Lasting peace still elusive //Yearender//

Hopes for a negotiated settlement to the protracted conflict in northern Uganda were kindled towards the end of 2004 when the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) sent word to Uganda's government that they were ready for peace talks. The hopes soared on 29 December, when a Ugandan government delegation met LRA leaders in Kitgum and agreed that a ceasefire accord be signed next day. But it was not to be. Within hours, the LRA declined to sign an agreement. President Yoweri Museveni, who was in the region at the time, wasted no time in declaring a resumption of the war against the rebels. Despite pleas by local leaders to Museveni to extend a unilateral ceasefire, the president was adamant. "The UPDF [Uganda People's Defense Forces] will hunt for LRA leaders, especially Joseph Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti, and kill them from wherever they are if they don't come out," Museveni told people in Gulu on New Year's day. The latest attempt to bring peace to the northern region - which has been ravaged by nearly two decades of war - had started on 2 November. An LRA spokesman, "Brigadier" Sam Kolo, told the BBC that the LRA was keen on having talks with the government. He said the LRA believed that there could be no military solution to the 18-year conflict in northern Uganda and urged Museveni to find a peaceful end to the problem. The government initially expressed scepticism about the rebels' commitment to a negotiated settlement of the conflict, but on 14 November, President Yoweri Museveni announced a seven-day limited truce. The ceasefire was extended twice, suggesting that Kampala, which previously appeared intent only on a military solution to the problem, was beginning to soften its stance. Betty Bigombe, an ex-cabinet minister in charge of pacifying the north, again took up the role of mediator and established contact with some LRA commanders. As minister in 1994, Bigombe had tried to mediate in the conflict, but her efforts failed when the government abandoned peace talks, accusing the rebels using the ceasefire period to rearm. This time around, the nascent peace process could have benefited from renewed international attention for the crisis, according to local observers. The UN emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, said during a visit to Uganda in early December that current efforts to resolve the 18-year conflict offered "a historic opportunity to end the country's humanitarian emergency". "This is a historic opportunity to bring to an end one of the worst humanitarian emergencies in the world," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), quoted Egeland as saying on 7 December, after a meeting with Museveni in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Ugandan foreign ministry officials told IRIN that during the meeting with Egeland, Museveni had expressed his willingness to work closely with the UN in moving the reconciliation process forward. That, they said, would include the UN assisting post-conflict programmes and the reintegration of ex-rebels into society. "They discussed mechanisms of integrating former LRA rebels into society, the reconciliation process and what the UN will do to help," foreign affairs permanent secretary, Julius Onen, told IRIN. A UN Security Council team, during a stop-over in Kampala on 25 November, also urged Museveni to end the war. "We had a meeting with President Museveni and our message to Uganda was that the humanitarian crisis in the north should be settled as soon as possible," Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, France's ambassador to the UN, told reporters at Entebbe airport. "The president told us that there were good prospects for peace in Uganda," said De la Sabliere. "All the international community and Council are concerned with is what is taking place in northern Uganda," De la Sabliere added. "We are concerned about the situation of child soldiers - it is not only to condemn the situation, but we need to find a solution," De la Sabliere added. Eliane Duthoit, head of OCHA in Uganda, observed that there had been some improvement in some aspects of the crisis in northern Uganda. "We made some achievements this year. Assistance has been stepped up, though the needs remain huge. People in Teso [northeast] have started returning home, though they are still fearful when they hear of attacks in their area, but we are looking forward to the peace process," Duthoit told IRIN on 22 December. The latest developments have, however, thrown a spanner in the works. According to Walter Ochola, the district council chairman of Gulu, one of the areas most affected by the conflict, success or failure of the reconciliation initiative will mainly depend on how the LRA conducts itself with regard to the peace process. "The prospect for peace in northern Uganda will depend largely on the response of the LRA to the current peace initiative spearheaded by Betty Bigombe," Ochola told IRIN. "If the response is good, the next humanitarian requirement will be to facilitate the return of displaced people to their homes so that they access their land in order to produce their own food and their own income," said Ochola, one of the officials who accompanied Bigombe when she met the LRA. An end to the violence in northern would, as a matter of course, lead to an improvement in the humanitarian situation, which remains dire. "The situation remains characterised by insecurity, large-scale displacement and limited provision of humanitarian assistance," OCHA said when it launched an inter-agency appeal for nearly US $158 million to address the humanitarian crisis in the conflict-affected region in 2005. "The ongoing crisis is having disastrous effects on the health and social welfare of the people of northern and eastern Uganda," OCHA added. "Despite recent improvements in security and increases in humanitarian presence and programmes, the most vulnerable people in northern Uganda still do not receive the minimum level of humanitarian assistance," it added. The LRA has gained notoriety for its atrocities against civilians. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated that 3,000 children had been abducted by the LRA since October 2003 for use as soldiers, sex slaves and porters, adding to the approximately 18,000 abducted in previous years. The conflict has also displaced an estimated 1.6 million people who live in camps scattered across the region. "Life in the [displaced people's] camps is such a miserable experience," Fr. Carlos Rodriguez, Roman Catholic priest in Kitgum district told IRIN. "The quality of life is zero. Now we are receiving reports from Pabbo camp of three suicides a week. Suicide was extremely rare among the Acholi people. Now when people start taking their lives, then they have lost hope." According to OCHA, rape, sex trade, juvenile delinquency and harassment are endemic in the IDP camps and centres for night commuters - children who have to leave their homes at night to seek shelter in towns or school compounds where they feel less vulnerable to attacks by rebels. "There are alarming revelations of abuses amongst verandah dwellers, ranging from rapes of adolescent females, harassment of children by soldiers, molestation by drunk disco-goers, to appalling sanitary conditions," OCHA said in a September situation report.