| UGANDA 5/11/2004 13:45 | |
| EPISCOPAL VICAR RELEASED, FACES TERRORISM CHARGES | |
| Church/Religious Affairs, Brief | |
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Father Matthew Ojara, the Episcopal vicar of Kitgum (north Uganda) who was arrested at his home next to his church, Christ the King, during a joint military and police operation on Monday evening, has been released on police bond, according to MISNA sources in Gulu, capital of the homonymous district and the location of the prison to which the priest was taken shortly after his arrest. “For the time being, Father Ojara will remain in Gulu at the disposal of the judicial authorities as investigations are still underway,” a MISNA source in situ has said. According to local news sources, the State could charge the priest with violating Section 8 of the 2002 anti-terrorism law, which contemplates the death penalty for those found guilty of assisting, financing or supporting acts of terrorism. The Ugandan authorities, and the army in particular, accuse the vicar of suspected links with rebels of the self-pr oclaimed LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), the armed movement that has tormented the civilian population in the northern districts for 18 years, although no official charges have been brought against him. In particular, military sources in Gulu and Kampala have let slip that evidence against the priest allegedly includes a recording of a radio conversation between a rebel and Father Ojara in Kitgum at 09.00 on Sunday 31 October. The army claims that during the conversation the priest advised the rebels not to participate in peace talks organised by the government. In reality, religious sources stress that the evidence is unfounded, given that on 31 October the priest was in Gulu, 100 kilometres away, leaving this town for Kitgum only at 15.00 that afternoon. Local religious sources read monsignor Ojara’s arrest as an act of intimidation towards local religious leaders, who are trying to find a negotiated solution to the crisis in north Uganda in the belief that dialogue rather than milit ary action is the only answer to the conflict.[LC | |
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Obviously kaguta has calculated ( and his advisors have probably briefed him) that the arrest of the Priest is having a disastrous effect on the NRM image abroad...and so what does Kaguta do... he releases the priest! However, the priest , the regime still claims claims, will be charged with "treason". Word up kaguta charging the priest with Treason , is a wrong move. Ugandans and the world are watching the siutation with very keen interest.
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