Owor Kipenji <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Militarising the population is bad
Editorial
September 5, 2003
First we got the so-called Arrow Group in Soroti. Then we got the Rhino Group. Then the Amuka Local Defence Unit in Lira, and lately the Karimojong have pledged to form their own band of civilian fighters to battle Mr Joseph Kony�s Lord�s Resistance Army.
The formation of these civilian self-defence armies is obviously an indication of how much trust they have in the ability of the national army to ensure the safety of our people and property.
That said, it is not a crime for anyone to volunteer to fight, in what some leaders have called suicide formations against a ruthless adversary.
But amid this din of pro and anti-war drums, the edict issued recently by the Chief Administrative Officer of Soroti district deserves to be singled out.
Mr George William Omuge, who is the head of civil servants in the district, has ordered all
of them to take up arms and fight the rebels.This order is not only dangerous but also ridiculous. The civil servants in Soroti, and elsewhere, are certainly aware that this country has an army whose job is to fight armed threats against the state. Had they, therefore, been inclined to take up guns, they would have willingly joined the UPDF. They chose another job. A civilian job.
They must, therefore, not be bussed into battle.
What is the logic in throwing civilians into battle against Kony, who has managed to sow mayhem all over northern Uganda for over 17 years and thwarted such grandiose military campaigns as Operation Iron Fist?
What magic does a civilian army possess that the regular army does not?
Apart from the likelihood of being massacred in hordes, turning every civilian into a fighter might, in fact, result in more Konys.
The greater danger implicit in both the Omuge edict and the increasing call for civilians to throw themselves at the murderous Kony rebels is the attendant militarisation of our population.
President Yoweri Museveni recently told a rally in Teso that the Arrow Group and their ilk are freedom fighters. Whatever they are, the government must desist from increased militarisation of the population under any guise.
The Kony rebellion is the brutal manifestation of the mentality to grab at military solutions for every political challenge. This tendency must stop.
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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