The UN and NGOs in Refugee Camps

My observations confirmed. Sadly.

Below is an article by a law student at NYU published in the Washington Post last year:

The following OpEd, by NYU JD student Peter Dennis, was published in the Washington Post on April 12, 2005.
The U.N., Preying on the Weak
By Peter Dennis
Tuesday, April 12, 2005; Washington Post, Page A21

Anyone who was shocked by the most recent revelations of sexual misconduct by United Nations staff has never set foot in a U.N.-sponsored refugee camp. Sex crimes are only one especially disturbing symptom of a culture of abuse that exists in the United Nations precisely because the United Nations and its staff lack accountability.

This lack of accountability is the central blemish on today's United Nations, and it lies behind most of the recent headlines. Whether taking advantage of a malnourished refugee or of a lucrative oil-for-food contract, the temptation is there, the act is easy and the risk of punishment is nil.

I arrived in Sierra Leone as a legal aid worker in the summer of 2003, one year after the release of a damaging report on sexual abuse in U.N. refugee camps in West Africa. Although the report's description of widespread sexual abuse had prompted Secretary General Kofi Annan to issue a strongly worded "zero tolerance" policy, I found abuse of a sexual nature almost every day -- zero compliance with zero tolerance, as one investigator was to write. U.N. leaders had simply not expended any effort beyond lip service to carry out this zero tolerance policy.

In fact, abuse at these camps went beyond sexual violations: Injustices of one sort or another were perpetrated by U.N. missions or their affiliated nongovernmental organizations every day in the camps I visited. Corruption was the norm, in particular the embezzlement of food and funds by NGO officials, which often left camp resources dangerously inadequate. Utterly arbitrary judicial systems in the camps subjected refugees to violent physical punishment or months in prison for trivial offenses -- all at the whim of officials and in the absence of any sort of hearing.

I became especially involved in the plight of 11 young Liberian men from the Tobanda refugee camp near Kenema, Sierra Leone. They had been arrested and imprisoned, without trial, by the U.N.-sponsored camp management. The accusation: stealing plastic tarps. The refugee youths had received permission from camp management to use surplus tarps for housing, but they had not been given explicit permission to do so by officials of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The camp's management later had them arrested by the local authorities, and they remained in a squalid, inadequate Sierra Leonean state prison, without a formal trial or any legal representation. Of course, the UNHCR officer assigned to monitor refugees in local prisons would be unaware of this fact -- a prison log book revealed that he had not visited the prison for several months. By the time the young men were freed they had spent four months in a filthy, damp prison and were suffering from malaria, scabies and malnutrition. The prison was just yards from the UNHCR (and UNICEF) headquarters in Kenema.

This experience was sadly typical for the refugees with whom I worked. Although charged with the care of desperate refugees, many of the UNHCR staff remained ambivalent or hostile to the basic rights and needs of these vulnerable people. And they acted without fear of consequence.

The risk to these staff members is low in U.N. refugee camps, because peacekeepers engaged in criminal acts are immune from local prosecution. Therefore, local parties seeking justice must travel to the peacekeeper's home country. U.N. workers from countries with unresponsive legal systems, or those committing unspectacular crimes, can sleep easy. At the same time, local NGO employees who are contracted by the United Nations to work in the camps are covered by a de facto implied immunity. That is, if these individuals are identified as being connected with U.N. operations, they will probably never face charges for their actions by local authorities. In West Africa, most of the sexual misconduct accusations are leveled against local NGO staff members.

If the United Nations is to enjoy such immunity, it is incumbent on the organization to police itself aggressively and thoroughly. Yet the recent stonewalling over a series of scandals from the United Nations -- from oil-for-food to a sexual harassment imbroglio involving a high U.N. official -- are typical of a bureaucracy dedicated to self-preservation. This code of behavior travels rapidly down the organizational chart. The message is: Cover your tracks and the United Nations will obstruct your prosecution. After the 2002 report documented sexual abuse, Annan's steely resolve led to exactly zero criminal prosecutions of U.N. officials for sexual abuse. I expect little difference now that refugee camp conditions have returned to the headlines. As before, Annan has delivered vague statements but prosecuted no one.
It appears that the status quo reigns and that those perpetrating all sorts of abuses in refugee camps may continue undisturbed. The United Nations is a vital institution that needs a housecleaning.

