Uganda bishops undaunted by rising rebel violence
KAMPALA, June 19 (Reuters) - Religious leaders in northern Uganda are forging ahead with peace efforts despite an escalation of rebel atrocities in the area, a spokesman said on Thursday.
In the most recent attack by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) 29 people including 15 Sudanese refugee orphans were abducted on Tuesday night in an attack on Adjumani, northern Uganda, district officials said.
Villagers fear the LRA, which is led by self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony and has a reputation for maiming people and abducting children to use as sex slaves and soldiers.
"We are forging ahead...peace will come sooner or later and we are doing all we can to make this happen," Cosmas Lam, a spokesman for the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) told Reuters.
Earlier this week, the Ugandan religious leaders who are trying to broker an end to a 17-year conflict between the LRA and Kampala accused Sudan of resuming aid to the rebels in breach of a 1999 pact.
Lam said the ARLPI and religious leaders from southern Sudan had begun a two-day meeting to map a new way forward in the wake of the allegations.
LRA rebels targeted a Catholic-run orphanage during Tuesday's attack on Adjumani, about 350 kms (220 miles) north west of the capital Kampala.
"The attack on Adjumani Catholic parish is a shock to us," Adjumani district secretary Ben Anyamo said.
Anyamo said the rebels, armed with guns and machetes, had tried to steal communications equipment but failed.
A year-long government offensive against the rebels flushed the LRA from their camps in southern Sudan. According to the ARLPI, Sudanese supplies of arms and ammunition to the LRA late last year gave the weakened rebel group a new lease of life.
Under a 1999 accord, Uganda and Sudan had pledged to stop supporting each others' rebels.
06/19/03 08:05 ET
