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Action Card Briefing for June 2007 - Is peace possible in
Northern Uganda?
The civil war in northern Uganda is one of the most brutal, long lasting and
intractable in Africa. Appalling atrocities have occurred. On the one side is a
cult group, the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), led by Joseph Kony, of the Acholi
tribe. Opposing them is the government of Uganda, whose army, faced with
ruthless brutality, answered in kind. In the middle is the local community,
Peace talks, which resumed on 26 April 2007,
are making slow progress. But the recent appointment of a respected
intermediary, Joaquim Chissano (the former Mozambique president) as UN
Special Envoy gives grounds for hope.
The LRA has for decades terrorised their own
Acholi people in Northern Uganda. They cut off hands, ears or lips of
anyone suspected of sympathising with the government. More than 30,000
children have been kidnapped - the boys for use as soldiers, the girls
as sexual slaves. According to the United Nations, more than 1.4 million
people have been forced from their homes into displacement camps.
Destitute and hungry, they are unable to farm, and subsist on inadequate
international food assistance. There are thousands of orphans.
Conflict resolution is
difficult. A senior official in the British Foreign Service, who knows
the area well, stressed to me the importance of respecting local
cultural traditions, which are poorly understood by the UN peace makers.
Both the Ugandan government and the LRA leadership claim to be the
protectors of the local populace. But the local people believe they
should have a voice at the peace talks through their own traditional
tribal leaders and the community’s religious leaders.
Furthermore, in Acholi
tradition, there is a well recognised four part process of
reconciliation. Local people believe it to be more powerful and
effective than trying rebels leaders in the International Court of
Criminal Justice. It goes like this. If you have sinned, you must
publicly acknowledge your responsibility. Secondly, you must repent
whole heartedly for what you have done. Thirdly, you must offer
compensation. (Difficult for the rebels, who live in the bush and
possess only their guns). Finally, you, and your victims (or the elders
representing the victims) must publicly drink together from a cup of
bitter herbs. For the people believe the sharing of food or drink binds
you together in a pact which cannot be broken. It works.
What you can do
Pray Pray, especially when
you take communion, that the Acholi people may be reconciled through
their traditional process of reconciliation - a process which resonates
with the Christian doctrine of the forgiveness of sins. If you believe
in the redeeming power of the Cross, celebrated and reaffirmed in the
breaking of bread and the shared cup, pray that reconciliation may be
possible and lasting.
Secondly, write to the
Foreign Secretary and the International. Stress the need for the local
community leaders to be party to the peace talks. Stress the validity of
their traditional process of reconciliation. (Do letters carry any
weight? Yes, according to my FO informant.)
For further information see
–
www.crisisgroup.org (The International Crisis Group – Working to
prevent conflict world wide) and
www.worldvision.org
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