wfn.org | ACNS - BULLETIN No. 41/02 October 21, 2002 (c)

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

AANA Bulletin is an ecumenical initiative to highlight all endeavours and 
experiences of Christians and the people of Africa.  AANA Bulletin is 
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Transforming Painful Realities Into Peace Platforms

BENONI, South Africa /GENEVA (AANA) October 21 - In a split of a second her 
life had taken a most unexpected twist. On December 22,  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 gunshots 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 the people of northern Uganda have for a long time lived under 
oppression and fear of the realities of insecurity presented in the
community.

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.

Arach acknowledges that most of the so-called rebels, still causing untold 
suffering to northern Uganda inhabitants, were enlisted while they were 
still children.

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.

Prepared by Pauline Mumia

FEATURES  SECTION

Struggle To End Violence Against Women Not Over

The struggle to end violence against women may be far from over. The 
persistence of cultural and social norms, traditional beliefs and negative 
gender stereotypes contribute a lot to gender inequality. But there is 
promise and hope as churches resolve to ensure a violent-free society. The 
Church, as a healing community, is better placed to deal with violence 
because they interact more with the society at all levels.

By Joyce Mulama

Many churches across the world are taking an admirable lead in extensive 
educative and policy formulating processes because they look at violence 
against women as a sin against life, which should be condemned, as "it 
disregards the image of God in the person affected, be it woman, man, girl 
or boy".

The Lutheran World Federation LWF has taken one such leading role.  Last 
month, it unveiled an action plan for churches to adopt in their mission to 
overcome violence on women.

The action plan titled, Churches Say No to Violence against Women, can also 
be useful as a resource material for developing policy frameworks on 
violence against women.  It proposes ways in which the society as a whole 
could work together to overcome violence.

The organisation's General Secretary, Ishmael Noko says the document is 
LWF's contribution to the call for "Decade to Overcome Violence, 2001-2010" 
by the World Council of Churches WCC.

It is also in response to the United Nations "International Decade for a 
Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World 
(2001-2010)". He says: "When those who are victimised suffer, so does God. 
Let us work together to overcome all forms of violence that are an offence 
against God and humanity".

The resource guide notes that if violence against women and children is to 
stop, men must be highly involved. "They must ask themselves, 'what does 
this mean to me and how should I think, behave and respond so that violence 
could be reduced'".

The plan underlines the need for a systematic gender analysis that would 
help all to understand the attitudes, roles and behaviours of men and women 
conditioned by religion, culture, patriarchy and how they could be changed.

It is said that persistence of cultural and social norms, traditional 
beliefs and negative gender stereotypes contribute a lot to gender 
inequality. Practices such as FGM, which is viewed in some communities as 
both religious and traditional, are believed to facilitate acts of violence 
against women.

The process of globalisation has also contributed to violence against 
women. The changing economic system has extended women's role to that of 
the provider.

Inadequately trained women with no bargaining power are misled by visions 
of better prospects, and enter labour markets as migrant workers because 
they have no other choice.

In this vulnerable situation, women are often traumatised, sexually abused 
and held in bondage in the countries they migrate to with neither access to 
the outside world nor adequate remuneration. They live in constant fear of 
arrest, fines, imprisonment or deportation.

LWF points out that much exposure to violence through the media has not 
only desensitised humankind to its horror but has also created a culture of 
violence. That children from the affluent imbibe this culture through 
television is a fact.

The targeting of women and girls through pornography, sex tourism and the 
sex trade has been exacerbated by electronic media and has contributed 
greatly to hostility towards women. There are websites established by the 
sex trade, with the capacity to reach many more people.

The 64-page document further points out that the rise in extreme 
fundamentalist movements have accentuated the violence endured by women. 
They find it difficult to admit to enduring domestic violence because such 
movements cause them to feel that "confessing violence is denying God's 
presence in their lives". Their theology creates feelings of shame and 
inhibition as they suffer.

In this regard, the document emphasises the need for the Church to initiate 
dialogue and interfaith discussion on the relationship between violence and 
religion, and the importance of safeguarding religion from fanatical. 
Indeed, an LWF interfaith conference on peace took place in South Africa 
(see stories under Inter Faith Summit).

The action plan recommends that websites be periodically monitored as a 
cooperative initiative of local communities and congregations. There is 
also need to develop a critical approach to media portrayal of women, and 
make it a part of discussion in women's, men's and youth group activities.

The action plan advocates for governments to establish supportive 
structures for single mothers, divorced or separated women, and widows, to 
empower them financially.

In response, women groups and organisations around Africa are intensifying 
activities to empower communities to rise up against acts of violence on 
women.	About 100 women from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi ELCM 
held a three-day meeting recently to reflect on the LWF document.

The workshop focused on raising awareness among women about situations of 
violence in the family, workplace and the woman's life in general.

ELCM Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe said there was alarming existence of violence 
against women and children in the home	He stressed: "We must all join 
hands to ensure that violence is rooted out".

Also taking a leading role, the All Africa Conference of Churches AACC has 
also come up with a resource guide to enable churches and church-related 
agencies at the local and national level to raise awareness on issues 
related to violence against women.

Like the LWF document, it provides users with information and skills needed 
to facilitate empowerment workshops on violence against women.

The 58-page document titled, Rise Up And Act; A Resource Material on 
Violence Against Women, is produced by the AACC Women's Desk and can be 
used by women, men, individuals and groups that are interested in the fight 
against the vice.

