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New Vision (Kampala)OPINION
February 27, 2004
Posted to the web February 27, 2004
Kampala
The "rebel" attack last weekend that killed nearly 200 innocent civilians at Barlonyo Camp near Lira can only be described as an outrage. People, who have absolutely no conscience, with unquenchable thirst for blood, committed this absolutely dastardly act.We owe it to the Barlonyo Camp victims and all those who have suffered grievous terror and harm as a result of the long-running war with the LRA to never allow this to happen again. Preventing another calamity, therefore, requires the unflinching review of what went wrong at Barlonyo Camp, and setting structures to correct the mistakes.
Surely, it's no secret that the lightly protected camps have long been targeted by the LRA. The rebels know that for relatively little risk, they can walk in, loot, kill and maim with impunity, before disappearing back into the bush. Meanwhile, with nowhere to go, the camp dwellers are sitting targets waiting for the slaughter.And, like clockwork, it happens, and everyone feels terrible and people say a few words of platitude to the survivors, before going their separate ways until the next killing occurs.The fact of the matter is that the government of Uganda must bear part of the blame for what happened at Barlonyo and all the other camps that have been attacked and pillaged over the years.
There is absolutely no question that the LRA attacks could and should have been prevented.Foremost, having corralled civilians into the so-called protected villages, it's imperative that the government actually provides adequate security to the camp dwellers. Yet, to date, the only refrain that we have heard from government spokesmen is how terrible the LRA is and how they must be rooted out.
The camps continue to remain unprotected, giving complete unimpeded access to rabid rebel forces. Well, tell us something new, something we do not know.The second aspect of this is that by continually saying that the LRA is being rooted out, without actually making much progress in the field, the government appears to be saying to the LRA, "Prove to us that you are still a force to be reckoned with".
It's akin to waving a red handkerchief in front of a raging bull, albeit a wounded one.Sure, as the sun rises from the east and sets in the west, you know the bull is going to charge, and someone is going to get hurt. Merely taunting the LRA for the sake of proving that the army has more firepower is a stupid game of Russian roulette because the civilians always end up the big losers.However, the most serious indictment of the government is the constant reassurance that it provides to civilians that everything will soon be okay.
Time and again, instead of telling it as it is, the army and government officials have characterised the current war as a "mop-up operation", "dying kicks", "act of a desperate man on his way out" and so forth. The impression given is that there is nothing to fear from a spent rebel force.The reality is that the LRA rebel force still has a lot fire in its belly, and obviously capable of doing havoc to innocent civilians.
This simple fact should be emphasised so that everyone is aware and can take adequate precautions.To correct these mistakes and ensure that there is no more Barlonyo, the government must undertake to improve security in the camps. Instead of lightly armed militias, every camp must be protected by an iron ring of well-armed army personnel on the outside and an inner core of militias-it would require the LRA a tough fight before they can get near the unarmed civilians.Anything less is simply a carte blanche invitation to the rebels to do whatever they want, whenever they want it, and with whomever they choose.
Anything less, is a recipe for disaster.Secondly, the government has a duty to provide alternative arrangement to the camps-the dwellers should be allowed to make real choices whether to continue to live in the camps or take their chances back in their own villages.The point being that everyone should be given the freedom to return back to their own homestead.
It may not be much of a choice, but it's a choice nonetheless-at least, in their own backyards, civilians have a better chance of actually surviving attacks because they know the terrain just as well as the rebels do.But to do nothing is simply to disgrace the memory of the victims of Barlonyo and many others LRA attacks.
"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
