Acholi leaders call for peace talks

Acholi religious leaders have appealed to the government to declare the region a disaster zone and enter into immediate negotiations with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the semi-official ‘New Vision’ reported yesterday. “We think we have reached the bottom line in which it is clear that military means will not solve the problem,” a statement signed by three bishops and two sheikhs from Gulu and Kitgum said. It warned that two Ugandas were being created, a rich and stable south and a poor and desperate north. The religious leaders also appealed to the LRA, as a sign of goodwill, to release its child captives or risk destroying “our own culture and its values.”