Peace negotiations. Peace negotiations typically involve discussions about how and at what pace disarmament of troops should/can take place, the timeframe for downsizing, and security provisions for disarmed combatants. Although cease fire and peace negotiations should be precursors to demobilization, negotiations sometimes continue during the phase of demobilization when they may need to address issues such as numbers of combatants to be demobilized and how combatant status and/or eligibility for benefits should be determined. Organization. How demobilization programs should be organized is generally a question left to neutral institutions such as the United Nations and regional multinational bodies. Their role is primarily to plan and coordinate all the parties involved, including donors, NGOs, warring parties and governments. After a certain time has elapsed it may be possible for international agencies to hand over this function to national authorities but there is invariably a period when this is neither possible nor desirable. In some instances, however, such as in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Eritrea the initiative for demobilization came from the national governments themselves, that may set up special operational organizations and solicit international donor support to finance the operations of these structures. No matter what form demobilization initially takes experience suggests that centralized operations should be gradually balanced by decentralized authority delegated to community based groups that have greater access to beneficiaries and a capacity to distribute benefits while making programs more responsive to local needs.8
Peace negotiations. Peace negotiations between warring parties usually cover a wide range of issues including territorial considerations, economic compensation and physical reconstruction of affected infrastructures. Because HIV/AIDS interventions are not without their cost, either in terms of economic or human resources, and will increasingly have implications for economic and social development as well as reconstruction, peace negotiations may be an ideal time for raising this theme. By raising the issue of HIV/AIDS at this time it may also be possible to ensure that prevention and care initiatives are included in the planning and resource allocation process of international and national partners. It may even be possible to propose HIV/AIDS prevention and care initiatives as one of the conditions for reconstruction and post conflict aid. In this regard, it should be noted that most military forces are now acutely aware of the problem of HIV/AIDS and are seeking ways of addressing it. Offering to do so through post conflict reconstruction may be an attractive formula for military leaders and indeed could become one of the incentives for cease fire and peace negot iations. The Ugandan Veterans Assistance Board (UVAB) program (see also above) envisaged support programs for communities to cope with the integration of medically ill including HIV positive ex-combatants. In the initial phase it was planned to provide for testing, counseling (medical, social and economic) as well as treatment and support in kind. As verterans should not be considered by the community as receiving preferential treatment, testing and treatment was supposed to be offered to civilians with similarly severe health problems. The World Bank report thus recommended that rather than creating parallel facilities and in order to esnure sustainability, existing capacities shoule be supported. However, despite the urgency of the problem, no NGO or international agency could be found to fund this component. In a later stage a social communication package was to be developed containing inter alia the distribution of booklets on legal and health issues. The package aimed to raise public awareness of the problem and to also improve the image of the veterans. Two booklets are supposed to be distributed to all spouses of all veterans one on legal rights of women and the other on on health education focusing on AIDS, disease prevention and hygiene. Social drama and puppet theater are proposed as alternatives to the cl...
Peace negotiations. 1. Setting a timeframe for peace negotiations a. Three months timeframe has been agreed on within which peace negotiations shall take place.
