Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is in Senegal for talks which are expected to centre on the issue of illegal immigration.He may confirm reports that over the next two years some 4,000 Senegalese will be allowed to work in Spain. Spain's Canary Islands are a tempting destination for many Senegalese.

UNICEF in Uganda, in view of the continued violence linked to the ongoing process of disarmament in areas of northern Kotido District, expresses its serious concern about the impact of escalating insecurity on the lives of children and families in those locations.

The Congolese government has signed a deal with the last rebel groups in the northeastern district of Ituri to disarm 3,500 militiamen and release 700 child soldiers. Wednesday's (29 November 2006)agreement came two days after the Supreme Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed the result of the 29 October elections proclaiming Joseph Kabila as president.

Some Angolan refugees are fleeing from refugee camps in Zambia for fear of being repatriated to their countries of origin, the Times of Zambia has reported. The Angolan voluntary repatriation from Zambia started in 2003, one year after the 27 year civil war ended in the country. Since then a total of 64,000 refugees have been safely repatriated to their motherland while about 29,000 Angolan refugees remain in Zambia.

There are still some 350,000 refugees outside South Sudan waiting to go home, as well as an estimated 4 million internally displaced people. Many of them cite the lack of schools, water, sanitation, health care and other infrastructure for their reluctance to return to Sudan after 21 years of civil war.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would make the killings in Sudan's Darfur region his priority until the day he leaves office on December 31, according to an interview to be aired on Monday (4 December 2006). "It's very tragic and painful, not only (to me) as secretary-general but as a human being and as an African," Annan said.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicted LRA leader Joseph Kony and four of his lieutenants for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during their 20-year-old rebellion. The government has proposed a traditional form of justice, Mato Oput, to replace the ICC indictments. Dieu-Donné WEDI DJAMBA explores the implications such a move will have for the post-conflict Democratic Republic of Congo, where the national judicial system is in collapse, and the only alternative left for victims of war to seek justice from is the ICC. This article is the last installment of a two-part series. The first article, entitled “The Ugandan Peace Process in Perspective” was published last week.

The ICC determines whether a State’s criminal procedure, including non-party States’ criminal procedures, conforms with the principles of “due process” or not. The standard adopted by the ICC for its determination is “the minimum guarantees” provided by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).[1] And, Mato Oput may not conform to this principle of “due processes”.

Furthermore, there is need to improve Mato Oput for it to be suitable as an alternative to the ICC. This raises the question whether still it remains a possibility to see Kony and his senior commanders standing trial under Mato Oput, because the ICC’s Rome Statute provision article 17(admissibility principle) [2] provides that a case being investigated or prosecuted by a State member can be admissible to ICC(art.17,(1)a and b) but not reversed.

Indeed, there is jurisprudence for the ICC to prosecute Kony and his senior commanders because the Ugandan government itself referred the case to the international criminal court.

It must be noted that in order for the ICC to drop a case already at the investigation, prosecution or trial phase, and for a State to continue with the same case, this will create an judicial unsafe (delay of process). It would also be important to find out what happens if once again the same case became admissible to the ICC under articles 17(1)a and b after being handed over to a concerned State by ICC under the Complementarity principle.

Therefore, if Mato Oput will apply the international law standard, it will be helpful for the future case. Secondly, Acholi people are asking for Kony and his senior commanders to be prosecuted through Mato Oput. [3] But do they (Kony and other) ask for any prosecution by Mato Oput applying an international law standard? The possibility is they may ask for amnesty in order to avoid prosecutions. I am also of the argument that even if the Mato Oput has an international law standard it would not be the best option for Kony and his senior commanders.

The withdrawal of the warrants of arrest

Another threat faced by the ICC in the Ugandan peace process is the demand to withdraw warrants of arrest against the LRA leaders, which could set an unfortunate precedent for other ICC cases.

