Tuesday, July 15, 2003 CHILD ABUSING WAR IN UGANDA CAN BE ENDED (Ottawa, July 15, 2003)- "Abducted and Abused", a report documenting horrendous abuse of children by both rebels and government troops in northern Uganda cries out for an end to the sixteen year old internal war. Yet the measures called for in the report, released by four nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Canadian-based Lui Institute for Global Issues, will not in themselves end the war. "While most of the humanitarian recommendations are excellent and action to protect the innocent victims of this war are desperately needed, the Report should spur on those responsible to take steps, now, to end the war," said Dr. Ben Hoffman, former Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at the Jimmy Carter Center and President of Concorde Inc., a Canadian conflict resolution company. Hoffman is one of the few people who have met directly with the notorious Joseph Kony, charismatic and spiritualist leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the rebel Acholi group that has intensified its abductions and atrocities against civilians, and attacks against the Ugandan People's Armed Forces. The LRA stepped up its offensive after Sudan stopped supporting it, and after Uganda's President Musevini, with US support, ordered the launch of "Operation Iron Fist" against the LRA in March 2002. "Kony and Musevini have to be called upon to cease hostilities immediately, and to begin talks. Nothing short of a political solution will bring an end to the kind of abuses documented in the Report. It is a very ugly war. I've seen it first hand over the past three years. It is also a war that can be ended if the United Nations, the United States and the European Union move in concert to press both sides to the table. And Canada can help make that happen." While at The Carter Center, Hoffman led the institution's efforts to implement a peace agreement between Uganda and Sudan, mediated in 1999 by President Carter. The Nairobi Agreement called for an end to the proxy war between these two formerly hostile neighbors, and return of the abducted Ugandan children. The proxy war was fought in northern Uganda by Sudan-backed Kony and in Sudan by the Uganda-backed Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Carter's mediation has resulted in improved relations between the countries, the return of some abducted child soldiers from southern Sudan to their homes in Uganda, but the rebellious war in northern Uganda has worsened drastically. "The people in northern Uganda are caught between rebel and government fighting. The conditions to press President Musevini and Joseph Kony into talks must be created. Hopefully, this staggering report by Human Rights Watch will get people to pay attention and demand an end to the war."
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