UGANDAÂÂ5/2/2004Â17:38
LIRA: FROM OUR ENVOY IN ABIA
I admit: today I descended to hell! A forgotten inferno by all and everyone, in a remote outskirt of North Uganda. I must underline that I do not feel like a hero: I am a mere eyewitness, along with my confrere Fr. Sebhat Ayele, secretary and spokesman of the Lango Religious Leaders Forum (LRLF), of yet another massacre perpetrated by the sanguinary rebels of the LRA (lordâs Resistance Army).
On learning of the killings, for the most part perpetrated hand to hand, by some survivors that arrived in early morning at the district hospital of Lira, after visiting with them in the dreary corridors of the health facility, we decided to go to the scene in the âAbia Campâ, a location around 30km north-east of Lira. As our pick-up truck proceeded along the road, to the left and right were endless lines of displaced people attempting to escape uncertain fate.
After over an hour we reached the displaced camp. Many homes and huts were still burning and a terrible smell rendered the air unbreathable. A military officer, an around thirty year-old Sergeant, welcomed us with open arms in the Lango language: âPeko dwongâ (âIt is a big disasterâ). In the distance we saw some bodies, at least a couple charred.
We were later informed that in the rebel attack, started at 5:00p.m. local time on Wednesday and ended four hours later at 9:00p.m., 51 civilians died and over seventy were wounded, including those we had encountered before leaving Lira. I started praying and I confess that I cried.
We stayed 20 minutes in âAbia Campâ, given that the few soldiers presiding the camp urged us to leave the area, because in their opinion still infested by rebels. We left with our car full of displaced, three of which wounded, including a twenty year-old woman with a head injury. We then rushed like mad, hitting potholes, some of which immense â fearing that the rebels could cut us off.
It is terrible to see someone die, but it is even worse to witness the silence surrounding this damned conflict that is always claiming innocent lives.
Joseph Kony, the crazy visionary that founded the LRA, as far as cruelty is concerned could give tips to Saddam Hussein. One thin is certain: the war is far from over, considering that aside from the Lira district, the rebel are reaping death and destruction in the areas of Gulu, Kitgum, Apac and Pader.
Many people live in the rural zones outside the circuit of the aid agencies. It was the case of the displaced survivors of âAbia Campâ, who this evening will sleep out in the open, given that they lost everything.
Some 8-thousand desperates will join the 300-thousand hosted in the centre of Lira. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands surviving in the bush infested by rebels. The Lango population has nicknamed these criminals âtotongâ: âbutchersâ! And it is exactly what they are!
On our return Fr. Sabhat confessed a presentment of his: âThe rebels have launched a clear message to the newspapers that report that they have been defeated or have escaped to nearby Sudanâ. What to say? (Translation of article by Fr. Giulio Albanese)
[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
