By Daniel Wallis
KAMPALA, May 11 (Reuters) - The United Nations has failed again to act decisively to end war in northern Uganda, despite being briefed on "intolerable" humanitarian conditions in the troubled region, British aid agency Oxfam said on Wednesday.
Violence has increased in the north since government negotiations with rebels stalled in February. Aid agencies working in Uganda have long called on the Security Council to put pressure on both sides to restart the talks.
On Tuesday, U.N. aid chief Jan Egeland briefed council members on the conflict, which pits government troops against rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and has forced 1.6 million people from their homes.
Emma Naylor, Oxfam's country manager in Uganda, said she was disappointed that after the meeting the Security Council -- which has never issued a resolution on the north -- agreed only to encourage both sides "informally" to return to talks.
"Nearly two decades of horrific human suffering have passed, and the security situation is getting worse, not better. Atrocities against civilians are increasing, as well as abductions of children in Uganda and Southern Sudan," she said in a statement.
"Yet the Security Council have once again failed to take any concrete steps in support of a peace process. We would have at least expected a presidential statement urging both sides to restart peace talks and setting out what future measures the council will take."
Oxfam has called on the U.N. to ensure the protection of civilians and to urge Uganda's government and rebels to call a new ceasefire and recommit to fresh peace talks.
Fighting intensified after landmark talks -- including the first face-to-face meeting between government and rebels for a decade -- stalled in February with the surrender of the LRA's top negotiator. Uganda's military says it killed 84 LRA fighters last month alone, and the rebels have stepped up attacks on refugee camps, shooting and hacking their victims to death.
Ugandan commentators say the government would prefer a military victory over the rebels, but its helicopter gunships have been unable to stamp out small groups of fighters moving swiftly on foot through thick forests and rolling grasslands.
Joseph Kony, the LRA's self-styled prophet leader, is believed to be hiding in lawless southern Sudan with some of the thousands of children kidnapped by his cult-like group to serve as fighters and "wives". His movement, which Egeland said was possibly the world's most brutal, has never spelled out a clear list of demands.
"Week by week the security situation is getting worse and hundreds of thousands of people cannot even sleep safely in their own homes," Naylor said.
"But the Security Council has never done more than offering a few words of sympathy. We are wondering just how bad it has to get before they will actually take action."
Urbane Analysis: Some brave (and usually careful) international organizations have dropped the pretense of diplomatic jargon, and have put the situation quite plainly. Do we (once again) need to see the immoral justification of "confrontation by camera lens" in order to compel the court of public opinion? Conditions on the Ugandan-Sudanese-Congoese border are just so dicey that not even the most hardened adrenaline-junkie war correspondent dare venture into the vicinity of the LRA.
Click here for more photos published this month by the BBC regarding the situation in the southern Sudan.
The world is tolerating a holocaust in the Congo-Sudan-Uganda triangle. World Vision: when will you weigh-in on this situation? Those who clearly have a moral conscience must be compelled to speak, in order that those who follow your example, may be so empowered. As long as you are silent, the world presumes that there is no crisis.
No comments:
Post a Comment