Stop the violence in northern Uganda
- by: The Uganda Untold Project at the University of Dela, The Uganda Untold Project
- recipient: Joe Biden, Senator, U.S. Senator from Delaware
The Uganda Untold Project at the University of Delaware is asking the Delaware Congressional delegation to propose a "sense of the congress" resolution asking President Bush to meet with President Museveni to express concern about the conflict in northern Uganda and to offer support to the Ugandan government to bring peace to the country.
Dear Senator Biden, Senator Carper, and Congressman Castle,
We are writing to you today on behalf of the Uganda Untold Project at the University of Delaware to express our deep concern about the conflict in northern Uganda. The Uganda Untold Project is comprised of a group of students from the University who recently had the privilege of meeting Mr. Olara Otunnu, former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Mr. Otunnu came to Mr. Ralph Begleiter's Global Agenda class on March 8, and spoke about the crisis in northern Uganda, opening our eyes to the incredible violence taking place there.
Mr. Otunnu brought to our attention the toll the twenty year cycle of violence is taking on the people of northern Uganda. We learned children are the victims of kidnapping and brainwashing by the Lord's Resistance Army and have been the most vulnerable in this conflict. Mr. Otunnu also described to us the government-run "protected villages" which often lack basic food, water, and sanitation, where
95% of the Acholi people have been forced to live.We were shocked to hear nearly 1,000 people die every week in government-run internally displaced persons camps in a conflict that still lacks a decisive response from the international community.
Mr. Otunnu's speech inspired us to form a committee to promote awareness and seek the end of the suffering of the people of northern Uganda. The Uganda Untold Project at UD is raising awareness on the University of Delaware campus and within the larger community about the history and the current conflict in northern Uganda with documentaries, informational events, and letters to our local newspapers. Most importantly, we are using this new awareness to ask you Senator Biden, and the rest of the Delaware delegation to present a Delaware-sponsored resolution that will ask President Bush to meet with President Museveni and discuss the Congress' concern about the violence in Uganda and offer support to President Museveni's peaceful attempts to find a solution to the conflict.
Senator Biden, we believe that with your influential position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee you have a unique voice in Congress representing the Delaware community. Your resolution of early March calling on the White House for decisive action in Darfur and the passage of S. Res. 366, co-sponsored by Senator Carper, in February, shows you support the kind of action that we, of Uganda Untold, are seeking for the conflict in Uganda. Yet S. Res. 366, calling for international recognition of the atrocities and humanitarian aid does not go far enough. The destruction and loss of life of this crisis continues, despite calls for humanitarian aid. More targeted steps must be taken that show the people of northern Uganda that they have not been forgotten and left to their fate. Attached please find a resolution we ask you to consider supporting. To represent Delaware citizens concerned about the conflict in Uganda, we ask that you support a conflict that desperately needs international attention.
Thank you for your time and we look forward to hearing how you plan to address the conflict in northern Uganda.
Sincerely,
The Uganda Untold Project and Students from the University of Delaware
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