[Ugnet] No fundamental change for northern Uganda

[Matek Opoko]

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not 
responsible for them in any way. -------------------------------------

No fundamental change for northern Uganda

Sverker Finnström

The situation in northern Uganda has rightly been described by the UN official Jan Egeland as one of the worst humanitarian crises of today. Displaced people are living in a chronic state of emergency, which is sustained by the complex relation between the military and humanitarian efforts to end the war. Humanitarian aid is no longer impartial but shapes conditions it hopes to improve. We need to acknowledge that the crisis is not only humanitarian. It is more profoundly, a political crisis. In 1981, President Yoweri Museveni took to arms with the argument that the 1980 elections that brought Obote back to power were rigged. Phares Mutibwa in his book Uganda since independence: A story of unfulfilled hopes Mutibwa argues that there was an absolute need to revolutionise Ugandan politics in the aftermath of Amin’s fall from power in 1979. He says that “the system” that brought Obote back to power for the s econd time had been created by the colonialists. This system according to Mutibwa was inherited at independence but thereafter “perfected” by Obote in the 1960s and “matured” under Amin’s rule. Later when Museveni captured state power in 1986, he introduced his no-party Movement system. Unfortunately, and despite positive developments in large parts of Uganda so often reported on, the northern region has been war-torn ever since. To be blunt, in 1986 the war zone simply shifted from central to northern Uganda. Normal conditions in the South Uganda is widely regarded, among both academics and influential organisations, as a success story of reconstruction, structural adjustment and economic liberalisation, celebrated for its fight against HIV/AIDS. Prominent scholars like Jean-Francois Bayart, Stephen Ellis and Béatrice Hibou have listed Uganda among the African countries “where a logic of violence has been replaced by a political process of negotiation and rebuilding”. An exception to these positive developments, the northern region has been described as peripheral, and particularly war-prone. In the war propaganda, reference has been made to the alleged primitiveness of the Acholi people. Maj. General James Kazini, one time Army commander confirmed this trend when he blamed all military violence upon the Acholi. “If anything, it is local Acholi soldiers causing the problems. It’s the cultural background of the people here: they are very violent. It’s genetic,” he claimed in an interview with Human Ri ghts Watch. In late 2003, the Ugandan government requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to collect evidence of war crimes committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army in general and its leader Joseph Kony in particular. The Ugandan government’s call for international justice left out possible war crimes committed by the UPDF. “Our position is if they [the ICC investigators] come across any allegations against government officials, they should let them be tried by the government,” Army Spokesman Shaban Bantarisa is reported to have said. In addition, the ICC was created on the international diplomatic consensus not to include any crime committed before 2002. But having this year as starting point for investigation, regardless of the international diplomatic consensus behind it, cannot be said to be a correct choice. The initial fifteen years of war in northern Uganda will be left unaccounted for, to the disappointment of the many people liv ing with war and bitterness today. Moreover the blanket amnesty offered to the rebels has not solved the bitter war. For high rank LRA rebels, it seems like, amnesty means nothing other than plain surrender, and even a risk of being sent to The Hague. The war is bound to continue today, as Uganda’s political arena is increasingly volatile. The debate on the Third term and President Museveni apparent unwillingness to step down from power illustrates this. This is not made easier with US support for Uganda in the formers war against global terrorism. However like many of my sources in Northern Uganda, I doubt that the LRA can be defeated militarily. Even if they are, significant political grievances will remain unaddressed. If there continues to be no consistent and nation-wide political will to find a solution to the conflict, it is difficult to see how the Movement government and its opposition, including those bearing arms, can find avenues to replace a logic o f violence by a political process of negotiation and rebuilding. To return to Phares Mutibwa’s view of Uganda’s history, the political system we see today was created by the colonialists and then perfected under postcolonial rule. It is again difficult to see, if the crisis in the north is included in the analysis, how Museveni’s military takeover resulted in any genuine departure from this unfortunate development. Sverker Finnström holds a PhD in anthropology from Uppsala University, Sweden. His thesis, Living with Bad Surroundings: War and Existential Uncertainty in Acholiland, Northern Uganda, was published by Uppsala University Press in 2003. [EMAIL PROTECTED]

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

_______________________________________________
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/