Bishop wants more peacekeepers
Jun 24, 2003
Last week, Bishop David Urquhart, the Chairman of the Church Mission Society in Britain, visited Eastern DRC as part of international response to the humanitarian crisis. Converted to Christianity in Uganda during his gap year (long vac) in 1971, Urquhart is now a bishop in the Church of England
Last week, Bishop David Urquhart, the Chairman of the Church Mission Society in Britain, visited Eastern DRC as part of international response to the humanitarian crisis. Converted to Christianity in Uganda during his gap year (long vac) in 1971, Urquhart is now a bishop in the Church of England. He spoke to Julia Katorobo
QUESTION: Where did you go in the Democratic Republic of Congo
ANSWER: I went first of all to Aru. We drove across the border from Arua and spent Friday speaking to the Institut Pan Africain Sante Communitaire (IPASC) team, which is a community-directed health programme based in the DRC and Cote d’Ivoire that trains health workers at basic and diploma and degree level.
I am the President of the IPASC Trust. The staff and students of IPASC have been displaced twice already in the past 12 months. The main centre was at Nyankunde, which suffered a massacre in September 2002. Residents, including the staff and students walked from Nyankunde to Beni through the forests.
How many people were massacred?
As I’ve learnt now in the DRC, it is always difficult to give an exact total of people who are either killed, injured or displaced. But numbers were in the hundreds.
What did you see on your trip?
First of all, I saw at Aru that hundreds of displaced people were being welcomed and absorbed into the local community, including the staff members of IPASC who had arrived in Aru with no possessions at all.
The trauma that they had experienced was evident. The first thing we did at Aru was to lay the foundation stone of a new IPASC centre. The land had been given generously by the church and the local community. We hope that the buildings will be ready for the new academic year in September.
On Saturday, we drove out of Aru to a village called Ekanga to visit the local church, the local school and the health centre. This was about the furthest we could travel safely by road in the area (30km).
One of the major issues for everyone working with displaced people is that of trauma counselling. It is difficult to imagine the effects of young lives of murderous gunfire, bodies, violence, the loss of home, friends and becoming displaced within their own country.
One of the most outstanding facts for me about my visit is the courage and faith of ordinary Congolese in the face of extraordinary stress and difficulty. In Aru, Beni or Boga, it was the willingness of people to continue to trust God and help each other that was most impressive.
What do the local people say the cause of the conflict is?
It is clear to me that the cause of violence in the DRC is very complex. At the level of international and global relations: with the arms trade and global power politics, human life can often seem very cheap. I want to challenge the cheapening of human life in global politics.
At the regional level, in the Africa Great Lakes region, there has been conflict between neighbouring nations. The world is becoming more and more aware of the DRC’s neighbours’ interests in the country, military and commercial.
Internally, one of the causes of violence is the tribal and clan rivalry, which has erupted in appalling circumstances over the past five years and more recently within the past 12 months. All these, and other causes of violence are interlocked.
How can Europe help?
The presence of outside independent forces from the United Nations or the European Community or individual countries is welcomed. The only trouble seems to be that there aren’t enough of these peacekeeping troops. My personal view is that they should be in the DRC in their thousands immediately rather than in their hundreds because warring factions need to be kept apart before they can be made to reconcile.
Secondly, I would like to see a vigorous pursuit of a regional peace process between the neighbouring countries: Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Angola.
Thirdly, I would want the British government to take urgent note of the work of the panel from the United Nations concerned with mineral extraction in Congo.
What is the role of the Church?
As we now live in a global village, it is no longer acceptable to pass by on the other side of the road when we see our African neighbour beaten up and left lying for dead in the ditch. We cannot simply ignore the facts of three to four million people who have died in Eastern DRC in the last five years because of the violence, perhaps 10% from killing and 90% from the fact that there is no medical care and food.
The Church must press its own community and the wider community not only to be aware of the injustice of their fellow Christians in Congo, but also the whole Congolese community. Church Mission Society, which is an Anglican mission agency, wants to support projects like IPASC which are based on long-term relationships with local churches and communities which involve the training of local people.
When did IPASC first get involved in the DRC?
IPASC was founded on June 2, 1992. It is because IPASC is both local and long-term that it has managed to keep going in the most appalling circumstances.
Does IPASC comprise only local people?
IPASC is made up entirely of Congolese, together with a CMS mission partner who has worked in Congo since 1983; and another CMS mission partner. There are about 10 staff members, and about 100 students. Some of the students are still missing from the disruption.
How can Christians in Uganda relate to the situation in the DRC?
The most urgent thing for the Ugandan church in relationship to the church in the DRC is expressions of personal support in times of great difficulty. I expect that the Church in Uganda is praying for the people in DRC.
In Boga, the pillaging of the facilities of the community development centre, the school and the nurses home has been complete, and there are no mattresses for patients to sleep on and no equipment, with which even to do simple blood tests. These ordinary things, the Christians in Uganda will want to share with the Christians in Congo.
There is a deep work of reconciliation to be done. It may be that there are people in Uganda who have experience of trauma counselling. This could be something which could be offered in a practical way.
How did you get into what you are doing now?
In Britain, students are allowed to have a gap year between school and university. My gap year was spent in Kigezi in southwest Uganda in 1971. I came for an adventure and happened to join the Youth Service Abroad Scheme of the CMS. This is now called an Encounter programme.
When I came to Uganda I found myself among Christians and it was the Ugandan Christians who were living on Buwama Island on Lake Bunyonyi where I was working who explained the Christian faith to me. I returned to the UK and did a degree in business studies and joined the oil industry then I was called into the ordained ministry of the Church of England, much to my surprise.
Share about your family life?
I’m single, which is a great surprise in Africa.
