“The suffering is increased”

adminonDecember 8, 2021January 27, 2022Leave a Comment

The international Catholic peace movement pax christi rejects the military intervention of the West in Libya. Johannes Schnettler, vice president of the German section, fears to our site "enormous civilian casualties".

The United Nations Security Council had passed a resolution in New York on Thursday evening (local time) to ban flights over the North African country to protect Libyan civilians from the air force of ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Almost anything is permitted militarily – except ground troops. Germany abstained in vote and wants to do the same for air strikes.

This is "military support for the opposition movement in the country," Schnettler said in an interview with our site on Friday (19.03.2011). At the same time, however, the civilian population is also endangered by possible attacks from the air. In addition, NATO is being drawn into a conflict "the consequences of which are as yet unforeseeable". Although pax christi "sympathizes with the protest movement" in Libya, the great dilemma lies in the choice of means. With the path that the United Nations has now prepared, the suffering will be increased.

Topic also in the Bundestag Following the Security Council's approval of a no-fly zone, the ie also became the focus of deliberations in the Bundestag again on Friday. In a government statement at noon, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle wanted to present the German position. Germany – along with veto-wielding powers China and Russia – had abstained from voting in the powerful U.N. body and will not send soldiers to North Africa either.

At 11.00 o'clock the Bundestag interrupted its meeting, in order to make possible for the parliamentary groups consultation over the new situation. The Security Council had voted last night by ten votes to none and five abstentions in favor of the resolution, which authorizes member states to "take all necessary measures" to protect the civilian population in the North African country from the forces of ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Westerwelle said the tightening of international sanctions "is something we welcome and support, and something we ourselves have pushed for". The German government, however, remains extremely skeptical about the option of military intervention in Libya, which is "also provided for in the resolution. "We see considerable dangers and risks here. That is why we cannot agree to this part of the resolution."

Involvement of Arab countries
CDU foreign policy spokesman Ruprecht Polenz welcomed the UN decision. It is important that there is now an authorization basis for those countries that want to intervene, said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag on Deutschlandfunk radio. Polenz called it "very decisive" that Arab countries – namely Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – apparently also want to participate in such a measure. If this were not the case, the West would face the accusation that it is only concerned with oil in the case of Libya.

Greens urged deployment strictly bound by international humanitarian law. The establishment of protection zones for the civilian population and a no-fly zone bought time for the tightened sanctions to take effect, explained the heads of the parliamentary groups Renate Kunast and Jurgen Trittin in Berlin. For this, however, human rights and the proportionality of means must also be observed.

Kunast and Trittin, as well as party leader Claudia Roth, emphasized: "We consider the measures of the United Nations to be politically necessary overall in order to protect the population from the most serious human rights violations." They welcomed at the same time "that the Security Council expressly excludes the sending of occupation troops".

The Left Party criticized the decision. As right as it is to put a stop to the murderous activities of the Gaddafi regime, it is just as wrong to try to achieve this with war, declared the chairmen of the party and parliamentary group, Gesine Lotzsch, Klaus Ernst and Gregor Gysi. The civil war in Libya threatens to become an international war.

Buber-Rosenzweig Medal © Mathias Ernert

The 2022 Buber-Rosenzweig Medal will go to Eintracht Frankfurt President Peter Fischer and to Maccabi Germany, Germany’s only Jewish gymnastics and sports federation. They are honored for their commitment against anti-Semitism and racism.

This was announced by the German Coordinating Council of the Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Bad Nauheim on Thursday. The award ceremony is to take place on 6. March 2022 to open the "Week of Fraternity" in Osnabruck, which will be held under the motto "Fair Play – Every Person Counts".

For humanity and respect in sports

Fischer (65) has "made a name for himself with his clear stance against the right, against anti-Semitism and racism in sports as well as in society," the coordinating council said. As a sports official, he has become a role model for many. "Peter Fischer stands up in an impressive way for humanity and respect in sports and beyond," it said. He was also partly responsible for the intensive reappraisal of the Nazi history of Frankfurt’s Eintracht soccer club.

