Special Report on displacement in the west

The Rwenzori Mountains tower over five districts in western Uganda: Kasese, Kabarole, Bundibugyo, Kyenjonjo and Kamwenge. Known to the locals as "the Mountains of the Moon", the Rwenzoris also constitute a natural barrier on the country's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). However, their inaccessibility and rough terrain have also rendered them a perfect hide-out for the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an insurgent group which has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni's government in the area since 1996.

Children at Itojo camp for internally displaced people, many of whom suffer frequent illnesses, including malaria, coughs and skin infections

The ADF, whose ideology and agenda is far from clear, has mounted attacks of varying intensity in Kasese, Kabarole and Bundibugyo Districts since '96, causing the displacement of 150,000 to 180,000 people. The local economy - based on agricultural commodities like cocoa, vanilla and coffee - collapsed when farmers were forced to abandon their land and take refuge in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs), also known by the authorities as protected camps. Relative calm has returned to much of the west since 2000, when the Ugandan government launched a heavy military campaign to drive the ADF out of the Rwenzoris. The authorities now hope to close down more than 80 'protected camps' and have begun encouraging the IDPs to go home, while the districts involved also report the return of large numbers of the displaced. When IRIN visited the region earlier this month, most of the camps in Kabarole and Kasese had been dismantled, but significant doubts remain in Bundibugyo District, from where almost 90 percent of the IDPs were displaced, according to relief workers. The number of IDPs remaining in Bundibugyo, Kabarole and Kasese still number up to 70,000, according to informed estimates, with about 63,000 of that number in Bundibugyo District. IDP crisis In Kasese and Kabarole, about 90 percent of the IDPs are estimated to have voluntarily returned to their homes, around the Rwenzoris. Only about 500 have remained in camps, but many just to await the growth to maturity of the spear grass they need to re-thatch the roofs of their homes, according to the local authorities. By contrast, matters in Bundibugyo are far from resolved, according to the Kabarole Research Centre (KRC), an indigenous NGO engaged in peace initiatives in western Uganda. Nearly 70 percent of the population of that district is still living in camps, fearing rebel attacks, despite the relative calm which has prevailed for over a year, according to the KRC, which carried out an assessment of the IDP situation in the west in March.

A Ugandan army detachment, on the hill, overlooks a school near Itojo IDP camp, Bundibugyo District, western Uganda

"There is a growing desire by the displaced people to go back to their homes as the state of insecurity continues to abate," it said then, in a report entitled The Challenges and Hopes for Protection and Resettlement of IDPs in Rwenzori Region. "However, there is uncertainty with regard to who [of the IDPs], when and by what means the IDPs will be able to go back to their homesteads and lead normal lives." For example, only a small proportion of people from Itojo displacement camp, just outside Bundibugyo town, have gone home, according to camp chairman Obadiah Masereka. There are still an estimated 1,960 IDPs in Itojo, though down from the height of the ADF insurgency when some 2,724 displaced people were registered there. When IRIN visited Itojo on 9 May, during a trip facilitated by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the German Development Service (DED) in Uganda, the humanitarian situation appeared worrying, particularly in terms of health and sanitation.

