wfn.org | Religious leaders seek international help for Uganda

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99-158

Religious leaders seek international help to bring peace to 
Uganda

by Kathryn McCormick

     (ENS) Weary from a long trip but energized by their message, 
three Ugandan religious leaders visited the U.S. in a  week-long 
whirlwind mission in October to win support for a secure peace in 
their country, whose northern areas have victimized by campaigns 
of terrorism even as the rest of the country this year began life 
under a new constitution.

     "No group has really been talking about the people," John 
Baptist Odama, Roman Catholic archbishop of Gulu, told a meeting 
at the Episcopal Church Center. "The people want peace."

     Joining him in seeking support for amnesty enforcement and a 
rebuilding of their country's educational system and 
infrastructure were MacLeord Baker Ochola II, Anglican bishop of 
Kitgum, and Imam Khalil Musa, secretary of the Muslim Supreme 
Council of Uganda's Gulu District.

     The visit by the group, advocating what is officially known 
as the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, was organized 
and underwritten principally by the Episcopal Church. During 
several stops in Washington, D.C., plus the Church Center and the 
United Nations in New York City, Stony Point Conference Center 
north of New York and a church outside Philadelphia, the leaders 
gave briefings and asked for help.

     Their country, they said, has suffered from governmental 
instability for 50 years, including the terror-filled reign of 
Idi Amin in the 1970s. Since 1994, however, insurgent groups--the 
largest of which, the Lord's Resistance Army, is supported by 
Sudan--have waged a campaign of terror in the north and west, 
home of the Acholi people.

     In the past five years, the LRA has kidnapped at least 
14,000 children and devastated towns and farms alike. The 
continued attacks have displaced more than 400,000 people, who 
now languish in large camps, the religious leaders said.

Release the children	

     "We are appealing to the international community and the 
U.S. government first of all for the release of our children," 
said Ochola, who went on to explain that he and his colleagues, 
whose joint effort is an unusual example of interfaith 
cooperation in their country, also need help in other areas to 
see that a lasting peace comes to Uganda.

     Ochola's experience with the unrest has been intensely 
personal; his wife was killed in a land mine explosion. He said 
her loss had made him even more determined to work for peace.

     The group outlined a five-point request:

     *The unconditional release of Ugandan children from the 
Sudanese camps where they are being held by LRA members. UNICEF 
has aided in the return of a few children, they said, but most 
are still in captivity.

          *International aid to see that the amnesty legislation 
now being contemplated by the Ugandan federal government is 
properly enforced. "We think it will be a blanket amnesty," said 
Odama, "but the situation is so complicated and people have been 
so hurt we know that some people will want revenge. Trust in the 
law should not be broken. Those who have committed bad crimes 
will be prosecuted under international law, but others should be 
allowed to return to their homes. Nothing should happen to them."

          *Restoration of relations between Uganda and Sudan, cut 
by Uganda when the Sudanese government began openly supporting 
the LRA and other groups like it. To accomplish this, they said, 
the international community must cooperate to see that peace is 
also established in Sudan, which also has lived with decades of 
unrest.

          *Resettlement of those who have been displaced, which 
means that money will be needed to replace homes, livestock and 
crops that have been destroyed, as well as build up the country's 
infrastructure and economy.

          *Re-establish the educational system in order to help 
children whose learning was cut short when they were kidnapped or 
when their families were sent to refugee camps. The camps offered 
some schooling, but nothing at the secondary level or beyond, the 
leaders explained.

          *Re-establish human rights and the rule of law in 
devastated parts of the country by setting up a structure to 
observe this. "There is a sense of betrayal among our children," 
said Odama, "and they should feel safe."

"We are taught to forgive"

     "We have come here as people of God," Musa added. "All of us 
are taught to forgive one another." Forgiveness, he said, was at 
the heart of the efforts of the leaders. Without forgiveness a 
lasting peace will never take shape.

     During the group's stay in the U.S., it met with Senator Sam 
Brownback, a Kansas Republican who is an influential member of 
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As a result of that 
meeting, Brownback agreed to pursue committee hearings on the 
abduction of Ugandan children.

     Over three and a half days of appointments arranged through 
the Episcopal Church's Washington Office, the group also briefed 
government officials and nongovernmental organizations, including 
Lutheran World Relief, on the Ugandan situation.

     The leaders then traveled to New York for meetings at the 
United Nations, the Episcopal Church Center and later at the 
Stony Point Conference Center, where they addressed a 
Presbyterian/United Nations seminar on Africa.

     "We know we are not isolated on the peace issue," said 
Odama, who pointed to a number of surrounding countries in Africa 
that have fallen victim to decades of fighting.

     "But we must go the extra mile," added Ochola. "Today we are 
nowhere. All of our people want to end this war."

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of News and Information 
for the Episcopal Church. Tom Hart, director of the Episcopal 
Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C., assisted in 
preparing this article.