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Who is fooling who here? The Nazi's fooled nobody
but themselves because, after the war, they were brought before the Nuremberg
Tribunal and convicted. One of the problems in Germany was that most Germans
were in a state of denial as illustrated by their attitude of silence and
indifference. The UPDF are also fooling themselves. General Tinyefunza confirmed
that only 15 soldiers are posted to protect a population of over 50,000
concentration camp inmates from the LRA attacks. Whereas, he agreed that
Museveni, an individual, is protected by over 12,000 soldiers (1 Division of
troops), consuming over one-third of the national military budget. Clearly, the
concentration camps are not meant to provide protection. We must be clear that
the UPDF language of offering "protection" in villages and the Nazi language of
"work camps" are similar. They are effective veil to cover the unfolding
genocide.
[c]. Denials and Maligning of Victims
In both Germany and Uganda, propaganda played a central role in shaping the course of genocide. The Nazi propaganda purported that the Jewish people killed themselves while the Nazis were mere onlookers. This is similar to Yoweri Museveni propaganda that the Acholi are killing themselves while the NRM/A are offering protection and safety. Preposterous as Hitler' and Museveni's allegations are, the main purposes of the denials and maligning were to blame the victims for their extermination. This shifted the guilt onto cousins or kin and kinship of the exterminated. The Donor Community and Accountability
There have not been any clear pronouncements about the tragic human catastrophe in Northern Uganda from foreign donors, who finance up to 52 percent of Museveni's administration budget. The donors have procured arms, trained and equipped the UPDF and the police force and continuously provided positive propaganda. It is this complicity that has made the donor community overlook the unfolding genocide in Northern Uganda. We should all be ashamed about our failure or, even connivance, with the perpetrators of genocide by giving material and moral support. Many western donor diplomatic missions have regularly visited the concentration camps, signed the visitor's book, but made no public complains against the unfolding genocide. The silence and support by western donor community for Museveni's regime must be construed as giving tacit accent to continue perpetrating the unfolding genocide against the Acholi people. How come that the tragic humanitarian suffering in
Darfur that is nonetheless less severe in intensity and magnitude than the
situation in Acholi, which Jan Egeland, the United Nations Under-Secretary for
Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), described as the world's worst and forgotten
humanitarian catastrophe been denied the status of genocide? How come that the
tragedy does not also capture the sympathy and attention of the donor
community? The Acholi genocide remains unparallel in terms of the ferocity
sustained over time by several participating perpetrators and by the complicity
of the donor countries. This is genocide where the ideological matrix of denial
is among the most developed of any genocide in Africa; and, is actively
propagated by donor community and agencies.
This is genocide where deniers such as General
David Tinyefunza, Herbert Ogwal, Ambrose Murunga and Kintu Nyago, have called it
"war" and often resorted to personal attacks, which are unrelated and
distracting to what Otunnu actually charged. This is genocide occurring in broad
daylight in spite of copious indicators: the Government of Uganda official
reports, Non-Governmental Organizations, Humanitarian and Human Rights Agencies
reports documenting atrocities, Museveni's published philosophical
justifications of mass murders and systematic demonizations of the Acholi
people, and explicit dehumanization by NRM/A political commissars, meeting the
threshold of genocide.
Adyanga, Onek.
Is a Doctoral Candidate in History at the
University of Connecticut, USA
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
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