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European church leaders at emergency meeting reject war on Iraq
2003-025-3
Thursday, February 06, 2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
A high-level emergency meeting of European church leaders in Berlin has rejected the use of military action against Iraq, saying that a war would have 'unacceptable humanitarian consequences' including the possibility of unleashing a civil war and major unrest in the whole Middle East region.
'We appeal to the Security Council to uphold the principles of the UN Charter which strictly limit the legitimate use of military force,' said the church leaders in a statement presented in Berlin just hours before US secretary of state Colin Powell was due to address the Security Council in New York on the issue of Iraq. 'We deplore the fact that the most powerful nations of this world again regard war as an acceptable instrument of foreign policy,' said the church leaders from more than 10 European countries who were joined by church leaders and envoys from the United States and the Middle East.
The church leaders said military force was an 'inappropriate means to achieve disarmament of any Iraqi weapons of mass destruction' and UN weapons inspectors needed to be given the time to complete their work. But they also called on Iraq to 'comply with binding UN resolutions,' destroy any weapons of mass destruction, co-operate with UN weapons inspectors and guarantee human rights for all its citizens. 'The people in Iraq must be given hope that there are alternatives to both dictatorship and war,' the church leaders said.
The Berlin meeting was convened by the Geneva-based World Council of Churches and hosted by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Germany's main Protestant body. The bishops, church presidents and officials who came to Berlin for the meeting gathered to pray for peace in a central Berlin church that had been destroyed in the Second World War and later rebuilt.
The church leaders met with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, one of Europe's most outspoken opponents of military action against Iraq. Schroeder, whom the National Council of Churches delegation said spoke 'frankly and clearly,' reaffirmed his intention to maintain Germany's stance that there is no compelling reason to rush to war with Iraq. He emphasized that he 'is no pacifist' but that Germany believes 'war should not be just one more tool' to be used routinely, the delegates reported.
Schroeder reminded the church officials that he had staked his career on changing German foreign policy to allow the deployment of 10,000 troops now on the ground in Afghanistan and the Balkans, but that his government did not think the use of military force would be useful in the Iraqi case. The delegation said Schroeder emphasized that Germany is not taking an 'anti-American' position, nor does it lack a commitment to fighting terrorism. He said Germany simply disagrees on the necessity of going to war with Iraq, they reported.
Meanwhile, news agencies reported that Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, will have a meeting February 7 with Pope John Paul II, who has said that a war with Iraq would be a 'defeat for humanity.'
'What was striking about this meeting was the complete and firm unity of the church leaders in opposing a pre-emptive war on Iraq. I hope the statement will receive the support and endorsement of many other European churches also,' said the Rev. Keith Clements, general secretary of the Conference of European Churches, who will present the statement to Chancellor Schroeder.
Speaking before the Berlin gathering, Manfred Kock, the head of the EKD, called on the international community and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to do everything in their power to avoid a war.
The church leaders who met in Berlin came from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and from the Middle East.
The Berlin meeting came amid continuing warnings from churches, church leaders and humanitarian organizations around the world about military action against Iraq. In Britain, the new archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has also warned against war with Iraq, despite the strong support given to the US stance by Prime Minister Tony Blair. At the World Social Forum in Brazil in January, German Lutheran Bishop Margot Kaessmann said: 'When US President Bush says that Iraq must disarm, I agree. But I would go a lot further than that: in fact the world must disarm, including the United States.'
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