Visitors Welcome. Really!

Today, just an update of what’s going on in and around our new place of abode!

You’ve probably heard me go on and on about the two decade civil war in Uganda between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by the crazed Joseph Kony and his band of mostly abducted children (there have been 35,000 over the twenty-three year war.)

For two long years, a large team of negotiators, including representatives from Kony himself, hammered out what finally became a peace treaty everyone could agree upon. On the day, well, three different days that Kony was to make a personal appearance to etch the treaty in granite, he was a no show. No surprise really. He wants to be a totally free man with demands of a stereo, television, some money, and a place to call home. (some of his demands make him sound almost like a middle-school boy). The International Criminal Court wants to try him. Who can blame them? His ruthlessness has left a path of destruction from the northern parts of Uganda, into Sudan, the Congo and Central Africa Republic, raping, killing tens of thousands of people, mutilating, uprooting lives, destroying families, and bringing economy practically to its knees. Is there something worse than to its knees? 'Cos I think it's actually worse than that.

Fast forward to today (well earlier this week)…while Kony is expressing interest in continuing the negotiations, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is saying “the talking is over,” and it now appears that any hope of bringing all parties back to the table have taken a serious hit after the eight negotiators for the LRA quit, citing Kony (their boss) as the reason. They seem to think he’s dishonest and fabricating things. Hmmm, ya think?

Add to this the little fact that just days after his unkept appointment on the Congolese-Sudanese border for peace treaty signing purposes, his brutality and abductions began again. Some 350 additional people have been abducted…Sounds just like a man interested in peace.

And then today,(literally) it was reported that The annual Failed States Index has ranked Uganda as the 16th most unstable country in the world in 2008. The Index is compiled by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, determining the rankings based on 12 indicators. Some of those are: Chronic and Sustained Human Flight; Legacy of Vengeance-Seeking Group Grievance or Group Paranoia, Massive Movement of Refugees or Internally Displaced Persons creating Complex Humanitarian Emergencies; Progressive Deterioration of Public Services; and Widespread violation of Human Rights. Guess where the USA ranked.

They’ve assessed Uganda’s level of vulnerability to collapse or conflict as “critical”. Their report continues, “High levels of internal displacement, uneven development, demographic pressure and the “delegitimization of state” contributed to the Index’s ranking of Uganda. All three countries where LRA rebels are now active - Central African Republic, DR Congo and Sudan – were ranked in the top 10 of most unstable states.

This has been a drawn out blood bath of a war that’s displaced millions (yep, a number with 6 zeros after it) into camps that mostly function, look like, smell like, act like, prison camps. That have traumatized hundreds of thousands, that have crippled the economy, that have paralyzed the people from attempts to move back into their villages. The easy answer of who’s responsible for this, if this were a “whodunit” would be Kony, I guess. But after sifting through books, tons of research, interviews and current events, there are no easy answers.

Just a lot of worn out, brutalized, wounded, starving, desperate, beaten down, innocent people. And that’s why we’re going to Uganda.
Think they’ll give me a job with the Ugandan Tourists and Visitors Bureau?