By Daniel Wallis Wed Mar 29, 7:38 PM ET
KAMPALA (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council must act to end suffering brought by two decades of war in northern Uganda, a coalition of local and foreign aid agencies said on Thursday as U.N. aid chief Jan Egeland flew into the country.
Egeland will hold talks with government officials before visiting camps in the north that are home to more than 1.6 million people sheltering from fighting between troops and rebels from the cult-like Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
He has called the war one of the world's most neglected humanitarian disasters. Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uga
nda
(CSOPNU) demanded the Security Council add its voice to their call for peace talks to end the violence.
"It should express its conviction the crisis ... can only be ended via a process of political engagement, diplomacy, and peaceful negotiation," the coalition said in a statement.
One study last year estimated that 1,000 people died every week in the north as a result of poor living conditions. In its new report, CSOPNU said the main war victims were children.
Some 25,000 have been abducted by the LRA as fighters and "wives," while tens of thousands more trudge into towns every night rather than risk being kidnapped from their beds.
Half of all camp residents are under the age of 15. A quarter of all children over 10 have lost one or both parents.
"This is a catastrophe that is fueled not only by terrible acts of war and violence. It is also fueled by a shameful litany of failure," CSOPNU said.
Uganda's
government says the LRA has been greatly weakened by a combination talks, amnesty and military operations. But the aid groups accused the government of pursuing a military victory against the LRA at the expense of protecting civilians.
The government denies the charge.
The Security Council should investigate the LRA and its supporters, CSOPNU said, and it urged U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send a special envoy on the war to Uganda
Fellow Citizens and members of the International Community. In a brief comment I just wanted to point out that the NRM Military dictatorship in Uganda has adorpted a policy of constantly engaging in uttering lies and
propaganda in a move to address the Northern / Eastern Uganda Humanitarian Crises.
Any sophomoric College student in a University here in the States knows that in order to solve a problem or problems , one must genuinely analyse the problem first and foremost Before one can come up with a solution to the problem. The NRM lacks this basic tenants to conflict resolution. Instead they would rather spaw out propaganda day in day out to make it appear that the issue at hand is being resolve. 20 years later Nothing has changed!!!
The question which must be asked by members of the International Community and Ugandans is : now what must we do? and how exactly does the NRM/O want to resolve this Northern / Eastern Uganda Crises? Must we tolerate another five years of Mr. Kabusenge type of propaganda prouncements while in the meantime our people continue to suffer in the camps? Indeed the bold h
eaded
one Yosweri Mucebeni Kaguta stated recently that the war in Northern and Eastern Uganda will end in April 2006 which begins next week! April is around the corner..and the war shows no sign of ending!!!!!!! Like he always does, Kaguta will come up with yet another execuse as to why the war has not ended in April or why the 120 remainding "LRA so called rebels" have not been defeated!!! May be he will , once again, blame Sudan, or Congo as to why the war continues in Northern/Eastern Uganda . So much for the visionary NRM leadership....Under past Ugandan Admin... no war which took 20 years was fought. Such wars only emerged under dictator Yosqweri Mucebeni Kaguta. petty the UPDF who must fight a 20 year war and counting!!!!!!
MK
Blab-away for as little as 1ยข/min. Make PC-to-Phone Calls using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---------------------------------------
