wfn.org | Churches Plan Next Steps to Implement Guatemala Accords

["Carol Fouke" <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: NCC News: 212-870-2252/2227
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org; Web: www.ncccusa.org
NCC4/19/02 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Guatemala Churches, Partners Plan Next Steps Following Widely Praised Peace
and Reconciliation Consultation, Co-Convened by the (U.S.) National Council
of Churches

See Also: 4/4/02 Alert April 8-12 Guatemala Visit Aims to Reinforce Peace
Accords

April 19, 2002, NEW YORK CITY - Leaders of Guatemalas Protestant and
Catholic churches are meeting this week to consider how to build on the
avalanche of support for their April 10 Peace and Reconciliation
Consultation - a meeting co-convened by the (U.S.) National Council of
Churches (NCC) with the goal of helping jumpstart Guatemalas stalled 1996
peace accords.

To consider what they can do further to help, NCC staff will meet next week
with the president and general secretary of the Latin American Council of
Churches in Quito, and the World Council of Churches Central Committee will
discuss the matter in August.

Nearly 90 leaders of Guatemalas churches and civil society attended the
day-long consultation April 10 in Guatemala City.  They agreed that the 1996
accords are not dead and need to be revived.  And they agreed that Guatemala
s churches - which have remained united in a deeply divided society - are
best equipped to lead the process.

Widely covered by print, radio and TV media in Guatemala, the consultation
was the top story in the nations biggest newspaper, Prensa Libre, on
April 10, and won that newspapers endorsement in an editorial titled A
Needed Forum for Peace.

The consultation was the centerpiece of an international ecumenical
delegation visit to Guatemala April 8-12, organized by the NCC in response
to invitations from 1992 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchz Tum and
from the Rev. Vitalino Similox, Director of the Ecumenical Forum of
Guatemala, through which both Protestant and Catholic churches are working
for implementation of the peace accords.

The NCC-led delegations mission was to support Guatemalas churches in
their efforts to reactivate implementation of peace accords signed in 1996
by the government and rebels after more than 35 years of armed conflict.
More than 200,000 people were killed or "disappeared" and presumed dead.
Most of these casualties were attributed to the government and its
paramilitary allies.

NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar and Guatemalan Roman Catholic Archbishop
Quezada Y Toruqo convened the April 10 meeting. Co-convenors were the Latin
American Council of Churches (CLAI) and the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Dr. Edgar opened the consultation, noting that April 16-27 he would be
leading an NCC delegation to the Middle East in support of efforts to
resolve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.  The urgency of
peace with justice is as important in Guatemala as in Israel/Palestine, he
said, promising that the churches would not allow Guatemalas needs to be
overshadowed by other world crises.

Commented the Rev. Oscar Bolioli, NCC Associate General Secretary for
International Affairs, who staffed the April 8-12 trip, The consultation
was met with an avalanche of people expressing support who wanted to be part
of a process of dialogue and action to implement the 1996 peace accords.

Participants in the consultation represented a wide range of societal
sectors, including human rights, indigenous peoples, women, peasants, trade
unions, universities, research institutions, media, business, the courts,
the electoral tribunal, several government ministries and main political
parties. Several members of the joint government-guerrilla commission
overseeing implementation of the peace accords were present.

Church leaders present included Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran,
Presbyterian, Methodist and Mennonite. Diplomats from Norway, Sweden, Spain
and the United States - all of which encouraged the signing and
implementation of the peace agreements - and representatives of two United
Nations programs also attended.

The NCC-led delegations agenda April 8-12 also includes individual meetings
with leaders of many of the sectors that were represented in the April 10
consultation.

In addition to Dr. Edgar, a United Methodist, and the Rev. Bolioli, a
Methodist from Uruguay, delegation members include: Methodist Bishop
Federico Pagura from Argentina and a president of the WCC; Episcopal Bishop
Julio Cesar Holguin from the Dominican Republic, president of CLAI; the Rev.
Catherine Gordon, Associate for International Issues in the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) Washington, D.C., office, and Susan Peacock, a United Church
of Christ layperson who directs the Guatemala Program in the Washington
Office on Latin America, Washington, D.C.

The World Council of Churches, Latin American Council of Churches and NCC
will continue their active support of Guatemalas churches and they follow
up on the April 10 consultation, Bolioli said.  Bishop Pagura will present
the issue at the World Council of Churches Central Committee meeting in
August, Bolioli said, and I will meet next week with CLAI General
Secretary Israel Batista and Bishop Holguin, CLAI president, in Quito to
start conversations on the implementation.

-end-