Raising awareness of anti-Semitism in sport in the long term

Maccabi, it said, is particularly committed to seeing sports as a bridge between people – regardless of their religion, origin or skin color. The umbrella organization and its local clubs bring Jewish and non-Jewish athletes together "and thus create a platform for getting to know different cultures and lifestyles," the coordinating council said. Maccabi wants to make Jewish life visible in its diversity and to sensitize sport in the long term to anti-Semitism.

The Federation of Catholic Youth doesn't want to downplay the looting and violence in the U.K., but calls for more focus on the causes of the riots. Responsible people and society had not noticed problems that had been piled up for years, says BDKJ national president priest Simon Rapp in our site-interview.

Interviewer: Is poverty, lack of perspective or unemployment a reason to vandalize whole streets?

Father Rapp: I wouldn't say that's a cause, but it seems to be one of the causes of what we're seeing in the U.K. right now, but what we've seen in other European countries in recent years as well. I only remember Paris. Young people whose situation is not perceived, who are faced with a lack of perspective. They don't know if they can get out of a cycle of poverty because they are not offered prospects by society either. You are at some point in a frustration stage that discharges in one place. In London, that seems to have been just as far now.

Interviewer: On the U.S. East Coast, similar phenomena have now been stopped by setting up curfews for under-18s. In your opinion, is that an appropriate measure?

Father Rapp: I'd say that's locking away and looking away from the real reasons of perspective-less youth today.

Interviewer: Isn't it necessary to set a sign that there can't be a good excuse for every kind of derailment, which is at the expense of society?

Rev. Rapp: I don't want to excuse what happened in London or in other cities. I also do not want to play down what has broken out there. But I would like to point out that you look at the deeper causes first. Of course, whoever commits violent acts should be condemned for it, this should not be the style. On the other hand, it must also be said that the problems that have accumulated there over years and decades have obviously not been noticed by those responsible and also by society, but that people have looked the other way. Now they are perceived in one fell swoop… Only in the moment when really incomes and buildings are set on fire, where it is visible, there is a social and societal problem…

Interviewer: What is happening with the riots in Great Britain is a mixture of fun with violence, greed by participating in looting and also lost morals. Where does this loss of morality come from?

Rev. Rapp: Last year, the BDKJ, together with some cooperation partners, had the topic of lost young people as part of our Joseftag campaign. We have to look at the fact that there are actually young people who are considered lost in our society, who are simply no longer perceived, whose situation, their lack of prospects, their lack of educational opportunities, their vicious circle of poverty and educational poverty are not perceived. We tried to draw attention to it last year and noticed that many of those we approached did not see it that way. Young people cannot be blamed for acting morally when their cries for help are not heard. That they are faced with a group of people of the same age who can afford everything, while they themselves can afford nothing, no health care, no sufficient nutrition. Then at some point it becomes clear. I would be cautious to talk about morals towards these young people before we have explored what was the actual trigger and what is the situation that drove the young people there. But I also perceived that just in the last nights in London this also became a sport, to go to lootings. That is another phenomenon, which one would have to examine thereupon again extra.

Interviewer: They call for a whole range of social measures as prevention against youth poverty: Poverty-proof needs rates, free education and a right to training. Support is good, but in this welfare state, shouldn't we also demand more and make it clear to young people that they also help shape their own destiny??

Pastor Rapp: Often young people are concerned, who did not have so far necessarily the entrance to these promotion possibilities and therefore these also at all did not notice. Statistics also show that poverty in education and poverty in general is inherited in our country. Various educational studies have repeatedly pointed this out. It is actually a matter of young people taking a concrete look at this situation. There is a large majority of young people, young adults, who certainly have some future opportunities open to them, but there is also a not to be despised minority for whom these prospects for their lives are simply not given due to a lack of education, due to a lack of incentives for education, due to a lack of opportunities to then also get into training, into work. That's why we say, here we must not only demand young people, but we must first and foremost check our support measures to see if the ones we offer are really safe.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply