Re: ugnet_: Crimes against humanity in Uganda.
Mr. Potosi, i agree with your later assertion albeit with some reservation because of countries like Liberia and Serraleon which prove that democracy as a political system does not have a one size fit all application. Having political parties in Uganda today will not necessarily improve our well being politically, economically and otherwise, tomorrow, as you well know, since we have had political parties before. It seems to me that a chance is being missed by the pros and con sides on this issue, to dialogue and find out what caused the failure of multiparty politics in the past rather than just continuing from where we stopped twenty som'n years ago. Remember the President has never said that Uganda will never revert back to muliparty politics and neither has he ever ruled out multiparty politics as an alternative political system in Uganda. All the President has been saying is that he does not think that Uganda is ready for a successful multiparty political system at the moment, and as a citizen of Uganda he is entitled to that view which, whether we like it or not is shared by many Ugandans, given our past adventures with multipartyism, and in several fora both in Uganda and abroad he has given his reasons. I would therefore have expected the multipartyists, in the interest of Uganda, to engage government in preparing the country for a successfull return to multipartyism, instead of playing the present adversarial role. It seems to me that the multipartyists don't have anything new to offer Ugandans except parties. It is still the same old faces, the same old ideas, same old animosities. They seem to be keen on getting back at the president and all the ethnic groups that may have supported him, they basically just want to continue with the same failed approach to multipartyism. Multipartyist have done a poor job in selling themselves to the Ugandan people. I personally believe that Uganda will revert back to multipartyism sooner rather than later and i agree that it is the way to go ultimately, but if and when that occurs what will be getting as a nation, will we be going ten steps backwards? or ten steps forward? From what i see and hear of the multipartyists, i am afraid it wont be all that good. From: Mitayo Potosi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ugnet_: Crimes against humanity in Uganda. Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2003 23:45:33 + Dear Michele Landsberg, Please pass on our thanks to your husband, Hon Stephen Lewis , who is now visiting my country of origin, Uganda, to see for himself how we have coped with AIDS. It is unfortunate though that the the regime of Lt General Yoweri Museveni is restricting him to only places in the Southern half of the country. This is a regime that has brutalised Uganda's northern half for the last 17 years. ( See mail below). That Lt General Yoweri Museveni can boast of an army that overuns the whole of Congo (the size of Western Europe) but fail to subdue rebels composed of child soldiers is baffling. Just before the visit of US President Bush to Uganda, Lt General Yoweri Museveni personally guided and restricted the filming of flora and fauna , by Discovery Channel, again to areas other than Uganda's Northern half. A human tragedy is being covered up. The least we can do as Canadians is to demand an end to this military junta. The surest way to make sure there are no armed rebels, in any country, is to organise free and fair elections. Thank you. Mitayo Potosi Toronto ~~~ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: NOC´LADUMAS GEORGES [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Situation in Uganda... Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 16:12:06 +0300 To all, I would like to introduce to you a very compelling human situation of the Acholi people in northern Uganda. Many of you probably have heard about President Bush's glorification of the HIV/AIDs success in Uganda. This is could be true in one way but false on the other. Today, there are over 800,000 Acholi people forced by the government of Yoweri Museveni to live in concentration camps in the northern part of the country. This is ostensibly to save them from attacks by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army, LRA. But instead, the government troops have turned against the civilians by raping the women, girls and men thus infecting them with the HIV virus. As for today, the HIV rate in that part of the country is over 30%. Sadly, this was intentionally left out of the Bush visit. Other than that, since 1986 when Museveni became president of Uganda, over 300,000 Acholi have been killed, thousands maimed and amputated and over 20,000 children ubducted by the rebels. I will be showing vidoes and pictures on the conditions starting September 2003. To see what I am talking about, please visit; http://www.acholitoday.worldbreak.com See for yourself and please,
ugnet_: BRING US HOME TODAY
'Bring Us Home' - GIs Flood US With War-Weary EmailThe Observer - UK8-10-3 An unprecedented internet campaign waged on the frontline and in the US is exposing the real risks for troops in Iraq. Paul Harris and Jonathan Franklin report on rising fears that the conflict is now a desert Vietnam... Susan Schuman is angry. Her GI son is serving in the Iraqi town of Samarra, at the heart of the 'Sunni triangle', where American troops are killed with grim regularity. Breaking the traditional silence of military families during time of war, Schuman knows what she wants - and who she blames for the danger to her son, Justin. 'I want them to bring our troops home. I am appalled at Bush's policies. He has got us into a terrible mess,' she said. Schuman may just be the tip of an iceberg. She lives in Shelburne Falls, a small town in Massachusetts, and says all her neighbours support her view. 