Madam, - Barry Harbison asks has the world forgotten about the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? (March 27th) and the answer has to be yes. Not for nothing has it been dubbed Africa's "forgotten war".
I fail to understand how a war that has entailed the deaths of over 3 million people and caused massive suffering for many millions more, can receive such scant coverage. Readers of newspapers, with one or two exceptions, could be forgiven for not knowing that this major humanitarian disaster had ever happened.
At its height, this "forgotten" war involved several militia groups and the armies of six African nations many of whom were more interested in getting their hands on the vast mineral wealth of the DRC than in any great political cause. There is an Irish angle to this story because our Government gave Uganda, one of the countries involved in the fighting in DRC, €40 million last year in overseas aid.
I would appeal once again to the Irish Government to withdraw its support to the Ugandan Government whose record on corruption and human rights is appalling. If their activities in the DRC had been given the blanket media coverage that the Iraqi war is receiving I have no doubt the people of this country would be taking to the streets in their thousands and the government would have no hesitation in withdrawing their support. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN O'SHEA, GOAL, PO Box 19, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.