This sad picture of kids in this camp tells it all. How can dictator Museveni do this to us, and we let him and his sychophants do this to our kids? Why?
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>From: Matek Opoko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [Ugnet] Philadelphier Inquirer's Ms. Carolyn Davis on the war inNorthern Uganda
>Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 17:22:00 -0800 (PST)
>
>Let’s save the children of northern Uganda
>By Carolyn Davis
>Nov 28 - Dec 4, 2004
>
>
>Everything under God’s gaze has its moment.
>These moments provide opportunities that the wise, the brave and the good-hearted know they must seize. And so they do.
>
>There now is just such a moment in northern Uganda. A bright opportunity – in the form of peace talks led by the indefatigable Betty Bigombe – exists to bring peace and stability to a part of this great nation that has seen much sorrow and bloodletting.
>INNOCENT WAR VICTIMS: Children sleep in one of the night commuter centres in Gulu town (Photo by James Akena)
>Talks to end the fighting between the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army are inching along. Both sides are in contact with Ms Bigombe. Both sides have made positive gestures toward peace: President Museveni earns praise for calling a ceasefire; some LRA officials have responded by moving to an agreed-upon location for further discussions. These developments, on the surface, are good news.
>
>Aah, says the weary Ugandan. We have ridden this boda-boda before and the ride always has ended in more fighting, more abductions and greater destruction. Why should we believe this time will be different?
>Why? Because this time, the world is watching.
>
>This time, these peace talks follow United Nations Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland’s visit to the north. After seeing the suffering, he described the situation there as “a moral outrage... I cannot find any other part of the world that is having an emergency on the scale of Uganda, that is getting such little international attention”.
>
>And the talks follow Unicef Executive Director Carol Bellamy’s visit to the north in May, after which she said: “The world needs to wake up to the enormity of the crisis in northern Uganda.”
>And this time, there is the laser-like focus by US President George Bush on finding a peaceful resolution to the war in neighbouring Sudan, which has played a role in harbouring and sustaining LRA leader Joseph Kony and his rebels. One of Bush’s core constituencies, known in the United States as the religious right, has joined with human rights activists in pushing Washington toward resolving wars in this region. That interest is strong and enduring and enshrined in legislation called the “Northern Uganda Crisis Response Act,” which asks for a report to the US Congress on the war in the north.
>
>This moment in the history of war in northern Uganda is personally and distinctively different for me too. I have for some time been writing about the plight of children in northern Uganda for my newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer. But now I have seen first-hand in Lira, Gulu and Kitgum districts what I’ve been writing about from afar. I have talked to affected families. I have slept in a courtyard with the tiny night commuters (OK, I didn’t actually get much sleep).
>
>I also have talked with Ugandans from around the country. I have been touched by their intelligence, ambition and compassion, and I have been wowed by a Kampala that has seen so much progress since I last was here in 1998.
>
>When I wrote above of the smart and the strong and the brave, I meant you – the Ugandan public. You are wise enough to know your country cannot prosper to its full potential if the war in the north continues to drain money from the treasury and keep that agriculturally rich part of the country from contributing its share to the economy.
>
>You are kind-hearted enough to know that the responsibility for taking care of Ugandan children, no matter their ethnic group, falls to Ugandan adults, no matter their ethnic group. The Ugandans I have spoken to do not want their homeland to be known as a place where such horrific abuse of children is allowed.
>
>And you are brave enough to say “enough killing already”. It is time for Uganda and Ugandans to act as a whole for the good of the nation, its children and its future.
>As a journalist, and as a humanitarian worker for several years, I have followed the hazards that children face daily around the world. Some of them are the natural hazards of drought or floods. There is little I or others can do about those. But other threats are man-made and show the worst side of adults capable of sacrificing innocent children for political or personal agendas.
>
>About that, I can do something. I can visit northern Uganda. I can urge action by writing in my newspaper and others. I can ask – as many times as necessary, no matter how shaky may be the boda-boda ride – that adults live up to their God-given role as the protectors and caretakers of children.
>
>And so I humbly ask that all Ugandans, including the leaders of the government and the LRA, join me in seizing this precious moment for bringing peace to the children of northern Uganda.
>
>Ms Davis is an editorial writer with the Philadelphier Inquirer. She is in Uganda reporting on the conflict in northern Uganda
>
>
>© 2004 The Monitor Publications
>
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