Baptists help Uganda refugees as end to war looms

-29/05/06

Thousands of Ugandans terr


Baptists help Uganda refugees as end to war looms

-29/05/06

Thousands of Ugandans terrorized by the Lordís Resistance Army (LRA) will soon be on their way home being trapped in camps for up to five years, reports the Baptist Times in the UK. The move comes as hopes increase of an end to war and conflict in the region.

As part of the resettlement, grants from BMS World Mission and from BWAid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, have assisted a Baptist Union of Uganda (BUU) project aimed at providing kits of basic materials – tools, seeds, clothing and food – to enable people to return to their villages from the camps in the north of the country.

As previously reported on Ekklesia, up to two million people have been driven there by fear of the LRA, which has terrorised the region for the last 20 years and has been responsible for appalling brutality, particularly against children.

The Baptist Union of Uganda wants to send back 500 families to each of the seven regions. A £20,000 grant from BMS will help resettle two regions, while BWAid has donated £10,000, enough to help resettle a third.

The Revd Alex Wanyama, BUU general secretary, said that he was ìvery pleasedî with the announcement, and asked for prayers for those returning to their homes. Many of them, he said, would have psychological problems either because of their experiences in the camps or because of what they had suffered at the hands of the LRA.

ìCommunities are so important in Africa,î explained the Rev Andrew North, BMS regional secretary for Africa. ìThis gives them a far better chance to re-establish themselves.î

He added: ìThere is strength in numbers, and this project helps them hold together the structures of decision-making that the war has disrupted.î

The initiative comes as prospects for peace in the region seem to be improving. While the LRA has not been defeated, it is under increasing pressure in its bases in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and its leader Joseph Kony has offered talks with the Ugandan government.

Ugandaís President Museveni has promised Kony immunity from prosecution while the talks take place. However, Kony has already been indicted with four other LRA leaders by the International Criminal Court, which means that he must be arrested on sight.

Britainís overseas development minister Hilary Benn, who visited camps in Kitgum last week, stressed that the warrant had to be enforced. He also urged regional co-operation to deal with LRA, and said that people had to feel safe in order to return to their homes.

The Uganda government has been widely criticised not only over its failure to deal with the LRA, but over conditions in the camps themselves.

HIV/Aids infection is as high as 50 per cent, and rates of depression and suicide, especially among young women, are high. Sexual and other violence is widespread.

[Also on Ekklesia: Ugandan Baptists prepare radical refugee rescue plan; Mennonites and Anglicans work to overcome violence in northeast Uganda; Sentamu to launch charity commemorating martyr killed by Idi Amin; Religious leaders commit to stem African violence]


Baptists help Uganda refugees as end to war looms

-29/05/06

Thousands of Ugandans terrorized by the Lordís Resistance Army (LRA) will soon be on their way home being trapped in camps for up to five years, reports the Baptist Times in the UK. The move comes as hopes increase of an end to war and conflict in the region.

As part of the resettlement, grants from BMS World Mission and from BWAid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, have assisted a Baptist Union of Uganda (BUU) project aimed at providing kits of basic materials – tools, seeds, clothing and food – to enable people to return to their villages from the camps in the north of the country.

As previously reported on Ekklesia, up to two million people have been driven there by fear of the LRA, which has terrorised the region for the last 20 years and has been responsible for appalling brutality, particularly against children.

The Baptist Union of Uganda wants to send back 500 families to each of the seven regions. A £20,000 grant from BMS will help resettle two regions, while BWAid has donated £10,000, enough to help resettle a third.

The Revd Alex Wanyama, BUU general secretary, said that he was ìvery pleasedî with the announcement, and asked for prayers for those returning to their homes. Many of them, he said, would have psychological problems either because of their experiences in the camps or because of what they had suffered at the hands of the LRA.

ìCommunities are so important in Africa,î explained the Rev Andrew North, BMS regional secretary for Africa. ìThis gives them a far better chance to re-establish themselves.î

He added: ìThere is strength in numbers, and this project helps them hold together the structures of decision-making that the war has disrupted.î

The initiative comes as prospects for peace in the region seem to be improving. While the LRA has not been defeated, it is under increasing pressure in its bases in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and its leader Joseph Kony has offered talks with the Ugandan government.

Ugandaís President Museveni has promised Kony immunity from prosecution while the talks take place. However, Kony has already been indicted with four other LRA leaders by the International Criminal Court, which means that he must be arrested on sight.

Britainís overseas development minister Hilary Benn, who visited camps in Kitgum last week, stressed that the warrant had to be enforced. He also urged regional co-operation to deal with LRA, and said that people had to feel safe in order to return to their homes.

The Uganda government has been widely criticised not only over its failure to deal with the LRA, but over conditions in the camps themselves.

HIV/Aids infection is as high as 50 per cent, and rates of depression and suicide, especially among young women, are high. Sexual and other violence is widespread.

[Also on Ekklesia: Ugandan Baptists prepare radical refugee rescue plan; Mennonites and Anglicans work to overcome violence in northeast Uganda; Sentamu to launch charity commemorating martyr killed by Idi Amin; Religious leaders commit to stem African violence]