Citation
VATICAN CITY, April 18 (Reuter) - Bishops attending a Vatican synod of
the Roman Catholic Church in Africa accused the West on Monday of
turning its back on the world's poorest continent.
One of the bishops also called for an end to Western sanctions against
Libya.
Speaking at a news conference on the synod, which is discussing the
future of the church on the continent, a bishop said the recent exodus
of Europeans from Rwanda was another case where many whites used Africa
for economic interests.
I was struck by the fact that the other nationals were getting away
and leaving the two sides to kill themselves,
said Cardinal Christian
Tumi, archbishop of Douala, Cameroon.
To me it was one of the proofs that they are there for their own
interest and when things are not going well they go away and begin to
sell arms to the fighting parties,
he said.
Rwanda has plunged into an orgy of ethnic violence between the majority
Hutu and minority Tutsi tribes who have a long history of enmity.
Thousands of people have died since the fighting began on April 6 when
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien
Ntaryamira were killed in a rocket attack on their plane in Rwanda.
Tumi, who was answering questions on the work of the month-long synod,
said the situation in Rwanda was further proof that Africans had to be
responsible for their own peace and development.
They (Westerners) are there for their personal interests. You will
find that missionaries would rather die than leave because they are
there for other interests.
Tumi said.
They are dying with Africans while those who came for economic
interests are leaving. All this said and done, I do not blame them for
leaving. It is normal and this proves again that Africans must build
Africa,
Tumi said.
Archbishop Giovanni Martinelli, the Vatian's chief representative in
Libya, called for an end to the Western embargo against the north
African country.
I have suffered and I continue to suffer because of the embargo
against Libya,
he told the news conference.
The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions against Libya in 1992 for
the alleged role of two of its citizens in the 1988 Lockerbie air
bombing, which killed 270 people.
It (the embargo) is against the truth. The church must be able to say
the embargo is unjust because it is against truth. I am not saying this
to please (Libyan) political leaders,
Martinelli said.
Bishop Joseph Gasi of Sudan accused the international media of
neglecting the plight of his country.
Sudan has been torn by an 11-year-old civil war between the Khartoum
government in the Islamic north and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Army (SPLA) in the Christian and animist south. The war has displaced
most of the six million people of southern Sudan.
The world of journalism is not coming to our assistance very much.
They are not talking about the Sudan very much. So many evils are
happening in the Sudan,
Gasi said.
The question of the Sudan should be tackled by international groups
and by the whole church. We would like to see the church in solidarity
with us,
he said.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
