wfn.org | Salvadoran Lutherans Oppose Troops' Presence inIraq

["Frank Imhoff" <franki@elca.org>]

Salvadoran Lutherans Oppose Troops' Presence in Iraq
Bishop Gomez: Soldiers Should be Assigned Reconstruction Tasks
in El Salvador 

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador/GENEVA, 19 September 2003 (LWI/ALC) -
The Salvadoran Lutheran Synod (SLS) has declared its opposition
to El Salvador's contribution of a contingent of troops to Iraq.

In a recent letter to the Legislative Assembly, the Lutheran
church questioned the rationale used to send Salvadoran troops to
Iraq for humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. The church
requested that the soldiers be assigned instead to reconstruction
tasks within the Latin American country. 

"The situation in Iraq is extremely dangerous: with violent
clashes daily, in which there have been many deaths among the
occupying troops and the Iraqi people," Bishop Medardo E. Gsmez
Soto wrote to the legislators.

He argued that the 380 Salvadoran soldiers who have been sent to
Iraq are exposed to the risk of death. The troops, he continued,
have not been prepared for peacekeeping duties, but rather for
security operations, since they are expected to replace military
troops from the United States of America.

In a pastoral letter, Gsmez informed SLS members of his appeal
to the parliament to review its decree authorizing the sending of
Salvadoran troops to Iraq. He also pointed out that similar
initiatives have been undertaken in Nicaragua. The first
contingent of troops from four Latin American countries -
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua - left
Spain's Zaragoza air base August 19 to join the US-led force in
Iraq. 

"I ask for your help in bringing before the whole world the cry
of our people in protest against the war and the danger that
awaits our compatriots in this occupied country," the bishop
wrote. 

The decision to approach the parliament came from the SLS human
rights department. El Salvador is a United Nations member state,
and is signatory to the Chapultepec Peace Accord, Mexico (1992),
in which it declared its commitment to work for peace and
reconciliation.

In the August 28 letter to the Legislative Assembly, the SLS
described the decision to authorize the stationing of Salvadoran
troops in Iraq as illegal, since El Salvador has not declared war
on Iraq, and there is significant international opposition
against the war and military occupation of Iraq.

The letter drew the parliament's attention to the August 19 bomb
attack on the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. It
noted also the attack on the Spanish military base in Diwaniya,
the Salvadoran troops' command center, which reportedly came very
close to the Salvadoran contingent in Nayaf where violent
incidents have repeatedly occurred.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)
 
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