UGANDAÂÂ4/2/2004Â9:16
GULU: REBELS ABDUCT CHILDREN REAPING PANIC AMONG CIVILIANS
The rebels of the LRA (lordâs Resistance Army) yesterday abducted numerous children in two attacks conducted not far from Gulu, administrative centre of the homonymous North Ugandan district.
The news was referred by MISNA sources, underlining that the âOlumâ (âgrassâ, as the rebels are called by the Acholi population) captured at least 16 children at around 6:30p.m. (local time) in a location around 8km south-west of Gulu, between the centres of Abwoc and Layibi. They were girls and boys that were headed to the city to spend the night, with the intent of escaping the rebels that have been abducting minors and forcedly recruiting them for years.
Later, at around midnight (local time), the Olum ransacked the location of âLayibi Go Downâ, around 5km south-west of Gulu. Numerous stores were pillaged, as well as various mud and straw huts inhabited by the autochthonous population. Also in this circumstance they abducted some children, forced then to transport the loot.
The LRA rebels continue perpetrating unspeakable violations against the North Ugandans, despite the large deployment of government troops.
Though the local press blows up the recent Ugandan military successes against the Olum, the rebels remain a constant threat particularly to the residents of the rural areas.
[BO]
"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
