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PAGE 7—December 11,1980
Worldwide Refugee Situation: Tragedy And Threat
News Analysis
BY JEFF ENDRST
UNITED NATIONS (NC) - The worldwide refugee
situation is a continuing drama of massive exoduses by
people seeking freedom, food and sometimes just a chance
to survive.
It is also a tragedy of immense proportions which goes
beyond testing the compassion and collective
responsibility of the international community. Refugee
problems threaten to undermine the already shaky
coexistence of nations in various regions. Refugees often
represent an unbearable economic burden in the Third
World where receiving countries have only misery to
share.
The situation has produced urgent calls at the United
Nations for re-examination of traditional practices and
procedures in dealing with the refugee problem. It is now
widely recognized that refugee issues must be addressed
on political as well as humanitarian levels.
A step in this direction was the recent decision by the
U.N. General Assembly to hold an international
conference next April in Geneva, Switzerland, to deal
specifically with the refugee situation in Africa. The
conference is expected to address the underlying political
and social causes which are creating conflicts between and
within African societies. The conference also hopes to
secure financial pledges to deal with the massive African
refugee problem. More than 5 million refugees in Africa
need assistance.
Worldwide, the current figure for refugees or persons
displaced within their own countries by man-made
disasters is 12 million.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees, headquartered in Geneva, has grown into an
international agency. Its $500 million annual budget has
grown 20-fold in the past seven years. But the agency says
the money is not enough and that qualified personnel are
in short supply.
Readiness to give permanent homes to refugees with
different cultures is within the economic and political
means of few countries.
The result is that refugee emergencies have become a
permanent feature of the refugee agency.
Since the start of the 20th century about 250 million
people have fled their countries because of wars, religious
or political persecution, and the search for better personal
and economic security.
The United Nations believes that as long as persons are
forced to flee their homelands, others must provide
humanitarian aid: new homes, constructive existence and
a renewed sense of human dignity.
But refugees are also a hot political issue. Governments
which cause their citizens to go into exile usually do not
wish them well. Many offer a litany of dark labels to
describe the refugees fleeing their land.
Laos provides one of the more colorful lists. It
describes refugees as parasites, warlords, corrupt officials,
managers of bordellos and opium dens, ethnic Chinese
traders, CIA mercenaries, people with a “Western cultural
varnish,” advocates of laziness and young people escaping
Guatemalan Bishop Denied Re-Entry
GUATEMALA CITY (NC) - Native-born Guatemalan
Bishop Juan Gerradi of Santa Cruz del Quiche was
prohibited from re-entering Guatemala by military
authorities when he returned from Rome.
The bishop had been in Rome to report to the
Vatican on persecution of the church in Guatemala by
state security forces and pro-government aimed groups.
Several priests and lay leaders have been killed in recent
months and Bishop Gerardi escaped a murder attempt in
July.
People from his diocese who were at La Aurora Airport
in Guatemala City to greet him Nov. 22 took a collection
on the spot to pay for the extra fare as Bishop Gerardi
was forced to continue to El Salvador. Priests in the group
and prominent leaders from Quiche failed to persuade
immigration authorities to let him disembark.
The official reason for the government’s action was not
immediately known, but church sources said it probably
was related to the bishop’s criticisms of the government.
Many foreign missionaries have been deported or
forced to leave the country by death threats since 1976,
but this was the first instance of a Guatemalan clergyman
being told to leave the country. Bishop Gerardi was born
in Guatemala City on Dec. 27,1922.
The Guatemalan Bishops’ Conference, headed by
Bishop Gerardi, has repeatedly denounced political
violence and “the state of persecution of the church.” In
July the conference sent a delegation to the Vatican led
by Bishop Gerardi to report on the situation to Pope John
Paul II. Bishop Gerardi remained in Rome to attend the
world Synod of Bishops.
The rural province of Quiche, with its predominantly
Indian population, has been the scene of mounting
violence this year. Since May three priests have been
assassinated. Another was kidnapped and is feared dead.
Dozens of lay leaders have been murdered by either
soldiers or paramilitary squads. Spanish missionaries left
the diocese at the end of July in solidarity with Bishop
Gerardi “and in protest against five years of massacres (of
Indians) by the army.”
The bishops complained that violence had made
pastoral work impossible.
