Meeting the Challenges of Building Sustainable Peace
in
Acholiland, Northern Uganda

A Presentation by Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative at KM 2000

Introduction

We have the honour and privilege to greet you in the name of God the Almighty Father. We thank you all for coming to participate in this important forum for the purpose of mobilising ourselves and resources to develop and promote consensus in the peace process. We acknowledge the solidarity and presence of our friends and benefactors in search for peace for our land and Uganda as a whole. We would also like to thank all the NGOs, the donor communities for their humanitarian assistance to our suffering people.

Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) was formally inaugurated in February 1998 by Muslim and Christian (Catholic & Anglican) leaders in Acholi, with the goal of providing a proactive response to the conflict that is raging in the land and to promote harmonious living and co-existence within our communities. The fundamental motivation is that peace is a group effort and a long-term process, which requires unity and commitment in restoring broken relations, building trust, harmonious relationships -- leading to sustainable peace and reconciliation. Secondly, we discovered that both Christianity and Islam teach ‘peace’. In fact, the word ‘Islam’ itself means peace, manifested in the daily Islamic greeting ‘Salam alei kum’, meaning peace be with you! This analogy tallies with what Christ taught and stood for ‘Peace be with you! My peace I give you.’ (Jn.20: 19-21). The third motivation is that peace is the fruit of love and the ministry of the Church, entrusted by Christ is that of peace and reconciliation. A ministry to restore the good relationship among humanity and between humanity and God the Creator. Accordingly, we started our collaborative ministry with dialogue with our head of State on Forgiveness & Reconciliation, based on the reality that ‘God does not desire the death of a sinner, but wants a sinner to live and convert’ (Ez. 33:11).

We participated at KM’98 in London and shared our motivation and vision for making a contribution to the peace process in Acholiland. We still regret and feel sad that the Lord’s Resistance Movement/Army (LRM/A), did not participate and are not even here now. We do recognise the fact that they are a valuable stakeholder in the process and hope that they will respond and play their part positively.

As you know, the year 2000 is a year of renewal and conversion. Our prayer and wish is that KM’ 2000 should be a turning point for us all. This ‘Kacoke’ should renew and transform our hearts, minds and actions in order to appropriately respond to the theme ‘Meeting the challenges to building sustainable peace in Northern Uganda’. We must therefore, identify these challenges and as it were, meet them head on. However, as we continue with our reflections, we would like to share some of their realities in Acholi today.

1. The insecurity remains the same with abductions, looting and killings. We lost one of our members, the late Fr. Raphael Di Bari of Pajule Catholic Mission in Kitgum district who was brutally killed and burnt to ashes. The response by the army and what they say after such incidences leaves us with unanswered questions. Are the LRA or some individuals doing this? Or are some groups taking advantage of the situation to cause havoc and suffering for the people?
2. Although not much is being said about Joseph Kony, the LRA are roaming and terrorising the local communities.
3. The agreements between the two governments of Uganda and Sudan are not being felt practically on the ground.
4. Quarrelling and violent disagreements among our local leaders have been an issue of concern to the people.
5. Although the Amnesty Commission has been appointed, it is not yet effectively operational in our region and thus we cannot ascertain its effectiveness so far.
6. The relations with the Karamojong who normally come to graze in Kitgum district during dry season.
7. The Ebola epidemic, which has compounded the trauma we have suffered due to the on-going war. Even the experience we are having at the KM 2000 adds to our traumatic experiences.

ARLPI and community peace-building in Acholiland

Towards the end of 1998, we developed our programme tagged ‘Community Peace-building’. The basis for the programme is that peace and reconciliation can best be sustained in the community, by the community and that peace begins with God our creator, then ourselves, then moves to neighbours and then the environment. That peace is not the mere absence of conflict and/or war, but that peace above all is right relationship -- the ‘Shalom’ as the Hebrews call it. We do acknowledge that conflict is normal and natural in human existence and relationship and that in any conflict situation, we choose how to respond. In this way, we know conflict, even as violent as we have experienced in our land, can be transformed. We therefore, view peace-building as a process of establishing and building trust and hope, but above all being taught by the people in the community of the needed interventions.

The main focus of our community peace-building programme is that the sub-county, where the volunteer peace animators (VPAs), are identified and selected by the local religious leaders. After participating in a one-week training of trainers’ workshop, they assist as facilitators in the peace process within their local communities. Under the guidance and supervision of the local religious leaders, the VPAs work in collaboration with local council leaders, NGOs and other stakeholders in a sub-county.

