wfn.org | SOUTHERN AFRICA: BISHOPS' SYNOD SPEAKS OUT ON ARMS

[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

Sept. 26, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.9.4.5]

SOUTHERN AFRICA: BISHOPS' SYNOD SPEAKS OUT ON ARMS

(CPSA) Bishops of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa have called
into question the practice of countries arming themselves to achieve
military might and trade in machines of war, violence and conflict.

In a statement adopted at a meeting of the Synod of Bishops held in
Modderpoort, and presented to the Minister of Defence, Mr Joe Modise, in
Pretoria on 22nd September, the Bishops  indicated that whereas
countries should be promoting peace, they were alarmed that so much
store was still set in military might  - with all the inherent threats
that this entails. 

The Bishops said they rejected, in the strongest terms, the notion of
the "threatened neighbour" scenario.  They pointed out that no country
in southern Africa faced the threat of war from any of its neighbours.

The only threat posed is that which would arise as a result of a
build-up of military strength by a nation, they said.

In presenting the Statement on the quest for peace, Archbishop Ndungane
pointed out that it had the support from Bishops representing people in
several southern African countries, including Angola, Namibia, South
Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and St Helena.

The Bishops also sent a strong message to the South African Minister of
Defence from the meeting.  They said that the  South African Government
was sending mixed messages to its neighbours and the world by posing as
a peacemaker, on the one hand, but in promoting military activity on the
other.

In a memorandum handed to the Minister of Defence, Mr Joe Modise, on
22nd September the Church of the Province of Southern Africa  said the
specific role of South Africa in the scenario of arms sales was one
which it rejected as being inconsistent with its role as a 
newly-democratic state to which the world turns for a lead in brokering
peace.

The Anglican Church called on the South African Government to rescind
its decision to sell arms to any foreign country, and for it to scale
down its capacity to manufacture arms to a level that would be
consistent with ensuring the country's self-sufficiency in maintaining
basic defence for itself in an age of peace.