wfn.org | Bishop urges U.S. government to bring peace to Liberia

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 11, 2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
ALL-AA-AF-I-RM{360}

NOTE: For related coverage, see UMNS story #359. A photograph of Bishop
Felton Edwin May is available at http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

By Melissa Lauber*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - The United States and the United Methodist Church must
take immediate action to bring peace to Liberia, says Bishop Felton Edwin
May, who has consulted with the White House on humanitarian and economic
issues in Africa.

"It is with peace in mind that I congratulate President George W. Bush on his
recent trip to Africa, and urge him to authorize American participation in an
international peacekeeping effort in Liberia," said May, leader of the
denomination's Washington Area, in a July 10 statement.

The bishop also called on the United Methodist Church to "redouble its
funding and support of projects in Africa, to sustain the mission and
ministry already there and to create new opportunities and new disciples for
Jesus Christ."

Conditions in Liberia are "heartrending," said the Rev. Victor Sawyer,
chairman of the Africa Committee of the Baltimore-Washington Annual
(regional) Conference. He has frequent communication with people in West
Africa, where he was born.

"The situation is grim," Sawyer said. Almost a third of the country's people
are homeless. The people have no electricity, little running water, and
dwindling supplies of medicine and food, he said. "Many of the people are
dying not from gunshots but from hunger."

Liberia has undergone successive civil wars in the past two decades. Rebels
now are trying to topple the government of President Charles Taylor, a former
warlord himself who has been indicted for war crimes by an international
court. "The rebels who have been fighting to overthrow Taylor have their
hands deeply stained with blood, just as does Charles Taylor," Sawyer said.

"The human devastation in Monrovia (Liberia's capital) is something you
couldn't dream of," said the Rev. Laurence Bropleh, a Baltimore-Washington
Conference pastor from Liberia, who has worked as regional executive
secretary on sub-Saharan Africa for the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries.

Law and order have broken down, said Bropleh, who speaks with people in
Liberia daily. He confirmed reports of rape, harassment of civilians by armed
men, and child separation within the internally displaced people's camp.
"Brutality and suffering reign," he said.

Although Taylor has suggested that he is willing to step down, observers are
skeptical. "In the 1990 war, 13 peace accords were signed. Taylor reneged on
each one," Bropleh said.

"No one is acting for the sake of peace in Liberia," Sawyer said. "A third
party, whose sole interest is peace, is essential, and that third party must
have the military might to ensure peace. It must be the United States."

The pastors applauded May's call for military intervention and the continued
empowerment of African leadership.

"Today the bloodshed must stop," the bishop said. "With President Bush in
Africa, now is the time for the United States to send both finances and
personnel to participate in the international peacekeeping effort. In
addition, the United States must contribute to the disarmament and
reintegration of the combatants, the financial support of the displaced
persons and refugees, the creation of equitable and fair global trading
practices, and the conducting of free and fair elections."

Bush, on a swing through several African countries - not including Liberia -
has expressed concern about the crisis. A team of U.S. military experts
arrived in Liberia July 8 to assess the country's needs.

Liberia has a long history with the United Methodist Church, which sent its
first missionary, Melville B. Cox, there in 1832 - only 10 years after freed
American slaves founded the country. Today, congregations inside and outside
the country, along with the United Methodist Committee on Relief, are
responding to Liberia's crisis.

Bropleh wants the church to form a consultation that enlists the entire West
African region in developing a strategy for empowering Liberia and its
neighbors. He is calling upon any interested parties throughout the church to
join in dialogue with existing organizations, such as the denomination's
Holistic Strategy for Africa Task Force. Interested people can contact him at
(301) 670-0221 or lbropleh@aol.com. 

"There is no excuse for this brutality, for this abuse of human rights," said
Bropleh, who was tortured as a teen-ager for speaking against former
president Samuel Doe's government. "We need to care, and we need to consider
the consequences of allowing this situation to spiral out of control."

Sawyer draws hope from the images of a refugee camp that he visited in
Liberia.

"One of the techniques that the rebels have used is to cut off the arms and
legs of citizens, both children and adults. And so I visited, and there were
300 children there who were missing a limb - either a hand or a leg," he
said. "To see these people, smiling, with hope in their hearts that they
could have a chance for a better life - and the children raised their stumps
and their hands ... to clap and praise God - it was very meaningful to me."

"The common calling of the United Methodist Church should be to seek justice
and peace," Bropleh said. "The United Methodist Church should not rest
content until all of the family has God's peace and justice. Liberia is no
exception."

Donations to UMCOR can be designated for Liberia Emergency, Advance #150300,
and dropped in church offering plates or sent to UMCOR, 475 Riverside Drive,
Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Credit-card donations can be made by calling
(800) 554-8583.

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*Lauber is the associate editor of the Baltimore-Washington Conference
UMConnection.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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