Editorial
June 3, 2003 - Monitor
The rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) seem to have turned full circle and are again in the grisly business of mutilating innocent civilians – a practice they favoured in the 1990s. The latest reported victim is the unfortunate 17-year-old Mr Godfrey Obita of Mucwini, Kitgum district, whose lips, ears and fingers were sliced off on Friday.
Last week we pointed out that the rebels have escalated their attacks on civilian, and in some cases military, targets. Today, we ask the relevant government department – ministry of Defence – to explain to Ugandans what is happening.
An explanation is in order because the country has previously been told by no less a person than the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Yoweri Museveni, that the UPDF is well-deployed in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts. Mr Museveni’s confidence was such that he believed the LRA would have been neutralised by the close of the dry season, which we must say was February.
Mr Museveni’s last public pronouncement on this insurgency that has displaced more than 800,000 people in Acholi, fractured the society and claimed thousands of lives, was April 12. He said then that the army would soon be acquiring extra equipment that should make the task of ending LRA leader Mr Joseph Kony’s activities much simpler.
To that end, the public was soon told how sophisticated ground attack helicopters were now part of the army’s arsenal, which we assume were subsequently deployed as part of Mr Museveni’s “Combined Armed Element” strategy.
As matters stand, however, the rebels are still running around sowing mayhem. They are now even carrying out attacks on Christian missions yet the Church has been instrumental in trying to bring the conflict to a peaceful end.
Nobody can condone the impunity of Mr Kony’s band. Nobody can also be seen to be disparaging the declared efforts of the national army to contain the menace. But the country needs some answers.
Responsible government also means accountable government. The people have the constitutional right to be told what is happening.
It is especially troubling that there is this resurgence in the killings when the country was told by senior members of government early in the year that the LRA had been reduced to 500 or so men.
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
