Namibia Panel Reports To Canterbury
Episcopal News Service. March 22, 1984 [84058]
LONDON (DPS, Mar. 22) -- The report of an international Anglican team, commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury to pay a pastoral visit to Namibia last October, was released here March 5.
The visit followed a request by the Bishop of Namibia, the Rt. Rev. James H. Kauluma, with the support of his primate the Archbishop of Capetown. The six-man delegation spent six days in the war zone and met a cross section of Namibians, including Anglicans and other Christians.
Three members of the delegation told the press conference at Lambeth Palace that they hoped their report would "give a voice" which would enable the Church in Namibia to be heard by the international community. Introducing the report, Suffragan Bishop James Thompson of Stepney said, that "over and over again, Namibian people told us that they felt 'that their voice was seldom heard' by the international community."
The report is highly critical of the role of the South African Defense Forces, saying that the people of Namibia live in a "perpetual state of fear and suspicion." Asked if recent peace talks between South Africa and Angola were likely to affect Namibia, a member of the delegation said that it did not follow that the situation in Namibia would be eased because "withdrawal of troops from Angola meant more troops in Namibia."
Like the visit itself, the report's recommendations divide into pastoral and political categories. In the first, the Archbishop of Canterbury is urged to visit Namibia. The Province and those parts of the Anglican Communion which can do so are urged to increase support for the Namibia Church's pastoral, educational and administrative work. In the second category, Anglican provinces are urged to step up their representations to their national governments for increased support of Namibian development and for implementation of the United Nations Resolution that, for the last six years, has demanded an end to South Africa's occupation of Namibia.
Current U.S. policies of "constructive engagement" with South Africa have somewhat weakened the negotiating efforts of the western "Contact Group" which was taking the lead in seeking implementation of the resolution, and the last recommendation suggests that the provinces could urge the Contact nations "to put pressure on the United States to concentrate on their original terms of reference rather than be drawn into the argument about the Cuban/SADF linkage."
Among developments in Namibia since the visit were the withdrawal of France from the five nation Namibian Contact Group, and further examples of intimidation of church people by members of the Koevoet (a branch of the security forces) which is reported to have harassed an Anglican Congregation at worship, then fired shots into the roof of their church.
Members reported that they witnessed a total lack of communication between the SADF and the people of Namibia. After hearing, throughout six days of contact with the people, about how impossible life was under the curfew, they visited the military headquarters and were told that "the people don't really mind the curfew."
They felt that arrangements for a multi-party settlement in Namibia which did not include SWAPO (the Southwest African People's Organization) "could not gain the respect of the Namibian people." The team said that many members of SWAPO are "the children of the church."
But they stressed that the visit was essentially "pastoral" rather than political.
There are already signs that Anglican churches are responding to the needs of the church in Namibia. In the Episcopal Church, the Dioceses of Hawaii, Texas and Alabama have pledged nearly $300,000 to rebuilding the Church in Namibia and Church Center staff officers estimate that other contributions will lift that to $500,000 before long.
The Episcopal members of the delegation were the Rt. Rev. Edmond Browning of Hawaii and the Rev. Charles A. Cesaretti, public issues officer at the Church Center. Copies of the report are available from the Public Issues Office, the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Ave. New York, NY 10017.