Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vienna (Fides Service) - An urgent appeal to the Austrian government and to Austrian members of the European parliament to press at the international level for commitment to help the suffering people of northern Uganda, the children in particular, has been launched by the Austrian missionary review “alle welt” published by the Pontifical Mission Societies in Austria. In fact the Austrian office of the Pontifical Mission Societies is promoting a signature campaign in favour of the people of northern Uganda. “Our partners in Uganda have implored us to make known their difficulties. We want to launch an appeal to the Austrian government and Austrian members of the European parliament to commit themselves at the European level to help the suffering men, women and children of northern Uganda” said “alle welt” chief writer Wolfgang Engelmaier.
During a recent visit to several European countries, the Catholic Archbishop of Gulu in Uganda, Archbishop John Baptist Odama, stressed that “pressure from public opinion in western countries is an important opportunity. Please let the world know about our situation and help us to put an end to this war!”. In Uganda for the past 18 years the army has been engaged in fighting rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). United Nations representative for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, described the situation in Uganda as “the greatest and most forgotten crisis in the whole world”, speaking of 1.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 20,000 children forced to fights as soldiers or made sex slaves, 10, 000 of them in the last two years alone.
The PMS signature campaign is to support an appeal sent to the Austrian government and to Austrian members of the European parliament with the following requests: “We ask for international commitment to finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in northern Uganda with the participation of all the parties involved... We ask for protection for boys and girls from the violence of war and for support to sustain rehabilitation projects for child soldiers”. (MS) (Agenzia Fides, 20/4/2004 - 24 righe, 306 parole)