We are now promoting the formation of local peace committees at sub-county and parish levels. A peace committee is a team of people, from within a particular community, that come together frequently to share and discuss issues which threaten peace in their midst and undertake peace-building. The committee also provides for teamwork and continuity in the peace-building process.

Living and experiencing the conflict in our land, we are asking ourselves several questions as the basis for developing strategies for long-term peace-building and sustainable reconciliation in the community. Below are some of these questions for your reflection:

1. Who has the most potential to serve as agents of change in our situation?
2. Who has respect, linkages and understanding across levels of the conflict and across divisions that tend to divide our efforts?
3. What training and/or capacity building would improve their effectiveness for impacting the situation?
4. Considering the history, context and effect of the conflict, what prepares people and communities for sustainable reconciliation and peace?

Peace-building is a long-term journey with lots of incidences on the way and so the following are some of the main challenges we have experienced.

1. The LRM/A are a major stakeholder in the on-going peace process in Acholiland. However, to date, they are not on board and all efforts so far seem to lead nowhere, without their input.
2. We continually hear that some individuals and or groups locally, nationally and internationally are getting some benefits from this unfortunate situation. ‘Lweny manpe bi gik, pien dano mapol tye ka nongo lonyo/lim iye’! We hear such remarks from the local people. Who are these people? Can we identify them?
3. The majority of the people in Acholi are not supporting the rebellion, except for a handful, which might be perpetuating the destruction of our very destruction. How are we nurturing this goodwill in the community?
4. High hopes and expectations have been given to our people through activities and efforts such as the visit by the Sudanese MPs, the Carter Centre’s mediation efforts, the Uganda-Sudan Peace accord, the enactment of the amnesty law, the formation of the Joint Forum for Peace (JFP) in Kitgum and the District Reconciliation and Peace Team (DRPT) in Gulu and our own assurances to the population that peace is possible. How do we sustain this hope in the community?

1. We must find all ways and means to have the LRA on board the peace process. On its part, the government of Uganda should be seen as playing its part in truth and sincerity. LRA, you have a role to play here. Open your doors for dialogue. In this regard too, we can borrow from the effective, enormous and comprehensive responses to the ‘Ebola’ epidemic that hit the district of Gulu in October 2000. Why can’t we respond to this ‘virus-conflict’, which has survived in Acholi for over a decade; killing thousand, maiming hundreds and displacing about half of the population. The abduction of our children must stop and the people in captivity must be unconditionally released.
2. We call on the individuals and or groups of people perpetuating the war in Acholi as an investment, to stop forthwith. They should be identified and called to conversion or change of heart, so as to live. Their enterprise is death.
3. Peace education to help us understand and appreciate that peace is indeed a long- term group effort, so as to maintain hope among our people. "It takes as long to come out of a crisis/conflict, as it took to get in. If it has taken us so many years living in the conflict, it will also require an equal number of years to come out of it, to transform it -- to restore the breakages in our land and country. The community that has suffered so much needs to tell their stories and so, we should provide the space to do so.
4. Giving hope to the community through lobbying and advocacy, making the rest of the country and international community know what is happening in Acholiland. The question of the internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camps should be critically analysed and appropriately responded to. People should be facilitated to live in their homes.
5. We are planning a mediatory meeting with the Karamojong kraal leaders, warriors, women and religious leaders with our grassroots leaders from sub-counties bordering them, during the first week of December.
6. Ribe aye teko! Peace is a group effort! We want peace, but real peace comes from love, which begins from the heart. Let’s love each other and promote dialogue as a means of restoring trust and good relationship in search for peaceful solutions. We should allow different programmes and efforts to exist side by side, recognising that each of us is unique, but complement each other, making things and relationship whole.

Conclusion

There is an urgency to meet and overcome the challenges to peace for our land. The voice of the local people is clear ‘we want peace, no to violence’ (wamito kuc, wadag lweny). These yearnings for peace are a great invitation for us all to be committed to doing our part. As the Chinese say, ‘a journey of 1000 miles, begins with taking of the first step’. We have all taken the first step, let’s continue with the second and the third

We are called to make this process transformational in our individual lives and that of our communities. Let us build together by correcting whatever might be wrong in our method of work.

Finally, we call upon all you our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora to translate KM 2000 deliberations and resolutions on the ground in Acholiland. Can’t you identify something concrete that you can undertake as part of partial for building peace in our land?

May the prince of peace be with you and guide you all. SHALOM