2 May 2003
Kampala — THE UNICEF executive director has urged the Government and the Lord's Resistance Army to agree on a ceasefire and guarantee unimpeded humanitarian access to northern Uganda, reports John Kakande.
Carol Bellamy said, "I am deeply concerned by the recent breakdown of the limited ceasefire in northern Uganda and by reports in the past few days of renewed abductions of children and women by the LRA," said Bellamy in a statement issued in Geneva and Nairobi on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) is carrying out a global campaign for the appointment of a UN special envoy for the abducted children in northern Uganda.
HRW is appealing to its members worldwide to write to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, urging him to appoint a Special Envoy to seek the release of the abducted children in northern Uganda, and to take all feasible steps to protect children from abduction and recruitment by Ugandan military forces.
The HRW appeal is posted on its Internet website http://hrw.org/campaigns/uganda
UNICEF Executive director Bellamy was quoted by the UN news service yesterday as saying, "the broadening of military operations is a setback to hopes for peace at this crucial time when efforts were underway to establish a peace process." The statement said about 20,000 children have been abducted since the conflict began - more than 5,000 in the last year alone.
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