Church hopeful but cautious about the north

The Church in northern Uganda has expressed optimism for peace in the region, saying there were signs that things were improving, but warned that it was too early to celebrate as a number of people were still dying violently. "Things are turning hopeful, but people continue to meet violent death in northern Uganda. Many efforts are still needed so that we may one day say that peace is really round the corner - just in sight," the Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Commission said in a statement on Thursday. Highlighting some of the positive trends in the past weeks, it noted that displaced persons in Lira town camps had reduced to 40,000 people from about 200,000 people since June. The statement however did not indicate whether the 160,000 people have returned to the villages or to camps near their villages, as stated by district officials in Lira recently. A cleric in the area, Rev. Fr. Carlos Rodriguez, said many were heading back to their villages or camps in rural areas. "Having an exact idea of what is going on in northern Uganda has never been a simple task," Rodriguez said. "Things can easily change from one day to another and while a visit to a certain area can give you an impression of normality it may hide high insecurity just a mere 80 km away." Ethnic tensions that developed in February following the massacre of over 250 people at a camp in Barlonyo had eased, according to the Church, though it said a lot of work remained in order to achieve total reconciliation. The Church said that in spite of the reduction in the number of displaced persons, local people were still highly traumatised. Camps north and east of Lira, in Agweng, Ogur, Aloi and others, are still filled up with thousands of people who feared returning to their homes. According to the Church, some killings had taken place as late as two weeks ago. It cited the killing of six people when rebels attacked a camp in Apac district, while another seven were killed in Lira district. In all, 32 people were killed in the region, including cyclists who were abducted before they were hacked to death. The health situation of the people, especially children, was said to be in bad shape. A nutrition centre run by Medecins Sans Frontières in the outskirts of Lira town, hosting some 265 children from different camps admitted because of malnutrition, said some "of them are quite severe cases. Often, their mothers are so traumatised that they need counselling to help them get over the tendency to neglect the child." Optimism was up though, brought about by the rate at which rebels had been voluntarily surrendering to the government army. President Yoweri Museveni said Sunday that rebels were surrendering daily, with at least five guns. "With the improvement of the situation, a good number of people are able to go to their fields, up to three km away from the camp, and dig hard - taking advantage of the second rainy season," the Church concluded.