Acholi Wee Acholi tum ku!

Wun wumito tyeko wan, wai Acholi wee, Acholi tum ku.

Dismantle the Concentration Camps in Acholiland

Genocide is in full progress under Yoweri Museveni/ NRM and UPDF

MINUTES OF THE INTERORGANISATIONAL MEETING HELD BETWEEN THE REPRESENTATIVES OF CHARITABLE ORGANISATIONS IN LONDON,

ACHOLI ASSOCIATION
Office of the Chairman, 23 Radford Road, Mount Pleasant,
London SE13 6SB (United Kingdom).
Direct Phone: +447984 758 236.
Facsimile No: +4420 8852 4371

------------Wacito anyim”

MINUTES OF THE INTERORGANISATIONAL MEETING HELD BETWEEN THE REPRESENTATIVES OF CHARITABLE ORGANISATIONS IN LONDON,
SATURDAY 11 MARCH 2006.



In Attendance Organisation

J C Amone Acholi Association
Stella Oryang ACAFS
Betty Lumumba HAF
Margaret Murungu Women of Strength
Christine Aloyo Youth Out of Poverty and AIDS (YOPA)


Apology

Rev. Modicum Okello Arch Bishop Janani Luwum Trust
Peggy Oyella AWACHWO
Jimmy Ogwok Lwo Cultural Group
Susan Onapa Women of Strength
Laroker p’Okot Consultant
Christopher Lakony Acholi Association


Agenda

1. Acholi Association Seminar, 25 March 2006
2. Acholi Conference in London, 28-30 April 2006
3. AOB

The meeting was opened by the Chairman of Acholi Association, Mr. J C Amone, who thanked and briefed members in attendance, on the resolve by Acholi Association, to forge unity amongst Acholi people and work together especially with other Acholi-run charitable organisations in the UK, for the purpose to support by relieving the suffering Acholi people, particularly those in Uganda. He noted that most of the Acholi-run charitable organisations bear similar aims and objectives. He reiterated the need therefore, for them to kick-start building closer working relations, by jointly organising the forthcoming AA Seminar on 25 March 2006, to address the problems of Acholiland being grabbed and Genocide being committed on Acholi people, principally by the state.

The Chairman stated further, that the Seminar this March will be followed immediately, by Acholi Conference in London in April, which Acholi Association has been asked to co-ordinate, by our people including those currently living in Sweden and Uganda. He reported that the Conference is intended to draw Acholi people from all over the world, to convene in London to address very urgent and crucial, Acholi survival issues: Acholi people’s Resettlement back home and Rehabilitation in their God-given land-Acholiland.

Mr. Amone said at this point in time he wishes there should be nothing more important to any Acholiboy or Acholigirl, than turning up and participating jointly with others, in discussing urgent and sensitive issues of the resettlement of our beleaguered people.

The Chairman ended encouraging attendants by giving example that Acholi Association is primarily concerned about the plight of Acholi people distributed worldwide, especially those suffering at home in Uganda, that’s why AA tries to convince all Acholi in the Diaspora to continue addressing their problems and help where we can. To that effect, he stated that Acholi Association has since April 2006 when the new Executive was elected, held two Seminars, one Conference and two Fundraising events. Mr. Amone stressed that by AA addressing Acholi problems worldwide, they are acting within the International Law and Charity Commission regulations, just like Amnesty International reporting on Human Rights abuse by irresponsible authorities and other institutions worldwide; saying that’s not being politically active. It is that charity constitutional rights and mandatory obligations, which are very difficult for anybody to challenge.

After thoughtful and exhaustive, contributive deliberations by all members in attendance, the meeting fruitfully resolved the following:

Agenda

1. Acholi Association Seminar, 25 March 2006

¨ Support and jointly conduct the Seminar and any other future functions, with the aim to forge unity amongst same Acholi people, whom we are all working to help.
¨ Papers presented should not dwell on history, but on current Needs Assessment.
¨ Speakers should avoid repetitions of something already said or done by others.
¨ Participating organisations, with the example of YOPA, should report with evidence, on what their organisations have done, accomplished, or plan to achieve especially in Uganda, instead of making long and unhelpful speeches.
¨ Land Issues: what threats are really there? Availability of documents if possible; e.g. Aswa Ranch, reportedly leased to the Libyans!
¨ High level of presentation and tackling the issues of Genocide being committed on Acholi people with evidence (like Olara Otunnu), should be adopted. The speakers should inform what actions and effects have been realized so far, on the issue of Genocide. Proposals for the presenter of the paper should be followed up.



2. Acholi Conference in London, 28-30 April 2006

¨ Support the Acholi Conference in London for 28-30 April 2006, in which the programme should allow for representative organisations from Africa, Europe and America (e.g. Uganda, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Norway, the UK), e.t.c., to meet on the first day and plan to steer the conference towards the desired directions, subsequently to be followed by paper presentations and workshops the following two days.
¨ Acholi Association with the assistance of participating organisations should co-ordinate links with Home people and local leaders to attend the conference.
¨ Internet Communication with the rest of Acholi people should be implemented to facilitate faster contact, aware of the short time left for the conference.
¨ Communication and co-ordination of the conference information and activities with the NGOs operating in Acholiland should be encouraged and improved.
¨ Given the complex nature and enormity of the issues of resettlement to be addressed, neutral bodies like the UN, Africa and the European Union, should be contacted to oversee sensitive aspects like removing landmines from Acholiland, before resettlement.
¨ Security of Acholi people in their villages and homesteads cannot be guaranteed by any authorities, anymore. Acholi people should be released free and allowed to decide their own safety, by themselves.
¨ Resettlement and Rehabilitation Packages should be priority prerisiquite, given to Acholi Families going back home.

3. AOB

There being no other business to discuss, the meeting ended at 4.30pm.

NB: Matters Raised About the Same Issues, On Consultation With Other Acholi Organisations And Individuals Not In The Meeting:

¨ Organising Committee for Acholi Conference in London should continue to form.
¨ The question of Recovery and Development of Northern Uganda ($200m given) by the World Bank to organisations and institutions on the ground, was not getting to the affected people. What information and alternatives do we have?
¨ Logistics for the forthcoming Conference to be addressed in the March Seminar.
¨ The Invisible Children-DVD should be screened to the Seminar/Conference, for Acholi to visualize an aspect of the extent of Acholi problems.
¨ Resettlement and Rehabilitation of Acholi must be done through reclaiming of Acholi Culture and Traditional Practices. Acholi Language being at the core of it.
¨ Training Programmes on how to live properly (by Acholi elderly and institutional elites, like after the Second World War: Living in Model Home), be adopted.
¨ Acholi unity amongst us and cautious entry into the world system is very vital to our future existence. Careful assessment of what to do with those who have continued to persecute us is therefore very important.
¨ Vetted co-operation with other foreigners should be encouraged for future benefit.


CHARITY REGISTERED IN ENGLAND AND WALES NO: 1071958
Website: http://acholi-association.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/
Email: acholiassociation@online24.co.uk
Bank Name: Halifax
Account Name: Acholi Association
Account Number: 00896139
Sort Code: 11-04-53

Re: Seminar on “Protecting Acholiland and the Surviving Acholi People in the 21st Century.”

ACHOLI ASSOCIATION
Office of the Chairman, 23 Radford Road, Mount Pleasant,
London SE13 6SB (United Kingdom).
Direct Phone: +447984 758 236.
Facsimile No: +4420 8852 4371

-------------Kacel Wacito anyim”

15 March 2006

All members of Acholi Community in the UK

Re: Seminar on “Protecting Acholiland and the Surviving Acholi People in the 21st Century.”

By permission of the participating Acholi charitable organisations in the UK, on behalf of Acholi Association and on my own behalf, I am grateful to inform you of above seminar that will take place in the Hall of St. Matthews Church Stratford, 38 Dyson Road, London E15 4JX, on Saturday 25 March 2006, commencing at 3.00 pm and ending at 10.00 pm sharp.

The Seminar organised by Acholi Association and supported by many Acholi-run charitable organisations based in the UK, will present papers and address issues around:

¨ The continued Genocide on Acholi people.
¨ The need to continue to protect Acholiland.
¨ Acholi Conference in London, 28-30 April 2006.

There will be the screening of a DVD featuring the Trek and Suffering of Acholi children from 4.00 pm sharp. This painful DVD to watch will provide you with the gravity and severe extent of the suffering of Acholi children and may set a fundamental viewpoint for the discussions to follow. It is therefore very important for you all to arrive on time and take-up your individual seat.

At this juncture, may I continue to invite all other Acholi charitable organisations in the UK to contact and join us in working together to address our own problems in time, as no one will do it for us? Also, please allow me this opportunity to appreciate once again, efforts and all forms of contribution made by each one of you who attended one or both of the recent AA Fundraising function, to make this forthcoming Seminar a success. Those of you who could not make it for one reason or the other, but would like to send in your donations to Acholi Association, please feel free to do so by either contacting AA Treasurer, Mr. David Apinyi Kololo on his Phone number below, or make payment directly to Acholi Association’s bank account, which details are provided below.

I hope to meet with you all there.

Yours faithfully

Original Signed & Stamped

J C Amone
Chairman

RSVP:


¨ J C Amone: 07984 758 236
¨ Jack Loum Lakana: 07949 349 584
¨ Daudi Apinyi Kololo: 07867 726 573
¨ Christopher Lakony: 07791698030
¨ Vicky K. Okwera: 07961 139 727
¨ Grace Odong: 07951 609 222
¨ Charles Oriba: 0790 650 7257
¨ J B Ayela: 07757 764 073

____CHARITY REGISTERED IN ENGLAND AND WALES NO: 1071958
Website: http://acholi-association.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/
Email: acholiassociation@online24.co.uk
Bank Name: Halifax
Account Name: Acholi Association
Account Number: 00896139

Uganda (Unstarred Question) debated in House of Lords

You may access the whole debate via this link.
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199697/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds06/text/60315-20.htm#60315-20_unstar0


Uganda
7.28 pm

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: My Lords, I remind noble Lords that this is a timed debate. Each Back-Bench Member has three minutes. That is an incredibly short time but I should be enormously grateful if noble Lords would stick to their three minutes—that is, if they would finish before the Clock shows four minutes—so that the Minister has adequate time in which to reply.

