Norbert Moa
4 November 2009
opinion
Kampala — IN the wake of the African Union Meeting on IDPs (internally displaced people) in Kampala it is our expectation that the real issues surrounding IDPs will not be swept under the carpet of niceties, political posturing and sloganeering.
The AU leaders have chosen the correct country for their meeting and it would have been even better if they scheduled a field trip to see evidence of the long-term pact of forced displacement.
At the peak of the conflict there were close to two million IDPs in northern Uganda. From 2006 when the Juba Peace Talks started and the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement was signed leading to the LRA's departure from northern Uganda, the IDPs started going home.
Todate, the number of IDPs has reduced to about 500,000. The majority of those remaining are in Acholiland where about an average of 15% of IDPs still remain in the camps.
While 100% of the IDPs in Lango have left the camps, in Acholi there are still many remaining in the camps. The figures vary from district to district. The figures of those still remaining in the camps are Amuru 36%, Kitgum 16%, Pader 12% and Gulu 9%.
The message from the people who have borne the brunt of displacement is simple: our leaders should not treat symptoms. They must get to the heart of the matter and seek durable solutions to the root causes of war.
The greatest problem with African governments when it comes to the problem of IDPs is denial. Despite the high number of IDPs in Africa, many of our leaders still play the ostrich game. They bury their heads in the sand and pretend that all is fine. In some cases they blame the IDPs for their predicament accusing them of complicity in their own suffering.
Even Uganda has been guilty of denial. This is why the National IDP Policy came more than 10 years after the Government first begun forcefully herding people into the camps in northern Uganda. Naturally this prolonged the torment of the people of northern Uganda.
Despite the high death toll in the IDP camps of Northern Uganda (97% of all war-related deaths are attributed to the inhuman conditions in the camps) many in Uganda government circles think they handled the problem of IDPs well. They say this because of the humanitarian response. This is a form of conceit. It is not acceptable for the Government to abdicate its responsibility to non-state actors.
It is not enough to thump our chests in self-congratulation merely because there is a huge international response to our suffering. The Humanitariatta only deal with surface issues. Dr. Chris Dolan has written a penetrating analysis of humanitarian agencies. He believes that these agencies insulate the state from its responsibilities and thus prolong the suffering of war victims.
In a situation like northern Uganda where the state was responsible for forcibly displacing people, Dr. Dolan argues that the humanitarian agencies conduct themselves akin to the medics who attend to victims of torture. They resuscitate and keep the victim alive so that they can receive more punishment. Thus while humanitarian agencies intervene, they must still pressure the Government, either directly or indirectly, to deal with the root causes of the displacement. The Government must constantly be reminded that displacement is due to a failure to resolve conflicts and to protect the people.
In addition, as we talk about the problems of internal displacement, we cannot avoid talking about peace-building, democracy, and human rights protection. At the heart of all conflicts in Africa is a failure of national leadership, a failure to build a consensus on how the affairs of the state can be conducted in a manner broadly acceptable to citizens and a commitment to play by fair political rules without discriminating against any section of the society. In short, only democracy can resolve the conflicts at the heart of the IDP problem in Africa.
Due to our stern actions against NGOs that operate without due regard to the local context and Government policy, we had assumed that we would not have to crack the whip against any Gulu-based organisation. We thought our previous actions had sent a clear message. We were wrong.
There are still organisations that resent being coordinated by the local government and therefore do not wish to align themselves to local priorities.
Many of these organisations are usually international and top-heavy with expatriates who see themselves as modern- day missionaries coming to the dark continent to bring light to savages.
At best these organisations have failed to make the transition from the humanitarian phase where the state has minimum involvement to the reconstruction and development phase where the state insists on occupying the control tower and guiding all interventions.
A few months ago we got some disturbing reports about the American Refugee Committee (ARC). We learnt that in their project to deal with gender-based violence against women they were not building on existing social strengths.
As an example, if a woman reports being battered, ARC would go and take the woman and young children, if any, and bring them to town and keep them in a hotel. In some cases these victims would be kept in one of their offices. I know this for a fact because I lived near one such office and one day I noticed women and children sleeping on a verandah behind an ARC office at Plot 6 Olya Road, Gulu.
When I called the then boss, he denied any such thing. He later apologised when the bright light of truth shone through his deceit.
There is nothing wrong with rescuing victims of domestic violence but to do so without involving the state structures that handle crimes and the social structures that can stabilise an unstable domestic situation is unsustainable. We have come to appreciate the role national staff can play in ensuring that international organisations understand the local context. Organisations that have some national staff in key decision-making positions give us the least headache.
By comparison, organisations where the key decision-makers are expatriates posing as northern Uganda specialists, give us a lot of headache. Some expatriates understand the local context but there are still some bad eggs. We have learnt our lesson: Expats are not necessarily experts!
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