It is better to obey God than man, and to speak His word with Boldness.
October 23rd, 2005
Rev. MacLeord Baker Ochola II [retired bishop of Kitgum Church Uganda]
Text: Acts 5:27-29
There is a Luo saying that” “Anyaka ma wang mine oto myelo neon ceng” – meaning that a youthful girl whose mother’s eyes are blind, dances looking at the sun. The people of Northern Uganda, like this youthful girl, must dance looking at the sun because all our people, like the blind mother, are all living in utter darkness of agony, pain, suffering, and death. The people have been languishing in the IDP Camps under very inhuman conditions for years. They have not only lost homes, but everything in life.
The people who used to be self-reliant and self-supporting in life, are now being fed by World Food Program [WFP]. Their children have been raped, killed, used as child-soldiers as well as sex-slaves. Women together with their dear daughters have alsTo been raped in the open and in the presence of their own children and dear husbands, who have been forced to look on from a position of helplessness and powerlessness. As a people we have been very much degraded, dehumanized, and left completely stigmatized.
The Problem of Localization
The magnitude of our problem has never been appreciated by our own Government in Kampala. For the Government of Uganda the problem of Northern Uganda is a domestic or local issue that can be handled internally. Thus, an international intervention into Northern Uganda issues, can be seen or interpreted as an interference with our national sovereignty. From this context it is evidently clear that the Government of Uganda does not see our current situation as an emergency situation. For instance, the Parliament of Uganda unanimously passed a resolution that Northern Uganda be declared a disaster area, but the Government of Uganda refused. According to the Government, the problem of Northern Uganda is domestic or local – that can be resolved internally. Considering the gravity of the situation, the problem of localization is a problem of attitude towards the people of Northern Uganda.
When the UN Under-Secretary Mr. Jan Egeland visited Northern Uganda in November, 2003, he was shocked to see that this was the worst forgotten crisis in the world. It is worse than the situation in Iraq or in Darfur, in western Sudan. He observed with much concern that there was lack of international attention to the crisis in Northern Uganda, which has no comparison in the whole world. Thus, the problem of attitude towards the people of Northern Uganda becomes much more clear when an outsider has an eye to see the situation as an emergency situation. Mr. Egeland described the neglect of the crisis by the international body as a moral outrage. How can the international body ignore such a crisis of this magnitude, if there is no conspiracy of silence, as it was in the case of the Rwanda genocide in 1994.
Emergency Situation
There is no doubt the people of Northern Uganda are living under an emergency situation. The recent research carried out by the UN, and Government of Uganda, reveals that 1,000 children die every week in the IDP camps. Another earlier research done by Medicins Sans Frontieres [Doctors Without Borders] says that 10 children are dying everyday out of every 10,000 children grouped together. It strongly warns that unless the Government of Uganda and the international body do everything possible in their power to end the war now, the whole population in the IDP camps is heading for extinction from the face of the earth. No doubt, this is the prophetic voice of Christ from God to the situation in Northern Uganda. If 7 students die every week here in Canada, out of a 1,500 student population in a High School, I am sure that everybody in Canada, USA, UK, and everyone everywhere in the world would do everything possible to stop it.
I have come to appeal to the Canadian people, Government, and Churches / Mosques, to do everything possible to help the dying people of Northern Uganda. As Peter and the Apostles of Jesus Christ, I will not keep silent for the sake of the suffering people in Northern Uganda. The people of the world must not keep quiet for the sake of humanity of which the people of Northern Uganda are a part of. The people of the world must not keep silent for the sake of humanity because of our oneness to one God. I strongly believe that it is still possible to rescue the situation of Northern Uganda not to go out of hand. Thus, as the prophetic voice of Christ, we have to speak for the voiceless, the poor, the needy, the oppressed, and the marginalized, like those in Northern Uganda, DRC, and in Darfur in western Sudan, just to mention, but a few. Our communality is our belief in One God, and also our oneness in humanity, as members of the global village – in spite of our human differences: in cultures, languages, races, and beliefs.