Baroness Northover rose to ask Her Majesty's Government what co-ordination there is through the international community to resolve the conflict in northern Uganda.

The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I am very glad to have secured this debate on northern Uganda. I am especially grateful to all noble Lords who will be speaking tonight. As we have just heard, each of them will have a very short time; nevertheless, it shows a real commitment that so many wish to take part. The number of speakers reflects the huge expertise in this House on this part of Africa and the concern that people feel about the conflict in the region. I thank all noble Lords.

It is now 20 years since conflict began in northern Uganda, yet so little international attention seems to be directed to this problem. That is surprising for a number of reasons. The conflict threatens to destabilise countries around, such as the DRC and Sudan, as well as Uganda itself. But above all, this is a conflict that has taken a terrible toll on children. War can exact a terrible price from women and children. But what has happened in northern Uganda is quite simply on a different level. The deliberate targeting of children is utterly appalling. Whatever the roots of this conflict, there can be no justification whatsoever for the Lord's Resistance Army targeting children as it has done. I welcome the fact that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for the five leaders of the LRA—even if it has made negotiation with the LRA more difficult.

We know about the abduction of children and the way that children flee to towns at night in the hope of finding shelter, so that they are not stolen in the night. How can it be that we are paying so little attention? As Amnesty says:
"Children are bearing the brunt of the ongoing violence in northern Uganda".
UNICEF calculates that as many as 25,000 children have been abducted by the LRA for use as soldiers and sex workers since the conflict began. Children's rights are violated daily. The LRA also targets killings, abductions and rape at the wider civilian population. 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1284
We know that the LRA is full of child soldiers—children who are brutalised and feel unable to return home. We know that girls are stolen for prostitution. And yet the world has turned a blind eye. That simply cannot continue. This surely must be the first proper test of what the countries agreed at the UN last September, when they said:
""We believe that today, more than ever before, we live in a global and interdependent world".
They agreed that collectively the UN had the responsibility to protect populations from crimes against humanity. That surely applies here. In 20 years the Ugandan Government have failed, for whatever reasons, to bring peace to the north of its country. The result is that crimes against humanity are committed there daily. Will the Minister say what role the new UN peace-building commission might play here?
Many NGOs felt that when the UK chaired the UN Security Council at the end of last year—maybe it was chairing too many things at the time—the opportunity should have been taken to pass a resolution specifically on northern Uganda. Will the Minister tell us why that did not happen, and what might have been the reaction of China and Russia to any such proposals? Nevertheless, we have UN Resolution 1653, passed in January this year on the Great Lakes region, which includes reference to northern Uganda. How will that now be taken forward?
There is the proposal from Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, that a panel of experts should be convened on northern Uganda. There is also the proposal that there should be a UN special envoy to look at the problem. The international crisis group recently gave strong endorsement to both proposals, stating that,
"the UN Security Council should recognise the LRA poses a threat to international peace and security",
and must implement both these proposals. What action are the Government taking to ensure that that is done?
Will the Minister tell us when he thinks the Secretary-General will report on these matters to the Security Council? Save the Children and Oxfam, among others, told me that this would happen in 12 days—on 27 March—so this debate was timely, but I hear from the FCO that this may not be the case. I spoke to someone earlier, as the noble Lord will be aware. I should like his comments on that.
That report needs to be made; and it needs to be strong and effective. It must not be delayed. Actions need to follow from it. Clearly there needs to be a comprehensive strategy to end the war. Those who have been indicted by the ICC must be apprehended. The Ugandan military and other forces must do more to protect civilians. There needs to be dialogue with other members of the LRA. The Ugandan Government must be clearer that they support effective amnesties for those wishing to leave the LRA. Support has to be given to those who leave to prepare them so that they can best re-enter civilian life. I look forward to hearing the Minister's comment on all these proposals. 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1285
DfID is already helping with humanitarian relief, but more will need to be done to assist those now in the camps, and as they seek to leave those camps. They must not be marginalised if a lasting solution is to be found. I note that President Museveni stated last Tuesday that he is preparing to resettle displaced people from their camps, stating that the region is now peaceful. That seemed a little surprising. Do the Government have reason to believe that the security situation in northern Uganda has improved enough for people to be moved out of camps? If so, maybe we can all go home.
This is an extremely complicated situation. The LRA has committed the most appalling atrocities. But this is a conflict which military action alone is never likely to solve. Not only do we need to see all parties seriously seeking a solution, we must make sure that the international community does not lose sight of this conflict. It is by spotlighting the plight of those in northern Uganda that we will surely encourage the action that the international community must now take. In those actions, I trust that the UK Government will take a leading role.
7.37 pm
Lord Judd: My Lords, I declare an interest as a trustee of Saferworld, which is involved in Uganda. Real appreciation and thanks are due to the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, for giving the House the opportunity to discuss this disturbing issue tonight. It is a highly complex issue. Since President Museveni came to power there have been many rebellions in Uganda. Most have been resolved, but tragically that in the north persists. Brutality and cruelty are grim realities. Ruthless people in the Lord's Resistance Army viciously exploit and manipulate the situation. But we must not allow ourselves to be so mesmerised by the horror that we fail to recognise the complexity and weaken our resolve to work for the lasting peace for which those who suffer in Uganda so desperately yearn.

Rehabilitation and counselling for those—especially the young who leave the ranks of the LRA—are priorities that we should support. Reconciliation as pursued by local leaders and the former Minister for the north, Betty Begombe, is a muscular and courageous cause that demands our imaginative and practical co-operation. It is disappointing that President Museveni is apparently so ambivalent on such imperatives himself. They are essential to peacemaking, which is indispensable if stability is to be achieved.

In the couple of minutes available, I want to put several specific questions to my noble friend. In 2005 DfID made a firm commitment to use conflict assessments in formulating all its country assistance plans. Are such assessments central to decisions about our programme in Uganda? What is DfID doing to ensure that human security considerations are prioritised in decision-making in Uganda? How is that reflected in DfID's policy towards budget and sector support? How is DfID endeavouring to ensure that the implementation by the government of Uganda of 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1286 Uganda's poverty eradication plan—especially the security and conflict provisions contained in Pillar 3 becomes a reality? Are infrastructural and economic development programmes in the North as effectively targeted on the needs of local people as they should be?

The availability of small arms fuels the conflict in the north. Are we therefore doing all that we should to encourage the government of Uganda to make small arms control a key part of their efforts to enhance development and human security? Are we, for example, urging the Ugandan Government to implement the country's national action plan on arms management and disarmament which is an urgent priority? How are we supporting the implementation of that action plan?

If development assistance to Uganda is to succeed, is it not essential to base it on a comprehensive assessment of the peace and conflict dynamics of the country? Together with that, is it not essential to address the failure of successive Ugandan governments to establish appropriate government institutions and arrangements that are sufficiently responsive, inclusive and accountable to the majority of Ugandans? Is it not the absence of those that has resulted in the underdevelopment of the north and which has exacerbated the disastrous conflict?
7.40 pm

Lord Freeman: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, not only on winning the debate but also on her excellent speech. I find myself in complete agreement with her and I shall not repeat her arguments in any way. Instead I want to make a practical suggestion to help the hard-pressed communities in the north of Uganda that are caught up in the conflict zone. I would be grateful if the Minister would simply draw my remarks to the attention of the Secretary of State for International Development. I do not expect a response tonight.

About half a dozen international non-governmental organisations provide water sources in rural Uganda. I declare an interest as chairman of one of them, the Busoga Trust, which has been active for 25 years and has built well over 1,000 water sources. I shall speak briefly on behalf of all the NGOs involved in this important activity. It is difficult, if not impossible, for the NGOs to work in northern Uganda, particularly in the triangle of Gulu, Kitgum and Lira. That is simply because in the past it has been unsafe, although work is continuing in the north-east of Uganda on the Kenyan and Sudanese borders, but not in the conflict zone itself. If those organisations were able, with the help of the security forces, to move north, they could rapidly supply clean water to the villages. I appreciate that bore holes already exist in the campsites where the women, children and the population in general spend the evenings for security reasons. However, I believe work needs to be done in the villages. Clean water transforms village life. It provides health, vitality, and self-confidence. The noble Baroness referred in particular to the plight of the children. The lives of many children are cut short through disease, from drinking foul water. 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1287

Her Majesty's Government have diverted some aid directly from the Ugandan central government to help orphans in the north of Uganda. I suggest that Her Majesty's Government should consider diverting or using some of that money devoted to northern Uganda to engage the NGOs which, I believe, could build well over 100 water sources over the next six months. That may seem a modest programme, but although it may not solve the conflict, it will encourage the population to resettle in the rural villages and, I hope, help to bring peace and tranquility to a troubled region.
7.43 pm
Baroness D'Souza: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, for initiating this debate. I too endorse what she has said, perhaps with one exception. From answers given by the Minister in previous debates and to Questions, I would like to acknowledge that the UK is clearly to the fore in negotiating UN Resolution 1653 and in providing support to the NGOs in the area, among other actions. I want to say a little about the important development which is the International Criminal Court mission to investigate the current conflict and to make arrests. I am indebted to Lorna McGregor who initiated a two-day workshop for the International Bar Association with 100 members of civil society organisations, the legal community from the north and from Kampala to discuss the work of the ICC within the national justice system. The preliminary conclusions from the workshop are quite interesting, certainly for conflict resolution work in the north of Uganda.

