Police arrest priest for allegedly collaborating with rebels

Ugandan security forces have arrested a Roman Catholic priest in the northern town of Kitgum after accusing him of collaborating with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), church sources said on Tuesday. "Late in the evening on Monday, the army and police surrounded the house of Monsignor Mathew Ojara at Christ the King parish - he was arrested and taken to the police [station]," a church source, who asked to remain anonymous, told IRIN. Army spokesman Maj Shaban Bantariza confirmed the arrest, but declined to give further details, saying only that the police could not comment "because they are the ones with him now". According to the church source, the police confiscated Ojara's computer, documents and his mobile phone before he was taken to a police cell in Kitgum. Kitgum district is one of the northern Ugandan areas where the LRA, a brutal rebel insurgency, is active. The arrested cleric was later transferred from Kitgum to Gulu, the regional capital, under tight security. It was not immediately clear when he would be taken to court or what charges would be brought against him. The church source described the arrest as "pure intimidation against the Catholic church and those working for peace in this region". Ojara is the Episcopal Vicar of Kitgum. The army has, in the past, arrested several residents of the districts affected by the insurrection, accusing them of collaborating with the rebels.