[fajg] :: jóvenes Geógrafos :: young Geopraphers

Of the horrors of the northern Uganda's conflict
ZNet Commentary
June 01, 2004
By Mandisi Majavu

According to the UN, the situation in northern Uganda has deteriorated
sharply since 2002. The number of the internally displaced persons
(IDPs) and those in dire need of humanitarian assistance has increased from
800 000 to over 1.6 million in just two years (1).

Children and women have suffered the most in the 18 year civil war,
with more than 10 000 children, according to the UN, being abducted since
June 2002 - the highest number since the war began. The abducted
children are forced to fight and commit atrocities, and are subjected to
sexual violence and sexual slavery. In addition, it is estimated that 1.6
million people have been displaced by the civil war. Making Uganda
Africa's fourth largest displaced population after Sudan, Angola and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.

The civil war is between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA), of which about 80 to 90 percent of whose soldiers are
abducted children (2). The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, wants to replace the
Ugandan government with a theocracy based on the biblical Ten
Commandments.

Over 30 000 children are believed to have been abducted in the course
of the 18 year civil war. Last year, the UN Secretary-General's report
on children and armed conflict named Uganda as one of the countries
violating the Geneva Convention by recruiting child soldiers. Young girls
are used as sex slaves and thousands of innocent civilians have been
killed or mutilated. According to the New York-based Women's Commission
for Refugee Women and Children (WCRWC), at least 50 000 people frightened
of being abducted - most of them children and adolescents caught up in
the 18 year war - flee their homes each night for the relative safety
of town centres (3).

The WCRWC says there are not enough shelters to accommodate them, and
many are forced to sleep outdoors, exposed to rain, wind, mosquitoes and
unsanitary conditions. As a result, many contract respiratory tract
infections, malaria, diarrhoea and scabies. The WCRWC adds that young
commuters also face an increased risk of HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy as
a result of sexual violence or unprotected sex.

A study published by the UK-based scientific journal, the Lancet, has
found that over half of the children surveyed - over 300, all of whom
were abducted at an average age of 12 had been seriously beaten - 77
percent had witnessed another person being killed, 39 percent had killed
another person, and 39 percent had abducted other children. Over
one-third of the girls had been raped while 18 percent had given birth while in
captivity.

Both sides seem to be determined to resolve their differences through
violence. Last December 2003, the Ugandan government announced plans to
amend its four-year- old amnesty law to exclude the top leadership of
the LRA. The amnesty act, which became law in 2000 offered blanket
immunity and resettlement packages to all rebels who wanted to surrender
their arms (4).

Now, the Ugandan government has vowed to wipe out the LRA leadership by
force if necessary.

Speaking on national TV last month (5), the Ugandan president, Yoweri
Museveni, said: "The day and night operations aimed at wiping out the
terrorists will be continued and will be intensified until every
terrorist leader has been accounted for or until the remnants of the terrorists
come out from their crime-laden way of existence".

Interesting enough, in the same month, Uganda's minister for internal
affairs, Ruhankana Rugunda opened the US-sponsored East and Horn of
Africa Anti-Terrorism conference.

The day and night operations aimed at wiping out terrorists that
Museveni is talking about is the aptly termed 'Operation Iron Fist'. Signed
in 2002 by Uganda and Sudan, the bilateral agreement gives the Ugandan
army access to southern Sudan where LRA is believed to be operating
from. 'Operation Iron Fist' aims to crush the LRA by going after its
leader, Kony, who is believed to be hiding somewhere in Sudan.

Meanwhile, the LRA think that meeting places for negotiations are a
trap to contain them in an area and then hit them. With very little break
in between, the LRA continues to kill, rape and abduct children. In
February 2004, the LRA killed more than 300 internally displaced people in
a camp in Barlonyo, near Lira town, according to the UN news agency,
IRIN.

All these atrocities are committed in the name of a jealous God, and
because Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet, wants to replace the government
with a theocracy based on the biblical Ten Commandments.

This means that the economic vision is "Thou shalt not steal" and the
cornerstone of the social structure "Honour thy father and thy mother;
that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth
thee."

However, the military junta, led by Museveni, has resisted the LRA for
18 years, even going as far as to commit atrocities against villagers
believed to harbour or aid LRA fighters. In April 2004, Human Rights
Watch reported that torture is endemic in Uganda's military and security
forces.

The economic track record of the current regime is far from being
impressive, nearly half of the Uganda's budget comes from foreign donors and
Uganda is ranked high on the international indices amongst the world's
most corrupt countries. Furthermore, out of the 26.4 million people
living in Uganda, about 38 percent live below the poverty line, according
to CARE.

As a result of the ongoing conflict, the UN World Food Programme says
it will soon be unable to feed the 1.6 million internally displaced
people in northern Uganda.

The government on other hand refuses to declare the northern Uganda a
humanitarian disaster. One wonders what is needed to convince the
government otherwise if 18 years of killing, starvation, systematic rape and
children abduction is not enough.