Christian Today report- A retired Anglican bishop in Northern Uganda has said that he is prepared to go to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to defend a notorious war criminal.

Dominic Ongwen, a senior commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) which has terrorised large parts of central Africa and been responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, surrendered to US special forces in the Central African Republic. He appeared at the ICC on Monday.

Ongwen, kidnapped by the LRA at the age of 10, has been accused of crimes including rape, murder and enslavement. However, Bishop Nelson Onono-Onweng, who has been active in seeking a peaceful end to the conflict with the LRA and undertook a dangerous meeting with its leader Joseph Kony and with Ongwen in the Congo in 2006, has said that Ongwen himself was a victim.

“I am willing to go and give evidence at the ICC about him. I am not afraid,” he told RNS.

“The world betrayed this child. The state, which had the instruments to protect him, did not. The international community also took too long to act [against the] LRA. The world can see how things conspired against him.”

The question of what to do with LRA rebels who have surrendered or been captured is a deeply sensitive one in Northern Uganda’s Acholi community, from which the group first arose and from which many of its child victims were abducted. The fact that they were taken at such a young age – some as young as five or six – led to a reluctance to pursue a military solution, even though they had been indoctrinated and coerced into becoming ruthless killers.

The Acholi Leaders Peace Initiative, set up to help negotiate an end to the conflict and mitigate the military response of the Ugandan government, issued its annual end of year peace message in December. It spoke of the need to promote a culture of forgiveness and reconciliation, noting that army action against the LRA in 2008 had only driven it out of Uganda, causing “untold suffering” in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It said that the spirit of unforgiveness had caused “the stigmatisation of those affected with HIV/AIDS, those born in the LRA’s captivity and the girl-child-mothers who came back with children born in LRA captivity. Domestic violence still persists against women; inter-state hatred still exists as a result of the LRA war … Land disputes and other community conflicts have become part of the definition of the contemporary life in Acholi Sub Region.”

However, others argue that Ongwen and others should be judged in a court of law rather than being given an amnesty, and that their crimes are too heinous to be overlooked.

The LRA has only an estimated 200 fighters left, in an inaccessible area of the Central African Republic.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Today report- Criteria stating that a jury must be able to sentence a suspect to death means that Catholics may be disqualified from the Boston Marathon bombing trial, it has emerged.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial has been delayed as the court struggles to find potential jurors without bias, a connection to the case, or religious beliefs that could impact their decision.

According to the catechism of the Catholic Church, the death sentence should not be used when “non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor.”

Rev James Bretzke, professor of moral theology at Boston College, told USA Today that it is “frustrating” that this could mean no Catholics will sit in the jury.

“It is both ironic and unfortunate that Catholics who understand and embrace this teaching will be systematically excluded from the trial,” he said.

Michele Dillon, a University of New Hampshire sociologist and co-author of ‘American Catholics in Transition’ also expressed concern. Religious belief “shouldn’t be enough to disqualify” candidates she said.

“We’re supposed to have a jury of one’s peers. And if one’s peers are informed by this sort of religious ethos, then that surely deserves some kind of recognition.”

Potential candidates for jury duty have been asked to fill out a questionnaire to determine their eligibility. US District Judge George O’Toole is seeking to build a panel of 12 jurors and six alternates to determine whether 21-year-old Tsarnaev was guilty of killing three people and injuring 264 in the attack and, if so, whether he deserves the death penalty.

To be eligible, potential jurors must be willing to consider either execution or life in prison without parole if Tsarnaev is convicted of the largest mass-casualty attack on US soil since 9/11.

The first candidate called, a young man who works in advertising, said he had already concluded Tsarnaev was guilty.

“I live with several other males my age, a very testosterone-driven household, they think it’s very cool that I would get to sentence him to death,” the man said.

Another candidate, a professor of Catholic theology, said he could vote for the death penalty only if the US prison system had physically collapsed.

“Should the walls come down and we needed to protect innocent lives, then one could enforce the death penalty,” said the man, who added such a vote would likely prevent him from getting tenure.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers have had two motions denied to move the trial out of Boston, and have filed a third. They argue that the client will not receive a fair trial in the city – 68 per cent of over 1,300 who filled out the jury survey already believe him to be guilty, while 69 per cent are connected to the case in some way.

According to recent data, 46 per cent of Greater Boston’s population identifies with Catholicism, though it is not known how many of these are devoted to the faith.

Dillon, however, said that even those who don’t practice the faith rigorously are likely to take into account the Church’s stance

“If they identify as Catholic, part and parcel of why they do that is because they believe these teachings have a lot of value,” she said.

Pope Francis last year called for the abolition of capital punishment and declared life imprisonment “a hidden death penalty”.

In a meeting with representatives of the International Association of Penal Law in October, the pontiff said: “All Christians and people of good will are thus called today to struggle not only for abolition of the death penalty, whether it be legal or illegal and in all its forms, but also to improve prison conditions, out of respect for the human dignity of persons deprived of their liberty.

“And this,” he continued, “I connect with life imprisonment. Life imprisonment is a hidden death penalty.”

Source: Christian Today

Christian Today report- Imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini wrote to President Obama from his jail cell in Iran to thank him for standing up for persecuted Christians.

The President had a private meeting with Saeed’s wife, Naghmeh and their children, Rebekka and Jacob, during a visit to Boise, Idaho last week, after she had petitioned to meet him.

Obama said at the meeting that freeing Saeed Abedini was a “top priority” for the Administration, and said he would try to get him home for his son’s birthday in March.

In his letter Saeed thanked the President for the concern he had shown for him and his family.

He said his wife and children “have had a heavy burden to carry in my absence, and your presence helped to relieve some of that burden.”

He continued: “Thank you for your fatherly compassion of letting Jacob know that you will try to get me home by his birthday. I know that as a father you can truly understand the pain and anguish of my children living without their father and the burden that is on my wife as a single mother.

“I also know how encouraged Christians around the world were to also hear of this meeting. Nothing is more valuable to the body of Christ than to see how the Lord is in control and moves ahead of countries and leadership through united prayer.”

Saeed thanked the President for standing up for persecuted Christians around the world.

“Thank you again for standing up for my family and I and for thousands of Christians across the world who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. President Obama, you have my prayers from inside of these walls. I pray for God’s guidance, wisdom and blessing for you as you lead this great nation,” he wrote.

Naghmeh told The Blaze last week that her 10-minute meeting with the President was “emotional” and that she felt there was a real “heart connection” as he heard her husband’s story.

“I could see in his eyes that he’s a dad and for him to see that that’s what Jacob wants – it was a really emotional moment,” Naghmeh said. She had fasted and prayed for three days prior to Obama’s visit to her hometown, in the hope that he would meet with her.

Pastor Saeed is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence in Iran for “threatening the security of the state”.

Naghmeh has repeatedly challenged the US government to speak up for her husband, and has criticised the administration’s failure to respond with the urgency called for by campaigners. “I thought I would have to fight the Iranian government. I never anticipated that I would have to battle my own government,” she said during a 2013 congressional hearing in Washington.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which represents Saeed, said: “We agree with Pastor Saeed that President Obama’s willingness to meet with his family sends a powerful message about America’s priorities and resolve to defend persecuted Christians.”

The ACLJ called on Christians to urge President Obama to “take action on his word” and sign the petition for his release.

Source: Christian Today