Gulu commemorates International Peace Day on 21 September 2015.
On the 21st September 2015, Gulu district joined the rest of the world to commemorate the 33rd International Peace Day at Pece stadium, as a sign that violence and conflict can be eradicated. The theme for the celebration was “partnership in peace and, dignity for all.” The event was attended by various stakeholders including officials from the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative (ARLPI), UN Human Rights, Gulu district officials, CAP Uganda and the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP).
The celebration started with an opening prayer by Bishop Mark Baker Ochola who prayed for the people of Apaa for the land conflict in their area, and appealed to those in power to exercise their power in a way that promotes peace. This was followed by a march from the district administration offices to Pece stadium accompanied by St Mauritz Primary School’s marching band. Prayers were also held at Gulu’s main roundabout and in front of Mega FM radio station.
Muslim cleric Sheikh Musa Khalil read the Quran and emphasized that people should remember that God created mankind from generation to generation including those who shed blood and that it is important to forgive. Other readings were done by Pastor Orach Julius and Rev Loum Godfrey who read from the Bible. Rt Bishop Onono-Onweng noted that on this day the world needs peace because it there are many injustices including hunger, cruelty and other forms of suffering.
Hon Newton Ojok who represented Gulu district chairperson Ojara Mapenduzi, said that the choice of Pece Stadium as venue for the celebration was deliberate as the stadium was built to commemorate the participation of Acholi in World War II and it is also the place where the first peace negotiations with the LRA took place. Peace, he said, means freedom and living in harmony and without peace, there is no development.
Jimmy Patrick Okema the regional police commander said that the region has witnessed several wars which should never happen again and that it takes both the police and the public to maintain peace. Whereas it is the duty of the police to maintain peace, he said, civilians also have a duty to report any suspicious activity to the police.
Kilama Calvine is a volunteer working with the Justice and Reconciliation Project. He is a holder of a Bachelor of Laws Degree of Gulu University and he lives in Laroo, Gulu District.
The 21st of September is the United Nations recognised International Day of Peace. The day, established in 1981, is the shared date devoted to strengthening and creating ideals and acts of peace all around the world. The UN General Assembly resolved in 2001 (Resolution UN/A/RES/55/282) to declare the day a Day of Ceasefire, being “an invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the day”. The “temporary” ceasefire is meant to encourage individuals and nations to work to sustainable peace on a more permanent level and to give hope to victims of conflict for the possibility of peace.
The day can be celebrated in practically any way – from lighting a candle to sitting in silent meditation. In Uganda, Archbishop of Gulu Ecclesiastical Province of Northern Uganda John Baptist Odama will be awarded with the World Vision International Peace Prize for his contribution to promoting peace processes. The Archbishop Odama, who was nominated by JRP’s Community Documentation Team Leader, is best known for meeting with the LRA in 2002 in an attempt to convince the rebels to lay down their arms. Even today, the Bishop continues maintain efforts to bring peace in both Uganda and the region as a whole, including appealing to the Government to resort to dialogue as the only way of ending the insurgence. Recently, along with a team of other Northern Ugandan leaders traveled to the Central African Republic to negotiate and ascertain the condition of people held captive by the LRA.
The Award and the Day will be celebrated in Gulu at the Kaunda Grounds on the 19th of September. Read more about the Archbishop’s efforts to achieve peace in the region here.
The Justice and Reconciliation Project will also be celebrating Peace Day through a unique, youth centred initiative known as the 2012 Transitional Justice (TJ) Quiz. The TJ Quiz is an educational programme designed to connect youth from different parts of Northern Uganda to build a critical mass around transitional justice. Schools from Pader, Kitgum, Nwoya, Amuru and Gulu Districts are compete by answering rapid fire quiz questions on transitional justice issues, peace processes, international to scoop the regional prize on the eve of International Peace Day in Gulu. . The theme of the competition this year is “Everybody counts; Voices of Young People in Transitional Justice” and it is hoped that it will further increase awareness among the young people Uganda on the conflict as well as ongoing transitional justice debates within the country.
Archbishop John Baptist Odama greeting an LRA soldier in Garamba forest during the Juba Peace Talks.
Archbishop John Baptist Odama is the metropolitan Archbishop of Gulu Archdiocese in northern Uganda, a region which is emerging from over two decades of conflict waged between the Government of Uganda and the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The civil war, which started in 1986, has had disastrous impacts upon the population. Among other impacts of the conflict, between 28,000 and 38,000 children were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to serve as child soldiers, sex slaves and porters, and over 1.8 million people were displaced and forced to live in squalid conditions of the IDP camps. It is amidst this setting that Archbishop Odam has worked for several years to restore peace in northern Uganda. When he was first posted to northern Uganda in the early 1990s, he readily accepted to go and work in the region despite the threat of insecurity paused by the LRA. The suffering of the people in northern Uganda, and in particular the children immediately influenced his determination to work for the return of peace in the region. He has been an outspoken advocate for peaceful means, having witnessed first-hand the impacts of war against civilians. He is known to have continuously remarked that “As long as there is an opportunity for peace talks, I shall pursue it”. He is soft-spoken and a good listener. When addressing people he is fond of referring to them as ‘gentle people’ instead of the traditional ‘ladies and gentlemen’. He also has a high sense of humor and patience with each and everyone who approaches him.
From the moment of his ordination as Archbishop on 10th April 1999, Archbishop Odama dedicated his efforts to advocating and working for the return of peace in northern Uganda to create a safe environment for children and other civilians. During the inaugural speech at his ordination ceremony as Archbishop of Gulu, he called one of the children to him, lifted up the child, and asked the child if he wanted to grow into an adult amidst settings of violence and insecurity. The child shook his head. The Archbishop then declared that his main priority would be to advocate for the restoration of peace in northern Uganda for the sake of the children.
