Displaced people should relocate
The 'bandits' or 'terrorists' as many government officials prefer to call the Lord's Resistance Army have attacked again, killing 80 (government figure) innocent civilians living in a displaced people's camp.Only recently, President Yoweri Museveni said that the conditions of the people living in the camps are not that bad because if they were really suffering, they would have walked out.
It is the second time in three weeks that the rebels have hit at the people who, ironically, sought refuge in two separate camps in Lira district. From what has happened recently and in the past, it is obvious that the rebels always look for soft targets. The UPDF should have learnt a lesson never to leave a large number of people unprotected, or even under the 'protection' of a few semi-trained, poorly-armed militia, such as the Amuka.
Perhaps what ought to be done now is to relocate the people to much safer areas like it was done in 1996 when IDPs were relocated to Masindi. This is necessary because the camps are located in areas prone to rebel attacks. The Ministry in charge of Disaster Preparedness should sort this out before the rebels strike again.
Halima Abdallah,
Kampala.
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
