peace negotiations: void

Fear spreads amid Uganda's dispaced after peace deal misfire

I'm beginning to feel restless. And that's just because of the IRB sh*t and complications that have succeeded in driving me to a near-breakdown.

Yet what I feel is only one-millionth of the restlessness that has been felt all over Northern Uganda in the past week. I can only imagine the tension, fears, and suspicion circulating around Gulu town - I'm wondering if the situation will change when I step foot off the bus from Kampala, whether or not I'll be in the midst of this unrest. How much can change in two weeks? Only time can tell. Last Thursday, April 10th, Kony failed to appear and sign the final peace agreements that would wrap up the "Cessation of Hostilities" talks that started in August of 2006. A civil war that was hushed in the American public for so long, raged on for 20 years between Kony's Lord's Resistance Army and the Ugandan forces of President Yoweri Museveni. If you've seen Blood Diamond, you'll recognize the child soldiers and devastation that was brought into the homes and hearts of Northern Ugandans. Children were taken up and stowed away to the "bush", trained to hate, trained to fight, and forced to kill. Even today, they are still being retrieved, with efforts being made towards their rehabilitation with hopes of a successful transition and acclamation to society. Compounded with these child soldiers are the hundreds of thousands in IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps. Practically stacked one on top of the other, food is scarce, HIV/AIDS abounds, and there is no certainty in when these people can go back to their homes. In December 2003, Jan Egeland, the UN Secretary General for Human Affairs claimed the situation in Northern Uganda to be the "worst forgotten and neglected in the whole world". Some believe Kony will be a perpetual no-show. Yet what matters most is securing peace, after which justice shall follow, and then normality, as an afterthought. There is so much going on in the world within pockets of civilization that go unnoticed; the scope of World News is sadly limited, and even the statistics and figures read off the prompt screen coagulate to become a jumbled mess which fails to be processed by the masses, succeeding in watering down these enraging acts against human rights and social justice.

It will be interesting to see all of the NGO's that have flooded Gulu in recent years. I distinctly remember talking to Dr. Atim about Gulu during the GlobeMed benefit dinner in Evanston. When I told her I was going there, she gave a short chuckle accompanied by words that struck me as odd, "In Gulu, you won't even feel or realize you're in Africa. There are more whites and foreigners than Africans. You will see."