Northern situation worse than Iraq’s - NGOs
Mar 30, 2006
THE rate of violent deaths in war-ravaged northern Uganda is three times higher than in Iraq and the 20-year-long insurgency has cost $1.7b (£980m), said a report yesterday from 50 international and local agencies.
By Vision Reporter
and Agencies
THE rate of violent deaths in war-ravaged northern Uganda is three times higher than in Iraq and the 20-year-long insurgency has cost $1.7b (£980m), said a report yesterday from 50 international and local agencies.
The violent death rate for northern Uganda is 146 deaths a week, or 0.17 violent deaths per 10,000 per day.
This is three times higher than in Iraq, where the incidence of violent death was 0.052 per 10,000 people per day, says the report published by the Independent on-line, a British newspaper.
“The Ugandan government, the rebel army and the international community must fully acknowledge the true scale and horror of the situation in northern Uganda,†said Kathy Relleen, a policy adviser to Oxfam, one of the organisations behind the report.
But yesterday, the army said life and work in northern Uganda was steadily returning to normal and the LRA rebels were decimated and not worth talking about.
In a statement, army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulayigye, said in the last six months, 46 people were killed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels .
“There are no more LRA to talk about so those who talk about up-scaling our engagements with the LRA are simply daydreaming,†Major Kulayigye said.
Public transport in, out and within the north is very normal and brisk, he said, adding that commercial traffic to southern Sudan and Kotido through Patongo, Adilang up to Abim, was bustling.
Kulayigye dismissed reports that the army killed civilians in Agung displaced people’s camp.
“We escort all civilians to their gardens as well as hunters but these two did not move with UPDF escorts. They could, therefore, have been murdered by LRA,†he said.
The army, he said, is on record for capturing and not killing LRA rebels and wondered why they would kill civilians. He cited the LRA’s Lt. Col. Francis Okwonga Alero who he said was treated for four months by the army.
The report, by the Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda, puts the cost of the war in the north at $1.7b over the 20 years. It said this is equivalent to the US’s aid to Uganda between 1994 and 2002.
“Twenty years of brutal violence is a scar on the world’s conscience. The government of Uganda must act resolutely and without delay, to guarantee protection of civilians and work with all sides to secure just and lasting peace,†Relleen said.
The report was released ahead of the arrival of UN’s humanitarian chief Jan Egeland in Uganda yesterday. Egeland will hold meetings with NGOs, ministers and Uganda-based UN officials.
and Agencies
THE rate of violent deaths in war-ravaged northern Uganda is three times higher than in Iraq and the 20-year-long insurgency has cost $1.7b (£980m), said a report yesterday from 50 international and local agencies.
The violent death rate for northern Uganda is 146 deaths a week, or 0.17 violent deaths per 10,000 per day.
This is three times higher than in Iraq, where the incidence of violent death was 0.052 per 10,000 people per day, says the report published by the Independent on-line, a British newspaper.
“The Ugandan government, the rebel army and the international community must fully acknowledge the true scale and horror of the situation in northern Uganda,†said Kathy Relleen, a policy adviser to Oxfam, one of the organisations behind the report.
But yesterday, the army said life and work in northern Uganda was steadily returning to normal and the LRA rebels were decimated and not worth talking about.
In a statement, army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulayigye, said in the last six months, 46 people were killed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels .
“There are no more LRA to talk about so those who talk about up-scaling our engagements with the LRA are simply daydreaming,†Major Kulayigye said.
Public transport in, out and within the north is very normal and brisk, he said, adding that commercial traffic to southern Sudan and Kotido through Patongo, Adilang up to Abim, was bustling.
Kulayigye dismissed reports that the army killed civilians in Agung displaced people’s camp.
“We escort all civilians to their gardens as well as hunters but these two did not move with UPDF escorts. They could, therefore, have been murdered by LRA,†he said.
The army, he said, is on record for capturing and not killing LRA rebels and wondered why they would kill civilians. He cited the LRA’s Lt. Col. Francis Okwonga Alero who he said was treated for four months by the army.
The report, by the Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda, puts the cost of the war in the north at $1.7b over the 20 years. It said this is equivalent to the US’s aid to Uganda between 1994 and 2002.
“Twenty years of brutal violence is a scar on the world’s conscience. The government of Uganda must act resolutely and without delay, to guarantee protection of civilians and work with all sides to secure just and lasting peace,†Relleen said.
The report was released ahead of the arrival of UN’s humanitarian chief Jan Egeland in Uganda yesterday. Egeland will hold meetings with NGOs, ministers and Uganda-based UN officials.