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The Monitor (Kampala)February 28, 2004
Posted to the web February 27, 2004 Sheila C. Kulubya
Kampala
The Uganda Human Rights Commission has asked government to deploy the army to protect camps of internally displaced persons in northern Uganda from rebel attacks."Government should fully realise that the LRA often targets civilians in camps in northern Uganda and that human rights law requires that when people are at risk of armed attack, there is a duty on the government to provide adequate protection until such risk is eliminated," the commission said in a statement signed by commissioner Aliro Omara.
He said that government should not leave the protection of the displaced people to local militias. He cited the last Saturday incident at Barlonyo camp in Lira where the militia failed to fight off the Lord's Resistance Army rebels.
The rebels overpowered the local Amuka militia guarding the camp and killed about 200 civilians, although government puts the number at 84."The LRA must stop its atrocities and pursue all available peace avenues to end the war in northern Uganda and spare the innocent population of further suffering and misery," the statement said.
The commission further appealed to government and relief organisations to provide humanitarian assistance to survivors of the Barlonyo massacre and to help them rebuild their lives.
The commission urged government to allocate money in its annual defence budget to address such humanitarian crises.The commission also asked government to provide decent burial for the dead victims of the massacre.
"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
