Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Gulu (Fides Service)- “Every open door, even only a crack may be an opening for peace” ” said Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, commenting a possible intervention of mediation ib the conflict between the government troops and the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army, (LRA) by Alice Lakwena foundress of the Holy Ghost Army, from which the LRA was born.
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has terrorized northern Uganda since 1988 in its attempt to bring down the government of President Yoweri Museveni and put in its place a regime based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. The fighting broke out shortly after Museveni rose to power in 1986, when the voodoo priestess Alice Lakwena took up arms to topple the new regime. At the head of her Holy Spirit Movement, which mixed Christian and animist beliefs, she threatened the regime until the defeat of her followers by the army at the end of 1987. Lakwena was succeeded in 1988 by an acolyte and relative, Joseph Kony, who headed first the United Christian Democrat Army of Uganda and then the Lord's Resistance Army, composed of remnants of the Holy Spirit Movement. The army's principal means of recruitment is the abduction of village children. The adolescent males are forced to fight, while the girls are forced to become sex slaves for the army commanders.
Contact with Alice Lakwena are part of a series of intervention undertaken by Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) of which Archbishop Odama is a member, to reach a peace agreement. “LRA leaders are intensifying contact with us. Two or three days ago I had a call from the LRA vice-commander who said they are willing to talk with the government” Archbishop Odama told Fides. “So there are signs that peace is possible”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/4/2004, righe 28 parole 350)
