VATICAN CITY, FEB 25, 2004 (VIS) - Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, spoke yesterday afternoon at a congress that opened earlier that morning at the Catholic University of East Africa in Nairobi, Kenya on the theme "Contemporary Problems for an Integral and Sustainable Development." The meeting was an initiative of the university's Social Services Institute, according to a communique released by the pontifical council.
In his talk he made an appeal for those countries in Africa that have been hammered by bloody conflicts, devastating epidemics and a suffocating foreign debt. He underscored the question of arms trafficking, saying it was "deplorable" that some countries profit from this while others are living enormous human tragedies because of poverty as well as ecological disasters.
Cardinal Martino termed "unacceptable the pretext of terrorist groups, who intend to reestablish peace and justice through blind violence, not hesitating to destroy innocent human lives." He also denounced the "scandal" of States who enlist children as soldiers. Turning to AIDS he called this "the scourge of the century or the millennium with its disastrous demographic, health, economic and social consequences." He also called for a reduction, if not the elimination, of the foreign debt of Africa's poorest countries.
During his talk, says the communique, Cardinal Martino, who for 16 years was the Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, "did not exclude that in a near future the Holy See could go from observer status to that of member of the U.N." and he "repeated the urgency of a reform of the United Nations that would allow for this institution to fully undertake its role on the international scene."
CON-IP/.KENYA:MARTINO VIS 20040225 (290)
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