AACC's Women's Desk Programme Executive, Battu Jambawai, said at its launch 
on August 28 that the resource material was a contribution to the World 
Council of Churches WCC Decade to Overcome Violence 2001-2010.

Battu said: "For violence to be eradicated, communities have to see, hear 
feel and identify with the pains and agony of millions of women and girls 
who are suffering daily in the hands of their perpetrators".

  Regulators Investigate Controversial Radio Message

The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority, Macra, has threatened to 
drag Radio Islam for a public hearing for allegedly airing provocative and 
insulting programmes against the Catholic Church and its leadership. Macra 
began investigating Radio Islam, a privately owned religious radio station, 
after a high-ranking Catholic clergyman lodged a complaint upon listening 
to one such programme.

By Hamilton Vokhiwa

Macra officials say they are " seriously reviewing transcripts and tape 
recordings" of the alleged provocative programmes. "Depending on our 
findings, we might decide to bring Radio Islam before a public hearing ," 
Dave Kadwa, who is Macra's general counsel, said in s statement.

Kadwa said for reasons of fairness, Macra's five directorates were 
individually reading the transcripts and listening to tape recordings. "We 
are doing this because we don't want to prejudice each other's views or 
opinions on this issue of paramount sensitivity".

Macra began investigating Radio Islam, a privately owned religious radio 
station, after a high ranking Catholic clergyman, Monsignor Joseph Kim of 
St John's seminary in Mangochi lodged a complaint upon listening to a 
programme called "Contemporary issues" aired on August 17 and 21 this year.

According to Kim two speakers in the two programmes were trying to respond 
to an "unofficial" pamphlet called Maphunziro a Bible	(Bible lessons) 
allegedly produced by members of St Pius Catholic Parish in Blantyre in May 
this year.

"Basically it was insult after insult directed at some top leaders of the 
Catholic Church and the Church in general," said Kim, adding that the 
language was so bad that it could lead to disastrous consequences if 
Catholics and Christians in general responded to them.

Kim expressed surprise that the respectable people featured in the 
programme did not consult with the Catholic secretariat which is the mouth 
piece of the Church in Malawi.

Kim explained that the Catholic Church was inundated with telephone calls 
urging it to retaliate through its own Radio Maria, but found it 
distasteful to do that, saying it would have been against the dictates of 
Christianity.

Radio Islam director, Hubideen Yahya confirmed that Macra requested the 
transcripts and tape recordings of  August 17 and 21 and that he handed 
them over "because it is part of the monitoring policy".

Macra issued a license to Radio Islam last year, swelling the number of 
public and private radio stations in the country to 12. Each one is 
supposed to adhere to specific regulations granted under its licence.

The purported foul language by Radio Islam comes when leaders of the main 
Christian churches in Malawi have been strongly condemning the policies of 
the government of President Bakili Muluzi, himself a Muslim.

The leaders from the Catholic Church as well as the Anglican, Presbyterian 
and Pentecostal churches have been in the forefront under the auspices of 
Episcopal Conference of Malawi, to call for good governance and an end to 
state sponsored political violence.

The move also comes soon after the disclosure of a secret circular letter 
purported to originate from a Muslim group calling itself the Al-Islamiyya 
Ul-Jihaadin, which has used contemptuous language against the Christian 
community in Malawi, warning of severe consequences for what it describes 
as disregard for Muslims  in the country.

Copies of the three page document back-dated to May 20 this year 
were  discovered within the premises of a number of Christian churches in 
Blantyre. At least one independent newspaper, the Chronicle, copied the 
document in its entirety in one of its issues in September without making 
comments on it.

One of the Christian churches convened a special Sunday service to condemn 
the letter found within their precincts through prayer to cast what the 
charismatic congregation termed "the work of the devil".

The letter condemns Christians for what it says is their involvement in 
politics, threatening an attack similar to the September 11, 2001 in New 
York and Washington in which thousands of people lost their lives.

The  document also challenges Christians to what it describes as a Jihad 
(holy war) supported by what it terms well wishers from Islamic countries. 
"If America was challenged and confounded, what about you in Malawi," the 
document warns.

In its reaction, Radio Islam management accused the Malawi Communication 
Regulatory Authority  of  not informing the religious radio station in time 
about the complaint from Kim.

The head of news and current affairs for Radio Islam, Rashid Mapira 
confirmed that Macra had collected the recorded materials of the said 
programmes but accused the regulatory body of flouting its broadcasting 
enforcement procedures.

Mapira claimed that under Macra's broadcasting enforcement procedures, the 
organisation was expected to forward a copy of the complaint to the accused 
radio station before asking it to make a presentation.

"This did not happen. We only learnt about the complaint on the programme 
in the newspapers. By doing so, Macra breached the broadcasting enforcement 
procedures," said Mapira. He expressed concern over Macra's threats by 
using the press before communicating to the radio station.

But Mapira defended the station, saying the views expressed in the 
programme were those of the panellists and callers who were responding to 
the topic the Islamic radio station chose for discussion.

"Contemporary issues" is a phone-in discussion programme where panellists 
and callers are given time to express their views on issues of public
interest.

"During the mentioned programme, we picked a letter authored by a group of 
Catholics of St Pius Church for discussion," said Mapira adding that people 
from all corners of Malawi contributed to the discussion.

"Even Christians called. The views expressed were a combination of Muslims 
and non-Muslims," he said.