'I don't know anyone around here who disagrees with me,' she said. Schuman's views are part of a growing unease back home at the rising casualty rate in Iraq, a concern coupled with deep anger at President George W. Bush's plans to cut army benefits for many soldiers. Criticism is also coming directly from soldiers risking their lives under the guns of Saddam Hussein's fighters, and they are using a weapon not available to troops in previous wars: the internet. Through emails and chatrooms a picture is emerging of day-to-day gripes, coupled with ferocious criticism of the way the war has been handled. They paint a vivid picture of US army life that is a world away from the sanitised official version. In a message posted on a website last week, one soldier was brutally frank. 'Somewhere down the line, we became an occupation force in [Iraqi] eyes. We don't feel like heroes any more,' said Private Isaac Kindblade of the 671st Engineer Company. Kindblade said morale was poor, and he attacked the leadership back home. 'The rules of engagement are crippling. We are outnumbered. We are exhausted. We are in over our heads. The President says, "Bring 'em on." The generals say we don't need more troops. Well, they're not over here,' he wrote. One of the main outlets for the soldiers' complaints has been a website run by outspoken former soldier David Hackworth, who was the army's youngest colonel in the Vietnam war and one of its most decorated warriors. He receives almost 500 emails a day, many of them from soldiers serving in Iraq. They have sounded off about everything from bad treatment at the hands of their officers to fears that their equipment is faulty. The army-issue gas mask 'leaks under the chin. This same mask was used during Desert Storm, which accounts for part of the health problems of the vets who fought there. My unit has again deployed to the Gulf with this loser,' ranted one army doctor. Some veterans have begun to form organisations to campaign to bring the soldiers home and highlight their difficult conditions. Erik Gustafson, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf war, has founded Veterans For Common Sense. 'There is an anger boiling under the surface now, and I, as a veteran, have a duty to speak because I am no longer subject to military discipline,' he said. A recent email from Iraq passed to Gustafson, signed by 'the Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division', said simply: 'Our men and women deserve to see their loved ones again and deserve to come home. Thank you for your attention.' Another source of anger is government plans to reverse recent increases in 'imminent danger' pay and a family separation allowance. These moves have provoked several furious editorials in the Army Times, the normally conservative military newspaper. The paper said the planned cuts made 'the Bush administration seem mean-spirited and hypocritical'. Tobias Naegele, its editor-in-chief, said his senior staff agonised over the decision to attack the government, but the response to the editorials from ordinary soldiers was overwhelmingly positive. A further critical editorial is planned for this week. 'We don't think lightly of criticising our Commander-in-Chief,' Naegele said 'The army has had a rough couple of years with this administration.'
ugnet_: NEWS RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE 6 August 2003 CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO BREAK THE SILENCE OVER THE LORDS RESISTANCE ARMY PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: 10 DOWNING STREET 10: a.m, 21 AugustPRESS LAUNCH 11am, Mary Sumner House, Tufton Street, WestminsterThe Church Mission Society launches its campaign on 21 August to break the international silence over the Lords Resistance Army in northern Uganda. Thousands of abducted children have been abandoned to a 17-year ordeal by terror at the hands of the vicious cult, claim churchmen.Now the charity is hosting a six-week national tour by Bishop of Kitgum, the Rt Revd Benjamin Ojwang, whose diocese is the worst-affected area. He will begin his tour with a petition to Downing Street on Thursday 21 August at 10am.The petition asks Tony Blair to help break what local churchmen have dubbed an international conspiracy of silence over the LRAs brutal reign. 800,000 people 75% of the population of northern Uganda - now face starvation in so-called protected camps. Yet the impending catastrophe has attracted scant public concern.More than 20,000 children, some as young as seven, have been abducted by the cult for use as soldiers, pack animals and sex slaves. Their leader, self-styled Major-General Joseph Kony, was described by Newsnight as Africas answer to Pol Pot and David Koresh.The Bishop will accompany an Acholi refugee child, resident in London, to 10 Downing Street, together with two children from the first CMS church [Holy Trinity, Clapham Common] to symbolise the charitys 100 years of solidarity with the Acholi people.He said: It is the children who are bearing the brunt of the international communitys failure to act. CMS was founded 200 years ago by the abolitionists but child slavery is still with us in this particularly horrifying way.Thousands of people are signing a website petition (www.cms-uk.org/united/united_petition.htm) At summer festivals around the country young people are showing their solidarity by stamping a blood mark on specially-made preaching scarves to signify the blood shed by countless children over the past two decades. The scarves will be sent to the clergy of Kitgum Diocese who provide the only reliable infrastructure there is, despite threats to their own lives, and the rape and murder of their own families.The Bishop, whose own six children were abducted last year, will visit Acholi refugees in Britain, as well as Bristol and Lancashire dioceses linked with his homeland. He will also visit officials at DfID, the Foreign Office and Lambeth Palace. He will be accompanied at the Press Conference by his wife Margaret, President of the Mothers Union of Kitgum, and by Patrick Otto, Coordinator of London-based Acholi pressure group Kacoke Madit, which means gathering. Ottos father, an early convert, made available the land on which Kitgum Cathedral is built.The Press Conference will be followed by a visit to Westminster Cathedral to pay homage at the statue of martyred Acholi Archbishop Janani Luwum, who was murdered by Idi Amin, and whose body is buried in Kitgum. For more information contact Head of Media Jenny Taylor at CMS on 0207 803 3387. Website address: www.cms-uk.org QUOTES for today "Man's dearest possession is life, and since it is given to him to live but once, he must so live as not to be seared by the shame of a cowardly and trivial past; so live as to have no torturing regrets for years without purpose; so live that dying he can say all my life and all my strength were given to the finest cause in the world the liberation of mankind." -- Fyodor Dostoevsky inline: clip_image002.jpg
