ugnet_: Acholi Clergy Appeal to Bush On Sudan

[Matekopoko]

Acholi Clergy Appeal to Bush On Sudan


New Vision (Kampala)

July 10, 2003
Posted to the web July 10, 2003

Anne Mugisa
Kampala

ACHOLI religious leaders have appealed to US President George Bush to pressure the Sudan government to stop supplying arms to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, "even by proxy."

Bush, who is on a tour of several African countries, is expected in Uganda on Friday.


The leaders also appealed to Bush to lobby the UN Security Council to include the northern Uganda conflict on its agenda, as a matter of urgency.

In a letter addressed to Bush, Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative, accused the international community of remaining silent as children die in the thousands in the conflict and others live in terror and trauma.

The leaders include the Archbishop of Gulu and chairman of the peace initiative, John Baptist Odama, vice-chairman and retired Bishop of Kitgum, Macleord Baker Ochola and the Bishop of northern Uganda, Nelson Onono-Onweng.

Others are the Bishop of Kitgum, Benjamin Ojwang, Acholi Khadi, Sheikh Musa Khalil and Fr. Julius Orach of the Orthodox Church in Gulu.

They said children as young as five years of age had been abducted and recruited into rebel ranks and others turned into sex slaves in the conflict.

They said so far, 15,000 children had been abducted by the LRA rebels, causing untold suffering to them and their parents.

"This unspeakable crime has been committed with the support of the Sudan government and has brought mayhem to communities," the letter said.

It said 30,000 children sleep on the streets in Gulu or under verandas of hospitals for fear of abduction, adding that more lived under similar conditions in Kitgum.