YouSaid · the spoken record

Wagaba

lines on the record
22
first
2004-01-20
most recent
2005-02-23
sittings or episodes
2
sources
un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “Ad hoc briefings in that regard cannot constitute a serious consultative exercise. The spirit of the 1996 Graca Machel report should be emulated with regard to transparency, objectivity and inclusiveness, to avoid politicization of the process. It is the hope of my delegation that the recent findings of the Secretary-General regarding the shortcomings of the Special Representative in addressing issues related to children in armed conflict will be addressed expeditiously and efficiently so as to ensure that there is transparency, objectivity, accuracy and professionalism.”

    2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129Resumption1 (2005) · source

  2. “It is our view that rigorous and transparent consultations are crucial at all stages, as they will enhance concise, objective and accurate reporting. A formula should be devised to limit the institutional spread of "destination for action" centres, to avoid contradictory outcomes. The Special Representative may also wish to elaborate upon the criteria used to arrive at the selection of regional groupings proposed to undertake joint initiatives with the United Nations while leaving out others. In that regard, the allocation of roles should also be clearly explained, including the mandate proposed for some regional organizations to take on an international role with regard to areas that fall outside their regional mandates. The views of all stakeholders have to be accommodated.”

    2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129Resumption1 (2005) · source

  3. “Regarding the proposals for a plan of action to establish a monitoring, reporting and compliance mechanism for children and armed conflict, my delegation welcomes the fact that the six types of grave abuses on which international action is urgently required have been clearly identified. Though commendable, the efforts suggested for the gathering, compiling and vetting of information to enhance the coordination and effectiveness of the international community need further refining in order to fully contribute to the overall aim of safeguarding children in armed conflict. It is important for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to clearly indicate the point during the preparation and submission of reports at which he will consult Member States, including their delegations in New York.”

    2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129Resumption1 (2005) · source

  4. “By December 2004, the LRA was using the ceasefire instituted by the Government of Uganda to reorganize, retrieve hidden ammunition and regain military momentum, thereby enabling it to continue to carry out ambushes and attacks on camps for internally displaced persons. Whereas my delegation agrees that the LRA should be named and sanctioned to the farthest extent possible, annex II to the Secretary-General's report has erred in lumping the UPDF and the Local Defence Units together with the LRA, which is a terrorist organization. That shows a lack of understanding of the situation in northern Uganda, which has largely been created by the refusal of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to visit the region to get a first- hand account of the situation.”

    2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129Resumption1 (2005) · source

  5. “Thanks to the cooperation of the Government of the Sudan, the LRA is running out of places to hide in southern Sudan and they are being forced to give up their terrorist activities. As a result, many former LRA rebel commanders have surrendered, on the realization that the offer of dialogue by the Government of Uganda is the best way for them to resolve their differences. As a result, the operational capacity of the LRA has been degraded tremendously. Also thanks to the efforts of UPDF, the districts of Lira and Soroti are now devoid of any LRA activity. However, the LRA has used the opportunity for dialogue in bad faith.”

    2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129Resumption1 (2005) · source

  6. “It is crucial that the Special Representative in particular undertake a comprehensive visit to northern Uganda in order to see for himself the efforts being undertaken to rescue, screen, rehabilitate and reintegrate any rescued Ugandans in this regard. My Permanent Representative and I visited the region last month. We were able to see, and to learn at first hand, the hardships caused to residents, especially women and children, by the activities of the LRA. We were also able to listen to their hopes and aspirations for a better future. The Special Representative would find such a visit highly instructive. The consistent momentum and continued effectiveness of the UPDF has, to a large extent, contained the LRA, which is a source of unrest in northern Uganda.”

    2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129Resumption1 (2005) · source

  7. “There is a mechanism in place to reintegrate those children into society that includes the payment of school fees for all students whose parents are in camps for internally displaced persons and the rehabilitation of infrastructure. The battalion referred to in paragraph 53 of the report of the Secretary-General is not being used for the re-recruitment of LRA members, but as the first point of security for those rescued by the UPDF from the clutches of the LRA before they are re-integrated into society. The camp is open for anyone to visit, including the Special Representative of the Secretary- General for Children and Armed Conflict, Mr. Olara Otunnu.”

