AFRICA/UGANDA - “The international community must intervene to help the exhausted people of Uganda exposed to daily vexation by numerous gangs of gunmen”: Superiors of Comboni Missionaries launch appeal following the murder of Italian missionary Father Fulvi.

Thursday, 1 April 2004

Rome (Fides Service) - “In view of the situation of insecurity and poverty caused by the bloody civil war which exploded in the 1980s we feel it is our duty to make a heartfelt appeal to the international community in its numerous components to intervene to help the exhausted people of Uganda exposed to daily unspeakable vexation on the part of numerous gangs of armed men.” This is part of an appeal launched on behalf of the Comboni Missionary Fathers and the Comboni Missionary Sisters and signed by the respective Superiors general Father Teresino Serra and Mother Adele Brambilla after the murder of Italian Comboni missionary Father Luciano Fulvi, found dead in the Comboni mission house at Layibi, in Gulu, north Uganda on March 31.
“The murderer has not been identified- the statement reads- but on the basis of information received from Uganda we are almost certain that it was a cruel act of banditry.” The Religious ask the Kampala authorities to conduct an investigation into the sad episode, “calling for greater efforts from the government to guarantee the safety of everyone, lay people and religious, living in the northern parts of the country. We implore the government of Khartoum to prevent the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army from getting more weapons and arms and to bring before international justice courts those responsible for crimes against humanity first of all the LRA leader Joseph Kony, responsible for the abduction of more than 25,000 children recruited by force by his movement and for an unprecedented shedding of blood in which more than 100,000 persons were killed”.
The Missionaries call on the UN Security Council, the African Union, the Commission of the European Union to plan “opportune diplomatic initiatives to stop this absurd spiral of violence”: “In this regard we must include the subject of the North Ugandan conflict in the programme of negotiations between the government of Sudan and the Southern Peoples Liberation Army aware of the regional implications of a war which has lasted since 1983 in the southern regions of Sudan.” Lastly the Religious Superiors denounce the international press for failing to give attention to the wars in Africa, “in the certainty that the sacrifices of Father Fulvi and 14 missionaries members of our institute who gave their lives in Uganda in the last thirty years stand as a sign of universal brotherhood. St Daniele Comboni, protect Uganda!" (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 1/4/2004; Righe 28; Parole 377)


Share: