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Lord's Resistance Army Slaughters 45 Women and Children in Church
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by Tina Kells | December 29, 2008 at 09:43 am
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Military officials in Uganda are claiming that the rebel militia Lord's Resistance Army has slaughtered at least 45 Catholics, including children, in a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Lord's Resistance Army denies the claim but anonymous officials in the region have confirmed the massacre.
"Bodies of the women and children, with deep cuts are littered inside and outside the church," an aid official told The Monitor.
Witness Abel Longi told the AP news agency that he recognised the LRA rebels by their dreadlocked hair, their Acholi language and the number of young boys among them.
"I hid in bush near the church and heard people wailing as they were being cut with machetes," he said.
However, LRA spokesman David Nekorach Matsanga has denied that the rebels are behind the killings.
The church massacre occurred during mass on December 27 and the victims were mostly Catholic women and children. While the initial body count sits at 45 some witnesses claim that it could grow as high as 100 or more. The killings are the latest incident of shocking violence in a bloody civil conflict that has been raging for years.
Capt Chris Magezi said it happened the day after Christmas near Doruma, close to the border with South Sudan.
He said the scene at the church was "horrendous... dead bodies of mostly women and children cut in pieces".
A rebel spokesman has denied responsibility for the killings, which follow a collapse in the peace process.
Other reports say more than 100 people were killed.
The UN's humanitarian agency, Ocha, says 189 people were killed in the region at the end of last week, reports the Reuters news agency.
The Lord's Resistance Army has repeatedly refused to enter in to peace treaties with the government and vows to continue its struggle against the region's reigning authority. Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony is wanted by the international community on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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at 10:49 on December 29th, 2008
I have no clue what to say any longer when it comes to Uganda other that Idi Amin Dada has left his mark on that country for a long time to come.
at 10:49 on December 29th, 2008
Idi Amin Dada (c.1925[1] – 16 August 2003), commonly known as Idi Amin, was aUgandan military dictator and the president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles, in 1946, and advanced to the rank of Major General and Commander of the Ugandan Army. He took power in amilitary coup in January 1971, deposing Milton Obote. His rule was characterized byhuman rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings and the expulsion of Asians from Uganda. The number of people killed as a result of his regime is unknown: estimates from human rights groups range from 100,000 to 500,000.
From 1977 to 1979, Amin titled himself as "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor[2] Idi Amin Dada, VC,[3] DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular."[4] In 1975–1976, despite opposition[citation needed], Amin became the Chairman of the Organization of African Unity, a pan-Africanistgroup designed to promote solidarity of the African states.[5] During the 1977–1979 period, Uganda was appointed to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.[6]
Dissent within Uganda, and Amin's attempt to annex the Kagera province of Tanzaniain 1978, led to the Uganda-Tanzania War and the fall of his regime in 1979. Amin fled to Libya, before relocating to Saudi Arabia in 1981, where he died in 2003.