The wanted LRA leaders want the warrants of arrest withdrawn before they will emerge from the bush to sign the peace agreement. “The ICC warrants of arrest against the LRA leaders should be dropped, so that a peaceful conclusion to talk can be reach”, said the LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny. [4] Otti Vincent, one of the wanted LRA leaders, said in a call to a Gulu-based radio station that “Kony and I can not attend the peace talks although they wanted one of the top leaders of the LRA to attend. We are afraid of the ICC indictment on us. If you can convince the Uganda government to withdraw the case at the ICC, we are ready to come out of the bush freely”.[5] And he warned “there will be no peace deal unless international indictment for the top rebels are dropped”.[6]

Uganda has offered the five rebels leaders a blanket amnesty if they agree to a peace deal, and hinted at a possible negotiation with the ICC over the indictment. [7] The Uganda peace talks mediator, Dr Riek Machar, has taken a middle position to the LRA’s demand that warrants of arrest be withdrawn, saying “we are not telling the ICC to stop what they are doing….We are just asking them to give the peace process a chance.”[8]

Contrary to Machar’s view, the ICC’s Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo urged that the best way to finally stop the conflict is to arrest the top leaders. And he added that “Kony will eventually face the trial.”[9]

The ICC involvement in northern Uganda is viewed as a complication by all sides. While the ICC prosecutions have been an important factor in bringing the LRA and the government to the table, they now limit the options available to mediation because they and the broad international community are unlikely to accept a deal providing a broad amnesty and lacking strong justice and accountability mechanisms. At the same time, the commanders indicted by the ICC will not be interested in any deal that fails to protect them from ICC prosecution and fails to guarantee their personal safety.[10]

If the warrants of arrest are withdrawn, the question remains: who shall be blamed? Interviewed in February, senior ICC official Phakiso Mochockoko said that “The situation in northern Uganda was referred to the ICC prosecutor (Argentina lawyer Luis Moreno Ocampo) by the government of Uganda. And as a result of that, the ICC is obliged to exercise its mandate in accordance with the statute”.[11] As such it seems that cracks in the Rome Statute would need to be found before any warrants of arrest could be withdrawn.

Under article 53 of the Rome Statute, the prosecutor has the discretion to stop prosecutions that no longer serve ‘the interest of justice’. Article 53 can only be used to end, not suspend, a case. An option of last resort subject to serious constraints, it calls for the prosecutor to consider the ‘interest of justice’, not peace. This is in line with the ICC’s stated purpose articulated in the statute’s preamble, which is to end impunity and ensure prosecution of those most responsible for the gravest crimes. As such, any decision to stop a case prior to prosecution, except on the most compelling grounds, is contrary to the court’s core principles.[12]

Therefore, if for some Ugandan people (including Kony and his senior commanders) the ICC is an obstacle towards peace, the way “to give peace a chance” as Machar says, is to leave any decision to put the prosecutions on hold to the Security Council, as provided by article 16 of the Rome Statute.

This article permits the Security Council to determine that an agreement would be in the interest of peace and to require the ICC by a chapter VII resolution to defer action for renewable one-year periods, thereby suspending and not halting prosecutions.[13]

The time limitation of one year placed on the Security Council by the Rome Statute was both a recognition that article 16 should not become a back door to impunity, and a realization that the threat of not renewing a deferral gives the Security Council a tool for ensuring compliance with an agreement. Thus, even if the Council does intervene, the LRA may not be satisfied.[14]

But the Crisis Group argues that in theory, the Security Council could give de facto amnesty by promising to renew the yearly deferrals for the lives of the indicted, though such a pledge should at least be accompanied by a clear understanding that any violations by the LRA would mean a resumption of prosecutions.[15]

Article 16 of the Rome Statute does not provide any limit in terms of how many times the Security Council should renew a deferral action. This omission is a threat for the ICC as an anti impunity symbol. And any unlimited renewal one-year period in LRA leaders’ case will set a precedent for the future ICC case and for international justice.

The Blanket Amnesty

Tina Rosenberg argues that a country’s decisions about how to deal with its past should depend on many things: the type of dictatorship or war endured, the type of crimes committed, the level of societal complicity, the national political culture and history, the conditions necessary for dictatorship to occur, the abruptness of the transition, and the new democratic government’s power and resources. She added that different countries have chosen widely different strategies to deal with the past.[16]

Among these strategies, is the granting of amnesty. This strategy is used by different countries in order to end conflict or dictatorship regimes. Samuel P. Huntington [17] distinguishes three types of democratization transitions: transformations, replacements and transplacements.

