Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-03-Speech-4-192"
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"en.20030703.13.4-192"2
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"Mr President, until recently I believed that Uganda was one of the better African states in terms of human rights. A fortnight ago Amnesty International, as part of Refugee Week, arranged for MEPs to be partnered with refugees for a day. The reason for doing this was simply to allow politicians to understand at first hand the experiences of people who become refugees and to listen to why they had to escape from their home countries.
I had the privilege to meet a Ugandan refugee living in Scotland whose name is Innocent Jakisa. He has been given refugee status to stay permanently in the United Kingdom. His story was shocking. I do not have the time to go into detail here. He was not from the north of the country but was a disabled rights activist who spoke out against his government.
That is why Paragraph 5 of the resolution, calling on the Ugandan Government to introduce good governance and political pluralism, is absolutely vital. Freedom of speech is essential for democracy. Uganda has come a long way from the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin, but there is still much to do. The fact that there are no political parties in Uganda should be a cause for concern to us in the EU and although the president is supposed to lift this 17-year ban on multi-party democracy, subject to referendum, this process needs to be closely monitored by the EU.
As for the substance at hand in the resolution, the treatment of children in the northern part of Uganda is of serious concern. Only a few weeks ago, a number of schoolgirls were abducted by the brutal rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army. If they are not found their fate will be one of sex slaves to militia commanders. According to Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch: 'The increase in abductions is dramatic and alarming.' More children have been taken in the last ten months than in any previous year of the conflict. Since the military offensive by the Ugandan Government, in just over a year, it is estimated that 5 000 children have been abducted. In the year before it was less than 100. In the 17 years of conflict between the Ugandan Government and the LRA, it is estimated that 20 000 children have been abducted.
Much needs to be done. I hope that in future the children of Uganda will be able to live peacefully and that people like Innocent will have their human rights respected."@en1
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