Archbishop wants Congo action: CEN 12.12.08 p 1.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for military intervention in the Congo to end that country’s civil war.

On Dec 3, Dr. Rowan Williams released a joint statement with the leaders of Britain’s Roman Catholic, Reformed and Orthodox churches calling for “an immediate strengthening of peacekeeping forces in the region to protect civilians and provide safe passage for the humanitarian aid, to the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable and displaced civilians, at risk of being caught up in fighting between various armed groups as well as being victims of targeted attacks against them.”

While military might was needed to stem the immediate humanitarian crisis, a “lasting political solution” that addressed “the persistent and underlying issues of justice, human rights, the integration of rebel forces into the national army and the management natural resources,” they said.

The church leaders applauded the work of the churches “on the ground” in the Congo who were seeking to “address the overwhelming physical and psychological needs of their communities.”

However, many Congolese “without shelter, in the middle of the rainy season” were “hungry, frightened and sick, [and] many also face daily intimidation and violence. These men, women and children cannot wait any longer for the international community to act,” the church leaders said and called for the UN to strengthen its 17,000-man peacekeeping force in the eastern Congo “in a matter of weeks not months.”

Called a “silent genocide” by the Congolese Roman Catholic bishops, the fighting between rival warlords and the Congolese army has displaced “over one million people” Anglican Bishop Bahati Balibusane of Bukavu said last month.

Men, women, children are living outside, in schools, in Churches and in some hospitable families. They don’t have water, food, materials, clothes, utensils and latrines. These people living in hardship are exposed to hunger, illness and death of some fathers, mothers and children,” he wrote in a call released through the Congo Church Association for “urgent spiritual, material and financial support.”