War crimes
With so much attention being centred on the opening of the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, in the Hague, it would be easy to overlook today’s news from Sierra Leone of a similar criminal procedure. In Freetown a United Nations supported court is due to deliver its last verdict on war crimes suspects from the country's civil war, which ended it 2002.
The ten year long conflict was characterised by widespread murder, mutilation and abuse of civilians. Three rebel leaders are awaiting the result of appeals against convictions for such crimes. The finalising of this trial would mean that the only outstanding case would be that of the former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s crimes against humanity, in Sierra Leone, whose trial continues in another courtroom but in The Hague.
See the following for more details; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8325470.stm
The subject of war crimes were not addressed when Janice and I were welcomed at St Andrews Church, Paddock Wood, Kent, yesterday. We were there at the invitation of a church which seeks to be connected to not just one area of mission but six different projects, with our future work with the Sierra Leone Methodist Church being a focus of prayerful engagement. St Andrews is both an Anglican and a Methodist Church and we were able speak to Rev Brian Knapp, the Vicar, before the service and then to share in leading the worship with Rev Lynda Russell, the Methodist Minister.
A small team had just returned from a visit to Bereko, one of the church’s mission projects in Tanzania, so we were able to appreciate the vitality of this congregation which is committed to enhancing its vision of a wider ecumenism than just that of a local church. Hopefully the provision of a prayer card – bookmark will assist the mission of not only St Andrews but other churches and individuals too.
With so much attention being centred on the opening of the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, in the Hague, it would be easy to overlook today’s news from Sierra Leone of a similar criminal procedure. In Freetown a United Nations supported court is due to deliver its last verdict on war crimes suspects from the country's civil war, which ended it 2002.
The ten year long conflict was characterised by widespread murder, mutilation and abuse of civilians. Three rebel leaders are awaiting the result of appeals against convictions for such crimes. The finalising of this trial would mean that the only outstanding case would be that of the former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s crimes against humanity, in Sierra Leone, whose trial continues in another courtroom but in The Hague.
See the following for more details; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8325470.stm
The subject of war crimes were not addressed when Janice and I were welcomed at St Andrews Church, Paddock Wood, Kent, yesterday. We were there at the invitation of a church which seeks to be connected to not just one area of mission but six different projects, with our future work with the Sierra Leone Methodist Church being a focus of prayerful engagement. St Andrews is both an Anglican and a Methodist Church and we were able speak to Rev Brian Knapp, the Vicar, before the service and then to share in leading the worship with Rev Lynda Russell, the Methodist Minister.
A small team had just returned from a visit to Bereko, one of the church’s mission projects in Tanzania, so we were able to appreciate the vitality of this congregation which is committed to enhancing its vision of a wider ecumenism than just that of a local church. Hopefully the provision of a prayer card – bookmark will assist the mission of not only St Andrews but other churches and individuals too.
Peter and Janice
Dear Janice and Peter,
ReplyDeleteWe hope you had a safe journey. You were in our prayers and thoughts on the third. I suspect you will be very busy over the next few weeks but please share with us the excitement of the discoveries you are going to make.
The issue of war crime is always a difficult one: who has the responsabilities?: the givers of order, the excecutioners of order, the benefitors from such crimes, or the silent majority (including us expressing our polite outrage from the confort of our sofas and prayers) or all.
With Love,
Laurent