2006年VOA标准英语-UN Humanitarian Chief Sees Improvement in War-R

By Catherine Maddux
Washington
30 October 2006

The top U.N. humanitarian¹ affairs official says there has been dramatic improvement in northern Uganda since the start of peace talks to end nearly 20 years of devastating² civil war.

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Jan Egeland (file photo)
  
U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator³ Jan Egeland says until recently northern Uganda was the world's most neglected emergency.

"It was surprising how little we heard about the 20,000 kidnapped children and the nearly two million displaced people,l" he said. "Mortality was higher last year in northern Uganda than it was in Darfur on average."

Egeland told VOA in an interview that real progress is under way in the war-battered region of Uganda.

"300,000 [people] have returned to their homes in the last few months. Hundreds of thousands are preparing to return [home] in the next few months. We have had the highest degree of security and quiet in northern Uganda in this year, 2006, than in any of these recent, terrible years for northern Uganda," he said.

 

Lord's Resistance Army  
  

Egeland credits African mediated⁴ peace talks between the Ugandan government and rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army for bringing results to the local Acholi people. The war has been notorious for repeated rebel attacks against civilians⁵ living in crowded camps, including abductions, forced conscription, and sexual violence.

The southern Sudanese government has been hosting peace talks in Juba to build on a cease-fire deal agreed to in August.

Egeland has made the Uganda conflict one of his primary campaigns during his three years as U.N. emergency relief coordinator. He has made numerous trips to the region, and brought notice to the conflict.

During a trip last month to northern Uganda, Egeland spent a night with a family in a displaced-persons camp.

 
Uganda refugee camp  
  
"It was a very moving thing that I could now stay a night in a hut of one of the families in one of these very crowded displacement⁶ camps," he said. "Because it has become much more safe than it was. Before we could only go for a few hours during daylight. Now, I could spend the night around the fireplace, exchanging stories and talking about the future with the displaced. And hearing that they now were planning to return home, and that they said, 'Help us bring this war to an end.'"

Earlier this year, Egeland described the activities of Ugandan rebels as "terrorism of the worst kind anywhere in the world."

Despite that characterization, Egeland says, the world - including the European Union and the United States - must work with Ugandan rebels and the government to find a lasting⁷ solution to the war to avoid further bloodshed.

1 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

2 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

3 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

4 mediated   

调停，调解，斡旋( mediate的过去式和过去分词 )； 居间促成； 影响…的发生； 使…可能发生

参考例句：

• He mediated in the quarrel between the two boys. 他调解两个孩子之间的争吵。
• The government mediated between the workers and the employers. 政府在工人与雇主间搞调和。

5 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

6 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

7 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。