Bishops call for ban on arms exports

GERMAN BISHOPS have marked the centenary of the start of the First World War by calling for a ban on arms exports from their country for use in conflict.

The 1914-18 war “teaches us to observe the present situation vigi­lantly”, which meant “appealing to politicians to exhaust all possibilities in promoting peaceful de-escalation, to protect innocent civilian populations by preventing arms exports to areas of crisis and conflict”, said Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.

Addressing an ecumenical service on Monday in Stuttgart”s Protestant Stiftskirche, he described the war as the “seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century”, and said it should also have been treated as a summons “when conflicts cast dark shadows over the world in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria and again in Israel and Palestine”.

The Evangelical-Lutheran Bishop of Württemberg, Frank Otfried July, issued a similar call. Speaking at the service, which followed a commemorative session of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament and German War Graves Commission, he said: “The vicious circle of violence, displacement and death, using weapons from Germany, must now be stopped.”

Germany’s Catholic bishops have previously criticised their country’s arms exports, which have increased sharply over the past decade, alongside falling demand from the Bundeswehr – the German armed forces – and now account for three-quarters of national arms production.

On Monday, the Munich-based daily, Süddeutsche Zeitung, said the Government of Angela Merkel would revoke a €100 ­million (£79m) military deal with Russia, as part of efforts to force Moscow to reduce support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile the head of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, urged his country­men “not to be afraid to defend their homeland” as official military chaplains began work for the first time in the country since Communist rule and Russian forces announced a major exercise on the Ukrainian border.