There is a feeling that the ICC intervention from the outside may mask the lack of political will on the part of the Government to take decisive action to stop the war. Having failed in this mission, the decision to allow in the ICC was clearly politically motivated. That reflects a wider perception—widespread in Africa—that while the international community is desperately needed, the solutions must heed sovereignty and must come from within.
The workshop also highlighted the failure of the ICC to make equal comment about the abuses, of which there are many, by the armed forces. The displaced peoples' camps are a terrifying experience, especially for women. I am currently taken up with concerns about a young university student, who was rescued from the LRA by army troops only to be raped and abused by government troops during three months in the camp prior to her escape. She is now in the UK with a baby daughter, not knowing whether the baby was fathered by the LRA or the army and is facing possible deportation.

As ever, the resolutions, the statements, the promises and the human rights reports are all necessary. What is even more vital is that the recommendations be implemented. For example, it is crucial that pressure is maintained within and outwith Uganda if the UN resolution is to have an impact on the ground. The UN Secretary-General's report must be submitted and discussed before the Chinese assume 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1288 the presidency at the end of this month, so that the Security Council is in no doubt what its action should be. As has already been suggested and pointed out by the noble Baroness, it is strongly suggested that there be a special high-level envoy appointed. That could happen immediately without any further resolution. It is a matter of a decision being taken and implemented.

There should also be an investigation into LRA actions, which might be helpful in clarifying how to reduce the violence and there should be widespread understanding by the international community that military action has not yet proved to be the answer, and, therefore, there has to be explicit ongoing support for political mediation and peace-building initiatives.
7.46 pm
Lord Anderson of Swansea: My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Baroness on her initiative, I endorse what she has said about the LRA and its victims and can see no case for negotiating with Kony and the indictees, for example. I shall make two points. First, with the current focus on the flawed election in Uganda as a whole, we should put that in the context of a president who, overall, has done fairly well. In the mid-1980s, I spoke for the opposition on Africa, when President Museveni came to power. Who can forget the atrocities, the insecurity, particularly in the Luwero triangle, the fact that since there has been successful economic developments, and one of the more enlightened policies on AIDS in Africa as a whole with modernisation and stability? Of course, the president has never won over the north, which, in any event, is Obote territory. The electoral geography of the last presidential election showed that the north central area and the north-west were heavily against the president, but he won in the north-east. At the time of the election, he said that the war was largely over. Therefore, it is perhaps right to consider not just the Acholi territory in the north-west, but also other areas such as the west Nile and Karamoja in the north-east.

Here I declare an interest as an adviser to a small British charity which includes two other Members of your Lordships' House, Viscount Ingleby, and the noble Lord, Lord Hylton. The charity is the Christian International Peace Service (CHIPS) which has been in north-east Uganda for 15 years, working for reconciliation between the Karamojong and the Teso tribes. The work is concentrated, therefore, on the border area between the tribes, where there was a massacre during the drought period of 2000. The charity works in agriculture, community and water development and veterinary services with para-vets moving with the cattle—a team composed wholly of Ugandans. CHIPS has identified a number of problems. One is the problem of the definition of internally displaced persons. No one is quite sure how many camps there are. There was a particular criticism of the quality of food provided by the World Food Programme, which is often said to be "bitter". There were allegations of delays and corruption. By contrast, a notable success has been the work of a small 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1289 UK charity, the Teso Development Trust, which distributes food through the Church of Uganda and the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church.

Finally, it is clearly highly administratively convenient for the Government to use the WFP, which reduces costs, but there is a strong body of local opinion that the WFP and, indeed, the national Government, should in part be bypassed because of corruption, and that aid should increasingly be directed to small and highly motivated non-governmental organisations.
7.50 pm
Baroness Cox: My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness for this opportunity to record my concerns about my visit three weeks ago to northern Uganda, where 95 per cent of the population has been herded into overcrowded camps. We witnessed conditions showing why 1,000 people die every week in those camps. We also met some of the tens of thousands of children who had been abducted by the LRA but who had escaped. Their stories have a chilling consistency, and their voices need to be heard tonight. I give just four examples. Florence, 15, was abducted in 2002 and taken to Sudan, given to an LRA commander as his "wife", and trained to become a soldier. She had to fight and take other children into captivity, treating them as she had been treated. She said, "I became wild, I didn't care about killing and I possibly became worse than them. If I had met my mother and father I would have killed them. I acted like someone who is deranged. I don't know how many people I have killed". She has been told that her parents are dead. Of her seven siblings, four were abducted, and the others were killed in battle.

Richard, 22, was abducted in 1999. When he was with the LRA, he was forced to do three things: to rape a women publicly; to kill another abductee with a hoe; and to throw an abductee down a well. He received injuries from being beaten with a bicycle chain—a punishment for taking too long to push the abductee down the well.

Irene, 15, was abducted in 2001. The LRA made her kill 10 other children. She slashed them open with a panga knife, scooping up the blood and placing it in her mouth. She has repeated nightmares about the first killing which occurred at dawn. It was the first time she had to drink human blood.

Monica, 18, was abducted in 2003, taken to Sudan for military training, and given to a commander. She became pregnant and had to give birth with no help at all. She said, "I was just treated like an animal". She had to go to fight in Uganda, carrying her baby with her. Time and again, she has had to kill. She said, "In a battle, one has to kill". During one battle near her village, she met a woman whom she knew, and she asked her to take her child, then 18 months old, because she said that she could no longer carry her baby and her gun.
I cannot continue with this terrible catalogue, but I must ask the Minister what Her Majesty's Government are doing to urge President Museveni to 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1290 declare northern Uganda a disaster area. In addition, what are they doing to support international aid organisations to prevent the escalation of suffering and death in the camps, and to offer help to the Ugandan Government to provide the security to enable the people to return to their villages? Finally, what are they doing to encourage the Ugandan Government and international organisations to provide free education for children and young people who have escaped from the LRA? The most frequent cri de coeur was for education. This is a lost generation; they cannot afford school fees.

I passionately hope that the Minister will promise that efforts will be made by international organisations to provide the education these young people need to find some healing from the indescribable suffering they have endured.
7.53 pm

Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, it is an international disgrace that the horror of northern Uganda has been allowed to persist for as long as it has. The World Health Organisation—an organisation not given to facile emotionalism—has described the situation there as a very serious humanitarian emergency, undoubtedly among the very worst in the world today, and possibly the most neglected by the international media and the relief community. It has persisted as a consequence of cynicism and incompetence in Uganda and indifference in the international community. Thousands of UN resolutions have been passed in the past 20 years but, until just the other day, none related to northern Uganda.

The disproportion of this situation is grotesque. Reliable estimates suggest that some 250 LRA guerrillas are keeping 1.2 million internally displaced people in camps and many more exiled from their homes. President Museveni has admitted that he could switch off the war. He keeps saying that he is going to do so, and keeps announcing that he has a plan. But from the record that we have seen, it is impossible to rely on him to take the action that he could other than under genuine, consistent and well co-ordinated international pressure. There is now more United Nations interest and activity, and I congratulate the Government on the part that they played in securing the passing of Resolution 1653. We look forward to the Secretary-General's report. The MONUC contingent sought to arrest the LRA leaders but, tragically, that effort was botched and the seven Guatemalan soldiers died in horrible circumstances.

Our own Government have a very special responsibility for Uganda because of our historic presence there. I hasten to say that I know that my noble friend Lord Triesman is deeply personally committed and is working hard, both bilaterally and through the United Nations, to achieve what he can on behalf of the Government. We need the Foreign Office and DfID to act together—I am not always convinced that they do—within the country. I suspect that, in the past, the Foreign Office and DfID have been too charmed by Museveni and too focused on the south. It 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1291 does not belittle the achievements of the Ugandan Government in the south to say that what has failed to happen in the north is utterly inexcusable.

