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| UGANDA 4/11/2004 18:11 |
| DETENTION TERM EXPIRED, VICAR STILL IN PRISON |
![Church/Religious Affairs]() |
Church/Religious Affairs, Brief |
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Father Matthew Ojara, the episcopal vicar of Kitgum (north Uganda), is still in prison following his arrest in his home next to his church, Christ the King, during a joint military and police operation on Monday evening. The news comes from MISNA sources in Gulu, the capital of the homonymous district and the location of the prison to which Father Ojara was taken shortly after his arrest. “The priest is now being detained illegally. The 48-hour term allowed for precautionary custody is now up. This morning they should either have released him or brought him before a court and charged him with something,” a government source told MISNA, asking not to be named. Religious sources who visited Father Ojara in prison today report that the priest is in good health, even though he has been psychologically taxed by the events of the last few hours. The Ugandan authorities, and the army in particular, allegedly
mean to
accuse the vicar of Kitgum of suspected links with rebels of the self-proclaimed LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), the armed movement that has tormented the civilian population in the northern districts for 18 years. In particular, military sources in Gulu and Kampala have let slip that the 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 d
ialogue
rather than military action is the only answer to the conflict.[LC] | |
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