Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa of Kisangani has organized a conference of religious leaders to discuss the action of the Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The event will take place in Kisangani (capital of Eastern Province, hard hit by the violence of the rebel group) February 2 to 4. Participants will include Catholic bishops, Protestant and Anglican pastors from Uganda, Sudan, Central African Republic, and the DRC. The Congolese bishops come from the five dioceses that for over 5 years suffer from the violence of the Ugandan rebels: Mahagi-Nioka, Dungu-Doruma, Isiro-Niangara, Buta, and Bondo. There are five of the nine dioceses of the Ecclesiastical Province of Kisangani, which is under Archbishop Utembi's pastoral government as Metropolitan Archbishop.
According to Archb Utembi, the conference was organized with the support of Pax Christi Internationalis and will allow religious leaders to analyze the issue of the LRA carefully. Religious leaders will discuss, in light of their experience, the contribution they can make to the State for the restoration of peace.
For 5 years now, the Ugandan rebel group has assumed a regional conformation and therefore, what must be sought is a regional solution says Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa.
The LRA was begun in the late 80s in northern Uganda, and is notorious for its atrocities against civilians. The rebels set fire to the houses, massacred the population, maim, rape, and kidnap children to turn them into soldiers, sex slaves, or porters. In the past 5 years, the group has extended its area of operations into southern Sudan, northeastern DRC (Eastern Province), and the southern Central African Republic. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 30/1/2010)