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Gen. Ali and the North !
REPORTS from the Ministry of Health and international agencies that 1,000 people on average die in Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camps in northern Uganda every week are extremely worrying. Lt. Gen. Moses Ali, the first deputy prime minister and minister for Disaster Preparedness, has dismissed the figures and blamed the media for exaggerating them.
However, the press and Parliament should grill this minister about the situation in the camps. A government that donates $200,000 to a superpower after the Katrina disaster should be put to task to explain why it does not do more for the people in the camps.
Politicians everywhere blame the media for distortion. In war, the media may be blamed for undermining the morale of the soldiers and of giving vital information to the enemy by publishing facts such as death tolls.
In the case of northern Uganda we would never know the plight of people in the camps or the terrible atrocities they have suffered without media reports and pictures. Not long ago, a UN spokesperson described the situation in northern Uganda as the world's worst humanitarian disaster to which the international community has paid little attention.
Statements from the army and the President, year in and year out, that Kony is either a spent force or would be history in the next few months undermine government credibility and confidence in official statements. The deep sense of doubt and mistrust in government statements and the will to end the war should not be blamed on the media.
Rev Amos Kasibante,
University of Leicester, UK.
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