150 McGill students and Montrealers convened at the Roddick Gates at 2 p.m. last Saturday, Oct. 20, to participate in a one-day, world-wide protest against the raging civil war in Uganda. This event was organized by GuluWalk, an international grassroots organization that often focuses on the plight of Ugandan children caught in the midst of this 21-year long civil war.
The protesters marched in downtown Montreal, sporting bright orange t-shirts and eye-catching signs with statements such as, "More than 25,000 children have been abducted during the war" and "Each day, 58 children under the age of five die as a result of violence and preventable diseases."
Some protesters also carried white donation boxes to raise money for Ugandan community and rehabilitation centers.
"The World Food Program needs a military escort to protect food trucks from being attacked," said Whitney McInnis, organizer of the event.
Protesters hope to put an end to the ongoing violence between the rebel army, the Lord's Resistance Army and the government-backed Ugandan Army by raising awareness and eliciting the intervention of those governments in a position to make a difference.
"The goal of the march is to say 'no' to the war in Uganda and to promote justice," said Sita Kamba, a Montreal artist. "It's also a great opportunity to give this issue exposure and to shock people into action."
"I want to show the hypocrisy underlying the LRA because it has allegedly been created to respect the Ten Commandments," said William Tayeebwa, a Concordia communication Ph.D. candidate.
Teresa Murphy, a McGill alumnus, insisted that governmental action
is imperative.
"I'd like the US and Canadian governments to pressure the Ugandan government to bring peace to the north of their nation and to provide relief for the thousands of their suffering children," she said. "Our governments have to do something; there are 200,000 children who haven't been going to school."
McInnis, who hoped the protest would garner attention from Parliament in hopes of involving the federal government in potential peace talks, believes that "the Canadian government needs to say they are supporting peace talks in Uganda."
As the United Nations does not have any mandate for conflicts within a nation or for internally displaced persons, grassroots organizations like GuluWalk play a large role in the fight for peace. McInnis emphasized that, "there are 1.8-million people living in internally displaced camps of disgusting and squalid conditions."
McInnes further stressed how easy and important it is for McGill students to get involved.
"I don't understand how [the war has lasted] 21 years and no international [coalition of] governments is getting involved and students are so trapped in their 'bubble'," she said. "There are lots of things people can do."
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