I believe that we must place a very tight conditionality on the support that we give the Government of Uganda. We must use our influence, which ought to be large because of the scale of our aid, to secure better co-ordination. In the north, there is welter of agencies and NGOs—there are some 200 NGOs in Gulu—that are small and under-resourced, with different remits and overlapping accountabilities, and that are tripping over each other. They are staffed by committed and devoted people, but I am afraid their efforts are all too chaotic and they are much less effective than they could be. One of the important proposals of the WHO report last July was for a systematic mapping of need to lead to a rational allocation of resources and, of course, to increased resources. Will the Minister say whether that mapping has been undertaken or whether it will be undertaken?
7.57 pm
The Earl of Sandwich: My Lords, the noble Baroness and the noble Lord, Lord Howarth of Newport, ask the very serious question: why, after so many years of atrocities in the north, have we continued to sing the praises of the Government of Uganda when they have obviously failed to address the problem?
I have visited aid projects in Uganda and have met President Museveni and his wife on several occasions. I know of his firm leadership and commitment to his country's development since the dark days of Idi Amin. One of the very first countries to enter the HIPC process, Uganda is seen as a model of good governance and aid conditionality and an exact ideal of what Africa could be. Unfortunately, we are having to revise this rosy picture. It is not just the LRA; the present crisis owes something to the policies of the government, as well as to those of the rebels, creating protected villages and turning the north into a war zone. Almost its entire population is displaced, and more than 1 million women and children are still living in squalid conditions despite the UN's best efforts. The LRA has also, as we know, spread its tentacles into southern Sudan. Despite the government's offer of amnesty, the LRA has dodged every attempt of peacemakers to negotiate. Many believe that the entry of the ICC in this process last October has muddied the waters and, in the view of the Amnesty Commission, has made it even harder for sponsored initiatives, such as that of Betty Bigombe, to succeed.
The judiciary, on the other hand, has grown in stature as a result of its role leading up to the recent elections. The ICC must not come in as a deus ex machina and give any impression of an alternative system, but must complement national judicial processes wherever possible. Perhaps the UK has a role here. At last, the country is receiving more attention at an international level; the noble Baroness has already mentioned the important but belated efforts of the Security Council. Uganda was mentioned in UNSCR 1653, which at least recognised 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1292 that there was a conflict. But will the Minister press the Security Council through the Secretariat to keep Uganda on the agenda by appointing a panel of experts and perhaps a special envoy, which can be done without another resolution?
In the last moments, I shall mention an initiative in the United States. In the past two years, three young filmmakers there have raised the issue of Uganda's children through a non-profit organisation called Invisible Children. This organisation has started an education programme in the Ugandan war area, which is partly funded by a bracelet campaign that employs Ugandans. Their documentary is being screened in more than 150 cities across the United States, showing case studies such as we have heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Cox. Each screening includes a viewing of the film, a question and answer session and opportunities for ordinary people to become involved in helping the children of Uganda. It is an excellent example which could be repeated in Britain.
8 pm
Baroness Whitaker: My Lords, as young men and women increasingly flee the LRA, which conscripted them so brutally, as the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, and others have said most eloquently, there is another aspect of the conflict to be resolved—their reintegration. Apart from reconciliation—which is astonishingly well handled by the Acholi people and the Amnesty Commission under Justice Onega—there is, or should be, work, the great reintegrator.
My right honourable friend Hilary Benn has quite rightly cut our direct budget support to the Government of Uganda because of concerns about the democratic process under Mr Museveni's rule. But these funds will not leave Uganda; they will go—just over £20 million—directly towards the humanitarian relief effort in northern Uganda. A major element of that humanitarian effort must also be to rehabilitate those young men and women who lost their childhood in the wastes of the Sudanese training grounds provided to the LRA by the Sudanese Government.
At a receiving camp for surrendered soldiers supported by UNICEF, which is one of the great forces for good in the north—I should declare an interest as a trustee of the UK committee—I spoke to Joseph, 18, whose two siblings died from cholera when they were all abducted into the LRA, who had limped with his untreated wounds for five hours through the forest to give the LRA the slip, and who then spent six months in hospital. He has the height of a 13 year-old.
All Joseph had been offered was enlistment in the national army. It would have been better for him to have moved entirely away from fighting and slaughter. The Ugandan Government are not thought to have given much priority to vocational and technical education, preferring, like some others, so-called prestigious academic qualifications. But modern agriculture, food processing and local services would be of far more use to these communities and could be the lifeblood of these thousands of children's return to 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1293 normality. Perhaps I may ask my noble friend, does DfID's humanitarian assistance and what it can muster from the international community also include support for specialised mental healthcare for these traumatised young people and vocational education and skills training?
8.03 pm
Lord St John of Bletso: My Lords, I join in thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, for initiating this short debate. It is impossible to do justice to this big subject in just three minutes.
We have heard today—particularly from my noble friend Lady Cox—about the appalling continuing atrocities of the LRA, which has for the past 19 years waged a brutal war against the Government of Uganda, carrying out horrific attacks on villages and squatter camps for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people, particularly the young people. The LRA has said that it wishes to govern the country according to the Ten Commandments. Sadly, it has completely ignored the first commandment—thou shalt not kill—and embarked on a reign of terror, often against the Acholi people whom it claims to represent. The figures vary but I understand that more than 1.6 million people are living in the most desperate conditions, fearing the LRA and still not trusting the government.
So what can be done? I believe that we must continue to support the government of President Museveni in their continuing campaign to overcome the LRA, either by force or through negotiations. The recent multiparty election was certainly not a shining example of democracy in action and the continuing treatment of the opposition leader remains a cause for grave concern. I support and understand why Britain has attached conditions on aid, but Museveni's record also shows some remarkable achievements on economic growth, poverty reduction and the prevalence of AIDS. The president has declared his determination to bring peace to the north by committing troops and also engaging in reconciliatory talks. But actions speak louder than words, and several noble Lords have been critical—rightly so—about his lack of action.
Our Government have actively supported Museveni's pursuit of peace. We have also supported a broad variety of welfare programmes in the region, including the Ugandan Amnesty Commission and MEGA FM, a local radio station promoting peace. I am sure the Minister, when winding up, will elaborate on our support for the various peace initiatives.
Her Majesty's Government have also been a strong ally of the moves to bring the five LRA leaders to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. I trust that that support is being pursued in an energetic and effective manner. I wholeheartedly support the "Break the silence" campaign initiated and co-ordinated by the Church Mission Society in Britain. This campaign has amplified the Northern Uganda Church's appeal for help and certainly dispelled some of the spiritual fear. 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1294
Of course, more can always be done. In all this activity it should be recognised that this is not just a national Ugandan problem; it is a crisis for the region. The problems in northern Uganda threaten the fragile peace process being pursued in southern Sudan. It is alarming that insurgents from northern Uganda are crossing the border and creating instability in the neighbouring state.
I believe that a lasting solution to the problems in northern Uganda will be achieved only by a policy co-ordinated by the international community and the respective Governments of Uganda, Sudan and, indeed, Rwanda. Certainly the international community appears to recognise that the conflicts in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Region are all directly or indirectly connected and that nothing less than a broader regional solution will bring lasting peace and stability to this part of Africa.
8.06 pm