On many occasions, he has knelt down in public before children who were rescued from the LRA, and asked them to forgive him for not protecting them with the words,
He fondly refers to children as ‘ngini-ngini’, the Acholi word for small black harmless insects that are very hard working and often co-exist in large numbers. He has demonstrated his love and concern for the welfare of children in various ways. For example on several occasions when he was leading mass and the church was packed to capacity he would call the children to sit around him on the altar. At the height of the conflict, the LRA used to abduct children they came across and carry them off to serve in their army as soldiers and rebel wives. To avoid abduction, many children in northern Uganda used to seek refuge at night in town centres such as Gulu town, where they would sleep on verandas of shops and any other public spaces. It was during this period that Archbishop Odama showed solidarity with the night commuting children, an incident which many people in northern Uganda still recall. On one of the evenings Archbishop Odama, together with other religious leaders, left the comfort of his residence in Gulu Cathedral and walked with these children for almost four kilometers to Gulu town, where he spent a cold night with them on the veranda of a shop. He opted not to carry a blanket with him, but instead wrapped his legs in a nylon sack just like most of the children would do in order to keep warm for the night.
He is a strong advocate of peaceful and non-violent methods including amnesty and dialogue. In 2002 he was instrumental in organizing a series of meetings between the government and LRA. For his first meeting with the rebels, on 14th July 2002, at a great risk to his own life, he went to meet a group of LRA rebels at a place called Otici in Kilak Hills in northern Uganda. This location was deep in the bush, and to find it they had to cut through thick bushes until they reached the rendezvous. From then on, he attended a series of meetings with the rebels and presented their demands to the government until his initiative collapsed as a result of resumption of hostilities between the government and the LRA. During the Juba Peace talks, Archbishop Odama played a key role. He was among the people who were used to build confidence among the LRA. He was always willing to leave his residence in Gulu at short notice and head off to Juba or Garamba forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo to attend the peace negotiations. The input of religious and cultural leaders during the Juba Peace Talks did a lot in influencing the talks beyond the signing of the final peace agreement. Religious leaders were a constant pillar of strength, encouragement and confidence. There were occasions when the LRA leaders insisted that religious leaders be present as a condition for meeting with the government peace delegation. On several occasions when the peace talks were showing signs of breaking down the religious leaders would intervene to encourage the delegates to go back to the negotiating table. Although the final peace agreement was not signed in 2008, the six agenda items, particularly agenda item number three on accountability and reconciliation have been critical in paving the way for the implementation of post-conflict reconstruction programs.
One of the most remarkable impacts arising from the work of Archbishop Odama was the passing of the Amnesty Act of 2000. Through the Acholi Religious Leader’s Peace Initiative (ARLPI) he advocated for the passing of a blanket amnesty in order to promote forgiveness of ex-combatants and to encourage many of them to abandon rebellion. Through advocacy from Archbishop Odama and other religious leaders, coupled with pressure from prominent Acholi leaders in northern Uganda, the Amnesty Act of 2000 was passed, and has been influential in facilitating the return of over 10,000 ex-combatants. Archbishop Odama advocated for a blanket Amnesty, as opposed to conditional amnesty that would exclude some members of the LRA leadership from receiving pardon.
In addition, he has also been instrumental in setting up organizations and associations that have contributed tremendously in working for peace in northern Uganda. One of the most famous organizations that the Archbishop contributed to setting up is the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI). ARLPI is an interfaith peace building and conflict transformation organization formed in 1997 as a proactive response to the conflict in Northern Uganda. ARLPI brings together leaders of six different religious sects/denominations (Anglican, Catholic, Muslim, Orthodox, Pentecostal, & Seventh Day Adventist) and their respective constituencies to participate effectively in transforming conflicts in Northern Uganda and the surrounding region. With northern Uganda currently experiencing relative peace, ALRLP continues to work for the reconstruction and recovery of northern Uganda in various areas including interfaith relations, research & documentation women empowerment, peace building & reconciliation and advocacy & lobbying. In 2004, ARLPI became the first African institution to receive the Niwano Peace Award for her contributions towards promoting unity and her commitment to finding peaceful ways to end the northern Uganda conflict. Upon receiving the prize, ARLPI used this award to create an ‘Interfaith Centre for Peace’ in Gulu.
Source: Interview with Archbishop Odama in 2010. Compiled and written by Lino Owor Ogora (0772835076, ogoralino@gmail.com), nominator of Archbishop John Baptist Odama for the 2012 World Vision International Peace Prize. Photographs: courtesy of Rev. Fr. Thaeddaeus Opio and Mr. Michael Otim.
Talk Show on International Peace Day, Voice of Life FM100.9, 20 Sept 2011
To listen to a full recording of the Voice of Life talk show, click here.
On Tuesday, September 20, 2011, JRP held a one-hour talk show on Arua radio station Voice of Life FM 100.9. The show featured JRP’s Sylvia Opinia, Lindsay McClain, Isaac Okwir, Mzee Nahari Oyaa of the Madi-Lugbara Cultural Foundation, and presenter Jonathan Driliga.
The purpose of the talk show was to discuss International Day of Peace, celebrated every year on September 21st, and the programmes scheduled for West Nile. JRP, in conjunction with the MAYANK Development Association, organized celebrations in Yumbe. Survivors of the UNRF II conflict in Yumbe who have formed a JRP-supported theatre group performed a drama that traced the historical events of the UNRF II conflict and the 2002 Yumbe peace accords.
To listen to a full recording of the Voice of Life talk show, click here.
