Uganda: Congressional Human Rights Caucus Examines Northern Uganda
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United States Department of State (Washington, DC)
March 10, 2006
Posted to the web March 14, 2006
Posted to the web March 14, 2006
Bruce Greenberg
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
A 20-year-old fractious conflict centered in Northern Uganda that has displaced 1.7 million people is receiving renewed attention from the United States, United Nations and other international organizations.
What the United States and other world bodies can or cannot do to help resolve this crisis, which has resulted in close to 30,000 child abductees
and set
the scene for heinous forms of torture and murder, was discussed at a March 9 event sponsored by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
Representatives from the U.S. Department of State, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as UNIFCEF, the International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch and the International Rescue Committee attended the event.
Carol Thompson, deputy assistant secretary for Africa at the State Department, emphasized that Uganda which supporting the United States in Iraq and the global struggle against international terrorism, is one of America's closest economic and strategic partners in sub-Saharan Africa. Referring to the major rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by its messianic and iconic leader, Joseph Kony, as a "cult-like organization," Thompson said there have been problems with the Ugandan government's efforts in neutralizing the LRA, and mediating
a final
peace settlement.
She said that the United States has urged the government of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni to broker a peace agreement with the rebels through the U.S.-sponsored Northern Uganda Peace Initiative (NUPI). She also said the United States has been assisting the Ugandan government with both these peace efforts and with military and logistical assistance to the Ugandan Peoples' Defense Force.
The United States is committed to settling the conflict, while at the same time offering humanitarian and economic assistance to the victims, many of whom presently reside in displaced persons camps, she said.
HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS TIED TO SECURITY, ECONOMIC ISSUES
Michael Hess, the assistant administrator of the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, at USAID reminded everyone that humanitarian and protection issues cann
ot be
addressed in isolation.
"USAID is integrating its programs so as to offer long-term assistance in the health, education and economic growth sectors in order to build a solid foundation for the reintegration and eventual return of those displaced persons." Hess said that as of 2005, USAID had contributed close to $74 million dollars toward those efforts.
His agency, he said, has several objectives: to increase access to central services in order to reduce the mortality levels of camp residents mostly due to malnutrition, malaria, cholera and dysentery; to provide safe access to water to increase security levels in and around the camps; and to help with providing access to tillable land so as to encourage economic assistance and income generation among returnees.
"USAID has funded seed and small plants projects called 'gardens in a bag' to make people less dependent on outside food provision
s. As a
result," he said, "these refugees are now producing up to 40 percent of their daily food needs."
Ultimately USAID programs should provide incentives for these displaced persons to return to their home communities, he said. "And finally we are working to advance the peace and reconciliation process through the NUPI, and by providing assistance to former [LRA] soldiers who are [in many instances] returning to the villages that they have previously attacked. We work with the government of Uganda and with other international assistance organizations, as well," he added.
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However, he cautioned everyone that only reconciliation between the Acholi people of the north and former members of the LRA can bring about lasting peace in that region.
(The Washington Fil
e is a
product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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