ugnet_: Taylor Records Farewell Address to Liberia
Taylor Records Farewell Address to Liberia By ELLEN KNICKMEYER .c The Associated Press MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - In a farewell address to his wartorn nation, President Charles Taylor declared Sunday he would ``sacrifice my presidency' to stop bloodshed in Liberia, but added ``God willing, I will be back.'' Taylor, sitting solemnly with folded hands, recorded the address before a Liberian flag at his home. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the recording before its broadcast to the nation, expected later Sunday. He has pledged to resign as of Monday. ``I love this country very much,'' said Taylor, wearing his standard dark safari suit. ``This is why I have decided to sacrifice my presidency. As I look at people dying, I must stop fighting.'' The statement marked Taylor's first formal word to Liberia's people that he was quitting power. ``I stop now, because above all else, you the people count,'' Taylor said. The 15-minute address made no mention of Taylor's earlier acceptance of an asylum offer in Nigeria - and ended with a declaration: ``I say, God willing, I will be back.'' Taylor also accused President Bush of forcing his departure. The United States and West African nations have demanded Taylor cede power in a bid to end 14 years of conflict he shares the blame for. ``The solution to the problem in Liberia cannot be for the president of the United States to ask the president of Liberia to leave,'' Taylor said. ``If that is a challenge, I challenge George Bush, with due respect as a president - please, you are a man of God. Do something for our people,'' he said. ``If they could spend, or attempt to spend, $100 billion in Iraq, we need only a few here,'' he said. Few in Taylor's cut-off capital, under siege by rebels for two months, would be able to hear the address - with batteries, fuel for generators and all else, especially food, scarce on the government-held side of Monrovia. Late Saturday, Vice President Moses Blah told the AP that Taylor would make good on his pledge to turn over power at a ceremony Monday. Taylor has promised to cede power and go into exile but has backed off similar statements before. ``President Taylor is relinquishing power for the sake of peace,'' Blah said. ``Taylor is surely leaving; he's leaving the country in my hands.'' Blah appealed to rebels besieging the capital Monrovia to stop fighting and help restore order. The rebels vehemently oppose Blah's succession, demanding that a neutral figure be appointed to preside over a transition government. ``I am telling my brothers out there ... lay down your arms, leave the bushes and come let's build the country,'' Blah said. Rebels remained skeptical of any promises from Taylor's administration. ``Until Taylor resigns, I won't believe it. He is a criminal,'' said a rebel civilian official, A.L. Hadjia Sekou Fofana. Fofana allowed that if Taylor indeed fulfills his vow to cede power, ``it will be a step in the right direction.'' Fofana renewed rebel pledges to give up the city's port to a West African peacekeeping force when it has sufficient strength to hold the harbor from Taylor's fighters. The peace force had 687 troops on the ground in Liberia on its way to a promised 3,250-member deployment. American and West African military officers ventured into Monrovia's rebel-held port for the first time on Saturday since the two-month siege began. They found aid warehouses looted and corpses floating by the docks. The U.S. and West African officers negotiated with the rebels for days to gain access to the port. The access is crucial to opening humanitarian lines for Liberia's capital - especially for the government side, where tens of thousands of civilians have little to eat but leaves. Kabineh Ja'Neh, a top rebel official at off-and-on peace talks in Ghana, said he favored a humanitarian corridor ``in principle.'' He stressed rebels had yet to make a formal decision. Rebel fighters clutching rocket launchers and taped-up assault rifles escorted the West African troops, three U.S. Marines, and a U.S. Embassy military attache, Army Col. Sue Ann Sandusky, through the port to view damage from the rebel sieges. The West Africans and U.S. Marines surveyed shelled, charred piers looking for docking for aid ships to deliver food to the capital. Discolored bodies floated next to upended, rusted ships. The peacekeepers' presence and Taylor's promise to resign have helped bring a weak truce to Monrovia, though fighting persists in the countryside. As the clock ticked on Taylor's regime, his spokesman Vaanii Passawe warned that government fighters might cause chaos when he leaves. ``Our morale has been sapped,'' he said Saturday. ``The situation is likely to collapse unless some pressure is put to bear'' on the rebels, Passawe said. ``Once the president leaves, our boys might be stigmatized. If that is the case, you must expect chaos. Hell might just break loose.'' Associated Press writer Jonathan
ugnet_: Toothpaste flavored with lizard livers, mouse parts and urine?
