World Council of Churches -
Update
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For immediate release:
30 March 2004
Kosovo: Religious communities to be taken seriously as partners in long-term peace-building
The following press release is jointly released by the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC)
Cf. Press Update Up-04-16 of 19 March 2004
The "failure to see and prevent" the recent outbreak of violence in Kosovo “must not be downplayed in the desire to see a speedy return to normality”, and “religious communities in the region must be taken seriously as partners in long-term peace-building”, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC) say in a joint letter to Mr Harri Holkeri, head of the United Nations Interim Administration of Kosovo (UNMIK).
The letter, signed by the WCC and CEC general secretaries, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia and Rev. Dr Keith Clements respectively, follows another joint message on the Kosovo crisis, sent on 19 March to His Holiness Pavle, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
“In addition to the suffering of the people”, CEC and WCC write to UNMIK, “the deliberate attacks on religious buildings, that have tremendous sentimental value for the people of the region, are of special significance… In the Balkan region they symbolize the very identity of a community and its right to live freely and to flourish in a particular place. Any attack on such buildings is bound to be construed as an expulsion order”.
In the Balkan context, religion is often seen “as a factor making for antagonism”, but it should rather be “viewed for the potential it can offer for reconciliation, and religious communities in the region must be taken seriously as partners in long-term peace-building”.
CEC and WCC also stress the “vital role” of “non-governmental organisations, relief and development agencies (church-related and others), peace-building organisations and the churches themselves” in the building of a “civil society incorporating the values of respect for human dignity, tolerance, participation and democracy, without which there can be no stable and peaceful future”. Many in this “constituency of service” have been dismayed by recent events “which they fear will have damaging consequences for much of what they have achieved thus far, and will make their future efforts even more challenging”. It is therefore “vital that they be given the confidence that in Kosovo they have a continuing and strengthened framework of stability and security such as can only be provided by an adequate and effective UNMIK”.
The concern of WCC and CEC is that UNMIK and the NATO forces in Kosovo (KFOR) should be given “adequate resources” to fulfil their mandate.
“At a time when much of the international attention is focusing on serious situations elsewhere in the world, it is perhaps understandable that Kosovo and the Balkans as a whole now seem to present less of a threat to peace, and a less urgent call on resources. This would be seriously to misunderstand the situation. Kosovo not only remains a delicate and explosive scene in itself, but carries with it much wider implications”.
The full text of the joint 29 March 2004 letter is available on our website at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/unmik.html
WCC and CEC letters sent 16 August 2002:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/koslets19-08-02.html
More information on "The churches and the Kosovo crisis" (1999):
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/kosfol0.html
This material may be reprinted freely.
Additional information:
Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org
The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
