CMS slams Uganda power brokers

Betty Bigombe: chief negotiator threatens to quit
[Photo: Jenny Taylor / ©CMS

Four British members of parliament are in northern Uganda this week to see for themselves the devastating conflict that has gripped the region for the past 19 years.

The MPs - two Labour, one Conservative and one Liberal Democrat - are spending five days in Uganda as guests of the Northern Uganda Advocacy Partnership for Peace (NUAPP), a coalition of NGOs of which CMS is a founder member.

Organisers hope that the visit will help the MPs to gain a clearer understanding of the conflict and become more effective advocates for peace in northern Uganda on their return.

Tim Sanders, CMS regional manager for East Africa, hoped the visit would help to ratchet up pressure on the British government to get more involved.

“My hope is that they'll be motivated to raise questions in parliament and agitate the government to engage more concretely with the Ugandan government,” he said ahead of the visit.

“The British government has strong bilateral links with Uganda and if it has any leverage it should use it.

“They could be entering into much more serious dialogue with the Ugandan government at the highest level.”

Aid agencies including Oxfam, Unicef and Médecins Sans Frontières have severely restricted their movements in Kitgum and Pader districts, with the situation only seeming to get worse for ordinary people.

“The situation continues to be dire,” says Sanders, “with one-and-a-half million people displaced and living in camps and at the moment no apparent hope for peace.”

The MPs will meet British government officials, key Ugandan ministers, NUAPP partners in northern Uganda such as the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative and the Concerned Parents Association and local chiefs.

An important meeting will be with Betty Bigombe, the chief mediator in the conflict.

However, Sanders is despondent about Bigombe’s initiatives for peace. He lauds her efforts but lambasts the real power brokers.

“Betty Bigombe’s initiatives seem to be dragging and losing steam, with little real backing from the Ugandan government or the international community.

“We’re left asking the question, who is doing anything right now?”

The fragile process of negotiation is further threatened by the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony.

Bigombe herself has said that if the ICC indicts Kony and the LRA leaders, a move widely expected this week, she will quit her efforts.

“There are serious questions over whether this is the right time for the ICC to be indicting the LRA leaders,” warns Sanders. “I mean, if you had a warrant out for your arrest, would you turn up for peace negotiations with the government?”

Critics of the ICC process, which include many civil society organisations in the north, have complained of the lack of communication by the ICC. Many people directly involved in the conflict do not realise that the ICC has no power to make arrests, but must rely on the government for this.

The British MPs - Paul Rowen (Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale), David Drew (Labour MP for Stroud), Bob Blizzard (Labour MP for Waveney, Suffolk), Mark Simmonds (Conservative, Boston & Skegness) - are all members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes, so already have a strong interest in the region.

The visit is sponsored by Christian Aid on behalf of the NUAPP coalition, which also includes Conciliation Resources, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, Tearfund and World Vision UK, as well as CMS.

CMS has since supported night shelters for children escaping rebel attacks, trauma counselling workshops for the clergy in Kitgum and a women's development centre in Gulu.

CMS mission partner Garry Ion, a building engineer, is working to establish vocational training in the north, to help provide a future for young people, Tim Sanders explained. “But it is a very difficult environment and attempts to put such programmes in place are hampered by the fact that so many people are living in temporary camps.”