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From: "Bishop Baker Ochola" <bishopochola70@hotmail.com>
To: jchane@edow.org
CC: office@archbishopofyork.org, jlipscomb@dioceseswfla.org, BishopMBC@aol.com, bishopogwal@aol.com, slloyd@cathedral.org, jpeterson@cathedral.org, cthomas832@earthlink.net, vbrewer@worldhelp.net, tkimbrough@chfnc.org, frbob@sainthilarys.org, jajoseph@duke.edu, olaraotunnu@yahoo.com, amii.omara-otunnu@uconn.edu, keith.meador@duke.edu, todd0022@mc.duke.edu, btg.jmm@verizon.net, bishopochola70@hotmail.com
Subject: Memorandum to Dr Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affair
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:52:10 +0000
My dear brother in Christ, Bishop Chane:
Greetings from Northern Uganda in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Please find the attached statement I gave to Mr. Tim Shortley, US Special Envoy on Northern Uganda who received on behalf of Dr Jendayi Frazer, on September 16, 2007, in Kampala, Uganda.
I was happy to read in The New Vision, Uganda government owned daily, and The Daily Monitor, independent daily, both of Tuesday 16th October 2007 that President George W. Bush has invited our President Yoweri K. Museveni to the White House for discussions on October 30th 2007, according to a White House Press release of October 12, 2007.
According to the press reports, top on the agenda of the White House Bush-Museveni meeting will be the Northern Uganda Peace Process in Juba, the LRA and President Museveni’s plan for the development of Northern Uganda. This is the first time the Northern Uganda Crisis, the LRA and/or plans to develop Northern Uganda have been on the agenda of the White House. I was extremely happy to see this coming barely a month after my meeting with Mr. Tim Shortley in Kampala. For this, I am grateful to you, Bishop Chane, all my friends I have here copied, and others who have been tireless advocates for peace with justice in Northern Uganda.
As a matter of fact, the US, UK and Uganda Governments hold the master key to peace with justice in Northern Uganda, and genuine national reconciliation in Uganda. Thus, President Bush’s invitation to President Museveni is a unique window of opportunity that could finally usher peace with justice in Northern Uganda, provided the voices of the weak and vulnerable victims of Northern Uganda will be heard during the White House meeting. This could signal the beginning of genuine national reconciliation and healing in Uganda.
When we met at the National Cathedral in mid 2006, I recall you said you met with President Museveni and his delegation during his last visit to the US. May I, therefore, request you to weigh in for peace with justice in Northern Uganda with both the White House and State Department? Would you also do the same with President Museveni if you have the opportunity to meet with him and his delegation?
During the Kampala meeting with Mr. Tim Shortley, I gave him copies of my letters to the Honorable James A. Baker III and Ambassador Andrew Young for the benefit of Dr Jendayi Frazer. You may recall I had requested Mr. Baker and Ambassador Young to be reconciliation-mediators between President Museveni and Ambassador Olara Otunnu. Thanks to the kind support and solidarity of my dear brothers in Christ, the Very Rev Dr Samuel Lloyd III, Dean, and the Very Rev Canon John Peterson, Canon for Global Justice and Reconciliation, I envisage this to be facilitated by the Washington National Cathedral. National reconciliation in Uganda is even more urgent now than ever before.
I am therefore extremely grateful to my dear brother in Christ, Rev Dr Peter Thomas Sr., for his compassion for the suffering people of Northern Uganda, especially the children. I thank him particularly for connecting me to Mr. James A. Baker III that enabled me to write to President Bush in the first place. I copied my letter to Dr Condoleezza Rice, as victim survivor and core founder member of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) that has been in the forefront of advocating for peace. And as Anglican Bishop, I copied fellow high profiled lay Anglicans such as former President George H.W Bush Sr., Mr. Baker, former Secretary of State Gen Colin Powell, and US Senator John McCain.
I am extremely grateful also to my dear brother Ambassador James Joseph for making it possible for me to meet with Ambassador Andrew Young at the Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture at Duke Chapel this past February 2007. This would not have been possible without the love and friendship I received from Church of the Holy Family and the Rector, my brother Timothy Kimbrough. My special friends of Northern Uganda at Church of the Holy Family like Dr Todd and Jill Granger gave me a home away from home during my sabbatical there. Mr. James Todd connected me to Ambassador James Joseph and his dear wife. Above all, my dear brother in Christ Dr Keith Meador and his wife Patricia opened their home to me and our Diaspora people during each of the Archbishop Janani Luwum Commemoration in Chapel Hill. Dr Keith and Patricia Meador named their house “Acholi/Luo Embassy in North Carolina”.
I thank my brother in Christ Rev Dr Vernon Brewer, Founder and President of Worldhelp Inc for all that his organization is doing in and for Northern Uganda. I thank Dr Brewer especially for his recent visit to Gulu in July 2007 in particular for his plans to address the explosive HIV/AIDS infection in Northern Uganda. I am also extremely grateful for his promise to take up the case of Northern Uganda with his contacts in the Bush Administration.
I am extremely grateful to my dear brother in Christ, The Most Rev and Rt. Hon Dr John Mugabi Sentamu, Archbishop of York, whom I have copied. He has been faithful to the memory and legacy of our spiritual father, Archbishop-martyr Janani Luwum. He has also been passionate and faithful in speaking out for the voiceless and vulnerable of Northern Uganda. I therefore appeal to him to bring the plight of Northern Uganda, in particular the Juba Peace Process, and the urgent need for national reconciliation in Uganda to high level attention of Her Majesty’s Government.
I wrote to former Prime Minister Tony Blair the same time I wrote to President George W. Bush. I therefore appeal to Archbishop Sentamu to take up our case with Prime Minister Gordon Brown to be a robust supporter of the Juba Peace Process and National Reconciliation in Uganda. Only genuine faith-based reconciliation in Uganda has the best chance for national forgiveness, atonement without revenge or political witch hunting even as Archbishop Tutu has said: “There is no future without forgiveness”.
Thank you, may God bless you richly.
Rt. Rev Macleord Baker Ochola II.
MEMORANDUM
Date: 15th September 2007
From: Rt. Rev. Macleord Baker Ochola II, Retired Anglican Bishop of Kitgum Diocese,
Core founder member, Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative (ARLPI)
To: Dr Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State, African Affairs US State Department.
Attention: Mr. Tim Shortley, Senior Advisor for Conflict Resolution and Monitor on Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan, US State Department
Subject: The Juba Peace PROCESS, comprehensive peace and reconciliation in Uganda
INTRODUCTION
Recent statements made by the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr Jendayi Frazer; the Arusha agreement between the Government of Uganda and Congo DRC; responses from the LRA have all been provocative and could lead to confrontation.
US LEADERSHIP IN PEACE
In my Weekly Observer interview, Thursday, September 13-19, 2007, I warned about mistrust between the parties that could fail the Juba Peace Talks. While US statements may have been well intentioned, they could have been misunderstood. In my view, the US should be encouraging both parties to overcome their mutual mistrust, embrace the Juba Peace Talks fully and show visible commitment towards comprehensive and broad reconciliation in Uganda.
In my letter to the US President George W. Bush dated May 29th 2005; I appreciated American leadership in “humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable populations” of Northern Uganda.
I also recognized the “authority and clout of the US Government over all key parties and stakeholders in the Northern Uganda conflict… that is why many of us people of faith and the civilian population in Northern Uganda who have borne the brunt of the suffering have been disappointed that the United States has not been more forthright on behalf of peaceful dialogue and mediation for the sake of the people”.
I beseeched President Bush to appoint a US Peace Envoy who would have been guarantor of the Betty Bigombe Mediation 2004 and would have helped bring the conflict to an end.
In her reply to me on behalf of President George W. Bush dated July 26 2005, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Constance B. Newman, assured me that “President Bush and Secretary Rice are very aware of the problems in northern Uganda and are doing everything they can to stop the fighting”. However, Ms Newman did not believe that “the appointment of a special ‘peace envoy’ for northern Uganda would be effective at this time. Minister Bigombe has earned the trust and confidence of the Government of Uganda, the LRA, and the international community uniquely positioning her to serve as the best hope for a peace settlement. We will continue to support her efforts in brokering a permanent end to the insurgency.”
Two years on, a US Peace Envoy is now being advocated for by among others US Senator Russ Feingold. I have had the privilege of meeting Sen. Feingold recently in Gulu together with Ambassador Browning.
US LEADERSHIP IN NORTH-SOUTH RECONCILIATION
As I mentioned in my Weekly Observer interview, if there is to be total peace with justice in Uganda, the Juba Peace Talks must simultaneously or subsequently continue into broad national reconciliation in Uganda. It is important, in this regard, to recall the observation of Johnnie Carson, former US Ambassador to Uganda, during a debate on the future of Uganda at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC, June 2005, where Hon Dr Ruhakana Rugunda represented Uganda Government:
“Unlike most of Southern Uganda, there has been virtually no economic growth or development in the northern part of the country since Museveni’s rise to power. In fact, social conditions and personal security have worsened in a number of northern communities.
