/24-7PressRelease/ - WASHINGTON, July 27, 2005 - The petition calls, among other things, for President Bush to allocate finances and appoint a high-profile envoy to support Ugandan efforts to initiate peace talks.
"Today we face a ripe moment for peace with new opportunities that must be seized," said Michael Poffenberger, co-director of Uganda-CAN. "Yet without support and assistance from the U.S. government, such an opportunity may be lost."
The petition, a joint campaign of Uganda-CAN and the Philadelphia Inquirer's All Join Hands Campaign, calls upon the Bush Administration to use diplomacy to strengthen protection mechanisms for children in northern Uganda. More than 20,000 children have been abducted as a result of this war, forced into soldiering and sexual slavery.
Despite the severity of this situation, the war in northern Uganda has received little attention from the international community. Peter Quaranto, co-director of Uganda-CAN said, "The conflict in northern Uganda is uniquely horrifying not only in the targeting of children, but in that these children have been forgotten for nearly two decades."
The Uganda Conflict Action Network, a new grassroots transcontinental advocacy group, is working with partners like the Philadelphia Inquirer to change that. Uganda-CAN is working both in the United States and Uganda to advocate and support initiatives for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and reconciliation throughout the region.
"For too long, policy debates on this issue have remained on the elite level, ignoring so many important voices," says Poffenberger. "We are launching this petition as a way to elevate cries for peace here in the United States and especially from the millions that have suffered so long in northern Uganda."
The cries of children on the ground abound. "The fear of being kidnapped is every kid's worst nightmare, and in northern Uganda, it is happening every night," says Quaranto. "Through this petition, we are calling upon the U.S. government to make ending such nightmares a priority."
Learn more about Uganda-CAN at http://www.ugandacan.org and the All Join Hands Campaign at http://go.philly.com/uganda . Sign or download the petition online at http://www.ugandacan.org/petition.php .
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