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At a prayer function organized by his daughter Pastor Patience Rwabwogo in Gulu city, Museveni owned up to the “mistakes” of his government and prayed for forgiveness and reconciliation.
“We are here to acknowledge those mistakes as our own,” said Museveni in a prayer that he read out to the residents.
President Museveni and his government were widely blamed for not only causing the devastating LRA war in Acholi, but also the UPDF for committing a wide range of atrocities alongside the rebels on the locals.
The LRA war, which began in 1986 severely devastated this particular region leaving over 1.7 million people displaced, an estimated 100,000 dead, and 75,000 others abducted by rebels.
A 2007 report by the UN cited an "overwhelming number" of respondents blaming both LRA commander Joseph Kony and Museveni for the conflict.
Many of them said they believed that government troops as well as rebel guerrillas were responsible for atrocities committed against the local population.
And while the war finally ended in 2007, the Acholi sub-region has remained among the poorest in the country as residents struggled to cope with its devastating aftermath.
Museveni in his prayer on Saturday, also asked for forgiveness for the poverty that the Acholi sub-region has endured.
The president said this high rate of poverty was partly caused by his government but also the “stubbornness of the people themselves who either deliberately or unknowingly failed or to embrace government programs.”
“This has resulted in so much poverty and suffering and for this we also ask for forgiveness. May there be genuine reconciliation between us and the people.”
On her part, Pastor Patience Rwabwogo who organized the "Light up Acholi-land For Jesus" Crusade prayed to God to “cleanse to cleanse Acholiland of all the pollution of sin.”
The local leaders also read out a statement in which they said they forgave the government.
“We forgive from the bottom of our hearts for all the sins committed and those that we thought had been committed, we forgive all of that wholeheartedly,” the statement read in part.