New Vision (Kampala)
February 4, 2003
Posted to the web February 4, 2003
Kampala
The Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI) has appealed to the United States and former colonial power Britain to help end the northern war.
Retired Anglican Bishop of Kitgum, Macleord Baker Ochola, said he had spoken to British Foreign Office officials and was waiting for a response.
"The international community has not put a human face on the conflict in northern Uganda. We want the Government here to concern itself with the plight of those children," said Ochola, the vice-chairman of ARLPI, which is trying to broker an end to the 17-year conflict in northern Uganda.
"Ugandan government should stop trying to crush rebels who have wreaked havoc across northern Uganda and open peace talks with them instead. Without negotiations, the rebels will continue to abduct children to use as soldiers and sex slaves and to terrorise villagers."
"Ninety percent of the rebel soldiers are children who have been abducted, so do we have any moral justification to wage war on them?" the 67-year-old former bishop told Reuters in an interview during a month-long peace mission to Britain and the United States.
The United Nations has described the conflict as the worst in the violent history of northern Uganda.
The war has escalated since the Government launched its "Iron Fist" offensive last March by moving into neighbouring Sudan to flush out LRA. Ends