Lord Avebury: My Lords, there are two views on the situation in northern Uganda. One is the view of President Museveni quoted by my noble friend—that the region is now peaceful and that the LRA remnants under Kony are now moving into the DRC, where they hope to join up with Otti in Garamba National Park. He says that people can return to their homes and that he wants the EU to assist with the resettlement. On the other hand, only yesterday three rebels were killed and a party of 100 suspected LRA was reported just over the border in southern Sudan, as the noble Lord has just said. So there is reason to believe that terrorists are still active in the north as well as in the neighbouring countries. Until recently, 40,000 children were leaving their homes every night for protection in nearby towns from abduction and forcible conscription.
Certainly the LRA's centre of gravity has shifted to the DRC, where it killed eight MONUC troops in January, as has been mentioned. It would be useful to know what the UN is doing to exterminate the killers or to bring them to justice. Have additional UN troops been deployed in the Garamba area and is there effective co-ordination between MONUC and the UPDF? Has MONUC been tasked specifically to arrest the criminals who are wanted by the ICC?
Though some NGOs have resumed activity in the north since the two aid workers were murdered in late October last year, there is a natural reluctance—this was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Freeman—to venture back into a lawless region. But UNICEF, referred to by my noble friend and the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, is helping to address the problems of women and children living in the camps, while in the Lira district, where there are 350,000 IDPs, Saferworld—of which the noble Lord, Lord Judd, is a distinguished ornament—and its partners are developing a nut export project, employing local women and helping to safeguard them against attacks. Does the Minister agree that, in spite of these efforts, the humanitarian response is not proportionate to the needs of the 1.7 million people living in squalid camps, where 1,000 a week are dying from lack of water, sanitation and healthcare? 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1295
Can the Minister say how the UN cluster response principle is working in Uganda, which is one of the test cases for the idea? Is the UNHCR capable of undertaking the role of protection cluster lead in Uganda, given that it has no presence in the north, and what additional help can the UK offer now to the rehabilitation of the north generally? Do we consider, in particular, that a north/south road from Juba to Kitgum would help trade and improve security in both regions?
8.09 pm
Baroness Rawlings : My Lords, I too would like to add my congratulations to the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, on securing this debate. Many interesting contributions have come from all sides of the House. It is an increasingly heated situation, especially as the ramifications of the worst drought in 20 years take hold in east Africa. These hardships will only compound what Reuters called the second-worst "forgotten" humanitarian crisis.
With only three minutes to wind up from these Benches, I can only touch on the main issues surrounding this crisis—a significant blot on Uganda's success to date—and ask the Minister three questions. First, what discussions have Her Majesty's Government had with the authorities regarding the claims made by the International Crisis Group that the Ugandan army, while powerful enough to defeat the LRA, has failed to do so due to corruption, abusive behaviour and poor organisation, despite assurances from President Museveni?
Ninety per cent. of internally displaced persons in the north live in overcrowded camps where water is of such importance, as stressed by my noble friend Lord Freeman. The camps are often accessible only with a military escort. The security situation is such that non-governmental organisations no longer operate outside the main towns. In all of this, the tragedy is the damage inflicted on the children of Uganda. It is vital that they receive an education to provide them with skills and hope for the future. Secondly, therefore, what steps have Her Majesty's Government taken to put pressure on the authorities to provide a free education for these children?
I have been unable to cover the many issues raised today. We are faced with an escalating situation that cannot start to be rectified until peace is achieved. The noble Lord, Lord Judd, rightly mentioned the importance of controlling the availability of small arms. In the mean time, there are fears that Uganda's president may now use his mandate to crush the opposition and take a nosedive into dictatorship.
I hope that the Minister will repeat what he has said before—that Uganda is a government priority. I hope that Her Majesty's Government have a plan towards a co-ordinated approach to remove the tarnish from this once shining example of Africa. Thirdly, therefore, will they put pressure on NePAD to encourage full and proper use of the peer review mechanism, to hold the Uganda Government to account over their support 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1296 and treatment of IDPs in the north, as well as encouraging action with regard to the International Criminal Court warrants?
8.12 pm
Lord Triesman : My Lords, I join others in thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, and all noble Lords who have participated in a sobering debate.
I can confirm that ending the conflict in northern Uganda is a government priority and remains so. In a sequence of telling illustrations, the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, reminded us exactly why it should remain so. Many of the issues raised by my noble friend Lord Judd and the noble Baroness, Lady Rawlings, about small arms, remain part of the general agenda, not just that in relation to Uganda. We believe that an international convention is desperately needed to stop trafficking in such arms.
For nearly 20 years, the so-called Lord's Resistance Army has carried out atrocities of unspeakable barbarism and cruelty. Children have been abducted and brutalised, families torn apart, and the insecurity and fear that it has engendered has resulted in about 1.7 million people being sheltered in internally displaced persons' camps—nearly two thirds of northern Uganda's entire population. No right-thinking person could fail to be moved or angered by the senseless and shameful loss of life and the continued suffering.
Primary responsibility for protecting the people of northern Uganda and bringing this crisis to an end must rightly lie with the government of Uganda. The noble Lord, Lord St John of Bletso, made the point, with which I agree, that we must continue to support the government there if we want to see growth and development, a spread of democracy and the north embraced in any advances made. That is a difficult proposition, given what is happening.
In all my discussions with President Museveni—and there have now been quite a number—he has consistently assured me that he is committed to seeing peace and security return to the north. He will not accept that any part of his country is a disaster area. When he makes his statements, he does so in a way that, in face-to-face discussion, would convince anybody. I believe him, but I also believe that he has no proven capacity to turn off the war—to use the phrase that my noble friend Lord Howarth did—because experience tells a different story. Aside from the moral imperative, I accept that it is clearly in his and Uganda's wider interest to do that, if it could. The continuing insecurity creates a negative perception of Uganda, its government and its army in the international community. It also undermines the economic and development gains made over the past 20 years—impressive as some of them have unquestionably been—the potential for future gains and the security of the wider region.
However, since Uganda launched Operation Iron First in 2002 with the claim that the LRA would be wiped out in three months, the number of people in the IDP camps has tripled. The LRA's attacks continue, 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1297 not just in northern Uganda, but in southern Sudan, and more recently in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. My noble friend Lady Whitaker is completely right to remind us of the spread of this scourge into southern Sudan, with, in the past, the collusion of the government of Sudan. The noble Lord, Lord St John, calls it a regional crisis, which are the right words.
I am in the paradoxical position of rejecting the claim that President Museveni is not committed to the end of the LRA, though it is clear that that has not been achieved. What are the reasons for the failure of the government of Uganda and its army? A number have been put forward. The noble Baroness, Lady Rawlings, mentioned one—corruption in the military. Consistent in all these claims is that elements within the Uganda army and establishment have no desire to see an end to that conflict, for reasons of personal profit, and that abuses among the northern population are being sanctioned and perpetrated by some elements. Those are serious and worrying charges. For the sake of the wider credibility of Uganda, and to build trust among the people of the north, these claims need to be subject to a thorough and transparent investigation and charges brought where wrongdoing is found.
Sadly, questions also surround the capability and effectiveness of the Ugandan army. It is hard not to ask whether it has the capacity for the task. The United Kingdom Government funded a defence review in 2003 designed specifically to deal with these concerns. We believe that full implementation of the recommendations would provide a sound basis to take forward future procurement and training needs. These changes are needed in that army.
Non-military methods are also needed—there is no purely military solution, as a number of noble Lords have pointed out. That is why the United Kingdom, in co-ordination with other international partners, provided technical, logistical and financial support to the efforts of Betty Bigombe, a former Ugandan Government Minister for the north, to mediate between the parties. The government of Uganda have supported those efforts. They provided the original tasking and agreement without which the talks would not have taken place. Unfortunately, those efforts did not ultimately bear fruit.
Claims have been made that the government of Uganda did not do enough to support the talks once they were established. I have no doubt, however, that the primary responsibility for the lack of a negotiated settlement rests squarely with the LRA. I have been urged from time to time to think of Kony and Otti as people susceptible to argument and the call for peace and decency, but I see no evidence of that. I see a senseless and gratuitous trail of brutality, murder, disfigurement, torture and rape.
The noble Baroness, Lady Northover, rightly raised the International Criminal Court. The most senior LRA commanders are now subject to warrants from 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1298 the ICC. The noble Baroness, Lady D'Souza, was right to say that that does not excuse Uganda from its responsibilities and role in making sure that it acts in northern Uganda, and we will pressure it to do so. Let me deal with the ICC. There can be no impunity for the worst human rights offenders. The place for Kony and Otti is in the dock of the ICC, not in some offered honourable retirement for the acts that have earned them worldwide notoriety—my noble friend Lord Anderson is absolutely right about that point.
If peace and security are to return to the north, the Ugandan Government, as the noble Baroness, Lady D'Souza, said, need to ensure that those LRA members who are not subject to the ICC indictments are repeatedly alerted to the existence of the Government's amnesty provisions and given the confidence and reassurance they need to lay down their arms and reintegrate into society. My noble friend Lord Judd also made just such a point. This also means the provision of effective support and assistance in reintegrating into their communities. In a new era of multi-party politics, the elected president, Government and Parliament must address all these concerns.
In some telling questions, the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, asked about MONUC. I believe that MONUC has made a brave and strenuous effort to arrest the criminals wanted by the ICC. It is certainly tasked for that. As we have noted, seven Guatemalan troops gave their lives in recent efforts. MONUC is at full strength under its current mandate. The deployment issues about where it goes and how it pursues criminals must be a matter for it on the ground. But it is a sad fact for the immediate future that the majority of the people of northern Uganda will be dependent on the IDP camps and international humanitarian assistance. My noble friend Lord Howarth also talked about how tragic their circumstances are, and I shall return to that in a moment.
So while we all wish they were not needed, the United Kingdom is at the forefront of international efforts in this regard, being one of the largest humanitarian donors to Uganda. In 2004-05, we distributed £11 million in humanitarian assistance. In 2005-06, that figure will be more than £20 million. I do not know whether I can easily say that the sums are proportionate, but they are what we believe we can afford in the range of our commitments to the Commission for Africa. Our aid is primarily disbursed through international aid agencies and NGOs such as the WHO and WFP, and helps provide food. As the noble Lord, Lord Freeman, said, more can be done through the NGOs to provide water, sanitation, shelter and protection. I do not rule out the important point made by my noble friend Lord Anderson about a possible contribution by the smaller NGOs in north-east Uganda.
I say to my noble friend Lord Judd and others on the DfID programme that the majority of the money is delivered, as I think we all know, through direct 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1299 budget support, governed by the Poverty Eradication Action Plan, agreed in partnership with the government of the north. A considerable part of the £70 million that has been put in so far has gone towards education. The noble Baroness, Lady Rawlings, asked about that. I say to my noble friend Lady Whitaker that because it is direct support, the decisions about whether specialised health services should be provided have been a matter for the government of Uganda, but there is obviously great sense in taking her advice.
We want to see an end to the need for aid. That is why the United Kingdom is at the forefront of co-ordinating the international effort to assist the government of Uganda in dealing with the LRA. The camps offer only a life of poverty—poor nutrition, no schools, no clothing, no bedding, no healthcare and no sanitation. I have no doubt that they strip the heart out of Acholi society. When I think about why people are still there and why they face this dilemma, I say to my noble friend Lord Howarth that the reason, in my view, is not because somebody has a systematic desire—I do not see much prospect of people being able to go home, given President Museveni's recent statements—but because there is no competent military way of resolving the problem that has been demonstrated that would carry any conviction.
I turn now to the United Nations. With concerted support from the United Kingdom, the Security Council Resolution 1653 was adopted in January this year. It is a positive development; it is the first resolution to detail specific action against the LRA and record its pernicious effect on millions of innocent people. It rightly underscores the primary responsibility of governments in the region to protect their populations, and it requested the Secretary-General to make recommendations to the Security Council on how the United Nations' missions and agencies can assist.
Other suggestions have been put forward in this regard such as the appointment of a special envoy or a Uganda-specific Security Council resolution. Resolution 1653 does a big part of the job; it was a vital step and was supported widely. There was no opposition to the process from China. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, also raised the question about whether there are more developments. I believe that all the developments that have been suggested warrant further investigation. That is well worth doing.
As the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, said, we want these proposals to achieve outcomes. They must not just be about process. If the effort is put in, it should be about outcomes. My honourable friend Gareth Thomas will therefore be attending a conference in Geneva on 20 March on behalf of the Government to consider how our partners in the international community can best focus the international engagement. We do not know the date 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1300 that the Secretary-General's report will be available, but I hope that it will be very soon. I also hope that NePAD will look at Uganda, as the noble Baroness, Lady Rawlings, suggested. It has quite an extensive programme ahead, but there is no reason why it should not do so.
A number of points have been made in this short debate. I hope that I have responded to the points about the arrest of criminals and the humanitarian response. The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, asked about the UN's cluster response. The cluster approach is currently being trialled. It is too early to say whether it will help in returning IDPs, but the signs at the beginning are relatively encouraging. We are closely involved, and we will watch what is happening.
We were also asked whether we are committed to working with the Ugandan Government to build sustainable peace essential to ensuring the rehabilitation of the north. The community needs to be at the forefront of this effort of improving all the circumstances in the north. The improvement of the road network suggested by the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, could be a key part of that. I want to look into that in more detail and if there is more information, I will write to the noble Lord to ensure that he is completely up to date. But the principle is strongly agreed among us.
During this debate, the undercurrent has been that we all need to do more. I could not agree more—the whole of the international community must do more. I hope that I have clarified much of what is happening and what is planned. Right-thinking people and people of any decency in the government of Uganda and the wider international community want to see an end to the LRA's reign of terror. They want to see the arrest of those indicted by the ICC and the reintegration of the child soldiers that it abducted, maltreated and savaged. Only then will the population of northern Uganda be likely to feel safe enough to leave the camps and return to their homes. I have said that I do not anticipate that that is about to happen with any great speed, and that is a candid assessment of what I see.
We will continue to press the government of Uganda. As I outlined earlier, it is their country, it is their responsibility. These atrocities are on their territory. We will do all in our power internationally to help ensure that peace and security returns to northern Uganda. We will try to make the security assessments that are needed to ensure that we do it successfully. It is not a matter of blundering around but, as my noble friend Lord Judd said, of doing it with precision. Ultimately the Ugandans must take primary responsibility for achieving this. We are willing partners, but it is their responsibility and we must hold them responsible for whether they step up to this task or not. 15 Mar 2006 : Column 1301



