While much of the North American and European left is (rightly) outraged over the US aggression against Iraq and the chaos it's provoked, spare a few thoughts for a conflict whose violent death rate is THREE TIMES higher than that of Iraq.
No, it's not Palestine or Chechnya or Tibet or any conflict more fashionable with the European literati or Hollywood glitterati. It's the long, brutal war in northern Uganda.
As The East African weekly reported:
A report issued by a coalition of over 50 leading non-governmental organisations, Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU), reveals new facts and figures showing the brutal impact of the conflict on the civilian population between government forces and those of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
The report describes northern Uganda as a catastrophe fuelled by terrible acts of war and violence and by a shameful litany of failure. It also shows the continuing failure of the LRA to cease its brutal campaign of violence against civilians, and the failure of both the government and the international community to uphold their legal obligations to secure the protection, security, and peace of the civilians of northern Uganda.
The northern Ugandan rebels was one of the first groups to systematically employ child soldiers as a conscious 'military' tactic. (And by 'child,' I don't mean 16 and 17 year olds but kids who are often 12 or younger)
As if to demonstrate why peace and security and prerequisites to any serious economic development:
The report, Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in northern Uganda, estimates the devastating economic cost of the war at $1.7 billion over the course of the past two decades. This is equivalent to the total US aid to Uganda between 1994 and 2002.
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save a child
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