US embassy cable - 05ROME1264

UNCLAS  ROME 001264 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DCHA/AA WGARVELINK, DCHA/FFP LLANDIS, DCHA/OFDA 
GGOTTLIEB, 
AFR/AA LPIERSON, AFR/EA TSHORTLEY 
STATE FOR A/S AF NEWMAN, AF/E (GAFFNEY AND SIMMONS), 
AF/PDPA (SARTI), OES (DPAYNE), A/S PRM DEWEY, PRM 
(MCKINLEY) 
USDA/FAS FOR U/S PENN, MCHAMBLISS, AND RTILSWORTH 
NAIROBI FOR OFDA/ARO JMYER AND RFFPO, REDSO/ESA 
BRUSSELS FOR USEU PLERNER 
NSC FOR MMILLER, MMCLEAN, AND JMELINE 
USEUCOM FOR ECJ4 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, SENV, PGOV, KPAO, EAGR, ET, UG, Italy and the UN 
SUBJECT:  A REPORT BY USUN ROME AMBASSADOR TONY HALL 
ON HIS TRIP TO ETHIOPIA AND UGANDA 
 
Ref: Addis Ababa 1271 
 
Sensitive but unclassified  please protect 
accordingly.  Not suitable for Internet posting. 
 
 
1. (U) SUMMARY:  Ambassador Tony Hall, U.S. Mission to the 
UN Agencies in Rome, traveled to Ethiopia and Uganda from 
March 16 through 23, 2005, to investigate humanitarian 
issues in both countries.  In Ethiopia Ambassador Hall 
visited USAID-funded projects for HIV/AIDS orphans and 
mothers, observed school feeding, and met with 
beneficiaries and government officials to discuss the 
implementation of the Government of Ethiopia (GOE) 
Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP).  The Ambassador also 
met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to discuss his concern 
that more people than the current GOE estimates of 7.3 
million beneficiaries would require combined safety net and 
emergency assistance this year (5.1 million under safety 
nets and 2.2 million under the emergency appeal).  In 
Uganda, Hall witnessed the physical and psychological 
devastation caused by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in 
the northern areas: massive population displacement, 
killings, abduction and enslavement of children, and 
burning of villages.  Despite the devastation, the 
Ambassador found that the provisioning of first-rate 
humanitarian and development assistance provides 
encouragement to the thousands of IDPs who have been living 
in camps for decades.  In addition, he considers that the 
Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) may 
provide a roadmap for reconciliation and ending the 
conflict.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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Ethiopia 
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2. (U) Ambassador Hall's delegation included Mrs. Janet 
Hall, Carla Benini, Public Affairs Officer, Philip Lamade, 
Program Specialist, and John Nakamura, Personal Advisor to 
Ambassador Hall.  An ambitious itinerary developed in 
coordination with USAID/Ethiopia, enabled the delegation to 
visit many humanitarian assistance projects and 
implementers. 
 
3. (U) On March 17 the Ambassador's delegation visited 
USAID and WFP sites in the Oromia Region.  Highlights 
included the high-risk corridor initiative and three 
safety net sites.  The high-risk corridor initiative 
began implementation in 2001 through a USAID grant to 
Save the Children/USA.  As the program has evolved, 
USAID and WFP have joined forces in some communities 
to strengthen food and nutritional support for 
HIV/AIDS infected and affected individuals and 
households.  The delegation visited a school feeding 
program that stabilizes school attendance.  The 
program is funded under the President's Plan for AIDS 
Relief (PEPFAR) and utilizes WFP food resources. 
 
