Monday, March 8, 2004
SHEILA SISULU
African Union Can Step In to End LRA Horror
It is a massive operation, to support which WFP is asking donors to hand over some $6 million a month. The beneficiaries, however, are not the victims of drought, or any other natural disaster; if they were allowed to lead normal lives, most of them would probably not need any food aid at all. Their plight is the direct consequence of a 17-year campaign of violence and intimidation by the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord�s Resistance Army.
Patrick was just 11 years old when the LRA rebels came to his village. They arrived at night and took him and some of his friends away with them. They travelled for miles through the bush until they crossed the border into Sudan. There they spent several weeks being trained to use weapons. Then they were sent to plunder, kill and maim.
Patrick, who is now 12, was one of the lucky ones. During a clash with Ugandan troops, he was shot in the leg and left for dead by the LRA. He has since been cared for at a special centre for escaped abductees run by World Vision, receiving food from WFP. Now he wants to save lives and hopes one day to become a doctor.
His story is not unusual in northern Uganda. Similar accounts could come from any one of the survivors of an estimated 30,000 children abducted by the LRA since the mid 1990s � boys forced to become killers, young girls made into "campaign wives" � or sex slaves.
Since the first LRA attack on an army base in Gulu in 1986, rebel activity has spread right across northern and some of eastern Uganda, where the people have been subjected to repeated attacks, abductions, killings, rape, maiming and torture � mostly at the hands of children. About 75 per cent of the population in the north, some 1.6 million people, have fled their homes and are now living in camps, surviving on food aid from WFP � the only humanitarian agency to reach all the camps in the region.
Even in the camps, they are not safe from the LRA � as was so horrifically demonstrated by last month�s massacre of some 200 people in the Barlonyo camp north of Lira. WFP has begun distributing food to the survivors of the attack as well as providing a consignment of food to Lira�s district hospital for the injured.
Normal life is simply not an option for the people of northern Uganda � and this will not change while the LRA remains active. All WFP and other humanitarian organisations can do is to ensure that they have the basic necessities for survival. Thanks to the efforts of the humanitarian community, the inhabitants of the camps have food supplies, basic health care, water and sanitation � and in some cases, limited access to education. But humanitarian intervention cannot provide solutions to conflict. That requires political action.
This is a moment of opportunity. Some military successes by Ugandan military forces in recent weeks may have weakened the position of the LRA. There is also an expectation that the anticipated peace agreement in Sudan will have a positive impact on reducing the level of the crisis in northern Uganda in 2004.
What is needed now is political commitment by influential leaders to find a solution. This is a chance for the African Union in particular to demonstrate that it has both the will and the authority to break through the impasse that has doomed every previous attempt to end this conflict.
No one expects the world�s conflicts to end overnight. But for politicians to turn their backs on them, or pretend that they are not happening, is to flout the lofty development goals those same leaders set themselves for the new millennium at the UN General Assembly.
Conversely, if the millions spent on waging those wars could instead be dedicated to improving the lives of the people affected by them, there would be a real chance of attaining those goals.
Shiela Sisulu is Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme. She will be visiting Uganda from March 13-19
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