Parliament decries situation in troubled north

Some Ugandan parliamentarians broke down in tears last week as they watched video footage of the situation in the troubled northern region. The video, shown by a team of MPs who had just concluded an assessment of the situation in the region, captured images of malnourished children, sick people with little access to medical services, bodies of camp residents who had succumbed to curable diseases, children sleeping in the open on shop verandas, and deplorable water and sanitation conditions. According to the MPs, the humanitarian situation in the war-affected regions of Uganda has "expanded and deepened", but the long-term consequences of the crisis are "incomprehensible" owing to its duration, extent and the way it is being managed. The MPs said the government's involvement in efforts to alleviate the situation was minimal, and therefore required strengthening, "both as an obligation, and a confidence-building measure". They called on the government "not to hide behind the work of humanitarian agencies". In Pader and Kitgum districts, local people told the MPs that "their government" was the World Food Programme (WFP), while in Karamoja, "Oxfam is more known than government ministries". Among the children, "their leaders are UNICEF [UN Children's Fund] and World Vision", according to the MPs' 63-page report. The miniscule role performed by the government in the crisis was symptomatic of the inadequate resources allocated to conflict areas, the MPs said. The resource inadequacies are compounded by an estimated net economic cost of the conflict in the Acholi districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, over the past 16 years, which is estimated at over US $1.33 billion, according to the MPs. HEALTH The plight of the people in northern Uganda where the war between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Uganda People's Defence Forces has raged for 18 years, was best illustrated by the health indicators in the region, the report said. Death and disease rates were high. The top 10 health problems in camps where the displaced people lived were malaria (47 percent), acute respiratory infection (17 percent), diarrhoea (9 percent), measles, malnutrition (5 percent), worm infestation (11 percent), trauma, eye infections, HIV and TB (11 percent). HIV/AIDS infection was 16 percent in Gulu compared to the national average of 6 percent, the report noted. According to the MPs, in spite of the pressures and the numbers of patients, health centres were severely understaffed. Medical workers posted to the region were reluctant to report to their stations because of insecurity. Giving Soroti as an example, the report said the hospital had not received its newly appointed medical officers six months after they had been posted there. "Many of the units operated below their normal staff ceiling, while the few staff on site were overstretched," the report said. Most of the referral hospitals in the war-affected districts also lacked ambulances, despite the pressures arising from ambushes, massacres and massive displacement. The blood banks and equipment for emergency handling at referral centres, were in need of repair. Some of the health centres lacked surgical gloves, and the few health workers there improvised by using polythene bags to help mothers deliver babies. There was also an apparent drug resistance to the anti-malarial chloroquine - the most widely used drug among the displaced. Levels of malnutrition among infants were reported to be "shockingly high". Giving the example of Lira District, the MPs said up to 30 percent of the infants there were found to be malnourished. "The overcrowding in Lira, Soroti and Gulu, Lacor and Kalongo hospitals demands immediate redress. Wards need to be expanded in the short and long run. In the short term, tents should be provided as patient wards," the report said. "Efficient mobile clinics should be set up in all large camps to provide services, increase access, reduce risks and manage emergency." "The committee was not able to find any camp with a mobile clinic in the whole of Lang'o and Teso regions," the report said. TRAUMATISED AND MAIMED Trauma was a widespread phenomenon in the regions visited, and the MPs suggested the setting up of counselling centres in sub-counties, saying that almost the entire population was traumatised. "The entire population, including the leaders of Lang'o, Teso and Acholi, is traumatised as a result of war, rape, defilement, death of dear ones and total disruption of life. The risk of mental breakdown is so high. The resilience of the human spirit is on the verge of a breakdown," the report said. The visible signs of the war were more vividly represented by the number of people who had been maimed by landmines, ambushes, burns and gunshots. In Soroti town alone, up to 564 displaced people had been disabled by the war when the MPs visited the town in February. "Specific interventions should be made to rehabilitate the disabled where possible. There is need to aid mobility, vision and interventions to be spread over the entire region as the need has increased by the day," the MPs said. SCARCITY OF FOOD According to the report, the WFP was the source of food for the majority of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), who, the MPs said, numbered about 2 million. But WFP could only provide part of the food needs. "It should be understood that IDPs have no other coping mechanisms since they are not able to get food anywhere else. It is imperative that the government of Uganda provides the balance," the report said. The MPs also learnt of the existence of camps which had not been "gazetted" by government, and