Uncertainty over IDP returns

Since the mid-1990s, the northern and western districts of Uganda have been plagued by high levels of insecurity resulting from armed insurgencies and rebel attacks on civilian targets. The Acholi people of northern Uganda have borne the brunt of the violence, with some 500,000 people - roughly half the Acholi population - forced to remain in "protected camps" guarded by the Ugandan military. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a group whose beliefs are rooted in Christian fundamentalist doctrine and traditional religions, frequently raids villages in the Acholi subregion, abducting civilians to work as slaves and fight in the rebel army. In western Uganda's Rwenzori region, intensified cross-border armed activity by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) began in 1996. The ADF has mounted attacks of varying intensity in Kasese, Kabarole and Bundibugyo districts since then, causing the displacement of between 150,000 and 180,000 people. Hopes of return raised Significant improvements in the security situation in both the north and the west during 2001 prompted the Ugandan authorities to encourage internally displaced persons (IDPs) to go home, and to formulate plans for the dismantling of the protected camps. "Most of the external factors are solved," Martin Owuor, Assistant Commissioner for the Disaster Management and Preparedness Department of the Office of the Prime Minister, told IRIN from the capital, Kampala. "With the defeat of the ADF and LRA internally, good relations with Sudan, and reduced support for rebels in [Democratic Republic of the] Congo [DRC], our people in the west and the north should be assured of their safety." Northern peace shattered In the north, however, the relative tranquillity did not last long. In June 2002, the LRA, under intense pressure from the Ugandan army's Operation Iron Fist being conducted in southern Sudan with approval from Khartoum, slipped back into northern Uganda. A subsequent intensification of attacks on IDP camps has caused renewed patterns of mass displacement and put back plans for the resettlement of IDPs. Owuor acknowledged that providing security for IDPs, both within the camps and when returning home, posed serious problems for the Ugandan government. "We can give security generally, but we can't guarantee security to every individual of every camp," he said. Many IDPs in the area have been living in the camps for over six years with poor access to health and sanitation, and under constant fear of rebel raids. Proposals were made in 2001 for "decongestion" of the camps, under which people would be gradually moved out of the larger camps, such as the one at Pabbo, Gulu District. The displaced would then be resettled around schools near their home villages, where they would live in temporary structures for a limited period and be given a degree of protection by the Ugandan security forces. However, the most recent upsurge in fighting appears to have put an end to those plans, for the time being at least. National policy being developed Despite recent setbacks, developing a national IDP policy has moved forward, and a draft document, drawing heavily from the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, was prepared in April 2002 and circulated to stakeholders. Once consultations are completed, the draft will be submitted to the justice ministry, to ensure that its provisions are compatible with Ugandan law, and then placed before the cabinet for approval, Owuor told IRIN recently. According to Owuor, the consultation process was expected to be completed in 2002. "We have made a lot of progress," he said. Although the Ugandan government had sought to keep the policy in tune with the Guiding Principles, it would be difficult to meet some of the requirements without major external assistance, notably the provision of safe water to all IDPs, Owuor said. "The provision of water is not easy in some of these places, because they are transitional," he said. "The Guiding Principles emphasise certain minimum standards. Some cannot be effected under certain circumstances." Resettlement problems in west In western Uganda, efforts to stamp out the rebel insurgency have been more successful, and relative calm has prevailed over most of the region since 2000, when the Ugandan military began its campaign to drive the ADF out of the Rwenzoris. The authorities now hope to close down more than 80 protected camps, and have strongly encouraged IDPs to return to their home villages. When IRIN visited the Rwenzori region in May 2002, nearly 90 percent of IDPs in Kasese and Kabarole districts had returned to their homes, and most camps had been dismantled. Although district government officials and aid agencies have expressed satisfaction with the progress of IDP resettlement in western Uganda, there appear to be significant hitches arising from poor coordination and lack of sufficient resources to carry out the resettlement programme. Geoffrey Okumu, the Kabarole district labour officer, told IRIN that the central government had been overwhelmed by other emergencies resulting from conflicts in other parts of the country. "The fronts are too many for the government. We had no contingency plans, no resources. Local district councils are lobbying for the central government to provide assistance to resettle IDPs," he said. Richard Businge, a researcher with the Kabarole Research Centre, and one of the authors of a March report on the IDP situation in the west, told IRIN that there was a lack of clear commitment on the part of government, which had not allocated funding to fulfil the development needs of IDPs in its national budget, rendering the displaced - and many returnees - almost wholly dependent on humanitarian organisations. "The time is ripe now for the government to take over, but they are not showing any signs of taking responsibility," he said. According to him, the return of the Rwenzori IDPs has not been governed by a specific official strategy, because the government lacks a clear framework for resettlement. One way in which the draft national policy attempts to deal with the problems facing returnees is through the establishment of an IDPs working group, which would prepare a national reconstruction and rehabilitation plan for IDPs to be implemented once conditions became favourable. The draft document includes a number of other important provisions regarding the return and resettlement of IDPs, and stresses that any returns must be voluntary. Lingering security concerns Despite the general improvement in the west, security concerns still remain in Bundibugyo District, from which almost 90 percent of the western IDPs were displaced, according to relief workers. The majority of the population in Bundibugyo, which is close to ADF rear bases in the DRC, have not gone home, fearing renewed attacks. Nearly 70 percent of the population of Bundibugyo is still living in camps, according to the KRC. "You can't wipe out rebels," Robert Karubi, security officer in neighbouring Kabarole District, told IRIN recently. "We can't yet say that the war is over, because the situation in Congo is still complicated. So we can't rule out rebels coming [back] down [the mountains]," he said.