Sincerely,Daudi Kololo

Re: Invitation To Acholi Association (AA) Social Funcion, Saturday 4th March 2006-02-27

ACHOLI ASSOCIATION
Office of the Chairman, 23 Radford Road, Mount Pleasant ,
London SE13 6SB (UK)
Direct Phone: +44 7984 758 236
Facsimile No: + 44 208 852 4371

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
All members especially of Acholi, Uganda and other friendly communities in the UK

Re: Invitation To Acholi Association (AA) Social Funcion, Saturday 4th March 2006-02-27

You are cordially invited and welcome to participate with us in a fabulous get-together occasion of a flexible fundraising function organised by the Executive Committee of Acholi Association, to take place in the Hall, as St Matthews Church, Stratford, 38 Dyson Road, London E15 4jx, on Saturday 4 March 2006, commencing at 3.00pm and ending at 10:00pm sharp.

The Occasion will be marked by the following main themes and activities:
Free entry, entertainment, music and dance: Traditional, national and Foreign.
Free Food: [Acholi Dishes(Malakwang, Boo ki Layata, lacakacaka, Lapena agura, Dek Ngor ki moo yaa, War tyen ayom-obokokwer, lakotokoto, Cinecine and Molokony)
Auction: Exotic Paintings by the nationally advertised artist and professional engineer, Chris Lakony-Assistant Secretary, Acholi Association.
Donations and Sales: Donations include anything good you may want to part with, in favour of AA caus; will be sold for the Fundraising purpose. Tokens for drinks of your choice will be available at reasonable contribution.
Pledges: Pledge anything valuable, that you will honour, before the seminar this month
We appeal to you therefore, for total support by attending this remarkable funcion and contributing in the best way you can, and within your individual, corporate, charitable or group capacity, to support the success of this occasion.

All proceeds will go towards preparations for Acholi Association's forthcoming seminar. Acholi Association Executive Committee is finalising preparations for thematic seminar for further discussions of very important contemporary issues.

I thank you all and once again, to those who attended the last function in which you inspired us beyond expectation with full, whole-hearted contributions. I pray we all keep up the same spirit, always

Yours Faithfully



JC Amone
Chariman


RSVP
JC Amone: 07984758236
JL Lakana: 07949349584
TK Apinyi: 07867726573
C Lakony: 07774995597
VK Okwera: 07961139727
G Odong: 079501609222
JB Ayela: 07757764073
C Oriba: 07906507257

NEW YEAR MESSAGE TO ACHOLI PEOPLE LIVING WORLDWIDE

NEW YEAR MESSAGE TO ACHOLI PEOPLE LIVING WORLDWIDE

(31 December, 2005)

Dear Elderly and Adult members of Acholi Community and all our Youths, wherever you are. I want first of all to revisit the last twenty, dreadful years and remember with you together, all our dear loved ones; who were brought to their sudden, pre-mature deaths, yet many, especially Acholi Children are still unaccounted for, by the perennial dictatorship in Uganda. As if that is not enough, the few Acholi herded to camps are subjected to systematic deaths, through the use of various, even draconian means, in the very sight of the so called International Community (Global Family).

Acholi Homesteads are no more, and we have been encamped like Pigs in filthy Sty. The destruction of our properties and then precious livelihood; cultural and traditional, economic and social, political and otherwise good neighbourliness and international relations have been destroyed by the barbaric NRM system.

The years ahead are not simple. They are years of continued struggle; struggle for Acholi survival; struggle for Acholi Dignity and Inalienable Human Rights; struggle for the restoration of Acholiland; struggle to Rescue and Return all the Lost Acholi Children Home; struggle for Acholi Total Freedom; struggle to bring the culprits of Genocide on Acholi People to Justice.

All of us Acholi People; I mean if you know from the bottom of your heart, that you are a true Acholi, you have no better option, but must embrace the struggle without pretending, or subjecting yourself to opportunism. Acholi Culture and Traditions have not changed-You cannot eat with the one who has murdered your brother! The struggle continues!

Acholi Association will start the year 2006 with pressuring the United Nations to implement the 15-Point Demands; letter to the UN Secretary General, 25 October 2005 (Ref: http://acholi-association.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk), until all are resolved. Please join us in the struggle, by campaigning or contributing in any way you can, towards resolving the plight of Acholi people and Acholiland.

Finally, in all that we do in the months and years to come, let us give Glory to God the Almighty, who knows what we need, even before we kneel down to ask Him in prayer. Let us pray without ceasing therefore, that the fervent prayer of the righteous may abide much. For with God, everything is possible, to those who believe! In Jesus’ name. Amen!

MAY GOD RESCUE ACHOLILAND AND BLESS ACHOLI PEOPLE!

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY

JC Amone
Chairman

New Year Message (Acholi Association_

The wider world has noted by now also, that major wars like those that recently took place in Afghanistan and Iraq gripped international attention and called for greater involvement on the part of the United Nations and in particular your personal concentration. While responsible authorities like the UN are busy trying to keep peace in one part of the world, some world-known dictators take advantage of your busy schedules, and continue to suppress people to the extend of committing genocide, unabated. The disturbing case in reference is that of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) regime of the Dictator, Yoweri Kagutta Museveni, that continuous to commit genocide on Acholi people, in Uganda.

As a legally constituted community organisation, Acholi Association (AA), is working for the wellbeing of Acholi people in the United Kingdom, and more so, worldwide. Executive Committee members of the Association are therefore obliged, and extremely concerned, that the incumbent NRM government of Uganda have grossly violated the inalienable rights of Acholi people and their properties, for the last twenty years. This act is in contravention of the provisions and following protocols of the 1951 Geneva Convention. It is to the backdrop of this quagmire that our sorrowful public representation should officially draw the embarrassing attention and knowledge of the United Nations, through you. Please kindly receive catalogued, criminal record of cases about the NRM regime, which currently concern Acholi people most, for your immediate attention and appropriate action:

1. Concentration Camps, Created With Intent, And Sustained To Exterminate Acholi People In Uganda, Is A Continued Act Of Genocide.

We strongly condemn the use of concentration camps and call upon the UN to spearhead a serious diplomatic mission to dismantle the camps that Museveni and his regime created in Uganda and herded particularly Acholi people in them. The camps have proved to the world beyond reasonable doubts, to be official death camps, meant to inflict slow genocide on Acholi people[1]. Many people have died and more will continue to perish, as infected soldiers are on the loose, together with NRM secret government agents, intentionally deployed to spread HIV/AIDS and mysterious illnesses resembling Cholera, Ebola, as weapons of genocide, against Acholi people. Famine, due to inadequate food supply, illnesses resulting from unsanitary conditions and mental health problems are rampant. All the above severe conditions designed to perpetrate effectively, acts of insidious annihilation. To that effect, the so-called Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) of the Dictator regime continued to abuse many underage children sexually. However, planned killings to cleanse Acholi people ethnically through integrated NRM extermination programmes have continued for the last twenty years, unabated since 1986, when the Dictator Museveni lustfully took over power in a bloody, meaningless coup de tat in Uganda, with sworn statements to wipe out Acholi people.

We demand the immediate dismantling of the death camps, with the help of the UN, so that Acholi people can return to their God-given homeland and what remains of individually built homesteads, without fear of mercenaries from the West and/or claim of protection by the dictator regime. During the twenty years, Museveni continued dictatorship in Uganda with some of the most horrendous cases of genocide ordered by him [Museveni] occurring in contemporary Africa, yet for all those twenty years, the international community have kept silent over Museveni’s crime of genocide. As part of the Human Race, we demand answers to Acholi people’s concerns for the international community’s silence over Museveni’s continuous acts of genocide on the Acholi People of Northern Uganda.

Like the stopping of many Dictators around the world, the UN is effectively the only capable body now that can stop the Dictator Museveni, immediately. We therefore demand that UN take measures to stop Museveni’s complete genocide on Acholi people:

(i) The UN to ensure that Museveni’s soldiers leave Acholiland immediately, as they are instruments of genocide and represent the greatest danger to a continued Acholi existence.

(ii) The UN to order, sponsor and supervise the dismantling of the concentration camps and the return of Acholi people to their individual homes immediately; the vast majority being women and children. Museveni and his soldiers have brutally and systematically expelled Ninety five percent [95%] of the Acholi population from their homes and confined them to die in the dreaded camps. As citizens of the free world, Acholi people demand the UN to heed to their call immediately.

(iii) WHO and other UN agencies to incorporate Acholi people and other sympathetic professionals worldwide, to pioneer and take over immediate and independent diagnosis and treatment of sick people in Acholiland, to stop the NRM regime from continuing to destroy Acholi people through starvation, malnutrition, and exposition to unsanitary conditions, diseases [HIV/AIDS, Cholera, Ebola] and various kinds of insecurity. These cases already resulted in high rate of suicide in IDP camps for instance; Bishop Odama reported 15 cases in one such camp alone, 25th August 2005[2]. He asked for provisions of medical supplies, personnel, funds and other essentials to enable them serve their people.