In transformations, those in power in the authoritarian regime take the lead and play the decisive role in ending that regime and changing it into a democratic system. In replacements however, democratization results from the opposition gaining strength and the government losing strength until the government collapses or is overthrown. In transplacements, democratization is produced by the combined actions of government and opposition.

In recent past, many dictatorship regimes used the amnesty strategy during transition to democracy to grant themselves a blanket amnesty such as in Chile with the Pinochet regime.[18] Others used the National Conference Forum such as in Togo with the Etienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma regime [19] , and in the DRC (former Zaire) with the Mobutu regime.[20]

However, in transplacements, the granting of amnesty has also been chosen in many countries. This amnesty could be a broader one, such in Sierra Leone [21] or conditional such as in South Africa.[22]

Thus in order to end a war conflict or a dictatorship and to establish a real democracy, many countries have chosen to grant a amnesty. Uganda is among them.

Indeed, the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has offered a blanket amnesty to LRA leaders in order the end the over 19 year long deadly civil war in his country. As noticed the BBC News: “Mr. Museveni clearly feels that for now, the most important thing to achieve is peace. And, in the interest of that peace, the widespread crimes of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army should be put to one side.’’[23]

The ICC at The Hague may disagree. The court was founded on the basis that there can be no durable peace without justice, which to some extent satisfies victims that wrong have been addressed.[24]

At a 2002 meeting to mark the fourth anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute, Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nation, said “The date of 17 July 1998 will long be remembered as the world finally united to bring an end to the culture of impunity”.[25] But challenging impunity does not only mean ferreting out former dictators from wherever they may be hiding in order to have them stand trial for the crimes they committed. It also means not extending amnesties to people accused of committing crimes against humanity.[26]

However, this point of view is not shared by all Ugandan people. Indeed, as noted IRIN, Ugandans are “…tired of war, most people want the rebels forgiven”. According to them, maintaining a tough stance against the rebels and fighting them has only prolonged their suffering. “We are in a mood of forgiveness. Let the International Criminal Court not spoil our party preparations”, some Ugandans have said.[27]

The ICC’s aim to close “the gap of impunity” is felt by some Ugandan people to be a threat to the peace in Uganda. Some of them do not hesitate to criticize the presence of the ICC in the Uganda peace process. An internally displaced person, Nikson Owinyi, told Jan Egeland that “The international community should tell the ICC that the Acholi people don’t like ICC in these affairs because it is holding back the peace process.”[28]

Again Peter Onega, has claimed that the decision by the international court has left their work in “total confusion”. He stated further, that “the statute establishing the ICC overrides the national laws and the court may decide to issue other warrants of arrest for people they have even issued amnesty to. …..The warrant would scare away willing rebels and frustrate the commission’s effort to negotiate for ex-rebels return”, he added.[29]

Indeed, in a bid to bring about a cessation of violence, the UAC was set up to offer a blanket amnesty to militia and soldiers. It was hoped that this amnesty would encourage them to lay down their weapons without fear of reprisal. Then in October, 2005, the ICC issued warrants of arrest against five members of the LRA in Uganda and this move effectively undid the work of the UAC.[30]

But Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor for the ICC, made himself clear on this issue when he told IRIN, “Domestic amnesties are strictly a matter for national authorities and do not act as bar to an investigation by the ICC”. Thus, the message was that at a national level, amnesties may be granted, but they will not be guaranteed at an international level.[31]

The rejection of amnesty for perpetrators of human rights abuses on the basis that such amnesties are incompatible with the principle of international law has been steadily involving the whole world. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia observed in 1998 that amnesties covering certain crimes’ “would not be accorded international legal recognition” despite having legal force in that country. Spanish and French courts have also lent their backing to this interpretation, and the inter-American court of Human Rights in 2001 stated “All amnesty provisions are inadmissible, because they are intended to prevent the investigation and punishment of those responsible for serious human rights violations, which are non-derogable rights recognized by international human rights law.”[32]

The UN holds the understanding that the amnesty provisions of the agreement shall not apply to the “international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.”[33]

Indeed, the amnesty issue facing the ICC in the Ugandan peace process is an opportunity for the international justice system to show the international community as a whole that the impunity gap is closed.

