Canadian Mennonite
Volume 10, No. 04
February 20, 2006


WiderChurch

Canadian government issues Ukrainian ‘land restitution’ warning

Ottawa

The Canadian government has issued a warning to potential investors in the Caobo Company’s land restitution efforts in the Ukraine (see “Mennonite groups oppose land speculator, Canadian Mennonite, Jan. 23, page 20).

The warning, posted on the Foreign Affairs Canada website, “strongly advises those interested in this or similar ventures to proceed with extreme caution.” The warning also notes that “diplomatic enquiries at the Ukrainian Parliament have confirmed that no initiatives to consider such a demand for compensation are currently in place.”

“The right of land ownership is a sensitive issue in [the] Ukraine,” the warning points out, explaining that, “currently, foreign ownership of agricultural land by individuals or companies is prohibited under Ukrainian law. Ukraine’s laws currently permit only recognized religious organizations to seek restitution of property confiscated by the Soviet regime.”

Paul Willms, Caobo’s CEO, says the warning contains “innuendo” about his company’s efforts, and he plans to take up the matter with the new Conservative government in Ottawa as soon as possible.

He is particularly upset at the warning’s statement that indicates Caobo’s “plan involves demanding land from the Ukrainian government as restitution for losses suffered by Mennonites under former Soviet Union authorities.”

“Caobo Company has never ‘demanded’ land from the Ukrainian government,” Willms says. “We have suggested that, in order for Caobo Company to invest sizeable development funding, it would be necessary to connect that with legal ownership.”

Countering the warning’s statement that “no initiatives to consider such a demand for compensation are currently in place,” Willms says his company has “at least two members of parliament in support of our plan.” According to him, one politician “is planning his re-election bid on supporting the Caobo Company initiative.”

The North American-based charity Friends of the Mennonite Centre Ukraine is pleased with the Canadian warning and is pressing the U.S. State Department to take a stand on the matter, according to spokesperson David Sudermann of Northfield, Minn.

Reiterating the organization’s stance that such a private land development initiative would undercut Mennonite humanitarian efforts in the Ukraine, and its belief that “reclaiming Mennonite lands for North American owners is not morally justifiable,” Sudermann says, “We, therefore, welcome the warning issued by the Canadian Government.”

Sudermann believes the Canadian warning “directly undercuts the suggestion of [the] Caobo Company [information package] that serious ‘negotiations with the Ukrainian Government for the restitution of the Mennonite lands’ are underway, and hints at the political difficulties involved.”

In conclusion, Sudermann suggests that “the [Foreign Affairs Canada] warning pulls the rug out from under the company’s suggestion that the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian parliament] plans to consider a law of restitution.”

—Ross W. Muir

Seeking Peace in Colombia

Church counsel sought on peaceful reintegration of illegal armed groups

Mennonite Church Canada has been asked to participate in an ecumenical consultation in Colombia regarding the peaceful reintegration of illegal armed groups and paramilitaries into society, known in the country as “reinsertion.”

Jack Suderman, general secretary, and MC Canada Witness executive secretary Janet Plenert are two of five internationals invited to a remote Caribbean island for the February gathering. The consultation was initiated as a result of Colombian government interest in seeking counsel from the country’s churches on the reinsertion process.

Both Suderman and Plenert have extensive experience working and teaching in Latin America. They point to three major challenges of the reinsertion process:

• Families, communities and employers often do not want to accept members of illegal armed groups and paramilitaries back into their folds, knowing that these individuals may have been responsible for every manner of violence;

• Societal restitution for the victims of violence; and,

• Punishment for the perpetrators.

It is rare for Colombian churches, which represent diverse biblical interpretations and theological traditions, to seek common ground. Colombia is 90 percent Catholic. The remaining 10 percent is comprised of a plethora of Protestant denominations, including Mennonites.

Coordinating the consultation is Ricardo Esquivia, a leader in the Colombian Mennonite Church. He represents the National Council for Peace, an initiative of the Evangelical Confederation of Colombia (CEDECOL).

On short notice, Suderman was asked to present a theological framework for what CEDECOL’s counsel to government could be. It is a daunting task.

“How to discern and apply the Christian understandings of the serious nature of evil, the passion for justice, the will for peace, the importance of forgiveness, and the strategies for mediation and conflict resolution, is indeed complicated,” he admits. “To walk in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in their struggle to be faithful is the least we can do as a church.”

The invitation also provides an opportunity to put into action one of three priorities discerned by MC Canada delegates at their last annual meeting, which is for MC Canada to “become a global church.”

Suderman and Plenert request the prayers of the wider church as they discern their message, for their contribution to the process, and for the churches in Colombia.

