{UAH} IDDI AMIN NEVER TARGETED LANGIs/ACHOLIs, THEY TARGETED HIM {---Series Sixty seven}

Friends

 

When Uganda government tried to create a peace agreement with LRA, a peace fund of about 5 million dollars was established between UN and Uganda government, but UNICEF and UNDP wrote a paper on Northern Uganda, where they were worried about the kids coming back into society when they are trained, they worried about the violence we have up there.

 

This is from page six.

 

 

Human rights concerns resulting from this situation include: prolonged detention of suspects prior to and during

trials due to case backlogs; attacks against suspected offenders (mob justice) by communities who lack faith in the

response of law enforcement institutions; and inability of the population to secure protection of their legal rights,

either by not seeking redress, or being subjected to unlawful mediation, or decisions on matters beyond their

jurisdiction by Police and Local Council courts and officials. An area of particular concern is the role and capacity of

Local Council courts, established to provide the first tier of access to justice within Uganda's smallest

administrative units (villages, parishes, and sub‐counties). Monitoring has revealed concerns that include: lack of

knowledge of basic legal rules (by their chairpersons), partiality of chairpersons who also serve as local council

officials, charging of higher fees than what is legally prescribed in the Local Council Court Regulations (which fund

the running of local courts), and the issuance of decisions on matters beyond their jurisdiction or based on

erroneous application of the law.

 

High levels of gender‐based violence in northern Uganda have continued beyond the cessation of formal political

conflict.3 Whilst rooted in previous unequal gender relations, levels of violence have been exacerbated in the

north by the conflict and by the impunity with which these crimes are met. In 2008, more than 1,536 cases of rape

were reported,4 and it is estimated that less than 10% of cases are reported to the police.5 The Ugandan Police

Force (UPF) has not had the capacity to deal effectively with the situation due to a lack of adequate training,

standard operating procedures, attitudinal issues, political will, as well as tangible resources and infrastructure.

Continuing lack of trust and ineffective policing coupled with an inadequate formal justice system has lead to the

ongoing and widespread use of traditional justice as the primary form of justice in the north.

Since the rebellion began in the 1980s, it is estimated that some 25,000 Ugandan children have been abducted to

be used as combatants, laborers or sex slaves. The violent conflict has forced over 1.8 million Ugandans ‐ half of

them children ‐ to flee to squalid and overcrowded IDP camps in order to escape attacks and killings from the LRA.

Precipitated by decades of conflict, complex socio‐economic issues have arisen including increasing numbers of

street children; vulnerable child‐headed households; the highest rate of orphans (22%) and children without

education (boys: 17%; girls: 35%); growing numbers of children in conflict with the law; prevalent domestic and

sexual violence (32.4% of women in the North have experienced sexual violence and 54% of women in northern

Uganda have experience physical violence since the age of 15); children forced into early marriages or prostitution;

and children left behind in more than 40 percent of households6, thereby increasing their exposure to violence,

abuse and exploitation. These gap areas are at risk of widening, especially as humanitarian agencies are gradually

exiting from northern Uganda during this transitional period.

 

Two decades of armed conflict in Northern Uganda has destroyed the Acholi social fabric and cultural traditions,

erased community safety mechanism and support networks. Inequalities and gender differences have increased

and are spinning out of control, clearly reflected in the high incidence rates of GBV. In midst of the current

earthquake traversing the socio‐cultural and economic landscape, women, girls, youth and children are the first to

be hit.

 

Approximately 6976 youths have been previously identified by the 2009 IOM‐UNDP Client Screening Dataset for

the Districts of Gulu and Pader in the Acholi Sub‐Region of Northern Uganda. This group has been labeled "highrisk",

composed mainly of ex‐combatants and ex‐abductees with conflict‐carrying capacity. As part of the "Lost

Generation" who grew up either in the hands of their suppressors or in IDP camps, they are oblivious to Acholi

cultural mores and values, have not benefitted from intergenerational passing of agro‐pastoral knowledge, are

unemployed, food insecure, lacking in marketable skills, marginalized and hopeless. Female headed households

comprise 30% of households in Acholi sub‐region, a clear demonstration of the extra burden women and girls face

along with disempowerment, abuse, diseases, landlessness and economic isolation. Acholi youth, and other

marginalized groups need to be more engaged in the restoration of their socio‐cultural cohesion and social

transformation which are key components for successful peacebuilding.

Stay in the forum for Series sixty-eight on the way   ------>

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"