(iv) UN to officially acknowledge and condemn Museveni’s genocide, and stop him [Museveni] from using HIV/AIDS scourge as a weapon of war, through deliberate deployment of HIV/AIDS positive soldiers, against the Acholi people. This practice has continued in the north, where the UPDF persistently rape men [Taboo in Acholi Culture and Traditional Practices], women, and children, some as young as ten years old. Credible evidence to support this claim is available from various reliable sources, as well as from the victims themselves. Recent UNICEF report on the Internally Displaced People’s (IDP’s) Camps, in Acholiland, also shows clearly that the rate of HIV/AIDS in Acholiland is 35%, that is, six times that of the rest of Uganda[3]. This contrasts very much with pre-Museveni [1985] STD Health reportage of 0.5%. Further, the last World Health Organisation report indicates that the rate of death in the IDP’s Camps is 1000 per week and growing[4].

(v) UN to stop Museveni from inflicting, further physical, mental and psychological harm on individual members of the Acholi ethnic group, with a clear aim to destroy Acholi in whole, or in part.

(v) UN to restrain Museveni and his dictator regime from imposition on the Acholi people in Uganda, conditions intended to restrict births and family life.

(vi) UN to ban the removal of Acholi children by the NRM government forces conscripting them to become child-soldiers or selling them to other groups and individual. This is purely ethnic cleansing.

2. International Dynamics Of The Genocide In Northern Uganda: Acholi People Have Zero Independence As We Continue To Undergo The Most Appalling Super-Imposed Human Suffering, Resulting From Neo-Colonialism And Neo-Imperialism; Globalisation.

Forty-three years have lapsed since Uganda got her Pseudo-Independence from Britain, on the 9 October 1962. It has however, been long painful period; since the establishment of then Uganda British Protectorate, up-to-date, when successive regimes came and went, with Acholi people benefiting nothing, but massacred and subjected to various forms of oppressive annihilations by the Western-sponsored dictators like Idi Amin and repression from various, similar leaders like Museveni. Yet leaders always call upon Acholi people to safeguard the constitution.

After Forty-Three years of independence out of which the NRM under the Dictator Museveni serves a twenty year-uninterrupted dictatorship, Uganda remains one of the ten poorest countries of the world with the proportion of people living below poverty line increasing every year to 38% this year[5]. This suppressed figure is usual with government data reported by the administration and/or the Western Press to hoodwink the international community and praise Museveni’s so-called Uganda “Miracle Economic Growth.” However, the truth is that the Uganda rosy image is deceptive; as clearly reported, a daunting and devastating revelation by a New York based organisation. The Good Governance International (GGI) doubts the portrayal in the international arena that responsive to the waves of good governance progress in Africa, as PR propaganda by paid agencies, to mask Political, Economic and Social evils[6].

Acholi people are famous for being industrious, productive and courageous, yet passionate. From colonial era to the so-called Independence, the Acholi are a target and intentionally subjected to impoverishment, to the current mass-detention in concentration camps. Though impoverished now, Acholi people knew long time ago, that Independence does not make money grow on trees or rivers flow with milk[7], but they want independence to enable their freedom. Free Acholi people will always work for their success, themselves.

The current generation of Acholi find themselves prisoners of the world system, experiencing the worst political obliterations than any other contemporary peoples of the world (not even during Apartheid rule in South Africa were that nation encamped), since pre-independent Ugandan feudal era. Mercenary pilots and foot soldiers now shoot innocent Acholi women and children en masse, with helicopter gunship and machine guns, at the instructions of the Western-sponsored terrorist NRM regime, as if they were fighting Third-World-War (in Northern Uganda), this 21st Century!

Sunday last weekend, the persistent Ugandan dictator Museveni, celebrated the 43rd year of supposedly Independent rule in Uganda, with his well-wishers and sponsors of his totalitarian regime. Acholi people were mourning Worldwide, a period when we were remembering dead love ones; our brothers and sisters in camps; Acholi children forcefully taken away to unknown places by the NRM regime, in their thousands; Acholiland being steadily grabbed through those in authorities in and outside Uganda; the destruction of Acholi culture and traditional practices. Acholi people are now scattered worldwide [brain drain] and, the remaining majority hardly survive oppression in Uganda, because of zero independence. We are now prisoners of globalisation; victims of neo-colonialism and slaves to neo-imperialism.

To alleviate the burden on Acholi, we call upon the UN to examine and sponsor a public inquiry into the complicity of the international community, into the genocide committed against Acholi people of Northern Uganda by the NRM regime. This posture will help Acholi people feel free, recover from their trauma, and persecute the culprits. We have evidence and strongly believe that an International Criminal Tribunal if established will indict Museveni and many foreign accomplices, for crimes of genocide in Acholiland. His beleaguered presidency will not preclude legal actions against him.

It is very important to note seriously in time, that the recent misconduct of some Western governments, many Trans-national corporations, and non-governmental organisations in Africa generally, and more specifically in Uganda if not stopped, will soon compel the continent to commence a new wave of popular Africa Liberation early this century. Africa will again become a no-go area to foreigners; a scenario caused by themselves [Westerners] in the past and they will be to blame again. Kwame Nkrumah led Africa to Independence. Acholi would celebrate the UN protection forever, if the currently illustrious leadership of an African Secretary-General were to intervene promptly, to bring about Acholi freedom and total independence sooner, rather than later.

3. Mercenaries, UPDF, And NRM Multi Masked-Counter-Insurgent Criminal Forces Must Withdraw From Acholiland, Immediately.

After twenty years of failed protection to the civil population, the marauding troops of the regime (NRA/UPDF), with all its facets and disguises, like the deadly counter-insurgent forces, headed by Museveni’s blood brother, Salim Saleh, must leave Acholiland, immediately. They have killed and maimed Acholi people and are responsible for removing and deporting large numbers of Acholi children to unknown foreign countries, and destroying Acholi private properties. They are responsible for gross abuse of Acholi Human Rights for the last two decades, and continue to blame it on armed opposition forces. Equally to withdraw, are mercenaries and other, foreign government forces, present with, or without orders from their home governments. Acholiland must now remain in the hands of Acholi traditional leaders and indigenous people alone, to manage.

4. Western Press, And Media, Are Counter-Productive To The Restoration Of Peace In Northern Uganda. They Work To Fan The War In Acholiland, In Favour Of The Dictator Museveni’s Regime.

The Western Press and media especially those based in the USA and the UK [ BBC] have participated actively in distorting, misinforming or telling outright lies, to cover-up Museveni’s war, which work in favour of enhancing the 20-year-old war in Acholiland and the on-going genocide on Acholi people. One particularly destructive but useless lie by Museveni and the Western press and media in relation to the war is that Joseph Kony wants to overthrow Museveni to rule Uganda based on the Ten Commandments. Another bogus argument persistently perpetrating the war is that the insurgency in Acholiland has no basis and therefore, no political purpose.

We condemn in the strongest terms possible, those responsible for this kind of unproductive propaganda, distorting issues and reasons for the conflict because the effects have only led to confusion, suffering, and more deaths of Acholi people. We are confident that peace is still possible since many interested people carried out a lot of research to establish the root causes of the conflict, in order to deal with them and find the way forward to lasting peace. It is important therefore, that all interested parties should make positive contributions by avoiding irresponsible and vile remarks against Acholi people and land, rather than fuelling the war. We [Acholi people] therefore appeal to the US and UK governments through you, to help the precarious militant situation by regulating media and other deceptive instruments of propaganda war information such that it does not negatively enhance the continued genocide in Acholiland.




5. The International Community, Some Organizations, And Agencies Should End Duplicity In The Conflict, For The War To End And Acholi People Repatriate To Attain Peace And Security In Their Original Home Villages.

In order to get more actively involved and provide support, in bringing about a positive, speedy but sure end to the conflict in Acholiland, the international community, some corporate and private organizations and agencies should end duplicity in the conflict.

(i) The appallingly, insensitive and indifferent position the UN Security Council has adopted in relation to the war has horrified us [the Acholi people] profoundly. We therefore request the UN to appoint a mediator to initiate meaningful peace negotiations with a view to achieving a lasting peace in Acholiland and Uganda at large. We are confident the UN Security council can effectively tackle Museveni’s arrogance and require him to comply with his obligations under International Human Rights and Humanitarian Laws. Whereas the Security Council has been involved in the Sudan, Liberia, Cote de Ivoire, etc, nothing concrete has happened in the case of Acholiland and people. We are confident the UN Security Council can still do much more, to end this war. The recent UN Security Council Resolution 1612[8], adopted to protect children in war situations, is very good and especially if implemented; but is still a drop in the ocean. Will thousands of Acholi children who have been abducted, conscripted and forcefully relocated to other parts of the world by the NRM regime of the Dictator Museveni of Uganda be traced and returned to their homeland and rightful parents?

(ii) The US has poured a huge amount of money in support of Museveni’s regime as well as training the regimes soldiers who have the intent to destroy the Acholi, their environment and cultural heritage. We reiterate that AID to Uganda should only resume when Museveni can demonstrate his preparedness to work in favor of peace, or has peacefully vacated power in Uganda. It is the fact that the US has supported Museveni’s government so much despite his [Museveni’s] crimes, which has emboldened him to refuse deliberately, to comply with human rights obligations under international Law.

It is dishonest and inappropriate in our views, for the US government to talk peace in the morning, only to arm Museveni in the evening, to wage war against the Acholi. Indeed, it constitutes double standards and this does not lead to peace. The US position, in other words, has been that she believes in adopting dual policy of pursuing war against the oppressed, at the same time encouraging and engaging in sham peace talks, a political manoeuvre tactic of the Cold-war era. The despicable super-power oppression by proxy through protecting and maintaining African Dictators in power, while facilitating the elimination of resourceful African nationalist leaders, has continued with Yoweri Museveni as a replacement to General Mobutu in Africa, in the 21st Century. Yoweri Museveni and company are therefore responsible for conspiracy and the continued death of many Acholi people and specifically leaders in Uganda and other African countries.

