By KEVIN J. KELLEY
Special Correspondent
American lawmakers should ensure that “the US plays no role in this mind-boggling, ill-fated participation by Uganda’s army in the Somali mission,” Black Star News declared in a February 27 editorial.
Past human rights abuses committed by Ugandan troops are leading some analysts to warn that the African Union’s difficult peacekeeping mission in Somalia could fail to meet its objectives.
Critics of Uganda’s leading role in the Somalia operation point to international monitoring groups’ condemnations of the Ugandan army’s mistreatment of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The International Court of Justice, better known as the World Court, ruled in 2005 that Uganda was liable for $10 billion in damages as a result of its intervention in the DRC. The court found that civilians had been tortured and killed during the course of Uganda’s 5-year occupation of eastern sections of the DRC.
Human rights groups have also accused the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) of brutalising displaced persons in northern Uganda as part of the counterinsurgency campaign against the Kony rebels.
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said earlier in February that the United States would provide $2 million to transport and $8 million to equip Ugandan soldiers to be deployed in Somalia. The Bush administration views stability in Somalia as crucial to US interests in the Horn and to the outcome of Washington’s “global war on terror.”
“The White House is so desperate,” Black Star News observed, “that it’s anointed Uganda, a country whose army was found liable for serious human rights abuses and is currently being investigated by the International Criminal Court, as regional policeman.”
Doubts are also being raised as to whether Somalis will view the Ugandan troops as honest brokers.
A United Nations report late last year charged that Uganda was helping to arm Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government at a time when Islamist militias were taking control of large sections of the country. The report also said that a small number of Ugandan soldiers had been sent to Somalia to help defend the transitional government.
Leaders of some human rights organisations based in the United States have privately expressed their own concerns about the possibility of abusive treatment of Somalis by Ugandan troops.
But none of these groups has publicly opposed Ugandan involvement in the peacekeeping initiative, which has been endorsed by the African Union.
One leading human-rights monitor with an office in the United States suggests that the UPDF may actually behave respectfully in Somalia.
“This is going to be a very high-profile operation,” notes the monitor, who asked that his name not be used because his organisation has made no formal comment on the Somalia peacekeeping mission. “All the eyes of Africa and of the world will be on this peacekeeping force, and Uganda will be at the centre of it because its troops are to be stationed in Mogadishu. So I think there will be considerable pressure on the Ugandans to show proper conduct.”
The UPDF will account for 1500 of the African troops to be deployed in Somalia. The African Union has authorised a total contingent of 8000 peacekeepers, but only half that many have so far been pledged. In addition to Uganda, four African nations – Nigeria, Ghana, Burundi and Malawi – have promised to assign troops to the mission.
Source: East Africa, Mar 05, 2007