4. (U) The Ambassador and his delegation visited 
USAID-funded Productive Safety Nets Programs (PSNPs) 
in Arsi, Oromiya Region.  These programs are designed 
to manage the transition from an emergency response- 
dominated program to one that builds capacity to 
prevent famine and protect assets of the chronically 
food insecure and facilitate participation in a larger 
development agenda.  At Bosset woreda the delegation 
saw how WFP was working to implement the PSNP.  Public 
 
 
works had begun, and rock bunds were being built on an 
eroded hillside.  Most of the workers interviewed said 
they had suffered a difficult cropping year in 2004 
and were counting on PSNP assistance.  Concerned with 
reports about the exclusion of the landless from the 
PSNP, the WFP Country Director asked for a show of 
hands of those with and without land of their own. 
About 50% reported they did not have land. 
 
5. (U) Amb. Hall also visited Dorota Sire woreda where 
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is helping to implement 
the PSNP.  Unlike Arsi, Dorota Sire has been suffering 
from deteriorating humanitarian conditions and 
requires urgent assistance.  The government's Disaster 
Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) has not 
provided emergency assistance to the woreda because no 
emergency beneficiaries were identified in the 2005 
humanitarian assistance appeal.  The PSNP planned for 
30,700 people to receive assistance, but woreda 
officials reported that 58,000 actually require 
assistance. 
 
6. (U) Lunch with the UN team on March 18 provided a 
further opportunity to discuss the PSNP as well as other UN 
projects and initiatives. 
 
7. (SBU) During a meeting that afternoon with Prime 
Minister Meles Zenawi (see reftel which reports details), 
Amb. Hall expressed concern that the GOE's beneficiary 
estimates for the safety net and emergency programs may be 
understated, i.e., more food aid than previously estimated 
may be needed.  PM Meles stood by the estimated beneficiary 
number of 7.3 million, i.e., 5.1 million under safety nets 
and 2.2 million under the emergency appeal.  While PM Meles 
recognized the lifesaving role that donors and partners 
have played in providing food aid, he sees a need to reduce 
the entitlement mindset and end dependency.  Meles also 
said that the safety net program is one way that the GOE 
intends to provide communities with dignity and capacity 
and thus address the difficult task of reducing food 
dependency.  GOE hopes that linking food and cash to 
specific work projects will enable communities to fend for 
themselves. 
 
8. (SBU) PM Meles agreed that Ethiopia's appeal 
requirements were not getting the kind of attention they 
needed.  Tsunami requirements, Amb. Hall noted, have 
exhausted all donors.  In addition, initial favorable crop 
estimates for Ethiopia have been misleading.  He added that 
the GOE should exercise flexibility in applying the 
contingency factor in the safety net program to ensure that 
people needing assistance are not neglected.  The 
Ambassador also expressed concern that donors had not 
responded adequately to Ethiopia's emergency needs, a 
particularly troubling situation in this critical 
transition year. 
 
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Uganda 
------ 
 
9. (U) While food insecurity in Ethiopia is linked to poor 
rainfall, Uganda has endured 19 years of conflict generated 
by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has caused food 
insecurity and the displacement of nearly 1.4 million 
people in northern Uganda.  In Acholi land, 90% of IDPs 
have no access to water, food, clothing, health care 
services, adequate shelter or other basic amenities.  WFP's 
 
 
PRRO, running from April 2005 through March 2008, envisions 
providing about 452,000 metric tons of food for about 2.6 
million people at a cost of $263 million.  Despite a recent 
USAID/FFP pledge of $25.1 million, WFP expects a shortfall 
of 54,000 metric tons through September 2005. 
 
10. (U) Amb. Hall's destination in Uganda, Gulu district, 
has disproportionately suffered the consequences of the 
LRA.  More than 90% of the population of Gulu is displaced 
into 42 camps.  Since November 2003, WFP food aid has been 
programmed to cover 74% of the recommended daily allowance 
in the camps.  A nutrition assessment conducted by WFP, 
UNICEF, and Miistry of Health (MOH) in September/October 
2004 concluded that Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) in the 
camps ranged from 7.2% to 19.9%, significantly lower than 
the limited MOH/WFP assessment results of 18.1% to 31.6% in 
May 2003.  Nevertheless, the Crude Mortality Rate (CMR) of 
2.33/10,000 people/day still remains above the alert level 
of more than 1 in 10,000 people/day. 
 