Santa Cruz has 300,000 Catholics in 22 parishes and
more than 400 churches, most of them dating from
colonial times. Until the exodus of the clergy, it had six
diocesan priests, 13 priests from religious orders and 34
nuns.
A U.S. ecumenical group monitoring human rights in
the hemisphere, the Washington Office on Latin America
(WOLA), said denying Bishop Gerardi re-entry was one
mojre instance of government repression.
“I would hope the general assembly of the
Organization of American States, currently meeting in
Washington, would take note of the appalling situation of
human rights violations in Guatemala at this very
moment,” said WOLA’s director, the Rev. Joseph
Eldridge.
the military draft.
The Vietnamese government says the “boat people”
are “illegal economic emigrants.”
In the refugee business international solidarity is
lacking and calls for collective political responsibility
often fall on deaf ears.
Another problem is making countries comply with
plans when these go against their self-interest.
The United Nations has repeatedly and overwhelmingly
agreed that several hundreds of thousands of Cambodians
in Thailand and 1.2 million Afghans in Pakistan would
best be helped if Vietnam and the Soviet Union,
respectively, withdrew their troops from Cambodia and
Afghanistan. But the United Nations does not have the
means to make Vietnam and the Soviet Union comply.
The most complex refugee situation is in Africa. In
addition to the 5 million refugees, there are millions of
displaced persons within their own countries because of
civil war, ethnic strife and economic hardships.
Displaced persons in Zimbabwe after seven years of
civil war number about 1 million. Added to this are about
200,000 refugees who fled to neighboring countries and
who will be repatriated. But the cost of providing for
these people, including the reconstruction of villages
destroyed in the war, is estimated at $140 million a year.
Unless the funds come from abroad, there is little hope
that programs for these people will succeed. Much of the
country’s economic base was ruined during the war.
Problems also exists in Zambia. Zambia supports
SWAPO, the black nationalist guerrilla movement fighting
for independence in neighboring Namibia (South West
Africa), a South African protectorate. But Zambia’s
support means Namibian refugees enter Zambia,
something Zambia cannot economically afford. It also
complains that the country is being destroyed by South
African air raids against refugee camps, roads and railway
networks.
Ethiopia typifies the problem of a growing number of
Third World countries who request and receive
international aid on the grounds that events in or around
their countries have displaced large segments of society.
Because of the war with neighboring Somalia and a
long drought, Ethiopia is seeking international aid for 2.4
million people who have had to leave their homes in
search of food, water and security.
Some countries have raised questions about the value
of human rights complaints if the United Nations cannot
come to grips with the starvation and massacre of millions
of refugees.
Others argue that the refugee situation will worsen
unless Third World countries have more to offer their
citizens whose rising expectations have remained largely
unfulfilled.
There is an implicit threat in such statements that
those who have compassion for refugees better provide a
new economic deal for the disadvantaged masses
remaining in their home countries.
The alternative, as described by many delegates during
U.N. debates, is growing international chaos, social
upheavals and a danger to international peace.
REUNITED -- Mercedes Viiiaverde, 9, shares a
tender moment with her grandmother Hilda when
they meet at a fence in Miami. Mercedes and
about 100 other Cuban refugees who legally
immigrated to the United States were reunited
with loved ones after completing forms. (NC
Photo)
Bishops Worry About Conflicting European Nationalisms
BY PATRICK NOLAN
DUBLIN, Ireland (NC) - Catholic bishops throughout
the European Economic Community (Common Market)
are worried that conflicting nationalisms and group
interests are obscuring the vision of unity and cooperation
of the community’s founders.
This is the view expressed by Irish Bishop Cahal Daly
of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, vice president of the
executive committee of the Commission of Episcoates of
the European Community. The commission represents the
Catholic bishops conferences in the nine member
countries of the European community.
Many bishops feel that the dominant concern of
member countries seems to be securing their own
economic advantage, said Bishop Daly in an interview
with NC News.
The time has come for the European community to
recognize that the industrialized and developing countries
are interdependent and that justice toward the Third
World is in Europe’s long-term interest, said Bishop Daly.
European prosperity also depends on cheap immigrant
labor from the poorer countries of Europe, Africa and
Asia, he said.
