The military in the promotion of human security in conflict situations: the case of Uganda People’s Defense Force in Gulu District.

Abstract

Human insecurity is one of the problems facing civilians in conflict affected regions besides physical security. Various organizations and actors intervene in such circumstances by carrying out various activities to try and promote this situation among the affected people. In spite of such interventions, much is still desired from the actors in terms of freeing people from the fear and want. The contributions made by the military has however never been appreciated in as much as they try to involve themselves in it this venture. For this reason, the study is being made to find out why it is the case. The study covered the 22 year period from 1986 to 2008 during which the northern part of Uganda has been covered in civil protracted conflict that has witnessed dire loss of life not only through war but also disease, rape and other inhumane conditions within this society. The study looks into the military as an institution, its contribution, challenges and relation with other actors in the arena. The study involved interviewing key informants from the ministry of defense and organizations who included official, organizing Focus group discussions with the victims and their leader in addition to research from document available in the library and in the internet. The study was however faced with a major challenge of bureaucracy and reluctance to provide information on certain issues important to the study by some informants, skepticism and biasness in some responses which has to be avoided. The military does a very important responsibility of ensuring the people of northern Uganda are protected, stability and security are attained in the area but leave out the freedom from want bit entirely for nongovernmental organizations which end up crowding in such places while performing the same tasks yet still blame the government for the poor living conditions among the people. They used such opportunities to create jobs, make money and once the conflict is over they move to other places with the same problems, the money funding these NGOs should therefore be given to the military to improve their operations and ability to extend more into providing human security and equally free civilians from want.