Go to home page - diocesan shield

The Anglican Church in Tasmania                                                             Search

a healthy church...transformingLIFE

Tasmanian Anglican

September 2003

 

CMS launches campaign to break the silence

by Matthew Davies

 

 

From the Anglican Communion News Service

In an effort to raise awareness of the shocking realities of child abduction and the 17-year war in northern Uganda, CMS launched a campaign in August by delivering a petition to Downing Street, asking Tony Blair to 'help break what local churchmen have dubbed an 'international conspiracy of silence' over the Lord's Resistance Army's (LRA) brutal reign'.

The Bishop of Kitgum diocese, the Rt Revd Benjamin Ojwang, accompanied an Acholi refugee child to Downing Street, with two children from the first CMS church [Holy Trinity, Clapham Common] to symbolise the charity's 100 years of solidarity with the Acholi people.

Worst victims

The current conflict in northern Uganda began soon after the National Resistance Army (NRA) of President Museveni took power in 1986. Several splinter groups began emerging and the story of the LRA began: originally named the Lord's Salvation Army; then the United Christian Democratic Army; and finally the Lord's Salvation Army.

The worst victims of the situation are the youth: the LRA are responsible for the abduction of thousands of children and more than 20,000, some as young as seven, are being used as soldiers, labourers and sex slaves.

Own children

Bishop Ojwang said, 'We cannot give up because that means throwing the bible away....We have to struggle even up to the end.'

Bishop Ojwang, whose own six children were abducted last year, explained how he has come to echo the children's cry. 'We are in a dilemma now,' he said. 'The international community has not been actively involved in finding a peaceful solution. We need to bring the two sides together and we can only do that through dialogue; not with guns.'

Spooks

Actor David Oyelowo, who plays Danny in the hit BBC spy series Spooks, also helped to launch the campaign. He told a story about six children being dragged out of their beds by the LRA at night. They were then shot and left in the street for all to witness the following morning. 'The LRA claim that they are doing this for some kind of godly purpose,' he said. 'The children - the helpless - are caught between a rock and a hard place.'

CMS announced that 75% of the population of northern Uganda now face starvation in so-called 'protected camps'. Jenny Taylor, Head of Media for CMS, said, 'We now want people to get behind us in prayer and understanding for the people of Uganda.'