Marriage is an excellent thing, and I spend a lot of time promoting the fact of marriage, but God has allowed me to remain single. I was able to come to the DRC without having a family to be anxious about me. And also the places where I’ve worked in England have often been places where it would have been difficult to have brought up a family. I have 14 Godchildren so they keep me involved with family.
QUESTION: Where did you go in the Democratic Republic of Congo
ANSWER: I went first of all to Aru. We drove across the border from Arua and spent Friday speaking to the Institut Pan Africain Sante Communitaire (IPASC) team, which is a community-directed health programme based in the DRC and Cote d’Ivoire that trains health workers at basic and diploma and degree level.
I am the President of the IPASC Trust. The staff and students of IPASC have been displaced twice already in the past 12 months. The main centre was at Nyankunde, which suffered a massacre in September 2002. Residents, including the staff and students walked from Nyankunde to Beni through the forests.
How many people were massacred?
As I’ve learnt now in the DRC, it is always difficult to give an exact total of people who are either killed, injured or displaced. But numbers were in the hundreds.
What did you see on your trip?
First of all, I saw at Aru that hundreds of displaced people were being welcomed and absorbed into the local community, including the staff members of IPASC who had arrived in Aru with no possessions at all.
The trauma that they had experienced was evident. The first thing we did at Aru was to lay the foundation stone of a new IPASC centre. The land had been given generously by the church and the local community. We hope that the buildings will be ready for the new academic year in September.
On Saturday, we drove out of Aru to a village called Ekanga to visit the local church, the local school and the health centre. This was about the furthest we could travel safely by road in the area (30km).
One of the major issues for everyone working with displaced people is that of trauma counselling. It is difficult to imagine the effects of young lives of murderous gunfire, bodies, violence, the loss of home, friends and becoming displaced within their own country.
One of the most outstanding facts for me about my visit is the courage and faith of ordinary Congolese in the face of extraordinary stress and difficulty. In Aru, Beni or Boga, it was the willingness of people to continue to trust God and help each other that was most impressive.
What do the local people say the cause of the conflict is?
It is clear to me that the cause of violence in the DRC is very complex. At the level of international and global relations: with the arms trade and global power politics, human life can often seem very cheap. I want to challenge the cheapening of human life in global politics.
At the regional level, in the Africa Great Lakes region, there has been conflict between neighbouring nations. The world is becoming more and more aware of the DRC’s neighbours’ interests in the country, military and commercial.
Internally, one of the causes of violence is the tribal and clan rivalry, which has erupted in appalling circumstances over the past five years and more recently within the past 12 months. All these, and other causes of violence are interlocked.
How can Europe help?
The presence of outside independent forces from the United Nations or the European Community or individual countries is welcomed. The only trouble seems to be that there aren’t enough of these peacekeeping troops. My personal view is that they should be in the DRC in their thousands immediately rather than in their hundreds because warring factions need to be kept apart before they can be made to reconcile.
Secondly, I would like to see a vigorous pursuit of a regional peace process between the neighbouring countries: Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Angola.
Thirdly, I would want the British government to take urgent note of the work of the panel from the United Nations concerned with mineral extraction in Congo.
What is the role of the Church?
As we now live in a global village, it is no longer acceptable to pass by on the other side of the road when we see our African neighbour beaten up and left lying for dead in the ditch. We cannot simply ignore the facts of three to four million people who have died in Eastern DRC in the last five years because of the violence, perhaps 10% from killing and 90% from the fact that there is no medical care and food.
The Church must press its own community and the wider community not only to be aware of the injustice of their fellow Christians in Congo, but also the whole Congolese community. Church Mission Society, which is an Anglican mission agency, wants to support projects like IPASC which are based on long-term relationships with local churches and communities which involve the training of local people.
When did IPASC first get involved in the DRC?
IPASC was founded on June 2, 1992. It is because IPASC is both local and long-term that it has managed to keep going in the most appalling circumstances.
Does IPASC comprise only local people?
IPASC is made up entirely of Congolese, together with a CMS mission partner who has worked in Congo since 1983; and another CMS mission partner. There are about 10 staff members, and about 100 students. Some of the students are still missing from the disruption.
How can Christians in Uganda relate to the situation in the DRC?
The most urgent thing for the Ugandan church in relationship to the church in the DRC is expressions of personal support in times of great difficulty. I expect that the Church in Uganda is praying for the people in DRC.
In Boga, the pillaging of the facilities of the community development centre, the school and the nurses home has been complete, and there are no mattresses for patients to sleep on and no equipment, with which even to do simple blood tests. These ordinary things, the Christians in Uganda will want to share with the Christians in Congo.
There is a deep work of reconciliation to be done. It may be that there are people in Uganda who have experience of trauma counselling. This could be something which could be offered in a practical way.
How did you get into what you are doing now?
In Britain, students are allowed to have a gap year between school and university. My gap year was spent in Kigezi in southwest Uganda in 1971. I came for an adventure and happened to join the Youth Service Abroad Scheme of the CMS. This is now called an Encounter programme.
When I came to Uganda I found myself among Christians and it was the Ugandan Christians who were living on Buwama Island on Lake Bunyonyi where I was working who explained the Christian faith to me. I returned to the UK and did a degree in business studies and joined the oil industry then I was called into the ordained ministry of the Church of England, much to my surprise.
Share about your family life?
I’m single, which is a great surprise in Africa.
Marriage is an excellent thing, and I spend a lot of time promoting the fact of marriage, but God has allowed me to remain single. I was able to come to the DRC without having a family to be anxious about me. And also the places where I’ve worked in England have often been places where it would have been difficult to have brought up a family. I have 14 Godchildren so they keep me involved with family.