AFRICA HAS URGENT NEED FOR PEACE

VATICAN CITY, DEC 5, 2001 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato Martino, Holy See Permanent Observer to the United Nations, spoke yesterday at the plenary assembly on article 48, "Causes of conflict and the promotion of peace and lasting development in Africa."

"Today's Africa," said the archbishop speaking in French, "has an urgent need for peace, for the resolute support of the international community not only to stop the current wars, but also to combat the profound causes of conflicts in order to establish a lasting peace on the continent."

Archbishop Martino affirmed that "the conditions necessary for the promotion of lasting development and peace certainly cannot be reached without the establishment of a participatory democracy which permits the African peoples to be the architects of their own future."

"The world," he continued, "has witnessed too many situations of violence and conflict which have their origin in economic inequality and desperation. ... Another crucial problem that continues to weigh upon the future of the African peoples is, without a doubt, the international debt of the continent's countries." In this regard, he recalled the Pope's invitation to consider a significant reduction if not a total cancellation of the debt.

The permanent observer said that "while recognizing the new initiative of international financial institutions - which consists in creating strategies for combatting poverty, with the particular participation of the governments and civil societies in the countries concerned - it remains urgent that appropriate measures be taken to ensure sincere collaboration between those governments and civil societies, indeed their ample participation, so as not to stifle the voice of the millions of poor and marginalized whom the U.N. initiative seeks to help."

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