Allowing a system of multiparty politics in Uganda could have large impacts on how the situation in the northern region is handled. While Ugandans began turning out at the polls Thursday to vote on a constitutional referendum allowing a multiparty system in their country, many in the North were unable to vote because of their location in internally displaced person's camps. While the conflict in northern Uganda has waged on for over 19 years, so has the official ban on multipartyism. Under current President Yoweri Museveni, the idea of multipartyism had been controlled under the argument that tribal divisions would be difficult to keep in check and that these systems are to blame for decades of oppression.

Today, however, the press in Uganda gave mixed reviews on the vote and turnout was much less than many government officials had hoped for. Read here what the two leading daily papers in Uganda had to say.

Read here what the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks had to say about the vote also.

Reuters reports that the chief of the UN's children's fund (UNICEF), Ann Veneman, travelled to northern Uganda to highlight the severity of the crisis there.

"The circumstances that children are facing here are disgraceful and outrageous... We are very concerned about the plight of children, especially because this war targets children," she said.

Veneman met with Ugandan President Youweri Museveni and discussed the conflict. The President expressed optimism in the possibility of a military victory over the LRA, while the challenges to peace talks grow due to breakdowns in communication with the rebel leadership and the likely issuing of arrest warrants for LRA commanders by the International Criminal Court.

American Idol superstar Clay Aiken toured projects sponsored by UNICEF in northern Uganda including internally displaced person's camps, night commuter shelters and reception centers for formerly abducted children in Kitgum, Gulu and Katakwi districts.

"Northern Uganda is one of the most dangerous places in the world for children," said Aiken. "Children are being forced to commit appalling acts of violence. Children are being killed and raped. It was all too clear that those living in the conflict-affected districts of Uganda deserve much more. The global community must act now with utmost urgency to put an end to these atrocities. No progress will be made until there is peace throughout the country." (Read the UNICEF press release here.)

Aiken has also testified on behalf of UNICEF before the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs of the Committee on Appropriations, urging Congress to support a $130 million U.S. contribution to UNICEF. Read his full testimony here.

Earlier this month, President Museveni answered questions from people all over the world on a global phone-in programme "Talking Point." Read the transcript on the BBC website to see what Museveni himself has to say about the future of Uganda and why the conflict in the northern region has waged on for his entire presidency.

The following poem was compiled by Stephen Okello and Patrick Bwire. Stephen is Uganda-CAN's Director of Operations in Uganda.

"Children of war, Crying for Peace"

We are the children of war in Uganda,
We are not worriers, nor do we have weapons,
We can’t retreat, neither can we surrender,
For we are not warring rebels and armed forces with weapons,
We have been displaced, enslaved andencamped,
Living in the worst human conditions,
Crying for peace.

We are tortured, raped, demoralised,
assaulted, defiled, robbed and rendered useless,
Without light in the cold darkness,
Nights are longer than days,
For we are the war victims in our beautiful motherland,
Crying for Peace.

There is no sign for the dying hour, for any second death strikes,
On the edges of death is where we live,
Among armed soldiers, rebels and landmines,
And the blasting sounds of bombs replace the sweet melodies of Adungu our local guitar.
For we deserve no mercy… , we sometimes think,
Scorched with hunger and disease for years,
Oh Jesus! look upon us, your innocent children,
Crying for Peace.

We need the grains and flour, for we are hungry,
The milk and water we need, for we are thirsty and malnourished,
The dark verandas and open fields, are our refuge,
In the darkness without shelter, we stay,
Braving piercing coldness, that covers us all night long,
Crying for Peace.

Please stop the carnage, return the weapons to the armoury, so we can live
Let your warmth of love flow, to confort us and we will play,
Our brothers and sisters are sick, bedridden, they yearn for life,
The new-born and toddlers need the chance to live, and enjoy God given life,
For we are the next generation,
Crying for Peace.

Fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters have for too long cried for Peace,
They are displaced and amputated, traumatised and hopeless,
Rebels and soldiers please stop the war, bury the hatchet and reconcile,
Reconciliation is our pledge ,
It’s in ‘YOU’ that our hope lies,
As we are not warriors, without weapons, yet powerless,
We are victims of war in our own country, Mother Uganda, the Pearl of Africa,
Crying for Peace.

