Libby Collier, an organizer for GuluWalk: Los Angeles and a friend of Uganda-CAN, reports from California -

The sky was grey as the crowd was gathering. But by 2:00pm the sun was breaking through the clouds as over 100 people gathered in Los Angeles in the heart of the San Fernando Valley to march in solidarity for children that are forgotten and have no voice, at least not one most of the world is listening to.

The event began with a few words before the walk by the GuluWalk organizers and brief prayer by the respected pastor Johnson Okema from Lira, Uganda. After walking 3.2 miles, the walkers arrived at Woodley Park. A platform with various leaders from the local Ugandan community as well as the president of the California Ugandan Community organization were present. The keynote speaker was Marilee Dunker-Pierce, the daughter of World Vision Founder, the late Bob Pierce. After the park venue, the crowd walked back to the Ugandan Community Church and then viewed several audio/ visual presentations detailing the conflict. A small group slept on the cold floor of the hall like the night-commuters do every night of their lives. Those who attended will not be the same as now they know the real work for lasting peace has only just begun!

Northern Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have long enjoyed the cover of southern Sudan, from where they regularaly attack villages and convoys in Sudan and launch offensives into northern Uganda. With peace between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA) prevailing throughout the region, however, LRA forces face new challenges to maintaining Sudan as their base of operations. They have become the chief perpetrators of violence and destruction in southern Sudan, and as such also a primary target for SPLA commanders.

Archbishop Paolino Lukudu Loro of Juba diocese in southern Sudan reiterated the urgency of dealing with the LRA in a panel discussion today at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. LRA rebels, he said, have attacked food convoys, stolen emergency relief supplies, shot at truck drivers, and attacked numerous towns and villages. He also emphasized that the rebel group maintains its ties to the Government of Sudan and continues to receive their support.

Archbishop Loro further noted the lack of a strong response from the Government of Uganda. "It seems that the Ugandan government is not serious to talk peace," he said. The UN and international community must step up their involvement in this situation if the crisis in northern Uganda is to be resolved and peace in southern Sudan is to be lasting.

Uganda-CAN finds recent calls from human rights watchdog Amnesty International to repeal the Amnesty Act in Uganda, which prevents abducted children from being prosecuted, troubling. Below is the text of the letter sent to AI:

It has come to the attention of the Africa Faith and Justice Network through its Uganda-CAN campaign that Amnesty International has recently called for the Ugandan government to repeal the Amnesty Act of 2000. Additionally, AI has also stated that "the [Government of Uganda's] Amnesty Act offering immunity from prosecution to former members of the armed opposition must not apply to those suspected of taking part in abuses of humanitarian and human rights law." Uganda-CAN is deeply concerned about the underlying assumptions of AI's position and its implications for the peace process in northern Uganda.

According to recent reports, as much as 80% of the Lord's Resistance Army's (LRA) ranks are composed of child soldiers abducted from their homes. As AI reports have confirmed, abducted children are often forced to participate in ritualized killing as part of their induction. Girl-children, in addition to forced soldiering, are often forced to become sex slaves to LRA commanders. Clearly, as AI reports have argued, these children should not be prosecuted for the crimes that they have committed. In light of this, it is troubling that AI would advocate a repeal of the 2000 Amnesty Act, which protects these child soldiers from such prosecution.

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Kevin Sites, in the Yahoo Hot Zone, has been covering the conflicts that plague our world today and what can be done to help end the violence. This week, his focus has been northern Uganda and Uganda-CAN has the privilege of sharing the "How to Help" section with organizations like UNICEF, Gulu Walk, CARE Uganda and Doctors without Borders.

Check out Kevin's site here for photo essays and even a mini-documentary on northern Uganda.

The South Bend Tribune reports that some 300 people walked Sunday afternoon in symbolic solidarity with thousands of Ugandan children who commute from their homes to safe havens every night to avoid kidnapping.

"It's a small step, but it's an important starting step," said Uganda-CAN director Peter Quaranto, who organized the GuluWalk with Lindsay Hero. Large numbers of students from Indiana University South Bend and Penn High School joined the walk. "We're just one piece of that much larger campaign calling for world attention and action to bring an end to this horrific war. This needs to get on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. We're calling for it to become a foreign policy priority."