Peace talks stalling - setback in UPDF General's killing

Bad news.

The peace talks in Juba have resulted in stalemate - it's reported that LRA soldiers killed a UPDF Captain yesterday.

Please pray.

Story taken from the Daily Monitor, below:


Rebels kill UPDF Captain
FRANK NYAKAIRU, EMMANUEL GYEZAHO & PAUL HARERA
Army detains LRA negotiator, impounds food
KAMPALA/ JUBA

THE stalemate over peace talks between the government and Kony rebels could have worsened yesterday after the LRA killed a UPDF Captain on Tuesday.
The fallen army officer is Capt. Sam Mugarura, the operations and training officer of the South Sudan-based 91st Battalion.

But the acrimony has now sucked in the government of South Sudan after independent monitors in Juba accused the UPDF of impounding an SPLA truck carrying food supplies for the LRA and detaining a top rebel negotiator.

The UPDF has denied detaining the rebel delegate but admit to impounding the truck.
Rei Achama, who doubles as rebel leader, Joseph Kony's aide de camp, was reportedly detained on Tuesday afternoon in Nisitu, a small dusty town 14km south of Juba, along with five SPLA soldiers, as he ferried food for LRA rebels on their way back to Owiny-Ki-bul, one of two South Sudan assembly points.

Maj. Gen. Wilson Deng, the chairperson of the Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team, told Daily Monitor yesterday that the truck was a second shipment of food supplies to the rebels. "It was the second truck after the rebels preferred maize grains to flour. So the UPDF there stopped the truck and arrested the SPLA escorts and driver and the LRA monitor Rei Achama."
Achama was once on the LRA negotiating team in Juba.

Although Deng said the South Sudan government had not yet received an explanation from Kampala, the SPLA had already made a report to the mediator, South Sudan Vice President Reik Machar.
Army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulayigye, however, told Daily Monitor that the SPLA truck was "simply intercepted."

"We did not ambush it [truck]," he said, "but where was it going with these supplies? This is our area of operation."

Kulayigye protested what he said was a gross violation of the August 26 truce by continued food supplies to LRA rebels outside the designated assembly points.
He said the incident occurred after the UPDF had pursued a trail of sinister rebel movements in the moments that followed Capt. Mugarura's death.

"We followed a trail after the ambush and it revealed there was food like maize, rice, beans and sodas," said Kulayigye. "So when the truck appeared, the onus was on
us to discover what the truck was carrying. The checking was simply pursuant to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement."

The LRA's second in command, Vincent Otti, yesterday confirmed via satellite phone that his forces killed Mugarura.
Otti, however, said Mugarura was killed as he attempted to shoot at the rebels an allegation Kulayigye denied.

"My people tell me that if he [Mugarura] didn't attempt to shoot, they would have captured him alive," Otti said. "We seized his SMG riffle, walkie-talkie, personal documents, a domestic radio and his uniform. His escorts ran away."

Kulayigye, however, said Mugarura was slain in a deliberate ambush 115kms north west of Owiny-Ki-bul on his way to a unit headquarters.

"He walked ahead of his troops after they reached a point where the vehicle could not travel further and fell in an ambush where the first bullet put him off this world," Kulayigye said.

At a Media Centre press briefing in Kampala yesterday, the State Minister for Defence, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, said "We expect an immediate step to be taken by the mediator.

“I don't know what step but we cannot continue looking at people [LRA] violating the agreement they signed themselves. They [LRA] have provoked us so much."

She criticised the mediators for continued supply of food to the rebels outside the assembly points.

The stalemate over peace talks entered day three yesterday as the two negotiating parties remained at their hotels all day. The talks are awaiting reports into alleged clashes between LRA and UPDF in Bilinyang on Sunday and Monday, which Kampala has denied.

Fount of Mercy, Seeds of Hope

Lori, Michelle and Sue in Kampala, Uganda - summer 2006

Today at church, a few friends of mine gave a presentation on their group, which is directing assistance to local community groups devoted to helping children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Here is a link to their website and more information about the work they are doing:
Fount of Mercy
It was great to see them and be linked up when we were in Uganda this summer. I pray that their ministry would be blessed and that they would see the amazing things God can do when you trust in Him!