/ advertisement ---\ Explore more of Starbucks at Starbucks.com. http://www.starbucks.com/default.asp?ci=1015 \--/ Dentistry, Far Beyond Drilling and Filling August 5, 2003 By NATALIE ANGIER Dentistry may not be the oldest profession, but for reasons of sheer, tearful necessity it is surely right up there among the Top 10 of humanity's primal callings. Paleontologists have found Cro-Magnon skulls dating back 25,000 years that show evidence of tooth decay, and the incidence of cavities and other dental problems only mounted with the advent of agriculture and the increased availability of starchy grains and sweet fruits. The earliest dentists pulled teeth or, as demonstrated by 5,000-year-old skulls from Egypt, drilled holes in the jaw to allow abscesses to drain. Afterward, they very likely scolded their patients for their lax oral care, and handed them the era's equivalent of a toothbrush and toothpaste. The first toothbrushes were small twigs softened and flattened at one end to augment the cleaning surface. The Chinese invented the modern toothbrush about a thousand years ago, with bristles made from a horse's mane attached to handles of ivory. Toothpaste is likewise ancient, the earliest mixtures consisting of powdered fruit, talc and burnt shells, perhaps sweetened with honey and flavored with lizard livers, mouse parts and urine. In some parts of the world, early dentists became quite adept at making false teeth. In 700 B.C., the Etruscans carved beautiful fakes from ivory and bone, securing them to the patient's abutting teeth with gold bridgework. For those with few or no viable teeth remaining, dentists began designing dentures, the upper and lower plates held together with steel springs. Wealthy customers ordered flashy dentures with teeth of silver, gold, agate and mother of pearl, giving new meaning to the phrase conspicuous consumption. One persistent myth has it that George Washington wore wooden dentures, but in fact wood cannot weather the corrosive effects of saliva, and dental historians say the first president's falsies were fashioned from more durable materials, including teeth extracted from human and animal cadavers. Dentists have also been cleaning out decay and plugging up cavities for many hundreds of years, using as filling material stone chips, resin, cork, turpentine, gum, lead and gold leaf. With the invention of the dread power-driven dental drill in the 19th century, many more people could afford to get drilled and filled, and the demand rose for a standardized, relatively inexpensive filler, eventually resulting in a so-called amalgam like the one used today. Contemporary amalgam contains as a stabilizing ingredient small amounts of mercury, which some people prefer not having in their mouths and instead opt for fillings made of plastic. But Dr. Marjorie Jeffcoat, editor of The Journal of the American Dental Association, points out that the mercury is tightly encapsulated in the other components of the amalgam and on balance appears remarkably safe. Among the most striking developments in dental hygiene was the fluoridation of water beginning in the mid-20th century. Fluoride helps protect teeth by hooking onto enamel and enhancing its resilience against destructive acids from bacteria. Dentists first gleaned the power of fluoride when they noticed that some patients had oddly mottled teeth that were resistant to cavities. Both traits were soon traced back to local water supplies that had naturally high concentrations of fluoride, and when experiments suggested that small amounts of it could protect teeth without the spotty side effects, the push for fluoridation of the water supply was on. Today, about 60 percent of Americans drink fluoridated water, as do people in 30 other countries (although some debate remains over just what constitutes a safe long-term dosage). The effect of mass fluoridation has been socioculturally as well as dentitionally profound, and fear of dentists, along with lizard-livered toothpaste, the New York subway token and a decent bagel, may soon, yes, bite the dust. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/05/health/05DENT.html?ex=1061095472ei=1en=8d1c0e04ee687bb2 - Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://www.nytimes.com/ads/nytcirc/index.html HOW TO ADVERTISE - For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general
ugnet_: INTERVIEW WITH TWAGIRAMUNGU
