Those of you who were on Ugandanet in 1996 wil lremember the concerted effort and collective determination by a cross-section of Ugandans from around the world that culminated in an e-petition to the governement to initiate peace talks with the LRA and end the war in the north. For those who joined after that, the net-community then asked Prof Charles Olweny (Canada), Prof Geoffrey Buga (South Africa) and myself (then in Singapore) to draft the petition and have it okayed and signed by willing members of the net.
This we did and, if memory serves me right, a duly signed petition was submitted to governement in (or around April 1996), notwithstanding Museveni's promise to end the war in 90 days. And as we all know that noble effort was misunderstood as being "anti-governement" or being supported by forces that were anti-government. And yet our plea was simple: it did not matter who was stronger, it did not matter who was right, the truth was that the suffering among the people in the war zone was too much and the only way to end it, and end it fast was by sitting down to talk. Members will therefore excuse my scepticism regarding the Juba talks - certainly too little,too late for a whole generation of our compatriots who have been born and raised in the captivity of the IDPs. Best regards, Yoswa PS: Compatriot Ochan Otim, you keep records very well, do you by any chance have that letter/petition among your saved docs somewhere? I'd like to refresh my memory on our thinking at the time. _______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net 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. ---------------------------------------