Bishop Daly praised the founders of the European
community, which developed after World War II. Many of
them such as Konrad Adenauer, former West German
chancellor, were committed Christians who derived their
vision of unity from their faith and their sense of Europe’s
history and heritage, he said.
The immediate concern of the founders was the
reconciliation of former enemies, particularly France and
Germany. They said Eruope’s claim to greatness came
from its contribution to civilization and its corresponding
responsibility to stimulate world development.
“The community for which they worked was not seen
as one of economic interest only but as a reality of the
spirit and a custodian of spiritual and moral values,” said
Bishop Daly.
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|‘This vision of Europe was naturally favored by popes
and bishops. Pope Paul VI ardently advocated it,” he
added.
The European bishops are anxious to revitalize the
original vision, the bishops said.
Among the objectives of the bishops is to encourage
the community to promote peace and disarmament and to
give more effective aid to developing countries, said
Bishop Daly.
The bishops also are deeply concerned over changes in
civil law which affect moral standards regarding abortion,
euthanasia, divorce and pornography. Bishop Daly said
legalized abortion has deformed consciences with many
people, even nominal Christians, believing that abortion
poses no moral problem.
Another problem, said Bishop Daly, is that widespread
abortion and contraception practices have drastically
reduced the birthrate in developed countries, meaning
that an increasing portion of older people have to be
supported by a younger working population.
This could lead to the view that it is socially and
economically necessary to facilitate the painless “easing
into death” of dependent old people, he added.
The overriding problem worrying the bishops is the
widespread erosion of religious practices.
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The de-Christianized areas of Europe pose harder
evangelization problems than mission countries in African
and Asia, said Bishop Daly. But he was optimistic about
the future of Christianity in Europe.
Hope can be seen in the renewal of faith and
commitment among basic Christian communities and in
the return to prayer and religious renewal in many areas,
he said.
Bishop Daly said the cooperation between the Catholic
bishops commission and the Council of European
Churches, representing Orthodox and Protestant churches,
is encouraging. Promising areas of ecumenical cooperation
include common witness on social and international
issues, he said.
The first meeting between the two church
organizations occured in 1978. It marked the first time
since the Reformation that representatives of the main
Christian churches in Europe had gathered for prayer and
discussion.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (NC) - The recent
bombing of the cathedral in San Salvador by a rightwing
group while the bodies of anti-government leftist political
leaders awaited Christian burial is evidence of Catholic
involvement in El Salvador’s long period of political strife.
Since 1976 political violence has resulted in an
estimated 15,000 deaths. Most of the dead were innocent
bystanders. They also included priests and lay leaders of
basic Christian communities in rural areas.
The most prominent church figure killed was
Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, who was
murdered in March by unknown gunmen while he was
celebrating Mass.
Two of the six bishops of El Salvador have repeatedly
condemned the terrorism of rightist and leftist groups and
repression by government troops.
All the bishops, in a joint pastoral letter issued in
September, pleaded with the warring factions to end the
violence that was engulfing the nation “in a sea of
fratricidal bloodshed.”
The central issue has been the question of how to
achieve social justice through socioeconomic and political
reforms in a country traditionally dominated by a few
landed families aided by the military.
Without access to democratic means, many political
leaders resorted to rebellion, at first through non-violence.
When this failed, many resorted to arms.
Clergymen, Religious and lay people have been often
caught in the middle.
Because many clergymen and Religious sided with the
poor, they have suffered reprisals from rightwing terrorists
and the government.
And many lay leaders who refused to follow the leftist
guerrillas were killed or maimed.
The church as a whole is also suffering from internal
division as the rival ideologies of the rightist and leftist
groups have been accepted by some Catholic lay groups
and some clergymen and Religious.
Most, however, follow the ideal of seeking total
!
liberation of people: spiritual liberation from sin and
material liberation from want.
In the September pastoral letter the bishops showed
unity in the face of the grave issues. They recognized the
need to redress the social injustices of the past as the way
to achieve peace. But they were concerned that the
struggle for social justice and the common good was being
overshadowed by the ideological struggle and terrorism.
“We invite all those who, blinded by ideological
dogmatism, resort to violence only, to make their goal the
well-being of the people, not the triumph of an ideology
that justifies all atrocities and the sacrifice of thousands of
citizens,” the bishops said.
