Religious leaders have urged government and the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu to consider having talks on how to solve the current unrest in the region.
Through their umbrella body, the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU), they have advised both sides to drop their guns because violent means will never end conflicts.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Joshua Kitakule, the IRCU secretary general, blamed the conflict on lack of implementation of government programmes and high poverty rates in the region. He also called upon the people in the region to desist from using vengeance and adopt better means to channel their grievances.
“There is this culture of violence all the time and we think that government, the Obusinga and the people of Kasese need to learn to resolve conflicts through non-violent means. We agree that there is a problem and we are saying that it cannot be solved by use of a gun. It can only be solved sustainably through constructive dialogue,” said Kitakule at the council’s offices in Mengo.
Last weekend, clashes escalated in Kasese as the police and UPDF raided the palace of King Charles Wesley Mumbere to arrest guards believed to be part of a militia being trained to fight against the government.
Government says the militia had set up military camps in the Rwenzori mountains, from where they were training fighters and collecting taxes from the people in the territory they control.
Kitakule advised government to institute a committee of inquiry to probe the volatile situation in the Rwenzori region and also implement recommendations made after the first inquiry.
He also called upon the relevant authorities to come up with solutions to the land management and distribution problems in Rwenzori. The religious leaders further condemned the new flare of violence taking place in the region and decried the manner in which the state organs stormed the Omusinga’s palace. They urged security organs responsible for the detention of the Omusinga to guarantee his civil rights, freedoms and personal safety.
“The current violent situation in Kasese, coupled with the defacto vacuum in the cultural institution of the Omusinga Bwa Rwenzururu is a threat to the peace-building efforts being pursued by the different stakeholders in the region,” noted Kitakule.
He added; “We, therefore, call for calm and cessation of hostilities in the district and urge for a constructive dialogue between President Museveni and the Omusinga to iron out the areas of disagreement with the view of arriving at a lasting solution.
The religious leaders say they will visit Kasese from December 6 to 7, and engage their counterparts, political leaders and public to find ways of ending the conflict through dialogue.
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