Archbishop Rowan Pledges Support for Campaign

This article appeared in the Conference edition of the Church of England Newspaper on 21 September 2003 and is reproduced here with their permission.

Archbishop Rowan Williams had a private meeting with the Bishop of Kitgum at NEAC on Friday to assure him of his personal support in bringing the horrific but forgotten war in Northern Uganda to an end.

Bishop Benjamin Ojwang is only the second bishop of a diocese under siege for the past 17 years from a demonic and violent cult called the Lord's Resistance Army. He and wife Margaret are at NEAC as guests of the Church Mission Society (CMS), fronting their campaign to 'Break the Silence' over the war.

Interviewed by NEAC organiser Ian Smith during Friday evening's multi-media presentation in the Ballroom on the global church, the Bishop appealed again for help for the Acholi people, in a nightmare that may yet cost his life.

His own six children narrowly escaped abduction last year -- and are now dispersed in Uganda. His predecessor's daughter took her own life after being abducted and gang raped by LRA rebels, and her mother was blown up in a land-mine explosion. Priests are now being targeted in a situation exacerbated by chaotic government militias.

Roads to Kitgum are cut off, and the majority of the population -- nearly a million people -- are living in appalling conditions in 'protected' camps set up by the government, but which demoralised and frightened UPDF soldiers use to hide in. The Ugandan army itself recruits children. As many as 26,000 have been abducted since 1986, and only half accounted for. Victims are mutilated, cooked, sold -- or sacrificed in rituals.

The Bishop described himself as "the shepherd of my people. I cannot leave -- it would be like throwing away the Bible".

The campaign has aimed to move the situation from obscurity to international prominence to illustrate the scope of contemporary mission. Media coverage beginning with the Today programme on Radio 4 and Channel 4 News, to BBC World Service and local interviews have helped orchestrate CMS networks in Britain and Uganda.

Valerie Davey, MP in Kitgum's linked diocese, Bristol West, re-wrote her speech on the UN debate on September 11 at Westminster after hearing the bishop speak on Radio Bristol. She said Uganda should focus the debate on a new role for the UN in nations that harboured intractable internal oppression.

Bishop Benjamin is pleading for delegates to write to their MPs, to increase pressure on the increasingly discredited Museveni regime for immediate protection of aid convoys; facilitation and monitoring of peace talks and international support.