wfn.org | Prayers for Victims and Peacemakers in Zaire and Rwanda

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20-November-1996 
 
 
96466      Prayers for Victims and Peacemakers in Zaire 
          and Rwanda Requested by Denominational Leaders 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--A call for prayer and action to put an end to the violence 
that erupted once again along the Zaire/Rwanda border is on its way to 
every Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation. 
 
     Asking Presbyterians to be in "daily prayer" for people mired in the 
violence in Rwanda and eastern Zaire and for African and international 
leaders "working to end this tragedy," the letter is signed by Moderator 
John Buchanan, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, General Assembly Council 
(GAC) Moderator Youngil Cho and GAC Executive Director Frank Diaz. 
 
     "In Zaire and Rwanda ... these are not just stories in the news. 
These are friends and partners, people we know," Kirkpatrick told the 
Presbyterian News Service, emphasizing the sizeable Presbyterian communions 
in those two nations. "A lot of people walking across that border [into 
Rwanda] are Presbyterian." 
 
     According to the denomination's East Africa coordinator Hunter 
Farrell, the numbers of refugees crossing the border into Rwanda are 
staggering.  "It's a remarkable scene," he said, describing the relief felt 
by the international humanitarian community when Rwanda's now predominantly 
Tutsi government last weekend publicly welcomed back Hutus and Tutsis 
alike, though some of the returning Hutus engaged in acts of genocide 
against Rwanda's Tutsi populations in the 1994 violence. 
 
     "No one knows how long it will last ... but as of this morning [Nov. 
17], NBC reported that 10,000 refugees an hour were crossing the border 
back into Rwanda," Farrell told the Presbyterian News Service. 
 
     The exodus includes the more than one million Rwandans who fled to 
Zaire and settled into refugee camps along that country's eastern border in 
1994.  Such large numbers of Hutu refugees, according to a Nov. 15 
statement issued by the National Council of Churches (NCC), "created 
problems" for the ethnic Tutsi population (Banyamulenge) who have lived as 
a minority population in Zaire for the last century and who were thought by 
some to "harbor aspirations for their own territory." 
 
     The NCC statement says that "local politicians exploited the presences 
of Hutu refugees by stirring up ethnic animosity against the Banyamulenge 
among the local population and calling for the appropriation of their land 
and their expulsion from Zaire.  The Banyamulenge, with [alleged] support 
from the Rwandan government, launched a rebellion that destroyed many of 
the refugee camps and placed much of eastern Zaire under the control of the 
Banyamulenge." 
 
     Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has committed $100,000 through 
Action by Churches Together, the relief arm of the World Council of 
Churches, and another $50,000 through Church World Service, the NCC's 
relief effort, to provide food, water and medical assistance to the 
refugees. 
 
     Another $18,000 -- through PDA and the Worldwide Ministries' Division 
International Health Ministries office -- is earmarked to support medical 
teams working with refugees in Kisangani through the Church of Christ in 
Zaire. 
 
     "We're involved through Church World Service in the actual 
contribution of resources to feed the hungry." Frank Diaz told the 
Presbyterian News Service about the crisis.  "But in a disaster this big, 
prayer is about the most helpful thing we have to offer ... divine 
interference in such a tragic situation." 
 
     The letter from the denomination's leaders asks Presbyterians to 
consider a number of immediate issues in prayer: 
 
     *    the difficulty of setting relief to the now scattered refugees 
          because of fighting in and around refugee camps in Zaire 
     *    the armed gangs and militia who are perpetrating the violence and 
          who are using refugees as human shields in the corse of the 
          fighting 
     *    the need for a cease-fire to solve this tragedy and for 
          commitment by the governments of Rwanda, Zaire and Burundi to 
          work out a peaceful resolution 
     *    the need for support for the United Nations, the Organization of 
          African Unity, the All-Africa Conference of Churches and the 
          international relief agencies working to alleviate the suffering. 

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