(iii) In the UK, Her Majesty the Queen’s government can play a major role in bringing peace to Acholiland. The recent suspension of certain forms of AID to Uganda is a drop in the ocean. Much more can and should be done in terms of stopping financial assistance to Museveni and refusing to train and supply him with arms.

(iv) We appeal to the EU and other Western donors through your good offices, to halt giving any form of assistance to sustain Museveni and his crimes of genocide, in Acholiland. It is otherwise, an example of continued destruction of Africa, by Europe[9].

(v) The African Union (AU) has the mandate and fundamentally important duty to ensure that notorious dictators like Museveni are compelled to comply with their international obligations by not infringing on Human Rights and breaking Humanitarian Laws.



6. Denying The Affected People Opportunities For International Conference To End The Conflict In Northern Uganda Is In Itself Complicity, In The Genocide.

An important aspect of ensuring lasting peace is organising and hosting the conference that enables Ugandans to discuss and resolve ways of ending the conflict. A conference involving representatives of all the political parties and other stakeholders including civil society organisations, religious and traditional leaders is fundamental step towards resolution of the conflict. The conference should be a forum that enables attendants to discuss perspectives and demands of the LRA and all other political organisations, opposed to the NRM dictatorship, including strong representation of Acholi general population, who will speak for themselves. They know perpetrators of the war. All they need is an opportunity to speak-up freely and on neutral grounds.

To that effect, Acholi Association being a well-established and constituted community organisation, we are willing and propose to take the opportunity to organise this conference with the full support of the UN. This high-level involvement will also assist the UN and other relevant international organisations and governments, to understand the dark reality and complexity of the war, through addressing all the issues properly and with the aim of ending the conflict, rather than wanting the Dictator Museveni, to end the war.

7. The US Government Labelling The LRA Armed Opposition To The Dictator Museveni’s Regime As International Terrorists Is Diversion From The Truth; Ignoring Causes Of The Conflict And Indirect Support To The Oppressive Regime, Against Acholi People.

A huge obstacle has arisen in relation to the Northern conflict. The US government needs to deal cautiously and courageously with the characterisation of the LRA insurgency as an aspect of “international terrorism.” This is largely a result of Museveni’s deliberate distortion and manipulation of issues to gain the support of the US government thereby empowering Museveni to pursue this genocidal war. It is important to note that armed resistance in the North began on 20 August 1986, when Museveni’s then National Resistance Army [NRA] began to harass and persecute the ex-soldiers in particular, and the general population of Northern Uganda at large. This was well before the US bombing by Al-Qa-eda on 11 September 2001, after which they now call liberation fighters like the LRA as terrorists. The conflict is hugely the product of Uganda’s concrete experience of the nightmare of British colonialism, Western Imperialism, and neo-colonialism. Honestly disentangling the complex nature of the conflict will enhance deeper understanding of the issues. We appeal to, and urge the UN to give a forum that ensures dealing effectively with this challenge.

8. State Grabbing Of Peoples’ Land Is Criminal Incitement Of Violence.

The Dictator Museveni’s NRM idea of the so-called Recovery Programme is incoherent criminal grabbing of Acholiland[10]. The UN should not allow someone to destroy a people in order to create room for commercial farming and mineral exploitation. We unequivocally condemn this kind of state terrorism and call upon the UN to stop Museveni forthwith, to enable Acholi people to return, to their God-given homeland. Acholiland does not belong to individuals or groups of a few people but responsibility of the entire Acholi community. Its protection and utilisation rest in the supreme authority of Acholi tradition, overseen by Acholi traditional chiefs. There is therefore no sale, purchase, or private ownership of land in Acholi. Acholi people know detailed geographical boundaries of their land. They will protect every inch of it, at all costs. No one can therefore cheat or grab Acholiland, without fierce resistance.

9. Pretence By The Dictator Museveni Through His NRM Regime To Achieve Peace In Acholiland Is Deceptive And A Dangerous Strategy To Continue Genocide.

Many a time, pretences and peace-like-initiatives were taken by the dictator regime, purportedly to bring about lasting peace in Northern Uganda. Some notable examples are through ministers of the regime.

(i). In 1994, Mrs. B. Bigombe then minister for what has been referred to as ‘the pacification of the North’ took steps to approach Joseph Kony, leader and founder of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), to enable the resolution of the conflict in Acholiland. The greatest obstacle that came in her way however, was the perennial arrogance of the dictator Museveni. First, he [Museveni] gave Joseph Kony an ultimatum of one week only, lest he [Museveni] would kill Kony. Joseph Kony did not surrender to the dictator. Secondly, Museveni did not kill Kony. Thirdly, the war has not ended and people in Acholiland continue to die in thousands. We acknowledge with deep appreciation the effort of Mrs. Bigombe in 1994 in this context.

(ii). Only recently, Mrs. Bigombe was involved in efforts to achieve ‘peace’ in Acholiland. There is however, a radical difference between 1994 and 2005. This is in terms of the magnitude of the war and the fact that numerous complex issues and related factors have arisen, since 1994. In the light of these two factors, it should have been obvious to Bigombe to do much more, in order to facilitate the realisation of peace in the present circumstances. It is the fact that Bigombe intentionally or unintentionally chose not to recognise the factors that have compelled us to characterise the present efforts as geared towards achieving ‘peace pretence.’ Bigombe should have paid more attention to the issues addressed today, but can still learn through this experience.

(iii) Grace Akello, then Minister for Northern Uganda in the office of the Prime Minister, called for a one-day national “Dialogue” on 22 July 2003, to discuss conflict management and resolution in Northern Uganda. Museveni’s peace pretence was exposed when addressing the Dialogue announced that he [Yoweri Museveni] was going back to the North, to fight Kony[11].

(iv) The recent UN International Criminal Court (ICC) move to issue NRM negotiated Arrest Warrants against Joseph Kony and four of his armed opposition LRA commanders[12], is another blow to the civil society by Yoweri Museveni, to block any moves by the international community to negotiate meaningful peace settlement in Northern Uganda and in particular, Acholiland. If Yoweri Museveni’s claims that it is Joseph Kony through the LRA and not himself [through the NRA/UPDF and the multi-facetted counter insurgent forces under the command of his brother Salim Saleh] that is committing genocide against Acholi people are genuine, then why can’t the ICC allow investigations to backdate to 1986; and stop being prejudicial [would these dates still not help cover Museveni’s genocide committed in the Luwero Triangle, at least?]. Starting the investigations in 2002 is nothing less than doing PR for the NRM regime and orchestrated cover-up of Museveni’s false claims of “rigged 1980 general elections.” A shallow justification for going to the bush to commit genocide against Ugandans since the NRA started insurgency in 1981; and especially against Acholi people from 1986 up-to-date.

It would be naivety on our part also to pretend that we members of the community organisation, Acholi Association [AA], know all the answers to the ‘Human Rights’ and humanitarian catastrophe in Acholiland. On the other hand, it would be wrong to ignore the issues we are highlighting.

10. Dictator Museveni Is Not For Peace And Does Not Want The Insecurity Problems That He Created In Acholiland And On Acholi People To Be Resolved Peacefully-He Is War Monger.

Negotiated settlement is a process that begins with building trust between the parties in conflict. Museveni’s ministers cannot fulfil this role. Museveni himself; has never come out freely and willingly, for serious peace negotiations, but is adamantly against any meaningful and peaceful conflict resolutions, as confirmed in most of his usually, arrogant remarks [e.g. that Acholi people are primitive and backwards][13], and past records. All the past peace negotiations involving the Dictator Museveni ended up in him [Museveni] winning, either through the surrender of his credible opposition to him, or tactical elimination of opponents and organisations.

The 1990s saw Uganda National Liberation Army [UNLA] of the late General Tito Okello, the Uganda People’s Democratic Army/Movement [UPDA/M] of the late Brigadier Odong Latek, the Uganda Peoples Army [UPA], the Uganda National Rescue Front [UNRF] and the West Nile Bank Front [UNRF], all subdued by Yoweri Museveni with him [Museveni], remaining to wield pseudo-military dictatorship.

We cannot tolerate this kind of oppressive arrogance any more and for Acholi population not to become extinct [Ref. AA Website, below], we ask for your assurances of a planned rapid rescue operation that will involve Acholi both at home and in the Diaspora.

Your prompt intervention will help Acholi people and friends from taking further unilateral initiatives, to salvage a people held hostage, by the dictator regime.

I hope to receive your acknowledgement of receipt and planned swift action to our concerns and proposals as soon as possible.

For God and my country
JC Amone
Chairman


[1] Olara Otunnu: Lehman Collage: The City University of New York News, 15 September 2005.
[2] AcoliForum, Electronic Mail, 6 Sept 2005.
[3] UNICEF, July 2005.
[4] WHO, August 2005.
[5] Dr Ezra Suruma; Ugandan Minister of Finance; “Budget Speech: financial year 2005/06.”
[6] GGI; Revealing Uganda: “The Mask of Politics, Economics and Social Realities,” May 2005.
[7] Professor Okot p’Bitek: 1967.
[8] The International Herald Tribune, 6-7 August 2005
[9] Walter Rodney: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Dar es Salaam, 1972.
[10] Office of the Prime Minister: “Recovery and Development Programme for Northern Uganda;” Dec 2004.
[11] The New Vision, 23 July 2003
[12] The Monitor, 8 October 2005
[13] Uganda Television Interview, Aug 1998.