Oxfam slams U.N. for failing to act on Uganda
war
11 May 2005 15:01:10
GMT
Source: Reuters
|
By Daniel
Wallis
KAMPALA, May 11 (Reuters) - The United Nations has failed again to
act decisively to end war in northern Uganda, despite being briefed on
"intolerable" humanitarian conditions in the troubled region, British aid
agency Oxfam said on Wednesday.
Violence has increased in the north since government negotiations
with rebels stalled in February. Aid agencies working in Uganda have long
called on the Security Council to put pressure on both sides to restart the
talks.
On Tuesday, U.N. aid chief Jan Egeland briefed council members on the
conflict, which pits government troops against rebels from the Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) and has forced 1.6 million people from their homes.
Emma Naylor, Oxfam's country manager in Uganda, said she was
disappointed that after the meeting the Security Council -- which has never
issued a resolution on the north -- agreed only to encourage both sides
"informally" to return to talks.
"Nearly two decades of horrific human suffering have passed, and the
security situation is getting worse, not better. Atrocities against
civilians are increasing, as well as abductions of children in Uganda and
Southern Sudan," she said in a statement.
"Yet the Security Council have once again failed to take any concrete
steps in support of a peace process. We would have at least expected a
presidential statement urging both sides to restart peace talks and setting
out what future measures the council will take."
Oxfam has called on the U.N. to ensure the protection of civilians
and to urge Uganda's government and rebels to call a new ceasefire and
recommit to fresh peace talks.
Fighting intensified after landmark talks -- including the first
face-to-face meeting between government and rebels for a decade -- stalled
in February with the surrender of the LRA's top negotiator.
Uganda's military says it killed 84 LRA fighters last month alone,
and the rebels have stepped up attacks on refugee camps, shooting and
hacking their victims to death.
Ugandan commentators say the government would prefer a military
victory over the rebels, but its helicopter gunships have been unable to
stamp out small groups of fighters moving swiftly on foot through thick
forests and rolling grasslands.
Joseph Kony, the LRA's self-styled prophet leader, is believed to be
hiding in lawless southern Sudan with some of the thousands of children
kidnapped by his cult-like group to serve as fighters and "wives".
His movement, which Egeland said was possibly the world's most
brutal, has never spelled out a clear list of demands.
"Week by week the security situation is getting worse and hundreds of
thousands of people cannot even sleep safely in their own homes," Naylor
said.
"But the Security Council has never done more than offering a few
words of sympathy. We are wondering just how bad it has to get before they
will actually take action."