Ireland Envoy Condemns LRA

Oct 31, 2002

The Irish ambassador, Martin O’Fainin, yesterday described the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels of Joseph Kony as “morally bankrupt.”<br>

By Hamis Kaheru
The Irish ambassador, Martin O’Fainin, yesterday described the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels of Joseph Kony as “morally bankrupt.”
O’Fainin was speaking at the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) offices in Kampala where he announced a grant of Euros 450,000 (sh796.5m) from the Irish government in support of the commission’s activities in Karamoja.
The envoy was touched by the attrocities inflicted on civilians in northern Uganda by the marauding rebels whose 16-year long campaign has been characterised by rape, abduction, murder and destruction of property.
O’Fainin said the LRA atrocities could best be understood from photographs published by The New Vision on October 28. The grisly pictures showed the massacre of 28 residents in Gang Pa Aculu trading centre, Omot sub-county in Pader district.
The rebels forced survivors to cook human flesh in a clay pot but were dispersed by the UPDF before they forced the captives to turn into cannibals.
“This is an example of the depths of depravity to which people who are morally bankrupt and are answerable to no one can sink,” O’Fainin said in reference to the massacre.
“It is a frightening example of what happens when hatred and evil spiral out of control to inflict misery, suffering and death on the innocent,” he said.
The envoy said donors were happy that the Government had kept the door open for peace talks. He said European Union envoys were to meet President Yoweri Museveni in Gulu today to be briefed about the war.
The money is meant to facilitate Civil Military Centres in Moroto, Kotido and Nakapiripirit districts under the disarmament programme. Ends

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