The fact is that all the suffering which has been going on in Northern Uganda, for
now close to 20 years, was allowed to progress under the watchful eyes of this so
called "honourable MPs' who are ironically now sheding crocodile "tears"...You are
all Guilty as Charge. each and every MP who allowed this sort of suffering to take
place...with out doing anything about it. so what if you shed tears! what is that
going to do to the people of Uganda...answer NOTHING!!
Matek
MPs Cry Over Film On North Crisis
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New Vision (Kampala)
June 23, 2004
Posted to the web June 23, 2004
Hamis Kaheru
Kampala
BUSINESS in Parliament yesterday was different from the usual, as MPs took time off to
watch a descriptive film about the humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda.
The film showed elderly people in dire need of food and water, naked children running
around camps crying for food in vain and victims of rebel attacks with bandages on
limbs, chests and heads lying motionless on hospital beds in Lira and Gulu.
The chairperson of the select committee on the humanitarian crisis in the north, Alice
Alasu (Soroti) requested deputy speaker Rebecca Kadaga to allow the screening of the
20-minute film before presenting a report.
Committee members were seen in the film wiping tears as they watched the sick and
hungry lying helplessly next to huts burnt by rebels.
There were murmurs and expressions of pity and sorrow as the House watched pictures of
heaps of soil surrounded by stones to indicate graves of victims of the massacre in
Abia camp in Lira.
Bodies of victims were shown bearing many wounds and some of them seemed to have been
filmed days after rebel attacks as they were almost decomposing.
Alaso , whose background voice added meaning to the pictures, said water and sanitary
facilities were almost non-existent in IDP camps and children had resorted to hunting
rats because relief food was available only once in a while.
"How do you expect someone who is hungry and is not sure of the next meal to dig a pit
latrine?" Alaso said, as the camera showed huge maggots in overflowing latrines.
She said some areas had mobile latrines but most people used the bushes.
Other scenes included hundreds of boys and girls who, without blankets, spent nights
on verandas in towns because they are not assured of security in their villages after
dusk.
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