Then the issue of negotiations, many government opposers on this forum and else where have been accusing the government of not pursuing a peaceful route to end the LRA conflict. Infact people like Matek have long advocated that government should seek the assitance of the EU, UN, amongst other third parties. Mr. Matek has made the argument on this forum that the government will not be considered as a honest broker of peace by the LRA, he then proceded to outline a litany of reasons why. Now that it appears that government is apparently capitulating to his demands, i.e seeking EU as an intermediary with the LRA, suddenly it is problem. Now they are saying no, government should not seek a third party as an intermediary...they are now saying it is the sole responsibilty of the government to communicate with Kony and LRA, in order to find a peaceful solution....and then they give all sorts of silly excuses and reasons, just to deviate people from the fact that the government is exploring all avenues in order to end the LRA violence and subsequently stop the suffering of innocent civilians. It just goes to show you that these people are not honest in there critiquing. If you pary close attention to what they say, you quickly discover that it is rubbish. They just keep on contradicting themselves and the reason for that is because they have personalized there oppositiont to government and the President. They are basically obsessed with the President. That is petty politics at it's lowest.
known that government is indeed seeking the EU as an intermediary with Kony
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: ugnet_: More honesty will help end LRA war Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 18:41:29 EST
More honesty will help end LRA war Editorial March 4, 2004
What do you do when you have a statement that reads like this before you: "If
everybody has been ignored by Kony, why does everybody think that it is up to
government to create a conducive atmosphere for talks?"
This statement came out of the army spokesman on Tuesday as he responded to
enlightening revelations that a representative of the government peace team
last year explicitly requested the European Union to write to Lord's Resistance
Army rebel leader, Joseph Kony. Surely, Maj. Shaban Bantariza must be aware of
the fact that government has the constitutionally stated duty to ensure
security of person and property of all people living within Uganda's boundaries.
Everybody expects government to create conditions favourable for dialogue,
much as everything else that has been tried in the fight to end the northern
conflict, because it is a principal actor.
Outside of the LRA and government, other involved parties are simply
corollaries. Whatever they do has to be with the blessing or knowledge of either of
the main actors.
It is as simple as that. The onus is on the Uganda People's Defence Forces to
execute its duty, much as it is on the authorities to explore all other
avenues that can lead to a cessation of hostilities.Happily, the major's tone has
changed from the belligerent one he used last week when he 'revealed' to the
public that the EU Head of Delegation, Mr Sigurd Illing wrote to Kony in 2003.
From insinuating that Illing's efforts were somehow illegal, we find the
spokesman's about turn honourable in light of 'new evidence' that in fact
government sanctioned the EU's communication.But we must again also point out that the
army's outburst was typical of government's double-faced policy on dialogue.
On the one hand it purports to support peace overtures while on the other it
enthusiastically denigrates and disparages the same.
This is not very helpful.Quite correctly, the rebels are an unwieldy package
but it could also be true that the optimism for a negotiated settlement in
March 2003 was hurt by government's ambivalence. A little more honesty will not
hurt as we all work for peace in the north.
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
"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
_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail
-------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
