Rights group condemns displacement order

A Ugandan army order to civilians in northern Uganda to move closer to government-protected camps has failed to provide protection against rebel attacks, and also violated the Geneva Conventions, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). "The standards of the Geneva Conventions have clearly been violated by the Ugandan government," said Jemera Rone, a researcher at HRW. While Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions - the international law governing internal armed conflict - allows for civilians to be moved if "the security of the civilians so involved or imperative military reasons so demand", the displacement in northern Uganda encouraged by the Ugandan army had not improved the security of those moved, HRW said in briefing paper released on Tuesday. The Ugandan army in early October gave tens of thousands of people 48 hours to move into government-protected camps, saying they would be shielded from the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), as well as from any fallout arising from the army's stepped-up offensive against the rebels. "The Ugandan government should not order displacement for reasons related to the conflict unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand," the HRW report said. However, the Ugandan army says it is only able to protect civilians against rebel attacks if they move into the camps, where detachments of the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) are stationed. There more than 500,000 people living in camps for the internally displaced in the northern Acholi subregion, comprising the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader. The military solution to conflict in the north sought by the Ugandan government had deepened the destruction of Acholi society, by forcing a large section of the population into displaced persons camps, HRW said. In addition, the camps had provided "little or no protection" from the LRA and were also vulnerable to abuse by UPDF personnel. The Ugandan army in March 2002 launched an escalated military offensive against LRA rear bases in southern Sudan, with the approval of Khartoum. Since 'Operation Iron Fist' began, however, there has been a sharp increase in LRA attacks against villages, IDP settlements, and camps housing Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda. The renewed rebel activity triggered by Operation Iron Fist had also stymied efforts to start peace talks with the LRA undertaken by religious leaders and the local administration in northern Uganda, HRW noted. The LRA, led by self-styled mystic Joseph Kony, has conducted a guerrilla-style war against the Ugandan government since the late 1980s, and has regularly abducted children to serve in the rebel army, tortured and mutilated civilian victims, and pillaged local villages. HRW called on the LRA to cease all attacks on civilians and release all under-age soldiers and those forcibly conscripted while under-age. "Civilians are not simply caught in the crossfire of this war, but have become the primary focuses of LRA attacks," it said.