FRANCAISNorwegian Church Aid - History
1970-1979
-From 1971, South Africa: following the Norwegian Missionary Society, the Church of Norway’s Council on Ecumenical and International Relations (CEIR) and NCA start in 1971 to support resistance to apartheid. Because the architects of apartheid claimed to be devoted Christians, the Norwegian Missionary Society had hoped to continue good relations with the South African government as long as the secular implementation of racial segregation would not interfere with internal church matters. But the Bantu Education Act of 1953 caused problems for the mission schools that were deprived of the financial support of the state and had to close down or be handed over to the authorities. In 1962, the Norwegian Missionary Society refused to assist the government in moving the Zulus out of its farms. And the Norwegian Lutheran Church condemned apartheid. Such a position explains why NCA and the CEIR (whose progressive acting secretary-general, Andreas Løken, is a former Norwegian missionary in Natal province) do not operate on their own in the country but give grants via the LWF (Lutheran World Federation) and its representative in Zambia, Øystein Tveter, or via the SACC (South African Council of Churches). With money allocated by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry from 1973 onwards, NCA backs the Christian Institute established by Beyers Naudé when the South African Dutch Reformed churches withdrew from the WCC (World Council of Churches). The Institute is kept under constant surveillance by the police because of its outspoken criticism of apartheid. It is accused of inciting violent revolution and of encouraging socialism by a parliamentary commission appointed by Prime Minister Johannes Vorster in 1973. The Christian Institute and Beyers Naudé are eventually banned in October 1977. After the Soweto massacre in June 1976 and the murder of Steve Biko in September 1977, CEIR also starts to support the Black Consciousness Movement. The Norwegian general consul in Cape Town from 1984 onwards, Bjarne Lindstrøm, helps to transfer funds since the Christian Institute is no longer allowed to legally receive money from abroad after May 1975. In such a context, NCA and the CEIR transfer cash illegally and do not demand written reports and audited accounts because such documents could be taken away by the police. Ten per cent of the total amount is brought into South Africa by travellers, especially the CEIR’s secretary-generals Trond Bakkevig and Atle Sommerfeldt, as explained in journalist Tomm Kristiansen’s book. This money helps individuals to hide from the police and to escape from the country. But the donors pay little attention to internal democracy, transparency and accountability of liberation movements, including the ANC (African National Congress). For instance, until the support is terminated in 1993, some funds are diverted in the Foundation for Peace and Justice, set up in Cape Town by Reverend Allan Boesak in May 1986. A president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches until 1990, an ANC’s election campaign leader in the Western Cape in 1994 and a South Africa’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Allan Boesak misappropriates money from CEIR and Danchurchaid, using it for his residence and other personal purposes: eventually found guilty of theft and fraud, he will be sentenced to six years in prison in March 1999. Meanwhile, the democratisation process and the end of apartheid gives new opportunities for action. With the Norwegian Council for Southern Africa (Fellesrådet for det sørlige Africa) and the NPA (Norwegian People’s Aid), NCA starts in 1993 a campaign to raise funds to help the ANC to prepare and win the elections of 1994, when President Nelson Mandela comes to power. In 1996, the CEIR eventually transfers all its activities to NCA, including funds from the Norwegian co-operation.
-From 1972, Sudan: after a peace treaty is signed in Addis-Abeda between the Khartoum government and the Southern secessionists, the Norwegian Church Relief starts a reconstruction programme, the biggest ever at the time by a Norwegian NGO, since it counts up to 2,000 employees, including a hundred or so expatriates. Based in Hilieu, near Torit, and backed by governmental funding in Oslo, such a massive presence means that the Norwegian Church Relief is the main employer in the Southern region on the East Bank of the Nile. With the renewal of the civil war by the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) in 1983, NCA must withdraw all expatriates and draw back to Juba in January and November 1985, whilst its headquarters in Hilieu are looted by the rebels. A small team of five persons try to carry on the programmes with the Sudanese staff. Yet an employee, Arne Olav Øyhus, is kidnaped by the SPLA in April 1986 and released seven weeks later. In 1989, the organisation then begins to work from Khartoum and joins the “Operation Lifeline Sudan” which compels NGOs to go to the South only with the authorisation of the government. From 1991 onwards, NCA is authorised to run programmes in Nimule and Pachakos, a rebel zone in Eastern Equatoria. Due to insecurity, its missions are several times forced to evacuate the staff, as in Gorgyal in June 2002. On 13 January 2000, two workers from NCA, Kenyan Simon Kenyatta and Sudanese Esther Mania, are even killed with six others, including two from the humanitarian branch of the SPLA, when their car is set ablaze by rebels from Uganda near the border and the village of Parajok. On the following 27 March, a driver for NCA, Lino Ofire, is also killed while driving humanitarian workers of the SPLA from Bira to Lotome, in Eastern Equatoria. On 20 December 2000, again, a local staff, Juma Manoa, is killed with a nurse of the humanitarian branch of the SPLA in an ambush between Chukudum and Ikotos in Eastern Equatoria. The difficulty is to intervene on both sides of the war front, for example during a cease-fire in Nuba Hills in 2002, when a NCA co-ordinator, Per Normark, is briefly captured by the SPLA. To do so, NCA supports the mediation of the NSCC (New Sudan Council of Churches), an organisation close to the rebels. But it doesn’t hide its sympathy with the idea of independence for the South of Sudan when peace negotiations begin in Kenya at the end of 2002 with the support of the United States, Great Britain and Norway. From 1999, NCA also leads a campaign against oil companies which finance the government and the military in Khartoum. In co-operation with Caritas in 2004, the organisation then provides assistance in Darfur, Western Sudan, where the fighting drive the population from their villages. In Ta’asha, insecurity compels NCA to suspend activity for a while. In neighbouring Chad, the organisation builds camps to accommodate some fifty thousand refugees from Darfur in isolated areas like Toulum, Iridmi and Milé.
