{"id":144,"date":"2015-12-18T07:58:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T07:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2015\/12\/18\/amecea-justice-and-peace-coordinators\/"},"modified":"2016-05-03T09:40:33","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T09:40:33","slug":"amecea-justice-and-peace-coordinators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2015\/12\/18\/amecea-justice-and-peace-coordinators\/","title":{"rendered":"AMECEA: Justice and Peace Coordinators ask EAC and AU to take action against the ongoing Killings in Burundi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nJustice and Peace Coordinators from AMECEA member countries have strongly condemned the increasing killings, torture and human rights violations in Burundi and called for the East African Community (EAC) and African Union (AU) to take action immediately against the crisis.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn their statement issued on 14
\nDecember 2015; at the end of their two-day consultative meeting in Nairobi,
\nKenya the coordinators stated that Governments in the region seem to have
\nturned a blind eye to the situation in Burundi as they were asking them and the
\ninternational community to immediately to intervene to stop the killings. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe call came after receiving
\nmedia reports that just recently alone about 87 people have been killed in
\nBurundi in the worst outbreak of political violence since an attempted coup in
\nApril, with residents describing victims shot execution-style, some with hands
\nbound behind their backs. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFull Text of the Press Statement<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nStatement of AMECEA
\nJustice and Peace Executive Secretaries at the end of a 2-day Consultative
\nmeeting in Nairobi 14th December 2015<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWe the Justice and Peace National
\nExecutive Secretaries meeting in Nairobi, to deliberate on our governance
\nprogrammes, regional justice and peace issues and also better mechanisms of
\nnetworking had the opportunity to learn from each other and also provide
\nsolidarity and encouragement for the various conferences.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn our deliberations, the African
\ncurse of conflict brought about by the various injustices kept finding its way
\nback into our conversations.  These
\nconflicts are not new, but they have become more violent and escalate
\nfaster.  The South Sudanese issue becomes
\nthe first priority for Association of
\nMember Episcopal Conference in Eastern Africa – AMECEA <\/b>region and is at the
\nbosom of our hearts.  But the pain we
\nfeel for our bleeding brothers and sisters does not stop with South Sudan.  Not to belittle in anyway this South Sudanese
\nconflict, our hearts bleed even more when we see what is happening in our neighboring
\nAssociation of Episcopal Conferences of Central Africa \u2013 (Association des
\nConf\u00e9rences Episcopales de l\u2019Afrique Centrale – <\/i><\/b>ACEAC) and
\nspecifically Burundi.  It was with this
\nheart wrenching pain that we interrupted our deliberations on the AMECEA
\nregional issues to discuss Burundi.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nBurundi forms part of ACEAC,
\nwhich covers 3 countries (Burundi, Rwanda and The Democratic Republic of Congo
\n\u2013 DRC).  ACEAC forms one of the 8
\nregional episcopal conferences under SECAM and directly neighbors AMECEA region
\nand hence the fire burning in our neighbor\u2019s house cannot be ignored.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHistory is repeating itself right
\nin-front of us and we seem hapless and helpless.  Politics is once again taking center stage to
\ncause death and unwarranted destruction. 
\nWhen does it stop?  Egypt, Libya,
\nSomalia, South Sudan, and and and\u2026<\/i><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhat shocks us and baffles us
\neven more, is that Burundi is a strong Catholic country with over 60% of the
\ncommunity being Catholics.  So we ask
\nourselves, where is our catechism?<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nGovernments in the region seem to
\nhave turned a blind eye to the situation in Burundi and we ask ourselves, do
\nthe heads of states in the East African Community (EAC) assume that this cannot
\nhappen in any of their countries?  How do
\nwe let negative ethnicity drive our countries? 
\nWhat are we preparing our children and grandchildren to inherit?<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe international community has
\nbeen asked time and again to intervene in Burundi.  The results have been more and more talking.
\nWe should, act and talk less.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWe as the Justice and Peace
\nExecutive Secretaries in the AMECEA Region would like to make the following cry
\nof mercy.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n1.                 
\nWe call upon the national conferences within the regions of AMECEA and
\nACEAC to take a lead role in publicly engaging with the different political
\nleaders and governments to put pressure on them to ensure this indifference<\/i><\/b>
\nthey are showing comes to an end.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n2.                 
\nWe are calling upon the catholic faithful in the AMECEA region and in
\nAfrica under the auspices of Symposium of Episcopal Conferences for Africa and
\nMadagascar (SECAM) to show solidarity with Burundi and rise up<\/i><\/b> with one voice
\nagainst this violence.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n3.                 
\nWe are proposing that we, as Christians and people of good faith are
\ngiven space through appointment of a special peace<\/i><\/b> envoy to Burundi to
\nwork with the government and the so-called rebels to cease hostilities.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n4.                 
\nWe are asking the East African Community and the African Union to take
\nup their obligations and mandates to show ethical leadership by discussing the
\nBurundi conflict and engaging all parties involved in the conflict so as
\nto achieve long lasting peace in Burundi, in the region and in the continent.  It is time we discuss negative ethnicity<\/i><\/b> as a
\nregion and continent especially where it is used to bring about armed conflict.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n5.                 
\nAnd lastly to the leadership<\/i><\/b> in Burundi. Your people
\nare your greatest asset. You are destroying your greatest asset.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWe pray that with this cry, our
\ncatholic faithful will live their Christian life and act against this violence
\nthat is killing our children.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nGod bless<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n1.                 
\n<\/i>Antony Mbandi \u2013 AMECEA Justice
\nPeace and Caritas<\/i><\/div>\n
\n2.                 
\n<\/i>Dr. Emmanuel Kiiza Aliba \u2013 Uganda
\nCJPC<\/i><\/div>\n
\n3.                 
\n<\/i>Martin Chiphwanya \u2013 Malawi CJPC<\/i><\/div>\n
\n4.                 
\n<\/i>Berhanu Tamene \u2013 AU \/SECAM
\nLiaison Office; Ethiopia<\/i><\/div>\n
\n5.                 
\n<\/i>Melaku Tamrat \u2013 Ethiopia CJPC<\/i><\/div>\n
\n6.                 
\n<\/i>Beatrice Odera \u2013 Kenya CJPC<\/i><\/div>\n
\n7.                 
\n<\/i>Jim Long John \u2013 CJPC South Sudan<\/i><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nNairobi, 14 December 2015<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justice and Peace Coordinators from AMECEA member countries have strongly condemned the increasing killings, torture…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1607,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/1607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}