EUROPE/GERMANY - “Uganda: a war the world has forgotten”. Religious leaders visit Germany to win support from government and Churches to put an end to 18 years of civil war

Monday, 9 February 2004

Aachen (Fides Service) – From 9 to 13 February the chairmen of ARLPI, Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative, the Catholic Archbishop of the northern Ugandan diocese of Gulu Archbishop John Baptist Odama and Anglican Bishop Ameda Mollo Ochola II, are visiting Germany at the invitation of missio Aachen, the German branch of the Pontifical Mission Societies. The Ugandan Bishops will meet German political leaders and representatives of different Christian communities to tell them about the critical situation in Uganda and ask them to support efforts to reach a peaceful solution civil war which has lasted 18 years between the regular army and the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Father Hermann, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Germany, is also head of the Africa desk of missio Aachen Human Rights department.
The LRA ideology is based on religious syncretism mixing elements of Christianity, Islam and Traditional African religions. This is why all the different religious leaders are actively trying to negotiate reconciliation and peace.
The conflict has also an ethnic component. Composed mainly of Acholi warriors, the LRA has been fighting since 1989 President Yoweri Museveni who took power in 1986 overthrowing a military junta made up mostly of Acholi officers. Groups of former soldiers of this ethnic group took refuge in Sudan and gave rise to various guerrilla movements including the Lord’s Resistance Army..
At a press conference in Berlin, tomorrow 10 February, the African Bishops and Father Hermann Schalück will illustrate the reasons and purpose of the visit. (MS) (Fides Service, 9/2/2004 – 22 lines, 286 words)


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