New Vision (Kampala)August 18, 2003
Posted to the web August 18, 2003 James Oloch
Kampala
REBELS of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) hacked to death a number of people in Bata sub-county in Dokolo county, Lira district, over the weekend.The rebels also abducted over 40 people, leaving thousand fleeing to Lira town and Kyoga county in the southern part of Lira.The military spokesman, Lt Chris Magezi, told AFP on phone that several people were killed and that a military team sent to Lira to assess the situation had not yet returned.
He said the attackers had been driven from Katakwi by the UPDF but had formed into smaller groups when they reached Lira on Saturday morning where they killed people.The rebels struck at around 4:00am.
They also looted property at Awie-Lem village in Aderolongo parish, Bata sub- county. Sources in Dokolo said the UPDF intercepted the rebels at Egar.The rebels reportedly accused the local population of supporting the Government-sponsored Arrow Group, where volunteers have been recruited to join the war.Church leaders in the region have opposed the move, saying this will subject villagers to further brutality from the LRA.
The northern Uganda Catholic Archbishop, John Baptist Odama, said recently that a similar mobilisation in 1992 exposed villagers to torture by the rebels, who started chopping off people's arms and lips after accusing them of supporting a government campaign against them.The LRA has been fighting since 1988, saying it wants to replace President Museveni's regime with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
"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
