Two weeks ago I was a member of an Oireachtas delegation that went to Uganda to monitor the parliamentary elections. The other members of the delegation were Senator Michael Lanigan, Michael D. Higgins and Nora Owen. We were very ably assisted by an official from the Houses of the Oireachtas, Jim Mulkerrins.
Ireland is a major donor of development aid to that country and, as it is essential to our aid efforts that a stable, democratic, non-corrupt regime exists, it was apt that we were there to observe the elections.
There have been many criticisms of the Ugandan regime. Some are certainly justified. Alleged malpractices, for example, in last year's presidential elections, and the recent publication of the UN report on the illegal exploitation of resources in the Congo, indicate the country still has some way to go to reform its institutions and government. The present regime has certainly come a long way towards reform.
The history of post-colonial Uganda, like that of much of sub-Saharan Africa, is bloody and tragic. Less than a decade after independence had been secured from the British, the dictatorial regime of Idi Amin was responsible for the deaths of some 300,000 between 1971 and 1979. Between 1980 and 1985, during a period of guerrilla war and human rights abuses under Milton Obote, a further 100,000 lives were lost.
Uganda is an evolving democracy. The country operates what may be called a fully inclusive, no-party system, in which political parties are constrained in their activities because they have been solely ethnically and religiously based and have been at the root of much of Uganda's problem.
Last year's referendum on a return to multi-party democracy was rejected decisively, reflecting a continued belief in the connection between the political parties and the chaos of the past.
We are very well served by our Foreign Affairs officials who work out of Kampala, the capital. Our charge d'affaires, the excellent Mairtin O'Fainin, pointed out that the political system is most certainly transitional in nature, and is more a pragmatic response to inherited circumstances within Uganda. Our country, like other donors to Uganda, has a definite role to play in ensuring that this transition leads to a more open and pluralist political system.
In the parliamentary elections there was a genuine choice of candidates. Although the register of voters was in poor condition, the elections seem to have passed off in a relatively fair and transparent manner.
In our history we had hedge schools, and until recently teaching in Uganda took place under mango trees. Ireland Aid and the decency of our own people have improved that, with some very well-built schools throughout the country. Indeed, Michael D. and myself officially opened one such school during our visit to the town of Jinja, two hours from Kampala.
On June 30th we visited an Aids Outreach homecare project near Jinja. The project is run by two wonderful St Camillus Missionary priests, Fathers Tom O'Connor and Tom Smith (brother of Cavan Fianna Fail TD, Brendan Smith). The extent to which AIDS has gripped this country is both extraordinary and depressing. According to the Poverty Status Report 2000, approximately 1.9 million Ugandans, just under 10 per cent of the population, are now infected with HIV. Life expectancy there has fallen from 48 years to 42, largely as a result of the epidemic.
Our Government, through Ireland Aid, has commissioned studies on HIV/AIDS in the three districts where we work with local government. The aim of the studies was to gauge the impact and responses to the epidemic and to suggest strategies to address HIV/AIDS at local level. AIDS affects the poorest and weakest in society and threatens the development of sub-Sahara Africa.
THE human stories behind the statistics and reports are heart-rending. Take one individual, Patrick Luba, aged 33. Patrick most likely contracted HIV in the early 1990s from a woman who was to die soon afterwards, again most likely of AIDS. Being unaware of the nature of the disease, Patrick married again and had five children. Neither Patrick nor his wife has ever attended school, and the children are living in abject poverty.
Patrick's father, Simon, lost his girlfriend, again most likely to AIDS, in 1996. Since that time three suitors of that same lady have died. Simon and his then eight-months pregnant wife are receiving treatment at a mobile AIDS clinic. That child has probably been born by now into a short and painful life.
The delegation met Patrick and Simon during our visit, and it was a harrowing experience. Father O'Connor and Father Smith visit them weekly with a mobile clinic and give whatever assistance they can in the best traditions of our great religious missionaries.
About 22 per cent of Ireland Aid's budget for Uganda this year is going on health programmes. This can never be enough. The work of Goal, Concern, APSO and our religious orders in this area is tremendous and worthy of financial and volunteer support from all of us. AIDS is emerging as the main enemy of development in the Third World, and it is our duty to respond.
The Taoiseach recently announced at the United Nations a historic and huge annual additional injection of $30 million towards helping the poorest of the poor in the fight against AIDS. Some 36 million people suffer from HIV/AIDS and over 25 million of these live in Africa.
It is really a cause where our country should take a world lead. We did it for nuclear disarmament: why not in the war against AIDS?
dandrews@irish-times.ie
Garret FitzGerald is on leave