VZCZCXRO2648
RR RUEHGI RUEHRN RUEHROV
DE RUEHKM #0288/01 0771159
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 181159Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY KAMPALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1245
INFO RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM 0783
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 7195
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHMFIUU/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KAMPALA 000288 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS TO USAID AND OFDA 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID EAGR ECON MASS PREL SENV PGOV PHUM KDEM UG
SUBJECT: UGANDA'S KARAMOJA REGION: THE FINAL FRONTIER FOR SECURITY 
AND DEVELOPMENT (PART I) 
 
REF: KAMPALA 0523 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  A first-of-its-kind USG inter-agency delegation 
visiting Uganda's northeast Karamoja region in February found 
unrelenting drought, desperate poverty, and wrenching economic and 
cultural change.  Karamojong leaders and civil society 
representatives acknowledged that they must move away from a 
tradition of cattle herding and raiding to a new way of life that 
requires education and more sedentary forms of agro-pastoralism. 
Nonetheless, the security situation in Karamoja has improved due to 
the firm hand of the Ugandan military.  Aside from the military's 
disarmament campaign and growing social service activities, the 
Ugandan Government remains largely absent from Karamoja.  Sustained 
security and development investment in Karamoja are needed to ensure 
Uganda's long-term stability.  The U.S. Mission is moving forward 
with a series of activities and programs to help bring badly-needed 
resources to the region as the security environment permits.  End 
summary. 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
BACKGROUND: MISSION DELEGATION VISITS KARAMOJA 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The DCM led an inter-agency delegation February 16-21 to 
the Karamoja sub-region located in northeastern Uganda.  The team 
included the Deputy USAID Mission Director, CJTF-HOA 
Officer-in-Charge, CJTF-HOA Alpha Civil-Military Affairs Team 
Leader, the RSO, the USAID Peace and Security Team Leader, and 
PolOff.  Former parliamentarian and Minister of State for Education 
David Pulkol, who is an ethnic Karamojong, accompanied the 
delegation.  The U.S. Mission team visited four of the five 
northeastern Ugandan districts that comprise the Karamoja region, to 
include Nakapiripirit, Moroto, Kotido, and Kaabong.  In each 
district, U.S. officials met with local and central government 
officials, discussed disarmament and human rights with military and 
civil society representatives, and listened to security and 
development concerns of people living in remote villages. 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - 
KARAMOJA IN STATISTICS 
- - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶3.  (U) The semi-arid/arid Karamoja region abuts northwestern Kenya 
and southeastern Sudan and is home to nine ethnic groups that 
comprise the estimated 1.1 million Karamojong.  The region's harsh 
terrain and infrequent rainfall has resulted over the centuries in 
an agro-pastoral lifestyle that combines seasonal cultivation with 
herding.  However, a long history of armed violence associated with 
cattle raiding, climatic changes, restrictions on movement into 
neighboring countries and districts, population growth, and central 
government neglect have left the Karamojong of today extremely 
marginalized.  The Karamojong are the poorest of Uganda's poor. 
Cultural mistrust of education compounded with the need of families 
for children to work has further hampered development. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The UN estimates that only 9% of Karamojong have access to 
sanitation and 30% to safe water.  An estimated 82% of the 
population lives below the poverty line, with a Global Acute 
Malnutrition (GAM) rate of 9.5%.  The region has a literacy rate of 
11%, compared to 67% nationwide, an infant mortality rate of 105 per 
1,000 live births, and an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 3.9%.  Life 
expectancy is 47.7 years.  The World Food Program (WFP) feeds over 
90% of the region's inhabitants, and expects the figure to hit 
nearly 100% this year.  Karamoja's human and development indicators 
are decades behind the rest of Uganda and paint a bleak 
socioeconomic picture.  In part as a result, the Karamojong's 
traditional agro-pastoralist lifestyle has come under intense 
scrutiny and wider debate as to its long-term viability.  On one 
side of the argument stands the Government of Uganda (GOU) through 
its primary actor in Karamoja, the Uganda People's Defense Forces 
(UPDF).  The GOU is pursuing a policy to promote voluntary 
re-settlement in coordination with local officials and some in civil 
society.  In contrast, Oxfam and other NGOs argue that 
agro-pastoralism can continue to be a viable livelihood, given the 
right set of interventions. 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
SECURITY IMPROVING, BUT CHALLENGES REMAIN 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Chronic insecurity due to cattle raiding and small arms 
 
