Story number 2 for 18 Apr 2000

Next, a new cease-fire is in effect in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In an emotional speech at the Group of 77 summit, DRC’s foreign minister asked Third World leaders to help end the war tearing his country apart. Grace Ministries International’s Sam Vinton explains his outlook for peace in the country. “Most of us have become sort of cynical, but I have to tell you, in all honesty, my prayer is becoming more and more that for the sake of the people in that country, that the Lord would work something out to where these people either will get tired of fighting or somewhere along the line, they will be willing to talk, so that peace can be restored.” The U.N. Security Council plans to deploy a 5,500-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission to monitor the disengagement within months, but Vinton says their work will continue. “We’ve had some very good reports from the hospital, within the school systems, except we have very few supplies able to get into the area. And our missionaries, we are yet not feeling that we can send them into the interior because of lack of security.”