Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kampala (Fides Service) – Forty one pupils at Lachor minor seminary (northern Uganda) were taken hostage by guerrillas of the Lord Resistance Army LRA during the night 10-11 May. The rebels also shot dead a local boy who had sought safety in the seminary. Fides Service spoke with Father Guido Oliana, provincial superior of the Comboni missionaries in Uganda, who said: “It was about midnight when the rebels attacked. Government troops nearby the complex returned the fire and shooting continued for about two hours. During the fighting a local boy who had taken shelter at the seminary. Sad to say he was killed right in the place where he thought he would be safest.”
“The army could have done more perhaps” Father Guido says “anyway it was thanks to them that most of the boys, about a hundred, managed to escape, but forty one were taken captive. The poor boys, first and second year high school students, were tied in pairs, the system used by the LRA when they kidnap children and adolescents”.
Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu archdiocese where the seminary is located, voiced his concern to Fides Service: “This is a very difficult moment. I ask everyone to pray that the situation will evolve for the better”. The Archbishop said there has been some contact with the kidnappers “we hope the boys will soon be released.”
In early March the LRA declared a cease-fire which never came off. The Lord’s Resistance Army, mostly Acholi tribesmen, has been fighting since 1986 the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who took power in that year overthrowing a military junta made up mostly of Acholi men. The former militia of the ethnic group, taking refuge in Sudan formed various guerrilla groups one of them being the LRA.
Besides being an ethnic group the LRA is also based on ideology of religious syncretism mixing elements of Christianity and Islam with those of traditional African religions. Aware of this, local religious leaders have taken an active part n promoting talks with the rebels to restore peace. LM (Fides Service 12/5/2003 EM lines 33 Words: 377)
