Acholi Leaders Meet LRA Boss
New Vision (Kampala)
February 6, 2003
Posted to the web February 6, 2003
James Odong
Kampala
Acholi leaders last week met the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) deputy commander, Vincent Otti, in their ongoing efforts to mediate between the rebels and the government.
Fr. Carlos, a member of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI), said the leaders have been holding face-to-face talks with rebel commanders in the northern Uganda jungles.
"The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) deputy commander Vincent Otti has written to northern Uganda's Roman Catholic Archbishop John Baptist Odama, saying the LRA would shortly name their peace negotiators," Carlos was quoted to have told AFP, a French news agency.
"We received their letter last weekend during our annual general meeting, saying they were ready to talk peace, but only if the international community is involved," Carlos said.
Last August, Museveni offered to talk peace with the LRA and named a team of negotiators, chaired by Eriya Kategaya, the First Deputy Premier, who is also Minister of Internal Affairs.
In a press release yesterday, ARLPI appealed to the LRA to continue using their contacts to push the peace process forward.
"We want to continue contacting you for a peaceful solution. Prepare your proposals for an immediate ceasefire and negotiation that will lead to an end to the war and allow humanitarian aid to reach the population," ARLPI said.
The release signed by ARLPI chairman Archbishop John Baptist Odama, Bishop Macleord Baker Ochola II, Bishop Onono Onweng, Bishop Benjamin Ojwang, Fr. Julius Orac and Sheik Musa Khalil, urged the government not to get tired of pursuing a peaceful solution to the conflict.
"Do not look at this tragedy from far and do not delay in sending humanitarian aid. We need your support in lobbying for peace. Do not put a curtain of silence in the international media to our grave problems," the leaders appealed.
The group identified continuous indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians by the LRA, the increasing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), the looming starvation and acts of indiscipline by some UPDF officers especially in Kitgum district, as some of the urgent issues which needed to be immediately addressed by the Government.
"Acts of indiscipline by some UPDF soldiers are becoming more than just isolated incidents. Innocent people have been shot dead or robbed at gunpoint recently in Kitgum town, Pader and many other places. Some cases of raping of women have also been reported especially when they venture into the villages to look for food for their children," the statement said.
"To make things worse, many of these facts we are mentioning are systematically silenced or distorted. We are told that the insecurity is soon coming to an end, that so many rebels have
been killed, but the truth is that things are just getting worse by the day, people are often left unprotected and many abductees, mostly children, are the ones being killed in armed confrontations," it said.
The religious leaders wondered why the tragedy in the north hardly features in international news, saying, "Two people killed in Israel will appear on the front page of all world newspapers, while hundreds of children killed in northern Uganda seem to be nobody's concern."