    2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129Resumption1 (2005) · source

  8. “It is not the policy of the Uganda People's Defence Forces, including the Local Defence Units (LDUs), to recruit anyone under the age of 18 years. In fact, it is required by law that any recruits into the military forces should be 18 years old or older. The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Local Defence Units work openly with UNICEF, Save the Children Denmark and other relevant organizations to ensure that anyone below 18 years of age is not mistakenly recruited through misrepresentation of age owing to lack of a birth certificate. Any cases that arise lead immediately to discharge from the military forces. The UPDF is directly involved in rescuing children who have been abducted by the so-called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).”

    2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129Resumption1 (2005) · source

  9. “My delegation is pleased to see you, Sir, presiding over this session of the Council. We thank the Security Council for allowing my delegation to address it concerning the important issue of children and armed conflict. The fifth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, contained in document S/2005/72, has been studied carefully by my delegation. Paramount on the agenda of the Government of Uganda is the promotion and protection of the rights of children. Uganda is a party to all international instruments related to children's rights. Of particular concern to my delegation is the mischaracterization contained in paragraphs 52 and 53 and annex II of the Secretary-General's report, regarding Uganda.”

    2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129Resumption1 (2005) · source

  10. “We further urge the Security Council to demand that the Special Representative send a mission to Uganda to specifically investigate the allegations contained in paragraph 63 of the report before taking action on it.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  11. “Furthermore, he has ignored the plight of the people of northern Uganda during his tenure as Special Representative. If the recommendations contained in the report were to be implemented against the Uganda Government, it would certainly weaken the Government's capacity to protect its citizens against the attacks of LRA. It is the sincere hope and expectation of the Uganda Government that the Council will not allow Ambassador Otunnu to use the cover of the authority and office of the Secretary- General to advance his own personal hostile agenda against Uganda. My delegation strongly urges the Security Council to reject the listing of the Uganda People's Defence Forces, as well as the Local Defence Units allied to the UPDF, in annex II to the Secretary- General's report.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  12. “In all those communications, the Uganda Government has reiterated its open invitation to the Special Representative to visit Uganda or to send an investigative mission, but the invitation has been ignored to date. The Government of Uganda is left with no alternative but to assume that Ambassador Olara Otunnu has an axe to grind with the current Government in Uganda. It must be remembered that Ambassador Otunnu was born in Uganda and is a native of the very area in northern Uganda where the LRA is carrying out those atrocities. Ambassador Otunnu was, as a matter of fact, Foreign Minister in the brutal military regime which was removed in 1986 through popular resistance and replaced by the present Government. Since 1986, Ambassador Otunnu has not stepped inside Uganda for reasons best known to himself.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  13. “This concern of my Government has been brought to the attention of the Secretary-General by my President, President Museveni, when he met the Secretary- General in May 2002 and by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in his letter to the Secretary-General in May 2002. The same concern has been expressed by the former Permanent Representative of Uganda to the United Nations in his letter to the President of the Security Council dated 16 January 2003 (S/2003/124), as well as the current Permanent Representative in his letter to the President of the Security Council dated 4 December 2003 and circulated as Security Council document S/2003/1160.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  14. “It is outrageous not only because the allegations against the UPDF are not true and have been repeatedly denied by the Uganda Government but also because the author of the report, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu, has been invited on numerous occasions by the Uganda Government to visit Uganda or send a team there to investigate the situation on the ground. On all those occasions, Ambassador Olara Otunnu did not find it fit to go to Uganda or to send a mission there but instead has chosen to rely on hearsay information gathered on visits to neighbouring countries. The Uganda Government is baffled by this hostile attitude on the part of Ambassador Olara Otunnu.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  15. “The Government of Uganda is dedicated to ending those terrorist acts, and in fact President Museveni has been stationed in northern Uganda for more than one year now to personally oversee the efforts towards ending the reign of terror of the LRA. It is therefore right and proper that the LRA should appear on the list contained in annex II of the Secretary-General's report. That organization should be condemned by all right-thinking people, and every pressure should be brought to bear on it and its leadership so that it ceases its inhuman actions. Its leaders should be apprehended wherever they are and brought to justice to answer for their crimes against humanity. However, my Government is outraged that the Secretary-General's report should purport to mention the UPDF in the same breath as the LRA.