There is a degree of safety in Northern Uganda- says UN chief, Jan Egeland

BY JOHN MUTO-ONO P’LAJUR & ONO COLOMBUS
GULU
11th September 2006.

THE UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian
Affairs And Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland
has declared that there is now a “degree of safety and
security” in Northern Uganda since he first came to
the region in 2003.
He declared that the security situation prevailing now
makes work “easier” and “hope” for the future is
brighter.
“The symbolic nature for me and my colleagues (UN
staffs), staying overnight for the first time ever, in
an internally displaced persons’ camp (IDP), with the
IDPs, shows that things have really changed since I
came here in 2003. Now we have a degree of safety and
security which makes it much easier for us to work and
also hope for the future.”
Egeland declared this during a meeting with
international, national and local media at the UN-OCHA
offices in Gulu on Sunday. He had just returned to
Gulu town from Opit IDP, 32 kilometers east of Gulu
town, where he had gone to spend a night with the
local community.
“I sat all night yesterday (Saturday), in a very
moving experience around a fire place with the
Acholis-displaced people, war victims. We discussed
the future and how to bring peace.”
A journalst who accompanied him to the camp told Daily
Monitor that Egeland sat at wang-oo (bonfire) with the
community, ate local food, drank ordinary water,
bathed in makeshift shelters and slept in one of the
huts in the camp and that the people entertained him
Acholi with Acholi folklores by the bonfire.
“It was a very good experience. No security risks.
Some UN colleagues were snoring. That was the biggest
event of the night. Only a couple of years ago, we
would have been pulled off there, we would have been
kidnapped if we stayed over in such a camp.”
Unicef Country Director, Martin Mugwanja, several UN
agencies operation in the region, national and
international media accompanied the envoy to Opit.
“I wanted to give attention to the plight of the IDPs
because they are living in “totally unacceptable
conditions-very crowded”. Water and sanitation is not
good enough, the health situation is not good enough.
We need more assistance to these people, we need to
help them return home.”
Egeland said he wanted to spend a night at an IPD camp
to tell the international community that the security
situation is “safer now than before.”
“It is safer now than before. Before, I would not be
allowed by my own security people to sleep over. Now
they allowed me to do that and therefore I wanted to
stay overnight.”
UN position on ICC
Egeland told journalists that the reason why the world
body is insisting of execution of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) indictment warrants issued
against the five top LRA commanders, including their
leader Joseph Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti, is
because of the Rwanda genocide where over 800,000
innocent civilians were killed between 1993 and 1994.
“The reason why the ICC indictment is there is
basically because of Rwanda. There is not going to be
impunity for mass violations of human rights.”
He, however, said both the UN and ICC would be
“flexible” depending on the progress and outcome of
the peace talks going on in Juba between Uganda and
the LRA. He said he has already talked to the ICC
chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and LRA’s Vincent
Otii about that.
“On the other hand, I have spoken to the prosecutor of
the ICC and he says, “of course we can be flexible in
the way you work to reach an agreement. So today
(Sunday), just as an example, I spoke, myself, on
phone for twenty minutes with Vincent Otti on aspects
of the peace process and how to promote the
humanitarian principles in the peace process and how
to ensure that the women and children in LRA camps can
come back home and be integrated into Ugandan
society.”
Otti had earlier vowed, in a telephone interview with
the Kampala based KFM radio station, that no LRA
fighter, women nor children will come out of the bush
unless the ICC arrest warrants are lifted even if
peace agreement is sealed.
Egeland said he had always been very outspoken on the
northern Uganda issues since the beginning and that
all sides of the conflict had not been happy with the
things he speaks. He said the UN is working closely
with Uganda government and the government of Southern
Sudan, which is mediating the talks, to promote the
peace process.
“I had a long talk, three hours’ talk with President
Museveni when I was here only three months ago. I will
have a meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday in
Kampala. I feel we are making progress. The government
have asked us to facilitate this process and so has
the LRA.”
UN needs invitation to political conflicts.
Egeland told journalists that the UN is trying its
best for peace and reconciliation in the Great Lakes
region, including northern Uganda, but that there are
very many things that have peen interconnected. He
said the crisis in northern Uganda has engulfed three
countries at the moments.
“We need invitations from the governments to have a
political mission like we have in Sudan for example.
The other we have in Congo. If we do not have an
invitation for that kind of operation, we are,
however, still working both in the humanitarian area,
development area and we have coordinating offices to
assist informal efforts to promote peace and
reconciliation. And that is what we are doing in
Northern Uganda.”
UN support in Northern Uganda.
THE UN envoy revealed that he was traveling to Juba,
(Monday) to acess the progress of the talks and to
step up efforts of the government of Southern Sudan in
resolving the two-decade long conflict peacefully. He
said the UN has full time people in Juba who are
helping the mediators with logistical support.
He also announced a UN budget of $267million for more
humanitarian relief and recovery now that we have the
best chance to end this war than we have ever had in
the last nineteen years.
“We in the UN will help to do as much as we can to
facilitate an end to the war, to facilitate
reconciliation and to help people return home in
safety and dignity from this over crowded IDP camps”
Egeland appealed to the media, especially American
media, to keep up advocacy for more investments in the
peace, recovery and reconciliation processes and for
the two sides in the conflict to make concessions. He
appealed to the media not to ignore the contributions
of the Acholis in the Diaspora.
‘Make the US Congress keep up their investments in
peace here so that the USA, which is our number one
donor, can give us some more money for recovery and
reconciliation. They should push the two sides to make
concessions. There are also a lot of Acholis in the
Diaspora and they are important too. I say now is not
the time to come with unrealistic demands. Now is the
time to come out and we end the debate.”
ENDS