wfn.org | Humanitarian Aid Is Focus of Lutheran Peace Prize Forum

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 15, 2001

HUMANITARIAN AID IS FOCUS OF LUTHERAN PEACE PRIZE FORUM
01-058-MR

     DECORAH, Iowa (ELCA) -- Humanitarianism is not a tool to end war
or create peace; it is a citizen's response to a political failure,
according to Dr. Morten Rostrup, a medical doctor at Ulleval University
Hospital, Oslo, Norway.  Rostrup spoke to more than 1,200 students
attending the 2001 Peace Prize Forum here March 9-10 at Luther College,
a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     The forum's theme, "Striving for Peace: Crossing Borders,
Challenging Boundaries," focused on issues related to providing
humanitarian aid in nation-states where governments may not honor
international humanitarian law and respect the rights of people in need.
Students attending the forum also considered topics on religion and
peace.
     Rostrup is international president for Medecins Sans
Frontierers/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), an organization that works to
provide support and emergency medical aid to victims of armed conflict,
epidemics and survivors of natural disasters.  The organization, founded
in 1971, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 by the Norwegian
Nobel Committee, Oslo.
     "Achieving peace is always part of a political process and
political responsibility, but bringing medical aid to people in distress
is an attempt to defend them against what is aggressive to them as human
beings," Rostrup told students.
     "Humanitarian responsibility has no frontiers, no borders.  All
people -- regardless of state borders or existing interpretation of
international law, whether it be humanitarian law or trade agreements or
other barriers -- have a right to exist as human beings," he said.
     "In the 1990s, we saw a harsh redefinition of long-held political
beliefs.  In the humanitarian field, this resulted in the blurring of
the traditional distinction between foreign policy and humanitarian
assistance, with negative consequences for both.    From Kurdistan to
Kosovo, Western political leaders have embraced humanitarian adventures
with gusto.  Troops have been deployed for 'active humanitarian
service,' more often than not to disguise a dismal lack of political
vision in tackling the crisis at hand.  Humanitarian assistance has
become a cheap form of foreign policy bringing short-term public
relation gains to politicians," Rostrup said.
     "The humanitarian action exists only to preserve life, not to
eliminate it.  And, it is in the humanitarians' action, independent from
military or political powers, that we can challenge borders and
boundaries and demand access," he said.
     Rostrup asked students "to challenge the boundaries" that may
exist in their minds.
     "Challenge the boundaries that say, 'we cannot make a difference,'
the boundaries that say, 'it is too difficult to do something,' the
boundaries that say, 'it is too dangerous or too unpleasant,' and the
boundaries that are created as convenience or excuses not to act, nor to
engage ourselves, but to live as if nothing is happening out there," he
said.
     Rostrup told students that "these boundaries must be challenged
today and tomorrow.  And, if you allow yourself to challenge them and
then cross some borders ... you will be amazed to see what is actually
possible for you to do and the impact you can have.  In doing this, you
can only but acknowledge, grow and enrich your own humanity."
     Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for
Human Rights in 1988, led a keynote presentation.  The Robert F. Kennedy
Center for Human Rights provides a base for supporting human rights
defenders; uncovers and publicizes abuses such as torture,
disappearances and repression of free speech; and works to encourage
Congress to highlight human rights in foreign policy.  Cuomo also serves
as a board member for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, a non-profit
organization designed to address social justice problems in the spirit
of her late father.
     Cuomo suggested to students that they "get a passport and leave
this country."
     "You are some of the most privileged people on earth because of
your college education.  All of us, it seems to me, have an obligation
to get involved.  We have a lot to learn from people around the world,
especially from their generosity and from their love," Cuomo said.
     Cuomo challenged students to develop ways they can support human
rights in the United States and around the world.
     "You can do humanitarian work right here.  I don't know Decorah,
but driving through I saw a lot of poverty.  Use your common sense.
Ask yourself, 'what's right in the world, what's wrong with it and what
can be done about it?'" she said.
     Musimbi Kanyoro, general secretary, World WYCA, Geneva,
Switzerland, delivered the sermon at worship.
     "As an African, I am asked as I travel around the world, 'do you
see any hope in Africa?' [Africans] have suffered much.  We are wounded,
but not crushed.  The Bible has messages of transformation and courage.
If you tell me there is no hope for Africa, I will tell you that you are
wrong.  Hope is the vision in the continent from which I come. We hope
you don't see Africa as a liability to you; rather, we ask that you see
Africa as an opportunity to explore what God can do," Kanyoro said.
     J. Brian Atwood, president for Citizens International and
executive vice president of Citizens Energy Cooperation, Boston, told
students he is "renewed and inspired by the forum."  Atwood also led a
keynote presentation.
     Atwood told students the "United States exhibits the largest
economic success the world has ever seen," while "world poverty and the
gap between rich and poor grow wider."
     Poverty, disease and climate change are affecting the world but no
one is addressing it, Atwood said.  "Poverty creates the conditions that
cause disease.  Conditions that cause disease create alienation among
people," he said.
     "The global climate is changing as a result of greenhouse gases
that are entering the earth's atmosphere.  The greenhouse effect is
producing severe weather.  We must work toward a climate-change
agreement, since it is those living in poverty who suffer when the
climate changes," he said.  Atwood added that the United States must
control its own greenhouse gases before it can expect others around the
world to do the same.
     "Reject self indulgence," Atwood told students.  "Your country is
sleeping.  Ask what you can do to wake it up."
     In addition to keynote presentations, the Peace Prize Forum
featured 30 one-hour seminars on a variety of topics designed to address
the forum's theme and Lutheran response to a "suffering world."  Seminar
topics ranged from international peacemaking education to violence in
schools.
     Other highlights of the forum included an ethnic arts festival, a
peace fair exhibiting peacemaking organizations from around the world,
and conversation sessions with the forum's keynote speakers.
     The Peace Prize Forum "is deeply tied to the mission of the five
sponsoring colleges," said Dr. Richard L. Torgerson, president of
Luther.  "Not only because of our Norwegian heritage, in which we take
great pride, but in our mission as colleges of the church.  Peacemaking
is not optional for Christians; it is central to what it means to follow
Jesus Christ," he said.
     The site of the forum rotates annually among five Midwestern
colleges of the ELCA with Norwegian heritage: Augsburg College,
Minneapolis; Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D.; Concordia College,
Moorhead, Minn.; Luther; and St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
     The site of the next forum is Augustana College.
     Held in cooperation with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, this
series of forums was created to offer an opportunity for Nobel Peace
Prize laureates, diplomats, scholars, young people and the general
public to come together in expression of their personal commitment to
peace.

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