Until the Ugandan government is able to build better relations between north and south and to bring development projects and outside investment into the northern communities in the same manner as it has done in the south, the LRA will continue to find the handful of willing recruits to help carry out rape, mutilations, pillaging and burning of villages that continue to devastate that part of the country”
Finally the international community seemed to have reached a consensus that the North-South Divide in Uganda is both cause and consequence of the 21-year conflict. The other dimensions such as education disparity and deprivation, intergenerational trauma and poor mental health, destroyed livelihoods and public health menace, economic regression, poverty, stigmatization and a sense of national rejection have been no less lethal. They need to be addressed holistically through genuine national reconciliation.
Remarkably, even the USAID Request for Proposal (RFP) No. 617-07-006, “Stability, Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Uganda (Spring)”, posted on the web on August 24, 2007 has observed:
“The North remains the poorest region in Uganda today, lagging behind on all socio-economic indicators. Given the historical North/South Divide in the country, these consequences of war are particularly important to the ongoing dynamics of the conflict and the potential for peace in the region”.
Coming from the US, one of Uganda Government’s biggest and most important development partners and allies in the fight against global terrorism, these observations reveal US recognition that the NRM Government needs to reconcile with communities in Northern and Eastern Uganda concretely. However, a comprehensive and genuine reconciliation across the North-South Divide in Uganda must include all Ugandans living in the Diaspora, whether as political exiles or for economic and other reasons.
It is for this reason that I am an integral part of a proposal for reconciliation between H.E President Museveni and Mr. Olara A. Otunnu who has charged that genocide has unfolded in Northern Uganda on the watch of the NRM Government and the international community. At the beginning of this year 2007, I took the initiative to appeal, in writing, to the Honorable James A. Baker III, former US Secretary of State, and the Honorable Andrew Young, former US Ambassador to the UN, to be reconciliation mediators between President Museveni and Olara Otunnu in the US.
According to a Luo traditional wisdom saying, “latong pa latek ladit wade aye omo” which translates as “an important item belonging to a wise elder”, in this case the axe, a very important tool to the Luo of Northern Uganda, “can only be entrusted to another wise and trustworthy elder”. In this context, therefore, Mr. James A. Baker III and Ambassador Andrew Young are such eminent and wise elders who can be trusted by both the US and Uganda Governments, in reality the two parties with the key to peace with justice in Northern Uganda and reconciliation across the North/South Divide.
“AGULU PII TOO I DOGOLA”
Thus far, the Juba Peace Process had inspired a lot of confidence in the civilian population in Northern Uganda. Many had begun the return home from the IDP Camps. The Government of Uganda had made a public statement that the Juba Peace Process had reached a point of no return. People had begun to move freely in the villages without fear.
But recent statements threatening the Peace Talks have raised anxiety, fear and confusion in the minds of the civilian population. This reminds me of a story.
The Luo people of Northern Uganda tell of a loving mother who rose up early at 4:00 am, balanced the water pot on her head and went to fetch water from the river 15 miles away. She returned after midday, very tired. Her thirsty children were very excited because their mother had finally brought water with which to quench their thirst and cook food. Unfortunately at the threshold of the African hut, there was nobody to help their loving mother lower the water pot, enter the house and put it safely down. In her lone efforts, the water pot slipped from her hands and fell into pieces right at the door step! The loving mother lost both the water and the water pot. She was left only with her exhaustion and great disappointment. In pain, she watched her children’s thirst and hunger: there was no water with which to prepare them lunch. It is from this experience that the Luo people of Northern Uganda came up with a saying, “agulu pii too i dogola” (the water pot breaks at the door step).
Likewise, the civilian population in Northern Uganda has great fear that the Juba Peace Talks could also fail at this critical stage like the water pot that breaks at the door step!
WAY FORWARD
To the Government of Uganda:
· I therefore want to appeal to the Ugandan Government, first of all, not to betray the hopes, expectations and commitment of the people of Uganda, especially in Northern and Eastern Uganda who have had high hopes in the Juba Peace Process and had started going home from IDP camps.
· Second, I call upon the Government of Uganda to be resolute about peaceful resolution of the 21-year long festering conflict in Northern and Eastern Uganda.
