Real Terror

And real terrorists.

A war of information and dis-information is raging. Kony the Beast's camps were raided. It is almost certain that they were empty, but what the hell. The soil was bombed. Quite unlike what is happening in Gaza at the moment. Shrug...!

Anyway, the beast, having not drawn blood for years (not sure of that, or at least, it hasnt made it into the news here,) has decided to go on a spree of massacres. Now it is not Ugandans. No, it is the long hurting Congo (DRC) people.

What we are hearing of the conflict is, well, slanted. But interesting. The government paper tells of the rebels who have been killed. The 'Independent' paper tells us of the massacres that are ongoing. Oh well....!

Massacre: Kony slaughters 45 in church

Grace Matsiko

Kampala

Suspected Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on Friday hacked to death 45 civilians in a church in the DR Congo, bringing the number killed in the central African country and South Sudan to 90 in four days, an aid agency and military officials have said. The army yesterday said it had followed the rebels and killed 13 members of the rebel unit behind the church massacre.

Most of the 45 civilians cut with pangas and clubs inside a catholic church, about 10km south east of Doruma in northeastern DRC, were women, children and the elderly, an aid agency official who did not want to be named for security reasons told Daily Monitor yesterday.

He said the civilians could not flee following suspected LRA rebel attacks on Christmas Day. Doruma is about 80km from the DRC border with the Central African Republic. “Bodies of women and children, with deep cuts are littered inside and outside the church,” the aid official said. “The residents have fled the place and are in Dungu where they expect protection from the DRC government.”

The spokesman for the allied forces, Capt. Chris Magezi, yesterday confirmed the massacre via satellite telephone link from DRC but added that the army yesterday directly engaged the rebels, killing 13 of them.

Absurdities

Uganda.

A land of interesting absurdities. Sometimes I cannot believe that I can zoom from an internet age to a pre-historic age, all in the same country. It is my country. I would not change it for any other, but I cannot close my eyes to what is!

We have a madman called Kony who for 20 years or so has been leading an armed resistance in the northern part of the country. He wants to establish a society that is based on the Ten Commandments. He calls it the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). For that reason he has waged a war of fear, and naked terror. Cutting off the noses and lips of people, if he does not kill them outright. His own people. Abducting children, to turn them into child soldiers to swell his ranks. Others for his sex slaves. He has established a virtual kingdom where he is the absolute ruler.

We have been having an absurdly stupid peace process going on. Absurd because it has been on and off for more than a year. Yet good because in that year, for the first time in more than ten years, there has been a relative peace in the north of the country. Children have been able to go back to school. Those who were displaced in the camps have returned home. Children no longer trek to Gulu to sleep, fearing abduction if they stay at home.

In the last week we learnt that he apparently had some differences with his second in command, and third in command, maybe. The two underlings seemed not to have survived the clash with the master. He has appointed others. What does it mean for the peace process?

Sometimes it bothers me how cheap life, our lives seem. Relative to the whole large world out there.

In Kampala, we are preparing for that Commonwealth meeting. CHOGM. I am heartily sick of the preparations.

Yet I cannot help but think of the different priorities which we all have, though in the same country. I want the war in the north to end, conclusively, permanently. So do most Ugandans. But at the moment, we are preparing for a party, and we cannot but be distracted by the coming festivities. The whole country is involved.

And the situation in the Kony Camps just on the other side of the border is (maybe) bad.

We human beings are an absurd lot. Very illogical. The things which concern us differ, and they concern us for a very short time. Short attention span!

I am more concerned by the traffic jams, the problems getting home after work, by how bad the city will be disrupted during the 3 days of the meeting. The Kony thing is at the periphery of my thoughts. I know the madman is really mad, but since he is so far away, I would rather be concerned by the more immediate problems of food in my stomach!

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