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Catholic Information Service for Africa
(Nairobi)March 29, 2004
Posted to the web March 29, 2004 Nairobi The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel movement operating in northern Uganda is blaspheming by associating their movement with the name of God, yet their activities go against the fundamental teachings of Christianity.
And the Ugandan government has been accused of taking advantage of the war in the north to gain international sympathy.Bishop Macleord Baker Ocholla II, who was speaking during a three-day Interfaith Peace Summit for Africa, castigated President Yoweri Museveni for unveiling a monument following the recent massacre of 200 people in Lira. Bishop Ocholla said that the monument had nothing to do with the living victims of the massacre, and that the funds could have been used for peacekeeping missions.
"There is no political will to end the war in Uganda," said a bitter Bishop Ocholla during a press briefing on Sunday March 28, 2004.Rt Rev Ocholla is the retired Anglican Bishop of Kitgum Diocese in northern Uganda, and a member of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI), which tries to negotiate peace in the countries northern districts.He was reacting to reports that the Ugandan President on Saturday March 27, 2004, unveiled a monument in honour of those killed by the "rebels" in the north.
The Bishop, who lost all his family during one raid by the rebels, said the international community was to blame, because it did not ask for accountability after giving money to the Ugandan government."The war has become a lucrative enterprise to army generals, who are getting fat war allowances," lamented Bishop Ocholla.
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
