wfn.org | LWF-El Salvador offices broken into, computers and cash stolen

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Program representative says office will sustain struggle for justice

SAN Salvador, El Salvador/GENEVA, 20 April 1999 (lwi)   Following
robbery in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World
Service (DWS) offices in San Salvador, the El Salvador and Guatemala
Program representative has said the office will not abandon the
mandate to struggle for a more just society with dignity for human
life.

According to Rudelmar Bueno de Fari…, the LWF program representative,
unknown persons broke into the office in the early hours of 1 April,
1999 and stole equipment and machines including computers used by
certain staff, printers, television set, video cassettes, overhead
projector and calculators in addition to USD 820 in cash.

In a statement availed to lwi, Fari… said desks and files were forced
open, apparently in search for money, and documents were strewn on
the floor. However, the intruders failed in their attempt to open the
safe containing documents which have no commercial value.

Fari… pointed out that although the robbery was initially considered
as an act of common delinquency, "we cannot rule out the fact that it
may have other motivations" since just a few weeks before the 1 April
incident,  intruders broke into the Office of Human Rights of the
Salvadoran Lutheran Church, the fourth time this year, and left notes
saying: "Long Live Terrorism".

According to the LWF representative,  a similar incident took place
recently in the National Council of Churches of El Salvador, of which
the Lutheran Church is a member. During the robbery all the equipment
and office furniture was stolen, as well as documents relating to the
process of international electoral observance.

Fari… said another reason for not ruling out a premeditated and
political action is the fact that the computers stolen from the
office were that of the representative, the communications assistant,
the secretary and the ecumenical relations assistant. Other computers
in the office were not "even touched", neither were the vehicles in
the garage, the keys of which were with the night watchman, whom the
intruders held hostage and later drugged.

Among those who visited the scene after the robbery was the bishop of
the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod, Medardo E. Gomez Soto and Rev. Roberto
Pineda, the director of the church's human rights department. The
department of criminal investigation of the National Civil Police
carried out the necessary procedures.

The incident occurred one week before new security measures were to
be implemented for the office and personnel since crime is constantly
on the rise in El Salvador.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/