CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN UGANDA

There is a new mood in Uganda. There is a determination to reak out of the bitter history of internal conflict. Uganda gives hope to all those other areas of the world where violence has become endemic such as Ulster, Lebanon, and Sri Lanka.Archbishop Desmond Tutu says in his foreword to this “In South Africa we are acutely aware of the meaning of the conflict. We are still living through it.”The importance of this book is that it is almost entirely by Ugandans themselves. Their contributions in the four parts show that they are realistic but determined.The colonial roots of violence.Conflicts within the political institutions.Conflicts produced by the unbalanced state of the economy and the land question.The international dimensions of the Uganda conflict and of Britain’s “blind eye of diplomacy.”This collection shows that there is in Uganda what Martin Ennals of International Alert calls “a framework within which those directly affected by conflict can have their say in development issues.”

Kumar Rupesinghe is a senior research fellow at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO).