By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
The Sunrise of 16th-23rd November 2007 had three pieces with titles “Ayena a danger to reconciliation” by Alpha Katz; “Stop rewarding rebels” by Onek Lazarus and “LRA treated like real Lords” by Mukiibi Sserunjogi. The three articles were the same in content with a general view that the LRA must never be forgiven because of the atrocities they committed in northern Uganda.
Until I read the above mentioned articles, I believed that journalists, especially those in Uganda are conversant with common knowledge that the media has a lot of influence on attaining peace in northern Uganda. I was further convinced that every journalist/media house is working towards achieving total peace in that part of the country. I now know that either the three authors were not aware of the consequences of what they wrote or they do not care altogether whether peace returns to the north or not. Dwight Eisenhower once wrote, "I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than are governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it." The message that has been repeated severally has been that people in the north are tired of war and anything; I repeat anything that can bring an end to their suffering would be a welcome relief to the people affected and the whole country at large. I share the same sentiment.
The semblance of peace that has come to northern Uganda in the last one year or so has made some people to think that Kony (LRA) has been completely decimated to the point of complete military incapacity to make any more attacks and incursions on the people and their property, something that is farfetched. This view is mainly being propagated by people who have been less affected by the war. They have never experienced the hallowing encounter that the people of northern Uganda have dealt with for more than two decades. I do not wholly blame some pessimists though because they can not fathom a scenario where Kony and his henchmen can be forgiven let alone reward them materially given the unimaginable atrocities they committed. It is hard to believe but it has to be done for the sake of peace.
It is important for people to know that Kony has the means and capacity to cause more havoc when peace fails because he has little to lose, yet on the other hand the affected people and the government have everything to lose. Only two LRA rebels are capable of causing mayhem in a whole village. There is a saying in one of the local languages that “A powerful person can kill your father and later take your mother as his wife”. The LRA can therefore be equated to the strong man because it has terrorized northern Uganda for a very long time.
The LRA does not have any credibility nor does it have the moral instinct to discern the importance of peace. Most of us should be grateful that they accepted to talk peace with government in the first place. People like Alpha Katz must swallow their pride and rally all Ugandans to the side of peace and reconciliation rather than agitating for harsh punishment for LRA which may lead to bloodshed and instability once more. The LRA has never and can never spare anyone’s life. The evidence of this is the rumour that Kony may have actually killed his second in command Vincent Otti. If this is true, then who would be safe when peace talks collapse? I am personally convinced that when the worst of the worst comes to bear, Kony can kill himself if that is what it would take to show to Ugandans and the current regime that he is heartless. He does not value life.
Northern Uganda has so far tested the benefits of the peace. This lull of peace, truth be told, has been due to the on going negotiations in Juba. It would be reckless for anybody to agitate and call for the reversal of this winning formula in support of the military option which did not bring peace in twenty years. The opportunity cost of not forgiving LRA is too high to pay. We cannot trust government’s pronouncements that ‘with or without peace talks peace will return to northern Uganda’. The negotiation process may take long but its benefits that will accrue are worth the waiting. Reconciliation and forgiveness to an adversary is a hard thing to do but war with its attendant effects is even a harder option.
The scars of the victims of the war will take long to heal but if peace is given chance, the rebels will not have an excuse of inflicting more pain on to new and old victims. Peace does not have a price but the price of war is too high to measure, more so if such a war has taken too long a time, displaced too many a people, uprooted and distorted to many a culture and caused untold suffering and hopelessness.
This is not to suggest that Ugandans should not recount the experiences that people in the north underwent during war. Truth must be told if the region is to have long lasting peace and for reconciliation and co-existence to occur. This must however be done with a lot of humility and humbleness so as to arouse the minimum resentment and arrogance on both sides. The fact that the LRA has been asking for forgiveness for the atrocities they committed is a good starting point. It is morally wrong to refuse to forgive someone who has asked in a sincere manner to be forgiven because then the one who is asking to be forgiven may resort to other means or may become adamant. Whether the LRA is sincere in apologizing for their crimes remains to be seen. This will specifically depend on whether the current peace obtaining in the region will last without any new attacks.
Let me end with a quotation from Louis Lecoin ; "If it were proved to me that in making war, my ideal had a chance of being realized, I would still say 'no' to war. For one does not create a human society on mounds of corpses." The LRA rebellion has created more than mounds of corpses and its time journalists and the media gave peace a chance
***The writer is a freelance human rights activist
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