wfn.org | ENS - Retired Ugandan Primate calls for peace and unity

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Retired Ugandan Primate calls for peace and unity

ENS 042104-1

[ENS] Sexual violence, large-scale displacement, child abduction, and 
HIV/AIDS are just some of the devastating issues that the people of Uganda, 
especially in the north, have been facing for nearly 19 years.

While on retreat at Virginia Theological Seminary, the former Archbishop of 
Uganda, Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo, spoke to ENS's Matthew Davies about 
some of the challenges of his nine-year archbishopric and how the church 
strives to be a model for peace and reconciliation for all God's people.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey described Nkoyoyo as "a warm 
and open personality" with a "firm and loyal commitment to Jesus Christ" 
adding that he has "served the Church of Uganda and the Anglican Communion 
with distinction and devotion."

DAVIES: Civil unrest and fighting have wreaked havoc in the northern parts 
of Uganda for about 19 years now. What are the sorts of problems that 
people encounter there?

NKOYOYO: The problem is that the leader of that group [Lord's Resistance 
Army] has no agenda. If he had an agenda it would help the government and 
the church to solve that problem. Nobody knows what he is fighting for. 
First we thought there would be fighting for 5 years, and now it is 18 
yearsNow they are starting to invade other areas like Lira. It is 
difficult for us as a church and the people of Uganda to know how to solve 
that problem because the government has tried.

This war started about 19 years ago with a lady called [Alice] Lakwena. She 
behaved like a mad woman and misled thepeople of that region. She told 
them that they can fight without guns and that if they rub some oil on 
their bodies and someone throws a grenade against them they will not be 
hurt. And of course many people died. People in that region have run away 
and are in camps. I have visited them many times. One of the camps which I 
visited accommodated about 30,000 people. But that man who leads that group 
has said that he is going to kill the bishops who go to talk to them.

The government is trying to talk and it's difficult to talk because they 
don't know who to talk to. You don't see them. About six months ago the LRA 
said they were going to talk to the government and the government officials 
were there ready to talk, but they didn't come.

DAVIES: So what needs to be done to find a peaceful solution?

NKOYOYO: I don't know because it's difficult to negotiate with them and 
many of the schools are closed and the churches are not functioning now, so 
the children are not being educated.

DAVIES: What more could the international community do to help the situation?

NKOYOYO: Maybe it would help if they were to send soldiers to Uganda, 
because a lot of the soldiers from the government have lost their morale 
because they have been fighting for 18 years... There is no point in 
forcing them to fight as it's in vain...

DAVIES: How did you encourage your church to be outspoken and educate 
people about the risks of HIV/AIDS?

NKOYOYO: The church and the government are working together and I thank God 
for that. There are two or three problems which are causing AIDS. Polygamy, 
where men have two or three wives. This is a problem because they are not 
faithful to their partners. Another thing was syringes. Here in the US if 
you inject someone you only use the syringe once, but in Africa sometimes 
you'd use one syringe for about 10 people. And another thing was that we 
had no blood bank for a long time and it became difficult to get blood. 
Anyone who needed to get blood would often ask their brothers or sisters, 
and there was no testing. It caused a lot of problems.

The church and the government are educating. When we watch our TV there is 
a lot of information about AIDS and also on our radio. And when you go 
along our roads there are big signs telling people to be careful. So, the 
number of people infected with AIDS is going down because of the education.

DAVIES: How do the different faith communities work together?

NKOYOYO: In Uganda we have what we call an interreligious council, which 
brings together Roman Catholic, Anglican, Muslim, Orthodox, Presbyterian, 
Seventh Day Adventist and Pentecostal...We meet and talk about how we can 
help our people. And another thing we have is UGCC [Ugandan Church 
Christian Council]...We talk about the common problems which we are facing 
as a country.

DAVIES: How does it feel to be retired? You appear so young!

NKOYOYO: No, I'm an old man [laugh]. I feel good because when you are a 
bishop or archbishop everyone is criticizing you, but now I am a free man.

DAVIES: What are your plans for the future?

NKOYOYO: Preaching the word of God. There is an organization called African 
Evangelistic Enterprises and we started another organization called the 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew. We are working with them to preach the word of 
God. Apart from that I am looking after children; orphans. We have 106 
orphans and most of them were on the street and we persuaded them to leave. 
Now they have a home...