Far from spoiling the peace process in Uganda, the ICC could boost it. Its deterrent effect is one of the main explanations for the sudden willingness for the LRA leaders to negotiate. They no longer have anywhere to hide. They have lost support - the southern Sudan is no longer a threat for the government of Khartoum, and they are wanted in DRC by the MONUC, the UN mission in DRC after killing eight Guatemalan peacekeepers in Eastern DRC.[34]

Often, people like Kony and other LRA leaders need to be backed against the wall before one can expect any agreement from them for a negotiated solution. Mobutu, the DRC former president accepted negotiations with Laurant Desiré Kabila, the other former DRC President, (then rebel leader) when almost ¾ of the country was controlled by the rebel group in 1997 . ‘The rebels Lords Resistance Army has called for the resumption of peace talks with the Ugandan government’ noted IRIN.[35]

As noted by the Citizens for Global solutions (CGS), Kony is exactly the type of person for whom the ICC was created. [36] Therefore, the blanket amnesty through a peace agreement becomes the last chance for a way out.

The implications of the Ugandan peace process in the Ituri District

As has been said before, DRC is affected by a deadly war which has resulted in over three million deaths and widespread displacement. The killing and other atrocities committed against the population by the national army, foreigners armies, rebel groups, and militias raises the issue of accountability of the perpetrators and reparation for the victims.

But in the DRC, the national judicial system is in collapse. According to Human Rights Watch, the DRC’s national justice system is in a state of disarray. It will likely take years to establish a functioning, independent, impartial and fair judiciary.[37] And the Commission Vérité Reconciliation (CVR) - the Congolese truth commission - established by the Pretoria Agreement with the mandate to address reparation has failed to do its work.[38]

Therefore, the ICC becomes the alternative for the thousands of victims wanting to see justice done by holding their perpetrator accountable and getting reparations owed to them.

Among the most affected by the war is the population of Ituri District in northeast DRC bordering with Uganda. This population expects prosecution of the likes of Combra Matata, leader of the Ituri Patriotic Resistence Front (FRPI), one of the active militia groups and responsible for several atrocities including rape, burning houses and killing.[39]

The Ituri people also expect prosecution of Kawa Mandro of PUSIC, an Ituri militia [40], Peter Karim of Front des nationalistes et Integrationnistes (FNI) and Mathieu Ngudjolo of Mouvement des Révolutionnaires Congolais (MRC) [41]. Already there is a concern among the population in Ituri after the government appointed two ex-militia leaders, Peter Karim (FNI) and Mathieu Ngudjolo (MRC) as colonels in the national army [42], in the name of peace.[43]

But for the victims of war in the DRC, especially in Ituri, ‘peace’ means positive peace, one in which justice is addressed, human rights are respected and people live without any fear (as opposed to a negative peace such as a ceasefire, which is negative because it stops the war but does not address other issues). [44] And this ‘peace’ has to be based on the concept of justice. There is no peace without justice. But this justice has to be taken into the transitional justice perspective.[45]

Indeed, transitional justice offers a deeper, richer and broader vision which seeks to confront perpetrators, address the need of victims and assists in the start of a process of reconciliation and transformation.[46] Therefore, the Uganda peace process is very important for the people of that country.

The ongoing peace process in Uganda is being followed with interest by both the victims and perpetrators in Ituri District. The success or failure of the ICC in the LRA leaders case will have many implications. Successful prosecution will create an expectation for several victims of similar atrocities in Ituri to see their own perpetrators held accountable for their crimes and to expect reparations. It will produce a deterrent effect to other militias who are still active in the same area. [47] Indeed, the arrest of Thomas Lubanga, one of the militia leaders in Ituri by the ICC in April this year produced a strong deterrent effect. “Many here in the East are afraid the court will come…we all now are thinking twice . We do not what this court can and will do”, confessed Xavier Ciribanya, former rebel leader of the RCD-goma and suspected of a range of crimes against civilians in both Kivus and Ituri.[48] Therefore, the ICC remains key in ending the violence and the last hope for the victims to see their perpetrators prosecuted, and to receive reparation after the complete failure of the CVR to address the issue. [49]

But, on other hand, failure will encourage the culture of impunity in Ituri District.

