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Catholics, NGOs Rally to End War in Northern Uganda - NGOs - Global policy Forum Catholics, NGOs Rally to End War in Northern Uganda
By Crespo Sebunya
African Church Information Service
November 8, 2002
Civil organizations and the Catholic Church have intensified their effort to bring to an end war in Uganda's northern region as fears of humanitarian crisis mount. As part of its efforts to create awareness about the economic costs of the war, MS Uganda, a Danish non-government organization, has come out with a study that says the war will cost the equivalent of US $26 million or 10 percent of the country's economic output (GDP).
Father John Frazer, a Catholic priest and director of an FM radio station, said the church had already met with the International Rescue Committee and other NGOs to see what the alliance can do. Other NGOs that have agreed to work together include Help the Children of Africa Initiative and Justice and Peace Forum based in Kitgum that has listed numerous human rights abuses in the region.
The alliance comes in wake of growing skepticism about the government's ability to extinguish the Lords Resistance Army which has for the last 16 years fought an insurgence war.
As part of the strategy to destroy LRA, an estimated 30,000 soldiers have been deployed in the region. Army Commander, Lt Gen James Kazini says since last March, LRA has lost nearly half of its troops, its bases in Sudan and weaponry worth US $5 million has been captured. It is a matter of time before LRA is thrown to the dustbin of history, he maintains.
However, the Catholic Church and NGOs are skeptical whether the military action is the best solution. They have recorded the number of displaced people to 500,000. Besides, there are doubts within UNHCR of its ability to mobilize 18,000 tones every week for the displaced population in the wake of financial constraints faced by the organization.
The grim situation led to suspension of relocation of 15,000 Sudanese refugees from the war zone. "We have been told even by Museveni (President Yoweri) of the weakness in the army," says Bishop Onono Oneng of Gulu diocese who adds that the rebel Lord's Resistance Army LRA had no regard to human life.
Museveni, the Ugandan leader, has responded to the NGO/Catholic Church concerns and, on October 14, appointed Eriya Kategaya,the second deputy Prime Minister, to head government's negotiating team. But the government has given mixed signals. While on the one hand it has offered an olive branch to the rebels, its actions have nonetheless scared peace facilitators. The detention of two Catholic priests in September and the arrest of 20 peace facilitators who have allegedly been described as collaborators and are to be charged with treason has kept some back.
Bishop Onono is now skeptical about the progress of peace talks especially now that LRA has not come up with a peace team of its own.
Still, the government has taken its anti-LRA war on another front. The recent grisly photos of beheaded people and cooking pots (which allegedly contained body parts that were to be cooked) published in the state-owned New Vision newspaper highlighted the determination by the government to engage in propaganda campaign to demonize LRA.
"New Vision is an up market paper which rarely uses such pictures, but we wanted to prove to doubting Thomases how bad Kony (David, leader of the rebel forces) can be," David Sseppuuya, Deputy Editor of the newspaper told Monitor FM radio station.
However, others did not believe that the strategy was appropriate. "We already know how bad Kony is and we have been told on and on. But the pictures only added to our grief and they were in bad taste," said Dr Sylvia Tamale, a senior lecturer in Law at Makerere University, also hosted on Monitor FM.
Some observers say that for the war to stop attitudes must change. Japhet Biyimba, an officer attached to MS Uganda says aggressive tendencies in the society have caused many problems.
"The major crisis facing Uganda is about leadership We have grown up in an environment where we have not established mechanisms to resolve our problems peacefully," he says.
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