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****** Uganda: EU Opposes Forceful Disarmament ******
Joyce Namutebi
21 January 2009
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Kampala — THE European Union has cautioned Uganda and other member states of
the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region against forceful
disarmament.
Ambassador Vincent De Visscher, the Head of Delegation of the European
Commission to Uganda, said: "The EU recommends the application of broad
civilian participatory approaches in disarmament vis-à-vis the historical use
of excessive force to disarm pastoralists that has often created human rights
protection challenges in the past."
Opening the regional meeting for the establishment of a regional disarmament
committee at Hotel Africana in Kampala yesterday, De Visscher requested the
member states to recognise the role of civilian police and civil society in the
disarmament process.
Addressing journalists later, he said: "It is important to have dialogue with
the nomadic communities and address the root causes."
Countries that form the Regional Disarmament Committee are Uganda, Kenya, Sudan
and Ethiopia.
The meeting that ends today will also launch the leadership conference
activities in the four countries.
"To-date, the UPDF-led disarmament process seems to show significant positive
results and a conducive environment for the stability in the Karamoja region,"
De Visscher said.
He added that the EU had provided over Euro 2.5m for the implementation of four
peace projects in northern Uganda and Karamoja.
A total of 25,000 illegal guns have been recovered in the disarmament exercise
in Uganda since 2004.
Prime Minister Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, in a speech read by the Third Deputy Prime
Minister, Kirunda Kivejinja, said the Government was committed to the
disarmament of armed nomadic pastoralists in the horn of Africa.
Foreign affairs minister, Sam Kutesa said the joint disarmament of pastoralists
would diffuse cross-border tensions, check the proliferation of small arms and
weapons, as well as crime.
Copyright © 2009 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica
Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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