UGANDA 24/6/2003 16:49
GULU: NIGHT OF SUFFERANCE, A NIGHT UNDER THE RAIN FOR A BISHOP FRIEND OF CHILDREN
Church/Religious Affairs, Standard
Last night he slung his bundle on his shoulder: a plastic sheet and blanket. He then headed on foot toward the centre of the city with the intent of sleeping out in the open, for the second consecutive night, near the Bus Park. Monsignor John Baptist Odama has no doubts. “As Archbishop of the Church of Gulu I cannot just sit in my Episcopal residence, while each night as night falls the city fills with children, sleeping outdoors in miserable conditions from fear of being abducted by the rebels”. Heavy rain fell for hours on the administrative centre of North Uganda. “The most fortunate – referred Father Carlos Rodriguez Soto, representative of the diocesan Justice and Peace office – found shelter under the portico, but the majority remained standing up against the buses with their bundles on their heads, awaiting for the rain to relent”. And there, in the middle of such afflicted humanity, was Monsignor Odama who barely slept, not as much!
for the rain – as he explained – but the rough voices, lamenting and coughing attacks coming out of those thousands of little bodies reduced to an extreme. “Monsignor Odama is convinced of the need to give a concrete sign of solidarity, particularly to the children, excellent victims of a war that has gone on for too many years”, stated Father Rodriguez Soto. Also he, together with the Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox religious leaders – united in the ARLPI (Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative) – made the choice of sleeping out in the open. “Last night the rebels did not attack Gulu, probably because of the heavy rain. But that same water is causing respiratory infections left and right among the little ones, in some cases threatening their lives. If it is not the bullets to kill them, pneumonia does the job”. Last night, next to the Catholic Archbishop were also his vicar general Matthew Odong and the Anglican Bi!
shop Nelson Onono-Onweng. The civil war afflicting North Uganda is tra
nsforming into a slow genocide of the Nilotic populations living in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, Apac and Lira. Out of a population of 1,4-million inhabitants of the Acholi and Lango ethnic group, some 850-thousand are displaced and live out in the open in desperate humanitarian conditions for the lack of food and medicinals. The Catholic missions and urban centres each night fill with women, elderly people and above all children. Based on the crazy ‘diktat’ of Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA (lord’s Resistance Army) all have to be recruited, even the seminarians of the archdiocese of Gulu, abducted last month. One thing is certain. Another night of terror and attendance passed under the sloping roofs and fragile walls, that in Gulu as other centres of North Uganda since last July host a growing number of inhabitants of the surrounding rebel-infested territory. This town – which passed from the 80-thousand inhabitants of the 90’s to the !
current around 200-thousand also due to the mass escape caused by the rebel attacks – characterised by precarious structures with tin roofs (called ‘mabati’ by the people), a small vivacious market and straw huts spread throughout the suburb, dominated by the Catholic Cathedral, is situated 400km north of the capital, Kampala. An ideal location for a chronic conflict and particularly ignored, neglected and forgotten. As we write that multitude of people returned to their homes, many are at work and the children indoors, in those round huts with sloping roofs, spread out around the city. Monsignor Odama, with tears in his eyes, gave them all appointment for tonight, another night of sufferance. [BO]
