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Let's Treat Northern Uganda Like Darfur

The Monitor (Kampala)
EDITORIAL
July 28, 2004
Posted to the web July 27, 2004
Kampala
Ugandans, especially those in the northern region must be feeling terribly let
down by the international community on hearing calls by Western powers to
intervene militarily in the Darfur humanitarian crisis.
The US Congress last week unanimously passed a resolution describing the
atrocities committed by government militias in the western Sudan region as
genocide.
The Congress called on the White House to lead an intervention in the crisis,
while a British general is quoted saying 5,000 troops would be made available
if needed.
The calls come on the heels of pleas made by the Darfur rebels for a rapid
deployment of international forces to help deal with the crisis. The UN,
describing the humanitarian crisis as the world's worst says up to 50,000
people have perished in the revolt against the Khartoum government.
The calls for an urgent international intervention in Darfur are legitimate.
The humanitarian crisis there demands for quick action, not lip service from
the international community. If action is not taken now, we might end up with
genocide similar to the one that occurred in Rwanda in 1994 where up to 800,000
people were massacred.
But while this international initiative in Darfur is greatly appreciated, the
people in northern Uganda however, have all the reason to feel discriminated
against by the international community. The humanitarian crisis created by
Joseph Kony's Lords Resistance Army rebels is by all comparisons similar if not
even worse to that in Darfur. They would be right in demanding to know why
their plight has not attracted similar attention and response.
Close to two decades, thousands of children have been abducted, raped and
conscripted in LRA's senseless war. Several thousand people have perished too.
Over a million people are living in pathetic conditions in camps. Yet the
little response the cries of northern Uganda have attracted is lip service
condemnations from the international community.
As the world powers contemplate military intervention in Darfur, they are
reminded that the war-battered northern Uganda is in dire need of similar world
attention and response.
The 1.5 million internally displaced persons in north have the more reason to
worry if the big powers send troops to Darfur without taking similar measures
in Uganda. They are more than aware that their plight has been exacerbated by
the West's support for rebellions in the Sudan.

   

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