Focus on Karamoja disarmament //yearender//

General insecurity and incidences of cattle rustling persisted in Uganda's northeastern region during 2001 but there were renewed efforts to bring peace to Karamoja, through community-level peace initiatives and then, notably, by way of a government-sponsored disarmament programme, which began in early December. Calls to disarm the Karamojong - a pastoralist community in the northeastern districts of Moroto and Kotido, accused for years of carrying out armed cattle raids against neighbouring districts - became louder early last year, with some local authorities in neighbouring districts carrying out disarmament on a small scale. However, comprehensive disarmament did not start until December, when President Yoweri Museveni travelled to the region to launch the programme. Between 2 December, when it began, and 29 December, the Karamojong had voluntarily handed in 7,000 illegal firearms, Museveni stated in his New Year address to the Ugandan people. The Ugandan government has described this response as "excellent", and attributed the programme's success mainly to Museveni's personal involvement in touring Karamoja to support the exercise and appealing for donor funds to help develop the drought-prone region. "The appeal is working so well that it looks as though a hard-line approach will not be needed," the presidential spokeswoman, Mary Okurut, told IRIN on 7 December. The Ugandan government initially supplied weapons to small groups of "home guards" within the Karamoja subregion on the grounds that the Karamojong were under threat from cross-border raids by the Turkana and Pokot pastoralist groups from Kenya. Other arms were acquired from rogue elements in the Ugandan army, from the northwestern Kenyan district of Turkana and from southern Sudan, where the 18-year civil war has given rise to widespread access to, use of and trade in small arms, according to humanitarian sources. Museveni, who camped in the northeastern region for two weeks in December to preside over the disarmament programme, has pledged ox-ploughs and oxen to those who voluntarily surrender guns during the amnesty period - initially scheduled to run up to 2 January 2002, but now extended to 15 February. Museveni also promised to supply those who surrendered weapons with corrugated iron sheeting with which to build homes. An inter-agency food security assessment initiated by the nongovernmental organisation Oxfam in January 2001 found that cases of malnutrition in Karamoja were attributable to food insecurity, poor standards of child care, a poor public health environment and inadequate access to health care. The assessment also found that women lacked sufficient time to learn about nutrition and health, or to properly wean and take care of children. It was initially hoped to recover some 40,000 weapons from circulation in Karamoja between 2 December and 2 January, after which, it was stated, those found in possession would be arrested. However, Museveni announced in his New Year speech that the amnesty would be extended to the current date of 15 February, since the government had not yet given what he promised the Karamojong who surrendered illegally held weapons. Insecurity resulting from Karamojong cattle-raiding and the large quantities of small arms in the subregion has greatly affected neighbouring Katakwi District, eastern Uganda, where there has been minimal cultivation for several crop seasons - largely because sporadic attacks by Karamojong warriors had hindered farmers' access to land. At least 10,000 households (over 80,000 people) had been displaced to "protected camps" in the district, and were considered "moderately food insecure... with many IDPs [internally displaced persons] unable to meet their daily food and nutritional requirements", the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in its update for September/October. In October, MPs representing constituencies in Katakwi District threatened to sue the government for failing to protect its mainly Teso community from Karamojong raiders. The government deployed additional security forces in Katakwi to deter attacks by the Karamojong and reduce cattle rustling, but "the continued displacement of households, risk of food insecurity, and lack of basic services suggests the IDPs will require assistance for the immediate future", the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net) reported in November. The nature and scope of traditional cross-border cattle raiding by different Kenyan, Ugandan and Sudanese tribes had in recent years changed enormously by virtue of the widespread availability of small arms in eastern Africa, according to humanitarian sources. The Karamoja disarmament programme is going ahead hand in hand with the deployment of security personnel in the security zones (along the borders with neighbouring districts), the Ugandan senior presidential adviser and spokesman, John Nagenda, told IRIN on Wednesday, 9 January 2002. Security forces were also being deployed along Uganda's borders with Kenya and Sudan, in order to protect the Karamojong from armed pastoralist communities from the two neighbouring countries, he said. "The most important thing is that Karamoja could not be allowed to go the way it was, with up to 40,000 illegal guns. You can't just have firearms in one part of the country without control," Nagenda added. So far, the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) are reported to have deployed in several areas, including those bordering Katakwi and Moroto and beyond Mt Moroto, in the areas bordering Kenya, and around Amudat, Loroo and Nakiloro. Hundreds of Karamojong men have also volunteered to join paramilitary Local Defence Units (LDUs), which the government is planning to place under the control of the UPDF, in order to patrol the border with Kenya, according to Ugandan media reports. Ugandan army bases of about 300 men each would be set up in seven counties along the country's border with Kenya and Sudan to stop the flow of small arms into Uganda from the two neighbouring countries, which are not replicating the disarmament exercise, according to media reports citing Ugandan defence officials. Similar and concurrent intervention with armed pastoralist groups in neighbouring countries will be required if the entire disarmament exercise is to succeed, according to Jan Kamenju, head of the Kenyan-based Security Research Information Centre (SRIC). The Karamoja disarmament "may be successful [locally], but will not be effective [regionally]" if it does not take into account the proliferation of small arms through Kenya and Sudan, Kamenju told IRIN on Wednesday, 9 January. "What Uganda is doing is within its own right to do, but we strongly advise that the exercise should also involve the governments of Sudan and Kenya," he said. "The three countries should develop their national [disarmament] plans and then coordinate them regionally." The significance of the regional aspect is evident in claims that a Kenyan junior minister held "illegal" meetings in the eastern Ugandan county of Upe (Pokot) between 17 and 20 December, "discouraging warriors from handing in their guns", the Ugandan government-owned New Vision newspaper reported on Wednesday. "If it is proved that the Kenyan minister had indeed been 'de-campaigning' our disarmament programme, the matter would be handled through proper diplomatic channels," it quoted the UPDF's chief political commissar, Brig Kale Kaihura, as saying. The Kenyan politician allegedly told Ugandan Pokots opposed to the disarmament programme to cross with their guns to Kenya, where they would get protection from the Kenyan government, the New Vision reported, quoting a Ugandan government report submitted to Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi. Beyond the disarmament exercise, humanitarian sources in Uganda indicated a reduction in security incidents in the region towards the end of 2001, except for sporadic attacks. In its November/December update, OCHA said the concerted attention the region had received in the past few months was bringing "hope that Karamoja is finally on the path to meaningful recovery and development". With the disarmament process going on in earnest, it was hoped that Karamojong attacks would be an issue of the past, and that Katakwi, too, could take the route to peaceful development, it added.