Uganda: Interview With Unicef Executive Director Carol Bellamy
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
May 31, 2004
Posted to the web May 31, 2004
Kampala
The executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, visited
camps for displaced people in northern Uganda from 25 to 27 May. Among others, she met
"night commuters" - children who trek into the towns every night to avoid being
abducted by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army. On return to the capital, Kampala,
she talked to IRIN about what she had seen and what could be done. Below are excerpts:
QUESTION: How would you describe the situation you have just seen in northern Uganda?
ANSWER: Northern Uganda presents a situation of extraordinary violation of the rights
of children. First, close to 1.6 million people have been displaced from their homes,
and 80 percent of these are women and children. Secondly, very specifically, one of
the fighting forces - the rebels, have based much of their fighting on the use of
children abducted from the area.
It is an explicit violation of children's rights and a humanitarian crisis directly
affecting children. It is a crisis of enormous proportion, one that unfortunately is
not getting the attention it ought to get both from the perspective of intervention
from a humanitarian point of view and therefore the resources needed, whether for
food, health or education; and from the global community in terms of encouraging a
movement towards peace.
Q: What did you see or hear during your visit to the region?
A: I have seen many disturbing images during my time with UNICEF, but few of them are
as shocking as the sight of the "night commuters" whom I saw just two nights ago. I
call them small communities who are flowing in huge numbers into shelters in Gulu,
where 90 percent of the population has been forced from their homes by the conflict,
but less than 20 percent have access to effective health care. The number of children
suffering from severe malnutrition is probably around 7,000 every month, but only 700
access health services. These figures and images show that Uganda is home to one of
the worst humanitarian crises in the world today. HIV/AIDS is spreading in the north
at an alarming rate and basic literacy is in decline.
Q: Given what you saw during your trip, what can be done to alleviate the suffering of
the people of this region?
A: We would like to see every effort towards a peaceful resolution, so that government
and rebels can come to a peaceful solution in the medium term. Right now, there is
need for serious humanitarian intervention from the international community and from
the government itself. The government needs to focus its efforts in this area. The
people need food, they need shelter, and they need security. The children need to go
to school even if they still live under these conditions. They need clean water and
sanitation. These kinds of humanitarian interventions are critical. We at UNICEF are
strengthening our efforts in this area, and others should do the same.
Q: What is UNICEF going to do to strength its efforts to address the situation?
A: We have been working in the north for the last 20 years. From last year when the
number of the displaced increased, we have expanded our physical presence in the
north. I was there and inaugurated an office in Gulu. We have some more staff, not
only in Gulu but also in Lira and in Kitgum. We are particularly focusing on issues of
children's health, support immunisation for children, not only in the community but
also in the camps [and] make sure that sanitary facilities in the camps are improved.
We have provided building materials for temporary learning centres. We also try to
help young children to access very simple playing materials, but largely focusing on
life-saving types of health needs to make sure that the kids don't become a lost
generation in terms of not being in school. We are supporting our partners in
providing shelter and some protective environment for the so-called night commuters:
the thousands of children who run away or are urged by their parents to run from their
homes at night to shelters in town.
Q: The situation seems to be overwhelming. How does it affect UNICEF's operations in
the country?
A: The violation of one child's rights is probably overwhelming. But you are talking
about 1.6 million people, of whom 80 percent are women and children: this is a very
serious emergency. We have done some adjustments in our budget to cater for this
emergency. We are also seeking other funding to supplement the adjustments we have
made in our budget. We need about US $7.5 million, of which we have received more than
$3 million. In order not to delay, we have also done some internal borrowing to allow
us expand our effort more rapidly.
Q: You met the displaced and other groups. What was your message to them?
A: Our message is that they can count on UNICEF as a partner. We will continue to
help. But humanitarian action is only that: a managerial action. What needs to happen
is peace, and that has to be led by government and the rebels, though I did not meet
the rebels.
One other additional message that I think is very important at this point is that in
the most affected areas of the north, the government needs to look at how it is
allocating its approved budget resources. Since the budget goes very much to
districts, I was urging the government that the resources approved should follow the
people where they have fled.
Q: What would you say to both the government and the rebels?
A: My message would be to encourage what the government has said they want to provide:
an amnesty. If the amnesty could work, I would certainly urge the rebels to take
advantage of the amnesty. I would urge both rebels and the government to continue
seeking all possible avenues of peace.
Q: As you return to New York, what impressions of the Ugandan situation do you leave
with?
A: Uganda's social and economic progress will not continue unless there is peace
throughout the country. The plight of a million children in the north directly
affected by the conflict is a matter of urgency for us as humanitarians, for the
government of Uganda, which has direct responsibility for its people, and indeed for
all of us as human beings.
I will be leaving Uganda with deeply mixed feelings. On one hand, I see the tremendous
progress that has taken place in this most beautiful of countries. But on the other, I
will be troubled by my memory of mothers in the north who love their children so much
that they send them away from their homes every night to seek safety and the
protection that they are powerless to offer.
Relevant Links
East Africa
Children and Youth
Uganda
Civil War and Communal Conflict
Q: What would be your comment on the talks between the Sudanese government and the
rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, which could impact on the situation in northern
Uganda?
A: Peace has taken a long time to come by in Sudan and, as with all peace processes,
it is not an easy process. One would hope that people won't give up hope of reaching
peace here in northern Uganda. If peace can be reached in Sudan, it can be reached
even in northern Uganda.
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