UGANDAÂÂ16/2/2004Â15:52
COMBONI PROVINCIAL SUPERIOR: âPOLITICAL WILL NEEDED TO STOP THE WARâ
âThe intervention of the international community is essential in efforts to halt the humanitarian catastrophe afflicting the districts of North Uganda: but if there is no political will to end this war on the part of Kampala government, also institutions such as the United Nations and St. Egidio are destined to failâ. This was the statement made to MISNA by Fr. Guido Oliana, provincial superior of the Comboni missionaries, contacted by phone in the main offices of his congregation of Mbuya, in the capital Kampala. âFor it to work â underlined Fr. Oliana a hypothetical multilateral intervention would necessitate internal support, a possibility that for the moment remains extremely remote. Until the current government continues refusing to seek external collaboration, the war will proceed and unfortunately, in this moment, no one has particular interests in pressuring the President Yoweri Museveni, risking to turn him into an enemyâ. The United States and Great Britain back Kampala, âprobably to maintain a presence in the Great Lakes, a region that represents the heart of Africa â continued Fr. Oliana. âThey would have everything to lose in clashing with Museveni. There is need for a radical intervention: but who has the courage to say âenough with Kony?â, the mysterious leader of the rebels of the LRA (lordâs Resistance Army). A hypothesis to Museveni to accept a multinational intervention could, for example, be that of imposing an economic embargo: âBut who would take such a decision based only on humanitarian motives?â, added the missionary. âIf. Like in Sudan, the international community could establish a table of real dialogue with Kony, outside Uganda, there would be a hint of hope. Now more than ever â concluded Fr. Oliana â we are in a vicious circle and sad to say, no one really seems interested in defending the civil population of the Northâ. Since 1986 the rebels have been afflicting the northern Ugandan districts: in 17 years of terror the rebels have killed and tortured tens of thousands of people (at least 100-thousand dead), abducting some 25-thousand children (reduced to slavery or forcedly enrolled in the lines of the rebellion) and causing the displacement of over 1-million people. Over the past two decades 13 Combonis died in various circumstances in Uganda. Two of them, Fr. Egidio Biscaro and Fr. Raffaele Di Bari were victims of the rebels. The first was killed in an ambush along the road between Kitgum and Pajule on 29 January 1990. Fr. Di Bari was assassinated ten years later, always in Uganda. On August 14 another two Combonis were killed: 84-year-old Italian Fr. Mario Mantovani and 29-year-old Brother Godfrey Kiryowa.
[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