KAMPALA 00000288  002 OF 003 
 
 
trafficking between Karamoja and southern Sudan and Kenya, has long 
impeded development.  Meanwhile, the dramatically improved security 
situation in LRA-affected northern Uganda is threatened by 
Karamojong cattle raids into Kitgum, Teso, and Pader districts. 
Incidents of road ambushes, kidnapping of women and children, and 
criminality - to include murder, theft, and armed robbery and rape - 
have repeatedly resulted in the loss of life and property.  Violent 
clashes between competing clans of cattle raiders and between the 
UPDF and raiders was and still is a common occurrence.  In a blunt 
effort to stem the cycle of violence and insecurity, the Government 
of Uganda (GOU) moved its UPDF 3rd Military Infantry Division 
Tactical Headquarters from Mbale to Moroto in the Karamoja region, 
and initiated a disarmament campaign in 2001.  It later added a 
development component to the disarmament campaign by launching in 
2006 the Karamoja Integrated Disarmament and Development Plan 
(KIDDP). 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Colonel Paul Lokech, UPDF 3rd Military Infantry Division 
Acting Commander, told the U.S. delegation that UPDF efforts to 
disarm the Karamojong, secure roads, conduct cordon and search 
operations for small arms, protect cattle and grazing corridors, and 
patrol the porous borders led to improved security in 2008.  He said 
that the UPDF had collected over 26,000 guns since the disarmament 
campaign began and noted that increased UPDF deployment along the 
Kenyan and Sudanese border corridors had helped reduce arms 
trafficking.  Though security had improved tremendously over the 
last year, Lokech reminded the U.S. delegation that the region's 
porous borders, climatic changes and harsh environmental conditions, 
and the Karamojong's "backward" agro-pastoral culture are impeding 
greater security and development success.  He expressed UPDF 
frustration that the Kenyan and South Sudanese Governments were not 
doing more to disarm Karamojong tribes (the Turkana and Pokot in 
Kenya and the Toposa in southern Sudan), and wondered if the USG 
could help spur greater regional action to address this problem. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Lokech said that after years of absence from the region, 
the Uganda Police Force (UPF) had increased its presence in Karamoja 
to 1,300, and that he expected an additional 600 soon.  He explained 
that the UPDF was working with the UPF on a gradual handover of 
policing activities from military to civilian, but noted that the 
current context precluded establishing a firm timeline.  (Note: We 
estimate it will be years before the UPDF can withdraw from Karamoja 
in favor of the police, who remain vastly under-resourced.  End 
note).  Lokech admitted that while the KIDDP is a solid framework 
for addressing Karamoja's needs, it has not yet reached the stage of 
implementation.  He noted that there is a need to increase the GOU 
presence in the region, specifically mentioning the Ministries of 
Health, Agriculture, Education, Transport, and Water.  The UPDF, in 
the absence of a greater GOU presence, Lokech explained, had been 
forced to undertake cattle branding, supplement hospital staff and 
medicine stock, and carry out other social sector interventions. 
Local officials and civil society leaders echoed Lokech's concerns 
about the KIDDP, adding that it had meant very little in terms of 
on-the-ground development programs or service delivery. 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
UPDF AND HUMAN RIGHTS AUTHORITY BATTLE OVER CIV-MIL CENTERS 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Though the UPDF and the Uganda Human Rights Commission 
(UHRC) are wrangling over which institution should control 
Civil-Military Cooperation Centers (CMCCs) in Karamoja, human rights 
organizations and the UN report that the human rights situation in 
Karamoja has improved.  Lokech told the delegation that the UPDF had 
engaged in human rights training and education, clearly outlined its 
rules of engagement and standard operating procedures, and stood up 
a Division Court Martial to try soldiers and Karamojong warriors 
accused of human rights abuses.  He noted that the UPDF, with 
funding from the European Commission through Save the Children, 
opened Civil-Military Cooperation Centers (CMCCs) in December 2008 
in all five districts to "win the hearts and minds" of the 
Karamojong.  The CMCCs, he explained, also had UPF, civil society, 
and Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) representation. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The UPDF's decision to break away from the CMCC structure 
set up in 2001 through the UHRC and establish its own parallel 
structure, has led to confusion on the ground and a bureaucratic 
impasse in Kampala.  The KIDDP notes that the UHRC's CMCCs did not 
function as expected and that civilian involvement is hampered by 
"inadequate facilitation rendering them an exclusive preserve of the 
UPDF."  The views expressed in the KIDDP track with the UPDF's 
 
KAMPALA 00000288  003 OF 003 
 
 
justification for establishing its own CMCCs.  Regardless, the UHRC 
is insisting that the UPDF disband its parallel structures and join 
CMCCs in which it has the lead.  The outcome of this latest round of 
negotiations is pending. 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Comment: Why Karamoja Matters 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Disarmament, despite the bumpy road, is working. 
Insecurity that once plagued the region, precluding greater access 
to vulnerable populations, is slowly eroding primarily due to UPDF 
efforts to disarm the Karamojong and pursue cattle raiders within 
Karamoja and at the borders.  However, the dearth of basic social 
services, persistent drought conditions, UPDF-imposed restrictions 
on movement into neighboring districts, population growth, and lack 
of alternative livelihoods all make further progress difficult. 
Encouragingly, there appears to be recognition among many Karamojong 
that in the face of these challenges, they will need to change their 
way of life, but also recognition that help is needed to realize 
this change.  Already, there are innovative new livelihood models 
popping up in the Karamoja region alongside communities of 
once-warring clans.  It is imperative that the GOU deliver on the 
much-needed interventions outlined in the KIDDP, especially for the 
young disarmed Karamojong warriors, to avoid backsliding into 
insecurity and cattle rustling.  The Mission in septel will outline 
a strategy for aligning present and future USG activities to address 
Karamoja's security and development needs. 
BROWNING