Better relations may hasten IDP returns

Continuing efforts by Uganda and Sudan to normalise relations and end completely any support for rebel groups operating against the other's government could allow the closure of displacement camps in northern Uganda and the return of people to their homes within months, according to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Camps housing up to 400,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Uganda could be closed by April as a result of improved relations with Sudan, traditionally a backer of Ugandan rebels, AFP quoted Museveni as saying at a press conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Tuesday. Museveni and Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir last week consolidated improving diplomatic relations at the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in Khartoum by pledging anew to work towards "peace and security" in the region, and to cease military support to rebel groups. The two countries severed diplomatic relations in 1995, with Uganda accusing Khartoum of providing support to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and Sudan claiming that Kampala was assisting the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). In December 1999, both governments signed a reconciliation accord in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after mediation by the US-based Carter Centre. Although government representatives agreed in March 2000 on measures to implement the accord, progress was slow until 2001 when Bashir visited Uganda twice, each side released prisoners of war, and diplomatic representatives were exchanged. Museveni told Ugandans in his new year address to the nation that his government was cooperating with Khartoum as well as with international allies "to ensure that criminal [Joseph Kony] is relocated from southern Sudan". "We are going to finish with Kony," AFP quoted Museveni as saying on Tuesday. "We agreed with Sudan about him and I hope that the people of northern Uganda will be able to go back to their homes by this April." Led by Kony, the LRA has been fighting a guerilla-style war against Ugandan government forces since the late 1980s. The militia - listed by the US in early December as a terrorist grouping - has frequently attacked IDP camps, looting goods and abducting people to serve as porters, sex slaves or fighters. Bashir announced Sudan's total withdrawal of his government’s support to the LRA in August 2001 and said that, regarding LRA presence in Sudan, it was now based outside government-controlled territory in the south of the country. He admitted his government had assisted the LRA militarily in the past, in response to Ugandan support for the SPLM/A. "We have no access and control over Joseph Kony," Bashir said in August. "We are proceeding towards a new era based on the fact that Sudan is not supporting any opposition group in the region." Bashir called on the Ugandan government to respond by breaking off relations with the SPLM/A. "As Sudan has stopped any assistance to the LRA, it is understood that Uganda must exert force to sever any assistance that goes through it's territory," he said in August. Museveni announced in Khartoum last week Uganda's immediate suspension of assistance to the SPLM/A, the government-owned Kenya Times reported on Monday. "We have been assisting the SPLA for self-defence from the Kony rebels Lord's Resistance Army which had backing from Sudan," the paper quoted him as saying. Museveni has previously admitted providing "moral support" to the SPLM/A, which has been fighting a civil war in southern Sudan against successive northern governments since 1983. Deputy permanent secretary in Uganda's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, James Mugume, told IRIN on Wednesday that Uganda had provided only humanitarian assistance, not military support, to the SPLM/A. "There is a lot of confusion about our support for SPLA. For us, it is a question of obligation to provide humanitarian assistance in southern Sudan. We can't stop humanitarian assistance to the people suffering there," he added. In a joint statement issued in Khartoum on Saturday, Museveni and Bashir said their meeting had dwelt on political and security issues, as well as cooperation between the countries towards "stability, security and peace" in southern Sudan and northern Uganda. Museveni, whose visit to the IGAD summit was his first trip to Sudan since the severance of relations in 1995, discussed with Bashir "matters of bilateral interest especially those centering on normalising" their relations, according to Sudanese radio. Bashir said his government was keen on strengthening ties with Uganda, while Museveni commended the improvement in relations with Sudan and cited his presence in Khartoum as proof of that, the official Sudan News Agency reported on Saturday 12 January. Sudan's withdrawal of support to the LRA has substantially weakened the rebels and contributed to increased security in northern Uganda in recent months, according to humanitarian sources. There are fewer LRA rebels operating in the region, abductions have reduced significantly, and some IDPs are now able to leave the camps during the day to grow crops, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). With IDPs in northern Uganda still concerned that hostilities and insecurity could rapidly escalate, the Ugandan government and district authorities in the north now have the challenge of preparing a comprehensive and efficient strategy for assisting IDPs if and when they choose to return to their homes, it added.