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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
UGANDA: 'Beginning of the end' of northern conflict - Egeland
OPIT, GULU, 10 Sep 2006 (IRIN) - Nineteen years of a conflict that has condemned some two million people in northern Uganda to living in appalling conditions in huge camps within their home districts, could be drawing to a close, according to Jan Egeland, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator.
"I am optimistic," Egeland said of reports of rebel fighters from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). "People are coming out in record numbers from the LRA. They are moving to assembly points in southern Sudan and there is an effective ceasefire for the first time. We have to believe in peace and not do anything that may create problems for the peace process. I think we are seeing the beginning of an end to the most terrible conflict of this generation."
Egeland said he thought top commanders from the LRA, a rebel group comprised mostly of Acholi speakers who used to comprise just 4 per cent of Uganda’s total population, should face some kind of justice despite a Ugandan government offer of amnesty.
"There should be no impunity for indicted people or anybody else who has committed crimes against humanity," Egeland said of International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against five top rebel leaders. He made his comments at Opit camp for internally displaced people (IDPs), 32 km southeast of Gulu, a district capital in northern Uganda on Saturday.
Egeland spent Saturday night at the camp, which houses some 24,700 IDPs. In the evening, he sat around a camp fire with elders to discuss the 19 year war between the rebels and the Uganda government.
The war has scarred a generation of Acholi people, the rebels abducting thousands of children to become fighters, weapons-carriers, camp followers and wives, with soldiers from the Ugandan army contributing to abuses against civilians too. Confinement to camps has pushed up birth rates and HIV/Aids infection rates, and caused a myriad of social problems.
"Those who have been indicted should face justice. But what is more important now is that we should concentrate on ending the war," Egeland told IRIN. "Justice can be served in many ways. It is up to the prosecutor to decide whether we resort to traditional justice or stick to the ICC indictments."
The Hague-based ICC has indicted the rebel leader, Joseph Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and fellow commanders Dominic Ongwen, Okot Odhiambo and Raska Lukwiya on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"I don't think this will stop the agreement," Egeland said, referring to anticipated success of ongoing peace talks between Uganda’s government and the rebels in the southern Sudan town of Juba.
Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has offered the five rebel leaders a blanket amnesty if they agree to a peace deal, and hinted at a possible negotiation with the ICC over the indictments. To atone for their crimes, some in Uganda have suggested that traditional systems of justice and reconciliation be used instead.
Egeland urged the international community to start considering the recovery and rebuilding of northern Uganda: "This part of the world can and will feed itself because there are fertile lands that had to be abandoned because of the conflict," he said.
Opit camp was attacked eleven times between 1997 and 2003, but nonetheless, Egeland was driven there unescorted by the Ugandan army. "I want to build the confidence in the people of northern Uganda that we are with them in this hour of need and we want to help them to return to their normal lives."
"I am also going to Juba to encourage the peace talks because they are the best hope for northern Uganda and a quick return to your homes," he told camp residents, referring to the talks in Juba.
IDPs discussed with Egeland the challenges they faced in the camp, the Juba peace talks, the role of the international community in the process and the ICC indictments against LRA rebel leaders.
"The international community should tell the ICC that the Acholi people don’t like the ICC in these affairs because it is holding back the peace process," Nikson Owinyi, one of the IDPs said.
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This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
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