Indeed, the three conditions raised in the Ugandan peace process can be used by the different perpetrators in Ituri: firstly the Mato Oput option will gives people like Combra Matata who still has weapons the opportunity to escape a real trial. Secondly, the withdrawal of the warrants of arrest will give future perpetrators the chance to claim the Ugandan ICC case as jurisprudence. Finally, the blanket amnesty will be an opportunity for those prosecutable in Ituri District to extend the content of the law adopted by the DRC National Assembly which gives the CVR the power to propose amnesty for acts of war, political crimes and crimes of opinion.[50]

Conclusion

The ongoing peace process in Uganda is critical for the Ugandan people. This peace process can finally end the 19 year long deadly war which deeply affected the northern Ugandan people. But at the same time, the peace process in Uganda is critical for the ICC which faces its first test as the symbol to impunity. Furthermore the Ugandan peace process has implications for the Ituri District.

As a symbol for the ending of impunity or the closing of the impunity gap, the ICC has to stand behind its warrants of arrests. Justice has to be done. Not only for the victims in northern Uganda, but for others, including the Ituri.

The ICC is established not only for Uganda and its future will depend on what decision it takes today in order to secure tomorrow in its fight against the impunity. ‘Justice for today’s crimes supplies the legal foundation needed to deter tomorrow’s atrocities. Without justice, there is no peace’.[51]

• Dieu-Donné WEDI DJAMBA is a lawyer (Advocate)at the Lubumbashi Bar association/DRC; Consultant; Assistant lecturer in the College of Law in Lubumbashi/ DRC; Human Rights Activist and Writer. Tel:+243812485222;+27738362921 ; Fax:+18016727206 Email: [email][email protected];[email protected]
• Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

References:

[1] Lijun Yang, “On the Principle of Complementarity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court”,Chinese Journal of International Law (2005),vol 4,Nº1 (accessed 11October 2006)
[2] Rome Statute, (accessed]http://www.sierra-leone.org/lomeaccord.html>(accessed 23 Octoberd 2006)
[22] Alex Boraine, “A COUNTRY UNMASKED”, Oxford University Press,2000,pp270.
[23] BBC News “Afrca’s mixed amnesty
[24] BBC News,op.cit
[25] IRIN.op.cit.
[26] IRIN.op.cit
[27] News.op.cit
[28] IRIN,op.cit
[29] Joseph Yav Katshung, op.cit
[30] IRIN,op.cit
[31] ibid
[32] ibid
[33] ibid
[34] ibid
[35] ibid
[36] ibid
[37] William W.Burke-White, “International Criminal Court, Complementarity in practice:The International Criminal Court as Part of a System of Multi-level Global Governance in the Democratic Republic of Congo”,Leiden Journal of international Law 18( 2005),pp576
[38] William W.Burke-White,op.cit
[39] IRIN : “DRC: Recently Demobilised militiamen re-arming in volatile Ituri Distict” (accessed 20 September 2006)
[40] Radio Okapi, “George Bush ordonne le blocage des avoirs des seigneurs de guerre de la RD Congo” ,(accessed 1November 2006)
[41] The DRC Defence Minister has publicly stated that the government is determined to work with the ICC to help bring war criminal to book ,after appointing the two ex-mititia, colonel in national army, in IRIN,DRC:Two militia leaders appointed army colonels,(accessed,13 October 2006)
[42] IRIN,op.cit
[43] Dieu-Donné Wedi Djamba,“Congo-Kinshasa:A strategy for Peace And Reconciliation in the DRC?”,in Pambazuka News. http://allafrica.com/stories/200610260875.html >( accessed 26 October 2006)
[44] Professor Jannie Malan used the terms “negative and positive peace” during the course session for the fellowship in Transitional Justice(2006) in Cape town/South Africa
[45] Dieu-Donné Wedi Djamba,op.cit,
[46] Alex Boraine, in: Alex Boraine and Sue Valentine, op.cit,pp25
[47] Alert.net, “More than three million Congolese dead and no one notice,say Is IRC”(accessed 2November 2006)
[48] William W. Burke-White,op.cit.pp588
[49] William W.Burke-White ,op.cit
[50] William W.Burke-White,op.cit
[51] Kathryn Schiele “U.S RATIFICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT”,in Journal of International Relations, James Madison University, Spring 2004,pp59

Uganda has a reputation of having controlled its HIV/AIDS problem. Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon writes that the extent of the virus in Northern Uganda is perhaps more severe than figures indicate, “as the expansion of combination antiretroviral therapy – the treatment which can suppress the replication of the human immunodeficiency virus - to the camps has been severely limited due to dangerous access routes and impoverished resources.”