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  16. “In his statement to the Council on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, Under-Secretary-General Jan Egeland had this to say on the situation in northern Uganda: "For example, on my recent mission to Uganda, I saw a stark picture of what the absence of humanitarian access means. Outside the main northern and eastern towns, access has been dramatically reduced by the increased activity of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Some 1.3 million people have been displaced by the war. Many of those people are living in 'resettlement camps' in inaccessible areas, with severely limited access to their lands, to their livelihoods, and to humanitarian assistance". (S/PV.4877, p. 3) This is the humanitarian tragedy that has been forced on our people by the inhuman acts of the LRA.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  17. “That organization, which has been placed on the list of terrorist organizations by the United States State Department, has been carrying out, and continues to carry out, horrendous and savage acts of brutality against innocent people in northern Uganda, including women and children. Over the years, tens of thousands of children, boys and girls, have been abducted from their homes or schools and taken into captivity by the LRA. They are forcibly recruited into fighting. Girls are forced to become sex slaves by the rebel leaders. Others have been savagely maimed or brutally murdered. All of those acts are well known and have been documented by UNICEF, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other international agencies and non-governmental organizations active in the region.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  18. “Therefore, it is common for members of the community to deceive recruiters about their age in order to be enlisted. Additionally, in the face of the constant abductions of children by the so-called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in that area, many parents feel it is much safer to have them join the local militia or the army rather than the rebels. The situation in northern Uganda, where the Government has been battling a bandit outfit, the so- called Lord's Resistance Army, for many years, is well- known to the international community. In this regard, my delegation is grateful to the representatives of the United States and of the United Kingdom, who, in their statements this morning, gave graphic and accurate accounts of the atrocities being perpetrated against children in northern Uganda by the LRA.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  19. “This policy is strictly observed by the UPDF, and this fact is well known even to the Uganda Office of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). In those few cases in which recruits are discovered to have sneaked in because of lack of proof of age, such as birth certificates, they are always thrown out as soon as they are discovered. That was the case in the incident referred to in the Secretary-General's report, where, at Lugore military training camp in the Gulu district, a screening done in conjunction with UNICEF last August uncovered a number of underage recruits into the LDUs. Those recruits were promptly discharged. However, it should be noted that, with the high rate of unemployment in the Ugandan countryside, coupled with the low standard of education, many people view military service as the easiest way of getting a job.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  20. “My delegation wishes specifically to address paragraph 63 of the report, as well as the list contained in Annex II to the report, in which references are made to the Uganda People's Defence Forces and to Local Defence Units allied to the UPDF. Paragraph 63 reads as follows: "The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and its allied Local Defence Units (LDUs) recruit and use children. UPDF has also re-recruited children who have escaped or been rescued from LRA. In a UNICEF/Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs screening, 120 recruits in the UPDF Lugore military training camp were reported to be children under the age of 18, some of whom had been demobilized." It is the policy of the Uganda Government not to recruit anyone under the age of 18 into the Uganda armed forces, including the Local Defence Units.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  21. “Uganda ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 16 September 1990; the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict on 6 June 2002; and acceded to the Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography on 18 January 2002. Uganda therefore applauds all measures meant to ensure the protection of children in situations of armed conflict. In fact, the Government signed, on 4 December 2003, a memorandum of understanding with Save the Children/Denmark's Uganda Country Programme to implement a project on strengthening the capacity of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) in the area of child rights.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source

  22. “I would like to thank the Security Council for allowing my delegation to address it on this important issue of children and armed conflict. My delegation has carefully studied and taken note of the fourth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, contained in document S/2003/1053. The report covers a wide range of conflict situations in which children have faced grave human rights violations, including abduction, forced recruitment into armed groups, rape, maiming and killing. The report also proposes a number of measures aimed at addressing those violations and punishing the perpetrators. The report also contains, in annexes, two lists of alleged violators. Uganda is a strong supporter of the rights of children.”

    2004-01-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4898Resumption1 (2004) · source