The Tragedy of the North
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The Monitor (Kampala)
EDITORIAL
September 20, 2005
Posted to the web September 19, 2005
Mr Olara Otunnu, the former United Nations Under Secretary-General has described what is happening in northern Uganda as "genocide."
As expected, the government will not entertain such descriptions of the situation in the north. The same government earlier rejected a parliamentary resolution that declared northern Uganda a disaster area.
Senior officials have also recently attacked a report that claimed that up to 1,000 people living in camps for the internally displaced die every week in the north.
In our view the debate over the description of the situation in the north and the number of people who have been displaced by the unending conflict is a distraction.
Whether it is called genocide or a disaster, the situation in the north is a humanitarian crisis that calls for firm action from the government and concerned international actors.
Similarly, it does not matter whether it is 100 people in IDP camps and not 1,000 who die every week in the north.
The point is that many Ugandans in the north have been failed by both the government and Joseph Kony's rebel Lord's Resistance Army.
Thousands have lost their lives, others including children have been abducted, while those displaced by the conflict live in squalid conditions that make them vulnerable to disease and ultimately death.
It is a national shame. It is a national tragedy.
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