UGANDAÂÂ28/2/2004Â12:53
CONFLICT: ENOUGH POLITE CHATTER, THE POPULATIONS IN THE NORTH ARE TO BE PROTECTED, NOT ABANDONED
The situation in North Uganda is desperate and the international community cannot go on stalling. Many people within civil society believe that intervention is required to stem the spiral of violence in the northern districts before it is too late.
The peace negotiations underway between the government of neighbouring Sudan and the rebels of SPLA (Sudan Peopleâs Liberation Army) may represent the chance to cut off the oxygen supply to Joseph Kony, the visionary madman at the head of the LRA (lordâs Resistance Army), which has terrorised the ethnic Acholi and Lango populations in northern Uganda for almost 18 years.
Kony has been receiving arms and ammunition from the Sudanese army since 1994, while Kampala has similarly backed the rebels of SPLA. As if this were not enough, the systematic declarations by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that the LRA is on the point of defeat are no longer convincing.
Had his armed forces wanted to protect the population in north Uganda, they could have done so, given that they have the necessary troops and military hardware to fight successfully in foreign lands such as the former Zaire.
However, Ugandan history also features ancient rivalries in which the north is traditionally pitted against Museveniâs leadership. This may be the reason why the LRA could compromise the future of the areas that push up towards Sudan, beyond the evocative Karuma bridge.
One thing is certain: Khartoum and Kampala must make a joint effort to stop Kony at all costs; otherwise these two governments will have shared responsibility for the disasters perpetrated by the rebels. The United Nations Security Council cannot just stand and watch as if the human rights violations in northern Uganda were somehow marginal to other political choices.
The international community must support the efforts to mediate made by the northern Ugandan religious leaders â of whom the courageous Archbishop of Gulu, Monsignor John Baptist Odama, stands out â to prevent the LRA from perpetrating further crimes once Kony has been brought to justice.
It is known that many âbaby-soldiersâ serving under Kony would like to lay down their weapons; for this to happen, the conditions need to be created for their reintegration into society, as was the case in Sierra Leone.
At the end of the day, it is the children who are the main victims of this terrible war, which continues to be largely ignored by the international press. Incidentally, it seems that Kony has opened a shop in Khartoum selling spare parts for automobiles and that he also has a number of properties throughout the Sudanese capital, as well as in the city of Juba.
He must be captured at all costs, otherwise, as Father Guido Oliana, superior of the Comboni Fathers in Uganda, told MISNA, âthe polite chatter of the prim will continue, stuffed with pathetic rhetoric, which disgusts those who experience the tragedy in the refugee campsâ. (Translation of an article by Father Giulio Albanese) [LC]
"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
