"More needs to be done...."
We couldn't agree more.
I'm tagging this entry under the "political progress" category of the blog, but I think that progress perhaps isn't the most fitting word to use. In fact, it's just about the opposite of what this story is.
Stephen Hadley, President Bush's National Security Advisor, gave a speech yesterday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on the U.S. government's approach to foreign policy and international development. Following the speech, Mr. Hadley took questions, one of which was on northern Uganda.
While we don't necessarily support the questioner's interpretation of events and disagree with some of their statistics, we're more concerned with Mr. Hadley's answer (or lack thereof). It demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the situation and shows how much work we still have to do to educate some of our policymakers about this crisis (at least so they know the difference between Uganda and the Congo).
Here's the text of the question (and a link to the full text of the speech). Read and enjoy. In the meantime, I'm going to try to think of some new blog categories.
Q Mr. Hadley, you've spoken about genocide in Darfur. And the
leadership role which the U.S. has provided it in regard to Darfur has
been much applauded around the globe, especially in Africa. I want to
ask you about another genocide situation -- in the same valley of the
Nile, in northern Uganda -- longer, deeper, where at the height of it,
2 million people were in 200 concentration camps; and as we speak,
there's still 1.5 million people in concentration camps. Some have been
in these camps for 21 years. Most of them been there for 11 years.
People are dying in the camps at the rate of 1,500 a week, which is
three times the death rate in Darfur -- 1,000 children a week.
HIV/AIDS, as you know, has been used in these camps by the soldiers as
a weapon of mass destruction. Could you tell us what the administration
has done to end the genocide in northern Uganda?
MR. HADLEY: It's a long -- it's a long story, and I cannot do it
justice. But I think one of the things people need to understand is we
do a lot of talking about the problem in Sudan and Darfur, and it is,
historically, it killed 2.5 million people. But in terms of the Lakes
district, in terms of Congo, the latest estimate that I have is now 5.4
million people died, in addition to the suffering that you've
described. It has been inheritor, in some sense, of the struggles that
happened in Rwanda, and basically our approach has been to work with
the governments in the region to try and address each one of these
problems.
We have now had a successful election in Congo. There are
arrangements that are being worked out with neighboring states to try
and to begin to disarm these groups. We have supported that effort with
our diplomacy and other support. But I would say to you it's taken too
long, and it's not done yet. And we continue to work at it, and it is
going to be with us for a while. It's one of the reasons the President
is going to Rwanda.
Q And the genocide in northern Uganda?
MR. HADLEY: There are groups there whose tactics are unspeakable,
and it is one of the reasons why we have been supporting the U.N.
presence that has occurred in some of those areas; why we have been
training the forces of the Congolese government and the like. More
needs to be done. More needs to be done.
http://www.pr-inside.com/remarks-by-national-security-advisor-stephen-r423089.htm