It's been really great to see how God has brought likeminded people together in the right and perfect time. I think there is a gorwing awareness of the needs of people living in Africa in general, but numerous people at church and around me have been amazingly responsive to the issues facing the orphaned and poor in Uganda in recent months.

As I shared in a previous post, I felt the words of Isaiah come alive during my time in Uganda, especially in the north. What has once been ravaged by war, death and disease, God is reversing...as He makes "all things new." There is reason to hope and rejoice, because amidst the suffering and poverty people are experiencing in Uganda, there is also hope. And I have been humbled and moved by the things God has been teaching me both there and in the weeks since I have returned...I see a capacity for love, mercy and grace that far extends what I have known before - and I believe that faith is the engine which allows us to experience the fullness of God's love and mercy. It took faith for these women, this team on Fount to go to Uganda. It took faith for them continue their efforts to help orphans and the organizations serving them when they returned. It takes faith to continue doing what seems difficult or impossible without the quick results or outcome one might expect...I believe that hearing and sharing the stories of faith, even in the remotest parts of the world or especially in these places, changes and transforms one's heart. I feel blessed, I feel privileged to have met the people I did, to have seen what I have seen; and far from being the helper - I am being 'helped'....it's a strange paradox to go into a situation expecting one thing and finding something completely different happen - intending to help, and finding you are the one being helped. Intending to teach, and being taught instead. Intending to extend love and hope only to be the recipient of these things, and far more...

Thanks, God.

Senator John Edwards on his Trip to an IDP camp in Uganda

Senator John Edwards recently made a trip to Uganda with the IRC. Interesting. I just received an email from a friend regarding a letter he has posted on his blog, also at:
http://blog.oneamericacommittee.com/John

***

Dear Jaykumar,

I just returned from a trip to Uganda and wanted to share my experience with you. Uganda is home to one of the greatest unreported humanitarian crises in the world -- millions of people have been displaced from their homes and subjected to horrific violence. And with the exception of extraordinary groups, like the International Rescue Committee (IRC), whom I traveled with, most of the world is ignoring this tragedy.

Uganda has been plagued by a long civil war and a rebel army/terrorist group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Among other things, the LRA abducts children, turns them into soldiers, forces them to commit atrocities, and in some cases, turns them into sex slaves.

We first went to an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp outside Kitgum, just over 30 miles from the Sudan border. The people at IDP camps are the same as refugees, but they have not crossed a country border. This camp was one of hundreds throughout the region, and many of the people in this camp have been stuck there for several years, some for twenty years.

I sat under a tree with three adults and lots of children. They told me the stories of what they'd been through and what their hopes were. I met a little girl, about a year old, whose mother said she had never smiled -- her father was killed by the LRA. I tried to get her to smile and almost got one.

The living conditions at the camp were awful -- open sewage, little water, malnourished children. There were children that had been abducted by the LRA, forced to commit atrocities against others, including their own families, but had escaped and come back to the camp.

The next day we flew to Lira, another region of northern Uganda. There, I visited with a family that had taken in a young girl, an orphan, named Lilly. Lilly’s parents had been killed by the LRA. She was about eight or nine years old -- around my daughter Emma's age. Lilly carried one baby in her arms and one on her back. It was heartbreaking to see her providing childcare for babies instead of going to school.

We then went to the Kira School, which is run by the IRC. In spite of everything they'd been through, the children at the school were remarkable -- they still had hope and lots of love to give. A 14-year old boy performed a song that he had written. He had lived on the streets for 13 years, and a year ago had been taken in by the IRC. In front of us and hundreds of his classmates, he sang a song about how happy he was to have a new life.

I also had the opportunity to meet with the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. I talked with him about what I had seen, the critical importance of the peace process and what we can do to help it along, and all the suffering we had witnessed in Northern Uganda.

Although I am back in the United States, I know I will never forget the faces of the people I met in Uganda, especially the children.

What's happening in northern Uganda is similar to conditions elsewhere, like Darfur. But with a peace process underway, this is a great opportunity for Americans to show we care about the suffering of people around the world. But before people can care, they have to know what's gone terribly wrong. You can help spread the word about what's happening in Uganda by forwarding this message to a friend. Please help us spread the word.

Thanks for taking a moment to read this message.

Your friend,

John