Uganda: Forgive LRA, Bishop Tells Parents of Aboke Girls – AllAfrica.com
Emmanuel Opio
12 October 2011
Parents and students of St. Mary’s College, Aboke should forgive the LRA rebels who abducted 139 students in 1995, Bishop Joseph Franzelli has said.
The Lira Diocese bishop, while leading memorial prayers for the girls on Monday, said forgiveness will enhance reconciliation. “We should never be prisoners of the past because it would be like scratching the wounds,” Bishop Franzelli said. He asked Christians not to blame the government or the LRA for the abductions but to put their blame on evil spirits.
“Even when abducted by the LRA rebels, God allowed you to live so that you can be living proof of His glory.” However, Mr Jackson Atwi, the chairperson of parents whose daughters were abducted from the school, asked the government to sponsor the returnees who need to further their education.
“After 15 years in abduction, some of them have gone through trauma and lost their education careers that all need interventions to restart all afresh,” Mr Atwi said, adding that support from parents cannot be enough. Mr Atwi said most girls who escaped from captivity have the burden of taking care of their children since their husbands are still in the bush. However, some of the returnees have progressed in education while others are gainfully employed.
Every October 10, the school holds a memorial service for the girls. Students pray, hold candles and march silently from their dormitories to the memorial site. Every evening, students pray for the girls who were picked from their beds and never returned. This year’s memorial service was organised under the theme, “Transcending beyond the past”.
The abduction of students of St. Mary’s College, Aboke was one of the numerous atrocities committed by the LRA rebels during the more than two-decade insurgency in northern Uganda.
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