one of the world's most serious humanitarian crises", the  WCC executive committee stated. As a result of a protracted conflict  lasting over five decades, "thousands of people have lost their lives" and  "millions are being forcibly displaced, mostly indigenous people,  Afro-Colombians and farmers".

Recalling the Council's long history of "accompaniment to the Colombian  people in their struggle for an end to the armed conflict", the WCC  executive committee requests from its member churches "prayers and actions  of concrete solidarity".

Full text of the WCC executive committee minute on violence in Colombia
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/executive-committee/bossey- february-2010/minute-on-violence-on-colombia.html

WCC member churches in Colombia

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/latin-america/colombia. html

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 Olav Fykse Tveit,  from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.