War costs outweigh health spending

Sixteen years of conflict in the north has cost the Ugandan economy about US $1.33 billion, more than the sum spent on health care, according to research just published. "The cost of the war is greater than central government spending on health. All Ugandans are paying for this war," Phil Vernon, Country Director for CARE International in Uganda, said in a statement on Thursday. According to the research, commissioned by Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU), a coalition of more than 40 local and international NGOs, 29 percent of the costs related to military expenditure, with loss of livestock accounting for 24 percent, and ill health and deaths adding another 21 percent. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni recently announced plans to increase the Ugandan defence budget, in part to fund an expansion of the army in an attempt to defeat Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in the north. "We have wasted a lot of time by responding below the challenges, but now that we have mobilised, we are going to finish the problem in the north," The New Vision government-owned newspaper quoted Museveni as saying on Sunday. The move would in part reverse a troop-reduction exercise begun in 1991, which reduced the size of the Ugandan army from some 100,000 to around 40,000, according to The New Vision. "The government has had to spend more on the military, and therefore by implication less on investments for development. The recent budgetary reallocations to defence spending are an example," Vernon said. More than 500,000 people in northern Uganda are forced to remain in government-protected camps fearing attacks by the LRA, a shadowy group led by a self-styled mystic, Joseph Kony. The launch in March of a major government offensive - Operation Iron Fist - against the LRA's rear bases in southern Sudan forced the LRA back into Uganda, leading to an increase in attacks against civilians, and higher levels of displacement in the north of the country. Not only had households been directly affected by the escalation in LRA raids, often losing productive family members, but had also been unable to develop their livelihoods or invest in education, the CSOPNU statement said. "The best way we can help Ugandans out of poverty is by putting all efforts into ensuring a peaceful and permanent end to the conflict. Only then will we be able to start investing for a better future," Vernon said.