Itojo IDP camp in Bundibugyo District, western Uganda

Most of the children, naked, bore visible signs of skin infections. There are no health centres nearby and the only available medical care comes twice a month, when officials from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) visit to treat sick children. And the camp still seemed crowded, despite nearly half its original population having left. IDPs need assistance to go home Those IDPs in Itojo who are not going home proffer various reasons: some express fear for their security, others say they need to wait for the spear grass to mature in order to repair their homes. A few others complain of having had to sell their land while in the camp. Josiah Chanzoliro, who moved into the camp in 1998, told IRIN that he preferred to keep a close watch on the nearby mountains, where his home was, before deciding to go back. In August 1998, he said, the ADF had attacked his family, abducting his wife and daughter, though both had escaped from captivity within two weeks of their abduction. "We have been living too close together. There is no privacy [in the camp]," Chanzoliro told IRIN. "You cannot compare this with the life we had in the village. Now I have nothing." Jolly Mbambu, a mother of four living in a small hut at the edge of the camp, said that nearly all her cattle and goats had died of disease because the camp was overcrowded. Having lost them, she now had no means of livelihood, she said. All her children had been suffering from malaria, but she had no money to get them treated. Her home had been burned by the rebels. "I would be happy to go home, but I have no shelter," Mbambu told IRIN. Aid organisations moved into western districts area at the height of the ADF insurgency to meet the health, water, sanitation and nutritional needs of the IPS, who had initially taken refuge in the towns but were subsequently moved to camps when their numbers surged. In most of the camps, particularly in Bundibugyo District, organisations like the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and church groups have been providing the bulk of nutritional, medical and sanitation needs of the IDPs, according to local government officials. Geoffrey Okumu, the Kabarole District labour officer, who is also the secretary of the district disaster management committee, told IRIN that the government alone could not have handled the crisis because of the lack of tax base revenue, depleted by the displacement of large numbers of people. This had brought about a vicious cycle of funding shortages, he added. Moreover, Okumu said, central government had been overwhelmed by other emergencies resulting from conflicts in the northern and eastern part 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 added. District authorities were still awaiting the resettlement packages the government had promised them, according to Okumu. "The majority of the people have gone to their homes, but they have gone with hardships," he said. "The infrastructure is broken down - schools, health centres and roads have collapsed. They need assistance to put them back on their feet." Security situation The authorities are hopeful that recently improved relations between Uganda and Sudan (which had before assisted and armed the ADF) and the somewhat improved situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under President Joseph Kabila would reduce the threat of violence in western Uganda from those two countries. "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 Ugandan capital, Kampala. "With the defeat of the ADF internally, good relations with Sudan and reduced support for rebels in Congo [DRC], our people in the west should be assured of their safety." The area had enjoyed relative peace since the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF) launched their campaign to dislodge the ADF from the Rwenzoris in 2000, Owuor added. According to local authorities in Kabarole, the security situation in the area stabilised ever since the government deployed UPDF battalions around the IDP camps, and on the mountains as far as the border with the DRC to ensure the safety of the population. In Kabarole, and Kasese, local authorities greatest concern was not security but the poor state of the infrastructure awaiting returning IDPs, Robert Karubi, Kabarole District security officer, told IRIN in Fort Portal, Kabarole District. However, there were local concerns that IDPs wishing to go home were not receiving clear information on their security from the government. According to local NGOs, most IDPs have not returned because they are still awaiting the return of the many people abducted by ADF fighters, and believed to be still in captivity. Those who have not returned include a number of students abducted by the ADF in 1998 from Kichwamba Technical College in Kabarole District. Nearly 60 students who, during the attack, had locked themselves in a dormitory, died when the rebels set fire to the building. In the same year, the rebel group attacked a prison in Fort Portal town and abducted a number of prisoners. District security officials in the area maintained that the UPDF had weakened the capacity of the ADF beyond repair. This meant that, at best, the remnants of the ADF could only operate in small gangs of four or five, or join fighting groups across the border in the DRC. "All around the mountains, there are security forces. So they [IDPs] are encouraged to go back home. Some of them [rebels] were killed, some surrendered. If you see any remnants, they are very few," Karubi said. However, the UPDF has been criticised for "failing to give correct advice" on the physical security of returning IDPs, following claims of a number of casualties caused by landmines. "There is no assurance coming from the government on security once the IDPs get home," a humanitarian source told IRIN. "People don't know if their land is mined; it is a trial and error thing. The government is not guaranteeing security." Richard Businge, one of the authors of the KRC assessment report, told IRIN that another fear for returning IDPs was that only a small number of rebels had taken advantage of the amnesty the government had extended to all dissidents on surrender. "The government has assured the local population of security, but many in Bundibugyo are still afraid the rebels may come back," he said. "People are saying they [ADF] are not fighting now, but where are they? Bundibugyo