Church leaders vow to work more actively for peace

Protestant church leaders from Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda have vowed to engage more actively in the search for peace in the subregion, given their special role in society during periods of crisis. In a statement, published on Saturday at the end of their three-day consultative meeting in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, they undertook to "condemn all society's ills", such as tribalism, regionalism, and arms trafficking. Other planned measures, they said, would include activating the church's watchdog role in society, setting up community-based educational programmes to promote peace, reconstruction and the fight against HIV/AIDS, and discouraging and fighting against divisions and internal conflicts within the church. They called on governments and rebel movements in the subregion to seek peaceful means of resolving their differences, and to respect civilians and "other categories of non-combatants". Turning to the international community, they asked it to support the peace processes in the subregion, provide disaster victims with urgently needed assistance, and help rebuild the subregion by providing development aid "in this area ravaged by war".