The Monitor (Kampala)
EDITORIAL
July 29, 2003
Posted to the web July 29, 2003
Kampala
The latest from the war-torn Acholi sub-region is that the number of people displaced by the armed conflict is now well above one million. And that is before you include those displaced in Lango and Teso.
These are sad times. Human lives are being lost everyday and for the suffering people it would now seem that their main hope lies in the story of their plight being told. This sad story must be kept alive because it is one way we can maintain the pressure on those who are charged with the duty of ensuring national security.
But it would appear this fact is not fully appreciated by politicians like the junior minister for Health, Capt. Mike Mukula.
Mr Mukula has repeatedly attacked the media and his fellow Teso MPs for reporting on the conflict situation with the claim that such stories are scaring away international assistance.
Quite frankly, this is another of those unhelpful approaches to this conflict. It is unhelpful to the extent that even if the media were to stop reporting on the conflict in northern Uganda, foreign investors would still get to know what is going on here.
Mukula should already know that the embassies accredited to Uganda primarily gather country intelligence and relay that back home for the necessary analysis and policy decisions.
Perhaps all the politicians who think like Mukula should realise that when the media report on an armed conflict like the one that has laid northern Uganda to waste, the plight of those trapped grabs the attention of the international community in a more immediate and sympathetic manner. The world community is then driven into action.
It is not prudent to hide behind the fear that reporting about the conflict will cause donor uncertainty and hence lead to the withholding of financial assistance.
Mukula gives the $1.8 million Japanese grant that has reportedly been withdrawn because of what the minister calls "reckless reporting" as an example. The minister forgets that whatever money is sourced for either development assistance or humanitarian aid is ultimately for the benefit of Ugandans. It therefore follows that we must first work to save the human beings for whom this money is meant.
The media cannot allow themselves to be an accomplice in a state-inspired cover-up of the sad reality of the insurgency that has dehumanised and destroyed the self-esteem of several million Ugandans for more than 15 years.
