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By Charles Ochen Okwir
GUEST WRITER
The Uganda People�s Defence Forces (UPDF) are at it again! Because of
the continuous and senseless loss of innocent lives in northern Uganda
over the last 19 years, Ugandans have somehow developed an unhealthy
immunity to news of such deaths.
All of us with the freedom and means to highlight the plight of
oppressed and impoverished people must bow our heads in shame. For many
Ugandans, it�s simply business as usual. But you can�t blame them
entirely. So many horrible crimes have been perpetrated in northern Uganda
to the extent that anything short of a mass murder will not attract any
attention.
Such is human nature that sometimes it takes tragedy to hit right in
one�s backyard to provoke outrage. Thus the April 21 report on the Radio
Simba website, �Army Kills 5 Displaced Women� has prompted me to write
this article because that is my home.
The UPDF gunned down five already displaced, desperate and perhaps
starving women as they returned from a fishing expedition in River Aringa
in Mucwini sub-county, Kitgum district.
Four others were injured and rushed to Kitgum Hospital. The soldiers
allegedly mistook them for rebels. UPDF spokesman Lt. Tabaro Kiconco is
quoted to have said the shooting wasn�t intended.
For heaven�s sake, is that all their lives are worth! Is that excuse
supposed to be an absolute defence against the crime of murder under the
laws of Uganda today? Not even the usual PR lie, promising to investigate
and punish the perpetrators!
Are these UPDF soldiers above the law
and the Reagan Okumus and Mike Oculas not? Is this the rule of law that
the liberators of yesterday promised us on January 26, 1986?
Does the value of life in Uganda now vary from one person to another,
and depending on whether or not one supports the Movement? Or is it
different for those, who out of no fault of their own, happen to find
themselves north of the Karuma Bridge?
Fr. Carlos Rodriguez in his article, �Forced Labour at Roadblocks� (The
Weekly Observer, September 23, 2004) had already highlighted the plight of
vulnerable village folks being forced by the army into cutting trees and
bushes along the road from Mucwini to Kitgum town. But there was no action
or response from the government. How can we call it �our government� when
our people are being hunted to extinction?
We condemn not only the UPDF, but also all the authorities whose duty
it is to ensure that the army is adequately equipped and facilitated in
doing their constitutional duties to society without necessarily having to
�accidentally� kill and force the very people they are supposed to protect
into involuntary hard labour.
And where is the MP for Chua County, Henry Okello Oryem, under whose
jurisdiction these human rights abuses occur? Is he, by his loud silence,
saying he is too busy attending to state business as a minister to give
these cases their due attention?
While Oryem may be far away in Kampala tied up by national duties, the
elected district authorities, especially the LC5 chairperson under whose
nose these human rights abuses are taking place, must be taken to task to
explain why they have allowed the practice to go on unchallenged.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The author is Interim Secretary General, FDC (UK
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