11. (U) On March 21, 2005, Ambassador Hall's delegation, 
along with UN and Embassy officials and journalists from 
Reuters, NPR/CBC, Agence France-Presse and regional African 
media, arrived in Gulu via a WFP charter flight.  The 
delegation met with local officials and then traveled to 
Olwal IDP camp, home to more than 21,000 people.  Although 
the delegation's arrival brought the first rains of the 
season, a good omen, WFP's implementing partner, the 
Norwegian Refugee Council (NWC), was unable to distribute 
food, normally done only once every other month.  "Now 
we'll have to stay overnight," said Jan Kolass, NWC's 
project manager. 
 
12. (U) Food aid encourages school attendance.  The number 
of children attending school is up from 1,474 to 1,760, 
thanks to WFP's school feeding, but life in the camp is not 
easy.  Difficulties for the IDPs include shortages of 
teachers, poor quality drinking water, little money for 
school infrastructure, and a growing camp population.  Nor 
is it easy or without danger for NGOs and other aid 
providers to provide humanitarian assistance in the camps. 
When it rains, they must remain overnight to risk 
encounters with the LRA. 
 
13. (U) That afternoon the delegation visited the Gulu 
Support the Children Organization (GUSCO) Reception Center, 
organized in 1994 by three mothers to address problems 
faced by formerly abducted children.  Since 1994, GUSCO has 
received, rehabilitated and reintegrated over 5,000 
children.  Through a USAID grant to Save the Children 
Denmark, some children have been provided tools and 
equipment, e.g., sewing machines, bicycle repair kits, 
building and carpentry tools, while others have been 
supported with seed money to start small enterprises. 
 
14. (U) That night the delegation met and talked with some 
of the "night commuters" at Noah's Ark, Gulu Hospital. 
Night commuters are children who travel to the main towns 
of northern Uganda on a nightly basis to seek refuge from 
insecurity and abduction.  There are about 12,000 children 
commuting to Gulu each night; Noah's Ark provides a safe 
haven for about 700. 
 
15. (U) During the busy morning of March 22, visits were 
made to the Gulu Orthopedic Workshop operated by the 
Italian NGO AVSI, which provides trauma and job counseling 
and assembles and fits prostheses to landmine victims; a 
therapeutic feeding center run by Action Against Hunger; an 
 
 
HIV/AIDS center run by The AIDS Support Organization 
(TASO); the Unity Vocation Center run by World Vision, 
which has enrolled more than 2,000 students in vocational 
training and apprenticeship programs in tailoring, fabric 
design and decoration, brick laying and masonry, and 
carpentry; and a particularly impressive ACDI/VOCA project, 
Rural Economy and Agricultural Production (REAP), which is 
improving the food and livelihood security of about 17,000 
residents of IDP camps in Gulu. 
 
16. (U) In the afternoon Amb. Hall met with Acholi 
Paramount Chief David Onen Acana, a 2004 participant in the 
State Department's International Visitors' Program, and 
also with Archbishop John Baptist Odama, the current chair 
of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative, which 
provides community-based mediation services, advocacy, and 
peace-building activities.  The Ambassador listened 
attentively to both leaders, who were eloquent in 
discussing the necessity and appropriateness for granting 
amnesty to children abducted and later, sadly, often 
engaged in committing atrocities. 
 
17. (U) Comment from Ambassador Hall: I want to express my 
appreciation to everyone who helped make my trip a success. 
Support from the U.S. Embassy and USAID Mission Addis 
Ababa, including Bill Hammink and Karen Freeman, was 
terrific.  I also thank Ambassador Jimmie Kolker for his 
hospitality in Uganda, the support of U.S. Embassy Kampala, 
and the excellent work done for my delegation by USAID's 
Walter Welz. 
 
18.  (U) Addis Ababa has cleared this cable.  Khartoum 
minimize considered. 
Hall 
 
 
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 2005ROME01264 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED