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Written by Richard M. Kavuma
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Wednesday, 09 September 2009 20:56 |
Father Carlos Rodriguez, the outspoken Catholic priest who lived in northern Uganda for 17 years, has written a book in which he exposes the brutality of both the UPDF and the LRA rebels in the insurgency-hit region.
Rodriguez worked as a missionary in Acholi and Kampala until last year, when he returned home to Spain. A former columnist for The Observer, Rodriguez revealed in an e-mail interview that he has, however, quit priesthood after he decided to get married. Rodriguez says he is now married to a Ugandan woman, with whom he lives in Spain.
His book, Tall Grass: Stories of suffering and peace in Northern Uganda, was published by Fountain Publishers in Kampala last month and can be bought from Aristoc Booklex at Shs 20,000.
The Observer will serialise the book starting on Monday.
Tall Grass is a heart-wrenching collection of his personal diaries between 2001 and 2008, when Rodriguez was a key member of the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Initiative. The book details the risks taken, pains endured, brief triumphs enjoyed and setbacks suffered as religious leaders tried to bring peace to people caught between two armies.
While Rodriguez heroically spoke out for the Acholi people brutalised by LRA rebels, he became number one enemy of the self-preserving UPDF soldiers that failed to protect the civilians. The Army went as far as demanding that Rodriguez should be deported but President Museveni ignored their demand.
In August 2002, Rodriguez and two Italian priests were violently arrested when the UPDF shot at a peace meeting they were holding with rebels in the jungle of Kitgum. Despite the Army claiming that it was not aware of that peace mission, this book details the chain of communication, clearly showing that authorities were informed and they gave their permission.
The book also details the inhumane way in which the priests were kicked, arrested and detained like murderers by the UPDF. They had to ease themselves in their detention cell and had to generously ‘bribe’ a UPDF soldier to get one bottle of water.
This incident represents one of the many risks that the peacemakers often took, meeting menacing rebels and knowing that many in the Army leadership resented their peace work. It is ironic, though, that Rodriguez’s crudest treatment was visited on him by the UPDF, the institution that is supposed to protect the people.
There are hair-raising encounters with young rebels as well as battles between religious leaders for control of returning abductees, with the UPDF wanting to recruit them into the Army.
“This was the case with practically all the boys who had come out of the bush with Onekomon,” the book says. “Once they returned to their homes, they received frequent visits from soldiers sent from the 4th Division headquarters, who insisted that the boys join the Army.”
Rodriguez, notes however, that the UPDF treated the returnees and LRA prisoners of war well. This may explain why many ended up joining the Army, as the book shows.
In a blurb endorsing Tall Grass, literature professor Arthur Gakwandi, of Makerere University, said the book was different from other writings on the northern war: “[This] story is radically different in that it is full of personal anecdotes about the author’s face-to-face encounters with nearly all major actors in the war.”
Many people in Gulu and Kitgum who got to know Fr. Carlos Rodriguez will not easily forget his religious work that seemed to inspire the peace work that led to this book. Many may even feel sad that he will no longer celebrate High Mass when he visits them in Uganda. But one of Rodriguez’s mentors, Gulu Archbishop John Baptist Odama, told The Observer that although he was “somewhat sad”, he respected the priest’s decision to ditch the robes.
He said it was good that the Pope had given Rodriguez dispensation to “renounce the practice of priesthood” which means he will continue receiving sacraments like any lay Catholic.
“I would have wished that he continued in priestly life because he was a very hardworking priest who had a deep love for the people,” Odama said. “But once he found himself going against his commitment to celibacy, he decided that way.”
But Odama said it was still too early for him, who is still involved in the peace process, to comment on Tall Grass, a book that pays glowing tribute to his humility and closeness to Northern Uganda’s suffering people.
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