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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
UGANDA: There is hope for peace in the north - Egeland
KAMPALA, 15 Nov 2006 (IRIN) - Jan Egeland, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who is visiting Uganda and Sudan, held a historic meeting on 12 November with the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). He spoke to IRIN about prospects for peace in northern Uganda and the encounter with LRA leader Joseph Kony in the jungle near the border between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Below are excerpts from the interview.
QUESTION: You have met the parties to the Ugandan conflict - the government and LRA, and the mediator, South Sudanese Vice-President Riek Machar, in Juba. What are the prospects for achieving a final peace agreement?
ANSWER: I am more optimistic now than I have ever been at any previous stage. Now we have a ceasefire that is holding; a peace process that is organised. We have international funding for the process – the three things that we did not have a few months ago, though it is still vulnerable and can unravel any time. Never before has there been such a unique opportunity to bring an end to the carnage. I have seen more suffering in northern Uganda than in most other needy places on earth. We must not fail in bringing an end to it.
The UN is joining the monitoring of the cessation of hostilities agreement in two ways - providing logistical support including helicopters to move the monitoring team to the assembly areas [and] observers. We have not taken a formal decision to join the agreement because this will require a formal decision. It is the African Union that has a membership on the team, but the mediator welcomed the idea of UN observers.
Q: Earlier, you talked about an increase in UN involvement in the peace process including demobilisation, disarmament, reintegration and resettlement (DDRR). On what basis is the UN going to be involved?
A: We are working now to help the negotiations, helping in undertaking the monitoring of the cessation agreement. We are also working with the World Bank on a DDRR package. The message [to the LRA] is that we are preparing for you guys. We are ready to welcome you here.
Under the package, there will be education, livelihood support like health, and other aspects. We shall not concentrate on the offenders or victims. We also have a rebuilding package for northern Uganda from the government and the international community.
The investment of the international community has grown substantially because in 2002 we had US$42 million; in 2003 we got $124 million which has kept on growing and this year we got $204 million out of the $265 million we asked for. Next year, this will grow even further to almost $300 million, which we will announce in the Consolidated Appeal. There will be much more for recovery and resettlement than before. We hope to spend much less money on just feeding people in the camps but to help them rebuild their lives.
Q: As a top UN humanitarian official, you have said you cannot talk on behalf of the International Criminal Court [ICC]. People are divided about the attainment of peace and having Joseph Kony and others tried by the ICC. What do you think about this situation?
A: There is no doubt that 98 percent of the IDPs [internally displaced persons] believe that peace is the priority and punishment for crimes committed is not. However, there is a need for justice. We need to learn from the past because if there is a notion of forgive and forget, the crimes will be repeated. It suffices to add that as Europeans we need to learn from Africans in terms of reconciliation, forgiveness and so on. They are all saying, ‘now we look to the future together’. This was not the case in some instances in Europe. Of course there have to be mechanisms to obtain justice and avoid a repeat [of atrocities].
Those LRA [militia] that come back will go through a number of justice systems. For the rank and file, Mato Oput [traditional justice] will be used, then there might be a national justice element and maybe there will be an international one. However, we wait to see how peace and justice will be served in the final instance.
Q: You held a half-hour meeting with Joseph Kony. What were your personal impressions?
A: He was clearly afraid of us because we came as the international community. He was very apprehensive and reserved. He was somber and we had a somber meeting. I knew I was meeting this person responsible for all these atrocities and he knew I represent the international community that has condemned all these things. They have been on the run for many, many years.
He was soft-spoken and he spoke Acholi through an interpreter. It was [Vincent] Otti [LRA deputy] who spoke to me in English. He listened to me without any interruptions and attentively. I also allowed him to speak and their response was about their own security concerns.
I regret that they did not agree to release abducted children or other civilians they have in their custody, but they promised to continue with the dialogue. They, however, agreed to release one of their wounded fighters who was taken for treatment in a hospital in Juba. I think this helps in building confidence. I also had a discussion with President [Yoweri] Museveni [of Uganda] and it centred on the peace process and measures to bring it to a speedy and successful end. On most issues we agreed.
Q: You are going to Sudan to visit Khartoum and then Darfur. Who are you going to meet and what is the message you are taking in view of recent attacks on civilians in western Darfur?
A: The message will be related to recent events. I hope to see both President [Omar al-] Bashir and Vice-President [Ali Osman] Taha. Then I will be going to western Darfur and northern Darfur. I will be going to the most tense places where we have the biggest crisis now [and] meeting all parties including leaders who are believed to have strong links with the so-called Janjawid militias. All of them have to work for the cessation of hostilities. I believe that if we can get it right in northern Uganda, we also can in Darfur. If we do not, the situation will become even worse.
vm/eo/mw
[ENDS]
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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