| World Council of Churches | says disarmament main aim _ By FILS DELISLE Tribune Berlin Correspondent ’DRESDEN — A powerful plea to preserve world peace and save _ the peoples from nuclear destruc- tion has been issued here by lead- ers of the World Council of Churches. Meeting in regular ses- Sion in this socialist city, with churchmen present from both east and west, the World Council sessions showed that peace is the _ Major issue in the minds of hun- dreds of millions of Christians on : every continent represented by the Council. ; The current 10-day conference has brought together 700 mem- bers, advisers, laymen, church Officials, observers and guests from 300 protestant, evangelical, Anglican, Grthodox and other Christian communities in 100 countries, including Canada. Ob- servers from the Vatican are also present: The Dresden conference is thus one of the most important international Christian convoca- tion in our time. From the opening greeting of representatives of the GDR to the report of general Secretary Philip Potter, the themes of peace and disarmament predominate. Thus, in his greetings to the conference, GDR leader Erich Honecker praised the activities of the World Council of Churches, supported its work for a peaceful future for mankind, and endorsed its fight against every form of racism and colonialism. Klaus Gysi, state secretary for church affairs in the GDR, told the delegates from five continents that the people of the GDR look upon the World Council’s work ‘“‘with respect and sympathy’. He declared: ‘‘More than’ ever our joint strivings are needed for peace. More than ever what counts is every reasonable voice, every act, every individual.”’ The head of the Evangelical churches in the GDR, Bishop.Al- brecht Schoenherr, said the church ‘‘is happy and grateful’ to live in a state like the GDR where church and state have been so correctly separated and the church enjoys its proper rights. Another GDR church leader, Bishop Hohannes Hempel, told the delegates that Christians in the GDR have numerous pos-- sibilities to devote themselves to work in the churches and general society. In his opening report, Potter indicated that the World Coun- cil’s member churches were de- voted to the achievement of solu- tions to the main issues of the day. He denounced the thesis that a limited nuclear war was possible. ‘‘The World Council of Churches’ program on militarism and disarmament,”’ he said, *‘and our declarations on the threats to world peace and the survival of mankind should contribute to the combatting of the illusions and lack of knowledge which pre- dominate with regard to the in- sane race for atomic superiority and the unconscionable trade in weapons with unscrupulous rul- ers, dictators and terrorists.”’ It was announced that an inter- national hearing on atomic arma- ments will be held in Amsterdam at the end of November. Potter also called for support to op- pressed people fighting for libera- tion and for material aid to “those who are racially persecuted’. Many speakers urged that the conference and the world’s Chris- tians deal with the dangers to the world arising from the escalation of the armaments race and the USA’s program to produce neut- ron weapons. Archbishop Kyrill representting the Russian Or- thodox church, urged delegates to make the fight for the lives of the peoples their main task, adding: ‘*May the present session express its viewpoint on the new and dangerous phase of the arma- ments race.”’ Francois Mitterand. pro-neutron decision. ent Three participants of the recently concluded peace march from Copenhagen to Paris pull the marchers’ symbolic dove of peace through the streets of Paris to hand it over to French President March across Europe to halt missile use _ In February, 1981, three Norwegian women addressed a letter to all Nordic organizations interested in peace. They proposed a 1,100 kilometres march through Europe to mobilize support against NATO's decision to station new roc- kets’ in Europe. The three also opposed the “‘limited nuclear war’’ concept and the U.S. threat to build a neutron weapon. ‘‘Peace March 1981"’ caught on. It began in Copenhagen June 21 and, after travelling through Denmark, Federal German Re- public, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, ended at a mass rally in Paris Aug. 6 (Hiroshima Day), three days before Reagan's Ten women from each of the four Nordic countries — Nor- way, Denmark, Sweden and Finland — were chosen to form the core of the march, walking the entire distance. But when the plan was put into effect, more than 1,100 formed the core, with eight others from central and southern Europe and USA joining. As aresult many national, international and local organizations walked under a single banner: ‘‘No to Nuclear Weapons in Europe! The march offered an opportunity-for those from differ- untries with different political views to meet and exchange tore and carry on a dialogue for peace. 