The Monitor (Kampala)
June 30, 2003
Posted to the web June 30, 2003
Fr. Carlos Rodr�guez
Kampala
"We the people of Acholi are partners in suffering with you the people of Teso, this is why we have come, because in our African culture when there is death in your brother's home you should go and stay with him".
With these words the Archbishop of Gulu John Baptist Odama explained Saturday's visit to Teso by a delegation of religious leaders from Acholi.
Anglican bishops Nelson Onono-Onweng and Mcleord Baker Ochola, together with the Acholi Khadi Sheikh Musa Khalil and Fr. Carlos Rodr�guez made up the delegation of Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI).
The religious leaders visited a medical centre run by the Church of Uganda which has become a reception centre -plus three others in Soroti town - for over one hundred children who have escaped in recent days from the LRA.
Some of them are students from Lwala Girls School, which was raided by the LRA last week. Many others are Acholi children - aged between 9 and 15 - recently abducted in Pader and Kitgum districts.
The bishops prayed with the children and recalled their recent experience of sleeping in the streets of Gulu with the children who desert their villages at night for fear of rebel abduction and thanked the people of Teso for welcoming the Acholi children who escape from rebel captivity.
They assured the people of Soroti that they would also do the same when Teso abductees escape in Acholiland.
Later on, speaking on the local radio, they called for good relations between the Teso and the many Acholi who have been living there for many years.
"The Acholi people do not support the LRA, let us not entertain the deadly mentality of those who say that it is the Acholi who are attacking the Iteso", Odama said.
Some of the recently returned children told tales of horror describing how captives who tried to escape or were unable to walk because of swollen feet were systematically beaten to death.
They also said that the main purpose of the rebel incursion in Teso was to carry out mass abduction of children to beef up their forces.
One of the children said: "We were able to enter deep into Teso because we were never stopped by the Ugandan Army".
Some former abductees were able to escape during armed confrontations.
An estimated 18,000 people are still displaced in Soroti town. Many schools in the sub region, comprising Soroti, Katakwi, Kaberamaido and Kumi districts, are still closed down.