The Harvard Crimson reports on the work of Uganda-CAN's Nandita Dinesh to organize the Boston GuluWalk this Saturday. More than 90 people—including members of the Harvard community—braved the cold and rain to raise awareness of the so-called “night commuter” children of northern Uganda in Boston’s first-ever “Gulu Walk” on Saturday.

Both students and local residents alike carried signs along a six-mile route through Cambridge before convening in the Winthrop House Junior Common Room to swap strategies for making a difference and to hear from a representative of the African Union.

Dinesha said her interest in the war came from a summer spent in Uganda with the School for International Training. She visited some of the rehabilitation centers in Lira for children who have escaped from the LRA. “It’s pretty intense, when you see this kid and know that he’s killed someone,” she said. That intensity, she said, impelled her to join the Uganda Conflict Action Network and become involved with Gulu Walk.

The George Washington University Hatchet newspaper has published an article on the work of Uganda-CAN's Jackie Burgess on the GW campus and throughout Washington D.C. to advocate for peace in northern Uganda.

Jackie was one of the 10 people who slept on a park bench in Lafayette Park after the Washington's GuluWalk Saturday. She did not even know about the civil war until she arrived in Uganda earlier this year. She had gone there to study the affects of decentralized health care on human resources and deal with water sanitation. "I saw how bad it was, and how cheap it could be to build a boar hole that could sustain a community," she said, referring to a contained location where the water is clean and sanitized. "I just knew I wanted to do something back at home."

The skies became a bit friendlier and the rain stopped today as 350 walkers gathered on the University of Notre Dame's campus for the South Bend/Notre Dame GuluWalk, organized by the Lindsay Hero and myself of the Uganda Conflict Action Network. People of all ages marched through the cold for the stolen children of northern Uganda. It was a truly moving sight, and the words of Father Joseph Isanga of Uganda said it best: "If only the people of northern Uganda could see all of the people here in a small city in the state of Indiana, caring about their plight..."

In my speech at the end of the walk, I said, "The time for peace has come. It is deeply moving to see so many of us gathered here today, thousands of miles away, but standing in solidarity and refusing to accept a status quo of neglect and scandal. Today is just the beginning of a much longer walk that we commit ourselves to until the guns of northern Uganda fall silent." Click below to read the whole of the speech.

In the coming days, Uganda-CAN will seek to compile reports from many of the walks throughout the world this weekend as a testament of hope of a global civil society increasing engaged and committed to peace in northern Uganda.

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Betty Bigombe, the chief peace negotiator in northern Uganda, will participate in the Washington D.C. GuluWalk this coming Saturday. Last year, Bigombe left a distinguished position at the World Bank to negotiate with one of the world’s worst war criminals, Joseph Kony, and the government of Uganda. Bigombe’s role is crucial in the peace process. "This is the toughest challenge of my life. I can’t tell you when the killing will stop. I can say that I will continue until it does," Bigombe recently said.

The Washington GuluWalk, organized by Michael Poffenberger and Reid Rector of the Uganda Conflict Action Network, will begin at 3:30 pm at the Ugandan Embassy and end at Lafayette Park, right outside the White House. Ugandan Ambassador to the United States Edith Ssempala will also participate in the walk.

The South Bend Tribune has published a story on the work of two Uganda-CAN leaders, Peter Quaranto and Lindsay Hero, to organize the South Bend/Notre Dame GuluWalk set to be one of more then 40 walks happening this weekend for peace in northern Uganda.

"I have high hopes that the people of South Bend will turn out in large numbers to decry this awful assault on human life, especially the most innocent of human life, children," Uganda-CAN Director Quaranto said. "This is an opportunity for all of us to remind ourselves that we are connected to our brothers and sisters in Africa and responsible for one another." To read the full article, click here.

