September 24, 2004

CHICAGO - At the end of a visit to El Salvador, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), affirmed his commitment to transmit to the LWF and the ELCA concerns of Central American Lutherans about Free Trade Agreements (FTA).

The six-day visit was Hanson's first to Central America as LWF president. He visited El Salvador Sept. 11-16 at the invitation of the Communion of Lutheran Churches in Central America. In a news conference before he returned to the United States, Hanson said during meetings with Central American Lutheran communities he witnessed people living in situations of extreme poverty. He noted that Central American Lutheran churches have understood their ministries as accompanying the suffering population, caring for creation and defending such human rights as access to health care, education, housing and employment, the LWF release said.

In talks with civil society representatives, Hanson said he sensed their frustration because the peace accords signed after the end of the 1980-1992 conflict in El Salvador had not been implemented fully and had not brought expected peace with justice, the news release said.

"For us peace is not just the end of the armed conflict; rather, it involves ensuring access to all basic rights," Hanson said. The churches expressed gratitude for LWF's accompaniment, and satisfaction that the LWF was seriously debating the impact of economic globalization, especially on the most vulnerable people, LWF reported.

The churches expressed their concern over FTAs' potential impact on people's lives in Central America, Hanson said. They cited lack of transparency and public participation in discussion on such agreements, as well as poverty in rural areas and among indigenous people and women.

Lack of clear regulations on the exploitation of natural resources and the subsequent deterioration of the environment were other concerns cited by the churches.

"I am committed to taking this message and these concerns back to the LWF and particularly to my church in the United States," Hanson said. Hanson noted on the third anniversary of the September 11, 2001, that terrorist attacks against the United States showed "once again, the cruel and continuous violence affecting our world. We are witnesses to how violence generates more violence in Iraq. This visit has helped me see how violence is also expressed in unjust structures and in situations of exclusion and marginalization."

"As I return to my country, I have a renewed commitment to act in favor of peace, investing my best efforts to construct a more just world without exclusion," he continued.

As a religious leader committed to nonviolence, Hanson said he recently participated in meetings with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss peace in Iraq, and with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, to seek peaceful means to resolving the crisis in the Middle East.

Hanson criticized the decision to start war against Iraq, adding that peace in that country would only be achieved if the sovereignty of the Iraqi people was respected, and not as a result of United States imposition.

ELCA News Service
Fernando Oshige, director, Agencia Latinoamericana y Caribena de Comunicacion, Lima, Peru, reported for Lutheran World Information, the information service of the Lutheran World Federation, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland.