Ambassador Meets Ugandans

Ambassador Jeroen Verheul, Madam Anneloes Viveen, Krista and Robert

The Netherlands Ambassador to Uganda meets Ugandans in Amsterdam

I was privileged to attend the Queen’s day celebrations at the ambassador’s residence in Kololo, Kampala in Uganda on 30 April 2009. During the proceedings, I was personally introduced to Ambassador Jeroen Verheul. He was excited to learn that the Ugandans living in the Netherlands are an organized group. He showed interest of informally interacting with them.

After a few email exchanges the date of 25 January 2010 was arrived at for the meet. We mutually agreed to meet at Club Shivoo, a Ugandan café in Southeast Amsterdam.

The ambassador arrived on time accompanied by madam Anneloes Viveen, the policy officer Uganda and Ethiopia, at the Dutch Ministry of foreign affairs in The Hague. A Dutch couple Robert and Krista of Weebale Nyo Organization (Which intends to start work soon in Uganda)were also in attendance.

The meeting started immediately with self-introductions followed by a short introduction of the profile of Pearl of Africa by myself, the Chairman. The Ambassador then briefly addressed the Ugandans. He explained that this was an informal meeting, to establish rapport with the Uganda community living in the Netherlands and to find out whether they support the Lord’s Resistance Army’s Kony who has been fighting in Northern Uganda. The ambassador was visually relieved when speaker after speaker dissociated the Uganda Diaspora from Kony.

A cross section of Ugandans in attendance

The Ugandans where given an opportunity to ask questions or make suggestions to the Ambassador. Questions over why Shell is not in Uganda, political situation, funding of the opposition, discrimination in the Netherlands and support from the Embassy in Uganda for Diasporas who want to develop home were directed at the Ambassador.

He took time to answer each query. For Shell, he assured us that it was more into marketing than prospecting and therefore this was not the time for Shell to come in. On the political situation, he threw it back to us, that the West couldn’t introduce democracy in Uganda but Ugandans themselves. He also denied that the Netherlands was supporting the opposition, but confirmed that it was supporting all political parties to build democracy, build capacity of the Electoral Commission and help parliament legislate good laws.

The ambassador directed some other questions to the government of Uganda since he was here on an informal meeting and not as a representative of the Uganda government. On the Dutch integrating in Uganda, he supported it though as ambassador, his term was fixed, but for settlers, yes despite the variety of languages and culture in Uganda.

Ali Balunywa and Ambassador Verheul

He further added that the Netherlands was supporting Uganda with around €50million per year as development assistance. This included scholarships, assistance to Gulu University, humanitarian assistance, vocational training in Karamoja, Programme to support Private Investment in Uganda, capital Goods, training, Ambassador’s fund, governance, justice, law and order sectors.

He also assured us that the Netherlands works closely with other western donors like the Swedes and Danes, targeting service delivery. That is the Dutch support education, the Swedes health and Danes agriculture. Dutch assistance involves increasing facilities for teachers, training of headmasters, aiding supervision by district inspectors, disciplinary measures and meeting targets.

All in all, the meeting went on smoothly and both parties learnt a lot from each other. We hope this dialogue does not stop here, but be translated into concrete activities to improve the relationship between Uganda and the Netherlands.