7 INTERNATIONAL FOCUS — By TOM MORRIS All the world’s a stage... _ Canada’s decision to sell “‘strategic goods’’ to China raised a number of interesting Canadian trade and foreign policy. External Affairs Minister MacGuigan let the idea slip ata Peking news conference. The news caught both Chinese and Canadian officials by surprise, neither Ottawa nor Peking had heard of it. meant by ‘‘strategic goods’, MacGuigan wasn’t sure. Asked when the decision was reached, “he couldn’t recall. Asked if it was an extension of two months earlier, the in- trepid statesman didn’t know. So nobody knows what it means. There was some scurrying about by External Affairs people thinking per- haps they had missed it. Not a soul could clear up whether “strategic goods’? meant mili- tary hardware, technology, points about the formulation of - Asked by reporters what he — a similar U.S. announcement. foodstuffs, Mountie postcards or what. But when it came to his favorite topic’ — ‘‘human rights’? — MacGuigan was more specific. Lecturing to the Chinese International Law Society, he said Canada’s strength doesn’t lie in its tech- nological progress, but “‘in the rule of law which protects citi- zens from arbitrary action by the state and guarantees the fundamental values of a free society: freedom of con- science, religion, speech, press, assembly and associa- tion.” While MacGuigan was hold- ing forth, two reports came down here at home. One, the Kent Commission report, warned of a real threat to the press due to monopoly take- over, the other the MacDonald Commission on wrong-doings. The papers don’t say whether MacGuigan’s Chinese listeners quizzed him on these matters. It’s not recorded whether the arrests during the War Measures Act were dis- cussed or the “‘freedom of con- RCMP | science’ of Canada’s Native people. MacGuigan did, however, promise to raise the matter of Chinese violations of human rights. Abully - with an airforce Back in the Vietnam war days the U.S. peace movement called president Lyndon Johnson ‘‘a bully with an air force’. As the charges and counter-charges flew last week over the shooting down of two Libyan jets by U.S. Navy F-14s, the old description of a ‘U.S. president ordering his military to shoot comes to mind. Despite official White House denials that the incident was . provoked, it quickly became obvious what had happened. Asked if staging its military maneuvres in the Gulf of Sidra was a challenge, a State Department Official replied: ‘Look at. the map.” Another, described by Time magazine as ‘‘one of the ar- chitects of the maneuvers” commented: ‘‘(The U.S.) placed a chip in its shoulder and the Libyans could try to knock it offifthey wished . . -”’ The dangerous episode was then made more bizarre by film footage of Reagan on the car- rier USS Constellation playing at war (though the pentagon ‘denied the two events were linked). On board, between watching bombing runs and taking a stint at the wheel, Reagan promised ‘‘a 600-ship navy” in his sabre-rattling speech to the crew. -. He’s a dangerous, bel- ligerant president who's about to spend $1.5-trillion over the next five years on weapons and seems willing to up the ante re- gardless of the consequences. By contrast to this out-of- control president, Soviet leader Brezhnev’s remarks to the Soviet parliament sound a reasoned note: ‘‘ There is only one way out,’’ he said. “‘One must now, today, do one’s utmost to bar the road to those who seek unrestricted re- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 4, 1981—Page 5 armament and military gam- bles. ‘“‘No one can be an in- different onlooker in this mat- ter; it affects all and everyone. It affects governments and political parties, public organizations and, of course, parliaments elected by the peor and acting on their be- Sadat, Begin define ‘autonomy’ Israel’s Begin and Egypt’s Sadat raised the curtain for the second act as they sat to dis- cuss ‘‘Palestinian autonomy” Aug. 25. Begin’s ‘‘autonomy plan” would leave the Palestinian Arabs without control of foreign affairs, laws, defence and security, land, water, re- sources or communications. That’s some autonomy. In what could be described as an understatement, Reu- ter’s reports the Palestinian mayors (who have boycotted this phoney process since 1979) ‘tresponded frostily’’.