ALL AFRICA CONFERENCE OF CHURCHES CONFERENCE DES EGLISES DE TOUTE L'AFRIQUE
www.aacc-ceta.org Tel: 254 - 20 - 4444483, 444158/9 " Fax: 254 - 20- 4443246, 4445837 " Email: secretariat@aacc-ceta.org General Secretariat: Waiyaki Way, P.O. Box 16205 , 00800 Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya
For Immediate Release
14/07/2006
GIVE PEACE IN NORTHERN UGANDA A CHANCE, SAYS AACC
The All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) is encouraged by the latest developments toward bringing peace to northern Uganda after two decades of conflict orchestrated by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
The 20 year-old insurgency by the LRA has been a bane for peace and development not only in northern Uganda, but also in southern Sudan. For both the Ugandan government and LRA leadership to agree to hold peace talks is something that all peace-loving people should support. The AACC therefore affirms that we are in solidarity with the Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC) and the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) in their joint statement supporting the initiative by Salva Kiir, First Vice-President of the government of Sudan and President of Southern Sudan to broker peace for northern Uganda.
The AACC commends the government of Southern Sudan for this noble gesture to mediate the peace talks in Juba despite the fact that Southern Sudan has itself only just ended another protracted war with northern Sudan. The AACC wishes to assure President Kiir that we are solidly behind him as he demonstrates to the rest of the world that Africa can indeed solve its own problems.
The AACC appeals to all stakeholders to give the peace talks a chance. The talks which are due to take place this week in Juba, represent one of the best chances for peace for the conflict that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and uprooted an estimated 2 million others in northern Uganda. The priority should be bringing to end the suffering to the people living in this part of Uganda.
The conflict in northern Uganda has resulted in extreme violence including killings, torture, rape and abductions mainly as a result of the activities of the LRA. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant of arrest for the LRA leader Joseph Kony and his three senior commanders. The arrest warrant has since heightened diplomatic pressure to end the conflict.
To bring the LRA to the negotiation table, the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, has promised amnesty to grant full amnesty to Joseph Kony if the peace talks are successful. The offer for amnesty has been criticised by various quarters of the international community who feel that the LRA should not be allowed to get away with brutality it has inflicted on so many innocent people. This has raised the question of whether peace should override justice. Southern Sudan's vice president, Riek Machar, is recently quoted to have said: "We have been telling the international community that there is need to separate the peace process from the legal process. The peace process can give a better environment for the peace process to be concluded? I hope they [the International Criminal Court] can wait for the peace process to be concluded."
In this regard, the AACC agrees with the sentiments expressed by the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa (FECCLAHA) that while justice should be sought for those victims who have suffered at the hands of the LRA, the ICC's arrest warrant should not become an obstacle to peace negotiations. We also fully support the UJCC and NSCC in calling upon the LRA and the Ugandan Government to take full advantage of the forum offered by the Government of Southern Sudan to seek a negotiated solution to the conflict. Further, we appeal to the international community to support the mediation effort by the Government of Southern Sudan and also urge all other stakeholders to support the initiative and refrain from taking action that will undermine the mediation effort. It is our earnest prayer that Juba peace talks will be fruitful and will not collapse as we have witnessed with past attempts.
AACC is an ecumenical fellowship of African churches, representing 120 million African Christians and their churches in 40 African countries, and a body that confesses the Christian faith and upholds the theology of the sanctity of life.