Anglican Communion News Service

[ACNS source: Church Missionary Society] The MP for Bristol West, Valerie Davey, has criticised the British government for ‘acclaiming’ Uganda for its moves towards development and democracy, while people in the north go on ‘suffering terribly’.

In a powerful speech on September 11 on the role of the UN, at Westminster Hall, to mark the second anniversary of the New York bombing, Ms Davey praised the advocacy of the Bishop of Kitgum - in Britain as CMS’s guest to launch their ‘Break the Silence’ campaign.

“I am especially keen to speak today following an interview that I heard last Sunday on Radio Bristol...with the visiting Bishop, the Rt Rev Ben Ojwang. He spoke passionately of the situation facing his diocese and the people of northern Uganda as a result of the atrocities committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army, including the abduction and brutalising of 20,000 children.

“That is happening in a country that we are all acclaiming as having met the HIPC - heavily indebted poor countries - regulations. It is one of the countries that is doing better and that we highlight as developing, and I am sure that my honourable Friend, the Minister, would suggest that it is one of those moving forward to democracy. Yet communities in the north of Uganda have been suffering terribly for 17 years.

“As the bishop said, while the Ugandan army has gone into the Congo, it has failed to resolve the situation within its own borders.”

Ms Davey called on Parliament to “keep Uganda in mind as we think about a new role for the UN”.

The Bishop met the new Foreign Minister for Africa, Chris Mullins, last Wednesday in London, to brief him on the frontline situation.

For more information please contact Dr Jenny Taylor, Head of Media at CMS, on +44 20 7803 3387

www.cms-uk.org