· Third, I ask Government officials and spokespersons to speak with one voice for peace and reconciliation and avoid uncoordinated and provocative statements.
To the US Government:
· I appeal to the US Government, especially the Bush Administration, to be a robust supporter and partner of the Juba Peace Process from a template of peace, not of war. Such peace template was clearly spelt out by former US Ambassador to Uganda, Jimmy Kolker, in his IRIN News interview on March 26, 2004. Ambassador Kolker called for dialogue between the Government of Uganda and the LRA and drew a distinction between LRA and Al-Qaeda.
· If the US had operated from such a peace template, by now the Bush Administration would have succeeded in giving peace to Northern Uganda as a parting gift. This would have been another African success of the Bush Administration as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Southern Sudan. Without the CPA, the ongoing Juba Mediation between Government of Uganda and the LRA would not have been possible.
· On Resettlement: I have appreciated US leadership in humanitarian assistance to Northern Uganda in the past. In the same way, I appreciate the announcement of $110 million the US Congress will make available for resettlement in Northern Uganda according to press reports. However, I wish to add that a successful resettlement first requires a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral assessment of the impact of the 21-year conflict.
Northern Uganda--a deep septic wound:
An analogy of a deep septic wound is appropriate to the 21-year conflict. The edges stretch from West Nile through Karamoja to Teso. However, the sorest spots of this deep septic wound are in the Acholi sub region including parts of Lango sub region.
Thus treating such a wound requires both an internal injection of antibiotics as well as external dressing and bandaging. There first needs to be a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral assessment if the announced US $110 million will not be merely an external bandage. Otherwise, haphazard resettlement without prior assessment will do more harm than good to an already war weary and traumatized population.
Unfortunately, we do not have such an institutional capacity locally to undertake such a massive comprehensive assessment. But the US has many such capacities in universities and institutions. I was privileged to have met in Gulu, April 15-19, 2007, the Director and Program Manager of the Forced Migration Program and Health of the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York. Columbia University is willing and capable of putting together a highly technical and scientifically sound multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral assessment team in mental, public health and livelihood systems, education, and sustainable development sensitive to culture and indigenous knowledge systems in collaboration with local or national institutions.
I strongly appeal to the US Government to include sponsorship of a multi disciplinary assessment team from Columbia University as part of the $110 million budget for resettlement in Northern and Eastern Uganda. After Columbia’s assessment, a stakeholders’ conference should be held in Northern Uganda. This should comprise representatives of Central Government, Local Government and Councils, Members of Parliament, Religious and Cultural leaders, Women, Youth and Children to make inputs to the assessment findings and conclusions.
These can then be submitted to the Government of Uganda and Donors so that the resettlement can proceed on a more informed and scientific basis.
To the LRA:
· I appeal to the LRA to realize that the people of Uganda, in particular Northern and Eastern Uganda, have suffered because of them and on their account for far too long.
· I therefore appeal to the LRA not to betray the hopes and expectations of the “thirsty and hungry children of Northern and Eastern Uganda who have waited for 21 years for their loving mother to return home with water from the river far, far away!”
To the International Community:
I appreciate the contribution and confidence building measures of the UN Peace Envoy, Dr Joachim Chissano, and former Mozambican President. I acknowledge the partnering efforts with the Juba Peace Process of the five African Union (AU) countries: Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, South Africa, and Mozambique.
· I therefore appeal to the international community to encourage peaceful approach to all conflict transformation in Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan and all the conflict areas in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa Regions.
I thank you.
FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY.
Copy: H.E Browning, US Ambassador to Uganda
Mr. Randolph Harris, Senior Advisor on Conflict, USAID, Kampala
Hon Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, Leader of Government Delegation to the Juba Peace Talks
Mr. Martin Ojul, Leader of the LRA Delegation to the Juba Peace Talks.
His Grace, John Baptist Odama, Chairman, Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative (ARLPI)
His Grace, the Most Rev Henry Luke Orombi, Archbishop of the Church of Uganda
His Grace, Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, Archbishop of Kampala Archdiocese
His Eminence Jonah Lwanga, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Church in Uganda
His Eminence, Sheikh Shabban Mubajje, Mufti of Uganda
Hon Edward Sekandi, Speaker, Parliament of Uganda
Hon Prof Morris Ogenga Latigo, Leader of Opposition
Canon Grace Kaiso, Executive Secretary, Uganda Joint Christian Council.
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