Lutherans Support Ban On Land Mines

    PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will join forces with others around the world calling for the elimination of land mines, based on action taken at the fifth biennial Churchwide Assembly being held here Aug. 14-20.  More than 800 voting members of the ELCA elected to support an international ban on the use, production, stockpile and sale, transfer or export of anti-personnel land mines.
    "The principle casualties of land mines are civilians, women going to market, farmers in their fields and children playing," said Sandra G. Gustavson, Athens, Ga.  "At least 100 million anti-personnel land mines have been laid in more than 60 countries, killing or maiming someone, somewhere, every twenty minutes."  Gustavson is an ELCA Church Council member.
    The Rev. Theodore F. Schneider, bishop of the ELCA's Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod, said "the concern is urgent because land mines continue to maim after war is over."  Schneider presented 116,000 signatures on petitions against land mines to U.S. Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) on May 15.
    ELCA members will ask the government of the United States to sign an international treaty that bans anti-personnel land mines immediately and to increase support for international and bilateral programs for humanitarian mine clearance and mine victim assistance.
    "I was very excited to see that the assembly took such a positive, immediate and complete action to encourage the president and the U.S. Congress to really work for a global ban," said the Rev. Mark Brown, assistant director for international affairs, Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs, Washington, D.C.
    The Rev. Howard Wennes, bishop for the ELCA's Grand Canyon Synod, commended Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- the women's organization of the ELCA -- for their leadership on this issue. Lutheran women collected 67,000 signatures -- one for each of the quilts Lutheran World Relief sent to Angola in 1995.  Lutheran World Relief works on behalf of the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
    Two days after the ELCA vote, President Bill Clinton announced that U.S. officials will participate in the "Ottawa process" negotiations on a treaty to ban anti-personnel land mines.  "Our work is still cut out for us and for our many partners advocating for an immediate and complete international ban," said Brown.
    "While the U.S. will participate in the Ottawa process, basic U.S. policy regarding land mines has not changed.  The United States is still likely to introduce a number of exceptions and delays into the process and this would water-down what comes out of Ottawa.  So the advocacy of ELCA is even more crucial between now and the December treaty signing in Ottawa, Canada," said Brown.

For information contact:

Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html