-1973-1980, Chad: the Norwegian Church Relief starts to take care of the victims of drought in the Sahel. In March 1974, for instance, it sends six trucks to Mao, North of N’djamena, where the local Red Crescent is to distribute food items. Similar operations are conducted in 1975 and 1980 while the country is torn by civil war.
-From 1974, Ethiopia: alerted by Norwegian missionaries, the Norwegian Church Relief assists famine victims. After the fall of the monarchy and the Coup d’Etat of Colonel Mengistu Hailé Mariam in Addis-Ababa, the organisation then plans development programmes amongst the Oromo population in the South, where the Norwegian Lutheran Mission runs educational and medical facilities since 1948, for an imperial Order dated 1946 forbade it to evangelise the Northern regions under the control of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. With the Swedish Church Relief and the SCC (Sudan Council of Churches), the Norwegian Church Relief also starts in 1978 clandestine cross-border operations from the Sudan to bring relief to Eritrea then Tigray. These regions North of Ethiopia are guerrillas strongholds and banned from access by the junta in Addis-Ababa. Relief isn’t just for Christians. Via the Eritrean Red Crescent, it is also given out to the Muslims of the ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front) until this faction is beaten by its rival, the Christian-dominated EPLF (Eritrean People’s Liberation Front), in 1982. Such cross-border operations create tensions between NCA teams in Khartoum and Addis-Ababa. The latter work in Southern regions like Gemu Gofa and Sidamo, where the Norwegian Lutheran Mission runs in Yirga Alem an hospital funded by the Norwegian co-operation agency since 1963. They do not want to compromise with the armed factions in the North, which receive millions of dollars without giving any justification as to how money is spent. Launched in 1981 and managed in Khartoum by an NCA administrator, Arild Jacobsen, under the legal cover of the SCC, the ERD (Emergency Relief Desk) co-ordination body has a budget equivalent to 150 million Euros in 1991. With Brot für Die Welt, Christian Aid, Dutch Interchurch and Lutheran World Relief, it provides between half and two thirds of food hand-outs in Tigray and Eritrea. Funded by the American government, this financial backing legitimates the humanitarian branches of the guerrillas that fight against a Marxist regime, namely, in decreasing importance in terms of volume of food aid: the ERA (Eritrean Relief Association) for the EPLF (Eritrean People’s Liberation Front), the REST (Relief Society of Tigray) for the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) and the ORA (Oromo Relief Association) for the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front). The ERD, which becomes officially part of NCA’s Sudan programme in June 1989, eventually moves its office from Khartoum to Asmara in October 1991 and formally closes in June 1993. According to Terje Tvedt, it is only after the fall of the Mengistu Hailé Mariam dictatorship in 1991 that NCA officially admits in internal documents having worked with armed factions whose “humanitarian branches” were for a long time named by the euphemism of “implementing agencies”. After the referendum of 1993, the independence of Eritrea doesn’t put a stop to relief operations. The war breaks out once again because of a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1999. Unlike other NGOs such as Action Contre la Faim in France, NCA doesn’t inform against the manipulations by the new TPLF regime in Addis-Ababa, which exaggerates the figures of a famine in the Ogaden region in order to get more aid to finance its military operation against Eritrea during the year 2000. On the contrary, NCA backs governmental programmes which compel peasants to use fertilizers. Those who refuse and complain against the negative effects of chemicals are put in jail, as in the region of Wollo in 1999.
-From 1976, Guatemala: in the region of San Martin, the Norwegian Church Relief helps the victims of an earthquake following an appeal to international aid from General Kjell Laugerud Garcia, who is of Norwegian origin and runs the country from 1974 until 1978. Before, the involvement of the organisation in Latin America was only to second ministers amongst Lutheran immigrants. Later on, NCA is going to develop its activities. After 1986, for instance, it works in the slums of the capital city and the villages of Tierra Colorada in the region of San Martin. The civil war and military repression compel the organisation to beware of accusations against "Marxist" NGOs. Threatened to death, one if its missionary, Petter Skauen, has to be evacuated. NCA also facilitates the peace process under the aegis of a National Reconciliation Committee headed by the Catholic Bishop of Zacapa, Rodolfo Quezada Toruño. In March 1990, the Lutheran Church thus arranges in Oslo an informal meeting with the guerrillas of the URNG (Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca), i.e. the EGP (Ejército Guerillero de los Pobres), the ORPA (Organización Revolucionaria del Pueblo en Armas), the FAR (Fuerza Armadas Revolucionarias) and the PGT (Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo).
-1978, Norway: as it gets involved in long term development programmes and not only emergencies, the Norwegian Church Relief switches to the name of Norwegian Church Aid.
-From 1979, Pakistan: with Bishop Arne Rudvin, NCA starts emergency programmes for Afghan refugees who escaped a country invaded by the Soviet Union. Clandestine cross-border operations are also organised to bring food to the rebels who resist against the Red Army. Because of security and transport problems, NCA sometimes give cash directly to the freedom fighters commandants, as in the region of Farah, so that they buy provisions and distribute it themselves.