In Northern Uganda World Aids Day on December 1st comes at a time of uncertainty; in the fragile peace that has come to the region, HIV and AIDS is emerging as a problem of significant magnitude for communities who have suffered two decades of war and displacement.

At present talks between the Lords Resistance Army – the religiously inspired rebel group, who have woven together themes of Acholi and Christian mysticism as a legitimation to inflict a supposedly purgatory violence on the population – and the Ugandan government haltingly continue in Juba, Southern Sudan. Communities in Northern Uganda are coming to terms with years of neglect and violence, in which an estimated 1.6 million people have been displaced, most of whom live in congested camps, or ‘protected villages’ with little access to agriculture, income or health services. Yet, the spectre of AIDS haunts the calm that has come to the region.

Says Odoi Charles, counseling coordinator of The AIDS Support Organsation (TASO) in Gulu Town: “We are using World Aids Day to sensitize people and to commemorate the gallant fallen ones. It’s a day to remember those who have died because of AIDS”

AIDS is the second highest reported reason for death after malaria in the region according to the World Health Organisation. In spite of Uganda’s reputation of having controlled its HIV/AIDS problem, a 2004/2005 Uganda National Sero-Behavioural Survey indicates the prevalence rate for the North Central Region is 8%, significantly above the national rate of 6.4%. Antenatal data at St Mary’s Lacor Hospital – a Catholic hospital near Gulu Town – indicate a prevalence rate of 11.9%, though local organizations believe the rates may be far higher in some camps. No reliable data exists for many of the camps in the region.

The extent of the impact of HIV in the region may be more severe than figures indicate, as the expansion of combination antiretroviral therapy – the treatment which can suppress the replication of the human immunodeficiency virus - to the camps has been severely limited due to dangerous access routes and impoverished resources. However, the past two years have shown a significant scaling up of treatment access in the region through a combination of government and non-governmental programmes, the latter predominantly funded by the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a United States government fund. Certain Catholic programs under this funding can’t actively promote or distribute condoms, which places a bar on strong coordination between treatment organisations in the region with differing views on the use of contraceptives. The government programs are being funded in part by the World Health Organisation after the withdrawal of funds to Uganda by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in late 2005 as a response to financial mismanagement. This caused temporary supply-line stockouts in Gulu National Hospital.

The treatment in the region has already had its successes in areas where it has been available. Ilama Charles is a counselor with Comboni Samaritan a local Catholic HIV/AIDS care organization providing support to clients of St Mary’s Lacor, which was one of the frontier treatment providers in the region starting a treatment program in 2004 and which now provides over 1500 treatment slots in the Gulu district. Ilama has witnessed the changes it has brought in the area: “You saw people who were brought on wheelchair, starting riding bicycles, lifting Jerry cans of water on their head. If you are to go to the medical ward you would find the hospital filled with patients, even some are sleeping on the floors. Medical staff were really stressed. With the advent of ARVs there were many changes. Before patients were coming with three, four opportunistic infections, but others would have ten, eleven. Now these have disappeared, they now go once a month for the ARV for their drugs”. The program which has many clients from surrounding camps has shown high rates of drug adherence, a key concern for antiretroviral treatment programs, as low adherence rates effect both the efficacy of treatment and risk the spread of drug resistant viral strains.

The inception of treatment in the region has also led to a dramatic rise in numbers seeking testing HIV and news has spread quickly about the drugs. Numerous clients have returned to strength and been able to cultivate what land is available around outskirts of the camps; the return to digging is symbolic of both health and peace.