19 years of war and unhappiness,
In the forgotten land - Northern Uganda,
Where death is no news any longer,
Where the street is our dwelling place, and depleted classrooms is where we acquire knowledge,
East –West, home is the worst for us,
For it is where we are abducted, poor children of God,

To you all,
Do not forget us, we plead, the helpless children of Adam and Eve,
We are all created in the same image of God, for my bible says,
But we are the victims of war and neglected,
Crying for Peace,
Oh God come to our rescue, we cry out for mercy.

The Uganda Conflict Action Network has officially become a supporter the BeAWitness.org campaign to press for more attention on the genocide in Sudan and the humanitarian crisis facing the whole Great Lakes Region of Africa.

The campaign website reads, "The central component of the BeAWitness.org campaign is a simple website that educates visitors about Darfur and encourages them to send a message to major television networks asking them to increase their coverage of the genocide. The campaign’s message balances criticism of the current lack of major media coverage of Darfur with recognition of the power of televised media to inform the public and drive action, as we recently saw in the case of the tsunami." Visit the website at www.beawitness.org.

The Ugandan Parliament cast its final vote today in approval of constitutional changes that include the lifting of presidential term limits, reports Uganda's Daily Monitor. This paves the way for Uganda's current President, Yoweri Museveni, to stand again in the upcoming January 2006 elections. The international community has expressed serious misgivings about such a development, noting questionable tactics employed by the government in its quest for reelection as well as potentially serious challenges to democratic development should Museveni win a third term. Museveni's reelection could also pose difficulties to achieving peace in northern Uganda, where trust between the government and the LRA is weak and much of the region's population blames the government for the war's perpetuation.

The British Guardian reports today that the Ugandan army has killed both the chief of staff of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the son of Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA. This news broke late last week, but the coverage by a major British newspaper shows that global interest/attention to northern Uganda is increasing. Read the article in today's Guardian.

Reuters is reporting today that at least 14 people were killed in an LRA attack on the Kitgum District, which borders Sudan. Read the articles at Reuters Alertnet.

Guest Op/Edcolumn by well-known Acholi writer Morris D C Komakech, who was born in the northern Uganda district of Pader and fled when he was 9-years old. He now lives, studies and writes in Canada. Contact Morris at mokoms@hotmail.com. --

Editor's Note: Uganda-CAN has not yet taken an official stance on the complicity of the Ugandan government in the real mass suffering of the people of northern Uganda.

The war in Acholi is more than genocide and yet less than what a lot of people have not known in the history of mankind. For 19 years, Acholi people living in Northern Uganda have been sacrificed for decimation and ethnic cleansing by their own government and the international community.

The Kony/ Museveni war is hopelessly opportunistic in two forms; one that it gave the US government easy route to support Col Garang’s SPLA through Uganda and that it gave the Ugandan government international as well as national political capital. Kony with his rag tag army could not last 19 years since the government managed to thwart more serious insurgencies such as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) operating from Mount Ruwenzori in western Uganda very decisively.

But the war was constructed to target the Acholi by both parties; namely Lord Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony and National Resistance Army (NRA) of President Museveni.

Acholi have not supported Museveni in the 19 years and so the government wants to punish the population. The government permits the LRA to abduct children who are later conscripted into the rebel ranks and returned to fight in Uganda.

The war has cost the people a lot. They have lost their homes as they live in concentration camps. They rely on donated foods. The government has imposed a curfew from 4pm through 10am so that anybody found outside the camp is shot on sight. This means the people can not till their land to supplement the little food from WFP.

There is widespread HIV/AIDS in Uganda estimated that 27% of every child born is infected and over 27,000 people were spontaneously found to carry the HIV virus. The night commuters, children who leave their homes to seek safety on the town streets in Acholi are potential victims of rape and abduction. There are child mothers as young as 14yrs old carrying children of men who they don’t even know because they were raped.

There are no infrastructures to support the population as they are isolated from the rest of the country.

The pain and horror of living in Acholi is simply unbearable and it is a shame for the international community not to treat this issue with utmost seriousness. Children have never had chance to experience childhood but brutal war. That means all those born since 1986 have not known peace. That is a dead generation of Acholi whose social life have been dislocated and submersed in chaos and violence. The only thing that Acholi thrives on right now is the will to live. This will is soon evaporating too since they have found no voice or companion in their wanton suffering.

The tears of pain no longer drop from the eyes of an Acholi person as we are alienated from the world and juxtaposed into lone world of unrivalled misery. Rather the tears of joy is what we anticipate when Kony and Museveni leave the people to rest in peace so they can attend to their wounds. May the soul of those who are robbed of their young life find eternal peace in heaven since they have lived their earthly life already in hell in Northern Uganda.