Uganda-CAN's latest opinion editorial, co-authored by director Peter Quaranto and advocacy coordinator Michael Poffenberger, was featured in Monday's Daily Nation, Kenya's largest newspaper. The Op/Ed, titled "Peace is Possible in Northern Uganda," reads, "The Government of Uganda is poised to make a choice about the future of the country: whether it will move forward towards lasting peace and national reconciliation or whether the post-independence cycle of division and rebellion will endure." Click here to read more.

The Weekly Observer has printed an Op/Ed written by Stephen Okello, Uganda-CAN's director of operations in Uganda. In the article, titled "Foreign Aid Ought to Focus on Peace," Stephen writes, "Because the majority of African conflicts are ethnic and internal in nature, for peace-building to be successful, governments must engage in dialogue with international, national and local groups with the capacity to manage fragile political transitions. This can be possible through practical donor pressure and legitimate local activism with a vibrant civil society." Read the whole text of the Op/Ed here.

The New Vision, Uganda's largest newspaper, has published the Uganda Conflict Action Network's Op/Ed on "the moment of truth for the Government of Uganda." The editorial reads, "The events of the last few weeks have made it clear that if the Government of Uganda wants to end the war in the north, it can. While military pressure on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is needed, a clear and transparent peace plan is the only path to a new era of peace and reconciliation for all of Uganda." The Op/Ed was read this morning on the radio throughout Uganda, spurring discussion and debate. Read more here.

The Uganda Conflict Action Network is calling on the Government of Uganda (GOU) to develop a peace proposal that brings together all stakeholders to move northern Uganda from a war-ridden society towards peace. While military pressure on the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is needed, a clear and transparent peace plan bolstered by heavy support from the international community is the only path that can usher in a new era of peace and reconciliation for all of Uganda. Such a transparent plan is critical to not only ensure a lasting peace, but to also answer the vital question: How do we know when this war is over?

Uganda-CAN recognizes the important role of the military in combatting the Lord's Resistance Army, but it calls on the UPDF to use caution to distingush between abducted children and rebel commanders. Amnesty, established in the Amnesty Act of 2000, should remain open and robust. Betty Bigombe, the chief peace negotiator, should recieve greater financial, logistical and political support to continue her work of mediation and promoting amnesty. Since 2000, more than 4,000 rebels have stopped fighting and accepted amnesty packages.

The UDPF should continue to pressure the LRA, working with the international community and Sudanese, but it should also augment its civilian protection and human rights standards. A recent report by Human Rights Watch highlights the UPDF's failures to protect its own citizens, and even worse, its attacks on its own citizens. This demands immediate, transparent action for military professionalization and reform.

The GOU should also commence a national truth-telling and reconciliation initiative to address the North/South political divide in Uganda, as well as the need for healing within the war-affected northern communities. Tremendous post-conflict challenges involving land, disarmament and development await. An immediate plan to dismantle the internally-displaced people's camps and return people to their land is critical. There is no reason to wait for the war to formally end before these issues are addressed.

The war in northern Uganda may finally be coming to an end. However, it will only be a real end to the immense suffering of people in northern Uganda if it includes them, their needs and their wishes. The Government of Uganda is poised to make a choice about the future of the country: whether it will move forward towards lasting peace and national reconciliation or whether the post-independence cycle of division and rebellion will endure. Read our Op/Ed in The Daily Monitor last week.

Less than three weeks from the worldwide GuluWalk Day, word continues to spread about the walks, slated to be the largest ever act of solidarity with war-affected children in northern Uganda. Over 40 cities are now registered to walk!

In Washington, DC, several Congresspeople have been invited to walk and speak, and several relief organizations working in Uganda have endorsed the event, including Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, and International Rescue Committee, as well as human rights watchdog Amnesty International. This forgotten crisis, which has caused one of the most critical health emergencies in the world, is beginning to be illuminated in the consciousness of concerned people everywhere.

Those interested in learning more about GuluWalk: DC as well as night commuters and child soldiers in northern Uganda are encouraged to attend a screening of the Invisible Children documentary followed by a discussion on Wednesday, October 5th, at Cafe Japone near DuPont Circle. The address is 2032 P St. NW. The event will begin at 7PM, and a $5 donation is suggested to support H.E.A.L.S., a grassroots organization providing resources and education to child-headed households in northern Uganda.