Then addressing political activists within the church,
they added: “We ask all priests, men and women Religious
more directly involved in factional politics, to obey
chijreh directives and leave to the lay people that role and
function. It is up to the laity to be militants in politics.”
!‘Therefore we declare that those priests, religious men
and nuns who persist in this kind of militant leadership,
are not representing the church since such a role is a
personal one, not a pastoral duty,” they said.
Those involved in political activism are a minority of
the 373 priests, 70 brothers, 70 seminarians and 735 nuns
working in El Salvador. Perhaps in all they number fewer
than 100. The most vociferous group is the Coordinating
Committee of the Peoples Church, which last summer
staged sit-ins at the papal nunciature and several churches.
The committee’s purpose, its members say, is “to
foster pastoral communication among the people, foster
religious feeling at the grassroots, intensify the life of
basic Christian communities and show solidarity with the
popular (revolutionary) organizations.”
“We are merely joining the liberation movement of our
people,” one leader said. Among the main promoters of
the committee is Belgian Father Rogelio Ponscele. Most of
the, committee leaders are foreign missionaries.
The committee and other anti-government groups,
using the name of the murdered Archbishop Romero and
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joining ecumenical groups, seek help among Christians
abroad. They say nothing of the bishops’ disapproval of
their activities and defend the idea that Christians and
socialists can work together.
The result, say critics of these groups, is that solidarity
movements and money from Europe and North America
are helping not only legitimate groups who suffer from
repression, but also Marxist guerrillas.
The basic Christian communities that flourished among
the poor in rural and urban areas have suffered the most
from the political polarization since 1976.
Revolutionary leaders want to use them to fill up their
ranks. This is important in a country where 90 percent of
the population professes Catholicism. The military,
suspecting subversion in any organized grassroots activity,
takes reprisals against the communities.
A doctoral thesis by Salvadoran Father Octavio Cruz
makes a case study of the rural community of Masagua
and the awakening of the peasants from a passive religion
to a religion stressing total liberation. He shows how the
peasants’ ideas of God, salvation, the Ten
Commandments, the liturgy and biblical figures such as
Moses changed after leaders from urban areas had given
them a political education. Peasants then emphasized the
need for social change and cited economic reasons for
their poverty.
Thus Moses, for instance, who announced and led his
people’s liberation from oppression, serves as a biblical
example of the need for political changes and reforms.
Under successive military dictatorships opposing reforms,
pressure intensified.
“We must achieve liberation in our own way and
circumstances,” was the thought prevailing among
Christian communities, according to the thesis.
Upon this base, political leaders found it easy to build
anti-government protest movements for political ends.
Masagua represents the experiences of other rural
parishes, like Aquilares. Its pastor, Jesuit Father Rutilio
Grande, killed in 1976, has become a symbol of
liberation. The parishioners have suffered several army
raids and many of them have been killed, raped or
tortured because they were believed to be subversives.
Archbishop Romero, at first a conservative, became a
strong defender of the poor, antagonizing the rich. In his
homilies he condemned the terrorism of the right and the
left and blamed the oligarchy and the security forces for
much of the violence.
It took him some time to react against the political
polarization among the clergy, but he finally ordered
politically active priests and nuns to return to their
pastoral role and leave social issues to the laity.
His successor. Bishop Arturo Rivera Damas, has been
cold to the Peoples’ Church. He was instrumental in
getting all the bishops to draft the recent pastoral letter.
While condemning political extremists for their atrocities,
his emphasis is on the pastoral, “salvific” role of priests
and Religious.
In October the church offered to mediate and several
government officials were responsive. But the guerrillas
and the Coordinating Committee of the Masses, a leftist
coalition, were not.
Some leaders of the Democratic Revolutionary Front,
another anti-government coalition, including those
abducted and killed in late November, were willing to
listen to the church provided their demands on human
rights were met.
The murders and other violence, church officials say,
have blocked the road to dialogue. They also feel that the
government, the right and the guerrillas are quickly losing
credibility among the majority of the people. They fear
that fragmentation and lack of authority will escalate
violence.
The view of the bishops is best expressed in their
pastoral letter. It sees the church as incarnated in the basic
Christian communities, therefore priests must Find the
way to preach the Gospel of full salvation, not of mere
social and economic liberation.
J
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