Ugandan deaths are not the fault or responsibility of the United States. Iraqi deaths are both the fault and responsibility of the United States. Hence, Iraq is a far more important story for the American media to cover.

What baccus says is true. However, as pumo will no doubt soon point out, it is possible that our failure to cover, notice, or care about this terrible situation is making us more and more responsible for these deaths every day.

It would be nice if the US foreign policy was driven by concerns other than oil. It would be nice if American wealth, power, influence, and yes, even soldiers could be used to protect lives, defend human rights, and bring peace throughout the world.

Instead, we have foolish and destructive empire building. We radically destabilize countries (Iraq, Afghanistan), filling them with violent chaos in order to “democratize” them (= make them more useful and pliable subjects in the globalizing, oil-driven economy).

If the U.N got involved with the conflict in Sudan sooner maybe it would’nt have spilled over into Uganda and Chad. Sure Uganda would still be in bad shape with out the Janjaweed bringing the genocide but it’s not helping…

Hence, Iraq is a far more important story for the American media to cover.

so, the significance of a news story depends on whether or not America is involved?

that must be one of the most short sighted remarks i’ve read here in a while

eyes wide shut?

update:

Uganda: Army, Police Still Torture Suspects, Says Human Rights Commission Official

The Monitor (Kampala)
Francis Mugerwa
Kibaale

THE army and police have continued to torture and detain suspects for long hours without trial, a Uganda Human Rights Commission official has said.

“The UHRC regrets to note that abuse of human rights is on the increase in western Uganda,” Mr Bernard Turyashemererwa, the western regional senior human rights officer, said on Monday.

Turyashemererwa was presenting a paper on the enforcement of human rights during a workshop at Kagadi Community Hall. He said the two security bodies use torture as a means making suspects confess to crimes they did not commit.

“This is illegal and an abuse of suspects’ rights. Such State organs should stop using coercive measures and instead use persuasive means in carrying out investigations,” Turyashemererwa said.

“The commission receives several complaints from suspects who are detained beyond 48 hours without being produced in courts of law for prosecution.” According to the law, a suspect is supposed to be under detention for not more than 48 hours.

Turyashemererwa said the commission also receives cases of domestic violence and child neglect daily.

He commended the media for promoting human rights awareness.

so, the significance of a news story depends on whether or not America is involved?

that must be one of the most short sighted remarks i’ve read here in a while

No one questioned the significance of the story. To the American media the significance of a news story does depend on whether or not America is involved. That’s fucked up, but that’s the way it is.

You made a comparison to Iraq in your title. Since the daily rate of violent deaths in Iraq is at least in part due to the US presence in that country, that (as bacchus said) makes it a far more important story for the American media to cover, due to Americas involvment. The American media being like that doesn’t make bacchus short sighted, nor does his/her pointing it out make the comment short sighted.

Northern conflict an ‘epicentre of terror’

PATONGO, PADER, 3 Apr 2006 (IRIN) – United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland declared the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda “the world’s worst form of terrorism” during a visit on Saturday to a camp for internally displaced persons in Pader District.

“Conditions here are totally unacceptable. It has to change, because we believe people have to live a better life and have a better future,” he said during a visit to Patongo camp, some 400 km north of the capital, Kampala. Egeland, who is on a four-nation, nine-day tour of conflict- and drought-ravaged East Africa, said there was a need to provide security to the almost two million people living at camps across northern Uganda.

“Nowhere in the world is there such a concentrated area where many people are being terrorised for such a long period of time,” he said. “This is the epicentre of terror that merits more attention, more resources and more political and security involvement.”

Egeland was hopeful that people were growing more aware of the crisis, both locally and internationally. “There is now a hope that we did not have before, because there is now attention in Uganda, in the region and in the world, with a will to change the situation. I am glad that the Security Council, though belatedly, is now giving more attention to the northern Uganda crisis,” Egeland said.

For the past two decades, northern Uganda has been the scene of one of the most brutal civil wars, pitting government forces against rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), who have terrorised and killed civilians, looted food and medicine from villages and abducted thousands of children to be used as fighters, porters and sex slaves.

A week before Egeland’s visit, rebels killed a government soldier in a raid to steal food on the outskirts of Patongo, according to camp residents, who complained of widespread deprivation and fear. A joint report by 50 aid agencies working in northern Uganda, published on 30 February, said that some 146 people died each week in the region.

“Everybody has to do more; the government of Uganda has to do more. We are emphasising that the army has to provide real security for the people, not only when they are inside camps but also when they go out of these camps,” Egeland said.

The envoy also met President Yoweri Museveni and discussed the possible appointment of a UN special envoy to northern Uganda, as well as a peace mission to the region, according to a statement issued after their meeting. Egeland said that Museveni favoured a regional representative rather than an envoy to the north, arguing that the problem had become regional. The talks also explored the possibility of involving the UN in the country’s national reconciliation and the demilitarisation of the police and justice systems in the north.

Egeland’s tour of the region will also include visits to Kenya, Chad and Sudan.