wfn.org | CWS BEGINS TRANSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION, DEVELOPMENT IN BOSNIA

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org 

6CWSW1/22/96                  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

 NEW YORK, Jan. 22 ---- With U.S. and other NATO
troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina to enforce a fragile
peace, Church World Service is beginning a
transition from emergency war relief to
reconstruction and development in the region.

 While relief will continue to be part of CWS's
four-year-old program that so far has distributed
more than $10 million in humanitarian aid in the
former Yugoslavia, CWS also hopes to use this
"window of peace" to support local partners' efforts
to reconstruct communities, foster reconciliation
and build lasting peace.

 CWS sees its role as "resource and catalyst" to
local non-governmental organizations as they wrestle
with such difficult issues as the return of refugees
and internally displaced persons and healing of the
wounds of hatred, said Peter Mikuliak, CWS's new
Regional Director for Bosnia-Herzegovina.

 "To what will these refugees return?  Will they
find homes damaged by the war, or occupied by
others?  Will communities be welcoming or resisting?
This is where we leave political simplicity behind
and enter the realm of human tragedy," he said.

 The answers, he said, "will need to come from
within local communities themselves."  Some possible
starting points include communities that refused to
cooperate with ethnic cleansing, local social
service agencies, and religious leaders who have
advocated consistently for peace and unity.

 Church World Service -- the relief, development
and refugee assistance ministry of the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
(NCC) -- has been planning for this move to
reconstruction and development for more than a year,
said the Rev. Paul Wilson, NCC/CWS Europe Office
Director.

 "We have been waiting for some assurance that a
ceasefire would hold and that development projects,
rehabilitation, schools and community centers
wouldn't just be destroyed overnight," he said.

 CWS's goal is to establish four to six projects
in different communities during the next six months,
Mr. Wilson said.  "We've had good relations with
people at the grassroots for three years who know
us, appreciate what we are about and appreciate that
sometimes it may take outside assistance."

 Since the start of the conflict four years ago,
U.S. churches have provided more than $10 million in
humanitarian aid through Church World Service to
civilians affected by the fighting in all the
directly affected areas of the former Yugoslavia.
In cooperation with the World Council of Churches
and the Conference of European Churches, CWS has
provided assistance to refugees, displaced persons
and other affected non-combatants including Muslims,
Croats and Serbs in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and
Croatia.  CWS also has assisted refugees from the
former Yugoslavia who sought refuge in Hungary and
has resettled a limited number of refugees in the
United States.

 CWS's Metkovic office, opened in late 1992, has
worked in close collaboration with other non-
governmental organizations and local communities to
identify people's unmet needs.  This winter, CWS is
distributing warm winter underwear and waterproof
shoes to refugees, vulnerable children and the
elderly; blankets; health kits; school kits, and
medicated shampoo for refugees and displaced persons
to eliminate head and body parasites, a source of
incredible misery.

 In 1995, CWS also helped support a wide range
of programs for women and children, including
treatment for traumatized children from Bosnia and
Croatia; assistance for diabetic and blind children
in Sarajevo, and building of a playground for
mentally retarded children at Gornji Bistrica
Children's Hospital.  Other projects included
several skills training and employment programs for
women refugees, displacees and war invalids; rape
crisis information and advocacy, and support of a
physician, herself a Bosnian Muslim refugee, who
cares for refugees and chronically sick patients.

 Throughout the war, CWS actively supported
governmental and non-governmental peace initiatives
and spoke out repeatedly against putting more
armaments into the region.

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