Kampala (Fides Service)- “If recruitment of local militia groups continues we risk an ethnic conflict ” Archbishop John Baptist Odama Catholic Archbishop of Gulu, northern Uganda told Fides confirming a recent statement issued by the Bishops’ Conference, “Concern for Peace, Unity and Harmony” in which the Bishops criticise the government for recruiting local militia to fight the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). “As the statement affirms”- Archbishop Odama recalls -“we want the army and reservists to defend civilians from attacks by the LRA. Recruiting local militia will only lead to the concrete risk of tribal and ethnic conflict. Moreover these militia groups recruit children as the LRA has done for some time”. The LRA is known to recruit children and boys captured during incursions in northern Ugandan villages. The LRA is composed mainly of Acholi, the largest ethnic group in this area. “Whereas the government is recruiting militia from different ethnic groups” Archbishop Odama told Fides. “Hence the risk of tribal and ethnic clashes. Uganda wants peace and peace is not reached by arming civilians” the Archbishop of Gulu concludes.
Since 1989 the LRA has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni who took power in 1986 overthrowing a military junta formed mainly of Acholi officers who took refuge in Sudan and started various guerrilla groups including the LRA with an ideology based on religious syncretism with a mixture of elements from Christianity, Islam and Traditional African religions e.
Forming militia groups to fight the LRA is an expedient to allow government troops to concentrate on other areas. According to local press reports, the Ugandan army is deploying a large, contingent along the border with Rwanda to prevent the infiltration of Rwandan Hutu troops seen in the area. For the past ten years Hutu militia have operated in the Great Lakes region moving between Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda,. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 5/5/2004, righe 31 parole 377)