Title: Liberian Church Suffers "Collective Retribution"
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
July 24, 1996
LIBERIAN CHURCH SUFFERS "COLLECTIVE RETRIBUTION" (62 lines)
96-18-055-FI
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Bishop Sumoward Harris of the Lutheran
Church in Liberia (LCL) calls collective retribution "one of the
terrible trends in the Liberian civil crisis." Harris is in the
United States as a guest of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America to participate July 25-28 in a Global Mission Event at
Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa.
Harris said he doesn't understand the logic of collective
retribution. If one church leader says something that a
factional leader thinks is supporting an opponent, then all
church leaders are held responsible. "In this situation it is
difficult to be considered neutral," he said.
The West African nation of Liberia has been struggling for
six years with factional fighting for government control. Armed
conflict in the capital, Monrovia, escalated in April.
Harris wants the church to be "a negotiating force, a
reconciling force, a mediating force." At the same time the
church must identify injustices and make warring parties
responsible for their actions.
"Once you take sides you can no longer be qualified to be a
mediator," he said. "It is very important to be prophetic, but
it is also very important to be conciliatory, to get people to
come together."
The bishop was in Europe when fighting reignited over the
Easter weekend and was unable to return to Liberia. He and his
family were reunited in C#te d'Ivoire -- the Ivory Coast.
Many Lutherans in Liberia are asking Harris to help them
leave the country. "They do not have means of survival,
specifically in Monrovia. The war took away all their
belongings, household materials and records. They do not have
food," he said.
"More importantly they have no schools where their children
can attend," said Harris. "Their concern is for the future of
their children."
The churches and relief agencies have also found it
impossible to work in Monrovia, he said. All office equipment
and vehicles have been stolen. Any food or medical supplies
brought in are immediately looted.
"Our companion synod -- Upper Susquehanna Synod -- and many
parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America did send
us containers of medical supplies, medicines, books, computers
and many other things. These things were just being unloaded in
our compound when the crisis occurred, and all of them were
looted," said Harris.
"Relief agencies cannot put in more of those materials until
some effective measure is taken to restore stability, most
especially to disarm the militia," he said. "It is very
difficult now for us to agree that Monrovia is peaceful and that
people can live there and bring new things there as long as the
factions are not disarmed."
Harris has been bishop of the LCL for one year. He
succeeded the Rev. Ronald Diggs who served in a high-ranking
position of Liberia's coalition government. Diggs is now in
exile too.
The Lutheran churches and the Lutheran World Federation
offices in neighboring countries have been assisting Harris and
Diggs in their attempts to aid Liberians and to return home
safely.
For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia
Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956