Now what we need to do is raise funds to buy chairs. I want to buy about a 
thousand chairs because then I can rent them out and look after the 
orphans. If I have a thousand chairs I can get about $300 every weekend.

DAVIES: So is it your responsibility to feed and clothe the orphans?

NKOYOYO: Yes.

DAVIES: And is $300 enough to feed and clothe 106 orphans every week?

NKOYOYO: No, it's not enough but it helps because we get some food from an 
organization called "Feed the Child."

DAVIES: Is there anything else you would like to add?

NKOYOYO: What we need now is one another. We need one another, we love one 
another, we need one another...I want to ask the Christians of this country 
to be united. That is what I have been saying to friends wherever I go. You 
have these differences but you need to be united...Even though there is a 
misunderstanding in the Episcopal Church I think people should stay and 
talk, but the problem is that they don't like to listen...We need to say 
that we are working in the name of God and not to run away.

************************

Some facts about Uganda:

The current conflict in northern Uganda began soon after the National 
Resistance Army (NRA) of President Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986. 
Remnants of the previous government's forces fled into northern Uganda and 
southern Sudan and formed the Ugandan People's Democratic Army (UPDA). 
Several splinter groups began emerging out of the UPDA. The rebels of the 
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who seek to overthrow the Uganda Government, 
have spread fear throughout the nation, and the country has recently 
plunged into a state of humanitarian crisis, displacing over 1.5 million 
people. Originally named the Lord's Salvation Army, the group then became 
the United Christian Democratic Army, and finally the Lord's Resistance Army.

The worst victims of the situation are the youth, who are the most 
productive age group and the hope of the region. The LRA are responsible 
for the abduction of thousands of children and more than 20,000, some as 
young as seven, are being used as soldiers, laborers and sex slaves.

According to Human Rights Watch [www.hrw.org], an organization dedicated to 
protecting the human rights of people around the world, Ugandan government 
forces also recruit children who are intended to provide security for local 
villages or camps. Unfortunately, many do not return to their home areas 
and are reportedly used to fight against the LRA.

The Church in Uganda [www.anglicancommunion.org/tour/province.cfm?ID=U1] 
has a long history of advocating for peace and justice, and generating hope 
through its Planning, Development and Rehabilitation (PDR) program, which 
exists to mobilize and develop resources with diocesan communities in order 
to improve their quality of life.

Over the last few years, PDR's Strategic Grassroots Development program has 
responded to the needs of the poor through agricultural and livestock 
improvement programs, micro-finance schemes, school enhancement and health 
support projects, and peace and human rights programs. The projects 
encourage activities such as training workshops and seminars, lobbying and 
networking with other organizations already engaged in the promotion of 
peace, and human rights and civic education.

A statement
[www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/37/75/acns3797.cfm] issued in 
March by the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Uganda called for 
an immediate end to the violence in northern Uganda after the primate, 
Henry Orombi, led the bishops on a tour of the region to witness the 
situation first-hand. The statement asked the government of Uganda and the 
LRA to recommit themselves to dialogue and reconciliation.

In a press briefing 
[www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2004/OCHABriefing.doc.htm] April 14, the 
United Nations emergency relief coordinator urged the media and the African 
organizations to pay more attention to the issue, referring to the crisis 
as the "world's most under-reported story" and revealing that "10,000 
northern Ugandan children had been kidnapped in just 18 months and 
terrorized into becoming killing machines."

President Museveni last week said he was willing to negotiate with the LRA, 
saying he was ready to talk to them directly or through intermediaries, a 
move which has been welcomed by United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan 
[www.un.org/News/ossg/sg].

One of the other great concerns in sub-Saharan Africa over the last 20 
years has been the disturbing crisis of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The Church 
in Uganda has been actively involved in HIV/AIDS work throughout the 
country and a network of Religious Leaders from across Africa living with 
and affected by the disease was launched October 29, 2003, in Kampala.

At the end of 2002, the estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS in 
Uganda was 6.2 percent of the total population; that's more than 1 in 20. 
The Ministry of Health estimated 70,170 new infections in 2002 alone and 
the number of AIDS deaths totaled 75,290. According to the Ugandan AIDS 
Commission [www.aidsuganda.org] however, these figures could be an 
underestimate, due to constraints in AIDS reporting and coverage of the 
sentinel surveillance system [www.health.go.ug/hiv.htm].