Govt should do more for people in the war zones
I read Maggie Alerotek Aloyo's piece on the heartrending suffering of the people of Kitgum and I felt pain surge through my heart and tears fill up my eyes. (See "Kitgum's human suffering" The Monitor January 03.)
I strongly recommend that Minister Nsaba Buturo should read and digest it.
If he's honest, and I want to believe that he is, then he'll agree that Aloyo's eyewitness experience puts into contempt his letter that appeared on the same issue of the Monitor. (See "Nsibambi never lied to Ugandans.")
While replying to my earlier letter, Nsaba Buturo said: "Mr Oloro's arguments about the suffering of the people in the north are shallow and malicious.
Furthermore, Mr Oloro must be aware that both President Museveni and his cabinet have taken seriously the issue of the affected areas in northern Uganda�"
I hope Buturo will realize from Aloyo's piece that in a conflict that has lasted nearly twenty years, getting meagre supplies of food once in three months spells either clear indifference by the government or total ignorance of the extent of the damage.
In the last eighteen years of the conflict the most the government should have perfected is an effective method of delivering sufficient essential and basic needs to the desperate population. But of course Minister Buturo will tell us that they have a programme yet to be released.
Maybe if grandma Ajulina Arach, whose plight Aloyo highlighted in her story, was Buturo's grandma or mother for that matter, and those little girls his daughters, then maybe the honourable minister would understand the pain, the trauma, the desperation, the frustration and the disgust that makes people like me conclude that government isn't doing enough.
What benefit is Buturo's yet-to-be-released Recovery Programme to grandma Arach's nine granddaughters who face death at a tender age due to HIV/Aids?
Remember, their only sin that led to their infection, was desperation to fend for their dear families. The culprits: The very government troops expected to defend and protect them!
I believe a solution to the northern suffering lies in government's acceptance that mistakes have been committed.
Dashing into defensive positions each time these mistakes are highlighted, or christening those who point out these anomalies, as malicious individuals with shallow arguments, will never be a solution.
Vahid A. Oloro
Nairobi, Kenya
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
