wfn.org | Transforming Painful Realities into Peace Platforms

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Inter-Faith Summit Hears Testimonies from Victims of Conflict

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa/GENEVA, 16 October 2002 (LWI) - In a
split of a second her life had taken a most unexpected twist.

On 22 December 1998, a land mine exploded under the bus carrying
Margaret Arach and other passengers to the Ugandan capital,
Kampala. Cut short were plans to spend Christmas with her
children, still living in the city as she had only recently
relocated to Kitgum in the north to take up a new job. Most of the
passengers thought the resultant explosion was a tyre burst. But
reality dawned on them when they heard gun shots and found
themselves surrounded by armed rebels.

"I immediately realised that we had been ambushed. I was still
ignorant of the fact that my leg had been completely severed by
the explosion until I tried to run. That is when I noticed the
dangling flesh where my foot used to be," says Arach.

Northern Uganda has experienced a state of insecurity for over 16
years now. The rebel insurgency in the area has caused untold
suffering and pain to the local people. It is not just maiming
from land mines, they experience psychological torture and trauma.

Arach was lucky enough to escape with her life, but the vivid
memories of her violators looting from her still linger in her
mind. One of them tried to rape her, but she feigned death and she
was left alone.

According to Bishop Baker Ochola II of the Acholi Religious
Leaders Peace Initiative thepeople of northern Uganda have for a
long time lived under oppression and fear of the realities of
insecurity presented in the community. "I spend most of my time
burying people ruthlessly killed by the two warring groups - the
government and rebels."

Some cannot bear the pain. Ocholla's daughter committed suicide
after she was defiled by rebels. His wife was killed by a land
mine. "[She] was blown into pieces. I felt like a tree that had
been split from top to bottom by lightning."

Healing for Arach was a drawn-out process. For a long time,
bitterness and anger prevented her from engaging in a healing
process. She now uses her disability to advocate for other
landmine survivors as well as for people with other disabilities.
Ochola II has "dedicated my life and my time to peace in Uganda
and in the world. I do not want anyone else to ever go through
what happened in my life."

Getting there was not easy. Survivors of such traumatic
experiences have to go through counselling and various therapies
in order to at least calm down and deal with their overwhelming
loss. At the same time lessons have been learnt and taught as
those affected seek to provide counselling and solace to others.

Arach acknowledges that most of the so-called rebels, still
causing untold suffering to northern Uganda inhabitants, were
enlisted while they were still children. "We need to cultivate a
culture of forgiveness, and support these rebels when they come
back."

There are many cases of rebels who have returned to their
communities seeking forgiveness and reconciliation. Twenty
seven-year-old Morlee Zawoo from Liberia was conscripted into the
National Patriotic Front of Liberia when he was 15. After years of
bloody battles, killing many people and destroying property, Zawoo
fled from the front. "I broke my arm in an ambush and due to my
subsequent disability and the death of my brothers on the
battlefront, I escaped."

Such participation in the battlefront was not without
consequences. For days and nights, Zawoo sufferedfrom terrible
fear and nightmares, a flashback of the atrocities he committed
and witnessed. But thanks to the work of the Inter-Religious
Council of Liberia, Zawoo, like thousands of ex-combatants, is
actively engaged in his country's peace-building process through
projects of the Lutheran Church in Liberia. As a counsellor, he
uses his own experiences to help in the rehabilitation of many
youth who have been on the battlefronts.

Arach, Ocholla and Zawoo gave their testimonies at the ongoing
Inter-Faith Peace Summit in Benoni near Johannesburg, South
Africa. The 14-19 October conference, bringing together religious
leaders from 21 African countries, has been organized by the
Lutheran World Federation and hosted by the National Religious
Leaders' Forum of South Africa.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 mllion Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
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