—MC Canada release by Dan Dyck

Funeral message transforms tragedy

In November 2004, Colombian Mennonites held a funeral peace march in honour of friend and Mennonite pastor Javier Segura Gonzales, who was killed by a bomb while waiting for a bus. Javier died exactly one year before Gloria Lizcano was struck down by a presidential motorcade.

Gloria Lizcano, a humble 55-year-old Colombian mother and dedicated church volunteer, was able to accomplish a rare event in this civil-war embattled country: She got her country’s leader to visit her church.

President Álvaro Uribe Vélez sat in a pew, next to his wife, Lina Maria, in the Teusaquillo Mennonite Church in Bogotá last November. They listened to a sermon that condemned violence as a resolution to conflict, and pointed to a gospel way of restoring and reconciling relationships. In a highly unusual move, the president’s bodyguards waited outside in response to parishioners’ requests that there be no guns in the sanctuary.

Sadly, Lizcano was unable to witness the event—because her body lay in a casket as Colombian Mennonite Church president Peter Stucky presented Gloria’s gift of life to the congregation—including Álvaro Uribe Vélez and Lina Maria.

Gloria Lizcano was a humble, simple servant of the Lord, said Stucky. A hard life did not stop her from patiently serving others and being an ever-ready eager helper.

Mennonite pastor Jairo Roa preached the funeral message, using Luke 22:24-30 as his text. Roa talked about the value of service to others, the first being last, and the rejection of violence. This was a risky and powerful witness, an open declaration of the church’s opposition to violence as a means to conflict resolution.

Stucky later wrote about the funeral: “Isn’t it ironic that the president came to the funeral of the mother of a conscientious objector. [Gloria’s son John has been the coordinator of the Cooperative for Conscientious Objection for a number of years.] Also, it is ironic that the president came to a Mennonite church that has been critical of his political agenda. I think the presidential couple felt welcomed and sat with all the others, listening. No one applauded them. Only Gloria was applauded.”

 

Indeed, the whole event dripped with irony. Gloria was killed not by bullets, but accidentally by a motorcycle in the president’s motorcade.

It was a Saturday night. She had just picked up the church bulletins, as she had for eons of previous Saturdays, and was on her way home—a short three blocks away—to fold them in preparation for the following day’s worship service. As the motorcade rounded a corner, her path crossed that of a presidential motorcycle. She died instantly.

Álvaro Uribe Vélez and Lina Maria expressed their sadness and grief over the tragedy. Characteristic of the Colombian Mennonite Church, the congregation seized the opportunity of a captive presidential audience to again say that Jesus has a better way.

—Janet Plenert

The author is the executive secretary of MC Canada’s Christian Witness Council

Buying recycled cards helps displaced families

Jacqui Schmucker of Toronto United Mennonite Church forwarded the following account of life for many of those displaced by the half-century civil war in Colombia. The author and many other displaced persons make their living creating and selling recycled Christmas cards they make through a program offered at Teusaquilla Mennonite Church in Bogotá. In Canada, Schmucker collects used Christmas (and other occasion) cards, and sends them to Colombia, and then resells the recycled cards across the country; to donate used cards, or purchase recycled ones, e-mail her at jacqui.schmucker@sympatico.ca.

My name is Edilma Doncello. I’m the mother of three small children. I’m a displaced person.

My husband and I had a small business, and when he refused to pay a “protection fee” to one of the armed groups, he was killed. Even after his assassination, the threats continued, so I fled to the city.

There, I got married again, and we started another business delivering food to small towns. But my life was again turned upside down when we witnessed the murder of two women by one of the armed groups. When we talked to the police, the armed group gave us 24 hours to live. So we fled to the capital city, Bogotá.

There, with the little money we brought, we rented a place to live that had a storefront, and restarted our business. In the city we thought we were safe, but after six months my brother was killed in our business. I felt confused, scared.

We had to close our business because of continuing threats. Yet six months later my husband disappeared (kidnapped). I was alone with my three children and no money. I was scared.

Not knowing anything about my husband, we went to live in my mother-in-law’s house. Shortly after, I received news that my husband had been killed.

Then, in 2004, I received a death threat by phone. I despaired. I returned to the capital with my children, feeling alone and scared for them and myself. In this despair, and with so many money problems, I started looking for God.

I found the Mennonite church, where I found strength to continue. It’s only with God’s strength and your support, and the support from my pastoral family, that I’m still alive and I can produce the recycled Christmas cards that give me and others our daily bread.

I want you to know that the recycled cards I produce are made with dedication and love. It’s the love that God has given me in my heart, and day by day God gives me strength to carry on.

—Edilma Doncello


Back to Canadian Mennonite home page