Reagan Okumu, parliamentarian from Aswa County in Acholi Region and member of a presidential team set up to help bring peace to northern Uganda.
As a leader, I feel I can't help my people. People ask for many things. They want food. Food is not enough. They want health care. Children are dying everyday in the camps. I feel humiliated and helpless.
When I go to the camps, I am told that rebels keep attacking the very camps that should be protected by the government. Pabbo [largest camp in Gulu district] has been attacked 17 times this year. The rebels have never changed their routes. If only the government could change its attitudes and deploy troops strategically.
The question of indiscipline among troops - the commanders are bad. They harass the population, induce young girls to sex and young children in the camps are being lured into being soldiers and home guards. The children have no future. Schools have been displaced. Teachers are themselves displaced. Health workers don't want to risk their lives to go to the camps. Human values are lost in these camps. There is moral degeneration.
As a member of the presidential peace team, I feel stupid when I can't do much for my people. I am just hanging on to give people hope, but not that the presidential peace team will deliver anything.
International observers are needed to push the peace process. Our hope is for the world to look at the Northern Uganda problem with a human face. If we can be part of the equation of peace efforts in Southern Sudan, then we can bring this domestic problem in northern Uganda to an end.
[ENDS]
|