Ms Diadem Depayso from the Philippines presenting the Program Committee report. photo: LWF/H.Putsman

The Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) adopted a resolution calling for solidarity with the victims of political and religious violence worldwide. In particular, the LWF council took note of the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Darfur, Sudan and the terrorist attack in Beslan, Russia, in adopting the resolution, Sept 6, 2004.

Introduced by Ms Diadem Depayso, chairperson of the LWF Program Committee on International Affairs and Human Rights, the resolution recommended the Sudanese government accept an adequate amount of international peacekeepers to secure the region.

The resolution also endorsed the call by the Catholic bishop of Sudan to call for help from the international community to prevent the ‘terror, rape, torture, murder and slavery’ and ‘annihilation of an entire ethnic group in Darfur.’

Meanwhile, the LWF Council said humanitarian assistance should be allowed to pass on through the victims of the regions.

In terms of its own efforts, the LWF recommended the Action by Churches Together – an international network of churches and their related agencies that was founded by the LWF – provide humanitarian assistance to the afflicted region.

Ultimately, the Council said that attacks on civilians are in violation of the fundamental religious and ethical principle that human life and dignity is to be valued and respected. “The LWF condemns all such atrocities regardless of the claimed justification.”

The Council called on the global LWF communion to “pray for an end to the violence in the world and in human hearts, for the transformation of those whose hearts have been hardened by violence, and the liberation of those trapped in its vicious cycle.”