Ugandan archbishop calls for end of U.S. military aid to government

Published: 2004-06-23

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Ugandan archbishop called on the U.S. government to stop supplying military aid to his government in order to stop a decades-long conflict in his archdiocese. "We need aid. We need food. We need more than weapons," Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu told Catholic News Service during an interview in Washington in mid-June. The archbishop was in the United States for a three-week visit to attend a peace-building workshop and to lobby U.S. officials and heads of nongovernmental organizations. While in Washington, the archbishop met with U.S. Reps. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., and Donald Payne, D-N.J., to explain the situation in northern Uganda, where members of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army have been locked in an 18-year conflict with the government. "Uganda needs the solidarity of humanity," Archbishop Odama told CNS.

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