Site
Contents
|
|
Imagine Indiana Transition Team Information
General Information about the Area Office
North Indiana Conference Office
South Indiana Conference Office
Area United Methodist
Foundation
Prayer Guides
(Courtesy of the NIC Prayer Team)
Seashore District Volunteer Center VIM project -- Completed
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
October 2005 |
General Board of Church and Society statement on Darfur
The following is a statement of the General Board of Church and Society issued at its October 2004 meeting in Herndon, Virginia.
We, the members of the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church, note with concern the evolving humanitarian catastrophe and security crisis in the Darfur region of the Sudan. We are deeply concerned about the gravity of the atrocities committed against the local population of Darfur, which according to the World Health Organization have now claimed the lives of at least 70,000 and displaced more than a million persons from their abodes, villages and livelihoods, all acts of which are at genocidal proportions.
We strongly urge the international community, led by the United Nations, to take all necessary steps to end the terror of civil conflict and the violence of hunger, disease and displacement, and instead muster from nations and civil, corporate, humanitarian and religious entities every and all financial and moral support to preserve lives, secure livelihoods, and affirm human dignity for all the peoples of Darfur.
We call for full support of the Africa Unions efforts to deploy a monitoring and protection force to secure the safety of both the peoples of Darfur and all human rights and humanitarian agency workers operating in the region. We join the Africa Union and the international community in urging all parties to the conflict (i.e. the government of the Sudan, the Justice and Equality Movement, and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army) to comply fully to the Ndjamena Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement of 8 April 2004 and to work toward a lasting and comprehensive political settlement of the conflict in Darfur.
To these ends, all efforts of the United Nations, the Africa Union, the United States, and the international community must be encouraged, especially toward disarming the Janjaweed militia and other armed outlaw groups and toward setting up the infrastructure for sustainable economic recovery and restoration of Darfur and all the Sudan. Unfortunately, reports of rape and abuse of women and girls in camps is endemic in crisis situations.
In the end, the welfare and security of the people of Darfur and all Sudan lies in the earnest commitment of the Sudanese government to work for peace and justice and be a responsible member of the community of nations.
For us, believing in God who judges among peoples and arbitrates between nations, calling them to beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, (Micah 4:3) and in Jesus Christ who wills creation to live life in all its fullness (John 10:10), we will do all we can to encourage our religious communities to pray and exert their moral authority by urging their governments to help resolve this humanitarian tragedy.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008