Yet, for many treatment is still out of reach. Even where antiretroviral treatment may be available, many cannot afford to get to treatment sites or even to be tested. In Pabbo, the largest camp in the North with an estimated population of 60 000 people, there is still no access to antiretrovirals other than for the few who can afford the 90km monthly trip to Gulu Town. The route is one in which, until this year, ambushes were common. In Pabbo a vast dusty field outside the health centre has become a nursery and playground – boys kicking balls made from plastic bags, children following and peering through the windows of aid vehicles, desperate for entertainment. It is places like these where the destitution of war is most apparent. In seems that here there are two worlds and times: one in which children live and die, with their own daily rhythms, cycles and wanderings - often ended by malaria, fire, or diarrhea - and the world of adults which requires a fierce resilience and patience to survive. Child morbidity rates in the area are, according to the WHO, of ‘emergency proportions’.

Treatment for children provides a particular difficulty: they are often left unattended or with elderly caregivers, who cannot monitor their adherence properly. Health Alert is a local NGO trying to expand care and treatment follow up for children and pregnant mothers in the Gulu district. Says Achero Joyce Stella, a counselor at Health Alert: “In the camps, the issue of child neglect is a problem. For instance in Awach, the father had neglected the child. The child died, from opportunistic infections. Because of lack of money, distance from the treatment centre, the child died.” In some camps, the return to health of parents and the peace has been a mixed blessing: the parents go to garden during the days, leaving their children alone to wander unattended. For other young men and women a return to health is an opportunity to marry and have children, which raises concerns about mother to child transmission and the spread of drug resistance.

In spite of the fragile peace, the toll of violence and daily suffering on the population has been remains severe. Almost everybody has suffered direct violence on themselves or their families. Alcoholism is rife. Disillusionment with the prospect of peace is widespread; many believe that the army has no interest in ending the war and have benefited from it through stealing cattle and land. A thirty five year old women in the St Thomas camp near Gulu Town, was left looking after seven children after her husband, who was a soldier, was killed by the LRA. She says: “I hear people talking about peace talks, but I am never interested because I know it may happen the way it has been happening since they tried to talk peace; it never succeeds, no change ever occurs” She began taking antiretroviral in 2005. The treatment process has helped not only her physical but mental health. “When I started using the medicine, it brought about change in my life, in terms of health, because before I started using the medicine I was almost running mad. There is my last born whom I wanted to kill because I knew I was going to die so she could not remain to suffer on earth, but when I started using this drug all the bad thoughts went out of my mind…the problem has affected everyone, but for us women it is very painful, because you will be the house head, responsible for everything in the home.” With many men dead from the war and disease, the burden for household and community cohesion is increasingly being placed on widows, and it is predominantly widows who are enrolled in treatment programmes. This places an adverse burden on women in supporting their families with meager resources. Many men still fear the shame and perceived guilt of being tested for HIV and seeking treatment, though the situation is improving.

Yet, the peace is creating new possibilities for the expansion of treatment into areas that were previously inaccessible. TASO are presently adding a further 600 antiretroviral slots to their present 500 introduced in 2005. They are celebrating World Aids in Awach, one of the camps to which antiretroviral treatment has become available in recent months.

“The whole region has been very calm. We have very high hopes,” says Odoi Charles, counseling coordinator at The Aids Support Organisation (TASO), Gulu. Comboni Samaritan are presently expanding their services from a 40km radius from St Mary’s Lacor Hospital to 70km because of the peace in the area.

The material and logistical obstacles to scaling up treatment in the region remain, however, daunting. There are major shortages of medical staff and diagnostic equipment, particularly at government health facilities. At some of these health facilities there is poor treatment follow up which could lead to poor adherence. This raises the possibility of the spread of drug resistant strains of the virus – a threat which could undermine the treatment effort in years to come. The problem of transportation for many in the North is huge; many simply cannot afford to get to treatment and testing facilities or they arrive when it is too late to be helped.

At present, the camps are being ‘decongested’: residents of the larger camps are being allowed by the army to move to smaller camps closer to their land. Patients are becoming more increasingly scattered, making monitoring more difficult. If the peace talks fail, renewed conflict could undermine attempts at treatment expansion. Yet, there is hope among caregivers and patients that these obstacles are not impassable and community based strategies are being developed to overcome them. In uncertain times, the healing of those suffering from HIV/AIDS could be an analogue for social healing. World Aids Day provides a moment to recollect past losses and look forward towards the prospect of a difficult peace.

