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The Monitor (Kampala)February 18, 2004
Posted to the web February 18, 2004
Lucy Lapoti
Kampala
Lawmakers conducting an inquiry into the humanitarian and security situation in the rebel-hit areas left for northern and eastern Uganda yesterday.Ten MPs and four technical staff left yesterday morning and are expected to assess the impact of the rebel insurgency on the people in the affected areas.
Agago MP Ogenga Latigo told The Monitor by telephone yesterday that the MPs would visit displaced persons camps in Lango and Teso sub-regions."We want to collect the correct information on the ground as far as security is concerned.
We also want to find out how services are delivered in those regions," Latigo said.The MPs will assess government's response to the disaster, especially in relation to provision of relief food and essential services such as water, health and education.Districts to be visit are Apac, Lira, Katakwi, Soroti, Kaberamaido and Pallisa.
The chairwoman of the select committee, Ms Alice Alaso, could not be reached for a comment.The select team was named after the MPs from the war-hit areas decried the appalling humanitarian situation in the camps for the internally displaced.
COMMENT
That it would take the Ugandan Members of Parliament months to do what should have been done immediately and with a sense of great urgency, is quiet incomprehensible. People have been dying and suffering in the camps for months. Only now are the MPs thinking of visiting the camps in Kaberamido, Katakwi, Lango, Pallisa , Apac with the intention of quote "collecting correct Information" ...what do you nmmean you are going there to collect correct Information.?.....as if to say that these MP cannot believe the many news reports ( some of which have quoted Bishops, Priest, Khadi, who say things are bad) disseminated by such world re-known credible News gathering organization like MISNA.
The bottom line is that the situation is horrible in the camps of Katakwi, Kaberamaido, Lango, Teso, Acholi e.t.c People are suffering tremendously.... and the so called "security" by the UPDF is pretty much does not exist ... in spite of contrary claims by the UPDF to Ugandans and Members of the International Community.
Matek
"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
