Today being the day that it is, I feel it would only be appropriate to write on a topic that I find to be infinitely scarier and unfortunately more real than anything Halloween has or will ever have to offer.
This particular story of paramount horror takes place in a desolated, corrupt Uganda and begins 20 years back. The main characters include President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, the malicious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and over two million dehumanized and displaced Ugandan civilians.
In Northern Uganda, an ongoing genocide has been orchestrated by President Museveni against millions of innocent men, women and children for two decades now. President Museveni has predominately conducted the business of his governmental genocidal campaign in death camps that he proudly disguises to the barely concerned international community as “protected villages.”
95 percent, approximately two million people have been forced from their homes in Northern Uganda and herded into such death camps where they will almost certainly see their last day on Earth.
For the most part, the causes of death in these camps are almost all preventable health-related issues. Almost ninety percent of deaths are attributed to squalor, disease and a lack of food, water, sanitation and severe overcrowding.
These disgusting conditions have been planned and implemented by the government of Uganda and rightfully meet the Geneva Convention’s official definition of genocide. In fact it’s under the strict supervision of President Museveni that violence, rape and the deliberate spread of HIV/AIDS has been perpetrated against Ugandan civilians. Consequently, though not surprisingly, suicide has now become a leading cause of death among many in these “protected villages” along with starvation, malnutrition and tuberculosis to just name a few others.
To even obtain meager quantities of water and ungrounded grain to barely survive upon, citizens in these death camps must wait in line for days at a time. The government has warned such citizens that if they are found outside the ambits of these camps that they will then be shot.
As a consequence, many women and young girls within these “protected villages” are forced to exchange sex for basic necessities, thus further contributing to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Peace talks between the government of Uganda and the LRA are now in their second year but remain primarily superficial.
Museveni’s government and military hardly protect these “protected villages” against the LRA and in many cases is directly responsible for the unspeakable injustices suffered by civilians within them.
The conditions within Museveni’s camps caused more deaths than the LRA itself during the crisis’ climax in 2005.
Furthermore, it’s Museveni’s government that has employed the use of child soldiers, torture and practically every form of human rights abuse in its history.
President Bush invited the Museveni to the White House just yesterday for a series of ostensible discussions regarding various Ugandan affairs.
It’s frightening to think that one of the world’s most despicable leaders is able to carry out such horrific deeds in his own country but continue to trick or treat at the White house and still receive candy with a smile.
What are your thoughts on Uganda? E-mail them to [email protected].
