Regional legislators are undertaking to push for the rights of children affected by conflict and wars in the EAC region and beyond, in a bid to halt recruitment into armies and ensure their acceptance back to society, EALA Speaker, Rt Hon Margaret Nantongo Zziwa has said.
The Speaker reiterated the need to address peace and security challenges and said EALA would team up with like minded organizations such as the Invisible Children and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) to ensure peace prevailed.
Rt Hon Zziwa said this when receiving a delegation of child rights’ activists under the aegis of Invisible Children who called on the Assembly in Arusha, Tanzania late yesterday. The Uganda based organization has for the last ten years been engaged in advocacy work for people, especially children affected by war in Northern Uganda. The four person delegation headed by Ms. Jolly Grace Okot – Andruville, Regional Ambassador for Invisible Children were in Arusha to brief EALA Members and to seek their support in their advocacy work. The group further presented a petition to EALA calling for their intervention to end the Lord’s Resistance Army Conflict.
Present at the meeting were EALA Members, Hon Shyrose Bhanji and Hon Christophe Bazivamo, President of the Democratic Party in Uganda, Hon Norbert Mao, Lyandro Komakech of the Refugee Law Project and Regional Public Relations Officer of Invisible Children, Mubangizi Michael.
Ms Andruville noted that her organization had similarly sought the support of the US Government through the Congress towards the hunt for Joseph Kony and also for support of rehabilitation for the war-ravaged communities in East and Central Africa.
‘It is sad that innocent children continue to suffer with the most affected areas bordering the Central Africa Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo hardest hit, the Ambassador remarked. The voice of EALA is of absolute importance in the matter. They should spearhead the regional initiative to bring the LRA issue to an end’, she added.
The President of the Democratic Party in Uganda, Hon Norbert Mao, said the region had witnessed serious violations of human rights and all kinds of gruesome, inhuman and barbaric acts. Hon Mao, a former MP and a one time Presidential candidate in Uganda, reiterated the need to find a permanent end to conflict and improve the quality of life of LRA affected communities.
The petition calls out EALA for remaining ‘conspicuously silent’ on the issue of the LRA, terming it alarming and a point of concern to the communities affected by the conflict. According to the petitioners, the LRA remains a strong security threat to the region. As of May 2013, Invisible Children notes, there were approximately 600 combatants and dependants in LRA including up to 200 Ugandan citizens. It further states that between October 2009 and March 2013, Joseph Kony and his senior commanders took safe haven at Kafia Kingi enclave that lies between the borders of Sudan, South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR).
Invisible Children thus wants EALA to send a fact-finding mission to the LRA affected communities in Northern Uganda, DRC and the CAR to see how the victims are rebuilding their lives and bear witness to the atrocities of the LRA. It is also calling on the regional Assembly to urge regional governments to send troops to support anti-LRA operations in the region akin to joint operations against militant groups like the Al-Shabab.
‘We ask EALA’s Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution Committee to critically study and examine the LRA conflict, its survival strategies and what needs to be done to permanently end the crisis and to make recommendations to the Assembly’, the petition reads in part. It finally calls on the EAC Partner States to act in defence of wildlife, biodiversity, flora and fauna which are now under increased pressure and threat by the rebel groups like the LRA and other security actors.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of a Special summit of the ICGLR, hosted by President Uhuru Kenyatta that ended in Nairobi, with a raft of resolutions aimed at ending ongoing conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and between Sudan and South Sudan.
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NOTE TO EDITORS
Invisible Children is a registered Non-Governmental Organization in Uganda. It is currently engaged in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic to help trace and rehabilitate ex-rebel combatants and former abductees escaping from the LRA.
Through independent fundraising initiatives, Invisible Children runs a number of programmes including school construction and rehabilitation, sponsorship of disadvantaged children at both secondary and tertiary levels, provision of water to displaced people returning home and agricultural programs.
Invisible Children has used multi-media approach to document the sufferings of war victims and their daily struggle to survive against great odds. Last year, Invisible Children released the Joseph Kony 2012 film that shook the world.
CONTACTS
For More Information, contact:
Bobi Odiko,
Senior Public Relations Officer;
East African Legislative Assembly;
Tel: +255-27-2508240
Cell: +255 787 870945, +254-733-718036;
Email: bodiko@eachq.org
Web: https://www.eala.org
Arusha, Tanzania.
