Kinshasa--The bishops of Congo have called on the United Nations to hold a conference on the Congo Great Lakes Region.

Kinshasa -- The bishops of Congo have called on the United Nations to hold a conference on the Congo Great Lakes Region. They have written a letter, dated Feb. 14, to U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, referring to the civil war in Congo as the "bloodiest the African continent has ever known."

In their letter, the bishops denounced "the horrifying amount of arms which feed conflicts in the Great Lakes Region," and suggested the war could aptly be called "the first African world war because it involves not only nine different African countries and their Western supporters, but also because the war affects the vital interests of the entire continent."

The bishops' conference called for the constitution of an International Solidarity Fund for Democratic Congo to compensate for damages suffered since 1994. The bishops also asked that the United Nations establish a permanent table of reconciliation between the heads of state of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Congo (Zenit, February 26, 2004).