This is our programme, the candidates' platform, which gives anopportunityto presidential candidates to address Rwandans. This evening, our guest isFaustin Twagiramungu. Welcome to our programme. Willy Rukundo has fewquestionsfor you. (Reporter) Welcome Mr Twagiramungu as Mr Jules has just told you. Beforeaddressing Rwandans, can you please introduce yourself. (Twagiramungu) I am a Rwandan. I was born in 1945 in Kiyamba, GashongaDistrict, Cyangugu Province. I am married and I have four children (Passageomitted) I studied business administration in Canada. I also studied politicalsciencein Montreal and obtained a masters degree in economics (Passage omitted) I believe that we should support the unity policy. Rwandans should changeandbecome new beings. The issues which divided us before independence (Tutsisbeingviewed as lords and Hutus as servants) no longer exist. This is because there is a new generation of Rwandans who just want to dobusiness, to farm and study. There are no longer Rwandans who want to be joyriders. This can be achieved if there is unity and peace. There can't be anylasting unity without peace. (Passage omitted) (Reporter) There are issues of Gacaca (traditional) courts and prisonerswhowere released so that they can appear before the court from outside jail andwithout suffering in jail. What would you do in addition to what has alreadybeen done? Releasing people for acknowledge their "crimes not good enough" (Twagiramungu) I am not sure if we understand the issue of Gacaca in thesameway. Gacaca is a good tradition but I think that some things should berectified. The release of prisoners without files is commendable. However, releasingpeople just because they acknowledged their crimes is not good enough. Theyshould also ask for forgiveness. (Passage omitted) If you asked the common Rwandan, he would tell you that (ruling RwandanPatriotic Front) RPF members occupy government posts from the office of thepresident to the government, the provinces, districts and sectors. That is true. Let's say the truth because without it there will never bedemocracy in this country. (Passage omitted) Poverty reduction (Reporter) The World Bank and UN agencies say 65 per cent of Rwandanslivebelow poverty line, they earn less than one dollar a day. As a presidentialcandidate what is your plan to reduce this percentage? (Twagiramungu) I found in the country a policy geared towardsstrengtheningthe economy but which is excessively capitalistic. I do not agree with that.Rwandans should accept capitalism but we should make a path for that. Ourpolicywould aim at the majority Rwandans, in the rural areas. They should beassistedto get cooperatives, acquire loans, they should farm and harvest and getmarketsfor their produce. (Passage omitted) (If elected) I would tell the Central Bank or set up a fund aimed atproviding loans to citizens who need them. (Sentence as received) We shouldnotlie to the people, saying that we are studying (loan request) files. Weshouldfind ways to help the poor find something to do. The fund should providethemwith collateral and give them a long period of repayment. (Passage omitted) I disagree with the state privatization policy, which consists of sellingcompanies to any black or white capitalists who bring money. (Reporter) Mr Twagiramungu do you mean that if you became head of stateon 26August after the elections you would nationalize companies, which wereprivatized? (Twagiramungu) That is not what I said because I will respect existinginstitutions. This can create problems. One cannot do away with everythingonefinds in place. However, I would put in place good policies for the futureaimedat creating a Rwandan capitalist. For example if three Rwandans came together so as to buy for instance asavings bank, someone could say: you people you don't have money to buy it. On my part, I would rather set up a fund aimed at providing them withcredit,which can be repaid slowly. (Passage omitted) Rwandans are poor. A person brings farm produce to Kigali unaware of theexistence of taxes, and is asked to pay taxes equivalent to what he made outofthe produce. I believe we should leave the informal sector alone. We shouldinstead keep an eye on illegal trade, those people who bring truckloads butdonot pay taxes (Passage omitted) Free primary education Some say there should be free primary education and I agree with thembecauseRwandans are poor. (Passage omitted) We suffered during the period of balancing (imposition of ethnic quotasinschools)when a child who scored 80 per cent was expelled from school onpretextthat his ethnic quota of 10 per cent had been reached and he was replacedwithanother student with only 52 per cent (Passage omitted) War with DRCongo "should not have taken place" (Reporter) Mr Twagiramungu, I would like to talk about foreign policytowardsour neighbours and other distant countries. What is your
