Northern Uganda asks tough questions

The time has come round again when the entire country is caught up in the election frenzy; campaign convoys paint the streets in all the colours of the rainbow depending on what party one belongs to; when accusations are traded left and right and all candidates believe they are the best for the job and make all sorts of promises.

Most candidates are promising the usual things that appeal to the ears of the common man; economic revitalisation and an end to poverty; modernisation of agriculture and loans to the rural poor; infrastructural development and good roads; support to the health sector; free education for all and creation of jobs for the youth.

The sad fact with most of the election manifestos that have been unveiled thus far is that they offer a ‘one size fits all’ solution for all regions in Uganda regardless of the current context on the ground.

Northern Uganda, for example, is just emerging from conflict after over 22 years of civil war, which started in 1986, and has had disastrous impacts on the population. Between 28,000 and 38,000 children are believed to have been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to serve as child soldiers, sex slaves and porters. It is estimated that over 1.8 million people were displaced and forced to live in squalid conditions of the IDP camps.

With the launch of Operation Lightning Thunder in November 2008 by the UPDF, however, the LRA were forced to relocate to the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan. Many people were therefore able to leave the IDP camps, many of which have been officially declared closed.

On June 22, local government officials in Gulu held a ceremony to close Cwero IDP Camp, which was one of the last remaining camps in the district. People finally have access to their farmlands after several years of conflict. Children are able to go to school. The infrastructure, much of which was destroyed, is slowly being refurbished. Economic activity has also picked up again, with northern Uganda acting as the gateway to the booming trade between Uganda and Southern Sudan.

The above is an indicator that Northern Uganda has entered that crucial stage of post conflict recovery. A lot remains to be done before the region can fully recover, with the timing being right for the implementation of post conflict transitional justice interventions. Election candidates need to be mindful of this fact.

The guns may be silent, but a lot remains to be done to ensure that there is a steady level of post conflict recovery in the coming years. The post conflict period calls for the implementation of a variety of programmes aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of the conflict. And yet few, if not none, of the election manifestos that have been unveiled thus far are showing any promise of holistically attaining this.

There is need to consolidate security. The LRA are still a potential threat and are currently reported to be continuing with atrocities in Southern Sudan and the Central Africa Republic. For example one article published on the BBC website reported that “not a week goes by without reports of the LRA, notorious for its brutality, attacking a village and that more than 25,000 people have been forced from their homes in South Sudan by the LRA since January.”

The LRA is also reported to have kidnapped almost 700 people, a third of them children, during attacks in the DR Congo and the CAR since February 2009, according to a report published in mid-August by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Consolidation of state security is a must if lasting peace is to prevail in northern Uganda. Otherwise many people will run back to the IDP camps at the first sign of news that the LRA has re-entered Ugandan territory.

This will jeopardise plans for rehabilitation of the region which are already underway. The revitalisation of the economy in northern Uganda is also another factor that requires attention.

To the outsider who visits Gulu for example, the situation may look good on the surface. Judging by the many banks that have opened shop here recently, and the large number of trucks laden with merchandise on their way to Southern Sudan, it looks deceptively good. However, after several years of encampment with many relying on food handouts from humanitarian agencies, the situation for many war survivors is far from desirable.

While programmes like the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund have been launched by the government to help, they have done little to solve the micro-economic needs of the people, and have been riddled with massive corruption scandals.

Others such as NUREP and the PRDP have focused on infrastructural development such as roads, health centres and schools, and done little to address individual needs of survivors of the conflict.