Odoi Charles of TASO claims “We are now going to begin another war: the HIV/AIDS war.”

* Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon is a South African Rhodes Scholar and MPhil Candidate in Development Studies at Oxford University. He is also a committee member of Student Stop Aids at Oxford University, and ahas worked as a freelance journalist in South Africa while studying Political Science at the University of Witwatersrand publishing mainly in the Mail & Guardian.

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Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on Wednesday (29 November 2006) suspended participation in peace talks with the government to end a brutal two-decade conflict, claiming the army had killed three rebel fighters. Rebel spokesperson Obonyo Olweny said they withdrew from the peace process after the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) attacked a rebel unit headed to one of two neutral camps in southern Sudan in line with the truce.

Armed troops were out in force on the streets of Cote d’Ivoire’s largest city, Abidjan, on Tuesday (28 November 2006) as already tense relations between President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny deteriorated. Since Sunday (26 November 2006), Gbagbo has signed eight decrees and reinstated three senior civil servants suspended by Banny last month for their part in the dumping of toxic waste around Abidjan in September.

More than 60 protesting Zimbabweans, some carrying babies, were arrested and at least another 40 were allegedly assaulted by the police in the country's second city, Bulawayo, on Wednesday (29 November 2006). "The level of police brutality was shocking," said Annie Sibanda, of the activist organisation Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), which had organised a peaceful march to mark the launch of a 'People's Charter', a declaration on political and economic rights, and the '16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence', an international campaign running until International Human Rights Day on 10 December.

A judge in Malawi on Wednesday (29 November 2006) allowed a coalition of human rights groups to proceed with a legal challenge to United States pop star Madonna's adoption of an African baby boy. Judge Andrew Nyirenda ruled that the coalition of 67 rights groups could be regarded as "friends of the court".

A UN-appointed panel has told Eritrea and Ethiopia to resolve a six-year border dispute within a year or accept a boundary map drawn up by other parties. The two countries have already rejected plans by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission to demarcate their frontier on paper.

Rwanda has cut diplomatic ties with France and given France's ambassador to Rwanda 24 hours to leave the country. On Thursday (23 November 2006), thousands of Rwandans had held protests after a French judge said that Paul Kagame, the country's president, should stand trial for a 1994 plane crash which killed the country's then leader.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, has said that the ICC has identified "those who could be considered to be the most criminally responsible" for crimes in Darfur. Thousands of people have been killed and about 2.5 million forced from their homes in three years of conflict in Darfur.

Fighters loyal to a dissident general have attacked army positions in the east, killing two soldiers and sending thousands of people fleeing into the bush, UN officials say. Saturday's (25 November 2006) attack came amid tensions in the capital where supporters of a former rebel chief are protesting against Joseph Kabila's victory in October's presidential runoff.

Minni Arcua Minnawi, the leader of the only rebel group in Sudan's Darfur province to sign a peace deal with the government, has accused Khartoum of violating the truce. He said on Monday (27 November 2006) that Sudan's government was re-arming the Janjawid, an Arab militia accused of killing over 200,000 civilians in Sudan's western province of Darfur.

Atrocities are occurring daily in Sudan's Darfur region and rape and pillage directed against civilians are at "a horrific level," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said on Wednesday (29 November 2006).

Over the past 10 days, UNHCR has moved more than 670 of these refugees away from the border to the Kounoungou camp, located about 65 kilometres inland and currently home to some 13,000 refugees from Darfur. But while they are probably safer in Kounoungou, one of a dozen camps for Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad, the security situation is volatile and could impact on what humanitarian agencies can do in the east, where UNHCR is helping some 215,000 refugees and some 90,000 displaced Chadians.

Southern Europe is all-too familiar with irregular migration from North African countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. But, as the migration crises in Morocco's Spanish enclaves in 2005 and Spain's Canary Islands in 2006 made clear, sub-Saharan Africans are increasingly migrating to North African countries, with some using the region as a point of transit to Europe and some remaining in North Africa.