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Volume 27, Issue 3, August 26, 2004

WORLD NEWS

Content is provided by:

Deutsche Welle

 

No Help in the Pipeline

Some two million people are affected by fighting in Sudan

Despite international condemnation, renewed fighting is being reported in Darfur, Sudan. A European Parliament delegation returning from the crisis area is calling for more aid and increased pressure to end the conflict.

While the United Nations Security Council deliberates its response to Secretary General Kofi Annan's report on the crisis in Sudan, the European Parliament sent its own delegation to the war-torn region of Darfur. The six-member team will present an evaluation of the humanitarian situation when the parliamentarians return to session next week. It is also very likely that the subject will make it into the official round of debate as the parliament mulls a possible response to the ongoing crisis.

Late last week the European Union renewed its threat to slap sanctions on the Sudanese government if it does not do more to rein in militias fighting in the western Darfur region. Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, welcomed the fact that some progress has been made on improving the humanitarian situation in Darfur, but lamented that security remains a problem.

"Whereas we note some progress in the humanitarian field we are still particularly worried at the security situation caused by lack of progress in disarming and controlling the Janjaweed" pro-government militias, he said.

Increase international pressure

The European Parliament (EP) is also not ruling out increasing pressure on Khartoum to comply with international demands for an immediate cease-fire. Apart from continuing efforts to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis, which displaced over two million people in Darfur, members of the parliament's Development Committee stressed the need to find a political solution for Sudan.

Fiona Hall, one of the six parliamentarians who traveled to Sudan, told Deutsche Welle that in the face of renewed attacks it was "very important to keep the pressure on the government."

"I am particularly concerned about the lack of the security the people in the refugee camps feel," she said in an interview. After traveling in the Darfur region, meeting with Sudanese authorities and speaking with aid workers, refugees and African Union observers she said, "basically the message we got was that people wanted to go home but were petrified that there might be new attacks."

"We spoke to local activists and tribal representatives and they said it is not really a conflict between Arab and African tribes," as the crisis has sometimes been presented, "but that the government is responsible."

Humanitarian nightmare

Hall, a European parliamentarian from Great Britain, described the experiences many of the refugees had as "quite harrowing." Although she acknowledged that things had improved slightly in the refugee camps themselves, especially since non-government organizations have bee granted free access, she said there is still quite a bit of work to do to ensure that aid reaches all the displaced people.

"There are around 1.2 million displaced people in Sudan. Some of them are still out of the reach of NGOs. About 200,000 people are impossible to reach because of rain and another 200,000 because they are in a region controlled by the rebels," she said.

Hall echoed an earlier evaluation by the EP that the emergency in Darfur is likely to continue for more than a year. "Really this is a long-term crisis. The people who fled their villages have not had a chance to cultivate their land. So they will depend on international aid for up to 18 months." However," she warned, "there is no help in the pipeline beyond the end of November that would be sufficient.

Monks Row Over Beer Business

Even beyond Bavaria's borders, Andechs Monastery, which produces over 80,000 hectoliters (2.1 million gallons) of beer yearly, is well-known for its brew. Father Anselm Bilgri had been in charge of business at the St. Bonifaz Abbey in Munich and Andechs since 1986. He expanded it by selling products from the brewery and monastery, a schnapps distillery, yearly festivals, bars and a chain of restaurants called "Der Andechser."

The good times came to an end in late July, when Andechs Monastery Gastronomy, which marketed the ten Andechser restaurants, declared insolvency. The company just wasn't earning as much as it was spending, the monastery said.

Church profit

But it's not that business and religion don't go together. Abbeys throughout Europe sell the fruits of their labor in their own shops or over the Internet. Some, particularly in northeastern Greece, even rent out rooms -- to men -- for overnight stays and lease land to lumber firms.

Figures concerning church profits, however, are difficult to come by. The Vatican, one of the largest religious financial powers, is notoriously tight-lipped about such business affairs. The Vatican's asset management alone was thought to be valued at €1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) in 1994. The Holy See's earnings stem largely from a printing plant, a publisher, a book store as well as from the selling Vatican coins and stamps. Millions of pilgrims fill the coffers of souvenir and museum shops.

Power struggle

In Andechs, the brewery has a 42 percent stake in Andechs Monastery Gastronomy, while businessman Rainer Staiger controls 38 percent. Private investors own the remaining shares.

Declaring insolvency was actually part of a power struggle. As a successful manager, Father Bilgri would have been an obvious choice to become the abbot at the St. Bonifaz and Andechs abbeys last summer. Instead Johannes Eckert assuming the position. A row has been underway ever since.

Though Eckert is considered economically open-minded, he apparently viewed his business chief as too powerful. Eckert gradually relieved Bilgri of responsibilities, until he finally quit and left the monastery. Both Bilgri and Staiger have said declaring insolvency was unnecessary. But Eckert has said he wanted to avoid things getting even worse.

Otherwise, its business as usual at Andechs. Father Bilgri also found his way. Still a monk, he's opened a business consultancy

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