had therefore been categorised as either nonexistent or illegal. Such camps were not receiving food, they said. Giving the example of Pader District, they said eight IDP camps whose existence had been communicated to the government in January had not received any relief aid. WATER AND SANITATION CRISIS The deeper one goes the harder the situation, according to the MPs. Water provision to IDP camps outside towns and in more remote areas was deplorable. "Water for domestic use was insufficient; bathing and brushing of teeth was unheard of. The IDPs were observably dirty due to lack of water. Eight women were killed in Anyara camp of Lira District while looking for water," the report said. "IDPs on the islands used water from the [Kyoga] lake, which lake also served as a toilet." The MPs said overcrowding in camps had compounded the sanitation and hygiene management crisis, with refuse disposal becoming difficult and a foul smell pervading everything. "Latrines are full and overflowing in most camps. Where mobile toilets have been distributed, these are inadequate, in some cases not installed and sometimes feared by some would-be users," they said. In Otuboi camp in Kaberamaido District, which accommodates 15,663 IDPs, only 10 pit latrines were found. WOMEN AND CHILDREN In its war, the LRA has mainly targeted children whom they seek to transform into fighters, sex slaves or porters. According to the MPs, over 8,000 children have been abducted in the last 12 months. "The pain caused by this cycle of being kidnapped to becoming a fighter is the most horrifying aspect of the war," the MPs said. "In 1995, one girl from Aboke was abducted. Before her abduction, she was a good girl going about her school life. Recently, she was killed as a fighter with LRA," they said. "It is clear that the children are trapped in a war that has denied them all the basic services required for a healthy upbringing," they added. Many women have been traumatised by the violence, having thus been denied what they most need in their lives: to bring up their children in an acceptable manner. They also lack access to basic requirements like sanitary towels, sometimes having to resort to using leaves as substitutes, according to the report. EDUCATION The effects of the LRA insurgency on the education sector were enormous due to massive internal displacement of learners, parents, teachers and the disruption of economic activities, the report said. In several districts, education facilities and staff had been overstretched to accommodate displaced children. According to the report, both teachers and children had died or been abducted. Returnee children had been traumatised and rendered unable to concentrate, while former abductee teachers were too traumatised to be immediately productive. The MPs said schools had been vandalised, with desks, books and other instructional materials destroyed. High dropout rates and increased child labour had in turn increased absenteeism. "There is a serious human resource development threat in northern and eastern [Uganda] as a result of the insurgency," they noted. In Amuria District, for example, primary one and primary two classes had up to 2,000 and 1,200 pupils respectively. In the Amen learning centre in Soroti District, the teacher operated through the window because there was no space for him inside the classroom, the MPs said. In Palabek, Kitgum District, a number of classes studied under the same mango tree, and lacked educational materials and uniforms. Teachers who lived in camps had no blackboards, chalk and textbooks for reference, while school management committees were in disarray. "Absence of food both at home and school rendered learning impossible. The pupils were visibly thin and hungry. In Katakwi, Kaberamaido, Lira, Pader and Soroti districts, there was no school-feeding programme. Somehow the starving children were expected to learn," the report said. RESETTLEMENT AND THE WAY FORWARD According to the MPs, the Ugandan government should give more support to the amnesty commission set up to handle returnees and which had so far resettled over 5,000. The commission, said the MPs, had a backlog of about 8,000 cases. "The proposed amendment to the Amnesty Act should take into consideration the issue of child combatants. And above all else, the amendment should maintain top LRA leaders as beneficiaries of amnesty should they choose to seek pardon," according to the report. The MPs said they wanted Uganda's national planning and budgeting to adequately reflect the needs of "over two million people directly affected by the conflict". They added: "As of now, the budget process has continued as though all else is normal in the Acholi, Lango and Teso subregions." They urged the government to vigorously pursue all efforts to end the war through peaceful negotiations. "For a long time, the LRA conflict has been downplayed and efforts to end it have not been concerted. All available avenues need to be exhausted in a bid to save the suffering population. A national reconciliation programme should be urgently put in place to address all underlying grievances among Ugandans," the MPs' report said. It called on the international community to facilitate the reconciliation programme, saying that issues of constitutionalism and good governance needed to be pursued consistently and patriotically so as to avert creating a disgruntled class vulnerable to being tempted to opt for rebellion as a way of redress. During the debate of the report in parliament, MPs asked the government to reconsider a resolution passed earlier by parliament seeking to declare northern Uganda a disaster area. This, they said, would attract more funding and give the area priority.