News
cf. WCC Press Release, PR-02-23.08e of 2 September 2002
A statement on South Asia adopted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee in early September was sent to the governments of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The statement refers to the conflict between India and Pakistan, and to the internal conflict in Sri Lanka and calls on its member churches around the world to be in solidarity with churches in the three countries and to assist them in their ministry of healing and reconciliation in the region.
Letters on 7 October from new Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (WCC/CCIA) director Peter Weiderud to India's prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and to Pakistan's president General Pervez Musharraf refer to the WCC central committee's concern over "growing incidents of religious intolerance and violence in India and Pakistan" as well as to the "continuing military build-up and confrontation" between the two countries that, according to Weiderud, "has raised the spectre of a nuclear war".
Weiderud asks the two chiefs of state to "restore and normalize relations" between the two countries "by undertaking comprehensive confidence-building measures that could pave the way for a political dialogue". "Such a dialogue," suggests Weiderud, "would create an environment where other important and complex issues like Kashmir and nuclear proliferation could be addressed".
In a 7 October letter addressed to Sri Lanka's president Chandrika Bandaranaike, Weiderud signals the WCC's delight at the signature of a Memorandum of Agreement between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The WCC, he adds, was "particularly encouraged by the joint efforts of the National Council of Churches in Sri Lanka and the Church in Norway to bring awareness amongst the people in support of the peace process" - a reference to their education campaign among seminarians, students and activists in Sri Lanka.
The statement on South Asia adopted by the WCC central committee is available on our website at