Prayers for
Peacemakers, 21 September 2017
Sometimes we may
think that people disappear only during wars or under oppressive
regimes: more than 30,000 people during the dictatorship in
Argentina, or 3,500 in Chile, among others. However, forced
disappearances are a reality and a political strategy also under the
so called “democratic governments.” More than 4,000
missing indigenous women in Canada, 10,000
missing refugee children in European union, more
than 60,000 disappeared in Colombia from the hands of various
armed and state actors often receiving support from the United
States of America.
Today we would like to
pray for justice and peace for the families and communities of the
forcefully disappeared people. We would like to pray that they may
find the truth of what happened to their loved ones. We also want to
pray for freedom for those still alive and held for their political
views, noncompliance or engagement in a struggle for rights and
freedom of the oppressed. Today we carry in our thoughts and prayers
Santiago
Maldonado who the Argentine National Guard abducted in their violent
attack on Mapuche indigenous community. We ask
for his release.
A man looks for recognizable faces on a banner with photographs and details of dissapeared persons. Photo: Caldwell Manners