residents say sometimes that they see footprints, and their food is being stolen at night." Karubi cautioned that the situation in western Uganda continued to be threatened by the ongoing fighting in eastern DRC, which, he feared, could still spill over. "You can't wipe out rebels," he said. "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]." From relief to development Moving from aid to development for resettled IDPs appears to be one of the most daunting tasks facing local authorities, especially following the imminent withdrawal of relief agencies from the area. The planned withdrawal of relief agencies has sparked concerns that the IDP crisis in western Uganda could turn into a "chronic emergency", with large segments of the population in need of constant support in health an sanitation. However, a few organisations like the US-based Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have begun to change their approach from relief to development as part of a strategy of developing lasting solutions to the IDP crisis. CRS is currently training local NGOs and government officers involved in the IDP emergency to enable them to effect this change of approach, according to Daniel Curtis, who manages a pilot CRS emergency preparedness project for the Rwenzori region. "We are trying to get our partners to look at the issues: What are the root causes of the crisis?" Curtis told IRIN from his base in Fort Portal. Part of the programme involves developing contingency plans, and enabling local government to take a lead in organising humanitarian response and promoting dialogue with humanitarian agencies on prevention strategies. "We need to think categorically on how to mitigate these factors so that the disasters do not turn into chronic disaster situations," Curtis added. Another long-term programme includes the Civil Peace Programme (CPP), run by DED, which is working on promoting peaceful coexistence among communities in the region. Hosted by KRC in Fort Portal, the CPP aims "to give a voice to the voiceless, especially the IDPs", when it comes to conflict issues, according to Stephan Friedrichsen, who runs the programme. So far, the CPP (which was launched in February 2001) has been introduced in the five conflict-affected districts in western Uganda, in a bid to sensitise people to peace issues, through radio, drama and sports, he said. "If we are going to promote peace, or educate the people that there is an amnesty, then we have to sensitise them through radio and other popular public events," Friedrichsen told IRIN in Fort Portal. The project also aims at initiating peace clubs in schools and institutions, but is hampered by severe funding constraints, he said. "DED has been sending skilled workers to these areas but the programme is limited by lack of sufficient funds. There are many actors in the region who are important for peace. They can all give a small contribution to the whole process," Friedrichsen added. "The people here are still not willing to pardon and accept the rebels," according to Businge, whose organisation is working with DED on the civil peace programme. "They must be educated to understand that their security begins with respect for the amnesty." However, aid agencies have argued that that lack of a clear commitment on the part of government, which has not allocated funding to fulfil the development needs of IDPs in its national budget, is making the displaced - and many returnees - almost wholly dependent on humanitarian organisations. This is the single biggest impediment to resolving the solution of the IDP crisis in the region, they say. "Most aid agencies have overstayed," a humanitarian sourced told IRIN. "The time is ripe now for the government to take over, but they are not showing any signs of taking responsibility." There also appeared to be confusion between the government and NGOs about the nature and direction the IDP resettlement should take. In particular, NGOs have taken issue with the government's recent announcements that it was exploring ways of providing IDPs with a "resettlement package". Businge argued that although the IDPs were being encouraged to go home, the government had failed to develop a proper programme to ensure basic social and economic infrastructure for them. The return of the Rwenzori IDPs has not been governed by a specific official strategy, because the government lacks a clear framework for resettlement; instead, he said, the process is taking place in an ad-hoc basis, with government officials promising resettlement packages such as iron roofing sheets, which have no long-term significance for the future of the mainly agricultural communities. "It was more of a political statement," according to Businge. "There is no policy on IDPs yet, but the government is making it worse by making all these political statements." "For the government to start promising iron sheets for such a big population - when it cannot even afford to repair the roads, schools and dispensaries in the region - is completely wrong. They [returning IDPs] cannot even sell their goods" he added. A new IDP policy The Ugandan authorities admit that they still have no clear policy on IDPs, the number of whom aid officials estimate at over 550,000. However, the government recently identified the need for a policy, based on an assessment of the magnitude of the IDP situation and the needs of the displaced, and it is now working on a policy document, according to Owuor. He told IRIN that a draft policy had already been circulated to 60 percent of stakeholders, including NGOs, international humanitarian agencies and the relevant government departments. Stakeholders would be called to review the document "within the next one or two months", after which it would be sent to the justice ministry to be checked for conformity with Ugandan and international laws, he said. "I believe in the next three months, we should have a policy in place," Owuor said, though he cautioned that a new policy alone would not do much to change the situation of IDPs, since the government had already recognised the rights and needs of IDPs, as spelled out in UN guiding principles and international refugee law. The resettlement package the government had proposed was not just aimed at meeting the "individual needs" of IDPs but was "a longer-term programme, which included measures that would address requirements of the affected communities", such as infrastructure, Owuor added.